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Wednesday May 10 10:09 AM ET
More Children in Armed ConflictsBy GRANT PECK, Associated Press Writer BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Children are being marched into battle and used as ``cannon fodder'' in conflicts across Asia, according to a report released today that blamed both governments and insurgent movements for the practice. The use of children in armed conflicts in Asia is particularly widespread in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Afghanistan, said the survey by the non-governmental Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, a collection of international human rights groups. Child soldiers are used by most rebel movements in the region, including Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers - who conscript both boys and girls - and the Philippines' Abu Sayyaf Islamic separatist group, which is currently holding numerous hostages, including Western tourists, coalition spokesman Rory Mungoven said at a news conference. ``Asia ranks close behind Africa in the appalling use of tens of thousands of children who are being used literally as cannon fodder in almost every conflict in the region,'' Mungoven said. The coalition did not provide a breakdown of numbers of child soldiers by region. The survey said that Myanmar - also called Burma - ``has one of the highest numbers of child soldiers in the world, both within governmental armed forces and non-governmental armed groups.'' Responding to the charges, a Myanmar government spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said his country's armed forces are ``a voluntary army and underage (recruits) are not welcome.'' In Cambodia, where three decades of conflict recently came to an end, the challenge now is ``the demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration of former child soldiers,'' the report said. It said over 300,000 child soldiers are believed to be involved in conflicts in more than 30 countries worldwide. The coalition's goal ``is to put ... the use of children as weapons of war, on the same moral and legal footing as land mines, as chemical weapons, as biological weapons, as something that is simply beyond the pale in conflict situations,'' Mungoven said. The coalition, which includes Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and World Vision International, issued the survey ahead of a meeting of governments and non-governmental groups on use of child soldiers to be held next week in Katmandu, Nepal. Wednesday May 10 4:08
AM ET
Over 300,000 Child Soldiers in Global ConflictsBANGKOK (Reuters) - More than 300,000 child soldiers are fighting for national and guerrilla armies around the world, a human rights pressure group said on Wednesday. Rory Mungoven, coordinator of the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers (CSUCS), said child soldiers, combatants under the age of 18, were used in all parts of the world, especially in Africa and Asia. About 120,000 child soldiers were deployed in armies across Africa and a further 75,000 in Asian countries, including Afghanistan, Cambodia, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. Child soldiers had also played a major part in the militias involved in the violence in East Timor, as well as in local conflicts in India, he said. ``Precious little attention is given to this problem of child soldiers, although it is widespread,'' Mungoven told Reuters. ``It is a dark and disturbing aspect of many modern conflicts.'' CSUCS is organizing a major conference in Kathmandu from May 15-18, sponsored by several human rights groups and the United Nations Children's Fund. ``We hope the conference will add to the movement for a global ban on children under 18 being used in conflicts...and put the use of children as weapons of war beyond the pale,'' he said. Mungoven said there was a growing movement around the world to ban child soldiers and classify the forced recruitment of children as a war crime. Support for a ban was broad in Asia with backing from Thailand, Sri Lanka and Nepal, but several Western countries including the United States and Britain opposed it. The British army, for example, recruited soldiers as young as 15 years old, he said. ``Almost all of the states in this region (Asia) recruit below the age of 18,'' he said. New Straits Times Wednesday, May 10 6:30 PM SGT Forgery gang brain heldTHE 33-year-old Myanmar said to be the mastermind behind the forgery gang busted on April 27 is still being detained for investigation. A senior Immigration officer said he hopes to get more information on the links the syndicate is believed to have with international gangs specialising in forging documents and the smuggling of foreigners. "We need to get as much information from him before we charge him," he said. The man was arrested along with eight others from three houses in Bandar Baru Sentul, Jalan Ipoh and Sentul. Besides the many forged documents, letters of approval from various Ministries to bring foreigners into the country and a set of computer, the department found that the mastermind had on him numerous identification tags and cards. He had three different passports and was believed to have used them to slip in and out of several countries, including Malaysia, under assumed identities. The Daily Star- May 10, 2000. Myanmar envoy calls on
Sajeda
Newly-appointed Myanmar Ambassador in Bangladesh U
Ohn Thwin paid a courtesy call on Environment and Forest Minister Syeda Sajeda
Chowdhury at her office yesterday, reports UNB.
They discussed various issues like environment court, social afforestation, pollution in Naaf river, forests in hill tracts region and bilateral cooperation on environmental matters. The issue of preservation of the natural beauties and biodiversity of the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest also came up for discussion. Wednesday - May 10, 2000. STF arrests Myanmar citizen The Times of India News Service LUCKNOW: The Special Task Force arrested a Myanmar citizen in Alambagh on Tuesday while he was moving around in suspicious circumstances. An STF spokesman said the man was stopped during checking of trains coming from Sealdah and Howrah. On interrogation, the man identified himself as Zahir Ahmed. He told the police that he hailed from Akyav district of Myanmar and had entered India via Bangladesh without passport or visa. Documents recovered from him included names and addresses of some imams, telephone numbers of Mecca, a handmade map depicting major cities of north India and Pakistan. The STF spokesman said evidence was being verified to ascertain the real cause of his illegal entry into India. Information provided from Myanmarese Muslims held from other parts of the country has revealed that the Myanmar-Bangladesh-India border was being used for sending trained militants into India. Kyodo News
BANGKOK, May 10. 2000.
Thailand, Myanmar relations continue to
deteriorate
A strongly worded statement from
Thailand's Foreign Ministry underlined new strains Wednesday in relations
between Thailand and neighboring Myanmar.
Reacting to an article in the state-run New Light of Myanmar charging Thailand welcomes refugees from Myanmar for economic and political gain, not humanitarian reasons, the foreign ministry said Myanmar's ''illegitimate ruling and political system and inefficient economic management are the main driving force pushing all the problems into Thailand.'' Kyodo News
TAIPEI, May 10, 2000. Suu Kyi unable to attend Taiwan presidential inauguration Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi said in a letter Wednesday she is unable to leave Yangon to attend the
inauguration of
Chen Shui-bian as Taiwan's second democratically elected president later this month. ''You will not be surprised to learn that it is not possible for me to leave Burma at present,'' Suu Kyi wrote to Chen. The Japan Times: May 11, 2000 Global community may have another beef with Myanmar By HISANE MASAKI Staff writer No democracy. International drug trafficking. Use of forced labor. Human rights violations. Is there anything else to add to the international community's charges against Myanmar's military rulers? Maybe, and the potential addition brings the list off on a new tangent, into the realm of economics. The military regime, which now calls itself the State Peace and Development Council, is dragging its feet on making the impoverished Southeast Asian country's trade system fully compatible with international rules. At issue is Myanmar's refusal to comply with the import-tariff evaluation pact, which is primarily aimed at ensuring transparency in setting tariff rates among more than 130 members of the Geneva-based World Trade Organization. The tariff pact was reached during the Uruguay round of global trade liberalization negotiations, which was sponsored by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. The WTO succeeded GATT as a new and more powerful watchdog on global commerce under agreements reached during the Uruguay round at the end of 1993 and signed in the spring of 1994. Developing WTO members, including Myanmar, did not have to comply with the tariff pact until the end of 1999. Yet even after the expiration, Myanmar is far from reaching compliance. "Myanmar's tariff-charging method is extremely primitive," a senior Japanese government official in charge of WTO affairs said, requesting anonymity. According to the official, Myanmar is setting currency exchange rates in an opaque manner. It is also levying import tariffs on foreign goods based on product prices set arbitrarily by the country. If it set the tariffs according to invoice prices, as required by the WTO, the tariff rates would be lower -- as would its income from these tariffs. While some countries have asked for an extension of the grace period on the tariff pact, Myanmar is still not willing to comply with the pact as soon -- and as fully -- as the WTO would permit. "Although Myanmar had said earlier that it needs at least another five years to make its tariff-system fully compatible with the pact, it now says about two more years may be enough," the officials said. "But reform measures Myanmar is now considering taking during that period are still insufficient to make its tariff system fully compatible with WTO rules," the official said. The official recently visited Yangon to discuss the matter with SPDC trade officials. "I went there not to criticize Myanmar officials over the matter on behalf of the WTO members, but just to advise them," the official said. "They do not fully understand the WTO rules and systems yet. I just wanted to make them aware of the importance of the issue." In recent years, the United States and other industrialized countries in Europe have toughened economic and other sanctions against Myanmar in response to the military regime's violations of democratic principles and human rights. In addition to the economic sanctions, the 1997 Asian economic crisis dealt a serious blow to the country's economy, which saw a sharp decline in foreign investment, especially from its Asian neighbors. Minoru Kiryu, a professor of economics at Osaka Sangyo University, pointed out that the SPDC is probably reluctant to change its tariff system for two reasons: To protect domestic industries from foreign competition and to secure government revenue. Myanmar's fiscal condition is in dire straits, and the SPDC relies on tariff revenue for between 30 percent and 40 percent of total government fiscal revenue, said Kiryu, a leading Japanese expert on Myanmar affairs. "Myanmar needs to drastically overhaul its fiscal system, not just tinker with the tariff system," he said.
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