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BurmaNet News: October 18, 2001



______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
        An on-line newspaper covering Burma 
          October 18, 2001   Issue # 1901
______________ www.burmanet.org _______________

INSIDE BURMA _______
*AFP: UN rights envoy admitted to hospital before cutting short Myanmar 
trip 
*National Public Radio: Alan Rabinowitz and his journey into the 
mountains of Myanmar *Shan Herald Agency for News: Cis-Salween area 
being 'urbanized'
*DVB: Ethnic groups meet UN special envoy, claim lack of political 
freedom 

MONEY _______
*Chronicle of Higher Education: U. of Virginia Sells Stock in Company  
Criticized Over Ties to Myanmar

GUNS______
*DVB: Four Thai border police wounded in attack on outpost by "unknown 
group" 
Arakan News Agency : Na Sa Ka (Border Security Force) Camps Put On High 
Alert in *Arakan 

DRUGS______
*Xinhua: Border guards seize 19 kilograms of 'ice'

REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL _______
*Mizzima: Birthday celebration for imprisoned Burma student leader 
planned 

OTHER______
*PD Burma: Calendar of events 


					
__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________




AFP: UN rights envoy admitted to hospital before cutting short Myanmar 
trip 


YANGON, Oct 18 (AFP) - United Nations human rights envoy Paulo Sergio 
Pinheiro was admitted to hospital in the northern city of Mandalay 
before cutting short his mission to Myanmar, a government source said 
Thursday. 

 Pinheiro departed Yangon Wednesday after a meeting with democracy 
leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her top lieutenants, which was hastily 
arranged after he was taken ill on an upcountry tour and forced to cut 
three days from his trip. 

 UN officials said Pinheiro, who is aged in his late 50s, was suffering 
from a pre-existing condition that had flared up during the tour, and 
that his doctor had recommended he travel back to Brazil for treatment. 

 "He was not in pain but it was difficult for him to move on and travel 
around," a UN spokeswoman said, while declining to identify his 
condition. 

 A government source who helped organise the envoy's second trip to 
Myanmar said Pinheiro spent two days in hospital after completing a tour 
of northern Shan state Monday. The UN spokeswoman said the stay was 
shorter. 

 He was forced to cancel a trip to Kachin state to meet with the Kachin 
Independence Organisation, the political wing of the Kachin Independence 
Army, which is one of the ethnic militias to have signed a ceasefire 
agreement with the government. A visit to the ancient city of Bagan was 
also canceled. 

 The UN spokeswoman said that before he flew out of Yangon, Pinheiro 
managed to attend the crucial meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi and top 
members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) which lasted for 
nearly two hours. 

 She said she hoped the meeting would go some way to defusing complaints 
from NLD secretary U Lwin that the envoy had spent too much time with 
junta leaders and had neglected the pro-democracy groups. 

 "This was a very important meeting so that was one effort he was really 
concerned to make... From what I understand it went well."
 
 "I hope that all the misunderstandings were clarified," she said, 
adding that scheduling problems had prevented Pinheiro from seeing the 
NLD leadership until Wednesday just hours before his departure.
 
 The UN said in a statement issued in Geneva that Pinheiro and his team 
had been to prisons in Mandalay and Lashio as well as a "labour camp" at 
Hton-Bo last Saturday and Sunday before he was forced to cut short his 
visit.
 
 It added that Pinheiro "hoped to be able to return to Myanmar as soon 
as his health permits to pursue his fact-finding mission and efforts to 
develop partnership with all interested parties towards improving the 
human rights situation in the country." 

 U Lwin told BBC's Burmese-language service earlier this week that he 
was "displeased" with the trip. "I heard he has no plan to visit local 
prisons and to call on political prisoners, which is very strange," he 
said. 

 "Especially on this trip Pinheiro has spent a lot of time with senior 
military officials... and on his previous visit he called on NLD 
officials for only 30 minutes," he added. "I do not expect too much from 
his visit." 

 Shan NLD spokesman Khun Tun Oo said his meeting with Pinheiro Friday, 
along with other ethnic pro-democracy groups, had helped ease concerns 
that the envoy was not addressing their problems. 

 His first report released after an inaugural five-day trip to Myanmar 
in April "did not represent the true situation of ethnic minority 
political parties," he said. "It was based on what the ceasefire groups 
had told him." 

 But he said Pinheiro had promised to incorporate their views into his 
next report. 

 "We were all very satisfied that we could meet with this man, spend 
over one and a half hours with him, and explain our feelings," he told 
AFP. 

 Pinheiro, the first UN human rights envoy to travel here in five years, 
has established a good working relationship with the junta, which 
released five top political prisoners to mark his arrival on October 9. 
 In the second release to coincide with the visit, on Saturday it also 
freed a young dissident named Chan Myay Win, who had been sentenced to 
21 years in jail, an official source said. 




___________________________________________________




National Public Radio: Alan Rabinowitz and his journey into the 
mountains of Myanmar 


Morning Edition (10:00 AM ET) - NPR 


October 17, 2001 Wednesday 





This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Bob Edwards. 

People think there's not much new left to find in the world; that the 
age of exploration is over. But there are explorers today, and they're 
making new discoveries all the time. Here's NPR's Alex Chadwick with one 
very recent example. 

ALEX CHADWICK reporting: 

There probably are born explorers. Alan Rabinowitz is not one of them. 
He is today the director of science and exploration for the Wildlife 
Conservation Society that's based at the Bronx Zoo in New York, but 
still it is an unlikely place for a city kid like him to wind up 
working. Dr. ALAN RABINOWITZ (Wildlife Conservation Society): I was 16 
or 17 when I first took a field trip and went, actually, into the 
forest. And my first feeling wasn't one of joy, it was one of total 
fear, because I grew up in New York, where having a lot of dark places 
where people could hide was not a good thing. 

CHADWICK: He went on to many dark forests. He's written earlier about 
his adventures in Central America. A decade ago he began to think about 
a huge, wild region in upper Southeast Asia, where Burma and China and 
Tibet all come together. No one welcomes strangers there, especially not 
the Burmese, who are so maniacally secretive they actually changed the 
country's name to Myanmar. But Alan Rabinowitz persuaded them to 
authorize an expedition that led to his new book, "Beyond the Last 
Village." 

Dr. RABINOWITZ: Myanmar, being such a long country, ranging from rain 
forests in the far south to the Himalayas in the far north, had an 
incredible range of habitats and, thus, an incredible diversity of birds 
and mammals and insects. We knew that already from past accounts. What 
we didn't know, we didn't know what was really left in those forests. 

CHADWICK: You wind up in this village, Putao, up in the north, which is, 
I would think, for most of us, about as remote a place as you could ever 
imagine getting to. 

Dr. RABINOWITZ: Yes. It was considered the last civilized place, 
although many people would consider it far from being civilized. And 
beyond that point, there were no roads; nobody even knew what trails 
there were, if any. It was just rugged mountains until the Tibetan 
border. From Putao to get to where we wanted to go, which was where we 
thought the last village would be, was about 250 miles. So we had to 
carry enough food for about a 500-mile round trip walk. 

(Soundbite of people conversing in foreign language) 

CHADWICK: These are villagers that Dr. Rabinowitz recorded for his video 
diary. 

(Soundbite of people conversing in foreign language) 

CHADWICK: With Burmese foresters, he was going to an area so little 
known, so little exploited, they hoped they'd find animals and 
ecosystems that are perishing elsewhere. They saw people along the way 
who'd almost never known outsiders; places that didn't use money. People 
bartered for goods, and the medium of exchange was salt. 

(Soundbite of digging) 

Dr. RABINOWITZ: People were killing wildlife for salt. People grew what 
they could to eat, but they needed salt. They were living as they had 
for generations upon generations. They used crossbows and poisoned 
arrows, which they would make themselves. They would make the crossbows 
from a hardwood and they would use arrows of bamboo, and they would 
obtain a poison from a certain plant. But most of the tribes didn't 
really want to hunt that much because it was very difficult up there. 
But they needed to kill wildlife in order to trade for salt. 

(Soundbite of people conversing in foreign language) 

CHADWICK: There were animals, even a primitive species of deer 
previously unknown to science. Dr. Rabinowitz and his Burmese colleagues 
developed a conservation plan for large refuges and promised they'd 
supply the salt that local people had gotten from Chinese traders for 
rare skins and pelts collected by village hunters. 

Dr. RABINOWITZ: I didn't ask them to stop, because some of the hunting 
was needed for protein, for meat for themselves, and some of it they 
just liked to do. I just said, 'Replace the amount of hunting you're 
doing in order to trade for salt and I will trade that same amount of 
salt and more with medicine and maybe better agricultural techniques and 
tools.' And they said, 'We could do that. We could do that easily, and 
we'd be happy to do that because it would be better for us.' It's not 
always an easy thing to try to make a tradeoff between what local people 
need and want and what it takes to have the wildlife survive. But in 
this case, it was easy. It was very simple, it was inexpensive and it 
was straightforward. 

(Soundbite of water) 

Dr. RABINOWITZ: (From video diary) Well, it's January 24th. We stayed 
here trying to get more pictures, more documentation of the way of life 
here and wrap up what needs to be done here. 

CHADWICK: It worked. The parks are there today, and the conservation 
strategy seems to be effective. But there's another story, too, in 
"Beyond the Last Village." 

Dr. RABINOWITZ: But the time I had reached the last village 
scientifically, biologically, I knew that I had accomplished more than 
I'd ever hoped for. And yet I felt that I was actually on the verge of 
finding something which I sought much more than even scientific 
discoveries. 

CHADWICK: And what is that? What do you find in that village? 

Dr. RABINOWITZ: I grew up a very bad stuttering child who--the only 
things I could speak to from my earliest recollection in childhood and 
not stutter terribly, incomprehensibly, was animals, which is a common 
thing among stutterers. And I grew up in a time when stuttering was not 
very well-understood. They didn't know what to do with me, even in 
school. So I grew up my entire life feeling this deep, deep affinity 
towards animals and feeling like they themselves had no voice. I felt 
that same way. I felt like things inside of me were broken into little 
pieces. 

CHADWICK: That's partly what made him an explorer, he said. He wanted to 
go to places so remote that he might finally find himself and then, 
perhaps, connections with others. 

Dr. RABINOWITZ: This was the most remote I personally had ever gotten, 
and for the first time ever I felt as if I might get some of the answers 
I was seeking here, which I did. It didn't come right away. It came 
through a small fatherless child who ended up taking me on as his 
adopted father. It came through a mother who ended up giving up her baby 
so that the baby would live and asked if we would take it back with us. 
It came through a Buddhist monk who was up there in the last village 
with us. Those answers had never come before. Deep inside me, there was 
a bunch of jumbled-up, broken pieces which just had never come together. 
And they finally did come together in that last village. 

(Soundbite of people singing in foreign language) 

CHADWICK: Dr. Alan Rabinowitz, director of science and exploration at 
the Bronx Zoo's Wildlife Conservation Society. His new book is called 
"Beyond the Last Village." 

In Washington, this is Alex Chadwick, NPR News. 

(Soundbite of people singing in foreign language) 

EDWARDS: You can hear more of the interview with Rabinowitz and read an 
excerpt from his book on the Web site npr.org. 

It's 11 minutes before the hour. 
 
    



___________________________________________________



Shan Herald Agency for News: Cis-Salween area being 'urbanized'



18 October 2001


A Shan rural area west of the Salween has been crowded with military 
units,  loggers, construction workers and local forced laborers involved 
in the 5  year urbanization project since March, reported a source who 
recently  returned from Shan State.

Sai Raza, a Shan environmentalist working with Thailand-based Salween  
Watch, said Kengtawng, the scene of more than a hundred villages being  
forcibly relocated in a massive scorched earth campaign in 1997, was  
swarming once again with thousands of people who were allowed to return 
on  condition that they would assist the Army's activities and hundreds 
of  outsiders who were there to "make fast money".

Kengtawng, with its administrative seat in Tonhoong, is located inside 5 
 townships: Namzang, Kunhing, Mongpan, Langkher and Mongnai. It is in 
the  flood area of the Salween dam project, the feasibility study of 
which was  completed only late last year.

Sai Raza said he saw a Bailey bridge, 360 ft long and 14 ft wide, being  
constructed by the Hong Pang Company, the Wa's main business firm. "I 
saw  villagers cutting maipao (Shorea robusta) to supply beams for the 
bridge,"  he said.

The area's teak and maipao forests were also being felled by loggers 
from  Asia World, former druglord Law Hsinghan's company.

He also heard from Burmese soldiers that more than 3,000 families from  
Burmese lowlands would be brought up to resettle there. However, he was  
unable to obtain confirmation for this piece of news.

One fringe result of the 'urbanization project' would be that units from 
 the Shan State Army of Yawdserk might have to make a long detour of the 
 area during their movements between central and southern Shan State, he 
 remarked.

According to Salween Watch, Japan's Electric Power Development 
Corporation,  has been bidding for a contract to carry out the final 
studies for the dam.  The dam site is located between Mongpan in the 
west and Mongton in the east  of the Salween.

For related information, visit http://www.shanland.org
# Relocated people return home to build fortifications (16 August 2001) 
# A new hydro-electricity plant to be built near the Salween (19 August 
2001) # 7 villagers killed for complaining about forced labor (Shan 
Human Rights  Foundation, September report)





__________________________________________________




DVB: Ethnic groups meet UN special envoy, claim lack of political 
freedom 


Text of report by Democratic Voice of Burma on 13 October

[Ko Moe Aye] We heard that Mr Pinheiro met with five nationality groups 
including yours. Could
 you tell us about that meeting?  

[U Khun Tun Oo] Frankly speaking, it is quite demoralizing. Nothing has 
improved. His report was a little optimistic because he did not get his 
facts right. The nationality parties such as the Arakan, Mon, Chin, and 
Karen were unable to engage in party activities and he had to be told. 
We told him that we wanted to participate in party activities in a 
similar manner to the NLD [National League for Democracy].  

[Ko Moe Aye] What did Mr Pinheiro tell the five nationality parties?  

[U Khun Tun Oo] Well, he understood the five parties were unable to do 
any party activities so he told us why we did not pursue further. We 
told him we were unable to contact the township, district, state, and 
division authorities. He did not seem to know the facts.  

[Ko Moe Aye] In his report he said that the human rights situation has 
improved. He wrote it in a positive light.  

[U Khun Tun Oo] He said something like cautious optimism. He even asked 
where is the optimism? We gave him a diplomatic reply but in real terms 
the situation is not favourable.  

[Ko Moe Aye] What was his impression after meeting with you and the 
nationalities?  

[U Khun Tun Oo] Well, he will have to rewrite his report. He will have 
to write that the nationality parties have no freedom of movement to do 
any political activity.  

[Ko Moe Aye] Did you discuss other things? 

[U Khun Tun Oo] He asked whether there were any arrests and I frankly 
said no since the climate has improved regarding the political process 
[preceding two words in English] and that there have been no arrests. He 
inquired whether there was any detention recently and I simply replied 
no. He asked why and I said it might be because of the good political 
climate.  

[Ko Moe Aye] In yesterday's news he also met with the USDA [Union 
Solidarity and Development Association] group. Did he tell you anything 
about that?  

[U Khun Tun Oo] Well, he met with one Kayah group, two Karen groups, and 
one Mon group. The two Karen groups could be Phado Aung San's and Saw 
Thamu He's groups. He said he met with the cease-fire groups. He also 
said he met with S-1 [SPDC Secretary-1 Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt] as well.  

[Ko Moe Aye] Did he give a rough explanation about his meeting with S-1? 
 

[U Khun Tun Oo] No, he did not. He just informed us about his meeting.  

[Ko Moe Aye] Can you tell us how long you were able to talk with Mr 
Pinheiro? Whether you were able to present your views fully and how much 
time was allocated?  

[U Khun Tun Oo] He talked with us for about one and half hours. We all 
tackled him with questions. He even asked whether Mr Razali knows about 
all this and we said yes, we told him so. We explained to him the 
difficulties of ethnic people, even to travel to the districts. We also 
told him about the lack of political activity, freedom of association, 
freedom of organization, and freedom of assembly and gathering. We said 
these should be allowed because once the political process changes, we 
want to be ready. We had to explain it to him. He thought we had already 
started the dialogue process. He said that only the NLD is active then 
and we told him that NLD and USDA are engaging in the activities. The 
Shan party, being a legitimate party, was active for a while. There 
wasn't much pressure though. It was worse for the other groups. The UNLD 
[United Nationalities League for Democracy] won over 40 seats, including 
those from the Mon, Arakan, and Chin groups.  
[Ko Moe Aye] I believe Mr Pinheiro has asked permission to visit the 
jails.  

[U Khun Tun Oo] Yes, he has and I think he will visit Insein Central 
Jail.  

[Ko Moe Aye] What is your opinion of his itinerary and what you 
discussed?  

[U Khun Tun Oo] Since he is staying a little longer than the last time 
and if his visit is more thorough, then I think he will be able to know 
50 per cent of the actual news. It will be different from his first 
visit because I have read his report. 


Source: Democratic Voice of Burma, Oslo, in Burmese 1430 gmt 13 Oct 01 



______________________MONEY________________________






Chronicle of Higher Education: U. of Virginia Sells Stock in Company  
Criticized Over Ties to Myanmar
 
  By GOLDIE BLUMENSTYK
 
  University of Virginia students who have been  campaigning for the 
institution to sell its 
stock in  Unocal because of the oil company's ties to the  military 
regime in Myanmar claimed victory this  week after learning that the 
institution had sold its  50,000 shares. 

The students said they hope the sale  is the first step in a broader 
university policy on   ethical investing.  University officials, 
however, said the decision to  sell  was made for financial reasons, 
based on a stock  manager's "assessment of Unocal's prospects" 
and  not because of the student pressure.
 
  Alice Handy, the university treasurer, said she  notified student 
leaders late last week that 
the stock  had been sold because they were scheduled to meet  with 
members of the Board of Visitors this Friday to  discuss the Unocal 
situation, and she wanted the  students to be aware of the latest 
development.
 
  But she also said the decision to sell the shares --  worth about 
$1.5-million -- had not come from the  board or university officials, 
and did not reflect any  change in university policy. "It's a stock that 
he had  traded in and out of for 12 years," Ms. Handy said  of the stock 
manager, adding that there was nothing  to keep him from adding it back 
into UVa's
  $1.7-billion portfolio at any time.
 
  Nonetheless, students said the decision was a  victory for their 
nine-month campaign, albeit a  "conditional victory," in the words of 
Andrew Price,  a fourth-year student who heads the Free Burma  Coalition 
at Virginia. Myanmar is formerly known as  Burma. "I don't know why that 
stock was sold, but  the endowment [now] much better reflects the
  values of the University of Virginia" he said.
 
  The university had been urged to divest of the  Unocal stock by the 
coalition, by the Student  Council, and by seven Nobel Peace Prize 
winners.
 
  Mr. Price said he doubted that the sale of the stock  was a 
coincidence. He said he also realized that  there was nothing to keep 
the university from buying  back that stock, or stock of other companies 
still  doing business in Myanmar: "We need to try to get  the Board of 
Visitors to say that we won't."
 
  Students who still plan to meet with the Board of  Visitors on Friday 
said they are hoping that the  university will establish a policy on 
ethical  investing,  overseen by a committee of students, faculty  
members, and university administrators. Along with  a ban on owning 
stock in companies that do  business in Myanmar, the students say the 
university  should only own stock in companies that provide  workers 
with a living wage.
 
  Nationally, the Free Burma Coalition, based in  Washington, is 
pursuing divestment efforts at the  University of Michigan and with 
TIAA-CREF, a  giant pension fund with many academic participants.
 




_______________________GUNS________________________




DVB: Four Thai border police wounded in attack on outpost by "unknown 
group" 

 
Text of report by Democratic Voice of Burma on 17 October

An unknown armed group from the Burmese side fired at a Thai Border 
Patrol Police [BPP] unit near the Thai-Burma border in Mae Hong Song 
Province this morning [17 October]. Mae Hong Song provincial officials 
have also confirmed about the incident. DVB  correspondent Maung Too 
filed this report about the border incident from somewhere near the 
Thai-Burma border.
  
[Maung Too] An unknown armed group based in Shan State attacked a Thai 
BPP outpost near Ho Nang Village in Bhama Phat District, Mae Hong Song 
Province in Thailand at about 0600 [local time] on 17 October. Mae Hong 
Song provincial authorities said four members of the Thai BPP were 
wounded in the attack. But the Thai BPP said the unknown armed group 
that crossed over to Thailand from the Burmese side could be the Wa 
armed group [United Wa State Army] or the SPDC soldiers who had lost 
their way and wandered into Thai territory. Furthermore, some thought 
the group could be drug traffickers because the location where the 
incident occurred happened to be on the drug trafficking route. Both 
sides have agreed that this is a time when high-level Thai and Burmese 
officials have been promoting bilateral goodwill and economic 
cooperation between the two nations. Observers believed that such border 
incidents could create some obstacles to the slightly improving 
bilateral relations.
 
Source: Democratic Voice of Burma, Oslo, in Burmese 1430 gmt 17 Oct 01 





___________________________________________________



Arakan News Agency : Na Sa Ka (Border Security Force) Camps Put On High 
Alert in Arakan 


By our Special Correspondent


Maungdaw, October 17: Since the visit of a delegation of high ranking 
military officials to northern areas of Burmese occupied Arakan on 
October 12, all Na Sa Ka camps situated along 
Burma-Bangladesh border area have been put on full alert. 

The delegation comprising, among others, Gen. Myint Zaw of Military 
Intelligence Headquarters, Rangoon and Lt. Col. Aung Ngwe, Head of Na Sa 
Ka forces based in Na Sa Ka Headquarters at Kyigan Byin, Maungdaw 
visited various Na Sa Ka camps such as Kyin Chaung (Bawlibazar), Thet 
Kine Nya, Mingla  Nyunt, Min Khamaung and Aung Zu all located north of 
Maungdaw township. 
The delegation inspected the existing position of the camps regarding 
defense preparedness and discipline among the troops. They also 
discussed with the commanders of various camps and instructed them to 
put them on full alert. Following the visit of the officials the local 
authorities put a number of restrictions on the local people regarding 
their movement and other formalities. Although curfew was not imposed 
officially no one is allowed to move at night. The authorities further 
warned that anyone found sheltering any unreported guest, shall be 
severely punished   More check points are erected and all passersby are 
searched. 
 

Abdur Rashid
Chief Reporter
Arakan News Agency
 
 


________________________DRUGS______________________



Xinhua: Border guards seize 19 kilograms of 'ice'


KUNMING, October 18 (Xinhua) -- Border guards in southwest China's 
Yunnan Province confiscated 19.12 kilograms of the drug " ice" early 
Wednesday morning, according to local official sources. Frontier police 
stationed in Lincang County found two bags of refined "ice," the street 
name for methamphetamine hydrochloride, which were dropped by two 
suspects after a fierce gunfight. The suspected traffickers fled 
overseas, the police said. Yunnan, neighboring the notorious "Golden 
Triangle" area, has been used as a major passage for drug trafficking by 
international drug dealers. 

The Yunnan Frontier Defense Bureau has uncovered 67 drug cases in the 
first half of the year, involving 25 kilograms of heroin, which the 
traffickers hid in their body cavities. The Chinese government has been 
taking an active part in international cooperation on controlling 
narcotics and seen measurable success. Sources from the China National 
Narcotics Control Commission ( NNCC) said that in the first half of this 
year, China had stepped up its anti-drug cooperation with Laos, Myanmar 
and other countries. 






___________________ REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL___________________
				



Mizzima: Birthday celebration for imprisoned Burma student leader 
planned 


(www.mizzima.com) 

Washington, Oct. 17: The birthday of Burma's imprisoned student leader 
Min Ko Naing is being celebrated tomorrow in the Capitol offices of US 
congressmen Lane Evans and Tom Lantos. October 18th marks the student 
leader's 12th consecutive birthday behind bars.  

Min Ko Naing, a prominent student leader who led the 1988 nationwide 
uprising in Burma was arrested in March 1989 by the military regime and 
sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for his anti-government activities. 
Although his sentence was later reduced to 10 years under general 
amnesty, he remains in jail. He has been held in solitary confinement 
for most of his imprisonment, which resulted in poor physical and mental 
health.  

In a rare meeting with the then Congressman Bill Richardson in Sittwe 
Jail in Rakhine State in 1994, he reportedly refused amnesty in return 
for exile in the US.  

The date of celebration is honored by the Capitol celebration (convened 
by the Washington-based Free Burma Coalition) and a candle light vigil 
tonight in front of the residence of Burmese ambassador in Washington.  

United Nations Human Rights envoy Paulo Sergio Pinheiro who is currently 
on a fact-finding mission in Burma has specifically called on the 
Burmese authorities to effect Min Ko Naing?s release.  

Amnesty International recognizes Min Ko Naing as a prisoner of 
conscience and had appealed the Burmese government for his immediate and 
unconditional release. 








______________________OTHER______________________





PD Burma: Calendar of events 



  a.. September  : 56th UN General Assembly. For more information: 
www.un.org/ga/56 

  b.. October 18th   : The birthday of Burma's imprisoned student leader 
Min Ko Naing. Celebration in the Capitol offices of US congressmen Lane 
Evans and Tom Lantos, Washington 

  c.. October 27-29th  : the Fifth Annual Working Conference of the Free 
Burma Coalition, American University in Washington,   DC. For more 
information: http://www.freeburmacoalition.or 

  d.. December 1st : Worlds Aids Day 

  e.. December 8th : World wide celebration for the Nobel Peace Prize 
for Aung San Suu Kyi www.burmapeacecampaign.org 

  f.. January 14th 2002  : 26th Session of CEDAW, New York. For more 
info: www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/committ 

  g.. February 2002 : The fourth Bangladesh, India, Burma, Sri Lanka and 
Thailand-Economic Cooperation (BIMST- EC) meeting, Colombo 

  h.. February 12th 2002  : National Union Day in Burma (Official) 

  i.. March 4-15th  2002 : 46th Session of CSW, New York, : 
www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw 

  j.. March 8th 2002 : International Women Day 

  k.. March 13th 2002 : Burma Human Rights Day (Unofficial) 

  l.. March 17-23rd 2002 : 107th Conference of the IPU, Morocco 

  m.. March/April 2002 : Commission on Human Rights, Geneva 

  n.. March 27th 2002  : Resistance Day in Burma 

  o.. May 27th 2002  : Anniversary of the 1990 election 

  p.. June 19th 2002 : Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday and Burmese Women's 
Day 

  q.. July 2002   : ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) 

  r.. July 2002   : ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) 

  s.. August 8th 2002 : Anniversary of the 8-8-88 uprising 

  t.. September 18th 2002 : Anniversary of SLORC Coup, 1988 

  u.. September 2002  : United Nations, General Assembly, New York 

  v.. October 2002   : Inter-Parliamentary Conference 

  w.. December 10th 2002  : World Human Rights Day 









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Burma News Summaries available by email or the web

There are three Burma news digest services available via either email or 
the web.

Burma News Update
Frequency: Biweekly
Availability: By fax or the web.
Viewable online at 
http://www.burmaproject.org/burmanewsupdate/index.html
Cost: Free
Published by: Open Society Institute, Burma Project

The Burma Courier 
Frequency: Weekly 
Availability: E-mail, fax or post.  To subscribe or unsubscribe by email 
celsus@xxxxxxxxxxx
Viewable on line at: http://www.egroups.com/group/BurmaCourier
Cost: Free
Note: News sources are cited at the beginning of an article. 
Interpretive comments and background
details are often added.

Burma Today
Frequency: Weekly
Availability: E-mail
Viewable online at http://www.worldviewrights.org/pdburma/today.html
To subscribe, write to pdburma@xxxxxxxxx
Cost: Free
Published by: PD Burma (The International Network of Political Leaders 
Promoting Democracy in Burma)




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