Row over Moei River remains unsettl

[ausgeo@xxxxxxx]

Subject: Row over Moei River remains unsettled

June 6, 1997

BANGKOK POST

THAI-BURMA

Row over Moei River remains unsettled

Both sides turn down each other's proposals

Supamart Kasem 
Tak


Thai and Burmese officials have failed to settle a dispute over Burma's 
dredging of the Moei River opposite Mae Sot district, according to a border 
official.

Their meeting in Mae Sot ended in failure yesterday after both sides refused 
to accept each other's proposals for solving the problem over a change in the 
river's course near Wat Prathat Khok Chang Phuek in Tambon Tha Sai Luad.

Burmese delegates to the meeting insisted on their dredging plan based on an 
aerial map and photographs taken by Burma in 1989, while their Thai 
counterparts proposed that the two sides should survey the troubled area 
before the river was to be dredged in line with changed conditions.

The Thai team was led by Col Niramit Srijamnong of the Royal Thai Survey 
Department and Cherdchu Rakbutr, an official of the Treaties and Legal Affairs 
Deparment.

The Burmese side was headed by Pe Than, director-general of the Waterways 
Department, Khin Maung Oo, a Burmese diplomat and a member of the Thai-Burmese 
Technical Committee.

After the meeting, a number of Thai officials who inspected the troubled area 
found that stakes and flags used to mark the original water channel had been 
removed.

Col Niramit said he would submit a report on the talks to the Thai-Burmese 
technical panel for consideration via its chairman and the director-general of 
the Treaties and Legal Affairs Department, Somboon Sa-ngiambutr.

Burmese troops remained in the troubled area and were believed preparing to 
resume dredging which had allegedly encroached on Thai territory, the source 
added.

Burmese troops had earlier dredged the river opposite Ban Rim Moei, one 
kilometre north of the Friendship Bridge in Tambon Tha Sai Luad, to change its 
course back to what it was like originally.

Burmese officials later agreed to suspend dredging after Thai protests, but 
claimed the work was carried out with the consent of the Thai premier and the 
army chief in exchange for the opening of the Friendship Bridge.