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Subject: [theburmanetnews] BurmaNet News: May 25, 2000
______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
An on-line newspaper covering Burma
______________ www.burmanet.org _______________
May 25, 2000
Issue # 1537
NOTED IN PASSING:
"No democratically elected government could hope to return to power
if it sits idly while its sons and daughters waste away on drugs."
Thai Deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra explaining why
Thailand has begun supporting clandestine sabotage operations inside
Burma. (See FEER: FRUSTRATION OVER BURMA'S ILLEGAL DRUGS TRADE IS
REACHING DANGEROUS LEVELS IN THAILAND)
*Inside Burma
ABYMU: EMERGENCY STATEMENT NO.2 OF THE ABYMU
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: WHEN BUDDHIST MONKS ACT
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: UNSUNG HEROINES: THE WOMEN OF MYANMAR
AFP: MYANMAR'S "LOST GENERATION"
AVA NEWSGROUP: SIX SECURITY POLICE ABDUCTED BY SSA- SOUTH TROOPS IN
CENTRAL SHAN STATE
XINHUA: 95 MYANMAR OPPOSITION MEMBERS PUT IN PRISON
*International
FEER: FRUSTRATION OVER BURMA'S ILLEGAL DRUGS TRADE IS REACHING
DANGEROUS LEVELS IN THAILAND
AAP: PROTESTERS, POLICE SCUFFLE OUTSIDE EMBASSY BURMA
*Economy/Business
DE TROUW (Netherlands): GREUSOME STORIES IN THE MARGINS (news about
IHC Caland)
*Opinion/Editorials
BANGKOK POST: THAILAND ON BURMESE ELECTIONS
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: RESOLUTION ON BURMA
*Other
BURMANET: FOREIGN PRESS CLUBS IN BANGKOK, TOKYO STAGING BURMA PRESS
CONFERENCES
__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________
ABYMU: EMERGENCY STATEMENT NO.2 OF THE ABYMU
May 22, 2000
Emergency Statement No. 2 of the All Burma Young Monks' Union (ABYMU)
regarding the current political situation inside Burma
1. ABYMU strongly condemns the SPDC military regime over the
announcement (dated
19th May 2000) indicating there will be a violent crackdown against
the monks.
2. The SPDC will bear sole responsibility for any consequences that
might occur as a result of a violent crackdown, therefore monks have
sent a second warning to the regime, as it will be impossible for
them to restrain the anger of the people inside and outside the
country.
3. The SPDC's threat will not affect the monks' demands for peaceful
dialogue. The leading monks confirm the campaign will proceed as
planned:
(a) There will be protests at the monastery strike center
(b) A protest march will be organized along three routes towards
Rangoon.
4. The monks, students and people have held discussions and reached
agreement, during 99 days, to cooperate with each while forming
various groups.
The Young Monks' Union has received evidence that counter-violence
against property owned by or related to the SPDC will occur at any
place where violence is committed by the regime.
5. Therefore investors and tourists are urged to leave the country
and foreign governments are requested to evacuate their own
citizens immediately.
6. We express our deep sadness to learn that the United Nations is
unable to intervene in response to the demands made by the monks. It
is a sign of admittance of the UN's failure to guarantee the safety
of the world populace.
7. We appeal to the monks and people of the country to be united at
this time of national emergency.
Central Leading Committee
All Burma Young Monks' Union
Date: May 22, 2000
____________________________________________________
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: WHEN BUDDHIST MONKS ACT
May 25, 2000, Thursday
Burma's clergy, like others in Asia, may be liberating
This Saturday marks the 10th anniversary of the day democracy was
snatched from the people of Burma. A military junta denied the
results of an election that was decisively won by the pro-democracy
leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Ever since then, her political party has been suppressed while Burma
(renamed Myanmar) has languished as a Southeast Asian backwater. A
decade of international ostracism has done little to put Burma right.
Hundreds of political dissidents remain jailed, including 13
journalists - the highest in any nation.
Is there any hope that this poor pariah state might soon become the
latest Asian democracy?
The answer may not lie in more economic sanctions, stiff-arm
diplomacy, or Nobel Peace Prizes (Suu Kyi won it in 1991).
Rather, it may lie with monks.
Like other Asian nations with large numbers of Buddhists, Burma's
robed clergy can play a powerful role behind the scenes. They are
stewards of not only a common faith but the nation's identity.
That's why the junta, oddly named the State Peace and Development
Council, has tried hard to co-opt or control the monkhood. Its
donations to temples are recounted almost daily in the state-
controlled press as displays of official piety.
In ancient days, Burma's top monks could topple kings just by
withdrawing their approval. A king's power rested on his legitimacy
among Buddhist believers, but their reverence went to monks for their
devotion to compassion and pacifism.
That reverence is revived daily during the monks' daily walks among
the people - barefooted with shaved heads, wearing saffron-colored
robes - as they carry empty bowls seeking alms, such as food. They
are moral leaders at the rice-roots level.
Monks rely on the people's generosity to survive. As the Burmese
suffer more shortages in their nation's isolation, that has compelled
the monks to act.
In February, a leading monk asked the junta for an end to the
political stalemate. The Monks Union, representing 300,000 clergy,
threatens a protest at temples in coming days, pegged to the
anniversary, if that demand is not met.
Can the monks spark a revolt now? Unlikely. They have been
infiltrated by agents. But their movement is the only positive
dynamic in what otherwise appears to be a hopeless situation.
Burma, of course, is not the only Asian nation where Buddhist monks
often serve as political activists.
The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled god-king, has waged a global campaign
during his 41 years of exile to undo Chinese control of Tibetan
Buddhists. He and Beijing have struggled over which young Buddhist
leaders will lead the Tibetan faithful.
And China's Communist leaders were recently shocked by the sudden
rise in popularity of the Buddhist-oriented Falun Gong among Han
Chinese. The movement has attracted millions of followers and has
peacefully protested a government crackdown on the group.
In Communist-led Vietnam, Buddhist monks remain under tight watch,
many of them having been arrested, for fear they could become a rival
center of power and someday lead a revolt against the country's sole
political party. The state "sponsors" the Buddhist clergy in each
temple. (The self-immolation of a Buddhist monk during the Vietnam
War shows just how activist monks there can be.)
In Sri Lanka, a long, brutal civil war recently compelled many
Buddhist clergy to shed a pacifist stance in support of a government
war against guerrilla fighters seeking a homeland for the minority
Hindu Tamils. The monks' cause is tied up with the nationalism of the
island's majority Sinhalese, who are taught that Sri Lanka plays a
special role in the Buddhist faith. Other, apolitical monks stick to
a pacifist role that is more like the teachings of Buddha, who lived
in the 6th century BC.
(And in case anyone thinks monk activism is strictly in Asia, it's
worth recalling that Vice President Al Gore attended a 1996 fund-
raiser at a Buddhist temple in Los Angeles where $ 55,000 in illegal
contributions was collected for Democrats.)
Buddhism's appeal for many comes from the tranquility it brings,
based on Buddha's teaching that human suffering can be lessened by
reducing human desires. But many of its adherents live in troubled
lands. As spiritual seekers, they can empower monks to act on their
behalf.
Over Asia's long history, monks have often proved critical in
bringing about political change. In Burma's case, that may prove true
again.
____________________________________________________
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: UNSUNG HEROINES: THE WOMEN OF MYANMAR
[Abridged]
May 2000
Women in Myanmar have been subjected to a wide range of human
rights violations, including political imprisonment, torture and
rape, forced labour, and forcible relocation, all at the hands of
the military authorities. At the same time women have played an
active role in the political and economic life of the country. It is
the women who manage the family finances and work alongside their
male relatives on family farms and in small businesses. Women have
been at the forefront of the pro-democracy movement which began in
1988, many of whom were also students or female leaders within
opposition political parties.
The situation of women in Myanmar was raised most recently in
April 2000 at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and in
January 2000 by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW), the expert body which monitors States
parties' compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women. CEDAW considered the initial
report by the Government of Myanmar on measures taken to implement
the provisions of the Convention at its Twenty-second session in
New York. Prior to its consideration, Amnesty International made a
submission to the Committee, which outlined the organization's
concerns in regards to the State Peace and Development Council's
(SPDC, Myanmar's military government) compliance with the provisions
of the Convention...
In the years before the 1988 mass uprising, women belonging to
various ethnic minorities, who live mostly in the areas surrounding
the central Burman plain, were subjected to arbitrary detention and
torture by the military. According to the SPDC Myanmar is made up
of "135 national races" which includes approximately two-thirds
majority ethnic Burman and one-third ethnic minorities. Many ethnic
minority groups have engaged in armed struggle for autonomy or
independence from the central Burman authorities for over fifty
years. As a result, the tatmadaw, or Myanmar armed forces, have
launched intensive counter-insurgency campaigns against these armed
groups, but it is the civilians, mostly women and children, who
suffer the majority of casualties. ..
Ethnic minority women and women belonging to the majority
Burman group all share the common struggle to feed their families
and educate their children in a country with high inflation rates
and low wages. The price of rice and other staples has increased
dramatically in the last two years. The government fixed the official
exchange rate of Myanmar's currency, the kyat, at six per one US
dollar, but the unofficial rate is over 300. In addition because
of poor nutrition and health care facilities, women in Myanmar
suffer from a high rate of maternal mortality and their children
suffer from an extremely high rate of moderate malnutrition and
preventable diseases.
Wives and mothers of the hundreds of male political prisoners
in Myanmar must often support their families in the absence of
their husbands and sons. They have an additional burden of
providing their imprisoned male relatives with supplementary food
and medicine, as diet and medical care in Myanmar's prisons are
extremely inadequate. Women with imprisoned family members and
those whose male relatives have fled to other countries have also
been extensively interrogated and watched by Military Intelligence
personnel...
The SPDC does not permit any independent local non-
governmental organizations (NGOs) to operate in Myanmar today,
although there are several international aid NGOs as well as United
Nations programs such as the UN Development Program (UNDP) and the
UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). As such there are no Myanmar women's
organizations besides those formed by the SPDC, which are sometimes
referred to as Government Organized NGOs or GONGOs. Among the
GONGOs are the Myanmar Maternal and Child Welfare Association
(MMCWA), led by Dr. Khin Win Shwe, wife of Lieutenant General Khin
Nyunt, SPDC First Secretary. The Myanmar Women Entrepreneurs'
Association (MWEA) was also established under the sponsorship of
the SPDC in February 1995 and the Myanmar Women Sports Federation
(MWSF) was founded in 1991.
POLITICAL IMPRISONMENT OF WOMEN
Amnesty International has details of the imprisonment of at least
61 women for political reasons. After the security forces' harsh
repression of the pro-democracy movement in 1988, the newly-formed
military government made some concessions, including granting
permission to form independent political parties and the promise of
elections in May 1990. Several women rose to leadership positions,
including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, General Secretary of the National
League for Democracy (NLD, which won the 1990 general elections but
has never been allowed to convene parliament). Beginning in 1989
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other women activists were arrested for
their peaceful political activities. Elections were held in May
1990, and 15 women belonging to the NLD were elected out of a
total 485 members of parliament...
Conditions of detention and imprisonment
For the past 11 years Amnesty International has been reporting
instances of torture and ill-treatment in Myanmar's prisons and
detention centres. In addition conditions in custody fall far
short of international standards applying to anyone who has been
deprived of their liberty. Conditions amounting to cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment of prisoners include lack of proper sanitation,
medical care, and diet. Political prisoners are most at risk of
torture during the initial phases of detention, when they are
generally held in one of the Military Intelligence (MI) headquarters
and interrogated for prolonged periods. However, after they have
been sentenced, prisoners are often tortured for breaking arbitrary
prison regulations...
RECOMMENDATIONS
Amnesty International makes the following recommendations to the
State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), in order to improve the
human rights situation of all women in Myanmar:
1. Release all women prisoners of conscience immediately and
unconditionally.
2. Ensure that any female deprived of her liberty is not subjected
to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, including all
forms of sexual abuse.
3. Review and revise all detention procedures to ensure that
measures are taken to prevent torture and cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment, and that women in custody receive medical
exams and proper care by qualified doctors.
4. Ensure that there is judicial supervision of all forms of
detention.
5. Abolish the practice of unpaid forced labour and portering, and
abide by ILO Convention No 29 on the grounds that it constitutes
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
6. Abolish forcible relocations on ethnic grounds and abide by
Article 17 of Protocol II Additional to the Geneva Conventions of
12 August 1949, which stipulates that civilians should be relocated
only for their own security or for imperative military reasons.
7. Ensure that the right to life is protected and that the
circumstances of all deaths in custody are investigated.
8. Ensure that those found responsible for human rights violations
against women be brought to justice.
9. Provide human rights and gender-sensitive training for all
military personnel, police, and prison staff.
10. Ratify the Optional Protocol of the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, adopted
by the General Assembly on 15 October 1999. The Optional Protocol
provides for individuals or groups to submit communications to the
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.
____________________________________________________
AFP: MYANMAR'S "LOST GENERATION"
by Philippe Agret
YANGON, May 25 (AFP) - Of Myanmar's many problems, one of
the most crippling is the paralysis of the country's education
system, because of the military junta's fear of political unrest.
The educational stalemate has given rise to a "lost generation" of
students
and compromised the future of the country formerly known as Burma.
Myanmar's universities, which have been breeding grounds in the past
for anti-government unrest, have been sporadically closed since a
popular uprising in the summer of 1988 threatened to topple the
military regime.
While many student activists remain in prison or in exile, the result
has been a decade of lost opportunities for all Myanmar's youth. The
rare periods when universities have been open have been quickly
interrupted by a return of repression -- deserted campuses and months
of inactivity during which only the most fortunate can continue
studying with private tutors.
Many students fill their time doing odd jobs, such as driving taxis
or selling beer, that do not require a university education.
The last student revolt was in December 1996, and in spite of
official assurances that most of the universities have recently been
reopened, higher education in Myanmar is far from functioning
normally.
The authorities are concerned about any gatherings of students in
large cities such as Yangon and Mandalay out of fear they could lead
to trouble.
As a result, universities that have opened offer only courses by
correspondence to two-thirds of their students, who do their
schoolwork at home, resulting in campuses which are almost always
empty.
One bitter parent spoke of a "virtual school" in which "people don't
learn anything."
The other third of the students have been allowed to return to
classes since mid-December 1999, but most of them are studying in new
technical institutes far outside city centres where protestors have
gathered.
For instance, engineering students enrolled in the Yangon Institute
of Technology are now meeting in new facilities located 20 kilometers
(12.5 miles) from the capital centre.
The authorities deny that security reasons are behind the move to
keep students away from the cities and say it is being done because
of the lack of space and dilapidated state of the city centre
campuses.
Deputy Minister of Education Myo Nyunt told AFP that the students
were moved "because of the extension of the (university) programmes."
"With more programmes some universities have to be opened outside the
cities," he said.
He added that 200,000 students were currently enrolled in "distant
education" -- correspondence school -- in Yangon and Mandalay and
that "post-graduate diplomas have been running normally since 1996."
He insisted that the level of higher education in Myanmar is "on a
par With the developed countries of the region" and took pride in a
education plan for 2000-2003 that gives emphasis to multimedia
training.
The Internet and other forms of high tech communications are strictly
controlled in Myanmar.
Government claims that education is a priority are at odds, however,
with a stagnant budget for the education ministry and the fact that
only 0.5 percent of Myanmar's Gross National Product is allocated to
education.
Other countries in Southeast Asia spend approximately 2.7 percent of
their GNPs on education.
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has historically enjoyed
great support from the students, routinely accuses the country's
military rulers of "sacrificing the future" of Myanmar's youth to
safeguard their hold on power. "We'll have to work very hard to make
up for all the lost years," she told AFP in an interview last year.
"Dictatorships don't really care to educate their people because they
prefer to keep their people ignorant and subdued, that is the way of
all dictatorships."
____________________________________________________
AVA NEWSGROUP: SIX SECURITY POLICE ABDUCTED BY SSA- SOUTH TROOPS IN
CENTRAL SHAN STATE
May 22, 2000
Six road security police including two officers were abducted by the
Shan State Army- South troops in central Shan State on May 19. The
abduction was occurred on the road connecting Taungyi-Loilem-
Panglong-Loihka and Mongkaing.
The police were on a van while SSA- South troops stopped the cars
for taxation between Loihka and Mongkaing. The police were in
ordinary dresses when the SSA-South troops found their uniforms in
their bags. SSA- South troops arrested and abducted all the police
on the van including two officers, reported by a merchant from Shan
State who was on another car. According to the sources the police
were from Mongkaing township police department. Two abducted
officers are Htein Lin and Win Min Than. Corporal Thein Tun, Private
Hla Moe Kyaw, Kyi Soe Tun and Myo Zaw were also included. Similar
incident was occurred on February 25, where three armed police were
taken by SSA-South troops between Kaukme and Nawnghkio. The fate of
the police abducted has not been known yet.
____________________________________________________
XINHUA: 95 MYANMAR OPPOSITION MEMBERS PUT IN PRISON
YANGON, May 19
The Myanmar government has detained and imprisoned a total of 95
members
of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), according to a
statement of the NLD available here Friday.
The NLD members, who were held between May 12 and 15 by the military
intelligence units, include 12 parliament representatives of the party
elected in the 1990 general election and 83 other organizers of the
township
branches of the party.
Of them, some have been sentenced to imprisonment for a term of
ranging from
7 to 9 years, the statement said.
The NLD has lodged strong protest to the government over the move.
The government's move came more than 10 days before the NLD is to
mark the
10th anniversary of the general election on May 27.
The May 1990 general election, contested by 93 political parties, was
sponsored by the Myanmar military government after it took over the
power of
state on September 18, 1988 when the country was at the height of a
political and economic crisis.
In the election, the NLD won 396 parliamentary seats out of 485.
The NLD blames that the government is still refusing to implement the
result
of the 1990 general election, saying that the government, on the
contrary,
applies various means to stop and disturb all efforts aimed at
demanding the
emergence of the people 's parliament.
The NLD unilaterally formed on September 16, 1998 a Committee
Representing
the People's Parliament (CRPP) Elected in the 1990 General Election
after
its demand to the government to call the parliament within 60 days was
ignored.
According to an earlier statement of the CRPP, secretary of the CRPP
U Aye
Tha Aung was arrested by the government last month.
Meanwhile, the government regarded itself as a "transitional or
caretaker
government," frequently repeating that it has "no intention" to hold
on to
power for long.
According to a high-ranking military official of the Myanmar
government,
only 169 parliament representatives-elect out of 485 remain valid as
of
Thursday. The other 316 include those who resigned, died and
disqualified or
canceled. Of the 169 parliament representatives who remain valid, 110
are
from the NLD.
__________________ INTERNATIONAL ___________________
FEER: FRUSTRATION OVER BURMA'S ILLEGAL DRUGS TRADE IS REACHING
DANGEROUS LEVELS IN THAILAND
FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW
Issue of June 1, 2000
THAILAND
Flash Point
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
By Rodney Tasker/CHIANG MAI with Shawn W. Crispin/BANGKOK
Issue cover-dated June 1, 2000
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
AS THE ARMY HELICOPTER swoops over the rugged mountains of northern
Thailand, Gen. Surayud Chulanont, the country's top military
commander, points below. "This," he says, looking across a landscape
of hills and dark forest that extends into Burma, "is a threat to our
country." The land over which we are flying, accompanied by two other
generals, is the remote frontier on a growing political and security
crisis for Thailand.
The worry Surayud refers to centres on the vast and growing
quantities of illegal narcotics flowing through the hidden pathways
that cross this border from Burma. In addition to an established
heroin trade, a staggering 600 million methamphetamine tablets--
individually inexpensive, but collectively worth some $1.8 billion at
Bangkok street rates--is expected to flood into Thailand this year,
mainly from areas controlled by the fierce Wa minority in Burma's
northern Shan state.
The concern does not end there. Unconvinced by Rangoon's explanations
that it is unable to control the Wa, Thai authorities are
increasingly seeing the narcotics problem as one element in what they
regard as a deliberate campaign of destabilization. Senior officials
believe Burma's military junta--short of both funds and friends--is
not only helping the Wa but also is content to see Thailand struggle
to cope with 100,000 refugees at the border, plus hundreds of
thousands of illegal immigrants. And the army's generals are becoming
restless at what they see as their enforced impotence. As one senior
security official says: "We can't sit like this and take it any
more."
Antagonism between the two neighbours is not new. Relations have long
been precarious. As recently as a decade ago, the Thais regarded
rebellious ethnic Burmese minorities living along their border as a
buffer between the two countries. But where before the threat was
armed conflict, it's now a drugs trade that's targeting Thai domestic
consumption. And the prime enemy is a Wa minority described,
derisively, by one Thai 3rd Army general as "born with fighting and
narcotics in their blood." The general says he and his colleagues
regard the Rangoon junta's first secretary, Lt.-Gen. Khin Nyunt, as
being specifically involved with the Wa, treating the United Wa State
Army "almost as his private army."
Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai is said by one adviser to be deeply
concerned at the worsening situation. As Deputy Foreign Minister
Sukhumbhand Paribatra puts it: "No democratically elected government
could hope to return to power if it sits idly while its sons and
daughters waste away on drugs."
The drugs are coming from 50 Wa methamphetamine factories, many in an
area just across the border near a new township, Mong Yawn, built
mainly by Thai labour and funded by narcotics profits. To emphasize
the point, the army helicopter lands on a hill at Doi Kiew Hoong from
which binoculars offer a view of a neat, prosperous-looking Mong
Yawn. Then five forlorn-looking UWSA soldiers are produced handcuffed
and blindfolded. They had been captured straying across the border.
These particular Wa fighters have no drugs on them. But Maj.-Gen. Anu
Sumitra, intelligence chief for Thailand's northern-based 3rd Army,
says ethnic Wa have been channelling methamphetamines across the
border along with supplies of heroin for the past 10 years. Last year
some 45 million methamphetamine tablets were confiscated. Anu says
520 suspected traffickers have been detained since last October.
Virtually all the stimulants are for Thai consumption. Heroin, on the
other hand, passes through Thailand for re-export.
THAILAND BACKING SABOTAGE INSIDE BURMA
The army, which coordinates the anti-narcotics effort in the north,
has been relying on ambushes of drug caravans to combat the problem.
Both sides use night-vision equipment. The army is guided by
intelligence, mainly from Thai construction workers and foreign
missionaries across the border, but signs of new and more aggressive
policies are starting to appear: In a late April interview with the
Review, Sukhumbhand conceded that Thailand was also supporting
clandestine sabotage operations in Wa-controlled territory inside
Burma.
Sukhumbhand declined to give details, but Thai intelligence sources
say former members of Britain's elite Special Air Services are being
recruited to train members of Burma's ethnic Karen community as
agents in the war on drugs. Western diplomats in Bangkok also talk of
suspicions of Thai complicity in at least two recent incidents,
including an explosion at a hydroelectric dam in January near Mong
Yawn.
Army Commander Surayud characterizes the army's response thus far
as "low-intensity." Surayud, widely respected as an honest
professional, diplomatically sidesteps questions about cross-border
sabotage by the Thais, but he allows that "a surgical strike would be
viable."
A complication to such action, however, is both countries' membership
of the Association of South East Asian Nations, with its long-
standing principle of noninterference in members' internal affairs.
Senior Thai Foreign Ministry officials say they now regret helping
Burma to join the organization in 1997. It's not clear how Asean
partners would view an escalation of military tension or even a
conflict between the two. Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos tend to side
with Burma, while Singapore and Malaysia have substantial business
links with Rangoon. A senior Thai official maintains that the dispute
is bilateral only.
But that argument is flimsy: Other Thai officials claim that China,
which borders Shan state, is training, providing weapons to and even
sending personnel to protect the UWSA, which gained semi-autonomy in
a peace deal with Rangoon in 1989. Analysts believe the Chinese, also
fighting cross-border drugs, are trying to shift the Wa's focus
southward.
So far this year, and for reasons which aren't fully clear, 20,000 Wa
and some ethnic Han-Chinese have moved to areas close to the Thai
border. "China is now playing a larger role in helping the Wa,"
maintains 3rd Army intelligence chief Anu. Anu also believes China is
intent eventually on forging a strategic land route through Burma to
the Indian Ocean, exploiting the fact that Beijing is Rangoon's only
real ally.
Thailand's government is meanwhile left facing domestic fallout.
According to official estimates, at least 60% of methamphetamines end
up in the hands of young people aged 15-18. There's also political
concern that the pervasive corruption in the comparatively poor north
is being fuelled by bribes from the massively profitable narcotics
trade.
"Concerns are rising about the effects the amphetamine trade is
having on northern politics," says Bhansoon Ladavalya, a political
scientist at Chiang Mai University. "Because the Democrats are
nearing an end of their term, underground activities are on the
rise," he adds, referring to murky manoeuvring ahead of a general
election that the Democrat-led coalition government must call by
November.
CRACKDOWN ON CORRUPT OFFICIALS
Other political analysts agree that new drug money is forcing Bangkok
to strive harder to keep a political hold on northern areas. Bhansoon
says drug money was even used to bolster candidates in the Senate
election in March.
The situation led to a closed-door meeting of government and security
agencies in Bangkok on May 12, resulting in a decision to crack down
harder on corrupt officials involved in the drugs trade. The National
Narcotics Operation Centre, set up in 1998 and comprised mainly of
security agencies, is to keep a closer watch on 109 northern villages
suspected of links to the illicit trade. Jurin Laksanavisit, the
Prime Minister's Office minister, who oversees anti-narcotics
enforcement, has warned that under new regulations, government
officials found to be involved in the trade will be quickly
dismissed.
A conspicuous indication of just how far the rot is spreading came in
mid-May when two officials--one an army sergeant--were arrested in
the village of Fang, just west of Chiang Mai, with 1.2 tonnes of
ephedrine, one of the main chemicals used to make methamphetamines.
Maj.-Gen. Somboonkiat Sithidecha, who is involved in the 3rd Army's
drug suppression efforts, says the haul was on its way to the UWSA
and would have been sufficient to make 500 million methamphetamine
tablets. Ephedrine and caffeine, another key ingredient, are also
smuggled to the UWSA via China and India. Somboonkiat's boss, 3rd
Army Commander Lt.-Gen. Wattanachai Chaimuenwong, says his troops are
being rotated every four months to prevent them from being tempted by
hefty bribes from drug-traffickers.
The irritation among Thai officials appears close to breaking point.
Senior security officials say Bangkok is in no mood to listen to
excuses from Rangoon. With an election just months away, the
government is under pressure to act decisively. Declares intelligence
chief Anu: "Burma is the only government in the world to benefit from
narcotics."
____________________________________________________
AAP: PROTESTERS, POLICE SCUFFLE OUTSIDE EMBASSY BURMA
25-May-00
By Jordan Baker
CANBERRA, May 25 AAP - Police clashed repeatedly with demonstrators
who tried unsuccessfully to storm the Burmese Embassy in Yarralumla
today. Some 120 protesters shouting freedom slogans attempted to
crash through a police blockade and scale the embassy gate over a
three-hour period. They were protesting against Burma's ruling
military junta to heed a deadline from monks to begin talks with
them on freedom.
When heavily outnumbered police dragged the protesters off the
fence, another group of demonstrators, wearing red bandanas, set
fire to the Burmese flag.
Chanting "We want democracy", they hurled banners, poles, water
bottles and police hats over the embassy fence.
Scuffles also broke out across the road from the embassy when police
tried to seize one of their red and gold freedom flags.
At one stage an ambulance was called to treat a man who said he
suffered an asthma attack after a policeman punched him in the
stomach.
Police eventually restored calm without any arrests.
One of the demonstrators, New South Wales Greens Party convenor
Jamie Parker, complained of police violence.
"That police officer got very excited and started punching me in the
face," Mr Parker said.
The demonstration was sparked by a phone call from a monk spokesman
on the Thai-Burma border who said they were intending to turn 21
Burmese monasteries into fortresses of resistance after the
government ignored their deadline for dialogue.
Protest organiser Maung Maung Than said the demonstrators - who had
travelled here from Sydney and Melbourne - were supporters of
democracy.
"We don't want to see a dictatorship run in this office," he
said. "This is the office belonging to the democratic government,
not the military regime."
Initially, some 20 Australian Protective Services officers and 40
police confronted the demonstraters but were later joined by federal
agents who specialise in diplomatic relations.
A police spokeswoman said officers wanted to avoid making arrests in
the hope of containing the situation more easily.
She said any allegations of inappropriate behaviour by police would
be investigated.
Police would not comment on how many people were inside the embassy
during the protest.
______________ ECONOMY AND BUSINESS ___________________
DE TROUW (Netherlands): GREUSOME STORIES IN THE MARGINS (news about
IHC Caland)
May 22, 2000
A remarkable group sat in the director's room of the ship and
offshore building company IHC Caland last week. Around the table: the
president of the dredging company, a Dutch action group and an
American-Burmese couple with their three year old daughter.
While the toddler drew, her parents placed a report on the table
containing new information that proves that companies such as IHC
Caland have worked for years in Burma with full knowledge of the
massive human rights abuses occurring under Burma's military regime,
and are therefore also to be held accountable. IHC Caland is the
only Dutch company that continues to do business in Burma.
The Burmese activist Ka Hsaw Wa (29) and the American lawyer Katie
Redford (32) are the tormentors of such companies. In 1995, they
began the organization EarthRights International. ERI documents
human rights abuses, including the tens of thousands of cases of
forced labor that surround the building of gas and oil pipelines in
Burma. IHC Caland is also involved in these projects. It provides the
floating storage tanks for the extraction of gas from the sea off the
coast of Burma.
"Very friendly, but incredibly naive," said Ka Hsaw Wa about IHC
Caland's president Aad De Ruyter. "He said that he had 'actually
never thought about the fact that his company's business in Burma
would not be possible without the support of the military, which
provides heavy security for the gas project. I can't believe that.
The whole world knows that Burma is one of the worst military regimes
in power, and that the regime lives on the profits from gas and oil."
ERI says that the company from Schiedam may have known since 1996
that the gas project goes hand in hand with forced labor. That year,
an internal consultant of the Yetagun gas project wrote that the
Burmese military regime uses "even children" for forced labor for the
pipeline. "They didn't know about the report," Redford said. "I don't
know if I should believe that or not." In the States she is known for
working with ERI to take another investor in Burma, the Californian
oil company Unocal, to court, though with little success as of yet.
It stands accused of its (indirect) involvement in forced labor in
Burma.
"The idea is to show the Burmese citizens that you can assert your
rights by legal means," said Redford. "The many people we spoke to
who had been forced to work by the Burmese military think that
violence is the only solution, by attacking the military or
sabotaging the pipeline."
The couple met each other in 1993 in the region where the pipeline is
being built. As a law student, Redford researched human rights abuse
in Asia. Ka Hsaw Wa lived in a refugee camp in Thailand and used to
go on underground missions to Burma to collect data about human
rights violations. "I didn't even have paper, and had to use the
margins of my English-Burmese dictionary to write down all the
gruesome stories that I heard from other refugees. When I ran out of
space, I had to memorize the information."
Ka Hsaw Wa ended up in a refugee camp, after he, like so many of his
contemporaries, took part in the massive demonstrations in the
Burmese capital Rangoon in 1988. He had been taken in by the police
right before the demonstrations and endured three days of
torture. "And that's just because they were looking for an
acquaintance of mine."
He never saw Rangoon or his old house again. Until last year, he
lived in Asia, where he went on missions from Thailand into the
Burmese jungle to document tales of mass forced labor imposed upon
the citizens of the coastal province of Tenasserim by the Burmese
military, as told by citizens and ex-soldiers. In the past few years,
thousands, possibly even tens of thousands, of men, women and
children were forced to work under horrifying conditions on two gas
pipelines that led from the sea to Thailand. Citizens were forced to
build barracks for the security forces guarding the pipeline, and are
still used to carry munitions and other supplies or the
military. "And in areas where there are landmines, citizens are used
as human minesweepers," says Ka Hsaw Wa. The death toll of forced
laborers is unknown, but many have died in the process of building
the two pipelines. Six thousand have fled to avoid forced labor.
Some have reported that in the time they were working on the
pipelines, they were locked in cages at night to prevent escape.
For his work, Ka Hsaw Wa was honored with several international
distinctions last year. His photo was shown in the newspaper and on
the television. Since then, he cannot go to the Thai-Burmese border
area for fear of being caught, not even with a fake identity. On one
of his last missions there, he noticed that he was being searched
for. "To be safe, I had six different identities. Thai security even
asked me once to get in touch with them immediately if I ever came
across one Ka Hsaw Wa in the jungles. They were looking for me!"
He became a fulltime lobbyist and moved with his family to the United
States, where they can live safely. Last week, he began his first
visit to Europe. In the Netherlands, the couple had some "promising
discussions" with MPs about possible economic sanctions against Burma
by the Netherlands. The couple also visited the pension fund ABP,
also a large scale investor in IHC Caland. ABN Amro was not on the
list for discussion, because, without informing the public, it had
sold all of its shares in IHC Caland by the end of April. "They
didn't even know about it in Schiedam, " said Redford.
"The most ironic part is that not even one liter of gas has flowed
through the pipeline. Thanks in part to our lobbying, the World Bank
repealed a loan to Thailand for millions of dollars, whereby the Thai
electric company that would refine the gas never finished
construction. The World Bank did not want to share responsibility
for the inhumane circumstances under which the gas was extracted in
Burma. But the Burmese junta is quite clever; they made Thailand pay
for the undelivered gas."
_________________OPINION/EDITORIALS_________________
BANGKOK POST: THAILAND ON BURMESE ELECTIONS
Bangkok Post, May 23, 2000
Thailand on Burmese elections:
Seldom have hopes been raised so high and dashed so hard as the
Burmese elections of 1990. Ten years ago this Saturday, the nation
turned out en masse to open what they hoped was a new era of
democracy. Burmese voted overwhelmingly for a new parliament. The
army was defeated, the National League for Democracy won.
In the decade since, Burmese have watched the dictatorship smash
their hopes and votes to smithereens. The elected parliament never
met. The leader of the winning party, Aung San Suu Kyi, was
imprisoned in her home. She had urged the Burmese to go to the polls
and vote for a democratic regime. There are few crimes more serious
in Burma, then or today. (Burma is also known as Myanmar).
The junta has made Burma the poorest state in the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations, offering no hope out of poverty. It has made
Burma an international pariah, directly helping to traffic drugs to
Thailand and the rest of the world. It has brutalized its own people
with imprisonment, torture and forced labor on a scale seldom seen in
the least-civilized nations.
It is time the regime respected the demand of its people for a
democratic and accountable government. The form of government is the
business of citizens. The people of Burma spoke a decade ago. Voters
had clear choices, and they made them. The Rangoon regime will get no
respect until it makes clear and solid progress toward implementing
those choices.
____________________________________________________
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: RESOLUTION ON BURMA
May 2000
The European Parliament,
- having regard to its previous resolutions on Burma, in
particular its resolution of 16 September 1999 on Burma ,
A. whereas on 27 May it will be ten years since Aung San Suu Kyi
was elected President by a large majority of the people of Burma when
the National League for Democracy (NLD) won 392 of the 485 seats in
Parliament in free and fair elections and whereas the elected
Parliament, which is now represented by the CRPP, has still not been
permitted to convene,
B. whereas many thousands of people have died and hundreds of
thousands of people have fled to neighbouring countries such as
India, Thailand and Malaysia, where they have for years been living
in refugee camps and are dependent on humanitarian aid from NGOs and
from those neighbouring countries,
C. deploring the SPDC's continued intimidation and restrictions
on Aung San Suu Kyi, who has recently been threatened with
imprisonment, and other NLD members, who were again imprisoned in
1999, in many cases under very poor conditions, without adequate food
or medical care,
D. condemning the arrest of 40 NLD youth members and of U Aye
Thar Aung of the Arakan League for Democracy in April 2000, as well
as 82-year old Nai Tun Shein of the Mon National Democratic Front and
Kyin Shin Htan of the Zomi National Congress in November 1999, after
they spoke with Alvaro de Soto, then the UN's special envoy to Burma,
and the detention of 83-year old Saw Mra Aung, the Speaker of the
CRPP, who has been under arrest since the committee was formed in
September 1998,
E. deeply concerned about reports on special guerrilla
retaliation units of the Burmese army, whose mission is to execute
any civilians in Karen State suspected of interaction with the Karen
National Union (KNU),
F. whereas in Burma itself large numbers of people have also
been moved to new areas, as a result of which whole communities have
disintegrated and fallen into deep poverty,
G. whereas according to reports the Burmese army has the highest
ratio of child soldiers in the world,
H. whereas at the end of March the governing body of the
International Labour Organisation (ILO) documented the SPDC's
maintenance of a system of forced labour without any sign of
improvement, and urged member countries and international
organisations to withhold cooperation from the country,
I. whereas in a recent report the World Bank indicated that
constructive economic reform cannot be effectively implemented
without progress toward democratisation,
J. whereas nearly all universities in Burma have been closed
since December 1996, and in the last twelve years have only been open
for less than three years,
K. whereas investment by European multinational oil companies
reportedly accounts for almost a third of the total official foreign
investment in Burma, thus greatly benefiting the SPDC,
L. whereas the Government of the United Kingdom has called on
Premier Oil to withdraw from Burma,
M. welcoming the fact that the Council has strengthened its
Common Position on Burma by including a ban on export of equipment
that might be used for internal repression or terrorism, naming those
in the regime and its supporters to whom the visa ban applies, and
imposing a freeze on the funds held abroad by those same persons,
N. noting however that the Council has still not responded to
Aung San Suu Kyi's request to implement economic sanctions, and has
not taken any significant economic measures against the SPDC, and
noting that the USA has already halted investment in Burma,
O. regretting that the meeting of the Association of South East
Asian Nations (ASEAN) held in Rangoon on 1 and 2 May 2000, which
brought together Ministers from the 10 member countries as well as
Japan and China, permitted the military regime to use it as a
platform to promote its own political interests,
1. Deeply regrets that ASEAN held its two-day meeting of the
region's economic ministers without raising the fundamental question
of respect for human rights;
2. Calls on the SPDC to enter into a meaningful dialogue with
the democratic opposition and ethnic groups;
3. Calls again on the SPDC to immediately release all political
prisoners, to cease human rights abuses, and to allow political
parties to function freely;
4. Calls on the SPDC to end its widespread practice of forced
labour and the associated human rights violations, which has been
described by the ILO as a 'crime against humanity';
5. Calls on the SPDC to open all universities to provide higher
education for its civilian population and not just for the military
elite; calls on the SPDC furthermore to stop recruiting child
soldiers and to send those children to school instead;
6. Calls on the Council to demand that all European companies
cease to invest in Burma;
7. Considers that the governments of the EU Member States should
advise their citizens against visiting Burma as tourists,
particularly because many new tourist facilities have also been
created using forced labour;
8. Considers it high time that the EU Member States adopted a
common policy on Burma and calls on the Commission and Council to
take effective decisions on this subject as soon as possible;
9. Confirms the importance of EU-ASEAN cooperation and
partnership but supports the exclusion of Burma from the ASEAN-EU
process, and insists that the military regime of Burma should not be
allowed to participate in the ASEAN-EU Senior Official Meeting in
June;
10. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the
Commission, the Council, the governments of the EU Member States and
the accession candidate countries, ASEAN and its Member States and
the Governments of Burma, India, China and Japan.
_____________________ OTHER ______________________
BURMANET: FOREIGN PRESS CLUBS IN BANGKOK, TOKYO STAGING BURMA PRESS
CONFERENCES
May 25, 2000
The Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand staged a press conference
on May 25th for Burmese monks and opposition leaders to discuss the
10th Anniversary of the 1990 election and the Foreign Correspondents
Club of Tokyo will host a dinner/press conference on May 30 for
Burmese opposition leaders to discuss Japan's policy on Burma.
The five invited panelists for the Bangkok event included The
Venerable Ashin Khaymar Sarra, founding member of the All Burma Young
Monks' Union (ABYMU), U Maung Maung Aye, General Secretary of the
National Council of the Union of Burma and and Minister of
Information for the exiled elected government,U Maung Maung Latt, an
elected NLD MP, Dr. Zalhe Thang Chairman and elected MP and Dr. Sann
Aung, an Independent elected MP currently serving as Minister of
Labour of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma.
The Tokyo press conference on May 30 will feature Harn Yawnghwe, who
is the director of the Euro-Burma Office in Brussels and Dr. Thaung
Htun is the representative of the National Coalition Government of
the Union of Burma (NCGUB) to the United Nations and is based in New
York.
The Euro-Burma office is a joint project between the European Union
and the German Friedrich Ebert Foundation, he is the movement's chief
representative to the EU. The NCGUB is the government formed by
members of the democratically elected 1990 parliament to seek
international support for the restoration of parliamentary democracy
in Burma.
The Tokyo press conference comes just after Aung San Suu Kyi sent a
message aimed at Japan in a video smuggled out of Burma. In it, the
leader of Burma's besieged democracy movement Aung San Suu Kyi
appealed to Japan not to be manipulated:
"We know that the people of Japan bear (us) goodwill. We would not
like that goodwill to be manipulated by those who want to use it for
their own ends. We would like the people of Japan to look at the
people of Burma. Let the people of Japan talk with their hearts to
the people of Burma and decide what is best, what should best be
done."
Dr. Thaung Htun and Harn Yawngwhe are set to deliver a message that
Japan's renewed aid program to Burma's regime is an impediment to
political dialogue between the military junta and Aung San Suu Kyi.
That aid program is likely to include funding for the most expensive
dams in Southeast Asia--projects in the planning stage but which are
already causing massive human rights abuses.
_______________
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.
________________
The BurmaNet News is an Internet newspaper providing comprehensive
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:
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Fax + (202) 318-1261
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