[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index
][Thread Index
]
BurmaNet News: December 24, 2000
- Subject: BurmaNet News: December 24, 2000
- From: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2000 10:31:00
______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
An on-line newspaper covering Burma
________December 24, 2000 Issue # 1693_________
NOTED IN PASSING: ``He has the reputation of wreck and ruin and
leave...He probably shouldn't necessarily be trusted,''
Tina Arapkiles of Sierra Club on ?Toxic? Bob Friedland, whose Myanmar
Ivanhoe company operates a copper mine in Burma. See AP: Canadian miner
agrees to pay dlrs 30 million in mine disaster
INSIDE BURMA _______
*DVB: Burma Junta Gives Severe Jail Terms to 11 NLD Members for Issuing
Statement
*Kyodo: Suu Kyi's lawyers submit statement in family suit over estate
*Xinhua: Myanmar Leader Calls for Speeding Up Efforts in National
Development
*Xinhua: Myanmar to Introduce Law on Controlling Money Laundering
REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL _______
*Xinhua: Thai Mobile Medical Unit Provides Services Across Border
*Xinhua: Thailand Proposes Joint Marine Patrol With Myanmar
ECONOMY/BUSINESS _______
*AP: Canadian miner agrees to pay dlrs 30 million in mine disaster
The BurmaNet News is viewable online at:
http://theburmanetnews.editthispage.com
__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________
DVB: Burma Junta Gives Severe Jail Terms to 11 NLD Members for Issuing
Statement
Democratic Voice of Burma in Burmese
Dec 22, 2000
[FBIS Translated Text]
NLD [National League for Democracy] members arrested during September
have been sentenced to 11 years imprisonment each by Insein Jail
Additional Military Tribunal on 14 December. Although the exact number
of those sentenced have not been known, according to unconfirmed sources
it is believed to be 11 members. They included U Naing Naing, NLD
elected representative from Pazundaung Township in Rangoon Division; U
Soe Han, Rangoon Division NLD Organization member, U Soe alias Pyapon
Nyi Lone Oo, vice chairman of Dalla Township Organization committee; U
Tun Myint, NLD Central Office member, U Soe Naing, and U Aye Kyu. They
were sentenced to 11 years imprisonment while the remaining five were
given seven years term.
DVB [Democratic Voice of Burma] has learned that they were all charged
under Section 5-J of the [1950] Emergency Provisions Act and the
Printing and Publishing Law. The NLD members were arrested on 13 and 14
September for issuing a statement when Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and NLD
leaders were sent back from Dalla and kept under house arrest. The
statement, issued as NLD Members' Statement, on 12 September, noted that
the existence of NLD and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi lessen the threat of a
political impasse and armed conflict; enhances national unity and
solidarity; and also fulfills the aspirations of farmers, workers,
populace, and students.
They asked for the lifting of restrictions on NLD leaders, reopening of
the NLD headquarters, and to allow the NLD party to function freely as a
political party. In connection with the arrest of NLD members, the NLD
Central Committee strongly condemned the actions in its announcement on
15 September and urged the SPDC [State Peace and Development Council]
for the immediate release of those arrested NLD members. DVB has learned
that no official statement has been issued by the SPDC regarding the
sentencing of the NLD members and their relatives have not been
officially informed.
___________________________________________________
Kyodo: Suu Kyi's lawyers submit statement in family suit over estate
YANGON Dec. 22 Kyodo - Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's lawyers
on Friday submitted a written statement of defense to the Yangon
Division Court in response to a lawsuit filed by her elder brother Aung
San Oo for ownership of half their mother's property.
Suu Kyi and Aung San Oo, who lives in the United States, are being
represented by their respective lawyers at the court. Suu Kyi's lawyers
were given access to the plaintiff's written complaint on Dec. 8.
The content of the defense statement was not immediately available. The
court adjourned until Dec. 28.
The government gave Suu Kyi's mother, Khin Kyi, the nearly two-acre
estate at No. 54-56 University Avenue in the expensive lakeside area of
Yangon after her husband died in 1947.
Khin Kyi died in December 1988, survived by Aung San Oo and Suu Kyi, who
has lived in the house since she returned to Myanmar from Britain in
April that year.
Lawyers estimate the value of the estate at 400 million kyat, (about
$60.6 million), but it is unclear what it could sell for on the open
market.
Aung San Oo is suing for ownership of half the estate. Under Myanmar
law, children can inherit property from their parents on an equal basis.
Aung San Oo's representative said he visited Myanmar in July and asked
him to proceed with the suit for partition of the property.
Suu Kyi had another brother and a sister, but they died.
___________________________________________________
Xinhua: Myanmar Leader Calls for Speeding Up Efforts in National
Development
YANGON, December 24 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar leader Lieutenant- General Khin
Nyunt has called for speeding up the country's efforts in keeping
abreast with other countries in terms of development by upholding the
tradition of striving on self- reliance. Khin Nyunt, who is First
Secretary of the Myanmar State Peace and Development Council, made the
call when meeting with the country's engineers here on Saturday,
official newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported Sunday.
"Today, the Union of Myanmar, a developing nation with the strength of
national forces, is to double their efforts to enable itself to swim
with the tide of international development by keeping national interests
intact," he urged. He added that the efforts are also to prevent Myanmar
from falling into the clutches of some big nations and to promote
national development. Myanmar lagged behind in development for various
reasons before the present government came to power, he said. Taking the
opportunity when every nation is exploiting technological advances for
their national interests and striving for the development of its
peoples, some big nations, having an upper hand in terms of economy and
technology, are attempting to control the progress of developing nations
for their liking, he charged.
___________________________________________________
Xinhua: Myanmar to Introduce Law on Controlling Money Laundering
YANGON, December 24 (Xinhua) -- The Myanmar government is drawing a law,
aimed at controlling illegally-earned money and property in the wake of
rising organized transnational crimes in the world. The law is being
drafted with the involvement of scholars from the country's
Attorney-General's Office in accordance with one of the clauses on
control of money laundering, a part of the 1988 United Nations
Convention on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, state-run
newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported Sunday. Although
transnational and organized crimes have increased in the world, Myanmar
have not faced such crimes at present, Myanmar Deputy Home Minister
Brigadier-General Thura Myint Maung was quoted as saying.
"The law needs to be extensive in case they break out in the country in
future," Myint Maung stressed here on Saturday at a coordination meeting
on introducing the law. Money laundering is one of the organized crimes
which also include drug trafficking, arms and human smuggling, black
marketing of nuclear technology, crimes related to computer and cyber
space, piracy and corruption.
Profits made in committing these crimes, also known as transnational
crimes, are said to be estimated at 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars annually
in the world. Meanwhile, Myanmar voiced support for the drafting of a
convention on combating organized crimes across national boundaries at
the 20th Conference of Police Chiefs of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations held in Yangon in May this year. Presently, there exists a
property examination committee in Myanmar, empowered by the country's
Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Law, to confiscate capital as
well as movable and immovable property from drug-related offenses.
___________________ REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL___________________
Xinhua: Thai Mobile Medical Unit Provides Services Across Border
BANGKOK, December 23 (Xinhua) -- A team of Thai medical staff crossed
the border to provide services, free of charge, to people in Myanmar,
according to a statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs available
here on Saturday. The mobile medical unit crossed the border to provide
medical services and treatment for people in Myanmar's town of Pathein
and Magwe Division who have ear, nose, and throat problems. The
15-member medical team provided the mobile services in the towns between
December 3 and 14, the statement said, quoting a reports from the Thai
Embassy to Myanmar. Physicists and specialists on ears, throats, and
noses from many Thai hospitals took part in the medical team. Thailand's
mobile medical teams have provided free services and treatment for
people in Myanmar every year since 1995. Nearly 2,000 people and
villagers in the two Myanmar towns received the services this year. Her
Royal Highness Princess Srinagarindra initiated mobile medical units in
the country to provide medal and public health services for people in
rural and remote areas.
___________________________________________________
Xinhua: Thailand Proposes Joint Marine Patrol With Myanmar
BANGKOK, December 23 (Xinhua) -- Thailand has proposed that Thailand and
Myanmar launch joint marine patrol to control violation of the
countries' territory by trawlers, the Thai News Agency (TNA) reported on
Saturday. Foreign Ministry Spokesman Don Pramudwinai was quoted as
saying that Thailand had raised the issue to Rangoon following reported
cases of violation of the marine territory of both sides by trawlers and
patrol boats.
The latest case took place early this week, when a Thai trawler, named
Chok Pornchai, was chased by a Myanmar patrol boat in the Thai territory
in Ranong province, and a Thai crew was then shot dead, he stated. Don
said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs submitted an Aide Memoire to
the Myanmar government through a representative of the Myanmar Embassy
to Thailand, who was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to
request for a prompt investigation of the incident. The proposed joint
marine patrol was aimed at preventing any repetition of incidents
similar to the case in the future, and at preventing violation of the
countries' territory by trawlers, he noted.
_______________ ECONOMY AND BUSINESS _______________
AP: Canadian miner agrees to pay dlrs 30 million in mine disaster
DENVER (AP) _ A Canadian man whose company was blamed for cyanide
pollution at a Colorado gold mine has agreed to pay dlrs 30 million to
settle a lawsuit the state filed against him.
The settlement with Robert Friedland was entered Friday in U.S.
District Court in Denver.
In 1992, a cyanide spill from the Summitville mine in southern Colorado
killed all life in a 17-mile (27-kilometer) stretch of the Alamosa River
system. The state filed a lawsuit in 1999 over the cleanup, which is
expected to cost dlrs 170 million or more.
Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar said the settlement agreement is
``a huge environmental victory for the community.'' He noted that some
of money is earmarked for victims of the cyanide spill.
``Instead of waiting for years and spending tens of millions of dollars
while this case makes its way through the courts, the people most
affected by the Summitville Mine will see very positive and direct
benefits,'' Salazar said.
Roger Flynn, managing director of the Western Mining Action Project,
said, ``This is a good start to restoring a dead watershed that was
destroyed by open-pit gold mining.''
Miners at the Colorado site used chemicals to extract gold. Toxic water
from the mine, poisoned with cyanide and heavy metals, leaked into
tributaries of the Alamosa River and eventually into the river itself.
A call to one of Friedland's companies, Ivanhoe Capital Corp. of
Vancouver, British Columbia, was not immediately returned.
However, in an April interview with The Denver Post, Friedland said he
was interested in any plan that would benefit those affected by the
pollution. ``I remain open-minded about any good idea,'' he said.
Friedland has long held that while he was one of the principal owners
of the parent company, he wasn't involved in daily operations. He says
other individuals and firms were responsible for the disaster.
Environmentalists say Friedland typically severs ties with
controversial projects when they start to generate negative publicity.
His companies have been involved in controversial projects in Venezuela,
Namibia, Myanmar, New Guinea and Brazil.
``He has the reputation of wreck and ruin and leave. I guess it is a
step in the right direction. He probably shouldn't necessarily be
trusted,'' said Tina Arapkiles, southwestern U.S. representative for the
Sierra Club environmental group.
The state is still suing several other companies accused of involvement
in the disaster.
________________
The BurmaNet News is an Internet newspaper providing comprehensive
coverage of news and opinion on Burma (Myanmar) from around the world.
If you see something on Burma, you can bring it to our attention by
emailing it to strider@xxxxxxx
To automatically subscribe to Burma's only free daily newspaper in
English, send an email to:
burmanet-subscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe to The BurmaNet News in Burmese, send an email to:
burmanetburmese-subscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
You can also contact BurmaNet by phone or fax:
Voice mail or fax (US) +1(202) 318-1261
You will be prompted to press 1 for a voice message or 2 to send a fax.
If you do neither, a fax tone will begin automatically.
Fax (Japan) +81 (3) 4512-8143
________________
Burma News Summaries available by email or the web
There are three Burma news digest services available via either email or
the web.
Burma Update
Frequency: Biweekly
Availability: By fax or the web.
Viewable online at http://www.soros.org/burma/burmanewsupdate/index.html
Cost: Free
Published by: Open Society Institute, Burma Project
The Burma Courier
Frequency: Weekly
Availability: E-mail, fax or post. To subscribe or unsubscribe by email
celsus@xxxxxxxxxxx
Viewable on line at: http://www.egroups.com/group/BurmaCourier
Cost: Free
Note: News sources are cited at the beginning of an article.
Interpretive comments and background
details are often added.
Burma Today
Frequency: Weekly
Availability: E-mail
Viewable oonline at http://www.worldviewrights.org/pdburma/today.html
To subscribe, write to pdburma@xxxxxxxxx
Cost: Free
Published by: PD Burma (The International Network of Political Leaders
Promoting Democracy in Burma)
________________
___________________________________________________________
T O P I C A http://www.topica.com/t/17
Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics