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

June 30, 2000

Issue # 1567


The BurmaNet News is viewable online at:
http://theburmanetnews.editthispage.com



*Inside Burma

BANGKOK POST: COLLEGES REOPEN

AP: MYANMAR SAYS U.N. ESTIMATE ON HIV IS EXAGGERATION 

AP: U.N. ENVOY MEETS TOP MYANMAR GENERAL AND SUU KYI

SHAN HERALD AGENCY FOR NEWS: HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF SPEED PILLS 
STRANDED IN TACHILEK

SHAN HUMAN RIGHTS FOUNDATION: 64 DISPLACED PEOPLE MASSACRED IN KUN-
HING

CHRO FIELD MONITOR AND TWO VILLAGERS KILLED BY SPDC SOLDIERS

*Regional

BANGKOK POST: STOLEN AMMO INTENDED FOR WA REBEL ARMY

*International

ECONOMIST: THE SUPREME COURT?BURMA SHAVE

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: BURMA ANGER 

*Economy/Business

LE NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR (FRANCE): TOTAL'S INTERFERENCES
		
VANCOUVER BURMA ROUNDTABLE, ET AL.: PROTESTORS STANDOFF AT 
SHAREHOLDERS MEETING OF IVANHOE MINES FOR SUPPORT OF MILITARY 
DICTATORS IN BURMA
	
*Opinion/Editorials

ASIAWEEK: FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT: AFTER MYANMAR, MY FAVORITE 
DICTATORSHIP IN ASIA IS BRUNEI--HERE'S WHY

*Other

PD BURMA: CALENDAR OF EVENTS WITH REGARD TO 
BURMA                             








__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________
	


BANGKOK POST: COLLEGES REOPEN

F R I D A Y JUNE 3 0, 2 000



Rangoon - Dissidents yesterday welcomed the reopening of Burma's 
universities and colleges, closed for the past three and a half years 
because of student protests against the military regime. The 
capital's residents said final year university classes started again 
nationwide this week and first, second and third year classes are to 
open across the country on July 24. Institutes of higher education 
were shut after anti-government student demonstrations in December 
1996 protesting police brutality. Students have historically been at 
the forefront of political protest in Burma including the 1988 
uprising, when thousands of demonstrators were gunned down by the 
military.-AP 


____________________________________________________


AP: U.N. ENVOY MEETS TOP MYANMAR GENERAL AND SUU KYI

June 30, 2000
 
YANGON, Myanmar (AP)  A U.N. envoy investigating human rights in 
Myanmar met the military state's third-ranking general and pro-
democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday, diplomats 
said. 

 Razali Ismail, on his first visit to Myanmar as the envoy of U.N. 
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, called on Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, 
Secretary One of the ruling State Peace and Development Council. He 
also met for an hour with Foreign Minister Win Aung. 

 Razali also held a two-hour meeting with Suu Kyi at her Yangon 
lakeside residence, also attended by the chairman and vice chairman 
of her National League for Democracy, party sources said on condition 
of anonymity. 

 The NLD swept 1990 general elections in Myanmar, also known as 
Burma, but the military, which has ruled since 1962, refused to hand 
over power. It has jailed hundreds of NLD members and refused Suu 
Kyi's calls for dialogue. 

 Razali, who also met with the ambassadors of France and Japan on 
Friday, was to visit the northern city of Mandalay, Myanmar's second 
largest, during his stay, diplomats said. 

____________________________________________________



AP: MYANMAR SAYS U.N. ESTIMATE ON HIV IS EXAGGERATION 

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP)  Myanmar accused UNAIDS Friday of ``extreme'' 
exaggeration in a report estimating that 530,000 people in the 
military state have HIV/AIDS. 

 In a global report released in Geneva this week, the U.N. agency 
said Myanmar, a country of 48 million people also known as Burma, was 
the third worst-hit country in Asia after Cambodia and Thailand. 

 ``The Ministry of Health find this report an extreme 
overestimation,'' a statement received in Bangkok said. 

 The ministry said the report was based on surveys of urban areas, 
and not the rural areas where 70 percent of people live, people who 
are ``culturally and traditionally bound'' to having a single 
partner. 

 Earlier this year, the ruling military put the total number of 
HIV/AIDS cases over the past decade at around 25,000 _ a figure 
reached by tallying those who tested positive in surveys and at 
hospitals. 

 The UNAIDS report extrapolates from findings of the official 
surveys, which are carried out across the country. Its report gives 
no estimate of how many have died of AIDS since the first reported 
case in 1988. 

 In the past, the regime, which has been criticized for doing little 
to fight the spread of AIDS, has dismissed the idea of a pandemic as 
propaganda sown by 
``destructionists'' intent on harming Myanmar's image. 

 Myanmar has a large migrant population and is a leading world 
producer of heroin, so is regarded as health experts as vulnerable to 
the spread of HIV/AIDS. 

 ``There is a very high political will and commitment towards the 
prevention and control of HIV/AIDS in Myanmar,'' the statement said, 
adding the health ministry wants to cooperate UNAIDS to get a ``true 
picture'' of the AIDS situation in the country. 




____________________________________________________


SHAN HERALD AGENCY FOR NEWS: HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF SPEED PILLS 
STRANDED IN TACHILEK

30 June 2000

No. 6-13



By Moengzay and Seng Khao Haeng

Due to the recent closure of the several private checkpoints along 
the Sai  that divides Shan State's Tachilek and Thailand's Maesai, 
hundreds of  millions of amphetamine (yaaba) pills have been lying 
idle in Tachilek's  warehouses, informed sources reported.

Last month, the Thai army, in cooperation with the police and 
civilian  authorities, began closing off some checkpoint's "owned" by 
a well-known  local Thai godfather. " His fee for using his highly 
secure conduits was  one baht per pill. As yaaba was crossing the 
river by millions of pills  each night, the shutdown cost him 
considerably, " said a source. 

" He  started asking questions why other private checkpoints were 
allowed to  operate 
while his alone were singled out for closure. The result was the  
plugging of all venues except the official gateway across the Maesai 
bridge." 

Sources that S.H.A.N. talked to all agreed that at least hundreds of 
millions  of speed pills were stranded on the other side of the 
river. 

"The authorities arrested people each of whom had, in their 
possession, no  more than 10 milligram of heroin and sentenced them 
to 5 year  imprisonments," another source said, referring to reports 
made by the  junta's daily, The New Light of Myanmar. "But millions 
of these yaama  (horsepill, another name for amphetamines) and blocks 
of heroin belonging  to the bosses are being given a blind eye".

However many observers believe the job of closing off the porous 
2,400 km  long boundary is a totally impossible tall order as long as 
significant  political change for the better takes place in Burma



____________________________________________________



SHAN HUMAN RIGHTS FOUNDATION: 64 DISPLACED PEOPLE MASSACRED IN KUN-
HING

 
SHRF  MONTHLY REPORT  --  JUNE 2000



        On 23.5.00, a column of 90-100 SPDC (State Peace and 
Development Council) troops from IB246 led by Capt. Htun Aung seized 
and gathered 64 displaced people, including men, women and children 
of all ages who were staying and working in their farms outside Kun-
Hing town and near the main road, and shot all of them dead in a 
group. 

        All the victims were displaced people who had been forcibly 
moved to the relocation sites in 1996-97 by the then SLORC (State Law 
and Order Restoration Council) troops in the area. These people, who 
had no land for cultivation in the relocation sites and near the 
town, had been permitted by the military authorities in Kun-Hing 
since 1998-99 to go and farm at places some distance away but within 
3 miles from the town, and along and near the Kun-Hing - Nam-Zarng 
main road. 

        On the day of the incident, without any warnings, the said 
troops searched the area and seized all the people they found staying 
at their farms and brought them together to a place between Saai Mon 
village and Kun-Hing town, about 20 metres south of the main road. 
There were altogether 64 men, women and children of all ages. 

        The SPDC troops separated all the men from the women and 
children and lined them up, while some of them made the women and 
children stay together in a group, and shot all the men dead.  

        The women and children were so terrified by the gruesome 
scene that they cried and screamed and tried to run away. The troops 
then turned their guns and fired at them until they all fell dead on 
top of one another in a pool of blood. 

        These people were innocent farmers who originally were mostly 
from different villages in Saai Murng area that had been moved to the 
outskirts of Kun-Hing town and had been subsisting over the last few 
years by farming small plots of land within the limits allowed by the 
authorities. However, they were shot dead as if they were in the free-
fire areas. 



        Not very long after killing the 64 villagers, the troops 
continued to search the area and shot dead many more villagers. Some 
were shot dead in groups and some were shot from a distance and were 
wounded. 

        Zaai Wi-Ma-La (m), aged 23, originally from Naa Yaang 
village, Saai Khaao tract, Kung-Hing township, was shot on 27.5.00 
from some distance at his rice farm at Huay Pu by the same troops and 
was wounded in his left arm. He was returning from fetching water and 
saw the troops coming towards his camp before he got near them and he 
ran and escaped back to his home in the relocation site. 

        Naang Pawk (f), aged 31, originally from Wan Phid village, 
Naa Poi tract, Kun-Hing township, was shot with 7 other villagers by 
the same troops on 28.5.00 at their farm 2-1/2 miles south of Kun-
Hing town. Naang Pawk was returning from gathering firewood and saw 
the troops from afar and managed to run away and escaped, but was 
shot after and was wounded in her right arm. The other 7 were all 
shot dead in the farm. 

        Zaai Wi-Ma-La and Naang Pawk were too afraid to go to the 
town hospital and secretly treated their wounds by 
themselves.         





____________________________________________________


CHRO FIELD MONITOR AND TWO VILLAGERS KILLED BY SPDC SOLDIERS 

June 30, 2000

On 26 June 2000 Chin Human Rights Organization CHRO field monitor 
Mr.  Zothang and two other villagers Pu Zadun ( 32 years old )and 
Mr.  Siamhmingthang( 24 years old ) of Bungkhua village, Thantlang 
township, Chin  State were killed by the Burmese soldiers from Light 
Infantry Battlalion LIB  266 of Lungler army camp. According to the 
traders, the incident took place   around 10 AM local time.

The Burmese army came to the village and surrounded the house while 
Mr.  Zothang of CHRO was talking with the villagers. Mr. Zothang 
tried to escape  as soon as he saw the army, but he trembled and was 
captured by the army. He  was shot death near the bush shortly after 
they arrested him. After that the  two villagers Pu Zadun and Mr. 
Siamhmingthang were arrested and shot death  where Mr. Zothang was 
killed.

Chin Human Rights Organization CHRO was formed in 1995 by a group of 
Chin  and documenting human rights violations committed by the 
Burmese military  junta in Chin State and North Western part of Burma.

This is the second time that CHRO member is killed by SPDC while 
collecting  information in the field. In April 1998 Salai Michael 
Enzapau, Secretary of  CHRO was killed near India-Burma border 
village of Parva.




___________________________ REGIONAL ___________________________
					

BANGKOK POST: STOLEN AMMO INTENDED FOR WA REBEL ARMY


F R I D A Y, J U N E 3 0, 2 0 0 0



A former soldier has been charged in connection with the attempted 
theft of 20,000 rounds of M-16 assault rifle ammunition from the 
police ordnance division. 
Investigators believe the ammunition had been destined for the United 
Wa State Army in Burma. 		

Warrant Officer Peerasak Netsuwan was arrested by Dusit police at a 
wat in Chai Nat town with 270,000 baht in his possession. 

W/O Peerasak, 50, denied involvement and said the money was fees 
collected from passenger vans operating on a provincial route, where 
he worked as a van dispatcher. 
Earlier this week, guards at the gate of the ordnance division on 
Sethsiri road in Bangkok tried to stop and search a pick-up truck 
leaving the compound. The driver instead drove back to. a warehouse 
and abandoned the vehicle. 

A search of the truck revealed 11 boxes containing more than 20,000 
rounds of M-16 ammunition. 

The driver, Pol L/Cpl Sakren Akkatrakul of the ordnance division, was 
arrested. Information he gave led to the arrest of Pol Sgt-Maj 
Chalerm Banchongplian, of the same division, and Yoswat Ruangsri, a 
former policeman, who admitted being a middle man and said the 
ammunition was meant for W/O Peerasak.

__________________ INTERNATIONAL __________________
		



ECONOMIST: THE SUPREME COURT?BURMA SHAVE

June 24, 2000

Abridged

IN AN election year, almost anything the Supreme Court does is 
interpreted as a victory or defeat for one political camp or the 
other. On June 19th, the court delivered a pair of decisions which 
caused rejoicing and gnashing of teeth to both liberals and 
conservatives in equal measure. 
A unanimous court slapped down uppity Massachusetts, a stronghold of 
liberal Democrats, when it found that the state government''s boycott 
of companies which did business with Myanmar was unconstitutional. 
Human-rights advocates were dismayed. But the court also voted six-to-
three to declare unconstitutional a provision allowing student-led 
prayer before football games at a high school in Texas, the home 
state of George W. Bush, the Republican''s presidential nominee. 
Religious conservatives were outraged. Mr Bush, who signed Texas''s 
brief supporting the school district''s case, said he 
was ""disappointed"". 
Because both decisions were narrowly drawn, neither will settle the 
core issues involved. The European Union, Japan and the scores of big 
firms that had opposed the Massachusetts law will be pleased that the 
court rejected so firmly a pesky complication to international trade 
(which also, incidentally, seemed to violate the United States'' 
obligations under the World Trade Organisation''s open-procurement 
agreements). But the decision did not rule out all such local 
sanctions. It knocked down the Massachusetts law only because 
Congress had passed a milder federal law giving the president the 
power to impose sanctions on Myanmar''s harsh military regime. 
The ruling will overturn several other selective-purchasing laws 
against Myanmar enacted by the cities of New York, Los Angeles and 
Philadelphia, among others. It probably also means that Miami''s 
tough sanctions against Cuba are pre-empted by the milder federal 
sanctions. But for cases in which Congress has not acted, local 
sanctions remain intact. And the ruling does not prohibit other 
measures, such as divestment by state pension funds in firms doing 
business in Myanmar, a move already being pushed by some 
Massachusetts legislators. 
More important, the ruling does not settle the more troubling issue 
of whether international trade agreements signed by the federal 
government supersede local laws on the environment or safety, as well 
as those imposing human-rights sanctions. ""This question will not go 
away. In fact, it''s bound to come back to the court as local 
regulations come under attack for breaching W TO rules,"" observes 
Douglas Kmiec, a law professor at Pepperdine University in 
California...



____________________________________________________



SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: BURMA ANGER


30 June 2000

Fifty people held a 90 minutes sit-in in Liberal Party Headquarters 
in Sydney yesterday to protest at Australian restoring ties with 
Burma's military regime.Police removed members of Free Burmese 
Committee and University students.








_______________ ECONOMY AND BUSINESS _______________
 



LE NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR (FRANCE): TOTAL'S INTERFERENCES

[Translation by Info Birmanie]

(31-5-00 / 7-6-00) By Rene Backmann 

Is it a coincidence that the petroleum company, Total - excuse me 
Total-Fina-Elf - persists to collaborate in Burma, with a 
dictatorship who uses forced labour, ethnic cleansing and a drug 
trade? No, is the reply in a disturbing, well researched book1 very 
unjustly passed unnoticed, by Francis Christophe, ex investigator au 
the Geopolitical Observatory of Drugs , where he worked in particular 
with Burma. After a close investigation of the   Erika  affair, the 
links between Total and the Burmese junta, and also to the real 
petropolitik of Total in Rhodesia, South Africa and Iran, the author 
arrives at the same conclusions as the investigating commission of 
the French Parliament on the links between petrol and ethics : "when 
it comes to defending their economic interests, the large petroleum 
groups have a tiresome tendency to relativize, even to free 
themselves from international conventions, when they operate in 
countries with little care or respect for ethical norms decreed by 
the international community, the petroleum companies tend to act  in 
accordance with the minimal regulations functioning in these 
countries?E
 A practice which is even more fearsome given that it's not 
contested - that is the least we can say - by the shareholders. 
Overjoyed certainly, by the announcement that profits of the company 
had tripled, the shareholders of Total Fina Elf, united in Paris last 
week, applauded the declaration of the chairman and managing director 
Thierry Desmarest "we do not want to interfere in the political 
problems of countries where we are established ?E and then booed the 
representatives of ecologist groups and human rights organisations 
who came to recall that this prosperity had, In Britany as well as in 
Burma, another side, clearly less pleasant.

Because Total goes well above ?Einterfering ?Ein Rangoon. Considered 
by the head of the Burmese opposition Aung San Suu Kyi as "the 
principal support of the military regime ?E the french 
company "closely collaborates ?Ewith the Burmese army according to 
the latest report by Earth Rights International. Based upon several 
hundred testimonies gathered in Burma and in Thailand, this document 
accuses Total and the petrolium firms Unocal (U.S.A) and Premier 
(U.K) of benefitting from the resorting to forced labour and other 
violations of human rights perpetrated by the Burmese army.




____________________________________________________

		
VANCOUVER BURMA ROUNDTABLE, ET AL.: PROTESTORS STANDOFF AT 
SHAREHOLDERS MEETING OF IVANHOE MINES FOR SUPPORT OF MILITARY 
DICTATORS IN BURMA



ROBERT FRIEDLAND'S IVANHOE MINES FACES WRATH OF PROTEST AT AGM FOR 
ITS INVOLVEMENT WITH MILITARY DICATORS IN BURMA

June 27, 2000

PHOTOS AND PRESS PACKAGES AVAILABLE

Vancouver, BC - Bright signs, pickets and shouts of "Canadian mining 
funds Burma's oppression" accompanied shareholders of Robert 
Frieldland's Ivanhoe mines annual general meeting in downtown 
Vancouver today. 

Protestors greeted 60 shareholders of the company to challenge 
Ivanhoe's involvement in the Southeast Asian nation known for its 
horrendous human rights record and ongoing civil war. Amnesty 
International, the International Longshoremen and Warehouse Unions, 
women's rights, labour, and human rights groups joined in voicing 
their concerns about the role Canadian companies play in supporting 
regimes with records of human rights abuses.

Like Calgary's Talisman in Sudan, protestors argue, Ivanhoe mines is 
enabling the military regime to acquire the funds it needs to 
continue an ongoing civil war in Burma (renamed Myanmar by the 
military regime). 			

"I am disturbed that some people do not care that money is being made 
in a country that denies basic rights to working people", said Al 
Engler from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union 
(ILWU). "The trade union movement around the world has to act to 
prevent transnationals from profiting from the absence of human 
rights."

Shareholder activist Eric Snider inside the meeting criticized the 
mining company for being "in bed with one of the most brutal, 
repressive and blood-stained military dictatorships".

Ivanhoe's vice-president Daniel Kutz refused to respond to a question 
of whether Ivanhoe would allow workers to organize at the company's 
Monywa mine in Burma. Trade unions are illegal and workers who 
organize independent trade unions can be imprisoned for seven years. 
"We had a very visible presence", said Barbara Waldern of the BC 
Organization for Human Rights in the Philippines, "we sent a strong, 
clear message to shareholders."

"The regime in Burma has been condemned internationally for forced 
labour and human rights abuses, including on projects with foreign 
companies", said Aaron James of the Canada-Asia Pacific Resource 
Network, a labour-supported group, "how could Ivanhoe overlook human 
rights abuses for business opportunities?  We are asking why the 
Canadian government is not doing more."


The Vancouver Burma Roundtable,  Canada Asia Pacific Resource 
Network, International Longshore and Warehouse Union (Local 400), BC 
Committee for Human Rights in the Philipines participated. 
Representatives from Amnesty International, and International League 
for Women and others were also present.


Ivanhoe's Monywa mine, one of the largest in Asia, will export 
160,000 tonnes of cathode copper at peak production. Like Talisman in 
Sudan, foreign currency generated by the mining project supports an 
on-going civil war propelled by the junta. The UN has cited the junta 
for "systematic and widespread" use of forced labour and an atrocious 
human rights record. The International Labour Organization (ILO) took 
unprecedented action earlier this month, calling for sanctions 
against the junta for their flagrant violation of the 1930 Charter on 
forced labour.

Canadian mining investment, protestors argue, prolongs Burma's 
suffering by supplying the regime with hard currency and 
creditability. "We are alarmed that Ivanhoe is willing to overlook 
atrocities for business opportunities", said protester Aaron James. 
Shareholders will be reminded that the junta is known to employ 
forced labour in ventures with foreign companies. At shareholder 
meetings in Los Angeles and Paris, oil companies Unocal and Total 
faced intense criticism for allowing the military to provide security 
and use forced labour to build roads, railways and helicopter pads 
for the Yadana pipeline through eastern Burma. An independent report 
on mining in Burma will be released shortly.

Vancouver is home to some 300 Burmese - mostly men and women in their 
20s and 30s who took part in the 1988 uprising - some of whom will be 
on hand at the event.




_________________OPINION/EDITORIALS________________




ASIAWEEK: FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT: AFTER MYANMAR, MY FAVORITE 
DICTATORSHIP IN ASIA IS BRUNEI--HERE'S WHY

By ROGER MITTON

[Abridged]

June 30, 2000 
Web posted at 8:30 p.m. Hong Kong time, 8:30 a.m. EDT 


Last week, I had breakfast with a fellow correspondent in Kuala 
Lumpur and we got to talking about Brunei. He did not like the place, 
found it boring, and more importantly, said it was almost impossible 
to work there as a journalist. I laughed and told him that I love 
going to Brunei and always enjoy it there. This is true. My colleague 
looked astounded and said I must be the only correspondent who looks 
forward to an assignment in Brunei. Well, maybe that's true, but a 
lot of colleagues are going to have to get used to assignments there 
in the near future, because tiny Brunei will play host to an APEC 
summit in November this year, and to an ASEAN summit next year. 
Already, every hotel room in Brunei is booked up for the APEC bash 
when U.S. President Bill Clinton will drop by en route to Vietnam, 
and he'll be joined by the leaders of China, Japan, South Korea, 
Canada, and of course ASEAN. 


Probably few of the hordes of pressmen who descend on the village 
capital of Bandar Seri Begawan will do much if any reporting on 
Brunei itself; instead, they'll likely confine themselves to summit 
affairs. And that will suit Brunei's absolute ruler, Sultan Hassanal 
Bolkiah, just fine. Despite its promise to follow ASEAN's 1998 Hanoi 
Declaration to move toward "open societies," Brunei likes to keep its 
society even more tightly closed that Myanmar or Laos. This is a 
great pity because it is a lovely and fascinating place. But 
regrettably the only time it rates much attention in the media is 
when it hosts a summit -- or when, as has become increasingly common -
- another mind-boggling financial or sexual scandal erupts.

When pressmen do venture over to the sultanate, they rarely speak to 
Bruneians. The reason for this is twofold: they think Bruneians are 
stupid and have nothing to say (this is incorrect); and they think 
Bruneians are so petrified of official chastisement that even if they 
had something to say they would never say it to the media (this is 
correct). Recently, I received a frantic call from a fellow 
journalist who was visiting Brunei to cover the recent corruption 
trial of the Sultan's wayward younger brother, Prince Jefri, and to 
write a more general "state of the nation" piece for his publication. 
The poor hack was in something of a dither because he had already 
been there for several days and had still not found anybody who would 
speak to him -- on or off the record. I told him to relax, that this 
situation was perfectly normal for any journalist in Brunei, that it 
was unquestionably the most difficult place in the region for a 
journalist (reporting from Myanmar is apiece of cake compared to 
Brunei), and that eventually some sources would begin to open up to 
him in odd sorts of ways... 


For having had the temerity to do this, Hatta was publicly lambasted 
by the government spokesman, Hazair Abdullah. He carried on a 
vinegary attack on Hatta in the domestic media, a campaign that more 
or less openly accused the timorous oppositionist of being 
unpatriotic because he had voiced some of his concerns to the 
dastardly foreign press. That this should happen is shameful. That 
there is never any protest from Western governments who routinely 
coruscate regimes in China, Myanmar, Iraq, Libya and so on for doing 
exactly the same thing is even more shameful. But then the West has 
political, economic and strategic interests in Brunei so do not 
expect to hear a pipsqueak of protest from Clinton and his imperious 
State Secretary Madeleine Albright about the lack of democracy in 
Brunei when they visit there in November. Do not, either, expect an 
Al Gore-like condemnation of Brunei government's disgraceful 
treatment of Hatta that might echo the VP's strong statement last 
year about Malaysia's treatment of its former DPM Anwar Ibrahim. And 
certainly, do not expect them to try to visit Hatta.

Which brings me to an interesting point that I raised with the 
ambassador of a Western superpower in Bandar during one of my visits. 
Perhaps the easiest way to illustrate this is to present the 
transcript of the relevant portion of the discussion. It went like 
this:

Asiaweek: Ambassador, your country stands for multi-party democracy 
and freedom of expression, neither of which exists in Brunei. But you 
don't criticize them for this?

Ambassador (shuffling uncomfortably): "Let me say this. We do not 
sense any strong desire on the part of the Brunei people to want some 
form of democratic system, to want to change the system they have 
now. But if we ever do sense that that's what they want, then we 
would be the first to strongly support them."

Asiaweek: But how can you judge that? If someone like Myanmar's Aung 
San Suu Kyi or Vietnam's Tran Do stood up here and advocated 
democracy they would disappear the next day. So how can you say you 
sense no desire for democracy when everyone is too petrified to admit 
to that desire?

Ambassador: "Let me say this. We get out and about, we talk to 
people, we have a pretty good sense of what they think. They say they 
are happy. They pay no taxes, they get free schooling and medical 
care, they get subsidized housing, look around: they have it pretty 
good. Why would they want to change it?

Asiaweek: Bruneian citizens -- the ethnic Malays -- have some of 
those thing, but not the Chinese and not the non-Bruneian residents 
who make up more than half of the population. Even for Brunei Malays, 
the "free" things you talk about are not all free. Take education, 
most young Brunei male youths are notoriously lax in school and fail 
to get good enough grades for university ｭ? so, as the vice-
chancellor told me, the only way they can get in is to pay for it, so 
they are paying for tertiary education. It is not free.

Silence.
Asiaweek: What do you think of Mohamed Hatta Zainal Abidin?

Ambassador: "Not much. He seems pretty ineffective, he complains 
about this or that but I don't sense much support for him."

Asiaweek: He is the leader of the only registered political party in 
Brunei. You told me this is your fourth year in Brunei, have you ever 
been to see him?

Ambassador: "No."

Can you imagine the head of a Western mission in Singapore or Yangon 
never speaking to J.B. Jeyaretnam or Aung Sang Suu Kyi? Of course 
not, it would be unthinkable. But it happens in Brunei. Although, I 
must admit that the above diplomat is not necessarily typical of all 
those based in Bandar. One of his ambassadorial colleagues explained 
to me last year that he too found the constraints on the media and 
the closed nature of Brunei officialdom to be counter-productive 
(many senior officials are defensive to the point of outright 
antagonism). This ambassador said he had conveyed this view to the 
permanent secretary in his Prime Minister's office, Hazair Abdullah, 
and had bravely put forward the common sense proposal that if Brunei 
were more open then perhaps the critical -- and often fanciful -- 
reports it received from some sections of the foreign media might 
become more balanced. Hazair had shaken his head and said that all 
foreign journalists came to Bandar with anti-Bruneian prejudice. This 
kind of sentiment, as the ambassador rightly told me, only 
contributes to the vicious circle -- whereby nastier and nastier 
articles get written about Brunei as the sultanate's office (and 
ordinary folk, for that matter) become more and more disinclined to 
speak to the media, which is then left with no other choice but to 
listen to off-record rumor and to speculate in the most effusive 
manner...








_____________________ OTHER  ______________________



PD BURMA: CALENDAR OF EVENTS WITH REGARD TO 
BURMA                           
                                                                      
                                                                      
  
  July 7th            : Commemoration of bombing of student union and 
shooting in 1962  
  July 19th                : Martyrs Day (Official)

  July 24-25th        : 33rd  ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM), 
Bangkok 
  July 27th                : 7th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), Bangkok 
  July 28-29th        : 33rd ASEAN Post Ministerial Conferences 
(PMC), Bangkok 
  August 8th               : 12th Anniversary of the 8-8-88 uprising  
  September 18th           : Anniversary of SLORC Coup, 1988 
  September 24th           : National League for Democracy formed 
1988 
  October 20-21st          : The Asem Summit, Seoul

  October 26-28th               : The 50th Congress of Liberal 
International, Ottawa 
  October             : 104th Inter-Parliamentary Conference, Jakarta 
  November 2-17th          : 279th Session of the Governing Body and 
its committees, Geneva 





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