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The BurmaNet News: May 20, 1999



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

The BurmaNet News: May 20, 1999 
Issue #1275

HEADLINES:
==========
AFP: RANGOON CLAIMS MILITARY BUILD-UP HAS ENDED 
THE NATION: BURMA WILL ATTEND ASEAN-EU MEETING 
XINHUA: BURMA,RUSSIA AGREE ON CULTURAL COOPERATION 
REUTERS: CLINTON CONTINUES SANCTIONS ON MYANMAR 
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AFP: RANGOON CLAIMS MILITARY BUILD-UP HAS ENDED
20 May, 1999 by Stephen Coats

RANGOON

THE JUNTA SAYS ITS RECENT ARMS BUILD-UP WAS TO MAKE UP SERIOUS DEFICIENCIES.

Burma's military build-up over the past decade has threatened to change Asia's
strategic balance but junta officials here said Rangoon's arms spending has
fallen dramatically in the past two years.

Burma's arms purchases have slowed to a trickle and most military expenditure
now is focused on consolidating the regime's grip on former ethnic rebel
territory, said officials.

They also dismissed widely reported claims that China is developing spy posts
and naval bases in Burmese waters.

"We have been portrayed as a very dangerous race of people but before we
purchased all this equipment we were one of the most poorly equipped countries
in the world," said junta spokesman Lt-Col Hla Min.

He said Burma's military had been in desperate need of updating during the
early 1990s when conflicts with a range of ethnic insurgents were at their
peak
and drug lords ruled swathes of territory along the border with Thailand.

But peace deals with most of the rebels and the surrender in 1996 of drug lord
Khun Sa meant the military now had no need for new weapons.

"Khun Sa had an army of 20,000 men and weapons that we had only read about in
magazines," he said.

"All the weapons we bought were only for self-defence. We have no long-range
bombers, submarines or aircraft carriers."

Burma is estimated to have poured about 40% of central government expenditure
into the military throughout the 1990s, while much of its population is still
without basic education or health care.

Annual defence expenditure at least doubled from 1988 to 1996, say analysts,
giving Burma possibly the largest army in Southeast Asia in terms of enlisted
troops.

Most of the weapons and ammunition came overland from China, but other sources
included Pakistan, Yugoslavia, Singapore, North Korea, Russia and Israel, they
said.

The tatmadaw, as the military is known here, was updated with new jet
fighters,
helicopters, tanks and even battleships, giving the navy oceangoing vessels
for
the first time. Pakistan and China also reportedly supplied military advisers
and communications gear.

The build-up, coupled with Rangoon's renewed ties with China, which had for
years supported communist rebels in Burma, rang alarm bells across Southeast
Asia and particularly in India, China's South Asian rival.

One Rangoon-based foreign analyst of Burma's military said last week that
China
had built what was broadly assumed to be a listening post on Coco Island in
the
Bay of Bengal, and possibly others on nearby islands.

"There is a facility there (on Coco Island) with a very tall mast and a
strange
concrete structure. It's close to one of India's missile testing grounds
and it
seems to be some sort of surveillance facility," he said.

"India does not perceive any threat from Myanmar (Burma) but they do watch
with
some concern what China is up to. If the military relationship leads to an
increase in the Chinese presence in this country then India will be under a
lot
of pressure."

The analyst, who did not want to be named, said China's strategic
objectives in
Burma seemed to be firmly set on gaining access to the Indian Ocean for trade
rather than military- reasons.

Beijing and Rangoon are in the middle of negotiations over the construction of
a road linking China's undeveloped Yunnan province with the most northern
point
at which Burma's Irrawaddy River becomes navigable to deep-sea ships, he said.

Lt-Col Hla Min acknowledged that India and Southeast Asia were getting edgy
over China's designs, but assured them Burma would not become a "proxy" or
"client" state to Beijing.

"There is some concern in Asia that we are getting too close with China," he
said, adding that Burma would never let "foreign troops" on its soil.

"But if it is true (that China is building military facilities in southern
Burma), in today's world with all the spy satellites everyone should know what
is happening there."

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THE NATION: BURMA WILL ATTEND ASEAN-EU MEETING
20 May, 1999 

ASEAN nations and European Union countries will resume a meeting of senior
officials from May 24-27 in Bangkok, ending a lengthy diplomatic dispute over
the presence of Burma, Foreign Ministry spokesman Don Pramudwinai said
yesterday.

The upcoming Joint Consultative Committee meeting, initially scheduled for
November 1997, will resume next week with Burma, the heart of the controversy,
attending.

Burma, along with two other new members, Laos and Cambodia, have yet to sign
the Asean-European Commission Cooperation Agreement, but will attend the
meeting as "non-signatories to the Joint Cooperation Commission (JCC)" Don
said

Asean and the EU could not settle their disagreement on the presence of Burma
which became a member of Asean in 1997.

Asean insisted that Burma should be able to attend the meeting as it is an
Asean member while the EU had tried to limit its presence, resulting in the
meeting being postponed from November 1997 to January 1998 and to next week.

Don told reporters that to end the impasse, Asean and the EU agreed that each
side will be represented by their flags on the meeting table and members of
each grouping would sit in alphabetical order.

"Burma, Laos and Cambodia will attend the meeting as Asean members and they
would express their views in the meeting in general topics as they are not yet
signatories of the JCC Agreement, Don said.

The objectives of the meeting are to promote cooperation in all aspects
including economic, industrial, commercial, investment, sciences and
technology, environment and education.

Both groupings will discuss cooperation to promote "partnership for progress,"
Don said.

The meeting will start on May 25 with meetings of JCC's sub-committees on
trade, economics and industries, science and technology, and forestry. And the
Asean-EC JCC meeting will be held from May 26-27 to exchange views on
promoting
cooperation in drug suppression, the environment and culture. They will also
seek ways to help Asean combat the current economic crisis, Don said.

The EU has banned visas for Burmese leaders due to the dictatorship and
violation of basic human rights in the country.

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XINHUA: MYANMAR, RUSSIA AGREE ON CULTURAL COOPERATION
18 May, 1999 

YANGON (May 18) XINHUA - Myanmar and Russia reached here Monday an
agreement on
cultural cooperation and a protocol on consultations between the two
countries'
foreign ministries, official The New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported
Tuesday.

On behalf of the Myanmar government, Deputy Minister of National Planning and
Economic Development Brigadier-General Zaw Tun and Deputy Minister of Foreign
Affairs U Khin Maung Win respectively signed the two documents with Russian
Ambassador Gleb A Ivashentsov.

In February 1996, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander N Panov visited
Yangon and since then, bilateral relations between the two countries have been
strengthened through exchange of visits at the ministerial level.

Myanmar and the Russian Federation (which was then part of the Soviet Union)
established diplomatic relations in February 1948, one month after Myanmar
regained independence.

On the 50th anniversary of the ties in February 1998, the two countries'
foreign ministers voiced commitment to promotion and consolidation of
bilateral
ties.

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REUTERS: CLINTON CONTINUES SANCTIONS ON MYANMAR
19 May, 1999

WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) - U.S. President Bill Clinton has extended
sanctions on Myanmar for another year for what he called large-scale
repression
of the democratic opposition in the south-east Asian nation. In a letter to
Congress on Tuesday notifying members, Clinton said his decision continued a
"prohibition on new investment" in Myanmar, formerly Burma, by Americans.

The sanctions had been due to expire on Thursday. "As long as the
government of
Burma continues its policies of committing large-scale repression of the
democratic opposition in Burma, this situation continues to pose an unusual
and
extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United
States," Clinton said.

Myanmar opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi won a
general election in 1990 by a landslide but the military ignored the
result. In
February, the United States criticized Myanmar for serious human rights
violations including torture, arbitrary detentions and forced labor.

A State Department report said the ruling generals ran a highly authoritarian
military regime which was holding more than 1,000 political prisoners. The
United States has also identified Myanmar as a major source of illegal opium.
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