BurmaNet News: October 11, 2000

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______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
        An on-line newspaper covering Burma 
_________October 11, 2000   Issue # 1637__________

INSIDE BURMA _______
*AFP: Aung San Suu Kyi meets with UN envoy in Myanmar
*AFP: UN envoy to meet head of Myanmar junta: government source
*Time (Asia): A New Epicenter--Burma ignores its AIDS crisis
*The Nation: Karen rebels, Thai police take aim across Moei River
*AFP: Senior officer retires from Myanmar junta on health grounds 

REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL _______
*Reuters: UK demands release of jailed activist in Myanmar
*Reuters: US slams Myanmar for cutting off Aung San Suu Kyi
*AP: Myanmar Says Neighbors To Blame Also For Drug Production
*The Age: Australia under fire over Burma human rights seminars    

ECONOMY/BUSINESS _______
			
OPINION/EDITORIALS _______
*International Herald Tribune:  Rangoon Isolates Itself
*Bangkok Post: Editorial - Anti-drug words come to nothing

OTHER _______
*Australian Parliamentary Debate on Burma

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


__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________
	


AFP: Aung San Suu Kyi meets with UN envoy in Myanmar


Wednesday, October 11 9:28 PM SGT 


YANGON, Oct 11 (AFP) - UN special envoy Razali Ismail met separately 
Wednesday with the leaders of both sides of Myanmar's political 
deadlock, Aung San Suu Kyi and junta head Senior General Than Shwe, a 
government source said. 

The veteran Malaysian diplomat met the National League for Democracy 
(NLD) leader at her Yangon home at 4:30 pm (1000 GMT), immediately after 
a meeting with the head of the military junta, Than Shwe, and First 
Secretary Khin Nyunt, head of intelligence. 
Razali left the Nobel Peace Prize winner's house around 6:30 pm. 

Aung San Suu Kyi was the only NLD member present, a government source 
said. No further details were available. 

Nor was there any indication that the movement restrictions imposed on 
Aung San Suu Kyi had been lifted. 

The NLD leader and other party elders have remained under de facto house 
arrest since they were prevented from travelling to the northern city of 
Mandalay on September 22. 
Razali, who arrived in Yangon Monday on his second trip to the country 
under UN auspices, is attempting to break the impasse between the ruling 
junta and the opposition. 
His four-day visit comes against the backdrop of a renewed crackdown on 
the NLD despite fierce international criticism. 

During his first trip in July, Razali apparently made little headway in 
kickstarting relations between the two sides. 

But Razali's meeting with Than Shwe, confirmed by a government source, 
was the first time the diplomat or his predecessor had met with the 
junta's head. 

Earlier a source close to the military told AFP two Yangon-based UN 
representatives had held a 40-minute meeting with the Nobel Peace 
Laureate at her house late Tuesday, although the results of the meeting 
were not disclosed. 

Previously sources close to the NLD had said Aung San Suu Kyi might not 
even want to meet the envoy unless restrictions on the rest of the party 
leadership's movements were removed. 

Both the junta and the UN maintained a strict media blackout on the 
agenda or other details of the talks. 

UN spokesman Fred Eckhard's only comment last week was that Razali would 
discuss "continuing violations of human rights in Myanmar" and would 
report back to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. 

In meetings Tuesday, First Secretary Khin Nyunt, head of intelligence, 
lectured Razali on the NLD's confrontational tactics which he said had 
damaged the process of democracy in Myanmar, government sources said.  

After returning to Yangon Wednesday following a trip to the natural 
beauty spot of Inle Lake, Razali was due to meet with two senior leaders 
of the socialist National Unity Party (NUP), strong advocates of the 
ruling junta, a party source told AFP, but it was unclear whether the 
meeting had gone ahead. 

The NUP, previously known as the Burma Socialist Programme Party, was 
the former dictator General Ne Win's vehicle following his coup and 
declaration of a one-party state in 1974. 
The NUP was part of the National Convention, the mechanism set up by the 
ruling junta in 1993 to draw up a new constitution leading to new 
democratic elections. 

However, Aung San Suu Kyi withdrew the NLD from the National Convention 
after her release from five years of house arrest in 1995, declaring it 
a sham. 

The junta has delayed reform because of what it says is the NLD's 
confrontational approach in league with western countries. 

While in Inle Lake Razali met with the Aung Kham Ti, the leader of 
Palaung, an ethnic armed opposition group and one of nine groups which 
agreed to a ceasefire with the military regime following its 1989 peace 
offering, a government source said. 

The NLD won a landslide general election victory in 1990, but the junta 
has never recognised the result and is accused by foreign critics and 
human rights groups of severe repression.


____________________________________________________


AFP: UN envoy to meet head of Myanmar junta: government source


Wednesday, October 11 3:15 PM SGT 


YANGON, Oct 11 (AFP) - UN envoy Razali Ismail was Wednesday due to hold 
a landmark meeting with the leader of the Myanmar junta Senior General 
Than Shwe, a government source said. 

Although unconfirmed, the meeting with the head of the military junta 
would be the first to be held by Razali or his UN predecessor. 

The junta has not still not publicly said whether Razali will be able to 
meet with Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the opposition National League for 
Democracy (NLD) party. 
But a senior Myanmar official said there was no reason why the veteran 
Malaysian diplomat could not meet her. 

"The government has no opposition to him seeing her," Colonel Kyaw 
Thein, head of the Office of Strategic Studies at Myanmar's defence 
ministry told AFP in Bangkok where he is attending an anti-drugs 
conference. 
However, a source close to the opposition party said Tuesday she might 
not even want to meet the envoy unless restrictions on the rest of the 
NLD leadership's movements were removed. 

"Whether she'll see Razali alone without the rest of the party's central 
executive committee and under the present restrictive circumstances 
remains to be seen," the source said. 

Razali, who arrived in Yangon Monday on his second trip to the country 
under UN auspices, is attempting to break the deadlock between the 
ruling junta and the opposition. 

During his first trip in July, Razali apparently made little headway in 
kickstarting relations between the NLD and the junta. 

Both the junta and the UN have maintained a strict media blackout on the 
agenda or details of the talks. 

UN spokesman Fred Eckhard's only comment last week was that Razali would 
discuss "continuing violations of human rights in Myanmar" and would 
report back to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. 

Razali's four-day visit comes against the backdrop of a renewed 
crackdown on the NLD despite fierce international criticism. 

Aung San Suu Kyi and other party elders remain under de facto house 
arrest since they were prevented from travelling to the northern city of 
Mandalay on September 22. There has reportedly been little or no 
communication between them since then. 

In meetings Tuesday, First Secretary Khin Nyunt, head of intelligence, 
lectured Razali on the NLD's confrontational tactics which he said had 
damaged the process of democracy in Myanmar, government sources said.  

Khin Nyunt reaffirmed the junta would give no ground to the opposition 
party accusing it of collaborating with dangerous "external elements," 
the sources said. 

After returning to Yangon Wednesday following a trip to one of Myanmar's 
natural beauty spots Inle Lake, Razali met with two senior leaders of 
the socialist National Unity Party (NUP), a party source told AFP. 

The NUP, previously known as the Burma Socialist Programme Party, was 
the former dictator General Ne Win's party vehicle following his coup 
and declaration of a one-party state in 1974. 

The NUP was part of the National Convention, the mechanism set up by the 
ruling junta in 1993 to draw up a new constitution to facilitate new 
democratic elections. 

However, Aung San Suu Kyi withdrew the NLD from the National Convention 
after her release from five years of house arrest in 1995 declaring it 
was a sham. 

The junta, which subsequently suspended the National Convention, has 
delayed reconstituting it because of what it says is the confrontational 
approach of the NLD in league with western countries. 

The NLD won a landslide general election victory in 1990, but the junta 
has never recognised the result and is accused by foreign critics and 
human rights groups of severe repression of its opponents. 


____________________________________________________


TIME Asia: A New Epicenter--Burma ignores its AIDS crisis


Story
OCTOBER 16, 2000 VOL. 156 NO. 15


No country in Asia is in deeper denial over AIDS than Burma. As 
neighboring Cambodia and Thailand marshal their meager resources to 
combat the spread of AIDS, the generals who rule Burma have chosen a 
different strategy to fight the disease: they lie about it. As Burma 
becomes a new epicenter for the proliferation of HIV, these fabrications 
are proving deadly not only for the nation's citizens, but also for 
their neighbors.  

In Burma, a country of 45 million, about 530,000 people were infected 
with HIV at the end of 1999, according to the Joint United Nations 
Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). Many experts suspect the number is much 
higher: information is hard to come by, particularly since parts of the 
country are closed to outsiders because of conflicts involving ethnic 
minorities. "Numbers are red herrings," says Tony Lisle, intercountry 
coordinator for UNAIDS in Asia. "What is clear is that the epidemic in 
Burma is severe." Kul Gautam, deputy executive director of unicef, warns 
that Burma's problem may soon rival that of African countries. Among the 
factors: large-scale heroin production and addiction and a fast-growing 
commercial sex industry. 

Intelligence chief Lieut. General Khin Nyunt, one of the junta's most 
powerful figures, downplays the danger. Burma has "no rampaging AIDS 
epidemic," he told a regional conference of health ministers in Rangoon 
last year. Just 25,000 Burmese were HIV-positive, he said, adding that 
claims the country is suffering from an AIDS contagion were fabricated 
by the regime's enemies. 
Burma is one of the poorest nations in Asia. The generals, however, 
spend more than twice as much on weapons as they do on health and 
education combined. (U.S. spending on health and education is six times 
its defense budget.) According to the Southeast Asian Information 
Network, an activist group in Thailand, only 2% of Burmese men use 
condoms, which are scarce and expensive by regional standards. The 
military's control of information has left many Burmese with "no idea 
what causes AIDS and how to prevent it," says Debbie Stothard, a Bangkok 
democracy activist. 

As heroin, illegal workers and prostitutes exit the country, Burma is 
emerging as an AIDS exporter. In neighboring China, India and Thailand, 
the provinces with the highest HIV rates are those that border Burma. 
Bangkok has voiced frustration at what it sees as the regime's lack of 
cooperation on the issue. Because of Rangoon's pariah status with most 
Western nationsùthe military violently crushed a pro-democracy uprising 
in 1988 and nullified an election it lost by a landslide in 1990ùBurma 
is not getting the outside help it needs. Opposition leader Aung San Suu 
Kyi routinely calls for economic sanctions and for businesses not to 
invest, but she believes foreign NGOS should do AIDS work in Burma. Many 
decline, however, because they don't want to be accused of helping the 
regime. "The international community must look at this in purely 
humanitarian terms and not political terms," warns Lisle. "If it 
doesn't, then the international community will be culpable." UNAIDS 
estimates that 48,000 Burmese died of AIDS last year, while 43,000 
children have been orphaned by the disease. By maintaining the fiction 
that there is no epidemic in Burma, the military may end up killing more 
people with lies than it ever has with guns. 


____________________________________________________


The Nation: Karen rebels, Thai police take aim across Moei River

Oct 11, 2000.


MAE SOT - A pro-Rangoon ethnic army has positioned its weapons along the 
banks of the Moei River in what appears to be preparation for a 
cross-border attack on Thailand, officials said yesterday.  

They said the incident followed heavy firing during the previous evening 
between the two sides.  

Lt-Colonel Noppodol Chathiwong, commander of the Task Force 346, said he 
would protest to the Burmese authorities for turning a blind eye and 
allowing the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) to launch attacks 
against Thailand.  

The incident, which occurred near Baan Tah Art in Tak's Mae Sot 
district, was in response to recent gunfights between the DKBA and Thai 
Border PoliceTask Force 346.  

The task force came across the DKBA two days earlier as the group was 
trying to steal pickup trucks across the Moei River, which forms the 
border.  
One DKBA soldier was killed in the gunfight. 

The same unit came across another DKBA group yesterday morning on the 
Thai side of the river dismantling a pickup truck, it is believed in an 
attempt to take the spare parts back to Burma.
  
A gunfight broke out, but no injuries were reported. 

The incidents have heightened insecurity in the already sensitive area, 
and reinforcements have been called in on both sides.  


____________________________________________________


AFP: Senior officer retires from Myanmar junta on health grounds 

   YANGON, Oct 11 (AFP) - A senior Myanmar army officer has retired from 
the ruling junta in a recent reshuffle because of health concerns, a 
government official said Wednesday.

   Major General Myint Aung, the youngest member of the State Peace and 
Development Council (SPDC), stepped down after being diagnosed with 
cancer, the official said.

   Myint Aung, commander of the Southeast Army Regional Command, was 
replaced by Thiha Thura Sit Maung, commander of the Coastal Area 
Command.    The junta subsequently promoted Brigadier General Aye Kyawe, 
the head of the Light Infantry Division, to the rank of major general.   
 The reshuffle was made during the annual meeting of senior military 
commanders in Yangon at the end of last month, the official added.    
Aye Kyawe is expected to be appointed to the SPDC, the ruling body of 
Myanmar's military regime formed in November 1997 out of the previous 
State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC).



___________________ REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL___________________
					

Reuters: UK demands release of jailed activist in Myanmar

WIRE:10/10/2000 12:12:00 ET

LONDON, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Foreign Secretary Robin Cook demanded on 
Tuesday that a British human rights campaigner jailed in Myanmar be 
released after a United Nations working group said he was being held 
arbitrarirly. James Mawdsley is serving a 17-year sentence for handing 
out pro-democracy leaflets in the southeast Asian country.  

He was imprisoned just over a year ago. Foreign Office officials said 
the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention had ruled Mawdsley was being 
detained without due cause. "The UN decision confirms that James is 
being held unlawfully," Cook said in a statement. "(Foreign Office 
minister) Baroness Scotland is again summoning the Burmese Ambassador to 
demand his immediate release. The barbaric treatment James received 
recently makes this all the more urgent." Scotland lodged a stern 
protest with Myanmar"s ambassador to Britain last month over reports 
that Mawdsley had been beaten by guards, suffering a broken nose and 
black eyes.  

"The Burmese regime must realise that it cannot continue to ignore human 
rights and flout international opinion. It is clearer than ever that 
there is no justification for the detention of James Mawdsley," Cook 
said. Myanmar has faced mounting international condemnation over its 
treatment of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League 
for Democracy which won elections in 1990 by a landslide but has never 
been allowed to govern. 



____________________________________________________


Reuters: US slams Myanmar for cutting off Aung San Suu Kyi


WIRE:10/10/2000 16:59:00 ET


WASHINGTON, Oct 10 (Reuters) - The United States condemned Myanmar"s 
military rulers on Tuesday for cutting off opposition leader Aung San 
Suu Kyi"s contact with the outside world.  
But State Department spokesman Richard Boucher could not confirm whether 
she had chosen not to see a United Nations envoy this week or been 
barred from doing so by the military. Diplomats said on Tuesday the 
55-year-old Nobel laureate had refused to meet the special envoy Razali 
Ismail in protest at restrictions on her movements.  

Boucher noted these reports at a news briefing but said he could not 
confirm them. "We do know that she"s been confined to her home since 
Sept. 21, when she attempted to leave Rangoon by train. She"s really had 
no contact with anyone outside her home," he said.  
Suu Kyi was trying to leave the capital Yangon, formerly called Rangoon, 
for the city of Mandalay to investigate reports of a crackdown there 
against the National League of Democracy -- the party she led to victory 
in general elections in 1990 but which has never been allowed to govern. 
 

Police removed her from the main station in Yangon, a move U.S. 
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called an outrage. Since then she 
has been confined to her house with her phone cut off and with no 
diplomatic access.  

"These continuing actions by the Burmese authorities are an egregious 
violation of her fundamental right to freedom of movement and 
association, as recognised in numerous international conventions and 
human rights instruments," Boucher said. "We would urge the Burmese 
authorities, once again, to lift their restrictions on Aung San Suu Kyi 
and the National League for Democracy," he said. Myanmar was called 
Burma until a military coup in 1988. 


____________________________________________________


AP: Myanmar Says Neighbors To Blame Also For Drug Production

Wednesday, October 11 5:29 PM


BANGKOK (AP)--Myanmar alone is not to blame for the massive drug 
production in the country since the machinery used to make 
methamphetamines is smuggled from neighboring nations, a senior Myanmar 
official said Wednesday.  

Col. Kyaw Thein, the military intelligence officer coordinating 
Myanmar's anti-drug effort, said security forces in his country have a 
tough time patrolling more than 6,000 kilometers of border.  
"Because of our limited resources and because we don't have much 
strength in law enforcement, it is a difficult task for our officials," 
Kyaw Thein told reporters at a conference on drugs, sponsored by the 
United Nations International Drug Control Program.  

The three-day conference will try to find ways to eliminate drugs by 
2015 in the 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. 
Myanmar is a member of Asean.
  
A UNDCP report said that in contrast to North America and Europe, the 
production, trafficking and abuse of amphetamine-type stimulants have 
continued to rise in Southeast Asia since the early 1990s.  

Most of the drugs in the region originate in the opium-producing Golden 
Triangle, where the borders of northern Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet. 
 

Besides heroin, the drug lords are increasingly producing 
methamphetamines, a hugely popular synthetic narcotic among young people 
in Thailand.  

In a speech, Jurin Laksanawisit, a Thai Cabinet minister, said 90% of 
methamphetamines sold 
illegally in Thailand are produced and trafficked from outside.  

But Kyaw Thein said the precursor chemicals and machinery to make 
amphetamine-type stimulants are not produced in Myanmar but are made and 
brought from outside.  
Neighboring countries have a responsibility to stop these materials from 
being smuggled into Myanmar, he said.  

He also rejected suggestions that the United Wa State Army, a Myanmar 
rebel group blamed for much of the drug production, is out of control.  

"Everybody knows they are not the only one group in doing this 
thing...international organized crime gangs and international drug 
traffickers are really involved," he said.  
He said Myanmar had its own national masterplan aimed at eliminating 
drugs by 2014.  



____________________________________________________


The Age: Australia under fire over Burma human rights seminars    

By CRAIG SKEHAN
SOUTH-EAST ASIA CORRESPONDENT
BANGKOK
Wednesday 11 October 2000

The Australian Government came under fire yesterday for holding a new 
round of human rights seminars in Burma while democracy campaigner Aung 
San Suu Kyi is under house arrest. 

Dr Naing Aung, a senior member of the opposition National Council for 
the Union of Burma, said the seminars were misguided from the outset.  

With the latest crackdown on dissent in Burma and the house arrest of Ms 
Suu Kyi and other democracy leaders, he said Australia should have 
suspended the seminars. "What is the point of having seminars if, while 
they are going on, human rights abuses are just getting worse." 

He said Australia had allowed itself to be used by the Burmese military 
regime "in a public relations exercise." 

The new seminars opened in Rangoon on Monday, with a government official 
praising Australia for sharing its expertise on human rights conventions 
and the role of the United Nations. 

An academic from Melbourne's Monash University and a Sydney-based 
international law expert will conduct workshops this week and will be 
joined at the weekend by former Australian human rights commissioner 
Chris Sidoti. 

Mr Sidoti was sent to Rangoon last year by Foreign Affairs Minister 
Alexander Downer to help secure approval for the human rights 
initiative. 

Mr Downer has argued that the US and European approach of isolating 
Burma and imposing sanctions had not improved human rights. 

Ms Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest last month after being stopped 
from travelling to the city of Mandalay. In August she was stopped from 
visiting rural areas. 

A spokesman for Mr Downer said last night: "While we deplore the 
repeated forcible return to Rangoon of Aung San Suu Kyi, we have decided 
to continue with the final third workshop to enable an effective review 
of the entire process." 


 
_________________OPINION/EDITORIALS________________


International Herald Tribune:  Rangoon Isolates Itself

Paris, Tuesday, October 10, 2000



By Kavi Chongkittavorn



BANGKOK - The United Nations envoy for Burma, Razali Ismail, is visiting 
Rangoon this week to try to break the deadlock between the military 
government and the opposition National League for Democracy led by the 
Nobel Peace laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The Association of South East 
Asian Nations should be helping, too, but it made a recent mediation 
attempt that has been stymied by objections from Burma, a member of the 
group. Mr. Razali, a veteran Malaysian diplomat, is wearing two hats. As 
the UN envoy, his main responsibility is to gather information and hold 
talks with the regime and opposition leaders to prepare a report for 
Secretary-General Kofi Annan. But he also represents Malaysian Prime 
Minister Mahathir bin Mohammad, who helped Burma to join ASEAN in 1997. 

The latest internal travel restrictions imposed on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi 
and her colleagues have drawn international condemnation. 

The European Union, a major trading partner and generous aid donor to 
the ASEAN countries, is considering whether to cancel a long delayed 
ministerial meeting with ASEAN scheduled to take place in Vientiane, 
Laos, in December. 

ASEAN is becoming uneasy about Burma's internal crackdown and the way it 
is tarnishing the group's international standing. Thailand has urged 
Rangoon to support Mr. Annan's proposal that an ASEAN troika, consisting 
of three foreign ministers from the group, be sent to Burma for talks. 

Japan and China, which both have considerable influence in Burma, should 
also back moves to persuade the Burmese junta to be more flexible. 

Vietnam, the current ASEAN chairman, recently approached Rangoon to 
express the association's desire to send the troika in. Much to Hanoi's 
chagrin, Rangoon refused, saying the mission would be interference in 
its internal affairs. 

The veto means that ASEAN has no formal channel for mediating. Without 
such a mechanism, it is hard for the group to be effectively engaged or 
bring in non-ASEAN players. 

So Burma should not be surprised that it is now left to face increased 
pressure from the West and the United Nations to improve its behavior. 

The writer, executive editor of the Bangkok newspaper The Nation, 
contributed this comment to the International Herald Tribune. 


____________________________________________________


Bangkok Post: Editorial - Anti-drug words come to nothing

 Oct 10, 2000.


The harvest has been planted for another year. High in the hills of 
Burma and Afghanistan, the opium farmers are quietly tending their 
crops. The weather has been good in Burma, and another large crop of 
opium seems likely to feed the seemingly insatiable Golden Triangle 
heroin factories early next year. The weather has been bad in the Golden 
Crescent, but Afghanistan will still be the world's leading producer of 
illicit opium. 

This is not only bad news for governments and the families of drug 
victims in the region. Burma and Afghanistan are different in many ways, 
but they have one thing in common. Both have promised the international 
community to cut down and then to end the production of illegal drugs. 
Yet there are no signs in either country that the regime has put any 
such plan into effect. 
The actions of our neighbour Burma are well-known. The regime has openly 
colluded with the United Wa State Army to set up a permanent and massive 
region of drug production and marketing. Northeastern Burma is now 
dominated by the political and military power of the UWSA. It is 
obviously backed by the Burmese army, which protects the borders of the 
UWSA region. 

Within the past year, Burma has launched an outside propaganda campaign. 
It is clearly aimed at pacifying close neighbours Thailand, China and 
India, which have been struck hard, and expensively, by the drug 
trafficking. Rangoon claims it has a 15-year plan to end drug production 
and trafficking within the country. Unfortunately, it has kept the 
details of this master plan largely secret. The international community 
is to take the Burmese promises on good faith, as if Burma actually had 
some of this in reserve. 

On the surface, there is little similarity between Burma and 
Afghanistan. But Afghanistan is providing the same type of problems and 
the same airy promises to its neighbours as Burma. Tens of thousands of 
Russian forces have been mobilised along the border. Each day, much like 
their Thai counterparts, they try to halt the "ant army" of heroin 
smugglers, each carrying exactly 1kg of heroin. The Russian rates of 
drug addiction and Aids are rising as they are in China and Thailand. 
Iran has seized 110 tonnes of Afghan drugs so far this year. 

Like Burma, Afghanistan has touted a plan to help the growing drugs 
problem. Supreme leader Mohammad Omar has officially banned poppy 
production. There is much less to this than meets the eye. But even this 
decision took several years. That in itself is strange, given the 
obvious contradiction of a Muslim regime supporting the production of 
drugs by its farmers. 

The ruling Taleban said at first it wanted to reduce opium production 
rationally, through crop substitution. This made sense. But then came 
the decision to ban opium growing. Unfortunately, the regime has hardly 
backed up its ban. The massive drought throughout South Asia will cut 
back the record harvest this winter. But Afghanistan has done nothing to 
stop heroin production or drug trafficking. 

Despite massive suspicion, there is no proof that either the Burmese or 
Afghan regimes profit directly from the drug trade. There can be no 
doubt, however, that both these nations profit indirectly. Investment 
from drug traffickers dominates so-called foreign investment in Burma. 
The regimes tax drug makers and smugglers. The drug trade also has 
touched off an increasing spiral of hard feelings with neighbours-and 
neither Afghanistan nor Burma has shown the slightest remorse in 
addicting and diverting official resources in Iran or Thailand 
respectively. 

In another few months, farmers will be reaping the opium crops. Agents 
for the heroin makers will buy the crops and feed the drug traffickers 
for another year. Fighting these drug peddlers is difficult. But the 
world must know where the chief blame lies. 

_____________________ OTHER  ______________________



AUSTRALIAN PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE ON BURMA

(9/10/00)

1. Graham Edwards (ALP) 2. Tim Fisher (National Party, Gov)  3. Harry 
Jenkins (ALP)

Title: Burma Date: 9 October 2000

Speaker: Edwards, Graham, MP (Cowan, ALP)

Mr EDWARDS (Cowan) (3.39 p.m.) ùI move:

That this House calls on the Government of Burma to cease infringing the 
right of Aung San Suu Kyi to conduct her democratic activities with 
freedom and in safety and further calls on the Burmese Government to 
involve itself in a substantive political dialogue with her National 
League for Democracy.

I would like to start with this observation:

A hundred years ago, Burma exported more than two million tons of rice 
in a year. It was called the rice basket of India. Forty years ago, it 
still exported one million tons. In 1999, the figure was less than 
70,000 tons. As the country's exports of rice have declined, its illicit 
export of drugs has soared. From being the rice basket of India, Burma 
has become the opium bowl of the world.

This observation was made by Timothy Garton Ash in Beauty and the Beast 
in Burma. The beast, of course, is the junta that has ruled Burma with a 
clenched military fist since 1962. This military dictatorship rules 
under the Orwellian banners of SLORC, or State Law and Order Restoration 
Council, and SPDC, which stands for State Peace and Development Council. 
The `Beauty' Ash refers to is Aung San Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace 
Prize winner and Leader of Burma's Democracy Party.

Aung San Suu Kyi is the daughter of General Aung San, the hero of 
independence who was gunned down and murdered. He was shot down in cold 
blood in the Burmese parliament in 1947 because of his political 
beliefs. He became a martyr and, if the free world does not give voice 
and support to Aung San Suu Kyi, there is a danger that she too will 
become a martyr. I say that because the same thuggery which snuffed out 
the life of General Aung San is having a severe and detrimental impact 
and effect on the health and wellbeing of his daughter. 
She was two years of age when her father was murdered. Forty-three years 
later, in 1990, she led the National League for Democracy to a stunning 
victory in a general election that saw her party win 80 per cent of the 
vote. Prior to that election, particularly in 1988, hundreds of young 
pro-democracy supporters were killed in their peaceful push for 
democracy. SLORC refused to recognise the election victory and placed 
Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest. Despite this incarceration, 
continued intimidation and constant harassment, she has remained the 
symbol of peace and hope in Burma. Just as the Olympic torch burned as a 
symbol of the games in Sydney, her indomitable spirit and courage burns 
as the symbol of freedom and democracy in Burma.

I do not know many people from Burma, but their plight has been brought 
to my attention by a handful of people in my electorate who have fled 
the harsh and brutal regime in Burmaùrenamed Myanmar by SLORC. My 
constituents come from various parts of city and rural Burma and 
represent some of the many indigenous groups that make up Burma, 
including the Chin and Karen peoples. My constituents are very quietly 
spoken, courteous, proud, peace loving people who have a grave concern 
for the wellbeing of those who remain in Burma, many of them family 
members. They have asked me to do what I can to help them and to help 
the people of Burma in their struggle against what is now seen as one of 
the harshest government regimes anywhere in the world. Indeed, Burma's 
military regime is now recognised as one of the world's worst violators 
of human rights. Even the United Nationsùthat sometimes timid, often 
self-interested, always conservative bodyùhas repeatedly and publicly 
condemned the military powers of Burma for their human rights abuses.

Torture, rape, murder, forced labour, forced resettlement and 
imprisonment for political beliefs are just some of the abuses visited 
on the people of Burma by this regime. It is in this environment of 
repression that Aung San Suu Kyi stands defiant as a non-violent 
defender of the political and human rights of her people. It is her 
profile and her courage that give the Burmese people hope and strength 
to endure this regime and to work for the democracy and freedom which 
they believe will one day be theirs.

Burma is a close neighbour of Australia. It has a population of some 45 
million people. In my view, we should be loud in our condemnation of the 
military junta in Burma and we should be joining President Clinton, Kofi 
Annan, Prime Minister Blair, Madeleine Albright, the Nordic foreign 
ministers and othersùall of whom come from countries much more distant 
from Burma than Australiaùin their condemnation of Burma's military 
government. The voice of the Australian parliament should be heard in 
support of Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Burma.

Why is it that we react to the atrocities we see via the media in places 
like Palestine, Jerusalem, East Timor and Yugoslavia? I understand why 
we react to them, but you can bet that when we see these atrocities 
reported on TV and in the papers there will be statements from the 
minister or dorothy dixers in parliament. Yet we hear nothing similar in 
relation to Burma, a country about which we are strangely quiet. I pose 
the question: why? Is it a question of out of sight out of mind? Is it 
because Burmese authorities treat the foreign press so harshly and, 
because of that, the many human rights violations and violence are not 
reported in Australia? Is it that we do not see or hear so we do not 
care? Is it that our foreign policy is largely driven by the media? 
Indeed, is Australia's foreign care and compassion measured by the 
amount of media coverage to which we are exposed in this country?

All freedom loving Australians should take the plight of Aung San Suu 
Kyi to heart. Her courage, her defiance, her resolve and her spirit are 
all qualities that Australians admire and respect. Admiration and 
respect, however, are not enough. This parliament should do all in its 
power, all in its resolve, to assist Aung San Suu Kyi in her peaceful 
battle to achieve freedom and democracy for her people in Burma. At a 
time when United Nations conventions are much in the news, it is 
interesting to recall what SLORC foreign minister Ohn Gway had to say on 
this subject. He said:

There are no compulsions or obligations for any country to sign the UN 
convention on human rights. Like some other countries in Asia, we have 
to take into consideration our culture, ethos and the standards of 
development before accepting their declarations.

Ohn Gway would be encouraged to know that he has an ally in the Prime 
Minister of Australia who supports similar views about some United 
Nations conventions. Contrast that statement of the Burmese foreign 
minister to that which Aung San Suu Kyi had to say when she said: 

I would like the west to see us not as a country rather far away whose 
sufferings do not matter, but as fellow human beings in need of human 
rights and who could do much for the world, if we were allowed. 

The people of Burma are human beings and their suffering does matter. 
That is why I have moved this motion in the House today, and I must say 
I am particularly pleased by the number of quality speakers who are 
listed to contribute to the debate. I am also particularly pleased that 
Tim Fischer has agreed to second this motion.

I am not one who is keen to support economic sanctions, because the 
chances are that the only people hurt by that tactic are the ordinary 
people of Burma who are already suffering an immense burden. But I do 
believe that Australia should review its relationship with the Burmese 
military. We should send them a strong message that we do not and will 
not in any way support their regime. We do not support their intrusion 
on the democratic right of the democratically elected Aung San Suu Kyi 
or her supporters as they go about their pursuit of democracy and 
freedom, which is something they should be able to do in safety and 
without fear of incarceration, intimidation, persecution or death. 
Australia should also urge the Burmese military junta to enter into a 
realistic dialogue with the National League for Democracy. The Burmese 
government must learn that, as long as they persist with the human 
rights abuse, they will stand condemned by all freedom loving nations 
and peoples of the world. I commend this motion to the House. 

DEBATE in Australian Parliament House

Title: Burma Date: 9 October 2000
Speaker: Fischer, Tim, MP (Farrer, NP, Government)

Mr TIM FISCHER (Farrer) (3.49 p.m.) ùI second the motion. On the evening 
of 15 September in Sydney, there was a magic moment when the two teams 
of North Korea and South Korea joined together to enter Stadium 
Australia as part of the opening of the magnificent and sensational 
Sydney Olympic Games. In one sense, that broadcast a message right 
around the world and back to the respective administrations of North 
Korea and South Korea, via television and other means, of how welcoming 
the Australian people were and how welcoming the world was of this 
supreme gesture. It was an emotional moment. It was a magnificent 
moment. It reflected a lot of progress being made, even to get to that 
stage, to get two hostile nations joining together at the opening of the 
Sydney Olympics. Sadly, since then and since the end of the Olympics, we 
have had mayhem in the Middle East, a great deal of slaughter of human 
life and injury of human life and the continuing saga in Myanmar, 
otherwise known as Burma. The motion before the House, very adequately 
moved by the member for Cowanùwhom I look forward to joining at the 
Paralympics in a few days timeùstates:

That this House calls on the Government of Burma to cease infringing the 
right of Aung San Suu Kyi to conduct her democratic activities with 
freedom and in safety and further calls on the Burmese Government to 
involve itself in a substantive political dialogue with her National 
League for Democracy.

The world would like to see the NLD forces and the SLORC administration 
come together for decent dialogue to advance the agenda in Myanmar, just 
as we saw on another stage at another level the North Korean and South 
Korean athletes joining hands and, in a sense, saying hello to each 
other, but, more particularly, congratulating each other as they 
deserved to at that moment at the Sydney Olympics. I agree with the 
member for Cowan that Myanmar has so much to offer its people by way of 
potential. Years ago you used to bypass Singapore and Bangkok to go to 
Rangoon, Burma, because the shopping was better there. There was so much 
colour, life and movement in the magnificent city of Rangoon, which is 
dominated by the great Shwe Dagon Pagoda. The Shwe Dagon Pagoda is some 
sight to behold, especially in the early evening when it is floodlit and 
showing off its gold in many fine ways.

The 47.3 million people of Burma have done it very hard in recent years. 
Their economy has been contracting. Their infrastructure has been 
deteriorating, manifested by the fact that it now takes several hours 
more to go by train from Rangoon to Mandalay in the north than it did 10 
years ago. A magnificent train journey as it might be, the deterioration 
of transport infrastructure in Burma means that it has become slower and 
slower and indeed slightly more dangerous in the process.

The real suffering though is perhaps not on the infrastructure front. It 
is perhaps not with regard to buildings and other manifest ways of 
measuring progress. Indeed, the tourism industry in Burma has 
endeavoured to provide more resources and to upgrade hotels, river boats 
and the like. The real suffering is the loss of education for a whole 
generation of Myanmar peopleùthe loss of educational opportunity, 
especially at the tertiary education level. I am grateful to the 
Chancellor of Canberra University, Wendy McCarthy, who has recently 
returned from Myanmar, for reminding me how bad things have got on that 
frontùhow long universities have been closed, how limited the resources 
are for students to learn in Myanmar. In the year 2000 that is very hard 
to swallow, very hard to understand and certainly totally unacceptable 
in a country which does have so much potential, not the least of which 
is its 47 million people who are suffering so much on the health front 
and especially on the education front.
 
Some years ago before I became Deputy Prime Minister I had the pleasure 
of walking along University Avenue in Rangoon and turning into the 
gateway of No. 54 University Avenue, Rangoon. That is of course the 
residenceùto some extent the prisonùof Aung San Suu Kyi. In its better 
years it was a very pretty place, double storey. It is a bit run down 
now. It is a former compound, sitting on the edge of the Inle Lake in 
the middle of Rangoon. My wife and I had the pleasure of meeting with 
Aung San Suu Kyi at her residence and discussing all aspects of the 
impasse that existed then and continues to exist today. I must say that 
I was overawed by this diminutive lady, with her dynamic spirit, her 
clarity of thought, her determination, and her capacity, notwithstanding 
a not particularly strong physique, to battle on against impossible 
odds. She and I recorded our interest in Bhutanùher sons had been to 
Bhutan with their late father. Then we moved to discuss in a lot more 
detail various aspects of the impasse that has existed since the NLD 
topped the poll, now a decade ago, in the election held in Myanmar at 
that particular time.

The world ought to salute Aung San Suu Kyi for her decision not to give 
up. It could have been so much easier for her to depart her home 
country, to go back to the UK where she studied and worked for a period, 
to vanish into the good life of the Western world. But she has bravely 
decided to fight on against the odds, to make the point that the 
original election result has not been observed and that SLORC, in all 
its manifestations, continues to rule with an iron fist and at the end 
of the day gives no ultimate joy because the economy continues to 
collapse and the standard of living continues to decline, when there 
would be a whole lot different way for the Burma people and the Burma 
nation.

I happily second the motion presented today. I point out that the 
Australian government deplores the actions of the Burmese government in 
again denying the rights of freedom of movement to Aung San Suu Kyi and 
her supporters. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Downer, has had 
much to say in that regard. I point out that on 9 October, this day, a 
scheduled visit is to take place by the UN Secretary-General's Special 
Representative for Burma, Mr Razali. We hope that the Burmese government 
will cooperate fully with Special Representative Razali, including in 
his efforts to contribute towards meaningful dialogue between the 
government and the opposition. It is not an impossible ask; it is a 
perfectly reasonable ask in the year 2000. It can contribute so much to 
removing the impasse, to allow progress, to go forward.

I know there are deep-seated fears that there will be a form of splitism 
in Burma, as various minority groups would move down different pathways 
if there was to be the introduction of the NLD in a substantial way to 
the process of government. I actually think that those fears are 
incorrectly held, and that there is a way forward for Myanmar or Burma 
which is a whole lot better and would not see the incarceration in 
particular of elements associated with the current administration but 
would see their own children, let alone the children of so many others, 
get a chanceùbefore it is too late and before they are denied itù to 
receive any form of education and substantial health support, as is so 
necessary in this great country of Burma. It is with pleasure that I 
second the motion before the House.


DEBATE in Australian Parliament House

Title: Burma Date: 9 October 2000
Speaker: Jenkins, Harry, MP (Scullin, ALP)

Mr JENKINS (Scullin) (3.58 p.m.) ùI support the motion moved by the 
honourable member for Cowan and seconded by the honourable member for 
Farrer. Unlike the honourable member for Farrer, I have not had the 
pleasure of meeting Aung San Suu Kyi. My interest in matters to do with 
Burma has been dictated by two visits to camps for displaced people from 
Burma. The first was on 30 November 1993 at a refugee camp out of Cox's 
Bazaar in Bangladesh, a refugee camp 200 metres from the Burmese border. 
In this camp were tens of thousands of Rohingya peopleùMuslims from 
Burma who had been forced to flee Burma because of their treatment by 
the military forces.

At this time Aung San Suu Kyi was under house arrest. She had been under 
house arrest since 20 July 1989. Whilst under house arrest, her party 
had had success in May 1990 in the election, where they gained 80 per 
cent of the parliamentary seats. But of course we know, as history tells 
us, that the military junta did not accept the result of the election. 
If one reflects upon recent events in Yugoslavia, where we see finally 
the overthrow of another despot who, seemingly, was going to try to 
ignore the result of a democratic election, we wonder what might have 
happened if that election in Burma was being held now rather than 10 
years ago.

The next time that I went to a camp that had Burmese people in it was to 
a displaced persons camp, the Wangka camp, near Mae Sot, which I visited 
on 14 September 1995. The people that were in this camp were Karen 
people. The camp was not far from the river Moei, which is the border 
between Burma and Thailand. The Karen, of course, are an ethnic minority 
of Burma, as mentioned by the honourable member for Cowan. As this time, 
14 September 1995, Aung San Suu Kyi had been released from house arrest 
some two months earlier on 10 July. There was great optimism that 
perhaps there was to be a change in the attitude of SLORC towards Aung 
San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy. Regrettably, history 
shows that we were mistaken in the belief that that was to happen.

When Aung San Suu Kyi was released in July 1995, the military junta 
indicated that she was to be released unconditionally, and we thought 
that that would mean that she could go about her business as the leader 
of the National League for Democracy. How wrong we were. Over the last 
five years, there have been several instances where she has been made to 
stay in Rangoon; for example, the famous instance when she was left in 
her car on the bridge, not being able to move and finally having to 
return to her house. When this motion was placed on the Notice Paper, 
Aung San Suu Kyi was trying to leave Rangoon. Some 10 days after the 
motion was placed on the Notice Paper, she was allowed to return to her 
house, and we thought that perhaps there was to be normalcy. On 21 
September, she went to the railway station at Rangoon and tried to 
purchase a ticket to travel to Mandalay, where she wanted to check on 
the offices of the National League for Democracy. She was denied a 
ticket; she was told that there was not a ticket available, was forcibly 
returned to her house and, again, has been placed under house arrest 
with the phone lines cut and no allowance for visitors from ambassadors 
and the like.

This is the continuing struggle that faces Aung San Suu Kyi, the 
National League for Democracy and other ethnic minorities in Burma. It 
is appropriate that we have the full support for this simple motion that 
is being proposed, because I believe the wording of this motion is 
something that we could all embrace, even if we might disagree about the 
action that needs to be taken. (Time expired)




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