Burma News Update No. 68

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Open Society Institute
Burma Project

Burma News Update No. 68
14 October 1998


Junta Claims Conspiracy

Burma's army junta announced on 07 October the arrest of 54 people,
including 23 members of the opposition National League for Democracy
(NLD), on charges of inciting student unrest in August and September.
The alleged conspiracy included foreign support from Vatican-based
Jesuit Refugee Service and the Open Society Institute of financier
George Soros. The arrests continue a wave of repression over the last
months in Burma, which has been heavily criticized by the UN, Amnesty
International and other groups. The NLD said at least 967 of its members
have been arrested since 27 May. [The new arrests bring the total of
political prisoners held by the Burmese junta to an estimated 3,000.
Student groups also report a new wave of detentions in several parts of
the country-Ed.]

Rangoon, Reuters, 07 October



Junta Hits UN

Burma's army junta dismissed charges by UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights Mary Robinson that it has intensified repression and that
political prisoners jailed under very bad conditions had died in
detention. "It must be emphasized that there are no political prisoners
in Myanmar. No one has died in custody," the junta said in a statement.,
adding tyhat detained elected members of parliament from the National
League for Democracy (NLD) have been "invited to government guest
houses" in the interests of "protecting peace and stability of the
country... [and] ...are being comfortably housed and well fed and they
are being treated with courtesy and respect. "

Bangkok, Agence France Pressse, 07 October



Regime Drug Links Probed

A new report charging direct complicity of Burma's military with a
massive increase in heroin production and export was released on 01
October by the Thailand-based research group, Southeast Asian
Information Network. The report Out of Control 2, is based on numerous
interviews in border areas of Bangladesh, China, India and Thailand near
Burma and within Burma. The wide availability of heroin is causing not
only a plague of addiction, but also a fast-spreading HIV crisis among
people sharing needles to inject the drug. [Out Of Control 2 is
available through the www at:
http://www.sunsite.unc.edu/freeburma/drugs/ooc2.]

Chiang Mai, Thailand, Southeast Asian Information Network


UNOCAL, TOTAL: Pipeline Forced Labor

Forced labor has been used to help build a natural gas pipeline in which
the American oil company UNOCAL and France's TOTAL are partners with
Burma's military junta, a detailed US Government study declared.
Villagers along the pipeline route in southern Burma have been forced to
serve as porters for soldiers protecting the pipeline, pressed into
forced labor on infrastructure projects, and expelled from their home
villages, the report said. UNOCAL denied the charges in the 95-page
report, and claimed that US Government investigators were not barred
from the heavily militarized pipeline area.

Washington, Agence France Presse, 08 October



Refugees Unprotected

The United Nations reacted angrily to a Human Rights Watch report
charging that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is putting
the lives of ethnic Karen refugees who have fled to Thailand in danger
by failing to provide the protection required under international
standards. The report claimed the UNHCR have been "unnecessarily weak"
in challenging Thai government policies that undermine refugees' safety.
More than 100,000 Karen people have fled Burmese army attacks, but have
been subject to cross-border attacks over the past few years. UNHCR said
a new agreement with the Thai government will allow their agency greater
access to refugees.

Bangkok, Agence France Presse, 09 October


Junta's Lobby Lags

The recent intensification of repression in Burma "has made life
difficult for the US organizations that lobby on the junta's behalf" the
Far Eastern Economic Review reports. The Burma/Myanmar Forum formerly headed
by
lobbyist Francis Zwenning and partly financed by UNOCAL, "has
collapsed," and two Washington, DC public relations firms, Jefferson
Waterman and Bain & Associates, are under increased criticism for
representing a company which is "a front for Burma's military
government" and a Burmese developer with "close links with the regime." 

Far Eastern Economic Review, 15 October, 1998 

BURMA NEWS UPDATE is a publication of the Burma Project of the Open Society
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