BurmaNet News: February 8, 2000

[strider@xxxxxxxxxxx]

=========== The BurmaNet News ===========
Tuesday, February 8, 2000
Issue # 1457
=========================================


NOTED IN PASSING:

"In Burma under the junta, all technology is put to the use of the 
dictatorship, whose priority is political survival first and last. Junta 
representatives use the Net to misinform, divide and intimidate." 

   Larry Dohrs, Seattle FBC.  (See THE IRISH TIMES:
   BURMESE JUNTA USES NET TO INCREASE POWER)

=========
Headlines
=========


Inside Burma--

THE IRISH TIMES: BURMESE JUNTA USES NET TO INCREASE POWER 

===

International--

AP: PORTUGAL PUSHING EU DIALOGUE WITH MYANMAR

KYODO: MYANMAR DEPLOYS 1,500 TROOPS NEAR THAI BORDER

NATION: 2,400 PACKED INTO IMMIGRATION CELLS 

KYODO: JAPAN TO HELP MYANMAR COMBAT HANSEN'S DISEASE

NEW STRAITS TIMES (Malaysia): REGIONAL RAIL LINK REPORT UNDER STUDY 

===

Opinion/Editorial--

LETTER--WE KARENS

DC-BAN/FBC: THAI REFUGEE POLICY COMPOUNDS DESPERATE SITUATION IN 
BORDERING BURMA

===

Other--

ALTSEAN: CALL FOR CONTRIBUTION TO BOOK

=========================================


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 INSIDE BURMA
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THE IRISH TIMES: BURMESE JUNTA USES NET TO INCREASE POWER 

February 7, 2000 


Online repression: Sandy Barron on the abuse of the Web in Burma 


You want to get online? That will cost two years' average salary for the 
hook-up fee and a decade's wages for a year's dial-up subscription. The 
cost of having an unlicensed computer and modem is up to 15 years in 
jail. 

Welcome to the Internet in Burma, where recent add-ons to a 1996 
computer law reflect an increasingly nervous military regime's 
determination to fend off the "democracy technology". 

The new regulations, issued in mid-January, vividly illustrate dot.com 
by diktat. Backed by the threat of jail, the regulations forbid "any 
writings detrimental to the interests of the Union of Myanmar" (Burma), 
and any writings related to politics. Web pages can only be created with 
state permission, and Internet account holders are responsible for 
ensuring no-one else uses their account. While the announcement will 
ensure Burma's place on the list of the world's top 20 "enemies of the 
Net" created last year by Reporteurs Sans Frontieres, its purpose was 
more a warning to the population than a substantive change to the 
already draconian approach of the ruling State Peace and Development 
Council (SPDC). 

For ordinary people, just being heard talking about email - like 
mentioning the name of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi who is 
under semi-house arrest in Rangoon (and due to receive the Freedom of 
Dublin next month) - is enough to attract the attention of Burma's 
ubiquitous military intelligence informers. While effectively banning 
the population from Internet access, the generals have been attempting 
to put the Net to work for themselves. The result has been to turn the 
technology of transformation in the majority of the world into something 
sinister and dangerous in Burma. 

"The Internet in Burma has become one more tool for repression," says 
Zar Ni, the Chicago-based founder of the Free Burma Coalition (FBC), an 
activist group which organises on the Net. 

"In Burma under the junta, all technology is put to the use of the 
dictatorship, whose priority is political survival first and last. Junta 
representatives use the Net to misinform, divide and intimidate," said 
Larry Dohrs, a Seattle-based FBC member. 

"Before the Net, the regime had no real voice in the world. Now, it has 
its own platform to woo naive potential tourists and provide information 
for business interests. The multilingual www.myanmar.com attempts to 
paint Burma as a peaceful, beautiful, welcoming place. Most people will 
not be fooled by the blatant disinformation, but inevitably it gets 
through to some," says Pat Raleigh of the Burma Action Group in Ireland. 


The SPDC also uses discussion lists such as BurmaNet to post daily 
bulletins from military intelligence, the Office of Strategic Studies, 
and sometimes from Burmese embassies. Pro-democracy activists dismiss 
the routine posts as a deadly dull attempt at "psychological warfare". 

Tapping into the Net does help the regime to keep tabs on its foes. "The 
Net must certainly be helping the junta to build a data base of 
potential and known 'enemies of the state' and 'external destructive 
elements', which is how it describes human rights activists and 
supporters," added Zar Ni. 

Since an Internet training workshop in Rangoon in July, organised by the 
World Trade Organisation, and attended by military intelligence, staff 
from the foreign affairs and commerce ministries, the regime has been 
talking up the wonders of information technology. Its leader, Gen Khin 
Nyunt, told a symposium last October: "Information technology has become 
an indispensable tool in our daily life . . . Myanmar is fully aware of 
the importance of information technology in nation-building." 

If a US-based firm can overcome the generals' notoriously inefficient 
and paranoid bureaucracy, e-commerce may even make an entrance in the 
country which came last in a recent global economic freedom survey 
(Ireland came sixth). A new site (www.myanmarmade.com) promises that 
crafts, gems, clothes and music from the cripplingly poor country will 
soon be available at prices "so cost-effective that it would seem too 
good to be true". 

But don't hold your breath for Myanmarmade - the generals have a way of 
dashing the hopes of would-be allies, including wannabe Internet 
entrepreneurs from the West. Two years after receiving permission to set 
up the first email service in Rangoon in 1997, London-based computer 
firm Digiserve (www.digiserve.com) was telling potential investors in 
the US that "with no domestic competition" the potential growth for its 
Eagle IT group of companies in Myanmar was "limitless". However, a 
December issue of Asiaweek magazine reported that Eagle's email service 
was abruptly terminated on December 13th. Two weeks later investors' 
hopes were dashed for good when the regime announced that it would be 
the sole provider of Internet services in Burma. On the same day, the 
Oslo-based Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) radio station reported that a 
computer officer at the War Office in Rangoon, along with five 
instructors from Eagle's computer school and another computer school, 
had been arrested. The reason, according to the DVB, was: "the 
proliferation in Rangoon of reports carried by the opposition web page, 
BurmaNet". The January warning was broadcast on televisions around the 
country. 

For Rangoon, there are clear lessons to be learned from neighbouring 
China's decision to allow limited access to the Net, a system which is 
proving impossible to control. Beijing, with its gradually opening 
economy, may be learning to live with a trade-off between the desire to 
reap the economic benefits of the Net and discomfort over the prospect 
of a better-informed population. 

For Burma's military regime, such a compromise is impossible. "They have 
no support among the population," said a Bangkok-based economic 
consultant. "Fear and absolute control are the only survival weapons the 
military has got." 

sbarron(at)iol.ie 



*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
 INTERNATIONAL
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AP: PORTUGAL PUSHING EU DIALOGUE WITH MYANMAR

Monday, February 7 7:45 PM SGT 

BANGKOK (AP)--The European Union wants to include Myanmar in a 
high-level meeting with Southeast Asian countries, despite the European 
group's opposition to Yangon's military government, the Portuguese 
ambassador to Thailand said Monday. 
Portugal is pushing the plan to set up a meeting of senior officials of 
the EU and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations - which includes 
Myanmar - while Lisbon holds the EU council presidency, Jose Tadeu 
Soares said. 

The EU imposes diplomatic sanctions on Myanmar because of the military 
government's failure to turn over power to a democratically elected 
government and its poor human rights record. They include a ban on 
official high-level contacts. 

That makes it difficult and in many circumstances impossible to hold 
high-level meetings with Asean, which refuses to exclude Myanmar. 

The proposed meeting of senior level officials from the two blocs could 
be the prelude to a summit of ministerial level officials, though no 
such outcome was guaranteed, Soares said at a news conference. 

Soares acknowledged that trying to hold high-level meetings between the 
EU and Asean was difficult, as EU has been "very critical of the 
policies of some Asean countries." He didn't specifically name Myanmar 
in his initial remarks but in response to questions made clear that was 
the country to which he was referring. 

Soares said the Portuguese position - "not shared by all the other 
Europeans all the time" - was that "we should keep talking even if 
sometimes we have to say unpleasant things." 

In March last year, an EU-Asean ministerial meeting scheduled to be held 
in Berlin was canceled when the EU refused to lift its visa ban on 
Myanmar officials. 


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KYODO: MYANMAR DEPLOYS 1,500 TROOPS NEAR THAI BORDER

Kyodo News - BANGKOK, Feb. 7 

Myanmar deployed about 1,500 extra troops along its border with Thailand 
in the northern province of Mae Hong Son over the weekend, a Thai 
military spokesman said Monday.

The troop deployment appeared to be in preparation for an attack against 
the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), Lt. Gen. Sanan Kajornklam 
told Kyodo News.


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NATION: 2,400 PACKED INTO IMMIGRATION CELLS 

Feb 7, 2000.

SOME 2,400 illegal immigrants - three times the recommended number - 
were yesterday packed into the detention centre at the Immigration 
Police headquarters. They get insufficient food and barely have space to 
sit. On Saturday night, one female detainee had a miscarriage. The 
detainees, mostly Burmese, have been detained as part of stepped-up 
security measures to prevent any terrorist acts during next weekend's 
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. 

Immigration police commissioner Pol Lt Gen Chidchai Wansathit said the 
Office of the National Police had made a deliberate effort to reduce 
crimes by illegal immigrants. Immigration Police have been arresting all 
illegal immigrants they have come across since Feb 2. Chidchai said the 
Immigration Police's detention centre could accommodate 800 detainees at 
a time. But on Feb 2 about 1,000 immigrants were arrested. And yesterday 
morning the number of detainees totalled 2,400. Chidchai said those 
arrested were meant to be moved to other prisons or deported. About 
1,000 of the Burmese detainees were yesterday due to be transported in 
ten buses to the Thai-Burmese border. 

The centre is a three-storey building with six detention rooms and nine 
bathrooms, located in Bangkok's Soi Suanploo area. Detainees are 
separated by sex. Permission has been sought to move some detainees to 
Bangkhen Private Police School. The school's detention cells, however, 
accommodate only about 350 detainees, Chidchai revealed. Reporters had a 
chance yesterday to witness a moment when food - that was found to be 
insufficient - was served. The detainees struggled to get their share, 
causing temporary turmoil in the cells. Warders at the centre said the 
detainees were mainly Burmese, Cambodian and Laotian. Most of them also 
suffer from respiratory diseases.

BY SAOWALAK PUMYAEM and AMORNRAT SA-ARDSORN The Nation 


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KYODO: JAPAN TO HELP MYANMAR COMBAT HANSEN'S DISEASE 

February 7, 2000, Monday 

TOKYO, Feb. 7 Kyodo 

Japan will start a five-year medical cooperation project to help Myanmar 
counter Hansen's disease, as part of its official development assistance 
(ODA), the Health and Welfare Ministry said Monday. 

Under the project, Japan will send experts on the infectious disease to 
Myanmar to teach medical examinations and treatment, and will provide 
medical equipment, the ministry said. 

Japan also plans to accept medical staff from Myanmar as trainees, the 
ministry said. 

As a special envoy to Health and Welfare Minister Yuya Niwa, his 
predecessor, Sohei Miyashita, will visit Myanmar from Feb. 14 to hold 
talks with local government officials and attend the signing ceremony 
for the project, the ministry said. 

After pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was freed from house arrest 
in July 1995, Japan decided to resume health and education-related ODA 
to Myanmar, partially lifting sanctions imposed against the country in 
1988, when the military cracked down on pro-democracy supporters. 

Miyashita will also bring back to Japan the remains of what appear to be 
soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army, which were found last year in 
Myanmar and Thailand, the ministry said. 

During World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army occupied Burma (Myanmar) 
and inaugurated a puppet regime. 

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NEW STRAITS TIMES (Malaysia): REGIONAL RAIL LINK REPORT UNDER STUDY 


February 7, 2000 

   THE Ministry of Transport is currently studying the feasibility 
report on the Singapore-Kunming Rail Link (SKRL) Study prepared by 
consultants appointed by the Malaysian Government. 

It is understood that KL Consult Associates Sdn Bhd, the lead 
consultants for the study, submitted the report to the Malaysian 
Government some months ago. 

The study was commissioned by the Malaysian Government some time in 
1998. 

Although the project is regional in scope and is supported by Asean, the 
Malaysian Government provided the funding for undertaking the study. 

The SKRL project, when completed, would connect Singapore to Kunming in 
the Yunnan Province in China via Peninsular Malaysia and Thailand and, 
depending which route is chosen, either through Myanmar or through Indo- 
China. 

As for the choice of the route, the terms of reference for the study 
specified a number of alternatives and the consultants were required to 
determine the most suitable. 


*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
 OPINION/EDITORIALS
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LETTER--WE KARENS

We, Karens, are not heartless nor have we lost our minds. We know what 
is good and what is bad. We, Karens, are honest, quiet, nice, kind, 
patient love others peoples, and respect and obey older people, parents 
and other people. We hate fighting with other people, and we don't want 
to make enemy with other people. We love to live in peace, love, and 
happiness.

We, Karens, entered to Burma 2539 years ago. But we could live in 
freedom only 200 years. We have been always oppressed, pressure, and 
punished by Burmese people. First when we live in Rangoon, there were no 
other people. 

We were farmers and poor but we lived in peace, love, and happiness. 
Then later when Burmese people came they oppressed and pressure us. As 
we hated fighting with other people we just forgave them and moved to 
where nobody lived. We had to start new lives.

We had to move many times until we had no more places to move. We have a 
very little place in the Burmese-Thai 
border, but thousands of our Karens people became refugees in Thailand. 
Lives on the border are like meat between two pieces of bread. Living 
under the control of others is like living in the mouths of the dead. We 
have to face pressure from both sides of the border, in Thailand and 
Burma.

You all know that Burma is not a democratic country and its 
military/government is one of the most oppressive in the world. They 
torture, kill, force us to porter, rape, destroy our houses and take 
away our belongings. We have no rights, no home, and no happiness. On 
the Thai side, they close the border and we don't get food or medicine.  
We are hungry and sick. We beg but they don't listen to us. They just 
let us die. We sat and wait for help for many years already, but nobody 
sees what we feel and care of what other people do to us. Therefore we 
cant' sit and wait for hope anymore.  We had no choice. We knew that we 
would die. Therefore it should not be surprising that we act in 
desperation, like seizing a hospital. If we were cruel like Burmese 
military a lot of people would die in that hospital. See our goodness 
and kindness. Don't only see our bad things and look down us. Know and 
see why we do that and what we do that for. 

But you may not know everything that happened to us because there are a 
lot of people (Thai intelligence officers) who control the real 
information and let you know only what they want to.

If you know that Burmese military are the most oppressive government in 
the world and we fight for our rights and lives, don't see only our bad 
things. Please tell us and teach us when we make a mistake. As we 
respect and listen 
to others people, we will respect and listen to you and learn from our 
mistakes. And also give us advice and help us what is the right way to 
get freedom. Please don't see our bad and leave us alone. We need 
friends, relatives, and the people to help us for our freedom with full 
of peace, love, and happiness.

Ter Kwen (Karen)



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DC-BAN/FBC: THAI REFUGEE POLICY COMPOUNDS DESPERATE SITUATION IN 
BORDERING BURMA

Activists to Hold Week-long Vigil to Draw Attention to Burma?s Plight

Contact Jeremy Woodrum, Free Burma Coalition: 202/387-8030
or Dan Beeton, Washington, DC Burma Activist Network: 202/625-6421

The Washington, DC Burma Activist Network (DC-BAN) will hold a series of 
one-hour long vigils from 5:00-6:00 p.m. at the Royal Thai Embassy (1024 
Wisconsin Avenue, NW) during the week of February 7-11, 2000.  Activists
will fast and don black garments to symbolize the plight of hundreds of 
ethnic Karen who are trapped between advancing Myanmar military units 
and a Thai army determined to keep the struggle within Burmese borders.

Fighting between Myanmar government troops and Burmese dissidents or the 
many ethnic minorities within Burma has forced large numbers of refugees 
to flee to the Thai side of the border.  In recent weeks, Myanmar 
government
troops initiated a military offensive against several hundred armed 
Karen guerrillas.  (The Karen comprise seven percent of Burma?s 
population of approximately 48 million.)  To prevent the fighting from 
spilling over to
Thai soil, the Thai army also shelled the Karen?s military base and 
tightened border control.  The desperate situation prompted members of 
the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors and God?s Army--a faction of the 
Karen--to take over a Thai hospital.  The members demanded medical 
treatment, shelter, and a promise by the Thai government to stop 
shelling their base--an act that grabbed headlines worldwide.

According to Thai columnist Suthichai Yoon, the hospital crisis was a 
?disaster waiting to happen.?  In his opinion, the real cause of the 
crisis is ?the culmination of the long history of the Thai government?s 
murky policy toward the armed minorities along the border.?   Sentiment 
against these minorities worsened as the Burma conflict breached Thai 
territory, first when the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors stormed the 
Burmese embassy four months ago.  Indeed, analysts predict the hospital 
crisis will harden the attitude of Thai authorities and the public 
toward the plight of Burmese
refugees sheltered along the mountainous Thai-Myanmar border. According 
to Dr. Zar Ni, founder of the Free Burma Coalition (FBC), ?There are 
more than 130,000 refugees living in squalor along Burma?s borders 
[which include Bangladesh, China, India, and Laos], and at least one 
million internally displaced people.?

The Free Burma Coalition  appeals to the Royal Thai Embassy to press the 
Thai government to:

Halt the shelling of civilian areas under their control;

Provide shelter for Karen refugees and medical care for the wounded;

Stop assisting Rangoon in fighting against refugees;

Coordinate with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to 
Pressure Rangoon to cease attacking refugees; and,

Release democratic activists who were uninvolved in the hospital siege 
and halt all future arrest of legitimate democratic activists.



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 OTHER
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ALTSEAN: CALL FOR CONTRIBUTION TO BOOK

February 4, 2000

***Women from Burma are invited to submit stories, essays, poetry, 
anecdotes, commentary, drawing, or other such contributions for the 
second version of "Burma: Voices of Women in the Struggle."***

"Burma: Voices of Women in the Struggle," was compiled in 1998 in both 
English and Burmese.  It was published in order to give space for women 
from Burma to share their thoughts and experiences, as women's 
experiences are too often overlooked in most struggles around the world. 
 

Altsean-Burma will publish a second version (title still pending), and 
welcome your contributions.  We will again publish the second version in 
both Burmese and Bangkok.  With your stories, essays, etc., we hope to 
convey the diverse experiences of women involved in the struggle for 
democracy and human rights.


The guidelines are as follows:

***Writers must be women from Burma***

Deadline: March 8, 2000

Language:  English or Burmese.  If you are able to send your work in 
both languages, that would be best.  We will publish  Burmese and 
English language editions of the book.  If you are your own translator, 
you will have more control over the translation.  If you are not able to 
translate, then please send us your work in the language you are more 
comfortable with.

Topic:  Must be related to Burma.  Or the topic can also be about the 
situation of women in Burma, or about the situation of women from Burma 
staying in other countries.   

Length:  No longer than 2500 words

Type:  poetry, essays, short stories, fiction, non-fiction,
commentary...all are welcome.  

Illustrations/Photos:  Illustrations and photos are also welcome, but 
please let us know as soon as possible if you would like to send some, 
as arrangements need to be made in advance. 

If you have any questions or comments regarding this book, please do not 
hesitate to contact us here at Altsean.  We look forward to hearing from 
you.

Tel: (66 2) 275 1811
Fax: (66 2) 693 4515
E-mail: altsean@xxxxxxxxxx

Address:
c/o Forum Asia
109 Suthisarnwinichai Rd., Samsennok
Huay Kwang, Bangkok 10320
Thailand
-----------------------------------
A L T S E A N - B U R M A
Alternative Asean Network on Burma
Tel: 66 2 275 1811 * Fax: 66 2 693 4515
<altsean@xxxxxxxxxx>

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Email: strider@xxxxxxx
Voice mail:  +1 (435) 304-9274
Fax: +1 (810)454-4740 

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