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The BurmaNet News: August 31, 1999



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

The BurmaNet News: August 31, 1999
Issue #1348

HEADLINES:
==========
ASIAWEEK: "SUU KYI MUST BE SINCERE" 
AFP: YANGON GRENADE ATTACK RESULT OF MARITAL DISPUTE 
BKK POST: REALIST ON THE RUN 
BKK POST: ARMY CLOSES THREE PASSES AFTER ATTACK 
BKK POST: BURMA BANKS ON NEIGHBORLY HELP 
THE NATION: EGAT WON'T MEET DEADLINE ON GAS TALKS 
*****************************************************

ASIAWEEK: "SUU KYI MUST BE SINCERE" 
3 September, 1999 by Roger Mitton 

SELLING THE JUNTA'S TOUGH LINE TO THE WORLD

At the ASEAN Regional Forum in July, Singapore Foreign Minister S.
Jayakumar noted that one of his counterparts was asked about the situation
in the latter's country. "The foreign minister, instead of bristling with
annoyance, gave a measured response," Jayakumar said. Everyone knew he was
referring to Myanmar's Win Aung. Unlike his often "bristling" predecessor
Ohn Gyaw, Win Aung, 55, took a gentle, measured tone in responding to barbs
from North American and European ministers at the ARF. Perhaps his 20 years
in the military and over a decade in diplomacy have prepared him well; he
had served in Laos, Singapore, Germany and Britain. He is close to Lt.-Gen.
Khin Nyunt, the regime's key strategist. Senior Correspondent Roger Mitton
spent an hour with Win Aung. Excerpts:

Roger Mitton: Why did you urge ASEAN to show solidarity if challenged?

Win Aung: We just mentioned it as a principle to which we all adhere in
ASEAN. There are things that outside the association might be done
differently, but inside we need to go along with certain guidelines. There
have been some people speaking about ASEAN being challenged and becoming
weak. That it is no longer a force that is to be reckoned with. We need to
show the world that we are not that way.

RM: The European Union objects to your presence at meetings, which is a
problem.

WA: Our colleagues in ASEAN have now come to a better understanding of our
situation. With the E.U. or with dialogue partners, we have gone as far as
we could. But our compromise will not be forever. It's so one-sided
sometimes. They would like to exclude us. It should not be a principle that
one can exclude another from the group. We are very united in this stand.
All ASEAN countries will come as a bloc, not minus one or two. The next
meeting will be in Europe; without our participation, there will not be a
meeting.

RM: How significant was the recent visit of an E.U. delegation to Myanmar?

WA: They came on a fact-finding mission. Our side explained the situation.
They met Lt.-Gen. Khin Nyunt, and then I received them. They met Aung San
Suu Kyi. Moreover, they discussed with the E.U. ambassadors in Yangon. They
will report their findings. We do not have anything against talking. I
would like to improve relations with not only Europeans but also Americans.

RM: Would you meet with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright?

WA: If she asked to meet me? I would not object. Yes, why not? Let us meet.

RM: Why did Myanmar oppose NATO action in Kosovo?

WA: We deeply deplored it. We do not want this action to be seen as a sort
of international precedent for action in other areas too.

RM: You fear interference in Myanmar?

WA: Yes, that is so. In the past, because of our very strategic location,
we were annexed by the British. Then in the Second World War, the Japanese
wanted Myanmar under their control. Even during the Cold War, we suffered
-- with the Chinese KMT forces and so on.

RM: Some say you are being dominated by China these days?

WA: It is not true. Our people are very independent, very pragmatic, very
self-reliant to the extent that we sometimes isolated ourselves. Regarding
China, when other people were not giving us a helping hand as we were
building our country, China came with help and understanding. Of course, we
consider a friend in need is a friend indeed. They are our close friends.
But close friends don't mean that one is going to dominate the other.

RM: You said recently that you would talk to Suu Kyi if she stopped
criticizing the government.

WA: I said for a dialogue to take place the first thing she needs to do is
stop attacking the government. She has been holding onto this policy of
confrontation and devastation that is threatening to the government. She
opposes whatever the government tries to do -- in agriculture, trade, the
economy is general, even our joining ASEAN.

RM: It seems you all have entrenched positions - and the people suffer.

WA: I don't agree. You say we are making the people secondary to
maintaining power? It's not so. I cannot speak for other people, but since
I became foreign minister, I have spent a lot of time, not for myself but
for the people, for the country. There is nothing to enjoy about it. Are we
withholding things from the people? Are we eating good food and enjoying
luxuries? We don't have time for that. Not even enough time for our own
families. The people's interest is our No. 1 priority.

RM: Well, the people endorsed Suu Kyi in the 1990 elections.

WA: We are building a nation. Let us have the people's reaction at that
time, when the Constitution emerges. Let's wait for that.

RM: Suu Kyi has compromised. She has told Asiaweek she no longer insists on
being present at the dialogue process. She has said it publicly.

WA: You know, for us, it is difficult to believe in that. When she was
saying that, at the same time she was attacking the government from other
angles. She has to show that she is really sincere in what she is talking
about.

RM: Still there is this implacable mistrust on both sides?

WA: Sincerity needs to created with deeds, not only with words. 

*****************************************************

AFP: YANGON GRENADE ATTACK RESULT OF MARITAL DISPUTE -- AUTHORITIES 
29 August, 1999 

BANGKOK, Aug 29 (AFP) - A hand grenade attack on the car of a Myanmar
military officer which injured two people was the result of a marital
dispute and not a political act, officials said Sunday. The Thailand-based
All Burma Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF) said the attack took place in
the capital Yangon on August 18, and speculated it may have been a result
of rivalry in the military. 

But official sources who acknowledged the incident said a woman had
confessed to throwing the grenade at her husband and a suspected lover. 

The officer, who was out of town, had allegedly lent his car to a married
businessman friend who used it to court another woman. 

The would-be Romeo and Juliet remain in hospital with serious, but not
fatal, injuries. 

The ABSDF statement said it was unclear who had thrown the grenade, but
that it was lobbed from the window of a passing car. 

[ ... ]

*****************************************************

THE BANGKOK POST: REALIST ON THE RUN 
29 August, 1999 by Ralph Bachoe 

FLEEING INTO EXILE --  Suppression forces one of Burma's most celebrated
novelists into exile

A renowned Burmese novelist escaped to Thailand last month after a 10-day
journey from the old capital of Mandalay.

Maung Tha Ya and his 24 year-old son, the youngest of his eight children,
are now seeking political asylum in the United States or Australia. The
69-year-old novelist hopes to resume his writing on realism.

The Mandalay native began his literary career in 1955 and gained popularity
for this flowery language and unique style. He soon switched his theme to
realism and won the National Literary Award in 1970 for his novel Standing
on the Road, Sobbing. 

Some of this his short stories and novels, including the award-winning
piece, have since been translated into English, Russian, Chinese, Japanese
and Hindi. As of 1989, he had completed 60 novels and penned about 300
short stories before the military junta banned his works. It was the same
year when Nobel Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi began her six years of house
arrest. 

So what made this patriotic intellectual, one of the founding members of
the All Burma Federation of Student Unions and the People's Youth of Burma
organization, decide to forsake his homeland and his two divorced wives and
seven children? 

"They [the military junta] cut off my hands when they took my pen away in
1989," he said, referring to his loss of income and his only form of
livelihood. "And they deprived me of my income totally, when they banned
reprints of all my works." 

The authorities also blacklisted the publication of the popular monthly
literary magazine Thaya, named after his pseudonym, of which he was
editor-in-chief and publisher. The magazine had a circulation of 6,000.

His works address the social, economic and political issues which touch the
daily lives of ordinary people such as taxi drivers, prostitutes, generals,
ministers, university students, former communists, prisoners, and the
dissidents subjected to suppression and interrogation. Maung Tha Ya's
prize-winning novel deals with social injustice, focusing on the life and
struggle of a taxi driver during the Sixties. The service was then run by
the government. Fares, he wrote, seldom looked at the face of a taxi driver
and at times wrongly accused them of being dishonest.

He cited an incident when one unfortunate cabbie was disciplined by his
immediate superior, and then by the authorities of the Motor Vehicle
Department. His alleged crime was not returning or reporting some
belongings a passenger left in his vehicle. In fact, it turned out the
plaintiff had given the wrong licence plate number to the police. A taxi
driver, he wrote, has to also deal with all types of passenger: the
depressed, the happy, the drunk, the arrogant, and the boisterous.

Another novel, also popular with the public but which drew the ire of the
top echelon in the government, was When Married to a King, One Becomes a
Queen. Likewise, he explained when one marries a beggar, one becomes the
wife of a beggar. He weaved his story around this Burmese proverb.

The novel runs into three chapters. The first deals with how and why one
turns to prostitution. The second goes on to explain a life of hardship a
prostitute has to endure.

The last chapter describes the marriage of a prostitute to a high-ranking
minister, and with it the status and perks.

"All three characters in his novel are one and the same," he said.

At the time it was published, Gen Ne Win had married (his fourth) June Rose
Bellamy, a beautiful Anglo-Burmese whom he had met during his oversea
travels. She is said to have been of Burmese royal blood and was born in
Maymyo and brought up in Europe. Her Burmese name is Yadana Nat-me
(pronounced Nat-mair). The name roughly translates as "a jewel of an
angel". The marriage didn't last long and Ne Win went on to re-marry again. 

Talking about the life of writers and poets in Burma, he said it is
difficult for those who are not members of the Writers and Journalists
Association which is backed by the military government. The association has
about 10,000 members or about 25% of the number of writers and poets in the
country.

These people, he says, earn a decent living and are free to travel abroad
and within the country with expenses provided by the government. They are
even given plots of land as "bribes" to build houses. These are the ones
who toe the government line by avoiding subjects such as social ills that
plague the country. For example, he says they never write about poverty,
prostitution or the countless number of beggars in the country. 

Instead they concentrate on stories dealing with romance, detectives, myths
about religion and spiritualism, and translating Shao Lin novels. The
government insists that prostitution and begging do not exist in Burma. 

Yet he says, he had once written about university girls going "astray" by
being forced to take up "extracurricular" activities to help support their
studies during a period when the country was embroiled in all sorts of
controversies. And beggars do exist, he insisted. 

"Most of the people are getting poorer and poorer, so they have to beg," he
said. Beggars, he explained, take on many appearances. Judging from the way
they are dressed one could tell they are of middle class and are educated.
But they are begging.

"They approach you discreetly and almost in a whisper say, 'Please help me,
I have nothing to eat'." Some beg for fares to return home or to help cover
medical expenses.

Maung Tha Ya's worries of being arrested sooner or later began 10 years
ago. At the fifth news conference after the Sept 18, 1988 takeover by the
State Law and Order Restoration Council, Gen Khin Nyunt (lieutenant
colonel) said a well-known writer had received a message from the
underground to get involved in a mass movement to topple the government.
However, he did not reveal the source or sources who had allegedly written
to the writer or who the writer was. All the regime said was that it is
impossible the particular writer was not involved. It was alleged that Gen
Khin Nyunt said: "This person is too clever to give the military
intelligence any hint of his involvement in the mass movement." 

>From then on, he was a marked man and was placed under close surveillance
by military intelligence. And his physical appearance and popularity didn't
help. It made it easier for the officials to keep track of him. His bald
head, which he started shaving after turning 50, and pictures or
caricatures of him were always carried in the journals that printed his
articles. Another reason he stuck out like a sore thumb is that he's always
in the company of younger people.

"So most of the people know me, like I was a movie star," he chuckles. He
claims that wherever he goes, he's recognized within a few hours. He said
he was taken aback when a man in his thirties confronted him after his
recent arrival in Mae Sot. "Are you not Maung Tha Ya?" he asked. 

Of political affiliations, he says, he had none. "But the people,
especially the military government, perceive me to have links." It is
because of his writings, he explains, which cover all aspects of life in
his country. However, he does admit to being an admirer of Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi. 

"Daw Suu" he says, "is most qualified to lead our country. But she can't
move or talk to the people any more. She now has to rely on the foreign
media to get the message across to the people in the country." He also said
it was time the military and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi sat down to talks and
thrash out their differences for the betterment of the people and the country.

Despite his preference for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as a leader, he adamantly
declares he is not a politician. "I am a writer. I want to write about life
and I want to do so freely in a free environment."

*****************************************************

THE BANGKOK POST: ARMY CLOSES THREE PASSES AFTER ATTACK 
30 August, 1999 by Supamart Kasem

RETALIATION AGAINST KAREN RAID ON VILLAGE

Mae Sot, Tak -- Thailand yesterday closed three temporary border passes in
Mae Sot district in retaliation for an attack by Democratic Karen Buddhist
Army soldiers on a Thai border village on Saturday morning.

The closure order was signed by Col Chayuti Boonparn, commander of the
Fourth Infantry Regiment Task Force. The three checkpoints are at Ban Rai
Don Chai, Ban Mae Kumai Tha Sung and Ban Mae Konken.

Col Chayuti, who is also chairman of the local Thai-Burmese Border
Committee, said the passes were closed for safety reasons. The passage of
boats carrying passengers and goods via the here border passes has come to
a halt.

Col Chayuti said that Lt-Col Tin Ngwe, chairman of the local TBC of
Myawaddy, denied any knowledge of the attack and promised to investigate.

*****************************************************

THE BANGKOK POST: BURMA BANKS ON NEIGHBORLY HELP 
30 August, 1999 by Imtiaz Muqbil

TRAVEL MONITOR

Rangoon -- Burma is pushing to take advantage of its recent membership in
Asean to boost visitor arrivals from the region and ease the stifling
impact of investment sanctions. A meeting of Asean national tourism
organizations held in Rangoon last week capped a number of other sectoral
Asean meetings held in the past few months as Burma seeks to raise its
profile in the 10-member bloc.

Delegates to all the Asean meetings have received red-carpet welcomes. They
have breezed through customs and immigration and been exempted from the
compulsory conversion of US$300 into local Foreign Exchange Certificates.

Between April 1998 and March 1999, visitor arrivals from Malaysia, Thailand
and Singapore, the three Asean countries with which Burma has direct
flights, made up 19% of the total arrivals of 200,350. Including Japan,
Taiwan, China and others, arrivals from Asian countries made up 63% of the
total. European visitors made up 26% of total tourist arrivals.

In 1996, Visit Myanmar Year, there were great hopes that tourism would
climb steadily into the 21st century. The 28-day visa was implemented,
hotel investment applications encouraged and more previously-closed areas
opened up for tourism.

But the Asian economic crisis and the European-North American investment
embargo, both of which followed each other in quick succession in 1997,
reduced the number of arrivals The subsequent flattening of foreign
exchange earnings has left Rangoon little money for tourism infrastructure
development or marketing.

International standard hotels in Rangoon report occupancies of 20-22% in
the year to date; as against the 35-40% they would need to break even.
High-yield business travel has been hit by the sanctions and there are
almost no meetings or small conferences.

No new international-class hotel has opened this year. At least six hotels
are stuck halfway. Since the crisis began, only two new hotel investment
applications have been received, each near the border areas of Tachilek and
Ranong, where checkpoints have been opened to allow third-country citizens
to cross over from Thailand. Rangoon hotels are battling for market share.
"There is no such thing as a profit margin," said Arbind Shrestha, general
manager of the 500-room Traders Hotel, part of the Shangri-La group. The
group invested $85 million in Traders and has suspended a Shangri-La brand
property that would have involved another $200 million investment.

Mr. Shrestha says that in spite of incurring huge infrastructure costs -
water, electricity and telephone bills are about four to five times higher
than in Thailand - Traders is breaking even with 28% year-to-date
occupancy, mainly by cost savings in the lean periods. This often involves
closing off several floors when business dips.

A 38-year-old American of Nepalese origin, Mr. Shrestha agrees with the
Ministry of Hotels and Tourism that the future lies in tapping into key
regional centers, mainly Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur.
The direct flights from these cities facilitate the tapping of the large
upper/middle-class markets, especially expatriates. Asean tour operators
face no pressure or backlash from Burmese dissident groups, as many
European and North American tour operators do when they try and organize
holidays to Burma.

If Burma can get even 1% of the total visitor arrivals into Thailand, for
example, that would be another 80,000 tourists. Burma tourism authorities
are seeking help from the Tourism Authority of Thailand to promote Burma
holidays, which the TAT is happy to do. It fits in with the overall concept
of promoting tourism in the Greater Mekong Subregion and does not in any
way contradict Thailand's official policy of "constructive engagement" with
Burma. 

Indeed, a group of Burma hotels and tour operators are due in Bangkok on
September 27 for a sales trip, the second such mission in as many years.
That will be preceded by a sales trip to Hong Kong, coinciding with the
first International Travel Asia show in early September.

Last year, Burma tourism companies did a promotion in Singapore where they
got free exhibition space in the ballroom of the Shangri-La hotel, thanks
to the Kuok family, which owns the Shangri-La chain. Thai-Burmese hotel
entrepreneur Robert Thein Pe, group managing director of Thailand's Baiyoke
Hotels, gives similar support in Thailand. 

Burmese tourism officials admit they have no marketing money. The total
marketing budget for 1999-2000 is only five million kyat which is unchanged
over 1998-99 and will do little beyond funding the publication of a few
brochures. 

To alleviate the shortage, the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism has approved
the formation of a tourism promotion board in cooperation with the private
sector. This will allow hotels and tour operators to start putting together
some seed money to raise Burma's marketing profile. 

In exchange, however, the private sector is demanding that authorities
relax the two major tourism bottle-necks: Visa requirements and the
forcible conversion of $300 into Foreign Exchange Certificates for all
business travelers.

Burmese authorities are giving the thumbs-down to both, at least for the
moment. The visa requirements are intended to keep out "undesirable"
elements who could make trouble for the country, though what good they
actually do is questionable.

And the FEC conversion is an attempt to prevent the leakage of foreign
exchange into the black market where the dollar fetches several hundred
more kyat than the official conversion rate. The biggest Sword of Damocles
is the threat of demonstrations, which naturally generate global media
coverage and lead to another hiccup in visitor arrivals. 

Burmese authorities say the most potent antidote to this is word-of-mouth
publicity by visitors who have no interest in Burma's domestic politics,
visit the country, enjoy its cultural and culinary attractions and go back
and tell their friends and colleagues that things are "not as bad as the
media make them out to be".

As long as the military keeps the streets peaceful, tourism authorities
hope that a little help from their friends in Asia and Asean will do the rest.

*****************************************************

THE NATION: EGAT WON'T MEET DEADLINE ON GAS TALKS
30 August, 1999 by Watcharapong Thongrung

The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) said it would not
be able to conclude talks on the natural-gas purchase contract for the
Ratchaburi power plant with the Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT) by
the end of this month as required by the Cabinet's resolution last week.

An Egat executive said there were many issues yet to be agreed by Egat and
the PTT, specifically how to share the burden derived from the delay in
taking gas from the producer in Burma with whom PTT signed a contract.

"Who should be responsible for the additional cost as a result of higher
electricity charges, Egat, the PTT or the public?" asked the Egat source,
who asked for anonymity.

Because of the construction delay of Egat's Retchaburi power plant, the PTT
will face an estimated interest charge totaling US$ 140 million for its
delay in taking as delivery from the producer, according to a Cabinet
document. 

Under the take-or-pay contract with the Yadana gas developers, PTT must pay
for the contractual amounts even it has not fully taken it. But the PTT is
allowed to accumulate the unused amounts of gas for utilization later.

Industry Minister Suwat Liptapanlop said PTT is currently absorbing the
burden as a result of the delay in the construction of the Ratchaburi power
plant. Therefore Egat should speed up the conclusion of the gas purchase
contract with PTT as well as the plant's construction, he added. 

Suwat said Egat officials had confirmed to the Cabinet at the meeting on
Aug 24 that the Ratchaburi plant would be readied for commissioning in
December.

The Cabinet has also allowed Egat to cooperate with the PTT in making the
gas supply contract between the two agencies in line with the conditions
attached to the gas supply contract between the PTT and the producer. 

Earlier Egat said government authorities were considering whether Thailand
should try to speed up the utilization of Burmese gas, which is priced
higher than domestic gas, or whether it would be cheaper for the country to
pay for the cost of delay in taking gas delivery, Commissioning of the
Ratchaburi power plant would amount to additional costs for Egat,
considering the oversupply in power capacity and the extra burden could be
passed on to the consumers.

The Cabinet's Aug 24 resolution indicated that the government realized that
it would be better for the country to speed up the utilization of the
Burmese gas.

Suwat said the government was urging Egat to speed up its talks with the
PTT as the PTT had concluded an amendment to the gas purchase contract it
signed with the Yadana gas producer. 

The PTT succeeded in amending the Yadana gas purchase contract in its
latest round of negotiations with the project developers, held on July 21
and 22. The gas producer agreed to reduce the gas payment for the 1998
contractual amounts to US$ 50.5 million from $62 million in compensation
for the lower heating value of the gas it delivered.

The PTT said the payment for 1999 would depend on a legal interpretation on
whether the delay of the Ratchaburi power plant was attributed to a valid
reason or no. If it proves avoidable, the PTT will have to pay $300 million
for the contractual amount of gas for 1999 minus a $20 discount for the
lower quality of gas. This projection assumes that Egat could start up the
Ratchaburi power plant in December. Egat said the commissioning
postponement of the Ratchaburi plant was the result of a delay in the
delivery of equipment by General Electric, the supplier for contractor
Mitsui & Co. 

The Cabinet said the construction of the Ratchaburi power plant and the
conclusion of the Egat-PTT gas supply contract should be speeded up to
minimize impact on the PTT and the country as a whole as well as to meet
the privatization policy.

Egat sources claimed the delay in finalizing the gas purchase contract also
stemmed from the PTT's failure to present Egat with a pricing formula and
details of its plan to pool the Burmese gas with the domestic gas network.
PTT governor Viset Choopiban said the PTT did not intend to use the
Cabinet's resolution to force Egat to comply with its demand.

"The unsettled issues are not the problem. Our objective is to have a
guideline in principle for the contract," he said 

Egat said the Ratchaburi complex would need two contracts, for the thermal
power units and the combined-cycle units. 

According to the Yadana gas contract, the PTT had to start buying Burmese
gas in July 1998 at an initial volume of 65 million cubic feet per day,
rising to 525 mmcfd over the following 15 months.

*****************************************************