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The BurmaNet News, August 29, 1997



------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------     
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"     
----------------------------------------------------------     
 
The BurmaNet News: August 29, 1997        
Issue #808

HEADLINES:        
========== 
DVB-OSLO: BURMA-INDIA BORDER HEROIN TRADE 
RADIO MYANMAR: 'RETIRED' NLD MP FROM SAGAING RESIGNS 
FDL-AP: DECLARATION ON DEMOCRACY
ALTSEAN: PHILIPPINES NEWS REPORT
PANOS: GOLDEN TRIANGLE HEROIN TRADE FUELS HIV/AIDS
RADIO MYANMAR: BURMA'S ASEAN STEERING COMMITTEE
NATION: US OFFICIAL DISMISSES ARMS RACE SPECULATION
NATION: HANOI PLANS NATIONAL PANEL TO COMBAT DRUGS
THE NATION: FOREIGN LABOUR ON RISE IN THAILAND
BKK POST: BURMA TO OPEN 3 PERMANENT CHECKPOINTS
THE NATION: NO CUSTOMS FEES IN MAE SOT
FBC PRESS RELEASE: CAMPAIGN TOPS CAMPUS ACTIVISM
BKK POST: TWO GROUPS EYE SAME BLOCK IN ANDAMAN SEA
TV MYANMAR: KHIN NYUNT WARNS- DESTRUCTIVE ELEMENTS 
FBC ANNOUNCEMENT: CONFERENCE & MANUAL, ASSK BOOK
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

DVB-OSLO: BURMA-INDIA BORDER HEROIN TRADE 
August 25, 1997 [translated from Burmese]
DVB correspondent Kyaw Moe

Large amounts of heroin from Burma are reported to be flowing daily
into Mizoram, India.  Heroin packages from Burma bearing Tiger Head, 555,
and Double UO Globe brands have the appearance of legal commodity. 
One-kilo packages from Lashio are repacked into one-pound packages when they
reach Tahan in Kalemyo.  In the trade, a one-kilo package is referred to as
a Lashio package while a one-pound package is called a Tahan package by
heroin traffickers.
It has been learned that the present market price for a one-pound
package of heroin is Kyat 200,000 and for a one-kilo package it is Kyat
500,000 in Kalemyo.  Heroin is transported from Lashio to Tahan in cars,
and both cars and human labor are used for transporting heroin from Tahan to
the Indian border via Tiddim.  There is a method of transporting heroin to
the Indian border from Tahan using SLORC [State Law and Order Restoration
Council] (?defense force members).  This is called a carry [preceding word
rendered in English] arrangement.  SLORC police also carry heroin under
various pretexts such as pursuing absconders, tour duties, and home visits.
Sometimes, they carry heroin on their return trip after sending witnesses to
Monywa and Mandalay.
According to a private source, a SLORC military officer himself
transported by car 50 700-gram Globe brand heroin packages to a creek near
the Tamu border on 10 August.  One one-pound package of heroin fetches
Rupees 300,000 and a one-kilo package fetches Rupees 700,000 in Aizawl in
Mizoram, India.  It has been learned that a heroin trafficker arrived in
Aizawl on 15 August and has been reportedly trying to sell 50 packages of
heroin transported by the SLORC officer at 75 percent of the market price.
According to unconfirmed reports, as opium plantations increase in the Chin
Hills heroin refineries are kept inside the SLORC military camps in Kalemyo.
According to local people, heroin produced from these refineries is sent to
Champhai through (Taung Creek) at the border and then sent on to Aizawl.  On
21 August, authorities from the Excise Department of Mizoram confiscated two
kilo of heroin carried by three Burmese nationals.  The government
television in Mizoram reported on 22 August that the amount of Burmese
heroin seized by the Excise Department in Mizoram exceeded 100 kilo in 1997.

*********************************************

RANGOON RADIO MYANMAR: 'RETIRED' NLD MP FROM SAGAING CONSTITUENCY-2 RESIGNS 
August 25, 1997 [translated from Burmese]

Dr. Khin Maung Swe of the National League for Democracy [NLD], an
elected member of the People's Assembly in Sagaing Township Constituency-2,
Sagaing Division during the Multiparty Democratic General Elections, has
submitted his resignation out of his own volition to withdraw as elected
representative as he had already retired from the NLD.
The Multiparty Democratic General Election Commission has accepted his
resignation effective today in accordance with Section 11, Subsection E of
the People's Assembly Election Law.

**************************************

FDL-AP: DECLARATION ON DEMOCRACY
August 20, 1997

Asia-Pacific Young Leaders Declaration on Democracy
 
   20 August 1997
   Seoul, Korea
 
   A.  Democratization and Democratic traditions in the Asia-Pacific
 
We, the 1997 FDL-AP Young Leaders Workshop participants, all agree 
that there has been a history of traditions supportive of democracy in the
Asia-Pacific region.  We will enthusiastically join the recent world
trend towards democratization through a shared respect for the 
traditions and culture of each Asia-Pacific country. Through tolerance
and mutual understanding of each of our respective individual cultures
we will promote the global democratic movement by supporting an active
exchange of ideas.
 
   B.  The recent status of democratization in the Asia-Pacific
 
Despite the progress being made in many Asian countries in terms of
transition toward democracy, we note with concern the serious reversal
of democratic practices in Burma and Cambodia.
 
   - We call upon the Burmese military regime to enter into meaningful
   dialogue with representatives of democratic and ethnic groups.
   - We remind all ASEAN member states of their moral commitment to 
help restore democracy in Burma.
   - In addition we urge the present Cambodian leadership to end its  
usurpation of power and restore the legally elected democratic   
government of Cambodia.
   - We also urge all countries of Asia to work towards the establishment, 
improvement and consolidation of democratic institutions and practices.
 
   C.  NGOs' Role in the development of democracy and human rights
 
   RECOGNIZING the alarming increase in problems of environmental   
degradation, poverty, drug trafficking, international terrorism, the spread 
of AIDS, refugees, and ethno-religious and regional conflicts;
   RECOGNIZING the continued human rights violations and the ongoing   
struggles for democracy in some countries in the region;
    RECOGNIZING the need for greater international NGO cooperation to   
combat these problems;
    RECOGNIZING the growth and strengthening of civil society in various   
countries in the region over the last decade;
    REALIZING that the tasks ahead are best achieved through a process of   
mutual understanding and solidarity;
 
   WE, the participants of the FDL-AP Young Leader's Workshop, call 
upon the NGOs in the region to be a source of strength for each other by   
networking and sharing information, coordinating their activities, and 
pooling their resources to further the cause of human rights find democracy 
and to take concerted action to help solve pressing international problems.
 
   D.  The FDL-AP's role in promoting international solidarity among the
   Asia-Pacific NGOs and democratic supporters.
 
   Having a common belief, strong commitment and desire to further   
promote solidarity among NGOs in the Asia-Pacific region, we, the 1997    
FDL-AP Young Leaders Workshop participants,
 
   - Encourage each NGO represented at the 1997 FDL-AP Young Leaders   
Workshop to report annually on the status of democratization and human 
rights in their country, to be presented and published.
    - Encourage each NGO represented to develop new activities to ensure   
that mutual cooperation will grow among the new contacts established at 
this year's conference.
    - Encourage each NGO to inform the FDL-AP of all related events that   
will assist other NGOs to promote and further our common goals of  
democracy, peace and improved human rights.
    - All participants recognize the importance, when appropriate, of   
working with and through political parties that share similar values and a 
commitment to democracy, peace and protection of human rights.
    - Encourage the establishment of additional chapters of the FDL-AP in   
our region during the next 12 months.
    - Encourage the FDL-AP to continue hosting Young Leaders Workshops   
annually and to extend invitations to representatives from all NGOs in our 
region that share our beliefs and values of democracy and human rights.
    - Reaffirm the FDL-AP's previously stated offer to provide its good  
offices for the commencement of a tripartite dialogue among the parties in 
Burma, including the ethnic groups, the SLORC government, and the 
democratic forces led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
 
*********************************************

ALTSEAN: PHILIPPINES NEWS REPORT
August 27, 1997

Burma's army drafts kids 
by Malou Talosig 

A Burmese dissident who came to Manila last week accused the military 
junta of drafting children into the army and young girls to work in railway 
or road construction without pay. The activist, who asked to be identified 
only as Maung, said the State Law and Order Restoration Council, the 
Burmese military junta, engages in "slave labor" and targets children 
because they are easier to brainwash.

"It main target is the children, whom it kidnaps and forces to join the
army," Maung told today, "it takes boys aged 13 to 14, which is far below
the minimum requirement of 18".

Maung, 33, is active in the underground movement of student organizations in
Burma. He is in Manila to consult with militant civic organizations
supporting the prodemocracy movement in Burma.

Burma, renamed Myanmar in 1989 by the junta, is under pressure from the
international community to stop its human-rights abuses following its entry
into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Reports on the suppression of the political opposition, forced labor, drug
trafficking and attacks on refugee camps in its border with Thailand have
persisted since the junta disregarded the 1991 elections.
 
Maung said the Rangoon army trains the boys for six months and then 
sends then to the frontline to fight the ethnic and opposition forces seeking
self-determination.

The junta recruits young boys because they are easy to indoctrinate,
although many youths do not want to join the army because of its fascistic
reputation.

When the army cannot recruit young boys, he said, the junta orders the
"headmen" of the ethnic community to do the recruiting.

Maung said that young women are also being forced to work in road and
railway projects 'without pay."

Burmese women fleeing to Thailand to escape the civil strife usually end 
up as prostituted on the Thai-Burmese border, Maung said.

A L T S E A N - B U R M A
ALTERNATIVE ASEAN NETWORK ON BURMA
*tel: [662] 275 1811/693 4515 *fax: [662] 693 4515 *e-mail: 
altsean@xxxxxxxxxx

***********************************************

PANOS: GOLDEN TRIANGLE HEROIN TRADE FUELS HIV/AIDS
April 1997
By Rupa Chinai and Rahul Goswami

KOHIMA, INDIA (PANOS) - The expanding heroin trade in Southeast 
Asia's 'Golden Triangle' - the world's largest source of illicitly grown pure
heroin - is bringing with it a wave of new HIV/AIDS infections in 
Myanmar and a remote corner of India.

The Golden Triangle comprises 38 million hectares of rainforest-covered
mountains in Laos, Thailand and Myanmar (formerly Burma). Bordering 
Myanmar are three northeastern Indian states - Mizoram, Manipur and 
Nagaland. Sometimes racked by insurgency and girded by the Himalayan 
mountains, these states are among the poorest in India and, for the most 
part, closed to foreigners for security reasons.

But not to the opium trade evidently. On both sides of the border, opium
and heroin addiction is destroying tribal populations, while contributing
to an alarming rise in HIV infection and AIDS. Underdevelopment in 
Myanmar in particular is fuelling an opium-driven economy, which 
depends not only on opium cultivation but also its use as a means of barter.

In India's northeastern states - there are seven altogether - large sections of 
the youth are now threatened by a rising HIV infection, drug and alcohol 
abuse and other chronic killers such as malaria and tuberculosis. "Millions 
of migrants are pouring out of Myanmar into China, India and Thailand, 
carrying HIV with them," says the United Nations International Narcotics 
Control Board's 1997 report.

In Myanmar, needle sharing, a proliferation of brothels, lack of public
awareness campaigns and a weak public health infrastructure have
contributed to an explosion in the number of HIV-positive cases, the New
York-based The Nation magazine reported last December.  The UN reports 
that 60-70 percent of intravenous drug users in Myanmar are HIV-positive.

Myanmar-wide HIV figures cited by the United States' Bureau of the 
Census are equally disturbing.  Surveillance at 20 sites in 1995 found 
infection rates of 18.2 percent among prostitutes, 10 percent among 
patients of sexually transmitted diseases and 55.2 percent among injecting 
drug users.

The World Health Organisation believes there are 500,000 heroin addicts 
in Myanmar - or one percent of its population.  The Southeast Asian
Information Network, a Thai nongovernmental organisation (NGO) 
working on AIDS prevention, says the real figure may be two to four times 
higher.

Over the Indian border in Manipur, rates of HIV infection among 
intravenous drug users jumped from zero in 1988 to nearly 70 percent in 
1992, according to the US Census Bureau.  Infection rates in the region are 
among the highest in India.

"We know there is a lot of movement [of heroin]," K.N. Singh, a police
officer in the border town of Moreh, said.

"About 1,000 people come and go every day.  There are searches but we
hardly ever find anything - when we do, its through tip-offs from sources.
Many people are involved. Last year a senior police officer was arrested
and imprisoned for trade in marijuana," he added.

Today's heroin trade follows old opium routes of the British colonial era
and takes advantage of porous borders. In Mon, a Nagaland border district,
large groups of Myanmarese youth, walking for days, recently arrived as
refugees fleeing poverty in Myanmar. Many brought opium with them.  
"This is the only medicine we have," said one refugee.

Another teenage refugee said she had walked 18 days through north-west
Myanmar to reach Mon.  She spoke of  villages heavily affected by
tuberculosis, with no local primary health care and where every family
grows opium.     

A report by a Myanmar-based NGO smuggled out of the country
corroborates the account.  It documents widespread opium cultivation and
addiction in virtually every village in the Chin province of northern
Myanmar, bordering India.  In Hpa Kant in Kachin State - famous for its
jade - about 50 percent of the youth are thought to be addicts.

While several UN agencies have been conducting AIDS awareness and
prevention programmes for many years in Myanmar, there appear to be
constraints affecting health projects in the northern provinces. These have
been waging an insurgency against the Myanmar regime and the state
authorities are wary of any community activity.

In 1994, a US public health expert reported that Myanmar did not allow
regional programmes to warn people in Kachin and Shan states about 
AIDS. Community-based organisations are not allowed to exist and ethnic- 
or Burmese-language materials are banned.  Reports from the Indian
Intelligence Bureau, the Indian Army, the Konyak Mother's Association 
and refugees interviewed for this article suggest little has changed.

"There are no roads, no schools, no medicines, no doctors, no
communications in the villages on the other side," say the Reverend 
Yamyap Konyak of the Baptist Church in Mon.

Indian border police and customs officials admit that considerable amounts
of heroin pass into India, but there are no reliable figures.  The recent
opening of a trading post with Myanmar facilitates the trade. And the
border is so open, anyone can walk through with a headload.

Heads of anti-narcotics agencies of India and Myanmar have held several
meetings to work out a joint offensive against the drug trade. But little
has changed. The Indian Narcotics Bureau struggles for funds and has only
380 employees country-wide.

For Nagaland and Manipur, the combination of HIV and drug abuse is 
having devastating consequences, especially for the youth.  In 1996, 28 
young people died from drug abuse in Mon town alone, according to Father 
Joe, who works at a drug rehabilitation clinic there.  He says he doesn't 
know how many have HIV, because there are no testing facilities./PANOS

http://www.oneworld.org/panos/apr97/heroin.html

******************************************

RANGOON RADIO MYANMAR: BURMA'S ASEAN STEERING COMMITTEE MEETS 
August 25, 1997 [translated from Burmese, abridged] 

The ASEAN Steering Committee [ASC] held its third meeting at the Army
Commander in Chief's Office at 1330 this afternoon.  Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt,
Chairman of the ASC and Secretary-1 of the State Law and Order Restoration
Council [SLORC], attended the meeting and delivered an address.
He spoke of the need to be well prepared with statistics so that Myanmar
will be able to host ASEAN meetings like other member countries.
He said due to the false and fabricated news circulated by some news
agencies of the Western Bloc and various political instigations some people
consider Myanmar a dreadful place.  By hosting ASEAN meetings, he remarked,
guests would be able to witness firsthand the prevalence of peace and
stability and the development of Myanmar and the preservation of tradition
and culture.  He said it would also be conducive to the tourism industry of
Myanmar.

*************************************************

NATION: US OFFICIAL DISMISSES ARMS RACE SPECULATION
August 28, 1997 [abridged]

A SENIOR US defence official yesterday dismissed speculation that the
acquisition two weeks ago of Thailand's first aircraft carrier, the Chakri
Naruebate, would fuel growing concern about an arms race in Southeast Asia.

Speaking at a round-table discussion with the media in Thailand yesterday,
Franklin Kramer, US assistant secretary of Defence for International
Security Affairs, said he believed the purchase of the Spanish-made carrier
was simply an example of arms modernisation.

Kramer was in Thailand for just one day. He held talks with senior military
officers and the National Security Council on Thai-US bilateral cooperation,
including the Cobra Gold military exercise and regional hotspots such as the
South China Sea, Burma and Cambodia as well as the Asean Regional Forum and
Sino-US relations.

On Burma, Kramer said he reiterated to Thai officials that the US would
continue to pursue its objective of bringing democracy to Burma. He said,
however, the US recognises the differences in the approach to the problems
in Burma by Asean.

************************************************

NATION: HANOI PLANS NATIONAL PANEL TO COMBAT DRUGS
August 28, 1997 [abridged]
AFP

HANOI - Vietnamese Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet has decided to creat a
high-powered national anti-drug commission to check a sharp increase in drug
trafficking and addiction in the country, the official press said yesterday.

The decision was taken as Vietnam becomes increasingly worried about drug
use, particularly in schools, and about porous borders that have become
major transit points for drugs coming from the Golden Triangle opium growing
region of Burma, Laos and Thailand.

The announcement by Vietnam, which officially counts 200,000 drug addicts,
comes as officials from neighbouring Burma and Thailand were meeting to
coordinate their efforts against opium trafficking in the Golden Triangle,
the world's major producer.

In addition, the United States and Vietnam could soon sign a cooperation
agreement to fight international narcotics trafficking, US Ambassador to
Vietnam Pete Peterson said last week.

*****************************************************

THE NATION: FOREIGN LABOUR ON RISE IN THAILAND
August 28, 1997
AP

AN ESTIMATED one million guest workers enter Thailand each year and remit
almost Bt3 billion a year to their countries of origin, results of studies
released yesterday said.

Seventy-five per cent of the workers were from Burma, which included an
estimated 20,000 females who entered the sex service industry last year,
according to studies by Chulalongkorn University's Asian Human Resettlement
and Asian Study Centre and Mahidol University's Population and Social Study
Centre. 
     
The remaining 25 per cent were workers from Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China,
Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, the findings said.

A Thailand Development and Research Institute (TDRI) report said the growing
trend of foreigners entering the country seeking jobs was a result of a
shortage of local workers and the fact that immigrant workers could be hired
cheaply.

The workers remitted home about Bt3.45 billion a year in earnings, the
studies said.

The influx of foreign workers, the studies showed, was in part perpetuated
by the existence of smuggling rings comprising Thai and Burmese nationals
and by the lure of large wage differentials between the two neighbouring
Southeast Asian countries.

TDRI researcher Yongyut Chalaemwong said that in order to prevent the
workers from becoming a burden on state coffers, the government should raise
the amount of per capita tax for each alien worker and pass the cost of
medical care the government provides them onto their employers.

Currently, guest workers are required to pay Bt1,000 each in registration fees.

Last year, revenue from registration fees, not including costs of medical
care and social services provided by the government, stood at Bt300 million.

He said employers should be made to pick up all medical expenses for the
foreign workers they hire.

In a related development, Sanphasit Koompraphant, director of the Centre for
the Protection of Children's Rights in Bangkok, estimated the number of
children brought to work as prostitutes in Thailand from neighbouring Burma
and Cambodia to be over 10,000 each year.

Some laws can backfire, he said, citing tough new anti-child prostitution
measures put into effect this year in Thailand.

The law punishes everyone nearly involved in the trade, including poor
parents who sell their children, middlemen, clients and ring leaders.

"Child prostitution in Thailand is actually on the increase because the new
law prosecutes everybody," Sanphasit said.

By targeting parents especially, children and families have lost incentive
to provide evidence to aid workers and police that would incriminate the
organised crime gangs running the trade, Sanphasit said.

"Another problem is that Thailand and other countries still treat women and
child prostitutes as the offenders," Sanphasit said. "They will not give
information then.: They should be treated as victims."

A year after a world conference vowed a global crackdown on child
prostitution, activists said yesterday that only 23 countries are drawing up
comprehensive national plans to stamp out the lucrative trade.
     
EPCAT International, an independent Bangkok-based agency combatting the
trafficking and sexual exploitation of children, nonetheless expressed
"cautious optimism" that countries are getting tougher on child prostitution.

The group issued a report yesterday examining steps that 56 countries have
taken against child prostitution since a landmark congress a year ago m
Stockholm, Swedon, attended by 122 nations.

"Admittedly, the report is incomplete," Herve Berger, Ecpat International's
executive director, told a news conference. "It provides only a partial
picture of what is being done."

The Stockholm participants agreed to strengthen laws, improve the
reintegration into society of children escaping prostitution, and coordinate
anti-child prostitution efforts.

They were also to establish comprehensive national strategies against the
child sex trade by the year 2000. Berger noted that only 23 countries have
started but praised others for drafting new laws or stepping up
international cooperation.

"Political will is one of the key issues," Berger said. "What we're calling
for is for governments to show leadership and political will. It's not just
a question of ratification."

Berger said that the child sex trade outlined in Stockholm - prostitution,
pornography and trafficking - is one of the world's most lucrative, along
with illegal drugs and arms.

In Thailand, where the trade is well established and an estimated 8,000
children trafficked from other countries work in it, prostitution is worth
an Bt 18 billion to Bt26 billion a year.

Berger praised Germany, Ireland, Australia, Canada and Britain for adopting
laws making it possible to put their citizens on trial for child sex crimes
committed elsewhere. 

*********************************************

BKK POST: BURMA AGREES TO OPEN 3 PERMANENT 
CHECKPOINTS
August 28, 1997
Teerawat Khumthita 

Chiang Rai -- Thailand and Burma yesterday signed an agreement to 
cooperate in suppressing drugs and to open three permanent border 
checkpoints.

The agreement was signed by Lt-Gen Thanom Watcharaput, commander 
of the Third Army Region and his Burmese counterpart Maj-Gen Khet 
Sein, commander of Southeastern Forces, on the last day of the 15th 
Regional Thai-Burmese Border Committee meeting which began on 
Tuesday.

The two countries agreed to jointly fight drug trafficking along their
common border, with Burma pledging to drastically crack down on 
amphetamine factories located in the area.

Burma also agreed to Thailand's proposal to open three border passes at 
Ban Nong Bu and Ban Peng Lang in Chiang Mai's Chiang Dao district, 
and Ban Hua Muang in Mae Hong Son.

On repatriation of Burmese refugees, Burma will set up a committee to 
verify their nationality before accepting them back.

Maj-Gen Khet Sein also promised to take steps to prevent the flight of
refugees into Thailand, blaming it on the fighting between Rangoon troops
and ethic minority forces which had driven several Burmese and Karen
civilians to flee to Thai villages.

Regarding border demarcation, the two countries agreed to send their
technical teams to survey disputed areas.

*******************************************************

THE NATION: NO CUSTOMS FEES IN MAE SOT
August 28, 1997

PASSENGER vehicles which pass Mae Sot checkpoint in Tak province on weekdays
will no longer have to pay immigration and customs fees, according to new
regulations that went into effect yesterday.

The new regulations will not apply to trucks or people wishing to cross the
Thai-Burma Friendship Bridge at the Mae Sot-Myawaddy checkpoint, Pol Lt Col
Suthee Ariyakabutr, chief of Mae Sot immigration office, said.

"Collection of fees for passenger vehicles, however, will be resumed during
weekends," Suthee said.

Previously, each passenger vehicle had to pay a total of Bt280 to the Thai
border authorities in immigration and customs fees, and a further Bt60 on
the Burmese side.

"Due to the economic crisis, the Mae Sot authorities decided to help ease
the pressure on the Thais by revoking the fee collection on the Thai side
during weekdays," he said.

**********************************************

FBC PRESS RELEASE: CAMPAIGN TOPS CAMPUS ACTIVISM
August 27, 1997

The Free Burma Coalition
University of Wisconsin
225 North Mills Street
Madison, WI 53706
Tel. (608)-827-7734
Fax: (608)-263-9992

http://wicip.org/fbc

Contact:   Zarni 				 (608)-827-7734

Immediate Release 			August 27, 1997


Free Burma Divestment Campaign Tops US Campus Activism

Madison, WI:  The Free Burma campaign modelled after South Africa's 
anti-apartheid struggle targeting university investment in corporations that 
do business with the current military regime in Burma is becoming a major 
campus issue on US college and university campuses, according to an 
opinion poll conducted by Mother Jones, a popular US magazine.  Mother 
Jones  polled nearly 20 international and national organizations including 
Amnesty International, National Association for the Advancement of 
Colored People, United States Student Association, Center for Global 
Education, Student Environmental Action Coalition, and Center for 
Campus Organizing.

The University of Wisconsin at Madison from which the internet-based 
Free Burma Coalition is coordinated tops Mother Jones' list of 10 most 
political active campuses in the United States.  After nearly two years of 
vigorous grassroots campaign jointly launched by student and community 
activists on Madison campus, the UW Board of Regents decided to dump 
$239,000 worth of stock in Texaco, a US oil corporation that does business 
with Burma's narco-dictatorship.  (Unocal, Total, ARCO, Caterpillar, and 
Ericcson are among the multinationals that have business ties to Burma.) 
Wisconsin is the first university to dump Burma-related stock.  In addition, 
Wisconsin Regents were persuaded to adopt "socially responsible 
investment" policy.

"I am pleased that Free Burma campaign has not only promoted the 
awareness in the United States about Burma's worsening human rights 
situations and political oppression, but it has also contributed significantly 
to the progressive tradition on US college campuses,"  said Zarni, a 
Wisconsin graduate student and Burmese political exile who founded the 
Coalition in the fall of 1995.  He said, "American public, especially those 
who are concerned about the growing drug problem in this country, should 
become involved in our grassroots campaign since 60% of the heroin that 
is smuggled into the United States annually is produced in Burma with the 
tacit approval of the current State Law and Order Restoration Council 
(SLORC), Burma's narco-dictatorship."

Zarni added, "I really want to thank our American supporters and 
colleagues for their solidarity with the 45 million Burmese people who are 
struggling very hard for freedom and democracy.  And I hope they 
continue to stay with us until democracy is restored in Burma."

Stanford University came in fifth in Mother Jones'  findings.  In the fall of 
1996, 2, 000 Stanford students blocked successfully the opening of Taco 
Bell restaurant, a former PepsiCo subsidiary, at their student union because 
of  PepsiCo's involvement in forced labor economic projects in Burma.  
Earlier this year amidst campus and community grassroots pressure, 
PepsiCo terminated its businesses in Burma.

The Coalition is planning an international conference on the Free Burma 
campaign at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) from 
October 4-6 of this year.  In the 1997-98 academic year the Coalition will 
continue its divestment campaign on as many as 150 US campuses where 
its member groups are located.

**********************************************

BKK POST: TWO GROUPS EYE SAME BLOCK IN ANDAMAN SEA
August 27, 1997 [abridged]
Boonsong Kositchotethana

Interest fuelled by encouraging results nearby

	Two major international groups are competing for the same offshore block in
Thailand's latest round of petroleum exploration concessions.
	One group comprises Unocal Corp of the United States, Total of France and
Norwegian state oil concern Statoil; and the other is an alliance of PTT,
Exploration and Production (PTTEP) of Thailand, Amerada Hess 
and Kerr McKee Corp of the US.
	By Monday's deadline, both had bid for the concession block W7/38, covering
19,675 square kilometres off the Ranong coast in the deep-water section of
the Andaman Sea, according to the Department of Mineral Resources.
	Block W7/38 is one of the seven blocks in Thailand's part of the Andaman
Sea which were offered in the 16th round of bidding for rights to explore
for and produce petroleum. The other six tracts lie in water less than 200
metres deep.
	Northwards, in Burmese waters, two good-size gas fields, Yadana and
Yetagun, are being developed for commercial production by two groups, one
led by Total and the other by Texaco, for exporting gas to Thailand.
	Details of the two groups' proposals are not available. It may take a few
months for the department to evaluate the bids and award the concession.

*******************************************************

RANGOON TV MYANMAR: KHIN NYUNT WARNS PENETRATION 
BY DESTRUCTIVE ELEMENTS 
August 21, 1997 [translated from Burmese, abridged]

The closing ceremony of Special Refresher Course No. 28 for basic
education teachers was held at Nawarat Hall of the Central Institute of
Civil Service in Hlegu Township at 0900 today.  Chairman of Myanmar 
[Burma] Education Committee and Secretary-1 of the State Law and Order 
Restoration Council Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt attended the ceremony and 
delivered an address.
The secretary-1 said students and youths, drawn by unscrupulous
elements into the jungles, were given training in handling small arms and
explosives and were used as terrorists or their prey in a bid to fulfill
their aims.
Even today, those under the name of politicians, wishing to grab state
power through shortcuts, instill in the youths the belief that students
must be involved in politics and are teaching them, with the support of
outside masters, methods--eulogized as political defiance--to destroy their
own country.
Khin Nyunt explained that political defiance methods means viewing the
nation-building endeavors of the government with pessimism, transmitting
false news reports to mislead the people, creating instability and
disturbances at every opportunity and spreading rumors to cause panic 
among the people.
He noted that just as the internal traitors are following these
methods, so also the outside puppet masters are spreading false news to
cause the dignity of Myanmar to dwindle in the world.  With these false
news reports, they are acting in concert to cause hardship to the people
and pressure Myanmar.
He called on teachers to make their pupils understand the menace posed
by the destructionists and guide them not to be swayed by enticement and
spoke of the spreading of counter cultures among the youths due to their
persuasion to make youths think highly of the material progress of the
Western nations. 
In conclusion, he exhorted the teachers to strive for the realization
of the national political, economic, and social objectives; cooperate in
maintaining peaceful education to be able to turn out technicians and
intellectuals reliable in striving for the emergence of a peaceful, modern,
and developed nation; to ward off internal and external destructionists
with the national outlook; lead their pupils in the activities of the Union
Solidarity and Development Association oriented towards national interest,
and try to materialize the aims and objectives of the course. 

*******************************************

FBC ANNOUNCEMENT: CONFERENCE & MANUAL, ASSK BOOK
August 28, 1997

Dear Fellow Free Burma Activists/Netters:

a) UCLA Conference planning is going well, and all of us are excited 
about the prospect of meeting the new colleagues and seeing the old ones 
again.   Please spare a couple of minutes to do the advance registration at 
our website at http://wicip.org/fbc

b)  The long overdue "The Free Burma Coalition Manual: How you can 
help Burma's struggle for Freedom" is finally to be out on September 15.  
There are about 175 pages and the manual contains everything you need to 
know to do Free Burma grassroots work effectively:Burma poetry both in 
Burmese and English, essays by various student and community organizers 
about their campaign experiences, selective essays and speeches by Daw 
Aung San Suu Kyi, articles about Burma's environment, politics, culture, 
and economy, the usual "how to" pieces, the documents pertaining to the 
ethnic nationalities issue, UN Convention on Genocide, heroin trade and 
the structure of narco-dictatorship in Burma, essays and excerpts from 
speeches by such Burma supporters as Desmond Tutu, U.S. Secretary of 
State M. Albright, philanthrophist and financier George Soros, Senator 
Mitch McConnell, and much more.  Please send me a note at 
zni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx if you wish to obtain a copy the manual.  For the 
first printing, there will be 2,000 copies.  We have reserved 500 copies for 
the UCLA Conference.  Another 300 copies are reserved for the 
Environmental Granmakers Association.  So please send your request 
ASAP.  Because of the quality of work (and the cost) and the shipping (in 
the U.S.), a small donation of $10 each copy is requested.  Each week we 
will be posting selective pieces from "The FBC Manual" so that you can 
get a flavor of it.

c)  Letters from Burma (a collection of essays by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi) 
with illustrations (pencil drawings of Burmese political and cultural 
sketches) by  a Bumese artist Heinn Htet is available from Penguin.  The 
essays are written in a clear and down-to-earth manner, and the book is a 
must for anyone who wishes to understand the worldview of one of the 
most extraordinary political leader of our time.  The letters were awarded 
the prestigious Japanese Newspaper Association's Award for 1996, 

The ISBN number for Letters is 0-14-026403-5.  The purchase/order 
information: 

UK: Dept. EP, Penguin Books Ltd, Bath Rd., Harmondsworth, West 
	Drayton, Middlesex UB7 ODA

US: 1-800-253-6476

CANADA: Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Ave., Suite 300, 
Toronto, Ontario M4V 3 B2

AUSTRALIA: Penguin Books Australia Ltd, P.O. Box 257, Ringwood, 
Victoria 3134

NEW ZEALAND:Penguin Books (NZ) Ltd, Private Bag 102902, North 
Shore Mail Centre, Auckland 10

INDIA: Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd, 706 Eros Apartments, 56 Nehru 
Place, New Dehli 110 019

NETHERLANDS: Penguin Books Netherlands bv, Postbus 3507, NL-1001 
AH Amsterdam

GERMANY: Penguin Books Deutschland Gmb H, Metzlerstrasse 26, 
60594 Frankfurt am Main

SPAIN: Oenguin Books S.A., Bravo Murillo 19, 1B, 28015 Madrid

ITALY: Penguin Italia s.r.l, Via Felice Casati 20, I-20124, Milano

FRANCE: Penguin France S. A., 17 rue Lejeune, F-31000, Toulouse

JAPAN: Penguin Books Japan, Ishihiribashi Building, 2-5-4, Suido, 
Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112

SOUTH AFRICA: Longman Penguin Southern Africa (Pty), Ltd, Private 
Bag X08, Bertsham 2013

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