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BurmaNet News: February 18, 2000
- Subject: BurmaNet News: February 18, 2000
- From: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2000 04:04:00
=========== THE BURMANET NEWS ===========
Friday, February 18, 2000
Issue # 1465
NOTED IN PASSING:
"If you get enough cities doing this, the federal government may take
notice and say, 'Shouldn't we be doing the same?' What the cities are
doing is almost shaming the federal government."
Stephen Dun of Seattle, a Karen refugee at a Congressional hearing
regarding Burma selective purchasing laws. (See OREGONIAN: PORTLAND'S
MYANMAR BAN PRAISED )
=========
Headlines
=========
Inside Burma--
REUTERS: BURMA ALLOWS FIRST PRIVATELY-OWNED PAPER
BURMANET: BACK TO SNEAKERNET IN BURMA
SHAN: THREE NABBED FOR MONGYAWN EXPLOSIONS
SHAN: 19 SHANS MASSACRED BY JUNTA TROOPS
ABFSU: ABOUT POLITICAL PRISONERS
International--
AP: DISSIDENT GROUP CLOSES THAI OFFICES
AFP: CAMBODIAN PREMIER HUN SEN LEAVES FOR INDIA, MYANMAR
IPS: CLINTON BACKS MULTINATIONALS AGAINST STATES IN BIG COURT CASE
OREGONIAN: PORTLAND'S MYANMAR BAN PRAISED
Other--
ANNC: MITCHELL RECEIVES MONGOLIAN ORDER OF FREEDOM;
ACCEPTS ON BEHALF OF BURMESE DEMOCRACY ACTIVISTS
=========================================
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
INSIDE BURMA
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
REUTERS: BURMA ALLOWS FIRST PRIVATELY-OWNED PAPER
February 17, 2000
By Aung Hla Htun
Yangoon, Feb.17: Burma's military government which maintains tight
control over its media, has surprisingly allowed the launch of the
country's first privately-owned English language newspaper edited by a
foreigner.
The Myanmar's Times a weekly whose editor-in-chief is Ross Dunkley, hit
the streets this week. The state run newspapers all publish dull
pro-government articles, often denouncing the opposition National League
for Democracy, led by Nobel peace prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi and the
west.
The tabloid paper, printed in four colors, on high-quality imported
paper, looked more breezy them existing publications. A Burma government
spokesman said that the government had no involvement in new paper,
except to give it permission to publish. "Actually, this new project is
launched by the private sector working with Australian firm," he said.
He declined to identified the Australian firm. Complimentary copies of
the nation's second English language daily were being distributed
through a local book store. The paper joins a host of government-run
weekly journals, two Burma-language and one English-language newspaper,
The New Light of Myanmar, to be published and circulated in Burma. The
new tabloid is owned by a joint venture between local and foreign
partners, called Myanmar Consolidated Media Co Ltd. In a front page
announcement, The Myanmar Times said; "Welcome to the MT. The joint
venture journal, The Myanmar Time is first major step in aiming to
broaden the world's perspective on Myanmar. The publication is a private
venture between both foreign and local partners and as such is the first
truly, free press in the nation for more then three decades."
Editor-in Chief Dunkley said: "I am optimistic about the future of this
journal. It is aimed at white collar audience and 60-70 percent of its
readership will comprise Myanmar people." He also declined to name the
Australian investor in the joint venture owning the newspaper. Mr.
Dunkley was previously involved in Vietnam's government owned Vietnam
Investment Review. The paper's publisher U Than Naing was not available
for comment.
A staff member of firm told Reuters that the paper would be priced at
$2-a hefty sum by Burma standards when compared with 35 Kyats for other
journals and newspaper now in circulation with government approval. He
said the owners hoped to sell about 5,000 copies weekly in Burma and
abroad.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
BURMANET: BACK TO SNEAKERNET IN BURMA
February 18, 2000
Before the Internet, you moved information between one computers by
copying it on a floppy disk at one computer and then walking the floppy
disk over to another--sneakernet. The sneakernet has reemerged in
Burma.
On December 13th, 1999, the regime ordered the closure of Myanmar Eagle
IT, an Internet service provider run by Pat James, an American
businessman married to a Burmese. At the beginning of February, Eagle
IT was allowed to reopen for one week to allow customers to get their
42,000 incoming email messages that had piled up on Eagle's servers
since the December closure. The only catch was customers had to come in
person to Eagle's office--and bring a floppy disk.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
KNU: KHUN SA MAY GET MORE WORK-SITE IN TENASSERIM DIVISION
KNU Mergui-Tavoy District Information Department
February 17, 2000
01/00
Mergui-Tavoy District, Burma: On 9 February, 2000, the villagers from
between Theybyu and Maw Taung (Mo Daung) were ordered to relocate to the
west bank of Nyaung Bin Gwin village and/or Bok Pyin town and also
families from the military units were ordered the same by the local
military authorities. LIB 561 HQ at Theybyu was shifted to Hsonedaw in
Tenasseim Township.
According to [our] information some of Khun Sa's Wa troop s will be
transferred to the now empty area between Th e ybyu and Maw Taung to
set up business. In Tavoy district we also have information that Khun
Sa's troops may be sent by the SPDC to an area between Aing Wine and
Law Aw in the east of Tavoy. The area is situated on the eastern side
of the Tenasserim River and to the west of the Thai-Burma border.
Some sources say that Khun Sa 's troops will be allowed to do business
in the areas deserted by Karen villagers since 1997 SPDC offensive.
In the beginning of 2000 Khun Sa' s Wa troops were sent to Karen state's
Myawaddy-Kawkareik area opposite Maesot (Tak province in Thailand) by
the SPDC with 40 army trucks to set up business there.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
SHAN: 19 SHANS MASSACRED BY JUNTA TROOPS
Shan Herald Agency for News
17 February 2000
No: 2 - 16
19 Shans Massacred By Junta Troops
Reports of the killings of 19 Shans by Rangoon troops in southern Shan
State last month were confirmed yesterday by Maihoong who arrived at the
border yesterday.
19 Shan villagers including 3 women who were clearing bushes in order to
resettle in their former village of Kengkham, were lined up and shot
down by a Burmese patrol from Nanzang at noon on 30 January, he said.
"Twelve days earlier, on 18 January, villagers from Kengkham who were
relocated to Kunhing were summoned by Lt.-Col. Kyaw Aye, commander, IB
246. He told them that since Rangoon had decided to repopulate sections
on both sides of the Kunhing-Kengtawng road, those who wished to go
back would be given safe passes at K. 50 each", he reported.
The villagers deliberated for ten days, according to him, before 19 of
them led by Jawngsu, 57, decided to make a try by applying for safe
passes which they got.
"On the second day, while they were still clearing bushes that had
accumulated during their long absence, a 85-90 strong patrol from IB 66
of Namzang led by Capt. Zaw Thein arrived there with 40 porters."
According to Maihoong's sources, who witnessed the event, the villagers
were surrounded and interrogated as to why they were in a free fire
zone. When the villagers explained showing the safe passes, he brushed
off by saying, "If you have passes, then you must have bribed Col. Kyaw
Aye," and ordered his men to shoot them down.
After the massacre, relatives reported to the IB 246 officers who had
issued the passes, to which the officers responded by telling them not
to lay blame on other units without evidence. "If you have witnesses,
bring forth," they were reported to have said.
"Of course, nobody dared to come forward to bear witness for fear of
being subject to the same fate," he added.
"So far I have not heard any action taken against Capt. Zaw Thein, the
culprit."
The names of the 19 victims were:
1. Jawngsu 57 male
2. Kaling 51 male
3. Awzayya 47 male
4. Panla 47 male
5. Mala 45 male
6. Jawla 44 male
7. Zai Woon 41 male
8. Zarmkhurh 36 male
9. Htoon-awng 33 male
10. Zai Mint 30 male
11. Zai Min 27 male
12. Awngsa 24 male
13. Zai Nu 20 male
14. Zai Man 17 male
15. Zai Lao 16 male
16. Zai Mu 15 male
17. Nang Ing 34 female
18. Nang Nyunt 26 female
19. Nang Htoon 22 female
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
SHAN: THREE NABBED FOR MONGYAWN EXPLOSIONS
Shan Herald Agency for News
18 February 2000
No: 2 - 17
Three nabbed For Mongyawn Explosions
An unconfirmed report says three Lahus were arrested by the Was in
Mongyawn for last month's explosions that rocked the Was' southern
capital.
Ruang (not his real name) a Thai national, who makes a living across the
border, reported S.H.A.N. that 3 Lahu hilltribesmen had been arrested
for the explosions on 23 January which reportedly blasted an electricity
plant, 2 gas stations and one building.
Ruang said he did not learn their identities except that they had
already confessed their action.
Meanwhile, a Burmese soldier was found dead on 12 Februray near
Piangkham, a Shan village outside Mongyawn. "The Burmese have demanded
that the Was produce the culprit soon or else they would have to pay
heavy damages," he said.
He also saw thousands of Wa settlers in Talarng, Monggarn and Mongtoom,
along the Monghsat - Tachilek road, cutting wood and weaving thatches to
build their new homes there. Trucks form the Was' Hongpang Company were
also seen unloading rice bags for the settlers.
"In Banghoong, there is a big store selling all kinds of commodities to
the local populace, both newcomers and oldcomers alike, he said. "They
say it belongs to Wei Hsiaokang".
Wei is wanted by the Untied States for drug offenses.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
ABFSU: ABOUT POLITICAL PRISONERS
Information Release about the Political Prisoners
3/2000
18,Feburary 2000
Since 1988, the SPDC has consistently and continuously closed
universities, and arrested students who protested this abuse of their
rights, and worked for the freedom of their country. The SPDC has
denied the existence of the nearly 2,000 student political prisoners to
the international community. After the 9-9-99 action, the following
students were given the following sentences and sentence extensions. And
transferred to Thayet, TharYarWaddy and Taungue prison in january,22,
2000.
Name ;Nyi Htwe(a)San Zaw Htwe
Age: 22
Sentence: 37 years under the 5(j), 17/1 ,Illegal Publication law.
University: Bothataung College, 2nd year
Major: History
Background: Nyi Htwe was involved in the 1996 student movements, during
which he established many connections in the freedom education movement.
In 1998, he was again actively involved in the August 24 student
demonstrations. Some of his friends were arrested after this movement,
and he was forced into hiding. During his time in hiding, he became an
extension member of the NLD-Youth and worked at the NLD Headquarters. In
September 1999 he attempted to organize for the '9999' action so MI came
to arrest him at his house on the evening of 9-9-99. However, he was
able to evade their arrest. On September 20 the MI again attempted to
arrest him, and searched his house and took some documents and other
materials of his. In November 1999 the MI succeeded in arresting him.
On December 3,1999 he was sentenced in Insein Prison Court to 37 years
with hard labour.
Name ;Zaw Ye Win
Age: 27
Sentence: 17 years under the 5(j), 17/1 Illegal Publication law.
Background: Ko Zaw Ye Win was involved in the 1988 uprisings in Burma as
a RIT (Rangoon Institute of Technology) student and a member of the RIT
student union. In 1989 he became a member of the Democratic Student
Front, Yangon division. Together with this group he was involved in the
memorial ceremony of Phone Maw on the 1990 anniversary of his death.
Due to this activity, he was arrested by the MI and sentenced to 3 years
imprisonment with hard labor. After he was released from prison, he
continued his involvement in the political field. In September 1999,
he worked to organize the support of people for the "9999' action. He
was arrested again by the MI at the end of September 1999. On December
3,1999 he was sentenced in Insein Prison Court to 17 years with hard
labour.
Name ;Thet Htwe
Age: 29
Sentence: 21 years sentence with hard labour, under the 5(j) , 17/1
Illegal Publication law.
Background: In 1988, Thet Htwe was heavily involved in the '88 movement
as a member of Rangoon University Students Union . In 1989 he joined
the Student Democratic Front, Yangon Division. In 1990 he was on the
leading committee of All Burma Federation of Student Unions (lower
Burma). At the end of 1990, after the election results of Aung San Suu
Kyi's NLD party were denied, he fled to the border area. In 1997 he
secretly returned to the central area of Burma to work underground with
Rangoon University of Students Union . In 1999 he supported the work
for the '9999' action, and was subsequently arrested by the MI in
November. On December 3, 1999 he was sentenced in the Insein Prison
court to 21 years in prison with hard labour.
Foreign Affairs Committee
All Burma Federation of Student Unions
For more info ,please contact to(66-055-542 864)
===============================
Foreign Affairs' Comittee
All Burma Federation of Student Union
Phone No: (055- 543001) (055- 542864)
Email Address: bakatha@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
===============================
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
INTERNATIONAL
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
AP: DISSIDENT GROUP CLOSES THAI OFFICES
Thursday February 17 12:29 PM ET
Dissident Group Closes Thai Offices
By MATTHEW PENNINGTON Associated Press Writer
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - The main political group for exiled students
opposed to Myanmar's military regime said Thursday it had closed all its
offices in Thailand under pressure from Thai authorities.
The closure could be a crippling blow to the All-Burma Students
Democratic Front, which has been under heavy Thai pressure since Myanmar
rebels crossed the border last month and took hundreds of hostages at a
Thai provincial hospital.
The siege ended with Thai commandos killing all 10 rebels, who included
members of the radical Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors and God's Army,
a fringe ethnic Karen group led by twin 12-year-old boys.
Though the front has disavowed the actions, Thailand, for years tolerant
of Myanmar dissidents, has made clear it does not want the mainstream
group to maintain a presence there.
Authorities have tightened security at the border with Myanmar, also
known as Burma, where around 700 members stay.
``If our offices cannot open here anymore, we shall go back into the
jungle of Burma,'' said Kyaw Kyaw, a central executive committee member.
On Wednesday, Thai police raided two of the group's offices in Mae
Sariang district in northern Mae Hong Son province, 400 miles north of
Bangkok. Three students were sent to a refugee camp along the border.
A third office in the district was immediately closed by the front
itself, a member told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
A Thai official in Mae Sariang, speaking on customary condition of
anonymity, confirmed the closures, saying it was Interior Ministry
policy to ``keep all refugees in a camp.''
The front says its other offices have already shut.
The front was formed by students who fled the Myanmar military's bloody
crackdown on a mass uprising for democracy in 1988.
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AFP: CAMBODIAN PREMIER HUN SEN LEAVES FOR INDIA, MYANMAR
PHNOM PENH, Feb 17 (AFP) - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen left
Phnom Penh Thursday for four days of official appointments in India and
Myanmar aimed at
strengthening trade and political ties, officials said.
The visit is the first by a Cambodian premier to India in more than
20 years, and the first to military-ruled Myanmar since Cambodia's entry
into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in April last
year.
"His visit is a very interesting phase in history for Cambodia and
India," said M.L. Bajaj, a senior Indian embassy official in Phnom Penh.
"Cambodia and India can look forward to a new chapter in their
relations," he added, describing the current visit as on of "grooming
commercial ties."
India was one of the few countries that supported the former communist
government installed by Vietnam during the 1980's -- in which Hun Sen
played a senior role as foreign minister and then prime minister.
In India Hun Sen is scheduled to meet with Indian Prime Minister Atal
Behari Vajpayee and other senior government officials, and sign
agreement in
the fields of trade, economy, science and technology, tourism and
agriculture.
Continuing his tour in Myanmar, the premier is scheduled to hold
talks with the junta chairman Senior General Than Shwe.
Hun Sen was accompanied by a 35-strong delegation including cabinet
minister Sok An, foreign minister Hor Namhong, commerce minister Cham
Prasith, tourism minister Veng Sereyvuth and Industial minister Suy Sem.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
IPS: CLINTON BACKS MULTINATIONALS AGAINST STATES IN BIG COURT CASE
Interpress Service
By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, Feb 16 (IPS) - In a major boost for the forces of economic
globalisation, US President Bill Clinton has decided to back
multinational corporations in a key court challenge to a Massachusetts
law designed to promote democracy in Burma.
In a brief quietly filed with the Supreme Court Tuesday, Clinton's
Justice Department charged that cities and states which make it more
difficult for companies doing business in repressive countries to win
procurement contracts "impermissibly intrude into the national
government's exclusive authority over foreign affairs."
Joining a coalition of some 600 major multinational corporations, the
European Union (EU) and Japan, the administration asked the Supreme
Court, which will hear oral arguments on the case March 22, to declare
the Massachusetts law unconstitutional. A final judgment by the
nine-member court is expected in June.
The case, called "Natsios versus the National Foreign Trade Council
(NFTC)," has major implications for grassroots human rights and other US
activist groups, which over the past 25 years have used state and local
"selective-purchasing" laws to influence the behaviour of multi-national
corporations abroad.
Selective-purchasing laws are designed to force companies to choose
between continuing to do business with repressive foreign governments
and bidding on often-lucrative state or local government contracts. The
Massachusetts law, for example, adds 10 percent to any bid by a target
companies - foreign and domestic - on a state procurement contract.
Such laws were used most successfully during the late 1970s and 1980s to
force scores of US multinationals - including such giants as Coca-Cola,
IBM, and General Motors - to withdraw from South Africa because of
apartheid. The resulting divestment, according to most experts, played a
crucial role in bringing about majority rule.
Similar laws in New York, California, Pennsylvania and other states and
cities targeting Swiss banks and insurance companies which had failed to
adequately account to Nazi Holocaust victims and their families helped
prompt a settlement of outstanding claims in 1998.
Some two dozen states and cities, including New York, Los Angeles, and
San Francisco - which each year put hundreds of millions of dollars in
contracts up for bids - have enacted selective-purchasing laws against
companies doing business in Burma, where a military junta has repressed
the democratic opposition led by Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
Multinationals naturally oppose these initiatives because they curb
their freedom to do business where they like. But until now, they were
reluctant to challenge the laws in court due to the negative publicity
that could result from a company claiming a right to do business with
abusive governments.
In 1998, however, the NFTC filed a case in federal court challenging the
1996 Massachusetts law on the grounds that it violated US constitutional
provisions which gave the federal government the power to regulate
foreign commerce and foreign policy. In an unprecedented step, the EU
and Japan filed amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs on the NFTC's
behalf.
At the same time, Brussels and Tokyo also filed their own challenges to
the law with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva. They claimed
that Massachusetts, by enacting the law, had violated the WTO's 1995
Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), which forbids states from using
non-economic criteria in deciding contract bids.
The Clinton administration, deeply split on the issue, stayed out of the
case. While strong supporters of globalisation, like the Treasury and
Commerce Departments, argued for backing the NFTC, other offices,
especially in the State Department and the National Security Council,
opposed taking any position.
In a letter to state officials in April 1998, Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright expressed the administration's deep ambivalence.
"Our challenge," she wrote, "is to ensure that America speaks with a
single voice." She also noted, however, that "President Clinton and I
recognise the authority of state and local officials to determine their
own investment and procurement policies, and the right - indeed their
responsibility - to take moral considerations into account as they do
so."
The latter position is the one taken by Massachusetts in the case. "The
states should be free...to apply a moral standard to their spending
decisions," according to a brief filed by the state, which, in a rare
breach of legal protocol, was not informed in advance by the
administration - apparently to avoid publicity - of its own submission.
"Nothing in the federal Constitution...requires the states to trade with
dictators," argues the Massachusetts brief, which is supported by amicus
briefs from more than two dozen states and cities, some 24 members of
Congress, and a plethora of human rights and labour groups.
The Clinton administration brief stresses that it, too, strongly opposes
the current government in Burma and has imposed trade and other
sanctions against it.
"The disagreement," according to the brief, "is only over whether the
State could permissibly take the sort of action reflected in the
Massachusetts Burma Act."
Citing complaints against the law by the EU, Japan, and the Association
for Southeast Asian Nations, the administration goes onto argue that it
has "complicated (US) efforts to develop a multilateral strategy" and
thus "impermissibly infringe(s) upon the national government's exclusive
authority to conduct foreign affairs."
"Indeed, if the (Act) were sustained, a multitude of different, and
differing state and local measures sanctioning foreign governments could
be expected," the brief states, adding that similar selective-purchasing
statutes have been or adopted or considered against companies doing
business in China, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Laos, Morocco,
Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Switzerland, Tibet,
Turkey, and Vietnam.
The administration's arguments echo those made by the two courts which
have considered the case to date. In November 1998, US federal court
judge Joseph Tauro ruled that "State interests, no matter how noble, do
not trump the federal government's exclusive foreign affairs power."
Last June, in a more sweeping decision, a three-judge federal appeals
court in Boston found that "the conduct of this nation's foreign affairs
cannot be effectively managed on behalf of all the nation's citizens if
each of the many state and local governments pursues its own foreign
policy."
But supporters of the Act remain confident. "This could actually
backfire against the administration," noted Robert Stumberg, a professor
at Georgetown Law Centre. "Some justices who might have been more
sympathetic to the administration's case may now be more inclined to see
in this a major extension of federal power at the expense of state and
local authorities."
The Court's majority consists of justices appointed by Republican
presidents, who generally have been more solicitous of state and local
rights. Ironically, President Ronald Reagan's attorney-general, a strong
supporter of apartheid South Africa, opposed a constitutional challenge
to the selective-purchasing laws against Pretoria for precisely that
reason.
"The administration's brief amounts to an unparalleled attack by the
federal government on state sovereignty and local democracy and really
makes a sharp contrast with even the Reagan administration's view that
selective-purchasing laws were constitutional," says Simon Billeness, a
financial analyst in Boston who has led the anti-Burma campaign there.
Whatever the Supreme Court decides, however, the case's main impact may
actually work against the WTO, which was already badly wounded by the
debacle of its Seattle meeting last December, according to Stumberg.
In 1994, when the administration was negotiating with Congress over
Washington's membership in the WTO, it offered assurances to the
attorneys-general of all 50 US states that private corporations could
not
sue states in connection with WTO agreements, including any
constitution-based challenges to state laws.
"To get it through Congress, that's what the US Trade Representative
agreed to," said Stumberg. "Now the fact that the administration is
lining up with the corporations will not help the USTR's credibility
when new trade agreements come up."
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
OREGONIAN: PORTLAND'S MYANMAR BAN PRAISED
Human rights activists testify on Capitol Hill that city sanctions can
and do have real effect
Wednesday, February 16, 2000
By Mark O'Keefe of The Oregonian staff
WASHINGTON -- In 1998, Portland's City Council joined more than 20 other
local governments in taking an economic stand against the human rights
violations of Myanmar.
Tuesday on Capitol Hill, activists on the issue said the stance was
making a difference.
"If you get enough cities doing this, the federal government may take
notice and say, 'Shouldn't we be doing the same?' " said Stephen Dun of
Seattle, who escaped from Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, and its
military regime. "What the cities are doing is almost shaming the
federal government."
Dun made the comment after testifying to the Congressional Human Rights
Caucus.
Rep. Joseph Pitts, R-Pa., a member of the caucus, also praised Portland
and the other cities.
"A lot of our involvement with Myanmar is people-to-people diplomacy in
business, trade, academia and cultural organizations," said Pitts, who
has made fighting religious persecution a personal crusade. "These
cities help create a consensus that government policies are important
and effective."
Pitts said he hoped the effort could one day equal the momentum of
sanctions against apartheid in South Africa, sanctions which helped lead
to reforms.
The Portland City Council unanimously voted to ban certain city
contracts with firms that do business with Myanmar. New York, Los
Angeles and San Francisco have enacted similar bans.
Myanmar's economy, which prospered in the early 1990s as the military
regime introduced partial reforms, has deteriorated. Western companies
upset about the lack of progress on human rights have pulled out, citing
worries about Myanmar's image. In 1996, for example, Columbia Sportswear
of Portland ended manufacturing in the country, partly because of public
pressure.
Myanmar, which was renamed by the ruling junta, is a country in which
the military takes 50 percent of the national budget. It has a
significant drug trade: As much as 60 percent of the heroin on U.S.
streets comes from Myanmar, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration. Religious persecution is rampant, particularly toward
ethnic minorities, such as the Karen, who are mostly Christian.
Congress has prohibited new investment in the country but has not gone
so far as to ban the federal government from doing business with U.S.
corporations that remain in Myanmar.
Edith Mirante of Portland was one of the activists who urged the
Portland City Council to take its 1998 stand. She was not in Washington
Tuesday but said in an interview that the Portland law is seen as a
model of clarity by other communities considering similar action.
"It's local, but it can have a real effect when done in conjunction with
other cities," said Mirante, who heads an international Myanmar
information organization called Project Maje.
Some in the business community see these laws as foreign policy-making
by cities and states. A business coalition led by the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce challenged a Massachusetts law that barred the state from
buying goods and services from companies doing business with Myanmar.
The Supreme Court recently agreed to review the case.
No matter what the outcome of the review, Dun said Tuesday that city
ordinances such as Portland's have helped the victims of the Myanmar
government.
"People are encouraged," Dun said. "They say, 'Oh, wow. We're not
forgotten. At least someone is thinking about us.' "
Mark O'Keefe can be reached at The Oregonian's Washington, D.C., office
at 202-383-7857 or by e-mail at mark.okeefe@xxxxxxxxxxxx
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
OTHER
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
ANNC: MITCHELL RECEIVES MONGOLIAN ORDER OF FREEDOM;
ACCEPTS ON BEHALF OF BURMESE DEMOCRACY ACTIVISTS
Jan. 2000
Washington, D.C.-- The Mongolian Ambassador to the United States, Jalbuu
Choinhor, has presented the Order of Freedom medal to Michael Mitchell.
The Order of Freedom is one of the highest civilian honors that can be
bestowed by the Mongolian government. He joins former Secretary of
State James A. Baker III as the only other American and just the third
foreigner in Mongolian history to receive this award.
"My government has instructed me, on behalf of the Mongolian people, to
present Michael Mitchell with the Order of Freedom," Choinhor stated.
"At a time when we are celebrating ten years of democratic rule, we want
to honor Michael¹s contributions in helping us build a new society based
on democracy and human rights as well as strengthening the bond between
our two governments and the people of our two countries. We want to
offer our heartfelt thanks for his efforts," he said
The Order of Freedom medal and a certificate from the Mongolian
parliament was presented to Mitchell during a private ceremony at the
embassy.
"I want to express my deep gratitude to the Mongolian people and the
government of Mongolia. It has been my honor to work with them as they
build a new society that embraces democracy, individual rights, freedom
of the press and the rule of law," Mitchell stated. "I accept this
honor on behalf of the Mongolian people, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the
jailed student leader Min Ko Naing, the recently deceased Tin Maung Win,
and each and every person in Burma who is fighting for freedom,
democracy, and human rights; I accept the Order of Freedom on their
behalf," Mitchell said.
Sandwiched between Russia and China, Mongolia is the only country in
Central Asia that has cast off its communist past and linked free market
economics with democratic governance. The parliamentary elections held
in 1996 saw a transfer of power from the ruling Mongolian Peoples
Revolutionary Party to the Mongolian Democratic Union. The first
peaceful transfer of political power the region has seen in modern
times.
Mitchell¹s work in Mongolia began in 1993 when he organized political
party training programs for the International Republican Institute, a
non-profit organization. He has also spent years working with Burmese
democracy activists who are using non-violent methods, commonly called
political defiance in Burma, to oppose the military regime and press for
a transfer of power to Burma¹s democratically elected 1990 Parliament.
Mitchell has played a role in fostering ties between Burmese democracy
groups and the Mongolian government and political parties.
Spearheading this effort was Tin Maung Win, editor of the New Era
Journal. Before his death, Win traveled to Mongolia¹s capital,
Ulaanbaatar, to participate in a seminar on consensus-building with
members of Mongolia¹s parliament and top political leaders. During the
visit, Mongolian political figures expressed their deep concern about
the situation in Burma and pledged to support the non-violent movement.
Mitchell also provides information on the military¹s involvement in drug
trafficking and the torture and detention of Burmese political prisoners
to the U.S. Congress.
"My great hope is that someday very soon I can greet Aung San Suu Kyi,
Min Ko Naing and the millions of other Burmese and ethnics in a free and
democratic Burma," Mitchell said. "I hope those good people in the
Burma army realize that the country is being destroyed by a corrupt
elite and join with the Burmese people in demanding democratic reforms,"
he stated.
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The BurmaNet News is an Internet newspaper providing comprehensive
coverage of news and opinion on Burma (Myanmar). For a subscription to
Burma's only free daily newspaper, write to: strider@xxxxxxx
Letters to the editor or enquiries should go to the same address or
BurmaNet can be contacted by telephone or fax:
Voice mail +1 (435) 304-9274
Fax +1 (810)454-4740
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