Pubdate: Sat, 27 Dec 2003
Source: Bangkok Post (Thailand)
Copyright: The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd. 2003
Contact:  http://www.bangkokpost.co.th/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/39
Author: Wassana Nanuam
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/areas/thailand

PM'S HELICOPTER 'WAS AT RISK'

Thai drug traffickers, with the help of a Burmese ethnic group, would
have attacked the Thai and Burmese prime ministers with surface-to-air
missiles had they boarded a helicopter to visit a Burmese village
under Wa control, according to senior Thai sources.

M.R. Disnadda Diskul, chief executive of the Doi Tung Development
Project, confirmed the report saying the attack had been planned by
drug traffickers who did not want the countries to enjoy good ties and
the crop-substitution project to succeed.

''What Thailand and Burma are doing together is causing billions of
baht worth of damage to drug traffickers. So they ganged up with an
ethnic group to plan the attack with SAM-7 shoulder-fired missiles.
The heat-seeking missile can be fired from either side of the border.
There lives would have been in grave danger had they decided not to
call off the trip,'' M.R. Disnadda said in the Wa-controlled Baan Yong
Kha village opposite Chiang Rai province.

Mr Thaksin and his Burmese counterpart Gen Khin Nyunt were advised to
cancel their joint visit to Baan Yong Kha yesterday by their security
advisers.

They were to inaugurate a local hospital and inspect a
crop-substitution programme implemented by the Doi Tung Development
Project to replace drugs production.

Maj-Gen Manas Paorik, commander of the Pha Muang Task Force and a
former pre-cadet classmate of Mr Thaksin, had warned that an ethnic
group, together with some Thais, were planning to launch a SAM-7
missile attack to bring down the helicopter.

It was on his advice that Mr Thaksin had cancelled the visit and sent
someone else in his place.

Thai Third Army commander Lt-Gen Pichanmet Muangmanee and Maj-Gen
Thura Khin Zaw, commander of the Burmese Triangle Army, inaugurated
the Baan Yong Kha hospital and visited the agricultural project in
place of Mr Thaksin and Gen Khin Nyunt.

The two were welcomed by Pao Yu Chang, chief of the United Wa State
Army.

In response to the Thai premier's absence, Col San Pwint, Burma's
deputy chief of intelligence, insisted that Burmese and Wa authorities
could have guaranteed the safety of Mr Thaksin and Gen Khin Nyunt.

''If Mr Thaksin had entered the Wa area, we would not have allowed
even a mosquito to bite him,'' said the colonel.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin