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The BurmaNet News: July 1, 1999



------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------
 "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
----------------------------------------------------------

The BurmaNet News: July 1, 1999
Issue #1305

Noted in Passing: "The workforce comes to participate of their own free
will and according to Buddhist belief ... This can in fact be regarded as
freedom of religion."  - Junta Spokesperson on the issue of forced labour
(see AFP: MYANMAR JUNTA BLASTS AMNESTY) 

HEADLINES:
==========
Irrawaddy: Money for Grades 
AFP: Myanmar Junta Blasts Amnesty As Dupes 
Bkk Post: EU Plans Mission on Rights Improvement 
nlom: Discussions on China-Myanmar Economic 
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THE IRRAWADDY: MONEY FOR GRADES 
May, 1999 by Moe Gyo

Vol. 7, No. 4

Burma's traditional respect for education has been eroded by years of
neglect, government apathy and corruption. This presents a problem for the
future of Burma, writes Moe Gyo.

Education is important to the Burmese. British colonial census takers duly
noted in their own peculiar way that, "Female education was a fact in Burma
before Oxford was founded." Even today one of the most striking features of
Burma is the value placed upon education. Whether it be the abundance of
books, respect for the educated especially professors or awareness of the
outside world, it is pervasive.  But the quality of education, particularly
at the university level, has diminished after years of military rule and
mismanagement. This has created a void of qualified graduates which will
pose a long term problem for Burma  the lack of essential human resources
for running the country.  

Burma has long been one of the most literate countries in Asia. Today it
ranks high in the developing world with an adult literacy rate of over
eighty percent. But since the 1962 takeover by the military, the education
system has increasingly become the victim of politics. Casualties include a
revised curriculum, which eliminated English for a time and softened
critical studies of key facets of political science and history, so that
they became a rhetorical mimic of government ideology. 

Since the student-led democracy uprising of 1988, universities have been
closed for eight of the last ten years because of the  government's fear of
student unrest. This has left a generation of Burmese in limbo, caught
between high school and entry into adulthood, where the return to school
can be difficult. 

"My son would like to go back to school to finish his degree, but he can't
because he has married and has a family to feed," said one hotel owner. "He
couldn't wait for the schools to open."

One teacher about to send her son to study overseas explained, "When the
schools closed, we had no idea how long they would be shut. So we waited.
But we've waited too long and now we're sending him abroad." 

But only a small number of students can afford to study abroad. With
stringent passport controls, even students who receive scholarships come up
against a bureaucratic brick wall when applying for the proper papers to
leave the country. Officials told one Burmese woman, who recently enquired
about getting a passport, that the only women getting permission to leave
the country were those over 60 years of age. 


Most students who have passed the tenth standard now wait to matriculate
into the university. But when the universities finally open, there will be
an incredible backlog of students waiting to start and complete their
degrees. Someone who finishes secondary school today will have to queue up
behind the others waiting to enter and graduate before they begin.

The decision to close universities reflects the government's concern about
the potential opposition caused by so many youths together in close
quarters, as well as the traditional activism of students in the past.
However, a few exceptions have been made.

While universities remain closed, a limited number of classes go on at
satellite campuses. These campuses are commuter campuses with much smaller
enrollments than large institutions like Rangoon University, Rangoon
Institute of Technology, or Mandalay University. In the view of the
government, the lower concentration of students makes the schools less of a
tinder box.

According to one Rangoon resident, this fear of large numbers of young
people gathered together is also reflected in other policies, such as a ban
on performances by popular heavy metal bands such as "Iron Cross" and
"Emperor" at large venues in Rangoon.  Concerts are also announced at short
notice to  further limit the number of people in attendance.

Furthermore, of the four medical schools that have been opened in the last
year, three of them were for military personnel, thus much less of a threat.

Some post-graduate programs with a small enrollment remain open. But in the
words of one teacher, these programs are ones in which "Teachers are not
allowed to teach." This stems from a combination of corruption and
politics, as there are reports of widespread payoffs to obtain academic
degrees.

Because of the economic ineptitude of the country's rulers, professors and
teachers, along with most other Burmese, don't earn enough to make ends
meet and to feed their families. This has deteriorated the quality of
education as teachers concentrate on other activities to support
themselves. To supplement their meager incomes they often tutor their
students before and after class in their homes. Within the past twenty
years, laws outlawing this practice have been passed, but they are rarely
enforced.

"Teachers sell exam questions as well as marks" as a means to generate
income, according to one teacher in Rangoon. When a student is concerned
about passing examinations, the student can buy the questions on the exam
for 10,000 kyat (US$43) apiece. For an exam of six questions, often two are
enough to ensure that they pass. Ambitious students who desire to graduate
with honors will buy all the questions. "Even with the questions, students
fail because they have not been taught . . . The students pay teachers all
year [for their private tutoring] but only study a week before the exam,"
according to the teacher. In turn the students pay the teacher more so
exams will be graded favorably.

In one department at a prestigious university, an estimated sixty to
seventy percent of all students are involved in this. Efforts to put a stop
to this affront to the education system by a limited number of concerned
faculty and students have met with resistance from administrators who want
to maintain the status quo and the source of supplemental income.
Enforcement of the law prohibiting teachers from teaching outside of class
has been selectively limited to dissenters.


Burma-watcher John Brandon writes, "Even if Burma was well endowed with
bureaucrats and military officials wanting to serve the public interest,
their lack of sufficient training would inhibit them from being able to
competently and fairly govern." This lack of education and exposure to the
rest of the world only exacerbates this problem. In the view of one
Rangoon-based diplomat, "The government can't afford to keep the schools
closed for much longer."

However, the diplomat sees an irony in this attempt to promote the
longevity of the regime. The prolonged closure has resulted in some
dissatisfaction among higher-ranking military officers. They are reaching
the age when their children should be in school, but the universities are
closed and they realize that this is not normal. 

Moe Gyo (pseudonym) is a member of the Irrawaddy editorial staff who
recently visited Burma. 

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AFP: MYANMAR JUNTA BLASTS AMNESTY AS DUPES OF TERRORISTS
30 June, 1999 

BANGKOK, June 30 (AFP) - Myanmar lashed out at human rights group Amnesty
International on Wednesday, saying its report on alleged abuses in the
military state was part of a "smear campaign" by ethnic terrorists. A junta
spokesman said Amnesty's report released earlier Wednesday was based on
interviews with "so-called refugees" who were in fact supporters of "ethnic
terrorist groups".

"These same terrorists are also exploiting Amnesty and using it as a
platform to attack the government in their smear campaign," the spokesman
said in a statement received here.

The Amnesty report focused on three remote border states -- home to Karen,
Shan and Karenni minorities -- and was based on interviews with refugees in
Thailand.

It accuses Myanmar's military of systematic human rights abuses in its
effort to suppress armed ethnic dissent in areas controlled or contested by
rebel armies.

Abuses detailed in the 50-page report included the torture of civilians,
use of slave labour, forced relocation of villages, and rape. It said there
were also reports of rights violations by the rebel armies.

All of the allegations against the junta have been widely documented by
Amnesty and various other human rights watchdogs as well as international
bodies such as the United Nations over a number of years.

Addressing only the issues of forced labour and relocation, the junta
spokesman denied the allegations.

He countered Amnesty's claim that children were forced to work on the
construction of a temple, saying their labour was voluntary.

"The workforce comes to participate of their own free will and according to
Buddhist belief ... This can in fact be regarded as freedom of religion,"
he said.

He said ethnic villagers were not being uprooted and forced to move as
claimed by the refugees in Amnesty's report. He said they were being
temporarily taken "out of harm's way".

"This is done to protect them from being terrorised by the armed insurgent
groups," he said.

The junta has signed a number of tenuous peace deals with ethnic armies
this decade but several remain staunchly opposed to the Yangon regime and
have continued their struggle for independent states or autonomous regions.


Many have sided with Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose
National League for Democracy (NLD) party won a sweeping victory in
elections in 1990 but has never been allowed to form a government.

In what has become a growing trend among observers of Myanmar's human
rights situation, Amnesty appealed to the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) to address the issue.

It urged ASEAN's ministerial meeting in Singapore next month to develop a
human rights strategy specifically targeting Myanmar.

"These (human rights) issues have become particularly acute since Myanmar's
admission (to ASEAN) in July 1997," the report said.

"ASEAN countries then claimed that such a move would encourage the (junta)
to improve its human rights record. In fact the opposite has been true."

Amnesty's report echoes claims by Aung San Suu Kyi that ASEAN membership
gave the junta new confidence to crack down on all forms of dissent,
including the NLD.

"After Burma became a member of ASEAN, the authorities have become much
more oppressive," Aung San Suu Kyi told AFP in May.

"It gave them confidence because once they got what they wanted, which was
full membership of ASEAN, there was no need for them to be good boys anymore."

An ASEAN ministerial labour meeting in the Myanmar's capital Yangon in May
refused to condemn child labour and did not officially discuss forced labour.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. 

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THE BANGKOK POST: EU PLANS MISSION ON RIGHTS IMPROVEMENT TO RANGOON 
30 June, 1999 by Nussara Sawatsawang

The European Union has floated a new initiative for dialogue with the
Burmese government in a bid to break a political deadlock between the
military junta and the opposition National League for Democracy, sources said.

Under the initiative, made known to Thailand last week, the EU is to send a
fact-finding team of senior officials to Rangoon to seek its co-operation
in improving its human rights record a source said.

The EU also hopes the mission would eventually lead to its mediating a
dialogue between the ruling State Peace and Development Council and NLD
leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the source added.

The idea is to send the mission to Burma before Asean foreign ministers
have their annual meeting in late July.

A senior Foreign Ministry official welcomed the EU initiative, saying it
was in line with Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan's recent proposal to
encourage EU-Burma dialogue. The EU is a strong critic of Burma's failure
to respect human rights and democracy.

But a German embassy spokesman played down the proposal, saying the EU was
still discussing the matter informally with its Asean counterparts.
Germany's hold over the EU's six-month presidency ends today.

An Asean diplomat said yesterday the success of the proposal would lie with
Rangoon, which has not responded to it so far. 

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NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR: DISCUSSIONS HELD ON MATTERS OF ENHANCING
CHINA-MYANMAR ECONOMIC COOPERATION 
30 June, 1999 


YANGON, 29 June - Leading Committee for Promotion of Economic Cooperation
between the Union of Myanmar and the People's Republic of China held the
third coordination meeting this morning at Office of the Commander-in-Chief
(Army), with an address by Chairman of the Leading Committee Secretary-1 of
the State Peace and Development Council Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt.

The Secretary-1 said the Leading Committee was formed after Chairman of the
State Peace and Development Council Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services
Senior General Than Shwe had completed his goodwill visit to China in 1996.

The goodwill delegation led by him and comprising ministers visited the PRC
from 7 to 11 June 1999 to further enhance the China-Myanmar economic
cooperation.

During the visit, he met with the State Councillor of PRC Mr Luo Gan,
Premier Mr Zhu Rongi, Vice-Premier Mr Wu Bangguo and other Chinese leaders
and had cordial discussions with them on implementing of the tasks under
the bilateral economic cooperation programmes and tasks to be extended.

Deputy Prime Minister Lt-Gen Tin Hla and ministers who were in the
delegation also held meetings with officials of the respective ministries
and companies of PRC.

All the discussions in China were successful as they were held with
constructive approach and understanding.

When all the results of these discussions were presented to the Senior
General, he (Senior General Than Shwe) gave work guidance to realize them.

Coordination should be made on ministry-wise tasks which must be
implemented by the collective efforts of all the ministries concerned.
Systematic plans should be made for speedy implementation of the plans.

Discussion should be centered on implementation of sector-wise plans.
Minister at the State Peace and Development Council Chairman's Office
Brig-Gen Abel reported on progress of tasks which are being implemented
under the Myanmar-China Cooperation Programme.

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