BurmaNet News: December 27, 1999

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---------------- The BurmaNet News ---------------- 
December 27, 1999 
Issue # 1430
---------------------------------------------------- 

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HEADLINES: 
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BURMANET: NEW FREEDOM HOUSE SURVEY PUTS BURMA AMONG LEAST FREE
XINHUA: MYANMAR ADDS CATEGORIES OF BANNED IMPORT/EXPORT 
AFP: MYANMAR INTRODUCES FIRST TRAVELLER'S CHEQUES 
STRAITS TIMES: UP TO 2 MILLION THAI STUDENTS INTO DRUGS 
AP: 4 THAI KIDS DIE DURING COLD WEATHER 
XINHUA: MYANMAR TO PROVIDE INTERNET SERVICES 

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BURMANET: NEW FREEDOM HOUSE SURVEY PUTS BURMA AMONG LEAST FREE
December 27, 1999

Freedom House, a non-profit organization that surveys freedom around the 
world released its annual Freedom in the World survey just before 
Christmas.  Once again, Burma places among the worst rated in the world. 
 Burma, along with 12 other countries received Freedom House?s
lowest ratings for both economic and political freedom.  For the text of 
Freedom House?s Burma section, see 
http://www.freedomhouse.org/survey99/country/burma.html

Today?s economic news shows little prospect for improvement.  The regime 
has banned traders from importing or exporting more commodities (see 
below, XINHUA: MYANMAR ADDS CATEGORIES OF BANNED IMPORT/EXPORT) and shut 
down Eagle Computing, Burma?s only Internet service not owned by the 
state (see below, XINHUA: MYANMAR TO PROVIDE INTERNET SERVICES).  The 
only bright spot is that the regime is now allowing the Asia Wealth 
Bank, an institution reputed to be built on proceeds from the heroin 
trade, to issue travellers checks.  The possiblities for synergy are 
endless.  (See AFP: MYANMAR INTRODUCES FIRST TRAVELLER'S CHEQUES)

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XINHUA: MYANMAR ADDS CATEGORIES OF BANNED IMPORT/EXPORT  

December 26, 1999, Sunday 
dateline: yangon, december 26 

Myanmar has added five categories to the list of banned import 
commodities through normal border trade, bringing the total number of 
such categories to 15, according to an order issued recently by the 
ministry of commerce. 

The previous 10 such categories of banned import commodities include 
gourmet powder, beverage, canned meat and fruits, instant noodle, fresh 
fruits, cigarettes, wine and beer. 

The newly-added five categories are chewing gum, cake, wafer biscuit, 
chocolate and different kinds of plastic-made daily necessities. 

Meanwhile, the ministry added only two categories to the list of banned 
export commodities through normal border and marine trade. They are 
sesame and sesame oil, bringing the total number of such banned 
categories to 63. 

According to the latest official figures, in the first half of 1999, 
myanmar's foreign trade, including the border trade, totaled 1.89 
billion u.s. dollars, of which the import amounted to 1.26 billion 
dollars, while the export was valued at 630 million dollars, producing a 
trade deficit of 630 million dollars. 

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AFP: MYANMAR INTRODUCES FIRST TRAVELLER'S CHEQUES 

DATELINE: YANGON, Dec 15 

BODY: 
A private bank has introduced Myanmar's first traveller's cheques, the 
country's ruling junta said
in a statement Saturday. 

The traveller's cheques began circulation earlier this month through 
Asia Wealth Bank and are available in 10,000, 50,000 and 100,000 kyat 
denominations, it said. 

The offical exchange rate is about five kyats to one dollar but the 
price in the widely used black market is 300-400 kyats to the dollar. 

The cheques hold no expiry date and could be cashed at any AWB branch in 
Myanmar for a service fee of five kyats per certificate, it said. 

AWB chairman Aik Tun said the cheques had been printed in Singapore "to 
ensure security and reliability." 

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STRAITS TIMES: UP TO 2 MILLION THAI STUDENTS INTO DRUGS 
December 27, 1999 

An expert on the social problem fears Thailand is losing the war against 
amphetamines, which are entering the country from Myanmar and Laos 

By JAMES EAST 
IN BANGKOK 

THE drug problem among students in Thailand has reached epidemic 
proportions with possibly up to two million of them addicted to Ya Baa, 
an amphetamine. 

The government Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) said at 
least 100,000 students were dealing in drugs, chiefly amphetamines. 

But the army believed around two million students are addicted to Ya Baa 
--known as "crazy drug" because users become highly emotional and often 
violent. 

State anti-drug workers said amphetamine abuse was at its worst in 
Bangkok and central Thailand, with sales surging as dealers switch from 
selling to long-distance lorry drivers to students, who have more money. 


Amphetamines are the choice drug for most students -- they are 
relatively cheap, costing 60 baht (S$2.70) to 80 baht per tablet. 

Education lecturer Sompong Chitradub, Thailand's leading expert on 
students and drugs and prostitution, fears the country is losing the war 
against amphetamines which are pouring into the country across the 
border from Myanmar and Laos. 

The Chulalonkorn University Faculty of Education assistant professor 
said children now made up more than half of those arrested for 
drug-related charges. 

His latest research into drug use in Bangkok and north-east Thailand for 
the International Labour Organisation has brought home the horror of 
drug use. 

"Although many, many organisations are working on this, it is a losing 
battle. Politicians, both local and national, and policemen are 
involved." He refused to divulge names. 

Dr Sompong's researchers have received death threats and have been 
forced to stop their studies. 

Communities complained that they could do little to fight powerful drug 
barons who were linked to local officials. Hired guns put honest 
villagers in fear of their lives. 

Dr Sompong said youngsters' love of material things was turning many to 
drug dealing to make money. 

Drug lords court potential dealers with expensive goods and sex. His 
studies showed 90 per cent of the children involved were males aged from 
15 to 16 years old; 43 per cent came from broken homes while 64 per cent 
had already left school. 

ONCB research has shown that many users come from unstable backgrounds. 

An official said drug dealing was particularly common at schools in 
rural areas where poor parents sent children to class with amphetamines 
to sell. 

In Bangkok, amphetamine use is rampant in the slums. In Klong Toey port 
slum -- home to 100,000 taxi drivers, stall holders, dockers and the 
unemployed -- Ya Baa is widely consumed by users who need to stay awake 
for long working shifts. 

Many children living in the slum end up as drug couriers because loan 
sharks force parents to use their kids to pay off their debts. 

The drug gangs use children as young as six because they know police can 
only throw them into youth detention centres for a few months. 

Many children end up addicted themselves and are caught in a vicious 
cycle of dealing narcotics to pay for their own habit. 

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

AP: 4 THAI KIDS DIE DURING COLD WEATHER 

December 24, 1999 

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- At least four children have died as Thais 
accustomed to tropical weather were hit by some of the coldest 
temperatures recorded in decades, officials said Friday. 

A young Myanmar refugee boy died of exposure two days ago in a refugee 
camp along the Myanmar border 230 miles northwest of Bangkok as the 
temperature fell to 44, camp officials said. 

Two boys and a girl died in two separate fires when they tried to escape 
the cold by sheltering under piles of hay which caught fire. Their 
parents were too poor to provide them with blankets, according to 
provincial authorities. 

The first incident, which claimed the lives of two boys, occurred in the 
central province of Lopburi while the second took place in northeastern 
Mukdaharn Province. 

Cold winds from China continued from the north on Friday. Officials at 
the Meteorological Department said the cold spell, which began early in 
the week, would last until mid-January. 

The department said the lowest temperature, 39, was recorded in the 
northern provinces of Chiang Rai and Loei. The temperature was 84 in the 
southernmost province of Satun. 

Thailand lowest recorded temperature, 33, was registered in 1974 in a 
northern town of Nan Province, 340 miles north of Bangkok. 

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XINHUA: MYANMAR TO PROVIDE INTERNET SERVICES 
December 24, 1999 

YANGON (Dec. 24) XINHUA - The Myanmar telecommunication authorities will 
soon provide internet services to the public as preparations for such 
services as internet and E-mail are at the final stage, said a 
government statement here Friday afternoon. 

The services are to be extended by the state-run Myanma Posts and 
Telecommunications (MPT), the only entity allowed to provide public 
postal and telecommunication services in the country, the official 
Information Sheet added. 

Myanmar has been striving to promote its telecommunication services to 
meet the increasing need of local and foreign investors to facilitate 
their business links since the country opened to the outside world in 
late 1988 by adopting a market- oriented economic system. 

The country started providing X-100 E-mail service in 1997 and since 
then there has been at least 3,000 lines of the CDMA mobile telephone 
system reportedly in operation in the country in addition to 225,164 
auto-telephone lines. 

Micro-wave links were also introduced in the country in 1995 to enable 
the capital city of Yangon to connect with nine other cities. 

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