BurmaNet News: October 5, 1995 [#24

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Subject: BurmaNet News: October 5, 1995 [#245]


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"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
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The BurmaNet News: October 5, 1995
Issue#245

Noted in Passing:
Military intelligence officials have arrested a man who allegedly 
sent false information about Burma to Bangkok-based dissident group.
- New Light of Myanmar  (see: BKK POST: BURMA ARRESTS MAN 
FOR PASSING DISINFORMATION)


Headlines:
========
NANDO TIMES: BURMA'S SUU KYI LEAVES RANGOON FOR FIRST TIME
CSM: A MUZZLED OPPOSITION IN BURMA TAKES HEART
DAILY YOMIYURI: LETTER TO THE EDITOR
TWO BIG BLOWS FOR BURMESE DEMOCRATS
BKK POST: BURMA ARRESTS MAN FOR PASSING DISINFORMATION
THE NATION: TOP AIDE OF BURMA'S OPIUM LORD KHUN SA DEFECTS 		
THE NATION: DRUG MILITIA CHIEF FOUND DECAPITATED
BKK POST: BORDER CLOSURE COULD BE DELAYED 
BKK POST: THAI WANT JOINT BORDER TRADE PANEL WITH BURMA
BKK POST: BURMESE ON HEROIN CHARGES
BKK POST: BURMA VENTURES 
BKK POST: THAI CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE KEEN TO SET UP COMMITTEE
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************************

NANDO TIMES: BURMA'S SUU KYI LEAVES RANGOON FOR FIRST TIME
(Excerpts from Nando Times, World Briefs:  Oct 4, 1995 11:42 EDT)

RANGOON - Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi made on Wednesday her
first trip out of Rangoon since she was released in July from nearly six
years of house arrest.

Suu Kyi left for Tharmanya Hill in Karen state, about 160 miles (270 km)
from Rangoon, on Wednesday morning for a one-night pilgrimage to see a
well-known monk, sources close to Suu Kyi said.

The Sayadaw, or monk, in Tharmanya Hill is highly revered by many
Buddhists. Every year thousands of pilgrims from all over the country go to
the hill to see him and worship.

Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her efforts to try and
bring democracy to Burma, has not ventured out of the capital since the
country's military leaders unexpectedly released her from house arrest on
July 10.
*********************

CSM: A MUZZLED OPPOSITION IN BURMA TAKES HEART
October 3, 1995  By Reese Erlich  (The Christian Science Monitor)

     RANGOON, Burma -- In the week since Burma's military released
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, her followers have geared up to
intensify their struggle for complete democracy.
     "She is our recognized national leader," says one top student
leader interviewed clandestinely, "but her release doesn't mean Burma
has suddenly become democratic. We will continue organizing from below
to overthrow the military."
     The military junta, known as the State Law and Order Council
(SLORC), jailed Ms. Suu Kyi in 1989, a year before her political party
(part missing here)  power.
    SLORC has largely crushed organized resistance through a
combination of harsh repression and clever political initiatives,
>according to opposition sources. However, the release of Suu Kyi will
>likely give new impetus to the democracy movement, they say.
>     "The SLORC has a very good intelligence network, and at the same
>time, they are very ruthless," says U Maung Maung, head of Burmese
>Trade Union Federation, who now lives in Bangkok. He says intelligence
>agents have effectively intimidated or arrested activists, making open
>political resistance difficult in the cities. "There is no freedom of
>association, no free press, no freedom of political activity of any
>kind," says one top political party leader still in Rangoon. "Only
>the students remain militant."
>     A student leader estimates that Burma now has 2,000 formal
>political prisoners. A 1994 US State Department human rights report
>puts the number at "500 or more." Release of all political prisoners
>remains a key demand of the pro-democracy forces.
>     Opposition leaders say harsh economic conditions within Burma, also
>known as Myanmar, may well spark popular resistance. Inflation was 32
>percent in 1993, the latest year for which statistics are available.
>Workers and peasants are especially hard hit.
>    "Tun Tun," a part-time taxi driver in the poor Rangoon district
>of Thingangyun, says he earns about $50 per month to support his
>family of 13. Rice alone costs $30. He must pay another $3.50 for a
>three-room, thatch-roofed hut that has no running water or
>electricity.
>    "Conditions are much worse today than they were five
>years ago," says Tun Tun. "It's the military's fault that the
>economy is bad." He says many of his fellow residents share that
>sentiment.
>     SLORC formally rejected the "Burmese Road to Socialism" in 1988
>and has moved toward a free-market economy. But the opposition says
>the economic reforms are inadequate.
>     The opposition enjoys political and moral support from various
>Western embassies, according to student leaders. When Suu Kyi held her
>first press conference July 11, virtually the entire staff of the US
>Embassy attended, along with diplomats for many other countries. The
>Burmese man who coordinated the press conference works for the US
>Embassy.
>     Students remain the strongest organized opposition force. Leaders
>of the All Burma Student Federation say they have clandestine chapters
>in all the major universities and colleges, and in many secondary
>schools throughout Burma. But in most cases, the chapters are small
>cells of dedicated activists. They are constantly worried about
>activity in Rangoon has been to paint antigovernment slogans on walls.
>     But the release of Suu Kyi may change all that, according to
>student leaders. "SLORC succumbed to international pressure in ending
>her house arrest," says one leader of the student federation. "Now
>we will increase the pressure inside the country. We will settle for
>nothing less than full democracy."
******************

DAILY YOMIYURI: LETTER TO THE EDITOR
October 2, 1995

Traveling to Myanmar?

In The Daily Yomiuri's "Style" section published on Sept. 23,
an article headlined "Pagan trembling with the times" recounts
how an entire village in Myanmar was forcibly resettled in a
"snake-infested location known for its poor soil and absence of
trees" in order for the construction of an archeological theme
park.  The article then continues: "This should not deter
visitors from going to Pagan, though."

It's good to know that The Daily Yomiuri encourages the
support of tyrannical regimes and widespread human rights
abuses.

Tourists going to Myanmar support the dictatorial SLORC
regime by bringing with them both foreign currency and a tacit
sense of foreign approval of the SLORC regime.

Myanmar dissidents have urged travelers not to visit Myanmar
until the SLORC regime has been replaced with democracy.

In the same issue of The Daily Yomiuri another article
recounted Amnesty International reports that hundreds of
Myanmar labor camp prisoners have died during the
construction of public works, and that torture continues in
Myanmar prisons.

Both The Daily Yomiuri and travelers should seriously
consider the effects of tourism in supporting a murderous,
tyrannical regime before encouraging or engaging in tourism
to that country.

Travel should broaden the mind - - not injustice.

David Downing Luce
Hokkaido
********************

TWO BIG BLOWS FOR BURMESE DEMOCRATS

Early this week, the Burmese ambassador to Thailand, Tin Winn, in
an interview with a local daily, announced that his country's
military government will not discuss political reforms with
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Reforms, he said, would
continue to be undertaken solely by the National Convention that
has been involved in the drafting of a new constitution since
1993.

When Suu Kyi was freed in early July, there were heightened
expectations in Burma that her release would bring about change.
Other than the National League for Democracy (NLD) leader being
able to grant interviews and receive friends in her house,
nothing much has happened.

Burma still faces the same dilemmas, much to the consternation of
advocates democracy in the free world.

In 1988, Burmese troops fired upon pro-democracy demonstrators,
killed large numbers of unarmed protesters and et up the State
Law and Order Restoration Council (Slorc). In 1990, when national
elections were held, the Slorc refused to recognize the results
when Suu Kyi's NLD won an overwhelming majority of seats Today,
the junta is still firmly entrenched in power and human rights
abuses in Burma continue unabated.

#State of terror

Burma is in a state of terror and the generals, who will not
hesitate to use brute force to silence dissent, are still propped
up by certain countries.

Burmese democrats were dealt another blow last week when
influential US Senator Mitch McConnell withdrew his controversial
Senate amendment that would have imposed US sanctions on Burma
and end trade benefits for countries which do business with the
Slorc.

McConaell's amendment to the 1996 US Foreign Aid Bill was
designed to keep pressure on the military junta to restore
democracy, increase human rights protection and cooperate in
anti-narcotics efforts in Asia. The amendment would have also
barred American investment in Burma and travel there, and would
have required the US to end preferential trading treatment for
any i country which did not honour sanctions against Burma.

If the amendment had been passed by Congress, the World Bank
would be required to veto loans to China if it continued to sell
or ship arms to Burma. Also, US aid to Thailand would have been
suspended unless Bangkok made more provisions to help Burmese
students, refugees and democracy activists living in exile in
Thailand.

The powerful American business lobby in Capitol Hill prevailed at
the end of the day, to the extent that McConnell's own Republican
Party f forced him to withdraw the amendment.

So international companies will still be sniffing around Burma
like hungry dogs, regardless of the fact that the Burmese people
are virtual prisoners in their own homeland.

# Slave labourers

There are thousands of political prisoners in Burma today, whose
names we do not know and who get no international attention,
simply because they are ordinary Burmese. They are suffering and
they have not been able to enjoy freedom. There are also
thousands of slave labourers in Burma _ the ethnic minorities who
have been forcibly conscripted as human shields and porters for
the army and the road-gangs working without wages for the junta
along the China-Burma and Thai-Burma borders.

Aung San Suu Kyi is aware of these atrocities carried out by the
junta on her fellow citizens. The only way she can repay all
those who worked for her release is to work for the release of
others and to continue her work for the restoration of democracy
in Burma.

Hope must not be lost for Burma. The Burmese people realize the
final responsibility for their fate lies in their hands. Slorc,
whether it likes it or not, is basically an occupying force in
the country. And ultimately, as history has shown, all occupying
troops will have to go when the people rise up en masse against
tyranny.

*****************************************************************
BKK POST:BURMA ARRESTS MAN FOR PASSING DISINFORMATION
October 5, 1995   Rangoon, AP

Military intelligence officials have arrested a man who allegedly sent false 
information about Burma to Bangkok-based dissident group, the state-owned 
newspaper New Light of Myanmar said yesterday.

Ye Htut, 27, was arrested September 27. Military intelligence officers said 
he had incriminating documents and admitted sending fabricated information 
to Aung Zaw, alias Kyi Zaw, leader of the Bangkok-based Burma Information 
Group.

Ye Htut said he had been paid for his services by the Burma Information 
Group since 1992. He also admitted sending information to dissidents in 
Canada, the paper said.

Burma Information Group publishes several newsletters critical of the 
military government including The Irrawaddy, Radio Burma and Burma Issue.

The Newsletters are regularly sent to the United States Congress, 
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Lawyers Committee 
for Human Rights, the paper said.

Burma's military rulers took power in 1988 after crushing pro-democracy 
rallies with bloody force. The country's most important dissident, meanwhile,
 made her first trip outside the capital since she was released from six years of 
house arrest on July 10
 .
Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy, went to a 
village near Pha-an, the capital of Karen State about 160 kilometres (100 miles) 
east of Rangoon, sources in her party said. They said she went to pay her 
respects to a well-known vegetarian monk known as "Thamanya Sayadaw". (BP)

===== item =====
THE NATION: TOP AIDE OF BURMA'S OPIUM LORD KHUN SA 
DEFECTS TO FACTION
October 5, 1995
Sutin Wannabovorn, Reuter

A right-hand man of Burma's opium warlord, Khun Sa, has defected to a 
faction that broke away from the drug rebel earlier this year, a senior guerrilla 
source loyal to the breakaway group said yesterday.

Kan Chit, one of Khun Sa's top aides, was sent to persuade the breakaway
 faction to rejoin the drug lord's outfit, but instead defected himself, the source 
said.

"Kan Chit has decided to join with his former subordinates, and fighting 
between the breakaway group and the MTA has already broken out," the 
Shan guerrilla source said.

He said the first clash between the breakaway group and their former 
comrades in Khun Sa's Mong Tai (Shan State) Army (MTA) occurred in 
an area to the north of the central Shan State of Mong Hsu in the middle 
of September.

About 3,000 MTA fighters broke away in July, saying Khun Sa was 
obsessed with his opium business and neglecting Shan nationalist political 
goals.

The defectors, led by a fiery young Shan nationalist call Kan Gyawt, 
marched out of Khun Sa's heartland in southern Shan state near the 
border with Thailand, to an area in the centre of the northeastern Burmese state.

Kan Chit, himself a respected Shan nationalist, was subsequently promoted 
to a top political post by Khun Sa as the drug lord scrambled to patch up the 
rift and reestablish his political credibility.

An MTA officer contacted by telephone confirmed the report of fighting 
between the MTA and the breakaway faction but dismissed the report 
that Kan Chit, sent to negotiate with the dissidents in late July, had defected 
as well.

"An exchange of gunfire broke out when an MTA patrol came across a 
unit of the breakaway group," said the MTA officer, who declined to elaborate.

"As for Kan Chit, I'm quite sure he will return when he completes his 
assignment. I understand he keeps in contact with headquarters from 
time to time," the MTA source said.

Khun Sa is bracing for an attack on his headquarters at Ho Mong in 
southern Shan state by a combined force of Burmese government troops 
and fighters from a rival opium-trade militia, a Thai intelligence source said 
yesterday.

Khun Sa has urged all civilians living near his headquarters to prepare to 
evacuate, with an offensive apparently imminent. "Khun Sa has urged his 
people to be well prepared to evacuate towards the Thai border," the Thai 
official said.

Thousands of Burmese troops and fighters from the Wa ethnic minority 
have been deployed to forward positions around MTA zones in 
preparation for an attack on Khun Sa, which is expected once the 
rains ease, around the end of this month.

There has been intermittent fighting, at times heavy, in southern Shan
 state in recent months as the Burmese and Wa troops have moved 
into position. The Wa fighters are members of a former rebel army from
 northern Shan state that agreed to a ceasefire with Burma's military 
government in 1989. The Wa group has long been a rival of Khun Sa's 
in the opium trade, Thai and western narcotics suppression agencies say. (TN)

===== item =====

THE NATION: DRUG MILITIA CHIEF FOUND DECAPITATED
October 5, 1995
Reuter

A senior commander of a northeastern Burmese militia group heavily
 involved in the narcotics trade has been found beheaded in southern 
China, a Thai intelligence source said yesterday.

Col. Theng Kwang Ming, a regional commander of United Wa State 
Army (UWSA), travelled to the southern Chinese city Kunming in April 
and disappeared soon afterwards, his family members said.

"His beheaded body was found buried about 70 kilometres from the hotel 
he checked into," the Thai source said. He said the Chinese investigator had 
found the body and the severed head late last month.

Chinese police said Theng was robbed and killed but Thai narcotics 
suppression agents believed he was the victim of rival drug barons, the 
Thai official said. Sources close to the UWSA said yesterday that some 
of Theng's family members had travelled to China to recover his body.

The UWSA is a major producer of opium and its refined from heroin in 
northeastern Burma's Shan state and is a long-time rival of opium warlord 
Khun Sa'e rebel army.

"Theng Kwang Ming is the Khun Sa of the Wa," a Thai narcotics-suppression 
official said recently. The well-armed Wa militia control zones in the north of 
Shan state near the border with China and in the south of the state near the 
border of Thailand.

Theng, 48, was commander of the southern zone. The Wa group used to make 
up the rank-and-file of the Burmese Communist Party's military wing but 
mutinied against their leadership in 1989 and struck a ceasefire with Burma's 
military government. (TN)
**************************

BKK POST: BORDER CLOSURE COULD BE DELAYED 
October 5, 1995        Mae Hong Son

A GROUP of logging companies backed by some politicians are
seeking permission from the Interior Ministry to extend the
opening of two checkpoints in the province to import processed
wood from Burma.

Representatives of logging companies have also contacted the
Burmese authorities to seek a similar extension so they can
transport out some 300,000 cubic metres of wood left inside
Burma.

Mrs Parichart Chalikrua, secretary to Deputy Interior Minister
Suchart Tancharoen, recently led a group of logging operators to
see Mae Hong Son Governor Somjate Viriyadamrong to ask him to
forward a letter to the 'Interior Ministry seeking permission to
open checkpoints at Ban Sao Hin and Ban Huay Ton Noon.

Sources said three logging firms _ the Thai Vinyl 1992, the
S.T.A. Richwood and the Korean War Veterans Co _ wanted to resume
bringing the wood out this month.

****************************************************************

BKK POST: THAI WANT JOINT BORDER TRADE PANEL WITH BURMA
October 4, 1995

THAILAND will propose the setting up of the Border Trade
Committee with Burma to promote trade and commerce, a senior
Foreign Ministry official said yesterday.

Director-general of the Department of Economic Affairs Kobsak
Chutikul said the proposed committee will not be under the
Regional Border Committee (RBC) chaired by regional military
commanders from the two countries.

Mr Kobsak chaired yesterday's meeting of representatives from
related agencies including the Commerce, Interior, Finance,
Transportation and Communications ministries and the National
Security Council to discuss Thailand's position on border trade.

Thailand will propose the committee to Burma immediately after
the Department of Treaty and Legal Affairs finishes the final
draft agreement later this week.

If Burma agrees, the two countries will sign the deal which would
pave the way for the setting up of the new committee.

The Thai draft called for the opening of more temporary
checkpoints in addition to the three permanent checkpoints in
Chiang Rai, Tak and Ranong provinces to promote trade.

Burma proposed to Defence Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh during
his visit to Rangoon last month to use the Regional Border
Committee to oversee the trade of both countries because it could
be put into effect- immediately.

But Thailand disagreed, saying that there should be another body
because no officials from the Commerce Ministry and the private
sectors participated in the RBC.

Burma has called for the formation of the border trade bode with
Thailand since 1990, before reminding Gen Chavalit of the issue
during his visit.

"Burma now wants to improve ties between the two countries, so
this is a good opportunity for sealing the agreement," Mr Kobsak
said.

Burma prohibits 29 items from being exported to other
countries''unless they are approved by the government. They
include teak, petroleum, gems and consumer goods such as'
chickens, ducks and pigs.

"These goods will also be prohibited in the border trade
agreement but if any Thai company can agree' with the Burmese
government to export any goods on the list, it can export through
the border checkpoints," Mr Kobsak said.

Thailand will propose eight items to Burma for border trade
including sesame, groundnut and live-stock as potential goods to
be included in the border trade lists, a source at the meeting
said.

*****************************************************************
BKK POST: BURMESE ON HEROIN CHARGES
October 4, 1995

A BURMESE man was arrested at Don Muang on Monday on charges of
having 6.6 kilos of heroin in his possession with intent to sell.

Aung Htay, 37, was stopped as he was about to board a flight to
Ho Chi Min City. The heroin was found in a false compartment of his suitcase.

*****************************************************************

BKK POST: BURMA VENTURES 
October 3, 1995

BANGLADESH Prime Minister Khaleda Zia last week sought joint-
ventures with Burma in limestone and cement. She also offered
technical help for Burma's infrastructure development.

*****************************************************************
BKK POST: THAI CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE KEEN TO SET UP BORDER 
TRADE COMMITTEE
October 3, 1995

Businessmen look to Laos while Burma's door closed

REPORT:

Saritdet Marukatat and Subin Khuenkaew 
Bangkok, Chiang Mai


BUSINESSMEN IN nine provinces bordering Laos want a joint border
trade committee set up to promote trade with that country.

The Thai Chamber of Commerce is drafting a proposal for
discussion with trade bodies in the nine provinces before putting
it to Laos' National Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Traders in Chiang Rai, too, are looking increasingly at trade
with Laos as a means to survive since Burma closed the Tachilek
checkpoint, opposite Mae Sai district, in late March.

The closure sharply cut trade with Burma at a time business .with
Laos was increasing.

Border trade between Thailand and Burma is running at just under
two per cent of normal levels. It was worth 15-20 million baht,
per day before March.

But Thai-Laotian trade through Chiang Rai has jumped almost 40
per cent since then and is forecast this year to top last year's
202 million baht by a comfortable margin.

Aranya Sujnil, president of the Nong Khai Chamber of Commerce,
said the Laotians already welcomed the border trade committee
idea but wanted details in writing before seeking government
approval.

The proposal was constructive but both sides needed to put it
into a document, the Laotian chamber's vice-president, Chanthao
Pathammavong, was quoted as saying in the Vientiane Business
Social, the only business newspaper in Laos.

Traders hope the proposed committee will enable them to solve
problems instead of having to take them to government level.

The main goal is to promote business and help traders become
familiar with the procedures, Aranya told Inside Indochina by
phone.

"We have no problems in resolving border trade issues with Laos
owing to long, close relations between us."

The committee needed representatives not only from chambers of
commerce in all nine provinces, but also government
representatives to make it effective, she said.

Border trade observers are pessimistic, though, because the idea
does not conform with Laotian government policy to focus on
international trade promotion. Vientiane wants to discourage
border trade although it realises Laos relies heavily on such
deals.

Cross-border trade, which accounts for several billion baht each
year, including illegal traffic, plays an important role in
business between Thailand and Laos.

Products from Thailand, mostly consumer goods, go to all Laotian
provinces on the border and to inland areas such as Luang
Prabang.

For Laos, trade with Thailand accounted for 6.675 billion baht
last year, 36 per cent of its total foreign trade, according- to
the Thai Commercial Office in Vientiane.

Other proposals to strengthen trade have been floated. Ubon
Ratchathani's Chamber of Commerce wants the provincial trade body
in Champassak to strengthen cooperation by providing Thai traders
and investors with information and access to check out business
opportunities in the southern Laotian province.

Chiang Rai and Uttaradit provincial commercial bodies want
regulations on trade with Laos made clearer.

The closed border with Burma is blocking promotion of activities
under the Economic Quadrangle Cooperation plan, which involves
Thailand, Burma, Laos and southern China.

A high-ranking source of the Mong Tai Army said it had to become
involved in the plan. A road link would passe through Shan State
which it controlled. Rangoon regards the MTA as a rebel minority.

Uncertainties surrounding the reopening of the Thai-Burmese
border are prompting not only Chiang Rai authorities, but even
China to turn to Laos.

Du Shengta, deputy secretary of the Communist Party in Yunnan,
said China favoured upgrading the road from Jinghong in China to
Laos and on to Nan province in Thailand.

"It will soon he a major road with economic potential and China
undoubtedly supports the idea."

Du headed a Chinese delegation which held talks with Nan
authorities and businessmen and Laotians in Nan two weeks ago
when the road plan was discussed.

The road between Nan and the border crossing between Luang Namtha
province, Laos, and China would be 300 kilometres, slashing the
travel time between the two points from two days to three hours.

Chiang Rai strongly supports construction of a bridge across the
Mekong River to link Chiang Khong with Huayxay in Bokeo, Laos.

Chiang Rai deputy governor Reap Naradisorn said the bridge was
part of the province's development plan with support from the
private sector. But government approval was awaited for the
project estimated to cost at least 500 million baht.

In August, a team sent by the Australian government made a
feasibility study of a possible site for the bridge, Reap said.

*****************************************************************
Typed by the Research Department of the ABSDF {MTZ}    4.10.95
*****************************************************************