Burma Update

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/read.php?newsid=30021541


Tak - Border patrol police found 41 Burmese men and women being smuggled into the country in the tank of a oil tanker trailer.

The BPP officers in Tha Song Yang district stopped a 18-wheel lorry on the Mae Sot-Tak Road at 4 am and found that the Burmese people were hiding inside the oil tank of the trailer.

BPP Taskforce 344 commander Pol Maj Rangsiman Songkloh said the Burmese looked very exhausted.

Police arrested the driver, Thapthim Srimuang, 40, and his companion, Don Tunpakdee, 37.

The two admitted that they were hired to smuggle the Burmese people in at the rate of Bt4,000 to Bt5,000 per head. They had taken the Burmese from a border area in Mae Sot.

The Nation 15 Dec.06

The International Labour Organization on Wednesday called on Thailand to improve legal protection for migrant workers, after its research found significant abuse of young foreign labourers here.

The report, by the ILO and Bangkok's Mahidol University, uncovered human rights violations including physical assault, forced labour, children working in hazardous environments, and routine psychological and verbal abuse.

Thai employers prefer immigrant workers and child migrants said ILO consultant Elaine Pearson, who conducted the research. She said this was "due to availability in the market and (they are) easier to control".

She added: "Our recommendations are improvements of labour protection law enforcement to end abuses by employers, and a complaint mechanism for migrants who are abused."

More than one million migrant workers are thought to be living in Thailand, with many working in the kingdom illegally.

Most of the migrant workforce comes from Myanmar and the rest from Cambodia and Laos. About 20 per cent are children aged 15 to 17, the report said.

Pearson said that many Thai employers thought that the migrants should not have the same rights as Thais, with some foreign labourers being locked up at night to prevent their escape.

The research also uncovered cases of employers withholding migrants' legal documents and said most workers were paid below the legal minimum wage.

The findings underline "an urgent need for effective labour inspection", particularly in work sectors involving children under the age of 18, the report said.

The ILO called for action by the Thai government, Thai police, workers and employers' organisations both in Thailand and abroad.

Agence France-Presse 15 Dec.06

The Thai government's current position regarding Burma is humiliating. It is hard to believe that the so-called new "ethical diplomacy" (khunna dharma), which was pronounced by Prime Minister Surayud Chulanond, will include helping Burma to withstand increasing international condemnation and the upcoming debates at the United Nations Security Council.

By following the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' recommendations at this juncture, the Surayud government is approaching Burma as if it has been kept in a time warp. Since the coup, the ministry has urged the government to stick to the past policy on Burma to maintain continuity and the country's creditability in Asean and the international community. The ministry's die-hard supporters believe that this policy will eventually allow Thailand to rejuvenate the Bangkok Process, which began in earnest in 2003, as a way to engage Burma, with Thailand as a facilitator. But the process has flopped, as many regional players find the host has conflicts of interest and is not an honest broker.

During the interim period of the Surayud government, it seems that Thailand will assist Burma to weather the storm in the UN Security Council by derailing the debates. The world body's assertive attitude toward Burma since the middle of last year has been attributed in part to the lack of solidarity among Asean members. And so it might seem the Foreign Ministry could try and push Asean members into once again uniting behind the pariah state.

In other words, the Foreign Ministry would like to turn back the clock to pre-December 1997, when Asean leaders acted and talked as if they were a pack of wolves in response to Western criticism of Burma's planned admission as an Asean member.

Asean was forced to take sides by backing Burma without reservation. Asean's solidarity was pitched against the West. Failure to admit Burma at that crucial time would have been construed as weakness - the triumph of Western values over the Asean way. To resort to the same strategy now smacks of wishful thinking.

Almost 10 years have elapsed and the ministry wants to restore this position and forge a common Asean stand on Burma - to fight the Security Council, in other words, which means essentially taking a stand against the West. The Bush administration has succeeded in pushing the Burma issue onto the Security Council's agenda, with the assistance of the majority of the Council's members. Since last December there have been three briefings by Ibrahim Gambari, the UN under-secretary for political affairs. In the future, the US is expected to submit a resolution on Burmese drug trafficking and internal displaced persons. This would reduce the threat caused by Burma to international peace and security. But there was nothing about sanctions, although that kind of punishment might certainly come in the near future.

Last week the General Assembly Committee of the UN passed a resolution criticising Burma's worsening human rights record. The resolution specifically said that the junta refused to investigate widespread abuses such as summary executions, torture, forced labour, sexual violence and the recruitment of child soldiers. Burma has recruited an estimated 50,000 child soldiers, one of the biggest armies of children in the world. Ludicrously, as the isolation of Burma at the UN increases, Thailand, with its own post-coup problems, has the audacity to come out on behalf of Burma. Worse still, this comes at a time when most Asean members have shunned the country.

Over the past two years Asean politicians and coalition groups on Burma have been active in pushing the Burma issue on to national agendas. Former Asean supporters of Burma's membership in 1997 such as Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia have now become very critical of Rangoon's intransigence.

The current Thai policy on Burma must be its last hurrah if it remains unchanged. Government House and the Foreign Ministry have said very little about what transpired during the one-day trip to Burma made last week by Prime Minister Surayud. If the above recommendations were raised and pledged to Burma, it will have disastrous consequences on Thailand's diplomatic reputation.

During the past five years, the Thaksin government was the biggest supporter of the Burmese regime. Asean's growing intolerance of Burma's stubbornness forced Burma to relinquish its role of host to the 2005 Asean ministerial meeting. The Thaksin government then hardened its policy towards Burma - from an earlier reluctance to back the UN Council's debate to a willingness to abstain from the debate and resolution. The latter was due to the ministry's lobbying effort for the UN secretary-general's job, which was eventually won by South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon. Now it seems Thailand is returning to square one on its Burmese policy again.

It is hard to understand why the ministry is so adamant in defending Burma at all costs, even though it is now under the Surayud government. The reasons why the ministry has walked its cats backwards could be unfinished business deals or other concessions which involve Thai authorities and businessmen (from the previous government). These people do not want to abandon the pro-Burmese policy and their concessions. The other reason could be that the new Foreign Ministry team are trying to maintain the status quo. It will be a huge failure if the ministry treats the one year it has in office to re-affirm the old rotten policies towards Burma rather than address new challenges at the UN.

Kavi Chongkittavorn