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Myanmar blasts: Electricity one of the
fuses
On May 21, bomb explosions
in Tachilek, Myanmar, killed four people and wrecked the
statue of King Bayintnaung, a 16th-century national
hero. But a recent informal meeting of traders in Mae
Sai, a town across the border from Tachilek in northern
Thailand, concluded that the reasons for the attack were
probably not entirely to do with politics.
"The
destruction of the statue of King Bayintnaung [1551-81]
was carried out simply to confuse the issues," said one
trader. "The main object of the exercise was the Tar Wai
power station, where the blast successfully damaged two
of the generators there."
Tachilek is a border
town 60 kilometers north of the Thai city of Chiang Rai.
Because of Myanmar's shortage of electric power, many
such border towns have turned to neighboring countries
for local supply. Laokai, a Kokang town in the north,
for one, gets its electricity from China.
Recently, however, local businessmen in Tachilek
have been wrangling for control for the power-supply
business. Now, except for government quarters and people
with private generators, the town is once more in the
dark since the Wai Family Electrical Production and
Supplies Co Ltd's electricity plant went out of
commission during the explosion, which also killed one
of its workers. The power station was in operation for
less than a month (since April 28).
One of its
conditions for taking responsibility for supplying
Tachilek with power was to discard the existing, durable
Thai meter boxes and install new ones that have to be
replaced every two years, each costing more than 30,000
baht (over US$700). This, together with the
eight-baht-per-unit (19-cent) service charge, had upset
several prominent citizens. "We had to pay only five
baht to Khun Prasong [Markmahsin, the former Thai
agent]," said another one.
Sai Hseng, 55, a
local businessman, was said to have offered to retain
the Thai meter boxes at the rate of four baht per unit.
But his application was turned down and the concession
was granted to Tar Wai, who enjoys close ties with the
United Wa State Army and its business firm, Hong Pang.
"The grant has angered even the local
authorities, who thought they had been cheated out of
their rightful shares in the spoils by Brigadier-General
Khin Zaw," said a source, referring to the commander of
the Triangle Region Command headquartered in Kenntung,
160km north of Tachilek. "As a result, there is a
concerted effort by some officers at present to have him
removed from eastern Shan state."
Believe it or
not, they said, power supply is a business of great
reward. "Remember an U Kyi Htwe, who was found dead in
1999 with gunshot wounds?" asked one rhetorically. "He
had also applied for [an electricity] license."
Currently, U Tar Wai (aka U Sai Shan), Maung
Win, 58, another ethnic-Chinese applicant and an
unidentified representative of the Thai power agent in
Mae Sai are in Yangon to get the issue resolved. "It
might turn out that Thais are back again with their
electricity," said one resident.
Meanwhile, Tip
Taiwan, a former follower of the notorious drug lord
Khun Sa, is being detained at the Military Intelligence
Detachment No 24 in Tachilek. "He is being forced to
confess that he, as a Shan State Army saboteur, was
responsible for the 21 May blasts," said a trader.
The SSA "South", the main armed movement still
at war with Yangon, has denied any connections to Sai
Tip, who is labeled by Yangon as San Tit.
Posted by permission of SHAN, an independent
Shan media group that is not affiliated with any
political or armed organization. To subscribe to the
newsletter, e-mail shan@cm.ksc.co.th or visit http://www.shanland.org.
(Shan Herald Agency for News)
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