Burma News Update, No. 91

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Open Society Institute
The Burma Project

Burma News Update No. 91
27 August


"No Mass Graves"

Burma's foreign minister said there are no mass graves and no ethnic 
cleansing in Burma, stating that human rights issues could be included 
on the agenda during a scheduled early September visit by UN special 
envoy, Under Secretary General Alvaro de Soto. "We respect the rights 
of human beings," said Junta Foreign Minister Win Aung, adding "We 
don't have any mass graves, the people are not disappearing in masses, 
we don't have a mass exodus . . . there are other countries where there 
are human-rights violations; we don't have that, we don't have ethnic 
cleansing."

Rangoon, Agence France-Presse, 20 August


"Four Nines" Arrests

At least 37 people have been arrested and thousands of anti-junta 
leaflets seized in a military crackdown aimed at preventing 
demonstrations against Burma's army regime on 09 September, or 
"9-9-99." The "four nines" date is seen as auspicious in Burmese 
numerology, and has been linked by some pro-democracy groups to 
the 08 August 1988 (8-8-88) uprising that nearly toppled the country's 
dictatorship.  A military intelligence spokesman said the people 
arrested were seeking to incite riots and have received help from "absconders 
and destructive elements [outside Burma] who are making constant 
attempts to cause destruction to Myanmar." Kyodo News Service added 
from Bangkok that Burmese dissidents in Thailand say that a number of 
high school students have been arrested after demonstrations and that all 
high schools may be temporarily closed.

Rangoon, Deutsche-Presse Agentur, 19 August

Christians Flee in Burma
More than 1,000 ethnic minority Christians living near Burma's western 
frontier have fled to neighboring India, claiming that soldiers and Buddhist 
monks had forced them to close their churches and ordered them to convert 
to Buddhism.  Church leaders in India said that the ethnic Naga people 
from eight villages have received at least temporary refuge in India's 
northeastern Nagaland State, but few other details were available.

Guwahati, India, Agence France-Presse, 20 August


Burma: Internet Enemy

Burma is one of twenty nations that are "enemies of the Internet," 
and severely limits Internet usage, according to the French media 
freedom group, Reporters Sans Frontières.  The report issued in 
Paris said that a number of countries all but bar the Internet from 
their territory because they fear it is a threat to "national security 
or social order." The report describes Burma's army junta as slightly 
more tolerant of Internet use than Iraq, North Korea, and Libya but 
emphasizes that the Burmese regime controls all Internet service and 
that owners of unregistered computers face up to 15 years imprisonment.  
Agence France Presse added on 21 August that America Online has 
delinked its server from the official junta web page after pro-democracy 
groups complained that AOL was providing a platform for a regime that 
violates human rights and restricts Internet access.

Paris, Wired News, http://www.wirednews.com, 12 August



Refugees Moved

Thai authorities and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees 
(UNHCR) have begun a massive relocation of about 100,000 Burmese 
refugees to areas away from the Burmese border where they will be safe 
from attack by militias linked with the Burmese military junta.  
The refugees, mostly ethnic Karen people, are being moved about 40 
kilometers deeper into Thai territory.

Bangkok, Kyodo News Service, 23 August



Elephant Faces Amputation   

An elephant working for Thai loggers is in serious condition after stepping 
on a land mine inside Burma near the Thai frontier. The 38-year old female 
elephant, which was foraging for food when it detonated the mine, is now 
being treated at an elephant hospital in Thailand, but may have to have one 
foot amputated. [Indiscriminate mining of border areas by the Burmese army 
junta, as well as mine use by dissident groups, has reportedly increased 
sharply over the last few years, causing many civilian casualties and
disrupting 
economic life in the region-Ed.]

Bangkok, Agence France-Presse, 21 August



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