BurmaNet News: April 22, 2001

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______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
        An on-line newspaper covering Burma 
         April 22, 2001   Issue # 1786
______________ www.burmanet.org _______________

NOTED IN PASSING: ?[Currency] Dealers blamed lack of proper handling of 
the economy and growing inflation as the underlying causes of the free 
fall.?

Reuters.  See Reuters: Myanmar's currency sinks to new record low

INSIDE BURMA _______
*Reuters: Seven Myanmar troops said killed in attack
*Freedom News (Shan State Army): SSA's Predawn Raid on Burmese 
Military's Drug Camp 
*The Nation: Like Fathers, Like Sons: Youth Gangs Rule Burma Nightlife
*The Nation: Burma Goes Public with Drug Haul

REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL _______
*AFP: Thai Army blocks Chinese shipment to Myanmar
*AP Stray mortar hits Thailand as rival Karen armies clash near border
*Shan Herald Agency for News : Shans take part in the anti-power plant 
protest

ECONOMY/BUSINESS _______
*Xinhua: Myanmar's Tax Revenue Up in 2000
*BurmaNet: Burma?s real tax revenues plunge
*Reuters: Myanmar's currency sinks to new record low

OPINION/EDITORIALS_______

OTHER______
		


__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________




Reuters: Seven Myanmar troops said killed in attack


 BANGKOK, April 22 (Reuters) - Seven Myanmar soldiers were killed in an 
early Sunday attack on their camp by separatist Shan guerrillas in 
northeastern Myanmar's Shan State, Thai military sources said. 

 Shan State Army guerrillas captured the Myanmar army outpost at Tuan, 
opposite the Thai town of Fang, some 700 km (420 miles) north of 
Bangkok, and seized about 170,000 methamphetamine tablets, the Thai 
sources said. 

 Nearly 500 Thai villagers were evacuated from their homes in Fang after 
the clash due to fears of an upsurge in fighting between the Shan rebels 
and Myanmar forces, Thai authorities said. 

 In another incident, two members of a Myanmar ethnic minority militia 
allied with the military government were killed on Sunday in an attack 
by unidentified rivals in the east Myanmar border town of Myawady , Thai 
military sources said. 

 ``At around 4:00 am (2100 GMT) an unidentified rebel group, armed with 
rifles and mortars, opened fire on the DKBA troops for about half an 
hour,'' said a Thai military source based on the Myanmar-Thai border. 

 Two fighters from the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) were killed 
and two wounded in the attack. Two villagers were also wounded, the Thai 
sources said. 
 The DKBA and Myanmar government forces fight the autonomy-seeking Karen 
National Union (KNU) guerrilla army in that part of eastern Myanmar but 
the KNU had not claimed responsibility for the attack, the Thai sources 
said. 

 Thai military authorities closed the border crossing between the Thai 
town of Mae Sot, about 500 km (300 miles) northwest of Bangkok, and 
Myawady after the attack. 
 The area of the attack is believed to be one of Myanmar's main areas 
for producing illegal methamphetamines, which have been flooding into 
Thailand in recent years. 
 Thai military sources say the DKBA, formed by a KNU splinter faction in 
1994 after a split in the Christian-led, anti-Yangon group, is involved 
in the drugs trade. 
 In a related development, Thai authorities ordered a convoy of trucks 
trying to take power-generation equipment to the northeast Myanmar town 
of Tachilek to return to Bangkok, Thai media reported on Sunday. 

 Thai authorities stopped the convoy crossing from the northern Thai 
town of Mae Sai into Tachilek last week because they believed the power 
equipment was bound for another Myanmar minority militia group blamed 
for large-scale drug production. 
 Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Saturday he had ordered 
the convoy of trucks carrying the equipment to return to Bangkok as Thai 
security forces believed most of the supplies were bound for the United 
Wa State Army (UWSA) militia group. 
 Relations between Myanmar and Thailand soured earlier this year when 
their troops clashed at the border near Mae Sai and their governments 
traded accusations of support for the drugs trade. 

 The UWSA, which is allied with the Myanmar army, has been branded a 
major producer of heroin and methamphetamines by U.S. and Thai 
anti-narcotics agencies. 
2001-04-22 Sun 04:42 



___________________________________________________


Freedom News (Shan State Army): SSA's Predawn Raid on Burmese Military's 
Drug Camp 


22 April 2001


SSA's Predawn Raid on Burmese Military's Drug Camp 6 Burmese soldiers 
killed in action and 150,000 amphetamine tablets confisticated together 
with a large cache of assorted weapons 

This morning, 22nd April 2001, at 02:00 hr., troops from Shan State Army 
raided one of the Burmese military camps, which is part of the 225th 
infantry battalion. This camp is located at a village of Par Khee, Mong 
Ton township, opposite of Fang District, Province of Chiang Mai. 

The function of this said camp has been to control and tax drug traffic 
flowing into Thailand. In February 2001,  innocent displaced Shan 
villagers who strayed and wandered near to this camp were murdered 
mercilessly by these troops, in order to keep their silence.  

In this predawn raid, SSA troops captured amphetamine tablets as well as 
a large cache of assort weapons.

Together with these arms, 150,000 tablets of amphetamine have been 
captured. The Burmese casualties were 6 killed in action, while the SSA 
suffered no loss. 

___________________________________________________




The Nation: Like Fathers, Like Sons: Youth Gangs Rule Burma Nightlife


Sunday, April 22, 2001



*Burma's culture of impunity has spread to the next generation, as the 
children of generals and drug lords terrorise the powerless, reports Min 
Zin. On the smoky, dark dance floor of a disco on Orchard Road in 
Singapore, Khin Maung Win took a breather as the music wound down and 
tried to guess which techno-rap dance track from London or New York 
would be played next. After the customary pre-song banter, the DJ hit 
the button and pumped up the volume. The crowd jumped, but Khin Maung 
Win was stopped in his tracks. This was Burmese rep music that was 
driving the crowd wild. 
Given the explosion in night entertainment in Burma since the early 
1990sit is perhaps not surprising that some of the region's top 
nightspots are playing Burmese popular music. Throughout the country's 
major cities there is now an endless array of nightspots: clubs, discos 
and karaoke bars. Such is the growth of pop culture that, according to 
the Rangoon-based Living Color business magazine, there has been an " 
increase in demand for DJs along with a number of DJ training schools."

It all suggests that Burma is perhaps the most sophisticated, 
least-developed country in the lifestyles of Burma's youth has been 
matched by a decline in their appreciation of the importance of 
education as schools have been repeatedly  closed in Burma since 1988.

"In the dozen years of military rule, civilian universities and colleges 
have been open for only 40 months, " calculates Win Naing, a former 
university student activist who fled to Thailand a year ago. 
" The enthusiasm among the youth to make money is fine. But to make it 
by hook or crook is not the habit we should encourage, " says Ludu Daw 
Ahmar, a leading Burmese social critic.

The problem is that the "wealthy" role models in Burma predominantly 
range from those who made their money from get rich-quick schemes to 
those with shady backgrounds and those with government  connections. The 
result of this downplaying of the importance of education is that most 
of Burma's young are no linger interested in competing in the classroom. 
Rather, they try to outdo each other with ostentatious shows of 
wealth-and aggression. 
" When you look at those in the privileged circles, such as the children 
of the generals, the drug lords and their cronies, their initial 
juvenile delinquency develops into organised crime activities. It is an 
uncontrollable situation," says Htein Lin, a tour guide from Rangoon. 

Since 1005, youth gangs have sprouted in increasing number in Burma's 
major cities. The most notorious in Rangoon is called the "Scorpion " 
gang. "The leading gangster id a Japan returnee. He has a Japanese wife. 
He is said to have good connections with Japan's Yakuza Mafia," said a 
former friend of his in Japan.

Actually, the gang has strong connections to not only the Japanese 
underworld but also Taiwanese gangsters, since the children of drug 
lords such as Lo Hsing -Han and Peng Kyaw-Shin have studied and been 
involved in drug trafficking in Taiwan. Based at the eight-mile junction 
of Mayanggone Township in Rangoon, the froup is also closely associated 
with the children of the top generals. The grandsons of Ne Win, Burma's 
long-time former dictator, who is still believed to be influential 
behind the scenes in Rangoon, are also involved in this gang's criminal 
activities. 
During the 1999 New Year, the gang killed a student named Thar Lainmar 
for unknown reasons. "It was clearly masterminded by the grandsons of 
the old man, " says Ye Lwin, who was a mutual fri3end of both Thar 
Lainmar and the grandsons, and who now lives in London. But the 
offenders got away with what they did. Aye Ne Win and Kyaw Ne Win even 
made a phone call to the parents of the victim after dropping his body 
off at their doorstep, saying they had "sent the corpse of your son as a 
New Year's gift to you". 

Also in early 1999, Aye and Kyaw forcibly took three students to the 
Nawarat hotel, which is owned by their mother, Sandar Win, the beloved 
daughter of Ne Win. The students were tied up and tortured. Their hair 
and eyebrows were shaved and they were beaten. Later, the victims lodged 
complaints with Secretary One Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, but no action was taken 
against the perpetrators.

Another gang, which dubs itself the "Nazi Gang", has, according to 
hearsay, been allowed to emerge to counter the Scorpions. Some policemen 
from Pazundaung Township are reported to be involved in this gang's 
activities. Nazi gangsters also work as security guards for stage and 
fashion shows, for which they receive large amounts of money.

In Upper Burma, the violent activities of delinquent youths directly 
reflect the economic and social domination of some cease-fire groups, 
drug lords and local military warlords. Widespread bullying of innocent 
people takes place in the streets of Mandalay and Maymyo (Pyin Oo Lwin). 
These injustices are committed by children to the generals, young 
intelligence officers, tycoons, Chinese migrants with Burmese 
identification cards and the member of the Kokang and Wa ethnic cease 
fire groups, who hold documents authorised by Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt.

Clashes between rival gangs are frequent and wild.

" What commonly happens on Mandalay is that groups charge at each other 
on motorcycles using swords, iron rods and chains, " explains Aye Naing, 
a trader who travels between Ruili in China's Yunnan Province and 
Mandalay. During a religious festival in the middle of 1999, five 
secondary school students were killed in such motorcycle clashes and 
attacks between delinquent gangs. However, since those who were involved 
in this incident were sons of military cronies and narco-tycoons, the 
regime quickly silenced the affair.


" When you are bullied, the best policy is to stay quiet. Don't think of 
any compensation," said a lawyer from Mandalay who asked not to 
identified. " If they still feel annoyed with you, they could bribe the 
judges to issue a warrant to arrest you and have you sentenced to a long 
prison term.  They could even arrange to have you killed when you are in 
jail. That has happened. Here, money makes everything."

As result, those in the heartland are growing increasingly hostile 
toward Kokang, Wa, and Chinese ethnic groups. Only last year in 
Mandalay, there were three serious recial clashes between Burma and 
kokang Chinese. 
In Rangoon, the most popular nightclubs do not have Burmese names but 
Shan and Chinese. They are owned not by Burmans but by Kokang, the Wa 
cease-fire groups and their crones-particularly Chinese migrants. 
Despite it all, the nightclubs are crowded as usual, even though many of 
them appear to be the bases for the operation of gangsters. And the 
gangsters keep getting their way.

" It is quite scary to hang out around in Rangoon at night. But it is 
worth it sometimes when you really want to enjoy the stimulating music 
of the Burmese DJs, who I think are of international standards, " said 
Khin Maung Win, who went back to Rangoon late last year.

*Min Zin is the cultural editor of The Irrawaddy magazine.



___________________________________________________




The Nation: Burma Goes Public with Drug Haul

Sunday, April 22, 2001


Associated Press

RANGOON - Burma, under severe criticism from Thailand, which alleges it 
is the source of huge quantities of the illegal stimulant 
methamphetamine, publicised two crackdowns on the drug in its 
state-controlled press yesterday. 
Police in Mandalay, Burma's second largest city, 560 kilometres north of 
Rangoon, arrested four people and seized nearly 300,000 methamphetamine 
tablets on April 2, the Kyemon daily reported yesterday.

Acting on a tip-off, local police together with intelligence officers 
put a house in Mandalay under surveillance and arrested a man named Li 
Su Kyin, who turned up with 298,400 methamphetamine pills, the newspaper 
said. His arrest led to the capture of three other suspects.

The newspapers also reported that a court in the northeastern city of 
Lashio had last month sentenced five men to prison terms of 20 years 
each in connection with a huge seizure of methamphetamine in June last 
year. 
Local police and anti-narcotic forces seized the 4,486,000 tablets from 
a truck carrying drums of tar on the Naungcho-Maymyo highway, about 600 
kilometres north of Rangoon. The contraband was hidden inside the drums. 
The official Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control admitted earlier 
this year that although production of opium had fallen sharply - Burma 
is, with Afghanistan, one of the world's two biggest producers of opium 
and its derivative heroin - amphetamine-type stimulants had been posing 
a new threat since 1996. More than 26 million tablets were seized in 
2,000 and four million tablets have been seized in the first three 
months of this year, according to figures from the government committee.


Thailand accuses Burma's ruling military junta of turning a blind eye to 
the production of
methamphetamine at laboratories near the border. It says the drug is 
produced by ethnic-minority groups who are given some autonomy in return 
for agreeing to end armed rebellions against the central government. 
Thailand has called the influx of methamphetamine a threat to national 
security and recently began expediting the execution of criminals 
convicted of drug trafficking. On Friday Thai police seized 1.2 million 
methamphetamine tablets in the northrn province of Phetchabun and 
arrested five Thais, who are facing trafficking charges.



___________________ REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL___________________
				



AFP: Thai Army blocks Chinese shipment to Myanmar 

April 22, 2001

BANGKOK: Thailand is blocking a shipment of Chinese generators to 
Myanmar that are destined for a power plant partly owned by a 
junta-allied ethnic armed force accused of narcotics trafficking, the 
Thai army said on Saturday.

Thailand's Third Army stopped the shipment of some 44 containers of 
heavy machinery at the northern border checkpoint of Mae Sai, defence 
ministry spokesman Colonel Jongsak Panichkul told the media.

Jongsak said the ethnic minority United Wa State Army (UWSA), which has 
signed a ceasefire agreement with the Yangon junta, ordered the 
Chinese-made machinery for a lignite power plant.

"It's cheaper and easier to transport such heavy equipment by sea via 
our country than direct overland from China to Myanmar," he said.

The shipment was halted at the crossing by regional commander Lieutenant 
General Wattanachai Chaimuenwong on orders from Prime Minister Thaksin 
Shinawatra whose administration launched a "war on drugs" last month.

A war of words between Bangkok and Yangon over who is responsible for 
Thailand being flooded with amphetamines has seen tensions rise between 
the two.

Following border clashes and disputes over demarcation, the checkpoint 
was closed earlier this year. Thailand has since opened its side of the 
border, but Myanmar has refused to reciprocate.

"The Thai military consider it unfair that they (Myanmar) open the 
border checkpoint only when they get the benefit," Jongsak said.

The Prime Minister has also waded into the fray.

"As long as the UWSA remains directly involved in the production of ya 
ba (methamphetamines), it is unlikely we will give our cooperation or 
assistance in any matter," Thaksin was quoted saying in the local press 
Saturday.

An estimated six percent of Thailand's population of 62 million are drug 
addicts, with cheap methamphetamines replacing heroin and opium as the 
drugs of choice.

The pills are churned out in refineries in the jungle along the northern 
border with Myanmar, run by ethnic armies who have signed peace treaties 
with Yangon.

Meanwhile, military officers in Mae Sai said Saturday that more than one 
thousand residents in the border town were threatening to destroy the 
generator shipment fearing the polluting affect of the lignite plant 
only five km away. (AFP)



___________________________________________________



Shan Herald Agency for News : Shans take part in the anti-power plant 
protest

22 April 2001

Shans in Thailand were among the protesters against the electricity 
power  plant under construction across the border, reported Moengzay 
from Chiangrai. 
More than two hundred Shans residing in Maesai District, Chiangrai  
Province, 250 km northeast of Chiangmai, participated in the 
demonstrations  against the convoy form Bangkok transporting generators 
and other materials  that arrived in Maesai on 19 April for the lignite 
power plant 4 km across  the border.

"It is not only the Thais who fear the sulfa dioxide emissions that will 
 pollute the environment," one told S.H.A.N. "Our relatives in Tachilek  
are  not in a position to express their opinions against the project, 
but  we can, and we are doing this on their behalf."

The convoy returned to Bangkok yesterday.





___________________________________________________



AP: Stray mortar hits Thailand as rival Karen armies clash near border 

April 22, 2001

MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) _ A stray mortar shell landed in Thailand when 
rival ethnic Karen armies clashed for about one hour near the 
Thai-Myanmar border early Sunday, a Karen rebel spokesman and Thai 
villagers said. 

 The mortar hit a jetty on the Moei river, 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) 
south of the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge, which is located at Mae 
Sot, 370 kilometers (230 miles) northwest of Bangkok. No Thais were 
injured, Thai villagers said. 

 David Tarkabaw, spokesman for the Karen National Union, said a KNU 
battalion attacked and briefly seized a small hilltop camp of the rival 
Democratic Buddhist Karen Army on the Myanmar side of the river border. 
He claimed the camp was used as a transit point for trafficking 
methamphetamine drugs to Thailand. 

 The KNU battalion overran the camp but soon withdrew. One DKBA soldier 
was killed and four injured in a one hour exchange of fire with assault 
rifles and M-79 grenade launchers. Two KNU soldiers were wounded in the 
fighting, Tarkabaw said. 
 Officials at Mae Sot hospital said two DKBA women civilians were sent 
from Myanmar for treatment. Other Thai officials declined to comment 
about the clash. Myanmar officials were not immediately available for 
comment. 

 The DKBA is a pro-Myanmar army that was set up by disgruntled KNU 
fighters. The KNU has been fighting for autonomy in Myanmar, also known 
as Burma, for five decades. It still wages a resistance war against the 
Myanmar military regime along the Thai-Myanmar border. 





_______________ ECONOMY AND BUSINESS _______________
 


Xinhua: Myanmar's Tax Revenue Up in 2000

YANGON, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar's State Internal Revenue Department 
received a total of 53.25 billion Kyats (118 million U. S. dollars) in 
revenue from various taxes in 2000, up 2.8 percent from 1999, according 
to the latest official economic indicators. Of the revenue obtained 
during the year, 52 percent were from commodities and services taxes and 
commercial tax, 25 percent from income tax, 11.6 percent from state 
lottery, 8.8 percent from profit tax and 2.6 percent from stamp duties. 
Of these taxes, commercial tax on commodities sold in foreign exchange 
was introduced in January 1999. Myanmar has increased collection of 
taxes year by year to meet its domestic expenditure. Meanwhile, Myanmar 
received 891.2 million dollars from import customs duties in 2000, 11 
percent more than 1999. 




___________________________________________________




BurmaNet: Burma?s real tax revenues plunge

April 22, 2002

The regime?s Internal Revenue Department reports that tax collections 
have increased to 53.25 billion Kyat, a 2.8% rise over the previous 
year.  The statistic is grossly misleading because it implies that the 
economy is either healthier or that the regime is more effective at 
collecting taxes owed, neither of this is accurate.  Inflation is 
hollowing out the value of the currency and the regime?s always poor 
ability to collect taxes seems to be slipping.  

At the beginning of the year 2000, the black-market, i.e. the real 
exchange rate of the dollar to the kyat was 320/1.  The kyat currently 
trades at 600 to the dollar.  Tax collection should increase at 
approximately the rate of inflation (well over 50%) unless either tax 
rates are changed or the amount of taxable activity changes.  As there 
has been no real change in tax rates, the fact that tax collections 
remained flat while inflation soared implies that the economy is 
contracting sharply.

The following table of the kyat?s value to the dollar tracks the 
collapse of the kyat?s value:

Date		Kyat/1$	Source

April 2001	600		Reuters
Feb 25, 2001	580		Associate Press
Feb 17, 2001	500		Associated Press
Dec 15 2000	443		Associated Press
August 2000	395		Reuters
April 2000	385		Bank of Thailand
Jan 2000		320		Associated Press
August 1998	375		Associated Press
Dec 1997 	300		US Embassy Rangoon
Nov 1997 	275		US Embassy Rangoon
July 31 1997	280		Irrawaddy
July 1 1997	185		Irrawaddy
April 1997	167		US Embassy Rangoon
Dec 1996 	160		Irrawaddy
May 1996		135		Far Eastern Economic Review
April 1995	120		Far Eastern Economic Review





___________________________________________________



Reuters: Myanmar's currency sinks to new record low

YANGON, April 21 (Reuters) - Myanmar's kyat currency has fallen to a new 
record low since Friday because of a lack of confidence in struggling 
economy, dealers said on Saturday. 

 The official exchange rate of the Myanmar currency is pegged at six 
kyat a dollar -- unchanged for more than three decades -- but black 
market traders in the capital told Reuters the currency had sunk to 600 
per dollar on Friday from 530 on April 1. 

 It was 585 kyat a dollar a week ago, they said. 

 The previous record low was 590 kyat a dollar on February 20, but it 
rebounded to 490 kyat a dollar two weeks later. 

 Dealers blamed lack of proper handling of the economy and growing 
inflation as the underlying causes of the free fall. 

 Myanmar has a serious foreign reserves shortage, according to the Asia 
Development Bank. 

 The bank said on Tuesday that the country's gross foreign exchange 
reserves at end-March 2000 were only about $240 million -- less than two 
months of exports -- and reflected the fragile state of the external 
balances. 

 ADB said in its Asian Development Outlook for 2001 that ending the 
policy of multiple exchange rates would remove both an existing 
distortion in resource allocation and a strong disincentive to 
investment. 

 Foreign donors remain reluctant to help Myanmar because of the 
country's human rights record. 

 The pro-democracy opposition, led by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu 
Kyi, has campaigned to discourage foreign investment in the country 
until the military allows political reform. 






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