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BurmaNet News: December 17, 1999




---------------- The BurmaNet News ----------------
 December 17, 1999 
 Issue # 1415
 ---------------------------------------------------- 

 ========== 
 HEADLINES: 
 ========== 
 International?
  REUTERS: NOBEL ECONOMIST SAYS SANCTIONS GOOD FOR MYANMAR, NOT CHINA
  BCN:  NETHERLANDS IN FAVOR OF MULTILATERAL BURMA SANCTIONS
 NEW YORK TIMES: BUCHANAN, IN CHANGE, CALLS FOR END TO SANCTIONS
 PATRICK BUCHANAN: BURMA RELATED EXCERPTS FROM SANCTIONS SPEECH
  REUTERS: HK DELEGATIONS SEEKS MYANMAR OPPORTUNITIES
  ASIAWEEK: INTELLIGENCE--ONCE BURNT, TWICE CAUTIOUS
  BURMANET: ASIAWEEK--COUNTERINTELLIGENCE

Inside Burma-
 SHAN: BURMA ARMY COUNTERATTACKS SHANS
 ANO: MOSQUE ORDERED TO BE DEMOLISHED

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

REUTERS: NOBEL ECONOMIST SAYS SANCTIONS GOOD FOR MYANMAR, NOT CHINA

INTERVIEW-Sanctions good for 
 Myanmar, not China 
 03:05 a.m. Dec 17, 1999 Eastern 
 By David Brunnstrom 

 BANGKOK, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Nobel prize winning economist Amartya Sen 
says  economic sanctions are probably a good way to push military-ruled 
Myanmar to  democracy, but doubts their effectiveness in China. 

 ``It's a difficult issue as to which way it works,'' the 1998 Nobel
 laureate  told Reuters in an interview. ``I think it probably can be 
quite effective  against Burma (Myanmar). Whether it can be equally 
effective against China, I  don't know. 

 ``If you are dealing with a country which is as large and has such a 
 well-developed philosophy as China has, chances are that sanctions 
probably  won't be that effective. 

 ``Burma, on the other hand, where the situation is much more marginal 
and  they are much more dependent on the world market and indeed world 
goodwill, I  think it may be much more effective.'' 

 Washington imposed economic sanctions barring U.S. investment in 
Myanmar in 1997 for its failure to democratise and rights abuses. The 
European Union bars visits by top Myanmar officials. 

 Washington has recently imposed fresh economic sanctions on China,
 including  restrictions on certain high technology transfers, as a 
punishment for alleged religious persecution. 

 Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for 
 Democracy won the country's last election in 1990 but was never allowed 
to  govern, has called for more countries to impose sanctions and 
criticised Asian nations for pursuing a policy of engagement with the 
generals.  Suu Kyi is the 1991 Nobel Peace laureate. 

 Sen, from India, and the first Asian ever to win the economics prize, 
said  decisions on whether to impose sanctions had to be based on 
whether or not they  would be effective. 

 SANCTIONS SHOULD NOT BE USED AS PUNISHMENT 

 ``I've never believed in punishments...I don't think punishment should 
be  given on grounds that somebody deserves it. It has to be that it 
will do some  good in the future.  In a country like Myanmar, where 
there was a lot of discontent and a  well-developed opposition movement 
``pressure may well be effective,'' he said. 

 However, he added: 

 ``Ultimately, I don't think other countries can give you democracy. It 
has  to  come from inside the country.''  China was far less susceptible 
to pressure, he said. 

 ``China is a very large country and in many ways a very advanced 
economy
 and  very self-dependent. It's not easy to pressure around and it 
strongly resents 
 being pressured around. 

 ``Also, the Chinese economy, unlike the Burmese has on the whole been 
very  successful. It's not like the country's seething with rebellion, 
so I don't  really think that by putting on sanctions you will make 
opposition groups come out and be more successful. I don't thing that's 
likely to happen.''  Sen said he was sceptical about China's line that 
increased local democracy  would bring overall democracy. 

 ``But it's not entirely dismissable. There are voices within their 
 administration which would like to see a more democratic structure, so 
it's a  question of whether sanctions will strengthen rather than weaken 
it. 

 ``So China is a much more difficult case than South Africa was earlier 
or  Burma is right now.'' 

 Sen said China was one of the most successful cases of development in 
the  world, although it's lack of democracy was ``a great defect that 
they have to  cure.'' 

 ``I think foreign investment in Burma is a bad thing because I think it 
 bolsters the regime and because the regime doesn't have anything like 
the  positive record China has. China has had a lot of success and Burma 
has always  had very little success.'' 



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

BCN:  NETHERLANDS IN FAVOR OF MULTILATERAL BURMA SANCTIONS
Dec. 15, 1999


This is a summary by the BCN press office of the reply by the Dutch 
minister of   Foreign Affairs and the underminster of Economic Affairs 
to question  regarding IHC Caland second business deal with Burma. 
Included below  it is the full Dutch press release from the ministry of 
Economics. This  inlcudes the questions from the Dutch parliament. 

 The Netherlands in favor of multilateral sanctions towards Burma 

 Amsterdam (BCN, 15 Dec, '99) - The Dutch government is in favor of 
 multilateral sanctions towards Burma, underminister G. Ybema of 
 Economics said today. "In no way we encourage trade and investment with 
Burma as long as human rights continue to be violated at the present 
scale  and while the return of democracy is being blocked." 

 Ybema reacted in a written statement on question raised by the Dutch 
 parliament a fortnight ago. The press statement from Ybema explained 
 that the Dutch government continues to work towards measures taken by 
the  European Union as a whole. "We actively strive towards consensus on 
 taking more economic sanctions in the EU's common position". 

 Ybema, speaking also on behalf of the minister for Foreign Affairs J. 
Van  Aartsen: "I regularly speak with Dutch companies on the ethical 
aspects  of international businesses. I have made clear to IHC Caland 
what the  position is of the Dutch government towards trade and 
investments in Burma." During such discussion, Ybema pointed out to IHC 
that the  Dutch government is in favort of multilateral economic 
sanctions. 

 For more information, tel. BCN: 31-20-6716952 

 
*******************************************************
NEW YORK TIMES: BUCHANAN, IN CHANGE, CALLS FOR END TO SANCTIONS
The New York Times, December 17, 1999                      
                                                                         
       
December  17, 1999, Friday, Late Edition - Final 
 
Section A; Page 24; Column 1; National Desk 
 

 By FRANCIS X. CLINES 
 
 WASHINGTON, Dec. 16 
 

   Conceding "a dramatic departure from what I've argued and believed," 
Patrick J. Buchanan today called for an end to economic sanctions by the 
White House as a "sword that slaughters children" and entrenches 
dictators. 
 
   "Our sanctions are sowing seeds of hatred that will one day flower in 
acts of terrorism against us," Mr. Buchanan said in a speech at the 
Center for Strategic and International Studies. 
 

    Mr. Buchanan, who is courting independent voters and the Reform 
Party for  its nomination for president, said his decision to oppose 
sanctions grew out of recent reporting on the effects of sanctions in 
aggravating the health and nutrition problems of rogue nations like 
Iraq. 
 
   "When Arab terrorists murder Israeli children," Mr. Buchanan said, 
"we Americans are rightly filled with horror and disgust. But what do 
Arab peoples think of us when U.S. sanctions bring death to literally 
thousands of Iraqi children every month?" 
 
   A supporter of sanctions in the past against Cuba, Mr. Buchanan said 
conditions had changed with the fall of Soviet Communism. 
 
   "Because of the siege mentality our embargo has created inside Cuba," 
he said, "our sanctions may today be the main pillar of Castro's power." 

 
   Sanctions, he continued, "may fairly be called America's silent 
weapon of mass destruction whose victims are almost always the weak, the 
sick, the women and the young." 
 
   In his address, Mr. Buchanan cited what he called counterproductive 
sanctions by the Clinton administration in a dozen countries, including 
Iran, Libya, Afghanistan, Haiti,  Myanmar,  India, Pakistan and Serbia. 
He vowed that as president he would end all sanctions depriving food, 
medicine and other basic necessities to the suffering subjects of rogue 
nations. 
 
   "Embargoes and blockades are weapons of war," Mr. Buchanan said. 
 
   They must be designed, he continued, "so that innocent people are not 
the 
principal casualties." 
 
   Speaking of Serbia, Mr. Buchanan criticized the administration for 
first 
"smashing" the country with a 78-day bombing campaign, and then denying 
Serbs 
heating oil and aid in removing the debris of war. 
 
   "This immoral policy shames us as a people," Mr. Buchanan said. "We 
are 
putting old men, women, and children under a sentence of death for 
failing to do
what NATO itself could not do: overthrow Slobodan Milosevic." 
 
   Dictatorial governments do not justify sanctions, Mr. Buchanan said, 
adding, 
"No one has deputized America to play Wyatt Earp to the world." 
 
   He denounced "all this Beltway braying" about the United States being 
the 
world's indispensable super power. "Have we, too, succumbed to the 
hubris of
hegemony?" he asked. 
 
   There are better ways to punish rogue states, Mr. Buchanan said, 
including 
cutting off overseas assets of dictators, denying them international 
loans and 
levying tariffs to deny them hard currency. 


 *******************************************************
PATRICK BUCHANAN: BURMA RELATED EXCERPTS FROM SANCTIONS SPEECH
                          December  16, 1999, Thursday 
 PATRICK BUCHANAN (REFORM PARTY) DELIVERS REMARKS ON FOREIGN POLICY; 
WASHINGTON, D.C. 
 
   PAT BUCHANAN DELIVERS REMARKS ON FOREIGN POLICY 
 
   DECEMBER 16, 1999

   BUCHANAN: Thank you very much.  Back there in those early '60s, John 
was with Time Magazine.  And those of us who invented the new Nixon, 
we've got to remind you, John, that it did work for a while, didn't it? 
 
   We had a good talk in the room back there, and I reminded John that I 
could tell him some of the stories about those days and Dick Whalen (ph) 
and some of the other things because by now the statute of limitations 
has pretty much run on all those days. 
 
   But let me talk now about the issue that I've come to speak to you 
about, and that is this issue of sanctions.  After seven years, it's 
clear the Clinton administration has yet to find the right formula for 
dealing with what we call the rogue nations.  Five years of bribes to 
North Korea seem only to have whetted the hermit kingdom's appetite for 
still more bribes. 
 
On the other hand, U.S. sanctions have failed to dislodge or to weaken 
the grip of hostile regimes in Iran, Iraq, Cuba or Serbia.  But they 
have enraged our allies who defy them and spread resentment. These 
sanctions spread resentment against America all over the world. 
 
   In our desire to punish old enemies, we seem only to be creating new 
ones. Indeed, sanctions have become the feel good but ineffectual 
foreign policy of the self-righteous....

 

   Last May, nuclear tests by India and Pakistan triggered a U.S. law 
imposing sanctions.  India has since increased defense spending by 14 
percent, Pakistan by nine percent.  Has either given up its nuclear 
arsenal? 
 
   As for  Myanmar  next door, Mr. Clinton declared in 1997, quote, "The 
actions of the government there in  Myanmar  constitute and unusual and 
extraordinary threat to the security of the United States." 
 
   He then banned all American investment in that country.  And what was 
the extraordinary threat?  The ruling junta in Rangoon had refused to 
recognize an opposition victory in May of 1990 and was holding Nobel 
Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest. 
 
   And how effective was our policy of isolating  Myanmar?   The 
Philippines and Thailand quickly dropped their opposition to  Myanmar's  
application for membership in the Southeast Asian -- Association of 
Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN, and to defy Uncle Sam they invited  
Myanmar,  and Laos and Cambodia as well, to join ASEAN....

   And there is monumental hypocrisy in how President Clinton applies 
his sanctions policy.  He blockaded, starved, and invaded tiny Haiti for 
human rights violations.  But he proudly chaperones mighty China into 
the WTO.  He imposes sanctions on  Myanmar  as a threat to the security 
of the United States but shovels billions in aid to a North Korea that 
is building missiles to target the United States. 
 


   ...Among my first acts as president, will be to declare an end to all 
sanctions on the sale or transfer of U.S. food, medicine or good 
essential to a decent life or a civilian economy now in force against 
Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Libya,  Myanmar,  Sudan, Afghanistan, and 
all the other targeted nations of U.S. sanctions policy. 
 
*******************************************************
REUTERS: HK DELEGATIONS SEEKS MYANMAR OPPORTUNITIES

 Hong Kong delegation seeks Myanmar opportunities 


 YANGON, Dec 17 (Reuters) - A group of entrepreneurs from Hong Kong led 
 by pro-Beijing politician Tsui Sze-Man is seeking investment 
 opportunities in timber and real estate in military ruled Myanmar, 
 official media reported on Friday. 

 Tsui Sze Man and his delegation met senior officials of the ruling 
 military council, including the powerful head of military intelligence 
 Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, officials said. 

 They also met representatives of the Myanmar chamber of commerce and 
 Foreign Minister Win Aung. 

 A chamber official said the delegation showed keen interest in 
investing  in timber and real estate during a meeting in Yangon on 
Thursday. 

 Tsui Sze-Man, an ethnic Chinese businessman and publisher who was born 
 in Myanmar, is a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese 
 People's Political and Cultural Conference who has called for greater 
 control on the media in Hong Kong. 

 With approved Foreign Direct Investment of $125.32 million for 21 
 projects, Hong Kong ranks 11th on a list of 24 foreign investor 
 countries in Myanmar. Most Hong Kong investments in Myanmar are in the 
 garment industry. 

 Myanmar is subject to U.S. sanctions because of its human rights 
records  and its recent record on securing foreign investment has been 
dismal. 

 It approved just $29.5 million of foreign direct investment in the 
 fiscal year to March, down from $777.4 million a year earlier and $2.8 
 billion the year before that. 

 The visit of the Chinese delegation follows one earlier this month by 
 the Federation of Economic Organisations, or Keidanren, Japan's largest 
 big-business group. 

 Japanese diplomats and analysts say Japan is concerned about losing 
 business and political influence in Myanmar to China. 

 In its most recent report on Myanmar, the World Bank said the country 
 needed to improve its rights record, reform its two-tier exchange rate 
 system, lift wide-ranging restrictions on private-sector activity and 
 reform its inefficient state enterprise sector if it wanted to attract 
 more foreign investment. 



*******************************************************
ASIAWEEK: Intelligence--Once Burnt, Twice Cautious

Asiaweek December 17, 1999                           
                                                                         
       
Intelligence; Pg. 12 
Once Burnt, Twice Cautious 
 

   Opponents of  Myanmar's  military regime were almost certainly behind 
the November leak of a World Bank report that revealed, to no one's 
surprise, the bleak state of the country's economy.  It blamed the mess 
on internal ineptitude as much as on Western sanctions. So why even 
bother revealing the document?  The hope was that, as in 1998 -- when 
reports of a possible $ 1 billion going to the regime from the Bank and 
the U.N. in exchange for political concessions were divulged -- dealings 
with the Bank would flounder under public disclosure.  This time the 
regime, while condemning the leak (see Khin Nyunt interview, THE 
NATIONS, page 35), refused to rise to the bait.  Instead, it invited 
World Bank officials back to Yangon for more talks. 

*******************************************************
BURMANET: ASIAWEEK--COUNTERINTELLIGENCE
December 17, 1999

  AsiaWeek reports today that "opponents of Myanmar's military regime 
were almost certainly behind the leak of a World Bank report" revealing 
the regime's economic  mismanagement?  Really?  When the International 
Herald Tribune ran with the leak in mid-December, it was followed a day 
later by an op/ed by David Steinberg--not exactly an opponent of the 
regime--condemning Aung San Suu Kyi for supposedly objecting to the fact 
the report was even being drafted.  The leak, followed immediately after 
with an op/ed by a peer reviewer who had access to the confidential and 
still unpublished report came as more of a surprise to the regime's 
"opponents" than to those who support constructive engagement.

 AsiaWeek's coverage of Burma, generally characterized by error and 
animus to Aung San Suu Kyi is sometimes brilliant.  Roger Mitton's 
extended interview with Aung San Suu Kyi (AsiaWeek: "We Have 
Compromised" June 11, 1999), was valuable largely because his loathing 
of her was barely concealed and so he cut right to the chase.  He wasn't 
terribly civil but at least he wasn't boring.


*******************************************************
SHAN: BURMA ARMY COUNTERATTACKS SHANS
17 December 1999 

 No: 12 - 17 

 Burma Army Counter-Attacks Shans 

 Commander of the Kengtung Front reported Burma Army had resumed their 
 attacks against Shan positions after the latter's ambush which led to 
 the  seizure of 400,000 amphetamine tablets on Monday. 

 IB 331 of Tachilek, reinforced by IB 316 of Ta-lerh, reopened its 
 attacks  on the Shan State Army's positions at Loi Maemaw, opposite Mae 
Faluang  District, Chiangrai Province, at 17:00 until 20:30. "Their 
casualties  are  not known", said Maj. Kham Hpamong a.k.a Kornzuen, 
Commander of the  Kengtung Front, in a telephone interview. "For us, the 
only losses we  have  sustained so far were on Monday (13 December) when 
Sergeant-Major Pi was  killed and one private was wounded". 

 The battle began when Black Panther's Claws Column 1, commanded by 
Capt.  Liangzuen, ambushed a drug convoy escorted by elements from IB 
331 and  the  Nampoong militia unit, on 13 December, when they killed 5, 
wounded 1,  and captured 1. 

 Among the loot, apart from the arms and ammo, were 4 haversacks, each 
 containing 100,000 amphetamine tablets, which were handed over to the 
 Thai officials two days later. 

 The Burmese army then shelled and charged the Shans' fire bases in Loi 
 Maemaw, beginning 14:30 on Wednesday, 15 December, until 18:00. "But 
the  attack was repulsed", he said. 

 "If S.H.A.N.'s reporters are not afraid, they should be with us like 
 those from Channel 3, Channel 7 and ITV", he challenged mockingly. 

 Two other mobile columns, Black Panther's Claws 2 and Black Panther's 
 Claws  3, are commanded by Capt. Kham Khawng and Capt. Khamsa 
respectively. 

 "The SSA's campaign against drugs has been styled 'Operation White 
 Tiger'",  he explained. 

 "We expect another attack at dawn", he added. "But I'm not worried, 
 because  all of us are in high spirits". 

 ///END\\\ 
 For further information, please contact S.H.A.N. at: 
 Shan Herald Agency for News. 
 P.O. Box. 15, Nonghoi P.O., 50007, Chiangmai, Thailand 
 Ph/Fax: (053) 807 121 
 e-mail: <shan@xxxxxxxxxxxx> 


ANO: MOSQUE ORDERED TO BE DEMOLISHED

ARAKAN NATIONAL ORGANIZATION
Mosque ordered to be demolished 

On 19. 11 99, Mr. U Myint Tun, Director of Buddhist  Religious 
Association of Arakan State accompanied by director and 
 assistant director of Buddhist religious centre of Maungdaw township 
 visited the village of lower Purma about 18 miles north of Maungdaw 
 township. They summoned village head and religious personalities and 
 ordered them to demolish the main congregation mosque which is a very 
old  and historic mosque in the area. The Buddhist religious authorities 
gave  no reason for their order. The villagers and religious 
personalities do  not know what to do. They neither agreed nor denied to 
follow the order. 

 They are anxiously awaiting what would be the next step of military 
 authorities. The military regime in Burma is trying to erase the entity 
of Muslims in Arakan by demolishing mosques and building Buddhist  
monasteries and pagodas. 


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