Bangkok Post News (29-7-99)

[mandalay@xxxxxxxxxx]

Burmese abortions drain medical budget

Supamart Kasem 



Ignorance about family planning has caused an increasing number of
Burmese immigrants to seek abortions.


Dr Kanoknart Pisuthakul, director of Mae Sot Hospital, Tak, also said the
number of Burmese women suffering from abortion-related complications had
soared to 617 over the past six months. Last year, 539 Burmese immigrant
workers sought treatment from Mae Sot Hospital for abortion-related
conditions.


Dr Kanoknart said the majority of women who had terminations were manual
workers and prostitutes. To increase awareness about safe sex and family
planning, Mae Sot Hospital has joined forces with the World Vision
Foundation and Medicine Sans Frontieres to launch an awareness campaign
that will be started this week.


The increasing number of Burmese patients has also put pressure on the
budget that had been set aside to provide treatment for local, low-income
earners.


Hospital figures estimate 134,911 Burmese immigrants work in Mae Sot, Mae
Ramat, Tha Song Yang and Umphang districts of Tak.

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<bold>Burmese men held on precursor charges

</bold>Theerawat Khamthita



Anti-narcotics officers and local police arrested eight Burmese men in
Mae Sai district while they were transporting six tonnes of a chemical
which is used by drug traffickers in Burma to make methamphetamine.


The massive seizure took place on Paholyothin Highway at 10am when a
Mitsubishi Pajero and a six-wheeled truck with Burmese number plates
drove up to a border checkpoint opposite Tachilek in Burma.


More than 20 anti-narcotics officers and Mae Sai police who had followed
the Burmese from a Mae Sai market drove up and blocked the vehicles from
leaving. A search found 240 sacks containing six tonnes of the 
chemical.


The eight suspects were identified as La, Din Wan, Duchang Win, Maung
Shaw, Toon Toon, Jor Ay, Yaeyin and Maung Ay.


Interrogation led another group of police and anti-narcotic officials to
raid a warehouse of Doi Tung Transport Co in Mae Sai, 5km from the
border. They found two more tonnes of the chemical contained in similar
sacks and about 10 Burmese workers.


The owner of the warehouse, identified as Mrs Kimchun, claimed she did
not know possession of the chemical was illegal.



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<bold>Snuggling up to the Wa

</bold>

Some neighbours just turn their music up too loud; others can't resist
the temptation to earn an extra kyat or two by selling a bit of dope. u
There are those suggesting we should expect a decision soon, from Mr
Chuan no less, on whether our flyboys can have their Alpha Jets. u We can
hardly wait for the annual nicknaming of politicians by journos this year
given the Democrats' sterling PR efforts of late.


Rangoon's decision to confirm the United Wa State Army-run town of Mong
Yawn as a special administration zone for another five years goes a long
way to re-affirming the suspicions of our narcotics people that those in
control of our neighbouring country to the west are in bed with the UWSA,
the people making a fortune as the biggest drug traffickers in the drug
trafficking-dependent Golden Triangle.


"The extension is part of the whole organised plan to use the
UWSA-administered area as a base for drug trafficking, especially for the
distribution of amphetamines into Thailand," said one operative with the
National Narcotics Operation Centre supervising the war on drugs
country-wide.


"Everyone knows full well that the UWSA's main income comes directly from
the drugs trade. This (the extension) did not surprise us since we
expected Burma to make such a move."Mong Yawn, opposite San Ton Du in
Chiang Mai's Mae Ai district, has been undergoing a vast transformation
since early this year at a minimum estimated cost of one billion baht.


The total refit is aimed at enabling the town, a former stronghold of
ex-drugs warlord Khun Sa, to accommodate the 100,000-plus people expected
to settle in the town over the next five years.


The military regime in Rangoon initially agreed in 1995 to allow the UWSA
a free hand at Mong Yawn for five years.


This was part of an agreement forged after the UWSA broke with the
Burmese Communist Party in 1989 and then fought a successful battle with
Khun Sa.


The Thai military expects border problems in the upper north, in
particular the trafficking of methamphetamines, to get much worse.


Recent developments in the UWSA-controlled area is causing Army
Commander-in-Chief Gen Surayud Chulanont some real concerns and he even
suggested at the weekend that there might be the possibility of our chaps
going to war against the UWSA if they continue to produce the drugs that
are causing so much destruction among our youth.


"The army chief is fully aware of what is going on in the UWSA area and
the army will not stand by idly and do nothing," said one soldier.


He said the army would soon mobilise its elite forces in the west and
northwest as a counter-threat force and to re-organise the border area.


Recent reports suggesting that Wei Hsueh-kang, the UWSA's key military
leader and the most powerful drug kingpin in the Golden Triangle, met
Khun Sa in Rangoon earlier this year with the assistance of the
military/government leadership raises real doubts among our top drugs
combatants that Rangoon is any way interested in ending illicit drug
production.



The junta, of course, denied any involvement in the drug trade when this
was suggested by a senior staffer with the National Narcotics Operation
Centre, who said the Burmese military was involved directly in drug
trafficking through its tacit support for the UWSA.

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<bold>Military calls on Burma to return four taken in raid 

</bold>

junta unit accused of torture and beating 

The military has demanded the return of four people who were abducted by
60 Burmese troops from Mac Hong Son and taken across the border. 


In the raid on Ban Mai Sa Peh, 3km from the border, the soldiers from
Regiment 249 seized but later released a woman and beat a villager with
the butt of an MI6 rifle, leaving him with head injuries, according to
the All Burma Students' Democratic Front. 


Local military officials confirmed they had filed a protest with the
Burmese military the day after the incursion on Friday but had yet to
receive a reply. 

Abducted were three members of the woman had been tortured during
interrogation., Sonny Mahinder, the ABSDF assistant foreign secretary,
said the soldiers from Regiment 249, which patrols the border opposite
Mae Hong Son, had probably targeted the four for involvement in logistics
for Karenni resistance fighters inside Burma. "They know who the key
people are      " he said. 


Some 15,800 displaced Karenni are camped on Thai soil, after fleeing
forced resettlement by the Burmese military trying to cu t off support to
the Karenni rebels. 


In its complaint over the incursion, the military had also requested that
Burmese authorities pay 40,000 baht compensation for cash and valuables
stolen from the home of one of the arrested men. 


The arrested people, including -a Christian lay preacher, were under-
stood to be visiting Thai relatives in the village, which is populated by
Thai people from the same ethnic group, when they were abducted.

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