BurmaNet News March 24, 1996

[strider@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Received: (from strider) by igc2.igc.apc.org (8.7.5/Revision: 1.16 ) id IAA02057; Sun, 24 Mar 1996 08:09:23 -0800 (PST)
Date: Sun, 24 Mar 1996 08:09:23 -0800 (PST)


------------------------ 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@xxxxxxxxxx

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

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.

**************************************************