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______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
An on-line newspaper covering Burma
_________September 7, 2000 Issue # 1615__________
NOTED IN PASSING:
INSIDE BURMA _______
*Reuters: Myanmar attacks critics, calls Suu Kyi a stooge
*Reuters: Defiant Myanmar sinks into stalemate and isolation
*The Statesman (New Delhi): Undercover in Myanmar
*Myanmar Times (SPDC): Reuters news agency ducks flak over forced
labour report
REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL _______
*International Labor Rights Fund: Judge Lew Rules Against Slave
Laborers Working for Unocal in Burma
ECONOMY/BUSINESS _______
*AFP: French parliament leader raps TotalFinaElf on Myanmar operations
OPINION/EDITORIALS _______
*International Herald Tribune: Rangoon's Military vs. the World
*Article 19: "Silence on Suu Kyi crisis not an option at UN
Millennium Summit", says human rights group
*SPDC: Synchronized Negative Media Campaigns Against Government of
Myanmar
*SHAN: Shan State Joint Action Committee Urges SPDC to Take
Appropriate Actions on Crime against Humanity
The BurmaNet News is viewable online at:
http://theburmanetnews.editthispage.com
__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________
Reuters: Myanmar attacks critics, calls Suu Kyi a stooge
By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON, Sept 7 (Reuters) - A war of words between Myanmar and its
international critics escalated on Thursday with a stinging response
from the military government to an embarrassing barrage of criticism
at the U.N. Millennium Summit in New York. A commentary in the
state-run, English-language New Light of Myanmar newspaper said pro-
democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, padlocked by the
authorities inside her home since Saturday, was a neo-colonialist
stooge being kept under supervision for her own safety.
``All these protesters, presidential candidates, heads of state, the
secretary-general of the U.N., blithely jumped on the trumpet-blowing
bandwagon of calumniating (sic) Myanmar, not because they see, they
hear, they know for themselves the Myanmar affairs, but for their own
selfish purposes and aims,'' it said. ``But the truth will come out
in due course, truth will triumph ultimately.'' Myanmar's military
forcibly brought Suu Kyi back to Yangon in the early hours of
Saturday, ending a nine-day roadside protest which began when
authorities stopped her in her car just outside the capital and
refused to let her travel to the provinces.
She has been confined to her residence ever since, out of telephone
contact and with diplomatic access barred. The New Light of
Myanmar, which like other Myanmar newspapers is seen as an official
mouthpiece of the government, suggested Suu Kyi was in danger from
unidentified plotters. ``Myanmar leaders, wise in the ways of evil-
minded people, clearly foresee perils under which Suu Kyi is flitting
about unwarily,'' said the newspaper commentary.
``Myanmar leaders have learned many lessons from events taking place
around the world that perpetrators of political massacres have an
atrocious habit of silencing and destroying the instruments they have
employed in accomplishing their sinister assignments,'' it said.
``The Myanmar leaders cannot and will not allow such a catastrophe
happening on Myanmar soil, hence the solid, wisdom-led reason to keep
Suu Kyi always under their vigilant eyes, for her own safety as well
as for safeguarding Myanmar's fame against the calumniating
fusillades (sic) of neo-colonialists.''
CONDEMNATION AT MILLENNIUM SUMMIT
The Myanmar government has denied that Suu Kyi and her senior
colleagues are under house arrest, saying they have been asked to
stay at home while it investigates reports that some members of her
National League for Democracy (NLD) had been involved in ``terrorist
activity.'' Suu Kyi's protest, and the government's subsequent
crackdown, came at an embarrassing time for Myanmar, with world
leaders meeting in New York for the U.N. summit.
U.S. President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair
used their summit speeches to denounce Myanmar. ``We face another
test today in Burma, where a brave and popular leader, Aung San Suu
Kyi, once again has been confined with her supporters in prison and
her country in distress, in defiance of repeated U.N. resolutions,''
Clinton said.
____________________________________________________
Reuters: Defiant Myanmar sinks into stalemate and isolation
By Andrew Marshall
BANGKOK, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Myanmar is sinking deeper into
stagnation and stalemate, with no evidence of a thaw in the
military's iron grip on power and no sign that a hostile
international community will relax the country's isolation. The
impoverished country is increasingly becoming a pariah state,
flooding its neighbours with drugs and scuppering efforts to improve
relations between the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)
and the West. The best hope for change, analysts say, is that
international pressure and economic isolation spark efforts by the
military's more progressive members to push for reform. But this
could be years away, and if reforms are eventually introduced they
are likely to be slow and halting.
``To be honest there is no reason for optimism,'' said one Western
diplomat in Yangon. ``There is little will to change apparent in the
government.'' The victims are the country's 47 million people.
With the economy battered by domestic mismanagement and
international sanctions, they face continued isolation and poverty
unless the government makes concessions, analysts say. AN
AWKWARD REMINDER
As world leaders gathered in New York for a U.N. summit to herald
the new millennium, Myanmar faced another round of condemnation for
its treatment of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been
confined to her house since Saturday. Myanmar insists it is
committed to democracy and blames Suu Kyi for causing its economic
ills with her calls for sanctions. ``In the outside media she has
been portrayed as a person who is liked by everybody,'' government
spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Hla Min told Reuters. ``But in the real
world, if your rice bowl has been broken by a certain person, I am
sure that nobody is going to like or love that person.'' But
diplomats say that if elections were called, the opposition would be
likely to match its 1990 landslide victory, which was never
recognised by the government. And world leaders have thrown their
weight behind Suu Kyi at the U.N. gathering.
``The treatment of Aung San Suu Kyi by the Burmese regime is a
disgrace,'' British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the summit. U.S.
President Bill Clinton also denounced the regime. Newspapers around
the world called for tougher sanctions against Myanmar. In an
editorial, the Times of Britain said more economic and political
pressure should be brought to bear.
``There is a general perception that Western pressure on the junta is
being quietly relaxed,'' it said. ``Suu Kyi's action, however, is an
awkward reminder of continuing abuse.'' Analysts say Suu Kyi's best
hope of wringing concessions from the military is precisely this --
being an ``awkward reminder'' who stymies the military's efforts to
win greater world acceptance.
REFORM OR STAGNATION
Myanmar had made some progress in its international relations in
recent years, controversially gaining entry to ASEAN in 1997. The
move damaged ASEAN's relations with the European Union, which
cancelled ministerial level meetings, but an easing of Myanmar's
isolation seemed on the cards after ASEAN and EU foreign ministers
agreed to meet in Laos in December.
That meeting now seems seriously in doubt, with Myanmar facing a
barrage of criticism for preventing Suu Kyi from travelling outside
Yangon, forcibly returning her to the capital and keeping her
padlocked inside her residence.
While Suu Kyi does not have the strength to unseat the government,
she has the power to keep it isolated, and there is little the regime
can do to stop her, analysts say. Since a 1988 uprising was
bloodily suppressed at the cost of thousands of lives, Myanmar has
doubled the size of its armed forces to an estimated 450,000
personnel and stepped up intelligence gathering and surveillance.
Analysts say there is little chance of a successful popular uprising
and the best hope for change is reform pressure from within the
military.
Cracks sometimes appear -- last month Myanmar fired the deputy
planning and development minister, Brigadier-General Zaw Tun, after
he criticised economic policy. Nyunt Thein, commander in chief of the
navy, also ``retired'' last month. Myanmar opposition radio says
the dismissals caused dissent within the military. Diplomats in
Yangon say it is hard to gauge how serious and wide-reaching the
dissatisfaction is, and caution that there are no signs of strong
internal reform momentum. But with ASEAN increasingly finding
Myanmar an embarrassment, the December EU meeting under threat, and
attacks on Myanmar from all sides at the Millennium Summit, reform-
minded members of the regime may decide that offering concessions is
essential. The alternative is more stagnation, isolation and
poverty. 2000-09-07 Thu 01:49
____________________________________________________
The Statesman (New Delhi): Undercover in Myanmar
BEN HAMMERSLEY describes how he tricked the secret police to meet her
September 7, 2000
WHETHER Aung San Suu Kyi likes it or not and she does not, she is an
icon. Under house arrest again, she is said to be safe and well, but
her supporters are concerned.
Last Saturday, the Nobel Peace laureate and 13 members of the
National League for Democracy were forcibly taken to Yangon. Nothing
has been heard from them since, and the authorities show no sign of
granting access to the Opposition leader who has fought for 12 years
to bring democracy to Myanmar.
"I'm no icon. That's a phrase I don't like," she insisted when I met
her in June. It was easy to understand the potency of her
personality, why she frightens Myanmar's ruling junta and why they
make it so hard for people to contact her.
Interviewing her is even trickier. Once you have made an appointment,
using contacts in two other countries, and fraudulently acquired a
tourist visa, smuggled recording equipment past military Intelligence
at Rangoon Airport, and spent the next week evading their colleagues
in your hotel bar, you are still only at the sweaty halfway point.
Getting a recording or a photograph of Mrs Suu Kyi out of Myanmar is
almost impossible. My interview was recorded in three ways: on a
tiny "memory stick" taped to the inside of my thigh; a dicta-phone
tape that went into my pocket as bait. A disk for my photographs from
an Agfa digital camera was small enough to drop between the lining
and the outer core of a pack of cigarettes, which went into my pocket
with some Thai coins, so that when the disk set off the metal
detector at Rangoon Airport, I could empty my pockets and walk
through.
The woman who is the primary target of this huge security offensive
is small and thin with flowers woven into her hair. But with her
Oxford-educated voice and pristine Myanmarese clothes, Mrs Suu Kyi is
the kind of woman in whose company you instinctively sit up straight.
She will suddenly deflate a political argument with a giggle but her
determination remains intact. The West, she asserts, should boycott
Myanmar. No tourism, no business, she says. "The question asking
whether tourism is the best way for a poor country to try to get rich
is a moot one. This regime is not interested in handling tourism in
any way except to get as much money out of it as possible.
"The military regime is not going about economic reform in the right
way. The economic disaster that Myanmar is facing has come about not
because of anything that the NLD has said but because this regime
does not know how to go about instituting sound economic management.
"The majority of the people get poorer. There was a lot of investment
from Western countries, but it did not make the people richer. You
see wealth concentrated in a few people, and a lot of (these) people
are connected to the regime."
Despite being a legal party, NLD's members face daily harassment or
worse. With phone lines tapped, Internet use illegal, fax machines
compulsorily licensed, and their travel disrupted, it is hard for an
Opposition to exist, much less be effective.
The NLD's headquarters are in a ramshackle two-storey building on the
edge of Yangoon. There is scant electricity, and no equipment, bar a
few old typewriters. Posters of Mrs Suu Kyi cover cracks in the
walls. Party members mill about waiting for a meeting or the mothers-
and-baby mornings where smuggled-in vitamins are distributed.
But the determination of the members is evident. The day I was there,
the building's owner was released from detention. Elderly, diabetic
and suffering from arthritis, she had been jailed for a week without
drugs as the military tried to force her to evict the party. She had
refused, explaining that she and her husband have pledged the
building rent-free until democracy is restored.
Doesn't this kind of pressure ever make Mrs Suu Kyi want to give
up? "No," she insists. "I have always said that as long as there was
one person remaining who was prepared to work for democracy, I'll
stay. I believe we will achieve democracy, but I can't promise that
it will be in my lifetime. I'll do my best." Brave words that I would
find hard to take out of Myanmar.
When I got to Rangoon Airport, they went through my stuff twice. The
Custom official thought the memory stick recorder was an "electric
razor."
--- The Times, London.
____________________________________________________
Myanmar Times (SPDC): Reuters news agency ducks flak over forced
labour report
August 28 - Sept 3 ,2000, Volume 2, No.26
THE Reuters news agency has sought to distance itself from the
fallout over a report that clothes exported to the US from Myanmar
were being made by ôforced labour" ReutersÆMyanmar correspondent, U
Aung Hla Tun, told Myanmar Times the wire service had sought to
clarify its position with the Myanmar Government after the report was
published in North America last month.As reported previously
(USÆforced labour claims irresponsible says SPDC, MT, Vol 2, No 23),
the ReutersÆreport detailed claims by a US trade union that the giant
Wal-Mart chain was selling clothes made in Myanmar by forced labour.
It quoted officials of the United Food and Commercial Workers union -
which was at the time seeking to position itself to win coverage of
Wal- Mart workers æcalling for the department store to be boycotted
until it severed ôall ties with any company doing business in BurmaÆ
The report also quoted officialsÆclaims that more than 800,000
Myanmar people were ôconscriptedÆto work in slave-like conditions
with little or no pay. The Myanmar Government issued a press release
in response to the article which rejected the allegations and
expressed disappointment that ôsuch kind of misinformation was
reported by a news agency which has a reputation for being
responsible and unbiased
But U Aung Hla Tun said the journalist who wrote the July 18 article,
Peter Szekely, ômay not know the real situation of MyanmarÆôOn the
very day that the Myanmar government issued the press release on this
matter, our Bureau Chief in Bangkok talked with Lt-Col Hla Min of the
Office of Strategic Studies,Æhe said. U Aung Hla Tun said the news
agency had a good reputation for being accurate and fair and did not
want to see that perception tarnished. ôIn my personal view MyanmarÆs
garment sector is supporting most of our work force to get
employment,Æhe said.
ôIt is very good to see that even half-educated workers are getting
fair salaries in the industry.öUnease over the ReutersÆarticle was
also felt within the garment industry.ôThe US government is
pressurising the big companies, including Wal-Mart, not to buy
Myanmar made arments,Æsaid a source at a medium-sized garment factory
in Yangon.Although more than half of MyanmarÆs garment exports were
destined for the US, they went exclusively to small and medium-sized
firms, he said.Wal-Mart had stopped buying Myanmar clothing in 1993-
94 as a result of government and lobby group pressure.
It also seemed the US was putting pressure on European governments
not to grant Myanmar the exemption from the 12.5 per cent import tax
which was available to most developing Asian countries, he said.The
source said most garment factory workers were earning a minimum of
K7000 per month.ôEvery worker here is covered under social security
benefits and a complaint can be made to the relevant labour office
for any rights violation."
___________________ REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL___________________
International Labor Rights Fund: Judge Lew Rules Against Slave
Laborers Working for Unocal in Burma
Date: September 5, 2000
Contact For Further Information: Terry Collingsworth, General
Counsel Natacha Thys,
Associate Counsel
202-347-4100 Contact For a Copy of the Opinion: Stacie Harting, 202
347-4100, ext.0
Federal District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew issued an opinion on
September 1, 2000 holding that despite knowing about and benefitting
from the use of slave labor, Unocal cannot be held liable. Attorneys
for the plaintiffs will appeal the ruling as soon as possible and are
confident that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will reverse Judge
Lew's decision and remand the case for trial.
Judge Lew reasoned that since Unocal did not directly participate in
forcing villagers to work on the pipeline and did not influence or
encourage its military security forces in Burma to use slave labor,
it could not be liable for the acts of its security forces. Judge
Lew's ruling represents a dramatic departure from well established
concepts of joint venture and vicarious liability law. He
specifically found that "the evidence does suggest that Unocal knew
that forced labor was being utilized and that the Joint Venturers
benefitted from the practice." He also accepted that there is
evidence that "the military forced Plaintiffs and others, under
threat of violence, to work on [Unocal's pipeline infrastructure]
projects and to serve as porters for the military for days at a
time." Further, the Court acknowledged that the "Agreements executed
between the parties [Unocal, Total, the Government of Burma and the
Government of Thailand] placed responsibility for the security of the
pipeline with the Myanmar government. The Myanmar military did
provide security as well as other services for the benefit of the
project such as road clearing and the construction of helipads and
army barracks."
These facts establish a clear basis for Unocal's vicarious liability
for the acts of its co-venturer, the military regime in Burma, or,
alternatively, based on Unocal's act in hiring the world renowned
military thugs in Burma to provide security for the pipeline project.
Judge Lew has apparently concluded that Unocal is free to hire as a
security force one of the most brutal violators of human rights in
modern times, and have no responsibility when that regime uses
violence to force villagers to work as slaves for Unocal's project.
Remarkably, the Court notes that Unocal was warned by its own
consultants, as well as outside observers, that this is exactly what
would happen if Unocal contracted with the military regime.
Nonetheless, Unocal went forward with the project, not because of
necessity, but because there was potential for huge profits.
Judge Lew's ruling will merely delay holding Unocal responsible for
its knowing use of slave labor while plaintiffs pursue their appeal.
The case is far from over.
_______________ ECONOMY AND BUSINESS _______________
AFP: French parliament leader raps TotalFinaElf on Myanmar operations
PARIS, Sept 7 (AFP) - The head of the French parliament's foreign
affairs commission, Francois Loncle, pressed the oil company
TotalFinaElf to clarify its position regarding Myanmar's ruling
junta, in a letter made public on Thursday.
Loncle told the oil firm's president Thierry Desmarets that he was
worried by the "very negative effects of Total's presence in
Myanmar."
"I wish to know the measures your company plans to take so that its
presence in Myanmar is not interpreted as implicit support for the
dictatorial regime," Loncle wrote.
The president of TotalFinaElf told the foreign affairs commission on
June 21 that his company was contributing to the country's economic
and social development.
"Recent events in Myanmar - impeding the freedom of movement of Aung
San Suu Kyi, placed under house arrest - forces me to ask you to
review your position," Loncle said.
_________________OPINION/EDITORIALS________________
International Herald Tribune: Rangoon's Military vs. the World
Thursday, September 7, 2000
Rangoon's Military vs. the World
By David I. Steinberg International Herald Tribune
WASHINGTON - The attempt by the Burmese Nobel Peace laureate Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi and her opposition National League for Democracy
colleagues to travel by car outside of Rangoon for party
organizational work has been forcibly stopped by the Burmese
military authorities, as were several such trips two years ago. This
new effort could be seen as a failed opposition attempt frustrated
by the government, but in one important sense it was eminently
successful.
In spite of the league's inability to accomplish its ostensible
purpose of providing support to provincial party chapters, the
sympathetic coverage given to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in a wide range
of international media has once again focused attention on the
plight of the democratic forces in the country.
The existence of the league as a legal political party, and the well-
being of its leader, are tenuous. If Burma were isolated from world
scrutiny, as it was in 1962 when the military seized power, it is
more than likely that the league would long ago have been declared
illegal and all its activities summarily proscribed, even though it
has been careful to call only for nonviolent activities.
The automobile trips are one dramatic means by which the league
creates confrontations with the military to attract foreign
headlines. There are others as well, such as suing the government in
the Burmese courts.
Such moves have two subsidiary motives beyond the search for
publicity. They test the limits to which the military will go
without formally shutting the party down, and they seek to garner
local support, in spite of the media ban on any positive mention of
the league.
The government's reaction to this particular trip has been more
severe than in past encounters. Raiding the league's headquarters
and the forced isolation of its leadership (the government refuses
to call it house arrest) have raised the stakes.
The military has been frustrated by the dogged determination of Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi and the opposition, the political deadlock, an
economy that continues to decline, the dearth of foreign investment,
Burma's pariah status in much of the world and the increasingly
critical attitude of some Southeast Asian countries, most publicly
Thailand.
There have been suggestions, perhaps trial balloons, in the
government-controlled press that the league should be outlawed and
that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi should be exiled. A current move to try to
implicate the league in potential violence may be a precursor of
such a plan.
Shutting down the league would be seen as another sign of the
regime's readiness to ignore the world and revert to solitary
stagnation so as to hang on to power. This would generate further
international opprobrium and economic isolation. The Burmese people
would be the losers.
The writer, director of Asian studies at Georgetown University,
contributed this comment to the International Herald Tribune.
____________________________________________________
Article 19: "Silence on Suu Kyi crisis not an option at UN Millennium
Summit", says human rights group
7 September 2000
London, 7 September: "Silence is not an option when a military
government detains incommunicado the leader of a legitimate political
party", according to ARTICLE 19, an international freedom of
expression organisation with consultative status at the UN. Today the
group voiced extreme concern for the well-being of Burmese political
leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has not been seen since she and a number
of her colleagues were removed from a suburb of Rangoon in the middle
of the night by police.2
Andrew Puddephatt, Executive Director of ARTICLE 19, called on UN
leaders at the Millennium summit in New York to take action and said:
"Had the party been allowed to take power after the 1990 elections,
we might have seen Aung San Suu Kyi sitting with the world's leaders
in New York today. As it is, she and the NLD have been among the
military government's most regular targets for suppression in its war
on democracy, where freedom of expression has been one of the chief
casualties."1
Mr Puddephatt appealed for decisive action to other multilateral
bodies as well:
"We also call on ASEAN and the EU to address the situation both in
the short-term, by despatching delegates to ensure in person that
Aung San Suu Kyi and her colleagues are physically unharmed, and in
the longer term by putting freedom of expression in Burma at the top
of their individual and collective agendas. We look especially to the
government of Vietnam, which currently holds the chair of ASEAN, to
put human rights violations in Burma on the regional forum's agenda."3
The Burmese military government has stepped up harassment of the NLD
during the latest stand-off, raiding the party's headquarters raided
and removing documents, confining a number of Central Executive
Committee members to their homes, and reportedly imprisoning 16 youth
activists and two senior NLD members.
____________________________________________________
SPDC: Synchronized Negative Media Campaigns Against Government of
Myanmar
MYANMAR INFORMATION COMMITTEE
YANGON
Information Sheet
N0. B-1522(I) 7th September, 2000
It seems that the media today are quite preoccupied highlighting
allegations and fabrications launched against the Government of
Myanmar by certain western governments and the anti-government
quarters within and without the country. There has been a flurry of
groundless accusations such as religious discrimination, genocide,
discriminatory use of landmines, employing forced labour in Myanmar
industries and of course, violation of human rights, mainly Daw Su
Kyi's rights, popping up in the media recently.
One wonders for what reason or why such attacks are coming up.
Actually, it is no secret that a negative media campaign against the
Government of Myanmar has been tailored to coincide with several
important events such as the UN Millennium Summit, ILO Review in
Myanmar labour-practice and EU-ASEAN Meeting. In doing so, Daw Su Kyi
played a major role last week when she managed to flash symbolic
gestures to attract international attention putting herself back into
the media limelight.
Meanwhile, stories designed to disinform readers and viewers are
created and synchronized by those with vested interest to serve their
ulterior motives. Recently, in the South China Morning Post of
September 6th even known major drug traffickers were being covered up
and portrayed as freedom fighters suffering from the Myanmar
military's ethnic cleansing campaign. Col. Yerd Serk, the leader of
the so-called Shan State Army is a break-away faction of Khun Sa's
Mong Tai Army which surrendered unconditionally to the Myanmar
Government in 1996. Yerd Serk later on violated the agreement with
the Government and went back to drug trafficking and armed terrorism.
His continued involvement in narcotic drugs were confirmed in the
Bangkok Post newspaper of September 7th by the Third Army Chief of
the Royal Thai Army Lt-Gen Wattanachai Chaimuenwong, who is
responsible for drug suppression in Northern Thailand.
Similarly, Gen. Bo Mya, the leader of the armed terrorist group of
the Kayin National Union (KNU) has now been left behind with 1200 men
in arms which is about 30% of his formal strength while the other 70%
of the KNU's have made peace with the Government working together in
the development of the Kayin State for the benefit of the Kayin
population living there. This organization of Bo Mya is deeply
involved in acts of terrorism and was also responsible in almost
overthrowing the first democratic civilian government of the Union in
1949 and ruled most of the countryside for some years. Before Khun Sa
surrendered unconditionally to the Government of Myanmar, the KNU
leader Bo Mya made several clandestine trips to MTA headquarters in
Easten Shan State and collaborated in drug deals. Photo evidence of
his connection with Khun Sa can be seen in the 24th Edition of the
book '' Political Situation of Myanmar and Its Role in the Region''
on page 37.
Regretfully, both Col. Yerd Serk and Gen. Bo Mya have been making a
lot of ridiculous but sensational statements claiming that the
Government of Myanmar is involved in ethnic cleansing. At the same
time some irresponsible and bias journalists together with certain
western governments and interest-groups have blown those statements
out of proportion and relabelled it as a Genocide in Myanmar.
____________________________________________________
SHAN: Shan State Joint Action Committee Urges SPDC to Take
Appropriate Actions on Crime against Humanity
2 September 2000
The Shan State Joint Action Committe (SSJAC), which is made up of
Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) - the largest wining
political party within the Shan State in 1990 nationwide election -
and Shan State Peace-Keeping Council (SSPC) - an umbrella
organization of Shan ceasefire groups which include Shan State Army
North (SSA North) and Shan State National Army (SSNA) - released a
statement, dated 27 July 2000, urging the SPDC to take appropriate
actions against the massacres committed by its troops in Kun-Hing
township.
According to the statement, LIB 246 and 524 entered Wan Phai village
tract, on 17 May 2000 and shot dead 24 villagers who were working in
the field near Nong Ya Saing in Kun-Hing township. Only two
villagers escaped this massacre.
Again, on 20 May 2000, the same LIB 246 and 524 entered Parng Kham
village, Hsai Mong village tract in Kun-Hing township and shot dead
59 villagers without reason.
The statement said that these killings of villagers, which include
innocent women and children could lead to racial genocide or ethnic
cleansing and would be counter productive, in building a modern and
progressive country.
The statement went on to say that the SSJAC was saddened and shocked
by these massacres, when the priority for all parties concerned, at
this stage, has been to achieve racial harmony. It also urged the
SPDC to take appropriate actions on those responsible for the crimes
committed.
____________________________________________________
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