Thai military chief warns of threat from Myanmar

BANGKOK, Jan 7: Thailand's armed forces chief has warned of a potential threat from military-run Myanmar in a rare public criticism of Yangon's arms spending, reports said Friday, says AFP.

"Though posing no threat now, Burma could change in the future," Thai Supreme Commander General Mongkon Ampornpisit told 200 officers during a lecture at the National Defence College.

"While most countries are downsizing their armed forces, Burma keeps expanding its military capability," Mongkon was quoted saying in the English-language Bangkok Post.

He dismissed any potential threat from other neighbours and Association of Southeast Asian Nations partners Malaysia, Laos and Cambodia.

His warning follows a dip in normally cordial relations between the two countries which share a border more than 2,000 km long.

Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai this week blamed Myanmar authorities for a lack of cooperation in stemming the massive inflow of illicit drugs believed responsible for soaring addiction rates amongst Thai youths.

Myanmar is one of the world's biggest producers of heroin, along with Afghanistan, and is accused of hosting hundreds of amphetamine factories along its border with Thailand.

Relations have been strained since the seizure here of Yangon's embassy and nearly 40 hostages including diplomats by pro-democracy student gunmen in October.

The siege ended with Thai authorities providing the hostage-takers with an escape helicopter to the border, leading Myanmar to close the frontier for weeks at the cost of millions of dollars in trade.

Although Myanmar's defence expenditure is a closely guarded secret, analysts estimate it to have poured about 40 percent of central government expenditure into the military throughout the 1990s, while much of its population is still without basic education or health care.

Annual defence expenditure at least doubled from 1988 to 1996, analysts say, giving Myanmar possibly the largest army in Southeast Asia in terms of enlisted troops.

Most of the weapons and ammunition came overland from China, but other sources included Pakistan, Yugoslavia, Singapore, North Korea, Russia and Israel, analysts say.