Representatives of WIN, TIM and Chanvanitch companies told the press on Monday that DGM Consortium Co, which won the Bt7.4-billion bid in May to produce 15 million Thai passports over seven years, may not be able to make the documents secure.

For instance, DGM may not be able to include image perforation using laser technology as required by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), Manop Kulprakoblarp, representative of WIN group, said.

He said that since the Foreign Ministry has lowered its specifications for safety, the new e-passport will not contain biometric data such as iris and image identification technology inserted into a contactless integrated circuit inside.

The ministry, however, has dismissed allegations that it has cut down on passport security features in order to save costs, saying the new passports meet the required standards.

Thananchai Sae-chua of the Chanvanitch Co, meanwhile, questioned such claims and called on the ministry to disclose details of the security technology being used.

He said there are two kinds of technology used in travel documents: facial images engraved by laser and image perforation using laser technology for making visual facial images.

“We want to know exactly which technology the Foreign Ministry claims the winner has offered that is better than the ICAO requirement to prevent counterfeiting,” said Thanachai, whose company was the previous producer of passports.

The meeting runs from June 30 to July 10.

The Plain of Jars – a megalithic archaeological site in the Laos province of Xiengkhuang – and Bagan city in Myanmar have both received positive evaluations from the International Council on Monuments and Sites for inscription, Unesco said.

During its 43rd session, committee members comprising 21 states party to the Unesco 1972 Convention on the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage Sites will examine reports on the state of conservation of the nominated properties before deciding on whether they should be included in the World Heritage List.

The Plain of Jars in the Xiengkhuang Plateau, containing 1,325 large stone jars that have been associated to funerary practices during the Iron Age (between 500BC to 500AD), is considered a “serial property” consisting of two or more unconnected but related areas.

Located on the slopes and spurs surrounding the central plateau, the well-crafted jars required high technological skills for production and transport from quarries to the funeral sites.

The property has been proposed for World Heritage inscription because it is an exceptional testimony to an Iron Age civilisation. The distribution of the megalith jars on the site is thought to be associated to the overland routes at the historical crossroads between the Mool-Mekong and Red River or Gulf of Tonkin systems, the UN said.

Myanmar’s Bagan city, meanwhile, is a sacred landscape featuring an exceptional array of Buddhist art and architecture, demonstrating centuries of the tradition of Theravada Buddhist practice of merit-making. The monuments also provide dramatic evidence of the Bagan Period from the 11th to the 13th centuries.

The town, located in the central dry zone of Myanmar, comprises 3,595 recorded monuments.

Bagan’s complex, layered cultural landscape also incorporates living communities and contemporary urban areas. It was proposed for inscription as an exceptional living testimony to the Buddhist cultural tradition and as the peak of Bagan civilisation under criteria (iii), for containing an extraordinary ensemble of Buddhist monumental architecture under criteria (iv), and for being an exceptional example of living Buddhist beliefs and tradition of merit-making under criteria (vi), Unesco said.

Though Laos already has two World Heritage Sites – the ancient city of Luang Prabang inscribed in 1995 and the Hindu temple of Vat Phou in southern Champasak province in 2001 – Myanmar has so far not had any inscribed sites.

The country has struggled to unite ever since it gained independence from Britain in 1948 and ethnic groups took up weapons against the authorities. Despite negotiations, clashes have broken out several times over the past few decades, under both military-led and elected governments. The ongoing peace process began after the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) was signed in 2015 by eight of the 16 ethnic armed groups. This led to the first round of peace talks known as the 21st Century Panglong Conference, held in 2016 under the auspices of Aung San Suu Kyi. It made little progress.

P’doh Saw Tah Doh Moo, general secretary of the Karen National Union (KNU), told The Nation that the EAOs want to be able to openly discuss key issues and actively participate in Myanmar’s journey towards a democratic federal union.

The KNU has even submitted a four-point proposal to help Myanmar achieve federalism, he said, adding that the Karen hope to discuss this with top government leaders and the Tatmadaw (army) later this year.

“We need frank, open discussions with no restrictions because we consider trust-building to be the biggest challenge in the peace process,” he said.

He added that the government should also have a strong political will to ensure peace and stability across the country. “It’s really difficult at present to build trust between the government and the ethnic groups,” he said, adding that the government should have come up with a detailed road map for the journey to federalism.

To date, 10 EAOs have signed the NCA, while the remaining 11 have voiced doubts about the authorities’ political will.

Tah Doh Moo said there should be no discrimination between the NCA signatories and non-signatories, referring to the cancellation at the request of Myanmar of a planned meeting of EAOs in Chiang Mai.

“The obstruction of this dialogue-based meeting makes us wonder whether they [the Myanmar authorities] have any faith in dialogue,” he said.

Every stakeholder – whether a signatory or not – should be responsible in ensuring a successful peace process, he adds.

“We have the right to meet and discuss with whomever we wish. Clearly there is no way of accepting any disturbance in our informal meetings with other EAOs, whether they have signed the NCA or not,” he said.

“There is no clause in the NCA that prohibits signatories from meeting with non-signatories. Our definition of federalism may be different, as different EAOs have different perspectives. But we have one thing in common – our vision for a federal state.”

He also stressed the need for a concrete, transparent and practical benchmark in the peace process. “Without the improvement that would emerge from this benchmark, it will be really difficult to reach common ground,” he said.

Sai Kyaw Nyunt, joint secretary of Shan National League for Democracy, said some EAOs were not satisfied with the outcome of the previous three sessions of the Union Peace Conference, also known as the Panglong Conference.

“There were a lot of restrictions. For instance, the EAOs were not allowed to discuss certain issues,” he said. “Basically, their expectation was that the National Ceasefire Agreement would lead to moves to amend the 2008 constitution, but the government decided to focus on other issues of lesser importance. So, it was just a waste of time and resulted in the fourth session being delayed.”

Due to the lack of transparency and freedom, EAOs now have growing concern over peace talks, he said. “With this [concern] in mind, some EAOs began looking for other ways to achieve their goals if the meetings don’t work,” he added.

Sai Kyaw Nyunt said the government should review the process if big ethnic organisations like the KNU decide to withdraw from peace talks. He also called on the government to get things on the right track to allow open, unrestricted discussion.

“There will be no success unless they [the government] are really serious about addressing these problems,” he warned.

Aung Naing Oo, executive director of the Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Committee, said the only way to end the deadlock was to build trust, and to do this government negotiators will need to fill the information gap.

“It is no wonder there is so much distrust and misunderstanding between Myanmar’s peace partners,” he said. “There’s a huge gap between EAOs on the one side, and the government and Tatmadaw on the other.”

The semi-autonomous city has been shaken by huge demonstrations in the past three weeks, when protesters have demanded the withdrawal of a bill that would allow extraditions to the Chinese mainland.

Tensions spiked once more in the financial hub as dawn broke on Monday after small groups of mainly young, masked protesters seized three key thoroughfares, deploying metal and plastic barriers to block the way.

Riot police with helmets and shields faced off against protesters in the Admiralty and Wanchai districts of the city.

Shortly before a flag-raising ceremony to mark the handover, police swooped on protesters who had blockaded one street, an AFP reporter at the scene said, with at least one female protester seen bleeding from a head wound after the clashes.

The ongoing rallies are the latest manifestation of growing fears that China is stamping down on the city’s freedoms and culture with the help of the finance hub’s pro-Beijing leaders.

Although Hong Kong was returned from British to Chinese rule on July 1, 1997, it is still administered separately under an arrangement known as “one country, two systems”.

The city enjoys rights and liberties unseen on the autocratic mainland, but many residents fear Beijing is already reneging on that deal.

Pro-democracy activists have organised a march every handover anniversary, calling for greater democratic freedoms — such as the right to elect the city’s leader.

They have mustered large crowds in recent years — including a two-month occupation in 2014 — but have failed to win any concessions from Beijing.

This year’s rally comes against the backdrop of unprecedented anti-government protests over the past three weeks that have drawn millions and anger over police using tear gas and rubber bullets to clear crowds.

– ‘Resistance is long term’ –

The spark for the current wave of protests was an attempt by chief executive Carrie Lam to pass the Beijing-backed extradition law, which she has now postponed following the huge public backlash.

But the demonstrations have morphed into a wider movement against Lam’s administration and Beijing.

Lam — who has kept out of the public eye since her climbdown and has record low approval ratings — attended a flag-raising ceremony on the harbourfront early Monday, marking the moment the city returned to Chinese ownership 22 years ago, but she and other dignitaries observed from inside due to “inclement weather”.

The event had been scaled back and barriers erected around the square over fears that anti-government protesters might try to disrupt the event.

Protesters have multiple demands including that Lam permanently abandon the extradition bill and that police drop any charges against demonstrators arrested in recent weeks.

Sam Mu, an artist, was with a small group of friends waving black flags on Monday morning close to where the ceremony was due take place.

“It’s a symbol of how are city is falling,” he told AFP. “Our city’s freedoms are shrinking, it’s going in a more authoritarian direction.”

Activists, who are mainly young students, have vowed to keep up their civil disobedience campaign in the coming weeks.

“Whatever happens we won’t lose heart, that’s why we’ll keep taking to the streets,” Jason Chan, a 22-year-old accountant added. “Resistance is not a matter of a day or a week, it is long term.”

The pro-democracy rally is scheduled to take place on Monday afternoon, following the same route the two mass rallies last month took — from a park to the city’s legislature.

Permission for a separate pro-Beijing rally has been granted to start at the same time in the same park — raising fears of confrontations.

On Sunday, tens of thousands of pro-establishment protesters rallied in support of Hong Kong’s police.

Many waved Chinese flags and hurled insults at anti-government demonstrators camped nearby, highlighting the deep ideological fissures now dividing the finance hub.