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BurmaNet News: December 30, 3000



______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
        An on-line newspaper covering Burma 
          December 30, 2000   Issue # 1699
______________ www.burmanet.org _______________


NOTED IN PASSING: ?There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that the SSA 
[Shan States Army] has begun to receive military aid from Thailand... 
While the Thais may have turned a blind eye to much of the opium trade, 
they cannot ignore the surging use and availability of amphetamines on 
the streets of Bangkok.?

Scotsman Online (UK): Burma?s forgotten nation now paying the price of 
peace


INSIDE BURMA _______
*Scotsman Online (UK): Burma?s forgotten nation now paying the price of 
peace
*International Crisis Group:  Burma/Myanmar?How Strong Is the Military 
Regime?
*Myanmar Embassy Paris (SPDC): VOA that daren't show its face 
*Bangkok Post: Karen Rebels Accused of Train Attack
*Shan Herald Agency for News: Junta officer: Wa Expansion part of 
Rangoon's for eventual subjugation of Wa 
*Shan Herald Agency for News: News Brief: Wa roadbuilding begins - with 
convicts
*Karen Human Rights Group: Convict porters??horrific conditions? set 
Burma apart

REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL _______
*Nouvel Observateur (France): [Summary/translation of article on French 
scandal figure and G.W. Bush]
*ABC (Australia): UN envoy to visit Burma next week
*Bangkok Post : US Army to Help Train Thai Troops



__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________


Scotsman Online (UK): Burma?s forgotten nation now paying the price of 
peace

Dec. 30, 2000


Paul Dillon 

THE dusty streets of Hsipaw, a bustling Burmese market town, overflow 
with children, animals and cheroot-smoking grannies lounging in the 
shade against baskets of vegetables. Hawkers flog everything from 
plastic machine-pistols to cheap Chinese-made soap outside the tent 
where rice farmers line up to pay 10 kaht (15p) to view the three-legged 
chicken, sad-faced monkeys and a dozing python as thick as a man?s 
thigh. 

Caught in the crush beneath the Ferris wheel and magician?s tent are 
several expensive, late-model Isuzu four-wheel drive trucks, creaking 
Fifties-era army Jeeps and converted mini-buses bristling with smiling, 
heavily armed members of the Shan State Army (SSA). 

The Shan?s annual harvest fair is about to begin but the real high-wire 
act is occurring behind the scenes. The SSA?s arrival in Hsipaw, 750km 
north-east of the capital, Rangoon, was preceded by the withdrawal of 
the equally well equipped Burmese national army. The hated tatmadaw, who 
occupy towns throughout the resource-rich Shan state, retired to their 
bases 5km to the north in the interests of maintaining a precarious 
ceasefire negotiated between the SAA and the government 11 years ago. 

Both sides profit from the lucrative, cross-border trade into China and 
Thailand of opium, precious stones and human beings, but tensions are 
high and it is the kind of peace that might not survive a couple of 
litres of cheap Mandalay rum in the belly of a trigger-happy teenager. 

"Generally, we have good relations with the other side; we move around 
without interference from the army, we fly our flag, we keep our weapons 
and they don?t try to stop us," Sao Hso Hten, the 64-year-old chairman 
of the SSA told The Scotsman during a two-hour interview at a well 
guarded safe house outside Hsipaw. 

"Of course there are problems. They force the people to work like slaves 
without paying them. They terrorise the people. But, at this time they 
are too strong. We cannot fight them head-on because the high tide of 
armed struggle would fall on us and we are not ready." 

For 30 years the Shan and more than a dozen other ethnic groups fought 
guerrilla wars against the Burmese. They claimed the government had 
betrayed the spirit of the agreements negotiated before independence 
from Britain in 1948 between Rangoon and various ethnic minorities, most 
notably the Kachin, Karen and Chin. 

Among the first Shan to flee into the dense forests in 1958 to fight the 
Burmese was Sao Hso Hten, then a 22-year-old mining engineer with no 
military training. Today, he claims to have 10,000 armed followers. "We 
are much stronger today than in the past," he says, flicking the Rolex 
on his wrist as he reaches for a cup of tea. He claims his force has 
grown three-fold in the past decade. "Our men are very well trained, we 
have good weapons and we have structures right down village level. 

"But the Shan people still have no human rights [and] we cannot match 
the army. They are 400,000 men with helicopters. As I said, we cannot 
afford full conflict at this time." 

The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) government and its 
predecessor, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), have 
been accused of everything from arbitrary arrest, torture and murder to 
forced relocation of civilians, forced labour, drug trafficking and 
sexual slavery. It is widely believed that the army, in co-operation 
with local warlords, smuggles opium, gold, silver, rubies, teak and 
other woods across the border. Another commodity, say human rights 
workers, are Shan women, bound not for promised manufacturing jobs but 
servitude in border brothels. 

Human rights activists have also documented the forcible relocation of 
upwards of 300,000 Shan - from a population of eight million - out of 
SSA-controlled areas in the past three years. The use of forced or 
unpaid labour for everything from road construction to agriculture 
remains widespread. And, as Amnesty International reported in early 
December: "Torture has become an institution in Myanmar [Burma], used 
throughout the country on a regular basis. Police and the army continue 
to use torture to extract information, punish, humiliate and control the 
population." 

While the day-to-day fighting in Shan state between the SSA and Burmese 
army may be a thing of the past, there are regular skirmishes between 
the two armies and suggestions of more to come. The SSA?s southern 
command was recently "invaded" by the tatmadaw who killed eight of his 
men and stranding several hundred SSA fighters in the mountains, Sao Hso 
Hten said. 

On 25 November, upwards of 150 people (many of them innocent villagers) 
died during a battle in the town of Mong Koe between Burmese soldiers 
and a Shan faction in what Sao Hso Hten said was a power-play for 
control of local opium fields. 

There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that the SSA has begun to receive 
military aid from Thailand. A flourishing trade in amphetamines 
manufactured by the Rangoon-supported United Wa State Army and shipped 
into Thailand has strained the rocky relationship between Bangkok and 
Rangoon. While the Thais may have turned a blind eye to much of the 
opium trade, they cannot ignore the surging use and availability of 
amphetamines on the streets of Bangkok. 

In late November, a 40-man Shan unit attacked an amphetamine storage 
facility in a UWSA-controlled area, seizing 200,000 pills and arresting 
a dozen Burmese soldiers. It is widely believed that Thai soldiers 
participated in the attack. 

Questioned on the source of his funding, the smile on the Sao Hso Hten?s 
face, which does not reach his heavily lidded eyes, never falters. Only 
when pushed hard on the issue - and the SSA?s alleged involvement in the 
drug trade - does his voice sharpen. The SSA collects "taxes" from 
companies mining in Shan state, and donations from local citizens, but 
does not smuggle opium. 

"There are no poppies grown in this area," he claims. "We are not 
involved in this. If there is a poppy here, it is the [Burmese] army 
growing it. We grow sugar cane and corn, and we harvest teakwood in the 
forest. We are not like the Wa [Shan?s northern neighbors are considered 
the most powerful drug lords on the Burmese side of the border], who are 
getting fat and lazy living a good life in the city, driving in their 
big new cars." 

If the SSA is not involved in the drug trade, then it is the only group 
in Shan state without a stake in the poppy fields. On a hillside less 
than 10km from Hsipaw, men in military dress carrying assault rifles are 
posted around empty fields. It is impossible to tell from a distance 
whether they are regular army. 

Sao Hso Hten claims he is a democrat, that he wants an autonomous Shan 
state with its own constitution within a larger Burmese federation. How 
he expects to play out this end game is unclear, particularly as Rangoon 
has said his attempts to form political alliances violate the terms of 
the ceasefire. 

"This is a very serious challenge to the ceasefire," he says. "We want 
to have a political voice and we are looking again at the ceasefire. The 
government is strong militarily but politically very weak." 

Earlier this year, the SSA and the Shan State Peace Council agreed to 
support a South African-style truth and reconciliation commission that 
would grant amnesty to the Burmese military and the cadre of generals 
that has run the country for most the past five decades. 

It is a dangerous new tack because it sets SSA on a collision course 
with popular sentiment here that the military must pay for the excesses 
of the past at the hands of a civilian government. While he supports her 
party, Sao Hso Hten believes Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy 
campaigner and Nobel Peace Prize winner who remains under house arrest 
in the capital, was "naive" to promise before the 1990 elections that 
the generals would be brought before the courts. 

"This was the wrong tactic," said Sao Hso Hten. "The military have a 
crushing control over the country and they enjoy the power. I do not 
believe they will turn over that power if they believe they will be 
punished. They saw what happened to [the former Indonesian strongman] 
Suharto and now they are more scared." 


____________________________________________________


International Crisis Group:  Burma/Myanmar?How Strong Is the Military 
Regime?


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report, the first in a proposed series, is a preliminary assessment 
of the strengths and vulnerabilities of the State Peace and Development 
Council (SPDC), the military regime ruling Burma/Myanmar. Its purpose is 
to provide essential background - not at this stage policy prescriptions 
- for policy makers addressing the prospects for non-violent democratic 
transition in the country and ways to achieve that transition.

Despite the international attention which Burma/Myanmar continues to 
attract, there are large and important gaps in publicly available 
information about the personalities who lead the SPDC, about the 
operations and state of the armed forces, and about the situation in 
many parts of the country and inside important groups, such as the 
students and the monks. A complete and reliable picture of the strengths 
and vulnerabilities of the SPDC will require a further major research 
effort.

But the outlines of that picture are reasonably clear: a regime which is 
presently very strong and comfortable in its resistance to internal and 
external pressures for change, but which is not totally invulnerable, 
particularly in terms of its capacity to maintain tight military control 
of the entire country. 

The military government in Burma/Myanmar does presently appear to be as 
strong as at any time in the country's history. It controls all public 
aspects of the country's political life and important parts of the 
private sector economy. It has put in place all of the institutional 
means, including a robust and well-organised domestic intelligence 
apparatus, needed to ensure the continuity of military rule. It is 
showing no weakening in its determination to hold on to power.

The modernisation of the armed forces since 1989 has delivered the 
regime unprecedented military successes against ethnic insurgencies. 
Over the decade, the government has brokered ceasefire agreements with 
seventeen of its former foes, including the most powerful narco-armies, 
such as the United Wa State Army (UWSA).
The regime partially opened up Burma/Myanmar's economy after 1988 
prompting new levels of foreign direct investment, particularly in the 
oil and gas sector, into the early 1990s. The country has achieved 
positive economic growth through the whole of the last decade at the 
national level, though this has been from a low base and is probably not 
as high as the reported average annual GDP growth of about 5 per cent. 
The drug trade has become a significant factor in the overall economy 
and the regime has obtained vital revenue from reinvestment of narcotics 
profits. 

Despite its considerable strength, the regime's stranglehold on power 
does have some vulnerabilities, the most important of which may lie 
within the armed forces ? precisely that part of the Burmese governing 
order about which the outside world knows least. The most significant 
vulnerability here is simply overstretch. The more extended the 
military's reach has become in areas previously controlled by ethnic 
insurgents, the more vulnerable the regime's control becomes, and it is 
questionable whether it has the sophistication, capacity and management 
tools to make and implement the necessary fine judgments about how far 
to extend its operations. There is already some evidence that the regime 
cannot feed its soldiers in the far-flung outposts. A four-fold salary 
increase for the armed forces reported in April 2000 is another 
suggested pointer to the scale of the problem. 

The ethnic armies, although most of them for the moment are not fighting 
SPDC forces, will remain a potential threat if only because they retain 
all their weapons. These groups are significantly weaker and somewhat 
more demoralised than ever before, but the ceasefires were not 
exclusively the result of military defeat at the hands of government 
forces. The SPDC regime had to make promises to secure the agreements, 
such as offering a role in drafting a new Constitution, and these will 
need to be kept if the regime is to continue to reap the political gains 
from the ceasefires. 

There is no doubt that popular discontent in Burma/Myanmar is profound, 
with regime success coming at the cost of sustained brutalisation of the 
civil population, including forced labour and forced migration. But it 
is unclear just how politically focused the discontent is, and whether 
or in what ways it could threaten the SPDC. The political opposition, 
primarily the National League for Democracy (NLD), continues to mount a 
challenge to the legitimacy of the military regime and will remain an 
important irritant to it. But the NLD's points of leverage inside the 
country for weakening the SPDC's grip on power are few, and it is 
difficult to be optimistic about it achieving change in the near term.  

Internationally, the SPDC is in a strong position. It has major allies, 
particularly China, which has been supplying it with military equipment 
in large amounts. Its other neighbours (ASEAN countries and India) and 
some near-neighbours (Taiwan and Hong Kong) have been expanding 
relations with it. Burma/Myanmar has been denied bilateral military 
sales and multilateral economic aid from most developed countries, and 
these and other sanctions do at least continue to register the moral and 
political unacceptability of the regime. The robust role of the 
International Labour Organisation (ILO) in investigating and condemning 
forced labour, and likely follow up moves by other UN agencies, will 
also help ensure that the SPDC's position remains a subject of 
considerable international political contest. But actual and threatened 
sanctions, and other forms of international isolation, have so far done 
little to undermine the regime's survival.

The challenge for the international community is to find ways - having 
regard to the regime's apparent strengths and vulnerabilities - to 
intensify the pressure  upon it to accommodate peaceful democratic 
transition. A crucial related issue is how, in achieving that 
transition, to support the democratic opposition forces within the 
country in ways that are not counterproductive. Future reports by ICG 
will seek to address these issues. 



Bangkok/Brussels, 21 December 2000

About the author--The International Crisis Group (ICG) is a private, 
multinational organisation committed to strengthening the capacity of 
the international community to anticipate, understand and act to prevent 
and contain conflict.

ICG's approach is grounded in field research.  Teams of political 
analysts based on the ground in countries at risk of crisis, gather 
information from a wide range of sources, assess local conditions and 
produce regular analytical reports containing practical recommendations 
targeted at key international decision-takers.

For more information, see www.crisisweb.org


____________________________________________________


Myanmar Embassy Paris [SPDC): VOA that daren't show its face 

[Posted to the soc.culture.burma newsgroup in two segments on Dec. 28, 
2000.  Header as follows?]
 
Subject: VOA that daren't show its face 
Date: 12/28/2000 
Author: MYANMAR EMBASSY, PARIS <106711.21@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>  

[BurmaNet adds; VOA=Voice of America, BBC=British Broadcasting Comany, 
RFA=Radio Free Asia, DVB=Democratic Voice of Burma]
 
All the Myanmar people know that VOA, BBC, RFA and DVB radio stations 
are under the control of colonialists, who are  interfering in the 
affairs of the  international community. These colonialists radio 
stations are airing foul  news polluting the  atmosphere by praising the 
democracy and human rights of the global colonialists and national 
traitors. The small nations of the six  continents of the world wish to 
extend cordial relations with every nation on  the earth, while standing 
independently on their own feet and existing  peacefully and in harmony; 
but the international colonialist bloc failing to  dominate and 
manipulate these small nations at will is using VOA, BBC, RFA  and DVB 
radio stations in disparaging them. There are many instances in which 
the colonialists make perpetrations and instigations to discredit the  
governments of the small nations, to cause civil commotion in these 
nations,  to destroy their unity and to cause their disintegration .  
 
Of all the colonialists radio stations the broadcasts from VOA could be 
said  fair. As for journalists the reports from the VOA could be said a 
mixture of  one per cent truth and a 99 per cent falsehood. Ah! I had a 
little more  respects for the method of VOA's news reporting than those 
of the BBC, RFA  and DVB which were airing concocted news in a random 
way.
 
But now I have to shout that I was wrong. On 6 August at 6 am, VOA 
announced a slanderous news report under the heading  Six arrested for 
sending news through satellite to Los Angles. The summary of the news 
report was like this: Six persons who smuggled out news abroad were 
arrested. The incident was reported vaguely in the State-run newspapers. 
The news smugglers are going to face a severe punishment as freedom of 
press is prohibited to the most possible degree. Two electronics 
experts, U Myat Thu and U Kyaw Win Naing, of Asia Plaza are the main 
persons in sending news abroad, U Kyaw Thet Win, age 53, an old student 
of Yangon University and an ex-member of Student Union, an ex-reporter U 
Khin Maung, age 55, an ex-reporter U Paing Tun, age 51, and an ex-member 
of Yangon Division Special Police Force U Saw Aung Pe, age 53, were 
arrested as persons who were collaborating with the two news smugglers.  

 
 
Based on the facts, I will rebut the slanderous news reported by VOA. 
All the  people of Myanmar might have read about it. For those who 
hadn't read it or  those who had already read the news but did not 
remember it can find it under  the bold headline. l5 kinds of 
communication equipment including American  satellite disk seized; 
action will be taken against all illegal communications internal and 
external, and in the fifth and sixth columns on the back page or page 16 
of Myanma Alin Daily, or under the bold headline Authorities exposed and 
seized perpetrators illegally contacting abroad with advanced satellite 
system in columns three, four and five on the back page or page 16 of 
Kyemon daily, both issued on 22 May 2000.  
 
Is your eyesight so poor? I would like to ask VOA for floating such 
slanders by saying the report was vaguely mentioned in  the dailies in 
Myanmar. Moreover, VOA made a brazen lie. It reported that six persons 
were arrested for sending news to Los Angles through the satellite. The 
report means that the government of Myanmar never permits Myanmar 
citizens to freely make contacts with foreign nations; people are being 
arrested just for sending out news reports; there is no democracy in the 
nation; and human rights are being violated.  As is known to all the 
people of Myanmar, the nation has adopted the open door market-oriented 
economy; every individual, entrepreneur or company has been permitted to 
make phone or fax contacts freely with any other nation in accord with 
the rules laid down by the Post and Telecommunications Department; 
however, authorities will expose and take  action  against all illegal 
and secret contacts in the nation or with abroad breaching the MPT 
rules. I dare say that the slanderous accusation made by  VOA by saying 
that there was no freedom of press in Myanmar is one of   


[Continues in message segment 2]



the  perpetrations of the so-called democracy movement.
 
I pitied VOA for its mean acts to make the matter confused. Because I 
will  now recall in brief the report published in 22nd May 2000 dailies. 
The  extract is as follows: Mr Irawan Sidaria a citizen of Indonesia and 
Mr 
 
Jayvee a citizen of the Philippines rented a room at Asia Plaza Hotel in 
 April 2000 in Yangon under the pretext of opening a company. Then Mr 
Jeffrey  Craing Lesuer, a US citizen, sent by Mr Mike Butler of America, 
arrived  Yangon on 13 April. 2000 bringing together with him 
communication equipment. He installed the  equipment at Room No 717 of 
the Asia Plaza  Hotel. Mr Irawan of Indonesia was staying at the hotel, 
and Mr Jayvee of the Philippines at the Traders Hotel. 

Mr Irawan hired U Myat Thu, an electrical engineer of Asia Plaza Hotel, 
at US  $ 100 per month salary. He also hired an electronics expert Kyaw 
Win Hlaing 
at 50 US$ per month. After making arrangements to make illegal 
communications with foreign nations, Mr Jayvee left for Thailand. 
Finally the authorities were able to expose and arrest Mr Irawan, U Myat 
Thu  and Kyaw Hlaing Win.
 
 
The truth is that the total number of persons who were arrested was 
three. 

How they had violated the laws was stated completely in the news 
reports. VOA brazenly lied that the number of arrested persons was six; 
it also added the names and other facts of the six persons. I don't  
know who had given all these false information to VOA. It added U Kyaw 
Thet Win, age 53, an old  student of Yangon University and an ex -member 
of Student Union, an ex-reporter U Khin Maung, age 55, an ex-reporter U 
Paing Tun, age 51, and an ex-member of Yangon Division Special Police 
Force U Saw Aung Pe, age 53, in the list of arrested persons. VOA, you 
should look at yourself in the mirror to know how foolish you are.  It 
is quite clear. The persons who faced arrest were an Indonesian citizen 
and two Myanmar's. For what reason VOA in creating a slanderous report 
had added another four more Myanmar's together with their designations 
in the list of persons who were seized? 

It is sure that these four persons never ever have existed in Myanmar. 
Even if there are persons whose names are the same with the four, their 
design, actions cannot the same. Because the four persons were created 
by VOA in making a slanderous news report. 
 
 
The VOA that is airing corrupted and slanderous reports is not an 
ordinary or  a small one. It is under the direct control of  the great 
democracy nation,  America, which has laid down strategies and general 
tactics and making slogans to give  leadership to and pass decisions in 
democracy and human  rights for the people of the six continents of the 
earth during the 21st  century.  However, I don't know what has happened 
to the clever VOA or whether it was  caught in a trap or not.

I don't know  who, a male or a female, had sent the slanderous news 
report  to VOA with the aim of getting VOA into trouble. If so, the  
tricky VOA  caught in a treachery, has no more democracy dignities left 
at all. If VOA  knowing that it had been tricked would  say with 
shameless face and in a  instigative manner that it was not tricked, but 
it was Lying, for the sake of  Lying. I  have nothing more to say. I 
will just pity it, Tut tut, the clever  VOA was caught in the 
treacherous trap. I want to shout at the  height of my  voice that it is 
shameful for VOA to make such a brazen lie and air a false  report; and 
now it dares not show its  face in the crowd. 

___________________________________________________


Bangkok Post: Karen Rebels Accused of Train Attack

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2000

Rangoon, AP

[BurmaNet adds?Updates previous wire service stories.  Adds KNU denial.]

Two persons were killed and three others injured after a passenger train 
in southeastern Burma hit a land mine allegedly planted by ethnic Karen 
rebels, the state-owned newspaper Myanma Ahlin reported yesterday. 

The train was travelling from the Mon State capital of Mawlamyine - also 
known as Moulmein - to Ye, 130km to the south on Wednesday morning, when 
it hit the mine planted by 10 members of the Karen National Union, the 
report said. It did not explain how the attackers were identified. 
A spokesman for the Karen National Union (KNU) said the insurgent group 
wasn't involved.

"We deny any responsibility for the train bomb incident; the government 
is trying to frame us," said Ner Dah, contacted from Bangkok by 
telephone. "We are not terrorists, our policy is quite clear that we 
will fight the Myanmar government and its armed forces, not its people."

The newspaper report said the attackers looted property from the 
passengers when the train engine overturned and two coaches derailed. 

It said a gunfight broke out when the train's security guards opened 
fire at the "KNU terrorists" who made off with the loot. One policeman 
and a passenger were killed, the report said. 



___________________________________________________


RSF/IFEX: Opposition journalist sentenced to twenty-one years in prison 

SOURCE: Reporters sans frontieres (RSF), Paris

THE INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION EXCHANGE (IFEX) CLEARING HOUSE

29 December 2000


(RSF/IFEX) - In a 26 December 2000 letter to the State Peace and 
Development Council (SPDC, military junta) vice-chairman, General Maung 
Aye, RSF strongly protested the twenty-one year prison sentence for Aung 
Myint, alias Phya Pon Ni Loan Oo, an opposition journalist. The 
organisation called on the vice-chairman to "ensure the immediate 
release of the journalist who merely expressed his opinions". RSF 
considers that a jail sentence constitutes a serious violation of press 
freedom. In a document dated 18 January, the United Nations Special 
Rapporteur for the promotion and protection of the freedom of expression 
and opinion emphasised that "imprisonment as a punishment for the 
peaceful expression of an opinion constitutes a serious violation of 
human rights." This heavy sentence passed on a journalist, who is a 
member of the National League for Democracy (NLD), occurred at a time 
when contacts have been restored between the Burmese junta and European 
countries. "In this very repressive context, the European states must 
impose conditions on the resumption of dialogue," stated Robert Monard, 
the organisation's secretary-general. He also asked General Maung Aye to 
secure the release of the twelve journalists and editors currently 
detained in the country's infamous jails. According to recent 
information, several prisoners, among them Win Tin, San San Nweh, Soe 
Thein and Sein Hla Oo, are in a very poor health condition. RSF has 
previously denounced the criminal attitude of the military junta that 
has let hundreds of dissidents waste away in jail.

According to the information collected by RSF, Aung Myint, alias Phya 
Pon Ni Loan Oo, journalist, poet and the head of the information 
department of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Rangoon, was 
sentenced on 20 December to twenty-one years in prison by a military 
court. He was arrested on 14 September by members of Unit 14 of the 
Military Intelligence Service (MIS, military secret services led by 
Lieutenant-general Khin Nyunt) and detained in the Insein jail. The 
opposition journalist was found guilty of violating the emergency laws 
(State Protection and Emergency Provision Acts). Kyaw Sein Oo, his 
assistant at the NLD, was sentenced to seven years in prison for 
violation of the press law (Printers and Publishers Registration Act). 
The military court accuses the journalist and his assistant of 
distributing information regarding repression of the NLD to 
international press agencies and to Western diplomats based in the 
Burmese capital. Last September, Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Prize 
winner, was prevented by members of the security forces from leaving 
Rangoon. A few hours after the incident, Aung Myint and his assistant 
wrote and distributed a press release to international press agency 
correspondents and to some foreign embassies in Rangoon. Soldiers 
arrested the NLD leader on a country side road and prevented her from 
leaving for a couple of days. Since then, she has been under house 
arrest.

On the same day, the military court sentenced four other NLD members to 
heavy prison terms, including Saw Nine Nine, a NLD MP elected in May 
1990. 
Aung Myint, now in his fifties, started his career at the official 
newspaper "Botahtaung" in the 1980s writing satirical articles and 
poems. From 1983 to 1988, he worked for "Pay-ful-lwa" (The Message) 
magazine directed by Tim Moe, a journalist who spent several years in 
jail and now lives in exile. The monthly was banned in 1990 by the army. 
In 1988, Aung Myint joined "Cherry" magazine. In 1997, the journalist 
was arrested by the military and sentenced to two years in jail. After 
his release, the authorities prohibited him from working for "Cherry" 
magazine. In 1999, he became the head of the NLD's information 
department in Rangoon. His name is banned from all Burmese publications. 
Recently, he wrote an article entitled "Where are the freedom of 
movement and freedom of expression in the Golden Land?" that had an 
underground distribution among NLD members.

For further information, contact Vincent Brossel at RSF, 5, rue Geoffroy 
Marie, Paris 75009, France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 84, fax: +33 1 45 23 11 
51, e-mail: asie@xxxxxx, Internet: http ://www.rsf.fr


___________________________________________________


Shan Herald Agency for News: Junta officer: Wa Expansion part of 
Rangoon's for eventual subjugation of Wa 

29 December 2000


Junta officer:
Wa Expansion part of Rangoon's for eventual subjugation of Wa 
A Burmese commander has of late disclosed to Shan friends that Rangoon's 
 decision to allow Wa expansion along the Thai border was part of 
Rangoon's  grand strategy to subdue the uncontrollable Wa, said sources 
from across  the border.

A company commander from one of the 4 battalions in Mongton, opposite  
Chiangmai, recently said: "Our superiors in Rangoon had decided to let 
them  spread far and wide so they become so overstretched there wouldn't 
be  enough troops in their capital, Panghsang to defend themselves. 

It won't be easy for us to handle them if we just keep them in the north 
 and Mongyawn (Monghsat Township, oppositeChiangmai and Chiangrai 
provinces)." 

The United Wa State Army's 171st Division, commanded by Wei Hsiaokang,  
wanted in the United States and Thailand for drug offenses, has been  
expanding into border areas formely under his rival Khun Sa's control 
(now  under Shan State Army's control) since end of October. He has been 
 authorized to move his troops as far as Karenni (Kayah) and Karen 
state,  according to unconfirmed reports.

However, an inside source said, "Immediate outbreak of war between the 
Shan  and Wa does not seem likely. Sao Yawdserk (Commander-in-Chief of 
the Shan  State Army) has issued orders not to shoot unless attacked." 

Panghsang is also apparently of the same opinion. "One of the Wa 
officers  in Tachilek told his Shan counterpart at a meeting two weeks 
ago the Battle  of Loilang (Doilang in Thai, opposite Mae Ai District, 
Chiangmai) that cost  both sides thousands of their fighters should 
stand as a memorial," said  the source.

Nevertheless, the Wa have shown no sign of retreating. "Their job is to  
occupy as much as they can at the least risk of hostilities", one of the 
 local ex-resistance fighters commented.

So far, they have been contented positioning themselves on the eastern 
part  of the Maekun (one of the Salween's tributaries between Homong and 
 Monghta), he added. Another source agreed. "Important border check 
points  like Mae Aw and Namon (opposite Muang District, Maehongson), and 
Laktaeng  (opposite Wianghaeng District, Chiangmai) are still manned by 
Burmese troops." 
All the same, most of the Burmese units in the area have left leaving 
only  3 battalions: LIB 422 (Mongpai), LIB 316 (Talerh, Tachilek) and IB 
43  (Mongpiang) to "keep an eye on both the Shans and Wa", said a source 
from  Maehongson.

It was also reported that the Burmese were not satisfied with the 
outcome  of the battle of Loilam (Doidam in Thai, opposite Wianghaeng 
District,  Chiangmai, 6-7 November) when the combined Burmese-Wa 
attacking force had  failed to dislodge the Shan defenders from their 
stronghold. "Some Burmese  officers even accused the Wa of playing two 
faces".


___________________________________________________



Shan Herald Agency for News: News Brief: Wa roadbuilding begins - with 
convicts

29 December 2000

Derides Junta for neglect

Reporter: Saeng Khao Haeng

200 convicts in 8 ten-wheelers were dispatched to Mongton Township, 
early  this month to build roads along with 5 macros (tractors and 
bulldozers),  following expansion of Wa troops to areas west of 
Mongton-BP1 highway. 

Construction have begun since and is expected to continue to  
Mongtaw-Monghta area in the west during the dry season, November-April. 
The Nakawngmu-Monghsat-Tachilek road was completed last year and it has  
become an all-season route, where travelers at each end can now visit 
the  other and return in one day.

"They say they are 'government' but what have they done for the public  
these past 4 years?" asked one Wa officer, who arrived in 
Mongtaw-Monghta  area a month ago. It takes 3 hours to drive from 
Monghta to Nakawngmu,  about 40-miles, during the dry season. During the 
rainy season, it  sometimes took up to 3 days, said the drivers.

"When we have accomplished something, the only thing they know is to 
come  in and take credit for it," said another officer.


Wa have 8,000 motor vehicles

Several local people agree that no less than 8,000 Wa trucks, with 
number  plates beginning with SW (Southern Wa), mostly Ford or Tiger 
4-wheelers or  Toyota six-wheelers, are roaming the three township along 
the border:  Mongton, Monghsat and Tachilek.


Wa have deserters too

Many convicts working along the road are not only those punished for 
drug  addictions but also for desertions, said local people in Mongton. 
"They only receive K. 600 per month each," said a source. "So most Lahu 
and  Shan soldiers could not stand and chose to flee to Thailand to find 
work.  On the other hand, there are few Wa deserters, since they are 
used to a  more rugged life."

Life in the UWSA for the rank and files is not an easy one, they said.  
"Only a few of the units who are given security assignments for  
merchant-convoys enjoy better salaries."

Discrimination is worse than the Mong Tai Army of Khun Sa, who was known 
 for favoring officers of Chinese origin to Shans and other natives,  
according to them. "If you are Wa, you live better only if you are a  
company commander and upwards," one said.

It is not unusual to find Wa officers holding parties while the rank and 
 file look on, said other sources.






___________________________________________________



Karen Human Rights Group: Convict porters??horrific conditions? set 
Burma apart

Dec. 30, 2000

While it is the political prisoners who receive the most attention, 
Burma's prisons are full of people arrested for other offences ranging 
from murder to drug trafficking to breaking curfew.  Many people in 
Burma are arrested every day and serve long sentences for offences which 
in other countries would merit a fine or maybe a month in jail; one of 
the convict porters interviewed for this report was serving a 7-year 
sentence for eloping with his girlfriend.  Many of the offences are 
related to the poverty and desperation experienced by most of the 
population.  These are compounded by rage and frustration among the 
population, caused by the feeling of helplessness in the face of 
repression and the commonly-held view that the rich in Burma can get 
anything they want and can buy their way out of any problems they may 
have.

Many prisoners report being convicted for crimes which they say they did 
not commit and for which no evidence was presented in court.  People are 
commonly punched and kicked during arrest and sometimes tortured, and 
torture before trial is often used to force a suspect to admit to a 
crime.  Courts very seldom overturn charges laid by the authorities, and 
judges sometimes tell suspects that if they take up the court's time by 
presenting a defence, their sentence will be lengthened. Suspects can be 
kept in jail for long periods of time before they are convicted and 
sentenced to prison.

The abuse for the prisoners begins from the first day they enter prison. 
 They are subjected to beatings and systematically humiliated in what 
the prisoners call the "Prison Standard."  A monotonous diet of bean 
soup, fishpaste and rice is fed to the prisoners two times a day.  They 
are forced to sleep almost on top of each other in the overcrowded rooms 
they live in.  There is almost no health care for the ill except for 
what the prisoners can buy themselves.  Scabies, diarrhoea, and 
communicable diseases are common.  One convict described watching eight 
patients being injected one after another with the same needle, after 
which several of them died of AIDS, while another said that hypodermic 
needles are used and re-used for up to a month.  A prisoner interviewed 
by KHRG who spent six and a half years in Moulmein prison saw about 50 
people die in that time from what appears to have been AIDS.

Money can make the stay in prison much more comfortable.  Prisoners 
whose families bring things from home and pay off the guards are able to 
sleep more comfortably, get more rice, and even avoid work.  Some 
prisoners interviewed by KHRG said that conditions became a little 
better after the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) began 
prison visits in May 1999.  They qualified this, however, by saying that 
for people without money it remains much the same.  While well-known 
political prisoners obtain a form of protection by being known 
internationally, thousands of ordinary people imprisoned for political 
offenses (such as Article 17/1 for 'associating with illegal 
organisations') are internationally ignored, their existence not even 
acknowledged by international human rights organisations.  For these 
people and for those imprisoned for real or imagined criminal offenses, 
there is no protection from the brutality.

The use of prison convicts for labour is not something new to Burma, nor 
is it specific to Burma.  It is the horrific conditions under which the 
convict labourers must work which make convict labour in Burma stand 
out.  The prison system has become an integral part of the forced labour 
schemes of the SLORC and now the SPDC, to the point where some of the 
convicts interviewed for this report believe that they and others were 
arrested and convicted solely for the purpose of obtaining more convicts 
for forced labour.  Forced labour work camps, such as rock quarries and 
road labour camps, exist in various places throughout Burma.  Convict 
porters have also become more common as operations porters with Burma 
Army units serving on the frontlines.  Many die from physical abuse, 
lack of food and medical care, and overwork.

Convict labour has long been used in Burma for infrastructure projects, 
tourism projects and as operational porters for Army units.  Formerly, 
the prisoners were taken out of the prisons and handed directly to the 
Army units, but since 1996 the SLORC/SPDC has created the 'Won Saung' to 
formalise and institutionalise this process.  Sometimes translated into 
English as 'porter battalions' or 'service camps', 'Won Saung' actually 
translates more closely as 'carrying service'.  The Won Saung come under 
the Prison Authority and function as holding centres for the convicts 
before they are taken to porter at the frontline by the Army.  The 
prisoners are drawn from various prisons around Burma, and according to 
their testimonies it appears that there are quotas which each prison 
must provide to the Won Saung camps on a regular basis.  To fill these 
quotas the prison authorities lie to the prisoners, telling them that 
their sentences will be reduced or that they will be released after a 
short shift of portering, and if this is not enough they even send 
elderly and disabled prisoners, those under treatment in the prison 
hospital, and those whose sentences are about to end. 

The convicts are usually given loads much heavier than what civilian 
porters are forced to carry; sometimes the loads are so heavy that they 
cannot get to their feet without help from the soldiers. While carrying 
for the Army, the porters are constantly subjected to verbal and 
physical abuse from the soldiers when they have difficulty carrying 
their loads.  Porters who fall out of line from exhaustion are beaten 
and kicked until they rejoin the column.  When porters just cannot 
continue, they are left behind and sometimes kicked down the 
mountainside to an almost certain death.  The straps from the baskets 
cut into the porters' shoulders and backs and result in painful wounds.  
Despite their requests for medicine, the porters are never given any, 
even when they have seen the medics treating the soldiers.  Food 
generally consists of a starvation diet of rice and fishpaste, while the 
soldiers eat dried shrimp, chicken and vegetables.  The food and 
belongings which soldiers loot from villages are thrown on top of the 
porters' loads, as are the soldiers' personal packs and boots.  In many 
cases civilian porters are taken along with the convict porters.  The 
porters are forced to walk between the soldiers, partly to prevent them 
running away and partly in the hope that resistance groups won't ambush 
the column if they see civilians.  This doesn't usually work, however, 
and one porter told KHRG he saw 12 wounded and dead soldiers and porters 
after an ambush in Pa'an District.


Contrary to claims made internationally by the SPDC, the use of convict 
porters on operations and at the frontline camps in no way lessens the 
forced labour burden of the villagers.  The convict porters interviewed 
by KHRG indicated that villagers were taken to porter alongside them and 
to work with them at the camps.  These included women and men of various 
ages.  The convicts witnessed the soldiers stealing chickens and produce 
from the villagers.  At one camp they were even forced to participate in 
the looting of the villagers' paddy storage barns.  

Rather than being seen as an alternative to civilian forced labour, the 
use of convicts for portering and other forced labour in Burma should be 
seen for what it is: an additional, unnecessary, and particularly brutal 
form of human rights abuse. 

 Today more and more convicts are being used on infrastructure and 
tourism projects and as porters for the Army, being treated little 
better than animals.  However, this has not reduced the demands for 
forced labour placed on the civilian population; instead, as can be seen 
in other KHRG reports, forced labour is on the rise throughout rural 
Burma.  The SPDC has simply expanded its forced labour pool to include 
more convicts along with the civilians.  This allows the regime to 
extend its control by implementing more and bigger infrastructure 
projects, and to support its ever-expanding Army.  The Army has almost 
tripled in size since 1988 and has more than tripled its number of bases 
and outposts throughout rural Burma, resulting in an ever-increasing 
demand for both civilian and convict forced labour.  Villagers are still 
taken to porter, sometimes right alongside the convict porters.  They 
are also still conscripted to work at the Army camps and on 
infrastructure projects, many times also with convict porters.  In cases 
where convict labour is used, it allows the SPDC to allocate the 
civilians to a different project; and it is usually the convicts who are 
given the worst assignments on the most dangerous projects.  The 
establishment of the Won Saung convict porter camps has further 
institutionalised the process, and indicates that the SPDC has every 
intention of continuing along its current path, treating the entire 
population as little more than a pool of forced and unpaid servants. For 
all of these reasons, the issue of convict labour in Burma needs to be 
taken much more seriously internationally and added to the human rights 
agenda, so that the SPDC can be pressed to stop this terrible abuse of 
its people.

For further details, the full text of this report ("Convict Porters", 
KHRG #2000-06) is available at
www.khrg.org .



___________________ REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL___________________
				

Nouvel Observateur: [Summary/translation of article on French scandal 
figure and G.W. Bush]

Source--French language weekly news magazine.

Dec 28, 2000

[Not a verbatim translation]

Pierre Falcone funded generously G. W. Bush electoral campaign. W's wife 
is a personal friend of Falcone's wife.  Among the guests of Falcone's 
"Ranch" in Scottsdale  (Arizona, "the world's biggest concentration of 
billionaires"), figure also Bill Gates, high ranking Chinese 
dignitaries, and French friends flown from Paris in his private jet. 
Since 1992, Mitterrand's son was part of them. Pierre Falcone is jailed 
in Paris since dec 1 and Mitterrand dec 22.



___________________________________________________


ABC (Australia): UN envoy to visit Burma next week 

Dec. 30, 2000

The United Nations special envoy to Burma, Razali Ismail, will visit 
Rangoon next week in the hope of promoting political dialogue between 
the military junta and the opposition.

The UN says Mr Rizali will meet with Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the 
opposition National League for Democracy, during his visit.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since September, and other 
leaders of the opposition were sentenced to long prison terms early this 
month. 

Officials say he will urge both government officials and opposition 
leaders to engage in a substantive political dialogue that would 
hopefully lead to national reconciliation in Burma. 


___________________________________________________


Bangkok Post : US Army to Help Train Thai Troops

Dec. 30, 2000


Wassana Nanuam

The United States army will train Thai soldiers in drug operations from 
next month, according to the Third Army chief.

A joint command headquarters will be set up in Chiang Mai as a training 
centre for anti-drug drives, said Lt-Gen Watthanachai Chaimuenwong. 

During the training programme, American troops will pass on lessons from 
their experience in efforts to counter the cocaine trade in Colombia. 
Four companies, three from the army and the other border patrol police, 
will form a rapid deployment force to intensify the drug war. 

Problems will worsen next year with the United Wa State Army likely to 
raise methamphetamine output to 600 million pills from 400 million this 
year, said Lt-Gen Watthanachai. Only 25 million pills were seized in 
Thailand this year.

The relocation of 10,000 Burmese ethnic minorities to areas close to the 
border has served to boost production of opium and other drugs. 

"We must urge the international community to pressure Burma to seriously 
combat drugs. It should not claim that drug precursors are smuggled via 
Thailand, China or other countries," said Lt-Gen Watthanachai. 


_______________ ECONOMY AND BUSINESS _______________
 


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