Daily News- August 31- 2002- Saturday

  • Clash between monks and police in Bahan
  • Eight Italians arrested for illegally entering Myanmar
  • Myanmar supports Dhaka-Yangon road
  • Nearly 1m amphetamine pills seized by Thai forces near Burma border

    • Clash between monks and police in Bahan

    Source: Democratic Voice of Burma, Oslo, in Burmese 1430 gmt 29 Aug 02

    It has been reported that a conflict between Bahan police station and monks from Nyaungdon monastery took place in Bahan Township, Rangoon last Tuesday [27 August]. The monks surrounded the Bahan police station from 1000 to 1100 [local time] and smashed and destroyed the security station situated on the ground floor of the Dagon Tower building which is behind the Bahan police station. A monk who does not want to be identified recounted the incident to the DVB as follows:

    [Unidentified monk in Bahan] A female student was propositioned and other students who were with her urged not to do so and a clash ensued and the student was arrested. The other students urged the police not to arrest the student as he had not committed any offence and asked he be released. The student was not released and the conflict ensued.

    According to additional reports obtained by the DVB, the detained student was arrested while trying to protect a female student who was being harassed by the police at the Shwegondine traffic lights. When the student was not released, the monks went to the police station to demand the release of the innocent student. But the police were rude in their response and the clash resulted between the police and the monks.

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    Eight Italians arrested for illegally entering Myanmar

    MAE SOT, Thailand, Aug 30 (AFP) - Eight Italian nationals have been arrested for illegally entering Myanmar to provide medical services to impoverished ethnic minority comunities, Thai police said Friday.

    Police in the border district of Pop Phra said they had detained six men and two women who identified themselves as doctors from the Italian medical aid organisation Populi.

    "We received them from the military last night, and now police have filed charges," deputy commander of Phop Pra police Colonel Sathit Wieng-in told AFP, adding that a court in Mae Sot would hear the case shortly.

    A spokesman for the Italian embassy in Bangkok said they were in touch with Thai authorities and expected the group to be repatriated.

    Sathit also said that when the case was heard the eight could expect to be fined and sent to the capital Bangkok for immediate expulsion.

    "I told them that this case could not be settled in the police station as they have breached Thai immigration law," he said.

    The police officer said the group had crossed the border to provide medical care for the Karen people and other ethnic minority refugees who live under conditions of extreme hardship on the Thai-Myanmar border.

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    Myanmar supports Dhaka-Yangon road

    The Daily Star

    The Myanmar government supports direct road communications between Dhaka and Yangon through Teknaf-Sitwe border points to help improve economic and trade relations between Bangladesh and Myanmar.

    "This highway will also greatly help towards further developing the bilateral relations as well as establishing link with the South Asian and South East Asian countries," Communications Minister Nazmul Huda said this while he was talking to newsmen at the airport after his return from an official visit to Myanmar and Thailand.

    During his separate meetings with several ministers of the Myanmar government in Yangon, they supported his proposal for 'Bangladesh-Myanmar Friendship Highway' or 'Bangladesh-Myanmar Friendship Bridge,' he said.

    He held meetings with Secretary-1 of the State Peace and Development Council Lt. Gen Khin Nyunt, Foreign Minister U Aung Win, Minister for Economic Development and National Planning U Soe Tha, Construction Minister Major General Saw Tun and Commerce Minister Brigadier General Pyi Sone.

    "When I placed my proposal before them in support of increased bilateral relations for mutual benefit in trade and commerce between the two countries, Lt Gen Khin Nyunt and other ministers welcomed it," he said.

    Huda during his meeting with the Myanmar Commerce Minister stressed increasing the trade volume and supply of goods on reduced rates through establishing direct road link between the two countries. "The Myanmar Commerce Minister reciprocated the same," he told the journalists.

    He also proposed launching a ferry service across the Naaf River and said his visit to Myanmar from August 25 to 27 was a grand success. "This visit will in fact bring about a fruitful outcome in establishing Dhaka-Yangon direct road link to promote the bilateral trade and economic relations between the two countries," he said.

    Communications Secretary Syed Rezaul Hayat, Chief Engineer of Roads and Highways Division Md Fazlul Huq and concerned senior officials of the ministry of communications accompanied him.

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    Nearly 1m amphetamine pills seized by Thai forces near Burma border

    Source : Channelnews Asia

    At least six suspected drug traffickers from Burma have also been killed in a gunbattle near the border between the two countries.

    Army and border police had fought the gunbattle with about 20 suspected drug traffickers in a forest in Chiang Mai province.

    Those killed are believed to be members of the United Wa State Army, a powerful ethnic army allied to Burma's military regime.

    According to the Thai government, more than 600 million amphetamine tablets have been smuggled into Thailand over the past eight months, mainly from Burma and Laos.

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