The Nation(26/7/99)

[mandalay@xxxxxxxxxx]

Burma 'amazed' by Thai charges of drug-running

BURMA yesterday rejected a Thai press report that the Burmese army was
involved in drug trafficking. 

Meanwhile, PM's Office Minister Jurin Laksanavisit, who oversees the Office
of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), said yesterday that the Burmese
government had promised to help suppress drug smuggling along the border
with Thailand. 

He said the ONCB's regional offices would meet more frequently, from once a
month to every week. 

A Burmese government spokesman yesterday strongly denied allegations in a
press report that Burma's military was directly involved in the trafficking
of methamphetamine tablets into Thailand. 

''It is really very regretful as well as amazing to learn how responsible
Thai narcotics officials can come up with such irresponsible statements
accusing the Burmese military of being involved in the drug trade,'' a
spokesman for the Burmese government said in a statement. 

He referred to the officials quoted in the news report. 

''Panicking and putting the blame and scapegoating others to deflect one's
responsibility does not help in our fight against the drugs menace,'' the
spokesman said. 

Jurin said yesterday that Thai and Burmese officials had met over drug
problems and that the Burmese had promised to help in the suppression. The
Thai government had provided the Burmese officials with drug-testing
equipment and communications gear as well as training on drug testing. 

He said the Prime Minister's Office had instructed the ONCB to ensure its
five regional offices hold a meeting every week to investigate some 1,300
government officials allegedly involved with the drug trade. Investigations
into some 300 officials had been completed. 

Pinyo Thongchai, director of the ONCB's Northern region, said that more
cooperation from residents of border villages was needed in the efforts to
curb the smuggling of drugs, particularly methamphetamine pills. 

He said most villagers had refused to cooperate with officials for fear of
retaliation from drug traffickers. 

Army Commander-in-Chief Gen Surayud Chulanont said that talks between local
officials from both countries had failed to produce favourable results,
adding that a governmental-level meeting would be held soon to discuss the
drug problem. 


Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart said yesterday that he saw no need
for closure of certain checkpoints at the borders with Burma as proposed by
the Army chief. 

''Careful consideration is needed before closing border checkpoints. People
who rely on border trade may be affected,'' Sanan said. 

The Army chief had said that the border checkpoints at Chiang Rai's Mae Ai
district should be closed to make it easier for a military crackdown on the
United Wa State Army, a Burmese ethnic rebel group believed to be the main
drug trafficking organisation in the Golden Triangle. 
----------------------------------------------------------
Albright blasts Burma's stance on democracy

SINGAPORE -- US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright yesterday blasted
Burma for not making any progress towards democracy and urged the region to
exercise restraint amid growing tension among claimants of territories in
the South China Sea. 

''We are concerned with the growing tension over territorial claims in the
South China Sea. We will be urging them to exercise restraint and to find
ways to build confidence and move towards resolution,'' said Albright at a
press conference. 

Last Monday, a Philippine gunboat sank a Chinese fishing boat after chasing
it for hours around the Spratlys, a group of islands in the South China
Sea. Beijing called the event ''very serious''. A similar incident occurred
last May. 

Regarding Burma's human rights violations, Albright said it was essential
that members of Asean discuss the issue as it poses a security threat to
the region. 

She urged the junta to establish a dialogue with the pro-democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy, which
won a landslide victory in a 1990 parliamentary election but was denied the
right to form a government by the military junta. 

Acknowledging that Asean countries do not like to criticise one another in
public, Albright said, ''I have made it quite clear that it is very
important to be frank about what's going on'' in Burma. 

''I haven't met Asean members as a group yet, but if they are listening
they know that I plan to raise Burma again,'' she said. 

Albright arrived here on Saturday to participate in the Asean Regional
Forum (ARF), which groups the 10 Asean members and foreign ministers from
the US, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Russia
and India. 

At a bilateral meeting with Albright, Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan
expressed his appreciation for her role in making it possible to achieve
the outcome in which the leading candidates for the next World Trade
Organisation chief could share a term, Don Pramudwinai, the Thai foreign
ministry's spokesman said. 

Deputy Prime Minister Supachai Panitchpakdi and New Zealand's Mike Moore
were in a bitter race to be the next WTO director general. 

''Albright has personally played a role in making this outcome possible,''
Don said. 

Besides Albright, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and his New
Zealand counterpart Don McKinnon also expressed their support for
Thailand's initiative to move the ARF discussions from confidence-building

measures, which have been described as mere ''talk shop,'' to the level of
preventive diplomacy, according to Don. 

''ARF has to be pro-active or else it will lose its appeal and risk seeing
members going elsewhere to bring up their concerns,'' Don said. 

Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jia-xuan, while agreeing with the idea in
principle, cautioned his Thai counterpart on the pace, Don said. 

On the issue of territorial disputes in the South China Sea, Tang preferred
to see the matter discussed in an informal setting, such as a working
dinner, instead of the ARF, Don said. 

It has long been Beijing's strategy to deal with other claimants -- which
include Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Taiwan -- in a
bilateral setting instead of an international forum. 

Regarding Asean's initiative to launch a social safety net for the
disadvantaged and the vulnerable sectors in the region as well as a
region-wide Asean Human Resource Development Fund, all the dialogue
partners expressed their strong support for the idea, Don said. 

South Korean Foreign Minister Hong Soon-young, during his meeting with
Surin, urged Thailand not to neglect developments in the Korean Peninsula
as developments there affects the security and well being of the region as
a whole. 

North and South Korean navies had in recent months engaged in fierce
shooting, bringing all dialogue between the two arch enemies to a standstill. 
---------------------------------------------------------