BurmaNet News: October 20, 1994

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************************** BurmaNet ************************** 
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
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BurmaNet News: Thursday, October 20, 1994
Issue #37

QUOTES OF THE DAY:

          "They [the NGO people] get $6,600 per month as salary. For their
          daily allowance they get $220, just to go around checking the
          camps.  So you just think about that, how much profit they're
          getting."

                    A SLORC Lieutenant-Colonel criticizing foreign NGOs
                    aiding Burmese refugees.


          "Applicants must be prepared to work alone, enjoy driving over
          rough terrain and long distances (3,500km per month), spend
          nights away in camp and encourage refugees and committees to be
          as self-reliant as possible." [Salary, 22,000 baht/month
          (US$880)]

                    From a help wanted advert posted by an NGO providing
                    aid to Burmese refugees, November 1993.


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Contents:

REUTERS/BKK POST: DISSIDENTS JAILED FOR FABRICATING ANTI-GOVT REPORTS
BKK POST: CLINTON URGED TO TALK WITH CHUAN ON BURMA REFUGEES
NATION: KAREN SOLDIERS RELEASE 36 OF 40 DETAINED THAI VILLAGERS
REUTERS/BKK POST: PRIVATISATION POLICY COULD HIT ATTITUDE PROBLEM
KHRG: SLORC OFFICERS TALK ABOUT FORCED LABOUR & REFUGEES

************************************************************** 
REUTERS/BKK POST: DISSIDENTS JAILED FOR FABRICATING ANTI-GOVT REPORTS

FIVE Burmese dissidents, including a former UN worker
and a short-story writer, have been sentenced to between
seven and 15 years in prison on charges including
spreading information damaging to the state.

The five were sentenced by a civil court at Rangoon's
Insein Prison on Oct 6, diplomats said yesterday.
When announcing their arrests in August, Burma's
official medial said former UN Children's Fund (Unicef)
worker Khin Zaw Min and the other had "fabricated and
sent anti-government reports to some diplomats in
foreign embassies, foreign radio stations and visiting
foreign journalists.

Khin Zaw Win was sentenced to 15 years in prison on
charges including violating an official secrets act and
foreign-exchange regulation, the diplomatic sources
said.

The 44 year-old dentist, who worked with Unicef in
Rangoon from 1991 to late 1992, was arrested at Rangoon
airport on July 4 as he was about to broad a flight to
Bangkok.

He was found to be carrying manuscripts and computer
discs containing anti-government material and a
confidential Ministry of Energy report, Burma's state-
run medial reported in August.

Also sentenced on Oct 6 was writer San San Nwet, she was
imprisoned for 10 years on charges of spreading
information injurious to the state and contacting anti-
government groups, the sources said. Her daughter, journalist 
U Sein Hla Oo, and two others, Khin Maung Shwe and 
Ma Myat Mun Mun Tun, were sentenced to seven years in prison 
on similar charges, the diplomats said.

State media said in August that Khin Zaw Win met a
visiting UN rapporteur on human rights in December 1992
and gave him false reports with the aim of misleading
his investigation.

San San Nwet met two French reporters visiting Burma on
tourist visas in April 1993 and appeared in a video they
made, with her back to the camera to conceal her
identify, "for the purpose of propaganda", the medial
said.

Ma Myat Mun Mun Tun had helped Khin Zaw Min put anti-
government literature on computer discs and worked with
members of illegal political organizations, Burmese
radio reported.

Khin Maung Shwe, U Sein Hla Oo and San San Nwet have all
previously served prison terms on political charges
including involvement with Burma's main pro-democracy
party, the National League for Democracy, the medial
said.

Burma's ruling junta seized power in 1988 after
suppressing a pro-democracy movement with the lost of
hundreds of lives.

It ignored the result of a 1990 election which the Na-
tional League for Democracy won by a landslide.          
************************************************************** 
BKK POST: CLINTON URGED TO TALK WITH CHUAN ON BURMA REFUGEES

TEN  US lawmakers, led by Senator Edward Kennedy, early
this month urged President Bill Clinton to raise
concerns with Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai regarding the
political situation in Burma, and its impact on
Thailand.

In their letter dated October 4, the senators stressed
that President Clinton urge the Thai Government to
ensure that Burmese refugees are not prematurely
repatriated.

"We urge you (Clinton) to impress upon Prime Minister
(Chuan) Leekpai that any repatriations must be
implemented in accordance with internatiomally  accepted
standards and in-place minitoring mechanisms."
The senators were referring to the 3,000-4,000 Mon
refugees who fled back to Thailand after a SLORC attack
on Halockani camp inside Burma on July 21 when the annua
ASEAN meeting was about to convene in Bangkok.

The Mons were relocated by Thai authorities to the
Halockani camp inside Burma in February.

The letter explained that: "Once there (Thailand), however,
the Thais refused to grant them asylum. Access to the refugees
by aid agencies and the United Nation          



************************************************************** 
NATION: KAREN SOLDIERS RELEASE 36 OF 40 DETAINED THAI VILLAGERS
20 Oct 1994

KAREN soldiers yesterday released 36 Thai villagers kid-
napped on Tuesday night from Kanchanaburi's Thong Pha
Phun district but detained four others for an unspeci-
fied ransom, police said.

On Tuesday night, some 70 Karen soldiers entered a
village in Thong Pha Phum district and abducted 40 vil-
lagers, including village headman Jamnong Jitpraklam.

Shortly after the kidnapping, district chief Suban
Nakphorm and Pol Lt Col Somdej Netprapha, commander of
the 135th Border Patrol Police company, organized a
search party of policemen and local volunteers.

The search, hampered by bed weather, was resumed
yesterday morning when Pol Col Suthon Wanphen, superin-
tendent of Border Patrol Police bureau 13, and Col Sakol
Chentrakul, head of the Army's 9th Infantry Division,
joined the search.

Later yesterday, 36 of the villagers were found,
apparently unharmed. Those released included village
headman Jamnong and a man identified only as Pradei.

Pradei told police that he had been abducted by a
Karen soldier, known to him only as Phormoo, apparently
because the soldiers were angry with villagers for re-
fusing to sell them food, medicine and clothes.He said
he had lost contact with the main body of soldiers dur-
ing a thunderstorm.

Two of the four men still being detained were
Pradie's sons-Prayat and Daoreuk . The other two were
not identified. 

Phormoo demanded that a ransom be paid by 2 pm
yesterday, otherwise he would not be able to guarantee
the safety of the remaining detainees. the amount
demanded for the men's release was not known to police.

Kanchanaburi Governor Suchan Pongnue has asked Pol
lt Col Somdej and Col Sakot to negotiate with the Karen
unit. 
************************************************************** 
REUTERS/BKK POST: PRIVATISATION POLICY COULD HIT ATTITUDE PROBLEM

Six years after scrapping central planning, Burma gas
started a broad policy of privatisation which could
include transferring the key mining, minerals and
agriculture sectors out of state control.

Diplomats and local businessmen say that although
the military government has attracted some private
capital from home and abroad, attitudes harking back to
the old command economy, and some new problems, may
hinder wider private ownership.

"There is room for individuals but it is not easy,"
one foreign diplomat said.

Cinemas and small foodprocessing factories were seen
likely to be the next enterprises to pass into private
hands.

Lt Gen Khin Nyunt, Secretary One of the ruling
(SLORC), pledged "systematic and proper" privatisation
in a policy statement this month that was long on
principle if short on detail.

His audience included the ministers and top official
of all the country's important economic sectors -
energy, mining, minerals, agriculture, fisheries,
transport and tourism.

Diplomat contacted by Reuters said experiments with
private ownership had shown mixed results since the
military leaders formally ended more than 26 years os self-
imposed isolation on October 29, 1988, favour of a
market economy.

Khin Nyunt said the new private sector act as a
catalyst for foreign investment in  Burma.
Visitors are struck by the pace of construction in
Rangoon, the site of 16 out of 21 new hotel projects,
many of them joint ventures with Singapore and Malaysian
interests.

Luxury-class rail travel between Myitkyina in the north
and Rangoon via Mandalay has been privatised, the
fisheries ministry has leased boats and cold storage to
private operators, and some light industry is already in
private hands.

The Myanmar (Burma) Oil and Gas Enterprise is working
with Total of France and Unocal Corp of the United State
to supply natural gas worth $400 million to Thailand,
and  number of Hong Kong manufactures are exporting
textile from Burma.

"Repatriation of profits occurs on a case by case
basis," said one diplomat. "Oil exploration and minerals
generate over seas profits so the operators can take
home their share.

But these are the success stories. Away from the public
eye, local businessman say, military meddling in the
fledgling free market continues unchecked.
Two examples concerned sea fisherman in the Irrawaddy
delta and coconut merchants in southern Burma, who were
ordered to sell direct to the army or to military-
connected firms at less than the market rate.
Strapped for cash to feed the country's huge army,
military authorities have started learning on merchants,
rather than farmers, to keep rice prices down, business
sources said.

"There is still forced labour," according to one
businessman, who said peasants in some areas had to work
one week out of four to supply the locally-quartered
army troops. 

Diplomats variously listed the difficulties of local
entrepreneurs in obtaining credit, and problems met by
foreigners in realising their profits, as the main
obstacles to privatisation.

"Pepsico has to engage in counter-trade, buying
commodities like beans and then exporting the
commodities. this is very high in transaction costs,"
one diplomat explained in the case of the US soft drink
manufacturer.

Another open question is the value of the kyat,
officially pegged at 5.8 to the dollar while the same
greenback fetches 113 kyat on the black market.
Diplomats said the exchange rate is further complicated
by the fact that the government appears to be
introducing a de facto devaluation by purchasing some
technical spares at around 100 kyat/dollar the same rate
used at a trade fair in March.
The kyat is confusingly denominated in units of 1/2, 1,
5, 10, 15, 20, 45, 50, 90, 100 and 500, with notes of
15,45 and 90 by far the most common. 
 



************************************************************** 
KHRG: SLORC OFFICERS TALK ABOUT FORCED LABOUR & REFUGEES
An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
September 25, 1994     /     KHRG #94-27

Following is the translation of part of a conversation between
3 SLORC Lieutenant-Colonels which was recorded in a city in southern Burma
in mid-1994.  It is reproduced here because of the insight
it gives into the mentality of senior SLORC officers.  Please
feel free to use this document in any way which may help end the
long suffering of the peoples of Burma.
___________________________________________________________________________

Officer #1:  ...People don't want to do this work, so they escape
from the labour.  Then when they arrive at the border area they
say it was forced labour.  But for us, if we don't do it like
this now, we won't be able to develop things for the future.

Officer #2:  Yes, if you really want something then you just have
to do it.

Officer #1:  If we want to get the work done in the future under
a parliamentary government, there will be a lot of problems with
bureaucracy and we'll have to do everything step by step.  If
we have a parliament, they'll have to discuss it, and make contracts
and so on.  Now we're doing this development work but the people
don't like it, so we're like fools, all we get for it is black
names [bad publicity].

Since 1989 we've been making a lot of roads in the [Irrawaddy]
Delta area, about 1,000 miles of roads.  There's a lot of mud,
so just to make a 24-foot wide road we have to make a foundation
100 feet wide.  So it's a very heavy job, but even for this job
we have no problems and no complaints.  The people there are satisfied.
They are willing to help us.  But when we start in Arakan State
we have problems, a lot of the Muslim people escape to Bangladesh,
and on the Ye-Tavoy railway a lot of people escape to Thailand.

It's because these places are close to the borders, so some people
think, "When we arrive at the border we'll be free of this labour",
and they escape.  We don't explain things well enough to the people
in the border areas.

Officer #3:  [Out there] they sell liquor, beer, sweet drinks
and food, and everything.  But I heard a woman say, "If I can
ride a train just once, then I'll be happy when I die".

Officer #2:  The refugees get assistance money, and they don't
have to work.  For example, if the NGOs [foreign Non-Government
aid Organizations] get 20 million dollars from the organizations
of the world, then they take their cut for overhead, as well as
overtime fees, and they get lots of privileges like cars to drive
around in.  They only give the refugees just a very small part
of the assistance money, but the refugees are satisfied with that
because they don't have to work, so they don't want to return.

Some of these organizations are supposed to send the refugees
back to Burma, but when we open up a Welcome Centre to take them
back, these same organizations organize the refugees not to come
back.  The NGOs are afraid to let the refugees return, because
if all the refugees return the NGOs will have no profit and they'll
be jobless.  Actually, these organizations should be returning
the refugees, but instead they just move them all to another place,
they get money for doing that and then the same thing starts all
over again.

Officer #1:  They [the NGO people] get $6,600 per month as salary.
For their daily allowance they get $220, just to go around checking
the camps.  So you just think about that, how much profit they're
getting.


Notes:  All of the projects they are talking about are being implemented
entirely with slave labour, which is ordered from villages and
towns under threat of burning down their villages, shelling them
with mortars and/or executing the village leaders.  They say they
get "no complaints" in the Irrawaddy Delta, because the people
know that they will be severely punished or killed for complaining
and because they have no access to the outside world to report
their suffering as do the people in the border areas.  In the
past, the "Welcome Centres", i.e. repatriation centres, which
the SLORC has set up to accept refugees back have been used as
prisons, where returning refugees are held prisoner.  If they
can pay a very expensive bribe they may be released, but otherwise
they are sent to military units as porters or development projects
as slave labourers, or if they are suspected of being related
to "rebels" then they may be executed.  This has been the case
along the Thai border, where Thai authorities have on occasion
forcibly repatriated people to such "Welcome Centres".  On the
Arakanese border with Bangladesh, there are also reports of forced
repatriation of Rohingya Muslim refugees to SLORC repatriation
centres, but there are few or no confirmed reports of what is
happening at those centres.  The UN High Commissioner for Refugees
is supposed to monitor them, but all their representatives stay
in the comfort of Rangoon and do no proper monitoring whatsoever
- just an occasional one-day visit accompanied by droves of SLORC
Military Intelligence men.

It would be interesting to know where these officers get their
information on foreign NGOs and their salaries.  Along the Thai
border, there are no UN Agencies giving any aid at all to the
refugees and therefore such ridiculous salaries simply do not
exist.  The private NGOs giving aid there have to struggle just
to get enough rice from overseas to feed the growing refugee population.

Most of their employees are either unpaid volunteers or people
being paid just enough to cover basic living expenses.  The $20
million in aid which one officer gives as an example also does
not exist - and even if it did the Thai government would disallow
it, because they bar any aid except bare survival needs from being
delivered to refugees from Burma.


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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
 BRC-CM: BURMESE RELIEF CENTER-CHIANG MAI
 BRC-J: BURMESE RELIEF CENTER-JAPAN
 CPPSM: C'TTEE 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 NEWSGROUP
 SEASIA-L: S.E.ASIA BITNET MAILING LIST
 XNA: XINHUA NEWS AGENCY 

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