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BKKPOST:May8 Burma Death Railway
- Subject: BKKPOST:May8 Burma Death Railway
- From: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 08 May 1994 17:39:00
/* 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."