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BurmaNet News: February 10, 2000
- Subject: BurmaNet News: February 10, 2000
- From: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2000 01:21:00
=========== The BurmaNet News ===========
Tuesday, February 10, 2000
Issue # 1459
=========================================
NOTED IN PASSING:
"The big fire in our neighbor's house cannot be extinguished by small
buckets of water; the cause of the fire must be removed."
Krungthep Thurakit, a Thai newspaper on problems caused by Burma's
military regime (See KRUNGTHEP THURAKIT: DO NOT GET CARRIED AWAY WITH
ANTI-BURMESE SENTIMENTS)
=========
Headlines
=========
Burma Today in Brief--
Inside Burma--
FEER: BURMESE FLU
NEW YORK TIMES: MYANMAR, LAOS: H.I.V. SPREADING
ASIAWEEK: CALL IT OPIUM CLEANSING
ASIAWEEK: THE ENEMY ON THE BORDER
International--
BBC: REFUGEES SMUGGLED TO PAKISTAN
BANGKOK POST: CRACKDOWN FAILS TO HALT INFLOW OF DRUGS
AFP: PHILIPPINE LEADER TO ATTEND UN MEET IN BANGKOK: OFFICIALS
INDEPENDENT REPORT: CRACKDOWN AT MANEELOI
Opinion/Editorial--
NATION: WHERE DO WE ALL GO FROM HERE?
IHT: YES, PROVIDE HELP TO THE BURMESE
KRUNGTHEP THURAKIT: DO NOT GET CARRIED AWAY WITH ANTI-BURMESE SENTIMENTS
ASIAWEEK: DEFENDING THE SHOOTOUT
Other--
IRRAWADDY: SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
=========================================
BURMANET: BURMA TODAY IN BRIEF--February 10, 2000
Viruses lead the news--the regime spreading one kind (computer) and
ignoring the other (HIV). Some traffickers move more Burmese heroin
into Thailand while others move more Burmese/Rohingya women into
Pakistan to be used as prostitutes. Unicef calls for more aid and less
politics. Roger Mitton manages to apologize for both the Burmese
military tepid effort to wipe out poppies and the Thai army's rather
more successful effort to wipe out Burmese militants. The Thai army
takes the computers away from Burmese students and Than Shwe stays away
from UNCTAD.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
INSIDE BURMA
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FEER: BURMESE FLU
Far Eastern Economic Review
February 10, 2000
Burma's secret police -- the Directorate of the Defense Services
Intelligence -- has launched a new campaign against its opponents
abroad: computer viruses sent by e-mail. For several years, the DDSI's
"cyber-warfare department" has been active on the Internet, posting
messages on Web sites run by Burmese dissidents overseas and trying to
identify critics who are active on-line. Now, many activists are
receiving email messages from DDSI agents with attachments containing
viruses. The move comes in the wake of the closure of Burma's only two
unofficial e-mail servers, and a new law that prescribes stiff penalties
for anyone in Burma who accesses dissidents' home pages.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
NEW YORK TIMES: MYANMAR, LAOS: H.I.V. SPREADING
02/09/00
P. A6; Wren, Christopher S.
New research from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health shows
that HIV is spreading in the Asian region known as the Golden Triangle.
According to the report, the virus is moving along heroin trafficking
routes from Myanmar and Laos. Lead researcher Chris Beyrer said the
data show "a clear and urgent need" for neighboring countries like
China, India, and Vietnam, in addition
to Myanmar, to focus more on HIV prevention.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
ASIAWEEK: CALL IT OPIUM CLEANSING
FEBRUARY 11, 2000 VOL. 26 NO. 5
Myanmar is trying to improve its image
By ROGER MITTON Keng Tung
Yangon has become image-conscious, especially about the narcotics trade.
In the isolationist past, the military junta would not care what the
outside world thought; today, as an ASEAN member seeking to attract
investment, Myanmar is more media savvy. The generals want the world to
know about the progress they are making on drug eradication. So recently
the regime flew a group of Bangkok-based foreign correspondents to a
part of northern Shan state that is nominally controlled by the fierce,
opium-growing Wa minority.
"[The generals] are their own worst enemies in the sense that they don't
know how to present themselves," says Richard Dickins, head of the
United Nations Drug Control Program in Myanmar. But they are learning
fast. The trip was a PR junket. Journalists were shown poppy fields
being destroyed, and crop substitution and animal farming being
introduced. Naturally, skepticism abounded about the whole thing being a
snow job. Since the fields were next to long-established army posts and
helipads, it was hard to believe they had not been deliberately set up
for the PR stunt.
Col. Kyaw Thein, a key member of Yangon's anti-narcotics program, admits
that the authorities knew the locations well in advance. "But if we just
go in and destroy the fields as soon as we find them, the villagers will
have no livelihood," he says. "So we do it gradually and give them six
months' food and supplies to plant other crops." Dickins agrees that
drug fighters should cut the villagers some slack: "We don't like opium
cultivation, but though there are other things they can grow, you need
three to five years, and how are they going to live then?"
Under a ceasefire that Yangon negotiated with the Wa and the adjacent
opium-growing Kokang, both groups can retain their weapons. But in
return for economic development, they must reduce and eventually
eliminate poppy growing - the Kokang by the end of this year and the Wa
by 2005. Says Wa liaison officer Khin Maung Myint: "We are doing pig and
poultry farming as well as crop substitution. We don't know if it will
succeed, but it's a start."
Truth to tell, the area along the Thai-Myanmar border west of Tachilek
is not a major opium area. The heavily poppied hills lie further north
by the Wa headquarters at Panghsang, along the border with China's
Yunnan province.
The region from there up to the Kokang is too rugged for crop
substitution and the infrastructure too poor to get produce to markets.
So the new plan is to relocate 50,000 villagers from there to the
southern region along the Thai border - which, naturally, the Thais are
not overly enthusiastic about. Already 10,000 have been moved into camps
that are, frankly, appalling, though it was to the regime's credit that
it allowed the press to view them.
In this new location, the villagers will attempt to restart their lives
with crops like the longan fruit, rice, soya beans, garlic and even
grapes. "If all this fails, we will have to fall back on poppy
cultivation," says Khin Maung Myint. "We have no alternatives."
Actually, the Wa do have options. Opium is not the real problem, but the
production of synthetic drugs flooding into Bangkok. Khin Maung Myint
says his people are not involved in this but other Wa may be: "We share
a long border with Thailand," he notes. "Some areas we don't control and
cannot even enter."
The bottom line, as always, is supply and demand. As long as dealers in
Bangkok and the West will pay for drugs, they will be produced. That's
the core of the problem (there is plenty of money in the region as the
mobile phones, Rolexes and 4W-drives attest). That, and the lack of
funds to the drug busters themselves. Says Dickins: "I just noted the
other day that the Americans gave Colombia $6.5 billion. Yet last year,
the discretionary funds I had here were [just] $50,000." Talk about
double standards.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
ASIAWEEK: THE ENEMY ON THE BORDER
FEBRUARY 11, 2000 VOL. 26 NO. 5
More than anyone else, it's Myanmar's United Wa State Army that
threatens Thailand's security
By ANTHONY DAVIS Mae Ai
Throwing up clouds of swirling dust, the helicopter tilts back up
slightly before dropping the last few feet onto a ridge-top landing pad.
A group of soldiers in berets and camouflage emerges, crouched low in
the fierce downwash from the rotors. At their head is Thai Armed Forces
Supreme Commander Gen. Mongkol Ampornpisit, on a visit to the Myanmar
border which these days is anything but ceremonial.
Last week's bloody hostage crisis riveted attention on Thailand's
turbulent western region where insurgents of Myanmar's Karen minority
are caught between Yangon's military and the border. But as Thai
military chiefs understand all too well, the desperate youngsters of
God's Army are not the real enemy. The foremost threat to national
security moves here through quiet, jungled hills along the kingdom's
northern marches - a tidal wave of highly addictive methamphetamine
tablets produced by ethnic insurgents of the United Wa State Army
(UWSA), now one of the world's biggest narcotics traffickers. The
pandemic of ya ba, or "mad drug" as the Thais call it, is
an insidious but lethal scourge that in the last three years has
infiltrated homes, schools, offices and factories across the country. In
its wake lies a widening swathe of official corruption, street crime and
ruined lives. "If we don't come to grips with this problem," says a grim
Maj.-Gen. Viraj Jutimitta of the Police Narcotics Suppression Bureau,
"it will break this country."
Last month Gen. Mongkol and army chief Gen. Surayud Chulanont both
choppered north to inspect troops and peer into the green hills across
the border. At some points no binoculars were necessary. Adding insult
to injury, the Wa are setting up heavily-armed shop within full view of
Thai posts. "The Thais have got a 600-pound gorilla on the border and
it's getting bigger and stronger as the months go by," notes a Western
diplomat. "This has very
threatening implications for both Thai society and border security."
The gorilla is on the move. Some of the toughest warriors in Myanmar
(with a not-so-ancient tribal tradition of head-hunting), the Wa hail
from the hills along the border with China's Yunnan province. Serving as
the sword-arm of the Communist Party of Burma (CPB), in the 1970s and
1980s, the Wa battled Yangon's military to a standstill. With the 1989
collapse of the CPB, they set up their own United Wa State Army - the
ex-communists linking with a smaller non-communist faction camped near
the Thai border. Then, under the cover of a ceasefire agreement with
Yangon, they set about expanding heroin
production and moving into the logistically easier but no less lucrative
methamphetamine trade. Narco profits have been ploughed back into
growing military muscle: the UWSA fields some 20,000 troops with
additional militia.
In the mid 1990s, the UWSA's northern forces headed toward the Thai
border to reinforce the southern faction and - with the support of
Myanmar's military rulers, take on the mainly Shan forces of drug baron
Khun Sa. Following Khun Sa's 1996 surrender to Yangon, Wa insurgents
took over many of his border strongholds. Indications today are that
the Wa are settling in for a long stay. "They have real capabilities and
a growing infrastructure," says the diplomat. "This has the appearance
of an emerging state."
That's no exaggeration. In the Mong Yawn valley opposite Thailand's Mae
Ai district, the Wa are engaged in a massive construction program,
building roads, dams, an electricity-generating plant, underground
fuel-storage facilities, military command posts, barracks, schools and a
hospital. Ironically, most of the work in building up the Wa base has
been done by up to 6,000 Thai laborers employed by Thai companies
contracted by the Wa. In
the last two years, a newer settlement about 6 km from the border
opposite Chiang Rai province has been built by southern Wa boss Wei
Xuegang.
Wei's credentials as a Wa freedom-fighter are not impressive. An ethnic
Chinese drug dealer formerly working with Khun Sa, Wei was indicted in
1993 by a U.S. court and carries a $2-million price on his head. Despite
his business interests in Keng Tung and Tachilek, the Yangon junta has
for years claimed no knowledge of his whereabouts. That changed last
month when for the first time Yangon conceded to visiting pressmen it
knows a thing or two about Wei after all. "He's now being brought
forward as some kind of
developer," says a Western analyst.
It's the sort of development calculated to worry the Thais. An estimated
3,500 Wa troops are now camped along the border. Some are loyal to Wei,
others to Wa commander Ta Tang, who arrived in the area from UWSAHQ in
Panghsang in 1994. In recent months, UWSAtroops are understood to have
acquired shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles, probably from
Cambodian sources. The civilian population is also growing fast as
truckloads of ethnic Wa and Chinese move south from both the Wa hills
and the border districts of Yunnan. Plans are afoot to boost the
population of Mong Yawn - around 10,000 early last year - to up to
120,000.
The spin from Yangon and from the UWSA is that the population shift is
part of a grand plan to rid the northern Wa hills of opium cultivation
by 2005, apparently by forced depopulation rather than crop
substitution. And, indeed, new settlers on the Thai border are planting
hundreds of thousands of fruit trees. But claims that the Wa-controlled
areas will be drug-free by 2005 have been greeted by widespread
skepticism, not least because of stepped-up methamphetamine production
and the opening-up of new smuggling routes into Thailand from Laos.
"There's no way a valley like Mong Yawn can
sustain another 50,000 people with just agriculture and livestock
breeding," notes one Western narcotics expert.
Albeit belatedly, alarm bells in Bangkok are ringing loudly. "The
perspective on the drugs problem has increased significantly in the last
two years," says one Western military attaché in Bangkok. "For the Thai
military, drugs are now numero uno." Last August, army chief Surayud
closed down the border crossing-point opposite Mong Yawn through which
workers and construction material once passed. Despite complaints from
Thai businessmen eager to cash in on the Mong Yawn boom, the checkpoint
remains closed. And in October the First Cavalry Division moved into
forward positions along the stretch between Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai,
coordinating all security forces: Border Patrol Police, Ranger
irregulars and the police.
But stemming the flood of narcotics along a rugged border is an uphill
task. According to informed sources, more muscular options, including
cross-border strikes on Wa installations inside Myanmar territory, have
also been considered at senior level - and, for now at least, put back
on the shelf. As one diplomat puts it: "The situation is tense and
certain people are pressing for a more aggressive policy. They're
looking at all kinds of options - none of them good ones."
Thai concerns have not been eased by the arrival in the Wa bases of
engineers, teachers and other "advisers" from China. Some analysts argue
that the Chinese presence may simply be an extension of China's own free
market. But as one Chiang Mai-based Thai military source puts it: "It
looks as if these are NGOs, but in reality this has to be approved by
the [Chinese] authorities." Says another senior Thai security official:
"I'm worried and I think we should all be worried."
And shouldn't Yangon be worried too? For the Myanmar military, the Wa
border build-up offers obvious benefits. Yangon can use the Wa to
balance off the long-smoldering ethnic Shan insurgency while also using
them as a proxy force against the historical Thai enemy. But in the
longer term the gamble is risky. The Wa, who fought the Burmese
lowlanders for centuries and hate them vehemently, are still nobody's
lap-dog. "The Burmese are playing with fire," says a Western analyst.
"By diversifying their forces and territory, the Wa are gaining strength
and influence." A Thai security official is blunter: "You mark my words
- the Wa will turn on the junta."
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
INTERNATIONAL
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
BBC: REFUGEES SMUGGLED TO PAKISTAN
Tuesday, 8 February, 2000, 16:46 GMT
By Subir Bhaumik in Calcutta
A report commissioned by the United Nation's special rapporteur on women
says large-scale trafficking of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh to
Pakistan has taken place over the past decade.
Images Asia, a non-governmental organisation based in Thailand, says
that at least 200,000 Rohingyas are in Pakistan now, most of whom
migrated illegally from Bangladesh in the 1990s.
The report has found that Rohingya women are working in brothels in the
southern Pakistani province of Sindh.
Thousands of Rohingyas have crossed into Bangladesh from neighbouring
Burma over the past decade, fleeing what they say is persecution by the
Burmese authorities.
But the report says that desperate conditions in refugee camps in
Bangladesh and the fear of being repatriated to Burma have forced many
Rohingyas to make the difficult journey to Pakistan.
Debts
The chief researcher of the report, Chris Lewa, told the BBC many
Rohingyas travelled to the coastal province of Sindh because they found
jobs easily in the fishing industry.
But Ms Lewa added that often refugees have to pay back enormous amounts
of money to the touts who arrange the journey to Pakistan, binding many
into a cycle of debt.
The report says that as a result, many Rohingyas are forced to take up
prostitution and some women have also been sold to local feudal
landlords as concubines.
The report also points out that Rohingya prostitutes are extremely
likely to contract sexually transmitted diseases because they have
little knowledge of contraception and are fearful of contacting local
health authorities for fear of being caught by the police.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
BANGKOK POST: CRACKDOWN FAILS TO HALT INFLOW OF DRUGS
Feb 9, 2000.
Temsak Traisophon
The smuggling of drugs from Burma has intensified despite serious
suppression efforts, according to reports from the Interior Ministry and
the Royal Thai Police Office.
An Interior Ministry source said the reports spoke of mounting drug
problems despite rigorous efforts to fight the scourge.
According to the police report, methamphetamines smuggled in from
abroad, especially Burma, remained a major problem.
As demand for drugs remained high, drug trade networks have increased in
number and shifted to using more complicated production and smuggling
methods, thereby penetrating the market with new formula drugs.
The report by the office of the interior permanent secretary said drug
production in Burma was increasing and the narcotics were being smuggled
into Thailand via many routes including those along the border with
Laos.
Meanwhile, the production of amphetamines in Bangkok and provinces has
continued unabated.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
AFP: PHILIPPINE LEADER TO ATTEND UN MEET IN BANGKOK: OFFICIALS
Wednesday, February 9 6:59 PM SGT
MANILA, Feb 9 (AFP) -
Philippines President Joseph Estrada is to attend the United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Thailand next weekend,
his spokesman said Wednesday.
Presidential spokesman Fernando Barican said Estrada would leave on
Friday and return Monday. Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon had said just
hours earlier that Estrada would skip the conference.
Diplomatic sources, who asked not to be named, said they had to convince
Estrada about the importance of attending the meeting in Bangkok.
"As an aspiring leader of ASEAN, the absence of the president is not
advisable," a senior diplomat said, referring to the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations.
In a press briefing, Barican said: "The president made that decision (to
attend) today after talking with Secretary Siazon, particularly because
it's over the weekend."
He said Estrada did not want to miss a meeting between ASEAN leaders and
Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi on the fringes of the UNCTAD
conference.
ASEAN leaders are also to hold a side summit on Saturday as well as meet
separately with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the foreign department
here said.
With Estrada attending, only Myanmar leader General Than Shwe would be
absent, Siazon said.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Barican said the meeting with Obuchi was important "because Japan is
hosting the G8 meeting in July." The Group of 8, or G8, refers to the
world's seven richest nations plus nuclear military power Russia.
"Prime Minister Obuchi wants to talk to all the leaders of the ASEAN so
that he can present the concerns and interests of the ASEAN states at
that meeting in July," he added.
The Filipino leader has already scheduled seven foreign trips this year,
including one to the United States and four international meetings.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
INDEPENDENT REPORT: CRACKDOWN AT MANEELOI
11:00 AM (Thai Time)
February 10, 2000
According to villagers of Maneeloi Village, the Safe Area is now heavily
guarded. At about 9:00 AM, many military vehicles loaded with border
patrol police, soldiers, police and security police arrived at the safe
area.
While these vehicles were being parked on the road-side in front of the
Safe Area, the villagers could see some empty civilian buses among them.
Villagers are observing the search of the Safe Area from outside the
barbed wire fences.
One villager said, "I think the empty buses parked in front of the Safe
Area are for those who will be arrested during the raid and the search
and deported from Thailand."
In February 9, 2000, authorities of the Maneeloi Burmese Students'
Center (Safe Area) announced that:
Authorities will search the camp thoroughly for arms and ammunition.
All illegal residents in the Safe Area will be arrested and deported
back to the border.
All computers will be confiscated by the authorities "for a certain
period."
According to that announcement, Thai MOI authorities will start their
action at 5:00 AM on February 10.
I. The search for arms and ammunition:
The Safe Area has been under the tight control of camp security for
several months. The whole camp is fenced in with barbed-wire and the
residents can use only the main gate. At that gate, security forces are
deployed and they search every person coming in or going out of the camp
thoroughly. Moreover, more security police are being deployed along the
entire fenced in area. It is
impossible for residents to smuggle anything in or out of Safe Area.
The residents, most of whom are dissident Burmese students, have the
not-unreasonable fear about the Thai authorities will employ one of
their not uncommon tactics. The students are afraid that security
forces, who can go anywhere in the camp at will, will have hidden arms
and ammunition, which during this search of the camp, they will then
"discover" and blame on the
students.
II. The search for unauthorized students:
There are serious grounds for worry on behalf of unauthorized or illegal
residents in the camp. There are two categories of unauthorized
residents, who have legitimate reason to be in Maneeloy: those who are
in the process of applying for "Person of Concern" status with the UNHCR
and those who are appealing rejections or appealing "Border Case"
decisions. In fact, both UNHCR
officials and MOI authorities are aware that people of both categories
are residing in the Safe Area illegally for the simple reason that there
is no other place in Thailand that is as relatively safe as the "Safe
Area."
As they are all actively seeking refugee status and are under
consideration by UNHCR (Thailand), they have been staying in the Safe
Area. Both UNHCR and Thai authorities know full well that all of these
"illegal camp residents" have been involved in the pro-democracy
amovement and have been struggling against the
Burmese military regime. Because of their anti-junta activities, their
safety, their very lives, are in danger on the border to which they
would be deported. The question is, if they are to be arrested and
deported, who will guarantee their safety on Thai-Burma border where the
situation remains at best chaotic? Certainly UNHCR (Thailand) or the
authorities of MOI cannot in good
faith accept responsibility for their safety.
III. The crackdown on computers:
The Safe Area has become a virtual concentration camp, with recognized
safe area residents not permitted to go anywhere. Many of these
students have already been in the safe area for years without knowing
when they will finally be able to resettle in a third country. In order
to use their precious time beneficially, many Burmese students are
studying English language and taking
computer classes. Confiscating their computers means that the Thai
authorities will stop their training, and deny them their right to even
the rudimentary education they have been able to pursue in the Safe
Area. COERR (a Thai-based NGO) is running a computer training program.
Many students have benefited from this training, improving their
computer abilities and developing other skills by means of computers.
The Thai Government itself knows how important computers are for
education. In the year 2000, Thai Government is not imposing taxes or
duties on imported computers or related hardware. For the Thai
Government to at the same time ban the use of computers in the Safe Area
is blatant discrimination against the pro-democracy Burmese students
residing there. Authorities have also blamed the students in the Safe
Area for spreading information about the situation in the Safe Area by
means of the Internet. Even if it were true, wouldn't the authorities
move be an attempt to
limit the students' freedom of speech, press and expression?
It seems that the Thai authorities are simply unable to understand the
Burmese students in the Safe Area. Consider these contradictory views:
Lt. General Sanam (not Minister Sanam), spokesman for the Defense
Ministry sounded like an apologist for the Burmese military junta when
he told reporters recently that "Maneeloi Burmese Center is the
Headquarters of Burmese terrorism on Thai Soil. They (the students
residing in the Safe Area) are equipped with modern technology and
computers".
Ratchburi Governor Preecha (the immediate MOI authority for the Safe
Area) obviously doesn't understand the Burmese students' patriotism and
commitment to restoring democracy and human rights in their homeland
when he says to the media that: "Burmese students residing in the Safe
Area do not look like students. They drink, gamble and fight each others
in the camp. No significant political movements can be found in the
Safe Area."
The residents of Maneeloi Burmese Students' Center (Safe Area), both
those who have been recognized and those seeking UNHCR recognition are
pro-democracy activists, staying there quietly until the time comes for
them to resettle in a third country. They have reason to fear the
heightened security and the integrity of the Thai security forces in the
camp; they have the right to sanctuary in the Safe Area without fear of
arrest and deportation while their applications and appeals are being
processed; furthermore, they have the right
to keep their computers for study. They also have the right to
communicate their fears, concerns, and opinions freely, without coercion
or intimidation.
Than Kyaw Htay
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
OPINION/EDITORIALS
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
NATION: WHERE DO WE ALL GO FROM HERE?
February 9, 2000, Wednesday
Josef Silverstein
Thailand has, for a long time, taken advantage of the resources of
Burma without consideration for the welfare of the people suffering at
the border and this has to stop, writes Josef Silverstein. The
outpouring of feelings by the peoples of Thailand in the columns of the
newspapers following the tragic event in Ratchaburi may have been
cathartic, but statements by the government give no clue as to where
Thai- Burma relations are going now and what long-term goals the policy
makers hope to achieve. This we know:
1. The Thai border is porous. Burmese military units and their allies
have been able to cross, almost at will, carrying their fight against
indigenous Burmese enemies across the border into Thailand. Units from
the Thai military, stationed along the border, have co-operated with the
Burmese army, becoming involved in the inter nal affairs of its
neighbor, whether they admit it or not.
2. The internal wars in Burma are not over and the military rulers have
not won. There may be cease-fires with many individual indigenous
minority groups, there are others who continue to fight. And, so long as
those wars keep going, civilian refugees from Burma will continue
fleeing across the border to escape the wrath of the Burmese army,
avoiding captivity and forced labor.
3. Narcotics from Burma flow across the border and damage the lives and
health of Thais who consume them; they also move across Thailand to
international markets of Asia and the West where their poison spreads to
all, regardless of ethnicity, citizenship or religion. The narcotics
business is a major financial support for the Burmese military rulers
who are in collusion with the drug dealers and distributors, both in
Burma and beyond. There is little evidence that Thailand is having much
influence upon Burma to end the drug trade and arrest and punish known
dealers.
4. Greed is motivating Thai businessmen and investors to exploit the
resources of Burma, whether through the extraction of timber, minerals
and fish or the exploitation of men, women and children seeking any kind
of job at any kind of wages in order to sur vive in a new and strange
country. They also exploit women in the sex trade and other forms of
dehumanising labour.
5. Greed also motivates their schemes to dam the Salween, flood the
lands in the Shan State and divert a large portion of the water to
Thailand, all at the expense of the peoples of Burma.
6. Finally, greed also motivates the Burmese military rulers, who
desperately seek cash to fund their bloated army and schemes for
development which they have drawn up and plan to execute without the
involvement and agreement of the peoples who will be directly effected.
With the above in mind, consider the fact that Thailand's epresentatives
will meet their counterparts from Burma at the forthcoming United
Nations Trade and Development (Unctad) meeting in Bangkok. With the Thai
capital's streets likely to be swept clean of demonstrators and
protesters, there is little likelihood of any rep etition of the large
demonstrations in Seattle or the tiny one in Davos.
What will Thailand and Burma say to each other and the rest of the
delegates at the meeting where greater efforts for internationalism and
trade will be explored and cheered? Will they discuss labour
exploitation as a necessary cost? Will they discuss the rights and
protections of "guest labourers"? Will they discuss the economic
benefits of employing frightened men, women and children who have been
driven by desperation to leave their homeland and seek protection and
employment in their neighbour state, accept substandard wages and
accommodation, harassment by soldiers and police and threats from
employers to turn them over to immigration if they protest or demonstate
against exploitation? What will Thailand and Burma say to the Unctad
delegates about using economic weapons, such as closing one's border to
trade and waters to fishing, whenever a state such as Burma drives its
citizens to desperate and irrational acts in order to publicise the
inhumanity and violence of their own government? Will Unctad see
Burma's actions in recent months as consistent with the new principles
of internationalism and open trade and say so? And, will any delegate
argue that, thus far, internationalism and open trade has improved the
lives of the peoples of Burma? What will the Thai spokesman say?
And in July, when the Asean Ministerial Meeting and the Asean Regional
Forum take place in Bangkok, how will the nine brethren treat Burma?
Will they continue to drape the tattered shroud of "constructive
engagement" around the pariah member and, like the fabled three monkeys,
"see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil"? How long will Asean
pretend that what is happening inside of Burma is no concern of theirs,
even though then Thailand's Foreign Minister, Prachuab Chaiyasarn, said
in July 1997, just prior to the Asean Ministers Meeting, that the
organisation could no longer employ "constructive engagement" in its
relations with Burma and he proposed to the other Asean foreign
ministers a "more comprehensive pol icy".
Today, European states have set aside the principle of non- interference
in internal affairs of other states" as they protest and take political
and diplomatic action against Austria for the inclusion of a racist,
Nazi-like party in the governing coalition. Even though the party won a
sizeable vote in a free and fair election, foreign states are speaking
out and acting because they see such a party as a threat, not only to
Austria, but to Europe as well. "We the people", the opening words in
the UN Charter, challenge the governments of states to act in the united
interest of people, whether in Asia or Europe. Burma's problems are
Asean's, Unctad's and the United Nation's problems. Southeast Asia
nations need leadership. It is time for Thailand to step forward, fill
the void and lead their neighbour states in regional and international
organisations toward making Southeast Asia a better place for all its
people.
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IHT: YES, PROVIDE HELP TO THE BURMESE
February 9, 2000, Wednesday
By Juan Aguilar Leon; International Herald Tribune
RANGOON
As Unicef celebrates 50 years of continuous presence in Burma, the
forces governing the state of isolation and underdevelopment are so
enormous that small victories in saving children and women from
preventable diseases and death are frequently overcome by old and new
foes.
The problems faced by Burma's children and women are directly concerned
with their unfulfilled rights and needs. Too many children and women
still die from preventable diseases and malnutrition. Of the 1.3 million
children born every year, more than 92,500 die before the first birthday
and 138,000 before age 5. Many more become ill from acute respiratory
infections, diarrheal diseases, tuberculosis or malaria. More than a
third of children under5 are malnourished.
AIDS threatens large and increasing segments of the population.
Prevalence rates are determined according to the number of patients
visiting official health centers, and so are likely to be underreported,
but United Nations data indicate that AIDS is a major health problem.
Transmission from mother to foetus is nowa matter of serious
concern.Pregnancy and giving birth remain life-threatening tasks for
many women, particularly those residing in rural areas. Estimates vary
from 100 to 580 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. More than a
third of the deaths occur in government facilities, as most are
ill-equipped to provide timely referral or adequate emergency obstetric
care to ensure safe delivery. Many women also die from complications
associated with unsafe abortions.
The vast majority of all these deaths and illnesses are due to
inappropriate or inadequate care and knowledge, most frequently stemming
from insufficient resources on the part of households and national
authorities.
Recent successes show that it is possible to achieve major goals for
children in Burma when there is good cooperation among different actors,
when technical and financial resources are available and when the
parents, children and communities involved participate actively.
Were the government of Burma and the international community not to act
decisively, entire generations of children would be condemned to live in
poverty and despair. Not acting is both ethically and morally
unacceptable.
Burma's government needs to strengthen its mechanisms for protecting
and enforcing the rights of vulnerable children and women, as well as
substantially improve the quality and quantity of social services
available to them. Unicef will continue to assist in pursuing these
objectives. But Unicef, other United Nations agencies and
nongovernmental organizations need unambiguous support from the
international community.
Perhaps Unicef's major contribution is to renew our commitment to the
cause of children, striving to place their highest interests and rights
above any political consideration and arguing once more for an
unattached and generous flow of the most needed humanitarian assistance.
The writer is the Unicef representative in Burma. This comment has been
adapted by the International Herald Tribune from an address last
Wednesday in Rangoon.
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KRUNGTHEP THURAKIT: DO NOT GET CARRIED AWAY WITH ANTI-BURMESE SENTIMENTS
Bangkok
In Thai 29 Jan 2000, translated by FBIS.
The siege of the Rat Buri Hospital by the group of
10 Karen ethnic minorities who called themselves God's Army, which led
to the whole group being executed, has escalated to become racial hatred
and created anti-Burmese sentiments. Suggestions have been made to close
the UNHCR-run Maniloi Refugee Center in Suan Phung District, Rat Buri
Province, which is a big Burmese community in Thailand. This extremist
reaction amounts to an irrational and hasty solution that does not take
into account the real cause of the problem.
We suggested earlier that the problem is an internal issue of the
Burmese government which have to be tackled at the root, which is the
comprehensive dictatorial political system in that country. The
dictatorship practiced by the Burmese military government is the cause
of Aung San Suu Kyi becoming the symbol of the struggle for democracy in
Burma and ethnic minority students fleeing to seek refuge in Thailand.
Giving shelter to refugees from Burma does not mean that Thailand agrees
with the struggle of antigovernment activists in Burma. In the same
token, if Thailand repatriates these people to Burma or third countries,
it does not mean it supports the Burmese government.
The domestic political disputes in Burma have had unavoidable effects on
Thailand. In particular, the hospital siege in Rat Buri, which the Thai
government chose to use violence to end it, cannot be solved simply by
pushing Burmese people out, closing Maniloi refugee camp, or making
Burmese people here feel insecure about their lives and property as the
result of the Thai people's sentiments against them. In Thailand's past
anticommunist struggle, the efforts to create fearsome image of
communism by the Thai administration at that time did not eliminate the
problem. Only after Thailand established diplomatic relations with
China, which backed the Communist Party of Thailand, did the communist
problem in Thailand end.
It is important that the Thai government, whose policy toward the
country on its western border has been vague for a long time, must
realize that the Burmese military dictatorship's repression of the
Burmese people and violent suppression of dissidents is root cause of
the problem in that area. Once democracy is restored in Burma the armed
struggle will be replaced by a political struggle in which no one will
lose his life or flee abroad to wage the armed struggle. The Thai
government must realize that the problems created by Burmese refugees in
Thailand have to be solved by the political situation in Burma. Only in
this way can the dilemma be permanently solved.
We hope the Thai government will come up with a clear and aggressive
policy toward Burma. That policy is it should reject any form of
dictatorial government regardless of the negative repercussions on
Thailand's trade and economic benefits. At the same time, Thailand must
apply pressure through ASEAN to force a rapid change from dictatorship
to democratic government in Burma, as it is only ASEAN country to be
adversely affected by the political dispute in that nation. We have no
other alternatives. The big fire in our neighbor's house cannot be
extinguished by small buckets of water; the cause of the fire must be
removed.
[Description of Source: Krungthep Thurakit -- Daily newspaper providing
good coverage of current economic, investment, and trade activities]
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ASIAWEEK: DEFENDING THE SHOOTOUT
FEBRUARY 11, 2000 VOL. 26 NO. 5
The government has public opinion onside
By ROGER MITTON Bangkok
So the bumbling general was right.
Back in December, Thailand's opposition leader Gen. Chavalit
Yongchaiyudh warned in Parliament that Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai's
government looked like "a fool in the eyes of the world" because of its
lax handling of a siege at the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok. Not only had
the heavily armed terrorists gained easy access to the diplomatic
compound in downtown Bangkok, but they were allowed to go scot-free in
return for releasing their hostages. Chavalit claimed the incident
showed how bad Thai security services were and predicted another
terrorist attack by Burmese dissidents - and perhaps by other violent
groups. He said that already a fugitive Cambodian called Sok Yoeun,
wanted for an alleged assassination attempt on PM Hun Sen, had entered
Thailand and he claimed that other terrorists - even those associated
with the notorious Osama bin Laden - might be in the country. Foreign
Minister Surin Pitsuwan exploded and said it was all utter nonsense.
Chavalit was ridiculed pitilessly in the domestic media.
Cut to today. Every one of Chavalit's warnings has proved true. Within
days, he was vindicated over the Sok Yoeun issue and Surin was forced to
make an abject apology admitting that the runaway Cambodian was indeed
in Thailand.
Sok Yoeun is now in jail in Bangkok and Hun Sen is clamoring for his
extradition. As for Chavalit's admonition that another Myanmar terrorist
attack was on the cards, this was proved spot on when Karen rebels took
over a hospital in Ratchaburi on Jan. 24 and held hundreds hostage.
Again, inept border security appeared to justify Chavalit's tocsin. Even
his much lampooned claim that bin Laden associates may be in Thailand
has now been verified publicly by no less a figure than the National
Intelligence Agency
head. Chavalit, still vainly hoping for another shot at the premiership,
may well reap some benefit from all this in the general election due
later this year.
But Chuan, too, will gain kudos - and rightly so. At an Army Day
reception after commandos had stormed the hospital, exterminated the
rebels and freed the hostages, the premier looked ecstatic. He is often
accused of being indecisive; but after boldly sending in the assault
team on this fearfully risky mission, no one will make that idiotic
charge again. And public opinion massively supported him - a near-unique
occurrence in politically fractious Thailand. Of course, there is
controversy over reports that some rebels were shot in cold blood.
Pictures showed their stripped corpses with bullet holes in their heads
and their arms tied behind their backs. Government spokesman Akapol
Sorasuchart denies any extrajudicial executions: "They all died in
action."
Few believe that; but even fewer seem to care. The consensus is that
they were foreign terrorists, armed to the teeth, who took over Thai
property - a hospital, for God's sake - so what did they expect? Still,
some activists intend to make an issue of it. Says Somchai Homlaor of
the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development: "If the hostage-takers
laid down their arms and surrendered, they should have been arrested. If
the officers did not do that and killed them, that is murder." Somchai's
group wants to track down relatives of the dead so they can lodge
complaints and get the courts to look into the matter. "Public opinion
may be happy," he says, "but we must comply with the law." Don't hold
your breath. Few Thais are listening to him any more than they once did
to Chavalit.
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OTHER
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IRRAWADDY: SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
In the January 2000 issue of the Irrawaddy:
An editorial on the trials of a life in exile;
An analysis of Burma?s prospects for economic survival in the face of
globalization; An article on the use of culture for political and
pecuniary profit in Burma;
A look at what really lay behind the Ratchaburi hostage-taking incident;
And regular features, including News in Brief, Business, and
Intelligence.
All in addition to our special ?Year in Review? coverage of the events
of 1999 The Irrawaddy is a publication of the Irrawaddy Publishing Group
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established by Burmese citizens living in exile and is not affiliated
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