06 July 2008 : Burma News Late Extra
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DANGEROUS DUO
Burma fair to muddling in wake of savage blow
Construction sites abandoned in Naypyidaw
Delta farmers’ woes continue
Recent Burma News (06-07-08)
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DANGEROUS DUO
Bangkok Post
Perspective - Sunday July 06, 2008
This second part of a special series on the international drug trade features a report by MAXMILIAN WECHSLER with new information on most-wanted fugitives Wei Hseuh-kang and Bang Ron
Every year, June 26 is marked as International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, with various functions all around the world to signify the event. In Bangkok, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime released its World Drug Report 2008, in the presence of Thai officials, foreign diplomats and anti-narcotics officers. In Ayutthaya province Thai authorities incinerated 15 tonnes of confiscated drugs before a crowd of government officials, foreign diplomats and media.
This June 26 would have truly been one to remember if two of the world's most wanted fugitive drug lords - Wei Hseuh-kang, also known by his Thai names Prasit or Charnchai Chiwinnitipanya, and Surachai Ngernthongfu, alias Bang Ron - were finally put behind bars in Thailand. Instead they are currently living comfortably in Burma's Wa State, officially called Special Region 2 of Burma's Shan State, which is administrated by the United Wa State Army (UWSA) under its chairman, Pau Yu Chang.
The UWSA also recognised the June 26 anti-drug day with an hour-and-a-half event at the Wa capital of Pang Sang - not far from the fortified compound where Wei and Bang Ron live, according to a Wa source who participated in the event.
The June 26 event was attended by senior UWSA leaders, including vice-chairman Shao Minliang and deputy commander-in- chief Bo Lai Kham. Both are known to be close and long-time associates of Wei Hseuh-kang. There was no report on the presence of government officials from Burma or China.
In a speech to about 250 invited guests that included representatives from different Wa regions and NGOs, Shao declared that opium cultivation in the state had stopped, and appealed to the international community to increase assistance to the former opium farmers who are suffering badly at the present time.
Pau Yu Chang
The source lamented that "Wei and Bang Ron not only continue to evade arrest, they have strengthened their grip over the highly profitable illicit drug trade. They control the production and trafficking of heroin and synthetic drugs. They are making a lot of money. They should help the farmers as well."
He confirmed that both men are still protected by the UWSA and said that Pau's record and reputation with regard to drugs is almost on a par with the two fugitives.
He also said that the Burmese government authorities are very limited in their activities inside the Wa-controlled region.
"They can't do very much here at all, because even to enter the region, they need permission from the UWSA leaders. Pau Yu Chang has absolute decision-making power here. He and other top-ranking UWSA members know exactly where Wei and Bang Ron are staying and what they are doing. They are all protecting them," the source reiterated.
However, he couldn't explain why Wei was never arrested in former times, when he travelled frequently throughout Burma, visiting places like Mandalay, Rangoon and Tachilek.
On the subject of drug dealers, Maj-Gen Maung Oo, Burmese minister for home affairs and chairman of the Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control, delivered this message from the new capital of Naypyidaw on June 26:
"Thanks to the cooperative efforts of the law enforcement organisations such as the Tatmadaw (military), Myanmar Police Force and the Customs Department of Myanmar and drug control teams in neighbouring Thailand and China, anti-drug activities were met with success. As Myanmar could sign Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with regional countries and sub-regional countries, transnational drug dealers were arrested in Myanmar and it was a remarkable achievement of the drug control efforts of the country."
Yet as far back as March 2004, one distinguished former Wa leader told Perspective: "When foreign media or officials ask for the whereabouts of Wei, Bang Ron or any other major drug traffickers, the Burmese and Wa officials will say: 'No, we don't know, they are not in our area.' This is absolutely not true. They know exactly where they are."
Now, says the source, Wei is more powerful than ever before: "Since July 2006, when the UWSA appointed him to be in charge of finance, economy and collection of taxes, all trade in the Wa State, both legal and illegal, have been under his control."
Escaping Thai justice
Wei Hseuh-kang was born in China's Yunnan province on May 29, 1952, and granted Thai citizenship in 1985. He was arrested in Chiang Mai on November 23, 1988, following the seizure of 680 kilogrammes of heroin in southern Thailand the year before which was linked to him. Wei was sentenced to life imprisonment. He appealed the verdict and was granted bail under mysterious circumstances. He then fled to Burma. The Thai court overturned the previous verdict and sentenced him to death on October 24, 1990 in absentia.
After the National Citizenship Committee identified him as a threat to national security, the Interior Ministry revoked his Thai citizenship in July 2001.
Together with seven other ranking UWSA leaders, Wei was indicted by a federal grand jury in Brooklyn, New York, on charges of drug trafficking on January 24, 2005. Among the others indicted were his two brothers, Wei Hseuh-long and Wei Hseuh-ying, and also Pau Yu Chang.
In addition to the charges filed against him on that day, Wei also faces charges in the United States stemming from an indictment filed in 1993 in the Eastern District of New York for conspiring to distribute and import heroin into the US.
He was one of the first individuals designated by the United States in June 2000 as a "drug kingpin" pursuant to the 1999 Foreign Narcotic Designation Kingpin Act.
The US Department of State is curently offering a reward of up to $2 million (now about 64 million baht) for information leading to his arrest or conviction in the United States.
A Thai Muslim born in Bangkok in 1959, Bang Ron is Wei's best friend. He managed to escape arrest after some 750,000 methamphetamine pills were uncovered by the police at his home in Bangkok's Nong Chok district in 1998. He reportedly fled to Burma the same year.
Bang Ron tops the list of 110 most wanted Thai drug traffickers recently released by the Narcotic Suppression Bureau in Bangkok. The reward for his arrest is one million baht.
The Thai government has made requests on several occasions to their Burmese counterparts and the UWSA to arrest Wei and Bang Ron and extradite them to Thailand, but to no avail.
For example, in 1998 General Chettha Thanajaro, former Army chief and security adviser to former interior minister Sanan Kachornprasart, attempted to use his influence with the Burmese leadership to seek their help in apprehending Bang Ron.
In January 1999, Sorasit Sangprasert, then deputy secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotic Control Board, said: "Myanmar has agreed to help in the hunt for Surachai following an earlier official request from Thailand's narcotics chiefs."
In August of the same year, Police Lt-Gen Noppadol Somboonsap, then an assistant police chief, asked visiting Lt-Col Sit Aye, deputy director of Burma's Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control, to arrest and return Surachai.
In 2001 the Thai Army twice dispatched two high-ranking officers to Pang Sang to, in addition to other duties, locate both wanted men, arrest them and send to Thailand. A deputy-chairman of the UWSA government, Zaw Mai - now deceased - and Bo Lai Kham met with the Thai officers several times and flatly denied any knowledge of the two men.
And this is exactly what Pau Yu Chang told Lt-Gen Picharnmeth Muangmanee, then Third Army Commander, in January 2004 when the lt-gen asked him and several Burmese military officers to have Wei and Surachai arrested.
Multi-level security
Despite all the denials, another UWSA source has just revealed new and more personal information about Wei and Bang Ron, who he said are very close friends. They live, travel and do business together.
"Both live at Pang Poi, a small village located about 20 kilometres southwest of the Wa capital of Pang Sang. They also spend a few days each month at a still unfinished complex near Nar Lod village, situated about three kilometres northeast of the capital," the Wa source said.
"Wei Hseuh-long stays often at Nar Lod. It is convenient for him because he has to attend important meetings for senior UWSA leaders in Pang Sang."
The compounds at Pang Poi and Nar Lod are protected by Wei's own elite security force. Distinctive in their smart Thai-made uniforms, they number about 300 in all.
The source gave a detailed description of Pang Poi, which he said is under especially tight protection, similar to what might be given a head of state. A checkpoint is set up on the road a few kilometres before the village, manned by armed personnel. A second checkpoint is situated at the gate to the compound. A contingent of about 150 well-trained security personnel, armed with an array of sophisticated weaponry and equipment, including portable surface-to-air- missiles and night-vision devices, patrol the base and surrounding areas day and night.
A total of 220 people live in the compound that consists of four buildings made of stone and concrete and three huts. The main two-storey building is an office with lodging for officers and other staff. Three one-storey buildings accommodate security personnel. One of these is a training centre. There is also a car park.
The most vital and "off-limits" section of the base is a five-metre-deep concrete bunker which has five rooms. One room is occupied by Wei, one by his older brother Wei Hseuh-long and one by Bang Ron. Another room is an office and the last, located in another section, is a ya ba (methamphetamine) factory where the pills are stored as well.
The source said three of the rooms are three by three metres and two are six by six metres. Each room in the bunker has a toilet. The furnishings are rather ordinary, including beds, tables, chairs, cabinets, cooking facilities and refrigerators.
Several surface-to-air missiles are stored in the bunker along with other weapons such as M-16 assault rifles, US-made shotguns, ammunitions and night-vision devices.
Wei and Bang Ron maintain contact with the outside world with mobile, satellite and land phones.
One of the security measures is a tunnel around the bunker, about two metres deep, made as an escape route in case of emergency. It connects the three living quarters and the ya ba factory.
"If you look from the air, you will see only vegetables being grown above the bunker," said the source, adding: "Wei is secretive, security conscious and constantly on alert. He is aware that many people want to have him arrested or dead. He follows all the news and information about him and anything related to drugs in the region. He even cooks his own food to prevent being poisoned. No one dares to photograph him, which may explain why the same old two mugshots appear repeatedly in the media.
"He feels relatively safe in Pang Poi but is worried about being attacked from the air. That's why he bought the 10 anti-aircraft missiles, reportedly costing him 200,000 yuan (around one million baht) each."
According to the source, Wei is good looking and in good health, but has lost some weight lately. He is usually attired in a long-sleeve shirt with trousers and wears a bullet-proof vest. He can speak Burmese, Chinese, Shan and Thai, but no English.
He stays awake all night and goes to sleep at sunrise. He normally watches satellite TV, plays DVDs and reads books, rarely venturing outside the bunker. He likes to eat Chinese dishes and have a few drinks afterwards. He smokes cigarettes occasionally but doesn't take drugs. Three or four women who live in the compound visit him in his room from time to time. Wei has not been doing much travelling lately. He left the Wa State only once last year, in July, when he stayed for about a week in southern Shan State. He met his younger brother Wei Hseuh-ying there and made inquiries about the border situation with Thailand.
He was also seen once at a casino in Tachilek, a town located opposite Thailand's Chiang Rai province. He was accompanied by three bodyguards. They all appeared relaxed. It was confirmed then that Wei hasn't had cosmetic surgery done on his face, as has been rumoured for years.
Only a few of their most trusted aides know when Wei or Bang Ron will depart from Pang Poi and where they will go. Before they go anywhere, an advance team armed with assault rifles and radios will check the route.
The motorcade consists of a lead vehicle - a four-wheeled Japanese-made SUV full of security brandishing M-16 assault rifles and shotguns - followed by a large black American-made bullet-proof Jeep that carries Wei and Bang Ron.
"They do not always travel together," said the source who couldn't identify the model used to carry Wei and Bang Ron but described it as a "military style" vehicle. The third car is another SUV with more security personnel. Sometimes the escort consists of four or five vehicles with security people."
Wei bought the bullet-proof Jeep in China for 700,000 yuan (about 3.5 million baht). There are two more Jeeps like that in the Wa State, one of them used by Pau Yu Chang.
Wei and Bang Ron are always armed themselves, usually with shotguns made in the United States. Wei bought several of these from a Vietnamese drug gang. Their security people use bullets that will explode on impact. Wei prefers Russian or US-made weapons, while Pau likes Chinese-made.
"Wei and Bang Ron export drugs to other parts of Burma, as well as to Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. From there the drugs will be smuggled to other countries. Wei runs a well-oiled organisation and networks in those countries. People who are working for him are disciplined and have many resources and connections. He has his own smuggling routes and methods," said the source.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/060708_Perspective/06Jul2008_pers001.php
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Burma fair to muddling in wake of savage blow
Slow recovery… a woman wades through her village in the Irrawaddy Delta.
Photo: AFP
BOGALAY, Burma: Two months after a cyclone savaged the fertile Irrawaddy Delta, in Burma's south-west, the bones of drowned 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 homes. For shelter, they squeeze several families into a single tent. For drinking water, they collect monsoon rainwater that trickles off tarpaulin roof coverings into buckets or salvaged ceramic vases. For food, they cook communal meals with rice, beans and oil from hand-outs. Sometimes it is spoiled.
In one village, survivors kept up a steady pace of sawing and hammering at planks salvaged from the wreckage.
"To work is to be busy, and to be busy helps them forget," said Soe, the village leader.
He said 943 people used to live here. In the storm that came ashore the night of May 2, 660 of them disappeared. Across the vast, maze-like delta, an estimated 130,000 people were killed and 2.4 million affected.
Persistent obstruction by Burma's military rulers has kept aid at tragically meagre levels. International efforts to quickly dispatch emergency assistance were delayed as the xenophobic junta rebuffed offers of help, denied visas to foreign aid workers and required permits for travel within the country.
Aid workers say most survivors of tropical cyclone Nargis have received at least some help but 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, 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," Mr Soe said.
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 US sanctions because of his closeness to the 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, raising concerns the companies would collect payback in the form of land concessions.
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."
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 cancelled by an on-board military agent because flight co-ordinates submitted by UN workers were not clear, according to a staffer.
Last week, one ministry cancelled a program by the agency to give cash to survivors around Rangoon, even though another ministry had approved the plan days earlier.
Aid workers and diplomats say the problem at the lower levels is sometimes less wilful neglect than incompetence. 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. In one village, farmers who own two to four hectares apiece said they united to buy a tractor from officials in Bogalay. They will have to pay in instalments over three years, using rice seed and funds they do not yet have, they said.
The Sydney Morning Herald. / The Washington Post
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Construction sites abandoned in Naypyidaw
By MIN LWIN
Construction in Burma's capital, Naypyidaw, is practically at a standstill and many buildings have been left half-built as construction companies have relocated to the Irrawaddy delta to assist in rehabilitation efforts in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, according to residents from around Pyinmana and Naypyidaw in central Burma.
'All the construction projects were abandoned in accordance with the government's encouragement to assist with rehabilitation,' said an official from Naypyidaw City and Development Committee (NCDC) who did not want to be named. 'They moved to the delta and Rangoon to rebuild homes and reconstruct facilities.'Even the parliament building was abandoned,' he said.
Before the cyclone struck on May 2-3, many government buildings were under construction in Naypyidaw, as well as Yardaw Mingalar Market and Naypyidaw railway station.
Since the decision to relocate the Burmese capital from Rangoon in November 2005, construction in Naypyidaw had risen dramatically in reaction to the high demand for relocating government offices, accommodations for officials and other buildings to facilitate a burgeoning population.
However, since the second week of May, an estimated 80 percent of construction work has been relocated to cyclone-affected areas leaving workers in Naypyidaw jobless or forced to move with their construction companies.
Construction companies are paid per square foot by the financing government bank. All construction workers in Naypyidaw were paid the minimum 1,500 kyat ($1.25) a day.
A worker who is now looking for a job in Yadanabon Myothit, an aspiring town full of IT centers that was founded in 2006 near Mandalay, said, 'I moved to Yadanabon Myothit the second week in May. My boss couldn't offer me a job at a site in Naypyidaw.'
Construction workers would often go unpaid by their respective companies for several months in Naypyidaw, even through the work is laborious and sometimes dangerous, said the painter.
At least 25 companies and up to 80,000 construction workers from all over Burma had been working on the new capital.
'Big companies nowadays cannot get money from the government bank, so they have no money to pay the subcontractor,' a source close to a construction company said.
Some construction companies work on a subcontractor basis for the larger construction enterprises, such as Asia World and Htoo Ltd, which have received lucrative construction contracts from the government, she added.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MUMA-7G9938?OpenDocument
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Delta farmers’ woes continue
At least 70 percent of farmland in the Irrawaddy delta remains uncultivated, as an inadequate supply of suitable rice seeds and power tillers continues to beset efforts to plant before the beginning of the rainy season, according to local sources.
Farmers are in a race against time, as they say it will be impossible to plant after the middle of July, when the summer monsoon begins and fields fill with water. The planting season traditionally ends before the full-moon day of the lunar-calendar month of Waso, which marks the beginning of the Buddhist lent. This year, the day falls on July 17.
Two months after Cyclone Nargis, and with just two weeks to go before the end of the planting season, many farmers say they are still struggling with the loss of rice seeds and buffaloes.
Although some farmers have received new supplies of rice seeds from the government and private donors, they complain that they are not growing well in local soil.
'I planted these seeds but they won't grow,' said a farmer in the village of Pyin Sa Lu in Laputta Township. 'Time is running out. If I can't plant again soon, I will not be able to harvest in October.'
A farmer in Kungyangone, in Rangoon Division, also expressed concern about the quality of the rice seeds. 'In this region, we can only grow the variety of seed that we have always used. If we try to plant other kinds, we have a lot of problems and the rice is very poor quality,' he said.
According to data released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, 1,066,271 acres of farmland in Irrawaddy Division and 300,713 acres of farmland in Rangoon Division were destroyed by the tidal wave that followed Nargis Cyclone on May 2-3.
The statistics show over one million acres of cultivable lands were flooded with seawater and over 200,000 cattle were killed during the storm.
Meanwhile, the Myanmar Agricultural Development Bank plans to disburse a loan of over 441 million kyat (US $375,000) to farmers in Laputta Township. The Myanmar Agriculture Service also plans to provide paddy seeds and fertilizers to farmers in the storm-hit areas.
A volunteer from Pyapon Township said that power tillers have been supplied to devastated townships in Irrawaddy Division, including Ngaputtaw, Mawlamyinegyun and Bogalay.
'The Burmese government provided about 2,000 power tillers for farmers in the hardest-hit townships, but that's not enough to help farmers resume planting in time for the cultivation season,' he told The Irrawaddy on Friday. 'A lot more tillers are needed.'
The Agriculture Ministry has said 13,600 power tillers are needed to replace more than 280,000 cattle that died in the storm.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MUMA-7G98U5?OpenDocument
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Recent Burma News (06-07-08)
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