BurmaNet News: February 28, 2001

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______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
        An on-line newspaper covering Burma 
         February 28, 2001   Issue # 1746
______________ www.burmanet.org _______________

INSIDE BURMA _______
*AP:Suu Kyi firm to holding peaceful talks with junta 
*US State Dept. Human Rights Report on Burma [Excerpt]: Citizens did not 
have the right to change their government
*Salon: Profile--Aung San Suu Kyi
*Xinhua: Myanmar Promulgates Attorney General Law 2001
*DVB: KNU Groups warn Rangoon of retaliation if offensive continues 
*Mizzima: Nagas from Burma continue to flee

REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL _______
*AP: Thailand repatriates 4,000 migrant workers to Myanmar
*Reuters: U.N.'s Robinson concerned about Myanmar refugees
*Bangkok Post: Drugs murder link
*Bangkok Post: Cash stashed in Bangkok highlights Burmese problem

ECONOMY/BUSINESS _______
*Xinhua: Myanmar, Japan Sign MOU on Purchase of Buckwheat Seeds

OPINION/EDITORIALS_______
*Summary of the Thai Press: Burma editorials



__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________


AP:Suu Kyi firm to holding peaceful talks with junta 

YANGON, Myanmar: Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in a meeting 
with a US official, has reaffirmed her commitment to holding a peaceful 
dialogue with the ruling military regime, a US diplomat said Tuesday.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Ralph Boyce met with Suu Kyi at her 
Yangon residence on Monday. He is the first American official allowed to 
see her during five months of house detention that began after she tried 
to travel outside the capital for political work.

Suu Kyi, who appeared to be in good health, told Boyce that she is 
committed to peaceful dialogue and hopes it will lead to national 
reconciliation, the diplomat said on customary condition of anonymity.

Boyce also held separate meetings with Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, the 
third-ranking general in the regime, Foreign Minister Win Aung and some 
central executive committee members of Suu Kyi's National League for 
Democracy party, the diplomat said.

Suu Kyi and the regime began secret talks in October, their first direct 
dialogue in more than six years. The NLD won general elections in 1990 
but the military has refused to honor the result.

Boyce's one-day visit, during a 10-country swing through Asia, was aimed 
at finding out how the dialogue between Suu Kyi and the junta is 
progressing and to express the US government's support for the dialogue, 
the diplomat said.

"The process of dialogue in Burma is of high interest not just to the 
new administration in Washington but around the world," Boyce told 
reporters in Bangkok Tuesday. "It's a welcome development." He refused 
to say anything more.

State-run newspapers reported the meeting between Boyce and Khin Nyunt, 
but gave no details.

Boyce is the first senior US official to visit Myanmar, also known as 
Burma, since the new Bush administration took office. He said it was 
premature to say whether the dialogue could lead to a softening in the 
US stance on Myanmar.

The United States, one of the sternest international critics of the 
regime, has imposed sanctions on Myanmar including a ban on new 
investment because of the military's human rights record and suppression 
of democracy.

Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her political work, 
has been held incommunicado at her house since September 22 after she 
twice defied authorities by attempting to hold meetings with members of 
the NLD in the provinces.

The only other diplomats to have met her since then were visiting United 
Nations special envoy Razali Ismail, a mission from the European Union 
and Australian human rights commissioner Chris Sidoti.

Razali revealed after his latest visit in January that Suu Kyi had met 
with Khin Nyunt at least twice since October. However, no details of the 
talks are known.

Since the NLD election victory in 1990, thousands of its members have 
been imprisoned or faced persecution from the military, which has ruled 
Myanmar for nearly four decades. (AP)




___________________________________________________




US State Dept. Human Rights Report on Burma [Excerpt]: Citizens did not 
have the right to change their government

[As excerpted by Asia Times]

What the report says Burma, Citizens did not have the right to change 
their government. (Excerpts from the US State Department's "Country 
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000") 

Asia Times, February 28, 2001

The Government's extremely poor human rights record and longstanding 
severe repression of its citizens continued during the year. Citizens 
continued to live subject at any time and without appeal to the 
arbitrary and sometimes brutal dictates of the military regime. Citizens 
did not have the right to change their government. There continued to be 
credible reports, particularly in ethnic minority areas, that security 
forces committed serious human rights abuses, including extrajudicial 
killings and rape. 

Disappearances continued, and members of the security forces tortured, 
beat, and otherwise abused prisoners and detainees. Prison conditions 
remained harsh and life threatening, but have improved slightly in some 
prisons after the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was 
allowed access to prisons in May 1999. Arbitrary arrest and detention 
for expression of dissenting political views continued to be a common 
practice. The Government held Aung San Suu Kyi incommu! nicado twice in 
September, following attempts to travel beyond the bounds of Rangoon 
City and to Mandalay. 

At year's end, the Government continued to hold Aung San Suu Kyi in 
detention; it also held 48 members-elect of parliament and more than 
1,000 NLD supporters under detention, all as part of a government effort 
to prevent the parliament elected in 1990 from convening. Since 1962 
thousands of persons have been arrested, detained, or imprisoned for 
political reasons; more than 1,800 political prisoners remained 
imprisoned at year's end. 

The judiciary is not independent, and there is no effective rule of law. 
During the year, the Government intensified its campaign to eliminate 
independent lawyers by arbitrarily arresting and sentencing them on 
fabricated charges. The Government continued to infringe on citizens' 
privacy rights, and security forces continued to monitor citizens' 
movements and communications systematically, to search homes without 
warrants, and to relocate per! sons forcibly without just compensation 
or due process. During the year, those persons suspected of or charged 
with prodemocratic political activity were subjected to regular 
surveillance and harassment. Security forces continued to use excessive 
force to violate international humanitarian law in internal conflicts 
against ethnic insurgencies. The regime forcibly relocated large ethnic 
minority populations in order to deprive armed ethnic groups of civilian 
bases of support.  

The SPDC continued to restrict severely freedom of speech, press, 
assembly, and association. It has pressured many thousands of members to 
resign from the NLD and closed party offices nationwide. Since 1990 the 
junta frequently prevented the NLD and other prodemocracy parties from 
conducting normal political activities. The junta recognizes the NLD as 
a legal entity; however, it refuses to accept the legal political status 
of key NLD party leaders, particularly the party's general secretary and 
199! 1 Nobel laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, and restricts her activities 
severely through security measures and threats. The Government imposed 
some restrictions on certain religious minorities. The junta continued 
to restrict freedom of movement and, in particular, foreign travel by 
female citizens; the junta also continued to restrict Aung San Suu Kyi's 
freedom to leave her residence or to receive visitors. 

In September Aung San Suu Kyi, actions that placed under house arrest 
when she attempted to visit an NLD party office on the outskirts of 
Rangoon, and again when she attempted to travel by train to Mandalay.  

During the year, the SPDC intensified its systematic use of coercion and 
intimidation to deny citizens the right to change their government. In 
September 1998, the NLD leadership organized a 10-member Committee 
Representing the People's Parliament (CRPP) to act on behalf of the 
parliament. The junta responded by forcing several elected 
representatives to resign from t! he parliament, by detaining dozens of 
other elected representatives, and by pressuring constituents to sign 
statements of no confidence. One member of the CRPP also was jailed, and 
the other members of the committee were placed in detention during the 
latter part of the year. However, late in the year, with encouragement 
from U.N. Special Representative Ismail Razali, the Government opened 
contacts with Aung San Suu Kyi, which appeared to produce some 
relaxation in the restrictions on the NLD. Six of the NLD's 9 central 
committee members and 80 NLD supporters were released from detention, 
and press attacks on the NLD and Aung San Suu Kyi ceased. 

In addition the NLD was able to resume some normal activities of a 
political party.  
The junta restricted freedom of religion; it maintained its 
institutionalized control over Buddhist clergy and restricted efforts by 
some Buddhist clergy to promote human rights and political freedom. The 
Government also coercively promoted Buddhism over other religions in 
some ethnic minority areas and imposed restrictions on certain religious 
minorities.  
The Government did not allow domestic human rights organizations to 
exist and remained generally hostile to outside scrutiny of its human 
rights record. 

Violence and societal discrimination against women remained problems, as 
did discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities. The 
Government continued to restrict worker rights, ban unions, and use 
forced labor for public works and for the support of military garrisons. 
Forced labor, including forced child labor, remains a serious problem. 
The forced use of citizens as porters by the army--with attendant 
mistreatment, illness, and sometimes death--remained a common practice. 
In November the International Labor Organization (ILO) Governing Body 
judged that the Government had not taken effective action to deal with 
the "widespread and systematic" use of forced labor in the country and, 
for the first ti! me in its history, called on all ILO members to apply 
sanctions to Burma. Child labor also is a problem and varies in severity 
depending on the country's region. Trafficking in persons, particularly 
in women and girls to Thailand and China, mostly for the purposes of 
prostitution, remained widespread.  


___________________________________________________




Salon: Profile--Aung San Suu Kyi


By David Rubien

Aung San Suu Kyi
Even when she's under house arrest, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning 
resistance leader is a symbol of hope in the struggle for democracy in 
Burma.

Feb. 27, 2001 | A question that has to haunt anyone pondering the 
predicament of Burma's democratic resistance leader Aung San Suu Kyi is: 
Why hasn't she been killed? She is, after all, a major thorn in the 
sides of the military dictators who have been driving the Southeast 
Asian nation to ruin for the past 38 years. Certainly she would not be 
the first popular opposition leader to be murdered by despots. 

The simple answer is they missed their chance. Suu Kyi (pronounced soo 
chee), 55, was first confined to house arrest in 1989, months before her 
National League of Democracy won Burma's last election in a landslide. 
The dictators ignored the election results and proceeded to arrest all 
the NLD leaders they hadn't already jailed previously, and continued the 
kind of repression that had been the junta's modus operandi since 1962. 
But in 1991 something happened that the dictators couldn't have 
anticipated. Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize. The eyes of the world 
suddenly became focused on this slight, Buddhist woman locked in her 
home, forbidden from picking up her award. But her captors came under 
international gaze as well, and killing Suu Kyi now would be too 
reckless a move even for a junta that makes murder and slavery 
cornerstones of its policy. 


 
The Burmese dictatorship is known within and outside the country as 
SLORC, for State Law and Order Restoration Council, the banner under 
which the autocrats ran in the 1990 elections they conveniently 
dismissed. Three years ago they changed their name to the even more 
Orwellian State Peace and Development Council, but SLORC seems to fit 
them better. In the manner of many dictatorships, SLORC is fond of 
renaming. In 1988 SLORC decided to call Burma "Myanmar," but most of the 
world, recognizing the illegitimacy of the government, ignores the name 
change, much in the way "Kampuchea" is now nothing more than a synonym 
for the evil visited on Cambodia by Pol Pot and his minions. 

Under SLORC's reign, Burma has vied with a few other countries, such as 
North Korea, Afghanistan and Algeria, for the honor of serving as poster 
child for a nation destroyed by tyrants. By any objective measure Burma 
-- as physically beautiful and as rich in natural resources as any 
Southeast Asian country -- is in dire straits. It was ranked second to 
last, after Sierra Leone, on healthcare spending per capita, according 
to the World Health Organization. The result is that diseases (including 
AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and anthrax) are rampant. AIDS is considered 
more epidemic in Burma than in Thailand, on a par with the scourge in 
southern Africa. Contributing to the problem is a robust drug trade: 
Burma alternates with Afghanistan as the largest heroin producer in the 
world, and burgeoning drug addiction within Burma is helping to spread 
AIDS. 

The Burmese armed forces are thought to be about 500,000 strong and are 
ruthless in enforcing SLORC's will. Forced relocation is common, with 
entire communities uprooted and moved to slums or barren lands where 
they are barely able to survive. SLORC uses slave labor for construction 
projects, including children, and Amnesty International reports that 
thousands of Burmese are kidnapped each year and made to carry supplies 
for the army through dense, mountainous jungle, where ethnic resistance 
groups reside. 

The Burmese economy is in shambles. People earn less than a dollar a 
day, and many are illiterate because SLORC has closed down hundreds of 
schools. The United Nations reports that Burma spends 28 cents a year 
per student on public schools. Four out of 10 children are reported to 
be malnourished, and the average life expectancy for Burmese is less 
than 50 years. SLORC is paranoid about people congregating, and 
gatherings of more than four people are forbidden. Unions, needless to 
say, are prohibited, and SLORC owns all the media. It's illegal to 
possess a home computer. Anyone who violates SLORC's capricious laws is 
subject to lengthy prison sentences and torture, which, according to 
Amnesty International, is a specialty of the junta. 

In 1995, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., visited Burma while on a 
fact-finding mission in Southeast Asia. Newsweek reported that Lt. Gen. 
Khin Nyunt of SLORC welcomed McCain by screening for him a video of 
machete-wielding thugs beheading Burmese villagers. McCain later said of 
the junta members, "These are very bad people." 

Yet despite the horror, hope lives on in Burma, and much of it rides on 
Aung San Suu Kyi. It's a lot for one person to bear, but Suu Kyi seems 
born to the task -- literally and constitutionally. Not only is she the 
daughter of Aung San -- considered the father of Burmese democracy and 
an assassinated martyr to the cause of freedom -- and as such revered 
almost automatically, but her deep Buddhist training has made her 
uniquely fit to weather a life of confinement and isolation. She 
meditates daily, a discipline that provides insight into life beyond the 
external reality most of us perceive, and she hews strictly to Buddhist 
proscriptions against harming, hate, fear and ego. 

In a 1995 interview with Alan Clements, an American author who lived as 
a Buddhist monk in Burma for several years and who wrote the 1992 book 
"Burma: The Next Killing Fields?" Suu Kyi alluded to another interviewer 
who kept asking if she really was not frightened. "Why should I have 
been frightened?" she said. "I'm not sure a Buddhist would have asked 
this question. Buddhists in general would have understood that isolation 
is not something to be frightened of." Then she added, "You cannot 
really be frightened of people you do not hate. Hate and fear go hand in 
hand." 


Buddhism aside, Suu Kyi's commitment to Burma's freedom is bedrock, and 
this also anchors her. At every opportunity presented she reiterates the 
demand that SLORC must yield to the election results of 1990 and make 
the country democratic. Her steadfastness has led to some almost comical 
situations. In 1998, during one of the rare periods SLORC released her 
from house arrest -- but still prohibited her from traveling outside the 
capital -- she attempted to leave town to meet with another NLD 
official. When soldiers blocked her way she refused to turn back and 
ended up camping out in her car for six days before she was forcibly 
returned home. She tried it again, she was taken home again and right 
away she vowed to make another attempt, asserting that she was not 
"legally restricted in any way." Finally SLORC reimposed house arrest. 

Suu Kyi's father was born in 1915, when Burma was a colony of Britain. A 
devout Buddhist, Aung San became a leader in Burma's struggle for 
independence. During World War II, he believed that Japan would be the 
route to Burma's freedom, and he fought with the Japanese when they 
invaded the country. But when they proved to be even more despotic than 
the British, Aung San and his compatriots switched sides and fought with 
the British to expel the Japanese. At the end of the war, Britain and 
Burma worked together to set up a parliamentary structure so that the 
Burmese could take control of their country. Aung San's party swept the 
elections, but only months later, in 1947, he and several members of his 
government were shot dead by political rivals. Soon after that, Burma 
descended into a civil war among ethnic groups. 

 
Suu Kyi was 2 at the time of her father's death. Her mother, Khin Kyi, 
was a vital figure in the early years of Burma's independence, serving 
in several government capacities. In 1960 Khin Kyi was appointed 
ambassador to India, moving to New Delhi with her daughter and two sons. 
While Suu Kyi got a good British high school education, her mother made 
sure that her daughter did not stray from the Buddhist path. Suu Kyi was 
a voracious reader and had a particular fascination with Mahatma Gandhi. 
In 1964, Suu Kyi enrolled at Oxford, getting degrees in philosophy and 
economics in 1967. 

In the 1991 Nobel Prize Annual, Irwin Abrams sketched a bit of biography 
from Suu Kyi's time at Oxford. "The diminutive beauty from Burma was a 
striking figure. Her close friend of those days, Ann Pasternak Slater, 
remembers how her 'tight, trim lungi (the Burmese version of the sarong) 
and her upright carriage, her firm moral convictions and inherited 
social grace contrasted sharply' with the casual manners and ill-defined 
moral standards of the English students. 

"Slater recalls [Suu Kyi's] curiosity about Western ways. Despite 
Buddhist injunctions, she took one little sip of an alcoholic drink just 
to find out what it was like -- and didn't like it. And so that she 
could know the experience of other woman students, who returned from 
late dates after the gates were locked and had to climb over the garden 
wall of their dormitory to get in, she had a friend from India bring her 
back from a dinner date at midnight, so he could help her over the wall. 
Slater also remembers the characteristic determination with which Suu 
Kyi learned to bicycle in her lungi." 

After graduating from Oxford, Suu Kyi moved to New York, where she 
worked for the United Nations secretariat and volunteered as a social 
worker at a New York hospital. In 1972 she married Michael Aris, a 
scholar of Asian literature and history. While Aris studied in England, 
they had two sons, Alexander and Kim. Suu Kyi taught Burmese studies at 
Oxford while doing postgraduate research in her country's history. The 
family returned frequently to Burma to spend time with Khin Kyi, who was 
retired in her Rangoon home. 

Things were not going well in Burma. For years the democratic government 
had tried to maintain control during civil war, but a junta led by Gen. 
Ne Win took over in 1958, and consolidated power in 1962. He abolished 
the constitution, banned all political parties, nationalized many 
businesses, installed military personnel in government positions and 
announced he was leading Burma down the "socialist path." The downward 
spiral had begun. 

As economic and social conditions unraveled under the inept dictator's 
mismanagement, civil unrest began to erupt in the '80s. Students 
organized and held rallies demanding restoration of democracy and human 
rights. On Aug. 8, 1988, a massive general strike and demonstration were 
declared. Ne Win responded by calling out the troops. Over the next 
several days, soldiers fired on crowds, killing between 1,000 and 10,000 
civilians. Still, the demonstrations continued, and the government 
actually seemed to back down. But then a new set of generals, calling 
themselves SLORC, asserted that they were in control, and ratcheted up 
the repression further. 

Coincident with all this, Suu Kyi was in Rangoon, caring for her mother 
(who had suffered a stroke) and watching the tumult from the sidelines. 
After the massacres, she decided to take action. Speaking to a huge 
crowd under a poster of her father, she said, "I could not, as my 
father's daughter, remain indifferent to all that was going on." With 
her simple and direct demands for civil rights and her insistence on 
nonviolent resistance, she won over thousands of Burmese and became the 
country's avatar of democracy. 

Meanwhile, SLORC surprised everyone by announcing that a "free and fair" 
election would be held in 1989, open to all parties. More than 200 
parties registered to run, but the NLD, thanks to Suu Kyi's 
participation, drew the most support. The organization was also one of 
the few that had the courage to defy an SLORC ban on public assembly, an 
edict that effectively precluded anyone from campaigning. Not only that, 
SLORC insisted on vetting all public documents issued by political 
parties. Suu Kyi, the NLD's nominal leader, simply refused to accede to 
any of SLORC's demands. She continued to campaign around the country, 
facing phalanxes of armed guards everywhere she spoke


In one famous incident, Suu Kyi and fellow NLD members were on the 
campaign trail when they found themselves staring into the rifle barrels 
of a squadron of soldiers. An SLORC officer seemed prepared to give the 
order to fire, when Suu Kyi motioned her colleagues away and walked 
straight toward the officer, staring him down. He ordered the troops to 
withdraw. "It seemed so much simpler to provide them with a single 
target than to bring everyone else in," she said afterward. 

SLORC finally ordered Suu Kyi into house arrest, and rounded up most of 
the other NLD leaders, sentencing several to years in prison. Many were 
tortured. But then came the real shocker for SLORC: In the election held 
in May 1990 the NLD won 392 seats in the National Assembly, compared 
with 10 for SLORC. Far from transferring power, SLORC responded with 
wave after wave of terror. Still, Suu Kyi would not be silenced. At 
first SLORC permitted her visits from her husband and sons, and she was 
able to get her writings out to the world through them. But in the fall 
of '90 the junta forbade all visits, not even letting her get mail. 
SLORC tried to play the family card, encouraging her to visit Aris and 
the boys in England, but she refused, knowing she'd be barred from Burma 
for good. 


In 1995 SLORC relaxed restrictions on her, and she was able to receive 
visitors, including several interviewers. She described her daily 
routine to a reporter for Asia TV: "I get up at 4:30 in the morning. I 
meditate for an hour. Then I listen to the BBC world service, then I 
listen to the VOA [Voice of America] news in Burmese, and then the BBC 
news in Burmese. If I could hear it, I would listen to the Democratic 
Voice of Burma, but that is not always very clear. Then of course I take 
a bath, have breakfast and then the rest of the day I divide into 
periods for reading, for walking around the house and for playing a bit 
of music." 

Were it not for the radio, she said, she would not have known she won 
the Nobel Prize. 

In her interview with Clements, Suu Kyi elaborated on her attitude 
toward her captors in answer to his question, "You have been at the 
physical mercy of the authorities ever since you entered your people's 
struggle for democracy. But has the SLORC ever captured you inside 
emotionally or mentally?" 

No, and I think this is because I have never learned to hate them. If I 
had, I would have really been at their mercy. Have you read a book 
called "Middlemarch" by George Eliot? There was a character called Dr. 
Lydgate, whose marriage turned out to be a disappointment. I remember a 
remark about him, something to the effect that what he was afraid of was 
that he might no longer be able to love his wife who had been a 
disappointment to him. When I first read this remark, I found it rather 
puzzling. It shows that I was very immature at that time. My attitude 
was -- shouldn't he have been more afraid that she might have stopped 
loving him? But now I understand why he felt like that. If he had 
stopped loving his wife, he would have been entirely defeated. His whole 
life would have been a disappointment. But what she did and how she felt 
was something quite different. I've always felt that, if I had really 
started hating my captors, hating the SLORC and the army, I would have 
defeated myself.

However, in a Vanity Fair article from 1995 she detailed her 
tribulations: "'Sometimes I didn't even have enough money to eat,' she 
went on. 'I became so weak from malnourishment that my hair fell out, 
and I couldn't get out of bed. I was afraid that I had damaged my heart. 
Every time I moved, my heart went thump-thump-thump, and it was hard to 
breathe. I fell to nearly 90 pounds from my normal 106. I thought to 
myself that I'd die of heart failure, not starvation at all. Then my 
eyes started to go bad. I developed spondylitis, which is a degeneration 
of the spinal column.' She paused for a moment, then pointed with a 
finger to her head and said, 'But they never got me up here.'" 

She didn't lose her sense of humor, either. When Clements asked her if 
her phone was tapped, she said, "Oh, yes, probably. If it is not I would 
have to accuse them of inefficiency. I would have to complain to Lt. 
Gen. Khin Nyunt [SLORC's military intelligence chief] and say, 'Your 
people are really not doing their job properly.'" 

SLORC granted Suu Kyi some freedom of movement in 1995, but that didn't 
extend to meeting with NLD colleagues. Worse, SLORC wouldn't let her 
family into the country for visits, even when her husband was diagnosed 
with prostate cancer in 1998. He was denied a visa to visit Suu Kyi a 
final time in 1999 and died in London. The generals hoped she would 
attend the funeral, but she knew the realities. She said simply, "I feel 
so fortunate to have had such a wonderful husband who has always given 
me the understanding I needed; nothing can take that away from me." 

And nothing, it seems, can take Suu Kyi away from the SLORC generals. 
Restrict her movement as they will, she goes on, making speeches, 
handing out food to the poor, issuing papers and making it clear that 
democratic aspirations in Burma live on. She will not stand down. And 
here's something about the psychology of the totalitarian mind -- the 
dictators must understand that Suu Kyi is good for them as well, because 
as long as they let her live, the international community can say, 
"Look, the government's not so bad; they keep that woman around." She's 
SLORC's trump card. 

So now there is communication. For the past four months SLORC agents 
have been meeting with Suu Kyi regularly while reportedly releasing NLD 
members from prison. The content of their meetings has not been 
reported, and whether they have any real significance is impossible to 
know right now, but it's hard to imagine SLORC ceding any real power. 
Yet we can hope. If Vaclav Havel and Nelson Mandela could emerge from 
lengthy prison sentences to lead their countries in freedom, perhaps Suu 
Kyi will get a turn. 

About the writer
David Rubien is a writer in San Francisco. 




___________________________________________________



Xinhua: Myanmar Promulgates Attorney General Law 2001

YANGON, February 28 (Xinhua) -- The Myanmar State Peace and Development 
Council (SPDC) has promulgated the Attorney General Law 2001, repealing 
the old law enacted in 1988 when it came to power, official newspaper 
The New Light of Myanmar reported Wednesday. Signed by SPDC Chairman 
Senior-General Than Shwe and enacted on Tuesday, the Myanmar attorney 
general law contains seven chapters and 11 provisions. The seven 
chapters include appointment of the attorney general and the deputy 
attorney general, duties and powers of the attorney general, formation 
of the attorney general's office and the law offices in different 
levels, and functions and duties of the law officers. 

With respect to the duties of the attorney general, the law states that 
the attorney general is to tender legal advice whenever needed by the 
government, to appear in criminal cases on behalf of the state and to 
appear on behalf of the government in civil cases in which the 
government is a party as the plaintiff or defendant. The law also states 
that the attorney general is to scrutinize, draft and translate laws, 
and tender legal advice to the relevant government departments as to 
whether or not the state should be a party to international conventions 
and regional agreements as well as on matters related to bilateral or 
multi-lateral treaties, memorandums of understanding, local and foreign 
investment instruments and others.

___________________________________________________



DVB: KNU Groups warn Rangoon of retaliation if offensive continues 

Text of report by Burmese opposition radio on 24 February 

A statement has been issued today on the situation at the Thai-Burma 
border and the views of the national races. The statement was issued by 
three ethnic armed groups - the Shan State Army -  southern region, SSA; 
the Karenni National Progressive Party, KNPP; and the Karen National 
Union, KNU. The statement noted that the SPDC [State Peace and 
Development Council] forces have mounted offensives against the ethnic 
peoples since last year and they have also committed human rights abuses 
against the local people, such as arbitrary killings, rape, torture and 
robbery. This year also they are preparing to launch offensives against 
the Karen, the Karenni and the Shan armed groups, which will further 
exacerbate the problems. The statement condemned the SPDC's planned 
offensive with the use of force. If such ruthless offensives are 
continued, the statement added that they will be severely retaliated. 
Regarding these issues, DVB [Democratic Voice of Burma] contacted KNU 
Spokesman Phado Mahn Shar and interviewed him. The interview was 
conducted by Ko Moe Aye. The first question he asked was about the 
objective behind the issuance of the statement.

[Phado Mahn Shar] Recently, the SPDC forces launched an offensive 
against the SSA west of Tachilek. They also launched similar offensives 
and reinforced their troops in the Karenni and Karen States as well. We 
have prepared for the offensive. We are allies in the armed struggle. We 
met on 21 February and reviewed the situation. We issued the statement 
because we wanted to inform the local and international media how the 
SPDC forces treated the national races last year in the Shan State, the 
Karenni State and the Karen State, including the KNU's Tenasserim 
Division. 
[Moe Aye] Yes. In accord with the prevailing situation, what are the 
conditions of the SPDC offensives and clashes in the Karen State and 
adjacent regions?

[Phado Mahn Shar] There are frequent clashes in the SSA region. The 
situation is similar in the Karenni and the Karen States where clashes 
are always occurring. There are on average about three to four battles 
daily in the KNU region. They are also destroying and burning villages 
in line with their offensives.

[Moe Aye] What we saw in the statement was that you wanted to solve the 
current problems justly and peacefully. Is there any overture by the 
SPDC to hold talks with the national races or has the invitation not 
been extended?

[Phado Mahn Shar] So far there is nothing that we know of. They are 
still using the policy of collective ruling. That is what I want to say. 

[Moe Aye] The SPDC have hinted to the world that the SPDC and the 
National League for Democracy's Daw Aung San Suu Kyi have been engaging 
in talks. On the other hand they are practising the policy of total 
annihilation of the ethnic armed groups. What is your opinion of that?

[Phado Mahn Shar] We think it is a repetition. On the meeting with Daw 
Suu, we are not sure whether the talks have reached a reliable stage 
because the top leaders from the NLD are either under house arrest or 
they are in prison. As long as this situation persists, we believe that 
the talks have not reached a fair and just state. Moreover, they are 
also engaging in an offensive against the other national races. This is 
an unwarranted matter. If in their talks with Daw Suu they agree to hold 
a meaningful dialogue, as Daw Suu has always requested, then we will see 
signs of cooperation. In other words, if meaningful talks have begun, 
the matter of political prisoners, NLD leaders' freedom of movements and 
the NLD party must be considered. The offensive against the national 
races must also be either reduced or stopped entirely. If these things 
do not occur, then we are not in a position to believe in the talks 
between the SPDC and Daw Suu. 

[Moe Aye] The final part of the statement noted if the SPDC continued to 
oppress the people and continued its policy of total annihilation, it 
urged the cease-fire groups to participate in the armed struggle against 
the SPDC. Can you explain the condition of the cease-fire groups? 

[Phado Mahn Shar] The cease-fire groups signed the agreements in the 
hope that one day the political problems will be solved politically. In 
practice, there are only cease-fire agreements and no political problems 
are being solved. This implies technically that the ethnic groups and 
the SPDC remain enemies. On the other hand, they have urged the 
cease-fire groups to go into business. Thus now the revolutionaries have 
become businessmen and have drifted away from the public. Gradually, 
there will be an economic crisis. I believe these are unwarranted 
conditions. That is why we have urged them to join hands with us in our 
political struggle. 

Source: Democratic Voice of Burma, Oslo, in Burmese 1245 gmt 24 Feb 01 



___________________________________________________



Mizzima: Nagas from Burma continue to flee

Imphal, February 25, 2001 
Mizzima News Group (www.mizzima.com) 

The use of forced labour and military campaigns of the ruling junta have 
forced more than four thousand Christian Nagas from Burma to leave their 
native places and take shelter in India. Majority of them are currently 
in Manipur and Nagaland, the two northeastern states of India bordering 
with Burma.  

Speaking to Mizzima News Group, Mr L. Longsa, General Secretary of the 
Naga National League for Democracy (NNLD), which is now based in 
Indo-Burma border said that Nagas from Burma continue to leave their 
villages in the Naga Hill due to forced labor and military campaigns 
launched by the Burmese army. Sixty mile-long Htamanthi-Layshi is one of 
the motor roads where the Burmese army continues to use forced labor in 
the Naga Hill.  

In Nagaland of India, Mon District and Tunsang District are the two 
places where not less than three thousand Nagas from Burma are taking 
shelter. Most of them fled to India after their villages were burnt down 
by the Burmese army in its attacks on NSCN (Khaplang) camps in Burma 
last year. The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang) is one 
of the separatist Naga armed groups fighting India.  

Mr. Longsa explained that these refugees came from various parts of the 
Naga Hill such as Hkanti, Layshi, Nanyun, Lahel and Homelinn towns.  

Although there is no influx of Naga refugees to India lately, Nagas from 
Burma continue to cross the Indian border in small number almost 
everyday to escape from the abuses of the Burmese army, Mr. Longsa said. 
 

The Naga refugees, living in remote and difficult terrain in India, 
survive either by working in hill farms or with whatever support they 
received from local Church organizations. There is no support so far 
from the international humanitarian organizations.  

According to Mr. Longsa, although there is no recent official record, 
the Naga population in Burma is estimated to be five hundred thousands.  
  



___________________ REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL___________________
				


AP: Thailand repatriates 4,000 migrant workers to Myanmar 

Feb. 28, 2001

MAE SOT, Thailand (AP)  More than 4,000 migrant workers were repatriated 
to Myanmar on Tuesday and Wednesday, Thai immigration officials said. 
 The workers, all illegal immigrants, were rounded up over the past week 
from several Thai provinces bordering Myanmar, immigration police Col. 
Rutchata Sibsai-on said Wednesday. 

 Thailand in late 1999 began implementing a long-term policy to expel 
Myanmar migrants, who form the vast majority of an estimated one million 
illegal immigrants from poorer, neighboring countries. There are 
periodic crackdowns and roundups. 
 Previously, the presence of foreign workers was tolerated because they 
provided low-wage labor, but after the economy took a sharp downturn in 
1997, they were increasingly regarded as a burden. 

 According to Col. Rutchata, the government has allocated a budget of 80 
million baht (dlrs 1.9 million) to detain and repatriate 300,000 migrant 
workers this year. 

 The crackdown has a double edge. Owners of Thai factories and 
enterprises needing heavy manual labor, such as fishing, complain that 
even with a tightened job market, they still cannot get enough native 
Thais to work for them. 

 And because the Myanmar immigrant population is so large in several 
border provinces, some small business owners say expelling Myanmar 
migrants will cause them to lose a substantial number of customers.


___________________________________________________



Reuters: U.N.'s Robinson concerned about Myanmar refugees


BANGKOK, Feb 28 (Reuters) - United Nations High Commissioner for Human 
Rights Mary Robinson said on Wednesday she was concerned about the 
living conditions of ethnic minority refugees from Myanmar in camps 
along the Thai border. 

 The issue flared up last year when the then U.N. High Commissioner for 
Refugees, Sadako Ogata, slammed conditions at a refugee camp in 
Thailand, saying it was very overcrowded and sanitation was poor. 

 Robinson told reporters after meeting new Thai Prime Minister Thaksin 
Shinawatra that she raised her concerns with him. 

 ``I did discuss the refugees on the border and I raised my concerns and 
I refered to the concern that Mrs Sadako Ogata expressed when she was 
here,'' Robinson told a news conference. 

 ``The prime minister acknowledged that this was a problem. We didn't go 
into any other discussions on that issue.'' 

 There are 11 camps along the border housing some 140,000 refugees, most 
of them minority people who have fled from Myanmar army offensives 
against autonomy-seeking rebels. 

 Last October, Ogata visited a refugee camp at the Thai village of Ban 
Tham Hin on the border with Myanmar, around 150 km (95 miles) west of 
Bangkok. She said she was ``shocked'' to see such a crowded camp. 

 Ogata said she had asked Thailand that the UNHCR be given a wider role 
in running the camps. 
 But Thai officials have defended the camps, saying conditions there are 
no different from those in nearby Thai villages. 

 Robinson is in Thailand to attend a U.N. workshop on human rights in 
Asia and the Pacific, which will end Saturday. 

 She said she was assured by Thaksin that his newly formed government 
would put a priority on human rights 



___________________________________________________


Bangkok Post: Drugs murder link

BKK Post, 28 Feb, 2001

Suspected involvement in the drug trade or business conflicts in Burma 
might be behind the murder of Saengsanit Chaisri, an influential figure 
in Mae Sai district, police said. 
Saengsanit, better known as Kamnan Daeng, was gunned down by a sniper 
near his sand-dredging operation on Monday. 

Pol Lt-Gen Sombat Amornvivat, a deputy police chief, said Saengsanit was 
reportedly contracted to carry out construction projects for the United 
Wa State Army at Mong Yawn in Burma, including a road from Tachilek to 
Mong Yawn. 

Police thought he may have been involved in drugs but had no evidence to 
substantiate the suspicion. 

Suspected involvement in the drug trade or business conflicts in Burma 
might be behind the murder of Saengsanit Chaisri, an influential figure 
in Mae Sai district, police said. 
Saengsanit, better known as Kamnan Daeng, was gunned down by a sniper 
near his sand-dredging operation on Monday. 

Pol Lt-Gen Sombat Amornvivat, a deputy police chief, said Saengsanit was 
reportedly contracted to carry out construction projects for the United 
Wa State Army at Mong Yawn in Burma, including a road from Tachilek to 
Mong Yawn. 

Police thought he may have been involved in drugs but had no evidence to 
substantiate the suspicion. 

___________________________________________________



Bangkok Post: Cash stashed in Bangkok highlights Burmese problem

Wednesday, February 28, 2001

By David Swartzentruber 

Police raids on the home of a suspected United Wa State Army financier 
in the Bang Phlat district of Bangkok on Monday and Tuesday of this week 
yielded a total of 25.5 million baht ($607,000).  

That's a lot of baht and one wonders how many other "financiers" are 
stationed in Thailand to expedite the drug traffic flowing out of Burma. 


All of this highlights the difficulties that will be facing the new Thai 
government as it deals with the difficult Burmese border. However, 
Thailand may not be standing alone, as it appears that the Burmese drug 
problem now is impinging on India and China.  

The Bangkok Post on Monday quoted R. Sundarakingam, a drug consultant to 
the Interpol Secretariat, "Synthetic drugs are coming into India in a 
major way through Burma."  

Burma seems rather oblivious to outside criticism and the only internal 
force that seems to be a threat is the Shan State Army, which for years, 
along with other ethnic groups, has been fighting the central government 
in Rangoon. The recent offensive of the Burmese and its allies, the 
United Wa State Army, has apparently been critically timed.  

"The opium crop was picked and in their (Wa) hands just before the 
border fighting started," the Bangkok Post quoted a Western source. The 
source continued that a large amount of methamphetamine and similar 
pills had been shipped out of Burma to China, India and Thailand, so 
that drug sellers and consumers would not notice the short break in the 
supply chain due to the border fighting.  

In an extensive editorial on Tuesday, the Bangkok Post projected that 
Burma's offensive to drive the Shan people south to central Burma is to 
strengthen the control of the Wa Army to create an unencumbered drug 
highway.  

The Post said: "If Rangoon succeeds, Thailand and China will be 
border-to-border with an unfettered, unchallenged drug cartel."  

The conflict comes as a new government steps into power in Thailand and 
initial statements from them indicate a change in Thai foreign policy.  

Press services quoted new Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai on 
Tuesday that the new government's policy would be to follow the "Asian 
way" of non-interference in foreign policy, which may indicate a 
softening in attitude toward Burma from the previous Chuan Leekpai 
regime.  

The earlier foreign minister, Surin Pitsuwan, the press services said, " 
had often suggested that other Southeast Asian nations should be more 
vocal in promoting human rights and democracy in Myanmar, whose junta 
refuses to hand over power to an elected government."  

Meanwhile, back at the border a meeting of the Thai and Burmese military 
generals in the district resulted in a "smiles and handshake" photo 
opportunity but little else as the border remains closed and tensions 
run high.  

Future meetings between Thailand and Burma have been "kicked upstairs" 
to higher-ranking authorities. Thai Third Army chief Maj-Gen Tawat said 
Monday's meeting was "but an attempt (by Burma) to present a good 
image," according to the Post.  

All of these developments would seem to leave Thailand at greater risk. 
Already its civilians have been killed and its soldiers wounded at the 
northern border, let alone the ravages of the drugs that have been piped 
into the country from Burma.  

Burma's escalating drug empire may have overreached itself by bringing 
recent protests from India and China. Involvement of these large 
countries in the border conflict may help to bring a quick resolution to 
the problem and might even initiate other changes in Burma.  

In any event, playing the India-China card lies solely in the province 
of the new foreign minister in the new Thaksin Shinawatra government, Mr 
Surakiat. Throughout the election campaign little attention was given to 
foreign affairs. As of yesterday Mr. Surakiat's line was "to foster 
better co-operation with Burma to crack down on drugs."  

Whether this soft style of diplomacy will work with Burma is open to 
debate. However, the new government may find it necessary to employ 
other methods possibly seeking the aid of India and China, to deal with 
the Burmese drug and border problem.  



_______________ ECONOMY AND BUSINESS _______________
 

Xinhua: Myanmar, Japan Sign MOU on Purchase of Buckwheat Seeds

YANGON, February 28 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar and Japan have reached a 
memorandum of understanding (MOU) on purchase of 20 tons of buckwheat 
seeds from Japan for cultivation of buckwheat, an opium- substitute 
crop, in northern Shan state of Myanmar, official newspaper The New 
Light of Myanmar reported Wednesday. According to Tuesday's MOU, the 
Japanese government is to provide 95,000 U.S. dollars to the Myanmar 
association for the move. Myanmar and Japan agreed in 1992 to substitute 
opium poppy with buckwheat in Myanmar's poppy-growing northern Shan 
state and it was realized in 1997 with trial cultivation successfully 
conducted in the state's Tarshwetang area. Cultivation of 
opium-substitute crops plays a key role in tackling the food problem of 
these poppy-growing areas as well as in consolidating Myanmar's 
achievements made in drug control. According to official statistics, in 
2000, the cultivated areas of poppy-substitute crops in Kokang area of 
northern Shan state reached 17,520 hectares, of which buckwheat took up 
1,320 hectares, while sugarcane represented 16,200 hectares. The growing 
of the crops were greatly assisted by Japan and China respectively. 


_______________OPINION/EDITORIALS_________________


Summary of the Thai Press: Burma editorials

[Summary of the Thai Press is an Internet newsletter that provides 
summary translations of articles in the Thai language press.  The 
editorials mentioned below appeared on February 15, 2001.  Thai Rath is 
the largest circulation Thai newspapers.  Naeo Na and Siam Rath are also 
tabloid format general circulation newspapers.]

Naeo Na editorial, Thai Rath editorial, and Siam Rath editorial 
similarly criticize the Burmese junta for allowing its troops to invade 
the northern Thai border in the course of the formation of a new Thai 
Government.  The military attack is presumably aimed at the SSA to 
protect amphetamine producing and trafficking by Wa Daeng in Burma's own 
interest.  Naeo Na and Thai Rath take it as a test of the THAKSIN 
Government's strength and oppose the planned visit to Burma by PM 
THAKSIN and prospective Defense Minister Gen CHAWALIT YONGCHAIYUT on the 
grounds that it is untimely and inappropriate.






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