Burma Related News - June 13, 2000.

[TIN KYI <tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tuesday, June 13 11:16 AM SGT

ILO body votes to put pressure on Myanmar over forced labour

GENEVA, June 13 (AFP) -

An International Labour Organisationcommittee on Monday voted to put oressure on Myanmar to stop using forced labour, according to ILO sources here.

After intensive discussion over the weekend, the ILO drafting committee voted by an overwhelming 33-4 in favour of a resolution condemning the Myanmar junta.

The text, which goes to a full vote Wednesday, gives the junta a grace period up to December to comply.

It was approved despite opposition from some Asian nations, led by Malaysia, which wanted to rule out any measures to put pressure on Yangon. The final wording, with the delayed action, was seen as a compromise.

The countries which voted against it were China, Japan, India and Malaysia. Three other countries abstained in the committee was made up of national and trade union and employer representatives.

The workers' representatives, the European Union and the United States argued strongly for the adoption of a mechanism to oblige ILO members to re-examine their relations with Yangon in a bid to pressurise the ruling junta to end all forms of forced labour, notably by the Myanmar army.

No exact measures were spelled out.

An ILO technical committee visited Yangon in May when employment minister Tin Ngwe assured them the junta was prepared to cooperate to ensure forced labour was not practised in Myanmar.

The text of the resolution said that so far there had been no movement to improve the situation in Myanmar.

The Myanmar delegation slammed the vote as "unacceptable" and warned it risked "wiping out all the benefits obtained by the (ILO) technical mission."

The resolution goes before a full ILO plenary session on Wednesday. If it is approved there, then the measure allows for a grace period until November 30 for Myanmar to get its house in order.

At that time the ILO's governing body will meet and decide whether the intentions expressed by the employment minister are translated into "sufficiently concrete" measures by the government.

If not, then the resolution will be put into effect, with members reporting back to the Geneva-based organisation on their actions to review relations with Myanmar.

Those hoping to see the measure passed on Wednesday are concerned that there may not be the necessary quorum of more than 50 percent of delegates around to vote. Wednesday is the penultimate day of the conference here and some delegates will already have left.

In Monday's ballot only 40 delegates voted, with 10 countries absent.

Mynanmar was condemned for widespread use of forced and compulsory labour by an ILO commission of inquiry in 1998 and the issue of what follow-up action to take has proven one of the hottest subjects at the conference here.

Tuesday, June 13 11:19 AM SGT

Vietnam launches biggest ever drug trafficking trial

NAM DINH, Vietnam, June 13 (AFP) -

A total of 22 people, four of them women, went on trial Tuesday facing the death penalty on charges of trafficking hundreds of kilogrammes of opium and heroin in Vietnam's biggest ever drugs case.

Hundreds of police were on hand to maintain order in this small town south of the capital as thousands of people denied admission to the courtroom itself thronged the precincts of the court to follow the trial on a huge closed circuit TV screen.

Inside the packed courtroom each defendant was guarded by three officers -- police said one of the accused had attempted to commit suicide ahead of the trial which is expected to last for 12 days.

If convicted, all the defendants face execution by firing squad.

Since 1997, the death sentence has been in force for possession of 100 grams (3.5 ounces) or more of heroin, or five kilograms (11 pounds) or more of opium.

Even the defendant facing the least serious charges here stands accused of trafficking 700 grams of heroin while the alleged mastermind of the drugs ring, Nguyen Van Tam, is accused of trafficking 236.6 kilos (520.5 pounds) of heroin and 289 kilos (635.8 pounds) of opium.

In all, prosecutors charge that the defendants smuggled in 275.97 kilos of (607.1 pounds) heroin and 289 kilos of opium from neighbouring Laos between 1992 and 1999, a record amount for Vietnam, and distributed it in the big cities of Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Haiphong as well as smaller towns across the country.

The previous biggest drugs trial here dates back to 1997 and resulted in the execution of seven people, including a senior drugs squad officer.

When police arrested Tam last year, they confiscated 441,700 dollars as well as 332.5 taels of gold (a tael equals 37.5 grams) and a large house in the capital which they charge were the profits of his drug trafficking.

Tam's 28-year-old nephew, Nguyen Van Quyet, was arrested in February last year and charged with selling tens of kilos of heroin in Thai Binh province east of the capital and illegally storing weapons.

Quyet's brother-in-law, Tran Ngoc Quynh, a policeman in the province, is also among the principal accused.

In the face of soaring drug use, Vietnam in 1997 sharply reduced the quantities where possession would be presumed to constitute trafficking.

A total of 76 people were sentenced to death for trafficking last year, up from 59 in 1998.

In late April Vietnam executed Canadian national, Nguyen Thi Hiep, 44, the first holder of a Western passport to be put to death on drugs charges here, spurring Ottawa to impose diplomatic sanctions.

Vietnamese-born Hiep had been convicted of trafficking 5.5 kilospounds) of heroin but Ottawa said Hanoi had failed to take into account evidence she had been duped.

Vietnam this month launched a major clampdown on drug use and trafficking as the number of addicts continues to soar.

In the first five months of the year, police, customs and border-guards seized 13.78 kilos (30.3 pounds) of heroin, 159.77 kilos (351.4 pounds) of opium and 173.7 kilos (382.1 pounds) of cannabis, and arrested 4,193 people in 2,402 separate cases.

Since Vietnam opened up to the outside world through the late 1980s and 1990s, it has become a major transit route for opium and heroin headed to northeast Asia and North America from the poppy-growing Golden Triangle of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand.

The People's Daily

Tuesday, June 13, 2000, updated at 08:51(GMT+8)

World   
More Anti-Govt Armed Group Members Surrender in Myanmar

 

A total of 24 members from two anti-government ethnic armed groups in Myanmar laid down their arms to the government forces in the first week of this month, official newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported Monday.

 

These members of the Shan-State United Revolutionary Army (SURA) and the Lahu Democratic Front (LDF) "exchanged arms for peace" in northeastern Tachilek of the Triangle Region Command area on June 3 and 7 respectively.

 

They brought along with them a total of 163 rounds of ammunition,the report said.

 

Both the SURA, an anti-government Shan ethnic armed group, and the LDF, a similar Lahu ethnic armed organization, operate in the northeastern Shan state.

 

In April, a total of 83 other members from the SURA, Chin National Army and Kayin National Union surrendered to the government troops,bringing with them altogether 216 rounds of ammunition, according to an earlier official report.

 

Up to now, 17 anti-government ethnic armed groups as well as the Mong Tai Army, led by former drug warlord Khun Sa, have made peace with the government with cease-fire agreements reached between them.