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______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
        An on-line newspaper covering Burma 
______________ www.burmanet.org _______________

August 1, 2000

Issue # 1588


The BurmaNet News is viewable online at:
http://theburmanetnews.editthispage.com



*Inside Burma

BANGKOK POST:  ANTI-BURMA ETHNIC TRIBES GET TOGETHER

AFP: MYANMAR HOSTS ASEAN CUSTOMS MOOT

*Regional

AFP: MALAYSIA FAILS TO RESPECT RIGHTS OF MYANMAR REFUGEES: HRW

AP: THAI COURT HANDS DOWN DEATH PENALTY TO SEVEN DRUG DEALERS

THE DAILY STAR : MYANMAR'S DILLY-DALLY SLOWS ROHINGYA REPATRIATION

THE TIMES OF INDIA NEWS SERVICE: NOW, SHAKHAS IN RANGOON

XINHUA: FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN MYANMAR PICKS UP IN 1999-2000

BANGKOK POST: KAREN DENY MEETING WA IN TALKS
ALLIANCE WITH DRUG GROUPS RULED OUT

BANGKOK POST: REBELS LOSE STOLEN VEHICLE

THE STRAITS TIMES:DRUG ARMIES USING THAILAND AS BASE: YANGON 

*International


AP: GOVERNMENT CONSIDERING STATIONING ARMED OFFICERS AT AIRPORT
			
*Opinion/Editorials

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: WORKING TOGETHER TO TRY TO BRING BURMA 
IN FROM THE COLD

*Other

SAN FRANCISCO DEMOCRACY ACTIVISTS: ANNOUNCMENT
CANDLE LIGHT VIGIL FOR DEMOCRACY IN BURMA








__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________
	


BANGKOK POST:  ANTI-BURMA ETHNIC TRIBES GET TOGETHER

July 31, 2000

Red Wa attend talks in observer capacity
 
The four main groups still at war with the Burmese government invited 
the Red Wa to observe their annual three-day meeting near the 
northern Thai border over the weekend.
 
Diplomatic sources said the United Wa State Army sent a "mid-level" 
liaison official to the meeting, which took place in Burma, across 
from Tak province. Presumably, the top Wa leadership authorised the 
trip.
 
Officially, the Wa are at peace with Rangoon. On the other hand, the 
other four parties at the talks are still fighting for independence 
from the Burmese government. They are the Shan State Army, Karen 
National Union, Karenni National Progressive Party and the Arakan 
Army.
 
The three-day meeting is supposed to end today, presumably with a 
joint statement in favour of independence and against Rangoon.
 
"The Wa have not been pressed to sign or agree to the statement," 
said one foreign source. "They are there strictly as observers."
 
The so-called Red Wa also fought for independence. But they signed a 
pact with Rangoon in 1989. The agreement gave them some autonomy in 
their area in northern Burma.
 
In recent years, the UWSA has financed expansion and settlements with 
one of the world's largest drug cartels. They make and smuggle heroin 
and methamphetamines to, and through, neighbouring countries. Last 
week, Foreign Minister Win Aung said the Burmese army could not even 
enter areas controlled by the Wa, who claim to have 20,000 troops. 
Some observers believe the Wa may again propose independence from 
Burma.
 
			

____________________________________________________

			

AFP: MYANMAR HOSTS ASEAN CUSTOMS MOOT
 
July 31, 2000

YANGON: While the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) 
foreign ministers were meeting in Bangkok, Myanmar was hosting an 
Asean customs meeting, officials said Sunday.

Yangon has hosted the eighth Asean customs directors general meeting, 
designed to improve ties between customs officials and crack down on 
smuggling, Myanmar minister form finance Khin Maung Thein said.

The meeting has been attended by customs directors from all 10 ASEAN 
countries as well as Japan.

"I am confident that the deliberations at this meeting will produce a 
fruitful outcome for regional customs co-operation," Khin Maung Thein 
said.

Yangon and Bangkok are two of Southeast Asia's major transit points 
for smuggling art, artefacts, drugs and people.

Myanmar became a signatory to the Asean customs agreement in 1997, 
when the military-ruled country became a full member of the Southeast 
Asia group.

Asean groups Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, 
Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines and Singapore.



___________________________ REGIONAL ___________________________
					


AFP: MALAYSIA FAILS TO RESPECT RIGHTS OF MYANMAR REFUGEES: HRW 

August 1, 2000

NEW YORK - The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday 
accused Malaysia of mistreating thousands of refugees from Myanmar 
who have sought refuge in Malaysian territory.
 
 "Malaysia's treatment of thousand of Burmese refugees is bad and 
getting worse," HRW said in a new 78-page report. 

 The report highlighted the plight of Rohingya refugees, members of a 
Muslim minority group from the state of Arakan on the northwestern 
coast of Myanmar. 

 "After fleeing systematic discrimination, forced labor and other 
abuses in Burma (Myanmar), ethnic Rohingya in Malaysia face a whole 
new set of abuses. These include beatings, extortion and arbitrary 
detention," it said.
 
 The Malaysian authorities have also refused to allow children of the 
refugees to attend school or receive medical attention, according to 
the report, which cites numerous first-hand accounts gathered from 
Myanmar refugees in Malaysia.
 
 "Malaysia's treatment of the Rohingya is part of a larger failure to 
protect refugees, no matter where they come from," HRW 
said. "Malaysia has no asylum system, and treats refugees as illegal 
immigrants."
 
 It called on donor countries to bring pressure to bear on the 
Malaysian authorities to respect the rights of refugees on their 
territory. 



____________________________________________________



AP: THAI COURT HANDS DOWN DEATH PENALTY TO SEVEN DRUG DEALERS 

August 1, 2000

BANGKOK, Thailand.   A Thai criminal court has handed down the death 
penalty to seven people found guilty of drug offenses, one of them a 
Nigerian accused of smuggling heroin, the court registrar reported 
Tuesday. 
 
Judges ruled Monday that the seven arrested in three separate raids 
in recent months deserved the punishment as their illicit activity 
had posed a serious threat to Thailand, reported the registrar on 
customary condition of anonymity. 

 Among the seven were two Thai women and two men, all related, who 
were arrested May 27 in possession of 40,000 amphetamine tablets. 

 Another two were a Thai man and woman from a hilltribe in northern 
Chiang Mai province, arrested Feb. 20 with 100,000 amphetamine 
tablets smuggled from neighboring Myanmar, also known as Burma. 

 The seventh was a Nigerian man identified as Mohamed Seefu, 40, 
arrested recently at Bangkok Airport as he tried to smuggle 7 
kilograms (15.4 pounds) of heroin out of the country. 

 In the past two years, Thailand has cracked down on drug 
traffickers, especially to suppress amphetamine-type drugs smuggled 
in large quantities from Myanmar as they represent a serious social 
blight in Thailand. 

 Thailand has executed more than 300 criminals by gunfire since the 
practice was introduced in 1935. Currently, prisoners are blindfolded 
and strapped to a pole and the executioner fires a mounted machine 
gun. The government is currently considering a proposal to use lethal 
injection instead. 



____________________________________________________



THE DAILY STAR : MYANMAR'S DILLY-DALLY SLOWS ROHINGYA REPATRIATION

>From Nurul Alam
 
July 30, 2000

CHITTAGONG: Repatriation of Rohingya refugees has slowed down due to 
delay in confirmation of their identities by the Myanmar authorities, 
officials concerned said.
 
Only one family of seven returned to Myanmar on Wednesday though at 
least 50 refugees were supposed to be repatriated in a week. This 
trend is continuing for the last seven weeks, repatriation officials 
said.
 
Despite clearance from Myanmar authorities, no refugee is repatriated 
without reconfirmation. Even a broken family is not accepted by 
Myanmar repatriation officials, they said.
 
A quarter of a million Rohingyas fled their homes due to atrocities 
by the military junta in Myanmar and entered Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar 
and Teknaf areas in 1991. They were sheltered in makeshift camps.
 
Their repatriation started after a tripartite agreement on April 28, 
1992 among Bangladesh, Myanmar and UNHCR.
 
So far, 2,31,632 refugees have been repatriated. The rest 20,000 were 
staying in two camps at Ukhia and Teknaf. Of them, only 6,000 were 
given clearance, Bangladesh repatriation officials said.
 
They said they sought talks with Myanmar authorities to expedite the 
repatriation. BDR also sought talks with Myanmar border security 
forces on Rohingya repatriation and some border problems. But Myanmar 
authorities are yet to respond, official sources said.
 
The last repatriation talks between the two countries were held in 
Yangon in January this year.



____________________________________________________





THE TIMES OF INDIA NEWS SERVICE: NOW, SHAKHAS IN RANGOON 

August 1, 2000
 
NEW DELHI: Myanmar, ruled by the military for the past decade, may 
soon witness a different type of khaki: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak 
Sangh is about to open a shakha in Yangon, formerly Rangoon.
 
According to a report in the Far Eastern Economic Review, the RSS has 
decided to restart its activities in Myanmar after a gap of four 
decades. Apparently with the blessings of a section of the military 
junta, the organisation has begun to rebuild its Yangon branch. The 
organisation has apparently convinced the Burmese generals that 
Hinduism and Buddhism are ``branches of the same tree''. General 
Maung Aye - the Burmese army commander thought to be keen to play 
India off against big brother China - is said to be one of the 
patrons of the saffron brotherhood.
 
So is the RSS looking east as part of a plan to restore the former 
glory of Akhanda Bharat? The organisation says no, although it does 
believe that the ``cultural unity'' between Buddhism and Hinduism 
could be an ideal defence against China. 
 
Although New Delhi has been cultivating Maung Aye, the external 
affairs ministry knows nothing about the RSS's new geostrategic 
venture.
 
When contacted, RSS pracharak and BJP vice-president JP Mathur said 
RSS activity -- sometimes under the name Bharatiya Swayamsevak Sangh 
or Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh -- has been taking place regularly in many 
countries in Europe, America, Africa and Asia. ``I myself attended 
such camps in Britain and America,'' Mathur remarked.
 
So will the people of Burma be treated to the sight of spindly legs 
sticking out under ballooning `knickers' and angry tracts against 
Christian missionaries? Only time will tell.



____________________________________________________



XINHUA: FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN MYANMAR PICKS UP IN 1999-2000

August 1, 2000
 
YANGON.  Foreign investment in Myanmar picked up a little in fiscal 
year 1999-2000, which ended in March, with 55.61 million U.S. dollars 
following a two consecutive years' fall in the investment since 1996-
97, according to the latest figures issued by the Central Statistical 
Organization.
 
Myanmar's foreign investment fell from 2.814 billion dollars in 1996-
97 to 777.394 million in 1997-98 and then to 29.455 million in 1998-
99.
 
The investment in 1999-2000 came from eight countries and regions 
with Thailand and Britain leading with 16.5 million dollars and 15 
million dollars, followed by China's Hong Kong (5. 742 million 
dollars), Cyprus (5.25 million dollars), Japan (5.095 million 
dollars), Singapore (3.826 million dollars), South Korea (2.82 
million dollars) and Indonesia (1.377 million dollars).
 
The investment covered sectors of fishery, mining, oil and gas, 
manufacturing and hotels and tourism.
 
Of the total investment during the fiscal year, that from member 
countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN) took 
up 21.703 million dollars or 39 percent.
 
In the previous two consecutive fiscal years, due mainly to the 
impact of the Asian financial crisis, Myanmar's foreign investment 
dropped sharply, bringing about a reduction of 70 percent of direct 
investment from ASEAN member countries.
 
According to official statistics, since Myanmar opened to foreign 
investment in late 1988, the country had drawn from 25 countries and 
regions a total of 7.119 billion dollars of the investment as of the 
end of April 2000.

			

____________________________________________________



BANGKOK POST: KAREN DENY MEETING WA IN TALKS
ALLIANCE WITH DRUG GROUPS RULED OUT

August 1, 2000
 
Supamart Kasem 
 
Tak. Some of the 65 illegal Burmese immigrants held at the 
Immigration Police headquarters after their arrest at a garment 
factory in Bang Khae district. _ KOSOL NAKACHOL 

The Karen National Union has denied a report that four anti-Rangoon 
ethnic groups held a meeting over the weekend with the United Wa 
State Army.
 
KNU president Saw Ba Thin said he neither attended nor heard about 
any such meeting taking place near the northern Thai border.
 
He said the report was probably either a mistake or an attempt 
by "third parties" to discredit the groups.
 
The drug-producing Wa were engaged in a fight for independence with 
Rangoon but signed a peace agreement in 1989 which gave them some 
autonomy in northern Burma.
 
Saw Ba Thin said the KNU had a policy of fighting against the 
production, sale and smuggling of drugs, which have damaged the lives 
of the Karen people.
 
"We refuse to form an alliance with any Burmese minorities involved 
in drugs until they stop selling drugs and begin to co-operate with 
us to fight for democracy and peace in Burma," he said.
 
He said the KNU remains in alliance with the National Council of the 
Union of Burma, National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, 
Democratic Alliance of Burma, National League for Democracy and the 
Wa National Organisation.
 
The KNU and their allies still want all parties to sit down with the 
State Peace and Development Council and bring about democracy and 
peace in Burma.
 
"I don't understand how Burmese Foreign Minister Win Aung could tell 
Asean that the military junta was unable to crack down on the Wa drug 
business even though it could suppress the National League for 
Democracy, which was elected by more than 80% of the people in the 
1990 general election," he added.

 

____________________________________________________



BANGKOK POST: REBELS LOSE STOLEN VEHICLE

August 1, 2000

Supamart Kasem 
 
Mae Sot.  Border patrol police fired a grenade to sink a bamboo raft 
carrying a stolen vehicle destined for pro-Rangoon Karen rebels.
 
At dawn on Sunday, a patrol unit spotted the raft loaded with a 
Toyota pick-up truck on the Moei river in Ban Wang Takien, tambon Tha 
Sai Luad.
 
When police ordered the men on board the raft to surrender, they 
began shooting, and a brief gunfight ensued.
 
The men, believed to be elements of the Democratic Karen Buddhist 
Army, jumped overboard and swam to the Burmese side of the river.
 
Police fired on the abandoned raft with a grenade launcher and sank 
it.
 
Pol Maj Noppakhun Bamrungpong, deputy commander of the 346th company 
said that several stolen vehicles had been smuggled across the river 
in the past few months due to increased demand by drug gangs, 
including the Red Wa.
 
He said it was difficult to eradicate the smuggling of stolen 
vehicles because some local officials and border villagers were 
involved in the illegal trade.



____________________________________________________



THE STRAITS TIMES:DRUG ARMIES USING THAILAND AS BASE: YANGON 

July 31, 2000

By JAMES EAST
 
BANGKOK -- Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung said rebel army groups, 
which traffic in drugs, are using Thailand as a base. 
 
Within minutes of the Asean meeting here closing, he charged that the 
Wa National Army and the Shan State Army -- which he said together 
commanded about 3,000 people -- were operating from Thai territory. 
 
He was responding to earlier media reports that the Thai military was 
considering cross-border strikes to knock out Myanmar-based drug 
factories, which will send an estimated 600 million amphetamine pills 
into Thailand this year. 
 
These are very irresponsible remarks made by Thai military 
officers,'' he said, adding that they did not respect the sovereignty 
of Myanmar. 
 
The Thai top brass is becoming increasingly frustrated at its 
inability to halt the flow of drugs from Myanmar. 
 
Hundreds of thousands of Thais are now hooked on amphetamines, and 
the country's prison population has doubled in the past three years 
because of drug-related offences. 
 
Mr Win Aung said Myanmar was doing its best to conduct anti-narcotics 
work, but said it was difficult for the country to control its ethnic 
regions. 
 
Yangon has signed ceasefire agreements with most of the country's 
ethnic rebel armies, including the 20,000-strong United Wa State 
Army. 
 
But the Wa have become so powerful that Yangon fears taking the group 
on. 
 
Let us not go back to the days of the past,'' he said. 
 
The Wa army is not integrated into our forces. They are separate.'' 
 
Mr Win Aung said Yangon was also trying to encourage poor opium 
farmers to stop growing poppies with crop-substitution programmes. 
 
In the closing address to Asean and its 10 dialogue partners, he said 
the country was committed to eradicating drugs by 2015. 
 
Of course, if there is international assistance, then we can do it 
within eight or nine years,'' he said. 



__________________ INTERNATIONAL __________________



AP: GOVERNMENT CONSIDERING STATIONING ARMED OFFICERS AT AIRPORT

August 1, 2000 

HONG KONG.  A senior security official said Tuesday the government 
may station armed officers at all Hong Kong airport checkpoints after 
a Myanmar man with an air pistol held a female airport employee 
hostage for nearly three hours inside a jetliner. 

 Chang King-yiu, deputy secretary for the security bureau, said she 
was satisfied with the quick response by police and airport security 
officers to Monday night's hostage incident, which ended peacefully 
when the man surrendered. 

 The hostage-taker, who is still being questioned, evaded security 
guards at the airport cargo handling area and seized the woman, an 
airport cleaner, before barging aboard a Cathay Pacific Airways 
Boeing 747-400. 

 The plane was empty at the time expect for an aircraft maintenance 
engineer, who locked himself in the cockpit. 

 Police commander Mak Man-poon said the man, a casual laborer since 
arriving in Hong Kong last year from Myanmar, was believed to be 
suffering from a mental disorder. 

 The 29-year-old man will appear in court Wednesday on a single count 
of false imprisonment of the airport employee, a police statement 
said. 

 The Nepalese airport worker was released unharmed within three 
hours. 

 Chang said the authorities would consider stationing armed police 
officers at each airport checkpoint. At present, security officers 
only do random patrolling. 

 ``I would not rule out any possible option which would help in this 
regard,'' said Chang. 

 ``This is one of the few airports in the world that exercise 100 
percent x-ray security on each and every passenger and crew members 
and those working in the restricted area,'' she added. 

 Airline officials said there were no passengers or crew aboard the 
Cathay Pacific jet, flight CX261, because the incident happened 
several hours before the plane was due to depart for Paris. 

 It was the first time that police had to deal with a hostage taking 
at the airport, which was opened in 1998. 

 Last month, a traveler walked past security officials unchecked 
before being arrested for allegedly trying to board a Singapore 
Airlines flight to San Francisco. 



_________________OPINION/EDITORIALS________________



INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: WORKING TOGETHER TO TRY TO BRING BURMA 
IN FROM THE COLD

August 1, 2000

By Kavi Chongkittavorn

BANGKOK - At the ministerial meetings last week between the 
Association of South East Asian Nations and its main partners in 
trade and security, criticism of Burma's military rulers was muted, 
in contrast to previous years. The United States and the European 
Union were more willing to listen to what the ASEAN foreign ministers 
had to say.

There are some new reasons why even the harshest critics of the 
political repression and human rights abuses by the Burmese junta are 
now willing to wait and see if the situation improves.
 
ASEAN and the European Union want to improve their troubled 
relationship, which in the past few years has been held hostage by 
European sanctions against Burma, an ASEAN member since 1997. Both 
sides hope that a temporary easing of pressure will encourage Burma 
to reform. A modified EU policy, as announced in Bangkok, would no 
longer ban Burma from taking part in ASEAN-EU cooperation.
 
Existing EU sanctions on Burma will continue, but ASEAN has agreed 
that the next ministerial meeting with the EU, which was to be in 
Europe, can be held in Laos in December. The greater flexibility 
shown by both sides will allow Burma to attend the meeting in 
Vientiane. It may also increase Burma's chance of getting EU aid in 
the future.
 
The EU mellowing is a triumph for the Burmese junta. The EU's 
leniency reflects its wider agenda in Asia, where it risks losing 
influence to the United States, Japan and China just as the region's 
recovery takes hold and prospects for foreign investment and trade 
improve. If the Burma impasse with ASEAN is not overcome, Europe's 
plan to intensify cooperation on economic, politi-cal and security 
matters with ASEAN would remain on hold.
 
But ASEAN, too, has an interest in forging closer ties with Europe. 
ASEAN has been exerting some pressure on Burma, despite the group's 
principle of not interfering in internal affairs. The International 
Labor Organization has announced that it will apply sanctions against 
Burma's use of forced labor from November on if there is no reform by 
then. In response, ASEAN will send a team of labor and technical 
experts to Burma to try to get it to comply with the ILO 
recommendations. 
 
This is ASEAN's first serious involvement in what is clearly a 
Burmese domestic affair. ASEAN fears that if the ILO imposes 
sanctions because Rangoon fails to comply, it will further damage 
ASEAN's already tarnished international reputation.
 
Such a development would also sharpen differences within ASEAN 
between those countries that are reluctant to do anything to breach 
the nonintervention doctrine and those that believe it must be 
modified in the interests of having a credible regional organization. 
 
Thailand has called on Burma to intensify its declared crackdown on 
narcotics production and trafficking, and work more closely with the 
international community. This call has been taken up by ASEAN.
 
There are hopes that the activities of the United Nations special 
envoy for Burma, Ismail Razali, a senior Malaysian diplomat, will 
produce results. He visited Burma last month and met with regime and 
opposition leaders. ASEAN and its foreign partners want to see 
political reconciliation start in Burma within a year.
 
Goodwill toward Burma has increased since Mr. Razali's trip. He has 
been told that he can visit the country at any time without prior 
notice. A UN liaison office in Rangoon is being planned.
 
But the military government should remember that from now on Burma 
can no longer count on ASEAN's automatic support. The junta is on 
notice that it must prove its worth as an ASEAN member.
 
The writer, executive editor of The Nation in Bangkok, contributed 
this comment to the International Herald Tribune.



_____________________ OTHER  ______________________



Candle Light Vigil for Democracy in Burma
                    Commemoration of 8/8/88

Bay Area Burmese democracy activists invite you to a twelve-year 
commemoration of 8/8/88 democracy uprising and massacres which marked 
the beginning of the democracy movement in Burma.  The candle light 
vigil will include refreshments and presentations by local activists 
and Burmese students who took part in the demonstrations.  Candles 
will be provided.

Date-		8-5-2000
Time- 		8:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Place-		United Nations Plaza
		8th & Market Streets (Civic Center)
		San Francisco

Democracy Activists
San Francisco (Bay Area)

____________________________________________________

________________


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