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BURMA RELATED NEWS - April 27, 2003.
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HEADLINES
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Reuters - Reef
blasts send waves down Mekong
The Nation - Eyes
of the world on Thailand ? Kraisak
BBC - Thailand
breaks hold of malaria
Asian Tribune -
Laos-Myanmar to cooperate with Thailand in SARS control
Asian Tribune - Mae
Hong Son in discussions with Myanmar?s economic leaders
Asian Tribune -
Saving holiest tree of Buddhism from pollution and pests.
Xinhuanet -
Thailand to cooperate with Laos, Myanmar in combating SARS
The Daily Star -
Unite to uplift HR state in South Asia
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Sunday April 27,
12:25 PM
Reef blasts send waves down
Mekong
By Dominic Whiting
CHIANG
KHONG, Thailand (Reuters) - For half
a century Kamtan Inkaew had never fallen from his thin wooden fishing boat into
the mighty Mekong river. Then he was tipped into its swirling currents twice in
one week.
"They saw me near the shore, but didn't even try to change
direction," the 71-year-old Thai fisherman said.
"The Chinese ship
passed so close, the waves were big enough to rock my boat and sink it. The
engine was very expensive to fix and then a few days later the same thing
happened again."
Kamtan's anger, and his fear that a dozen 500-tonne
Chinese ships could soon be forging down the Mekong river each day are shared by
many villagers in the "golden triangle" region where the borders of Thailand,
Laos and Myanmar meet.
They say a Chinese-funded project to use
explosives to smash rocky reefs and shoals on the Mekong river to let ships
navigate between the southern Chinese town of Simao and Luang Prabang in
northern Laos is destroying fish stocks and eroding populated river banks. And
local farmers complain markets are getting flooded by cheap Chinese agricultural
products.
A first phase of blasting on the upper Mekong since last April
has already allowed 150-tonne ships to ply between China and the Golden Triangle
town of Chiang Saen.
The project aims to open the whole 360 km (224
miles) stretch to Luang Prabang to 500-tonne ships, but a schedule for the
destruction of more reefs in Laos and channel widening has not yet been set.
Reefs in the area, some as long as two kilometres, are the breeding
ground for many migratory fish, a vital source of protein for some 65 million
people who live on the river.
The biggest freshwater fish in the world,
the giant Mekong catfish, which can grow to over three metres, hatches its eggs
among rocks near Chiang Khong, just south of the golden triangle.
CHEAP GOODS
As the
river slips from the grip the rocks provided, villagers say faster currents are
chiselling away fertile sand banks where lettuce and cabbages are grown in the
dry season. The wake from bigger vessels could make the problem worse.
But the cheap goods filling the hulls of the southbound ships, ranging
from plastic binoculars and razors to vegetables, are even more of a worry for
local shopkeepers and farmers.
The golden triangle region, famed for
opium and heroin production, has had close trade links with China for centuries.
But China's accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2000 helped turn
the 700-year-old town of Chiang Saen into a bustling river port handling 100-
and 150-tonne ships rather than traditional rice barges.
"They're
bringing onions, garlic, dried chillies and ginger that are five times cheaper
than local products," said Jirasak Inthayot, an activist for a community group
in Chiang Kong, which is campaigning against the reef blasting.
"People
here are worried that in the future, even more agricultural products will come
from southern China and they won't be able to compete."
The 4,500
km-long Mekong river is central to China's plans for the economic development of
its southern province of Yunnan.
Wary that envy of fast growing east
coast cities in the rural interior could spark social and political unrest, the
Chinese government is keen to direct Yunnan's trade links southwards to
Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, and to improve sea access for the
province's goods.
Myanmar, Laos and Thailand, who signed up to the reef
blasting project in 2000, hope the trade will help pull them into the orbit of
China's rapid economic growth.
The United Nations says annual inward
investment to Southeast Asia fell by 56 percent to $13.2 billion (8.3 billion
pounds) between 1997 and 2001, while foreign funds heading each year for China
grew nearly six percent to $46.8 billion.
"JUST SOME STONES"
Landlocked Laos
says opening the Mekong to bigger boats will help lift its 5.2 million
population out of subsistence farming and poverty. The communist government, now
trying to move to a market economy, hopes to spur trade in wood products,
textiles and minerals.
"Right now we don't have transportation, so Laos
gets nothing," Laotian Trade Minister Soulivong Daravong told Reuters. "But this
link will increase revenue. By having the possibility of transporting goods,
people can buy and sell. It's much better than being isolated."
He said
the project would have a small effect on fisheries.
"We're not blowing
up whole rapids, just some stones that could break the boats when they come,"
Soulivong said. "Of course we're making some harm to nature but that can be
accepted because it is not big harm."
But the author of a report for the
Laotian government on the possible effects of the navigation project, said Laos
should halt the blasting until a proper environmental impact study is done.
"What's happening there is non-reversible," Brian Finlayson, a
hydrologist at Melbourne University, said. "You can't say 'well that didn't work
out as we expected, let's put it back'."
Kamtan, sitting under a bamboo
shade on a muddy bank of the Mekong, said it was already too late.
"There are fewer fish now. Before I could catch 20 or 30 kg a week. Now
it's just small fish, enough for my family, but there's nothing left to take to
the market."
Chiang Khong residents suggest new roads or the continued
use of small Laotian barges would allow trade to grow without harming
traditional river life.
But villagers said the Thai government never
consulted them before giving the go-ahead for the project and accused a distant
Thai business elite of cosying up to China.
"This is affecting the
poorest people, the people who depend on farming and fishing," said Jirasak.
"The people profiting are the ones who own the companies that sell
cement, petrochemicals and rubber tyres to China, who are all sitting in air
conditioned offices in Bangkok."
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The Nation
Eyes of the world on
Thailand ? Kraisak
Published on Apr 27, 2003
The
international community will soon attack Thailand?s human rights record, hurting
the country?s image and Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra?s standing, panellists
at a seminar warned yesterday.
Kraisak Choonhavan, chairman of the
Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, said that with the end of the war in Iraq,
global attention would be focused on the alleged extra-judicial killings during
the country?s war on drugs in which 2,800 people had died. ?This number is
higher than those killed in Iraq,? he said.
He said plans for joint
Thai-Burma projects to build dams in the Salween River would displace hundreds,
if not thousands, of Burmese people along the Thai-Burma border. ?This would be
disastrous for the country?s reputation,? he said.
He said Thaksin?s
indifference to human rights-related issues would damage his chances of becoming
the pre-eminent leader in Southeast Asia.
?To be an Asian leader, one
needs to be mindful of human values and rights,? Kraisak told a seminar on the
?Future of Thailand?s Foreign Policy in a time of Change? at Chiang Mai
University.
Kavi Chongkittavorn, assistant group editor of Nation
Multimedia Group, concurred with Kraisak, saying that Thaksin was a leader in a
hurry.
?It has taken Asian leaders like Lee Kuan Yew and Mahathir
Mohamad decades to gain recognition,? he said.
Thaksin lacks the moral
authority, which is a pivotal ingredient needed to lead an Asian society, Kavi
said.
Thanand Anumandrajchathorn, a professor at Chiang Mai University,
said the international community appeared to only recognise Thai tennis star
Paradorn Srichaphan and former army chief General Surayudh Chulanond.
?These are the two Thai leaders who have made an impact,? he said,
referring to a recent cover story in Time Asia.
All the panellists
agreed that as a democratic country, civil society participation and human
rights should be vital to its leaders.
They said Thaksin had to be
mindful of respect for human rights, lest the violations come back and haunt
him.
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BBC News - Friday, 25 April,
2003
Thailand breaks hold of malaria
By Larry
Jagan
BBC correspondent in Bangkok
Malaria
was once the scourge of South-East Asia, but in the past few decades it has been
eradicated from many parts of the region.
Thailand in particular was
badly affected but now much of the country is malaria-free.
Although
successive Thai governments have tried to eradicate the disease, general
economic development seems to be the factor that finally rid the country of
malaria.
In the 1970s and 1980s, rapid economic progress led to a major
increase in the urban population, especially in the major cities like Bangkok.
The proliferation of air conditioning there, especially in domestic
dwellings, also made life difficult for the mosquitoes.
The government's
concerted strategy of improving the city's sanitation, covering sewerage
channels and cleaning up the stagnant pools where the mosquitoes bred helped
finally put an end to the dangers of malaria.
So too did a massive
campaign of spraying pesticides in infested areas.
The irony, though, is
that along Thailand's border, especially with Burma and Cambodia, some of the
most drug-resistant strains of parasitic malaria remain a major problem,
claiming many lives a year.
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Asian Tribune
Date :
2003-04-27
Laos-Myanmar to cooperate with Thailand in SARS
control
Putrajaya, April 26, (TNA): Two close neighbours
of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, have agreed to cooperate with the kingdom in
preventing and controlling a new deadly flu, widely known now as Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), as many countries want Thailand to be in charge of
preventing and controlling the spread of SARS in Southeast Asia, according to
Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan.
Sudarat, who is attending a
meeting of Public Health Ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) in this Malaysian new city of Putrajaya, told TNA reporter that Laos and
Myanmar, which are adjacent to China and Vietnam, had agreed to cooperate with
Thailand in preventing and controlling SARS by imposing strict checks-up of
people wanting to enter the Thai kingdom.
"Vientiane and Rangoon have
agreed to impose strict checks-up at border checkpoints to prevent SARS
suspects, particularly those coming from countries with a high risk of the new
deadly flu, from entering Thailand", the reporter, who is accompanying the
Minister in her ongoing trip to Malaysia to attend the ASEAN Public Health
Ministers' Meeting on SARS, quoted her as saying.
The initial agreement
was made at a meeting between Sudarat and her Lao and Myanmar counterparts
yesterday, prior to the the ASEAN ministerial meeting, which was inaugurated
this morning, said the reporter.
China and Vietnam, as well as Taiwan,
Hong Kong and Singapore, are among countries listed as areas with a high risk of
SARS.
Sudarat said that many countries also wanted Thailand to be in
charge of preventing and controlling the spread of SARS in Southeast Asia, as
the kingdom had experienced in working with the US Centre of Disease Control
(CDC) on the matter.
"When I held talks with other ministers on the
sideline of the ASEAN ministerial meeting, many of them expressed their
confidence that Thailand can take the leading role in preventing and controlling
the outbreak of SARS in Southeast Asia, given the country's experiences in
workding with the US CDC", she told the TNA reporter.
Measures agreed at
the ongoing meeting of ASEAN Public Heath Ministers will be submitted to the
ASEAN Summit on SARS, to be held in Bangkok on April 29, according to
Sudarat.
Public Health Ministers of China, Hong Kong, Japan, and South
Korea are also attending the ongoing ministerial meeting, which was, thus,
dubbed ASEAN+3 Public Health Ministers' Meeting.
Meanwhile, Prime
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said in his weekly radio programme, "Premier Thaksin
talks with the public", this morning that his Chinese counterpart Wen Jin Bao's
participation in the speical ASEAN Summit reflected that Beijing had determined
to work with the international community in controlling SARS.
The world's
first cases of the new killing pneumonia were reportedly found in southern
China.
It would also be the new Chinese Premier's first trip abroad after
taking office recently, said Thaksin.
"Mr. Wen Jin Bao and I will also
hold bilateral talks with leaders of many ASEAN countries on the sideline of the
special ASEAN Summit", disclosed the Thai leader.
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Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-04-27
Mae
Hong Son in discussions with Myanmar?s economic
leaders
Mae Hong Son, April 26, (TNA): Officials from the
Mae Hong Son Chamber of Commerce have met with economic and political leaders
from Myanmar?s Shan State for talks aimed at opening up a border market for
goods from both countries, the chamber?s president announced today.
Mr
Somchai Sithisantikul said that 15 chamber members had met with Shan governor
Chao Mahacha and a team of economic officials in the Myanmar town of Hua Muang,
where Myanmar called on Thailand?s private sector to liaise with the government
in opening up trade between Hua Muang and Mae Hong Son.
Mae Hong Son has
closed transportation routes for goods into Myanmar and does not allow good
vehicles to cross the border, leading to hugely inflated costs for Myanmar
traders, who have to use people to carry the goods by hand into
Myanmar.
Mr Somchai said that the Shan governor had expressed willingness
to sell goods from Myanmar at a special border market in Baan Rong Haeng, where
Thai and Burmese traders would be able to exchange goods without the need to go
through middlemen.
However, Chao Mahacha had also warned Mae Hong Son
that it would have to facilitate Myanmar traders in bringing their goods across
the border, saying that at present Thai border officials were too
strict.
The Shan leader praised the private sectors of both countries for
engaging in discussions, saying that the talks sent out a signal that in the
future the special administrative district of Hua Muang could act as a centre
for the distribution of goods from Mae Hong Son into the Myanmar city of
Taungyi. Initially however Myanmar traders would sell cows, buffaloes, dried
chillies and garlic in Mae Hong Son?s Baan Rong Haeng market.
Mae Hong
Son Governor Suphot Laowansiri said that the province was now assessing the
feasibility of opening a border market in Baan Rong Haeng, located three
kilometres from the border.
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Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-04-27
Saving holiest tree of
Buddhism from pollution and pests.
By Imran Khan:
Indo-Asian News Service
Patna, April 27, (IANS): From a ban on
burning oil lamps near it to regular use of pesticides, a team of scientists has
suggested a slew of measures to protect the holy tree at Buddhism's birthplace
from certain death.
The team of scientists from Patna's Agricultural
Research Centre, after a detailed study and laboratory tests on extracts from
the Mahabodhi banyan tree in Bihar's Bodh Gaya town, said the holy tree would
die if measures to protect it were not taken immediately.
"If curative
measures are not taken soon to save it from pollution and infection, the
survival of the tree is doubtful," Anil Kumar Singh, regional director of the
Patna centre who led the team, told IANS.
Apart from the ravages of time,
the Mahabodhi tree is suffering on account of milibug disease, which is slowly
sucking the life out of it.
The tree stands near the Mahabodhi temple in
Bodh Gaya, 110 km from here.
The scientists, in a report to the Mahabodhi
Temple Committee, suggested regular pruning of the branches and a ban on burning
of oil lamps and candles near the tree. They also recommended spraying of
pesticides once a fortnight and use of a lotion on the tree under the
supervision of scientists.
The team said the main cause of the sacred
tree's poor health was the carbon monoxide emitted from oil lamps that forms a
thin layer on the leaves, making it difficult for them to
photosynthesise.
The temple committee grew alarmed after leaves of the
holy tree turned black in June last year. Buddhist pilgrims from across the
world carry back leaves from the tree when they visit Bodh Gaya.
The
tree, a descendant of the original banyan tree under which the Buddha attained
enlightenment 2,500 years ago, is situated behind the Mahabodhi Temple, which
Unesco declared a world heritage site in June. Temple sources say the present
tree is 110 years old and is the sixth regeneration of the original one growing
in the Buddha's time.
Emperor Asoka (268-232 B.C.), who had converted to
Buddhism, had a railing built around the Mahabodhi tree to protect it.
A
cutting of that tree was taken to Sri Lanka in the third century B.C. and still
flourishes at the sacred site of Anuradhapura. A sapling from that tree was
later brought back to Bodh Gaya, where it is growing today.
According to
legend, the tree was harmed, burned and cut down various times by fanatical
Hindus, but each time it miraculously grew back.
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Thailand to cooperate with Laos, Myanmar in combating SARS
Xinhuanet 2003-04-27 00:11:42
BANGKOK, April 26
(Xinhuanet) -- Two close neighbors
of Thailand,Laos and Myanmar, have agreed to cooperate with the kingdom in
combating SARS, said the Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan.
Laos
and Myanmar had agreed to impose strict medical check-up of people who want to
enter Thailand from the two countries, said Sudarat, who is attending a meeting
of Public Health Ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
in Malaysia.
"Vientiane and Yangon have agreed to impose strict check-up
at border checkpoints to prevent SARS suspects... from entering Thailand",
Suradat was quoted by the Thailand News Agency as saying.
The initial
agreement was made at a meeting between Sudarat andher Lao and Myanmar
counterparts on Friday.
Suradat said measures agreed upon at the ongoing
meeting will be submitted to the ASEAN special meeting on SARS, which will be
held in Bangkok on April 29.
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The Daily Star - Sun. April 27, 2003
Unite to uplift HR state in South
Asia
Staff Correspondent
Delegates
from four South Asian countries including Bangladesh yesterday presented a
gloomy picture of human rights situation in their respective countries and urged
the people of the region to take a common stand for improving the situation.
On the other hand, former Indian prime minister of India and Chairman of
South Asia Human Rights I K Gujral warned the people of the South Asia about the
impact of an 'emerging neo-imperialism in word politics'.
"The ominous
shadow of the post-Iraq war is creeping in our direction and the purpose of
neo-imperialism is not confined to acquisition of oil source only but is also to
re-establish ears of hegemony," he said.
He urged the people of South
Asia to face the emerging threat by standing together.
The delegates
were speaking at an exchange of view meeting at the Supreme Court (SC) Bar
Association auditorium.
"It is time that we too take our destiny in our
own hands and assert that no more wars will be fought on the soil of South Asia,
and that the sacred soil of our ancient lands will never witness the murder of
innocents by the terrorists," Gujral said.
He also reminded the
experiences in the 19th century when one state after another in the region fell
in the grip of colonialists due to lack of trust in their neighbours.
Former chairman of Pakistan Human Rights Commission Asma Jahangir, human
rights activists S Balakrishna from Sri Lanka, D Pandey from Nepal and Dr. Kamal
Hossain from Bangladesh also addressed the meeting.
President of the SC
Bar Rokanuddin Mahmud gave the welcome address and Barrister Sigma Huda
presided.
The former Indian prime minister underscored further
strengthening of the SARRC for eradication of poverty and terrorism which, he
said, are the common features in the countries of the region.
Gujral
appreciated the recent development in Bangladesh, particularly in sectors like
poverty alleviation, agriculture and improvement of the condition of women.
Asma Jahangir described various types of human rights violation in
Pakistan and observed that the human rights issue should get priority over other
issues.
Criticising the role of the military rulers in the violation of
human rights and democratic norms in her country, she said, "A country should be
run by the politicians not by the generals."
Asma blasted the role of
Pakistani military forces in Bangladesh during its independence struggle and
said only expressing sorrow for the atrocities was not enough.
There
should be proper justice for their misdeeds during that period, she observed.
Dr. Kamal Hossain said though the region was freed from colonial rule
about 50 years back, the legacy of the colonialism is still haunting them.
All the countries in the region share the same human rights situation,
he said.
Kamal felt that Myanmar and Afghanistan should also be brought
into the forum of human rights in South Asia.
Rokonuddin Mahmud said
arrest without warrant, frequent detention, torture in police custody and remand
are some major features in the violation of human rights in Bangladesh.
He mentioned that the 'Operation Clean Heart' had left 54 people killed
and scores of others injured without any legal frame work.
Nepalese
representative D Pandey also presented a gloomy picture of human rights in his
country. Human rights are being violated mainly due to conflicts among the
monarch, political parties and Maoist insurgents.
S Balakrishna from Sri
Lanka observed that the conflicts in his country are the result of trampling of
human rights of the minority communities for long.
He observed that the
civil society in south Asia can play a vital role in upholding human rights.
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