The BurmaNet News: April 8, 1998

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"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"   
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The BurmaNet News:  April 8, 1998
Issue # 978

HEADLINES:
===========
AP:  KAREN BASE RECAPTURED
AP: MYANMAR JUNTA BARS U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UN
THE IRISH TIMES:  SHADOW OF SLAVE LABOUR
BKK POST: UN REFUGEE ROLE IS NOT WITHOUT ITS HEADACHES
BKK POST: TRADE AND BORDERS TOP PRIORITIES
THE NATION:  RESPECT THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF REFUGEES

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AP:  MYANMAR BARS U.S. AMBASSADOR
7 April, 1998

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Myanmar's military government will not grant the
U.S. ambassador to the United Nations permission to visit as long as its
leaders are barred from entering America, a government spokesman said today. 

Bill Richardson had hoped to visit Myanmar, also known as Burma, as part of
a swing through South Asia beginning Saturday that includes Bangladesh,
India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. 

``Mr. Richardson is not outrightly refused permission to visit Myanmar,''
said a government spokesman who speaks only on condition of anonymity. 

The U.N. ambassador could enter Myanmar if the ban on the country's leaders
entering America was ``either waived or lifted,'' the spokesman said in a
fax to The Associated Press. 

It was believed that Richardson changed his plans to visit Myanmar after
learning of the country's unwillingness to grant a visa. 

Richardson's staff was not available for comment. 

In October 1996, President Clinton issued an executive order barring
members of the military government and their families from visiting the
United States.

The order was imposed as a largely symbolic protest over the military
government's mass arrests of members of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's
political party the National League for Democracy. 

No senior member of Myanmar's military government, which has ruled the
country since 1962, has ever visited the United States. 

The military government responded by issuing its own ban on senior U.S.
officials visiting Myanmar. It chose not to enforce the ban, however, when
several U.S. congressmen and former ambassadors toured Myanmar on junkets
sponsored by lobbying groups funded by U.S. oil companies. 

Unocal Corp. is a partner in a $1.2 billion gas pipeline in Myanmar. The
Los Angeles-based company has been sharply criticized for its involvement
in Myanmar, with some ethnic minority people saying they were used as
forced labor to build infrastructure for the project. 

Unocal had denied the charges. 

In 1994, as a Democratic congressman from New Mexico, Richardson was the
first non-family member the military government allowed to visit Suu Kyi.
She was under six years of house arrest at the time for her campaign to
bring democracy to Myanmar. 

The military refused his second request to meet her on a subsequent trip in
1995, and he accused the regime of ``repression, regression and
retrenchment.'' 

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THE IRISH TIMES:  SHADOW OF SLAVE LABOUR
4 April, 1998

Western oil companies are laying a pipeline through Burma - with the help
of slave labour, say critics of the ruling military regime. 

Sandy Barron went searching for evidence and reports from Kanbauk

The troops were away when another reporter and I strayed through a fence
into a Burmese army camp in a high-security zone south of Rangoon. We had
been looking to see ordinary life in tiny Eindayaza village, but found
ourselves instead with a rare view of a Burmese military base.

The camp, which is near the village Baptist church, seemed little to look
at at first: flimsily-built huts of wood and bamboo that looked as if they
would blow down in the next wind were clustered around a wooden building.

This was a bleak spot, but comforts are scarce in Burma. Regular soldiers
in the 400,000-strong army are as poor as they are reputedly fierce - the
lowest-paid men have to struggle to afford a proper pair of boots.

"Conquer thine enemy," read a flowery title on the largest of a few maps
and documents pinned to a wall in the main building. Blue rectangles dotted
around a bright yellow line showed the positions of around 2,400 soldiers
guarding a 40-mile onshore section of the (pounds) 0.75 billion Yadana gas
pipeline.

The almost-finished mega-project being built by French oil giant Total and
California's Unocal will soon be joined by a second pipeline running from
Burma into Thailand which Britain's Premier Oil will start laying later
this year.

The oil companies have steamed ahead in Burma despite a chorus of protest
from human rights groups, which accuse them of supporting a brutal
dictatorship. The groups say soldiers guarding the projects have
perpetrated massive abuses on local villagers, including torture, rape,
murder, displacements of whole villages and forced labour.

Total and Premier flew a group of journalists in recently for a brief view
of the pipeline and to defend their projects. The Light Infantry Battalion
409 camp we had blundered into was not on the agenda, and our intelligence
officer escort later told other reporters it was off-limits.

The oil companies balk at being held to account over allegations that
forced labour is being imposed on local people by soldiers from LIB 409 and
other regiments providing pipeline security.

Forced labour is actually "normal" throughout the country. Amnesty
International and a host of other human rights groups have condemned Burma
for forcing millions of ordinary people to do backbreaking hard labour,
stacking and breaking rocks for roads and railways.

Civilians are also made to work as porters for the army, sometimes in
life-threatening situations.

Critics say the oil companies' presence in southern Burma has increased and
encouraged the use of forced labour here.

Video evidence smuggled out shows villagers doing forced labour on the
nearby Ye-Tavoy railway used by troops guarding the pipeline. Soldiers are
also responsible for building new roads in this little-developed region.

The soldiers in Light Infantry Battalion 409's army base were clearly
supervising some local infrastructural work. Among the documents pinned to
the wall was a neatly-drawn wall chart which monitored the "Progress of
Rock Collecting." Hundreds of rock piles were numbered and accounted for,
although it was not clear where the work was taking place.

LIB 409 turns up in testimony from people who fled this region for refugee
camps in Thailand. Mr Maung Dtoo, a LIB 409 deserter, said he had helped
burn down a village, conscripted villagers to work as army porters, and
watched in horror as superiors raped two Mon women.

Unocal is fighting two pipeline-related lawsuits in Los Angeles. Burma's
pro-democracy leader, Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, last week described Premier Oil
as "very selfish" for doing business with the military regime.

The lack of access to the normally forbidden region has made it extremely
difficult for reporters to write about. Rare visitors must be flown in by
the oil companies for what are usually very brief views. The Burmese
military does not allow reporters or anyone else free rein around the wider
region.

The oil companies say they do not know what the soldiers are doing and that
they are helping develop a chronically poor area by paying above-average
local wages and handing out aid to villages on the pipeline route.

Mr Ronald Morris, Premier's local general manager, said Premier was
spending $1.4 million ((pounds) 875,000) over three years on community
development projects here.

Flying in the face of a call from Ms San Suu Kyi for non-governmental
organisations to stay out of Burma, Save the Children (USA) has been hired
for $350,000 [(pounds) 200,000] a year to set up education programmes.

Total is helping 13 designated villages with shrimp farms, poultry and pig
projects, schools and health programmes, said the company's new local
general manager, Mr Michel Viallard.

A map in the Eindayaza camp detailed each house in the village and the
names of heads of household, indicating extraordinary army interest in this
tiny ethnic Karen settlement. Karens have been traditionally opposed to
Burma's military government, and they are the only ethnic group left which
has not signed a ceasefire agreement with Rangoon.

Ten villagers from Eindayaza were summarily executed by troops from another
regiment two years ago, in retaliation for an attack by unknown
perpetrators on the pipeline, according to human rights group EarthRights
International (ERI).

Forced labour and other abuses are still continuing in the region, says Mr
Ka Hsaw Wa, a Karen director of ERI, which is filing one of the two
California lawsuits against Unocal.

According to a recent Unocal submission to a US Department of Labour
inquiry into labour practices in Burma, "the government of Myanmar does not
provide or arrange for personnel to work on the pipeline." But a 1996 Total
document handed to a US official appears to contradict that.

It describes "payments made to villagers hired by the army." In Burma,
people "hired" by the army rarely feel they have a choice in the matter,
even if they are paid.

Progress has not been smooth for the Yadana project on the Thai side of the
border either. Prominent social activist Sulak Sivaraksa was arrested in a
storm of publicity in March for refusing to quit a protest site where the
pipeline cuts into pristine Thai forest.

Now he is planning to use his May trial to condemn consortium partner the
Petroleum Authority of Thailand and the multinationals for their record on
the environment and human rights.

That will irk the oil companies once more. But it will not stop the race to
finish the work by next July.

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BANGKOK POST:  UN REFUGEE ROLE IS NOT WITHOUT ITS HEADACHES
7 April, 1998
By Sarttdet Marukatat

The Chuan Leekpai government needs to carefully think out its widely
welcomed decision to allow the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees to assist Burmese refugees or risk the danger of prolonging the
problem.

The decision approved by the cabinet on Mar 24 has yet to be fleshed out,
but it is expected to come up during Deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand
Paribatra's talks in Rangoon today and tomorrow.

But most officials have emphasised the need to avoid repeating the
experience with Cambodian refugees two decades ago when Thailand played
host to more than 300,000 Cambodians in several United Nations-assisted camps.

The first wave came in 1976 when the Khmer Rouge seized power. A bigger
wave crossed the border after Vietnamese-led forces toppled the extremist
leadership in Jan 1979 and sparked a protracted conflict between the regime
Hanoi installed and resistance forces.

It was not until Mar 1993 that Thailand and the UNHCR succeeded in emptying
the last camps along the Cambodian border.

Some Thai officials believe however that the experience with the Cambodian
refugees- could be useful in dealing with the situation on the Burmese border.

Logistically, there will be no problem in handling some 100,000 refugees
who have crossed the Burmese border into the country. "As far as experience
is concerned, we can manage it," Sanan Kachornklum, a senior supreme
command officer, told a discussion last week. Now a defence adviser to
Prime Minister Chuan, Lt-Gen Sanan was involved in dealing with the
Cambodian refugees from beginning to end.

The plan being negotiated by the UNHCR and Thai agencies led by the
National Security Council calls for Thailand to try to improve management
by reducing the number of camps along the Burmese border, currently
totaling 19, and provide protection for the refugees by moving them about
10 kilometres inland.

The relocation is seen as aimed at ending cross border raids by the
Democratic Karen Buddhism Army on camps mainly in Tak, the province lying
opposite the stronghold of the Karen National Union, the strongest ethnic
rebel group still resisting a ceasefire agreement with the government in
Rangoon.

The Rangoon-supported DKBA has been trying to demoralise refugees and
pressure them into returning to Burma. Rangoon claims the camps have become
safe havens and refresher stops for KNU rebels fleeing its suppression
efforts.

"Moving the camps further inland at least will give [Thai] armed forces a
mobility to prevent the attacks," said one army officer.

But the conflict between Rangoon and the last remaining rebels is more
internal than the Cambodian war, which drew international involvement
because it stemmed from an invasion by a foreign force. And Thailand risks
being denied the international support it needs to end the refugee problem
on the Burmese border.

Thailand obtained international support for the repatriation of Cambodian
refugees as part of the peace agreements on Cambodia signed in Paris in Oct
1991. Backers included the five permanent members of the UN Security
Council, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Japan.

The agreements stipulated that the Cambodians be repatriated in time for
general elections supervised by the UN in May 1993.

The influx of refugees from Burma increased after Thailand abandoned its
policy of using armed ethnic minorities as a buffer against Burmese forces,
and pursued contacts with the Burmese military regime, now known as the
State Peace and Development Council.

The shift of policy enabled Rangoon to step up its suppression of ethnic
rebels, to press for ceasefire agreements and to control the border
adjacent to Thailand for the first time.

Under heavier pressure, the ethnic groups crossed the border in bigger
numbers to escape forced labour, village relocation and other human rights
abuses. Many came further inland to work largely as illegal hired hands.

Like Cambodia, the regime in Rangoon plans to hold an election under a new
constitution being drafted in the assembly. But neither the ethnic
minorities nor the international community are impressed with the snail's
pace of the drafting process, which has been boycotted by the National
League for Democracy led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

By Lt-Gen Sanan's reckoning, the election, which would provide a valid
reason for the repatriation of the Burmese refugees, is not expected to
take place for another three to five years.

As the issue of Burmese refugees is between Thailand and Burma, it would be
difficult for the Chuan government to lobby for help from other Asean
members as previous governments did with the Cambodian situation.

Asean, which includes three Muslim-dominated states among its nine members,
has not touched on the problem of Burmese Muslim refugees, or Rohingyus,
escaping political repression to Bangladesh for fear of upsetting Rangoon.

Rangoon might not like the Chuan government's decision to allow the UNHCR
to assist Burmese in Thai border camps but Thailand needs help to look
after refugees so it can concentrate more on protecting its own people.

"We accept that refugees are a burden. We do not want our people to be a
burden to our neighbours but then conditions in our country are such that
our people can enjoy neither political nor economic security, the problem of
refugees is inevitable," said Mrs Suu Kyi in a recent message to the UN
Commission on Human Rights.

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BANGKOK POST:  TRADE AND BORDERS TOP PRIORITIES
7 April, 1998
Bhanravee Tansubhapol

Shifting Borderlines and Changing Trade Currencies Will Dominate Talks In
Rangoon Today When Thai Ministers Call On Their Opposite Numbers

The-deputy foreign and commerce ministers head for Rangoon today with the
main tasks of convincing Burma to resume talks on a disputed Thai-Burmese
border area and to review recent regulations for trading in US dollars.

But the recent attacks by pro-Rangoon forces on Karen refugee camps along
the border will add another sticky issue for Deputy Foreign Minister
Sukhumbhand Paribatra to take up with his hosts during the two-day visit.
Two Thai soldiers were captured in incidents at Huay Kalok and Mae Hla that
left four Karens dead.

M.R. Sukhumbhand heads the first high-level delegation of the Chuan Leekpai
government to Burma accompanied by Deputy Commerce Minister Pothipong
Lamsam and several Thai businessmen.

They are due to have talks with Deputy Foreign Minister Nyunt Shwe and
Deputy Commerce Minister Kyaw Than, and meet with Than Shwe, chairman of
the ruling State Peace and Development Council First Secretary-General Khin
Nyunt, and Foreign Minister U Ong Kyaw.

M.R. Sukhumbhand has stressed the need for the two countries to cooperate
bilaterally and as partners in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
on matters ranging from refugees to economic development.

The approach of the rains has brought fears of new friction stemming from
the seasonal shift of borderlines in the Moei River that has brought
seasonal standoffs along the disputed border area.

M.R. Sukhumbhand will urge Burmese authorities to use diplomatic rather
than military means to solve any problems that might arise in connection
with the  unclear border line at Wat Prathat Khok Chang Pheuak and Ban Mae
Konekane in Tak province, according to a foreign ministry official.

Thailand claims it lost 340 rai of land in 1993 when Ban Mae Konekane, in
Tambon Tha Sai Luad, was cut off from the mainland. Burma says it lost up
to 150 rai as a result of severe flooding in 1994 and 1995 which changed
the course of the Moei River. The 1868 Siam-British treaty sets the
borderline as the middle of the river.

"We don't want soldiers of either side to take it upon themselves to stage
incursions to take back what they think is their territory, " said the
official. 

But the threat of use of force will persist, he said, as long as the two
countries do not settle disputes and demarcate their 2,401-kilometre-long
border.

The two countries made some progress last year by agreeing to divide the
land and river border into 10 sectors, and to use aerial photos shot in
1994 to demarcate the disputed area at Ban Mae Konekane and Wat Prathat
Khok Chang Pheuak.

The sectors have been marked out by technical teams since the agreement was
reached in August, according to sources.

On trade matters, Mr Pothipong will try to persuade Burma to return to the
use of local currency in bilateral trade in line with the agreement in
February among Asean finance ministers.

Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam
are other Asean member states.

According to a commerce ministry official, Thai exports have dropped by
more than 80 percent since Burma issued the regulation in November for
exporters dealing in more than $20,000 worth of goods to open letters of
credit in US dollars at Thai or Burmese banks.

The official said Burma could block trade for another 10 years even though
it joined Asean last July and is committed to joining the Asean Free Trade
Area.

Burma and Laos, which was admitted at the same time, have until 2010 to
liberalise trade, while older Asean member states have to minimise tariffs
by 2003.

As part of preparations for his upcoming trip, M. R. Sukhumbhand, who was a
staunch critic of the military regime in Rangoon before he joined the Chuan
government, has sought "special advice" from top brass reputed to be close
to Burma's generals, including Supreme Commander Mongkol Ampornpisit and
Army Commander-in- Chief Chettha Thanajaro, a source said.

With Gen Chettha due to reach retirement in October, the Foreign Ministry
is "trying to convince the Burmese leaders to deal with us on a
government-to-government, rather than on a personal basis," a source said.

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THE NATION:  RESPECT THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF REFUGEES
7 April, 1998

Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim warned last year that if the
economic growth was to dip below four per cent, there would be social
unrest. Late last month, Anwar revised downwards, for the third time, the
projected growth in Malaysia. Growth in 1998, he lamented, is estimated to
be between two and three percent.

And sure enough, as if on cue, Malaysia was rocked by two separate
incidents of rioting. Fighting broke out between Muslims and Hindus in the
island state of Penang over the presence of a temple located near a mosque.
More seriously, however, were the riots at the illegal detention camps as
the authorities moved to deport thousands of Indonesians.

The violence began when the police launched a simultaneous operation to
round up detainees from Indonesia's western most province of Aceh in four
camps for repatriation. By the time calm was restored, nine people - eight
Indonesians and one police officer - were dead, and dozens injured.

The Acehnese are from the northern tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra
- one of the three regions in the archipelago where separatists are
fighting for independence in what is considered as a  "little known, dirty
war."

In the early 1990s, the Indonesian troops launched a brutal
counter-insurgency campaign against the secessionist rebels and human
rights groups have complained of widespread killings, torture,
disappearances and arbitrary detentions of suspected guerrilla sympathisers
and their relatives.

But the Indonesian authorities have rejected the accusations and said all
Acehnese could return without fear.

"There is no such thing as repression here in Indonesia, by the military or
anyone," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ghaffar Fadyl said.

"Many will find that hard to believe. Surely not the Acehnese.  And not the
United Nations either. In 1993, some 55 Acehnese entered the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) compound in Kuala Lumpur and stayed
on its grounds for two years.

They were eventually given refugee status by UNHCR and was permitted to
remain in Malaysia. It appears however that some of these were marked for
deportation last month. And last week, another 14 Indonesians forced their
way into the UNHCR compound demanding protection.

The refugees' fears of the fate waiting for them across the Straits of
Malacca appears genuine. Human Rights Watch reported that the 545
Indonesians deported last month by the Malaysians were sent directly to the
notorious military interrogation centre in Aceh - the Kopassus (special
forces) camp in Rancong. Rancong is known as a site of extrajudicial
executions and torture of
Acehnese rebels. So much for the Indonesian Foreign Ministry's assurances
that no harm would visit the deportees on arrival in Aceh.

Also troubling is the denial of medical attention given to those injured
during the deportation. Of the Acehnese ferried to Indonesia, some were
nursing gunshot wounds and bleeding profusely, and a number died en route.
Such loss of lives could have been prevented had the Malaysian authority
taken steps to
give proper medical treatment to those injured. This is an act of nothing
short of callous irresponsibility on the part of the Malaysians.

Thailand, like Malaysia, has a refugee problem, especially along our
borders with Burma and Cambodia. The policy of pushing refugees, especially
the Burmese, back to a certain fate of torture, forced labour and possibly
death has been condemned by human rights groups. However, the government
has recently taken a step in the right direction by giving the UNHCR a
greater role in protecting these refugees and offering them asylum.

Indeed, at a time when the tiger economies are being battered with a
debilitating economic crisis, governments and citizens tend to economise on
compassion. Perhaps, in these hard times, we should heed the plea from
Burmese Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

"If you have a lot to eat, it doesn't matter much if you toss a cake to
somebody," she said, "but if you're prepared to share your last bowl of
rice with somebody, that is very kind and compassionate."

"True, the people of Thailand and Malaysia have suffered greatly in the
current economic downturn. But surely they are not in such a dire state
that they are being forced to share their last bowl of rice with the refugees.

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