The BurmaNet News: January 9, 1999

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------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------
 "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
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The BurmaNet News: January 8, 1999
Issue #1181

HEADLINES:
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BKK POST: NLD SAYS JUNTA LAUNCHING "EVIL" CAMPAIGN 
AP: MYANMAR LEADER, INSURGENTS LINKED 
BKK POST: TROOP BUILD UP FEARS ALLAYED 
BKK POST: FIRMS DENY FUNDING TROOPS FOR PROTECTION 
JAPAN TIMES: FIRST JUNTA OFFICIAL TO VISIT JAPAN
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THE BANGKOK POST: NLD SAYS JUNTA LAUNCHING "EVIL" CAMPAIGN TO KILL PARTY
7 January, 1999 
AP

Burma's democratic opposition has accused the country's military government
of an "evil" campaign to destroy their political party led by Nobel Peace
Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

In a statement posted on the Internet yesterday, Mrs Suu Kyi's National
League for Democracy said teams led by military intelligence officers were
going to the homes of members around Burma and coercing them into quitting
the party.

"Branches of the NLD are being destroyed and extinguished, and forced
resignations of members are being carried out by Military Intelligence
units accompanied by members of the Multi Party Elections Commission, and
other civil servants," the statement said.

The NLD also said the "criminal intimidation" being used to force its
members to resign "is a conspiracy with the most evil intention of
preventing Burma from attaining democracy".

The military, which has ruled Burma since 1962, has said the resignations
were voluntary. Independent confirmation of its claim is difficult as the
military lets few journalists visit the country and usually only on
condition of not contacting the opposition.

Still, the tactic has been working, as about 700 members of the NLD have
resigned in recent weeks.

There is no evidence, however, that the military's tactics have diminished
popular support for the NLD.

In a recent article in the journal Burma Update, Burton Levin, who was US
ambassador to Burma at that time, wrote that many of the conditions that
contributed to the uprising still exist.

He cited poverty, mismanagement of the economy, corruption and repression.

The Open Society Institute which administers an Internet website dedicated
to covering Burma, said that sources inside the country had confirmed the
NLD's accounts of party members being forced to resign. 

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ASSOCIATED PRESS: MYANMAR LEADER, INSURGENTS LINKED
6 January, 1999 

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - A state-run newspaper accused embattled Myanmar
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday of having links to ethnic
Karen insurgents.

It is illegal for Myanmar citizens to have contacts with ethnic insurgent
groups. The accusations against Suu Kyi, published in the state-run New
Light of Myanmar newspaper, could result in a prison term for the Nobel
Peace Prize laureate if proven.

She has already spent years under house arrest. At the present time, the
military government in Myanmar has placed sharp restrictions on her travel
around the country.

Ethnic Karen rebels, who have been fighting for autonomy from governments
in Yangon for 50 years, have been skirmishing with Myanmar government
troops in recent days near a $1.2 billion gas pipeline close to the border
with Thailand, according to Thai military officials.

Myanmar's military government launched a new crackdown on Suu Kyi's
National League for Democracy party after it failed last year to get the
regime to convene a parliament that was democratically elected in 1990 but
has never met.

In recent months, the military has rounded up about 1,000 members of her
party and detained them until they resigned and quit politics. Last week,
256 more party members quit. 

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THE BANGKOK POST: TROOP BUILD-UP FEARS ALLAYED 
7 January, 1999 

Supreme Commander Gen Mongkol Ampornpisit said reinforcements of Burma's
security forces at the Thai-Burma border along the Yadana pipeline does not
pose any security threat.

Gen Mongkol said the reinforcements are to protect the Yandana pipeline,
which brings gas from Burma to a power plant in Ratchaburi Province.

A military source reported that Burma has recently beefed up its security
forces along a 60km stretch of the pipeline from the town of Kanbauk to the
Thai border at Thong Pha Phum District, Kanchanaburi Province.

"There is nothing to worry about," said the commander.

A local Burmese military officer, Col Aung Hsa Tin, has claimed that ethnic
groups were seeking to sabotage the pipeline for political and criminal
purposes. 

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THE BANGKOK POST: FIRMS DENY FUNDING TROOPS FOR PROTECTION 
7 January, 1999 

AFP

Oil and gas giants Unocal and Total yesterday issued denials that they were
funding a Burmese military unit deployed to crush ethnic unrest near the
Yadana gas pipeline.

The statements followed a Bangkok Post report that an artillery battalion
and five rapid response battalions in eastern Burma were backed by the two
firms who have been heavily criticised for investing in Burma.

The allegations were "unfounded," said Michel Viallard, general manager of
French firm Total in Yangon.

A firm denial was also issued by the US-based Unocal.

"The company would never, never fund any military manouevre anywhere - the
report is totally unfounded," said company spokesman Carol Scott in Singapore.

"The situation there is quite normal."

The junta meanwhile issued a terse statement slamming the report.

"It is quite frustrating refuting such fabrications deliberately created by
the anti-government elements," said chief spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Hla
Min.

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JAPAN TIMES: FIRST JUNTA OFFICIAL VISIT TO JAPAN
7 January, 1999 by Hisane Masaki 

A top Myanmar military intelligence official will visit Japan later this
month at the invitation of the Foreign Ministry in efforts to strengthen
dialogue between Tokyo and Yangon through personnel exchanges, ministry
officials said Wednesday.

Brig. Gen. Kyaw Win is to arrive in Tokyo on Jan. 20 for a 10-day stay,
during which he will meet with leaders in political, economic and other
circles for an exchange of views on relations between the two countries,
the officials said requesting anonymity.

Kyaw Win's visit is expected to draw criticism from human rights groups --
both in Japan and abroad -- denouncing the Myanmar military regime for
violations of human rights and democratic principles. Although many other
high-level regime officials have visited Japan, they have done so only at
the invitation of the private sector, mainly businesses.

Kyaw Win is believed to be a right-hand man of Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, the
regime's intelligence chief and No. 3 man. Kyaw Win is a deputy director
general of the Myanmar Defense Ministry's Office of Strategic Studies
established three years ago. The office is headed by Khin Nuynt.

The Office of Strategic Studies has a uniformed staff of about 40 and is
intended to function as a think tank for the commander in chief of the
defense services when a civilian government is eventually formed.

The military took power of Myanmar in a 1988 coup and put opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest in 1989. The military then annulled the
results of a 1990 election, in which Suu Kyi's National League for
Democracy won a landslide victory.

Originally called the State Law and Order Restoration Council, the regime
renamed itself the State Peace and Development Council in November 1997.

Although Myanmar was admitted to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
in July 1997, it is still shunned by large parts of the international
community for shortcomings in human rights and democracy. The United States
and industrialized European nations have even toughened economic and other
sanctions against Myanmar in the past few years due to the SPDC's continued
crackdown on the prodemocracy movement led by Suu Kyi.

Although Japan suspended fresh economic aid for Myanmar, except that for
humanitarian purposes, after the coup, it has staunchly advocated a policy
of "constructive engagement" with the SPDC to encourage favorable changes
in Myanmar.

Japan is widely believed to have played a key role behind the scenes in
persuading the military regime to release Suu Kyi from house arrest in the
summer of 1995.

Japan has had a long and amicable relationship with Myanmar. Aung San, Suu
Kyi's father, a revolutionary hero for the country, received training in
Japan during World War II. "We have maintained personnel exchanges with
Myanmar even since the 1988 coup. We need to further strengthen channels of
dialogue with the NLD as well as with the SPDC all the more because the
Myanmar situation is now deadlocked," one Foreign Ministry official said,
also requesting anonymity.

Defending the ministry's decision to invite Kyaw Win, the official said it
will be significant for such a key Myanmar figure to see firsthand how
Japanese feel about the SPDC.

"There are various opinions in Japan about the SPDC. Some people are
sympathetic to the SPDC but others are critical of it," the official said.
"But Japanese people who visit Myanmar usually do not make any remarks that
make the ears of SPDC officials burn. This leaves them with an inaccurate
impression that no Japanese people have bad feelings toward them."

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