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BurmaNet News: July 10, 1996
- Subject: BurmaNet News: July 10, 1996
- From: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 10 Jul 1996 05:08:00
-------------------------- BurmaNet -------------------------------
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
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The BurmaNet News: July 10, 1996
Issue #463
Noted in Passing:
The people are not interested in the present national
convention or the constitution they are drawing up
ASSK said. (see: REUTERS: SUU KYI SAYS TO GO
AHEAD WITH DRAFT CHARTER)
HEADLINES:
==========
STATEMENT: THE 1ST ANNIVERSARY OF RELEASE OF DASSK
AP: BURMA ASSAILS DISSIDENT
NATION: EU DEMANDS SLORC TO EXPLAIN NICHOLS' DEATH
NATION: BUSINESSMEN IGNORE SUU KYI'S PLEA
UPI: US FIRM SIGNS BURMA GOLD MINING DEAL
AP: CARLSBERG DROPS BURMA VENTURE
REUTERS: SUU KYI SAYS TO GO AHEAD WITH DRAFT CHARTER
PRESS RELEASE: HRW/ASIA-FORCED RELOCATIONS IN BURMA
VOA: BURMA HUMAN RIGHTS
BKK POST: AMNUAY TO PUSH FOR JUNTA-SUU KYI TALKS
VOA: BUDGET HEARINGS (BURMESE MEDIA)
ANNOUNCEMENT: BURMESE STUDENTS HUNGER STRIKE
BKK POST: BURMESE TROOPS STEAL THAI CATTLE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
STATEMENT: THE 1ST ANNIVERSARY OF RELEASE OF DASSK
July 9, 1996
from: absdf-mtz <lurie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Today, July 10, 1996, is the first anniversary of the release of
Burmese democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from her six years
of house arrest.
Since her release, She has utilized a series of peaceful non-
violent political activities as a major tactic to pressurize the
Burmese regime into dialogue with the democratic opposition.
The ABSDF wholeheartedly supports Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the
National League for Democracy (NLD) in their boycott of the
Slorc's sham National Convention which seeks to perpetuate their
dictatorial rule through the drafting of a called constitution
reprsentatives handpicked by the Slorc.
ABSDF strongly denounces the State Law and Order Restoration
Council (SLORC) for the arrest of NLD elected representatives of
the 1990 election who had been invited to attend the NLD
congress. We demand that the Slorc release all political
prisoners including these elected MPs.
The ABSDF is sincerely convinced that there has been no progress
towards democracy in Burma since Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's release,
as the Slorc has repeatedly denied the NLD's call for dialogue
aim at national reconciliation, and as human rights abuses and
harassment of peaceful pro-democracy activists can be seen to
have escalated significantly during this period.
The recent death of Mr. James Leander Nichols, while he was
serving a three year sentence in Insein, stands as a clear
indication that the SLORC continue to use brutally repressive
tactics as a means to silence their opposition.
As a result of this situation, the people's hope for a peaceful
progression towards political reform along the lines that took
place in South Africa after the release of Nelson Mandela, has
gradually faded out.
On this first anniversary of the release of our democracy leader,
we would like to appeal to the international community to;
1) impos trade sanction and an arms embargo on the Slorc
2) support by any possible means the peaceful struggle of people
of Burma led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi for the restoration of
democracy and human rights in our country.
The ABSDF demands that the Slorc;
1) abolish the 'sham' National Convention,
2) release all political prisoners including elected MPs and
prominent student leader Min Ko Naing,
3) abolish all unjust laws and stop all forms of human rights
abuses,
4) enter dialogue with NLD lead by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and with
ethnic leaders to bring national reconciliation, democracy and
lasting peace to Burma.
The ABSDF also urges the ranks and files soldiers in Burma to
restore their honour by respecting the genuine desire of the
people for democracy, and by standing alongside them and
protecting them during their struggle. After all the primary
function for which General Aung San established the army was to
protect the people.
The ABSDF pledges to the people of Burma that we will continue
the struggle until the victory is achieved whatever sacrifices
may be necessary along the way.
All Burma Students' Democratic Front
*********************************************************
AP: BURMA ASSAILS DISSIDENT
July 9, 1996
BANGKOK, Thailand - Burma's military government has accused
democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi of exploiting a former
Scandinavian consul's death in prison for political purposes.
James Leander Nichols' death June 22 in a Burmese prison
notorious for torture has aroused the concern of Western governments.
"The person who wants to make political gain out of a corpse is
really foolish," said an article Tuesday in the state-run newspaper
New Light of Myanmar.
Suu Kyi, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her non-violent
promotion of democracy, made religious offerings after Leander died.
The article alleged that Suu Kyi made the offerings "merely to
assemble a crowd. This stunt proves she is not serious about
religious belief."
It was the first mention in Burma's heavily censored media of
Nichols' death in Insein Prison.
Nichols, a businessman who had served as honorary consul for
Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Switzerland, was sentenced in
May to three years in prison for having unauthorized telephones and
fax machines in his home.
Though government permission is required to own extra phones and
fax machines, Nichols' family says the real reason he ran afoul of
the law was over his friendship with Suu Kyi.
Suu Kyi has acknowledged that Nichols lent her a car, but the
article alleged he was her chief means of financial support.
Diplomats from several Scandinavian countries traveled to Rangoon
two weeks ago to demand that authorities disclose more information
about Nichols' death.
The military government has said he suffered a heart attack and
died in Rangoon General Hospital, but no independent autopsy was
permitted and the diplomats said government explanations were
unsatisfactory.
"No ambassadors of any kind can plead with death," the paper said.
Denmark has said it will push for the European Union to adopt
economic sanctions against Burma, also known as Myanmar.
The newspaper article made several accusations against Nichols,
including that he seduced women in exchange for getting them jobs
overseas.
"This person is said to have helped over 40 good Burmese damsels
to get jobs abroad. It is said that he seduced 80 percent of these
girls," said the article.
It also detailed an alleged visit by Nichols to a house of prostitution.
The article said reports that Nichols had been tortured or
treated badly were concoctions of the West, and printed lists of
food he received to prove he was well-treated.
In her regular weekend speech, Suu Kyi answered critics such as
Singapore's Lee Kwan Yew, who said that if Burma had democracy it
would collapse in violence like Bosnia.
"It is an insult to the people of Burma to compare it to Bosnia,"
Suu Kyi said to the applause of more than 4,000 people gathered
outside her Rangoon home.
"The trouble with Bosnia is not that there was too much freedom,"
Suu Kyi said. The problem was that its government suppressed
dissension for too long, she said.
********************************************************
NATION: EU DEMANDS SLORC TO EXPLAIN NICHOLS' DEATH
July 9, 1996
THE European Union has called on Burma to explain the death in
custody of James Leander Nichols, an honorary consul in Rangoon
for a number of European countries.
In a statement distributed yesterday, EU president Ireland
said it wanted aa full and satisfactory explanation" of Nichols'
death. It also called for an investigation by the United Nations.
Nichols, an unaccredited representative for Denmark,
Finland, Norway and Switzerland, died in prison on June 22.
Differing accounts say he died of a heart attack or a stroke.
Copenhagen, outraged by the death, has been campaigning for
sanctions against Burma.
Diplomats and opposition sources believe he was jailed
because of his close links with Suu Kyi and her National League
for Democracy (NLD) party.
The EU statement said it was deeply concerned by what it
said was a continuing deterioration of the political situation in Burma.
It called for the release of detained NW members,
including Aye Win and Win Htein, and "all political prisoners".
The statement cited the EU's concern about restrictions "on
the fundamental rights of freedom of speech, movement and association".
Meanwhile, Thai Foreign Minister Amnuay Viravan yesterday
said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations would redouble
its efforts towards Burma to produce positive changes but will stop
short of meddling in the country's internal affairs.
"We believe that although the Asean policy may be viewed by
many as not to have produced the kind of results most people
expected, it only means we have to redouble our efforts to make
it more constructive," he told the Foreign Correspondents' Club
of Thailand.
Amnuay said Asean will have a chance to discuss its
"constructive engagement" policy towards Burma when its members
meet their dialogue partners in the Asean Regional Forum (ARF) on
July 23 and the Post Ministerial Conference (PMC) on July 24 and
25 in Jakarta.
Burma will, for the first time, attend the Asean Ministerial
Meeting (AMM) on July 20 and 21 as an observer, and the ARF as a
full participant. The country has also stated its desire to
become a full Asean member in 1998.
Asean dialogue partners, particularly the US and the
European Union, have repeatedly urged the group to review its
"constructive engagement" policy, saying it has not helped bring
about positive political changes in Burma. Asean members have
rejected the Western approach of condemnation and isolation,
saying such measures would not be productive.
Amnuay said it was necessary to keep talking to Burma rather
than isolate it. He added that Asean wants to encourage the
dialogue process between the Burmese junta and the opposition,
but in the use of diplomacy there are some things one can do and
some things one cannot.
"Of cause we [Asean] will encourage any dialogue that leads
to stability and peace but we will not go out of our way to
interfere," he said.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas rejected last month a
proposal by senior Asean officials that he travel to Rangoon to
express the group's concern over the rising political tensions
after the Burmese junta arrested more than 260 supporters and
elected MPs of the NLD ahead of a party congress.
Although Alatas had said such a visit could be seen as an
interference in Burmese domestic affairs, he still held a low-key
meeting with Burmese Foreign Minister U Ohn Gyaw during a Mekong
ministerial meeting last month in Kuala Lumpur.
*********************************************************
NATION: BUSINESSMEN IGNORE SUU KYI'S PLEA
July 9, 1996
RANGOON - Pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi's call for
foreign investors to stay away from Burma appears to have fallen
on deaf ears as investments now stand at more than US$3.2 billion
(Bt80 billion).
Her argument is mainly political - that investments serve to
bolster the position of the junta - and, as such, carries little
weight with businessmen whose eye is on the bottom line, analysts say.
According to available statistics, companies from 19 countries
have invested more than $3.2 billion in sectors ranging from
manufacturing to real estate since the foreign investment law was
promulgated in 1988 in line with a new market-oriented economic
policy.
"Among all the plausible yardsticks one could use, I would say
that stability with a capital 'S' must rate as the most
significant (for investors)," said Serge Pun, a high-profile
businessman in Rangoon.
Pun, who presented a risk-analysis paper, was speaking at a
recent officially-sanctioned business symposium in the Burmese capital.
A Rangoon-based diplomat said: "This is fundamental for big-time
international investments ... to have a secure environment from
which businessmen can operate."
But he concurred with Suu Kyi's contention that the foreign
investors entering Burma were reinforcing the position of the
junta, officially known as the State Law and Order Restoration
Council (Slorc). The charismatic leader of the main opposition
National League for Democracy (NLD), which won 1990 elections
that were ignored by the junta, defended her position at a Sunday
rally of supporters outside her Rangoon residence. "Some people
think we are anti-business and against economic development," she
said. "We have said repeatedly ... that we want to see the kind
of business that benefits the people as a whole and not just a
handful." She has previously said that foreign investment in
Burma currently benefitted only Burma's military rulers and some
local interests but would not help improve the lot of the Burmese
in general. Said the diplomat: "I think she feels, and I tend to
agree with her on this point, that foreign investment reinforces
in the Slorc's mind that they can proceed with their plan for the
country as it is ... that they, in fact, can succeed in thwarting
the desires of genuine democracy in the country and still achieve
some of their economic development goals.
"I think she wants to discourage investment in order to give the
Slorc time to think, to hopefully bring them to realise that the
plan they have for the country is not, in fact, the best for the
country, or going to really work," he added. Other analysts
dispute those views, however, saying that investment would in the
end bring both greater prosperity to the people and help open up
the country.
"For Suu Kyi to say that the current foreign aid, investment and
tourism to Myanmar [Burma] only benefits the generals and does
not in any way benefit the ordinary man on the street is utter
nonsense," Michael Dobbs-Higginson, a former chairman of
Merrill-Lynch, wrote in a regionally syndicated article recently.
Political considerations that failed to stir the business
community have had a greater influence on governments.
Suu Kyi's release on July 10 last year after six years of house
arrest convinced some donor countries, especially Japan, to
resume a measure of economic aid and take steps toward debt
relief. Japan, which had joined Western nations in suspending aid
to Burma in 1988 to protest at the junta takeover and its harsh
repression of the pro-democracy movement, announced a five
billion yen debt relief package in February.
Rangoon is looking forward to the meeting in Jakarta later this
month of the Asean, at which it will be accepted as an official observer.
"Slorc will want to ballyhoo it as an international seal of
approval, if you will, indicating their acceptance as who they
are, on their own merit," a regional analyst said.
But admission to Asean is a double edged sword, because Slorc
will be under pressure from its regional partners to "clean up
its act" so as not to prove an embarrassment.
**********************************************************
UPI: US FIRM SIGNS BURMA GOLD MINING DEAL
July 9, 1996
A U.S. gold mining company has signed a contract with Burma allowing
it to prospect for gold and conduct a feasibility study on developing gold
and copper resources in the Southeast Asian nation, a state-run newspaper
reported Tuesday.
The contract, signed Monday by the East Asia Gold Corp. and Burma's
Geologic Survey and its Mineral Exploration Department, concerns three
areas in northern Burma, the New Light of Myanmar reported.
A Thai firm signed a similar deal on July 5.
Formerly a government monopoly, gold and copper mining was opened
to foreign companies in September 1994. Bids were then accepted for
exploration and production on 16 parcels in north and central Burma.
Thirteen foreign firms submitted bids, and five have been permitted
to operate in nine of the blocks, an official said.
*********************************************************
AP: CARLSBERG DROPS BURMA VENTURE
July 9, 1996
The Carlsberg brewing group, one of the world's 10 largest, announced
Tuesday it was abandoning plans to set up a joint venture in Burma. The
move came after human-rights groups threatened a boycott.
The boycott threat was in response to the death in custody last
month of James Leander Nichols, a former honorary consul for Denmark
and other Scandinavian countries. He was a friend of Burmese
democracy activist and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
The reason given by Carlsberg for dropping its Burma plans was
that the companies it had been negotiating with had found
alternative partners after the Danish beer company put the talks on
hold following the political incident in June.
**********************************************************
REUTERS: SUU KYI SAYS TO GO AHEAD WITH DRAFT CHARTER
July 9, 1996
Burma's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Tuesday she planned
to go ahead with drafting a new constitution despite a sweeping new law
introduced by the government last month forbidding such a move.
Suu Kyi told Reuters in an interview that her National League for
Democracy (NLD) had instructed her and other party leaders in May to
draft an alternative charter to one being drawn up by a military-appointed
convention.
"Yes, the party congress gave us the responsibility of
drawing up of a draft constitution and we will go ahead with
that," she said on the eve of the first anniversary of her
release from six years' house arrest.
The government-appointed convention has been meeting since January
1993 to draw up the guidelines of a pro-military constitution.
"The people are not interested in the present national
convention or the constitution they are drawing up," she said.
Shortly after the NLD held its congress in May, the
government announced a new law allowing for jail terms of up to
20 years for anyone who was seen to be interfering in its
constitutional convention or attempting to write a rival
charter.
********************************************************
PRESS RELEASE: HRW/ASIA-FORCED RELOCATIONS IN BURMA
July 9, 1996 (Human Right Watch)
Human Rights Watch today calls on the Burmese government to end
massive forced relocations in the Shan and Karenni States which since
March1996 have resulted in at least 70,000 villagers being sent to
makeshift shelters and ten known deaths of children from malnutrition
in the new sites. In Shan State, those displaced were warned that if
they were found in their villages after a certain date they would be
considered insurgents and shot, and in both states, the removals were
accompanied by human rights violations that included forced labor,
arrests and reports of at least one extrajudicial execution. The
removals have also resulted in a new influx of refugees into
neighboring Thailand. The motivation for such massive displacement is
unclear but appears to be related in Shan State to the creation of new
armies by the remnants of drug lord Khun Sa's troops and in both
States to the desire to improve infrastructure for tourism.
As three key meetings approach in Asia at the end of July -- the
ministerial summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN), the post-ministerial summit, and the Asian Region Forum --
Human Rights Watch asks all participants to urge the State Law and
Order Restoration Council (SLORC), Burma's military government, to
cease the relocations and allow international agencies to assist the
displaced and monitor their safe return to their homes. The newly
appointed U.N. Special Rapporteur on Burma, Mr. Rajsoomer Lallah, and
U.N. agencies operating in Burma should immediately visit the affected
areas to assess the situation and make additional recommendations to
the Burmese government. Finally, Human Rights Watch urges the Thai
government to permit all those fleeing abuses to be given refuge and
assistance inside Thailand.
In the Shan State, over 450 villages -- at least 50,000 people --
have been displaced since March. The relocations, which are still
going on, are taking place in an area between the towns of Nam San,
Mong Nai and Kurn Heang (Kun Hing). Nam San is about eighty miles east
of Taunggyi. Villagers received written orders to move from local
military commanders, and in most cases, were given just a few days
notice to pack up all their belongings and move to areas along roads
or near towns under the army's control. Most reportedly have been
forced to provide free labor to widen and improve roads and other
infrastructure projects. Others have had to work on the military
airport at Nam San, while still others have been forced to work on a
railway line connecting Taunggyi and Hsi Seng. Both the road
development and the railway are being built to encourage tourism in
the area. None of those who have been relocated have received food,
medical supplies or other assistance from the military, leaving them
dependent on the local community. Most villagers reported that they
were prevented from bringing their own rice supplies with them, and in
some cases the entire village was burned to ensure they would not
return.
The removals have sent thousands of Shan and Akha people fleeing
across the border to Thailand. Here the Thai government has denied
them the right to seek asylum, forcing them to join the estimated
500,000 migrants working illegally in Thailand.
In Karenni State, ninety-six villages in an area northeast of the
state capital, Loikaw, between the Salween and Pun rivers received
relocation orders between May 31 and June 15, 1996. The orders,
copies of which have been obtained by Human Rights Watch, stated that
the villages all had to move to Sha Daw town by June 7. There is a
large military garrison in Sha Daw, built on a hilltop over looking
the town. Fifteen of the villages had to move to Ywathit, a town to
the south. The orders stated that anyone remaining in the area after
that date "would be considered enemies and dealt with accordingly."
It was reported by refugees from the area that two men were arrested
by the military from Daw Moo Mar village, and one boy from Daw Leh Du
village was shot and killed soon after the villagers received the
orders to move. Families were not permitted to take their livestock
or rice supplies with them and had to leave with just the bare
essentials - cooking pots and what clothing they could carry. At the
beginning of July, there were signs that further relocations were also
taking place south of Ywathit, affecting some 5,000 people.
In total, some 20,000 people in Karenni State were affected by the
orders. Around 10,000 of them went to Sha Daw as ordered, but there
they found that the SLORC had made no provisions for them. The people
were housed in schools and churches and others built makeshift
shelters. The SLORC gave only six small tins of rice for each family,
and local residents in Sha Daw helped with other food. After some
weeks, the overcrowding and lack of food lead to a deterioration in
people's health, and at least ten children are known to have died.
The villagers were also ordered to register with the Immigration and
Manpower Department, and some were able to bribe officials to get
passes to leave.
An estimated 2,300 people fled to Thailand, where they have been
permitted to stay in the existing Karenni refugee camps near Mae Hong
Son (Karenni camp 2). According to aid workers, new arrivals continue
to enter the camp every day, reporting in some cases that their
villages were razed, after soldiers had taken all the livestock in the
village and destroyed the remaining crops. In Ka Ya Kee village, it
was also reported that all Bibles in the Roman Catholic church there
were also burned.
Forced relocation has been a strategy of the Burmese military for
decades, although the scale of the current relocations is
unprecedented. Relocations are usually planned as a means of cutting
off the aid that ethnic minority villages may give to rebel armies.
However, it is especially alarming that relocations should be taking
place now, when SLORC has declared that it has brought peace in ethnic
minority areas by signing military cease-fire agreements with fifteen
rebel groups since 1989. In the Shan State, the leader of the main
rebel army, drug war lord Khun Sa, surrendered to the government in
January 1996. However, an estimated 2,000 members of his Mong
Tai Army refused to surrender and have joined with other Shan
nationalist groups or created new armies in the central and southern
Shan State. It is in these areas that the relocations have taken place.
This area is also the center of the opium trade in Burma, the world's
largest exporter of heroin, and efforts by the government to control
the drug routes following the cease-fire with Khun Sa may be an
additional reason for the relocations.
In the Sha Daw area of the Karenni State no rebel groups have
operated since the beginning of 1996, when the SLORC launched a major
offensive against the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), the
only Karenni group still fighting the government. Following the
relocations however, the KNPP attacked the hydroelectric power station
at Lawpita, near Loikaw, on June 6. The KNPP had signed a military
cease-fire agreement with the SLORC in March 1995, but it broke down
in July after the SLORC transferred new troops into KNPP territory and
continued to take KNPP-protected villagers to work as porters for the
army. It is believed that the relocations in this area are designed
to pressure the KNPP into signing a new and binding cease-fire
agreement, which would enable the government to open up the area to
tourism after October 1996, the start of Visit Myanmar Year.
The estimated 70,000 people relocated in the Shan and Karenni
States are in desperate need of assistance and of international
intervention which would make it possible for them to return to their
homes. There are few international aid agencies operating in Burma,
mainly due to government restrictions, and none of them currently have
access to the affected areas. The United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) is working in Burma's westernmost state, Arakan, to
resettle some 200,000 Muslims who have been repatriated from
Bangladesh. The UNHCR's Working Group on International Protection
recommended in August 1992 (A/AC.96/799) that the UNHCR should
seek to become involved with the monitoring and protection of internally
displaced persons as a preventive measure to avert refugees outflows.
In addition, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), which is also
present in Burma, is mandated to monitor the safety and health of all
children, including the internally displaced. Human Rights Watch urges
these organizations to seek access to the displaced villagers as soon
as possible and negotiate a safe return to their homes.
****************************************************************
VOA: BURMA HUMAN RIGHTS
July 9, 1996
by Christine Furnell
On the first anniversary of Burmese opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi's release from house arrest, the human rights
group, Amnesty International, says the Burmese government
continues to follow policies of intimidation and repression.
The organization says all hopes for change invoked by the government's
decision to free Aung San Suu Kyi appear to have come to nothing.
Amnesty says Burma's state law and order restoration
council's rule is characterized by stringent policies outlawing
freedom of speech and expression.
The organization says at least one-thousand political prisoners
remain in detention, the use of torture and ill-treatment is
commonplace and forced labor continues throughout the country.
After four and a half years of house arrest in the Burmese
capital of Rangoon, Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the opposition
National League for Democracy, or "NLD," was released last
July. Amnesty researcher Donna Guest says swift human rights
improvements were widely expected.
"After she was released, everybody had great hopes that
there would be an improvement -- in fact, that this
signaled an improvement. but certainly in the last two
months the human rights situation has deteriorated
significantly with the arrest of over 300 NLD
(National League for Democracy) activists. and this is
still going on as recently as late June -- NLD
activists are being picked up and arrested and they they
may be arrested even as we speak.
Despite the promise of an unconditional release, Amnesty says
Aung San Suu Kyi and her colleagues have been subject to
restrictions of movement, are under constant government
surveillance and their supporters are continually detained for
questioning by police.
Ms. Guest says a new law issued only this week appears
to be tailored to harassing supporters of the National League for
Democracy.
"This law basically allows for the arrest and sentencing
of up to 20 years of anybody who is peacefully
expressing their political views, specifically if they
try to write a constitution. This seems to be aimed at
the National League for Democracy because they have said
that they were intending to do such a thing. And the
government is very threatened by this because they have
their own constitution-making process which they want to
put forward. We are very concerned about this law and
(are) calling for its immediate repeal because it is so
harsh and so sweeping in its terms. Anyone who speaks
out could be arrested."
After tangible hopes for an improvement in human rights conditions
in Burma, Amnesty says it is disappointed to be reiterating its calls
for the release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience,
the need for prompt and fair trials and an end to the use of torture and
ill-treatment.
Amnesty is also calling on governments attending the association
of South East Asian Nations meeting in Indonesia later this month
to raise these human rights concerns with the burmese government.
The Burmese Embassy in London had no comment on amnesty's
findings.
**********************************************************
BKK POST: AMNUAY TO PUSH FOR JUNTA-SUU KYI TALKS
July 9, 1996
DEPUTY Premier and Foreign Minister Amnuay Viravan reiterated
yesterday that Thailand would "redouble" its efforts to encourage
Burma's military junta to open a dialogue with pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
But in so doing, Thailand will not stray from its principle of
non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, he said.
Mr Amnuay made the remarks over lunch at the Foreign
Correspondents Club of Thailand.
"Although ASEAN's constructive engagement policy may be viewed by
many as not producing results for the people, in fact, it's the
only means we have to redouble our efforts to be more
constructive," he said.
"We will of course encourage dialogue that would lead to
stability and peace [in the region], but we will not go out of
our way to the point where it is considered as interference," he
said.
Mr Amnuay said Thailand's engagement of Burma would have to be
done through that country's military junta, known as the State
Law and Restoration Council.
But he stressed that the engagement would not be limited to
political aspects alone, saying other issues such as drug abuse
and illegal immigration would also be included.
Mr Amnuay said he expected to meet Burmese leaders "to promote
closer co-operation" between the two countries when he leads a
Thai delegation to Rangoon early next month.
Mr Amnuay will co-chair the Thai-Burmese Joint Commission from
August 5-7.
Before that, the deputy premier plans to discuss the Burmese
issue in Jakarta with his Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) colleagues and the grouping's main dialogue partners.
Foreign ministers from ASEAN are due to meet in Jakarta on July 20-21.
Two days later, they will be joined by foreign ministers from
ASEAN's dialogue partners the United States, Canada, the European
Union, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan and India.
*********************************************************
VOA: BUDGET HEARINGS (BURMESE MEDIA)
July 9, 1996
Burmese Media - The status of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi is an on-going story at Voice of America. The government
intermittently jams VOA Burmese language transmissions because they
present a full and fair picture of events inside Burma as well as
the world's reaction to these events. As the Associated Press
reported on March 18, the Burmese press continues its harsh
criticism of VOA broadcasts on a daily basis. But these efforts to
quell listenership have proven ineffective. In a recent survey,
Radio Australia found that 39 percent of Burma's elite regularly
listens to VOA.
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ANNOUNCEMENT: BURMESE STUDENTS HUNGER STRIKE
July 9, 1996
from: absdf-mtz <lurie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Burmese Students in Special Detention Center (Bangkok, Thailand)
staging hunger strike
Burmese students detained in the special Detention center
are staging hunger strike, according to sources close to Burmese
Students Association (Safe Area, Thailand). Over twenty Burmese
students have been detained in the special Detention center
without trial for their activities against SLORC. Seven of them
have been in SDC for over two years and the rest of the students
were arrested after taking part in the demonstration in front of
the Burmese embassy in Bangkok on May 27, 1996 to commemorate the
6th anniversary of election held in Burma.
Students staging hunger strike request Thai authorities:
- to allow students to have visitors
- to release students back to the safe area as soon as possible.
BSA expresses it's concern regarding the welfare of detained
students and requests the international community to pressure
Thai government for the release of the students.
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BKK POST: BURMESE TROOPS STEAL THAI CATTLE
July 9, 1996
Burmese troops robbed Thai villagers in Pang Ma Pa subdistrict of
cattle yesterday.
Five armed Burmese soldiers entered Pong Yam village in Tambon
Thamlord of Rang Ma Pa yesterday morning and robbed the villagers
of eight buffaloes before escaping into Burma.
Roka Wararithirankul, deputy chief of Pong Yam village, told
police the five Burmese were frequent visitors to the village but
had never stolen anything before.
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