BurmaNet News: November 13, 2000

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______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
        An on-line newspaper covering Burma 
________November 13, 2000   Issue # 1660__________

NOTED IN PASSING:  ?This is Myanmar's Gulag: NLD party members disappear 
and their families are not told where they are for days or weeks, and 
then they have only very limited access to them. But every 
right-thinking person must hope that the day will come soon when these 
four just men of Pathein will be able to take up their positions as 
elected members of parliament....Unfortunately, right now, they do not 
live in a civilized country?

Roger Mitton of Asiaweek.  See Asiaweek.com: Four Just Men of 
Pathein--Swallowed up by Myanmar's Gulag 

INSIDE BURMA _______
*AFP: Myanmar Muslim rebels claim to have killed 11 Yangon troops 
*Mizzima: Prawn breeding business effects environment in Rekhine State 
of Burma 
*Bangkok Post: BORDER: Burma exiles would rather stay at home; DKBA 
leaders urge more Karen to return 
*Asiaweek.com: Four Just Men of Pathein--Swallowed up by Myanmar's Gulag 


REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL _______
*AP: Australian in small plane crash lands in Myanmar 
*AFP: Thais plan evacuations if Myanmar border fighting worsens

ECONOMY/BUSINESS _______
*AP: Boulder may suspend anti-Myanmar law; leave it as symbolic gesture 
		
OPINION/EDITORIALS _______
*The Boston Globe: a Guardian of Hope in Burma
*The Hindu:  Editorial--The Burma Road 

OTHER _______
*PD Burma: Burma Calendar of events

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


__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________
	

AFP: Myanmar Muslim rebels claim to have killed 11 Yangon troops 

CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh, Nov 13 (AFP) - Myanmar's separatist Rohingya 
Muslim rebels claim to have killed 11 government troops in a gunbattle 
last week in Arakan province, bordering Bangladesh, according to a faxed 
statement received here Monday. 

 The gunbattle began Friday when Myanmar troops opened fire on the 
militants trying to lay land mines along Arakan's border with 
Bangladesh, the statement by the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO) 
said. 

 No confirmation from Bangladeshi frontier officials was available. 

 But a senior official of the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles Monday said 
their frontier troops had reported hearing exchanges of gunfire from 
Myanmar, close to Bangladesh's southeastern Cox's Bazar district. 

 The militants from Myanmar's mostly poor Muslim Rohingya community have 
been fighting a long bush war for Arakan's independence. 

 Nearly 250,000 Rohingyas fled into Bangladesh in 1991, alleging 
persecution by Myanmar troops. Most of them were later repatriated. 

 But some 20,000 Rohingya refugees were left in two of the refugee camps 
in Cox's Bazar waiting clearance from Myanmar authorities for 
repatriation. 


____________________________________________________



Mizzima: Prawn breeding business effects environment in Rekhine State of 
Burma 


Dhaka, November 10, 2000
Mizzima News Group (www.mizzima.com)

In Taungkok town of Rekhine State of Burma, people are facing with 
drinking water shortage problem as the brine-prawn breeding ponds in the 
township make the water salty. The salty water from the prawn 
breeding-ponds instill into the wells, gardens and farms, especially in 
the area of ôPatin Kyunö Island and therefore plants cannot be grown any 
longer on the island.
A few months ago, Taungkok-based 544 and 346 infantry regiments of 
Burmese military forced the villagers of ôNat Mawö and ôKalain Pyinö to 
dig up for the military-owned prawn breeding business in ôZeepinyinö 
village and ôKalain Taungö village without giving any wages. Moreover, 
the rich people from nine villages of ôPatin Kyunö are also widely 
working with this profitable brine-prawn breeding business. 

Although the suffering villagers had been repeatedly reporting these 
problems to the concerned township authorities, there was no concrete 
action taken on their complaints. Recently, the authorities came and 
inspected the prawn breeding sites in the area and directed to reduce 
the briny water through water canals. But as the prawn owners bribed the 
authorities, nothing has come to the better condition yet. The villagers 
from ôKan Pyinö village in ôPatin Kyunö are therefore planning to 
migrate to other villages.

Moreover, ôNgamun Daingö-based Burmese military units in ôPatin Kyunö 
recently forced the villagers from nine villages to dig up the ponds 
without providing wages for over two months and forced them to sign the 
paper which says that their work was voluntary.

Rekhine State is estimated to have over seventy thousand acres of prawn 
breeding areas and said to be the largest prawn breeding state in the 
whole Burma.




____________________________________________________


Bangkok Post: BORDER: Burma exiles would rather stay at home; DKBA 
leaders urge more Karen to return 

November 13, 2000 


More than 5,000 displaced Burmese would rather stay in a DKBA-held area 
of Burma, opposite Tak, than return to Thailand. 

Their decision was in line with the wishes of some Democratic Karen 
Buddhist Army leaders who want Karen refugees in Thailand to return to 
DKBA-held zones. 

Most of these displaced Burmese are former Karen refugees who used to 
live in refugee camps in border areas of Tak. 

Of the 1,000 families living in an administrative zone of the 
pro-Rangoon DKBA's 999th Division, 460 came from Huaykalok and Mawkier 
refugee camps in Mae Sot and Phop Phra districts, and 183 from Mae La 
camp in Tha Song Yang district. 

The remainder are Burmese workers and Karen tribespeople. 

The centre of this 50-km DKBA-held area is Kok Ko village, north of 
Myawaddy and opposite Tak's Mae Sot and Mae Ramat districts. 

"Newcomers are usually unable to provide for themselves. So we will help 
them by providing them with shelter and food in the first six months and 
then allow them to run corn and nut plantations and rice fields here," 
said Lt-Col Maung Chit Tu, head of the DKBA's 999th Division. 

"Some of them run coffee shops or boutiques or become labourers." 

He said some displaced Burmese served the administrative zone as 
teachers, officials, sawmill labourers, furniture factory workers and 
tailors making uniforms for DKBA troops. 

The zone also has schools and a temple, from which abbot Luang Phor Yai 
and other monks sit on the district's advisory committee for education. 

Lt-Col Maung Chit Tu said the DKBA were forced to take care of the 
refugees because Rangoon refused to help them or allow international 
organisations or neighbouring countries to assist them. 

However, Rangoon had no problem with their stay in DKBA-held areas. 

"We want all refugees to come back to live in Burma to work and help 
develop our Karen society. 

"We do not want them to suffer the indignity of waiting in line for food 
at refugee camps in Thailand," he said. 

It would not be easy for the DKBA to welcome almost 100,000 Karen 
refugees, he said, adding that they would have to return to the Thai 
shelters if the DKBA were unable to cope. 

"These refugees are not liked by many Thais even though the Thai 
government has a policy of giving them humanitarian assistance. 

"So we want them to come back to live in Burma," Lt-Col Maung Chit Tu 
said. 

He promised to ensure the safety and peaceful livelihood of all refugees 
who return. 

With the exception of soldiers of the anti-Rangoon Karen National Union 
and their relatives, most Karen refugees wanted to return. 

The KNU rebels tried to force Karen refugees already living in Burma to 
go back to Thailand and threatened to harm those who refused. 

The KNU's 7th Division earlier attacked Ta Pong camp in Burma, opposite 
Ban Wang Takhian, after unsuccessfully trying to force Karen villagers 
there to return to Thailand. 

San Kyi, 65, said her family and many neighbours returned to Kok Ko 
village in Burma when they learned they would be moved from Huaykalok 
camp in Mae Sot to Umpiommai camp, which they disliked. 

Her family would never return to Thailand unless they were forced to by 
fighting, she said, adding that it was better than living in a refugee 
camp where they were not free to move around. 

Ketti, 21, from Moulmein in Mon state, said strict regulations on alien 
labour employment forced her to leave Thailand and stay with her sister 
in Kok Ko village. 

She will return if she fails to find a job in the village. 

Although willing to welcome all displaced Burmese to his jurisdiction, 
Lt-Col Maung Chit Tu refused to accept Muslims since they have long 
caused unrest in Burmese society. 

Maj Kyaw Kar, commander of the DKBA's 555th Division, reportedly ordered 
more than 1,000 Muslims to leave Ta Kwet Poe village, southeast of 
Hlaingbwe, within two months. 

About 20 Muslim families moved to a border area opposite Tha Song Yang 
late last month but the remainder asked the DKBA to allow them to stay 
until the end of the harvest season. 

Senate panel set to inspect refugee shelter 

A senate panel sub-committee on foreign affairs is to inspect a refugee 
camp in Tha Song Yang district in Tak today to investigate problems 
posed by refugees. 

The province is home to more than 61,700 refugees, most of whom are 
Karen people fleeing fighting in Burma. Some of the refugees have 
reportedly caused problems for local villagers and threatened natural 
resources. 

The 10-man panel, chaired by Sen Udorn Tantisunthorn for Tak, is 
scheduled to visit Mae La Camp, which houses 36,941 refugees. 

Recently, local residents and officials submitted a petition with the 
Senate asking it to look into their problems. 

It alleged some refugees encroached on forest reserves, stole produce 
from farms and worked without official permission. 

"A lot of them are paid to cut trees and burn forests to make way for 
farming in forest reserve areas. Some of them have encroached on forests 
to occupy the lands," said the senator. 

He voiced concern about the birth rate in refugee camps, saying it would 
be a burden for Thailand in the future. 

Supamart Kasem Tak 

____________________________________________________  


Asiaweek.com: Four Just Men of Pathein--Swallowed up by Myanmar's Gulag 

>From Our Correspondent
By ROGER MITTON 
October 16, 2000

[BurmaNet adds: Asiaweed.com Web posted articles in the From Our 
Correspondent section are not necessarily published in the print version 
of the magazine.  While some FOC articles do see print publication, it 
is in abbreviated format.  This is the full text  web posted article.]

Last week, I was in Pathein. It is the administrative center for 
Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Division, and with a population of 150,000, the 
nation's fourth-largest city. I wanted to go there partly because I have 
been to Myanmar's three other major cities ? Yangon, Mandalay and 
Mawlamyine ? and partly because it receives relatively few visitors from 
the outside world and so I thought it would provide me with an 
unblemished glimpse of what provincial Myanmar life is really like. As 
the crow flies, Pathein is only 150 km east of Yangon, but the road is 
narrow and pot-holed, and at this time of year, its woeful condition is 
exacerbated by the monsoon rains. The drive took a bone-jarring five and 
a half hours. 

After I had checked into the Pathein Hotel ($25, single air-con room 
with breakfast) and freshened up, I strolled over to the club house of 
the adjacent Ayeyarwady Golf Club. A couple of tables were occupied in 
the main room where some members were having a snack and drinking beer. 
High up on the wooden walls were honors boards marking the names of 
competition winners and club captains and other office holders. I was 
intrigued at the preponderance of military names. In 1984, for instance, 
the Captain's Cup was won by Brig.-Gen. Than Shwe, then the southwest 
regional commander based in Pathein, and now ? as Senior General ? the 
nation's supreme leader. The winner in 1998 was Brig.-Gen. Shwe Mann, 
the current regional commander, who is widely tipped to follow the Than 
Shwe trajectory. Other names included Than Shwe's predecessor as head of 
the junta, Gen. Saw Maung, and the current deputy prime minister, 
Maj.-Gen. Tin Hla. 

Absent from the honors boards were the names of Nyunt Hlaing, Hla Kyi, 
Tin Chaw and Kyaw Min. Ten years ago, on May 27, 1990, these four 
Pathein citizens, all members of the National League for Democracy, were 
elected by the people of their city to represent them in parliament. 
But, like the other 388 victorious NLD members, they were not allowed to 
take their seats. As I sat in the Pathein golf club, I read over my 
notes about this quartet. Of Nyunt Hlaing, now 55, I had little 
information. He had won a scholarship to study in the old Soviet Union, 
and after returning to Myanmar, he had obtained a Master's degree in 
"Fishery" ? understandable, perhaps, coming from this river town. He had 
worked at Mandalay University before becoming involved in politics via 
his trade union activities (which had led to his arrest in 1988 and his 
subsequent forced retirement a year later). I think it fair to say 
without fear of contradiction that Nyunt Hlaing's name will never go up 
on one of the honors boards at the Pathein golf club. 

Ten days before I ventured into the Ayeyarwady, I had paid a one-day 
visit to Mandalay ? ostensibly to witness the opening of that northern 
city's new international airport. The regime's No. 2, Gen. Maung Aye, 
who is regarded as Than Shwe's heir apparent, was to officiate at the 
ceremony and I had hoped I might meet him and arrange an interview. 
Unfortunately, our chartered flight arrived more than an hour after the 
opening ceremony had ended and Gen. Maung Aye and his retinue had long 
since left. We were greeted by a deserted terminal and a sea of empty 
plastic chairs. But at least I got to see the spiffy new building with 
its airbridges and trendy lounges and well-stocked shops; all that was 
lacking were passengers. A couple of jumbo jets flew in for the 
occasion, one each from Thai Airways and All Nippon Airways; but neither 
of these airlines, nor any other international carrier, has plans to use 
the new facility. 

Of course, some international services will eventually include historic 
Mandalay, possibly even with 747s; but Tin Chaw, 65, is as likely to 
travel on one of those jumbo jets as he is to take up his seat as the 
duly elected member for the constituency of West Pathein 1. He is a 
former school principal, and until he joined the NLD and entered 
politics 12 years ago, was head of the West Pathein Education 
Department. Still, he may take some comfort from the fact that the 
University of Pathein has finally reopened and is thronged with 
students, who, on the Saturday evening I was there, crowded the teashops 
along the road leading to the campus gates, chatting, reading, flirting 
and listening to noisy music as students do the world over. 

I, too, had been listening to some special music on the Friday evening 
before I went to Mandalay. At the Thailand Cultural Center in Bangkok, 
the visiting Novosibirsk Theater of Opera and Ballet had put on a 
stunning performance of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, one of my all-time 
favorite compositions. Unaware of exactly what it was, I had first seen 
this cantata-cum-ballet in 1970 at the National Arts Center in Ottawa 
and been awestruck by the music, the dancing, and the monastic chanting 
of the earthy love poems. I had feared the performance by the 
Novosibirsk company would not make the same impact upon me. I was wrong. 
It was magic. 

After the finale, the audience ? and remember, Thais are not renowned 
for their fondness of Western classical music ? rose and gave the 
company a standing ovation. Indeed, if the theater staff working the 
curtains had not called a halt, I think the encores and curtain calls 
would have continued long into the night. Sadly, Kyaw Min, 66, will 
never see such a concert. Soon after his election victory in the West 
Pathein 2 constituency, the U.S.-trained architect and former lecturer 
at Yangon's Institute of Technology was detained by the military 
authorities. Released a year later, he was arrested once again in 1996 
and placed in Yangon's notorious Insein Jail, along with several other 
NLD colleagues. For him, unheard melodies must, we hope, remain sweeter. 


Ironically, at the time I attended the Novosibirsk company's Carmina 
Burana, I was mid-way through reading a fabulous new book called In 
Siberia by Colin Thubron. It is an account of his 24,000-km journey, by 
plane, train, boat, truck and foot, across Siberia from Yekaterinburg to 
Magadan. I recommend it to anyone thinking that there are no new 
frontiers. In it, there is a section on Novosibirsk ? a city, says 
Thubron, most notable for being so spread out and spacious. He recalls 
going downtown and finding himself "in the void of Lenin Square, where 
the largest opera house in Russia, bigger even than the Bolshoi, 
crouches like a square-headed tortoise under a dome of silver scales." 
His rather jaundiced description somewhat turned me off the place, but 
then when I saw a picture of the theater in the Carmina Burana program, 
it did not look so bad. And it made me think that perhaps I should 
temper my enthusiasm for this particular section of Thubron's account ? 
though I would still unhesitatingly recommend the book to everyone. 

Of course, it is not something that Hla Kyi, 55, is ever likely to get a 
chance to read. Winner of the East Pathein 2 seat, he remains the NLD's 
treasurer and chief organizer for the Ayeyarwady Division. Regrettably, 
one of his colleagues, Maung Maung Gyi (a 78-year-old MP-elect from Mon 
state, who was himself only recently released from 18 months' 
detention), told me at the NLD headquarters last week that Hla Kyi had 
been taken away by the military authorities on Sept. 27 and his 
whereabouts remain unknown. 

This is Myanmar's Gulag: NLD party members disappear and their families 
are not told where they are for days or weeks, and then they have only 
very limited access to them. But every right-thinking person must hope 
that the day will come soon when these four just men of Pathein will be 
able to take up their positions as elected members of parliament. And 
that they will be able to read and travel and listen to music like other 
civilized people. Unfortunately, right now, they do not live in a 
civilized country

___________________ REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL___________________
				

AFP: Thais plan evacuations if Myanmar border fighting worsens 

MAE SOT, Thailand, Nov 13 (AFP) - Thai authorities are planning to 
evacuate 3,000 villagers living on the Myanmar border if fighting 
between the government and rebel troops escalates, officials said 
Monday.
 
 District chief in Tak province, Satawat Sanmuk, said Myanmar had sent 
2,000 fresh troops to the area over the weekend, after losing a base to 
the rebel Karen National Union (KNU). 
 Thai authorities were meeting to discuss an evacuation plan if the 
fighting between the KNU and government soldiers worsened, Satawat said. 


 "If the fighting becomes more serious and shells start crossing into 
Thailand, we will evacuate our people to an area deeper inside the 
country," he said. 

 Nearly 3,000 Thais live in two villages directly opposite the area 
where conflict has raged for nearly two weeks during the annual dry 
season offensive.
 
 The KNU's Major Neda (eds: one name) said six Myanmar soldiers were 
killed and 10 injured in clashes Sunday night and Monday morning.
 
 Neda said two of his men were also injured, but the casualty figures 
could not be independently confirmed. 

____________________________________________________


AP: Australian in small plane crash lands in Myanmar 

Nov. 13, 2000

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) _ An Australian businessman flew out of Myanmar 
Monday, two days after his small plane crash-landed on a southeastern 
island, the Australian Embassy said. 

 Kim Parker, 53, was rescued by a Myanmar navy patrol boat on the Mali 
island after his New Zealand-made, single-engined Fu-24 made an 
emergency landing on the beach, the New Light of Myanmar said. 

 Parker, 53, was flying from Phuket in Thailand to Calcutta, India, when 
his plane developed engine trouble, the newspaper said. It came down in 
shallow water and hit a mound of sand. 
 Parker, who was the sole occupant of the plane, was not injured. 

 Mali, which has a naval base, is 460 kilometers (285 miles) southeast 
of the capital, Yangon, near the Tanintharyi coast. 

 Parker was taken to the nearest town of Myeik and transported by air to 
the capital, Yangon, where he was transferred to the Australian Embassy 
Sunday. 

 On Monday, he left for Bangkok, Thailand, an Australian Embassy staffer 
said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Parker's immediate plans were 
not known. It wasn't clear what he would do with the wreckage of his 
plane. 

 The New Light of Myanmar said Parker was rescued ``safe and sound'' but 
the landing gear of the aircraft was broken, the propeller twisted and 
the cowling burned. 
 The embassy said Parker was flying to India on company business. The 
New Light of Myanmar said Parker worked for an Australian company, 
Universal Tracking System Ltd. No details of the company were available.




_______________ ECONOMY AND BUSINESS _______________
 

AP: Boulder may suspend anti-Myanmar law; leave it as symbolic gesture 

Nov. 13, 2000

BOULDER, Colo. 


The city attorney is recommending Boulder suspend a law banning business 
with companies in Myanmar, but keep it on the books as a protest of the 
country's human-rights record. 

A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturned a Massachusetts state law 
that boycotted purchases from companies doing business in Myanmar, the 
south Asian country also known as Burma. 

The city attorney's office says the ruling invalidates a 1996 Boulder 
ordinance similar to the Massachusetts law. 

A coalition of corporations, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the 
National Association of Manufacturers successfully challenged the 
Massachusetts law on grounds the U.S. Constitution gives only the 
federal government the power to make foreign policy. 

A military regime rules Myanmar despite a victory in 1990 by the 
National League for Democracy party. The party's leaders, including 
Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, have been put under house 
arrest and their movements restricted. 

Deputy City Attorney Jerry Gordon said his office consulted a law 
professor about options regarding the ordinance, and decided there was 
little choice but to leave it on the books as a symbolic gesture. 

The city boycott was partly inspired by Boulder resident Inge Sargent. 
The Austrian-born Sargent married Sao Kya Seng, a Burmese prince, in 
1953. In 1962, the Burmese army imprisoned the prince and Sargent later 
with their two daughters. 

In retirement, she and her husband Howard Sargent have raised money for 
Burmese refugee assistance. 

The Sargents support suspending the ordinance but leaving it in place. 

"We don't want to walk away from this situation and act like it doesn't 
matter any more. The generals in Rangoon will notice that and will act 
if they think the world doesn't care," Howard Sargent said. "At least on 
the other side of the world, people know Boulder is watching." 



_________________OPINION/EDITORIALS________________


The Boston Globe: a Guardian of Hope in Burma

November 13, 2000,

OP-ED; Pg. A15 

H.D.S. GREENWAY;   H.D.S. Greenway's column appears regularly in the 
Globe.; 

RANGOON 

AUNG SAN SUU KYI, "THE LADY," AS HER SUPPORTERS CALL HER, IS A STUBBORN 
WOMAN. MORE THAN 10 YEARS HAVE PASSED SINCE BURMA'S BRUTAL MILITARY 
JUNTA REFUSED TO ACCEPT HER PARTY'S STUNNING VICTORY IN THE FIRST FREE 
ELECTION BURMA HAD SEEN IN 30 YEARS. THE JUNTA PUT HER UNDER HOUSE 
ARREST AND IMPRISONED HER LIEUTENANTS. HUNDREDS FLED THE COUNTRY. 

But for 10 years Suu Kyi has refused to accept the verdict of the junta. 
By so doing she won the Nobel Peace prize in 1991 and remains to this 
day the constant if flickering flame of resistance to tyranny in this 
sorry land. 

She has paid a heavy price: For 10 years she has been either under house 
arrest or unable to leave the capital. She has been separated from her 
children, and when her British husband was dying of cancer in England he 
was refused a visa to see her one more time. She refused to leave the 
country to see him knowing that the generals would never let her return. 
Her two sons remain in Britain. 

   In August she attempted to drive out of Rangoon to attend a political 
meeting. She was stopped but for nine days refused to leave her car in 
silent protest. She was then escorted back to the capital. 

In September she tried to board a train north to another political event 
but was told there were no more tickets. She was confined to her house 
near the Inya Lake. The road to her house is sealed off, and only those 
with government permission may approach. People attempting to see her 
risk arrest. 

The generals have bottled her up, all but destroyed her political party, 
and show no sign of losing their hold on power. But such is Suu Kyi's 
prestige that they dare not kill her, as they have others who have 
opposed them. 

The West, led by the United States and Britain, have imposed sanctions 
and urged isolation. But the West has little influence here, and the 
regional powers that matter and share a border, India and China, have 
said little. 

Three years ago Burma was accepted for membership in the Association of 
Southeast Asian Nations, but ASEAN is an organization famous for not 
interfering in the domestic politics of its members. 

Burma is accustomed to isolation. From the early '60s to 1989 Burma 
adopted a xenophobic "Burmese Road to socialism" that cut the country 
off from the rest of world almost as completely as North Korea. It also 
brought what had been a rich country with more than half the world's 
rice exports to ruin. Today socialism has been replaced by crony 
capitalism, and although the country is more prosperous, Rangoon is 
still the most down-at-the-heel capital in Southeast Asia. The 
government ministries and many businesses are stocked with military men 
whose incompetence is exceeded only by their greed. 

The kind of people power that toppled corruption and dictatorship in the 
Philippines and Indonesia was met by bullets here in 1988. Hundreds of 
pro-democracy student demonstrators were killed - nine months before a 
similar event took place in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. 

Enter Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of the man who led Burma to 
independence from Great Britain in 1948 only to be felled by assassins. 
She had arrived only recently from England, but as has happened to other 
dutiful daughters of Asian politicians, people ralled to her. 

Some will tell you that her refusal to compromise with the military has 
achieved nothing. The generals have marginal ized her. They say people 
will soon forget her. 

Others will say that her stand against foreign investment and tourism is 
hurting the Burmese people without achieving any political gain. But, 
like a military commander who has been overrun by an enemy, Suu Kyi will 
call down artillery on her own position if it will hurt the junta. 

People are afraid to discuss politics, but an acquaintance whom I met in 
a public place opened her purse to retrieve her glasses and left it open 
long enough for me to see Aung San Suu Kyi's photograph within. The 
glance that passed between us seemed to say: Despite what you may hear, 
and whatever the generals may do, we have not forgotten her. 



____________________________________________________

	

The Hindu:  Editorial--The Burma Road 


NEW DELHI, NOV. 12. In rolling out the red carpet to a top gun from the 
military Government of Myanmar, India is signalling a new phase in its 
relations with a very special neighbour and a readiness to pursue its 
interests in Asia with some vigour. 

Gen. Maung Aye, who ranks number two in the military and political 
establishment of Myanmar, is arriving here on Tuesday on an extended 
visit to India. 

This is the first exchange at the higher political level between the two 
neighbours since the late Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, had travelled to 
Yangon in 1987. It marks a culmination of the quiet but productive 
engagement between the two nations in recent years. 

Since Rajiv Gandhi's trip to Myanmar, the relations between the two 
neighbours have gone through a roller coaster. Following the military 
crackdown in 1988 against the struggle for the restoration of democracy 
in Myanmar, India went out of the way to support the dissidents. There 
was an outpouring of Indian sentiment in favour of Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi 
leading the democratic movement. 

But by the early 1990s, India had to reconsider the wisdom of working 
against the Government of an important neighbouring country and began a 
cautious engagement with the military rulers of Myanmar. There were far 
too many stakes for New Delhi in a cooperative relationship with Yangon 
to persist with a hostile policy. In warmly welcoming Gen. Maung Aye 
this week, India is doing much more than picking up pieces from the 
Rajiv Gandhi visit of 1987. It is trying to rebuild a relationship that 
got sundered four decades ago, when Myanmar turned insular and the large 
Indian community had to leave that country. 

India and Myanmar have put behind the many negative elements of the past 
and are ready to lay the foundation for a productive bilateral 
partnership that is not predicated on the political colour of the 
Government in Yangon. 

Gen. Maung Aye's interaction with the top echelons of the Indian 
establishment over the next few days will suggest that the limited 
engagement of last decade is yielding place to a new warmth between New 
Delhi and Yangon. 

Critics of Indian foreign policy at home and abroad will surely point to 
the apparent inconsistency of the Indian refusal to deal with the 
military Government in Pakistan while laying it out for the Generals of 
Myanmar. 

But the fact is that India's reluctance to engage Pakistan is not based 
on the nature of the regime in Islamabad. It has to do with Pakistan's 
support for cross-border terrorism in India. 

There is a huge difference, as far as India is concerned, between the 
Generals in Pakistan and those in Myanmar. While the military rulers in 
Islamabad are relentless in their support to terrorism in this country, 
the military Government of Myanmar has been very helpful in countering 
the festering insurgencies in the North- East. 

The benefits of cooperation between the Indian security establishment 
and the military in Myanmar have indeed been immeasurable in the 
management of the situation in the North- East. With terrorism looming 
large over India's security agenda in the recent years, few of India's 
neighbours have been as cooperative as Myanmar in dealing with this 
threat. 

But will India risk international opprobrium in engaging Myanmar, at a 
time when Western nations are trying to isolate it? Unlikely. All major 
powers understand the conflict between ideological principle and 
national interest in the conduct of foreign policy. 

Even the richest and most powerful nations cannot claim to have resolved 
the inherent tension between the ideas of "power" and "principle". The 
United States, for example, argues that trading with the Chinese 
Communists will encourage their evolution into democrats. 

At the same time Washington has suggested that trade embargoes against 
Myanmar will force its Generals into restoring democracy. The difference 
probably lies in the American assessment that there is more money to be 
made in China than in Myanmar. 

In any case, the attempts to isolate Myanmar have not really succeeded. 
Myanmar is now part of the Association of South East Asian Nations. It 
is also part of other regional groupings. Most Asian nations reject the 
idea of barricading Myanmar out of the regional mainstream. 

Unlike the West and the U.S., India needs to be modest about its 
capacity to export democracy to other nations and ability to engineer 
political change in other nations. While democracy is indeed a virtue, 
it can only be established through an internal impetus rather than 
external pressure. 

A number of factors are at work in Indian diplomacy towards Myanmar. 
Four sensitive States of the North-East lie along the volatile border of 
nearly 1600 km between the two nations. Beyond the immediate common 
interest in countering terrorism, New Delhi and Yangon will have to work 
together in bringing peace and prosperity to the north eastern parts of 
India and the remote western regions of Myanmar. Myanmar is the 
bridge-state between India and South East Asia. When the new road link 
between the North-East and Myanmar, built by the Indian Border Roads 
Organisation, opens in a few weeks, the two countries would have taken 
the first step in realising the huge potential for trans- regional 
cooperation in the transportation and energy sectors. 

India and Myanmar have a stake in transforming the Bay of Bengal 
littoral into a community of States cooperating across a broad front. 
New Delhi and Yangon also have a big responsibility in ensuring the 
waters of the Bay of Bengal remain tranquil and do not come under 
destabilising external influences. 

India is beginning to understand that it cannot shape the future balance 
of power in Asia without showing the political will to take difficult 
decisions and the institutional energy to pursue its interests. 

_____________________ OTHER  ______________________


PD Burma: Burma Calendar of events


╖       November 10-11th        : Meeting of the Council of the 
Socialist International, Maputo

╖       November 2-17th : 279th Session of the Governing Body and 
its committees, Geneva

╖       November 17th   : Global Day of Action on Open Schools 
╖       November 30th   : ILO Review of Burma's practises
╖       December 11-12th        : EU and ASEAN Ministerial-level 
meeting, Laos 
╖       December                 : Japan-Burma panel on reform of 
Burma's economic structure, Tokyo  
        
╖       January 2001            : Sweden takes over EU Presidency 
╖       February                : Meeting of Solidarity Groups, 
Brussels  
╖       March/April             : Teachers/ Students Union 
Conferences 
╖       March/April             : EU Common Position Review 
╖       March/April             : UN Human Rights Commission, 
Geneva 
╖       May/June                : Meeting of Solidarity Groups 
╖       July                    : Belgium takes over EU Presidency




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