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The BurmaNet News: March 22, 1999



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

The BurmaNet News: March 22, 1999
Issue #1232 

HEADLINES:
==========
ABSDF: BURMESE TROOPS KILL SEVEN KAREN VILLAGERS
AP: MYANMAR EXPELS FOREIGN INSTIGATORS 
MIC: INFORMATION SHEET NO. A-0842  
THE NATION: BURMA FEARS ARIS 'HEALTH BURDEN'  
BKK POST: THAILAND OPTS OUT OF VISA PLEA 
BKK POST: JCC GETS SET FOR TALK HERE DURING MAY 
FEER: SWEET SURRENDER  
ANNC: KAREN HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP WEBSITE 
ANNC: THINGYAN NEW YEAR CELEBRATION 1999 
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ABSDF: BURMESE TROOPS KILL SEVEN KAREN VILLAGERS IN TENASSERIM DIVISION
19 March, 1999 from lurie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Media Release - 18/99

Burmese troops operating in the area of the Karen National Union's (KNU) 4th
brigade have killed seven villagers and wounded another eight in an unprovoked
attack, according to sources in the area.

The shooting took place on March 9, when soldiers from a military patrol,
under
the command of the Burmese Army's Special Operation Command (5), opened
fire on
a group of Karen villagers hiding in a forest near Mae Phya area in Tenasserim
Division.

Among those killed were a man and woman, both aged 70, three men, a young
woman
and a child. The three men died of gunshot wounds after fleeing from the
shooting. During the attack, another eight villagers were also seriously
wounded.

The attack on the villagers may have been a retaliatory measure against the
KNU
and Karen villagers, as it occurred after the deaths of 10 Burmese immigration
officers in the custody of the KNU in Three Pagoda Pass area near the
Thai-Burma border late last month.

The fighting between the Burmese army and the KNU in Tenasserim area has gone
on since early 1997. In the course of the fighting, countless villagers have
either fled to Thailand or hidden in the jungles of Tenasserim Division.

The KNU is the one of the few remaining ethnic armies which has refused to
enter into a cease-fire agreement with the military junta. It has stood
firm on
the call for a political settlement with the regime.

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AP: MYANMAR EXPELS FOREIGN INSTIGATORS
20 March, 1999

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Myanmar's military government announced Saturday it
was expelling two Westerners for allegedly trying to instigate student
protests
in the country's second-largest city.

The men were identified as Ofer Don Estiline, carrying a U.S. passport, and
Michel Uyitebroeck, a Belgian citizen.

The identifications could not be confirmed. Previous reports of expelled
foreigners have often contained misspellings and the passport number given for
Estiline did not conform to the normal format.

A news release issued by the government spokesman's office said Estiline
arrived in Myanmar, also called Burma, on Feb. 28 and Uyitebroeck on Feb. 21.
It said they visited the university campus in Mandalay, Myanmar's
second-largest city, on March 15.

The statement accused the two of trying to incite students to stage
``demonstrations and strikes against the teaching faculties and the
government.''

``Due to their improper motives and behavior,'' it said, Estiline was deported
from the Myanmar capital Yangon to Bangkok, Thailand, on Friday. Uyitebroeck
was to have been deported Saturday.

While the allegations could not be confirmed, there have been occasional
visits
to Myanmar by political activists opposed to its authoritarian military
regime.

Most are quickly and quietly deported but in a well-publicized case in August,
18 Asian and Western activists were detained for six days. They were tried,
convicted of sedition and sentenced to five years in prison, but then
expelled.

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

MYANMAR  INFORMATION  COMMITTEE: INFORMATION  SHEET NO. A. 0842   
20 March, 1999 

[Information Sheets issued under the email addresses MYANPERSP@xxxxxxx and
OKKAR66129@xxxxxxx match those issued by the Directorate of Defence Services
Intelligence (DDSI) in Rangoon, and can be assumed to reflect official SPDC
opinion.]

Government of Myanmar Offers Assistance to Aung San Suu Kyi to Fulfil
Terminally Ill Husband's Wish to See Her

The Government of Myanmar remains very sympathetic to the request by Michael
Aris, the husband of Aung San Suu Kyi, for a visa to Myanmar. 

Myanmar medical authorities are concerned, however, that Mr Aris might not be
able to receive proper medical care in Myanmar, and that he might put an undue
burden on the country's limited medical facilities. 

Mr Aris is reportedly suffering from a severe and advanced case of prostate
cancer which has spread to his spine and lungs. He has been hospitalized in
intensive care, and is reported to be extremely weak. 

Medical facilities in Myanmar for terminally ill cancer patients are very
limited, and such patients are usually sent from Myanmar to more developed
countries for proper treatment.

If Mr Aris were to require extensive hospitalization in Myanmar, it would put
severe stress on the country's limited intensive care facilities. Citizens of
developed countries should be considerate about overstraining the medical
facilities of less-developed countries, and Myanmar medical authorities would
request Mr Aris and his family to be sympathetic to this fact. 

While Mr Aris' visa application is currently under review the Government
suggest that it is more humane for a person in perfect health to make the
journey to fulfil the terminally ill husband's wish to see her.

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

THE NATION: BURMA FEARS ARIS 'HEALTH BURDEN'
21 March, 1999 

THE Burmese military junta has failed to react positively to the growing
international calls for it to allow the dying British husband of opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi to visit her in Burma, arguing the main obstacle
remains its limited medical facilities.

In a statement issued yesterday, Rangoon said the government remains very
sympathetic to the visa request by Michael Aris to visit his wife in Burma.
"Burmese medical authorities are concerned, however, that Mr. Aris might
not be
able to receive proper medical care in Burma and that he might put an undue
burden on the country's limited medical facilities."

Earlier, Rangoon suggested it would be better if Suu Kyi went to Britain to
see
her terminally-ill husband. However, Suu Kyi said she would be reluctant to
leave the country because the regime has in the past threatened to expel her.

Aris is suffering from prostate cancer which has spread to his spine and
lungs,
and is not expected to live long.

Burma's military junta has for the past three years denied Aris a visa to
visit
his wife.

Aris, a professor at Oxford University, and Suu Kyi were married in i 972.
They
lived in Bhutan before returning to Oxford before the birth of their two sons.

Her opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory in
elections in 1990, but the government has refused to hand over power and has
conducted a long campaign against the party.

In Bangkok, the Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma (TACDB) and Union
for Civil Liberty (UCL) jointly appealed to the Burmese military to allow Aris
to visit his wife.

In a separate statement, TACDB urged Asean to pressure Burma to respect the
basic right of its citizens and foreigners to travel in and out of Burma
freely
with their safety guaranteed.

TACDB said these rights should also be applied to Suu Kyi whom, it said, has
shown her courage in confronting the sorrow caused by being separated from her
family in her peaceful fight for an improvement in human rights and democracy
in Burma.

It said the junta's ban on Aris' reunion with Suu Kyi is just one case among
many. Burmese citizens and foreigners have been refused the right to visit
Burma for political reasons.

TACDB president Laddawan Tantivitayapitak said in a press conference that the
junta should respect the rights of the family to decide on how they should be
reunited. Laddawan also lashed out at the Thai government's position regarding
the matter.  "The Thai government does nothing and seems to support the
junta's
human rights' violations," she said.

Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan said on Friday that the decision to allow Aris
to visit is Burma's own internal issue.

Human rights' organisations in Thailand will assemble in front of the Burmese
Embassy tomorrow to perform a candle-lit ceremony to show their moral support
for the Aris family.

Australia has joined the United States and the- European Union in trying to 
press the junta to allow Suu Kyi's husband into the country to see his wife.

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

BANGKOK POST: THAILAND OPTS OUT OF VISA PLEA
20 March, 1999 

While America and the European Union is pleading with Burma, Thailand has said
it is not in a position to help ailing British academic Dr Michael Aris
reunite
with his wife Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon because it is a matter of Burmese
law, Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan said yesterday.

"Burmese authorities are acting according to Burmese law and it is up to them
to decide whether to allow this [visit] or not," Mr Surin said.

Meanwhile, the Bangkok-based Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development said
it had made a formal appeal to Burmese Premier Than Shwe through the Burmese
Embassy in Bangkok to immediately allow Dr Aris to enter the country on
humanitarian grounds.

Forum-Asia also appealed to Asean governments to put pressure on the ruling
State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) in Rangoon to grant an entry
visa to
Dr Aris.

"This very tragic circumstance of a dying man wishing to see his wife whom he
has not visited for more than three years should not be used as a political
tool by SPDC to force Aung San Suu Kyi out of the country," said the forum's
secretary-general Somchai Homlaor.

The US and the EU on Thursday urged Burma's rulers to grant a visa to the
dying
husband of the opposition leader.

"Any delay in granting the visa request would cast another shadow on the
attitude of the Burmese government towards human rights," said an EU
statement.

Military authorities should make a "humanitarian gesture and permit Dr Aris to
visit his wife before his illness worsens," the US State Department said in a
statement.

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

BANGKOK POST: JCC GETS SET FOR TALKS HERE DURING MAY
20 March, 1999 by Bhanravee Tansubhapol and Achara Ashayagachat 

BURMA, LAOS TO ATTEND IN LIMITED CAPACITY

Senior officials of the European Union  and the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations are likely to meet in Bangkok in May, with Burma and Laos attending in
a limited capacity, Thai and European sources said yesterday.

Burma and Laos will attend the 13th Asean-EU Joint Co-operation Committee as
non-signatories to the co-operation agreement, and they will refrain from
speaking, the sources added.

The green light for the JCC meeting followed consultations among EU
ambassadors
in Brussels on March 17.

The JCC has not met since Asean admitted Burma in July 1997 despite fierce
opposition from the EU. Two earlier plans to hold the meeting in Bangkok in
November 1997, and in February 1999, were called off due to the disagreement
over the status of Burma's participation.

Word of the likely meeting of the JCC coincided with confirmation from Foreign
Minister Surin Pitsuwan that ministers of the two blocs had postponed
"indefinitely" earlier plans to confer in Berlin on March 30.

But Mr Surin emphasised that the possibility remained for ministers of the two
groupings to have "informal talks" when they meet in Berlin on March 29 as
part
of the Asia-Europe forum, known as Asem (Asia-Europe Meeting).

Neither Burma nor Laos will attend this meeting as the forum groups only seven
member states of Asean-Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore,
Thailand and Vietnam- together with China, Japan, South Korea, and the 15
members of the EU.

Although Mr Surin remained upbeat about the possibility of informal talks in
Berlin between foreign ministers of the EU and seven of their Asean
counterparts, other Asean member states reportedly did not feel the same way.

During a recent meeting in Singapore, senior Asean officials reportedly
rejected: Mr Surin's idea of so-called "corridor" talks between at least some
Asean and EU ministers during the ASEM meeting.

The Asean officials maintained that all of Asean could not be represented by
only three or seven ministers, as Mr Surin had suggested, in talks on
co-operation between the two groupings, sources added.

Some officials pointed out that Asean had agreed to being represented by a
"troika" only for the Cambodian question, the sources said.

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

FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW: SWEET SURRENDER
25 March, 1999 

Wei Xuegang, one of Burma's most notorious drug lords, is about to strike a
deal with the government in Rangoon. The terms will be similar to those that
Khun Sa, another drug lord, negotiated when he surrendered in January 1996:
Wei
will dis-band his jungle-based army and operate his businesses openly, in his
case in Man-dalay.

Wei leads part of the United Wa State Army based along the Thai border
north of
Fang. According to anti-narcotics authorities, he is also a major producer of
heroin and methamphetamines. Over the past year, Wei has invested millions of
dollars in the lumber business, mineral smelting and retail trade through what
one drug-enforcement official calls "the big-gest money-laundering
operation in
South-east Asia today."

Wei is wanted in Thailand on drug-trafficking charges and a U.S. court has
in-dicted him for trafficking heroin to America.

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

ANNOUNCEMENT:  KAREN HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP WEBSITE
22 March, 1999 from <khrg@xxxxxxxxx> 

The Karen Human Rights Group website 

(<http://metalab.unc.edu/freeburma/humanrights/khrg/archive/>http://metalab
 .unc.edu/freeburma/humanrights/khrg/archive/ ) has now been thoroughly revised
and updated.  This site contains an archive of KHRG reports and photo sets
dating since 1995.  Latest additions include Photo Set 99-A with photos from
several different regions, and Photo Set 99-B, which contains some of our most
recent photos and will still be expanded as more photos come in.  In future,
KHRG reports and photo sets will be added to the site as soon as possible
after
their completion.  We are also still in the process of preparing reports from
our 1992-95 archives for uploading to the site in order to make it as complete
an archive as possible.  Any inquiries can be sent to khrg@xxxxxxxxx  

For those who have accessed the site at its old address
(<http://sunsite.unc.edu/freeburma/humanrights/khrg/archive/>http://sunsite
 .unc.edu/freeburma/humanrights/khrg/archive/), this address will still work at
least for the time being (it will be automatically redirected to the new
address).

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ANNOUNCEMENT: THINGYAN-NEW YEAR CELEBRATION -1999
22 March, 1999 from celsus@xxxxxxxxxxx

THINGYAN-NEW YEAR CELEBRATION -1999
BURMA Era 1361

The Lower Mainland's Community of Burmese (Myanmar) People cordially invite
you, your family and friends to Thingyan, a New Year Burma (Myanmar)
Celebration.

Based on the Buddhist lunar calendar, Thingyan, also known as the water
festival, is a celebration of the community, new beginning friendships and
dreams enjoyed by the rich and diverse, multiethnic/ multicultural society
that
make up Burma's population of 50 million people.

Please join us for an afternoon of festive fare, music, classical and folk
dancing.

THINGYAN COMMITTEE

Date: April 17,1999 (Saturday) 
Time: 12:00 noon to 5:00 PM 
Place: Polish Community Center 1134 Kingsway, Vancouver, BC Canada

For information call 604-438-7904 or 604-215-1247 PARKING AVAILABLE
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