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BurmaNet News: January 5-6
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Date: Sun, 8 Jan 1995 23:39:48 -0800
************************** BurmaNet **************************
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
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BurmaNet News: Thursday-Friday, January 5-6, 1995
Issue #93
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Contents:
1 NATION [PHOTO]: TIME FOR A PRAYER
2 NATION: MILITARY LEADER NOTES BIG INTERNATIONAL GAINS FOR BURMA
3 BKK POST: OPPOSITION DEMANDS SUU KYI'S UNCONDITIONAL RELEASE
4 NATION: BURMA OPPOSITION GROUPING RENEWS ?LIBERATION? CALL
5 BKK POST: INDEPENDENCE?
6 BKK POST: KAREN RIVALS FIGHT AGAIN ON BORDER BATTLEFIELD
7 NATION: KAREN KILLING KAREN AS RELIGIOUS RIVALRY LEADS TO SHOWDOWN
8 NATION: CHINESE-THAI MILITARY LINKS SET FOR BOOST
9 NATION: LOXLEY LAUNCH BURMA NETWORK
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1 NATION [PHOTO]: TIME FOR A PRAYER
Thursday, January 5, 1995
[Photo caption: TIME FOR A PRAYER: A Burmese woman sits in prayer at
Shwedagon Pagoda, Burma's largest Buddhist shrine on a hilltop north of
Rangoon where the first pagoda was believed to have been built 2,500
years ago.]
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2 NATION: MILITARY LEADER NOTES BIG INTERNATIONAL GAINS FOR BURMA
Thursday, January 5, 1995
AFP, Rangoon
Burma has recorded substantial gains in international relations but must
remain alert to possible internal and external threats, according to the
country?s military leader, Senior General Than Shwe.
In a special message published in state-owned newspapers to mark the
47th anniversary of independence, Than Shwe said national unity was a
key to future progress.
He stressed the need to strive harder for ?all-round development? while
remaining vigilant against ?internal and external threats.? He did not go
into specifics.
The ruling junta, officially known as the State Law and Order Restoration
Council (SLORC), had laid solid political, social and economic
foundations since taking power six years ago, Than Shwe said.
?By our combined efforts, we can make Burma stand proud among the
world?s community of nations as a peaceful, stable, prosperous and
modern state,? he said.
Rangoon had a festive look Wednesday. Not only government buildings
and offices but also commuter buses and other public vehicles were
festooned with flags.
Newspapers carried full-page lists of honours for Buddhist monks, state
employees and military personnel.
Meanwhile, activists used the 47th anniversary of Burmese independence
to urge the international community to pressure Rangoon for democratic
reforms.
?Our country is free, but our people are not free yet,? said Aung Mying
of the Burma Human Rights Committee. ?We want democracy.?
The Burmese activists, representing a variety of groups, said other nations
should institute a worldwide arms embargo and economic sanctions
against Rangoon while ending diplomatic relations and recognition by
international bodies like the United Nations.
?People today live in fear and mistrust,? the National Coalition
Government of the Union of Burma said in a statement from Washington.
?Harassment, torture and imprisonment are deployed to impose an
unnatural and sinister calm in the nation.?
The Burmese in Thailand called for Rangoon to unconditionally free all
political prisoners, including 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San
Suu Kyi, end repression and transfer power to the democratic opposition
elected in 1990.
The activists fled Rangoon when the military junta crushed a pro-
democracy uprising in 1988 and later put Suu Kyi under house arrest.
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3 BKK POST: OPPOSITION DEMANDS SUU KYI'S UNCONDITIONAL RELEASE
Thursday, January 5, 1995
Reuters
BURMA'S exile pro-democracy opposition yesterday called for the
Rangoon junta to cease dialogue with dissident leader Aung San Suu Kyi
while she is still in detention and to release her unconditionally.
In a statement broadcast on an opposition radio station the National
Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB) said Suu Kyi,
now in her six year of house arrest, should be given free access to the
mass medial and political colleagues.
"If the SLORC genuinely wants national reconciliation, it should end
takes with Aung San Suu Kyi in her status as captive and release her
unconditionally and give her direct access to news agencies and her
political allies," the NCGUB said in a statement broadcast on the Norway-
based Democratic Voice
of Burma.
The broadcast, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation,
denounced claims by the Rangoon junta, the SLORC, that it was
facilitating reconciliation in Burma.
"The SLORC is claiming it is holding consultations and has obtained
considerable achievements towards preventing national disintegration
and obtaining national reconciliation," the statement said.
"Contrary to this claim, the country's situation is marked by
unprecedented social and economic discrimination."
Attacks on guerrilla bases in southeast Burma last month proved the
SLORC was still seeking a military solution to Burma's political problems,
the NCGUB said.
Junta leaders have had two high-profile meeting with Suu Kyi since last
September prompting speculation she might soon be released.
The 49-year-old daughter of Burma's independence hero Aung San has
been detained in her Rangoon home since July 1989.
She rose to prominence during pro-democracy demonstrations which
swept Burma is 1988 and were finally crushed by the military with
substantial loss of life.
The party she co-founded, the National League for Democracy, who a
landslide victory in the May 1990 elections but the SLORC ignored the
result and instead launched a sweeping crackdown against the
opposition.
The NCGUB was formed by elected NLD members who fled to a
guerrilla-controlled zone in southeast Burma in late 1990.
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4 NATION: BURMA OPPOSITION GROUPING RENEWS ?LIBERATION? CALL
Thursday, January 5, 1995
AFP
AN OPPOSITION umbrella group marked the 47th anniversary of Burma's
independence yesterday with a call for renewed efforts to ?liberate? the
country from the ruling junta.
In a statement from Washington, the National Coalition Government of
the Union of Burma (NCGUB) said Burma was at a crossroads, facing
paths either ?towards national reconciliation or towards despotic rule?.
It called on the international community to step up pressure on the junta
in Rangoon and urged ?the entire nation to redouble their efforts to
liberate Burma again by marching in unity and through discipline and
perseverance?.
Domestic opposition and international pressure had, the NCGUB said,
finally brought about meetings between Burma's military rulers and
leading opposition figure Aung San Suu Kyi, now in her sixth year of
house arrest in Rangoon.
But the two meetings were ?held in a captor-captive atmosphere,? the
group said and it renewed its call for her unconditional release and the
granting of direct access to news media and political allies.
While the country had never been more divided, ?the only way to
overcome the politico-economic crisis in Burma is to find a political
solution through national reconciliation,? the NCGUB said.
It assailed a ?recent sneak attack? by junta troops on Dawngwin,
headquarters of the All Burma Students? Democratic Front and
Manerplaw, where the Karen National Union and others have their
headquarters.
Opposition unity suffered a blow, meanwhile, when the Karens
announced a split between Buddhist and Christian-led factions.
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5 BKK POST: INDEPENDENCE?
Thursday, January 5, 1995
JANUARY 4 was independence day in Burma -- the 47th anniversary of
self-rule after over 100 years of British rule.
Since 1962 and to this day, however, the Burmese people have had to
suffer the brutal hand of a military dictatorship. Due to this, and the fact
that a civil war broke out shortly after independence, the people have
been deprived of their freedom, safety and peace.
The current situation in Burma is still disappointing . Slorc ignored the
result of the general election in 1990, thereby ignoring the win of the
people. They are abusing their power and violation human rights. At the
moment, Slorc is holding a national convention in order to draw up a
new constitution. By doing so, Slorc is guaranteeing a future of military
rule in Burma. The Burmese people and the international community
have denounced the convention as junta and a sham.
Professor Yozo Yokota, a special UN envoy on human rights, recently
submitted a report to the 49th UN General Assembly highlighting Slorc's
continued abuse of power, human rights violations and limitations of the
people's basic freedom. Despite the fact that independence day is
celebrated this week, Slorc still have the never to ignore the will of the
people.
It is a sad irony that Slorc has destroyed the dignity and denied freedom
to the very people who sacrificed their lives in the struggle for Burma's
independence. We, the All Burma Students League (ABSL), strongly
condemn the leaders of the Slorc.
We demand that Slorc:
(1) Open the way for democracy in Burma and respect human rights.
(2) Unconditionally release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all political
prisoners.
(3) Hand over people's power unconditionally to the people, which was
forcibly taken by the military.
Central Committee
All Burma Students League
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6 BKK POST: KAREN RIVALS FIGHT AGAIN ON BORDER BATTLEFIELD
Thursday, January 5, 1995
Mae Hong Son
BUDDHIST-LED Karen soldiers were looked in battle with the Christian-
led rebel group for the first time this year on Tuesday near the border of
this province, late reports said yesterdays.
There were no reported casualties from either side. Fighting broke out
after a mid-day deadline on January 1 by the Karen National Union
(KNU) headquarters calling for rebel Buddhists within the movement to
rejoin its ranks.
The Buddhist faction earlier agree to rejoin the KNU, but later defied the
order, the report said.
According to a Thai intelligence report, the first battle broke out on
Tuesday at 10 a.m. when Buddhist Karens seized Mae Samlaeb near the
Thai border to gain food supplies, while Karen soldiers from the
Manerplaw headquarters bombarded the Buddhist Karen base Sob Moei
temple with mortars and light machineguns.
Fighting lasted more than an hour, causing damage to the arms cache of
the Buddhist Karens, the report said. The battle continued until that
evening.
Earlier Monday, one after the deadline was set, more than 100 Christian
Karens moved to confront Buddhist Karens who tried to seize Mae Salog
and Sobmoei villages near the Thai border.
The report also said a new battle could take place any time.
Communications along the Salween River has been suspended, the report
said.
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7 NATION: KAREN KILLING KAREN AS RELIGIOUS RIVALRY LEADS TO SHOWDOWN
Friday, January 6, 1995
?Somchit Rungchamratrasmess and Yindee Lercharoenchok analyse the
current religious conflicts facing Burma's oldest and strongest ethnic
armed group, the Karen National Union.?
[Photo caption: RELIGIOUS RIFT: KNU and Buddhist mediators holding
talks last month with Buddhist Karen mutineers in an attempt to resolve
the religious dispute that has led to fighting within the Burmese ethnic
group.]
RELIGIOUS conflicts inside Burma's largest armed ethnic group, the
Karen guerrillas, have evolved into a split that is beyond peaceful
reconciliation and the Buddhist-Christian antagonists are heading
towards a final military showdown.
The latest outbreak of armed hostility, involving perhaps the most tragic
incidents in the 45-year-old history of the Karen revolutionary
movement, occurred at the most crucial time when the Karen National
Union (KNU) is trying to strengthen itself for the imminent start of peace
talks with the Burmese junta.
The formation on Dec 2? Of a rival Karen party, the Democratic Kayin
(Karen) Buddhist Association, was the last straw which exhausted the
Christian-dominated KNU leaders? tolerance and concessionary
approach, and prompted them to resort to arms to dislodge and quell the
group of several hundred armed Buddhist Karen mutineers and villagers.
The association, which has established a stronghold at the Sob Moei
Temple on the confluence of the Moei and Salween rivers, has also cut off
the KNU?s most strategic waterway lifeline and supply route by blocking
passing boat transport along the two rivers and to the KNU headquarters
of Manerplaw. Manerplaw, on the Moei River bank about 40 kilometres
south of the Buddhist temple, is currently encircled by the Burma Army?s
advancing troops from the western and southern fronts.
The Karen offensive against its former rank and file, launched after the
expiry of a Dec 31 deadline for the Buddhists to surrender, has caused
widespread concern not only among KNU?s widespread concern but also
Burma watchers who fear the crisis will lead to eventual disintegration of
the Karen and weaken the whole ethnic and pro-democracy Burmese
opposition movement.
KNU leaders have accused the Burmese State Law and Order Restoration
Council (SLORC) -- the ruling military power which has been known to
frequently exploit religions to create disunity among the country?s rich
ethnic diversity -- of sowing the seed of internal religious strife.
In a statement released on Sunday, the Karen leadership charged that the
rival group and its military wing have formed ?an alliance with SLORC?
and repudiated a five-point agreement both Karen factions had reached
on Dec 15 to respect religious freedom and activities and to settle any
future religious disputes through peaceful means.
The KNU said it had exhausted its ?intensive effort? to strike a
compromise with the defectors and gave the Dec 31 ultimatum for the
group ?to return to the fold by 12 p.m. of that day or, failing that, they
would be regarded as [KNU?s] enemies.?
?The KNU is determined to take effective action against those who foster
factionalism and collaboration with the enemy [SLORC] by using false
excuses relating to religion,? said the statement.
In an interview on Tuesday, a senior Karen officer said the KNU has
garnered sufficient evidence to substantiate its allegations against leading
members of the rival Buddhist Karen association of being SLORC spies
and of collaborating with a receiving military support from the Burmese
army.
The association has its headquarters in Myaing Gyi Ngu on the east bank
of the Salween River, where a leading Buddhist monk, U Thuzana, who
has been accused of being a SLORC spy, has a temple. The Burma Army
has the headquarters for its tactical command in Kamamaung, which is
located on the west bank, just opposite Myaing Gyi Ngu.
The dissident group, believed to command between 250-300 well-armed
Buddhist troops who defected from the main KNU forces, is governed by
two bodies -- a patron structure of six Buddhist monks led by U Thuzana
and a nine-member central committee headed by U Tha Htoo Kya, a
civilian unknown to the KNU, and Sgt Maj Kyaw Than, a KNU deserter.
The Karen officer, who requested anonymity, said the KNU had not
expelled U Thuzana from the Sob Moei Temple as claimed by the monk
himself and other Buddhist troops or villagers. He said the KNU had
obtained a document written by U Thuzana, a widely respected monk
among local Buddhist communities and troops that he himself wanted to
leave the temple.
The Karen defectors also cited perpetual discrimination against religious
practices and activities, and against promotions of Buddhist forces to
high positions in the KNU hierarchy. About 70 per cent of the KNU
membership is Buddhist of low-ranking authority or common troops.
The long-subdued religious resentment came to the forefront and reached
the point of internal breakup the KNU in early December when the
dissident Buddhist troops and local villagers used the expulsion of U
Thuzana as a main reason for rebelling.
After some clashes and the detention of several KNU and Buddhist monks,
who acted as peace mediators, the mutineers eventually signed the five-
point peace agreement with the KNU in which a general amnesty was
guaranteed to all the defectors.
One of the mediators, Buddhist monk U Weesana, who has been taking
refuge in Manerplaw, said in an interview last week that the current
situation ?is still very confusing? and said he believed the SLORC had
manipulated religious differences and resentment to weaken the KNU and
to strike ?political advantage? over its ethnic Karen rivals.
?Everything is too late now for a compromise [between the KNU and the
defectors], and a resolution for the religious conflict is extreme delicate
and difficult. I believe that the SLORC is behind the whole affair,? said U
Weesana, who had himself been handcuffed and put in custody by the
rebellious Karen troops after his intervention.
U Weesana said he had sought the assistance of a respectable Buddhist
monk in Pa-an, the capital of Karen State, to help resolve the strife and
talk with U Thuzana on the basis that ?as clergymen, one should not be
involved in politics.?
For the KNU, one of the most unfortunate defeats in this current religious
dispute was the fall of several KNU strategic outposts to the Burma Army
who exploited the chaotic situation to make military advances over the
KNU frontline defence.
According to informed border sources, who have been monitoring the
Burmese ethnic movements, the KNU leaders ?have been placed in an
extreme dilemma over the whole affair? and they ?fully realize the
complexity of the problems and difficulties confronting them?.
?They [Karen leaders] know that they need to resolve the religious
conflicts at the earliest as they could not open two fronts of wars with the
SLORC on one side and the their own troops on the other. Still, they stand
to lose in both wars,? said one of the sources.
The use of force against the defectors was a precarious decision which
could create a lasting disunity and resentment among the whole Karen
movement.
The KNU has already left itself open to criticism for killing its own Karen
compatriots and no matter which side wins the war, the religious wounds
are already beyond remedy. The ongoing fighting already threatens to
extract a high and bloody toll on the Karen populace and subsequently
benefits the SLORC, who might exploit the situation to make further
military gains.
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8 NATION: CHINESE-THAI MILITARY LINKS SET FOR BOOST
Thursday, January 5, 1995
Kyodo, Beijing
CHINESE and Thai military leaders have shared the view that relations
between their armed forces will develop further, according to Beijing?s
official Chinese-language news agency for overseas Chinese.
Gen Zhang Wannian, chief of the General Staff of the Chinese People?s
Liberation Army, and Watanachai Wootisiri, supreme commander of the
Thai armed forces, disclosed the shared understanding at a joint news
conference on Tuesday night following their meeting earlier in the day,
the Chinese News Agency said.
Watanachai arrived in Beijing on Tuesday on a three-day official visit at
the invitation of Zhang.
Meanwhile, another agency report showed that the Chinese military has
replaced the commander of its air force, Gen Cao Shuangning, with Maj
Gen Jing Xuequin.
The disclosure came in the form of an agency dispatch on Tuesday which
said that Jing accompanied Zhang to the meeting with Watanachai in
lieu of Cao.
Although the agency did not mention the reason for the sudden
replacement, military observers speculate that Cao retired due to his
advanced age, 65. Cao had been serving as the air force commander
since 1992.
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9 NATION: LOXLEY LAUNCH BURMA NETWORK
Thursday, January 5, 1995
LOXLEY Plc and Northern Telecom Co have officially announced their
agreement with Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications to install a
digital cellular network for 1,000 numbers in Mandalay, the second
largest city.
The contract was signed on Dec 22. Loxley will be responsible for
procurement and installation of equipment supplied by NT, according to
Dr Wichien Watanakun, Loxley director and president of Loxley
Myanmar, in a press release.
He said Loxley started surveying the business conditions in the country
two years ago. The installation will begin in March and be ready for
delivery in October.
Loxley did not disclose the contract value.
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NEWS SOURCES REGULARLY COVERED/ABBREVIATIONS USED BY BURMANET:
AP: ASSOCIATED PRESS
AFP: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
AW: ASIAWEEK
AWSJ: ASIAN WALL STREET JOURNAL
Bt.: THAI BAHT; 25 Bt.=US$1 (APPROX),
BBC: BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION
BI: BURMA ISSUES
BKK POST: BANGKOK POST (DAILY NEWSPAPER, BANGKOK)
BRC-CM: BURMESE RELIEF CENTER-CHIANG MAI
BRC-J: BURMESE RELIEF CENTER-JAPAN
CPPSM: C'TEE FOR PUBLICITY OF THE PEOPLE'S STRUGGLE IN MONLAND
FEER: FAR EAST ECONOMIC REVIEW
IRRAWADDY: NEWSLETTER PUBLISHED BY BURMA INFORMATION GROUP
JIR: JANE'S INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
KHRG: KAREN HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP
Kt. BURMESE KYAT; 150 KYAT=US$1 BLACK MARKET
100 KYAT=US$1 SEMI-OFFICIAL
6 KYAT=US$1 OFFICIAL
MOA: MIRROR OF ARAKAN
NATION: THE NATION (DAILY NEWSPAPER, BANGKOK)
NLM: NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR (DAILY STATE-RUN NEWSPAPER, RANGOON)
S.C.B.:SOC.CULTURE.BURMA NEWSGROUP
S.C.T.:SOC.CULTURE.THAI NEWSGROUP
SEASIA-L: S.E.ASIA BITNET MAILING LIST
SLORC: STATE LAW AND ORDER RESTORATION COUNCIL
USG: UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT
XNA: XINHUA NEWS AGENCY
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