DELICATE DIPLOMACY: Junta asks Princess to visit Burma

Published on Sep 6, 2002

Burma's military junta has invited HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn to make an official visit, signalling that relations between the two countries are sound, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said yesterday.

The junta has invited Her Royal Highness to visit Burma by the end of October to show respect to the Thai monarchy and will offer a well-prepared welcome, he said.

Relations between the two countries soured after border skirmishes in May that prompted a closure of the border.

The announcement came after Burmese Foreign Minister Win Aung cancelled a meeting scheduled for today with his Thai counterpart Surakiart Sathirathai to discuss reopening the border.

Thaksin declined to link the royal visit with the border reopening, saying the resolution of border issues would follow normalised relations.

Several factors affect relations between the two counties, he said, including fighting between armed minorities and Burmese government troops along the border.

Hundreds of thousands of Burmese from minority groups have fled the conflict to Thailand.

Thaksin said he wanted to see the situation in Burma improve before any repatriation of refugees.

Shan minorities recently accused the junta's soldiers of routinely raping ethnic women. In a Thai version of the report "License to Rape" released yesterday, a Shan group said the junta used rape as a weapon of war against minorities.

Senator Kraisak Choonhavan said the international community should take action to solve the problem, as Thailand alone can not do so. The Thai government often turns a blind eye to "aggressive incidents nearby", he said.

National Human Right Commissioner Sunee Chayaros said Thailand should bring the issue of the alleged rapes to international attention. The government should set up shelters for the women who flee to Thailand and provide psychological support, she said.

Ticha na Nakhon, from the Women and the Constitution Network, said the International Criminal Court should investigate the fate of Shan women.

"Those women do not have the bargaining power to relieve their plight unless the rest of the world knows about their fate," she said.

Virada Somswasdi, president of the Women Studies Centre at Chiang Mai University, said all rape, not just of the Shan, is an insult to all men who are fathers, husbands and sons of the victims.

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