Burma Related News- May 28, 2000.

[TIN KYI <tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

WIRE:05/28/2000 08:41:00 ET
Myanmar leader puts off Bangladesh visit

 

DHAKA, May 28 (Reuters) - Myanmar military ruler General  Than Shwe has cancelled his planned visit to Bangladesh because  of illness, a senior foreign ministry official said on Sunday. 
Shwe, prime minister and chairman of the State Peace and  Development Council of Myanmar, was due to arrive Dhaka on  Monday on a three-day visit. 

 

"Myanmar prime minister has cancelled his scheduled visit  because he is indisposed," Foreign Secretary Shafi Sami said. 

 

He said Than Shew would come to Bangladesh at a convenient  time.

 

Sunday, May 28 9:48 PM SGT

Myanmar leader's Bangladesh visit postponed: official

DHAKA, May 28 (AFP) -

The state visit of Myanmar junta chief Senior General Than Shwe to Bangladesh has been postponed because he is unwell, officials here said Sunday.

Bangladesh's top diplomat, C.M. Shafi Sami, told journalists that the postponement was due to Than Shwe's "sudden illness," adding that the junta leader had been "advised by his physicians to take a complete rest."

The three-day visit was due to start Monday. Officials said a new date will be announced later after bilateral discussions.

Diplomats and analysts here earlier said Than Shwe's planned visit to Bangladesh -- at the invitation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed -- underscored the policy of "constructive engagement" being pursued in the region.

They insisted that Dhaka sees no contradiction between its ties with Yangon and its support for a pro-democracy campaign within the country.

Than Shwe, 68, military commander in chief, prime minister and defence minister, would have been the first top leader from Myanmar to visit Bangladesh since the South Asian country wrested its independence from Pakistan in 1971.

Myanmar was one of the first to recognise the new state.

The New Straits TImes

Sunday, May 28 6:30 PM SGT

National: Greed lands three robbers in police hands

PENANG, Sat. - Three robbers, including a Myanmar, walked right into the arms of the law early this morning, after letting greed get the better of them.

The three, who had earlier yesterday robbed a Bangladeshi worker of RM250 worth of valuables, apparently pushed their luck too far when they took the victim's passport and other documents and demanded RM500 for their return.

The victim, who agreed to pay them for the return of his documents, was then given a handphone number by one of the robbers to arrange for the trade off.

The 30-year-old victim, a shop assistant, lodged a report at the Tanjung Tokong police station.

North-east district police chief Senior Assistant Commissioner II Mustafa Abdullah said the victim was walking near Komtar here when he was stopped by three men in a car, on the pretext of asking for directions about 6pm.

He was forced into the car and robbed of his belongings while the driver of the car drove towards Tanjung Bungah.

After relieving him of his valuables one of the robbers told the Bangladeshi he would have to pay them another RM500 to get his documents back. Mustafa said on receiving the Bangladeshi's report, police set a trap.

When the robbers turned up at the rendezvous near Tanjung Tokong about 3am today, police arrested all three, aged between 23 and 27. Police also recovered the stolen items. The suspects are expected to be charged in court on Monday.

New York Times-May 28, 2000

Burmese Recall an Election

By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

YANGON, Myanmar, May 27 -- Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the Burmese opposition, vowed today to keep fighting for democracy in Myanmar, which quietly marked the 10th anniversary of a landslide election victory by her party that was nullified by the ruling military.

Riot policemen surrounded the headquarters of the National League for Democracy, barring invited diplomats and journalists and allowing only about 300 party members and others inside, witnesses said.

In a statement, the party said it would not recognize any constitution or elections devised by the present government and announced plans for hunger strikes by some of its jailed members.

Bangkok Post - May 28, 2000.

BURMA

Rallies mark 10th anniversary

Call for junta to give power back to people

Supamart Kasem in Tak
Pro-democracy groups gathered in a small town across the border in Burma yesterday to mark the 10th anniversary of the 1990 general election, and demanded that the military junta return power to the people.

Thirteen pro-democracy and ethnic groups attended the ceremony near Myawaddy, including the National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB), National Coalition of the Union of Burma, National League for Democracy-Liberation Area, Democratic Alliance of Burma and the Karen National Union.

They called on the Burmese government to return power to those who won the general election on May 27, 1990.

Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the elections won by the National League for Democracy, led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The elected parliament never convened.

"Today's celebration is to let the world know that the elected MPs still demand the rights they won 10 years ago," said Maung Maung Aye, secretary-general of the NCUB.

Ashin Khema Sra, chairman of the Burma Young Monks Union, said there would never be peace in Burma as long as the country was run by the military.

He also called on the Burmese people to unite and fight the junta.

In Ratchaburi province, Burmese students at the Maneeloy camp rallied yesterday in the compound to mark the 1990 election victory of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Wearing red headbands, the students chanted and called for the Burmese military government to return power to the people.

The rally prompted concerns by the provincial authorities. Deputy Governor Preecha Ruengchan urged the students to conduct their protest peacefully, while more than 100 police and volunteers and two fire engines were on standby.

The crowd later dispersed but the police force remained on alert to prevent any possible incident.

The Observer - Sunday May 28, 2000
Burma guide book publisher stands firm against boycott

 

Desmond Balmer
Lonely Planet publisher Tony Wheeler remained defiant last week in the face of the call to boycott his titles until he withdraws a guide book to Burma. Tourism Concern, the ethical travel pressure group, and the Burma Campaign UK launched its boycott by dumping 'unwanted' Lonely Planet guides at the company's London offices. But speaking from his base in Melbourne, Australia, Wheeler said: 'This campaign actually makes me more determined. I am not going to be told by anyone what I can publish.'
The boycott call highlights the ethical debate about travelling to countries with repressive regimes. Tourism Concern identifies Burma as a 'rare but clear example' of a country that should not be visited by tourists. It points to direct links between the development of tourism and the widespread use of forced labour for public sector works. Tourism income sustains a brutal military regime, it says, and the elected leaders, under house arrest, have pleaded with tourists to stay away.

 

Wheeler agrees that it is a 'nasty government' but a two-page introduction to the disputed guide questions whether all opposition politicians are against travel and suggests that it is possible to support non-government sponsored tourism by staying at privately owned hotels and using public transport.

 

Tourism Concern's campaign quotes the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who said in January 1999: 'Guide book writers should listen to their consciences and be honest about their motivations. Profit is clearly their agenda.' Wheeler said: 'This is not an important book for us, it was pushed to the back of the pile before we published it in January. But just as an encyclopedia must cover the world, whatever the regime, I am not going to leave a gap.'

 

The debate about boycotting oppressive regimes has always raised difficult questions. There is a point when the positive effects of travel - the spread of ideas as well as the economic benefits - are outweighed by the sheer brutality of the regime. Many, including The Observer , drew that line on South Africa during apartheid. But should we stay away from China because of the suppression of human rights in Tibet? Escape carried a cover feature on Beijing earlier this year. Was it sufficient that we recorded the human rights abuses?

 

There is a solid liberal argument that the traveller - and the reader - should be allowed to make up his or her own mind. There is something disturbing about a boycott of a series of guide books, whatever offence one particular title might cause.

 

It is not possible to publish guide books without causing offence. Wheeler points to the difficulty of publishing maps of the India-Pakistan border and recalls how the Lonely Planet Malawi guide would be seized at the border by officials of the Hastings Banda regime.

 

For the record, on Escape we respect Aung San Suu Kyi's call not to visit her country and would not write about Burma as a tourist destination. But we will not be burning any books either.

 

The India Times - May 28, 2000.
Myanmar oppn demands regime honour election
YANGON, Myanmar: A defiant Aung San Suu Kyi marked on Saturday the 10th anniversary of the election her party won but was never allowed to fulfill, demanding that the military that has ruled Myanmar since 1962 finally surrender power.

 

Suu Kyi said that the National League for Democracy, beleaguered by a decade of steady harassment and arrests, would never accept new, sham elections or a constitution that the military is accused of wanting to shape in its favor.

 

But evidence that Suu Kyi and her supporters are further from power than ever was evident all around the headquarters of the party, where police blocked traffic and checked identities of anyone trying to participate in the anniversary ceremony.

 

The ceremony started half-an-hour late because of delays in the arrival of diplomats who had to negotiate their way past check points. Some Myanmar citizens were turned away when they could not produce party cards or other identification.

 

A government spokesman said the police were "assisting" the meeting "by providing appropriate security measures." No unrest was reported in the capital or elsewhere.

 

Some 300 people managed to crowd into party headquarters and heard Suu Kyi, wearing a sarong and traditional jacket with yellow flowers in her hair, say the party would not accept the military's dictates.

 

"Our goal toward achieving democracy for the country is getting closer than ever before," declared Suu Kyi, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.

 

In the past decade, she said, the party had matured, won allies among Myanmar's fractious ethnic minorities and gained international respect.

 

But she gave no sign that a solution to Myanmar's political impasse since the 1990 elections was at hand.

 

The military refuses to talk to Suu Kyi, regarding her as a traitor for her marriage to the late British academic, Michael Aris, and for supporting Western sanctions aimed at forcing democratic change.

 

The generals accuse Britain, the former colonial ruler, and the United States of having imperialist designs on Myanmar, also known as Burma, and using an agenda of democracy and human rights to achieve it.

 

The elections were held May 27, 1990, in a bid by the military to regain international legitimacy two years after crushing an uprising in the streets. The generals were then shocked when parties they had backed lost hugely to the NLD.

 

Since then, the party has called unsuccessfully for parliament to be seated and for dialogue with the military on introducing democratic change.

 

The generals have freed up the once-socialist economy to a degree and forged cease-fires with many ethnic rebel groups, but there has been no major advance to break the political deadlock. The country remains one of Asia's poorest.

 

Hundreds of opposition supporters are in jail, and Saturday's anniversary was preceded by a fresh crackdown. But ongoing harassment of the party over the years has reduced the numbers rounded up from a few hundred in 1996 to perhaps a dozen this year.

 

Exiled Buddhist monks based in neighboring Thailand vowed last week that their brethren inside Myanmar would march on the capital from three cities to demand democratic change, but there has been no sign they have done so.

 

In Bangkok, about 50 police took up positions outside the Myanmar embassy, but only a handful of protesters were visible. Last October, exiled student dissidents stormed the embassy and took about 40 people hostage. No one was hurt.

 

Some of the hostage-takers, allied with a fringe ethnic rebel group called God's Army, seized a Thai provincial hospital three months later. The 800 hostages were freed and all 10 of their captors killed in a commando raid.

 

Suu Kyi and the NLD said they had nothing to do with either hostage-taking.(AP)

 

The Nation -May 28, 2000.

Tight security for Burma anniversary

A COALITION of Southeast Asian human rights groups yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of the National League for Democracy's Burmese election victory by urging the country's military junta to free all political prisoners.

And they warned the junta, it would eventually suffer for its relentless suppression.

No major protest was reported in Thailand, except a brief gathering of about 200 exiled Burmese students at the Maneeloy holding centre.

Security was on high alert around Bangkok's Burmese embassy compound, to prevent a recurrence of last October's siege. "The junta should release the jailed Members of Parliament and activists, including dissident monks," Bangkok-based Altsean-Burma coordinator Debbie Stothard said.

"Tightening the screws on people will only result in greater resentment and hatred.

"It will not bode well for the long-term safety of the junta, people become desperate when they have less to lose," she said. Stothard said she had grave concerns for the wellbeing of U Aye Tha Aung, who had been held incommunicado for more than a month.

U Aye Tha Aung represents four ethnic nationality parties (the Shan Nationality League for Democracy, the Arakan League for Democracy, the Mon National Democracy Front and the Zomi National Congress) on the Committee Representing the Peoples Parliament.

He was arrested on April 23 but no word has been heard since about where he is being detained or his state of health.

Normally, detained political leaders are filmed and broadcast on Burmese television to "prove" they are receiving good treatment.

Or they are put through "kangaroo court" trials promptly.

Stothard also urged the Thai authorities to stop applying heavy-handed tactics to those attempting peaceful demonstrations. "Such clampdowns will only give credence to the view that peaceful, political actions are futile," she said.

"Persecuting and driving peace activists further underground is asking for trouble." "It also panders to the junta which actually hasn't done Thailand any favours either," she said.

Thai police said they recently arrested a group of Burmese dissidents in front of the United Nations building.

In Ratchaburi, more than 200 Burmese students in the Maneeloy centre staged a peaceful demonstration to commemorate the victory of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi's party a decade ago.

The students demanded the military rulers in Rangoon return power to their people and recognise the will of the general public that was expressed 10 years ago.

"We are ready to forgive the military government's past deeds," said Thein Oo, an exiled member of the elected Burmese government.

"When we hold talks, all problems will be cleared up."

The demonstration was dispersed in an hour, after the authorities, involving more than 100 local policemen and two fire trucks, arrived at the scene.

The student leaders said they were simply exercising their right to political _expression_ to mark the event, said Ratchaburi deputy governor Preecha Ruengjan.

"They dispersed after I told them political demonstration as such is illegal," he said.

However, he instructed the authorities to remain on alert, to prevent any unexpected incidents.

Meanwhile, in Bangkok, almost 100 police were deployed around the Burmese embassy and the compound was heavily barricaded.

Thai police said they wanted no repeat of the takeover of the embassy last October, when five members of a group calling itself the "Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors" stormed the grounds and took more than 50 people hostage.

Only a handful of Burmese dissidents were spotted by security guards near the embassy.

There was also a report that two Burmese students were arrested after the police found their identity cards had expired.

"I've heard today is a big day for them," Police Maj Gen Sompol Sakultawiphat said.

"Our officers have to be prepared for anything unexpected, because we do not want an incident like before [last October] to happen again," he said.

The Nation