Thai electricity running Myanmar drug plants: General
Thai electricity running Myanmar drug plants: General
BANGKOK (Reuters): A Thai general called on Monday for Thailand to stop selling electricity to military-ruled Myanmar, saying Myanmar authorities were supplying the power to drug factories.
Lt. Gen. Wattanachai Chaimuanwong told a radio station electricity Thailand was supplying to the northeast Myanmar border town of Tachilek was powering machines for making methamphetamines run by an ethnic minority militia group.
"Of course, they (the Myanmar militia group) power their drug- making machines with electricity, otherwise they can't make 700 to 800 million tablets (a year). Therefore Thailand should stop selling electricity to Myanmar," Wattanachai said.
Wattanachai, often a vocal critic of the Myanmar military, is commander of Thailand's third army region which includes the northern border with Myanmar.
His remarks, analysts said, could lead to a new round in a war of words between the neighbors, who share a 2,400 km border.
Clashes between Thai and Myanmar border forces erupted in February but tension was eased somewhat by regional-level talks between the two sides earlier this month.
Thailand, once notorious for being a major conduit and supplier of heroin, now faces a growing problem with methamphetamines, produced, officials say, by the United Wa State Army (UWSA), a Myanmar's ethnic minority militia force based in Shan State.
Wattanachai said Thai electricity supplied to Tachilek was being passed on to UWSA headquarters in Mong Yawn, 80 km southwest of Tachilek.
Floods of pills
Thai drug suppression agencies estimate the number of methamphetamine stimulant tablets, known in its crystallized form in the West as "ice," flowing into Thailand this year would leap to 800 million pills from 500 million in 2000.
The UWSA was formed by ethnic Wa fighters who mutinied against their leaders in the anti-government Communist Party of Burma in 1989, set up their own force and then signed a ceasefire pact with Yangon.
The UWSA, granted a degree of autonomy under the deal with Yangon, has helped the Myanmar army in its fight against separatist Shan guerrillas. But the Yangon government says it has no control over its ally.
Last week Thai forces in the northern border town of Mae Sai, opposite Tachilek, blocked a convoy of trucks carrying lignite power generation equipment from China, from crossing into Myanmar. It released them on Sunday.
Some Thai officials have said they believe the equipment is bound for the UWSA, while others have said they were concerned about pollution from a power plant affecting communities on the Thai side of the border.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told reporters on Monday he was concerned electricity from the new plant would accelerate methamphetamine production and supply to Thailand. "I am concerned about that," he said.
Thaksin has said Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai will raise the power plant issue during a two-day visit to Myanmar starting on May 1.
Yangon on Monday denied allegations that the new power plant belonged to the UWSA and said a halt to the sale of electricity would be bad for the local economy.
"The power plant has nothing to do with the United Wa State Army...(but belongs) to a private company called the Golden Triangle Hydro Power Public Co Ltd," a Myanmar military government spokesman told Reuters.
He said the 12-megawatt lignite-powered plant was designed to "minimize environmental pollution" and would not increase drug manufacturing in the area.
"A power plant is not necessary for methamphetamine production," he said adding the drugs could be produced in a small, remote factory.