The BurmaNet News: May 12, 1999

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 "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
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The BurmaNet News: May 12, 1999
Issue #1269

HEADLINES:
==========
ASSK: ADDRESS TO HAGUE PEACE CONFERENCE 
REUTERS: MYANMAR RESUMES FIRST-YEAR CLASSES 
BBC: BURMESE MPS DENY COLLUSION WITH MILITARY 
THE NATION: THE STRUGGLE OF BURMESE JOURNALISTS 
SEOUL YONHAP: ROK TO HOLD BURMA CONFERENCE 
XINHUA: BURMA CONDEMNS NATO'S ATTACK ON PRC EMBASSY 
SCMP: ASEAN "MUST TACKLE FORCED LABOUR" 
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AUNG SAN SUU KYI: ADDRESS TO HAGUE PEACE CONFERENCE 
12 May, 1999 

A conference on peace is tantamount to a conference on one of the basic
necessities of life.  In fact one could say that peace is life itself
because a life without peace is hardly a life worth living.  But by peace I
do not mean a life of passivity, I do not mean a life without action
because sometimes we have to act a lot to bring about peace.

What do we mean actually by peace?  I suppose basically we mean a sense of
inner security that will give us the strength to work for others and for
the community, to work for progress and development.  Without a sense of
inner security we cannot work for progress.

There are so many obstacles in the way of development without peace. Peace,
development and justice are all connected to each other.  We cannot talk
about economic development without talking about peace.  How can we expect
economic development in a battle field?  It would not be possible. But
there are more than one kind of battle field in this world.  A battle field
is not necessarily a place where people are shooting each other.  In a
civil society, where basic human rights are ignored, where the rights of
the people are violated every day, it is like a battle field where lives
are lost and people are crippled, because people can lose their lives.  And
the development of their lives can be crippled by a lack of basic human
rights.  So when we talk about peace, we can not avoid talking about basic
human rights, especially in a country like Burma where people are troubled
constantly by a lack of human rights and a lack of justice and a lack of
peace.

In our country, there are many races living together, but we have not been
able to live together in peace because the situation does not exist where
we can trust each other.  So trust is a basic element for peace.  Unless we
can trust each other, unless we can be sure that we will receive justice,
and that we also have to give justice, we can not achieve peace.  I very
much hope that this conference on peace will deal with the close connection
between peace, justice and development, and that development will be seen
in human rather than in economic terms.

I wish you all success and I hope that the day will come when Burma will be
able to contribute to more peace in this world. 

[See tomorrow's BurmaNet News for the transcript of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's
question and answer session, also filmed for the Hague Conference.]

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REUTERS: MYANMAR RESUMES FIRST-YEAR MEDICINE CLASSES
12 May, 1999 

YANGON, May 11 (Reuters) - Myanmar's military government has allowed the
resumption of classes for first-year medical students for the first time
since 1996, when it shut down universities after student unrest. 

"First-year classes were opened at three medical institutes, the Institute
of Dental Medicine, the Institute of Paramedical Sciences, and the
Institute of Pharmacy last week," a Health Ministry official told Reuters
on Tuesday. 

He said nearly 750 students had been admitted to the first-year classes in
Yangon and Mandalay and were "peacefully and eagerly pursuing their
studies." Official media has made no mention of the reopening of the classes. 

The government closed about 30 universities and colleges in mid-December
1996 following the biggest student demonstrations seen in Yangon since a
nationwide pro-democracy uprising crushed by the military in 1988. 

Although higher year medical classes resumed some time ago, most
universities and colleges under the Ministry of Education remain closed,
keeping an estimated 300,000 students away from classes. 

The universities have been closed for most of the period since the
student-led uprising in 1988. 

Opponents of the military government have slammed its failure to reopen
them. The government blames the pro-democracy opposition, which it accuses
of inciting student unrest. 

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BBC: BURMESE MPS DENY COLLUSION WITH MILITARY 
11 May, 1999 

Dissident members of Burma's National League for Democracy have angrily
denied accusations that they are colluding with the military government to
sow disunity in the party.

The NLD leadership had condemned the group of some twenty-five elected MPs
for drafting a letter calling for talks with the military junta and
criticising the strategy adopted by the party and its leader, Aung San Suu
Kyi.

One of the group, U Than Tun, told the BBC it wanted to see the NLD
leadership try other strategies to break the political stalemate. He also
criticised the NLD's procedures, which he said were not transparent or
democratic. But Aung San Suu Kyi responded by repeating that the dissidents
were obeying the military authorities. She said the obstacles facing the
NLD made it very difficult to follow fully democratic procedures, but that
it was following decisions taken at the party congress held last year. 

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THE NATION: THINK OF THE STRUGGLE OF BURMESE JOURNALISTS 
12 May, 1999 

LETTER TO EDITOR

When I read in The Nation recently that over 500 journalists died during
the past decade, I recalled the life of journalists in Burma.

I am curious to know whether Thaw Ka, Sein Win and Tin Shwe, who were very
famous journalists as well as popular figures in the National League for
Democracy and who died in custody are included in the list?

According to the Documentation Unit of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Ba
Ka Tha, also known as the All Burma Federation of Students Union, three
journalists have died in prison, and another 10 are still detained by the
military regime.

Gen Ne Win, who seized power in 1962, never recognised the rights of
freedom of the press and expression and arrested many journalists. The
new-leaders of the present military regime are still committing the said
deeds.

Among the detained journalists is Win Tin, another famous journalist and
one of the founders of the NLD. He was arrested in 1989. He is seriously
ill but is not allowed any treatment.

The military dictatorship never gave permission for any privately owned
newspaper to be published. All four daily newspapers are controlled by the
junta. Over 50 journals are published in Burma, of which 15 are put out by
the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

If anybody wants to publish a journal or a magazine, he needs to get
permission from the Ministry of Information. However, The Living Colour
Magazine is never censored because it is owned by Dr Naing Win, who is the
son of Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, the head of the Military Intelligence Service.

Naing Ko Ko

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SEOUL YONHAP: ROK TO HOLD BURMA CONFERENCE, 23-25 JUNE 
9 May, 1999 

[Seoul Yonhap is a semiofficial news agency of the Republic of Korea.]

Seoul, May 9 (Yonhap) -- the Forum of Democratic Leaders- Asia-Pacific
(FDL-AP), co-chaired by President Kim Dae-Jung, will hold the "Burma
(currently Myanmar) Conference" here June 23-25 to discuss the situation of
politics and human rights in the Myanmar military government.

Some 30 domestic and foreign political leaders and ranking government
officials including co-chairwoman of the Forum Corazon Aquino, former
President of Philippines, will attend the international meeting titled "New
Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) Strategy For Burmese Democratization"
and discuss the pending issues of Myanmar.

On June 23, former South Korean Foreign Minister Han Seung-Joo will make an
opening address and Mrs. Aquino will deliver a key-note speech. Messages of
President Kim and Aung San Suu Kyi, the Myanmar democratic movement leader
will be read at the conference.

The conference, in particular, will discuss ways to coordinate and verify
the strategy of NGOs which provides humanitarian aid to Myanmar
democratization and human rights movements.

Floor leader Sonn Se-Il of the ruling National Congress For New Politics
(NCNP), chief of NCNP presidential advisors Hahn Hwa-Kap, FDL-AP Executive
Lee Oo-Chung and NCNP Vice President Kim Geun-Tae will also make addresses
during the conference.

After intensive discussions and reports on the situation of politics,
economy, human rights of Myanmar and NGOs' strategy towards the South East
Asian country, the conference will adopt a resolution or action plans.

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XINHUA: BURMA CONDEMNS NATO'S ATTACK ON PRC EMBASSY 
10 May, 1999 

Yangon, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar [Burma] Monday condemned the missile
attack launched by the US-led NATO on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade last
Friday night, in which three people were killed and more than 20 others
injured.

At a meeting with Chinese ambassador Liang Dong Monday, U Aung Ba, Deputy
Director-General of the Political Department of the Myanmar Foreign
Ministry, said the Myanmar government was shocked over the incident and
expressed great regret.

He said the Myanmar government strongly condemns the attack. The strike was
a barbarous act and an open violation of the United Nations Charter and the
related basic norms governing the international relations, he said.

The Myanmar government deplores the death of Chinese journalists and
expresses its sympathy to the injured, he added.

Myanmar also calls on the parties concerned to peacefully settle the Kosovo
issue through political channels, he said.

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SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST: ASEAN "MUST TACKLE FORCED LABOUR" 
12 May, 1999 

Asean labour ministers will risk becoming an international laughing stock
if they fail this week to pressure Burma over the massive use of forced
labour, experts said yesterday. 

The labour ministers meeting in Rangoon are allowing the military regime to
play host to its first Association of Southeast Asian Nations conference.
It joined the organisation in 1997. 

"They must raise this issue forcibly. The eyes of the world are upon them,"
said Phil Robertson, of international trade union watchdog the Solidarity
Centre. 

Burma ignored a May 1 deadline set by the International Labour Organisation
(ILO) to [ ... ] its laws and practices over forced labour. 

A special ILO commission of inquiry reported last year that pervasive
forced labour had brought "untold misery and suffering, oppression and
exploitation" to the people of Burma. 

"This is a sensitive time. The ILO is reviewing how it can try to push
Burma into action over forced labour. Asean could be an important
influence," Mr Robertson said. 

The report said forced labour was "widespread and systematic . . . with
total disregard for the human dignity, safety and health and basic needs of
the people". 

People throughout Burma were habitually press ganged into building roads,
bridges and railways, working fields, portering and logging. 

The "almost invariably unpaid" labour can only be avoided by paying fines
-- leaving the burden to fall most heavily on the rural poor and ethnic
minorities. 

Punishments for failing to supply labour included torture, rape and murder,
the report added. 

The ILO said it has worried over Burma's "gross violations" of its forced
labour convention for 30 years. Burma ratified the convention in 1955,
bringing it into force a year later. 

The inquiry said it was clear the Burmese authorities were "directly
responsible" for the increasing use of forced labour over the past decade.
The regime treated the civilian population as an "unlimited pool of unpaid
forced labourers and servants". 

The country's Village Act and Town Act allowed for forced labour, in
contravention of the ILO convention. 

The ILO has pointed out that although Burma's penal code made what it
termed unlawful forced labour illegal, there is no record of any official
or soldier ever being punished for it. 

A recent international police drug conference in Burma was boycotted by
most Western countries in protest at Rangoon's suspiciously cosy relations
with major narcotics traffickers. 

Yet even the most severely critical of countries have never claimed it was
state policy to cultivate opium. 

"It does have a cold, calculated policy of forced labour. They do not deny
it - they call it voluntary labour in the [state-controlled] media and in
the economic statistics," said a human rights worker, who asked not to be
named. 

Human Rights Watch/Asia has reported that one in 20 Burmese experienced
forced labour between 1992 and 1995. Certain sections of the population run
a very high risk of forced labour and the associated risks of accidents,
rape and beatings. 

Families that scratch a bare living for themselves often face starvation
after contributing weeks of free labour to the local army unit. 

Rangoon has rejected the ILO report as interference in its internal affairs. 

Asean's critics claim it remains an organisation that tries to achieve
consensus by sweeping differences under a carpet of sanitised meetings and
empty ritual.

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