BurmaNet News: January 8, 20001

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______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
        An on-line newspaper covering Burma 
         January 8, 2001   Issue # 1705
______________ www.burmanet.org _______________

INSIDE BURMA _______
*Bangkok Post: Army asks KNU to help catch guerrillas
*South China Morning Post:  Christian refugees tell of killings by junta 
allies 
*Times Higher Education Supplement: A Light For Dark Burmese Days

REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL _______
*Bangkok Post: Scapegoats?: While the Unsuspecting Crew of the Mv 
Verona, Alias Juliana, Were Treated like Criminals, the Captain and 
Owners Got Away Scot Free: Innocent Crew Suffer Most over Stolen Ship 
*Xinhua: Foreign Fishermen Sent to Jail in Bangladesh

OPINION/EDITORIALS_______
*Bangkok Post: : Burma Denial Puts People at Risk
*Business Times (Malaysia): Give Myanmar a break 


__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________


Bangkok Post: Army asks KNU to help catch guerrillas


 - January 08, 2001.


The army has asked the anti-Rangoon Karen National Union to help track 
down guerrillas of the Karen God's Army who killed six Thais in Suan 
Phung district of Ratchaburi on Dec 30. 

A source in the Surasri Task Force said the army was seeking 
co-operation not only from the Burmese military but also the KNU, in its 
hunt for the 15 Karen raiders who looted a shop in Ban Wai Noy Nai 
border village and gunned down six people. 
The KNU has been asked not to help or shelter these assailants, believed 
to have escaped to Kanchanaburi and then across the border into a 
KNU-held area. 
The source said some 200 God's Army guerrillas led by Shwe Pye had 
earlier defected to the KNU. 






____________________________________________________

 


  
South China Morning Post:  Christian refugees tell of killings by junta 
allies 

January 6, 2001 



BURMA Daniel Pedersen in Bangkok 



Burmese villagers who recently sought refuge in Thailand have claimed 
soldiers of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) persecuted them 
for their religious beliefs. 

The DKBA is working with Burma's ruling military junta, the State Peace 
and Development Council, under a peace deal signed in the mid-1990s. 

Two villagers who fled Karen state's Aong Daw village on December 12 
said that since August, Christian villagers had been rounded up by DKBA 
soldiers and marched out of town at gunpoint, never to be seen again. 

Ye Ye Aye, 25, fled Aong Daw village last month with her husband and 
three young children. 

For more than four months she said she had lied about her Christianity, 
claiming to be Buddhist. While the DKBA soldiers never discovered her 
religion, eventually she fled her home with her family. 

She began walking towards the Thai border with her husband, 32-year-old 
Saw Lah Ka Paw, on December 12. After three days they made contact with 
the Karen National Liberation Army - a guerilla army fighting the junta 
- and were delivered to Mae La refugee camp, Thailand's largest and home 
to more than 36,000 people. 

They had carried their three children through mountainous terrain in the 
hope of a new life, free of fear and oppression. 

Their eldest child, five, was admitted to hospital on arrival at Mae La, 
suffering severe dehydration and diarrhoea. They had been unable to stop 
to boil water for three days, for fear of being discovered by roaming 
Burmese troops. 

Mr Saw Lah Ka Paw said that since September he had been used by the 
military as a porter six times. When he returned from his last stint, on 
December 7, the couple decided to make for the border. They said they 
were no longer able to feed themselves, because each day they were 
summoned to help construct a pagoda for the DKBA soldiers. 

The soldiers that controlled Aong Daw village were also strict 
vegetarians - limiting themselves to a diet of chillies, salt and rice. 
They outlawed meat and each night searched from house-to-house looking 
for eggs, chickens or fish paste, a dietary staple. Any villagers found 
hiding meat products were jailed in a compound they had been forced to 
build, the couple claimed. 

Htun Htun, 19, a former Burmese soldier who also recently fled, said his 
battalion - Light Infantry 459 - had been involved in the burning of a 
mosque at a Muslim village. He said religious persecution by the 
military occurred regularly in Burma. 













___________________________________________________


Times Higher Education Supplement: A Light For Dark Burmese Days

Maureen Aung-Thwin


Jan. 5, 2001

    George Soros is giving hope to refugees from an oppressive regime. 
Maureen
Aung-Thwin discusses the aims of the philanthropist

    People are intrigued that the foundation network created by 
Hungarian-born financier-philanthropist George Soros has a project on 
Burma. The bulk of his work promoting open society focuses on Eastern 
Europe. As director of the project, I am often asked who "talked George 
Soros into" Burma. The simple answer is that Burma, whose self-imposed 
isolation kept it from the world's consciousness for decades, appeared 
on Soros's radar screen in 1988 when the Burmese military junta brutally 
crushed nationwide protests against its rule.

Although few media were present to record the tragedy, Soros has keen 
antennae for dictatorships, and this was one he could not resist.

    The Burmese populace live in one of the more repressive and closed 
societies in the world. But it is not always obvious on the surface. 
Oblivious tourists on luxury jaunts to Rangoon, Mandalay and the 
magnificent ruins of Pagan often express delight at having encountered 
such friendly, happy people and at the surprising lack of soldiers in 
the streets. The reality for the average Burmese citizen, however, is 
downright grim.  

    A military junta has ruled Burma since 1962, but never with as much 
force or manpower (more than 400,000 troops, the largest army in 
Southeast Asia) at its disposal. With no external threats, the army's 
main foes are its own countrymen and women. In 1990, the regime 
confidently called an election, which it lost to the National League for 
Democracy party even though NLD leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi had been 
arrested and was unable to contest it. This humiliating rejection by 
voters, including substantial portions from their own ranks, should have 
been a wake-up call. But it only hardened the generals' resolve to 
consolidate power at all costs.

    The cost has been high. One out of every four citizens is believed 
to spy for the dreaded military intelligence, or MI as it is popularly 
known, although most of these agents are doing it to make a living. The 
unauthorised use of computers, fax machines and other appliances 
requiring a modem can bring a jail sentence of 15 years. Almost every 
aspect of life for the average Burmese requires some form of official 
scrutiny: overnight guests in homes and apartments must register with 
"watchers"; permission must be sought to resign from government jobs; a 
censorship board vets all publications, advertising copy and pop-song 
lyrics.


    The price that Burma's youth has paid to accommodate the military's 
insecurities and insistence on total control is incalculable. According 
to United Nations statistics, the Burmese military government spends 
only 1.1 per cent of gross domestic product on education. Put another 
way, the regime spends more than three times as much on defence as it 
does on health and education. The cost of education in Burma is borne by 
parents, mostly in the form of indirect taxes and donations paid to the 
education department, the teachers and the school. Anyone who wants good 
grades, entry to a particular school, a teaching position, or to 
surmount bureaucratic obstacles, must pay to join the junta's ubiquitous 
organisation, the Union Solidarity Development Association. According to 
sources inside Burma, many pupils are graded not on scholastic ability 
but for volunteering to participate in such activities as entertaining 
visiting members of the regime with songs and dances. Exam papers and 
grades are often for sale. An estimated two-thirds to three-quarters of 
school children drop out
by the fifth grade out of frustration or poverty.

    Throughout modern Burmese history, students have challenged 
authority and
acted as the embodiment of a suppressed national will - against the 
British colonialists, the Japanese occupiers during the second world war 
and homegrown
generals. When university students went on strike against arbitrary 
rules imposed by General Ne Win soon after his 1962 coup d'etat, he 
dynamited the Rangoon University student union building.

    The current junta has gone several steps further. In 1988, an 
estimated 10,000 demonstrators - many of them students - were killed 
when the mostly student-led nationwide uprising was crushed. Next to 
democracy leader Suu Kyi
and the NLD, student activism is considered by the regime as one of the 
greatest
threats to continued military rule.

    In recent years, the regime seemed eager to forget about education 
(according to the sparse information available, only Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt 
of the top three in the junta has attended - though not completed - 
college). With tertiary level institutions open for only three of the 
past 12 years, the regime has shortened the academic year in many cases 
to four months. Because of the sporadic closures, about 5 million high 
school graduates are waiting to be admitted to universities in addition 
to the backlog of students waiting to complete their degrees. The 
government, however, runs some well-equipped medical and technological 
institutes for military and other elite children. Earlier this year, at 
the 56th Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Suu Kyi 
said in a taped message:

    "There is a dangerous development that members of the armed forces 
are educated separatelyI This doesn't augur well for the future of our 
country. We will become a house divided, a nation of two classes - the 
military elite and the rest. This doesn't augur well either for the 
military." 

    The few schools that the generals did build for the civilian 
population include two new universities, Dagon and Thanlyin, which 
replaced the more centrally located campuses of Rangoon University. Not 
surprisingly, these are far from central Rangoon and only accessible by 
well-guarded bridges.      Burma will need much help to address the 
myriad problems created by decades of centralised, authoritarian rule. 
Since Soros's Burma project was created in 1994, one of our top 
priorities has been to help with education and capacity building for the 
thousands of Burmese students who fled to exile, especially  those whose 
schooling was disrupted in 1988 because of participation in the 
pro-democracy movement. Each year, several hundred Soros scholarships 
are disbursed to Burmese students all over the world. No doubt the 
occasional child of the military elite has inadvertently snared a 
scholarship, but this is not entirely at odds with Soros's vision of 
helping to open the minds of those who need it the most.

    More than 1 million illegal, mostly uneducated Burmese have left the 
desperate economic situation at home in search of jobs in Thailand. An 
additional 120,000 ethnic minority refugees, most of them fleeing the 
Burmese junta's scorched earth tactics, live in camps along the long and 
porous border with Thailand. The Burma project supports schools that 
help prepare some of these refugee students for further study at higher 
education institutions and for work outside the camp with local 
community or foreign non-governmental organisations. India also has 
Burmese refugees, including a few Buddhist monks who are on Soros 
scholarships studying for doctorates in theology. 

    Promoting the open society inside Burma is our greatest challenge - 
and probably the cause for one of the regime's bigger headaches. The 
Burmese MI undoubtedly follows with great interest television, radio and 
newspaper coverage about all the trouble Soros creates for dictatorships 
around the world. Of major concern to us, therefore, is inadvertently 
jeopardising the very people whom we are trying to help. 

    Both the regime and Burmese people living inside the country appear 
ambivalent about the work of the Burma project. We are equally 
threatening and enticing. The energy that junta propagandists exert 
denouncing perceived foes - usually in colourful, amusing archaic 
English - is awesome. All the same, it is not unusual for us to receive 
the occasional handwritten letter in Burmese or broken English from 
inside the country, thanking us profusely for our support of democracy 
in Burma. But more often than not they ask for grants.  

    The thirst for knowledge is great in Burma. Rangoon University was 
once a
top institution of higher learning in Southeast Asia with students from 
neighbouring countries competing for enrolment. I have heard stories of 
how, in 1988, young students from Rangoon University and the Rangoon 
Institute of Technology dropped to their knees to gadaw, or bow in 
obeisance to their teachers. They were showing respect and asking for 
pardon before they left class to join the growing crowds calling for an 
end to military rule. 

    Maureen Aung-Thwin is director of the Burma project at the Open 
Society Institute/Soros Foundations. For more information, contact 
www.soros.org/burma.html


___________________ REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL___________________
				


Bangkok Post: Scapegoats?: While the Unsuspecting Crew of the Mv Verona, 
Alias Juliana, Were Treated like Criminals, the Captain and Owners Got 
Away Scot Free: Innocent Crew Suffer Most over Stolen Ship 

January 7, 2001 

LENGTH: 1925 words 



As they boarded the MV Verona cargo ship on 21 August, the twelve 
Burmese crewmen had no idea that they were about to become pawns in an 
audacious crime which would eventually bring them to the point of 
starvation and imprisonment. 

It all started on 27 September when Crime Suppression Division police 
captured the cargo ship MV Verona, which had been missing since 4 August 
when it left an Indonesian port as the MV Juliana. The police suspected 
that the ship had been stolen by an international gang in collusion with 
Thai smugglers. 

The cargo ship MV Juliana left Indonesia on 4 August 2000 to deliver 
steel sheets worth US$ 50 million (about 2,200 million baht) to the 
Philippines on 10 August. 

The ship never arrived in the Philippines but was found renamed as the 
MV Marina near Koh Si Chang in Chonburi on 27 August 2000. 

Failing to pass a customs clearance, the ship set sail in a bid to 
escape inspection by Crime Suppression Division police and customs 
officials. 

More than a month later, the ship was discovered at anchor off Bang Saen 
beach, as the MV Verona. Thai authorities captured the 38-year old 
Burmese captain, Moo Zo Yee along with 12 Burmese crewmen and three 
other ship's staff. Thai investigators are still trying to get to the 
bottom of the case. The most recent information indicates that 
influential smuggling gangs in Thailand are behind it all. (Sunday 
Perspective: 26 November 2000 issue)The 2,200-million baht cargo has 
been returned to the owner and the ship remains in police custody. 

So far, no culprits have been arrested. The 12 Burmese crewmen (names 
withheld) were not charged with any serious criminal offence except 
illegal entry. 

They were later deported to Rangoon after paying a fine, leaving behind 
a joint written testimony to the International Transport Workers' 
Federation. Now they are ccomplaining about their plight from their 
homes in Rangoon. 

WALKING INTO TROUBLE 

According to their written testimony, the 12 Burmese crewmen are all 
from different parts of Rangoon. They did not meet until early August 
2000 when they decided to go to Thailand in response to a job ad placed 
by Mominant Sea Line Co Ltd in a Rangoon newspaper. 

The company, whose address was recorded as 40 Soi Vachiratamasatit, 
Sukhumvit 101/1 Road, Bangkok, Thailand, said it was looking for cargo 
ship crewmen. The men applied for the positions separately through an 
agent in Rangoon, identified as Ms Ellis, a Burmese residing at Rangoon 
93 Street. Each paid a job placement fee of US$550 (about 23,000 baht) 
after being told by the agent that they would earn about 7,500 baht a 
month. 

Also acting as brokers were three other Burmese in Bangkok identified as 
Thet Aung, Myo Aung and Thet Zaw Oo. 

The crewmen arrived in Bangkok after dark on 21 August. Thet Zaw Oo took 
away their seamen books and passports. They were told it was "a regular 
office procedure," That evening they stayed at the Crystal Hotel, a 
relatively comfortable hostelry in the heart of Bangkok. In the morning, 
Thet Zaw Oo and a colleague checked them out of the hotel and took them 
to the MV Verona which was anchored at the mouth of the Chao Phraya 
river. 

"We started work right away," they said. Little did they know that the 
ship was already 12 days overdue in the Philippines, and shipping 
officials were frantically searching for it. 

According to the crewmen, the ship's captain, Kyaw Min Lwin (or Moo Saw 
Yee), holds two passports and has spent several years in Bangkok. "He 
has a Thai wife and his family is in Bangkok too," they say. 

"When we went on board the ship we discovered that it was carrying a 
cargo of steel coils. That was all we knew. We did our best to do our 
duties," Almost a week later, on 27 August the Verona left Bangkok and 
sailed for Singapore. 

On that day, Singapore-based Good Star Shipping Ltd manager Peng Yan 
Wing arrived in Bangkok and met with Crime Suppression Division 
commander Pol Maj Gen Asawain Kwanmung in order to initiate inquiries 
into the whereabouts of the missing ship. 

They went to Chonburi and saw the MV Verona, disguised as the MV Marina. 
Shortly afterwards, the ship disappeared again. 

MYSTERY VOYAGE 

The crewmen said in their testimony that they can't remember how long 
the journey took. 

However, they recalled that the ship spent four days anchored at the 
Singapore OPL (Out of Pilot Limit). 

During that time, one of the owners allegedly visited the ship. The crew 
were unable to determine his nationality. 

"He only talked to the master (captain) and the radio officer, then he 
left. 

"All we were told was that the ship was to return to Bangkok," The crew 
testified that the ship's captain altered course so many times on the 
return journey that the trip took several days. 

"The only people on board who were in contact with the shipping company 
were the captain and the radio officer," the crew testified. 

"They were frequently in contact with each other on the SSB (single-side 
band) radio and by phone every day. "The master told us that the secrecy 
was a company order. first night in Bangkok. 

"The food was insufficient, so we had to share," they recalled. 

The ship finally arrived at Si Racha Island on 26 September and anchored 
at Koh Si Chang anchorage. 

That night, Koh Si Chang immigration officials and ship agents came 
aboard. 

"They took our passports and seaman's books. Koh Si Chang police 
officers also came and stayed aboard," The next morning, more officials 
and a group of TV reporters arrived. "Thai authorities told us to open 
the hatch and inspected the cargo. They brought the captain along with 
them. Then they returned," Meanwhile, the crew were kept under close 
surveillance by police. 

"We were then required to stay here because we were told by several 
officials and the police that the ship had a problem with the steel coil 
cargo." 

KEPT IN THE DARK 

The crews insist they knew nothing about the cargo. They say they wash 
their hands of the problem, whatever it is. "That was when our problems 
with having too little to eat and drink got worse," they testified. 

The police gave them some food and water but it was only enough to last 
for three days. 

Under the circumstances, they had no other choice but to sell their 
personal belongings at cut-throat rates in order to survive, they said. 

During this period, the captain came aboard only once. 

"He was accompanied by some people who might have been policemen," 
During that visit, the crew saw the captain take his second passport 
from his cabin. They believe he was subsequently freed. "He has good 
connections (with Thai officials) He also has a Thai wife and family in 
Bangkok," The crewmen said that while they were under arrest, the agents 
(of the Dominant Sea Line Co. Ltd) on board managed to escape. 

"We were told this by the police," they said. 

Koh Si Chang immigration officers came aboard to take the crewmen's 
pictures and get their thumb prints. 

All 12 Burmese crewmen were left onboard together with a ship's officer 
and the radioman. 

Almost a month later, on 18 October, the cargo was discharged to another 
ship. 

That day, Koh Si Chang immigration officers brought all the crewmen to 
the island's immigration office. "We were left there unattended and had 
to sleep on a cement floor," The crewmen asked one of the ship's agents 
about their wages. "You will be returning home (to Rangoon)," was their 
only reply. 

The crewmen said they were returned to the ship by immigration officials 
on 20 October. 

"We were told we had overstayed by 15 days and that we had to pay 3,000 
baht each in fines," The official immigration fine is 200 baht per day. 

"Then we were told to buy air tickets to return home," they testified. 

The crewmen could neither pay the fine nor buy air tickets. "We had no 
money, no salary," The crew requested Koh Si Chang immigration 
authorities to contact the company agent but to no avail. Only the chief 
officer and radioman had enough money for their airfares. 

Six days later, on 15 November, immigration officials asked the crewmen 
to pay 4,200 baht for 21 days of over stayingSince they had no money, 
the head of Si Chang immigration office brought them to the Immigration 
Detention Centre in Bangkok. 

"When we arrived there, immigration officials refused to take us. 

"The officer told us to return to Koh Si Chang immigration office," The 
crewmen told the immigration officer that they did not have sufficient 
food or water. "The officer promised us supplies and said we could stay 
freely at their station. We returned to Koh Si Chang," Back at the 
island, they were brought to Koh Si Chang district police station. 

"An immigration officer forced us to sign papers in Thai," "We asked him 
why we needed to sign papers we couldn't read," but the officer said we 
shouldn't ask questions, just sign," After signing the document, they 
were taken to a detention cell. 

The Si Chang District police record states that at about 4 p.m. on 15 
November, Si Chang immigration police arrested Kyaw Min Lwin (the ship's 
captain) and his 12 crewmen and charged them with over staying their 
visas. 

The report recorded that they entered Thailand by sea on 26 September, 
with visas that allowed them to stay until 25 October. When their visas 
expired they didn't apply for extensions. 

On 15 November they reported to the Si Chang immigration police. By that 
time they had overstayed their visas by 21 days and had no money to pay 
the fine. 

The immigration police brought them to the Si Chang district police 
investigator who passed the case on to the public prosecutor to file 
with the Chonburi court. 

FROM BAD TO WORSE 

At 11 a.m. on 16 November, the crewmen were brought to the Chonburi 
Court. "We were locked up for three hours at Chonburi Court with our 
hands handcuffed," the crewmen testified. "We were imprisoned with other 
criminals for hours," According to the Si Chang district police record, 
the court sentenced the 12 Burmese to one month imprisonment, but 
suspended the imprisonment term for one year and fined them 4,200 baht 
each. Si Chang police then delivered the 12 crewmen to the immigration 
police. 

That day, a representative of the International Transport Workers 
Federation in Thailand, Mrs Ploenphis Srisiri submitted a letter to the 
Burmese Ambassador in Bangkok asking for urgent assistance from the 
embassy. There was no response. 

"Koh Si Chang police also made a telephone call to the Burmese Embassy 
in Bangkok but got no response," The crewmen recalled that the next day, 
Mrs Ploenphis came to pay the fine. "After that everything changed. They 
allowed us to stay freely without putting us in the cell," the crewmen 
testified. 

On 30 November, more than a month after the boat was raided, the 12 
crewmen got air tickets from the ITF and flew home. 

That was the end of their part in the case so far as the Thai 
authorities were concerned. But not for the crewmen. 

Several questions remain unanswered. If the cargo problem was a company 
affair and had nothing to do with the crewmen, why should they have had 
to suffer? Were the crewmen unlawfully detained by immigration 
officials? How come the ship's captain was freed while they were held? 
Will the crew's wages ever be paid and compensation paid for the 
remainder of their contract?Unfortunately, Mominant Sea Line Co.,Ltd has 
long since disappeared without trace from its offices on Sukhumvit Road, 
leaving no-one to answer the unfortunate crewmen's questions. 

Sunday Perspective Reporters 


___________________________________________________



Xinhua: Foreign Fishermen Sent to Jail in Bangladesh

DHAKA, January 8 (Xinhua) -- The 60 Thai and Myanmar fishermen arrested 
from the Bay of Bengal last December were sent to jail in southeast 
Bagerhat district Monday on charge of fishing in Bangladesh water 
territory, the United News of Bangladesh reported. Officials said Navy 
patrol teams arrested the fishermen, including 54 Myanmar and six Thai 
nationals, along with two Thai trawlers at southeastern Mongla port 
while they were fishing into the Bangladesh territory. They were sent to 
jail after being produced before the court Monday. Apart from the 60 
fishermen, a total of 266 Thai, Myanmar and Indian fishermen are in the 
Bagerhat district jail. Of them, 105 Indian fishermen have already 
completed their seven days' jail term, but they could not return home 
due to legal hazards




______________OPINION/EDITORIALS_________________


Bangkok Post: : Burma Denial Puts People at Risk 


January 7, 2001 

LENGTH: 637 words 



BODY: 


An American medical study has dramatically demonstrated the dangers of 
denial of the Aids epidemic. Data revealed important differences in 
knowledge about Aids between Burmese living in border refugee camps and 
Burmese workers _ most of them illegal immigrants. Briefly put, people 
in the refugee camps had better education, more knowledge and were less 
at risk to HIV and Aids infections. The illegal immigrants were a vector 
for the spread of the virus and subsequent diseases. 

The dangers of denial have long been discussed and generally accepted by 
medical authorities. Indeed, Thailand has often been praised for the 
quality of its anti-Aids programmes through education. But the field 
study by Johns Hopkins University is one of the first, and extremely 
compelling pieces of evidence of just how important it is to let people 
know the truth about Aids. 

Thailand went through a period of denial after the first outbreak of the 
epidemic. Before authorities recognised the dangers of Aids, tens of 
thousands of citizens were already infected. Since then, a coalition of 
government and private groups has fought HIV/Aids in a responsible way. 
Thailand has not defeated this epidemic, but the growth of Aids in our 
country has stopped. 

That modest achievement is at risk. The influx of refugees and illegal 
workers is not directly to blame. Rather, it is the inability of the 
Burmese regime to accept the fact of a major epidemic. In recent weeks, 
members of the Rangoon dictatorship have again announced that Burma 
cannot have an Aids problem, because their people do not practice 
illicit sex. The Johns Hopkins study fills in the missing pieces. It 
proves that Burmese are uninformed or misinformed about Aids by their 
leaders. 

Such blindness would be sad if it were not so dangerous. Diseases know 
no borders, and neither HIV nor Aids recognises races or nationality. 
Yet, Burma allows no school classes on Aids, prohibits the promotion of 
condoms and bars all health studies by international experts. The United 
Nations has estimated Burma has a minimum of 700,000 Aids cases and 
50,000 deaths. There is no way to verify these figures, but no one any 
longer believes the Burmese regime's denials. 

Many believe that Burma is a victim of its own policies. Denial is 
deeply steeped in the political system. The military junta must deny its 
close associations with the drug trade _ and therefore is forced to deny 
that there is a serious drug addiction problem among Burmese. Therefore, 
as the denial-lie becomes larger, there are no needle-sharing drug 
addicts of Rangoon, Mandalay and other cities. And they cannot spread 
Aids through their needles or their after-drugs sex. 

The Johns Hopkins study among Burmese workers in Thailand showed that 
85% of married women had never seen a condom. A shocking 13% of all the 
men had never used a condom, even once. More than half believed that 
birth control pills would prevent Aids. 

This is the attitude that Burmese bring to Thailand. More importantly, 
this is the knowledge that all Burmese have in their own country. It may 
be worse than that. There is no way to tell how many of the Burmese 
picked up even their tiny amount of education about Aids in Thailand. 

The Burmese regime will pay dearly for suppressing information and 
education about Aids. But there will not just be Burmese victims. The 
neighbours of Burma, including Thailand, are at risk. Even a fast change 
on Aids, along with an educational programme, will solve little. 

The Burmese dictators must stop promoting and profitting from the drug 
trafficking. This is the root of the country's political, social and 
health problems. So long as the regime is locked into a dependency on 
drug-dealing political allies, it is not free to work on the nation's 
most serious difficulties. 



Business Times (Malaysia): Give Myanmar a break 


January 8, 2001 


By Abdullah Ahmad 

 
EVERYTHING that has happened to me has made me the man I am today. There 

are some greedy Malaysians, some terrible things done but it didn't stop 

me from realising that Malaysia is my heritage, my country, right or 
wrong. 

When I first went to the US aged 23, in October 1960 (and stayed there 
until early 1962), I did not personally encounter racial discrimination 
as 
the black did at the petrol stations, on buses, trains, in hotels, 
restaurants, public parks and restrooms. Every facet of American life 
was 
affected. It made me anti-racist. I disagreed with any theory that 
assumes 
an individual's abilities and potential are determined by his biological 

race, and that some races were inherently superior to others. 

Even after the vicious race riots on May 13 1964 (caused by raising of 
sensitive issues) I stood firm against racism. I deplored it then and 
now. 
Hitherto, we have survived it. Thank God I have never lost faith in the 
wisdom and pragmatism of every Malaysian with undivided loyalty to this 
land and not like the birds of passage of some fair-weather Malaysians. 

In spite that I still have some fear though I am hopeful and optimistic. 

All sane Malaysians know about the need for inter-racial cooperation and 

even harmony within the majority race. 

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad is now in Myanmar on a 
work-cum-holiday visit. Tan Sri Razali Ismail, United Nations secretary 
general's special envoy to Myanmar is also there (his third visit) 
trying 
to arrange the meeting between the Myanmar's military leadership and 
Aung 
San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader, who is under house arrest. 

I expect, though not sanguinely something useful will develop following 
the visit of Dr Mahathir and Razali. Whatever, it does say much about 
the 
state of our political stability that Dr Mahathir can leave the country 
anytime he wants which he does often. Charismatic jingoism 
notwithstanding, Malaysia is peaceful, prosperous and stable. 

Some optimists believe it would be a matter of time a genuine two-way 
communication or a pretence thereof will take place in Yangon between 
the 
military and Suu Kyi. The dialogue should and must take place, the 
sooner 
the better. Perhaps once the West's strong stand against the Myanmar's 
military is moderated. As it is, it is nothing less than the worst kind 
of 
double standards. Apply the same rule and sanctions to all. Why Myanmar 
and not Algeria and Brunei, an opposition newspaper columnist A. Razak 
Baginda, who is also Defence Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's close 
collaborator, rightly asked. He wrote: "I see very little between the 
situation in Myanmar and Algeria where the Muslim party was denied 
victory 
(power) when the military staged a coup. It could in fact be argued that 

some Western countries were quite relieved to see the military 
takeover... 
a CIA-backed coup in Chile took place when popular Salvador Allende was 
overthrown (and killed)." 

Razak thundered: "While democracy is on the rise, we have Brunei which 
is essentially a dictatorial regime in the form of an absolute monarchy. 

The Sultan of Brunei is almighty and his words are in effect law... 
archaic which resembles 18th century European absolutism." 

Malaysia is one of the nations sympathetic to Yangon. The reasons are 
many: KL-Yangon relations are cordial and we want to make the 
relationship 
closer. Dr Mahathir's talk with the generals, I hope, will make them see 

the imperative to talk with Suu Kyi or her emissaries. But Suu Kyi must 
be 
realistic, amenable and reconciliable. Threats, US sanctions, European 
support have not worked nor stopped Myanmar from being an Asean member 
in 
1997. Perhaps if there were less foreign interference things might work 
better. 

I visited Burma in the early sixties with Tun Razak when his good friend 

General Ne Win was in absolute power. Ne Win's successors are in control 

of this beautiful country ever since 1988 when the general resigned 
after 
leading it for 26 years. He visited Malaysia and Tun Razak took him to 
Pekan, his parliamentary constituency. 

In the early years of independence British politicians espoused 
"Buddhist Socialism" but it did not work. Then in 1962 Ne Win introduced 
a 
unique "Burmese way to Socialism". He was careful not to alienate the 
largely non-Buddhist minorities by making Buddhism the state religion as 
U 
Nu (prime minister 1947-58 and again 1960-62) had threatened to do. 
Whether Ne Win and his successor have made the people of Myanmar suffer, 

it is not for me to make judgement. 

The generals allowed a general election in May 1994, the first multi- 
party free election in 30 years. The opposition party, National League 
for 
Democracy led by Suu Kyi won but it was not allowed to take over power. 
The situation became an international event when Suu Kyi was award the 
Nobel Peace Prize and she and her friends, in and outside Myanmar, have 
been since then been striving to topple the military from power via 
demonstrations in defiance of law and order. 

Malaysia is an active foreign investor in Myanmar, a nation with great 
economic and tourism potential. Kuala Lumpur has been an advocate of 
constructive engagement despite strong Western opposition to the 
generals 
but not to the Sheiks, Kings and other oppressive rulers. As a senior 
Western diplomat told me at a rumah terbuka yesterday, "It's a simple 
enough reason: Myanmar has no oil nor strategic value to the West. 
Perhaps 
Myanmar will be important in future when we need it as a strategy 
platform 
to contain Chinese expansion." 

I believe with the right diplomatic, political and economic approach, 
even Myanmar will be irreparably and irreversibly changed but only at a 
pace which the generals do not feel threatened. There can be little 
doubt 
that sometimes things do defy belief and then even Laos and Kampuchea 
will 
open up to rapid change. Myanmar is in an even better position to 
respond 
to this coming shift. 

Modernisation and globalisation continue to undermine traditional 
culture and we become the victim of cumulative economic gains I can, I 
suppose count Asean to change and remain indispensible for regional 
peace, 
prosperity and general stability. 

We value democracy even far more highly than some Westerners do. However 

there is a limit. Idealism must be tempered with realism. Find a 
Buddhist 
solution to solve a Burmese problem. 
                               

GRAPHIC: Picture - Dr Mahathir ... now in Myanmar on a working-cum 
holiday visit. Picture - Top: Ne Win ... good friend of Tun Razak. 
Picture - Top right: Razali ... in Myanmar, his third visit. Picture - 
Suu Kyi ... under house arrest. 














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