Daily News- October 13- 2002- Sunday

  • Traders expectant as Burma poised to reopen border
  • Seminar tells NGOs about Burmese workers in Mae Sot poorly paid
  • Political reform the answer to Myanmar humanitarian crisis: Suu Kyi

    • Traders expectant as Burma poised to reopen border

    Source : AFP

    Traders from Burma and Thailand, reeling from the economic fallout of a five-month border closure, are eagerly awaiting Burma's reopening of its major checkpoints this week.

    Burma slammed shut all its border crossings into Thailand in May, after deadly clashes erupted between government troops and ethnic Shan rebels, which Rangoon accused Thailand of assisting.

    After months of wrangling, meetings in Rangoon last week between Thai and Burmese officials cleared the way for the resumption of cross-border trade which is a vital conduit for a range of essential items exported to impoverished Burma.

    After decades of military rule, Burma is far from self-sufficient, and although many products are imported from China, its citizens say Thai goods are generally superior.

    But Burmese traders remain worried that the continuing instability of the kyat currency -- not to mention perenially rocky bilateral ties -- may hinder an immediate resumption of two-way trade when the gates are unlocked on Tuesday.

    The kyat has plummetted dramatically since the border closed, trading at around 1,260 against the dollar on the blackmarket last week compared to 860 beforehand.

    "Demand for the greenback is increasing with the prospect of the border reopening," said one Rangoon-based businessman.

    "We have to monitor the situation before restarting official cross-border trade to avoid running into trouble," he said, explaining he will lose money if he buys goods and fails to move them on before the kyat depreciates further.

    The closure of the three main checkpoints -- Tachilek-Mae Sai, Myawaddy-Mae Sot and Kawthaung-Ranong -- have cost Thai traders more than a billion baht (22.8 million dollars), according to estimates in the Thai press.

    Currency trader Ahr Shaw Yone, based in the southern Thai city of Ranong, is one businesswoman who has been severely hit by the protracted row.

    "My customers usually changed at least 500,000 baht daily when the border was open," she said. "But for the time being it is impossible for my regular customers to come here."

    Some of her customers have instead sent her cash and letters requesting her help in buying desperately-needed Thai food and medicine via boat drivers who illegally ply the narrow gulf between Ranong and Kawthaung, she said.

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    Seminar tells NGOs about Burmese workers in Mae Sot poorly paid

    Source : Bangkok Post

    More than 10 million transnational workers in the Asia-Pacific region may become victims of human trafficking and human rights violations, a seminar was told yesterday.

    Irene Fernandez, chairwoman of the Kuala Lumpur-based Caram-Asia, said more than 10 million workers had moved within the region to work in other countries.

    These included Thais working in Malaysia and Singapore and other countries in the region.

    ``Many have fallen victim to human trafficking movements,'' she told the final day of a week-long workshop in Mae Sot district for non-governmental organisations that were looking at ways to protect alien workers from human rights violations.

    Delegates urged Thai NGOs to look into allegations that Burmese workers in Mae Sot were unfairly paid.

    NGOs from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Malaysia, Burma and Thailand attended the workshop.

    Ms Fernandez said many alien workers were at risk of physical abuse such as slave labour, unfair wages and poor welfare, whether or not they ended up there as victims of human trafficking.

    The NGOs agreed to write to concerned agencies demanding measures to protect alien labour.

    They would also publish a handbook containing guidelines on how to treat and help alien workers.

    They asked the MAP Foundation to represent them in requesting an investigation into allegations that 144 Burmese employees working for a knitting company in Mae Sot had not been paid by the firm, and that one Burmese worker was hurt during a strike which took place on Oct 4.

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    Political reform the answer to Myanmar humanitarian crisis: Suu Kyi

    BANGKOK, Oct 13 (AFP) - Political reform, not more foreign aid, is the best way to combat Myanmar's mounting humanitarian crisis, pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said in a videotaped interview released here Sunday.

    "What I would like to say is the most important aspect of humanitarian assistance or any kind of assistance is good governance," she said in the interview with Thailand-based rights group ALTSEAN Burma, which was filmed in August.

    "Unless there is good governance, you cannot ensure that the assistance will really benefit the country."So, we cannot say often enough that good governance is the answer to Burma's humanitarian problems," she said, using Myanmar's former name.

    Aung San Suu Kyi has been a staunch supporter of the international sanctions against military-ruled Myanmar introduced following the brutal repression of 1988 pro-democracy protests and the 1990 elections won by her National League for Democracy (NLD) but ignored by the junta.Under the sanctions led by the United States and the European Union, all but a small amount of humanitarian aid is banned.

    But in August Aung San Suu Kyi appeared to soften her stance on the issue, telling Japan's foreign minister Yoriko Kawaguchi during her visit to Myanmar that aid might be acceptable if it fell within strict guidelines.

    In the latest released interview, the Nobel peace laureate said that accountability, transparency and independent monitoring were essential if aid was to be delivered properly.

    "Unless there is accountability and transparency, you can never say what happens to all that assistance," she said."It is possible that there are some forms of humanitarian aid that can be used properly at this time because there's accountability and transparency and at the same time it is possible that there so kinds of development aid which also fit the bill."

    Aung San Suu Kyi took issue with the claim that the humanitarian crisis -- including soaring AIDS rates, poor food supply and broken down health and education systems -- could not wait for political change.

    "I think what I would like to say is that Burma cannot wait for political change, we need it now!" she said.

    The charismatic democracy leader has been engaged in UN-brokered reconciliation talks with the junta since October 2000, but they are yet to move beyond a confidence-building phase.Hopes of a breakthrough grew in May with her release from 19 months of house arrest, but since then the landmark talks are widely believed to have stalled.

    Australia's foreign minister Alexander Downer, who met Myanmar's generals and Aung San Suu Kyi earlier this month, said the talks had fallen into a "hiatus" and that the opposition leader was now sceptical about the junta's promises of democratic reform.

    Myanmar dissidents earlier this month also urged the international community to withhold aid until the ruling generals commit themselves to real democratic reform.

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