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News OF Lexis Nexis # 2 (correction
Make some corrections here: Dr. Min Soe Lin is not secretary general of
NLD. He was secretary general of Mon National Democratic Party [MNDP].
MNDP was Mon national political party which was abolished by military
regime in 1992.
Pon Nya Mon
Monland Restoration Council
On 7 Dec 1997 RANGOONP@xxxxxxx wrote:
> Copyright 1997 The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd.
> All Rights Reserved
> EIU ViewsWire
>
> December 4, 1997
>
> LENGTH: 104 words
>
> COUNTRY: Myanmar ( Burma)
>
> COUNTRY: Myanmar ( Burma)
>
> HEADLINE: Myanmar Politics: New image for ruling junta
>
> BODY:
> COUNTRY ALERT
>
> FROM BUSINESS ASIA
>
> The ruling junta of Myanmar has changed its name from the Orwellian
> "State Law and Order Restoration Council" (SLORC) to the "State Peace and
> Development Council".
>
> This PR move, however, does not mark any policy change by the country's
> leading generals. While the government permitted Aung San Suu Kyi to hold
> a small celebration of National Day, it continued to crack down on the
> National League for Democracy, detaining its general secretary Min Soe
> Lin.
>
> Dissidents continue to await concrete signs of reform.
>
> SOURCE: Business Asia
>
>
> LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
>
> LOAD-DATE: December 05, 1997
>
> Mmmmmmmmm
>
> Copyright 1997 M2 Communications Ltd.
> M2 PRESSWIRE
>
> December 4, 1997
>
> LENGTH: 203 words
>
> HEADLINE: THE WHITE HOUSE
> Presidential Determination - Memorandum for the Secretary of State
>
> BODY:
> SUBJECT: Report to Congress regarding conditions in Burma and U.S.
> policy
> toward Burma
>
> Pursuant to the requirements set forth under the heading "Policy Toward
> Burma" in section 570(d) of the FY 1997 Foreign Operations Appropriations
> Act,
> as contained in the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act (Public Law
> 104-208), a report is required every 6 months following enactment concerning:
>
> 1) progress toward democratization in Burma;
>
>
>
> 2) progress on improving the quality of life of the Burmese people,
> including progress on market reforms, living standards, labor standards, use
> of
> forced labor in the tourism industry, and environmental quality; and
>
> 3) progress made in developing a comprehensive, multilateral strategy to
> bring democracy to and improve human rights practices and the quality of life
> in
> Burma, including the development of a dialogue between the State Law and
> Order
> Restoration Council (SLORC) and democratic opposition groups in Burma.
>
> You are hereby authorized and directed to transmit the attached report
> fulfilling this requirement to the appropriate committees of the Congress and
> to
> arrange for publication of this memorandum in the Federal Register.
>
> WILLIAM J. CLINTON
>
> LANGUAGE: English
>
> LOAD-DATE: December 5, 1997
>
> Mmmmmmmmm
>
> Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company
> The Boston Globe
>
> December 3, 1997, Wednesday, City Edition
>
> SECTION: METRO/REGION; Pg. B1
>
> LENGTH: 674 words
>
> HEADLINE: Burma infant's cries resonate;
> A world away, young lawyer uses US legal system to battle human-rights abuses
>
> BYLINE: By Theo Emery, Globe Correspondent
>
> DATELINE: WELLESLEY
>
> BODY:
> It is a long way from Wellesley to the jungle border of Burma and
> Thailand,
> but the thousands of miles shrink to nothing when Katharine Redford speaks of
> Baby Doe, a 2-month-old infant she said was kicked into a cooking fire by a
> Burmese soldier forcibly evicting villagers from their homes.
>
>
> As her own child sleeps in a nearby bedroom, Redford quietly describes how
> the Burmese army has been clearing a jungle route for a billion-dollar natural
> gas pipeline across Burma, also known as Myanmar. The army forces villagers
> to
> work as porters and human mine-sweepers, and sows the carnage that includes
> Baby
> Doe's death.
>
> When she arrived as a volunteer on the border, villagers asked her the
> question that now consumes her life: In a nation universally condemned for
> rights abuses, how can the law be wielded in the service of the Burmese
> people?
>
> "Everywhere we went, people were asking us legal questions and saying,
> 'What
> can we do with the law,' " said Redford, 29, sitting in her parents' Wellesley
> home. "That gave us the idea that there are no lawyers in Burma, and there's
> a
> use for them. You can use international law, which these people don't have
> access to."
>
> That realization was the genesis of EarthRights International, a fledgling
> legal team that includes Redford and her husband, Ka Hsaw Wa; a fellow
> graduate
> of the University of Virginia law school; and a handful of lawyers in
> Thailand.
> With funding from Boston's John Merck Fund and financier George Soros' Open
> Society Institute, the group incorporated in 1995 in Massachusetts.
>
>
> Along with several other legal groups, ERI is representing Baby Doe and 13
> other plaintiffs in a suit filed a year ago against California-based Unocal
> Corp., a gas and oil firm that is part of the consortium building the Yadana
> gas
> pipeline in Burma.
>
> Only two years out of law school, the Wellesley native is making legal
> history on behalf of the anonymous Burmese villagers. In March, a US District
> Court - the California district where Unocal is located - ruled that a US
> company can be held liable for human-rights abuses committed by an overseas
> partner, in this case, agencies of Burma's government.
>
> In agreeing with the plaintiffs that "human-rights abuses perpetuated by
> military forces are the legal responsibility of all the consortium partners,"
> the ruling turned on its head the notion that only governments can be liable
> for
> human-rights violations. The judge cited a 1789 law known as the Alien Tort
> Statute, written to give Americans recourse against pirate attacks in
> international waters. The law has been dormant for more than 200 years, but
> has
> been dusted off by human-rights advocates such as Redford seeking
> accountability
> for corporations in an increasingly global marketplace.
>
> "She understands keenly the role that lawsuits can play in a bigger
> campaign," said Simon Billenness, senior analyst for Franklin Research and
>
> Development Corporation, a Boston investment firm that advocates for
> human-rights issues. Billenness was instrumental in getting the state in 1996
> to
> pass a selective purchasing law that discourages companies doing business with
> the state from operating in Burma.
>
> He said Redford's work "and the work of ERI have greatly increased the
> pressure on oil companies to withdraw from Burma. "
>
> On Dec. 15, the judge will decide whether a preliminary injunction will be
> leveled against Unocal, as well as whether the court will allow the plaintiffs
> to be certified as a class.
>
> Though Redford spends the majority of her time shuttling between Bangkok
> and
> the Burmese border, she is home to snatch precious moments with her parents
> and
> speak in Boston about the organization's work. With a fund-raiser planned in
> Cambridge for tomorrow, the group hopes that its success will spark legal
> efforts in support of rights issues in other Southeast Asian nations.
>
> "We never could have dreamed that we could come this far," said Redford.
> "I
> can't think of anything better than working for freedom and democracy."
>
>
>
> GRAPHIC: PHOTO, GLOBE STAFF PHOTO/SUZANNE KREITER
>
> LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
>
> LOAD-DATE: December 3, 1997
>
> Mmmmmm
>
> Copyright 1997 The Press Association Limited
> Press Association Newsfile
>
> December 3, 1997, Wednesday
>
> SECTION: PARLIMENTARY NEWS
>
> LENGTH: 625 words
>
> HEADLINE: MINISTERS PRESSED TO THINK AGAIN ON BURMA RAILWAY MEMORIAL
>
> BYLINE: Trevor Mason, Parliamentary Chief Reporter, PA News
>
> BODY:
> Ministers were urged tonight to think again over their refusal to fund a
> memorial to thousands of allied Prisoners of War who died building the Burma
> railway in the Second World War. Spearheading the call, Labour's Tony Wright
> (Great Yarmouth) cited the case of a constituent whose father had died while
> forced to work on the project for the Japanese in 1943 when she was just four.
> Mrs Carol Cooper later discovered her father had kept an extensive diary of
> his
> two years' captivity, which later formed the basis for a BBC documentary. She
> wrote to Mr Wright, after retracing her father's footsteps in Thailand with a
>
> BBC film crew, complaining about the British Government's "apparent lack of
> respect" for those who died constructing the Thai- Burma railway. In the
> letter, Mrs Cooper said she felt "quite ashamed by the apparent lack of
> interest
> by the British Government" in joining the Australian and Thai governments to
> build a permanent memorial at "Hellfire Pass". The site was so named because
> one observer looking down at the skeletal figures hacking out a huge cutting
> from the mountainside by the light of bamboo fires said it must be like
> working
> "in the jaws of hell". Mr Wright said the Ministry of Defence should follow
> the
> example of Australia and Thailand in contributing to a suitable memorial to
> the
> 13,000 PoWs who died building the 250-mile-long railway with little mechanical
> help. His call came after defence ministers last month expressed sympathy for
> the men who died and their families but said the cost of such memorials were
> usually met from private donations or public subscription and not from public
> funds. In his maiden Commons speech, Mr Wright said Hellfire Pass was the
> favoured site for the memorial because 700 PoWs had died there building just
> three miles of railway. He read an extract from the diary and said it was
> impossible to imagine the conditions lived in by the servicemen and the
> suffering inflicted on them. "A country can ask no more of one of its
> citizens
> than they lay down their life in its defence. "Surely they can expect that
> country to honour their sacrifice in a way that gives comfort to those loved
> ones they left behind. "A memorial such as this would demonstrate the
> gratitude
> that this country holds for the men who fought to defend it."
>
> Replying to the debate, junior defence minister John Spellar told Mr Wright
> that war memorials were not usually funded by the Government. "We have the
> greatest sympathy for those men and their families and acknowledge the need
> for
> remembrance and commemoration, but it has been a long-standing policy of
> successive governments - of different political persuasions - that the cost of
> memorials to the dead, both service and civilian, are traditionally erected
> following a public appeal for private donations. "Public funding is not
> usually
> made available." An exception had been made for the erection of a memorial to
> those who died in the Falklands War, but more recently a memorial to service
> members who died in the Gulf War was funded by private subscription. Mr
> Spellar
> said there was some debate amongst ex-servicemen's organisations on how best
> to
> commemorate people who had been PoWs in the Far East, adding that a war
> memorial
> was not everybody's first choice. The minister stressed the Government would
> continue to assist with the War Widows Granted Aid Scheme, administered by the
> Royal British Legion, which provides financial assistance to any service widow
> whose husband was buried overseas between 1914 and 1967 so that she can visit
> his grave. The grant contributes seven-eighths of the cost of the pilgrimage.
> Mr Spellar said the Government was providing L297,000 to fund the scheme until
> March 1999.
>
> LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
>
> Mmmmmmm
>
> Copyright 1997 The Seattle Times Company
> The Seattle Times
>
> December 03, 1997, Wednesday Final Edition
>
> SECTION: LOCAL NEWS; Pg. B3
>
> LENGTH: 549 words
>
> HEADLINE: DRAGO BACKS OFF CURB ON BURMA LINKS -- TRADE GROUPS ADVISE CITY TO
> AVOID FOREIGN ISSUES
>
> BYLINE: SUSAN BYRNES; SEATTLE TIMES STAFF REPORTER
>
> BODY:
> Seattle City Council President Jan Drago has backed away from legislation
> she proposed to restrict city contracts with companies doing business in
> Burma, saying the implications are broader than she realized. Drago said she
> introduced the ordinance in August to send a message to the military regime in
> Burma. The legislation would have directed the city not to do business with
> companies that have direct investments there.
>
>
> But in the weeks that followed, members of business and trade organizations
> peppered Drago's office with letters and calls, warning her that the measure
> was
> not as simple as it appeared.
>
> Yesterday, at a meeting of the Business, Economic and Community Development
> Committee she chairs, Drago told supporters of the ordinance to look for
> another
> way to send a message.
>
> "I was not aware of what I was getting into on a bigger level," Drago said
> after the meeting. "I deal with local politics, not national and international
> politics."
>
> Larry Dohrs, chairman of the Seattle Burma Roundtable, said he was
> confused
> by Drago's apparent flip-flop and vowed to keep lobbying for the ordinance
> with
> other members of the council.
>
> "Anybody who says it's complicated, the onus is on them to explain what the
> complications are," Dohrs said. "Saying it's complicated is not speaking from
> a
> position of knowledge, it's speaking from a position of fear."
>
> President Clinton already has banned new investment in Burma, and dozens
> of
> U.S. and foreign companies have pulled out of the country. More than a dozen
>
> U.S. cities, including New York and San Francisco, have enacted their own
> sanctions to emphasize disapproval of the Burmese military regime that ignored
> democratic elections in 1990 and has been implicated in human-rights
> violations
> and drug trafficking.
>
> Supporters say Seattle can make a difference to those suffering in Burma
> with little cost. No companies would be directly affected by a Seattle
> ordinance, they say.
>
> But the issue has sparked fierce debate about the role of city government
> in
> foreign-policy matters.
>
> Supporters point to the patchwork of city, state, national and
> international
> sanctions that helped force an end to apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s.
>
> But opponents say South Africa was an exception. They argue city
> involvement
> in foreign-trade issues fragments and confuses U.S. policy and puts the city
> in
> the awkward role of having to take a position on other foreign countries with
> undesirable regimes.
>
> "A local city sanction like this can set a precedent," said Barbara
> Hazzard,
> program director for the Washington Council on International Trade, a
>
> nonprofit organization that represents such companies as Boeing, Microsoft and
> Weyerhaeuser. "There are a lot of regimes in the world. Once you start, you
> can
> paint yourself into a corner."
>
> The trade council, as well as representatives from Boeing and a coalition
> of
> U.S. and Asian businesses, contacted Drago with similar issues.
>
> Two immigrants from Burma also spoke to council members Drago, Margaret
> Pageler and Peter Steinbrueck at the meeting, urging them to support the
> ordinance.
>
> Opponents of the ordinance will speak to the same committee on Dec. 12.
> After
> that, Drago says, she hopes both sides will be willing to sit down and discuss
> another solution.
>
> GRAPHIC: PHOTO; JAN DRAGO
>
> LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
>
> LOAD-DATE: December 4, 1997
>
>
> Mmmmmmmmmmm
>
> Copyright 1997 South China Morning Post Ltd.
> South China Morning Post
>
> December 3, 1997
>
> SECTION: News; Pg. 15
>
> LENGTH: 383 words
>
> HEADLINE: Modified rapture at prison term cuts
>
> BYLINE: WILLIAM BARNES in Bangkok
>
> BODY:
> The slashing of jail sentences of civilian prisoners by the remodelled
> military regime could benefit hundreds of political detainees.
>
> Junta chairman General Than Shwe said yesterday those serving 10 to 20
> years
> would be kept in for 10 years. Death sentences would be commuted to a prison
> term and 20-year terms cut to 15.
>
>
>
> Most of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's top advisers and senior party
> members are in Rangoon's notorious Insein jail.
>
> Her National League for Democracy (NLD) welcomed the reductions but urged
> the regime to release party members from jail.
>
> Party vice-chairman Tin Oo hoped the regime would grant a general amnesty
> next month on the 50th anniversary of Burma's independence from Britain.
>
> "It is most welcome that people will be released, but I hope the
> Government
> will be more generous on the anniversary," he said.
>
> Burma is thought to have about 2,000 political prisoners.
>
> Observers were cautious about seeing any softening in the move. The regime
> has, in the past, simply topped up prison sentences, by discovering new
> crimes,
> when it wants to keep opponents locked up. The junta's core leaders threw out
> their most corrupt colleagues and renamed themselves the State Peace and
> Development Council last month in an effort to improve their image and
> efficiency.
>
>
> One diplomat in Rangoon said: "We should welcome this, but since the
> political prisoners shouldn't be there at all our joy is limited."
>
> Burma watchers have also seen more than 80 prisoners moved out of Insein
> in recent weeks, which may send a more ominous signal.
>
> Faith Docherty, of the Southeast Asian Information Network, said: "Based
> on
> past behaviour, when they start clearing prisons it is because they expect
> more
> arrivals. This happened in 1988, a year of sharply repressed demonstrations."
>
> The NLD's senior trio, Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, Mr Tin Oo and Kyi Maung, have
> remained free, if often harassed and isolated, but nearly all its other
> important personalities - including elder statesman Win Tin - have been
> jailed.
>
> The diplomat said: "There is no sign the regime has any intention of
> letting
> these rejoin Aung San Suu Kyi. That would be real progress."
>
> Eight jailed NLD members have been denied the right to hire lawyers, the
> party said yesterday.
>
> LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
>
>