Daily News-May 12 - 2001- Saturday

  • Burma's Incorrigible Leaders
  • Burmese leaders among world’s worst human rights violators
  • UNHCR, Burmese reached an agreement
  • Burma Sacks Telecoms Minister in Reshuffle
  • Kyat drops to all time low
  • Electricity Woes Continue
  • World`s Most Primitive Anthropoid Primate
  • Malaysia mulls expanding military ties with junta
  • Wa took hill to protect drug plants
  • ADB hails political reforms in Burma
  • Burma torches narcotics worth 920 million dollars

    • Burma's Incorrigible Leaders

    The New York Times May 11, 2001

    A few months ago it looked as if the military junta in Myanmar might ease its repressive rule slightly. The regime was talking with the country's courageous pro-democracy leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and there even seemed to be a possibility that she would be liberated from the prolonged house arrest the government has enforced.

    But those hopes have all but vanished.

    If the Bush administration means to speak out against human rights abuses abroad and pressure governments to treat their citizens humanely, Myanmar would be a fine place to start.

    The military leaders of Myanmar, formerly called Burma, are among the world's cruelest violators of human rights. The junta has tortured and executed political opponents, exploited forced labor and condoned a burgeoning traffic in heroin and amphetamines. In the clearest indication that the regime has little intention of reforming, the United Nations special envoy who acted as a catalyst for the talks between the government and Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi has been denied permission to visit the country since January.

    Also, an anticipated release of political prisoners has failed to materialize, as has a pledge by the junta that Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, would be allowed to resume activity. Earlier this year the junta released 120 mostly youthful members of the party who had been imprisoned the previous year, but it is still believed to be holding as many as 1,700 political prisoners, including 35 people who were elected to Parliament in 1990.

    Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi's party won more than three-quarters of the seats in that election, but the junta annulled the results. The United States and the European Union have cooperated to isolate Myanmar, and in 1997 the Clinton administration banned new American investments there.

    But some Asian countries have been reluctant to join in sanctions. China, in particular, has helped sustain the junta with military aid. Regrettably, last month Japan broke ranks with a Western-led 12-year ban on non-humanitarian assistance to Myanmar by approving a $29 million grant for a hydroelectric dam.

    Last year the International Labor Organization, responding to concerns about forced labor, voted to urge governments and international donors to impose further sanctions on Myanmar.

    Washington should consider a ban on imports from that nation, including textiles. Myanmar is rapidly increasing apparel exports to the United States. Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi's allies have argued that the hard-currency earnings primarily benefit the military, not the laborers who make the garments.

    Washington should certainly be using its influence with Japan and other Asian countries to deter any further non- humanitarian assistance.
    Burmese leaders among world’s worst human rights violators

    source : ABC-11/05/01

    In Burma, the country's only democratically elected leader in recent history, Aung San Suu Kyi, remains under house arrest. The Burmese junta is still believed to be holding as many as 1,700 political prisoners, including 35 people who were elected to Parliament in 1990. The New York Times today puts the country's leaders high "among the world's cruellest violators of human rights".

    Transcript:

    MARK COLVIN: Finally to Burma where the country's only democratically elected leader in recent history, Aung San Suu Kyi, remains under house arrest after 10 years. The Burmese Junta are still believed to be holding as many as 1,700 political prisoners, including 35 people who were elected to Parliament in 1990.

    The New York Times today puts the country's leaders high among the world's cruelest violators of human rights. So, should you take your holidays in Burma? No, says Aung San Suu Kyi. She believes tourist money helps prop up the military regime. But not everyone agrees.

    Our South East Asia correspondent, Geoff Thompson, looked at the debate during a recent trip to Rangoon.

    GEOFF THOMPSON: As the day sets on Rangoon, sunlight dazzles across the giant gold pagoda which centres the ancient and awesome Schwezigon Temple. Somewhere here hidden amidst the countless gold budda statues and the business of locals in various acts of worship are three head hairs that once belonged to the Bhudda himself. Here, too, are a few - but just a few - foreign tourists, some of the 42,000 which now travel to Burma every year.

    Jean, who only wanted to be known by her first name, has travelled here from Britain.

    JEAN: I wasn't happy coming, I must admit I wasn't, because you do hear awful stories at home about human rights here but if you don't go and see, you're not going to know are you? So I particularly wanted to come so we came and what can we look at it. What can you say about it? It's fantastic, isn't it? It's absolutely beautiful, and I would advise people to come.

    GEOFF THOMPSON: But while many more tourists travel here now than in the past, the number is 50 times fewer per year than neighbouring Thailand. Overseas-based activist groups support the unequivocal message of Burma's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi which is - if you support her struggle for democracy, do not travel here.

    There is no evidence that message has changed, even though a political dialogue is continuing in some form between Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma's military government.

    Min Zin is an activist in exile. On the run in Burma as a teenager, he now lives across the border in Thailand's Chang Mai. He says that 70 per cent of Burma's people are farmers, and far from benefiting from tourism, many of them are forced to labour on projects for tourists' benefit.

    MIN ZIN: We should think about, you know, South East and, you know, and the need. So on the South East it looks good, you know, it's sophisticated. But underneath, suffer and misery.

    GEOFF THOMPSON: Burma's ruling military government sees things differently. It believes that not politics but poor infrastructure keeps the tourists away.

    Burma's economy is the other pressing problem. Rangoon's rickshaw riders would happily service more tourists, as would the owner of a nearby gold shop.

    UNIDENTIFIED: As so many foreigners come they buy the gold and jewellery, I think this year it's in our country compared with the last two to three years. It's very good for our country because in our country we have so many places for the tourist attraction.

    GEOFF THOMPSON: They are attractions the founder of the Australia-based 'Lonely Planet' Guidebooks Tony Wheeler is keen to promote.

    TONY WHEELER: I think if Burma had a reasonable government and people who go there with an absolutely clear conscience and, you know, the infrastructure improved and there were more flights and there were all those things, it could quite possibly be the most popular tourist country in South East Asia. It has beaches and those other sorts of things that, you know, you find in other South East Asian countries but it also has some of the most amazing ruins of all of anywhere in the world. I think Bhagan, the great ruined city, is probably the most impressive tourist attraction in all of South East Asia.

    MARK COLVIN: Tony Wheeler of the 'Lonely Planet' travel guidebooks with our correspondent, Geoff Thompson.

    That's all in PM for tonight and for this week.
    UNHCR, Burmese reached an agreement

    New Delhi, May 11, 2001
    Mizzima News Group (www.mizzima.com )

    The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has agreed to speed up the cases of the Burmese asylum-seekers who have been on a hunger strike in front of its New Delhi office since May 8. The hunger-strikers, total 24 Burmese nationals, and UNHCR has reached an agreement today that UNHCR will start interviewing their cases from Monday onwards and will release the result of the interviews within a week from the date of interview.

    Mr. Augustine Mahiga, Chief of Mission of the UNHCR-India, conveyed this decision to us this evening. He also assured us that his office will consider our request for refugee status seriously, said Mr. Van Hnin Thang, a representative of the hunger strikers.

    Mr. Mahiga however did not give in to the demand of the hunger strikers that all of them be granted the refugee status and subsistence allowance.

    The Burmese said that they would continue to stay in front of the UNHCR office for some more days until the results of their interviews come out. However, it is not clear yet whether they will continue their fast and what the police will do if they continue to fast.

    The fourth day of the hunger strike started this morning with the local police intensifying their pressure on the asylum-seekers to end their strike or face arrest. A high-level police officer, Assistant Commissioner of Police from the Defence Colony came to the spot this morning and warned the Burmese that the police will have to take action if the Burmese do not call off the strike in two hours. This was followed by a renewed negotiation between the UNHCR and representatives of the hunger strikers, which eventually lead to the agreement.

    The Burmese asylum-seekers, including eight women, came to India for shelter due to the repression of the military government in power in Burma.

    About one thousand refugees from Burma are at present staying in New Delhi and nearly seven hundreds of them are recognized as refugees under the UNHCR office in India, which provides most of them the monthly subsistence allowance of Rs. 1,400 per person (about US $ 30).
    Burma Sacks Telecoms Minister in Reshuffle

    BANGKOK (Reuters) - Military-ruled Myanmar has dismissed a cabinet minister and appointed two new members in a minor cabinet reshuffle, official Myanmar Radio and Television have reported.

    Brigadier General Win Tin, Minister for Telecommunications, Post and Telegraph, was replaced by Brigadier General Thein Zaw, chairman of Magway Division Law and Order Restoration Council, the state-owned television said late on Thursday.

    The report did not say why Win Tin was replaced but during his term in charge of the ministry there has been a long delay in the implementation of a digital mobile phone project.

    State-owned Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) and Sky-Link Communications Ltd of the British Virgin Islands agreed last year to provide a system serving 135,000 GSM mobile phones in 13 cities across Myanmar.The $144 million project has still not been implemented.

    Tin Win, Myanmar ambassador to the United States, was appointed as Minister at the Office of the Prime Minister to succeed Brigadier General Lun Maung, who was killed in a helicopter accident in February.

    Hlaing Win, Deputy Minister for Science and Technology, was appointed deputy minister for Social Welfare and Relief.Chan Nyein was appointed to replace Hlaing Win.
    Kyat drops to all time low

    By Ko Thet and John S. Moncrief
    source : The Irrawaddy News Magazine

    May 11- In the last week, the black market value of the Burmese kyat has dropped to its lowest ever with a rate of 920 kyat per US$1, according to Rangoon based currency traders. The Burmese government has tried to control the dropping currency since last April, by arresting currency traders and implementing a rationing system on gasoline to no avail as the currency faces a crisis of confidence.

    The value of the currency has been sliding for several months. The first signs of trouble came after a clash between Thai and Burmese troops on their respective borders in February. This sent the currency into its initial dive as the public braced for possible conflict. Since early April it has lost almost fifty percent of its value has dropped from 500 to 920 kyat to the dollar.

    The government has attempted to rectify this drop in currency in its usual manner by detaining moneychangers in an effort to slow any run on the currency. At the end of April, the government detained about sixty moneychangers. While some of the moneychangers were released, others remained in detention. Again on May 6th, the government rounded up six other moneychangers. Ma Khin Aye, Burma’s only legal moneychanger was arrested both times.

    The government has tried to quell concern by running articles in the state-controlled mass media to restore confidence. The New Light of Myanmar newspaper has published several articles that blame the weakening exchange rate on the mismanagement of Burmese traders. Other articles have tried to dispel rumors that the government is planning to double the salaries of civil servants or that it is planning to void certain denominations of currency.

    Recently, the demand of petrol has skyrocketed from 180 kyat in early April to 750 kyat as of yesterday. In the same period, the cost of a gallon of diesel rose from 160 to 800 kyat. Analysts point to several reasons including increased consumption by household electricity generators to compensate for the rationing of electricity. In the past Rangoon neighborhoods regularly received electricity for half a day, but this has been reduced to just two or three hours (See "Electricity Woes Continue").

    Complicating matters further has been Burma’s strained relations with Thailand. Since the border flare up, the military has deployed many of its forces along the border with Thailand, including fifty Chinese tanks that were sent from Kengtung in the Shan State to the Thai border. Since then, the military has taken a larger share of fuel imports to supply the military. This comes at a time when Thailand has cut its supply of petrol and electricity to Burma on the order of Thai 3rd Army Commander Wattanachai Chaimuenwong. However, petrol traders have circumvented the halt on commerce at the Mae Sai-Tachilek, checkpoint by sending goods by boat up the Mekong River to a port across from Laos, according to one Thai-based Burma watcher. The delays in distribution and increased need for fuel by the military have driven up the price, said an analyst in Chiang Mai.

    The government has responded on May 1st, by cutting the ration of gasoline for private cars from three gallons to two gallons per day. They have also arrested some black market gas sellers, according to a businessman based in Rangoon.
    Electricity Woes Continue

    By Ko Thet
    Source : The Irrawaddy News Magazine

    May 11 -- After undergoing an unprecedented electricity shortage last April, the Office of the Ministry of Electricity Power is planning to double the price of electricity from 25 kyat to 50 kyat per unity of electricity, according to a source in the Ministry.

    Burma is facing an energy supply problem. Already several townships in Rangoon have had their ration of electricity cut from a half day to 2 or 3 hours. But consumers, particularly businessmen are pessimistic that the raise in rates will solve the problem.

    "I am not optimistic with the possible recommended electricity plan even though we have to pay double cost for having electricity on a regular basis. In mid-1999, the charge rose to 25 kyat from 5 kyat per unit of electricity. We received regular electricity for only three or four months and went back to the same old shortage", said a local businessman in Dagon Satellite township of Rangoon. Some medium-sized factories have suspended production because they could not cover the cost.

    But many factory owners in the Industrialized Zones are more concerned about receiving energy on a regular basis than with increased rates. "We can not rely on diesel generator to meet the electricity in the long run. The price of diesel fuel also has jumped to 750 kyat from 550 kyat per gallon. It makes the production cost higher and in fact it does not work", said one businessman from Shwe Pyi Thar Industrial Zones.

    However, relief appears to be on the way. In the late April, the Japanese government approved an aid package worth $ 28 million for the reconstruction of turbines for the Lawpita hydropower dam in the Kayah [Karenni] State. The dam, which was built in 1952 by Japanese engineers and paid by funds from Japan’s war indemnity, spans the Bi Loo River. It is one of the most important sources for electricity in Burma. Its efficiency has deteriorated over time, as it was not properly maintained. Repairs should imporve its capacity.
    "Bahinia Pondaungensis" of Pondaung Region in Myanmar Confirmed "World?s Most Primitive Anthropoid Primate"

    MYANMAR INFORMATION COMMITTEE YANGON
    Information Sheet N0. B-1811 (I) 10th May, 2001 (1)

    Experts at a seminar in United States have confirmed that "Bahinia Pondaungensis" of Pondaung region in Myanmar "the most primitive anthropoid primate" of the world. Bahinia Pondaungensis is among the anthropoid primate fossils found at Pondaung region.

    The confirmation was made a seminar under the title " Anthropoid Origins" which was held in Pittsburgh, U.S., from 19 to 22 April 2001 under the sponsorship of New York University and Duke University.

    A Myanmar-French joint excavation team found parts of the lower right jaw, the upper right jaw and upper left jaw of the Bahinia Pondaungensis primate at Yashekyitchaung area near a primate camp at Bahin village, Myaing Township, Pondaung region, in Myanmar on 22 November 1998. On 6 November the same year, a Myanmar-Japan joint expedition team found a part of a lower left jaw at Yashekyitchaung, which is of the same primate of the same group.

    When Myanmar and French experts made a detailed study, they found that the finds were of older species of an anthropoid and named it "Bahinia Pondaungensis". The records of the finds were compiled into research papers for publication and that "Bahinia Pondaungensis" has been approved as the most primitive anthropoid primate" of the world at the international seminar.

    According to international scholars, the Pondaung rock layer is of the late Middle Eocene, whose age is between 49 million years and 33.7 million years.

    Two Myanmar geologists, attended the seminar at which scholars from Myanmar, Japan, France and U.S. read papers on the fossilized primates of Pondaung region with the participation of international resource persons of the field. The two geologists presented papers on fossilized primates excavated in Myanmar.
    Malaysia mulls expanding military ties with junta

    South China Morning Post Friday, May 11, 2001
    ASSOCIATED PRESS in Kuala Lumpur

    Malaysia is considering boosting military ties with Burma, possibly including joint exercises, the chief of the Malaysian armed forces said on Friday. The move is likely to raise international controversy.

    Burma's military, which has ruled the country since 1962, is widely criticised for suppressing democracy and human-rights abuses against rebellious ethnic minorities.

    General Zahidi Zainuddin received Burma's air force chief Lieutenant General Kyaw Than and was quoted by the Malaysian news agency Bernama as saying talks were under way to enhance ties between the air forces and armies of both countries.

    "I fully endorse measures towards strengthening military ties between Malaysia and (Burma),'' said General Zahidi, adding that joint exercises were a possibility in the future. Malaysia has long been a defender of Burma, and was instrumental in bringing the country into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 1997.

    Malaysia has argued that sanctions many countries impose on Burma are counter-productive and make change harder. Thailand, a neighbour of both countries, has accused the Burmese government of staging incursions on Thai territory and supporting armed ethnic groups that traffic heroin and methamphetamines. The Golden Triangle area where the borders of Thailand, Burma and Laos converge is one of the world's biggest production centres for heroin and methamphetamines. Elements in both the Thai and Burmese armies have been accused of abetting and profitting from the trade.

    General Zahidi said that General Than told him that Thailand and Burma were talking to ensure that there would not be a repeat of border clashes earlier this year, but warned that Burma was ready for any eventuality. The Burmese government is committed to rid the entire area from drug production and develop it, General Zahidi quoted General Than as saying.
    Wa took hill to protect drug plants

    Source : Bangkok Post

    The pro-Rangoon United Wa State Army took Hua Lone hill to protect two large drug plants and trafficking routes, said Lt-Gen Wattanachai Chaimuenwong. The Third Army commander said one plant was at Roo Nam Khun and the other at Pakhi opposite the hill in Chiang Mai's Fang district.

    He said anti-Rangoon Shan State Army rebels had seized 170,000 speed pills in the first raid on a warehouse at Pakhi and another 50,000 in the second attack. This indicated speed pills were being made and that trafficking routes had been set up.

    "Red Wa soldiers captured the hill to use it as another trafficking route and set up a military post to protect traffickers," he said.

    A pocket of Red Wa soldiers who captured the hill for three days retreated on Thursday after heavy shelling from Thai soldiers.

    The shelling killed 16 Wa and wounded 22 others. No casualties resulted on the Thai side, he said.

    Col Somkhuan Saengpataranet, the army spokesman, said troops from the 2nd Cavalry Regiment had now taken control of the hill. After clearing the area, Thai soldiers found nine M14 landmines.

    Burma has sent Thailand a protest letter about what it called an air strike, which wounded six people and killed three cattle.

    The government denied the accusation, saying Rangoon appeared to have mistaken a routine air exercise on Thursday for an air raid.

    Junta spokesman Col Hla Min said that two Thai F-16 jet fighters separately fired rockets inside Burma.

    He said the raids "unnecessarily" escalated the "prevailing unhappy situation" on the border.

    Burma said one fighter fired two rockets in Karen state and the other launched a rocket at eastern Shan state's Mong Yawn town.

    Air Vice-Marshal Prapas Jiemchawee said the jets were conducting a routine inspection flight.
    ADB hails political reforms in Burma

    Source : Australian Broadcasting Corp.

    The Asian Development Bank has hailed "political reforms" in Burma - 15 years after it suspended lending to the country's military rulers.

    ADB president Tadao Chino says he's encouraged by political developments in Burma, in particular the "strengthening of the dialogue between the government and opposition leaders".

    But he has not revealed whether the ADB plans to resume aid to Burma.

    OnThursday,Burma appealed to the bank     - during its annual meeting in Honolulu - to lift the 1986 aid embargo.

    A member since 1973, it said it had the right to ask for and receive financial assistance from the bank, like other members.

    The ADB suspended lending to Burma in 1986 due to concern over alleged human rights violations.
    Burma torches narcotics worth 920 million dollars

    Rangoon, May 12 (AFP)

    Burma's ruling military torched some 920 million dollars of illicit narcotics Saturday at a burning to showcase to the world its progress in combating the drugs trade.

    The ceremony presided over by powerful Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt was held on the outskirts of the capital a day after ministers from six Asian nations signed an agreement to boost cooperation in stamping out the regional narcotics trade.

    The occasion was an opportunity for the junta to hail its own anti-drugs efforts and criticise Western nations' efforts to isolate the southeast Asian state, which the generals say has made the task more difficult.

    "We have witnessed a declining trend in poppy cultivation," said police Major-General Soe Win in a presentation to foreign journalists and diplomats invited to witness the spectacle.

    "It is an undeniable fact that the efforts of the Myanmar government, in spite of numerous constraints, contributed towards the decline."

    He read from the most recent report from the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) which showed opium production in Burma had fallen some 40 percent in the past decade.

    "In spite of this positive trend (it is) unfortunate that external assistance is not forthcoming," said Soe Win.

    The INCB report cites unfavourable climatic conditions, as well as government eradication efforts, as contributing to the decline.

    Burma is one year into a highly-publicised 15-year program to completly stamp out opium production, but is criticised by the United States as well as neighbouring Thailand amongst others for turning a blind eye to much of the trade.

    Soe Win said the drugs, including precursor chemicals used in production, destroyed Saturday had an estimated New York street value of some 920 million dollars.

    Following two days of meetings between senior officials from Burma, Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, ministers approved UN plans to restrict drug chemical ingredients and launch programs in vulnerable neighboring countries.

    The ministers meet every two years to evaluate the progress of cross-border anti-narcotics projects and approve new initiatives devised by the United Nations Drugs Control Programme.

    Collectively they were responsible for more than 75 percent of the world's amphetamine seizures last year, up from 22 percent a decade ago, with China and Burma the major culprits.

    Burma and Afghanistan produce the bulk of the world's heroin which is made from opium.