[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

The BurmaNet News: September 14, 19 (r)



Subject: The BurmaNet News: September 14, 1999

---------------------- BurmaNet ------------------------
 Catch the latest news about Burma at www.burmanet.org
--------------------------------------------------------

The BurmaNet News: September 14, 1999
Issue #1358

HEADLINES:
==========
SHAN: JUNTA BEEFING UP MILITIA TO COUNTER SSA
FEER: GO FIGURE 
REUTERS: BRITISH DIPLOMAT SEES WOMAN IN MYANMAR JAIL 
FEER: DRUG TIDE STRAINS TIES 
BKK POST: MYAWADDY CROSSING CLOSED 
FEER: AUSTRALIA COUNTS COSTS 
BC: AXWORTHY PRESSED TO GET BURMA ON AGENDA 
BKK POST: NEIGHBOR UNDER THE MICROSCOPE 
ANNOUNCEMENT: NEW KHRG EMAIL ADDRESS 
****************************************************************

SHAN HERALD AGENCY FOR NEWS: JUNTA BEEFING UP MILITIA TO COUNTER SHAN
STATES ARMY 
13 September, 1999 

The (SPDC) military commanders in northern Shan States have been trying to
reorganize both the Shan militia and ceasefire groups to counter the Shan
States Army's northern expeditionary force, said Yawdserk, the SSA's
commander-in-chief.

Yawdserk, during the recent interview on 8 September, told SHAN that Bo
Mon, the militia chief of Loimaw, has already received 200 assorted weapons
from the SPDC (State Peace and Development Council) commanders.

"They also considered appointing Yang Moyong, also an-ex-MTA Chinese
officer, to take over the militia operations against Moengzuen (the
expeditionary force's commander), but the field officers refused to accept
his leadership", he said.

"The two ceasefire groups, the Shan State Army (a.k.a Shan States Army
North, commander by Loimao) and the Shan State National Army (a.k.a Shan
States Army Central, commanded by Gunyord) have been given three choices by
the Northeastern Command: To persuade the SSA to withdraw; to attack the
SSA; or to remain inside the Hsengkeo area (where the three brigades of the
SSA-N set up their General Headquarters)".

"Meanwhile, the junta's idea is to stay back and observe how thing are
developing. They are limiting their campaign against our troops merely to
patrols and surveillances and not much on actual armed engagements".

An observer from Thailand later remarked that the Burmese were betting
rivalries and disagreements would develop among the Shan groups that might
lead to eventual armed clashes "which suited the junta".

"The Shan State Peace Committee (joint leadership of the SSA-N and the
SSNA) is trying the first choice i.e. persuading me to leave. But the local
people are saying we should not," said Yawdserk.

Responding to an inquiry about the military situation, he said, "There are
few engagements, as our primary aim itself is not to wage a military
campaign as yet, but to organize the people". Asked about possible forced
relocations, he replied, "As yet I have received no reports about removing
the people from their homes, although there are a lot of abuses committed
against them".

Militia leaders, who were suspected of collaborating with the SSA, were
arrested and tortured, he added. Among them was Khun Yawdmoeng, son of the
late Prince of Moengtawn and stepbrother of Khun Sa.

[S.H.A.N. is a non-profit making, independent Shan media group. It is not
affiliated to any political or armed organizations.]  

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

FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW: GO FIGURE
16 September, 1999 

Burma's economic figures are so bad that the government is not publishing a
statistical yearbook for 1998-99. The government normally issues a volume
in Burmese and English every July containing the country's latest
import-export figures and other economic data. But this year, no statistics
will be published in any language. The Burmese authorities have even
started to withdraw from circulation the report for fiscal 199798. 

The reasons are unclear but Burma watchers surmise that the government is
embarrassed to release information confirming Burma's abysmal economic
performance over the past year. Industrial production has plunged, foreign
investment is down to a trickle and prices of daily commodities are rising
fast.

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

REUTERS: BRITISH DIPLOMAT SEES WOMAN IN MYANMAR JAIL 
13 September, 1999 by David Brunnstrom 

BANGKOK, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Myanmar's military government allowed a
British consular official to see a 28-year-old British woman in Yangon's
notorious Insein Jail on Monday, a week after she was detained for a
pro-democracy protest. 

The British embassy said Londoner Rachel Goldwyn, arrested on September 7
after tying herself to a lamp-post in central Yangon and shouting
pro-democracy slogans, was "in good spirits." 

"She's being treated well and has access to a doctor," said a British
embassy spokesperson. 

The authorities had still given no indication whether she would be charged
and British ambassador John Jenkins had requested a meeting with Deputy
Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win, the official said. The embassy also said
the government had agreed to let British and Australian officials visit a
dual national jailed for 17-years for illegal entry and carrying
pro-democracy leaflets. 

It said they expected to see James Mawdsley, 26, from Lancashire, in jail
in the town of Kengtung on Wednesday. Mawdsley has been held in the remote
northeastern town for the past two weeks. 

The British consul was denied access to Mawdsley after travelling to see
him the weekend after he was jailed. 

"We are very pleased access has now been granted," said Australian
ambassador Lyndall McClean. 

What representations the embassies made would depend on what the activists
wanted them to do, the British official said. "In these situations all the
major decisions are up to the persons themselves, so it wouldn't be up to
us to push for deportation." 

It was Mawdsley's third arrest in Myanmar for pro-democracy activism. Last
year he was sentenced to five years for illegal entry but freed after 99
days following appeals by the embassies and his parents and a promise he
would not return. 

The government has said it could not be lenient this time. 

While it has not yet announced any charge against Goldwyn, it has said she
was detained for breaching national security laws. 

On Monday, the government's daily information sheet quoted a letter from
Kyaw Kyaw Win, whom it described as a Myanmar historian, on the two Britons
in response to one published in the Times newspaper. 

He described them as "criminal mercenaries" and said Goldwyn "entered the
country under false pretences bent on sedition and must face the
consequences of her illegal actions." 

Before leaving England, Goldwyn left a letter for her parents saying she
expected to be back in about two weeks as she would be deported. But the
British Broadcasting Corporation quoted friends as saying she feared rape
and torture in jail. 

On Friday, authorities freed two Australian men who had served a few months
of 10-year sentences, one for a narcotics offence and another for failing
to declare gemstones. 

Myanmar's military does not tolerate dissent and has been widely criticised
for rights abuses since taking direct power in 1988 by killing thousands to
crush a pro-democracy uprising. It then ignored the last general election
in 1990 when the opposition National League for Democracy won by a landslide. 

Diplomats estimate authorities have arrested more than 100 activists in
Yangon and others in the provinces over the past month to prevent an
uprising dissidents called for last week. 

Dissidents put the number of arrests at about 500 while the government has
reported fewer than 40. 

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

FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW: DRUG TIDE STRAINS TIES 
9 September, 1999 by Shawn S. Crispin in San Ton Du, Santi Suk, and Chiang
Mai and Bertil Lintner in Chiang Mai 

Santi Suk, a small village near the Burmese border in northern Thailand,
has a drug problem. Thai military officials say it's the "nerve centre" of
the country's rapidly expanding and increasingly damaging amphetamine
trade. But Banyen Wachirabanpotkul, the 32 year old village head, denies
it. "Do you see a drug problem here," she screams from her front porch when
confronted with the military's allegations. "There is no problem here."

Bangkok, however, disagrees. Thai military sources stationed 10 kilometres
south of the village say Santi Suk is a clearing house for vast quantities
of amphetamines, known as yaa baa, or crazy medicine, in Thai. They say the
drugs are smuggled over the densely forested Wa Wee mountain range from
Burma and distributed throughout the country from the village. Western
narcotics officials based in the northern city of Chiang Mai estimate that
millions of yaa baa tablets flood into Thailand every month, mostly from
Wa-controlled areas of Burma's Shan State. "There's no end in sight," says
a Western narcotics official in Chiang Mai. "Drugs are everywhere."

And they are taking a heavy toll on the country. A recent report by the
Thai Development Research Institute in Chiang Mai stated that Thailand now
has at least 257,000 yaa baa addicts, surpassing the country's 214,000
heroin addicts. Another recent study, by the Ministry of Public Health,
found traces of amphetamines in the blood of more than 35 % of students at
a middle school in Chiang Rai province. The drugs are also driving a thick
wedge between the Thai and Burmese governments, threatening the
rapprochement reached via Burma's accession into the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations in 1997 and Bangkok's withdrawal of assistance to
many of the rebel ethnic groups fighting Rangoon's military government.

Although the official rhetoric remains upbeat, the growing bilateral
tension was palpable on August 24 when Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan
met Win Aung, his Burmese counterpart, in Rangoon to urge the junta to step
up joint antinarcotics efforts. Surin even went so far as to suggest that
the countries' anti-drug forces undergo joint training exercises with the
US. Drug Enforcement Agency. Bangkok-based diplomats say the Thais were
discouraged by Rangoon's response and its insistence that the amphetamines
don't come from Burma. Rather than a hoped for pact on narcotics control,
Surin returned to Bangkok with an agreement on cultural cooperation.

"When we talk about joining hands, the talk stops when we mention yaa baa,"
says a Thai soldier based at San Ton Du, a recently closed border crossing
just south of Santi Suk.

For decades, Thailand was able to pressure the junta through its unofficial
ties to, and support of, the various ethnic insurgents along their 2,100
kilometre border. But in the early 1990s, Thai policy changed course and
the government withheld assistance to ethnic groups as Burma squashed the
rebellions. Now, with Burma's entry into Asean and the effect of the
economic crisis on the1bai economy, Bangkok has lost much of its political
and economic leverage over Rangoon. "For constructive engagement to work a
country must have bargaining authority," says a Western diplomat in
Bangkok. "Thailand is fast finding it doesn't have any."

This fading influence has translated into less pressure on drug lords in
eastern Burma, according to Thai military sources. In Burma's Shan State,
north of Santi Suk, it's the Wa people who run the amphetamine trade. And
their tentacles reach deep into Thailand. Banyen, the village head, is the
daughter of Ai Siow Seu, founder of the United Wa State Army, which took
control of parts of Shan State in the mid1990s after helping the Burmese
army defeat drug lord Khun Sa.

Thai military sources say a growing number of local government and military
officials have been corrupted by the drug trade. "There's just too much
money involved," says Col. Sutat Jarumanee, chief of staff of the Thai 17th
Infantry Regiment task force at San Ton Du and one of several professional
soldiers sent to the area in recent months to fight the flood of
amphetamines. "Unfortunately it's making many of my honest men dishonest."

The worsening situation in the northern provinces has pushed Bangkok to
action. On August 6,Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai presided over the
closing of the border crossing at San Ton Du. The closure was ordered by
the Thai National Security Council, which has identified the drug trade as
a threat to national security. Col. Sutat says the border crossing was long
used to ship amphetamines and construction materials to and from Mong Yawn,
a Wa-controlled area 30 kilometres inside Burma.

Burma denies that amphetamines are made on its territory. Col. Thein Swe, a
Burmese military intelligence officer, was quoted in an official transcript
of a news conference in Rangoon on August 6 as saying that Burma doesn't
manufacture the "chemicals and machines" necessary to produce amphetamines.
He said the Wa tribesmen who run Mong Yawn are in fact busy turning the
area into an "opium-free zone."

Nothing could be further from the truth, say Thai and Western
anti-narcotics officials. They say Mong Yawn is the site of the largest
collection of heroin and amphetamine laboratories along the Thai-Burma
border. The lucrative drug trade, they say, has allowed the Wa to carve out
of the thick jungle a thriving town of 20,000-30,000 people, complete with
schools, hospitals, a new hydroelectric power station and even karaoke
bars. "The junta hasn't wiped them out because they are receiving money
from them," says Sutat, the head of the Thai drug task force at San Ton Du.

Western anti-narcotics officials estimate the Burmese amphetamine trade is
worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year. They say Pao Yuwa, a younger
brother of Pao Yuchang, supreme commander of the United Wa State Army, runs
the HoTao drug complex on the Burmese border with China. An older brother,
Ta Rang, is chief administrator of the area around Mong Yawn. Western
anti-drug officials estimate the annual turnover of the Pao family's drug
operation at about 2 billion renminbi ($240 million). Wei XueGang, a
China-born drug lord who was indicted by a court in New York in 1993 for
drug trafficking and is wanted by the Thai police, is also active in Burma.

Wei, the founder of the Mong Yawn settlement, has invested millions of
dollars in mineral smelting, retail trading and logging during the past
year in what one Western drug enforcement official calls "the biggest money
laundering operation in Southeast Asia today."

Thai military officials believe Wei and his men are moving some of their
operations further south in the wake of the closure of the San Ton Du
border crossing.

These developments have left Thai authorities desperately seeking help from
Rangoon to stem the influx of amphetamines. But since the junta has
economic interests in the trade, such assistance, so far, has been with
held. When Burma joined Asean in 1997, Thailand hoped membership would
encourage the junta to increase pressure on drug lords and expand efforts
to end drug trafficking. At the same time, many analysts noted that the
junta's complicity in the narcotics trade was the greatest potential cause
of friction within the group.

"We hoped that the Asean norms would force Myanmar [Burma] to conform,"
says Bhansoon Ladavalya, a professor of political science at Chiang Mai
University and former member of Thailand's National Security Council. "But
already two years have passed by and we haven't seen any progress in that
direction." Bhansoon, who is studying the effect of the drug trade on Thai
politics and the economy, says other Asean members aren't taking a harder
line on the issue because of the group's tradition of noninterference in
members' internal affairs.

Western diplomats say that given the worsening drug problem in Thailand,
the government may soon be pressed to find new ways to turn back the tide
of amphetamines from Burma. The nearly 100,000 Karen refugees still
languishing at Mae Sot in western Thailand represent one possible
bargaining chip. If the junta remains unwilling or unable to suppress the
flow of drugs into Thailand, unofficially rearming Burmese ethnic
minorities opposed to the Wa, such as the Karen and Shan, may become an
increasingly attractive option. Indeed, the Shan Herald Agency for News,
which is run by Shan exiles in Chiang Mai, has reported that remnants of
Shan forces defeated by the Wa in 1994 have recently received arms from
their "old Thai friends."

If such activity becomes more prevalent and the Thai authorities choose to
turn a blind eye, conflict could flare again on the Thai-Burmese border.

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

THE BANGKOK POST: MYAWADDY CROSSING CLOSED
10 September, 1999 by Supamart Kasem 

Burma yesterday (Thursday) suddenly closed the border crossing between
Myawaddy and Mae Sot district, saying it was a security precaution.

Thai immigration and customs officials were surprised to see the friendship
bridge, the legitimate crossing between the two towns, blocked in the
middle by several empty oil drums.

An immigration official said authorities were not notified in advance.

He said they were advised later the closure was a precautionary measure by
Rangoon to prevent possible attacks by rebels. It was not known when the
border would reopen.

About 100 Burmese men who claimed to be members of the People's Liberation
Front Mae Sot branch gathered on the Moei river bank in Ban Rim Moei, Mae
Sot, yesterday carrying banners condemning the Burmese junta and demanding
democracy in Burma.

Anti-government leaflets and stickers were also distributed to passers-by.

The protest lasted about an hour before it was dispersed by police, who
held several protesters for questioning.

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

FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW: AUSTRALIA COUNTS COSTS 
9 September, 1999 by Bertil Lintner in Sydney

Australia has emerged as a major destination for Burmese narcotics.
Australian police say a plentiful supply of heroin has led to a dramatic
rise in overdose deaths among the nation's estimated 45,000 addicts. They
say as many as 1,000 people could die this year from heroin overdoses --
40% more than in 1998. Now amphetamines from Burma are also reaching
Australia.

The volume of the drug traffic was made apparent last October, when
Australian authorities seized 400 kilograms of pure heroin off the northern
coast of New South Wales. The record haul, almost three times the amount of
heroin seized in all of Australia in 1997, had an estimated street value of
A$400 million ($255 million). Australian Federal Police sources say the
drugs originated in the Burmese area of the Golden Triangle.

Police say rising production of heroin in northern Burma has led to a
decline in wholesale and street prices in Australia. The lower prices, in
turn, have led many dealers to stop diluting their heroin, creating a much
purer and deadlier product. A kilogram of pure heroin now costs less than
A$100,000 in Australia, down from A$200,000 just five years ago. On the
streets of Cabramatta, a Sydney suburb that is now the hub of the drug
trade on Australia's east coast, a 20-milligram capsule of heroin costs
between A$15 and A$20, down from A$30 last year.

Exactly how much heroin is available in Australia isn't known. But the
limited impact on heroin prices after the October seizure unnerved
narcotics experts. "We expected a shortage in the streets of Cabramatta,
and therefore an increase in the price of heroin," says Lisa Maher, a
criminologist at the University of New South Wales and an expert on the
drug trade. "But it had no impact at all. Prices remained the same. There's
just so much of it around."

Recently, Australian police made their first seizure of amphetamines from
Burma. Details of the consignment remain sketchy, but a senior Australian
Federal Police officer says it consisted of the small, round yaa baa pills
that are flooding into northern Thailand from Burma.

Given the vast sums of money the drug trade generates and a profusion of
smuggling routes, Australian narcotics officials say they fear Thai
government efforts to stem the flow of drugs out of Burma may have little
effect.

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

BURMA COURIER: AXWORTHY PRESSED TO GET BURMA ON SECURITY COUNCIL AGENDA 
8 September, 1999 

QUEBEC, Sept 8 -- Thirty three legislators from across Canada have
co-signed a letter to Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy urging him to put
Burma on the agenda of the UN's Security Council.

The legislators come from nine of Canada's eleven provinces as well as its
three northern territories.  Their concern over the urgency of the
situation in Burma resulted from a presentation by Deputy Speaker Bill
Hartley of the BC provincial legislature at the Canadian section of the
Commonwealth Parliamentary Union (CPU) which met in Quebec City in August.

In his address, Hartley told CPU members of his experience in drafting and
piloting through the BC legislature a bi-partisan motion of support for
Burma's Committee Representing the People's Parliament and tried to
describe something of the horror inside Burma today, focusing particularly
on the increased level of repression by the military over the past year and
the failure of ASEAN's policy of constructive engagement.  He also brought
forward the matter of drugs and the effect that Burmese heroin was having
on the youth in his own community.  Hartley urged the delegates to help the
international community to break the stalemate with Burma's generals.

In the prolonged discussion which followed his presentation, it was agreed
to carry this matter to the international session of the CPU which will
take place in Trinidad and Tobago on September 20.

But many delegates promised to pursue the matter of a Burma resolution in
their own provincial legislatures, as well.   Especially noteworthy was the
strong support shown by Speakers and Deputy Speakers of the legislatures of
Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, Saskatchewan,
Alberta and the new northern territory of Nunavut.  Representatives from
the Yukon and the Northwest Territories also supported the Burma initiative.

Free Burma groups across Canada will have their work cut out for them in
the coming months to develop community awareness around Burma issues and
cultivate contacts with provincial lawmakers that will help to build
momentum for Burma resolutions in other provinces and territories.  Burma
Watch International in Edmonton has already made important headway and the
Toronto Roundtable has taken advantage of the visit of U Bo Hla Tint of the
NCGUB for 9-9-99 events to meet with key leaders of parties in the Ontario
legislature.

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

THE BANGKOK POST: NEIGHBOR UNDER THE MICROSCOPE 
11 September, 1999 

BOOK REVIEW:  EASY- TO - READ STUDY OF THE BURMESE GOVERNMENT'S HANDLING OF
ETHNIC MINORITIES

THE BURMESE GOVERNMENT AND THE ETHNIC MINORITY GROUPS by Pornpimon Trichot.
The Thailand Research Fund, 1999. 290pp. 295 baht

Rangoon's cease-fire agreements with ethnic minority groups, a main
political development in Burma during the 1990s, goes under the microscope
in this book by a Thai researcher who has made a career of following Burma
issues.

Pornpimon Trichot, of Chulalongkorn University's Institute of Asia Studies,
looks at conflicts between the military rulers and the non-Burmese people,
and analyses approaches Rangoon has employed to deal with the problem of
minorities.

Between 1989 and 1994, the Burmese government, then known as the State Law
and Order Restoration Council (Slorc), successfully reached cease-fire
deals with 15 out of 16 minority groups in the country.

Under the deals, the groups were required to lay down arms in exchange for
development assistance from the government. They were allowed to maintain
some troops for self-defence and continue trade activities, mainly carried
out along borders areas with neighbouring countries.

But peace and unity remained far from reality in Burma. In 1995, Slorc
launched attacks against the Karenni National Progressive Party despite
their cease-fire deal earlier in the year. The junta also seized two
strongholds of the Karen National Union, the strongest ethnic group in
Burma, while negotiations were still going on.

The book attempts to give an overall picture of Rangoon's political
strategies towards ethnic minority groups. These include internal and
external factors that compelled the Burmese government to offer the truce,
the changing attitudes of military leaders, the fragile nature of the
cease-fire, and the return to the use of force under the "four-cut" policy
to suppress the armed insurgents and innocent ethnic people. This policy
calls for weakening opposition forces through cuts in their sources of
food, manpower, funding and intelligence.

After conducting her own interviews with several minority leaders, Ms
Pornpimon attributes the failure of the cease-fire policy to lack of
sincerity from both sides, the government and the ethnic minority groups.

Slorc failed to make a real breakthrough because it refused to hold
political dialogue after the cease-fire. The ethnic minority groups, for
their part, entered into the deals simply because they were poor and weary
of  decades of civil war.

Therefore, the chance of the "cease-fire" policy itself helping resolve
conflict between the Burmese government and the ethnic minority groups is
dim, Ms Pornpimon concludes.

The cease-fire agreement, she adds, should be treated as part of a
"process" to be followed by empowerment of the ethnic people in local
administration. And this can be put forward only when the military rulers
and the ethnic minorities agree to hold a dialogue after the cease-fire,
she contends. 

With its chronological approach to presenting material, the book is easy to
read.

Readers with some grounding in Burma issues can go straight to chapter four
for an account on contemporary events, such as Rangoon's changing policies
towards ethnic minority

More general readers can start at chapter one and enjoy the history of
Burmese-ethnic relations dating back to the 18th century and learn the
background of some ethnic minority groups and alliances formed by ethnic
minorities and other opponents.

As Sunet Chutintranon, a Burma expert from Chulalongkorn University points
out, a strong point of Ms Pornpimon's work is her attempt to depart from
the static western-dominated study which is confined to the Burmese
government's bid to resolve ethnic conflicts through the use of violence.

Unfortunately however, Ms Pornpimon limits the players of the-cease-fire
strategy to the Burmese government and ethnic minority groups, overlooking
Thailand, Burma's immediate neighbour, and other third parties.

Only briefly mentioned is Bangkok's role in persuading the Mon group to
accept the cease-fire agreement in 1995, in order to facilitate the laying
down of the gas pipeline from the Matarban Gulf's offshore to Thailand.

A more penetrating review of the Thai role in Burma's ethnic affairs would
not only help policy-makers learn from past mistakes in order to do better
in future. It would also help ordinary Thais understand more about
relations with their western neighbour.

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

ANNOUNCEMENT: NEW KHRG EMAIL ADDRESS
11 September, 1999 from khrg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 

Effective immediately, the Karen Human Rights Group will no longer use the
email address khrg@xxxxxxxxx

For those who have been using that address, please use khrg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
instead.

Due to technical problems, some messages sent to khrg@xxxxxxxxx since
September 5 may have been lost, so anyone who has sent us email since that
date may want to resend it.

This change of email address will shortly be reflected on our website.

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