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BURMA RELATED NEWS - OCTOBER 20, 2005. PARIS (AFP) - Press freedom is being eroded in parts of the Western world, failing to advance in Iraq, but making progress in states emerging from repression, the watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says. Its 2005 annual press freedom index again puts North Korea at the bottom of the list in 167th position, while Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland share top spot. The top 10 countries are all European. New Zealand (12), Trinidad and Tobago (12), Benin (25) and South Korea (34) are the highest-ranked countries in other continents. The Paris-based watchdog reports that Middle Eastern countries ( Iran 164, Iraq 157, Saudi Arabia 154, Syria 145) are among states where journalists have the toughest time and where government repression or armed groups prevent the media from operating freely. "The situation in Iraq deteriorated further during the year as the safety of journalists became more precarious," RSF said. "At least 24 journalists and media assistants have been killed so far this year, making it the mostly deadly conflict for the media since World War II. A total of 72 media workers have been killed since the fighting began in March 2003." The US army (United States in Iraq, 137) also violated press freedom, as it did in 2003 and 2004, RSF said. "Six journalists were jailed in Abu Ghraib prison without explanation and not allowed to receive visits from their lawyers, families or employers. Four journalists were killed by US army gunfire between September 2004 and September 2005." Iran once again had the region's worst record of press freedom, with seven journalists in prison and four others provisionally free and in danger of being returned to jail at any moment. "Akbar Ganji is still being held in solitary confinement despite a more than 60-day hunger-strike, an international campaign and several official promises to free him. Cyber-dissident Mojtaba Saminejad has been in jail since October 2004, serving a two-year sentence." Some Western democracies slipped down the index. The United States (44) fell more than 20 places, mainly because of the imprisonment of New York Times reporter Judith Miller and legal moves undermining the privacy of journalistic sources. "Canada (21) also dropped several places due to decisions that weakened the privacy of sources and sometimes turned journalists into 'court auxiliaries'. France (30) also slipped, largely because of searches of media offices, interrogations of journalists and introduction of new press offences." There was better news from countries which have recently won or retained their independence, says the report, disproving the argument that democracy takes decades to establish itself. "Nine states that have had independence (or recovered it) within the past 15 years are among the top 60 countries -- Slovenia (9), Estonia (11), Latvia (16), Lithuania (21), Namibia (25), Bosnia-Hercegovina (33), Macedonia (43), Croatia (56) and East Timor (58)," it says. "More and more African and Latin American countries (Benin 25, Namibia 25, El Salvador 28, Cape Verde 29, Mauritius 34, Mali 37, Costa Rica 41 and Bolivia 45) are getting very good rankings." The bottom 10 countries were listed as: SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Governments must cooperate to stop the global spread of counterfeit drugs, most of which come from India and China, two of the world's biggest pharmaceutical firms said on Wednesday. Security experts for Novartis and Eli Lilly said a huge rise in online sales of fake drugs has changed the playing field for global pharmaceutical companies and is affecting sales of products ranging from antibiotics to Viagra and vitamin E. "Most of the problem is in Asia, mainly India and China. But we are seeing more satellite countries," including Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia and Thailand, Ray "This is a very, very big business," Velez said. "The competition today for us is not Viagra. It is counterfeit drugs." The World Health Organization has estimated that the trade in counterfeit drugs, which also hurts global names such as GlaxoSmith Kline Plc, Pfizer and Bayer, was worth some $35 billion a year. Tony Chiu, executive director for security in Novartis Asia, told the conference that Internet sales and cross-border trade of fake drugs were on the rise. "Governments are beginning to take counterfeit drugs trade more seriously," Chiu said, adding China's new regulations to curb Internet sales of counterfeit drugs were a good move. The U.S. International Trade Commission is currently investigating complaints against several Internet-based companies offering imported impotence and other drugs via mail order, including Eli Lilly's Cialis which is used to treat patients with erectile dysfunction. "We want to engage the U.S. and E.U. governments to work with China and India to stop the spread of counterfeit goods," Velez said. The WHO considers a drug to be a fake if it has no active ingredients, the wrong substance, or the correct substance in the wrong quantity. Mislabelling and tampering with the expiry data of a medicine also makes it counterfeit. Both Velez and Chiu said most counterfeit drugs made in India come from Mumbai, and Velez also said some of the largest batches of fake drugs from China are produced in Tianjin and Ningbo. (Kyodo) _ The Myanmar government will raise the official price of fuel nearly nine times, from 180 kyat ($0.15) per imperial gallon (4.5 liters) to 1,500 kyat starting Thursday, according to an official notice posted Wednesday morning at gas stations. The price hike had not been published or reported in any state media until automobile owners found the notice at state-run gas stations when they queued for daily fuel rations Wednesday morning. In Myanmar, gasoline and diesel fuel have been distributed under a rationing system since the early 1980s. A registered car is allowed to buy up to 9 liters of fuel a day with the subsidized price of 180 kyat par gallon from assigned state-run gas stations, according to the address of the registered owner. In the black market, however, gasoline costs about 2,200 kyat per gallon. The difference between the official and black market prices has encouraged vehicle owners to illegally sell surplus subsidized fuel in the black market to earn profits. In Myanmar, about 900,000 vehicles have been registered as of August this year, more than half of them motorcycles. BEIJING, Oct 20 Asia Pulse - China is promising to further strengthen economic ties with the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), its fourth largest trading partner. So said the Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai yesterday. He said that China seeks mutual economic development with ASEAN members, and that it is looking forward to working with these countries to provide favourable conditions for businesses in the region. He said China has been speeding up the process of establishing a Free Trade Area (FTA) with ASEAN, which is expected to be implemented in 2010. "The launching of the tariff reduction programme of the China-ASEAN FTA in July signified the start of the comprehensive implementation of the FTA," he said at the China-ASEAN Expo, which kicked off yesterday in Nanning, the capital city of South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The FTA is expected to enable ASEAN's exports to China to grow by 48 per cent and China's exports to ASEAN to grow by 55 per cent. This would contribute 0.9 per cent and 0.3 per cent of the GDP (gross domestic products) of ASEAN and China respectively. The FTA can generate tremendous business opportunities and co-operation prospects for business communities in both China and ASEAN, said Chong Quan, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce. He also said political relations between China and ASEAN have developed smoothly in recent years and major progress has been made in terms of co-operation in fields such as imports and exports, investment and contractual labour. Statistics from the Ministry of Commerce indicate that from 2002 to 2004 the average annual growth rate of bilateral trade stood at 38.9 per cent. Last year, the volume reached US$105.9 billion, exceeding the target one year ahead of the schedule. In the first nine months of this year, trade volume reached US$94.54 billion, up 25.3 per cent. Chong said Chinese President Hu Jintao set a goal during his visit to ASEAN in April to increase China-ASEAN trade volume to US$200 billion by 2010. ASEAN secretary-general, Ong Keng Yong, noted that the free trade zone is a market with 1.85 billion consumers and a combined GDP of almost US$2.5 trillion. The four-day China-ASEAN Expo has attracted 2,000 companies from China, ASEAN member nations and other countries. The event promotes products and co-operation in investment as well as providing a high-level forum for business and cultural exchanges. Chinese Vice-President Zeng Qinghong inaugurated the opening ceremony. At the seventh China-ASEAN leaders meeting in 2003, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao proposed the launching of the China-ASEAN expo in 2004, and proposed the idea of an annual event, which was warmly welcomed by ASEAN leaders. ASEAN, founded in 1967, is made up of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam. BANGKOK, Oct 18 (IPS) - An environmental disaster unfolding along the border that military-ruled Burma shares with China has all the elements of hypocrisy written large. In this case, the guilty party is China. Rangoon's junta finds itself trapped into silence due to the political capital Beijing has spent to protect the Burmese regime from increasing charges of oppression and human rights violations levelled against the regime by the international community. The price of that silence has meant an army of Chinese loggers moving into Burma's northern Kachin State to strip that rugged mountainous area of its timber-rich forests. ''In 2004, more than one million cubic meters of timber, about 95 percent of Burma's total timber exports to China, were illegally exported from northern Burma to (China's southern) Yunnan province,'' states Global Witness (GW), a non-governmental organisation. ''Large parts of forest along the China-Burma border have been destroyed, forcing (Chinese) logging companies to move even deeper into Burma's forests in their search for timber,'' the London-based environmental lobby revealed here Tuesday in a new report, 'A Choice for China: Ending the destruction of Burma's northern frontier forests.' ''This is not smuggling of timber, but it is done out in the open and easy to see,'' Susan Kempel, assistant campaigner of GW, told the media. ''The trade is completely out of control and keeps rising.'' The profit motive that drives Chinese loggers to strip the Kachin State bare of its forests is brought into relief by the contrasting picture that prevails on the Chinese-side of the border. The same trees that are logged in the Burmese territory are protected on the Chinese side. ''There are many signs warning against logging trees in China,'' said Kempel. Beijing's decision to protect its own environment stems from a 1999 law to ban domestic logging, in particular round wood timber. The Chinese monopoly of deforestation in northern Burma - where an estimated 20,000 loggers from the Yunnan province are involved, according to GW, also goes against the grain of an international agreement that the Chinese government signed. In September 2001, Beijing signed the Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG) agreement at an East Asia ministerial conference in the Indonesian resort island of Bali. A centrepiece of this agreement was for governments to crackdown on illegal logging in Asia and to stop the illegal timber trade and initiate forest management programmes. But GW does not absolve the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), as Rangoon's junta is officially known, and the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), an ethnic rebel group active in the area that has put down its arms, from their part in this environmental crime. ''The destructive logging and illegal timber trade take place with the full knowledge and complicity of the SPDC, the Chinese authorities and ceasefire groups,'' states the 94-page report. Rangoon's reluctance to crackdown on the logging, despite it violating Burmese law, has to do with the foreign exchange it brings. In 2003-04, timber was the SPDC's third most important source of foreign earnings, amounting to 377 million U.S. dollars, according to the GW study. And during the following period, 2004-2005, these earnings had moved up a notch, becoming the SPDC's ''second most important source of legal foreign exchange, amounting to 427.81 million U.S. dollars and 15 percent of the total,'' adds the report. The KIO sees the timber trade in similar light, Jon Buckrell, forest policy coordinator of GW, told IPS. ''It says that they tax this trade because it brings in large amount of income, but it is in agreement to stop the trade.'' The difficulty in imposing controls in that region of the South-east Asian country also arises from the lack of laws and their enforcement in the Kachin State, says Col. James Lum Daw, the KIO's deputy chief of foreign affairs. ''The KIO cannot impose its own law because it has signed a ceasefire agreement with the SPDC. And there is no law that has come into force since then, so this logging continues.'' This has left the Kachin community even more vulnerable, he admitted during an interview. ''They have no right to stop this logging even when they know the damage it is causing their environment.'' The GW expose comes at a time when the Asian region has been earning praise for leading the way in reversing illegal deforestation trends by giving rise to the growth of large scale timber plantations for industrial use. Currently, an estimated 250 million cubic meters of timber is cut in the region annually for industrial purposes, like furniture, for paper and pulp. Of that amount, nearly 140 million cubic meters comes from plantation forests, while about 100 million cubic meters comes from natural forests. ''The 1990s mark a historic turning point, for the majority of timber was being supplied from the plantations,'' Masakazu Kashio, forest resources officer at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), told IPS. ''The Asia-Pacific region has been the champion in creating plantations for timber.'' But China's voracious appetite for imported timber from natural forests has continued to threaten that record, with the forests of Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea being part of the supply chain, in addition to the forests in the Kachin State. And an April 2005 meeting reveals the difficulty in bucking this trend, since, according to the GW report, ministers meeting in Jakarta ''failed to reach an agreement to prevent the illegal trade of forestry products from Indonesia to China.'' BANGKOK - An environmental disaster unfolding along the border that military-ruled Myanmar shares with China has all the elements of hypocrisy written large. In this case, the guilty party is China. Yangon's junta finds itself trapped into silence due to the political capital Beijing has spent to protect the regime from increasing charges of oppression and human-rights violations leveled against Yangon by the international community. The price of that silence has meant an army of Chinese loggers moving into Myanmar's northern Kachin state to strip that rugged mountainous area of its timber-rich forests. "In 2004, more than one million cubic meters of timber, about 95% of Myanmar's total timber exports to China, were illegally exported from northern Myanmar to [China's southern] Yunnan province," states Global Witness (GW), a non-governmental organization. "Large parts of forest along the China-Myanmar border have been destroyed, forcing [Chinese] logging companies to move even deeper into Myanmar's forests in their search for timber," the London-based environmental lobby revealed on Tuesday in a new report, "A Choice for China: Ending the destruction of Myanmar's northern frontier forests." "This is not smuggling of timber, but it is done out in the open and easy to see," Susan Kempel, assistant campaigner of GW, told the media. "The trade is completely out of control and keeps rising." The Chinese monopoly of deforestation in northern Myanmar - where an estimated 20,000 loggers from Yunnan province are involved, according to GW, also goes against the grain of an international agreement that the Chinese government has signed. In September 2001, Beijing signed the Forest Law Enforcement and Governance agreement at an East Asia ministerial conference on the Indonesian resort island of Bali. A centerpiece of this agreement was for governments to crack down on illegal logging in Asia and to stop the illegal timber trade and initiate forest management programs. But GW does not absolve the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), as Yangon's junta is officially known, and the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), an ethnic rebel group active in the area that has put down its arms, from their part in this environmental crime. "The destructive logging and illegal timber trade take place with the full knowledge and complicity of the SPDC, the Chinese authorities and ceasefire groups." states the 94-page report. Yangon's reluctance to crack down on the logging has to do with the foreign exchange it brings. In 2003-04, timber was the SPDC's third most important source of foreign earnings, amounting to US$377 million, according to the GW study. And during the following period, 2004-2005, these earnings had moved up a notch, becoming the SPDC's "second most important source of legal foreign exchange, amounting to $427.81 million and 15% of the total," adds the report. The KIO sees the timber trade in similar light, Jon Buckrell, forest policy coordinator of GW, told Inter Press Service. "It says that they tax this trade because it brings in a large amount of income, but it is in agreement to stop the trade." The difficulty in imposing controls in that region of the Southeast Asian country also arises from the lack of laws and their enforcement in the Kachin state, says Colonel James Lum Daw, the KIO's deputy chief of foreign affairs. "The KIO cannot impose its own law because it has signed a ceasefire agreement with the SPDC. And there is no law that has come into force since then, so this logging continues." This has left the Kachin community even more vulnerable, he admitted during an interview. "They have no right to stop this logging, even when they know the damage it is causing their environment." The GW expose comes at a time when the Asian region has been earning praise for leading the way in reversing illegal deforestation trends by giving rise to the growth of large scale timber plantations for industrial use. Currently, an estimated 250 million cubic meters of timber is cut in the region annually for industrial purposes, like furniture, for paper and pulp. Of that amount, nearly 140 million cubic meters comes from plantation forests, while about 100 million cubic meters comes from natural forests. "The 1990s mark a historic turning point, for the majority of timber was being supplied from the plantations," Masakazu Kashio, forest resources officer at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, told IPS. "The Asia-Pacific region has been the champion in creating plantations for timber." But China's voracious appetite for imported timber from natural forests has continued to threaten that record, with the forests of Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea being part of the supply chain, in addition to the forests in Kachin state. And an April 2005 meeting reveals the difficulty in bucking this trend, since, according to the GW report, ministers meeting in Jakarta "failed to reach an agreement to prevent the illegal trade of forestry products from Indonesia to China". (Inter Press Service) There is an obvious excitement in Asia today in anticipation of the emerging regional political architecture and the shifting of the centre of gravity from the US and Europe to Asia. It is far from clear at this stage how this nascent process will unfold and what shape the new Asia will eventually take, but there is little doubt that whatever the eventual outcome, a re-energised and ascending Asia will directly or indirectly have a profound effect on the region and the rest of the world. Hence, the obvious imperative on the part of both the big and small players alike to ensure that the emerging political architecture is one in which there will be space for all of them. No surprise, therefore, that countries both within and outside the region are positioning themselves to influence the outcome of the process in Asia. Within the region China, India, Japan, Korea and the ASEAN countries, in subtle and not so subtle ways, are all working towards influencing the process. Likewise, important actors outside the region, like the US and Australia among others, are making their individual or co-ordinated moves. Meanwhile, there are several attendant initiatives about to take place, like the East Asia Summit just down the road, the ASEAN Charter on the horizon, and fresh attempts around the corner to enhance the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum to provide for its greater involvement. These initiatives are a natural and legitimate progression in the right direction and ought to be welcomed. What is unusual, however, is that in the midst of all these exciting events there is the most surprising and glaring absence of a meaningful EU engagement. Bluntly put, the EU is punching well below its weight - and deliberately so - in a region with which it has always had strong traditional ties. The casual observer may be misled into believing that the EU as an entity is no longer interested in Asia. After all, it is common knowledge that the ASEM and ASEAN-EU ministerial meetings are not well attended by the European side. It would further appear, rightly or wrongly, that at best its present Asian policy tends to be a reactive one. A recent example was when Indonesia needed assistance in Aceh. The EU responded generously, and many lives were the better for it. Why then is the EU isolating itself? Why the reluctance to be more involved, why the sulking? It is indeed a sad commentary that the EU's lack of proactiveness in ASEAN matters - and by extension all matters Asian - is because of the involvement of Myanmar in both these equations. The situation in Myanmar is of course serious. It ought to be of concern. But the really serious question is: should Myanmar be the sole lens through which the EU views a rising Asia and determines its engagement with the region as a whole? We must not have any delusions here. If Myanmar, for example, gave up its right to be Chairman of the ASEAN Standing Committee, it was not because of ASEAN 's persuasiveness or the EU's pressure. Myanmar did so because it was in its national interest to do so. Full stop. That does not mean that ASEAN and the EU must abandon their respective campaigns to assist the people of Myanmar and for the government to move forward. We must individually and collectively do what we can. By the same token, it is pertinent to recognise that even within the EU there are perceptible differences over how relations with Myanmar ought to be handled. Increasingly there are those within the EU and ASEAN who take the enlightened position that bilateral problems should not be dragged into the multilateral arena. This is really the point. An example of how confusion between bilateral and multilateral approaches can be an unnecessary impediment to relations between regional groupings was clearly demonstrated at the ASEM Economic Ministers' Meeting in Rotterdam on September 16-17, 2005. The Netherlands, the host, denied a visa for Myanmar Minister U Soe Tha to attend the meeting. It apparently did so without consulting other EU members, some of whom have expressed dissatisfaction with how the Dutch handled the matter. ASEAN ministers responded by refusing to attend. The Dutch, as a last ditch attempt to salvage the meeting, then proposed that the meeting proceed at the Senior Officials level, which ASEAN agreed to. The important point here is that the episode was not just about Myanmar. It was far bigger than that. It was a clarion call that bilateral problems should not be brought into a multilateral context. It was about ASEAN 's credibility and solidarity and an example of how ASEAN can be expected to respond when one of its members is discriminated against in international forums. It is pertinent to recall here that when Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar joined ASEM as recently as in 2004, together with the new EU members, they did so as full and equal members without any conditions attached. At subsequent ASEM Ministerial Meetings held in Asia, Myanmar was appropriately represented at the ministerial level - bilateral qualms did not override multilateral obligations and interests. That Rotterdam incident was singularly unfortunate. Nevertheless, countries in the region have no baggage with the EU and would welcome its presence and contribution to regional and global security and well being. It is of course up to the EU to decide its foreign policy directions and whether the narrow concerns of the presiding country ought to propel or impede the initiatives of the grouping as a whole. The Rotterdam episode was perhaps an opportunity lost for enhanced EU participation in the emerging theatre. However, if it proves to be a catalyst, it will bring dividends to both ASEAN and the EU, who would be winners in many ways. NEW DELHI, Oct 18 (BDNEWS): The Prime Minister's Office in New Delhi is yet to give decision on Dhaka's condition to participating in the Myanmar-Bangladesh-India gas pipeline project despite eagerness of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry about the scheme. Officials concerned said the ministry, after much hyped Dhaka visit of Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, had sent a proposal to the PMO on the tri-nation gas pipeline and the condition imposed by Dhaka. The PMO referred the matter to the commerce ministry, they said. Officials in the energy sector in New Delhi claimed that Dhaka has put only one condition - reducing trade gap between Bangladesh and India - in exchange of allowing gas pipeline through its territory. They claimed during Aiyar's Dhaka visit, Bangladesh withdrew the conditions of Indian corridor for bilateral trade with Bhutan and Nepal and bringing electricity from the two Himalayan kingdoms. However, a top official of Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry said: "We are now facing opposition from the External Affairs and Commerce Ministries. The Indian government, particularly foreign ministry has been dreaming of importing natural gas from Iran at a rate of four US dollars." The December 26 tsunami killed Nai Nai's wife and only daughter. Since he is just a Burmese migrant worker, not a foreign tourist, Nai Nai will never be on the Thaksin administration's guest list for the tsunami commemorative events. Nor will Matoo and her husband. They lost all three of their children to the killer wave. But even 10 months after the tsunami, the couple, like other Burmese migrant workers, are still unable to retrieve the bodies of their loved ones for a proper religious send-off. Since many are illegal workers, they fear arrest and forced deportation if they turn up at the morgue to reclaim the bodies. Other lost their documents with the waves, so they too have the same fear. Matoo and her husband are more fortunate in this regard. TAG, an advocacy group for migrant worker's rights, helped them dig through the piles of registration records to prove they are not illegal so they finally got their registration cards re-issued. But the problem does not end there. The Thai authorities require the relatives to produce documents from their governments to reclaim the bodies. But the Burmese government views its own people as criminals for crossing the border illegally. So how on earth can they get the necessary paper to get the bodies of their lost loved ones? How on earth can Matoo arrange a proper send-off for her children? As the government is frantically trying to invite the relatives of the foreign tourists killed by the tsunami, offering them free tickets and accommodation, in the hope of using their presence in the commemorative events to shore up the country's tourism image, the Burmese migrant workers remain as invisible as ever. Remember what happened after the tsunami? While aid was readily forthcoming to foreign tourists, which impressed people the world over with Thai generosity, the Burmese migrant workers were slapped with looting allegations that forced them to flee to the mountains to endure starvation and sickness in hiding. And although they suffered the same tragedies and needed the same help as the Thais and foreign tourists after the tsunami, they never received state help. Worse, they were arrested and deported on sight. Frightened, many of them chose to return home to recover from the shock and the losses. Many have since returned. Their explanations are similar; there's no work at home. And despite the fear of deportation and future tsunami threats, at least they can work and be sure to get their next meals here. They are working as illegal aliens, though, because the authorities stopped re-issuing registration cards to those who survived the tsunami and refuse to register newcomers, or returnees. Consequently, they are subject to constant extortion or slave-like treatment. For the women, they face greater risks. Last week, for example, a young Burmese woman at Koh Lak was raped by a Thai man who reportedly offered to pay her 2,000 baht in damages. Fearing forced deportation, the girl might have no other choice. Before the tsunami and since, these ethnic migrant workers still suffer the same oppression, thanks to our ultra-nationalist history that makes us see the Burmese as the atrocious people who burned down our ancient capital of Ayutthaya. It does not really matter if they are Mons, Karens, Kachins, Shans or of other ethnic groups. As long as they come from Burma, we lump them all together as the cruel, untrustworthy Burmese who deserve to be treated inhumanely. Of the 120,000 registered workers in the six tsunami-hit provinces, some 7,000 were in the worst hit areas of Takua Pa and Koh Lak in Phangnga. No one knows how many of them perished, but many believe the final toll to be close to 1,000. We cannot escape our karma. With time, the bodies of foreign tourists will eventually all be reclaimed. But the bodies of those Burmese migrant workers will remain behind to haunt us with our own cruelty for a long, long time to come. Buddhists throughout Thailand yesterday cerebrated Ork Phansa Day – the end of the Buddhist Lent – by beginning the day with the religious offering of food to monks, followed by a variety of activities. Instead of following tradition and offering rice and food to their monks, local people in the Khok Salung community of Lop Buri’s Phattana Nikhom district followed their practice of more than a decade by offering colourful candy to the monks. “It might sound strange, but we have followed this tradition for a long time,” said villager Somsak Kirdsalung, 60. “In the past, we cooked the candy ourselves and offered it to the monks for their travels into the jungle. The candy served as food during their religious journey.” In Tak’s Mae Sot district, thousands of monks and nuns, as well as a crowd of beggars, crossed the Moei River from Burma on Tuesday, keen to participate in yesterday’s ceremony in Mae Sot town. Down South, in Satun province, local residents organised a hae rua phra procession, in which respected Bhudda images were placed on boats and floated down a river, allowing local people to show their respect by throwing food and flowers from the river bank. In Amnat Charoen celebrations turned sour when fighting broke out among local teenagers who were cerebrating the event by drinking. One was shot dead and two were seriously injured. |
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