BurmaNet News: January 17, 2000

[strider@xxxxxxxxxxx]

---------------- The BurmaNet News ----------------
January 17, 2000
Issue # 1440
----------------------------------------------------

==========
HEADLINES:
==========

Inside Burma-
XINHUA NEWS AGENCY: DRUG ADDICTS REACH OVER 86,000 IN MYANMAR 
XINHUA NEWS AGENCY: MYANMAR SEIZES LESS AMOUNT OF DRUGS IN 1999
REUTERS: SUU KYI URGES MANILA WOMEN'S MEET HELP US BE FREE 
BANKGOK POST: KARENS CROSS BORDER TO FLEE ARMY ATTACKS


International-
 NCUB: LETTER TO UNESCO -REOPEN THE UNIVERSITIES
 AFP: MIXED REACTION GREETS MYANMAR'S ANTI-DRUGS DRIVE
 BIRMINGHAM POST (UK) MOTHER PLEDGES TO SUPPORT JAILED SON AFTER BURMA
 CLEMENCY BLOW
 THE JOURNAL (NEWCASTLE, UK): FO SET TO LOOK INTO JAILED BRITON'S LEGAL 
ENTRY 
 CLAIM -; MAWDSLEY SAYS HE DID HAVE VISA

***********************************************
XINHUA NEWS AGENCY: DRUG ADDICTS REACH OVER 86,000 IN MYANMAR

January 17, 2000, Monday 


YANGON, January 17 

   The number of narcotic drug addicts in Myanmar reached 86,537 in 
1999, 19,048 more than the previous year, according to the latest 
figures published by the country's Central Committee for Drug Abuse 
Control (CCDAC). 

Of the total, opium addicts account for 50.01 percent, heroin addicts 
37.4 percent, marijuana addicts 7.7 percent, stimulant addicts 1.2 
percent, tranquilizer addicts 0.99 percent and other addicts 2.7 
percent. 

Up to now, Myanmar has established six major drug treatment centers 
throughout the country, giving treatment to about 2,000 drug addicts 
yearly. 

The country has also set up eight rehabilitation centers to provide 
vocational training for ex-addicts. 

According to the CCDAC, there were also 41,336 hectares of poppy 
cultivation in Myanmar in 1999, 19,900 hectares less than the previous 
year. 


***********************************************
XINHUA NEWS AGENCY: MYANMAR SEIZES LESS AMOUNT OF DRUGS IN 1999


 YANGON, January 17 

 
   The Myanmar authorities seized 1, 447.55 kilos of opium and 272.94 
kilos of heroin in 1999, 73.16 percent and 32.4 percent less than the 
previous year respectively, according to the country's Central Committee 
for Drug Abuse Control (CCDAC). 

During the year, army units, police and the customs also confiscated 
274.48 kilos of marijuana, 278.97 liters of phensedyl and 28.75 million 
tablets of amphetamine stimulant drug and 262, 542.5 liters of precursor 
chemicals. 

The authorities also destroyed 12 heroin refineries in 1999. 

According to the CCDAC, 75 percent of these seizure were in the 
country's Shan state, from where drugs are normally trafficked out 
directly across its border to the international market.



***********************************************
REUTERS: SUU KYI URGES MANILA WOMEN'S MEET HELP US BE FREE 

04:21 a.m. Jan 17, 2000 Eastern 
MANILA, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Nobel Prize-winning dissident Aung San Suu 
Kyi urged an international women's conference on Monday to help her 
country, Myanmar, become free. 
Suu Kyi issued her appeal in a video message shown at the opening 
session of a three-day meeting in Manila of women leaders from around 
the world to discuss how to advance the rights of women. 
``I look forward to the time when Burma (Myanmar) too will be able to 
host a kind of meeting such as you're having now,'' Suu Kyi said. 
``That will come when we are a free society and I hope that you will all 
help us to become a free society.'' 
Former Philippine President Corazon Aquino, who restored democracy in 
her own country after helping oust dictator Ferdinand Marcos in a 
popular revolt in 1986, cited Suu Kyi and Nobel Peace laureate Mother 
Teresa, the ``saint of the gutters,'' as her role models. 
Aquino called Suu Kyi ``the rightful leader of Burma.'' 
``(She) has remained steadfast to the cause of democracy in her 
homeland....She has chosen to endure isolation...rather than abandon the 
cause,'' Aquino said. 
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won Myanmar's last election in 
1990 but was never allowed to govern by Yangon's generals. 
Aquino said politics must not remain a bastion of male dominance, 
specially as the world enters a new millennium beset by poverty at 
unprecedented levels and armed conflicts. 
She lamented that many governments were not acting fast enough to 
empower women despite their natural leadership abilities. 
``There is much that women can bring into politics that would make our 
world a kinder, gentler place for humanity to thrive in,'' she said. 
``It seems that it is only when women take matters into their own hands 
that they are able to secure their rights and privileges as equal 
partners of menfolk...The time to act is now.'' 
Conference organisers set up a billboard outside the session hall on 
tips to guide women's fight for equality. 
The tips include: ``Put our money where our beliefs are,'' ``Share all 
strategic and tactical information about winning elections and toppling 
dictators'' and ``Balance of power: if we make up half the population, 
we will manage half the power.'' 
The conference is attended by women leaders from Asia, Africa, Europe 
and the Americas. 

***********************************************
NCUB: LETTER TO UNESCO -REOPEN THE UNIVERSITIES

National Council of the Union of Burma  Foreign Affairs Committee
January 17, 2000

Open letter to the participants of the UNESCO conference.

We are calling your attention to the situation of Burma particularly its 
state of education.  

It has been 10 years since the Jomtien conference has set these ideals:  
of universal access to and completion of primary education, reduction by 
50% of the adult illiteracy rate, expansion of basic education and 
training for youth and adults, and improved dissemination of the 
knowledge skills and values required for better living and sustainable 
development. While most of the countries will be reporting on their 
efforts to achieve these goals, Burma's military junta representative 
(if there's one) will either fabricate lies and alibis or blame others 
but not themselves for the reason they went the opposite direction away 
from the Jomtien spirit. 

First it should not be forgotten that the ruling military junta in its 
effort to stay in power in 1988 killed thousands of students, which 
includes very young school children.  Also, teachers were always 
included in the people they put into jail.  These facts more or less 
show their attitude towards people in the learning institutions.

In 1996, after a round of student protests, the military junta closed 
thirty core universities.  Most universities have been open for less 
than three years since nation-wide protests erupted in 1988.  It is a 
fact that education is not a priority in Burma.  This explains why the 
junta has been criticized for the practice of child labor  instead of 
children going to schools, they perform odd and dangerous jobs.  It 
should also be mentioned that there is a very high rate of dropout among 
primary and high school students.

Among ethnic peoples, the military junta prohibits the use of local 
dialects in schools among other repressive means to prevent people from 
practicing their indigenous culture.

This situation is worsened by an alarming development in the tourism 
industry in Rangoon.  The Far Eastern Economic Review in its latest 
issue said, " For years, Burma's tourism industry languished under the 
ruling military junta. Now, business at five-star hotels is booming in 
the impoverished country, and it's not because of sightseeing 
opportunities: Prostitutes are the attraction."

But this is to be expected - considering the military has not provided 
its citizen job opportunities and has kept Burma's universities closed.  
The closure of the universities to prevent student activists from 
organizing political groups has placed thousands of young Burmese in 
limbo.  Now, Rangoon's youth are providing the demand for the flesh 
trade.  Desperate for foreign currency, next to drug money, the military 
has found a new source to fuel its bankrupt economy.

While Burma's big universities were reopened recently, informed 
observers doubt if it will resolve the dire education vacuum.  Rather 
than simply opening the original colleges, the junta created "sanitized" 
campuses offering degrees stripped of any subjects that might touch on 
politics or current affairs.  They even built campuses away from the 
city to separate students.  Chances are, these efforts will only lead to 
a poor education or sham degrees.  

And to illustrate how fearful of the students the military junta is, 
students were made to sign papers promising not to engage in any 
political activity and warned that any political demonstrations will see 
the college doors slammed shut again.   

We appeal to the participants of the ongoing conference in their 
collective or individual capacity to urge the military junta to respect 
the human rights of the people of Burma, particularly, to stop all its 
activities that violate the rights of people to education.  It should 
start opening the universities and let it operate as any university of a 
democratic country do.  The military junta instead of fearing the 
students should engage them in an open dialogue as what it should do 
with the opposition led by Aung San Suu Kyi. 

***********************************************
BANKGOK POST: KARENS CROSS BORDER TO FLEE ARMY ATTACKS

Bangkok Post - Jan 17, 2000
Ratchaburi-About 1,000 Karens, mostly elderly women and children, have 
fled across the border to take refuge in Suan Phueng district following 
attacks on a Karen rebel camp.
 
Col Samphan Yangphakul, commander of the 29th Infantry Regiment of the 
Surasee Task Force, said the attack on the Karen camp opposite Huay Khok 
Mu pass near Ban Bo Wi began on Wednesday. The Burmese troops pounded 
the camp with artillery and mortar fire. An earlier attack last Saturday 
sent Karen civilians pouring across the frontier to Ban Bo Wi. About 300 
more followed yesterday morning.

***********************************************
AFP: MIXED REACTION GREETS MYANMAR'S ANTI-DRUGS DRIVE
Agence France Presse

BANGKOK, Jan 17 (AFP) - 
A leading pro-democracy group in Thailand Monday slammed Myanmar's 
decision to uproot 50,000 villagers in a mass migration project designed 
to stamp out opium production.
But as the Alternative ASEAN network on Burma (Alt-ASEAN) hit out at the 
junta, anti-narcotics officials were more cautious, saying the plan, 
similar to one adopted by Thailand two decades ago, could have merit.
"The 50,000 people being forcibly resettled are victims of the regime's 
charade, which is aimed at repairing its international image," said 
Debbie Stothard from Alt-ASEAN.
Stothard was sceptical about the junta's motives and claimed there was 
"overwhelming evidence that the military itself benefits from drug 
production and trafficking."
Meanwhile, an official of the United Nations International Drug Control 
Program (UNDCP) told AFP that although the agency had no official 
position on the program announced at the weekend it could turn out to be 
a "good idea."
"I believe they will take the action, the Thais had a similar experience 
about 20 years ago and it seemed to have worked."
The UNDCP is not involved in Myanmar's new project which involves moving 
people from prime opium growing areas on the mountains along the Thai 
and Chinese borders to lands suitable for cultivating other crops.
But the source said that in several anti-drugs projects being conducted 
with the UNDCP, Myanmar's anti-narcotics squads were "doing a good job."
Military-ruled Myanmar, one of the world's largest sources of heroin, 
has promised to try to eradicate drugs production within 15 years and 
wants to shed its reputation as a state built on drugs money.
It said at the weekend that the new project, being conducted with a 
former insurgent group the United Wa State Army (UWSA), should prove its 
sincerity, despite the scepticism of many western governments over its 
anti-drugs drive.
A source at the Thai Office of Narcotics Control board was quoted as 
saying on Monday that it was too early to say if the project was genuine 
or a public relations coup as the Wa were notorious for trafficking in 
narcotics.
"I still wonder whether Burma (Myanmar) is serious about eliminating 
narcotics," the Bangkok Post quoted him as saying.
He noted however that Thailand's own migration project 20 years ago had 
enabled it to shed its reputation as a hub for the heroin trade.
"We have proven to the world since then that we are serious in tackling 
the drug problem," he said.
Another top anti-narcotics officer Police Lieutenant General Noppadol 
Somboonsap said: "It's still to early to comment as Burma needs more 
time to prove itself."
Critics of Myanmar's vaunted efforts to fight drugs, accuse the 
government of turning a blind eye to trafficking in exchange for 
ceasefire deals with ethnic groups.
Some agencies argue that cooperation with former drugs lords and the 
government is the only way to cut opium flowing through the notorious 
Golden Triangle region of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand to western cities.


***********************************************
BIRMINGHAM POST (UK) MOTHER PLEDGES TO SUPPORT JAILED SON AFTER BURMA 
CLEMENCY BLOW 

January 17, 2000, Monday 

 
The mother of a British pro-democracy activist serving a 17-year 
sentence in a Burmese jail yesterday said that the family would continue 
to support his campaign to highlight the country's appalling human 
rights record. 

Diana Mawdsley was speaking after Burma's military government said her 
son James Mawdsley was being held according to "internationally accepted 
standards" and that his jail term would probably not be reduced. 

Mrs Mawdsley, who visited her son last November, accused the Burmese 
junta of trying to break the family's spirit with its words. 

But she added: "They do not deter us, because to do so would be letting 
James down. 

"James is in prison because he wants to expose the military regime for 
what it is. And we are standing by him." 

Mr Mawdsley, aged 26, was arrested on August 31 last year for 
distributing anti-Government literature in the town of Tachilek, on 
Burma's border with Thailand. 

The following day he was jailed for 17 years for sedition and for 
entering the country illegally. He has refused to appeal against his 
sentence. 

Mr Mawdsley, a former Bristol University student, is being held in a 
prison in Keng Tung, 87 miles north of Tachilek. 

He is constantly watched by six guards, is made to sleep with the light 
on, and has inadequate clothing. 

He has been arrested twice before in recent years by the Burmese 
authorities - on the second occasion, he has said, he was tortured for 
more than 15 hours before suffering an eight-day interrogation. 

Mrs Mawdsley said from her home in County Durham: "For the Burmese junta 
to say that James is being kept in internationally accepted standards is 
absolute rubbish. For 133 days he lived in a cell with a speaker next to 
it which was constantly making noise. 

"And people who have visited him have been concerned how cold his hands 
are because of the lack of exercise he is getting. 

"But James is also very strong, he is very intelligent and he knows what 
he is doing." 

Her son had received a message of support from the Burmese pro-democracy 
activist and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, Mrs Mawdsley said. 

Her husband David has just returned after visiting their son in jail. He 
learned his son may have entered the country legally, but that the 
Burmese authorities took his passport. 

Government spokesman Lt-Col Hla Min said: "I think James Mawdsley is 
being treated according to internationally accepted standards." 

But he said Mr Mawdsley's record would make it difficult for the 
Government to show clemency again. 

"I am not sure who would even accept responsibility for his release 
because there is no guarantee he would not do this again," Hla Min said.

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

THE JOURNAL (NEWCASTLE, UK): FO SET TO LOOK INTO JAILED BRITON'S LEGAL 
ENTRY CLAIM -; MAWDSLEY SAYS HE DID HAVE VISA

January 17, 2000, Monday Edition 1 

 

 by Peter Mccusker 

 
   THE Government last night looked like being dragged into the James 
Mawdsley affair for the first time after it emerged he entered Burma 
legally with a visa. 

The revelations came on the day a Burmese colonel told reporters in 
Burma there was little prospect of an early release for James. 

The former Hexham schoolboy was arrested in September last year and 
summarily sentenced to 17 years, five of those for entering the country 
illegally. 

But during a prison visit with his father David last week in the town of 
Keng Tung, the pro-democracy campaigner revealed he had entered the 
country legally at Tachilek after obtaining a day's visa. 

A spokesman for the Foreign Office last night said any evidence James 
had been "convicted illegally" would see it take his sentencing up with 
the Burmese. 

"The family need to contact us immediately and we will take it up with 
the Burmese Government," he said. 

Previously the Government has not made any representations with the 
Burmese over James' sentence. 

James Mawdsley, 26, is constantly watched by six guards, is made to 
sleep with the light on, and has inadequate clothing. 

Mother Diana, a nurse, of Brancepeth, County Durham said: "James did not 
enter the country illegally. 

''He had his passport stamped, and, of course, this has now gone 
missing." 

James has not yet received a transcript of his "trial", which took place 
just hours after his arrest. Once this has been received he will appeal, 
said Mrs Mawdsley. 

Government spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Hla Min told journalists: "I 
think James Mawdsley is being treated according to internationally 
accepted standards." 

But he said Mr Mawdsley's record would make it difficult for the 
Government to show clemency again. 

"I am not sure who would even accept responsibility for his release 
because there is no guarantee he would not do this again," Hla Min said. 


No-one was available for comment at the Burmese Embassy in London last 
night. 

In elections in 1990, 82pc of the population voted for the pro-democracy 
party led by Aung San Suu Kyi, but the junta refused to accept the 
result. 


***END***********************


_____________________________________________________________
Check out the new and improved Topica site!
http://www.topica.com/t/13