The BurmaNet News: April 22, 1999

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The BurmaNet News: April 22, 1999
Issue #1256

Noted in Passing: "By destroying our forests, our trees, our wild animals,
and our rivers, the Burmese dictatorship and its partners in crime also
destroy who we are." - Ka Hsaw Wa (see REUTERS: SEVEN ACTIVISTS RECEIVE
GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL PRIZE) 

HEADLINES:
==========
WASH. POST: IN BURMA, THE GENERALS TAKE NO CHANCES 
SHAN: SOURCES CLAIM 9 VILLAGERS KILLED BY LAHU MILITIA 
REUTERS: SEVEN ACTIVISTS RECEIVE ENVIRONMENTAL PRIZE 
NEW YORK TIMES: YVETTE PIERPAOLI OBITUARY 
REUTERS: ACTIVISTS CAMPAIGN TO REVOKE UNOCAL CHARTER 
REUTERS: WHO FOCUSES ON LEPROSY ELIMINATION 
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WASHINGTON POST: IN BURMA, THE GENERALS TAKE NO CHANCES 
21 April, 1999 by Kevin Sullivan 

RANGOON - There are almost no working streetlights in this desperately poor
capital, which has been run into the ground by a military junta that has
commanded Burma at gunpoint since 1988. Buildings that date from the
British colonial period, which ended with Burmese independence in 1948, are
crumbling and unpainted, leaving only the fading memory of what once was.

There are lovely sights as well: Buddhist monks in plum-colored robes and
Ray-Ban knockoffs; laughing children in crisp white school uniforms and
backpacks; the ancient Shwedagon Pagoda, which rises above Rangoon like a
mountain of gold and jewels.

About the only other interruptions in the decay are a few beautifully
preserved government buildings, billboards for Japanese electronics
companies and several fancy tourist hotels, including the Strand, a regal
colonial outpost that has undergone a multimillion-dollar restoration by a
Hong Kong-based resort developer.

Rooms there cost $500 or more a night, and the Strand Bar serves perfectly
chilled gin-and-tonics while a three-piece band plays ragtime. But just
outside, barefoot beggars scrounge for handouts and drivers of trishaws --
bicycles with a sidecar -- will cart you across town for a quarter of a
U.S. dollar.

The generals who run Burma have no discernible ideology. They seem to stand
for nothing more than the promise that tomorrow will be much like today.
They like to play golf in porkpie hats and saddle-shoe spikes. They put
lots of people in prison for embracing democracy. But beyond that, their
aspirations are unclear, and a four-day tour of this once-grand city offers
conflicting clues about exactly what they have in mind for their country.

Take prostitution. The generals are said to oppose it, and they seem to
spend a lot of time thinking about it. In one of the government's more
inventive anti-prostitution decrees, the generals ordered two months ago
that women could no longer work in bars and restaurants.

Yet prostitution is rife at the nightclubs in Rangoon's Chinatown, and
nobody seems to mind. Like many things in Burma, that may well be due more
to economics than to moral standards. China, the country's northern
neighbor, is Burma's largest military and economic patron, and impoverished
Burma cannot afford to insult Beijing by mistreating Chinese expatriates
who own and patronize the glitzy discotheques.

The government does tightly control information moving in and out of the
country, even monitoring the electronic mail of foreign diplomats.
Journalists generally are banned, and those who visit as tourists must be
careful about talking to ordinary Burmese, who face harsh punishment for
discussing politics with foreigners.

One woman in her early 20s, who works in the service industry for a tiny
wage, cannot say her name, where she works or anything else about herself
because she could be jailed for talking to a foreign reporter. But she does
quietly say that her dream is to be a schoolteacher.

Trouble is, the generals have closed the university again, as they have for
more than half of the time since they took over 11 years ago. Universities
are often breeding grounds for political uprising, and the junta is taking
no chances.

So the young woman waits on customers, wasting her youth, bored, bored,
bored. ''It's so stupid,'' she said.

At a tourist attraction elsewhere in the city is a 69-year-old man who was
a schoolteacher for years until 1988, when he participated in a big
pro-democracy demonstration. The military crackdown on that protest killed
3,000 people in six weeks and led to the government-by-gun that still rules
today. Civil servants who marched then were fired and blacklisted. So now
the aging scholar laments what he lost and what his students will never have.

The government makes sure people know who is in charge. Soldiers conduct
random bed checks to see that people are sleeping in homes where they are
registered with the government. Sleeping in the wrong place can result in
10 days in jail.

Security services listen to the telephone calls of almost every diplomat
and foreigner in town. At the monthly happy hour at the Australian Embassy,
a Burmese military intelligence officer sits at the end of the bar,
watching and listening without speaking to anyone.

''After being here for a couple of years,'' a European diplomat said, ''I
have lost a terrible amount of illusions and I have become terribly sad.''

In most of the country, people survive mainly on subsistence farming, but
recent floods and droughts have made growing rice, potatoes and other crops
more difficult.

But the poverty growing within and the international repudiation have not
made the generals change much.

On Armed Forces Day recently, thousands of soldiers marched to a park in
central Rangoon to hear inspirational speeches by their generals. It was
March 27, the army's day to show off the spit and polish of a
350,000-strong military machine. But most Burmese never had a chance to
see: It began before dawn and was held before an invitation-only crowd of
family and friends, who tossed flowers.

For a month beforehand, soldiers blocked off the main streets of the parade
route. Troops with rifles and bayonets took up round-the-clock sentry
positions, often sweeping for land mines or bombs.

It is not just paranoia: The military knows that it is, as one foreign
resident of Rangoon called it, a ''fundamentally hated regime.''

So the soldiers march by, kept clear of the people by barbed-wire blockades. 

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SHAN HERALD AGENCY FOR NEWS: SOURCES CLAIM 9 THAI VILLAGERS KILLED BY LAHU
MILITIAS
21 April, 1999 

Sources in Fang have reported that the 9 Thai villagers who were found
beaten to death on 31 March were killed by the Lahu militia plus Burma Army
men and not by the Wa Army as widely believed.

The nine villagers from Maesai in Fang District, Chiangmai Province, were
found dead a few kilometers from the Thai-Burma border. As the area is
believed to be controlled by the powerful United Wa State Army, reputed to
be the biggest producer of heroin and amphetamines, it is generally assumed
that the killings were done by the Wa troops. The Was have denied having
anything to do with the killings but the accusations have persisted.

The sources said the villagers had taken a certain amount of amphetamines
to be sold in Thailand from the Lahu militia in Mongton Township, Mongsart
District.

According to the sources there are two amphetamine factories in Mongton
Township: one near Nakawngmu and the other, operated by a Chinese by the
name of Ah Wen, aged 58. Both are protected by Infantry Battalions 65, 519
and 225 and the Lahu militia, They were apparently angry with the Thai
villagers because they had taken so long to pay them what they owed: B.
520,000.

One indication the culprits were Lahus was that in the pockets of the first
two victims the Thai officials found B. 200 and two "Flying Tiger" cheroots
each. The rest had only two cheroots each in their pockets. This is a Lahu
traditional practice for the dead and for the sinners to make up for their
wrongdoing to the dead.

In order to counter the activities of the Shan resistance, the junta army
has been grooming Lahu tribesmen as counter-insurgency militias. The last
training course was given on 18-30 March at Hokho Maeharng ( near Maeharng
Bridge in Mongton Township). At the end of the training, they were
presented with M16s and M79s by the junta officers.  Each was also given
two different uniforms, one Burmese and the other Wa. The latter is for
those who operate across the border into Thailand. "The aim obviously is to
divert any attention from the Lahu-Burmese force to the Wa," said one source. 

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REUTERS: SEVEN ACTIVISTS RECEIVE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL PRIZES 
19 April, 1999 

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A lawyer campaigning for Cameroon's rainforests
and two Aboriginal women fighting an Australian uranium mine were among
seven activists awarded a top world environmental award Monday.

Other winners of this year's $125,000 Goldman environmental prizes included
a young Burmese man jailed and tortured for opposing government
environmental and human rights policies and a Canadian fisherman who has
organized grass-roots strategies for protecting world fish populations.

``During the past 10 years, the recipients of the prize have opened our
eyes to the obstacles and risks faced by individuals pursuing environmental
interests worldwide,'' Richard Goldman, president of the Goldman
Environmental Foundation, said in a statement.

``We believe that bringing attention to their issues raises the credibility
of these individuals and offers them personal protection.''

The San Francisco-based Goldman Environmental Foundation awards the prizes
annually to grass-roots environmentalists from six regions of the world.

This year's winner for Africa was lawyer Samuel Nguiffo of Cameroon, 33,
who has devoted his work to stopping the liquidation of the once-mighty
rainforests of central Africa's Congo Basin, second only to those in the
Amazon in size.

``What is happening at this moment in the Congo Basin cannot be supported
by anyone of good faith,'' Nguiffo said. ``It is unacceptable that the
basis of life for millions of individuals be destroyed in order to satisfy
the greed of a few private companies, that are generally foreign.''

>From Australia, Aboriginal activists Jacqui Katona, 33, and Yvonne
Margarula, 41, shared the prize for their efforts to stop mining of the
Jabiluka uranium deposits in Kakadu, Australia's largest national park and
site of numerous examples of ancient Aboriginal art.

Katona and Margarula have led a massive opposition campaign to the mining
plan, ranging from legal action to a massive civil disobedience
demonstration which resulted in 550 people being arrested, including the
two women.

Barnard Martin, 45, was this year's winner from North America, a fourth
generation fisherman from Newfoundland, Canada, who has used lessons
learned from the collapse of Canada's Atlantic fisheries to promote
sustainable fishing techniques around the world.

``When I speak to people in other parts of the world about the collapse of
Canada's East Coast fisheries, I like to say 'if we have nothing else to
offer at least take some lessons from us in how not to manage your
fisheries,'" Martin said. ''Ultimately, that may be our most valuable
fisheries export.''

The Asian award went to Ka Hsaw Wa, 28, of Myanmar (formerly known as
Burma), who was briefly jailed and tortured for participating in 1988
student protests and later fled into hiding in the forests, where he
developed into a committed chronicler of the links between environmental
depredation and human rights.

``By destroying our forests, our trees, our wild animals, and our rivers,
the Burmese dictatorship and its partners in crime also destroy who we
are,'' he said in a statement.

``Even though they have the money, guns and power, we have truth and
justice on our side to defend human rights and the environment.''

The two other winners of this year's prize were Jorge Varela of Honduras,
51, who has pioneered new models for sustainable commercial shrimp farms in
the delicate Gulf of Fonseca, and Slovakian hydrologist Michal Kravcik, 43,
who mobilized residents to block construction of a large dam that had been
conceived by Communist central planners before the ``Velvet Revolution'' of
1989. 

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NEW YORK TIMES: YVETTE PIERPAOLI OBITUARY 
20 April, 1999 

Yvette Pierpaoli, a dynamic French woman who traveled the world seeking to
help war widows, displaced persons, land-mine victims, homeless families,
street children and other refugees, was one of three aid workers killed on
Sunday in an automobile accident near Kukes, Albania. She was 60.

As a European representative of Refugees International, an aid
organization, Ms. Pierpaoli had been making trips to the Balkans since last
June, when she saw some of the first refugees fleeing Kosovo.

''She was a legend in the international refugee community,'' said Richard
C. Holbrooke, chairman of Refugees International, President Clinton's
nominee for chief American delegate to the United Nations and a special
envoy to the Balkans. ''A small woman of incredible strength and
enthusiasm, she carried people along with her.''

Ms. Pierpaoli's efforts to help people began when she was 19 years old and
left France for Cambodia to operate an import-export business there. She
undertook aid missions to many countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America,
including Thailand, Cambodia, Mali and Niger.

She was forced to leave Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge came to power in
1975, and she retired between travels to a stone house in the village of
Serviers in the south of France.

In the 1980's, she founded Tomorrow, a nonprofit foundation that provided
seed money for development projects and emergency assistance.

One of her special interests was the plight of Tuareg refugees in the
Sahara desert of Mali and Niger. During many visits to these countries, she
helped to develop projects for irrigation and raising livestock.

She was a co-founder of Info Birmanie, a European human rights organization
focused on Burma.  [BurmaNet Editor's Note: Ms. Pierpaoli also worked
particularly with the Rohingya and Karen refugees.]

Ms. Pierpaoli was well known in France, partly through her 1992
autobiography, ''Woman of a Thousand Children'' (Robert Laffont, Paris).

She is survived by a daughter, Emanuel, who lives in the New York City
area, and a son, Oliver, who lives in Paris.

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REUTERS: ACTIVISTS CAMPAIGN TO REVOKE UNOCAL CHARTER 
19 April, 1999 

LOS ANGELES, April 19 (Reuters) - Activists on Monday revived their calls
for California to revoke oil company Unocal Corp.'s (UCL - news) state
charter, saying its interests in Myanmar were tantamount to complicity in
human rights abuses.

Unocal, the only big U.S. oil company with interests in Myanmar (Burma),
strongly defended its operations in the country and called the accusations
politically motivated.

The company also said it had called off talks for an Afghan pipeline
project criticized by the group.

The United States imposed unilateral sanctions in 1997 against Myanmar to
protest the military government's human rights record. The sanctions barred
any new investments in the country but allowed existing projects to go ahead.

Human rights activists, including attorneys, feminist and gay groups and
environmentalists, signed on to a second attempt to persuade the state
attorney general to revoke Unocal's charter. Former state Attorney General
Dan Lundgren rejected a previous petition last September.

But the activists hope that new Attorney General Bill Lockyer will
reconsider the plea, led by human rights group, the National Lawyers Guild.
They delivered a 1-page petition that documents what they call complicity
in human rights violations in Myanmar and Afghanistan.

``The Attorney General has a duty to seek a court order forfeiting the
company's corporate existence,'' said Jim Lafferty, head of the National
Lawyers Guild chapter in Los Angeles.

El Segundo, Calif.-based Unocal is an investor and not an on-the-ground
partner in the Myanmar natural gas pipeline, spokesman Mike Thacher said.
French oil group Total supervises the pipeline, he said.

``We understand the complexity and sensitivities, but we feel very
comfortable with our role in the Myanmar project (in Burma) and some of the
changes and benefits that we have brought to the pipeline region,'' Thacher
said.

The activists accuse Unocal of complicity in human rights abuse due to its
pipeline talks in Afghanistan and the Myanmar pipeline. They cited crimes
against women and homosexuals by the Taleban militia in Afghanistan and
forced labor and relocations at the Myanmar pipeline.

``Unocal's pipeline project is in a civil war zone, which had to be
pacified and must be guarded by troops,'' the group said in a report.
``Unocal knew or should have known that the pipeline would lead to human
rights violations and death.''

They also said Unocal did not condition its canceled Afghan pipeline
negotiations on an improved women's rights record.

Thacher said Unocal decided not to participate in Afghanistan because its
government was too unstable and was not recognized by the United Nations,
adding that U.N. recognition would likely require an improved human rights
record.

The activists encouraged California to take the example of New York state's
lawsuits against cigarette research companies, charging them with deceiving
the public about health risks. Unocal should answer to human rights
violations overseas in its home state of California, according to the
activists.

``We're a business and not a diplomatic corps,'' Thacher said. ``We make
business investment decisions that follow ethical standards. We have
consistently taken the position that it's better that we be there.''

A September 1998 report on Myanmar labor practices by the U.S. Department
of Labor's Bureau of International Labor Affairs does not say Unocal
participated in the forced labor or relocations, but says partner Total may
have had knowledge of the military's abuses.

The last time California revoked a company's charter was in 1976 when a
Republican Attorney General, Evelle Younger, dissolved a private water
company after charges it served contaminated water.

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REUTERS: WHO FOCUSES ON LEPROSY ELIMINATION PROGRAM 
20 April, 1999 

NEW YORK, Apr 20 (Reuters Health) -- In all but a handful of countries,
leprosy has nearly been eliminated as a public health problem, the World
Health Organization (WHO) reported Monday.

``Since 1985, the use of multidrug therapy to treat and cure patients has
already reduced the global prevalence of the disease by 85%, and the number
of countries with more than one case per 10,000 (population) has dropped
from 122 to only 28 at the start of this year,'' WHO officials said in a
press release.

However, the organization estimates that, by the end of 2000, approximately
10 countries will still have more than the target level of one leprosy case
per 10,000 people.

``The 13 (countries) recognized at present as 'top endemic countries' are,
in order of prevalence, India, Brazil, Indonesia, Myanmar, Madagascar,
Nigeria, Mozambique, Nepal, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Niger,
Guinea and Cambodia,'' WHO reports.

Health officials estimate that nearly 2 million people have undiagnosed
leprosy. Of these, 90% live in one of these 13 countries.

Last week a Leprosy Elimination Advisory Group met at WHO headquarters in
Geneva to discuss how to overcome the barriers to distributing multidrug
treatment in endemic countries. According to the press release, these
include lack of access to patients in remote areas, bureaucratic delays,
and a lack of medical personnel.

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