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Abstract: "Security
Developments in the Thailand-Burma Borderlands" Complete
Paper (pdf 705KB)
The Thailand-Burma borderlands are in
a state of crisis, with widespread and evidently unresolvable security problems.
Crises are perennial in these borderlands, of course, as Prince Damrong
Rajanubhab recounts in his Our Wars with the Burmese, 1539-1767 (written
to provide a national history of the new Siamese nation-state).1 Both Burma
and Thailand still maintain large Regular military forces in the borderlands,
and there continue to be frequent cross-border incursions by Burmese Army
forces (the tatmadaw) and cross-border artillery and mortar exchanges (escalating
in intensity in 2001-02, with fighting at different points along the whole
length of the border, from Mae Sai south to Ranong, and with dozens of casualties).
But in addition to, and thoroughly intertwined with, the state-to-state
relationship between Bangkok and Rangoon, and the complexity of the cooperative
and conflictual relationships between the respective state security agencies
(in the borderlands as well as in the capitals), there is an extraordinary
range of so-called ‘new security challenges’ and ‘human
security’ issues - including the consequences of the protracted civil
war between the SPDC and some of the major ethnic minority groups (as
well as the ABSDF), and of the SPDC’s large-scale forced population
relocation programs, such as the proliferation of armed groups and private
armies, the unceasing movement of refugees into Thailand, and especially
the massive influx of metamphetamines and other narcotic drugs which is
threatening the very fabric of Thai society.
Thailand’s policies for dealing with these borderland security issues
are confused and poorly coordinated. Some are misdirected, especially
those which require good faith on the part of the junta, and ultimately
doomed to failure - though further depreciating security for many people
in the borderlands in the process.
© 2005 Australian Mekong Resource Centre |
