The BurmaNet News: September 21, 19 (r)

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Subject: The BurmaNet News: September 21, 1999

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The BurmaNet News: September 21, 1999
Issue #1363

HEADLINES:
==========
VOA: ARRESTS AT NLD MEETING
REUTERS: BRITAIN TO URGE MYANMAR TO HEAR APPEAL
SHAN: RECENT CLASH LED TO CAMPAIGN
XINHUA: MYANMAR BILATERAL TRADE WITH US DROPS
BURMANET: BURMA'S FIGURES FOR TRADE WITH U.S.
AFP: DISSIDENTS APPEAL TO UN FORCE IN MYANMAR
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VOICE OF AMERICA: ARRESTS IN NLD MEETING
16 September, 1999 by Ron Corben

Authorities in Burma moved Thursday to clamp down on a meeting of the
opposition National League for Democracy, or NLD. Several people have been
detained. Ron Corben reports from Bangkok the NLD gathering was marking the
anniversary of a special committee established to represent the 1990 elected
parliament.

Burma's opposition National League for Democracy went ahead with the meeting
at party headquarters Thursday despite attempts by the military authorities
to disrupt it. Diplomats in Rangoon told VOA the streets to the headquarters
were blocked by police, who only allowed party members to attend. Diplomats
and journalists were barred. National League for Democracy leader, Aung San
Suu Kyi, was allowed to pass the barriers to conduct the assembly.

One diplomat said there had been arrests, but was uncertain over the number.
The diplomat said it appeared the government had sought to make it as
difficult as possible for the N-L-D to hold the meeting. Other measures to
disrupt the meeting included preventing people from outside Rangoon from
attending and detaining non-party members involved in the meeting's
preparation.

The meeting marked the first anniversary of the formation by the opposition
of a committee to represent the parliament voted for in the May 1990 general
elections. The elections, considered free and fair by observers at the time,
gave the NLD a landslide victory, but the military government has never
implemented the outcome.

The setting up the committee last year represented a fresh challenge to the
military government's decade long hold on power. It also triggered a
crackdown against the NLD nationwide. Hundreds of NLD party members were
called in for questioning or held at government guest houses and released
only on condition they gave up their party membership. This fresh pressure
by the authorities on the NLD comes in the wake of a bid by pro-democracy
groups and students in exile to call for widespread demonstrations against
the government. But the call for demonstrations appears to have fallen well
short of what organizers were hoping for, a reflection, analysts say, of the
tight grip the military have on power in the country. Human rights
organizations and the international community have condemned the military
government and its human rights record.

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REUTERS: BRITAIN TO URGE MYANMAR TO HEAR ACTIVISTS APPEAL
20 September, 1999

BANGKOK, Sept 20 (Reuters) - The British embassy in Yangon said on Monday it
would urge military-ruled Myanmar this week to waste no time in hearing a
British woman's appeal against a seven-year jail term for a pro-democracy
protest.

British ambassador John Jenkins is due to see Yangon's Deputy Foreign
Minister Khin Maung Win on Wednesday to raise concerns about the handling of
the cases against Rachel Goldwyn and James Mawdsley, a British man jailed
for 17 years, also for pro-democracy activism.

"He will be raising the British government's shock at the severity of the
sentences and concerns about the way the cases were handled, particularly
over legal representation and consular access," the embassy official said.

"We will be asking again for at least monthly access to both of them and for
Rachel's appeal to be heard as soon as possible," the official added.

Goldwyn's lawyer at her trial last Thursday said the 28-year-old human
rights worker would appeal. She was sentenced on Thursday after a solo
protest the previous week that the court ruled was a danger to state
security.

She had tied herself to a railing in central Yangon and sung a pro-democracy
song and democracy slogans.

An appeal must be filed within 90 days but the process can take months to
complete.

The British consul spoke to the Foreign Ministry on Monday to seek access to
Goldwyn as soon as possible to discuss the appeal. Her lawyer, Kyi Win, said
he hoped to file the appeal next week.

Political analysts in Myanmar say Goldwyn could have her sentence suspended
if the appeal is successful and be deported since it was her first offence.

She has been held at Yangon's notorious Insein Jail where many political
prisoners have been detained in the past. The British embassy, after being
allowed to see her before the sentencing, said she was being well-treated
and was in good spirits.

Mawdsley, a 26-year-old from Lancashire who also has an Australian passport,
was jailed on September 1 after crossing into northeast Myanmar a day before
with pro-democracy leaflets.

The government has said it could not be lenient with him as it was his third
arrest for similar protests in Myanmar. He served 99 days of a five-year
sentence for illegal entry last year before being deported on condition he
never return.

He was being held in jail in the remote northeastern town of Kengtung, where
British and Australian officials saw him last week for the first time since
his arrest. He appeared well.

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SHAN HERALD AGENCY FOR NEWS: RECENT CLASH BETWEEN JUNTA AND SHAN REBELS LED
TO CAMPAIGN
17 September, 1999

A source who just fled across the border from the Shan State told S.H.A.N.
that the misfired ambush last month by the junta troops on the Shan rebels
had brought about the present campaign across the Thai border.

The source, who refused to be identified because he aimed to go back, said
"During the fight between the SSA and the Burmese (SPDC troops), a captain
and a sergeant major were killed, while the commanding officer of Infantry
Battalion 65 was also badly wounded in the leg and is in Monghsat hospital
for treatment".

S.H.A.N. reported on Wednesday that during an ambush staged by the local
SPDC troops on 29 August, the Shan's counter attack cost the junta 2 dead
and 4 wounded.

"This is essentially a tit-for-tat campaign, aiming to make up for what they
considered as a humiliation", he said.

He added that units from Mongpyak, Kengtung and Mongpiang are also joining
the attack. He also saw lots of civilian trucks transporting troops and
ammunition to Poongpakhem, believed to be the forward operational command.

He did not know who was in charge of the operation.   S.H.A.N. has yet to
receive any reports about new clashes.

[S.H.A.N. is a non-profit making, independent Shan media group. It is not
affiliated to any political or armed organizations. ]

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XINHUA: MYANMAR BILATERAL TRADE WITH US DROPS
14 September, 1999

Yangon, Sept 14, Xinhua: Bilateral trade between Myanmar and the United
States amounted to 73.37 million U.S. dollars in fiscal 1998-99 which ended
on March 31, dropping by 20 percent compared with the previous fiscal year's
92.29 million dollars. The official economic indicators said in its latest
issue that in 1998-99, Myanmar's import from the United States was
valued at 35.96 million dollars, 35.5 percent less than the 55.8 million
dollars in the previous fiscal year. Myanmar's export to the United States
in the fiscal year stood at 37.41 million dollars, increasing by 2.52
percent from the previous fiscal year's 36.49 million dollars, it added.

Meanwhile, during the five-year period from April 1994 to April 1999,
Myanmar absorbed investments amounting to 359.82 million dollars from the
United States in four projects, accounting for 6.37 percent of the total
foreign investment of 5.641 billion dollars in the country.

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BURMANET (GUEST OP/ED): DISCREPANCY IN BURMA'S FIGURES FOR TRADE WITH U.S.
17 September, 1999 by Douglas Steele

Re. Xinhua: Myanmar's bilateral trade with U.S. drops (September 14, 1999)

The official Burmese trade statistics reported by Xinhua (see text of
article above) are extraordinarily inaccurate. According to the regime, US
trade with Burma in fiscal year 1998-1999 (April 1998-March 1999) totaled
$73.37 million, with $37.41 million in exports to the US and $35.96 million
in imports from the US. The regime is grossly underreporting its exports to
the US and the actual figure is more than 400 per cent higher.

The reasons for the underreporting are probably a combination of the
regime's worry that their exports could be an easy target for US sanctions
(especially garments) and evasion of Burmese taxes by exporting companies.

According to the US Department of Commerce, which keeps data on all US
imports and exports, Burma exports to the US were $164 million in calendar
year 1998. From January through June of this year it has exported another
$92 million in products to the US. Burmese exports to the US are growing at
rate of 25.55 per cent so far this year. In 1998, they were 42.38 per cent
higher than the year before. Burmese exports to the US have been surging
steadily since at least 1996. Eighty five per cent of Burma's exports to the
US are garments.

The best source of information on Burma's bilateral trade with the US is "US
Annual General Imports from Burma" which is contained in the Census Bureau's
World Trade Atlas at the US Department of Commerce's International Trade
Administration (East Asia/Pacific bureau, phone 202 482 3647.)

The actual figures for Burma's imports to the US according to the US
Department of Commerce are as follows:

[Millions of US dollars]
          1996      1997     1998    1999 (Jan-June)
Total     108        115       164        92

By category
Knit apparel 48.50     57.27     84.74      51.9
Woven apparel 35.15     27.88      43.06    29.08
Precious stones 1.90      4.88      10.58      4.76

[Douglas Steele was the first editor of BurmaNet and can reached at
douglas.steele@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx  The views expressed in the BurmaNet guest
column are those of the author and not necessarily those of BurmaNet.]

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AFP: DISSIDENTS APPEAL FOR UN FORCE IN MYANMAR
18 September, 1999

BANGKOK, Sept 18 (AFP) - Exiled dissidents called Saturday for the United
Nations to send an international force into Myanmar, similar to the
multinational contingent bound for East Timor.

"We don't believe that it would be interfering in another country's internal
affairs... because there are also wide abuses of human rights in both
countries," said Thailand-based dissident Maung Maung Aye.

The Myanmar junta has voiced sympathy for its Indonesian "brothers" and
hinted at uneasiness that some member states of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) had joined the East Timor force.

Maung Maung Aye said: "Perhaps they (the junta) are afraid of another
international force being sent into Myanmar... we would welcome the UN to
take similar action in Myanmar like East Timor."

The call came on the anniversary of a 1988 bloody coup which cemented the
military's control over Myanmar's political life.

At a demonstration outside the Myanmar embassy here Saturday, the Burmese
Students Association (BSA) called on ASEAN to fulfill its mandate of
ensuring regional stability and help bring democracy to Myanmar.

"ASEAN governments are giving economic and diplomatic support to the junta,"
a BSA statement said.

ASEAN cannot protect the region's economic and political stability by
turning a blind eye to growing social conflicts in Myanmar, it said.

The dissidents reiterated demands for the government to hand over power to a
civilian government elected in 1990 polls, which were ignored by the junta.

The National League for Democracy, led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu
Kyi, won the vast majority of seats in that election.

The junta is widely accused of gross human rights abuses, including rape and
torture.

It rejects all the allegations and maintains that it intends to make
democratic changes.

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