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BurmaNet News: October 16




************************** BurmaNet **************************
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
**************************************************************

BurmaNet News: Sunday, October 16, 1994
Issue #33

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

          "Wow man, your chips are <really> fried."

                    Computer technician examining what used to be
                    the motherboard on BurmaNet's computer (before the 
                    lightning struck).


*************************************************************
Contents:
1: BURMANET: BURMANET NEWS GOES DAILY, TAKE 2
2: REUTERS: : FIGHTING ERUPTS IN EASTERN BURMA
3: REUTERS: NOBEL PEACE PRIZE -- NO MAGIC WAND
4: BKK POST: BURMA FM SAY REAL DEMOCRACY IS HIS GOVT'S GOAL
5: REUTERS: BURMESE ARREST TWO THAIS WITH FAKE MONEY-MAKER
6: ACCORD ON MEKONG NAVIGATION REACHED
7: C.TUN: "SLORC REP. IN THE BAY AREA"
8: TIME: THE LADY EMERGES

*************************************************************

BURMANET: BURMANET NEWS GOES DAILY, TAKE 2

In the last issue, BurmaNet announced that the News would be
distributed on a daily basis.  Unfortunately, during a thunderstorm
on Thursday evening a bolt of incoming lightning found BurmaNet's
phone system, computer and modem. BurmaNet is now back on-line with
another computer and modem and--God willing and the creek don't
rise --will resume daily distribution of the News.  Sorry for the
unscheduled interruption.

  Strider

*************************************************************
NCUB: STATEMENT ON CONSTITUTIONAL SEMINAR IN MANERPLOW
October 13
National Council of the Union of Burma Marnaplaw 

1994 Constitutional Seminar On The Constitution Of the Union of Burma

Extracts from Analyses on selection of SLORC's National Convention (N.C.)
Delegates.  1. The SLORC's N.C. includes no elected representatives from
either political parties or organizations representing Kachin Karen, Chin,
Arakan or Mon state. Therefore, it is concluded that the SLORC's N.C. 
does not in fact represent the ethnic nationalities.  2. There are no
organizations representing the ethnic nationalities, the peasants, the
workers, the civil service personnel or the intelligentsia. The SLORC has
merely set up a false facade to hoodwink the international community.  3.
Of the 702 delegates attending the N.C. held by the SLORC, more than 600
have been selected according to SLORC's preference.  4. Accordingly, the
SLORC's N.C. is dominated by fraudulent delegates.  Extracts from
Experiences at SLORC's N.C.  1. The SLORC's N.C. is simply a pretence
prearranged and controlled strictly at every level.  2. The N.C. Work
Committee is regulating and dominating every aspect of the N.C. For
example. 9 members of the Panel of Chairmen (Presidium) had read for 5
days the 830-page paper written in advance by the N.C. Work Committee.
Based on that paper, detailed principles under the headings of Composition
and Structure of State, and Head of State were derived.  3. The delegates
are attending the SLORC's N.C. with uncertain and poorly-defined hopes. 
4. Though the real delegates of the people lodged protests by various
means, the SLORC's N.C.  consistently ignored them.  5 Through the
organization known as the Union Solidarity and Development Association it
had formed, the SLORC forced the people to make a show of support for the
so-called 104 basic principles laid down by the N.C.  6. With the creation
of the areas known as self-administered zones, the SLORC has tried to
entice the smaller ethnic nationalities.  7. The number of delegates (over
700 originally) is seen to decrease steadily.  8. The army generals
manipulate the N.C. by using coercive power.  9. At the N.C. the SLORC
sows dissension among the different social classes, on purpose.  10. There
are cases of one principle contradicting another among the principles laid
down by the SLORC's N.C. For instance, under the heading "Aims of the
State" item #4 affirms 'The promotion of multiparty democracy' but # 6
affirms 'The participation of the military in the leading role in politics
of the State'.  11. The SLORC's N.C. is performing with the aim to
legalise all the human rights violations committed by the SLORC.  12. The
SLORC has been attempting, by manipulating and coercion, to have a
provision allowing the military to participate in the leading role in
national politics, in the constitution of Burma it is trying to draft. 
Extracts from Analyses of SLORC's N.C. Procedural Code 1. The 6 aims
mentioned in Article 1 of the N.C. Procedural Code are the cardinal
principles circumscribing the whole N.C. There is no permission to use
history as a background to debate for the cessation of civil war which has
been the main cause of human rights violations in Burma. For the SLORC, it
is immaterial whether to have constitutional provisions guaranteeing the
equality of all the indigenous ethnic nationalities or to define where and
how the sovereignty resides, and it allows the discussion only about the
stability of sovereignty. The aim of The participation of the military, in
the leading role, in national politics of the State" is the attempt by the
SLORC military clique to have the constitutional rights to interfere in
civil administration.  2. The panel of Chairmen is composed of 45 members
representing delegate groups. Of the 45, only 4 from the N.C. Convening
Work Committee are principal ones with real powers. The political parties
and elected representatives of the people groups were allowed together 10
members. However, in practice, only 3 elected representatives were
included. The three were:- (a) U Daniel Aung - Lahu National Development
Party (Minebyin constituency) (b) U Maung Maung Gyi - Union Pa-O National
League (Pinlaung constituency) (c) U San Tha Aung - Myo (a.k.a.) Kami
Solidarity Organization (Kyauktaw constituency) As only 3 elected
representatives were included in the Panel of Chairmen having 45 members,
the three had hardly any voice. When U Daniel Aung left for the liberated
area, only 2 were left on the Panel.  3. The freedom of speech of the
delegates is totally prohibited by Articles 1, 5(c). 8 (j), 37, 45 (a-b-c)
and (j).  According to Articles 15 (c) and 16 (i), action can be taken
against a delegate at any time for matters included in the discussion.
Action has been taken on in practice. Example being Dr. Aung Khin Hsint. 
4. Though the expression "N.C. discussions' was used, in practice only
papers were read and there had been no free discussions. When the stage
for laying down basic principles approached, the discussion paper had to
be submitted to the Panel of Chairmen. The Panel, if necessary, summoned
the delegate concerned and asked to make changes in the paper. If the
delegate refused, his paper was sent to Work Committee which made changes
as desired and handed down for presentation in the meetings. The
presentation had to be exactly in accordance with the edited version. 
Article 45 (j).  5. Though the SLORC strictly controlled the N.C. with its
N.C. Procedural Code, if it was necessary for the promotion of its
interests, it acted outside of the Code for action against the delegates. 
6. Article 8 (c) has been included as it fears criticism against armed
forces.  7. As overall analysis of performances in practice, in accordance
with the Procedural Code, we see that article 19 of the Human Rights
Provision has been entirely denied.  Analysis of SLORC's N.C. as a Whole: 
The SLORC's National Convention analyzed on the basic of: - (a) The
historical background;  (b) The fact that the N.C. has been dominated by
sham delegates;  (c) The procedural Code of the N.C.:  (d) The experiences
of U Daniel Aung in the N.C. who had served as a member of the Panel of
Chairmen: 
	is seen to be nothing but an illegitimate and fraudulent show
staged by the SLORC for the domination and perpetuation of military
dictatorship in future Burma. 

 Maung Maung Aye (Information Minister)
(N.C.G.U.B) National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma


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REUTERS: : FIGHTING ERUPTS IN EASTERN BURMA

BANGKOK, Thailand (Reuter) - Heavy fighting between Burmese
government troops and guerrillas loyal to Golden Triangle opium
warlord Khun Sa has broken out in eastern Burma in an area he is
eyeing as a new stronghold, guerrilla sources said Thursday.

Details of the fighting were sketchy but one guerrilla
source said clashes had been continuing for two weeks.

Khun Sa is preparing to relocate his headquarters from
southern Shan state, near the border with Thailand, to eastern
Shan state near the Mekong River, which forms the border between
Burma and Laos, the sources said.

The planned move comes as Burmese government troops are
advancing towards Khun Sa's current headquarters at Ho Mong near
the Thai border.

"Thousands of Burmese troops are poised to attack Ho
Mong," one of the sources said.

Khun Sa's decision to relocate has also been forced by a
Thai move two months ago to seal the Thai-Burmese border,
preventing all supplies from reaching him.

Thai security officials say the border has been closed for
security reasons.

One of the guerrilla sources, reached by telephone in
northern Thailand, said 67 Burmese troops had been killed in the
fighting at the new base area near the Lao border. He said
guerrilla casualties were small.

Khun Sa, alias Chang Si-fu, 60, is the half-Chinese,
half-Shan commander of an 8,000-strong guerrilla army which he
says is fighting for the independence of Shan state.

Thai and Western anti-narcotics agencies, including the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), say Khun Sa's troops are
more often used to guard his opium business than to fight for
autonomy.


*****************************************************************
REUTERS: NOBEL PEACE PRIZE -- NO MAGIC WAND
Oct 13
By Rolf Soderlind 

OSLO, Oct 13 (Reuter) - The Nobel Peace Prize brings moral 
authority to its recipients and helps publicise causes, but the
record shows winning it is no guarantee of political success. 
Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the prize in 
1991 for her fight for democracy against Burma's military rulers,
is still under house arrest in Rangoon despite U.N.-led
international appeals on her behalf.      

The Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual and political leader, won the
prize in 1989 but recently said he was growing weary of defending
his efforts to reach a political solution with China over the
future of his remote Himalayan state. 

``The prize has its limitations,'' Norwegian Nobel institute
director Geir Lundestad told Reuters on the eve of the announcement
of the 1994 peace prize on Friday. 

``It is like a loudspeaker, especially for those who were not so
well known before they won it,'' Lundestad said. ``They get more
attention in the world. 

``But the prize is no magic wand. It cannot magic away the problems
of the world.'' 

This year it is expected to be shared by Israeli Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat for the 1993
Israeli-PLO agreement on limited Palestinian self-rule. 

Awarded since 1901, the honour is named after Swedish industrialist
Alfred Nobel. He thought his invention of dynamite would end all
wars, but to be sure he endowed the peace prize in his will. 

Awards have often gone to politicians in the middle of a peace
process or little known activists with the clear aim of boosting
their cause.  ``Yes, Aung San Suu Kyi is still under house arrest,
but the prize has moved Burma much higher on the international
agenda,'' Lundestad said. ``Her example shows what the prize can do
and what it cannot do, but I am confident about Burma in the long
term.'' 

He said the Dalai Lama ``now travels around the world and everyone
listens to him, but you cannot magic away the Chinese from Tibet.'' 

Previous winners who have been protected by the award include
Andrei Sakharov, who won as a Soviet dissident in 1975. 

Others who say the prize helped their cause and protect them
personally include Polish President Lech Walesa, who won in 1983
when he was an anti-communist dissident, and South African
anti-apartheid cleric Desmond Tutu, the 1984 laureate. 

Of the joint 1993 winners -- South Africa's F.W. de Klerk and
Nelson Mandela -- the latter has fared better. 

The prize gave further international weight to the democracy talks
under way at the time in South Africa -- but probably had little
impact on the outcome of the elections which were bound to usher in
black majority rule, political analysts in Johannesburg say. 

The elections catapaulted Mandela to de Klerk's old job as
president and demoted the white reformist leader to deputy
president. 

Former Costa Rican president Oscar Arias, winner of the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1987, has remained active in his efforts to bring peace to
the troubled region of Central America. 

He used his prize money to establish a peace foundation in the
Costa Rican capital San Jose, the Arias Foundation, to encourage
peace and development internationally. 

Since winning the Nobel peace prize in 1992, Rigoberta Menchu, a
Quiche Indian from northern Guatemala, has been a tireless
campaigner for indigenous rights around the world. 

In 1993 she was named U.N. goodwill ambassador to coincide with the
U.N.'s international year of indigenous peoples and visited 28
countries to support various indigenous struggles. 

But hopes that Menchu, 35, would unite Guatemala's 22 ethnic groups
and emerge as a major political leader have not materialised, said
a Western diplomat in Guatemala City.

*****************************************************************
REUTERS: BURMESE ARREST TWO THAIS WITH FAKE MONEY-MAKER

RANGOON, Oct 13 (Reuter) - Burmese authorities have arrested two
alleged confidence tricksters from Thailand and a Burmese
accomplice who were trying to peddle a machine they said could
print counterfeit money, the Myanmar News Agency reported on
Thursday. 

Military intelligence agents and local police arrested the two men 
from northern Thailand and their alleged confederate in the Burmese
border town of Tachilek, in northeastern Shan state opposite
Thailand. 

The authorities found their machine was no more than an old
repainted duplicator, incapable of printing bank notes, the
state-run news agency said. 

Action was being taken against the three, the news agency said, but
gave no details. 


*****************************************************************
BKK POST: ACCORD ON MEKONG NAVIGATION REACHED
By Nusara Thaitawat
Vientiane
13 October 1994

SENIOR of the four Upper Mekong River countries yesterday
agreed on a draft navigation agreement which, after its
official endorsement by the governments of Burma, china, Laos
and Thailand, will allow ships from the four countries to
sail"freely" on the Lan Cang-Mekong River route.
The agreement is the first of its kind to be negotiated among
the four countries.

Under the agreement, which will initially last for five years,
the four countries will open its following ports in China at
Si Mao, Jing Hong, Meng Ham and Guan Lei; Laos at Ban Say,
Xeing Kok, Mouang Mom, Huay Sai and Luang Prabang; Burma at
Wan Seng and Wan Pong; and Thailand at Chaing Khong.
They will also grant each other "most favoured nation
treatment," allow entry and departure or temporary stay
without visa requirements for crew members of the four
countries and conduct joint search and rescue operations in
time of accidents.

Hazardous materials will be prohibited from transport along
the Lan Cang-Mekong River. The four countries will also meet
regularly to discuss the progress of the agreement.
During the press conference, at the end of the Oct 6-13
meeting in the Laotian capital, Xay Phakasoum, permanent
secretary of the Lao Ministry of Communications, Transport,
Post and Construction, said the delegates also discussed
continued cooperation on land and air transport links, tourism
and organising of another sub-regional rally.
Mr Xay said the Laotian delegation had also requested the
Asian Development Bank to conduct a feasibility study on its
behalf for a railway system connecting Vientiane-Luang Prabang
and Kunming and port improvement at Ban Say, Xieng Kok and
Mouan Mom.
The delegation also requested the World Bank for road
construction assistance stretching from Luang Namtha to Xiang
Kok, he said.
Mr Xay also called for support from donor countries and
international aid to help finance the various projects in the
"Golden Quadrangle" and called on private investors, local
and international, to invest in the region.
Burma will the host the next four-nation meeting, set for next
year, when the navigation agreement is to be finalised. (BP)


*****************************************************************
BKK POST: BURMA FM SAY REAL DEMOCRACY IS HIS GOVT'S GOAL
by Saritdet Marukatat
New York

BURMESE Foreign Minister Ohn Gyaw assured the international
community yesterday that Burma would not let plans to shape up
a new constitution fall through as it is trying to build "a
genuine multiparty democratic state."

"My government would certainly not like to see the present
momentum of the constitutional process and the efforts for
national reconciliation impeded in any way," Mr Ohn Gyaw said
in a speech delivered at the 49th United Nations General
Assembly.

However, the minister did not specify when the National
Convention would accomplish its task of drafting the law.
The task will be accomplished "in(an) appropriate time" he
said, urging understanding for the lengthy process of
obtaining consensus among delegates on delegate issues.
After a long break, the National Convention reconvened last
month to discuss a new constitution.

Anti government groups and observers view the meeting as a
tactic by the Slorc to stay in power because, they say, a
large number of participants were handpicked by the ruling
military regime.

Mr Ohn Gyaw emphasised that the Burmese government had no
intention of delaying the process. He maintained that Rangoon
was preparing the country for a smooth and safe transfer to
democracy that would be for the good of all rather than "the
interests of any one individual." 

He also detained allegations that Rangoon violated human
rights and opposed the used of human rights issues as a
pretext for political objectives. 

"We are also against double standards and the temptation to
use human rights as a means to achieve political ends,"he
stated.

Mr Ohn Gyaw confirmed that he had met with UN Under Secretary-
General for Political Affairs Marrack Goulding twice this
month but did not give details.
The dialogue between the two sides is "well underway," he
added.

Mr Ohn Gyaw also renewed a call for resistance groups still
holding out against Rangoon to stop fighting and sign a
ceasefire agreement with the government before they miss "this
golden opportunity." 

The Karens and Mons are the main ethnic groups still resisting
Rangoon. Mr Ohn Gyaw also pledged that Burma would cooperate with 
the international community in the crackdown on drug problems.
While Mr Ohn Gyaw was delivering the speech on Tuesday, some
20 exile Burmese students demonstrated outside the UN
compound.

Waving placards and shouting slogans, they demanded that the
Slorc release Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners,
and called on the military junta to recognize the results of
the 1990 elections.

In addition, the National Coalition Government of the Union of
Burma (NCGUB) launched a campaign to counter his speech which
the exiled government called a trick to "deceive the UN and
world community."

Opposition leader said there was nothing new in the statement
which they said contained excuses by the junta to justify its
hold on power.

"If it is true, why has the Slorc not conceded to the
aspirations of the three consecutive consensus resolutions
adopted by the UN calling on the Slorc to respect the results
of the 1990 general election and hand over power? said a NCGUB
in a statement.

Rangoon claims that it does not commit or condone human rights
abuses but continues to hold opposition leader Suu Kyi under
house arrest, imprison politicians, and use forced labour, it
point out.

"We call on the UN to look at the facts and continue to assist
in the democratisation and reconciliation process in Burma,"
the statement said.

"Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the ethnic leaders must be able to
fully participate in this process for it to have any real
meaning," it added.

The NCGUB also ensured that the remaining anti-junta forces
were strong and exceed those which have reached agreements
with Rangoon.  Mr Ohn Gyaw said 13 groups had laid down their 
weapons to work with the Government .

The Slorc was not sincere in fighting against heroin
trafficking because the military government did not direct
wars against heroin refineries which was under its allies, the
exiled coalition government claimed. 



*************************************************************
REUTERS: BURMA'S DOCTORS TO WORK THREE YEARS FOR GOVERNMENT

RANGOON, Oct 12 (Reuter) - The Burmese health ministry will require
all medical school graduates to work for the government for at
least three years before they can travel abroad, according to a new
regulation. 

The regulation signed by Health Minister Vice Admiral Than Nyunt on
Tuesday was aimed at speeding up the implementation of the
country's health care programme, Burma's state-run media said. 

Burma faces a continuing shortage of doctors and other trained
medical staff with only 12,245 physicians for a population of 44
million, according to a report earlier this year by the ministry of
national planning and economic development. 

Four medical institutions, one of which is attached to the defence
ministry, turn out about 1,000 new doctors every year after a
seven-year training programme that includes one year at a hospital.
One of the institutions specialises in dental surgery. 

The new move is aimed at keeping young doctors in Burma for a
longer period following their graduation. 

Past experience showed that Burmese medical graduates could command
a high price abroad and hundreds left to join Western teaching
hospitals or to work in developing countries in Africa and Asia
after the military government liberalised travel restrictions in
1988. 

A recent advertisement for public service doctors attracted no more
than about 30 applications for some 300 jobs, according to medical
sources in
Rangoon. 

*****************************************************************

S.C.B.: "SLORC REP. IN THE BAY AREA"
Oct 12, 1994 

SLORC Trade Minister and the Ambassador U Thaung will be in the Bay
Area on Sat for somekind of meeting with the burmese in the area.
I think meeting will be in Millbrea. Does anyone know anything
about it. They probably won't answer any politically-related
questions anyway, like the prior visit, for if they mis-spoke, they
could lose their job or even worst, their heads.

Would SLORC's big brother from unique.com, who monitor the net,
like to add anything, please feel free to do so. We like to hear
from you.

*****************************************************************
TIME: THE LADY EMERGES
OCT 3, 1994                    
Asia Edition

After five years of impasse, the junta at last meets with its star
prisoner of conscience.

A modest buddhist monk helped bring them together, but more than
faith will be needed to keep them there

By JAMES WALSH

A young officer on the stuff of Rangoon's ruling junta
telephoned with a cryptic message.

"Watch the 7:30 news,"he told a foreign visitor."You might find it
interesting". At the appointed time, his advice seemed
questionable. The main evening news broadcast on state-run
television opened with standard official humdrum: the laying of
foundation stones for a national swimming pool, followed by three
deadly minutes of film showing a seminar for generals inside a
featureless hall. Clerks at the desk of Rangoon's newly opened Mya
Yeik Nyo Hotel could be forgiven for tuning out. They were watching
a satellite chanel that carries MTV music videos.

As things happened, they miss a lot, for the newscast then switched
to an astounding scene. Senior Gen Than Shwe, the
junta chief, and Lt. Gen Khin Nyunt, its first secretary, were
shone welcoming a radiant Suu Kyi to a teak-paneled room that
assuredly was not part of the lakeside house where she has been
held prisoner since 1989. Dressed in a pink lungi, or sarong, she
smiled and greed her hosts, who in turn beamed above their
uniforms. A voice- over obscured their words, but the image itself
spoke volumes. For the first time since it took power in 1988,
Burma's militocracy had recognized the standing of a woman who has
been a heroin of democracy to most Burmese - but officially Public
Enemy No. 1.

It look for all the world like a tea party for Alice in
Wonderland, Asian-style. The general, who would not condescend even
to pronounce Suu Kyi name in public a short time ago, were now open
a televised "dialouge" with the Noble Peace Prize winner. Ordinary
Burmese, who had not seen her face for more than five years, were
nearly bowled over-amazed, delighted, but also guarded in their
hopes. "It's good news," said a young Burmese trader, who admitted
he could not imagine where developments would lead. "When my human
brain cannot explain something like this, i must leave it to the
gods." The country's business partners were likewise elated about
the possibility of change. A Rangoon restaurant popular with
visiting investors erupted with bursts of discreet applause during
the news. Several diners among the mix of Japanese and local
entrepreneurs "This will be good for business!" Behind the
extraordinary encounter lay a cobweb of quiet diplomacy that had
pulled it together, a drama of comings and going by an expatriate
Buddhist monk. The story reads like a novel of international
intrigue, though with a surprising overlay of warmth. 

Lieut. General Khin Nyunt, the steely intelligence chief whose
power is much greater than his rank implies, told TIME that he
considered the meeting with Suu Kyi a "family reunion." He spoke of
metta, or the Buddhist spirit of goodwill, as the engine that
launched the dialogue and could carry it along. Why did Suu Kyi's
hardened jailers consent to meet her? A bureaucrat tried to
explain: "The lady represents a logjam that is blocking what this
government hopes to achieve. According to our tradition, when there
is a logjam in the river, you send an elephant to dislodge it. The
elephant knows which log has to be removed before the river can
flow again." The big question now is whether the elephant will
tread more softly on the land-and whether the "log" is
intended to be simply "removed" or treated with greater
respect.

In other words, critics wondered where the talks might go from
here, assuming that they were not meant just for show as the U.N.
General Assembly opened in New York City last week. in Washington,
Sein Win, head of Burma's democratic government-in-exile, welcomed
news of the meeting but sounded severe cautions. The junta, he
said, "always makes an announcement before major international
events but never follows through after the event has passed.

"Ohn Gyaw, Burma's Foreign Minister, was set to make informal
contacts at the U.N. with developed-world diplomats whose
countries had agreed in July to go along with Burma's
neighbours in pursuing "constructive engagement." The U.S. has
strongly opposed the change. Similarly skeptical, a friend of Suu
Kyi's abroad wondered if last week's rendezvous was a
"stunt," noting: "The generals have deceived people so often in the
past.

They've raised expectations three times since 1988-promising this,
promising that, never delivering. Nothing is ever quite as it
seems. 

Even so, the fact that Rangoon's two top leaders
deigned to meet at all with Suu Kyi, a figure they have
scorned and vilified, raised a wealth of speculations. Are the
new-style military leaders who have instituted successful
market reforms more confident today, now that Burma's economy is
growing at respectable rates from rags to ward riches? Does the
leadership that wants foreigners to call the nation
Myanmar, the capital Yangon and the junta itself the State Law And
Order Restoration Council-Slorc for short-have less to fear from a
democracy champion now that authoritarianism has shown some
economic results? Greater confidence may have been a key factor.

When seemed more important,  though, was the keener pinch of
diplomatic pressure, as will as a continuing Western led economic
embargo. Starved of loans from the World Bank and other
multilateral agencies, Burma has been able to carry its open-door
economic policy only so far. The country's rudimentary roads, ports
and communications networks need dramatic upgrading to win
significant further foreign investment. Also discouraging outsiders
is the overvalued currency: the official rate of six kyat to the
dollar is one-20th the black-market level. Adjusting to world rates
would require considerable aid from the International Monetary
Fund. 

In the six years since Slorc came to power following a
massacre of at least 3,000 protesters, the country had been denied
such help.

The regime blackened Burma's reputation by annulling the 1990
elections won by Suu Kyi's democrats, imprisoning dissidents,
creating torrents of refugees and pressing thousands of
villagers into forced labor. While such outrages have
alienated the world's major democratic nations, a crucial
influence behind the junta's opening to Suu Kyi seems to have come
from Burma's neighbors, who have begun to fear for their own stakes
in the country. A telling case is Singapore, which has encouraged
its companies to invest in Burma. Last month Singapore's Straits
Times, usually a voice of government policy, carried a series of
sharply critical articles on how Rangoon was stiff- arming civilian
views. If the military fails to achieve reconciliation with the
populace, the newspaper concluded, "the regime will become a Rip
Van Winkle who wakes up but cannot cope with reality." 

Two months ago, SLORC delightedly accepted Thailand's invitation to
be a guest at a Bangkok meeting of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations foreign ministers. At that forum the ASEAN envoys
persuaded their Japanese, European and Australian counterparts to
open up a bit with Burma. At the same time, however, Thai Prime
Minister Chun Leekpai warned Ohn Gyaw that the question of Suu Kyi
had to be addressed, that the world would not believe Burma has
changed until it started to accommodate the country's preeminent
symbol of democracy. Khin Nyunt would like it understood that Slorc
today is not the same uncouth, roughneck group of senior officers
who ruled Burma until two years ago, when the distinctly eccentric
junta chief Saw Maung was retired. Khin Nyunt told TIME lastweek,
"We believe that political development and economic development go
hand in hand. When their is political stability, there will be fast
economic growth, And on the other hand, when there is economic
growth, it will promote political stability. So we are going for
both at the time."

Such sentiments would be commonplace in just about any other
country; from an Slorc commander, they are astonishing. As recently
as last Feb, when the idea of a dialouge between
Slorc and Suu Kyi was first publicly broached, Khin Nyunt
appeared distinctly cool to the idea. At the time, Rangoon had
allowed U.S Congressman Bill Richardson of New Mexico to
visits her in the family villa that she had not been allowed to
leave since mid-1989.

Richardson departed with cautious hopes for the beginnings of a
dialogue. But over the ensuing months nothing happened, and
Richardson made some tart criticisms of SLORC. Prospects did not
look good for any exchange of views between Burma's lead- ing
adversaries. 

What outsiders did not know was that SLORC has switched
go-betweens, giving up on Richardson and opting instead for a
highly respected Burmese Buddhist monk who has lived for the past
two decades in Bratain. Rewata dhamma, a 65-year-old ab- bot from
Birmingham, has been a supporter of Burma's exiled democrats and a
prominent spokesman before U.N. forums on be- half of human rights
in his homeland.He visited Rangoon last May. In keeping with its
efforts to win over expatriate

Burmese businessmen, SLORC agreed to let him undertake an
astonishing mission: to meet with whatever dissidents he
chose, including Suu Kyi. Rewata Dhamma agreed to pay his old
friend a call.

Known to Suu Kyi since her childhood, the monk was
joyously welcomed at her forlorn house on suburban Rangoon's
University Road. She offered him food, the natural honor paid to
holy man by any Buddhist, and the soldier assigned to her household
helped her prepare it.That move satisfied a complaint Suu Kyi had
made to Richardson : that she had not been allowed to offer food to
monks on Martyrs Day, the July 19 anniversary of the 1947
assassination of her farther,
independence hero Aung San.

A friend of Suu Kyi's said of Rewata Dhamma, "He's been a symbol of
what everyone wants to achieve through
reconciliation. He's done it in a quiet and unaggressive way. He's
a very humble, sincere Buddhist, and he carries total credibility
for that reason." In the course of his two trips to Rangoon, the
monk had numerous conversation with both the opposition and the
general. While his mission may have been covert, it can have been
a total secret. Colonel Kyaw Win, an affable, golf playing deputy,
joked that the abbot met with so many jailed opposition politicians
that "we lost count."

In Bratain last week, Rewata Dhamma said that during his first
visit he urged the junta in vain to release Suu Kyi. "I went back
to the U.N. to explain what the military government had said to me.
The U.N. and the U.S. State Department said, "If they can't release
her, why at least can't they talk with her?' " He said he had
learned that the two sides were not all that far apart.  Rewata
Dhamma also conceded that his
authority probably helped: "In burma, a monk has more power- 'Yoy
do this' or 'You do that,'   like you say to a
child.Also, because I live in the West, I understand Western
people's feelings. So I can tell them what the Western
community needs or wants of Burma." The monk said he would not go
any further: "I don't want to be involved in what they are going to
talk about. This is a very limited role fro me. I don't know
everything after this."

The player who decidedly does know something is the solitary
heroine who has braved more than five years of grinding isolation
for her principle. In his Time interview, Khin Nyunt insisted that
last week's meeting with Burma's most famous prisoner of conscience
occurred with "no preconditions on either side." Friends who know
Suu Kyi well, however, are certain that she retained at least her
bottom- line demand of not being forced out of the country. She
could have left Burma at any time to join her British husband
Michael Aris and two sons in England, but has steadfastly refused
to accept freedom on those terms.

Beyond remaining in her homeland, what does Suu Kyi seek? A secret
transcript of an interview she had last February with Congressman
Richardson spell out her views eloquently. "I have a vision of a
country where we can sort out our problems by talking with one
another," she declared. "Democracy won't
solve all our problems-I have always said this." But while it is 
"not a perfect system," she saw it as a necessary beginning. She
noted,  "the world parliament comes from the world talk. It is
better to talk than shout, but shouting is better than shooting."
Above all parties, she insisted. "I would rather have someone say
to me, "i hate your guts,' and mean it, than have them lie to me."

Wherever her dialogue with the junta might lead now, SLORC seems at
least to have recognized that the out side world wants change.
ASEAN's "constructive-engagement" policy has been very forgiving to
a resource- rich country still suffering from Ne Win's quarter -
country of misguided isolationism. But even sympathetic neighbors
are complaining about the unimpressive returns of their
investments, which have been caused by the economic quarantine
imposed by the world's major powers. 

An Asian diplomat in Rangoon acknowledges that the generals in
their own minds, have not been purely bloody-minded . "Inside the
armed forced," he said,  "there is a feeling that it is manifest
destiny of the military to rule. Those soldiers are genuinely
convinced that they are the only guys who can hold the country
together."     

Even allowing for that view, however, Southeast Asian lands nearby
- countries that have gone from strength to strength in the past 30
years and now take pride in their prosperity - have been worrying
about Rangoon's political ri- gidity and continuing human-rights
embarrassment. Consider the new $1.1 billion project to build a
natural-gas pipeline from offshore drilling fields in the Andaman
Sea across the north- ern tip of the Isthmus of Kra to Bangkok: it
has incurred howls of indignation from human-rights monitor
overseas. According to the critics, a railway being built between
the coastal towns of Ye and Tavoy in Burma's far south has pressed
into "slave labor" thousands of villagers who earn nothing but must
pay for the "rental" of construction equipment. 

The railway is allegedly intended to bring in heavy machinery for
construction of the gas pipeline, in which France's Total and
America's Unocal are large investors. Both companies deny any link
between the projects, but some shareholders have voiced concern.

What may disquiet Burma's Asian neighbors even more is the regime's
ever closer ties to China, which by default has
served as SLORC's primary foreign benefactor - supplying $1 billion
worth of arms and radar equipment as well as many
consumer goods. Two weeks ago, Khin Nyunt visited Beijing as well
as Yunnan, the Chinese province that border on Burma, and talked
with official about the joint development of a proposed deepwater
port at Kyaukpyu. The project would serve in part as an outlet for
products from the remote, landlocked provincce.    


A SIDE FROM OFFERING YUNNAN easier access to foreign markets,
though the gateway could also give the Chinese military their
first-ever ability to project power rapidly to the India Ocean's
coast-at the doorstep to the Malacca Straits, Southeast Asia's
major commercial crossroad. A recent series of visits by Chinese
naval technicians, ostensibly to modernize some China-supplied
Burmese radar arrays on a few offshoes islands has especially
captured the attention of ASEAN government and India. Said an Asian
diplomat: "The Chinese are building up a degree of economic and
military leverage under which the Burmese are not in a position to
say no to port facilities."

Rangoon would plainly welcome alternative benefactors. It would
like to increase foreign investment beyond this year's modest
$326million and boost economic growth above 1994's
projected 5.8%- a respectable showing, but short of what the
impoverished country needs. Will the soldiers carry on talking with
Suu Kyi and, more important, actually negotiate with her? An envoy
from a neighboring country commented hopefull, "How can they afford
to jeopardize this opportunity by giving the international
community another excuse to criticize them?  Suu Kyi herself is not
insisting on any active political role other than as a spokeswoman
for reconciliation. She told Richardson, "Not holding public office
is not a problem for me. Public office is not my goal."

Yet the junta surely knows how difficult it is for an
elephant to dislodge a logjam. Already last week, rumors of a
Cabinet reshuffle in the works suggested divisions within
SLORC. Any power moves in the next few weeks will be watched
closely and could be a sign of shifts within the ruling group.   
A constitutional assembly recently reconxened by the junta- a
gathering denounced by all exiled democrats and by Suu Kyi as a
"farce"-is already in the thick of producing an charter that would
entrench the military's commanding role in political life. Burma's
critics are calling for a suspension of the exercise. Also, the
legal limit of Suu Kyi's detention time will run out in July 1995,
following which the regime will have no excuse to hold her.


Although most analysts doubt that talks will lead to her release
that soon, a continuing dialogue could encourage her supporters and
reassure many younger officers that political change can take place
without an outbreak of chaos. One of those junior officer said last
week, "We hope for the best, but nothing can be worse than what has
already happened. If this initiative does not work, we would have
to start all over again. It would be like saying it is the fate of
this country that it cannot achieve national reconciliation." In
the meantime, the symbol of that goal rests alone in her
University Road home. She has now come into the light again,
bringing with her the hopes of millions.                     

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ABBREVIATIONS USED BY BURMANET:

 AP: ASSOCIATED PRESS
 AFP: AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
 AW: ASIAWEEK
 AWSJ: ASIAN WALL STREET JOURNAL
 Bt.: THAI BAHT; 25 Bt.=US$1 (APPROX)
 BBC: BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION
 BI: BURMA ISSUES
 BIG: BURMA INFORMATION GROUP
 BKK POST: THE BANGKOK POST
 CPPSM: COMMITTEE FOR THE PUBLICITY OF THE PEOPLE'S STRUGGLE IN
MONLAND
 FEER: FAR EAST ECONOMIC REVIEW
 KHRG: KAREN HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP
 NATION: THE NATION (DAILY NEWSPAPER, BANGKOK)
 S.C.B.:SOC.CULTURE.BURMA NEWSGROUP
 S.C.T.:SOC.CULTURE.THAI
 SEASIA-L: S.E.ASIA BITNET MAILING LIST

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