The BurmaNet News: May 6, 1998

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"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
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The BurmaNet News: May 6, 1998
Issue #999

HEADLINES:
==========
DVB: HARSH SENTENCES DELIVERED ON ALLEGED SABOTEURS
BKK POST: HEROIN SEIZED
SCMP: AIDS DISASTER AMID RAMPANT HEROIN ABUSE
THE TIMES OF INDIA: FERNANDES SABOTAGING SINO-INDIAN TIES
THE HINDU: MYANMAR DENIES CHARGE
THE ASIAN AGE: NO MAJOR ACTIVITY IN BURMA (U.S.)
AWSJ: US GROUP FILES SUIT TO KEEP MYANMAR CONTACTS
ANNOUNCEMENT: BURMANET SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION: 
ANNOUNCEMENT: BURMANET SUBJECT-MATTER RESOURCE LIST 
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DEMOCRTIC VOICE OF BURMA: HARSH SENTENCES HANDED DOWN ON ALLEGED SABOTEURS
29 April, 1998
By Soe Win Nyo, DVB Correspondent

(Original in Burmese)

[BurmaNet Editor's Note: Last week, news articles relating to these
sentences were published in the BurmaNet News (see issues 995-997).  The
following information relates to the SPDC news conference announcing the
sentences.  The DVB correspondent relates some important information about
the condition of the prisoners and the nature of the "evidence" against the
accused.]

A special tribunal which was held inside Insein Jail before the Thingyan
Festival [13-16 April] handed down harsh sentences to some of the 40
persons tried for allegedly plotting to set off bombs at ASEAN embassies
and carry out assassinations of SPDC [State Peace and Development Council]
leaders.  Ko Khin Hlaing, alias Ko Pho Tun, and Ko Thein, alias Ko Thein
Tun, both received the death sentence and 14-years imprisonment [sentence
as heard].  Ko Aung Kyaw Hein, alias Ko Kyaw Zaw, was sentenced to 19-years
imprisonment and Ko Aung Tun was sentenced to 15-years imprisonment.  Ko
Htet Aung Naing was given 14 years; Ko Ne Oo, organizing officer of NLD
[National League for Democracy] of South Dagon Myothit Township, 14 years;
Ko Soe Lwin, Ma Khin Moe Aye, and Ma Su Su Win, seven years each.

Those sentenced were not given any right of appeal after the trial which
lasted for two days.

Ko Khin Hlaing, alias Ko Pho Tun, a private tutor, who was sentenced to
death and 14-years imprisonment, had to be carried on a stretcher as a
patient to his trial and he heard his sentence from his stretcher.  Ko Khin
Hlaing was in good health when he was detained by the SPDC intelligence
agents, but had been unable to walk since he was sent from the
interrogation center to the prison.

The SPDC held a news conference on 1 March regarding these persons who were
arrested and the military clique's spokesman, Col. Kyaw Thein, alleged that
the accused had planned to carry out bomb explosions in buildings and
crowded public places with the objective of projecting an impression that
there is no peace in the country in order to undermine public trust in the
government. They were also accused of plotting to carry out assassinations
of the SPDC leaders and to carry out bomb explosions at ASEAN embassies.
However, no details were given on who was involved and how they plotted. Ko
Htet Aung Naing, who was given 14-year sentence, is a son of U Hla Shwe,
former leader of the All Burma Student Union and secretary of the People's
Progress Party which was abolished by the SPDC.  Ko Htet Aung Naing was
arrested on 12 January 1998 inside the Bawa Myint Monastery in Rangoon
along with five other students.  They were arrested for establishing an
illegal organization and more serious charges were filed against them in
order to detain them longer.  Ko Khin Hlaing gave assistance to the
Committee for Defending the Rights of Students and helped write and issue
its statements.

Ko Aung Tun, who was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, compiled a history
of the student movement.  Although the SPDC accused him of involvement in
the plot to assassinate SPDC leaders and detonate bombs at ASEAN embassies,
they were not able to present conclusive evidence and show weapons and
ammunition at the news conference on 1 March. Observers view that the harsh
sentences were handed down to be in line with their [serious] charges.  Dr.
Maung Maung Kyaw, Pyipyay [Expatriate] U Ohn Maung, U Hla Shwe, secretary
of PPP, U Ko Yu alias Writer Maung Tint, and U Tha Ban, a former student
leader, who were arrested for alleged involvement in these plots, have not
yet been sentenced, but they are expected to be tried under Section 10-A of
the Law for Safeguarding the State from the Threat of Destructive Elements.

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BANGKOK POST: HEROIN SEIZED
6 May, 1998

Rangoon -- A Burmese anti-narcotics squad has arrested two suspects found
with 24.64 kilos of ,heroin in Kyukok-Pansai Township, near the border with
China, the Myanmar News Agency said yesterday. 

The report said the squad searched a vehicle near a checkpoint late last
month, discovering 75 heroin blocks in a car.

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SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST: AIDS DISASTER AMID RAMPANT HEROIN ABUSE
6 May, 1998
By William Barnes in Bangkok

Burma is paying the highest possible price for being the world's biggest
source of heroin with an "astonishing" explosion of AIDS, according to an
American researcher. 

Chris Beyrer, an epidemiologist at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University,
said the country had the world's highest rate of HIV among injecting drug
users. The deadly surge is being driven by professional "injectors" using
dirty needles on addict after addict, sometimes just filing the needle to a
new point from time to time. 

The transmission of the virus between addicts has created a national
disaster because heroin use is so widespread, writes Mr Beyrer in a newly
published book on AIDS in Southeast Asia, War in the Blood. 

Mr Beyrer cites a Burmese Ministry of Health survey that investigated 36
townships - official squatter areas - and found that up to 25 per cent of
residents abused drugs, mostly heroin. 

"If, in any part of the country, 25 per cent of a township population is
using heroin you have an unprecedented addiction problem," said Mr Beyrer. 

War in the Blood states that a deluge of cheap heroin flooded Burma after
the military junta took control in 1988. Mr Beyrer does not claim it was
the junta's active policy to spread heroin across the country, but he does
say the regime does not appear to care about the drug's proliferation. 

It may be no coincidence, he argues, that the generals often turn a blind
eye to traffickers propping up the economy with laundered profits. 

"If you put up a poster about democracy in Rangoon University you get 15
years in jail. If you hold a meeting to discuss human rights you get 15
years in jail. But you can sell heroin in the college dormitory and nobody
will bother you," says a student exile quoted in the book. 

A 1994 World Health Organisation study found that three-quarters of addicts
in Rangoon were HIV positive, with the rate rising further north - 91 per
cent of addicts in Myitkyina in Kachin state carry the virus. 

In a "uniquely Burmese heroin culture" the ubiquitous tea stalls that are a
national institution have in many cases become the work places of
"injectors" with a few old needles - which in rural areas might be made
from ballpoint pens or bamboo - to service many addicts. 

The estimate of foreign experts that there may be half a million heroin
addicts in Burma has traumatic consequences when very few Burmese can
afford condoms - which were officially banned until 1993 anyway. 

In Myitkyina, 80 per cent of addicts were sexually active and 98 per cent
had never used a condom, according to Mr Beyrer. 

But the Government remains obdurate: War in the Blood notes that the world
has only been allowed to see an abstract of the Health Ministry's damning
survey of drug addiction in townships. 

A Burmese anti-narcotics squad has arrested two suspects found with 24.64
kilograms of heroin in Kyukok-Pansai township near the border with China,
the Myanmar News Agency reported yesterday.

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THE TIMES OF INDIA: FERNANDES SABOTAGING SINO-INDIAN TIES
5 May, 1998

[BurmaNet Editor's Note: In yesterday's BurmaNet News (Issue #998), an
article from the Hindustan Times reported that China had been using the
Burmese Coco Islands as a monitoring post, through "massive" electronic
surveillance equipment.  The following three articles relate responses from
China, Burma, and the U.S.]

No electronic survey base in Myanmar

Beijing: China on Tuesday expressed ``utmost regret and resentment'' over
the statement by defence minister George Fernandes that Beijing posed a
major military threat to India and accused him of ``seriously sabotaging''
the atmosphere for improving bilateral ties between the two giant Asian
neighbours. 

``The remark by Indian defence minister George Fernandes has seriously
sabotaged the friendly atmosphere for improving bilateral relations between
China and India,'' Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao told
newspersons here at a regular ministry briefing. 

Terming the statement by Mr Fernandes on Sunday that China is India's
biggest potential threat than Pakistan as ``absolutely ridiculous and
unworthy of refutation,'' Mr Zhu said the Chinese government has taken note
of the recent statements by Mr Fernandes with ``utmost regret and
resentment.''

He dismissed Mr Fernandes' statement that China has built a sophisticated
electronic surveillance base in Myanmar's Coco islands and installed
missiles in Tibet targeting India as ``absolutely fictitious and entirely
baseless. It has no basis in facts and it is groundless.''

``China does not pose any threat to neighbouring countries,'' Mr Zhu said,
adding ``his accusation concerning China's relations with relevant
countries is utterly fictitious and has no basis in facts.''

He said, ``The principled position of the Chinese government is open and
above board and is well- known to all.'' 

China has always worked to develop friendly relations and cooperation with
neighbouring countries, including Pakistan and India, on the basis of the
five principles of peaceful co-existence, the spokesman added.

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THE HINDU: MYANMAR DENIES CHARGE
6 May, 1998

Myanmar today denied the Indian Defence Minister, Mr. George Fenandes'
statement that China had built a sophisticated electronic surveillance base
on a Myanmar island from where Beijing could monitor Indian defence
activity.   "It is regretful that India's Defence Minister chose to claim
without substantial evidence that China is using Myanmar's Coco Island for
strategic defence measures," a statement from the ruling Myanmar military
junta said.

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THE ASIAN AGE: NO MAJOR ACTIVITY IN BURMA (U.S.)
6 May, 1998

Washington -- The United States on Tuesday said it has seen no indication
of any "significant Chinese activity" in Burma as asserted by Indian
defence minister George Fenandes.   "The US has seen such assertions by
India and India media before, but have not seen any significant Chinese
activity of that nature in Burma," officials told PTI in reference to Mr
Fenandes' statement on Sunday that Chinese have set up a surveillance radar
on Burma's Coco Islands 45 km from the Andamans.

Officials responded in similar fashion to the possibility of the Chinese
turning the island into their naval base as mention by Mr Fenandes.   They
neither confirmed nor denied Mr Fernandes's statement that China has
installed missiles in Tibet targeting India. "We cannot say whether the US
has any information based on intelligence....But we are aware of the press
reports" to that effect, they said.   The US envisages expert-level
discussions on varied subjects identified as "significant" between the two
nations in the wake of Indian foreign secretary K Raghunath's talks with
key American officials in Washington recently, they added.

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ASIAN WALL STREET JOURNAL: US GROUP FILES SUIT TO KEEP CONTACTS OPEN WITH
MYANMAR
5 May, 1998

Washington -- An association representing big US corporations filed a
federal lawsuit to prevent Massachusetts from enforcing a law that bar
state contracts with companies doing business in Myanmar, formerly known as
Burma.

The National Foreign Trade Council filed the suit in the US District Court
in Boston as a test case to determine the constitutionality of state and
local trade sanctions that have been enacted across the country.

"This is a clear constitutional issue, and we believe there are strong
grounds to overturn the law," said NFTC President Frank Kittredge. "We're
prepared to litigate this to the Supreme Court, no matter how long it takes."

At issue is a two-year-old Massachusetts law that effectively prohibits US
of foreign companies that do business in Myanmar from providing goods and
services to state agencies.

Several cities have adopted similar statutes, but Massachusetts is the only
state to have done so.

The legal challenge is based on three premises, according to the filing:
The US Constitution vests responsibility for foreign policy with the
federal government; the Massachusetts law violates the Foreign Commerce
Clause of the US Constitution, which prohibits state laws that discriminate
against foreign commerce; and that the law conflicts with trade sanctions
enacted by Congress and the president to implement a federal strategy that
encourages political change in Myanmar.

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