Bangkok Post News (1/9/98)

[mandalay@xxxxxxxxxx]

News headlines:

<bigger>1): Burmese stupa 'on Thai soil'

2): Myawaddy checkpoint to reopen




1): Burmese stupa 'on Thai soil'

</bigger><italic>

Military asked to do a detailed survey

</italic>

The Foreign Ministry will ask the military to make a detailed survey
following a report that Burmese troops have built a stupa on Thai soil in
Suen Peung district of Ratchaburi sources said yesterday.

	The minister would make the request with the First Army whose Surasri
Task Force filed the initial report, said a source who requested
anonymity.

	If the survey failed to come up with clear findings on the stupa's
location, the ministry would then ask the Defence Ministry's Mapping
Department to investigate, the source said.

 	According to the initial report Burmese troops from the 17th battalion
had built a stupa 30 metres inside Thai territory at Ban Tako in Suen
Peung.

	"It is possible the initial report was based on a mistaken view. That's
why the Foreign Ministry is seeking a new survey of the," the source
said.

	If the stupa is found to be on Thai soil, local military authorities
will be asked to negotiate for its dismantling with their Burmese
counterparts.

	According to source, Thailand will let the stupa remain on three
conditions: it is not located in a disputed area, it is not guarded by
armed forces, and it does not cause geographical damage.

	The source said there should be no ambiguity over the borderline in this
area as the watershed of the Tanaosri mountain range provided a natural
boundary between Thailand and Burma from Kanchanaburi to Ratchaburi and
Prachuap Khiri Khan.

	Several years ago, Burmese troops began building a stupa and a monastery
near the Mae Sai river in Chiang Rai provice.

	Local officials at that time were asked to co-ordinate with their
Burmese counterparts to stop the stupa building. However the monastery,
which was already completed, was allowed to remain.



<bigger>2): Myawaddy checkpoint to reopen

</bigger>

	Burma will reopen it border at the Myawaddy-Mae Sot checkpoint for trade
next week.

	Tak Chamber of Commerce chair-man Panithi Tangphati said the director of
Border Trade in Myawaddy, Maj Myint Thein, said that Rangoon had agreed
to reopen the checkpoint, which has been closed for nine months.

	The Thai-Burmese Friendship Bridge will be reopened for border trade and
transport, and the use of Burma's new border trade system will start
there on September 9.

	Under the new system, which is expected to bring more than 200 million
US dollars to Burma a year, payments for cross-border trade with
Thailand, China, Laos, Bangladesh and India must be in Us currency.

	"The Burmese government will set up a one-stop service border trade
centre and warehouses on a 50-raiplot (in Myawaddy) where officials of
the Commerce Ministry, the Customs Department and the Immigration
Division and police will serve border traders," Mr Panithi quoted Maj
Myint Thein as saying.

	Deputy Provincial Chamber of Commerce chairman Suchart Triratwattana
said the Thai private sector will ask Rangoon to allow imports of cattle,
jewellery, teak, furniture and marine products from Burma.

	Burma's Minister of Trade and Commerce Maj-Gen Kyaw Than is scheduled to
visit Bangkok on Sept 7.

	Cross-border trade was halted on November 28, 1997, while the Myawaddy
check point and the Thai-Burmese Friendship bridge where closed on April
14.

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