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.