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Subject: [theburmanetnews] BurmaNet News: April 4, 2000 


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April 4, 2000
Issue # 1501



*Inside Burma


AFP: REFUGEES FLOOD OVER THAI BORDER 

KNU: BURMESE ATTACK ON IDPs CONTINUE

PD BURMA: ANA SUSPENDED FLIGHT TO RANGOON LAST MARCH



*International


AFP: MALAYSIAN TO BE SPECIAL ENVOY TO MYANMAR

NATION: BURMA AND UNOCAL IN DOCK IN US 


*Opinion/Editorials

MIC: SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR?  '²S REPORT HIGHLY BIASED AGAINST MYANMAR
AND AS 
DEROGATORY AS PREVIOUS REPORTS


___________________ INSIDE BURMA ______________________
	
				
AFP: REFUGEES FLOOD OVER THAI BORDER 

ASSOCIATED PRESS in Mae Sot 
Updated at 5.10pm:

Refugees fleeing fighting between Burmese troops and ethnic Karen 
rebels continued on Tuesday to pour into Thailand, reaching some 
4,000 over the past four days, a Thai army officer said. 	
		

''Many are sick and a non-governmental organisation is looking after 
them,'' said the officer, speaking on condition of anonymity. 	
			

The fighting erupted last weekend at Mae La Pohta village, opposite 
Thailand's Tak province, when a joint Burma army and Karen breakaway 
force attacked the Karen National Union, the main rebel group. 	
			

The fighting initially sent 1,700 refugees into Thailand. More have 
crossed over since late Monday after attackers seized the village and 
set it on fire, the officer said. 	

The Thai army reported the KNU has retreated from the village but 
declined to confirm whether the fighting has ceased. 

The refugees lack shelter, clean water and toilet facilities and an 
estimated 200 have fallen sick, many of them with diarrhea, raising 
fears of an epidemic, an aid worker said on condition of anonymity. 

Local Thai officials have not yet sent the refugees to any of the 
established refugee camps along the border, hoping to repatriate them 
once fighting stops. 

Some 100,000 refugees from Burma's internal fighting live in refugees 
camps in Thailand strung along the border. Most are ethnic Karens. 

The KNU is the last major ethnic rebel group that has not reached a 
cease-fire with the military regime that has ruled Burma since 1962.


_______________________________________________
		


KNU: BURMESE ATTACK ON IDPs CONTINUE

INFORMATION RELEASE 

KNU Mergui-Tavoy District Information Department

April 4, 2000
04/00

Burma army attack on Internally Displaced Persons continues.
Three villagers were executed 

A Burma army's troop from Light Infantry Battalion 376 head by Major 
Kyaw Shwe has executed three villagers at Hsa Mu Taw village in the 
east of Tavoy township, Burma, on March 9, 2000.
A troop from LIB 376 led by Major Kyaw Shwe has arrived to a deserted 
Hsa Mu Taw village in the eastern of Tavoy Township, Tenasserim 
Division and captured three villagers who hid away from Burma army 
relocation site. All the three villagers were killed afterward. The 
victims are:

2. Saw Hto Kee Say, 17 years, son of Saw Hla Shwe, Seiku villager. 
4. Saw Hto Tay, 37 years, son of Pu Ni Plo, Hsa Mu Taw villager. 
6. Saw Bo Lu, 40 years, son of Pu Ni Plo, Has Mu Taw villager. 

Hsa Mu Taw village is located in the bank of Tenasserim River in the 
east of Tavoy. After 1997, Burma army relocated those villagers to 
Myitta village. Some villagers went to relocation site, but some did 
not and hiding behind their village. Those who did not went to 
relocation site and hiding behind their village, the Burma army 
recognized them as the rebel supporter or enemy and killed any one on 
sight, and after captured.

One villager was killed 

A troop of Burma army has killed a villager when operated to search-
kill-destroy the villagers hiding in the jungle at Gaw Pe Plaw, in 
Tenasserim Riverside area, Burma, on March 29, 2000.
An unidentified troop of Burma army went to search for hiding 
villagers around Gaw Pe Plaw area and has found and shot dead a 
villager on sight. The victim was Saw Pla Ko, 36 years. 
In 1997, Burma army have launched major offensive to Karen Nation 
Union's Mergui-Tavoy District and occupied it. Some villagers crossed 
to Thailand, but many hiding from Burma army in the jungle. They were 
known as internally displaced person. Burma army recognized the 
internally displaced person as those who supporting the rebel and 
killed anyone has found and captured, destroyed everything was found 
out. 

_______________________________________________
		


PD BURMA: ANA SUSPENDED FLIGHT TO RANGOON LAST MARCH

April 3, 2000

  According to the public relations office of All Japan Airway (ANA), 
the company stopped its flight operation to Rangoon on March 24th, 
2000. Ministry of Transport issued the permission of the suspension 
of the flight last month. ANA says that they found difficult to 
figure out profit from the flight to Rangoon. It has also similar 
reasons that caused the friction between Thai Airway and Burmese 
military junta, but the request from the military junta is one of a 
very small reason for this suspension. ANA has no outlook for the 
resumption of the flight to Rangoon. (PD Burma-Japan)
	
_______________________________________________
		

AFP: MALAYSIAN TO BE SPECIAL ENVOY TO MYANMAR

2000-04-04 Tue 13:49

UNITED NATIONS, April 4 (AFP) - Malaysian diplomat Razali Ismail was 
appointed Tuesday as UN special envoy to Myanmar with the task of 
getting the government to accept a UN inquiry into official abuses of 
human rights. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said 
through his spokesman that he hoped Razali "would be able to visit 
Myanmar shortly on a mission to "facilitate implementation of General 
Assembly Resolution 54/186." 

The resolution, adopted on December 17, deplored "continuing 
violations of human rights in Myanmar, including extra-judicial, 
summary or arbitrary executions, enforced disappearances, rape, 
torture" and other abuses. 

It urged the government "to cooperate fully and without delay" with 
the United Nations special rapporteur for human rights and "to allow 
him without preconditions to conduct a field mission." 

The rapporteur, Rjasoomer Lallah, has never been allowed inside 
Myanmar. On Sunday, the foreign ministry in Yangon described Lalla's 
latest report as "highly biased" and "derogatory". 

The report was submitted tothe UN Commission on Human Rights in 
Geneva on March 30. 

Annan's spokesman recalled that Razali was Malaysia's ambassador to 
the UN from 1988 until 1998 and said he was "remembered for his many 
contributions to the work of the United Nations during his tenure." 

He had played "an exemplary leadership role as president of the 51st 
session of the General Assembly" in 1996 and 1997, the spokesman 
said. Razali is currently a special advisor to Malaysian Prime 
Minister Mahathir Mohamad. 

 

_______________________________________________



NATION: BURMA AND UNOCAL IN DOCK IN US 

4 th April, 2000. 

Two historic lawsuits ?  '¶'¶ grassroots activists versus
transnational 
corporations ?  '¶ are taking place in the United States. 

The Supreme Court in Washington DC is hearing arguments and will 
decide if the Massachusetts Burma Law is constitutional. In 
California, a Federal Court in Los Angeles will soon decide if it 
will proceed with or dismiss a lawsuit against oil giant Unocal 
brought by Burmese victims of alleged human rights abuses. 
On March 22, the Supreme Court, which takes up only one per cent of 
the 10,000 cases referred to it annually, began hearing a suit filed 
by the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) ?  '¶'¶ an association
of 
nearly 600 US companies involved in foreign trade ?  '¶'¶ that the
Burma 
selective purchasing law passed by the State of Massachusetts in June 
1996 is unconstitutional. 

The District Court of Massachusetts and the Appeals Court had earlier 
ruled in favour of NFTC, which initiated the lawsuit in 1998 arguing 
that the statute, restricting state purchases from companies that do 
business in Burma, violates US constitutional provisions which give 
the federal government exclusive power to set foreign policy and 
regulate foreign commerce. 

Joining in the debate are Japan and the European Union, which in 1998 
had filed a suit against the Massachusetts law at the World Trade 
Organisation, arguing that the state?  '²'²s legislation infringes
global 
freetrade policy that advocates procurement based solely on price and 
performance, not political criteria. Pressured by its trading 
partners, the US Administration filed a brief in support of the NFTC. 
In their petition to the Supreme Court, Massachusetts lawyers argued 
that a ruling against the Burma Law would go against the decisions 
made by the people through legislatures about how their tax money 
should be spent and therefore constitutes an infringement of local 
democracy. The Massachusetts Burma Law, which is identical to the one 
that helped bring down the apartheid regime in South Africa, 
stipulates that companies that do business in Burma must add a 10 per 
cent penalty to their bid against competing firms ?  '¶'¶ a
precondition 
which virtually bars such companies from winning any state 
procurement contracts (amounting to about US$2 billion annually). 
According to William Bole, an American News Service journalist, the 
heart of the debate is not Burma, but whether the state and local 
governments can exercise their purchasing power against human rights 
abusers around the globe. It is also a showdown between transnational 
corporations and grassroots activists, between global trade and local 
sovereignty. 

If the Supreme Court strikes down the Massachusetts law, similar 
Burma statures passed by nearly two dozen cities and counties across 
the US could be wiped from the books. Such a ruling will also have 
farreaching consequences on identical selective purchasing laws 
passed by municipalities, cities and the State of Vermont, targeting 
China, Cuba, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Sudan, Tibet and Switzerland 
(for the Swiss bank accounts once held by Holocaust survivors). 
In a written reply to The Nation, Simon Billenness, a leading Burma 
campaigner in the US, said if the Supreme Court upholds the lower 
courts?  '²'² decision, the Free Burma movement will push for other 
different types of legislation including divestment laws that require 
city and state pension funds to divest themselves of stock in 
companies that do business in Burma. It will also continue with other 
campaigns of consumer boycotts, shareholder resolutions, 
demonstrations, lawsuits, federal sanctions, etc, added Billenness, a 
social activist and a senior analyst of Trillium Asset Management
?  '¶'¶ 
a social investment firm in Boston. 

For Billenness, Burma campaigners ?  '³'³have already won one
powerful 
victory?  '´'´ in the lawsuit. ?  '³'³No US companies are talking
about going 
back to Burma even if the Supreme Court rules that the state and 
local Burma laws are unconstitutional,?  '´'´ he said. ?  '³'³Burma
will remain 
a country where almost all corporations will refuse to do
business.?  '´'´ 
A final judgement by the nine member Supreme Court is expected in 
June. 

On the Pacific coast, the Federal Court in Los Angeles has 
rescheduled to May 22 a hearing on whether to proceed with or dismiss 
a lawsuit filed by 15 Burmese plaintiffs against Unocal and its two 
top executives. Unocal is a key contractor for the controversial 
Yadana natural gas pipeline. It?  '²'²s unclear why the court decided
to 
postpone the oral argument sessions which were initially scheduled to 
begin yesterday (April 4). 
American lawyers working on behalf of the Burmese victims said they 
do not know how long the pretrial process, known as ?  '³'³summary 
judgement?  '´'´, will last. But if the court rules in favour of the 
plaintiffs, ?  '³'³there is nothing to stop us from going to the
trial?  '´'´, 
said Tyler Giannini, a lawyer with EarthRights International, which 
helped bring the lawsuit against the American oil corporation. 
Unocal has submitted a motion for the summary judgement to dismiss 
the action, but the plaintiffs and their lawyers have responded that 
transnational corporations can be held legally responsible for 
violation of international human rights law in foreign countries and 
that the US courts have the authority to adjudicate such claims. 
According to Giannini, ?  '³'³the oral arguments before the
judge?  '´'´ by 
both sides which is like ?  '³'³a little trial?  '´'´ can take as
long as the 
judge wants. The summary judgement hearing is the second of a 
threephase civil trial in the US and tests whether there is enough of 
a factual dispute between the litigants that reasonable people could 
find disagreement. If they could, the case would be slated for a jury 
trial which is the third and final phase. 

On October 3, 1996, a group of 15 Burmese villagers, who were 
subjected to human rights abuses associated with the construction of 
the US$1.2billion (Bt31.2billion) Yadana pipeline project, filed suit 
in the Federal Court in Los Angeles against Unocal. The suit sought 
to hold Unocal and its two executives liable for international human 
rights violations, including forced labour, crimes against humanity, 
torture, violence against women, arbitrary arrest and detention, and 
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. 

The plaintiffs have sought a court injunction ordering Unocal to stop 
its activities and to pay compensation for the alleged abuses that 
occurred as a result of the construction project. Unocal and its 
Yadana partners, including the French oil firm Total, have rejected 
all charges against them, including complicity with the Burmese junta 
in its human rights abuses. 

On March 25, 1997, US Federal Court Judge Richard A Paez signed a 
38page order accepting the plaintiffs?  '²'² complaint ?  '¶'¶ the
first phase 
of the litigation. The court rejected a motion by Unocal to dismiss 
the case based on the argument that the matter was outside the 
jurisdiction of the US court. The court?  '²'²s decision to grant 
jurisdiction over Unocal set a ?  '³'³groundbreaking?  '´'´ precedent
as it 
allowed victims, for the first time, the right to sue multinational 
companies for violations of international humanrights law, said 
plaintiff lawyers Katherine Redford of EarthRights International and 
Jennie Green, a staff attorney with the Centre for Constitutional 
Rights. 
Jurisdiction over the plaintiffs?  '²'² claims against the defendants
was 
granted under the 1792 Alien Tort Claims Act. The 200yearold law 
allows lawsuits in US courts against multinational companies for 
activities outside the US which violate international law. The tort 
act was previously applied only to environmental matters. 
The March 25 decision allowed the plaintiffs to move into the second 
phase of litigation, the civil discovery ?  '¶'¶ a process in which
the 
two parties take testimonies from witnesses and exchange copies of 
documents related to the Yadana project. In an interview last week, 
Giannini said the discovery was completed last December and that 
plaintiff lawyers had acquired ?  '³'³some 40,000 plus
documents?  '´'´, a 
number of which provided strong support to their case. 
By Yindee Lertcharoenchok

 
_________________ OPINION/EDITORIALS ___________________ 	
	



MIC: SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR?  '²S REPORT HIGHLY BIASED AGAINST MYANMAR
AND AS 
DEROGATORY AS PREVIOUS REPORTS

MYANMAR INFORMATION COMMITTEE
YANGON

Information  Sheet
No.B-1316 ( I )            2nd April 2000

	


    The following is the Press Release issued on 1 April
by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the situation of
human rights in Myanmar submitted to 56th Session of
the Commission on Human Rights on 30 March.

    The Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human
Rights submitted his report on the situation of human
rights in Myanmar to the current 56th Session of the
Commission on Human Rights on 30 March 2000.

    The report of the Special Rapporteur is highly biased
against Myanmar and as derogatory as its previous
reports. It is also conspicuous in that it did not
mention any positive developments which have taken
place in the country in the intervening period since
the latest report of the Rapporteur. It also ignored
the most important fact that the entire population of
nearly 50 million Myanmar people are enjoying peace,
stability and a better living condition for the first
time in their life. Any objective observer can testify
to this.

    As clearly acknowledged in the report the contents of
the Report are entirely based on the information
received by the Special Rapporteur from the elements
outside of the country including armed insurgent
groups who are fighting against the Union. These are
also the elements, whose objective is to tarnish the
image of Myanmar and bring dishonour to the government
and the people.

    In view of the dubious character of the sources of
information and, without the benefit of verifying
those sources, it is obvious that the report is not
founded in fact.

    Myanmar totally rejects the unfounded allegations
contained in the report as well as the conclusions and
recommendations of the Special Rapporteur since they
are biased, partial and politically motivated. They
reflect the attempts to trivialize the positive,
accentuate the negative and portray the image of
Myanmar in an entirely negative light.
    There is hardly and doubt that the report has been
prepared with the sole intent to maliciously slander a
member state to satisfy the demands of those who wish
to exert undue pressure on the Union of Myanmar.

    Myanmar will be steadfast in following its chosen
path and will continue to promote and protect human
rights in its endeavours to build a society where all
the people of Myanmar can enjoy the fruits of economic
development and social progress in an environment of
peace and stability.


_______________________________________________
		

________________

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