BurmaNet News: February 2, 2001

[strider@xxxxxxxxxxx]

______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
        An on-line newspaper covering Burma 
         February 2, 2001   Issue # 1725
______________ www.burmanet.org _______________

INSIDE BURMA _______
*The Economist: Signs of a thaw?
*Far Eastern Economic Review: Political Prison For Burma's Far North
*Bangkok Post : Reconciliation Talks in a Fragile State, Says EU Team
*Financial Times: Junta ready to soften on Suu Kyi
*Xinhua: Myanmar Reviews Healthcare System in Hospitals

REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL _______
*European Report: EU/Burma: Rangoon Talks Revive Relations
*AP: Bangladesh, Myanmar reach accord on disputed dam construction
*AFP: Myanmar denies problems with Thailand
*Radio Australia: Burmese opposition leaders discussing pardons for 
junta
*Radio Australia: Burmese rulers may talk with Suu Kyi in a matter of 
weeks
*The Washington Post: Chao's Burma: It's All in The Hands

ECONOMY/BUSINESS _______
*Chemical Business Newsbase: Import restraints on Burma textiles


__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________



The Economist: Signs of a thaw? 


February 3, 2001 U.S. Edition 


WHAT is going on in Myanmar? European diplomats ventured into the 
capital Yangon, formerly Rangoon, this week to discuss the junta's 
recent charm offensive, and came away little the wiser, though there are 
plenty of encouraging signs. On January 26th it was revealed that the 
government had freed over 80 political prisoners. One of them was Tin 
Oo, the vice-chairman of the National League for Democracy, which won an 
election in 1990 that the generals have never honoured. The prisoner 
release followed an announcement by the UN that Aung San Suu Kyi, who 
heads the NLD and has been consistently demonised by the government, had 
been meeting some of the junta's top generals. 

Both of these gestures are extraordinary. The generals have been 
rounding up NLD members relentlessly over the past couple of years, in 
an effort to eradicate any remnants of an opposition. They have been 
even more dogged in their efforts to discredit Miss Suu Kyi, who won the 
Nobel peace prize for opposing them and who remains the rallying point 
for the regime's detractors around the world. Last August the government 
blockaded a road for days to prevent her from visiting supporters 
outside the city. Since then she has been under virtual house arrest. 

So why have the generals suddenly relaxed their grip? The most likely 
answer is that they think they can afford to, not that they have to. 
Though western countries maintain sanctions against the regime, it is 
hard to believe that it is now buckling. Most Asian countries are still 
happy to do business with Myanmar, and China especially is doing roaring 
cross-border trade. 

Nor should one read too much into reports of a split between reformers 
and hardliners. Trade restrictions and multi-tiered exchange rates do 
indeed distort some parts of the economy grotesquely. And Khin Nyunt, 
one of the junta's top generals, does appear to support making some 
changes. But there is not much chance of anything dramatic happening. 
"The thing that they all agree about is that any economic reform would 
cause chaos in the country," says one western businessman who pops in 
and out from Thailand. And although the government's growth figures are 
overblown, the economy is nevertheless slightly expanding, rather than 
contracting. 

Moreover, even the "reformers" within the junta have little interest in 
loosening up politically. They do not think they need to do so to 
improve the economy, and they certainly do not feel vulnerable 
politically. The military regime, says a recent report by the 
International Crisis Group, a think-tank, is "as strong as at any time 
in the country's history". The army has roughly doubled in size since 
1988, when it bloodily suppressed a wave of protest and installed itself 
in power. 

Unfortunately for Myanmar's democrats, the generals appear to be so well 
entrenched that they can now afford to work on their public relations. 
There is no harm in releasing opponents if the opposition is no longer a 
threat. And if Miss Suu Kyi is becoming irrelevant, there is no harm in 
meeting her to discuss the terms of surrender. 



___________________________________________________



Far Eastern Economic Review: Political Prison For Burma's Far North

FEER, Issue cover-dated February 8, 2001


Burma's military government appears to be building a new prison for 
political prisoners in the remote far north of the country, local people 
and dissidents say.  

The facility is being constructed near the town of Putao, which nestles 
among the highest mountains in Southeast Asia and must be reached by air 
from the Kachin state capital of Myitkyina.  

Local people have seen prisoners working on the construction of the jail 
and say the warden told them they were political detainees.  

Burmese dissidents note that the International Committee of the Red 
Cross has had access to all inmates in the country's prisons for more 
than a year.  

The Burmese government, by isolating political prisoners in the north, 
would make Red Cross access more difficult, they add. The ICRC would 
effectively be confined to visiting only convicted criminals. There are 
believed to be at least 1,000 political prisoners languishing in Burma's 
jails.  

The military, which refused to accept the opposition National League for 
Democracy's landslide election win in 1990, denies it holds political 
prisoners.  


___________________________________________________



Bangkok Post : Reconciliation Talks in a Fragile State, Says EU Team

Thursday, February 1, 2 001


Aung San Suu Kyi in good spirits, though
Achara Ashyagachat

A European Union delegation concluded a mission to Burma optimistic 
about the prospects for national reconciliation but stressed that the 
process is at a fragile state.

Borje Ljunggren, the senior Swedish of ficial who headed the delegation, 
said: "The dialogue between the SPDC and Aung San Suu Kyi is still at a 
fragile state. They have approached the dialogue with a lack of mutual 
understanding and therefore confidence building is the key word." 
Mr Ljunggren, head of the Swedish Foreign Ministry's Asia and Pacific 
Department, was accompanied by counterparts from Belgium, the EU Council 
and the European Commission.

The EU delegates were expected to assess the state of relations between 
the ruling State Peace and Development Council and its pro-democratic 
opposition led by Aung San Suu Kyi since the dialogue resumed in 
Octoher. 
Razali Ismail, the United Nations special envoy on Burma, broke the news 
about the dialogue last month.

Mr Ljunggren said that because of the fragile nature of the dialogue 
many things were kept confidential between the two parties and his 
delegation had limited information about their talks.

"The talk is still at an early stage and has not gone as far as a 
discussion about an election," he said.

However, he said his overall impression after a two-hour talk with Mrs 
Suu Kyi was optimistic. "She was in a good mood," Mr Ljunggren said. 

The Karen National Union hopes for positive developments from the EU 
visit, said Gen Bo Mya, the group's military leader. Speaking while 
celebrating the 52nd Revolutionary Day in an area under the Sixth 
Division opposite Tak, Gen Bo Mya said the KNU's door was always open 
for talks with the junta but without  conditions.



___________________________________________________



Financial Times: Junta ready to soften on Suu Kyi


By Amy Kazmin

Published: January 26 2001

In a Rangoon courtroom this week, Judge U Soe Thein gave a rare break to 
Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's pro-democracy leader: the judge threw out a 
lawsuit by Ms Suu Kyi's estranged brother seeking half of the family 
house where the Nobel Prize winner now lives under virtual house arrest. 


It was a decision aimed at the court of world opinion, one more in a 
series of small, conciliatory gestures by Burma's military regime 
towards their long-time adversary. It follows the announcement earlier 
this month that Ms Suu Kyi and Burma's chief of military intelligence, 
Lt Gen Khin Nyunt, have held direct talks since October aimed at 
breaking the long political impasse that has relegated Burma to the 
margins of the international community. 

"To me, it is an indication that they (the junta) don't want to make 
things worse. They want to make things better," David Steinberg, 
director of the Asian Studies Institute at Georgetown University, said 
of the judge's ruling. 

The military made another offering on Thursday, releasing Tin Oo, the 
septuagenarian vice-chair of Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy 
(NLD), and more than 80 opposition members, held in custody since Ms Suu 
Kyi tried unsuccessfully last September to visit party workers in 
Mandalay. 

After years of political stalemate, diplomats and analysts see the 
tentative change in public posture towards Ms Suu Kyi and the NLD as a 
reflection of the junta's desire to improve its international image, 
amid intensifying economic and social pressures at home. 

The Burmese currency, the kyat, is rapidly depreciating amid economic 
stagnation and dwindling investment. A growing Aids epidemic threatens 
to take a heavy toll on the country, which Khin Nyunt publicly 
acknowledged this week after past denial. The potential impact of 
sanctions imposed by the International Labour Organisation last November 
have also raised fresh uncertainties for the economy. 

Even the Association of South East Asian Nations, which embraced Burma 
as a new member in 1997, has shown impatience as the regime's disdain 
for human rights has tarnished Asean'sown image. 

Prodding from Razali Ismail, the UN special envoy on Burma, and also 
from trusted friend Mahathir Mohammed, the Malaysian prime minister, 
appears to have persuaded the junta that engaging Ms Suu Kyi - who has 
been under virtual house arrest herself since the aborted Mandalay trip 
- might help turn down the international heat. 

Sceptics, of course, recall that Burma's military rulers met twice with 
Ms Suu Kyi in 1994, then broke off talks, having pronounced Ms Suu Kyi 
as too inflexible. 

This time, the junta's overture follows a vigorous campaign to weaken 
the NLD, by shutting party offices and detaining members until they 
"renounce" the party. 

Still, there are hopes that the interaction may lead to some incremental 
concessions, or tentative steps to allow the NLD to function more 
freely. Mr Steinberg said one sign of progress could be if the stalled 
efforts to draft a constitution were to resume with the participation of 
the NLD, which earlier bowed out of the effort. 

"Do I believe the government will turn over power to the opposition? No. 
Do I think there may be some sort of accommodation? That is 
conceivable," he said. "You're looking at eroding the rigidity of power, 
rather than changing the structure of power." 

For Burma's military rulers, the potential pay-off of a few democratic 
risks is high. Australia, Japan, and India have already deepened their 
political contacts with the regime, in part to counter China's 
ever-strengthening political and economic influence, and several 
potential donors are clearly ready to boost the flow of aid, if there 
are signs that Burma is on a path to change. 

Japanese businesses, in particular, have been clamouring for their 
government to resume large-scale development assistance to Burma, but 
Tokyo has been reluctant to fully break with western sanctions until 
there are signs of political progress. 

"Asean and Japan set some conditions. They have said 'look we don't 
expect you to become democratic overnight, but you've got to be seen to 
be doing something'," said one western diplomat based in Bangkok. 

A new Republication administration in Washington could also soon face 
renewed pressure from American companies to re-examine the investment 
sanctions imposed on Burma, where vice-president Dick Cheney has past 
business links. A high-level European Union delegation is also due to 
arrive in Burma next week to assess the situation and express support 
for any dialogue. 

Jan Axel Nordlander, Sweden's ambassador to Thailand, said it was 
"premature" to discuss the lifting of sanctions, but said the 
prerequisite to any softening would be "tangible steps towards the 
reinstatement of democracy and respect for human rights". It looks as if 
the regime may have taken the first tentative steps on what is 
nevertheless a long road ahead. 




___________________________________________________



Xinhua: Myanmar Reviews Healthcare System in Hospitals

YANGON, February 2 (Xinhua) -- A workshop began here Thursday to review 
Myanmar's cost-sharing healthcare system practiced in the country's 
hospitals since the end of 1993, official newspaper The New Light of 
Myanmar reported Friday. The two-day workshop is sponsored by the 
Myanmar Ministry of Health and the World Health organization. Myanmar 
Minister of Health Major-General Ket Sein told the workshop that trust 
funds have been set up in 398 hospitals in the country, adding that 
arrangements are being made to give free medical care to the poor and 
needy with the use of these trust funds. 

He disclosed that in last year, about 550,000 poor and needy patients 
were given free medical care. According to the report, main drugs 
project under the system is being undertaken in 45 townships in Myanmar. 
The cost-sharing healthcare system was said to have been introduced on 
account of the limited ability of the government to bear all the 
national health expenditures alone. Meanwhile, Myanmar is implementing a 
five-year national health plan which has started in 1996. The plan 
covers areas such as community healthcare, disease control, hospital 
care, environmental health and health system development. 







___________________ REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL___________________
				



European Report: EU/Burma: Rangoon Talks Revive Relations

[The European Report is a publication of the European Union]

January 31, 2001 


A European Union delegation began talks in Rangoon on 29 January with 
the Burmese military junta in an attempt to revive relations with the 
regime. While the EU still condemns the Burmese Government's lack of 
democracy and its poor human rights record, it now says that dialogue is 
probably the best way of affecting change, and is expected to press the 
junta to start a breakthrough dialogue with the opposition. The Troika 
delegation should be allowed access to opposition representatives, 
including leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi - who 
has been back under house arrest since last September. The delegation 
consists of representatives from Sweden and Belgium, the present and 
next holders of the EU's rotating Presidency, and high-level European 
Commission officials. 

BODY: 


Burma's military rulers face widespread criticism from the West for 
refusing to hand over power to Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for 
Democracy, which won elections in Myanmar in 1990. The agreement to 
allow the EU fact-finding mission is seen as a major compromise between 
the military regime and one of its most vocal critics. After a 
three-year-old stalled dialogue, the two sides agreed to a new era in 
relations last December at a Ministerial meeting in Laos between the EU 
and the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) of which Burma 
is also a member. 

The Troika will meet a number of representatives of the Government and 
the Opposition, ethnic minorities, non-governmental organisations and 
United Nations bodies. It will be headed by Director Birje Lunggren, 
Head of the Asia and Pacific Department at the Ministry for Foreign 
Affairs, and consists of representatives of the European Commission, the 
Council Secretariat and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Belgium. 

The delegation will try to encourage the ruling military junta and the 
opposition National League for Democracy, led by Suu Kyi, to embark on a 
ground-breaking dialogue. The four-member team will hold its meetings 
three weeks after the United Nations announced that Daw Suu Kyi had held 
talks with Khin Nyunt, a leading figure in the ruling State Peace and 
Development Council, the military leadership. Razali Ismail, the UN 
envoy who has acted as broker in the secret contacts, said that they 
were paving the way for "more substantive discussions" that could end a 
decade of political deadlock. Earlier in January, the Council ended its 
personal attacks on Daw Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy 
and then it released 19 members of the league's youth wing and Tin Oo, 
its Vice-Chairman, after four months in detention. 

British Labour MEP Glenys Kinnock (PES, UK), in Tokyo at the end of 
January to discuss Burma affairs with Diet members said the junta could 
not be allowed to keep playing games with Suu Kyi as a way to obtain 
more aid from the international community. She also demanded further 
economic sanctions against the country and criticised firms investing 
there such as Britain's Premier Oil. 

--Since 1996, the EU has adopted a number of Joint Actions with 
sanctions against Burma, which have been renewed and updated every six 
months. 

The following measures currently apply: 

- A ban on visas for senior members of the Government (supplemented in 
April 2000 with the publication of a list of those covered by the ban 
and a freeze on their assets in EU countries), 

- No high-level bilateral visits to Burma, 

- A ban on all development co-operation other than humanitarian aid and 
assistance in support of human rights via NGOs, 

- A ban on military co-operation and weapon deliveries, 

- A ban on deliveries of equipment that could be used for internal 
repression. -- 




___________________________________________________



AP: Bangladesh, Myanmar reach accord on disputed dam construction 


Feb. 2, 2001

TEKNAF, Bangladesh (AP) _ Myanmar agreed Friday to stop building a 
controversial dam on a common river with Bangladesh, ending more than a 
month of border tensions, officials said. 

 Myanmar signed an agreement Friday with Bangladesh to scrap the 
construction of a dam that it started building on the frontier Naf River 
last month, triggering protests and exchange of gunfire between border 
troops. 

 Myanmar also pledged to consult Bangladesh before building any future 
dams on the Naf River in Friday's agreement, signed after four hours of 
talks between the two sides at the Myanmar border outpost of Naisadaung, 
the head of the Bangladesh delegation told reporters. 

 ``Thirty-nine days of tension between two friendly countries has been 
resolved with this deal,'' Mohammad Janibul Haq, joint secretary of the 
Ministry of Home Affairs, said in the border town of Teknaf, 300 
kilometers (185 miles) south of the national capital, Dhaka. 

 Hundreds of villagers in border areas fled their homes as Bangladesh 
and Myanmar stepped up border security after Myanmar workers started 
digging earth for the dam on Jan. 8, in contradiction of a 1966 border 
accord. 

 A joint survey team from Myanmar and Bangladesh visited the site of the 
disputed dam earlier on Friday. The Myanmar delegation at the talks was 
headed by U Aung Bwa, deputy director general of the Foreign Ministry. 

 The two neighbors also agreed to reinforce a previous agreement to curb 
smuggling and promote bilateral trade. 

 Bangladesh and Myanmar share a 270-kilometer (170-mile) border, 
comprising areas of dense forests, hills and 63 kilometers (39 miles) of 
seacoast. 


___________________________________________________



AFP: Myanmar denies problems with Thailand 


BANGKOK, Feb 2 (AFP) - Myanmar said it "does not believe there exist big 
problems" with Thailand in response to Thaksin Shinawatra's plan to 
address strained relations by traveling to Myanmar as his first official 
visit as Thailand's prime minister, a junta spokesman said Friday. 
 Myanmar welcomed Thaksin's announcement and said it was "quite natural 
that there may be matters that may require the attention of both 
nations" but that it "does not believe there exist big problems between 
the two nations." 

 "In the past, we had the pleasure to extend our hospitality to Thai 
leaders on many occasions and our doors always remain open to our 
friends from neighbouring countries", the spokesman added. 
 Thaksin said Thursday he would use the visit as an opportunity to 
discuss problems that have arisen along Thailand's 1,300-mile border 
with Myanmar. 
 "We have many problems with Myanmar, particularly with regard to trade 
along the border, fishery disputes, and the drugs trade," Thaksin told 
reporters. 

 Thaksin said he had not yet decided which other countries he would 
visit, but he is expected to call on fellow Association of Southeast 
Asian Nations (ASEAN) members before venturing further afield. 
 Several of Thaksin's senior advisers are seen as more sympathetic to 
the junta than the outgoing administration of Prime Minister Chuan 
Leekpai. 

 The billionaire businessman said he expects Thailand's new parliament 
to vote him in as prime minister within a week, allowing him then to 
unveil his cabinet and deliver a policy platform. 

 The new 500-seat House of Representatives is due to convene on Sunday, 
with a three-party coalition led by Thaksin's Thak Rai Thai party at the 
helm. 



___________________________________________________


Radio Australia: Burmese opposition leaders discussing pardons for junta 


Feb. 2, 2001

A senior minister of Burma's government-in-exile says opposition 
politicians are weighing up whether to grant an amnesty to Burmese 
leaders, accused of widespread human rights violations.

The revelation comes as a delegation of European Union officials met 
members of the military junta, and opposition leader, Aung Sun Suu Kyi.

Opposition minister Tein Oo says he believes a breakthrough in the 
11-year old political deadlock could be just weeks away.

But he says the members of the junta are fearful they could face 
prosecution. 

That is very important, because a lot of crime are committed by the 
military regime so if there is no amnesty order it is very dangerous for 
them, but on the other hand the civilians suffered very painfully so we 
need to comfort them and (give) compensation to the civilians in our 
country so we are considering very seriously both sides.. 


___________________________________________________





Radio Australia: Burmese rulers may talk with Suu Kyi in a matter of 
weeks 

Feb. 2, 2001

A senior Burmese opposition politician, Tein =(TAYN) Oo says 
abreakthrough in resolving the country's long running political deadlock 
could be just weeks away. 

The comment came as a European Union fact-finding team described recent 
talks between opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the military as the 
most interesting development in Burma in more than a decade.

Tein Oo, a minister in the government-in-exile says he believes a 
power-sharing agreement may be close at hand. 

They will not release all the power. They would like to control maybe 
the army at least. I would like to wait another couple of weeks. If the 
military regime is sincere, at that time I think they will have some 
agreement, some concrete agreement. 


___________________________________________________



The Washington Post: Chao's Burma: It's All in The Hands

 


February 02, 2001



ALPHABET SOUP flows through the captions of "Burma: Something Went 
Wrong," an exhibition of photographic portraits by Washington artist 
Chan Chao now at the Art Gallery of the University of Maryland: "Member 
of ABSDF," "Members of CNA," "Young Recruit for CNF," "Member of KNLA." 
What these cryptic initialisms stand for is anybody's guess, although 
it's clear from the legend on the skinny young man's shirt in the first 
picture that ABSDF is some kind of army. Look closer, and you might even 
be able to make out the tag around his neck, which reads "All Burma 
Students' Democratic Front." 

Instead of a gun or knife (there are enough of them elsewhere in the 
show), this young soldier -- tough-looking, but wary and vulnerable in 
sleeveless T-shirt and sarong -- carries what looks to be a durian, a 
foul-smelling fruit with a spiny, green rind. No explanation is offered 
as to who he is. 

Chao has always known how to get someone's attention. Beginning several 
years ago, he made a name for himself with a black-and-white series of 7 
1/2-foot-tall portraits of (mostly) female nudes, each one divided into 
three separate segments focusing on the face, torso and crotch. A 
half-dozen of these modern-day caryatids are also featured in the Art 
Gallery's back room, where they are joined by a naked, catheterized man 
with a large surgical scar running up the center of his shaved belly. 
Just try looking away. 

The Burmese photos are different, though. For one thing, the pictures 
are smaller and in color. For another, the subjects are clothed. More 
importantly, though, there's a poker-faced detachment to the portfolio, 
a forced distance between the subjects and the artist that positions the 
work perilously close to anthropological field research. Meant to raise 
awareness about the ongoing civil war and military dictatorship in the 
country where Chao was born in 1966 (now officially called Myanmar), the 
exhibition and its accompanying catalogue accomplish this by asking an 
implicit question -- What went wrong? -- without providing an explicit 
answer. The tease is deliberate. 

Who are these people? you will ask. Maybe even: Why should I care? The 
only clues are provided by a single panel of wall text, encapsulating 
some 50 troubled years of Burmese history since gaining independence 
from Britain in the late 1940s and a paragraph or two explaining the 
circumstances of Chao's latest project. Denied a visa to visit the 
country he left at the age of 12, Chao traveled to encampments along the 
Burmese borders with Thailand and India in 1996, 1997 and 1998, where he 
photographed political exiles, refugee families and so-called "student" 
rebels fighting the ominously named SLORC, or State Law and Order 
Restoration Council. Ironically, these freedom fighters (most of whom 
are now in their 30s) haven't been in school in years. 

In some cases, names are provided ("Aung Naing Oo," "Kyaw Htoo and 
Robey"); in others, merely an affiliation with an enigmatic, and 
untranslated, acronym. One assumes these lean and hungry-looking men in 
fatigues and camouflage are the good guys, but Chao doesn't help us out 
by telling us. 

Documentary this is not. Nor is it ethnography. 

Portraiture is a different animal entirely, and Chao is a skilled 
practitioner of the art. As in his earlier nude series, all these faces 
stare at you, blank, serene and unsmiling. But look at the hands. There 
you'll find the soul and subtext that's missing from the eyes. Whether 
holding a baby, a weapon, a key chain or a crutch, whether clasped 
nervously in front, shoved into pockets or hanging slack by the side, 
the hands in Chao's portraits suggest a little something about what's 
going on inside the subjects' heads. 

Yet unlike the artist's black-and-white portraits, in which hands call 
attention to the inner person by what body parts they choose (or refuse) 
to cover, Chao's Burmese hands seem to itch. Like the dispossessed and 
disenfranchised subjects they belong to, the hands here feel restless 
and ill at ease, even when they're limp. 

Jeffrey Hoone writes in the catalogue's preface: 

"In many of his portraits the subjects hold simple objects: a sickle, a 
saw, a large piece of fruit, a live chicken. These simple objects 
provide an elegant solution to the problem of portraiture where 
individuals are often unsure of what to do with their hands, and in that 
uncertainty convey stiff and formal poses. But the objects are also 
disarming because they signal the activities of a simple agrarian life, 
not one of armed resistance. This contradiction plays heavily into the 
power that each image conveys, because each person that Chao photographs 
displays a remarkable range of honesty and emotion that seems to long 
for a return to the simple pleasures of family, work and relaxation -- 
not another night of firing rockets or setting land mines." 

Tell that to Sein Win Tin, whose hands (and most of one arm) have been 
blown clean off. There, and only there, in a double portrait with 
another obviously injured man named Nay Htoo, Chao makes his stark point 
without equivocation. 

-- Michael O'Sullivan 

BURMA: SOMETHING WENT WRONG -- Through March 3 at the Art Gallery, 1202 
Art-Sociology Building, University of Maryland, College Park (Metro: 
College Park-UMD; free shuttle service available). 301/405-2763. Web 
site: www.inform.umd.edu/artgal. Open Mondays through Fridays 11 to 4 
(Thursdays until 8); Saturdays 11 to 5. Free. 




_______________ ECONOMY AND BUSINESS _______________
 


Chemical Business Newsbase: Import restraints on Burma textiles

FEDERAL REGISTER-- Announcement of import restraint limits for certain 
cotton, wool, man- made fibre, silk blend and other vegetable fibre 
textile products produced or manufactured in Burma (Myanmar) 


Jan. 31, 2001
The Royal Society of Chemistry   



On 24 Jan 2001 the Committee for the Implementation of Textile 
Agreements issued a directive to the Commissioner of Customs 
establishing import restraint limits for certain cotton, wool, man-made 
fibre, silk blend and other vegetable fibre textile products produced or 
manufactured in Burma (Myanmar) and exported during the twelve-month 
period beginning on 1 Jan 2001 and extending through 31 Dec 2001, in 
excess of the established levels of restraint. 

Federal Register Online via GPO Access www.access.gpo.gov 






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