Daily News- December 19 - 2001- Wednesday

  • Van Aartsen Supports Burma Peace Campaign
  • Thai army accused of helping KNU fighters
  • Power plant project at Tachilek halted
  • China-Myanmar Border Trade Fair Opens
  • Myanmar appoints 10 new army regional commanders

    • Van Aartsen Supports Burma Peace Campaign

    by Worldview Rights
    source : Burmapeacecampaign

    Statement minister of foreign affairs from the Netherlands, mr. Van Aartsen supports the Nobel Peace Laureate Campaign for Aung San Suu Kyi and the People of Burma.

    "The Dutch government is very much concerned with the human rights situation in Burma. With pleasure I would hereby like to express my admiration for the peaceful way in which Aung San Suu Kyi tries to restore democracy in Burma. The least we can do on this special day as an international community, ten years after mrs.Aung San Suu Kyi rightfully has received the Nobelprize for Peace, is to reconfirm our support for her."

    "Together with the other EU-partners the Netherlands are following the developments in Burma closely. Out of discontent with the human rights situation in Burma the EU handles a Common Position in which an amount of measures concerning Burma has been established. Besides that there is continuous attention for the situation in Burma in many international organisations. For instance the UN human rights commission and the ILO, which pointed recently to the troublesome situation in the area of forced labour."

    "In this year a positive development seems to be taking place in Burma, the beginning of a fragile dialogue between the members of the regime and mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, and the release of some prisoners. It is still to early to evaluate this movement and a careful attitude of the international community is needed. I can assure you that the Netherlands will do everything needed to keep the alarming situation in Burma high on the international political agenda and will continue to support the peaceful way of mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi. I am convinced that only an actual dialogue can contribute to a sustainable solution for the situation in Burma. I like to close with a quote of mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi herself: ‘dialogue is not a debate in which there will be winners and losers"

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    Thai army accused of helping KNU fighters

    The Bangkokpost

    The pro-Rangoon Democratic Karen Buddhist Army accused the army of helping the Karen National Union attack one of its strongholds.Mae Sot district chief Samart Loifa yesterday received a letter which said Thai troops supported the KNU's strike against the DKBA's Shwe Kokko camp.It said they fired 50 shots at the camp, opposite Mae Sot district.

    The document was signed by the DKBA's 999th Brigade Special Battalion commander Lt-Col Maung Chit Tu.The letter said a KNU insurgent died and the injured retreated into Thailand with the help of Thai soldiers.The army said it has never supported KNU attacks inside Burma.

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    Power plant project at Tachilek halted

    By Teerawat Kumtita
    The Bangkokpost

    Work on a lignite-fired power plant in Burma's Tachilek has been suspended amid protests by Thai residents of opposite Mae Sai town.Lt-Gen Kyaw Than, chairman of the Burmese-Thai Cultural Association, said Burma put a hold on the project, located about 5km from the border.

    Maung Win, manager of the Electric Supply Company providing Tachilek with power from Thailand, quoted Burmese officials as saying Rangoon was preparing to scrap the project for fear of pollution. Also, buying machines from China and taking lignite from another town, 160km from Tachilek, would probably cost too much.The project was initiated by U Kyaw Win, managing director of the Golden Triangle Hydro Power Plant.

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    China-Myanmar Border Trade Fair Opens

    RUILI, YUNNAN PROVINCE, Dec 18, 2001 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- The first China-Myanmar frontier trade fair opened Tuesday at the Jiegao Border Trade Zone in Yunnan Province, southwest China.

    More than 350 enterprises from Myanmar and China are participating, hoping to seek buyers for their more than 1,000 varieties of commodities including metals, electric appliances, chemicals, jewelry and jade, wood products, aquatic products and mineral products. Trade talks on further strengthening bilateral economic cooperation are scheduled.

    Neighboring Myanmar in the east, south and north, the 2.4-square-kilometer Jiegao Border Trade Zone was approved by the State Council last year as a special trade zone, which enjoys preferential treatment in terms of inflow of people and cargo. The zone is located in Ruili City of Dai-Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture of Dehong, which was made an open border trade zone in 1985.

    According to statistics provided by Myanmar, China has become its third-largest trade partner, with the bilateral trade volume totaling 499 million U.S. dollars during the January-October period this year.

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    Myanmar appoints 10 new army regional commanders

    ASSOCIATED PRESS YANGON, Myanmar, Dec. 18 - Myanmar has appointed 10 regional army commanders to replace generals who were reassigned to the capital last month in a reshuffle of the regime's top ranks, an official source said Wednesday.

    Ten divisional commanders were promoted Tuesday to fill positions left vacant after the most significant revamp of the military regime in four years, the source said on condition of anonymity.

    The reshuffle appears to consolidate the authority of the top three generals, junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe, army chief Gen. Maung Aye and military intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt.

    Analysts say the new regional commanders are unlikely to be appointed to the elite 13-member junta, the State Peace and Development Council, as their predecessors were, and so will have less clout.

    The regime took power after a bloody crackdown on nationwide protests for democracy in 1988. It held general elections in 1990, but refused to recognize the landslide victory of the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is currently under house detention.

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