[theburmanetnews] BurmaNet News: Se

[theburmanetnews-owner@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Reply-To: theburmanetnews-owner@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [theburmanetnews] BurmaNet News: September 7, 2000

-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
Special Offer-Earn 300 Points from MyPoints.com for trying @Backup
Get automatic protection and access to your important computer files.
Install today:
http://click.egroups.com/1/6347/7/_/713843/_/968346190/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
        An on-line newspaper covering Burma 
_________September 7, 2000   Issue # 1615__________

NOTED IN PASSING:

	
INSIDE BURMA _______
*Reuters: Myanmar attacks critics, calls Suu Kyi a stooge
*Reuters: Defiant Myanmar sinks into stalemate and isolation 
*The Statesman (New Delhi):  Undercover in Myanmar
*Myanmar Times (SPDC):  Reuters news agency ducks flak over forced 
labour report

REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL _______
*International Labor Rights Fund:  Judge Lew Rules Against Slave 
Laborers Working for Unocal in Burma

ECONOMY/BUSINESS _______
*AFP: French parliament leader raps TotalFinaElf on Myanmar operations
		
OPINION/EDITORIALS _______
*International Herald Tribune: Rangoon's Military vs. the World
*Article 19: "Silence on Suu Kyi crisis not an option at UN 
Millennium Summit", says human rights group
*SPDC: Synchronized Negative Media Campaigns Against Government of 
Myanmar
*SHAN: Shan State Joint Action Committee Urges SPDC to Take 
Appropriate Actions on Crime against Humanity  


The BurmaNet News is viewable online at:
http://theburmanetnews.editthispage.com


__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________
	

Reuters: Myanmar attacks critics, calls Suu Kyi a stooge

By Aung Hla Tun 

 YANGON, Sept 7 (Reuters) - A war of words between Myanmar and its 
international critics escalated on Thursday with a stinging response 
from the military government to an embarrassing barrage of criticism 
at the U.N. Millennium Summit in New York.   A commentary in the 
state-run, English-language New Light of Myanmar newspaper said pro-
democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, padlocked by the 
authorities inside her home since Saturday, was a neo-colonialist 
stooge being kept under supervision for her own safety.   

``All these protesters, presidential candidates, heads of state, the 
secretary-general of the U.N., blithely jumped on the trumpet-blowing 
bandwagon of calumniating (sic) Myanmar, not because they see, they 
hear, they know for themselves the Myanmar affairs, but for their own 
selfish purposes and aims,'' it said.   ``But the truth will come out 
in due course, truth will triumph ultimately.''   Myanmar's military 
forcibly brought Suu Kyi back to Yangon in the early hours of 
Saturday, ending a nine-day roadside protest which began when 
authorities stopped her in her car just outside the capital and 
refused to let her travel to the provinces.   

She has been confined to her residence ever since, out of telephone 
contact and with diplomatic access barred.   The New Light of 
Myanmar, which like other Myanmar newspapers is seen as an official 
mouthpiece of the government, suggested Suu Kyi was in danger from 
unidentified plotters.   ``Myanmar leaders, wise in the ways of evil-
minded people, clearly foresee perils under which Suu Kyi is flitting 
about unwarily,'' said the newspaper commentary.   

``Myanmar leaders have learned many lessons from events taking place 
around the world that perpetrators of political massacres have an 
atrocious habit of silencing and destroying the instruments they have 
employed in accomplishing their sinister assignments,'' it said.   
``The Myanmar leaders cannot and will not allow such a catastrophe 
happening on Myanmar soil, hence the solid, wisdom-led reason to keep 
Suu Kyi always under their vigilant eyes, for her own safety as well 
as for safeguarding Myanmar's fame against the calumniating 
fusillades (sic) of neo-colonialists.''   

CONDEMNATION AT MILLENNIUM SUMMIT 

 The Myanmar government has denied that Suu Kyi and her senior 
colleagues are under house arrest, saying they have been asked to 
stay at home while it investigates reports that some members of her 
National League for Democracy (NLD) had been involved in ``terrorist 
activity.''   Suu Kyi's protest, and the government's subsequent 
crackdown, came at an embarrassing time for Myanmar, with world 
leaders meeting in New York for the U.N. summit.   

U.S. President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair 
used their summit speeches to denounce Myanmar.   ``We face another 
test today in Burma, where a brave and popular leader, Aung San Suu 
Kyi, once again has been confined with her supporters in prison and 
her country in distress, in defiance of repeated U.N. resolutions,'' 
Clinton said.  


____________________________________________________


Reuters: Defiant Myanmar sinks into stalemate and isolation 

By Andrew Marshall 

 BANGKOK, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Myanmar is sinking deeper into 
stagnation and stalemate, with no evidence of a thaw in the 
military's iron grip on power and no sign that a hostile 
international community will relax the country's isolation.   The 
impoverished country is increasingly becoming a pariah state, 
flooding its neighbours with drugs and scuppering efforts to improve 
relations between the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) 
and the West.   The best hope for change, analysts say, is that 
international pressure and economic isolation spark efforts by the 
military's more progressive members to push for reform.   But this 
could be years away, and if reforms are eventually introduced they 
are likely to be slow and halting.  

 ``To be honest there is no reason for optimism,'' said one Western 
diplomat in Yangon. ``There is little will to change apparent in the 
government.''   The victims are the country's 47 million people. 

 With the economy battered by domestic mismanagement and 
international sanctions, they face continued isolation and poverty 
unless the government makes concessions, analysts say.   AN 

AWKWARD REMINDER 

 As world leaders gathered in New York for a U.N. summit to herald 
the new millennium, Myanmar faced another round of condemnation for 
its treatment of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been 
confined to her house since Saturday.   Myanmar insists it is 
committed to democracy and blames Suu Kyi for causing its economic 
ills with her calls for sanctions.   ``In the outside media she has 
been portrayed as a person who is liked by everybody,'' government 
spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Hla Min told Reuters. ``But in the real 
world, if your rice bowl has been broken by a certain person, I am 
sure that nobody is going to like or love that person.''   But 
diplomats say that if elections were called, the opposition would be 
likely to match its 1990 landslide victory, which was never 
recognised by the government. And world leaders have thrown their 
weight behind Suu Kyi at the U.N. gathering.   

``The treatment of Aung San Suu Kyi by the Burmese regime is a 
disgrace,'' British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the summit. U.S. 
President Bill Clinton also denounced the regime.   Newspapers around 
the world called for tougher sanctions against Myanmar. In an 
editorial, the Times of Britain said more economic and political 
pressure should be brought to bear.   

``There is a general perception that Western pressure on the junta is 
being quietly relaxed,'' it said. ``Suu Kyi's action, however, is an 
awkward reminder of continuing abuse.''   Analysts say Suu Kyi's best 
hope of wringing concessions from the military is precisely this -- 
being an ``awkward reminder'' who stymies the military's efforts to 
win greater world acceptance.   

REFORM OR STAGNATION 

 Myanmar had made some progress in its international relations in 
recent years, controversially gaining entry to ASEAN in 1997.   The 
move damaged ASEAN's relations with the European Union, which 
cancelled ministerial level meetings, but an easing of Myanmar's 
isolation seemed on the cards after ASEAN and EU foreign ministers 
agreed to meet in Laos in December.   

That meeting now seems seriously in doubt, with Myanmar facing a 
barrage of criticism for preventing Suu Kyi from travelling outside 
Yangon, forcibly returning her to the capital and keeping her 
padlocked inside her residence.   

While Suu Kyi does not have the strength to unseat the government, 
she has the power to keep it isolated, and there is little the regime 
can do to stop her, analysts say.   Since a 1988 uprising was 
bloodily suppressed at the cost of thousands of lives, Myanmar has 
doubled the size of its armed forces to an estimated 450,000 
personnel and stepped up intelligence gathering and surveillance.   
Analysts say there is little chance of a successful popular uprising 
and the best hope for change is reform pressure from within the 
military.   

Cracks sometimes appear -- last month Myanmar fired the deputy 
planning and development minister, Brigadier-General Zaw Tun, after 
he criticised economic policy. Nyunt Thein, commander in chief of the 
navy, also ``retired'' last month.   Myanmar opposition radio says 
the dismissals caused dissent within the military. Diplomats in 
Yangon say it is hard to gauge how serious and wide-reaching the 
dissatisfaction is, and caution that there are no signs of strong 
internal reform momentum.   But with ASEAN increasingly finding 
Myanmar an embarrassment, the December EU meeting under threat, and 
attacks on Myanmar from all sides at the Millennium Summit, reform-
minded members of the regime may decide that offering concessions is 
essential.   The alternative is more stagnation, isolation and 
poverty.  2000-09-07 Thu 01:49 


____________________________________________________


The Statesman (New Delhi):  Undercover in Myanmar

BEN HAMMERSLEY describes how he tricked the secret police to meet her 

September 7, 2000

WHETHER Aung San Suu Kyi likes it or not and she does not, she is an 
icon. Under house arrest again, she is said to be safe and well, but 
her supporters are concerned.

Last Saturday, the Nobel Peace laureate and 13 members of the 
National League for Democracy were forcibly taken to Yangon. Nothing 
has been heard from them since, and the authorities show no sign of 
granting access to the Opposition leader who has fought for 12 years 
to bring democracy to Myanmar.

"I'm no icon. That's a phrase I don't like," she insisted when I met 
her in June. It was easy to understand the potency of her 
personality, why she frightens Myanmar's ruling junta and why they 
make it so hard for people to contact her.

Interviewing her is even trickier. Once you have made an appointment, 
using contacts in two other countries, and fraudulently acquired a 
tourist visa, smuggled recording equipment past military Intelligence 
at Rangoon Airport, and spent the next week evading their colleagues 
in your hotel bar, you are still only at the sweaty halfway point. 

Getting a recording or a photograph of Mrs Suu Kyi out of Myanmar is 
almost impossible. My interview was recorded in three ways: on a 
tiny "memory stick" taped to the inside of my thigh; a dicta-phone 
tape that went into my pocket as bait. A disk for my photographs from 
an Agfa digital camera was small enough to drop between the lining 
and the outer core of a pack of cigarettes, which went into my pocket 
with some Thai coins, so that when the disk set off the metal 
detector at Rangoon Airport, I could empty my pockets and walk 
through.

The woman who is the primary target of this huge security offensive 
is small and thin with flowers woven into her hair. But with her 
Oxford-educated voice and pristine Myanmarese clothes, Mrs Suu Kyi is 
the kind of woman in whose company you instinctively sit up straight. 
She will suddenly deflate a political argument with a giggle but her 
determination remains intact. The West, she asserts, should boycott 
Myanmar. No tourism, no business, she says. "The question asking 
whether tourism is the best way for a poor country to try to get rich 
is a moot one. This regime is not interested in handling tourism in 
any way except to get as much money out of it as possible.

"The military regime is not going about economic reform in the right 
way. The economic disaster that Myanmar is facing has come about not 
because of anything that the NLD has said but because this regime 
does not know how to go about instituting sound economic management. 
"The majority of the people get poorer. There was a lot of investment 
from Western countries, but it did not make the people richer. You 
see wealth concentrated in a few people, and a lot of (these) people 
are connected to the regime."

Despite being a legal party, NLD's members face daily harassment or 
worse. With phone lines tapped, Internet use illegal, fax machines 
compulsorily licensed, and their travel disrupted, it is hard for an 
Opposition to exist, much less be effective.

The NLD's headquarters are in a ramshackle two-storey building on the 
edge of Yangoon. There is scant electricity, and no equipment, bar a 
few old typewriters. Posters of Mrs Suu Kyi cover cracks in the 
walls. Party members mill about waiting for a meeting or the mothers-
and-baby mornings where smuggled-in vitamins are distributed.

But the determination of the members is evident. The day I was there, 
the building's owner was released from detention. Elderly, diabetic 
and suffering from arthritis, she had been jailed for a week without 
drugs as the military tried to force her to evict the party. She had 
refused, explaining that she and her husband have pledged the 
building rent-free until democracy is restored.

Doesn't this kind of pressure ever make Mrs Suu Kyi want to give 
up? "No," she insists. "I have always said that as long as there was 
one person remaining who was prepared to work for democracy, I'll 
stay. I believe we will achieve democracy, but I can't promise that 
it will be in my lifetime. I'll do my best." Brave words that I would 
find hard to take out of Myanmar.

When I got to Rangoon Airport, they went through my stuff twice. The 
Custom official thought the memory stick recorder was an "electric 
razor."
--- The Times, London.


____________________________________________________


Myanmar Times (SPDC):  Reuters news agency ducks flak over forced 
labour report

August 28 - Sept 3 ,2000, Volume 2, No.26



THE Reuters news agency has sought to distance itself from the 
fallout over a report that clothes exported to the US from Myanmar 
were being made by ôforced labour" ReutersÆMyanmar correspondent, U 
Aung Hla Tun, told Myanmar Times the wire service had sought to 
clarify its position with the Myanmar Government after the report was 
published in North America last month.As reported previously 
(USÆforced labour claims irresponsible says SPDC, MT, Vol 2, No 23), 
the ReutersÆreport detailed claims by a US trade union that the giant 
Wal-Mart chain was selling clothes made in Myanmar by forced labour.

It quoted officials of the United Food and Commercial Workers union - 
which was at the time seeking to position itself to win coverage of 
Wal- Mart workers æcalling for the department store to be boycotted 
until it severed ôall ties with any company doing business in BurmaÆ 
The report also quoted officialsÆclaims that more than 800,000 
Myanmar people were ôconscriptedÆto work in slave-like conditions 
with little or no pay. The Myanmar Government issued a press release 
in response to the article which rejected the allegations and 
expressed disappointment that ôsuch kind of misinformation was 
reported by a news agency which has a reputation for being 
responsible and unbiased

But U Aung Hla Tun said the journalist who wrote the July 18 article, 
Peter Szekely, ômay not know the real situation of MyanmarÆôOn the 
very day that the Myanmar government issued the press release on this 
matter, our Bureau Chief in Bangkok talked with Lt-Col Hla Min of the 
Office of Strategic Studies,Æhe said. U Aung Hla Tun said the news 
agency had a good reputation for being accurate and fair and did not 
want to see that perception tarnished. ôIn my personal view MyanmarÆs 
garment sector is supporting most of our work force to get 
employment,Æhe said.

ôIt is very good to see that even half-educated workers are getting 
fair salaries in the industry.öUnease over the ReutersÆarticle was 
also felt within the garment industry.ôThe US government is 
pressurising the big companies, including Wal-Mart, not to buy 
Myanmar made arments,Æsaid a source at a medium-sized garment factory 
in Yangon.Although more than half of MyanmarÆs garment exports were 
destined for the US, they went exclusively to small and medium-sized 
firms, he said.Wal-Mart had stopped buying Myanmar clothing in 1993-
94 as a result of  government and lobby group pressure.

It also seemed the US was putting pressure on European governments 
not to grant Myanmar the exemption from the 12.5 per cent import tax 
which was available to most developing Asian countries, he said.The 
source said most garment factory workers were earning a minimum of 
K7000 per month.ôEvery worker here is covered under social security 
benefits and a complaint can be made to the relevant labour office 
for any rights violation."











___________________ REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL___________________
					



International Labor Rights Fund:  Judge Lew Rules Against Slave 
Laborers Working for Unocal in Burma

Date:      September 5, 2000
Contact For Further Information:   Terry Collingsworth, General 
Counsel                                         Natacha Thys, 
Associate Counsel
202-347-4100 Contact For a Copy of the Opinion: Stacie Harting, 202 
347-4100, ext.0 


 Federal District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew issued an opinion on 
September 1, 2000 holding that despite knowing about and benefitting 
from the use of slave labor, Unocal cannot be held liable. Attorneys 
for the plaintiffs will appeal the ruling as soon as possible and are 
confident that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will reverse Judge 
Lew's decision and remand the case for trial.

 Judge Lew reasoned that since Unocal did not directly participate in 
forcing villagers to work on the pipeline and did not influence or 
encourage its military security forces in Burma to use slave labor, 
it could not be liable for the acts of its security forces. Judge 
Lew's ruling represents a dramatic departure from well established 
concepts of joint venture and vicarious liability law. He 
specifically found that "the evidence does suggest that Unocal knew 
that forced labor was being utilized and that the Joint Venturers 
benefitted from the practice." He also accepted that there is 
evidence that "the military forced Plaintiffs and others, under 
threat of violence, to work on [Unocal's pipeline infrastructure] 
projects and to serve as porters for the military for days at a 
time." Further, the Court acknowledged that the "Agreements executed 
between the parties [Unocal, Total, the Government of Burma and the 
Government of Thailand] placed responsibility for the security of the 
pipeline with the Myanmar government. The Myanmar military did 
provide security as well as other services for the benefit of the 
project such as road clearing and the construction of helipads and 
army barracks."

 These facts establish a clear basis for Unocal's vicarious liability 
for the acts of its co-venturer, the military regime in Burma, or, 
alternatively, based on Unocal's act in hiring the world renowned 
military thugs in Burma to provide security for the pipeline project. 
Judge Lew has apparently concluded that Unocal is free to hire as a 
security force one of the most brutal violators of human rights in 
modern times, and have no responsibility when that regime uses 
violence to force villagers to work as slaves for Unocal's project. 
Remarkably, the Court notes that Unocal was warned by its own 
consultants, as well as outside observers, that this is exactly what 
would happen if Unocal contracted with the military regime. 
Nonetheless, Unocal went forward with the project, not because of 
necessity, but because there was potential for huge profits.

 Judge Lew's ruling will merely delay holding Unocal responsible for 
its knowing use of slave labor while plaintiffs pursue their appeal. 
The case is far from over.





_______________ ECONOMY AND BUSINESS _______________
 

AFP: French parliament leader raps TotalFinaElf on Myanmar operations 

PARIS, Sept 7 (AFP) - The head of the French parliament's foreign 
affairs commission, Francois Loncle, pressed the oil company 
TotalFinaElf to clarify its position regarding Myanmar's ruling 
junta, in a letter made public on Thursday. 

 Loncle told the oil firm's president Thierry Desmarets that he was 
worried by the "very negative effects of Total's presence in 
Myanmar." 

 "I wish to know the measures your company plans to take so that its 
presence in Myanmar is not interpreted as implicit support for the 
dictatorial regime," Loncle wrote. 

 The president of TotalFinaElf told the foreign affairs commission on 
June 21 that his company was contributing to the country's economic 
and social development. 
 
"Recent events in Myanmar - impeding the freedom of movement of Aung 
San Suu Kyi, placed under house arrest - forces me to ask you to 
review your position," Loncle said. 







_________________OPINION/EDITORIALS________________



International Herald Tribune: Rangoon's Military vs. the World

Thursday, September 7, 2000

Rangoon's Military vs. the World

By David I. Steinberg International Herald Tribune

WASHINGTON - The attempt by the Burmese Nobel Peace laureate Daw Aung 
San Suu  Kyi and her opposition National League for Democracy 
colleagues to travel by  car outside of Rangoon for party 
organizational work has been forcibly  stopped by the Burmese 
military authorities, as were several such trips two  years ago. This 
new effort could be seen as a failed opposition attempt  frustrated 
by the government, but in one important sense it was eminently  
successful.

In spite of the league's inability to accomplish its ostensible 
purpose of  providing support to provincial party chapters, the 
sympathetic coverage  given to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in a wide range 
of international media has once  again focused attention on the 
plight of the democratic forces in the country. 

The existence of the league as a legal political party, and the well-
being of  its leader, are tenuous. If Burma were isolated from world 
scrutiny, as it  was in 1962 when the military seized power, it is 
more than likely that the  league would long ago have been declared 
illegal and all its activities  summarily proscribed, even though it 
has been careful to call only for  nonviolent activities.

The automobile trips are one dramatic means by which the league 
creates  confrontations with the military to attract foreign 
headlines. There are  others as well, such as suing the government in 
the Burmese courts. 

Such moves have two subsidiary motives beyond the search for 
publicity. They  test the limits to which the military will go 
without formally shutting the  party down, and they seek to garner 
local support, in spite of the media ban  on any positive mention of 
the league.

The government's reaction to this particular trip has been more 
severe than  in past encounters. Raiding the league's headquarters 
and the forced  isolation of its leadership (the government refuses 
to call it house arrest)  have raised the stakes.

The military has been frustrated by the dogged determination of Daw 
Aung San  Suu Kyi and the opposition, the political deadlock, an 
economy that continues  to decline, the dearth of foreign investment, 
Burma's pariah status in much  of the world and the increasingly 
critical attitude of some Southeast Asian  countries, most publicly 
Thailand.

There have been suggestions, perhaps trial balloons, in the  
government-controlled press that the league should be outlawed and 
that Daw  Aung San Suu Kyi should be exiled. A current move to try to 
implicate the  league in potential violence may be a precursor of 
such a plan. 

Shutting down the league would be seen as another sign of the 
regime's  readiness to ignore the world and revert to solitary 
stagnation so as to hang  on to power. This would generate further 
international opprobrium and  economic isolation. The Burmese people 
would be the losers. 

The writer, director of Asian studies at Georgetown University, 
contributed  this comment to the International Herald Tribune.


____________________________________________________


Article 19: "Silence on Suu Kyi crisis not an option at UN Millennium 
Summit", says human rights group

7 September 2000

London, 7 September: "Silence is not an option when a military 
government detains incommunicado the leader of a legitimate political 
party", according to ARTICLE 19, an international freedom of 
expression organisation with consultative status at the UN. Today the 
group  voiced extreme concern for the well-being of Burmese political 
leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has not been seen since she and a number 
of her colleagues were removed from a suburb of Rangoon in the middle 
of the night by police.2 

Andrew Puddephatt, Executive Director of ARTICLE 19, called on UN 
leaders at the Millennium summit in New York to take action and said: 
"Had the party been allowed to take power after the 1990 elections, 
we might have seen Aung San Suu Kyi sitting with the world's leaders 
in New York today. As it is, she and the NLD have been among the 
military government's most regular targets for suppression in its war 
on democracy, where freedom of expression has been one of the chief 
casualties."1

Mr Puddephatt appealed for decisive action to other multilateral 
bodies as well:

"We also call on ASEAN and the EU to address the situation both in 
the short-term, by despatching delegates to ensure in person that 
Aung San Suu Kyi and her colleagues are physically unharmed, and in 
the longer term by putting freedom of expression in Burma at the top 
of their individual and collective agendas. We look especially to the 
government of Vietnam, which currently holds the chair of ASEAN, to 
put human rights violations in Burma on the regional forum's agenda."3

The Burmese military government has stepped up harassment of the NLD 
during the latest stand-off, raiding the party's headquarters raided 
and removing documents,  confining a number of Central Executive 
Committee members to their homes, and reportedly imprisoning 16 youth 
activists and two senior NLD members.


____________________________________________________


SPDC: Synchronized Negative Media Campaigns Against Government of 
Myanmar

MYANMAR INFORMATION COMMITTEE
YANGON

Information  Sheet
N0. B-1522(I)             7th September, 2000


It seems that the media today are quite preoccupied highlighting 
allegations and fabrications launched against the Government of 
Myanmar by certain western governments and the anti-government 
quarters within and without the country. There has been a flurry of 
groundless accusations such as religious discrimination, genocide, 
discriminatory use of landmines, employing forced labour in Myanmar 
industries and of course, violation of human rights, mainly Daw Su 
Kyi's rights, popping up in the media recently.

One wonders for what reason or why such attacks are coming up. 
Actually, it is no secret that a negative media campaign against the 
Government of Myanmar has been tailored to coincide with several 
important events such as the UN Millennium Summit, ILO Review in 
Myanmar labour-practice and EU-ASEAN Meeting. In doing so, Daw Su Kyi 
played a major role last week when she managed to flash symbolic 
gestures to attract international attention putting herself back into 
the media limelight.

Meanwhile, stories designed to disinform readers and viewers are 
created and synchronized by those with vested interest to serve their 
ulterior motives. Recently, in the South China Morning Post of 
September 6th even known major drug traffickers were being covered up 
and portrayed as freedom fighters suffering from the Myanmar 
military's ethnic cleansing campaign. Col. Yerd Serk, the leader of 
the so-called Shan State Army is a break-away faction of Khun Sa's 
Mong Tai Army which surrendered unconditionally to the Myanmar 
Government in 1996. Yerd Serk later on violated the agreement with 
the Government and went back to drug trafficking and armed terrorism. 
His continued involvement in narcotic drugs were confirmed in the 
Bangkok Post newspaper of September 7th by the Third Army Chief of 
the Royal Thai Army Lt-Gen Wattanachai Chaimuenwong, who is 
responsible for drug suppression in Northern Thailand.

Similarly, Gen. Bo Mya, the leader of the armed terrorist group of 
the Kayin National Union (KNU) has now been left behind with 1200 men 
in arms which is about 30% of his formal strength while the other 70% 
of the KNU's have made peace with the Government working together in 
the development of the Kayin State for the benefit of the Kayin 
population living there. This organization of Bo Mya is deeply 
involved in acts of terrorism and was also responsible in almost 
overthrowing the first democratic civilian government of the Union in 
1949 and ruled most of the countryside for some years. Before Khun Sa 
surrendered unconditionally to the Government of Myanmar, the KNU 
leader Bo Mya made several clandestine trips to MTA headquarters in 
Easten Shan State and collaborated in drug deals. Photo evidence of 
his connection with Khun Sa can be seen in the 24th Edition of the 
book '' Political Situation of Myanmar and Its Role in the Region'' 
on page 37.

Regretfully, both Col. Yerd Serk and Gen. Bo Mya have been making a 
lot of ridiculous but sensational statements claiming that the 
Government of Myanmar is involved in ethnic cleansing. At the same 
time some irresponsible and bias journalists together with certain 
western governments and interest-groups have blown those statements 
out of proportion and relabelled it as a Genocide in Myanmar.


____________________________________________________


SHAN: Shan State Joint Action Committee Urges SPDC to Take 
Appropriate Actions on Crime against Humanity  

2 September 2000
 

The Shan State Joint Action Committe (SSJAC), which is made up of 
Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) - the largest wining 
political party within the Shan State in 1990 nationwide election - 
and Shan State Peace-Keeping Council (SSPC) -  an umbrella 
organization of Shan ceasefire groups which include Shan State Army 
North (SSA North) and Shan State National Army (SSNA) - released a 
statement, dated 27 July 2000, urging the SPDC to take appropriate 
actions against the massacres committed by its troops in Kun-Hing 
township.  
According to the statement, LIB 246 and 524 entered Wan Phai village 
tract, on 17 May 2000 and shot dead 24 villagers who were working in 
the field near Nong Ya Saing in Kun-Hing  township. Only two 
villagers escaped this massacre.  

Again, on 20 May 2000, the same  LIB 246 and 524 entered Parng Kham 
village, Hsai Mong village tract in Kun-Hing township and shot dead 
59 villagers without reason.    
The statement said that these killings of villagers, which include 
innocent women and children could lead to racial genocide or ethnic 
cleansing and would be counter productive, in building a modern and 
progressive country.  

The statement went on to say that the SSJAC was saddened and shocked 
by these massacres, when the priority for all parties concerned, at 
this stage, has been to achieve racial harmony. It also urged the 
SPDC to take appropriate actions on those responsible for the crimes 
committed.






____________________________________________________

________________


The BurmaNet News is an Internet newspaper providing comprehensive 
coverage of news and opinion on Burma  (Myanmar) from around the 
world.  If you see something on Burma, you can bring it to our 
attention by emailing it to strider@xxxxxxx

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 or fax (US) +1(202) 318-1261
You will be prompted to press 1 for a voice message or 2 to send a 
fax.  If you do neither, a fax tone will begin automatically.

Fax (Japan) +81 (3) 4512-8143



________________





To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
theburmanetnews-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxx