Burma News Update, No. 85

[HMarciniec@xxxxxxxxxxx]

The Burma Project
Open Society Institute

Burma News Update No. 85
3 June 1999



Burma on "Right Track"

On the anniversary of 1990 elections, whose overwhelming opposition
victory has never been honored by Burma's military regime, a senior leader of
the country's army junta said the country is on the "right political track"
and promised a return to democratic government. Military intelligence Chief
Khin Nyunt said, "Once the constitution process is concluded, a constitutional
government will lead the nation," claiming that the junta had already
established a "multi-party system." However, neither General Khin Nyunt nor
any other junta official has offered a timetable for the constitution's
completion and new elections. Burma's ambassador to Japan, Khin Maung Thein,
called critical media reports as distortions or inventions. "Of the little
that is known almost half of all the information ... in all foreign media
tends to be distorted, exaggerated, sometimes made up...," he said, adding
"Now our people are happily engaged in their daily lives without repression,
without fear and anxiety. I wish also to state categorically that allegations
about human rights violations in Myanmar are completely groundless."

Rangoon and Tokyo, "Agence France Presse," 27 May; 21 May



Economic Priorities Shift

Burma's army junta is focusing renewed attention to agriculture as
infrastructure projects and city construction dwindles due to a lack of
foreign
investment. The urban economy is stagnating under 40 percent inflation and an
official exchange rate for the country's kyat pegged at 60 times the open
market value. Investment from other Southeast Asian nations is down 70
percent, and most western investors other than oil companies have pulled out,
because of economic sanctions, consumer boycotts and the junta's
unpredictability. [On 27 May, a column in "The Journal of Commerce" added that
companies are "divesting because of Myanmar's political uncertainty and the
government's failure to develop laws and regulations that would allow any
foreign investor (perhaps save for oil and gas exploration companies) to be
profitable." --Ed.]

Nyaungdone Island, Lower Burma, "Financial Times," 31 May 



China Influence Feared

Massive Chinese immigration into northern Burma may total over a million
people over the last several years, raising resentment among local residents
and larger fears about Chinese influence in Burma. Burma's army junta has

acquired one to two billion dollars in Chinese weapons since the suppression
of the democracy movement in August 1998, helping equip and upgrade an army
that expanded from 180,000 to 450,000 over the past decade. ["Kyodo News
Service" reported on 21 May that Burma's ambassador to Japan denied persistent
reports that China is helping to build new naval facilities on Burmese islands
in the Bay of Bengal--Ed.]

"Asiaweek," 28 May 


Muslim Scapegoats?

Anti-Muslim booklets are circulating widely in Burma and may be an effort
by the military to cast Burmese Muslims as scapegoats for the country's
economic woes. The two anonymous booklets have not been banned by the
country's usually highly active censorship board, and are being distributed
through the junta's mass organization, the Union Solidarity and Development
Association. The booklets claim that Muslims are seeking to undermine other
religions and turn Burma into an Islamic state. [A 22 May statement by the
Muslim Liberation Organization of Burma appealed for religious leaders to
reject what they claim is a junta plan to incite anti-Muslim violence.
Anti-Muslim riots in 1997 led to the destruction of mosques and Muslim-owned 
businesses--Ed.]

"Far Eastern Economic Review," 13 May


Forced Labor Continues

Burma's army junta has shown a "flagrant and persistent failure to comply"
with its treaty obligations to prevent forced labor in the country, the
International labor Organization (ILO) reported on 25 May. The ILO said that
forced labor continues on a large scale in Burma, and that the ruling junta
has taken "no action ... to punish those exacting forced labour." [The Chin
Human Rights Organization reported on 29 May new instances of forced labor and
murder and brutality by soldiers conscripting laborers in the northwestern
Chin State--Ed.]

Geneva, "International Labor Organization," 25 May


BURMA NEWS UPDATE is a publication of the Burma Project 
of the Open Society Institute. 400 West 59th Street, New York, N.Y. 10019 
tel.: (212) 548-0632, fax: (212) 548-4655 Website:
http:www.soros.org/burma.html