-------------------------- BurmaNet ------------------------------ "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies" ------------------------------------------------------------------ The BurmaNet News: August 31 , 1995 Issue #211 Noted in Passing: We have no other resources except fishing concessions and border trade with Burma. And if the situation does not improve, the people would seriously start feeling the effects of Burma's action. - Somkiet Satthajit, President of the Border Traders Association (see Checkpoint Closure) Contents: ========== THE NATION: CHECKPOINT CLOSURE HURTS RANONG ECONOMY THE NATION: KHUN SA AIMS TO EASE ETHNIC CONFLICTS THE NATION: MON LEADER MEETS KHIN NYUNT BKK POST: SUSPECTS IN MURDER OF BURMESE SEAMEN GIVES HIMSELF UP BKK POST: WEAPONS CACHE UNEARTHED FROM BORDER AREA FROM WASHINGTON: SEPT. 7 BURMA POLICY HEARING ---------------------------------------------------------- Produced with the support of the Burma Information Group (B.I.G). 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Billeness" Tourism campaigns: bagp@gn.apc.org "Attn. S. Sutcliffe" World Wide Web: FreeBurma@POBox.com Volunteering: christin@ksc.net.th [Feel free to suggest more areas of coverage] ---------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------- NATION: CHECKPOINT CLOSURE HURTS RANONG ECONOMY 30 August 1995 THE business community here has been sending as S.O.S after conflicts with Burma resulted in bilateral trade suspensions which has eaten in to the local economy largely dependent on cross-border relations. In the wake of Burma's closure of its checkpoint in Koh Song, the economy in Ranong has been badly hurt and local businessmen do not foresee a quick rebound unless the government achieves immediate normalization with Rangoon. The Burmese government ordered the closure of the checkpoint and barred Thai trawlers from entering its territorial waters after the August 6 death of at least 10 Burmese men on a Thai vessel owned by the Myanmar-Narong Canning Company, a joint investment between a Narong Canning Company and Burma's Fisheries Department. The controversial deaths were seen as a retaliation against Burmese authorities, who reportedly changed their stance over certain illegal activities by the company which led to the scrapping of the joint venture. The Thai government has expressed regrets over the incident. But business operators in the Ranong area are begging for further diplomatic approachment, saying the entire provincial economy, based mainly on fishing and border trade, is at stake. Somkiat Satthajit, President of the Border Traders Association, said the province has lost tens of millions of baht in daily border trade since Burmese authorities barred its Pathanya provincial vessels from arriving at Ranong. He said since the suppression, a large amount of goods normally exported to Koh Song was instead stockpiling in Laem Sai port, resulting so far in the loss of Bt80 million. He said frozen seafood operators and small-time operators, such as fish vendors and some 300 ferry operators, have so far been affected because only a few Burmese fishing trawlers had entered Thai waters to trade. "There basically are no fishing boats arriving or leaving and that has led to a shortage of seafood in the province. The supply of such food is insufficient for consumer needs, and the price has also risen drastically," he said. Somkiet denied rumours that Thais and Burmese were conducting business at night in Koh Song, saying that Burmese guards were rigidly upholding the ban. He said the provincial economy relies solely on fishing which brought in more than Bt150 million a day. If the situation continued, the province would reach a crisis point, he said. "We have no other resources except fishing concessions and border trade with Burma. And if the situation does not improve, the people would seriously start feeling the effects of Burma's action," he said. "The province is now like a deserted town. If the government cannot sort out the situation, I believe operators here will suffer greatly. Their business will collapse." Arun Apatnanon, manager of Bangkok Bank's Ranong Bankers' Association, said that after the Burmese order, the volume of money in circulation at the bank alone has dropped 20 percent, from Bt 100 million to Bt80 million a day. He said he believed that it would drop by 50 per cent if the situation did not improve. The volume of money in circulation at banks in the region before the checkpoint closure was about Bt 300 million a day. Arun said the provincial economic structure was weak because it mainly depended on trading with its neighbouring country. The tourism industry was not strong enough to compensate the effect the closure was having on the mainstream industries. To cope with the situation and minimize the impact on local banks, the institutions have agreed to impose strict regulations when granting credit to customers, he said. Arun said they also had called on the authorities to create more jobs in the province. "They should do so and do it quickly to ensure that the region has a strong economic base," he said. Somsak Khruemalee, a ferry operator, said about 300 ferry operators have been affected since the closure of the checkpoint and were in danger of going out of business as Burma apparently showed no sign of relaxing its regulations or cancelling the order. He said fish vendors had been the most seriously affected as only a few Burmese trawlers had entered Thai waters to sell their goods, when previously there were as many as 100 vessels arriving a day. Somsak also called on the government to solve the problem urgently and restore with the Burmese government as soon as possible. "I want the government to resolver this dispute quickly before any need the checkpoint to be re-opened," he said. (TN) ===== item ===== NATION: KHUN SA AIMS TO EASE ETHNIC CONFLICTS BY APPOINTING NEW SHAN CHIEF 30 August 1995 A DRUG warlord in Burma's Shan State on the border with Thailand recently recognized his Shan State National Congress party, installing Kan Sit as new party chief in an effort to heal ethnic conflicts within rebel groups in the state. Khun Sa, seen by some as merely a drug trafficker but by many in Shan State as a leader in the struggle against Burma's SLORC, made the re-organization following the revolt of some Shan leaders in the warlord's MTA. Kan Sit was earlier placed under house arrest by Khun Sa when Shan leader Kan Ywet and Dae Wain in the north of the state broke away to form the Shan State National Army (SSNA) on July 7, in opposition to the MTA. Also in the reorganization, Khun Sa gave the job of vice chairman of SSNC to his trusted aide Chan Hsu Shin, who is also chief of staff of the MTA. The men's friendship goes back a long way, and both Khun Sa and Chan Hsu Shin are ethnic Chinese. The latter was a major in the Chinese Nationalist Army which retreated to Shan State from Yunnan in China after their defeat by Chinese communists in 1949. Khun Sa once worked for the intelligence bureau of Taiwan's defence ministry, before teaming up in the 1960s with another Chinese nationalist officer, Gen Li Wen-huan, to trade in opium in Northwestern Thailand, according to official records. Dissension between ethnic Chinese and Shan members of Khun Sa's MTA came out into the open in June. In a joint statement by the two breakaway Shan leaders Kan Ywet and Dae Wain upon their formation of the SSNA in July, they accused Khun Sa of creating discontentment among the ethnic minorities within the MTA. Khun Sa's installing of a Shan leader as party boss is seen by local observers as an attempt to ease tension between the Shan and the ethnic Chinese in the MTA Army at the time when pressure from Rangoon's troops is mounting. But they add that the attempt is unlikely to change either Khun Sa's image or relieve the tension within the MTA. (TN) ===== item ===== NATION: MON LEADER MEETS KHIN NYUNT 30 August 1995 VETERAN rebel commander Nai Shwe Kyin met Burma military intelligence chief Khin Nyunt for their first talks in Rangoon, state-run newspaper reported yesterday. (TN) ===== item ===== BKK POST: SUSPECT IN MURDER OF BURMESE SEAMEN GIVES HIMSELF UP 30 August 1995 A KEY suspect in the murder of several Burmese fishermen yesterday gave himself up to Defence Minister Chavalit to fight the charges. Sunthorn Kaewsongduang, the skipper of the JV 44, was quoted as saying he felt safer under the care of the Defence Ministry. Police took him in for questioning. Sunthorn is among three crew members charged with murdering at least four Burmese crewmen working on the same fishing vessel earlier this month. The murder was said to have taken place on the JV 44 off the coast of Victoria Point. The police believe the suspect could help solve the mystery surrounding the murder. There have been conflicting accounts from Thai and Burmese authorities. Sunthorn was accompanied to the Defence Ministry by Deputy Minister and Cooperatives Minister Monthon Kraiwatnusorn. Police chief Gen Pote Boonyachinda and Interior Permanent Secretary Aree Wong-araya arrived at the ministry to take the suspect away. Gen Chavalit said Ranong police and released officials have carried on their search for the remaining suspects. He said Sunthorn is believed to hold vital information that could help the police put together pieces of the case. The police chief has promised to report on progress in the investigation to him, said Gen Chavalit, dismissing speculation that Sunthorn may be only a scapegoat. He maintained that everything was "transparent". The suspect's account may give the police the clues they need to identify the person or people behind the murder. The defence minister concerned that the murder has had adverse effects on Thai-Burmese relations. (BP) ===== item ===== BKK POST: WEAPONS CACHE UNEARTHED FROM BORDER AREA 30 August 1995 Phop Phra, Tak A CACHE of war weapons believed to belong to Karen National Union rebels was found buried underground yesterday at a border area Ban Padi. Deputy Commander of Task Force 34 Colonel Suvich Manmuan said the search for weapons began Sunday following a tipoff. The weapons found and confiscated were 87 M16, AK47 and SKS rifles, eight 7.62mm light machine guns, an anti-tank grenade launcher, three RPG rocket launchers, 23 anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, 42 TNT explosives, 54 60mm and 81mm mortar shells, 11 boxes of anti-aircraft ammunition, 8000 rounds of M60 machine gun ammunition and 3000 rounds of rifle ammunition. According to Col Suvich, the weapons are believed to have been buried by KNU. (BP) ********* FROM WASHINGTON: SEPT. 7 BURMA POLICY HEARING IN U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES On September 7, 1995, the Subcommittee on Asia & the Pacific of the House International Relations Committee will hold a public hearing entitled "Recent Developments in Burma". The hearing will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in 2172 Rayburn House Office Building. The witness list is as follows: Kent Weideman Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific U.S. State Department Holly Burkhalter Washington Director Human Rights Watch Professor Josef Silverstein Rutgers University Ernest Bower President U.S.-ASEAN Business Council The meeting is open to the public. For more information, you should contact the Subcommittee directly at (202) 226-7825.