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Breaking News on Weekend
- Subject: Breaking News on Weekend
- From: RANGOONP@xxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 17:56:00
AAP NEWSFEED
February 19, 1998, Thursday
SECTION: Nationwide General News; Overseas News
LENGTH: 496 words
HEADLINE: PHILIPPINES, MYANMAR SIGN FOUR AGREEMENTS
BODY:
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MANILA, Feb 19 Asia Pulse - The Philippines and the Union of Myanmar
yesterday signed four agreements, bringing to eight the number of bilateral
accords signed between countries since President Fidel V.Ramos made a state
visit to Myanmar in October 1997.
The signing of the agreements at Malacanang's Reception Hall was witnessed
by the President and Senior General Than
Shwe, chairman of the State of Peace and Development Council of Myanmar, who
arrived in Manila yesterday for a three-day state visit.
The four agreements are:
* Agreement on the Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of Investments;
* Memorandum of Understanding on a Package of Assistance for Human
Resource
Development for the Union of Myanmar;
* Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Visa Exemption for Official and
Diplomatic Passport Holders; and
* Agreement on Cultural Cooperation.
The Agreement on the Promotion and Reciprocal Protection and Investments
will hopefully encourage Filipino businessmen
to tap the potential of Myanmar as an investment site. At
present, there are no significant investment exchanges between the Philippines
and Myanmar.
With the forging of the agreement, Philippine investors in Myanmar will
have enough guarantees on the safety of their investments.
MOU on a package of assistance for human resource development for the
Union
of Myanmar is in line with the Philippine commitment to help the new ASEAN
members like Myanmar and Laos integrate with the other ASEAN member-states.
Under the MOU, the Philippines agreed to extend a package of assistance to
Myanmar involving US$5 million for its human resources development program.
The amount will finance both formal and informal training of up to 60 Myanmar
nationals in Philippine educational institutions.
Several Philippine universities and technical training institutions have
already signified their interest to participate in the human resource
development program. The first batch of Myanmar scholars are expected to
arrive in the Philippines in June 1998. A special task force to be spearheaded
by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) will oversee the
implementation of the program.
The MOU on visa exemption for official and diplomatic passport holders is
designed to facilitate the exchange of visits between Philippine and Myanmar
government and diplomatic officials.
The MOU will come in handy, especially this year as a number of meetings
of
officials of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) are expected to
be held in Manila. The Philippines heads this year's ASEAN Standing Committee,
whose chairmanship is rotated annually among the nine-member countries.
The agreement on cultural cooperation aims to bolster cultural relations
between the Philippines and Myanmar through exchanges of information,
experts,
books and other reference materials.
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Agence France Presse
February 18, 1998 03:54 GMT
SECTION: International news
LENGTH: 84 words
HEADLINE: Myanmar foreign minister invited to Moscow: report
DATELINE: YANGON, Feb 18
BODY:
Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov has invited his Myanmar
counterpart Ohn Gyaw to visit Moscow, according to a letter published
Wednesday
in an official newspaper.
The official daily New Light of Myanmar published the invitation letter
marking the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Russia and
Myanmar, formerly Burma.
Foreign Minister Ohn Gyaw was invited to pay an official visit to the
Russian
capital at a date to be coordinated through diplomatic channels.
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COPYRIGHT 1998 BY WORLDSOURCES, INC., A JOINT VENTURE OF FDCH, INC. AND WORLD
TIMES, INC. NO PORTION OF THE MATERIALS CONTAINED HEREIN MAY BE USED
IN ANY MEDIA WITHOUT ATTRIBUTION TO WORLDSOURCES, INC.
Once gain, Asean's relations with the US are under stress as their
bilateral
forum, the Asean-US Dialogue, has been delayed. The US has been reluctant to
host the two-year event due to the admission of Burma as a member of Asean
last year.
The dialogue forum, which was initiated in 1977, provides a venue for both
sides to discuss the whole gamut of issues related to Asean-US ties. The 12
previous meetings, which were hosted alternatively between by the US and Asean
countries, were convened during a time of few problems.
However, Burma's membership in Asean last July changed all that.
Following the postponement of the Asean-European Union joint committee
meeting last November over a similar dispute concerning Burma's status,
Washington said in private that it would like to host the dialogue outside the
US.
Washington has informed Malaysia, the Asean coordinator of the dialogue,
that
because of the current visa ban imposed on Burmese officials representing the
the State Peace and Development Council, as the Rangoon government is known,
the
meeting could not proceed as planned.
The move has left Asean at a loss over what to do as the member countries
do
not know the details or scope of the US visa ban. At an informal meeting among
Asean senior officials in New Delhi recently, Burmese officials pointed out
that
the US visa restrictions apply only to a select group of officials above the
senior official level and military personnel above the level of brigidier
general.
That would mean that Washington could go ahead with the meeting with senior
officials from Burma attending the forum.
Howerver, Malaysia has sought further clarification from Washington on this
point before Asean decides if the Asean-US Dialogue is to be held outside the
US
or in Washington, where it was scheduled to be held.
Asean is working on three options.
The first is to stick to the original location, the US, with the
participation of Burmese officials from its mission in Washington. This way,
it
will save Washington from the further embrassment of issuing new visas.
Two other options would require cooperation from the Philippines. Manila
would host the forum either with the attendance of Burmese diplomats stationed
in Manila or with officials directly flying in from Rangoon. The first
approach
ensures that the US officials will participate in the dialogue while the
second
approach is to make sure that the Burmese representation from Rangoon will be
present at the meeting.
Of late, the Philippines has promoted its ties with Burma, whose leaders,
including Chairman of State Peace and Development Council Than Shwe, are
currently visiting the Philippines.
Although it is Washington's desire to have the meeting hosted in the
Philippinese, right after the senior officials meeting of the Asean Regional
Forum (ARF) due in Cebu in May, Asean is not happy with the compromise.
For one thing, Asean is worried it could serve as a precedent for other
dialogue partners. ''What would we do, if other dialogue partners follow
suit,''
complained an Asean official. Apart from the post ministerial meeting, Asean
holds a separate bilateral meeting with its dialogue partners comprising
Australia, Canada, New Zealand, EU, Japan, South Korea, China, Russia and
India.
Asean also feels that if the meeting is held inside the US, Washington will
pay more attention and its senior officials will make every effort to take
part
in the meeting. In the past, whenever the meeting was held outside Washington,
the US has often been represented by lower level delegates.
There are also grumblings in the Asean capitals that the US should not be
so
fussy about Burma's participation in the Asean-US Dialogue. Afterall, US
State
Secretary Madeleine Albright has already sat in the same room with the Burmese
representatives at the ARF in Kuala Lumpur.
Without a quick resolution to the Asean-US Dialogue problem, the pending
Asean-EU joint committee meeting due to be held in several months could be
jeopardised. Both Asean and EU would like to resume high-level contacts as
soon
as possible, but there has not been any progress on the Burma sticking
point.
Asean has been urging the EU to convene meetings at the working group and
technical group levels to break the impasse, otherwise the overall Asean-EU
relationshiop will not be able to move forward. Since the postponement, the
two
sides have been searching for a way out of their predicament.
Both sides has said they would like to see the meeting being held before
the
second Asia-Europe Meeting on April 2-4 in London, which looks increasingly
impossible.
Strange as it may seem, though, Asean-US relations are not as important as
they should be. In fact, Asean's bilateral ties with other dialogue partners,
such as Australia, are more significant.
At the moment, there is only one cooperation programme under the Asean-US
Dialogue, called the Environment Initiative, which was put in place in 1992
and
will end in June. Washington has yet come up with a new idea to rejuvenate
this
bilateral procedure.
In light of what has occurred in the financial world of Asean in the past
months, Asean is hoping to raise this issue and discuss it at length in the
dialogue forum. Asean would like the US to spell out its cooperative efforts.
In the past, the two sides have discussed the situation in Burma and
Cambodia including narcotic suppression cooperation.
Copyright 1998 NATION all rights reserved as distributed by
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South China Morning Post
February 18, 1998
SECTION: News; Pg. 13
LENGTH: 325 words
HEADLINE: Junta chief's brush with martyr from another era
BYLINE: WILLIAM BARNES in Bangkok
BODY:
Burma's Prime Minister, General Than Shwe, is to lay a wreath today at a
Manila memorial to Filipino nationalist hero Jose Rizal - a doctor shot by the
Spanish colonial regime.
Diplomats who have monitored the Rangoon junta's attempts to ingratiate
itself with fellow Association of Southeast Asian Nations members believe few
Filipinos will miss the irony.
Rizal, executed by a Spanish firing squad in 1896, became a martyr capable
of producing almost religious fervour in his admirers.
General Than Shwe is head of a military regime that has imprisoned, and is
now trying to isolate, Burma's charismatic opposition leader, Aung San Suu
Kyi.
Like Rizal, Ms Aung San Suu Kyi has spent much of her life outside her
country, yet is considered far too dangerous to be allowed to freely organise
the opposition movement.
She has appealed to Filipinos to remind the general that their country is
a
"bastion of democracy" and that "the Philippines is better off under a
democratic system than it was under an authoritarian regime".
General Than Shwe was greeted on arrival in Manila yesterday for his
three-day visit by loud protests over Rangoon's human rights record.
He said he hoped to have cordial discussions with President Fidel Ramos on
boosting relations.
Mr Ramos told him the Philippines had a formula to help Burma solve its
problems: make peace with your enemies, create jobs and be open to democratic
change. The two leaders signed various co-operation agreements.
For the general, the wreath-laying is probably less important than the
game
of golf he is expected to play with Mr Ramos later.
Burma became a full member of ASEAN in July, hoping the move would lead
to
a wave of investment from neighbours.
The opposition said Nan Khin Htway Myint, a party member arrested east of
Rangoon last week on her way to Union Day celebrations at Ms Aung San Suu
Kyi's
home, had been jailed for two years.
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Agence France Presse
February 17, 1998 08:59 GMT
SECTION: International news
LENGTH: 126 words
HEADLINE: Shots fired, one killed on Thailand- Myanmar border
DATELINE: BANGKOK, Feb 17
BODY:
A Thai border policeman was shot dead and another wounded when their
checkpoint was fired on from Myanmar (Burma) , police sources said Tuesday.
Police officials in western Thailand's Tak province on the Myanmar border
said a band of about 20 armed men fired on the police box just after 11 PM
local
time (1600 GMT) Monday night.
Police said although they were unable to identify the armed men, they
suspected the group were a unit of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA),
a
breakaway ethnic group believed to be allied with the Myanmar military.
The DKBA have been blamed for crossing the border into Tak province, about
450 kilometers (281 miles) from here, on several occasions and burning down
camps housing Karen refugees.
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Copyright 1998 BANGKOK POST
February 17, 1998
SECTION: News
LENGTH: 83 words
HEADLINE: In Brief 6 Burmese soldiers arrested at border
BODY:
Tak - Thai border forces arrested six Burmese soldiers last Saturday in
Mae
Sot district after they slipped across the border in search of decent jobs.
The deserters claimed that they were forcibly drafted in Rangoon because
they were unemployed and sent to the border about a year ago. They said they
were paid only 600 kyats (about 150 baht) a month which was hardly enough to
make a decent living and decided to look for greener pastures in Thailand.
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