EC Approves Humanitarian Aid for Afghanistan, Laos BRUSSELS (Oct. 14) XINHUA - The European Commission, the European Union's (EU) executive body, has approved a package of humanitarian aid worth two million ECUs (2.5 million U.S. dollars) for Afghanistan and Laos. The money for Afghanistan is to be spent on shelter, food and medical aid, especially in the capital Kabul, said a press release here today. In Laos, more and more people suffer from the flooding which occurs each year. In July and August, more than 20,000 hectares of arable land in the Mekong delta were devastated. The grant will enable France's three non-governmental organizations to carry out an emergency relief program in Laos over the next six months. The Nation / 15 October 1997 Slim hopes of release for immigration officials held in Laos By The Nation, Associated Press HOPE is fading for the quick release of six Thai immigration officials arrested last Tuesday by provincial officials in Laos' Bokeo province opposite Chiang Rai and charged with possessing war weapons, a senior Chiang Rai provincial official said yesterday. Col Chusak Anuchornpan, a deputy director for military affairs, said he will check on a report that the six will also be charged with robbery. As of yesterday, there has been no confirmation that they will face those charges. Meanwhile, Chiang Rai Governor Wichan Chaiyanan called for the foreign and interior ministries to step in as he said the problem has gone beyond his capabilities. Wichan said the Lao side has refused to cooperate on the issue, refusing requests by Thai officials to enter Laos to visit the detainees or for negotiations. Thailand and Laos have given conflicting accounts of last Tuesday's events. According to the Thais, the incident took place on the Mekong River between Chiang Rai's Chiang Saen district and Bokeo's Thong Pheung village, when 10 Thai immigration officers and patrol guards intercepted six Lao cargo vessels on suspicion that they were smuggling contraband into Thailand. Four vessels managed to flee to the Lao side with six Thai immigration authorities on board, while two vessels were seized and docked on the Thai side. Four Laotians went missing during the confrontation. However, Laos' official news agency, KPL, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that the six 20-tonne cargo boats were carrying 7,800 cases of beer up river to Burma ­ not smuggling it into Thailand ­ and had the paperwork to prove it. As six boats docked for the night in Thailand, KPL said, two of them were seized by Thai authorities. Frightened captains of the other four boats quickly headed back to Laos. Thai patrol boats gave chase and six officers jumped aboard the last boat, ordering the captain at gunpoint to catch up and head off the other fleeing boats, KPL said. He was unsuccessful and was assaulted. Meanwhile, other Thai patrol boats were crossing over to the Lao side, threatening Lao vessels and filling radio communication waves with "arrogant and unpleasant language", KPL said. KPL said that at least two Lao men had jumped into the water to escape the Thais. One swam to safety and the other was missing, presumed drowned. Lao officials are demanding that the Thais return the seized boats and cargo, as well as two boatmen in Thai custody, and find and pay compensation for the missing man. Meanwhile Laos' Ambassador to Thailand Bounekeut Sansomsak yesterday downplayed the incident, saying it will not affect relations between the neighbouring countries. The ambassador also said the six officials will not be tried for robbery and that the matter will soon be solved at the local level. Bounekeut said in an interview with The Nation that negotiations between authorities of both sides are underway to secure that the six Thais are released and to resolve other related matters. "The matter is not as serious as reported in some news reports. In fact, the two sides have almost cleared up all remaining issues," he said. However, the Associated Press reported that Laos took the unusual step on Monday of releasing a statement via KPL saying that "the incident has undermined the good relations between the two countries". Meanwhile, a Thai Foreign Ministry source said the ministry has had contact with its Lao counterparts, but that both sides believe the standoff will not affect relations and prefer that the issue be settled peacefully at the local level. Foreign Minister Prachuab Chaiyasan and Bounekeut met over the weekend and agreed that the matter should not become a national issue. According to an informed source in Chiang Rai, the Lao side has said that they will release the officials under six conditions, which include the return of the seized vessels and cargo, the retraction of legal action taken against the owners of the Lao boats and compensation for damage caused to the vessels and the lives of missing crew members. BKK Post / October 15, 1997 THAI-LAO RELATIONS River clash escalates tensions By Theerawat Khamthita Six Thai officers arrested by Laos while attempting to impound contraband from Laotian boats on the Mekong River last week may face death sentence as Vientiane has decided to press robbery charges against them. Under Laotian law robbery is a serious crime which could face death penalty, said border sources yesterday of the deadly run-in between Thai patrol boats and Laotian vessels in which four Laotian crew members were killed. Laotian authorities found the bodies of the four crewmen, two of them with gunshot wounds south of Ton Phueng town on their side of the river, prompting them to think they were killed in a firefight after Thai officials tried to seize their vessels. On October 7, a joint team of Thai immigration police, anti-narcotic and Excise Department officials was keeping a watch on Sob Kok pier in Chiang Saen district of Chiang Rai province after being tipped off that an attempt would be made that day to smuggle contraband from Laos to Chiang Saen. Six Laotian boats reached the pier and its crew opened fire as Thai officers got on board and tried to search the cargo. Two boats were impounded with 2,800 crates of German beer worth 400,000 baht and a Laotian man was arrested. Four other boats broke away and tried to escape back to Laos with six Thai officers still aboard. The Thais were disarmed and imprisoned after the boats docked in Ton Phueng on the Laotian side of the Mekong. Thai authorities have demanded their release, mostly immigration officers, but several rounds of talks with their Laotian counterparts have failed to produce results, raising the possibility of the worst standoff between the two neighbours in years. Chiang Rai governor Vijarn Chaiyanan said yesterday urged the government to intervene. "They are still safe but have been charged with intruding into Laotian territory which in itself makes them liable to several years in jail," he said, not to mention the robbery charges Vientiane is planning to slap against them. Mr Vijarn said the Laotians have ignored his repeated calls for negotiations and rejected his request to visit the jailed Thais who were moved deeper inside from Ton Phueng deeper to Bo Keo province on Monday. Col Chusak Anujornphan, director of Internal Security Operation Command's Chiang Rai branch, also called on the government to step in, saying that local authorities had tried their best to win their release but their efforts had not borne fruit. The Nation (BKK) / 15 October 1997 Business Egat rejects revised Lao power deal By Pichaya Changsorn THE Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand has refused to purchase electricity from Nam Theun-Hinbun Dam one month ahead of the original schedule, as requested by the developer. David Michael, senior vice president of MDX Power Plc, which indirectly holds a majority stake in the Nam Theun- Hinbun Power Ltd (THPC), said the US$280 million hydroelectric project is now almost fully complete and will be ready for commercial operation by the end of February instead of March 31 as stipulated in the power purchase contract with Egat. Therefore, the company asked Egat to consider purchasing electricity from the project a month ahead of the contract. "We are talking with Egat. So far, there has been no decision," he said. Under the schedule, Nam Theun-Hinbun Dam will be the first privately-owned power project in Laos to come on- stream and the first to benefit from the 3,000 megawatt power purchase memorandum of understanding signed between the governments of Laos and Thailand. However, an Egat senior official responsible for the Lao power projects told The Nation yesterday that the agency had received a letter from THPC asking it to make advance electricity purchases from the Lao-based project. However, considering the demand/supply picture, he said it was unnecessary for Egat to comply with the request. "Why should we [purchase ahead of the contract]," the official said. The Egat source said the state agency has no plans to revise its power purchase agreements (PPA) with Lao-based power developers, although it is going over contracts with domestic independent power producers and small power producers because of the baht's effective devaluation. "There are already mechanisms [in the Lao PPA]. We thought it already had a balance," he said. The power purchase agreements for Lao-based projects call for Egat to pay for half its purchases in US dollars and the remainder in baht. He said the Lao-based projects, which already have PPAs with Egat, should have no difficulty continuing. The 210-MW Nam Theun-Hinbun project and the 126-MW Huay Ho project, being developed by a consortium headed by Daewoo and Loxley Plc, are the only two projects in Laos to have received power purchase agreements from Egat. Egat governor Viravat Chlayon said on Wednesday that because of lower demand projections, Egat will cut its own projects and delay purchases from IPPs and SPPs, as well as review its purchases from three Lao-based projects ­ Nam Ngum 2, Nam Ngum 3 and Thai-Lao Lignite Ltd. The source said Egat is scheduled to conclude power purchase talks with the Nam Ngum 2 and Nam Ngum 3 projects by April 1998 and with the lignite project by the end of this year, so it was too soon to say whether the projects will be delayed. Meanwhile, Michael denied rumours that Nordic Hydropower AB has pulled out of the Nam Theun-Hinbun project. THPC is 60 per cent owned by Electricite du Laos, 20 per cent by MDX Lao Ltd, and 20 per cent by Nordic Hydropower AB. Nordic Hydropower is equally owned by Statkarft SF and Vattenfall AB, the main public utility companies in Norway and Sweden. MDX Lao is owned by MDX Power Plc and the Crown Property Bureau of Thailand. The Egat source said he had not heard the rumours, and said a Nordic Hydropower withdrawal was unlikely as THPC is due to begin making money shortly. Nam Theun-Hinbun Dam is located on the Nam Theun River, one of the largest tributaries of the Mekong River on the border of Bolikhamsay and Khammouane provinces in Laos.