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[theburmanetnews] BurmaNet News: Ap
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Subject: [theburmanetnews] BurmaNet News: April 7, 2000
________________ THE BURMANET NEWS _________________
/ An on-line newspaper covering Burma \
\________________ www.burmanet.org ___________________/
April 7, 2000
Issue # 1503
*Inside Burma
MIZZIMA: WORLD HEALTH DAY: BLOOD TRANSFUSION SITUATION IN BURMA
HAS IMPROVED, SAYS WHO
*International
UN: STATEMENT BY THE SECRETARY-GENERAL'S SPOKESMAN ON MYANMAR
ENVOY
NATION: KAREN REFUGEES MOVED FARTHER FROM FIGHTING
BANGKOK POST: ENVOY SOUNDS WARNING ON REFUGEES
SCMP: DOUBT OVER RIGHTS TRAINING
THE NORTHERN ECHO (UK): PROTESTOR CALLS OFF FOOD STRIKE
*Opinion/Editorials
STATESMAN (New Delhi): WILL NO ONE LISTEN?
*Other
FBC: BURMA FREEDOM DINNER 2000
___________________ INSIDE BURMA ______________________
MIZZIMA: WORLD HEALTH DAY: BLOOD TRANSFUSION SITUATION IN BURMA
HAS IMPROVED,
SAYS WHO
New Delhi, April 7, 2000
Mizzima News Group
Concerned about the fact that millions of people around the
world do not have access to safe blood supplies, the World
Health Organization (WHO) has dedicated World Health Day 2000 to
blood safety, with the slogan: Safe blood starts with me: blood
saves lives"
Since 1950, the WHO has been celebrating World Health Day on 7
April each year. This year WHO's birthday celebration is being
joined by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies. Their new partnership aims to increase
public awareness and understanding of blood safety through
voluntary, non-remunerated blood donation from low-risk
populations.
Speaking to the media in New Delhi yesterday, WHO Regional
Director for South-East Asia Dr Uton Muchtar Rafei warned that
safety of blood transfusion is a serious problem in many parts
of the world, including
the WHO's South-East Asia Region. "Today 80 per cent of the
global
population, which lives in developing countries, has access only
to 20
per cent of the global supply of safe blood," said Dr. Uton.
He said that safety of transfused blood is a crucial issue as
transfusion transmitted diseases, like HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B &
C, cause incalculable harm. Of the 5.5 million people estimated
to have HIV infections in the Region, 5-10 per cent are
transfusion induced.
WHO's South-East Asia Region has ten member states: Bangladesh,
Bhutan, Burma, Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Nepal, Sri
Lanka and Thailand.
Dr Uton said that there is a severe shortfall of available blood
in the Region. Estimated 15 million blood units are required
every year whereas only 7 million blood units are collected.
"People, particularly the youth, must be informed about the
importance of blood safety, so that they can get into a habit of
regularly donating blood. If only one per cent of the population
regularly donated blood, and together with strict
screening, there would be an adequate supply of safe blood,"
added Dr. Uton.
Dr. Jai P. Narain, Regional Advisor (STD, TB & AIDS) to WHO said
that blood transfusion situation in Burma has improved quite
remarkably in the last 3 to 4 years. "Earlier about 30 per cent
of blood was screened for HIV. Now I think it has increased up
to 90 per cent. But, one of the major problems in Burma has been
the limitation of resources," said Dr. Jai P. Narain.
He also added that blood transfusion in Burma is quite high due
to voluntary blood donation of the people. "Voluntarism is still
very much high as far as Myanmar (Burma) is concerned. People
are very much interested to contribute to the development of
their community. Number of people who comes forward for blood
transfusion is quite high compared to, for example, India. I
have been to some of the areas in Myanmar where I have seen that
the community itself builds the primary health centers," said
Dr. Jai P. Narain.
___________________ INTERNATIONAL _____________________
UN: STATEMENT BY THE SECRETARY-GENERAL'S SPOKESMAN ON MYANMAR
ENVOY
4 April 2000
The Secretary-General has appointed Mr. Razali Ismail as
his Special Envoy for Myanmar, succeeding Mr. de Soto in that
position. The Secretary-General hopes that Mr. Razali would be
able to visit Myanmar shortly to carry out the Secretary-
General's good offices efforts to facilitate the implementation
of General Assembly resolution 54/186.
Mr. Razali has been serving as the Special Advisor to the
Prime Minister of Malaysia. As many of you are aware, Mr.
Razali was the Permanent Representative of Malaysia to the
United Nations from 1988 to 1998, and is remembered for his many
contributions to the work of the United Nations during his
tenure. Mr. Razali was active in a variety of areas, and has
left an indelible mark at the United Nations for having
skillfully managed the preparation of the Rio Summit meeting,
being an active voice in the reform process and taking an
exemplary leadership role in serving as the President of the
fifty-first session of the General Assembly (1996-97). The
Secretary-General is very pleased to have the opportunity to
work with him closely again.
_______________________________________________________
NATION: KAREN REFUGEES MOVED FARTHER FROM FIGHTING
THA SONG YANG, Tak ? '¶ Border authorities yesterday started moving
about half
of the 4,000 Burmese refugees who this week fled heavy fighting
between Karen
rebels and Rangoon junta soldiers to a camp deeper inside Thailand.
Lack of clean water at the camp in Ban Nong Bua and the village's
closeness
to the border area where the fighting is taking place were the
reasons for
the relocation, said Tha Song Yang district chief Vira Phothisuk.
The move has dashed prospects that the refugees would soon return to
their
homeland.
The refugees, mostly ethnic Karen, started crossing into Thailand on
Saturday
after heavy fighting broke out between the Karen National Union (KNU)
and
Burmese junta troops. Junta soldiers are being assisted by a
breakaway Karen
faction known as the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.
Burmese Foreign Minister Win Aung, in an interview during his
stopover in
Bangkok on Wednesday, insisted that the villagers were Karen soldiers
from
refugee camps inside Thailand.
The military offensive was part of its ongoing campaign of crushing
any
possible buildup by the Karen National Union, he said.
Rangoon is prepared to sit down with the group's leaders any time, he
said,
but he would not elaborate on the conditions for a ceasefire or
political
settlement.
Throughout the day, convoys of trucks jampacked with refugees, mostly
women
and children, were seen shuttling back and forth between Ban Nong Bua
and Ban
Thi Nok Krok, which is about four kilometres further from the Moei
River, the
natural border between the two countries.
Despite earlier reports of illness among the refugees, Medicins Sans
Frontieres field coordinator Dr Agnes Sobry said the situation was
now under
control. A number of refugees, however, were still suffering from
malaria,
she said. The next step is to conduct a preliminary assessment as
well as
immunisation, to prevent outbreaks of epidemics such as measles,
Sobry said.
The refugees will be allowed to stay at Ban Thi Nok Krok while
authorities
assess the situation, Vira said. If the fighting does not let up,
they would
be moved to a more permanent site, he said.
Late Tuesday the KNU retreated from the border village Mae La Portha
after a
halfhour battle, it said. Burmese troops razed the entire village,
burning
635 houses, three schools and a hospital, it said.
About 100,000 refugees from Burma's internal fighting live in Thai
camps.
Most are Karens. The KNU is the only major ethnic rebel group that
has not
reached a ceasefire with the military junta that has ruled Burma
since 1962.
BY VORAPUN SRIVORANART and
DON PATHAN
The Nation (April 7, 2000)
_______________________________________________________
BANGKOK POST: ENVOY SOUNDS WARNING ON REFUGEES
April 7, 2000
Rangoon apathy on narcotics dismissed
Saritdet Marukatat
Karen insurgents constitute the bulk of the refugees currently
fleeing Burma
for Thailand, said Burmese Foreign Minister Win Aung.
Ordinary villagers are also being affected by Rangoon's offensive in
the
border area, he said, during a five-hour transit in Bangkok on his
way to
attend a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in Catagena, Colombia.
"They are mostly KNU soldiers," Win Aung said, referring to the Karen
National Union that is still holding out against Rangoon.
A new influx of refugees, estimated at between 2,000 and 4,000, has
crossed
into Tha Song Yang district in Tak to escape fighting between Burmese
government troops and the KNU.
The minister also strongly denied charges Rangoon was neglecting
efforts to
crack down on amphetamine production on the border.
He said the Burmese government was doing all it could to stamp out
production
of speed pills and other narcotics in the country.
His statement contradicted an assessment by Thai authorities who
voiced
frustration over the sharp increase in the inflow of amphetamines
from Burma,
with some even calling for a review of the official policy towards
Rangoon.
Win Aung claimed Burma had no raw materials, equipment or technicians
to
produce drugs.
However, he expressed optimism that all joint bodies between the two
countries could combat drugs and other border problems.
About 45 million amphetamine pills were seized last year, said the
Office of
the Narcotics Control Board.
Win Aung was not so optimistic about Thai fishing fleets' bid to get
an early
return of their fishing rights in Burma He said an assessment,
currently
under way, on fishery ventures would take time because of unsolved
problems,
including illegal fishing practices.
The junta froze fishing concessions granted to Thai vessels
after its embassy in Bangkok was stormed by anti-Rangoon
students in October.
_______________________________________________________
SCMP: DOUBT OVER RIGHTS TRAINING
Thursday, April 6, 2000
South China Morning Post
Doubt over rights training
WILLIAM BARNES in Bangkok and ROGER MAYNARD in Sydney
The Australian Government may be trying to distance itself from
its human rights initiative in Burma by having outside
consultants run the programme.
Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed Burmese
civil servants would take part in Australian-run courses this
year.
The consultants would be used to appraise Burmese officials, and
perhaps members of the security forces, on international human
rights standards, Canberra sources said yesterday.
The announcement came at a particularly sensitive time for the
Howard Government, coinciding as it did with mounting
controversy over mandatory sentencing in the Northern Territory
and Western Australia and an acrimonious debate over the so-
called stolen generation of Aborigines.
Last month, Australia's Human Rights Commissioner, Chris Sidoti,
compared Canberra's attempts to water down a scathing United
Nations report on mandatory sentencing with the sort of response
that could be expected from Burma, China or Malaysia when
criticised.
_______________________________________________________
THE NORTHERN ECHO (UK): PROTESTOR CALLS OFF FOOD STRIKE
April 6, 2000
Bruce Unwin
PRO-DEMOCRACY activist James Mawdsley came through a 20-day fast
in a Burmese prison cell "in reasonably good shape", it was
confirmed last night.
His mother, Diana, of Brancepeth, near Durham, received the
"heartening" news from the Foreign Office after her 27-year-old
son ended his hunger strike, as planned, in remote Kentung Jail,
in north-east Burma.
James, serving a 17-year sentence imposed just hours after his
arrest for handing out pro-democracy literature in August, ate
some chicken soup early yesterday, having taken only liquids
since March 15.
He staged the hunger strike to press his Burmese captors to
provide him with a transcript of his trial.
The Foreign Office said last night a British Embassy consular
official from the Burmese capital, Rangoon, made an hour-long
visit to check on James' condition in prison yesterday.
"The report said he came off his hunger strike at midnight on
April 4 and was in reasonably good shape," said a Foreign Office
spokesman, who added that the next consular visit to the prison
would be on April 16.
Mrs Mawdsley said: "We are heartened with the report. It says a
Burmese doctor is supervising his return to solid food."
But Mrs Mawdsley said his fast appears to have failed to achieve
the main aim.
"He still hasn't received a transcript of his trial. If he is to
appeal he needs to know exactly why he was shut up for 17
years."
James' elder sister, Emma, a Durham University geography
lecturer, and brother Jonathan, who lives in Australia, are to
meet in Rangoon next week to visit the British Embassy.
The US State Department is now putting pressure on the ruling
Burmese junta to release James on compassionate grounds.
US congressman Frank Wolf, informed of James' plight by Liberal
Democrat peer Lord Alton, has also asked the United Nations to
censure Burma over his treatment.
________________ OPINION/EDITORIAL __________________
NATION: UN'S BURMA APPOINTMENT PUTS ONUS ON ASEAN TO ACT
THE recent appointment of veteran diplomat Razali Ismail, a close
aide of
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed, as the United Nation's
special
envoy for Burma has once again put the ball in Asean's court.
"The onus is on Asean to prove that it can do the job," said an Asean
diplomat, referring to the grouping's belief that it can influence
change in
Burma through engagement and not isolation, as advocated by the West.
Razali, who is currently a special adviser to Mahathir, will have a
big task
in getting the Burmese junta to accept the UN inquiry into official
abuses of
human rights. Malaysia was the key player in bringing Burma into
Asean in
1997 when it hosted the Asean summit to commemorate its 30th
anniversary.
As a special envoy, his main job is to implement the UN resolution
54/186 on
Burma. Razali will soon have to visit Burma, something his
predecessor,
Alvaro de Soto, was unable to do last year. "This will test if Asean
has
political clout or not," said the same Asean diplomat.
With an expanded mandate, Razali might use his position to encourage
the
Burmese junta to hold dialogue with opposition groups in the country.
His 10-
year experience as the Malaysian envoy to the UN, from 1988-98, will
be
useful to mobilise UN members on Burma.
The UN resolution 54/186, adopted in December last year,
deplored "continuing
violations of human rights in Myanmar [Burma], including extra-
judicial,
summary or arbitrary executions, enforced disappearances, rape,
torture" and
other abuses.
Razali's appointment comes at the time when there are increased
frustrations
in the international community that something must be done to break
the
current impasse in Burma.
Growing criticism against Burma is also getting more widespread. Last
week
the UN special rapporteur for human rights, Rjasoomer Lallah, sent a
report
on Burma to the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva.
At the moment, the International Labour Organisation is considering
harsh
measures to stop the Burmese military authorities from using forced
labour.
They could use article 33 to oust Burma from the ILO.
The ILO report said that hundreds of thousands of people have been
forced to
work as porters or on building projects and the Burmese authorities
have
shown an utter contempt for human rights.
At a recent meeting in Hua Hin of Asean senior officials, Burma
indicated
that it would be more flexible in order to get moving the stalled
dialogue
between Asean and the EU. For the past three years both sides have
failed to
organise a ministerial meeting due to the Burmese issue.
According to Bangkok-based diplomats, Burma's new flexibility was
linked to
the ILO planned debates on Burma. "The Burmese know that this June
will be
tough on them, and Asean might not speak in one voice," said one of
them.
As in previous years, Thailand will face a new dilemma in voting on
the
labour condition in Burma. Last year Thailand, as part of Asean,
voted in
support of Burma as part of the grouping's show of solidarity, but it
is
uncertain if Thailand will follow that decision this year.
Relations between Thailand and Burma are slowly improving. Foreign
Minister
Surin Pitsuwan will meet his Burmese counterpart, Win Aung, in
Columbia
during the upcoming foreign ministerial meeting of the Non-Aligned
Movement.
The two were also expected to meet in Bangkok on Wednesday.
In Thailand, frustration also prevails among top civilian and
military policy
makers. They have realised that while they want to improve ties with
Burma,
Rangoon's junta leaders have not been sincere. They would like to see
a more
responsive Burma that cooperates with Thailand, Asean and the
international
community.
BY KAVI CHONGKITTAVORN
The Nation (April 7, 2000)
_______________________________________________________
STATESMAN (New Delhi): WILL NO ONE LISTEN?
Is Suu Kyi's crie de coeur in vain
>From the Statesman (New Delhi)
April 7, 2000
It used to be said of communists that they thrived on increasing
misery. Keeping their people in ignorance and without the
benefit of education was merely a refinement on the reasonable
premise that an uneducated population is unable to distinguish
between information and propaganda.
Authoritarian regimes, whether communist or of any other
persuasion, particularly military dictatorships, share this
perception, their hatred of communism notwithstanding. The
military junta of Myanmar is no exception. And thanks to the
indifference of the world, this has been going on for twelve
years. In a remarkable video clip smuggled out of that
unfortunate land, Aung San Suu Kyi, the acknowledged leader of
her people, has made specific charges fleshing out her frequent
pleas for help from the civilised world to pressure the military
junta to relax their iron grip on her people. Barely three days
ago, they had angrily dismissed yet another international appeal
to respect human rights. Suu Kyi has responded with specific
charges.
In a candid comment one has learnt to expect from her, Suu Kyi
charges her tormentors with interfering with education;
generations of young Myanmarese, she says, are without proper
education. Universities are shut and medical and engineering
colleges are open only to the children of the New Class, the
military. Suppression has intensified. Asean countries have held
the view that to influence the junta, trade and commerce with
that country should be encouraged; experience has shown
that they were wrong, grievously wrong. Anyone wanting to do
business with Myanmar has only to contact established military
channels, settle with the colonels and proceed to business. This
has not changed. There are Indian businessmen who will swear
that there are no restrictions in Myanmar, they are at ease
because they have clear consciences, clear of everything except
self-interest. They point to Asean businessmen who do the same
and their governments encourage them. President Clinton who
read the riot act to chief executive Musharraf of Pakistan in
apparently not too c9ncerned about Myanmar as it does not
impinge on American interest.
Twelve years is but a speck of history in a nation's life, it is
however enough to inflict irreparable damage on a young
generation. The stifling atmosphere is leading to frustration
among the young but also among the not so young who see no hope
of their voice being heard where it matters, in the
international community. Burma, that is Myanmar, is rich in
natural resources, and this appeals to the poor in spirit who
wish to
see nothing beyond immediate gains. Tourists are encouraged and
are able to purchase gems, handicrafts and other items without
too much fuss so long as they do not engage in any concern for
human rights or contact anyone in the Pro-Democracy movement.
All military regimes have a flawed vision, some have no vision
at all and Myanmar falls into the latter category. The calm on
the surface is unnatural. It should be remembered
that monks, Buddhist monks, led the earlier struggles for
democracy and liberty; if the junta will not do business with
Suu Kyi, they will one day face the wrath of monks who will
articulate the anger and frustration of an increasing number of
their people. The result will be a bloodbath, if there are no
safety valves, there will be an explosion.
And if there is any justice in this world, it will encompass
those who so shamelessly join the junta in exploiting the
ordinary peace loving people of this nation. Will no country in
the world listen to Suu Kyi's crie de coeur?
_______________________ OTHER _________________________
FBC: BURMA FREEDOM DINNER 2000
DanBeeton@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:DanBeeton@xxxxxxxxxx]
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY FREE BURMA COALITION
Tuesday, April 11, 2000
6:30pm Reception 7:00pm Program
On April 11, 2000, the American University Free Burma Coalition
will host Burma Freedom Dinner 2000. This year, the dinner
counts on bringing 600 persons from the Washington, DC and
surrounding area and raising $20,000 to be used to educate
Americans about the democracy movement.
The American University is known for its continuous support of
the Burma movement. In 1997, the University appointed Aung San
Suu Kyi as its commencement speaker, where her late husband,
Michael Aris delivered one of Suu Kyi's first speeches in
Washington, DC. In the summer of 1998, four American University
students were arrested, detained and deported from Burma for
handing out pro-democracy leaflets. Since then, AU has remained
a hotbed of support for Burma, hosting two international
conferences and raising nearly $20,000 for the freedom struggle
at the past two Burma Freedom Dinners.
This year, the dinner will include traditional Burmese dancing
and cuisine, in addition to a slide show detailing student
activism and the Burma movement. The keynote speaker will be
Representative Dennis Kucinich. The dinner starts at 6:30pm with
a reception and the program will begin at 7:00pm
_______________________________________________
________________
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