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Subject: [theburmanetnews] BurmaNet News: July 27, 2000
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______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
An on-line newspaper covering Burma
______________ www.burmanet.org _______________
July 27, 2000
Issue # 1585
The BurmaNet News is viewable online at:
http://theburmanetnews.editthispage.com
*Inside Burma
XINHUA: MYANMAR'S FOREIGN TRADE, INCLUDING THE BORDER TRADE, TOTALED
3.814 BILLION
*Regional
THE GUARDIAN: TWO LITTLE BOYS
AP: ASEAN WELCOMES NEW PRAGMATIC EUROPEAN APPROACH TO MYANMAR
AP: ASIAN NATIONS AGREE TO COOPERATE AGAINST CRIME, DRUGS
REUTERS: MYANMAR MILITARY SAYS IT'S NOT EVIL, BUT LOVING
AP: MALAYSIA, MYANMAR TO BUILD DLRS 8.9 MILLION PLANT
DEUTSCHE PRESSE-AGENTUR: MYANMAR CLAIMS NO PROBLEM IN MEETING "DRUG
FREE" DEADLINE
AFP: EU WELCOMES KICK-STARTED DIALOGUE WITH ASEAN
KYODO: MYANMAR CLAIMS NO PROBLEM IN MEETING "DRUG FREE" DEADLINE
KYODO: MYANMAR TO CONSIDER RESUMING TIES WITH N. KOREA
__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________
XINHUA: MYANMAR'S FOREIGN TRADE, INCLUDING THE BORDER TRADE, TOTALED
3.814 BILLION
July 27, 2000
Yangon. U.S. dollars in fiscal year 1999-2000 which ended in March, a
6.9-percent drop from the previous fiscal year, according to the
country's Central Statistical Organization (CSO).
Of the total trade volume, imports were valued at 2.642 billion
dollars, while exports amounted to 1.172 billion dollars, producing a
trade deficit of 1.47 billion dollars, the CSO said in its latest
data released for the 1999-2000.
The import value of capital goods, consumers goods and intermediate
goods accounted for 40.95 percent, 41.77 percent and 17.28 percent
of the total imports respectively, the statistics show.
The figures also indicate that Myanmar's private sector is playing a
leading role in the country's foreign trade. During the 1999-2000
fiscal year, the import value of the private sector made up 69.57
percent of the total imports, while its export value represented
72.41 percent of the total exports.
The import and export value of the government sector during the
period accounted for only 30.43 percent and 27.59 percent
respectively.
___________________________ REGIONAL ___________________________
THE GUARDIAN: TWO LITTLE BOYS
July 27, 2000
Johnny and Luther Htoo are fighting a hopeless war. The small band of
guerrillas they command is up against 21,000 troops of the Burmese
army who have wiped out or displaced most of their people. But the
war is really about a gas pipeline - and the company behind the
pipeline is British.
By Maggie O'Kane
There is a crunch of bamboo stalks underfoot and the first of four
bodyguards appears, wearing a black judo guerrilla uniform and a
black headscarf. He scans the clearing. Then the 12-year-old
commander of God's Army of the Holy Mountain arrives.
Luther Htoo is dressed in a short-sleeved khaki shirt with an
Airforce One badge on his right arm. On his forearm is the tattoo of
a fish pierced with a spear. He nods to one of the bodyguards, who
passes him a lit cheroot, then he spits and climbs on to his
bodyguard's knee. His special protector is called Rambo, a 28-year-
old fighter who has been with him for three years. He likes playing
with Rambo's long, thick, black hair.
Luther, the leader of the youngest and most desperate guerrilla army
in the world, accepts a chocolate biscuit. He says his younger twin,
Johnny, second in command of Burma's God's Army of the Holy Mountain,
might be along later. Or he might not.
The meeting with the twins has taken two months to organise. The
final part of the journey began in the middle of the night with a
nervous, greedy taxi driver who could be bribed to drive to the
jungle, but who played the Best Gospel Album in the World over and
over to comfort himself. As he raced against the dawn to pass the
last military checkpoint while its guards were still sleeping, a
young Vera Lynn-like voice belted through Soul of My Saviour again
and again.
Then, mosquitoes and steamy jungle heat along a path that went up and
up. A mountain jungle blocked by fallen trees, sprinkled with giant
anthills and odd, empty cartons of UHT milk chucked into the bushes
by passing guerrillas.
God's Army of the Holy Mountain was born three years ago when the
Burmese army moved in to swamp the route of a multi-million pound gas
pipeline and clear thousands of people before them. For 50 years the
Burmese army and the Karen, one of Burma's three main ethnic groups,
had skirmished, but in the early 90s the Burmese army launched opera
tion Spirit King. Its aim was to wipe out the Karen and secure the
route of the pipeline. A hundred thousand Karen fled to refugee camps
across the Thai border.
The British consortium Premier Oil began pumping gas through Karen
land in April. The UK energy consultant Wood McKenzie estimates that
the pipeline will earn Premier Oil - which includes Japanese and Thai
oil companies and the brutal Burmese regime - almost ¡¦500m over the
next 25 years.
The roof of the jungle is webbed in a fine green net from the ferns
of the bamboo trees. Today, there is a wind rattling the stalks of
bamboo. When the wind stops there is complete silence. There are no
birds: the people have eaten them, as they have eaten most of the
jungle cats and wild monkeys.
Luther and Johnny were discovered three years ago by a television
crew who went looking for the Burmese students who had fled after
taking over the Burmese embassy in Bangkok. The cameras found the
students in the camp of the twins, who were nine years old at the
time, and the myth of the guerrilla children who smoked cheroots and
were scarcely big enough to hold an M16 rifle was born. In Canada,
prompted by the TV pictures, a retired Playboy bunny offered to adopt
them. A website, johnnyandluther.com, was registered.
Then the twins disappeared in the jungle. Now, they keep disappearing
in the middle of a question to slide down the river banks with the
other boys in their group on the back of a cardboard box with the
words "Instant Noodles in Sour Shrimp Paste" written on in black ink.
Their army is an army of orphans, their camp a mobile foster home for
the remnants of the Karen people's 50-year fight for independence
against the Burmese.
Two years ago, at the end of 1998, God's Army had 500 soldiers and
Johnny and Luther were reported to be working miracles: landmines
were jumping up in front of them and soldiers who fought with them
were able to brush off bullets like a jungle shower. The Baptist
preachers who had brought Christianity to the Burmese jungle from
Salem, Massachusetts, 100 years ago had also brought the cult of
deliverance to a destroyed people. The Karen needed saviours.
In March 1997, in the Htaw Maíímaw district of eastern Burma, a local
pastor brought two illiterate nine year olds to the military chief
and said the Lord had spoken to them and they would save the Karen
people. News of the visitation passed through an area where the
Burmese army was cracking down hard after the Karen had killed eight
workers on the pipeline.
The military chief gave the children a "pistol complete with bullets
and everything", says the pastor, Thah Hpay, who also went with the
twins into their first battle.
"That morning there were 20 enthusiastic men there and our commander
Luther shouted 'God's Army!' and everyone in the cart shouted
back 'God's Army!' At 6.20pm at the Manderlay church where the enemy
was we selected eight from among us to serve as commandos and we
named them 'Jesus Commandos'. We attacked the enemy at Manderlay and
shot dead 24 of them. For the next battle, at Aíímlat, we started to
fight at 3pm and the battle lasted for two hours. Those that attacked
were 16 but the enemy were hundreds."
So the beautiful myth of divine salvation for a desperate people was
born and the cult of the twins began to grow. The old Karen military
had become corrupt, and the twins represented purity. Hovering in the
background at the camp, dressed in loud Hawaiian shirt, is the twins'
dwarf uncle, a man called Mr David, who reminds them of the
rules: "No duck, no pork, no eggs, no swearing, no womanising."
Johnny doesn't smile much. He is dressed in a black judo suit and his
long chestnut hair just covers his shoulders, where a badge
reads: "Number One Military Commander".
Luther does the talking from his bodyguard's knee, swatting at a
yellow butterfly that comes again and again to settle on his head.
"I shoot the Burmese army because of what they do to our people," he
says. "They beat and rape Karen women, they steal from us and burn
down our houses. Some holy thing touched my heart and I became a
soldier."
"How did the holy thing touch you. Did it come in the night?"
"No, in the day."
"How did it touch you?"
"I don't remember."
"Would you like to go in an airplane and see the world outside the
jungle?"
____________________________________________________
AP: ASEAN WELCOMES NEW PRAGMATIC EUROPEAN APPROACH TO MYANMAR
July 27, 2000
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ The outgoing chairman of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations welcomed Thursday the European Union's new
``pragmatic'' approach to military-run Myanmar.
Dropping tactics that stopped the EU from meeting ASEAN ministers as
a group for the past three years, the EU announced new plans
Wednesday to keep sanctions against Myanmar but not let them prevent
ministerial dialogue with the Southeast Asian bloc as a group.
Sanctions aimed at pressuring Myanmar's generals to allow more
democracy forbade high-level contacts between EU and ASEAN officials
after Myanmar was allowed into ASEAN over Western protests in 1997.
The new policy will allow Myanmar to sit at a joint ASEAN-EU
ministerial dialogue, to be held in Vientiane, Laos, Dec. 11-12.
``I am glad that we can restore the relations between the EU and
ASEAN after years,'' said Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan.
Issues for discussion will include drug problems, human trafficking,
science and technology, human resources development and ``political
troubles and security,'' Surin said
The comments followed Surin's meeting with Chris Patten, head of
external relations for the EU's executive commission, and foreign
policy chief Javier Solana, and French minister of state Charles
Josselin.
All are taking part in the ASEAN Regional Forum, Asia's largest
security conference.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been ostracized by much of the
world since a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 1988,
followed by its refusal to honor the 1990 election victory of the
opposition party led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
The EU objected strongly to Myanmar's admission to ASEAN and has
refused to have high-level talks with members of its military regime
present. ASEAN has refused to hold a dialogue with the EU without
Myanmar.
ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
``The EU has had a more pragmatic attitude about Myanmar. The EU
understands that isolation is not the way out,'' Surin said. ``We
have wasted years with nothing getting better, so confrontation is no
good.''
On Wednesday, Patten said the EU had recently beefed up its
sanctions against Myanmar and _ in a major change of policy _ had
decided not to let ``the issue of Burma to hold the E.U.-ASEAN
dialogue hostage.''
Patten nonetheless slammed the regime for suppression of democracy
and abuse of human rights and said it had a destabilizing influence
on Southeast Asia. He praised Suu Kyi as a ``torchbearer for
democracy.''
Patten said the EU plans to expand humanitarian aid to Myanmar _
which under 38 years of military rule has slipped from being a rice
bowl of Asia to one of the world's poorest countries. It is the
second-largest world producer of heroin after Afghanistan.
Suu Kyi has opposed foreign aid to Myanmar, on the grounds that it
props up the regime. Patten said she was not in a position to veto
provision of EU humanitarian assistance.
An upcoming EU diplomatic mission would try to seek dialogue between
the regime, opposition and ethnic minorities, he said. A similar
mission last year made no headway.
____________________________________________________
AP: ASIAN NATIONS AGREE TO COOPERATE AGAINST CRIME, DRUGS
July 27, 2000
BANGKOK, Thailand _ Asia's biggest forum on security issues Thursday
took up for the first time the issues of transnational crime and drug
trafficking.
The talks follow an international trend where non-defense issues _
ranging from grinding poverty to AIDS _ are increasingly seen as
threats to peace and stability.
Foreign ministers from 23 countries attended the ASEAN Regional
Forum, organized by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian
Nations and joined by others with security interests in Asia,
including the United States.
The forum dealt with plenty of traditional security issues _ from
U.S. plans to erect missile defenses to the perennial disputes over
the mineral-rich Spratly islands _ but also addressed so-called human
security.
Drug trafficking is a major threat faced by many Asian nations.
Others are piracy, illegal migration _ including trafficking in
humans, particularly women and children _ and smuggling small arms.
The ministers agreed that money laundering, corruption and computer
crime also need to be addressed, according to a final statement
issued by host Thailand.
They pledge to cooperate more closely on transnational crime issues,
though no specifics were announced.
The list of woes not only challenge peace and stability, the
statement said, but also impair countries' efforts in economic
development and improving the lives of their people.
Thailand, long considered a world drug problem because of its
position in the opium-producing Golden Triangle, took a lead role in
putting the issues on the agenda.
``Drugs are high on our priority list,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman
Don Pramudwinai said.
Thailand's relations with a fellow ASEAN nation, Myanmar, also known
as Burma, are under strain because of the huge amounts of
methamphetamine produced by a former ethnic rebel group and smuggled
to the Thai market.
Methamphetamines have joined opium and heroin as a significant money-
spinner for the drug lords in the Golden Triangle, where the
mountainous borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar converge.
Thai officials have described the methamphetamine plague as a
national security issue and deployed the army to block the smugglers.
Myanmar is also the world second-biggest producer after Afghanistan
of heroin, much of which makes its way to the United States. Large
amounts also supply addicts in neighboring China.
Myanmar says it is doing all it can to fight drugs, but with few
options for earning hard currency open to its widely shunned military
regime, critics say it turns a blind eye as long as some drug profits
are plowed back into the economy.
Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung told the forum that a 15-year plan
``for the total eradication of narcotic drugs is being carried out.''
The members of ASEAN agreed among themselves Tuesday to fight to
make the region a ``drug-free zone'' by 2015.
Traffic in human beings is widespread throughout Southeast Asia, and
one of the region's smaller nations, Cambodia, is a transit point for
illegal migrants from China to the West.
Piracy is a serious problem is the busy waters around Indonesia and
the Philippines.
____________________________________________________
REUTERS: MYANMAR MILITARY SAYS IT'S NOT EVIL, BUT LOVING
July 27, 2000
By Vissuta Pothong
BANGKOK - Under pressure at an Asian security forum, Myanmar's
military government said on Thursday it was not evil but a group of
loving, caring and kind-hearted human beings.
Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung told counterparts at the ASEAN
Regional Forum (ARF) meeting in the Thai capital that his country had
been vilified by its pro-democracy opponents but posed no threat to
its neighbours.
``If it were so the country would be in flames. In fact, it is we
who have extinguished the fires. Peace prevails throughout the length
and breadth of the country like never before,'' he said.
``What we have is a happy people.''
Win Aung said Yangon's generals, who have ruled the country for most
of the last 40 years and ignored the results of its last elections in
1990, were trying to build a democratic nation.
``We love our country as you love yours,'' he said.
``We are not evil persons as portrayed by some. We are loving,
caring and kind-hearted human beings.''
Win Aung spoke after a barrage of criticism of Yangon by other
members of the ARF, which groups 37 countries from across Asia, the
United States and the European Union.
Reflecting a consensus among most developed nations, EU External
Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten told reporters this week Yangon
represented a real risk to Asian regional security.
The EU would discuss this at a meeting on Friday with the 10-nation
Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is
a member, Patten said.
APPALLING ABUSE OF HUMAN RIGHTS
``The suppression of democracy, the appalling abuse of human rights,
the use of forced labour, the treatment of ethnic minorities... the
extent to which an unstable military regime has become a
destabilising political influence in the region -- those are all
issues that we wish to discuss,'' he said.
The EU and the United States have both condemned Yangon for its
treatment of its pro-democracy opposition, led by Nobel Peace Prize
winner Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy won the
1990 polls with an overwhelming vote.
The United States raised concerns over labour and human rights
issues at the ARF meeting on Thursday, Thai Foreign Affairs spokesman
Don Pramudwinai told reporters.
Canada was among several mostly Western countries which raised the
issue of drug problems in Myanmar, Don said.
The EU asked Myanmar at the ARF meeting about the possibility of
going to Myanmar to observe the situation there, Don said. Myanmar
did not respond to the request.
Myanmar is the world's second biggest producer of opium and its
derivative heroin and a major supplier of amphetamines and other
stimulants, regional health officials say.
Some have even accused the Myanmar military of supporting and
profiting from narcotics, an allegation which Yangon denies. Thai
officials have said Myanmar's drug industry represents a major threat
to its neighbours.
But Win Aung rejected this and said his government was waging war
against drugs as best it could.
``We are trying to solve the drug problem and expect the problem
would be all solved within the next 15 years starting from 1999,''
Don quoted the Myanmar foreign minister as saying.
Yangon did get a sympathetic ear from two of its communist
neighbours, China and Laos, who both said they supported what they
saw as Myanmar's efforts to solve its problems.
____________________________________________________
AP: MALAYSIA, MYANMAR TO BUILD DLRS 8.9 MILLION PLANT
July 27, 2000
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - In the largest Malaysian investment in this
country since the Asian economic crisis struck, Amalgamated Metal
Corporation signed a joint venture agreement with a local partner to
build a dlrs 8.9 million dollar sulfuric acid plant, the companies
said Thursday.
The agreement, signed Wednesday between the Malaysian company and
Myanmar's Serge Pun and Associates, calls for the plant to be
constructed in the Mingaladon Industrial part in a northern Yangon
suburb, a statement by the joint venture said.
Full-scale production is planned to begin by the end of 2001.
The AMC, a leading engineering firm in Malaysia, will invest 60
percent and the SPC 40 percent in the project to be known as Myanmar
Industrial Chemical Resources Ltd.
Malaysia is the fourth largest investor in Myanmar, also known as
Burma, among 23 investor countries. Out of total investment of over
dlrs 7 billion, investment by Malaysian companies as of December 1998
was over 580 million dollars.
More recent statistics were not immediately available but foreign
investment has dropped dramatically in recent years, and began to
decline even before the Asian crisis struck in mid-1997.
____________________________________________________
DEUTSCHE PRESSE-AGENTUR: MYANMAR CLAIMS NO PROBLEM IN MEETING "DRUG
FREE" DEADLINE
July 25, 2000
The government of Myanmar (Burma), the prime source of heroin and
methamphetamines in Southeast Asia, foresees no difficulty in turning
its country into a "drug free" zone by the year 2015, Myanmar Foreign
Minister Win Aung said on Tuesday.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed on Monday
to push its deadline for turning their ten-country region into
a "drug free zone" by the year 2015, instead of the previous target
of 2020.
ASEAN, which was holding its annual ministerial powwow in Bangkok on
Monday and Tuesday, comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
"Our drug eradication program can fit into the ASEAN program. Now we
have a comprehensive plan for total eradication of heroin," said Win
Aung.
He claimed that the junta's eradication and crop substitution program
had already helped reduce Myanmar's opium cultivation area from
150,000 acres in 1998 to about 90,000
acres last year.
The minister, however, was less confident about efforts to eradicate
methamphetamine production, a relatively new drug menace to Southeast
Asia.
According to Thai anti-narcotics authorities there are currently
about 50 illegal laboratories making methamphetamines along the Thai-
Myanmar border, most of which are under the control of the Wa ethnic
minority rebels with which Yangon (Rangoon) has signed a cease fire
agreement.
"Our country has a lot of places under the control of armed groups.
We have a cease-fire agreement with (the Wa) but those areas are
still under their control," said Win Aung.
That said, it was unclear how Myanmar could assure that Wa areas
would be drug-free by 2015.
"We are trying to encourage our people that these amphetamines are a
menace to mankind, and I think production in this business will also
go down," said the minister.
Thailand, which is currently flooded by Myanmar-made
methamphetamines, has been irked by Yangon's seeming reluctance to
pressure the Wa to stop the illegal activity.
"We never support them. We don't have any intention to make trouble
for Thai people," insisted Win Aung.
__________________________________________________
AFP: EU WELCOMES KICK-STARTED DIALOGUE WITH ASEAN
July 27, 2000
BANGKOK, July 21 (AFP) - French Cooperation Minister Charles Josselin
Thursday welcomed the revived dialogue between the European Union and
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) after a long
freeze.
Josselin, representing the European Union presidency, met Thursday
with two ASEAN foreign ministers on the sidelines of an Asian
security forum here.
The EU cut off ministerial talks with ASEAN three years ago after it
admitted Myanmar as a member despite European nations' strong
objections.
However, the two blocs will hold a ministerial-level meeting in Laos
in December that is designed to warm relations.
"France and Europe are ready to show understanding but will also be
expecting a lot of accountability on the Myanmar issue," Josselin
said.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and external relations
commissioner Chris Patten said Wednesday that the EU's policy of
keeping Myanmar at arm's length would remain unchanged as long as
human rights violations continued.
"There's no question of ganging up on Burma. This is just an effort
to convince Burma's (Myanmar) regime to change the error of their
ways," Solana said.
Josselin said however that it was more useful to engage with Myanmar
rather than isolate it.
"If we are going to effectively address the drug crisis in the
region, we must not isolate Burma," he said.
Myanmar's military government is widely accused of turning a blind
eye to massive drugs production along its southern border with
Thailand.
ASEAN groups all ten countries in the region: Brunei, Cambodia,
Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand and Vietnam.
___________________________________________________
KYODO: MYANMAR CLAIMS NO PROBLEM IN MEETING "DRUG FREE" DEADLINE
July 26, 2000
Bangkok. Myanmar is ready to welcome a mission from the European
Union (EU) in Yangon by the end of this year, Myanmar Foreign
Minister Win Aung said Wednesday.
'We have agreed to welcome them without any conditions and (we have)
a lot of realities in our country to tell them,' said the minister in
an interview with Kyodo News.
'After that they will realize and would say 'why didn't anybody tell
us about that',' Win Aung said.
In an attempt to explore avenues for encouraging democracy and better
respect for human rights by Myanmar's military rulers, including the
possibility of engaging in 'critical dialogue' on the issue, the EU
will send a second mission to Myanmar to establish links with both
junta and pro-democracy figures.
The EU made a decision in April to dispatch a 'troika' mission to
Myanmar after a similar EU mission spent several days in Yangon last
year for the same purpose.
The Myanmar junta wants to inform the EU mission about the situation
and the plans the generals want to implement to achieve what he
called 'true' democracy in the country, Win Aung said.
But the minister said his country expected nothing much from the
mission, saying, 'after the visit they always say (the mission) has
to report to their governments...that's all.'
Relations between Myanmar and the 15-member EU soured after the EU
determined Yangon was suppressing democracy and ignoring human
rights. The determination led to sanctions on Myanmar, including
barring junta officials from entering EU countries.
The EU has accepted, however, junta officials attending a ministerial
dialogue with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that
is to resume after a stalemate since 1997 in Laos in December.
The Myanmar minister said some members of the EU want to resume
relations with Yangon while other members want to impose more
sanctions.
'We have to consider if having (good) relations with them is
beneficial to people or not. If people get nothing from such
relations, we do not have to push forward,' he said.
EU officials said in Bangkok last week the EU would extend
humanitarian aid to Myanmar to ease suffering from economic
difficulties. The offer of humanitarian aid is also a signal
indicating the EU intends to have a constructive communication with
the junta.
But Win Aung said his country does not want assistance
because 'people get less benefit' and rely too much on foreign aid.
'We don't want free money, but (we want) trade, investment and
tourism to make our own (income),' he said, noting a campaign against
tourism in Myanmar in some European countries hurts ordinary people
because they have no chance to do business with foreign visitors.
Tourism is a way to reduce suffering of people from economic
difficulties since the money tourists spend in Myanmar goes to taxi
divers, tour operators, tourism guides and pagodas, not to the
government, he said.
Following the military crackdown in Myanmar in 1988, the EU suspended
bilateral cooperation for all but strictly humanitarian action.
Currently, EU funding is limited to programs by the U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees and small projects run by nongovernmental
organizations in minority areas.
___________________________________________________
KYODO: MYANMAR TO CONSIDER RESUMING TIES WITH N. KOREA
July 26, 2000
Bangkok. Myanmar has decided to set aside for the moment its
diplomatic differences with North Korea, allowing it to join the
ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and have more opportunities to interact
with the international community, Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung
said Wednesday.
Myanmar suspended diplomatic relations with North Korea in 1983
following a terrorist bombing in Yangon that killed 17 visiting South
Korean government officials.
In an interview, Win Aung said Myanmar is 'considering' resuming ties
with North Korea, but added Yangon is not in a 'rush' to do so. 'It
is not the time for us to start talking.'
Despite problems in diplomatic relations, Myanmar consented to North
Korea's participation in the ARF as a member to bring Pyongyang into
the body.
'We cannot neglect North Korea, which is one of the military powers
in Asia,' he said.
'Having North Korea inside the ARF is a step forward for peace and
security in the region, rather than leaving it out,' he said.
The integration of North Korea into the ARF is not only beneficial in
terms of regional security, but it also paves the way for many
countries to establish ties with Pyongyang, Win Aung said.
He said, however, Myanmar did not give its consent to North Korea's
membership in the ARF only because Yangon wants 'a quick resumption
of diplomatic relations.'
He said Myanmar supported North Korea's bid to become an ARF member
to demonstrate Yangon is sensitive to its 'responsibility to the
region.'
To resume relations with North Korea, Myanmar has stressed it wants
an official apology for the 1983 bombing, which was tied to agents
from Pyongyang.
But Win Aung declined to say whether Myanmar is still insisting on
that official apology.
Win Aung, who is in Bangkok for a series meetings of the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including the ARF, has no
scheduled meeting with North Korean Foreign Minister Peak Nam Sun.
North Korea is attending the Thursday ARF as its newest member. ARF
has 23 members.
___________________________________________________
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