------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------ "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies" ---------------------------------------------------------- The BurmaNet News: March 24, 1996 Issue #368 Noted in Passing: In Light Infantry Battalion 202 alone there were more than 200 child soldiers. I think there were more children than adults. - a SLORC defector (see NATION: SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENT SOLDIERS) HEADLINES: ========== ABSDF-DNA: SLORC PLATOON DEFECTS/FORCED LABOUR IN SAGAING FEER: DRUGS AND POLITICS NATION: SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENT SOLDIERS NATION: YOUTH AND DEATH COME FACE TO FACE IN THE JUNGLE BUSINESS DAY: DAIWA AIDS YANGON TO ESTABLISH STOCK EXCHANGE BKK POST: 4 POLICEMEN GET LIFE FOR ROBBING, MURDERING BURMESE BKK POST: MAE HONG SON CHAMBER URGES REOPENING OF BORDER BKK POST: MEETING AGREES ASIA NEEDS UN PEACE FORCE NATION: MOST ILLEGAL ALIEN WORKERS CALLED SPIES BKK POST: RANGOON JOINS BEIJING FOR MEKONG TALKS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ABSDF-DNA: SLORC PLATOON DEFECTS/FORCED LABOUR IN SAGAING March 21, 1996 from caroline@ksc.net.th A platoon led by its group leader and four privates from Slorc's battalion (2) of Light Infantry Battalion (72) under the command of Eastern Military Command defected to KNPP Battalion (2) at 6:00 am on March 15, 1996. LIB (72) is based in Lawpita, Loikaw Kayah State. Platoon leader Corporal Maung Win (BC.676053) himself and privates; Ye Win Hteik (BC.88179), Myo Min Aung (BC.963954), Kyaw Win (BC.980955) and Win Htay (BC.980961) defected to the Karenni forces along with one M-79 launcher and twelve of its shells, four G-3 assulted rifles, 125 bullets of 7.62mm, twenty rounds of ammunition, two assulted mines and two land mines. According to them, they decided to defect because of the unjust orders by the military officers and their mistreatement towards the soldiers. There were many more soldiers in the Slorc's side who wished to flee from the Slorc for the same reasons and were waiting for the chance, they said. They left their Dawwi Moe outpost where they were assigned on March 1. Before they left, they burnt down and destroyed the outpost. Recently, during the Naung Lon battle, between March 2 -11, five Slorc soldiers including one army corporal defected to the KNPP. FORCED LABOR IN MIN KIN TOWNSHIP, SAGAING DIVISION Local people from villages in western Min Kin township, Sagaing Division have been forced to work two forced labor projects at the same time and made their daily lives more miserable. People have left very small extra time, hardly enough to work for their daily needs as they have been forcibly ordered to contribute unpaid labor both in Kyauk O- Ye Poke Chaung embankment and Kyauk O- Min Kin motor road construction project. About 1,800 local people from all six villages in Kyi Nyine village group, Kyauk Ovillage group, Ain Kyin Taung village group and Min Sar village group have worked at the two-mile-long Kyauk O- Ye Poke Chaung embankment project since May 1995. One person from each household was ordered to work one week in every month. People were grouped in groups of ten. Each group was assigned to dig a 5 x 49 x 6 ft embankment. People who fail to do so have to either hire another person to replace them which costs 75 Kyat per day or pay 100 Kyat per day for fine. For those who could not manage to do either way, they were subject to beatings or torture by the local LIB 228 for failing to comply with the order. The same requirement to do forced labor was imposed on the local people at the same time. People were ordered to work forced on the 4-mile-long Kyauk O-Min Kin motor road. They were ordered to build 6 ft high, 15 ft wide and 4 miles long motor road for a week in every month. People in the region usually had to spend one week on the embankment project and another one week in motor road project that left only two weeks to work for their families. ABSDF News Agency ABSDF (DAWN GWIN) *********************************************************** FEER: DRUGS AND POLITICS March 28, 1996 A battle is under way in the Clinton administration over a plan to send Robert Gelbard, assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law-enforcement affairs, to Burma in early April. The idea is strongly opposed by many in the US State Department and national Security Council in light of recent government reports lambasting Burma's record on drugs and human rights. They say that the timing is terrible, with the UN due to begin discussions in Geneva on the Burmese government's disregard of human rights. Analysts speculate that Gelbard may be trying to do a deal with Burma to gain the extradition of drug kingpin Khun Sa as a way of showing President Bill Clinton is cracking down hard on narcotics traffickers in an election year. ****************************************************** NATION: SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENT SOLDIERS March 22, 1996 Children are always among the main victims in any war situation but rarely are they exposed to front-line condition as frequently as in Burma. Aung Zaw reports on a UN-sponsored investigation on the use of children in Burma. They are about 13 or 15 years old, wear army uniforms and carry war weapons. By all other measures they are still children but it is not war games they play. Burmese history is full of stories of different kings at war with each other and the modern period since 1948, when the British surrender their colonial rule, has been little different. Almost from the day the British lowered the Union Jack Burma has been home to a continuous civil war described by some observers as one of the most complicated conflicts in the world. Many Burmese, including children, have suffered as a result of this ongoing civil war. Mothers have lost sons, villagers lost lands and students their future. For children, they have lost their childhood. A report "No Childhood At All" published recently by Thailand based NGO Images Asia detailed how children have become among the main victim of the decade-Fold civil war in Burma. The research, an IA spokesman said, was conducted for the UN Graca Machel Study on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children. The report was prepared under the guidelines of the Graca Machel study which defines "child soldiers" as combatants aged 18 and under. How many children have been killed in civil war? How many children have been recruited for fighting? How have government and rebel forces forced children to join their armies to fight "enemies?". There is no shortage of questions about child soldiers but there has been little in the way of comprehensive research on the issue. Observers, NGOs and international human rights organisations have very few clues to what goes on in this military-dominate country. One undeniable fact is that the Burmese armed forces (Tatmadaw) and it foes have widely recruited child soldiers. The use of children as soldiers in Burma in serious human rights abuses. Children are killed, forcibly conscripted, unwillingly separated from their families, kidnapped, tortured during their service, forced to kill and torture, and due to the rampant corruption in the tatmadaw, are underpaid, or are not paid at all," IA said in its report. Unicef expressed it concerns in 1992 saying many children are orphaned, abandoned, trafficked, exploited in the labour force, institutionalized or jailed. Some are used in drug-running, while others are targets of ethnic discrimination. In the civil war, children have become victims or participants in armed conflicts." Burma is the seventh poorest country in the world. Children in Burma suffer extreme poverty. Although children make up only 15 per cent of the population they account for half the country's annual death rate. Infant mortality is estimated at 146/1000, with 175,000 infants dying every year, the UNDP report said. An estimated 80 percent of students enrolled in primary school drop-out before completion. Some 35 percent of children never enroll in primary school and only 25 percent complete the five year cycle. Ethnic border regions are severely under-serviced. Worse still, in remote border areas, ethnic minorities have virtually no public services because of the conflicts. IA said children, especially young boys are raised to revere military leaders of the past and to look on military induction as a sign of manhood. In much of the popular media, the soldiers is held up as the perfect role-model Particularly among the ethnic groups, where many children grow up watching their fathers go to war, as their families and villagers are terrorized by the tatmadaw, devotion to the revolutionary cause is seen as the highest calling to which one can aspire. "Since 1988 the number of soldiers in tatmadaw has swollen. The tatmadaw recruited boys who are under 14," IA said. These boys are later sent to military training centers. Most recruits tend to be orphans, street children, criminals or those who have fled the front-line villages. "Anecdotal reports exists of such children being taken to places like Pegu, Prome, and Mandalay, cities at some distance from their homes, before they are forced in to armed service, IA said. Unicef officials has found evidence that boys could be officially conscripted" into the military at age 14. Unicef also identified at least one residential Slorc military camp, near Kengtung in Shan State, where children aged seven and above [believed to be orphans] were being trained for a future life with the military. The tatmadaw is not alone- ethnic armed groups including Khun Sa's Mong Tai Army the Karen National Union, Wa and Kokang armies, Mon, Karenni and Arakanese armies conscript children for their armies. The notorious Tiger Camp in Khunsa's controlled territory was used for training thousands of children as soldiers for the MTA. The former Communist Party of Burma was reputed to use child soldiers for human wave attacks. Recruitment ----------- One Slorc soldier who defected to the Karen forces said he had joined tatmadaw when he was only 12. The defector, Aung Soe said: "They [Slorc] never check the registration papers showing your date of birth. In Light Infantry Battalion 202 alone there were more than 200 child soldiers. I think there were more children than adults."Recruitment by the tatmadaw is systematic, however, policies appear to differ over time and between various areas, IA reported. While the Slorc, or the State Law and Order Restoration, Council, claims that the tatmadaw is a volunteer force, and that he army does not accept recruits below 18 years of age, there is very strong evidence to suggest that children are widely and regularly conscripted into its forces. On the battlefield at Kawmoora in 1995, one porter described the Slorc soldiers he saw as about 16, even 14 years old". I'm telling the truth. They were scolding us, their elders, and some had voices that hadn't even broken yet." Another boy said he lied about his age because he wanted to become a soldier, AI said. "I had to be 18 years old, but I know people who were, 11, 12,-13, and they all a claimed they were 18. Anyone can become soldier." It is easy to become soldiers in Burma while some are joining the tatmadaw of their own will some are forced to become soldiers. "I was forced," Ye Kyaw said. Five people had to go from each part of town every month. My only brother had already joined the army before 1988 because he had a fight with our-mother. I was trained at No.6 Divisional Training Centre at Oke Twin for four months. There were 250 recruits in our group - the youngest 15 or 16." Another said he spent his time wandering around with his friends. Finally at the age of 17 he joined the army. He was recruited in his home town, sent to Mingaladon, where he stayed for five days. He was sent to a training centre at Bagalee, where he did basic training for four and 1/2 months. Aye Myint joined the army of his own free will when he was 15 years old because he said his father's income was not enough for his family's survival. Like Aye Myint, soldiers who joined the army on their own admitted being a soldier is different as they have power. The power, Aye Myint, said made him feel really strong. One former MTA child soldier said "They [MTA official] sent a note to my house saying we have to send one boy for MTA." Sai Htin Lin (not his real name) became a foot soldier. If one family has three sons they are required to send one boy to the MTA when he is 10 or 12. But one who are sent by their parents receive a basic education in exchange for military service later. Sai Htin Lin said many boys when they learned they had to serve in the MTA run away. He said there was no help from local Slorc officials. "They knew that MTA was coming to our town to recruit us but They didn't help." But a Shan MTA commander told one of the researchers of IA that: "What choice have they got? Opium addicts and sellers, Burmese soldiers or porters, Farmers are always harassed by the military? These children make more disciplined, brave and ...nationalistic soldiers...they make the best fighters." The reason for recruiting boys is obvious. They are obedient, do not question orders, and are easier to manipulate that adult soldiers. But one Karen captain said the use of child soldiers was more of a hindrance in battle than a help. One Karen child soldier who said he was conscripted by the KNU, said he was sent to the front line areas. He said most of the child soldiers carried M-16 automatic rifles or AK-47s. In 1992 alone, a KNU Major said they were ordered to recruit 5,000 soldiers for a large battle at Sleeping Dog mountain. Most of the soldiers were very young. Roles and duties ---------------- IA said: "Child soldiers have played various role in the conflict: They have performed front-line/active combat duties, done cooking and other menial labour, stood sentry/check point duty, acted as body guards (a feature common in the ethnic armies especially), serve as porters carrying ammunition and supplies, acted as spies of informants and been used as cannon fodder to draw the fire of their adversaries, and sometimes in human-wave attacks in which hundreds are usually killed." For child soldiers, fear is a major determining factor in their obedience and performance, IA said. In extreme cases, when child soldiers could no longer tolerate their own, or their friends' mistreatment by senior officers, they were driven to either suicide or murder. One tatmadaw soldier said, I have fought because they are my enemy, and I am fighting for my survival they are fighting for revolution." One defector, Aung Htay, said he had to carry G3 guns [German-made rifles]...during the fighting with rebels. He said he was able to sink three boats with RPGs. But when they witnessed or experienced real hardship, maltreatment, killings, child soldiers said they were shocked and horrified by what they saw. A child soldier, Sein Myint was ordered to beat a porter who died later. My commander ordered me to beat and swear at the porters by beating and swearing at me." He said, "if I didn't kill that porter, I would be killed myself, or punished by a senior officer. Sometimes I have to look after 60 or more porters. When my duty was to stand sentry, I released them all and they escaped." Some child soldiers according to the report were ordered to execute uncooperative local villagers and those suspected of collaborating with ethnic insurgents. Aung Tay, another young soldier, said he saw about 200 porters killed along the way to the front-line. "Because of this I escaped to [the border area]." Most child soldier defectors complained to IA about mistreatment at the hands of the tatmadaw. Most cited the abusive treatment they received from their officers and their revulsion with the army's human rights abuses as their reasons for defecting. Child soldiers were beaten when they could not keep up, often a result of their small size and inexperience, but also because of injury and illness. They suffered both physical and emotional abuses. In addition, they were consistently underpaid. Soldiers and rank and file recruits received far less food than commanders and officers, and what they did receive was of highly inferior quality. Medicine and medical care was said to be grossly inadequate, and soldiers were frequently left to die without treatment if it was thought they might slow a column. Treatment and experiences ------------------------- As a result some were driven to defect. One of the child soldiers interviewed by IA described the case of Chit Ko, who was said to be from Rangoon. He was severely beaten by a corporal and later sent to hospital. Chit Ko ended up blind and half-paralysed. But some child soldiers who couldn't tolerate their officers discovered a simpler way. They shot them and escaped. Maung Hla Tint said: "The night we ran away the officers were drinking and playing cards. Every night they were drinking and playing cards and if one of them was losing he yelled at the soldiers, beat us and abused us. "That night all the non-commissioned officers were drunk and they beat every soldier. Corporal Than Tun was losing and he beat every soldier." Finally the young soldiers shot him and escaped. Ye kyaw said he himself killed Cpl Thein Win. "At 11 o'clock that night we went to our beds but we didn't sleep. We just went down and shot him." Another soldier recalled seeing three child soldiers killed themselves. One boy went out at midnight to use the toilet and stuck the barrel of the gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger with his toes. Indeed, having no normal life, child soldiers are often depressed and suffer from diseases such as malaria which children are especially susceptible too. While, there has not been any investigation into the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PI SD) on child soldiers most children report experiencing nightmares, depression, anxiety, insomnia, apathy, difficulty in their relations with others, and aggressive or withdrawn behaviour. IA said Burmese and Western doctors working in the border areas, confirm these phenomena. Child soldiers said they were depressed, wanted to commit suicide, find work as labourers or go back to their homes. Ordinary soldiers receive about 600 kyat per month as a salary. If they lose an eye or a leg, they get approximately 10,000 kyat in compensation and are sent back to tatmadaw hospitals but there is no life-long treatment and only a limited pension Burma acceded to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991. At the same time, they signed the Declaration and Plan of Action at the World Summit for Children. The National Programme of action (NPA) for the Survival, Protection, and Development of Burma's Children in the 1990s was completed in September 1993. In 1993, the Slorc also promulgated a Child Law for the country and established an Inter-sectoral Committee on the Rights of the Child. Despite the Slorc's extraordinary initial reservations about the UN Convention, the move has broadened the UN mandate inside the country to cover human rights, and the issue of child soldiers. However, IA said, Slorc continues to use child soldiers, more so now than ever as it continues to raise the number of men - and boys - under arms. *************************************************************** NATION: YOUTH AND DEATH COME FACE TO FACE IN THE JUNGLE March 22, 1996 by AUNG ZAW ZAW ZAW was deep in the jungle when he saw the boy. He was only a few metres away and more boys were following him down the hill. In the boy's hands was a G-3 rifle but his face was that of a child's. "He didn't see me I saw him first," the former guerrilla recalled. "He couldn't have been more than 14 or 15." The boy was one of tatmadaw's child soldiers. When the boy looked up and saw him, Zaw Zaw opened fire with his M-16 rifle. "If I didn't kill him, he would have killed me," said Zaw Zaw, a former member of the ABSDF(All Burma Students' Democratic Front). At that time, Zaw Zaw himself was 18 years old. The ABSDF was established in 1988. Its members are former university, college or high school students or democracy activists who participated in the 1988 democracy uprising. Shortly after the tatmadaw staged it bloody coup in 1988 the students and activists fled to the jungle and formed the "Student Army". Some members were as young as 14 or 15. They later received military training at the border. Kyaw Soe, 15, was one of them. He was in eighth grade when he joined the ABSDF. He was not recruited but came of his own will." "Give me a gun- I wanted to kill them [tatmadaw soldiers]"," his friends remember him saying. In 1991, Kyaw Soe was killed in action. Slorc soldiers, according to the ABSDF, cut off his head after they shot him. A senior ABSDF member said that so far about 300 members have been killed on the battlefield and at least 60 have died from malaria and other diseases. One ABSDF member, Win Htun told the NGO Images Asia, which is preparing a report on child soldiers in Burma. " I was 16 when I came to the jungle in 1988. Nobody forced me to come here. I was not satisfied with the government, and I came here to overthrow it." Another former student, Than Aung, said his parents supported his decision to join the ABSDF, "because I'm fighting to liberate my people from Slorc." According to the ABSDF and IA, the armed group has no official policy on recruitment because they do not practice conscription of soldiers. They do, however, accept any volunteers who are willing and capable of undertaking the duties of a soldier, regardless of their age. Some boys who helped and supported the ABSDF in villages later joined the ABSDF. "They have now all become adults, said and other student soldier. *************************************************************** BUSINESS DAY: DAIWA AIDS YANGON TO ESTABLISH STOCK EXCHANGE March 19, 1996 From: an304997@anon.penet.fi (Moy) JAPAN'S Daiwa Securities is helping the Myanmar government in the formative stages of the establishment of a stock market and hopes to eventually take a 50 percent stake in the exchange which has been unofficially called the Myanmar Securities Exchange Center. Daiwa is hopeful it will receive approval from the Myanmar authorities, possibly later this year, to go ahead with exchange joint venture. The remaining 50 percent stake will go the Myanmar government After being selected by the Japanese government to help Myanmar in its privatization program, Daiwa sent two specialists from Tokyo to train Myanmar officials. The training program has been provided free of charge to Myanmar since 1994 in order to help educate officials before the first stock exchange is opened. Despite political uncertainty in Myanmar, more and more foreign businesses are targeting the country amid renewed confidence that its economy is gradually opening up. Hisao Katsuta, general manager of the Daiwa Institute of Research in Bangkok, said the company was confident that the future of Myanmar's capital markets was promising. "Currently, we are looking forward to government approval to establish a stock market, which has been delayed for quite a while because the securities business is new to Myanmar," said Mr Katsuta. He added that the Myanmar Investment Corporation (MIC) is reviewing the securities business and Daiwa's application, while the Attorney General's Office is scrutinizing the Securities and Exchange Act. Meanwhile, Nobuya Saito, director and executive vice-president of Chao Phaya Finance & Securities (CPY), said: "I personally believe in Myanmar's potential especially since I visited there recently. Yamaichi is also paying attention to Myanmar." Mr Saito was appointed to sit on Chao Phaya's board as Yamaichi Securities' representative. Yamaichi has a co-operation agreement with Chao Phaya. "Comparing Myanmar to Vietnam in terms of capital markets in the future, I think the Myanmar capital market will grow more quickly than that of Vietnam," said Mr Saito. He explained that Myanmar is promising because as a former colony of England, the country appears to be more familiar with capitalism and capital markets. "You can see British Commonwealth countries, like Singapore, Hong Kong or Malaysia, where the capital markets are very big," said Mr Saito. He said that the Myanmar government has now been relaxing its economic system. When asked about security in Myanmar, he said he was not worried. During his recent visit there, he said, security in Myanmar was maintained very well with armed forces being deployed on alert at all times. "It is safer than the Philippines," he said. "I think many brokers are aware of the economic potential in Myanmar. In the future there should be foreign brokers opening their representative offices in Myanmar," said Mr Saito. ************************************************************** BKK POST: 4 POLICEMEN GET LIFE FOR ROBBING, MURDERING BURMESE March 22, 1996 (abridged) Four junior police officers who robbed and killed a Burmese trader last Friday were yesterday sentenced to life imprisonment. The life sentences were delivered by the Ranong Provincial Court against L/Cpl Pornchai Mullasarn, 29; L/Cpl Sunthorn Nilpetch, 31; Pvt Somchai Toworn, 25; and Pvt Yuthaphum Jorkkaew, 24, for the robbery and murder of New Meng, 40, during his business trip from Burma's Kawthaung to Rangoon on March 15. The four officers confessed they had robbed the Burmese trader of 305,000 baht in cash and more than 400,000 baht in cheques before murdering him. The court initially sentenced them to death. But the sentences were reduced to life imprisonment after they pleaded quilty to the charges. Ranong police chief Pol Col Kaisorn Amornkraisri said Thai authorities had shown sincerity by seriously working on the murder case, which had soured Thai-Burmese relations. ***************************************************************** BKK POST: MAE HONG SON CHAMBER URGES REOPENING OF BORDER March 2, 1996 (abridged) Mae Hong Song's Chamber of Commerce has urged the Government to reopen three border crossing points to help boost the province's economy and stop corruption among Thai officials. Somchai Sitthisantikul, the Chamber of Commerce's deputy chairman, said yesterday the agency had submitted a letter to Prime Minister Banharn Silpa-archa requesting the reopening of border crossings at Ban Sao Hin in Mae Sariang District and Ban Nai Soi and Ban Huay Pueng in Muang District. He said the reopening of the crossing points will help improve the province's depressed economy and solve the problem of corruption among certain Thai border officials. Mr Somchai said a large volume of smuggled merchandise has passed through the three crossing points to Burma and some Thai border officials have allegedly taken bribes since the border crossings were closed in July, 1994. The province's trade volume dropped from 10.76 billion baht in 1994 to 9.21 billion baht in 1995 following the closures. ***************************************************************** BKK POST: MEETING AGREES ASIA NEEDS UN PEACE FORCE March 22, 1996 (slightly abridged) Delegates to an Asia-Pacific security meeting agreed yesterday on the need for a regional United Nations peacekeeping force and said Malaysia was a top contender as a base for the unit. "The subject of setting up a regional peacekeeping centre was widely discussed today and Malaysia is very keen on having a UN peacekeeping force based there," said a delegate. Meanwhile, Thailand said it regretted the absence of Burma, saying future security problems with that country along their common border were possible. Military officials from 22 countries, including the United States, China and Russia, gathered for a second day of talks yesterday with the focus on confidence-building measures, but Burma stayed away. "It is very regrettable that Burma turned down our invitation," a Thai military officer said. Thailand has border disputes with all of its neighbours as well as a maritime boundary disagreement with Vietnam, but the disputes with Burma were seen as the most serious and the ones most likely to lead to confrontation, the officer said. "Burma even claims that some four-lane roads and mountains in Thailand are part of their territory and they are persistent on that," the officer said. "I predict that if these problems are not urgently settled the disputes could lead to armed confrontation between the two countries," said the officer, who declined to be named. Diplomats in Rangoon and Bangkok said their border was a serious potential source of future disputes. The Thai military highlighted the problem in a defence white paper published earlier this month. "It is certain that Thailand will face problems in the future concerning unclear borders," the white paper said. "During the Cold War, these areas were carefully monitored to prevent infiltration by the enemy, but after the Cold War, they became vulnerable because some areas have not been demarcated." The document also pointed out the potential danger to Thailand of internal problems in neighbouring countries, including changes in leadership and economic systems. The Thai officer said relation with their Burmese counterparts had deteriorated in recent years and were unlikely to improve significantly soon, despite Prime Minister Banharn Silpa-archa's recent visit to Rangoon. *************************************************************** NATION: MOST ILLEGAL ALIEN WORKERS CALLED SPIES March 22, 1996 Security chiefs warn House panel of Burmese threat [BurmaNet Editor's Note: This is ridiculous.] There are more than two million illegal foreign workers in Thailand and their presence poses a serious threat to the Kingdom's security, the House committee on military affairs was told yesterday. Most are Burmese and many have been sent here for the express purpose of espionage. This view was expressed by the secretary-general of the National Security Council and a Defence Ministry representative, according to committee spokesman Supat Thamphet. He was speaking after the two officials briefed the committee on the current situation along the Thai-Burmese border. Many Burmese are sent to work as assistants or maids in the houses of prominent public figures, where they try to gather information or steal state secrets, Supat claimed. The two officials told the committee this was tantamount to espionage and posed a national threat. He said they warned that people are being smuggled from Burma in such numbers by organized networks that Burmese could come to dominate the labour market. Supat quoted the officials as revealing two cases where police and military officers were found to be involved. One case involved police officers who smuggled 3,000 to 4,000 Burmese into the country. The other involved officers of the Supreme Command and its National Security Command, which also brought in 3,000 to 4,000 labourers. "The two cases pose a danger to the security of the state and a frightening threat," Supat said. The committee was told that problems along the border involve repeated violations of Thai sovereignty and smuggling of contraband, drugs and weapons. Political unrest and ethnic insurgency in Burma also mean an increase in arms purchases by the military government in Rangoon. Supat said representatives from the interior and labour ministries will be invited to brief the committee next week. **************************************************** BKK POST: RANGOON JOINS BEIJING FOR MEKONG TALKS March 20,1996 (abridged) By Achara Ashayagachat, Hanoi China and Burma have agreed to establish a dialogue mechanism with the Mekong River Commission (MRC), according to the heads of the two delegations. The first dialogue meeting between the four-plus-two riparian countries of the Mekong River will be held during the MRC joint committee meeting in Bangkok in July, said MRC chief executive officer Yasunobu Matoba. The Mekong joint committee, a policy-implementing body of the MRC, ended its third meeting yesterday in Hanoi with the curtain-closing session of the second exploratory meeting between the four member countries in addition to Burma and China. The four member nations _ Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam _ signed an agreement on cooperation for sustainable development of the Mekong River basin in Chiang Rai last April. One article of the agreement paves the way for future participation of the other two countries: "Any other riparian state, accepting the rights and obligations under the agreement, may become a party with the consent of the parties," the agreement states. The commission, the newly-transformed body of the Mekong Committee founded in 1957, invited China and Burma to participate in the director-general level joint committee meeting for the first time last November in Ho Chi Minh City.The Chinese government has decided to establish a dialogue mechanism with the MRC after carefully studying the discussion paper presented at the first exploratory meeting, said Lu Yongshou, head of the Chinese delegation. U Nyunt Maung Shein, head of the Burmese delegation, said the concept of a dialogue mechanism was very thought- provoking and Burma wants to exchange views on the subject. Burma stands ready to cooperate with the MRC, he said, adding that the all-round cooperation of the six riparian countries in the sustainable development of the Mekong River basin must be based on fairness, equity and the principles of international law with respect for the sovereign rights of each riparian state on the use of water. The Burmese delegate, who is also director of the Boundary Division-Political Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, asked the joint committee to report on the past proceedings and developments of the MRC's work. He drew attention to Article 26 of the agreement. The article, in conjunction with Articles 5 and 6, is of paramount importance and relevance to the sustainable development of the Mekong River, he said.