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NEWS - Burma Junta Officials Demand



Subject: NEWS - Burma Junta Officials Demanding 20 million Payoff To Open Border

SHAN HERALD AGENCY FOR NEWS - October 7, 1999

No: 10 - 8

Burma Junta Officials Demanding 20 million Payoff To Open Border

A businessman from Thailand told S.H.A.N. yesterday that local junta
officials are demanding a sum of 20 million baht payoff in order to
reopen
the border between Burma's Shan State and Thailand's Chiangrai.

The businessman, who is currently stranded on the Burmese side since the
closure on 1 October, when a group of students raided and occupied the
Burmese Embassy in Bangkok for 25 hours, disclosed to S.H.A.N.'s
reporter
that the Distrct Peace and Development Committee officials in Tachilek
were
asking for a payment of 20 million baht in order to obtain Rangoon's
permission to reopen the border between Shan State's Tachilek and
Maesai,
Chiangrai Province.

"The generals were not happy with the way the Thai government handled
the
affair, " he said. "It appeared to them as though the Thai officails
were
doing their best to accomnodate and facilitate the hijackers instead of
shooting and subduing them".

He confirmed prices have gone skyhigh since the closure.

He added that, "The demand for the payoff is not unsual. There have been
at
least two precedents already: first in 1995, when Khun Sa attacked
Tachilek, and second, when Thai police shot some Burmese drug suspects
dead
in 1998. On the first occassion, the Thai business community had to pay
B.
50 million and on the second, B. 20 million".