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[theburmanetnews] BurmaNet News: Ju
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Subject: [theburmanetnews] BurmaNet News: June 26, 2000
______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
An on-line newspaper covering Burma
______________ www.burmanet.org _______________
June 26, 2000
Issue # 1563
The BurmaNet News is viewable online at:
http://theburmanetnews.editthispage.com
NOTED IN PASSING:
"There was no little irony in the lawless junta congratulating
America's justices for taking `the right decision.'"
The Washington Post (See WASHINGTON POST: BURMA THANKS THE COURT)
*Inside Burma
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST: 'JUNTA ATTACKS ON MOSQUES' STIRRING UP
SECTARIAN STRIFE
AP: GENERAL: MYANMAR CAN'T BE COMPLACENT ABOUT ECONOMIC SUCCESS
AP: RESEARCHERS DISCOVER DEADLY VIRUS IN SOUTHEAST ASIAN FRUIT BAT
REUTERS: MYANMAR DRUGS OUTPUT RISING, THAILAND SAYS
*Regional
AP: 17 THAIS CONTRACT ANTHRAX FROM GOAT MEAT
BANGKOK POST: VETERAN BURMESE JOURNALIST DIES AT 72
*International
NEW YORK TIMES: AFTER DEFEAT, CAMPAIGNER FOR 'FREE BURMA' BEGINS ANEW
AFP : GLOBAL DEMOCRACY CONFERENCE OPENS WITH AUNG SAN SUU KYI CALL
FOR ACTION
*Economy/Business
THE NATION: WORKSHOP ON JAPANESE AID FOR BURMA
MYANMAR TIMES : ENERGETIC COMPUTER GROUP PUSHES BANKING SOLUTIONS
*Opinion/Editorials
WASHINGTON POST: BURMA THANKS THE COURT
BANGKOK POST : LABOURING OVER BURMA RELATIONS
*Other
BRITISH LIBRARY: BURMESE COLLECTIONS CURATOR VACANCY
__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST: 'JUNTA ATTACKS ON MOSQUES' STIRRING UP
SECTARIAN STRIFE
Saturday, June 24, 2000
BURMA
GRETCHEN PETERS in Mae Sot, Thailand
Burmese Buddhist and Muslim leaders in exile have accused the
country's military leaders of staging attacks on Islamic mosques,
while voicing fears the violence could spark sectarian unrest between
the two communities. "We are working with the Buddhist leaders to
avoid any unrest and to assure peace," U Kyaw Hla, chairman of the
Muslim Liberation Organisation of Burma, said yesterday from his
office in Chiang Mai, Thailand. "We are appealing to the people of
Burma to stay calm."
The head of the All Burma Young Monks Association said there was
evidence the attacks were carried out by soldiers from the ruling
State Peace and Development Council in a bid to divert attention from
planned anti-government protests.
"To us monks this comes as a sort of propaganda against us," said
Ashin Khaymassarra at his hideout in the Thai border town of Mae
Sot.
The attacks began in mid-May, about a week before the anniversary of
the 1990 elections, which were won by Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu
Kyi, whose party was then barred from taking power. Thousands of
monks had planned to march on Rangoon on May 27 to protest against
the ruling junta's decade-long refusal to recognise the poll
results.
Late the night before, three military trucks carrying men in civilian
dress rumbled up to the Bangali Mosque in downtown Rangoon, according
to reports from eyewitnesses cited by the Muslim Information Centre
of Burma. About 40 men descended from the trucks, hurled stones
through the windows, kicked down the door and smashed the walls with
clubs. Then they vandalised the mosque's interior, destroying a
Koran, the Islamic holy book, and stealing funds.
Witnesses said the trucks that carried the attackers parked outside a
nearby Buddhist monastery, in what appeared to be an effort to make
it look like monks had launched the assault.
Four days earlier, about two dozen men, also in civilian dress,
attacked another mosque in Rangoon, throwing stones through windows
and knocking down the walls with metal pipes. Two Muslim men later
died in detention after they went to a local police station to report
the attack.
Other acts of violence reported by the centre included beatings,
torture, the rape of Muslim women and the destruction of Muslim
places of worship, community centres or dwellings to make way for
Buddhist pagodas.
The reports did not emerge for several weeks because of restrictions
that made it difficult for Burmese Muslims to travel around the
country or to make contact with the outside world.
Muslims, who make up about 10 to 15 per cent of Burma's estimated 45
million people, are one of the most persecuted minority groups in a
country notorious for rights abuses. Many Muslim families moved to
Burma from India in the 19th century - when British colonialists
ruled both nations - but they are not recognised as Burmese
citizens.
Without national identification cards, Muslims are barred access to
education, employment and health care, and suffer routinely at the
hands of soldiers. As "foreigners", they cannot be represented by the
country's judicial system.
Religious leaders say the ruling junta has repeatedly tried to stir
simmering tensions between the two communities, and briefly succeeded
in 1997 when anti-Muslim riots erupted in Rangoon and the northern
city of Mandalay, resulting in dozens of deaths.
"This was not the first time," said Mr Khaymassarra, referring to
last month's attacks. "Whenever there is a political crisis, the
Government tries to create problems between Muslims and Buddhists."
Analysts say such a policy could backfire on Rangoon's military
leaders, warning that the attacks could spark the same type of mob
violence plaguing Indonesia, where hundreds have died in clashes
between Christian and Muslim communities.
____________________________________________________
AP: GENERAL: MYANMAR CAN'T BE COMPLACENT ABOUT ECONOMIC SUCCESS
June 26, 2000
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) Myanmar can't be complacent about its
successful transition to a free market economy, a top general from
the isolated military state said.
``The world is changing rapidly and the process of globalization is
gaining momentum. It is essential that Myanmar undertake necessary
measures to meet the challenges of the time or we will face the
danger of being marginalized,'' said Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt. He did not
elaborate.
The general, who is secretary-one of the ruling State Peace and
Development Council, was speaking at the opening Sunday of a closed-
door meeting of a joint Myanmar-Japan task force in Yangon.
The task force was expected to provide recommendations on reform of
the moribund Myanmar economy. The text of the general's comments was
obtained Monday by the Associated Press.
The government in Myanmar, also known as Burma, initiated free
market reforms in 1989 after 26 years of ruinous socialism. The heavy-
handed regime refused to hand over power when it lost a democratic
election in 1990.
After a mini-boom in the mid-1990s, the economy floundered, partly
due to Asia's economic crisis. Foreign investment plummeted and
inflation soared.
A report last year by the World Bank, however, said the main problem
was not regional malaise but a lack of government transparency and
economic mismanagement.
An April report by the Asian Development Bank said Myanmar's central
bank printed cash to cover 70 percent of last year's budget deficit.
About 30 delegates from Japan, including academics, businessmen and
a senior official of the Japanese Foreign Ministry were attending the
Myanmar workshop to discuss financial, industrial, investment and
trade matters.
The task force was initiated by the late Japanese prime minister
Keizo Obuchi ``to assist in Myanmar's economic reforms'' said Khin
Nyunt, who is also the chief of military intelligence.
____________________________________________________
AP: RESEARCHERS DISCOVER DEADLY VIRUS IN SOUTHEAST ASIAN FRUIT BAT
June 25, 2000
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) A deadly virus that killed about 100
people and ruined pig farms across Malaysia last year has been
discovered in a fruit bat found in most parts of Southeast Asia, news
reports said Saturday.
A team of scientists from Malaysia's top research institution, the
University of Malaya, has isolated a strain of the Nipah virus from
the Island Flying Fox, a fruit bat that roosts in palm trees in
Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia, said
The Sun newspaper.
Lam Sai Kit, a microbiology professor, said his research team has so
far discovered the virus in two of 1,000 urine specimens collected
from the flying foxes.
Lam could not be reached for comment.
The virus, which swept through a large part of Malaysia early last
year, first surfaced in a pig-farming district in Negri Sembilan
state, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Kuala Lumpur.
It killed 84 people in that area alone and infected hundreds. The
virus also sickened and killed thousands of hogs.
Lam warned that since the flying foxes are migratory creatures, it
is likely that the virus will spread to other nearby countries. It is
also possible that other species of bats or wildlife harbor the
virus, he said.
Nevertheless, Lam added that his team had not found any cases of the
virus being transmitted directly from fruit bats to human beings.
``There seems to be an inadequate amount and strength of the virus
present in the flying foxes to enable them to infect humans
directly,'' he was quoted as saying in the New Straits Times daily.
``Perhaps the virus needs to multiply in the pig before it becomes
infectious to humans,'' he said, noting that the virus died quickly
without a host.
In cases where transmission to humans does occur, however, the
damage is severe. The Nipah virus is lethal to about 40 percent of
human patients, causing severe encephalitis.
The virus is transmitted from fruit bats to pigs, horses and goats
when such livestock come into contact with urine from the flying
foxes, or consume fruits from which the bats recently ate, Lam said.
Humans, in turn, are infected through direct physical contact with
semen and urine from the infected animals.
To prevent its spread last year, the government ordered the
destruction of about 1 million pigs in Malaysia, the region's biggest
pork producer.
The viral epidemic was declared over in October but in recent weeks,
health authorities have once again begun culling more than 1,700 pigs
in the central Perak state to prevent a recurrence.
Any hog farm found with even one infected pig must destroy its
entire stock.
Because the virus was now found in fruit bats, Lam said it was
important not to grow fruit trees near farms that kept pigs, horses
and goats.
____________________________________________________
REUTERS: MYANMAR DRUGS OUTPUT RISING, THAILAND SAYS
By Sutin Wannabovorn
GOLDEN TRIANGLE, Thailand, June 24 (Reuters) - Drugs production and
trafficking from Myanmar is increasing rapidly, posing a serious
threat to Thailand and other countries in the region, the Thai army
said.
Speaking on a tour of Thailand's Golden Triangle region, on the
borders of Myanmar and Laos, Thai military officials said the mass
relocation of ethnic minorities within Myanmar over the last year had
fuelled a massive increase in drugs production.
A report by the Thai security agency says that as of May this year,
about 50 methamphetamine factories were newly established inside
Myanmar close to Thai border and 10 others had been set up in Laos
also close to the Thai border.
Each of the factories could produce at least 100,000 tablets of the
drug per day, it said.
``This means that by next year they can produce more than two
billion tablets of Yaba (methamphetamine) which is three times bigger
than last year,'' a Thai regional army spokesman told reporters at
his hillside camp in Thailand's Chiang Dao district.
``We estimate 1999 output at 600 million tablets,'' he said.
The Thai army organised a tour of three separate areas in Thailand's
northern Chiang Mai, Mae Hong Son and Tak provinces this week to
highlight what they say is the growing threat from Myanmar drugs
production and trafficking.
In March, the United Wa State Army (UWSA), with help from Yangon,
began relocating 50,000 people south from the Chinese border to towns
in Myanmar's eastern Shan state.
At the time, Myanmar's military government announced that the mass
relocation plan was to help stamp out opium production by moving
people away from areas where they used to grow poppies.
The UWSA consists of former communist rebels who fought against
Yangon's military government until 1989 but then agreed a ceasefire
with Myanmar's ruling generals.
Yangon says it is fighting hard against the drugs trade and burnt
millions of dollars worth of narcotics in a ceremonial drugs burning
on Friday.
DRUGS PRODUCTION SHIFTS SOUTH
But Thai narcotics and security agencies say the relocation was for
quite a different purpose. They say the aim was to shift drugs
production closer to the Thai border to make use of the country's
better infrastructure for trafficking.
They say the development represents a major threat to the security
of the whole region.
``Myanmar maintains its policy of supporting the various ethnic
minorities living in the areas attached to Thailand which result in a
huge influx of drugs, especially methamphetamine to Thailand,'' the
army said in its report.
Army officers say Myanmar ethnic minority groups, mainly Wa, Ko Kang
and Muhser hill tribes, have already resettled about 100,000 people
in Mong Yawn and nearby towns in Shan State opposite Thailand's
Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai and Tak provinces.
Many of these groups are actively involved in narcotics trafficking,
they say.
``Myanmar ethnic groups, especially Wa, are rapidly increasing drugs
production and supply to Thailand in order to get quick money to
build jungle towns to support their mass relocation plan,'' a Thai
army spokesman told a news conference on Friday.
The UWSA has been accused by Thai and international narcotics
agencies of dominating drugs trafficking in the Golden Triangle.
It has deployed nearly 6,000 armed guerrillas in the area mainly to
protect its drugs business, the Thai army has said.
To fight against the drugs industry, the Thai army has been
reorganising villages on the border, recruiting hilltribes and
organising them into village defence volunteer units.
Myanmar is the world's second-largest producer of opium and its
derivative heroin, as well as being a major source of amphetamines.
___________________________ REGIONAL ___________________________
AP: 17 THAIS CONTRACT ANTHRAX FROM GOAT MEAT
June 26, 2000
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) Seventeen Thais have contracted anthrax from
infected goat meat imported from neighboring Myanmar, hospital
officials said Sunday.
A farm in Phichit province, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of
Bangkok, gave away the meat after about 100 of its goats suddenly
died two weeks ago, said an official at the provincial hospital.
Other goat carcasses were dumped in a canal.
More than 200 people who may have eaten or come into contact with
the infected meat have been examined at the hospital and 17 diagnosed
as having anthrax, a bacterial infection.
Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, fever, fatigue and skin
infections and swelling. It is potentially fatal.
None of those infected were in a serious condition, but they are
hospitalized, said the official, speaking on customary condition of
anonymity.
Authorities have broadcast warnings on local radio warning people
not to eat goat meat or go near the farm, which is being sanitized by
public health workers, the official said.
There are periodic outbreaks of anthrax and other cattle diseases in
Thailand, usually attributed to illegal imports of cattle from its
poorer neighbors Myanmar, also known as Burma, and Cambodia.
____________________________________________________
BANGKOK POST: VETERAN BURMESE JOURNALIST DIES AT 72
June 25, 2000.
MEDIA
Ralph Bachoe
Veteran Burmese journalist U Saw Chit has died of colon cancer after
a six-year illness. He was 72.
The well-respected journalist was a former production manager of the
Bangkok World during the days of its founder Darrel Berrigan, before
it was taken over by the Bangkok Post in 1970.
He has worked in the production departments of the Post, The Nation
and Business Times. He was also the production manager of The Nation
in Burma and worked with the late U Law Yone, editor, publisher and
founder of the paper.
Witty and jovial, he was well-loved and respected by his colleagues
and was the life and soul of the party.
Born in Burma, Saw Chit, or Somkid, was a Thai national and a son of
Luang Pichit, a Thai forestry official. He was also known as Danny
Saw Chit.
He is survived by his wife Suree, children Marla, Zarli and Nam
Phoon, and three grandchildren. His cremation will take place on
Tuesday at Wat Cholaprathan Rangsarit, Pak Kret, at 4.30pm.
__________________ INTERNATIONAL __________________
NEW YORK TIMES: AFTER DEFEAT, CAMPAIGNER FOR 'FREE BURMA' BEGINS ANEW
June 24, 2000
PUBLIC LIVES
By CAREY GOLDBERG
BOSTON -- So sanguine is Simon Billenness that he seems not the least
bit downcast by this week's United States Supreme Court decision
overturning the Massachusetts "Burma Law," which he co-wrote.
There are, after all, so many other economic tools to use against
companies that support the totalitarian regime of Myanmar, formerly
Burma. And as a super-specialist in just this kind of battle, using
financial pressure to fight foreign oppression, he knows all of
them: divestment campaigns, consumer boycotts, shareholder
resolutions, the whole gamut. Mr. Billenness enumerated them as he
sat surrounded by two-foot-high stacks of paper ("Here I am working
to topple a military dictatorship, and I have trouble finding things
on my desk!" he lamented in the cheery clip of his native Britain)
and books with titles like "The Anguish of Tibet" and "Corporate
Crime and Violence."
The desk belongs to Trillium Asset Management, a Boston concern that,
with $675 million in client money, labels itself the nation's
largest and oldest independent investment firm dedicated totally
to "socially responsible" investment.
Most of Trillium's employees actually work investing money, but Mr.
Billenness, 35, a senior research analyst, has the particular luxury
of spending virtually all his time on social advocacy, like figuring
out how best to support the democracy movement in Myanmar, whose
leaders are accused of torture, forced labor and brutal repression.
To wit: With nary a pause after the Supreme Court decision, Mr.
Billenness and other members of the Free Burma Coalition, a national
umbrella group, plan to begin a push this summer to get cities and
states to pass new laws penalizing companies that do business with
Myanmar, he said.
The Supreme Court's ruling against the Massachusetts law, which
largely barred the state government from doing business with
companies that trade with Myanmar, was narrow enough that it left
room for states and cities to pass such home-grown foreign policy
measures, Mr. Billenness said. Provided, that is, they are not pre-
empted by federal law, as the Massachusetts measure was.
So there is room for a continued local-global campaign that is, not
coincidentally, highly reminiscent of the movement to fight South
African apartheid using economic means like divestment.
Here is the Massachusetts link: In 1993, Mr. Billenness, a freshly
minted M.B.A. from Boston College, went to watch a news conference
about the end of economic sanctions against South Africa. There he
met Byron Rushing, a prominent legislator who had written the
state's law on anti-apartheid sanctions. And he suggested that Mr.
Rushing do something similar for Myanmar.
Mr. Rushing said he would need more information on the country. Mr.
Billenness provided it, including a statement by Nobel Peace Prize
laureates calling for sanctions.
Mr. Rushing eventually gave Mr. Billenness a copy of the bill he
wrote on South Africa sanctions and asked him to adapt it for
Myanmar. So Mr. Billenness went home, he said, "and typed it out
word for word, except that whenever I came to 'South Africa,' I put
in 'Burma.' Then I gave it back to him on a disk, and that's how
I 'co-authored' the law on Burma."
Mr. Rushing introduced the bill in 1994, and it passed in 1996.
Citing the Massachusetts law, a number of companies pulled out of
Myanmar, among them Apple Computers and Hewlett-Packard, Mr.
Billenness said.
But by 1997, a backlash began as well. There was, he said, "quite a
kerfuffle."
The European Commission formally protested, and in 1998, the
National Foreign Trade Council, a Washington-based association,
brought suit. The law's opponents said it violated international
trade agreements and interfered with the federal government's
function of making foreign policy. They won in federal court. And
now again in the Supreme Court.
Why was the Myanmar law challenged, while the South Africa laws never
were? The economy has become so globalized, Mr. Billenness said,
that more than ever, "if you pass a selective purchasing law in any
city in the world, it will have import far beyond its borders."
That brought trouble for the Massachusetts law, but "it shows how we
as consumers, as investors, can use our freedom in the marketplace
to effect political and social change."
Mr. Billenness said he believed "the battle has been more important
than the result" in that the Massachusetts law helped bring talk
about Myanmar to the forefront. Seventy-eight members of Congress
expressed support for the law, as did 22 state attorneys general.
The movement is growing, as reflected in the thousands of names on
his e-mail lists, all collected over the last few years.
Mr. Billenness himself came to the "Free Burma" cause in a rather
researched, though by no means cold-hearted, way. A native Londoner,
he is the second son of parents who met at a Young Liberals
conference and who both remain very active in Britain's Liberal
Party. He became actively Liberal himself by the age of 14, even
resuscitating a local Young Liberals chapter.
When he finished Loughborough University in 1985, he married an
American -- he has since divorced -- came to the United States and
began working in finance from the ground up, as a bank teller. He
quickly overcame his initial confusion between the American dime and
the nickel, he said.
He gravitated toward "socially responsible" investing (to this day,
he has a Working Assets Visa card -- "plastic with purpose" that
contributes a percentage of purchases to causes) and ultimately
worked his way up to his job as one of two employees at Trillium who
devote all their time to social advocacy. In 1992, when he was still
an intern at the firm, he wrote a report on which human rights
issues most needed attention from concerned investors, and Myanmar
was one of them, along with sweatshops and China. So it began.
And so it continues. Last year, Mr. Billenness noted, Hootie & the
Blowfish, a rock band and client of Trillium Asset Management, was
playing at a San Diego concert sponsored by Suzuki, which is the
target of a consumer boycott for investing in Myanmar. Guess who
provided the T-shirts that some of the band members wore
reading "Suzuki Out of Burma"?
____________________________________________________
AFP : GLOBAL DEMOCRACY CONFERENCE OPENS WITH AUNG SAN SUU KYI CALL
FOR ACTION
by Matthew Lee
WARSAW, June 26 (AFP) - The first-ever international conference on
promoting democratic rule began here Monday with a call to action
from embattled Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
"We would like to see action, rather than words," the leader of
the Myanmar's National League for Democracy (NLD) told foreign
ministers and senior officials from more than 100 countries attending
the unprecedented two-day event dubbed "Towards a Community of
Democracies."
"There have been many words supporting democracy and we are duly
grateful for them ... but words need to be backed up by action -- by
action that is united and that is focused on essentials," Aung San
Suu Kyi said in videotaped remarks made at her home in Yangon where
she lives under virtual house arrest.
"Only by such action will we be able to realize our democratic
aspirations," she added, vowing not to give up the fight the NLD has
been enagaged in with Myanmar authorities since it won elections a
decade ago that were nullified by the military.
Her comments followed the official opening of the conference by
Polish Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek who urged more forceful
policies in expanding democratic rule around the globe and noted also
the appropriateness of his country as the venue for the gathering.
"Twenty years ago, my country gave the world a new definition of
the word 'solidarity' and 11 years ago, thanks to such solidarity,
she recovered freedom and democracy," Geremek said, referring to the
labor union that led Eastern Europe's first successful fight against
communism. "We must actively promote respect for democracy in
international relations. We should have a vested interest in
expansion of democracy as a foundation for sustainable development
and peace," he said.
Geremek's position was tempered by that French Foreign Minister
Hubert Vedrine who warned of the dangers of interfering heedlessly in
the internal affairs of sovereign countries, likening the result to
opening a "Pandora's Box."
"This would not be an advancement in the organization of the
world," he said, stressing that any action perceived as interference
must come under the aegis of Chapter Seven of the United Nations
charter which provides for peacekeeping operations and the like.
In keeping with its location, the Warsaw conference has adopted as
its logo the wavy, red block lettering of Poland's Solidarity
movement which US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright paid tribute
to in her introduction of Aung San Suu Kyi.
"It is up to us ... to remember that 'solidarity' is a beautiful
word not only in Polish but in any language," Albright said.
Czech President Vaclav Havel, who was forced to cancel his planned
attendence at the conference for health reasons, said in remarks
delivered for him that the gathering should mark a resurgence in the
protection of democracy.
"I see (this) as a promising signal, as a sign of hope for
humankind soon entering the third millennium, literally finding
itself today -- after the collapse of communism in 1989 ended 'the
age of extremes' -- in the gap between past and future," Havel said.
The conference, also to be addressed by Albright and UN chief Kofi
Annan among others, is to close on Tuesday with the adoption of
the "Warsaw Declaration" a document reaffirming the participants'
commitment to democratic values and practices.
Hosted by Poland and co-sponsored by the United States, Chile,
India, Mali, South Korea and the Czech Republic, the gathering has
attracted some controversy for the exclusion of certain countries
judged not worthy of attendence but where democracy advocates say the
most work is needed. China, Iraq, Iran, North Korea and Libya were
among those not invited to attend.
_______________ ECONOMY AND BUSINESS _______________
THE NATION: WORKSHOP ON JAPANESE AID FOR BURMA
Kvodo
Monday, June 26, 2000
RANGOON - A two-day workshop gathering industry, university and
government delegates to discuss Japanese support for Burma's economic-
reform efforts began yesterday in Rangoon organisers said.
The workshop's purpose is to convince the Japanese government to
directly support economic reforms in Burma instead of merely urging
Rangoon to proceed with democratisation through dialogue.
Tokyo is poised to eventually end suspensions on loans to Rangoon
once Burma s military junta makes "visible changes" in the country.
But Japan's Burma policy may draw criticism from the United States
and West European countries that have imposed economic sanctions on
Burma on the grounds it has delayed democratisation and suppressed
human rights.
About 30 delegates from Japan attended the workshop. Among them was
Seiji Kojima, deputy director general of the Foreign Ministry's
Economic Cooperation Bureau.
Burma sent 20 people, headed by Brig-General David Abel, minister in
the Office of the Chairman of the State Peace and Development
Council .
Participants will discuss financial and monetary policy, industrial
policy and trade and investment promotion policy, the organisers
said.
The workshop is expected to produce a report in about a year
proposing concrete plans for structural reforms.
The Japanese Foreign Ministry earlier said the workshop
would "exchange views on Burma's economic problems under the agenda
of trade and investment promotion, industrial and macroeconomic
policies"
Japan is holding the workshop in line with its commitments expressed
last November to assist economic reforms in Burma. Then Japanese
prime minister Keizo Obuchi told Burma's junta leader General Than
Shwe during their meeting in Manila that Japan was ready to help the
country proceed with economic reforms.
Japan and certain countries neighbouring Burma had actively invested
in the country until 1997. But a number of leading Japanese firms
withdrew. as import restrictions and such structural economic
problems as inflation grew because of Burma's budget deficits.
____________________________________________________
MYANMAR TIMES : ENERGETIC COMPUTER GROUP PUSHES BANKING SOLUTIONS
July 19-25 ,2000
Business
COMPUTER software is the list of instructions, written in electrons
and stored magnetically on hard and floppy discs, that computers
require to carry out their jobs. An up and coming, young firm that
writes these computer instructions for the banking industry in
Myanmar is a company by the name of Myanmar Information Technology
Pty Ltd (MIT), located at the eight-mile junction on Pyay Road in
Yangon. MIT is one of three major banking software suppliers in the
capital.
U Tun Thura Thet, 29, Managing Director, and U Kyaw Myat Soe, 26,
Director, are the two bright, enthusiastic computer professionals who
co-founded MIT back in 1996. They were very excited sitting for this
interview, their words tumbling over each other as they illuminated
the role of computers in the emerging banking industry in Myanmar
today. As highly-skilled software engineers, they decoded both the
general overview and technical aspects of their work.
"Computers are not used extensively in Myanmar yet. Most banks still
do their accounting manually using paper and pencil, running in
parallel with modern, electronic methods," explained U Tun Thura
Thet. He went on to add that many bank managers gained their early
training in government-run banks, in the old ways, and find the past
hard to leave behind.
Therefore, many managers rely on the redundancy of this dual system
for administering their customers' financial needs, not ready to
fully accept the inevitable part computers play in their industry.
"Computers began to be used in banking around 1992," explained U Kyaw
Myat Soe, "using DOS, which was the universal operating system for
PC's at the time." DOS, or Disc Operating System, is the oldest and
most widely used set of computer instructions for the fundamental
management of software and data in a computer. DOS works much the
same way a librarian does with books and shelves and the central card
file, or directory.
Both U Kyaw Myat Soe and U Tun Thura Thet strongly advise against the
continued use of such an obsolete operating system. They pointed out
the many deficiencies of it. First among them is the concern over
security and maintaining the confidentiality of records. DOS is also
limited in its capabilities to handle the exploding numbers of
transactions.
In the future, in order to attract new customers, banks need to gain
speed and flexibility in their procedures.
On-line banking begins within the bank's operations by linking all
the separate computer terminals at each branch office together, and
then outside by linking all the branches to a central "server". In
this way data can be used and stored centrally.
As it is today, each bank maintains its own individual databank. If a
customer from Yangon wants to withdraw cash from the Mandalay branch
of his bank it requires fax machines, telephones and a minimum 30
minute delay for a simple transaction to be completed.
On-line banking would reduce the time a withdrawal would take to
approximately five minutes. The bank teller in Mandalay would see the
exact same information on her computer screen that the teller in
Yangon does at the same time. Thus, a customer's satisfaction would
be greatly boosted. DOS, originally designed in the late seventies
for the first generation of IBM PC's, does not have the power to
handle this level of communications or transactions.
It was reported that many foreign banks are switching to PC's and
mini-computers (minis) from their giant mainframe computers. At
present there is only one mainframe computer in operation in the
country, located on the top floor of the Myanma Foreign Exchange Bank
on Maha Bandoola Garden Street.
Owned by the government, among the departments it serves besides
MFTB, are the Customs Office and the Central Statistical Organization
(CSO), who is its principal user. It is estimated that the cost of
maintaining this machine is between US$50,000 to US$60,000 per year,
which is the cost of a new, state-of-the-art mini-computer. These
smaller, more capable and faster computers offer increased
flexibility, much reduced operating costs and are not "proprietary"
like mainframes, therefore banks and other users have a global market
place of software and hardware venders to shop from.
PC's are exponentially more powerful than they were two decades ago.
The larger minis far out-pace the mighty mainframes of just a few
short years ago.
Most of the private banks in Myanmar could be well served by a system
of PC's networked together using a Microsoft Windows NT operating
system, which is a complete departure from the familiar Windows '95
and '98 systems, both based on DOS, recommends U Tun Thura Thet.
Mini computers running UNIX as their operating system will be able to
handle not only the demands of on-line banking, but also an expanding
network of automated teller machines (ATMs), already in use in
Yangon, which are designed to make access to a customers' cash
accounts virtually hassle free.
Demand for banking services and computer requirements will expand,
says MIT.
MIT believes it is already ahead of the curve of this trend with a
sales representative in Mandalay and plans to open a fully
operational branch office of their own up there to serve the northern
regions. As awareness and acceptance grow, computers will be seen
less as typing tools and more as partners in the management of
information.
_________________OPINION/EDITORIALS________________
WASHINGTON POST: BURMA THANKS THE COURT
Sunday , June 25, 2000
THE SUPREME Court's decision last week invalidating Massachusetts's
Burma law represents a blow to state efforts to encourage
democratization in repressive countries--albeit a lesser blow than
many people feared. The 1996 Massachusetts law effectively
prohibited state agencies from dealing with companies that do
business in Burma. But the unanimous court held that the state's
restrictions were preempted when Congress passed its own sanctions
regime later that year. The Massachusetts law, the court held,
conflicted with the federal statute, and the Constitution gives the
federal government supremacy within its designated areas of
responsibility--of which foreign affairs is one.
The court's decision is mercifully narrow. It doesn't generally
prevent states or localities from using their procurement policies
to send messages in the future--as long as Congress has not itself
passed legislation that could be seen to conflict with those
policies. Nor does it prevent states or municipalities from making
symbolic political statements about international affairs. States
should still be able to enact laws, as Massachusetts did, that may
then push Congress itself to act.
Narrow as it is, though, the decision is troubling. No one doubts
that Congress had the power to preempt the Massachusetts law in
enacting its sanctions, but it didn't do so expressly--nor is there
any evidence that it meant to do so implicitly or that members of
Congress believed they were doing so. To the contrary, the federal
law was a leap onto a bandwagon that Massachusetts was driving.
Particularly on a matter as central to state sovereignty as
procurement by state agencies, the political branches ought to be
accountable for voiding state policy, and the court should not
relieve them of that burden.
Recent events in Burma only bolster the wisdom of Massachusetts's
position. Last month, the military junta that runs the country
arrested two elderly women for the crime of renting office space to
the National League for Democracy--the party that won elections 10
years ago that the junta has systematically dishonored. Human rights
monitors report that they were released last week. But the junta's
campaign against Burma's brave democrats intensifies month by month,
and the Supreme Court's action sends a dispiriting message to those
who live under this most brutal of regimes. There was no little
irony in the lawless junta congratulating America's justices for
taking "the right decision."
____________________________________________________
BANGKOK POST : LABOURING OVER BURMA RELATIONS
MONDAY, JUNE 2 6, 2 000
The International Labour Organisation has reported serious violations
in Burma, including massive use of forced labour by Rangoon. Burma's
response is that everything is untrue, and part of an international
conspiracy. Once again, Thailand is on the spot over what to do.
Some three years into the great Burma experiment, the government's
policy is looking weaker and weaker. The theory was that bringing the
Rangoon dictatorship into Asean would make the Burmese leaders more
aware of their obligations to treat their people well.
The idea was that taking pains to have correct diplomatic relations
would encourage Burma to negotiate seriously and compromise
graciously, as most countries do.
What a letdown. Since 1997, Burma has not taken a single step towards
ending its brutality of its people. The dictatorship continues ! to
pick off members of the opposition one by one, by jailing,
brutalising or openly intimidating them. Aung San Suu Kyi, whose
party won l the only free election in the history of Burma, remains
under what can | only be called house arrest.
If Burma has retained its violent tyranny at home, it has increased
its pugnacious defiance in the international arena. Far from adopting
recognised international diplomacy, Burma has openly hidden behind
the legitimacy of Asean to increase its international outrages.
Instead of adapting to the reasonable Asean form of neighbourly
disagreements, Burma has stepped up its quarrelsome and
confrontational method of approaching international disputes.
Diplomacy Burma-style is that if Burmese drug traffickers are making
a problem for Thailand, it's too bad-but Burma has to help the
traffickers to keep its own internal peace.
But if Burma has a problem with a terrorist attack on its embassy,
that is also Thailand's problem, so cut off Thai fishing rights. And
keep them cut off So it is that Thailand faces yet another problem
even as Bangkok officials organise the Year 2000 Asean ministers'
conferences which mark Burma's third anniversary in the group.
The International Labour Organisation has finally had the fortitude
to recognise the egregious use of forced labour by the Burmese
government. The ILO membership, which is to say every country in the
world, has voted overwhelmingly to condemn Burma.
It has left Rangoon a way out. The ILO has given Burma until November
to stop forcing its citizens to work as slaves for the state- and to
show it has stopped. But of course, Burma will do no such thing.
Rangoon again hid behind the Asean skirts, with Malaysia speaking
against the ILO action.
The dictatorship's undiplomatic response to the ILO is that it is all
a foreign plot meant to hurt innocent Burma. There is no forced
labour in Burma at all-only patriotic people who volunteer to work on
state projects for free.
If you believe this defence, we have a bridge we would like to sell
to you. Our Foreign Ministry, to their credit, did not join the tiny,
Malaysia-led chorus speaking up for Burma. Everyone in Thailand knows
that Burmese are forced, often at gunpoint, to work for the Rangoon
regime. Many have been killed performing porter work for the army.
Many Thais know of such cases personally, and it is fruitless even
for the notoriously friendly Thai government to try to argue
otherwise in Burma's defence.
It appears clear, however, that Burma has no intention of ending the
state violence. So come November, Thailand will have to decide what
to do at the ILO meeting. In the name of Asean solidarity, it can
vote ; in favour of the nation which supplies our illicit drugs and
slams our success at removing terrorists from their embassy without a
casualty. In the name of justice and, even, common sense, it can vote
to condemn and further sanction Burma-which will happen with or
without the Thai vote.
Or, more likely, the Thai delegation can be very busy at the time the
vote is taken. An abstention might show Burma we cannot support their
most appalling abuses. But it would show we still wish to have
civilised talks with Rangoon. That is the way most nations do
business.
_____________________ OTHER ______________________
BRITISH LIBRARY: BURMESE COLLECTIONS CURATOR VACANCY
Oriental and India Office Collections
A vacancy exists for a Burmese Curator in the South-East Asia Section
of the British Library's Oriental and India Office Collections. The
Library's collection of Burmese manuscripts and printed books is one
of the largest and most important outside Burma itself.
The 1,000 manuscripts in Burmese, Pali and Shan include the Mandalay
Collection, and the 10,000 printed books collection is especially
strong in 19th-century material due to the operation of colonial
legal deposit legislation, but also contains rare contemporary
materials.
You will be part of the Library's close-knit team of South-East Asian
language specialists. The aim of the South-East Asia Section is to
develop, document and make available the national collection of works
in South-East Asian languages. Your principal duties will therefore
include: managing and documenting the manuscript collections;
establishing and monitoring an acquisitions programme; selecting
current research-level publications; MARC-cataloguing of new
acquisitions; identifying materials for conservation and reprography;
and providing information to users, both on-site and remote, about
the collections and about the history, religion and culture of Burma
more generally. You will be expected to undertake occasional enquiry
desk duties in the Oriental and India Office Collections Reading
Room. You will also be expected to represent the Library at external
conferences and library groups.
You must have a degree or equivalent qualification/experience in
Burmese and knowledge of Burmese literature, history, religion and
culture to degree level. In addition, knowledge of Pali, familiarity
with MARC-cataloguing, a qualification in librarianship, and/or
experience of working in a research library, will all be advantages.
Salary Pounds 19,434-24,293.
For further details and an application form please telephone 020 7412
7331 between the hours of 09.00 and 17.00 or e-mail bl-
personnel@xxxxxx
The closing date for the receipt of applications is 21 July 2000.
The British Library is an Equal Opportunity Employer
____________________________________________________
________________
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