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The Hong Pang Group
Why Wei remains untouchable
Myanmar junta dismisses Suu Kyi victory
What's real, what's faux in Burma?
Burmese generals surfing the Internet
'To Be Busy Helps Them Forget'

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The Hong Pang Group
Bangkok Post
Perspective - Sunday July 06, 2008
MAXMILIAN WECHSLER

Wei Hseuh-kang's Hong Pang Group is the biggest enterprise in the Wa State, with numerous business interests throughout Burma. These include a cement factory, liquor distilleries, petrol stations, department stores, road building, construction, agricultural ventures, electronics, jewelry and gem business, communications, textiles and many others. The company also has thousands of acres of fruit orchards and owns coal and jade mines.

The story began in the late 1980s when Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, the Burmese military intelligence chief at that time, negotiated ceasefire agreements with a number of non-Burmese armed ethnic groups. He offered them many privileges, such as the right to administer their own regions, and granted them business concessions in return for ending their armed struggle against the government.

With plenty of money on hand from the drug business, Wei and the United Wa State Army (UWSA) took the opportunity and set up the Hong Pang Group in 1998.

The new complex of the Hong Pang Group under construction near Nar Lod in February 2008. Once completed it will include Wei Hseuh-kang's residence as well as company offices.

When General Khin Nyunt became Burmese Prime Minister on August 25, 2003, Wei gained the kind of ally he could never have dreamed of. Wei, having become a close friend of the PM, was on top of the game. He was untouchable.

The new complex of the Hong Pang Group under construction near Nar Lod in February 2008. Once completed it will include Wei Hseuh-kang's residence as well as company offices.

Khin Nyunt appeared often on local media inaugurating or visiting various Hong Pang Group projects throughout Burma until he was abruptly dismissed on October 18, 2004 and arrested soon after. However, the purge of his friend didn't obviously hurt Wei or his company, which is today an enormous conglomerate and wields a lot of power.

The Group has offices throughout Burma , including in Rangoon, Mandalay, Lashio, Tachilek and Moulmein. The head office is located at Wan Kaung near Pang Sang.

When a federal grand jury in Brooklyn, New York on January 24, 2005 indicted eight UWSA members, including Wei Hseuh-kang, the indictment also sought forfeiture of directly traceable assets of the defendants, including all assets of the Hong Pang Group holding company and affiliated businesses operating in Burma, China, Hong Kong, Thailand and other countries. These businesses, which are connected to the defendants' drug trafficking activities, are managed, operated, financed and controlled by the defendants.

Yet the Hong Pang Group continues to thrive. The company's new offices are currently under construction near Nar Lod. The complex, described as palatial, was due to be completed at the end of 2007, but was delayed after Wei abruptly decided to add a large underground home. Sources say it should be finished some time this year.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/060708_Perspective/06Jul2008_pers005.php

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Why Wei remains untouchable
Bangkok Post
Perspective - Sunday July 06, 2008

There are several factors which work to keep fugitive drug trafficker Wei Hseuh-kang from his rightful place behind bars, writes MAXMILIAN WECHSLER

Security conscious Wei Hseuh-kang won't be happy after he finds out that some of his secrets had been revealed by Perspective. This will certainly apply to his brothers, Bang Ron and those who are protecting them.

Under the headline "Target Information, " Wei's mugshot and personal information appears on the US Department of State website, along with 44 other major global drug traffickers. A reward of up to $5 million is offered for information leading to the arrest or conviction of some of those on the list. The bounty for Wei Hseuh-kang is up to $2 million.

On the same web page are photos of 26 more drug traffickers who have already been brought to justice, some with a note under their mugshot saying: "Reward Paid."

Yang Wan-Hsuan, aka Lao Tai, aka Tin Maung Win, is one of these. He was a confidential secretary to the late drug baron Chang Chi-fu, better known as Khun Sa, once the biggest heroin trafficker in the Golden Triangle. Lao Tai was responsible for Khun Sa's financial activities. He was indicted in the Eastern District of New York for attempted conspiracy to import heroin into the United States and distribution of heroin.

Like this mountainous route from the Wa State capital of Pang Sang to Long Tan, most of the highland areas in the Wa State are not easily accessible. — ARMIN SCHOCH

Prior to his arrest, the US Department of State announced a reward of up to $2 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction in the United States of Lao Tai.

He was arrested in Chiang Mai on January 10, 2001 and extradited to the US, where he was sentenced to five years imprisonment. After having time deducted for a good behaviour, Lao Tai was released in 2005.

Some people who helped put him behind bars were surprised to learn he was spotted in Chiang Mai not long ago. These individuals are still complaining that the reward paid was just a fraction of $2 million.

A Thai officer involved in the capture of Lao Tai said that some official documents and press reports had omitted the two vital words "up to," contributing to a misunderstanding.

"We were told that Lao Tai was a very important target, so we expected to get something very close to the $2 million. After he was captured we were told that Lao Tai was 'not so important' anymore. This is something discouraging. We expected to receive much more," the officer said.

He suggested that the amount of reward should be fixed in order that the informant would know the exact sum.

"Now it is very tricky. No one will come forward to blow the whistle on a big drug trafficker," the officer said.

This was also the opinion of the United Wa State Army (UWSA) source who, instead of contacting the authorities, opted to reveal Wei's secrets to Perspective (see main story.)

He added: "Many UWSA members are against drugs and they don't like what Wei is doing. I hope that some actions will be taken against him and his associates after the story is published. Some of my colleagues would like to see Wei and others brought to justice."

Misunderstandings over the reward are only one reason why Wei has been able to operate freely until this day. According to a diplomat stationed in Bangkok, foreign intelligence services might know the location of Wei's bunker and other related information.

"Technically, to hit it with a missile, for example, would be no problem, but it is highly unlikely that will happen because of political reasons. Wei's compound is located only about 20 kilometres from the Chinese border. Any attack would create a serious incident between the attacking country and the People's Republic of China , and it would have also far-reaching effects for the whole region," the diplomat said.

According to the another source, a few years ago a senior Chinese intelligence officer met Wei and warned him to stop the drug business or to face serious consequences. Of course, Wei didn't stop and nothing happened to him either. The Chinese officer retired shortly after delivering the message to him.

The foreign diplomat said that maybe no one really wants to arrest Wei because he might incriminate many people, some holding high government or business positions in other countries, including Thailand. Some Thai officials agreed with this assessment.

An important reason why the UWSA leaders don't want to touch him is that he contributes a large amount of money to the Wa State economy through his Hong Pang Group.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/060708_Perspective/06Jul2008_pers003.php

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Myanmar junta dismisses Suu Kyi victory
AP
Sun Jul 6, 1:16 AM ET

The overwhelming election victory by Aung San Suu Kyi's party in 1990 has been nullified by the approval of a military-backed constitution and her National League for Democracy party should prepare for a new vote in 2010, Myanmar's state-run newspaper said Sunday.

Myanmar's ruling junta said the passing of its constitution in a May referendum — widely dismissed by critics as unfair — shows the public no longer cares about the electoral success by the detained Nobel laureate.

Suu Kyi's party won 392 out of 485 seats in the election, the first freely contested poll in nearly three decades. However, the ruling military refused to hand over power, insisting a new constitution was needed before this could be done.

The military drafted a much-maligned constitution that reinforces its iron grip on power. The constitution was approved in May by 92.48 percent of the vote, but critics say it was marred by irregularities, including reports of citizens being forced to vote yes.

Rather than fighting to get the 1990 results recognized, the Myanma Ahlin newspaper called for the National League for Democracy to spend its energy preparing for a new 2010 election.

"The NLD should prepare for the forthcoming elections instead of clinging onto the 1990 election results, which have already gone down the drain," the commentary said.

The constitution guarantees 25 percent of parliamentary seats to the military and allows the president to hand over all power to the military in a state of emergency.

It also bars anyone who enjoyed the rights and privileges of a foreign citizen from holding public office. This would keep Suu Kyi out of government because her late husband, Michael Aris, was a Briton and their two sons are British.

Last month, the newspaper said the referendum showed citizens have forsaken Suu Kyi and were ready to give the military a "political leadership role."

The military, which has held power since 1962, has been widely condemned for suppressing democracy and committing human rights abuses. Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest, has spent more than a dozen of the last 19 years in detention.

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What's real, what's faux in Burma?
Barry Tompkins
Article Launched: 07/05/2008 11:31:08 PM PDT

'GIVE NOTHING to the monks who come up to you," said Toi - our guide on this day.

Wait a minute. In this country where monks are revered and looked upon as the wisest in their community, you want me to rebuke their asking for a financial offering? "They're not really monks," Toi said, her usually affable face as stern as we'd seen it all day.

Welcome to Burma where things are just never the way they seem. Even as far as the name of the country is concerned. Monks aren't really monks, time isn't really the time, and Burma isn't really Burma anymore. I fully expected to run into Rod Serling of "The Twilight Zone" standing around the next corner.

To the world, the old Burma is the new Myanmar. To the Thai people, the old Myanmar is still Burma. "Myanmar is the ancient name of the country," Toi said. And it seems the new militaristic government that runs it prefers the ancient - in every way.

Westerners are not welcomed in Burma except in the mish-mosh of humanity that is the border town of Tachileik. And, the only way in for anyone holding a U.S. passport is by foot through the northernmost outpost of Thailand. Of course, a visa is required to enter the country and a handsome photograph of the entrant is taken by the Burmese border police, which makes everyone who enters look as though they should be placed immediately on the 10 most wanted list. Somehow, the Burmese camera even made my wife look like Rasputin.

But then, that's the way everyone in this border town looks. Except for the faux monks who confront you immediately as you enter, asking for whatever loose change you might have - be it American quarters, Thai baht or Chinese wan. The rub here is that all the "Rasputins" are actually quite pleasant, and the cute little monks are street urchins in saffron robes impersonating the real thing. Real monks never approach for an offering without being beckoned.

There's a time change as you cross the border into Burma. Not an unusual thing to be sure, but when it's 10 o'clock in Thailand, it's 10:30 in Burma. A HALF HOUR LATER.

At the end of colonization in Burma they wanted nothing whatever to do with the Brits, who, in their minds, had held them hostage for a century or two. So, not only did they toss the Bangers and Mash from their country, they also threw out their tea time. In fact, they threw out their watches. "We'll show you guys," said the Burmese. "We're setting our clocks ahead 30 minutes. Now leave. In fact, you're already a half hour late."

Tachileik seems to be the drain of Burma. That is to say it is a melting pot of people who are lightly regarded by the current regime. Many who have settled in this community did so with the hope of seeking work in neighboring Thailand and thus providing for their families. Others did so because the opium trade - thanks to the efforts of the king's mother - has dried up in Thailand, but is still fertile in Burma.

The Shens, for example, are a sect of Chinese immigrants who, our guide said, are hardworking, familial and industrious. They live across an alley from the Was, another group of Chinese immigrants, about whom she said, many are involved in the drug trade. The two neighbors don't speak. It is a community of contradiction where it seems nobody gets along with anybody except in the marketplace. Fortunately for the well-being of the entire area, the whole town seems to be a marketplace.

Here you can buy just about anything you'd want to whet your appetite. There's live eel or turtle to be whipped up for a scrumptious meal. And some yummy insect larvae and dried grasshopper to munch on before the main course. Dessert could be durian fruit - in season now and a taste treat. Don't let the fact that they smell like sweat socks deter you.

And maybe we can sit down - all of us, visitors who look like Rasputin, Shens, Was and monks both faux and real - and break bread.

Lunch is at 11:30.

Barry Tompkins is a longtime sports broadcaster who lives in Marin. Contact him via lifestyles@marinij.com.
http://www.marinij.com/lifestyles/ci_9798770

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Burmese generals surfing the Internet
Sunday, July 6, 2008

Military trucks are park outside a government building in Yangon, November 8, 2005, waiting to carry away records and other materials to its new location.

COMMENTARY:

With the push of a button, the generals in Burma can instantly access the Internet, thanks to a U.S.-built and U.S.-financed satellite. The generals and their cronies have been doing this for months as the Export-Import Bank of the United States (U.S. Ex-Im Bank) and the U.S. State Department which together made it possible, stand by silently.

In this instance, the U.S. government was apparently more than eager to see a U.S. company, Loral, build and deliver a sophisticated broadband satellite to a Thailand-based telecommunications company known as Thaicom, formerly Shin Satellite.

At first glance, there appears to be nothing wrong here, but scratch the surface and the Thaicom-Burma connection quickly appears. It was well-established and well-known to all parties concerned long before the satellite in question even reached the launch pad in 2005.

Keep in mind that the White House including first lady Laura Bush, and the U.S. Congress have been quite vocal in condemning the government of Burma, officially called Myanmar. In 2007, for example, President Bush extended for another year the national emergency first signed by President Clinton in 1997. Add to the list the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003, and the executive order signed by President Bush that same year.

So the message to Burma has been clear, while the gap that divides the United States and the government of Thailand when it comes to Burma grows larger. Unlike Thailand, engaging Burma has not been the preference of the American government, and U.S. companies are strictly forbidden from doing any business with the government of Burma, although these rules simply do not apply to businesses in Thailand.

More than six years ago, as the human-rights record of the junta in Burma was steadily deteriorating, American taxpayers quietly provided financial backing for construction of the broadband satellite for Thaicom via $190 million in loan guarantees provided U.S. Ex-Im Bank. The French government stepped up and provided loan guarantees for launch services.

America's dislike for the junta did not prevent Thaicom's ties to the government of Burma from strengthening. In 2004, for example, the Ex-Im Bank of Thailand rolled out a massive, multimillion-dollar loan to Burma that helped finance telecommunications equipment for the Burmese generals, including a substantial number of broadband satellite terminals to enable Thaicom's services to be delivered throughout Burma.

The government of Burma and all the assorted businesses run by Burmese generals no doubt constitute the largest pool of satellite broadband customers for Thaicom in Burma, before and after the cyclone. The fact that former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra created and ran Thaicom's parent company, Shin Corp., cannot go unmentioned. Shin Corp. is now owned by Temasek Holdings of Singapore, which holds a 41 percent stake in Thaicom and remains its largest shareholder.

Since the satellite itself was launched in 2005, Thaicom has steadily expanded its presence in Burma. And in early 2008, Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications and Thaicom signed a new pair of contracts. This was followed by news that the final remaining portion of the above-mentioned 2004 Ex-Im Bank of Thailand telecom loan is to be handed over to the generals in Burma this year as well.

The response of the U.S. State Department, and the U.S. Ex-Im Bank while all this has unfolded has been to say absolutely nothing. Apparently, when the government of Burma gains access to U.S.-funded satellite broadband technology, the official U.S. response is to simply look the other way and ignore everything that is happening.

So the generals in Burma and their buddies go on surfing the Internet, casually using a U.S.-built satellite in the process while knowing that what truly represents a dark stain on U.S. policymaking in Southeast Asia will no doubt be ignored altogether.

Peter J. Brown is a Maine-based free-lance writer who writes frequently about satellite industry trends and developments in Asia.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jul/06/burmese-generals-surfing-the-internet/

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'To Be Busy Helps Them Forget'
Burma's Storm Survivors Cobble Together a Meager Future
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, July 6, 2008; A01

Two months after the devastating cyclone wiped out their village, survivors continue to rebuild. Now, they squeeze three families to a tent or a half-built hut. (The Washington Post)

Survivors of a community that was razed by the storm greet a rare foreign visitor. Behind them, their new makeshift village was rebuilt on the edges of a river so donors would see them when they passed by boat, residents said. (The Washington Post)

BOGALAY, Burma -- Two months after a cyclone savaged the fertile Irrawaddy Delta, in Burma's southwest, the bones of drowning victims still clutter the muddy banks of waterways.

One bamboo stick at a time, survivors in hundreds of flattened villages are struggling to rebuild their lives. For shelter, they squeeze several families into a single tent. For drinking water, they collect monsoon rains that trickle off tarpaulin roof coverings into buckets or salvaged ceramic vases. For food, they cook communal meals with rice, beans and oil from handouts. Sometimes it is spoiled.

On a recent visit, one village looked as if it had been carpet-bombed, a cratered landscape of muddy pools, debris and the remains of water buffaloes. A few hundred feet away, villagers sawed and hammered at planks salvaged from the wreckage. A teenage boy in an oversize shirt donated by a Buddhist monastery picked through piles of smashed wood.

"To work is to be busy, and to be busy helps them forget," said Soe, the village leader.

Nine hundred forty-three people used to live here, he said. In the storm that came ashore the night of May 2, 660 of them disappeared. Across the vast, mazelike delta, an estimated 130,000 people were killed and 2.4 million affected.

Persistent obstruction by the country's military rulers has kept aid at tragically meager levels. International efforts to quickly dispatch emergency assistance were delayed as the country's xenophobic military rulers rebuffed offers of help, denied visas to foreign aid workers and required permits for travel within the country.

Aid workers say that the majority of survivors of Tropical Cyclone Nargis have received at least some help but that few are even remotely equipped to make their way in coming months. Some communities have only recently been reached by aid teams, who had journeyed for hours on foot, by motorcycle and by boat.

Many of the restrictions have been eased, but relief workers say they still operate under erratic and constantly shifting constraints. The logistical challenges remain formidable as they scramble to dispatch seed, tractors and tillers to farmers before the rice-planting season ends this month.

"We have time to farm, but no tractors, no buffaloes and no seed," Soe said.

To reach his village required a seven-hour drive along a potholed, tire-shredding road from Rangoon to the rural hub of Bogalay, past four police checkpoints where documents were rigorously scanned. Against a backdrop of peaceful rice paddies, strange touches stood out: a patchwork of blue and red tarpaulins stretched across delicate palm-thatched huts; decapitated golden pagodas; and peaked iron roofs blown like dead leaves onto the roadside.

From Bogalay, where electricity has barely crackled back to life, the journey continued aboard a motorized boat loaded with supplies. The riverbanks form a cemetery for cyclone victims whose bodies floated for weeks along the waterways and whose remains, at low tide, now whiten in the mud.

A boatman pointed to an empty stretch of riverbank interspersed with bare-branched betel and coconut trees. "That used to be a village," he said. "There, too," he said minutes later, gesturing at the opposite bank.

In Soe's village, about four hours south of Bogalay, survivors gathered to greet a rare foreign visitor. About 30 crowded into a newly built hut to hear the headman tell their story.

During the storm, 26 entire families vanished, he said. None of their bodies has been recovered.
The rest of the villagers clutched floating wreckage or grasped at tree trunks or piled into a leaking boat and fled to a monastery in a distant village. Days later, local authorities told them to leave, handed them the equivalent of $10 per household and ferried them in military boats to another village hours upriver. Almost 300 have now made it back.

"We used to sing every day," Soe said. "We used to sing as we marched to work." They were songs filled with joy, songs to carry them to the fields and out into the yellow waters to catch shrimp and river fish.

No one was supposed to be living here. The village is located in an area marked as uninhabited, a forest reserve, on the government map used by aid agencies. But field workers have discovered about 12,000 survivors in 60 villages across the area, all of them almost entirely wiped out. An estimated 20,000 people died.

The region was among the worst-hit because it lay directly along the path of the cyclone. But environmental experts say a more significant reason for the high death toll, here and elsewhere in the delta, was the systematic destruction of mangrove forests. In the December 2004 tsunami that devastated South Asia, dense mangrove coverage in Sri Lanka was shown to have helped save lives.

According to a study published last month by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, decades of illegal encroachment and government-sanctioned neglect had seriously degraded the mangrove forests in the Irrawaddy Delta. "If there had been decent mangrove on the shorelines, the death toll would have been cut in half," said Lucas Riegger, a U.N. vulnerability analyst and mapping specialist.

One-third of survivors around Bogalay suffer from psychological stress, according to Doctors Without Borders. Field workers from other groups reported meeting survivors who refused food or wouldn't speak. One man, found on a roadside, repeatedly hugged the invisible coconut tree to which he had clung when the waters rose. Others told relief workers that they were unable to sleep or could still feel the hands of sons and daughters slipping from their grasp.

"It's like being born again every day. I am learning to live again like a child," said Hla Dwe, 36, a farmer and fisherman who lost his mother, wife and both children.

The village's five remaining water buffaloes lolled about together neck-deep in a pool of mud. Even if ownership of the animals could be sorted out, they were too sick and weak to work the fields for more than a few hours a day, villagers said. New buffaloes would take too long to train.

Local authorities in Bogalay offered to sell the people tractors under special terms, but buyers needed to prove they had owned more than 50 acres, with a photograph and a form signed by the village leader. Two farmers here were rich enough to qualify; the rest had worked plots of from five to 20 acres each.

"We are victims. So how can we buy this?" said Chau, 32, a stone-faced farmer who said his sister, mother and nephew had died in the storm.

Tents in the village and passing boats bore the logo of the Htoo trading company, which is owned by Tay Za, a businessman targeted by U.S. sanctions because of his closeness to the ruling junta.

At least 30 big Burmese companies that locals refer to as "cronies" of the junta were assigned to the reconstruction and relief efforts in the delta's townships. This has raised concerns in Rangoon, the largest city, that the companies will eventually collect payback in the form of land concessions in the delta or elsewhere in the country.

But Western diplomats and aid workers say that so far, the companies have often proved helpful. Some aid agencies, including Save the Children, have turned to businessmen such as Serge Pun, whose holdings include Yoma Bank, to obtain boats and warehouse space and to speed deliveries to the affected areas.

Working with the company has "absolutely helped cut through the red tape," said Andrew Kirkwood, Save the Children's Burma director. "I think all of us were frustrated with not being able to do more sooner."

His agency's deal with the company came at a time when U.N. officials were still locked in negotiations with military authorities to allow in 10 helicopters. Now those aircraft are flying. And visa applications for foreign staffers can be turned around in 24 hours, while before they took 10 days or more.

But access to the delta remains a concern. In past weeks, aid agencies have had to seek approval for their activities from an ever-changing combination of ministries and local authorities. Trips into the field are systematically monitored. A World Food Program helicopter shipment was canceled by an onboard military agent because flight coordinates submitted by U.N. workers weren't clear, according to a staffer.

Last week, one ministry canceled a program by the agency to give cash to survivors around Rangoon, even though another ministry had approved the plan days earlier. "It seems like the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing," said Hakan Tongul, the World Food Program's deputy country director.

Workers with a Burmese aid agency in Bogalay said they were repeatedly prevented from reaching the devastated villages of the distant natural reserve by military boats that were patrolling the area. Troops told them they were taking care of the villagers. The area has at least three military bases, according to three agencies that have worked there.

"Everywhere we went, we were met by soldiers or navy," said an aid worker with the Noble Compassionate Volunteer Group, which has partnered with UNICEF in the area.

Aid workers and diplomats say the problem at the lower levels is sometimes less willful neglect than incompetence. According to several U.N. officials, there is only one fax machine in the Ministry of Social Welfare, which at times has been largely responsible for processing applications for visits to the delta. But in some places, local authorities have defied their superiors to help in the relief efforts. One Western diplomat said officials in the remote rural hub of Pathein had built a road for supplies, defying senior military officers.

Aid workers praise villagers' resilience, which they said had helped stave off further deaths and disease.

In one village, farmers who own five to 10 acres apiece said they joined together to buy a tractor from officials in Bogalay. They will have to pay in installments over three years, using rice seed and funds they don't yet have, they said.

Still, said village elder Tan as he leaned on a bamboo cane, going into debt to grow their own food seemed a better option to the villagers than sitting idle and eating the rotten yellow rice they received as aid.

They have to rely on themselves, he said. "Everyone else has their problems, too."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/05/AR2008070501923.html

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