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Nikkei Shinbum- May 30, 2000
Myanmar SPDC First Secretary will attend the former Prime Minister Obuchi’s funeral. ‘Number Three’ of the military government An attempt to maintain a relation with the biggest financial supporter
The first secretary of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), Khin
Nyunt, who holds the third position in the power hierarchy within Myanmar’s
military regime, will attend the former Prime Minster Obuchi’s funeral organised
jointly by the cabinet and the Liberal Democratic Party on 8 June. The
information was released by a foreign official. The first secretary is in
charge of issues such as Myanmar’s foreign relations, internal order and racial
problems. He will be the highest official who will have ever visited Japan
from Myanmar since the military regime started with a coup in 1988.
The United States and the European Community (EU) have been economically
sanctioning Myanmar as they accuse its military government for suppressing
democratisation. Japan has joined the sanction and frozen its official
development aid (ODA). However, Myanmar’s military government decided to
dispatch one of the highest executive officials to the former prime minister’s
funeral, as it wishes to remain good terms with its biggest financial supporter,
Japan. The first secretary plans to arrive on 7 June and stay one night in
Japan.
(Kiyoshi Noma, Bangkok) Monday, May 29 11:51 PM SGT
Forced labour in
Myanmar provides focus for international labour
conference
GENEVA, May 29 (AFP) -
Delegates at an international labour conference starting here Tuesday could decide to call on companies, trade unions, international bodies and states to review their ties with Myanmar to ensure they do not contribute to the use of forced labour there. Measures to oblige Myanmar to stop the use of forced and
compulsory labour will be presented to the 3,000 delegates attending the
International Labour Conference taking place until June 15.
If adopted, the measures will call upon any organisation
connected to the International Labour Office (ILO) to review their dealings with
Myanmar to ensure that they are in no way contributing to the continuation of
forced labour.
In March the ILO's governing body decided Myanmar had made
no progress in ending the widespread use of forced labour, despite promises to
do so and invoked for the first time an ILO article allowing it to recommend
measures to oblige the offending body to comply.
Myanmar was supposed to have responded to concerns raised
by an ILO committee of inquiry last year.
An ILO mission last week held discussions with the
military junta in Myanmar on the implementation of the committee's
recommendations which included that no more forced or compulsory labour be
imposed by the authorities.
The mission will present its report to the
conference.
Meanwhile delegates are also expected to adopt a new
international convention affording working mums greater maternity protection.
Covering issues such as the period of maternity leave, the
level of cash benefits and leave in cases of illness, the convention would
revise an existing one to take into account changes in working
patterns.
It would also be accompanied by a draft recommendation on
more specific issues such as extending maternity leave or
discrimination.
"The revision of the existing international labour
standards for maternity protection has been the subject of wide consultation
with governments and organisations of employers and workers around the world,"
an ILO press release said.
Delegates will also focus on the question of new standards
on safety and health problems for agricultural workers which according to ILO is
one of the three most hazardous industries, along with mining and
construction.
Out of 335,000 fatal work place accidents in one year
around the world, some 170,000 were among agricultural workers, ILO
estimated.
President of Namibia, Sam Nujoma, will also address the
Conference on June 8 on the problems of HIV/AIDS in the work place as part of a
follow-up to last October's work group in Windhoek on the same
subject.
That meeting brought together employers and employees
associations as well as governments from 20 African governments.
WIRE:05/30/2000 07:21:00 ET
Top U.N. aide to take new look at Iraq relief plan BAGHDAD, May 30 (Reuters) - The
new U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Iraq said in remarks published on
Tuesday that he would take a different look at the U.N.'s
"oil-for-food" programme from his predecessors.
Tun Myat, newly appointed U.N. coordinator and in charge of the oil-for-food programme in Iraq, told the government newspaper al-Jumhouriya that he would not resign as his two predecessors who resigned in protest over the impact of U.N. sanctions, imposed in August 1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait. Hans von Sponeck of Germany quit his post last February under strong
U.S. pressure over his outspoken criticism of the effects of U.N.
sanctions.
His predecessor, Denis Halliday of Ireland, left in 1998 for similar
reasons.
"I am going to take a different course," Myat, from Myanmar, said in
his first remarks since taking up his job a month ago.
"I will say what is wrong and what is right in my reports, but
probably I will not resort to the media to say what is wrong and right,
this is the difference," he said.
"I will not resign at the present time. I have not accepted the job
in order to resign," he added.
The humanitarian coordinator runs the oil-for-food programme in
Baghdad that allows Iraq to sell oil to buy food, medicine and other
necessities to alleviate the impact of sanctions.
The restrictions have been under increasing attack for hardships
caused to ordinary Iraqis, especially children.
The Nation - May 31, 2000.
Burma called on for protection HUMAN Rights Watch yesterday urged the Burmese and Bangladeshi governments
to take immediate action in providing protection for the Muslim Rohingya
refugees who have fled the Arakan State to take refuge in Bangladesh.
The statement came as a planned trip to Dhaka by the chief of Burma’s
ruling junta General Than Shwe was abruptly cancelled on Monday.
Gary Risser, a researcher for Human Rights Watch in Asia, said that Burma
should improve the treatment of the Rohingya, who had suffered abuses in their
own country.
The new 29page report said the Rohingya refugee problem lacked a “durable
solution”.
Gen Than Shwe had planned to pay a state visit to Dhaka on Monday and
return today.
Between1991 and 1992 over 250,000 Rohingya fled Burma and sought refuge in
Bangladesh. Although most have been repatriated under a programme launched by
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, about 22,000 remain in
refugee camps.
Meanwhile in Geneva delegates to the International Labour Conference, which
started yesterday, may decide to call on companies, trade unions, international
bodies and states to review their ties with Burma to ensure that they do not
contribute to the use of forced labour.
Measures to have Burma stop the use of forced and compulsory labour will be
presented to the 3,000 delegates attending the conference, which ends on June
15. This would ask affiliates of the International Labour Office (ILO) to ensure
dealings with Burma in no way fostered forced labour.
In March the ILO governing body decided that Burma had made no progress in
ending the widespread use of forced labour, despite promises to do so, and
invoked for the first time an ILO article allowing it to recommend measures to
oblige the country to comply.
Burma was to have responded to concerns raised by an ILO committee of
inquiry last year.
Last week an ILO mission held discussions with the junta on the
implementation of the panel’s recommendations, which included that no more
forced or compulsory labour be imposed by the authorities. The mission will
present its report to the conference.
The Nation, Agence FrancePresse
The Nation - May 31, 2000.
Committee recommends border closures to stop drug trafficking THE House Defence Committee yesterday proposed that 10 ThaiBurmese
crossborder roads in Mae Hong Son province should be closed down to surpress
drug trafficking, chairman Panya Cheenakham said.
Panya, also a Mae Hong Son MP, said relevant authorities had found that
many ThaiBurmese roads that local people used to travel between the two
countries were also drug trafficking routes.
His committee suggested that to curtail the drug trafficking the roads
should be closed.
However, the committee was concerned that such a move would have adverse
repercussions on border trade in the province.
Panya said crossborder drug trafficking in the province had become a
serious problem.
Two major trafficking syndicates, the Kokang group and the Wah Daeng,
produce drugs in Burma’s Shan State, over the border from Mae Hong Son province,
he said.
The committee also suggested that the Mae Hong Son authorities carefully
screen the commodities transported into Burma to prevent ingredients needed in
drug production from crossing the border, Panya said.
Meanwhile Mae Hong Son’s border police on Monday clashed with a group of
drug traffickers. Police later found 120,000 methamphetamine tablets left behind
by the traffickers, a senior border policeman said.
Lt Col Noppakao Kokilawathee, commander of the 336th Border Patrol Police
Company, said he had led a 12man narcoticssuppression unit to arrest a group of
amphetamine traffickers in Tambon Wiangnuea, Pai district.
The six traffickers open fired when his group tried to search their
belongings, he said.
They exchanged fire for 20 minutes before the suspects retreated into the
jungle. None of the police were hurt, but some of the traffickers were wounded,
Noppakao said.
The Nation
BBC-Tuesday, 30 May, 2000, 14:45 GMT
15:45 UK
'Burmese refugees persecuted' By South Asia analyst Kamal Ahmed A global human rights body has urged Burma and Bangladesh to take urgent
steps to protect about 120,000 Muslim refugees who have fled Burma into
Bangladesh.
In a report released on Tuesday the group, Human Rights Watch, has accused
Burma's military government of abusing the refugees.
It says that they are treated as aliens in their own country.
The release of the report was timed to coincide with the visit to
Bangladesh by the head of the Burmese government, General Than Shwe.
But the general's visit has now been postponed because of his ill health.
Persecution
Human Rights Watch says that Burma must improve the treatment of Rohingyas
who continue to face discrimination, forced labour and arbitrary confiscation of
their property.
It says that this is why thousands of refugees keep coming to Bangladesh,
and why they are afraid to return to Burma.
The report says that many refugees in Bangladesh now live in "precarious
circumstances".
The refugees are too scared to return
They have no formal documentation and often suffer abuses, even though conditions in the camps have improved since the early 1990s. The report accuses the Burmese Government of refusing to recognise the
Rohingyas' claim to Burmese citizenship.
It says that many have a well-founded fear of persecution if they return to
Burma and should be granted refugee status by Bangladesh.
But the report says that the Bangladeshi Government regards the Rohingyas
as illegal economic migrants.
UNHCR under fire
The body also criticised the United Nations High Commission for Refugees
for handing over some of the responsibilities of looking after them to various
aid agencies.
It says that the UNHCR is the only organisation with the mandate and the
expertise to look after the refugees.
The UNHCR's presence should be enhanced rather than reduced it says, and a
lasting solution can only be found once the international community puts
pressure on Burma to not allow the refugees to be persecuted on their return.
The report says that many of the 250,000 Rohingyas who sought refuge in
Bangladesh in the early 1990s returned under a UNHCR repatriation programme.
But it says around 22,000 remained behind, to be joined by another 100,000
who entered Bangladesh after 1991.
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