The BurmaNet News: September 23, 19

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------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------
 "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
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The BurmaNet News: September 23, 1998
Issue #1102

HEADLINES:
==========
KHRG: INFORMATION UPDATE #98-U2
ABYMU: ESCALATING SUPPRESSION ON BUDDHIST MONKS 
XINHUA (CHINA): BURMA ACTIVE IN FOREIGN RELATIONS 
MIC: INFORMATION SHEET NO.A-0619(I) 
AP: ALBRIGHT, OTHERS DISCUSS CAMBODIA, MYANMAR 
BKK POST: A SMALL STATE'S SANCTIONS RILE BIG BOYS 
ANNOUNCEMENT: LOGGING BURMA'S FRONTIER FORESTS
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KAREN HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP: INFORMATION UPDATE #98-U2
14 September, 1998 from <khrg@xxxxxxxxx> 

An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group

[Information Update is periodically produced by KHRG in order to provide
timely reporting of specific developments, particularly when urgent action
may be required.  It is produced primarily for Internet distribution.
Topics covered will generally be reported in more detail in upcoming KHRG
reports.]

Displacement of Villagers in Southern Pa'an District

The region commonly known as Pa'an District forms a large triangular area
in central Karen State, bounded in the west and north by the Salween River
and the town of Pa'an (capital of Karen State), in the east by the Moei
River where it forms the border with Thailand, and in the south by the
motor road from Myawaddy (at the Thai border) westward to Kawkareik and
Kyone Doh.  Pa'an District is also known as the Karen National Liberation
Army's (KNLA's) 7th Brigade area.  The western parts of Pa'an District and
the principal towns have been controlled by the SLORC/SPDC military junta
for 10 years or longer, while the eastern strip adjacent to the Thai border
has come largely under their control over the past 3 years.  The
easternmost strip of Pa'an District near the Moei River is separated from
the rest of the district by the main ridge of the steep Dawna Mountains.

The KNLA still has extensive operations east of the Dawna and in the
mountains itself, while the plains further west are primarily controlled by
the SPDC and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA).  On both sides of
the Dawna range there has been continuous low intensity fighting, with some
larger battles, between the KNLA and the combined forces of the SPDC and
DKBA, and this fighting has intensified over the past year. Some villages
were previously forced to move by the SPDC in retaliation for this
fighting, but in most cases the SPDC battalions realised that without the
villagers to use as a shield and as forced labour they were only more
vulnerable to attack, so the villagers were gradually allowed or ordered to
return home.  Until recently most villagers were somehow managing to
survive in the area.  However, the past two to three months has seen a
sudden flight of villagers in southern Pa'an District.  Most have fled into
the forests to become internally displaced, while some have fled to the
Thai border.  At this stage it is difficult to estimate numbers, but it
appears that five to ten thousand villagers are affected, and several
hundred of these have already arrived at the Thai border.

There are several reasons why these villagers, many of whom had not fled
before, are suddenly fleeing.  The first of these is a general increase in
forced labour for SPDC and DKBA troops in the area.  This includes forced
labour building and maintaining Army camps and roads, as sentries and
messengers, and as porters to support both SPDC and DKBA troops patrolling
and fighting the KNLA in the region.  The villagers have had to do this
kind of labour before to a lesser extent, but what is terrifying many of
them into fleeing is that they are increasingly being used as human
minesweepers during forced labour as porters.

Landmines are being used extensively throughout the area by all parties to
the conflict, the SPDC, DKBA, and KNLA.  The KNLA generally lays its mines
slightly off the pathways and notifies local villagers of which routes are
mined, but the SPDC and DKBA lay mines indiscriminately on pathways, around
farmfields and in abandoned villages without notifying anyone.  Villagers'
cattle are regularly killed by these mines.  When a villager's cow steps on
an SPDC mine, the owner must keep quiet because if the SPDC finds the owner
he is fined "to pay the cost of the landmine".

Villagers in the area are more and more frequently being maimed or killed
by all of these mines; due to the difficulty of getting to medical help,
most of those who step on the mines are killed.  Now the combined SPDC/DKBA
columns in the area are sending their forced porters out in front of the
column to detonate mines, and in many cases are specifically rounding up
women in villages to march in front of columns and act as human mine
detonators.  Even if the villagers know which paths have been mined by the
KNLA they don't know the precise locations of the mines, and if they do or
say anything which indicates they know the route is mined, then the SPDC
troops will accuse them of being KNLA collaborators and torture or execute
them.  Villagers from Taw Oak village report that at least 6 people from
their small village have died in the past year from landmines, particularly
from forced labour as human mine detonators.  In Sgaw Ko village, a few
months ago an SPDC patrol demanded that a group of women from the village
go with one of their patrols to detonate mines, but the village headman
would not allow it so he went in their place.  He was killed by stepping on
a landmine.  Fear of being killed by landmines is giving villagers no
choice but to flee their villages to avoid forced portering.

Another reason causing people to flee is an increase in looting and
extortion, particularly by SPDC and DKBA troops.  For some time now DKBA
troops have lost their material support from the SPDC and have been forced
to live off the villagers, and now SPDC troops throughout Burma are
receiving rations only sporadically, in some areas not at all. This has led
to a general increase in the looting of villagers' rice, livestock and
belongings, demands for money, and forced labour on projects to grow food
and make money for Army units.  People in some villages have been forced to
hand over one bullock cart and team per family to the Army, a very
expensive demand if they do not have a cart.  Earlier this year, the DKBA
held a meeting and stated they would build a new office in Myawaddy town,
then ordered all villagers to cut logs and do forced labour building the
office or pay 3,000 Kyat per family.  SPDC officers notified villagers in
Pah Klu village that every family will have to pay 700 Kyat per month in
extortion money for the next year.  This comes at a time when villagers
have already sold all their belongings to pay previous demands and are
suffering a bad year for their rice crop because of the lack of rain early
in the growing season.  At the same time, they also continue to have to
hand over rice to KNLA units in the area.  They are just not capable of
supplying all sides at once.  In the Pah Klu area, the last straw for many
villagers has come in the last few months.  The KNLA hijacked a group of
boats moving SPDC rations upriver for the SPDC camp at Pah Klu.  In
retaliation, the SPDC unit forced the villagers in the area to hand over
what they said was the cash equivalent for the full value of the rations.
When a second shipment came, the SPDC forced the villagers to carry the
rations from the boats overland to the Army camp without military escort,
so the rations were hijacked by the KNLA again.  The SPDC has now demanded
the full price of their rations yet again, and the villagers simply cannot
pay so many have fled.

Many villages in the area already have a curfew of 4 p.m. imposed by the
SPDC; they are only allowed to go to their fields in the morning with only
enough rice for their lunch, and they must be back in the village by 4 p.m.
(or by sunset in some villages) or they will be arrested and beaten or
tortured, or shot on sight if seen outside the village.  For many villagers
whose fields are far from the village, this is making it impossible for
them to grow a proper crop.  At this time of year they would normally live
in their field huts to tend their fields and drive off wild pigs and other
animals.

The reason likely to cause the vast majority of the villagers to flee over
the next several months is forced relocation.  Some villages have already
been forced to relocate to Ker Ghaw, where there is a significant DKBA
presence, and the DKBA recently held a meeting in which they told village
elders from Taw Oak, Pah Klu, Sgaw Ko, Kwih Lay and the entire Meh Pleh Toh
area that all villages in this region will be forced to relocate after
rainy season, as soon as the harvest is completed (i.e. in about December).

They were told that they will be allowed to move to a designated
Army-controlled relocation site or to any garrison town where they may have
relatives, but that if they stay in their home area "you will be targets
for our guns".

Villagers who attended the meeting say that this order was given to the
DKBA by the SPDC, and the DKBA had to pass it on to the villagers. This is
normally how things are done in Pa'an District; in the field, DKBA groups
always move as part of SPDC columns and are used by the SPDC to give orders
to villagers, point out those suspected of having links with the KNLA, and
to loot supplies for the SPDC troops.  The DKBA and SPDC are working so
closely together in the area that many villagers now simply lump them
together, referring to DKBA troops as "the Burmese".

If the relocations occur as planned, this will cause the vast majority of
villagers to flee into hiding.  For now those who can still pay the
extortion and fees to avoid forced labour are still trying to live in their
villages, but more and more are fleeing to their field huts and forests.
Some have already been shot on sight by SPDC/DKBA patrols.  Several groups
of these people have fled to the Thai border, but the Thai authorities are
refusing to let them cross the border because current Thai policy is to
refuse asylum to all refugees except those deemed to be "fleeing from
fighting", and Thai authorities say there is now no fighting in Burma. Some
individual families have managed to covertly slip into refugee camps in
Thailand or to Thai towns to look for work as illegal labourers, but those
families who have been caught trying to cross the border individually have
been forced back across into Burma at gunpoint by Thai troops.

In interviews with KHRG, villagers displaced within southern Pa'an District
and those who have made it to the Thai border say that they still hope to
be able to harvest their fields; those at the Thai border even say that
they would not want to go into a refugee camp until after harvest time.
However, some point out that most of their crop has already been destroyed
by wild animals, and it is doubtful if there will be much to harvest even
if they can return.  If the forced relocations go ahead as planned, they
will have to face not only the danger of landmines but also the very
serious danger of being shot on sight by SPDC or DKBA patrols. Given the
situation in the area, it appears that many of the villages in the area
will be abandoned within the next few months, that most of the people will
become internally displaced, that a growing number of them will attempt to
flee to the Thai border, and that all of them will be refused entry by Thai
forces.  As early as November, with rainy season already over, there is
also a strong chance of a large SPDC military offensive against the KNLA in
Pa'an District, and if this happens then things for the villagers would be
even worse.

Further details and interviews with internally displaced villagers in this
and other parts of Pa'an District will be presented in an upcoming KHRG
report. 

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ALL BURMA YOUNG MONKS' UNION: ESCALATING SUPPRESSION ON BUDDHIST MONKS
UNDER CURRENT POLITICAL SITUATION
21 September, 1998 from <barmati@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 

Since the National League for Democracy's call for convening People's
Parliament on May 27, 1998, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC),
military regime in Burma has escalated its suppression on the Buddhist
monks in the country.

As a consequence of the suppression, demonstrations by the Buddhist monks
across the country have been taken place. On July 14, 1998, around 300
Buddhist monks held demonstration in Sittwe, Arakan State. On September 4
and 5, 1998, about 200 Buddhist monks joined a demonstration with 60
students in Mandalay. Similarly on September 4, 1998, a demonstration by
260 Buddhist monks took place in Monywa, Sagaing Division and another
demonstration was held in Tavoy, Tenasserim Division on September 9, 1998,
by 170 Buddhist monks.

Though there were no political demands during the above mentioned
demonstrations, demands were made such as to release all the monks under
detention and to solve misery loss of ancient precious stone that taken
place at Maha Myaymuni Pagoda in Mandalay. A boycott action was also called
for the monks in the country to stage a boycott against the SPDC and their
families, by not receiving any alms from them and not doing any religious
functions for them, which was mentioned in accordance with the Buddha
Dhamma. A similar boycott was carried out country-wide by the monks in 1990.

SPDC detained the monks who took part in the demonstrations. On July 14,
two monks from Sittwe, Arakan State; on August 18, one monk from Belin, Mon
State; on September 4-5, five monks from Mandalay; on September 14, three
monks from Rangoon; on September 14, two monks from Pakkoku and on the same
day three monks from Mandalay were arrested by the SPDC's troop
respectively. The details of another 23 monks arrested has not been known yet.

ABYMU strongly condemns the arrest of the Buddhist monks who have merely
demonstrated their will for the religious causes without any political
reasons. ABYMU warns the escalating tension between the Buddhist monks and
SPDC would be the sole responsibility of the SPDC. 

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XINHUA (CHINA): ROUNDUP - BURMA ACTIVE IN FOREIGN RELATIONS 
18 September, 1998 

Rangoon, September 18  (Xinhua)  -- Myanmar [Burma] has been following an
active and independent foreign policy in accordance with the principles of
the United Nations (UN) Charter, the Five Principles of Peaceful
Co-existence and Non-Aligned, maintaining friendly ties with all nations in
the world, particularly with neighboring countries in the region. In
dealing with its relations with other countries, Myanmar gives priority to
the maintenance of world peace and security, mutual respects and equal
rights despite differences in political and economic systems of different
countries.

Up to now, Myanmar has established diplomatic ties with 72 countries in the
world, opening up nearly 40 embassies and consulates-general. In the period
of the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) (from 1988 to 1997),
which was renamed the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) in
November 1997 with major reshuffle of the government cabinet, Myanmar
established ties with more countries such as Peru, Venezuela, Columbia,
Papua New Guinea, Brunei, Brazil, South Africa and Kenya.

In order to carry out tasks of foreign affairs on a broad scale, Myanmar
formed in October 1992 the Foreign Affairs Policy Committee, headed by
Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, first secretary of the then SLORC and the
present SPDC, deliberating and coordinating important policies regarding
foreign relations and overseeing their implementation.

For the past few years, Myanmar leaders have exchanged visits with those of
Asian countries including Brunei, China, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. These visits brought about
further enhancement of their bilateral friendly ties and trade and economic
cooperation.

Myanmar, which became a UN  member in April 1948, takes an active part in
the UN  General Assembly sessions and other conferences held by the UN in
accordance with the principles contained in the UN  Charter. Myanmar became
a member of the Geneva Conference on Disarmament in 1962 and acceded to the
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in 1992.

The country also acceded in the year to four Geneva Conventions of 1949
regarding humanitarian treatment in the midst of hostilities and the
instruments of accession became effective in Myanmar in February 1993.

Myanmar also expanded economic contacts with foreign countries and
international financial and economic organizations with which the country
sought monetary aid and loans as well as technical assistance. Various
projects on education, health and agriculture are among those jointly
implemented in Myanmar with aid from a number of UN agencies such as UNDP
(United Nations Development Program), UNICEF (United Nations Children's
Fund), WHO (World Health Organization), FAO (Food and Agriculture
Organization), UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization) and ESCAP (Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the
Pacific).

Myanmar was one of the co-founders of the Non-Alignment Movement (NAM)
established in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in 1961.  The country once suspended
its participation in the movement in 1979 but resumed the activities
beginning with the 10th NAM Summit in Indonesia in September 1992. As for
regional cooperation, Myanmar has also been actively participating in the
activities and cooperation of some regional groupings especially the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, into which the country was
integrated in July 1997.

In August the same year, Myanmar joined again a new South Asian
sub-regional economic grouping, the BIMST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar,
Sri Lanka and Thailand - Economic Cooperation), bordering the Bay of
Bengal. Myanmar actively cooperates with countries in the world in the
fight against narcotics.  So far, it has bilateral agreements on this
respect with neighboring Bangladesh, China, India, Laos, Vietnam and
Thailand as well as the Russian Federation. Sub-regional cooperation in
combating narcotics has also been carried out under separate agreements
with China and Thailand involving the United Nations Drug Control Program
(UNDCP).

For five decades since its independence, Myanmar has adhered to the UN
Charter in its foreign relations, opposing neo-colonialism and hegemonism
and adopting a non-interference policy.  The country reiterates that "it
will never interfere in the internal affairs of others and will never
tolerate any outside interference". 

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MYANMAR INFORMATION COMMITTEE: INFORMATION SHEET NO.A-0619(I) 
22 September, 1998 from <MYANPERSP@xxxxxxx> 

[Information Sheets issued under the email addresses MYANPERSP@xxxxxxx and
OKKAR66129@xxxxxxx match those issued by the Directorate of Defence
Services Intelligence (DDSI) in Rangoon, and can be assumed to reflect
official SPDC opinion.]

OFFICE CALLS IN YANGON ON 21 SEPTEMBER

(B) Minister for Communications, Posts and Telegraphs received President of
Redcom Laboratories Inc of United States of America Mr. Klaus
Gueldenpfenning and party at his office.

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AP: ALBRIGHT, OTHERS DISCUSS CAMBODIA, MYANMAR 
22 September, 1998 by Laura Myers 

NEW YORK (AP) - Amid signs of hope in Cambodia, Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright and other foreign ministers were meeting Tuesday to
discuss ways to promote democracy and end human rights abuses in that
nation and in Myanmar.

[ ? ]

The ministers, in Manhattan to attend the opening session of the U.N.
General Assembly, represented Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, South
Korea, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Britain, the
United States and the United Nations. Russia, France, Germany and the
European Union also were invited.

In Myanmar, also known as Burma, military leaders have shown no signs of
bowing to international pressure to allow political freedoms.

The United States and world financial institutions have stopped economic
aid, but with little effect because the drug trade keeps Myanmar military
coffers full.

Opposition leader Aung Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won 82
percent of the parliament seats in a 1990 election, but the military, which
has ruled Myanmar since 1962, has refused to let the parliament meet.

Four times in the past few months, authorities have blocked Suu Kyi's way
as she has tried to travel to the countryside to meet her would-be members
of parliament. Over the years she has often been under house arrest.

On Monday, the military government arrested 29 more members of Suu Kyi's
party, bringing the number of activists arrested this year to 882, her
party said.

The ruling generals last month rejected a request from U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan that a special U.N. representative be allowed
to visit Myanmar.

Albright, among others, has sought Annan's intervention over the
government's treatment of Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.

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THE BANGKOK POST: A SMALL STATE'S SANCTIONS RILE BUSINESS' BIG BOYS 
22 September, 1998 by Leslie Miller 

AP

A maverick lawmaker on the local scene will soon find himself caught
squarely in the cross hairs of much of the world.

Byron Rushing, a Boston state representative, wrote a law in 1996 that
forbids the state from contracting with companies that do business with the
military government of Burma.

This week, some of the biggest companies and most powerful governments in
the world will line up on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean to try to rid
Massachusetts of its Burma Law.

The National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) will argue tomorrow for striking
down the law in the US District Court in Boston.

Coincidentally, today, Japan and the European Commission will file a
request in Geneva for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to set up a formal
dispute panel to challenge Mr Rushing's law.

It's the first time the WTO has challenged a state law since the 1994 Gatt
treaty on international tariffs and trade.

Legal experts say it's the first salvo in an international battle to
eliminate local laws that do everything from promoting minority businesses
to banning the purchase of products made from tropical wood.

"Our goal would be to get a decision that would stop these state and local
sanctions around the country," said Frank Kittredge, president of the
National Foreign Trade Council, a trade group representing 550 major US
corporations.

The small New England state apparently made a tempting target for opponents
of such laws.

"They thought this would be a relatively easy fight, to pick on poor,
defenceless Massachusetts," said Matt Porterfield, senior fellow at the
Harrison Institute for Public Law at Georgetown University here.

But the state plans a vigorous defence of its right to choose its vendors.

"They should have picked on poor, defenceless Berkeley," said Mr
Porterfield. That California city was the first to pass a law sanctioning
companies doing business with Burma.

Massachusetts certainly has plenty of other company in the freelance
foreign policy arena-both on the political left and on the political right.

North Olmsted, Ohio, recently passed a law barring the purchase by the city
of goods manufactured under sweatshop conditions.

More than a dozen states ban investments in companies in Northern Ireland
that engage in religious discrimination.

A number of states planned to impose sanctions on Swiss banks until last
August, when Switzerland's two biggest commercial banks agreed to pay $1.25
billion (51.25 billion baht) to settle Holocaust survivors' claims against
them.

Mr Rushing wrote the Massachusetts Burma Law in response to Aung San Suu
Kyi, leader of Burma's prodemocracy party. She urged an end to investment
in Burma until the military regime - which has been accused of drug
trafficking and widespread human rights violations - negotiates a peaceful
transition to representative government.

The NFTC will argue the Massachusetts Burma Law is unconstitutional because
it regulates foreign government is empowered to do.

The group will not identify its members because they fear consumer boycotts.

"The sanctions have been damaging to US companies for sure, and US workers,
and they've lost jobs as a result of them," said Mr Kittredge. "It would be
hard to argue that they have, in this case, changed the government of Burma."
Several companies have stopped doing business in Burma because of sanctions.

Mr Rushing, for his part, hopes the publicity accompanying the legal
maneouvrings shed light on human rights abuses in Burma.

"We're not out to reform the WTO. Our job is to get people focused on
Burma," said Mr Rushing.

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ANNOUNCEMENT: LOGGING BURMA'S FRONTIER FOREST - NEW PUBLICATION 
22 September, 1998 

Logging Burma's Frontier Forest - new publication by the World Resources
Institute (WRI)

Please find below a description of WRI's newly-launched publication
"Logging Burma's Frontier Forests: Resources and the Regime", which may
interest you.  The report costs $20 plus shipping and can be ordered from
Johns Hopkins by calling 1-800-822-0504 (there's a 20% discount for faculty).

 ...

Burma holds more than half of mainland Southeast Asia's closed forest, and
is often called "the last frontier of biodiversity in Asia."  Having lost
virtually all of their original forest cover, Burma's neighbors - China,
India, and Thailand - rely increasingly on Burma as a source of timber.
Much of this trade is undeclared, and has been used by successive military
regimes in Rangoon to support offensive action against ethnic opposition
groups.

"Logging Burma's Frontier Forests: Resources and the Regime," the most
recent contribution from the WRI's Forest Frontiers Initiative, uses
satellite and field data to assess the impact of unsustainable logging on
Burma's forests.  The report presents evidence from Burma's borders with
Thailand and China that shows how extensive deforestation can result in
massive soil erosion, reduced soil fertility and agricultural productivity,
sedimentation of river channels, siltation of dams, catastrophic floods,
and acute water shortages during the dry season.

The report establishes a link between logging policy, deforestation, and
the political violence that has plagued the country since independence in
1948. Until these conflicts are resolved, the authors conclude, there is no
scope for effective direct engagement with the regime in support of forest
conservation.  Rather, the report recommends that the international
community continue to monitor forest conditions and to engage the regime
through international environmental agreements to which it is signatory.
This recommendation of "non-engagement' is unique for WRI, but reflects the
reality of the political and economic conditions that currently prevail.

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