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What’s with the harsh language? you probably took my post to mean (northern Thai) – Cambodian border when i meant northern (Thai-Cambodian) border. i am quite familiar with the geography of thailand. i’ve lived there 6 years, travelled all over the country, and am wrapping up a masters on the region shared with Burma. I speak the language, and i’ve written on insurgencies in the south, border issues with burma, and the like, but thanks for the refresher anyway.
and yes, there is a pretty interesting border dispute along the northern shared border, namely around Preah Vihear temple.
luckily the thai insurgency in the south hasn’t gotten too international, yet. as far as i know, the various groups in the south have largely distanced themselves from the likes of abu sayyaf and other SE Asian al qaeda wannabes. i wonder how the thai military is going to react to this – they have been criticized of being heavy handed in the past, which may have fueled more violence in turn.
@Jimbo wrote:
Swain has a blog up for the stuff he does, it’s 4th wallrelief blogspot or something like that. The good doctor knows about & it’s anything but political. Strange thing is I don’t know why Mikethehack & Swainy have had these bitch slapping sessions on the BFC. in addition JITW thinks that what Swain does is bogus in terms of NGO work. I was down in Mae Sariang in January & met with a couple of the people he works with. It’s totally legit & striaghtforward compared to other NGOs. I don’t got a clue why Mike & James are firing off kneejerk salvos at poor old Swainy.
probably more to do with how each view the others role. private security/military often are at odds with NGOs as to who is actually providing the real relief. I am fortunate in having done a little of both, so I can sort of see their attitudes. Sure, nothing’s gonna change until there’s a political and security solution, but in the interim, it’s normally the smaller NGOs that can get relief to where its needed fastest. I’ve been down to Mae Seriang as well and was impressed with the work that NGOs and CBOs that are down there – not only in terms of getting relief to where its needed, but also in documenting it and pushing advocacy issues. Are they going to suddenly create a vibrant democracy in Burma? No, but it’s a rare breed of person that’s willing to jump in there and do something about it.
khrg is one of the less politicised ones. i’ve browsed through a lot for my research. but khrg is obviously geared towards human rights abuses, so they are quite anti Burma, and to a lesser extent anti insurgent groups. khrg won’t give you news, but more of an analysis and trends. it’s obviously set up as a platform for advocacy. surprisingly, UN reports tend to be the direct opposite and heavily favorable to the Burmese regime by comparison, though i suspect that is because the alternative is to get kicked out.
you are right, it is difficult to separate the political stuff from the news, but the irony is the best source of news are typically relief groups/NGOs, who have access to people that flee fighting or are internally displaced inside. so much so, I’ve spoken with a couple that regularly get rounded up by Thai authorities and pressed for information. besides, photos and basic statistics like number of fleeing refugees generally don’t lie. and a photo of a burning village or atrocity is difficult to justify, no matter how political.
i usually check out mizzima for news. there’s a couple other ones like kachinnews.com, i’m sure there are dozens more, each following a specific region, but I just don’t know them. and most of the relief organizations come out with well researched reports regularly, like khrg.org, tbbc.org, freeburmarangers.org.
that’s interesting. what’s the beef with the irawaddy and where do their political loyalties lie? I’m not familiar enough with that paper.
i would like to throw in food for thought. prior to the US invasion of afghanistan, burma was the world’s number 1 producer of opium. since most of it is grown in that northern region of Burma, and by doctrine, the burmese military is supposed to be self sufficient, i figure that’s something that plays into the logic of the senior officers. they already do profit off of the drug trade, more so than the local militias from what i have read.
the NATO campaign in sourthern Afghanistan, where the vast majority of afghan opium is harvested, has so far been pretty successful, and should hurt the taliban’s opium fields pretty substantially. controlling more of the golden triangle is a pretty good strategic goal if you ask me, especially if opium supply gets cut short the next couple harvest seasons in Astan. like i said, food for thought.
@Jimbo wrote:
As long as duty free shops & casinos on the Burmese side of the boarder are open then everythinng is cool. I’m up in Mae Sai about every other weekend now & business is booming….I also found a food stall that serves up great Shan style noodles
Keep in mind that elections are in May, that’s when things will get interesting….stay tuned sportsfans
what do you do up there, if i may ask? i’ve only been to that town once, for really the only reason any foreigner ever goes there.
@ROB wrote:
70k is a lot.
But it’s surprising what China is willing to put up with to play ball with Burma to get their access to the Indian Ocean.
Any of the groups in the north can practically ensure a mass influx of refugees into China and they’ll probably be able to cut off the planned oil supplies through Burma relatively easily too.
I mean, both regumes are practically putting their nuts on a platter for the militants in the north.
Which makes me think that we can expect a lot more than 70k troops and heavy military aid from China to Burma sooner rather than later. We really should be backing India to get this shit sorted.
I’d be really interested to see if the UWSA and KIA turn on the Burmese. I seriously doubt they will, but if they do, could be the start of a very interesting summer.
