The BurmaNet News - 13 January 1998

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------------------------- BurmaNet ------------------------------------
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
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The BurmaNet News: January 13, 1998
Issue #911

Noted in Passing:

We are beginning the second part of our independence
century with political and economic woes.

- Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (see MAINICHI DAILY NEWS: HONORING THOSE WHO FOUGHT
FOR FREEDOM)

HEADLINES:
==========
MAINICHI DAILY NEWS: HONORING THOSE WHO FOUGHT NEWSDAY: UNDER THEIR SKIN /
BURMA'S REGIME PUTS ITS MARK ABSDF: RFA INTERVIEW WITH MOE THEE ZUN ON THE
GOLDEN
BKK POST: LAW EXPERTS FAIL TO REACH COMPROMISE OVER GAS
KNU: HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 
MON UNITY LEAGUE: BURMA  INDEPENDENCE  DAY MESSAGE
ANNOUNCEMENT: TUNE INTO RADIO FREE BURMA
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---------------------

MAINICHI DAILY NEWS: HONORING THOSE WHO FOUGHT FOR FREEDOM
January 12, 1998
Golden Anniversary Letter from Burma by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

The nature of time is incomprehensible.  Days that creeped and
months that crawled telescope into years that seem to fly past.  Burma is a
land of soothsayers.  Campaigning in the Irrawaddy division in 1989, I met a
young doctor who told me anxiously that after careful astrological
calculation, local Buddhist monks had come to the conclusion that nine years
would pass before the movement for democracy was crowned with victory.
"Nine years," he said with furrowed brow, "Can we bear it for so long?"
"Why not?" I replied absently, wondering about the scientifically calculable
probability rate of astrological predictions with one part of my mind while
the other tried to work out the implications of a decade of struggle.  At
that time, a decade stretched out mistily  into the unforeseeable future;
but now that almost the whole of it has been left behind, it has shrunk to
negligible proportions.

While 10 years seen in retrospect do not seem much, 50 years in
retrospect, perhaps because it is almost a lifetime for me, or perhaps
because it constitutes a historic phase, take on a "forever" aspect.  On the
fourth of January, 1998, Burma will be commemorating the golden anniversary
of her independence.  I cannot remember a time when my country was not a
sovereign independent nation, just as I cannot remember a time when I did
not know the story of our struggle for independence.  I grew up on tales of
the exploits of the Rangoon University Students' Union, the "We Burmese"
association, the war, the resistance movement, the Anti-Fascist People's
Freedom League (AFPFL), the general boycott that brought the colonial
government to its knees, the negotiations with the British Labour
government, and the Panglong accord between the Burmese and the other ethnic
nationalities.  These tales were illustrated by photographs of my father as
the young commander of the Burma Independence Army, as War Minister (by
that time my mother and brothers had begun to feature as well), speaking at
public rallies after the war as the leader of the AFPFL, wrapped in an
oversized greatcoat during his trip to London for talks with the British
government, and adorned with Kachin turban and sword around the time of the
Panglong agreement.  The story of the Burmese independence movement was
intertwined with that of my father's life.
       
Together with stories about the independence movement and my father,
I heard discussions about the latest "insurgent situation."  It seemed then
that rebellions and civil strife were part and parcel of nationhood.  There
were newspaper articles about military operations and news photographs of
"liberated" villages.  Arguments raged over the efforts of the AFPFL
government to negotiate peace.  At one time the government made an offer of
amnesty and daily we heard on the radio songs meant to lure insurgents back
into the "legal fold."  The popular term was "coming back into the light"
and we children became adept at chanting the slogan, "Don't stare vacantly,
comrade! Don't be lost in thought, comrade! Come back into the light,
comrade, comrade!"  It was something of a joke.  A play written by Prime
Minister U Nu in which communist insurgents featured as the baddies was part
of our school syllabus and we had to memorize some of the politically
crucial dialogue.  Later a film was made of the play starring a couple of
military officers who later left the army to become professional actors.  It
all seemed a part of normal life in Burma.
        
Our regular visitors included a number of passionate politicians,
not all of whom supported the same causes, so that if their visits coincided
there would be some colorful exchanges.  I understood roughly that the
communists and socialists were not too fond of one another, that both groups
had many sympathizers, but also that there were many who loathed both,
condemning them either as fanatics, as dacoits or as troublemakers.  I
understood too that the fighting taking place in the jungles outside Rangoon
was an extension of the politics raging in the capital even though I had
never heard of Clauswitz.  There were Red Flag Communist insurgents and
White Flag Communists and the Karen National Defense Organization (KNDO).
There were also the "White Comrades."  I was politically sophisticated
enough to understand that they were quite apart from the White Communists
with whom they sometimes entered into temporary alliances but it was not
until I was 8 or 9 that I really managed to sort out who they were and why
they had taken up arms against the government.  My somewhat biased informant
was a young woman who had "come back into the light" after "taking refuge in
the jungles" for several years as an adherent of the White Comrades group.

Those were the days when parliamentary democracy was practiced in
Burma.  Undeniably there were flaws in the system but equally undeniably,
the people felt free.  They could embark confidently on political
discussions without peering around to make sure there were no informers
lurking in the background.  Newspaper articles criticizing the government
were read aloud in tea shops to the vociferous satisfaction of the audience.
The family of a Karen friend who had joined the insurgents came and went
freely.  Neither they nor we felt under any threat when we were together;
the government did not believe in persecuting family and friends for the
political beliefs of one individual.  That was just as well, as most people
seemed to know or be related to somebody who belonged to some armed rebel
group.  Looking back, there is an almost golden glow to that era of
parliamentary democracy in spite of the insurgencies.  The judiciary was
independent, the press was unmuzzled and elections took place regularly.  We
could choose our own government, we could shout at it, and we could throw it
out with the power of our vote.

Gray seems to be the color most often associated the socialism of
the non-democratic brand.  The color actually favored by the Burma Socialist
Programme Party (BSPP), scion of the military revolutionary council that
assumed power in 1962, was blue, and a rather pretty blue at that, but the
years of BSPP rule in Burma definitely appear monochrome and dull.  When the
people of Burma eventually erupted in frustration in 1988 after the drab
years, angry greens and reds became the key colors:  the jungle green of the
army and the grass green of its civilian arm, the Union Solidarity and
Development Association, the red of the flag (stamped with a white star and
a yellow fighting peacock) of the National League for Democracy.
        
The spectrum of Burma's first 50 years of independence is not
soothing.  And we are beginning the second part of our independence century
with political and economic woes.  "Where have all our wonderful ideals
gone?" Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru once wrote in bewilderment as he
struggled with the problems of post-independence India.  When nation
building is accompanied by internecine fights it can be so much more
corrosive than any revolutionary war of independence.  Our young people of
today listen wistfully to accounts of the exploits of the student unions of
their grandfathers' day.  It is astounding to think that the colonial
government allowed unions to be formed and permitted demonstration marches
and rallies and even tolerated the burning of the Union Jack and demands for
the British governor to "go back home."  True, in a demonstration organized
by students, one of them was struck down by a mounted policeman and later
died of his wounds.  However, there was a proper official enquiry into his
death and students and politicians were allowed to organize his funeral with
due honor.  This is in glaring contrast to the situation today:  students
are not allowed to organize unions and universities have been shut since the
student demonstrations of December 1996.  Political parties too were able to
operate more freely under colonial rule.  They freely recruited members,
organized and reorganized their various committees, campaigned throughout
the country, held public meetings and openly discussed ways and means of
getting rid of the alien government.  Of course, numbers of politicians were
arrested and imprisoned but the lot of a political prisoner was not such an
unhappy one.  They were fed and treated well and allowed to organize various
activities within the prison, including classes on political subjects.  Many
felt they had graduated in politics during their term of imprisonment.
After British administration was re-established at the end of the war, the
AFPFL went into party work full swing, carrying the public with them in the
sweep of pre-independence elections enthusiasm.  And when the party won,
their victory was not swept aside and ignored, it was duly recognized.
Those were simpler days.

What, some might question, is the point of celebrating the 50th
anniversary of our independence when the people of Burma are so patently
lacking in the basic freedoms -- freedom of association, freedom of
expression and freedom from unlawful restraint?  The NLD will be
commemorating the golden anniversary with all due honor because we want to
acknowledge our debt of gratitude to those who fought for independence in
the hope and belief that self-government would mean better and more just
government.  If their hopes have not been realized, it is not their fault
but that of those to whom fell the task of preserving independence and
making it truly meaningful.  As we celebrate on Jan. 4 with a Burmese
orchestra, an electronic band, traditional games such as the climbing of a
greased pole and a play (political in content of course), we shall be
renewing our resolve to make the sacrifices of those who fought for
independence really worthwhile.

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

NEWSDAY: UNDER THEIR SKIN / BURMA'S REGIME PUTS ITS 
MARK ON OPPOSITION
January 4, 1998
by Matthew McAllester, NEWSDAY

RANGOON, Burma  -  Before Way Pyo could begin his 4-year prison
sentence for political offenses against the state, his jailers told him
that the cluster of tattooed pro-democracy symbols on his upper left arm
would have to go.

"They forced me to lie down and they pressed their heel on my
shoulder and head and forced me to lie on my side," said Pyo, 26,
sitting cross-legged and barechested on the floor of an upstairs room in
the house he shares with several other Burmese exiles across the border
in Thailand. "They gripped me tightly and held my hands
down."

The military officials who had arrested the 19-year-old who uses the
nom de guerre, Way Pyo, filled a syringe with dark ink. The syringe, the
type used on pigs, was thick, blunt and painful. For an hour and a half
the men jabbed the needle into Pyo's arm, trying to blot out the tattoos
of a fist, a book, a star, a chain, and the numerals 8.8.88  -  the date
of a famous pro-democracy uprising.

"It was very painful," said Pyo, who started his prison term for
agitation in 1990. The jailers wanted to erase the tattoo, but Pyo
insisted that the symbol stay. "I do this from conviction. I shouted
out, `Stop it, I don't want it eroded.' "

To this day, the skin-deep symbols of his heartfelt conviction
remain visible beneath the blue smudge.

The Burmese military government's determination to erase the tattoos
of a man already imprisoned shows how far the junta is prepared to go to
keep power in this poor South East Asian country of 50 million people.
Although the government of the former British colony has changed its
name and leaders a few times in its 35-year history - most recently it
morphed into the State Peace and Development Council - it has remained
defiant in the face of the outside world's calls for it to step aside.

Crushing pro-democracy rallies in the late 1980s and early 1990s with an
enthusiasm rivaling that of its neighbor China, the Burmese generals who
continue their war against their own people appear no weaker than they
did when the military seized power in 1962.

"I only pray that some day with the help of the international
community that democracy will be restored to one of the most beautiful
little countries in the world, but I don't think it will come from
within," said Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), who has visited Burma twice
in recent years and has met with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi,
who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. "This regime has got her and her
people so totally repressed militarily."

The ugliness of that repression clashes with the hospitality of the
Burmese people and their beautiful country. Although the streets of
thecapital, Rangoon, are often piled with garbage and occasionally
populated by rats, and though most Burmese live in primitive villages
where bamboo huts are home and rice is often their only food, the golden
and white Buddhist pagodas that are strewn all over the country are
matched in their beauty only by the mountains of the border lands.

In most Burmese homes, neighbors, friends or visitors can barely sit
down before the host will offer tea or a banana. On the busy streets of
cities like Mandalay, 5-year-old monks collect alms from bus drivers who
drive ramshackle pickup trucks from sunrise to sunset. On the muddy
pathways of a village in the Shan state, a teenage girl with teeth
almost black from chewing betel nut walks barefoot to her smoky hut,
pausing only to speak to the piglets that run around the village.

This is the land and these are the people who have lived under one
of the world's most resilient dictatorships for three and a half
decades.

Countries around the world have restricted or banned trade with
Burma in an effort to force political change. In May, a federal law
prohibiting American companies from investing further in Burma went into
effect.

"The main thing we are concerned with is the overall increasing
repression," said a U.S. government official who is familiar with the
political situation in Burma and insisted on anonymity.

Of all the weapons that the Burmese government employs in its battle
to subdue its people, none is more effective or widespread than the
practice of forced labor.

In the northern town of Myitkyina, which lies about 40 miles from
China, residents continue to feel the pain cause by a forced labor
project that ended in 1996, local people said.

"There is a hydro-electric dam 14 miles away," said a local
businessman. "They forced us to pay money and send people to work. One
person from every house for one or two weeks a year. People here had to
carry stones and dig them from the ground. Some people died, mainly from
malaria. It lasted two years."

Another local man said he had to pay the equivalent of quarter of a
year's income to help build the dam and then a few days' salary every
month to compensate for keeping his children from working on the
project.  "I wouldn't let my child work on that," said the Myitkyina
man. "People can't talk about it. They hurt too much."

Compounding the pain is the fact that the dam doesn't work. On any
given day in the rainy season, the electric power in a house fails about
twice a day, often for hours.

The rainy season is when the dam works best, residents say.

"You can only get electric power for three months a year," said the
businessman. "Sometimes the bulbs explode. It's really very funny.
Everyone gets a shock. Old people are sleeping and suddenly all the
lights go on."

Candles are the reliable source  of light in the town. "The project
was a total disaster," said the man who refused to send his children to
work on the dam's construction.

At the other end of the country, in the southern Karen state, the
military's use of forced labor has driven tens of thousands of Burmese
over the border to refugee camps in Thailand.

Under the mountain peaks of northern Thailand and the watchful eyes
of that country's soldiers, 20,000 Burmese refugees live in Mae La, a
refugee camp of grass huts and muddy pathways surrounded by a tall
bamboo fence and gates of barbed wire. Unwanted by the Thai government,
the refugees won't return to their homes over the border in Burma. What
they fear there, they say, is their own government, which treats them as
dispensable, unpaid laborers.

"We had to pay to avoid being porters," said Billion, 25, who fled
from eastern Burma, where ethnic Karens have long fought the Burmese
military government for independence. Billion's family used to buy his
freedom in installments but one day the soldiers were no longer
interested in money.

"Each family had to pay 3,000 kyats," said Billion, who did not
give his last name and works as a medical administrator in the camp,
referring to a sum that is only worth about $10 but is about two
months' income for a typical Karen family. "But this time they came and
pointed their guns at us and they caught us and made us carry their
ammunition. We carried it on our backs. It was very heavy. If you could
not carry it, they beat you with a stick. I was beaten often."

For four days in July, 1995, Burmese soldiers took Billion and 30
other young people away from their village in the hills of the Karen
state.

The young Karen carried the boxes of ammunition for the unit of
300 Burmese troops through the mountainous jungle terrain. At the end of
the trek, the villagers were allowed to return home.

Several weeks later, the soldiers returned. "We were afraid of the
soldiers," Billion said. "They came to get us to help them dig a trench.
We were angry and afraid. We hate what the policy is doing to people in
Burma."
    
This time, Billion fled to Thailand with a few friends.

"Certainly there is still forced labor going on," said a U.S.
government official familiar with Burma. "On some infrastructure
projects they still just go into villages and say we need so many
workers. They are paid at times but it's minimal."

The official, who insisted on anonymity, said the amount of forced
labor in Burma has probably declined within the past few years because
of the attention human rights groups have drawn to the policy. But off
the tracks beaten by foreign visitors, the practice continues, the
official said.

Thaung Tun, deputy chief of mission of Myanmar, as the country is
officially known,  said his people's religious volunteerism is often
mistaken by Westerners for forced labor.

"I can tell you that it is not the policy of the government to force
people to work," Thaung Tun said. "There may be instances where people
are forced to work and this happens everywhere in every country. It
depends on individuals . . .  Myanmar  is predominantly Buddhist and
people find it religiously useful to do meritorious deeds. They like to
build roads and bridges and pagodas to gain merit for the next life."

Those roads and bridges are part the government's push to transform
Burma into a more developed country that would provide for tourists and
new businesses. After the suppression of the democracy movement and the
arrest of its leader, Suu Kyi, the group of generals who took over the
government in 1988 decided gradually to open up Burma to the outside
world. Foreign investors and tourists were invited in.

As it tries to lure foreign investment, the Burmese regime struggles
with some critical problems.

Cut off from financial assistance available from organizations like
the International Monetary Fund, the Burmese government has developed an
economic "co-dependency" with the country's drug lords, said a State
Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity. So while the
country slips further into poverty, the strength of the traffickers who
produce more than half the world's supply of heroin grows.

Until there is significant political change these problems will only
intensify, say most Burmese opposition leaders, Western government
officials and ordinary Burmese people. Among those groups of insiders
and observers, hardly anyone expects the military regime to take steps
toward democracy,

Meanwhile, the Burmese currency, the kyat, loses value daily. The
Burmese people grow poorer and, allegedly, the generals richer.
Resentment runs high.

"I was talking to Suu Kyi recently and I joked about how amazing it
would be to find out who has been informing on you all these years if
democracy came," said a Western diplomat based in Rangoon. "She wasn't
amused. She said it won't be at all funny. It's going to be completely
awful. It will be worse than East Germany or South Africa. So many
people here are informers."

In an interview at his home in Rangoon, Tin Oo, vice chairman of the
main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, said that if
his party ever comes to power, the military authorities will have
nothing to fear.

"I am sure there will be no reprisals," said Tin Oo, a former
general in the Burmese army who has spent a total of 9 years in prison
for his pro-democracy campaigning. "But they have done a lot of
atrocities to students, monks, laymen. They are very much afraid of
revenge and reprisals."

That's the official line from the National League for Democracy, but
other Burmese who have suffered at the hands of informers are less
forgiving.

"What we need are the tools  - guns, bombs," said a Rangoon
businessman who recently spent a day being interrogated - often
blindfolded - by military intelligence officers after an informer told
the authorities that the businessman had been talking to two Western
tourists who had just visited an opposition leader. "There are people
willing to act."

Informers are particularly active at universities and colleges,
Burmese people said, because traditionally the strongest resistance to
military rule has come from students.

"There are informers inside all campuses," said Thar Nyunt Oo, 26, a
student democracy leader who fled to Thailand recently after spending
years in prison and on the run from the Burmese authorities. "The
students need money so the intelligence officers give them money for
information. On campus, for every 10 students there's at least one
informer."

In 1990, Nyunt Oo was hiding out in Rangoon when he was betrayed by
a student informer whom he knew. "I was very disappointed," Nyunt Oo
said. "I was very sad. In his own manner he wanted to struggle against
the government but he needed the money."

But Nyunt Oo isn't just disappointed and sad. Asked whether he would
want revenge on informers, this slim, scrupulously polite young man who
has suffered torture in three prisons doesn't hesitate.

He nods yes.

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

ABSDF: RFA INTERVIEW WITH MOE THEE ZUN ON THE GOLDEN 
JUBILEE OF BURMA'S INDEPENDENCE DAY
 (Moe Thee Zun, Vice-Chairman of the ABSDF)
January 4, 1998
lurie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As of January 4, 1997, we have been liberated from British colonial
rule for 50 years. On this special occasion, we must consider the 
present situation in Burma and how it has developed over the past five 
decades.  We find ourselves still living in a country of deprivation and 
disunity, the present generation's only inheritance.

Almost all Asian countries which gained independence in the years
around 1948 have become developed and prosperous. However, 
our motherland, Burma, still obviously remains in deep poverty. 
The ruling military elite continues to shamelessly trick the people by
telling them to be proud of their poverty because it reflects their honesty
and integrity.  

After having passed through fifty years so far, we want the
Burmese military government to show us what the country
has achieved in the areas of development, politics, economics, 
social issues, and education.  I wish there were positive developments
of which I could be proud on this significant occasion. 

Instead, here are the gains which we have achieved:

5 billion - government loans in US dollars
2,500,000 - number of forcibly relocated persons
Over 100,000 - number of refugees in Thailand
Over 1 million  - number of illegal workers in Thailand
Over 30,000 - number of women from Burma who are working as     
 sex workers in Thailand  
Over 2,400 - annual opium production in tonnes 
40% - inflation rate

Rather than development and prosperity we have nothing but
deterioration.  It seems like we have merely shifted
from living under the yoke of British colonial rule to living 
under the burden of Burmese military dictatorial rule. In fact, we 
have never yet enjoyed any positive results from our independence.

In comparison with our neighbouring countries, we could neither
eat nor dress well, nor are we able to attend good schools or good
universities. We cannot find jobs which fit with our educational 
backgrounds. Even intellectuals, academics and university graduates 
can not find appropriate dignified jobs but must survive through
corruption and dishonesty.  Many have left for other countries rather than
live like this. At the same time, we still could not yet halt the 50 year
long civil
war which has meant the loss of so many lives and so much money.

The inevitable question is what is the situation in the country is likely
to be over the next 50 years.

All over the world, citizens and governments have been thinking 
about the future and planning for the year 2000 and the 
21st century.  Almost all these countries seem to feel confident
that they can continue along on their path to development. Many 
countries have already gone beyond the agricultural period and 
industrialization, and are now entering the age of technical
competition. 

Of course, Burma sadly remains at a very primitive stage of
development and is even going backwards.  Burma has still not 
begun to industrialize. Over the past 50 years, successive military-backed
ruling bodies have wasted their time in office and have done nothing to create
an enduring foundation or basic infrastructure for economic development. Thus,
how Burma will catch up with other countries in the next century has become
a serious question for us.

US president Bill Clinton has been saying we need to make a 
bridge to the 21st century.  ASEAN has come up with an ASEAN 
2020 vision. And most other nations around the world are about to 
take off into the 21st century with optimism and appropriate
strategies. Academics, intellectuals and other analysts around the 
world have been meeting in international conferences to help prepare
these.

In the meantime, the so-called leaders of Burma are shouting 
out the following slogans:

Do the three "A"s: Right efforts, Good ideas, Sacrifices

Avoid only working for the four "Nga":  your children, your wife, 
your relatives, yourself

Remember the Three Students' Causes:
Don't befriend rude people
Befriend only good people
Pay respect to those who deserve it

It is not wise to prepare for the year 2000 by merely proclaiming 
these worn-out slogans. The 21st century should be
the time for constructive democratic leaders, not for military-
minded destructive regimes that only make everything worse.

But before we can develop a constructive approach for the year
2000 and beyond, we must first:

end the military's leading role in Burmese politics;
discontinue the civil war and refrain from actions that might
restart it;
establish a genuine process of national reconciliation
through serious dialogue instead of military means;
establish genuine and enduring peace;
formulate appropriate measures for strengthening the national 
economy;
permit freedom of education, speech, and assembly;
allow freedom of the press and academic freedom;
hold free and fair multi-party elections; and,
respect human rights and promote democracy.

If these conditions are met, in another 50 years we believe we 
will be able to construct a developing, industrialised country which 
will be stable, prosperous and peaceful.  Please join us
in achieving our goals for our beloved motherland, Burma.
    
******************************************************

BKK POST: LAW EXPERTS FAIL TO REACH COMPROMISE OVER GAS CONTRACTS
13 January 1998
by  Chakrit Ridmontri & Wuth Nontarit

TEMPORARY HALT OF PTT PROJECT ENDS

The temporary suspension of the gas pipeline project ended
yesterday, but law experts representing both the Petroleum
Authority of Thailand (PTT) and opponents were still unable to
reach a compromise on whether the PTT would be liable for the
penalty indicated in gas deal contracts.

Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai suspended the project on Friday and
ordered law experts from the two sides to discuss the contracts. 
He wanted to know the possibility of halting the project
temporarily as requested by conservation groups which wanted the
pipeline to be rerouted from lush forests.

Law experts of the groups insisted that the PTT could halt the
construction work without paying any fine to the pipeline's
construction contractor, Tasco Manesmann Joint Venture Co, and
the gas seller consortium which won concessions from the Burmese
government to drill gas in the Yadana and Yetagun fields. 

The consortium comprises Total of France, Unocal of USA, Myanma
Oil and Gas Enterprise of Burma and PTTEP, an affiliate of PTT. 

They said both contracts between the construction firm and the
consortium stipulated that force majeure which includes the act
of civil authority, could be a reason to halt the project and
review the contracts as requested by the conservation groups.

In so doing, they said, the prime minister's order to halt the
project could be a force majeure case because confrontation was
looming after conservation groups staged a sit-in protest at a
section of pipeline which runs across the forests.

The current constitution also recognises the right of people to
protect resources.  Any action that obstructs the groups is
considered a violation of the constitution.

But law experts of the PTT still insisted that the conservation
groups, claim could not be a force majeure case unless the
contractors agreed with the counter party or the PTT.

Patr Chareonlarp, leader of the PTT's law experts, said the
constitution tribunal may have to decide whether the protesters
could cite the current constitution as it was launched after the
PTT, in 1992, struck the gas purchase deal with the consortium.

He admitted the PTT did not request that the prime minister give
the order to suspend the pipeline's construction during the
talks.  It just asked for collaboration with the contract 'and
had prepared money for the fine.

"The PTT has to act like this because it doesn't want the
government to lose face for being inconsistent in dealing with
such a mega-project.  We also care about PM's Office Minister,
Supatra Masdit being so kind to us in finding solutions with the
opponents," he said.

According to Mr Patr, the four-day suspension of the work would
cost the PTT about 100 million baht in Fines that it had to pay
the construction contractor.  It also has to pay an additional
US$27 million requested by the firm to complete the pipeline's
laying by July 1, the first day of gas delivery.

Ackaratorn Chularat, secretary general of the Office of the State
Council and chair of the meeting, said he would pass on the
opinions of the two sides to the premier who would decide about
the gas pipeline project.

Bhiphob Dhongehai, leader of conservation groups who engaged in
the talks, Said the premier might order the PTT to go ahead with
the project despite law experts of the group pointing out the
alternatives.

"Our only tool is to insist on a sit-in protest to block the PTT
from clearing the forests.  We have known since the beginning
that the government would dare not have the project reviewed by
the groups, but we want to engage in talks because it is a chance
to see the contracts Which the PTT has never revealed," he said.

In another development, conservation groups said yesterday they
insisted on going ahead with protests until the project is
suspended.  They want the pipeline's environmental impact
assessment restudied so as to find the best alternative route.

The conservation groups urged Premier Chuan to set up a committee
to conduct public hearings on whether the 12km gas pipeline
cutting through first-class watershed forest in Kanchanaburi's
Thong Pha Phum should be rerouted.

Mr Alongkot Chukaeo, a representative of one conservation group.
made the call yesterday after the 80 conservation groups ended
their meeting at Thammasat University.

He said a committee should be set up to study whether the
construction would affect the environment in the area and to see
whether the project was worth the money spent in the
construction.

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KNU: HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 
12 January 1998

TAUNGOO DISTRICT - KNLA 2nd Brigade Area
Tantabin Township

In our last human rights report, we gave initial details that, on
December 20th, the Southern Command Headquarters had forcibly
commissioned (15) civilian trucks from the Kaw Thay Der / Kler Lah
area, and ordered their owners to drive to Taungoo to load and deliver
food supplies to Kler Lah village.

We have since gathered further information about what happened after
the supplies reached Kler Lah.

On December 22nd, two days after the food arrived at Kler Lah, Lt.Col.
Thein Maung of the Tactical Operations Command No.(2), and troops from
LIR (707), under the command of Lt.Col. Aung Hein Mya, and troops from
LIB (39) conscripted a number of men, women and children from Kler Lah
and Kaw Thay Der villages (Kler Lah is known as Baw K'Lee in Burmese).

These civilians were forcibly recruited to act as porters for the
Burmese Army, and had to carry the food supplies to Naw Soe, a Burmese
Army base about one day's walk away.

In a related incident, Naw Meh Ree Htoo, a 14-year old girl from Kaw
Thay Der village stepped on a landmine, between Kaw Thay Der and Naw
Soe. We do not know what injuries she suffered.

It is likely that KNLA units in the area received the news that the
food supply was to be delivered to Kler Lah, and mined the surrounding
area, knowing that Burmese troops would be deployed to provide
security for the convoy, and to accompany the forced porters on the
way to Naw Soe.

There is a huge number of Burmese battalions in this region. Currently
LIRs (232), (263), and (540) from No (3) Strategic Command of Western
Command (which is stationed in Arakan State) have been drafted in to
the area. LIB (39) and LIRs (707) and (708) are also deployed here.

We envisage that the KNLA laid the landmines as they knew that the
Burmese would probably suffer a number of casualties during this
operation, and that this would represent the KNLA's ability to strike
Burmese rear support lines while supplying their frontline troops.

Unfortunately, 14-year old Naw Meh Ree Htoo became a casualty of this
strategy.

KNLA commanders know that civilian casualties are not excusable, but
they also recognise that they have little choice, considering the huge
territorial losses they have suffered in recent years, and their
subsequent decision to resort to guerilla warfare-style tactics.

Their choice is a simple one - either give up landmine warfare for the
sake of Naw Meh Ree Htoo and other civilians who have, and will
continue to, fall victim to landmines, and, in doing so, effectively
give up any possibility of preventing the complete Burmese military
take over of Karen State, or continue with their campaign of
harrassing and frustrating the Burmese Army in their attempt to
control the whole of Karen State, and accept, however sickened and
embarrassed they may feel, that civilian casualties will occur - even
if those civilians are their own 'brothers' and 'sisters'.

The KNLA have obviously decided that the defence of Karen State
outweighs all other considerations, but they do make strenuous efforts
to avoid civilian casualties. Local villages, for example, are
informed of areas where landmines have been placed, and are kept
informed of any changes.

Unfortunately, this does not guarantee that civilians will not go into
those areas, either consciously or by accident, whether it be because
they need to round up escaped cattle, search farther for depleting
natural resources, because the descriptions of the mined areas was not
clearly explained or understood, or for any other reason.

Also, the KNLA almost always use their own home-made landmines. These
use simple 'AA' batteries as the power source, which naturally
discharge in about a year. So, even though civilians in the area are
at risk while landmines are being used, a Cambodian or Angolan
scenario, where huge tracts of arable land continue to remain
uninhabitable to the present day, is unlikely to be created by the
KNLA's current tactics.

As another example, Saw Major and his child from Ho Khee village in
Tantabin Township, Taungoo, stepped on a landmine at a place known as
Wah Baw Day. The father was wounded and his son was killed. We,
unfortunately, do not have any further information regarding these
circumstances.


NYAUNG LAY BIN DISTRICT - KNLA 3rd Brigade area 
Mone Township

On December 29th, a column from LIR (709) came to Ma Hla Taw village
and arrested Maung Hla Kweh. While here, they also looted property
belonging to him and other villagers. The total value of goods looted was
38,580 Kyat.

Even though no villagers were reported to have suffered physical harm
during this robbery, the looting of this quantity of food and
household items represents a severe loss to the village, especially at
a time when soaring prices are expected to continue, and this year's
rice harvest was widely destroyed by flooding in many areas.


MU TRAW DISTRICT
KNLA 5th Brigade area

On November 25th, Burmese troops entered Ber Nar Aye Ber Ko village in
Lu Thaw Township, in north Papun District.

At the time of publication, the troops are still occupying the
village, and so it has been impossible to gather information as to
their activities there. We will report on the consequences of their
presence in an upcoming report.

On December 21st, troops from LIR (705) burnt down Kyaw Aye village.

On December 27th, troops from LIR (18) arrested one villager from Pu
Hkeh and robbed 15,000 Kyat from the person.

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MON UNITY LEAGUE: BURMA  INDEPENDENCE DAY MESSAGE 
4 January 1998 (excerpt)

Fifty years independence from British means nothing for non-Burman ethnic
nationalities but replaced by Burmese colonialism  which is worse than the
British and Japanese fascism many times.  

On the occasion of beginning new year of 1998 and Golden Jubilee of 
Independent Burma, we the ethnic nationalities in Burma, profoundly call
upon the international communities to help restore democracy and human
rights in Burma.

Suntan Sripanngern
General Secretary
Mon Unity league

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ANNOUNCEMENT: TUNE INTO RADIO FREE BURMA
12 January 1998
ausgeo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Radio Free Burma web page and weekly program  are available now.
You can listen to either Radio Free Burma page on
http://www.buzzlynx.com.au/rfb/   or
http://users.imagiware.com/wtongue/

Radio Free Burma is independent of any political, social or welfare
organisation in Australia or overseas. The program is solely for the benefit
of its listeners in Australia and overseas.

The 11th January 98 program of the Radio Free Burma originally
on 2NBC in  Australia, is now available for real-time playback via Real
Audio. This is a Burmese-language program featuring Burma news, U Thaung's
article, views and music of Burma presented by Burmese now living in
Australia. Any suggestions for the program would be appreciated.
Please send E-mail to (rfb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx). Many thanks
to Mr Wrightson Tongue ,Burma Net and all listeners.
Radio Free Burma ( www.buzzlynx.com.au/rfb/ )

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