The BurmaNet News: December 10, 199

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Subject: The BurmaNet News: December 10, 1999

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The BurmaNet News: December 10, 1999
Issue #1410

HEADLINES:
==========
THE NATION: BURMA STUDENTS BRACE FOR CAMPUS REOPENING 
AFP: NEW INVESTMENT COMMISSION BEGINS WORK IN MYANMAR 
AFP: JAILED JOURNALIST AWARDED FOUNDATION DE FRANCE 
BKK POST: AMBASSADOR WAS THE TARGET, SAYS JOHNNY 
BKK POST: FISHING TALKS OFF 
BKK POST: CHINA FEARS STOKE NEW PASSIONS 
ANNC: HRW ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOVEREIGNTY 
***************************************************

THE NATION: BURMA STUDENTS BRACE FOR CAMPUS REOPENING 
9 December, 1999 

Hundreds of thousands of Burmese students are anxiously preparing to return to
their books for the first time since the military closed campuses amid unrest
three years ago.

Some classes are set to resume from mid-December after the ruling State Peace
and Development Council (SPDC) indicated this week that the closed
institutions
would soon be reopened.

"I should have been a university third-year student by now," said Ma Khaing
who
passed his university entrance in 1996.

Maung Maung was a second-year student when classes were suspended at the
Yangon
Institute of Technology (YIT), once a hotbed of unrest in the capital.

"We are just longing to pursue our studies at the regular classes suspended
three years ago," Maung Maung said.

Some third-year and fourth-year YIT students said they had been told to
contact
the institute to join classes expected to reopen in mid-December. But they
added that they had been told they could no longer attend classes at the
campus
in Rangoon.

They will have to go instead to three satellite towns on Rangoon's outskirts
where campuses have been relocated, diplomats say, to get potentially restive
student groups out of the capital.

"I don't mind where it will be as long as I can pursue my studies peacefully
without further interruption," said a student. 

In December 1996, students unleashed pent-up anger against the authorities at
some campuses and on the streets of Rangoon.

The military, unnerved by the spread of the unrest to other cities in the
worst
protests since a bloody student-led pro- democracy uprising in 1988, promptly
closed over 30 institutions a few days before final examinations.

Over 100,000 students were affected in a move which drew howls of disapproval
from the opposition National League for Democracy led by Nobel laureate Aung
San Suu Kyi.

Meanwhile, a senior member of the military regime has told a news magazine
that
the government regards Suu Kyi as a 'little sister" and said she should stop
confronting authorities.

Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt was quoted in the Dec 17 issue of Asiaweek magazine as
citing
unspecified "terrorist threats" for the reason the regime refuses to let Suu
Kyi leave Rangoon.

Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, lives under tight restrictions
in her homeland, and was twice stopped for days on a road outside the capital
last year when she tried to visit supporters upcountry.

"We regard Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as a younger sister," Khin Nyunt was quoted as
telling Asiaweek. Extracts of the interview were sent to news organisations
yesterday. Daw is an honorific.

"I have no personal animosity toward her and it is my earnest hope that she
will change her totally negative and confrontational attitude against us,
which
is also negatively affecting the entire nation," Khin Nyunt was quoted as
saying. 

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

AFP: NEW INVESTMENT COMMISSION BEGINS WORK IN MYANMAR
9 December, 1999 

AFP, Yangon, 9 December 1999. A new Myanmar Investment Commission, the body
tasked with luring much-needed foreign funds into the military-run state,
began
work Thursday under fresh leadership, officials said.

The commission was overhauled following the surprise resignation earlier this
month of its influencial secretary Brigadier General Maung Maung, who held
ministerial rank.

Official sources told AFP Maung Maung had been replaced as the commission's
secretary by the deputy minister of electric power, another brigadier general
of the same name.

Minister of Technology and Science U Thaung took over as chairman from Deputy
Prime Minister Rear Admiral Maung Maung Khin. Major General Tin Tut, who is
minister of electric power, was given the vice-chairmanship of the commission.

No reason has been given for the changes, which have fuelled speculation a
gradual government reshuffle is under way.

In recent months, several ministers have announced their retirements. Trade
and
Commerce Minister Major General Kyaw Than and Sports Minister General Sein Win
retired in October.

News of Maung Maung's retirement on December 1 came as Japan's former prime
minister Ryutaro Hashimoto held talks with senior members of the junta, during
a semi-official mission to assess the needs of the struggling economy.

The new commission will face a stiff task securing investment for Myanmar
which
faces a range of US and European restrictions imposed to punish perceived
human
rights violations and suppression of the political opposition.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) projects approved by the Myanmar government
reached 11 million dollars during the first six month of 1999, according to
official statistics.

Official figures show foreign investment fell more than 90 percent last year.
However, totals of investment approved by the government often vary sharply
with the amount of money that arrives. Only around two billion dollars in
foreign investment was realized in Myanmar between 1989 and 1998, according to
a US embassy survey.

Signs of Myanmar's economic morass are obvious in Yangon where inflation runs
at around 30 percent and the beleagured kyat currency trades on the streets at
350 to the dollar, compared to the official rate of around five.

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

AFP: JAILED MYANMAR JOURNALIST AWARDED FOUNDATION DE FRANCE PRIZE 
9 December, 1999 

AFP, Paris, 9 December 1999. Jailed journalist and novelist San San Nweh of
Myanmar was awarded the annual Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without
Borders) prize Friday for her devotion to press freedom.

The Foundation de France award, worth 50,000 francs (about 8,000 dollars), was
to be received Friday on behalf of San San by another dissident from Myanmar
living in France, Aung Ko, known for his part in John Boorman's film "[Beyond]
Rangoon".

Myanmar was formerly known as Burma.

San San was arrested in Rangoon in August 1994 and sentenced two months later
to 10 years in prison for "publishing information harmful to the state."

Prior to her arrest she edited several woman's magazines and was politically
active in the National League for Democracy, led by Nobel Peace prize winner
Aung San Suu Kyi.

The 55-year-old reporter, who has also published 12 novels as well as short
stories and poems, has struggled against illness and isolation since her
imprisonment, Reporters Sans Frontieres said.

"She is suffering from liver disease, eye problems because of the very harsh
conditions in prison and the torture she has endured," the press watchdog
said.

"Friends and relatives who have tried to bring food or money for her have been
threatened by Myanmar's secret service."

It added that apart from San San, 13 journalists are currently imprisoned in
Myanmar in appalling conditions, including well-known journalist Win Tin, who
is reportedly dying.

"Since 1962, the junta, outlawed by the rest of the world, has consistently
and
with exceptional violence crushed the slightest attempt to launch a free
press," it said.

Previous winners of the annual prize have included Bosnian journalist Zlatko
Dizdarevic, Chinese journalist Wang Juntao and Syrian journalist Nizar
Nayyouf.

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

THE BANGKOK POST: AMBASSADOR WAS THE TARGET, SAYS JOHNNY
10 December, 1999 

SUU KYI DENOUNCED BY STUDENT RAIDER

AP - Ka Mar Pa Law -- Hiding in a Burmese jungle base with authorities from
two
countries hunting him, the leader of a small band of student rebels who seized
Rangoon's embassy in Bangkok on Oct 1-2 said the ambassador was lucky to still
be alive.

The man known as Johnny, whose capture of the embassy was the boldest move in
years by Burma's outmanoeuvred pro-democracy movement, said this week at the
remote hide-out he will keep fighting as long as he lives.

Johnny said his group, who call themselves the Vigorous Burmese Student
Warriors and are called terrorists by Burma's military regime, had been
prepared to kill Ambassador Hla Maung - who by luck of timing had left the
embassy just before the seizure.

The group was also prepared to kill four other Burmese citizens if they had
to,
he added.

"I have to say the ambassador is very lucky," said Johnny, handing out one of
Hla Maung's business cards. "I saw his car leave the embassy about five
minutes
before we entered, but it was too late to call off the operation."

In a sign of the frustration dogging Burma's opposition, Johnny denounced Aung
San Suu Kyi, leader of the legal opposition and winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace
Prize, for her nonviolent promotion of democracy.

"I don't like Suu Kyi because I don't think she really loves the country,"
Johnny said. "She doesn't have the courage to run the country."

Suu Kyi's marriage to the late Michael Aris, a British academic, showed she
preferred foreigners to her own people, he said, reflecting a view held by the
Rangoon regime.

"I'll be against her if she's in the government," Johnny said.  Suu Kyi and
her
National League for Democracy criticised the embassy raid, expressing sympathy
for the aims but declaring her movement wanted to "show that the human spirit
can prevail over the might of arms".

Johnny and four other exiled students stormed the embassy on Sathorn road,
demanding a restoration of democracy in Burma and holding dozens of diplomats
and foreigners hostage at gunpoint for 26 hours until they were given safe
passage to the border.

Thai police have since issued warrants for their arrest. The five have
surfaced
at the border base of a small Karen guerrilla band known as God's Army, led by
twin 12-year-old boys. 

Johnny, whose real name is Kyaw Ni, said the embassy takeover was meant to
attract attention so the world would put pressure on Burma's military regime.

"I just wanted to show the Burmese what we can do," Johnny said. 

"And I think we have achieved that.

"We won't be here too long," he said. "There's still many more things to do.
But can't say what they will be. It will be a fight to get rid of the Burmese
government." 

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

THE BANGKOK POST: FISHING TALKS OFF 
10 December, 1999 

AP

Talks to restore Thai fishing concessions in Burmese waters, suspended after
the Oct 1 siege of the Burmese embassy in  Bangkok, have been postponed.

Don Pramudwinai, the foreign ministry spokesman, yesterday said Thai delegates
had been set to travel to Rangoon for two days of meetings but the talks were
put off because of "technical problems".

"We were not ready, they were not ready. It's nothing serious," he said,
adding
that a Thai delegation would go to Burma later in the month, probably after
Dec
20.

Burma closed its long land border with Thailand after Burmese students seeking
democracy in their homeland stormed its embassy in Thailand on October 1.

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

THE BANGKOK POST: CHINA FEARS STOKE NEW PASSIONS 
9 December, 1999 by David Brunnstrom

ANALYSIS/INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

REUTERS

WORRIES ABOUT THE GROWING MIGHT OF BEIJING ARE PRODUCING A RE-ALIGNMENT OF
RELATIONS AMONG COUNTRIES IN CLOSE PROXIMITY TO WHAT HAS BEEN ASIA'S SLEEPING
GIANT - HENCE THE RECENT CONTACTS BETWEEN JAPAN AND BURMA.

High-level contacts between Japan and Burma reflect growing concerns both in
Tokyo and Southeast Asia about China's influence in the military-ruled
country,
say diplomats and analysts.

The concern appears two-fold: that Burma's chronic economic weakness make it a
security liability should China ever become expansionist in future and that
Japan risks losing long-term influence to Beijing in a country with
substantial
economic potential.

Like Western powers, Japan wants democratic progress in Burma, but analysts
say
strategic and economic considerations remain paramount and Tokyo is looking
for
ways to help stabilise Rangoon's economy and improve conditions for Japanese
investment.

Tokyo's worries prompted the first meeting of a Japanese prime minister and
his
Burmese counterpart in 15 years when Keizo Obuchi met Senior General Than Shwe
in Manila late last month.

This was followed by a visit to Rangoon by Japan's former premier Ryutaro
Hashimoto, Mr Obuchi's senior foreign policy adviser.

Mr Hashimoto met senior members of the ruling military council, including Gen
Than Shwe, to discuss Mr Obuchi's offer to help should Burma embark on serious
economic reform.

Toshiro Kudo, a researcher at the Institute of Developing Economies, a
semi-governmental Japan think tank, said Burma had grown in Japan's strategic
consciousness since it joined the Association of South East Asian Nations in
1997.

"Burma used not to be considered so strategically important, but it's getting
more and more so when it comes to formulating diplomatic policy," he said.

"It also has significant resources and Japan doesn't want to give up economic
interests to China."

A European diplomat in Rangoon said Japan, given its geography, felt
obliged to
take a more pragmatic approach through "constructive engagement" than
Europe or
the United States, which use sanctions to try to push Burma to democratise.

"They are worried that if this country gets weaker, China might take it as an
opportunity to do something - Asean and Japan take this as a real danger," he
said.

Already northern Burma is heavily dependent economically on China, which
imports more and more of Burma's rice.

"Of course, at the moment China is not going to take any big steps that would
provoke international reaction, but say this country is in a mess and cannot
peacefully ship rice to China, I could imagine a scenario China had to get
rice
directly," said the diplomat.

"I believe the Japanese see the danger in the middle to long-term and they see
a relatively stable Burma as a better guarantee against Chinese temptation."

Even so, analysts do not foresee a full-scale resumption of Japanese aid,
suspended after Burma's military killed thousands to crush pro-democracy
uprising in 1988, any time soon.

Mr Obuchi told Gen Than Shwe it would be easier for Japan to provide aid if
there were "visible" signs of democratic change.

A Japanese diplomat said this could include resumption of dialogue between the
generals and Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace prize-winning leader of the
National League for Democracy (NLD).

Burma appeared to seek credibility points when it told Mr Hashimoto it planned
to re- pen college campuses closed for much of the past decade to prevent
student activism.

But it has made clear no rapprochement with the opposition is in the
offing, by
reviving hard-line rhetoric denouncing opponents as "traitors" and "axe
handles
of neo-colonialists".

An Asian diplomat was not filled with optimism.

"There seems no way out of the Burma problem," he said. "We've been trying
very
hard for the past 10 years to engage Burma but we haven't succeeded. We are
trying to continue the process, but there seems to be no change in the NLD and
military stances.

"They are totally confronting each other and it's very hard to imagine any
substantial change could be made in the future." 

The Japanese diplomat said the most likely result of Japan's initiative was a
continuation of Japan's policy of providing relatively small-scale aid on a
case-by-case basis. This could include Japanese expertise to assist economic
reform.

Japan wants Burma to cut trade tariffs and reform its foreign investment
environment to make it more attractive to Japanese firms, many of which have
lost money in the country.

Mr Kudo of the Institute of Developing Economies could not see significant
Japanese money going in without firm commitments to reform obstacles to
progress, including the parallel exchange rate and moribund state sector.

Apart from political considerations, there were practical difficulties,
including the need for Burma to repay past loans.  Mr Kudo said over a
third of
Burma's $5 billion (195 billion baht) foreign debt was owed to Japan.

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

ANNOUNCEMENT: HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH REPORT ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOVEREIGNTY 
9 December, 1999 

HUMAN RIGHTS TRUMP SOVEREIGNTY IN 1999 

Crimes Against Humanity Provoke International Action

(Washington D.C., December 9, 1999) -- National sovereignty is now a less
important obstacle to curbing serious human rights crimes than it has been in
previous years, Human Rights Watch said today in its annual global survey.

"We will remember 1999 as the year in which sovereignty gave way in places
where crimes against humanity were being committed," said Kenneth Roth,
executive director of Human Rights Watch. He noted that sustained
international
pressure forced the Indonesian government to consent to the deployment of
foreign troops in East Timor, after the Indonesian military failed to stop
bloodshed there. The national sovereignty claims of the Indonesian generals,
like those of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in Kosovo this year, lost
their legitimacy in the wake of gross human rights crimes.

"Ordinarily we depend on sovereign states to defend human rights," said Roth.
"But sovereignty cannot be used as an excuse to avoid human rights
commitments." While regretting the need for military force, Roth praised the
decision to overrule the claims of tyrants and war criminals to be
protected by
the cloak of national sovereignty.

Human Rights Watch cautioned, however, that the use of military force to
redress crimes against humanity, such as the NATO campaign in Kosovo this
year,
is also a sign of failure to respond to the early warning signs of gross human
rights abuse. The group warned that serious abuses in countries such as
Colombia, Burundi, and the Aceh region of Indonesia could lead to major crises
if they are not promptly addressed through strong political and economic
pressure.

Roth also noted that governments using military force in the name of human
rights should be subjected to close scrutiny, both for the methods they use in
warfare, and the objectives they pursue. "Human rights should not be used as a
pretext for other ventures," said Roth.

Roth presented Human Rights Watch's "World Report 2000" at a news
conference at
the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. today. The 517-page report covers
human rights developments in 68 countries, including the United States.

In another illustration of the breakdown of national sovereignty when crimes
against humanity occur, Roth observed that many people accused of serious
human
rights crimes are being tried outside their native countries, a triumph of the
principle of "universal jurisdiction." Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who faces
extradition hearings in Great Britain, is the best-known example, but many
other people accused of participating in the Bosnian and Rwandan genocides
have
also been indicted outside their home countries.

"Pinochet is being prosecuted abroad because local courts in Chile have failed
to do so," said Roth. "This is a real victory for justice."

International war crimes tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia have a
growing number of people in custody. The latter court took the significant
step
of indicting a sitting head of state, Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic,
for war crimes this year.

Despite the U.S. government's opposition, a growing number of countries are
signing the treaty for an international criminal court, which will be a
critically important tool for human rights protection. "No matter what
Washington thinks, there's no question now that the court will be
established,"
said Roth. "The only question is when."

Human Rights Watch supported Secretary-General Kofi Annan of the United
Nations
in his statements that national leaders risk prosecution if they do not either
stop crimes against humanity or permit other countries to do so. However, the
group criticized U.N. operations in many countries, such as Angola and Sierra
Leone, for failing to respond vigorously enough when human rights crimes
pushed
those countries toward war.

Human Rights Watch is an international monitoring organization based in New
York. It is funded entirely by contributions from private individuals and
foundations, and receives no financial support from any government.

The full text of the Human Rights Watch World Report 2000 is available on the
web at www.hrw.org

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