NCGUB Press Release

[ncgub@xxxxxxxxxxx]

For Immediate Release

November 9, 1998


<bold>NCGUB condemns army's massacres, drug collusion in Shan State

PM welcomes China's move to combating regime's druglord allies

</bold>

The NCGUB today, citing new reports by the Washington Post and Jane's
Intelligence Review, a widely respected defense publication, condemned
the racially motivated massacres of at least 670 persons in Burma's Shan
State by Burma's military government as well as its collusion in the same
area with heroin warlords.


The Washington Post is reporting that the U.S. and Chinese governments
have jointly opened a listening post along the China/Burma border to
monitor communications by heroin warlords in Burma who have been
operating freely there since 1988 when the current junta seized power.  
NCGUB Prime Minister Dr. Sein Win said "the joint U.S. and Chinese
intelligence listening post is a positive response to the regime's
collusion with druglords who are producing more than 90% of heroin
flooding China as well as more than half entering the United States."


Jane's also reports "substantial evidence" of "racially-motivated
genocide" by Burma's military in the Shan State.   In one incident, the
Review reported the Army's "orgy of rape and murder of Shans in the Kun
Hing area that left 215 Shan civilians killed, including 43 who were
beheaded and left  on the side of the road as a warning to others.  The
article identified specific battalions as being responsible for the worst
abuses, with Light Infantry Battalion 524 being responsible for killing
193, including the  massacre of almost an entire village during July
1997, which left 96 dead.  U Bo Hla Tint, Minister for American Affairs
added "the regime isn't just trafficking in heroin, it is murdering
hundreds of Shan men, women and children.  Therefore, we want to ensure
that any intelligence gathered by the U.S. and China is shared with
appropriate U.N. authorities so that one day, the murderers of the Shan
people can also be brought to justice."


The UN's Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Burma warned in his most
recent report that because human rights abuses in Burma were likely "the
result of policy at the highest level" those policymakers bear "political
and legal responsibility." 


For more information, contact the N.C.G.U.B. PRESS OFFICE: 


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The N.C.G.U.B. is constituted by Members of Parliament democratically
elected in 1990.