Thai PM cancels trip to Myanmar

Thai PM cancels trip to Myanmar

Reuters, Bangkok

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has canceled a visit to a drug-producing region in neighboring Myanmar after Thai intelligence officials cited security concerns.

Thaksin, who has waged a bloody war against drugs in his own country, and Myanmar Prime Minister Khin Nyunt had been due to visit Yong Kha village on Friday where a Thai-sponsored farming scheme aims to shift farmers away from drug production.

"With all the reasons, I'd better attend my party seminar," Thaksin said on Tuesday, referring to a meeting of his ruling Thai Rak Thai party on Friday.

Thaksin did not explain his decision, but on Monday he had cited Thai intelligence reports suggesting that the area was unsafe to visit.

The village, about eight km (five miles) from the northern Thai-Myanmar border, is in an area controlled by the United Wa State Army, former rebels in eastern Myanmar's Shan State allied with the military junta in Yangon since 1989.

"I don't think the prime minister should go, it does not provide us a comfortable feeling," said Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, who is in charge of security affairs.

Thailand has singled out the Wa as the sole producer of methamphetamine. Thai anti-drug authorities say one billion pills of the stimulant drug flood into Thailand each year.

Thaksin said in March his life was in danger because drug kingpins in the Wa area were enraged by his bloody war on drugs.

Thai newspapers then quoted unnamed security sources as saying the drug lords had offered a bounty of 80 million baht to assassinate him.

In August, Thaksin became embroiled in a war of words with Myanmar authorities after he ordered Thai troops to kill Myanmar traffickers crossing the border and accused Yangon of ignoring the problem.

Relations between the neighbors and historic enemies have occasionally deteriorated over Thai complaints about what it sees as Myanmar's failure to act on drugs, and Yangon's accusations that Thailand backs rebels fighting the junta.

Myanmar authorities said Khin Nyunt would send deputy ministers and an army commander of the region there to welcome a similar Thai delegation. "Prime Minister Khin Nyunt's planned visit to Yong Kha has been canceled," a Myanmar anti-drugs official told reporters.

Thailand has followed a policy of engagement with Yangon's generals in recent years and opposed Western sanctions against the junta over its lack of progress toward democracy and the detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Thaksin has pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and loans to Myanmar, and helped to broker talks between the government and other rebel groups.

Last week, Thailand brought together a dozen countries to hear Myanmar explain its plan to bring democracy to a country ruled by the military since 1962.

But Yangon's pledge at the meeting to embark on a "road map to democracy" next year drew skepticism from diplomats and the opposition.