Daily News- June 18- 2002- Tuesday

  • Khin Nyunt turns down invitation to party
  • Defense lawyers in Myanmar coup trial reject state testimony as weak
  • Myanmar renews heavy attacks on Shan rebels: SSA
  • More Myanmar Muslims invade UN agency to seek asylum
  • Myanmar Enacts Money Laundering Control Law

    • Khin Nyunt turns down invitation to party

    Wassana Nanuam
    The Bangkokpost

    Burmese junta leader Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt has refused to join celebrations to mark the first anniversary of a Thai-Burmese association next month.

    Gen Sanan Kachornkhlam, adviser to the defence minister, said Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, first secretary of the State Peace and Development Council, had turned down Thailand's invitation to a birthday party for the Thai-Burma Cultural and Economic Association.

    Defence Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, the association's Thai advisory chairman, said the event would be delayed.Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt and Gen Chavalit set up the association, which acts as a communications channel when border tension flares.

    ``We had hoped the party would help improve Thai-Burmese ties, but the Burmese side has refused to come. We have delayed it indefinitely until Lt- Gen Khin Nyunt agrees to join,'' an association spokesman said.Gen Chavalit said he would not respond to the latest attacks in Burmese media against him.

    State-owned newspapers claimed the Thai military and Gen Chavalit had distorted recent incidents which sparked Thai-Burmese border tensions.Gen Chavalit said he would not rush to any conclusions after listening only to one side, the media.

    ``My main job is to create peace and maintain friendship. We must be patient when our friends are not in a good mood. It is common for them to use harsh words. No problem,'' the defence minister said.

    Thailand still considered Burma a friend although it was unclear how Burma felt about Thailand.Burma had also decided against sending its foreign minister to the Asia Co- operation Dialogue in Phetchaburi's Cha-am district.``We must have tolerance so as to restore the relationship. We have only two choices, being friends or foes, and we choose to be friends,'' he said.

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    Defense lawyers in Myanmar coup trial reject state testimony as weak

    By AYE AYE WIN

    YANGON, Myanmar (AP) _ A lawyer for four relatives of former Myanmar dictator Ne Win who are accused of treason on Monday slammed the prosecution's testimony, calling it weak and uncorroborated.

    During the defense's first day of arguments, lawyer Tun Sein told a special tribunal that the prosecution has failed to provide enough evidence to back the charges against his four clients.

    Myanmar's military government alleges that Ne Win's son-in-law and three grandsons tried to recruit military units to kidnap junta leaders and force them to form a new regime loyal to Ne Win. They were arrested on March 7.Aye Zaw Win and his sons - Kyaw Ne Win, Aye Ne Win and Zwe Ne Win face charges of high treason, a crime punishable by death. They are also charged with inciting military personnel to commit high treason and the illegal importation and use of telecommunications equipment.

    Presiding judge Aung Ngwe later announced that he will rule on Friday whether to accept the treason charges and proceed with the trial.If he rules in favor of the prosecution, the defendants will be asked to enter their pleas. None of the defendants have commented publicly about the case.

    On Monday, Tun Sein challenged the testimony of the prosecution's main witness, Col. Than Htay, the commander of No. 77 light infantry division.The colonel told authorities that Aye Ne Win, one of the grandsons, told him about a plan to recruit military units to kidnap junta leaders and force them to form a new regime loyal to Ne Win.

    "Col. Than Htay's testimony against the accused is not strong. The conversation between Aye Ne Win and the colonel was not tape recorded nor was there any independent witness at the meeting," Tun Sein said.He also said cash and gifts that were separately given to Ne Win's security unit by the family was only "for the support of the security work and welfare of the troops."

    The prosecution has said the cash and gifts were bribes to recruit the unit in the alleged coup plot.Ne Win, 91, seized power in a bloodless coup in 1962. He led Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, to economic ruin before stepping down in 1988 in the face of pro-democracy demonstrations that were quashed by the military.

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    Myanmar renews heavy attacks on Shan rebels: SSA

    CHIANG MAI, Thailand, June 17 (AFP) - Myanmar troops on Monday renewed their offensive to recapture outposts along the Thai border seized by anti-Yangon Shan rebels, the Shan State Army (SSA) said Monday."There have been heavy clashes with the Shan rebels throughout the night near Pan Kan Kaw", opposite northern Thailand's Chiang Rai district, SSA sources said.

    Myanmar's troops and their allies, the United Wa State Army (UWSA), are attempting to recapture the bases Yangon said were overrun by the rebels last month in bloody clashes which heightened tensions between historic enemies Myanmar and Thailand.

    "About 700 Myanmar soldiers and Wa fighters were involved in the latest battle," SSA spokeswoman Nang Khur Hsen told AFP by telephone from the border."The fighting is continuing at this moment but no casualty figures are available," she said at 1.30 pm (0630 GMT).The SSA claimed last week that over 240 Myanmar and Wa troops had been killed in the fighting along with 13 Shan militia.

    Nang Khur Hsen said SSA members had engaged in several close-range clashes with Wa troops, while Yangon soldiers fired long-range shells on rebel positions.

    There were reports of stray shells from Myanmar landing on Thai soil, said a villager in Mae Hong Son, a Thai border town."The situation on the Thai side of the border remained tense and still under tight security," he added.

    Yangon announced it was staging an all-out offensive against the SSA on June 4.Last Friday, Myanmar's ruling military junta said it had recaptured 11 bases along the Thai border taken by ethnic Shan rebels in May, and that the base at Pang Mae Sueng was the only remaining outpost in Shan hands. The SSA rejected the junta's claim.

    The SSA is one of two major armed insurgency groups in Myanmar yet to sign a ceasefire agreement with Yangon, which deems the group a terrorist outfit engaged in the drug trade.Myanmar's leaders are widely accused of complicity in the country's huge drug trade and of turning a blind eye to the massive narcotics production in areas held by ethnic armies -- particularly the UWSA, the world's largest armed militia said to be funded by drugs.

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    More Myanmar Muslims invade UN agency to seek asylum

    KUALA LUMPUR, June 18 (AFP) - A new group of Muslim illegal immigrants from Myanmar invaded the grounds of a UN refugee agency here Tuesday to demand asylum, joining others camping at the centre.At dawn, nine men from Myanmar's minority Rohingya Muslim community entered the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) centre, bringing to 18 the number of immigrants camped at the compound.

    On Monday, six men, two boys and a woman, invaded the grounds of the agency, refusing to leave until they were granted refugee status.

    UNHCR officers said although they were sympathetic to the plight of the immigrants from military-ruled Myanmar, they had to "act carefully" to avoid encouraging similar invasions in the future."We will try our best to help them, but at the same time we cannot afford for this to happen," UNHCR protection officer Shinji Kubo told AFP.He said UNHCR officers would try to arrange to talk to individual members of the group, adding that time and language constraints slowed the process of interviewing them.

    "There are certain cooperation obligations they have to follow for us to evaluate their request, and we need to go through all the cases individually."So if everyone takes such decisive and hasty action, we cannot help other refugees who have been patiently waiting for their turn to be interviewed," he said.

    Kubo said he was unsure of what would be done should the immigrants refuse to leave the centre, declining to say if police and immigration officers would be called in to take control."We haven't discussed the situation, but we will continue to try and develop some sort of understanding."

    The Muslim immigrants said they were alarmed by the government's recent crackdown on illegal workers, adding that there was no other place for them to turn to as they were being persecuted in their own country."We are very scared now, and we don't want to live in fear anymore," Haron Din, 32, told AFP.

    Malaysia has announced it will end an amnesty period for some 600,000 illegal workers on July 31, after which those remaining here will face harsh new punishments including whipping.Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is also home (interior) minister, said Monday that the amended penalties would be imposed from August 1.

    Under the new law, anyone found guilty of illegal entry or harbouring illegal immigrants would face a mandatory six months in jail and/or up to six strokes of the cane.In January, more than two dozen Rohingya migrants stormed the centre to seek asylum, but were handed over to immigration officials who said they would be deported.Around 2,500 Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar for Malaysia in 1991-92 alleging persecution by the army, but most were later repatriated with the help of the United Nations.

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    Myanmar Enacts Money Laundering Control Law

    YANGON, June 18 (Xinhuanet) -- The ruling Myanmar State Peace and Development Council has enacted the Control of Money Laundering Law to control and take effective actions against money and property obtained by illegal means.

    According to an announcement of the council Tuesday, the 11-chapter law, promulgated on Monday night, aims to curb the rise ofsuch offenses, and at the same time to prevent the executive, economic and social sectors from using such illegal money and property and to strengthen cooperation with international and regional organizations and neighboring countries in fight against the crime.

    Under the law, any person residing permanently in the country, who is charged with money laundering within or outside Myanmar, will be punished. The law empowers the government to form a Central Control Boardon Money Laundering with the minister of Home Affairs as its chairman.

    The law warns that different offenses committed under this law will be punished in imprisonment ranging from at least three years up to 10 years or a maximum of an unlimited period, depending on the degree of the crimes committed.

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