Thursday May 25 6:35 AM ET

Washington, ASEAN Differ Over Trade

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (Reuters) - Southeast Asian nations urged the United States on Thursday to dismantle trade barriers at a meeting marked by disagreements over international commerce and Myanmar's military government.

Representatives of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and U.S. officials ended a two-day meeting in Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur which delegates said had focused largely on economic matters.

ASEAN highlighted U.S. trade practices which ``created barriers and discriminated against ASEAN exports to the U.S. market and urged the U.S. to address these concerns,'' the two sides said in a joint press statement at the end of the meeting.

An Asian participant said U.S. non-tariff barriers were hurting ASEAN exports of rubber gloves, timber, palm oil and shrimp, among other products.

``The U.S. is not doing enough,'' the delegate said.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The group also voiced concern over U.S. biological patents on rice and tropical plants, and proposed the joint development of products using ASEAN resources and U.S. technical expertise, the joint statement said.

The United States cited violations of intellectual property rights in ASEAN members states, and urged the region's nations to modernize customs procedures and liberalize their air services.

The meeting was co-chaired by Malaysian Foreign Ministry Secretary-General Abdul Kadir Mohamad and U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Ralph Boyce.

Disagreement Over Myanmar

While welcoming bilateral assistance, ASEAN urged the United States to contribute financing to regional projects in such areas as the environment, science and technology and human resources, delegates said.

``ASEAN acknowledged the bilateral assistance provided by the U.S. to some member countries but called for greater participation of the U.S. at the regional level,'' the joint statement said.

ASEAN officials said the United States had stopped providing funds to association projects in part because of objections to Myanmar's military government.

The two sides agreed to disagree over the Myanmar regime.

``The United States noted that the situation in Myanmar remained a source of instability in the region,'' the joint statement said.

``ASEAN noted the on-going efforts of Myanmar in promoting peace, tranquillity and stability in the region.''

The United States marked the 10th anniversary of aborted elections in Myanmar last week by endorsing the struggle for democracy in the country. Myanmar then accused Washington of misunderstanding its process of democratization.

The Southeast Asian nations urged the United States to ''strongly support and facilitate efforts toward the early membership of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam'' in the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Reiterating an oft-stated stand, the Asian nations said ''trade matters should not be linked to labor and other non-trade related issues.'' Many developing nations fear the United States will try to link trade benefits to labor rights in a new round of global trade talks.

The United States told the meeting that it would be possible to launch a new round this year, ``but this would require flexibility of all members."

Thursday, May 25 7:05 PM SGT

Myanmar junta cannot stop monks' protest march: Monks Union

BANGKOK, May 25 (AFP) -

Myanmar's ruling junta cannot stop a march on the capital Yangon by monks to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the opposition election victory ignored by the government, a Buddhist group said here Thursday.

The junta "cannot crush the monks' movement ... momentum is gaining day by day," Ashin Khayamassara, chairman of the All Burma Young Monks Union, said at a seminar on Myanmar here.

"The Sangha (Buddhist clergy) have full faith" that the march, which will include three separate processions from Mandalay to Yangon, will go off smoothly, Ashin said.

"If the military uses force against the monks, students and ordinary people will react against the military."

Two weeks ago, monks in Mandalay circulated a letter saying they will "take up action," incuding turning monasteries into protest centres and launching a march from Mandalay to Yangon, if there is no political progress made between the junta and Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party by May 25.

Ashin told reporters that the march would begin on May 26 and added that he was not optimistic about seeing any progress before then.

Myanmar government sources warned that if the Mandalay-based monks "come out in force, the government will come out in force."

They told AFP that military intelligence has infiltrated the monkhood obtaining information regarding the monks' plans in order to help them anticipate their movements.

But Ashin said that "the monks know who is from intelligence ... it's easy to distinguish these people."

The military has ratcheted up the pressure on Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party ahead of the 10th anniversary of her May 27, 1990 election win, which was ignored by the junta.

Opposition radio reported May 18 that 29 monks were arrested this week at a peaceful demonstration in the southern city of Mergui.

Myanmar state-run media Saturday reported that more than 400 members of the NLD had resigned.

A total of 470 NLD members who "no longer wished to participate in party politics" resigned on Friday in Tharkayta township, on the outskirts of Yangon, state-controlled Yangon Radio said.

Aung San Suu Kyi has said the resignations are largely the result of coercion by the military and that popular support for her party is as strong as ever.

Last month the NLD said Aye Tha Aung, one of Myanmar's top opposition politicians, was arrested and placed under military custody, the first time a member of the NLD's representative committee had been arrested.

There are more than 250,000 Buddhist monks in Myanmar and they have a long history of political activism and civil disobedience.

The military has been in control of Myanmar, formerly Burma, in various guises since 1962.

Thursday, May 25 12:41 PM SGT

Myanmar's "lost generation"

YANGON, May 25 (AFP) -

Of Myanmar's many problems, one of the most crippling is the paralysis of the country's education system, because of the military junta's fear of political unrest.

The educational stalemate has given rise to a "lost generation" of students and compromised the future of the country formerly known as Burma.

Myanmar's universities, which have been breeding grounds in the past for anti-government unrest, have been sporadically closed since a popular uprising in the summer of 1988 threatened to topple the military regime.

While many student activists remain in prison or in exile, the result has been a decade of lost opportunities for all Myanmar's youth.

The rare periods when universities have been open have been quickly interrupted by a return of repression -- deserted campuses and months of inactivity during which only the most fortunate can continue studying with private tutors.

Many students fill their time doing odd jobs, such as driving taxis or selling beer, that do not require a university education.

The last student revolt was in December 1996, and in spite of official assurances that most of the universities have recently been reopened, higher education in Myanmar is far from functioning normally.

The authorities are concerned about any gatherings of students in large cities such as Yangon and Mandalay out of fear they could lead to trouble.

As a result, universities that have opened offer only courses by correspondence to two-thirds of their students, who do their schoolwork at home, resulting in campuses which are almost always empty.

One bitter parent spoke of a "virtual school" in which "people don't learn anything."

The other third of the students have been allowed to return to classes since mid-December 1999, but most of them are studying in new technical institutes far outside city centres where protestors have gathered.

For instance, engineering students enrolled in the Yangon Institute of Technology are now meeting in new facilities located 20 kilometersmiles) from the capital centre.

The authorities deny that security reasons are behind the move to keep students away from the cities and say it is being done because of the lack of space and dilapidated state of the city centre campuses.

Deputy Minister of Education Myo Nyunt told AFP that the students were moved "because of the extension of the (university) programmes."

"With more programmes some universities have to be opened outside the cities," he said.

He added that 200,000 students were currently enrolled in "distant education" -- correspondence school -- in Yangon and Mandalay and that "post-graduate diplomas have been running normally since 1996."

He insisted that the level of higher education in Myanmar is "on a par with the developed countries of the region" and took pride in a education plan for 2000-2003 that gives emphasis to multimedia training.

The Internet and other forms of high tech communications are strictly controlled in Myanmar.

Government claims that education is a priority are at odds, however, with a stagnant budget for the education ministry and the fact that only 0.5 percent of Myanmar's Gross National Product is allocated to education.

Other countries in Southeast Asia spend approximately 2.7 percent of their GNPs on education.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has historically enjoyed great support from the students, routinely accuses the country's military rulers of "sacrificing the future" of Myanmar's youth to safeguard their hold on power.

"We'll have to work very hard to make up for all the lost years," she told AFP in an interview last year.

"Dictatorships don't really care to educate their people because they prefer to keep their people ignorant and subdued, that is the way of all dictatorships."

Wednesday, May 24 8:29 PM SGT

Myanmar Women Urge Military Regime To End Conflicts

MAE SOT, Thailand (AP)--Women dissidents from Myanmar urged the country's military regime Wednesday to move toward democracy and put an end to conflicts scarring generations of children.

Mi Sue Pwint, chairwoman of the Burmese Women's Union, said at a ceremony for peace and disarmament that a half-century of conflict had caused wide suffering among women and children.

"We are concerned for the children, who are being bullied and suffer from terrorist acts by the Burmese army," she said. "Thinking of retaliation, the children will become terrorists when they grow up."

The ceremony at Mae Sot, a border town with a large population of exiles and migrant workers, came three days before the 10th anniversary of elections won by the party led by Myanmar's most famous woman, Aung San Suu Kyi.

The army has never allowed the parliament to convene and military rule has continued unbroken since 1962. Suu Kyi, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, spent six years under house arrest until 1995 and remains under tight restriction.

Mi Sue Pwint urged the ruling council of generals to open a dialogue with Suu Kyi's party. The generals have always refused to speak to Suu Kyi, regarding her as a traitor.

Meanwhile, the London-based human rights group Amnesty International issued a statement saying a new report shows that women in Myanmar, also known as Burma, have been arrested, tortured and subjected to forced relocations since 1988.

That was the year that the army suppressed a general street uprising against military rule, killing thousands.

Almost 100 women are known to be imprisoned for political reasons, Amnesty said. Many are in bad health due to poor prison conditions and lack of care.

Several women were arrested in recent weeks in what is seen as a pre-emptive move by the government to keep Suu Kyi's party from commemorating the election anniversary.

The government has acknowledged arresting members of Suu Kyi's party for allegedly acting as couriers with Thailand-based armed splinter groups.

Thursday, May 25 12:17 PM SGT

Myanmar to Buy Pakistani Pharmaceutical, Surgical Goods

ISLAMABAD May 25 Asia Pulse - Myanmer is interested in purchasing goods and equipment to help in the establishment of pharmaceutical industry with Pakistan's cooperation, Myanmar Ambassador in Pakistan, UC Vin told Dr Abdul Malik Kasi Minister for Health here on Tuesday.

The ambassador said that his country would also be interested in buying surgical instruments manufactured in Sialkot and other parts of Pakistan.

Thursday, May 25, 2000, updated at 07:21(GMT+8)
China People's Daily

Chinese Defense Minister Meets Myanmar Guests

Chinese Defense Minister Chi Haotian met in Beijing Wednesday with a military delegation from Myanmar headed by Tin Oo, chief of staff of the Myanmar army.

Chi, who is also a vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission and a state councilor, said that China and Myanmar have supported each other since they forged diplomatic ties 50 years ago, and Sino-Myanmar relations of cooperation between the armed forces of the two countries are firmly rooted.

Chi noted that "we not only should keep the old friends, but also make new friends, so that the Sino-Myanmar friendship will be passed on from generation to generation."

On the Taiwan issue, Chi said that "peaceful reunification, and 'one country, two systems'" is the Chinese government's guideline in resolving the Taiwan issue. However, he noted, the new leader in the Taiwan region recently adopted an evasive and vague attitude towards the one-China principle.

He said that the Chinese People's Liberation Army will not allow the realization of any attempt to split state sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Chi briefed the guests on China's domestic situation, and expressed his gratitude for the support of Myanmar to China on the issues of Taiwan, Tibet and human rights.

Tin Oo said that Myanmar and China have enjoyed a brotherly friendship, and he hoped that his current visit would further the cooperation and exchanges between the armies of the two countries.

May 25, 2000 Asiatimes
Southeast Asia

EU toughens sanctions against Burma
By Brian Kenety

BRUSSELS - European Union (EU) foreign affairs ministers and the EU Commission have agreed to implement a range of ''restrictive measures'' against Burma, including strengthening an existing visa ban and freezing assets held abroad by persons to whom the ban applies.

The so-called General Affairs Council has adopted a regulation prohibiting the sale, supply and export to Burma of equipment ''which might be used for internal repression or terrorism'' and the freezing of the funds of ''certain persons related to important governmental functions in that country''. The regulation, adopted Monday without debate, comes just before the 10-year anniversary of the Burmese military junta annulled elections.

The Council's move is effectively a rubber stamp approving an April 26 decision to extend until October 29, 2000, the EU Common Position on Burma urging authorities there ''to respect human rights, restore democracy and engage in a dialogue with the opposition that could lead to national reconciliation in a united and democratic state''.

May 27 this year marks the 10th anniversary of the last free elections in Burma. The clear victor of the 1990 elections was the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of an opposition leader. The NLD garnered more than 80 percent of the parliamentary seats contested, but the Burmese military junta refused to honor the results. Exercising power through a front party, State Law and Order Restoration Council, the military annulled the election, claiming foreign agents had fixed the results.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize, spent more than five years under house arrest for speaking out against the self-imposed military government in Rangoon, which has since renamed itself the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

According to a source within the EU Commission, a list of over 100 names, including the SPDC chairman General Than Shwe, his deputy general, cabinet members, and all senior officials in all ministries, will be included in the ban. The names are due to be published in the Official Journal of the Union this week.

US President Bill Clinton on May 18 extended the national emergency, originally declared May 20, 1997 because the ''large-scale repression of democratic opposition by the government of Burma continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.'' The United States maintains a ban on new investment in Burma. Chris Patten, EU Commissioner for External Affairs, noted in a speech before the Council of Europe that the union exercises its ''economic muscle to promote human rights'' with ad hoc and ''preferably targeted sanctions'' in Burma, where the EU operates a travel ban on visas for senior members of the regime.

However, according to a report released Monday by the Washington, DC-based group EarthRights International (ERI), forced labor and other human rights abuses associated with building natural gas pipelines in Burma continue with the knowledge of US and European corporations, which partially own and manage the projects. ERI said the oil companies Unocal (US), Total (France) and Premier (Britain) were aware that forced labor was likely to be used before they began operations in Burma. The 180-page report is based on first-hand testimony gathered between 1995 and 2000 from several hundred villagers, including Burmese army deserters, who claim to either have been victims or witnesses to recent abuse.

According to the London-based human rights group Amnesty International (AI), the Burma Army continues to seize civilians for forced labor duties throughout the country. ''Hundreds of thousands of ethnic minority civilians have been forcibly removed from their ancestral lands without compensation,'' said AI in an April 12 news release. ''Some 1,500 political prisoners remain in Burma jails in appalling conditions, and torture remains widespread in Burma's secret military intelligence centers.''

A ''technical cooperation'' delegation of the International Labour Organization (ILO) is to travel to Rangoon Wednesday to discuss the implementation of the body's recommendations against forced labor. At a May 12 meeting of Southeast Asian labor ministers in the Philippines, Burma reportedly agreed to receive the ILO delegation without preconditions.

In ''an action unprecedented in the ILO's 80-year history,'' the organization's governing body announced March 29 it had set in motion a discussion in its June 2000 Conference, ''which could result in an appeal to its other 174 member states to review their relationship with the government of Burma and to take appropriate measures to ensure that Burma cannot take advantage of such relations to perpetuate or extend the system of forced or compulsory labor practiced against the country's citizens''.

An updated report by the ILO Director-General Juan Somavia examined new evidence of the situation and concluded that an order issued by the government of Burma on May 14, 1999 does not exclude the imposition of forced labor in violation of the convention, and ''in actual practice, forced or compulsory labor continues to be imposed in a widespread manner.''

The ILO report detailed instances of forced labor imposed especially by the military in contradiction to the government's assertion that forced labor is never applied in the country. Burma citizens have been forced to do portering, to cultivate food for the army, to act as messengers, sentries and builders and for a variety of other duties, including harsh work on railroads, canals and other infrastructure development. ''It also includes forced sex for the military,'' said the ILO. Failure to comply with the demands of the military authorities can and have resulted in the arrest and torture of those resisting, said the organization.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), accepted Burma as a member in 1997, leading the EU that year to suspend what would have been the third Asean-EU Ministerial meeting (AEMM).

An EU-Asean meeting of ''senior officials'' is due to be held next month in Portugal, which holds the rotating EU Presidency until June 30, however, the Burmese government will not be allowed to attend. In what is seen as a concession to Asean, the EU has agreed to Rangoon's articipation in the upcoming AEMM, to be held in an Asian country in October. Thailand currently serves as EU-Asean coordinator. Laos has expressed interest in hosting the October AEMM meeting.

(Inter Press Service)

Bangkok Post - May 26, 2000.

REFUGEES

Deadline sought to send 120,000 back to Burma

Yuwadee Tunyasiri

Thailand will seek the return of an estimated 120,000 refugees to Burma within three years.The timeframe was approved by the National Security Council yesterday, secretary-general Khachadpai Burusphat said.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, authorities in Rangoon and international organisations would be asked to help with its implementation.

Mr Khachadpai said Thailand had been providing humanitarian assistance to refugees for 15 years and he said the situation now seemed to favour repatriation.

There are 11 camps housing refugees in five provinces bordering Burma.

The government would try to resettle about 1,000 Burmese students at Maneeloy camp this year, he said.

About 500 have already been settled overseas.UNHCR representatives are to meet the Third Army commander in Phitsanulok today to discuss the refugee problem.

The security council saw no need to adopt a special policy towards Vietnamese people living in Thailand once the existing grace period ends later this year, Mr Khachadpai said.

Bangkok Post - May 25, 2000.

DRUGS

Jurin wants inquiry into pill seizure

Hoping for clues to network in North

Yuwadee Tunyasiri and Narong Chuenniran
Further investigations will be made into Tuesday's seizure of three million speed pills in Pathum Thani to find clues that could lead to a drug network in the North.

The order for further probes came from Jurin Laksanavisit, the PM's Office minister who is deputy director of the national anti-narcotics centre. He said yesterday measures to monitor substances which can be used as drug precursors would be stepped up.

The methamphetamines seized on Tuesday were found to have been made from smuggled precursors and some other chemicals produced locally.

This was the first indication precursor substances were being smuggled in to produce narcotic drugs inside Thailand, Mr Jurin said.

He added the seized pills were stamped with the letters "WY" like those produced by the Red Wa in Burma.A total of 524 special task forces have been set up to suppress illicit drugs in 117 targeted areas nationwide, including 15 in Bangkok and 10 in neighbouring Pathum Thani.

Today, the national anti-drug centre will call a meeting of judiciary officials, police, corrections officials and Narcotics Control Board (NCB) staff in Chiang Mai to seek their co-operation in speeding up drug cases.

Meanwhile Somsak Thongnim, head of the NCB's southern drug suppression division, said the agency was keeping a close watch on the spread of a narcotic substance derived from the Ephedra plant genus from Burma's Kawthaung into Ranong province.

Drug fighters in the South will meet soon to work out measures to fight drug smuggling via Ranong, he said.

The Nation - May 26, 2000.

Junta flooding speed into Thailand

BURMA’S military government is deliberately trying to destabilise Thailand by flooding the Kingdom with drugs produced in clandestine labs along the border, a Hong Kongbased regional magazine reported yesterday.

The Far Eastern Economic Review, which hits the stands today, quoted senior Thai officials as saying that the Burmese junta is helping the United Wa State Army (UWSA) with its crossborder drug trade because the junta is short of money and friends.

Thailand Deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra was quoted as saying Thailand has been supporting clandestine sabotage operations in Wacontrolled territory inside Burma. He did not elaborate.

Thai officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, reportedly said 600 million methamphetamine tablets, worth about US$1.8 billion (Bt70.2 billion) on the streets of Bangkok, are expected to flood Thailand this year. This is in addition to an already wellestablished heroin trade.

The drugs are reportedly coming mainly from areas controlled by the UWSA in Burma’s Shan State. A number of the UWSA’s leaders have been indicted in the United States for drug trafficking. The US government has offered financial rewards for information leading to their arrest.

Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai is deeply concerned by the worsening situation, and his administration is under pressure to act decisively with an election just months away, the magazine said.

“No democratically elected government could hope to return to power if it sits idly while its sons and daughters waste away on drugs,” Sukhumbhand told the magazine.

The magazine reported that Thailand, unconvinced by the Burmese junta’s explanation that it is unable to control the UWSA, is increasing its own measures to fight the drug trade.

Former members of Britain’s elite Special Air Service are being recruited to train members of Burma’s ethnic Karen community as agents in the antidrug war, Thai intelligence sources were quoted as saying.

The Nation

Wa report dismissed

THE Foreign Ministry yesterday dismissed an article in the Far Eastern Economic Review weekly news magazine in which Deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra was reported as saying that Thailand was clandestinely supporting sabotage operations in Wa-controlled territory inside Burma.

Ministry spokesman Don Pramudwinai dismissed the news report after consulting with Sukhumbhand, who is currently on an official trip to Europe.

Don said the ministry would send a letter to the Hong Kong-based magazine to clarify the allegation made in its latest edition, which hit news-stands yesterday.

The Review, on the other hand, stands by the story.

The article talked about the frustration of a number of Thai authorities over illegal drugs coming out of Burma.

It also said that the Thai army, which coordinates the anti-narcotics efforts along the northern border, is experimenting with a more aggressive policy to tackle the problem of drug trafficking from the area controlled by the United Wa State Army (UWSA). The ethnic army has been referred to by the US government as the world's largest armed narcotic trafficking group.

The UWSA entered into a cease-fire agreement with the military government in Rangoon in 1989. In recent years it took up metamphetamine production. Millions of these tablets, made cheaply in clandestine labs along the Thai-Burmese border, have flooded Thailand, affecting mainly young people.

The Nation

Monks to march against generals

BURMESE Buddhist monks will march on their capital this weekend to mark the 10th anniversary of the election that was nullified by the country’s ruling military junta, a dissident monk said yesterday.

The march on Rangoon is a protest against a decade of illegitimate rule by the junta, the monk said.

Ashin Khaymarsara, chairman of the All Burma Young Monks Union, said monks from the central cities of Mandalay and Magwe, and the coastal city of Moulmein, will participate in the march.

The march will mark the May 27 anniversary of the National League for Democracy’s (NLD’s) victory in national elections. The party is led by Nobel Peace Prizewinner Aung San Suu Kyi.

Ashin said the upcoming protest is gaining momentum.

The country’s main monasteries will serve as sanctuaries for monks and others participating in the protest, he said.

“So far as I have learned, there are 21 campgrounds and we can expect simultaneous protests,” he said. “We can expect strong participation by students and people in general.”

In anticipation, the Burmese military in recent weeks has cracked down on NLD supporters, and increased its presence at Buddhist monasteries throughout the country.

U Maung Maung Aye, an NLD member who won a seat in Parliament in the election 10 years ago, yesterday blasted the junta for the massive arrests.

The junta is incapable of solving the country’s varied political crises, despite signing ceasefires with 17 different ethnic rebel groups, he said.

After the bloody crackdown on prodemocracy demonstrators following the 1990 election, thousands of Burmese, many of them students, fled to the Thai border.

Some joined ethnic rebel armies in carrying out hitandrun attacks against government troops along the border, while others sought asylum in third countries.

Hundreds of political prisoners remain in Burmese prisons.

The closing of universities has resulted in lost opportunity for a whole generation.

Meanwhile, at the United Nations building in Bangkok, Thai police yesterday arrested five Burmese dissidents who tried to deliver a letter to the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Four had no travel documents and the other held an identification card from the Maneeloy refugee holding centre.

BY Sanguan Khumrungroj