BurmaNet News: February 2, 2000

[strider@xxxxxxxxxxx]

=========== The BurmaNet News ===========
January 27, 2000
Issue # 1448
=========================================

Noted in passing:

"[Unicef-Myanmar Resident Representative Jean Aguilar] Leon said the 
onus for action lies with the Myanmar
government itself, which allocates just 2 percent of an already tiny 
gross domestic product to the social sector."  

   (See AP: SANCTIONS, REGIME CONDEMN MYANMAR TO 
    POVERTY: UNICEF)


=========
Headlines
=========

Inside Burma--

AP: SUU KYI SAYS NEITHER CEASE-FIRES NOR TERRORISM WILL SOLVE BURMA 
PROBLEMS

AP: SANCTIONS, REGIME CONDEMN MYANMAR TO POVERTY: UNICEF

AFP: NINE HOSTAGES KILLED BY ETHNIC ARMY, SAYS REGIME



===

International--

AP: NAGA LEADER MUIVAH SENTENCED TO YEAR IN THAI JAIL

AFP: MYANMAR EXILES, FORMER HOSTAGES HOLD RITES FOR HOSPITAL GUNMEN 

NATION: MANHUNT FOR 'WARRIORS' LEADER

TIME: U N C O M F O R T A B L E   Q U E S T I O N S- WAS IT MURDER, OR 
SELF-DEFENSE?

BUSINESS LINE: INDIA- TEN SECOND-HAND DIESEL LOCOS TO BE EXPORTED TO 
MYANMAR 

===

Editorial--

=========================================



*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
 INSIDE BURMA
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*


AP: SUU KYI SAYS NEITHER CEASE-FIRES NOR TERRORISM WILL SOLVE BURMA 
PROBLEMS

February 2, 2000


BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ Neither government cease-fire 
initiatives nor terrorism by insurgents like God's Army will solve the 
long-standing problems Myanmar faces from ethnic minorities seeking 
autonomy, says pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

In a videotaped interview made available Wednesday to news organizations 
in Bangkok, Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, addressed 
several recent developments affecting minority rebels that have battled 
Myanmar's military regime for decades.

Among them was last week's desperate bid by gunmen from the fringe Karen 
group, God's Army, and radical Myanmar student allies to secure a 
retreat into Thailand by seizing a Thai hospital and taking hundreds of 
captives. The gunmen were killed by Thai commandos.

Suu Kyi indicated that she had no information about God's Army, led by 
12-year-old twins, Johnny and Luther Htoo, whose followers say they have 
magical powers of victory.

``We don't think that terrorist activity really achieves
anything positive,'' Suu Kyi said in Monday's interview.

``I understand that the group that took over the hospital were quite 
young, that these people were quite unaware of the fact that a place 
like a hospital should be sacrosanct,'' Suu Kyi said.

``If that is the case, then that means that here is a great gap in their 
education somewhere,'' she said.

The twins were not involved in the hostage-taking. Their camp near the 
Thai border was taken by Myanmar troops two days after the hospital 
siege ended. They are believed to be skirmishing with Myanmar forces and 
trying to link up with the Karen National Union, the main Karen group.

The Thai army said that about 100 Karen civilians crossed the border 
Wednesday seeking refuge from the fighting.

The chain-smoking twins became seen as saviors of their 100 or 200 
followers after directing a successful counterattack against Myanmar 
troops striking their village in 1997. Suu Kyi deflected a question 
about what advice she would offer them.

``Before I'd think of giving them any advice, I think I would like to 
ask them to tell me about themselves,'' Suu Kyi said. ``I would like to 
know what their lives have been like, why they are doing what they are 
doing, why they believe and what they believe they should be doing,'' 
Suu Kyi said Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy is the main legal 
organization opposed to military rule in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

The party overwhelmingly won national elections in 1990, but the 
military never allowed parliament to meet and continues to rule with an 
iron hand, rejecting a dialogue with Suu Kyi. In the past decade, the 
government has reached cease-fires with most rebel groups, gaining a 
certain stability that allowed its army to concentrate against stubborn 
groups like the Karen. Last week, the leader of the ethnic Shan 
resistance said his insurgent group also wants to make peace, saying 
other Shan factions that had reached cease-fires had turned against him. 
Suu Kyi said that ``a cease-fire is not peace. Unless there's a 
settlement of peace made through political means, there will always be a 
danger that violence will break out again.''


*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

AP: SANCTIONS, REGIME CONDEMN MYANMAR TO POVERTY: UNICEF

Feb. 2, 2000
Mathew Penning


YANGON, Myanmar (AP) _ Children in Myanmar are condemned to live in 
poverty and despair unless foreign countries end an aid boycott and the 
military regime spends more money on health and education, the UNICEF 
representative here said Wednesday. 

One in three Myanmar children under the age of five is
malnourished and half of all children get almost no education, said Juan 
Aguilar Leon, head of the United Nations Children's Fund office in 
Yangon.

Foreign aid is severely restricted by a boycott by donor nations 
protesting the human-rights record of the current military government, 
which came to power after a bloody crackdown on a nationwide uprising 
for democracy in 1988.
Yet Leon said the onus for action lies with the Myanmar
government itself, which allocates just 2 percent of an already tiny 
gross domestic product to the social sector.

``Not acting decisively, primarily on the side of the government on one 
hand, and the international community on the other, will condemn entire 
generations of children to live in poverty, misery and despair,'' Leon 
said. ``Not acting is both ethically and morally unacceptable.''

Leon made the comments in an unusually blunt speech to Myanmar 
officials, aid workers and diplomats at the launch in Yangon of the 
annual UNICEF global report, ``The State of the World's Children.''

Leon said that out of 1.3 million children born every year in Myanmar, 
also known as Burma, 92,500 die before they reach their first birthday. 
About three-quarters of children enroll in primary school, but only one 
in four teen-agers makes to high school.

Myanmar, a country of 48 million people, has been ruled by soldiers 
since 1962 and has gone from being one of the wealthiest countries in 
Southeast Asia to one of the poorest.

According to independent estimates, as much as 40 percent of the 
national budget is spent on the military.



*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*


AFP: NINE HOSTAGES KILLED BY ETHNIC ARMY, SAYS REGIME


YANGON, Feb 2 (AFP) - Myanmar's military government said Wedensday that  
Karen rebels murdered nine men after taknig them hostage in the latest 
violent  twist in a 51-ear-insurgency.

Thirteen male villagers between the ages of 17 and 40 were originally 
taken  hostage while cutting wood by four gunmen from hte Karen National 
Union (KNU) insurgent group on January 22, a government statement said.
Four later escaped, one of whom was shot in the leg, hte statement said, 
while the other nine were found dead three days later near Pulaw 
township, Karen state.

"They were all tied behind their back and shot to death," said the 
statement. Th meen were taken hostage because they refused to serve as 
recruits for the KNU, were unwilling to pay protection fees and did not 
want to lay mines for the rebels, a spokesma said.

The report could not be independently confirmed.
KNU sources said they knew nothing about the incident but said the 
group, which replaced its long-time leader Bo Mya, last week was still 
ready to talk peace.

"We are still open to peace talks, the ball is in the Burmese 
authorities' court, but we cannot accept a surrender... the Karen people 
should be united" 
he said.

Peace-talks have frequently broken down between the two sides, but the 
KNU is much less formidable than at its peak, and has suffered several 
significant defeats in recent years.

Former leader Bo Mya told AFP that the group, contrary to recent reports 
was not headed fro an imminent ceasefire with the government.

"If there is no ceasefire, no problem for the KNU... We have already 
fought for 50 years against Rangoon and we will continue to fight for 
our freedom." Rebels from a breakaway Knare group, God's Army, were 
blamed by Thai  authorities for a siege at a hospital in Ratchaburi, 
west of Bangkok, last week.

The 10 rebels were killed by Thai commandos in a pre-dawn raid which 
freed all the hostages unharmed.



*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
 INTERNATIONAL
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*


AP: NAGA LEADER MUIVAH SENTENCED TO YEAR IN THAI JAIL

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ An Indian insurgent who embarrassed Thai police 
with a wild chase around the country has been sentenced to a year in 
jail for entering the country on a false passport, police said 
Wednesday.

Isak Muivah, general secretary of a Maoist-inspired group called the 
National Socialist Council of Nagaland, was sentenced Tuesday in a rapid 
trial before a judge in Songkhla, southern Thailand, police said. After 
serving his sentence there, he will be tried in Bangkok on charges of 
jumping bail.

Muivah, general secretary of a Maoist-inspired group called the National 
Socialist Council of Nagaland, further embarrassed a security 
establishment already under criticism for allowing two hostage sieges in 
the past four months. 

Police Lt. Gen. Chidchai Wanasathit, chief of Thailand's
immigration police, confirmed reports that Muivah was arrested at 
Bangkok's airport Jan. 19 and charged with using a false South Korean 
passport.

A Bangkok judge granted him bail, Chidchai said, which Muivah jumped to 
flee the country instead of being deported to India, where his group had 
reached a cease-fire with the government last year.

The Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review magazine has reported 
that Muivah had arrived in Bangkok from Pakistan, where he had allegedly 
been arranging an arms shipment. 

Muivah was recaptured Saturday in the southern city of Hat Yai, this 
time in possession of a false Singaporean passport. He was trying to get 
out of Thailand on a Malaysian Airlines flight to Penang and onward to 
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

The United News of India news agency has reported that Muivah was 
originally under protective custody at a Bangkok hotel after his first 
arrest, got himself admitted to a hospital last Friday and disappeared.
The affair is considered a setback to the peace process  in Nagaland, an 
Indian province next to the border with Myanmar, because his radical 
group and the government had signed a cease-fire last year.

The National Socialist Council of Nagaland was formed in 1980.  Muivah 
has admitted organizing robberies, laying ambushes against the Indian 
Army and committing assassinations of both Indian and Naga opponents of 
his movement, the Review reported. Thailand's security has come under 
criticism following two hostage sieges staged by Myanmar insurgents 
since October. 

Anti-terrorism measures are also under scrutiny ahead of the U.N. 
Conference on Trade and Development meeting here Feb. 12-20, bringing 
together leaders or representatives of 190 countries.




*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

AFP:  MYANMAR EXILES, FORMER HOSTAGES HOLD RITES FOR HOSPITAL GUNMEN 

Agence France Presse 

February 1, 2000, Tuesday 

 
MAE SOT, Thailand, Feb 1 


   Exiled students and former hostages gathered near the Myanmar border 
Tuesday for a simple Buddhist ceremony laying to rest the souls of 10 
anti-junta rebels slain by Thai commandos after a hospital siege. 

The ethnic Karen guerrillas, whose bodies remain in a Thai morgue, were 
feted as "heroes" by about 100 mourners gathered at a temple under the 
watchful eye of Thai authorities. 

Nine Buddhist monks from Myanmar prayed for the dead rebels during the 
ceremony at Wat Bankoa, a temple in western Tak province, 426 kilometers 
(264 miles) from Bangkok. 

Pictures of the gunmen cut from local newspapers decorated the temple 
and the red and gold fighting peacock banner of the Myanmar 
pro-democracy movement fluttered in the breeze. 

The exiled students at Tuesday's ceremony handed out leaflets in Burmese 
saying the Ratchaburi hospital siege last week was a call for justice 
and democracy in their military-ruled homeland, not terrorism. 

"Please rest in peace souls of our brave heroes who struggled against 
dictators," the leaflet said. 

Maung Aye, spokesman for the exiled National Council for the Union of 
Burma, said the ceremony was held to bless the souls of the gunmen who 
stormed Ratchaburi hospital last week, taking several hundred staff and 
patients hostage. 

The crisis ended 24-hours later when Thai special forces stormed the 
building in a dawn raid, killing all 10 rebels, some of whom police said 
were as young as 12 or 13 years old. 

There has been intense media speculation since the raid that some of the 
hostage-takers had surrendered before being summarily executed, a charge 
Thai officials strongly deny. 

The gunmen belonged to the anti-Yangon junta God's Army rebel group, 
reported to be led by two 12-year-old boys, and the Vigorous Burmese 
Student Warriors, a radical group which took over the Myanmar embassy in 
Bangkok for 24-hours in October. 

At least four foreigners, who were among the 38 hostages taken during 
the embassy siege in Bangkok, attended Tuesday's ceremony. 




*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

NATION: MANHUNT FOR 'WARRIORS' LEADER
February 2, 2000

LEADER of the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors, Ye Thi Ha, alias San 
Naing, is now wanted as he is believed to have masterminded both the 
hostage situations at the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok last year and at 
the Ratchaburi Hospital recently, a senior intelligence source said 
yesterday. 

Orders have been issued to security officials, both civilian and 
uniformed, to hunt for Ha, believed to be in the country after being 
freed from jail in 1992, the source said. 
"After investigating both cases, at the Burmese embassy and at the 
Ratchaburi Hospital, we believed that Ha is behind both incidents as he 
is a respected leader of the Vigorous Burmese Students Warriors," the 
source said. 

On Oct 6, 1989, Ha and another Burmese student, Ye Yint, hijacked a 
Burmese domestic flight from Mergui bound for Burma's capital of 
Rangoon. They forced the plane to land at U-Tapao Naval Air Base in Chon 
Buri province. 

After 11 hours of negotiation, the duo released all 82 passengers and 
four crew members on board the Fokker F-28 unharmed and surrendered to 
the authorities. The hijackers later admitted they had used a fake bomb. 
They were sentenced to six years in jail. 
Both were released on Aug 13, 1992, for good behaviour after spending 
three years in prison. The source said Ye Yint is now in the United 
States and Ha is believed to have remained in the Kingdom after his 
release. 

Ha is believed to have been behind the scenes when the Vigorous Burmese 
students Warriors raided the Burmese embassy in Bangkok on Oct 1. 

They took about 38 hostages including 13 Burmese diplomats. They were 
eventually released at the border in Ratchaburi province in exchange for 
the freedom of the hostages. 
The Burmese students then ganged up with God's Army whose stronghold is 
close to Ratchaburi province and stormed Ratchaburi Hospital last week. 
The siege ended bloodily with all 10 assailants killed and all hostages 
freed. San Naing, however, was not among them. 
"We have already informed our security officials to look for Ha 
everywhere. In case some officials are keeping him as a source, they are 
told to hand him over to the authorities," the same intelligence source 
said. 

Meanwhile, another security source said seven of the 10 Burmese 
assailants killed at Ratchaburi Hospital were soldiers of God's Army 
while the rest were Burmese students from Maneeloy Holding Centre who 
had taken part in the siege of the Burmese Embassy last year. 
The source said a Burmese student from the Maneeloy Holding Centre, Toe 
Toe, has identified five of the 10. 
BY MARISA CHIMPRABHA 



*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

TIME: U N C O M F O R T A B L E   Q U E S T I O N S- WAS IT MURDER, OR 
SELF-DEFENSE?

FEBRUARY 7, 2000 VOL. 155 NO. 5


By ROBERT HORN Bangkok

When the shooting stopped, the nearly 100 Thai commandos who marched out 
of Ratchaburi Regional Hospital received a heroes' welcome. After all, 
they had not only saved every one of the 500-odd hostages, they had also 
shot dead all 10 of the gunmen who had seized the hospital. "The 
commandos did a great job. These bandits deserved to die because they 
were criminals, not people fighting for democracy," said Pheera 
Bungching, a former provincial governor. 

But by week's end, as former hostages began to speak up and grisly 
photos were splashed across the front page of a local new spaper, 
the"heroes" were looking more like cold-blooded killers. Witnesses say 
the hostage-takers--whom they describe as "armed men with soft 
hearts"--laid down their weapons and gave themselves up. They were then 
marched into a room at gunpoint. "I thought they would just arrest the 
rebels because they had surrendered," an unnamed hospital administrator 
told the Bangkok Post. 

Instead, the administrator said, the gunmen "were shot in
the head after they had been told to undress and kneel down." 

Security officials say the hostage-takers were killed in gun battles, 
and not executed. "It was either them or us," Prime Minister Chuan 
Leekpai said on Wednesday. But photos published in Khao Sod, a leading 
Thai newspaper, showed the dead gunmen stripped to their underwear, 
lying on the floor--one had his hands tied behind his back. Each had 
been shot in the head. When Thai security forces displayed the rebels' 
clothing and weapons at a press conference on Tuesday, none was stained 
with blood. The room where the killings took place bore no evidence of a 
firefight--no shot-up doors, windows or walls. Just four bullet holes 
from a pistol about 30 cm above the pools of blood on the floor. 

The government is shedding no tears for the gunmen. "They all deserved 
it," said Interior Minister Sanan  Kachornprasart. According to opinion 
polls, most Thais agree. Sanan and other officials justify the use of 
force by arguing that Thailand was too soft on the rebels who seized the 
Burmese embassy in Bangkok last October. The international community 
praised the Thai government for ending that incident peacefully: no 
hostages were harmed, and the rebels were allowed to flee into Burma. 
But Bangkok's perceived weakness was roundly criticized by opposition 
parties, national security agencies and Burma's military regime. 

The earlier crisis also upset the Thai military. "There seems to be a 
split within the army," says Sunai Phasuk of Chulalongkorn University's 
Institute of Asian Studies. Commanders along the border are often 
accused of having business ties with their Burmese counterparts. They 
have pushed refugees back into Burma and turned a blind eye to 
incursions by Burmese troops. Rogue units have reportedly helped 
transport Burmese soldiers across Thai soil to attack the Karen from the 
rear; Thailand's shelling of the God's Army base precipitated the
hospital takeover. 


"The fear is that these rogue elements will use the current public anger 
against the rebels to hijack foreign policy and manipulate Thailand's 
democratic government into a more cooperative relationship with Burma's
military regime," says Sunai. If that happens, Burmese pro-democracy 
forces, ethnic groups and refugees will suffer. So too will Thailand's 
international reputation. 


*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

BUSINESS LINE: INDIA- TEN SECOND-HAND DIESEL LOCOS TO BE EXPORTED TO 
MYANMAR 

February 1, 2000 


    Our Bureau 

CHENNAI, Jan. 31 

THE Myanmar Railways will acquire 10 second-hand diesel locos of YDM4 
class, which are in good running condition, from the Indian Railways. 
Loading of the locos and capital spares on to MV Dawai, a bulk carrier, 
began at the Chennai port. They will be taken to Yangoon in Myanmar. The 
consignment, costing around (USDollar) 5 millions (about Rs. 20 crores), 
was given by the Government of India on credit basis to the Myanmar 
Railways. 

Mr. G.S. Swaroop, General Manager, RITES, Expotech Division, who is 
supervising the loading operations, told presspersons that the 
metre-gauge locos were once running in the North-Eastern and Western 
Railways. However, during the last couple of years, after the gauge 
conversion work, the metre-gauge locos have been replaced by broad-gauge 
units, and the former were kept unutilised. 

But now, with increased demand for metre-gauge locos from many 
countries, the rolling stocks were being refurbished and exported to 
countries such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Africa, Myanmar and Tanzania, 
he said. The 10 locos going to Myanmar were refurbished at the Golden 
Rock Workshop, Tiruchi, and the age of the locos was around nine years. 
One of the pre-requisites set by the Myanmar Railways was that the locos 
should be less than 10 years, and the Indian Railways has a good rolling 
stock, he said. 

These countries, which could not get locos elsewhere in the world, with 
an average age of less than 10 years, have found Indian locos handy and 
priced competitively. Only recently a few locos were exported to 
Tanzania, he said. 

Indian service engineers will be in Myanmar for two years, to help 
maintain the locos there. Further, 18 personnel of Myanmar Railways have 
been trained at the Golden Rock Workshop for maintenance and handling of 
the locos, he said. 

On future exports of locos, he said that negotiations were going on with 
countries such as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and a deal would be struck 
soon. 



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