Daily News- January 30 - 2002- Wednesday

  • Norwegian Prime Minister ask China to put pressure on Burma
  • The Campaign Continues in Malta
  • South Korea, Burma discuss IT cooperation
  • Burmans being resettled in southern Shan State
  • Suu Kyi met with Myanmar military leader Than Shwe
  • Third Meeting of Committee of Experts/Officials of BIMST-EC Energy Sector Cooperation Programme Held
  • Promotion of Technological and Economic Cooperation Discussed
  • Kuming-Mandalay Air-link to be Launched

    • Norwegian Prime Minister ask China to put pressure on Burma

    source : Burmapeacecampaign
    by Jonas Tjersland/Worldview Rights 2002-01-22

    Norway’s Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik said Tuesday that China had to use its influence to stress the need for democracy in Burma and other countries in Asia during a meeting with Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

    A large delegation of Norwegian business leaders traveled last Friday with Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik to China. Tuesday Kjell Magne Bondevik met the Chinese President Jiang Zemin, which is viewed as the climax for the state visit. Bondevik and Jiang Zemin had a pleasant meeting. The meeting lasted 25 minutes more than the agreed time.

    Bondevik asked Jiang Zemin to enforce the military regime in Burma to make a peaceful transition to democracy. He underlined that the dialogue between the military regime and the democratic Party National League for Democracy is a step in a democratic direction.They also discussed technology cooperation, Chinas membership in WTO, the fight against terrorism and human rights.

    Bondevik emphasized that the fight against terrorism not should affect innocent people, Bondevik’s spokesperson Gunnar Huasan said to the Norwegian newspaper Nettavisen.

    According to spokesperson Gunnar Husan, Jiang Zemin did not protest on any of Bondeviks statements.

    The delegation will travel on to South Korea. General Secretary Rune Hersvik in the Norwegian human rights organization Worldview Rights is assisting Bondevik when he visits South Korea. Mr. Hersvik and Worldview Rights has been involved in the establishing a cultural dialogue between South- and North-Korea, and organized a peace concert in Seoul in October 2000.

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    The Campaign Continues in Malta

    source : Burmapeacecampaign
    by Jonas Tjersland/Worldview Rights 2002-01-17

    The Global Liberation and Unity on Earth organization on Malta has started the next step working with the Nobel Peace Laureate Campaign for Aung San Suu Kyi.

    The organization has participated in a number of television programs where they focused on the story of the Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

    “We presented the story of Suu Kyi in order to create awareness about her case", spokesperson Bianca Zammit in The Global Liberation and Unity on Earth said.

    Zammit also added that they have organized demonstrations and given out flyers. They have started collecting signatures in a number of towns in Malta. "We intend to send it to the government of Burma”, Zammit said.

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    South Korea, Burma discuss IT cooperation

    BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jan 29, 2002
    Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap

    Seoul, 29 January: Minister of Information and Communication Yang Seung-taik discussed ways of improving bilateral cooperation in the IT industry with Brig-Gen Thein Zaw, minister of telecommunications, post and telegraphs of Myanmar [Burma], the ministry said Tuesday [29 January].

    In the meeting, the Myanmar minister, currently on a trip to Seoul to study the introduction of CDMA technology, said cooperating with South Korea in the CDMA sector is essential to boosting the segment in Myanmar.

    Yang asked the minister to attend the second IT ministerial meeting due to open in Seoul in June during the FIFA World Cup soccer finals.

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    Burmans being resettled in southern Shan State

    Shan Herald Agency for News: 29 January 2002: No: 01 - 13:

    Refugees arriving in Chiangmai told S.H.A.N. hundreds of families from lowland Burma are being located in southern Shan State since the dry season began.

    Kengtawng, a historic area huddled up against five townships, namely: Namzarng, Kunhing, Mongnai, Langkher and Mongpan and the center of the mass forced relocations in 1996-98 has become a place bustling with resettlers from Burma proper, according to several sources.

    "3-4 trucks arrive each day to unload Burmese civilians in Nawnghee and Tonghoong tracts, escorted by Burmese soldiers," said one. "They've been filling up the homes and fields vacated by the Shans who have been relocated elsewhere since five years ago. Some of them are even trying to seize occupied residences and domains."

    The forced relocation program had taken place in 11 townships and had put 1,478 villages and 55,957 households on the run, according to Shan Human Rights Foundation.

    Two separate sources reported last year that 3,000 Burmese families were to be resettled in the area. In contrast, Namzarng, the neighboring township, has only 600 families related to members of the military.

    "When we complained to the soldiers, they laughed and said we could go anywhere we wanted if we were not satisfied. 'Don't think we will be afraid of you leaving us', taunted one junior officer," said one of the villagers from Kengtawng.

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    Suu Kyi met with Myanmar military leader Than Shwe

    YANGON, Myanmar (AP) _ Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been holding reconciliation talks with the ruling military, secretly met with Myanmar's junta leader last week, diplomatic sources said Wednesday.

    A diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Suu Kyi met on Jan. 22 with Senior Gen. Than Shwe, the chairman of the State Peace and Development Council, as the ruling junta calls itself.

    This will be the first meeting between Than Shwe and Suu Kyi this year and one of the very few times that they would have talked face to face. Than Shwe has the final say in all significant policy matters in Myanmar.

    A resident living near Suu Kyi's house on University Avenue confirmed that she was driven out in a military car on Jan. 22 and returned about two hours later.

    It was one of the rare occasions when she has been allowed to leave her house since being placed under de facto house arrest in September 2000 when she defied a government travel ban on her.

    It was not known what she and Than Shwe talked about, but the talks are likely to have centered around the ongoing reconciliation process that some diplomats fear have stalled.

    The military and the opposition have been holding closed-door talks since October 2000 to end the country's political deadlock over the junta's refusal to hand over power to Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party.

    The NLD won the 1990 general elections, but the junta refuses to recognize the results. After 1990, the military rulers put hundreds of NLD members in jail but some 200 have been released since the start of the reconciliation talks.

    Neither side has divulged the contents of the talks and no substantive outcome has been reported except for the prisoner releases. Frustrated over the slow progress of the "confidence-building talks," the NLD had demanded on Myanmar's Independence Day on Jan. 4 that talks should move to a "meaningful political dialogue."

    The military did not immediately comment on the Jan. 22 meeting between Suu Kyi and Than Shwe. NLD spokesman and Secretary U Lwin declined to comment.

    The first time Than Shwe met Suu Kyi was in 1994 when she was under house arrest. That meeting was reported in the official media. Than Shwe's other meeting with Suu Kyi in October 2000 at the start of the reconciliation talks were kept secret and never officially announced.

    The reconciliation process was arranged through mediation by the United Nations special envoy Razali Ismail, who is scheduled to visit Myanmar again on Feb. 4

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    Third Meeting of Committee of Experts/Officials of BIMST-EC Energy Sector Cooperation Programme Held

    MIC-Information Sheet N0. C-2102 ( I ) 29th January, 2002

    The third meeting of Committee of Experts/Officials of the BIMST-EC Energy Sector Cooperation Programme was held at the Sofitel Plaza in Yangon on 28 January. It was attended by the ministers, deputy ministers, ambassadors and officials of embassies of BIMST-EC, delegates of BIMST-EC member countries and invited guests.

    At the meeting, the reports were presented by the delegates of Thailand, India and Myanmar on the status of implementation of the development of energy infrastructure (Natural gas) project in the BIMST-EC region, the status of the implementation of the development of new and renewable sources of energy project in the BIMST-EC region and the suggested format for collecting, compilation and consolidation of the energy information and data for BIMST-EC member countries and the status of the establishment of the Energy Information Centre in Myanmar. The meeting continues on 29 January.

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    Promotion of Technological and Economic Cooperation Discussed

    MIC-Information Sheet N0. C-2102 ( I ) 29th January, 2002

    A 20-member agriculture, forestry and livestock breeding delegation led by Mr. Li Weiguo of Bureau of State Farms and Land Reclamation of the Ministry of Agriculture of the People`s Republic of China discussed promotion of technological and economic cooperation between the two countries with Myanmar delegation at the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation on 28 January.

    They discussed prospects for establishment of agricultural research and development centre, technological cooperation in rubber cultivation, establishment of fertilizer plant and production of hybrid crops and farm machinery.

    The Chinese delegation arrived Yangon on 27 January for detailed implementation of agricultural cooperation discussed during President Jiang Zemin`s goodwill visit to Myanmar in December 2001. During their one-week stay, they will visit the Ministry of Forestry and the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries and departments under the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation.

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    Kuming-Mandalay Air-link to be Launched

    MIC-Information Sheet N0. C-2102 ( I ) 29th January, 2002

    A coordination meeting on operating the twice-a-week Kuming-Mandalay-Kuming flight by China Yunnan Airlines of Yunnan Province of the People`s Republic of China was held at the meeting hall of the Ministry of Transport in Yangon on 28 January. At the meeting, the programmes to be extended for the project have been presented.

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