Junta Officials Demanding 20 million Payoff To Open Border

Junta Officials Demanding 20 million Payoff To Open Border

A businessman from Thailand told S.H.A.N. yesterday that local junta officials are demanding a sum of 20 million baht payoff in order to reopen the border between Burma's Shan State and Thailand's Chiangrai. 

The businessman, who is currently stranded on the Burmese side since the closure on 1 October, when a group of students raided and occupied the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok for 25 hours, disclosed to S.H.A.N.'s reporter that the Distrct Peace and Development Committee officials in Tachilek were asking for a payment of 20 million baht in order to obtain Rangoon's permission to reopen the border between Shan State's Tachilek and Maesai, Chiangrai Province. 

"The generals were not happy with the way the Thai government handled the affair, " he said. "It appeared to them as though the Thai officails were doing their best to accomnodate and facilitate the hijackers instead of shooting and subduing them". 

He confirmed prices have gone skyhigh since the closure. 

He added that, "The demand for the payoff is not unsual. There have been at least two precedents already: first in 1995, when Khun Sa attacked Tachilek, and second, when Thai police shot some Burmese drug suspects dead in 1998. On the first occassion, the Thai business community had to pay B. 50 million and on the second, B. 20 million".