BurmaNet News: May 1, 2001

[strider@xxxxxxxxxxx]

______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
        An on-line newspaper covering Burma 
        May 1, 2001   Issue # 1794
______________ www.burmanet.org _______________

NOTED IN PASSING:

INSIDE BURMA _______
*AFP: Suu Kyi talks no publicity stunt, says junta 
*The Nation: Asean Burma Retreat --drugs on Agenda
*Radio Australia: Thai Foreign Minister starts fence-mending visit to 
Burma
*AP: Myanmar accuses Thailand of artillery assault at border

REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL _______
*AP: Three villagers killed as Thai forces clash with Myanmar ethnic 
group [DKBA]
*AFP: US says no change in policy after Japan's Myanmar grant
*Reuters: Thai army says ready for more Myanmar shelling
*AFP: Thai army denies supporting rebels along Myanmar border

ECONOMY/BUSINESS _______
*Myanmar Cuts Gasoline Quota For Private Cars Tue-Official

OPINION/EDITORIALS_______
*Bernama (Malaysia): Myanmar Struggles To Repair Damage From Bad Press


					
__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________



AFP: Suu Kyi talks no publicity stunt, says junta 

May 1 2001

YANGON: Myanmar's military junta Monday defended its historic talks with 
democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, denying reports they have been 
derailed and insisting they were not just a publicity stunt.

"We are not playing games for the sake of the media ... this is not a 
public relations stunt," said Foreign Minister Win Aung.

"This is for the sake of the people of Myanmar ... if we played games we 
might have done so a long time ago," he told reporters after an 
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting here.

Diplomats in Yangon say the secret talks appear to have been stalled 
since February when the junta's number-four Lieutenant-General Tin Oo 
was killed in a helicopter crash.

UN envoy to Myanmar Razali Ismail, who helped kick-start the 
reconciliation process, has been denied permission to visit since then, 
and a widely expected mass release of political prisoners has also 
failed to materialise.

The diplomats also say they are concerned at rumours circulating in 
Yangon that Aung San Suu Kyi has become frustrated at the lack of 
progress made in the contacts which began last October.

Win Aung said that while he could not release details of the dialogue, 
which has been held under conditions of strict secrecy, it was certainly 
"not stalled".

"Confrontation on both sides has stopped -- you notice that in the 
papers," he said, referring to the government's order for the official 
press to halt its routine personal attacks on Aung San Suu Kyi.

"So you can deduct from what you see, the indicators are that this is 
good.

"But we hope that this process, which is very complex and delicate, 
should be left at a distance right now because the freedom of the 
country depends on this."

The minister said he could not say when the dialogue would produce some 
concrete results, but indicated that more prisoner releases were in the 
offing.

"There is no set time for the dialogue or peace process in Northern 
Ireland, or in Sri Lanka or the Middle East," he said. "This is also not 
a process where you can start a countdown."

"We are reviewing (prisoners) every month and we will consider it and do 
whatever we can." 

Win Aung said the contacts with Aung San Suu Kyi, which are aimed at 
paving the way for an official dialogue that would end a decade of 
political deadlock, began after the opposition accepted a peace overture 
from the junta.

"People's perceptions and ideas can change from time to time. You cannot 
grasp one thing in hand for a long, long time -- you need to adjust to 
the situation," he said.

"(The military regime) offered olive branches for a long, long time. 
They they were brushed off before. Now there is no brushing."

ASEAN foreign ministers said after their one-day retreat in the Myanmar 
capital that they supported the fledgling reconciliation process.

"I think in this case on Myanmar we are very happy with the process and 
I think it's good that they have begun it," said Malaysian Foreign 
Minister Syed Hamid Albar.

However, he said the bloc would maintain its "hands-off" policy of 
non-interference in member nations' affairs.

"Once they have decided to come together among themselves and have a 
dialogue, we have to leave it to them, because this must not be done in 
the limelight of publicity," he said. (AFP)






___________________________________________________




The Nation: Asean Burma Retreat --drugs on Agenda

 May 01, 2001.

Don Pathan 

RANGOON - Asean foreign ministers have agreed to put narcotics high on 
their agenda for the group's upcoming annual meeting and look for ways 
in which all member countries can work together to eradicate drugs, 
Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said yesterday.  
Speaking to reporters at the end of a retreat here, at which the 10 
Asean ministers met informally, Surakiart said the region as a whole 
lacked a concerted effort to fight the growing drug trade.  

Asean has vowed to make the region a drug-free zone by the year 2015, 
while Burma, one of the world's leading producers of opium, has set 2014 
as its target.  
"We have the political will and the methods to do it," Burmese Foreign 
Minister Win Aung told reporters yesterday, adding that counter-narcotic 
efforts should not overlook traditional opium-growers, who would have to 
find alternative means of making a living.  

The issue of illicit drugs has been a sour point between the two 
countries, which have accused one another of supporting major drug 
traffickers.  

In the latest verbal assault, Rangoon issued a statement yesterday 
accusing the Thai army of joining Shan rebels, whom it called major 
"drug bandits", in an attack on Burma's military outpost at Ban Pachee, 
over the border from Thailand's Fang district.  
Thailand reportedly fired 30 artillery and mortar "warning shots" across 
its Northern border in Chiang Mai province into Burma on Sunday after 
receiving a few stray shells from the Burmese army last Thursday.  

"Genuine warnings need not come in hundreds of artillery rounds daily 
including air-burst shells over the [Burmese] troop positions," the 
junta's statement said.  
It added: "Most observers tend to believe that the Thai Army is again 
coming up with an excuse to be able to give the Shan artillery-fire 
support from across the border."  
Thailand's Third Army commander Lt-General Wattanachai Chaimuanwong 
defended the artillery fire, saying it had been in response to Burmese 
shells that had overshot the Pachee outpost, taken by the Shan State 
Army (SSA) nine days ago. Burmese troops are intensifying their effort 
to recapture the base, about 300 metres from the Thai border.  
The statement also blasted the Thai government's "insincere" efforts to 
stem the flow of hundreds of millions of methamphetamine tablets 
reportedly flooding into the country each year from Burma's 
Wa-controlled areas.  

Rangoon-based diplomats and military attaches were briefed last week by 
Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win and Colonel Thein Swe, head of a 
Defence Ministry think-tank called the Office of Strategic Studies, 
about the attack. Rangoon accused the Thai army of taking part in the 
offensive along with the Shan rebels.  
Burma also dismissed reports that nearly 200,000 methamphetamine tablets 
had been found there, claiming the Thai army had twisted the truth to 
cover up its troops' involvement in the drug trade.  

Among other issues, high on the agenda at the upcoming Asean ministerial 
meeting in Hanoi will be how to incorporate the private sector in the 
grouping's efforts to bridge the gap between its more developed and less 
developed members.  

Past efforts have mainly concentrated on the role of the government 
sector, Surakiart said.  

The foreign minister also briefed his Asean colleagues on his recent 
visit to Washington, in regard to the mid-air collision between a US spy 
plane and a Chinese jet.

___________________________________________________




Radio Australia: Thai Foreign Minister starts fence-mending visit to 
Burma

May 1 2001 

Thailand and Burma are moving to halt a sharp deterioration in 
relations.

Thailand's Foreign Minister, Surakiart Sathirathai, has arrived in the 
capital Rangoon for his first official visit to Burma and a meeting with 
his counterpart, Win Aung and the junta's influential chief of military 
intelligence, Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt. 

Souring relations is the angry war of words that has raged between 
Thailand and Burma since February, when fighting between rival ethnic 
militias along the border sparked a rare clash between the national 
armies.

Since then, Thailand has accused Burma of failing to clamp down on the 
border drugs trade, rated as the nation's number-one national security 
threat.

The meeting between the two foreign ministers is seen as an opportunity 
to clear the air and prevent the spat from developing into a more 
serious dispute. 



___________________________________________________




AP: Myanmar accuses Thailand of artillery assault at border 

April 30

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ Myanmar accused Thailand on Monday of daily 
firing hundreds of artillery rounds across their shared land border 
where Myanmar forces are fighting ethnic Shan rebels. 

 A Myanmar government statement said Thailand was ostensibly firing 
warning shots, but was actually giving artillery fire support to the 
rebels. 

 It is the latest spat to hurt relations. In February, the two countries 
had their worst armed confrontation in years when fighting between 
Myanmar forces and the Shan rebels spilled into Thailand. At least five 
Thai and Myanmar civilians were killed. 
 ``Genuine warning need not come in hundreds of artillery rounds daily, 
including air-burst shells over Myanmar troop positions,'' said the 
statement received in Bangkok. It did not mention if there had been any 
Myanmar casualties. 

 The Thai army said it had fired 30 mortar and artillery shells Sunday 
as a warning after shells fired by Myanmar forces fighting the rebel 
Shan State Army on the Myanmar side of the border had landed on Thai 
soil in Fang district, Chiang Mai province, about 800 kilometers (400 
miles) north of Bangkok. 

 No injuries or serious damage were reported in Thailand. 

 The statement said that Myanmar forces were conducting their armed 
operation with ``much restraint to prevent unnecessary spillover to the 
Thai side.'' 

 Myanmar forces are currently trying to retake Pachee border camp, which 
was overrun by the Shan rebels on April 21. The rebels claimed they 
seized 170,000 methamphetamines from the camp. Myanmar maintains it was 
a government post used to monitor the border and stop drug traffickers 
and smugglers. 

 Myanmar accused the Thai army of fighting alongside the Shan in the 
raid and escalating the military situation along the border. 

 Thailand denies helping the rebels who claim to be fighting for 
independence from Myanmar, also known as Burma. Myanmar dismisses them 
as drug traffickers. 
 The drug trade lies at the root of bilateral tensions. 

 Thailand says Myanmar is not doing enough to stop trafficking of 
massive amounts of heroin and methamphetamines across the border by 
ethnic armies that have signed cease-fires with the Yangon regime. 
Myanmar says Thailand is blaming it unfairly for Thailand's domestic 
problems with drug abuse and crime. 
 

__________________________________________________



Kyodo: Pakistan military chief arrives in Myanmar

YANGON May 1 Kyodo - Pakistan Chief Executive Gen. Pervez Musharraf 
arrived in Yangon on Tuesday by special aircraft for a three-day 
goodwill visit.  

The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) Chairman Sr. Gen. Than 
Shwe and government members welcomed the Pakistani military leader and 
his delegation at the airport, Myanmar News Agency said.  

Soon after arrival at the state guesthouse, the first secretary of 
Myanmar's junta, Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, paid a courtesy call on the 
Pakistani leader.  

Later, Musharraf is to call on junta chief Than Shwe at the parliament 
building where bilateral agreements for economic and technological 
cooperation will be signed.  
On Wednesday, the Pakistan delegation will visit Mandalay and Maymyo in 
central Myanmar where they will visit military establishments in 
addition to cultural sites.  
They are to return to Yangon on Thursday to proceed to Vietnam.  

Musharraf, who seized power in Pakistan in a bloodless coup in October 
1999, is the second senior leader from a non-ASEAN (Association of 
Southeast Asian Nations) country to visit Myanmar since the military 
takeover in 1988.  

Chinese Prime Minister Li Peng visited Myanmar in December 1994.  

Musharraf's visit was preceded by a goodwill visit of a flotilla from 
the Pakistan Navy, including a destroyer, a submarine and two support 
ships, from April 27 to 29.  
A 16-member Pakistan National Defense College delegation led by Gen. 
Raza Muhammad Khan also paid a weeklong visit from April 23.



___________________ REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL___________________
				


AP: Three villagers killed as Thai forces clash with Myanmar ethnic 
group [DKBA]

May 1, 2001

MOLITHAI, Thailand (AP) Three hilltribe villagers from Thailand were 
killed and five injured when pro-Myanmar ethnic Karen guerrillas clashed 
with Thai security forces at the border of the two countries early 
Tuesday, Thai army and villagers said. 

 Troops of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army attacked a Thai military 
checkpoint at Molithai on the Thai side of the border, about 350 
kilometers (220 miles) northwest of Bangkok, and battered the civilian 
settlement with fire from rocket propelled grenades. 
 Two Thai soldiers were injured in the attack. It was not clear if the 
DKBA suffered any casualties. 

 The attack was apparently in retaliation for an assault by an 
anti-Yangon rebel army, the Karen National Union, on a DKBA border base 
on April 22 that killed four people in Myanmar. Myanmar, also known as 
Burma, claimed Thailand supported that raid. 

 Charoen Kawjitpaivoon, 48, the headman of Molithai village, said that 
about 60 DKBA troops, who had arrived on the opposite side of the Moei 
River border from the village the night before, launched their attack at 
5 a.m. Tuesday (2200 GMT Monday). 

 They exchanged fire with Thai forces using 81 mm mortars and assault 
rifles for about 30 minutes. Some rocket propelled grenades hit the 
village, which lies near the Thai military checkpoint, causing the 
injuries and destroying six houses, Charoen said. 
 The DKBA guerrillas then retreated back to Myanmar. The situation had 
calmed but Thailand bolstered its forces at the border, a Thai army 
officer said. He spoke on customary condition of anonymity. 

 Some 1,500 Thai villagers, all from the Karen ethnic minority that 
lives on both sides of the border, were evacuated to a schoolhouse seven 
kilometers (four miles) inside Thailand. 

 The injured Thais were being treated at local hospitals. The fatalities 
were identified by hospital staff as 13-year old girl Tholamai 
Khirikwin, 21-year old woman Siwaphon Chaodonkhinich, and Loongyin 
Tarkham, a 64-year old man. 

 The Myanmar government gave no immediate comment about Tuesday's 
incident, which has heightened tensions at the border, where a string of 
skirmishes have soured bilateral relations. 

 Myanmar's regime claims that the Thai army has been escalating the 
military situation by supporting different groups of anti-Yangon rebels 
against Myanmar forces, which Thailand denies. 

 Among the groups it believes Thailand helps is the KNU, which has been 
fighting for autonomy in Myanmar for five decades. The DKBA is a 
pro-Myanmar army that was set up by disgruntled KNU fighters. 

 The root of the bilateral tensions is the drugs trade. Thailand alleges 
that Myanmar is not doing enough to stop heroin and methamphetamines 
crossing their shared border. Myanmar says it does all it can and 
accuses Thailand of blaming it for domestic problems such as addictions 
and drug-linked crime. 
 



___________________________________________________




AFP: US says no change in policy after Japan's Myanmar grant
 
WASHINGTON, April 30 (AFP) - The United States has made no change in its 
tough policy towards Myanmar's ruling generals, despite being consulted 
by Japan on its largest aid package to Yangon in more than a decade, a 
US official said Monday. 

 The Japanese cabinet will later this year rubber-stamp a 3.5 billion 
yen (28.6 million dollar) plan to revamp a hydropower dam in eastern 
Myanmar which Japan built in the 1960s, a Japanese embassy official said 
in Yangon last week. 

 Its decision was taken in the light of the fledgling dialogue between 
the generals and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, which started last 
year.
 
 A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the fact that 
Washington was consulted by Japan, should not imply it agreed with the 
move, or that United States was ready to moderate its opposition to 
international financial help to Myanmar. 

 "We have not changed our policy," said the official, adding that 
assistance was not warranted until there was substantial and concrete 
"progress towards democracy and human rights," in Myanmar. 

 US policymakers will "weigh" their policy towards Myanmar, the former 
Burma, only based on positive developments in the "fragile" dialogue, 
the official added. 

 A senior member of the junta has been meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi 
since last October, in a process that could end years of political 
deadlock and pave the way for a transition of power in the military-run 
country. 
 Japan is the biggest creditor nation and aid donor to Myanmar. It 
suspended all but a small amount of humanitarian aid in the aftermath of 
the 1988 military takeover, but the flow of funds resumed in 1994. 
 Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won an overwhelming 
election victory in 1990 which was never recognised by the military 
government. 
 The party has since been subjected to a campaign of imprisonments and 
harrasments designed to crush its structure and ability to organise. 
 col/





___________________________________________________




Reuters: Thai army says ready for more Myanmar shelling

By Dominic Whiting 

 BANGKOK, April 30 (Reuters) - The Thai army said on Monday it expected 
neighbouring Myanmar to step up bombarding rebel ethnic army positions 
this week in an area close to the Thai border. 

 A senior Thai army source told Reuters that Myanmar government troops 
were intensifying their efforts to retake three bases -- just 100 metres 
from the Thai border -- that were captured by the rebel Shan State Army 
earlier this month. 
 The source, who asked not to be identified, confirmed reports in the 
Thai media that the Thai army had fired warning mortar shots into 
Myanmar on Sunday after stray fire from Myanmar soldiers landed on Thai 
territory. 

 He said the Thai army was ready to respond further to any stray fire or 
troop incursions from Myanmar, also known as Burma. 

 ``Since the SSA took over the three bases, the Burmese army has sent 
around 1,000 men from Muang Sap to retake the bases,'' the source said. 

 ``They are now sending reconnaissance teams to attack the SSA bases. I 
think the fighting will continue and the Burmese will try to defeat the 
SSA soon.'' 

 He added that Thai troops were ready for any overspill of heavier 
fighting, expected in the coming days when 500 Shan reinforcements move 
into the mountainous area. 
 ``If they shoot mortar over the border we will warn them and prevent 
their soldiers from entering Thai territory,'' he said. 

 He said Thai soldiers had fired ``a lot of rounds'' over the border on 
Sunday after mortar and howitzer fire landed on Thai territory over a 
one-hour period. 

 SMOKE BOMBS AND MORTAR 

 ``Thai soldiers tried to warn them by shooting smoke bombs over the 
border, but when the Burmese didn't stop, we shot mortar fire and then 
they stopped,'' he said. 
 No injuries were reported on the Thai side of the border, according to 
the source. 

 More than 600 residents of the area were evacuated when fighting flared 
in mid-April. 
 A Shan State Army spokesman said on Monday that Thai troops had 
``forced the Burmese army to retreat'' by firing around 100 mortar 
rounds on Sunday. He added the Shan had killed more than 100 Myanmar 
soldiers since April 22. 

 The Myanmar Embassy was unavailable for comment. 
 Fighting between the Myanmar army and the Shan State Army has simmered 
along the Thai-Myanmar border for weeks, often spilling over to Thai 
territory. 

 In mid-February the Thai army fired mortar rounds across the border, 
after it said Myanmar soldiers had entered Thai territory and seized an 
outpost while attacking Shan positions in Myanmar. 

 The fighting has been linked to control over drug production in the 
area. 
 Thailand has accused the Yangon-backed United Wa State Army (UWSA) of 
producing hundreds of millions of methamphetamine tablets that have 
flooded Thailand. 

 Myanmar says the Shan rebels are the main culprits, and has repeatedly 
accused the Thai army of supporting the drugs trade. 

 The border friction and drugs issue is likely to overshadow an informal 
meeting of Southeast Asian foreign ministers in Yangon on Monday, where 
Thailand's new foreign minister, Surakiart Sathirathai, was due to meet 
his Myanmar counterpart Win Aung for the first time. 






___________________________________________________




AFP: Thai army denies supporting rebels along Myanmar border

Tuesday May 1, 5:30 PM 


BANGKOK, May 1 (AFP) - The Thai army Tuesday denied accusations from 
Myanmar's military government that it had fired artillery warning shots 
towards Myanmar to protect ethnic Shan rebels, an army statement said.  
The statement said fighting on Sunday between Myanmar troops and Shan 
State Army (SSA) soldiers along the Thai-Myanmar border had directly 
affected Thailand as Myanmar shells had landed on Thai soil. 
The shelling had endangered Thai villagers and property, leading 
Thailand's 3rd Army to unleash warning shots "towards only the area that 
shells spilled over the border." 
"The Royal Thai Army has to protect our sovereignty and bring peace and 
security to Thai people," the army said. 
The exchange comes as Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai begins 
his first official visit to Myanmar, where he and his counterpart Win 
Aung will try to halt an alarming deterioration in relations between the 
neighbours. 

Surakiart's visit on the heels of an informal retreat by Association of 
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers in Yangon Monday is 
overshadowed by the war of words that has raged between the two 
countries in recent months. 

The friction began in February, when fighting between rival ethnic 
militias along the border sparked a rare clash between their national 
armies. 

Since then, Thailand has accused Myanmar of failing to clamp down on the 
border narcotics trade, rated as the nation's number-one national 
security threat. 
Myanmar fired back last week by accusing Thailand of jeopardising ASEAN 
unity, dashing hopes that the new administration of Prime Minister 
Thaksin Shinawatra would herald an era of closer relations between the 
neighbours. 

In the latest border dispute, Myanmar's ruling junta on Monday lashed 
out at Thailand, saying it had used its firepower to defend ethnic SSA 
soldiers along the border. 
"The Thai army is again coming up with an excuse to be able to give (the 
an artillery fire support from across the border creating military 
escalation and causing unnecessary aggravation and tension," the Myanmar 
junta said in a statement. 

Myanmar also accused Thai troops of participating in an attack last week 
by SSA troops that left seven government soldiers dead. 

In helping the SSA, Thailand was effectively harbouring drug criminals 
as the ethnic militia had been shown to be involved in the heroin and 
amphetamine trade, the statement said. 

Yangon has accused the Thai army of using the SSA to fight a proxy war, 
while at the same time justifying its crackdown on the rebels to curtail 
their role in the production and trafficking of drugs. 

The SSA has yet to agree to a ceasefire with Yangon. It has been 
fighting for an independent state for decades





_______________ ECONOMY AND BUSINESS _______________
 


Myanmar Cuts Gasoline Quota For Private Cars Tue-Official

May 1, 2001


YANGON (AP)--The official quota of gasoline for private cars has been 
reduced from three gallons a day to two gallons a day, an energy 
ministry official said Tuesday.  
The quota reduction, which became effective Tuesday, wasn't officially 
announced in the media, and many car owners found out about the change 
only when they went to top up their tanks at their local gas stations. 
 
The energy ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said 
that government cars would also face a decreased quota effective from 
Tuesday, but he didn't know the size of the cut.  

The reason for the change wasn't made known, but Myanmar's foreign 
exchange reserves have come under pressure from a fall in the value of 
the national currency, the kyat. The kyat is trading at record low free 
market rates of about 640 to one U.S dollar, more than a hundred times 
the official exchange rate, dealers said. 
 
The official exchange rate remains about 6 kyats to the dollar, but most 
business and consumer transactions are based on the rate quoted on the 
black market, which is tacitly tolerated by the government as necessary 
to carry on business.  

The reduction of the gasoline ration is likely to result in higher taxi 
fares and higher prices for basic commodities. 
 
Another official who also didn't want to be identified said that the 
reduction was an apparent effort to prevent wastage.  

With limited domestic oil production and tight foreign exchange 
reserves. Myanmar suffers from a constant fuel shortage, so gasoline is 
sold under a rationing system in Yangon. Each car has a ration book for 
making daily purchases.  

Owners of both private cars and government cars who don't need their 
full quota sell their excess fuel to black market gasoline sellers, from 
whom people with demands greater than their quota buy it at inflated 
prices. 
 
A gallon of gasoline which is bought under the quota system at 180 kyats 
can fetch 400 kyats per gallon on the black market.  

The sales of excess quotas are used by some government officials as well 
as private citizens to augment their incomes.  

Myanmar, once one of the region's important oil producers, produced 
32,000 barrels of crude per day in 1979, but production has declined to 
about 18,000 barrels per day while domestic fuel consumption has 
increased. According to the most recent official figures available, 
there were 107,284 cars in Yangon in December 1998, three times the 
total 10 years earlier.  

To meet the shortfall, the government regularly buys crude from abroad, 
usually from Malaysia and South Korea




_________________________________________________




_______________OPINION/EDITORIALS_________________





Bernama (Malaysia): Myanmar Struggles To Repair Damage From Bad Press
  
   By Roslan Ariffin 

May 1 2001

[BurmaNet adds....Bernama is part of Malaysia's state press and reflects 
the views of the Mahathir regime.]


YANGON, May 1 (Bernama) -- If foreign media reporting of Myanmar is to 
be taken seriously, the country has gone to the dogs. 

An iron-fisted military government, backward economy, drug trafficking, 
riots, forced labour, religious intolerance and massive political 
instability are some of their portrayals of Myanmar. 

A group of Malaysian journalists on an eight-day "rare" tour of Myanmar 
recently however found Myanmar to be a country on the go and things are 
far from hopeless as foreign media reports seem to suggest. 

The visit to the "Suvanna Bhumi" (Golden Earth) was organised to enable 
the Malaysians to obtain the latest information and first-hand look at 
the country which has been under military rule since 1988. 

Disembarking at the Yangon International Airport after a 150-minute 
Malaysia Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur and then off to Yangon City 
in a 20-minute bus ride, one could see many new structures -- 
condominiums, apartments, four-star and five-star hotels -- along the 
way. 

Visitors anticipating to see troops in every corner of Yangon's streets 
could see none, instead they were met with robust traffic movement -- 
cars honking and over-packed public transport. 

"My mother actually cried when told that I was to be transferred to 
Myanmar. She begged me not to come here because of all the bad things 
written about the country. That was five years ago and now she is a 
regular tourist here," said Steven Twang, an executive chef at the 
Yangon Micasa Hotel Apartment. 

Twang, from Muar in Johor and married to a Myanmar woman, said foreign 
reports on Myanmar were "unreal and grossly biased". 

"There is peace and stability in this country for the last decade. You 
can ask around. The people don't really care about politics, their 
priority is to improve their income and their lot," he said. 

"Yangon is now something like Kuala Lumpur in the late seventies, but it 
is doing the catching up very, very fast." 

Myanmar, with a 50 million population and a land area of 676,577 sq km, 
shares borders with Bangladesh, India, China, Laos and Thailand. 

The Myanmar goverment agreed that the closed-door policy of the previous 
government is the main reason why Yangon, once better off than any other 
city in South East Asia, has remained backward. 

"It's true that previously we could not show the country to the world 
because of the insurgency problem that the government has to contend 
with. That is why outsiders are not fully aware of the real situation in 
this country," said Lt Gen Khin Nyunt, Secretary of the State Peace and 
Development Council of Myanmar. 

Since independence in 1948, Myanmar with its 135 ethnic groups has not 
enjoyed stability because of one insurrection after another. 

The military had to intervene a few times in the 60's and in 1988, it 
had to come in and take over the running of the country then on the edge 
of disorder. 

Gen Khin Nyunt, the country's de facto Prime Minister, said peace and 
stability in the last decade had permitted Myanmar to improve its 
economy and relax its travel restrictions imposed on foreign tourists. 

"Seeing is believing. One should come and personally see Myanmar," he 
told the Malaysian journalists. 

Even with biased foreign reporting, Myanmar -- famous for its 
archaeological sites among others -- has managed to capture the hearts 
of many a visitor as can be seen by the rising number of tourists. 

Last year, some 207,665 tourists entered the country through Yangon, up 
from 196,158 the previous year. 

The trend indicates that more foreign tourists are coming to Myanmar 
every year even after the United States issued warnings to its citizens 
against travelling to Myanmar. 

Last year alone, the hotel industry in Myanmar made US$572.94 million. 

As peace beckons in Myanmar, the government is opening up more areas to 
tourists, especially the border zones previously kept off-limits due to 
the dangers posed by rebels and drug trafficking groups. 

Asians account for 63.2 percent (131,165 people) of tourists to the 
country, mainly from Taiwan and Japan, and Western Europe accounting for 
25.9 percent (53,739 people) mostly from France, Germany and the United 
Kingdom. 

"Come and see for yourself, the country is one of the safest places for 
tourists," said Lieutenant Col Hla Min, a Defence Ministry official. 

"We are in transition, moving from 26 years of centrally-planned 
socialist system to a market-oriented open economy," he told the 
Malaysian journalists. 

To outsiders, Myanmar is very much a misunderstood country and the 
Malaysian Ambassador here Datuk Mohammad Noh agreed that western 
mediareporting of the country had been biased. 

"Some western reporters have never even been to Myanmar, they just pick 
up news from somewhere," he said. 

To Malaysian companies and entrepreneurs, he said: "You have to come 
here and see Myanmar for yourself". 

Mohammad said the excellent ties between Myanmar and Malaysia should 
pave the way for Malaysian businesses to be set up here and expand. 

Sein Wein, the Kyodo news agency correspondent here, said the western 
media were still confused over the country's and the capital's names. 

Myanmar and Yangon were the original names respectively but renamed 
Burma and Rangoon by the British Colonial Administration. Reverting to 
the original names have been accepted by the United Nations but not by 
the western media. 

Criticisms of the country's human rights record have resulted in 
economic sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union. 

The National League for Democracy led by Aung San Suu Kyi won the 1990 
election by a landslide but the military refused to let it govern. 

Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was later put on house arrest 
until 1995 before being granted limited movement. 

Things are looking up with the military government recently starting to 
have regular meetings and dialogue with Suu Kyi. 

Gen Khin Nyunt said the military government is only a transitional 
government and "it is our wish to relinquish power to a strong 
government". 

"There must be peace, order and economic growth in the country and only 
then will the military relinquish power to the government elected by the 
people through the democratic process," he said. 

"I don't think there is a need for us to drag our feet." 

He also urged Western nations to have some understanding as the people 
of Myanmar were only beginning to taste democracy and formulate its own 
constitution. 

Japan last week announced a US$60 million (US$1=RM3.80) aid to revamp a 
hydropower dam in eastern Myanmar, the biggest Japanese grant to the 
country since 1988. 

Japanese Embassy officials here have said the aid package is being made 
in light of positive steps taken by the government in allowing the 
dialogue to take place. -- BERNAMA








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