Over 761 kilograms of heroin and several tablets of Amphetamine tablets were seized by the Burmese authorities from a Thai-Burma border town of Tachileik

Huge heroin haul in Tachileik
by Nem Davies
Friday, 17 July 2009 21:44

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Over 761 kilograms of heroin and several tablets of Amphetamine tablets were seized by the Burmese authorities from a Thai-Burma border town of Tachileik in eastern Shan State on July 10, according to the state-run media.

The junta’s mouthpiece, the ‘New Light of Myanmar’ newspaper on Thursday said, 340,000 tablets of Amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) along with 761 kilograms of heroin were seized when the special task force to check narcotic drugs searched a Tachileik bound Nissan 6-wheel car coming from Mai Sat at the Lwe Taw Kham combined checkpoint.

It was learnt that 1281 pressed blocks (448.35 Kg) of heroin were hidden in 13 cardboard boxes tucked inside 10 polythene bags, and another 896 pressed-blocks (313.6 Kg) of heroin were found hidden inside seven polythene bags and three steel trunks. ATS tablets with WY label were found inside the two polythene bags, the paper said.

This is the biggest haul after 38 kilograms of heroin were found hidden inside teak logs from a cargo vessel in the Asia World port terminal in Rangoon in January.

Sein Kyi, an editor of the Chiang Mai based Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN), said it is the biggest ever seizure of heroin on the Thai-Burma border road.

“Previous seizures of heroin were about 200-300 kilograms. We can say this is the biggest ever seizure of heroin,” said Sein Kyi, who has been monitoring drug trafficking along the Thai-Burma border.

“Drugs are usually trafficked to Laos and to other places via the golden triangle,” he added.

The authorities allowed Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyers Nyan Win, Kyi Win, Hla Myo Myint and Khin Htay Kywe inside Insein prison, where they had parleys on the final arguments to be submitted to the District Court on July 24. They discussed the legalities for over two hours.

Aung San Suu Kyi meets lawyers to discuss final stages of trial
by Phanida
Friday, 17 July 2009 22:12

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Burma’s democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi met her legal team on Friday, to discuss the final arguments of her trial in Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison.

The authorities allowed Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyers Nyan Win, Kyi Win, Hla Myo Myint and Khin Htay Kywe inside Insein prison, where they had parleys on the final arguments to be submitted to the District Court on July 24. They discussed the legalities for over two hours.

“We discussed the second draft of our final argument and decided on areas to delete or modify,” Nyan Win, a member of Aung San Suu Kyi’s legal team told Mizzima.

He said they had drafted a 23-page final argument to be submitted in court in defense of the Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate.

Aung San Suu Kyi said the charges against her were unacceptable as no security personnel had been arrested for dereliction of duty for they could not deter and detect the intrusion in a high security area, by an American man John William Yettaw, Nyan Win quoted her as saying.

The Burmese pro-democracy leader was charged and put on trial for violating her detention rules by ‘harbouring’ Yettaw, who swam across the Inya Lake and secretly entered her lakeside home in early May 2009.

Nyan Win said the health of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her two live-in party mates – Khin Khin Win and her daughter Win Pa Pa – is fine.

On July 10, the special court in Insein Prison heard the testimony of Khin Moe Moe, the second defence witness of Aung San Suu Kyi and fixed the hearing of the final argument for July 24.

11 Burma Army soldiers were killed in an ambush staged by the anti-Naypyitaw Shan State Army (SSA) ‘South’ on 15 July in southern Shan State, according to SHAN sources.

11 soldiers killed in rebel ambush
FRIDAY, 17 JULY 2009 17:27 HSENG KHIO FAH
11 Burma Army soldiers were killed in an ambush staged by the anti-Naypyitaw Shan State Army (SSA) ‘South’ on 15 July in southern Shan State, according to SHAN sources.

Patrolling Burmese soldiers from Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) #515 based in Laikha was attacked by the SSA fighters between Hsa Lay and Namphart villages, Mongyai village tract, Mongnawng sub-township, Kehsi Township, in the morning on that day.

The SSA confirmed that the attack was launched by a unit of its fighters Awng Pay Hseuk Force, under the command of Lt-Col Pawng Kherh because it could no longer tolerate the Army’s excesses.

The said Burmese soldiers had been patrolling in the area in cooperation with Major Sai Ta from Namhu militia whose leader Moeng Zeun was killed on 24 May. The group has been harassing local villagers such as taking villagers’ livestock, money and luxury items and some villagers were physically abused, said Sai Hseng Merng, the deputy SSA spokesperson.

The Burma Army lost 11 while another one was captured and their weapons were seized by the attackers. Among the casualties were 7 non-commissioned officers and 4 privates. Their names were not identified.

There were no casualties on the SSA side. The attack was 7 hours long from 11:00 to 18:00.

Statement on Drug Problems 1 by RCSS (Shan)

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From Golden Triangle to Rubber Belt

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Vice Snr Gen Maung Aye, number two in the Burmese military junta hierarchy, is likely to wind up his visit to Shan State on Friday, sources in the army said.

by Mizzima News
Friday, 17 July 2009 13:26

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Vice Snr Gen Maung Aye, number two in the Burmese military junta hierarchy, is likely to wind up his visit to Shan State on Friday, sources in the army said.

During the week-long visit, which began on Monday, on top of Maung Aye’s agenda was the issue of transforming ethnic ceasefire armed groups into a Border Guard Force.

Maung Aye arrived in May Myo on Thursday and is expected to return to Naypyitaw shortly.

Deputy PM Sanan: A(H1N1) virus in Thailand seems unstoppable

BANGKOK, July 17 (TNA) – Deputy Prime Minister Sanan Kajornprasart said on Friday the A(H1N1) virus seems to be an unstoppable pandemic in Thailand as the number of patients contracting the disease kept rising, but he encouraged the public to have hope that it can be prevented from worsening and that they can avoid contracting the virus by practicing precautions.

While polls show that some 80 per cent of Thais fear the virus, and Thai traditional herbal medicine was popular as medication preventing swine flu contraction.

Gen. Sanan said he believed the pandemic will not affect the stability of the government, as it is now doing its best to fight against the flu.

The outbreak has nothing to do with political issues, he said.

The government also encouraged the public to make their own reusable masks, as sanitary masks are now reported to be sold overpriced at Bt15 from the Bt1.5 production cost.

Meanwhile, a recent Suan Dusit Poll of 1,194 respondents indicated that 82 per cent said the viral flu situation in the country was frightening due to its rapid spread, while 18 per cent said the flu was not fearsome, especially to those taking good care of themselves.

Concerning the 15-day closure of tutorial schools, almost 70 per cent said the measure did not rightfully fix the problem, while about one-third (30 per cent) thought it helped reduce the fast spread of the virus at a certain level.

Nearly two-thirds — 60 per cent — thought Thailand should more quickly produce its own vaccines against the Influenza A(H1N1) virus.

Meanwhile, ‘Fa Talai Jone’ or the Kariyat Thai herbal medicine is now popular among Thais who believe that it is useful in preventing the contraction of the virus.

According to Dr. Supaporn Pitiporn, herbal expert from Chaophaya Abhaibhubejhr Hospital in eastern Thailand’s Prachin Buri province, Fa Talai Jone has been sold at over 50 dozen packages daily, from only a few dozen daily, after the flu outbreak, thanks to its properties to stop the flu virus action in the body as well as preventing the virus from attaching to cell wall.

Dr. Supaporn said the hospital has now about one tonne or 2 million tablets of Kariyat in stock. (TNA)

NCGUB Trial Update – 1-16 June

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Case is “totally unfair,” says Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi feels the junta’s latest case against her, which may see her behind bars for five years, is ‘totally unfair,’ one of her lawyers said Friday.
Suu Kyi stands accused of allowing US national John William Yettaw to swim to her lakeside house-cum-prison on May 3 and stay there uninvited until swimming away on the night of May 5.
She has been accused of breaking the terms of her detention for allowing Yettaw, a member of the Mormon sect who reportedly wanted to warn Suu Kyi of an assassination plot against her, to enter her compound without informing authorities.
Nyan Win, one of Suu Kyi’s legal team, met with the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Friday to brief her on the defence’s closing argument which will be heard in court on July 24.
Suu Kyi’s legal team has argued that Yettaw first tried to contact her in November, last year, to pass over a copy of the Book of Mormon, in an incident that was reported by Suu Kyi to authorities.
‘Daw (Mrs) Aung San Suu Kyi reported to authorities but nobody came into her house and no questions were asked at all about that,’ Nyan Win said. ‘She said it was totally unfair that government accused her of not cooperating with authorities,’ Nyan Win said.
Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) opposition party, was serving an indefinite detention period in her Yangon family compound when Yettaw performed his swimming feat.
On May 27, Myanmar authorities announced that her six-ear detention had expired. But now she faces a three-to-five-year prison sentence if found guilty of breaking the terms of that detention.
Suu Kyi’s trial began in a special court set up in Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison on May 11.
Critics have accused the military junta of using the case as a pretext to keep Suu Kyi in jail during a politically sensitive period leading up to a general election planned for next year.
Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention.
Suu Kyi’s NLD won the 1990 general election by a landslide but has been blocked from power by Myanmar’s junta for the past 19 years.
The new trial of Suu Kyi has sparked a chorus of protests from world leaders and even statements of concern from its regional allies in the Association of South-East Asian Nations.

dpa

NKorea, Myanmar loom over Asian security forum

Bangkok (AFP) July 17, 2009
North Korea’s nuclear programme and Myanmar’s rights record are set to dominate Asia’s largest security forum next week, as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton makes her debut at the meeting.
Foreign ministers at the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum in the Thai resort island of Phuket are also expected to discuss the region’s economy and joint action on tackling swine flu.

Thousands of troops and police will throw a ring of steel around the isle for the July 19-23 meeting to prevent a repeat of anti-government protests that forced the abandonment of a separate Asian summit in Thailand in April.

“During the meetings ministers will exchange views on the situation on the Korea peninsula,” Thai foreign ministry official Vitavas Srivihok said last week.

But he said North Korea’s foreign minister had declined to attend and would instead send an ambassador at large to the meeting of 10 ASEAN members plus 16 dialogue partners including the United States, China, Japan and South Korea.

Regional tensions have soared since the North quit six-nation talks on nuclear disarmament and vowed to restart its atomic weapons programme in the wake of its recent defiant nuclear test and missile launches.

Foreign ministers from all six parties will be in Phuket except North Korea.

The US State Department has been coy on whether Clinton would meet any North Korean delegates in Phuket, but spokesman Ian Kelly said last week that “I imagine that North Korea will be a topic at the ASEAN meeting.”

Clinton, who leaves Washington for Mumbai on Thursday, will come to Phuket from India. She travelled to Asia in February on her first trip as secretary of state, visiting Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China.

In Phuket, Clinton will hold an unprecedented three-way meeting with her counterparts from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia to discuss health and environmental issues concerning the Mekong river.

The forum will also face the perennial challenge of military-ruled Myanmar, which has sparked international outrage by putting pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi on trial over an incident in which an American man swam to her lakeside house.