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BurmaNet News: December 19, 2000



______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
        An on-line newspaper covering Burma 
________December 19, 2000   Issue # 1689_________

NOTED IN PASSING:  ?In a country where few Asian identities are even 
vaguely recognised, Aung San Suu Kyi is regarded as a secular saint by 
opinion-makers of all stripes.?

Peter Alford on American foreign policy in The Australian: Asia welcomes 
Bush

INSIDE BURMA _______
*Kyodo: Myanmar hopes for enhancement of Japan-Myanmar cooperation

REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL _______
*New York Times: Burmese Sales to the Pentagon Sparks Criticism
*The Australian: Asia welcomes Bush
*Agence France Presse: Exiled Myanmar government attacks junta on 10th 
anniversary
*CFDT Magazine (French Workers Federation): Possible international 
sanctions against the Burmese regime

ECONOMY/BUSINESS _______
*Canada NewsWire: Ivanhoe Mines' shareholders approve merger with ABM 
Mining

OPINION/EDITORIALS_______
*Lloyd's List: Letter--Myanmar boycott would not help the people
*BurmaNet: Letter?Tonkin on forced labor
*BurmaNet: Letter--Forced Labour in Burma

OTHER______
*BurmaNet: Website review?www.hillerphoto.com/burma

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


__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________


Kyodo: : Myanmar hopes for enhancement of Japan-Myanmar cooperation 


December 18, 2000, Monday 

YANGON, Nov. 18 Kyodo 

Speaking Monday at a ceremony marking a cash donation by the 
Japan-Myanmar Friendship Association to its Myanmar counterpart for 
renovation of pagodas and promotion of sports, Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt of 
Myanmar's ruling junta recalled past Japanese contributions to Myanmar 
and expressed hope for more of the same in future. 

Khin Nyunt made the statement at a Yangon hotel as the association 
donated 1 million yen for renovation of Pagodas at Bagan and 700,000 yen 
for sports promotion in Myanmar. 

The general, patron the Myanmar-Japan Friendship Association, accepted 
the cash from Yoichi Yamaguchi, leader of the Japanese delegation. 

'Cooperation between the friendship associations of the two countries 
should enhance friendship and cooperation between Japan and Myanmar. 
There have been traditional friendly relations and economic cooperation 
between the two countries in the past. I hope younger generations of the 
two countries realize this fact and work to enhance friendship and 
cooperation,' Khin Nyunt said. 



___________________ REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL___________________
				

New York Times: Burmese Sales to the Pentagon Sparks Criticism

Dec. 19, 2000


By Stephen Greenhouse


A Pentagon agency that runs stores on American military bases imported 
$138,290 in clothing made in Myanmar at a time when the Clinton 
administration had banned new investments in that country, documents 
show. While such purchases are not illegal, they violate the spirit of 
the administration's economic sanctions, critics in Congress and in 
human rights groups are saying.

Shipping documents show that the agency, the Army and Air Force Exchange 
Service, imported the clothing from Myanmar, the former Burma, in 
October when the administration was stepping up its criticism of human 
rights violations by the country's military government. 

Human rights groups, labor activists and Cynthia A. McKinney, a Georgia 
Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, have criticized the 
agency, saying that its imports of goods helped prop up Myanmar's 
military.

"This is obscene," said Maureen Aung-Thwin, director of the Burma 
Project at the Open Society Institute, a New York-based foundation 
pushing for democracy in Myanmar. "For the Pentagon to support this 
illegitimate military junta is absurd, especially when the nation's 
official foreign policy is to help end the repression there."

But Fred Bluhm, a spokesman for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, 
which had $7.3 billion in sales last year at its 1,400 stores, said: 
"We're aware of the sanctions against Burma, but they have nothing to do 
with the sale or purchase of goods or services. What they have to do 
with are new investments, which we're not involved with."

In 1997, President Clinton announced a ban on new investment in Myanmar, 
following a law that required sanctions if the military there engaged in 
"large scale repression." The Clinton administration has not prohibited 
trade with Myanmar although it has often discouraged Americans from 
doing business with that country.

In obtaining goods from Myanmar, the Army and Air Force Exchange Service 
followed a strategy embraced by many American apparel companies, which, 
seeking to benefit from low-wage labor, have greatly increased imports 
from that country. Some studies have found that Myanmar's apparel 
workers earn just 8 cents an hour, making them among the world's lowest 
paid manufacturing workers.

In the first nine months of this year, American apparel companies 
imported $308 million in goods from Myanmar, more than double the level 
in the same period a year earlier.

An administration foreign policy official criticized the exchange 
services' imports from Myanmar, saying, "It's not consistent with the 
spirit of the administration's policy, which is very confrontational 
toward the regime."

The documents showing that the Army and Air Force Exchange Service 
imported goods from Myanmar were obtained from the National Labor 
Committee, a New York-based labor rights group that seeks to improve 
factory conditions overseas. 

The documents show that the exchange service had about 10,000 pounds of 
garments made by the Newest Garment Manufacturing Company sent from 
Yangon, formerly Rangoon, to Los Angeles, arriving Oct. 19. The 
documents did not specify what garments had been sent.

When President Clinton announced the ban on investment, he said he was 
seeking to deny any economic support to Myanmar's regime. The military 
refused to recognize the 1988 election victory by the opposition party 
and its leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who 
has been under house arrest for 6 of the last 11 years.

Two weeks ago, the president awarded the nation's highest civilian 
honor, the Medal of Freedom, to Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi. Her son accepted 
the award.

Several days earlier, four Senators ? Jesse Helms, Republican of North 
Carolina; Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky; Tom Harkin, Democrat 
of Iowa; and Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont ? wrote to President 
Clinton to urge him to ban all apparel imports from Myanmar as a way to 
advance Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi's efforts to restore democracy.

They wrote, "The 1997 U.S. sanctions law on new investment in Burma 
primarily was clearly intended to deprive the Burmese military junta of 
funds with which to perpetuate human rights abuses and ethnic cleansing 
campaigns and to pressure the junta into commencing a dialogue with Suu 
Kyi's political party and ethnic minorities. Unfortunately, the new 
surge in apparel exports to the U.S. undermines the spirit of that law, 
allowing the regime to enrich itself and take advantage of unsuspecting 
American consumers."


___________________________________________________


The Australian: Asia welcomes Bush  

Peter Alford (12/18/00)

George W. Bush's victory has generated a fair degree of satisfaction 
among East Asian governments û except China and the Koreas û but some of 
the gratification is premature and possibly misconceived. 

Those disappointed could well include ASEAN members hoping that a Bush 
administration will adopt a more pragmatic approach on Burma and lift 
congressional sanctions on government-to-government aid to Hun Sen's 
Cambodian Government. 

For a start, the new US Government will face the same balance of forces 
as before in Congress and on key congressional committees. 

But Carl Thayer, lately a Canberra-based South-East Asia expert and now 
working at the Pentagon-sponsored Asia-Pacific Centre for Security 
Studies, points out that post-Cold War foreign policy conservatives in 
the US often have pronounced views on civil rights and democracy. 

They particularly apply to governments that are communist, such as 
China's, or unsatisfactorily (in their eyes) post-communist, such as 
Cambodia's. And on some questions such as isolating Burma, they join 
hands with liberals. 

In a country where few Asian identities are even vaguely recognised, 
Aung San Suu Kyi is regarded as a secular saint by opinion-makers of all 
stripes, and Thayer strongly doubts that engagement with the Burmese 
regime would appeal to Republicans. But the basic fact of life for 
South-East Asians and Australians now hoping for closer US engagement, 
says Thayer, is that even in strategic policy circles "the region has no 
priority, except in the minds of a tiny group of people". 

The exception is Indonesia, now a mid-level US security concern because 
of neighbourhood risks posed by its economic collapse and potential 
national disintegration. 

Harold Crouch, an Australian Indonesia specialist who heads 
International Crisis Group's Jakarta office, says US policy stances on 
Indonesia will not change, but the style could û and should. 

That would entail ambassador Robert Gelbard's not returning from home 
leave. Gelbard was appointed last October with a brief to bring heavy 
pressure to bear on the Indonesians to fix the East Timor problems, curb 
the military and get economic and political reforms moving. 

Gelbard, who has been described as "a professional toe-cutter", has 
engaged in a series of alienating public confrontations with Indonesian 
ministers and generals. His tactics have left other diplomats wondering 
about their relevance to the main US strategic objective, which is, like 
Australia's, keeping the country from flying apart. 

One analyst suggested that Gelbard's previous tasks û "telling Balkan 
warlords to go to hell and pushing American anti-narcotics policies in 
Latin America" û ill-fitted him for face-sensitive Indonesia. 

"He's clearly aggravated lots of people, including those who agree with 
what he's trying to achieve," Crouch says. "I haven't met one Indonesian 
û or American û who likes the way he operates." 

Like all other US ambassadors, Gelbard formally resigns on a change of 
administration, giving the new powers in the State Department the option 
of fresh appointments. 

The key US diplomatic postings in North-East Asia will all turn over: 
Tokyo and Seoul by retirements and Beijing because Admiral Joseph 
Prueher was a sixth-choice stopgap when President Bill Clinton couldn't 
find anyone else last year. 

The new envoys will encounter acute sensitivity about US strategic 
directions under Mr Bush. 

South Korea worries that the administration will be less sympathetic to 
its accelerated normalisation process with the North, which was 
enthusiastically backed by the Clinton administration. That will 
certainly become a hot issue if Pyongyang resorts, as is its custom, to 
strategic menaces to win fresh inducements to behave. 

National Security Adviser-in-waiting Condoleezza Rice has bluntly 
warned: "Sooner or later, Pyongyang will threaten to test a missile one 
too many times." 

Bush advisers worry, in turn, that warming North-South relations will 
bring irresistible public pressure on Seoul to send home most of the 
40,000 US troops deployed on the peninsula. 

Japanese security strategists, however, are pleased at the prospect of 
the Bush administration pulling the reins on the North-South project, 
which they also think is moving too fast for safety. 

And after years of anxiety about the Americans' intense focus on China 
at the expense of the Japanese alliance, Tokyo officials welcome the 
Bush team's plans to refurbish the relationship. 

A senior Foreign Ministry official commented recently that the 
Reagan/Bush-era strategists now returning to office were trusted, 
although Tokyo fully expected hefty demands for new Japanese 
commitments: "These are people we know very well, though we expect them 
to be tough negotiators as well."  



___________________________________________________



Agence France Presse: Exiled Myanmar government attacks junta on 10th 
anniversary


December 18, 2000, Monday 

Myanmar's government in exile Monday marked the 10th anniversary of its 
formation by vowing to push for the "termination" of the junta which it 
accused of running the country into the ground. 

The National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB) launched 
a blistering attack on the military regime which it said it would 
continue to fight by harnessing the support of resistances forces in 
Myanmar and abroad. 

The Washington-based movement was formed in December 1990 by opposition 
MPs who were forced to flee the country after the junta refused to 
recognise their landslide victory in the 1990 elections. 

Amid a bloody anti-democracy crackdown, they were given refuge on the 
Thai border by the ethnic Karen, before being granted asylum in the 
United States. 

The NCGUB Monday thanked all the governments, organisations and 
individuals who have campaigned for democracy in Myanmar, and paid 
homage to those who lost their lives or were jailed by the junta for 
their role in the struggle. 

In a statement it slammed the government for its "wicked" campaign to 
abolish the opposition National League for Democracy, led by Nobel peace 
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi who is currently under house arrest in 
Myanmar. 

It also accused the junta of "wrecking the future of the country by 
stifling the education of young students", for fear that university 
campuses could become a hotbed for dissent. 

"The military dictatorship ... has hijacked and trampled under foot the 
election results for more than 12 years," it said in a statement. 

"Instead of progress, there has been only deterioration in political, 
economic, social and educational fields. 

"We resolve to continue the struggle, unceasingly, holding hands firmly 
with the resistance forces and patriots at home and abroad, for the 
termination of the military dictatorship, for the emergence of a genuine 
democratic system." 

However, the NCGUB is facing major problems of its own. It has been 
accused of failing to boost awareness about the situation in the 
country, or to generate support for its cause either at home or abroad. 

"A lack of leadership and infighting among dissidents in exile are also 
serious obstacles for Burmese seeking to achieve the ultimate goal of 
restoring peace and democracy to Myanmar," said the Thai-based Irrawaddy 
magazine which serves as a forum for the dissident community. 

"Before it can hope to beat the junta or persuade the generals to come 
to the negotiating table, the opposition in exile needs to do some 
serious soul-searching," it said in an article earlier this year. 


___________________________________________________


CFDT Magazine (French Workers Federation): Possible international 
sanctions against the Burmese regime


December 2000 

CFDT Magazine December 2000 (CFDT Confederation Francaise Des 
Travailleurs  - French Workers Federation (One of the 3 most important 
French worker?s unions)


Mid November, the International Labour Organisation's governing body had 
to decide if it was suitable or not to implement a resolution on Burma 
adopted last June. The objective of this text was to force the Junta  to 
respect the recommendations of the ILO mission  of inquiry on the use of 
forced labour in Burma.

If they are adopted, these measures foresee a call to the United 
NationsÆ agencies, to governments, employers and concerned parties 
asking them to " reconsider the relations with this country and to cease 
any relations or cooperation that could have the effect of abetting the 
practice of forced labour. 

These international sanctions would be unprecedented in the ILO 81 years 
of existence.
These pressures on the Burmese military Junta are the consequences of a 
complaint on forced labour lodged by the IFTU (International Federation 
of Trade Unions) in 1994. Since then, inquiry missions have proven the 
complaint to be true and an ultimatum has been addressed to the Burmese 
authorities last June to put an end to the violence committed against 
the population. An ILO mission has recently been to Rangoon to assert 
the regimeÆs efforts to put an end to forced labour. According to 
information of the FTUB, this report would not be in favour of the 
Burmese military. On its side, the CFDT appealed to the French 
representative at the ILO for the French government to enforce these 
sanctions.


_______________ ECONOMY AND BUSINESS _______________
 

Canada NewsWire: Ivanhoe Mines' shareholders approve merger with ABM 
Mining, creating a producer of low-cost copper and iron ore products 

SINGAPORE, Dec. 18 

[Abridged]

Ivanhoe Mines Ltd.'s President Daniel Kunz and  
Chairman Robert M. Friedland announced today that the merger between 
Ivanhoe  

Mines and ABM Mining Limited is expected to be completed by year end. 
The  merger was approved by 94.22% of the votes cast by Ivanhoe Mines' 
minority  
shareholders at the company's Special Meeting of Shareholders on 
December  15th.  

    Shareholders gave a green light to the formation of an international 
 mining company with expanding production of LME Grade A cathode copper 
from  

Ivanhoe's Monywa SX-EW joint venture in Myanmar and iron ore products 
from  ABM's wholly-owned Savage River mine and Port Latta pellet plant 
in Australia.  Ivanhoe Mines and ABM had combined revenues of 
approximately US$77.6 million  (CDN$115.4 million) in 1999 on net sales 
of approximately 13,350 tonnes of  copper, two million tonnes of iron 
ore pellets and 48,000 tonnes of iron ore  concentrate...


    Ivanhoe Mines has a 50% interest in the Monywa Copper Project in 
Myanmar,  which has current copper production of approximately 28,500 
tonnes a year from  
the S&K Mine. Ivanhoe is in discussions for project development 
financing for  Monywa's planned second phase development at the large 
Letpadaung copper  deposit. The estimated capital cost to construct a 
125,000 tonnes-per-annum  copper mine at Letpadaung is US$390 million. 
Production from Letpadaung is  expected to commence in 2003, subject to 
financing and government approval. At  full production, the projected 
combined output from Monywa's S&K and  Letpadaung mines is expected to 
be 155,000 tonnes (342 million pounds) of LME  Grade A cathode copper a 
year.
  
    Ivanhoe is also exploring for gold, silver and copper in South 
Korea,  Myanmar, Vietnam and Mongolia. 

______________OPINION/EDITORIALS_________________


Lloyd's List: Letter--Myanmar boycott would not help the people 


December 19, 2000 


>From Andreas Droussiotis and Rob Grool 

SIR, We appreciate the chance to at least set a few things straight 
after reading your David Osler's article on those who do business with 
Myanmar (Lloyds List, December 9). 

Hanseatic was contacted by e-mail by Mr Osler, but since he did not 
include any credentials or give us any way to confirm that he indeed 
represented Lloyd's List, we did not reply to his e-mail. 

A fax on Lloyd's List paper would have been so much better to establish 
credentials, as we are sure you will appreciate. 

Myanmar is, according to our information, not under martial law, 
contrary to what Mr Osler reports. Torture is prohibited by law and so 
is forced labour. In fact the government has suspended the old British 
Colonial laws of 1907 that did in fact allow a form of forced labour! 

We have had our own manning agency and training facility in Yangon since 
1977 and we are proud to employ well qualified and well trained 
seafarers from Myanmar, whom we find loyal and hard working. 

Many of our Myanmar sea staff have been trained in the Hanseatic Marine 
Training School in Limassol, after obtaining their qualification 
certificates in their own country. These seafarers receive the same 
wages as their Filipino colleagues, serving on the same or similar ships 
in our fleet. 

They also receive their wages in full, and, similar again to the 
Filipinos, part of their wages are remitted via a Myanmar bank. 

There is no requirement for standing home allotments. No deductions 
except for normal income tax are made. 

This policy to pay our staff their contractual wages in full applies to 
all our seafarers and it is a cornerstone of Hanseatic's reputation. 

You will appreciate that we cannot comment on whether other shipmanagers 
or shipowners practice double bookkeeping for the crew wages. 

Hanseatic certainly does not practice nor support this. Neither can we 
comment on why Acomarit seafarers would want to jump ship: that is an 
internal problem of Mr Bruce Lucas' company. 

Hanseatic's experience is that the record of Myanmar seamen is no better 
or worse in this respect than of other crew nationalities. 

We fail to see how providing a good job on well maintained ships to 
qualified seamen, under the Hanseatic Quality Management system that 
applies to all our managed ships, can be construed as something 
negative. 

Leaving these seafarers without a job, without substantial earnings, ie 
boycotting Myanmar in a similar way to the boycott of Iraq, is not 
helping the people at all. 

We do not get involved in politics, we have a contractual relationship 
with our seafarers, in which we stick to our commitments. 

You are most welcome to visit any of our managed ships which has Myanmar 
nationals in its crew complement to check on living and safety standards 
on board. 

Andreas Droussiotis and Rob Grool 

Joint managing directors 

Hanseatic Shipping 

Limassol 

Cyprus 



___________________________________________________


BurmaNet: Letter?Tonkin on forced labor

December 19, 2000

Would Derek Tonkin also like to see SLORC troops provided with comfort 
women, a la the Imperial Japanese Army of WWII, so that on their 
campaigns in the rural areas they would have no need to rape hapless 
ethnic (village) women.  Come, come, Ambassador Tonkin!



U Kyaw Win

___________________________________________________



BurmaNet: Letter--Forced Labour in Burma

By Derek Tonkin

Dec. 19, 2000

[Abridged]

Your comments on my comments highlight the central problem with "forced  
labour" in Burma. It is that when it takes place there, it is the 
military  who direct the labour, often with armed guards and a serious 
lack of common  humanity - people left to wait in the baking sun for 
transport back to their  villages, no food or drink provided, occasional 
harassment etc. When "forced  labour" takes place in e.g. China or 
Vietnam, the Party organises everything  at the village level and there 
is generally a measure of voluntary acceptance  of the need to build 
local dykes and roads, though to be frank the villagers  have no choice 
in the matter and do not expect or get  any payment.  

There was quite a stink in Vietnam recently when  local community 
leaders and  the population affected reacted unfavourably to plans 
proclaimed with a great  flourish in Hanoi to rebuild "voluntarily" the 
Ho Chi Minh trail. There was  no serious economic case for the project, 
which was primarily based on  nostalgia, national prestige and tourism 
promotion. In the end, the  authorities gave in and agreed to pay all 
those who "volunteered" VN Dong  14,000 a day (US$ 1). In short, the 
message was heeded by government. But it  took some months to persuade 
them to back down. There is some evidence that  popular reactions in 
Burma are beginning to have some effect. 

So it really all comes down to "image".  This was why I suggested taking 
a  stretch of road - e.g. the Asian Highway - and seeing whether a 
co-operative  endeavour might show the Burmese authorities how local 
labour should be  engaged and treated. This is, I admit, not in the line 
of "punitive  sanctions" which many are inclined to recommend in the 
wake of the ILC/ILO  resolution, seemingly regardless of whether such 
sanctions would be likely to  increase or lessen the likelihood of 
forced labour. We need however to  recognise that for some (but not for 
Daw Suu Kyi) the only agenda is the  overthrow of the SPDC regime and 
that accordingly no action should be taken  which might give the junta 
any respite whatsoever. This is an understandable  aspiration, but 
recent developments in Indonesia show how difficult it is to  make a 
clean break with the past and how the only likely solution in Burma  
will be some sort of eventual compromise.

It should also not be forgotten that the ILC/ILO call for a review of  
relations and "appropriate measures" is solely concerned with the issue 
of  forced labour in Burma, not with political reform, the release of 
Daw Suu  Kyi, the position of the NLD and the enactment of a democratic 
constitution.  As practically every government has been reviewing its 
relations with Burma  at regular intervals ever since 1988, I would not 
expect the latest reviews  at least at government level to result in any 
startling initiatives. EU  governments might, I suppose, report that 
they agreed last week in Vientiane  to resume a dialogue of sorts with 
Burma, but this can hardly be described as  ostracism of the kind Bill 
Jordan (ICFTU) or Baroness Cox may have in mind. 

There needs to be a catalyst for change. I have no doubt that this is 
what  Daw Suu Kyi would wish. 



______________________OTHER______________________


BurmaNet: Website review?www.hillerphoto.com/burma

Dec. 19, 2000

The next Burma website you see should be ?Grace Under Pressure? at  
http://www.hillerphoto.com/burma.  If you are a regular reader of 
BurmaNet you are unlikely to read anything you haven?t read before but 
that would be missing the point.   It is beautiful and effective summary 
of the situation in Burma since 1988.  Built with Macromedia Flash, 
?Grace Under Pressure? is an experience (think slide show with sound 
track) that begins to deliver on the Internet?s promise of multimedia.  
Technically, ?Grace Under Pressure? raises the bar for Burma related 
websites.

(Requires download--http://www.macromedia.com/downloads/)


________________


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