Myanmar issues protest to Thailand

Myanmar issues protest to Thailand

BANGKOK (AP): Myanmar's Foreign Ministry has summoned Thailand's ambassador in Yangon to protest over what it said was an unprovoked attack by the Thai Navy on one of its patrol boats, the ministry said on Friday.

Thai naval officials, however, said the Myanmar vessel opened fire first with machine guns after a Thai patrol boat answered a distress call from two fishing trawlers whose crew said the Myanmar ship was chasing them.

The clash took place in the Andaman Sea near Ranong, where Myanmar's southernmost tip converges with peninsular Thailand.

Thailand and Myanmar, also known as Burma, are neighbors with a long history of tension and mistrust.

Following the skirmish, Thai naval officials said they dispatched the warship Chao Phraya to the area to support its patrol boats, while Myanmar sent 10 ships as reinforcement.

The disputed waters in the area have been the site of several recent skirmishes between Thai and Myanmar vessels, with both countries claiming the other's fishermen are poaching in their waters.

Myanmar's Foreign Ministry said its patrol boat, the Yan Naing 510, was well inside the Myanmar waters," at the time of the incident.

The Thai Navy disagreed, and the Bangkok Post printed a map which purportedly shows the site of the clashes were in Thai waters.

Thai naval sources said they thought the incidents stemmed from the fact that Myanmar uses British charts of the area, while Thailand uses French, and the maritime boundaries are different on the different charts, according to the Post.

The Myanmar ministry said its country's ship was on a routine patrol in the area when it was fired upon.

The Thai Navy said it thought three Myanmar crew were killed and the ship significantly damaged, but the ministry statement acknowledged no casualties and said damage was minor.

"During the incident, (the) Myanmar vessel did not retaliate in the spirit of friendly relations between the two countries and also to avoid further aggravation," the ministry said.

Meanwhile, working with local police, the Thai military has arrested six armed men from Myanmar believed to be intelligence officers for their country's government, local papers reported on Friday.

The six were arrested at house in Kanchanaburi in western Thailand, not far from the Myanmar border, and were being kept in custody on a military base, the paper said.

Military personnel said one of those detained had been identified as Yang Chu, whom they said was a captain in the Myanmar intelligence service.

"We believe they are spies, but can't say that officially for fear that it may affect relations with Myanmar," Gen. Sanchai Ratchawan of the Ninth Infantry was quoted by the Post as saying.

Myanmar's military government did not immediately respond to the accusations.