Daily News-June 14 - 2001- Thursday

  • Visit to lift Burma ties
  • Burma, India reportedly conducting joint training on weapons system
  • Floods Leave Thousands Dead, Homeless
  • Rebels take Thais
  • Shan militia leader jailed for alleged links with opposition
  • Burma puzzle
  • DKBA Soldiers Defect to the KNU
  • Burma Exports Opium-Substitute Crop to Japan
  • Bangladesh detains Burmese communist rebels

    • Visit to lift Burma ties

    source : The Nation

    Defence Minister General Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said yesterday that Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's trip to Burma would help smooth relations between the two countries, which have become strained over the past few months.

    "I believe that even without my accompanying the prime minister the visit will bring about a better understanding and improve bilateral relations," Chavalit said.

    Thaksin is scheduled to make a two-day visit to Burma from June 19-20 after a trip to Cambodia on Monday. He made a one-day visit to Laos yesterday.

    A source said that Khin Nyunt, the most powerful figure in the Burmese junta, planned to re-open the Tachilek border post during Thaksin's visit as a goodwill gesture. The Burmese authorities closed the checkpoint, which is used for cross-border trade, for three months to express its anger over a series of border clashes.

    Chavalit dismissed speculation that he would not be accompanying Thaksin to Burma because of political considerations. He said he needed to prepare for a trip to China scheduled for June 20 to 24.
    Burma, India reportedly conducting joint training on weapons system

    BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jun 11, 2001

    Text of report by Burmese opposition radio on 10 June

    DVB [Democratic Voice of Burma] has learned that Indian Armed Forces and Burmese Defence Services are jointly conducting a training course on laser-guided weapon system in Tamu, Sagaing Division.

    The training course which began on 8 June is being conducted by Lt-Col Thet Lwin, commander of LIB [Light Infantry Battalion] 89 under the Northwest Military Command from the Burmese side and Capt K B Bundhi of No.7 Assam Rifles from the Indian side. Eight officers and three other ranks from the Northwest Military Command are attending the course. The training course is expected to last for 18 days.

    The Indian training instructors do not sleep in Tamu but instead travel from Moreh in India to give the course. The joint training course became a reality after discussions between the chief engineer of Indian Garrison Engineers, BRDS, who built the Kale-Tamu-Moreh road, and Maj-Gen Soe Win, commander of Northwest Military Command. DVB correspondent Kyaw Swa filed this report.
    Floods Leave Thousands Dead, Homeless

    By Win Htein
    The Irrawaddy News Magazine

    June 12, 2001-Continued flooding in central Burma has left thousands of people homeless and in urgent need of international aid, according to local sources.

    "We need emergency aid. Please broadcast this news to the outside world. There is no food. About 300 people have lost their homes and are staying in the monastery. We have no food to feed them.The authorities have only given us enough for three days," pleaded a woman in Wan Twin Township in central Burma, speaking to the Oslo -based Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) by telephone.

    Over one thousand people are thought to have died since the floods began last week, and more than a thousand others have been reported missing. Several dams have reportedly been damaged and a number of villages have been totally washed away.

    In Wan Twin alone, over 200 people have died as a result of the floods, according to the latest reports out of the area. Fresh water supplies have also been tainted and people are worried about a potential cholera outbreak.

    Starting last week, floods moved into central Burma after inflicting heavy damage on other areas of the country. The ruling military junta's state-run media in Rangoon has not yet reported these latest floods, although a deputy commander from Mandalay Division reportedly visited the area and brought a limited number of supplies.

    According to a Rangoon-based NGO source, an aid group from the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) is currently visiting the flooded area. The source went on to say that many embassy and aid groups are waiting for an official announcement from the government before stepping in.

    On June 1, a train crashed into a river in Sagaing Division, north of Mandalay, after a bridge collapsed.The bridge had been severely weakened by recent flooding. Sources said that the Burmese government had been made aware of the condition of the bridge before it collapsed, but nothing was done to correct the problem. Over three hundred people were killed, according to reliable reports.
    Rebels take Thais

    Bangkok Post - Thailand; Jun 12, 2001

    Two Thai workers have been captured by Shan State Army rebels from a logging site opposite Mae Hong Son, a logging firm source said yesterday.

    The two workers, one from Chiang Mai and the other from Lampang, were hired by a Thai company to drive tractors for a logging firm owned by Burma's Ho Mong chief Maha Jah.

    The SSA earlier sent a letter demanding 300,000 baht protection fee from Maha Jah but the demand was rejected. The capture of the Thais was believed to be a warning.
    Shan militia leader jailed for alleged links with opposition

    BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jun 12, 2001

    Text of Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN) report in English dated 10 June by Burmese opposition electronic newspaper BurmaNet News on 12 June

    Shan militia leader grabbed and beaten; His face unrecognizable, say sources

    A Shan militia leader across Chiang Mai [as received] had been arrested, imprisoned and beaten until his face became unidentifiable, said sources who came from eastern Shan State.

    Sai Nyein, 35, militia leader of Nakawngmu, roughly halfway between BP-1(Border Pass-1) and Mongton, together with his deputy, Kyaw Ong, 42, were arrested on 28 May on charges of collaboration with the Shan State Army [SSA] of Yawdserk and taken to Mongton where he was tortured and beaten in order to extract a confession, they said.

    "His relatives were allowed to pay a visit last week and he couldn't be recognized," said one source. "The Burmese (military) accused him of leaking information to the SSA during the Battle of Pakhee (22 April-3 May) resulting in the loss of men and material."

    Military authorities also arrested Htun Nay, 38, administrator of Maeken further north, Nandaw, 35, and Awriya, 30, on the same charges. "The militia, 50-men strong, was also disarmed yesterday," added the source this morning.

    Local people were surprised. "Sai Nyein is only half Shan. His father was a Burmese who had served with the Army. Being so, we doubt the SSA trusts him at all," said another source.
    Burma puzzle

    source : The Age
    Monday 11 June 2001

    Intrepid is asking the public to help decide whether the company should resume tours to Burma (Myanmar). Two years ago, Intrepid withdrew from Burma because of concern about human rights violations.

    It is now reviewing the decision: does a travellers' boycott help reduce human rights abuses or does it further entrench the ruling junta? Does it help or hinder the lives of ordinary Burmese?

    Intrepid is running a poll on its website     www.intrepidtravel , with voting until June 30. All voters will receive the final results on July 1, and get an interim result straight after their vote.
    DKBA Soldiers Defect to the KNU

    By Min Zin
    The Irrawaddy News Magazine

    June 13, 2001 -- A group of 7 soldiers from the pro-Rangoon Karen splinter group, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), defected to the Karen National Union (KNU) earlier this week, according to a KNU source.

    The general secretary of the KNU, Mahn Sha, told the Irrawaddy, "About seven fully armed DKBA soldiers defected to the KNU's Sixth Brigade a few days ago." The defectors were quoted as saying that DKBA senior officials have recently been involved in intense conflicts with rank and file soldiers as well as Burmese junta officials in Rangoon. "The DKBA does not have any political goal or objective. They are simply being used by the Burmese military," continued Mahn Sha.

    The DKBA, a splinter group from the Christian-dominated Karen National Union, led the Burmese Army to victory in 1995 in its campaign to take Manerplaw, the former headquarters of the KNU. The DKBA continues to work with Burma's ruling military junta, the State Peace and Development Council, under a peace deal signed in the mid-1990s. The DKBA has constantly tormented the KNU and has also targeted Thai-based Karen refugee camps. The DKBA is also allegedly involved in the smuggling of drugs into Thailand.
    Burma Exports Opium-Substitute Crop to Japan

    YANGON, June 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Myanmar has exported 54 tons of buckwheat, a kind of opium-substitute crop, to Japan under a sale contract reached earlier this month between the two countries.

    According to the Myanmar Ministry of Commerce Tuesday, the state-run Myanma Five Star Line vessel with the 54 tons of buckwheat left the Yangon Port on Sunday.

    The contract to export Myanmar's buckwheat to Japan was signed between the Myanma Agricultural Produce Trading of the ministry and the Japan International Corporation Agency on June 4.

    Meanwhile, earlier in February, Myanmar also reached a memorandum of understanding with Japan to purchase 20 tons of buckwheat seeds from Japan for cultivation of the crop in northern Shan state of the country.

    In 1992, Myanmar and Japan agreed to substitute opium poppy with buckwheat in Myanmar's poppy-growing northern Shan state and it was realized in 1997 with trial cultivation successfully conducted in the state's Tarshwetang area.Cultivation of opium-substitute crops plays a key role in tackling the food problem of these poppy-growing areas as well as in consolidating Myanmar's achievements made in drug control.

    According to official statistics, in 2000, the cultivated areas of poppy-substitute crops in Kokang area of northern Shan state reached 17,520 hectares, of which buckwheat took up 1,320 hectares, while sugar cane represented 16,200 hectares.The growing of the crops were greatly assisted by Japan and China.

    It is also reported that a plan is underway by Myanmar and Japan to cultivate opium-substitute crops in Myanmar's northern Shan state covering an area of 35,962 hectares.
    Bangladesh detains Burmese communist rebels

    Source : MSNBC / Reuters

    COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh, June 14---Bangladeshi police said on Thursday they had detained two Burmese communist rebels in the southeastern Bandarban hill region.

    Police said six Arakan Army members had been detained since April in Bandarban and Teknaf, both areas close to west Burma's Muslim-majority Arakan state.

    Communist, Buddhist and Muslim rebels from Burma often cross into Bangladesh to escape arrest at home, or to regroup after being pursued by Burmese soldiers.

    Bangladesh denies providing support to rebels from neighbouring countries.

    Bangladesh has been hosting some 21,000 Arakani Muslims, known as Rohingyas, since 1992. They fled to Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar district, bordering Arakan, to escape alleged military persecution. Bangladeshi officials believe the Rohingyas are mostly economic refugees.