The National Security Council (NSC) has decided to let the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) decide whether to cut electricity supplies to Myanmar’s border townships, believed to shelters for Chinese-run call centres, or to use step-by-step measures based on the information about power usage and the suspected connections between the call centres and the Myanmar electricity concessions.
NSC Secretary-General Chatchai Bangchuad met with PEA Deputy Governor Prasit Chanprasit and Chamanwit Taerat, deputy permanent secretary of Interior Ministry today, to discuss the issue.
Chatchai told the media that the NSC has learned that some areas in the border townships consume unusually high amounts of electricity and that some of the Myanmar companies with concessions to buy electricity from the PEA are believed to be linked with the call centres to a certain extent.
He disclosed that there are five locations where the electricity supply is provided to Myanmar from the PEA, but the main users are in Tachileik township, opposite Mae Sai district in Chiang Rai, and Myawaddy township, opposite Mae Sot district in Tak.
Two notorious “sin cities”, Shwe Kokko and KK Park, are under the control of the Border Guard Force of ethnic Karen rebel forces, which are affiliated with Myanmar’s military junta.
Chatchai said the NSC had assessed the security risk associated with supplying electricity in its report to the PEA.
Those at the meeting today also agreed to assign the Thai Foreign Ministry to talk with its Myanmar counterpart, to get them to instruct the companies which buy electricity from the PEA to ensure that the power is not being supplied to call centres.
A joint working committee will also be formed to inspect the power usage in Myawaddy and Tachileik townships, said Chatchai.
Meanwhile, PEA deputy governor Prasit said that they have contracts with several Myanmar companies to supply electricity, including one in Tachileik and two in Myawaddy, opposite Kanchanaburi’s Three Pagoda Pass.
He said that, even though the PEA is authorised to cut the electricity supply, it must proceed with caution and consider both the security and humanitarian impacts of doing so.
The issue of cutting power to Myanmar border townships has been dragging on for months, as no agency is willing to take unilateral action.
