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BurmaNet News: April 23, 2001



______________ 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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