The BurmaNet News: October 14, 1999

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The BurmaNet News: October 14, 1999
Issue #1379

HEADLINES:
==========
THE NATION: JUNTA SEEKS ARREST OF HOSTAGE-TAKERS
BKK POST: BURMA TAKES FRESH LOOK AT SECURITY
THE NATION: BURMA EMBASSY TO HAVE SEPARATE CONSULAR SECTION
THE NATION: ONLY TIME WILL CALM BURMA
SCMP: ASEAN SILENCE ALLOWS JUNTA TO PUNISH BANGKOK
BKK POST: TRADE WITH BURMA ISN'T EVERYTHING
*****************************************************

THE NATION: JUNTA SEEKS ARREST OF HOSTAGE-TAKERS
14 October, 1999

BURMA yesterday demanded that Thai authorities arrest the five armed Burmese
dissidents who were set free at the border after storming the Burmese
Embassy in Bangkok earlier this month.

U Hla Maung, the Burmese ambassador to Thailand, indicated that this would
be a condition for resolving current problems over border crossings and
fishing rights.

''We want Thailand to arrest the five who stormed the Burmese Embassy and to
put them on trial here,'' the ambassador said through an interpreter.

''There is no need to send them to Burma. The sooner the five are arrested,
the sooner the border and fishing problems will be resolved.

''What we are concerned about most at the moment is the five armed Burmese
who took over the embassy. Their intention was to get me. They not only
stormed the embassy, but also committed robbery.''

The ambassador was speaking after an hour-long meeting with Foreign Minister
Surin Pitsuwan.

Bilateral relations between Burma and Thailand have soured following the
siege of the embassy on Oct 1. Burma has sealed all border checkpoints and
cancelled fishing licences for Thai vessels.

Surin reiterated Thailand's seriousness in tackling Burmese concerns by
pointing out that 10 charges had been filed against the five assailants who
are believed to have returned to an area of Burma facing Ratchaburi province
after being released at the border.

U Hla Maung also urged Burmese students living in Thailand and other
displaced citizens to return in order to join in the country's development.

He guaranteed that the students would not face any legal charges or
prosecution if they returned.

Foreign Ministry's spokesman Don Pramudwinai said that Surin had also
invited Burmese Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win for a visit to clear
up any problems arising from the embassy incident.

Don emphasised that filing charges against the five was a clear sign of
Thailand's intention of bringing them to justice.

''The charges show that we will not let the wrongdoers go unpunished,'' he
said. ''At present, it is up to the police and other authorities concerned
to look for the five Burmese.''

Don played down the closing of border checkpoints, saying this was Burma's
way of expressing dissatisfaction.

''They usually seal the border with Thailand [when bilateral problems
arise],'' he said.

Commenting on a call by opposition parties for the government to be more
aggressive over problems with Burma, Don said the closing of checkpoints and
cancellation of fishing licences did not constitute a threat to Thai
security.

Samak Suntharavej, leader of Prachakorn Thai Party, said Thailand should
stand firm, adding: ''We're not going to die if we don't befriend Burma.''

During his meeting with Surin, U Hla Maung dismissed a news report that
Burmese border troops had been reinforced in order to attack Karen refugees
when the dry season set in.

Don quoted the ambassador as saying the troop movements were just normal
rotation of soldiers in the border region.

In a separate interview, Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Oum Maolanond
said that Deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra had sent a letter to
his Burmese counterpart, Khin Maung Win, stating Thailand's position that it
would not forgive any acts of terrorism against foreign representatives on
its soil.

Sukhumbhand said Thailand had contingency plans for tackling terrorist
incidents.

Gen Bo Mya, leader of the Karen National Union, the biggest group of armed
dissidents operating on the Thai-Burmese border, yesterday pledged to help
Thailand arrest the five assailants if they were found on his territory.

Distancing his group from the five, Bo Mya said the assailants had been
released a long way from the areas where the Karen National Union operated.

He said Rangoon's accusation that the Karen National Union was involved with
the five was part of a smear campaign aimed at destroying his group.

Former Thai army chief Gen Chetta Tanajaro, who has close links with Rangoon
and advises the government on Burmese affairs, expected an invitation to
visit Rangoon within a few days to discuss bilateral problems.

Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Korn Dabarasi said Burmese
leaders had reaffirmed that they wanted to maintain cooperation with
Thailand. The ties would not be affected by the current tension on the
border, he added.

Korn was speaking after returning from Rangoon where he attended a regional
conference on public health. He also met Lt Gen Khint Yunt, first secretary
of the ruling State Peace and Development Commission.

''Khint Yunt reiterated to me twice that both countries must be patient as
they were still cooperating in many areas, not only public health,'' he
said.

*****************************************************

BANGKOK POST: BURMA TAKES FRESH LOOK AT SECURITY
13 October, 1999

Closure order said to be temporary

Burma is in the process of building security confidence and reassessing
border regulations in the wake of the Oct 1 embassy siege, said Foreign
Minister Surin Pitsuwan.

He explained the government was doing its best through formal and informal
diplomatic channels to resolve the on-going distrust Burma appears to be
having toward Thailand.

Rangoon has given Thailand the cold shoulder since the embassy incident and
introduced what is viewed as sanctions: the border closure and revocation of
fishing concessions.

Apparently worried, Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai on Monday wrote to his
Burmese counterpart Than Shwe appealing for normalisation of ties.

Mr Surin said Burma was now working toward improving security protection in
order to boost confidence and prevent recurrence of the embassy siege.

To his knowledge, Burmese authorities were investigating any Burmese
nationals who may have taken part in plotting the embassy hostage-taking.

The Burmese embassy and the ambassador would be given tighter protection as
Rangoon was considering measures to revamp supervision of the embassy
compound. These include putting up barbed wire on fences, and separating
visitor-contact offices from the embassy premises.

Mr Surin ruled out a review of bilateral policies with Burma in response to
observations that Thailand was being too submissive to the Burmese
government.

The minister said countries could not choose their geography or their
neighbours and that the differing foreign policies and approaches to solving
problems could result in misunderstanding between them.

He insisted dialogue would continue to be pursued in alleviating conflict
with Burma.

Denying Thailand was Burma's underdog, he expressed confidence the
government had adhered to correct principles in handling the Burma problem.

M.R. Sukhumbhand Paribatra, the deputy foreign affairs minister, said
Burma's foreign ministry confirmed the border closure was temporary but
declined to say when links would be resumed.

It sealed the border as part of usual security procedures and not in
retaliation against Thailand's decision to release the Burmese
hostage-takers, he said.

The closure could have stemmed from internal unrest in Burma, he said. But
the government has alerted Rangoon to the economic repercussions caused by
the closure.

However, the Burmese government refused to acknowledge the fishing rights
because the concessions had been signed without its authorisation.

There has been a huge loss of revenue from suspension of border trade and
fishing rights and the government has been urged to negotiate with Burma on
the lifting of the ban.

Mr Chuan, meanwhile, said the border situation was no cause for concern
despite reports of escalating tension after Rangoon dispatched more troops
to patrol the border.

Gen Chettha Thanajaro, the former army chief and security adviser to
Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart, said the Burmese troops were massed
at the border to suppress ethnic rebels, and that the action had nothing to
do with the embassy siege.

The deployment was not out of the ordinary as it was carried out every rainy
season.

The only possible adverse effect was the possible influx of refugees pushed
across the border into Thailand by the suppression drive.

*****************************************************

THE NATION: BURMA EMBASSY TO HAVE SEPARATE CONSULAR SECTION
13 October, 1999

THE Burmese embassy in Bangkok could soon undergo remodelling to improve
security and prevent a repeat of the siege and hostage crisis when five
armed attackers stormed the building.

According to Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan, Burma said it would separate
its consular section from the diplomatic mission.

Security would be tightened at the consular section where visa and other
public business is conducted. The diplomatic mission would be moved away
from the consular area, Surin said.

The decision to re-design the embassy comes less than two weeks after armed
Burmese democracy militants stormed the embassy, taking 38 people hostage at
gunpoint and preventing 51 others from leaving the embassy compound.

A deal was reached 25 hours later when Thai authorities agreed to give the
militants safe passage to the border in return for the release of the
hostages.

Surin said he had urged the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to speed up
the process of finding a third country to accept Burmese asylum seekers
living in Thailand.

''The incident [embassy siege] has highlighted the urgent need for the UNHCR
and other countries to assist the Burmese students on humanitarian
grounds,'' Surin said.

''It is not possible for Thailand to take care of the [dissident] Burmese
students forever. The students themselves should be given an opportunity to
have a good future,'' he added.

Surin said he had received positive responses from some countries about the
possibility finding new homes for Burmese students.

The student asylum seekers are just one part of the problem for Thailand and
the UNHCR. There are also about 100,000 displace Burmese along the
Thai-Burmese border housed in refugee camps.

Surin also said that Asean and the international community have expressed
their moral support for the difficulties that Thailand was facing with
Rangoon over the political fallout because of the embassy siege.

''At the moment, the international community has expressed their
understanding and asked us to be strong and to believe in what we do,''
Surin said.

''In the past two days, a number of top Asean officials have voiced their
support and told us that we're doing the right thing.''

Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai said there needed to be a
government-to-government mechanism in place to handle and resolve
disputes -- similar to the current fishing licence problem -- between
Thailand and Burma.

The Minister of Agriculture Pongpol Adireksarn will travel to Rangoon at the
end of the month to discuss the idea with his Burmese counterpart.

Pongpol said that in the past the ministry was often kept in the dark about
the agreements between the two countries made by private sector businesses.

A government-to-government contract would bind the central governments of
both sides to deals, he said.

Meanwhile, the European Union will extend its sanctions against Burma for a
further six months, citing the lack of progress in human rights and
democracy.

EU sanctions included a ban on visits by Burmese officials to EU countries,
withdrawal of trade privileges and an arms embargo.

The sanctions have stalled Asean-EU cooperation since Burma joined the
regional grouping three years ago.

Burma's director general for Political Affairs Department Nyunt Maung Shein
criticised the EU's decision, saying it was contrary to the principle of
cooperation.

Foreign Ministry's Permanent Secretary Saroj Chavanaviraj said Thailand had
proposed that Asean-EU meetings be held in Asean countries instead of Europe
to get around the visa ban.

The EU had yet to reply to the Thai proposal, he said.

*****************************************************

THE NATION: CHETTA: ONLY TIME WILL CALM BURMA
13 October, 1999

FORMER army chief and close personal friend of the Burmese junta Gen Chetta
Thanajaro said yesterday Burma was furious and there was nothing much the
Thai government could do except back off and let the tension abate before
resuming dialogue.

Chetta, who is serving as a security advisor to the government, was
appointed yesterday by Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sanan
Kachornprasart to help open another channel of negotiation by using his
acquaintance with the generals in Rangoon.

Chetta said he had been in constant communication with Rangoon, using
personal leverage as well as his official capacity, but insisted that the
tension would not wither away at all soon.

''There is communication, but the fact is that they are still upset.
Therefore we should back off and give them some time to cool off,'' he said.

According to a source, Chetta personally talked with top-ranking Burmese
officials, especially Gen Khin Nyunt, the first secretary of the State Peace
and Development Council (SPDC), who expressed unhappiness.

There has been no official dialogue on the subject between Bangkok and
Rangoon.

Chetta said the border was likely to remain closed until Rangoon was
confident enough to resume normal operations.

Such a measure is nothing new, he said, pointing to previous incidents when
disputes had surfaced between the two countries and Rangoon had responded by
closing the border and chasing Thai fishing vessels away.

''It has occurred several times, and we just cannot afford to let it
continue unaddressed. It is Thailand and Burma, not others, that will
suffer,'' he said.

''There is always an end to every problem, and no one wants to see this kind
of situation prolonged. All that we really need is time to mend fences,
since we cannot move away from each other,'' he added optimistically.

Local merchants, on the other hand, said the decision to close the border
was linked to growing tension.

Ties between the two countries have reached a new low in the past week. The
freeze was set off by Bangkok's soft-handed approach to the recent hostage
crisis, when five armed dissident stormed the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok,
taking 38 people at gunpoint while preventing 51 others from leaving the
compound.

The 25-hour stand-off ended peacefully after Thailand agreed to give the
five armed attackers safe passage to the Thai-Burmese border in return for
the hostages.

Rangoon was also infuriated by a comment by Interior Minister Sanan
Kachornprasart, who referred to the five Burmese hostage-takers as
''students fighting for democracy'' rather than terrorists as Rangoon had
branded them.

In response Burma dispatched a number of senior officials and the state-run
press to attack Bangkok while at the same time thanking Thailand for ending
the crisis in a peaceful manner.

Burma further retaliated by closing its border and revoking concessions to
Thai fishermen. These moves have crippled the fisheries industry and brought
cross-border trade to a standstill.

Moreover thousands of Burmese government troops have been deployed to the
border area, where a number of rebel forces are positioned, heightening the
tension along the border. A big offensive is likely to send thousands of
refugees across the border into Thailand.

While Rangoon cited security reasons for closing the border and ordering all
Thai fishermen out of its waters, Thai authorities said it was a clear
retaliation against Bangkok's soft handling of the embassy siege.

*****************************************************

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST: ASEAN SILENCE ALLOWS JUNTA TO PUNISH BANGKOK
13 October, 1999 by Howard Winn

Thailand gained considerable kudos from the peaceful outcome to the siege of
the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok.

But after the celebratory back-slapping a sour note has crept into its
dealings with the Burmese dissidents currently in Thailand.

The secretary-general of the National Security Council, Kachadapai
Burusapatan, is urging the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to
send all exiled Burmese students under its care in Thailand to a third
country.

But Deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra said any repatriation
would be voluntary.

Whether Mr Kachadapai's remarks should be taken at face value is unclear as
they may have been made to pressure the international community or to
appease the Burmese Government.

The Burmese junta is clearly displeased with the Thais for what it considers
to be the soft treatment of the student hostage-takers. It has closed the
border and suspended fishing licences, resulting in the loss of millions of
dollars worth of business.

Thai Commerce Minister Supachai Panitchpakdi says Thai traders stand to lose
their market dominance in Burma if the border stays closed for another week
as Rangoon importers turn to other sources.

So Thailand ends up getting punished for its peaceful handling of the
dissidents and for looking after refugees on humanitarian grounds.

The root problem is that the junta is an oppressive regime that overturned
an election result and maintains power by force.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations' policy of constructive
engagement with Burma has achieved nothing. In fact, by allowing Burma to
become a member of an international body it has given it a veneer of
legitimacy. How long is Asean prepared to sit back and do nothing?

Meanwhile, because of the lack of a co-ordinated approach to Burma, the
junta plays one member country off against the other with ease. By in effect
imposing trade sanctions on Thailand, it opens the door to Singaporean and
Malaysian traders.

Thailand, which has carried the brunt of the human consequences of its
unsavoury neighbour, will always be vulnerable until Asean adopts a more
creative policy towards Burma.

It is difficult to hold out much hope, given Asean's silence while the army
of one of its members slaughtered thousands of unarmed civilians in East
Timor. What kind of crisis, what atrocity, is necessary to get this body to
recognise its responsibilities?

*****************************************************

BANGKOK POST: TRADE WITH BURMA ISN'T EVERYTHING
13 October, 1999

Letter to the Editor

The praise and words of appreciation from the Burmese authorities for the
way with which the Thai government handled the Oct 1-2 occupation of the
Burmese Embassy were in sharp contradiction to the action taken by Rangoon
so soon after this potentially explosive situation was brought to an end
without any bloodletting.

The military junta abruptly scrapped the concession rights granted to Thai
fishing trawlers without any clarification. Hundreds of Thai vessels were
forced to hurry back home to Ranong from Burmese waters and, as a result,
now at least 5,000 Burmese who crewed on the trawlers are without work. The
closure of the border at the same time has brought a complete halt to trade
and travel between the two countries and so caused tremendous damage to a
large number of businesses.

If actions speak louder than words, as we are all taught, then clearly the
praise and the thanks offered by Burma's leadership-the most recent
expression being from Nyunt Maung Shein, director-general of the Political
Affairs Department, at the senior Asean officials meeting in Bangkok-are
meaningless. They are intended only to fool the more gullible into believing
the Rangoon regime is made up of civilised men who are as willing as the
next fellow to congratulate the peaceful end to the embassy siege.

The reality is that the junta is unhappy with Thailand's handling of the
five hostage takers and the fact that they were allowed to go free. Instead
of drawing a lesson from this incident and appraising how it contributed to
the affair, the military junta wants simply to place all the blame on
Thailand.

The rest of the world saw the embassy siege very differently to Rangoon. The
general consensus is that the repressive military regime must be held
responsible. Had the generals ended their brutal treatment of Burma's
pro-democracy elements and allowed Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League
for Democracy to govern the country after they swept the polls in the
general election of 1990, then this embassy siege almost certainly would
never have happened.

The hypocrisy of the Burmese dictatorship over this latest incident just
reinforces the doubts of the Thai government and others around the region
about the legitimacy of "constructive engagement", one of the principal
platforms of Asean, in gradually transforming the Rangoon military
leadership into a civilised administration with a human heart. Two years
after being inducted into Asean, Burma remains a pariah state and gives no
sign that it will ever change for the better while the military junta
continues to be in firm control.

Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai's recent message to his Burmese counterpart,
Gen Than Shwe, in which he expressed the hope that bilateral ties between
our two countries could return to normal and even improve was an olive
branch offered by Thailand. His conciliatory words are reinforced by the
presence of Deputy Prime Minister Korn Dabbaransi in Rangoon for talks aimed
at easing tensions. Now it is the turn of Burma to extend a gesture in the
spirit of good neighbourliness.
The normalisation of ties will benefit both countries and their peoples. But
in the pursuit of this aim, Thailand must not compromise its human rights
principles, especially where they concern the Burmese students living in
exile in Thailand, in exchange for trade, business or fishing concessions
from Burma.

Thai-Burmese relations have always been dominated by trade issues. This is
why Rangoon has enjoyed the upper hand to dictate the course of our ties. It
is about time Thailand explored new markets for its products and new sources
of natural resources so that we reduce our dependence on Burma and distance
ourselves from its brutish ways.
*****************************************************






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