Border Briefs

Border Briefs

Rangoon wants Bangkok to prove its submission 

After expectations of the reopening of the border crossing at Maesai-Tachilek failed to materialize this morning, a prominent businessman on the Burmese side commented that Bangkok still needed to show it was worth "the unlocking of the gates," as he put it. 

"Now that the junta believes (Prime Minister) Thaksin is yielding to its demands, it is going to ask for more," said the trader, "such as crackdowns on the exiled opposition in Thailand." 

On the Thai side, it came to no surprise to most people in the business sector to find the Friendship Bridge between the two countries still shut although some expressed disappointment with Rangoon. 

"You can't trust any deals made under the sarongs (Burmese skirts)", said one Thai shop-keeper, while another mentioned Burmese officials doubling their initial "open-the-gate fee" from 60 million baht to 120 million. "Maesod (in Tak Province) and Maesai (in Chiangrai Province) were supposed to go half on this deal," he said. 

Foreign minister Surakiart Sathirathai has denied that were such undercover agreements. 

"The closure might last until the end of the year," added a Tachilek resident. "Rangoon wants to make sure Thaksin knows who the boss is." 

Gross errors 

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's first name has been spelled "Toxin" by one of S.H.A.N's readers in the United States. 

According to the Oxford Desk Dictionary (1995), Toxin is defined as "poison produced by a living organism." 
As Thaksin is sometimes also spelled "Taksin", many non-Thai readers have also confused him with one of the greatest Thai kings who had liberated Ayuddya from Burmese occupation after its capture by the forces of King Hsinbyushin (1763-1776) in 1767. 

"He doesn't live up to his name," complained a Shan from Canada. 

In Thai, the two are spelled and pronounced very much differently. 

Freed POWs still held in Tachilek 

18 Burmese soldiers and policemen and 2 women who were captured by the Shan State Army during the Pang Maisoong Battle (20 May - 20 June) and released recently were detained by the Burmese military authorities on their arrival at Tachilek on 16 August, said sources. 

They were kept at the Light Infantry Battalion #359 command post, in the northern part of the city, for interrogation.

"They would be released afterwards," according to a government source.