Bangkok Post(11/4/99)

[mandalay@xxxxxxxxxx]

<center><bold>BORDER / GUNMEN CROSS FROM BURMA

</bold></center>

<bold>Three die in clash with Thai military along border Village headman
killed by grenade

</bold>

	A member of an unidentified armed unit was killed in a pre-dawn clash
with a Thai military patrol along the Burmese border in Chiang Mai
province yesterday, and two other people died in a separate incident in
Tak.

	A group of intruders had moved 500 metres into Thailand, near Ban Khum
in Chiang Mai's Fang district, when they were spotted by a military
patrol.

	Col Tomorn Kiatsophon, deputy commander of the Naresuan Force, said the
group retreated across the border afterwards, leaving behind the body of
a man in green uniform and an AK47 assault rifle.

	He believed the gunmen were Muser tribesmen involved in the drug 
trade.

	The border in the area had been closed after nine villagers were
massacred by unidentified assailants early this month, he said. More than
500 troops of the Third Army had been sent into the area to hunt the
killers, a source said.

	Lt-Gen Sommai Vichavorn, commander of the Third Army Region, said the
killers were believed to be part of a drug trafficking gang.

	In another incident, a village headman and a Karen intruder died in a
clash in Tha Song Yang district of Tak early yesterday morning.

	Shortly before 1 a.m. a number of armed Karens crossed the border from
Burma to an area near Ban Mae Ok Phalu to collect money from villagers,
officials said. They had gone to the village earlier and demanded 2,000
baht, which the villagers agred to pay. Thongbai Talao, the village
chief, led a number of defence volunteers and soldiers from the 423rd
Infantry Company to the rendezvous. When the Karens showed up, the Thais
called on them to surrender. One of the Karens threw a grenade which
exploded and wounded Thongbai and one of the volunteers. The soldiers
opened fire and a gunfight ensued.

	The body of a dead Karen was found after the clash. Thongbai died on the
way to Tha Song Yang hospital.

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<center><bold>THAI-BURMESE BORDER

</bold></center>

<bold>Tak calls for protest on river wall 

</bold>	The Foreign Ministry has been urged to lodge a formal protest
with Burma over its construction of a second retention wall which
Thailand claims encroaches on the Moei river that divides the two

countries.

	A recent meeting of provincial authorities and representatives from the
private sector in Tak has resolved to press for a formal protest, and for
the speeding up of the demarcation of the river boundary.

	A source said workers from the city of Myawaddy, opposite Tak's Mae Sot
district, began constructing the 500-metre wall earlier this year.

	The construction, opposite Ban Rim Moei, intrudes onto a disputed island
in the middle of the river.

	The first wall built on the Burmese side runs along the bank near the
Thai-Burmese Friendship Bridge.It was finished last year despite repeated
protests from Thailand.

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