[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index
][Thread Index
]
The BurmaNet News - 16 February, 19
- Subject: The BurmaNet News - 16 February, 19
- From: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 02:01:00
------------------------------ BurmaNet -----------------------------
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The BurmaNet News, 16 February, 1998
Issue #935
Noted in passing:
"We are keeping all our options open," - Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
(see THE NATION: NLD READY TO SHARE POWER, SAYS SUU KYI)
HEADLINES:
==========
THE NATION: NLD READY TO SHARE POWER, SAYS SUU KYI
REUTERS: MYANMAR JUNTA, OPPOSITION HOLD SEPARATE
AP: BURMESE GENERAL CALLS SUU KYI LACKEY OF WEST IN
KYODO NEWS SERVICE: SUU KYI CALLS FOR REAL
FEER: THE BURMESE FAIRY TALE
THE NATION: STILL PRISONERS IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY
BKK POST: RANGOON DOING THE RIGHT THING?
FEER: ECSTATIC TRIANGLE
AFP: MYANMAR, CHINA SIGN 250 MILLION DOLLAR POWER
Illegal Worker & Refugee Repatriations:
AFP: AUNG SAN SUU KYI APPEALS FOR MERCY ON REFUGEES
AFP: ARMY DESTROYS HUTS AS REFUGEES STAY PUT
BKK POST: RELOCATION PLAN CURTAILED AS REFUGEES
THE NATION: BURMA LABELS REPATRIATION "PITIFUL"
THE NATION: 'LITTLE BURMA' RESIDENTS IN FEAR OF
---------------------------------------------------------------------
THE NATION: NLD READY TO SHARE POWER, SAYS SUU KYI
16 February, 1998
by Steven Gan
BURMESE NOBEL LAUREATE KEEPS ALL OPTIONS OPEN
RANGOON - The National League for Democracy (NLD) is prepared
to share power and form a coalition government with the military junta,
said party Sec-Gen Aung San Suu Kyi.
"We are keeping all our options open," she told The Nation in an
interview in Rangoon last week when asked if she would accept the
possibility of a coalition government with the ruling State Peace
and Development Council (SPDC).
"It is very important never to say never in politics," said Suu Kyi, who
won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her role in campaigning for
democracy in Burma.
Since the NLD won the 1990 elections, which the military refused to
recognise,
Suu Kyi had insisted that the poll results be fully accepted and that all
elected members of Parliament be allowed to take their rightful place in
Parliament.
However, faced with an intractable stance from the military junta, the
NLD - has appeared to soften its line.
In a separate interview, former defence minister and NLD Deputy Sec
Gen Tin Oo said there was no problem to sharing power" with SPDC.
"There will be a compromise, a give and take," he said.
However, Suu Kyi reiterated the NLD's condition that any dialogue with SPDC
to overcome the political impasse in Burma must be based on mutual respect
and should include her.
Last year powerful SPDC First Secretary Kyin Nyunt briefly met NLD Chairman
Aung Shwe, However, the NLD has rejected further meetings with SPDC unless
Suu Kyi is also invited.
"We want a genuine political dialogue without any preconditions. A genuine
political dialogue involves equality. This means that they
choose their own representatives and we choose ours," said Suu Kyi,
"but if they choose their own representatives and ours as well, that is
not a dialogue on an equal basis. For that reason we will not accept this."
Burma has been facing a serious down turn in its economy over the
past two years. Inflation is running at a high 30 per cent per year, and
there have been price hikes of staple foods.
Income disparity is phenomenal: a taxi driver can earn 60,000 kyat
(US$240 at the unofficial rate) a month, almost 60 times more than
a soldier.
This has fuelled corruption as government servants seek to supplement
their meagre income by demanding bribes.
Tin Oo said the authorities often turned a blind eye to corruption since
it could not pay its civil servants more.
However, top government officials said a number of former members
of the State Law and Order Restoration Council, SPDC's precursor,
were being punished for corruption.
"We have heard that several of them are virtually under house arrest
and they have certainly not been seen in public. We do not know
exactly what has been done to them. One hears that some have been
interrogated and dismissed from their jobs," said Suu Kyi.
According to Tin Oo, this crackdown was prompted by Indonesian
and Singaporean investors who complained of the high level of graft
when doing business in Burma.
Tin Oo believes that the economic problems will soon put pressure
on the military government to seek an accommodation with the NLD.
"The economy is getting worse. So they better come and sit down
and talk to us," he said.
Also at the interview, Suu Kyi called on the Thai government to help
the Burmese refugees and migrant workers who were in Thailand.
She said that while she understood Thailand was facing an economic
crisis, she hoped that Thais, as Buddhists, should be able to
demonstrate "loving kindness and compassion"
"It is very easy to be compassionate and kind when things are going
well, but it is when things are not going well for you that your kindness
and compassion are really valuable. If you have a lot to eat, it doesn't
matter much if you toss a cake for somebody, but if you are prepare to
share your last bowl of rice with somebody, that is very kind and
compassionate," she said.
I don't think that Thailand is in a state that people are being forced to
share their last bowl of rice with the refugees, so I would like to appeal
to the Thai government to do what they can to alleviate their suffering,
and if they themselves cannot do it, to allow those who are prepared to
help the refugees, such as the United Nations High Commission for Refugees
and the NGOs."
Tomorrow: Excerpts from Suu Kyi's interview
*********************************************************
REUTERS: MYANMAR JUNTA, OPPOSITION HOLD SEPARATE RALLIES
12 February, 1998 [abridged]
YANGON -- Myanmar's (Burma) ruling military junta and the
main opposition party led by Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday held
separate rallies to mark Union Day and expressed divergent political
views.
Union Day marks the signing of the ``Panglong Agreement'' on
February 12, 1947, which paved the way for Myanmar's independence
from over 100 years of British colonial rule on January 4, 1948.
Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, charged
the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) with abusing human
rights and said it was the government's duty to
guarantee and protect people's rights.
But Prime Minister and SPDC Chairman Senior General Than Shwe concentrated
on development and sought cooperation between the
military, the government and the various ethnic races of Myanmar to achieve
the objective.
Over 500 opposition activists attended the opposition rally held at Suu
Kyi's lakeside residence. The rally was not interrupted by the military,
which checked those entering the venue.
The government rally at Peoples Square in the capital saw about
15,000 participants, mainly from government agencies.
"The cause of the Union, the cause of the national races, and the cause
of democracy and human rights are inseparable," Suu Kyi told her supporters.
"Human rights are not to be laid down by the government. But are
things to be guaranteed and protected by the government," she said,
urging the Myanmar people to work collectively for the emergence of
a genuine democratic state.
The NLD again issued a declaration saying that political, economic
and social problems in Myanmar could only be resolved if the two
sides held talks.
The SPDC has offered to hold talks with the NLD, but refused to
include Suu Kyi in any dialogue. The NLD has rejected such an offer.
In his message, Than Shwe urged the people to safeguard Myanmar's sovereignty
and independence.
"The three nation-building forces, namely the national peoples, the
armed forces and the government, join hands in implementing in earnest
the basic objectives laid down by the government to bring about marked and
rapid development in political, economic and social spheres," said
Than Shwe in his speech.
He said the formulation of a new national constitution was essential for
Myanmar's nation-building in future.
A National Convention of government-appointed representatives is
working on the drafting of a new constitution but the body has not
convened for about two years.
************************************************************
AP: BURMESE GENERAL CALLS SUU KYI LACKEY OF WEST IN HOLIDAY CELEBRATIONS
12 February, 1998 [abridged]
RANGOON, Burma -- Gen. Than Shwe, the leader of Burma's military
government, branded Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi a tool of Western
powers seeking to subjugate the country, during Union Day celebrations
Thursday.
Suu Kyi, meanwhile, was permitted by the government to hold a gathering of
450 supporters at her Rangoon compound for the holiday which honors unity
between Burma's many ethnic groups.
The democracy leader had invited more than 1,500 of her party members and
supporters to attend, but government security personnel turned away hundreds.
"Internal and external destructive elements are harming the sovereignty of
the union and attempting to disrupt national solidarity with the use of their
lackey at a time when the union spirit is flourishing," Than Shwe said
during a speech.
The general and other leading members of the military regime attended a
flag-raising ceremony in People's Park, across from the golden Shwedagon
Pagoda.
Than Shwe urged members of Burma's ethnic minorities to ''further
consolidate national unity and work for the emergence of a new constitution.''
Burma has eight major ethnic groups and 135 subgroups, many of which have
waged decades-long wars for independence from successive governments in
Rangoon.
The only time they were truly united with the Burmese was under the
leadership of Suu Kyi's father, Gen. Aung San, who convinced them to sign
the Panglong Agreement on Feb. 12, 1947.
The treaty united the ethnic groups and the Burmese in the struggle for
independence from Britain and promised a federal state guaranteeing
minority rights.
Aung San was assassinated by a political rival shortly before Burma was
granted independence on Jan. 4, 1948, and without his leadership, civil wars
and insurgencies soon erupted.
The insurgencies were the pretext for the military ousting a
democratically-elected government in 1962. It has been in power ever since.
During the past eight years, the military government has used a combination
of force and economic incentives to induce many war-weary rebel armies to
sign ceasefires.
However, despite the agreements, fighting continues in several ethnic areas
such as Shan State, Karen State, Kayah State, Mon State and Kachin State.
A confederation of various ethnic groups signed a statement last year
Calling on the government to open a dialogue with them and Suu Kyi.
The government responded by launching a massive military offensive against
the Karen ethnic group, which organized the statement.
In her speech to supporters Thursday, Suu Kyi repeated her call for a
dialogue with military leaders and the restoration of democracy.
"Only a genuine democratic nation can ensure the security and basic rights
of all nationalities," Suu Kyi said.
She read a statement from Bohmu Aung, one of Burma's founding fathers,
That also called on the military to open a dialogue.
Diplomats from the United States, Australia, Great Britain, France,
Germany, Italy, Thailand, the Philippines, Korea and Japan attended the
ceremony held in a thatched meeting hall inside Suu Kyi's compound.
The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner appeared pale and thin. Reports have
circulated around Rangoon of disagreements among leaders of her political
party over what tactics to employ in their pursuit of democracy and their
fight against government repression.
***********************************************************
KYODO NEWS SERVICE: SUU KYI CALLS FOR REAL DEMOCRACY IN MYANMAR
12 February, 1998 [abridged]
YANGON -- Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on
Thursday urged her country's people to work for the early realization of
A genuinely democratic state.
Suu Kyi, who is secretary general of the National League for Democracy
(NLD), which won the 1990 general election but was denied power by the
military,
made the remarks at a celebration at her house to commemorate the 51st
anniversary of Union Day.
Suu Kyi said a democratic state should be created in accordance with
a new constitution written with consensus of all nationalities.
The ruling junta, now called the State Peace and Development Council
and formerly known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council, in January
1993 established the National Convention, a body ostensibly tasked with
drawing up the principles for a new constitution.
But the junta hand-picked most delegates, overwhelmingly made up of
military officers, and stage-managed the proceedings, ignoring even
limited opposition views.
Though the National Convention has not reconvened since adjourning in March
1996, the military appears determined to draft a constitution that
will ensure a dominant role for itself in the country's future political
structure.
Speaking at the NLD celebration, party chairman Aung Shwe said a national
conference attended by all national ethnic groups is necessary
to solve current political, economic and social problems in the country.
Elsewhere in Yangon, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, the junta chairman,
issued a message urging further consolidation of national unity, saying it
has enabled the country to regain independence from foreign domination.
The message was read at a flag-hoisting ceremony in Yangon's People's Square
by Maj. Gen. Khin Maung Than, chairman of the junta's Yangon division, and
broadcast live.
"In the Union of Myanmar, the union spirit is being kept alive and
dynamic based on patriotism," the message said.
"The national races are aware that internal and external destructive
elements are threatening the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the
nation, and attempting to disrupt the national unity using their lackeys in
the country," it said, in a thinly veiled attack on Suu Kyi and her party.
**********************************************************
FEER: THE BURMESE FAIRY TALE
19 February, 1998
by Ma Thanegi,
[The writer is a pro-democracy activist and former political
prisoner. She lives in Rangoon.]
Like many Burmese, I am tired of living in a fairy tale. For years,
outsiders portrayed the troubles of my country as a morality play:
good against evil, with no shade of grey in between - a simplistic
picture, but one the world believes. The response of the West has
been equally simplistic: It wages a moral crusade against evil, using
such "magic wands" as sanctions and boycotts.
But for us, Burma is no fairy-tale land with a simple solution to its
problems. We were isolated for 26 years under socialism and we
continue to lack a modem economy. We are tired of wasting time.
If we are to move forward, to modernize, then we need everyone to
face facts.
That may sound like pro-government propaganda, but I haven't changed since
I joined the democracy movement in August 1988. I have lived most of my life
under the 1962-88 socialist regime - another fairy tale, this one of
isolation.
In 1988 we knew it was time to join the world. Thousands of us took to
the streets and I joined the National League for Democracy and worked as
an aide to Aung San Suu Kyi.
I worked closely with Ma Suu, as we all called her, for nearly a year. I
campaigned with her until July 20, 1989, when she was put under house arrest
and I was sent to Insein Prison in Rangoon, where I spent nearly three years.
I have no regrets about going to jail and blame no one for it. It was a
price we knew we might have to pay. But my fellow former political prisoners
and I are beginning to wonder if our sacrifices have been worthwhile.
Almost a decade after it all began, we are concerned that the work we
started has been squandered and the momentum wasted.
In my time with Ma Suu, I came to love her deeply. I still do. We had
Hoped that when she was released from house arrest in 1995 that the
country would move forward again. So much was needed - proper
housing and food and adequate health care, to begin with. That was
what the democracy movement was really about - helping people.
Ma Suu could have changed our lives dramatically. With her influence
And prestige, she could have asked major aid donors such as the United States
and Japan for help. She could have encouraged responsible companies to
invest here, creating jobs and helping build a stable economy. She could
have struck
up a constructive dialogue with the government and laid the groundwork for
a sustainable democracy.
Instead, she chose the opposite, putting pressure on the government by
telling foreign investors to stay away and asking foreign governments to
withhold aid. Many of us cautioned her that this was counterproductive. Why
couldn't economic development and political improvement grow side by side?
People need jobs to put food on the table, which may not sound grand and
noble, but it is a basic truth we face every day.
Ma Suu's approach has been highly moral and uncompromising, catching the
imagination of the outside world. Unfortunately, it has come at a real
price for the rest of us. Sanctions have increased tensions with the
government and cost jobs. But they haven't accomplished anything positive.
I know that human-rights groups think they are helping us, but they are
thinking with their hearts and not their heads. They say foreign investment
merely props up the government and doesn't help ordinary people. That's not
true. The country survived for almost 30 years without any investment.
Moreover, the U.S., Japan and others cut off aid in 1988 and the U.S.
imposed sanctions in May last year. Yet, all that has done nothing except
send a hollow "moral message."
Two Westerners - one a prominent academic and the other a diplomat - once
suggested to me that if sanctions and boycotts undermined the economy,
people would have less to lose and would be willing to start a revolution.
They
seemed very pleased with this idea, a revolution to watch from the safety
of their own country.
This naive romanticism angers many of us here in Burma. You would
deliberately make us poor to force us to fight a revolution? American
college students play at being freedom fighters and politicians stand up
and proclaim that they are striking a blow for democracy with sanctions. But
it is we Burmese who pay the price for these empty heroics. Many
of us now wonder: Is it for this that we went to jail?
Unfortunately, the Burmese fairy tale is so widely accepted it now seems
almost impossible to call for pragmatism. Political correctness has grown
so fanatical that any public criticism of the National League for Democracy
or its leadership is instantly met with accusations of treachery: To simply
call for realism is to be labelled pro-military or worse.
But when realism becomes a dirty word, progress becomes impossible. So
put away the magic wand and think about us as a real, poor country. Burma
has many problems, largely the result of almost 30 years of isolationism.
More isolation won't fix the problems and sanctions push us backwards, not
forward. We need jobs, we need to modernize. We need to be a part of the
world. Don't close the door on us in the name of democracy. Surely fairy
tales in the West don't end so badly.
*******************************************************
THE NATION: STILL PRISONERS IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY
16 February, 1998
Editorial
When George Orwell wrote "1984" some 50 years ago, little did he
know that the totalitarian society he so vividly described would one
day be reflected in a country he once worked as a colonial police
officer - Burma.
In 1998, Rangoon, one could find the so-called four precepts of
"people's desire" - urging Burmese to oppose meddling foreign
nations and to crush their local stooges - brightly emblazoned in
blood-red billboards near the airport and around town. The same
words, in bold prints, scream from the pages of the junta's
propaganda sheet, The New Light of Myanmar - Burma's own
version of Orwell's newspeak.
Even the names of the ministries have taken an Orwellian-like
vocabulary. In Orwell's 1984", the Ministry of Peace wages war
and the Ministry of Truth is where the thought police torture
their victims. Likewise in Burma, the Ministry of Human
Settlement and Housing Development has the task of forcibly
herding people living in areas marked for construction projects
to squalid, far-flung, disease-ridden satellite towns.
When Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was released from six years
of house arrest in 1995, she found that nothing much has changed.
"Let the world know that we are still prisoners within our own
country," she urged.
In fact, the situation has since deteriorated. The National League for
Democracy (NLD) - the party which won more than 80 per cent of the votes
in the 1990 elections - is operating with severe restrictions. But most
significantly is the downturn in the economy. The Burmese military junta
has hoped to mimic the economic success of Asean's authoritarian regimes -
that if it could deliver rapid economic growth, the people won't mind much
the lack of political freedom.
However, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean),
mired in its own economic problems, is in no position to help.
Foreign investments from Asean countries which has seen many
high-rise hotels in Rangoon have since fizzled out partly because
the tourist campaign Visit Myanmar Year 1996" was a flop.
Not surprisingly, most of these new hotels are virtually deserted,
some registering an occupancy rate of no more than 10 per cent.
Inflation is officially at 26 per cent a year. Unofficially, it is 38 per
cent. Corruption is endemic. The growing gulf between the rich and
the poor, which has widened visibly over the past few years, remains
the single most serious source of possible discontent.
Suu Kyi believes that such a situation cannot continue for long.
She knows that change will come. When and how, she prefers not to
speculate. If anything, it is the economic problems which put the
greatest pressure on the military junta, The junta, which officially
calls itself the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), is
concerned enough with the economic decline that universities
considered the main source of unrest - remain closed since 1996.
Last month, the SPDC has shut down a number of institutes and is
even terminating those taking correspondence courses.
Given this, the NLD expects the military would come to the
negotiation table. Suu Kyi has signaled that she is willing to
consider all options to break the political deadlock. The SPDC
must response to the NLD s offer of a genuine dialogue. Soon.
If not, there could possibly be another outbreak of violence and
more bloodshed.
"All sides have to realise that the impasse is not doing anybody
any good," lamented Suu Kyi, but it appears that the old guard in
the SPDC is not listening. Many in the old faction are still
steadfastly against any rapprochement with the NLD.
Thus, for now, the military junta continues to do what it knows
best - harassing the opposition. Shortly before Suu Kyi was
interviewed last week at NLD Deputy Secretary General Tin Oo's
house, the electricity was mysteriously cut. It wasn't until the
dozen or so military intelligence officers who were milling
outside spotted Suu Kyi being driven away that power was
restored.
They could turn out the lights, said Tin Oo, but they will find
it hard to snuff out the light of freedom and democracy in Burma.
*********************************************************
BKK POST: RANGOON DOING THE RIGHT THING?
16 February, 1998
THE GREAT SLORC SHAKE-UP OF '97 MAY HAVE PUT A NEW FACE ON THINGS, BUT
HARDCORE CHANGE IS STILL A LONG WAY OFF
RANGOON, AFP -- A much-vaunted shake-up in Burma's military
junta four months ago heralded a major shift in the regime's focus,
but its crackdown on pro-democracy groups shows no signs of easing,
analysts say.
November's dissolution of the State Law and Order Restoration Council
Slorc) was a key move which concentrated political power, purged
top-level corruption and launched a new drive to tackle the country's
economic woes.
The nine-year-old Slorc was replaced with a more streamlined and
younger State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), which has
set out economic development as its primary task, officials said.
"We are now in the second stage of the government's plan for the
country," a senior government official said. "But we'll still maintain
stability and law and order, while giving priority to economic development."
But while a sea change has taken place in government economic
thinking, the official's comments indicate there will be no let-up
in repression against opponents of the regime.
"It really was a major change, which was probably long in the making,"
a foreign analyst said, dispelling reports that the change was simply
cosmetic and aimed at easing world criticism of the junta's rights
record.
Four senior generals were put under virtual house arrest on charges
of corruption following the Slorc's demise, while several senior
ministry figures under them are now also being investigated.
The lightning strike served to rid the regime of "incompetent and
corrupt figures who had lingered for too long", while refining the
junta's power in a few men at the top, analysts said.
'The four core members of the junta -chairman Senior General Than
Shwe, powerful first secretary Khin Nyunt, second secretary Tin
Oo and vice chairman General Maung Aye- have been left sharing
ultimate power.
Only the five top SPDC chiefs live in the capital, while other members
are regional commanders living in the countryside, and only come to Rangoon
when summoned by the supreme leaders.
The move has made the cumbersome process of making decisions by
consensus more streamlined, allowing better economic management.
It has also entrenched the future of the leaders, analysts said.
Government officials conceded the junta was in need of "housecleaning"
and young blood to replace the old soldiers to revive the flagging
economy.
They warned that the graft probe could be broadened if further wrongdoing
was uncovered, while the guilty would be "punished accordingly".
One cadre said the new economic phase of Burma's development was
a further move towards democracy, stressing that the military junta still
regarded itself as a temporary institution until polls can be called.
He rejected criticism of Burma's human rights record, saying the
people's basic human rights were assured. He also warned of the
danger of popular unrest if any government failed to ensure the most
basic right -- food.
But the shift will not mean a relaxation of policy towards the
opposition of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her National
League for Democracy (NLD), ethnic insurgency groups or other
opponents of the government.
"The repression continues and there are no signs of relaxation
towards the opposition," an analyst said. "The shake-up shows that
some leaders intended to stay in power for a long while and will do
whatever's needed to ensure that."
A senior NLD figure says his leader's movements are still essentially
restricted by the junta, while NLD supporters are being sentenced to
long jail terms.
But, a foreign observer said that, while there were currently no signs
of political flexibility among government leaders who "lack confidence
in their position", there was hope for change over the long term.
"I'm quietly confident that in time, the two sides will begin talking and
that slowly, the repression will ease, but I don't think this will even
begin for the next year or so."
*************************************************************
FEER: ECSTATIC TRIANGLE
19 February, 1998
The Burmese section of the Golden Triangle has long been an important
source of opium as well as its derivatives, morphine and heroin. Last year,
methamphetamines were added to the list, and now it is ecstasy.
Previously manufactured almost exclusively in North America and Europe,
primarily the Netherlands, ecstasy has found a new production base in the
Wa Hills of northeastern Burma. Narcotics intelligence sources report that
chemists here have acquired the necessary knowledge, equipment and
precursor chemicals to manufacture the drug.
***********************************************************
AFP: MYANMAR, CHINA SIGN 250 MILLION DOLLAR POWER LOAN MEMORANDUM
13 February, 1998
BANGKOK -- Myanmar and China have signed a 250 million dollar
loan deal under which Beijing will provide funds for a badly-needed
hydroelectric plant for the military-run state, the media said Friday.
The two sides Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to help
launch the Paunglaung Hydropower Project near the city of Mandalay in the
centre of the country, the official New Light of Myanmar said.
The project, near the town of Pyinmana, will have an installed capacity of
280 megawatts and will annually generate over 900 kilowatts of electricty
tobe distributed through the national grid.
The deal was signed between the scheme's operator, Myanmar Electric Power
Enterprise and the Yunnan Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Corp.
Power Minister major General Tin Htut said talks for the scheme had been
underway for months and the signing constituted an "important milestone"
for the implementation of the scheme.
A shortage of power to help industrialise the nation is one of the key
problems afflicting Myanmar's (Burma's) troubled economy.
Foreign investors from the west are reticent about investing in Myanmar
amid bad publicity over the junta's human rights record.
***********************************************************
AFP: AUNG SAN SUU KYI APPEALS FOR MERCY ON REFUGEES
14 February, 1998 [abridged]
BANGKOK -- Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has called on
foreign governments and humanitarian organizations to give priority to
aiding refugees
who have fled military oppression.
The Nobel peace prize laureate asked governments to help ethnic refugees to
make a new life in foreign countries, a statement from the Alternative
ASEAN Network on Burma received here Saturday said.
"I would like to appeal to NGOs to do what they can to help our Karen and
other ethnic refugees who have had to leave their homes and try to scrape
together a form of living in foreign lands," she said.
"I would also like to appeal to all governments concerned to alleviate the
suffering s of our refugees abroad," she added.
The statement said Aung San Suu Kyi, who heads the National League for
Democracy in Myanmar, made her appeal in the run-up to celebrations of the
country's 51st anniversary of national union on Thursday.
Aung San Suu Kyi appealed in particular to neighbouring Thailand, which has
recently threatened to expell all foreign workers in order to make room for
jobless Thais.
"We would like the Thai government to do what they can to alleviate the
sufferings of our refugees. We are very distressed by their plight," she said.
The statement comes in the wake of a bid by Thai authorities to shift more
than 10,000 refugees who fled Myanmar's military regime to a new camp, which
ran into trouble when the first batch of refugees refused to leave.
***********************************************************
AFP: ARMY DESTROYS HUTS AS REFUGEES STAY PUT
14 February, 1998
BANGKOK -- A bid to shift more than 10,000 Burmese refugees to a new camp ran
into trouble when the first batch refused to leave, witnesses said yesterday.
More than 100 residents of the Mae Yae Hta camp in the country's
northwest protested on Thursday and yesterday as the Thai military and
provincial authorities attempted to load them and their possessions into
lorries.
Refugees chanted and waved placards at the camp in Mae Hong Song
province, witnesses said, while other refugees refused to board the 40
trucks sent in by the Army.
However, men in ski masks working with authorities started demolishing
some of the refugees' grass huts in a bid to move the residents after
last-ditch negotiations failed.
"Four houses were destroyed and one man was beaten after he refused to
move," a spokesman for the All-Burma Students' Democratic Front said. The
group is strongly opposed to Burma's ruling military junta.
"They initially agreed to move further into Thailand, but their leaders
decided at a meeting on Wednesday that the conditions at the new camp
were not right," a Burmese student representative said.
The refugees said their new camp - which will hold 1,800 people - would
be overcrowded. They also did not want to leave their home of more than
two years as the terrain at the new area is too mountainous to live on,
he added.
**********************************************************
BKK POST: RELOCATION PLAN CURTAILED AS REFUGEES REFUSE TO MOVE
13 February, 1998
by Cheewin Sattha
MAE HONG SON -- The first day of operation to move over 12,000
Karen refugees from the Salween National Park to a refugee camp in
Sop Moei district ended in failure yesterday because of refugee
resistance.
Security forces and concerned officials failed to transfer over 1,847
Karens from Ban Mae Yae Tha in Sop Ngae, some 88 kilometres from
Mae Sariang district town, to Mae Lama Luang camp in Sop Moei as
part of the operation to move the refugees from forest land to the camp
to combat illegal logging.
All refugees at Ban Mae Yae Tha reportedly gathered at a church in
their village and refused to move, claiming they feared frequent attacks
by the pro-Rangoon Democratic Karen Buddhist Army on Mae Lama Luang camp.
No Khae, a Karen refugee, said she did not want to move to Ban Mae
Lama Luang for fear of possible danger from DKBA and Burmese
troops although Thai officials promised to 'ensure safety for the group.
Meanwhile, one of many foreign non-governmental organisations
which supported the operation reportedly offered to give enough rice
for two months to the families of refugees wanting to return to Burma.
Commander of the 7th Infantry Regiment's special task force Col
Sanchai Jaruwan said more than 30 refugees had agreed to return to
their home country and the remainder must be sent to Mae Lama
Luang.
He said the refugee transfer operation is expected to last six days
from February 12 to February 17.
*****************************************************
THE NATION: BURMA LABELS REPATRIATION "PITIFUL"
16 February, 1998
AFP, RANGOON - Authorities in Burma have described as "pitiful"
The repatriation of hundreds of their workers from Thailand and
accused Bangkok of double standards
"It is rather pitiful that [Burmese] nationals, legal or otherwise, once
welcomed in Thailand, are now being sent back home," the report in
the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper said yesterday.
Thailand is cracking down on illegal workers and recently deported
about 500 Burmese workers found not to have visas.
Thailand, desperate to alleviate its mounting unemployment problems,
has said it will repatriate about 300,000 illegal workers over the next
six months, many of them from Burma or Cambodia.
However, the report in Rangoon accused Thai businessmen of
knowingly employing illegal workers while Thai authorities turned
"a blind eye" to the issue.
"While millions of Thais seek better paid jobs outside of their country
[Burmese] people go to work at places in Thailand where Thais do not
want to work," the report said.
It denied allegations that workers were fleeing human-rights abuses
at the hands of the military regime in Rangoon, saying they had left for
no other reason than monetary gain.
Burma's ruling junta has been widely condemned for human-rights
abuses such as the use of forced labour and political persecution.
**********************************************************
THE NATION: 'LITTLE BURMA' RESIDENTS IN FEAR OF REPATRIATION
14 February, 1998
The future of a Burmese village on Thai soil is at stake as many of its
residents could be on the way home, says Sutin Wannabovorn of Reuters.
Visitors to Talad Kung (Shrimp Market) on Bangkok's western outskirts can
be forgiven for thinking they have entered Burma.
Nestled in the fishing town of Samut Sakhon, 47 kilometres from Bangkok,
the slum known as "Little Burma" houses 7,000 Burmese workers who have
transformed the area into a convincing slice of their homeland.
Burmese music fills the air as the residents mill about wearing longyis, the
sarong popular in their homeland. The main street is dotted with traditional
Burmese tea shops and several stalls sell popular Burmese items such as
betel leaves and herbal powders.
"This town is like our home. We have everything, from Burmese movies and
songs to food," Ko Niag, 32, a worker from Burma's Moulmein state said.
Like Ko Niag, a long-time resident said most of the workers came as cheap
labour to the shrimp farms and market here in the early 1990s when the Thai
economy was booming.
But with Thailand now mired in its worst economic crisis in decades, Little
Burma's residents worry about their future here as they fear they may be
sent back home as the government starts shedding illegal foreign workers in
anticipation of increased unemployment.
"We are used to living here and have made this place our, home. But after
rumours spread that the Thai government will send us back, everyone is
worried. They don't want to go back," Ko Niag said.
Win Aye, 25, from Burma's Pa-Ann state, said she earned about Btl50 after
working 12 hours a day as a shrimp packer. She begins work at 3 am.
Despite the tough hours, she would rather stay here than go back to Burma
where economic conditions are even harsher and discontent with the military
government makes life even tougher.
Win Aye and her husband share about 40 square metres of space with two
other couples and their living quarters are divided by a curtain.
In some cases, 10 or 15 male and female workers stay in one room.
"Even though it's overcrowded and life is tough, we still make more money
here than in Burma. So you see why everyone is worried about talk that we
will be sent back," Win Aye said.
But many illegal workers have already begun returning to Burma on their own
after their employers told them the government would force them to go back,
she added.
Thai Labour Minister Trairong Suwanakhiri has vowed to expel all alien
workers to open up jobs for thousands of Thais rendered jobless by the
economic crisis.
Thai officials say they are unclear when this will be put into full effect,
but authorities in some border areas have begun to forcibly repatriate
illegal Burmese workers.
Of the one million foreign workers in Thailand - many of them illegal -
about 300,000 are from Burma.
Only last year, they received permission from the previous Thai government
to work for two years in 43 of Thailand's 76 provinces.
"We are very confused with the government policy. Someone said they will be
sent back in 60 days while others said they can work here until July," a
Thai security official in Samut Sakhon said.
Little Burma residents are also confused.
"My boss said I can work here as long as I can because my boss has a
licence to hire alien workers. But some others said I can only work here
for another 45 days," said Hae Poh, 22, a shrimp packer.
*****************************************************