Bangaladesh Sends Home Burmeses, US

[nyeinchan@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Bangaladesh Sends Home Burmeses, US rejects Burma Charges

Washington Post 
Bangladesh Sends Home Burmese 

Saturday, June 28, 1997; 12:16 p.m. EDT 


DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) -- Bangladesh has sent home 1,000 Burmese Muslim 
refugees over the last two weeks, an official said Saturday. 

Nearly 400 people from the eastern Burmese province of Arakan were 
returned Wednesday, said Ali Imam, an official in the border town of 
Teknaf. 

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees estimates 3,000 Muslims have 
entered Bangladesh in recent weeks from Burma, whose military leaders 
have been widely condemned for human rights abuses. 

The refugees say they are fleeing an anti-Muslim campaign by the 
government. Burma's junta denies the charge. 

Nearly 270,000 Muslims fled Burma in 1991. All but 22,000 have been sent 
back from Bangladesh, a predominantly Muslim country. 
© Copyright 1997 The Associated Press


U.S. Rejects Burma Charges 

Saturday, June 28, 1997; 8:11 a.m. EDT 


BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Burma's government-in-exile joined the United 
States today in rejecting the military regime's accusations that they 
sponsored terrorist attacks. 

The National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, a 
Washington-based group that includes members of the parliament elected 
in 1990 but blocked from convening, called the allegations ``totally 
false.'' 

On Friday, Gen. Khin Nyunt, the powerful leader of Burmese military 
intelligence, accused the United States of financing the coalition and 
democracy activists he claimed were plotting to blow up leaders of the 
military regime. 

The U.S. government called the charges ``obviously outrageous.'' 

``We are a leader in the international fight against terrorism and I 
absolutely reject that sort of charge, categorically,'' State Department 
spokesman John Dinger said in Washington. 

``I can only speculate on the motive behind such a charge, that it 
perhaps might be an attempt to divert attention from the (regime's) 
terrible record of abusing the human rights of its own citizens,'' 
Dinger said. 

The accusations were used to justify the arrests of 10 democracy 
activists and two members of the coalition whom Khin Nyunt said had 
plotted bombings or passed money and documents to pro-democracy leader 
Aung San Suu Kyi. 

Khin Nyunt claimed bomb attacks were planned against the Chinese and 
Indonesian embassies. He accused the coalition of sending a letter bomb 
to the home of Gen. Tin Oo, another regime leader, in March. The bomb 
killed Tin Oo's adult daughter. 

In a statement, the coalition said it shared Suu Kyi's commitment to 
non-violence and said the regime ``is attempting to discredit the 
pro-democracy forces and, at the same time, to find a pretext for 
increasing its repression.'' 

The military regime has been in power since gunning down thousands of 
pro-democracy protesters in 1988. 

Washington's relations with Rangoon have deteriorated over the 
repression of the pro-democracy movement led by Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace 
laureate. The United States imposed economic sanctions in April. 

Meanwhile, the Karen National Union, an ethnic insurgent group 
representing the 3 million-strong Karen minority, said the Burmese army 
was terrorizing civilians along the country's rugged eastern border with 
Thailand. 

Over the past two weeks, the union said in a statement, Burmese troops 
have burned and looted Karen villages and forcibly relocated hundreds of 
inhabitants or forced them to work as military porters. 
© Copyright 1997 The Associated Press


U.S. Panel Mulls Burma Labor Data 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Burma's military rulers have created a slave labor 
system comparable to World War II concentration camps, human and labor 
rights groups told a U.S. Labor Department panel today. ``Other 
countries have used forced labor but not since the concentration camp 
system of Nazi Germany has a nation instituted such an extensive 
system,'' said Douglas Steel of the International Labor Rights Fund, a 
private advocacy group. Specifically, he mentioned the Burma-Thailand 
Yadana gas pipeline project, a partnership of the two countries' 
government oil companies with two multinational companies, U.S.-based 
Unocal and Total S.A. of France. 
Report: Feds Question Albert Belle

US Probes Data on Burma Slave Labor 

By Gene Kramer 
Associated Press Writer 
Friday, June 27, 1997; 11:57 p.m. EDT 


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Burma's military rulers have created a slave labor 
system comparable to World War II concentration camps, human and labor 
rights groups told a U.S. Labor Department panel Friday. 

``Other countries have used forced labor but not since the concentration 
camp system of Nazi Germany has a nation instituted such an extensive 
system,'' said Douglas Steel of the International Labor Rights Fund, a 
private advocacy group. 

But ``unlike World War II where Americans fought against a slave labor 
system,'' Steel said, ``some Americans are now profiting from Burma's 
free-market, forced labor economy.'' 

Specifically, he mentioned the Burma-Thailand Yadana gas pipeline 
project, a partnership of the two countries' government oil companies 
with two multinational companies, U.S.-based Unocal and Total S.A. of 
France. 

``That's absolutely false regarding the project,'' said Barry Lane, a 
Unocal spokesman in Los Angeles. 

``First of all, we're not an operator of the project; we're an investor, 
but we monitor it,'' Lane said. ``There are no improper labor practices. 
All of the workers are paid above the going rate for the region. The 
State Department has looked into it and not found any labor 
violations.'' 

Burma's military junta -- the State Law and Order Restoration Council -- 
has also disputed the forced labor charges, maintaining that voluntary 
work is party of the country's cultural tradition., 

Steel was several witnesses testifying Friday before the U.S. panel, 
which is gathering evidence as part of a U.N. International Labor 
Organization probe of allegations that Burma is violating the 1930 
Convention Against Forced Labor. 

The United States and other member governments have been asked to 
provide all available data on the issue for the ILO's ninth such formal 
inquiry since its founding 78 years ago, said Andrew J. Samet, an acting 
deputy Labor Department undersecretary. 

Bo Hla-tint of the Washington-based group claiming to be a Burmese exile 
government said unpaid forced labor in Burma is widespread and carried 
out on a national scale to build roads, railways, bridges and tourist 
facilities. 

``Whole villages are ordered to send at least one person per 
household,'' Hla-tint told the Labor Department panel. ``The practice is 
for soldiers to suddenly appear at public places and drag people onto 
military trucks ... to carry arms and ammunition and serve as 
minesweepers.... The old and the weak, slow on the move, are beaten and 
shot on the spot.'' 

Amnesty International has repeatedly documented Burma's forced use of 
civilians as porters and for other hazardous work, said T. Kumar, the 
organization's advocacy director for Asia and the Pacific. 

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Gare A. Smith said ``credible 
allegations of forced labor'' in the construction of the pipeline, 
roads, railroads and hotels ``contributed to the decision'' by President 
Clinton in May to ban new U.S. investments in Burma said 

Such information also contributed to the European Union decision to join 
the United States in denying certain trade preferences to Burma, said 
Smith, who co-chaired Friday's hearing with Samet. 

The ban did not halt existing investments but after it was ordered, 
Unocal its was pulling out of m some planned Burmese oil exploration 
ventures. 
© Copyright 1997 The Associated Press




"THERE WILL BE NO REAL DEMOCRACY IF WE CAN'T GURANTEE THE RIGHTS OF THE 
MINORITY ETHNIC PEOPLE.  ONLY UNDERSTANDING THEIR SUFFERING AND HELPING 
THEM TO EXERCISE THEIR RIGHTS WILL ASSIST PREVENTING FROM THE 
DISINTEGRATION AND THE SESESSION."  "WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING THEIR 
STRENGTH, WE CAN'T TOPPLE THE SLORC AND BURMA WILL NEVER BE IN PEACE."



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