The BurmaNet News - 20 March, 1998

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"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies
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The BurmaNet News, 20 March, 1998
Issue #961

Noted in passing:

"My message is very simple. We are not against investment, but we want 
investment to be at the right time, when the benefits will go to the 
people of Burma, not just to a small, select elite connected to the 
government." - Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
(see BUSINESS WEEK: BURMA'S SUU KYI: TAKE YOUR INVESTMENTS ELSEWHERE, PLEASE)

HEADLINES:
==========
>From Rangoon:
BUSINESS WEEK: BURMA'S SUU KYI: TAKE YOUR INVESTMENTS
THE ASIAN AGE: JUNTA ALLOWS SUU KYI SEMINAR ON

Doing Business in Burma (or not):
JAPAN TIMES: USE ODA 'CARROT' TO REFORM MYANMAR
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: DO SANCTIONS REALLY

Cross-Border Crisis:
SCMP: MARAUDERS KILLED IN CROSS-BORDER SHELLING
THE ASIAN AGE: KAREN REFUGEES IN THAILAND FACE NEW
BKK POST: TROUBLE WITH THE NEIGHBOURS
BKK POST: BO MYA WANTS UN TO STEP IN AND LOOK AFTER
A LETTER FROM MAE YA HTA REFUGEE CAMP
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE THAI GOVERNMENT AND TO THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

Announcements:
REMINDER: PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR ARTICLES IN BURMESE OR ENGLISH ASAP!
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BUSINESS WEEK: BURMA'S SUU KYI: TAKE YOUR INVESTMENTS ELSEWHERE, PLEASE
19 March, 1998
by Sheri Prasso, Asia Editor

Over a lunch of rice and fish at the white, lake-side Rangoon villa 
where she spent six years under house arrest, Nobel peace prize winner 
Aung San Suu Kyi revealed in an extremely rare interview that Burma's 
economy is under severe strain. Yet the 52-year-old Suu Kyi insists that 
the U.S. maintain economic sanctions. Only international pressure, she 
says, can force the current military regime to cede power to her National 
League for Democracy (NLD), which swept Burma's only legitimate elections 
in 1990 but was denied office. Foreign investment, she says, strengthens 
the junta and undermines the cause of democracy, without benefitting the 
people or the overall economy. Companies such as Levi-Strauss, Pepsi-Cola, 
and Motorola have heeded this plea and pulled out of Burma. But others such 
as Unocal Corp., whose stake in a $1.2 billion gas project was grandfathered 
in under the U.S. sanctions, remain.

Although technically no longer detained, Suu Kyi remains under heavy 
government surveillance, and journalists are forbidden to meet her. On 
Mar. 6, Business Week's Asia Editor Sheri Prasso was able to circumvent 
Burma's internal security and see her at her home. 

Q: A high-level U.S. delegation visited here in February and recommended 
some eventual softening of U.S. sanctions. What is your reaction? 
A: I don't understand why they want to soften the sanctions, on what
grounds. There are those who claim the people of Burma are suffering as a
consequence 
of sanctions, and that is not true at all. First of all, the U.S. did not 
have many investments here to begin with. As it is, Burma seems incapable 
of holding onto its investments. There are many companies pulling out 
because conditions are not right in Burma for successful investment. If 
old companies are pulling out, why would new companies wish to come in? 

Q: Have there been any tangible results from the sanctions?
A: We very much appreciate the U.S. sanctions because they have been a 
tremendous psychological boost for the democracy movement and also they 
have made businesses think carefully about what is really going on in 
Burma. I think it has made people study the situation in Burma more 
carefully. As a result of their investigations, they have decided they 
really don't want to invest here. When they looked into the situation, 
they found that really conditions were not favorable towards successful
investment, because the economic policies of the government are not such 
to promote development in the long run. It was just a short-term boom that
occurred here in the early 1990s. 

Q: What message do you have for investors who want to come to Burma?
A: My message is very simple. We are not against investment, but we want
investment to be at the right time, when the benefits will go to the people 
of Burma, not just to a small, select elite connected to the government. 
We do not think investing in Burma at this time really helps the people 
of Burma. It provides the military regime with a psychological boost. If 
companies from Western democracies are prepared to invest under these
circumstances, then it gives the military regime reason to think that, 
after all, they can continue with violating human rights because even 
Western business companies don't mind. It sends all sorts of wrong signals 
to the present government. We think there is great potential in Burma for 
economic development, but at the right time and under the right
circumstances. 
I do not think investing now is going to be profitable either to investors 
or to the people of Burma.

I would like to make it clear that the people of Burma are not suffering 
as a result of sanctions. The real profits do not go to the people of 
Burma. It's all concentrated in the hands of investors who are not 
Burmese, or priveleged people.

Q: You met recently with Unocal Corp. President John F. Imle Jr. 
Did he try to convince you to change your position?
A: I never discuss my meetings with anyone...[but] we believe in talking 
to people, even those with whom we disagree. Actually it's more important 
to talk with people with whom we disagree, because it's precisely [with 
them that] we need to try to come to an understanding.

Q: To what extent is the regional currency crisis having an effect here? 
Are investors from Thailand, Malaysia, and elsewhere pulling out?
A: Burma was doing badly anyway, even before the crisis in ASEAN. 
I have been told that a lot of companies are closing down. Every day we hear 
this department store closed down, this company decided to withdraw. 

Q: How is that affecting the population?
A: Not very much. Of course employees of those companies are affected, 
but the numbers are very small. The public in general is not affected. 
The only people suffering are those profiting [previously], a very 
privileged group of people. These companies are leaving because they do 
not like the economic climate in this country.

Q: What is the economic climate here?
A: The economic situation is very bad. Prices are rising, a lot of 
businesses are pulling out. There isn't much investment coming in, 
if at all. The big hotels, I think they built too many to begin with, 
they don't have many clients and are unable to cope. Every time you 
go to buy something you have to ask for the price because it changes 
from day to day, it's going up all the time. The official estimate of 
inflation is about 19%, but they always tend to underestimate the 
inflation rate. 

The rice harvest is very poor this year. Some parts of Burma suffered 
from floods after the last monsoons, whereas in other parts they didn't 
get rain at the right time. Farmers tell me it's one of the worst harvests 
they've ever known, one said in something like 60-plus years. 

Q: What is the potential for civil unrest?
A: It's difficult to tell what triggers people's discontent to the point 
where they decide they won't take it anymore. I know there has been a lot 
of speculation as to whether the situation is bad enough for a general 
uprising. The NLD [National League for Democracy] is not trying to create 
an uprising. 

Q: There is some confusion over what to call this country. Do you
have a preference?
A: Yes, Burma--because Myanmar is a name that this military regime chose 
when it took over. We don't think that any government, especially one that 
is not elected by the people, has the right to change they name of the 
country just because they fancy it.

Q: Under what conditions can you see a resolution to the current 
political impasse, such as a power-sharing agreement?
A: Everything has to start with dialogue. If anyone is interested in
power-sharing, it can put it forward in the process of dialogue. We have
said that 
with regard to dialogue, we are prepared to discuss anything. It has to be
a substantive political dialogue on the basis of equality. 

Q: The main universities here have been shut by the government for 
over a year. What effect is this having?
A: It's having a disastrous effect on young people and the future of this 
country. The standard of education is going down. We are not really training 
our young people at all. [High school] graduates have no greater ambition than
to become waiters at a hotel because they can earn more money than by
entering 
the civil service. The values of our young people are being affected
adversely, together with the education. The quicker we get democracy, the
easier it will 
be to repair the damage that has been done.

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

THE ASIAN AGE: JUNTA ALLOWS SUU KYI SEMINAR ON DEMOCRACY
19 March 1998
 
Yangon, March 18: Burma's military junta has allowed Opposition figurehead 
and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to host a seminar focussing on democracy
and human rights, sources said on Wednesday.
 
The Nobel laureate is taking the role of moderator at the one-week 
meeting at her Yangon home which is being attended by 77 members 
of the inner circle of her National League for Democracy party.
 
Subjects being covered over the seven-day period include discussions on 
democracy, human rights and on the country's delayed constitution which 
is currently being drafted.
 
The military authorities, who keep the Opposition leader and her close
supporters under surveillance, documented the arrivals of the delegates 
as the conference started on Monday but did not interfere, a source here
said.
 
"The authorities appear unconcerned as long as the numbers are small 
and the gathering takes place inside Aung San Suu Kyi's compound," 
one said.
 
Party personalities are taking turns at presenting topics to the 
gathering, while Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent six years under 
house arrest until 1995, presides over the proceedings.
 
The next major gathering at her now famous lakeside home will take 
place on March 27 when Burma celebrates Armed Forces Day, a holiday which
the National League for Democracy Party will match with a Resistance Day
commemoration.
 
**********************************************************

JAPAN TIMES: USE ODA 'CARROT' TO REFORM MYANMAR
16 March, 1998
by Zaw Oo [Guest Forum]

The self-reliant economic system that has been so stable in the past is 
now shaken as a result of exposure to external shocks and trade fluctuations. 
The only reasonable response is a retreat to the old autarky and shielding 
the economy from neocolonial capitalists. This a simplified version of the
ideology of the generals who run Myanmar.
	
In these circumstances, how can the recent resumption of Japanese 
Official Development Aid to Myanmar be effective?  Clearly, the 
move is premature. More likely, the ODA will be unproductive and 
will permit the generals to escape the consequences of their foolish 
economic policies.
	
Although Japan provided no bilateral assistance to Myanmar in the 
last 10 years, Japanese ODA before 1988 could give us clues how 
such aid facilitates the development process.  In the "lost decade" 
of the 1980s, Myanmar was among the top 10 ODA recipients.  
Myanmar received more than Indonesia and almost the same as 
Thailand.  Despite this flow of aid from Japan, the country's 
economy collapsed in 1987, which led to popular uprisings in 1988 
and the violent suppression that followed.
	
There are several lessons in the failures of the last decade.  These
include the profound importance of a macroeconomic policy framework 
in determining the return on individual projects; the orientation of 
development policies; and the need for effective administration of 
aid programs.  Without these features, results will be miserable, 
regardless of the "soundness" of the ODA projects designed and 
formulated by the Japanese.

The lack of incentives and misguided economic policy decisions limited 
the use of aid as a "transfer of resources" to fix constraints on growth
and foreign exchange.  Worse still, the country became highly indebted 
to Japan since the loan component of the aid was much larger than the 
grant component (the average ratio was 3:1.)
	
Has Myanmar changed enough to qualify for Japanese ODA? The first test 
of macroeconomic policy framework would indicate that the country still 
has a long way to go before it can put aid to productive use.  Unchecked
government spending has led to a chain reaction of  fiscal crises, a 
soaring inflation rate and an extreme current account imbalance. Since 
1988, the government's expenditures mushroomed and the fiscal deficit 
reached nearly 8 percent of GDP last year.
	
Myanmar missed a golden opportunity to benefit from market openings 
introduced in 1988.  Ten years of a slow but steady flow of external 
private capital and income generated from the sale of natural resources 
and oil exploration could have been used to restructure the economy and 
put it on a sustainable growth path.  But foreign direct investment ended 
up in unproductive investments such as real estate and tourism. But since 
the inflow of external funds temporarily eased the pain, old habits are 
recycled and the government reallocated resources according to political 
priorities. It was another example of "moral hazard" that kept the generals
from making essential reforms.
        
In open economies, weak markets suffer more from external shocks.
With its bad policy regime, Myanmar is being hit hard by the "Asian 
flu." First, the Asian firms who provide 70 percent of FDI in Myanmar 
have either reduced or indefinitely postponed their commitments.

Second, there has been a sharp drop in demand for the 50 percent of 
Burmese exports that used to sell in Asian markets. Third, the pressures
on the weak Burmese currency have been felt speculative attacks brought 
about a nearly 100 percent depreciation at the height of the Asian flu.  
Given these inflationary pressures and dwindling foreign exchange reserves, 
the kyat is more vulnerable to contagion effects.
	
The government is trying to reverse these negative trends. However, the 
policy tools the government is using to remedy the economic ills are not 
economic ones. The government sends agents to foreign exchange counters 
and arrests traders who make transactions outside the official range set 
by the government.  The trade licenses that the regime created to profit 
from rent-seeking activities have been temporarily suspended. Military
troops are sent to stop the border trade.

The decision to expand the army to a force of half a million men is 
worrying. The generals focused on building the army and funneled most 
of the budgetary resources to a parallel program of modernization and 
force expansion.
	
Rising through the ranks of military is the primary avenue to attain 
wealth, status, and power.
	
Under the new policy, the share of military spending in the state budget 
has peaked at 42 percent in 1993 and never really diminished after that. 
This pattern of military spending alone should disqualify the regime from
any aid since Japan's ODA charter outlined principles that focus on "trends 
in recipient countries' military expenditures, their development and 
production of mass destruction weapons and missiles, their export and import 
of arms, etc."
	
Japan has huge influence in Myanmar and it can certainly use aid to shape
developments.  Instead of focusing on project financing, Japan should look 
more into fostering a "policy dialogue," and try to introduce effective and 
timely reforms in Myanmar.

The big unfinished task is political.  Japan should try to use the "aid" 
carrot to influence the process of democratization in Myanmar. The ODA 
charter already gives a strong mandate to efforts to promote 
"democratization and the introduction of a market-oriented economy, and 
the situation regarding the securing of basic human rights and freedoms in 
the recipient country." Japan should try to rescue Myanmar democracy, not 
the generals.

[Zaw Oo is a graduate of the School of International and Public Affairs, 
Columbia University.  He is currently coordinator of the Research Group 
for the Economic Development of Burma based in New York.]

*********************************************************
 
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: DO SANCTIONS REALLY WORK? 
17 March, 1998
by Thomas Crampton

Debate is on in Burma

RANGOON- Burma's economy, squeezed for years by Western sanctions 
and weakened by economic crises affecting much of Asia, is in tatters.
 
Now, the ills afflicting Burma have in the last few months led 
the clique of generals who rule the country to acknowledge, 
uncharacteristically, that there are problems: the Burmese 
currency, the Kyat, has plunged; inflation is rising; and 
investment has declined.
 
This new openness in turn, has led some supporters of sanctions 
to question their continued usefulness.
 
"The economy is getting worse but the government is not shaky and 
it won't topple," said Ma Thanegi, a former member of the opposition 
National League for Democracy who was once an aide to the opposition 
leader and Nobel laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. "Boycotts and 
sanctions will not work."
 
Since the military regime took over in 1988 and ignored the result of a
1990 election won by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, 
Western governments have introduced a range of sanctions to pressure 
Rangoon into suppressing drug trafficking and making democratic reforms.
 
The country has lost access to most foreign aid. The European Union 
and the United States cancelled the preferential tariffs often accorded
developing nations. And last year, a U.S. ban on American countries 
making new investment in Burma went into effect.
 
Ma Thanegi, who like many league members in 1989 was sent to prison 
for a time, argues that such sanctions may end up impeding change. 
"If there were no sanctions, responsible companies could come in with 
their financial clout and knowledge to change things," she said in an 
interview. "You have to be realistic. With the government now looking 
for ways out of this crisis, it is exactly the time they need good 
advice and expertise."
 
But the Executive Committee of the National League for Democracy 
still supports sanctions unanimously, said U Tin Oo, the Party's 
deputy chairman.
 
"If investment comes in, all the wealth will go to the generals," 
said U Tin Oo. "The majority of Burmese people are farmers, so they 
are not affected by sanctions."
 
Because of her change of heart, Ma Thanegi has been called a turncoat 
to the party she still supports, but among activists in Burma she is 
not alone.
 
"Sanctions are keeping out opportunity," said a former student activist 
in Rangoon who now works for an international corporation and spoke 
on condition of anonymity. 
 
"Foreign investment bring contacts with the outside world, ideas and it
can also be quite subversive," she said.
 
"The office of every Western business uses a fax machine and e-mail," 
she said. These can be "powerful tools" in a country where the state 
strictly controls communications.
 
Ronald Morris, general manager of Britain's Premier Oil PLC, a major 
share holder in Burma's Yetagun gas pipeline project, echoed that, saying,
"International corporations bring the technology and value systems of
their home countries."
 
More than just building pipeline, Mr Morris said, "we import into
developing countries state-of-the-art communication technology along 
with the microculture of the democratic and free society we come from."
 
To hear the Burmese government tell it, the U.S. ban on investment has
backfired.
 
"The adverse effects are being felt more by the United States, because we
have lots of raw materials and are rich with natural resources," a cabinet
minister, Brigadier General Maung Maung, said in an interview.
 
Unlike South Africa, which lost precious foreign investment to sanctions,
Burma had only just begun to emerge from decades of isolation when sanctions
began to be imposed.
 
For more than two decades until 1988, the dictatorship of General Ne Win
led the country along the Burmese path to Socialism, a xenophobic
nationalism that severed most ties to the outside world.
 
Once the world's largest rice exporter, Burma had enough fertile land to
feed itself without any trade and the government had made it clear that
foreign ideas were unwelcome.
 
Since the 1990 election, the politics of Burma have frozen: The National
League for Democracy insists it should rule Burma, while the military
government continues to consolidate its control over the country.
 
Political change will come, the generals insist, once economic growth
takes place. The National League for Democracy, in contrast, says growth
should occur only after political change.
 
"Unless we resolve the problems of the 1990 elections nobody should invest
their money here and nobody should come as a tourist," said U Tin Oo.
"Sanctions should stay in place and there should be no economic
development until the political issues are solved."
 
It is hard to measure the economic impact of the U.S. investment ban.
Apart from some natural gas ventures and a few high profile manufacturers,
the country had not attracted many U.S. businesses. For one thing, Burma
consumers earn on average less than $300 per year and pay with a currency
that is not easily convertible.
 
More damaging to the economy than the actual sanctions, analysts say, are
parallel efforts, such as laws that several American cities and
Massachusetts have passed baring purchases from companies doing business in
Burma.
 
Massachusetts, for instance, recently sent letters warning companies in
Rangoon that they can not bid for state contracts.
 
Fears that such letters are a precursor to protests has prompted European
and American companies to withdraw or conceal their presence here.
 
In the months before the United States passed its investment ban,
investment in Burma originating from offshore corporate havens like the
British Virgin islands soared, and obscure appellations replaced familiar
company names.
 
Many businesses operating in Burma have scaled back operations to minimize
publicity.
 
"There used to be a ritual photograph with ministers and businessmen in
the New Light of Myanmar newspaper whenever a deal was struck," one
diplomat in Rangoon said. "Now fear of retribution from activists has
forced people to hide what they are doing here. It makes it much harder to
figure out what is really going on here."
 
For all the anxiety the activists create, the strongest brakes now being
applied to Burma's economy come from the economic crisis in East Asia.
 
About half of Burma's investment and trade come from its Southeast Asian
neighbors, which have seen the value of their currency against the U.S.
dollar plummet since July. The plunges have meant that Southeast Asian
companies that had opened branches here have had to pull out.

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

SCMP: MARAUDERS KILLED IN CROSS-BORDER SHELLING
19 March, 1998 [abridged]

AP, Bangkok - A Thai general said yesterday that seven members of 
a Burmese band of marauders were killed and 20 wounded when his 
troops shelled their camp across the border.

The Thai Army shelled the base inside Burma belonging to the pro-Rangoon
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) in retaliation for its cross-border 
attacks on refugee camps in Thailand.

Members of the DKBA are reportedly furious over the Thai assault and 
have vowed to burn down all the refugee camps in Thailand.

"Good. I'm glad they are furious. This [retaliation] is one way of 
telling the DKBA that we will not tolerate their actions. We will 
not allow our sovereignty to be violated," said General Chamlong 
Photong, commander of the 3rd Army.

He said the casualties were confirmed by Colonel Sai Phone of the 
Burmese Army in neighbouring Myawaddy.

The Burmese Army has launched an offensive against the union's 7th 
Brigade, which abandoned its mobile headquarters inside Burma this week.

Burmese Army operations against the union are often accompanied by 
theft, burning of villages, rapes, torture and extrajudicial killings 
against Karen villagers.

The DKBA split from the Karen union and allied itself with Burma's 
military junta in 1994. It has repeatedly attacked the refugee camps.

"I can't accept the fact that innocent people, women and children, in 
these camps are being attacked. There are just too many children running 
around in these camps," General Chamlong said.

"We look at them as refugees but the DKBA looks at the Karens in these
border camps as terrorists."

The Australian Government yesterday condemned the attacks on refugee camps.

The DKBA is armed and controlled by the Burmese Army. Refugees have said 
that Burmese troops have participated in some of the attacks on the refugee 
camps.

"The Burmese Army in the area keep saying that they cannot control the
DKBA," General Chamlong said.

He said that in the past, the attacks on the camps were intended to force
the refugees to return to Burma under DKBA control. Now, however, with the
refugees clearly rejecting the DKBA, he believed the attacks were motivated 
by revenge.

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

THE ASIAN AGE: KAREN REFUGEES IN THAILAND FACE NEW BURMESE ATTACKS
19 March, 1998
by Matthew Pennington

Mae Sot (Thailand), March 18: History is repeating itself in deadly 
fashion for Karen refugees in Thailand facing a wave of cross-border 
raids from Burma that have left thousands homeless and four dead.
 
Incursions into Thailand by Burma-backed forces, who have attacked 
two camps close to the frontier in the past week, has left many of an
estimated 1,000 shelters torched last week.
 
"We can not sleep here at night. They (the intruders) threatened us 
they would come back again if we did not leave the camp," he said, 
sitting in a tiny bamboo and thatch lean-to close to the charred 
remnants of his former home.
 
The raid, in which four people were killed and more than 30 injured, 
was the second time he had lost his few possessions. The camp, 
which houses 8,300 refugees, was razed in a similar raid in January 
last year.
 
The refugees sheltering in Thailand are loyal to the Karen National 
Union, the only major ethnic insurgency yet to reach a ceasefire with 
Yangon. The attacks appear designed to sever contact between the 
camps and the KNU military units.
 
Last Wednesday, Burma government troops and soldiers from a
Karen splinter group, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, 
ventured unopposed into Huay Kalok camp, which lies 3 km from 
the Burmese border.
 
While the Thai military have said they had no prior warning of the 
attack, sources at the border were skeptical amid reports that a small 
convoy of vehicles with unidentified men in camouflage uniforms 
drove through the camp 30 minutes before the shooting started.
 
The intruders from Burma attacked from two directions, raining 
mortars and grenades on the camp before busting in from the Thai 
side and setting fire to it.
 
"They were shooting at us like it was a big battle, but we had nothing 
to protect us. Children were crying for their parents," said Stephen 
Freddie, a teacher at the camp. He said the intruders robbed valuables 
from people as they fled.

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

BKK POST: TROUBLE WITH THE NEIGHBOURS
19 March, 1998
Editorial

Thai troops have exchanged fire with Burmese forces and their 
renegade Karen proxies as hot season violence flares once more 
on the border. But how can this be happening? Isn't Rangoon a 
member of the Asean family?

If the State Peace and Development Council, which postures as 
the legitimate government of Burma, is grateful at being admitted 
to the regional family, it has a strange way of showing it. If, 
by its actions on our north-western border, the successor to the 
State Law and Order Restoration Council is demonstrating what sort 
of contribution it can make to the Association of Southeast Asian 
Nations, then we have problems.

The latest exchanges between Asean's newest recruit and its 
immediate neighbour to the east have involved munitions rather than
legal commerce or expressions of amity and co-operation. No diplomatic
or cultural niceties here. Instead, intrusions and cross-border mortar 
attacks by Burmese government forces along with their Democratic Karen 
Buddhist Army allies that have provoked Thai security forces to shell 
their jungle bases.

The fruits of the policy of constructive engagement championed with 
such vigour by members of Asean have so far been bitter from the Thai
perspective. Before the despotic xenophobes in Rangoon were admitted 
to the club, their supporters pushed the line that it was better to 
have them in the club than out of it. The junta that has and continues 
to force itself on a cowed and impoverished people would moderate its 
behaviour in such au gust company, or so they thought.

Events have shown such optimism to be misplaced, as Karen refugees from
Rangoon's excesses have been finding to their cost. In recent attacks, 
four Karen refugees have been killed and 9,000 made destitute when their 
homes were put to the torch by Rangoon troops and their Karen proxies in 
raids deep into Thai territory. Retaliatory shelling by Thai forces 
defending Thai territory has upped the stakes and left the refugees 
even more fearful.

Rangoon is given to insisting that it has no control over the Karen
renegades: they just happen to be able to operate with impunity and
impressive weaponry against the likes of the Karen Nation Union, which 
just happens to be a foe of the dictators. Over the years, the junta 
and its forces have taken control over much of the border with Thailand, 
enough to give them a good idea of who is doing what, and any claims, to 
the contrary are unconvincing.

The retaliatory shelling is likely to be counter-productive and will see 
the return of the renegade Karen and their allies to harass the refugees 
that Rangoon says it wants to welcome home. Indeed, the refugees have 
started digging bunkers and making what preparations they can to protect
themselves when Rangoon assigns its renegade proxies to deliver the next
invitation to come home. If the invitation is delivered in the form of 
mortar rounds, bullets, blows and fire, a reluctance on the part of the 
Karen to return is more than understandable.

Attacks on civilian refugees are beyond the pale in any civilised society,
as are military operations beyond national borders. Hostilities along
Thailand's border with Burma cannot be allowed to continue, and it is in
this respect that the regional grouping, which has embraced Rangoon, should 
use its good offices to bring to an end family discord. 

Any such effort, however, may take the argument back to square one because 
the problem is that what Rangoon wants, Rangoon must get or there will be 
hell to pay. More specifically, Asean could face the task of seeking to 
impose its will on a regime that is a law unto itself and tramples on the
aspirations and will of its own people.

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

BKK POST: BO MYA WANTS UN TO STEP IN AND LOOK AFTER REFUGEES
19 March , 1998

They live in fear after recent attacks

MAWKER CAMP, BURMA (Reuters) - The leader of Burma's ethnic Karen 
rebels yesterday urged the United Nations to help nearly 100,000 
refugees living in fear following recent attacks on camps by pro-Rangoon
guerrillas.

Bo Mya, 71, president of the Karen National Union, asked for the UN 
to step in after Burma-backed fighters recently raided several camps, 
killing at least four refugees and leaving thousands homeless.

"I would like to urge the UN to come in and closely look after the 
Karen refugees, so when Burmese troops attack the camps then the UN 
can take action against the Burmese military junta," he said.

A group of about 50 guerrillas from the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army
opened fire on refugees and burned down more than 1,000 shanty houses 
in a raid earlier this month.

The DKBA attacked another camp last weekend, prompting Thai army 
retaliation which killed at least seven DKBA members, army sources said.

The refugees have since been living in a state of fear because the DKBA 
has threatened retaliation.

"Burmese troops have ordered the DKBA to attack and burn all refugees, 
camps inside Thailand, that's why we urge the UN to come in urgently," 
said Gen Bo Mya.

A UN official in Bangkok said the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees cannot establish a presence at camps at the request of a rebel
leader - it needs authorisation or a request from the Thai government.

Although the UNHCR regularly visits the camps, it must request 
authorisation each time from Thai authorities, he said.

Gen Bo Mya also asked for more Thai army security to help protect the
refugees.

Some 400 Thai officials, including soldiers, paratroopers and Border 
Patrol Police, were deployed in the area to deter intruders and protect 
the refugees a Thai army source said.

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A LETTER FROM MAE YA HTA REFUGEE CAMP
16 March, 1998

While Huay Kaloke camp refugee people are facing the loss of their homes
because of the attack of the DKBA and SPDC, the people of Mae Ya Hta
refugee camp are facing a shortage of food and medicine.

The NGO groups, BBC and MHD, have agreed with the Thai authorities to 
cut off our food supplies and medicines since the people refused to move 
on February 12.

The Thai armed forces are blocking the road to Mae Ya Hta. They aren't
allowing any food or medicine through, even cakes for children or 1 kg of
tomatoes. Some unnamed donors tried to send some food by truck to Mae Ya 
Hta but the trucks had to turn back to Maesariang because the Thai troops 
blocked the road and threatened the drivers with guns. The last truck was 
turned back on March 15. Three trucks have been turned back in this way. 

The Thai Army and the NGOs have only succeeded in forcing 100 houses to 
move from Khlo Pa refugee camp. They have used the method of cutting off
the supplies of Mae Ya Hta when they realized it was difficult to move 
the people. They want to give extreme pressure to the people to force 
them to move.

The people in Mae Ya Hta are facing hunger and a lack of medicine. They 
are now suffering miserably, especially children and older people. The 
number of people suffering disease is increasing day by day. 

The people of Mae Ya Hta are worrying very much because it seems that 
there is no one to help them. 

[Mae Ya Hta Information Committee]

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AN OPEN LETTER TO THE THAI GOVERNMENT AND TO THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
14 March, 1998

The people of Mae Ye Hta refugee camp in Mae Hong Son province, 
northern Thailand, have been refusing to move as ordered on 
February 12, 1998.

This order was given by the Thai army together with Non Governmental
Organizations including Burma Border Consortium and MHD.

One hundred families from Klo Pa refugee camp were forcibly relocated 
to the new location, Mae Ramu camp, on March 2nd. The majority of the 
former residents of Klo Pa refused to move and now living in the forest 
around the camp or are in hiding in Burma side of nearly the borderline.

The refusal of Mae Ye Hta and Klo Pa camps to move is based on fears 
for their safety at the new camp. Mae Ramu is closed to the SPDC army 
and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army based in Manerplaw. Mae Ramu was 
attacked by the DKBA in 1995, so is clearly under threat, especially 
after the DKBA's attack on Huay Kaloke camp on March 11, 1998, which 
has heightened the security fear o refugees n the Thai-Burma border. 
Some residents of Mae Ramu have left the camp due to fear of attack. 
The residents are trying to move back to Mae Ye Hta camp which has 
never been attacked. There are also concerns about overcrowding and 
lack of building materials at the new camp.

The residents of Mae Ye Hta are now facing hunger and illness due to 
the blocking of road access by the Thai army troops are refusing to 
allow any food or medical supplies to be brought to the camp. No prior 
warning of this halt to supplies was given by the army or by the NGOs 
responsible for sending supplies.

The public and the other NGOs do not seem to be aware of this blockade.

We ask the Thai Government and the international community to do the 
following:

(1) Stop the false accusations against refugees concerning illegal 
teak logging and drug smuggling;
(2) Halt the moving of refugees to areas which are not secure from 
DKBA/SPDC attack.
(3) Give official refugee status to the people from Burma, who have 
had no choice but to flee their homeland, rather than considering them 
"displaced persons";
(4) Respect the human rights of these people, who are not enemies of
Thailand by restoring access to food and medicine;
(5)  Help the people of Mae Ye Hta to live in harmony with the Thai people;
(6) We ask the Thai Government to allow international organizations to
investigate the situation here.

Most urgently, we ask for help to restore the supply of food and medicine,
without that, we cannot survive.

Yours sincerely,
The people of Mae Ye Hta
(Note: original English version)

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ANNOUNCEMENTS:

REMINDER: PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR ARTICLES IN BURMESE OR ENGLISH ASAP!
19 March, 1998

Burma - Voices of Women in the Struggle
A Multilingual Expression of Women's Solidarity

Women and girls connected to the struggle for democracy and human rights
are cordially invited to contribute their writings for inclusion in the
bilingual book Burma - Voices of Women in the Struggle.

We would be happy to receive any writing, in either Burmese or English, 
not more than 3,000 words in length, in the form of:
· short stories
· letters
· articles
· poems
Black-and-white photographs or drawings are also welcome. In addition to
original contributions, previously published work is also welcome, with
permission of the writer and publisher.

Writings may cover a range of topics and styles, to reflect the thoughts
and situation of women who want human rights and democracy in Burma. 
This can be about:
· an incident in your life
· your hopes for the future
· experiences in the struggle
· what you think about the current situation in your life or your country
· people who have inspired you
· something you feel strongly about

PLEASE SEND IN YOUR ARTICLES BY THE EXTENDED DEADLINE OF MARCH 31st 1998,
to allow time for translation. We hope to complete the book for launching
on the next Women of Burma Day, June 19, 1998 (which is also Daw Suu's
birthday).

This book is a joint project of Altsean-Burma, Burmese Women's Union 
and Burma Issues, with the collaboration of organizations supporting the
promotion of the status of women and the cause of human rights and
democracy in Burma.

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