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The BurmaNet News: April 26, 1999



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

The BurmaNet News: April 26, 1999
Issue #1258

HEADLINES:
==========
JAPAN TIMES: MYANMAR: BEHIND THE BRIGHT FAÇADE 
THE NATION: BURMA'S JUNTA BLASTS UN RESOLUTION 
THE NATION: COME HOME, BURMA TELLS WORKERS 
IRRAWADDY: WISH YOU WOULDN'T GO THERE 
IHT: ASEAN STRUGGLES TO CHANGE ITS REPUTATION 
RADIO FREE BURMA: WHY THE GENERALS ARE SO NASTY 
****************************************************************

JAPAN TIMES: MYANMAR: BEHIND THE BRIGHT FAÇADE, A LAND SHADOWED BY FEAR 
21 April, 1999 by Richard Humphries 

The setting is remarkable. Resplendent golden pagodas shimmer in the light.
Riverboats pass lush, green, irrigated paddy fields. Ethnic festivals
explode in color and noise against a still-grand backdrop of fading
colonial architecture. Bright sarong-like "longyis," wrapped around
people's waists add to the vividness of the scene. And here and there,
magnificent, haunting ruins evoke the splendor of the past.

Yet if the sun shines brightly upon the Myanmar of coffee-table photo
albums, a vast disturbing darkness also shadows the country. This is not a
happy society. Fear, deprivation and worse are commonplace.

Myanmar has been under varying forms of military rule since 1962. The
present government, euphemistically naming themselves the State Peace and
Development Council, consists largely of senior military brass at the top,
with regional commanders filling assorted Cabinet positions. The actions of
these men have led to the quip that George Orwell wrote "1984", a sequel to
his "Burmese Days." Orwellian this government certainly is.

Even the most naive visitor can not miss the billboards. Large and small,
always with white text on a red background, they have been placed
throughout the country. Many of messages, which are occasionally in
English, call for obedience- "LOVE AND CHERISH THE MOTHERLAND", or
"OBSERVANCE OF DISCIPLINE LEADS TO SAFETY." Others announce the presence of
enemies and what the military will do to them if they are caught.

A few of these exhortations have been placed in curious locations, such as
in front of Yangon's U.S. Embassy. The reasoning, apart from the probable
insult intended, may be religious in origin. Many Myanmars believe in
"nats," 37 capricious spirits whose worship predates the arrival of
Buddhism. Red and white are the colors associated with placating these
potentially dangerous entities. The authorities may well see the signs as
useful talismans, capable of warding off malign foreign influence.

The amount of construction under way in Yangon is striking. Hotels,
half-built or with signs proclaiming "Opening Soon," dot the horizon. But
the air of burgeoning prosperity suggested by this is misleading. There are
few tourists. The younger, backpacking crowd is largely absent and among
older tourists a sheepish, should-we-really-be-here demeanor is common.

Any profits flowing from the from construction projects, or from the sale
of the country's natural resources have mostly benefited the "Tatmadaw," or
Myanmar Army and a few other favored groups. For the average person, daily
life is a struggle. Inflation is severe and the black market rate for
Myanmar's currency, the kyat, has doubled in the last two years. 

Child Laborers, soldiers, and spies

According to a member of the Democratic Party for a New Society, a popular
but now-banned student organization, many of Yangon's citizens have no
disposable income. They will pawn their few personal possessions in the
mornings to pay for transportation to work sites. If they are lucky enough
to get work that day, they can buy back their things as they go home in the
evenings.

Work is available, but it is often not of the paid -- or at least well-paid
-- variety. The use of forced labor throughout Myanmar has been well
documented. One notorious example is the construction of the Ye to Dawei
(Tavoy) railway in the south, with thousands of villagers, dragooned for
the purpose and guarded by armed soldiers. 

North of Yangon, especially between the cities of Nyaunglebin and Toungoo,
child labor is a frequent and visible phenomenon. At one small girls,
clearly younger than 10, were pouring tar at roadworks under the blazing
sun. "It is very sad; they have no chance for school," one bystander
quietly observed.

A genuine growth industry in Myanmar has been the military -- meaning more
soldiers, more equipment, and more spies for the Military Intelligence
Service. Consequently, journalists must be very careful whom they speak to,
not so much for their own safety as for that of their interlocutors.
Myanmar people are exceedingly polite and friendly. Pleasantries and smiles
are readily exchanged but it is important to let people broach the more
difficult topics in their own ways.

"We can talk here safely," one very well-informed gentleman said. "If we
were in public, Military Intelligence might be watching and listening."

Under such laws as the 1950 Emergency Provisions Act, a seven-year jail
term awaits anyone who "causes or intends to spread false rumors about the
government." This and newer laws that have followed it are interpreted as
the government sees fit, to suppress dissent. 

And it is not just in the tea shops and marketplaces where "they" might be
listening. According to Professor Desmond Ball, author of "Burma's Military
Secrets" (White Lotus, 1998), "Monitoring of domestic conversations is
widespread, especially when critics of the government or associates of
critics are involved. All domestic long distance connections can be
intercepted and recorded at the exchanges in Rangoon (now Yangon) and
Mandalay. (MIS officers are stationed at both exchanges)." Additionally,
the regime has recently received equipment enabling it to monitor
satellite, fax, and e-mail transmissions.

The military junta attempts to justify its heavy handedness by saying it is
the only force capable of preserving the unity of the State. At least
one-third (actual numbers are contested) of Myanmar's citizens belong to an
ethnic minority. Many of these groups are either in a state of active
insurgency or maintaining a tenuous cease-fire with the government. The
nationalities question is central to Myanmar politics. It is one that past
and present governments have failed to address adequately and one that any
future democratic government will have to treat very carefully.

A place of tension and uncertainty.

This March, I went to Karen State in Southeastern Myanmar, where what is
perhaps the world's longest-running civil war continues. Since 1949, the
Karen National Union and its military wing have been fighting successive
Myanmar governments, at first for independence and more recently for
autonomy in a proposed democratic federal state. The Karen ethnic minority
is possibly Myanmar's largest (the same claim is made for the Shan).

The capital, Hpa-an, is an immediately appealing place, situated in a
lowland valley alongside one of Asia's great rivers, the Salween, with
majestic karst formations rising in the distance. At first, the atmosphere
of the town is inviting. In the evenings, for instance, it is relaxing to
walk down the darkened side streets, past teak houses lit by small oil lamps.

Soon, however, more ominous elements come into focus. If the military
presence ranges from the subtle to the overt in Yangon, it is at times
overwhelming in Hpa-an, giving the impression of an occupying force. A
compound fenced-off with barbed wire occupies a good chunk of city land.
This is the base area for the 22nd Light Infantry Division, one of ten such
divisions in Myanmar's Army. 

The 22nd participates in military action against KNU forces. It was
involved in the major battles of 1995 that saw the capture of the Karen
headquarters at Manerplaw, along the Thai border, a devastating blow to the
KNU. This division also saw "action" in 1988, when it was involved in the
gunning down of thousands of unarmed pro-democracy demonstrators.

The Tatmadaw isn't the only armed presence, which further adds to the
tension and uncertainty that pervade the place. I saw at least 100 other
soldiers, recognizable by their distinctive yellow headbands, traveling in
pick-ups or larger trucks. Many appeared to be very young, probably in
their early teens, and all looked a little menacing with grenades strapped
to their belts and assault rifles in their hands. Some sported the acronym
DKBA in Roman letters on their headbands.

The DKBA, or Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, is a splinter group that broke
away from the KNU in December 1994, following complaints by many Buddhist
Karen foot soldiers that they were being marginalized by the
largely-Christian KNU leadership. It was the DKBA that led the Myanmar Army
into the KNU fortress at Manerplaw, and it was this group that has led
attacks on Karen refugee camps in Thailand, destroying several camps and
killing many refugees.

The word from the hills is bad

The DKBA have a forward base 13 km east of Hpa-an and a main one 48 km
miles north at Myaing Gyi Ngyu. Many locals do not welcome their presence.
"We don't like them. They have spent too much time in the jungle and are
wild. If they want something, they take it," I was told. The DKBA are still
allied with the Tatmadaw but there are whispers this will not last.

Farmers in the area, like farmers elsewhere in Myanmar, have to subsidize
the government by selling a good portion of their crop at a steep discount
from the market price, arousing great disaffection. Additionally, outside
Hpa-an there are military-owned rubber plantations, cleared and planted
with forced labor. When villagers' livestock roams into the plantations the
Army shoots it. In early March, a section of one plantation burned down.
Whether this was a typical dry-season occurrence or some villagers'
revenge, no one was saying.

Most of the fighting takes place in the Dawna Range, well to the east of
Hpa-an. I was permitted to travel no more than 40 km in that direction, as
far as the town of Hlaing-bwe, where I was assigned a permanent "escort" of
three MIS officials. Nonetheless, the word from those hills is very bad.

According to rights-monitoring organizations like the Karen Human Rights
Group, as well as officials from aid agencies who requested anonymity, the
Tatmadaw is committing large-scale human-rights abuses. Army conscripts are
not receiving free rice from the quota system but are being told to "grow
it or take it." They take it.  

In an effort to deny the KNU support, the Tatmadaw is also declaring large
areas free-fire zones and ordering inhabitants, often at gunpoint or by
burning their villages, to relocate to more controllable settlements. This
doubling and tripling of populations is causing immense hunger and
hardship, as newcomers are settled on other villages' paddy fields.

Hundreds of thousands of others are voting with their feet and fleeing.
Many are still hiding within Myanmar and are thus, in the modern parlance
of non-governmental organizations, internally displaced persons (IDPs).
Their situation is perilous and not easily ameliorated. Many hide in areas
strewn with landmines. I was told that in recent months many very elderly
people, who had previously felt bound to their lands no matter what, were
fleeing as well. Previously, I met many IDPs by crossing into Myanmar from
Thailand.

Amid the darkness, one glimmer of light can be glimpsed in Karen State.
Some 40 km from Hpa-an is the monastery town of Thamanya. The Abbot, or
"sayadaw," of Thamanya is one of the most venerated Buddhist monks in
Southeast Asia. He has declared a small "zone of peace" at Thamanya and
thousands have come to live there near him in relative safety. 

When I met the Thamanya Sayadaw he showed me a large photo taken of him
with Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's opposition leader. Thamanya was the first
place Suu Kyi traveled outside Yangon after being released from house
arrest in 1995. The Thamanya Sayadaw is said to tell his SPDC visitors
repeatedly that there will be no progress in Myanmar until there is peace
and until Suu Kyi is running the country. If only they would take his advice. 

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

THE NATION: BURMA'S JUNTA BLASTS UN RESOLUTION
25 April, 1999 

THE Burmese junta accused the United Nations yesterday of duping political
activists by passing a resolution condemning the regime for widespread
human-rights abuses. A UN Human Rights Commission resolution on Friday
contained a long list of abuses, including summary executions, torture,
abuse of women, systematic forced relocation and widespread forced labour.

It also said the numbers of arbitrary and politically motivated arrests and
detentions without trial were increasing.

In a statement, a spokesman for the Burmese military regime said the UN
researchers had been manipulated and the resolution was "regretful".

It is quite regretful that the resolution has been passed based on
politically motivated allegations from certain quarters, which are
deliberately neglecting and downplaying the positive developments," he added.

He said the junta's "sincere efforts" had made Burma "one of the most
peaceful and stable countries in the world today".

The resolution, tabled by the European Union and co-sponsored by countries
including the United States, was adopted by consensus at the
53-member-state Human Rights Commission.

The seven-page document deplored an "escalation in the persecution of the
democratic opposition, particularly members and supporters of the National
League for Democracy (NLD)".

It regretted "threats of deportation, arrest and physical violence against
NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the continued harassment, arrest and
detention of the NLD and other democratic group activists", including
elected MPs. The Burmese delegation to the UN denounced the resolution as
"a litany of unproven false allegations" and full of "outlandish speculation".

Its delegate said the text paid "undue attention to one political party and
individual". "Perhaps the intention is to encourage members of the
political party to break laws and destabilise the country," he told the
commission. 

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

THE NATION: COME HOME, BURMA TELLS WORKERS 
23 April, 1999 

BURMA yesterday urged its illegal workers in Thailand to return to help in
the agricultural and industrial development of their country and promised
they will not face persecution, a minister from the military government
said yesterday.

Illegal Burmese in Thailand who had voluntarily crossed the border to seek
better employment are welcome to return whenever they want regardless of
their ethnicity, Burmese Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win told
reporters yesterday.

"Whenever they want to go back they can always go back because they have
their homes and families in our country. Let me assure you, we will not
take action against them," he said while attending the three-day
International Symposium on Migration, in Bangkok.

Burma is in need of labour for its own development projects, he said.

Maung Win disputed the unofficial figure that almost a million Burmese have
been illegally working and living in Thailand, saying the exact number is
impossible to determine because the two countries share a long border.

"According to our information, we believe this figure is inflated," he said.

Maung Win rejected criticism this week from human rights groups and
international labour unions that most of the Burmese migrants in Thailand
had fled the country because of political persecution.

He claimed that 95 per cent of the Burmese here had left Burma for economic
reasons.

The same group of critics of the Burmese labour and human rights record
yesterday handed a statement to Deputy Prime Minister Sukhumbhand
Paribatra, the host of the symposium's session yesterday.

They called on countries attending the symposium to treat and regulate
undocumented migrants and migrant workers according to international
conventions and treaties.

The group accused the military government of Burma of having one of the
worst records in treating its own citizens and workers. 

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

IRRAWADDY: WISH YOU WOULDN'T GO THERE 
March, 1999 

VOL7 NO 3 

JOHN JACKSON OF BURMA CAMPAIGN [UK] RECENTLY MET WITH AUNG SAN SUU KYI IN
RANGOON TO DISCUSS THE NLD'S POLICIES ON TOURISM TO BURMA. THE IRRAWADDY
SPOKE WITH HIM IN BANGKOK BEFORE HIS RETURN TO LONDON, TO FIND OUT WHAT HE
LEARNED FROM MEETING THE OPPOSITION LEADER AND OTHER BURMESE AROUND THE
COUNTRY.

IS BURMA BEING HEAVILY PROMOTED AS A POSSIBLE DESTINATION FOR BRITISH
TOURISTS?

There are a number of tour companies, especially in Britain, which are now
trying to promote tours of Burma, and there's been recent interest in some
television programs also showing luxury tours in Burma. The "Orient
Express" luxury tour up the Irrawaddy was going to be featured on one of
the most popular travel shows, called "Wish You Were Here." Luckily, we
were able to speak with them and persuade them that that was not a good
idea, and that tourism into Burma at the moment is inappropriate. But
there's something like fifty tour operators in Britain who are now trying
to promote tours into Burma.

WHILE YOU WERE IN BURMA, YOU SPOKE TO DAW AUNG SAN SUU KYI. HOW STRONGLY
DID SHE COME OUT AGAINST EFFORTS TO PROMOTE TOURISM IN BURMA?

I think we were very impressed with how clearly she thought about the whole
issue, and how willing she was to be very strong about the problem of tour
operators promoting tours to Burma and pretending that it's something more
than making a profit, actually suggesting that they're interested in what's
best for the Burmese people and that they're interested in a future
transition to democracy. She was very clear that their agenda is about
profit and they should be honest about that. To suggest that people can
teach Burmese people about their own situation, she was quite right in
saying it's not just patronizing, it's also racist.

HOW SUCCESSFUL HAS THE CAMPAIGN TO TURN BURMA INTO A TOURIST DESTINATION
BEEN? HAS THERE BEEN MUCH OF AN INFLUX SINCE "VISIT MYANMAR YEAR"?

Most of the people we spoke to, Burmese people, who are involved in the
tourist industry, said that 1998 was one of the worst years. Ninety-six and
ninety-seven were better, there were more people coming, but now there's
been a massive dip. When we visited luxury hotels in Rangoon and in other
cities, they were almost empty, and so were some of the restaurants that
were catering for foreign visitors. On a number of occasions we would be
the only people sitting in the restaurant. So the promotion of tourism to
Burma has obviously failed quite dramatically. I think that the regime has
tried its best to increase its revenues through tourism but that's
obviously not working.

WHAT DO THINK ABOUT THE CONNECTION BETWEEN OUTSIDERS AND BURMESE PEOPLE WHO
WANT TO EXPRESS THEIR FEELINGS TO FOREIGNERS? SHOULD THERE BE ANY CONNECTION?

What I would say is that the majority of people that we spoke to who worked
in the tourist industry or who had contact with foreigners accepted that
they quite liked foreigners, and they had nothing personally against them,
but they believed that in the long run, they thought it was still quite
important that foreigners didn't come and give money to the regime, which
you have to do when you visit Burma. You have to transfer $300 to the
regime. So most people, although they knew they could personally benefit
from tourists coming in, accepted that they would prefer these tourists not
to come.

As for foreigners going in and bringing out information, it's difficult
even for professional people, like journalists, to go in and be able to ask
questions in the right way, to get information, to bring the information
out, and to use the information in a way that doesn't jeopardize or
endanger the people that gave the information. Also those journalists and
other people who go in, they have to take the risk of being arrested,
strip-searched, interrogated, and deported. The majority of tourists would
not be willing to risk that, and the majority of them would not have the
skills to bring out the information. So on the one hand, Burmese people
accept that tourism may be a bad thing, because of the money going to the
regime, and on the other hand, the information that tourists bring out is
often minimal and not usable.

The tourist industry in Burma has been linked with systematic human rights
abuses. We know that there were thousands of people involved in renovating
Mandalay Palace. Is there any hard evidence that this still goes on? You
just have to travel along the road to places like Moulmein or Taunggyi from
Rangoon, and you can see all along the way that the roads are being widened
and extended, and often you'll see children building those roads. And on
occasion, we actually saw armed guards next to children. So obviously
forced labor is still being used quite extensively. Infrastructure, as in
(any) country, will be used by both the local people as well as foreigners.
But we believe that one of the main things the regime wants to do is
improve its infrastructure to encourage more foreign visitors to the
country. So there's definitely a promotion of tourism through the building
of infrastructure in the country.

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

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: ASEAN STRUGGLES TO CHANGE ITS REPUTATION AS
WEAK, HELPLESS AND DIVIDED
22 April, 1999 by Michael Richardson 

SINGAPORE - Even as Southeast Asian countries prepare to complete their
formal political unity this month with the admission of Cambodia as a
member of the Association of South East Asian Nations, officials are
calling for new steps to restore the group's credibility. Weaknesses and
tensions have been exposed in ASEAN as a result of its enlargement and the
economic crisis in East Asia, officials and analysts say.

Some members of the group, notably the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia,
are raising human rights issues in other ASEAN countries that were
previously regarded as strictly the internal affairs of the nation concerned.

For example, the first Asian politician to criticize the six-year prison
term given last week to former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim of
Malaysia on four corruption charges was President Joseph Estrada of the
Philippines.

The economic crisis, and the popular demand for reform and a better deal
for the poor, brought new governments with a stronger commitment to
democracy to power in the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia.

Analysts said that the Philippines and Thailand -- Southeast Asia's two
most robust democracies -- want to spread democratic principles more widely
in ASEAN.

They said that Indonesia, under the weak but reformist government of
President B.J. Habibie, wants to highlight its democratic credentials to
get urgently needed international aid to help the country recover from its
worst recession in more than 30 years.

Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong of Singapore warned during a recent visit to
Brunei that ASEAN had lost much of its stature in the East Asian crisis.

''ASEAN as a group is being seen as helpless and, worse, disunited,'' he
said. ''In our summits in 1997 and 1998, we failed to convince the outside
world that ASEAN was tackling the crisis with determination and
decisiveness to regain its high growth.''

ASEAN countries vary greatly in size, systems of government and levels of
economic development. They include Brunei, Burma, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Burma, Laos and
Vietnam -- which shunned ASEAN during the Cold War -- joined in the past
few years and remain staunchly authoritarian.

The economic crisis and ASEAN's enlargement -- which will be complete when
Cambodia joins at a special ceremony in Hanoi on April 30 -- are both
contributing to the group's tarnished image and current weakness, analysts
said.

''Enlargement has increased ASEAN's political and economic diversity,''
wrote Koro Bessho, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official on loan to the
International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, in a report
published recently by the institute. ''Given the organization's principle
of consensus, this will make it hard to reach decisions.''

Thai and Philippine officials said the tradition of noninterference in
internal affairs had precluded any effective monitoring of financial and
economic danger signs in member states before the crisis struck.

As a result, there was no early warning and possible prevention of the
financial turmoil that spread from Thailand in July 1997 to other countries
in the region.

Dewi Fortuna Anwar, a foreign affairs advisor to President Habibie of
Indonesia, said last month that Southeast Asian countries had grown used to
sweeping problems under the rug.

Citing widespread criticism of human rights abuses in Burma, and
territorial disputes between association members that needed to be resolved
urgently, she said that the time had come for ASEAN to consider ''creating
a real and effective crisis-management center through which the countries
in the region may seek solutions to the problems'' confronting them.

''ASEAN countries should start discussing security in all its aspects in a
transparent, structured, and balanced manner,'' Ms. Anwar said. ''The
business-as-usual attitude, or ASEAN way of doing business, can no longer
be maintained.''

She added that recent strains in relations between Malaysia and Singapore,
and Indonesia and Singapore, underlined the need for such a forum, saying
that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe might serve as
a model.

Analysts said that some ASEAN countries were likely see this proposal as a
formula for further contention and would prefer instead to leave political
issues on the back burner while concentrating on hastening Southeast Asia's
economic integration.

Prime Minister Goh of Singapore said that the key to recovery was to regain
investor confidence in the region.

''We must adopt practical measures and persuade the developed countries to
be involved in helping ASEAN recover,'' he said. ''One idea is for ASEAN as
a whole to organize joint investment road shows to the United States,
Europe and Japan to sell the region.''

Mr. Goh said that this could be done late this year, after the Indonesian
elections that officials of neighboring countries hope will help restore
stability in ASEAN's largest member.

Mr. Goh said that the association should also encourage more business
missions to the region from the major developed nations and that it should
make sure that the right signals were sent to investors that ASEAN remained
committed to economic liberalization and welcomed foreign capital.

Rodolfo Severino, the association secretary-general, told a conference in
Canberra last week that by the beginning of 2000, the ASEAN Free Trade Area
would be substantially in place, creating an increasingly barrier-free
market of 500 million consumers to attract investors.

ASEAN finance ministers and central bankers are also meeting more
frequently to improve surveillance of economic and financial policies in
member countries, he said.

''What is little known is the fact that the ASEAN governments have begun to
inform one another about their internal policies and reforms, and have
exchanged views on them,'' Mr. Severino said. ''This sharing of information
is motivated not only by the heightened need for transparency; it is also a
mechanism for intensified consultation.''

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

RADIO FREE BURMA: WHY THE GENERALS ARE SO NASTY
24 April, 1999 from rfb@xxxxxxxxxxx 

Dear Friends,

Please read the Saya U Thaung's  articles  "Why the Generals are so nasty"
on Radio Free Burma web page. Just read or print in Burmese. News and
Information on RFB page can be freely distributed for the Burmese
Democratic movement.

Radio Free Burma
http://www.fast.net.au/rfb.

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