The BurmaNet News: June 4, 1998

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 "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
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The BurmaNet News: June 4, 1998
Issue #1019

Noted in Passing: ".  In the past we were getting negative reports when we
were sending these people back to Myanmar (Burma) that they were not
returned in safety and dignity.  We want more transparency, and UNHCR
should give us this credence."  - Surapong Posianon, Director General of
the International Organizations Department, Thai Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (see VOA: UN OFFICIALS AWAIT THAI GOVERNMENT APPROVAL)


HEADLINES:
==========
BKK POST: PROJECT TO END POPPY CULTIVATION TO BE STARTED 
VOA: UN OFFICIALS AWAIT THAI GOVERNMENT APPROVAL 
WASHINGTON POST: UN TO SEEK SUPPORT FOR ANTI-DRUG EFFORT 
UPI: U.S. OFFERS $2M EACH FOR DRUG DEALERS 
KYODO: HASHIMOTO LETTER URGES BURMA TO PROMOTE DEMOCRACY 
LA TIMES: UNOCAL'S OVERSEAS TIES DRAW PROTESTS 
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The Bangkok Post: Project to End Poppy Cultivation to Be Started 
3 June, 1998 by Nusara Thaitawat 

Drive focuses on Wa area in Shan State

The long-delayed Wa project, initiated by a UN drug agency and Burma to
wipe out opium poppy cultivation in one of the most fertile grounds for the
crop in Burma's Shan state, kicks off this month.

The United Nations International Drug Control Programme is going ahead with
only US$3.8 million of the $15 million needed for the project. It hopes all
mechanisms will be in place by the next planting season around November.

Richard Dickins, recently appointed the UNDCP representative in Rangoon,
said yesterday it was important to get it off the ground and produce
tangible results in order to convince donors to contribute to the project.

On the drawing board since 1995, the project, seen as ambitious for the
UNDCP for its "bottom-up comprehensive development approach" to opium
eradication, has been complicated by both domestic and international politics.

The Wa area of the Shan state, which is located on the Chinese border, is
semi-autonomous, while the Burmese military government's human rights
record has blocked international assistance to the regime.

Donors remain guarded on whether the still uneasy political arrangement
between the Burmese government and the Wa, leadership will allow full
implementation of the five-year project.

"We must separate drugs from politics," said Mr Dickens who believes
Rangoon is doing its best under difficult conditions and with limited
resources.

Burma has announced its plans for total eradication nationwide by 2012. But
with outside aid, it claims it can reach this target by 2008 in line with a
global approach to be officially adopted by UN members at a forthcoming
special session of the UN General Assembly on drugs during June 8-10 in New
York.

In an earlier interview with the Bangkok Post, Mr Dickins said the project
had high chances of success with the political commitment of all parties
concerned: the Chinese and Burmese governments, the Wa leadership and the
UNDCP.

The project calls for a comprehensive development of the southern part of
the Wa area, by providing not only alternative crops but also education and
public health, and infrastructure to the community. 

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Voice of America: UN Officials Await Thai Government Approval
3 June, 1998 by Amy Bickers 

Intro: United Nations officials are awaiting Thai government approval so
they can increase assistance to Burmese refugees living at the Thai border.
 As Amy Bickers reports from the VOA Asia News Center, an announcement is
expected this month.

Text:  Authorities in Thailand and the UN high commission for refugees have
agreed in principle to expand the UNHCR's role in assisting Burmese
refugees along the Thai-Burmese border.

According to Surapong Posianon, Director General of the International
Organizations department at the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, final
approval is needed from Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai.  He expects this will
come at the next meeting of Thailand's National Security Council, which has
not yet been scheduled.

/// First Surapong Act ///
We would like to give more access to UNHCR regarding the camps where there
are a number of Myanmar people, about 100-thousand of them. These are
displaced persons, and they have fled their country because of hostilities
along the border area, and we would like UNHCR, which has the mandate in
displaced persons, to have a bigger role in looking after these people.
/// End act ///

UNHCR officials regularly visit the Burmese refugee camps, and monitor
activities there. But they must apply to Thai authorities for permission
each time they go.  The new arrangement would mean they could travel more
freely and take a more active role in organizing the camps.

But that's not all.  The new set-up would allow the UN officials to protect
asylum seekers.  According to Mr. Surapong, that means the international
body would act as a formal channel for Burmese refugees seeking citizenship
in another country.

/// Second Surapoing act ///
We want to have more transparency.  In the past we were getting negative
reports when we were sending these people back to Myanmar (Burma) that they
were not returned in safety and dignity.  We want more transparency, and
UNHCR should give us this credence.
/// End act ///

// opt //  Mr. Surapong says  resettlement options are limited for the
Burmese refugees, because of what he calls compassion fatigue in a number
of countries.  He says the UNHCR will need to work with the Burmese
government in Rangoon to ensure the refugees who return to Burma are
well-treated.

/// Third Surapong act ///
I think the UNHCR is in a position to handle it.  To see that Thailand
observes neutrality, and that we are not forced to send these people back,
that they go back voluntarily, and that the Burmese government will take
them and give them safety for return.
/// End act ///   
/// end opt ///

While no date has been set for the UNHCR to increase its involvement, the
Thai government says approval should come later this month.  Humanitarian
organizations expect the UNHCR's role would be expanded immediately. 

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The Washington Post: UN to Seek Support for Anti-Drug Effort
3 June, 1998 by Staff Writers

U.S., Other Nations Balk Over Plan to Give Aid to Afghanistan, Burma, Colombia
The United Nations plans to seek new international backing next week for
the most ambitious counternarcotics effort in its history, but the United
States and other wealthy nations are resisting pleas to fund the program
partly because it would spend billions of dollars in some of the world's
most corrupt or repressive nations, such as Afghanistan, Burma and
Colombia, according to U.S. and U.N. officials.

The overall objective of the plan -- to eradicate the world's entire
production of heroin, cocaine and marijuana over 10 years -- is likely to
win the endorsement of more than 30 heads of state and the representatives
of 130 other nations, including President Clinton, now slated to attend a
special June 8-10 meeting at U.N. headquarters in New York, the officials
said.

The cost of the U.N. counterdrug plan has been estimated at roughly $3
billion to $4 billion over the next ten years, a roughly fourfold increase
from what all governments combined would spend over the next decade at
present levels to promote the substitution of legal crops for illegal ones
in key producing nations, the officials said.

But Clinton's top counterdrug aides have advised U.N. officials that
Washington is unwilling to commit substantial new U.S. funds to the effort
on grounds that the program remains unformed, has yet to attract support
from key European and Middle Eastern donors, and would probably provoke
political opposition at home from human rights activists and critics of the
United Nations.

"We are very supportive of the concept, but the hesitancy, the skepticism
comes from the feeling that you just can't do it, that it is very
unrealistic," said a White House official involved in planning for the U.N.
conference.

"You have governments that are difficult to deal with and lack of
governments in other countries. It is a challenge, to say the least," he
said. Pino Arlacchi, a former Italian lawmaker who was appointed in
September as the United Nations' chief counternarcotics official,
nonetheless vows to pursue the plan. He told associates that the U.N.
meeting should be "a turning point for the world to go forward with renewed
energy on drug control," by embracing not only a vigorous new crop
substitution effort but also a new series of related law enforcement and
countertrafficking initiatives.

Arlacchi's plan, which has been sketched out in a 170-page report entitled
"Strategy for Coca and Opium Poppy Elimination," calls for promoting rural
development and crop substitution to create legitimate employment
alternatives to drug production in the nine principal growing nations for
those two drugs: Afghanistan, Burma, Laos, Colombia, India, Mexico,
Pakistan and Vietnam.

According to U.N. estimates, the amount of land devoted to growing coca
leaf or opium poppy in all these countries is just 4,500 square kilometers,
or half the area of Puerto Rico. That gives supporters of the program hope
that concentrated social development efforts can overcome the low success
rate of traditional crop substitution efforts, which many experts say have
failed due to the lack of infrastructure, such as roads and facilities for
handling legal crops.

Under the U.N. plan, progress in crop substitution would be monitored by
reconnaissance satellites and through periodic inspections on the ground.

In a telephone interview after his arrival in New York yesterday, Arlacchi
said details of the plan can be fleshed out in the next year in conjunction
with new appeals for funds.

"The main difficulty [to overcome] . . . is a decade of pessimism,
skepticism about the sheer possibility to be successful in the field of
drugs," Arlacchi said. "Particularly in Western Europe [there is a
widespread view] . . . that everything that is being done is wrong or
unsuccessful."
Arlacchi, who was appointed to his job after leading his government's
successful effort to curb the influence of the Mafia, compared the remarks
he hears now to claims at the beginning of the 1980s that "we were starting
an impossible mission" in the fight against organized crime because victory
would mean altering longstanding culture.

He said that, already, a modest investment in the social and economic
development of drug-growing regions in Pakistan has cut opium production
from 800 to 20 tons a year.

The key, he said, was the introduction of a crop of off-season onions that
could be marketed throughout the year. Similar programs have achieved
modest successes in Peru and Thailand.

Arlacchi's tenure at the United Nations has been distinguished in part by
his desire to try to work out new counterdrug arrangements with the
political rulers of Afghanistan and Burma, the two countries that together
cultivate 80 percent of the world's illicit opium poppies but remain in
virtual diplomatic isolation.

He has struck a deal with the leaders of the Taliban, the Islamic extremist
party that now controls more than two-thirds of Afghanistan, to fund a
series of small-scale development projects, such as the reconstruction of a
factory in the province of Kandahar that will provide work for thousands of
impoverished local citizens. The estimated $7 million cost of the project
is to be drawn in part from past contributions by the United States, U.N.
officials said.

Last month, Arlacchi organized a similar pilot project in Burma, a country
that the ruling military junta renamed Myanmar after it seized control from
an elected political party in 1989. [sic: The SLORC renamed the country
Myanmar after it came to power in September, 1988 following a mass uprising
that unseated the Burmese Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) regime.
Elections were held in 1990, with the opposition National League for
Democracy winning over 80% of the Parliamentary seats.  The Parliament was
never allowed to convene.]  Washington has pledged $5 million toward the
$15 million cost of the project, which is meant to promote rural
development in that country's Shan state.

In both nations, Arlacchi's idea is to create employment alternatives to
drug-related work; and if the initial efforts are successful, he wants to
spend an estimated $500 million there over the next decade. That would
amount to a major new burst of foreign aid for both nations.

But Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and other top U.S. officials
have said that Washington generally opposes substantial new aid to
Afghanistan so long as Taliban ideologues block women from access to
education, jobs and health care. An influential Republican staff aide on
Capitol Hill has also vowed to block funding for the Burma project.

"The answer will be unequivocally no," said the staff member, who asked not
to be named. "This is a country with a 400,000-man army and no external
threat. It has no function but to continue to repress its own people. They
have the capacity to carry out counterdrug campaigns if they want to."
Moreover, the source said, "big, sweeping public relations stunts are not
the way to go" in dealing with the global drug issue.

Maureen Aung-Thwin, who directs the Soros Foundation's Open Society
Institute Burma Project, said she, too, is skeptical that much progress can
be made in Burma under the military government and worried that it would
try to divert the aid toward military purchases.

Arlacchi said he was aware of the criticism, but that he remains optimistic
that Washington will eventually provide additional funds.

"It is not by chance that drugs are produced in very remote and difficult
countries," he said. "[But] what is the alternative? To do nothing and just
blame these countries?" 

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

UPI: U.S. Offers $2M Each for Drug Dealers 
3 June, 1998 

The State Department has offered $2 million each for information leading to
the arrest of five notorious Southeast Asian drug lords under indictment in
the United States.

The State Department said today Burma is giving safe haven to three of the
drug traffickers Chang Chi-Fu, Chang Ping-Yun and Yang Wan- Hsuan. Chang
Chi-Fu, who is also known as Khun Sa, and the two others operated the
largest heroin trafficking operation in the world when they headed the
Burma-based Shan United Army.

Khun Sa and his cronies were given amnesty and residences in Burma in
exchange for a cessation of operations by the Shan United Army.

The State Department is also offering a reward for Wei Hsueh-Kang, who is
believed to be hiding in Burma, and Liu Szu-Po, who was last seen at his
residence in the Golden Triangle region of northern Thailand.

The State Department says any information about the whereabouts of the five
men should be passed on to the nearest American Embassy.

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

Kyodo (Japan): Hashimoto Letter Urges Burma to Promote Democracy 
29 May, 1998 

Japan delivered Wednesday to Myanmar's [Burma's] ruling junta a letter from
Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto calling for promotion of democracy in the
country, Japanese officials said.

Japan's deputy foreign minister Koichi Haraguchi delivered the letter to
Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, leader of the State Peace and Development Council
(SPCD), during a meeting in Yangon [Rangoon]. Khin Nyunt said he would take
Hashimoto's seriously [as received], according to the officials.

Haraguchi was quoted as saying that Japan, despite domestic opposition,
decided in March to resume low-interest official development assistance
loans to Myanmar for the first time since Tokyo suspended official aid
following a 1988 military coup. In March, Japan decided to extend 2.5
billion yen in loans to build Yangon's international airport and plans to
furnish 800 million yen in grant-in-aid to help the country increase food
production. 

During his two-day visit to Myanmar that ends Wednesday, Haraguchi also met
Foreign Minister Ohn Gyaw and minister at the junta Chairman's Office,
Brig.  Gen. David Abel, separately. Diplomatic sources said economic
cooperation was discussed.

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

Los Angeles Times: Unocal's Overseas Ties Draw Protest 
2 June, 1998 by Nancy Rivera Brooks

Unocal Corp. has been generating profits -- and controversy -- by exploring
for oil and gas in such unstable places as Myanmar, Indonesia and,
potentially, Afghanistan.

As protestors marched outside the company's Brea facility Monday, Unocal
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Roger C. Beach told the annual
shareholders meeting that the El Segundo-based oil giant has overhauled
itself in the last two years, selling its gas stations and oil refineries
to become a "super independent" that searches for oil and gas internationally.

"Unocal has tremendous potential for future growth" without sacrificing
social responsibility, Beach said.  "This is fundamental to the way we do
business -- and a key to our success."

But Carol Richards, a founder of the activist group Burma Forum, said the
company "has been transformed into a rogue band of adventurers who will now
make a deal no matter how dirty, no matter how risky, with the most
appalling regimes on Earth."

The L.A. based group has called for the Unocal board's ouster in protest of
the company's dealings in Myanmar, formerly Burma, which is home to a
military regime that has been widely condemned for terrorizing political
opponents.

So went the latest gathering of oil industry shareholders, with activists
pushing for a variety of causes before Big Oil investors not always in the
mood to listen.

Unocal's even included a few dozen protestors and a large paper-mache
elephant denouncing Unocal's ties to several Asian regimes.

But as they did last year, shareholders overwhelmingly defeated measures
asking the company to limit or rethink those business ventures.

Opponents of Unocal's participation in a $1.2-billion, multinational
Myanmar pipeline and of a potential pipeline deal in Afghanistan were
allowed to speak in support of shareholder resolutions to review executive
compensation and possibly tie that pay to corporate responsibility, to
investigate charges that the state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise is
involved in drug trafficking, and to assess the cost to Unocal of the
increasing opposition to its Myanmar operations.

Each of the resolutions was rejected by more than 90% of the shares voted,
but each received more than the 3% needed to be reintroduced at next year's
meeting.

Afghanistan is a more recent controversy for UNOCAL.   The company is
considering participating in building a pipeline there but won't do
business in the country until a stable government is installed and peace is
restored, Beach said.

Feminist groups say that any activity in Afghanistan would support the
ruling Taliban militia and its restrictions on women.

"It was a start," said Katherine Spillar, national coordinator for the
Feminist Majority Foundation.  "We wanted to shine a bright light on the
issue."

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