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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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