Information Sheet No.B-1130(I)

[OKKAR66129@xxxxxxx]

                            MYANMAR INFORMATION COMMITTEE
                                               YANGON

                                           Information Sheet
                            No.B-1130(I)       3rd November 1999

(1) Military Attaches Leave for Taunggyi, Pindaya and Innlay in Eastern 
Command Region

    Military Attaches and family members led by Head of Department Col Thein 
Swe of Office of Strategic Studies of the Ministry of Defence and  Dean of 
Military Attaches in Myanmar Bangladesh Military Attache Brigadier Nasiruddin 
Sarwar left Yangon by special flight on 2 November to visit Taunggyi, Pindaya 
and Innlay in Eastern Command region.

(2) Yangon-Mandalay Market Boat Begins Service with 1,400 Tons of Merchandise

    Carrying nearly 1,400 tons of goods, one of Yangon-Mandalay market boats 
left Yangon on 2 November to begin its sales run on Ayeyawady River. Named 
"Myananda", the boat left Nanthida Port to enable people of towns and 
villages on the Ayeyawady bank to buy various kinds of goods produced in 
upper Myanmar and lower Myanmar at reasonable prices. The first boat started 
its journey on 21 January 1993. In addition to Yangon-Mandalay market boats, 
sales-boats are also plying between Mandalay and Bhamo. Operation of 
Mandalay-Bhamo market ships began in June 1999. This is the 67th sales trip 
of Myananda which is operating since 21 January 1993. With two barges, the 
ship is carrying foodstuff such as rice, salt and fish paste, personal goods, 
household goods and general merchandise. The ship will spend a night each at 
18 towns along the river during its 45-day journey. At the remaining jetties 
it will stop for two hours for loading and unloading goods.

(3) Myawady Bank Opens Branch in Monywa

    A ceremony to open Myawady Bank branch was held at the branch office on 
Bogyoke Aung San Road in Sulegon Ward in Monywa on 26 October.

(4) Minister Meets Official of AFC Edition Pagan of Germany

        Minister for Cooperatives met Ms. Adelheid V Faver-Castell of AFC 
Edition Pagan of Germany who called at his office on 2 November. They 
discussed training of local and foreign trainees in Myanmar lacquerware 
course at Myanma Lacquerware Institute in Bagan, exchange of observation in 
lacquer techniques between Myanmar and Germany, training for German trainees 
in Myanmar and donations and stipends for Myanmar Lacquerware Institute and 
trainees.

(5) Attorney-General and Party Leave for Singapore

    A Myanmar delegation led by Attorney-General left Yangon by air on 2 
November to attend the Fourth Meeting of ASEAN Law/Justice Ministers and 
Attorneys-General and Sixth Meeting of High-ranking Officials of ASEAN Law 
Affairs in Singapore.

(6) Official Leaves for Vietnam

    Vice-Governor of the Central Bank of Myanmar left Yangon by air on 2 
November for Vietnam to attend the First ASEAN Finance and Central Bank 
Deputies Meeting and the Fifth ASEAN Central Bank Forum Meeting to be held 
from 3 to 5 November in Hanoi, Vietnam.

                   Special Feature

    This office is presenting an article from Myanmar News Bulletin 
(9/99)entitled "Solving the KNU (Karen National Union) Problem" published by 
the Embassy of the Union of Myanmar, London for your information.

   "Solving the KNU (KAREN NATIONAL UNION) Problem"

    The KNU is an armed separatist movement representing small fraction of 
the Kayin nationality of the Union of Myanmar. Their strength numbers a few 
thousands only, but are heavily armed and have been fighting unsuccessfully 
for separation from the Union for nearly 50 years and at one time controlled 
large territories within the Union. At this moment the KNU is the only group 
out of 18 armed insurgencies to remain belligerent while other 17 groups have 
returned to the legal fold a few years ago and are now making socio-economic 
progress in their own states. This belligerence is in fact, mainly 
responsible for the existence of the highly publicised "refugee" camps along 
the Thai-Myanmar border. The so-called "refugees" camps along the 
Thai-Myanmar border  in remote border parts of the Kayin State are often used 
as base-camps by the KNU for staging attacks on major townships and villages 
in Kayin State proper with highly disruptive and destructive consequences for 
many years. Even last month, the group of heavily armed terrorists that 
occupied the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok finally demanded to be returned to an 
area on
the Thai-Myanmar border under control of the KNU. These "refugees" have not 
been classified as such by Thai authorities who regarded them as politically 
displaced persons who are resisting repatriation back to Myanmar or to safer 
areas within Thai territory. It is alleged that the civilians in these camps 
are being used as human shields which is the main reason of the KNU 
leadership for not permitting their repatriation in either direction. 
However, some positive developments began to occur when in 1998 some senior 
KNU leaders and many of their followers also embraced the exchange of arm for 
peace programme offered by the Government, and are continuing to do so in 
smaller groups. Furthermore for the first time, in June 1999, Amnesty 
International officially documented KNU atrocities, against civilian in 
Myanmar, including of murder and torture which have been going on for much of 
their 50 year old military campaign, and well known to the people within 
Myanmar. The KNU with little or no support from most of the Kayin people and 
having lost all their base camps within the Union, recently stepped up their 
propaganda campaign of accusing the Union security forces of atrocities by 
outright fabrication of bizarre stories including death-squads and 
anti-Christian military activities in order to mobilise sympathy in Christian 
countries of the west. These baseless allegations have never been supported 
by leaders of the Christian Churches in Myanmar, but are unfortunately been 
spread by some supporters of the KNU in some Western countries including 
Britain.

At a recent public lecture in London, entitled " CHRISTIANITY AND FREEDOM OF 
RELIGION IN BURMA " the Anglican Primate and Archbishop of Myanmar reaffirmed 
the freedom of worship that currently exists in all his dioceses within the 
Union. 

    It must be remembered that a post world war II, Britain based group 
called " Friends of Hill Peoples of Burma" (Guardian Weekly, London, July 27, 
1997) not only conceived and created the KNU but also stage-managed the 
assassination of General Aung San, Myanmar's independence leader. The 
residual elements of these " Friends" seem to be trying to wage a political 
campaign in Britain to support and save the KNU who continue to rapidly lose 
much of their foot soldiers, military officers and families who can see with 
their own eyes that their old KNU comrades are now enjoying their new-found 
peace in their homelands with their security and welfare assured by the 
Government.

    The Embassy of the Union of Myanmar in London calls on these "Friends" of 
the KNU in Britain to assist the politically displaced Kayins (Karens) by  
stopping their political campaign based on unfounded allegation and allowing 
them to reunite with the overwhelming majority of their nationality in the 
Union, thus ending the hostilities. The so-called Kayin-Bamar hostilities 
have been based on unfortunate historical incidents mostly caused by the 
divisive strategies of the old colonial masters who exploited these negative 
events of by-gone days in winning over the loyalty of some Kayins in their 40 
year long campaign (1842-1884) to conquer the then Kingdom of Myanmar as 
their loyal allies during the second world war. It is no coincidence that all 
allegations of atrocities such as the ones currently propagated by the KNU 
have completely ceased from among all former insurgent groups in Myanmar now 
living peacefully in their homelands, including the Kachin Independent 
Organization whose leadership are also Christians. It would be a cruel and 
historical blunder to prop-up this last remaining major insurgency of Myanmar 
with the hope of resurrecting the long-dead "Karenistan" concept , as it will 
only prolong the agony of the innocent "Karen" civilians. At this point of 
time the world has too many humanitarian crises for the international 
community to cope with and it is high time for reason to prevail over old 
sentiments and emotional feelings for the  "loyal allies of the colonial 
past" . There should be no doubt that all nationalities within the Union of 
Myanmar are now united and will never allow the break up of the Union under 
any circumstance in the future. The small percentage of Kayins still 
lingering beyond our borders must also realize that they also belong to the 
Union with the rest of their compatriots and are welcome to return to the  
"family" on similar terms anytime-the sooner the better for all concerned .

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