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Subject: [theburmanetnews] BurmaNet News: March 4-5, 2000
=========== THE BURMANET NEWS ===========
== An on-line newspaper covering Burma ==
=========== www.burmanet.org ============
To view the version of this issue with photographs,
go to-
http://theburmanetnews.editthispage.com/stories/storyReader$168
NOTED IN PASSING:
'Nothing much changed last year in Burma, except that its people grew
ever poorer and more miserable...[And] unlike Kim Jong Il or Saddam
Hussein, the dictators of Myanmar (as they call their country) are a
colorless, corporatist bunch of generals: evil without charisma.'
Fred Hiatt, (See WASHINGTON POST: SAME SAD BURMA)
Weekend of March 4-5, 2000
Issue # 1478
Inside Burma--
AP: YUGOSLAV FM SAYS MYANMAR SUPPORTS HIS REGIME
AFP: FIVE MYANMAR SOLDIERS KILLED IN FIGHTING WITH KNU
BURMA COURIER: NEW MON STATE PARTY TAKES ON NEW LIFE
ARNO: UNHCR SANCTIONED ROAD CONSTRUCTION CARRIED OUT BY FORCED LABOUR
International--
BURMA COURIER: SCENE SET FOR MORE CARROT AND STICK DIPLOMACY
AFP: SOUTHEAST ASIA SHOULD ABANDON NON-INTERFERENCE POLICY:
RAMOS
Opinion/Editorial--
WASHINGTON POST: SAME SAD BURMA
=========================================
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INSIDE BURMA
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AP: YUGOSLAV FM SAYS MYANMAR SUPPORTS HIS REGIME
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) _ Visiting Yugoslav Foreign Minister
Zivadin Jovanovic said Saturday that Myanmar supported
his country's reinstatement in the Non-Aligned Movement
and other international organizations.
Jovanovic also lashed out at NATO-led forces in Kosovo,
and said only the U.N. Security Council had to right to
decide on the use of force in international conflicts.
``The aggression against Yugoslavia has provoked much human
suffering. This aggression was conducted in the name of
human rights,'' he said before his departure. The minister
was referring to NATO's bombardment of Yugoslavia and
the entry of NATO-led troops into Kosovo last year.
In words that echoed Myanmar's own policy, Jovanovic said,
``No country or regional organization has the right to interfere
in the internal affairs of others on the pretext of defending human
rights.'' Widely accused of gross human rights violations, both
countries stress that outsiders cannot dictate their internal
policies, including those on how political dissidents are
treated by the state. Myanmar is also known as Burma.
``Yugoslavia as a founder of the Non-Aligned Movement should
be reinstated without further delay,'' the minister said,
adding that Myanmar's military regime supported its bid
for re-entry to organizations from which it had been
barred.
Myanmar was also a founding member of the movement and has
enjoyed good relations with Yugoslavia. In the past,
Yugoslavia has been involved in mining, the energy sector and the
development of railways in Myanmar.
The visit coincided with the 50th anniversary of the
establishment of diplomatic relations between the two
countries and came on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the
founding of the Non-Aligned Movement.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
AFP: FIVE MYANMAR SOLDIERS KILLED IN FIGHTING WITH KNU
March 5, 2000
MAE SOT, Thailand (AFP) - Five Myanmar soldiers were killed
as fresh fighting with ethnic Karen rebels flared near the
Thai border, Thai officials said Friday.
One Karen National Un ion(KNU) fighter was also killed in an
attack by 100 Myanmar soldiers allied with renegade Buddhist
Karens at Huay Nam Dang village, across the border from
western Tak province.
Rewat Banchongrak, a local administrator, said the KNU's
sixth battalion, which was involved in the clash, was under
the command of General Bo Mya, who was replaced as leader of
the KNU in January. Two members of the Myanmar army were
also injured in the fighting along with two KNU soldiers, he
said.
The KNU is one of the few ethnic groups still fighting the
military government in Yangon.
Its battle for greater autonomy from the central government
started soon after Burma, now Myanmar, gained independence
from Britain more than half a century ago.
Tensions on the border have been heightened in recent months
since a renegade Karen unit took part in a hospital siege in
Thailand's Ratchaburi province in February.
Ten rebels from the renegade God's Army group and the
Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors were killed in a raid by
Thai special forces which ended the siege.
KNU officials condemned the siege, and have distanced
themselves from God's Army.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
BURMA COURIER: NEW MON STATE PARTY TAKES ON NEW LIFE
Burma Courier
No. 221 Mar 4, 2000
HALOCKHANEE, Monland, Feb 25 (MUL) -- A statement read out at the
53rd anniversary celebration of Mon National Day indicates that the
New Mon State Party has taken on new life since elections were held
at the 4th party congress from November 14 to December 2, last year.
The statement renews the party's adherence to a call for tri-partite
dialogue with Burma's military regime and the country's democratic
opposition. New members were elected by secret ballot to all levels
of the party's work, the statement reveals, and they are committed to
working openly and with full energy to bring about a political
resolution to the political crisis in Burma.
The party statement was read by Nai Rotsa, following a speech by
elder statesman and party president Nai Shwe Kyin at the NMSP
national day ceremony at Paledoonphait near Halockhanee refugee camp
on Feb 20. After the colourful ceremony and salute to the national
flag, in which more than 200 Mon soldiers took part, party leaders
Nai Shwe Kyin, Nai Rotsa, Nai Hongsa, Nai Htaw Mon and Nai Ong Nai
were questioned by Thai media journalists about the current situation
of the cease fire agreement with the Burmese military government and
the possible transfer of the Maneeloy Student Centre to Sangkhlaburi.
Afterwards, a three-day seminar attended by 150 persons, including 20
representatives of the Mon Unity League, was held. Discussions
centred around how to build unity among the Mon people, how to
continue the struggle for the people's rights and the draft
constitution of the Union of Burma.
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ARNO: UNHCR SANCTIONED ROAD CONSTRUCTION CARRIED OUT BY FORCED LABOUR
>From The Newsletter Monthly, News and Analysis of the
Arakan Rohingya National Organisation(ARNO),Arakan (Burma)
Volume: 2, Issue-1 January, 2000
ARNO [rhn@xxxxxxxxxx]
The UNHCR stationed in Arakan has sanctioned an amount of
Kyat 20 million for enlargement and metal carpeting work
of Buthidaung highway up to the jetty. However the chief
of MI 18, Maj. Win Myint, who is supervising the project,
has engaged Rohingyas as forced labourers to carry out
the project without paying any money. Hundreds of Rohingyas
belonging to Nanragone, Maunggyitaung, Alaygyaung and
Seinyaung wai village tracts have to pay forced labour
daily and are forced to put signatures on blank papers
stating receipt of money. In this way the army major
and his associates are misappropriating the money of
the poor Rohingyas.
***
BurmaNet adds
See related links--
http://www.unhcr.ch/world/asia/myanmar.htm
'The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)...signed
a memorandum of understanding with the SLORC to coordinate
the return of the Rohingyas. As part of that arrangement,
the SLORC agreed with UNHCR to limit the amount of forced
labor it would demand from Rohingyas in the first few
months after they returned...In spite of the agreement
between SLORC and UNHCR, forced labor demands and other
human rights abuses continued in Arakan State, and new
waves of refugees fled to Bangladesh in 1996 and 1997.(38)'
http://www.dol.gov/dol/ilab/public/media/reports/o
fr/burma/main.htm#N_38_
>From Chapter 1, US Department of Labor, Report on Labor Practices in
Burma
http://www.dol.gov/dol/ilab/public/media/reports/ofr/burma/main.htm
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
INTERNATIONAL
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
BURMA COURIER: SCENE SET FOR MORE CARROT AND STICK DIPLOMACY
Based on Asiaweek, Nation and Japan Radio reports: Updated to March
4,
2000
HONGKONG -- Asiaweek magazine reported this week that it has learned
that all of the Burmese military regime's ambassadors have been
ordered home in advance of an international conference to be held
March 5-6 in Seoul.
The meetings, aimed at "bringing the Yangon junta in out of the
cold", will revisit the outcome of a 1998 World Bank-U.N. sponsored
meeting in Chilston Park, England, that reportedly tried to win over
Burma's military rulers with a $ 1 billion aid package in exchange
for political liberalization -- an initiative that remains stalled.
Meanwhile, Thailand has said it will defy Rangoon by sending senior
officials to the discussions. Burmese Foreign Minister Win Aung made
it clear in a letter to Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan last
month that Rangoon was opposed to fellow ASEAN states attending the
talks.
Two other ASEAN states, Malaysia and the Philippines, will also be in
attendance, but Indonesia and Singapore won't. Australia, Canada,
Japan, Portugal (chair of the European Union), Britain, the United
States and the United Nations are the other participants. The
original Chilston talks brought together the ambassadors to Burma of
Thailand, Australia, the Philippines, the U.S. and Britain with UN
and World Bank officials,
In what appears to be a related move, Japan Radio reported on
Thursday that Japan and Burma's military government had agreed to set
up a joint body to discuss ways of assisting the junta to make
structural changes in its economic plan for the country. Officials
from the two countries agreed on the formation of the "experts'
group" at a meeting in Rangoon on Wednesday.
The initiative is billed as part of Japan's long-term strategy of
assisting the regime to integrate its developing economy more closely
with those of its ASEAN partners.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
AFP: SOUTHEAST ASIA SHOULD ABANDON NON-INTERFERENCE POLICY:
RAMOS
Agence France Presse
SINGAPORE, March 3
Southeast Asian nations should change their policy of
non-interference in other member countries where internal
political problems have regional implications, former
Philippine president Fidel Ramos suggested Friday.
He said the tradition of non-interference in domestic
affairs among member states of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) was useful in the early years when the
grouping was building up mutual confidence.
But now, Ramos said, this "seems to have hobbled the
association, preventing it from taking purposeful action,"
he told a forum at the National University of Singapore.
Ramos, who stepped down in 1998 at the end of his six-
year term, cited the political crisis in Indonesia, and the
East Timor problem in particular, as well as the Spratly
islands dispute in the South China Sea as examples of
ASEAN's weakness in responding forcefully to domestic
issues.
"Just now, ASEAN's reputation is at an ebb," he lamented.
"Doubts are being expressed -- in the light of recent events
-- about its effectiveness," he said.
Thailand and the Philippines have called for a re-
examination of ASEAN's non-intereference policy, arguing
that domestic events in one ASEAN member state could
adversely affect its neighbors.
During the East Timor troubles late last year, Ramos said
ASEAN -- deferring to Jakarta -- "ended up passively
supporting the intervention of the Western powers led by the
assertive Australians."
Militias, backed by members of the Indonesian armed
forces, conducted a violent campaign of murder and
intimidation in East Timor in the month leading to an August
30 referendum on East Timor's future.
The violence worsened after the ballot in which East
Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence from
Indonesia, which invaded the former Portuguese colony in
1975.
More recently, Ramos said disputes over the Spratlys
among three of the four Southeast Asian claimants were
complicating ASEAN's efforts to respond in concert to
China's incursions into the South China Sea.
When asked about the possibility of ASEAN mediating in a
brewing China-Taiwan dispute, he said: "ASEAN should not get
in there unless it is asked."
"On the other hand, we have to monitor what's going on
because the new world order is very fragile," he added.
Southeast Asia must become more closely integrated and
ASEAN member states must seek a new balance between national
sovereignty and regional purpose.
Any involvement by Southeast Asian countries in
neighbours' domestic affairs with regional implications
would be "the natural consequence of growing Southeast Asian
integration."
Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam are the
members of ASEAN laying claim to all or part of the
Spratlys, along with China and Taiwan.
The other ASEAN members are Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos,
Myanmar, Singapore and Thailand.
"ASEAN is not -- and was not -- meant to be a
supranational entity acting independently of its members. It
makes no laws and it has neither powers of enforcement nor a
judicial system," Ramos said.
"Having said that, I must also say that, over these next few
years, ASEAN must change, if it is to keep pace with
Southeast Asia's evolving circumstances," he
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
OPINION/EDITORIALS
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
WASHINGTON POST: SAME SAD BURMA
By Fred Hiatt
Sunday, March 5, 2000; Page B07
You could begin like this: Nothing much changed last year in Burma.
But any journalism teacher could tell you that's no lead; who's going
to read about nothing new?
So you might try this: Nothing much changed last year in Burma; one of
the world's bravest women remained, after an entire decade, under
virtual house arrest.
You'd be talking about Aung San Suu Kyi. You'd hope your readers might
remember the serene woman with the long black braid and the flower in
her hair--who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. Who led the National
League for Democracy to a smashing, 80 percent triumph in peaceful
elections in 1990, even though she was under house arrest even then.
And who, when the military junta refused to acknowledge the election
results, herself refused to submit quietly to their theft of
democracy, embarking instead on a path of nonviolent defiance.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who is continually vilified in the junta's official
press as a race-mixing mongrel-producer, because she married a gentle
British don. A don who, when he was dying of cancer, requested from
the junta a visa to travel from Britain to Burma to say goodbye to
his wife, whom he had not been permitted to see in years. And who was
refused, and died in England last March without having said farewell.
Very sad, your journalism instructor might say; but honestly, the
world is full of sad stories. So you might begin instead like this:
Nothing much changed last year in Burma; the Southeast Asian nation
remains one of the most oppressed in the world.
Thousands have been killed, tortured and imprisoned by the military
regime. "The government's extremely poor human rights record and
longstanding severe repression of its citizens continued during the
year," the U.S. State Department concluded in its annual human rights
report 10 days ago.
The details in the report are stark. Soldiers who kill and rape;
forced child labor; trafficking in women and girls to China for
prostitution; 1,300 political prisoners; universities closed since
1996 for fear of political dissent; a "pervasive security apparatus"
that specializes in "intimidation, arrest, detention and physical
abuse."
And all of this in a country of 48 million people, which is to say
more than the populations of North Korea and Iraq combined. Which
raises the question of why, despite a despotism comparable to that of
North Korea and Iraq, Burma is almost never in the news, or in the
minds of policymakers.
Perhaps it is because, unlike North Korea, Burma is not building
nuclear weapons, and so President Clinton appoints no high-level
envoys, and the United Nations delays and delays on the appointment
of a mediator. And because, unlike Iraq, Burma wages war only against
its own citizens (particularly its ethnic minorities), and so the
U.N. Security Council wastes little time pondering its misfortunes.
And because, unlike Kim Jong Il or Saddam Hussein, the dictators of
Myanmar (as they call their country) are a colorless, corporatist
bunch of generals: evil without charisma.
So you come back to this: Nothing much changed last year in Burma,
except that its people grew ever poorer and more miserable. In a lush
and resource-rich country, once among the most literate of Southeast
Asia, the average per capita income was estimated at $300. The
business of choice was illegal drugs, tolerated and supported by
corrupt army officers. "Burma is the world's second largest source of
illicit opium and heroin" after Afghanistan, according to the State
Department's annual report on drug policy, also just released. "Drug
profits formed the seed capital for many otherwise legitimate
enterprises."
One of these years, things in Burma will change. Aung San Suu Kyi or
her democratic principles will prevail, just as democratic principles
have in such Asian nations as South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines
and now, haltingly, Indonesia. Until then, there is not much new to
say, except that Aung San Suu Kyi and her compatriots should be kept
in our thoughts and (if your journalism instructor would let you say
so) in our prayers.
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11646-2000Mar4.html
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