Myanmar intelligence chief wraps up Thailand visit
Myanmar intelligence chief wraps up Thailand visit
BANGKOK (AFP): Myanmar's powerful chief of military intelligence, Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, left Thailand Wednesday after a three-day trip aimed at smoothing over a row centered on border issues and the drugs trade.
Thai authorities clamped a heavy security presence around the junta number-three during the visit, fearful that exiled dissidents would embarrass the government by staging disruptive protests.
A major focus of the operation was the journey to King Bhumibol Adulyadej's seaside palace in Hua Hin, three hours drive south of Bangkok, where Khin Nyunt was granted a royal audience Tuesday.
According to the official itinerary which was confirmed by police, the intelligence chief was to travel in motorcade trailed overhead by a military helicopter as it skirted sensitive areas including a camp for exiled students.
But a Special Branch source said Wednesday that in fact Khin Nyunt had flown to Hua Hin in a C-130 military transport plane, and that the motorcade had driven south without him, before picking him up at the local airport and taking him to the place.
The press were barred from accompanying Khin Nyunt for much of his three-day program, where he met with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai.
Surakiart promised Wednesday to brief the press later in the day on progress made during the trip.
But Defense Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh -- who has close ties with Myanmar's junta -- was quoted as saying the old foes were "best friends" again after resolving the argument which raged for the first half of this year.
"I would like to repeat what I said 10 years ago (during a visit by former Myanmar leader Gen. Saw Maung) that our best friend is our neighbor. I have proven this," he told the Bangkok Post newspaper.
Chavalit told reporters that Khin Nyunt had briefed him on reconciliation talks between Yangon's ruling military and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.
"He told me that everything is very good (and) maybe we will have good news soon," Chavalit said at Bangkok's military airport after seeing the general off at the end of a three-day official visit intended to help improve relations between the two nations.
"He told me of the progress in national reconciliation. He told me he talked with Aung San Suu Kyi every two weeks... and they understand each other very well."
Khin Nyunt returned the sentiment, saying he viewed Chavalit as his "big brother".
"Coming to Thailand this time, I feel so good because of the warm welcome from Gen. Chavalit," he said of the former Thai army chief.
The comments were a far cry from the slurs and insults the countries exchanged earlier this year, as they accused each other of involvement in the rampant drugs trade along their common border.
The row was set off in March when the two national armies staged a half-day clash after becoming embroiled in fighting between rival ethnic militias accused of involvement in drug trafficking.
Thaksin's inaugural visit to Myanmar in June largely defused the argument and Chavalit has since declared that relations are "back to normal".