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The BurmaNet News: August 17, 1999



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

The BurmaNet News: August 17, 1999
Issue #1338

Noted in Passing: "The literary world in Burma has been annihilated" -
Maung Tha Ya (see THE IRRAWADDY: LITERARY "GYPSY" LEAVES BURMA) 

HEADLINES:
==========
DVB: GOVERNMENT DIRECTIVE - DESTROYING DEMOCRACY PARTY 
XINHUA: MYANMAR HOPES NLD TO DISSOLVE PARLIAMENT 
AWSJ: BURMA'S CHANCE FOR CHANGE 
THE IRRAWADDY: LITERARY "GYPSY" LEAVES BURMA 
THE IRRAWADDY: AIDS DENIAL 
REUTERS: MYANMAR SAYS FIGHTERS KILL PEACE MEDIATORS 
*****************************************************

DEMOCRATIC VOICE OF BURMA: GOVERNMENT REPORTEDLY ISSUES DIRECTIVE ON
DESTROYING DEMOCRACY PARTY 
11 August, 1999 by Aung Naing Oo

[Original in Burmese]

The SPDC [State Peace and Development Council] military government has
issued a directive to all armed forces in Burma to destroy the National
League for Democracy [NLD] party. This directive was issued soon after SPDC
Secretary-1 Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt's allegation that the NLD is trying to
destroy the nation appeared in 'Myanmar Alin' newspaper on 21st July. Since
the NLD party has been branded as an enemy, all armed forces must cooperate
in matters relating to the destruction of the NLD. The directive also noted
that severe action will be taken against those who do not follow the
directive. 

An NLD member from Kachin State who escaped to China said that in
accordance with the directive, the armed forces in various states and
divisions are blatantly making plans to destroy the NLD. He remarked that
the official NLD membership in Kachin State has dwindled from over 4,000 to
about 30 members now. He added that at the moment over 50 NLD members have
been arrested in Kachin State and more than 200 members have died. Over
2,000 members have resigned due to instigation and pressure from Military
Intelligence, the escaped NLD member said. In recent months, he noted,
there have been mass resignations of NLD members and those remaining loyal
to the NLD have been intimidated, arrested or jailed. 

News has also emerged that anti-government armed groups and revolutionary
forces at the border are planning an offensive against the military junta.
Sources from Shan State said ordinary policemen and their dependents are
being given military training to resist any offensive by the revolutionary
forces for at least 12 hours. Meanwhile, the SPDC military government is
said to be devising ways to communicate and send reinforcements rapidly
within that 12 hours. 

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

XINHUA: MYANMAR HOPES NLD TO DISSOLVE THE INTERIM PARLIAMENT
14 August, 1999 

YANGON XINHUA - The government hopes that the National League for Democracy
(NLD) will start to take a positive and meaningful step by firstly
dissolving the interim parliament which the party had formed on September
16, 1998, according to a Myanmar Information Sheet Friday afternoon. 

The official statement said that this positive step, if taken by the NLD,
can start to reactivate the political wheel, which has been jammed, into
normally rotating once again. 

The government of Myanmar is pleased to learn that the NLD has decided to
show some interest in helping improve living conditions in Myanmar, it
stated, saying that the government welcomes serious and meaningful ways and
contributions from all its citizens and from the international community as
well. 

The government has continuously encouraged the NLD to become a constructive
force in helping Myanmar along the path to a strong and stable democracy,
it stressed. 

The government also encourages the NLD to reconsider the interest of the
nation and become a responsible member of the Myanmar community by acting
realistically and responsibly in laying the foundation for a democratic
system that is suitable to Myanmar's requirements, culture and national
security, and that will last for many years, it added. 

In the 1990 general election, sponsored by the present Myanmar government
and participated by 93 political parties, the NLD won 396 out of the 485
parliamentary seats.  

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

ASIAN WALL STREET JOURNAL: BURMA'S CHANCE FOR CHANGE 
12 August, 1999 by Maureen Aung-Thwin 

As Burma marked the 11th anniversary of the Aug. 8, 1988 anti-government
uprising this week, the country's democracy movement was busy promoting
peaceful change rather than revolution. Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi
appealed to the military junta that runs Burma to work together with her
National League for Democracy to help improve living conditions in her
native land. The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize Winner even went so far as to use
the word "our" defense forces when referring to the military.

That Ms. Suu Kyi would use such conciliatory language on the protest
anniversary is yet another sign of the NLD's willingness to find common
ground with the military junta. Sadly, Burma's generals appear less willing
than ever to negotiate with Ms. Suu Kyi and the other lawfully elected
representatives of the Burmese people. That's why the NLD's offers to
engage the military must have outside support if peaceful change is to
succeed.

Burma, also known as Myanmar, has been ruled by the military since 1962.
The NLD, led by Ms. Suu Kyi, won a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but
was never allowed to take power. Since that time, Burma's military
government has stamped out democratic movements by relocating and
imprisoning thousands of people. Ms. Suu Kyi herself was only freed from
six years of house arrest in 1995.

In June, in an attempt to break a decade of political deadlock, the NLD
offered to open a lower-level dialogue with the military without Ms. Suu
Kyi. This request was met with a demand by the generals that the NLD
dissolve an interim committee representing the 1990 parliament. That
demand, however, is considered a nonstarter since the NLD's legitimacy
derives from its overwhelming victory in the democratic elections.

As a result, Burma's immediate future looks bleak. The generals remain
entrenched, and they seem impervious to the world's collective disapproval.
The economy is in a shambles, investors have fled and the overbuilt hotels
for "Visit Myanmar Year" sit empty. It's estimated that, 1.8 million
Burmese are infected by the HIV-AIDS virus. Universities are mostly closed,
and the lack of educational opportunities affect even the children of
Burma's elite.

There is some reason for optimism in the longer term, however. Within
Southeast Asia, there is increasing public support for the Burmese
democracy movement. Among the region's emerging democracies, civil society
is flourishing. Ruling and opposition democrats in countries neighboring
Burma are becoming more progressive and daring as they fight for more
personal freedoms of their own. And as they do so they are also growing
more vocal in their condemnation of Burma's generals. Transition figures
like former Philippines President Cory Aquino and new leaders like the
winner of the Indonesian elections Megawati Sukarnoputri keep in
sympathetic touch with the Burmese democrats. Pariah status hurts the
generals, both at home and abroad. Burma's defense forces were once admired
and loved by the ordinary folk, now they are despised. 

Abroad enemies shun the Burma's military leaders and friends are
embarrassed to be seen with them. The regime occasionally threatens to once
again "isolate itself" but this is an empty threat. Burma's desperate
poverty and the progress of its neighbors make it impossible to be a hermit
nation in today's global economy. Pressure for change builds as Burma's
neighbors in the region become more democratic as well as more prosperous.
The generals once held up Suharto's Indonesia as a role model, and it may
yet prove to be -- though not in the way they expected.

Within Burma there is also strong support for democratic change. Many
Burmese somehow find the strength -and creativity- to show resistance
against authoritarian rule in subtle, non-violent ways. Although members of
the NLD have been harassed and jailed by the hundreds over recent months,
its offices closed and its members intimidated, the party is still
functioning. In Burma's heavily censored society, writers, artists and
intellectuals manage to register their dissatisfaction carefully within the
tight parameters set by "scrutiny boards" and other censors.

How then can people outside Burma support the democracy movement and
encourage the military regime to change? The international community should
pressure Burma's generals to move toward democracy and enter into
negotiations with Ms. Suu. Kyi and the NLD. They can do this by increasing
diplomatic and economic pressure on a regime that is desperate for both
respect and money. But most importantly they should impress on the junta
one simple fact: You cannot ignore the will of the people indefinitely.

Sadly, some politicians are no longer doing so. A decade ago there was
unquestioned support in the West for the Burmese people, whose democratic
mandate for the National League for Democracy was overturned by force.
Today, however, there is increasing talk of doing whatever it takes to
remove Burma as an international policy issue, even if it means publicly
appeasing the junta and lowering standards of justice.

Some Western leaders are terribly impatient to see movement on the Burma
front, almost at any price. In this rush to see results, it is
disconcerting to hear some well-intentioned Western politicians starting to
sound like the state-run Burmese media. U.S. Congressman Tony Hall of Ohio,
for instance, is perplexed with what to do about Burma, which he visited
earlier this year for a few days. He met with representatives of both the
junta and Ms. Suu. Kyi, but clearly blames Ms. Suu Kyi for being the more
obstinate player. At a breakfast briefing on his return, referring to her
insistence for aid to her country be transparent and given in consultation
with the democratic forces as well as the government he remarked that "Aung
San Suu Kyi may be a Nobel Laureate but she's not God." Another prominent
American human rights advocate recently complained that we "should not be
held hostage to the demands of one Burmese politician." 

This is the wrong time for such a defeatist attitude. In many ways Burma
has hit bottom and is ready to change. To those who despair of changing the
regime's mind, I would remind them that the military junta is not a
monolithic group. Many have forgotten that it was General Ne Win, the same
man who usurped Burmese democracy in 1962 in a bloodless coup, who in the
fall of 1987 admitted that his one party-based "Burmese Way to Socialism"
had failed and suggested his countrymen consider multi-party democracy. As
everyone now knows, the Burmese went for the idea in a big way,
demonstrating in the streets and the voting booths their desire for a new
government. Relatively free and fair elections were successfully conducted,
but due to resistance within the regime power was never shifted or even
shared.

Is Burma ready to try again? I believe it may be. The opposition in Burma,
and indeed some people within the military government, want to promote
change in a peaceful manner, instead of seeing a repeat of the 1988
bloodshed. But only if Burma's friends in the world keep up the pressure on
Rangoon to change can we be hopeful of such an outcome soon.

MS. AUNG-THWIN IS DIRECTOR OF THE BURMA PROJECT, PART OF THE SOROS
FOUNDATIONS NETWORK. 

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

THE IRRAWADDY: LITERARY "GYPSY" LEAVES BURMA 
July, 1999 

THE IRRAWADDY RECENTLY SPOKE TO CELEBRATED AUTHOR MAUNG THA YA, WHO
RECENTLY LEFT BURMA AFTER MORE THAN A DECADE OF FEARS THAT WRITING ANYTHING
NEW WOULD BE "LIKE GIVING THE GOVERNMENT A NOOSE" TO HANG HIM. NOTED FOR
HIS ITINERANT LIFESTYLE AS WELL AS HIS NATURALISTIC LITERARY STYLE, HE TOLD
US ABOUT HIS PAST AND HIS PLANS FOR THE FUTURE.

Sitting in a sparsely furnished room in a house that serves as the office
of a Burmese dissident group in Thailand, Maung Tha Ya exudes the easy
assurance of a man who knows he belongs. Wherever there are Burmese, he can
consider himself at home. As a well-known author in a country that remains
highly literate despite declining educational standards, Maung Tha Ya has
the status of a movie star -- a man whose face is known to anyone who has
ever picked up a popular magazine in Burma. Even in the Thai border town of
Mae Sot, he said, young Burmese recognized him instantly. 

But Maung Tha Ya's fame also carries a certain measure of notoriety. Most
Burmese know him as the "Gypsy Writer" who seldom stays in one place for
long. Most of his stories and novels were written in hotels in various
parts of the country. "I need privacy," he explained. He speaks of the
hospitality he routinely received from admirers during his travels, giving
no hint that he might on occasion have overstayed his welcome.

At 69, Maung Tha Ya has embarked on a new journey that he hopes will take
him back to the place from which he was effectively exiled more than a
decade ago -- the world of literature. 

"The literary world in Burma has been annihilated," he says, explaining why
he decided to leave his native soil for the first time in his life.

A confident speaker of English, he says he wants to go to the United
States. He said that he had received invitations to visit Japan in the
past, but was denied permission to leave Burma. With works translated into
a number of languages, including English, Japanese and Chinese, he knows
that his literary reputation precedes him, and will possibly pave the way
for a new life in a country that recognizes the value of creative freedom.

Since the military coup that put Burma's current regime in power in 1988,
Maung Tha Ya has shared the fate of all Burmese writers whose work has been
severely censored or banned outright for offending the political
sensibilities of the powers that be. In the early 1990s he attempted to
create a space for new talent by publishing his own magazine, Tha Ya, and
offering a literary prize of the same name. But this venture was soon shut
down by the military government, which refused to renew his publishing
license. Despite the ubiquity of his image in Burma, he has not dared to
write or publish any of his own work for over a decade. But he said he had
three articles with him that he carried out of the country when he fled at
the beginning of July.

Maung Tha Ya's pre-literary career as a political activist has landed him
in trouble before. After serving a two-year prison sentence from 1953-55,
he started writing, grabbing attention at once with his "flowery" literary
style. This was later superseded by a more realistic style that has since
become his trademark. 

In 1970 (when writers were relatively free from censorship under the
dictatorship of General Ne Win) he won the National Literary Award for his
novel, Standing on the Road, Sobbing, a title taken from a popular nursery
rhyme. Writing with an intimate understanding of contemporary life in
Burma, based on his investigations into the lives of ordinary people, his
treatment of his subjects from taxi drivers and prostitutes to political
prisoners and mental patients resonates with allusive imagery drawn from
Burmese literary tradition. 

Now forced into exile from the land that has long supported him and his
creative vision, Maung Tha Ya may need more than his reputation to sustain
him in his remaining years. But as a perpetual traveler and keen observer
of humanity, he already possesses the detached eye that it will take to
survive in an unfamiliar world. 

Departing from a worldview deeply colored by his familiarity with Burmese
life and literature, his understanding of his country's current political
situation betrays a distinctly Hegelian Weltanschauung. Discussing the
standoff between Burmese pro-democracy forces and the country's military
regime, he speaks in terms of a conflict between thesis and antithesis that
must eventually be resolved through some synthesis of opposing views. 

His unspoken hope, perhaps, is that he will live to see it.

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

THE IRRAWADDY: AIDS DENIAL 
July, 1999 by Aung Zaw

THE SPDC HAS FINALLY ACKNOWLEDGED THE AIDS EPIDEMIC IN BURMA. BUT EVEN NOW,
THE JUNTA SPENDS MORE OF THE COUNTRY'S DWINDLING RESOURCES ON ATTACKING
DEMOCRATS THAN IT DOES ON TACKLING THE DISEASE, AUNG ZAW WRITES.

Recently, the military government of Burma acknowledged that the country is
plagued with AIDS and called for urgent efforts to fight the spread of the
disease.

Burma's Health Minister Major General Ket Sein said, "Official statistics
show AIDS has now spread to all states and divisions. Therefore, it is
required to step up the momentum in carrying out preventive and control
measures."

Ket Sein's statement is the first official admission of an AIDS crisis in
Burma, despite repeated warnings by the United Nations and international
health organizations that the spread of AIDS in Burma could reach
"Africa-like proportions."

"They finally admitted it," sighed a Burmese physician living in exile,
adding that it is too late for the thousands who may already have died from
this disease without knowing what killed them. 

A Burmese health worker based in Rangoon said, "We have to see how
sincerely and seriously they [military leaders] are going to tackle the
issue." He said medical professionals working in the area cautiously
welcomed Ket Sein's official statement.

In the past, Burmese authorities rarely disclosed details of the number of
AIDS patients in the country. When foreign critics accused them of ignoring
the problem, they lashed back with angry denials.

The health minister said blood testing during September 1998 indicated that
0.7 percent of blood donors in Rangoon and 0.97 percent in the city of
Mandalay were found to be HIV positive.

According to available official figures, there were 17,846 HIV cases and
2,337 AIDS cases in Burma by the end of 1997. The figures for 1998 have not
been published yet. 

However, World Health Organization experts estimate that the actual number
of the HIV carriers and AIDS patients is much higher. In November of last
year, pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi warned that HIV infections in
Burma could reach epidemic proportions and become a threat to social and
economic stability. She said the government is unprepared to fight the
disease that is spreading at an alarming rate. 

"Unless we act urgently, HIV infection could reach epidemic proportions in
our country and become a major threat to our social stability and economic
potential," she said. 

Such warnings had been made many times before, but the insular generals
paid little attention.

International organizations and Burmese doctors say that the government is
ignoring the disease, which has become a particularly deadly force in
Southeast Asia. 

Peter Piot, executive director of the United Nations' AIDS program said
that the world body was focusing on Burma as one of the danger zones in the
region.

About 1.2 million new infections were recorded in the region in 1998 alone,
of which 700,000 were people aged under 25, according to the UN.

Experts say the regional economic crisis is likely to deepen the HIV crisis
as education and health spending is cut and more women turn to prostitution
to support themselves.

"The big challenge is recognition of the problem by the government as there
is no way you can tackle the problem if you don't fully recognize it," Piot
added.

He said Burma had an estimated 440,000 people with HIV/AIDS, out of a
population of about 48 million.

"We need to concentrate our efforts on Burma, convince the government this
is a matter not only involving the people but of national security," he said.

At that time, the junta dismissed such concerns, saying that Burma had no
sex industry and that AIDS was under control in the country. It also
claimed that it had taken great steps to control the problem since 1985 and
denied unspecified reports that Burma was spreading AIDS to neighboring
countries. 

But in Rangoon, Insein prison has become infamous as an HIV-spreading
headquarters. Former political prisoners speak with horror of the HIV
situation in the notorious prison. Prison authorities and untrained inmates
frequently re-use unsterilized syringes on patients. The results are grim.
Some political prisoners died due to HIV infection while others discovered
they were infected after being released.

SEX, DRUGS AND DENIAL

Though numbers of infections are not available in Burma, HIV infection
rates of Burmese sex workers in Thailand are estimated at 70%.

The WHO, Unicef and other independent researchers and NGOs warned that the
infection rate in Ranong province, southern Thailand is very high.  In
northern Thailand, the infection rates in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai and Chiang
Mai, where many sex workers are from Burma, are horrifying. Between 25 and
35% of women entering the sex industry in Thailand are Shan, Akha and other
ethnic immigrants. Forty to sixty percent of all women working in brothels
are HIV-positive, according to a report published last year by the
Southeast Asian Information Network.

Unicef has also mentioned that northern Burma's Shan State is the world's
single biggest source of heroin. HIV infection rates in the area are high
due to needle sharing. As heroin Number 4 is cheap and available,
increasing numbers of opium smokers have switched to heroin injection. 

Many Burmese work in Yuili, on the China-Burma border. A few years back,
NGO workers who visited the areas said Burmese sex workers, young men and
Chinese workers in the border town have virtually no knowledge of HIV/AIDS.

Inside Burma, young people with little education on sex and sexually
transmitted diseases are most vulnerable. Although prostitution is illegal
in Burma, there are brothels in the county that are frequently used by
young men. 

As a further indication of the government's denial, it has also imposed
strict regulations on condom sales. In 1997, after a brief period of
relaxation, condom advertisements shown on state-run television were pulled
by officials afraid of criticism from conservative circles that insist such
advertisements promote promiscuity.

However, armed with information from dedicated health professionals,
concerned editors and writers in Burma were not sitting idly by. They have
launched AIDS awareness campaigns and written frequent articles about the
disease. But they still know they cannot step out of the line. The junta
won't be happy seeing "negative articles".

The regime is unwilling to collaborate with foreign NGOs and is suspicious
of them. It is not willing to allow free and open access to information, to
hospitals, prisons, drug treatment centers and HIV/AIDS data. NGOs deciding
to "bite the bullet" and work with the regime have been frustrated and
hampered in their efforts. 

AIDS researcher Dr. Chris Beyrer wrote in his book, War in the Blood, that
"The state-owned New Light of Myanmar has been pushing the line that the
HIV epidemic in Burma is slowing down. Doctors and nurses have risked their
lives to tell journalists and researchers that this is not so." 

But information hinting at the real scale of the crisis continues to leak
out. According to a source in Keng Tung, Shan State, in 1997 a 200-bed
hospital was filled with HIV and AIDS patients. "Over 180 [HIV/AIDS]
patients visited last year," said a source at the hospital. State organs
have never publicly acknowledged this situation. 

Aung Aung, an HIV-positive Kachin man in his 30s told this reporter in late
1997, "We have no information about how HIV/AIDS is spread. I thought it
was just a foreign disease." 

Aung Aung said, "We never thought that it would come to us. Now my friends,
myself and my relatives are infected." In Kachin and Shan states, the virus
has spread to the general population. 

There are very few public health billboards that describe how HIV is
transmitted. However, state television has recently started to feature
increasing numbers of public-service announcements about the disease.
Whether this will prove to be effective after a decade of denial remains to
be seen.

POLITICAL WILL STILL MISSING

It is not only lack of information, but also a lack of both political will
to fight the disease and concern for the country's people that prevents the
junta from seriously tackling the problem. 

Less than 10% of the national budget is spent on health, education and
social welfare, while defense spending receives around 40% of public funds.

"Because of their ignorance and denial many people have died over the past
ten years. It would be different if we had wise and dedicated leaders who
cared about their people," commented a physician.

Last year, Burma bought a small arms factory from Singapore. Since it came
into power in 1988, the junta has spent US$1.3 billion on military
hardware, including tanks and fighter planes. The annual budget for Aids
projects is no more than US$40,000. 

The junta has expended more energy on eradicating political opponents and
democracy activists than it has on fighting AIDS. Even physicians have been
thrown into prisons for being too outspoken. Many capable medical doctors
left the country simply to find better jobs in western countries or because
they could no longer stand working with narrow-minded and arrogant generals.

"They spent more time on politics than the country's welfare, and now that
the plague is spreading everywhere they don't know how to stop it," said
one doctor living abroad. 

The junta has long taken the attitude that since AIDS is a "foreign"
disease, it can be treated with the same disdain that it reserves for its
critics in the international community. In its propaganda, the junta
proclaims that AIDS is "a disease caused by foreigners," implying that the
best defense against this scourge is state-sponsored xenophobia.

Meanwhile, as the regime begins to release figures on the real scale of the
HIV/AIDS crisis, it continues to publish other numbers that reveal its
simplistic approach to solving problems. Shortly after Ket Sein's admitted
that Burma had a real AIDS problem on its hands, the regime posted its
latest announcement of mass resignations from the National League for
Democracy on the Internet. It said that fifty-eight NLD members in Mongpyat
township, Shan State resigned from the party "of their own volition." This
is just the latest "victory" for the junta in its decade-long struggle to
decimate the forces of democracy in the country. 

Young Burmese activists in exile were outraged by this attempt to
manipulate the truth by presenting meaningless figures. "Tell the people
the truth about the implications of the HIV/AIDS statistics as reported by
Health Minister Ket Sein. It's time to stop playing meaningless political
numbers games and begin to be responsible to the people."

Perhaps now that it believes that it is close to defeating its most
stubborn opponents, the regime has begun to feel confident that it is ready
to take on a new enemy. But the generals need to understand that AIDS won't
disappear "of its own volition," no matter how much intimidation it uses
against health professionals and others who choose to tell the truth. 

AUNG ZAW IS THE EDITOR OF THE IRRAWADDY MAGAZINE.

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

REUTERS: MYANMAR SAYS ETHNIC FIGHTERS KILL PEACE MEDIATORS 
15 August, 1999 

YANGON, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Ethnic fighters in northern Myanmar tortured and
killed two peace mediators they had invited for talks late last month, the
Myanmar government said. 

Daw Phraemoe and Hla Din, who had been instrumental in negotiating the
defection of 100 members of the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP)
last month, were killed by other members of the group on July 31, the
statement seen on Sunday said. 

"They were deceitfully invited by some members of the remaining KNPP armed
terrorists for peace talks but were both tortured and killed when they
arrived at the invited venue," it said. 

The government, which is seeking ceasefires with all Myanmar's armed ethnic
groups, said the killings were "shocking and disheartening" to those who
wanted peace. 

The KNPP has been fighting the central government for greater autonomy
since August 1948, seven months after Myanmar earned independence from
Britain. 

The Karenni tribe, numbering around 300,000, is the smallest of Myanmar's
ethnic minorities. Thousands have fled the Mynamar military to refuge in
camps in Thailand. 

In 1995, Yangon said nearly 8,000 members of the KNPP surrendered to the
government, but ceasefire talks have failed in the past two years, with the
KNPP leadership accusing the government of increasing its military presence
in Karenni territory not reducing it. 

The KNPP has forged an alliance with few remaining ethnic groups still
fighting the Myanmar government, including the Karen National Union
guerrillas.

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