Myanmar closes Thai export channels, Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge remains open

TAK, THAILAND, March 24 (TNA) - Myanmar's Border Guard Force (BGF) has ordered the closure of ports along the Moei River in response to Thai authorities who are strictly suppressing oil smuggling there, but the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge remains open. A lot of Myanmar people from Myawaddy, thus, rushed to ports in Ban Huai Muang of Mae Sot District in Thailand's northwestern Tak Province on early Tuesday to buy consumer products and return to their soil quickly although the BGF's order, issued at 6am, concerns only the suspension of cargo transport through Myanmar ports along the Moei River. The BGF also ordered the suspension of cargo transport at a ferry port opposite Ban Mae Tan in Tak's Tha Song Yang District. Thai security sources said the closure responded to Thai authorities' decision on seizing oil trucks illegally exporting oil to Myawaddy, amounting to billions of baht annually through the border. (TNA)