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".