N.Z. reporter told to leave Thailand

Press, 4 June 1988, Page 9

N.Z. reporter told to leave Thailand

NZPA-Reuter Bangkok Thailand has ordered a New Zealand freelance reporter expelled, and deported an American human rights activist, for illegally crossing into rebel-held areas of neighbouring Burma, the police said yesterday. The New Zealander, Terrence White, aged 38, \ was being detained by immigration authorities pending arrangements to fly him out of Thailand. The American, Edith Mirante, aged 34, left Bangkok on Thursday, the police said. The pair were expelled from Thailand in January, 1987, on similar

charges. The police said Ms Mirante, who was studying the effects of Burma’s use of herbicides against opium poppies, and Mr White broke Thai immigration law by crossing into frontier areas controlled by the Burmese opium warlord, Khun Sa, last month.. “We told them the last time (they were deported) that they would be allowed to return to Thailand, but warned them not to go back into Khun Sa’s area,” said a senior police officer who asked not to be identified. “It complicates our

foreign relations if we are seen to do nothing when foreigners break Thai law to go into areas controlled by rebel groups involved in narcotics trafficking,” he said. Thailand and Burma have stepped up diplomatic and economic contacts in the last year. Large areas of western Burma are under rebel control. International narcotics authorities consider Khun Sa one of the biggest heroin traffickers in the opium-growing Golden Triangle covering parts of northern Burma, Thailand and Tjios.