No.08 - 02/2006
17 February 2006

Politics

Thaksin has a Shan friend

There are few kind words these days for the embattled prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra who has been under heavy pressure to quit his job since his Shin Corp Plc's controversial sale of well-nigh 50% stake to Singapore's Temasak Holdings last month, but Shan leader Yawdserk says the Thai business tycoon-turned-politician has his good points.

"In my experience, he's the only Thai leader who has really tried hard for the rights of us non-Burmans," he told S.H.A.N. during a meeting on 14 February at his base in Loi Taileng, opposite Maehongson. "While others were calling only for democracy and human rights, he had homed in on the rights of the non-Burmans."

Yawdserk

Thaksin Shinawatra

According to him, Thaksin, following the Thai-Burma border confrontation in 2002, had offered to mediate between the non-Burman armed opposition groups along the border and Rangoon. "When he asked what we wanted, we gave him a 6-point proposition," Yawdserk recalled. "He said that was too heavy for him to carry, so we presented him with a single request: to ask the Burmese generals to hold peace talks with us."

In return, the Karen, Karennis and Shans promised not to start any fight along the Thai-Burma border. "He had, on several occasions, put forward the idea to the SPDC (State Peace and Development Council, Burma's ruling military council), but was turned down each time."

Rangoon in fact had met the Karen National Union (KNU) with which it had concluded a Gentleman's Agreement to cease hostilities in December 2003. Its emissaries had also held talks with the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) which produced little. With the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) of Yawdserk, Rangoon had flatly refused to meet, claiming as a former officer of the Mong Tai Army that had surrendered in 1996, he was not qualified to come to any bargaining table with the regime.

According to a statement by the United Nationalities League for Democracy (UNLD) presented to Alvaro de Soto, then UN Special envoy to Burma, in 1998, Democracy and Rights of the States are inseparable as the heads and tails of a coin.

"Thaksin knows democracy alone is not enough for Burma's ills," the Shan leader mused. "It was a pity Rangoon refused to listen to him."

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