BurmaNet News: October 6, 2000

[strider@xxxxxxxxxxx]

______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
        An on-line newspaper covering Burma 
_________October 6, 2000   Issue # 1633__________

NOTED IN PASSING:

	
INSIDE BURMA _______
*Reuters: Defiant Myanmar says no risk of popular uprising
*SHAN: More on forced labor
*DVB: clash between army, military intelligence

REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL _______
*AP: Myanmar demands right to sit at ASEAN-EU meeting 
*AFP: Myanmar's crackdown on Aung San Suu Kyi endangers key ASEAN-EU 
talks 
*Asia Times: Activists target Cheney over involvement in Burma

ECONOMY/BUSINESS _______
*AFP: Myanmar to hold gems auction 
*Gemstone Forecaster Fall 2000: Burma
		
The BurmaNet News is viewable online at:
http://theburmanetnews.editthispage.com


__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________
	

Reuters: Defiant Myanmar says no risk of popular uprising

By Andrew Marshall 

 CHIANG MAI, Thailand, Oct 6 (Reuters) - A senior member of Myanmar's 
ruling military government said on Friday there was no risk of his 
administration being swept from power by a popular uprising like the 
revolt in Yugoslavia. 

 Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a regional trade meeting in 
Thailand, Brigadier-General David Abel denied the country had been 
ruined by international economic isolation and insisted that democracy 
would one day be restored. 

 ``In my personal opinion there is no risk at all,'' Abel said when 
asked if he was worried there could be a Belgrade-style uprising on the 
streets of Yangon. 

 Myanmar has faced mounting international condemnation this year over 
its treatment of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National 
League for Democracy (NLD), which won elections in 1990 by a landslide 
but has never been allowed to govern. 

 Suu Kyi has been confined to her home and cut off from contact since 
the authorities forcibly stopped her from leaving Yangon by rail last 
month. A bid to leave the city by car in August led to a nine-day 
roadside stand-off. 

 ``MUST BE CRAZY'' 

 Abel, minister at the office of the chairman of the ruling State Peace 
and Development Council (SPDC), said Suu Kyi's efforts to leave the city 
were publicity stunts timed to coincide with important world meetings, 
such as the U.N. Millennium summit. 

 ``You must be crazy to just go and sit in a field with a tent,'' he 
said. ``These roadshows are timed for world meetings. That is 
insignificant, but if something happens to her they would put the blame 
on us. So we have to be responsible.'' 

 Abel said he was unruffled by fears a planned meeting of Southeast 
Asian and European Union foreign ministers in Laos in December might 
collapse because of Europe's anger at Myanmar. 

 ``If they are not going to come to Vientiane it's up to them.'' 

 He repeated Myanmar's opposition to ASEAN mediation in the country's 
political stalemate. 

 ``This is our internal affair,'' he said. ``Why is the world so worried 
about it?'' 

 MYANMAR DENIES ECONOMIC PAIN 

 Abel said reports that Myanmar was facing rampant inflation and 
economic stagnation were false. He said inflation was running at seven 
percent and economic growth in the year to end-March was 10.9 percent, 
with a similar growth rate expected this year. 

 Most independent economists estimate Myanmar inflation at about 30 
percent a year and say the country's annual economic growth is probably 
in the low single digits. 

 Abel said foreign exchange reserves were enough to last six months, but 
added that while this was not ideal, Myanmar was self-sufficient enough 
to deal with its economic difficulties and had not been badly hurt by 
international sanctions. 

 ``In times of crisis we can sustain ourselves,'' he said. 

 He conceded that one problem was the exchange rate. Myanmar's official 
exchange rate has been pegged at around six kyat to the dollar for 36 
years. The black market rate fell to record lows of around 415 to the 
dollar last month. 

 ``One very big challenge is the exchange rate. Normally a currency is 
always realigned when the need arises, which should have been done all 
along,'' he said. 

 But he said Myanmar had been unable to devalue the kyat because the 
World Bank and International Monetary Fund had refused to provide 
assistance. 

 Abel said the country had made strong economic progress despite its 
problems. 

 ``There is no poverty, there is no starvation, there's no 
unemployment,'' he said. ``There is law and order, there is peace. You 
can walk on the streets at night. There is no problem. You cannot do 
that in New York. You can go anywhere you like. A lady can drive alone 
in her car at night from Yangon to Mandalay.'' 

 He said the government was still working on drawing up a constitution 
for the restoration of democracy. 

 ``We are not power crazy. We just want peace, we want a stable country, 
we want the economic situation to be stable,'' he said. He said that 
while military government ``might be good for the moment,'' the military 
wanted to return power to the people. But he said Yangon would not cave 
in to foreign pressure. 

 ``We are not worried about what the United States thinks of us, or what 
the UK thinks of us,'' Abel said. 


____________________________________________________


SHAN: More on forced labor

Shan Herald Agency for News

6 October 2000


Reporter: Moengzay


No: 10-4

Hot chillis for the Army

Villagers form Mongkhark, eastern Shan State, told S.H.A.N. recently 
they  had been raising chillis for the local battalion of LIB (Light 
Infantry  Battalion) 327 since June.

Their task was multifold: they had not only to set apart 1 acre of their 
 own farming land for the purpose, they were also made accountable for 
the  seeds, fences, fertilizers and the daily care, said villagers from 
Kengpin,  Mongkhark Township. Kengpin has about 30 households.

The same thing is happening in other village tracts of Mongnoong and  
Namwok, where people there are ordered to raise not only chillis, but 
also  mustard and cucumber, they said.

"We are already overburdened by the work in our own farms," said one. 
"The  commanders have a lot of men who do nothing. But instead of 
ordering them  to do the work, they have been ordering us instead. I 
don't understand it.  But I'm afraid to ask. Maybe the Burmese army 
don't want us to live here  any more, and is doing all it can to make 
our life a living hell". 


No: 10-5

Endless job of repairing the road for the army

There is a dirt road 2-furlongs long going up from the main road to the 
IB  244 battalion post in Kentung. Since 19 August, the people of 
Banlawng (28  households) Mongzem Tract have been taking turns to repair 
it. 
Everyday form 07:00 to 17:30, villagers dig with hoes brought from their 
 homes under the idle but watchful eyes of 25 soldiers.

"In a way, we are even worse than ordinary convicted prisoners, whom at  
least they have to feed. We have to bring our own food," said a 
villager. 


No: 10-6

Working free in one's own confiscated field

Since August, all land on both sides of the Kengtung-Mongkhark road,  
comprising 800 acres in all, were declared official possession. 
Villagers  in at least 5 tracts, namely, Wanmao, Yanglong, Yanghok, 
Kardtao and  Lamong, who had their fields and gardens alongside the road 
lost them all  without compensation, said a villager from Kardtao on 4 
October. 
"The only compensation was that we were told to work in these fields, 
once  that used to be ours," said the villager. "Since mid September we 
have been  growing soybean, gram-peas and potatoes for them."

It was a demanding job, according to him. Because it was harvest time 
for  their own rice fields. "But it would be worse if we reused to work 
for  them," he said.

The confiscated land was divided among the army, police, local  
administration and other government departments, he told S.H.A.N.  "50 
acres of them went to Forestry Department," he said. "And Kardtao (600  
households) people have become its serfs since last month." 


____________________________________________________


DVB: clash between army, military intelligence 


SOURCE: Democratic Voice of Burma, Oslo, in Burmese 1245 gmt 1 Oct 00 

Text of report by Burmese opposition radio on 1st October

Some casualties were reported in an exchange of fire between the army 
and  Military Intelligence
personnel in Sinhtein Village of Mergui Township in Tenasserim Division 
on  27th September. DVB Democratic Voice of Burma correspondent Myint 
Maung Maung filed this report. 
Myint Maung Maung: An exchange of fire occurred on 27th September 
between  an army group led by Section Commander Capt Kyaw Han Win of 3rd 
Section, 2nd Company of LIR  Light Infantry Regiment No 103 which was on 
security duty at Sinhtein Village in Mergui  Township and a military 
intelligence group led by Lt Aung Myint Thein of Military Intelligence 
MI  Unit No 19 which is stationed in Mergui. Six MI personnel from 
Mergui based MI-19 arrived at  Sinhtein Village on 6th September evening 
and searched the local militia people without informing  the village 
security unit.

They were also reported to have searched the army camps of the 3rd 
Section.  About 0900 local time on 27th September, Section Commander 
Capt Kyaw Han Win and two  soldiers came to the house of Sinhtein 
Village Peace and Development Council PDC chairman where  the MI 
personnel were putting up and inquired about the search carried out at 
the camps. The  MI personnel did not give them any explanations and a 
squabble ensued. Then MI unit leader Lt  Aung Myint Thein started 
shooting. One soldier from 3rd Section was killed and another was 
wounded  in the incident. MI unit leader Lt Aung Myint Thein was also 
killed instantly in a retaliatory fire  by Section Commander Capt Kyaw 
Han Win. 

End of recording



___________________ REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL___________________



AP: Myanmar demands right to sit at ASEAN-EU meeting 

CHIANG MAI, Thailand (AP) _ Myanmar said Friday it has a right to sit at 
an upcoming conference between Southeast Asian and European foreign 
ministers, which has been thrown into doubt by a clampdown in Myanmar 
against pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. 

 The Association of Southeast Asian Nations which admitted Myanmar in 
1997 had made it clear that all its ten members must be allowed to join 
any dialogue with the European Union, said David Abel, a top Myanmar 
official. 

 ``If it's EU-ASEAN, why should Myanmar be left out?'' Abel told a news 
conference on the sidelines of an annual meeting of ASEAN economic 
ministers. 

 ``There should be no discrimination,'' said Abel, who is a minister to 
the office of the chief of Myanmar's ruling junta. 

 On Thursday, European Union's trade commissioner, Pascale Lamy, told 
reporters in Bangkok that it was too early to say whether the meeting 
due to take place in Vientiane, Laos, in December would go ahead, amid 
EU concerns about the situation in Myanmar. 

 ``If they (the EU) are not going to come to Vientiane, it's up to 
them,'' Abel said. 

 Suu Kyi, whose party won general elections in Myanmar in 1990 but was 
never allowed to take power, has been kept under virtual house arrest 
since Sept. 22 after she made her second bid in a month to travel 
outside the Yangon on party business. 

 Dozens of supporters of her National League for Democracy have been 
rounded up. NLD vice chairman Tin Oo is being detained at a state guest 
house and other party leaders are confined to their homes without 
diplomatic contact. 

 These developments have drawn a barrage of international criticism and 
again led to a hardening of opinions in the EU, which had recently said 
it didn't want the Myanmar issue to hold relations with ASEAN 
``hostage.'' 

 Abel claimed Suu Kyi was already free to leave her house, but had to 
have a ``tangible reason'' for leaving Yangon, the capital. 

 He accused Suu Kyi of being provocative in her conduct with the 
military regime and in the past threatening ``utter devastation'' in 
Myanmar, also known as Burma, unless it gave up power. 

 Dismissing accounts of widespread poverty and a moribund economy in 
Myanmar, Abel said that per capita income had grown by 2,700 percent 
since the current military regime took power after a bloody crackdown on 
pro-democracy protests in 1988. 

 ``There is no poverty, no starvation, but people might not have the 
good things,'' he said. Abel added there was no unemployment and near 
universal provision of health care and education. 

 Abel said the gross domestic product growth during in the fiscal year 
to March 2000 had been 10.9 percent and GDP would grow by not less than 
this in the current year. 

 He acknowledged that a deputy minister for national planning and 
economic development was sacked recently after criticizing economic 
policy and saying official estimates of growth were exaggerated. But the 
official had been ``new to the job'' and inexperienced in economic 
analysis, he said.






____________________________________________________

 
AFP: Myanmar's crackdown on Aung San Suu Kyi endangers key ASEAN-EU 
talks 


CHIANG MAI, Thailand, Oct 6 (AFP) - The renewed crackdown by Myanmar's 
military junta on pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has endangered 
breakthrough EU-Southeast Asian talks set for December, ASEAN officials 
admitted Friday. 

 Responding to remarks by European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy 
that the conference in Laos had been jeopardised, some Association of 
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) representatives grudgingly accepted 
doubts over whether the meeting of ASEAN and EU ministers would go 
ahead. 

 But they said they were hopeful the EU would not allow Myanmar to 
affect ties with all ASEAN, which also includes Brunei, Cambodia, 
Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and 
Vietnam. 

 "We are concerned about its effects on the meeting in Laos, but it 
depends on new developments as the date approaches," one senior ASEAN 
official told AFP on condition of anonymity. 

 "But we hope that the EU will not allow the developments in Myanmar to 
keep ASEAN-EU ties hostage." 

 Another official said ASEAN remained hopeful its policy of engaging 
Myanmar, instead of isolating it, would bear the desired democratic 
reforms. 

 The officials were speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of ASEAN 
economics ministers in this northern Thai city. 

 On Friday Lamy, who is attending the ASEAN meeting, reiterated the EU's 
condemnation of the ruling junta's crackdown against the Suu Kyi-led 
opposition in Myanmar. 

 "We are extremely concerned by the developments in the country and what 
has happened recently does not help at all," Lamy told reporters. 

 Asked whether the ASEAN-EU meeting would go ahead as scheduled in the 
Laotian capital Vientiane, he said: "I don't know, it's too soon to say 
yes or no." 

 In a news conference in Bangkok on Thursday, Lamy said: "What has 
happened recently with Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi does not go in the right 
direction. 

 "This situation cannot continue and internal steps have to be taken by 
this regime and the democratic forces." 

 Ministerial meetings between the EU and ASEAN were suspended after 
Myanmar was admitted to the regional organization in 1997 amid protests 
by the Europeans and the United States. 

 ASEAN has a policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of 
member nations, a stance which has consistently rankled the EU and 
Washington. 

 However in April the EU decided its stance against the junta should not 
affect its longstanding relations with ASEAN and agreed to attend the 
ministerial meeting in Vientiane. 

 Lamy said EU officials were expected to discuss the recent developments 
in Myanmar and consult member states. 

 "You all know we have a huge problem there and that the EU has 
consistently deplored the continual violation of human rights by this 
regime. We have a clear position. It has not shifted an inch since it 
was taken by the ministers," he said Thursday. 

 Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and other leaders of 
her National League for Democracy have been placed under de facto house 
arrest since last month in a renewed clampdown against political dissent 
by Myanmar's military rulers. 

 NLD deputy chairman Tin Oo is still being held at a military base 50 
kilometres (30 miles) north of Yangon. 

 The NLD won a landslide general election victory in 1990, but the junta 
has never recognised the result and is accused by foreign critics and 
human rights groups of severe repression of its opponents. 

 


____________________________________________________



Asia Times: Activists target Cheney over involvement in Burma

By Danielle Knight 
Asia Times, October 6, 2000. 

WASHINGTON - Lawyers for victims of human rights abuses committed by the 
military regime in Burma claim that the US Republican Party's vice 
presidential nominee was involved in a company that assisted in energy 
projects there associated with violent human rights abuses.  
Until he was selected as vice presidential candidate for the Republican 
ticket, Dick Cheney headed the energy giant Halliburton, which activists 
say owned a subsidiary which helped construct two pipelines that 
involved the forcible relocation of villages, forced labor, rape and 
murder.  
''Halliburton partners and subsidiaries, both before and during Dick 
Cheney's tenure as CEO, have been contractors for pipeline projects that 
have led to crimes against humanity in Burma,'' says Katie Redford, a 
human rights lawyer with EarthRights.  

The military government in Burma, has long been considered one of the 
world's most abusive regimes. The United States and the European Union 
have imposed economic sanctions against the country due to the 
military's human rights abuses. The regime is holding Nobel Peace 
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, whose political party swept national 
elections 10 years ago with more than 80 percent of the vote, under de 
facto house arrest.  

With Western countries blocking substantial economic assistance from the 
World Bank and other multilateral financial institutions, the regime has 
been forced to rely on foreign investment in order to earn hard 
currency. Two such investment projects are the Yadana and Yetagun 
pipelines. The US$1.2 billion Yadana pipeline will pump natural gas from 
offshore fields in the Andaman Sea through Burma to Thailand. 
Construction began in 1992 and was completed last year.  

Lawyers with EarthRights have gathered testimony from more than 100 
villagers and several alleged army deserters who claimed to be victims 
or witnesses of abuses related to the army's security operations in the 
pipeline. Activists are demanding that the consortium operating the 
pipeline, including French oil giant Total, US-based Union Oil of 
California (Unocal), and a Thai state-owned company, withdraw from the 
project and Burma altogether.  

Redford and other lawyers for victims of human rights abuses committed 
by the military regime in Burma are appealing a Los Angeles judge's 
recent ruling that they cannot sue California-based Unocal which 
allegedly knew about and benefited directly from the regime's conduct.  
In the case, "John Doe et al versus Unocal et al", the lawyers argued 
that the company should be held liable for abuses committed by the army 
which, according to their legal theory, acted as paid agents of Unocal 
and other members of the consortium. On August 31, US District Judge 
Ronald Lew found that evidence had been presented that Unocal knew or 
should have known about human rights abuses committed in connection with 
the project and that these acts benefited the project. But, the judge 
concluded even if that were all proven in court, the plaintiffs would 
have to show that Unocal was much more involved.  


If the case proceeds, it could have major implications for recent 
efforts by the United Nations and other international groups to promote 
codes of conduct for companies operating in developing countries.  

While activists appeal the ruling, Washington-based EarthRights is now 
taking aim at Halliburton whose subsidiary European Marine Contractors, 
in a joint venture with the Italian company Saipem, helped lay the 
offshore portion of the Yadana pipeline in 1996 and 1997, according to a 
new report by the advocacy group. Cheney was CEO of Halliburton during 
this time. Halliburton Energy Services also provided pre-commissioning 
services to the Yadana pipeline with the help of British company Alfred 
McAlpine, according to the 42-page report released here Wednesday.  
Human rights activists also connect Halliburton with a second pipeline, 
the Yetagun, which was constructed parallel to the Yadana pipeline. 
EarthRights claims that Bredero-Shaw, a subsidiary for Dresser 
Industries manufactured the coating for the Yetagun pipeline in 1998. 
Dresser was purchased by Halliburton that same year. EarthRights has 
documentation that the Yetagun pipeline is associated with the same 
pattern of human rights abuse as reported against the Yadana pipeline. 
''To be involved in the Yetagun project is to knowingly accept brutal 
violations of human rights as part of doing business,'' says Redford.  

In response to criticism, last month Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall 
said, ''We don't do business in Myanmar.''  

Cheney announced early last month that he would forfeit some options in 
Halliburton if the Republican ticket is elected. He has already sold a 
large part of his holding in the energy company.  
EarthRights also outlines some of Halliburton's other activities in 
Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Libya and Nigeria. One of the company's contracts 
with Indonesia was cancelled by the government during a purging of 
corruptly awarded contracts. An Indonesian corporate watchdog 
organization called Halliburton's engineering division, Kellogg Brown 
and Root, among 59 companies that used ''collusive, corruptive and 
nepotistic practices'' with former President Suharto's family, according 
to EarthRights.  

In Nigeria, Halliburton was accused of complicity in the shooting of a 
protestor by Nigeria's Mobile Police Unit.  

EarthRights also documents Halliburton's strong involvement in 
USA-Engage and the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC), two powerful 
industry groups that lobby against US sanctions. Last June, the Supreme 
Court sided with the NFTC which fought against the Massachusetts Myanmar 
law that prohibited state money from employing or contracting with 
companies that work in Myanmar.  

Pro-democracy Burmese groups and US human rights activists compared the 
selective purchasing law with those laws that helped bring down 
apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s.  

The NFTC argued that states should not be able to steer money away from 
Myanmar dictatorship because the federal government has already enacted 
sanctions against Myanmar that pre-empt state laws.  

Dick Cheney signed an amicus brief against the Massachusetts law, 
according to the EarthRights report. Like Unocal corporate officers, he 
argued that sanctions do not work and that what is needed is so-called 
''constructive engagement" with governments accused of abuses. But 
Redford says the term constructive engagement is a smokescreen and what 
is really behind Halliburton's and the NFTC's agenda is commercial 
interests.  

''The real reason is they don't want to lose the business for 
themselves,'' she says.


____________________________________________________







_______________ ECONOMY AND BUSINESS _______________


AFP: Myanmar to hold gems auction 

BANGKOK, Oct 4 (AFP) - Myanmar's junta will hold a gems auction in 
Yangon with more than 500 local and foreign traders expected to attend, 
state media reported Wednesday. 

 A total of 483 merchants including 253 from 11 countries had arrived in 
Yangon for the mid-year bazaar next week, TV Myanmar said in a dispatch 
monitored here. 

 Myanmar is noted for its quality jade, sapphires and rubies. 

 The military regime has a monopoly on the sale of precious stones and 
jade. 



____________________________________________________


Gemstone Forecaster Fall 2000: Burma

Spinel Update

Gemcal, a major spinel dealer in Hong Kong, filed this exclusive report 
with the GFN.

"Things are going from bad to worse. On my last visit to Burma I had to 
wait for some colonel to sign my export papers for three days. The guy 
was in some muddy golf tournament. Clearly, the authorities are doing 
everything to slow export, except for shutting down the country 
completely. Corruption is rife and expensive. The Burmese, who are 
totally isolated from the outside world in terms of prices, are asking 
enormous prices. I was offered a 5 carat piece of light pink, not so 
great, spinel. The price asked was US$20,000. The guy said he had an 
offer of US$12,000, but would not sell. It is next to impossible to find 
clean stones. What is happening now in the spinel market is, before they 
were cutting rough to a few small and clean pieces. Now, they are 
smarter, and they cut the same piece into one large, included piece and 
ask the moon for it.

As you know, the government raised the salaries of its employees sixfold 
overnight. This is creating inflationary pressures and uncertainty, 
which pushes prices of gems up, as they buy them unselectively to 
protect their capital. In the last few months, petrol price, one of the 
major factors in mining costs, has gone up like the rest of the world. 
The private miners are struggling with higher operational expenses. This 
is not helping prices to be reasonable. The bottom line is that no 
matter what the supply side is doing, the demand is increasing anyway. 
What I foresee is steady increase and those who can afford the gamble 
will keep on buying, others will stay out of the game.  We are seriously 
considering diversification out of our line, so we would not be at the 
mercy of this spinel-o-rama." 

Hackers

In August, hackers shut down Burma's military government's Web site. The 
Web site gives the military regime's side in   propaganda war dominated 
by overseas supporters of the democratic opposition led by Nobel 
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party won general elections in 1990 but 
was not allowed to take power. Only government ministries and some 
business organizations in Burma have access to the Web, and just a few 
hundred domestic users have e-mail. The government keeps tight control 
on all media.

Heroin and AIDS

Burma continues to be among the largest sources of illicit opium and 
heroin in the world, with poppy cultivation doubling since 1988. 
Intravenous drug use is on the rise in Burma, and is contributing to the 
alarming increase of HIV-infected people. The UN Drug Control Program 
(UNDCP) estimates the number between 400-500,000. The main reasons for 
the high rates of heroin use and HIV are the young Burmese internal 
migrants working in the jade and ruby mines  n Shan or Kachin states. 
Hundreds of thousands of people come from all over the country to work 
in the mines during dry season.

_________________OPINION/EDITORIALS________________




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