BurmaNet News: January 13-14, 2000

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---------------- The BurmaNet News ----------------
January 13-14, 2000
Issue # 1439
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HEADLINES:
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Inside Burma-
 SCMP: EFFORTS TO REVIVE EDUCATION 'FEEBLE'
 AP: MYANMAR BARS IMPORT OF CHOCOLATE, CHEWING GUM, THROUGH LAND BORDER
 DVB: BURMA PLANS TO CAPTURE GOD'S ARMY BASE 
 RADIO MYANMAR: LEADER SAYS "DESTRUCTIVE ELEMENTS" OBSTRUCTING TOURISM 
 BKK POST/FT INTEL WIRE: TRAVELLERS TALES- BURMA'S AIRLINE POLICY 
BACKFIRES
 AFP: MYANMAR OFFICIAL PRESS LASHES AUNG SAN SUU KYI OVER JAPAN 
 DPA: JAPAN PROVIDES "GRASS-ROOTS" ASSISTANCE TO MYANMAR'S CHIN STATE 

International-
 DPA: THAI POLICE SEIZE 126 KILOGRAMS OF U.S.-DESTINED HEROIN 
 DAILY TELEGRAPH (LONDON):  'LOST TRIBE' MEMBERS SEEK A RETURN TO JEWISH 
ROOTS 
 BANGKOK POST: THAI-BURMESE RELATIONS- EXPLOSIONS BRING KAREN OVER 
BORDER 
 INDIANAPOLIS STAR: BURMA'S OPPRESSIVE REIGN AGAINST ITS PEOPLE--LETTER 

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SCMP: EFFORTS TO REVIVE EDUCATION 'FEEBLE' 
South China Morning Post

Jan. 13, 2000
WILLIAM BARNES in Bangkok 

The reopening of Burma's big universities appears unlikely to do more 
than partially resolve the dire education vacuum, informed observers 
said yesterday. 

Thirty core universities were shut in late 1996 after a round of student 
protests rattled a military regime that has kept open defiance in check 
for at least 10 years. 

Rather than risk simply opening even the original bruised colleges, the 
regime is creating "sanitised" campuses offering degrees stripped of any 
subjects that might touch on politics or current affairs. 

Such moves betrayed a carelessness that promised, at best, a feeble 
education and, at worst, sham degrees, one foreign expert said. 

Critics of the regime have consistently claimed that the ruling generals 
place an unusually low priority on education. 

Most universities have been open for less than three years since 
nation-wide protests erupted in 1988 - prompting expressions of alarm 
from even relatively friendly countries like Japan. 

Yet military and medical colleges did not close and post-graduate study 
appears to have been carried on in most institutes. A few classes, 
especially voluntary evening classes, appear to have been held in all 
colleges. 

The Government has also offered distance learning courses and - in 1998 
- quickie degrees after a week or so of cramming. 

The partial return of students to the Rangoon Technology University - a 
traditional hotbed of student activism - appears likely to be the 
pattern for the rest of the country. 

Classes for third- and fourth-year students in "safe" subjects like 
engineering restarted a fortnight ago, but at a new campus about 30 
minutes drive from the capital. 

Students have been made to sign papers promising not to engage in any 
political activity and warned sharply that any political demonstrations 
will see the college doors slammed shut again. 

The Government has said that first- and second-year students will be 
permitted to return in May. 

New college-age students are being forced to attend two-year engineering 
diploma courses, perhaps to weed out troublemakers, at Government 
Technical Colleges before going on to other institutions. 

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

AP: MYANMAR BARS IMPORT OF CHOCOLATE, CHEWING GUM, THROUGH LAND BORDER

2000-01-12 04:04:13

	   YANGON, Myanmar (AP) _ Myanmar's government has added chewing
gum, chocolate and cake to the list of products banned from import
through land, a local weekly magazine reported Wednesday.
	   No reason was given for the order issued by the commerce
ministry, reported the Myanmar-language Hmugin. Other banned items
include wafers and plastic ware.
	   There are now 15 items on the list of banned imports and 32
banned from export.
	   The order was dated Nov. 26 last year, two days after the
reopening of border checkpoints with Thailand. The checkpoints had
been closed after Thailand allowed five Myanmar students who took
over the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok to go free. The students were
trying to publicize the cause of the pro-democracy movement that
opposes Myanmar's military dictatorship.
	   Myanmar, also called Burma, is one of the poorest countries in
Asia, and has a tightly-controlled economy despite liberalization
in recent years to allow foreign investment. The government has few
foreign reserves, and keeps the currency valued artificially high.
	   Two-way trade with Thailand, which shares a 2,000 kilometer
(1,240 mile) border with Myanmar, officially totaled dlrs 382.7
million in the first nine months of 1999, compared with dlrs 410
million in the whole of 1998.

DVB: BURMA PLANS TO CAPTURE GOD'S ARMY BASE 

Democratic Voice of Burma, Oslo
In Burmese 1245 gmt 12 Jan 00 


Dear listeners. The State Peace and Development Council [SPDC] is 
engaging in a big offensive against the God's Army [GA] base in 
Kamerplaw in a bid to capture the GA-controlled region near the 
Thai-Burma border. The SPDC staged the offensive because the GA has 
granted a safe haven to the students [the Vigorous Burmese Students 
Warriors] who besieged the Burmese embassy in Bangkok. A battle took 
place this morning when the SPDC column from the Kamerplaw offensive met 
with a KNU [Karen National Union] guerrilla group. DVB correspondent 
Htet Aung Kyaw has more details. 

[Htet Aung Kyaw] A KNU official, who phoned to DVB [Democratic Voice of 
Burma] from the border, confirmed that the battle, which lasted about 20 
minutes, took place near Amaehta region between the Tenasserim River and 
the Thai border. No news were available on the casualties. The battle 
involved troops from LIB [Light Infantry Battalion] 116 under LID [Light 
Infantry Division] 33. Veteran KNU fighters based on the border believed 
the SPDC has already drawn an offensive to capture Kamerplaw before 27th 
March, Armed Forces Day. The offensive on Kamerplaw and Maechar consists 
of troops from LID 33, LIB 9, and columns from Coastal Region Military 
Command totalling six battalions. 

As the SPDC forces advance, the Karen villagers are fleeing their homes 
and escaping towards the border. Unfortunately, the refugees were unable 
to travel to Htanhin refugee camp inside Thailand since the Thai armed 
forces have cordoned off the border. The SPDC columns, after burning and 
destroying the Karen villages along the Tenasserim River banks, are 
marching towards Kamerplaw. 

Sources near the border said more fierce battles are expected in the 
days ahead. 

***********************************************
RADIO MYANMAR: LEADER SAYS "DESTRUCTIVE ELEMENTS" OBSTRUCTING TOURISM 

Radio Myanmar, Rangoon, in Burmese 1330 gmt 12 Jan 00 

Excerpts from report by Burmese radio on 12th January 

Meeting No 1/2000 of the Management Committee for Tourism Development 
[MCTD] was held at 1400 today at the Strand Hotel. Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, 
secretary-1 of the State Peace and Development Council and chairman of 
the MCTD, addressed the meeting, saying that the meeting has been called 
to draw up future plans for further development of tourism. He said the 
tourist season at the beginning of the year is good and that Myanmar 
[Burma] should have a much better tourism industry as the country has 
peace and tranquillity and many attractions for tourists... 

However, there are destructive elements who oppose all endeavours of the 
government and distribute fabrications to cloud the view of the 
international community. He said this destructive group is sending out 
its fabrications to the external organizations and media who are 
supporting them in order to prevent tourists from visiting Myanmar. He 
said that is why tourism has not developed as much as it should in 
Myanmar... 

He said the government and private entrepreneurs are striving to develop 
tourism, but he called for vigilance as these destructive elements will 
continue to obstruct and engage in their subversive acts. He called for 
ways to disseminate news about peace, stability and progress in Myanmar 
through tourists and world media... 


***********************************************
BANGKOK POST/FT INTELLIGENCE WIRE: TRAVELLERS TALES- BURMA'S AIRLINE 
POLICY BACKFIRES 
Jan 14, 2000

Don Ross 

Cutting back THAI seats short-sighted 

Hoteliers in Rangoon are feeling the pinch. They claim the pressure was 
self-inflicted, when Burma's aviation authorities ordered Thai Airways 
International to reduce its weekly seat capacity by 1,000 seats. 

On paper the move made some sense to local aviation buffs. Burma's own 
national airline, Myanmar Airways International, was haemorrhaging cash 
while TG appeared to be turning a handsome profit on the Bangkok-Rangoon 
route. 

Based on primary school arithmetic, it was an easy enough task to 
balance the seat capacity between the tiny 737 owned by MAI and THAI's 
wide-bodied Airbuses. You either roped off 100 seats or told the overly 
enthusiastic competitor to cut one of its twice-daily services. 

Approximately six weeks after THAI cut seat capacity, city hoteliers 
report heavy cancellations. Two first-class hotels claimed they had each 
lost 100 to 120 room bookings in December alone. Other hoteliers claimed 
the European market was down by 12 percent. 

At first Rangoon's hoteliers played down the impact. Why fight city 
hall, they argued? Why fight someone else's battle? They even 
rationalised that Burma's national airline could take up the slack and 
no one would suffer. 

Those were pipe dreams. European tour operators had contracted seats on 
THAI and they were not about to transfer business to unknown MAI. They 
could count on THAI's twice-daily services to Rangoon, and of course 
they had access to bulk airfares to move their groups around Asia. 

Small players such as MAI would find this hard to match. A bulk buy gave 
some tour operators lower airfares on a THAI flight between Bangkok and 
Rangoon than MAI's best offer. So the simple logic that by roping off 
seats on a THAI flight the customers would transfer to the competitor 
didn't pan out for MAI. 

Even the local Thai market failed to perform. Thai travellers are still 
hesitant to visit Rangoon, after the embassy incident in Bangkok. Burma 
slammed the overland border gates shut and it rankled with local 
travellers. They put their Rangoon trips on hold. 

Travel agencies working the local tour market claim that MAI actually 
offered lower airfares to woo Thai travellers. Apparently THAI can 
undercut MAI in Europe while here in Bangkok it maintains a much higher 
fare. None of MAI's creative fare strategies have so far budged 
travellers. There are too many good offers around, especially on flights 
to Hong Kong. 

Brave hoteliers are now setting their sights on the Asean Tourism Forum 
due to open in Bangkok on Jan 22. The annual show will give Burma's 
hotel trade an opportunity to meet international travel buyers. They 
hope to raise the issue of airline seat capacity at private meetings 
with Asean top tourism officials. 

It won't have the slightest impact on policy makers back home in 
Rangoon. Sources there are adamant that the policy is to save the small 
national airline regardless of the impact on the rest of the tourist 
trade. 

The cost over the next six months could be high. If the capacity 
restraints remain in place, it is likely that THAI will downsize its 
services to Rangoon even further perhaps to one daily 737 service to 
serve local business traffic. 

THAI executives are hoping that the end of the winter season will bring 
the dawn of common sense in Rangoon's aviation circles. If that proves 
to be a forlorn hope, Rangoon's hotels will enter the rainy season with 
cashflow receding fast. Traditionally Burma relies on a packed winter 
season October to April to see it through the year. 

Hoteliers admit they will have to tap new markets, using other gateways 
than Bangkok. There are direct flights from Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, 
but MAI would face the same competitive environment as the national 
airlines of those countries also fly much larger aircraft. 

SMALLER PLANES, MORE FLIGHTS 

MAI has perhaps one option which, ironically, it has failed to 
recognise. Instead of slashing the capacity of a competitor, it would 
have been wiser to have teamed up with another smaller airline - Angel 
Air, PB Air or Bangkok Airways all have the credentials to be alliance 
partners. 

Even the disadvantage of owning smaller aircraft could have been turned 
into a positive factor if MAI had teamed up with another Thai airline 
providing frequency and convenient time slots rather than capacity. 

SAS demonstrated that it could compete with the giants of Europe by 
exploiting the frequency option on smaller aircraft. For example, four 
ATR 72 flights a day to Rangoon, each with 72 seats, would be far more 
convenient for tourists and business travellers than what is currently 
offered on the Bangkok-Rangoon route. 

The root of the seat capacity problem on this short 50-minute flight has 
nothing to do with the commercial side of business or leisure travel. It 
is a political issue that could be solved with one signature. Burma has 
to bite the bullet on tourism. Give travellers a visa on arrival at 
Rangoon airport for US(USDollar) 30 and banish the need to purchase 
(USDollar) 300 in Foreign Exchange Certificates. 

These two provisions would provide the foundation for MAI to enter into 
meaningful code sharing deals and joint ventures with other small 
airlines. 

Once frequent services are established to Rangoon and Mandalay and 
linked to a user-friendly visa-on-arrival provision, Burma would witness 
a transformation in its tourism profile that would help to put the 
country's economy back on its feet. 

* Readers can e-mail Don Ross at editor@xxxxxxxxxxxx 

***********************************************
AFP: MYANMAR OFFICIAL PRESS LASHES AUNG SAN SUU KYI OVER JAPAN 
Agence France Presse

DATELINE: YANGON, Jan 13 

BODY: 
   Myanmar's official media on Wednesday lashed out at opposition leader 
Aung San Suu Kyi, branding her a "nuisance" after she told Japan it had 
a duty to promote democracy when dealing with the country's military 
junta. 

In a blistering commentary, the New Light of Myanmar, rebuked the Nobel 
peace prize winner for "secretly and illegally" sending a message to 
millennium celebrations in Hong Kong. 

It said her comments that Japan as a democracy and Asia's richest nation 
had a duty to support democratic reforms in Myanmar was not "normal." 

"It was an attempt to interfere in the mutual understanding between the 
People's Republic of China and Japan," the article said, repeating 
familiar accusations that Aung San Suu Kyi is an agent of Western 
powers. 

In her New Year's message broadcast at a pro-democracy rally in Hong 
Kong, Aung San Suu Kyi criticised Asian nations for a "lack of 
compassion" and failure to support the democracy movement here. 

"I think there is a lack of compassion, which is a great pity and a 
great surprise because Buddhism was born in Asia and Buddhism is the 
great religion of compassion," she said. 

"As the richest Asian country and as a democracy Japan has a duty to 
promote human rights and democracy in other parts of Asia. 

"We hope the year 2000 will see a blossoming of Japanese interest in 
human rights and democracy." 

Her comments appeared to be a reaction to an economic mission to Yangon 
by former Japanese prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto last month. 

Japanese officials said on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast 
Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Manila in December that Japan was 
willing to help Myanmar if it embraced economic reform. 

The attack by the official media came as Japanese Prime Minister Keizo 
Obuchi was due to fly in to Bangkok for a three-day visit. 

***********************************************
DPA: JAPAN PROVIDES "GRASS-ROOTS" ASSISTANCE TO MYANMAR'S CHIN STATE 
Deutsche Presse Agentur

Yangon 

Japan signed on Thursday signed over 57,796 dollars in grant aid to a 
non-governmental Baptist churches association to construct a small 
hydroelectric power station in the impoverished Chin state in 
northwestern Myanmar (Burma), news reports said. 

The grant contract was signed by Japanese Ambassador to Myamar Kazuo 
Asakai and the Reverend Di Van, general secretary of the Lautu 
Association of Baptists Churches, based in the Chin state, about 300 
kilometres northwest of Yangon (Rangoon). 

The grant is part of Japan's Grass Roots Assistance Scheme for Myanmar, 
designed to direct development aid to non-governmental organizations in 
order to avoid criticism that Tokyo is supporting Yangon's pariah 
military regime. 

Like most democratic nations, Japan ended all government-to-government 
development aid to Myanmar following the military's bloody crackdown on 
pro-democracy demonstrations in Yangon in September 1988. 

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in a video message smuggled 
into Hong Kong and broadcast on New Year's eve, urged Japan to continue 
its ban on direct aid to Yangon's junta. 

Suu Kyi's message was blasted Thursday in an editorial published in the 
state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper. 

"It was an attempt to interfere in the mutual understanding between the 
People's Republic of China and Japan," said the editorial, which accused 
Suu Kyi of being the agent of unnamed neo-colonial powers. 

"There are countries which do not want the emergence of a multi-power 
world," said the editorial.

***********************************************
DAILY TELEGRAPH (LONDON):  'LOST TRIBE' MEMBERS SEEK A RETURN TO JEWISH 
ROOTS
Israeli authorities fear a flood of immigrants from around the world,
reports Alan Philps in Jerusalem 

BYLINE: By Alan Philps 

BODY: 
MEMBERS of a people who claim descent from one of the lost tribes of 
Israel have asked for permission to migrate from India to the Jewish 
state, 2,700 years after their tradition says they were forced into 
exile. 

The Israeli authorities fear it would open the floodgates for millions 
of people around the world who claim a perhaps mythical link to one of 
the 10 tribes which disappeared in the 8th century BC. 

The request comes from the Shinlung people, a collection of tribes who 
live in the Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur and across the border 
in Burma. 

They were converted to Christianity in the 19th century but believe they 
are descended from the lost tribe of Manasseh, one of 10 taken into 
exile by the Assyrians in 722 BC to what is now Iraq. 

Activists from the Shinlung people asked the Israeli parliament's 
immigration and absorption committee on Tuesday to allow 100 members a 
year to enter the country as immigrants and receive the subsidies and 
benefits that any Jewish person from the Diaspora would receive. 

But an ultra-orthodox member of the committee, Rabbi Shmuel Halpert, 
said: "If you bring one, think how many non-Jews will come." He said 
there were millions of people of Spanish origin - in Spain, Portugal and 
Latin America - who were descendants of Jews forced to convert to 
Christianity, but who kept up some Jewish practices in secret. "They 
have far more of a clear link to the Jewish people," he said. 

The government's adviser on immigration, Anna Isakov, said no more 
Shinlung should be allowed into Israel until a thorough investigation 
was made of their claims to be the lost tribe of Manasseh. 

Estimates of the numbers of the Shinlung vary from 1.5 million to three 
million, but only 3,500 are understood to be practising the Jewish faith 
actively. The cause of the Shinlung is being promoted by Rabbi Eliahu 
Avihail. Thanks to his efforts, 450 members of the tribe have entered 
Israel over the past 10 years, but each has to go through a year-long 
conversion process, as their claims to being Jewish are not recognised. 

Rabbi Avihail said yesterday: "Their traditions have many similarities 
with that of the ancient Israelites. They carry out circumcision of male 
children on the eighth day after birth, using sharpened stones, as was 
done in biblical times. They carry out sacrifices on altars." One song 
which has apparently been handed down for millennia contains the lines: 
"We crossed the Red Sea on dry land. At night we crossed with a fire and 
by day a cloud." They also mark the Passover with an evening meal, as 
Jews all over the world do. 

Rabbi Avihail says it is unfair to say that the Shinlung want to move to 
Israel for a better life. "They are rich and well-educated in India," he 
said. "They have cars and servants and nice homes. They lack nothing, 
and when they come here they live as paupers." 

Behind the government's reluctance to accept them lies a serious fear 
about the Jewish character of the state of Israel. 

More than half of new immigrants from the former Soviet Union last year 
were not Jewish according to rabbinical standards. 

There are many other "lost tribes" which might want to enter Israel, 
including the Pathans, who live in Afghanistan and Pakistan and number 
about 10 million, and the Lemba who believe they are the descendents of 
Jews who migrated from Palestine to Yemen, then crossed the Red Sea and 
made their way to southern Africa. 

Web Link http://www.bneimenashe.com/ 


***********************************************
BANGKOK POST: THAI-BURMESE RELATIONS- EXPLOSIONS BRING KAREN OVER BORDER 


Wassana Nanuam 

Embassy raiders still with 'God's Army' 

Burmese soldiers on patrol tripped some landmines on Wednesday and the 
explosions sparked a panic that caused more than 1,000 Karen to flee 
across the border into Suan Phung district of Ratchaburi, the First Army 
commander said. 

Lt-Gen Thaveep Suwannasingh said the Karen had arrived at Ban Mae Phia, 
where they were given shelter. 

They were being taken care of by the Interior Ministry and the United 
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and were expected to return home 
when the situation returns to normal. 

He said the Karen must follow regulations. They must not leave the 
shelter area or they would be considered war refugees. 

Meanwhile, the Surasi Task Force has reported the five Burmese students 
who seized the Burmese embassy in Bangkok last year are still staying 
with a group of Karen guerrillas. The commander of the 9th Infantry 
Division, Maj-Gen Sanchai Ratchatawan, who heads the task force, said 
the good relationship between Thai and Burmese soldiers posted in border 
areas had been affected by the embassy incident, but was being slowly 
restored. "In the past, Thai and Burmese soldiers lived in peace. 

"We could talk and ask one another for help. We ate and played takraw 
together," he said. "But there was trouble after the five Burmese 
students seized the embassy and fled to stay with Karen guerrillas. 

"I will not call them God's Army, as they should not be given that much 
respect. 

"They are only a small force led by two young men. I could even go so 
far as to call them kid bandits," Maj-Gen Sanchai said.

*************************************
DPA: THAI POLICE SEIZE 126 KILOGRAMS OF U.S.-DESTINED HEROIN 
Deutsche Presse Agentur

Jan. 12, 2000

Bangkok 


Thai police, acting on information provided by the United States's Drug 
Enforcement Agency (DEA), have seized 126 kilograms of heroin that was 
destined for the U.S., a senior government minister said on Wednesday. 

Two Thai nationals, identified as Thitichot Klangwansirichot and Preeya 
Sae Sui, both 24, were arrested on Monday after they allegedly left the 
huge heroin shipment at Bangkok International Airport, the Thai Interior 
Minister Sanan Kachornprasart said. 

The planned heroin shipment, worth 60 million baht (1.6 million dollars) 
in Thailand, was uncovered with the assistance of the DEA that had 
requested Thai police help in cracking down on ethnic Chinese gangs 
importing the drug into the U.S., Sanan told a press conference. 

According to the DEA, Chinese criminal gangs based in the U.S. have been 
cooperating with Hong Kong triads based in Thailand to export heroin 
from Myanmar (Burma) to the U.S.A. on a regular basis, said the interior 
minister. 

Thai Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Kongkrit Patpongpanich 
identified the Bangkok-based Hong Kong triad behind the seized shipment 
as the 14K gang. 

Law enforcement authorities have long warned that Hong Kong and Macau 
triads would shift their operations to Thailand after the two former 
colonies were handed back to mainland China in 1997 and 1999, 
respectively. 

Thailand is a major transit route for heroin refined in neighbouring 
Myanmar, one of the world's largest growers of opium.

***********************************************
INDIANAPOLIS STAR: BURMA'S OPPRESSIVE REIGN AGAINST ITS PEOPLE--LETTER

Jan. 12, 2000

   About 600 people from Burma live in Fort Wayne. Their presence gives 
us an opportunity and responsibility to learn about the human rights 
violations they have fled. I've met courageous and resilient people who 
have survived horrors in their country and now struggle to achieve 
freedom for Burma. 

U.S. economic involvement in Burma benefits only the military regime 
that holds most of the money there. Investments in Burma do not benefit 
the people. They only go to the regime that oppresses its own people and 
delivers drugs to ours. 

Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and leader of the 
Burmese democracy movement, has called for economic sanctions on Burma 
to press the ruling military junta to restore democracy. She has 
described selective purchasing laws, such as the Massachusetts Burma 
Law, as an effective way of supporting the Burmese democracy movement. 

Massachusetts has written a law to bar companies that do business with 
the Burmese military junta from receiving state procurement contracts. 
This law is now under review by the U.S. Supreme Court. Indiana Attorney 
General Modisett should sign the amicus brief in support of the 
petition. PAMELA STEINBACH Fort Wayne
***END***********************


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