Junta takes action against bush burners

No.18 - 3/2007
28 March 2007
Environment
 
Junta takes action against bush burners
 
Some 60 swidden farmers are being held at police stations in eastern Shan State following the order from Lt-Gen Kyaw Win, who visited the area, 12-17 March, according to sources coming to the border.
 
Visitors saw farmers being detained at Talerh, 48km north of Tachilek, and Kenglarb, another 46 km further north. They had been charged of polluting the environment.
 
If Thai authorities, worried by the relentless thick haze in the north, are going to welcome the Burmese action with open arms, it would be certainly be premature, according to an official source. "When Gen Kyaw Win issued the border, he wasn't thinking of the widespread pain and suffering in Chiangmai, Chiangrai and Maehongson," he told S.H.A.N. "He was frustrated and angry that he wasn't able to fly back and forth between Kengtung and Tachilek during his stay."
 
Lt-Gen Kyaw Win, who oversees operations in Shan and Kayah states, was instead forced to travel by car between the two cities, a distance of 160 km.
 
Regular flights to and from Tachilek had reportedly been hampered by heavy smog.
 
A further question is how long the ban on brush burning is going to take. "Both the local military and police say they have no idea," said a local USDA (military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Association) member. "And if we are going to be allowed to burn after Songkran (annual water throwing festival in mid April), it'll be too late for planting the next season's crop." 

"What the junta should do is seeking other alternatives, for instance, aerial rain-making like Thailand instead of bullying the peasants, whom they say are the life and blood of the country," he concluded.
 
Burma and Laos had agreed to look into the haze problem during the Asean ministerial level meeting in Brunei earlier this month, reported Bangkok Post yesterday.