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BKKPOST:May8 Burma Death Railway



/* Written  9:13 am  May  9, 1994 by kamol@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx in igc:soc.culture.th */
/* ---------- "BKKPOST:May8 Burma Death Railway" ---------- */

Sunday Perspective
Bringing the Death Railway back to life?
 
JAPANESE yen might bring the Death Railway back to life, according 
to the Belgian railway consultant company that has just completed 
a two-year UNDP/World Bank financed technical assistance project 
at Myanmar Railways.
 
The team leader of Transurb Consult's technical assistance office, 
Mr Luc Meert, told Sunday Perspective that Myanmar Railways have 
conducted an initial feasibility study into rebuilding the Death 
Railway following feelers by a Japanese company that has expressed 
interest in funding the construction project.
 
He said Myanmar Railways had initially proposed building a new 
line between Bangkok and Rangoon which would cross the border at 
Tak but abandoned this plan because of funding problems. Thailand 
also supports the project but has cited the lack of funding as a 
major hurdle.
 
Mr Meert said the Japanese company had made inquiries about 
helping to fund the reconstruction of the 415 km line that linked 
Rangoon and Bangkok in WWII because of its historical significance 
which would make it a world famous tourism attraction.
 
"In addition to the historical interest in the line spawned by the 
film `The Bridge On the River Kwai', the commercial benefits are 
also not to be underestimated," he said.
 
Mr Meert said the Myanmar Railways had examined the possibility of 
shortening the Burmese section of the old Death Railway which 
would cross the Salween River before moving south to link up with 
the original line in Kanchanaburi Province.
 
"It is my hope that one day a railway link will again exist 
between Thailand and Burma, as it would boost trade, tourism and 
communications ties. The benefits for both countries would be 
enormous," he said.
 
The Burma-Siam Railway was built by the Imperial Japanese Army in 
WWII to supply its forces preparing to invade India. Over 100,000 
Allied PoWS and Asian slave labourers died fulfilling the Emperors 
whim.
 
He declined to name the Japanese company because it was yet to 
reach an agreement with Myanmar Railways. News of the Japanese 
company's inquiry coincided with the visit by Kozo Watanabe, a 
member of the lower house of parliament and former head of Japan's 
International Trade and Industry Ministry
 
Kozo held talks Wednesday in Rangoon with Burma's powerful 
military intelligence chief, Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt, who is 
also secretary-general of the State Law and Order Restoration 
Council (Slorc).
 
Japan was Burma's largest source of foreign aid before suspending 
all assistance after the Burmese military seized power in 
September 1988. Tokyo has said Japanese yen for infrastructure 
projects such as railways will not be resumed until democracy 
returns.
 
Mr Meert, who has a Thai wife and has advised the development of 
railways in several third world countries, noted that because of 
modern technology and medicine the Death Railway could be rebuilt 
without the colossal loss of life in WWII.
 
Allied Prisoner of War veterans groups have also expressed support 
for the reopening of the line as it would give the deaths of their 
friends greater meaning.
 
The Belgian expert denied a recent newspaper report claiming that 
a new "Death Railway" was being built from Ye to the Thai border 
to facilitate the transport of timber and to open up areas 
formerly controlled by rebel groups.
 
The newspaper report claimed Karen and Mon villagers were being 
press-ganged by government soldiers to built a branch line with 
only rudimentary tools. The reporter said working conditions were 
similar to those of the Death Railway in WWII and that many people 
had died.
 
However, Mr Meert confirmed local villagers were being used as 
labourers but insisted they were being paid for their 
back-breaking work.
 
"These people receive money for medical supplies and schools from 
the government. There is no slavery or exploitation as claimed," 
he said.
 
But Mr Meert said Myanmar Railways should make efforts to improve 
the existing railways before launching any new projects. The 
consultant company last week conducted a seminar for the top 
officials of Myanmar Railways during which it spelled out the 
problems and needs of the railway system.
 
The foreign consultant said millions of dollars were needed to 
keep the existing lines operative, some of which date back to the 
late 1870s.
 
"Due to the long isolation of the country and the lack of 
technological inputs from abroad, things such as infrastructure, 
rolling stock, other equipment and management methods are almost 
obsolete," he said.
 
"There is also a lack of spare parts and other inputs for which 
foreign exchange is needed. All this results in frequent 
irregularities and accidents, some of which are fatal.
 
"Because of frequent derailments train speed is kept low for 
safety reasons at a maximum of 43 mph for passenger trains on the 
best sections of the main line from Rangoon to Mandalay."
 
The foreign expert also noted that Myanmar Railways have no 
freedom to fix their tariffs. "Passenger and freight tariffs are 
kept stable at a low level by the government, despite the high 
inflation rate of the country. The government is reluctant to 
raise them because of the social character of rail transport of 
passengers as well as freight in Myanmar.
 
"As a matter of fact MR mainly transport ordinary class passengers 
and for many of them rail is the only possible mode of transport. 
And despite their low tariffs, MR usually report an operating 
profit each year but only because of the systematic 
underestimation of their real economic costs."
 
He said during the fiscal year 92/93 MR operated an average of 289 
trains per calendar day which carried an estimated 58.1 million 
passengers and 2.54 tons of freight over a total of 3,005 million 
passenger-miles.
 
"But MR are in fact operating at an economic loss, and their 
operating revenues are largely insufficient to cover their current 
operating expenses and at the same time reconstitute the capital 
that is needed for renewal of their infrastructure and rolling 
stock," he said.
 
In March 1993, the total rolling stock fleet of MR consisted of 
270 diesel locomotives, 48 steam, locomotives, 1,133 passenger 
coaches, 7,182 freight wagons, and 26 railbus sets. There are only 
two main workshops for diesel locomotive maintenance in Insein 
(near Rangoon) and Ywataung (near Mandalay).
 
T he foreign railway consultant said US$90 million would be needed 
to renew and maintain the complete main corridor of the 
Rangoon-Mandalay-Rangoon circular line, using heavy track 
machinery continuous welded rails, concrete sleepers and elastic 
fastenings, instead of the existing obsolete technology and 
materials.
 
The team consultant said MR would need to invest over $360 million 
in repowering MR's existing fleet of locomotives and buying new 
passenger coaches and freight wagons to keep it operative over the 
next ten years.
 
"The major part of these investments concern the long term. We 
repeat that the short and medium term actions, recommended by 
Transurb, will require mostly no or very limited investments.
 
"If MR follows the recommendations based on utilising exisiting 
materials, they will continue to improve their performance in the 
near future, like they have done in the recent past during the 
technical assistance period."
 
***
Japanese vets in war of words
 
 
A GOODWILL mission by Japanese war veterans to Kanchanaburi 
Province this weekend has been undermined by the comments of 
Japan's new justice minister who said Japan was not an aggressor 
in WWII.
 
Former Japanese military-police interpreter, Nagase Takashi, 69, 
and a handful of other veterans are returning to Kanchanaburi this 
weekend to give nursing scholarships to local girls and to donate 
money to several Asian slave labourers who never made it home 
after the war.
 
Mr Nagase said their goodwill pilgrimage had been tainted by the 
country's top justice official who said Japan was not an aggressor 
in the war.
 
Japanese Justice Minister Shigeto Nagano dropped his bombshell 
last Wednesday during an interview with a local newspaper. He also 
said the "Rape of Nanking" by Japanese soldiers in China was a 
hoax.
 
"It is wrong to say the war was a war of aggression. The purpose 
was not one of aggression. We thought seriously about the 
liberation of colonies, to liberate a [greater East Asia] 
co-prosperity sphere," said the Justice Minister who apologised 
after being reprimanded by Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata.
 
Angry South Korean demonstrators Friday hurled eggs and burned an 
effigy of Nagano. The protest was part of a backlash throughout 
Asia to the controversial remarks.
 
South and North Korea, China, Thailand, Taiwan and Singapore have 
all expressed their anger at the comments which sought to publicly 
distort history, deny historical fact and defend the aggression of 
Japanese militarists.
 
Peace crusader Nagase said despite the recent trouble he hopes his 
goodwill mission to the River Kwai will be accepted by the Thai 
people in good faith.
 
"We are coming back to a very sensitive area and fear that Justice 
Minister Shigeto Nagano's comments might have undermined our peace 
mission," he told Sunday Perspectives by telephone.
 
"Our peace efforts here over the past two decades have allowed us 
to win trust and the friendship of locals and the very people we 
brutalised in WWII," he said trying to justify the trip as a form 
of atonement and soul-searching.
 
Nagase noted that this controversy was the latest in the war 
between the "doves of peace" and the "hawks of war".
 
He said the difference in opinion reflected the vast gap in 
thinking between the generations in Japan. Nagano, 71, who retired 
as chief of staff of Japan's army in 1980, is himself a WWII 
veteran. He graduated from the former elite Japanese military 
academy and served in the Imperial Army in the war.
 
"Nagano's comments contrast sharply with the views of former prime 
minister Morihiro Hosokawa who called World War II "a war of 
aggression". The difference reflects a continuing lack of 
consensus in Japan about the causes and results of the war that 
ended nearly 49 years ago," Mr Nagase said.
 
"The debate is important now because it is linked to growing 
discussions about changing Japan's war-renouncing postwar 
constitution to allow the country to possess a stronger, more 
active military."
 
Tragically, Mr Nagase is one of only a handful of war vets willing 
to atone publicly for Japan's aggression in WWII. For this, he 
says, he has been branded a traitor by former comrades-in-arms.
 
The well-spoken Japanese gentleman has visited Kanchanaburi more 
than 80 times, averaging almost three trips per year since 1963, 
when he experienced an overwhelming mystical feeling of relief 
while standing in the Allied War Cemetery.
 
T oday, Mr Nagase and several other war vets will present nursing 
scholarships to four local girls at a ceremony to be witnessed by 
the governor of Kanchanaburi.
 
Later in the day they will check on the welfare of seven Asian 
slave labourers who did not make it home after the war.
 
"We hope our friends in Kanchanaburi will not misinterpret the 
comments made by one man as meaning we would again wage a war of 
aggression in Asia, without guilt, or remorse," Mr Nagase said.
 
Nagase, who regularly gives public speeches about the evils of 
war, urged Japanese politicians to face historical facts "so they 
will not commit the same errors again."