POLITICS: Thai-Burmese Cosiness Faces Reality Check

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, May 24 2002 (IPS) - Thailand’s much vaunted cosy relationship with the Burmese military junta is facing a reality check in the wake of border skirmishes this week.

Rangoon’s leaders have been firing verbal salvos aimed at Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s administration, blaming his government for the shells fired into the Burmese territory along Thailand’s northern border during a week-long military exercise mounted by the Thai army.

This umbrage began when Burma handed a formal letter of protest to the Thai ambassador in its capital Monday, increased the next day by Rangoon hinting of military retaliation and reached a definite sign of discord by the week’s end when Burma closed all four major crossings with Thailand.

“At least outwardly, the relationship has been frayed,” says Kraisak Choonhavan, chairman of the Thai senate’s committee on foreign affairs. “The protest statements reveal that they are annoyed.”

“The Thai government must be feeling very uncomfortable, since it gave the impression that it was very close to the Burmese regime,” adds Asda Jayanama, a former Thai diplomat who last served his country at the United Nations.

Since September last year, the Thaksin administration has given the impression that it has developed warmer bonds of friendship with its South-east Asian neighbour than the previous government under Chuan Leekpai.

The new ties were described as seeking “forward engagement” with Rangoon, a fact reflected in the high-level visit between officials from both countries and, on a recent occasion, a bout of diplomacy over a game of golf between a ranking member of the junta and senior Thai minister.

Discussions have centred on economic issues like fishing, mining and telecommunications and also shared problems like illegal labour and refugees from Burma. Under this new climate, Bangkok has not raised concerns about gross human rights violations in Burma, unlike what happened during the Chuan administration.

Signs that the Thaksin administration is desperate to restore such cordiality with its neighbour are evident in the actions and pronouncements of Thai officials.

On Friday, Thai newspapers reported that Defence Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh was demanding the “immediate withdrawal of thousands of troops undergoing exercises near the Burmese border”.

On Thursday, Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai was quoted in ‘The Nation,’ as having said that present tension would not harm the relationship between the two countries.

“I keep contact with my Burmese counterpart Win Aung all the time … there are so many rumours. We need to screen the information we get,” Surakiart added.

But such efforts from here, including an appeal by Thaksin to his Burmese counterpart to reopen the four border crossings, have failed to stop Rangoon’s verbal sniping.

On Friday, the ‘Bangkok Post,’ drew attention to it by quoting the latest “hardline rhetoric against Thailand” that appeared in the ‘New Light of Myanmar,’ Burma’s official newspaper.

“The Thais have often uttered, ‘We’re neighbours … We’re kith and kin.’ But now they have deployed tanks and other heavy weapons to bombard our outposts,” the article in the Burmese newspaper states.

Such tough talk reflects how seriously concerned the military rulers are, says Ross Dunkley, managing editor of the Rangoon-based ‘Myanmar Times’. “The Thais have been shooting and they (the junta) are worried.”

“On military matters, Myanmar knows what it is saying,” adds Dunkly, using the name Burma’s junta has given their country. “They are experts at it; much more intelligent than the Thais on it.”

The military exercise that produced the tension between Rangoon and Bangkok had three key objectives: the Thai army wanted to ensure it had the capacity to respond to border threats, curb the flow of illegal drugs such as methamphetamines from Burma, and check its war-readiness.

This exercise, which involved some 10,000 troops, was also given another assignment: to capture a senior commander in the United Wa State Army (UWSA). Prime Minister Thaksin backed this mission, reveals the ‘Nation’, quoting a senior defence ministry official.

The 20,000-strong UWSA has acquired notoriety for both producing and trafficking drugs, including heroine and methamphetamines. The UWSA, who belong to the Wa ethnic group in Burma, struck a deal with Rangoon in 1989, agreeing to a cease-fire in its on-going civil war with the Burmese military in exchange for limited self-government in the region it controls.

However, Burma remonstrated shortly after the Thai army and the UWSA exchanged fire across the border. Rangoon faulted the Thais for providing military backing for another ethnic rebel group locked in a struggle with the UWSA and the Burmese military – the Shan rebels.

Thai army sources disagree, the media here report. The ‘Bangkok Post,’ for instance, quotes one military insider saying that the Thai forces had “responded to stray shells from Burma by firing several warning shots from 105mm artillery into Burma”.

However, Bangkok’s reaction runs in the face of such explanation, with senior ministers like Chavalit more keen on moving the Thai troops out of the terrain than standing with them and their explanation on this sore issue.

“The government is on its knees to placate Rangoon,” says Asda, the diplomat.

And such behaviour by the Thaksin government is to avoid facing the embarrassing prospect that the new ties between Bangkok and Rangoon are not as firm as purported to be.

The days ahead, according to Asda, should reveal what a number of Thais are feeling: “To many people, what was once a warm relationship is no longer warm.”