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The BurmaNet News: April 7, 1999



------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------
 "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
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The BurmaNet News: April 7, 1999
Issue #1245

HEADLINES:
==========
VOA: UN ON HUMAN RIGHTS 
SHAN: LANGUAGE BAN IN SHAN STATE 
YOMA NEWS GROUP: NEW RELOCATION ORDERS 
XINHUA: MYANMAR COLLECTS 135M US DOLLARS TAXES 
THE NATION: NATION OF PRISONERS SUSTAINED BY DREAM 
THE NATION: "UWSA UNIT" KILLED NINE THAI VILLAGERS 
ANNC: LATEST ISSUE OF THE IRRAWADDY AVAILABLE
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VOICE OF AMERICA: UN ON HUMAN RIGHTS 
2 April, 1999 by Lisa Schlein in Geneva 

A United Nations report accuses Burma's military leaders of waging a
relentless campaign of repression against political opponents and of
grossly violating the human rights of various ethnic groups and minorities.
 The report has been submitted to the 53-member UN Human Rights Commission
for review. 

The report condemns what it calls the brutal measures employed by Burma's
military leaders to maintain their grip on power.  It says the government
refuses to have any meaningful dialogue with political opponents and has
intensified its repression, especially against the NLD, the National League
for Democracy.

UN Special Investigator, Rajsoomer Lallah, says there's been increasing
harassment of the NLD party by the military, including arrests of hundreds
of its members in recent months. He accuses the military of torture,
arbitrary killings, and prohibiting freedom of thought, expression and
association.

Mr. Lallah says the leader of the NLD, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San
Suu Kyi, continues to be harassed and is the subject of personal vilification.

///Lallah act///

She was most recently affected by a personal tragedy in circumstances where
it was not possible, in spite of any diplomatic efforts, for her husband to
visit her before his death.  This raises the question of the extent to
which respect for family rights may be adversely affected in the case of
other citizens who, in the interests of their own safety and security, have
had to leave the country.

///End act///

UN Investigator Lallah has been barred from visiting Burma for over three
years now.  His information comes from, what he calls, "credible witnesses"
outside the country and human rights organizations.

Mr. Lallah says he's particularly concerned about reports of continued
brutal repression of minority communities in the east of Burma.  He says
many people have lost their lives as a result of systematic and gross
violations of basic human rights.

///Second Lallah act///

The current situation in these ethnic states, including the ongoing
conflict, will inexorably lead to a humanitarian disaster where more than
an estimated half a million people have been displaced by the current
military and political strategy, and more than 100-thousand others have
taken refuge in Thailand.

///End act///

The UN Investigator calls on the Burmese government to stop its excessive
use of force and stop its practice of forced labor, including child labor.
He says forcing civilians to do hard labor for no pay, to act as porters
for the military and to perform all sorts of menial tasks for them amounts
to a form of slavery. 

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SHAN HERALD AGENCY FOR NEWS: LANGUAGE BAN IN SHAN STATE
5 April, 1999 

[From the SHAN March, 1999 Monthly Report]

In early March 1999, SPDC's Northeastern Regional Military Command
Commander, Maj Gen Tin Aung Myint Oo, instructed all the regiments and
battalions under his command to destroy all the signboards bearing
villages' names in Shan script in their respective areas of control. These
signboards were put up by the Shan cease-fire groups and village
communities alongside the Burmese sign-boards. But the Shan language was
not allowed to be used even in Shan State. Only signboards that bore the
Burmese script were to be used. The Shan have no right to their own language. 

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YOMA NEWS GROUP: NEW RELOCATION ORDERS 
6 April, 1999 from <YOMA3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> , Kanchanaburi 

Residents of 31 villages from Kyar-in-seik-kyi township (termed Win-Ye
township by the Karen Nation Union-KNU) have been issued orders by SPDC
regional commanders to abandon their villages and move to "concentrated
villages" no later than April 20.

Village headmen, monks, priests and prominent members of the 31 villages
were summoned April 1 by members of Light Infantry Battalion 284 and issued
orders to depopulate the area and move to 4 designated sites near SPDC
military posts. The consequences for failure to obey the relocation order
were spelled out in no uncertain terms. Villagers were warned that they
would be treated as hostile forces if they were found in or near their
village areas after 20 April.

The SPDC relocation orders mirror those issued to other villages in the
area during the dry season one year ago and signal the SPDC intent to turn
the entire area into a free-fire or so called "black" zone. Indeed, Karen
and other ethnic villagers in this large area of Southern Karen State have
long been subject to a continuing litany of human rights violations
including forced portering, seizure of property and arbitrary torture and
detention. SPDC actions in this area during 1998 are fully detailed in a
report released by the Mon Information Service in January.

The renewal of the notorious four-cuts strategy in and around
Kyar-in-seik-kyi township is likely related to recent limited successes
achieved by armed members of the KNU and other opposition groups against
Burmese military targets. The continuing terrorization of unarmed and
peaceful ethnic minorities in rural areas such as Kyar-in-seik-kyi occurs
simultaneously with an offer by the SPDC to negotiate cease-fire terms with
the KNU. The current preparations for a military offensive in Southern
Karen State suggest that such offers have a basis in neither truth nor
sincerity.

A large number of village residents are reportedly ready to desert their
treasured homes and land to flee for possible shelter over the border in
Thailand rather than face privation and victimization in the
"concentration" villages. Below is a list of the villages issued with
relocation orders and the "concentration" village to which they have been
ordered to move.

Relocated villages
     Concentrated village 

  1) Ka-katit
               Ye-ta-khon 
  2) Ya-thae 
  3) Lu-shar 
  4) Rat-phaw 
  5) Htee-to-kaw 
  6) Khon-na-war          `
            Anan-kwin 
  8) Ta-nyin 
  9) Upper Pha-ya 
  10) Lower Pha-ya 
  11) Win-kha-na 
  12) Pang-aung 
  13) Pu-taw 
  14) Than-pa-ya 
  15) Khon-khan
              Taung-zon 
  16) Mae-ka-naw 
  17) Mae-ka-wa 
  18) Sin-pyay 
  19) Hmar-law 
  20) Htee-mow-kae 
  21) Kyauk-bi-lu 
  22) Tha-pyay-kone
             Pha-bya 
  23) Myay-ni-kone 
  24) Tha-ya-kone 
  25) Mont-lone-taung 
  26) Nan-kwee 
  27) Win-taung 
  28) Kha-lae-saw 
  29) Na-aine 
  30) Win-poak 
  31) Taung-ka-lay 

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XINHUA: MYANMAR COLLECTS 135M IN US DOLLARS TAXES 
6 April, 1999 

YANGON (April 6) XINHUA - Myanmar's State Internal Revenue Department
collected a total of 135 million U.S. dollars of taxes in the first 10
months of 1998, an 81.2 percent increase over the same period of 1997.

The percentage received from commercial tax, income tax, profit tax,
lottery revenue and postal revenue were 53.49, 28, 8.4, 8.07 and 2.04
respectively, reported the latest issue of Myanmar Business News magazine.

Of the taxes, 57 percent were from the government sector, 42 percent the
private sector and 1 percent the cooperative sector.

To reduce the impact of the Asian financial crisis, the Myanmar government
adopted some new policies to collect taxes in the country in recent years.

Exemption of customs duties on the import of agricultural implements,
including related machinery, pesticide and fertilizer, was among the
measures taken in an effort to promote agricultural development.

Other measures cover raising the customs duties of luxury goods imported
and levying an 8 percent commercial tax on foreign currency, if included in
the proceeds of sale or total proceeds of sale received by any person from
any production and sale of goods or from any trading work of purchase and
sale of goods.

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NATION: NATION OF PRISONERS SUSTAINED BY DREAM OF FREEDOM 
5 April, 1999 by Josef Silverstein 

Political change did not come in time for Michael Aris. Aung San Suu Kyi
herself might miss it. But it will come one day.

The opening of the 1999 session of the UN Commission on Human Rights is an
appropriate background to consider new developments in the human rights
tragedy in Burma.

There, the leader of the democratic opposition, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, is
facing one of the greatest challenges in her life. Since 1988 when she
emerged on the political stage and received international recognition, she
has faced all sorts of obstacles. For five years (1989-95) she was held
under house arrest without trial and isolated from the outside world except
for a meeting with US congressman Bill Richardson.

In 1991, she was awarded the Nobel Peace prize for leading the peaceful
struggle for political change in her country. Although the military rulers
have been unresponsive, she has steadfastly called for dialogue with them
and a peaceful transition to democratic rule for which the people voted
overwhelmingly in the national election of 1990. After her release from
house arrest she confronted the military rulers over their efforts to write
a new constitution which would keep them in permanent power and other
political questions while they sought, in every way possible, to force her
to leave Burma.

She was unwilling to consider leaving because she knew that those in power
would never allow her to return and resume the leadership of the
opposition. Thus, even though the government has harassed, vilified and
intimidated her, they could not bend or break her determination to remain
and work for democratic change. Her strong-willed resistance to and
outspoken criticism of the men in power strengthened her public support as
the people saw her fighting for their rights.

To better understand Aung San Suu Kyi, it is helpful to know that she is
the daughter of Aung San, the post-World War II leader of the Burma
Nationalist Movement who led the nation to the threshold of independence in
July 1947, only to be assassinated by a disgruntled rival. As the
commanding figure of that period, he was the man who created the Burmese
army and then gave up its leadership to take command of the political
struggle for independence.

One of his most important achievements was winning the support of the
ethnic minorities by assuring them of participation in the governing of the
future Union of Burma. When he died, there was no comparable leader to
succeed him. Shortly after independence, a number of internal wars erupted
-- some continue to this day making voluntary national unity an illusive
goal. Aung San Suu Kyi never knew her father as she was only two months old
at the time of his murder. [sic: Aung San Suu Kyi, born June 19, 1945 was
two years old when her father was murdered on July 19, 1947.]

After years of living abroad with only brief visits home, she returned to
Burma in 1988 to nurse her sick and elderly mother. By the summer of that
year, she was drawn into the political maelstrom and quickly emerged as the
nation's leader. For more than a decade she has inspired the people by her
stoic acceptance of isolation under house arrest and her return to
leadership of the democratic struggle after being released only to find the
military rulers blocking every path she took.

In this unequal contest, she has stood bravely facing their guns and ugly
attempts at humiliation which included disparaging remarks about her
marriage to a European, children of mixed blood and her refusal to return
to her family in England. Despite the military's many efforts to denigrate
her, she has remained at the forefront of the people's political struggle.
Like her father, she stands for democracy, human rights and freedom.

Today, Aung San Suu Kyi faces a new personal problem and probably the most
serious challenge in her life. Her husband, Michael Aris, a professor at
Oxford University, has died of cancer. His requests for a visa to visit his
wife were refused.

Aris was a scholar of Himalayan languages. He and Aung San Suu Kyi met at
Oxford while she was a student and fell in love. In the introduction to her
book, ''Freedom from Fear'', he wrote, ''She constantly reminded me that
one day she would have to return to Burma, that she counted on my support
at that time, not as her due, but as a favour.'' Also published in her book
are excerpts from letters she wrote to him, ''I only ask one thing, that
should my people need me, you would help me to do my duty to them.'' In
another, she wrote, ''if we love and cherish each other as much as we can
while we can, I am sure love and compassion will triumph in the end.''
Throughout the past 11 years he quietly stood by her, visiting whenever the
military rulers permitted.

Here, then, is a human rights tragedy at its most human level. It is not a
unique situation in Burma. For 11 years, countless families have been torn
apart by the brutal ruling army which shows no compassion for the human
needs of husbands and wives, parents and children.

Today, there are more than 100,000 Burmese political refugees in Thailand;
in some cases they are families but, in most, they are individuals who have
fled their land to avoid abuse, arrest, imprisonment and execution if
caught by the Burmese soldiers. Many have not found safety in their
neighbouring state because the Burmese army and its auxiliaries have
crossed the borders, attacking and burning the refugee camps and forcing
the refugees to return home.

Today, the soldiers in power have forced the nation to become a land of
informers; members of families against one another, neighbours against each
other and all under a military intelligence web which extends throughout
the land and even into foreign countries. The rulers maintain their control
by turning loved ones against each other as they constantly intrude into
all aspects of the people's lives.

Today, men, women and children in the battle zones are forced to labour for
the army both by carrying equipment and performing the role of human
mine-sweepers; to leave their land and villages after seeing their huts
burned, their crops destroyed and being beaten and murdered after being
accused of helping the rebel forces or refusing soldiers' demands to pay
tribute.

As recent as last year, more than 1,000 elected members of parliament and
local political leaders were forced to resign from their political party,
sign statements of non-support for Aung San Suu Kyi or face prison. Today,
there are thousands of former students, both male and female, who fled
their homes in 1998 and have remained separated from their families for
fear of arrest only because they marched peacefully in protest against
military rule and for the restoration of democracy.

This situation is so well documented by the US State Department, the United
Nations, the International Labour Organisation and, most recently, by the
Rapporteur in his report to the UN Commission on Human Rights. Nothing new
needs to be added. The Burmese rulers have closed the country to
journalists with experience in the region or in Burma in order to prevent
responsible reporting to the world.

In 1990, the military rulers declared that they did not govern with the
support of the people; instead, they said, their legitimacy came from
recognition by foreign governments, international and regional
organisations and that they govern by martial law having set the
constitution and the elected parliament aside.

This is the tragedy of Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Burma. Each knows
what he or she has to do and all will accept and understand the decisions
each makes whatever they are.

But, in Burma, where a large majority of the people are Buddhist, they
believe that everything is subject to the law of impermanence. Political
change, they believe, will come; it did not come in time for Michael Aris,
and it may not come in time for Aung San Suu Kyi, but it will come and the
people, one day, will be freed from the prison the soldiers/rulers have
made of their land.

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THE NATION: "UWSA UNIT" KILLED NINE THAI VILLAGERS 
6 April, 1999 

CHIANG MAI - Authorities investigating the killing of nine Thai villagers,
who were beaten to death, are trying to pinpoint which faction within the
Wa ethnic army was responsible for carrying out the act and what had
motivated them to do so.

Deputy Police chief Pol Gen Prasarn Wongyai dismissed earlier press
reports, saying the killings were carried out by a faction within the
United Wa State Army (UWSA) belonging to Wei Hseuh-kang, a fugitive Chinese
heroin trafficker who commands three battalions along the Thai-Burma border
near Mae Ai district.

The nine Thai villagers were beaten to death with their hands tied behind
their backs. Their bodies were found last week scattered along the
Thai-Burma border.

Prasarn gave no reason for his belief other than the argument that Wei is
very ill and is receiving treatment near the Chinese border.

"It's understood that among the Wa there are splinter groups," Prasarn said.

"There are reports stating Wei is seriously ill and is being looked after
on the Chinese border," he said.

A senior Thai Army officer, however, said Wei's faction is the only one
operating right on the border and that the core UWSA fighters are
positioned about 20 kilometres away from the border. Some authorities
suspected that the nine victims may have been involved in the Wa's heroin
operations, while others believe the villagers were merely on a hunting
trip and accidentally stumbled on the group's trafficking activities.

The UWSA has been accused by both the Thai and the US governments as being
one of the world's largest narcotics trafficking groups. The group is
believed to command a  20,000-strong army.

Two of its leaders, including Wei, have been convicted of drug trafficking
by a US court and a $2-million reward has been put up for information
leading to their arrest. Wei has also been charged by a Thai court with
drug trafficking but jumped-bail a decade ago.

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ANNOUNCEMENT: LATEST ISSUE OF THE IRRAWADDY NOW AVAILABLE
6 April, 1999 from waddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx 

In the March issue of The Irrawaddy: 

- An editorial on the need for Asean to reassess its Burma policy; 
- A feature on political prisoner Min Ko Naing on the tenth anniversary of
his arrest;
- An article on Ta Mok and Cambodia's search for justice; 
- An examination of the contentious issue of whether or not to give aid to
Burma; 
- A look at gun-running in Thailand, based on Guns, Gambling, Girls and
Ganja; 
- An interview with John Jackson of the Burma Campaign [UK] about his
recent trip to Burma; 
- A comment on the Michael Aris case; 
- A guest column on the SPDC's "humanitarianism"; 
- An analysis of a thaw in Burmo-Indian relations; 
- A new Culture, Society and Arts page, this month featuring a look at palm
reading in Burmese culture; 
- And regular features, including Quotes, News in Brief, Business,
Intelligence, and the new Regional Briefing. 

The Irrawaddy is published by the Burma Information Group (BIG).  BIG was
established in 1992 by Burmese citizens living in exile and is not
affiliated with any political party or organization. 

The Irrawaddy seeks to promote press freedom and access to unbiased
information. 

Subscription Information 

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Thank you. 

Contact address: 

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