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The BurmaNet News: November 24, 199



Subject: The BurmaNet News: November 24, 1999

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 Catch the latest news about Burma at www.burmanet.org
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The BurmaNet News: November 24, 1999
Issue #1408

Noted in Passing: The United States "should separate the problems of human
rights and drugs." - Jurin Laksanavisit, Thailand Office Minister (see THE
NATION: PLEA ON DRUGS) 

HEADLINES:
==========
THE NATION: BURMA BORDER OPENED, TRADE NORMALIZED 
LOVE AND FREEDOM FOR PEACE CEREMONY: ADDRESS BY DASSK
THE NATION: PLEA ON DRUGS 
AP: 14,000 REFUGEES MOVED TO SAFER CAMP 
BKK POST: THE DISPOSSESSED DESERVE BETTER 
BKK POST: WHAT'S IN A NAME? 
***************************************************

THE NATION: BURMA BORDER OPENED, TRADE NORMALIZED 
24 November, 1999 

AP - RANGOON has agreed to unconditionally reopen its border with Thailand
today, ending nearly two months of strained relations triggered by what
Burma saw as Bangkok's improper handling of the Burmese Embassy hostage
crisis, Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan said yesterday.

The Burmese military government also agreed to facilitate the safe return
of illegal Burmese workers whom it earlier rejected, he said.

The agreement was reached in Rangoon yesterday after a series of meetings
between senior government officials and Surin, who was in Rangoon on a
one-day trip.

Surin said the First Secretary of the ruling State Peace and Development
Council, Lt Gen Khin Nyunt, had instructed township border committees
supervising four border checkpoints to meet their Thai counterparts today,
signalling the normalisation of border activities.

''We have agreed that from Wednesday the township committees supervising
the border at Ranong, Three Pagoda Pass, Mae Sot and Mae Sai will be meeting.

''Everthing will return to normal, including border trade and cross-border
travel procedures,'' Surin said on his return to Bangkok.

Earlier in Manila, Philippine Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon said he
planned to ask Surin how Southeast Asian countries could help ease tensions
between Bangok and Rangoon.

Siazon is to meet Surin this week during the annual Asean Summit in Manila.

Siazon said he would ask Surin about Burma's decision to close the border.

''I'd like to know what way other Asean countries can help ease the
tensions there,'' Siazon said.

''It seems to be natural that neighbours with a long border tend to have
tensions. But any exacerbation could be dangerous and could further
undermine Asean. We don't want to see that happen.''

Surin said Rangoon has agreed that the future handling of border disputes
would be based on international laws and practices.

''Any disruption of border activities will be informed in advance by both
sides. From now on [Thai-Burma] relations will be on an equal footing and
both sides will look forward to strengthen their ties through the spirit of
Asean and neighbourliness,'' he said.

He said Burma has not linked the resumption of border activities with a
demand for the arrest of the five Burmese armed rebels who stormed the
embassy in Bangkok and held more than 30 hostages at gunpoint on Oct 1.

The siege ended peacefully after the gunmen were flown to the border in
return for the release of all hostages.

The Burmese military government, which branded the five as terrorists,
closed the border, halting lucrative cross-border trade and excluding Thai
fishermen from its territorial waters.

Thailand in turn began an expulsion of Burmese workers who have flooded
into the country from their own impoverished land in search of employment.

However, in a related development yesterday, Foreign Ministry
director-general of East Asian affairs, Veerasak Footrakul, quoted Khin
Nyunt as saying that the embassy attackers should be handled in accordance
with Thai laws.

Responsible authorities of both sides are also set to negotiate the
resumption of Thai fishing activities in Burmese waters.

According to Surin, the Foreign Ministry would inform its counterparts of
the date of the meeting.

Surin said Burma wanted the fishing deals to be more regulated as Thai
trawlers had often breached bilateral agreements by fishing outside
concession areas, he said.

Surin said Burma also agreed to take back Burmese illegal workers on the
grounds that they should return to the areas they have left.

According to Surin, Burma admitted that these people sneaked out of the
country.

In the past, Rangoon has declined to admit that the workers were Burmese
nationals, thus, complicating the extradition process even further.

Rangoon was earlier reluctant to take them back; arguing it did not know
from where they originated. 

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

LOVE AND FREEDOM FOR PEACE CEREMONY: ADDRESS BY DAW AUNG SAN SUU KYI
23 November, 1999 from tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

 [BurmaNet Editor's Note: This article has been edited from its original.]

On the 23th of November, the "Love and Freedom for Peace Ceremony" was held
at the great hall of Act City in Hammamatsu, Shizuoka prefecture, Japan.
Leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, Mr Yukio Hatoyama, attended and
gave a speech to the audience. Mr Kato Akira, international journalist
acted as coordinator. Mr. Richard Tander, professor at Kyoto University;
Mrs. Eegawa Shoko, journalist; and Peace and human rights acitivist and
singer Mr Kina Shokichi acted as panalists. Below is the video message send
to the ceremony from Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

Message from Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Secretary-General of the National League
for Democracy, to the people of Japan, November 1999.

Want and fear are two of the greatest enemies we have to contend with from
day to day. In a country like Burma, where we have been crushed under a
military regime for many, many years, want and fear stalk us all the time.
We wake up in the morning wondering which of ours friends has been taken
into detention by the authorities. People wake up in the morning wondering
where the next meal is going to come from. They wake up in the morning
wondering what the future of our children will be and worrying about it. 

Want and fear go together where there are no human rights and where there
is no justice. We would like justice, human rights, and peace to spread all
over the world, so that everywhere might live free from fear and from want. 

In Asia where so many of us believe in such ideal, they are still in a
need, a very, very great need, for understanding for basic factor that made
human life acceptable. I sometimes think Asians are too hard on ourselves
as human beings. I think there is a lack of compassion. But yet compassion
is a very basic ingredient in all religions. For this reason, I hope that,
as we approach the year 2000, we will increase compassion all over the world. 

In our struggle for democracy and human rights, we would like greater
support from our fellow Asians. We would especially like Japanese people to
take a strong stand in a battle for democracy. Japan is one of the
strongest economies in the world. And it is a democracy. It is certainly
the richest Asian country. As a richest Asian country and as a democracy,
Japan has a duty to try to promote human rights and democracy in other
parts of Asia. We hope that year 2000 will see a blossoming of Japanese
interest in human rights and democracy. 

May I conclude by asking all of you to offer a prayer for Burma, for East
Timor and for every other parts of the world where people are longing for
human rights, for compassion, and for peace. And may I also express my hope
that, one day, we may all be able to meet together in understanding and
happiness. Thank you.

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

THE NATION: PLEA ON DRUGS
23 November, 1999 

AFP

Thailand said yesterday that Washington should not allow human rights
issues to stop it from working with Burma to fight the international drug
trade.

"They should separate the problems of human rights and drugs," said Jurin
Laksanavisit, the Prime Minister's Office minister in charge of the
Narcotics Control Board.

Thailand has traditionally been an ally of Washington in combatting illicit
drugs in Southeast Asia. The United States has pumped millions of dollars
into Thai efforts to root out the trade.

However, this month it was included in a list of 26 countries named by the
Washington as major producers of illicit drugs.

The US earlier this year boycotted an international heroin conference in
Burma, sponsored by Interpol, citing political and human rights concerns.

Burma's military government is accused by much of the international
community of wide spread human rights violations, ant shunned for refusing
to cede power to the opposition led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

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

ASSOCIATED PRESS: 14,000 REFUGEES MOVED TO SAFER CAMP 
23 November, 1999 

BANGKOK (AP)--Over 14,000 Myanmar refugees staying in Thailand have been
moved to a new camp less vulnerable to cross-border attack from Myanmar,
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said Tuesday. 

Since August, two camps in the northern Thai province of Tak, both holding
around 7,000 mostly ethnic Karen refugees, have been transported to a
single large site which is further inland from the frontier with Myanmar,
also known as Burma. 

The two camps that have been closed, Mawker and Huay Kalok, had come under
repeated attack from Yangon-backed forces. Huay Kalok was torched in
consecutive years, killing several refugees, and prompting calls for a
safer site to be found. 

Some 120,000 refugees shelter in camps close to the Thai-Myanmar border,
after fleeing mass relocations and fighting between Karen rebels and the
Myanmar military. 

Many are loyal to the Karen National Union, which has been fighting for
autonomy from Yangon for five decades and is the only major ethnic army
which hasn't signed a ceasefire with the regime. 

The last families from Mawker camp, about 370 kilometers northeast of
Bangkok, were moved six days ahead of schedule to the new Umpium camp in
Tak province Monday, with help from the Thai authorities, the UNHCR said in
a statement. 

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

THE BANGKOK POST: THE DISPOSSESSED DESERVE BETTER
23 November, 1999 by Fiona Thompson

POSTBAG 

The purpose of seeking asylum is never asked for lightly, and for the
Burmese refugees, and more particularly the Shan, there has been nowhere
else to turn, but Thailand-a country where the ethnic relationship was
already in place.

Having no camps where Shan could  find security of a sort, or relatives,
being stripped of what papers they might possibly have had along with
everything else, no choice remained but to be "illegal immigrants". Labels
are fine for bureaucrats, but for people fleeing for their lives,
dispossessed, abused and starving, what alternative did they have?

For the Thai government to send thousands back to the repression and abuse
they had left, with no sustenance, shelter or protection, is inhumanity at
its most callous. Even without the border closure, it was obvious the junta
wouldn't have them back.

Until the political situation is resolved in Burma, those returned will
face either imprisonment, forced labour and starvation, if not execution.

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

THE BANGKOK POST: WHAT'S IN A NAME?
23 November, 1999 by John Dempsey 

BURMESE REALITIES DEFY SIMPLISTIC INTERPRETATION 

The international media tends to be one-eyed in its reporting on Burmese
matters; Suu Kyi is a goddess, the junta is a collective ogre. Such an
approach naturally involves drawbacks.

Press coverage of Burma, perhaps more than any other country in the world,
does not portray an objective interpretation of unfolding events.

Even choosing to call the country "Burma" immediately places one into the
camp of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, as opposed to the ruling
military junta, which prefers to use the pre-colonial term "Myanmar" when
referring to the nation.

In fairness, Western publications say it is simply more appropriate to use
the word "Burma" since it is far more recogniseable. But to the generals in
Rangoon, the widespread use of "Burma" rather than "Myanmar" represents but
one of many politically driven decisions by an international press bent on
undermining the junta's regime.

Regardless of what one calls the country, the Western media has been most
unwilling, if not unable, to report objectively about this troubled nation
of 51 million.

While foreign correspondents accurately describe gross violations of human
rights, widespread repression of dissidents, and the involvement of
military factions in drug trafficking, the press rarely mentions any events
that might portray the military in a more favourable light.

Moreover, any criticism of the 54 year-old Ms Suu Kyi, whose father led the
1947 fight for independence from the British, and her National League for
Democracy remains muted.

The willingness of the Western press to choose sides in Burma's internal
struggle serves to polarise the debate and leaves little room for outside
nations to help the opposing parties reach a negotiated settlement.

Why is this? For three reasons.

First, the articulate, Oxford-educated Ms Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel
Peace Prize, appeals to Westerners like no other dissident leader in modern
Asian history, save perhaps the Dalai Llama. The media, recognising her
appeal, continues to portray her as some moral goddess struggling against a
monolithic, totalitarian monster. Depicting Burma's conflict as a battle of
"Good vs Evil" attracts readers' attention and thus, boosts revenue for the
press.

Second, Western governments and the press believe that any criticism of the
Nobel laureate would give the ruling generals propaganda ammunition to use
against the liberal, pro-Western movement in Burma. Conversely, any
compliment of the military - however deserved-would serve to legitimise the
junta, thereby weakening the prodemocratic forces. These foreign observers,
it seems, believe the NLD is too weak to withstand and the generals too
manipulative to deserve objective reporting.

Third, and perhaps most important, Western governments fail to articulate
or see any real interest in Burma aside from human rights. Unlike China or
Saudi Arabia, two countries whose dismal human rights records are often
overlooked because of other overriding concerns, Burma remains a place
where governments-and the media-feel it is safe to take the moral high
ground. Nothing else seems to matter.

None of this is to say the generals deserve acclaim 'as legitimate and
enlightened rulers. Far from it.

In 1990, the NLD won a free and fair election to convene a national
parliament, winning 82% of the vote. The junta, completely surprised by the
outcome, declared the election void and jailed hundreds of NLD leaders and
supporters, keeping Ms Suu Kyi under house arrest until 1995.

Furthermore, throughout the past decade, the generals have solidified their
hold on the country, imposing a regime of terror to silence any possible
dissent. Like any totalitarian state, forced labour, arbitrary arrests, a
ubiquitous secret police and mass propaganda have been the generals' main
tools of keeping power. And the Western media is right to focus on this
when reporting about Burma.

But that's only part of the story.

The press and many foreign observers, by consistently pointing only to
faults in the junta's harsh rule, demonise the generals without asking what
it is that actually motivates them. Without attempting to understand the
junta's main concerns-national solidarity, security, development-the
Western world essentially guarantees it will have no role to play in
finding a compromise solution to Burma's problems.

David Steinberg, a Burma expert at Georgetown University, says that the
West, not just the generals, are to blame for the impasse in finding a
negotiated solution to Burma's problems.

"The United States has, in effect, asked the junta to negotiate with the
NLD by honouring the results of the May 1990 elections, and then it will
talk about eliminating sanctions, approving multilateral economic
assistance, and so on," he wrote in August issue of Contemporary Southeast
Asia. "This is not the basis for negotiation - rather, it is an obvious
formula for stalemate."

And in the near term, stalemate hurts the NLD far more than it does the
generals.

While the economy of Burma has been devastated under the junta's rule and
international sanctions, the military at present remains the only viable
institution capable of leading the country. Given the media's negative
portrayal of the regime, such a picture appears quite gloomy. But in fact,
the generals' goals for the country coincide with many of the same
objectives espoused by the West and the NLD.

According to Mr Steinberg, rather than persisting in the current deadlock,
a potential for compromise might exist if each side would end its
intransigence and look for new solutions.

One main sticking point is Ms Suu Kyi herself. The personal animosity the
generals hold towards the opposition leader runs even deeper than their
hatred of the NLD.

The state-run media in Burma consistently attacks Ms Suu Kyi, who spent
more than half her life living comfortably in England and who married a
British historian, as a "lackey of the old colonialists". The generals have
even indicated more-than once their willingness to hold talks with leading
NLD members, as long as Ms Suu Kyi is not involved - a point often lost in
Western press coverage. And some NLD leaders, including party chairman Aung
Shwe have suggested such talks might be possible "at some point in the
future".

But Ms Suu Kyi's firm control of the party is virtually as tight as the
junta's control of the country. And to her, no negotiations, aside from
cosmetic and non-substantive meetings, will take place unless she is present.

Thus, the impasse has turned into a years-long, face-saving game between
the Nobel laureate and the powerful generals, neither of whom has budged.
And foreign governments and the press, who have based their policies and
reporting around a single personality, have themselves become part of the
drive to save face.

True, Burma is not China, and as such, the United States and the Western
media can currently afford to look down at the generals from their ethical
pedestal. But in doing so, not only is deadlock in the current stalemate
ensured but other interests are sacrificed as well.

Burma's strategic location between the two giants, India and China,
receives little if any press attention in the West. According to one
Western-based diplomat in Rangoon, China has been trying for a decade now
to acquire naval bases on Burma's Andaman coast-a prospect that would
certainly trigger alarm, and perhaps an arms race, in South and Southeast
Asia.

Also, the junta's alleged profitting from the narcotics trade certainly has
not become less vital to the military rulers once bilateral and
multilateral sanctions were imposed.

Indeed, the Western governments and the press - by putting all their eggs
into Ms Suu Kyi's basket - may not only be exacerbating the political
impasse in Burma but also be ignoring other areas of international concern
as well.

[John Dempsey has travelled to Burma on many occasions and is studying
towards a joint graduate degree in law and foreign service fro Georgetown
University.]

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




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