The BurmaNet News: June 4, 1999

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

The BurmaNet News: June 4, 1999
Issue #1286

HEADLINES:
==========
REUTERS: OPPOSITION MEMBER COMMITS SUICIDE IN JAIL 
FINANCIAL TIMES: RED CROSS PRISON CRITICISED  
AFP: JUNTA SAYS "VALIANT" EFFORTS SPURNED BY WEST 
THE NATION: DELAYS IN GAS DELIVERY FROM BURMA 
INTELLIGENCE NEWSLETTER: OIL EXPERT NAMED ENVOY 
BANGKOK PHUCHATKAN: EXPULSION OF BURMESE WORKERS 
BKK POST: CHECKPOINTS RE-OPENED 
THE NATION: RFD SETS RULES ON BURMESE TIMBER 
ANNOUNCEMENT: LIFE AND WORK OF MICHAEL ARIS 
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REUTERS: BURMESE GOVT SAYS OPPOSITION MEMBER COMMITS SUICIDE IN JAIL
3 June, 1999  

A member of Burma's opposition National League for Democracy has committed
suicide in prison, a Burmese government statement said yesterday.

Hla Khin, 43, hanged himself with his sarong in his cell at Rangoon's Insein
Prison on Monday, the statement said.

He had been jailed for violation of a 1975 law that dealt with subversion, it
said without giving details of his crime or jail term.

Hla Khin had been undergoing treatment for alcoholism which the statement said
had brought on neurological disorders.

"Usually, patients succumb to disorderly and dysfunctional patterns of
behaviour and one of the most fatal outcomes is suicide" a statement said.

"The government regrets this sad and unexpected event and has expressed its
sincere condolences to the family."

The NLD says more than 100 elected members of parliament in the abortive 1990
election are still being detained by the government.

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FINANCIAL TIMES: RED CROSS PRISON VISITS CRITICISED
3 June, 1999 by Ted Bardacke in Rangoon

The recent renewal of prison visits in Burma by the International Committee of
the Red Cross - widely hailed as a rare positive development in the
military-ruled country - has been denounced by opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi as a "tragedy".

Last month, after several years of painstaking negotiations with the military
junta, the ICRC was allowed to begin making private visits to detention
centres
around Burma, leading many analysts to speak of a possible breakthrough on
human rights conditions in the country.

But at the headquarters of her National League for Democracy, Ms Suu Kyi said
"hundreds" of political prisoners were transferred out of Rangoon's notorious
Insein prison before the ICRC's initial visit there on May 6. Many were
transferred to far-flung provincial jails and some prisoners remained
unaccounted for, she said.

"This created tremendous hardship," Ms Suu Kyi said, explaining that as the
food and medical care received by Burmese political prisoners was inadequate,
prisoners depended on visits from family members for basic needs.

"This kind of transfer is sometimes a matter of life or death for our party
members," she said.

Ms Suu Kyi's denunciation of the ICRC's work methods comes during a debate
about if and how humanitarian aid should be administered to the desperately
poor military dictatorship.

Many critics argue that even the most basic aid can strengthen a regime that
spends at least 40 per cent of its national budget on the military and just a
pittance on social welfare. Others see aid as a way to engage the junta and
hope to use the promise of aid to entice the junta into loosening political
control and halting blatant human rights abuses.

Ms Suu Kyi does not oppose humanitarian assistance, but she does demand that
humanitarian groups consult the NLD on their action plans. United Nations
agencies working in Burma routinely undertake informal discussions with NLD
leaders, discussions that can irritate the government.

"If the ICRC had consulted us earlier we could have pointed out the fact that
the government had started to transfer our prisoners and they should demand
that this stop as a condition for inspecting these prisons," she said.

An ICRC official in Geneva admitted that staff in Rangoon did not hear about
the transfer allegations until after the May 6 visit took place. But the
official said the ICRC had not consulted Ms Suu Kyi in order to build
confidence with the military authorities - and that even if it had received
prior information about the transfers, mentioning them before visits began
could have scuttled the entire prison visits agreement.

"To reach our objectives, including pointing out to authorities that family
visits are important both materially and psychologically, we need to work
inside the prisons. This is a process that can't produce results in a few
weeks
but over the medium and long term," the ICRC official said.

The official added that, after hearing about the transfer allegations, ICRC
staff mentioned them to the authorities and asked to visit the prisoners in
the
areas they had been transferred to, a discussion that itself carried the risk
of alienating the regime.

"It was already a big deal that we spoke to them about this," the official
said.

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AFP: MYANMAR JUNTA SAYS "VALIANT" EFFORTS SPURNED BY WEST
3 June, 1999 

TOKYO, June 3 (AFP) - Myanmar's ruling military junta Thursday attacked
Western
countries for spurning its "valiant" efforts at economic recovery for their
own
political agendas.

The country had to rely on itself to gain economic and investment growth,
visiting Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung told a conference in Tokyo on the
future of Asia.

"This is because a few powerful countries for their domestic political agenda
denied Myanmar not only ODA (official development assistance) but also access
to resources of the international financial organizations," he said.

"This could be likened to the situation where someone who had the
misfortune to
fall into a deep ravine, and who because of his valiant efforts was able to
climb back to the level ground was not given a helping hand, but even pushed
back into the abyss."

Japan suspended all but a small amount of humanitarian aid to the military-run
state in the late 1980s but agreed in February to help finance reconstruction
of the airport in Yangon, Myanmar's capital.

The United States has imposed broad sanctions since the junta crushed a
pro-democracy movement and took power in 1988. In 1997, Washington banned new
investment in the country.

The Myanmar foreign minister said Southeast Asia's currency crisis was
responsible for a 53-percent drop in foreign direct investment commitments in
the fiscal year to March 1998.

Economic growth in the fiscal year to March this year was 5.6 percent,
compared
to a target of 6.6 percent, he said, largely because of the Asian financial
crisis.

Win Aung said the junta was forced to take power in September 1988 because of
civil unrest which led to "chaos and anarchy."

The military was now trying to build a solid foundation for democracy, he
said.
"We are trying to settle the situation."

The UN Human Rights Commission in April condemned Myanmar for sweeping human
rights violations.

A resolution contained a long list of abuses ranging from summary executions,
torture, and abuse of women to systematic programmes of forced relocation and
widespread use of forced labour.

At a later meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura, the Myanmar
minister said "the current military government is not thinking about
staying in
power," according to a ministry official.

Komura, however, asked Win Aung to show evidence of the move towards
democracy.

"The role of the current military government is to build the foundation for
democratic government," the Myanmar minister said, adding the government did
not consider opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi an enemy.

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THE NATION: DELAYS IN GAS DELIVERY FROM BURMA BENEFIT THAI CONSUMERS 
30 May, 1999 

DELAYS in the delivery of natural gas from Burma have unexpectedly benefitted
Thai electricity consumers, due to the higher price of the Burmese gas
compared
with domestic sources, Piyasvasti Amranand, secretary-general of the National
Energy Policy Office (Nepo), says.

According to Piyasvasti, the pricing formula of the Burmese Yadana gas field
fixed the gas price at US$3 per million British Thermal Units (BTUs) for the
first 15-month period of the contract, due to end in October, before being
pegged in line with fuel oil prices during the remainder of the 25-year
contractual period.

Due to the economic crisis, oil prices have tumbled and this has been
translated into a reduction in the price of gas produced from domestic
sources.
This is now about $2 per million BTUs.

This lower gas price was a major factor in the reduction of electricity
tariffs
announced on March 30 as part of the government's economic stimulus measures.

"In a way, we're lucky (with the delay in utilising the Burmese gas)," said
the
Nepo chief.

The physical delivery of Yadana gas has been held up by delays in the
construction of the Ratchaburi power plant, which will be the only consumer of
the gas until the Yadana-Ratchaburi gas pipeline is connected to the national
gas transmission grid.

The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) has blamed its
contractor-- Mitsui & Co--for the power plant's construction delay. Mitsui
in turn has blamed its equipment supplier--General Electric--for the delay.

Koomchoak Biyaem, Egat's assistant governor for policy and planning, said that
following several postponements, the first two gas turbine units of the
Ratchaburi plant were now scheduled to commence production in June, with a
total capacity of 460 megawatts, followed by a further 460 MW coming on stream
in October.

Despite the current benefits from the delay in the delivery of the Yadana gas,
industry sources warned that Thai consumers in the end could not avoid the
impact of the higher-priced Burmese gas, since the gas supply contract is on a
"take-or-pay" basis. This means that the Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT)
is obliged to pay for the gas at the agreed price, regardless of when
deliveries start.

However, considering Egat's electricity oversupply problem and the absence
of a
supply contract between the agency and PTT, the delay might benefit Egat while
hitting the PTT.

Nevertheless, the PTT, which is responsible for the supply of the Burmese gas
to the Ratchaburi plant, is negotiating with the Yadana gas developers and the
Burmese government for a review of the gas purchase contract in the aftermath
of the delay in the construction of the plant.

Under the Yadana gas contract, the PTT has agreed to buy 525 million cubic
feet
per day of gas from the project, which is developed by a consortium comprising
Unocal Corp of the United States, Total of France and PTT Exploration &
Production Plc.

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

INTELLIGENCE NEWSLETTER: OIL EXPERT NAMED ENVOY TO BURMA
27 May, 1999 

The French foreign ministry is about to name an oil specialist, Bernard
Amaudric du Chaffaut, as France's next ambassador to Burma in the hope of
facing down constant criticism over the dealings of the Total oil group in
Burma and the Paris government's accords with the Burmese generals accused of
trafficking in drugs.

A career diplomat, du Chaffaut held the post of international director for Elf
Acquitaine between 1986 and 1993 before returning to the Quai d'Orsay as
deputy
head of African and Malagasy affairs.   His appointment will coincide next
month with the publication of a report on Total's operations in Burma that was
drawn up by legislators sitting on the French parliament's foreign affairs
committee.

The report claims Total has worked hand in glove with the Burmese army. The
committee's spokesperson, Marie-Helene Aubert of the Green party, declared
that
"the army forced laborers to toil and moved inhabitants during initial
work" on
building a gas pipeline for Total. She also claims that testimony from
different witnesses lent credence to reports that the oil company was helping
to finance Burmese units assigned to stamping out dissent. She concludes:
"Given the political context, the company should have postponed its project."

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BANGKOK PHUCHATKAN: EXPULSION OF BURMESE WORKERS VIEWED 
26 May, 1999 

[Description of Source: Phuchatkan--business-oriented daily newspaper.  The
following is a translation.] 

Provincial Information Center--The suppression of illegal Burmese workers in
Mae Sot District last week by immigration police has adversely affected the
district's export-oriented industries. Foreign customers, doubtful of the
government's inconsistent policy, are reluctant to place purchase orders for
the third quarter of this year. The suppression drive has cost over 1 billion
baht in terms of damage to the district's industrial exports, the total annual
value of which is about 4 or 5 billion baht.

Six factories in Mae Sot District of Tak Province were raided by local
immigration officials in cooperation with border patrol police on 21 May. The
six factories, which were selected at random, were Kangliang Thai Company
Limited, Thai Tong Knitting Company Limited, S.C.T. Garment Company Limited,
Delivery Garment Limited Partnership, Maraeng Company Limited, and Champion
Knitting Company Limited. A total of 4,292 illegal Burmese workers were
rounded
up. Four persons of Thai nationality were also arrested on charges of
assisting
and providing shelters for the illegal foreign workers. The district's export
industries were visibly affected by the operation.

Similar suppression campaigns against illegal foreign workers were also
carried
out at other factories in border districts throughout the country, including
those industrial plants and rice mills which have been permitted to hire
foreign workers until 4 August.

Mr. Patithan Tangphati, deputy chairman of the Provincial Industrial Council,
said in this regard that it is obvious that various industrial factories,
which
have employed the illegal foreign workers, are now reluctant to accept
purchase
orders from customers for the 3d and 4th quarters of this year. Nevertheless,
they have accepted orders for the 1st and 2d quarters and produced goods to
serve the orders.

As for foreign customers, upon learning about the suppression, they have felt
uncertain whether or not the factories will be able to produce goods for them.
They have thus delayed placing their orders until they are confident that the
factories are able to resume their production or the government's policy in
this connection is clearer.

The suppression campaign in Mae Sot District has undoubtedly brought about
adverse impacts on almost all the export industrial factories there, because
those factories have mainly relied on foreign labor. In view of this, if the
government insists on driving back both registered foreign workers and the
illegal foreign workers after the 4 August deadline, the production of these
factories will immediately come to a halt.

Exporting Business of Tak Province Has Suffered Loss of Billions of Baht In
Tak
Province alone, the total industrial export value in 1998 was more than 4
billion baht. It is expected that this year the export value will increase to
over 5 billion baht. In other words, the factories in this province must be
able to produce and export goods worth over 1 billion baht every three months.
It is certain that there will be no purchase orders coming in for the third
quarter following the factory raids.

A source at the Industrial Office of Tak Province has also admitted that the
operation has seriously affected the local industrial production. This is
because 80 to 90 percent of the production process relied on the foreign
workers. It is estimated that there are some 100,000 to 200,000 foreign
workers
in the agricultural, industrial, and commercial sectors in the province.

He said: "The expulsion of the foreign workers could not be totally
successful.
In fact, all parties concerned have admitted that those foreign workers who
are
pushed back across the river in the morning will cross the border back to
Thailand again in the afternoon of the same day. So, the best way to deal with
this issue is to seek appropriate ways and means for all parties concerned to
control the foreign workers."

The source noted that although the government has been trying to expel illegal
foreign workers out of the country, business entrepreneurs still have all
kinds
of tricks to avoid hiring Thai workers to save their money. This is because
the
legal daily minimum wage of a Thai worker in Chiang Mai Province is 140 baht
while a foreign worker takes only 80-100 baht.

"This means that all the job vacancies are filled by the foreign workers."
according to job replacement agencies in the northern provinces.

The discrepancy between the actual need of the labor force and the number of
job vacancies registered with authorities can clearly show the labor situation
in the four northern border provinces. For example, in Chiang Rai Province,
over 1,000 employers earlier informed the provincial job replacement office
that they needed altogether not less than 3,000 workers. However, only some
700
job vacancies are placed for advertisement. In Mae Sai, a border district of
Chiang Rai Province, more than 300 Burmese workers travel back and forth
through the border checkpoint everyday.

In Tak Province, less than 60 employers reported their labor needs to the
provincial officials and sought permission to hire only 3,000 foreign workers.
In fact, the ready-made garment industry alone needs as many as 15,000
workers.
In general, all industries (including the leather and electronics industries
which are moving their production bases to the five border districts of Tak
Province) really need some 25,000 foreign workers.

In Kamphaeng Phet Province, some 50 employers reported to provincial
authorities that each of their factories needs only 30-100 workers. In
reality,
no less than 4,000 foreign workers are working in the province.

In Chiang Mai Province, more than 200 employers, including construction
companies, reported to officials that they need some 23,000 foreign workers.
But after the imposition of the ban on hiring foreign workers in the
construction and animal husbandry businesses, the need for foreign workers
dropped to only some 10,000.

A source at Chiang Mai provincial job replacement office noted that the
construction sector in the province has been relying on the foreign work force
and needs more than 10,000 workers. After the ban was issued, illegal foreign
workers are still hired by the sector since it is rather difficult to recruit
Thai workers to fill the vacancies.

Several efforts have been made to push illegal workers out of the country but
to no avail. Illegal foreign workers are still being hired in nearly all
sectors, and their presence is the breeding ground for many other illicit
business activities.

Expulsion of Foreign Workers Is Necessary

Commenting on the 4 August deadline set by the government for the expulsion of
foreign workers, Nakhon Sinlapa-acha, deputy director general of the Job
Replacement Department under the Labor and Social Welfare Ministry, said the
government has a clear policy to expel the foreign workers out of the country.
Nevertheless, he said, two opinions concerning foreign workers should be taken
into consideration. First, foreign workers are needed for the jobs which are
normally rejected by Thai workers. Second, the presence of foreign workers has
caused both social and economic, as well as national security, problems.
Besides, foreign workers have taken away jobs from Thai nationals. In
addition,
they have brought to Thailand various contagious diseases.

He continued: Thai nationals will be geared up to fill the vacancies left
behind by foreign workers after they are all driven out of the country. The
government is well aware that certain jobs such as working on fishing trawlers
are not wanted by Thai workers. Nevertheless, the government will give first
priority to Thai nationals. However, if they turn down certain types of jobs,
it will find other ways to tackle the problem with approval from the cabinet.

The government is now concerned about the fact that Thai workers do not want
the jobs that are now mostly occupied by foreign workers. A budget has been
set
aside to implant a working discipline among Thai workers, so that they will
not
be selective and are willing to take any jobs.

Nakhon continued: Right now, no one can guarantee that there will be enough
Thai workers to replace all the Burmese workers after their expulsion.
Moreover, no one can ensure that all foreign workers can be driven out of
Thailand. It is afraid that Burmese workers will secretly return to work in
Thailand again as in the past. According to the statistics released by various
provincial industrial councils and chambers of commerce, in 1997 there were
more than 900,000 foreign workers. The police immigration office also reported
that during the period between 1997 and 1999, some 300,000 foreign workers
were
pushed back to their countries. There are now some 600,000 Burmese workers
remaining in Thailand while as many as 1.1 million Thai nationals are
unemployed. In view of this, authorities concerned must urgently take
action to
make Thai workers realize this fact and persuade them to work in
replacement of
the foreign workers.

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BANGKOK POST: CHECKPOINT RE-OPENED
3 June, 1999 

TAK
Thai authorities re-opened a temporary border checkpoint in Phop Phra district
yesterday after pro-Rangoon Karen forces agreed to compensate for damage
caused, to local Thai villagers by their recent crossborder shelling.

The checkpoint at Ban Valey, closed in mid-April, was re-opened yesterday by
Col Chayuti Boonparn, commander of the Fourth Infantry Regiment Task Force.

Border officials ordered the closure of the checkpoint, which provided access
to Burma's Tisalae village, after the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army fired
heavy artillery rounds into Thai territory. The shelling caused some 30,000
baht worth of damage to properties of local Thai villagers, a source said.

The closure had adversely affected cross-border trading between the two
countries, the source said, adding the trade volume at this checkpoint
amounted
to about one million baht daily.

According to the source, the checkpoint is a major furniture export market for
the DKBA.

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THE NATION: RFD SETS RULES ON BURMESE TIMBER
3 June, 1999 

In a new twist to the dispute over Burmese timber imports, the Royal Forestry
Department (RFD) has revealed the conditions under which it will allow legal
timber imports from its neighbour. The timber must be inspected and cleared as
genuine imported material and it must not be transported through the Salween
forest area.

The tough measures imply that Thailand will not easily rubber stamp timber
imports in future across the border.

RFD's director general Plodprasop Suraswadi insisted yesterday that the Thai
authorities have not formally approved the request of four Thai logging
companies to imports Burmese teak and other valuable woods.

The approval for the 120,000 cubic metres of high-priced timber awaits formal
documentation from Thai authorities. This approval, in turn, is dependent
on an
official response about details of the timber from the Burmese government.

Sources revealed that the Burmese deputy forestry minister is scheduled to
visit Thailand in the middle of this month in order to meet officials from the
RFD and Agriculture Ministry. However, the visit has yet to be confirmed by
the
RFD.

Plodprasop admitted that the RFD had several meetings with the importing
companies to discuss the issue.

He said he was very surprised when he first saw the huge amount of timber
requested from Burma.

"I did not believe that such amounts existed," he said.

"I told them that we needed proof that the timber existed as they claimed. And
the loads must not pass through the Salween forest area. At first, four of
them
said the conditions were unacceptable (to practise)," Plodprasop said.

"The companies did not admit this to the RFD officially, so the authority
could
not act."

Three key officials including Agriculture Minister Pongpol Adireksarn, RFD's
Plodprasop, and Chat Thai Party deputy leader and Agriculture Ministry adviser
Banharn Silapa-archa, had blamed the media for bringing the issue to public
attention.

Pongpol said he believed the incident was raised by some politicians to
discredit their rivals.

Banharn became angry when he was questioned about the case.

"I have repeated 10 times that the border re-opening is impossible now. Why
does the media repeat this question?" he said.

However, both the Chat Thai and Democrat parties were repeatedly asked by the
media if they benefitted from the Salween logging business.

The Thai-language media has reported bribery rumours in connection with the
timber imports and the border reopening.

Sawasdi Duangjai-ek, a managing director of the B&F Goodrich Company which is
one of the four timber importers involved, claimed that other authorities had
agreed to the importation with the exception of the Agriculture Ministry's
RFD.

Responding to the issue of the political implications of the case, Plodprasop
denied that any pressure was placed on him.

Meanwhile, the House Committee on the Environment chief Charoen Chankomol had
opposed the border reopening in the area. He said it will cause more
deforestation in the Salween forest.

"The border pass suggestion is just a 'trick' to plug the gap for illegal
logging in the Salween forest. As far as we know, the real amount of timber
along the border is only 600 cubic metres. This volume is not worth building a
new road to transport it," he said.

"I received the report from the area stating that Thai trees are cut and wait
at the Burmese side of the Salween River. Then they are stamped as imported
from Burma," he said.

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ANNOUNCEMENT: A CELEBRATION OF THE LIFE AND WORK OF MICHAEL VAILLANCOURT ARIS
3 June, 1999 from: <burmamtk@xxxxxxxxxxx> 

A celebration of the life and work of Michael Vaillancourt Aris will be held
at:

The Sheldonian Theatre
Broad Street, Oxford
at 8 pm on Tuesday 28 September 1999

Those wishing to attend are invited to apply for tickets to:

Anna McMahon
c/o  The Development Office
St. Antony's College
Oxford University
Oxford OX2 6JF

Admission will be by ticket only. Please enclose a self-addressed envelope.
Each applicant may apply for up to three tickets for named individuals.
Tickets
will be mailed on 1st September
****************************************************************