Daily News-July 27 - 2001- Friday


  • EU Asks Burma to Make Further Effort on Rights
  • Exiled group urges government to release jailed MPs
  • ECOSOC achieves consensus on its Burma resolution
  • Second Political Prisoner In Two Weeks Dies
  • Independence aspiration not in the way of cooperation, say Arakanese leaders
  • Burmese navy fires at Thai boats found fishing off coast
  • EU says sanctions against Burma regime to remain
  • EU asks UN to push democratic reforms in Burma


  • EU Asks Burma to Make Further Effort on Rights

    The International Herald Tribune , Thursday, July 26, 2001

    Burma's military regime must go much further toward restoring democracy than it has so far, despite its recent release of several dozen political prisoners, the European Union said Wednesday.

    Foreign Minister Louis Michel of Belgium, which is the current holder of the EU presidency, said the junta would have to respect the 1990 election victory by the opposition leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, if it was serious about democracy.

    "We have to show that there is more to democracy than just releasing several political prisoners," Mr. Michel said on the sidelines of a regional security meeting in Hanoi. The EU will review sanctions against Burma in the autumn.

    Burma's foreign minister, Win Aung, said Tuesday that the military regime's release of the political prisoners this month showed that watershed talks with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi were on track.U Win Aung refused to give a time frame for multiparty elections or define the type of government that might emerge from a breakthrough in the talks with the opposition leader.

    He said the release of the prisoners, including a prominent journalist, San San Nwe, was "not a public relations stunt or to please anybody," and denied that the move had been designed to prod the Union into lifting sanctions imposed on Burma for human rights abuses.

    The Union renewed its sanctions, including a visa ban on junta officials, for six more months in April.
    DVB: Exiled group urges government to release jailed MPs

    BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jul 26, 2001

    Text of report by Burmese opposition radio on 25 July

    Although the SPDC [State Peace and Development Council] military government has claimed that all the elected representatives [MPs] have been released from government guest houses and detention centres, the exiled elected representatives from Parliamentarians Union has issued a statement stating that 33 elected representatives still remain in SPDC jails.

    The following excerpts of the statement give details of the jailed elected representatives.

    Of the 33 jailed elected representatives, 30 are from the National League for Democracy [NLD], two from the Mon National Democratic Front, and one from the National Democratic Party for Human Rights with their sentences ranging from three to 25 years. Seven elected representatives are being held in Insein Jail, five in Tharawaddy Jail, five in Mandalay Jail, four in Thayet Jail, three in Myingyan Jail, three in Moulmein Jail, two in Myitkyina Jail, and one each in Toungoo, Bassein, Kale, and Pyapon Jails.

    A total of 485 representatives were elected in the 1990 multiparty democracy general election with NLD capturing 392 seats. At present the SPDC multiparty democracy general election commission has recognized only 149 elected representatives. Furthermore, 38 elected representatives have passed away during the past 11 years with 123 elected representatives forced to relinquish their seats. Altogether there are 24 elected representatives who went into exile for various reasons. The statement also strongly urged the military government to unconditionally release all the 33 jailed elected representatives.
    ECOSOC achieves consensus on its Burma resolution

    Geneva, 25 July 2001
    David Arnott (Burma Peace Foundation, Geneva)

    At 5 o'clock this afternoon (a las cinco de la tarde), in a ground-breaking decision, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) adopted by consensus a resolution entitled "Developments concerning the question of the observance by the Government of Myanmar of the International Labour Organization Forced Labour Convention 1930 (No. 29)".

    This resolution was in response to a request made by the Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO D-G) that ECOSOC "place an item on the agenda of its July 2001 session concerning the failure of Myanmar to implement the recommendations contained in the report of the [ILO] Commission of Inquiry and seeking the adoption of recommendations directed by ECOSOC or by the General Assembly, or by both, to governments and to other specialized agencies".

    The ILO D-G asked that these recommendations include requests, similar to those made by the International Labour Conference (ILC) in 2000, that governments and international organisations contribute to ending forced labour in Myanmar, review their relations with the country and take appropriate measures to ensure that these relations could not be used to abet, perpetuate or extend forced labour.

    The resolution adopted today does not carry out the ILO D-G's request in full. It notes the 2000 ILC resolution and the ILO D-G's request to ECOSOC; the conclusions of the 2001 ILC, including the special session on Burma; the proposed ILO high-level objective assessment mission, whose report will be examined by the November meeting of the ILO Governing Body, and it requests the UN Secretary-General to keep ECOSOC informed of further developments in the matter.

    The significance of the resolution is that it places the matter on the ECOSOC agenda for the forseeable future. We can therefore expect the issue to be taken up at next year's session, and if there has been no substantial move towards bringing forced labour to an end in Burma, then the request of the ILO D-G may be implemented in full, thus reinforcing the ILO "measures" which have been interpreted as authorising sanctions against Burma.

    The reason ECOSOC did not take stronger action this year was nothing to do with Burma. It was rather that a number of governments feared that complying with the ILO D-G's request would set the "bad" precedent of introducing ILO standards into ECOSOC and thereby weaken the position of governments (the ILO is made up of governments, workers and employers, while decisions at ECOSOC and other UN bodies are made solely by governments) and expose them to greater criticism, particularly on violations of labour rights.

    Consensus on the draft resolution was only achieved by changing the original operative paragraph 4 from "Invites the Director-General of the ILO to keep ECOSOC informed of further developments in this matter" to "Requests the Secretary-General to keep the Council informed of further developments in this matter". This change was presumably seen as diluting the feared influence of ILO over ECOSOC. Be that as it may, and due in no small part to the skilled diplomacy of the Belgian EU Presidency, the result was consensus. In other words, every member of ECOSOC went along with the resolution, including the Asian members -- China, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Nepal, Pakistan, Republic of Korea and Syria. If, as might have happened, consensus had not been achieved, there would no doubt have been a vote, though on a stronger text. That would, however, have polarised the members of ECOSOC over a question that was not, after all, really to dowith Burma.
    Second Political Prisoner In Two Weeks Dies

    By Maung Maung Oo
    source : The Irrawaddy News Magazine

    July 26,2001--The second political prisoner in just two weeks died in Burma last Saturday despite ongoing talks between the junta and National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

    Khin Maung Myint, who was in his thirties, died of unknown causes and had been serving an eight-year sentence in Kale prison in Sagaing Division in northwest Burma, according to sources close to the prisoner’s family.

    "Kale prison is located in an area infested with malaria. Even the prison staff often gets seriously ill and actually relies on the families of political prisoners for medicine. He may have died from malaria," said Zin Linn, a former political prisoner now living in Thailand.

    Khin Maung Myint, a former NLD youth leader and secretary of the party’s Latha Township branch in Rangoon, was arrested in 1997 for attempting to hold a meeting with Suu Kyi and other NLD youth members in Mayangone Township, also located in Rangoon. He was charged under 5(j) of the 1950 Emergency Provisions Act, which is often used against political activists.

    This latest casualty has caused Burmese analysts to question previously released statements praising the military regime for its engagement in democracy talks with the NLD. The regime also recently released over 100 activists who had formally been held in "government guesthouses". This is thought to be a direct result of the secret talks that began in October of last year.

    Despite the recent release of numerous political prisoners, Suu Kyi herself remains under house arrest despite being democratically elected over ten years ago.

    "While the hope among activists in Burma and the international community that more political prisoners will soon be released is rising, our concerns about the health conditions of all remaining political prisoners in Burma is also growing," said a Burmese activist on the Thai-Burma border.

    Two weeks ago, Si Thu, a student activist also known as Ye Naing, died in Tharawaddy hospital in central Burma after serving over eleven years in prison.

    Khin Maung Myint’s death marks the fifty-fourth confirmed death among political prisoners in Burma since 1988, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). The AAPP estimates that 2,000-plus political prisoners remain incarcerated in absolutely inhumane conditions in Burma’s penal institutions.
    Independence aspiration not in the way of cooperation, say Arakanese leaders

    Shan Herald Agency for News
    No: 07 - 16-26 July 2001

    Leaders of the Arakanese opposition, interviewed by S.H.A.N. yesterday, confirmed the agreement reached by the 4-party meeting recently to unite under the guiding principle of Independence did not mean a stop to cooperation with other opposition movements.

    "The Arakan Liberation Party was formed (in 1973) with the avowed aim to struggle for Independence," said Khaing Soe Naing Aung, Vice President of ALP and General Secretary of the National Democratic Front, an umbrella organization of the armed non-Burman movements founded in 1976. "It did not prevent us from co-founding and becoming a member of the NDF."One of the NDF's aims is the establishment of a "genuine federal union."

    "Independence is not something we are begging for," he said. "The Arakan had been an independent nation for thousands of years. We are only restating the fact. That will not prevent us from cooperation with others to struggle for a federal union."

    The ALP and other three Arakan groups, Arakan League for Democracy-in-exile, Democratic Party of Arakan and National United Party of Arakan, held a 5-day conference, 14-18 July, on the western border of Burma.

    Apart from a call for tripartite dialogue, the 4-party coalition had agreed to call an 'Arakan National Convention' where a state constitution was to be drafted. "The citizenship question of the so-called Rohingya will also be considered there," said Khaing Myo Min, General Secretary of the ALP. This was confirmed by Ms. Saw Mra Raza Lin, Joint General Secretary.

    Among the participants of the conference were:

    U Tha Noe, Khaing Aung Win (Chairman), Khaing San Linn (Vice Chairman) and Khaing Ran Aung from ALD;

    Khaing Re Khaing (Chairman), Khaing Myo Min, Khaing Soe Mya, Khaing Ran Naung Soe, Khaing Thukha from ALP;

    U Thein Pe (Chairman), U Aung Sein Tha (Joint General Secretary), Maung Lugyi and San Aung Kyaw from DPA;

    U Shwe Tha, Ba Soe Aung (Vice Chairman), Khaing Mya Wa and Khaing Lin Aung from NUPA.
    DVB : Burmese navy fires at Thai boats found fishing off coast

    Text of report by DVB on 25 July

    DVB has learned that the SPDC navy boats have fired upon Thai fishing vessels caught illegally fishing in Burmese territorial waters near Kawthaung in Tenasserim Division. Two Burmese sailors working onboard the Thai vessel were killed.

    At about 1730 [local time] on 22 July the SPDC naval vessel 448 fired at three Thai fishing trawlers illegally fishing in Burmese territorial waters at the border of Thai and Burmese territorial limit in Kawthaung District east of Boyar Island.

    The boats escaped by entering Thai territorial waters but one of the boats owned by Pithamein Warehouse from Parkhong suburb in Ranong was hit by M-60 machine gun fire.

    Two Burmese sailors working aboard the Thai vessel were killed instantly while one Thai and another five Burmese sailors were seriously wounded.
    EU says sanctions against Burma regime to remain

    HANOI, July 27 (AFP)

    The European Union said Friday its sanctions against the military regime in Burma would stay in place until "definite and positive" progress towards restoring democracy was made.

    The junta's recent release of dozens of political prisoners was welcome but the Burmese government had to go much further down the road in its secret talks with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, EU leaders said in Hanoi after meeting Southeast Asian nations.

    Asked about a lifting of sanctions, External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten said: "My own judgement is until there is significant progress on the political front in Burma/Myanmar, the common position of the European Union will stay the same."

    Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, whose country is the current holder of the EU presidency, said "more generally we are not in favour of sanctions because the sanctions very often reach the people and not the authorities".

    "But we are waiting now for definite and positive evolutions there. I think the ball is in their camp," he told a news conference with Patten.

    The EU sanctions, including a visa ban on junta officials, will be reviewed in the autumn after being renewed for six more months in April.

    Dozens of political prisoners have been freed from jail over the past few weeks, in what have been hailed as signs of progress from nine-month-old talks between Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma's ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

    On Thursday the government released a couple closely related to Aung San Suu Kyi, for the first time freeing political prisoners before their sentences were completed.

    "I think the European Union has noticed that some progress was made in the good direction of this level and on the field of progress for reconciliation," Michel said.

    "There is a lot of expectation in this situation. We hope now that Burma/Myanmar will put more definite steps.

    "Of course we noticed that they made free some detainees but we are looking forward to have some... definite and important steps, significant steps. "

    Patten said planned visits in September by Malaysia's Razali Ismail, a special envoy of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan who has been brokering the Burma talks, and a team from the International Labour Organisation were encouraging signs.

    "I hope that the process is not only irreversible, but I hope as well that it's a lot more rapid because while we've seen some hopeful signs, we want to see a great deal more progress made," he said.

    "We don't seek from the outside to impose a solution but we want to see a solution which involves all the people of Burma/Myanmar."

    Both the EU officials referred to the country by its old and new names, after earlier this week sticking to Burma in contradiction to the junta's insistence on Myanmar.

    The sanctions have strained relations between the EU and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes Burma. The visa ban on junta officials could scupper an EU-ASEAN meeting planned to be held in Europe in November.

    The EU has in turn criticised the "constructive engagement" policy of ASEAN and Australia towards the regime, and Michel this week criticised a statement on Burma issued in Hanoi by the ASEAN Regional Forum as "rather weak".

    In an interview with AFP, Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung said the prisoners' release showed that the talks with Aung San Suu Kyi remained on track.

    But he refused to give a timeframe for multi-party elections or define the type of government that might emerge from a breakthrough in the talks with the Nobel laureate opposition leader.
    EU asks UN to push democratic reforms in Burma

    HANOI, July 26 (AFP)

    The European Union urged the United Nations Thursday to continue prodding Burma to embrace democratic reforms following the release of dozens of political prisoners in the military-ruled Asian country.

    The dissidents' release, including a couple closely related to Nobel laureate democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, came after talks between the junta and Suu Kyi brokered by Malaysia's Razali Ismail, a special envoy of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

    "We hope Ambassador Razali will be able to go back soon to Burma (Myanmar) and resume his mission of intermediation so that the recent progress can be strengthened," said Foreign Minister Louis Michel of Belgium, the current holder of the EU presidency.

    Michel was addressing counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Hanoi during annual talks.

    Burma is a member of ASEAN, which also comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

    Burma Foreign Minister Win Aung did not attend the EU dialogue, sending instead a senior government official who rebutted point by point Michel's statement, according to an official who was present at the meeting.

    The Burmese official, who was not identified, said Razali was welcome to visit Rangoon any time.

    Burma's junta for the first time freed two political prisoners before their sentences were completed.

    Nge Ma Ma, a first cousin of Aung San Suu Kyi, and her husband Myint Swe are closely related to the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who has been held under de facto house arrest since September just before she embarked on the landmark talks with the junta.

    Dozens of political prisoners have been freed in recent weeks in what have been hailed as a sign of progress from the nine-month-old talks between the opposition leader and the junta.

    Michel said the EU hoped that the release would "put this important country on the way back to democracy, national reconciliation and the rule of law".

    "It is essential that the current discussions between the authorities and the opposition continue and develop into a real process of rebuilding the nation in harmony," he said.

    On Wednesday, Michel told AFP that Burma should do much more than release political prisoners to show it was serious about restoring democracy.

    But Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said changes in Burma would occur gradually through dialogue.

    The EU has imposed sanctions against Burma for human rights violations, but ASEAN has adopted a policy of "constructive engagement" with the ruling generals.

    "It is more productive. You cannot isolate countries. If you isolate countries you will not allow them to change," the Malaysian minister told reporters.

    "We think that people should bring Myanmar into the mainstream by bringing economic development, by assisting them to grow and by interacting with them. They will become more comfortable and they will be able to change accordingly.

    "But if we force upon them, they have been closed for a long, long time and they have survived," Syed Hamid said.

    The country also "would like to be democratic, to be free, but they also have to tackle their ethnic differences, their economic development programmes", he said.

    Burma would have a family to rely on in ASEAN.

    "We believe that Myanmar ultimately will be like any one of the democratic ASEAN countries," the minister said.