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BurmaNet News: December 28, 1999
- Subject: BurmaNet News: December 28, 1999
- From: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 28 Dec 1999 15:04:00
--------------- The BurmaNet News ----------------
December 28, 1999
Issue # 1431
----------------------------------------------------
Noted in Passing: "The reports carried by the BurmaNet on the Burmese
democracy movement abroad and articles about Burma from international
journals are in wide circulation in Rangoon." See DVB: [SIX ARRESTED
FOR READING BURMANET]--BREACH OF OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT
==========
HEADLINES:
==========
Inside Burma--
DVB: [SIX ARRESTED FOR READING BURMANET]-BREACH OF OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT
AFP: MYANMAR PROCLAIMS Y2K BUG READINESS
REUTERS: MYANMAR OPENS MORE UNIVERSITY CLASSES
REUTERS: DOZENS DEAD AFTER THAI COLD SPELL
ABFSU: [REBUTS REGIME CLAIM OF NO POLITICAL PRISONERS, LISTS HUNDREDS]
BURMANET: NEW KHRG REPORT DOCUMENTS BREAKUP OF KAREN VILLAGES IN PA'AN
NLM: GEN TIN OO ATTENDS EXPORT OF BARBED WIRE MACHINES MADE IN MYANMAR
International--
AFP: BANGLADESH BORDER GUARDS ON ALERT AFTER MYANMAR MORTAR FIRE
SHAN: [THAI/BURMA] BORDER PASS CLOSED--AGAIN
AP: MEASURES ANNOUNCED VS. VIOLATORS
REUTERS: JAPAN'S OBUCHI TO VISIT THREE ASEAN NATIONS IN 2000
Op/Ed--
JOHN RALSTON SAUL ON MIN KO NAING, DR. CYNTHIA
***********************************************
DVB: [SIX ARRESTED FOR READING BURMANET]--BREACH OF OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT
[Translation by Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) of
broadcast by Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB). FBIS is a US
government entity]
Broadcast in Burmese on December 24, 1999.
The Democratic Voice of Burma has learned from a relaible source that
Col. Khin Maung Lwin, computer officer at the War Office in Rangoon,
has been detained for violating Article 3 of the Official Secrets Act
and is being investigated. It is also learned that Military
Intelligence Unit 7 is interrogating five instructors from Eagle
Computer School and Winner Computer School who were arrested on 19
December for allegedly violating the Official Secrets Act.
The classes at the computer training schools have been suspended and the
military intelligence has instructed the schools to tell the students
that these schools have been shut for Y2K problems. Details on the
breach of the Official Secrets Act are not yet available. However,
according to circles close to the case, the proliferation in Rangoon
of reports carried by the opposition web page, BurmaNet, is responsbile
for the arrests. The reports carried by the BurmaNet on the Burmese
democracy movement abroad and articles about Burma from international
journals are in wide circulation in Rangoon.
The reports also say that Okkar on the BurmaNet is Lt. Col. Hla Min,
SPDC spokesman and that Maung Myanmar is Dr. Kyaw Win, SPDC's ambassador
in London.
The SPDC has allowed Internet access to some computer companies and
economic enterprises in Burma. According to this week's Asiaweek, the
Internet access of Eagle Computer Company has been cut. It also
confirmed that some instructors have been arrested. Eagle Company is a
well-known computer company in Burma and it has about 500 Y2K clients.
The DVB has also learned that the computers of these companies have also
been impounded.
The computer officer at the War Office in Rangoon, Col. Khin Maung Lwin,
is being interrogated at the Aung Thabye interrogation center in
Rangoon. According to another report received by the DVB, Saw Mae Wan
Nyunt, director of police in eastern Shan State is also being detained
for contacting and sending secrets to unlawful organizations.
***********************************************
AFP: MYANMAR PROCLAIMS Y2K BUG READINESS
DATELINE: YANGON, Dec 27
Myanmar's ruling military said Monday it had completed preparations
to deal with the millennium computer bug and was not expecting any
problems.
A government spokesman said Myanmar had finalised its millennium, or
Y2K, precautions and testing of its computerised systems with the help
of Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI).
"With the cooperation of the Japanese experts and the respective
ministries (Myanmar) has solved all the Y2K problems and declared it is
ready for Y2K," the spokesman said in a statement.
The spokesman did not respond to questions about the readiness of
Myanmar's aviation industry and airports.
Struggling under Western sanctions and with a shattered economy, Myanmar
has very few computer systems and no advanced computer-based banking and
financial networks.
The millennium bug refers to the inability of many old computers to
differentiate between 2000 and 1900, as they are programmed to read the
year only by the last two digits.
***********************************************
REUTERS: MYANMAR OPENS MORE UNIVERSITY CLASSES
December 27, 1999
YANGON, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Classes for more than 2,000 students at three
technical universities in Myanmar were opened for the first time in
three years on Monday, officials and students said.
A Science and Technology Ministry official said the classes were for
third and fourth year students at Yangon Technological University,
Mandalay Technological University and Pyi Technological University.
``Altogether a little over 2,000 students are peacefully pursuing their
studies at their respective universities now,'' said the official, who
declined to be identified.
The three institutions were among more than 30 universities and colleges
closed during nationwide pro-democracy student demonstrations in
December 1996.
The anti-government protests, the largest in Myanmar since a
pro-democracy uprising in 1988, led to the expulsion of 200,000 students
from classes and encouraged some students to leave the country for exile
in neighbouring countries such as Thailand.
Myanmar's military government has been gradually reopening the
universities in recent months and so far there have been no reports of
trouble.
Students said the campuses, once a hotbed of anti-government activity,
appeared to be quiet.
``So far its OK,'' said one student, who declined to be identified.
The official said the third and fourth year students at the three
universities were tentatively scheduled to take their examinations in
April 2000.
Students said first-and-second-year classes at the universities were
reopened earlier this month.
``Eighty percent of the university students are now pursuing their
studies without any interruption at their respective universities and
colleges throughout the country,'' the official Myanmar-language
newspaper Kyemon on Saturday quoted a senior Myanmar official as saying.
Details of the actual number of universities reopened are not available
and figures on university attendance are not published by the Myanmar
authorities.
***********************************************
REUTERS: DOZENS DEAD AFTER THAI COLD SPELL
December 27, 1999
BANGKOK, Dec 27 (Reuters) - At least 33 people have died in Thailand in
the last week as unusually cold weather has swept down from China and
Mongolia, Thai officials said on Monday.
``Official figures are not yet available but initial reports show at
least 33 Thais have already died from cold-related causes in the past
five days,'' an official at Thailand's Social Welfare Department said.
At Thailand's coldest point at Loei in the northeast, the mercury dived
to 2.9 degrees Celsius (37.2 degrees Fahrenheit), the Thai
Meteorological Department said.
Twenty-two people were believed to have died from cold while 11 others
either died from inhalation of carbon dioxide or were burned to death by
stoves, the social welfare department official told Reuters without
giving details.
The department said thousands of poor communities in rural areas lacked
blankets and warm clothes to cope with the cold.
The authorities have said they would distribute blankets but in view of
warmer weather on the way, that is likely to be the extent of their
action. Meteorologists said they expected temperatures in the north and
centre of Thailand to get warmer in the coming days.
Two female prisoners were found dead in their cell at a prison in Chiang
Rai province, officials said.
In Mae Sot, on the Thai-Myanmar border, at least eight ethnic Karen
refugees from Myanmar died of exposure in a camp in the past four days,
local sources said.
The temperature in the capital, Bangkok, early on Monday morning was 18
degrees Celsius (64.4 degrees Fahrenheit), down from about 28 degrees
Celsius a week ago.
The lowest temperature ever recorded in Bangkok was 10 degrees Celsius
in 1975, a department official told Reuters.
Northern Thailand is usually cool in the winter months of December and
January, but it is normally closer to 10 degrees Celsius.
Despite the colder weather, there is no sign of any change in the
behaviour of Thai tourists and neither is there evidence of an impact on
foreign tourism.
***********************************************
ABFSU: [REBUTS REGIME CLAIM OF NO POLITICAL PRISONERS, LISTS HUNDREDS]
[Edited]
Update Information 17/99
Date..27/12/1999
ABFSU (FAC) smuggled out political prisoner lists in Burma for up date
release;
Military Intelligence (MI) Chief Lt.General Khin Nyunt said "no
politicalprisoners in Burma" when he interviewed by AsiaWeek on 17th
December 1999 about International Committee of Red Cross(ICRC)
inspections of notorious Burma prisons in recent months.
According to principle policy of All Burma Federation of Student Unions
(FAC),we Bakatha 's FAC cordially welcomes ICRC responsible persons who
go to jails in Burma for inspections abused of prisoner right and human
right violation.
The true situation follows. Before ICRC inspected 12 prisons in Burma,
SPDC systematically transferred political prisoners from Insein
exemplary prison to remote prisons at Myitkyinar, Sittwe,Bamaw and the
notorious prisons of Tharyarwaddy, Thayet, Myingyan, Mandalay, Taungoo.
Prisoners are given short hair cuts, blindfolded, handcuffed, heavy iron
fetters by detention bus of iron bar and train.
We, ABFSU (FAC)has strong evidenced to challenge Lt.General Khin Nyunt
words of no political prisoners in Burma, Now ABFSU has smuggled out a
secretly collected list of political prisoners in following prisons:
1.(234) political prisoner in Insein Exemplary prison,
2.(241) political prisoner in Mandalay prison,
3.(191) political prisoner in Thayarwaddy prison,
4.(65) political prisoner in Taungoo prison,
5.(72)political prisoner in Thayet prison,
6.(26) political prisoner in Myaungmya prison,
7.(20)political prisoner in Mawlamyaing prison,
8.( 48) political prisoner in Pathein prison,
9.(11) political prisoner in Myeik Kyi Nar prison
total 908 persons (see detail list of name , case and sentenced in table
1,2,3,3,4,5,6,7,8,9..etc ) .Now released table 8 and 9.we will release
table 1 to 7 on later.
All of them are small amounts of ABFSU smuggled out list among myriad
thousands of political prisoners in Burma. No one can know the exact
numbers of political prisoners in there except Military Intelligence
Services and Home Affair Ministry prison department.
We ABFSU (FAC) will to attempt confirms news of hellish political
prisoner situations in Burma with the purpose let the the world know of
their honor and bravery of their political beliefs.
Foreign Affair Committee
All Burma Federation of Student Unions
The List Of Political Prisoner in "THARYARWADDY" Prison
Table(8)
No. Name Case Sentenced Remark
1 Ma Moe Ka Hlar Oo 5-J 7 year U Nu Funeral Case
2 Ma San Dar Moe 5 j 7 year ditto
3 Ma Yi Yi Htun 5-j,17(1) 14 year ABFSU
4 Ma Hla Hla Moe 5-j 7 year U Nu Funeral Affair
5 Ma Thi Dar 5-j 7 year
6 Ma Aye Aye Moe 5 J 7 year NLD
7 Ma Ni Lar Thein
8 Dr. Myo Nyunt 5 j 7 year MP at Irrawaddy
9 Ko Myo Myint Nyein 5-J 7 year Journalist
10 U Sunny Tin Htun 5 j 7 year NLD
11 Ko Kyaw Zay Ya
12 Ko Kyaw Kyaw Soe 5-j 14 year Kyauktatar
13 U Aung Zin Min
14 U Kyi Tin Oo 5 j 7 year Father of Ko Kyaw Zaw
15 U Nyein Myint 5j,17(1) 7 year CPB Central Committee
16 Ko Ngwe Lin 5j,17(1) 7 year CPB
17 U Saw Nay Duun
18 Ko Yin Htwe 5-j 8 year DPNS
19 Ko Pyone Cho (a) Htay Win Aung 5-j 7 year Brother of That Win Aung
(Kalay Prison)
20 Ko Nyi Nyi Htun 5-j 15 year ABFSU,91 Dec
21 Ko Bo Bo Htun 5-j 15 year ABFSU, 91 Dec
22 Ko Myat Htun
23 U Khaing Soe
24 Ko Saw Myint
25 U Kaung Kyaw Zan
26 Ko Htun Win
27 Ko Kyaw Swe
28 Ko Myint Sein
29 Ko Khin Maung Lay 5j,17(1) 10 year CPB
30 Ko Saing(a) U Aung Myint
31 Ko Zaw Zaw Aung 5j,17(1) 10 year ABFSU
32 Ko Moe Hlaing (a) Mee Kyi 5j, 15 year 91- Dec Affairs
33 Ko Sei Thu(a) Ye Naing brother of Ko Khin Maung Zaw (Thayet Prison)
34 Ko Htay Kyawe
35 U Win Kyi 5j,17(1) 19 year arrested on May 1993
36 U Win Kyi Lay
37 Ko Zay Ya 5j 15 year 91-Dec Affair
38 U Aung May Thu 5j,17(1) 10 year CPB
39 Ko San Lwin
40 U Khin Maung Myint
41 Ko Gimmy (a) kyaw Min Yu 5-j 20year DPNS CEC
42 Saw Jae Let
43 Ko Ban Ho (a) Min Myo Swe
44 Ko Soe Hlaing
45 Ko Myo Kyi
46 Ko Win Ko Ko
47 Ko Myint Swe 5 j 15 year ABFSU ,Insein
48 U Za Wa Na 5j,17/1,17/2 29 year arrested on May 1993
49 Ko Win Myint (a) Very Good 5-j 7year student
50 Ko Myo Aung (a) Pae Si 5-j 7year student
51 Ko khin Zaw
52 Ko Soe Myint (a) Go Shae
53 Ko Ye Win
54 Ko Toe Toe Tun 5-j 7year student
55 Ko Kyaw San (a) Cho Seint 5 j,17(1) 7 year grandson of Thakhin Ko Taw
Hmaing,96 Dec Affair
56 Ko Tin Oo
57 Ko Aye Naing 5J 7 year 96 Dec Affair
58 U Moe Ko 5 J 7 year 96 Dec Affair
59 U Aung Naing(a) U Aung Shwe
60 Ko Win Myint Than
61 Ko Kyaw Oo
62 Ko Zaw Lin Aung
63 Ko Aung Moe
64 U Khin Zaw
65 Ko Aung Kyaw Moe
66 Ko San Myint Aye 5,17(1),1221 Death Sentenced was convicted on Oct 91
67 U Saw Hla Aung (a) Kayin Kyi
68 Ko Myint Yei 5j 10 year CPB
69 Ko Ye Thi Ha
70 Ko Aung Htun
71 Ko Hset Aung Naing 5 j,17(1) 10 year was arrested on 98 Feb
72 Ko Myint Tun
73 Ko Myint Tun Aung
74 Ko Kyaw Lwin Oo
75 Ko Ye Min Htun
76 Ko Ye Tun Oo
77 Ko Thei Htike Aung
78 Ko Ko Kyi
79 Ko Han Win Aung
80 Ko Kyaw Kyaw Htun
81 Ko Than Shein
82 Ko Naing Win
83 Ko Thet Tun
84 Saw Htoo Ko
85 Saw Tint Soe
86 Saw Ban Do
87 Saw Al Thar
88 Saw Al Soe
89 Saw Hennary
90 Saw Robert
91 Ko Kyauk Ni
92 Ko Ko Aung
93 U Thein Tun
94 Saw Nyi Nyi
95 U Khin Oo
96 U Zaw Myint
97 Ko Win Naing
98 Saw Tin Soe
99 U Khe Mein Da(a) Kyin Tun
100 U Sunny
101 Ko Thein Zaw
102 Ko Khin Maung Win
103 U Tin Aung Aung
104 Ma Thi Tar Win DPNS
105 Ma Thi Thi Aung
106 Ma Ei Shwe Sin
107 U Robert San Aung
108 Ko Tin Htun (a0 Kyaw Swar
109 Ko Myint Naing
110 Ko SeinHlaing
111 Ko Zaw Tun
112 Ko Than Htay 5j, 17(1) 15 year CPB
113 Ko Nyan Lin(a) Myo Win
114 U Myo Swe
115 U Myo Myint 5j, 7 year CPB
116 Ko Myat Ko Ko Lwin
117 U Han Sein 5j,17(1) 20 year was convicted on Oct93
118 Ko Lwin Oo 5j,17(1) 20 year was convicted on Oct93
119 Ko Kyi Moe
120 Ko Kyaw Swar Moe 5j 15 year 91- December Affairs
121 Ko Myo Kyaw
122 Ko Ant Bwe Kyaw
123 Ko Than Htike (a)Thein Htike
124 Ko Tin Aye
125 Ko Nay Win 5j 20 year student ,NLD
126 Ko Bo Bo 5j,17(1) 20 year was convicted on Oct93
127 U Htun
128 U Tin Htun (Boxer) 5j,17(1) 20 year was convicted on Oct93
129 Ko Tin Hlaing (a) Ei Var 5-j 7 year body guard of Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi(Tricolor)
130 Ko Bo lay 5j,17(1) 20 year was convicted on Oct93.
131 Ko Thet Lin
132 Ko Ye Win
133 Ko Kyaw Soe
134 Ko Aung Kyaw Oo
135 Ko Aung Moe Kyaw
136 Ko Khin Maung Oo(a) Wa Toke
137 Ko Nyunt Zaw Hin Tha Ta Tsp
138 Ko Khin Mya
139 U Mya Than
140 Ko Win Tin
141 Ko Myat Ko
142 Ko Than Htun
143 U Aung Thein
144 U Hla Myint
145 U Tin Tun NLD member
146 U Kyaw Than 5j,17(1) 20 year was convicted on Oct 93
147 U Myint Kyawe
148 U Soe Win Hlaing
149 Ko Khin Maung Htay(a) Po Ni
150 U Own Than
151 U Own Than
152 Ko Kyaw Kyaw Htwe
153 U Ke Saung
154 U Ke Wa Tha
155 Ko Mya Han (foot ball)
156 Ko Myint Soe (L S)
157 Ko Thei Htun Oo
158 Ko Thike Nan
159 U Soe Myint (pagan)
160 U Tin Oo (Meikhtila)
161 Ko Aung Min
162 Ko Soe Myint Aung 5j' 17(1) 7 year 96 Dec Affair
163 U Nyunt Aung
164 Ko Bo Yin
165 Ko Myat Kyaing(a) Maung Thwe Khaing
166 Ko Moe Zaw Naing
167 U Aung Naing
168 U Nyein Maung
169 U Ke Hpuu
170 Ko Khin Maung Myint
171 U Aung Myint(Hka Mon)
172 U Mya Aye (Kha Mon)
173 U Nyo Aye
174 U Zaw Lu
175 U Hla Thein
176 U Thein Lwin
List Of Political Prisoner in "MYEIT KYI NAR "Prison
Table (9)
No. Name Case Sentenced Remark
1 Ko Thet Win Aung 5j,17(1) 57 Year arrested on Jan 1999,He is one of
longest political in Burma
2 Ko Kyaw Zaw (a) Aung Kyaw Hein 5-j 14 year 96 Dec Affair
3 Ko Kyaw Htwe (a) Markie 5-j 14 year
4 Ko Myo Aung Thant 5j,17(1) 20+10 year FTUB C.E.C
5 Dr Zaw Myint Maung 32 year MP of Mandalay
6 Dr Khin Zaw Win 5 j
7 Ko Htein Lin
8 Ko Aung Naing Maw
9 U Hla Htut Aung
10 U Chit Ko Ko
11 Ko Khaing Zaw Oo
NOTE.
ABFSU = All Burma Federation Of Student Unions.
ABSDF = All Burma Student Democratic Front.
BYLF = Burma Youth Liberation Front.
NLD = National League for Democracy.
CPB =Communist party of Burma.
C.C = Central Committee
C.E.C = Central Executive Committee
DPNS = Democratic Party for New Society.
FTUB = Federation of Trade Union Burma
KNU = Karen National Union.
LYSDF = League of Youth and Student Democratic Front.
MP = Member of Parliament.
RASU = Rangoon Art and Science University.
GTI =Government Technical Institute.
RIT = Rangoon Institute of Technology.
TSP = Township.
Capital = Death Sentence.
5 (J) = 1950,Emerangency provision Act.
***********************************************
BURMANET: NEW KHRG REPORT DOCUMENTS BREAKUP OF KAREN VILLAGES IN PA'AN
DISTRICT
December 28, 1998
A new report by the Karen Human Rights Group (Commentary #99-C3)
documents the flight of villagers from their homes in southeastern
Pa'an District and its relation to the current situation of refugees
and migrants in Thailand. The report is now available on the KHRG
website at:
http://metalab.unc.edu/freeburma/humanrights/khrg/archive
The full report on the situation in eastern Pa'an District,
"Beyond All Endurance: The Breakup of Karen Villages in
Southeastern Pa'an District", is already available in print form
and is set to be posted to the web soon.
***********************************************
NLM: TIN OO ATTENDS CEREMONY TO EXPORT BARBED WIRE MACHINES MADE IN
MYANMAR
YANGON, 25 Dec
Secretary-2 of the State Peace and Development Council Lt-Gen Tin Oo
attended a ceremony to mark the first export of barbed wire machines
made in Myanmar of Luthit Factory held at No 24 Thantzin Street, near
Kyaikwaing Pagoda, Mayangon, here, this evening.Director-General of
Cottage Industries Department Col Sein Than and owner of Luthit Factory
U Yan Aung unveiled the ceremony.
Later, the Secretary-2 and party inspected the barbed wire
machines.Afterwards, In-charge of Yangon West District Industrial Zone
Minister for Cooperatives U Aung San and Deputy Minister for Industry-2
U Thein Tun made speeches on the occasion.
Then, Director-General Col Sein Than explained production and
distribution of the barbed wire machines. Deputy Minister Col Thaik Tun
reported on efforts made by the State for the development of private
industrial sector in building new, modern and developed nation.
The two barbed wire machines worth US$ 4,00 were exported to Indonesia
for the first time and eight more been ordered by Indonesia.
***********************************************
AFP: BANGLADESH BORDER GUARDS ON ALERT AFTER MYANMAR MORTAR FIRE
CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh, Dec 28 (AFP) -
Bangladesh Tuesday put guards along its border with Myanmar
on alert after some 100 mortar rounds were fired into
Bangladesh, but without causing casualties, officials here said.
The Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) went on alert along the 271 kilometer
(168 mile) southeastern frontier with Myanmar after the shells
landed overnight in the Tumbu area near Teknaf town, BDR regional
officer Colonel Wali told AFP.
Bangladesh officials have sent a formal protest to their Myanmar
counterparts and asked for an immediate meeting to discuss the
incident, he added.
Wali said the brief unprovoked firing, believed to have been carried
out by Myanmar border guards at Nasaka, began at 11:15 p.m. (1715 GMT)
Monday night and stopped only after BDR guards from a nearby camp fired
warning shots.
There were no casualties on the Bangladesh side, Wali said, but gave
no other details.
The incident coincided with the naming Monday of Ohn Thwin, a
48-year-old army brigadier, as Myanmar's new ambassador to Bangladesh.
Brigadier Thwin, who was Division Commander of the Military Operation
Command in Yangon before being posted to Bangladesh, will succeed
incumbent Tint Lwin, an official announcement said, but did not specify
when Thwin will arrive in Dhaka.
Border skirmishes have been reported occasionally in the past between
Bangladesh and Myanmar particularly since more than 250,000 Myanmar
nationals, known as Muslim Rohingays, fled their homes in 1991 alleging
persecution by the military junta and took refuse in Bangladesh.
Most of them had returned home by 1997 under a Dhaka-Yangon agreement
backed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, but several thousand
refused to return and stayed in two make-shift camps causing occasional
violence and tension in the area and along the border.
***********************************************
SHAN: BORDER PASS CLOSED--AGAIN
Shan Herald Agency for News
28 December 1999
No: 12 - 23
Border Pass Closed - Again
A border pass between Shan State of Burma and Thailand was abruptly
closed yesterday again, reported Maihoong from the border.
Maihoong, S.H.A.N.'s border watcher said BP-1, the border pass between
Shan State's Mongton Township and Thailand's Chiangmai Province, was
ordered closed by the junta yesterday. Although no reason was reported
given, it was believed to be connected the Shan State Army's attack on
junta trucks transporting 84,000 amphetamine tablets to BP-1 on
Thursday, 23 December.
Thais who were working in Mongton area,including the GMS Power doing
final survey at Tasarng Salween Dam site, were believed to be stranded
there because of the closure on short notice.
***********************************************
AP: MEASURES ANNOUNCED VS. VIOLATORS
December 23, 1999
WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has informed
Congress of a list of sanctions she concluded should be applied against
five countries because of ``particularly severe violations'' of
religious freedoms, the State Department said Thursday
But the action will have no practical effect because the five already
are subject to sweeping sanctions.
The five are Burma, China, Iran, Iraq and Sudan, all of which Albright
had identified in October as violators of religious freedom because of
``systematic, ongoing and egregious behavior.''
Under law, the United States is required to take some action against
such countries. In effect, the sanctions add to the original rationale
for imposing sanctions in the first place.
In a statement, State Department spokesman James Foley said each of the
five is ``already subject to multiple, broad-based and ongoing sanctions
imposed in significant part in response to human rights abuses.''
The new - but redundant - sanctions are:
-Burma, the prohibition on exports or other transfers of defense
articles and defense services.
-China, restrictions on exports of crime control and detection
instruments and equipment. Congress also was informed that the United
States will continue ``to vigorously pursue all other available means of
altering Chinese behavior with respect to religious persecution.''
-Iran and Iraq, restrictions on U.S. security assistance.
-Sudan, U.S. opposition to Sudanese loan requests from international
lending institutions.
***********************************************
REUTERS: JAPAN'S OBUCHI TO VISIT THREE ASEAN NATIONS IN 2000
10:21 p.m. Dec 27, 1999 Eastern
TOKYO, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Keizo
Obuchi is expected to visit three countries in Southeast
Asia early in January, the government said on Tuesday.
Chief government spokesman Mikio Aoki said Obuchi will visit
Thailand, Laos and Cambodia from January 10 to January 15
in order to boost dialogue with members of the 10-nation
Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) prior to
the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Okinawa next July.
Japanese media has reported that Obuchi is expected to
announce major financial assistance to Cambodia for
removal of land mines during his visit there.
Japan, China and South Korea took part in a November
meeting of ASEAN nations, at which they promised
broad cooperation to bring greater peace, stability
and prosperity to the Asian region as a whole.
ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia,
Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand
and Vietnam.
***********************************************
OP/ED: JOHN RALSTON SAUL ON MIN KO NAING, DR. CYNTHIA
SPEECH AT THE 1999 JOHN HUMPHREY FREEDOM AWARD CEREMONIES
MONTREAL, DECEMBER 10, 1999
It seems for me, that every time I speak about Burma -it's been 20
years now- I have to be cautious. I come, as many of us do here, from a
country in which human rights and freedom of speech mean something that
is clearly defined. There are some flaws. Some things are missing. There
are a couple of mistakes and weaknesses, but it is mainly well defined.
Let's for a moment turn ourselves towards people that live in a
different situation, in which human rights and freedom of speech are not
as well defined, living in some kind of anarchy. Let's turn to them with
modesty and restraint. Individuals like Min Ko Naing and Dr. Cynthia
Maung do not need our sympathy, our emotions, our love, our lessons or
the certainties and opinions that emerge from our comfort. They need our
respect. We need to give them our admiration. We need to be ready to put
ourselves beside them, even in our comfort situation, and as Mr.
Allmand, president of ICHRDD, said, to defend, even if it is just a
little, their rights, which do not exist at this moment. It is somehow
important to show our inability to understand their personal strength,
mainly because we have not lived their situation, though some persons
here may have lived them. People from Canada, the United States or
Europe generally never experience that reality. We cannot imagine the
lives they are living. Many of us have seen that kind of situation, by
visiting countries just as I've visited Kosovo recently, just as when I
visited Burma ten years ago, looking at Burma during the eighties. But
visiting a country is not living a situation. It
isn't experimenting imprisonment, being an 'outcast' as is one of our
recipients tonight. So when I talk about Burma, I always do it with
certain reservations, mainly because the particular situation is so
appalling.
Above all, I am very careful always to put forward easy, clear,
certain answers to the obvious problems of Burma. I have a tendency to
force myself to speak with a certain pessimism about Burma. If you don't
speak with a certain pessimism, you are pretending that it is going to
be easier or that it can be done in a classical Canadian way, as opposed
to the very difficult and complex way which Dr. Cynthia knows far better
than we do and Aung San Suu Kyi knows far better than we do, sitting in
a form of prison for years.
I'll give you a small example of why I am careful. Twenty years
ago, I started writing about, something which many of us knew then: the
involvement of the military junta in Burma, in the drug trade. For
years, it was impossible to get any respectable newspaper or Western
government to pay attention to this fact. Because international politics
is international politics: There is a certain nobility to the diplomatic
profession and to the journalistic profession when they are writing
about diplomacy. On the other hand, drugs is police work and that's not
dignified. It belongs on another page in the newspapers or in police
headquarters, not in diplomatic headquarters. The result was that it was
for years impossible to get people to discuss openly the fact that
Burmese leaders were involved in some ways in drug traffic.
Finally, about three or four years ago, there was a breakthrough.
Western governments began to say what they should have said long before,
which was the self-evident involvement of the junta in various ways and
at various levels. Only now have we begun to talk about the fact that
this repetitive war on drugs in the United States and Canada is directly
related to our policies on Burma. Most of the heroin on our streets
comes from Burma and the junta in Burma plays some sort of role in that
heroin getting this far.
If we were serious about a war on drugs, we would be putting an
enormous effort, throughout the Western world, I'm not talking about any
specific government, into working for a change in Burma.
People say that it is hard to get public attention for the
situation in Burma because we have so little relations, we sell and buy
so little, people know so little. I can only suggest that every time we
say the word 'heroin', 'overdose', 'addiction', 'organized crime',
'crime-related' or 'death of youth in the street' we simply add three
words: 'Burmese military rulers'. It will then become far easier to
concentrate on the situation in Burma as being absolutely central to the
situation in our streets in the West. If Burmese military rulers is too
long, we could use the word SLORC (State Law and Order Restoration
Council), which I persist in using as being an accurate description
somehow, verbally, the sound of it seems right. Just as Burma is more
accurate, SLORC sounds right for what we are dealing with.
I would suggest also that when people talk or argue about the
possible benefits of investing in Burma-building a pipeline for example
from Burma to Thailand and talking about the positive trickle down
effects (there are none but which people talk about and the slave labour
which there was), I think it would be interesting to do a bit of
inclusive economics calculations. Even if there were a trickle down
effect, or a benefit from the pipeline (which there was not), how much
was it and how much is the cost-direct and indirect-of the heroin in our
streets coming directly from Burma with some involvement from the
military junta in that country? How do they stack up against each other?
Well, we know very well. At the most optimistic, the trickle down would
be a few million. At the most modest, the heroin effect is billions and
billions of dollars.
There is an increasing number of respectable and responsible
people in the Western world who are saying we have got to be more
rational and productive in terms of Burma because we have been working
at this for awhile (a few years in other words; sort of a decade). What
we are doing doesn't work, so we must try something else. I would call
this personally a western frenetic approach towards public policy, the
administrative approach, the management approach. It is very short term.
We have got to have results in the quarter, in the year, in the five
years. If you don't have results, then you are failing and therefore
you've got to do something else. It is a very, very management view of
reality and of course reality has nothing to do with management,
particularly in a situation such as Burma. It isn't about quarterly
reports. It isn't about showing progress in the short term.
The choices of people like Dr. Cynthia and Min Ko Naing
demonstrate to us that it isn't about short term results. It's about
being ready to engage for the long term. Their approach and the approach
of people like them, Aung San Suu Kyi, show that there is another view,
another approach which is not only possible but is probably the only
approach possible if you live inside a society like the Burmese society
today. There is an astonishing combination in their lives, it seems to
me, between courageous impatience i.e. willing to take risks with their
lives, combined with stubborn patience, ready to take the time necessary
to get real change.
On top of that they have a memory, a positive memory, a real
memory of what has come before. I didn't experience or visit the first
two decades of the Burma of Ne Win from 1962 on, but I read a lot about
them. I knew the Burma of his last real decade, the eighties. That's
when I was there on a regular basis. That's what I wrote about. So
that's three decades-not 10 years, not two years, three decades-and then
1988 happened and the violence and the deaths and suddenly Burma
disappeared and it was as if we were beginning afresh. We no longer had
a memory of those three decades and instead we had another place called
Myanmar so that you couldn't push a button on a computer and have the
history of the preceding decades come up. I am joking slightly but only
slightly. A new situation, apparently, with new dictators, a new name
SLORC and then suddenly 10 years later another new name, the SPDC (State
Peace Development Council). Apparently a new situation again but of
course the SPDC is the SLORC and the SLORC is the military group which
came out of and is part of Ne Win. This is still the 1962 regime of Ne
Win. Soldiers grow old but they replace each other even in situations
like this. We are looking at an extremely long-lived rogue
regime, which alters itself by slight degrees every five, 10, 15 years.
But it's the same regime, with the same philosophy, and the same
approach. Nothing fundamental has changed since 1962.
Now, I hear phrases today from people who don't want to remember
that it goes back to 1962, saying things like our influence over Burma
is weak because we don't trade enough with them. If only we traded more,
then we would have more influence over them. Well, there are many other
people who have traded with Burma since 1962 who have invested in Burma
in the 70s, in the 80s, over the last 10 years and today. Do any of them
have any influence over the regime? Is there any indication over the
last decades that by investing in Burma you would get any influence over
this regime? There isn't a single example of it. Japan, Thailand, nobody
has gained any influence by putting money into the country through
economic investment.
Secondly, I hear people trotting out the classic Western argument
that if we invested then there would be a trickle down effect that would
create a middle class. A middle class would lead to liberalization and
liberalization would lead towards democracy. You've all heard that sort
of argument but that approach has also been tried several times over the
last 30 years. Most recently it was tried just before 1988 and of course
it was tried in a small way through the pipeline to which I made
reference and it was very clear. We were promised by the people building
the pipeline that it would have an effect. I quote from their
spokesperson, 'We believe our presence in the region is a force for
progress for economic and social development.' Allright, the pipeline is
more or less built. Has there been progress? Has there been economic
development? Has there been a trickle down? No! There hasn't! We just
have to remember that it didn't work. It didn't turn out the way they
said it would turn out.
There is a third phrase I hear increasingly, which is : normalize
relations and then we'll sort of draw them out into a conversation. And
as a result of that the military were allowed into ASEAN (Association of
South-East Asian Nations) and they've been in ASEAN for a little while
now and what has changed? Have they been drawn out? Has ASEAN gained
influence over them? Has something changed for the better? No! Nothing
has changed! It is still exactly the same as it was in 1962, 1963, and I
won't go through the years since then one by one... Nothing has changed
through this approach.
My own sense of this regime, and I have said this in various ways
before, is that it is a very peculiar regime. If you don't focus on the
peculiarity of it, it is very difficult to deal with it. It is an
extremely mediocre regime. These are mediocre people. They don't even
have the glorious ambitions of your classic dictators. They are not in
it for the money, except for small amounts of money. This is a very rich
country, Burma. They could be making hundreds and hundreds of millions
of dollars, billions of dollars, but they're not. They're making five
million dollars, 10 million dollars. It's very mediocre. And they're not
in it for the glory. It's very unglorious, their regime. It's very small
potatoes-except for the deaths of individuals. It's a regime of mediocre
people clinging to the minimum sort of power for small amounts of money.
These are people who are willing to destroy their own country in
order to hang on. And this is rarer than we believe, dictators who are
willing to open fire on their own citizens in order to hang on. I mean
most unpleasant dictators are willing to kill a few people, a few of
their own citizens, but very few of them are actually willing to kill
thousands of their own citizens. It's a relatively rare phenomenon. It
is what I call a rogue regime, not a real government at all. It has no
legitimacy, not by any standards. It doesn't have a legitimacy that
would come from Asian standards. It is completely at variance with Asian
ethical standards. It doesn't even have the legitimacy of being true to
the realpolitik of international politics or of Asian realpolitik. It
isn't even a real regime by the standards of dictatorships. It isn't
even a real dictatorship. This idea of a rogue, marginal, peculiar
régime isn't new. After all, we treated
South Africa as if it were a rogue regime and brought it down in the end
by doing that. In the end, we treated the Duvaliers in Haiti-far too
late in the day but nevertheless-as a rogue regime.
So, having given this rather pessimistic view, what does it mean.
Well, Aung San Suu Kyi is ready to negotiate with the military without
any preconditions. In other words, she is ready to engage in a strategic
risk, which I think is a very reasonable position. She is not ready to
talk about nuts and bolts. She is willing to talk about the big picture
with them--if they are willing to do that. And equally, I think that the
proposition made by the United Nations special representative De Soto in
1998, that he would coordinate one billion dollars of assistance in
exchange for some positive
initiatives from the military is also I think a very reasonable
strategy. If you could actually get that kind of agreement, a big
agreement, then things would move in a relatively big way. And in spite
of offering enough money for all of them to go to Switzerland for the
rest of their lives,wherever they want to go, there is no response.
Nothing is happening. Because that isn't the essence of why they are
there. The corruption of this regime is so profound that it is
impossible to imagine how one can construct a step by step rational
management process towards normalization.
You know, John Humphrey said about the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, "There has never been a more revolutionary development in
the theory and practice of international law and organization than the
recognition that human rights are matters of international concern.
Revolutionary, strategic. Soon we are going to have an International
Criminal Court, active and capable of dealing with issues and people who
resemble in many ways those who are in power in Burma. It would be
perhaps possible to apply the rules of that court to some of those
people. To apply the court to these people would be a strategic
approach. To offer them a billion dollars in return for some sort of
movement would be a strategic approach.
I believe what we have to do is to avoid at all costs the
temptation of Western countries, avoid the comfortable trap of the
Western approach, believing that all situations are manageable in
detail. Sometimes tactics are really aimed at the people engaging in the
tactics not at the situation. Sometimes tactics, while reassuring, will
actually undermine the very strategy they are designed to serve. I have
always sensed that progress in Burma would come from a strategic
long-term and extremely tough approach.
I feel this is the message, the real message of people like Dr.
Cynthia Maung and Min Ko Naing. We must engage ourselves, but we must
also accept that there are juntas here and there that resist other
nation's logic and international laws. There aren't many in Asia, but
there are some. And in these particular cases, we must play in a
different way, aware that we play on a long term and in a risky
situation. That's why I guess that the jury has recognized the
engagement of Dr. Cynthia Maung and Min Ko Naing, by presenting them
with the John Humphrey Freedom Award.
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