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BurmaNet News: April 23, 2001
- Subject: BurmaNet News: April 23, 2001
- From: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 02:51:00
______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
An on-line newspaper covering Burma
April 23, 2001 Issue # 1787
______________ www.burmanet.org _______________
INSIDE BURMA _______
*Reuters: Myanmar court adjourns Suu Kyi house case to May 2
*AP: Suu Kyi asked to submit defense in property dispute case
*BurmaNet: Burma world?s worst in deforestation, economic freedom
*Independent Mon News Agency: SPDC confiscates lands
*AFP: Myanmar denounces rebel fighters as "drug bandits" after deadly
raid
*Kyodo: Myanmar raps Thailand for turning blind eye on Karen rebels
REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL _______
*Reuters: Thai electricity runs Myanmar drug plants -general
*AP: Myanmar urges India to settle boundary dispute
*The Nation: Talks with Rangoon over seized cargo imminent
ECONOMY/BUSINESS _______
*Xinhua: Tourists Visiting Myanmar Decrease in 2000
*AFX - Asia: CapitaLand close to selling stake in three overseas
loss-making hotels: report (Yangon Equitorial)
OPINION/EDITORIALS_______
*Myanmar Information Committee (SPDC): Shan rebels attack security unit
using Thailand as spring-board
__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________
Reuters: Myanmar court adjourns Suu Kyi house case to May 2
YANGON, April 23 (Reuters) - A Myanmar court on Monday began hearing a
suit filed by the brother of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi for
administration of her Yangon home, and adjourned the case until May 2.
``I hereby adjourn this suit until May 2,'' judge Soe Thein told the
lawyers of Suu Kyi and her brother Aung San Oo. Suu Kyi's brother, who
lives in the United States and has U.S. citizenship, wants the right to
administer the house where Suu Kyi lives in Yangon. Real estate agents
say it is worth about $2 million.
The court dismissed a previous suit by Aung San Oo in January on the
grounds he had filed the case on the wrong form. The dismissal of the
suit in January was widely interpreted as a sign Myanmar's military
government was easing its crackdown on Suu Kyi and her National League
for Democracy (NLD).
But the government insists the suit is a family affair and says it will
not intervene.
Suu Kyi, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her efforts to bring
democracy to Myanmar, has been confined to the house in Yangon since
September and access to her has been tightly controlled.
The NLD won Myanmar's last democratic elections in 1990 by a landslide
but has never been allowed to govern. But tension between the
government and the NLD has eased in recent months. Secretive talks
between Suu Kyi and the military began at the end of last year and open
criticism by both sides has gradually ceased.
Suu Kyi and Aung San Oo are children of Myanmar independence hero
General Aung San, who was assassinated in 1947 when the country was on
the threshold of independence from Britain.
The Yangon house was owned by Suu Kyi's family. Suu Kyi has lived
there -- much of the time under house arrest -- since returning from
Europe in 1988 to nurse her ailing mother.
___________________________________________________
AP: Suu Kyi asked to submit defense in property dispute case
April 23 2001
[Abridged]
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) _ A court on Monday asked opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi to submit a written statement in a property dispute with her
elder brother over her inherited home.
On the opening day of the case in the Yangon Division Court, Judge Soe
Thein only accepted credentials of the lawyers from both sides. He then
set the next hearing on May 2 when Suu Kyi will have to present a
written statement detailing her defense against her brother, Aung San
Oo, who is an American citizen.
Aung San Oo is seeking to establish joint ownership of a 2-acre (0.8
hectare) property with a lakeside villa where Suu Kyi has lived for the
last 13 years since moving here from Britain to look after her ailing
mother.
Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her democracy
struggle, has been confined to that house since Sept. 22 after defying a
travel ban imposed by the Myanmar military regime.
She did not attend the court session Monday.
Under Myanmar's Buddhist law, an inherited property should be equally
divided among the siblings. But another law forbids foreigners from
purchasing or selling property.
___________________________________________________
BurmaNet: Burma world?s worst in deforestation, economic freedom
April 23, 2001
In a forest assessments just published by the United Nation and an
economic survey but a think tank that opposes Burma sanctions, Burma had
the world?s worst rate of deforestation and is the least economically
free of the 123 nations surveyed.
Every ten years, the UN?s Food and Agricultural Organization of the
United Nations assesses the state of the world?s forest and releases the
result in its Global Forest Resources Assessment. Burma was among the
seven nations with the highest rates of deforestion in the 1990. The
seven worst performers, in order, were Brazil, Indonesia, Sudan,
Zambia, Mexico, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Burma.
The FAO?s report can be downloaded at:
ftp://ftp.fao.org/unfao/bodies/cofo/cofo15/X9835e.pdf
In its annual Economic Freedom of the World Report, the Cato Institute
found Burma?s to be the least economically free country among the 123 it
surveyed. The Cato Institute is a right wing/libertarian think tank
that has previously issued reports critical of sanctions against the
regime. Burma?s dead last ranking in economic freedom was made possible
in part because North Korea was not included in the survey.
The Economic Freedom Report can be read online or downloaded at:
www.cato.org/economicfreedom.
___________________________________________________
Independent Mon News Agency: SPDC confiscates lands
April 23, 2001
[Abridged]
In Yee township, Mon State, Burma, the SPDC confiscated lands from local
Mon people worth about 81.6 million Kyats to construct a new battalion
base.
.
They confiscated lands are in the Kwarn Phair village, Kannoth Bee Ree
area, Yee township and between Adeen brook and Acarn brook. In these
land, fruits, betel nut, rubber and lemon trees were planted.
When the SPDC confiscated the land, it paid noting to the local owners.
Now, the people who had land confiscated have no work say local people.
Tthe SPDC?s Southeast Region commander Major General Thiha Thura Sit
Maung, who killed in recent plane crush, decided to construct a new
battalion base when he came to this area in January 15, 2001. Work
started on 8 of April 2001, when the Second commander Myo Hla came. The
new battalion construction is alongside the Yee -Kwarn Phair motor road
___________________________________________________
AFP: Myanmar denounces rebel fighters as "drug bandits" after deadly
raid
YANGON, April 23 (AFP) - Myanmar on Monday accused rebel fighters who
claimed to have uncovered a narcotics haul in a deadly weekend raid on a
border outpost of being "drug bandits."
The Shan State Army (SSA) rebels said they found 170,000
methamphetamine pills in a security post opposite the northern Thai city
of Chiang Mai where they killed seven Myanmar soldiers Sunday.
The Myanmar government did not directly deny reports of the soldiers'
deaths, or of the drugs haul, but launched a tirade against the SSA
which it accused of itself being involved in the narcotics trade.
"It is indeed regretful that ... the drug bandit group ... again
managed to use Thai territory as a springboard in attacking the security
unit assigned to monitor and prevent armed terrorist groups and drug
traffickings from crossing into Myanmar territory," it said in an
official information sheet.
SSA leader Colonel Yawd Serk was trying to "justify his criminal
activities by trying to falsely portray himself and his organisation as
Shan freedom fighters fighting to eliminate narcotic drugs production,"
it added.
Fighting between the SSA and the rival United Wa State Army (UWSA),
which is allied with the junta in Yangon, sparked a serious border clash
between the Thai and Myanmar national armies earlier this year.
After a tense stand-off which saw heavy military build-ups on either
side of the important Mae Sai-Tachilek border crossing, the two sides
finally held high-level talks that went some way to resolving the
tensions.
The UWSA -- also known as the Red Wa -- has been fingered by Thai and
US anti-narcotics officials as being the main player in the rampant
drugs trade centred on the Thai-Myanmar border.
While opinions differ over the level of the SSA's involvement, many
observers believe they also tap profits from the drugs trade to fund
their campaign for autonomy.
And they are widely seen as having become closely aligned with the Thai
military, fighting a proxy war against the Red Wa which has signed a
ceasefire agreement with the Myanmar regime.
The junta said Monday that it was "unfortunate" that the Red Wa had
become a "scapegoat" by bearing the brunt of the blame for the
production of heroin and methamphetamines within Myanmar's borders.
"The Red Wa has not only pledged to make the whole Wa region drug-free
but has actually implemented a number of crop-substitition and
income-generating programs," it said.
The Shan were "being falsely portrayed as drug-busters," it said.
And it also poured scorn on a claim by the rebel Karen National Union
that its fighters destroyed a drugs warehouse opposite Thailand's Mae
Sot province over the weekend.
SSA leader Yawd Serk, who has been battling Myanmar government forces
in the remote east of the country, vowed earlier this year to step up
the group's fight against advancing soldiers.
"From now on we will not just wait for Myanmar troops to fire on us. We
will move to fight them, too," he told reporters in February.
Yawd Serk said SSA troops had been attacked because they were
positioned along a border route used by Myanmar to transport drugs, and
that the rebel army was simply following its policy to suppress the
drugs trade
.
___________________________________________________
Kyodo: Myanmar raps Thailand for turning blind eye on Karen rebels
April 23
The Myanmar military on Monday criticized the Thai army for turning a
blind eye to ethnic Karen rebels who entered the Thailand's western
border town of Mae Sot and savaged Myanmar government troops in the
adjacent Myanmar border town Myawadi on Sunday, Thai army sources said
Monday.
Lt. Col. Soe Win, who co-chairs a regional border committee between the
two nations, sent a written protest to his Thai counterpart Col.
Chainarong Thanaroon, demanding Thailand assume responsibility for the
casualties and damage incurred in the incident, the sources said.
Myanmar claimed that four Myanmar civilians were killed by shrapnel and
five others were wounded, according to the Thai army sources.
Pado Mhan Shar, secretary general of the ethnic rebel Karen National
Union (KNU), admitted that his guerrillas were deployed to attack
Myawadi, but denied their intrusion on Thai soil in order to advance on
the Myanmar military base.
The secretary general said KNU has managed to establish operational
units around Myawadi and nearby Kaw Ka Reiak, and added that his
guerrillas killed 11 Myanmar government troops and injured 16 others in
an attack on the Kaw Ka Reiak township in mid-April.
The KNU leader also said Myanmar government troops have been cooperating
with the pro-Yangon Democratic Karen Buddhist Army and the ethnic Wa
minority to manufacture stimulant methamphetamines for export to
Thailand.
KNU, which first took up arms against the government in 1949, is the
largest ethnic group fighting for autonomy from Myanmar. Nearly one
hundred thousand of Myanmar's ethnic minority have fled to Thailand to
escape the fighting in their country.
___________________ REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL___________________
Reuters: Thai electricity runs Myanmar drug plants -general
By Nopporn Wong-Anan
BANGKOK, April 23 (Reuters) - A Thai general called on Monday for
Thailand to stop selling electricity to military-ruled Myanmar, saying
Myanmar authorities were supplying the power to drug factories.
Lieutenant-General Wattanachai Chaimuanwong told a radio station
electricity Thailand was supplying to the northeast Myanmar border town
of Tachilek was powering machines for making methamphetamines run by an
ethnic minority militia group.
``Of course, they (the Myanmar militia group) power their drug-making
machines with electricity, otherwise they can't make 700 to 800 million
tablets (a year). Therefore Thailand should stop selling electricity to
Myanmar,'' Wattanachai said.
Wattanachai, often a vocal critic of the Myanmar military, is commander
of Thailand's third army region which includes the northern border with
Myanmar.
His remarks, analysts said, could lead to a new round in a war of words
between the two neighbours, who share a 2,400 km (1,490 miles) border.
Clashes between Thai and Myanmar border forces erupted in February but
tension was eased somewhat by regional-level talks between the two sides
earlier this month.
Thailand, once notorious for being a major conduit and supplier of
heroin, now faces a growing problem with methamphetamines, produced,
officials say, by the United Wa State Army (UWSA), a Myanmar's ethnic
minority militia force based in Myanmar's Shan State.
Wattanachai said Thai electricity supplied to Tachilek was being passed
on to UWSA headquarters in Mong Yawn, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of
Tachilek.
FLOOD OF PILLS
Thai drug suppression agencies estimate the number of methamphetamine
stimulant tablets, known in its crystalised form in the West as ``ice,''
flowing into Thailand this year would leap to 800 million pills from 500
million in 2000.
The UWSA was formed by ethnic Wa fighters who mutinied against their
leaders in the anti-government Communist Party of Burma in 1989, set up
their own force and then signed a ceasefire pact with Yangon.
The UWSA, granted a degree of autonomy under the deal with Yangon, has
helped the Myanmar army in its fight against separatist Shan guerrillas.
But the Yangon government says it has no control over its ally.
Last week Thai forces in the northern border town of Mae Sai, opposite
Tachilek, blocked a convoy of trucks carrying lignite power generation
equipment from China, from crossing in to Myanmar.
Some Thai authorities said they were believed the power equipment was
bound for the UWSA and others said there were also concerns about
pollution from a power plant affecting communities on the Thai side of
the border.
Thai authorities on Sunday ordered the convoy carrying the power
equipment to return to Bangkok.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Sunday Thailand would
raise this issue of the power equipment during a two-day visit to
Myanmar by Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai starting on May 1.
___________________________________________________
AP: Myanmar urges India to settle boundary dispute
April 23, 2002
GAUHATI, India (AP) _ Myanmar's military regime favors settlement of its
boundary dispute with India through joint surveys to avoid any
confrontation, a newspaper reported Monday.
``We shall open the door for joint surveys to resolve the boundary
dispute with India,'' Lt. Col. San Shwe, a Myanmar administrator, told
visiting Indian journalists on Sunday in Tamu, a Myanmar town across the
border from India's Manipur state.
Myanmar's suggestion came less than a week after a bloody confrontation
between the borders guards of India and Bangladesh left 16 Indian
soldiers and two Bangladeshi soldiers dead.
San Shwe's interview was published by The Northeast Daily, an English
newspaper in Gauhati, the capital of Assam state, on Monday.
He is the chairman of the District Peace and Development Council of
Tamu, in Myanmar's Sagaing division.
A monthlong joint survey by the Indian and Myanmar officials ended
inconclusively in February.
The India-Myanmar land border stretches nearly 1,640 kilometers (1,018
miles) in India's remote northeast. Molcham and Satang, two small
villages in Manipur state, and some other areas have been in dispute for
four decades.
India often accuses Myanmar troops of intruding into its territory,
attacking police stations, destroying crops and ransacking villages.
Myanmar too accuses the Indians of violating the border.
``The Indian nationals near Moreh in Manipur have encroached on our
land and constructed a Hindu temple,'' Maj. Muang Aye, a senior army
officer, told the Indian journalists.
___________________________________________________
The Nation: Talks with Rangoon over seized cargo imminent
April 22, 2001
BANGKOK, April 22 (The Nation) -- Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said
today he would soon discuss the future of equipment needed in the
building of a power plant in Burma which has been seized by Thai
military with Burmese authorities.
He said the cargo would be returned to Rangoon if the findings showed
that it belonged to Burmese authories, not to any minority groups
involved in narcotics production.
However, Thaksin said he was still concerned over Thai people possibly
being affected environmentally, as the site designated for the plant
would be only five kilometres away from Thai border across from Chiang
Rai province, in case the shipment was returned to Burma and later used
in the building of the plant.
___________________________________________________
_______________ ECONOMY AND BUSINESS _______________
Xinhua: Tourists Visiting Myanmar Decrease in 2000
YANGON, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The number of tourists visiting Myanmar
came to 234,900 in 2000, falling by 9.3 percent from 1999, according to
the latest figures published by the country's Central Statistical
Organization. Of the tourists, 49 percent entered the country by land
through border points. Up to now, there were 492 different hotels and
motels with 13, 984 rooms. Of them, 21 are foreign-invested, four are
joint ventures, 439 are private-run and 28 state-operated. There has
also been 521 licensed tour companies in Myanmar including 508 private
ones, 12 joint ventures and one foreign company.
According to the data published by the Myanmar Ministry of Hotels and
Tourism, there are 3,768 registered tour guides. Of them, English
language guides account for the majority with 2,644 in number, while
Japanese language guides take 486, Chinese language guides 222 and
French language guides 189. Due to the impact of the Asian financial
crisis, Myanmar's tourism business is seen as very poor with most of its
hotel rooms remaining vacant. The country's recent target for tourism is
to draw 500,000 tourists annually. Since Myanmar opened to foreign
investment in 1988, such contracted investment in the sector of hotels
and tourism has reached 1.054 billion U.S. dollars in 42 projects.
_________________________________________________
AFX - Asia: CapitaLand close to selling stake in three overseas
loss-making hotels: report (Yangon Equitorial)
SINGAPORE
April 23, 2001
CapitaLand Ltd is close to selling its stake in
three loss making hotels abroad to the United Overseas Land group, The
Business
Times reported, quoting sources.
The sources said CapitaLand was selling its 84.6 pct stake in the
359-room
Yangon Equatorial in Myanmar, its 61.9 pct holdings in the 322-room
Meritus
Westlake in Hanoi and its 82.7 pct stake in the 328-room Sheraton
Suzhou.
The Yangon property was earlier valued at 21.7 mln usd while the
Hanoi and
Suzhou hotels were valued at 23.4 mln and 38.3 mln, respectively.
The divestment is said to be in line with the CapitaLand's strategy
of
shedding non-core assets to cut debt and boost returns on equity.
_______________OPINION/EDITORIALS_________________
Myanmar Information Committee (SPDC): Shan rebels attack security unit
using Thailand as spring-board
Rangoon on 23 April
Drug Bandits Attacked Government Monitoring Unit Assigned To Prevent
Narcotic Drug Producing Chemicals From Reaching Myanmar
It was reported in today's Bangkok Post and The Nation that the Shan
United Revolutionary Army (SURA) headed by Col. Yerd Serk attacked a
Myanmar security outpost ( Par Chi) situated on the Myanmar side of the
border opposite Fang District of Chiang Mai. The story went on to say
that seven Burmese soldiers were killed and 170,000 methamphetamine
pills together with a number of weapons were confiscated from this
Myanmar army outpost. It is indeed regretful that despite the sincerity
and goodwill expressed by both Myanmar and Thailand at the recently held
border meeting to work together for the mutual interests of both
nations, the drug bandit group of Yerd Serk again managed to use Thai
territory as a spring-board in attacking the security unit assigned to
monitor and prevent armed terrorist groups and drug traffickers from
crossing into the Myanmar territory.
But the latest trend and tactics that seem to be adopted by Yerd Serk
are to attack the small Government monitoring camps, using Thailand as a
spring-board and justify his criminal activities by trying to falsely
portray himself and his organization as Shan Freedom Fighters fighting
to eliminate the narcotic drug production and trafficking taking place
in the border area between the two countries. The fact is that the Shan
comprises 33 different ethnic groups and it will be interesting to know
which ethnic group recognizes and accepts SURA as an organization
supposedly fighting to liberate them. There are a number of other Shan
armed groups that have achieved peace with the Government of Myanmar and
are working together with the Government in the development of their
respective areas and regions. Will it be correct to state that Yerd Serk
is the supreme and true leader of all or even some of these 33 ethnic
groups. The reality has it that as mentioned in the Asian Wall Street
Journal on 6 April by Mr. Barry Wain in his article entitled,"
Untangling a Cross-Border Mess". "---Myanmar is correct when it accuses
the Thai authorities of supporting the Shan State Army, formed by a
former aide to retired drug baron Khun Sa, encamped close to the border
arguably on Thai soil. Although the armed group recently has made a show
of combating narcotics Thai and Western officials confirm, it is
involved in trafficking in order to buy arms---".
Similarly, the U.S. Government's 2000 International Narcotics Control
Strategy Report on Myanmar has clearly stated that Yerd Serk and his
SURA as an ethnic group, are being involved in the heroin and/or
amphetamine trade. On the same pretext even the Kayin [Karen] armed
terrorist group, based in Thailand and called the Kayin National Union
(KNU), had claimed that they had valiantly attacked a warehouse on 22nd
April, thought to be a Wa storage depot for methamphetamines on the
outskirts of Myawaddy opposite Mae Sot. Ironically, the leader of this
group is no other than Bo Mya, the same person seen together
collaborating with the drug baron Khun Sa in a photo taken at the
former's head-quarters in Ho Mong before his surrender to the Government
of Myanmar.
( This information can be downloaded at website - "
http://www.myanmar-information.net/political/politic.htm (Attachment not
included)" )
It is very unfortunate that the Red Wa which has not only pledged to
make the whole Wa region drug free but actually implemented a number of
crop-substitutions and income generating programs whole-heartedly in the
achievement of its goal by the designated year 2005, has been
scapegoated. The fact that while the SURA is being falsely portrayed as
drug-busters and the Wa National Army (WNA) which is a break-away
faction of the Red Wa (the United Wa State Army) continues the drug
trade enabling them to run around loose together with the remnants of
the KMT and KNU along the common border of the two nations will
definitely create difficulties for both Myanmar and Thai Governments in
their fight to eliminate the narcotic drug problem.
________________
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