AFP -
Singapore and India agree to work towards free trade
Channel NewsAsia - 75 immigration offenders nabbed in 23-hour
islandwide operation
Channel
NewsAsia - Singapore, India to run training courses for newer Asean
members
Asian
Tribune - Myanmar: Thousands of people are displaced and starving
Bkk Post -
Joint panel to curb spread of diseases, combat crime
Bkk Post - ANALYSIS - Salween is home to new dam row
China Daily - Sino-Burmese joint action foils drug
plant.
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Singapore and India agree to work towards free
trade
Wed Apr 9,12:44 AM ET
NEW DELHI
(AFP) - Singapore and India have
agreed to begin talks and work towards a comprehensive free trade accord between
the two countries.
Indian Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley and
Singapore Trade and Industry Minister George Yeo signed Tuesday the declaration
of intent for a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement
(CECA).
The talks on economic cooperation would cover the free
trade agreement and an accord on investment promotion, protection and
cooperation and liberal air services.
Indian Foreign Minister
Yashwant Sinha and his Singapore counterpart also signed an _expression_ of intent
for providing technical assistance to four new ASEAN members -- Cambodia, Laos,
Myanmar and Vietnam.
Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong earlier
Tuesday said he hoped Singapore could serve as a bridge between Asian giants
India and China, and made a strong pitch for the free trade
pact.
In a speech to industrialists in New Delhi, Goh said talks on
CECA would help build stronger trade ties between the two countries and
China.
"My vision is for Singapore to serve as a bridge between
India and China," said Goh who arrived here Monday on a three-day
visit.
"Both India and China have the potential to be among the
world's largest economies in 25 years' time.
"If Singapore can
serve as a bridge to facilitate economic interaction between these two giant
economies, can you imagine the benefits that will accrue to all three
countries?" he asked.
"CECA would catalyse a successful conclusion
of the ASEAN-India FTA (free trade agreement)," Goh said.
Indian
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee (news - web sites) proposed the ASEAN-India
accord in November.
"It will also pave the way for beneficial
interaction between the two emerging economic giants -- China and India."
Making a strong case for FTAs, Goh said they were spawned by the
failure to conclude multilateral trade negotiations.
FTAs seek
deeper liberalisation than what is possible under the multilateral trading
system, he said, adding that in 1995 there were 80 FTAs, while there were now as
many as 179.
"These FTAs can then serve as building blocks for
other countries to join in the liberalisation movement," he
said.
Lauding India's economic performance since it launched market
reforms in 1991, Goh said India's growth had averaged about six percent annually
and there was no reason why it could not do better.
"The key,
however, is the political will of the government," Goh said, adding the
government had shown great determination to press ahead with
reforms.
But he warned foreign investors would turn away from India
if the conditions were not right.
"If investors sense that the
political will for reforms is lacking, they will move to other parts of Asia,"
he warned adding that in this context the CECA agreement was significant.
"It demonstrates the commitment of the Indian government to
liberalisation and regional economic integration," Goh said.
He
expressed the hope the talks on CECA would be wound up in a year, warning that
they could be difficult, but urging both sides to arrive at a deal that would
bring "substantial benefits" to them both.
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Wednesday
April 9, 6:17 PM
75
immigration offenders nabbed in 23-hour islandwide
operation
Channel NewsAsia - 75 illegal immigrants - 62 men
and 13 women - have been arrested over 2 days in an islandwide
operation.
They are from
India,
China,
Bangladesh,
Sri Lanka,
Myanmar,
Indonesia and
Malaysia.
Various eateries, lodging
houses and HDB flats were raided by the newly set-up Immigration and Checkpoints
Authority.
The operation, which covered
many areas islandwide, lasted about 23 hours.
Five genuine and two forged
Singapore
identity cards were also seized from the offenders, who were from 20 to 50 years
old.
Those caught face a jail term
of up to six months plus a minimum of 3 strokes of the cane.
It is also an offence to
harbour or shelter such overstayers or illegal immigrants.
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Wednesday
April 9, 8:17 PM
Singapore, India to run training courses for newer
Asean members
Channel
NewsAsia - Singapore and India are pooling resources to jointly
conduct training courses for newer members of ASEAN.
This is under
a Memorandum of Understanding signed in New Delhi on Tuesday under the
Initiative for ASEAN Integration.
The human resource training
courses will be carried out by specialists from both Singapore and India in
training centres in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar.
These
centres aim to help integrate the newer ASEAN countries into ASEAN, and also
narrow the development gap between the older and newer member nations.
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Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-04-09
Myanmar: Thousands of people are displaced and
starving
Mr. Ali Saleem of the Asian Legal Resource
Centre (ALRC) made an oral intervention on behalf of the ALRC on 'Food
insecurity in Myanmar' at the 59th Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights
under the Agenda Item 10: Economic, social and cultural rights. This
intervention was made on the 07 April 2003 and the full text of statement can be
found below.
Mr. Chairman
I speak on behalf of the
Asian Legal Resource Centre.
What is the connection between white
elephants and economic development? This March, a prominent Myanmar historian,
Dr Than Tun, said that there isn't any. The Government of Myanmar has now banned
him from publishing articles in local magazines.
Dr Than Tun made
his observation after the Government of Myanmar captured a number of white
elephants, which are considered sacred. State media reported that Myanmar would
prosper due to these animals. Dr Than Tun pointed out that this is nonsense.
That the government responded so negatively to his common sense speaks to the
indivisibility of rights and their ongoing collective violation in Myanmar,
which the Asian Legal Resource Centre has again and again drawn to the
Commission's attention in its statements on economic, social and cultural
rights.
Since presenting the 1999 findings of the People's
Tribunal on Food Scarcity and Militarization in Burma (E/CN.4/2000/NGO/61), the
Centre has repeatedly demonstrated that the military government is not genuine
in its stated aspiration to ensure the food security of people in Myanmar
(E/CN.4/2003/NGO/84, attached). A government that sanctions a citizen who dares
suggest that white elephants have no effect on economic progress cannot be
expected also to take the right to food seriously.
But the right
to food in Myanmar is denied by more than mere neglect; it is a matter of
principle. In every sense the state in Myanmar rests on the pre-eminence of the
armed forces. As noted by the People's Tribunal in 1999, æ?¤olicies [there are]
designed at the highest levels to fulfil military needs first without regard to
civilian well-beingã?»
It is in the remote parts of Myanmar that the
worst abuses of the right to food continue. Within recent weeks, the Asian Legal
Resource Centre has spoken with persons travelling in some of these areas. They
have told of thousands of people displaced from their lands, some for years,
starving in the jungle. One who carried an emaciated child to a Thai town just
across the border spoke of the utter shock and disbelief among medical staff at
the child's condition.
That someone literally starving to death can
be brought to a hospital in a food secure country only a few miles away speaks
to the seemingly incongruous conditions that exist in Myanmar. The land is
fertile, yet less and less of it is available to ordinary Myanmar civilians.
Farmers work, yet are not adequately compensated. Food is produced, yet people
go hungry.
These contradictions are not coincidental. Where a
government is concerned more with the welfare of white elephants than that of
its own people; more with its own survival than the costs incurred by others,
such conditions are virtually guaranteed. Sadly, until the government's
priorities are changed through the will of the international community, people
in Myanmar will continue to have less food than they actually need.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
- Asian Human Rights
Commission -
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Bangkok
Post - Wednesday 09 April
2003
Joint panel to curb spread of diseases, combat crime
Supamart Kasem
A joint Thai-Burmese panel
will be set up to curb the spread of diseases and combat crime along the border,
according to yesterday's township border committee meeting.
It was agreed at the 22nd
Thai-Burma TBC meeting held in
Burma's Myawaddy
town yesterday that both countries would set up a committee for co-ordinating
work to control the spread of communicable diseases and suppress trans-national
crime in border towns.
Col Jirasak Chomprasop, as
Thai TBC chairman, said the agreement was the result of a Thai-Burmese meeting
in Pattaya and the Regional Thai-Burma Border Committee meeting in
Moulmein last year.
Thailand was
ready to take action immediately and would discuss the appointment of committee
members at the next TBC meeting, when
Burma reports on
the progress of its work on the issue, Col Chirasak said.
Tak public health chief Dr
Chamnarn Harnsuthivejjakij said forming the committee would bring efficiency in
controlling the spread of respiratory, insect-transmitted and viral diseases
like tuberculosis, malaria, elephantiasis, dengue fever and Aids along the
border.
Also at the TBC meeting,
Burma called for
an investigation into last month's fatal shooting of two Burmese men said to
have brought 30,000 baht cash to buy drugs in Mae Sot, as their money and
valuables were missing.
Burmese representatives also
asked concerned agencies to prevent further intrusion into Burmese air space by
Thai planes, saying two encroachments were reported in Tak and Kanchanaburi in
January and February.
In response, Thai
representatives told the meeting that
Burma would be
informed of the results of a probe into the shooting, and that the planes which
belonged to civilians had entered
Burma by
mistake, but preventive measures would be introduced.
Burma was asked
at the meeting to help block drug smuggling from
Burma into
Thailand.
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Bangkok Post - Wednesday 09 April
2003
ANALYSIS - Salween is home to new dam row
Proponents of three dams planned for the border with Burma tout the
cheap energy rates possible. Opponents say the suffering caused to disadvantaged
groups and the environment is too heavy a cost to pay.
KULTIDA SAMABUDDHI
Sittiporn Rattanopas is fully aware of the problems facing
the massive Salween dam project in an area of Burma which is home to ethnic
groups fighting the Rangoon government.
The governor of the
Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand has PTT Plc's failure to complete
its gas pipeline from Burma on schedule as an example. The pipeline ran into
fierce opposition from human rights activists and environmentalists, and PTT Plc
and its partners, global petrochemical giants Unocal and Total, were condemned
worldwide for providing criminal support to a Rangoon regime accused of using
forced labour, of forcibly relocating entire villages, of rape and ethnic
cleansing in pushing ahead with the pipeline.
Obstacles are
unavoidable when investing in Burma, Mr Sittiporn said. But these obstacles did
not negate the benefits of the dams, which would have a combined capacity of
over 5,000 megawatts of hydroelectricity available at a cost of 90 satang per
unit. This compares with 1.80 to two baht per unit for petroleum and
coal-generated energy.
``I have promised myself to see the Salween
hydroelectric project realised while I am the Egat governor,'' the energy chief
declared. ``The project is so huge that I might not have another opportunity to
be part of it.''
Three hydropower dams are planned for the Salween.
Egat has sought cabinet approval to develop two dams, the Upper and Lower
Salween dams, at an estimated cost of 200 billion baht, while MDX Plc, a Thai
construction outfit, has begun work on a 3,600-megawatt dam near Ta Sang in
Burma's Shan state.
MDX executives say Ta Sang dam would be the
largest hydropower dam in Southeast Asia. It also would be the first dam built
on the 2,800km Salween.
Egat's 4,500MW Upper and 800MW Lower
Salween dams are located adjacent to Mae Sariang district in Mae Hong Son
province, where the river forms a natural 130km section of the
border.
A preliminary study by Japan's Electric Power Development
Co Ltd in the early 1990s identified five potential dam sites. Egat opted for
the two border locations because it was thought it would be much easier to seek
investment funds from financial institutions.
``Investors and
financial institutions would probably be reluctant to invest in the projects if
they were located on Burmese soil,'' Mr Sittiporn said. ``They might also be
uncomfortable dealing directly with the military junta. The projects would be
more attractive if the Thai government were a co-investor.''
Mr
Sittiporn is determined to have the dams go ahead after they were put on hold
almost a decade ago because of tighter funding at Egat.
He pledged
soon after his appointment in October to also push ahead with the Asean Power
Grid project, which calls for a transmission network linking the region's power
sources. These sources include the immense hydropower potential of Burma,
northern Laos and southern China and the substantial fossil fuel reserves of
Malaysia and Indonesia. The network would facilitate power exchanges and energy
trading among Asean member countries.
``The dream of the Asean
Power Grid cannot be realised without the Upper and Lower Salween dams,'' Mr
Sittiporn said, adding that he had persuaded Asean leaders attending a
conference of major power producers in Japan in November to support the power
grid.
He then travelled to Rangoon, where he secured backing for
the project from the head of Burma's Electric Power Department. He also
accompanied Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to the Greater Mekong Sub-region
Summit in Cambodia in November, where he again promoted the power
grid.
Mr Sittiporn also has tried to convince Pongthep
Thepkanchana, the energy minister, the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and
the House Energy Committee of the merits of the scheme. Egat is tying its push
for the Salween dams to the Asean Power Grid.
Mr Sittiporn expects
construction of the dams to begin in 2007 and electricity generation to start in
2012. He said Egat was prepared to buy the entire electricity output for onward
sale to Malaysia and Indonesia, which are forecast to become net importers of
electricity by 2010.
He said Egat was prepared to fund the entire
project if there were financial constraints on Burma _ ``We may have to put up
the money first through our capital or by issuing bonds.'' He said Egat had
allocated 30 to 40 billion baht for investment in the
project.
Energy Minister Pongthep announced in January that he
would ask the Finance Ministry to consider investing in the project.
Negotiations with the Burmese government are the next step.
Mr
Thaksin declared his support for the dams after visiting Burma in February. He
also announced during a visit to the Egat headquarters that the Salween dams
were essential elements in plans by eight Asean members to develop a power grid,
and they should go ahead despite the concerns about the possible environmental
and social impact.
These concerns have been voiced by senators,
environmentalists, human rights activists and advocates of ethnic groups based
in Thailand and Burma.
And the early indications are this could
well be one of the more interesting anti-development campaigns to date. The
project involves so many different issues _ from Thailand-Burma relations to
ethnic cleansing, forced labour and rape, to the assault on the
environment.
Burma's opposition National League for Democracy led
by Aung San Suu Kyi and 69 Thai and Burmese NGOs submitted a letter in December
to Kraisak Choonhavan, chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee,
demanding that the government scrap the project.
``The Salween dams
are large-scale projects which will have major impacts on communities in the
area,'' the letter read. ``Whether the dams are built in Shan state or on the
Thai-Burmese border, they will involve human rights violations. Up until now,
Thai politicians, Egat and private companies have claimed that the Salween River
Basin is not populated. In fact, over 10 million people of 13 different
ethnicities are living in the basin and relying on the river, which is one of
the richest river ecosystems in the world.''
Salween Watch, a
Chiang Mai-based non-governmental organisation, reported recently that over
300,000 Shan and other ethnic people had been forced to relocate from central
Shan state to make way for MDX's Ta Sang dam.
Sai Sai, a Tai
villager who takes refuge in Thailand and works as a volunteer for an NGO,
pleaded with the Thai government to stop taking advantage of Burma's lack of
democracy and its disregard for human rights and the environment for its own
benefit.
Bangkok's decision to go ahead with the Upper and Lower
Salween dams will lead to further hardship for a huge number of ethnic people,
similar to those who have been relocated to make way for or forced to work
without pay on MDX's Ta Sang dam, he said. ``These ethnic people will have no
choice but to take refuge in Thailand,'' Sai Sai said.
Senator
Kraisak said the project would exacerbate the problem of illegal labour and
refugees. There are already more than four million Burmese immigrants living
illegally in Thailand.
He also warned that the government would
come in for international condemnation if it decided to do business with the
Burmese military junta.
``The government should scrap the project
for the sake of the nation's image.'' he said. ``Do not repeat past governments'
mistakes of developing the Thai-Burmese gas pipeline
project.''
Environmentalists, most of whom are based in Chiang Mai
province, say the Upper and Lower Salween dams would cause major damage to the
river's rich biodiversity and the lush forest of the Salween river basin. The
dams would be much larger than the Bhumibhol dam in nearby Tak
province.
The Salween river originates high in the Tibetan
mountains, flows through China's Yunnan province into Burma, and then forms the
border between Thailand and Burma before emptying into the Andaman sea. It is
Southeast Asia's second largest river, after the Mekong, and the world's 26th
longest.
A preliminary study by the Chiang Mai-based NGO, Southeast
Asia Rivers Network, found the dams' reservoirs would divide the Salween
wildlife sanctuary and national park on Thailand's western border, arguably
Southeast Asia's most fertile forest. The report said the forest was a habitat
to several rare animal and plant species common to the
area.
Supakit Nantaworakarn, an independent energy researcher, also
argued against the dams on energy grounds, claiming they were superfluous to the
nation's needs.
``Due to the economic situation in Thailand, the
power demand has slowed significantly,'' he said. ``Thailand currently has power
reserves of around 40%, which makes the project implementation absolutely
nonsensical.''
Mr Supakit did not take up the matter of Egat
planning to sell the electricity generated by the dams to Malaysia and
Indonesia.
Mr Sittiporn accepted the point that there was currently
enough electricity but claimed that without the dams, Thailand would lose a
cheap source of energy and users would pay more for power.
About
20,000 rai of pristine forest in Thailand would be lost to the dams if the
project goes ahead, he said. How much forest would be flooded in Burma cannot be
determined until field surveys and an environmental impact assessment are
carried out after an agreement is reached by the Thai and Burmese
governments.
The Egat governor said an agreement with Burma on the
Salween project would probably come later this year.
He said he had
tried to allay environmentalists' fears by promising that Egat would not
hesitate to cancel the project if studies by reliable bodies showed the social
and environmental damage would be too severe. ``We are not such an obstinate
agency.''
Environmentalists do not look mollified. Many are gearing
up for the battle to protect the Salween and the ethnic groups whose lives
depend on it despite their already busy agendas, made up of, among other things,
the opposition to blasting of reefs along the Mekong river to widen and deepen
the navigation channel.
They promise to form a broad coalition of
groups from Thailand and abroad, ushering in just the latest chapter of protest
against dam building in Thailand.
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Chinadaily
Sino-Burmese joint action foils drug
plant.
(April 09,2003 )(Agencies)
Police from
China and Myanmar have cracked down on a drug processing plant in Myanmar and
confiscated 466 kilograms of drugs, along with weapons and ammunition.
After discovering that an illegal drug processing plant was
operating on the Thai-Myanmar border, the drug control authorities in Southwest
China's Yunnan Province informed Myanmar police in February.
At the
same time, police from the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Region in the province
passed the information to the military in Myanmar's Shan state, according to the
Chinese Police Daily.
After a careful investigation, the Myanmar
police established the plant's precise position and what it was
producing.
On March 30, police from China and Myanmar confiscated
466 kilograms of drugs, comprising 13.5 kilograms of heroin, 111.3 kilograms of
morphine and 341.2 kilograms of opium. They also confiscated drug processing
machines, materials for preparing drugs and weapons and
ammunition.
Thirty-seven trafficking suspects were
seized.
Myanmar police are still investigating the case, said the
China Police Daily.
China has strengthened co-operation with its
Southeast Asian neighbours in the fight against narcotics in recent years, Bai
Jingfu - vice-director of the National Narcotics Control Commission - told an
annual conference on China's fight against drugs, held on March 26 in
Beijing.
He said the area used to plant poppies has declined from
1.4 million mu (93,333 hectares) to 1.2 million mu (80,000 hectares) in the
Golden Triangle region, where the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet.
Bai did not specify how long this decline took.
Although the
drug-smuggling corridor towards southern Myanmar has closed, underground drug
trafficking still takes place northwards and enters Yunnan Province across the
border, Bai said.
For example, the province confiscated a total of
6.38 tons of heroin from the Golden Triangle region last year.
Zhou
Yongkang, China's new minister of public security, urged all customs and border
authorities to strengthen examinations in Yunnan Province's border crossings and
ports. All of the province's authorities in charge of railways, road and air
traffic should enhance examinations to prevent the transportation of illegal
drugs.
At the same time, passages out of the province should be
strictly inspected, he said.
China's police have enhanced their
overall anti-drug efforts in recent years.
Last year, Chinese
police cracked more than 110,000 drug-related cases and seized around 90,000
suspects. They confiscated 9.29 tons of heroin, 1.21 tons of opium, 3.19 tons of
"ice" (methamphetamine), 1.3 tons of marijuana, more than 3 million ecstasy
tablets and more than 300 tons of chemical raw materials, according to sources
with the National Narcotics Control Commission.
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