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BurmaNet News: January 22, 2001
- Subject: BurmaNet News: January 22, 2001
- From: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 08:41:00
______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
An on-line newspaper covering Burma
January 22, 2001 Issue # 1716
______________ www.burmanet.org _______________
INSIDE BURMA _______
*BBC: Suu Kyi home safe after ruling
*BBC: Burma project to return sacred bell
*DVB: Veteran Burmese politicians urge Rangoon, Aung San Suu Kyi to
continue talks
*DVB: Karen group restates condition for entering peace talks with
Burmese government
*Karenni News Agency for Human Rights: A powerful bomb kills 3 villagers
and wounds 8 others
REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL _______
*AFP: Refugees pay the price for Myanmar's war with ethnic minorities
*AFP: God's Army twins say they just want to be like ordinary boys
*AFP: New air service to link Mekong region
*Honolulu Star-Bulletin: Hilo church aids persecuted Karen people of
Myanmar
*AP: Thai maritime police arrest alleged pirates
*AP: Thailand nabs alleged drug smugglers, kingpin's *mistress
*The Independent (Bangladesh): Situation along border with Myanmar
slightly improves
*ILO News: Fresh hope for Myanmar
ECONOMY/BUSINESS _______
*Le Soir (France): Petroleum: Protest against the multinational
company's Burmese investment
OPINION/EDITORIALS_______
*The Oregonian: Cheney must confront Burma's inhumane policies
*Restoration Council of the Shan State: [Bkk Post erred in saying Lao
Tai leader of SSA]
__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________
BBC: Suu Kyi home safe after ruling
Monday, 22 January, 2001, 12:45 GMT
A court in Burma has dismissed a suit by the estranged brother of
opposition leader Aung San Su Kyi over ownership rights to her home.
Aung San Oo had wanted half of the family property where the
pro-democracy leader lives, under virtual house arrest.
The ruling is being seen as another sign of a thaw in the military's
treatment of Aung San Suu Kyi in a country where the courts are strictly
controlled by the authorities.
It came as Burma's pro-democracy leader takes part in reconciliation
talks with the ruling military government over their decade-long
political deadlock.
Aung San Oo, who lives in the United States, filed a suit last year
claiming the right to half of the large house in central Rangoon.
But Judge Soe Thein threw out his petition, citing technical problems
with the way it was filed.
The court ruled that Aung San Oo should have filed for administration
rights to the house, instead of seeking to partition it by gaining a
share of half the property.
A decision in his favour could have seen the Nobel Prize winner evicted
from the villa, once owned by their late mother.
Aung San Oo's case was believed to have been brought with the tacit
approval of the government.
Signs of a thaw
In addition to the talks recently begun between the opposition and the
government, cartoons and commentaries aimed at her and her National
League for Democracy (NLD) have suddenly ceased.
Aung San Suu Kyi and Aung San Oo are children of independence hero
General Aung San, who was assassinated in 1947 when the country was on
the threshold of independence from Britain.
Aung San Oo, is believed to disagree with his sisters's political views,
which have put her in direct confrontation with Burma's military rulers
in the past.
The National League for Democracy party won the elections in 1990, but
the military refused to hand over power.
Aung San Suu Kyi has not been seen in public since September, when the
government confined her to her home after she attempted to board a train
to Mandalay in defiance of a travel ban.
____________________________________________________
BBC: Burma project to return sacred bell
Monday, 22 January, 2001, 10:25 GMT
An English marine archaeologist is reported to have agreed to recover
one of Burma's most sacred religious relics from the bed of the
Irrawaddy river, where it has lain for nearly 400 years.
The relic is the Dhammazedi bell, which is said to weigh 300 tons, and
believed to the the biggest ever made.
The bell, made of gold, silver and bronze and encrusted with emeralds
and sapphires, once stood in Burma's holiest shrine, the Shwedagon
Pagoda in Rangoon.
It was looted from the pagoda by the Portuguese nearly four-hundred
years ago, but sank into the river when an attempt to ship it away went
wrong.
The archaeologist, Mike Hatcher, says he will begin work on the project
in March. It is estimated that the operation will cost some six-million
dollars, the funds being provided privately.
Mr Hatcher, who has several successful salvage operations to his credit,
says he hopes the return of the bell will prove a positive catalyst for
change in Burma.
>From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
___________________________________________________
DVB: Veteran Burmese politicians urge Rangoon, Aung San Suu Kyi to
continue talks
Jan. 18, 2001
The leaders of Burma's independence struggle have supported and welcomed
the talks between SPDC [State Peace and Development Council] and Aung
San Suu Kyi. They also urged them to continue the talks. DVB [Democratic
Voice of Burma] has received a statement issued by the veteran Burmese
politicians including Bohmu Aung [one of thirty comrades who fought for
Burma's independence]. The statement is as follows:
Statement by Bohmu Aung and colleagues regarding the news of talks
between SPDC representatives and National League for Democracy [NLD]
General Secretary Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
1. Mr Razali Ismail, the UN secretary-general's special representative
for Burma, told UN officials after his return from visiting Burma that
talks between the SPDC and NLD General Secretary Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
have already commenced in October 2000. This news was carried by
international news media. We welcome the news and give our choicest
blessings.
2. We have repeatedly requested the SPDC and NLD since 24 November 1995
to hold a dialogue and find a solution to overcome the political,
economic, and social difficulties facing Burma for the good of the
people and the nation.
3. We would like to reiterate that the entire populace, including us,
hope that holding talks and finding a solution to the impasse for the
good of the people and the country will bring about national
reconciliation and will enhance our national unity, independence,
sovereignty, peace, and democracy.
4. We fervently implore both sides to continue the talks with
perseverance, keeping an open mind without any prejudice, and dispel any
faction, hate, and mistrust.
Signed: Bohmu Aung on behalf of all veteran political colleagues Dated:
15 January 2001
Source: Democratic Voice of Burma, Oslo, in Burmese 1245 gmt 18 Jan 01
___________________________________________________
DVB: Karen group restates condition for entering peace talks with
Burmese government
Jan. 18, 2001
Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai said yesterday that some members of
God's Army who surrendered the other day will probably be allowed to
stay in Thailand. DVB [Democratic Voice of Burma] correspondent Htet
Aung Kyaw interviews KNU [Karen National Union] General Secretary Phado
Mahn Shar on the matter.
[Htet Aung Kyaw] We learned yesterday that God's Army members have
surrendered to the Thai government but they did not give any
explanations. First I would like to ask the KNU about its view on why
they surrendered to the Thais.
[Phado Mahn Shar] God's Army is not a political organization formed with
a political essence. When they were tested politically, organizationally
and militarily they could not stand firm for long anymore. We think they
surrendered based on these grounds.
[Htet Aung Kyaw] Yes. We heard news that God's Army rejoined the KNU a
few month ago. What about that?
[Phado Mahn Shar] After God's Army split and became scattered we heard
that some God's Army members joined this KNU No 4 Brigade. We do not
have any numbers regarding that.
[Htet Aung Kyaw] What you mean to say is that the group that surrendered
is not the God's Army members that rejoined the KNU.
[Phado Mahn Shar] Yes. They are not the ones.
[Htet Aung Kyaw] After the surrender of these God's Army members, what
do you expect will happen in future? Will it have an effect on the
activities of the KNU?
[Phado Mahn Shar] God's Army is not an organization that concerns us.
It's a separate entity on its own. Since they are of no concern to us
their surrender has no major effect on the entire movement of the KNU.
We also hope that way.
[Htet Aung Kyaw] According to Thai sources, there are some God's Army
members remaining and they are trying to make them surrender as well. Is
the Thai side pressuring the KNU to let the remaining God's Army members
surrender?
[Phado Mahn Shar] As far as I am concerned nothing is being said to our
headquarters.
[Htet Aung Kyaw] Another thing I want to ask is, nowadays in the
newspapers Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt mentioned that only the KNU remains to
return to the legal fold. They have held talks with all the other groups
and they are offering KNU to hold talks. What is the opinion of the KNU
regarding the talks?
[Phado Mahn Shar] The KNU wants to hold talks which have essence. The
previous talks failed not because of KNU but because the SPDC [State
Peace and Development Council] unilaterally called off the peace talks
and started an offensive. That was the reason. They are still continuing
the military offensive now. If they really want to hold peace talks with
real meaning then they must first stop the current offensive and then
call for talks. In which case the KNU has nothing to say. This has
already been our fundamental objective.
Source: Democratic Voice of Burma, Oslo, in Burmese 1245 gmt 18 Jan 01
___________________________________________________
Karenni News Agency for Human Rights: A powerful bomb kills 3 villagers
and wounds 8 others
[Abridged]
Mae Hong Son, Thailand January 19, 2001
Forcing civilians to work in mine laid areas is a crime against humanity
Three Karenni villagers were killed and eight others were wounded when a
bomb went off on 13 January 2001.The Burmese junta troops from LIB No.
427, 428 and 531 ordered villagers of Maw Thi Tho village, Pruso
township, Karenni, to clean the Maw Thi Tho military installation.
During the cleaning the bomb went off and killed Gyaw Wah Nee, Baw Ei,
and Taw Ei from Maw Thi Tho village and wounded Taw Ei, Juliyo, Mya So,
Mo Ei Mya, Pha Nel, Do Ei and Law Ei, including two women.
"The Burmese junta is one particular regime in the world that forces
civilians to work where mines are laid," said Mr. Rimond Htoo, Secretary
of Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP). "This was not the first
time where civilians are put to work in the mined areas and many
hundreds of porters also are forced to clean the mine fields during
military operation," concluded Rimond Htoo.
After the explosion, the villagers were forced to repair the damage of
the camp building by each person from one family to bring bamboo and
posts. "Despite the sanction of International Labour Organization
(ILO), the junta continues the use of forced labour," said Mr. Abel
Tweed, Minister of Foreign Affairs of KNPP. " These generals of the
junta have committed violation of humanitarian law and therefore the
international community should put them on International Tribunal Court
for the crimes they have committed," concluded Abel Tweed.
___________________ REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL___________________
AFP: Refugees pay the price for Myanmar's war with ethnic minorities
Sunday, January 21 12:45 PM SGT
BO WI, Thailand, Jan 21 (AFP) - In this dusty encampment of tarpaulin
tents and smouldering fires not far from the Myanmar border, a young
Karen man describes life before Myanmar troops set fire to his village
and sent his family running for their lives.
"It was very different. I didn't have to hide, I didn't have to move,
and I had plenty of food to eat," says 24-year-old Perd, who like the
others here is dirty, dressed in ragged clothes, and covered in insect
bites.
But things turned harrowing for Perd and more than 100 of his fellow
villagers from Meng No Ki, across the border in military-run Myanmar's
Karen state.
The subsistence farmers became nomadic, managing to outrun troops in the
jungle for four years before their long and exhausting journey saw them
arrive in neighbouring Thailand on December 20.
They are the latest wave of refugees from the ongoing guerrilla war
between ethnic Karen rebels and the Myanmar junta that has pushed some
110,000 people into camps first set up along the border in the
mid-1980s.
Perd says Myanmar soldiers opened fire on his village repeatedly for two
months before it was torched and his family and friends took refuge in
the malaria-infested jungle.
The last straw came when one villager was shot dead and a 17 year-old
woman was taken by the troops, her fate unknown even as her family
continues to wander the jungle in search of her.
"We had to hide in the jungle and in the mountains. We had to hide to
save our lives."
As the villagers stumbled desperately through the undergrowth, many of
their old and sick couldn't keep up or simply lost their way.
"Forty of 50 people were lost. I don't know if I'll ever see them
again," says the young man who, like many malnourished Karen, appears
years younger than his real age.
When they convened at this encampment in the mountainous border region
of Thailand's Ratchaburi province, the refugees numbered 81 people, with
18 families among them.
As to why his village was attacked, the boyish-looking young man stared
at the ground in bewilderment. "I don't know why they shot at us."
But sporadic fighting between Myanmar forces and the Karen National
Union (KNU) and its splinter groups -- all fighting for autonomy in the
military-run country -- is the likely reason.
The cherub-like leaders of one such group, known as the God's Army,
surrendered with 15 of their followers to Thai authorities this week.
Johnny and Luther Htoo were reputed by the group's poorly armed fighters
to possess magical powers that made them invincible against Myanmar
troops.
The adolescent twin brothers were a symbol of hope for people who had
little else to arm them against Yangon's battle-hardened forces.
Like the grubby children and haggard adults who listlessly gather bamboo
kindling at Bo Wi, the God's Army band now seem destined to end up at
one of the 11 border camps that house those who have fled the violence.
Some 84,000 of those living there are ethnic Karen, and camps have been
known to come under attack by Myanmar troops who suspect they are
harboring or supplying rebel insurgents across the border.
Many refugees cross the border briefly to avoid short outburts of
violence, only to return to Myanmar a few weeks later to resume their
livelihoods.
Others -- particulary the sick and old -- settle in the Thai camps where
aid groups supply them with rudimentary facilities and basic food and
medicine.
The Bo Wi villagers may well be sent to the nearby Tham Hin camp,
derided by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees chief Sadako
Ogata last year as one of the worst she had seen in the world.
"I'm told by colleagues that some camps are better and some are worse.
If there are any worse, I can't imagine," she said.
"The camp is much, much too crowded and the shelter situation is really
substandard ... It is quite depressing."
Thailand was stung by the comment, saying authorities had done all they
could to help refugees and protect their human rights.
"The refugees in the camp are in similar or better conditions than the
Thai people who live outside the camp," the foreign ministry said at the
time.
Despite pressure from Thailand which is fed up with shouldering
responsibility for the massive number of displaced, conditions in
Myanmar preclude the start of a repatriation program.
"The two countries have to be conducive. The time is not right for
repatriation," says UNHCR senior regional liason officer Indrika
Ratwatte.
For now Thai army troops with camouflage uniforms and automatic rifles
stand watch over the villagers at Bo Wi and their cluster of ramshackle
tents with bamboo frames.
"I miss my home," says Bert, his eyes hollow and weary. "But I don't
dare go back."
___________________________________________________
AFP: God's Army twins say they just want to be like ordinary boys
SUAN PHUNG, Thailand, Jan 22 (AFP) - God's Army boy-leaders Johnny and
Luther Htoo Monday debunked the myths surrounding them and said they
would like to return with their parents to Myanmar and go to school like
ordinary children.
Speaking for the first time since they surrendered to Thai authorities
last week along with a rag-tag band of supporters, the boys gave shy,
halting replies to reporters' questions.
Through a Karen language interpreter they downplayed their followers'
belief that they possessed magical powers that made them and their
fighters invincible in battle against Myanmar troops.
"No," they replied when asked whether the stories that they were
impervious to gunfire were true.
But when asked whether they wanted to go back home to Myanmar where
they once lived with their parents, the more outspoken brother Luther
gave an emphatic: "Yes, if we can."
The elfin-faced pair, who say they are 13 but look years younger, also
said they would like to go to school one day.
The brothers gave themselves up to Thai troops after their mystical
anti-Myanmar rebel movement was hunted down over a bloody New Year's Eve
raid on a village in western Ratchaburi province.
Since then the twins and some dozen supporters, mostly women and
children, have been held at this border police headquarters, living
together in a small cottage where authorities have been feeding them up.
Only a week after coming in from the jungle where a Thai offensive had
left them on the brink of starvation, the painfully thin Htoo brothers
already appeared to be much healther and brighter.
Provincial governor Komes Daengthong-dee said the boys would be kept at
the Suan Phung police headquarters until experts decided their fate.
"The committee will decide whether they are illegal immigrants or
refugees and we are currently collecting together all the facts," he
said.
Concerns that they will use their stay in Thailand to reunite their
gang, which has been all but destroyed after being targeted by the
Myanmar and Thai security forces, "will be one factor that we will take
into account."
If the boys are found to be displaced persons they will be sent to a
temporary shelter where they could live and study with other Karen
refugee children, Komes said.
Investigators are trying to determine if the boys were involved in the
seizure of a major Ratchaburi hospital last year, carried out by God's
Army fighters and rebels from another militia band.
Meanwhile local villagers in Ratchaburi are breathing a collective sigh
of relief now that God's Army -- which has caused them considerable
disquiet in the last year -- is a thing of the past.
Three men among the God's Army group of 17 who turned themselves in
last week have been charged with murder and robbery over the New Year's
Eve attack that left six Thais dead.
However, the remainder of the God's Army members being held at this
border town look set to escape punishment over the raid and previous
attacks staged by the anti-Myanmar militia.
____________________________________________________
AFP: New air service to link Mekong region
BANGKOK, Jan 21 (AFP) - A new air service linking Thailand, Laos and
Vietnam is to be launched next month and will be extended to Myanmar in
March, a Thai government official said according to a report Sunday.
The debut Lao Aviation flight from the northern Thai province of Nan to
Vietnam's Dien Bien Phu via Luang Prabang in Laos has been scheduled for
February 9, the Bangkok Post said.
The flights, which are part of a plan to boost economic and transport
cooperation in the Mekong River basin region, will depart three times a
week, said Nan provincial governor Thamapong Chakkaparb.
The Greater Mekong Subregion, which includes Cambodia, Laos, Thailand,
Vietnam and China's Yunnan province, represents a potential market of
240 million people.
____________________________________________________
Honolulu Star-Bulletin: Hilo church aids persecuted Karen people of
Myanmar
Jan. 22, 2001
By Rod Thompson
HILO -- The members of a Hilo church are on a mission: to take help to a
persecuted ethnic minority on the border of Myanmar and Thailand.
Since the late 1940s when the British left Myanmar, then known as Burma,
the Karen people (pronounced ka-REN) have been seeking a measure of
self-government, said Dale and Carol Wilson of the Hilo Missionary
Church.
Myanmar government troops have terrorized the Karens, sending 115,000
across the border into Thailand. They live in 16 refugee camps. In
September the Thai government set a three-year deadline for them to
return to Myanmar, said Carol Wilson, a teacher.
"What these people themselves feel is, they are doomed," she said.
During a stay last year at a camp with 20,000 people, the children told
her, "They are going to send us back to face our enemy."
Myanmar forces frequently use Karen men as laborers, then kill them.
They rape Karen women and sell Karen girls into prostitution in
Thailand, she said.
The Hilo Missionary Church became involved because many Karens are
Christian, she said.
A Central Intelligence Agency Web site says Karens make up 7 percent of
the population of Myanmar, or about 2.9 million people.
A Karen Internet site, www.karen.org, says 30 percent of Karens are
Christian.
After adopting the Karens for missionary work last year, the Hilo church
sent a group of 30 people to visit them in Thailand in late June,
followed by a group of 12 in August.
Harry Char, former head of the church's missionary committee, found an
orderly community of huts scattered on a hillside with a school and
churches. The buildings had dirt floors and leaky grass roofs, but the
people seemed healthy.
But Dale Wilson, a former Army major and military historian, said as
many as a million Karens and other ethnic groups are "internally
displaced" within Myanmar because of Myanmar army activity. Some live
hand-to-mouth, he said.
Unlike some ethnic minorities in Burma who make money from illegal
drugs, the Karens avoid drug trafficking, Carol Wilson said. But as
desperation mounts, there is danger of drug use, she said.
Wilson hopes to set up a "base camp" in Thailand next month through
which Christian groups can send relief supplies.
Church pastor Tim Carigon said about 100 people from the Big Island,
Oahu and Kauai, mostly teen-agers, will serve at various sites in
Thailand this summer.
To make donations, contact the church at 959-7510 or the Wilsons at
968-9211.
____________________________________________________
AP: Thai maritime police arrest alleged pirates
Jan. 21, 2001
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ Thai maritime police have arrested 20 alleged
pirates suspected of robbing and blowing up a Thai fishing boat, a
provincial police officer said Saturday.
The suspects were apprehended Thursday in the Andaman Sea off the Thai
province of Ranong, 470 kilometers (292 miles) south of Bangkok, where
they were hiding between two small islands close to Myanmar waters, said
Maj. Suwat Sriklaw, a chief marine police investigator.
Four of the arrested men were Thais, and the others were from Myanmar,
he said.
The pirates, heavily armed, allegedly attacked the Thai fishing boat on
Jan. 11 as it was returning with a full catch of fish from waters off
Mergui in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
They brought the boat back to Myanmar waters, transferred all its catch
to their vessel and then blew it up by shooting its gas tank.
Suwat said one of the fishing boat's seven crew members drowned after
they were forced to jump from their ship. He did not explain how the
others returned to Thailand.
Suwat said the pirates were connected to an influential man in Ranong
who acted as an intermediary when fishing boats were seized by pirates
who asked for ransom.
``Before this case, no one dared make a complaint to police about
fishing boat robberies or seizures,'' he said.
____________________________________________________
AP: Thailand nabs alleged drug smugglers, kingpin's mistress
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ Thai police said Monday they arrested six
people suspected of smuggling heroin to the United States, including a
woman described as a mistress of Khun Sa, once the most powerful drug
lord in the region.
Three persons from Myanmar, one Chinese national and two Thais were
arrested in a Chinese restaurant in Bangkok Friday in a sting operation,
Sunthorn Saikwan of the Narcotics Suppression Bureau told a news
conference.
The six were charged with possession of 1.4 kilograms (3.08 pounds) of
heroin which was allegedly a sample for undercover agents posing as
traffickers wanting to ship the drug to the United States, he said.
One of those arrested was identified as Peng Hui-lan, a 54-year-old
Myanmar woman who Thai officials said was a mistress of Khun Sa and one
of his prominent representatives in the drug trade.
Khun Sa, also known as Chang Chi-fu, was once the biggest heroin
trafficker in the Golden Triangle, the opium and heroin-producing region
where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet.
He surrendered with his Shan United Army, comprising more than 15,000
men, in January 1996. Khun Sa claimed that his army, which was financed
primarily by heroin trafficking, was fighting for the independence of
the Shan ethnic minority.
Peng, who was presented at the news conference, denied she was one of
Khun Sa's minor, or informal wives. But police said she had told them of
the relationship. They distributed a photo showing her posing in a
relaxed manner with Khun Sa.
The Thai sting operation was an extension of a U.S. undercover
operation in which American agents posing as drug dealers had bought 66
kilograms (145.2 pounds) or heroin worth dlrs 3.5 million in New York
from Peng as a way of winning her trust.
Peng and the other suspects flew to Bangkok to clinch a second such
deal, Gen. Chatri Paisalsilp, head of Narcotics Suppression Division 1,
said. It was the first time Peng had come to Thailand, he said.
``She was excited about breaking into the U.S. market so she came here
herself to secure the contract,'' said Chatri.
If convicted, the six suspects will serve time in Thailand before being
sent to the United States, he said.
William J. Snipes, a narcotics attache at the U.S. Embassy, said the
arrests would add another piece to the jigsaw puzzle of Khun Sa's
smuggling network.
The U.S. State Department has offered a dlrs 2 million reward for the
arrest of Khun Sa, but Myanmar's military government has declined to
prosecute or extradite him. Myanmar is the world's second biggest
producer of heroin after Afghanistan.
On Jan. 10, Thai police announced the arrest of a man said to have been
Khun Sa's personal secretary and accountant for his heroin smuggling
syndicate.
He had been indicted in 1994 in a New York federal court for attempted
conspiracy to import heroin into the United States and distribution of
heroin.
____________________________________________________
The Independent (Bangladesh): Situation along border with Myanmar
slightly improves
Jan 22, 2001
by Staff Reporter
The situation along the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar has
slightly improved.
Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) Director General Major General Fazlur Rahman
told The Independent yesterday that an atmosphere, conducive to solving
the problems peacefully, has been created following Saturday?s flag
meeting.
The BDR chief who returned to the capital yesterday after visiting the
frontiers in Teknaf and Ukhiya, hoped that a joint survey of the
controversial dam in the Naf river would take place soon. Myanmar has
proposed for the joint inspection of the place.
Meanwhile, the Myanmar government has expressed its desire to resolve
the border problems with Bangladesh through peaceful means.
According to reports received here, the Myanmar Deputy Foreign Minister
voiced his government?s sentiment, while briefing the heads of the
diplomatic corps in Yangon about the developments along
Bangaldesh-Myanmar border over the weekend.
The Myanmar DFM has denied the allegation that his country had amassed
regular troops in the frontier.
Following the briefing the diplomatic circles in Yangon feel Myanamar
seems to have played down the tension along its border with Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, the process of the repatriation of Rohingya refugees came to
a total halt due to the tension along the border between Bangladesh and
Myanmar, official sources said.
Of a quarter million Rohingyas who crossed into border early 1991 and
took shelter in the south eastern region of Bangladesh, 2,30,000 had
returned voluntarily to their homeland during the last ten years.
Now over 20,000 refugees staying at a camp in Teknaf, Cox?s Bazar,
awaiting repatriation.
The repatriation which began late 1991 under a tripartite agreement, was
going on at a very slow pace before it was halted in the first week of
the current month.
Bangladesh, Myanmar and the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) are the signatories of the accord.
___________________________________________________
ILO News: Fresh hope for Myanmar
ILO's new regional chief throws weight behind efforts to eliminate
forced labour
Jan. 15, 2001
BANGKOK (ILO News) ? "Expect progress in Myanmar", forecast the new
regional chief of the International Labour Organization (ILO), Mr
Yasuyuki Nodera, on taking up this month the UN agency's top job in Asia
amid reports of democratic breakthroughs in the South-East Asian state
that came under unprecedented ILO sanctions last December for widespread
and systematic use of forced labour.
The sanctions, which require member States, employers, workers, and
international organizations to review their dealings with the country to
make sure they are not abetting the practice of forced labour there, are
believed to have prompted a re-think of policy and moves to end what a
1998 ILO Commission of Inquiry described as "a saga of untold misery and
suffering, oppression and exploitation of large sections of the
population...by the Government, military and other public officers".
Mr Nodera, who gained respect for being a man of dialogue as Japan's
Assistant-Minister of Labour before taking charge of the ILO's
Bangkok-based office for Asia and the Pacific, explains that sanctions
are only one facet of his Organization's position on Myanmar.
"Forced labour is inconsistent with membership in the ILO", Nodera
observes, adding that one of his top priorities would be to send ILO
experts to Myanmar to assist in efforts to stamp out the practice
through modifying laws, bringing perpetrators to justice and taking
administrative measures to ensure that nobody is forced to work
unwillingly.
Under the ILO's 1998 Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at
Work, its 175 member States have a duty to combat forced labour ? along
with child labour, discrimination and curbs on freedom of association.
As part of the follow-up to the Declaration a global report on forced
labour will be tabled at this year's International Labour Conference in
Geneva next June.
Myanmar will also be the subject of special ILO reports in the months
ahead to monitor the forced-labour situation there in light of the
sanctions placed on the country for breach of the ILO's Forced Labour
Convention, 1930 (No. 29), which the country ratified in 1955.
Nodera is hopeful that the June Conference will be in a position to
examine the results of technical cooperation from the ILO, which can
move ahead once the necessary legislative, judicial and administrative
framework is in place.
"The ball is in Yangon's court", Nodera says.
In a report to ILO Director-General Juan Somavia last November members
of an official ILO mission to Myanmar found progress ? mainly in the
form of legislative measures ? since an earlier mission they had carried
out in May. Mr Nodera is confident that the achievements already on
paper can be converted into realities on the ground.
_______________ ECONOMY AND BUSINESS _______________
Le Soir (France): Petroleum: Protest against the multinational company's
Burmese investment
Philippe Regnier, Brussels, January 16
(Translated from French)
The CSC - Mines, Energy, chemical and leather workers' Union -baulks at
TotalFinaElf ' s Burmese investment
The CSC changes pump. The christian trade union announced on Monday that
it had broken its contract with the Franco-Belgian group TotalFinaElf.
Why? Because of the multinational petroleum company's investment in
Burma, whose regime is accused of persistent use of forced labour. The
contract had been signed many years back and could be cancelled without
notice. It ensured petroleum supply to vehicles belonging to the union
itself and to sister organisations.
The ILO, a UN agency consisting of representatives of the States,
workers and employers, has recently condemned Burma's violations of
basic work rights, while inviting companies present in this country to
put pressure on the authorities. TotalFinaElf, which in Burma exploits
an offshore gas-field, ignored two requests by the CSC - under pressure
from its own workers - to review its involvement in Burma. The oil
company has maintained all along that no international regulation
forbids its investment, which it considers contributes to Burma's
economic development.
Last summer the Belgian authorities had also announced that they would
not be renewing their petroleum supply contract with TotalFinaElf
because of the company's relationship with the Burmese dictatorial
regime. As for the CSC, the union announce they will now support efforts
made by the American Esso...in the sector of renewable energies. While
acknowledging that this is the least of two evils; No petroleum company
is totally innocent. After all, we do have to fill up our tanks
somewhere...
______________OPINION/EDITORIALS_________________
The Oregonian: Cheney must confront Burma's inhumane policies
As Halliburton chief, he led a company that did business in the
repressive Asian nation
Saturday, January 20, 2001
IN MY OPINION Robert B. Textor
(Robert B. Textor of Portland, a retired anthropology
professor at Stanford University, is a Southeast Asia specialist. )
Dick Cheney, the new vice president and former defense secretary, will
be one of the key foreign policy advisers to George W. Bush, who assumes
office today with virtually no foreign policy background.
Will the advice Cheney gives to Bush be good advice? Ethical advice? Or
will Cheney advance an agenda that allows American corporations to make
handsome profits overseas in countries whose dictatorships force their
citizens into unpaid labor?
The answer is predictable. Cheney, as CEO of Halliburton Inc., has
already enriched himself in just this fashion. After just five years of
service with Halliburton, Cheney received a multimillion-dollar
separation allowance -- part of which will be traceable to Halliburton's
very profitable oil equipment operations in Burma.
According to data supplied by the ruling military junta of what's also
called Myanmar, on any given day that regime forces some 800,000
citizens to do unpaid labor. This regime has been repeatedly condemned
by the U.N. General Assembly, the International Labor Organization, the
European Community, the AFL-CIO, Amnesty International and the U.S.
government itself.
We Americans settled the issue of whether it is legally and ethically
acceptable for businesses to profit from forced unpaid labor here at
home 135 years ago, at the cost of 620,000 American lives. What remains
unsettled to this day, however, is whether it is ethical for American
companies to take advantage of forced unpaid labor overseas.
Cheney has said yes. I believe this makes him a clear and present
danger to world peace.
The Wall Street Journal last year carefully documented the devious
involvement of Halliburton and Cheney in Burma. "Halliburton's Burma
connection is a potentially embarrassing episode for Mr. Cheney," the
paper said. "Since 1988, when the Burmese army killed thousands of
pro-democracy protesters to stay in power, the country's military junta
has been widely condemned as one of the world's most brutal violators of
human rights. The United States, which withdrew its ambassador and
suspended aid to Burma a decade ago, banned new U.S. investment in the
country in 1997 and has led international efforts to isolate the
regime."
The article then refers to the notorious Yadana pipeline: "The Western
companies that in partnership with the country's military rulers
sponsored the pipeline and hired contractors like the Halliburton
venture already knew the project was benefiting from forced Burmese
labor and 'numerous acts of violence' by Burmese military, according to
recent findings by a U.S. federal judge in Los Angeles."
Halliburton's involvement in Burma is clearly contrary to the spirit of
existing U.S. policy. An executive order issued by President Bill
Clinton in 1997 banned all new investment in Burma. Because Halliburton
began its investment in Burma before that date, it enjoys exemption from
this order. Otherwise, Halliburton's investment there would be illegal.
Numerous U.S. corporations have already pulled out of Burma, including
some that didn't wait for the executive order: Texaco, Motorola,
Hewlett-Packard, PepsiCo and Portland's own Columbia Sportswear.
More recently, even conservative Republican senators like Jesse Helms
and Mitch McConnell, noting the steadily deteriorating civil rights
situation in Burma, have been pressing for a policy that would go beyond
banning investment and ban all imports of any kind from Burma.
I call upon our new vice president to:
ò Publicly acknowledge his ethical error;
ò Contribute that portion of his separation allowance attributable to
Halliburton's activities in Burma to an organization such as the
International Red Cross;
ò Urge his company to withdraw completely from Burma; andò Support,
rather than obstruct, the spirit of the existing bipartisan U.S. policy
of promoting democracy and human rights in Burma.
Absent some such form of redemption, in my opinion Cheney will never
qualify ethically to be our vice president.
___________________________________________________
Restoration Council of the Shan State: [Bkk Post erred in saying Lao Tai
leader of SSA]
14 January 2001
We strongly reject and oppose what the Thai police chief said to the
Bangkok Post on January 11, 2001, regarding the case of Lao Tai or Yang
Wan-Hsuan, namely that he is the head of SSA.
In fact, he was Khun Sa's former secretary since SUA. SUA, which was led
by Khun Sa, surrendered to SPDC (SLORC) in 1995. At that time Lao Tai
went with Khun Sa and he had been living peacefully in Burma under SPDC
security ever since. SSA has no connections and relation with this
arrested drug trafficker Lao Tai.
The recent news on Sunday about the seizure of heroin at Surin Islands,
Phang Nga province, in Thai waters, gives clear evidence that SPDC was
involved in this drug case because the drugs had passed through Rangoon,
the capital of Burma. SPDC is cooperating in the drug trade with drug
traffickers in foreign countries. These drug gangs and drug traffickers
are strong and powerful and they have good contacts in every country.
Therefore, if the international community cannot cooperate to bring all
these foreign drug traffickers to trail, there is little hope to
eradicate drugs.
Formerly the international community were paying close attention to Khun
Sa's activities in the misplaced belief that if there was no Khun Sa,
narcotic drugs could be eradicated. But after Khun Sa gave himself up to
SPDC, more heroin and amphetamines have been produced than ever. In Shan
State and Kachin State, SPDC has been commanding the ethnic people in
the area to cultivate opium plantations repeatedly. Last year, 8 hundred
tons of heroin were produced in Burma and this may increase to one
thousand tons in the coming year.
SSA is just a small army and has been trying its best to carry out drug
eradication, and oppose drug traffickers and SPDC for 3 years and
consequently SSA has been facing the danger of heavy retaliations from
drug traffickers and SPDC.
The Burmese military has been using narcotic drugs as a weapon to
cleanse the ethnic people in Shan State systematically since state power
was usurped by General Ne Win in 1962. As part of the conspiracy of
ethnic cleansing in Shan State by the Burmese military, drug
laboratories have been permitted, and more heroin and amphetamines have
been produced by drug traffickers under SPDC security. Heroin and
amphetamines are sold to Shan youths, Shan young men have become drug
addicts and their lives have been ruined by the Burmese military daily.
We are very anxious for the future of Shan youth in this century.
To solve the drug crisis in the Golden Triangle in Shan State, RCSS is
willing to join hands with the international community to cooperate in
drug eradication. We have requested the international community for
cooperation continuously but there has no reaction and our proposals
have been ignored.
We would like to make an earnest appeal to the international community
and the United Nations as follows:
1. To stop drug traffickers and SPDC from attacking and suppressing the
SSA, and to help and allow SSA to cooperate with the international
community to implement drug eradication and to oppose drug traffickers
and SPDC, who are giving security to drug traffickers. 2. To have
sympathy on the peoples of Shan State who are being denied their human
rights. If they could be granted their basic rights, they would be able
to live freely and without fear, and then drugs could surely be
eradicated in Shan State. 3. To put pressure on SPDC to withdraw the
Burmese troops from Shan State and let negotiations take place between
SSA and SPDC peacefully. After that, it is certain that narcotic drugs
will be able to be eradicated.
Yawd Serk
Chairman
Restoration Council of the Shan State.
________________
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