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The BurmaNet News: October 6, 1998



------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------
 "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
----------------------------------------------------------

The BurmaNet News: October 6, 1998
Issue #1111

HEADLINES:
==========
FEER: HUNKERING DOWN
FEER: DOORS SLAM ON BURMA 
ABSDF: MORE NLD OFFICIALS CHARGED 
THE NATION: GROUPS RALLY FOR SUU KYI DEPORTATION 
ASIAWEEK: ... AND ONE PLAN TO GET MORE OF IT 
BKK POST: CALL FOR BORDER OPENING 
BKK POST: TRADERS TO AWAKEN SLEEPY VILLAGE 
REUTERS: BANGLADESH POLICE RESCUE 21 CHILDREN 
ASIAWEEK: BELIEVE IT OR NOT 
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FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW: HUNKERING DOWN 
8 October, 1998 by Bertil Lintner 

Generals dig in amid crackdown on opposition

Forget about the global economy. For an indication of which way Burma's
military rulers expect their country to go, look at the new vegetable
patches. Government officials in several ministries were recently ordered
to grow their own fruits and vegetables. "They're preparing for the worst,"
says a well-placed Western source in Rangoon. "Everyone is being told to be
self-reliant. A siege mentality permeates the thinking of those in power."

There may be good reason to hunker down. A final crackdown on the
opposition National League for Democracy looks increasingly likely. The
generals are digging in and preparing for economic isolation, sanctions or
whatever else may follow. "They have no intention to relinquish power or
even contemplate a powersharing agreement with the civilian opposition,"
says a Burmese businesswoman in Rangoon.

The NLD, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, isn't about to back down either. In
mid-September, the party formed a "people's parliament" to claim its
victory in 1990 elections, in which it captured 392 of the 485 contested
seats in the national assembly. The party gave a 10-member committee
power-of-attorney to act on behalf of the MPs-elect. The committee promptly
issued statements nullifying laws promulgated by the military and calling
for the release of all political prisoners. It has also appealed for
international recognition.

Judging from recent diatribes in the official media, even a modest dialogue
with the NLD seems out of the question for the junta. On September 19, a
day after the 10th anniversary of the military's seizure of direct power,
the government-run New Light of Myanmar ran its harshest attack so far
against Suu Kyi, saying she should leave the country: "The only word we
have to you is 'get out.'" The expulsion or jailing of Suu Kyi would
trigger an international backlash -- and Burma's rulers might need those
home-grown vegetables. 

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FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW: DOORS SLAM ON BURMA
8 October, 1998 

Plans to hold a meeting of senior officials from the European Union and
Asean in Bangkok at the end of October are in trouble again. Denmark,
Britain and the Netherlands are demanding "signs of positive developments"
in Burma before a representative of the country's military regime is
allowed to attend the talks. 

Thailand's Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan had managed to convince his
Asean colleagues in July that they should drop earlier calls for Rangoon to
be given observer status. Instead, in a move the EU welcomed, Surin
suggested that Burma should not be given the right to speak at the meeting
and that the only flags allowed in the room should be the EU and Asean
banners. 

"The idea was to make Burmese representatives more or less invisible," says
an EU diplomat. Burma's recent crackdown on the opposition has, however,
complicated the emerging compromise, with at least three EU governments
adamant that there should be no contact with the military regime for now.

Britain's Foreign Office Minister Derek Fatchett has written to his
counterparts suggesting that in addition to the current ban on military
cooperation and the granting of visas to the Burmese military regime, the
EU should consider asking travel operators not to offer tours of Burma and
stop any government-sponsored promotion of trade with the country. 

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ABSDF: MORE NLD OFFICIALS CHARGED UNDER EMERGENCY ACT 
5 October, 1998 from <lurie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 

Burmese military authorities have charged more officials and Members of
Parliament (MPs) from the National League for Democracy, despite the
military's claim that they had merely been invited to attend discussions.

The NLD officials and MPs have been charged under the 1950 Emergency
Provision Act.

Those charged include the following MPs from Tenasserim Division in
southern Burma- U Tin Myint from Thayet Chaung Constituency, U Toe Po from
Yephyu Constituency, U Kyaw Shein and U Nyan Aye from Mergui
Constituencies, U Hla Pe and U Chain Han from Longlon Constituencies, U
Khin Maung Oo from Kyunsu, U Win Oo from Tenasserim, U Kyi Shwe from Pulaw
and U Myo Aung from Tavoy.

In response to the NLD's demand to the junta on June 23 to convene
Parliament within 60 days, the military junta imposed travel restrictions
on MPs under the 1961 Restriction and Bond Act. Under this Act, the elected
MPs are required to seek permission from the authorities if they wish to
travel outside their towns. In addition, they are forced to report twice
daily to local authorities.

Foreign Affairs Secretary for the All Burma Students' Democratic Front,
Aung Naing Oo, said that under the Restriction and Bond Act offenders can
be given only short prison terms.

"In contrast, those convicted under the 1950 Emergency Provision Act can be
put behind bars for a long period.  Clearly it serves the purposes of the
junta to imprison NLD officials and MPs for as long as possible, to thwart
the efforts of the NLD to convene a People's Parliament."

The exact number of party officials and MPs who have been charged under the
1950 Emergency Provision Act is not known. However, the number of NLD
officials arrested since May is now close to 1000. This figure, though,
does not include students and political activists from various other
organisations. According to student sources in Rangoon, the total number of
arrests is nearing 2000.

In Tenasserim Division alone, more than 50 NLD officials and MPs have been
arrested. Given the current political standoff, the arrests are likely to
continue following the formation by the NLD of a 10-member Representative
Committee in order to convene parliament.

All Burma Students' Democratic Front
For more information please contact 01-253 9082, 01-654 4984. 

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THE NATION: GROUPS RALLY FOR SUU KYI DEPORTATION 
5 October, 1998 

REUTERS

RANGOON - The Burmese government said yesterday that more than 21,000
people had held another rally over the weekend to demand the deportation of
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is at odds with the ruling military.

A government statement said non-governmental groups had held the rally at
Pya district, Bago Division, 298 kilometres northwest of Rangoon on Saturday.

The rally, which analysts believe was organised by  the military
government, was the fifth of its kind held since Sept 24 to express anger
at Suu Kyi, who leads the National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

[ ... ]

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ASIAWEEK: ... AND ONE PLAN TO GET MORE OF IT 
9 October, 1998 

Myanmar is considering building more casinos. The Andaman Club resort on
Thahtay Kyun Island at the southern-most tip of the country, which caters
almost exclusively to Thai high-rollers coming from nearby Ranong, is
already in place. A second casino, being built by Thai business interests,
is planned for another border town, Tachilek, in the north. 

And another may possibly appear in the capital, Yangon. Plans are
apparently afoot to use a building adjacent to the Nawarat Concorde Hotel,
which is said to be owned by Aye Zaw Win, the son-in-law of retired
military strongman Gen Ne Win. The idea is to lure tour groups, initially
from India, who would gamble in dollars which would find their way back
into the national coffers. If successful, other casinos may be opened in
places like Mandalay, where direct flights from Chiang Mai were recently
approved and where there is already a large, gambling-mad Chinese population.

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THE BANGKOK POST: CALL FOR BORDER OPENING 
5 October, 1998 by Preecha Srisathan 

110 KM BONG TEE-TAVOY HIGHWAY PLANNED

Various business interests are encouraging investor groups to press the
government to open a Thai-Burmese border pass in Bong Tee village of Saiyok
district, Kanchanaburi province.

Fishing, logging, property development, and construction are viewed as
business potential if the Thai and Burmese governments agree to open the
Bong Tee border pass to facilitate a project to build a 110-km highway
between Bong Tee, Kanchanaburi, and Burma's port town of Tavoy.

Spearheading the border pass campaign are the Kanchanaburi Tavoy
Development Co and its Burmese partner KLM Co which joined forces to
acquire a 30-year concession on the Bong Tee-Tavoy highway project from the
Burmese government.

Backing the move are fishing operators from Paknam district, Samut Prakan
province, under the patronage of Samut Prakan MP Somporn Asavahame. The
operators are interested in transporting their catch via the Bong Tee-Tavoy
short cut.

However, sources pointed out that the business needed to open the Bong Tee
border pass most was logging because it would give the fastest return.

According to sources, there are a number of logs left in Burma's border
area opposite Bong Tee. The area used to be controlled by a Karen ethnic
group but the rebel movement was defeated by the Burmese government two
years ago.

Col Samphan Youngpakul, chief of-staff of the Ninth Infantry Division, said
that Burmese troops opposite Muang district of Kanchanaburi had contacted
his division and offered to sell over 3,000 logs including teak seized from
the Karens. The logs were left in Burma about 1-2 kilometres from the
border. There is also processed wood left in the same area.

The Burmese troops claimed that Maj-Gen Thura Chit Maung, commander of the
Tavoy sea patrol force, had ordered them to contact the nearest Thai
military camp to arrange for the sale, Col Samphan said.

It was reported that most of the logs and processed wood were the products
of Soonthorn Rasameererkset alias Sia Hook who had earlier enjoyed logging
permission granted by the Karens.

According to sources, Sia Hook, who is also an adviser to the Kanchanaburi
Industrial Council, is lobbying for the right to retrieve the logs and
processed wood from Burma. Therefore, he is joining the movement for
opening of the Bong Tee border pass to facilitate the import of his products.

Land speculators in Kanchanaburi and from Bangkok form another party
wishing the border pass to open. These investors had bought thousands of
rai of land near the proposed border pass from villagers before the start
of the current economic slump.

Those land plots have the status of national forest reserves but it was
reported that the Forestry Department would terminate the status because of
its deteriorated condition. Part of the land has ownership documents
while-the rest has none.

The purchase was priced at 2,000-5,000 baht per rai but locals said that it
has soared to as much as almost 100,000 baht per rai for plots claimed to
be near locations of new buildings of state agencies, industrial estates,
and a customs office planned to emerge in the border area.

Property development was also anticipated on the Burmese side. Sing
Tangcharoenchaichana, president of the Kanchanaburi Industrial Council,
said he was informed that the owner of the Baiyoke Kandawgyi Hotel in Burma
planned to build a new five-star hotel and a casino in the border area
opposite Bong Tee.

Attempts by the Thai private sector to have the Bong Tee border pass opened
have been continuing for almost three years. Investors have invited the
authorities to field trips to convince them of the border opening.

Representatives from the House Tourism Committee, the Commerce Ministry,
and the National Economic and Social Development Board have been taken to
survey the area and to seminars on its potential development. Investors
have also sponsored a tour for town planning officials to study the
possibility of developing a new complex of state agencies including customs
facilities there.

However, the investor campaign has run into obstructions from the National
Security Council.

Construction of the route would destroy the watershed which forms the
borderline between Thailand and Burma in Kanchanaburi, NSC deputy
secretary-general Varima Phosombat said.

The disappearance of the watershed would affect border demarcation which
both countries had yet to settle and might have an impact on mutual relations.

The Bong Tee-Tavoy route and the opening of the border pass would encourage
illegal immigration, illicit trade and destruction of natural resources
both in Thailand and  Burma she said.

Although Burmese authorities have cleared landmines from the planned route
of the highway which used to be a battlefield between the Burmese military
regime and ethnic groups, construction of the highway was still dangerous
due to possible attacks from Mon ethnic groups which still existed in the
border area, she warned.

Lt-Gen Ruamsak Chaikomin, former deputy commander of the Third Army Region
and president of the Kanchanaburi History Association, commented that
Kanchanaburi had been a battlefield between Thailand and Burma 24 times out
of the total 44 Thai-Burmese wars recorded.

The highway which would head for Kanchanaburi would pose security questions
because it did not take long to reach Bangkok from Kanchanaburi, he noted.

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

THE BANGKOK POST: TRADERS TO AWAKEN SLEEP VILLAGE 
5 October, 1998 by Preecha Srisathan 

PLAN TO TURN BAN BONG TEE IN KANCHANABURI INTO A BUSTLING COMMERCIAL BORDER
PASS

Local businessmen have been lobbying hard to realise their dream of turning
the sleepy village of Ban Bong Tee in Kanchanaburi into a bustling
commercial border pass as part of the Western Seaboard mega-project.

An active Karen community of 500, the village bordering Burma is opening up
to the world under a joint trade agreement secured at the request of the
Burmese government.

With the green light from Rangoon, the winds of change are blowing in Ban
Bong Tee's direction. The village will provide the region with a new
passage for trade and tourism to the Andaman Sea.

Thai businesses reportedly resorted to heavy lobbying in order to
materialise the Bong Tee plan backed by the National Economic and Social
Development Board.

Bong Tee will gain the status of a temporary border pass functioning as the
"thrust" of the Western Seaboard project.

The seaboard encompassing six provinces-Kanchanaburi, Ratchaburi,
Phetchaburi, Samut Songkhram, Prachuap Khiri Khan, and Chumphon-will help
accelerate industrial, agricultural, commercial and tourism development in
Southeast Asia, the Indian sub-continent as well as Asia-Pacific countries.

The plan, however, is impossible without a 110-kilometre road to be built
connecting Bong Tee with a deep-sea port in Tavoy, south of Burma.

The port facilities are designed to serve large freighters-weighing over
200 billion metric tons.

A study by the NESDB has found that the port will shorten the sea transport
route from Thailand to Europe by up to six days and thus save over 30
percent on delivery cost.

Current routes originating from Gulf of Thailand ports must go around
peninsula Malaysia.

Goods unloaded at Tavoy port will be transported on the Tavoy-Ban Bong Tee
road to be hooked up with a network of highways to Vietnam and Cambodia.

Thailand also stands to benefit from the road as it offers a more direct
alternative into Burma than those originating from Tak's Mae Sot district
and Ranong.

Designated within the seaboard area are the Tavoy sea port and three main
industrial estates: Tha Muang Kanchanaburi, to accommodate heavy
industries; Bong Tee, for smaller industries using local labour, and Tavoy,
for the continuing phase of the production.

Apart from its economic potential, Bong Tee also has historical
significance for being an old trade route. It also lies on a path which
leads to ancient battle sites.

The village is a stone's throw from the Burmese border with the Tenasserim
mountain range as the natural demarcation.

Bong Tee comprises the small villages of Ban Bong Tee Bon and Ban Tai
Muang. Over 80 percent of the population are Karens who make a living by
farming.

Traditionally, the trade exchanges through Ban Bong Tee were mostly logs,
livestock, and daily necessities. But ironically, the village was not
recognised by authorities of the two countries as an official commercial
channel.

The reason Bong Tee is to be established as a proper border pass is mainly
because of its geographical advantage. It is 27 kilometres from the nearest
Sai Yok district and only 5.2 kilometres from the border.

The point at Hin Kong in neighbouring Thong Phaphum district which
authorities first thought could rival Ban Bong Tee was deemed "unfit" by
Rangoon which fears a sabotage attempt against the Yadana gas pipeline laid
in the area.

It would also be costly building a road Thong Phaphum because of the
district's rugged terrain and mountain.

Another option which is to develop the Three-Pagoda Pass was ruled out for
the reason that parts of the border lacked a clear division and were prone
to attack by anti-Rangoon Mon guerrillas.

Bong Tee will have the necessary administrative centres such as the customs
unit, and the livestock quarantine house to be constructed on 500 rai of
public land.

Some 50 million baht from the central fund is to be distributed for
infrastructure development.

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REUTERS: BANGLADESH POLICE RESCUE 21 MYANMAR CHILDREN 
5 October, 1998 

DHAKA, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Bangladesh police have rescued 21 Myanmar children
and arrested eight people for trying to smuggle them abroad, police said on
Monday. 

They said police found the children when they raided a hotel in Dhaka on
Sunday. The eight people arrested included four women who posed as the
children's mothers. 

The children had been collected through agents of international human
traffickers and brought to Dhaka, one police officer said. They apparently
were destined for India. 

Those arrested were being interrogated, the officer said without giving
details. 

Police said some 15,000 women and children are smuggled out of Bangladesh
every year. Most of them end up in brothels or in virtual slavery as
domestic workers. 

Thousands more lured away by traffickers on the promise of jobs remain
unaccounted for, said another police officer. He said most of the victims
came from poor families. 

Nearly 250,000 Myanmar Moslems, known as Rohingyas, fled to southeastern
Bangladesh in early 1992 to escape alleged [sic] military persecution in
their homeland. 

All but some 21,000 of them returned home under the supervision of the U.N.
High Commissioner for Refugees before the repatriation process suddenly
stopped in mid-1997. 

"When the remaining refugees may go home is not yet known," a Bangladeshi
official in Teknaf, which borders Myanmar's western Moslem-majority Arakan
state, said on Monday. 

Some of the Rohingyas have already mixed with local Moslems and some have
migrated abroad, mostly to the Middle East using forged Bangladeshi
passports, in search of jobs. Their children often fall prey to
traffickers, police and local officials said. 

"This happens every now and then, but we have no way to check it because of
striking physical and language similarities of the people on both sides of
the Bangladesh-Myanmar border," one official said.

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ASIAWEEK: BELIEVE IT OR NOT 
9 October, 1998 

Editorial

When U.S. President Bill Clinton and independent council Ken Starr traded
reports and rebuttals on the "Zippergate" sex scandal last month, users of
the World Wide Web, the popular segment of the global Internet, who were
caught in the crossfire stopped regarding the Net as a mere adjunct to
democracy. Now that planet-wide network of interlinked computers became a
court of the people -- virtual Athenian democracy.

The U.S. has 23 million wired households, and many more Americans log on at
work or school. The number of Netizens, in America and elsewhere, is set to
rocket still further as PC prices fall and peer pressure to get online
rises. Singapore is bringing high-capacity Internet access to every home.
The global network has come of age -- and those using it must grow up, too.
The Net can be both the utopian dream electronic prophets foretell and the
distopian nightmare its naysayers decry, dependent on how we use or abuse
the medium.

One dark side of the Internet is the ability to spread lies at the speed of
light. Take the case of KPS, Hong Kong's largest video chain. A hoax e-mail
circled the Web earlier this year claiming to be from an employee in a law
office and alleging falsely that KPS had filed for bankruptcy. Thousands of
customers descended upon the store to cash in pre-paid coupons. In 1996,
Sony Corp, had to break its no-comment policy on acquisition rumors when a
fake e-mail purportedly from its chairman to Apple Computer's CEO started
making the rounds. The message implied that after merger talks had broken
down, Sony was launching a hostile take-over bid. No such talks and bid.
Then there was the Net-spread rumor in August about supposed riots in Kuala
Lumpur. False again, but scared citizens still hoarded food.

Plainly, one mouse-clicking troublemaker can destroy reputations, move
markets and panic populations. But the key to halting such scams does not
lie in demonizing the Internet and trying to legislate away a patchwork of
legal loopholes which can never be closed. Prudence and common sense will
do. On the Web, surfers too often give e-mailed rumors and unverified
assertions the same weight as news from, say, The Washington Post website.
They forward spurious data to others before taking a moment to reflect on
its worth or cheek its validity -- the equivalent of passing on some
scuttlebutt by word of mouth, but this time to thousands across the world.

The solution: never take what you read at face value, and always rely on a
trusted source. If you get an anonymous e-mail making an alarming claim,
verify it. Even if you get a message claiming to be a report from
www.cnn.com, don't believe it until you have checked that website for the
actual text.

The Internet may have come of age, but as its users we are still in our
infancy. The Net's running before most of us have learned to crawl. Thus it
has always been with new media. The first movie audiences fled the theater
at the site of an approaching train. Early radio audiences panicked when
Orson Welles dramatized a novel about Martians landing on earth. With time
and level heads, similar Net-bred misimpressions will become rare. Then the
Internet will truly realize its potential as a court of humankind --
seeking the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. 

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