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The BurmaNet News: March 15, 1999



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

The BurmaNet News: March 15, 1999
Issue #1227

HEADLINES:
==========
NLD: STATEMENT NO. 37 (3/99) 
BKK POST: BURMA USES PRISONERS AS ARMY PORTERS 
BBC: REBELS SAY NO PEACE AGREEMENT IN SIGHT 
FPN: MYANMAR CONTINUES ENCROACHMENT 
THE NATION: AN ALERT FOR THE '9999 UPRISING'? 
AP: MYANMAR OPIUM BATTLE QUESTIONED 
REUTERS: FOREIGN MINISTER TO VISIT ASEAN NATIONS 
REUTERS: ASEAN-EU MEETING OFF "AS OF TODAY" 
BKK POST: VIOLATION OF DEMARCATION AGREEMENT 
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NLD: STATEMENT NO: 39(3/99)
5 March, 1999 

Contents of letter dated 3 March 1999 from the Chairman, National League for
Democracy to the Chairman of the Chairman of the State Peace and Development
Council is reproduced and published for the information of all.

" Subject- Illegal demands of money by soldiers in villages resulting in the
death of one soldier.

1. Information received is that one soldier from Infantry Battalion No:
11(IB-11) based in Shwebo was beaten to death in the Maungdine village,
Zee-byu-gone village-tract, Kan-ba-lu township, Sagaing Division.

2. The facts given to us is that on the 23 January 1999 at about 15:30
hours in
the evening, four soldiers (Lein Htan, Thet Cho Oo, Than Aye, and Htun Htun)
arrived at the village and arrested the first two villagers they saw whose
names are Maung Htun and Mya Thein after which they demanded Kyats
20,000(twenty thousand). These two said that they did not have that money to
give and offered to take them to the house of the village chairman. For
refusing to give the money immediately they were punched and fisted by the
four
soldiers.

3. The villagers who witnessed this found it intolerable so they came out
shouting " dacoits" and beat up the soldiers. The soldiers responded with a
hand grenade which did not explode. As a result, Lein Htan died, Thet Cho Oo
received injuries and the other two escaped.

4. Prior to the incident, soldiers had continuously made illegal demands for
ten thousand and fifteen thousand Kyats from the villagers of Min-ywa and
Kya-bak-kan respectively. Though the village elders had made complaints about
this to the township SPDC, no effective action was taken. Fourteen villagers
have been arrested in connection with the death of this soldier.

5. Further information received is that it is a regular practice for soldiers
from the IB-11 and IB-42 to visit nearby villages on Saturday and Sunday and
demand money from villagers and the owners of rice mills and one thousand Kyat
for every cart carrying bamboo or firewood.

6. The death of one soldier, the injures received by another and the arrest of
14 villagers are events that should never have happened. We therefore protest
this habitual practice of soldiers demanding money from villagers and ask that
it be stopped. 
Central Executive Committee National League for Democracy
Rangoon 5 March 1999

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BANGKOK POST: BURMA USES PRISONERS AS ARMY PORTERS
13 March, 1999 by Supamart Kasem

Forced to carry arms to battle zones

Hundreds of Burmese prisoners have been dispatched since early this year to
deliver arms for the Burmese army's operations against the anti-Rangoon Karen
National Union opposite Tak, according to a border official.

Burmese authorities have deployed prisoners from jails in Moulmein, Thaton and
Mingale to join a number of Burmese villagers forcibly conscripted as porters
from many border and inner towns to transfer war weapons, ammunition and food
supplies to Burmese military units in border areas opposite Mae Sot, Mae Ramat
and Tha Song Yang districts of Tak, where several KNU strongholds are located.

According to the source, Rangoon plans the deployment of at least 6,000
soldiers from the Southeastern Force, the 22nd and 44th divisions, to surround
and attack all KNU strongholds in these areas by the end of this dry season.

In a related development, Thai security forces recently nabbed 14 Burmese
villagers who had fled fighting from Burma to Tha Song Yang district after
being forced to work as porters for Burmese troops.

One of the arrested Burmese said at least 200 prisoners had been ordered to
serve the army as porters in that area.

According to another border source, Burmese troops managed to seize the KNU's
7th division in Ta Doh Thu Ta opposite Ban Ok Pha Loo of Tha Song Yang
district
last week, after clashes with some 200 KNU rebels led by Lt-Gen Htay Maung.

After the incident, a total of 200 Thai soldiers together with artillery arms
were deployed to ensure security in Ban Ok Pha Loo, on the orders of Fourth
Infantry Regiment Task Force commander Col Chayutti Boonparn.

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BBC: BURMESE REBELS SAY NO PEACE AGREEMENT IN SIGHT
14 March, 1999 

An outlawed separatist group in Burma, the Karen National Union army the KNU
has denied reports that it could shortly reach a peace agreement with the
country's military-backed government.

In an interview with the BBC, a KNU spokesman dismissed reported comments by a
senior official of the ruling State Peace and Development Council,
Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, that he was optimistic the KNU would reach
agreement soon.

The KNU spokesman said there were no negotiations going on with the government
and that the military was launching an offensive instead.

He also said that ten government officials captured by the KNA, were killed
during fighting with government troops two weeks ago.

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THE FREE PRESS NEWSPAPER: MYANMAR CONTINUES ENCROACHMENT ON STATE TERRITORY
14 March, 1999 by Salam Rajesh

Imphal, Manipur- India

In what could be described as a continuing intrusion into Indian territory and
the illegal occupation of land belonging to Manipur, Myanmarese military
personnel had reportedly encroached upon more than half a kilometre of
Manipur's territory in the border area of Yangoupokpi village in Chandel
district.

According to the villagers of Yangoupokpi, a small hamlet situated on the edge
of the Manipur-Myanmar international border roughly 30kms north of Moreh town,
Myanmarese military personnel had uprooted the Border Pillar No.87 and had
transplanted it into Manipur's territory more than half a kilometre from its
original site.

A villager of Dondingphai village, another (Maring) name for Yangoupokpi, said
they were witnessed to the act of the Myanmarese soldiers who shifted the
B.P.87 from its original site to its present location approximately ten years
back.

The B.P.87, erected in 1969-70 after official demarcation of Indo-Burma
international boundary, was originally located on the slope of a hillock
overlooking the Wasiphai plain and the Menda (Mongshu in Meiteilon) village on
the Myanmar said, the villagers said. The said border pillar is now located
right at the eastern edge of Yangoupokpi village.

Incidentally, the more than half a kilometre of Manipur's land, stretching
from
the Wasiphai plain upto Yangoupokpi, which is now 'illegally occupied' by
Myanmar covers a rich forest belt of Khangra (Dipterocarpus tuberculatus) and
Teak (Chingshu, Tectona grandis) trees.

"Sometimes we simply feel like destroying this (border) pillar which had
deprived us of much of our precious land and forest resources", a disheartened
villager told this scribe.

Yangoupokpi village is located 8 kms east of Saibol Maring village and is
reached via Sita village in Chandel's Tegnoupal subdivision. The current
health
minister, Morung Makunga is the circle MLA.

It may be mentioned here that the village of Yangoupokpi suffered extensively
during the recent ethnic clashes and the village was deserted for more than
three years. Maring, Meitei and Nepali settlers had since strove to rebuild
their homes and to re-establish Yangoupokpi's commercial hub by trade and
commerce with Myanmar's neighbouring villages.

Meanwhile, it may be recalled here that reports of illegal occupation of
Manipur's territory by neighbouring Myanmar had been in the news through the
years, the most striking report was that of alleged intrusion in the Molcham
village area in Manipur's Chandel district.

A team of the Manipur Cultural Integration Conference led by 'the grand old
man
of Manipur' Maharajah Kumar Priyabrata, who visited Molcham some years back,
had reported that the B.P.66, erected in1969, 70 at Molcham, had been
destroyed
by Myanmarese soldiers and that a new one had been erected in its place deep
inside Manipur's territory.

Myanmar's continued ingression and occupation of portions of Manipur's
territory through 'unethical' means would go unchecked if the state government
and the home ministry fails to pay proper attention to what is happening at
the
international boundary, several observers said.

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THE NATION: AN ALERT FOR THE COMING '9999 UPRISING'?
14 March, 1999 by Win Htein

IN 1988, WHAT LATER CAME TO BE KNOWN AS THE '8888 UPRISING' BURMESE STUDENTS
LED THE FIGHT AGAINST THE MILITARY JUNTA. AFTER A DECADE, THEY ARE NOW TALKING
ABOUT OF A '9999 INCIDENT', WRITES WIN HTEIN.

Yesterday was the 11th anniversary of Burma's Human Rights Day. Ko Pho Maw, a
21-year old engineering student was killed by the army in the compound of
Rangoon Institute of Technology (RIT), and was the first martyr among 3000
people in the "8888 Uprising".

"At the time, they [riot police] shot at us with real bullets when we asked
the
soldiers to go back to their barracks. We could
not see anything under the smoke-bomb and we ran like blind men" recalled Ko
Kyaw Htin in a border shelter camp. He was an RIT student. Now, he is a leader
of the All Burma Students' Democratic Front.

"We had never experienced anything like this. I thought they would shoot
plastic bullets and smoke-bombs". They believed that the police would not use
real bullets or enter the RIT compound.

The evening before, five RIT students had clashed with young civilians in an
RIT tea shop. A general's son wielding a knife injured the RIT students. They
called on the authorities to take action in the case.

But the junta's replay was "It's the students' mistake, they wanted violence".
This message challenged the students like a spark. If the junta's reply had
not
been so stupid, the "8888 Uprising" may not have begun at that point.

A day later, hundreds of thousands of students began an anti-authority
demonstration in the RIT for the first time in 26
years under Ne Win's Burmese Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) military rule.

At the shooting, at least two students were killed and about 30 injured.
People
were very angry with the government about the killed students. Then people
joined with students to demonstrate in downtown Rangoon. They broke
state-owned
cars, buses, buildings etc and shouted "No confidence in the BSPP", "Hold an
independent investigation into the case of Ko Pho Maw". 

General Ne Win; and his men from the BSPP were very surprised at the students'
sudden reaction. In their thinking, no one could challenge them while they
stood watch with guns. Then they ordered the closure of all universities and
the sending home of students.

But their plan was not successful. The students and people demonstrated again
when the universities reopened in June. That time the demonstrations were more
violent, wider and spread to other universities and cities.

However, strongman Ne Win never reviewed his BSPP's policy. He declaimed in
BSPP's parliament, "The army will never shoot into the air. If they shoot, the
guns will be aimed at the people. If someone wants to complain to BSPP, he
must
be careful of my guns.

After his speech, no one could control the angry people. People demonstrated
all over the country- including in border towns and villages. They cried,
"Enough is enough, BSPP", "Don't need Ne Win regime", "Build a Student Union".

"People could not tolerate any more at the time. They were facing suppression
from military rule for 26 years. At the time, our tea shop case inflamed the
people to challenge Ne Win's dictator regime", said another RIT student.

The ABSDF reviewed 'political progress in the last ten years' in their 5th
conference on the northern border of Thailand. They analysed the "8888
Uprising" and the current political situation in deciding "How to move
forward".

"In the last '8888 Uprising', we could abolish the BSPP with four presidents
and all its administration, but why could we not take final victory?"
questioned one at the conference hall.

"It's a big lesson for us. We were not ready to find a new government and did
not understand that 'opportunity only knocks once'."

They said, "Now we have a leading political party with a strong leader. And
the
people are also more knowledgeable than 8888. This fact could be the main
difference between 8888 and 9999."

The ABSDF decided to choose this year's Human Rights Day to alert people to
begin a campaign for a '9999 (9-9-1999) uprising' in Burma. They said, "The
whole political situation is ripe. People are just waiting for a spark".

The young political idealists said, "The students and people are ready to show
'People Power' like in the '8888 Uprising'. They are just waiting for a clear
message from Daw Aung San Suu Kyi".

They cited last year's student demonstrations in Rangoon in August and
September on the 10th anniversary of 8888.

Moe The Zun, one of the masterminds of the ABSDF, told the Democratic Voice of
Burma, "We believe that there is just one path to achieve democracy. It's 'the
People Power Way'."

The ABSDF concluded that it is not enough just to use the NLD's legal way of
the people's parliament. The people power way must be added.

They said, "There are many pressures form the outside world and inside the
country to transfer power from the military to the elected government. But the
junta never responds to outside pressure."

People chose their representatives for their new government in the 1990 May
election. Now these representatives have called a 'people's parliament' and
called for dialogue.

However, the junta's reply is to arrest more than 200 MPs and more than 1,000
members of the NLD. Then the Military Intelligence Service forced the
resignations of MPs and members throughout the whole country. Now over 50 per
cent of NLD members and MPs have resigned, been jailed or are in exile.

Recently, the New  Light of Myanmar, a state-controlled daily paper said 
"'Everyday, one MP and approximately 30 members resign, and one township level
committee abolishes its office. This is of their own volition, as they did not
like Suu Kyi's confrontational way to parliament". The junta knows nothing
about justice, legitimacy and the people's desire.

"The generals have encouraged the NLD to choose the 'People Power way', by
rejecting all other ways and backing them into a corner" the ABSDF accused.

They added, "The NLD has called for dialogue since the 1990 May election. And
now it has called a people's parliament. But the junta never responds.
Therefore, we would like to say 'enough is enough'. The NLD has no chance to
choose any other way. Today, the NLD's main task is to lead people into the
final battle".

Mr James, a spokesperson of a ceasefire armed group, Kachin Independent
Organisation commented in an interview with DVB, "There is no law and order in
this country at the moment. So the NLD should not confront the junta
because no
soldiers are interested in justice and legitimacy. They are only interested in
the power of their guns".

He added, "This country needs national reconciliation. If no side can
eradicate
the other, there is just one path that must be negotiation".

No one doubts that the country needs national reconciliation, except the SPDC.

The source said that the NLD has chosen March to begin preparations for 9999.
Which is the best way for this country? Dialogue or devastation?

Everybody wants to choose dialogue and negotiate. But the ruling junta is
still
rejecting dialogue. If this continues, there is only one way left for the
people - that is 'People Power' in the coming '9999 Uprising'.

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AP: MYANMAR'S OPIUM BATTLE QUESTIONED
5 March, 1999 by Grant Peck

LAUKAI, Myanmar (AP) - With his weathered face, leather jacket and pistol in
his waistband, Pheung Kya-shin looked every bit the tough guerrilla fighter he
once was. But in front of a small audience of narcotics experts and
journalists, he presented himself as a reformed supplicant.

We are purging our area of opium, said the 68-year-old leader of the Kokang
Chinese community. Help my people make an honest living. Give us some aid
so we
can survive.

His plea was a small shot in a battle being fought in the international
diplomatic arena: Should other nations fund Myanmar's new drug-fighting
program
or refuse to trust a government widely criticized in the West?

The Kokang region is located in a part of northeastern Myanmar that is the
heartland of opium production.

U.S. officials say Myanmar is the world's biggest opium-producing nation, and
that most of the heroin sold on America's streets comes from opium grown on
its
rolling hillsides.

But the government has launched an ambitious plan to end opium production
nationwide by the year 2014, and it has urged other nations to provide the
funding it needs to persuade farmers to switch to legal crops.

As he spoke in a small, open-air pavilion on a dusty hilltop in northern Shan
State, Pheung was guarded by members of his ragtag local militia, the Myanmar
National Defense Alliance Army.

They mixed with the government military officers who accompanied the foreign
drug experts and foreign journalists on the helicopter journey to remote
Laukai, as Pheung declared that Kokang Special Region No. 1 would soon be an
"opium-free zone."

"The people accept it. It is already decided. There will be no poppy next
year.
This is a must," he said.

The U.S. government complains that Myanmar's war on drugs falls short because
the ruling junta, seeking stability in the hinterlands, is too willing to
appease ethnic groups making a large part of their living from the narcotics
trade.

Washington admits opium production has dropped in Myanmar. But it claims there
is an "implicit tolerance" of the drug trade, and that the junta is eager to
keep former drug lords out of jail to invest their ill-gotten gains in the
ailing economy.

Last week, Myanmar - also known as Burma - and Afghanistan, the world's
second-biggest opium producer, were decertified by President Clinton for
failing to take substantial action to curtail narcotics trafficking. The
finding makes them ineligible to receive any nonhumanitarian U.S. aid.

Western governments also refuse to give any aid to Myanmar because of the
junta's poor human rights record and its refusal to hand over power to a
democratically elected government.

But some drug experts believe Myanmar's military government is doing the best
it can under difficult circumstances and with limited resources. They say
politics should play no part in the international fight against narcotics.

"They really have a chance to succeed," said Ian Bain, head of Interpol's
Drugs
Sub-Directorate. "This is a program that is well thought out ... that has a
strategic aim to it."

Opium, and the heroin derived from it, are produced mainly in areas under
control of ethnic minorities who have been seeking autonomy from the central
government for decades, often by force.

The ethnic rebellions were financed in large part by the drug trade. As the
government has reached peace agreements with the rebels over the past 10
years,
weaning farmers from the lucrative opium farming has been a dilemma.

At first, the central government turned a blind eye as it consolidated its
control, and opium production skyrocketed.

Pheung's Kokang Chinese guerrillas were the first of 17 ethnic rebel groups to
reach an agreement with the government. The agreement allowed Pheung's
guerillas to keep their armed security forces, and it gave them the right to
self-administration.

Pheung was a major and controversial player in the country's fractious ethnic
battling.

He was allied with the hard-core Burmese Communist Party, then led a
successful
coup against its leadership. He also became seriously involved in the drug
trade, helping set up the first heroin refinery in Kokang territory in the
mid-1970's, according to Bertil Lintner, an expert on Burmese politics.

Pheung's group continued drug trafficking at least into the early 1990s,
Lintner has written.

The latest International Narcotics Control Strategy Report by the U.S. State
Department, released last week, says he is suspected of continued involvement
with the drug trade.

Pheung, however, has long maintained that he is a staunch ally of the
government in its fight against drugs.

"We have been trying to end the growing of opium poppies for 10 years," he
said
in his speech. "We encounter so many difficulties. Some we can overcome, some
we cannot."

Long-term solutions are complicated.

The 15-year plan to end opium cultivation hinges on the development of
substitute crops of comparable value.

Because the government has limited resources, many farmers have been
disappointed says Col. Kyaw Thein, the respected commander of the government's
anti-drug effort.

Japan is funding a project to grow buckwheat, but production of high-value
export crops is hindered by the area's remote location and relative lack of
infrastructure.

The most accessible market for commodities from the Kokang region is just
across the border, in China. But competing with Chinese farmers hardly
promises
high returns, and local farmers have reported difficulties trying to sell
sugar
cane there.

"Even if they grow rice, it will only last for six months," says Col. Hla Min,
one of the government guides on the tour of Pheung's area. "We have to find
another way."

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REUTERS: MYANMAR FOREIGN MINISTER TO VISIT 3 ASEAN NATIONS
12 March, 1999 

A Foreign Ministry official described the visits as courtesy calls to fellow
member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) similar to
visits he made to Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand last month.

However, political analysts in Yangon said Win Aung would lobby for support
for
Myanmar's inclusion in a meeting of ASEAN and EU foreign ministers to be held
later this month.

The European Union objects to Myanmar's participation in the meeting
because of
its human rights record.

ASEAN says all its ministers should attend or none at all and the dispute
means
the meeting, which is supposed to take place every two years, is unlikely to
take place.

Current EU regulations regulations bar senior Myanmar officials from entering
the bloc.

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REUTERS: MANILA SAYS ASEAN-EU MEETING OFF ``AS OF TODAY''
14 March, 1999 

MANILA, March 14 (Reuters) - A planned meeting this month between the European
Union and ASEAN foreign ministers will not go ahead ``as of today'' because of
a dispute over Myanmar, Philippine Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon said on
Sunday.

Siazon said, however, that ASEAN member Thailand was still talking with the EU
about the format of the proposed meeting between the two blocs, indicating
that
it had not been definitely cancelled.

Siazon spoke to reporters after talks in Manila with Myanmar Foreign Minister
Aung Win.

EU sanctions against Myanmar, which joined the Association of South East Asian
Nations (ASEAN) in 1997, ban high level meetings with its officials because of
the EU's disapproval of that country's human rights record.

The meeting between foreign ministers of the EU and ASEAN had been planned to
be held towards the end of this month in Berlin.

Asked if the meeting would go through, Siazon said: ``ASEAN-EU as of today,
no...But still talks are going about the format.''

``Diplomacy is the art of the possible as long as it is not a square circle,''
Siazon said, adding the EU had laid down conditions related to Myanmar which
were not acceptable to ASEAN. He refused to elaborate.

``What is being requested is to discriminate against an ASEAN member which is
unthinkable,'' Siazon said.

The ASEAN includes the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia,
Brunei, Vietnam, Myanmar and Laos.

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BANGKOK POST: BURMA CONTINUES VIOLATION OF DEMARCATION AGREEMENT
14 March, 1999 by Supamart Kasem 

Concrete wall being built along river

Mae Sot, Tak

Burma has continued to violate its border agreement with Thailand by
constructing a concrete wall along the Moei River despite protests by Thai
authorities.

Construction work has continued despite Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai's
proposal
to his Burmese counterpart Gen Than Shwe, during the latter's recent visit to
Bangkok, for renewed border demarcation talks to settle the conflict.

The land-filling work along a 500-metre stretch of the Moei River bank by
Burmese workers using earth, sand and gravel has encroached 20-200 metres into
the river and has gone uninterrupted despite the latest protest from Thai
authorities on March 5.

The Thai chairman of the Local Thai-Burmese Border Committee, Col Chayuthi
Boonparn, had proposed talks with his Burmese counterpart Lt-Col Tin Ngwe but
his proposal was rejected.

Col Chayuthi said the continued violation of the border agreement now required
the attention of higher level members of the Thai-Burmese border panel. He
intended to propose this for discussion at the next Regional Thai-Burmese
Border Committee to be held in Phuket from tomorrow to March 17.

The meeting will be co-chaired by First Army Region Commander Lt-Gen Taweep
Suwansing and Burma's Southeastern Force Commander Maj-Gen Myint Aung.

Col Chayuthi said the continued construction of the concrete wall along the
river bank demonstrated Burma's insincerity to solve the border conflict.

Thailand also plans to discuss the border issue with Burma at the Joint
Boundary Meeting in Rangoon next month, he said.

Burma has claimed that construction of the concrete wall was to prevent soil
erosion on the Burmese side of the river as the Thai side had completed
theirs.

Col Chayuthi said the concrete wall on the Thai side had not encroached on the
river and had been built after a joint survey and agreement with the Burmese
authorities.

The Burmese construction of the wall, therefore, was in violation of the
border
treaty reached in 1996 by a Thai-Burmese technical committee to dredge Moei
River at the spot where the Thai-Burmese Friendship Bridge was built.

Thailand and Burma agreed to dredge the Moei River at the Friendship Bridge in
1996 based on an aerial photograph taken of the area in 1989, following
Rangoon's accusation that Thailand had encroached on the river.

The dredging work resulted in a 30-rai island being created in the middle of
the river, which the two countries agreed to jointly exploit for their mutual
benefit.

Thailand subsequently built a concrete wall on the Thai bank of the river to
protect it from erosion and Burma has since followed suit but while doing so,
has encroached between 20-200 metres into the river.

The present construction work is an extension of the 800-metre wall which
Burma
completed in 1997.
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