The main bridge that connects Thailand to Burma reopened Thursday January 12 in the Thai city of Mae Sot, after three years of closure due to the combined effects of the pandemic and the coup d’état of February 1, 2021. Good news for the local economy, but among Burmese dissidents exiled in Thailand, this reopening is also causing concern.
With our special correspondent in Mae Sot, Carol Isoux
The first visitors arrived on foot, or by car, on the so-called “Friendship Bridge”, over the Moei River which marks the border between Thailand and Burma.
A relief for business communities that carry out cross-border import-export activities, which can finally resume. But for the thousands of Burmese activists, the concern is great to see this reopening favor the arrival of informants from the Burmese regime and jeopardize an already very precarious security on the Thai side.
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“ We are very worried »
According to this political exile, who came to attend the reopening, this kind of return to normal should be accompanied by political pledges from the junta: “ They’re reopening the bridge, yes okay, in a way it’s good news, but there’s no change otherwise. So we smile, but in fact, we are very worried, we do not agree that they reopen the borders without any political commitment on the part of the military. We need real change. »
Since February 1, 2021 coupalmost two years ago, tens of thousands more Burmese flocked to the border town of Mae Sot, undocumented and unemployed, hoping for an imminent regime change that would allow them to return home.
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