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The BurmaNet News: July 12, 1999



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

The BurmaNet News: July 12, 1999
Issue #1312

Noted in Passing: "Crush all internal and external destructive elements as
the common enemy." - Burmese Junta Slogan (see IPS: JUNTA STILL BATTLES FOR
HEARTS AND MINDS) 

HEADLINES:
==========
NLOM: MINISTER MEETS FOREIGN VISITORS 
BKK POST: REBELS KILL 3 SOLDIERS 
BKK POST: A BASTION OF HOPE 
BKK POST: FULL STEAM SIDEWAYS 
IPS: JUNTA STILL BATTLES FOR HEARTS AND MINDS 
BKK POST: ASEAN FAILS TO ENGAGE RANGOON 
SF CHRONICLE: WINDS MAY BE SHIFTING
****************************************************************

NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR: MINISTER MEETS FOREIGN VISITORS
10 July, 1999 

YANGON, 9 July- Minister for Information Maj-Gen Kyi Aung met Editor for
Asian Affairs of Reuters News Agency Mr Anthony Winning, Bureau Chief of
Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Lao People's Democratic Republic Mr Rajan
Moses and Manager of Bangkok Bureau Mr Dennis R Co s n who called at Myanma
Radio and Television on Pyay Road at 1.30 pm today. Also present at the
call were Deputy Minister Brig-Gen Aung Thein, Director General U Khin
Maung Htay of Myanma Radio and Television Managing Director U Tin Kha of
news and periodicals Enterprise, Adviser to the Minister for Information U
Kyaw Min and Head of Office U Khin Maung Myint. 

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THE BANGKOK POST: REBELS KILL 3 SOLDIERS 
10 July, 1999 by Cheewin Sattha 

MAE HONG SON

Three Rangoon soldiers were reported killed and many wounded in a clash
with Karenni National Progressive Party rebels inside Burma near the Thai
border yesterday.

After the clash, the KNPP base at Doi Luang in Kayah state, opposite Muang
district of Mae Hong Son, was heavily pounded by artillery.

Further skirmishing was reported, but no additional casualties.

The KNPP base is 3km northeast of Nam Piang Din border pass in Muang district.

A Thai military source said the first clash took place at about 4.30am,
when a -Rangoon-trained eight-man commando unit trying to probe the KNPP
base was ambushed by the Karennis.

Three Burmese soldiers were killed and many others wounded. The Karen
rebels captured three weapons - an M-16, an AK-47 and a G- 3.

Burmese artillery from battalion 531 at Huay Pong base and battalion 428 at
Thana Khway fired more than 70 artillery and 60mm mortar rounds at the KNPP
base.

The 7th Infantry Regiment subsequently despatched military and border
patrol units, backed by several 120mm field guns, to strengthen Thai bases
along the border in Muang and Khun Yuam districts.

Infantry from Kawila camp in Chiang Mai were also rushed to the border area
to provide protection for about 20,000 Karenni refugees at two holding
centres in Muang and Khun Yuam districts. 

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THE BANGKOK POST: A BASTION OF HOPE 
11 July, 1999 by Grace Baek & Images Asia 

GUEST COLUMN/HEALTHCARE PROBLEM


PERSPECTIVE

As award-winning Karen Doctor Cynthia Maung knows only too well, the most
serious threat to health in Burma is politics.

After 10 years of ministering healthcare services to over 20,000 people
fleeing from Burma for various political and economic reasons, Dr Cynthia
Maung became the first recipient of the Jonathan Mann Award.

The award commemorates a humanitarian physician and Aids activist killed
last September in the crash of Swiss Air Flight 111 off Newfoundland. The
Global Health Council based in Vermont and Washington along with
Swiss-based Association Francois Xavier Bagnoud and two New York groups,
Doctors of the World and Human Rights Watch, sponsored the award.

Dr Cynthia fled to the border in 1988 after the Burmese military regime,
now known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), violently
cracked  down on student demonstrations in Burma.

"I thought it would all be over in three months and we could return,"
recalls Dr Cynthia. "And the years passed by but we always believed that we
could return, maybe next year or the year after."

In 1989, she established the Mae Tao Clinic in the Thai district of Mae
Sot, 4 km east of the Moei River. The clinic provides free healthcare for
an ever increasing member of Burmese/Karen refugees, migrant workers,
orphans and people crossing the border from Burma.

Gazing up at the house set against a red dirt path, it is difficult to
conceive the astonishing number of patients that pass through the Mae Tao
Clinic. The floor, patted down dirt and concrete is neatly swept and
scrubbed every day.

In one room stands a wooden platform risen above the uneven dirt floor.

Lying in rows or sitting with their family members, patients who have
travelled a long distance wait to seek medical assistance. Some of the
individuals are suffering from fevers, others appear weak but most of all,
tired.

On June 22, former President Jimmy Carter presented the Mann Award to Dr
Cynthia and her medics via satellite linkage from Washington DC to Bangkok.
Dr Cynthia was not free to come to Washington DC and accept the award in
person.

As a medical student in a Burmese university, Dr Cynthia recalls, "The
pervasive poverty was always apparent.  I saw the daily struggles of
Burma's ordinary citizens but I didn't fully understand the politics in
Rangoon."

But shortly after she began to practice medicine in a rural village in
Karen State Dr Cynthia observed, "There I began to smell the workings of
politics through the astonishing number of villagers that were forced to
serve as porters and forced laborers for the military. There, the poverty
was compounded by the civil war."

The military junta produced a burdening amount of propaganda on the ethnic
insurgents and distributed them in urban centres throughout Burma. "We were
taught to fear the civil war and the ethnic situation in general.

"Even I was afraid and I am Karen. Access to education and the outside
world was and continues to be violently curtailed by the military junta."

Jonathan Mann often stated that, "human rights protection is the best way
to prevent HIV transmission." He was the first director of the WHO Global
Programme on Aids and was founding director of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud
Centre for Health and Human Rights at Harvard.


Dr Cynthia joined the demonstration groups in 1988 as thousands of
students and ordinary citizens poured out onto the streets of major urban
centres and protested against decades of military rule.

Amidst all of this chaos "the students began speaking about people's basic
rights," recalls Dr Cynthia. In a closed society, this was dangerous but
also offered an entire nation a semblance of hope.

As the situation inside Burma continues to degenerate, an increasing number
of Burmese from urban centres cross over into Thailand specifically for the
free healthcare provided at the Mae Tao Clinic.

"I have had absolutely no contact with my family since I left Burma in 1988
but I know they hear news of me as people from my hometown come to the
clinic for medical care," says Dr Cynthia.

She never sends  letters home via her patients for fear of placing the
conduit and her family in danger but is able to keep up with some news
concerning her family's well-being.

"News of my parents' death, then a death of a sibling reached me a few
years ago," she recounts. News and first-hand accounts of the dangerous
lack of medical care and education is what occupies Dr Cynthia's thoughts now.

"Burma is faced by a health crisis," stated Dr Cynthia in her acceptance
speech.

"People are isolated from both domestic and international politics. We need
to educate, encourage and empower individuals to struggle for their human
rights."

At present, Dr Cynthia and the medics from the Mae Tao clinic make it a
point to combine education, healthcare and preventative healthcare services
to all of their patients. The clinic supports social programmes such as
primary schools and boarding schools that provide education and care for
orphaned and abandoned children as well as support for women's
organisations in refugee camps.

In addition, Dr Cynthia is a member of the Burma Medical Association (BMA)
which has a non-discriminatory policy and thus treats anyone in need of
medical care.

The Mae Tao clinic has grown from a small building mostly providing health
services to the Burmese students fleeing the 1988 military crackdown to a
centre bustling with inpatient and outpatient services, general health
consultations conducted in three different languages, maternal child health
programmes, an eye care clinic, infant nutrition and immunisation
programmes, family planning counselling as well as providing HIV/ Aids
educational materials.

Before 1997, Dr Cynthia managed to establish two medical clinics in the
Dooplaya District which was then controlled by the Karen National Union's
(KNU) 6th Brigade. In many cases, the people, mostly Karen farmers, in this
region had never seen a doctor before. But in 1997, Burmese troops
recaptured the territory and destroyed the two clinics. Dr Cynthia's medics
stayed as long as they could before the fall.

Today, the clinic's backpack mobile medical teams still continue to provide
healthcare under some of the most dangerous circumstances. They travel into
cross-over areas which are occupied by both the KNU and Burmese military
troops. The increasing number of landmines used by both the Burmese
military and the ethnic insurgents to maintain territory is becoming an
issue that needs to be addressed more directly.


Currently, Burma has one of the highest infant mortality rates in Asia.
"Reproductive health, narcotics and HIV/Aids stand out where the government
has failed to ensure that the public is properly informed," stated Dr Cynthia.

Moreover, since 1988 doctors and health workers have been forced from their
professions while others have been imprisoned because of their political
beliefs.

For the past ten years "very little has been done to alleviate the health,
economic and social burdens afflicted on the everyday lives of the people
in Burma," said Dr Cynthia.

"Human rights can only be addressed as part of a wider-solution. One which
provides for political reform, reconciliation, guaranteed freedom of
expression and rights to healthcare and education."

Dr Cynthia delivered her acceptance speech to Washington, London, India and
Ghana via satellite. She accepted the Mann award on behalf of the health
workers and people of Burma stating, "This award should recognise the work
and sacrifice of motivated health workers. The courage and dignity of the
Burmese people who are working towards a future where there is freedom and
democracy in Burma."

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THE BANGKOK POST: FULL STEAM SIDEWAYS 
11 July, 1999 by Ralph Bachoe 

COMMENT/AUNG SAN SUU KYI

RECENT RUCTIONS IN THE NLD HAVE DONE LITTLE TO CHANGE THE STATUS QUO

The remarks of a former close aide to Aung San Suu Kyi at first appeared
brutal and unfair. A woman who had sacrificed so much to the cause of Aung
San Suu Kyi was saying the Lady had fallen victim to her own high principles.

In stating that the National League for Democracy (NLD) had capitulated in
holding talks with the military regime, Aung San Suu Kyi demonstrated a
lack of reason, according to the former aide. Her standpoint had been both
"disappointing and misleading".

After reading a full transcript of Ms Suu Kyi's interview with Roger Mitton
in Asiaweek, she said it gave the impression that talks between the two
protagonists were out of the question in the immediate future.

Her assumption is based on Ms Suu Kyi's uncompromising principles. Also,
some members of the NLD believe that their secretary-general should not do
things by half measure as it only causes the people to gradually lose
interest. The "momentum (calling for the convening of parliament in
accordance with the result of the 1990 election) is almost coming to a
halt," said the former aide.

She describes Ms Suu Kyi as being "impulsive" and "flippant", quick with
her mouth, always in a hurry, and often failing to follow-up on what she
says or wants done.

During the interview, Ms Suu Kyi said the NLD would agree to lower level
negotiations which would not involve her.

"We agreed to that in 1997 when it was put to us through a third party. And
when we agreed, they didn't come back on it, so we knew that they were not
sincere. It's just an excuse. They are always coming up with new excuses."

The former aide confirmed the meeting did take place with a third party but
nothing came of it because it is not known if they had informed the regime
of the NLD's reply, "It is easy for people to lie to her."


Asked what role Ms Suu Kyi should play if and when the NLD comes to power,
she said it would be in the best interests of the party if she would remain
as the symbol or figurehead without being an active member, because: "She
has set such high standards for herself that she would definitely object to
ideas and suggestions that don't meet her criteria."

Another reason is that some NLD members believe that the military will
never accept her as a leader of the country. The reasons vary from having
married a foreigner to her earlier two decade absence from the country.

The Burmese are by nature chauvinist and racist. This particularly applies
among the least educated who have found it most difficult to accept that
their favourite daughter married a foreigner. Some even object to her late
husband being addressed as Saya Aris or Ajarn Aris, despite Michael Aris
having been a scholar of Buddhism and Tibetan studies.

However, their two sons, Alexander and Kim, are accepted because "Burmese
blood" runs in their veins.

Overseas Burmese see things differently. They have nothing against one of
their kind settling down with a foreign spouse, whether Asian or Caucasian.
Many, in fact, are married to foreign nationals.

Michael Aris died of prostate cancer in London in March. He had been
refused a visa by the military regime to visit his wife for-the last time.
The military's excuse was that the country did not have proper medical
facilities to take care of the dying man. And to add insult to injury, "it
is for the sick person to be visited", not vice versa, they said.

"The real reason for refusing the man's dying wish," said the former aide,
"was that the military was afraid that should Michael Aris die in the
country it would result in another major upheaval (like the popular 1988
democracy uprising) by students and others." The students, she says, are
becoming restless again.

On the subject of mass defections from the NLD, the former aide said that
some have lost their enthusiasm for the party partly because of Ms Suu
Kyi's reluctance to compromise, but most of all, because of having to
endure incessant harassment by the military regime bent on destroying the
party and isolating the 54-year-old leader from her people.

The NLD won a landslide victory in the 1990 election but it was never
recognised by the generals.

According to the military regime, as recently as last month, another 81 NLD
members submitted their resignations. They were reported as saying that
they "no longer wished to participate in party politics".

There have been rumours that NLD members who deserted the party were
rewarded with plots of land.

But the former aide said that the so called resignations were out of
necessity, "to carry on with their lives". After all, it has been more than
nine years since the Burmese voted for a democratic government and some are
at a loss to see when that era will dawn.

Meanwhile, life has to go on. Now, as ever, it is still up to Ms Suu Kyi
and the military to make up their differences if they really have the
interests of the people and the country at heart.


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INTER PRESS SERVICE: JUNTA STILL BATTLES FOR HEARTS AND MINDS 
8 July, 1999 

RANGOON, (Jul. 8) IPS - Burma's military regime, over a period of just a
week, announced the completion of a handful of bridges, the inauguration of
a dam and a hospital, the opening of a highway and the renovation of its
most famous pagoda.

In billboards along Rangoon's wide, tree-lined avenues, the junta proclaims
the stability of the state and national reconsolidation as among its
political goals.

Daily, on the front page of its English newspaper, The New Light of
Myanmar, the state enumerates its political, economic and social objectives
in such clarity so that the Burmese people will not forget them.

The military government, in power for more than 10 years after crushing a
popular uprising in 1988, is still working to win the hearts and minds of
its people.

"Oppose those relying on external elements, acting as stooges, holding
negative views," screams one slogan in one of the inside pages of the
newspaper.

"Crush all internal and external destructive elements as the common enemy,"
and "Oppose foreign nations interfering in internal affairs of the state,"
say two other slogans.

The junta, known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), urges
the Burmese people to cooperate with the government and the "tatmadaw" or
the military. At the same time, it exhorts them to oppose the "evil"
designs of foreign countries, the United States in particular.

In a half-page article in one of the newspaper's Sunday editions last
month, an author slammed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as a puppet of
the United States and Britain, which "are pushing the world into chaos".

The Burmese regime was given a semblance of legitimacy when the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) admitted it as member in 1997 despite
some reservations by some members and strong opposition from Western
governments and human rights groups and activists in Asia.

But ASEAN's approach of non-interference and policy of "constructive
engagement" has failed to nudge the junta into improving the human rights
situation and allowing greater freedom for its people.

The government has remained adamant in refusing to open a dialogue with the
opposition led by Suu Kyi to settle the political stalemate in Burma.

Observers say the junta has in fact become more repressive, harassing,
arresting and jailing opposition leaders and supporters.

Still a pariah state as far as the international community is concerned,
Burma's SPDC has focused its efforts elsewhere.

It has gone instead on a construction binge, inviting foreign investors to
put up hotels, build roads and bridges and has even spent a fortune to
refurbish the Shwedagon pagoda, its most famous tourist attraction in the
heart of the capital.

Writing for the Thailand-based Irrawaddy magazine, Burmese journalist Aung
Zaw said the junta has launched an intensive restoration of ancient pagodas
and temples across Burma.

"The generals pay daily visits to sacred shrines. But what is the reason
behind all this? Do the generals really believe they can atone for their
past in this way or are they simply trying to whitewash their sins?" he asked.


Visitors to Rangoon find that most of the new hotels are empty and
tourists are few and far between.

Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace laureate who is Burma's symbol of the struggle for
democracy, belittles these signs of "progress."

"They say there are more roads but of what use is that when there are more
people who are poorer?" she asked.

"Yes, there are more hotels, but they are empty. Yes, there are more cars
and more people who are living in bigger and better houses but these are
people who are connected to this regime," she told a group of visiting
women journalists and activists from ASEAN countries in June.

"The general public has not benefited from the advent of all these," she
said, citing the fact that ordinary people still have to fight their way
into overcrowded buses, while the poor have become poorer.

She added that a lot of the infrastructure projects the military has been
bragging about were in fact built with forced labor.

Like other Asian countries, Burma reeled from the economic crisis in the
region. Inflation shot up and growth slowed down. As expected, it was the
poor and the middle-class who were hardest hit.

"Previously, the middle-class could afford two kinds of curry with their
rice," said one elderly woman from the opposition National League for
Democracy. "But now, it's a battle even just to have one curry."

Sending children to school has also become an expensive affair, she added.

"Bridges, apartment houses and even showy roads are not essential to true
development and certainly not traffic jams," said Suu Kyi. "What is
essential is there should be better standards of living which means better
education and better nutrition and better health care."

"In fact we are less nourished, less educated and less healthy than we used
to be. In fact we can say there has been a recession, that we have in fact
gone backwards and not forward in development," she said.

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THE BANGKOK POST: ASEAN FAILS TO ENGAGE RANGOON 
11 July, 1999 

PERSPECTIVE/EDITORIAL

**The Asean leaders were wrong and the critics were right. Two years after
its entry, Rangoon is thumbing its nose at the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations. Asean cannot force Burma to change its violent ways. But it
can do far more to moderate that unpleasant country's worst excesses.**

Two years ago, Asean ignored public opinion and welcomed the Burmese
dictatorship into the group as a full member. There were many reasons to
delay the move. These included Rangoon's undeniable violations of the
rights of its citizens, its unprepared and isolationist economy, and its
entirely unique business dealings with international criminals dealing
drugs throughout the Asean region. Regional leaders argued they would have
influence with Burma if it were admitted. They were wrong, and the critics
were right.

The Asean dream of a 10 member federation has been achieved. But the
Rangoon regime has not improved its record in any major area. The policy of
engaging Burma in discussions of democracy, human rights and inter-national
responsibility have failed - totally and spectacularly. The only important
changes in Burma in the two years as a full Asean member have been for the
worse.


Two years ago, Burma's senior dictator Khin Nyunt had opened exploratory
talks with the nation's only independent democratic force, the National
League for Democracy of Aung San Suu Kyi; today, the regime will not talk
to any democrat. Two years ago, the Burmese army was engaged against the
nation's major drug dealers; today, the Rangoon-supported United Wa State
Army openly trades drugs into Thailand and is our nation's greatest
security threat. Two years ago, Burmese cabinet ministers promised to
investigate cases of forced labour; last month, the dictatorship claimed
Burmese love to volunteer their labour for the glory of the Tatmadaw,
Burma's army.

Asean's policy of engagement has not only failed, it has fallen flat on its
face. If that were not enough, the policy was mainly inspired by our
foreign ministry. Minister Surin Pitsuwan and his senior officials have had
a rough time in trying to burn their policy candle at both ends There is no
doubt they support democracy and are appalled by the daily Burmese
excesses. At the other, they continue to boost their failed, face-losing
claim that just a little more engagement might do the job.

In fact, it will not. It is probably unrealistic to consider a suspension
or expulsion of the Burmese dictatorship from Asean. But it is entirely
realistic to reconsider the policy of engagement. It has flopped. It should
be discarded. Embracing Burma has only emboldened the regime.

What, then, can be done? In practical terms, Thailand and Asean have two
possible alternatives. The first is to give Burma the cold shoulder. By
treating Rangoon with diplomatic ice, Khin Nyunt and his junta could get
the message that engagement is a two-way street. It could be made clear
that relations would warm as Burmese policy changed to something more
civilised.

The other alternative is to become more aggressive. Engage Burma, by all
means, but engage it openly. If the dictators are to be invited to Thailand
-- as they have been -- refuse to laud them for token drug seizures, as we
have done. Take them to the village where their Wa allies killed nine Thai
villagers. Show them the refugee camps where Burmese minorities seek
shelter from the press-ganging Tatmadaw. Have a, well, an "engaging" press
conference. That way, a Burmese leader can be asked why Burma refuses the
help of Thai anti-drug experts in helpful programmes such as crop replacement.

After two years, Burma is an embarrassment to Asean. It has contributed
nothing -- economically, culturally or to regional security. It has lost
considerable face for Thailand, as this country has been manoeuvred into
playing a middleman role between Rangoon and Europe. Thailand and Asean are
increasingly identified as defenders of an increasingly violent, criminal
and dictatorial regime. Engagement has failed. Thailand and Asean must
consider the next step.

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SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: WINDS MAY BE SHIFTING FOR SAN FRANCISCO'S FOREIGN
POLICY 
11 July, 1999 by Reynolds Holding 

First, a riddle.


What government has urged the Pope to establish diplomatic relations with
Israel, endorsed a boycott of Salvadoran coffee, encouraged companies to
hire Catholics in Northern Ireland, complied with an international treaty
against gender discrimination and shunned firms doing business with South
Africa and Myanmar?

The answer, of course, is San Francisco, the city with no clue on how to
fix Muni [San Francisco public transportation system] or help the homeless
but a foreign policy so sophisticated that it would put the efforts of many
nations to shame.

Although this distinction draws plenty of snickers as well as praise for
the city's social conscience, serious legal challenges have yet to emerge
over San Francisco's meddling in matters best left to the federal government.

But there may be trouble down the line.

It comes from Massachusetts, where a federal appeals court recently dumped
a law limiting the state's dealings with companies involved in Myanmar.

The ruling won't affect San Francisco immediately because the court has no
jurisdiction here. But it is a compelling precedent that could spread
quickly -- unless the U.S. Supreme Court guns it down.

Which, you would think, is about as likely as the high court's conservative
majority getting cozy with San Francisco on any number of wacky policies.
This time, though, you would be wrong.

Since their heady success pressuring South Africa to end apartheid more
than 20 years ago, states and cities have wielded the power of the purse to
change policy all over the world. Scores of local governments won't do
business with companies involved in Nigeria, Cuba or Tibet. They won't buy
old-growth tropical hardwoods or products without enough recycled material.
California refuses to purchase anything made with slave labor.

At first the policies were rarely challenged in court, tolerated as a
harmless vent for the social consciences of San Francisco and Berkeley and
other activist enclaves.

But then they started to work.

In 1996, Massachusetts became the first of more than a dozen cities and
states to pass a law restricting purchases from companies doing business
with Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, perpetrator of brutal human-rights
violations. Many companies stopped doing business there -- at least three
because of the Massachusetts law.

This did not sit well with the companies or with Japan and other American
trading partners with industries cut off from the Massachusetts market. So
the companies sued, claiming violations of the U.S. government's exclusive
power over foreign affairs.

A U.S. district judge in Boston bought the company line. Then, late last
month, the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the judge's ruling, becoming the
first federal appellate court ever to strike down a local government's
purchasing-boycott law.

Not only did the measure interfere with Washington's control over foreign
policy, the three-judge panel said, it violated the right of the feds to
regulate commerce and conflicted with congressional sanctions against Myanmar.

``Massachusetts,'' said the court, ``cannot set the nation's foreign policy.''


Which is undeniably true. But there is another way to look at this case.

Local governments make decisions every day about whom to buy from, and the
choices are not based only on cost or quality. Other considerations can
include military service or company size or -- except in California -- race
or gender of the seller. Morality can be a factor too, as in, we're not
going to do business with some company associated with the mob.

The point is, a state or city serves its residents not only by supporting
the disadvantaged among them but by avoiding shady characters who would
taint its purchasing practices. And characters don't come much shadier than
the despots in the Burmese government.

The appeals court in Boston, though, says that doesn't matter. America must
speak to the world with one voice, the court says, and regardless of the
public's interests, local officials have no business discriminating among
sellers based on conditions abroad.

It's a tough argument to crack -- particularly with NAFTA and other recent
treaties barring signatories from discriminating against one another's
industries. But if there was ever a Supreme Court likely to side with the
states, counties and cities on this issue, the one run by Chief Justice
William Rehnquist is it.

Just look at three opinions the court issued last month. Two said Florida
can't be sued for federal patent or trademark violations. The third said
Maine can't be sued for breaking federal overtime laws.

The message: States deserve more power, the national government less.

It's a theme running in various forms through several high-court decisions
in recent years and a goal supported passionately by Rehnquist. Now that
the chief justice apparently has four other justices on his side -- and
more states' rights cases coming up next term -- the chances of a profound
shift in power from Washington to the state capitols and city halls of
America have never been better.

Whether this translates into a ruling that local governments get to shun
sellers who deal with brutal governments is a tricky issue. To some extent,
we're talking about foreign policy here, and the justices may tell the
locals to back off.

But it's easy to see the court embracing the view that who buys what from
whom is fundamentally a local matter and a good example of federal
authority run amok.

It won't do much for Muni, but it will keep the tin-pot diplomats at City
Hall in business.

Chronicle legal affairs writer Reynolds Holding can be reached by telephone
at (415) 777-7136, online at holdingr@xxxxxxxxxx or by fax at (415) 896-1107.

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