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January 25, 2001



______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
        An on-line newspaper covering Burma 
         January 25, 2001   Issue # 1719
______________ www.burmanet.org _______________

INSIDE BURMA _______
*Reuters: Myanmar opposition leader released from detention
*DVB: An F-16 Intrudes Southern Burma Airspace; Armed Forces Put on 
Alert
*Shan Herald Agency for News: Squabbling Shans to be reconciled

REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL _______
*Reuters: Bangladesh says mine may have killed elephant
*Bangkok Post: Pitak favours closer ties with Burma
*AFP: Annan welcomes release of opposition members in Myamnar 
*Xinhua: India, Myanmar Ink Pact on Cultural Cooperation
*AFP: Jailed Myanmar activist awarded Norwegian prize
*San Jose Mercury News: Burmese seeking U.S. asylum held in custody, 
limbo in Guam  


__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________


Reuters: Myanmar opposition leader released from detention


 YANGON, Jan 25 (Reuters) - The vice chairman of Myanmar's opposition 
National League for Democracy (NLD) and 19 members of the party's youth 
wing have been released after four months in detention, family members 
and diplomats said on Thursday. 
 NLD Vice Chairman Tin Oo, the most prominent opposition figure after 
Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, was taken home late on Wednesday after 
being kept since September in a ``government guest house,'' his 
relatives told Reuters. 
 But reporters who tried to visit his home on Thursday were turned away 
by security personnel. 

 Suu Kyi and Tin Oo tried to travel to the town of Mandalay by rail in 
late September, prompting a crackdown by the authorities. 

 They were prevented from boarding any train, and Tin Oo and several 
other NLD members were taken into detention, while Suu Kyi was placed 
under de facto house arrest. 

 Recent weeks have seen signs of a softening in the military 
government's treatment of the NLD. Earlier this month, the United 
Nations revealed that Suu Kyi and senior government leaders had held 
secret meetings. 

 Cartoons and articles attacking the NLD in official media have suddenly 
stopped, and this week Suu Kyi unexpectedly won a court case over 
ownership of her Yangon residence. 

 A European Union mission is scheduled to visit Myanmar from Sunday to 
Tuesday, and diplomats said the release of Tin Oo may be an olive branch 
from the Myanmar military ahead of the visit. 

 Suu Kyi, however, remains confined to her home, with access to her 
tightly controlled. European Union diplomats say they have been assured 
the delegation will be allowed to meet her during their visit. 






___________________________________________________





DVB: An F-16 Intrudes Southern Burma Airspace; Armed Forces Put on Alert

[FBIS Translated Text] An F-16 fighter jet intruded Burmese airspace in 
Kawthaung District this afternoon. The Defense Services units--army, 
navy, and air force along the border in Kawthaung District are now put 
on alert. DVB [Democratic Voice of Burma] correspondent Myint Maung 
Maung filed this report. [Begin Myint Maung Maung recording] 

This F-16 jet fighter intruded Burmese airspace at 1415 in the afternoon 
from Chaungchi army camp east of Bokpyin Township. The aircraft flew 
over Bokpyin Township and Kawthaung and then headed due south towards 
the sea at an altitude of 3,000 feet. Although many rounds were fired 
from the 20 mm Orlly Guns and Bofors Guns from Kawthaung's seven-mile 
hill long range artillery unit, the intruder went unscathed. 
Immediately, all army, navy, and air force units in Kawthaung District 
were put on alert. Two A5M jet fighters have already arrived in 
Kawthaung from Rangoon while three frigates are heading towards 
Kawthaung. The intrusion of the F-16 jet fighter is still not known. 25 
JAN 0231z







___________________________________________________



Shan Herald Agency for News: Squabbling Shans to be reconciled


23 January 2001

An inside source told S.H.A.N. yesterday two of the Shan groups met  
recently to straighten out their differences.

The source, who requested anonymity, said leaders from the two groups,  
namely, Shan Democratic Union and the Restoration Council of Shan State 
met  and talked for 4¨` hours on Sunday night (21 January).

Although details were lacking, the source said Sao Sengsuk, SDU's  
spokesman, and Sao Sai Aung Mart, RCSS's vice president, were among the  
participants. He added that the meeting was held in a congenial 
atmosphere  and the participants were looking forward to a follow-up 
get-together. 
The meeting came at a time when Wa troops and resettlers were swarming 
over  a border township once under the control of the Shan State Army, 
the RCSS's  armed wing. To which many Shans have attached blame on the 
Shan leaders'  seemingly inability to co-operate with each other.

"Even the three groups under Rangoon's boots (meaning Shan Nationalities 
 League for Democracy, Shan State Army-North and Shan State National 
Army)  have united under the banner of JAC (Joint Action Committee)," 
said one.  "The SDU and RCSS should start consider doing the same, the 
sooner the  better."

Both the SDU and RCSS claim to support the SNLD, the Shan party that won 
 the most seats in Shan State in the 1990 elections.





___________________________________________________




___________________________________________________







___________________ REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL___________________
				

Reuters: Bangladesh says mine may have killed elephant


COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh, Jan 25 (Reuters) - A land mine blast may have 
killed an elephant whose mangled remains were found in a forest along 
the tense Bangladesh-Myanmar border this week, Bangladesh forestry 
officials said on Thursday. 

 ``The dead female elephant bore multiple wounds which might have been 
caused by a mine blast,'' forest department official Khondakar Manzurul 
Islam told Reuters. 
 Islam said land mines in jungles along the border were often detonated 
by wild elephants. 

 Foresty officials said two elephants were killed by mines on December 
30 near Cox's Bazaar, close to Bangladesh's border with Myanmar's 
Muslim-majority Arakan province. 

 Bangladeshi security officials say Myanmar troops have planted hundreds 
of landmines along the frontier, apparently trying to stop movement of 
separatist Muslim rebels. 

 Officials said that in the latest incident, an elephant died in the 
Ramu forest near Cox's Bazar on Wednesday. 

 A post-mortem has been ordered. 



____________________________________________________



Bangkok Post: Pitak favours closer ties with Burma

Foreign affairs staff tipped on portfolio

Jan. 25, 2001

Achara AshayagachatBhanravee Tansubhapol


Closer ties are needed with Burma, says Thai Rak Thai deputy leader 
Pitak Intrawithayanunt.

He told Nitya Pibulsonggram, the permanent secretary for foreign 
affairs, that he was in favour of the ministry enhancing its economic 
role, sources said.

The two met over lunch on Monday. Mr Nitya yesterday briefed senior 
officials, telling them to follow news about Mr Pitak's possible 
nomination as foreign minister, the sources said.

Two other deputy leaders, Surakiart Sathirathai and Pracha Gunakasem, an 
ex-career diplomat, are also seen as contenders.

Mr Pitak stressed the need for more contact with Burma, saying ordinary 
people as well as government officials should be in touch.

If no improvement was possible, there should be no deterioration either, 
he said.

He also urged a crackdown on cheats and smugglers, stressed the need to 
create an atmosphere of mutual trust, and for Thailand to put its house 
in order to raise credibility.

Mr Pitak said the public expected the Foreign Ministry to have economic 
interests, the sources said.

This was in response to Mr Nitya's remark that the work of diplomats was 
to contribute to policy-making and explore trade opportunities, rather 
than to compete with a ministry which has expertise in this field.

Mr Pitak's remarks come as the ministry considers who should be 
director-general of the economic affairs department to replace Kobsak 
Chutikul, who ran at number five on the Chart Thai party list and is 
likely to be an MP.

Mr Pitak recently said he was in favour of promoting relations with 
Latin America. 



____________________________________________________



AFP: Annan welcomes release of opposition members in Myamnar 

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 25 (AFP) - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on 
Thursday welcomed the release of a senior opposition figure and 19 young 
democracy activists detained for four months in Myanmar. 

 In a statement through his spokesman, Annan said he hoped this would 
"contribute to the ongoing dialogue between the military authorities and 
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi," leader of the National League for Democracy 
(NLD). 

 The vice-chairman of the League, U Tin Oo, was taken from a military 
base outside the capital, Yangon, late Wednesday and returned to his 
home in the city. 

 An NLD source said the League had learned from the International 
Committee of the Red Cross that 19 of its youth wing members, including 
nine women, had also been freed. 

 Annan noted that the releases occurred shortly after a visit to Yangon 
this month by his special representative, Razali Ismail. 

 Annan "reiterates his call on the two sides to seize the momentum and 
to strive to achieve national reconciliation in Myanmar," the statement 
said. 



____________________________________________________



Xinhua: India, Myanmar Ink Pact on Cultural Cooperation

NEW DELHI, January 25 (Xinhua) -- India and Myanmar Thursday signed an 
agreement on further enhancing the cultural cooperation between the two 
countries. The agreement was signed by Indian Minister for Tourism and 
Culture Ananth Kumar and Myanmar Minister of Culture U Win Sein at a 
function here. After initializing the agreement, Kumar said that India 
and Myanmar has age old ties in various fields including culture. The 
visiting dignitary expressed the hope that both countries would be 
benefited. The agreement provides cooperation in the realms of art, 
culture, education including academic activities in the fields of 
science and technology, sports public health and mass media.


____________________________________________________


AFP: Jailed Myanmar activist awarded Norwegian prize

Jan. 25, 2001 

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ A political activist reported to be ailing in a 
remote prison in western Myanmar has won a Norwegian award for his 
nonviolent struggle against the country's military dictatorship, it was 
announced Thursday. 

 The Student Peace Prize will be awarded this year to Min Ko Naing and 
the All Burma Federation of Student Unions, ABFSU, which he helped found 
and led. 

 Min Ko Naing, whose real name is Paw U Tun, was the most prominent 
student activist involved in Myanmar's abortive 1988 popular uprising 
against military rule. 

 The 50,000 Norwegian krone (dlrs 5,625) award was announced Thursday by 
the International Student Festival in Trondheim Foundation on its 
website. The group aims to promote international student culture. 

 ``ABFSU has been awarded the prize for their courageous, enduring and 
nonviolent struggle against one of the world's most brutal regimes,'' 
said the announcement of the prize, honoring work promoting democracy 
and human rights. 

 Bo Gyi, a Myanmar student exile in Thailand who heads a support group 
for political prisoners, said the award not only honored Min Ko Naing 
personally, ``but also shows support for the student movement in Burma 
as a whole.'' 

 Arrested in March 1989, Min Ko Naing _ whose pseudonym means 
``Conqueror of Kings'' _ was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for 
having delivered anti-government speeches and agitating unrest. His 
sentence was later commuted to 10 years under a general amnesty, but he 
has not been released. 

 An India-based Myanmar opposition news service, the Mizzima News Group, 
reported earlier this month that the 38-year-old Min Ko Naing was in 
deteriorating health at Sittwe prison in Arakan State, 525 kilometers 
(325 miles) northwest of Yangon. 

 Citing an unidentified fellow political prisoner who had been released 
two weeks earlier, the news service said Min Ko Naing urgently needed 
medical treatment. 

 ``He has to totally depend on iron bars of the prison to walk even a 
few feet and he suffers from severe pains of his lower body. If it goes 
on like that, he will soon be a handicapped person'', the Arakanese 
prisoner was quoted saying. 

 Myanmar prison activist Bo Gyi also said Min Ko Naing was in Sittwe 
prison. 

 In 1994, the London-based human rights group Amnesty International said 
it had reports that Min Ko Naing was severely tortured and ill treated 
during the early stages of his detention and his health has suffered as 
a consequence. 

 The Student Peace Prize will be officially presented on March 8 in 
Norway. The biennial award was first presented in 1999 to a student 
activist from East Timor, Antero Benedito da Silva.




___________________________________________________


San Jose Mercury News: Burmese seeking U.S. asylum held in custody, 
limbo in Guam  

 BY FREDRIC N. TULSKY

January 23, 2001 
 
 GUAM -- In the past several months, more than 700 Burmese people have 
fled 
 the repressive regime back home and made their way to this small 
Pacific   island, hoping for refuge in the United States.
  
     Instead, they have found themselves trapped.
  
     They got in thanks to a visa loophole designed to encourage tourism 
in  the U.S. protectorate. They stayed because what they came for was 
political  asylum in the mainland United States. But with a backlog in 
the system and no  asylum officials in place on the island, the refugees 
are marooned, waiting  months, or years, for the U.S. Justice Department 
to consider their pleas.
  
     Their treatment reveals yet another way in which the U.S. asylum 
system  fails to protect vulnerable refugees. The Mercury News 
previously reported  that the asylum system is marred by gross 
disparities in the outcome of cases  depending on which administrative 
judge hears the case, and whether the   asylum seeker is represented by 
a lawyer.
  
     The Burmese refugees stranded on Guam are living crowded by the 
dozens in  small private houses. Not eligible for work permits or 
government aid, they  survive on handouts from church groups. Most are 
left to pursue their asylum  claims on their own, unable to afford the 
few local attorneys willing to help.
 
   Thirty-eight others fared even worse: They have spent months locked 
up in  the Guam Detention Center because they answered honestly at the 
airport when   asked if they intended to seek asylum in the U.S. or to 
stay in Guam for just 15 days and return home. Under detention, husbands 
and wives, sisters and  brothers, have been separated for months. A 
pregnant woman was kept in   isolation in a cramped, locked cell for 
four months because officials feared  that she might be carrying 
tuberculosis and were afraid -- because of her  pregnancy -- to conduct 
a chest X-ray.
 
     Last week, a delegation of church officials, accompanied by Mercury 
News 
 staff members and interpreters, arrived to document the conditions. The 
Guam 
 governor, after meeting with representatives from Church World Service, 
the 
 Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, and local church officials,   
protested the situation to Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)  
 officials in Washington.
  
     The INS had taken the position that the visa-waiver program rules 
meant 
 they could neither release those in custody nor permit others to travel 
to 
 the mainland United States. This week, INS officials said the agency 
has   agreed to ease its stance and release the Burmese in custody in 
Guam, and 
 will consider permitting them to relocate to the mainland United States 
while 
 their asylum claims are pending.
  
     The change in policy brought immediate, if cautious, reaction. 
``The   detention of this group of people, who were not given a chance 
to even apply 
 for release, was inappropriate,'' said Matthew Wilch of Lutheran 
Immigration 
 and Refugee Service in Baltimore, who was part of the group. ``But we 
remain 
 concerned about the large number of people who fled persecution and 
remain 
 stranded on the island.''
  
    Immigrants stranded -- Island has been target of refugees, smugglers 
  
    A U.S. territory not much larger in area than the city of San Jose, 
Guam 
 is situated thousands of miles closer to Asia than any other place 
where U.S. 
 immigration law applies.
  
     That has made it a target not just for Burmese. In recent years, 
Chinese 
 smugglers trying to transport laborers from Fujian province have used 
Guam as 
 a route to the United States. Guam officials fear signs of a new effort 
in 
 several recent incidents in which fishing boats have pulled close to 
shore 
 and left Chinese passengers to swim to the island. Two such passengers 
died 
 offshore earlier this month, apparently mauled while trying to swim 
over the 
 rough coral reef, and then attacked by sharks.
  
     The Burmese first trickled into Guam, but over the past six months, 
the 
 numbers swelled; hundreds of Burmese came, including doctors and 
engineers, 
 pastors and teachers. They came seeking political and religious freedom 
and 
 telling stories of arrest and torture for practicing Christianity or   
demonstrating for democracy.
  
     They arrived with valid passports but nothing more. Since 1986, 
Burma,  also known as Myanmar, had been among the countries whose 
residents did not  need visas in order to visit Guam. The visa-waiver 
program was established to  attract Asian vacationers to the island, 
which suffers from a double-digit  unemployment rate.
  
     Most of the Burmese got through the airport, but then found nowhere 
to go.
  
     Sa Tin Lai, 32, was a pastor for the largely Christian Chin 
community of  Burma until he fled to Guam last November. Lai said that 
he became   politically active in college, and was involved in the 1988 
student uprisings.
  
     Lai said that he was arrested and held for 25 days and interrogated 
day  and night about the student movement. During the questioning, he 
was slapped,  and had a gun held to his head. He described being forced 
to crawl on his  knees over sharp rocks, and being fed rice mixed with 
sand.        After his release, troubles continued for Lai, who received 
a degree in  theology in 1999. He finally fled when the church deacon 
warned him that his  life was in danger because he angered military 
officials by repairing the 
 water-damaged church.
  
     When he arrived in Guam, Lai had no idea where to go. A taxi took 
him to 
 a local hotel. Staffers there put him in contact with the Chin 
Christian   Fellowship, which arranged for him to stay with four other 
Chin asylum   seekers in a one-bedroom house.
  
     On another part of the island, a group of 41 Chin men crowd into a  
 four-bedroom house. There is little furniture; the front room, barren, 
is 
 used for prayer and for sleep. The men pass the long waiting hours 
outside 
 striking a ball across the front lawn with a makeshift wooden putter 
into a 
 white cup in the ground.
  
     Thomas Mung, 25, is one of the youngest of the group. The son of a  
 political activist, Mung said he was arrested and beaten for his own   
political activities as a student. He later produced a magazine, 
angering  military officials again, and eventually fled. Like many of 
the Burmese   refugees on Guam, Mung said that he borrowed money in the 
summer and paid a  broker to arrange his transit out of Burma through 
Thailand to Guam.   

     ``When I arrived, I said to a taxi driver, `Please tell me where 
the   Burmese people are'' Mung said. Asked what comes next, he said 
simply, ``I  cannot return to Burma.''
  
     Mung and his housemates depend on handouts. As they traded stories 
near  their makeshift putting green, Deacon Frank C. Tenorio of the 
Catholic   archdiocese arrived in a truck, bearing bags of rice. He said 
he brings food  and old furniture when he can to four houses where 
Burmese live; he has taken  eight other Burmese into his own home.
  
     ``Men are not supposed to cry,'' said the deacon, as his eyes 
filled with  tears. ``But I am so moved by them; they have been through 
so much pain. I  wish I could do more.''
  
     Struggle for a hearing -- Most have little help facing asylum 
system       There is little doubt that Burma is a country filled with 
atrocities   committed by the ruling military government. The annual 
U.S. State Department  report cites an ``extremely poor human rights 
record and longstanding severe  repression of its citizens.'' The 
military has ruled since 1962 but the   situation has worsened since 
1988.
  
     Burmese people -- particularly those from the certain ethnic groups 
--  have been subject to arrest, rape, even death at the hands of 
military   officers, the State Department reports.
  
     As a result, Burmese asylum seekers have fared far better than most 
once  reaching U.S. territory. Nationwide, Justice Department statistics 
analyzed  by the Mercury News show, about 55 percent of Burmese 
applicants won their  asylum cases from 1995 through 1999 -- a success 
rate more than twice that of  applicants from other countries. The law, 
in accordance with international  convention, offers asylum for people 
who have a well-founded fear of   persecution if sent back home, based 
on their race, religion, national   origin, membership in a social group 
or because of their political opinion. 
  
     Neither asylum officers nor immigration judges are based in Guam, 
leaving  the department struggling to keep up with the growing number of 
asylum   seekers.
  
     More than 500 asylum applicants have not yet had hearings, and 
scores  more Burmese have not yet submitted their asylum applications. 
One woman, 23,  said she fled her homeland after she was threatened with 
military arrest   because of herpolitical activism; she arrived in Guam 
in 1998, and is still  waiting for a hearing before an asylum officer.
  
     None of the scores of asylum seekers interviewed outside of custody 
last  week had lawyers. ``Nobody can afford one,'' said Dan Baumwang, an 
engineer  and member of the Christian Kachin ethnic minority, who fled 
Burma last year.  ``Many thought when they got here they were finished.'
  
     Baumwang, who was educated in London, lives with 23 other Kachin 
people  in two adjoining two-bedroom apartments. On a nail on his wall 
are the tales  of seven compatriots, written in their own hands, in 
their own language.        He provides them copies of the asylum 
application, and translates their  statements. Baumwang said he had not 
even suggested to the asylum seekers  that they should try to find any 
documentation to support their testimony;  they were afraid to take any 
political or religious materials with them.   

     ``I don't know how they would get such things,'' he said.        
Detained for honesty -- Rules for visa waiver left many imprisoned       
Under the tourism promotion program, most of the Burmese refugees were  
waived through the airport when they arrived. The INS officer in charge 
of  Guam, David Johnston, said that he instructed the airport inspectors 
not to  profile arriving foreign citizens based on ethnicity if they had 
valid   passports.
  
     But several dozen were stopped because they stood out, such as the 
21  Burmese who arrived on the same flight on Oct. 3. Although they did 
not know  each other, a broker had arranged their passage together.      
  The group was sent for detailed questioning by airport inspectors. One 
 after another, they said freely that they were hoping to apply for 
asylum and  stay in the United States. Their honesty was costly. They 
were sent to jail.
  
     Johnston said the regulations gave him no choice: Burmese who did 
not  intend to return home within the 15-day limit of the visa-waiver 
program were  violating the rule and had to sit in custody until they 
were granted asylum  by an administrative immigration judge.
  
     They are held at the Guam Detention Center, where INS detainees 
make up  roughly half the prison population, said the warden, Francisco 
Cristosomo.  The men live in two large, air-conditioned barracks built 
in 1999 in response  to a flood of Chinese boat people.
  
     A third barracks sits empty. It was built to house women, but with 
just  11 Chinese and six Burmese women in custody, prison officials said 
it is more  efficient to hold them in jail cells. They live with the 
local prison   inmates, sometimes as many as four to a cell the size of 
a walk-in closet.
  
     One of the women is an ethnic Chin, whose father was a Christian 
pastor.  She said she was arrested in Burma in 1993 after she spoke 
against the   government within earshot of an army officer. She said the 
officer then beat  and raped her. She fled to India but last year, when 
she no longer felt safe  there, she returned to Burma.
  
     She continued her political activity and heard that the military 
officer  was after her once again, so she fled to Guam. When she 
arrived, she tested  positive for tuberculosis in a skin test. Because 
she was pregnant, officials  were afraid to take an X-ray. Instead, they 
kept her in isolation.        But when the church group toured the 
prison last week and found the   woman, they were alarmed by the effect 
of months of isolation. The Rev. Jerry  Elmore, pastor of the local 
University Baptist Church, offered to sponsor the  woman himself, so she 
could be released from custody to his care.   

     Officials balked. But a day later, she was released and given a 
chest  X-ray. ``I am happier,'' she told a reporter who toured the 
facility the   following day. ``But I still feel weak and afraid in this 
place.''   

    Burmese barred -- Change helps those on island gain freedom   

    In October, Robert A. Underwood, the island's non-voting 
congressional representative, asked INS officials to drop Burma from the 
visa-waiver   program. He said he feared that the Burmese asylum-seekers 
could cause the entire program to be curtailed. Citing ``law enforcement 
and national   security interests,'' the Justice Department dropped 
Burma from the program  as of Jan. 10.
  
     That change is what made officials more receptive to releasing the  
 Burmese refugees already on Guam, said Wilch, the Lutheran advocate for 
  asylum seekers. With Burma off the program, he said, the INS could 
release  the asylum-seekers without worrying that Guam would become a 
magnet.   

     `It worked out perfectly in terms of timing for the people there,'' 
said  Wilch. But, he added, ``that still leaves one unanswered concern: 
What about  the people who are still in Burma? We have no answer for 
that.'' 




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_______________ ECONOMY AND BUSINESS _______________
 




______________OPINION/EDITORIALS_________________


______________________OTHER______________________





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