Wired News on March 15, '95

[FreeBurma@xxxxxxx]

Attn: Burma Newsreaders
Re: Wired News on March 15 & Additional one of March 13
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Burma widens doors to foreign miners, cites cash   

    By Abdul Jalil Hamid 

    SINGAPORE, March 13 (Reuter) - Burma, widening its doors to foreign
miners to help its cash-strapped economy, is seeking fresh bids from Western
and other firms to develop gold, lead and zinc deposits in the country,
Burmese officials said on Monday. 

    Rangoon last invited foreign companies in October last year to bid for
gold and copper prospecting in 16 mining blocks, said Soe Mra, a director at
Burma's Mines Ministry. 

    Twelve firms, including some from Australia and Canada, submitted bids
for 11 of the blocks, he told Reuters. Officials said this was the largest
ever bidding exercise held by Burma. 

    Those contracts will be awarded by June, Mra said on the first day of a
three-day Pan-Asian Mining Congress here. 

    He said the remaining five untaken blocks will be re-offered together
with an unspecified number of lead and zinc areas when Burma calls for the
next round of bidding in June or July this year. 

    The mining industry in the potentially mineral-rich southeast Asian state
has been beset by lack of funds and new technology. 

    ``Since the nature of mineral industry is capital intensive and also
requires technical know-how, foreign participation is welcomed,'' Mra said in
a speech at the congress. 

    The opening of Burma's mining industry came in the wake of new mining
laws introduced last September. Before this, foreigners could only explore
and produce non-metallic industrial minerals such as coal and limestone, Mra
said. 

    ``Myanmar (Burma) has been closed to the investment flows taking place
elsewhere in this region,'' said William Prast, head of research services at
Britain's Mining Journal, an industry publication. 

    ``Mining is not an exception, and the government has yet to attract a
major minerals investment involving foreign capital,'' Prast said at the
conference. ``Funding is needed for the modernisation of existing mines.'' 

    But he said there were signs of growing international involvement in the
country. 

    He said Canada's Ivanhoe Capital had secured exploration rights in
Burma's north-central region in a joint venture with Burma's state-owned
Number One Mining Enterprises. 

    That area has the largest prospect in the country, estimated at 300
million tonnes of 0.66 percent copper content, Prast said. A two-year, US$4
million feasibility study is planned. 

    Burma's Mra said the gold and copper blocks offered to foreign miners
cover an area of 1,400 sq km (540 sq miles) each. 

    Under the new laws, the miners can enter into production or
profit-sharing arrangments with the government. 

    Under profit-sharing contracts, foreigners may be allowed to hold a
majority stake, Mra said. 

    Also under the laws, miners will be given four years to prospect and
explore, plus a two-year extension. 

    Production tenure will be 20 years or the estimated lifespan of the mine,
whichever is shorter, plus an extension of not more than five years, Mra
said. 

 REUTER


Transmitted: 95-03-13 09:39:15 EST
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Burma troops said heading for showdown with Karen   

    MAE SOT, Thailand, March 15 (Reuter) - Thai Border Patrol Police are
reinforcing a frontier post on reports that Burmese troops are heading for a
showdown with Karen guerrillas on the other side, police sources said on
Wednesday. 

    The Thai authorities ordered three armoured personnel carriers to Phop
Phra to guard against any spillover from the expected clash at a Karen
National Union (KNU) makeshift camp at Kanaelay in southwest Burma. 

    A Burmese porter who escaped from Burmese troops and arrived at the Thai
border on Wednesday told Reuters that about 1,500 soldiers in a convoy of 34
military trucks were heading for the Karen camp at Kanaelay. 

    On Tuesday, Burmese troops were only 30 km (18 miles) from the KNU jungle
base of Kanaelay, where about 1,000 Karen guerrillas forced to abandon their
last major stronghold at Kawmoora are now regrouping, the porter said. 

    Thai police said a suspected member of the breakaway Democratic Kayin
(Karen) Buddhist Organisation (DKBO) and a Karen refugee were killed and
three others wounded during a shootout involving a Thai border police patrol
on Wednesday. 

    Shooting broke out early on Wednesday when the police patrol intercepted
about 30 Karen guerrillas, suspected of belonging to the DKBO and having
crossed the Moei river in order to harass Karen refugees in Hauy Manoke camp
in Thailand's Tha Song Yang district. 

    The suspected DKBO guerrillas retreated to the Burmese side of the
border, leaving behind the body of one of their comrades and that of a Karen
refugee, as well as three wounded, police said. 

    KNU officials have asked Thailand for better protection following a
number of incidents in which DKBO guerrillas kidnapped or intimidated Karen
who were refugees in Thailand and still loyal to the KNU. 

    At least six Karen leaders were captured and taken back to Burma by the
DKBO, and five others were killed in the past two months, according to Thai
police and Karen refugee officials. 

    The DKBO was formed last December after a Buddhist faction first mutinied
against the mainly Christian leaders of the KNU, then split and sided with
Burmese government forces. 

    DKBO fighters spearheaded a successful assault on the long-standing Karen
rebel headquarters at Manerplaw in January, and helped expel the KNU from
Kawmoora last month. 

    More than 71,000 Karen refugees have been living in 20 camps inside
Thailand along the bank of Moei river that marks the border between Thailand
and Burma. 

    The KNU is one of the world's longest rebel insurgencies, fighting for
autonomy from Rangoon since Burma gained independence from Britain in 1948. 

 REUTER


Transmitted: 95-03-15 09:41:19 EST
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Burmese troops resume offensive against drug lord   

    By Sutin Wannabovorn 

    BANGKOK, March 15 (Reuter) - Some 200 Shan and other Burmese minority
people have fled into northern Thailand as Rangoon government forces resume
their long-awaited offensive against drug warlord Khun Sa's guerrilla army,
Thai police and rebel sources said on Wednesday. 

    The refugees fled from near Burma's northeastern border town of Tachilek
into northern Thailand's Chiang Rai province on Wednesday morning as Burmese
army gunners pounded frontline postions of Khun Sa's Mong Tai Army (MTA),
Thai police said. 

    Burmese government forces began their push late on Tuesday, attacking
mountaintop guerrilla positions near the Thai border about 15 km (10 miles)
southwest of Tachilek. 

    ``The fighting subsided late on Tuesday but started again before dawn
today (Wednesday). More than 200 people escaped into Thai villages on the
border -- they're panicking,'' a Thai Border Patrol Police officer told
Reuters by telephone. 

    The officer said Thai authorities were standing by for more refugees to
flow across the border as the fighting was expected to intensify. 

    An MTA source told Reuters the fighting began after the guerrillas
ambushed Burmese reinforcements moving into position to attack their eastern
command headquarters at Kong Mon mountain. 

    ``For the moment we do not have details of casualties but I believe the
enemy will suffer big losses because the MTA hold the high ground and we will
defend Kong Mon at all cost,'' the guerrilla official said. 

    Kong Mon, about 180 km (110 miles) northwest of Khun Sa's headquarters at
Ho Mong, is the main eastern frontline area blocking Burmese troops advancing
into the the MTA heartland in the opium-growing hills of southern Shan state.


    The guerrilla official said the MTA had some 3,000 fighters in the area
which was the scene of heavy but inconclusive fighting last dry season. 

    Burma's military rulers have vowed on several occassions in recent months
to wipe out Khun Sa and his rebel army. 

    They say the 61-year-old half-Shan, half-Chinese rebel commander is a
drug-trafficking bandit and Rangoon's ruling military body will never
negotiate with him. 

    Khun Sa says he is a Shan nationalist fighting for the independence of
Shan state. 

    He denies charges, also levelled by U.S. narcotics-suppression agenices,
that he is a drug trafficker, saying he only taxes opium traders passing
through his zone of control to finance his political fight. 

    Khun Sa was indicted by a U.S. court on heroin trafficking charges in
1990. Since then he has confined himself to his headquarters at Ho Mong near
the border with northwestern Thailand. 

    Burmese government forces launched an offensive against his strongholds
in late 1993. Intermittent fighting continued, at times heavy, until the
rains started in mid-1994. 

    Guerrilla officers said more than 1,000 Burmese troops were killed and
many more wounded over months of fighting while they put their losses at
around 300. 

 REUTER


Transmitted: 95-03-15 12:57:02 EST
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Khun Sa rebels say 21 killed in heavy fighting   

    By Robert Birsel 

    MAE SAI, Thailand, March 15 (Reuter) - More than 20 people were reported
killed and scores wounded on Wednesday in heavy fighting between Burmese
government troops and guerrillas loyal to Golden Triangle warlord Khun Sa, a
rebel source said. 

    ``Initial reports from the battlefield say at least 18 Burmese soldiers
were killed in today's fighting and about 50 of them wounded,'' a source in
Khun Sa's Mong Tai Army (MTA) told Reuters. 

    He gave guerrilla casualties as three killed and 15 wounded. 

    No independent confirmation of the casualty reports was available. 

    Thai border patrol police said more than 400 Shan and other Burmese
ethnic minority people had fled from near the border town of Tachilek into
Chiang Rai in northern Thailand, 200 of them when the fighting intensified on
Wednesday afternoon. 

    The Burmese troops late on Tuesday resumed a long-awaited offensive
against Khun Sa's army, attacking mountaintop guerrilla positions near the
Thai border about 15 km (10 miles) southwest of Tachilek, Thai police and
rebel sources said. 

    ``The fighting subsided late on Tuesday but started again before dawn
today (Wednesday). More than 200 people escaped into Thai villages on the
border -- they're panicking,'' a Thai border patrol police officer told
Reuters earlier. 

    An MTA source said the fighting began after the guerrillas ambushed
Burmese reinforcements moving into position to attack their eastern command
headquarters at Kong Mon mountain. 

    The guerrilla source said he expected the enemy would suffer heavy losses
``because the MTA hold the high ground and we will defend Kong Mon at all
cost.'' 

    Kong Mon, about 180 km (110 miles) northwest of Khun Sa's headquarters at
Ho Mong, is the main eastern frontline area blocking Burmese troops advancing
into MTA heartland in the opium-growing hills of southern Shan state. 

    The guerrilla official said the MTA had about 3,000 fighters in the area
which was the scene of heavy but inconclusive fighting last dry season. 

    Burma's military rulers have vowed on several occasions in recent months
to wipe out Khun Sa and his rebel army. 

    They say the 61-year-old half-Shan, half-Chinese rebel commander is a
drug-trafficking bandit and Rangoon's ruling military body will never
negotiate with him. 

    Khun Sa says he is a Shan nationalist fighting for the independence of
Shan state. 

    He denies charges, also levelled by U.S. narcotics-suppression agencies,
that he is a drug trafficker, saying he only taxes opium traders passing
through his zone of control to finance his political fight. 

    Khun Sa was indicted by a U.S. court on heroin trafficking charges in
1990. Since then he has confined himself to his headquarters at Ho Mong near
the border with northwestern Thailand. 

 REUTER


Transmitted: 95-03-15 09:32:56 EST
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