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  ________________ THE BURMANET NEWS _________________
/        An on-line newspaper covering Burma           \   
\_________________ www.burmanet.org ___________________/

Tuesday, March 14, 2000
Issue # 1486

To view the version of this issue with photographs, go 
to-
http://theburmanetnews.editthispage.com

_______________________________________________________

 NOTED IN PASSING:

"We saw no signs of an improvement in the human rights 
situation during the two past years." 

Amnesty International/Danish Church Aid (See AMNESTY 
INTL/DANISH CHURCHAID: HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN BURMA 
/ MYANMAR IN 1999)

_______________________________________________________



*Inside Burma


LA TIMES: U.S.--WORKERS RIGHTS LAG IN MYANMAR

US LABOR DEPT: CONCLUSIONS OF 2000 REPT ON LABOR 
PRACTICS IN BURMA

REUTERS: UN OFFICIAL IN MYANMAR TO TALK ABOUT WAR 
REFUGEES

AMNESTY INTL/DANISH CHURCHAID: HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS 
IN BURMA / MYANMAR IN 1999

*International


BANGKOK POST: GLOBAL PRESSURE ON BURMA JUNTA URGED

MIZZIMA: NEARLY TWENTY THOUSAND ROHINGYA REFUGEES STILL 
LEFT IN THE CAMPS IN BANGLADESH

*Opinion/Editorial


ETHNIC PEOPLES OF BURMA CALL FOR PARTICIPATION IN 
NARCOTICS CONTROL POLICIES 


___________________ INSIDE BURMA ______________________

LA TIMES: U.S.--WORKERS RIGHTS LAG IN MYANMAR

March 13, 2000


     WASHINGTON--Forced labor, including child labor, 
are widespread in Myanmar, and the government ignores 
workers' rights, the U.S. Labor Department said in a 
report Monday.

     The report, required by Congress, updates a 1998 
review of labor conditions in Myanmar, also known as 
Burma, which reached similar conclusions.

     Based on findings of the U.S. Embassy in Rangoon, 
the report says forced labor is used to construct roads, 
dikes, canals and projects to support tourism, military 
operations and commercial ventures of the military.

     "The latest report on labor practices in Burma 
reinforces our position that the international community 
must continue to push for a democratic transition in 
that country," Labor Secretary Alexis Herman said in a
statement accompanying the report.


_______________________________________________________

US LABOR DEPT: CONCLUSIONS OF 2000 REPT ON LABOR 
PRACTICS IN BURMA

March, 2000
[For the full report, please go to
http://www.dol.gov/dol/ilab/public/media/reports/ofr/bur
ma/burma2.htm ]

There has been little change and no evident improvement 
in labor conditions in Burma since the Department of 
Labor released its Report on Labor Practices in Burma in 
September 1998. Forced labor, including child labor, 
continues to be used on a widespread basis throughout 
the country on infrastructure development projects and 
to support military operations. The incidence of forced 
relocations continue to affect a large number of people 
in the country and may even be increasing, particularly 
in ethnic minority areas. Freedom of association 
continues to be denied in Burma and there are no legal 
trade unions. However, while the circumstances in Burma 
may not have improved, the international community has 
taken significant action against the current regime 
through the ILO's adoption of an emergency resolution on 
forced labor in Burma.

Nevertheless, forced labor continues to be used with 
impunity by authorities throughout Burma, and numerous 
reports received by the ILO Director-General, 
information from NGOs, and reports from the U.S. Embassy 
in Rangoon indicate that the Government of Burma (GOB) 
has not yet implemented the recommendations of the ILO 
Commission of Inquiry's Report. The GOB has never given 
any indication of the nature of the practical measures 
it was taking with regard to such recommendations. 
Forced labor is apparently used on a widespread basis 
for infrastructure development projects, including the 
construction and repair of roads, embankments, canals, 
dykes, and pagodas and to develop land. Some allegations 
suggest that forced labor continues to be used on 
infrastructure projects designed to support the tourism 
industry in Burma. Forced labor also continues to be 
reported in military operations, with people being 
forced to work as porters, sentries, military camp 
workers, and laborers for commercial ventures designed 
to profit the military. Some villagers can avoid forced 
labor if they pay fees to the authorities, but most 
individuals do not have enough money to pay on a long-
term basis.

Allegations of extremely harsh working conditions and 
human rights abuses continue to accompany charges of 
forced labor. Many villagers appear to have been ordered 
to supply their own tools, supplies, food, and 
transportation for the duration of a given project. 
There are continuing reports of beatings, torture, 
starvation, and summary executions. Individuals forced 
to act as porters for the military reportedly continue 
to be used as human mine sweepers and shields. Women 
working as forced laborers are reportedly raped. Forced 
labor may also be more targeted at ethnic minorities.
The use of forced labor continues to be legal in Burma. 
The national laws of Burma have not been changed to 
prohibit the practice. Order No. 1/99 issued by the 
Ministry of Home Affairs does not bring either the 
Village Act or the Towns Act, the two major pieces of 
national legislation authorizing the use of forced 
labor, in line with the Forced Labor Convention, 1930 
(No. 29). In addition, to the knowledge of the ILO, no 
person has thus far been penalized under section 374 of 
the Penal Code for imposing forced labor.

There is little new information with regard to 
allegations of the use of forced labor in construction 
of the Yadana Pipeline. Statements reportedly made by 
the Chair of a French Parliamentary mission examining 
the role of oil companies suggest that forced labor may 
have been used for work supporting pipeline 
construction. However, questions regarding the alleged 
use of forced labor on the pipeline have yet to be 
completely resolved, and officials from Unocal 
Corporation have continued to dispute allegations that 
forced labor was used on the pipeline and to communicate 
their concern over the methodology used by the 
Department in researching the 1998 Report as well as 
this update. 

Because of the GOB's consistent violations of the Forced 
Labor Convention, 1930 (No. 29) and failure to respond 
to repeated rulings by supervisory bodies to put an end 
to forced labor, the ILO's 87th International Labor 
Conference submitted, discussed, and adopted an 
emergency resolution on the widespread use of forced 
labor in Burma on June 17, 1999. The Resolution deplored 
the GOB's failure to comply with the recommendations of 
the COI Report and withdrew 1) technical cooperation or 
assistance to Burma, except for direct assistance in 
implementing the recommendations of the COI Report, and 
2) future invitations to attend ILO meetings, symposia, 
or seminars, except for meetings with the sole purpose 
of securing compliance with the recommendations of the 
COI Report. 

With respect to forced relocations, reports from the 
United Nations, NGOs, and the U.S. Embassy in Rangoon 
indicated that forced relocations are still a serious 
problem in Burma. These relocations place people into 
life-threatening conditions. Relocation sites often have 
inadequate or entirely lack housing, proper sanitation, 
safe drinking water, food, and medical care. Residents 
of relocation centers do not have freedom of movement, 
and unemployment is a major problem.
The practice of forced labor often seems to go hand in 
hand with the policy of forced relocations. The people 
most seriously affected by demands for forced labor are 
those who have been forcibly relocated since they have 
been forced to leave their land and become wage laborers 
instead of farmers. Villagers forced to relocate near 
military camps are particularly vulnerable to demands 
for forced labor by military authorities.

A large number of villagers are subject to forced 
relocations, particularly ethnic minorities. The 
practice of forcibly relocating entire villages and 
populations of people in Burma is one component of the 
military's "Four Cuts" counter-insurgency strategy. As a 
consequence, the ethnic origin or perceived political 
beliefs of populations often play a determining role in 
whether or not they are forced to relocate, and ethnic 
minorities are particularly vulnerable to forced 
relocations. The GOB may have stepped up its practice of 
targeting villagers suspected of supporting ethnic 
insurgents for relocation.

With respect to freedom of association, the GOB 
continued to fail to bring its laws and practices into 
compliance with the Freedom of Association and 
Protection of the Right to Organize Convention, 1948 
(No. 87). These failures include the continued non-
recognition of independent trade unions by the 
Government (there are no independent trade unions 
operating openly in Burma), lack of legal status and 
protection for worker organizations, lack of collective 
bargaining, and harassment and imprisonment of 
individuals suspected of worker's rights activities. 
Worker rights organizations such as the Federation of 
Trade Unions - Burma (FTUB) are forced to operate 
underground and are under constant surveillance by the 
police and military intelligence. 
The United Nations, the ILO, international trade unions, 
and other organizations have continued to note failure 
on the part of the GOB to grant the people of Burma 
freedom of association and the right to collective 
bargaining. The ILO's Committee on the Application of 
Standards, for the fourth consecutive year, noted in a 
special paragraph in its report to the 87th International 
Labor Conference that Burma has continually failed to 
eliminate serious discrepancies in the application of 
the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right 
to Organize Convention, 1948 (No. 87). The U.N. 
Commission for Human Rights also deplored the severe 
restrictions on the freedom of assembly and association 
in Burma in an April 23, 1999 resolution.

With respect to the use of child labor, allegations that 
government and military authorities use forced and 
abusive forms of child labor continued to be raised by a 
number of organizations. There are numerous allegations 
that children are being used as forced laborers in 
infrastructure development projects and for military 
support operations. Many families have apparently 
resorted to sending children instead of adults when 
forced labor is demanded in order to reduce disruptions 
in adults' income-earning activities. Therefore, 
children perform forced labor on infrastructure 
development projects and work supporting the military 
alongside adults and on the same tasks. There are 
allegations that children have broken stones for paving 
roads, helped construct temples, and worked on dams. 
Children also perform forced labor for the military, 
ranging from camp work to portering, and there are 
reports that children are being drafted as soldiers and 
used as human mine sweepers and shields. 

The Government's apparent lack of commitment to primary 
education continues to be a contributing factor to child 
labor conditions in Burma. Despite a compulsory 
education law, less than half of the children in Burma 
enroll in school and only 25-35% of those students 
complete the 5-year primary school course. In addition, 
the regime has closed down schools several times since 
1988. In the case of children who have been forcibly 
relocated along with the rest of their villages, many 
are forced to work and help support their families 
rather than attend school since many schools have been 
closed or destroyed, and the children often do not speak 
the language used by the schools at relocation sites.
The Administration has repeatedly condemned the 
suppression of democracy and the widespread violation of 
fundamental human rights that have occurred under the 
current regime in Burma and has deplored, in particular, 
the pervasive use of forced labor by both government and 
military authorities. In an effort to support a 
transition to democratic rule and to encourage an end to 
persistent human rights abuses, including the use of 
forced labor, in Burma, the Administration has used a 
variety of political, economic, and other policy 
measures. Such measures include economic sanctions, 
withdrawal of aid, an arms embargo, and a ban on 
investment in Burma. 

The United States has also brought persistent and high 
level denunciations of the GOB in a variety of 
multilateral fora, including the ILO, Association of 
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), U.N. Commission on 
Human Rights (UNCHR), and the U.N. General Assembly 
(UNGA). The Administration has utilized these fora to 
express condemnation of the current regime in Burma, to 
lead worldwide efforts to support change in that 
country, and to document and bring international focus 
to the gross violations of human rights in Burma.
On June 16, 1999, President Clinton addressed the ILO's 
87th International Labor Conference in Geneva, 
Switzerland. In his speech to the Conference, he singled 
out the Burmese regime for its flagrant violations of 
human rights and continued defiance of the ILO's 
fundamental values. The President's address underscored 
his commitment to labor rights around the globe and 
illustrated the high priority that he places on ending 
the human rights and worker's rights abuses in Burma.
The President's denunciation of Burma in his address was 
also significant because it occurred the day before the 
International Labor Conference was scheduled to consider 
an emergency resolution addressing forced labor in 
Burma. The adoption of this Resolution is unprecedented 
in the history of the ILO - it does not simply denounce 
the situation and activities of a member State, but 
significantly restricts all contact between Burma and 
the ILO. As some press accounts reported, the Resolution 
amounts to a de facto expulsion of Burma from the ILO.


_______________________________________________________


REUTERS: UN OFFICIAL IN MYANMAR TO TALK ABOUT WAR 
REFUGEES

YANGON, March 14 (Reuters) - A senior U.N. refugee 
official held talks in military ruled Myanmar on Tuesday 
to discuss the plight of hundreds of thousands of people 
displaced within the country during years of civil war, 
diplomats said. 

Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees Soren Jessen 
Petersen met government refugee officials and was due to 
see Foreign Minister Win Aung and Lieutenant-General 
Khin Nyunt, the powerful head of military intelligence, 
UNHCR officials said. 

They declined to outline the purpose of the trip, but 
diplomats said it was to look at the situation facing 
large numbers of people forced from their homes in 
regions bordering Thailand during years of fighting 
between the Myanmar army and ethnic minority groups. 
A diplomat in Yangon said estimates of numbers displaced 
by war and still living in Myanmar ranged between 
500,000 and one million. 

The majority belong to the Shan, Karen, Karenni and Mon 
minorities and some have been forced off their land in 
recent years to make way for the Yangon government's 
agricultural promotion projects.
 
A UNHCR official said Petersen was in Myanmar at the 
invitation of the government and did not plan to visit 
border areas.
 
Myanmar government officials could not be reached for 
comment on the trip. Petersen is due to hold talks with 
Thai government officials in Bangkok after leaving 
Myanmar. More than 100,000 ethnic minority refugees have 
lived for years in camps in Thailand after fleeing from 
the Myanmar army, which has been condemned worldwide for 
its poor human rights record.
 
Petersen's visit is his first since March 1999, when he 
visited the Myanmar-Bangladesh border to observe the 
repatriation of Rohingya Muslims who fled Myanmar en 
masse in 1992.




_______________________________________________________


AMNESTY INTL/DANISH CHURCHAID: HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS 
IN BURMA / MYANMAR IN 1999

REPORT OF A FACT-FINDING MISSION IN DECEMBER 1999
*******
[BurmaNet adds--BurmaNet has posted the full text of 
this report with accompanying photos.  Warning--
extremely graphic content.

http://theburmanetnews.editthispage.com/stories/storyRea
der$223
******
129 persons has been interviewed by four physicians from Amnesty 
International Danish Medical Group, in cooperation with the relief 
non-govermental organisation DanChurchAid, and the results are 
stunning, according to the report: "...Of the interviewed persons, 
88% reported forced labour and 77% porter service, 54% had been 
forcibly relocated from their villages, 87% had had their 
possessions looted, and 46% had lost at least one relative through 
killing, disappearance, or landmine accident..."
 
The interviewed persons are from the ethnic minorities Shan, Karenni 
and Mon, and the interviews took place in the Thai-Burma border area 
in the end of 1999. According to the report, Burma's Army has been 
responsible for the majority of the incidents: "...Apart from a few 
cases of arbitrary arrests by the police and landmine incidents, 
soldiers or units of the Burmese army were held responsible for all 
the reported violations..." 
 
Discussion
The large majority of the persons we examined were 
farmers from small village communities of the Karenni or 
Mon people. All 129 who were included in the general 
analyses had fled Burma / Myanmar during the 12 months 
before our examinations. Their histories therefore 
describe the actual situation in Burma / Myanmar. 

With respect to the Mon group, we examined 
representatives from the vast majority of the families 
that had arrived within 12 months at the site where we 
performed our examinations, and we examined 
approximately 40% of the Karenni households. We 
therefore consider that our results are representative 
for these groups.

The population of the areas of internal armed conflicts 
of Burma / Myanmar can be divided in different groups: 
those who were still living in their villages, those who 
had been relocated by the military, those who had fled, 
for example into the jungle, and those who were refugees 
outside Burma / Myanmar. We examined only the refugees, 
i.e. from the last described group. Thus, our results 
are not representative of the overall extent of the 
violations of human rights in Burma / Myanmar, but they 
confirm what has been described previously (1-9), 
especially concerning the rural districts.

The clinical findings supported the histories. We found 
extremely remarkable scars and other physical signs in 
four persons that strongly supported their accounts of 
torture. 

In agreement with the findings of other organizations, 
the persons we interviewed described a pattern of human 
rights violations. This is a pattern of a majority being 
exposed to forced labour, porter service, looting, and, 
with respect to the Karenni people, forced relocation, 
and a considerable risk of killing, rape, or torture. 
Only one of those examined had not been directly exposed 
to any violations of human rights. 

Almost half of those examined had lost at least one 
family member by killing, disappearance, or landmine 
accident. 

Cases of rape could be underreported. Female doctors in 
our group tried to examine the women, but it was not 
always possible to find female interpreters. The 
presence of a man may have disturbed the natural woman-
to-woman confidence. Men had other barriers, since rape 
within their families could be seen as  their failure to 
protect  their wives and daughters. The man who wanted a 
divorce following the rape of his wife  may have felt 
shame or thought of the rape as being equal to 
infidelity. Nevertheless, 12% of all households reported 
that they themselves or family members had been raped. 
Thus rape should be considered as a part of the pattern 
of violations against exposed groups. 

The median score of exposure to violations was seven,  
i.e. people in the study groups had been massively 
exposed to human rights violations, for example to two 
"very severe" and three  "less severe" forms.  "Very 
severe" forms included torture, killing, rape, 
disappearance, landmine accident, forced relocation, and 
porter service, experienced by the interviewee or his 
family.  

"Less severe" included killing, rape, disappearance, or 
landmine accidents, experienced by others from the 
village or by fellow porters. It also included forced 
labour and arbitrary arrest.  

A further 87% of the study group had had possessions 
looted by the army, but this violation was not included 
in the total score. 

We distinguished between porter service and forced 
labour because the former is by far the more dangerous; 
there are numerous accounts of porters collapsing and 
being forced to continue by beating , sometimes to 
death, if not shot or left helpless in the jungle. In 
addition, there was the risk of  being used as 
minesweepers or shields, i.e. to walk in front of the 
soldiers in areas suspected of being  mined, or to act 
as a shield against bullets in encounters between 
soldiers and the armed opposition groups. Many accounts 
confirmed these conditions.

Until their flight from Burma / Myanmar the studied 
groups had in general been living at constant risk of 
being killed if they stayed in their home country. The 
amount of various forms of forced labour, coupled with 
repeated looting, also made it very difficult to support 
a family. 

The overall exposure to violations of human rights was 
about the same for the Mon and Karenni groups, but 
forced relocation was reported more often by the Karenni 
people, probably because there is no cease-fire between 
the Karenni National Progress Party and the SPDC. The 
New Mon State Party agreed a cease-fire with the then 
SLORC in 1995. The policy of the Myanmar government in 
the fight against insurrection has been described as 
"the four cuts": cutting off of food, soldiers, 
financial support, and intellectual support to the armed 
opposition groups. This included forced relocation of 
villages in areas where they were operating.  
Otherwise, the differences between the reporting of  the 
various forms of violations of human rights were small. 

The present study was carried out in the same way as our 
study two years ago, and thus the results should be 
comparable. We found absolutely no signs of decrease of 
the extent or severity of human rights violations in the 
rural districts in Burma / Myanmar during the 
intervening two years. 

In some cases the police had carried out arbitrary 
arrests. Those responsible for the mining could not be 
identified by the interviewed persons, but apart from 
that in all cases of  the described violations of human 
rights, soldiers or units from the Burmese army were 
held responsible.  


Conclusion

The persons who were interviewed and examined 
represented ethnic minority groups from the rural 
districts of  Burma / Myanmar. 

Persons fled during the period December 1998 - December 
1999  reported exposure to massive violations of human 
rights such as forced labour, porter service, forced 
relocation, looting, and killing of family members, as 
well as a great risk of being raped and tortured.
The examined group of Mon people was as exposed as the 
others. 

We saw no signs of an improvement in the human rights 
situation during the two past years. 

Apart from a few cases of arbitrary arrest and landmine 
operations, the Burmese army was held responsible for 
all the cases of violations of human rights.


___________________ INTERNATIONAL _____________________


BANGKOK POST: GLOBAL PRESSURE ON BURMA JUNTA URGED

March 14, 2000


Safe return of war refugees sought
Cheewin Sattha, Mae Hong Son

The deputy foreign minister has urged the 
international community to help pressure Rangoon 
into taking back war refugees.

M.R. Sukhumbhand Paribatra said all countries 
should "set conditions" demanding that Burma 
welcome Burmese refugees staying in other 
countries back home.

Every nation should take action to ensure these 
refugees can return to Burma safely and the 
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 
could play a leading role in tackling refugee-
related problems in Burma, the deputy minister 
said.

The Democrat MP said Rangoon was ready to allow 
Burmese refugees to return but did not want any 
outside agencies to monitor post-repatriation 
procedures in Burma.

Thailand remains firm in its policy to offer 
humanitarian assistance to Karen refugees in this 
country and hopes the UNHCR will be allowed to 
work in Burma soon.

There are more than 200,000 Karen refugees along 
the Thai-Burmese border and some 35,000 others in 
Mae Hong Son.

Yesterday, M.R. Sukhumbhand led diplomats from 21 
countries on a tour of a temporary shelter for 
Karen refugees in Ban Mai Nai Soi, Muang district 
of Mae Hong Son.

The trip was part of the Foreign Affairs 
Ministry's programme to better inform foreign 
envoys about Thailand's refugee problem.
Meanwhile, a military intelligence source said 
some 60 Burmese soldiers have been sent to border 
areas of Kanchanaburi and Ratchaburi to spy on 
and hunt for anti-Rangoon minority rebel leaders.
Rangoon had ordered the deployment of the 60-
member military special task force to sneak into 
refugee camps and Karen villages along the border 
in Kanchanaburi and Ratchaburi, to look for 
Burmese minority rebels, the source said.
These soldiers have also been assigned to gather 
information about Karen and Mon leaders and the 
Thai government's policies towards Rangoon, the 
source added.

Sangkhla Buri district chief Vicharn 
Jariyavejwatana said this information has 
prompted the district to request a 1.9-million-
baht budget from the Interior Ministry and the 
UNHCR to construct a fence at Ban Ton Yang 
refugee camp to ensure security.
At present the camp, which houses more than 3,000 
Burmese refugees, has a shortage of staff, with 
only 16 district defence volunteers assigned to 
the camp.

According to the district chief, the military's 
list included 1,442 Burmese refugees for a 
transfer from Ban Bor Wee shelter in Suan Phung 
district of Ratchaburi, to the Ban Ton Yang 
refugee camp. But only 1,435 of them have arrived. 
The matter is being looked into.









_______________________________________________________


MIZZIMA: NEARLY TWENTY THOUSAND ROHINGYA REFUGEES STILL 
LEFT IN THE CAMPS IN BANGLADESH


Dhaka, March 13, 2000
Mizzima News Group

Geneva-based UNHCR's Assistant High Commissioner Mr. 
Soren Jessen Petersen along with two members arrived 
Rangoon yesterday. According to UNHCR sources, during 
his stay in Burma for a few days, Mr. Soren Jessen
Petersen is going to discuss with the Burmese 
authorities among other subjects the matter of delay in 
repatriating the Rohingya Muslim refugees from 
Bangladesh to Burma.

According to records of UNHCR office in Bangladesh, 
there are still 19,814 Rohingya Muslim refugees left in 
two camps Noryapara and Kutuplong situated at 
Phalongchake Township of Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.
The last group of refugees who went back to Burma was on 
9th February, about forty refugees were voluntarily 
repatriated to Burma through UNHCR's repatriation 
program.

After the military took over power in Burma in 1988, 
about two and half lakhs Muslims living in Arakan State 
of Burma fled to the south eastern region of Bangladesh 
in 1991 and 1992. Most of them have taken refugee
stealthily in the two camps of Noryapara and Kutuplong 
of Cox's Bazar. Many among than have been repatriated to 
Burma since 1993 under a UNHCR-assisted repatriation 
program. UNHCR's records show that total
211,273 refugees have been so far repatriated.

But there are about twenty thousand refugees still left 
in the two camps. Out of them, Burma government agreed 
to take back only 7,000 saying that the remaining are 
not Burmese nationals. The work of repatriation of 
refugees was suspended temporarily in 1997 by questions
of identification and clearance by the Burmese 
government. Then, the repatriation work resumed in 
November 1998 following UNHCR's interventions. But up 
till now, the number of returns have been very
limited.

In the past nine years, about 7,500 refugees died in the 
camps during their stay, and over thirty thousand 
children have been born to the refugees.

UNHCR office in Cox's Bazar said that they want to 
complete the repatriation (of registered refugees) by 
June this year. But this is quite impossible, as the 
current repatriation pace is slow and only a
few hundreds were repatriated in the last one and half 
year.

Apart from these registered refugees in the camps, there 
are estimated twenty thousand Muslim refugees who are 
scattered in the Chittagong Hills and other areas of 
Bangladesh having run away from the two refugee
camps.





________________ OPINION/EDITORIALS __________________



ETHNIC PEOPLES OF BURMA CALL FOR PARTICIPATION IN 
NARCOTICS CONTROL POLICIES 
 
In January, 2000, the second of a series of 
Narcotics Control Policy seminars was held at 
a location along the Thai-Burma border. The 
goal of the seminar was to bring together 
representatives of ethnic peoples and 
organizations from Burma to discuss current 
narcotics control strategy options, the 
narcotics policies and activities of the junta (the 
StatePeace and Development Council/SPDC), 
and the current policies of organizations 
including the UNDCP, the European Union, the 
U.S. agencies involved in narcotics, and those 
of ASEAN. 
 
Participants discussed the narcotics control 
policies and programs of their own 
organizations, and the need for coherent, 
coordinated, and informed narcotics policies 
for Burma which would include the active 
participation of the ethnic peoples involved. 
There was considerable consensus and 
information sharing on the failure of current 
drug control programs to address the root 
causes of Burma's narcotics economy. 
Several groups shared information on SPDC 
involvement in narcotics production in their 
areas. 
 
All agreed that without a resolution to the 
political crisis within Burma under SPDC, 
narcotics control programs would almost 
certainly fail. 
 
The groups present agreed on a common frame-
work for narcotics control policy in their areas. 
Six "Drug Policy Recommendations" were 
developed. These recommendations were 
then brought back for discussion to the leaders 
of each of the participating groups, and have 
now been agreed upon and ratified. 
 
The Drug Policy Recommendations are: 
 
1.      The narcotics production situation in the 
Shan States, and in other ethnic states in Burma, 
must be understood and addressed in the context 
of the ongoing political crisis in the country. 
Control programs that fail to address the political 
conflict will have little or no support among the 
local people and are likely to fail. 
 
2.      Solutions to the narcotics situation must 
be advanced with the participation and 
involvement of the peoples of the growing areas 
and their  political and ethnic leaders. Unilateral 
programs implemented through SPDC will not 
have local support and so cannot succeed. 
 
3.      SPDC have proven to be poor-faith partners 
in narcotics control.  There are reliable reports 
that forces under SPDC command have 
committed gross violations of human rights in the 
guise of narcotics control operations. For 
implementation of narcotics control to be 
successful, ethnic communities and non-
governmental organizations must be included in 
program planning and implementation. 
 
4.      The peoples of Burma have a legitimate right 
to participate in the development and narcotics 
control initiatives that affect their lives. They have 
been denied the right to participate in nation-
building by the junta.  The International 
Community cannot and should not be party to the 
denial of  this fundamental right. 
 
5.      Narcotics control in Burma is likely to be a 
long-term development based series of initiatives, 
rather than any single or short-term solution. 
Without the sustained participation of the people 
of Burma themselves, this is likely to be 
impossible. Only the long-term goals of peace, 
national reconciliation and the resolution of the 
political and social injustices in Burma will provide 
the context for effective narcotics control programs. 
 
 6.      The people of the Shan States have long 
been implicated in narcotics. Programs which 
directly engage these people are the most likely 
to succeed. In contrast, engaging SPDC and 
marginalizing the people of the Shan States will 
fail to control narcotics while further jeopardizing 
local people and constituting one of the main 
destabilizing factors in the region. 
 
These recommendations have been endorsed by: 
 
***The Karenni National Progressive Party 
***The Lahu Democratic Front 
***The Palaung State Liberation Front 
***The Pa-O People's Liberation Organisation 
***The Restoration Council of the Shan State/
     Shan State Army-South 
***The Shan Democratic Union 
***The Shan State Organisation 
***The Wa National Organisation 
 
As representatives of the ethnic organizations 
listed here, we call on all parties and 
international organizations involved in 
narcotics control issues in Burma to engage 
with us, expand the current dialogue, and to 
include the ethnic peoples of Burma in all 
discussions which involve their lives. 
------------------------
------------------------ 
 
For further information contact: 
 
Advisor, Shan Democratic Union 
Coordinator, Shan State Organization 
 
Tel:      66-53-235 020 
Fax:     66-53-232 102 
e-mail:  syammax@xxxxxxxxxx 


________________

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