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______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
        An on-line newspaper covering Burma 
______________ www.burmanet.org _______________

May 8, 2000

Issue # 1526


This edition of The BurmaNet News is viewable online at:

http://theburmanetnews.editthispage.com/stories/storyReader$380


NOTED IN PASSING:



	
*Inside Burma


STRAITS TIMES (SINGAPORE) : MYANMAR'S MILITARY TALKS TOUGH LOVE

THE NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR: SECRETARY-1 ATTENDS SEMINAR ON INTRODUCTION 
OF WORLD'S FIRST ONE-METRE RESOLUTION IKONOS SATELLITE IMAGES

NLM: PUBLIC WORKS AND ASIA WORLD CO LTD SIGN AGREEMENT
TO CONSTRUCT KYUKOK-MUSE-NANHKAM ROAD

REUTERS: MYANMAR ASKS ASEAN FOR ``MUTUAL TRUST'' OVER DRUGS

REUTERS: MYANMAR SOLDIERS EXECUTED IN DRUG WAR-GUERRILLAS


*International

NATION: BURMESE LEADERS ON EU BLACKLIST

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE: MYANMAR APPEALS FOR FINANCIAL AID AT ADB 

REUTERS: MYANMAR OPPOSITION URGES ADB NOT TO HELP MILITARY

AFP: RIGHTS GROUP CALLS FOR INCREASED PROTECTION OF MYANMAR REFUGEES 
IN THAILAND 

THE JORDAN TIMES: COUNTRIES IN TURMOIL APPEAL TO IPU FOR SOLIDARITY

			
*Other

BRITAIN-BURMA SOCIETY: BBC WORLD NEWS IN BURMESE AVAILABLE ON INTERNET

CRBL: BURMESE LITERATURE TALK AT HUNTER COLLEGE, NYC

BRITAIN-BURMA SOCIETY: SYMPOSIUM ON BURMESE ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY



__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________
	


STRAITS TIMES (SINGAPORE) : MYANMAR'S MILITARY TALKS TOUGH LOVE

MAY 5, 2000 



By LEE KIM CHEW 
IN YANGON 

UNLOVED at home and castigated abroad, Myanmar's military government 
gets little foreign aid. Japan provides it on the quiet, for fear of 
angering its Western partners. 
 
Whatever little Myanmar gets is always a subject of controversy. The 
Australian government, which has come round to believing in 
engagement with the regime, is preparing to resume aid to Yangon, and 
this has caused a political row in Canberra.  

Asean's constructive engagement, in its passivity, has not brought 
about any material changes in the regime's repressive policies. Nor 
has the sanctions-based approach adopted by Britain and the United 
States.  
The Myanmar government is fighting back vigorously to dispel what it 
says are misconceptions about the country's true situation. It has 
churned out new literature to explain its policies.  

To the International Labour Organisation's charge that it uses forced 
labour, it admits that this happened in the past because the 
country's laws "inherited" from the British colonialists allowed the 
practice.  
"There were instances where the armed forces of Myanmar had to employ 
civilian labour to transport equipment and supplies over difficult 
terrain in the remote areas during military operations against 
insurgent groups," it admits. It no longer does this now, the 
government says.  

Last May, it ordered "all authorities concerned not to exercise the 
powers" any more.
  
What about National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu 
Kyi's political status? The government explains: "She had resided 
abroad for 28 years. 

Married to a British citizen, she enjoyed the rights of UK 
citizenship. Besides, her two children hold British citizenship."  

It trots out a 1989 law, "which prohibits any person who is under any 
acknowledgement of allegiance or adherence to a foreign power from 
contesting in the election".  

This provision, it says, was drafted and written into the country's 
first Constitution of 1947 by Ms Suu Kyi's father, General Aung San, 
and "the same provision was written into the Election Law to prevent 
an individual under foreign influence from occupying the office of 
national importance".  

Predictably, these explanations have been brushed aside in the West. 
Britain is at the forefront of new attempts in the European Union to 
put more pressure on Yangon's generals to cede power to the NLD. 
 
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook visited a Karen refugee camp at 
the Thai-Myanmar border last month and roundly condemned Yangon's 
generals for persecuting such "gentle and kind people" as the Karens.
  
Foreign Minister Win Aung fumes at the sudden British interest in the 
Karens, who have been waging an insurgency war against the central 
government in Yangon for five decades.  

His tirade against the British, past masters of his country, is 
scathing. "The British had made us suffer since the last century and 
are still trying to do it to us. They had enslaved us. They had 
treated us like slaves in the past...  

"Robin Cook says the Karens are gentle. They are our own people. Are 
we not gentle and kind? Go to the pagodas. Meet our soldiers, our 
officials, our people. Are we rude and arrogant?"  

But the generals have been ruthless to their political opponents.  

"Do you think so?" he retorts. "To start an uprising, plant a bomb, 
or to incite the people and create instability in the country, these 
are against the law, democracy or not... We take action only when 
they breach the law. Taking up arms underground, synchronising with 
above-ground activities, these are against the law."  


What about Ms Suu Kyi's non-violent opposition? 

"Non-violent activity which is trying to start a violent act has to 
be prevented... Small flames have to be put out before they become 
big... Like treating cancer. You have to dissect out the cancerous 
cells before they grow bigger." 
 
Sadly, it is a case of the cure being worse than the disease.  

The government has been far more successful in putting down the 
insurgency than in reconciling with Ms Suu Kyi and the NLD. Is there 
any light at the end of the tunnel?  

"Only if they change their position," the minister says. "Stop 
confronting whatever the government does. They oppose and threaten 
the government with utter devastation. They are using pressure 
tactics. These are not helpful. "We need sincerity on both sides. We 
have offered our olive branch to them. They brushed it off. They 
thought that by opposing the government they can win. They cannot." 
Both sides use the same language, but they mean different things and 
speak on different wavelengths.  

When will the military leaders step aside for civilian rule?  

"When everything is secure and they solve the country's problems," 
says Mr Win Aung, a career diplomat. "Aung San Suu Kyi wants to 
convene a parallel parliament. Because of this, the situation cannot 
be stabilised.  

"The government wants to hand over power to the people as soon as 
possible. The question is whether the situation is secure and timely. 
The only government which can hold the country together is this 
one."  

Myanmar's political stalemate will continue for a while yet. United 
Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed Malaysian envoy 
Razali Ismail, an outspoken diplomat, as his new special 
representative on Myanmar.  

Yangon's rulers expect him to be a passive, if not inactive, UN 
representative, not least because he comes from an Asean member 
state.  

At home, Myanmar's generals wield absolute power for now. They hold 
the world at bay and rule over a people cowed into submission. For 
how much longer, no one can tell. Ms Suu Kyi is fighting back. No one 
is in a listening mood. 
 
The generals are determined never to allow a repeat of the nationwide 
revolt in 1988 that nearly swept them out of power. They operate a 
closed system that is built on loyalty.  

The generals are said to have differences over how to deal with Ms 
Suu Kyi, but self-preservation holds the secretive leadership 
together. Personal rivalries aside, they are united in getting rid of 
her.
  
They see the world through the spectrum of their battlefield 
experiences. The military regime has a harsh edge. There is also 
another side to it. Myanmar is also a land of meditation.  

At the end of two hours, the fuming minister Win Aung turns quietly 
philosophical and contemplative. He ruminates about the impermanence 
of life. "We are all travellers," he says. "Whatever we have, 
whatever position we attain, in the end when we die, it is 
finished."  

>From hard, cold, unforgiving politics to being and nothingness. Life 
is change, perhaps in an endless cycle, as in reincarnation. Nothing 
is permanent. Could this, too, be said of the status quo in Myanmar?  


____________________________________________________



THE NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR: SECRETARY-1 ATTENDS SEMINAR ON INTRODUCTION 
OF WORLD'S FIRST ONE-METRE RESOLUTION IKONOS SATELLITE IMAGES 
 

Saturday, May 6, 2000


YANGON, 5 May - The International Seminar on Introduction of Space 
Imaging s World s First One-Metre Resolution Ikonos Satellite Images 
and Carterra Products and Suntac s Geomatics and Engineering Services 
was held at the International Business Centre this morning with 
Secretary-l of the State Peace and Development Council Lt-Gen Khin 
Nyunt in attendance.

Mr Bob Noack donated a computer set and an overhead projector set to 
Myanmar Education Committee and Director U Teza a set of TNT MIPS 
software and three sets of multimedia note-book computer to the 
Office of Strategy Studies of the Ministry of Defence.

Secretary-l Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt accepted the donations.

Later, the Secretary-l, officials and guests observed the 
demonstration of applying the advanced technologies. 



____________________________________________________



NLM: PUBLIC WORKS AND ASIA WORLD CO LTD SIGN AGREEMENT
TO CONSTRUCT KYUKOK-MUSE-NANHKAM ROAD

YANGON, 6 May - Public Works of Ministry of Construction and Asia 
World Co Ltd signed an agreement to construct Kyukok-Muse- Nanhkam 
road at Public Works (Head Office) on Shwedagon Pagoda Road this 
morning.

Minister for Construction Maj-Gen Saw Tun made a speech on the 
occasion. Then, Managing Director of Public Works U Nay Soe Naing and 
Managing Director of Asia World Co Ltd U Tun Myint Naing signed the 
agreement and exchanged it.

Minister for Construction Maj-Gen Saw Tun presented permits of 
Myanmar Investment Commission and Ministry of Construction to U Tun 
Myint Naing.

***

BurmaNet editor's note: Asia World Company is widely reported to be 
the corporate arm of heroin warlord Lo Hsing Han's enterprise and is 
run by his son, Steven Law.

_________________________________________________


REUTERS: MYANMAR ASKS ASEAN FOR ``MUTUAL TRUST'' OVER DRUGS


YANGON, May 8 (Reuters) - Myanmar's police chief told counterparts 
from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on Monday that mutual 
trust and cooperation were needed to fight crimes like drug 
production and trafficking. 

 Colonel Tin Hlaing told a three-day meeting which opened in Yangon 
that production, trafficking and sale of narcotic drugs affected all 
10 members of ASEAN. 

 ``The only answer and method to deal with this problem at this 
current stage is to place our trust in each other and mutually 
cooperate with one another,'' he said. 

 Military-ruled Myanmar is the world's second-largest producer of 
opium and its derivative heroin. It is also a major producer of 
amphetamines. 

 Countries such as the United States have accused the generals of not 
doing enough to stamp out the trade but Yangon has appealed for 
outside assistance, not criticism. 

 Tin Hlaing said the problem of narcotics could not be solved by one 
country alone. 

 As well as narcotics, the police chiefs will discuss ways to combat 
business and financial crime, cross-border cooperation and training, 
and efforts to establish an ASEAN Centre for Transnational Crimes. 

 ASEAN groups Myanmar with Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, 
Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines. 

 The meeting is also being attended by representatives of INTERPOL, 
which sponsored a controversial meeting on narcotics in Yangon early 
last year. 

 It is the second ASEAN conference this month in Myanmar, which is 
working hard to change an image as an international pariah caused by 
its human rights record and narcotics problem. 

 Myanmar denies Western charges that it harbours drug traffickers, 
permits money laundering and is guilty of massive human rights 
abuses. 

 From May 1-2 it hosted a meeting of ASEAN Economic Ministers with 
those of China, Japn and Korea, its most senior event since joining 
ASEAN in 1997. 

 Last June, ASEAN interior ministers met in Myanmar and approved an 
``action plan'' to combat transnational crime and reaffirmed a vow to 
achieve a drug-free region by 2020. 



_________________________________________________


REUTERS: MYANMAR SOLDIERS EXECUTED IN DRUG WAR-GUERRILLAS

  
MAE HONG SON, Thailand, May 8 (Reuters) - An anti-government ethnic 
group in Myanmar says it executed three government soldiers captured 
during a guerrilla operation against opium growers in the northeast 
of the country. 

Video footage taken by guerrillas of the Karenni National Progressive 
Party and made available to Reuters showed the soldiers being 
interrogated at a jungle village near Demoso, in the Loikaw district 
of Myanmar's Kayah state. 

Aung Mya, deputy military commander of KNPP, told Reuters recently 
near this Thai border town that the video was shot on March 26 during 
a month-long operation by 150 guerrillas to destroy opium fields. 

He said the soldiers had been providing security and support for 
villagers growing opium as part of an expansion of narcotics 
production from Myanmar's neighbouring Shan State, the country's main 
growing area. 

``The enlarging of opium growing into Kayah state began in 1996. This 
year we have found about 2,000 acres of poppy but we were able to 
destroy only about 200 acres,'' he said. 

He expected the growing area to be expanded to 3,000 acres (1,200 
hectares) next year. 

The video footage showed huts in a village on fire, and three Myanmar 
soldiers being roughly interrogated at gunpoint by guerrillas. Aung 
Mya said the soldiers were killed after their interrogation. 

``Our policy is to destroy and suppress opium growing wherever we can 
find it,'' he said. 

Demoso is about 96 km (60 miles) due west of Mae Hong Son, which is 
in Thailand's far north. 

Myanmar is the world's second-largest source of opium and its 
derivative, heroin. Its ruling generals deny involvement in the trade 
and reject suggestions by the United States and other countries that 
they are not doing enough to stamp it out. 

The KNPP is one of a handful of ethnic groups still fighting the 
Myanmar military for greater autonomy. It reached a ceasefire 
agreement with Yangon in the mid-1990s that later broke down. 




__________________ INTERNATIONAL ___________________


NATION: BURMESE LEADERS ON EU BLACKLIST

The Nation (Thailand) 
May 8, 2000, Monday 


MARISA CHIMPRABHA / The Nation 


PARIS -- European Union countries will publish a blacklist of Burmese 
leaders banned from entering the region as part of a move to 
strengthen sanctions previously issued against the junta-led country. 

The move, expected to be released via an EU communique within the 
week is an explicit demonstration of the region's drive against 
dictatorship and human-rights violations in Burma, a senior EU source 
said. 

When the sanction was originally issued two years ago it stated only 
that "Burmese leaders" were banned from entering EU member 
countries. "Now we will go beyond that to publish all the names 
included in the ban," said the source. 

The list will comprise 140 names, including chairman of Burma's State 
Peace and Development Council (SPDC) General Than Shwe, his deputy 
General Khin Nyunt and other SPDC members. All Cabinet members and 
senior officials in all ministries will be included in the ban, 
including Foreign Minister Win Aung. "This is what we call the 
strengthening of our sanction against Burma," the source said. 

Other sanctions against Burmese leaders will remain in place, 
including the freezing of their assets in EU countries and 
discouraging any EU companies from investing in Burma. 

In what is seen as an EU compromise, the community recently announced 
the extension of sanctions on Burma for another six months but said 
it would agree to Burma's participation in the Asean-EU ministerial 
meeting if it took place in an Asian country. 

The union's sanctions on Burma have affected Asean-EU relations, 
especially since Burma was admitted as an Asean member in 1997. 

The Asean-EU ministerial meeting was suspended when the EU broke off 
contact with Burma. Asean insists that Burma, as one of its members, 
has a right to attend the meeting. 

The source said a meeting of senior officials from Asean and the EU 
was expected to be held in Lisbon in June and the ministerial meeting 
could probably be held in October in Seoul. 

The announcement of the Burma blacklist will not affect either 
meeting since the Burmese are not banned from the joint meeting. 

The source said EU countries wanted to reactivate the meetings to 
resume cooperation between the two regions on economic and non-
economic issues. 

_________________________________________________


AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE: MYANMAR APPEALS FOR FINANCIAL AID AT ADB 

CHIANG MAI, Thailand, May 7, 


Myanmar on Sunday appealed for international financial aid to help 
its struggling economy, which experts say is being throttled by 
sanctions and an Asian investment drought. 

Khin Maung Thien, the military-ruled state's minister for finance and 
revenues claimed that despite its problems, Myanmar was modernising 
its economy and posting impressive growth. 

But he said at the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) 
that Yangon was always ready to accept international assistance. 

"All these endeavours are being made out of our own financial 
resources, we would be very grateful if the bank takes into serious 
consideration ... possible assistance to speed up Myanmar's economy," 
he said. 

The appeal came despite a damning assessment of Myanmar's economy by 
the ADB in its annual report issued last month. 

"Unless badly needed reforms are undertaken, the economy will 
continue to depend heavily on ad hoc policies rather than more 
carefully considered and far-reaching ones," the report said. 

The most pressing issues were distortions in the foreign exchange 
market, high inflation and low levels of revenue collection and 
public expenditure. 

It was the latest in a series of unfavourable financial surveys for 
Myanmar, which labours under sanctions and other restrictions due to 
what critics say is its appalling human rights record. 

The military government is accused of persecuting the opposition 
movement of Aung San Suu Kyi and of using widespread forced labour. 

Myanmar has also suffered badly from a chronic lack of investment 
from its partners in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations 
(ASEAN) which used to provide the bulk of its foreign financial 
input. 

Myanmar's head of military intelligence Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt 
claimed at the start of a regional economic ministers meeting in 
Yangon last week that its economy grew 10 percent in the last fiscal 
year. 

Foreign observers have serious doubts about that figure. 

The ADB says economic growth in Myanmar reached about 4.5 percent in 
1999, up from five percent in 1998. 

A World Bank report in December which angered the generals in Yangon 
said political and economic reform were the key to achieving 
prosperity on a par with Myanmar's neighbours.

_________________________________________________


REUTERS: MYANMAR OPPOSITION URGES ADB NOT TO HELP MILITARY

  
BANGKOK, May 5 (Reuters) - A Myanmar opposition group urged the Asian 
Development Bank on Friday not to provide loans to the country's 
military rulers, saying they would only prolong oppression.  

The All Burma Students' Democratic Front said Myanmar, an ADB member, 
had requested ADB loans and technical assistance for drug eradication 
and development programmes. 

But the group based on the Thailand-Myanmar border said the funds 
would not be used for these purposes. 

``Instead, future 'development' programmes will function to 
consolidate oppressive military control over the people.'' 

The opposition group is made up of activists who fled when the 
military killed thousands to crush a student-led pro-democracy 
uprising in Myanmar in 1988. 

It said the cash-strapped military government was not in a position 
to repay future loans granted by the ADB, as shown by its inability 
to service existing debts. 

``As democratic participation by civilians, including women, is a pre-
requisite to sustainable development...(the) military dictatorship 
should not be provided with loans and assistance from the ADB,'' the 
group said. 

Denying loans to Yangon, it said, would increase pressure for 
democratic change in Myanmar. 

The ADB has granted no new loans to Myanmar since 1986 and no 
technical assistance since 1987. 

Yangon says this is due to a U.S. policy of blocking aid through all 
lending institutions, including the World Bank and IMF, over human 
rights issues in Myanmar. 

The military ignored the result of Myanmar's last election in 1990, 
when the opposition National League for Democracy won by a landslide. 
It has since tried to stifle dissent through arrests and 
intimidation. 
 
On Thursday, the country's powerful military intelligence chief 
Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt said the military would stick to a 15-
year plan to eradicate narcotics production -- with or without 
outside help. 
 
Myanmar is the world's second largest producer of opium and its 
derivative heroin. 


_________________________________________________



KYODO: MYANMAR STUDENTS, REFUGEES CONFINED TO CAMPS DURING ADB MEET 

Supalak 

MANEELOY, Thailand, May 6 Kyodo 

: 


Exiled students and other refugees from Myanmar in Thailand were 
confined to their refugee camps in the Thai border provinces Saturday 
because of security concerns during the annual meeting of the Asian 
Development Bank (ADB) in Chiang Mai. 

Security guards at Maneeloy camp, home to 1,704 exiled Myanmar 
students, forced the students back into the camp Saturday morning 
after allowing them to spend only two hours at a market set up just 
outside the camp gates. 

'The security control is very strict here. We are free only for two 
hours a week, only on Saturday, to go to buy necessary items in the 
market. Certainly, nobody could escape to Chiang Mai, Zaw Ye, joint 
secretary general of the Burmese Student Association in Maneeloy, 
told Kyodo News. 

Thailand has deployed more than 3,000 police and military officers to 
provide security for the delegations attending the ADB meeting in 
Chiang Mai, which is nearly 1,000 kilometers from the Maneeloy camp. 
Even so, all of the camps along the Thai-Myanmar border, where more 
than 100,000 refugees from the generals in Yangon live, remain under 
close scrutiny by intelligence and security officers after local 
media reported exiled students connected with God's Army, a radical 
Myanmar guerrilla group that stormed a Thai hospital in January, 
planned to disrupt the ADB meeting. 

God's Army and its student allies are a worry for authorities every 
time an international event takes place in the Thailand because the 
group has vowed to seek revenge for the killing of 10 of their 
comrades by the Thai military when the hospital siege was forcibly 
ended. 

News reports Saturday said Robert Sann, a former member of the rebel 
Karen National Union (KNU), was arrested in Chiang Mai after police 
allegedly discovered he planned to create chaos at the bank meeting. 
Sann is also suspected of involvement in the hospital siege, Thai 
Rath, the country's biggest newspaper, said. 

But Sann, who is a son of a founder of the KNU, told Kyodo News that 
he has not been arrested and charged the reports were fabricated to 
both destroy his personal reputation and to disturb the ADB meeting. 

'I have been committed to nonviolence since separating from the KNU 
to form my own organization, the Karen Solidarity Organization (KSO), 
in 1994. I have nothing to do with the meeting in Chiang Mai and 
nobody has arrested me,' Sann said. 

The KSO has about 3,000 members who proselytize for democracy and 
human rights in Myanmar in the Thai border provinces and in Bangkok, 
but the organization has no armed forces. 

The KNU, which is the strongest armed rebel group fighting the 
Myanmar junta, also denied any plan to disrupt the ADB. 

Thai authorities also asked the KNU not to make any military 
movements during the two-day ADB conference, Nurda Mya, a KNU 
official for foreign affairs, said. 




_________________________________________________


AFP: RIGHTS GROUP CALLS FOR INCREASED PROTECTION OF MYANMAR REFUGEES 
IN THAILAND 

Agence France Presse 
May 6, 2000, Saturday 



DATELINE: WASHINGTON, May 6 

BODY: 
Human Rights Watch on Saturday called for increased protection of 
Myanmar refugees in Thailand, following reports that urban refugees 
are increasingly vulnerable to arrest and forcible repatriation. 

"The Thai government has legitimate security concerns, but those 
concerns do not justify acts which endanger refugees," Joe Saunders, 
deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. 

"With no let-up in abuses on the Burmese side of the border, this is 
absolutely not the time for repatriation initiatives," he said, 
referring to the country by its former name. 

The statement cited one particular incident in February when five 
Myanmar refugees were deported and later jailed by the military 
authorities. 

More than 100,000 displaced people from Myanmar live in camps in 
Thailand after fleeing fighting between the ruling junta and Karen 
rebels or political persecution. 

And while the Thai government has pursued a humanitarian policy, 
recent incidents have led to a change in its approach and a broad 
crackdown on urban Myanmar refugees. 

Earlier this year a group of Myanmar ethnic rebels crossed into 
Thailand and took over a provincial hospital before being shot dead 
by Thai special forces who stormed the complex. 

Last October, Myanmar student gunmen briefly took over Yangon's 
embassy in Bangkok. 

"Although the embassy and hospital sieges were the work of small, 
radical organizations, the Thai government has used the incidents to 
justify a wider crackdown that affects the entire population of urban 
Burmese," the statement said. 

"As a result of the Thai government's heightened security concerns 
and a willingness to play a more direct role in refugee admissiion 
decisions the treatment of Burmese refugees in Thailand is now 
undergoing a significant turn for the worse," it warned. 

Urban refugees, according to HRW, are primarily Myanmar political 
dissidents who fled the junta's violent crackdown on pro-democracy 
demonstrators in 1998, and also include some ethnic minority refugees 
who no longer feel safe at the border. 

Border refugees are mainly ethnic minority group members trying to 
escape the conflict between government and local insurgencies, as 
well as gross human rights abuses that leading human rights 
organizations state are being perpetrated by the army's counter-
insurgency units. 

Myanmar has denied it is guilty of gross human rights violations. 


_________________________________________________


THE JORDAN TIMES: COUNTRIES IN TURMOIL APPEAL TO IPU FOR SOLIDARITY

Sunday 7 May 2000



By Oula Al Farawati

AMMAN  "Being elected is not a crime" is the name of a solidarity 
campaign with the imprisoned and exiled Burmese parliamentarians.

Burmese MP Tint Swe, said that 40-60 Burmese MPs are imprisoned, and 
22 are in exile in India, Thailand and the U.S. He said no one knows 
the exact number of exiled and imprisoned because the Burmese 
government does disclose the statistics.

He said MPs who were elected in 1990 were detained because they 
wanted to form a parallel government and increase their political 
activity by holding 
meetings and conferences.

He said the solidarity campaign, initiated at the 103rd Conference of 
the Inter-Parliamentary Union here in
Amman, was able to garner the signatures of 160 MPs from 75 countries.

According to Swe, parliamentarians around the world are joining 
together to declare support for their colleagues from Burma who were 
denied the right to take an oath of office.

He said the solidarity campaign calls on the military government to 
release immediately and unconditionally all MPs and end all human 
rights violations against the people of Burma; to recognise the right 
of elected 
representatives to convene the parliament and to immediately cease 
all restrictions on them and agree to join the ethnic nationalities 
in a dialogue to achieve a peaceful transition to democracy.

Meanwhile, a Chechenya solidarity group has sent a letter to the 
delegations taking part in the 103rd Conference of the Inter-
Parliamentary Union asking them "to stand with the human rights of 
the Chechen refugees."

"We stand before the delegations from different countries to call, on 
behalf of the Chechen children, women and the elderly, [for] the 
right to live peacefully," read the petition.

The petition also asked MPs to bring an end to the disastrous 
situation in Chechenya and help the refugees who were expelled from 
their land. The group called on parliamentarians to ask their peoples 
to give donations to the Chechen refugees who "no longer have any 
means by which to live.

"You can help and make a change. The Chechens are peaceful people who 
only want to live as other peoples of the world," the petition said.



_____________________ OTHER  ______________________


BRITAIN-BURMA SOCIETY: BBC WORLD NEWS IN BURMESE AVAILABLE ON INTERNET

Did you know that the BBC world news transmitted at midnight GMT in 
Burmese can now be listened to  on the Internet, all the next day?


Their web page is on:
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/Burmese/>

        Derek Brooke-Wavell
        Britain-Burma Society

_________________________________________________


CRBL: BURMESE LITERATURE TALK AT HUNTER COLLEGE, NYC

   The Committee for Revival of Burmese Literature is proud to 
announce that there will be a Literature Talk event, which is to be 
held at Hunter College, in New York City.

       Four giant intellectuals from Burmese literary field: U Tin 
Moe, most influence poet of today in Burma; U Thaung, international 
award winning journalist; U Win Pe, film director, writer, and 
artist; and last but not
least U Win Tun, cartoonist will enthusiastically educate our fellow 
Burmese. They will enlighten how and why Burmese literature is 
deteriorating.

      Therefore, we welcome you warmly to attend our first and 
foremost literature event in New York City. There will be actions and 
laughters. It will be a good place for you to meet old and new 
friends and also to free your mind.

***There will be a surprise band performing with songs.



When:  May 27, 2000 at 1:00 P.M. to 5:00P.M.
Where: Hunter College(*Brookdale Campus)
       425, East 25th Street
       (Between 1st Ave and FDR Drive)
        New York, NY 10010

Direction: BUS: Take M15 bus to 25th Street and 1st Avenue

CAR: Take FDR to 23rd Street exit and travel northwest to 25th Street 
and 1st Avenue

TRAIN: Take 6 train to 23rd Street and Park Avenue and travel 
northeast to 25th Street and 1st Avenue

For the map please log on to:
http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/health/eohs/eohsdir.html



Committee for Revival of Burmese Literature
Dated May 7,  2000

_________________________________________________


BRITAIN-BURMA SOCIETY: SYMPOSIUM ON BURMESE ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY




The British Museum and the School of Oriental and African Studies 
(SOAS) are jointly hosting a symposium on Burmese Art and 
Archaeology, in conjunction with the British Museum's 
exhibition 'Visions from the Golden

Land: Burma and the Art of Lacquer'.  To be held on Saturday and 
Sunday, the 17th and 18th of June, 2000, the symposium seeks to 
present the latest developments in the field of Burmese Art and 
Archaeology. Topics include wooden architecture, sculpture, 
manuscript and wall painting, lacquer, recent ceramic discoveries and 
archaeological finds, and textiles.  A reception and private view of 
the lacquer exhibition will be held at the British Museum on the 
evening of June 17th. 

Attendance fees are £30 per person for the two days. Concessions are 
available, as is a one day fee.  For more information and to book a 
place, contact the British Museum on 020-7323-8511 or 020-7323-8854. 

	Information forwarded by Derek Brooke-Wavell
	Britain-Burma Society

_______________


Acronyms and abbreviations regularly used by BurmaNet.


AVA: Ava Newsgroup.  A small, independent newsgroup covering Kachin 
State and northern Burma.

KHRG: Karen Human Rights Group.  A non-governmental organization 
that  conducts interviews and collects information primarily in 
Burma's  Karen State but also covering other border areas.

KNU: Karen National Union.  Ethnic Karen organization that has been 
fighting Burma's central government since 1948.

NLM: New Light of Myanmar, Burma's state newspaper.  The New Light of 
Myanmar is also published in Burmese as Myanmar Alin.

SCMP: South China Morning Post.  A Hong Kong newspaper.

SHAN: Shan Herald Agency for News.  An independent news service  
covering Burma's Shan State.

SHRF: Shan Human Rights Foundation

SPDC: State Peace and Development Council.  The current name the  
military junta has given itself.  Previously, it called itself the  
State Law and Order Restoration Council.


________________


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coverage of news and opinion on Burma  (Myanmar).  


For a subscription to Burma's only free daily newspaper, 
write to: strider@xxxxxxx

You can also contact BurmaNet by phone or fax:

Voice mail +1 (435) 304-9274 

Fax + (202) 318-1261

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