The BurmaNet News: October 1, 1999

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The BurmaNet News: October 1,1999
Issue #1370

Noted in Passing: "The world has now learnt that Australia's recognition of
Indonesia's occupation of East Timor and, until very recently, its refusal
to champion the cause of the East Timorese independence movement came at an
appalling human cost.  We shouldn't make the same mistake with Burma." -
Chris Brown, Australian Greens senator (see IPS: AFTER TIMOR, TIME TO TALK
TOUGH ON RANGOON)

HEADLINES:
==========
REUTERS: GUNMEN FIRE SHOTS IN EMBASSY, FLAG CHANGED
IPS: AFTER TIMOR, TIME TO TALK TOUGH ON RANGOON
XINHUA: DIPLOMATIC TIES WITH TAJIKISTAN
REUTERS: LIST OF COUNTRIES ELIGIBLE FOR DEBT RELIEF
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REUTERS: GUNMEN FIRE SHOTS IN MYANMAR EMBASSY, FLAG CHANGED
1 October, 1999

BANGKOK, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Gunmen holding hostages in the Myanmar embassy in
Bangkok on Friday fired at least 10 gunshots to provide cover for their
compatriots to replace a Myanmar flag from a mast in the compound with one
of their own, police said.

They removed the Myanmar flag from the mast and replaced it with another
flying a red background with a yellow bird
imprinted on it, witnesses near the embassy compound said. Police said
earlier there were 12 heavily armed attackers
inside the embassy.

He said the attackers told him about 12 of them had stormed the embassy:
"They let me out because they don't want to have
trouble with the Thai authorities," he said. A diplomat at the embassy told
Reuters at least three armed men broke into the embassy compound and were
holding diplomats and family members in an embassy building. Witnesses said
several gunshots could be heard from the compound as Thai anti-terrorist
units took positions at the scene. It was unclear if anyone was wounded.

Many student dissidents fled Myanmar to Thailand after the military in their
country killed thousands to crush a pro-democracy uprising in 1988. Some of
the students teamed up with ethnic guerrilla groups based on the Myanmar
border which have fought for decades against the Yangon government.

[also from Reuters:]

Bangkok police chief Major-General Jongrak Juchanon said he had ordered his
men to hold their fire to allow talks to end
the siege.  "I have asked my men not to shoot because we have learned they
are heavily armed inside the embassy and we are trying to contact them to
find out what they want and negotiate with them," he told reporters.

A Thai policeman released by the gunmen said about 20 people were being held
by the attackers, who said they were
student dissident exiles.

"They say they have eight AK-47 rifles and 20 hand grenades. They say they
are holding 20 people. But have not said what their demands are," the
policeman, who was part of the embassy security detail, told reporters.

[ ... ]

A distressed attache, Hla Hla Kyi, told Reuters earlier by telephone that
the attackers numbered about "three or four".

"They are keeping the staff members in the office," she said.

[ ... ]

Witnesses earlier said several gunshots were heard from the compound as Thai
anti-terrorist units took positions at the
scene. It was unclear if anyone was wounded.

Police at the scene said one man was armed with a sub-machinegun and two
others were also armed. They said they did not know the identity of the
attackers.

A local television station, ITV, said the gunmen were also believed to be
wielding hand grenades.

Hla Hla Kyi said she was in another building of the compound. "So far I am
OK," she said. "But we've had no contact
with the people in the office -- they've cut the phones."

Police in the area outside the embassy compound used loudhailers to try to
make contact with the intruders. But
there was no communication.

A witness at the scene, K.N. Sethi, said he was sitting in a car outside the
embassy gate waiting for his friend to get his visa at around 11.30 a.m.
(0430 GMT) when he saw a Thai man rush out of the compound.

"He rushed out shouting and then I knew something was wrong. After he ran
out, the embassy gate shut. A few minutes
after that I heard four of five gun shots. Then the police arrived," he told
Reuters.

A Myanmar government spokesman from Yangon told Reuters that the Myanmar
ambassador to Thailand, Hla Maung, was not in the embassy when the gunmen
stormed it.

"We don't know yet which organisation or group they are representing. We
have talked to the Thai authorities and they
are taking action," he said.

He added that they were aware that the gunmen were holding some hostages,
but no details were available yet.

[Associated Press adds:]

Gen. Pornsak Durongkavibul, the deputy head of Thailand's national police
force, was negotiating with the hostage-takers by telephone as more than 100
policemen, including SWAT teams and police dogs, surrounded the embassy
compound.

Some took up positions inside a nearby eight-story apartment building along
North Sathorn, a busy road lined with high-rise
office buildings.

The road was blocked off to traffic by police, who wore flak jackets and
carried M-16 rifles, some with sniper scopes.

The embassy is the site of frequent protests by Myanmar students and other
exiles opposed to the military regime in their country. These groups have
recently vowed to step up activities against the regime.

But one of the key groups, the All Burma Students Democratic Front, denied
involvement. ``I just heard this news. We would like to say we were not
involved in that matter and we don't know anything about it, and we never
have planned such a thing,'' said the group's chairman, Naing Aung, when
contacted by telephone.

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

IPS: AFTER TIMOR, TIME TO TALK TOUGH IN RANGOON
29 September, 1999

CANBERRA, (Sep. 29) IPS - The Australian government, after reversing its
long-standing policy on East Timor, is under increasing pressure from human
rights groups and opposition political parties to drop its policy of
engagement with the Burmese military regime.

"The Australian government eventually stood up to Indonesia over East Timor
so it shouldn't go soft on the Burmese military regime," said Australian
Greens senator and human rights activist Bob Brown.

Critics like him argue that if Australia can correct its decades-old policy
of closing its eyes to Indonesia's abuses in East Timor, it can also change
what they consider its flawed approach toward the Rangoon junta.

In early August, Australian Human Rights Commissioner Chris Sidoti spent
three days in Rangoon discussing with Burmese junta officials proposals for
improving human rights standards, including the possibility of training
Burmese military and police officers and the establishment of a human rights
commission.

"If there is any possibility of working with the Government of Burma to
improve human rights there I think we have to explore that possibility. It
is as simple as that, that's the bottom line," Sidoti said.

Sidoti bluntly rejects criticism of Canberra's policy of engagement with the
Burmese military regime, which has been made by Burmese opposition leader
and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, also leader of the National League for
Democracy (NLD).

"I know that Daw Aung Sun Suu Kyi and the NLD and others who support the
development of democracy in Burma might not like this, but the NLD is not in
power in Burma. It is not in a position to do anything to improve the human
rights of the people of Burma," Sidoti said.

Sidoti's remarks have come in for strong criticism. "I disagree with Chris
Sidoti. That's what was said about East Timor," Senator Brown said.

"The world has now learnt that Australia's recognition of Indonesia's
occupation of East Timor and, until very recently, its refusal to champion
the cause of the East Timorese independence movement came at an appalling
human cost," he argued. "We shouldn't make the same mistake with Burma."

While the European Union and the US continue to advocate trade sanctions
against Burma, the Australian government is encouraging the Burmese to
counter concerns about the involvement of the military regime in the drug
trade and human rights abuses.

Underlying Australia's policy shift to promoting engagement with the regime
is the view by Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer that "simply
shouting from the sidelines has apparently achieved nothing".

While the NLD won 82 percent of the seats in the Burmese Parliament at the
1990 election, a result the military refused to recognize, Downer thinks it
is time to move on and explore new strategies.

Fearing the NLD might be marginalised by Australia's engagement policy, a
videotaped plea from Suu Kyi to Australians was smuggled out of the country
and shown to Australian parliamentarians last week.

"Sometimes we are a little concerned that the policies of the Australian
government may not be such that would hasten the process of democratization
in Burma," Suu Kyi said in the video.

While the government of Australia and Sidoti "mean well", she said, "we
think that the timing of this visit is wrong and that it was ill advised".

"At this time the military authorities are at their most oppressive and this
could be seen as an endorsement of their policies, it could in fact be seen
as a tacit approval of what they are doing to the democratic forces in
Burma," she warned.

But Sidoti rejects Suu Kyi's criticism that his proposals are simply putting
the fox in charge of the henhouse.

"Well I guess the fox is in charge of the chickens, whether she and we like
it or not. The hope is rather to constrain the fox in the activities that it
undertakes, to convince it that the chickens need to be dealt with in a much
better way than has been the case in the past,' he explained.

Alison Tate, project officer for South-east Asia for Union Aid Abroad
(APHEDA), disagrees with Sidoti's willingness to engage Burma.

"The NLD are not just an opposition group but they are the people who have
the electoral mandate from the 1990 election and deserve the respect of
advocates of human rights. The comments from Sidoti don't really strengthen
the effort for democracy," she said.

Australia's shadow minister for foreign affairs, Laurie Brereton, backs Suu
Kyi's calls for sanctions against the military regime. Opening a dialogue
with the military regime, he warned, would result in the Burmese government
"using that dialogue for their own propaganda purposes".

In February, the Australian government defied an international boycott by
sending police and diplomatic staff to attend a conference on narcotics that
was sponsored by the Burmese military regime and Interpol.

Professor Des Ball from the Australian National University Strategic and
Defence Studies Center rejects the suggestion by the Australian Government
that the Burmese regime is not involved in the drug trade.

Ball, who recently released a study on Burma and the drug trade, said "a
major dimension of the corruption in Burma is the involvement of the regime
in drug trafficking".

Ball accuses the Australian government of turning a blind eye to the
involvement of the regime in the drug trade.

"They don't want to disrupt the diplomatic relations with the regime, so
they can't say the regime is made up of a whole lot of drug runners and
criminals, which is basically what they are. They can't deny the regime's
involvement in drugs but they are trying to give it a clean sheet," he said.

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

XINHUA: MYANMAR ESTABLISHES DIPLOMATIC TIES WITH TAJIKISTAN
30 September, 1999

YANGON (Sept. 30) XINHUA - Myanmar established diplomatic relations with
Tajikistan Wednesday at the ambassadorial level, according to a press
communique issued by the Myanmar Foreign Ministry Thursday.

Tajikistan is the 84th country in the world with which Myanmar has
established diplomatic ties since its independence in 1948.

It is also the 8th country with which Myanmar forged links this year. The
prior seven countries are Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkmenistan,
Croatia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Myanmar has opened 29 embassies, two permanent missions and two
consulates-general in various parts of the world, according to the ministry.

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

REUTERS: LIST OF COUNTRIES ELIGIBLE FOR DEBT RELIEF
29 September, 1999

WASHINGTON, Sept 29 (Reuters) - As many as 36 heavily indebted countries are
eligible for U.S. debt relief, the White House said on Wednesday.

They are:  Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African
Republic, Chad, Republic of Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Laos,
Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar (Burma),
Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone,
Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zambia.

U.S. officials said four countries, Liberia, Somalia, Sudan and Myanmar,
might have problems qualifying because of ineffective governments.

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