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BurmaNet News: August 8, 2001
______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
An on-line newspaper covering Burma
August 8, 2001 Issue # 1860
______________ www.burmanet.org _______________
INSIDE BURMA _______
*AFP: Myanmar opposition to mark uprising anniversary once again
*AFP: Myanmar junta regrets flight of opposition MP
MONEY _______
*The Advertiser (Australia) Companies join Burma ban
GUNS______
*Bangkok Post: Three Thais die in border skirmish
*AFP: Russia set to strike arms deal in Myanmar: military
*Bangkok Post: In brief - Ship visit
REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL _______
*AFP: UN denies that agencies in Myanmar want sanctions lifted
*BBC: Appeal for huge Burma aid increase
*The Nation: Watchdog slams call to lift sanctions
EDITORIALS/OPINION/PROPAGANDA________
*The New light of Myanmar (SPDC): Make an assessment with dignity (Part
II)
*Asiaweek (online edition): Echoes of Bob Dylan in Myanmar
OTHER______
*Free Burma Coalition: FBC Conference September 2001
__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________
AFP: Myanmar opposition to mark uprising anniversary once again
YANGON, Aug 7 (AFP) - Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party is planning to
mark the anniversary of Myanmar's bloody 1988 student uprising Wednesday
for the first time in several years, sources said.
The National League for Democracy (NLD) will hold a discreet ceremony
at its headquarters in Yangon, to be attended by some 100-150 members of
the party whose 1990 election victory was disallowed by the military
junta.
Aung San Suu Kyi and her two most senior aides, Aung Shwe and Tin Oo,
who remain under house arrest restrictions in Yangon, will not be
present, NLD sources told AFP Tuesday.
Annual events to mark the bloody protests on August 8, 1988 petered out
during the late 1990s crackdown on the opposition party, which came
close to collapse in the face of a brutal campaign of repression and
arrests.
However, since the regime embarked on landmark talks with Aung San Suu
Kyi in October its members have been given more freedom of movement, and
dozens of elected MPs have been released from detention.
This year's low-key commemoration of the anniversary is seen as a
gesture from the party that it is still alive, while being careful not
to provoke the military government.
U Lwin, the party's most senior leader at large, will preside over the
ceremony and represent Aung San Suu Kyi, as he did at last month's
commemoration of her father's assassination on Martyrs' Day.
The party elder, one of the few people permitted to see "The Lady" at
her lakeside residence on a regular basis, made an unscheduled visit
early Tuesday, apparently to inform her about Wednesday's event.
Hundreds of democracy demonstrators were gunned down in the August 1988
Yangon student uprising, paving the way for a junta to take power from
veteran military strongman Ne Win the following month.
The junta allowed free elections in 1990, which the NLD won
convincingly, but the military regime has always refused to recognised
the result.
The resulting decade-long stand-off showed the first signs of cracking
late last year when, at the urging of United Nations envoy Razali
Ismail, the two sides began their first dialogue since 1994.
Little is known of the contents of the secret talks, but the release of
some 150 political prisoners this year has been hailed by the
international community as a sign that the dialogue is making progress.
Razali is to make his fifth visit to Yangon later this month. Aung San
Suu Kyi has also received some other high-profile visitors recently,
including US deputy assistant secretary of state Ralph Boyce on
Thursday.
Robert Cooper, the former Asia-Pacific director of the British Foreign
Office and now appointed to the cabinet office, also paid a call on the
lakeside compound late last month, sources said.
In a statement to mark the anniversary of "8/8/88", Myanmar's
government in exile lamented the lack of progress in politics, the
economy, education or health since the uprising.
"The recent situation in Burma is a turning point," the National
Coalition Government of Union of Burma said.
"The independent and genuine dialogue is the best way to restore
national reconciliation and democracy."
___________________________________________________
AFP: Myanmar junta regrets flight of opposition MP
Tuesday August 7
YANGON, Aug 7 (AFP) - The Myanmar junta Tuesday criticised an opposition
MP who fled to the Thai border after being released from detention,
saying he had turned his back on national reconciliation talks which
began last year.
Khin Kyaw Han, who was elected as an MP in the disallowed 1990
elections, said he had been tortured while in detention and feared
further reprisals after he was released from a government guest house on
June 28.
The 48-year-old is one of dozens of National League for Democracy (NLD)
MPs released over the past few months in what the military regime has
hailed as a sign of progress in its talks with democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi.
"The government as well as independent observers are surprised to learn
that U Khin Kyaw Han ... fled to the Thai border to join the armed
outlawed groups," a junta spokesman said in a statement.
"It is indeed regretful that U Khin Kyaw Han not only has refused to
meaningfully participate and cooperate in the reconciliation process
taking place between the government and the NLD party but has been
sidetracked by those groups which desire to continue with the policy of
confrontation and to live in the past."
Khin Kyaw Han, who asked that his location on the Thai-Myanmar border
not be disclosed, said Monday he had been tortured during two periods of
detention between 1992 and 2001, and suffered mental problems as a
result.
"After my arrest, I was tortured with beatings and electric shocks," he
said in a faxed statement. "I was forced to disclose places where other
people were hiding."
"It seriously affected my mind. My family is broken and I have to ask
for political asylum."
Myanmar's military regime says it has freed more than 150 dissidents
since the beginning of the year. Aung San Suu Kyi and her two most
senior lieutenants, Aung Shwe and Tin Oo, remain under loose house
arrest restrictions, helping ensure the contents of the dialogue remain
secret.
The talks are the first between the junta and the opposition since 1994,
and may be paving the way for a fully-fledged national reconciliation
process that could introduce some measure of democratic reform to
Myanmar.
While the international community and dissident groups have welcomed the
prisoner releases, they note that many dissidents remain behind bars in
Myanmar.
International rights group Amnesty International recently put the number
detained at 1,800.
______________________MONEY________________________
The Advertiser (Australia) Companies join Burma ban
>From AAP
08aug01
EIGHTEEN Australian companies have broken their economic ties with Burma
as part of an international campaign against human rights abuses in the
country.
The ACTU wrote to 60 Australian companies that did business with Burma
after an International Council of Free Trade Unions conference earlier
this year agreed to isolate the country because of its forced labour
policies. The policies were adopted after the military junta cancelled
democratic elections 13 years ago.
Fosters Brewing Group, Ikea Australia, Intrepid Travel, Mitsubishi
Motors Australia, Telstra Corp and Multiplex Constructions are among the
companies that have boycotted Burma, the ACTU said.
While 18 companies agreed to sever ties, others including several tour
groups and the Lonely Planet travel books refused.
Lonely Planet spokeswoman Anna Bolger said the Burma guide book
contained a section on the politics and history of the country.
"We leave it up to the traveller to make an informed decision whether to
go," Ms Bolger said.
"There is a question of whether an informed tourist helps or hinders
moves towards democracy."
ACTU president Sharan Burrow said the principled stand by the 18
companies contrasted to the federal government's "appeasement" of the
military dictatorship.
"The federal government must take a much stronger stand to pressure
Burma into establishing democratic norms and ending the persecution of
its people," she said.
_______________________GUNS________________________
Bangkok Post: Three Thais die in border skirmish
August 8, 2001.
Supamart Kasem
Three Thai soldiers were killed and another wounded in a clash with
armed drug smugglers in Phop Phra district yesterday morning.
The intruders retreated into Burma and left behind 536,000
methamphetamine pills.
Maj-Gen Tomorn Kittisophon, commander of the Naresuan Force, said the
fight took place in heavy rain at 5am in the jungle of Doi Kia mountain,
about 1.5km from the border with Burma.
A patrol from the Fourth Infantry Regiment Task Force clashed with 15-20
armed men, believed to be members of the pro-Rangoon Democratic Karen
Buddhist Army.
The fight lasted about 10 minutes. The traffickers withdrew into Burma,
leaving behind the drug consignment.
The dead soldiers were: Sgt Theerachai Juang-ngu, 40, Pvt Kwanchai
Kruefu, 21, and Pvt Kolvat Kamja, 22. Pvt Prayon Nampa, 22, was wounded.
Maj-Gen Tomorn said despite heavy patrolling by Thai security forces,
drug smugglers were still slipping through the border.
- A total 377 policemen believed to be involved in the drug trade will
be sacked and face criminal charges over the next few months, Prime
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said yesterday.
Instead of helping fight the drug menace, these officers were making the
problem worse, he told cabinet members."Because of these corrupt
policemen, the drugs problem cannot be solved.
"Once I have clear evidence, these officers will lose their jobs and
face criminal charges," Mr Thaksin said, according to deputy spokesman
Kuthep Saikrachang.
Mr Thaksin did not give names or more information.
___________________________________________________
AFP: Russia set to strike arms deal in Myanmar: military
MOSCOW, Aug 8 (AFP) - A high-ranking Russian military delegation has
arrived
in Yangon on a four-day visit to sign arms contracts with the Myanmar
government, the Russian defense ministry said Tuesday.
Russian Deputy Defense Minister Mikhail Dmitryev, who arrived in Yangon
Monday, is to sign an agreement on military cooperation as well as a
series
of arms-sales contracts with Myanmar's deputy prime minister and defense
minister, Lieutenant-General Tin Hla, the AVN military news agency
quoted the
ministry as saying.
Although the Russian defense ministry did not disclose the content and
the
amount of the contracts, AVN said they could include the sale of MiG-29
fighters to Myanmar and exceed 100 million dollars.
Russian officials said earlier that Moscow considers Myanmar a promising
partner in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Myanmar junta is accused by the United States and the European Union
of
frequent human rights abuses.
__________________________________________________
Bangkok Post: In brief - Ship visit
August 8, 2001.
A Burmese delegation would visit Chakri Naruebet aircraft carrier at
Sattahip naval base during a meeting of Thai-Burmese Regional Border
Committee later this month, a source said.
The meeting, on Aug 22-24 in Pattaya, would be chaired by Lt-Gen
Wattanachai and Burma's Regional Triangle commander Maj-Gen Thein Sein.
The navy usually allows visitors to visit the ship at weekends.
___________________ REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL___________________
AFP: UN denies that agencies in Myanmar want sanctions lifted
YANGON, Aug 7 (AFP) - The United Nations Tuesday denied a report that
its relief agencies in Myanmar had made a collective request to their
leaderships and foreign governments to lift sanctions against the
military regime.
The Nation newspaper in Bangkok reported that the nine heads of
Yangon-based UN agencies, including UNICEF and the World Health
Organisation, issued the plea on humanitarian grounds in a joint letter.
However, a senior UN official in Yangon said the letter was an internal
assessment of the humanitarian situation in Myanmar and did not mention
the lifting of sanctions.
"This is merely a technical internal letter on the conditions for
distributing humanitarian aid in Myanmar," he told AFP.
"It's absolutely not a political appeal for the lifting or not lifting
of sanctions, but rather an assessment of the humanitarian situation,"
the official said, requesting anonymity.
"It's meant to establish how we can best help the population of
Myanmar, particularly in fields like HIV-AIDS prevention and infant
mortality."
The prospect of foreign governments lifting their sanctions has been
floated in recent months after the junta embarked on talks with
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi last October.
The release of some 150 political prisoners since the start of the year
has also fuelled suggestions that the international community may be
reviewing its hardline stance against the junta.
But while welcoming the political developments, the United States and
the European Union have both said they will keep sanctions in place
until more concrete progress is made towards democratic reform.
"My own judgement is until there is significant progress on the
political front in Burma/Myanmar, the common position of the European
Union will stay the same," EU External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten
said last month.
Myanmar's economy has been crippled by a combination of the
wide-ranging sanctions and gross economic mismanagement by the generals
in Yangon, who are also accused of rampant human rights abuses.
The appalling state of the nation's finances is one factor credited
with the regime's decision to begin a dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi --
the first official contact between the two sides since 1994.
The Nation report said the UN letter outlined a looming humanitarian
crisis in Myanmar, with more than 500,000 HIV positive citizens and high
infant mortality rates.
About 25 percent of newborn babies were underweight and one in three
Myanmar children would be malnourished by the time they reached the age
of five, it added.
The letter reportedly called for a dramatic overhaul of budget
allocation to Myanmar as well as better coordination between UN
organisations.
___________________________________________________
BBC: Appeal for huge Burma aid increase
Tuesday, 7 August, 2001, 16:20 GMT 17:20 UK
The heads of UN agencies operating in Burma have called for a massive
injection of foreign aid if the country is to avoid a "humanitarian
crisis." The officials say sanctions imposed against Burma's military
rulers have left the country's poor receiving only a fraction of the aid
given to other Asian nations.
More than half a million Burmese are HIV positive and one in three
children malnourished by the age of five, the officials - who represent
Unicef and eight other agencies - told their respective headquarters in
a letter.
"Under these critical circumstances, humanitarian assistance is a moral
and ethical necessity, as well as an obligation of the international
community," said the letter, a copy of which was seen by the Associated
Press.
The officials called for a dramatic overhaul of the way the United
Nations allocates money to Burma to alleviate suffering and ensure a
basic level of care.
"The nature and magnitude of the humanitarian situation does not permit
delaying until the political situation evolves," they said.
They compared Burma's total annual foreign aid - equivalent to about $1
per capita - with $35 for Cambodia and $68 for Laos.
A senior official in Rangoon later denied reports that the letter had
called for sanctions against the military to be lifted.
"It's absolutely not a political appeal... but rather an assessment of
the humanitarian situation," he told the French news agency AFP.
Uprising anniversary
Burma, renamed Myanmar, has faced informal sanctions on most aid from
donor nations since martial rule began in 1988 after a bloody military
crackdown against a nationwide democracy movement.
The country is deeply unpopular for being the world's leading producer
of opium, the raw material of heroin.
The opposition National League for Democracy won elections in 1990, but
the military authorities have never allowed it to take power, and have
long kept its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest.
The party is planning to mark the anniversary of the quashed uprising on
Wednesday for the first time in several years.
Annual events remembering 8 August 1988 petered out in the late 1990s,
when the NLD came close to collapse in the face of a campaign of
repression and arrests.
___________________________________________________
The Nation: Watchdog slams call to lift sanctions
August 8, 2001.
A Washington-based labour rights watchdog yesterday slammed a collective
call to lift international aid sanctions against Burma, saying the move
may have been triggered by false information about the situation in
Burma.
In a statement sent to The Nation, the Federation of Trade Unions-Burma
(FTUB) cited a June 26 report by the state Chinese media, Xinhua News
Agency.
The report quoted Rangoon's No 3 leader, General Khin Nyunt, as saying
that sanctions by the West did not have much impact because economic and
social infrastructure was progressing steadily.
However, according to a May report of the FTUB, quoting figures from
1988 to last year, government expenditure on defence had increased from
22.35 per cent to 49.93 per cent. At the same time, spending on
health-care and education had dropped from 4.71 per cent and 12.9 per
cent to 2.53 and 6.98, respectively.
The statement was in response to the call by officials of nine UN
agencies in Burma including the UN Children's Fund, the UN Drug Control
Programme, the World Health Organisation and World Food Programmes.
The nine agencies, in a joint statement, said that with some 500,000
people HIV-positive and a high infant-mortality rate, Burma was on the
brink of a humanitarian crisis. The statement added that 25 per cent of
all newborn babies in Burma were underweight and one in three children
would be malnourished by the age of five.
Rebutting their argument, the FTUB statement quoted a Burmese figure
from the Central Statistics Organisation that foreign investment in
Burma for the first quarter of this year rose by US$41.49 million
(Bt1.87 billion), representing a 315.2-per-cent increase from the same
period last year.
"As Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt and the Central Statistics Organisation are never
wrong, we may conclude that the UN employees are wrong," the statement
said. Countering the UN's argument, the FTUB suggested the UN agencies
should instead tell the junta to increase spending on health and
education, restructure the country's Foreign Direct Investment to
benefit agriculture - its main economic sector - and stop using forced
labour.
The FTUB said the Burmese regime - not Western nations or democratic
forces - had imposed sanctions upon itself by refusing to cooperate with
the IMF on poverty-reduction and good-governance programmes.
The Burmese labour organisation challenged the UN officials to report to
the UN headquarters how they had been restricted from going into the
field to obtain information.
"This would help the UN and the international community get an unbiased
view and would be extremely useful in the decision-making process
regarding Burma," the FTUB said.
___________EDITORIALS/OPINION/PROPAGANDA__________
The New light of Myanmar (SPDC): Make an assessment with dignity (Part
II)
Wednesday, 1 August, 2001
(Continued from 31-07-2001)
As the news article "Transplanted Trouble" which appeared in the 16 July
2001
issue of the Newsweek magazine was based on the slanders made by some
irresponsible senior military and intelligence officers of the other
country,
its assessment of the problem of the stimulant pills and narcotic drugs
was
one-sided. As is known to the world that the high level military,
civilian
and police officials of the successive governments of Myanmar have never
involved in production, trafficking and world-wide distribution of the
narcotic drugs including stimulant pills, the slanderous accusations
made by
the Newsweek and some other periodicals do not have any effect.
Although I have no wish to recount the involvement of the high- level
officials of the respective governments of the other country in the drug
business from the various sectors, I will have to tell that is to be
told.
But here all my presentations are not based on hearsay or on points
without
firm evidence. A news report under the heading "Largest Yaba (stimulant
pill)
refinery found during second raid on a newspaper editor's house; Seven
international drug distributing agents seized together with clandestine
factory operating with fully-equipped hidden pill making-machines;
Police
were astonished to find such large stimulant pill factory for the first
time"
appeared in the 14 July 2001 issue of a daily published in the official
language in the other country.
The summary of the news report said that the anti-narcotics police who
raided
the press of a local daily in Kanchanaburi District for the second time
were
amazed to find such a large stimulant pill manufacturing workshop.
According
to the news report, it seemed that during the first raid, the police had
acted in a perfunctory way. The news report said that during the second
raid,
police found stimulant pills, the printing machine and other 80 sets of
machines as well as a large haul of neatly packed Yaba for trafficking
abroad; that the high level police officers of the No 7 area revealed
that
for them it was the largest ever seizure in life.
Many drug agents as well as a wife of the anti-narcotic police was
caught
together with thousands of stimulant pills when further raids were made
in
accord with the links. The seizures had led the State police bureau to
change
the date which was set to submit the list of police who had connections
with
the drug trafficking business to the prime minister. An interesting
event was
the seizure of the wife of the police officer together with stimulant
pills.
The incident was that Police Lt-Col Chatchai of the investigation branch
of
the Nonthaburi District police department and members acting on a tip
off,
searched a house at 96/66 Ronriyankhowat ward, Tiwanun Street in
Pekkarit
town in the district.
The reason of searching the house of a police corporal of the anti-drug
squad
was that the police had arrested the police corporal's wife together
with
2,000 stimulant pills. But the police failed to find any narcotic drugs,
instead they found baht 120,000 presumed to be realized from the drug
business, ten tickals of gold, a .38 pistol, in the house plus some
documents. Police Lt-Gen Pichit and his men who were dissatisfied with
the
results of the finds of Police Lt-Col Chatchai and party made a thorough
search of the house and the compound with special drug-sniffing dogs.
They
found another 10,000 Yaba pills buried under the garage.
Concerning the case, the woman said that her husband was no knowledge of
the
affair. Concerning the involvement of a large number of police, who are
the
main persons responsible for exposing and taking actions against the
drug
traffickers, of the other country and their relatives in the drug
business,
the police chief met the journalists after the end of the monthly
meeting of
the police force which was held on 13 July. He said although the date to
submit the list of police of the country involved in the drug business
was
set on 15 July, it could not be presented on that day because of the
differences of opinion of the police departments in the nation in
investigating the police who had connections with the drug business.
So, according to the news report, it can be calculated the degree of
loopholes occurred in the controlling and curbing the production,
trafficking
and distribution of narcotic drugs. In the other country, production and
trafficking of narcotics are in large quantities, loopholes are
occurring in
the anti-drug campaigns, the anti-drug members themselves are getting
involved in the business at every opportune time and the population of
drug
addicts is increasing day by day.
But why the periodicals published in English of the other country and
some
foreign journals remain silent about the country's narcotic problem. Of
the
mass media means, periodicals are the most successful as they are the
most
cost-effective way of distributing information. The basic
characteristics of
the periodicals giving information and education, creation of artistic
values, assessments and analysis Ñ will remain unchanged.
Thus, all the journalists and the periodicals should uphold the
responsibilities and dignity. Are some government officials of some big
nations, busybodies of some non-governmental organizations, tricksters
of the
political world, distructionists as well as some irresponsible
politicians,
who are fond of making accusations, some of the military brass, and some
high
level intelligence officials, who are using the drug problem as a weapon
to
hit Myanmar, using some of the foreign periodicals and mercenary
journalists
or are the foreign periodicals and mercenary journalists flattering
these
persons to get information from them? But it is no longer a puzzle.
However, I wish all could make assessments on the Myanmar's narcotic
problem,
the good foundations and the objective developments of the political,
economic and social spheres and bright future with dignity. One will
lose
dignity if he fails to make an assessment of any matter with dignity.
Thus,
all should uphold the dignity in making assessment of others to restore
their
own reputation.
Author : Kappiya Kan Kaung
___________________________________________________
Asiaweek Webfiles: Echoes of Bob Dylan in Myanmar
Optimism remains strong for a political settlement
BY ROGER MITTON
Monday, August 6, 2001
Web posted at 04:45 p.m. Hong Kong time, 04:45 a.m. GMT
Odd, how memory-triggers work. I've just finished reading a biography of
the American comedian, Woody Allen. In discussing a documentary film
about Allen, the author refers to a biopic, Don't Look Back, about Bob
Dylan's 1965 tour of England. I was an undergraduate at Liverpool
University then and Bob Dylan was one of my idols. When I heard he would
play the Liverpool Empire, I was among the first in line to buy tickets.
Just before dusk on the evening of the show, my girlfriend and I were
standing at the foot of the steep slope of stone steps that led up to
the great old Adelphi Hotel. It was a blustery late afternoon and no one
else was around; out ambled Bob Dylan, wearing a black leather jacket,
open-necked white shirt and casual slacks. He was a small, thin,
baby-faced 23-year-old with skin so white it looked cadaverous. He
paused up on the top step, slipped a cigarette between his lips, lit it
with a quick motion of his Zippo, took a deep drag and gazed out across
Liverpool's dark, satanic skyline. I half-expected to hear: "Yeah, it's
a hard rain's a-gonna fall . . ." But there was just a silence blowing
in the wind. We never spoke. I'm not sure he even noticed us. We gazed
up at him until he turned and shuffled back inside. His concert was a
movable feast. I recall it and that chance sighting of him every time I
play my Best of Bob Dylan CD.
I was playing it last night after I had returned from a wedding party at
the Peninsula Hotel in Bangkok, during which I had been discussing
Myanmar with a fellow journalist. He told me how much he loved the
country and its people. Yet he was not at all sanguine about a political
settlement coming out of the current talks between the military regime
and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. I told him I remained
optimistic. And I do. But I have to admit I appear to be blowing against
the wind on this one. I have yet to meet anyone who shares my
confidence, and as I listened to Dylan's songs, I wondered why I feel
this way. Is it really just wishful thinking? Well, no, it isn't. There
are, in fact, many reasons for my buoyancy, but perhaps one of the
strongest - and the one little appreciated - is simply that it is based
on a reading of some of the people I've met on both sides of this
political divide during my visits to Myanmar. I'd like to tell you about
a couple of them who inspire hope, rather than instill despair.
They are U Tun Tin and Colonel Kyaw Thein. You may not have heard of
them. But to me they are the kind of unsung heroes who will, ultimately,
transform Myanmar. I first met Col. Kyaw Thein on March 9, 1999, at the
Peninsula Hotel (you see the memory triggers). It was early in the
morning and I had gone over to the hotel to try to see the Myanmar
generals who were visiting Thailand.
Bizarrely, I found I was the only journalist there. Indeed, some of the
hotel staff and the Myanmar and Thai officials looked askance at me, as
if I'd breached a security cordon. But then Gen. David Abel appeared
with a group of other ministers and he chatted amiably with me, as did
the Thai foreign minister Surin Pitsuwan. I asked the Myanmar ambassador
if I could have a word with one of the government's top leaders when
they came down, and he said he'd try to arrange it; meantime, he
introduced me to a round-faced, boyish-looking man in a white
open-necked shirt. He was genial, spoke excellent English and told me he
was Col. Kyaw Thein with the Office of Strategic Studies at the Defense
Ministry in Yangon. He had no card with him, so I wrote down his name
and number. He told me that if I was interested he'd try to arrange for
me to go on a trip that was being arranged for foreign journalists to
observe anti-drug programs in Shan State. The dates made it impossible
for me to go, but I told him I would like to see him again.
I did so on my next trip to Yangon when I interviewed him about the
opium eradication schemes he directs. He spoke candidly, especially of
negotiating the surrender of drug lord Khun Sa and he even arranged for
me to visit another former opium baron, Law Sett Han, in his fortified
compound on the outskirts of Yangon. But I don't want to focus on that
now; I just want to say that Kyaw Thein impressed me as a sincere,
intelligent man who would be a credit to any government.
It is not often that one is able to say that about people these days. I
shared this thought with all the Western ambassadors in Yangon and with
their counterparts in Bangkok. I was surprised to find they all agreed.
The Americans and the Australians regard him as among the best of the
OSS team, and that is saying something. He reminds me of Surin or of
Singapore's George Yeo. I liked his candor, especially when he conceded
that some officials may be involved in the drug trade. "If you mean a
government employee then you are right," he told me. "Because every
country has some black sheep, no one is perfect. But I can assure you
that nobody at my level or above is involved in this sort of business."
A year or so later, I found myself sitting next to Kyaw Thein at a
dinner that the regional commander in eastern Shan state was hosting for
a group of foreign correspondents in Kyaingtong. Kyaw Thein told me that
he was born in Yangon, he is now 54.
He still lives in the city's suburbs and drives to the office before 7
a.m. each day in order to beat the traffic jams and be in time for his
daily briefing to Gen. Khin Nyunt, with whom he has a close rapport. As
a staunch Buddhist, he neither smokes nor drinks. He also mentioned that
he has always wanted to go to India to visit the four major Buddha
sites. He has served as an assistant to Maj.-Gen. Kyaw Win, who is now
conducting the talks with Suu Kyi. That alone bolsters my optimism.
Across the political divide is Tun Tin. Totally different, yet oddly
similar. Now 70, Tun Tin is a former lawyer - one of the nation's best
and brightest - who was struck off the bar during the Ne Win
dictatorship. That is a disgrace, and even though it is too late for him
to resume practicing, it would be a fine gesture if that disbarment were
revoked. Tun Tin speaks with the same kind of bright-eyed, gentle
sincerity that emanates from Kyaw Thein. You feel comfortable and
reassured in the presence of both men. Tun Tin's law career was rudely
interrupted in 1958 when, during Ne Win's first assumption of power, his
outspokenness fell foul of the new military regime.
He was exiled to the Cocos Islands. After that Nelson Mandela-like
episode, Tun Tin resumed work but was detained yet again under the
second Ne Win dictatorship in the mid-1960s and confined at a military
intelligence center. As if he had not suffered enough, Tun Tin was
arrested yet again in 1989 - having by then thrown in his lot with Suu
Kyi's fledgling NLD - and he was put in solitary confinement at Insein
Jail for several years.
I met him at his modest home on Pyay Road shortly after he had been
released. I had no idea what he would look like. I arrived at the little
wooden house at about 9.30 a.m. and sat waiting. He shuffled in, a
stooped man, with a graying brushcut, a ruddy veined face and clear
piercing eyes. I am always amazed by how those who have spent years in
prison have been able to maintain their mental faculties. Tun Tin has
retained a sharp, astute mind; you can't outpsyche him with clever
questions, he spots them coming a mile off. And what is most endearing
is that unlike many lawyers and politicians, he is not at all garrulous;
quite the opposite, he is open but in a very soft-voiced, modest way -
and extremely soliticious. He had arranged coffee and cakes and pastries
for me, far too much really, and he fussed over me, anxious that I
should be welcomed with as much typical Myanmar hospitality as possible.
He showed me some books, faded old hardbacks of the kind one might find
in an English village library. He was very proud of them and they had
clearly sustained him during his oppressed days. One was a novel by
Nevil Shute.
We chatted about this and that. General things. What struck me most was
that despite his periods of incarceration, when he clearly had suffered
grievously, as any intelligent man like he would when deprived of
contact with the world, he displayed no bitterness. In Insein, he had
been allowed no books and no visitors. It is too awful to contemplate
and it made me think of Dylan's song, The Lonesome Death of Hattie
Carroll, who never done nothing to William Zanzinger, the rich rake who
killed her and got away with a mere six-month sentence because of his
connections with Maryland's moneyed and mighty. But you who philosophize
disgrace and criticize all fears, take the rag away from your face, now
ain't the time for your tears, Dylan advises.
Tun Tin had no rich and powerful connections; he had simply an
unshakable belief in democracy and liberty. He still has. Right now, he
is acting as Suu Kyi's legal representative in the perverse case being
brought against her by her brother, San Aung, who has belatedly decided
he'd like half the family compound. When I asked Tun Tin about the talks
between Suu Kyi and the regime, he told me he believed they have a 50-50
chance of success. "We are hopeful," he said. He spoke glowingly - but
not sycophantically - of his party leader Suu Kyi, just as Kyaw Thein
speaks admiringly of his boss Khin Nyunt. It seems to me they are, in a
curious way, both on the same wavelength but at opposite ends of the
political spectrum. Both are honest, admirable men. A credit to Myanmar.
That is why I believe the talks will succeed. I look forward to the day
they do, when I hope I'll go for a burger to Mr. Guitar in Yangon and
hear them singing Bob Dylan songs again - and it won't sound at all
incongruous. Now ain't the time for tears and despair. It is the time
for optimism and good faith.
______________________OTHER______________________
Free Burma Coaltion: FBC Conference September 2001
Director, Free Burma Coalition
I'd like to invite you to attend and participate in the 2001 Free Burma
Coalition Conference entitled "OUR CAUSE". The goal of the conference
is to launch a new wave of Free Burma activism around the world and
especially in the United States. We expect about 150-200 participants
at the three day conference, held September 21st-23rd, 2001 at American
University in Washington, DC.
For more information and to see the entire preliminary schedule online,
go
to: www.freeburmacoalition.org/frames/conf/registration.htm
Jeremy Woodrum
Free Burma Coalition
1101 Pennsylvania Ave SE, #204
Washington, DC 20003
202-547-5985
202-544-6118 fax
jeremy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
________________
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