Rangoon denial can get nowhere
The Bangkokpost (26-03-02)
This newspaper is pleased to be criticised again for upsetting one of the world's most restrictive regimes. The dictators of Rangoon singled out the Bangkok Post for the serious offence of reporting the news. A front page story last week noted that senior United States officials have listed the Wa State United Army as a major drug cartel. They also have identified drug trafficking as a source of funds for terrorists. This did not sit well with the military rulers.
The Bangkok Post has upset successive military dictators in Burma, as well as Thailand. Indeed, the reputation of this newspaper in Burma has always been high among the Burmese for the past 40 years precisely for accurate reporting. Autocrats in Burma continue to ban this newspaper and others, on the grounds the truth will cause unrest. This is impossible in Burma, where unrest seethes just below the repressed surface.
It is obvious why the reports on the new US foreign policy bothered Rangoon so much. The war on terrorism, launched on September 11, seeks wide justice for the victims from nearly 100 nations. It seeks security for everyone. The US has led a fight to destroy the base of the terrorists, and to dislodge the regime that supported it. Now, the hard part of the fight has begun, and it correctly embraces a battle to find, fix and destroy all violent, cross-border crime and thus there is a new and more urgent focus on Burma's Wa group.
Most people in Thailand believe it is about time. Patience has worn thin. Even those who claimed it is better to engage Burma are starting to feel betrayed. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, due for a visit to Rangoon, flew to Mexico instead. Even though European diplomats visited Burma, Mr Thaksin didn't think twice about cancelling his visit, supposedly because of confusion over the coup in Rangoon. To make matters worse, Burma ordered the UN negotiator to stay out for at least a month, setting talks with democratic forces even further back. Neither of these cancellations appeared to upset Burma.
There is no sign, sadly, that any Burmese generals are concerned very much at all about the outside world. Two weeks after they supposedly crushed a rebellion by the family of Ne Win, the explanations offered by the generals are risible. By their own accounts, the regime has captured one firearm, a stock of berets and a well-known fortune teller. One can accept the arrogant family of the ex-dictator Ne Win was a troublesome risk to law and order in Burma. The justification for claiming they were a threat to the military dictatorship has not yet appeared. Of course, the Rangoon junta will fall, probably violently, and the abusive family of the former tyrant will pay for their crimes. More troublesome is that the junta is making up reasons for failing to fight its home-grown, international criminal gang. The actions of the Wa-directed, government-supported drug traffickers threaten the Burmese and all their neighbours. The regime also refuses to deal seriously with the democratic forces in Burma.
The dictators are deep in denial and searching for scapegoats. They denied last week the Wa were terrorists. No one said they were, only that major drug trafficking is a serious, world threat on a par with terrorists. Scapegoats range from the Ne Win family to the US State Department to the Bangkok Post and The Nation newspapers.
Burma last week attacked Thailand for supporting drug gangs, including some it said are run by men in uniform. This is laughable, from a regime that supports drug trafficker Khun Sa, does business with money launderer Lo Hsing-han, and sponsors the biggest drug trafficking gang in the history of Asia. Thailand and the world have the right to demand that Rangoon get serious.