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BurmaNet News: December 19, 2000
- Subject: BurmaNet News: December 19, 2000
- From: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 09:07:00
______________ 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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