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BurmaNet News: December 29, 1999




---------------- The BurmaNet News ---------------- 
December 29, 1999 
Issue # 1432
---------------------------------------------------- 

Noted in passing:  "The Burmese government is considered one of the 
world?s least-pleasant regimes."  ABC: NO PLACE LIKE HELL


========== 
HEADLINES: 
========== 

Inside Burma-
 BURMANET: REGIME SILENT ON ARRESTS, CLOSURES SAID RELATED TO BURMANET
 BURMANET: GOVT POST OFFICES NOT TAKING BURMESE CURRENCY FOR INT'L MAIL
 ABC: NO PLACE LIKE HELL 
 SCMP: WORLD BANK REPORT DAMNING INDICTMENT OF 37-YEAR RULE BY JUNTA
 DVB: STUDENTS ARRESTED FOR PLANNING NEW YEAR'S EVE DEMO
 REUTERS: 36 JOURNALISTS WERE MURDERED IN 1999 
 SCMP: OPTIMISM DIFFICULT TO FIND AS GROWTH PASSES POOR BY 
 AP: MYANMAR UNIVERSITIES SLOWLY REOPEN
 BURMANET: NLM HEADLINES--KHIN NYUNT LECTURES WOMEN, CHIDES ATHLETES

International-
 REUTERS: BANGLADESH FORCES TRADE FIRE WITH MYANMAR
 BANGKOK POST: RATCHABURI PLANT OPENS

*********************************************** 
BURMANET: REGIME SILENT ON ARRESTS, CLOSURES SAID RELATED TO BURMANET
December 29, 1999

Regime spokesmen have thus far declined to comment on reports 
carried by The BurmaNet News yesterday of the arrests of 
several persons for having reports carried on BurmaNet on
their computers.  The original report, carried by Democratic 
Voice of Burma radio (DVB) said that several persons were arrested
for violating the Official Secrets Act, allegedly for 
reading material published by BurmaNet.  DVB also reported that
the Eagle Computer Company and the Winner Computer school
had been ordered closed and that several Eagle staff members were
among those detained.

DVB identified Okkar and Maung Myanmar, two regular posters of regime 
public relations and news material on the Internet as Lt. Col. Hla Min 
and Ambassador to the UK Kyaw Win.  The report appears to corroborate an 
account in this week's issue of AsiaWeek which attributes the closure of 
Eagle to the regime's desire to eliminate competition from the state-run 
Internet service.

BurmaNet is still trying to confirm the arrests, closures and 
identification of the regime spokesmen but thus far, Okkar and Maung 
Myanmar have not responded to requests for interviews with BurmaNet.  
Eagle Computer's website (http://www.digiserve.com/eaglegroup/) is still 
on the web.

If accounts of the arrests and closures prove true--which seems likely--
this will not be the regime's first heavy handed attempt to control the 
Internet and other forms of modern communications in Burma.  

In 1996, Leo Nichols, a Anglo-Burmese who was serving as an honorary
consul for the European Union was arrested for allowing Aung San Suu Kyi
to use his fax machine and died in mysterious conditions shortly after
being taken into government custody.  According to U.S. Sen. Daniel
Patrick Moynihan, Nichols "was murdered [by the regime] because he was 
found in possession of a fax machine." 
http://www.clark.net/pub/burmaus/3540-3.txt.

Also in 1996, started a cyber-warfare center to counter the use of
the Internet by BurmaNet and others and also promulgated a 
bizarrely written piece of legislation called the Computer Science 
Development Law. 
(See http://www.myanmar.com/gov/laws/computerlaw.html)  

The law's objectives include "to contribute towards the emergence 
of a modern developed State through computer science" but goes on 
to penalize anyone who possesses possesses unauthorized computers, 
software, or faxes or "sets up a computer network or connects a 
link inside the computer network" with prison terms of 7 to 15 years.  
These long prison sentences make the law the harshest Internet 
censorship statute in the world.

Ironically, Lt. Col. Hla Min who is in charge of the regime's 
Internet PR and censorship is also it's point man in its effort 
to roll back international sanctions against the regime. 
(http://www.burmafund.org/Research_Library/washington_post.htm)
Ironic because the regime's efforts to control or keep out
the Internet are increasingly functioning like the trade sanctions 
the generals abhore.

No existing international sanctions bar Burma's access to 
the Internet or prevent its companies from engaging in 
E-commerce.  By shutting down Eagle and several computer 
schools however, the authorities are doing what even the  
stiffest trade sanctions could not--strangle any prospects
for Burma's ruined economy to be resuscitated.


*********************************************** 
BURMANET: GOVT POST OFFICES NO LONGER TAKING BURMESE CURRENCY FOR INT'L 
MAIL
December 29, 1999

Burmese living in the United States are reporting difficulty
receiving mail from Burma because their families cannot
afford to send packages after the regime stopped accepting
Burmese currency to pay for international postage.  Notices
of the hard currency requirement are posted in government
post offices. 

Sending mail from Burma now requires Foreign Exchange Certificates
(FECs) or U.S. dollars and the change represents in implicit but
dramatic increase in the cost of postage.  

The rate for one letter to the United States is reported to be 
one dollar or one FEC.  The FEC is pegged to the dollar but 
generally trades at a discount because the regime has spent some 
of the private sector foreign currency deposits held by 
Burma's central bank.

***********************************************
ABC: NO PLACE LIKE HELL 
December 28 1999 
By Edward Mazza 

Dec. 27 ? One thousand years ago, historians say, many people were 
ignorant of the year in which they lived, let alone its millennial 
significance ? or lack thereof. 

Their lives were bleak, their futures grim, and an apocalypse may have 
seemed like a good idea. After all, the world beyond couldn?t have been 
any worse, could it? 

For many, the feeling today is much the same. Who can celebrate while 
being tortured at the hands of their own government? Who understands 
what year it is while enslaved and denied even the ability to read and 
write? Who wants to party when an unseen enemy lobs missiles, mortars 
and rockets at villages and marketplaces? 

Life is still hellish in many parts of the world. Here?s a look at how 
some people will be spending the start of the new millennium. 

ANGOLA 

The prospect of getting blown to bits by an assailant who left the 
scene days, months or even years ago is not a pleasant one, but it?s one 
faced daily by many of the people of Angola. 

Decades of civil war have left the country littered with land mines 
and, as the fighting continues, more mines are being laid, according to 
Liz Bernstein, coordinator for the International Campaign to Ban 
Landmines. 

"It?s one of the most heavily mined countries in one of the most 
heavily mined continents on earth," she said. 

According to the U.S. State Department, Angola is rife with 
"high-intensity military actions, bandit attacks, undisciplined police 
and military personnel, and land mines in rural areas." 

Angolans are killed or maimed regularly for merely being in the wrong 
place at the wrong time, with both government and rebel UNITA forces 
placing the deadly devices in civilian locations to punish populations 
suspected of sympathizing with the other side. 

That means common areas such as water holes and places where firewood 
is gathered can be mined. "That?s the terror of the land mine," 
Bernstein said. 

In the province of Moxico alone, at least 52 people were killed by 133 
land-mine explosions in the area this year. Over the same period of 
time, 59 locals had their legs amputated as a result of injuries 
sustained from land mines. 

Other areas facing land mine problems include Afghanistan, Kosovo, 
Chechnya, Mozambique, Namibia and Botswana, Bernstein said. In Cambodia, 
no new mines have been laid and progress has been made clearing those 
still planted, but it remains a problem ? up to 10 million mines remain. 


In Central America, the rains of Hurricane Mitch caused many of the 
mines in Honduras and Nicaragua to shift, meaning they have to be 
located all over again before they can be cleared ? and until they are 
found, they are a threat to all passers-by. 

THE BALKANS 

While multinational troops have, for the time being, defused much of 
the conflict in the Balkans, the region?s problems are by no means 
solved. 

Witness the recent death of a U.S. serviceman, killed when his vehicle 
hit a land mine on a road supposedly cleared. Land mines laid during the 
war remain a threat to civilians and peacekeepers alike. 

The problem, said Steve Claborne, Mercy Corps? director of program 
operations for the Balkans, is that mine-clearing operations have been 
suspended for the winter. Although most were marked, rain and other 
weather conditions have caused some of them to shift, putting the 
civilian population once again in harm?s way. 

"People who need to plan or plant their winter wheat seed are taking a 
huge risk," he said. 

Violence still mars much of the region, especially Kosovo, where ethnic 
tensions often lead to street fighting. People are still beaten and 
sometimes killed because they are a Serb or ethnic Albanian in the wrong 

place at the wrong time. 

"That?s still very much the major issue looking forward," said 
Claborne. "It has not been sorted out." 

In Bosnia, many people have a roof over their heads ? for the time 
being ? just not their own. Some 700,000 people are displaced, and 
living in homes that belong to someone else. The trouble begins when the 
family that originally owned the home comes back to reclaim it. 

"Where do they go?" Claborne asked. 

For many in Kosovo, the housing situation is even worse. 


"There?s still lots of people living in tents or houses with no windows 
or doors or roof," he said. These people will need to be relocated to 
"collective centers," basically indoor refugee camps. 

But the situation is far better than it has been; food is far from 
plentiful, but most people have enough to eat, thanks in large part due 
to foreign aid. 

BURMA 

Disease, hunger, forced labor and civil war are daily facts of life in 
many parts of Burma, also known as Myanmar. 

"If you?re a citizen of Burma, you?re in danger of having to become a 
refugee from war," said Amnesty International?s Jim Roberts. "You?re in 
danger of being conscripted into forced labor battalions. If you?re 
politically active, you?re in danger of being jailed. If you?re in 
prison, you?re in danger of contracting AIDS ? they use unsterilized 
syringes on prisoners." 

The Burmese government is considered one of the world?s least-pleasant 
regimes. The U.S. State Department has warned that the "military 
government suppresses expression of opposition to its rule," and says 
even foreign nationals are detained if they are suspected of helping to 
foment democracy. 

Torture is common, said Roberts. Amnesty believes that at any given 
time, about 1,500 people are in jail for their political beliefs. 
Because many are then released and others then picked up, the actual 
number of people who have been jailed or beaten for their beliefs is 
much higher, he said. 

"You?re in distinct danger of being tortured if you?re arrested," he 
said. "Virtually every type of torture you could think of is reported, 
but mostly it?s beatings, electric shock and near-drowning." 

But Roberts says the government?s abuse goes beyond torture. 

"In many parts of Burma, you?re going to be hungry," he said. This, he 
added, is due to mismanagement of the land by state authorities. Rice 
paddies often lie fallow as the military carries out counter-insurgency 
operations. 

The true extent of the problems in Burma is unknown. The regime is 
careful about what information it makes public. 

"We would like to send Amnesty International monitors or some other 
acceptable international human rights investigating team to Burma to 
study the problems on the ground, problems in the prisons and jails and 
in the field near military bases, but the government of Burma doesn?t 
seem willing at this point in time to allow that," Roberts said. 

However, the government has agreed to allow some Red Cross workers into 
the country, a move he called "a very positive step." 

But that?s about the only good news to come from Burma in recent years. 

"We haven?t seen much change in Burma in the nature of the types of 
violations that have been reported," he said. 

CHECHNYA 

In early December, Moscow gave the people of Grozny, the capital of the 
breakaway republic of Chechnya, an ultimatum: Leave or die. 

While many had already fled to places such as the neighboring republic 
of Ingushetia, others were either too old or frail to leave. Even the 
healthy ones feared being attacked as they left, since there are no real 
safe corridors out of the city, said Amnesty International?s Maureen 
Greenwood. 

Moscow says it is fighting a war against terrorists and bandits. But 
Amnesty says the human toll among civilians has been enormous, and 
continues to get worse. 

"If you?re a Chechen that just fled into Ingushetia, you?re facing a 
freezing cold winter and shortages of food," she said. "Many children 
are living in train cars or sheds on a dirt floor with low levels of 
food. There?s no international humanitarian aid workers there." 

Inside the borders of Chechnya, the situation is even more dire. In 
addition to a cold winter and lack of food, the people are subject to 
indiscriminate bombing campaigns by the Russian military, she said. 

One attack in October on a Chechen marketplace left 137 civilians dead 
and 400 wounded. Among the dead were 13 mothers and 15 newborns at a 
nearby hospital and 41 people gathered in prayer, she said. 

Making matters worse, villages that try to expel the guerillas sought 
by Moscow face reprisals. In the village of Gekhi, she said, the people 
tried to expel the fighters. The guerrillas in turn attacked the 
villagers. 

"You?re absolutely caught in the crossfire with no place to go in 
winter," she said. But aid workers will not go to Chechnya because 
Russia will not guarantee safe access, a move Greenwood called 
"unprecedented." 

"I?m not optimistic," she said. 


*********************************************** '
SCMP: WORLD BANK REPORT DAMNING INDICTMENT OF 37-YEAR RULE BY RANGOON 
JUNTA

South China Morning Post
WILLIAM BARNES in Bangkok 

December 29, 1999

The Burmese people are in dire - and deteriorating - straits. 

That is the conclusion that jumps out at readers of the World Bank's 
latest Economic and Social Assessment of the country. 

The report, which has so far had only limited circulation in its draft
form, is partly designed to spread an array of urgent policy suggestions
before the junta. 

It is also a subtle, damning indictment of 37 years of military rule,
even if it claims "remarkable gains" in poverty reduction and human
development in, approximately, the decade to the mid-1990s. 

The condition of a country that was known as the rice bowl of Asia 
half a century ago might perhaps be encapsulated in the startling 
acknowledgement that nearly one in four households - about 13 
million people - spends so little they must live below subsistence 
levels. 

The inevitable correlation is high rates of malnutrition in children:
three out of 10 suffer "moderate wasting", while 10 per cent are
 "severely malnourished". 

Noting the "high value" placed by Burmese culture on education, the
World Bank then points out that three out of 10 five-year-olds fail
to begin infant school and only 40 per cent of the rest finish even
primary school. 

The report squarely blames that, and the very poor state of national 
health, on the relative decline of spending on social services over 
the past decade in favour of continued support for a bloated military
 establishment and on loss -making state enterprises. 

Poor families who cannot afford to pay fees to schools or for school
uniforms are often doubly penalised when they cannot maintain even 
a minimal household income without sending their children out to work. 

Burma's health and education budgets, as a share of nation income, are
among the world's lowest, the report notes. 

Even where the official figures show gains in terms of absolute poverty
and life expectancy after the mid-1970s, Burma's performance has lagged
behind near neighbours such as Indonesia and Vietnam. 

The regime did half-open up the economy after 1988, partly in response 
to bloodily suppressed mass protests, and that did prompt growth to pick
up quite briskly for several years. 

But that economic pick-up has fallen away sharply in recent years, 
leaving 
behind ugly inflation rates. 

Surveys in Rangoon and Mandalay last year showed that 70 per cent of 
families were forced to borrow money at least "a few times" a year, 
mostly simply to buy food. 

The World Bank argues that because the authorities are so poor at 
providing social services and so weak at generating their own revenues, 
the only real hope of boosting education and health care is through 
private spending. 

And, critically, this will mean lifting the level of the countryside,
which generates three-quarters of national GDP and provides 92 per cent
 of all employment. 

Yet the regime's present polices depress the contribution of agriculture
- notably through its requirement that much of the rice production be 
sold to the state at predetermined prices. 

Even in towns where there are few big companies - not many people work 
in firms with more than 10 employees - small and medium-sized businesses 

are hamstrung by a lack of access to credit, crowded out by favoured 
state enterprises and subject to vague business regulations. 

The United Nations is earnestly trying to engage the regime - with the 
World Bank - by making tentative offers of advice and financial help. 

Given the role of the West, notably the US, in funding the World Bank 
and other international lenders, it is hard to imagine even modest 
fresh funding being available without the regime making some 
significant political concessions. 

These might include the release of political prisoners - however it 
chooses to describe them - and the acceleration of moves towards 
civilian rule. 

The report admits in a brief section that a description of poverty 
and human development would be "incomplete without a discussion of
 the human rights problems and civil conflicts that have plagued 
the country for many years and impeded its development". 

It highlights two "human rights issues . . . the failure of the 
regime to accept the results of a multi-party election held in 
1992 and forced labour practices". 

The reports adds: "Progress in both respects will be the key to 
progress in human development in Myanmar (Burma)." 

Many critics of the military will see in those short sentences 
the key to unlocking Burma's problems of poverty, schooling and 
health. 

The regime described the report as "exaggerated". 



*********************************************** 
DVB: STUDENTS ARRESTED FOR PLANNING NEW YEAR'S EVE DEMO
December 27, 1999

Democratic Voice of Burma radio
Translation by BBC Summary of World Broadcasts

Some students were arrested in Mandalay, Pakokku, and Mergui for
allegedly planning to stage students protests on 31st December, 
New Year's Eve. 

Military Intelligence [MI] Unit 19 arrested seven students 
including Ninth Standard Student Maung Naing Oo, age 19 years
 of Kansaung Ward, Mergui, Tenasserim Division, on 25th December,
 Christmas Night. When Maung Naing Oo's parents asked why their
 son was arrested, the MI personnel replied that he was detained
 for allegedly planning to stage a students protest on New Year's
 Eve. Maung Naing Oo was also arrested on 12th August for staging
 a protest in Mergui to commemorate the 11th anniversary of the
 8-8-88 mass democracy demonstrations. He was detained for more
 than a month at an interrogation centre and was released after
 his homeroom teacher and parents signed a bond on his behalf. 

Similarly, Maung Myint Swe, a second year student from Pakokku
 Degree College in Magwe Division, and four other students were
 also arrested by MI personnel on Christmas night. They were
 arrested for allegedly planning to hold a year 2000 eve prayer service. 


Similarly, Maung Toe Win, a student from Yangon [Rangoon] Institute
 of Technology [YIT] residing at Myoma Kwetthit in Mandalay, and 
three other students were arrested by MI Unit 16 on Christmas night. 

They were arrested for possessing instigative papers entitled 
"What will the students do in Year 2000" and "The role of
Burmese students in the 21st century". 

The authorities also seized writings and poems in honour of
Ko Aung Tun, a former YIT student who was serving a long
prison term in Insein Jail for writing a paper on the 
history of the students' struggle in Myanmar [Burma],
from Maung Toe Win. 

*********************************************** 
REUTERS: 36 JOURNALISTS WERE MURDERED IN 1999 
Dec 28, 1999 

PARIS, Dec 28 (Reuters) - At least 36 journalists were murdered in 1999 
for doing their job or voicing their opinions, almost twice as many as 
in 1998, press freedom group Reporters sans Frontieres said on Tuesday. 
Another 446 journalists had been arrested, of whom 85 were still in 
prison, 653 had been attacked or threatened and 357 media organisations 
censored, the international Paris-based group said in a statement. 

``Press freedom is non-existent in a score of countries where nearly two 
billion people live. In nearly 70 other countries press freedom is 
uncertain,'' it said. 

Reporters sans Frontieres (RsF) said the surge in killings this year, 
almost double the 19 who died in 1998, was due mainly to the spread of 
armed conflict. 

In one of the worst cases, Sierra Leone RUF rebels executed nine 
reporters close to the government while soldiers from the West African 
ECOMOG intervention force killed another. 

Paramilitaries are thought to be responsible for 12 murders in Colombia 
and Serbia, while Russian and Indonesian troops are accused of a further 
deaths in Chechnya (three) and East Timor (two) respectively, RsF said. 

The number of reporters in prison on December 28, 1999 was slightly 
lower than those in jail on the same date last year -- 85 now compared 
to 93 a year ago. 

But over the year nearly five times that number were detained for some 
period, notably in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Cuba and 
Turkey, the press watchdog said. 

Myanmar held more reporters in jail (13) in 1999 than any other country, 
closely followed by Syria (10), China and Ethiopia (both with nine), it 
said. 

JOURNALISTS TORTURED OR REFUSED TREATMENT 

RsF -- known as Reporters without Borders in English -- alleged 
journalists imprisoned in Myanmar, Syria, Turkey, the DRC and Sierra 
Leone were either tortured or refused treatment when seriously ill. 

Some 34 reporters were kidnapped during 1999 as conflicts spread, 
particularly in Sierra Leone, Colombia and Chechnya. 

The kidnapping of journalists in Chechnya had become a ``veritable 
industry'' with armed bands demanding enormous ransoms, it said. French 
photographer Brice Fleutiaux, one of three reporters kidnapped there, 
was being held in a cave and probably maltreated, it added. 

Censorship increased over the year as conflicts mounted. 

``The proclamation of a state of war (or emergency) is an excuse in 
certain countries for restricting press freedom,'' RsF said, citing 
Serbia, Sri Lanka, the DRC, Angola and Russia. 

RsF singled out 20 states it said were ``enemies of the Internet,'' 
among a list of 75 which kept tight control on all forms of 
communication, particularly television and the Web. 

Myanmar, Cuba, Tunisia, Vietnam and China were among those who 
controlled Net access, blocked sites they considered ``undesirable'' and 
severely punished people who used the Web to disseminate sensitive 
information such as details of human rights abuse, RsF said. 


*********************************************** 
SCMP: OPTIMISM DIFFICULT TO FIND AS GROWTH PASSES POOR BY 
December 29, 1999 

CURRENTS by HOWARD WINN 

It is difficult to be optimistic about the Mekong region's prospects for 
the next millennium. 

The rapid growth elsewhere in Asia appears to be passing it by. Burma, 
Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam remain among the world's poorest countries. 

Thailand is still the region's economic giant in relative terms, but its 
Faustian model of economic development is viewed by its neighbours with 
a mixture of envy and horror. 

Its burgeoning expansion, and increase in material wealth for some, have 
attracted plaudits from many, including the International Monetary Fund, 
while the World Bank has praised it as a model for developing countries. 


But Thailand's rapid growth has severely affected the rural poor. 
Gobbling up farmland, factories and golf courses compete with paddy 
fields for water from polluted rivers. And such development has deprived 
large numbers of peasants of their livelihood, forcing them into urban 
areas where they provide a source of cheap labour for business. 

This poverty and exploitation has in turn given rise to the increasingly 
strong growth of non-governmental organisations (NGOs). 

These have helped rural people mobilise in an effort to protect their 
livelihoods and environment against the negative effects of swift 
industrialisation and market forces. 

NGOs have been an important force for the development of civil society 
in Thailand. 

Elsewhere in the region, the relatively closed economies of the other 
Mekong countries have protected them to a large extent from the shocks 
of the Asian economic crisis. 

But the experience has made Laos and Vietnam, in particular, even more 
circumspect about opening up their economies and exposing them to even 
limited competition. 

There is little prospect of significant change in Vietnam in the near 
future. And the Laotian economy is slipping, with around 150 per cent 
inflation, a wildly fluctuating currency and a sharp slowdown in 
tourism, its prime earner. 

Worse, Laos is beset by chronically weak economic management. 

Burma remains hamstrung by the political deadlock between Aung San Suu 
Kyi and the military junta, which has sharply affected the economy as 
foreign countries withhold development aid and investment. Rangoon 
attracted just US$12 million (HK$93 million) in the first half of this 
year. 

Among the small countries, Cambodia appears to be the most likely to 
progress in material terms with gross domestic product growth expected 
to be around four per cent this year, up from one per cent in 1998. 

*********************************************** 
AP: MYANMAR UNIVERSITIES SLOWLY REOPEN

December 29
The Associated Press

 YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Engineering students in Myanmar began returning
to classes this week, three years after the military regime closed all
universities to quell political protests.

Authorities have taken the precaution of moving the university classes
away from traditional campuses - the focal points of student unrest in
the capital.

Universities, hotbeds of activism since the days of British colonial
rule, have been open a total of only 30 months since 1988, when the
current generation of generals came to power after crushing an uprising
against a quarter-century of military rule.

The government's economics czar, Brig. Gen. David Abel, told foreign
reporters that classes at universities and colleges were being reopened
gradually and all would be holding classes by May. He said medical and
dental institutes and technical colleges were also open.

Third- and fourth-year engineering students from the capital began
studies Monday at newly-opened Yangon Technology University in
Hlaingtharyar, 10 miles from downtown Yangon. No unrest was reported.

``Though this new campus is far from my house, I am so excited to return
to classes,'' said Thu Thu. She said it took 40 minutes to get to the
campus from her house downtown.

Other classes of the institute remain suspended. First- and second-year
engineering classes were expected to resume in early 2000.

The government says relocating campuses is for student convenience.
Students outside Yangon will study in Prome, 150 miles north of the
capital, and those in upper Myanmar will study in Mandalay, the
second-biggest city in this Southeast Asian nation, also known as Burma.

Yangon Technology University is the new name for Yangon Institute of
Technology, whose old campus in the capital used to be a center for
student demonstrations, including protests that triggered the failed
1988 uprising.

Along with other colleges in Myanmar, it was last closed Dec. 9, 1996,
following protests against police handling of a quarrel between students
and some restaurant workers.

The protests had quickly taken on a political edge, and the generals
accused Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate and leader of Myanmar's
embattled democracy movement, of organizing them. She denied it, saying
national grievances were too widespread for her to control them all.

Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy, have been
undercut in the past three years by the forced closure of party branches
and the refusal of the government to open a dialogue, despite pressure
from economic sanctions.

*********************************************** 
BURMANET: NLM HEADLINES--KHIN NYUNT LECTURES WOMEN, CHIDES ATHLETES
December 29, 1999
Today's headlines from the Internet edition of The New Light of Myanmar
(See http://www.myanmar.com/nlm/enlm/Dec29.html) includes an article 
on a coordination meeting of the Myanmar National Working Committee 
for Women?s Affairs of Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and 
Resettlement. (See NLM: Myanmar women urged to preserve rights in accord 
with Myanmar?s history, religious teachings, traditions and culture).  

The meeting on Women's Affairs consisted of two speeches by male 
generals,including Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt who told the women that "Myanmar 
women have enjoyed equal rights with men" and urged them to make efforts 
to, among other things "safe guarding the lineage...on which the nation 
can rely."  

In 1995, the regime also sent a male Colonel to head Burma's delegation
to the Fourth U.N. Conference on Women where he told the assembly
that "Myanmar women have been bestowed equality with men as an inherent 
right."  (See  
gopher://gopher.undp.org/00/unconfs/women/conf/gov/950914130758%09%09%2B)


Later in the day, Khin Nyunt spoke at a coordination meeting of the
National Olympic Council where he "laid down the lofty objectives of 
'Myanmar Sports the World to Conquer'"."  The general chided the Council 
saying that despite encouragement given to sports and businessmen 
"success was not achieved as expected." (NLM: Secretary l attends 
Myanmar National Olympic Council meeting).

*********************************************** 
REUTERS: BANGLADESH FORCES TRADE FIRE WITH MYANMAR
DEC. 29

  
COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Bangladesh and Myanmar
border troops have exchanged fire across their mutual frontier near the
southern Bangladeshi resort town of Cox's Bazar, security officials said
on Wednesday. 

``The three-hour exchange occured early on Tuesday as the Myanmar
frontier force Nasaka fired on our camp across the border without any
provocation,'' Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Wasim of the Bangladesh
Rifles (BDR) told Reuters. 

``The Nasaka used heavy machine guns while BDR silenced them with
mortars,'' he said, adding it was not immediately known if there were
any casualties. 

The Myanmar side was yet to respond to a BDR proposal for a meeting over
the incident, which occurred at Tumbru, 65 km (40 miles) southeast of
Cox's Bazar, Wasim said. 

Cross border shooting incidents are not uncommon between the two sides,
often accompanied by Bangladeshi allegations of intrusions by Myanmar
forces into its territory. 

The latest shootout followed the arrest of two suspected Myanmar
militants armed with sub-machineguns along the frontier on Sunday,
officials said. 

But it was not immediately clear if the shooting incident was linked to
the arrests. 

The arrested militants said they were members of the Nasaka but
Bangladesh police suspect them of belonging to armed Moslem groups
seeking either a separate homeland or an end to the Yangon military
junta's rule. 

``We are investigating, they could be separatists,'' one police officers
said, adding they had seized their guns along with more than 50 rounds
of live ammunition. 

In the early 1990s Myanmar forces overran a BDR camp near the border,
killing one paramilitary soldier. 

``They often intrude into our territory and abduct fishermen and wood
cutters,'' a BDR officer said, adding nearly 300 Bangladeshis, mostly
fishermen, were now in Myanmar jails. 

The official said the fishermen had been charged falsely with illegal
fishing. 

*********************************************** 
BANGKOK POST: RATCHABURI PLANT OPENS

December 28, 1999

ENERGY

Ratchaburi plant opens

Initially using only one gas turbine

Boonsong Kositchotethana

The Ratchaburi power plant, built to run primarily on natural gas from 
offshore Burma, was officially put onstream by the Electricity 
Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) yesterday.

Construction of the plant, ultimately to be one of Asean's largest power
stations with a planned generating capacity of 3,200 megawatts (MW), was 
delayed by 18 months from the original schedule, mainly because of 
problems experienced by the contractors, a consortium of Japan's Mitsui 
& Co and General Electric of the US.

However, only the first gas turbine, with a generating capacity of 200 
megawatts, started operation yesterday, resulting in only a small
volume of natural gas from the Yadana gas field, about 70 million cubic 
feet per day, being taken.

The subsequent five gas turbines, each with 200-megawatt capacity,
are to come online between January and August next year, according to
Egat governor Viravat Chlayon.

In addition, the first three steam turbine generators, each with a
capacity of 200 megawatts, are due for commissioning by July.

A combined-cycle block-two gas turbines and one steam
generator-requires 158 million cubic feet per day of natural gas.

Meanwhile, Egat has scheduled two thermal units, each with a
generating capacity of 700 megawatts, for commissioning next year,
one in June and the other in November.

If all the generating units come online as scheduled, Egat will be able 
to take delivery next year of 525 million cubic feet per day, as 
committed between the Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT) and the 
Yadana gas consortium led by the French-Belgian group, TotalFina.

The PTT and the Yadana group earlier this year resolved a bitter
dispute over the gas payment, caused by the delay in taking the gas.

The Yadana developing group agreed to accept US$50 million from the
PTT as settlement for money owed by the state oil firm.

The payment was $12 million lower than the $62 million owed to
consortium under the "take-or-pay" contract. The contract called for the 
Petroleum Authority of Thailand to make payment by last March for the 
gas which it had not been able to take because of the delay in the
construction of the plant.

***END***************************************** 


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