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Subject: [theburmanetnews] BurmaNet News: April 13, 2000 







______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
        An on-line newspaper covering Burma 
______________ www.burmanet.org _______________

April 13, 2000

Issue # 1508


This edition of The BurmaNet News is viewable online at:

http://theburmanetnews.editthispage.com/stories/storyReader$310	
	

*Inside Burma

AFP: MYANMAR ANGERED BY BRITISH "WITCH HUNT"

ARNO: THE SECOND GOLDEN TRIANGLE OF BURMA

MTBR: HARD AT WORK BUT READY FOR FUN


*International

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: MYANMAR AND PREMIER OIL

NEW STRAITS TIMES (Malaysia): NATIONAL: RAZALI: DON'T POLITICISE MY 
TRIP TO
MYANMAR
     
MIZZIMA: INCREASING NUMBER OF BURMESE MIGRANT WOMEN FOR JOBS IN 
MIZORAM STATE


*Opinion/Editorials

ARNO: MUSLIMS' PLIGHT AND ISLAMIC MEDIA IGNORANCE OF BURMA


*Other

ANNC: NEW IMAGES ASIA WEBSITE IS UP





___________________ INSIDE BURMA ______________________ 
    







AFP: MYANMAR ANGERED BY BRITISH "WITCH HUNT"
   
   BANGKOK, April 13 (AFP) - Myanmar's ruling generals Thursday 
blamed the pro-democracy opposition for efforts by Britain to force 
an oil company to pull out of the country due to human rights 
concerns.

   Junta spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Hla Min said pressure from 
British junior foreign minister John Battle on British firm Premier 
Oil was based on "regretful" misinformation.

   "Mr Battle is not aware of the actual situation and conditions in 
Myanmar but is acting on information disseminated by the armed 
insurgents and politicians who are opposing the Myanmar government 
and also from those lobbying for them," he said in a statement to 
AFP. 

   A number of Western nations including Britain maintain sanctions on
Myanmar due to the junta's refusal to recognise a landslide 1990 
electionvictory by 	pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu 
Kyi.

   Western states also allege a wide array of human rights violations 
by the Myanmar regime. 			

   Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly spoken out in favor of sanctions 
and urged foreign firms not to work with the junta.

   Myanmar on Thursday accused Britain of mounting a "witch hunt."
   "It is more regretful that Mr Battle still wants to continue the 
witch hunt while many others in the world community are trying to do 
good for the very people they want to assist.

   "Unfortunately Mr Battle continues to favour (a) confrontational 
stance which is merely designed to achieve nothing but just (make 
Britain) feel good."

   Premier Oil said Wednesday it had no intention of leaving Myanmar 
despite the pressure.

   "We strongly believe that dialogue engagement as well as 
sustainable development, are key to effecting changes (in Myanmar) 
both now and in the future," a statement quoted Chief Executive 
Charles Jamieson as saying.

   Battle earlier said he had told Jamieson that Premier Oil should 
negotiate a withdrawal from Myanmar and sever ties with the regime.

   "I set out our position in a way which could not be 
misunderstood," Battle told reporters.

   "I really expect Premier to do the decent thing without having to 
resort to legal pressure."

   Premier Oil has a 27-percent stake in the 650 million dollar (406 
million pound, 649 million euro) Yetagun gas project in Myanmar.

   In Paris a foreign ministry spokesman said France would not follow 
Britain's example by asking TotalFinaElf to withdraw from Myanmar, 
even though it deplored human rights violations in the country. 


_______________________________________________________ 


MTBR: HARD AT WORK BUT READY FOR FUN

THE MYANMAR TIMES & BUSINESS REVIEW
April 10 - 23 ,2000                           
Volume 1, No.6 & 7


TIME OUT 2

CULTURE
FUN & GAMES 

Hard at work but ready for fun 
                          
TRADITIONALLY, in Myanmar, transplantation of paddy sprouts was done
by hand as it is still done today in many areas where farm machinery
is either unavailable or its use impractical. It is hard, strenuous
work, and many hands are needed to transfer the young paddy shoots
from the plant nurseries to the cultivation fields. In villages, women
have traditionally undertaken this task, helping out on one
another?  '²s farms on a reciprocal basis. The work is arduous, but
Myanmar girls take it on in good spirit, teasing and chaffing each
other as they cheerfully work the fields. In fact, the transplantation
season is a time for fun, jollity and mirth and the occasion for much
mutual teasing and playing of pranks on one another. Often
there are more than twenty female labourers in each 


Transplanting season - the occasion for mutual teasing and playing of
pranks group, and while at work on the farms they shed the normal
modest and demure demeanour characteristic of Myanmar women to shout
and sing risqu?  é songs, tell off-colour jokes and engage in general
horse-play (or is it ?  '³filly-play?  '´?) On one occasion I was a member of
an all-male party that passed within thirty yards of a group of female
labourers at work. The workers greeted us with hails and cat-calls
(no pun intended), addressing us as ?  '³lovers?  '´, ?  '³darlings?  '´, and
?  '³husbands?  '´. They called out saying things like: ?  '³Have you fed the
baby??  '´, ?  '³I?  '²ll try not to be home too late, dear?  '´, ?  '³Would you mind
preparing our dinner tonight??  '´ and so on.

Fortunately we were a sizeable group and so escaped with little more
than an embarrassing experience. If two or three men pass by, the
young women may give them a hard time; when they encounter a solitary
male they have been known to give chase. One man I know came running
full tilt back to his village with his top-knot undone and his long
hair streaming behind his back and breathlessly told us how he had
narrowly escaped a group of young women who had pursued him across the
paddy fields. Any male unlucky enough to get caught is brought back in
triumph to their camp and for the next hour or so is made to serve as
the butt of their teasing and practical jokes. One man was tied to a
tree and his men?  '²s longyi was replaced by a skirt belonging to one of
the girls, thick thanatkha (fragrant bark facial cream) was liberally
applied to his face and flowers were entwined in his hair. After this
he was driven out with his hands tied behind his back. I shudder to
think of what this poor man?  '²s long journey home must have
been like or at the reception he must have met when he arrived at his
village. On another occasion a lone male passer-by who had neither the
good sense nor the presence of mind to make a run for it, was lured
unsuspectingly into their camp. There, the girls made a great fuss
over him, sharing their meals with him and offering him green tea,
palm sugar, pickled tea and other delicacies. 

Then they began to tease him, congratulating him on his good looks and
his manly bearing and asked him to choose the prettiest one amongst
them. This he did, and after a hurried consultation with the girl,
their leader came back and informed him that she in turn found him
very attractive, and that they would perform a marriage ceremony
between them if he found this agreeable. The delighted swain hastened
to assure them that indeed it was, and so a ?  '³wedding ceremony?  '´ was
performed there and then, while the other girls, who were having great
difficulty in  hiding their mirth, acted as witnesses. After that they
made him rest in the shade of a nearby tree to wait for her until they
finished their work. 

In the evening, upon their return to the village, the fond and foolish
lover accompanied his ?  '³bride?  '´ back to her home. Asking him to take a
seat on the verandah, she disappeared inside.

By and by the parents and brothers of the girl came out, and after a
decent interval enquired after his business, whereupon he informed
them loftily that he was the girl?  '²s husband, having been married to
her by her transplanting companions that very day. At that, he was
roundly abused and driven out of the house by her irate menfolk. Not
all encounters with young female transplanters go to such extremes,
and sometimes the male passer-by is just cordially invited to
rest awhile and join them for a meal, or tea and pickles or delicacies
such as treacle-rice in bamboo, and after some good-natured teasing is
sent on his way.

To be fair to the girls, it is human nature to pursue in full cry when
quarry tries to run, and the first impulse of a lone Myanmar male (at
least this one) who encounters a group of rowdy young women advancing
purposefully towards him is to run like a rabbit. With the spread of
mechanized agriculture and the introduction of machinery such as
mechanized transplanters to do the work formerly done by hand, the
need for large numbers of farm labourers to work the fields is
gradually diminishing. The rural tradition of young village women
getting together during the transplanting season for a few days of fun
and merriment may eventually become a thing of the past.

___________________ INTERNATIONAL _____________________


AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: MYANMAR AND PREMIER OIL

AI INDEX: ASA 16/02/00
12 April 2000

PUBLIC STATEMENT



Amnesty International is astonished that Premier Oil, in response to 
a call by the UK Government that it withdraw from Myanmar, has 
reportedly said in a news wire story that the company?  '²s ongoing
dialogue with Amnesty International ?  '³had made a significant 
difference in Myanmar.?  '´ The organization does not believe that this 
is the case. In fact, the human rights situation there continues to 
be extremely grave.

	As a part of the human rights organization?  '²s ongoing policy 
to engage with all actors in society, Amnesty International has 
contact with Premier Oil, just as it has similar contacts with other 
major international corporations. During these meetings, the 
organization has stressed the sustained, grave human rights crisis in 
Myanmar.

	The Myanmar Army continues to seize civilians for forced 
labour duties throughout the country. Hundreds of thousands of ethnic 
minority civilians have been forcibly removed from their
ancestral lands without compensation. Some 1,500 political prisoners 
remain in Myanmar jails in appalling conditions, and torture remains 
widespread in Myanmar?  '²s secret military intelligence centres. 

	Amnesty International calls upon companies such as Premier, 
which believe that their presence in Myanmar can effect positive 
change, to demonstrate what effective improvements their presence has
brought about. Amnesty does not endorse such a presence.  

	Furthermore, the organization has no position on any company 
investing anywhere. It neither supports nor opposes punitive economic 
measures against countries with grave human rights violations.
However, it expects companies, like all actors in a society, to be 
responsible in upholding human rights in the countries in which they 
operate.




_______________________________________________________ 


NEW STRAITS TIMES (Malaysia): NATIONAL: RAZALI: DON'T POLITICISE MY 
TRIP TO
MYANMAR		

New Straits Times 
Wednesday, April 12 6:30 PM SGT 


KUALA LUMPUR, Tues. - The international community should support and 
not politicise efforts to promote human rights and restore democracy 
in Myanmar, newly-appointed United Nations special envoy to Myanmar, 
Tan Sri Razali Ismail, said today. He said he planned to meet Nobel 
Peace Prize winner and National League for Democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi but that the meeting "should not be 
politicised".  "I will be going to Myanmar with an open mind and will 
meet various parties. 

"However, my job there will be to seek solutions to Myanmar's 
problems and not align myself to any party," he said. 
He was speaking at a Press conference after launching a national 
essay competition on voluntarism jointly organised by Yayasan Salam 
Malaysia and Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. 

Describing his new job as one which "came with a big responsibility 
and high expectations from all parties", he said he would strive to 
earn the support and confidence of the Government and
people of Myanmar. 

He thanked Myanmar Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win for having 
confidence that he would be able to carry out his duties impartially. 
The essay competition is open to schoolchildren from Forms Four to 
Five and the closing date is June 14. 

The results and prize-giving ceremony will be held in July. 




_______________________________________________________ 

	
MIZZIMA: INCREASING NUMBER OF BURMESE MIGRANT WOMEN FOR JOBS IN 
MIZORAM STATE

Aizawl, April 13, 2000
Mizzima News Group

Soaring prices of basic commodities, religious persecution and forced
labor by the authorities have forced thousands of Burmese citizens to
leave the country and work in whatever jobs available in neighboring
countries. Mizoram, one of the "seven sisters" of India's northeastern
states, has been a shelter for thousands of Burmese immigrants for 
more
than a decade. According to local people, the number of Burmese women
working in various occupations in the state has steadily increased 
over
the last ten years as the economic and political situation in Burma 
has
deteriorated.

"Before 1988 military take over in Burma, very few Burmese women came 
to
Mizoram and worked mostly in handloom weaving industry. Though the 
exact
number cannot be obtained, there are, at present, estimated five
thousand Burmese women working in Aizawl alone. Majority of them are
working as housemaids in the Mizo homes while others work in handloom
weaving, teashops, restaurants and trading in goods and cosmetics," 
said
Ms Zo Sang Puii, a resident of Aizawl, capital of Mizoram.

"We have no boys in our family and my father was not well. He got sick
very often, and we have to do forced labour all the time. I had to 
work
as a porter and stayed overnight several times. After my father died 
in
1997, we faced a lot of trouble. There were no jobs for us to survive,
only portering and forced labour all the time. Finally, I thought it
would be better to come to India to find job. I came with my elder
sister here. My mother is still back in our village," recalled her 
story
a 26-year old Chin woman from Kampa village, Tamu Township of Sagaing
Division. She arrived Aizawl in 1998 and she is now working in a
construction work in Mizoram.

She said that in her village, the authorities regularly ask the
villagers to contribute free labor for motor road and dam 
constructions.
Every household in her village had to send someone from the family for
these so-called development projects.

Daw Ohn Myint, 40-year old woman weaver from Mandalay said that she 
and
her family came to Mizoram because she could no longer support her
family in Burma. "As I have a big family, it was hard to survive in
Burma. Of course, we could survive if we would have more than 1,000
Kyats in daily income. The price of one Pyi of rice (I Pyi = 8 milk
cans) is 120 Kyats and 1/10 viss of cooking oil is about 60 kyats?  '¥
Usually, we eat only a sour vegetable soup and bean salad and that 
costs
300 to 400 Kyats per day. The other costs of children's snacks and
pocket money for their school are not counted yet," she said. This 
woman
and her family have been staying in Mizoram for more than twelve years
and working in a handloom house in Aizawl.

Another Burmese woman who is now a small-scale trader in Aizawl 
said: "I
was a government servant and I could not feed my family. I was a
schoolteacher and taught the children in a 9-mile village. I got 750
Kyats in salary but it was not even enough to buy a Htaminn (sarong)".

Most of these migrant women workers are from rural areas of Chin State
and Sagaing Division of Burma. There are also many others who come 
from
places like Monywa, Mandalay, Swhe Bo, Hseik Khun, Saung Nat and rural
areas of Upper Burma. They are scattered in Aizawl, Laung Thlaing and
Lone Li townships in Mizoram of India.

"People are pouring in from Chin State to Mizoram in family groups. 
Many
young women also came together with the families," said a Chin woman
from Harkha Township.

Crossing border from Burma to India is not easy. They had to pay to
Burmese security forces all along the route. "There were all together
nine gates on the way to come to the Burma border. From Monywa to 
Kalay,
we had to pass two gates but there was no problem. We did not need to
show National Identity cards but we had to pay more for the bus fare. 
If
the bus fare were 400 Kyats, we had to pay 450 Kyats and the driver of
the bus cleared with the authorities by himself. But when we started
leaving from Kalay to the border (Burma side), we had to pass seven
gates and at each gate each person was asked to show the National
Identity Card and to pay 50 Kyats. Whether one has ID card or not, one
has to pay 50 Kyats. When we reached at the river (of the border), the
immigration officer asked 500 Kyats for each person who will cross the
river to go to India," said a 53-year old man from Monywa Township of
Sagaing Division.

According to a local Mizo, majority of vegetable and meat sellers in
Aizawl Bazar are the people who comes from Burma and the number of
teashops, beauty parlors, tailoring shops and restaurants run by the
Burmese in the Capital are also increasing.

There are also a number of Burmese women who are trading between Burma
and India. They take medicines, steel utensils and cotton threads from
India to Burma. Then, they bring back Thailand-made and China-made
clothes, T-shirts, sweaters, cosmetics, blankets and shoes to Mizoram
State. Even traders from other northeastern states of India come to
Mizoram and buy these goods.

Nowadays, trading of ?  '³Nwa Tho?  '´ (dried oxen's penises) is a profitable
business as rich Chinese in Yunan State and other places of China like
this meat. Indian traders from Delhi, Patna, Pune and Mumbai 
bring ?  '³Nwa
Tho?  '´ to Mizoram. Burmese traders buy them in Mizoram and take to
Mandalay from where Chinese traders buy them in trucks. Many of these
Burmese women traders go up to Museh and Shweli in Burma-China border.

However, this trading business is not always smooth and profitable. 
Many
of them have lost their capital many times as they usually work on the
credit system and don't get the money back.

For those handloom weavers too, there is no more good fortune due to
increasing number of Burmese weavers coming to Mizoram State. Still, a
Burmese weaver could earn from 500 to 1,000 Rupees in a week and save
about 200 Rupees a week. As illegal exchange of the Indian Rupee and
Burmese Kyat is in favour of Rupees, they can even send the money back
to their relatives and parents in Burma. (At the border, 100 Rupees is
equal to 700 Kyats and US 1 $ is equal to 43.5 Rupees)

But, this business, too is not free from trouble. "Some women weavers
have been driven out of work by the owners. The problem is the
difference of the culture in working skills. Most of the women weavers
from Burma are skillful in weaving thick cloth. But the job owners 
like
the thin woven cloth. So it causes misunderstanding between the owners
and the weavers very often," said Daw Ohn Myint. "Also, a lot of women
who live in employer's houses were forced to have sex with the 
employers
and some women got pregnant and some had abortion by themselves," she
added.

Over a period of decade, these women have got together themselves in
helping each other. Though not much have been done due to the lack of
financial and material assistance, their Women Groups have organized a
primary school for their children, a library in Aizawl and some 
training
and workshops for the Burmese women. "We try to motivate our Chin 
women
and to give them more confidence to survive and support themselves
independently. Otherwise, a lot of Chin women end up working as
housemaids in various places, and they are often exploited and 
harassed
by men. Sometimes, without intention or even aware of the situation,
they become involved in sex work," said Daw Naw Deen, a leader of the
Chin Women Organization.

 .





_______________________________________________________ 


ARNO: THE SECOND GOLDEN TRIANGLE OF BURMA

News and Analysis of the Arakan Rohingya National Organisation, 
Arakan (Burma)
Volume: 2, Issue-2 February, 2000



Burma has long been a major grower of opium poppies and a producer of 
heroin processed from
opium harvested from the poppies. Under the rule of SLORC/SPDC, Burma 
has become the
world's heroin capital. Heroin production has leaped nearly 400% 
since the Burmese military
junta seized power in 1988. This unprecedented surge in Burmese drug 
production is fuelling an
alarming global increase in heroin use.

The junta has made no serious effort to control this trade and 
countless reports point to the
complicity of Burmese military regime in drug trade. Despite some 
improvements in anti-drug
actions, drug traffickers in Burma are involved in running ports, 
toll, roads, airline, banks and
industries, often joint ventures with the government. 

According to U.S. State Department's report of March 1999, Burma was 
not only the world's
chief supplier of heroin but also "systematically encouraged" money 
laundering. Drug money,
said the Americans, plays a "significant" role in the national 
economy. Burma's drug lords are
now major investors in the country's economy and Burma's army rulers 
are clearly abetting and
benefiting from heroin trade. Some drug lords are even trying to get 
into Rangoon banking,
which would only entrench its growing reputation as a money-
laundering centre. Burmese
banking regulations are notably pliant, permitting any amount of 
desperately needed foreign
exchange to be deposited upon payment of a 30% tax, or less during 
periodic amnesties or if
certified by the junta as investment for "national development"

The "Golden Triangle" where the frontiers of Burma, Laos and Thailand 
meet along the Mekong
River, has long been an important heroin producing area. The drug is 
refined from opium
harvested from poppy flowers grown there. It is a place where the 
fishy-smelling bricks of opium
paste were exchanged for gold bars and cash--hence the name "Golden 
Triangle".
But, now, the Trio-border of Burma, Bangladesh and India is turning 
to be the second "Golden
Triangle" of heroin producing area.

Burma is the world's largest producer and exporter of heroin, 
accounting for between 40% and
60% of world supply. Burma's Asian neighbours, including Bangladesh, 
China, India, Thailand,
Malaysia, and Singapore, and even Cambodia and Vietnam, are all 
increasingly affected by the
rising tide of heroin exports, addiction, AIDS, and corruption linked 
to the drug trade. 

The biggest source of heroin traditionally was the poppy-growing 
gardens in Shan State. But, by
the direct patronage of the military junta poppy -cultivation has new 
reportedly extended beyond
Shan State. Now poppy-growing areas have been reported in the Chin 
State under the Palet Wa
Township in the upper valley of Lemro River. There the local tribal 
people have developed vast
orchards of oranges and other fruits but within many of these 
orchards poppy is being grown
extensively. Even some tribal people in Bandarban district, by 
encouragement of the SLORC
men, are growing poppy in the trio-border area of Bangladesh, Burma 
and India, which the
Bangladesh Army men are trying to eradicate. Enjoying the close 
association of the
SLORC/SPDC, the drug traffickers are trying to develop a new overland 
route from Palet Wa
poppy-growing area to Alikadam in Bandarban hill district through the 
maze of hills, which
would greatly shorten the distance to the destination at Chittagong 
port. 

Since 1989, Arakan has increasingly become a major trade route for 
drugs. Enjoying patronage
and unofficial participation by the members of the military 
intelligence agencies and military
high officials, trafficking of heroin and other drugs from Burma 
through Akyab into Chittagong
has intensified over the last ten years. The problem of Drug-
trafficking has assumed in
unprecedentedly serious magnitude in Chittagong, the main pipeline 
port for "Shipping " the
drugs to European and American destinations from there original 
sources in the Golden Triangle
of Burma. 

Most heroin in Burma is produced in small, mobile labs located near 
the borders with Thailand
and China in Shan State in areas controlled by narco-insurgencies. 
But some of the refineries
that produce Burma's heroin have reportedly been placed well within 
the reach of the SPDC's
battalions. The 52nd Regiment has its headquarters near Sinkaling 
Hkamti (Chin State), and a
heroin refinery sits north of there. An outpost of the 52nd Regiment 
at Tamanthi (Chin State) has
a second refinery. The 22nd Regiment HQ is based at Homalin (Chin 
State), where there is
another refinery. And a major route into India, Kalemyo, is where the 
89th, 238th and 235th
Regiment have their headquarters; another refinery is placed there. 
The 89th Regiment outpost
has a heroin refinery at Tiddim and on the western edge of Chin and 
Arakan States. Another
heroin refinery is at Palet Wa, where heroin is also transported into 
Bangladesh. The only way to
transport anything in bulk to and from Palet Wa is by helicopter, 
which is what the Army uses. 
According to a reliable source in eastern Shan State, refinery 
operators had recently been
ordered by the junta to migrate to Arakan State. According to a 
report from Thailand on 3
December, 'Refineries are being told to relocate quietly in the 
Arakan State by the order of Lt.
Gen. Khin Nyunt. Maj. Khin Maung, deputy Commander, 49th Burma 
Regiment who returned
by plane from Rangoon on 12 November held a meeting with Chao Li-
heien, the principal drug
producer in the area, to move his "out fit" to the Arakan State in 
the west, opposite Bangladesh
and India. It is thought that the proposal to move was prompted by 
embarrassing publicity
around drug activities along the Thai and Chinese borders.

Rangoon has become a haven for retired opium warlords and their 
money. They are all over the
capital, leaders of the Kokang, the Paloung, and so on. Perhaps the 
most famous is Khun Sa,
who took over as king of the Golden Triangle in 1973. Although, he 
had long been denounced by
the SLORC, when Khun Sa finally surrendered to the junta in 1996, he 
was welcomed by the
Rangoon generals as a "brother". Now he lives quite comfortably under 
heavy-armed guard in
Rangoon military compound, protected from the $2million bounty U.S. 
prosecutors have placed
on his head. Khun Sa's family is slowly building a legitimate 
business empire under various
companies, including the Good Shan Brothers in Rangoon. It is learnt 
from reliable sources that
opium king Khun Sa and SPDC had struck a business deal to carry out 
10 projects in Northern
Arakan. May Flower Bank is running inland shipping services from 
Akyab to Kyauk Pyu and
from Akyab to Buthidaung. The Bank is also going to run Coastal 
Shipping Services from Akyab
to Cox' Bazaar and Chittagong in Bangladesh. May Flower Bank is 
trying to open branches in
Arakan. May Flower Bank was established in 1994 by Col. Kyaw Win. An 
ethnic Chinese
educated in Mandalay, Kyaw Win has been closely associated with 
Choon, a Thai timber tycoon,
since 1980. Choon and Kyaw Win operated logging ventures making a 
deal with Khun Sa. Gen.
Maung Aye, the present Burmese Military Chief, is reported to have 
close association with Kyaw
Win. Since opium King Khun Sa's surrender in 1996, May Flower Bank 
has sudden growth. So
May Flower Bank is closely associated with Khun Sa's men and money.

Since early 1990s the Asian Wealth Bank, a narco-money-laundering 
centre of Burma, has
branches in Akyab and Maungdaw. Mr. Aik Htun, the Vice-Chairman of 
the Asian Wealth Bank
who is of Chinese origin and drug related businessmen, was head of 
the business delegation of
Burma that came to Dhaka in 1998. As the head of the Burmese business 
delegation, Mr. Aik
Htun signed the memorandum of understanding (MOU) to form Bangladesh-
Burma Business
Promotion Centre (BMBPC) with Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry 
president Mr. R
Maksud Khan on July 28, 1998. The Asian Wealth Bank is going to 
establish free trade zones in
the border area and to set up cement plant, paper and pulp mills, 
marine fishing units, agro-
processing industries jointly with Bangladesh business partners. 

These drug kingpins, with active support of the SPDC, are now trying 
to develop the
infrastructure of the Arakan Hill Tracts area (now in Chin State), to 
make the heroin producing
havens turning Bangladesh as a major gate way of the Burma's heroin. 

The heroin route through western Burma, across the Indo-Burma border, 
and into the Northeast
Indian State of Manipur has led to an explosive dual outbreak of 
injection drug use and HIV
spread. A similar situation has occurred along the Burma's eastern 
border, with China Yunnan
province. The Chinese province of Guangxi on the border with both 
Yunnan and Vietnam has
experienced recent (1997-1999) dual outbreak of HIV and IDU 
associated with a third route
from Burma and Laos, through northern Vietnam and into China. A 
fourth route from Burma to
Yunnan, going north and west, has led to further outbreak of 
injection in Xinjiang Province since
1998, on the border with Kazakhstan., Burma itself has recently 
reported township rates of IDU
behaviour in up to 25% of adults. Now not only Bangladesh but also 
the whole South Asian
Region is in a danger of these drug-related epidemic and crimes.


____________OPINION/EDITORIALS_____________


ARNO: MUSLIMS' PLIGHT AND ISLAMIC MEDIA IGNORANCE OF BURMA

News and Analysis of the Arakan Rohingya National Organisation, 
Arakan (Burma)
Volume: 2, Issue-2 February, 2000


Mohamed Salahaddeen Writes from Jeddah (K.S.A)

The Amnesty International gives a detailed account of how the six 
million strong minority group
has been subjected to extermination campaigns, persecution, forced 
immigration from the
Arakan region in Burma by the military and terrorised by armed gangs 
supported by the government.
Al-Riyadh, a Saudi-based Arabic newspaper, recently published 
relevant extracts from the
annual report prepared by the Amnesty International on the miserable 
plight of the ethnic and
religious minorities in Burma which is under a military dictatorship 
for several year. The 50-
page report gives a detailed picture of how thousands of Muslims were 
forced to give up their
land and properties and subjected to punishments such as jail terms 
of hard labour and, if not
jailed, forced-labour for able-bodied men and women as part of a 
ruthless and systematic
scheme of ethnic discrimination and cleansing.

The international media, which always focuses on the woes of the 
Buddhist opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi and her followers, has, apparently, never cared to 
draw the world attention to
the merciless attacks and human right violations on the innocent and 
defenceless Muslims and
other minorities. It is, of course, a matter of great sorrow, that 
the Muslim-controlled media in
the Islamic world or any where else, which has an additional 
commitment to voice the problems
of Muslims world over ignored by the international media, has also 
been ignoring the
horrendous violations on these people.

The Amnesty International has, in its report, called upon the leaders 
of the Association of the
South East Asian Nations to discuss and find a lasting solution to 
this drawn-out issue.
Indonesia, Sultanate of Brunei and Malaysia, Muslim member of the 
ASEAN, should take the
initiative in bringing up the issue in the recent conference of its 
foreign ministers. Friendly
nations such as Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam and 
Cambodia do not have any reason
to oppose such a humanitarian move.

Apart from the efforts of the ASEAN, it is the responsibility of the 
Organisation of the Islamic
Conference to take urgent measures to protect the rights of the 
Muslims in Burma, or anywhere
else for that matter. I wonder why the OIC is not explaining to the 
people whom it represents
what steps it has done to protect the six million Muslims on the 
verge of extermination in that
part of the South East Asia. 

(The writer is a senior columnist, Al Madina Jeddah, Saudi Arabia).


______________________ OTHER _________________________


ANNC: NEW IMAGES ASIA WEBSITE IS UP


Images Asia invites you to visit our new Website. For latest updates 
on Images Asia
documentaries, video,and photo archives as well as information on the 
current situation in
Burma go to:

<www.imagesasia.org>




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