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WIRE:04/25/2000 03:39:00 ET
'Death Railway' Veterans Remember Fallen Comrades HELLFIRE PASS, Thailand (Reuters) - Australian, New
Zealand and other allied veterans of World War Two gathered in
western Thailand for a pre-dawn service on Tuesday to remember
comrades who died building the Thai-Burma "death railway."
Elderly survivors, many with rows of medals across their chests, and family members clambered down steep wooden steps to the bottom of a pass where allied prisoners of war hacked out the railway line from rock. They stood clutching candles in the dank, tropical
darkness while a military bugler sounded the last call.
Wreaths were laid and prayers said.
Tuesday was the 85th anniversary of the beginning of
the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign when Australian and New Zealand
(ANZAC) forces landed at the Gallipoli peninsula in western Turkey to open
up a sea route to World War One ally Russia.
More than 11,000 Australians and New Zealanders were
killed on the beaches of Turkey in a military disaster that had a
profound effect on the two countries.
But it was World War Two that many of those gathered
at Hellfire Pass remembered on Tuesday.
"This is my first time back since I worked up here,"
said 79-year-old Australian veteran, Milton Fairclough, from Perth.
"I feel better now I've done it, it brings back a lot
of memories."
ASIAN SLAVES ALSO DIED
More than 12,000 allied prisoners and some 100,000
Asian slave laborers died building the railway linking
Japanese-occupied Burma (now Myanmar) and Thailand.
Hellfire Pass was a particularly difficult section of
the track where the prisoners had to cut through rock faces with
primitive hand tools.
The pass got its name from the scene at night when
the prisoners and other laborers, forced to work around the clock,
used lanterns to light their work.
Survivors said one man died for every railway sleeper
laid.
"You couldn't do too much without being harassed by the
Jap (Japanese) guards," Fairclough said. "They didn't give us a very
good time...It was working under pressure all the time."
Fairclough said he could remember friends being beaten
to death by the guards. He said he too was beaten and forced to work
while suffering from dysentery.
"I don't have nightmares as much now. When we first
came back we had a lot of nightmares," he said.
Thousands of allied dead, mostly British, Australians,
New Zealanders and Dutch, are buried in cemeteries in the nearby
town of Kanchanaburi where several hundred people attended another ANZAC
Day memorial service on Tuesday.
Kanchanaburi is also the site of the bridge across the
Kwae river, which allied prisoners also built. The bridge was later
bombed by allied forces trying to disrupt Japanese supply lines.
Christian Science
Monitor
TUESDAY, APRIL 25, 2000
WORLDBurmese comic puts conflict with government on stageHis relatives were jailed for joking about the military regime, but Lu Maw keeps their cases alive at his theater. Moira MacDonald MANDALAY, BURMA The visitor could be forgiven for missing Mandalay's theater district. There's no glitzy neon or marquees, and on this night, there are barely any lights at all, thanks to the nearly daily blackouts in this Burmese city of 800,000. But at the Moustache Brothers' theater, the show goes on. Since early 1996, the footlights have burned for the return of the troupe's leader, comedian Par Par Lay, and fellow comic and cousin Lu Zaw. That was the year the pair were arrested for doing what they did best - making people laugh. At an Independence Day party hosted by pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the two told jokes comparing government co-operative workers with thieves. The military government saw nothing funny about it and handed them seven-year prison sentences for spreading "false news, knowing beforehand that it is untrue." "Now I'm holding the fort," remaining Moustache Brother Lu Maw cheerfully tells tonight's theatergoers - about a half-dozen foreign tourists. Effectively blacklisted from taking the show on the road, the way most troupes earn their living, Mr. Lu Maw and his family now rely on the tourist trade. But that support has taken on an extra dimension - the tourists have become an important publicity tool in a campaign to free the two jailed comics and keep them safe from harm while they remain in prison. Along with offerings of Burmese cheroot cigarettes and Chinese tea comes a brief rundown of the Moustache Brothers' case and an appeal for patrons to tell others about it. It's not talking politics, says Lu Maw, which is against the law, it's just giving information on the public record. "Every day I'm playing with fire, I know - I'm skating on thin ice," Lu Maw says later, displaying his penchant for colloquial English even as he struggles with fluency. "Knowing I can do something for my brother gives me strength and keeps me laughing. But when [the audience goes] home I feel sad." After the welcome Lu Maw plunges into an explanation of a-nyeint pwe, a contemporary yet traditional Burmese theater form mixing dance, music, opera, drama, and slapstick humor that usually takes topics from everyday life. Behind him hang troupe photos and dozens of Burmese marionettes for sale, along with a somewhat obscured photo of Aung San Suu Kyi, known as 'The Lady' among Burmese people. "Any villages where there's hot news, we pick it up and use it," says Lu Maw. Government officials have warned the troupe against telling political jokes, but in Burma, also known as Myanmar, "you can't avoid talking about politics when you talk about daily life," adds Lu Maw. Long a pariah among nations when it comes to human rights, Burma's military regime was again condemned at the recently concluded annual meeting of the UN Commission on Human Rights, with the 53-nation body criticizing "the continuing pattern of gross and systematic violations of human rights." But there are signs that in the Moustache Brothers case, publicity may be working. In January prison officials increased the frequency of family visits to deliver food parcels to Par Par Lay at his prison in Myitkina, from once every two months to once every two weeks. No family had been allowed to visit Lu Zaw. Then, in March, the International Red Cross reported both prisoners were allowed to see their family members face to face for the first time in four years. For now, Lu Maw says all he can do is stay on the stage and wait for his fellow showmen's release. "We are artists and we are different from ordinary people," he says. "We want the freedom to joke." South China
Morning Post
Tuesday, April 25, 2000
BURMA
'Death near'
for ailing drug lord
JAMES EAST in Bangkok Doctors in Burma say Khun Sa, once one of the world's most
wanted drug lords, is so feeble, he is unlikely to live beyond this year.
Sources close to the former Golden Triangle heroin trafficker, who until 1996 commanded a 15,000-strong drug army, have told an ethnic Shan news agency that he now has to be spoon-fed and helped out of bed. His memory is also failing. ''If he tries to help himself, he ends up spilling everything all over his clothes. His mouth keeps going awry, making his speech unintelligible,'' said a visitor quoted by the Shan Herald Agency for News. Khun Sa has lived in Rangoon since his alleged retirement from the drug trade four years ago after he did a backroom deal with the junta to break up his Mong Tai Army in eastern Burma. Khun Sa's dream to live out his final days at his former headquarters in Homong, in the Shan state, had been abandoned, said the agency, an independent group that publishes a newspaper for the Shan community in Thailand, Burma and the United States. The agency is respected by human rights groups. Another factor mitigating against a move from Rangoon, a former attendant said, was that his mistresses had also cleaned out his five homes three in Homong and two in Mongmai carting off valuable furniture to Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai in northern Thailand and Tachilek on the border. The Rangoon junta is thought to be in two minds about him leaving the capital. It believes his presence in Shan state could help draw support away from ethnic rebel fighters, but also fears his abduction by Thai or US soldiers and the loss of face that would bring. Khun Sa remains one of Washington's most-wanted traffickers but Rangoon has consistently refused to extradite him. Last year the Defence Ministry said Khun Sa's surrender terms included a no-trafficking clause. But observers say the junta granted Khun Sa public transport concessions in Shan state that allow him to control the drug-trafficking network. South China
Morning Post
Tuesday, April 25, 2000
BURMA
Junta turns
to militia to help subdue Shan
JAMES EAST A new militia unit to be commanded by Khun Sa's second son,
Chang Weikang, is being created in Burma's rebellious Shan state.
The independent Shan Herald Agency for News said the unit is being set up to contain the various armed Shan groups operating in the western state and to act as a counter-insurgency force. Burma's military Government wants to prevent any of the fractious armed groups, which want more autonomy for their region, becoming too powerful, said an unnamed ethnic group commander quoted by the agency. Among them are those that have already signed ceasefires with the junta, such as the Shan State National Army and the United Wa State Army, which is becoming increasingly powerful thanks to drug profits generated by the sale of millions of amphetamine pills in Thailand. The group has thousands of armed troops and has been buying arms. Thai intelligence operatives fear SAM missiles are being bought from Cambodia following the arrest in northern Thailand of several arms dealers with the weapons. "Rangoon is aiming to counter both the Shan resistance and the ceasefire groups with militias that serve the junta's cause," said the ethnic group commander. There are already several other militia groups linked to the junta operating in the area, he added. Tuesday, April 25 3:02 PM SGT Myanmar pay hikes send prices spiralling as junta intervenesYANGON, April 25 (AFP) - Myanmar's military government blamed "greedy manipulators" Tuesday for spiralling inflation in the wake of a decision earlier this year to grant massive wage hikes to civil servants. The move in April to increase wages by up to 600 percent has sent inflation skyward, forcing the country's generals to intervene to keep prices down. "The pay hike will ease to some extent the financial burden of state employees but hardly increases their purchasing power," said an official commentary in the state-run Burmese-language press. "You won't see them rushing around to buy up gold, dollars or bags of rice," it said. The commentary blamed "greedy merchants and unscrupulous politicians for for playing their nasty games" by trying to destabilise the nation. "The authorities will surely take necessary measures to protect the public from such manipulations." "Unscrupulous politicians" is a term often applied by the military to democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party, which won 1990 elections but were denied power. In an effort to combat spiralling commodity prices, the government has recently set up four "tax-free markets" in Yangon where farmers, mainly from military-run farms, can sell their produce directly to consumers, mainly government workers. Rice and oil merchant associations have begun selling rice and oil at below market prices and state enterprises are making available essentials such as soap, textiles and other goods to their workers. The heavy handedness of the wage hikes dismayed many observers who at the time were relieved inflation had slowed from a punishing 49 percent in 1998-99 to 23.8 percent by last October. The wage hike means that an advisor to the government paid 2,000 kyats a month, now gets around get 12,000 kyats. An army captain earning 1,200 kyats gets 6,000 or 7,000 kyats. A common complaint about the generals who rule Myanmar is that they have little or no idea how to run an economy. The result is a primitive and informal system propped up by barter and a pervasive black market in everything from currency to gasoline. A World Bank report which last year warned the junta that political reform was the only route to a functioning economy was dismissed as "exaggerated and inaccurate" by Myanmar's economic minister. Physical signs of the decaying economy are obvious. Power cuts are a daily headache for residents of Yangon and other cities and prices rise and fall dramatically throughout the year. Foreign investment has all but dried up owing to the Asian financial crisis and the stigma attached to investing in a country blamed by the West for serious human rights abuses. Bangkok Post - April 25, 2000.Paralysed Khun Sa 'dying'Not expected to last beyond year's
end Former drug kingpin Khun Sa has severe paralysis and is not expected to live beyond the end of this year, a source said yesterday. Doctors have barred Khun Sa, 66, from fulfilling his wish to return to Ho Mong, former stronghold of the Mong Tai Army, opposite Mae Hong Son. The source quoted Khun Sa's personal physician as saying he would be "incredibly lucky" if he could get through after the end of 2000. After surrendering to the Rangoon junta on Feb 12, 1996, Khun Sa, a diabetic, suffered paralysis down the right side of his body. His condition deteriorated in late March and he has a problem with his speech. Latest reports indicate Khun Sa is not unable to stand. "He needs help with everything, even eating and drinking. He cannot even remember persons close to him," the source added. Town under Karen threatSupamart Kasem
A pro-Rangoon Karen army faction has threatened
to carry out arson attacks in Mae Sot town unless three Karen women arrested on
drug charges are released. A border source said the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army's 999th Brigade sent
a letter to Thai police in Mae Sot on Saturday. The letter, signed by the
brigade's leading figure, Than Pe Myint, demanded the immediate release of the
three Karen drug suspects. The three-Aryu, 25, Pha Se Ya, 37, and Arwi, 27-were caught at Phop Phra-Mae
Sot checkpoint on April 11 after police found 13,200 amphetamine pills in their
possession. In the letter, the Karen brigade threatened to set fire to Mae Sot town if
their demand went unheeded. Meanwhile, the owner of a sawmill in Mae Ramat district has called on the
Karen brigade to release eight workers seized during an attack on the sawmill on
April 13, a source said. The source said the Karen brigade was demanding 400,000 baht in ransom from
the sawmill owner in exchange for the release of the eight Thai workers. |