[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

The BurmaNet News: October 5, 1998



------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------
 "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
----------------------------------------------------------

The BurmaNet News: October 5, 1998
Issue #1110

Noted in Passing: "The Burmese basically said get lost, which strengthens
the argument of those countries that want to see the sanctions toughened
up."  - senior EU diplomat (see AFP: BRITAIN LAUNDERS PUSH FOR EU CURBS ON
MYANMAR TOURISM) 

HEADLINES:
==========
NLOM: SECRETARY-1 RECEIVES CHAIRMAN OF NMSP 
SCMP: HIV EXPLODING ON HEROIN ROUTES 
AFP: BRITAIN LAUNDERS PUSH FOR EU CURBS ON TOURISM 
BKK POST: (KAREN REFUGEES TO BE MOVED)
THE NATION (NEW YORK): LESSONS FROM BURMA 
****************************************************************

NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR: SECRETARY-1 RECEIVES CHAIRMAN OF NEW MON STATE PARTY 
4 October, 1998 from <OKKAR66129@xxxxxxx> 

YANGON, 3 Sept-Chairman of Work Committee for Border Areas and National
Races Secretary-1 of the State Peace and Development Council Lt-Gen Khin
Nyunt received Chairman of New Mon State Party Nai Shwe Kyin, Secretary
General Nai Yaw Sa and members, peace negotiators Nai Khin Maung and Nai Pe
Tin at Defence Services Guest House on Inya Road.

Present were Minister for Agriculture and Irrigation Maj-Gen Nyunt Tin,
Minister for Progress of Border Areas and National Races and Development
Affairs Col Thein Nyunt, Deputy Minister for Finance and Revenue Brig-Gen
Than Tun, Deputy Minister for Forestry Brig-Gen Soe Myint, Deputy Chief of
Office of the Strategic Studies and Deputy Director of Directorate of
Defence Services Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence Brig-Gen Kyaw Win,
Director- General Lt-Col Pe Nyein of Office of the State Peace and
Development Council, heads of departments and official6.

They discussed cultivation, ensuring transport and regional development
tasks. 

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

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST: HIV EXPLODING ON HEROIN ROUTES
3 October, 1998 by William Barnes 

HIV infection is flooding out of Burma into China, India and eastern Europe
along heroin trafficking routes, a report published yesterday says.

The link is no coincidence. Burma - the source of perhaps three-quarters of
the world's heroin - has not only a major domestic addiction problem but
also a severe HIV epidemic.

The result is an alarming trail of distinctive "Burmese" HIV along the
underground drug routes out of the country, said the Southeast Asian
Information Network (SAIN) human rights group.

"Under this regime Burma is not only becoming a narco-state but its people
and those of its neighbours are facing two devastating epidemics: injecting
drug use and HIV/AIDS," said Chris Beyrer, a co-author of the report and
epidemiologist at America's Johns Hopkins University.

The HIV-1 that has produced the global pandemic has many distinct
sub-types: a B sub-type transmitted by homosexuals and intravenous drug
users dominates in America and Europe.

An E variety, easily transferred through heterosexual sex, is rampant in
Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. Sub-type E outbreaks in Texas, Jakarta and
Uruguay have been traced to HIV infections in UN soldiers serving in
Cambodia four years ago.

A third sub-type - C - has been found along a highway leading from Burma to
northwest China, the route of potent Burmese heroin and injecting drug
users who share needles . . . and the infection.

Yunnan has four-fifths of all of China's HIV infection, the Chinese
Ministry of Health said recently.

In the border town of Ruili, opposite Burma's Kachin state, two-thirds of
injecting drug users were HIV positive in 1994.

"Burmese" HIV has already reached Xinjiang in China's northwest.

In 1995, no Xinjiang addicts had the virus; a year later a quarter had been
infected, according to Zheng Xiwen, a professor at the Chinese Academy of
Preventive Medicine and the leader of China's AIDS monitoring programme.

"The bulk of heroin appears to cross through China's western borders into
Kazakhstan and the Russian east," the SAIN report notes.

Pure, cut-price heroin has become readily available in Hungary and Poland,
according to doctors there.

China's third epidemic zone is Guangxi province, bordering Yunnan and
Vietnam. Two-thirds of addicts in the city of Baise are infected with the
sub-type C virus.

HIV has moved strongly across into India, too: last year 80 per cent of
drug addicts in Manipur state bordering Burma were HIV-positive.

A doctor treating addicts in Madras, southwest India, Dr Shakuntala
Mudialar, said heroin, and quickly afterwards HIV, swept across the border
after 1995, when India and Burma signed a treaty to open up cross-border
trade. 

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

AFP: BRITAIN LAUNCHES PUSH FOR EU CURBS ON MYANMAR TOURISM 
3 October, 1998 

LUXEMBOURG, Oct 3 (AFP) - A fresh drive for a European Union curb on
tourism in Myanmar in response to the military junta's crackdown on the
democratic opposition is to be launched by Britain here on Monday.

At talks with his EU counterparts, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook
will call for the bloc's position on Myanmar -- formerly known as Burma --
to be strengthened.

The British move follows Myanmar's outright rejection of an EU proposal to
send a mission of senior officials to the country for talks with the
government and Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the opposition National League
for Democracy (NLD).

"The Burmese basically said get lost, which strengthens the argument of
those countries that want to see the sanctions toughened up", said a senior
EU diplomat.

London is proposing that other EU governments formally adopt its policy of
actively discouraging tour operators from offering holidays in Myanmar.

It is also calling for an extension of a visa-ban on members of the ruling
junta to cover lower ranking officials.

No decision on these issues will be taken on Monday.

But Britain is hoping it can swing the debate in favour of action when the
ministers next meet on October 26, when the EU's two-year-old visa ban,
embargo on arms sales and suspension of non-humanitarian aid or development
projects is due to be renewed.

Myanmar has also been stripped of its preferential access to EU markets in
protest at the widespread use of forced labour on military and government
projects.

The EU has so far refused to follow the United States by imposing broader
economic sanctions. The US banned all new investment in Myanmar in April
last year.

France in particular is strongly opposed to economic sanctions and could
resist Britain's proposals on tourism.

French tour operator Club Med is one of the major foreign investors in
Burma's tourist industry 

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

THE BANGKOK POST: (KAREN REFUGEES TO BE MOVED)
3 October, 1998 

[ ... ]

Meanwhile, more than 3,000 Karen refugees being sheltered in Ban Nai Soi
will soon be moved to two Muang district camps to prevent further forest
destruction in the area.

Mae Hong Son Governor Samrerng Boonyopakorn who heads the provincial border
command centre said officials had agreed with a plan to transfer 3,176
Burmese refugees from Ban Nai Soi camp to Ban Pang Kwai and Ban Pang camps
in Muang District instead of Ban Mae Surin shelter in Khun Yuam District as
earlier agreed due to budget constraints

The refugees have been accused by Ban Nai Soi villagers of stealing their
agricultural produce, encroaching on their land, destroying forests and
polluting the stream in the area, he said.

According to him, the relocation operation will be directed by the chief of
Muang district.

After their relocation, the refugees will be barred from leaving their
shelters and face repatriation if they refuse to obey orders, Mr Samrerng
said.

In another development, the Thai embassy-in Rangoon reportedly announced
that only four Thai logging firms have been allowed by Rangoon to import
logs from Burma through five border passes in Mae Hong Son until December
31, 1998.

Burma's Commerce Ministry has also imposed a ban on log exports through
three border checkpoints in Kawthaung, Myawaddy  and Tachilek.

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

THE NATION. (NEW YORK): LESSONS FROM BURMA 
5 October, 1998 by Nisha Anand 

It was only recently during a trip to Burma that I realized the immense
power I have as a student activist. The results of student activism in the
United States are typically quite disheartening: Usually being a student
activist means being heckled by a few ignorant passers-by or being lectured
on how one day I will grow up and join a country club. Thankfully, the
amazing spirit of the students of Burma has shown me why I must persist.

I went to Burma in August as a member of a multinational peacemaking team
consisting of eighteen people from six countries. Team members opposed the
brutal military regime, which since 1990 has refused to acknowledge the
landslide election of the National League for Democracy and has since
jailed or detained hundreds of members of the opposition party. We
distributed about 8,000 leaflets that said, "We are your friends from
around the world. We have not forgotten you. We support your hopes for
human rights and democracy. Don't Forget-Don't Give Up," on the day after
the ten-year anniversary of the government's bloody crackdown on student
activists. Our goal was simply to let people inside Burma, who are not
allowed access to outside media, know they have our support at this crucial
time.

Probably my biggest worry was that the action would go unnoticed. However,
when the regime detained members of our group, they guaranteed that our
action would not only be noticed but that it would also have a significant
impact by drawing international attention to the situation in Burma.
Although we have been the focus of much media attention since our
subsequent expulsion from the country, the media are not what made me
realize the power of my personal action. When I was at Shwedagon Pagoda and
saw the smiles and the glimpses of hope that flashed on the faces of the
Burmese onlookers, I knew what I was doing was making a difference. When
several people helped me pass out leaflets or came back to take more, I
knew that my five-minute action, followed by a six-day detention and a
sentence of five years, was well worth it.

Since the time of our deportation, students in Burma have continued their
opposition to the junta. In early September several thousand protested
after military leaders said that any effort by the opposition to convene
Parliament would be regarded as a threat to national security.

The power that we share as activists is growing. The more than 3,000
activists inside Burma who laid down their lives in 1988; the students
imprisoned and tortured for years, like Min Ko Naing, whose health
continues to deteriorate while he remains locked in a solitary cell; the
members of the All Burma Students' Democratic Front struggling both inside
and outside Burma to topple the regime; and the students who have recently
been detained for their September demonstrations in Rangoon -- all have
confirmed the power that student activists have. I am confident that the
outcries from the students of Burma will be heard and recognized-very soon.

[Nisha Anand, a graduate student at American University in Washington, DC,
is a coordinator for the Free Burma Coalition.]

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