The BurmaNet News: April 27, 1998

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"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"   
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The BurmaNet News: April 27, 1998
Issue #992

HEADLINES:
===========
THE NATION: BURMA'S FOREIGN CURRENCY 'SUCCESS'
BKK POST: NCGUB SLAMS ARREST OF NLD OFFICIAL
BKK POST: SUU KYI FINDS BRUTALITY HAS A NEW NAME
BKK POST: THAI SOLDIERS CAPTURED BY DKBA 'DEAD'
BKK POST: KARENS TO BE FORCED OUT OF NATIONAL PARK
BKK POST: TOKYO OFFERS AID DESPITE INTERNATIONAL BAN
VOA: CONGRESSMAN ROHRABACHER'S VISIT TO BURMA
THE NATION: ASEAN MINISTERS FRET OVER UNEMPLOYMENT
ANNOUNCEMENT: VBA STATEMENT ON VERMONT SANCTIONS
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THE NATION: BURMA'S FOREIGN CURRENCY 'SUCCESS'
25 April, 1998
By Mya Maung

RANGOON HAS TURNED BACK TO ITS ISOLATIONIST POLICY TO PROTECT THE COUNTRY
FROM THE FINANCIAL TURBULENCE IN ASIA

Unlike other Asian countries, Burma has not been extensively covered in the
international news media, seemingly suggesting that it has been able to
ward off the domino effect of the ongoing Asian financial debacle and
economic crisis.

Unlike the baht, the Indonesian rupiah and the Malaysian ringgit, the
accelerated depreciation of value of the kyat towards the end of 1997 seems
to have been arrested in 1998 by the monetary authorities of the Burmese
military regime.

The unofficial/parallel market price of the US dollar that climbed upward
to a panic level of 380 kyats was brought down and stabilised at around 240
kyats in January. The apparent success of Burma in avoiding the contagion
of the Asian financial debacle stems from the nature and functioning of the
Burmese economy, on the one hand and the policies of financial repression
adopted and enforced by the government on the other Burma has virtually no
modern private financial markets, institutions and banking system that are
directly linked to the regional financial markets and system.

The two basic policies of trade and financial repression adopted and
enforced by the Burmese military government to avoid the impact of the
Asian currency crisis and bring down the escalating unofficial market price
of the US dollar and the parallel dollar-denominated currency, the foreign
exchange certificate (FEC), are: the stoppage of cross-border trade with
China and Thailand and the crackdown of official and unofficial trading of
both the black US dollar and the FEC. As in the past whenever the black
market price of the US dollar and the FECs, nicknamed the Burmese dollar,
rose to a crisis level, the authorities began arresting traders and
revoking the licences of FEC traders.

The stoppage of imports or reducing the demand for foreign exchange and at
the same time, the arrest of unofficial foreign exchange dealers and
rationing the amount of trading of FEC at the legal trading counters in
Rangoon by the military intelligence officers seem to be the cause for the
stabilisation of the unofficial foreign exchange rate of Burmese kyat.

However, this stopgap measure of avoiding the Asian crisis by isolating
Burma from the outside world is not going to solve the deep-seated problems
of pervasive poverty, escalating inflation due to shortages of basic
necessities, including the staple crop rice, dwindling of foreign exchange
and massive unemployment.

Many economists believe the underlying cause of the Asian financial debacle
lies in the non-transparency of information and crony capitalism of an
authoritarian state with unmonitored and corrupt regulators of financial
institutions compromising their fiduciary responsibilities.

Burma exemplifies the classic case of nontransparency of information and
crony capitalism of an authoritarian state controlled and managed by
powerful and corrupt military ministers.

The recent dissolution of the Slorc and ousting of 14 military commanders
charged with corruption - to be replaced by a new 19-member junta was a
political manoeuver to improve the rulers' image.

It did not constitute a genuine cleansing of the economy that seethes with
corruption from top to bottom. The reality of the Asian financial debacle
is that the largest investors in Burma, the Asean states, with their own
financial and economic crises, will not be able to finance their committed
investment projects in Burma, let alone make new investments.

In addition to no new investments by US firms due to the sanctions imposed
in April 1997, there is a strong possibility of divestment by US oil firms.

Cases in point are Texaco's withdrawal from the Yadanan natural gas project
in 1997 and Arco's revelation of its intention to liquidate its newly
acquired natural gas project in the Bay of Martaban.

The problems in Asean have also led to a massive deportation of Burmese
illegal migrant workers that will certainly deepen Burma's economic woes.
The two countries from which Burma can hope to secure funds to remain
afloat amidst the Asian financial and economic crisis are Japan,
historically the largest creditor of the military regime of Burma, and
China, Burma's greatest ally since 1988.

Two-thirds of Burma's outstanding external debt of over $6 billion is owed
to Japan.

The recent news of Japan's intention to resume its development assistance
loans to Burma is a case in point of Japanese vested economic interest in
Burma.

China, on the other hand, has provided economic and military aid and loans
far greater in value than those of Japan, to finance various infrastructure
projects, especially the construction of new roads and bridges and
refurbishment of the old ones that link the two countries.

China's vested political interest in providing aid to Burma since 1988 has
been to expand its naval power and presence in the Indian ocean via Burmese
lands and waters. It must be emphasised, however, that the real safety net
of the Burmese junta lies not in the inflow of legal foreign exchange from
foreign investments and bilateral aid, but in the inflow of illegal drug
money and money laundering with impunity by Burma's infamous drug kingpins
such as Khun Sa & and Lo Hsing Han in complicity with Burmese generals.

However, the Burmese economy under the gross mismanagement of incompetent
military rulers is in a downward spiral with escalating inflation,
shortages of rice and other basic necessities, rampant corruption, massive
unemployment, and pervasive poverty with the threat of another massive
political convulsion like the 1988 uprising.

Mya Maung is a professor of finance at the Wallace E Carroll School of
Management, Boston College

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BANGKOK POST: PARALLEL GOVERNMENT SLAMS ARREST OF NLD OFFICIAL
25 April, 1998

NO VALID REASONS' FOR 25-YEAR PRISON TERM

The Burmese parallel government yesterday slammed Rangoon's 25-year prison
sentence for an MP-elect of the opposition National League for Democracy. 

In a statement released in Bangkok, the National Coalition Government of
the Union of Burma (NCGUB) said Daw San San, of the Rangoon Strand Township
constituency, had been given the sentence "after a summary trial under
unjust laws, with no valid reasons".

"Telling the news media truthfully about activities of the Slorc/SPDC
military junta relating to the NLD, in one's capacity as a representative
of the people, and participating in the organising activities of a legal
political party, in one's capacity as a member, do not amount to breaking
the law or committing any crime," the NCGUB statement said. 

The NLD, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won a landslide victory in general
elections in 1990 but Rangoon has refused to recognise the outcome and
transfer power. Besides Daw San San, the junta in Rangoon recently arrested
a member of the NLD's central executive committee, U Soe Myint.

"Since a few months back, the SPDC military dictatorship has been
systematically harassing the members of parliament-elect of the NLD and the
party workers, at various levels, with arrest, obstruction and
restrictions" the NCGUB said.

"We seriously condemn all the activities of the SPDC aimed at breaking up
the NLD," it added.

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

BANGKOK POST: SUU KYI FINDS BRUTALITY HAS A NEW NAME
27 April,1998

Suu Kyi's no longer under house arrest, but she may as well be. Her
movements are severely restricted and very few people seeking to speak to
the opposition leader are allowed access.

Slorc is extinct, but its most celebrated opponent, the Nobel laureate Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi, has yet to see any difference.

Last December, the military junta that had governed Burma since 1988
redesignated itself the State Peace and Development Council. In doing so,
it shed its old identity as the State Law and Order Restoration Council,
better known by the acronym Slorc.

Any hopes that the name change presaged a more tolerant regime have been
stifled by the junta's unrelenting efforts to isolate Mrs Suu Kyi, who
received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for advocating peaceful democratic
change in the country that she and almost everyone else still call Burma,
but which the junta calls Myanmar.

While she was under house arrest, her National League for Democracy won the
parliamentary elections in 1990 by a landslide. The military refused to
step aside and has since decimated the opposition through arrest and
imprisonment.

Mrs Suu Kyi was spared harsher treatment, say associates, because many
Burmese revere her late father, Aung San, who led the country's struggle
for independence from the British in the 1940s. But since her house arrest
was lifted in July 1995, the junta has kept her cordoned off from popular
support as well as from her family.

It has been more than two years since she saw her husband, Michael Aris, a
British Buddhist scholar at Oxford University. The military will not grant
him a visa. Her son Alexander has visited once since then, and her other
son, Kim, twice, but they too were turned down last Christmas.

Her telephone is cut off. Friends say' that she supports herself by writing
articles for a Japanese newspaper and gets donations of rice, cooking oil
and other staples from supporters. Last March, Mrs Suu Kyi, 52, injured her
neck and back falling down the stairs of her house. Friends say she has
recovered.

Three American journalists who tried to see her earlier this month were
blocked at a police checkpoint outside her home. In written replies to
questions sent later through intermediaries, Mrs Suu Kyi said that the road
to her home has been sealed off for more than 15 months.

"Technically, I am not under house arrest because I can go out and some
visitors can come in to see me,' she wrote. "But as you can see for
yourselves, the authorities do not hesitate to keep out visitors whom they
do not wish me to meet.

"The authorities have also on several occasions prevented me from going to
places they do not wish me to visit," she continued.

The military government has also intimidated more supporters in recent
weeks. In March, U Soe Myint, a fellow member of the league's executive
committee, was taken away for interrogation, and eventually released. About
40 student leaders were sent to prison for up to 20 years for allegedly
plotting a bombing. Other students and Buddhist monks were arrested for
distributing leaflets that advocated democracy. Universities have been
closed since Dee 1996 to prevent student protests.

Mrs Suu Kyi called the latest arrests part of the consistently repressive
climate. "Such things no longer surprise me," she wrote. "Only those who
want to believe that there has been 'progress' in Burma would be surprised."

The crackdowns come at a time when Asia's financial problems have spilled
into Burma. Widespread human rights abuses by the military led the United
States to impose sanctions on Burma last year, but Mrs Suu Kyi said that
the junta's economic ineptitude had wreaked greater damage.

"The whole economy was grossly mismanaged, even before the Asian financial
crisis," she wrote. "The crisis simply meant that things got from very,
very bad to disconcertingly worse."

In Rangoon, the military has erected billboards exhorting Burmese to
"oppose those relying on external elements, acting as stooges, holding
negative views" - accusations leveled at Mrs Suu Kyi and her fellow democrats.

The government was alarmed when representatives of Burma's ethnic
minorities succeeded in visiting her on Feb 12. "There has been a bit of
dancing in the shadows in the last few months, where the ethnic groups are
getting closer to Suu Kyi," said a Western diplomat. The controlled press
accused the democratic movement of trying to sow unrest among the minority
groups, which have fragile cease-fires with the government after years of
armed insurgency.

A senior member of the National League for Democracy, who asked not to be
identified for fear of arrest, said that the league counted nearly two
million members before the military's violent 1988 coup. With 2,000 members
still in prison, he said, "We cannot say exactly how many have been left."
As for democracy's prospects under the State Peace and Development Council,
he said, "There's no change at all, only much worse."

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

BANGKOK POST: KARENS TO BE FORCED OUT OF NATIONAL PARK
27 April, 1998
By Cheewin Sattha, Mae Hong Son

To prevent further illegal logging

Thai authorities will take tough action against Karen refugees who have
refused to move out of the Salween National Park, according to Governor
Samroeng Punyopakorn.

Mr Samroeng said a plan to move some 12,000 Karen refugees out of the
Salween forests to prevent further illegal logging has not yet been fully
implemented as only about 7,000 of them have moved to temporary camps at
Ban Mae Lama Luang in Sop Moei district and Ban Mae Kongkha in Mae Sariang
district.

About 2,000 have voluntarily returned to Burma.

"The rest are still gathering at Ban Mae Ta Luang and Sob Ngae on the bank
of the Salween river. Illegal log cutting and land encroachments are still
rampant in the area," he said.

Mr Samroeng said he will take tough action against authorities who allow
forest destruction to continue.

The Third Army's Salween Task Force which has been renamed "Coordination
Centre for Prevention and Suppression of Destruction of Salween Forests"
has been assigned to wipe out the remaining Karens, he said.

"Since they don't want to go to places arranged for them by Thai
authorities, they have to be pushed back to Burma," Mr Samroeng said.

Narong Charoenchai, deputy chief of Salween National Park, said if the
Karens are allowed to stay, the forests will continue to be destroyed.

According to Mr Samroeng, over 2,000 illegally-cut logs have been left at
different locations in Salween forests. Most of the logs are tied up into
about 45 rafts, with 20-50 logs each, floating in the Salween river.

The Salween National Park has proposed that a forest protection unit,
comprising soldiers, border patrol police and rangers be specially set up
to protect Salween forests, he said.

A meeting will be held tomorrow to draw up a clear operational plan to
prevent confusion as many units are involved, Mr Samroeng said.

Meanwhile in Kanchanaburi, a report reaching a Thai military intelligence
unit in Sangkhlaburi district said Burma has dispatched its forces to the
Thai border.

Battalion 343 and Battalion 32, each about 250 strong, have been dispatched
to the Three-Pagoda Pass to wipe out Karen rebels and provide protection
for businesses in the area.

Battalion 282 has been deployed in Ban Hin Kong opposite Ban Itong in
Tambon Pilok of Thong Pha Phum district to provide protection for the gas
pipeline stretching from Yadana field.

Another rapid deployment battalion, about 250 men, has been assigned to
provide protection for construction of a road between Ban Bongti and Tavoy.

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

BANGKOK POST: TOKYO OFFERS AID DESPITE INTERNATIONAL BAN
25 April, 1998

Rangoon - Japan gave Burma more than one million dollars during the year to
March, despite a suspension of aid to the military-run nation, diplomats
said yesterday.

A Japanese embassy statement said $1.1 million (44 million baht) had been
granted to Rangoon during the last fiscal year under a grassroots
assistance programme.

"A total of 1.1 million US dollars through the grant assistance for
grassroots projects was provided to the people of Myanmar during the fiscal
year which just ended," the statement said. Japan, together with Western
nations, suspended aid to Burma in 1988 in protest against the takeover by
the military State Law and Order Restoration Council.

The latest gift, announced yesterday, was in the form of a telephone
exchange system, 170 telephones and "other necessary facilities," for the
Rangoon general hospital," the statement said.

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

VOICE OF AMERICA: CONGRESSMAN ROHRABACHER'S VISIT TO BURMA
24 April, 1998
By Dan Robinson

Intro:  A U.S. congressman who has just completed a visit to Burma says
that country's democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, remains ready to talk to
the military government about democratic reform. VOA's Dan Robinson
reports, California congressman Dana  Rohrabacher says the United States
should maintain sanctions against Burma -- despite moves by corporate
groups to oppose the use of sanctions as a foreign policy tool:

Text:  Congressman Rohrabacher takes a keen interest in human rights and
democracy issues in Southeast Asia -- especially concerning Burma and
Cambodia.

This was the first time he was able to enter Burma legally.  During
previous trips to the region, he entered Burma from areas along the border
with Thailand.  This time, Rangoon issued him a visa.

Amid intense public pressure last year, President Clinton signed a law
imposing a ban on any new U.S. investment in Burma.  This was on top of
sanctions Washington imposed against Burma's Military government after
hundreds of democracy protesters were shot in 1988.

During what he calls a long lunch with Aung San Suu Kyi and other top
leaders of her National League for Democracy party, Mr. Rohrabacher says he
delivered this message: 

"I don't see any weakening of America's resolve in this area. Sanctions are
a fact of life.  Our business community has had to face them as such.
There has been an attempt to try to affect the members of Congress, [their]
opinion on this, and it has failed.  Sanctions will stay on and they will
stay on until there has been some movement toward democratic reform in that
country."

However, the congressman says that once there is a sign Burma's military
will commit itself to democratic reform, sanctions can be quickly modified
or eliminated.

There have been reports over the past year that splits have developed in
Aung San Suu Kyi's political party.  The NLD won an overwhelming victory in
an election permitted by the military in 1990.

Burma's military has taken advantage of this, using public relations firms
to raise questions about sanctions and Aung San Suu Kyi herself.
Recently, an article by a former close aide to Aung San Suu Kyi, appearing
in two international publications, criticized her motivations in general,
and opposition to foreign investment in Burma in particular.

Congressman Rohrabacher says it would be surprising if the National League
for Democracy -- as a democratic organization -- did  not  have disagreements:

"Whenever you have a group of people who are organized on the basis of
freedom and democracy, you're going to have disagreement.  You're going to
have one person wanting to go one way and another wanting to go another
way.  That does not signal weakness in an organization.  What it signals is
that the organization has broad support and in fact, is symbolic of
strength and not weakness."

The congressman says he was not able to meet any members of Burma's ruling
military council, which last year changed its name from the State Law and
Order Restoration Council (Slorc) to the State Peace and Development Council.

But he says he sees no reason why Burma's army leaders should not make
moves to try to end the political deadlock.  He says Aung  San Suu Kyi is
ready to "forgive and forget, and let bygones be bygones."  She wants to
talk, says Congressman Rohrabacher, "and move that country forward."

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

THE NATION: ASEAN MINISTERS FRET OVER UNEMPLOYMENT
27 April, 1998

HANOI - Asean labour ministers meet in Vietnam on Wednesday with some
facing soaring unemployment back home and tension over migrant workers as
Southeast Asia's economic crisis bites deeper.

The Ministry of Labour in Hanoi said the impact from Asia's slump would be
on the agenda of the two-day meeting.

"Participants at the meeting will discuss regional labour matters and talk
about the impact of the Asian financial crisis on labour," a ministry
official said.

Worker lay-offs have loomed over governments and dominated talk in
boardrooms across Asia for months now, but one political analyst said the
worst was yet to come.

Bob Broadfoot, managing director of the Political and Economic Risk
Consultancy m Hong Kong, said nations hit by the crisis were only starting
to see the fallout on employment.

"The impact is just beginning. A lot of companies are still holding on by
their fingernails," he said.

"Even though the debt situation is being coped with in these countries, the
ability of private companies to survive the crisis is still very doubtful,
and so I think this year you will have steadily increasing unemployment."

Millions of people in Asia have already lost their jobs.

In addition violence has flared over the repatriation of thousands of
illegal Indonesian workers from Malaysia. Thailand has set a May 1 deadline
for some 800,000 illegal workers, mostly from Burma, to leave.

Singapore has begun caning illegal immigrants seeking employment, and the
Philippines, which has a huge workforce abroad, expects thousands to lose
their jobs and return home.

Broadfoot said unemployment could be a difficult issue for the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations, which comprises Brunei, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

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


VERMONT BURMA ALLIANCE: STATEMENT ON VERMONT SANCTIONS
21 April, 1998

VERMONT BECOMES THE SECOND STATE IN U.S. TO PASS LEGISLATION SUPPORTING
DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

Contact: Jordan Silverman
Coordinator, Vermont Burma Alliance
Jordan@xxxxxxxxxx OR 802-860-4668
				    				      
Just days ago, the Vermont legislature adopted Joint House Resolution 157,
making Vermont  the second state in the nation to pass a resolution
supporting democracy in Burma!

Because of the hard work from many organizations and concerned individuals
of Vermont (and elsewhere) who called and wrote the State House in support
of JRH 157; because of numerous representatives who supported the joint
resolution, including Mary Sullivan and Mary Grant, along with coordination
from the Vermont Burma Alliance, JRH 157 was finally adopted this past
weekend.

At this point, we know how wonderful it would be to sit back, relax and
enjoy our success, but there is much more work to be done.  Although
adequate, joint resolutions often prove more effective when complimented by
other, more binding legislation.  

In particular, the Vermont Burma Alliance has in mind an executive order.
Because it was Governor Dean's office who helped Mary Sullivan draft JRH
157 in the first place, and who expressed an interest in it, we are hoping
that Gov. Dean will work with us on signing the order.  We feel their
interest in it puts them in a much more likely position to follow through
by strongly considering the order. 
	 
To show your support for more binding legislation, please feel free to
contact the Governor's office.  They can be reached at 802-828-3333.  Their
address is 109 State Street, Montpelier, VT 05602.
	
Once again, the Vermont Burma Alliance would like to extend it's gratitude
to everyone that helped JRH 157 become adopted.
	
***Lastly, in the coming months, the VBA along with Burmese refugees will
be speaking across the state, holding petition drives, rallies and
protests, presenting multimedia educational projects in communities and
institutions, and sharing numerous other fun tools that Vermonters can use
to help bring back democracy to Burma.***

If you would like one of these presentations to come to your community, if
you would like to volunteer with various odds and ends, or if you have a
few extra dollars to donate, we would very much appreciate all of the above.

*Tax deductable checks can be made to the Peace and Justice Center for the VBA
	
For more information, please feel free to contact Jordan Silverman at:

The Vermont Burma Alliance
206 North Winooski Ave
Burlington, VT 05401
802-860-4668 Fax/Phone
Jordan@xxxxxxxxxx