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______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
An on-line newspaper covering Burma
_________ August 9, 2000, Issue # 1592 __________
INSIDE BURMA
Muslim Information Centre of Burma: Prisoners sent to front lines in
Karen state
CFC: Junta Orders Burning of 16,000 Bibles, Halts Church Construction
RSF: Burmese journalist San San Nwe starts her seventh year in
detention
REGIONAL
Times of India: [Right Wing Hindu group reopens Burma office]
Amnesty International: Possible forcible return of asylum-
seekers/Chin/Burma
INTERNATIONAL
AFP: Myanmar uprising marked by US exiles
Kyodo News: Myanmar dissidents ask Japan not to help junta
ECONOMY/BUSINESS
Xinhua: Thai Deputy PM on Trade with, Investment in Burma
The New Straits Times: Business: Amalgamated Metal to build acid
plant in Myanmar
OPINION/EDITORIALS
The Guardian (UK): Letter--Blind to genocide
_________
The BurmaNet News is viewable online at:
http://theburmanetnews.editthispage.com
__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________
Muslim Information Centre of Burma: Prisoners sent to front lines in
Karen state
August,7 , 2000.
On June, 15, 2000, State Peace and Development Council(SPDC)
authorities sent 350 prisoners from Insein jail to Shwe Gwan Porter-
recruiting camp, in Pa-an district of Karen state. These prisoners
are being used as porters in the front lines by regional army
Battalions No. 210 and
No.202.
According to a porter, U Twe Han from Rangoon, who escaped with
three others to the Thai-Burma border, two porters from his 8 man-
group were killed in the mine explosion and the other three were shot
dead when re-arrested by the SPDC soldiers.
U Twe Han said that SPDC authorities arrested him in Rangoon on
January, 2, 2000 when he was returning home from cinema and was
sentenced to three years imprisonment for the so-called involvement
in anti-SPDC activities, but he said that he did not know any anti-
SPDC party.
700 prisoners recruited as porters in Karen state of Burma
Until July, 17, 2000, 700 prisoners were recruited to the Myaing
Galay porter- recruiting camp in Pa-an district of Karen state.
Among them, 200 prisoners from Mandalay jail, 300 from Pakokku
jail and 200 from Sagaing jail.
The porters are being used in the front lines by Captain Aung Kyaw
Moe of Battalion No.81 and Major Myo Nyunt of Battalion No. 85. Both
Battalions are under Brigade No.22.
According to an escapee, U Tha Tun (24 years) from Pyinmana, 15
porters were killed in the mine-explosion and seven porters died of
ill-treatments, malnutrition and other diseases during his stay in
the front lines.
____________________________________________________
CHIN FREEDOM COALITION: JUNTA ORDERS BURNING OF 16,000 BIBLES, HALTS
CHURCH CONSTRUCTION
July, 2000
In June 2000, the SPDC officials in Tamu ordered 16,000 copies of the
Bible to be burned in Tamu, Sagaing Division that borders India.
These Bibles, which were seized last year by the Burmese Army, are in
Chin, Karen and other ethnic languages. Leaders of the Council of
Churches in Tamu area are approaching the Burmese military regime not
to burn the Bibles. An appeal was also made in early July of this
year by the Myanmar Baptist Convention, the organization that
represents all Baptist Churches in Burma, to the top SPDC officials
in Rangoon. As of today, they received no reply from the Army.
Early 1999, the Burmese Army also seized 30,000 copies of Bible
written in Chinese language and which had been kept in the military
store rooms in Kaley Wa, Sagaing Division. Every church member was
afraid to claim these Bibles.
In May and June, 2000, the Military Intelligence of the Burmese Army
ordered all church building construction in Tiddim area of Chin State
to stop. The buildings included the Evangelical Baptist Church in
Myoma Quarter, Faith Bible Theological Seminary in Lawibual Quarter,
Sakollam Baptist Church, and Lawibual Baptist Church.
During first week of July 2000, worship services at the Lai Baptist
Church on No. 41 U Aung Min Street, Ward 2, Mayangone, Bayint Naung
Post Office, Yangoon, Myanmar. Most of the Chin people in the Rangoon
area attend worship services here. At present, the congregation is
worshipping at Myanmar Institute of Theology at Seminar Hill, Insein
near Rangoon. The church has been closed since June 2000 in spite of
church leaders requests for reopening.
____________________________________________________
RSF: Burmese journalist San San Nweh, RSF 1999 prize-winner, starts
her seventh year in detention
4 August 2000
SOURCE: Reporters sans frontieres (RSF), Paris
(RSF/IFEX) - On 5 August 1994, San San Nweh, journalist, writer and
political activist, was arrested in Rangoon (Burma) by the military
security police (MIS). She is currently serving a ten-year prison
sentence for "spreading information harmful to the state" with the
aim of "causing trouble". Since her arrest, she has been cooped up in
a ten square metre cell in the women's wing of Insein prison in
Rangoon. San San Nweh is subjected to interrogations by the MIS and
to collective harassment. Prison wardens have repeatedly refused to
provide the medical care she requires.
According to the latest information supplied by her family, San San
Nweh is very weak and is suffering from several diseases: high blood
pressure which could cause a heart attack at any stage; arthritic
rheumatism which already caused an onset of paralysis in 1998; kidney
infection; and thrombocytopenia (an abnormal decrease in the number
of platelets in the blood) that causes repeated haemorrhaging. Prison
authorities recently allowed here to go to the prison infirmary alone
during the day. This "privilege" enables her to rest on a bed and to
have access to certain basic medicines. But the critical treatment
she requires is still refused and she has to sleep in her unsanitary
cell at night.
San San Nweh shares her cell with three other persons from the
National League for Democracy (LND, an opposition party led by Aung
San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1991), Daw San San, elected
representative of the LND in 1990, Daw Bo Ma and Daw May Win Myint.
The roof of the cell is very low and there is only a tiny window, so
that air cannot circulate normally. Prisoners sleep on bamboo mats on
the ground. The toilet - a mud bowl in the corner of the room - is
only cleared once a day. From 6 a.m., the women are forced to sit
cross-legged on the ground with their heads bowed. Speaking is
forbidden and disobedience is sanctioned. San San Nweh does, however,
have the "privilege" of being allowed to read religious books. Once a
day, for fifteen minutes, prisoners are taken to the "shower" where
they are allowed to talk.
In March 2000, San San Nweh's daughter, Ma Myat Mo Mo Tun, was
released after serving a five-year jail sentence. They had been
detained together for a long time. San San Nweh is still very
concerned about her six children, deprived of resources since the
death of their father and imprisonment of their mother. Her family
has been making huge sacrifices for the past six years to collect the
180 Francs (approx. US$25) per month needed to take food to her in
prison (the average monthly salary in Rangoon is 350 Francs, or
US$48, per family).
Since August 1994, San San Nweh has been regularly interrogated by
members of the MIS, who are omnipresent in the Insein jail. According
to a former prisoner, they sometimes go to her cell, put a cloth sack
over her head and take her to the interrogation room. According to
her daughter, the authorities regularly propose she sign a document
undertaking to give up all LND activities, in exchange for her
release. San San Nweh has always refused this blackmail.
To RSF's knowledge, the journalist has not been tortured, but
repeated interrogations tire her enormously. Some prisoners bribe the
guards to avoid these sessions of "psychological torture".
___________________________ REGIONAL ___________________________
Times of India: [Right Wing Hindu group reopens Burma office]
The Times of India News Service, 1 August 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.
____________________________________________________
Amnesty International: Possible forcible return of asylum-
seekers/Chin/Burma
8 August 2000
INDIA Ethnic Chin from Myanmar
Scores of ethnic Chin are reported to have been forcibly returned to
Myanmar from the northeastern Indian state of Mizoram, and handed
over to the Myanmar armed forces. Hundreds more are reportedly
detained and facing deportation. Amnesty International is concerned
that many of those who have been detained may have well-founded fears
of persecution and possibly torture in Myanmar, and are not able to
claim asylum in India.
Up to 50,000 ethnic Chin from Myanmar are estimated to be living in
Mizoram, which borders on Myanmar. At least 87 were reportedly
forcibly returned on 4 August, and several hundred more were
reportedly detained in the past few days. The authorities claim the
Chin are illegal immigrants and are working illegally.
Among those detained are reported to be relatives of a member of the
political opposition in Myanmar. Amnesty International believes that
they would be at risk of torture and imprisonment if they were
deported.
There are fears that there will be further arrests and deportations,
and many Chin have reportedly gone into hiding.
Those detained are reportedly held in several jails and police posts
in the state, under the Foreigners Act (see below), which makes no
provision for refugees and does not allow those detained to seek
asylum.
____________________________________________________
__________________ INTERNATIONAL __________________
AFP: Myanmar uprising marked by US exiles
WASHINGTON, Aug 8 (AFP) - Exiled Myanmar activists on Tuesday held
protests and vigils in the United States in memory of hundreds of pro-
democracy demonstrators gunned down in a 1988 revolt against the
junta in Yangon. Around 150 activists, according to organisers'
estimates, held a demonstration outside Myanmar's embassy here,
calling on the country's ruling core of generals to hand over power
to pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
"The activists' campaign keeps going and is getting stronger and
stronger," said Steven H Moe, spokesman for the National Coalition
Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), which considers itself a
government in exile. Protestors on Tuesday targeted Japan, which
Aung San Suu Kyi suspects of preparing to resume commercial links
with Myanmar, the former Burma, severed after the uprising, on August
8 1988.
"We are very concerned about ongoing labor rights absuses in Burma,
including forced labour," said Jeremy Woodrum of the Free Burma
coalition. "We are also concerned about the financial and political
assistance being offered Burma by the Japanese government." Japan
said it is willing to increase a humanitarian aid program to Myanmar,
but only if it embraces reform.
US activists also planned to hold a candlelit vigil outside the home
of the Myanmar ambassador to the United States. Their
commemorations followed a series of events in Thailand and around the
world to mark the 12th anniversary of the uprising. Hundreds of
democracy demonstrators were gunned down on August 8, 1988, paving
the way for a junta to take power the next month from longtime
military strongman General Ne Win. The junta allowed free elections
in 1990, which Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for
Democracy (NLD) won convincingly, but the military still refuses to
recognise the result.
____________________________________________________
Kyodo News: Myanmar dissidents ask Japan not to help junta
Tokyo Aug 8, 2000.
A group of Myanmar dissidents on Tuesday asked the Japanese
government to "cease all aid" to Myanmar and urge Japanese companies
not to invest there until the military junta hands over power to
elected parliamentarians.
About 50 Myanmar dissidents staged a rally in front of the Foreign
Ministry in Tokyo to mark the 12th anniversary of the junta's
suppression of a pro-democracy uprising. They said similar protests
were planned Tuesday at Japanese embassies around the world.
The protesters sumitted a statement to the ministry calling for Japan
to end all financial support for Myanmr. The statement also accused
Tokyo of "overtly trying to resume help" to the junta folowing its
suspension of official development assistance (ODA) to Myanmar in
1988.
They also asked Japan to withdraw its financial support for the
Salween River dam project in their country, to release detained
political asylum seekers, and to investigate a case in which they
said two Myanmar dissidents were beaten by Myanmar officials at a
junta-sponsored concert in Tokyo in 1999.
Japanese officials attending a two-day workshop in Yangon in late
June on Japanese support for economic reforms in Myanmar, reportedly
said they were considering resuming ODA to the country as part of
humanitarian assistance to countries surrounding the Mekong River.
The forum, comprising government, industry and university delegates
from the two sides, reportedly plans to agree at its next meeting
this fall in Tokyo on specific short-term targets for Myanmar's
reforms and to hammer out technical assistance measures that Japan
may take.
_______________ ECONOMY AND BUSINESS _______________
The New Straits Times: Business: Amalgamated Metal to build acid
plant in Myanmar
Wednesday, August 9 6:31 PM SGT
AMALGAMATED Metal Corporation Bhd will construct a US$8.9 million
(RM33.82 million) sulphuricacid plant in Myanmar making it the
largest investment from Malaysia since the economic slowdown in 1997.
Business Development manager Kenny Teoh said the plant will become
one of the largest sulphuricacid plants in Myanmar with a capacity to
produce 100 tonnes a month. "There are many small sulphuric acid
plants in Myanmar but none as large as the one we are going to
build," he said. The company will handle the project together with
its local partner Serge Pun and Associates with AMC holding a 60 per
cent stake in the project.
"We are in the process of completing the engineering design of the
plant. Construction of the plant is scheduled to begin next year," he
said, adding that the plant would be operational by the end of 2001.
Teoh said the product manufactured will be for domestic use only.
Sulphuric acid is mainly used to manufacture urea, ryons, and to
extract copper.
"This is AMC's first investment in Myanmar. The company plans to
further invest in the country when the opportunity arises," he said,
adding that whatever profit realised by the plant will be reinvested
in Myanmar.
AMC is invloved in engineering and fabrication activities. The
company has been actively involved in the petrochemical as well as
the oil and gas industries.
In fact, the company has participated in the construction of many
chemical plants in Peninsular
Malaysia.
Malaysia is the fourth largest investor in Myanmar, among 23 investor
countries.
Out of total investment of over US$7 billion, investment by Malaysian
companies as of December 1998 was over US$580 million.
____________________________________________________
Xinhua: Thai Deputy PM on Trade with, Investment in Burma
RANGOON (Aug. 6) XINHUA - Bilateral trade between Burma and Thailand
is progressing well in spite of the fact that both countries'
economies suffered from certain crisis in the last couple of years,
said Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Supachai
Panitchpakdi Saturday.
Meeting with the press at the end of the second session of the Burma-
Thai Joint Trade Commission (JTC) here Saturday evening, Supachai
noted that like last year, the positive trade expansion for some
years exceeded 20 percent, pointing out that highly commendable
improvement was brought about which is tremendous jump in the export
from Burma to Thailand of more than 76 percent in 1999.
It helps to narrow the gap of trade between the two countries, he
said, hoping to see that the bilateral trade be more balanced.
Thailand has large surplus in trade with Burma. He believes that
there will be more import demand of goods from Burma to Thailand,
emphasizing that the Thai government has placed the highest priority
to cross-border trade with Burma.
He disclosed that Thailand has set up a Cross-Border Trade Promotion
Committee, which he chairs.
He stressed the need for both sides to improve the payment system and
banking relations to expedite the implementation of banking
agreements and memorandums of understanding signed in the last few
years.
He recommends more banks to be involved in the MOUs in addition to
the existing only one Thai bank in the banking process dealing with
the private sector of the two countries.
He said Thailand would help Burma solve its trade deficit which is
likely brought about by allowing more open trade.
On investment, Supachai went on to say that Thailand encourages more
Thai investment into Burma, saying that Thailand is now the third
largest investor in the country and agreeing that there would be more
rooms for investment between the two countries. At the moment
Thailand is on the verge of signing an agreement on investment
promotion and protection, especially in the areas of propagation of
seeds for various types of agricultural products and agro-industry.
As to tourism, he said Thailand would help Burma promote tourist in-
flow by upgrading coastal Dawei area in Southern part of the country
to a tourist spot.
With regard to fishery, he said that Thailand has been providing
assistance to Burma in the marine shrimp propagation project until
its completion, adding that the implementation has been quite
successful.
The two-day second session of the Burma -Thai JTC, which began on
Friday, was attended by Burmese delegation, led by Commerce Minister
Brigadier-General Pyi Sone, and its Thai counterpart, headed by
Supachai who arrived here on Thursday for the session.
_________________OPINION/EDITORIALS________________
The Guardian (UK): Letter--Blind to genocide
Blind to genocide
Saturday July 29, 2000
The Guardian
I read with anguish Maggie O'Kane's admirable article on the tragedy
of Burma (The generals, G2, July 27) for a very personal reason: my
dear son, James, is almost one year into a savage 17-year sentence to
be served in solitary confinement and foul conditions.
His "crime" was to peacefully express his concern for the suffering
of the Burmese people.
James saw at first hand the result of the junta's atrocities. He
lived for months in a camp for the internally displaced before it was
torched by the Burmese army. Burma remains a signatory to the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, yet tolerates no dissent and
practises genocide. It remains a member of the International Labour
Organisation and practises the brutality of slavery. Mr Jamieson of
Premier Oil denies any accountability for the ethnic cleansing
required to keep the oil pipeline. James met him last year and
received the same answer as your newspaper - "he is unaware of any
abuse". There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Diana Mawdsley
Brancepeth, Co Durham
*Maggie O'Kane's article on the genocide against the Karen people
brings much-needed publicity to the plight of this suffering
minority. I secured a debate in parliament in April on this subject
and urged the British government to ban all new investment in Burma
by UK companies, as the US has done. Sadly, the British government
continues to hesitate. The fact that Premier Oil has ignored the
Foreign Office's calls for disinvestment proves that nothing short of
a ban will stop their involvement.
The Karen people were our faithful allies during the second world war
when the Japanese invaded Burma. Many were brutally tortured and
killed for their loyalty to the British. How have we repaid them? By
allowing British companies to get rich on their backs.
Edward Leigh MP
_____________________ OTHER ______________________
____________________________________________________
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