[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

No Subject Given



Dear subscribers,
MIME-Version: 1.0
Mailing-List: list theburmanetnews@xxxxxxxxxxx; contact theburmanetnews-owner@xxxxxxxxxxx
Delivered-To: mailing list theburmanetnews@xxxxxxxxxxx
Precedence: bulk
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:theburmanetnews-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: theburmanetnews-owner@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [theburmanetnews] (unknown)
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit


If you already received this message, my apologies for sending it twice.  If you did not receive it, sorry for the delay.  As you may know, BurmaNet has just shifted servers and it is not entirely clear whether this issue of The BurmaNet News went out on Wednesday as it was supposed to.  Please bear with us as we iron out the technical issues related to the move.

Best regards,

  Strider



=========== THE BURMANET NEWS ===========
Wednesday, February 23, 2000
Issue # 1469

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

Inside Burma--

AP: INDIAN SEPARATISTS REPORT BATTLE WITH MYANMAR SOLDIERS
AFP: HAN LOOKING FOR A HOME
AFP: MYANMAR SAYS UN SANCTIONS DENY CITIZENS BETTER LIFE
SHAN: VILLAGERS FORCED TO FILL UP RICE QUOTA

International--

REUTERS: OPIUM TRAIL BRINGS DRUG HEADACHE TO S. ASIA

Opinion/Editorial--

MATICHON (Bangkok): AMERICAN'S ARREST RAISES DOUBTS ABOUT THAILAND'S
TRUE POLICY ON HUMAN RIGHTS
SPDC: URGES U.S. TO REALIZE A MORE REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS IN THE
RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF DEMOCRACY IN MYANMAR

Other--

ANNC: BELGIAN WEBSITE "ACTIONS BIRMANIE" LAUNCHED
ANNC:  BURMESE STUDY CENTER AT NARESUAN UNIVERSITY (Thailand) OFFERS
COURSES

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


*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
 INSIDE BURMA
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*


AP: INDIAN SEPARATISTS REPORT BATTLE WITH MYANMAR SOLDIERS
Feb. 22, 2000

GAUHATI, India (AP) _ Myanmarese troops overran the camp of  Indian
separatist guerrillas inside Myanmar last week, but the two sides
differed on the intensity of the battle and the number of casualties.
The outlawed National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), led by
S.S. Khaplang, said 40 Myanmarese soldiers were killed and more than
50 were wounded when the government troops attacked the guerrilla
council headquarters, between Chin and Kachin districts in northwest
Myanmar. The guerrillas said the fighting was continuing.

However, a Myanmar government spokesman, speaking on customary
condition of anonymity, said in a faxed reply to an Associated Press
request for comment, ``There was a minor fight in that area where a
covert NSCN camp with 20 men (was) overrun by the government troops.
The whole incident did not last more than 10 minutes as the NSCN
troops fled, leaving a number of weapons and ammunitions.''

The spokesman said he did not know if any guerrillas were killed or
hurt, but said there were no government casualties. The NSCN,
fighting for an independent tribal homeland in Nagaland, has for
years been using Myanmar as a base to carry out attacks against
Indian troops. This was the first reported time that the Myanmar
military junta has cracked down on the NSCN camps.

K. Mulatonu, the publicity chief of the NSCN, told The
Associated Press in a telephone interview from India's far eastern
state of Nagaland, ``The military junta tried to attack our
headquarters last week and since then a bloody war (has been) going
on in the area between the Myanmarese troops and our cadres.'' 

The NSCN has bases inside Myanmar, bordering Mon district in Nagaland
and parts of Arunachal Pradesh state. More than 20,000 Nagas are also
settled in parts of Sagaing division in northern Myanmar.

``We managed to kill 40 of their soldiers besides seizing 10 of their
weapons. We had lost two of our cadres in the fight, which is still
on,'' Mulatonu said.

Mulatonu said two Naga villages, Wangdruk and Thingpa, were set
ablaze by the Myanmarese troops, rendering at least 1,000 people
homeless and severely injuring 10 civilians. The NSCN Tuesday
appealed to international human rights groups to intervene to avoid a
``full scale war'' in the area.

``We want intervention from international rights groups and also help
from them to take care of the people who have become refugees due to
the attack by the military junta,'' Mulatonu said.


*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

AFP: HAN LOOKING FOR A HOME

YANGON, Feb 23 (AFP) - Myanmar's Kyi Hla Han competes on home soil
this week in the 200,000-dollar Myanmar Open in search of a spark to
ignite his season.

So far this year Han has yet to reproduce the kind of form which saw
him win the 1999 Asian PGA Tour Order of Merit but the talented
golfer feels the turning point might come in front of his home
supporters at the Yangon Golf Resort.

Hong Kong-based Han, who won once last year and finished second three
times, has not featured on the early season leader boards in Europe
or Asia.

"I have been swinging the club well. It's just that I have not got
going yet. There is a fine line between playing good golf and playing
golf that sees you winning or finishing high up," said Han.

The Myanmar golfer, who turned professional in 1980, has played in
the Myanmar Open since it was inaugurated by the Asian GA five years
ago. "It will certainly help playing here in Myanmar. There is a lot
of pressure on me to do well especially because of what I did last
year but it is something that I like.

"I'll be trying very hard to make a run at the title. It would mean
an awful lot to me to win it," added Han, whose win last year came in
the China Open.

Han is likely to face a stiff challenge from talented Thai Prayad
Marksaeng, who clinched the Asian PGA Tour's Filipino Open in Manila
last weekend.


*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*


AFP: MYANMAR SAYS UN SANCTIONS DENY CITIZENS BETTER LIFE

BANGKOK, Feb 22 (AFP) - Myanmar's ruling military lashed out at the
US on Tuesday for maintaining sanctions against the country and
forcing undue suffering on its people. The junta's statement follows
a recent visit by assistant secretary of  state Ralph Boyce after
which he said sanctions would be kept until there were 
signs of movement towards democracy.

"It is regretful that the US government continues to apply broad
sanctions against Myanmar," the statement said. "It is more regretful
that the US continues to believe that imposing sanctions and boycotts
on Third World countries t0 slow down their development will hasten
their transition to sustainable democracies."
It said sanctions put "extreme hardships and difficulties on the
whole population of those nations by way of deprivation, starvation
and denial of a better life."

Boyce traveled to Myanmar earlier this month and met pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi and held talks with senior government
officials there. Following the one-day visit a statement from the US
embassy in Bangkok said Washington would maintain punitive economic
measures against Myanmar until it showed "movement towards democracy,
respect for human rights and cooperation on counternarcotics
efforts." Much of the world's opium, which is processed into heroin,
is grown in Myanmar.

Aung San Suu Kyi' National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide
election victory in 1990 but the result has never been recognised by
the military government.

Critics accuse the government of launching a campaign of intimidation
and imprisonment against the party which has crippled it's capacity
to function as a credible opposition force. Aung San Suu Kyi has
spent years under house arrest and still faces restrictions on her
movements. All attempts by foreign governments and international
organisations like the United Nations have failed to push the
government into launching a dialogue 
with the opposition.

Boyce's visit was part of a routine swing through Thailand,
Singapore, Brunei and New Zealand.


*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

SHAN: VILLAGERS FORCED TO FILL UP RICE QUOTA

Shan Herald Agency for News

22 February 2000

No: 2 - 19

Villagers Forced To Fill Up Rice Quota
Muemai "New Hand", one of S.H.A.N.'s newly-trained correspondents
reported from eastern Shan State that villagers were being forced by
the junta officials, known as the SPDC, to sell rice at "government
prices" in according with the amount fixed beforehand.

"They had already sold them during the harvest time in November,"
said Mue-mai.

"But many were unable to fill up the quota fixed by the officials
because of the weather. According to the directive that was issued
recently, a copy of which is in my possession, the villagers have to
deliver their goods  by 20 February or face drastic action from those
concerned."

There are altogether 172 acres of rice fields in Hawngleuk Tract,
Tachilek Township. "Villagers were obliged to sell 11 baskets of
unhulled rice per acre at K. 290 per basket," said the correspondent.
"But the market price in Tachilek is B. 160 per basket."

It is approximately 11 baht per hundred kyat at the border. The
villagers, like most of the rural Shans, abhor eating Khao-zao
(non-glutinous rice) and only grow it for the Burmese, while they
plant Khao-nio (glutinous rice) for their own consumption.

In addition, they are also facing threats to confiscate their land by
the junta that is keen on changing Tachilek into an "Industrial
Zone," he said.


*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
 INTERNATIONAL
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

REUTERS: OPIUM TRAIL BRINGS DRUG HEADACHE TO S. ASIA


NEW DELHI, Feb 23 (Reuters) - South Asia's proximity to 
Afghanistan and Myanmar, the world's largest producers of opium, has
led to a rapid rise in drug abuse in the region, according to a
report released on Wednesday.

The annual report of the U.N.-aided International Narcotics Control
Board (INCB) said there appeared to be millions of abusers in the
region, where use of heroin and synthetic drugs is growing quickly.

``South Asia is wedged between the world's two main opiate producing
areas, Afghanistan and Myanmar,'' Renate Ehmer, the regional
representative of the United Nations Drug Control Programme, told a
conference to release the report. 

``The transit trafficking of drugs has led to a rise in drug abuse in
South Asia,'' she added. ``We believe that there are over four
million drug users in the region.''
Bumper opium harvests in Afghanistan have increased the
supply of heroin -- which is derived from opium -- in South Asia, the
Vienna-based drug control body's report said. The opium makes its way
from poppy fields in Afghanistan through Pakistan, India and other
South Asian countries to be shipped to Europe and North America.
``Western Afghanistan has seen a harvest of 4,600 tonnes of opium
from which 460 tonnes of grade-four heroin -- pure enough to be
injected -- can be made,'' INCB member Chinmay Chakravarty told the
conference.

Most of this will be transported through South Asian
countries, he said. The report warned that the increase of heroin
abuse by injection and subsequent sharing of hypodermic needles had
contributed to a surge in the incidence of HIV/AIDS in South Asia.

A U.N. Population Fund official said last November that the number of
AIDS patients in India alone would triple to 12 million in 2000 from
the current estimate of four million. 

Most of the opium cultivated in India is grown in fields
deep within the heavily forested and far-flung northeastern states,
where the country's drug abuse problem is most severe. These regions
also have the highest number of AIDS sufferers. In the early 1990s,
India had almost 2.2 million drug abusers, more than 40,000 of them
in the northeastern states. More recent official estimates for the
number of drug abusers in the country are not available.



*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
 OPINION/EDITORIALS
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

MATICHON (Bangkok): AMERICAN'S ARREST RAISES DOUBTS ABOUT THAILAND'S
TRUE POLICY ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Feb. 19, 2000

[Translated from Thai]


The arrest of an American human rights activist
named NORMAN MAX EDIGER, alias 'Uncle MAX' by Special Branch police
on  Feb 12 on charges of providing refuge for 9 illegal Karen and
Indian immigrants has caused ensuing questions about the
righteousness of the police action and the Government's efficiency. 
According to his biographical record revealed by his lawyer and Asia
Forum Secretary-General SOMCHAI HOMLA-O, Uncle MAX has been in
Thailand and well known among local NGOs for over   
20 years.  What he has actively been doing for the past several years
is to educate Burmese and Karen dissidents on human rights and
non-violent struggle with an honest intent to help alleviate
conflicts and promote human rights in Burma, thereby lessening
Thailand's burden of looking after these people. 

This American has virtually been doing so overtly in good faith to
the benefits of all parties concerned.  His arrest has thus drawn
extensive criticisms from both local and foreign human rights
activists as to why it was not made earlier and whether it has
something to do with the recent seizure of the provincial hospital in
Ratchaburi by 10 God Army men who were all killed in the end. It is
impossible that Thai intelligence officials were not duly informed of
this American's key role in protecting the Burmese minorities' human
rights with international recognition.  The Thai Government itself
has apparently been trying to show to the world that it is attaching
importance to human rights.  

This American's arrest makes people doubt about its true policy on
human rights.  Providing refuge for illegal immigrants is
understandably an offense against national security.  But in reality,
a large number of illegal Burmese immigrants remaining in Thailand
have been granted a reprieve in the absence of cheap Thai labor and
Thailand's obvious need for substitute labor from Burma.  We do not
mean to defend any individual but merely want the Thai Government to
adopt a clear policy towards Burmese in exile and the Burmese
minorities rather than a variable one and to choose between human
rights and its commercial gains.   
 -
Matichon editorial


*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

SPDC: URGES U.S. TO REALIZE A MORE REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS IN THE
RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF DEMOCRACY IN MYANMAR

Feb. 22, 2000

        Recently, United States has announced that it will maintain
its sanctions on Myanmar until it sees movements towards democracy,
respect for human rights, and cooperation on counter-narcotics
efforts after Mr. Ralph Boyce, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
for East Asian and Pacific Affairs made a one-day visit to Myanmar on
the 17th of February, 2000.

        It is regretful that the U.S Government continues to apply
broad sanctions against Myanmar as it has on more than 70 other
nations around the world. It is more regretful that the U.S continues
to believe that imposing sanctions and boycotts on third world
countries to slow down their economic development will hasten their
transition to sustainable democracies. The U.S. Government also tends
to understand that its policy of putting extreme hardships and
difficulties on the whole population of those nations by way of
deprivation, starvation and denial of better life is doing a favour
to the very people of those countries.

        Myanmar today is going through relatively similar stages the
United States went through centuries ago in the rebuilding of a
nation and undeniably it took the U.S. nearly 200 years in the
improvement of her human needs and rights situation. Surprisingly,
the U.S today is expecting Myanmar to be on a par with her when
Myanmar must and should be at this very stage of its development
prioritizing national unity, peace, stability and also developing its
economy with the aim of creating strong democratic institutions in
becoming a functioning democracy.

        It is quite unfortunate that those countries which reached
the stage of early development, instead of helping the less fortunate
countries to reach the same objective in a shorter period of time by
sharing their wealth and experience, are hampering the peaceful
evolution Myanmar is going through at this initially critical stage
of its development.

        As a country like Myanmar which has recently achieved
national reconciliation with its vast number of national races
fighting against all the previous successive governments since
regaining independence in 1948, the Myanmar Government has, as most
developing countries in the East, been prioritizing community rights
at this stage of her development. One of Myanmar's top priorities is
to provide her citizens with security, one of the basic human rights.
Myanmar believes that her citizens must enjoy essential basic
requirements such as security and safety of their lives and property,
a decent job which will help put enough food on the table for their
families and also a decent place for them to live in.

        In its universality, human rights mean differently to nations
with their own uniqueness in different economic, social, historical,
cultural and traditional values. But for a third world country like
Myanmar it definitely means the rights to enjoy the basic human
requirements such as (a) Security (b) Food (c) Shelter. Myanmar has
at present managed to fulfil these basic human needs to a certain
extent and has moved on to another set of necessities in health and
education as inner resources for economic development. In fact she is
now in the process of promoting health, education and the economy.
Myanmar believes that it must and will start to build up her
democratic institution with a solid foundation first and from there
on it will expand and develop into a much higher level. In spite of
all the arguments coming up in the international arena it is still
undeniable that no country has ever achieved a functioning democracy
in the reverse.



*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
 OTHER
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

ANNC: BELGIAN WEBSITE "ACTIONS BIRMANIE" LAUNCHED

Feb. 23, 2000

You'll see a photo of " one of the Communication Committees " created
by Total Corp for a "real communication"  with the villagers living
in the pipeline area : in front of the office of... the USDA!
This document has been published by TOTAL and is dated November 1995.

Also on this website, http://www.birmanie.net
- the Belgian campaign of support to Burmese democrats ;
- a speech of the president of  Belgian students, to the chairman of
the European Commission, to the French Prime Minister and to the WHO
chairwoman;
- a letter of U Aung Ko to the editor of the French paper which
awarded Mr. Thierry Desmarest, chairman of TotalFina-Elf, the title
of "the French manager of year".
- and papers of the Belgian press concerning the resignation of the
chairman of the Belgian university of Louvain la Neuve, presently
delegate chaiman of TotalFina.

The photo can be found in " 7. On en parle ", "Document", "Dissection
d'une anipulation" at http://www.agl.ucl.ac.be/birma/birma/fr.7.html

Write your support to the Belgian friends of Burma!
<vero.michel@xxxxxxxxx>



*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

ANNC:  BURMESE STUDY CENTER AT NARESUAN UNIVERSITY (Thailand) OFFERS
COURSES

The Burmese Study Center at Naresuan University in Phitsanulok
province is organizing three Burman-language courses (introduction to
Burman, Burman conversation and Burman reading) from March 20 to Aug
21. The classes are intended to provide both a basic working
knowledge of Burman and an overall view of Burma. The registration
fee for each course For more information, call (055) 261060. 


*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*


The BurmaNet News is an Internet newspaper providing comprehensive
coverage of news and opinion on Burma (Myanmar).  For a subscription
to Burma's only free daily newspaper, write to: strider@xxxxxxx


*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* 



===END=============END=============END===



------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shabang!com is the place to get your FREE eStore, Absolutely FREE
Forever. If you have any desires to sell your products or services
online, or you want to expand your customer base for FREE, Come check
out Shabang!com FREE eStores!
http://click.egroups.com/1/1299/3/_/713843/_/951464732/
------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
theburmanetnews-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxx