BurmaNet News: October 20, 2000

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______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
        An on-line newspaper covering Burma 
_________October 20, 2000   Issue # 1645__________

INSIDE BURMA _______
*AP: Briton flies to freedom after 415 days in solitary confinement
*Myanmar Times (SPDC): Activist loses court appeal
*AFP:  Rebels, Burma army clash; six killed 

REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL _______
*AFP: EU to resume talks with ASEAN, despite Myanmar: Vedrine 
*AFP: Myanmar deputy foreign minister visits Bangladesh 
*Reuters: Myanmar refugees strain Bangladesh economy
*Bangkok Post: Ogata rapped for comment on refugees

ECONOMY/BUSINESS _______
*Myanmar Times (SPDC): Software growth badly in need of human touch
*Irrawaddy: Slow-paced privatization continues 

OPINION/EDITORIALS _______
*Bankok Post: Burma's chance to be reasonable

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


__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________


AP: Briton flies to freedom after 415 days in solitary confinement 

Oct 20, 2000

YANGON, Myanmar (AP)  A British human rights activist flew to freedom 
Friday after being released from jail where he was serving a 17-year 
sentence for entering Myanmar illegally. 

 James Mawdsley had served nearly 14 months of his sentence in solitary 
confinement when he was let out earlier Friday from a prison in 
northwestern Myanmar following international and diplomatic pressure. 

 Mawdsley first flew from Keng Tung, where the prison is located, to 
Yangon and caught a connecting flight to Bangkok, Thailand, en route to 
London, airline officials said. 

 The British Foreign Office said he is expected to arrive in London on 
Saturday morning. 

 Mawdsley's release ends a yearlong tussle between Myanmar and the 
British governments that had put the spot light on the Myanmar junta's 
heavily criticized human rights record. 

 The military government came under further scrutiny last month when 
British consular officials reported that Mawdsley had been beaten by 
guards and had suffered a broken nose and two black eyes. The government 
said he had injured himself accidentally in a scuffle with prison 
guards. 
 Mawdsley's release comes at a time when the junta has faced widespread 
condemnation for its crackdown on pro-democracy opposition leader Aung 
San Suu Kyi, a 1991 Nobel peace prize winner, and other leaders of her 
party. 

 Mawdsley was accompanied on the flight to Bangkok by his mother, Diana 
Mawdsley, and British vice consul in Yangon, Karen Williams, the airline 
officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. 

 Williams had earlier escorted Mawdsley on the flight from Keng Tung, 
630 kilometers (390 miles) northeast of Yangon. 

 Mawdsley, 27, had been kept in an isolated cell in the Keng Tung prison 
since September 1999 after he sneaked into Myanmar, also known as Burma, 
to protest against the country's military junta. 

 He was sentenced to 17 years jail on charges of violating immigration 
laws and a publications law by handing out pro-democracy leaflets. But 
13 1/2 months into the sentence, the military government said Wednesday 
it would deport Mawdsley on requests by the British Foreign Office to 
Myanmar's ambassador in London. 

 In Seoul, South Korea, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook confirmed 
that Mawdsley was freed after 415 days in solitary confinement. 

 ``James's only crime was to highlight the suppression of ethnic 
minorities in Burma and to call for democratic change,'' Cook said. 

 He said efforts by Mawdsley's family and well-wishers coupled with 
British diplomatic pressure played a key role in winning his freedom. 

 ``This is the news we have been campaigning for, for over a year,'' 
said Mark Rowland of Jubilee Campaign, a lobby group that worked for 
Mawdsley's freedom. 

 ``The international community must now listen and take action to stop 
(the) systematic abuse of human rights'' in Myanmar, Rowland said in a 
statement. 

 It quoted Mawdsley as saying in a message he conveyed earlier this 
month from prison that he is ``fit and well and full of beans.'' 

 ``The clock is ticking for certain ethnic minorities. If we do not 
strain ourselves to stop this genocide, then their blood will be on our 
hands too,'' Mawdsley was quoted as saying. 
 Mawdsley, from Lancashire in northwest England, had been arrested in 
Myanmar twice before his sentencing last year. 

 In 1998, he served 99 days of a 7-year sentence. He was pardoned on 
condition he not return to the country. He also holds an Australian 
passport. 

____________________________________________________


Myanmar Times (SPDC): Activist loses court appeal  

Oct 16-22, 2000

A BRITISH-Australian activist sentenced to 17 years jail here, after 
making public protests against the State Peace and Development Council 
for the third time, has lost his first appeal in the Myanmar 
courts.James Mawdsley, 27, first entered the country in September 
1997.He chained himself to a gate at the No 6 High School, on Anawrahta 
Road, and distributed pamphlets as part of a one-man campaign against 
the Government.

He was subsequently escorted to Yangon International Airport and 
deported to Britain.Mawdsley, who holds British and Australian 
passports, returned to Myanmar in April 1998, illegally crossing the 
border from Thailand into Mawlamyaing, where he distributed pamphlets 
issued by the Karen National Union and All Burma Student Democratic 
Front. He was charged with violating the country?s Immigration Law and 
sentenced to five years imprisonment.

After serving just under three months of that sentence, however, 
Mawdsley was again deported ? on his undertaking that he would not enter 
the country again ? after the SPDC heeded an appeal by his parents and 
the British Ambassador.On 31 August last year Mawdsley again entered 
Myanmar from the Thai border town of Maisai to the Myanmar town of 
Tachilek, where he distributed anti-Government leaflets, stickers and 
tape recordings.He was taken to court and sentenced to five years in 
prison for violating the Immigration Law, seven years? jail for 
contravening the Printers? and Publishers? Act, and ordered to serve the 
remainder of his earlier sentence.

Mawdsley lost an appeal against his sentence at the Tachileik district 
court last week. His lawyer, U Kyi Wynn, said he would now take his 
appeal to the Supreme Court where he hoped to win his case on the basis 
of a technicality.The SPDC last week denied allegations, reported in the 
international press, that Mawdsley had been beaten in jail. 

?The Union of Myanmar, as a sovereign nation, reserves its right to 
implement its laws according to its own standard procedures which are in 
keeping with procedures used in many democratic countries,? the 
spokesman said. He said that, due to his association with armed 
insurgent groups, Mawdsley was considered a threat to national security.
 


____________________________________________________


AFP:  Rebels, Burma army clash; six killed 

Thursday 19 October 2000 

MAE SOT, (AFP) Thailand: Fighting between the Burmese military and the 
anti-government ethnic minority Karen National Union (KNU) has killed 
six people and driven two hundred refugees into Thailand, the Thai army 
said Wednesday. 
 
About 100 Burma army soldiers, aided by troops from the Democratic Karen 
Buddhist Army (DKBA) -- a militia which allies itself with Burmese 
military junta -- attacked a KNU base in eastern Burma early Wednesday 
morning, the Thai military said.  

After an hour of fierce fighting, the Rangoon military retreated, 
leaving one KNU soldier dead. The Burma army suffered five deaths, the 
Thai army said. 
 
The fighting reportedly caused about 200 people to flee from the area 
near the base, opposite Thailand's western Mae Ramat district, into 
Thailand.  

One Thai army officer said he expected more fighting at the same base in 
the coming weeks because Burma troops were beginning their annual dry 
season offensive against the KNU.  
The KNU have been fighting the central government since Burma gained 
independence from Britain more than half a century ago. But KNU fighters 
now control only small pockets of territory.  

The fighting has driven more than 100,000 refugees across the border and 
into camps in Thailand.









___________________ REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL___________________
		
			
AFP: EU to resume talks with ASEAN, despite Myanmar: Vedrine 


SEOUL, Oct 20 (AFP) - The European Union will resume talks with the 
Association of South East Nations (ASEAN) in December after a break of 
three years despite problems posed by the presence of Myanmar, French 
Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine said Friday. 

 "In exchange for hardening measures taken by the European Union against 
the ruling junta, the British did not oppose a new round of talks with 
ASEAN," Vedrine told AFP. 

 He was speaking after bilateral talks with the Vietnamese minister of 
foreign affairs, Nguyen Dy Nien, on the sidelines of the Asia-Europe 
Meeting (ASEM) taking place in Seoul. Vietnam currently holds the 
rotating presidency of ASEAN. 

 EU ministers have not attended a ministerial meeting with ASEAN since 
the 1997 admission of Myanmar, ruled by a military junta that refuses to 
recognise a 1990 election victory by the country's democratic 
opposition. 

 But Vedrine said Friday dialogue between the two parties would again 
take place in Vientiane, Laos, in December. 

 The French foreign minister's statement, which reflected the position 
expressed in another by all 15 EU member states, removed in principle 
the last remaining uncertainty regarding a resumption of the talks. 

 "We were shooting ourselves in the foot," by linking the ASEAN dialogue 
with the question of Myanmar, explained the minister. 

 In September, the EU vigorously condemned repressive measures taken by 
the junta against the democratic opposition, led by Nobel Peace prize 
winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who was placed under house arrest. 

 Britain has expressed particular hostility over the detention of human 
rights activist James Mawdlsey, whose release Friday after serving 14 
months of a 17-year sentence for handing out pro-democracy leaflets was 
said to be a matter of hours. 

 On the sidelines of the ASEM summit, Vedrine held bilateral talks with 
his counterparts from Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and 
Singapore. 



  


____________________________________________________


AFP: Myanmar deputy foreign minister visits Bangladesh 

DHAKA, Oct 20 (AFP) - Myanmar Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win 
arrived here Friday on a two-day visit to Bangladesh, airport officials 
said. 

 Senior foreign ministry official Toufiq Ali greeted Khin Maung Win on 
arrival as special envoy of Myanmar Prime Minister Than Shwe, they said. 


 Khin Maung is scheduled to hold talks with Foreign Minister Abdus Samad 
Azad on Saturday and deliver a letter from Than Shwe, they said, but did 
not give details. 
 Khin Maung is the first ranking Myanmar official to visit since a 
last-minute postponement of a visit by Than Shwe to Dhaka early this 
year on health grounds. 

 Than Shwe was set to visit in February as Dhaka-Yangon ties showed 
signs of easing after a crisis in 1992 over Muslim refugees who poured 
in from Myanmar into Bangladesh. 
 The postponed visit is still pending. 

 More than 280,000 Muslims from Arakan fled to Bangladesh in 1992 
alleging atrocities by Myanmar troops, a charge denied by the junta. 

 Most of the refugees were repatriated following a 1991 bilateral 
agreement and a second one in 1993 between the United Nations High 
Commissioner for Refugees and Yangon. 
 Some 20,000 people still remain in camps in Bangladesh. 


____________________________________________________


Reuters: Myanmar refugees strain Bangladesh economy

By Mohammad Nurul Islam 

 COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Thousands of Myanmar 
Muslims, fleeing from military rule at home, arrive in Bangladesh every 
month, putting a strain on the impoverished nation's economy, officials 
said on Friday. 

 Bangladesh has been hosting nearly 21,000 refugees from Myanmar for a 
decade now. 

 ``Nearly 21,000 Myanmar Muslim refugees, called Rohingyas, are huddled 
in two camps in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar district,'' said Borhanuddin 
Ahmed, relief and repatriation commissioner at Cox's Bazar, bordering 
west Myanmar's Muslim-majority Arakan province. 

 The additional influx has been causing a number of economic and social 
problems, he told Reuters. 

 ``They are straining the area's poor economy, have denuded forests for 
cooking wood, involved in robbery and other crimes, and shared the 
meagre jobs available,'' Borhanuddin said. 

 He said the illegal migrants worked for cheaper wages as fishing crew 
or farm labourers, and also competed with the locals as traders. 

 ``We are really at a loss about what to do with these illegal entrants. 
It is feared that Cox's Bazar population might be outnumbered eventually 
by the Myanmar nationals as their inflow could not be stemmed due to a 
vast open border, mostly running through jungles,'' he told Reuters. 

 He said Bangladesh was still awaiting Yangon authorities to repatriate 
the refugees from the two camps. But they seemed reluctant. 

 They are the remnants of more than 250,000 refugees, called Rohingyas, 
who fled to Cox's Bazar from Arakan province in 1991 trying to escape 
military persecution, including killings and rape. 

 Most of the refugees have returned to Myanmar under the supervision of 
the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which said most of 
those who crossed the borders had been economic refugees. The 
repatriation process stopped in the middle of 1997.
 
 Borhanuddin said the number of Rohingyas in and outside the camps had 
swelled due to more births than deaths. 


____________________________________________________



Bangkok Post: Ogata rapped for comment on refugees

Oct 20, 2000

No one else seems to mind, officials say


Bhanravee Tansubhapol


The Foreign Ministry hit back at the United Nations High Commissioner 
for Refugees yesterday, warning that Sadako Ogata's controversial 
remarks could wreck efforts to find a lasting solution on Burmese 
refugees.

"The comments could affect our co-operation in trying to resolve the 
problem of Burmese displaced persons in the long run," said Supat 
Chitranukroh, deputy foreign ministry spokesman.

While stressing its humanitarian policy and its good cooperation with 
the UNHCR over the past 25 years, the senior ministry official 
reaffirmed Thailand has no intention of allowing refugees to stay in the 
country permanently.

Infrastructure at the Tham Hin camp in Ratchaburi's Suan Phung district 
might not look good because the government did not want to encourage 
them to stay but to return to their country, he added.

The ministry's criticism came in response to comments by Sadako Ogata, 
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, who showed 
disappointment at conditions at the camp run by Thailand after touring 
the site on Tuesday. She said the camp was not up to an acceptable 
minimum standard for refugees.

Mr Supat said no UNHCR officials, diplomats and relief workers for 
non-governmental agencies allowed to visit the camp had ever complained 
about it. Even British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, who went to the 
site on April 20, did not criticise living conditions there and instead 
appreciated Thailand for giving shelter to the Burmese, he added.

The deputy ministry spokesman urged the UN agency to do more than just 
talk. "If the UNHCR wants to help Thailand improve the camp conditions, 
it should provide funds for it because the Thai government also has 
responsibility to take care of its own citizens," he said.

Many villagers nearby were living in poorer conditions and the country 
did not want them to have negative attitudes or show resistance to 
refugees, he added.

The camp houses around 8,200 Karen refugees, most of them women and 
children, fleeing fighting from Burma.

Thailand has over 100,000 refugees from Burma living in camps along its 
western border.





_______________ ECONOMY AND BUSINESS _______________
 


Myanmar Times (SPDC): Software growth badly in need of human touch 

Oct 16-22, 2000

MYANMAR?S computer business community is watching the global information 
technology (IT) industry expand at a phenomenal rate, and wanting a 
piece of the action. But the key issue confronting local efforts to find 
a niche in software development is ? perhaps ironically ? people.?We are 
trying to establish a software industry in Myanmar,? said U Thein Oo of 
ACE Data System. ?There are many applications in the IT industry that 
are growing at an alarming rate. IT is a dominant industry on a global 
scale in terms of capital, labour and profit. We will be left behind 
unless we make a tremendous effort, now, to catch up with the world.
 
?What we need is the human resources that will give us the capability to 
develop software,? he said, adding that in his opinion there were 
currently no more than five proficient programmers in the country.There 
was a reasonable level of interest and skill in program languages like 
Oracle, Java and Visual Basics but a shortfall in the attitude or 
quality consciousness that should accompany the technical know-how, he 
said ? like recognising the importance of a job?s timely completion.And 
the industry was not yet sufficiently well versed in applications like 
banking and tourism operations, he said.

But U Tun Thura Thet, managing director of Myanmar Information 
Technology, believed the solution could be a simple matter of 
practice.?All that local software technicians need is to be in an 
environment where they will have exposure to developing such 
applications,? he said.There were some firms here that focused on 
software development and they were perhaps in the best position to 
provide on-the-job training to newly-appointed technicians.Typically, 
those technicians had graduated from local computer science institutes 
that were not yet producing highly competent programmers.

It took a software firm about six months to train fresh graduates to 
proficiency.Analytical skills were also needed to develop application 
software for industries like banking and hotels.Currently, local firms 
were using SQL server in Database and Visual Basis in programming 
languages. Other software like Java and C+ was also used, but 
rarely.Most programmers knew software like Java, but their knowledge was 
insufficiently advanced for the development of application software for 
customers.?We cooperate with local institutions like the University of 
Computer Science to run a project when we fall short of programmers,? 
said Tun Thura Thet.

Recently, a Japanese firm sought local operators here to cooperate on 
the domestic development of software. The project needed a workforce of 
about 50 people.It did not happen, but the Japanese firm at least put 
the idea of human resource development in the industry under the 
spotlight, said Tun Thura Thet.On the flipside of the coin, software 
development jobs in Myanmar were scarce ? a situation which exacerbated 
the difficulty of producing experienced programmers.What might help 
overcome the problem, according to industry sources, was the 
establishment of a taskforce to source expatriate trainers and projects, 
and to send local programmers to 

According to my experience, very fluent programmers are not interested 
in training others,? said Tun Thura Thet.What Myanmar also needed, 
industry players told Myanmar Times, was an efficient telecommunication 
infrastructure operated in conjunction with a counterpart like Japan. 
Last but not least, said observers, Myanmar should follow the lead of 
its very successful neighbour, India, and establish a software ?park? to 
replace isolated, scattered firms with a cohesive, geographically 
focused industry.Software parks in India, also Malaysia, have been set 
up with the support of government through commercial tax breaks, 100 per 
cent foreign investment provision and power subsidies.

?It would be very fruitful if our government was able to create such a 
workable environment,? said Tun Thura Thet .Another challenge faced by 
the local industry was the access to the Internet, on which software was 
increasingly developed.?Without having experience in operating the 
Internet, a programmer will not be able to prepare software application 
to be used in the Net,? said Tun Thura Thet.He cited the example of Hong 
Kong, where software houses have an apparently insatiable demand for 
well-versed programmers to create web pages.

____________________________________________________


Irrawaddy: Slow-paced privatization continues 

Vol 8. No. 9, September 2000

Burma's military regime has announced that it is planning to auction off 
11 state enterprises, including a plot of land and two warehouses owned 
by the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, six cinemas, a timber shop, and 
an ice factory. In 1999, a total of 118 enterprises were privatized 
under a program introduced in January 1995. According to official 
statistics, there are 1,760 state enterprises in Burma. However, 
analysts note that local partners in virtually all of the joint ventures 
with foreign investors are companies controlled by military or retired 
military personnel.







_________________OPINION/EDITORIALS________________


Bankok Post: Burma's chance to be reasonable

Oct 20, 2000


The refugees fled terrible conditions at home only to find themselves in 
what the top UN refugee official believes are terrible conditions here. 
Things could be improved, but that needs Rangoon's co-operation.


Anuraj Manibhandu


Rangoon could contribute to a breakthrough in the problem of Burmese 
refugees if the ruling junta accepted the proposal from the United 
Nations high commissioner for refugees on repatriation from Thailand.

Sadako Ogata effectively suggested that the Mon state in eastern Burma 
be made the starting point for repatriation of Burmese from Thailand by 
proposing that UNHCR staff begin monitoring in a conflict-free area like 
this on an ad hoc basis.

She called for a gradual building from this basis to more repeated 
missions and eventually to a permanent presence on Burmese soil.

The Burmese leadership did "not negate" her proposal but said they would 
examine the "modalities" for it, she said on Wednesday. "They were very 
clear in positively examining it," she said when the Bangkok Post asked 
her about the degree of Rangoon's commitment.

There are now about 100,000 displaced Burmese living in camps just 
inside Thailand. Many would not be recognised officially as refugees but 
they form part of an uprooted and largely deprived population that fled 
the violent suppression in Burma in 1988.

A positive answer would show that Rangoon is capable of rational 
thinking, and could help melt the still icy sentiment of the 
international community and some nearby states towards the regime.

A negative answer could be seen as a demonstration of Rangoon's 
deep-rooted insecurity about its position with regard to the opposition 
it faces in Burma despite its implacability.

Conversely, it could be seen as a show of Rangoon's supreme security in 
its ability to survive all international criticism and do without the 
international community's support or assistance.

Both tendencies are likely to be at work as Rangoon ponders Mrs Ogata's 
proposal. As in many other places around the world, the refugee problems 
have been protracted and prolonged because politics has been allowed to 
overwhelm things after the initial humanitarian crisis subsided and 
dropped out of the international headlines.

At play in the complex web are relations between the Thai and Burmese 
governments, rapport between these governments and the UNHCR, and, not 
least, the stand-off between Rangoon and its domestic opposition.

Thai-Burmese relations, hardly healthy before the storming of the 
Burmese embassy in Bangkok by Burmese exiles last October and the taking 
of hostages at Ratchaburi hospital three months later in January, have 
become even more strained.

Rangoon is sticking rigidly to its position because it knows the 
government in Bangkok, among other things, is under pressure from 
fishermen to secure a re-opening of Burmese waters closed to them for a 
full year now, causing many to risk trespassing and possible arrest 
elsewhere.

Relations between the Burmese government and the UNHCR apparently are 
less strained because the UNHCR has made some headway with the 
repatriation of Rohingya Muslim refugees from Bangladesh to western 
Burma.

Relations between the Thai government and the UNHCR seem to run hot and 
cold as different agencies put different accents on the problem, and 
approach it from different experiences.

But what seems clear is that the government does not want to make life 
too comfortable for Burmese refugees for fear that this will draw in 
more arrivals at a time when donor compassion is on the wane.

But the authorities seem to have gone overboard. Mrs Ogata was shocked 
by the conditions she found at the Tham Hin camp, in Ratchaburi's Suen 
Pueng district. Besides overcrowded living quarters, she was concerned 
about the sanitation.

Such sentiments from a person who has seen refugee camps all over the 
world through 10 years as the top UN refugee administrator reflects 
badly on Thailand, and comes on top of a history of hospitality to 
Indochinese refugees after the fall of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam to 
communist regimes 25 years ago.

The Foreign Ministry offered what came across as a lame response, saying 
Tham Hin could not be expanded because it was located next to a 
restricted military area and local farmland, and it cited a high birth 
rate.

Packing 8,212 Karen refugees on to just 40 rais is a bit of a squeeze on 
their activities, and provides a great opportunity for disease to 
spread. Mrs Ogata had seen better conditions and set-ups at camps along 
the Cambodian border when she visited in 1993.

Lame or not, the Thai response does raise a valid point: Thailand has to 
care for its own people, whose livelihoods would be on the line if the 
camp is enlarged.

On the day of Mrs Ogata's visit to Tham Hin, a senior Thai official put 
things more succinctly. He said villagers in some parts of our Northeast 
live in worse conditions than the refugees in the camp.

Mrs Ogata's responded to this the following day by saying the problems 
of local people are a global issue, and suggested that Thailand raise 
them during global consultation on the 1951 Convention on Refugees. The 
expert level discussions, open to any interested government, are due to 
begin early next year.

But the Thai government's prevarication on Mrs Ogata's request for more 
regular access to refugee camps on Thai soil is a mistake. It could be 
seen as a bid to hide undesirable truths.

Refugee watchers remember reports from the 1980s of unseemly events 
taking place in refugee camps along the Cambodian border during the 
hours from dusk to dawn when international relief officers were away 
from the camps.

Access is part of the transparency being demanded in all aspects of 
life, and Thailand as a leading democracy in Southeast Asia cannot be 
seen to falter in this.

Mrs Ogata stressed that her request was aimed at improving the UNHCR's 
protection work. Refusal would be an anomaly when Thailand already has 
allowed the UNHCR to open field offices in Tak, Mae Hong Son and 
Kanchanaburi.

Mumbles about "security concerns" only make matters worse, because the 
worriers are not making clear where the threats are coming from.

A solution to the Burmese refugee problem now depends on a complex web 
of relationships, though it is clear that the first move has to come 
from the Burmese leadership who caused the people to flee their homes in 
the first place.

Rangoon should appreciate that the lifting of the gridlock on the 
refugee issue is much easier than breaking through the political impasse 
with its domestic opposition, which involves huge questions of power 
transfer or at least power sharing.

Mrs Ogata effectively has given the generals in Rangoon a chance to show 
that they are reasonable men, and they should seize this occasion with 
alacrity.











____________________________________________________

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