BurmaNet News: September 21, 2000

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______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
        An on-line newspaper covering Burma 
_________September 21, 2000   Issue # 1625__________

NOTED IN PASSING:

1.  ?We are in hell, save us.?  

Message criticizing the regime on underground posters in Rangoon.

2.   ?We don?t care.?

Foreign Minister U Win Aung on criticism of the regime.  See Hindustan 
Times: It?s the Burmese Gulag. An Orwellian State where democracy 
witnesses a daily death
	
INSIDE BURMA _______
*BBC: No train ticket for Suu Kyi
*DVB : Shops fined for importing magazine articles on Suu Kyi, 
opposition
*Hindustan Times: It?s the Burmese Gulag. An Orwellian State where 
democracy witnesses a daily death
*AFP: Junta threatens to crush Aung San Suu Kyi over constitution plans  
  

REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL _______
*NCGUB: Update on United States Congress -- H. Con. Res. 328 on Burma 
*Pretoria News Newspaper (S. Africa):  Myanmar Protest in City

ECONOMY/BUSINESS _______
*DVB : Burmese government to restrict companies importing foreign goods

OPINION/EDITORIALS_______
*Times of India: ?Scribes should focus on democracy in neighboring 
countries?
	
OTHER _______
*PD Burma: Calendar of events with regard to Burma

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



__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________
	


BBC: No train ticket for Suu Kyi

BBC -Thursday, 21 September, 2000, 21:42 GMT 22:42 UK 



Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been prevented from 
leaving the capital, Rangoon, because railway officials said there were 
no train tickets left.  About 100 of her supporters were herded into 
trucks by military police at the station and taken to an undisclosed 
location, diplomats and witnesses said.  

Miss Suu Kyi had been planning to travel to the northern city of 
Mandalay to investigate reports of a crackdown against her supporters, 
but was told that all trains were full.  

The authorities refused to allow her to board the final train of the day 
which left at 2100 (1330 GMT), eyewitnesses said.  

The National League for Democracy (NLD) leader's latest challenge to 
restrictions on her travel ended with her being escorted home by police 
several hours later.  

There was tight security around the station, with shops and businesses 
closed. Police in riot gear kept journalists and diplomats away.  

Defiant 

The military authorities have maintained strict controls on Aung San Suu 
Kyi's travel outside the capital since freeing her from six years of 
house arrest in 1995.  
Last month she was involved in a nine-day stand-off with police, after 
leaving her home and attempting to drive to a party meeting outside the 
capital.  
She and her supporters remained camped by the roadside until the 
authorities ended the protest and placed her under virtual house arrest. 
 
Tensions 

Deputy party chairman Tin Oo, who also intended to travel to Mandalay, 
had earlier told party supporters he wanted to investigate reports that 
party members had been prevented from taking party in political 
activities, and that their offices has been shut down.  

When Aung San Suu Kyi tried to visit Mandalay in 1996 to visit jailed 
supporters, her carriage was disconnected from the rest of the train 
just before it left. Officials blamed technical problems.  

On Thursday the ruling State Peace and Development Council said the 
latest events were heightening tensions between the two sides.  

"The latest 'stand-off' between the SPDC and the NLD and its predictable 
end, and the predictable media attention, does nothing for the country 
except to heighten tensions and generate more anger on both sides," it 
said in a statement.  

The NLD won Burma's last democratic elections in 1990 by a landslide but 
the military refused to hand over power.  

Aung San Suu Kyi was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.  


------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
 Thursday



DVB : Shops fined for importing magazine articles on Suu Kyi, opposition


Text of report by Burmese opposition radio on 12th September 

DVB [Democratic Voice of Burma] has received the following additional 
news. Five publishing houses that have import licenses for foreign 
magazines were fined for importing international magazines carrying 
articles relating to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's stand off at Dala. They were 
also severely warned not to import such magazines in the future. DVB 
correspondent Myint Maung Maung filed this report. 

[Myint Maung Maung] Personnel from No. 7 Military Intelligence [MI] Unit 
from Rangoon Division inspected the Foreign Goods Inspection Department 
at Mingaladon International Airport on 4th September and examined some 
magazines and journals sent from Bangkok, Thailand to five bookstores 
that have import licenses for foreign magazines and journals. They 
discovered that two magazines and one journal contained articles, news 
reports and photos on the stand-off in Dala with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi 
and NLD [National League for Democracy] leaders, and their forced return 
to Rangoon. The magazines and journal were confiscated by the MI. 

The bookstores that ordered the books were Aryonethit bookshop from 
Pabedan Township, Pyinnya Alinpya and Parami bookstores from Latha 
Township, Myo Myanmar bookstore from Kyauktada Township, and Nawat Book 
and Stories bookstore on Merchant Street. The owners of these bookstores 
were summoned by Maj. Thura Lwin, secretary of South Yangon [Rangoon] 
District Peace and Development Council, on 5th September. Maj Thura Lwin 
advised them not to import such magazines and journal in the future and 
to scrutinize carefully whether the books contain articles relating to 
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD party before importing. 

The five bookstore owners were fined 30,000 kyat [Burmese currency unit] 
each and they had to sign an undertaking not to import such books in 
future.

Source: Democratic Voice of Burma, Oslo, in Burmese 1245 gmt 12 Sep 00 



____________________________________________________



Hindustan Times: It?s the Burmese Gulag. An Orwellian State where 
democracy witnesses a daily death

Behind the bamboo curtain

The Hindustan Times (New Delhi)
September 19, 2000

By D.R. Rajagopal

?We are in hell, save us.? This terse message in laconic style is found 
scrawled in big black bold letters in both Burmese and English scripts 
on scores of posters, stuck on lamp-posts, pillars and walls of many 
buildings at street-corners, market-squares and near round-abouts of 
main roads and national highways, which lead out of the 
heavily-garrisoned, tropical national capital, Yangon (Rangoon), and 
from Mandalay and elsewhere in the hermit state of Burma (Myanmar) , 
behind the ?bamboo curtain?.

The bloated ruling elite of the military junta denounces the 
?inflammatory? slogan as [illegible] to Burmese national psyche, besides 
being ?treacherous and anti-national?. Radio Yangon broadcasts, almost 
ad nauseam, everyday, the one-dimensional discourse of the regime. 
Mobile military patrol units on vigil rush around and pull down the 
posters and hunt down the perpetrators of this ?political sacrilege?, as 
radio, television and the other media maintain in their steady drum-beat 
the monologue of the dictatorship.

Young volunteers - with obvious spunk and determination belonging to the 
Opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) - led by Dr Aung San Suu 
Kyi, are hounded and hunted down. Their freedom is always on the 
threshold. If caught, they are spirited away, never to be seen or heard 
again.

Peripatetic diplomats of urbanity, known for their professional 
competence and unfailing observation of the sad and daily vignettes of 
Burma?s polity and ?civil society?, speak in whispers at many an Asian 
airport and sundry other æneutral zonesÆ about the pessimism all around; 
they speak of the depressing political ritual of taut nerves and 
explosive ambience on both sides of the political divide.

Visiting businessmen and fleeting travelers in obvious awe of the 
magnificent hill-top Shwedagon Pagoda beside the Yangon river, speak of 
these subversive posters, reappearing again and again in the heart of 
the capital. They are torn down with asinine consistency, say all those 
diplomats and political realists who are still able to retain their 
sensitivity and conscientiousness and are still counted among the 
Burmese patriots. There is no irony anymore in what they say, only 
resignation. This, in a nutshell, is the Burmese Gulag in the first year 
of the new millennium!

But Yangon isn?t rattled by this exposure of the state of tyranny, 
political subterfuge, corruption and incompetence. ?We don?t care,? 
snaps Foreign Minister U Win Aung, even while he waffled in his speech 
at the recent United Nations millennium summit of more than 150 
Presidents, Prime Ministers, monarchs and other top functionaries. This 
is how he dismissed the legitimate criticism of the Burmese situation by 
the United States, United Kingdom and the European Union.

U Win Aung told the UN summit that Myanmar is taking a constructive path 
while opposing forces were (and are) ?embarking on a path to 
destruction?. He asserted: ?There is no single formula that could be 
applied to all countries.? He claimed: ?Myanmar is building a genuine 
and durable democratic system in our own way and yet there are some who 
like to stir up the tranquil waters.?

All these swirl of events have come in the wake of the house arrest and 
detention behind padlocked doors at the residence of Aung San Suu Kyi on 
University Avenue in Yangon, 10 days after the motorcade march (or 
drive) beyond the outer perimeter of Yangon, led by her with 15 National 
League of Democracy colleagues. She was not allowed to meet her 
supporters. She was stopped. She and her friends have no freedom of 
movement.

Admittedly, as analysts underscore the army cabal on its slippery perch 
of authority, it is absolutely clueless on how it can politically stifle 
and decimate the 54-year-old Oxford-educated iconic personality of Suu 
Kyi, whose endurance is matched by her charm, compassion, charisma and 
sustained grassroots appeal. The growing international concern about 
this frail widow, who is forbidden to telephonically communicate with 
her two young sons and scores of diplomats, friends and visitors, has 
outraged the ruling mili8tary satraps.

In this Orwellian State, the junta has banned internet and modem. They 
control all forms of communication. Freedom of expression is denied. 
People simply disappear. There is no system of justice or legal 
redressal. They use their propaganda machinery to block all authentic 
information of the democratic struggle or day-to-day life. They spread 
vicious rumours. San Suu Kyi is denounced as ? whiteman?s wife,? among 
other unprintable things. (She was married to the eminent British 
Tibetologist, Dr Michael Aries, who died of cancer over two years ago in 
London. Despite multiple appeals from all over the world, the junta 
refused him a visa).

Equally significantly, what is bothering the isolated and insular army 
brass in addition to the honesty and intrepidity of the Nobel Peace 
Prize winner is the serious and growing dissent, which has been 
spreading within the highest echelons of the junta in the saddle. There 
is no doubt that the army cabal?s internal fissures have acquired 
ominous undertones.

The army brass, embarrassed and exposed, may be unwittingly finding 
itself in a catch-22 situation. As understood by the frank public 
comments of Brigadier General Zan Tun, who is the powerful and 
articulate Deputy Minister for National Planning and Development, and 
also, close to the ailing Prime Minister/Defence Minister, Gen Than 
Shwe. He was summarily dismissed from the highest leadership councils of 
Burma. His ouster has spurred the undercurrent of dissent. 

Brig-Gen Zan Tun indulged in al bout of economic progress in Burma 
today. He said: ?May be this is because we are a little shut-down from 
the world. We still have a lot of restrictions compared with other 
countries. But we are bringing the barriers down.?

Brig-Gen Zan Tun was extremely critical of the current investment 
climate in the country. He underlined that the GDP growth was six and 
not 10 per cent (as claimed by Yangon). He was acerbic in his comments 
on Burma?s Investment Commission, once a conglomeration of holy cows, 
though now in a state a monumental mess. Its chairman, deputy chairman 
and secretary were all dismissed in 1999 for ineptitude, corruption and 
endemic philandering, as reports point out.

Analysts suggest that what matters most to the army brass today is the 
state of bilateral relations and growing trade with her two giant and 
populous neighbours: India and China.

The cabal is almost impervious to what US, UK and EU declare in their 
fulminations. Both Beijing and New Delhi have been discreet in their 
relations with Yangon. India and China have skirted the unflagging 
campaign by Suu Kyi. The Indian Government behaves as if she and the 
pro-democracy movement dose no exist.












AFP: Junta threatens to crush Aung San Suu Kyi over constitution plans   
 



   YANGON, Sept 21 (AFP) - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi 
"will be crushed  without mercy" for trying to draft a new constitution, 
state media  quoted a leading junta official as saying Thursday as the 
pro-democracy  campaigner prepared to defy a ban on travel outside the 
capital.    "Anyone who tries to draft a new constitution in line with 
the colonialists is the nation's common enemy and will be crushed 
without mercy," said 

Lieutenant General Tin Oo, second secretary of the State Peace and 
Development Council, as the junta is officially known.

   Tin Oo's comments, reported in the English-language New Light of 
Myanmar,  are the first official reaction to Aung San Suu Kyi's 
declaration that her  National League for Democracy (NLD) would draft a 
new constitution along  federal lines.

   An NLD meeting Saturday passed a resolution that the party's 
parliamentary  representative committee of which Aung San Suu Kyi is 
secretary general, would draft a new constitution. The NLD regards the 
committee as a proxy parliament 
following annulled 1990 elections in which the party won a landslide 
victory.    "It is an undeniable fact that all the dangers leading to 
Union (of  Myanmar) disintegration are the results of the 1947 
constitution drawn in  accord with the wishes of the colonialists," Tin 
Oo said, adding that the  military rulers were themselves drafting a 
"firm constitution."    The NLD Wednesday said Aung San Suu Kyi, the 
daughter of independence hero  General Aung San, would make a trip 
outside Yangon Thursday in renewed  defiance of the ruling military 
junta's ban on her travelling outside the  capital.

   The party said Aung San Suu Kyi would travel to the north of the 
country to investigate reports the police had closed NLD offices and 
prevented party  members from carrying out legitimate political 
activities.    The junta last Thursday lifted the house arrest placed on 
Aung San Suu Kyi  following a nine-day roadside showdown but barred her 
from leaving the capital.

   Aung San Suu Kyi and the other members of the party's central 
executive  committee were placed under virtual house arrest on September 
2, after she and other NLD leaders tried to attend a party meeting 
outside the capital.    This triggered a prolonged standoff with the 
junta in which the NLD leaders remained camped by their cars for nine 
days before being taken back to the 
capital by security officials.











___________________ REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL___________________
					

NCGUB: Update on United States Congress -- H. Con. Res. 328 on Burma 

Sept 21, 2000



Today, the House International Relations Committee reinstated the 
'sanction language', which was deleted after an amendment at the 
Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific on September 13, 2000.  At Today's 
mark up of the House International Relations Committee, Congressman 
Christopher Smith (R-NJ) offered an amendment to reinsert the language 
of sanctions in the H.Con. Res. 328, i.e., "United States policy should 
sustain current economic and political sanctions against Burma as the 
appropriate means". Committee Chairman Benjamin A. Gilman (R-NY), 
Representatives Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)and Donald M. Payne 
(D-NJ)supported the Smith's amendment.  It is a great success and can be 
attributed to your great efforts. 
Again, thank you so much for your support and dedication to Burma's 
struggle for democracy and freedom.

Thank you.

Dr. Thaung Htun
Representative for UN Affairs
National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma


  


____________________________________________________


Pretoria News Newspaper (S. Africa):  Myanmar Protest in City

19th September,
Caiphus Kgosana, Staff Reporter

A handful of protesters yesterday gathered outside the Myanmar (formerly 
Burma) embassy calling for an end to military rule in that country. The 
protest forms part of a world-wide "Free Burma Campaign" and coincides 
with the anniversary of the country's worst uprisings.
On August 8 1988 there was a spontaneous uprising in Burma led by a 
pro-democracy group known as the 8-8-88 movement. The military, which 
had changed the country's name to Myanmar, responded with a crackdown 
that left more than 10,000 people dead, many of them students.

In 1990, elections were held with the pro-democracy movement contesting 
under the banner National League for Democracy (NLD).

They won the elections with an overwhelming 82% majority under the 
leadership of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, but the 
military junta refused to allow the NLD to form a government and placed 
the leader of the opposition under house arrest.

The embassy, which refused to accept the memorandum, later responded 
with a statement by saying the demonstration was illegal according to 
the South African Constitution.



_______________ ECONOMY AND BUSINESS _______________
 
DVB : Burmese government to restrict companies importing foreign goods


Text of report by Burmese opposition radio on 14th September 

The SPDC [State Peace and Development Council] Commerce Ministry is 
making plans to increase the use of domestic products and reduce the 
dependency on foreign imports. As foreign imports have been restricted 
in accord with this programme, the prices of imported goods in Rangoon 
have skyrocketed. DVB correspondent Myint Maung Maung filed this report. 


[Myint Maung Maung] In accord with these new restrictions, a trader in 
Rangoon who imports foreign goods will be allowed only 1m kyat [Burmese 
currency unit] [one US dollar is approximately equals to 400 kyat in the 
open market] worth of imports per month from 20th September onwards. Any 
excess will accrue a fine. If the trader is unable to pay the fine, the 
goods will then be confiscated. Rangoon Division Customs Department has 
informed the Rangoon Division Chamber of Commerce and Industry and 
traders who hold import licences on 8th September about the new 
regulations. Due to this restriction, prices of imported goods in 
Rangoon have skyrocketed instantly and traders have begun hoarding 
previously imported goods. 

As prices of foreign goods are escalating due to the decline in the 
value of the Burmese kyat, the SPDC's regulation has also affected 
border trade. At present, both traders and consumers are facing 
difficulties. A merchant from Kawthaung said to comply with the SPDC's 
wish of using domestic products, not every foreign product is produced 
locally. Furthermore, if they are produced locally they are not 
sufficient for local consumption. That is why foreign goods still need 
to be imported. He said regardless of the price, the people have no 
choice but to rely on imported basic commodities and medicines from 
Thailand, India, and China... 
Source: Democratic Voice of Burma, Oslo, in Burmese 1245 gmt 14 Sep 00 


_________________OPINION/EDITORIALS________________


Times of India: ?Scribes should focus on democracy in neighboring 
countries?

Pune, Maharashtra State
September 19, 2000

?Impunctuality is the special preserve of politicians,? is how former 
Union  minister Ram Jethmalani began his address at the inauguration of 
a three-day  workshop on ?Media and democracy : the Asian experience?, 
at the IUCAA  auditorium, here on Monday.

Although of to a late start, the inaugural event set the pace for a 
workshop  that promised to be exciting and relevant in the modern global 
context. 

This seminar is an attempt by the Mizzima News Service, an organization 
of  Burmese journalists in exile, in association with the Symbiosis 
Institute of  Mass Communication (SIMC), to bring to light the 
repression of democracy and  free press in Burma and to encourage young 
journalists of the region. 

Jethmalani, in his address, dwelt on his first-hand experience during 
the  Emergency in India, saying, ?The test of democracy lies in imposing 
it on  those you do not like, not on those you love.? He pointed out 
that, ?Apart  from the death of the free press, the power to detain 
people without trial  leads to the demise of democracy.?

Mentioning his personal crusade against preventive detention, he said, 
ôThe  hallmark of democracy is an independent and vigilant judiciary.ö 

Touching upon Burma, Jethmalani said, ôMy journalist friends will write  
about anything, but will not write about Burma. It is high time the 
press in  India started talking about destruction of democracy in 
neighboring  countries as it is like an infectious disease that may 
overtake us before we  know it.ö

Also present as the keynote address speaker was noted journalist Kuldeep 
 Nayar, who expressed his strong views on the lack of objectivity in  
journalism today.

ôIn newsrooms, certain news stories are killed because they do not suit 
the  establishment. We are the eyes and ears of the reader. If a 
journalist falls  to be objective, he has died as a journalists,ö he 
said.

ôToday, news is tittle-tattle... nothing beyond half-clad actresses, 
fashion  or night clubs,ö he said, urging budding journalists to have a 
commitment  towards democracy and ideology.

Leading and filmmaker Prahlad Kakar also ventured an opinion speaking 
from  his personal experience in Burma. ôIf a country ceases to dream, 
then the  people there cease to live. All the people in Burma still have 
the capacity  to dream, and thus there is hopeö.

The editor of the Mizzima News Service also spoke on the occasion and  
thanked journalists from all over India for participating in this unique 
 seminar.

Director of the SIMC Professor Ujjwal Choudhury also spoke on the 
occasion. 




_____________________ OTHER  ______________________


PD Burma: Calendar of events with regard to Burma

Published by PD Burma, as of September 20.
                  
                   
September 24th          : National League for Democracy formed 1988 
September 24th           : Burma Solidarity Concert. Organised by 
Worldview Rights, the Norwegian Burma Council and the Norwegian Church 
Aid, Oslo

September 26th              : Open meeting: The cost of Army
Rule. Organised by the Norwegian Burma Council, Oslo

September 27th             : Board meeting for the Burmese
Border Consortium, Oslo

September                       : UN General Assembly, New York 
September                       : NCGUB Meetings

September/October               : Second EU "troika" mission to Burma  
October                 : EU Foreign Ministers to review Burma Policy  
October 16-21st                 : 104th Inter-Parliamentary Conference, 
Jakarta

October 17-18th                 : 4th Annual Meeting for PD Burma, 
Jakarta

October 19- 20th                : The Asem Summit, Seoul 
October 26-28th                 : The 50th Congress of Liberal 
International, Ottawa

November                        : ILO Review of Burma's practises 
November 2-17th         : 279th Session of the Governing Body and its 
committees, Geneva
November 17th           : Global Day of Action on Open Schools 
November 10-11th        :Meeting of the Council of the Socialist 
International, Maputo
December 11-12th         : EU and ASEAN Ministerial-level meeting, Laos
December                     : Japan-Burma panel on reform of
Burma's economic structure, Tokyo 
January 2001            : Sweden takes over EU Presidency 
February                  : Meeting of Solidarity Groups, Brussels
March/April             : Teachers/ Students Union Conferences 
March/April             : EU Common Position Review 
March/April             : UN Human Rights Commission, Geneva 
May/June                  : Meeting of Solidarity Groups 
July                    : Belgium takes over EU Presidency ----





____________________________________________________

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