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The BurmaNet News - 21 January, 199



------------------------- BurmaNet ------------------------------------
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
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The BurmaNet News: January 21, 1998
Issue #917

Noted in passing:

"The regime has an opportunity to show that the reshuffle had some
meaning." - a Western diplomat (see SCMP: OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS FOR REVAMPED
JUNTA)

HEADLINES:
==========
SCMP: OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS FOR REVAMPED JUNTA
BKK POST: UN ENVOY DUE IN BURMA FOR TALKS
THE NATION: BORDER TROOPS BOOSTED
FEER: END OF THE LINE
FEER: BUT NOT SO FAST
BKK POST: BURMESE TROOPS SEIZE DISPUTED RIVER ISLET
BKK POST: ACTION PLAN TO SECURE JOBS UNVEILED
BKK POST: ISN'T IT KARMA?
KNU: ATROCITIES BY THE SPDC
DEUTSCHE PRESSE-AGENTUR: VIETNAM, BURMA, CAMBODIA
AFTENPOSTEN: STRONG CRITICISM IN NRK1-PROGRAMME
INDEPENDENT COMMENT: JAPAN INCORPORATED ROLLS OUT
ANNOUNCEMENT: RADIO FREE BURMA'S NEW WEB SITE
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------

SCMP: OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS FOR REVAMPED JUNTA
January 20, 1998
by  William Barnes in Bangkok

A high-powered UN representative arrives in Rangoon today on what observers
say is a bid to break the political deadlock in the country.

The United Nations' Under-Secretary of Asian Affairs, Alvaro de Soto,
arrives in Burma two months after a far-reaching revamp of the ruling junta
that should give it greater political flexibility.

Diplomats in Rangoon also said that Asia's economic collapse appeared to
have drawn some attention away from a regime widely reviled for its human
rights abuses and its refusal to hand over power to the leading opposition
party after the population decisively rejected military rule in a 1990
general election.

"The regime has an opportunity to show that the reshuffle had some meaning.
There is a window here for the generals to bend a little - indicate that
some kind of political deal with the opposition is at least a possibility,"
said a Western diplomat.

A clutch of the most reputedly corrupt members of the State Law and Order
Restoration Council, as the junta styled itself, were sacked late last year
and power concentrated in the hands of a four or five generals. The council
was renamed the State Peace and Development Committee.

Analysts said the overhaul appeared to be a victory for the powerful
intelligence chief, Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, who, if certainly no
liberal, is widely seen as smarter and potentially more flexible than most
of his colleagues.

Although the regime's instinct is to turn in on itself rather than make
political concessions, the relatively isolated economy is in dire straits
and the Asian economic crisis will reduce what little foreign investment was
likely to flow into the country.

The hugely popular opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, used the recent
celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of freedom from British colonial
rule to repeat persistent calls for the military to open a "proper" dialogue
with the opposition.

The UN said earlier this month that Mr de Soto's visit was part of a
continuing dialogue between the world body and the military Government
which has ruled the country since a 1962 coup.

But he will also see Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, who the military has tried to
deprive of international contacts.

The UN has criticised Burma for its human rights record. Rangoon continues
to refuse entry to the UN's human rights special rapporteur, Rajsoomer Lallah.

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

BKK POST: UN ENVOY DUE IN BURMA FOR TALKS
January 20, 1998
Reuters

Rangoon: A United Nations special envoy is due to arrive in Burma today for
talks with top leaders of the ruling military junta and opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi, UN sources based here said yesterday.

Alvaro De Soto, assistant UN secretary-general, will urge the ruling State
Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to speed up the drafting of Burma's
new constitution and the holding of free and fair elections in the country,
they told Reuters. 

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

THE NATION: BORDER TROOPS BOOSTED
January 20, 1998
AFP

CHIANG MAI: The military has deployed extra troops along Thailand's border
with Burma in preparation for expected fighting between Rangoon troops and
the United Wa State Army (UWSA), sources said yesterday. 

A security source in this northern province said the Army had deployed more
troops and weapons at Mae Ai district to prevent the anticipated fighting
from spilling into Thai territory.

Thai forces at the border said they were preparing for a flood of refugees
who are expected to cross to Thailand to flee clashes between the ethnic
rebel army and the government troops.

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

FEER: END OF THE LINE
January 22, 1998
By Bertil Lintner in Chiang Mai with Murray Hiebert in Kuala Lumpur, Fanny
Lioe In Jakarta and Rigoberto Tiglao in Manila.

Crisis-hit countries start to send foreign workers packing

Sai Kham Leun remembers clearly t day he arrived at the Thai-Burmese
border crossing at Pieng Luang 1991: Employment agents were waiting on the
other side to offer him jobs over Thailand - up north in Chiang Mai, down
south in Hat Yai, in the capital Bangkok.  He could take his pick.  He
settle for construction work in Chiang Mai where for seven years he earned
enough to support his family back in north-eastern Burma's Shan state.

Today, he can only choose to go back to Burma.  Sai Kham Leun and hundred
of thousands of other foreign workers are no longer welcome in a country
suffering its worst economic crisis in decades.  Thousands of Thais have
already lost their jobs. Official estimates put unemployment at 1. 7
million at the end of 1997, and the number is expected to rise by up to 2
million this year.  Government officials have no qualm about telling
foreign workers that they have to bear the brunt by giving up their jobs to
locals.  Since October, more than 6,000 Burmese have been expelled from Tak
province, southwest of Chiang Mai and sent home.

Migrant workers across the region are getting similar treatment.  During
their boom years, for example, Malaysia and South Korea attracted large
numbers of workers from neighbouring countries.  Now that boom has turned
to bust, they are threatening to repatriate migrant labourers to make jobs
available for locals.  Yet it may not be so simple: For starters, it's not
clear that locals want the jobs that migrants do (see box).  And the return
of thousands of people to countries unable to absorb them could spur social
unrest and strain relations between neighbours.

Foreign-policy experts in Kuala Lumpur, for instance, are concerned that
Malaysia's threat to repatriate hundreds of thousands of Indonesian
labourers might deepen Indonesia's economic woes and hurt relations with
Jakarta.  "The labour movements could get out of hand," warns an analyst at
a Kuala Lumpur think-tank.  "Whatever good relations have existed in the
past could mean nothing in the end."

The last thing Indonesia needs is a mass of jobless migrants returning to
swell the ranks of the unemployed.  Its Manpower Ministry says unemployment
stood at 4.4 million in 1997 and could rise to 6 million this year.  The
All-Indonesia Workers Union, however, predicts that the number of
unemployed will balloon to 9 million by year's end.  The state-sanctioned
union has also criticized the government over the treatment of Indonesians
working overseas.  "So far, Indonesian workers abroad do not have any
official representation," complains its deputy secretary-general, S.S.
Harahap.

Malaysian officials, on the other hand, worry that many unemployed foreign
workers will go underground to avoid being repatriated and wait for the
economy to rebound.  "Police fear a rise in crime and petty burglaries, if
unemployed foreigners start roaming around the country," says another
analyst at a local think-tank.

Meseran Bingalimen is one of the estimated 1.4 million Indonesians working
in Malaysia.  He arrived by boat four years ago from the east Java town of
Ponorogo.  The 32-year-old bricklayer thinks his employer will have work
for him for at least another six months at a housing project south of Kuala
Lumpur.  After that "I'm worried; I don't know what's going to happen," he
says.  "I get more money here.  At home I sometimes had no job." He earns
400 ringgit ($86) a month an sends half of it home to his wife and six
year-old daughter.

Both Meseran and Sai Kham Leun, the Burmese in northern Thailand, started
out as illegal workers - at the time, Malaysia and Thailand had acute
shortages of labour and were willing to turn a blind eye.  Later the two men
obtained work permits under government amnesties.

When Sai Kham Leun arrived in Chiang Mai in 1991, construction sites,
fishing fleets, farms and factories across the country needed 1.2 million
unskilled workers, according to official estimates.  In June 1996, the Thai
government allowed employers in several border provinces to register their
Burmese, Cambodian and Lao illegal workers.  From September to November
1996, more than 320,000 illegals - about half the estimated total -
reported to the immigration authorities; most were given work permits, Sai
Kham Leun among them.

Today, Thailand is estimated to have at least 1 million illegal workers, of
whom two-thirds come from Burma.  Of those, the vast majority are Shans
like Sai Kham Leun who speak a language related to Thai.  This enables them
to fit in more easily than other Burmese and they were often given
preference by employers.

But in the straitened labour market, illegal workers are the first to go.
The crackdown has already started.  Thai authorities have ordered employers
to dispense with illegal workers and replace them with the equivalent
number of jobless Thais.  In Tak province, factory owners have been warned
against employing illegal Burmese, and landlords against renting housing to
them.

Even those with work permits are being told to go home.  Sai Kham Leun's
permit expires in September; then, he says, "we have to go back to face all
that we have escaped from." That includes a guerrilla war and forced labour
for the Burmese army.  Burmese government troops are fighting ethnic
insurgents in Shan state, and civilians are often press-ganged into building
army barracks and roads and carrying supplies.  "At home, we have to do so
much work for the army that we can't take care of fields properly," he says.
"We can't get enough for ourselves to survive."

But the low-paying jobs that will be vacated by Sai and other unskilled
workers aren't likely to attract many Thais.  The alternative for laid-off
Thais may be to seek better-paid jobs in the Middle East, suggests Somchai
Rattanachai, head of a government employment agency in the northern
province of Chiang Rai.  Indeed, the Thai Labour Ministry wants to increase
labour exports in 1998 to 210,000, up from 150,000-180,000 a year in the
early 1990s.

That would mean fiercer competition for jobs in the international labour
market.  Philippine President Fidel Ramos has called on the legions of
Filipino workers around the region to look for work in other parts of the
world if Asia's economic crisis leads to massive job cuts.  "That is an
option for those who later on might lose their jobs," he told a January 7
news conference.

Philippine government officials are expecting lay-offs of Filipino workers
abroad this year - particularly among the 300,000 in Malaysia and the
40,000 in Hong Kong.  Of about 25,000 Filipino workers in South Korea,
3,000 have already been told to go home.  Philippine labour officials say,
hopefully, that many Filipinos working in Southeast Asia are in skilled
jobs, and will be last hit.  Unskilled labourers and domestic workers are
expected to be the first to lose their jobs.

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

FEER: BUT NOT SO FAST
January 22, 1998 [excerpt]
Murray Hiebert and Bertil Lintner

Do local workers want the jobs that may fall vacant if migrant workers are
sent home?  And if they don't, how will employers fill them?

Thailand too may repatriate in haste and repent at leisure.  Authorities
there are cracking down on illegal workers and have already deported 6,000
Burmese.  Whether their jobs will really be taken over by jobless Thais
remains to be seen.  In December, Somchai Rattanachai, head of the
government employment agency in the northern province of Chiang Rai, said
that "most of the Thai labour force would be unwilling to accept the lowly
paid jobs being undertaken by unskilled foreign workers."

The Fishery Association of Thailand has warned that expelling illegal
workers could damage the fishing industry because it's hard to find Thais
willing to work on boats.  The association estimates that the industry
employs 200,000 illegal workers.  In the southern province of Ranong alone,
70% of the area's 143,000 fishermen come from Burma, according to the
Department of Fisheries.

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

BKK POST: BURMESE TROOPS SEIZE DISPUTED RIVER ISLET
January 20, 1998

Where they plan to build embankment
Supamart Kasem, Tak

Burmese troops seized a disputed islet in the Moei River in Mae Sot district
on Sunday to prevent Thai officials from inspecting the area prior to the
planned building of an embankment.

Some 50 armed Burmese soldiers and a tractor were sent to seize the islet in
Ban Mae Konekane of Tambon Mahawan on Sunday after talk between Thai and
Burmese local officials in Myawaddy on Saturday over the dispute caused by
Thailand's construction of an embankment.

The tractor was withdrawn yesterday after Army Commander-in-Chief Gen
Chettha Thanaiaro phoned his Burmese counterpart, Lt-Gen Maung Aye, to
discuss the latest border flare-up. The army Chief also ordered the
suspension of the construction of the embankment.

At the talks in Myawaddy, Thailand was asked to suspend work while Burma
was asked to suspend the piling work allegedly on Thai soil and allow Thai
officials to survey the islet.

On Sunday the, Burmese troops prevented a Thai team, led by Col Chaluay
Yaemphochai of the Fourth Infantry Regiment Task Force, from entering the
islet to carry out a survey.

However, Burmese workers continued to dredge the river opposite Ban Mae
Konekane, allegedly on Thai territory, despite Thailand's protests.

After the incident, Thai villagers led by the kamnan of Tambon Mahawan,
Narong Huayphad, were sent to negotiate with Burmese authorities.

Mr Narong said Burma wanted Thailand to suspend construction of a concrete
embankment along the Moei River, and not to send troops to the islet in
exchange for the suspension of its pole-driving work.

"Thailand has a policy of solving border problems via negotiation. Thai
officials had informed Burma about the construction of a concrete
embankment in Ban Mae Konekane before operations started but Burma did not
understand," he said.

Thara Chamnarnvej, representative of Thai contractor Jenjira Architecture
Company, said the project would be ruined and plans to reclaim Thai soil
would fail unless it was completed before the start of the rainy season in
May because the construction site would be flooded.

Maj Jirawat Wongsariyanarong, the head of the Thai-Burmese Border
Coordinating Team, said officials had told Burma, about the project before
construction started but Local Thai-Burmese Border Committee chairman
Lt-Col Saing Phone later sent a letter to Thailand seeking the suspension
of the project.

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

BKK POST: ACTION PLAN TO SECURE JOBS UNVEILED
January 20, 1998 [abridged]

Deportation of illegal workers to be first step

The government yesterday unveiled a seven-point action plan to ease
unemployment, starting with the repatriation of 300,000 illegal foreign
workers.

The national committee on employment chaired by Premier Chuan Leekpai has
approved the Labour and Social Welfare Ministry's proposal to deport
300,000 illegal alien labourers in six months.

The prime targets of the repatriation scheme are those working in the
industrial sector and factories, said Labour and Social Welfare Minister
Trairong Suwannakhiri.

Thailand will see a decline in the unemployment rate of not less than three
per cent of people of working age if the plan is successful. About 1.4
million of an estimated 2 million jobless people will find a job.

The Job Placement Department has signed up about 160,000 Thais to fill the
posts left vacant by foreign labour and the rest will be filled within the
next two weeks, he said.

A ministerial regulation will be issued to require employers of illegal
labourers to prepare for repatriation of their staff within 45 days. Those
who fail to comply with the order face three years in jail and/or a 60,000
baht fine or five years in jail.

"The terms of punishment vary, depending on the laws we will use against
them," Mr Trairong said, adding that the ministry has complete records of
illegal workers and officials concerned are ready to take legal action.

Illegal workers will be sent to detention centres in four provinces of Tak,
Kanchanaburi, Ranong and Chiang Rai where they may be allowed to work in
factories but under extreme surveillance, he said.

Mr Trairong criticised the Chavalit administration for allowing alien
labourers to extend their work permits by another year. He said those
permits would not be renewed when they expire in June.

Mass deportations will be handled by the Foreign Affairs Ministry which
will make certain that they are not in violation of international laws and
human rights, he said, adding that political refugees would not be affected
by this measure.

Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan said yesterday the repatriation procedures
will take time and will not be easy.

However, the government has no choice but to press ahead with this measure
because the country cannot afford to hire foreign labour.

"But in doing it, we must ensure a smooth process. It is not easy and it
will take time," he said.

Prasit Damrongchai has been appointed to chair the committee to follow up
the implementation of the plan, he said.

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

BKK POST: ISN'T IT KARMA?
January 20, 1998 [abridged]

Letter to the Editor

I do not understand all the fuss about whether the US will come to the aid
of Thailand at this time of economic crisis. For many years, the Thai
government has made it very clear that the US should not interfere in
Thailand's internal affairs.

When the US approached Thailand about the human rights situation inside
Burma, Thailand's response was to complain loudly that Thailand is not a
colony, is capable of making its own decisions about human rights in Burma,
and that the US should not interfere.

When the issue of forced repatriation of Burmese refugees has been raised
repeatedly with the Interior Ministry, foreign nations and NGOs have been
told to mind their business, this is an internal affair.

Over and over, the Thai government has decried "interference" on the part
of foreign nations into Thailand's internal affairs. Over and over Thailand
has done nothing to remedy the grievous situations which have been pointed
out.

How can Thailand now complain when another nation refuses to interfere and
follows Thailand's lead in doing nothing about a serious problems?. 

Isn't that called karma?

ANGUS MCILLIVARY

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

KNU: ATROCITIES BY THE SPDC
15 January, 1998

News dated 8/1/98. At Papun area, Taw Ta Two district, the SPDC 
Troops infantry battalion 39 entered Kaw Thay Du village and killed a 
Karen civilian Saw Lu Luh who is 22 and he is the son Saw Ler Du. In 
contemporary the SPDC troops encroached Kaw Thay Du village and 
detained two Karen unarmed civilians. One is Saw Ka Neh and the other 
one is Saw Per Per. The SPDC soldiers were suspecting them of being 
collaborators of the KNU. They were severely tortured and mistreated. 
The soldiers cut their leg's joints and hand's joints and cut their 
blood vessels open and let them bleed to dead.

The SLORC has changed their name to SPDC but their atrocity towards 
unarmed civillians has not changed. The atrocity of the SPDC is 
perpetuating and human rights violations has been increased. The KNU 
will not stand this kind of oppression and atrocity. The KNU said " 
The improvement of human rights violation and peace in the country is 
our desire". The SPDC is rejecting peace by killing its own people 
and other nationalities in Burma.

The KNU continues their military activities and political activities 
and joins hands with other democratic forces in order to establish 
genuine federal union, freedom, self determination, equality and 
democracy in Burma. Fighting between the KNU troops and the SPDC 
troops are happening almost every day in Burma. We the KNU swear to 
continue fighting for peace, freedom, self determination and 
democracy in Burma. "Nothing can stop us until we have accomplished 
our goal or destination", said the KNU.

Office of the Supreme Headquarters
Karen National Union, Kawthoolei

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

DEUTSCHE PRESSE-AGENTUR: VIETNAM,  BURMA,  CAMBODIA AND LAOS AGREE ON
AVIATION COOPERATION
15 January, 1998

Hanoi: Aviation authorities from Vietnam,  Burma,  Cambodia, and Laos have
reached agreement on the intial steps of a sub-regional cooperation
program, Vietnam's official press reported Thursday. 
 
The four-way agreement is expected to pave the way for liberalisation of
The air transport sector in Indochina, said the report in the official Vietnam
News.
 
 The agreement calls for a multilateral team of experts to conduct research
this year into ways to promote the development of the aviation sector in the 
sub-region and upgrade bilateral accords. 
 
 This will provide the basis for a longer-term action plan, said the
report. 
 
The agreement was reached during a meeting, at the director-general level,
of civil aviation authorities from each of the countries, currently taking
place in Ho Chi Minh City. 
 
 The meeting, the first of its kind in the sub-region, was considered a 
"breakthrough," and is expected to bring existing cooperation to a higher
level and result in new route launching, said the report. 
 
"This will benefit, in the near future and for the long term as well, the 
sub-regional airlines which have experienced fierce competition in the civil 
aviation sector," said Nguyen Hong Nhi, chief of the Civil Aviation 
Administration of Vietnam (CAAV), the conference host. 
 
A second meeting among the officials has been scheduled for January 1999,
To be held in Hanoi, the report added. 

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

AFTENPOSTEN: STRONG CRITICISM IN NRK1-PROGRAMME AGAINST AUSTRALIAN MINING
COMPANY
7 January, 1998 [translated from Norwegian / Aftenposten is Norway's
largest newspaper]
by Halvor Hegtun

The new owners got the best of recommendations, says Mayor of Kirkenes

The Australian mining company planning to take over in Kirkenes, got "the
best of recommendations" from the Australian authorities says president of
the board of Sydvaranger ASA.

The Board president of Sydvaranger ASA, Mr. Helge B. Andresen, is for the
time being not desperate even though the "Brennpunkt"-programme of NRK last
night claimed that the mines of Kirkenes will be run by people responsible
for several environmental scandals, people who are also heavily involved in
dealing with the military regime in Burma. 

"We did investigate before we agreed to the option agreement with
Australian Bulk Minerals (ABM) that wants to take over in Kirkenes. The
company has only one more mining project, and that's in Tasmania back home
in Australia. They get first class recommendations from local authorities
in Tasmania, both when it comes to the running the mine itself and the way
they handle the environment," Andresen told Aftenposten Aften.

Burma
According to "Brennpunkt", "the man behind" Australian Bulk Minerals,
Robert Friedland, has invested hundreds of millions of Norwegian kroner
hunting for gold and copper in Burma. He has also been involved in some of
the largest environmental scandals connected to mining worldwide. Through
one of his companies, Friedland is said to have the majority of the shares
in Australian Bulk Minerals. 

"We will ask for a report from ABM. We don't really know very much about
the shareholder that this TV-programme focused on," Andresen said. 
Are you sure that this company does not do any business in Burma?
"No, as far as we can tell, the company is only involved in one country,
and that's Australia."

Australian Bulk Minerals has signed a legally binding intenational
agreement with the state owned company Sydvaranger ASA and Kirkenes
Utvikling, a deal with a value of NOK 6 million. The company wants to rent
the mining area and the rights to run the iron mines of Bjørnevatn that
were closed down in 1996. 

"In the agreement it is stated expressedly that the company has to follow
all Norwegian rules, especially when it comes to the environment," Andresen
said. 

Worried
MP for the Socialist Party, Erik Solheim has demanded a report on the case.
He thinks Australian Bulk Minerals should be kept away from Norway, "even
if only half" of the information from "Brennpunkt" is true. 

Minister of trade and business Lars Sponheim calls the information from
"Brennpunkt" "worrying". 

"We will ask both Sydvaranger ASA and Kirkenes Utvikling to write a report
about what they know about their partner, Sponheim says. 
What else will the Ministry do?
"If the Australian company chooses to use their optional agreement, they
will have to apply for a concession according to the Minerals Law. Only at
that point will the Ministry really get involved," Sponheim says. 

"A good job"
Mayor of Sør-Varanger, Alfon Jerijarvi, also a board member of Kirkenes
Utvikling, has been actively involved in the negotiations with the
Australians. He does not want to brush away the problems raised by the
"Brennpunkt"-programme. 

"I see there will be questions raised about this issue in the Storting
(Parliament). But then I hope the Storting will also raise the other
important question: What is the alternative to the 300 jobs that we are
hoping to create? We have negotiated with an Australian mining company,
that's all, Jerijarvi told Aftenposten.
What is your impression of the professionals who have come to Kirkenes?
"At no time has there been any reason to say they are not serious. They are
doing a good job."


Free Burma Coalition, Australia
Working for the 
National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma
Federation of Trade Unions, Burma
Australia Burma Council

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

BKK POST: THAI TEAM IN BURMA FOR PIPELINE TALKS
17 January, 1998
AFP

PTT OFFICIALS TELL OF CONSTRUCTION DELAY

Senior Thai officials are in Burma for talks on a disputed gas
pipeline project between the two countries, suspended on the Thai
side amid a row over environmental damage, the Burmese media
reported.

The delegation, headed by the Petroleum Authority of Thailand's
executive director Viset Choopiban, held talks with Burma's
Finance and Revenue Minister Khin Maung Thein on Thursday.

The report did not provide further details of the talks, but
Thai-based Burma watchers say PTT officials are likely explaining
the delay in construction of the Yadana pipeline to the Burmese
officials and seeking to review the contracted July completion
date.

The meeting was also attended by high-ranking officials from both
sides, Television Myanmar reported in a broadcast monitored in
Bangkok. Thai officials were not immediately available for
comment yesterday.

The pipeline, which is due to go online in July, is almost
complete on the Burmese side of the border, while construction on
the Thai side has been persistently delayed by protests.

Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai ordered a three-day suspension of
construction work on the project a week ago after a major outcry
by environmental groups and local people opposed to the troubled
scheme.

Work resumed earlier this week, but the protests have continued
unavbated with activists insisting  on another suspension. They
are demanding the route of the pipeline be revised on the Thai
side of the border to avoid damage to some of the country's last
remaining virgin forest.

Khin Maung Thein, who attended Thursday's meeting, is a former
energy minister who had played a major role in sealing the
multi-million-dollar contract with PTT in 1996.

In November he was replaced by Maj-Gen Lun Thi during 4 major
shake-up of the ruling junta, and Khin Maung Thein was
transferred to the finance and revenue ministry.

Mr. Chuan has appointed a 10 member legal committee to review the
pipeline contract to see if any delay in the scheme would make,
Thailand liable for massive financial penalties.

The PTT has said delays in the pipeline construction would make
the company liable for heavy fines from its construction
contractor and the consortium responsible for construction of the
Burmese section of the project. 

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

XINHUA NEWS AGENCY: SINGAPOREAN-INVESTED GALVANIZED CORRUGATED IRON SHEET
FACTORY
14 January, 1998

YANGON - A Singaporean-invested galvanized corrugated iron
sheet factory, built in the Hlaingtharya Industrial Zone in Yangon, has
gone into production, official newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported
Thursday. 

The factory of the Myanmar Megasteel Industries Ltd of Singapore, which
began operation Wednesday, is set up on a 2.4-hectare plot in the zone and
will run for an initial 30-year period under a land-lease contract with the
Human Settlement and Housing Development Department of the Myanmar Ministry
of Construction. 

The factory, with an investment of  9.13 million U.S. dollars and 1.8
million Kyats in the local currency, will produce 3,000 tons of galvanized
iron sheets annually for local sales and for export, the report said. 

The Hlaingtharya Industrial Zone, one of the five in the capital, was first
developed by local entrepreneurs with industries like food processing,
textile, engineering, electrical goods, chemical, forest products and
animal foodstuff setting up. 

The development of the zone was later joined by multi-national foreign
companies including those from Britain, France, Singapore, Thailand, some
of which are joint-operated, as well as Myanmar-foreign joint ventures,
running dairy product, galvanized iron sheet, sanitary and garment factories.

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

INDEPENDENT COMMENT: JAPAN INCORPORATED ROLLS OUT A BIG GUN
17 January, 1998
by Donald M. Seekins, Meio University, Nago, Okinawa

Burma-Japan relations go back to before World War II, and the
diverse opinions of Japan's "old Burma hands" are sometimes better
informed about internal conditions than Western accounts of the
political crisis, even if one doesn't entirely agree with them. However,
a new Japanese perspective on Burma has emerged, which could be called
"Aung San Suu Kyi-bashing" or "hitching one's wagon to the star of Asian
Values." This view is dazzling in its ignorance and superficiality. A
representative of this genre is Kenichi Ohmae, a well-known business
consultant, who warmed the hearts of the generals in Rangoon with a
couple of recent articles. One appeared in the year-end issue of
ASIAWEEK, a Hong Kong weekly, which states:

"The West knows about Myanmar through one person, Aung San Suu Kyi.
The obsession with Suu Kyi is a natural one if you understand the U.S.
Superficial democracy is golden in the United States; Americans love
elections. Just as Myanmar is Buddhist, and Malaysia is Islamic, America
has a religion called Democracy. There is merit in promoting democratic
reforms. But America is a simplistic country. Americans insist that 
what works for them should work for others at any time and in any stage
of economic development." (Kenichi Ohmae. "1997: A Year of Transition."
ASIAWEEK, December 1997 year-end issue, p. 5)

Ohmae went to Burma with a delegation of Japanese businessmen to
"see what the place is like." He concludes that critics like American
financier George Soros "do not appreciate the progress Myanmar has made
under the current government."

More revealing than the ASIAWEEK piece are two articles which
appeared in the Japanese magazine SAPIO in November 1997: "Miss Suu Kyi is
becoming a burden for developing Myanmar" (November 12, 1997) and "Cheap
and hardworking laborers: this country will be Asia's best"
(November 26, 1997 -- translations of these articles were kindly
supplied by a BurmaNet subscriber late last month). An exercise in a
weird kind of "Orientalism," -- borrowing Edward Said's concept in his
famous book of the same name -- these two articles reveal more about the
worldview of a certain kind of Japanese "intellectual" than they do
about the situation in Burma. It would be unfair, however, to assume
that Ohmae is expressing "the" Japanese view on Burma.

>From Ohmae's comments, it is clear that Burma has become an outpost
in the unending trade and cultural wars between Tokyo and Washington. He
claims that the United States "has established her [Aung San Suu Kyi] as
the Jeanne d'Arc of Myanmar and is using her to spread their propaganda
and pressure the regime. However, why the US feels the need to do this
and to achieve what end is beyond my comprehension." He confidently
predicts that Aung San Suu Kyi will "become a person of the past in a
year or two."

Apart from free floating (and not entirely unjustified) Japanese
resentment of the United States, Ohmae seems to be expressing anger over
the Selective Purchasing Laws which several U.S. cities and states have
passed, which are having an impact on Japanese companies doing business
with the junta. As BurmaNet readers may know, the Japanese government
has joined the European Union to protest these laws before the World
Trade Organization. Doubtless American government pressure on Tokyo to
exercise self-restraint in extending foreign aid to Burma is another
cause of resentment.

More interesting than Ohmae's KEN-BEI (Japanese for "dislike
America") attitude are "Asianist" and "neo-Asianist" themes in his
rhetoric. He is clearly enchanted with Burma, its people and its
culture. He contrasts them, using broad-brushed, racist strokes, with
the Chinese: "(i)n China, for example, on the surface they appear
sincere and serious, but in reality they do everything for money." Like
former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and former Chief Cabinet
Secretary Seiroku Kajiyama, Ohmae apparently appears quite comfortable
with making the kind of racist generalizations which would land
westerners in plenty of hot water.

But apart from flip racism, Ohmae seems to be cultivating a very
promising future reader-market: anti-Chinese sentiment is growing
rapidly and dangerously in Japan. This is true for many reasons, ranging
from the Senkaku/Diaoyutai Islands territorial dispute  to illegal
Chinese workers in Japan and Beijing's often heavy-handed pressure on
Tokyo to be more contrite about past war atrocities. Shintaro Ishimara,
a rightist politician, also expressed strong anti-Chinese sentiments in
his 1995 book, THE VOICE OF ASIA, coauthored with Malaysia prime
minister Mohamed Mahathir. In the twenty-first century, KEN-CHUU
(dislike China) is likely to be more destabilizing in the Asia region
than KEN-BEI (China is of course stirring up plenty of anti-Japanese
nationalism). Many sober Japanese analysts are worried about China's
growing influence over the SLORC/SPDC regime, but it is unclear whether
Ohmae is aware of this. Certainly his junta hosts in Rangoon wouldn't
have enlightened him about it.

For a capitalist like Ohmae, an advocate of rigorous business
globalization, it is deeply ironic that his articles express a nostalgic
longing for a "pure" Asia outside of allegedly money-grubbing places
like China, Vietnam and Thailand. Burma reminds him of his boyhood
village in Kyushu, where people worked hard, had just about enough to
eat, and lived simple lives without electricity or running water: "(t)he
current Myanmar mirrors these memories of farming villages in Japan.
Japan at the time was poor in comparison with the United States but this
was not detrimental to Japan." Perhaps Ohmae ought to oppose Japanese
investment in Burma to prevent the undermining of its -- in his words --
"fervently Buddhist ethics." Perhaps he ought to become a supporter of
Aung San Suu Kyi.

Last year, NHK, the state-owned Japanese broadcasting network,
aired a TV documentary on Burma's economic liberalization. One
sequence showed young Burmese women being recruited to wear short red
dresses and hawk Chinese-made cigarettes ("Red Pagoda Mountain Brand")
in the streets of downtown Rangoon. Doubtlessly this sad sight must have
shocked many Burmese passers-by, but that's capitalism, global-style,
which earns Mr. Ohmae, an international business guru, his meal ticket.

But the Bottom Line is never far from Ohmae's heart. The Burmese,
he writes, are virtuous, honest, hardworking and above all -- docile.
Unl;ike the uppity Chinese and Vietnamese, they'll be happy with
basement-level wages. The title of his November 26 article says it all.
Ohmae might be a little disillusioned, then, to read a little Burmese
history -- about the oilfield workers' strike of 1938, or the close
association of Burmese nationalism with socialism going back to the
colonial era. Or the strong socialist sympathies of Aung San Suu Kyi's
father. He might also learn something from the BurmaNet News article in
issue 906 (January 7, 1998), reporting about labor activism and work
stoppages at joint-venture textile factories.

Ohmae's "Orientalism" is clearly evident in his illogicality: Burma
is "pure" and unmaterialistic; but it's all right to exploit the
Burmese. It's a bit like the Great White Hunter who claims he "loves"
the big game he shoots.

Ohmae, author of trendy best-sellers like THE BORDERLESS WORLD and THE END
OF THE NATION STATE, is a very big gun in the arsenal of Japan
Incorporated. Since at least 1994, when a Keidanren delegation visited
Burma and met with top junta leaders, Japanese business has been
building up pressure on the government to get more involved with Burma,
including a reopening of foreign aid flows. Burma's entry into ASEAN
gives added "legitimacy" to full-scale normalization of Tokyo-SPDC ties.
In Japanese elite cirlces, the "ethnic cleansing" of Burma's minorities
is invisible; but Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is highly visible. Thus, Ohmae
and his colleagues need to discredit  her in the eyes of the public --
claiming she's an "axe handle" of the U.S. -- in order to build up
public support for warmer Tokyo-junta relations.

How the Asian financial crisis fits into this equation is difficult
to say. Asian resentment of the United States is growing because of the
IMF measures, and one way this can be expressed is through criticism of
the Burmese democracy movement as "unAsian." 

It is unfortunate that Ohmae has to use Burma as a pawn in his
diatribes against the United States and China, which is not to say that
these countries are faultless. The Burma crisis is becoming an
ideological football, a bone of contention between advocates of
western-style democracy and "Asian values." This blinds Ohmae and others
like him to the real situation in Burma today, and what Burma will
become if Ohmae's "greed without borders" style of business dynamism is
allowed to destroy the religious and social traditions which make Burma
a unique society. He ought to get out and learn more about the country,
e.g., visit the Thai-Burma or Burma-India borders to see refugees. Or
leave the subject of Burma to Japanese colleagues who know more about
it.

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ANNOUNCEMENT: RADIO FREE BURMA'S NEW WEB SITE
20 January, 1998

Radio Free Burma's new address is
www.fast.net.au/rfb

Radio Free Burma is independent of any political, social or welfare
organisation in Australia or Oversea. The 18th January program of Radio
Free Burma, originally on 2NBC in Australia, is now available for real-time
playback via Real Audio. This is a Burmese-language program featuring Burma
news, U Thaung's article, views and music of Burma presented by
Burmese now living in Australia.  We would appreciate any suggestions for
the program.

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