Regional boat tours on Mekong River resume

CHIANG RAI, THAILAND, June 12 (TNA) - Regional boat tours along the Mekong River resumed operations Tuesday; roughly more than a month after head of Mekong armed drug gang Nor Kham was arrested and sent to China. Boat tours from Thailand's northernmost Chiang Rai province via Myanmar to southern China stopped operating after 13 Chinese sailors were killed in an armed attack on two Chinese cargo ships on the river in October last year. Nor Kham is suspected to be a mastermind of the murder of the Chinese crewmembers. Marking the resumption of the Mekong river tour trips, Thai authorities, and journalists today boarded the Thai-flag Kasalong Kham Boat from the Chiang Saen port of northern Chiang Rai province to Myanmar’s Ban Sam Phu village. The trip was aimed at demonstrating the safety of boat tours along the section of the Mekong River. Phakamat Vierra, manager of Maekong Delta Travel Agency which operates boat tours in the Mekong River between Thailand and Yunnan province of southern China, said that regional boat tour operators appear to be now confident in joint security operations by four countries comprising Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and China and they are, thus, ready to resume their services between the Chiang Saen port and southern China. Phakamat pointed out, however, that shallow water in the Mekong River is obstructing the business, urging the Thai government to ask China to discharge more water from its dams upstream in the Mekong River to facilitate the business downstream. (TNA)