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The BurmaNet News: March 17, 1999



------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------
 "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
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The BurmaNet News: March 17, 1999
Issue #1299

Noted in Passing: "[I]f the SNLD is also expelled and its members
persecuted, the (National Convention) will no more enjoy any remaining
credibility of representing, either Burman or non-Burman." - Shan Observer
(see SHAN: SNLD SURVIVES ...) 

HEADLINES:
==========
REUTERS: MYANMAR RIGHTS SITUATION WORSENING 
SHAN: SNLD SURVIVES, BUT FOR HOW LONG 
AFP: JUNTA DENIES CLAIM OF LARGE OFFENSIVE 
THE IRRAWADDY: THE BURNING PROBLEM OF IMMIGRANTS 
REUTERS: BANGLADESH ARRESTS MEN WITH GRENADES 
ANNC: BURMA RESEARCH-ORIENTED WEBSITE 
ANNC: RFB- "POWER AND BURMESE SOCIETY" 
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REUTERS: MYANMAR HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION WORSENING - UN REPORT 
15 March, 1999 

GENEVA, March 15 (Reuters) - A United Nations investigator says he believes
the human rights situation in Myanmar continues to deteriorate.

In a report published on Monday for the U.N. Human Rights Commission,
investigator Rajsoomer Lallah said ``the situation of human rights in
Myanmar is worsening and the repression of civil and political rights
continues unabated.''

Military-ruled Myanmar has not allowed Lallah, a former Mauritius chief
justice, to visit since he was appointed the U.N. special rapporteur for
the former Burma in 1996.

But he has pieced together evidence from documents, photographs and
witnesses to issue several reports over the past few years which have
recounted incidents of summary executions, arbitrary detentions and forced
labour.

``The government of Myanmar continues to intimidate its citizens and
prevents them from exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of
association and expression by prosecuting persons for criminal and
treason-related offences,'' his latest report said.

It said harassment was increasing of members of the National League for
Democracy, which is headed by 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu
Kyi. The party won Myanmar's last election in 1990 but has not been allowed
to take office.

``In December 1998, almost all of the members of the organising committees
in the states, divisions, townships, wards and villages have been taken
into custody for no apparent reason and they are unable to fulfil their
obligations and duties,'' the report said.

Lallah said displaced people appeared to be made up largely to the
country's ethnic minorities.

He welcomed ceasefires signed with armed ethnic groups over the past few
years but said this problem was likely to continue until the establishment
of a meaningful political dialogue which included ethnic minorities.

His comments on the human rights situation follow similar criticism in the
U.S. State Department's annual report on Myanmar released last month. 

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SHAN HERALD AGENCY FOR NEWS: SNLD SURVIVES, BUT FOR HOW LONG?
15 March, 1999 

The Shan party that won elections in 1990 is in a precarious position,
reported the S.H.A.N. source from the Shan States.

Known popularly as "Tiger Head", for its party emblem, and officially as
Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, the SNLD, emerged as the second
biggest party in the whole country during the short-lived "Rangoon Spring"
(1988 - 90). It won 23 out of 56 seats in the Shan States with staunch
allies in the rest of the seats making it the party to represent and govern
the biggest state in the whole of the "Union of Burma".

Though a lesser political clout internationally, it appears to be more
powerful in the fact that all the armed Shan groups i.e. the Shan State
Army, the Shan State National Army and the Shan States Army (Southern) and
the Shan Democratic Union, the umbrella organization of Shan expatriates,
have declared their support for it.

Late in 1998, the party's president, Khun Htoon Oo, was reportedly summoned
to the Rangoon Military Intelligence Center, headed by Gen Khin Nyunt. He
was told to issue a statement denouncing the NLD and its leader, Aung San
Suu Kyi, for setting up the Committee Representing the People's Parliament
(CRPP) or known popularly as "Committee of Ten". To which the Shan leader
replied he could not do it without approval from the party's executive
committee. The MI reportedly agreed that he should call a meeting first.

When the executive members of the party met later, they resolved a neutral
position -- neither to denounce or applaud the CRPP. If the resolution was
not accepted, they should declared the dissolution of the party.

The MI reportedly received the news of the outcome of the meeting rather in
a subdued manner, to the surprise of some observers.

One says, "The reason is quite clear. The junta needs the SNLD which is
fast becoming the symbol of not only Shans but of all non-Burmans in the
so-called National Convention. Since they could not claim to speak for the
Burmans anymore with the boycotting and subsequent expulsion of the NLD
from the NC, they thought they might still need the SNLD's participation
there at least to show the non-Burmans are still on their side. But if the
SNLD is also expelled and its members persecuted, the NC will no more enjoy
any remaining credibility of representing, either Burman or non-Burman. Any
constitution adopted by the NC will also become completely meaningless. So
will the elections held afterwards. That is why the SNLD is still enjoying
the junta's grace despite its refusal to toe the line".

"But how long the SNLD can survive?", he muses. "Once the pagoda is built,
the scaffold is gone, so goes the Burmese saying. And once the constitution
is adopted, either with or without the consent of the SNLD, its usefulness
shall be gone too".

"The SNLD is in real danger now", says another watcher. "I hope the foreign
observers of Burma also pay more attention on the SNLD and its members just
like they do it to the NLD". 

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AFP: BURMESE JUNTA DENIES REBEL CLAIM OF LARGE OFFENSIVE 
11 March, 1999

BANGKOK, March 11 (AFP) -- The Myanmar junta Thursday denied it had
launched a dry season offensive against rebel forces who said fighting was
raging along the western border with Thailand.

"The story is fabricated as usual. The dry season is almost coming to an
end," a junta spokesman told AFP.

A spokesman from the rebel Karen National Union (KNU) said the offensive
was underway and ethnic resistance forces were responding with guerrilla
operations along a 1,000 kilometer (620 miles) front. KNU General Secretary
Ba Thin Sein said low-level skirmishes were occurring daily as junta troops
tried to sweep ethnic forces from their border positions.

"The SPDC forces are pushing closer to the border," he said. "They are
denying it as propaganda to show that there is peace, but fighting is going
on everywhere."

The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has prided itself on
reaching ceasefire deals with an array of rebel armies, but the KNU and
others maintain their struggle for independence. The reports of fighting
could not be immediately confirmed.

KNU Joint First Secretary Mahn Sha on Wednesday said fighting had been
escalating since mid-February. "Everywhere there is a lot of fighting. We
are now facing the summer offensive," he said.

An earlier statement from the Arakan Liberation Party, the Karenni National
Progressive Party, the KNU and the Shan State Army condemned the junta and
called for unity among resistance groups.

The KNU and other ethnic forces have been fighting for independence from
Yangon for decades. 

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THE IRRAWADDY: THE BURNING PROBLEM OF IMMIGRANTS IN THAILAND 
28 February, 1999 by Win Htein 

Vol.7 No.2 

As more and more Burmese go to Thailand in pursuit of relative freedom from
persecution and poverty, Burma's closest neighbor is seeking new ways to
address the root causes of their immigrant problem.

When a young western adventurer, Mr James Mawdsley, was arrested in
Moulmein for illegal entry into Burma, it became news in the world media.
But the world media fails to take notice as hundreds and thousands of
Burmese are arrested in their own country for illegal entry. Why?

One example, reported in the Hmu Khin (Crime) weekly journal in January
1998, was the sentencing of two young women, Thin Thin Wai and Myint Myint
San, to six-month jail terms by Myaung Mya township court, Irrawaddy
division, for their illegal entry from Thailand. The State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC) said it was a case of illegal entry "because
they left Burma without permission."

However, there are nearly one million Burmese working illegally in
Thailand, none of whom received permission from the SPDC to leave the
country. The junta's official policy is to refuse permission to those
wishing to cross the border into Thailand and other neighboring countries,
but this is just on paper. In reality, if someone gives money to a border
official, then it's no problem for them to leave the country.

After the popular uprising and subsequent military crackdown in 1988, many
Burmese fled to Thailand and found work on fishing boats, on construction
sites, in factories, on rubber plantations, as housekeepers and in fact in
any job available. They left because there were no jobs in their homeland,
and because they feared being forced by the army to work as porters in the
fight against ethnic rebels and democracy groups or as laborers on
government development projects. They came to Thailand by crossing the
border illegally, giving Thai police and brokers up to 10,000 baht to
transport them from the border to Bangkok and other towns in central Thailand.

In 1997, due to the Thai economic slowdown, many workers were dismissed
from their jobs. Then the Thai government decided to send illegal workers
back to their countries of origin so that their own jobless citizens might
find work. Since then, Burmese immigrant workers have faced forcible
repatriation or incarceration in the Immigration Detention Center (IDC) in
Bangkok. Many of those who end up back in Burma are either imprisoned like
the two young girls from Irrawaddy division or forced to work for the army.

One of them is Saw Wa Lai, a 21-year old Karen high school student from
Pa-an who is now staying in Khalokani Mon refugee camp (opposite
Sankhalaburi) and trying to get back to Bangkok.  He told the Democratic
Voice of Burma (DVB) about his arrest in Thailand. In July 1998, he was
working at a Bangkok Asia Games construction site in Ramkhaham.

He recalled, "I had not received my salary for one and half months. The
wonna (leader of a small work group) told me, please wait until the end of
this month because the boss doesn't have enough money due to the economic
crisis."

There were some 150 Burmese working on this construction site. They were
staying in a very cramped and dirty temporary barracks surrounded by dirty
water. They were working about 10 hours per day but the boss gave them just
200 baht per week. This was not even enough for food. However, they
couldn't inform the Thai authorities about this because they were illegal
workers; to do so would certainly mean arrest.

Eventually they were arrested by Thai police when their boss informed the
police that they were illegal immigrant workers. He did this because he did
not want to pay their salaries. Saw Wa Lai stayed for three months in the
IDC and then he was sent to the Khalokani border camp via Kanchanaburi IDC.
In reality, about 80% of Burmese illegal workers have had similar
experiences as Saw Wa Lai, working as virtual slave labor in Thailand. Many
are arrested and after being held in the Bangkok Immigration Detention
Center (IDC) are sent to the border.

"Our life in the IDC was not much better than in a Burmese jail," said a
Burmese student who has spent time in both. "Over 100 people were forced to
stay in a 20 x 40 foot room." The name of the IDC is as frightening to
Burmese immigrants as that of the notorious Insein Prison back in Burma.
Despite all these problems, they keep trying to return to Bangkok from the
border. A Mon refugee camp, named Khalokani and under the control of the
New Mon State Party, lies close to Sankhalaburi, in Kanchanaburi province.
This camp is a chief destination for Burmese immigrant workers who have
been transported from the IDC. Khalokani receives about 1000 people every
week who feel it is safer than going to an SPDC-controlled area.

"I didn't want go back to my village because there is no work there. The
only work is forced labor on a dead railway," said a young Tavoyan in
Khalokani. He has been deported twice but now he is trying to reach Bangkok
again. In Kawthaung, on the Burmese side of the Thai-Burma border, many
returnees have been sent to work on development projects as forced labor.
One of them is U Naung Mel, a 38 year-old fisherman from Sakhathit village
in east Mergui. He was arrested on the border as he was returning from
Mahachai, known as "Little Burma," in the south of Bangkok.

"I was arrested on Snake Island, between Ranong and Kawthaung, as an
illegal worker in January 1998, when I was sent back from Thailand to Burma
 ... I stayed for three days in Kawthong police compound and then they sent
me to Lambi Island with about 300 others in fishing boats," he recalled on
a fishing boat in Ranong.

Lambi is an eco-tourism project, a joint venture between foreign investors
and the SPDC. U Naung Mel escaped on a bamboo raft from Lambi after he was
forced to work for about 2 months. There were 300 laborers like U Naung
Mel. They had to get up each morning at 5am. They went to work in
construction teams, sometimes for heavy labor such as cutting down and
digging out big trees. At noon they had lunch, but it was never enough.
While they were hungry enough to eat three plates each, they were only
allowed to eat one.

"Therefore, there is safety in neither country for the Burmese!" Ko Myint
Wai, a Burmese NGO worker in Thailand said "Our NGO is trying to organize
more comfortable conditions for Burmese immigrants. We opened a primary
school and a clinic in the Mahachai area as a first step." His NGO, the
Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma (TACDB), is the only NGO in
Thailand which concentrates specifically on Burmese immigrants. In their
school, about 50 children are taught Burmese, Thai, English, mathematics,
history and general knowledge by Burmese teachers. These teachers and
medics are also immigrants and former student activists. A teacher told DVB
about their difficulties.

"Our school has permission to operate from the Thai authorities and so
there is no problem for the school children. But we, the teachers, are
illegal workers. We don't have any ID. If we are arrested, the school will
be closed."

Sometimes, the school has had problems such as teachers being moved
elsewhere for security reasons and the parents of some of the school
children being arrested by Thai police. When this happens the children
cannot go to school.

[BurmaNet Editor's Note: The Thai authorities recently closed the school,
as reported in The BurmaNet News Issue #1216, 26 February, 1999.]

Despite these problems, the Talaku (prawn market) of Mahachai has become a
fully-fledged Burmese community. Immigrants live there in full Burmese
style with longyi, thanatkha, kunyar, shwekya (traditional dress, make-up,
betel nut, and cheroot) and loud Burmese music and video movies. They can
buy Burmese foods and goods such as mohinkha, lapat, and ngapithog here. On
holidays, many Burmese from other parts of Thailand visit the market to
shop and talk. During the 1990's, the Mahachai area became a favourite spot
for Burmese immigrant workers. "Because in this area the salary is good,
there's a big Burmese community, it's easy to transfer money and easy to
contact Burma by broker's mobile telephone," said a mohinkha shop owner. In
the 1980's, most workers worked in border-trade towns such as Ranong,
Sankhalaburi, Mae Sot and Mae Sai.

"When I worked at a Ranong rubber plantation, my monthly salary was 1000
baht with very hard working hours. Here, I can make 160 baht per day in a
fish-factory, separating prawns from the shell. And I can transfer 15,000
baht to my home every six months," explained a 19-year-old Tavoyan girl in
the white uniform of the Thai Union Company. This is why she moved from
Ranong to Mahachai.

Nowadays, Thai government policy towards alien workers is not clear. A year
has passed since the introduction of harsher deportation policies, but in
Mahachai and some other areas, the authorities have resumed issuing new
work permits for Burmese. On learning of this, many Burmese have started
trying to reach Mahachai from the border, driving up the price for the
services of Thai police-brokers to 15,000 baht.

"This country's business cannot do without Burmese workers. Those Thai guys
never work as hard as Burmese on '3D' worksites," Ko Myint Wai commented,
referring to worksites which are dirty, difficult and dangerous.

Burmese work very hard, they are very cheap, and they never complain to
their bosses. If an employer decided to substitute a Thai worker for a
Burmese, it would cost the high price of 300 baht per day, for not more
than 8 hours, and labor and other rights would have to be respected.
Therefore, some owners of factories, plantations and construction sites
complained strongly to their government over the alien deporting decision
when they faced a shortage of labor on their tough work-sites.

Dr Mya Maung, a Burmese economics professor from Boston College, commented
to DVB: "The SPDC should make a plan to solve this immigrant problem. If
they could build economic infrastructure in Burma with foreign investment,
no one would go outside as an illegal. Now, they are spending a lot of
money on weapons, rather than using it for the country's progress. You
know, before the military coup in 1962, some Thai people studied and worked
in Burma. After four decades of military rule, the situation has reversed."

Not all Burmese in Thailand are illegal workers. Others are in the country
as student activists, political exiles and ethnic refugees. There are about
120,000 refugees in border camps and about 10,000 students and political
exiles in Bangkok. Recently, concerns about security at the 13th Asia
Games, held in Bangkok in December, led to frequent arrests of Burmese.
They are very afraid of being deported to Burma; it could well mean
execution or a long prison term under the Burmese military regime.

"Why did you come to Thailand?" a reporter asked members of a Burmese
student group in Bangkok. They replied that they cannot live in Burma
because the junta issued arrest warrants for them for protesting against
the government in the 8-8-88 people's uprising. And some students are
former soldiers of the "Students' Army" known as the All Burma Students'
Democratic Front (ABSDF), a ten year old organization active along the
Thai-Burma border. Most of them applied to the United Nations High
Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Bangkok for refugee status. If
successful, they have a chance to go to a third country. Without this
status they face arrest by Thai police as illegal immigrants on Thai soil.

In the past two years, some ethnic refugees have started going to the
Bangkok UNHCR office because they often face gun attacks in their border
camps. These attacks were made by a Karen splinter group, the Democratic
Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), a three-year-old Karen military group backed by
Rangoon. The DKBA troops frequently invade Thai soil. They set fire to
Karen refugee camps and kidnap or shoot refugees. They mutinied from the
mainstream Karen National Union (KNU).

A few months ago, the Thai government allowed the UNHCR direct access to
border refugee camps to improve the situation. Cross-border aggression, the
influx of refugees and illegal immigrants, and the political situation
across the border have become a serious threat to local stability in
Thailand. Therefore, the Chuan government has prepared a new policy
regarding Burma for the next Asean summit. Adopting "flexible engagement"
as a substitute for the sinking policy of "constructive engagement," the
regional grouping has shifted from favoring silence to voicing criticism to
put more pressure for change in Burma. "We, (the Thai government) do not
agree that 'Asian values,' used in the past, should differentiate us from
the universal values of human rights . . . .  This year, we have
implemented flexible engagement, which means more openness in Asean,
striving for an open society by 2020. We will wage this plan of action in
Hanoi," said a spokesman for the foreign ministry, speaking to a group of
Asian human rights activists who had arrived in his office on the fiftieth
anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner and general secretary
of the National League for Democracy, the party which won an overwhelming
victory in the 1990 general elections, has appealed to the Thai government
to "take care" of the Burmese immigrant workers, to try to understand the
terrible situation they face. And she has also strongly criticized the Thai
policy of constructive engagement with Burma. Now Daw Suu Kyi and Burmese
opposition groups in exile welcome Thailand's new, more critical approach.
"We gratefully welcome the new Thai proposal of flexible engagement in
Asean. We believe that new policy might help to change the generals' minds
in our country," commented U Aung Naing Oo, spokesperson for the National
Council of Union of Burma, an opposition group in exile.

Since the military coup in 1988, the United States, European Union and
Australia have pressured the junta to engage in a meaningful dialogue with
the NLD. But the generals refused to listen to western suggestions because
they were backed by Asean, whose member countries were more interested in
taking advantage of Burma's rich natural resources than in confronting
Burma's political crisis.

Today, Thailand feels "enough is enough" after all the problems coming from
their 2,400 kilometer border with Burma. And the Chuan government wants to
display its democratic credentials in Asean.

There is only one way for the Thais to solve their problems with
immigrants, refugees and local instability. That is for Asean to join with
Western countries in pressuring Burma to change from military rule to
democratic reform. And this will also help the Thais reach their dream of
an open society by 2020. But there must be action; if it's all just talk
then there will be no way to solve the burning problem of Burma.

This article was contributed by Win Htein, who is a correspondent for the
Democratic Voice of Burma.

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REUTERS: BANGLADESH ARRESTS MYANMAR MEN WITH LIVE GRENADES 
16 March, 1999 

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh, March 16 (Reuters) - Bangladeshi border guards
have arrested five Myanmar men carrying grenades, guns and ammunition,
security officials said on Tuesday.

They said the group was detained near the Bangladesh border town of Teknaf
on Monday, on the Naf river that flows between Cox's Bazar district and
Myanmar's western Arakan province.

``The grenades were live and of the type usually used by the army,'' said
Colonel Waliullah of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), the border force.

``We also seized weapons including a pistol and ammunitions for rifles,''
he told Reuters by telephone.

``Two sets of uniforms which the Nasaka (Myanmar border force) put on while
on duty were also seized from the arrested men,'' he said.

``The group may be a gang of dacoits (robbers)... but we are surprised to
see live army grenades in their possession. Police are interrogating
them,'' one Teknaf official said.

``The group was challenged and arrested by the BDR while moving in a boat
at Babarmokam, a fishing village in Teknaf,'' he said.

On Saturday, the BDR arrested three unarmed members of outlawed Arakan Army
of Myanmar also at Teknaf, police said without giving details.

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ANNOUNCEMENT: BURMA RESEARCH-ORIENTED WEBSITE 
16 March, 1999 

http://www.burmafund.org/webindex.htm

The Burma Fund announces the launch of The Burma Fund WebIndex,
(www.burmafund.org/webindex.htm) a research-oriented website that brings
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ANNOUNCEMENT: RADIO FREE BURMA - "POWER AND BURMESE SOCIETY" 
16 March, 1999 from rfb@xxxxxxxxxxx 

Dear Friends,

Please read the Dr Aung Khin's  articles  "Power and Burmese Society part 6
& 7" on Radio Free Burma web page. Just read or print in Burmese . News and
Information on RFB page can be freely distributed for the Burmese
Democratic movement

Radio Free Burma
http://www.fast.net.au/rfb

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