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The BurmaNet News: Febuary 9, 1999



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

The BurmaNet News: February 9, 1999
Issue #1203

HEADLINES:
==========
AFP: MYANMAR UNVEILS STRATEGY TO IMPROVE JUNTA IMAGE 
AUSTR. NEWS NETWORK: JUNTA JILTED ON INTERPOL DRUG FORUM 
REUTERS: JAPANESE, BRITISH WAR VETERANS MEET IN MYANMAR 
XINHUA: MYANMAR DRAWS 7 BLN DOLLARS' FOREIGN INVESTMENT 
BKK POST: JOINT HUNT FOR NEW DRUG BARON 
BKK POST: POLICEMAN KILLED IN MINE BLAST
BKK POST: TROOPS SENT TO BORDER
UPI: EU SUSPENDS WTO PANEL ON MASS BURMA LAW 
THE NATION: BURMESE STUDENTS BACK CHEE'S REFORM STRUGGLE 
ANNC: JAPANESE TRANSLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS YEARBOOK 
ANNC: PUBLIC HEALTH MATERIALS AVAILABLE
ANNC: NEWS AND TASTES OF BURMA 
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AFP: MYANMAR UNVEILS STRATEGY TO IMPROVE JUNTA IMAGE 
4 February, 1999 

YANGON, Feb 4 (AFP) - Myanmar's military rulers have vowed to become more
engaged in world affairs to improve their international standing, state-run
media said Thursday. Junta First Secretary General Khin Nyunt said Myanmar
would try to host more international meetings to show visitors the truth
about the country, which is accused of widespread human rights abuses and
drug trafficking.

"We must show the world not only the fact that we are capable of hosting
high-level international meetings but that as a member of the ASEAN family
we are very much involved in the activities of the regional grouping," he
was quoted as saying in the New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

"Many nations, including some from the Asian region, have been taken in by
the falsehoods being spread about Myanmar.

"By hosting as many international meetings as possible visitors attending
them would find out for themselves the wrong impression they have been
harbouring about the country."

Khin Nyunt was reportedly rallying officials tasked with organising April's
meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) labour ministers
in Yangon.

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, was admitted into ASEAN in 1997 to the
chagrin of the European Union and the United States, who maintain tough
sanctions against the junta over its human rights record.

The junta lost 1990 elections to the National League for Democracy party
under Aung San Suu Kyi but has refused to loosen its iron grip on power.

In the latest diplomatic impasse, the EU has refused to relax its ban on
visas for top Yangon officials to allow Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung
to attend the planned ASEAN-EU foreign ministers' meeting in Berlin next
month.

Khin Nyunt said Myanmar needed to boost its profile to enhance
international understanding and encourage foreign investment which has all
but dried up during Asia's economic crisis.

The labour ministers' meeting will be the highest-level ASEAN function
hosted by Myanmar and the junta is keen to make the best impression.

The international police agency Interpol plans to go ahead with a drug
conference in Myanmar later this month despite fierce criticism from
European states on the choice of venue.


Myanmar is accused of harbouring heroin traffickers and supporting the
opium and amphetamine producers who thrive in the jungles along its borders
with Thailand, Laos and China -- the region known as the Golden Triangle.

Several countries have criticized Interpol for scheduling the February
23-26 conference in Myanmar. Denmark plans to boycott the event, saying it
could lend legitimacy to the Myanmar military regime. 

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

AUSTRALIAN NEWS NETWORK: JUNTA JILTED ON INTERPOL DRUG FORUM
6 February, 1999 by Peter Alford 

THE staging in Rangoon of an international police conference on heroin
production and trafficking has split foreign opponents of the Burmese
regime and threatens to embarrass some of its most severe critics,
including US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

To the outrage of Burmese opposition groups, Interpol's Fourth
International Heroin Conference is being hosted and co-organised by a
regime Dr Albright and British Foreign Minister Robin Cook have accused of
"conniving" with drug lords.

Three officers from the Australian Federal Police and Customs Service will
attend the conference starting on February 23 but Britain, Denmark, The
Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg will boycott, while Germany has yet to
take a position.

The European Union, which alongside the US runs the toughest sanctions
campaigns against the State Peace and Development Council regime and
refuses visas to Burmese ministers, officials and military officers, is
split wide open.

France, home of the Interpol secretariat, and Italy will attend as will
China and Thailand, neighbours that are severely troubled by the Burmese
drug problem.

Thailand's Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan has recently praised Rangoon's
attempts to curb its huge drug trade.

It is understood Drug Enforcement Officers stationed in Rangoon will
represent the US, despite what one expert described as "the State
Department-CIA narco-State theory" about Burma's leadership.

The Central Intelligence Agency claims Burma is the world's biggest
producer of illicit opium and one of the largest heroin exporters.

The latest CIA World Factbook says the country produced 2.36 tonnes of
opium in 1997, although that was an 8 per cent drop on the previous year.
Burma recently has emerged as major source of amphetamines trafficked into
bordering countries.

The George Soros-funded Open Society Institute demanded in a recent letter
to US Attorney-General Janet Reno that US officers withdraw from the
conference, likening it to "holding a convention on weapons of mass
destruction in Baghdad (or) on women's rights in Kabul".

But international relations experts say the State Peace and Development
Council Government will use the conference to boost its claims to be
innocent of drug trade links and to bolster its much publicised recent
crackdown on heroin and amphetamines.

Burma's military and police authorities claim last year to have seized
403kg of heroin, almost 5400kg of opium, 380kg of marijuana and 16 million
speed tablets. Already this year they have announced several big heroin and
amphetamine busts.


Although anti-SPDC and Burmese exile groups insist that the impunity
afforded to people like the now-ailing Khun Sa, formerly a world-scale
trafficker, shows the regime's complicity, there is a spreading rejection
of the view that the regime deliberately fosters drug trafficking.

Foreign Affairs Burma-watchers in Canberra say people corrupted by the drug
trade remain at senior levels of the regime and the military apparatus, but
discount the likelihood of the Government as a whole being involved.

Bangkok-based AFP liaison officer Kevin McTavish, who will attend the
Rangoon conference, told The Weekend Australian yesterday his delegation's
concern was with gathering new information on the heroin trade to stem its
effects on Australia not the politics of the venue.

"I don't think this is a problem for Interpol, although I can see there are
political implications for some of the countries that are not sending
delegates," Mr McTavish said.

"The purpose for us is to get a feel for what's happening in the region
with the growing of opium and the trafficking of heroin." 

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

REUTERS: JAPANESE, BRITISH WAR VETERANS MEET IN MYANMAR
8 February, 1999 

YANGON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Japanese and British veterans of World War II
held a joint memorial service on Monday at a new Japanese war cemetery in a
Yangon suburb near areas where they fought fiercely against each other more
than 50 years ago.

About 350 Japanese war veterans, their families, and members of the Burma
Campaign Fellowship Group in Britain, attended the ceremony sponsored by
the All-Burma Veterans Association of Japan, Myanmar officials said.
British ambassador Robert Gordon and his Japanese counterpart Kazuo Asakai
also joined the gathering at the Yayway Japanese War Cemetery about 20
miles (32 km) north of Yangon.

Myanmar officials said it was only the second joint ceremony between the
two former foes on the site of a battlefield in Myanmar. Their first
meeting was in February 1997 at an old Japanese cemetery at Kyandaw in
Yangon.  Over 190,000 Japanese and 37,000 Allied soldiers, mainly from
Britain, Australia, New Zealand and India, died in battles in Myanmar
during World War II. 

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

XINHUA: MYANMAR DRAWS 7 BILLION DOLLARS' FOREIGN INVESTMENT 
5 February, 1999 

YANGON (Feb. 5) XINHUA - Foreign investment in Myanmar reached 7.089
billion U.S. dollars at the end of October 1998, according to a latest
official statistics.

The investment, from 23 countries and regions, covers 303 projects with the
oil and gas sector drawing the largest amount of 2.296 billion dollars,
followed by manufacturing, hotels and tourism, and mining.

The figures issued by the Myanmar Central Statistical Organization also
show that Singapore ranked first among foreign investors, injecting into
the country 1.485 billion dollars, followed by Britain, Thailand and Malaysia.

Since Myanmar adopted an open-door market-oriented economic policy in late
1988, the investment environment gradually improved with foreign investors
stepping in.


However, due to the impact of the Asian financial crisis, Myanmar received
only 1.25 billion dollars of foreign investment in 1997, 1 billion dollars
less than that in 1996.

The country drew over 200 million dollars' foreign investment in the first
10 months of 1998, accounting for 20 percent and 10.86 percent of that
absorbed in the same period of 1997 and 1996 respectively.

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

THE BANGKOK POST: JOINT HUNT FOR NEW DRUG BARON 
8 February, 1999 by Subin Khernkaew 

BURMESE REBEL CHIEF OVERSHADOWS KHUN SA

Thai and Burmese authorities have intensified their search for the new drug
baron Wei Hsueh-kang while a problem over the spelling of names has
hindered efforts to track down illicit drug producers and traders.

A reliable source said Wei or Prasit Cheewinnittipanya, 47, is emerging as
a powerful drug kingpin whose profile in the underworld is slowly
overshadowing retired drug warlord Khun Sa.

He mostly controls distribution and trade of narcotics, particularly
amphetamines, along the Thai-Burmese border opposite Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai
and Mae Hong Son.

The source said most of the drug production bases close to the northern
Thai border are operated by the United Wa State Army with Wei as the
commander.

Where the bases are not under the UWSA control, the operators who belong to
other minority groups still rely on its military protection from the threat
of invasion by the Rangoon troops.

The UWSA comprising of up to 5,000 soldiers has established its stronghold
at Huay Hung, opposite Mae Ai district in Chiang Mai.

Sornsit Saengprasert, the Narcotics Control Board deputy secretary-general,
told the Bangkok Post in an exclusive interview that Burma has recommended
that the names of big-time drug suspects be spelt in Chinese instead of
English for easy identification.

The matter was raised during a recent meeting on narcotic eradication in
Burma attended by representatives from Burma, Thailand and the United Nations.

Mr Sornsit said it was not the suppression operation that was the obstacle
but rather the spelling that has made capture a daunting task.

He explained since the drug suspects come from different ethnic groups, the
authorities of Thailand and Burma tend to identify them using English
spelling.

Relying on pronunciations, the names are often written differently in
English depending on how they are said and heard. The result was that a
suspect is referred to by more than one name which easily creates a
misunderstanding for the two countries.

Burma felt identification would be more accurate if the names were written
in Chinese since the suspects had a Chinese name. This would help ensure
the two countries hunt the same person.

Mr Sornsit said Rangoon conceded that apart from Wei, it knew only a
handful of drug suspects on the Thai authorities' blacklist. Part of the
problem may be attributed to spelling.

Burma pledged to quickly arrest Wei and rewrite other names into Chinese to
better assist the investigation.

The United States has reportedly issued arrest warrants for Wei in June
last year along with two other suspected traffickers -- Yan Wanhsuan, or
Lao Tai, a former close aide of Khun Sa, and Liu Seu-po, or Kamrat
Namsuwakon -- on a charge of exporting narcotic drugs into that country
Rewards were also offered for their capture.


The source said before the warrant was out, Wei had often crossed into
Chiang Mai to visit his two Thai wives living in Ai and Fang districts.

Meanwhile, an amphetamine-tablet compressing machine was seized in Chiang
Rai's Mai Sai district on Saturday as it was about to be smuggled into the
country.

The two men who brought in the Chinese-manufactured machine, which is
capable of producing up to 60,000 tablets per hour, escaped arrest. Police
also impounded machine spare parts which came with the delivery.

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

THE BANGKOK POST: POLICEMAN KILLED IN MINE BLAST
8 February, 1999 by Supamart Kasem 

A Border Patrol policeman was killed on  Saturday and four others wounded
after their pick up ran over a mine planted at the border area in Mae Ramat
district.

Pol Sgt Nirand Pholboon, 38, who was the pick-up driver died on his arrival
at Mae Sot hospital following the explosion which cut off his two legs.

Pol Sgt Nirand and other seven BPP colleagues from the 345th BPP company
were sent in the evening to Ban Huay-Bong after local people told the BPP
company that they spotted booby-traps, believed to be planted by Karen
rebels, at the border area.

The explosion took place at about 7 a.m. yesterday when a patrol car
carrying five officers from Mae  Ramat police station ran over an
anti-personnel mine placed on a road in the old Don Pa Kiang Refugee Camp
at Ban Hway Bong of  Tambon Mae Tarao, about 500 metres from the
Thai-Burmese border.

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

THE BANGKOK POST: TROOPS SENT TO BORDER 
8 February, 1999 

Over 100 soldiers have been dispatched to the Thai-Burmese border in Mae
Ramat district here following a spate of bomb blasts in which a border
patrol police officer was killed and several officials seriously wounded.

The team, comprising infantrymen bomb demolition police and border patrol
police, left for Ban Huay Bong in Tarnbon Mae Jarao early yesterday morning
to search for bombs and prevent armed foreign groups from planting new ones
on Thai territory, said a border source.

During the bomb search, two sets of home-made grenades and several rounds
of spent mortar shells were found at the site, about five kilometres from
the border.

[ ... ]

Last week, two policemen sustained serious injuries when a bomb planted in
a farm tractor exploded in Ban Huay Bong

Col Chayuti Boonparn, commander of the Fourth Infantry Regiment Task Force,
believe Burmese forces might be involved in the bomb attacks.

Thailand would send a protest letter to Burma if it obtained evidence
showing the attacks were the work of Burmese government troops or Karen
rebels.

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

UPI: EU SUSPENDS WTO PANEL ON MASSACHUSETTS BURMA LAW 
8 February, 1999 

In Brussels, the European Union said Monday it had suspended its World
Trade Organization (WTO) panel probing a Massachusetts' law targeting
foreign companies investing in Myanmar.

The disputes panel was set up by the Geneva-based WTO last October in
response to complaints by the EU and Japan over the Massachusetts law,
which sets a "pricing penalty" on goods and services offered to the state
by foreign companies doing business in the junta-ruled former Burma.


The 15-nation EU argued that the penalty broke WTO rules on government
procurement.

"We have today suspended the panel," European Commission spokesman Nigel
Gardner said. He said the EU had taken the action because a U.S. federal
court last November struck down the Massachusetts law as unconstitutional.

He stressed that the EU was suspending the panel, not dropping the case
altogether. That means the EU could revive the panel within the next year
if, for example, a U.S. appeals court overturned the district court's ruling.

Although EU officials denied any link, the EU's action appeared to extend
an olive branch to Washington at a time when the 2 commercial giants are
locked in a bitter dispute over banana trade.


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

THE NATION: BURMESE STUDENTS SUPPORT CHEE'S REFORM STRUGGLE 
8 February, 1999 

Letter to the Editor

We write this open letter to offer our support for Dr Chee Soon Juan's
efforts to exercise his right to free speech in Singapore. In view of the
guarantee of freedom of speech in Singapore's Constitution, it is
unfortunate that the Singapore government has enacted laws severely
restricting this right.

We join the many supporters of democracy around the world who admire Chee's
resolve and determination to focus attention on this situation. We also
particularly respect the courage Chee has shown in openly flaunting these
laws in the exercising his constitutional right of free speech.

We recognise the support Chee has given to us in our struggle for democracy
and human rights in  Burma. No matter how oppressed a people might be, we
believe that the fight for freedom and democracy will prevail in the end.

Central Committee, ALL BURMA STUDENTS' DEMOCRATIC FRONT

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ANNOUNCEMENT: JAPANESE TRANSLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS YEARBOOK 
8 February, 1999 from <brelief@xxxxxxx> 

Announcing the Publication of an Important New Japanese Translation

Documentation of human rights abuses by the Burmese military junta hasn't
been available to Japanese readers because of language problems.  Japanese
bureaucrats, politicians, media, and the general public have remained
woefully uninformed because of this lack of material.

To begin to remedy the problem, PD Burma has just brought out a Japanese
version of "Burma Human Rights Year Book 1997/1998" originally published by
NCGUB (National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma).

PD Burma, the International Network of Political Leaders Promoting
Democracy in Burma, with its headquarters in Oslo, is committed to
increasing public awareness through these human rights records, because it
sees the Japanese as having an important, even pivotal role in the Burmese
democracy movement.

PD Burma is particularly concerned about the situation in Japan's media,
where lack of background information and reliable data in Japanese is a
critical problem.  This yearbook was a logical translation choice since it
has been widely accepted by UN organizations and decision makers in western
countries.


Believing that when the Japanese people better understand the basic human
right situation in Burma, the general attitude toward Burma and Burmese
democracy will change, PD Burma-Japan has translated half of the 1997/1998
yearbook.

We urge Japanese readers and Burmese activists with Japanese associates and
friends to encourage the widest possible distribution of this book!

For more information, contact:  

PD Burma Japan 
Mr. Schu Sugawara, Coordinator 
Phone +81-48-771-8103  
Fax +81-48-771-8179  
E-mail <schus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

World Human Rights Series No.26
BIRUMA NO JINKEN
(Human Rights in Burma)
A5 280 pages  \3,000 +tax   publisher: Akashi Shoten
Human Rights Yearbook 1997-1998,
Edited by: National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma
Translated by: PD Burma-Japan
Supervised by: Shwe Ba

CONTENTS
Headlines in Review 1997/List of Incidents
Chapter 1 Forcible Suppression
  Extra-judicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions
  Arbitrary Detention and Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
  Life in Prison
Chapter 2 Freedom of Opinion
  Freedom of Opinion, Expression, and the Press
  Freedom of Assembly and Association
  Trade Unions and the Military Junta
Chapter 3 Rights of Vulnerable People
  Rights of the Child
  Rights of Minorities
Chapter 4 Abuse of Women
Abuse of Women
Women and Forced Labour
  Rape conducted by Tatmadaw
  Refugee Women
Chapter 5 Minorities and Forced Labour 1
  Karen
  Chin
  Arakan
  Karenni
  Mon
  Shan
Chapter 6 Minorities and Forced Relocation 2
  Karen State
  Shan State
Chapter 7 Refugee Situation
  Forced Repatriation
  Refugee Camps
Acronyms and Abbreviations
Burma at a Glance

Also available from Burmese Relief Center - Japan
266-27 Ozuku-cho
Kashihara, Nara 634-0846
Tel: (0744) 22-8236
Fax: (0744) 24-6254
brelief@xxxxxxx

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ANNOUNCEMENT: PUBLIC HEALTH MATERIALS AVAILABLE 
4 February, 1999 from <weave@xxxxxxxxxxxx> 

Dear friend -

WEAVE has some Burmese and Karen language public health education materials
(poster and booklets) that we can give you free. They are:

1. Diarrhea cycle poster
2. ORS poster (How to make oral rehydration solution)
3. AIDS booklet A4 size (Karen)
4. AIDS booklet 1/2 of A4 size (written by Mae Tao clinic)
5. Illustrated guide for TBAs
6. Guide for TBA trainer.
7. Mother and child the first 5 years .

If you need them to use in your activity or for your friends please write
to me. Give me the name of the materials, quantity and your postal address.

your friend, Gordon Sharmars(Ko Shwe Mahn)

WEAVE
PObox. 58
Chiang Mai
50202
Tel,Fax; 810-500

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ANNOUNCEMENT: NEWS AND TASTES OF BURMA 
7 February, 1999 from <maye@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 

News and Tastes of Burma (Lunch and Presentation) will be held on 28th
(Sunday) February 1999 at the East Kew Uniting Church Hall.

The News and Tastes of Burma is organised by the people from East Kew
Uniting Church and Burmese Students from Melbourne, Australia.

It will be included Burmese traditional food and Australian food, dancing,
music, photo exhibition and display of news & information on current
situation in Burma.


Where:    Uniting Church Hall
                142 Normanby Road
                East Kew, Melbourne VIC Australia

When:    12:30PM, 28th (Sunday) February 1999

Tickets ($10*) are available now, please telephone to (03) 9859 4811

*All proceeds to help Refugees from Burma.

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