The BurmaNet News: September 24, 19

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The BurmaNet News: September 24, 1998
Issue #1103

Noted in Passing: "Forced labour is an old tradition, it is something like
a taxation, the poorer you are, the more often you are called in. I am not
saying it is good or bad." - Mrs. Sadako Ogata, UN High Commissioner for
Refugees (see UNHCR: PRESS CONFERENCE ON REPATRIATION)

HEADLINES:
==========
DVB, RFA, VOA: RECOGNITION FROM WORLD PARLIAMENTS 
NLD: STATEMENT 63 (9/98) 
MIZZIMA: FLOOD AFFECTS BURMA'S CROP PRODUCTION 
UNHCR: PRESS CONFERENCE ON REPATRIATION
THE NATION (LETTER): REVOKE BURMA'S UN MEMBERSHIP 
THE NATION: THAIS FORCED ACROSS BORDER 
BURMANET SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
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DVB, RFA, VOA: AUNG SAN SUU KYI SEEKS RECOGNITION FROM WORLD PARLIAMENTS 
17 September, 1998 from <xephyr@xxxxxxx> 

Unofficial Translation by The Burma Fund

September 17, 1998 Speech by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
Broadcast by The Democratic Voice of Burma, Radio Free Asia and the Voice
of America

/// begin tape recorded translation ///

The National League for Democracy and an elected representative who
represents four parties of different nationalities held a meeting on
September 16. The Committee Representing the People's Parliament Elected by
the 1990 Multiparty Democratic General Elections was formed at that
meeting. The reason it was formed was because the authorities had detained
elected representatives in order to prevent them from convening the
Parliament. Since the elected representatives were being detained, a
Committee to perform the duties of the Parliament was formed.

The Committee had been given the power of authority or the mandate by 251
elected representatives to work on their behalf. The Committee therefore
represents more than 50 percent of all the representatives elected and,
hence, has the right to work on behalf of the Parliament. We will,
therefore, carry on the work in the name of the Parliament.

Some resolutions were passed at our first meeting. One of the important
decisions concerns the tenure of the Parliament.

The Committee decided that:
- the tenure of the Parliament elected in 1990 will cease only when a state
constitution, which is in accordance with democratic principles as well as
the wishes of the people, has been ratified,
- the constitution must be approved by the Parliament,
- the Parliament will continue to function until the time the constitution
is ratified, and
- the laws passed without the approval of the Parliament are not legal.

Our Committee also decided that it would continue to act on behalf of the
Parliament until a parliamentary session attended by all the elected
representatives is convened. We have made these decisions because we are
responsible to the people. We will continue to do whatever needs to be done.

Another decision we made concerns the Tatmadaw (Defense Forces). It is as
follows:

The Tatmadaw is an institution that is essential to the nation. The
responsibility of the Tatmadaw is to defend the nation and the citizenry
and to safeguard the state constitution. The modernized Tatmadaw must be
trusted, respected and loved by the people, and its sole purpose must be to
perform defense duties. It must maintain high standards and be an integral
part of the people. It must always uphold and respect the wish of the
people. This is our opinion toward the Tatmadaw. Please consider the
prestige such a Tatmadaw would have both in our country and the world over.
Hence, we wish to make it very clear that the tasks we are undertaking are
not aimed at discrediting the Tatmadaw but at enabling it to live with honor.

Today, the authorities are using all means to attack our organization and
the democratic tasks that we undertake. We have seen them resort to
different accusations and charges to make the members of the Tatmadaw
misunderstand us. Creating misunderstanding is not good for the country,
and it is not us who are trying to cause disunity. The people responsible
for it are the ones who have been resorting to different means to make
people misunderstand us.

We have no grudges against the Tatmadaw. But, I must stress that the
Tatmadaw has the duty to join and support the tasks we are undertaking.

We are a body that represents the Parliament elected by the majority of the
people. We are a body that has been given the mandate by more than half of
the parliamentary representatives. I therefore wish to appeal to all the
people, including the members of the Tatmadaw, to support our tasks.

I also appeal to all the democratically elected Parliaments of the world to
give due recognition to our Committee and to support the work we are
undertaking.

The problems of the country today can be resolved only when democracy comes
to Burma. Soaring commodity prices, students unable to attend schools,
hospital lacking medicines, the economy deteriorating in every sector, and
the other problems will only go away when a government that is supported by
the people and which dutifully works for the people emerges.

Hence, I wish to appeal to the people, who really have national interests
at heart, to stop blaming and pointing their fingers at the others and
instead start working for the benefit the nation.

While we continue to do all the work that needs to be done in the name of
the Parliament, I wish to make it very clear that our door for a dialogue
will continue to remain open. We have time and again been calling for a
dialogue with the people who do not wish to talk. And, we do this because
we care about the people. But, let it be known that don't expect us to be
sitting down and taking it easy just because we are calling for a dialogue.
We will continue to do the things that need to be done.

Today, our duty calls that we form the Committee Representing the
Parliament. We have done that and the Committee has started to function. We
hope to gain support from the people of Burma and all the citizenry of the
world who understand and respect democracy and human rights.

/////End Translation//// 

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NATIONAL LEAGUE FOR DEMOCRACY: STATEMENT 63 (9/98)
21 September, 1998 

National League for Democracy
97/B, West Shwegondine Road
Bahan Township, Rangoon

1. On September 6, 1998 Burmese military authorities detained 85-year old
Thakin Khin Nyunt, who is a Member of Parliament (MP) from the National
League for Democracy (NLD). He was elected to parliament from Yenanchaung
Constituency-1 and is a well-known and respected MP.

2. The authorities sent Thakin Khin Nyunt home at approximately 5:00pm on
September 14, 1998. He did not negotiate with the authorities and his
actions were in accordance with the principles and policies of the NLD.

3. Thakin Khin Nyunt has since described to the NLD what he was told by the
military authorities on September 14, 1998 at a military installation where
he was detained:

They said they would send me home. I said, "That's fine but if you continue
to impose restrictions on me, I'll not go home. If you don't like to detain
me here, you can send me anywhere you wish."   Then they told me that there
would not be any restrictions for me. So I told them that I would go home
and then to the NLD office. They said that it was up to me and I was free
to go anywhere I wished and do anything I wished to do.

4. On August 2, 1998 the military authorities in Chauk arrested NLD
Township Organizing Committee Chairman U Kyi Toe and 10 other officials for
distributing two copies of the letter entitled "Request to the people of
Burma" written by the General Secretary of the NLD (Daw Aung San Suu Kyi).
Those letters of request had already been distributed by the NLD on July
23, 1998.

5. The NLD received a report that U Than Win, one of the detainees, had
been blindfolded and beaten up by the authorities. Later, township chairman
U Kyi Toe and one other official, U Aung Than Nyunt, were charged under
Article 16 of the Penal Code. This law is concerned with offences relating
to printing and distribution. Eight other party officials were released.

6. A hearing regarding the charges was held on September 13, 1998. However,
no one was allowed to be present at the hearing. This is a violation of
normal legal procedures in which defendants must be tried in the presence
of people concerned. Later, the NLD learned that the two were in fact
sentenced on the following day, not at the court, but at the police station
where they were being detained. They were each given sentences of seven
years imprisonment with hard labour.

7. According to reports from local NLD officials, the following Military
Intelligence Service officers were responsible for the arrests and
maltreatment of  the NLD officials: Captain Kyaw Soe Oo, Corporal Ko Ko
Maung Ko Ko Aung, Lance-Corporal Kyaw Thu Aung, Sergeant Major Ba Thein,
Htun Oo, Sergeant Major Ohn Myint.

8.   The NLD hereby declares that it objects and denounces these lawless
actions of the military authorities.

Central Executive Committee
National League for Democracy
Rangoon
First Waxing Moon, B.E 1360
September 21, 1998 

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MIZZIMA NEWS GROUP: FLOOD AFFECTS BURMA'S CROP PRODUCTION 
15 September, 1998 by Soe Myint 

Burma, once known as Rice Bowl of Asia, is now facing a serious threat of
the scarcity of rice even for local consumption due to recent floods in the
country. The floods in its neighbouring countries like China, India and
Bangladesh in recent months have at last come to Burma, which faced a
severe drought for some months till it came. There have been heavy rains in
many parts of the country since the beginning of August in Burma. As a
result, the rivers and streams have become flooded. The three major rivers
of Burma, Irrawaddy, Sanlwin and Chindwin, are flooded now and
government-controlled radio and T.V has been daily alerting the people
living along the banks of these three rivers of possible floods in the
nearby areas.

The areas which are already flooded or in danger of flood include the areas
along the three major rivers of Burma. In Amarapura township of Mandalay
Division in central Burma, villagers had to flee by boat due to the flood
which rose up to the top of their houses and buildings.

The flood has already affected the country's crop cultivation. In many
areas, paddy fields are under water and the farmers can do very little as
no support either in financial or material terms from the government
reaches them to do their work again. Some Burma observers say that it is
likely to affect the country's already-worsening foreign export as the
export-oriented crops like beans and pulse production are severely damaged
due to drought in the past and flood in the present. The prices of rice are
soaring inside the country as the people start storing the rice. The
escalating political confrontation in the country between the government
and the National League for Democracy (NLD) make the situation more
vulnerable. "Two months ago, the price of a basket of rice was 2,000 Kyats
(Burmese currency), now it is 2,400 Kyats, and it will be more in a few
months", said a villager in Tamu township of Sagaing Division, the place
where surplus rice used to be stored for local consumption.

The government, in what is believed to be a measure of precaution, recently
ordered its army battalions across the country to grow rice and crops for
them by themselves instead of buying and sometime forcefully taking rice
from the farmers and people. The eminent environmentalist of India Mr.
Sunderlal Bahuguna on 15th September in an interview criticized the
policies of the governments in the region which allow reckless and
uncontrolled logging as one of the main reasons causing floods in China,
India, Bangladesh and Burma.

By Soe Myint
1944, Outran Line,
Kingsway Camp,
Delhi - 9
Tel/Fax : 0091-11-711 5491
Mobile : 98101 33410 

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UNHCR: PRESS CONFERENCE ON REPATRIATION 
1 September, 1998
 
Commentary by David Arnott darnott@xxxxxxxxxxx

The statement below by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees,  2 weeks
after the ILO Report on Forced Labour in Burma, calls for comment at the
very least -- for instance at the UNHCR Executive Committee (EXCOM) which
meets in Geneva from 5-9 October. EXCOM is made up of 53 governments (see
list below).

Perhaps Burma groups, human rights groups, trade unions, refugee
organisations and others could talk to each other and their governments
(whether they are EXCOM members or observer governments) and get them to
speak up at EXCOM. Specifically, they could address the dangers of
repatriations to Burma under present conditions, whether from Bangladesh,
India or Thailand (there are many who fear that if/when UNHCR has a formal
role in the Burmese refugee camps in Thailand, the agency might be used to
legitimise repatriation in less than ideal circumstances). In addition,
speakers might press for a stronger protection/human rights component in
UNHCR activities.

It would be helpful if approaches to governments were not limited to North
America and Europe, but also included countries in Asia, Central and South
America and Africa. UN agencies and a lot of NGOs attend EXCOM, and they
too could be asked to lobby on these issues.

An important point to make is that the ILO report, which is the most
extensive and authoritative document on human rights in Burma ever issued,
describes not only forced labour, but also contains testimonies of the
killings, torture, including rape and deprivation of food and medicine,
beatings and other forms of ill treatment and the coercion of young
children into forced labour, along with other abuses which are a regular
feature of life in Burma, especially in the border areas, and which
frequently accompany forced portering and other forms of forced labour in
that country.

Geneva 23/Sept/98
------------------------

Transcript by Burma Centrum Nederland of press conference by Mrs. Sadako
Ogata, UN High Commissioner for Refugees The Hague, September 1, 1998

On UNHCR's repatriation and reintegration programme of Rohingya's (a Muslim
minority) in Rakhine State, Burma

"Forced labour is an old tradition, it is something like a taxation, the
poorer you are, the more often you are called in. I am not saying it is
good or bad. People who have left Burma are traditionally more deprived
people. They fled for various reasons, in 1970, again in 1993 250.000
people left. Bangladesh is also poor, and determined to send them back. We
had to intervene, help Bangladesh. UNHCR negotiated their return. To help
return the Rohingya's the most important thing is to give them confidence
that they would not be subject to persecution or suppression or oppressive
measures. The most important thing is to secure international presence in
Rakhine State. This was something I did negotiate with the Burmese, it was
very difficult, and we were able to get their agreement.

Our own objective was to build confidence by being there, to provide a
system in a way that they will be anchored. So the grass roots operation
required, such as like agricultural, education, sanitation, various health
measures, we brought it.

The question of labour came up sometimes, forced labour. That forced labour
was being carried out in a way that really made the life of the people
difficult. Sometimes we were able to stop it, sometimes we were able to
contain it. In this sense, 230.000 people gone back, they are anchored much
more. Usually with our operation, when people go back to their own country,
we stayed one year or one-and-a-half, but in this case for two reasons we
stay longer. First of all we still need a presence to protect them. Also in
a very backward place like Rakhine State, unless you take more time to help
them to get anchored, more development kind of work, longer term, the
situation is very fragile. So we have to take on.

Fortunately this has became much more recognised. The European Commission
has recently sent a mission examining the kind of work we are doing, and
came up with the conclusion that the UN presence was absolutely necessary
and they have asked us to continue. If we stop you will find people fleeing
again.

Forced labour in Rakhine State is not an every day, every night kind of
work; it is a periodical one. We would not like to have that, but if that
is the way to some extent it is carried out, and people can bear it, it is
one way of settling. Of course we would like this to be a much more
voluntary contribution to your community work, I mean sometimes they do it
voluntarily, others they have been given an obligation, and how many days
of work and that kind of thing. But it is one way of helping the people
settle in their own country. If they go back to Bangladesh they will be
sent back again. So you see people cannot really choose where to live that
easily."

Question: But is not forced labour a human rights violation?

"It depends on how you define forced labour and how you define human rights
violation. I think it has to be understood practically in the context of
your community and their tradition, and then the limited choice these
people have. I am not saying this is a good arrangement, but what else, we
have intervened several times, and we have been able to contain forced
labour practically of the kind that is seriously a cause for human rights
violations. But you have to really understand the context in which people
live their lives."

NOTES
(1)   Ogata transcript (above)

(2)   "Report of the Commission of Inquiry appointed under article 26 of
the Constitution of the International Labour Organization to examine the
observance by Myanmar of the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) "
which was published 20 August 1998 and on the ILO website:
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/20gb/docs/gb273/myanmar.htm

Paper copies (392 pages) are available from ILO Distribution, - contact Mr
Dunand <prodoc@xxxxxxx> and Text version from David Arnott
<darnott@xxxxxxxxxxx> in 49 slices of average 30Kbytes each.

(3)  Current EXCOM members are: Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria,
Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Democratic Republic
of the Congo (Zaire), Denmark, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece,
Holy See, Hungary, India, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Ireland, Israel,
Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Lesotho, Madagascar, Morocco, Namibia, Netherlands,
Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Russian
Federation, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland,
Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, United Republic of
Tanzania, United States of America, Venezuela, Yugoslavia.

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THE NATION: TIME FOR THE UN TO REVOKE BURMA'S MEMBERSHIP 
23 September, 1998 by Chao-Tzang Yawnghwe 

Letter to the Editor

I heartily welcome Dennis Greaves' letter [The Nation, Sept 17] condemning
the ethnic-cleansing actions of the Rangoon junta, the centre piece of
which is rape - a criminal act (in any society nowadays) used or perceived
as a means to "erode" the integrity of unwanted ethnic formations by
"defiling" (or as the case may be "purifying") their "blood".

The violation of helpless women is in itself despicable, but the concept
behind state-sanctioned rapes "defiling" (or "purifying") the "blood" of an
ethnic group with the infusion of the "blood" of a dominant ethnic group,
via sexual violence against women, is mind-blowing.

What matters, however, is that ultra-Burman tribalists in uniform believe
in the insane theory of "blood" being the determinant of "race" (as the
junta puts it). This should reveal the utter primitiveness and mental
deficiency of the military regime. Its fitness to govern or "keep the
country together", should be seriously questioned.

The regime have been condemned in resolution after resolution by
governments and world bodies - and by the United Nations and its various
commissions, councils etc no less.

The people of Burma are of course grateful. They have to be: words, even
empty ones, are better than nothing.

The question to ask is: what have these resolutions (rather, string of
words) achieved?

It is apparent that they have only emboldened the regime in its brutality,
as they reveal to Rangoon generals - among other things - the unwillingness
of the international community and the UN to take any concrete actions, or
alternatively exposed their studied determination to cheapen their own words.

Sadder still is the unwillingness of the international community to do much
for the hundreds of thousands displaced by the regime's brutality, such as
ethnic-cleansing actions, forcible dislocation (in fact, large scale
population transfer) and so on. Instead, the tragedy inside Burma and on
the Thai border has become a subject for endless quibbling and squabbles
among and between very comfortable, well-paid, well-fed bureaucrats in
Bangkok, Manila, Geneva, Vienna and God knows where else.

The standard answer to queries on as to what the world community (world
leaders, etc) will do about the brutal, illegitimate regime in Burma is:
there is little that can be done as diplomatic conventions have to be
respected and that we "have to deal  with whoever is in power, no matter
who or what".

So where does this kind of attitude leave the rest of us, the norms of
civilised behaviour, human decency, moral-ethical values, virtues and above
all the victims of gross and brutal misrule? Hypocritical or evasive
answers notwithstanding, there is one thing which the international
community can do for people saddled with, and horrendously suffering the
gross misrule of, armed, illegitimate, despotic governments.

It could suspend the UN membership of such a regime. Further, a resolution
could (and should) be passed by the UN whereby full UN membership of a
despotic or illegitimate regime is revoked and it is put on probation (or
accorded only "half-membership").
In an age where autocratic, despotic authoritarianism is becoming passe or
no longer useful and such regimes have proven to be bad for business and
trade, it should not be too difficult to put in rules to revoke full UN
membership of rogue regimes.

Chao-Tzang Yawnghwe, Vancouver

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THE NATION: THAIS FORCED ACROSS BORDER 
23 September, 1998 

HEAVILY-ARMED Burmese soldiers yesterday rounded up 27 Thais, including
border security policemen, soldiers and local villagers, and forcefully
took them across the border.

However, the Burmese authorities agreed to release the group after a
half-hour negotiation with the province's Sangkha Buri district chief
Kamthon Kungsawat.

Officials said that the Thais were apprehended at gunpoint at about
midnight. The border security police and soldiers were disarmed before
being forced across the border to Burma's Tongsu military camp.

The Thais included two border patrol police, three soldiers, five border
operation team members and 17 villagers.

After being alerted about the arrest Kamthon travelled to the Burmese camps
at about 9 am by helicopter and negotiated with the camp chief, Col Tan Win.

The Burmese eventually agreed to release the Thais. A local source said
that the arrest was a result of business conflicts between the local people
and the Burmese.

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BURMANET SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION 
24 September, 1998 

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