Thai PM to forge ties with Myanmar

Thai PM to forge ties with Myanmar

BANGKOK (Reuter): Thai prime minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh's
visit to Myanmar later this week will focus on bilateral issues
aimed at strengthening relations between the neighboring
countries, government officials said yesterday.

Officials said Chavalit was not expected to make any major
deals with Yangon during his May 16 to May 17 visit and will only
sign an agreement on border crossings between the two nations.

Thailand's army commander-in-chief, Gen. Chettha Tanajaro,
said Chavalit would also raise the issue of the 700,000 illegal
Myanmar workers in Thailand.

"I proposed to the prime minister he give priority to the
problem of illegal workers in Thailand," Chettha said. "This is
an important issue which will affect our national security in the
future."

One issue of contention between the two nations has been the
flow of refugees into Thailand -- mostly due to clashes between
Yangon's troops and ethnic rebels near the border areas.

"Yangon always says that it will take those people only after
Thailand can prove that they are Myanmar nationals. But how can
we prove that since those people never have proper documents?" an
official said.

There are an estimated 100,000 Myanmar refugees living in
sprawling camps near the border in western Thailand.

Chavalit, a general and former Thai army chief, said after
becoming prime minister in November that he wanted to talk to
Myanmar's military government about Yangon's human rights
situation.

The Thai premier, who has close ties to Myanmar's generals,
said then that he wanted to tell leaders of the State Law and
Order Restoration Council the world had changed and it was time
to change with it.

Chavalit was also likely to voice his support for Myanmar's
entry into the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN),
officials said.

His visit to Myanmar was postponed from earlier this month
because the timing did not suit Yangon.

The announcement of the postponement came shortly after the
United States imposed economic sanctions on Myanmar in April,
banning all new American investment in the country, in
condemnation of what it said was Yangon's poor human rights
record and its repression of the democracy movement.

The United States is also lobbying ASEAN members to drop the
plan to accept Myanmar as a full member later this year.