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BurmaNet News: November 25, 1994
- Subject: BurmaNet News: November 25, 1994
- From: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 24 Nov 1994 22:11:00
************************** BurmaNet **************************
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
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BurmaNet News: Friday, November 25 1994
Issue #70
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Contents:
1 NATION: MYSTERY ILLNESS STRIKES HUNDREDS IN BURMESE TOWN
2 AP: SENIOR U.N. OFFICAL VISITS BURMA
3 BKK POST: UN ENVOY SEES BURMA OFFICIALS
4 BKK POST: EXCHANGE RATE IMPRISONS BURMESE ECONOMY
5 BKK POST: CHATICHAI CRITICAL OF GOVT'S FOREIGN POLICY
6 BKK POST: THAI-BURMESE FISHING CONTEST FOR CLOSER TIES
7 BKK POST: TOURIST VISAS MAY BE ISSUED AT RANGOON AIRPORT
8 AIR MANDALAY READY TO RIDE NEW BURMESE TOURISM WAVE
9 BURMANET: SEEKS BURMESE FONT/SOFTWARE INFO
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NATION: MYSTERY ILLNESS STRIKES HUNDREDS IN BURMESE TOWN
November 24, 1994
Hundreds of people have fled their homes in a ruby mining area of
northeastern Burma after an outbreak of a fatal mystery disease,
gem miners and other sources said yesterday.
People were leaving the gem mining town of Mong Hsu and villages in
the surrounding area after what gem industry sources arriving on
the Thai-Burmese borders said were dozens of deaths from the
illness.
One miner who lives near Mong Hsu hospital estimated that four or
five people were dying of the illness every day. He said the
bodies of the victims were brought past his house. "People are very
scared. Many of them have fled the town," he said.
The victims suffered high fever and died after a few weeks in
hospital, the sources said.
The countryside around ruby -rich Mong Hsu in central Shan state is
under the influence of opium warlord Khun Sa, who buys stones to
supply his gem factories.
A source from Khun Sa's guerrilla organization, which is fighting
the Burmese government confirmed that many people were fleeing the
mystery outbreak. But he did not know the cause of what he
described as a flu-like fever. (TN)
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AP: SENIOR U.N. OFFICAL VISITS BURMA
November 24, 1994
RANGOON, Burma (AP) -- A senior U.N. official on a four-day visit
to examine human rights in Burma met Wednesday with Lt. Gen. Khin
Nyunt, strongman of the country's ruling junta.
U.N. Undersecretary-General Rafeeuddin Ahmed met with Khin Nyunt
for 90 minutes on the final day of his visit, the government news
agency reported. Details of the talks were not available.
Rafeeuddin is the highest ranked U.N. official to visit Burma
since the junta took power after suppressing pro-democracy
demonstrations in 1988. The junta has refused to recognize the
results of 1990 elections won by the National League for Democracy.
The junta agreed this year to allow the United Nations to serve
as intermediary in discussing international concerns about human
rights and the lack of democracy.
Rafeeuddin's visit came three weeks after Thomas Hubbard, the
U.S. deputy assistant secretary for East Asia, met with Nyunt to
discuss human rights, democracy and drug trafficking.
Despite Burma's efforts to improve its international image,
serious human rights abuses persist according to a report delivered
this week to the U.N. General Assembly.
Professor Yozo Yokota of Japan, a special investigator for the
U.N. Human Rights Commission, said summary executions, rape,
torture and forced labor are continuing.
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BKK POST: UN ENVOY SEES BURMA OFFICIALS
November 24, 1994
A senior UN envoy has met Burmese officials overseeing a new
constitution being drawn up in Rangoon, Burmese state television
reported. The television said in a broadcast monitored in Bangkok
late on Tuesday that Raffeuddin Ahmed, envoy for the UN
secretary-general Boutros Boutros Ghali, was briefed on Tuesday by
officials from Burma's national convention working committee.
Burma's junta opened the constitutional convention in January last
year, charging the 600 delegates, the majority of whom had been
handpicked, with drawing up a charter which will guarantee the
military a "leading role" in politics.
Exiled dissidents have dismissed the proceedings as a "sham." The
detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in talks with a US
Congressman in February said the meeting was "an absolute farce".
The junta scrapped the previous constitution shortly after crushing
a democracy uprising in 1988 with heavy loss of life.
It later refused to recognise a 1990 election victory by a
democracy party led by Aung San Suu Kyi.
On Tuesday a UN human rights report accused the Burmese authorities
of torture, rape, forced labour, destruction of property, looting
and summary executions, and said there had been scant improvement
in the rights situation over the last year.
Ahmed, who arrived in Burma at the weekend, is the most senior UN
official to visit Burma since Foreign Minister Ohn Gyaw told an
Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Bangkok in July
that the Burmese junta had accepted a UN invitation to join in a
dialogue. (BP)
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BKK POST: EXCHANGE RATE IMPRISONS BURMESE ECONOMY
November 24, 1994
By Victor Mallet
Rangoon, FT
Fear of persecution is not an emotion normally associated with
seminars on financial markets, but then Burma's military junta
does not preside over a normal financial system. After 32 years of
socialist military dictatorship, it runs one of the world's
poorest and least sophisticated economies. "It is time to take
appropriate steps for the formal opening of a stock exchange in
Yangon (Rangoon), " declared Brig-Gen Win Tin, the Burmese finance
minister, at a recent seminar sponsored by Japan's Daiwa Institute.
But the Burmese bureaucrats, academic and businessmen attending
the meeting were visibly fightened to be asked by journalists for
their views on Burma's economic policies and the prospects of a
stock market. They shuffled their feet nervously and said they
could not speak without official permission. Particularly unwelcome
were questions about the most urgent financial issue confronting
the junta- the over valued official exchange rate of the kyat, the
local currency.
The exchange rate policy of the State Law and Order Restoration
Council (Slorc) - as the junta calls itself - restricts both
inward foreign investment and Burmese exports. Investors and
exporters would receive far too few kyat for their dollars if they
ran their business in a conventional manner, and they have been
forced to a avoid the obstacle by engaging in complex joint
ventures or barter arrangements involving the export of beans and
other agricultural produce.
Slorc's obsession with an artificially strong currency would also
block the disbursement of funds from the World bank, the
International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank, if
such funds were not already blocked by western protests against
Slorc's many human rights abuses. Slorc generals, trained as
soldiers rather than economists, talk vaguely of an eventual
"convergence" between the official and unofficial rates. They argue
that the exchange rate is not a problem because they tolerate
dealings on the black market, but the policy distorts the Burmese
economy in several ways. The armed forces and state owned
enterprises, for example, are allowed to import weapons and raw
materials at the official rate, which means they pay
unrealistically low amounts of kyat for their imports. And the
official exchange rate is used to calculate all import tariffs,
depriving the government of mush- needed tax revenue.
"They are always talking about a market-oriented economy," says Mr
Ho Chin Berg, chief representative in Rangoon of the Development
Bank of Singapore. "But the one main stumbling block remains the
official exchange rate of the kyat."
The Slorc's reluctance to temper with the exchange rate is based
partly on its collective respect for Gen Ne Win, the 83 year-old
former dictator who, from his retirement, is believed to exercise
considerable control over younger generals. He is adamantly
opposed to devaluation on nationalistic grounds. Slorc general also
fear that a devaluation will boost inflation - already running at
an estimated 40 per cent - and anger the poor by increasing the
cost of basic products such as cooking oil. These are sold by the
state enterprises that currently enjoy a hefty exchange rate
subsidy.
In the past few years, Burma's generals have embarked on a series
of economic reforms. They have encouraged foreign investment,
eased restrictions on tourists, liberalised agriculture, legalised
the vigorous border trade with China and Thailand and allowed the
establishment of private banks and private hotels.Foreign
companies, particularly from Singapore and Thailand, have
responded enthusiastically. Twenty big hotels are under
construction in Rangoon. Seventeen foreign banks have been
licensed to open representative offices. Newly-imported
second-hand cars are creating the first traffic jams for a
generation. Consumer goods such as televisions are on display in
the shops, and economic growth last year is estimated at 6 per
cent. In its efforts to revive the economy, the Slorc has even
risked incurring Gen Ne Win's wrath by introducing currency notes
in sensible decimal denominations such as 10 and 100. For years
the Burmese had to count their money laboriously in notes of 90
and 45 because nine was the general's lucky number. Slorc minister
have also tentatively begun to raise the cost of basic services
for the country's 43 million inhabitants towards more realistic
levels. Last year, Rangoon bus fares were doubled to two kyat
(about two US cents at the freemarket rate); the price of
electricity has just increased fivefold. Reforms implemented so far
have encouraged construction and consumer spending and attracted
hoteliers and crafty foreign commodity traders to Burma. But many
Japanese and western companies are reluctant ti invest in a country
where the regime is unpopular with its subjects, the banking system
remains primitive, corruption and bureaucracy are rampant and
repatriation of profits depends on the ability to export beans or
lentils. (BP)
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BKK POST: CHATICHAI CRITICAL OF GOVT'S FOREIGN POLICY
November 24, 1994
FORMER prime minister Chatichai Choonhavan yesterday vowed to
continue to correct failures in Thai foreign policy which, he
claims, have raised doubts about Thailand's intentions in the
Mekong sub-region. "Thailand, unfortunately, has not had a very
good press lately. "Thai military personnel have been ac- cused of
continuing collusion with the Khmer Rouge; Thai citizens have been
accused of involvement in a coup attempt in Cambodia; we've pushed
members of persecuted Burmese minorities back across the
Thai-Burmese border; we've deported a Malaysian religious leader
without proper legal procedure. "All these events have raised
doubts about our good intentions and the reliability of our
regional foreign policy," Gen Chatichai said. He was addressing a
dinner last night as part of the forum on "The Greater Mekong
sub-region: Investment Opportunities through Economic Cooperation"
organised by the Thai-Canada Economic Cooperation foundation and
the Office of the National Economic and Social development Board
(NESDB).
The meeting opens today and will be attended by key personalities
in the Me- kong sub-region including Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai,
Asian Development Bank representative Noritada Morita and others
from Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and China's Yunnan Province.
Gen Chatichai said that while much progress was made in the
economies of Indochina, Burma and Yunnan since they made reforms
in the late 1980s, he questioned if Thailand could still play a
catalytic role for continued growth in the sub-region, given doubts
about its intentions. "When such doubts exits, Thailand's
potential role as catalyst for continued rapid growth through out
the region is diminished. "Through my role as leader of a major
opposition party in Parliament, I aim to do my best to correct
such policy failures," he said. Gen Chatichai also gave a word of
cau- tion to potential investors in the subregion to take into
account the social and political tensions which frequently arise
given the rapid economic progress is always uneven.
However, he expressed confidence the Burma and the three
Indochinese countries will be able to manage these social and
political tensions, based on prosepects for a better life for
their people.
He said their early membership of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations would help smooth the transition from command to
market economics and from more rigid political structures to more
flexible and open ones. (BP)
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BKK POST: THAI-BURMESE FISHING CONTEST FOR CLOSER TIES
November 24, 1994
The recent Thailand-Myanmar Fishing Contest was a sign of further
close ties between this coastal province and nearby Burma.
The Ranong Fishing Club organised the contest at Ko Dewin, south of
Matthew Island, better known by Thai fishermen as the Yan Chuek
group of islands.
Contest organiser Yodchai Chalopathum said Burmese authorities were
very cooperative, sending customs officers to issue visas to
contestants in Ranong. They also led the inspection of the area
Yan Chuek area. (BP)
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BKK POST: TOURIST VISAS MAY BE ISSUED AT RANGOON AIRPORT
November 24, 1994
Burma has agrees in principle to a Thai proposal that tourist visas
should be issued at Rangoon Airport instead of at the Burmese
Embassy in Bangkok. Vinai Ruengcharuwattana of the Phuket chamber
of commerce's tourism committee said that the issue was raised
during a recent visit to Rangoon by chamber president Kunchit
Kampanuwat, who had been invited there by Burma's Tourism
Minister.
Mr Kunchit said that tourists travelling on to Burma from Phuket
would greatly appreciate being able to obtain visas on arrival at
Rangoon, and Burma would receive more visitors as a result.
The Phuket chamber believes that the resort area can play a role in
helping to promote regional tourism, said Mr Vinai. He noted that
Singaporean and Malaysian businesspeople have approached Phuket
investors about tourism projects the from of hotels.
At Ko Basin, a Burmese island near Ranong Province, Malaysian
businessmen have obtained a concession to establish a resort and
it is expected that a casino will also be set up.
In 1996, which Rangoon is promoting as Visit Myanmar Year, many
international visitors are expected to travel to Burma via
Thailand. The Phuket chamber has begun lobbying for an air route
from southern Thailand, especially from Phuket, to Burmese
destinations.
Mr Vinai also said that promotion of links to Phuket should not be
limited to Phang-nga and Krabi as in the past. Thailand, he said,
ought to look to its neighbouring countries for more tourism and
investment links. Because Phuket is a world renowned sailing
centre, many ships from Australia, New Zealand and, Indonesia,
Malaysia and Singapore sail around the Andaman, calling on
Phuket. The route can be expanded to include Burma, India and Sri
Lanka. (BP)
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AIR MANDALAY READY TO RIDE NEW BURMESE TOURISM WAVE
November 24, 1994
[Source uncertain]
When Launent Desmazieres set up Mekong Land in April 1993, it was
with the idea of capitalising on Thailand as the gateway to
Indochina and Burma. He says that dream is now being realised with
the lunch of Air Mandalay's route schedule linking Rangoon, Pagan
and Mandalay.
It's the first step in bringing Burma into the international
tourism picture, he says, adding that once the airline is up and
functioning , planes are to extend services to other
destinations, linking Burma to Thailand and Malaysia. "We see
Thailand as a regional platform because of air access, developed
infrastructure and the fact that the Land of Smiles can be seen as
a composite of the region's different cultures," Mr Desmazieres
told Horizons. "it is also that from Thailand, it is one step
backward into a world that has so far resisted changes. Burma'
like Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, is still unspoiled, its culture
still intact and very much the way it has always been." Mr
Desmazieres has been focussing on travel in Asia for more than 25
years. In 1971, while still a graduate student at the elite Ecole
Superieur de Commerce in Paris, he set up jumbo Travel, the first
tour agency geared to the mediumend of the market that had just
begun to travel overseas to Asia. It proved to be a bigger success
than he expected and when Air France offered to buy out the Jumbo
operation and incorporate it into its own programme he let it go,
but not part of that and came into being to serve Burma and
Indochina -- "Asia's most important destinations for the future,"
he says. Why? "Because as 'discovery' tourist destinations, they
are new, unknown and unspoiled. And once visitors come to Asia,
they want to return but at the same time, they want to experience
something new and different. "I like to be a pioneer -- it's part
of my nature -- and also because it is easier to start something
fresh before it has been spoiled by others," he says, adding that
Burma was ready for the development of the kind of discovery
products he had in mind.
"In 1989, I had started up Lanna Air Tours, offering five day trips
to Mandalay and Pagan from Chiang Mai, so I was already familiar
with the authorities and I knew what they wanted."
"Burma was ready to change and they were already talking about
opening up and being part of the world, ad no longer an isolated
and forgotten country. This realisation was there because they
knew that the only way to help develop the country and improve the
people's living standard was to open, and international tourism
could help them accomplish just this." In July 1993, on one of his
exploratory trips to Rangoon, he met with U Myo Lwin, in charge of
tourist development projects, and discussed various options. The
majour problems, MR Desmazieres said, were access and circulation.
"Burma was a big country that had been closed for more than 40
years; the roads and trains were at best a painful experience, if
you had to depend on them to get around.
"It was also accessary to create a new awareness of the product and
to 'polish' it for the international market. My recommendation to
him at the time was to develop a reliable domestic and regional
air service which they didn't have."
"Myanmar International, a joint venture with a Singapore group,
held the concession to develop an international route system.
Myanmar Airways was a domestic network, using seven old Fokker
aircraft, and this would not be acceptable to international
tourists."
The matter was held in abeyance until he came in contact with a
Singapore group that was interested in regional air services.
"I was introduced to them as someone who had experience in
Indochina and Burma and they asked my advice. I told them about
Lanna Air Tours and why I thought, based on my previous
conversation with the Burmese, that the kind of opportunities they
were looking for -- a specialised regional air charter/feeder
service -- existed in Burma and the timing was right to do
something was right to do something about it."
Out of that meeting with the Singapore Techmat Group -- a
diversified trading, aerospace and investment conglomerate -- Air
Mandalay came into being as a joint venture between Techmat and
Myanmar Airways. The first flight, using an ATR 72-210QC, was
made on October 18 between Rangoon and Mandalay. Air Mandalay has
two new ATR 72s, each with 66 seats plus cargo capacity. The air
crew is French, Singaporean and Burmese, and the cabin staff are
all Burmese.
The total investment to date has been over US$ 30 million and there
are plans to increase the fleet to five ATRs by 1997. Mr
Desmazieres calls them "the best and most sophisticated
turbo-prop aircraft available today." I n addition to the
Rangoon-Pagan-Mandalay circle route, there are daily flights to
Pagan and Mandalay. Flying time to Pagan is 75 minutes and to
Mandalay 95 minutes.
By December, Air Mandalay expects to fly to Heho (Inle Lake),
another important tourist destination, and to Tachilek, opposite
Mae Sai, soon afterward.
Also under consideration are charter flights to Chiang Mai and
Chiang Rai. As general sales agent for Air Mandalay, Mr
Desmazieres says, MekingLand is ready to offer ticket sales and
tour packages in cooperation with specialised tour operators.
Currently, ticket prices are 2,835 baht on the Rangoon-Pagan route
and 3,225 baht for Rangoon-Mandalay. He says it is too early to
introduce air passers for "travel when you wish" destinations but
they will come.
Mr Desmazieres says the debut of Air Mandalay will catapult Burmese
tourism into the international picture in time for the 1996 visit
Myanmar Year. But the big advantage, he says, is that it will
allow individual travellers to discover Burma on their own.
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BURMANET: SEEKS BURMESE FONT/SOFTWARE INFO
November 25, 1994
Linguistics M.A. doing research in Lolo-Burmese languages seeks
information on Burmese language software or word processor. I use
an IBM clone, 486SX-25, and am looking for Burmese language
software, either a word processor or a language overlay for Windows
(Wordperfect or MSWord). If you know anything that could help me,
please let me know.
[Please send responses to "Font info" care of BurmaNet
(strider@xxxxxxxxxxx)
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NEWS SOURCES REGULARLY COVERED/ABBREVIATIONS USED BY BURMANET:
AP: ASSOCIATED PRESS
AFP: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
AW: ASIAWEEK
AWSJ: ASIAN WALL STREET JOURNAL
Bt.: THAI BAHT; 25 Bt.=US$1 (APPROX),
BBC: BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION
BI: BURMA ISSUES
BKK POST: BANGKOK POST (DAILY NEWSPAPER, BANGKOK)
BRC-CM: BURMESE RELIEF CENTER-CHIANG MAI
BRC-J: BURMESE RELIEF CENTER-JAPAN
CPPSM: C'TEE FOR PUBLICITY OF THE PEOPLE'S STRUGGLE IN MONLAND
FEER: FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW
IRRAWADDY: NEWSLETTER PUBLISHED BY BURMA INFORMATION GROUP
JIR: JANE'S INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
KHRG: KAREN HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP
Kt. BURMESE KYAT; 150 KYAT=US$1 BLACK MARKET
100 KYAT=US$1 SEMI-OFFICIAL
6 KYAT=US$1 OFFICIAL
MOA: MIRROR OF ARAKAN
NATION: THE NATION (DAILY NEWSPAPER, BANGKOK)
NLM: NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR (DAILY STATE-OWNED NEWSPAPER, RANGOON)
S.C.B.:SOC.CULTURE.BURMA NEWSGROUP
S.C.T.:SOC.CULTURE.THAI NEWSGROUP
SEASIA-L: S.E.ASIA BITNET MAILING LIST
USG: UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT
XNA: XINHUA NEWS AGENCY
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