Asia Times: Rangoon's siege mentality chills Thai-Burma ties



	October 09, 1999	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Rangoon's siege mentality chills Thai-Burma ties
By Johanna Son

BANGKOK - Thai-Burma ties have chilled after last week's hostage-taking episode by Burmese dissidents at Rangoon's embassy here, but analysts do not expect the strain to do permanent damage.

For now, though, the diplomatic fallout from the October 1 siege at the Burmese embassy compound, carried out by five armed Burmese dissidents in a 25-hour incident, is likely to play out fully.

Though expressing relief that the incident ended without bloodshed, Burma has lambasted Thailand for what it calls a security lapse, and the Thai interior minister's labeling of the hostage-takers as ''students fighting for democracy'' rather than ''terrorists''.

The crisis was resolved after Thai officials provided a helicopter that ferried the rebels, who called themselves the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors, to the Thai-Burmese border in western Ratchaburi province in exchange for the release of 38 people held at the embassy in downtown Bangkok. Deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumband Paribatra traveled with the rebels in place of the hostages.

Since last Friday, Burma has closed border crossings with Thailand, with which it shares a 2,400 km border. It has also revoked concessions for Thai fishermen allowed to fish in Burmese waters. The moves have largely frozen what is normally flourishing cross-border trade.

For its part, the Thai government has responded to criticism by Rangoon that it had been too lenient with the hostage-takers by saying it put the lives of hostages, many of whom had been in the embassy to get visas, first. Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai on Thursday complained that Burmese leader Gen Than Shwe had the previous day sent a note lauding the peaceful resolution of the crisis due to Thai officials' ''tireless efforts''.

But in Rangoon, state media warned that ties would suffer if Bangkok did not do more to control Burmese inside its territory, prompting Chuan to say Rangoon was thanking Bangkok on one hand and criticizing on the other.

The current tension might cause some short-term disruption but is unlikely to hobble relations for too long. Official visits might ease off for now. Than Shwe visited Thailand in April, but last week's crisis makes a quick return visit by Chuan difficult.

In many ways, ''Burma has no way out'' and cannot afford a serious row with Thailand, says Apichart Suttiwong, a Chiang Mai-based writer who has followed Burmese exile activity for many years. Burma remains the object of criticism by many foreign countries and it needs the acceptance accorded it by ties with its neighbors who helped bring it into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Thailand and Burma's economic ties also run deep, whether in terms of daily cross-border links or in what critics have called ''underground'' dealings in the border areas. Deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand said he hoped ''normalcy would return as soon as possible because those who suffer are people making their day to day living''.

The freeze on Thai trawlers operating in Burmese waters hurts both sides. Fisheries associations say some 400 Thai trawlers pay up to $10,000 in monthly license fees to the Burmese, who also collect taxes on fish catch.

Up north in the Mai Sai border district in Chiang Rai province, local media quoted the area's chief, Thavorn Cherdphan, as saying the closure could not last long because the Burmese on their side of the border ''have started running out of consumer goods and business is much less active because Thai visitors cannot cross the border''.

Activist groups also fear political fallout from the hostage incident, saying there could be a backlash against exiled Burmese. Under pressure, Thailand has had to take a tougher line. On Thursday night, Sukhumbhand said Thailand would try to ''exert more control over most of the 2,000 [Burmese] students'' in the country in the wake of the embassy incident. But he said Thailand would not change its policy of ''offering temporary shelter to those displaced by war or domestic problems in neighboring countries''.

(Inter Press Service)

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©1999 Asia Times Online Co., Ltd.