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The BurmaNet News: June 19, 1998



------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------
 "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
----------------------------------------------------------

The BurmaNet News: June 19, 1998
Issue #1030

HEADLINES:
==========
ASSK: VIDEO MESSAGE FOR WOMEN OF BURMA DAY
SCMP: TROOPS MURDERED 15 VILLAGERS 
THE NATION: CATCHING UP ON RANGOON REALTY
THE NATION: AMNESTY BARES HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE IN ASIA
ANNOUNCEMENT: 8888 ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE
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Aung San Suu Kyi: Video Message for Women of Burma Day 
19 June, 1998 from <altsean@xxxxxxxxxx>

(What is your message to the Burman and non-Burma ethnic women for Women of
Burma Day?)

My message to all the women of Burma is to maintain solidarity, because
when human rights are violated in any society, it's the women and children
who suffer most. And the women must realize that they have a duty, not only
do they have a duty, they have the strength to bring about the necessary
changes. So, please don't underestimate yourselves. That is what I would
like to say to the women of Burma.

And to the women of the ethnic nationalities who are suffering so much I
would like to say: Don't be discouraged, we are with you, we are together
and we will make it together.

(Why is human rights and democracy important for the women of Burma?)

It is important because without human rights and democracy you cannot be
secure. And in an insecure society, as I said earlier, it's the women and
children who suffer most.

Our women have a lot of potential. There are many who would claim that
Burmese women are far brighter than Burmese men (and I can't take sides on
this of course), but be that as it may, I do believe that our women have a
great potential and I want that potential to be realized.

(What can women overseas do to support this cause?)

It seems to me that women overseas are doing a lot already to support this
cause, but the more the better.

First of all I think they have got to be aware of what is happening in
Burma- unless they know what is happening, they won't know what to do. And
I think they must demonstrate their solidarity for our cause.

We do need help. We need the help and support of friends. Ours is a
non-violent movement -- we are carrying on a non-violent movement against a
military regime which is armed to the teeth, so we need all the help we can
get! And again, I don't want to sound prejudiced, but it seems to me that
women do a lot more for us than men on the whole, so please help us more.

(How has the past support of women overseas made a difference?)

It makes a lot of difference to me, perhaps because I am a woman, first of
all. I find that the women who are helping our cause are not just
committed, but they are very warm -- for them, it's not just a cold-hearted
ideal, it not something that they are simply doing with their heads, they
are doing it with their hearts as well, and that is why I find the help of
women so very warming.

That's not to say that I have not come across many men who are as warm, and
who are as committed, as all these nice women -- so I don't want to sound
too partial -- but as a woman, of course, I am a little partial to women I
think. 

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South China Morning Post: Troops Murdered 15 Villagers, Say Rights Workers
18 June, 1998 by William Barnes in Bangkok 

Burmese troops massacred without warning 15 men and women they stumbled
across in a forest in the troubled Shan state, according to human rights
workers.

The villagers were clearing space to grow rice earlier this year when they
were reportedly gunned down by soldiers who claimed they were rebels. The
headman of the nearest village was later badly beaten when he denied there
were guerillas operating in the area.

The 50 soldiers from Murng Nai township, west of the Salween River, some
100km north of the Thai town of Mae Hong Song, told him that they had found
an M-16 rifle and some grenades on the bodies.

The headman, Aw Li Ya, burst into tears on being taken into the forest
because he recognised the bodies of some of his neighbours and relatives,
according to the Shan Human Rights Foundation.

When the officer in charge demanded to know why so many villagers had
gathered suspiciously at the same spot, Mr Aw Li Ya told them it was
traditional practice for villagers to take turns clearing land for their
neighbours' farms.

"An investigation is out of the question because the Burmese soldiers can
act like gods in the Shan state," said a Shan activist in exile.

It is impossible for outsiders to confirm incidents such as this, although
the foundation has a reputation among international human rights workers
for trying -- at great risk -- to accurately document cases of
extra-judicial killings, rapes and other abuses.

A recent Amnesty International report noted that almost every one of the
thousands of Shan refugees to have fled across the border into Thailand in
the past couple of years claimed a relative or friend had been killed by
the Burmese Army.

The reputed brutality by Burmese soldiers in Shan state is partly explained
by anger over the guerilla campaign for Shan autonomy. 

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

The Nation: Catching Up on Rangoon Realty
18 June, 1998 

International property consultants Jones Lang Wootton recently launched a
new issue of 'Yangon Property Outlook 1998', the only real estate research
report available in Rangoon, Burma.

The lack of market information in some new emerging property markets in
Asia, including Rangoon, has contributed to a high level of investment
risks for investors. Jones Lang Wootton has released Yangon Property
Outlook 1998 as a response to this market information need: JLW (Thailand)
director of research Craig Plumb said.

According to the report, Rangoon is the only new emerging property market
in Asia which still lacks sufficient property supply to accommodate foreign
companies, compared with other markets in Beijing, Shanghai, Ho Chi Minh
City and Hanoi, which are suffering from oversupply.

The office market in Rangoon has a very limited level of international
standard supply. Space developed for the foreign market is enjoying high
occupancy rates.

As at the end of the first quarter of this year, there were only six
purpose-built office buildings available in Rangoon with two A grade
buildings opening in the first quarter -- Sakura Tower and Yangon
Commercial Tower.

Due to a lack of quality office space, most foreign companies (currently
around 900) still operate from houses located along the main roads and
suffer from power blackouts, defective phone lines and inefficient use of
space. There [is] also a range of locally developed office buildings but
these buildings are not popular as the space is too expensive for the local
market. New international-standard office supply will still be very limited
over the next two to three years.

The present Asian turmoil has led to the cancellation of two large
Malaysian developments and delays in the completion of others. The LP
Grand, for example, which is part of the Sofitel Hotel complex, has stalled
at the completion of its superstructure. This will be the next office space
to be put on the market, once a buyer can be found to complete the project.

Other than LP Grand, there is no office project planned for completion
before 2000.

In the residential market, prior to 1998, the number of purpose-built
residential units for the foreign market in Rangoon was lower than 50. As
response to growing demand, particularly from expatriates working for a
number of international oil/gas companies, the first four
international-standard apartment projects with a total of 663 units are
planned for completion in 1998.

Local apartment rents range from US$500 to $100 per month while houses in
prime locations range from $1,500 to $5,000 per unit per month. Due to the
lack of serviced apartments in Rangoon, a growing number of expatriates
have chosen to stay in hotels as long-staying guests and pay between $1,000
and $3,000 per unit per month. Rentals in the four apartment projects to
open in this year are estimated to be between $30 to $40 per sq metre per
month.

Prospects for 1998, however, appear less encouraging with an outward
migration of foreigners, especially from regional firms. 

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The Nation: Amnesty Bares Human Rights Abuse in Asia
18 June, 1998 

HONG KONG -- Thousands of people have been killed, jailed or tortured in
rights abuses in Asia and the region's financial crisis could further erode
freedoms, Amnesty International warned yesterday in its annual report.

"In the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
challenges to the universality and indivisibility of human rights were
prevalent throughout the Asia-Pacific region," the report said.

Amnesty condemned the government of former Indonesian leader Suharto and
also highlighted Stalinist North Korea, China, Cambodia, Pakistan, Sri
Lanka and Burma.

"Economically disadvantaged groups, migrant labourers and ethnic minority
groups all faced the consequences of political and economic instability."
The London-based rights watchdog catalogued thousands of cases of torture,
detention without trial and massacres of civilians in war zones in the
report for 1997.

"For all their talk of Asian values, governments continued to oppress
minority groups," said the report, which details abuses in 141 countries
worldwide.

Amnesty slated the Suharto government which fell last month when Suharto
resigned after 32 years in power.

"The Suharto government left a legacy of hundreds of prisoners of
conscience and political prisoners convicted after unfair trials,
legislation allowing for imprisonment of peaceful critics, a weak and
dependent judiciary and a military able to act above the law," it said.

"Governments who in the dying days of Suharto's presidency were urging
fundamental political change in the country should follow through on its
implication."

The "human rights catastrophe" deepened in Stalinist North Korea, where an
estimated several thousand children are dying every month because of
famine, Amnesty said, accusing the authorities of refusing to cooperate in
efforts to assess the full scale of the disaster.

China was accused of cruelly repressing ethnic minorities seeking
independence or religious freedom, particularly in the mainly Muslim
Xinjiang region and Tibet.

However, Beijing was praised for abolishing the death penalty for juveniles
and freeing celebrated dissident Wei Jingsheng.

Ethnic minorities were also targeted in Malaysia where the government
forcibly deported more than 500 Indonesians to their home province of Aceh,
the report said.

"The deaths of eight Indonesians and injuries suffered by many others
raised serious questions about the level of force used during the
operation," the report said.

"The government also used the repressive Internal Security Act against
religious activists and threatened to use it against currency speculators."
Burma's brutal military government was guilty of "extra-judicial killings,
forcible relocations and torture of ethnic minorities", it said.

The Taleban, which subjects most of Afghanistan to its hardline
interpretation of Islam, reportedly detained thousands of people on grounds
of ethnicity or "un-Islamic" behaviour and suppressed freedoms for women,
Amnesty said.

Despite the death of reviled Cambodian dictator Pol Pot in April,
"perpetrators of human rights abuses still escape the courts with impunity
and ordinary people are still not free from fear", the report said.

It urged the United Nations to push ahead with proposals to try those
suspected of complicity in the 1970s "Killing Fields", genocide and other
crimes.

Serious rights abuses, including rape and torture, occurred in Pakistan and
Sri Lanka. South Korea, India, Australia, Thailand, the Philippines and
Taiwan were also criticised, the report said.

People were reportedly tortured or ill treated by security forces in at
least 22 countries, death sentences without trial were carried out in 11
countries and detention without [trial] was found in 18.

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Announcement: 8888 Anniversary Conference Invitation from Australia
18 June, 1998 from <burma@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

INVITATION

ACTIVIST CONFERENCE FOR A FREE BURMA

Day 1: Saturday 18 July 1998
Burma Information Day

Day 2: Sunday  19 July 1998
Campaign Strategies towards 2000

Where:
RIDLEY COLLEGE
160 THE AVENUE, PARKVILLE
MELBOURNE, VICTORIA
How to get Ridley College....

>From the city, take tram no.19 from Elizabeth Street. Ridley College stop
is number 22 which is located on Royal Parade. Walk down Walker Street (off
Royal Parade on left) and turn right into The Avenue where the entrance for
the Conference is located. Carparking available around  Royal Park.

10th Anniversary 1988 to 1998

August 1998 marks the tenth anniversary of the national pro- democracy
uprising in Burma. Tens of thousands of students, monks and civilians
protested in Burma's cities, towns and villages in 1988 and brought about
the collapse of General Ne Win's  dictatorship after 26 years.

Despite the continuation of military rule under the State Law and Order
Restoration Council (SLORC), the last decade has witnessed an explosion of
activism for democracy in Burma. The Nobel laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, has
spearheaded an international campaign which has mobilised the United
Nations, created an international activist network including the use of the
internet, and successfully initiated boycotts of companies dealing with
Burma. Awarness of the human rights struggle in and for Burma is greater
than ever.


Our Plan
The purpose of the "Activist Conference for a Free Burma" is to bring
together a range of activists, specialists and the public for two days of
discussion on the future of Burma and to develop effective strategies for
campaigning, lobbying, awareness raising and networking for the next two
years.  

The first day will provide an insight into Burma related issues including
country reports, refugees, sanctions, campaigns, Australian policy and
international responses. Day two brings together the combined energies of
activist and new-comers to Burma activism to consider the strengths and
weaknesses of existing campaigns and to develop further strategies to meet
new challenges.

Saturday 18th July 1998
Information Day
Morning Program:
9.00 -Registration.
9.30 - Welcome 
9.45-10.15 - Introduction - 10 years of Political Struggle
10.15-10.45 - Burma as an International Concern 
10.45 -11.00 - Coffee Break
11.00-11.30 - 8.8.88 Struggle + International Solidarity
11.30- 12.00 - Regime Repression and Activism 
12.00-12.30 - Questions to the Panel - priorities for the future
12.30-1.30 - Lunch

Afternoon  Program
1.30-2.30 - Section 1 Panel -- Strategies for Political Struggle
(democracy, armed struggle, non-violence, political parties, under ground
movements, regime crack down etc.)
2.30-2.40PM - Break
2.40-3.40PM - Section 2 Panel -- Struggle and Survival (ethnic issues,
border issues - Thai, India and China borders, refugees, humanitarian
strategies, Thai policy etc.)
3.40-4.00PM - Afternoon Tea 
4.00- 5.00PM - Section 3 Panel -- Australian Policy (foreign affairs,
immigration and refugees, overseas aid, trade)
Evening Party - Melbourne Burmese student community will hold a party for
national guests, activists and students.

Sunday 19th July 1998:  Burma Campaign Strategies towards 2000

Morning Session:
10.00-10.15AM - Recap and Program for Today 
10.15-11.00AM - Activism in Australia 
11.00 11.15AM - Coffee Break
11.15 -12 45PM - Workshops -- Strengths and Weaknesses of Existing Campaigns 
12.45- 1.45PM - lunch 
1.45- 2.15PM - Developing Aims and Objectives for Future Burma Campaigning
2.15-3.45PM - Workshops -- Campaigns Strategies for the Future and Specific
Actions
3.45-4.30PM - Group Report Back
4.30-5.00PM - Conclusions and Wrap Up

All welcome to come and learn about the political struggle in Burma, be a
part of discussions and workshops, meet other activists from around
Australia, strengthen the solidarity network, practice activist skills.

Australian Council for Overseas Aid, Human Rights Office, Burma Project
124 Napier Street, Fitzroy 3065, Victoria Australia
Phone: 61 3 9417 7238 (Direct Line)
Fax: 61 3 9416 2746

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