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Burma Road of WWII Fame Now Brings
- Subject: Burma Road of WWII Fame Now Brings
- From: moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 01 Jun 1997 17:03:00
Subject: Burma Road of WWII Fame Now Brings Arms From China
Burma Road of WWII Fame Now Brings Arms From China
Rangoon's Rulers, Shunned in West,
Are Buoyed by Asian Neighbors
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 1 1997; Page A20
The Washington Post
PYIN-U-LWIN, Burma -- Fifty-seven years ago, the
main road
through this small resort town northeast of
Mandalay served as a
gateway to the famous Burma Road, a vital supply
line through
the jungle for war materiel being shipped north by
the United
States and its allies into China for use against
the Japanese.
Today, the rutted, two-lane highway is still being
used to
transport armaments, but the flow has been reversed:
Chinese-made weapons are coming south on Japanese-made
trucks at the behest of the military government of
Burma, which
uses some of the arms to help keep its restive
citizens under strict
control, according to Western officials.
Burma's generals became notorious in 1988 for brutally
suppressing student protests and in 1990 for
annulling a
democratic election won by an opposition party.
Since then they
have been able to forge normal economic relations
with few
developed nations.
"Only the door to China has been open" without
interruption
since then, a diplomat said in Rangoon, the
capital. As a result,
the government has relied heavily on weaponry
imported from
China -- and lately from Russia as well -- to keep
its military
forces equipped for offensives against insurgent
ethnic minorities
and to preserve domestic order.
Buying military equipment from China is only one of
several ways
that Burma has been able to evade a Western-led
embargo on
trade. Narcotics merchants in China also have
played a helpful
role in Burma's continued export of near-record
levels of opium
gum for heroin production, and wealthy investors
from a few
other Asian nations have been spending just enough
money on
new Burmese hotels, real estate, mining and
manufacturing
projects to keep the country's economy afloat.
The economic or political support Burma gets from other
Southeast Asian countries and from China has
"effectively
annulled the West's attempt to induce domestic
political change
through international pressure," said Muthiah
Alagappa, a
Malaysian political scientist and senior fellow at
the East-West
Center in Hawaii.
Besides providing access to weaponry and economic
breathing
room, Burma's China connection also gives it
important refuge
from the world's disapproval, according to a
diplomat. "If they
keep deepening the relationship, Burma will always
have China
to turn to" if needed to veto trade sanctions that
might be sought
by the U.N. Security Council, he said.
Exact figures on China's military trade with Burma
are elusive.
The relationship is not openly discussed here. But
the shipments
include hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of
tanks, personnel
carriers, rockets, mortars, artillery, assault
rifles, grenade
launchers, trucks, attack aircraft and helicopters,
according to a
recent analysis by Andrew Selth, an Australian defense
intelligence official, with which officials from
two other
governments concurred.
China also has sold Burma naval vessels, including
some armed
with anti-ship cruise missiles, and has trained
Burmese military
personnel. Members of the ruling junta signify the
importance
they attach to this relationship by making a rare
public
appearance each year at the Chinese Embassy's
national day
celebration in Rangoon.
Although most artillery and other heavy armaments
have been
deployed in rural areas, some of the Chinese-made
tanks and
automatic weapons have been used in displays of
force aimed at
dissenters in major cities.
Western and local sources say some of the Chinese
armaments
have entered the country near the town of Mongyu,
then south
along the road to Lashio -- a city with more than
50,000 ethnic
Chinese -- before passing through the teak forests
and coffee
plantations around here to reach Mandalay, Burma's
second-largest city.
Pyin-U-Lwin is dotted with important military
facilities, including
the Defense Services Institute of Technology.
Much of Burma's arms purchases evidently have been
financed
by China at discounted interest rates, according to
these sources.
But China may also have been paid in valuable
Burmese goods,
such as timber, agricultural products, minerals and
gems.
The road north to China also is frequently used to
transport
opium gum derived from Burmese poppies. Chinese
narcotics
merchants then smuggle it elsewhere in the region,
and later ship
the resulting heroin to the United States, U.S.
officials say.
Some of the drug profits allegedly have been plowed
into
commercial investments or been used to help buy
food for troops
and import additional weapons. Having been blocked by
Washington and its allies from gaining access to
international
loans, "the regime is essentially depending on drug
money to get
it through" and keep the economy afloat, according
to a longtime
foreign observer in Burma.
A recent visitor on a drive along the road near
here saw a
handful of green Burmese army trucks dodging
immense potholes
on their way south, each packed high with boxes and
crates
covered by heavy tarpaulins.
The ruling generals in this country control a wide
range of private
businesses as well as military forces, so the items
might well have
been Chinese-made commercial appliances instead of
armaments, and have been destined for the public
marketplace in
Mandalay, several Western officials said.
The United States, Britain and Germany, which
formerly had
equipped much of the Burmese army, imposed an
embargo on
military trade with the country beginning in 1988,
after the
"retired" military officials that had ruled the
country with an iron
fist since 1962 officially stepped aside in favor
of more direct rule
by active military personnel.
The Clinton administration, citing the forced
closure of all
Burmese universities and other Draconian government
measures
to stifle dissent, last month expanded controls on
U.S. trade with
Burma by barring most new investments by American
firms in
commercial and energy projects. It also has lent
rhetorical
support to Aung San Suu Kyi, a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize
laureate and democracy activist in Burma whom the
regime has
barred from making public speeches or meeting with
foreign
reporters.
But Suu Kyi's calls for worldwide economic
isolation of the
country have had no apparent impact on China or
Burma's other
Asian neighbors.
Singapore is now the leading source of overall
foreign investment
in Burma, with Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and
Japan also
playing important economic roles here. Officials in
Thailand have
been quoted by Thai newspapers as hailing the U.S.
sanctions as
a potential boon to that country's own commercial
prospects in
Burma.
A visiting Singaporean businessman said in an
interview here,
"We have a different standard than America does for
human
rights and foreign trade. These people are free to
pursue their
own work."
Western diplomats here say many of Burma's
neighbors are
willing to overlook the government's abuses because
they seek
access to its cheap labor and abundant natural
resources,
including rare hardwoods and some of the world's
finest jade and
gems.
Thailand, in particular, is said to be worried that
serious political
instability in Burma would push refugees across its
border.
@CAPTION: The clock tower in Pyin-U-Lwin was a gift
from
Queen Victoria during Britain's colonial rule of
Burma.
@CAPTION: Ethnic Chinese take tea at temple in
Pyin-U-Lwin, on road to Mandalay from China. The
temple was
built by immigrants from Yunnan Province, China.