BurmaNet News: April 26, 2001

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______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
        An on-line newspaper covering Burma 
         April 26, 2001   Issue # 1790
______________ www.burmanet.org _______________

NOTED IN PASSING:  ``the world's biggest prisons for journalists'' 

Reporteurs sans Frontieres describing Burma and China.  See Reuters: 
French media watchdog mounts ``name and shame'' drive

INSIDE BURMA _______
*AFP: Chinese army chief meets with Myanmar junta leader 
*Deutsche Presse-Agentur:  Myanmar troop fire artillery shells into 
Thailand 
*Xinhua: Tensions Arise Again on Thai-Myanmar Border
*AP: Myanmar accuses Thailand of attacking army post 

REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL _______
*AFP: Myanmar accuses Thailand of threatening ASEAN unity over drugs 
issue 
*AP: Ethnic Karennis protest Japanese aid for Myanmar hydropower plant 
*Reuters: French media watchdog mounts ``name and shame'' drive
*The Star (Malaysia): General: Military regime in Myanmar is temporary
*AFP: Myanmar's military leader congratulates new Japanese premier 

ECONOMY/BUSINESS _______
*The Star (Malaysia): MGA gets two Myanmar airport jobs
*Bangkok Post: Wa purchasing power to be curtailed in trade initiative; 
List to be drawn up of strategic goods



					
__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________



AFP: Chinese army chief meets with Myanmar junta leader 

BANGKOK, April 26 (AFP) - Visiting Chinese army commander General Fu 
Quanyou on Thursday met with the leader of Myanmar's military junta, 
Senior General Than Shwe, state-run radio said. 

 The talks, held at the People's Assembly in Yangon, were also attended 
by senior members of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) -- 
the official name of the ruling military regime -- and leading cabinet 
ministers, it said. 

 General Fu, heading a group of high-ranking Chinese military officials, 
arrived in the Myanmar capital Wednesday at the invitation of his 
Myanmar counterpart General Maung Aye, it added. 

 Maung Aye is also the deputy commander in chief of Myanmar's armed 
forces and vice chairman of the SPDC. 

 The report gave no details of the discussions, saying only that the 
talks had been "friendly and amicable." 

 General Fu and his delegation also held separate meetings with Maung 
Aye and the junta's first secretary Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt in the 
afternoon, it said. 

 The commanders of Myanmar navy and air force also attended the 
meetings, it added. 

 China, the first country to recognise Myanmar's military regime which 
seized power in a bloody coup in September 1988, is the junta's main 
arms supplier. 



___________________________________________________




___________________________________________________
Xinhua: Tensions Arise Again on Thai-Myanmar Border

BANGKOK, April 25 (Xinhua) -- A fresh round of tensions along the 
Thai-Myanmar border emerged and escalated Wednesday, as heavy fighting 
between Myanmar government forces and the rebellious Shan State Army 
(SSA) continued near the border, according to local T.V. news reports. 
Fierce fighting resumed there since this morning, as Myanmar government 
troops tried to seize back a military base from the SSA in Doi Non Lae, 
just about five kilometers across the border of the northern Thai 
province of Chiang Mai, 700 kilometers north from Bangkok, the 
state-owned Channel 3 reported. 

The Thai troops, keeping alert on the other side of the border, made a 
series of shootings to warn both Myanmar government forces and the SSA 
not to enter the Thai soil. Worrying that the warfare could spread to 
Thai territories, like in similar cases during the past, the Thai army 
is deploying more forces along the border as a precautions move to 
prevent any across-border incidents. The last border clashes happened on 
February 11, when Myanmar troops pursued the SSA rebels across the 
border, leading to a fighting with Thai forces and several Thai civilian 
casualties. The standoff between the two countries following the 
incident had once been eased after both sides held a new round of talks 
on border issues earlier this month.



___________________________________________________



Deutsche Presse-Agentur:  Myanmar troop fire artillery shells into 
Thailand 



April 26, 2001, Thursday, BC Cycle  



Myanmar (Burmese) troops fired three 120 millimetre artillery shells 
into Thai territory Thursday in what was thought to be an accidental 
bombardment, a senior Thai military officer said. 

The shells landed near a Thai military outpost in Fang district of 
Chiang Mai province, 670 kilometres north of Bangkok, but failed to 
injure anyone. The Thai troops returned fire. 

"We shot back four to five shells," said Third Army Commander Lieutenant 
General Wattanachai Chaimuanwong in a telephone interview with Deutsche 
Presse-Agentur, dpa. 

"I am pretty sure this was unintentional," Wattanachai. "Myanmar is 
trying hard to recapture the border base it lost to Shan troops last 
weekend, and may have overshot their artillery into Thailand." 

The Myanmar artillery, based about five kilometres from the border, 
firing on Pachee outpost, which was overrun by Shan forces on April 21, 
said Wattanachai. 

Myanmar's junta has accused Thailand of assisting the Shan United 
Revolutionary Army (SURA), the remnant army of former opium kingpin Khun 
Sa, in seizing the station last weekend. At least six Burmese troops 
were killed in the attack last Saturday. 

Myanmar on Thursday urged Thailand not to escalate tension along their 
common border, suggesting that the Thais were using Myanmar as a 
scapegoat for their own problems with drug trafficking and addiction. 

"It is with great regret that we are witnessing the unnecessary 
escalation in military operations along the Thai-Myanmar border when the 
two nations and its people should be holding hands and working towards 
the social and economic development of both countries during this 
aftermath of the regional financial crisis," said the Myanmar junta in a 
statement issued in Yangon (Rangoon) on Thursday. 

It added, "Thailand has resorted to scapegoating and pushing its 
responsibility to the other party, rather than cooperating in a manner 
of shared responsibility." 

__________________________________________________



AP: Myanmar accuses Thailand of attacking army post 

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) _ Myanmar on Wednesday accused Thai soldiers of 
joining ethnic rebels in attacking a Myanmar army border outpost this 
week, and denied reports that drugs were found at there. 

 The developments further sour relations between the two neighbors who 
have been at loggerheads since their armies fought a skirmish in 
February in the worst border clash in decades. Since then both sides 
have been locked in a war or words. 
 The latest accusations were made by Lt. Col. San Pwint, a military 
intelligence officer, who called a news conference to counter Thai 
reports about the attack Sunday on the Pakhee outpost in eastern 
Myanmar. 

 Pakhee is located 300 meters (yards) from the border, opposite Fang 
district in northern Thailand. It about 480 kilometers (300 miles) 
northeast of Yangon. 
 San Pwint said the Foreign Ministry summoned the Thai military attache 
in Yangon and lodged an official protest. Myanmar has long accused 
Thailand of giving sanctuary to anti-Yangon rebels. 

 In Bangkok, Thai army spokesman Col. Somkaun Sangpattaranetr denied the 
army's involvement. 

 ``Whatever Myanmar says, we don't take it seriously because that's what 
it keeps saying anyway. The world knows what's really going on,'' he 
said. 
 The attack on Pakhee was claimed on Monday by the Shan State Army, an 
ethnic rebel group fighting for independence from Myanmar. Thai army 
officials supported the claim. 

 In a statement, the Shan group had claimed that its guerrillas overran 
the outpost, killing seven soldiers. It said 170,000 pills of 
methamphetamines were found at the post indicating Myanmar soldiers were 
involved in smuggling drugs into Thailand. 
 But San Pwint said the attack was carried out by about 200 Thai troops 
and the Shan rebels from Thai soil, which killed six of the 20 soldiers 
at the post. 
 ''A majority of those who attacked the Myanmar outpost were Thai 
soldiers,'' San Pwint said, adding that the Thai troops supported the 
rebels with heavy weapons and mortars. 

 The attackers later occupied the post, and ``arrangements are being 
made to reoccupy the post,'' he said. 

 San Pwint also denied Thai media reports about the drugs. 

 Claims that 170,000 methamphetamine pills were confiscated from the 
outpost were ''false and fabricated allegations to cover Thai army 
involvement in the attack and to discredit Myanmar,'' he said. 

 But Somkuan, the Thai spokesman, said the drugs were displayed at a 
news conference ``and everyone saw they were real.'' 

 Col. Thein Swe, another military intelligence officer, said Myanmar 
hopes that the problems can be resolved between the foreign ministers of 
Thailand and Myanmar who will meet at a Southeast Asian nations' meeting 
in Yangon next week. 



___________________ REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL___________________
				




AFP: Myanmar accuses Thailand of threatening ASEAN unity over drugs 
issue 



YANGON, April 26 (AFP) - Myanmar Thursday accused Thailand of 
jeopardising Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) unity by 
blaming the Yangon junta for rampant drug trafficking along their shared 
border. 

 "Thailand has resorted to scapegoating and pushing responsibility to 
the other party rather than cooperation in a manner of shared 
responsibility," it said in a strongly-worded statement. 

 "Irresponsible actions which can jeopardise the ASEAN's unprecedented 
determination to solve regional matters peacefully in an atmosphere of 
goodwill, friendship and cooperation among the member countries should 
be seriously considered." 
 Despite expectations that Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's 
election in January would help improve relations with Myanmar, his 
sharply critical approach over the drugs issue has sparked a rift 
between the neighbours. 

 Relations reach a low point earlier this year when fighting between two 
ethnic militias reputedly involved in the drug trade set off a rare 
clash between the two national armies. 

 High-level talks helped relieve the tension, but a raid last weekend by 
the Shan State Army (SSA) rebels on a Myanmar border outpost, which left 
seven government soldiers dead, has reignited the debate. 

 The SSA said they found 170,000 methamphetamine pills at the security 
post, a charge angrily denied by Myanmar which Thursday also accused the 
Thai military of being involved in the attack. 

 "Certain camps assigned on the border for monitoring purposes and 
civilian towns are being frequently under attack on the pretext of 
narcotic drug elminiation by the (SSA) drug bandits and Thai troops," it 
said. 

 The attacks were "causing unnecessary tensions and aggravation at areas 
where trade, friendship and peace have been prevalent before." 

 Many analysts believe the SSA are closely aligned with the Thai 
military, fighting a proxy war against the rival United Wa State Army 
(UWSA) which is aligned with the Myanmar regime. 

 The Myanmar statement said that the "tactics and trend being 
implemented by the Thai army at present along the common border with 
Myanmar will definitely not help in our fight to eliminate the narco 
drugs." 

 In a reference to Thailand's massive addiction crisis, fed by 
amphetamines made inside Myanmar, it urged its neighbour to cooperate 
instead of "blaming others for the Thai people's every bad and peculiar 
habit." 

 The re-opening of the debate comes just before the Thai and Myanmar 
foreign ministers hold their first talks in Yangon next Monday. The 
drugs issue is certain to be high on the agenda of their bilateral talks 
in the following days. 





___________________________________________________





AP: Ethnic Karennis protest Japanese aid for Myanmar hydropower plant 

April 26, 2001

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ Ethnic Karenni opponents of Myanmar's ruling 
military said Friday that Japan's plan to provide dlrs 24 million to the 
regime for renovating a hydropower plant will only hurt local people. 

 They claimed the electricity from the Baluchaung hydropower plant has 
never provided for indigenous Karenni villagers, but only fed the 
capital Yangon and the second largest city, Mandalay. 

 ``The Karennis there don't have a single light (bulb). They have to buy 
candles to burn,'' Doh Say, director of foreign affairs for the Karenni 
National Progressive Party, told The Associated Press by telephone from 
northern Thailand. 

 The KNPP has a small armed wing that fights a guerrilla war against the 
regime. 
 Earlier this month, Japan announced it was considering a plan to 
renovate the power station, which was originally built in 1960 with 
Japanese war reparations to Myanmar, also known as Burma. A final 
decision on the aid is expected by the end of the year. With nearly 200 
megawatt production capacity, the plant is the biggest electricity 
generator in Myanmar. 

 The Japanese aid would represent the most significant foreign grant to 
Myanmar since the regime took power in 1988 after a bloody crackdown 
against a democracy uprising. Since then, donors have only allowed a 
trickle of humanitarian assistance. 
 The grant from Japan is designed as incentive for the regime to press 
on with talks with democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party swept 
general elections in 1990 but has been barred from taking power. 

 The talks, which began in secret in October, are seen as the most 
significant dialogue in a decade of political deadlock, although there 
has been no public announcement on how they are progressing. 

 The KNPP said in a statement this week that providing aid would only 
``further entrench and empower a government that holds no regard for the 
people of Burma.'' It asked that plans to rebuild or repair the dam be 
stopped. 

 Doh Say said that seven villages had been forcibly moved out of the 
Lawpita area around the power station in the early 1990s to secure the 
plant. Rebel guerrillas had attacked the plant and electricity pylons in 
the past. 

 Doh Say claimed that thousands of anti-personnel land mines have also 
been laid in the area, which lies about 320 kilometers (200 miles) 
northeast of Yangon, often injuring villagers and livestock. 

 In 1998, when water level in Balu river became low, water was diverted 
from farmlands to supply the turbines, Doh Say said. He feared the 
problem would worsen if the power plant was expanded. 

 ``Whatever they do, the Karenni people will face forced labor and more 
land mines will be laid,'' he said. 

 The rebels signed a cease-fire with the Myanmar regime in 1994, but 
took up arms again when they said government forces invaded their 
territory and cut timber. The regime has accused the KNPP rebels of 
involvement in the drugs trade. 
 Nearly 20,000 Karenni refugees live in Thailand. 
) 



___________________________________________________




Reuters: French media watchdog mounts ``name and shame'' drive

(Release at 2201 GMT, April 26) 
 By Paul Holmes 
 PARIS, April 27 (Reuters) - French media watchdog Reporters sans 
Frontieres (RSF) launched a name and shame campaign on Friday, fingering 
30 ``enemies of the press'' ranging from heads of state to guerrilla 
groups. 
 The blacklist included the Basque separatist group ETA, kidnap gangs in 
Chechnya and leaders on both sides in a bloody conflict between leftist 
rebels and right-wing paramilitaries in Colombia. 

 They were cited alongside more than a score of heads of state and 
government, including Cuba's Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, North 
Korea's Kim Jong-il and the Democratic Republic of Congo's new leader 
Joseph Kabila. 

 Their portraits will be displayed throughout France in book stores and 
music shops owned by the FNAC chain on May 3, which is World Press 
Freedom Day. 

 ``These predators of the freedom of the press have the power to 
imprison journalists, abduct them, torture them and, in the worst cases, 
have them bumped off,'' RSF Secretary-General Robert Menard said in a 
statement introducing the campaign. 
 ``More and more often, they belong to or lead armed groups which fight 
or support those in power,'' Menard said. 

 ``Too many journalists fall under the blows of independence-seeking 
organisations, fundamentalist religious movements, criminal gangs and 
drugs traffickers.'' 
 Details of the name and shame campaign were released alongside RSF's 
annual report, which listed 32 journalists who had been killed in the 
course of 2000 and a further 74 who were in jail at the start of this 
year. 

 BAD OLD WAYS 

 The 450-page report, covering the state of press freedoms in 146 
countries, noted that 11 of the journalists killed had lost their lives 
in Europe. 

 ``The advance of democracy, favoured 10 years ago by the end of the 
Cold War, has not kept its promises everywhere,'' the preface to the 
report said. 

 ``Regimes which began to liberalise in response to the aspirations of 
the people and the pressure of the international community have slipped 
back into their old authoritarian, intolerant ways,'' it said. 

 RSF's blacklist of 30 included several leaders from states of the 
former Soviet Union, among them Russia's Vladimir Putin, President 
Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine and Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko. 

 The watchdog branded Myanmar, China and Iran ``the world's biggest 
prisons for 
journalists'' and named their leaders in its blacklist. 

 One portrait that will not appear in the line-up on May 3 is that of 
the head of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Mullah Mohammad Omar, who RSF 
said refused to be photographed or filmed. 




___________________________________________________



The Star (Malaysia): General: Military regime in Myanmar is temporary

April 26, 2001

By Joseph Raj 
PETALING JAYA: The military regime in Myanmar has no intention of 
holding on to power for long. 

Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, Secretary (1) of the State Peace and Development 
Council (SPDC), which governs the country now, stressed that it had 
always been their aim to hand over the country to a 
democratically-elected government. 

"The military had to step in in 1998 as the country was in a state of 
anarchy. We can be considered a transitional government. 

"This is what the government is trying to do. Our target is to hand over 
to a strong democratically-elected government that can uphold the 
constitution,'' Gen Khin Nyunt said during a courtesy call by a 
Malaysian media delegation in Yangon on Monday. 

He added that the situation in Myanmar had not been "presented 
forthrightly by the media in the West.'' 

"But we cannot fault the media for this as it depends on the situation 
in the country and the timing because of the arms insurrection. 

"We have a population of 52 million comprising 135 ethnic groups. 
Because of differences between the ethnic groups, we have had 
insurrections since independence. 

"Previous governments had tried to hold peace negotiations with 
insurgents but only in our time has there been success. 

"If the political situation is bad, the economy cannot grow. That is why 
we focussed on bringing back the insurgents into the legal fold. 

"Now only one or two (of the 18 insurgent groups in Myanmar) are left,'' 
Lt Gen Khin Nyunt said. 

He added that the insurgents were working hand-in-hand with the 
government to carry out infrastructural development, including building 
numerous bridges to connect the east and the west of Myanmar





___________________________________________________



AFP: Myanmar's military leader congratulates new Japanese premier 

BANGKOK, April 26 (AFP) - Myanmar's military leader Friday congratulated 
the newly elected Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, according 
to state media. 
 Senior General Than Shwe, chairman of the State Peace and Development 
Council (SPDC) -- the official name of the ruling military junta -- sent 
a message of congratulations to the new prime minister, Radio Yangon 
reported late Thursday in a dispatch monitored here. 

 The report gave no further details of the message. 

 Koizumi was elected by the Japanese parliament on Thursday. 
 Japan is the biggest creditor nation and aid donor to Myanmar. It 
suspended all but a small amount of humanitarian aid in the aftermath of 
the 1988 bloody military takeover






_______________ ECONOMY AND BUSINESS _______________
 


The Star (Malaysia): MGA gets two Myanmar airport jobs

April 26

OUTDOOR advertising group Ganad Corp Bhd unit Myanmar Ganad Advertising 
Co Ltd (MGA) has been awarded the exclusive advertising rights for the 
two major airports in Myanmar by the Department of Civil Aviation. 
Ganad said in a statement that the 10-year concession gave MGA exclusive 
rights to manage the indoor and outdoor advertising spaces for both the 
Yangon international airport and the Mandalay international airport. 




_________________________________________________




 
Bangkok Post: Wa purchasing power to be curtailed in trade initiative; 
List to be drawn up of strategic goods 


April 26, 2001 


The Wa must not be allowed to use drug money to buy Thai goods which 
would help expand their drug empire, the Third Army chief said. 

Lt-Gen Wattanachai Chaimuenwong was speaking after a meeting at the 
Kavila military camp, where local officials overseeing cross-border 
trade were asked to study new lists of strategic goods before they are 
forwarded to the National Security Council for consideration. 

The Wa must not be allowed to buy construction materials from Thailand 
with dirty money earned from sales of illicit drugs to young Thais, he 
said. 

Lt-Gen Wattanachai, who heads the army's drug suppression campaign in 
the North, also said it would not be too difficult to check whether or 
not the money paid by Burmese businessmen to buy Thai goods was clean. 

The meeting agreed that a number of construction materials, including 
cement and steel, should be listed as prohibited strategic goods, he 
said. 

Lt-Gen Wattana also voiced concern over the fact large quantities of 
goods were being traded at several temporary checkpoints on the 
Thai-Burmese border, including Chiang Dao's Giew Pha Wok, which is near 
the United Wa State Army stronghold of Mong Yawn. 

He said the real purpose of temporary checkpoints was to serve local 
villagers' need for daily goods. However, these border markets were 
being exploited by influential business people, judging from the huge 
trade volumes which were far beyond what the locals would need daily, he 
said. 

About a million litres of diesel oil reportedly passed through Giew Pha 
Wok each month, giving the military much concern that most of it was 
destined for Wa-controlled areas, he said. 

"This kind of trading should not be allowed to continue" through 
temporary checkpoints, he said. 

On Tuesday night, troops from the Third Army seized 6,154,000 speed 
pills and 4.5kg of heroin in a raid on a border village in Tak's Phop 
Phra district. 

A security officer said the methamphetamine cache was under the 
protection of guerrillas of the pro-Rangoon Democratic Karen Buddhist 
Army, pending shipment to Thailand. 

"This clearly shows that there is close co-operation between the DKBA 
and the UWSA on border drug trafficking," the officer said. 

___________________________________________________









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