Daily News-November 01 - 2001- Thursday

  • EU extends sanctions on Myanmar for six more months
  • Exiled monk group holds junta responsible for religious riots
  • Myanmar Media Complain Getting Least Foreign Aid

    • EU extends sanctions on Myanmar for six more months

    BRUSSELS, Oct 31 (AFP) - The European Union has extended sanctions against Myanmar for another six months, citing "continuing serious and systematic human rights violations," the latest edition of the EU official journal said.

    It said the extension was decided by EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg this week. The sanctions, renewed last April and which expired on October 29, ban members of Myanmar's ruling junta from traveling to EU member states. They also include an embargo on EU weapons sales to Myanmar, and limit aid to the humanitarian sector.
    Exiled monk group holds junta responsible for religious riots

    BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Oct 31, 2001
    Text of statement issued by the ABYMU Central Leading Committee on 29 October, place not given; published in English by Burmese opposition electronic newspaper BurmaNet News on 29 October

    All Burma Young Monks Union [ABYMU] statement concerning the religious riots currently occurring between Buddhists and Muslims in Burma

    1. The religious riots occurring widely in Burma between Buddhists and Muslims is a situation that cannot be ignored. It is our belief that this is happening because SPDC [State Peace and Development Council] is failing to take effective action, and because of the extremist followers of Usamah Bin-Ladin in Burma as a consequences of the American-Afghan conflict.

    2. The SPDC military regime has always maintained that they support Buddhism to shine like the sun and the moon and for Buddhist monks to live in accordance with the Winitaw rules. When the Taleban, supported by Usamah Bin-Ladin, were destroying the Buddha images in Afghanistan, the SPDC made no requests or protests, took no diplomatic action or discussed the matter with the Taleban. However, there was considerable dissatisfaction amongst the Buddhists.

    3. Buddhist believe that the SPDC failed to act as they did not want to risk losing the political support and economic investments they were receiving from Muslim states such as Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia.

    4. Furthermore, many Muslims support the Afghans in the current conflict between the Americans and Afghanistan and the Burmese who support the Americans are finding themselves in conflict with local Muslims.

    5. The SPDC military regime who have proclaimed themselves to be the official government of Burma and took responsibility for the administration of Burma has failed to act properly and has oppressed the Buddhists. U Shaku, a prominent local Muslim, has given regional SPDC administrators 2,100,000 kyat to support his campaign. The religious conflict worsened when it became known that two Buddhist monks had been killed by the SPDC. Some monks were arrested and forced to leave the order and some students from Pyay University were also arrested and dismissed from their school.

    Therefore, with regard to this situation, ABYMU makes the statement that the SPDC is entirely responsible for this state of affairs.
    Myanmar Media Complain Getting Least Foreign Aid

    YANGON, October 31 (Xinhuanet) -- The official newspaper The New Light of Myanmar Wednesday complained that the country received the least amount of foreign aid coming through the United Nations.

    The paper quoted a human development report of 2001 as saying that in 1999, Myanmar got only 73.2 million U.S. dollars or 1.6 dollars per person of foreign aid coming through the organization, adding that it was the lowest amount obtained as compared with 11 other neighboring countries.

    "When all the travelling allowances and monthly salaries of the foreign staff and the cost for meetings are deducted, the actual amount of aid received by Myanmar per person would be only 0.25 dollar," the paper said in an article titled "Wishing to Share Surplus Food with Others".

    The paper claimed that despite the least amount of assistance it is receiving, "the government is able to feed the people well" due to the fact, which it said, that the government can provide surplus amount of food for its people out of its endeavors.

    The paper also quoted the report as saying in support of its claim that the percentage of the undernourished people of Myanmar accounted for only seven percent of its population, the lowest compared with other countries as shown in the figures of the report. The paper pointed out that the developed nations of the world, which are enjoying the upper hand in the global trade, should have the responsibility to help the developing nations, warning not to neglect them which are their markets.

    The paper reiterated that "the state never takes any assistance from any foreign nation or organization in carrying out the endeavors, but relies only on the internal strength".