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BurmaNet News: December 26, 2000
- Subject: BurmaNet News: December 26, 2000
- From: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2000 12:05:00
______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
An on-line newspaper covering Burma
________December 26, 2000 Issue # 1695_________
NOTED IN PASSING:
INSIDE BURMA _______
*Le Courrier/Liberte (Switzerland): Shadow of Burmese Drug Money Hangs
over Parisian Scandals
*Burma Courier: Drug Money Helps to Fund Research Centre
*CNN: Golden Triangle is highest HIV infection rates in Asia
*Shan Herald Agency for News: Junta's Infamous Unit Comes to Rock The
Boat Along Thai Border
REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL _______
*The Nation: Burmese scribe seeks safe haven
*Times Higher Education Supplement: Whistleblowers - Soas faces ethics
row
ECONOMY/BUSINESS _______
*Burma Courier: Junta Stats Bureau Hiding Value of Clothing Exports
OTHER______
*Shan Herald Agency for News: The Last Mahadevi: A documentary film
The BurmaNet News is viewable online at:
http://theburmanetnews.editthispage.com
__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________
Le Courrier/Liberte (Switzerland): Shadow of Burmese Drug Money Hangs
over Parisian Scandals
[BurmaNet adds?Published in two Swiss newspapers on Dec. 16, in French.
This is a translation]
Saturday December 16, 200
France- Legal inquiries in the case of Michel Roussin, a former close
aide to president Jacques Chirac, and later minister for cooperation
will, for the first time, lead French justice to investigate the
laundering of Burmese drug money.
A 50 meter high double carcass of reinforced concrete towers over the
main avenue of Central Rangoon and the historical site of Sule Pagoda.
Now a hideous pockmark, this abandoned project should have become a
hotel of the Sofitel chain. But the construction undertaken by Eiffage
international, a company presided by Michel Roussin, was interrupted 3
years ago without any clear reason. No explanation was offered by
Eiffage's president Roussin, nor Sofitel's owner, Accor, that might
cast some light on this strange Burmese adventure.
While French embassy staff in Rangoon makes no attempt to conceal
this open secret : the most visible drug money laundering operation in
Burma - the infamous carcass- stands in such a prominent site. It is
public knowledge that this was the work of Eiffage and that Michel
Roussin took a personal interest during several long visits in Burma.
DUBIOUS OPERATIONS
Nothing justified that a European firm be employed for this type of
works, since costs are out of proportion with charges by local firms.
Accor always refused to name his partner in this operation, simply
pointing out that it is not involved in any investment. In Burma,
almost all luxury hotels are considered as pure drug money laundering
operations. The Trader's, one of the most prestigious hotels, of the
Shangri La Chain, is in partnership with the Burmese Lo family, led by
Lo Sing Harn, at present wealthy businessman and "officially" retired
from being the most succesful opium warlord in the Golden Triangle,
under the protection of several of the ruling generals. "Boycott the
heroin hotel" was the motto of assuccessful campaign by the Free Burma
Coalition in the USA, to prevent an American airline fom promoting the
Trader's. Building a luxury hotel in Burma allows beteween 20 and 50
million dollars -officially the construction cost- into the "legal"
circuit. When operational the hotel can launder money of any origin,
regardless of occupation rates.
10% OCCUPATION
Since a well publicized start, in 1996, of the year of tourism in
Burma, the hotels never managed to pass a 10% occupation rate. Now,
according to a French banker who worked in Rangoon, a future hotel
owner may fill his bank accounts as soon as he obtains the building
permit, just as if the funds came from wealthy foreign patrons...right
on the drawing board! Michel Roussin is investigated for suspicion of
fraud in allocating public tenders in the Paris region. He is now found
heading a construction of a virtual hotel in Rangoon. Who paid the bill
for Eiffage's work in Burma ? Who benfitted from this operation? Could
it be that a French political party received funds from export of
Burmese heroin? Will judges in Paris be able to trace the funds
generated by this operation ?
francis Christophe INFOSUD
____________________________________________________
Burma Courier: Drug Money Helps to Fund Research Centre
Week of Dec. 17-23, 2000
Based on news item from MNA and Xinhua: Updated to Dec 17, 2000
RANGOON - Among the generous contributors to a new regional centre for
historical research opened here on Friday by Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt were the
Mongmao Special Region of northeastern Shan state and the Kanbawza Bank
of U Aung Ko Win.
Both the Mongmao Special Region, better known as the administrative unit
of the United Wa State Army, which presented a cheque for 5,000,000
kyats, and Aung Ko Win's bank, which came up with a million kyats, are
reputed to have close links to the drug trade. Also on hand to receive
certificates of honour and souvenir gifts from Secretary No. 1 for their
generosity in getting the new centre off to a good start were
"wellwishers" from Myanmar Total (US$ 47,500), the China National
Construction and Agricultural Machinery Import and Export Corp (US$
20,000).
The historical research institute, located on Pye Road in Rangoon, is
part of a chain of fourteen autonomous centres set up SEAMEO, a regional
grouping of ten southeast Asian Ministers of Education that was started
as long ago as 1965. It will specialize in studies related to
understanding the history and traditions of the countries of southeast
Asia from a regional perspective and will also address the need to
develop educational curricula which reflect this perspective for the
teaching of history in schools and other institutions.
According to the official press, the opening was widely attended by
commanders, ministers, deputy ministers, senior Tatmadaw officers,
officials of the State Peace and Development Council Office, heads of
department, directors-general of departments, ambassadors and U.N.
officials, as well as SEAMEO officials and researchers, and invited
guests, faculty members and students.
A release circulated at the opening of the new centre listed six
associate members, of SEAMEO, including Australia, Canada, France,
Germany, the Netherlands and New Zealand. But an official of Canada's
Foreign Affairs Ministry told the Burma Courier this week that funding
for SEAMEO programs and centres had ceased in 1999. He said there was
no connection whatsoever between the new centre in Rangoon and Canadian
officials or academics.
___________________________________________________
CNN: Golden Triangle is highest HIV infection rates in Asia
Intensive Effort Helps Contain Thai HIV Spread
CNN, Tuesday December 26 1:07 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - An aggressive prevention campaign has helped
control HIV infection in Chiang Rai, Thailand's northernmost province,
according to a recent report.
Although HIV infection began relatively late in Asia, it spread very
rapidly. Chiang Rai, in the Golden Triangle bordered by Laos and Burma,
was among areas with the highest infection rates in Asia.
The first reports of HIV infection in the province appeared in 1988, but
by 1991, prevalence among brothel-based female sex workers was 62%, Dr.
Peter H. Kilmarx and colleagues report in the December 1st issue of the
journal AIDS (news - web sites). In the same year, as many as 81% of
young male military recruits reported having had sex with such workers,
and by 1992 the HIV prevalence in 21-year-old male conscripts was 17.3%.
In response to the HIV epidemic in Chang Rai and elsewhere, the Thai
government promoted condom use and sanctioned police action against sex
establishments with infected workers or customers. As part of the
effort, the provincial government distributed 1.2 million free condoms
annually.
Most brothels closed, and although the number of sex workers remained
constant, a shift in favor of nonbrothel settings such as massage
parlors, was helpful, say the authors, from the Thai Ministry of Public
Health, Nonthaburi. The women had fewer sex partners and thus had less
chance of acquiring and transmitting HIV-1.
By 1995, only 24% of conscripts reported visits to female sex workers
and 93% used condoms, up from 61% in 1991. Furthermore, reported STD
rates in Chang Rai fell from 726 per 100,000 in 1990 to only 12 per
100,00 in 1999. HIV infection in conscripts ``remarkably'' fell by more
than eightfold to only 2% in 1999.
These declines, the investigators conclude, ``are believed to be real,
and are perhaps the strongest examples in the world of a societywide,
successful response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.'' Nevertheless, they add,
``the number of AIDS cases continues to mount, along with profound
demographic social and economic effects."
___________________________________________________
Shan Herald Agency for News: Junta's Infamous Unit Comes to Rock The
Boat Along Thai Border
Reporter: Saeng Khao Haeng
December 26, 2000
One of Rangoon's most feared units arrived in cities bordering Thailand
earlier this month, said several sources.
Na Sa Ka (Border Control Unit), long active along borders with
Bangladesh and India in the west was reported in Tachilek on 2 December.
Feared even among junta sphere, its presence was seen by many state
functionaries, both military and civilian alike, as bad omen.
According to the latest count on 17 December, the strength of the unit
with its headquarters in LIB 331 is already 120. The total strength
would be 702.
The unit operates directly under "S-1", Lt.-Gen. Khin Nyunt and is
empowered to "butt in" the affairs of various local governmental
departments i.e. customs, immigration, cross-border trade, census and
even township administrations. Its area of operation shall be Tachilek,
Monghsat and Mongton, said sources.
Already, its presence is felt along the border. The Myawaddy-Maesod
checkpoints were closed without notice. Thai counterparts in the
Tachilek-Chiangrai joint border committee were told they could either
change the present border regulations soon or close the border and
Rangoon couldn't care less during a meeting two weeks ago.
"One good thing is that border passes, previously obtained at B.120, has
gone down to just B.20," said a source. "Also in the past there were
some difficulties for non-Tachilek citizens to get a pass, but now,
everyone who has an ID card can get it without going through a lot of
procedures".
Related News:
Lt.-Gen. Khin Nyunt arrived on 21 December to inaugurate a nuns' school
in Tachilek. The carpet, 100 meters long, for him to walk on during the
ceremony was bought for B.100,000 by the townspeople, said sources.
___________________ REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL___________________
The Nation: Burmese scribe seeks safe haven
Dec 26, 2000.
A Lin Neumann
BEING a journalist in Burma is a lot like walking on the high wire
without a net. One false move and you might plunge into the abyss of a
political prison.
That fear is what finally drove writer and publisher Tin Maung Than, 46,
to flee across the border in late November with his wife and two
children for exile in Thailand and, hopefully, political asylum in the
United States.
Publisher of an influential private journal, Thintbawa (Your Life),
which focused on contemporary social issues, Tin Maung Than says a
political noose was tightening around his neck as a result of his
writing.
"It was just time to go," he said in Bangkok shortly after his arrival.
"The military would not let me travel. I was afraid I might be arrested
soon."
A soft-spoken man who walks with a slight stoop from a spinal ailment,
Tin Maung Than seems the kind of man who would be treasured by a
developing country. A medical doctor by training and a journalist by
choice, he also earned an MBA from Harvard University in 1998.
Indeed, the bizarre events that led to his exile would be unimaginable
in almost any other country save Burma, where a military junta - the
State Peace and Development Council - has held power since September
1988, choking off most forms of dissent.
In August he was detained, along with another publisher, for five days
by military-intelligence agents in Rangoon because he made a handful of
photocopies of a speech by the former deputy minister for economic
development, Brig-Gen Zaw Tun, that was highly critical of the
government's economic policies. The speech, which was eventually picked
up by news agencies abroad, led to Zaw Tun's removal from office and was
a major embarrassment for the junta.
"They launched an investigation," Tin Maung Than said. "They went
looking for anyone who might have copied the speech. They even brought
in this frightened girl who ran the copy shop I used and she didn't know
anything about it." After five days of continuous questioning, Tin Maung
Than admitted to having copied the speech and signed a "confession".
As part of the confession he had to state that he knew he would be
prosecuted if intelligence agents later concluded that the speech and
its release abroad was part of a "political plot".
The confession was an open invitation for the military to arrest him at
any time they felt like it.
Tin Maung Than stayed safely atop the high wire for several years. Since
starting his magazine in 1992, he avoided political subjects and
submitted everything to the official Press Scrutiny Board for censoring
before publication. "Real journalism is not possible in Burma," he said.
"We have to say everything in general terms and let the readers feel the
meaning for themselves."
The magazine concentrated on health and family issues, writing about the
HIV/Aids epidemic and other social problems while steering clear of
discussing government policies.
The censors eliminated anything controversial but he received his first
scare when an exiled opposition group published an article he wrote on
Burma's educational system without his knowledge. The article had
earlier been censored but found its way into the hands of government
opponents who issued the piece, called "Slave versus Free Education", as
a small booklet.
The military listed the booklet, along with a host of other documents,
during a press conference in May called to discuss plots against the
regime.
>From that time forward, he worried that the military had placed him
under scrutiny. His past, he feared, had come back to haunt him.
Tin Maung Than was active in the 1988 popular uprising against former
dictator Ne Win which was crushed by the military and he admits to
having once been a member of the National League for Democracy, the
political party led by Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning
dissident. But he left the group in 1990 following parliamentary
elections won by the NLD but nullified by the junta.
"I thought I could do more good on my own, as a writer," he said. "Let
other people involve themselves in politics."
In Burma, however, it is hard for any independent thinker to avoid
politics and his past links to the NLD is what finally drove him into
exile.
Fearing arrest was imminent, he left his work at the magazine and began
planning his escape. Finally, he went with his family to a border area
controlled by insurgents and headed for Thailand.
___________________________________________________
Times Higher Education Supplement: Whistleblowers - Soas faces ethics
row
UK News, 23 December 2000
Phil Baty
21 December 2000
Students at London University's School of Oriental and African Studies
are demanding formal guidelines on ethics for researchers, following The
THES's report of a senior academic's links with the military
dictatorship in Burma.
The THES reported that Elizabeth Moore, head of the department of arts
and archaeology, has been cooperating closely with the dictatorship's
Office for Strategic Studies on a number of projects. Scholars said her
links with a regime notorious for some of the worst human rights abuses
and the suppression of dissent and academic freedom raise important
ethical questions. Gustaaf Houtman, deputy director of the United
Kingdom's Royal Anthropological Institute, said that her work could be
exploited to bolster the dictatorship.
Dr Moore is in Burma and has been unavailable for comment. The
university declined to comment on the situation. It has told students
that "as a matter of policy, the school respects the freedom of
academics to work in whichever country they wish and as is necessary for
the conduct of their research". But students are concerned that this
statement is too ambiguous and that it leaves the university open to
serious ethical concerns.
The students' union is lobbying Soas's executive board on the issue. It
said in a letter to the executive board: "The union feels that it is
important to raise awareness of research ethics and the consequences of
not having these in place." A petition will be launched at the start of
next term.
The controversy over Burma follows concerns about the university's
decision last year to accept a donation from the Iranian government,
which attracted widespread international disquiet and also highlighted
the absence of ethical guidelines.
The THES revealed in December 1999 that Soas had accepted tens of
thousands of pounds from the Iranian ministry of culture and higher
education to establish two three-year research fellowships. One of the
postdoctoral fellowships was taken by the institute's director, the
brother of the head of Iran's revolutionary guards.
Academic board minutes confirm that 73 academics had called for the deal
to be rescinded because they were concerned by the school's association
with "ultra-conservative factions of the Iranian regime". Despite
opposition the deal was ratified, but it was agreed that a working party
would be set up to "codify the principles upon which future decisions
would be based in regard to acceptances of donor support".
Students are now demanding a similar commitment to research ethics.
Burma link prompts resignation calls
Lord Alexander of Weedon, Exeter University's chancellor, has offered to
meet students to discuss his controversial role as a non-executive
director of Total-Fina-Elf, the French oil giant criticised by human
rights campaigners for doing business with the military dictatorship in
Burma.
Students have organised protests and collected more than 700 signatures
calling for Lord Alexander to resign either as chancellor or from his
role at Total. The students said Total-Fina-Elf's investments in Burma
helped support the illegal military regime and its abuses of human
rights.
A university spokesman said: "As chancellor, he holds an honorary
position and has not been scheduled to visit the university during or
since the students' actions. He has asked the protesters to write a
'reasoned letter' explaining their criticisms, to which he will be happy
to reply. He has also offered to speak with officers of the Guild of
Students when he next visits the university."
Lord Alexander has been a non-executive director of Total-Fina-Elf
"since well before he was appointed chancellor and this has always been
a matter of public record", he added.
_______________ ECONOMY AND BUSINESS _______________
Burma Courier: Junta Stats Bureau Hiding Value of Clothing Exports
Week of Dec. 17-23, 2000
Based on news from NYT, Xinhua, Dana: Updated to December 20, 2000
NEW YORK - U.S. clothing import figures, cited in an article in the New
York Times this week, suggest that stats released by Burma's Central
Statistical Organization (CSO) vastly under-report trade figures with
the U.S. and throw into question other figures reported by the junta's
stats bureau.
According to a Times article, the value of clothing imports from Burma
to the U.S. amounted to US$ 308 million dollars in the first nine months
of 2000, more than double garment imports in the same period last year.
U.S. government stats show that clothing worth US$ 237 million was
imported from Burma in 1999, up 45% over the 1998 total of US$ 164
million.
In contrast, the most recent Economic Indicators report of the Burmese
government's CSO put the total value of exports to five industrialized
nations including the U.S., Japan, France, Germany and the U.K, during
the first eight months of 2000 at only US$ 108 million. The report
cited imports by Burma from the same group of five countries during the
eight-month period at US$ 242 million.
If the trend indicated by U.S. government figures holds, the country
could end up by importing goods valued at half a billion dollars from
Burma this year, since the garment trade has accounted for about 80% of
the value of imports from Burma over the last few years.
This would mean that the U.S. would be Burma's second largest trading
partner in 2000 and by far its largest export market in legally traded
goods. In fiscal 1999, the CSO listed Singapore as the country's
largest trading partner with goods valued at US$ 881 being exchanged
between the two countries. Thailand with total trade valued at US$ 410
and China at US$ 351 million were listed as Burma's second and third
largest trading partners in 1999.
The increase in the garment trade with the U.S. matches a similar
upswing in clothing sales to Canada which is set to increase by 250% its
imports from Burma during the current year. Stats released by Canada's
Department of Foreign Trade show imports of clothing from Burma jumped
to C$ 35.612 million in the first nine month of 2000. Total garment
imports from Burma last year amounted to C$ 17.339 million up from C$
9.602 million in 1998. The Canadian buck is currently valued at about
two-thirds of the U.S dollar.
There is nothing to indicate why Burma's stats bureau would under-report
exports to Western countries, but the junta's propaganda department has
found it useful to paint a picture of the country as under siege by
oppressive "sanctions" imposed upon it by Western nations. There have
also been suggestions that garment manufacturers may be under-reporting
the value of their exports from Burma to cut down on customs duties.
There can be no doubt that the garment manufacturing industry in Burma
is growing by leaps and bounds. Figures quoted in an article in a
Burmese language journal, Dana (November 2000), point to at least
300,000 people as employed in factories making garments throughout the
country. It said there were more than 400 factories where garments were
being made. But this figure must surely include many mom-and-pop
operations. There are probably about 9 - 12 large state-owned factories
still in the business of garment making and 20 - 25 large foreign-owned
or joint-venture companies engaged in making clothes, mostly for export.
______________________OTHER______________________
Shan Herald Agency for News: The Last Mahadevi: A documentary film
No: 12 - 17
Commentary
The Last Mahadevi:
A documentary film
She was Austrian, first child among the 5 siblings of the Eberhard
family, born on 23 February 1932.
He was Shan, youngest son among the 3 of Prince Sao Oh of Hsipaw and his
consort, Sao Zinglwa, born in July 1924. (I don't remember her saying
anything about the exact date, but looking at her raising her glass and
wishing Happy Birthday on the 4th of July 1999, I thought while others
were marking the birth of the United States she must be celebrating her
late husband's birthday instead.) He was coronated as the ruling prince
in 1947.
They met in the land not of either's birth, fell in love and married on
7 March 1953.
So far so good as a fairy tale. But unfortunately they lived happily
ever after only less than nine years.
The documentary was striking due in large part to the fact that there
were a lot of flashbacks to the old days, thanks to the 16-mm movie
camera the Prince brought back from the States. One can just make
comparisons of the grandeur and happiness of the past to today's decay
and almost tangible sadness.
Once back to homeland, the Prince and inevitably his consort, now styled
the Mahadevi "celestial princess" Sao Thusandi, were caught in the
political and military upheaval in the whole country brought about by
the Shans' union with Burma in 1947.
The Shan States, as it was known prior to the founding of the Union of
Burma, "was never a British colony like Burma," she said. On the
contrary, it was relatively an independent country. It agreed to unite
with Burma for a trial period of ten years and thus could have left it
by 1958.
However, in 1952, the Burmese government used the Kuomintang spillover
from the pursuing troops of Mao Zedong as an execuse to occupy the Shan
State. "Sao had spoken out against the Burma Army ill treating the
people," she said, and in so doing, he won eternal enmity from the
military.
He was however not interested in leading the Shan insurrection that
broke out after the failure in 1958 to hold a plebiscite for the
purpose of deciding whether Shans should choose to stay in the union or
secede. He believed in the rule of law and democracy, she commented.
On 1 March 1962, he was last seen driving from Taunggyi to Hsipaw, where
he was anxious to be in time for the 9th anniversary of their wedding.
He left only two short letters informing his wife he was being held in
Ba Htoo, a military settlement near Lawkzawk by the army that took
power past midnight on 2 March that marked the end of democracy and the
Union of Burma. The military, whom she dubbed "cowards", never admitted
they had anything to do with his "disappearance".
She waited vainly for 11 months, consulting soothsayers and practising
meditation, and finally left for home.
Now, at 68, she's back in the States, still beautiful despite her age,
still driving, weightlifting, jogging and swimming. And still has time
to meet overseas Shans who pay annual respects to her and to meet
Burmese exiles and treat them to a buffet lunch.
Yes, I know I'm not doing justice to her. But you also know I'm only
trying to spark some interest in you to view the documentary that came
out last year. It is produced by the Bilderwerk Filmproduction in
Munchen. Or maybe you'd rather get in touch with her directly. That's
<thusandi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> .
After seeing it, I'm sure you'll enjoy reading her 'Twilight of Burma:
My life as a Shan princess', by Inge Sargent, published by Silkworm
Books in 1994 too.
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