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Sunday May 4, 12:21 PM
A year after her release, Aung
San Suu Kyi condemned to
patience
BANGKOK (AFP) - One year after regaining her freedom,
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been condemned to forbearance as
Myanmar's generals have failed to take steps towards reconciliation since
releasing her from house arrest.
On May 6, 2002 Aung San Suu Kyi was
allowed to step outside her residence after 19 months of detention, her second
period of forced seclusion.
The charismatic leader of the National League
for Democracy (NLD) emerged to thousands of chanting supporters -- as well as to
the cameras and microphones of the international press, to whom she immediately
reaffirmed her undaunted struggle for democracy.
The release, a gesture
of goodwill offered to the world community by Yangon, stirred hopes that the
regime would finally enter into a bona fide political dialogue with "the Lady",
following confidence-building talks launched in October 2000.
One year
on, hopes lie in tatters.
The generals have freed a handful of political
prisoners but 1,300 still languish in jail, 116 of them NLD members including 16
elected MPs.
They have also granted Suu Kyi full freedom of movement
throughout the country, and have even engaged in a bit of public relations, for
example by authorising the first-ever visit to Myanmar by Amnesty
International.
But the junta has jailed new opponents, its intelligence
network has started to hassle Suu Kyi and the supporters who flock to see her on
her provincial trips, and a bugging device was recently placed in a room where
UN special rapporteur Paulo Sergio Pinheiro was interviewing prisoners of
conscience.
Yangon has also refused four times since January demands for
a visit by Razali Ismail, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's special envoy to
Myanmar, who played a key role in beginning the talks, which were held in secret
and aimed ultimately at national reconciliation.
Above all, Yangon has
refused to enter into political dialogue.
Exactly a year ago, Suu Kyi
expressed her wish for this dialogue to start "within a few weeks," on the heel
of preliminary talks that hoped to nurture a climate of confidence.
The
dialogue was intended to bring about a political transition leading to the
eventual departure of the military, which has reigned for four decades over the
Southeast Asian nation.
One year after Suu Kyi's release, Yangon-based
experts and diplomats confirmed that high-level contacts have not evolved
between the junta and their former arch-enemy.
"As of today, we seem to
be still very far from a first step," a Western diplomat said.
"Everybody
was expecting the dialogue to start after her release, but there is no political
dialogue yet," NLD spokesman U Lwin told AFP. "How long it will take to start,
we cannot predict. We have to wait."
The resigned patience of the NLD is
wearing thin in Washington.
"It is a despotic regime and we condemn its
policies, and we condemn the manner in which they have kept Aung San Suu Kyi
away from the political process and participation in civil society and civil
life," US Secretary of State Colin Powell said last week.
Powell told a
Senate committee he would work with US allies in the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) to apply pressure to the junta, and would discuss the
situation in Myanmar with ASEAN counterparts at regional security meetings in
the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh in June.
The stagnation has begun to
wear on Suu Kyi herself: for the first time last month, she publicly complained
about the lack of dialogue.
"I have come to the conclusion that the
(ruling) State Peace and Development Council is not interested in national
reconciliation," she told reporters.
"National reconciliation is change.
They don't want change, but change is inevitable," she warned.
She has
not been able to speak with regime leaders since her release, but the Nobel
Peace laureate has not wasted her time. She has actively reorganised her party
and made seven extended provincial trips during which she has reopened about 100
NLD offices.
"Since our leader was freed and NLD offices permitted to
re-function, we are back on our feet structurally," party spokesman U Lwin
said.
The NLD also launched a national membership drive last November
which remains in full swing.
"Good progress has been all the applications
coming from the youth, in a drive mainly led by Aung San Suu Kyi personally," U
Lwin said.
"It has been tremendous progress as she could talk to so many
people on those trips... Anywhere she went, any time, thousands and thousands of
people would wait for the whole night to see her, sleep on the side of the
roads."
Despite the lack of dialogue, U Lwin says he is satisfied with
the evolution on the political front over the past year.
"There has been
big progress, the government is not disturbing our political rights, (and) we
are allowed to move freely. People are not afraid to go to townships any
more."
No celebrations were planned for the Tuesday anniversary of Suu
Kyi's release.
"She is quite busy," U Lwin said.
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Myanmar Junta Frees 21, Says It Wants
Democracy
Sunday May 4, 4:43 PM
By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON (Reuters) -
Myanmar's military government said on Sunday it had freed 21 political
prisoners, including 12 members of Aung San Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party, in
what it called an effort to move closer to multi-party democracy.
Some
1,100 to 1,200 political prisoners languish in Myanmar's colonial-era jails,
according to U.N. rights envoy Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, who abruptly cut short a
visit late in March after discovering a bugging device while interviewing a
prisoner.
Pinheiro called the incident "a great embarrassment" for
Myanmar's ruling generals, and urged them to free all political prisoners to
help restore the trust of the United Nations.
"The government of Myanmar
commuted the sentences and released 18 prisoners today and three last week,"
government spokesman Hla Min said in a statement faxed to Reuters, adding that
health and humanitarian concerns influenced the decision.
"The releases
are the latest in a series of efforts by the government to move Myanmar to
multi-party democracy and national conciliation."
Myanmar's military,
accused by some Western nations and human rights groups of torture and using
forced labor and systematic rape as weapons against ethnic minorities, has freed
hundreds of political prisoners since late 2000.
That year it started
"national reconciliation talks" brokered by the U.N. with Suu Kyi's National
League for Democracy (NLD).
The junta announced most previous releases
in short statements that it never linked to the issue of political change.
The junta freed Suu Kyi from house arrest last May, raising hopes it
would enter into talks on a democratic transition with the NLD, which won 1990
elections by a landslide but has never been allowed to rule.
But Suu Kyi
has become increasingly that frustrated her calls for talks are falling on deaf
ears. Last month she said of the junta: "They don't want change, but change is
inevitable."
The junta said on Sunday the government had no desire to
suppress political _expression_ and wanted a "safe, sound and successful"
democratic transition.
It said among those freed was Salai Tun Than, 74,
a former professor who stood at a busy Yangon intersection in 2001 urging
passers by to "go into the streets" and "fight to the finish."
"Democracy cannot be based on appeals to violence, it must be based on
constructive dialogue and responsible action," the statement said.
Pinheiro said in March the junta was only releasing political prisoners
it regarded as posing minimal threat to the regime.
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Bangkok Post - Sunday 04 May 2003
Talks this month on labour repatriation
Bhanravee Tansubhapol
Thailand and
Burma later this month will discuss repatriation of illegal Burmese labourers to
a reception centre in Myawaddy, a Foreign Ministry senior official said
yesterday.
The joint task force meeting, led by Foreign Ministry
permanent secretary Tej Bunnag and Burmese Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Muang
Win, will take place on May 14 in Burma's Pagan town.
Mr Tej accepted
that the repatriation of illegal Burmese workers to the reception centre had not
been smooth, due to problems with establishing their nationality. Thailand sends
an advance list of illegal workers to the Burmese government, which approves the
names before taking the workers back.
The reception centre was opened
last October after Burma's five-month closure of the three checkpoints at Chiang
Rai, Tak and Ranong to protest against Thailand's alleged support of ethnic
rebels resisting Rangoon's rule.
The meeting will also consider the draft
of a memorandum of understanding on labour, so Burmese workers will get easier
passage to Thailand legally. Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai is expected
to sign the MOU on May 19.
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The Nation
29 alien sex workers
arrested in police raid
Published on May 4, 2003
Police yesterday arrested 29 Burmese and Shan women in Chiang Mai
and charged them with selling sex services, just 1.5 kilometres away from the
city?s police station.
None of the women had work permits or visas.
Acting on a tip-off, Chiang Mai police raided the two-storey Roemyen
Cafe karaoke restaurant in the Chang Moi area of the cityjust before midnight on
Friday.
Police said that they believed the women were duped into working
for the restaurant but later forced to provide sex services.
Some of the
women broke into tears after being arrested, saying that they did not want to be
sent back to Burma to a life of poverty, police said.
?Working in
Thailand allowed them to make money which they sent back to their families. In
Burma they were jobless and had no income,? said Police General Suthep Detraksa.
?There are many sex places in Chiang Mai that hide behind restaurants
and cafes. And it?s not just Burmese women who work at these places, there are
also Karen and other hilltribe girls,? he said.
Activist Ben Sawasdiwat,
organiser of Traf Cord, the northern non-governmental organisation working on
the human trafficking issue, and who joined the police raid, said that the
situation of human trafficking for sex purposes in the North was growing out of
control.
This was mainly due to the economic problems in neighbouring
countries, he added.
?In this case, we will force police to file a
lawsuit against the restaurant?s owner in order to stop the cycle of human
trafficking, or at least decrease it,? said Ben.
Police initially
charged the restaurant owner Boonpan Thong-in, with sheltering illegal
workers.
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BBC News
Sunday, 4 May, 2003, 13:08 GMT 14:08
UK
Burma releases political prisoners
By Larry Jagan
BBC Burma analyst
Members of Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition National League for
Democracy and the academic Dr Salai Tun Than have been released by Burma's
authorities.
The move comes on the eve of the anniversary of the freeing of
Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest.
The Burmese authorities have freed
21 political prisoners in the past few days.
They have all been released
on health and humanitarian grounds, according to the government spokesman.
The most notable detainee to be freed was Dr Salai Tun Than, an elderly
retired science professor.
There was a major international outcry when
Dr Salai was sentenced to a long prison term in February 2002, for staging a
lone pro-democracy demonstration in Rangoon the previous year.
The UN
human rights envoy for Burma, Paolo Pinheiro, raised this particular case
publicly on several occasions last year, urging the Burmese junta to release
him.
Sanctions threat
Last week, the envoy
renewed his appeal privately, after reports that the prominent academic had gone
on hunger strike.
The military spokesman dismissed these reports at the
time, but Dr Salai's release is a gesture to the international community.
It comes at a time when both the United States and the European Union
are in the process of strengthening economic sanctions against Rangoon because
of the failure of progress in the dialogue process between Aung San Suu Kyi and
the generals.
Very few political prisoners have been freed in the past
six months and there were fears that the dialogue process had stalled
altogether.
Two weeks ago the opposition leader went on the offensive,
and for the first time since her release nearly a year ago, publicly accused the
military government of not being sincere about their promises to introduce
democratic reform.
Since then there have been signs that the military
government was anxious to improve its relations with the opposition leader, and
these releases are being seen as part of that campaign.
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Asian Tribune
Date :
2003-05-04
Monks - being used to smuggle porn CDs across the border
from Myanmar.
Mae Sai, May 04, (TNA): Police in the
border town of Mae Sae have ordered border officials to step up immigration
checks on monks, after having found that monks are being used to smuggle illegal
pornographic CDs from Myanmar.
Pol Maj Gen Sa-ngob Sanudon,
superintendent of Mae Sai immigration police, said yesterday that he had
received several complaints from members of the public concerning the behaviour
of men who were apparently monks, who openly bought pornographic CDs from the
market in the Myanmar border town of Tachilek, before smuggling them back across
to Thailand in their bags.
In the past immigration police have been
fairly lax about inspecting monks, around 40-50 of whom cross the border into
Myanmar each day.
However, Pol Maj Gen Sa-ngob said that after he had
instructed immigration officials to inspect the belongings of monks crossing the
border, over 50 CDs had been discovered in the bag of each
monk.
Speculating that traders in pornographic or illegal CDs were using
monks as a way of smuggling their products into the country, the immigration
police superintendent said that from May 1 onwards he had ordered stringent
checks on all monks crossing the border, and that all monks would be required to
show their privilege passes detailing which monastery they were based
at.
He cited the case of an obviously monk once found trying to cross the
border, who on inspection was found to have over 100 amphetamine pills in his
bag.
The monk had now been forced to disrobe, he said.
Provincial
Governor Narin Panichakij went further, saying that if possible monks would be
banned from crossing over into Tachilek unless on a religious business, as it
was not suitable that monks were allowed to mix freely there with laypeople.
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Asian Tribune
Date :
2003-05-04
Minister of Information Myanmar ? "Media is to be free
from bias"
Yangon, May 03: Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan
Minister for Information said ?Media is to be free from bias but serves the
interest of the State and the people. The minister said the newspapermen are to
make sure that the newspaper has not gone out of control and to safeguard the
interest of the State and the people?
Journalism course No 1/2003
conducted by News and Periodicals Enterprise of the Ministry of Information was
opened at the hall of the New Light of Myanmar Daily on Strand Road this
afternoon, with an address by Minister for Information Brig-Gen Kyaw
Hsan.
Director (News) of NPE U Hla Tun acted as master of ceremonies. In
his address, Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan said it was the tenth course after the
Tatmadaw had assumed the State responsibilities.
The course was
conducted with three aims -
* - to be proficient in basic journalism and
functions of journalism;
* - to improve work efficiency and spiritual
qualities of the trainees; * - and to be able to publish a newspaper which
always serves the interest of the State and the people.
He spoke of the
need to materialise these aims not only during the course but also in the
practical field.
The aims show that the course is important for both the
trainees and the State and the ministry. The deputy ministers, well experienced,
famous and veteran journalists themselves would give lectures at the course. It
is said that the four pillars support the State for peace and tranquillity and
development. The pillars are legislative pillar, judicial pillar, administrative
pillar and mass media pillar.
The Information Minister said, ?Media, the
fourth pillar, is to reflect the practical life of the people standing by them
closely and supporting other pillars. The other pillars, in turn, have to ensure
that media is not misused by any organizations and persons. Media is to be free
from bias but serves the interest of the State and the people. The minister said
the newspapermen are to make sure that the newspaper has not gone out of control
and to safeguard the interest of the State and the people. Therefore, to improve
spiritual qualities of the trainees is one of the aims of the
course.?
The Minister said, ?the Ministry of Information is carrying out
media works after laying down three main objectives as guided by the Head of
State. The objectives are for the media to cover the entire country including
border areas; to enable the media to penetrate the international community; and
for the media to stand on the side of the State and the people while enhancing
its efficiency and impact.?
He said: ?the trainees would take note of the
fact that the nations with strong media practicing the neo-colonialism bully the
ones with weak media in the world. The powerful nations are destroying
political, economic, administrative, social, cultural and spiritual conditions
of small countries misusing the power of media. In order to guard against these
dangers, he said, it is necessary to firmly build the forces of patriotism and
the Union Spirit. The newspapermen need to build the strength of the media and
they also have to build the force of the people.?
In conclusion, he
urged the trainees to study journalism in theory and in practice; to make
efforts to realize the aims of the course; to carry out media works earnestly
and freely within the framework of the policy; to ensure the media works to be
able to penetrate the international community; and to ensure the media works not
to be dogmatic but to be alive and dynamic by scrutinizing them to which extent
they can serve the interest of the country and the people.?
Present on
the occasion were - Deputy Ministers for Information U Thein Sein and Brig-Gen
Aung Thein, directors-general and managing directors of departments and
enterprises of the Ministry of Information, Principal of Journalism Course U
Kyaw Sunn, directors, advisers, chief editors of the dailies, deputy chief
editors, course instructors, Kyodo correspondent U Sein Win, Patron of Foreign
Correspondents Club U Hla Htwe and President U Sao Kai Hpa, guests and trainees.
The four-month course is being attended by 45 trainees.
- Asian Tribune:
with feedback from The New Light of Myanmar. -
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Banking crisis in Burma and NE India takes
toll
May 3, 2003 Mizzima News
Guwahati: The
ongoing bank crisis in Burma is likely to hit the Indo-Burman trade strongly in
the current financial year. The bank crisis which started in February following
the panicked withdrawal of funds from leading banks is still on causing great
concern after the Burmese junta had closed some banks down. There is, so far, no
sign of any improvement in the situation.
The bank crisis has
reduced the volume of trade between India and Burma as Burmese exporters have
not been able to clear their dues to Indian traders.The North East of India,
comprising seven states, depends on Burmese goods for day-to-day life and has
been hit badly by the prevailing situation.
Although several trade
organizations have taken up the matter with the Indian Commerce Ministry no
effort has been undertaken so far leading. Reportedly, trade organizations in
the North East of India have held three rounds of discussions with the Burmese
traders in a bid to
restore trade. But the Burmese traders are not in
position comply with the demands by the Indian traders. The situation is
getting more complicated by the day as the Burmese junta has set out
instructions regarding the withdrawal of funds: each person can withdraw only 10
per cent of his deposited funds.
Trade organizations in both the
countries have expressed concern over the prevailing crisis, having already
pumped large sums of money into the export and the import market. Moreh, a focal
point of trade between India and Burma after the signing of the Indo-Burma trade
agreement in 1994, has seen very little trade during the last three months.
According to official statistics, the volume of trade between India and Burma
across the Moreh border has dropped by 25 to 30 per cent in the wake of the bank
crisis in Burma .
?If the situation continues, Indo-Burma trade
through the Moreh point will come to a grinding halt ?, the president of the
North East Federation on International Trade (NEFIT) SC Agarwal commented. NEFIT
already submitted a proposal to the Indian Commerce Ministry.
According to Agarwal, the India Commerce Ministry has not become
active in this respect despite being strongly lobbied. ?In the wake of the
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) crisis, the ongoing bank problem could
lower the revenue of both India and Burma as the trade has dropped by a great
extent?, he added .
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Forced recruitment for military service in Shan State
Tun Naing
Mizzima
News 2 May 2003
The Burmese military forcibly
recruits youth to serve in the military in Northern Shan State, residents
reported.
Light Infantry Battalions LIB(127) and LIB (128) forcibly
capture the local youths for military Service in the Mong Ko area of Shan State.
Local people reported: "On 27 April a soldier captured a boy of around 17 years
of age for military service, and when the boy hesitated, the soldier hit him on
his forehead with his gun, causing the boy to bleed severely".
Likewise, the military personnel captured more than 50 youths for
military service in April alone. They were sending to the nearest army camps and
were ordered to do unpaid work.
Due to this aggressive recruitment
'strategy', the young men are in a state of fear and ready to be transfer red
from the area. So far none of them had been issued a travel pass by the
authorities, however.
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