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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AP-Man Arrested in Airport Seize
The Daily Star - Myanmar's dilly-dally slows
Rohingya repatriation
IHT-Working Together to Try to Bring Burma
in From the Cold
Bernama - HONG KONG POLICE ARREST MYANMAR HOSTAGE-TAKER AT AIRPORT AP - Thai court hands down death penalty
to seven drug dealers
The Times of India - Now, shakhas in Rangoon Xinhua - Foreign
Investment in Myanmar Picks Up in
1999-2000
Bkk Post - Karen deny meeting Wa in
talks
Bkk Post - Rebels lose stolen
vehicle
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INTERNATIONAL
PROTEST AGAINST JAPANESE GOVERNMENT ON AUG 8.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday July 31 8:44 PM ET
Man Arrested in Airport Seize HONG KONG (AP) - A Myanmar man
armed with a fake pistol held a female airport employee hostage aboard a Cathay
Pacific Airways jet for several hours at Hong Kong's airport until surrendering
to police early Tuesday.
The man evaded security guards at the airport cargo handling area and
seized the woman, an airport cleaner, before running on board the plane late
Monday, police commander Mak Man-poon said.
Only a maintenance engineer was inside the plane at the time, he said.
Radio Hong Kong said the engineer locked himself in the cockpit.
At one stage, the hostage-taker threatened to kill the woman, a Nepalese,
if police did not withdraw from the area, and expressed a desire to return to
Myanmar, Mak said.
The plane was cordoned off by police at Chek Lap Kok airport, and they
negotiated with the man by mobile phone until he surrendered shortly after
midnight in the early hours Tuesday.
The hostage-taker has worked as a laborer since arriving in Hong Kong last
year from Myanmar, also known as Burma, police said. He was being questioned by
police, who did not release his identity. The airport worker was released
unharmed, officials said.
The Boeing 747-400 was empty because it was several hours until the plane
was to depart for Paris, the airline said.
It was the first time that police had to deal with a hostage crisis at the
airport, which was opened in 1998.
The Daily Star
Myanmar's dilly-dally slows Rohingya repatriation From Nurul Alam CHITTAGONG, July 30: Repatriation of Rohingya refugees has slowed down due
to delay in confirmation of their identities by the Myanmar authorities,
officials concerned said.
Only one family of seven returned to Myanmar on Wednesday though at least
50 refugees were supposed to be repatriated in a week. This trend is continuing
for the last seven weeks, repatriation officials said.
Despite clearance from Myanmar authorities, no refugee is repatriated
without reconfirmation. Even a broken family is not accepted by Myanmar
repatriation officials, they said.
A quarter of a million Rohingyas fled their homes due to atrocities by the
military junta in Myanmar and entered Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar and Teknaf areas
in 1991. They were sheltered in makeshift camps.
Their repatriation started after a tripartite agreement on April 28, 1992
among Bangladesh, Myanmar and UNHCR.
So far, 2,31,632 refugees have been repatriated. The rest 20,000 were
staying in two camps at Ukhia and Teknaf. Of them, only 6,000 were given
clearance, Bangladesh repatriation officials said.
They said they sought talks with Myanmar authorities to expedite the
repatriation. BDR also sought talks with Myanmar border security forces on
Rohingya repatriation and some border problems. But Myanmar authorities are yet
to respond, official sources said.
The last repatriation talks between the two countries were held in Yangon
in January this year.
International Herald
Tribune
Paris, Tuesday, August 1, 2000 Working Together to Try to Bring Burma in From the Cold -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Kavi Chongkittavorn International Herald Tribune -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BANGKOK - At the ministerial meetings last week between the Association of South East Asian Nations and its main partners in trade and security, criticism of Burma's military rulers was muted, in contrast to previous years. The United States and the European Union were more willing to listen to what the ASEAN foreign ministers had to say. There are some new reasons why even the harshest critics of the political repression and human rights abuses by the Burmese junta are now willing to wait and see if the situation improves. ASEAN and the European Union want to improve their troubled relationship,
which in the past few years has been held hostage by European sanctions against
Burma, an ASEAN member since 1997. Both sides hope that a temporary easing of
pressure will encourage Burma to reform. A modified EU policy, as announced in
Bangkok, would no longer ban Burma from taking part in ASEAN-EU
cooperation.
Existing EU sanctions on Burma will continue, but ASEAN has agreed that the
next ministerial meeting with the EU, which was to be in Europe, can be held in
Laos in December. The greater flexibility shown by both sides will allow Burma
to attend the meeting in Vientiane. It may also increase Burma's chance of
getting EU aid in the future.
The EU mellowing is a triumph for the Burmese junta. The EU's leniency
reflects its wider agenda in Asia, where it risks losing influence to the United
States, Japan and China just as the region's recovery takes hold and prospects
for foreign investment and trade improve. If the Burma impasse with ASEAN is not
overcome, Europe's plan to intensify cooperation on economic, politi-cal and
security matters with ASEAN would remain on hold.
But ASEAN, too, has an interest in forging closer ties with Europe. ASEAN
has been exerting some pressure on Burma, despite the group's principle of not
interfering in internal affairs. The International Labor Organization has
announced that it will apply sanctions against Burma's use of forced labor from
November on if there is no reform by then. In response, ASEAN will send a team
of labor and technical experts to Burma to try to get it to comply with the ILO
recommendations.
This is ASEAN's first serious involvement in what is clearly a Burmese
domestic affair. ASEAN fears that if the ILO imposes sanctions because Rangoon
fails to comply, it will further damage ASEAN's already tarnished international
reputation.
Such a development would also sharpen differences within ASEAN between
those countries that are reluctant to do anything to breach the nonintervention
doctrine and those that believe it must be modified in the interests of having a
credible regional organization.
Thailand has called on Burma to intensify its declared crackdown on
narcotics production and trafficking, and work more closely with the
international community. This call has been taken up by ASEAN.
There are hopes that the activities of the United Nations special envoy for
Burma, Ismail Razali, a senior Malaysian diplomat, will produce results. He
visited Burma last month and met with regime and opposition leaders. ASEAN and
its foreign partners want to see political reconciliation start in Burma within
a year.
Goodwill toward Burma has increased since Mr. Razali's trip. He has been
told that he can visit the country at any time without prior notice. A UN
liaison office in Rangoon is being planned.
But the military government should remember that from now on Burma can no
longer count on ASEAN's automatic support. The junta is on notice that it must
prove its worth as an ASEAN member.
The writer, executive editor of The Nation in Bangkok, contributed this
comment to the International Herald Tribune.
Malaysian National News Agency
WORLD NEWS August 01 , 2000 14:58PM HONG KONG POLICE ARREST MYANMAR HOSTAGE-TAKER AT AIRPORT HONG KONG, Aug 1 (Oana-Kyodo) -- Hong Kong police Tuesday arrested a
Myanmar man who held a woman hostage on board a plane parked at the territory's
international airport, a police spokesman said.
The man, 45, armed with an air gun, was subdued about two and a half hours
after taking the woman, a cleaner, onto an empty Cathay Pacific Airways jet
shortly after 10 p.m. yesterday while it was parked at Chek Lap Kok airport, the
spokesman said.
The man forced his way through a staff security checkpoint on the south
side of the passenger terminal and onto the apron. He ran toward a parking
stand, from where he took the 29-year-old Nepalese woman onto the aircraft, the
spokesman said.
The man released the woman and surrendered to police after talking with
police negotiators.
A 27-year-old engineer of Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co., who was on
board the aircraft, hid in the cockpit until the drama was over, police said.
No one was injured in the incident.
The Myanmar man, arrested on charges of hostage-taking and possession of
fake firearms, is being detained for questioning by police.
A Cathay Pacific spokeswoman said the Boeing 747-400 aircraft was scheduled
to take off for Paris at 11:35 p.m., but there were no passengers on board at
the time of the incident.
Last month, a 30-year-old U.S. citizen was arrested on a charge of trying
to board a Singapore Airlines flight to San Francisco without a valid permit.
The man allegedly walked through security unchecked at the airport before
being arrested.
The case caused public concern in Hong Kong over security at the airport.
-- Oana-Kyodo
Thai court hands down death penalty to
seven drug dealers
BANGKOK, Thailand, Aug 01, 2000 (AP) -- A Thai criminal court has handed down the death penalty to seven people found guilty of drug offenses, one of them a Nigerian accused of smuggling heroin, the court registrar reported Tuesday. Judges ruled Monday that the seven arrested in three separate raids in
recent months deserved the punishment as their illicit activity had posed a
serious threat to Thailand, reported the registrar on customary condition of
anonymity.
Among the seven were two Thai women and two men, all related, who were
arrested May 27 in possession of 40,000 amphetamine tablets.
Another two were a Thai man and woman from a hilltribe in northern Chiang
Mai province, arrested Feb. 20 with 100,000 amphetamine tablets smuggled from
neighboring Myanmar, also known as Burma.
The seventh was a Nigerian man identified as Mohamed Seefu, 40, arrested
recently at Bangkok Airport as he tried to smuggle 7 kilograms (15.4 pounds) of
heroin out of the country.
In the past two years, Thailand has cracked down on drug traffickers,
especially to suppress amphetamine-type drugs smuggled in large quantities from
Myanmar as they represent a serious social blight in Thailand.
Thailand has executed more than 300 criminals by gunfire since the practice
was introduced in 1935. Currently, prisoners are blindfolded and strapped to a
pole and the executioner fires a mounted machine gun. The government is
currently considering a proposal to use lethal injection instead.
Now, shakhas in Rangoon
The Times of India News Service NEW DELHI: Myanmar, ruled by the military for the past decade, may soon
witness a different type of khaki: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is about to
open a shakha in Yangon, formerly Rangoon.
According to a report in the Far Eastern Economic Review, the RSS has
decided to restart its activities in Myanmar after a gap of four decades.
Apparently with the blessings of a section of the military junta, the
organisation has begun to rebuild its Yangon branch. The organisation has
apparently convinced the Burmese generals that Hinduism and Buddhism are
``branches of the same tree''. General Maung Aye - the Burmese army commander
thought to be keen to play India off against big brother China - is said to be
one of the patrons of the saffron brotherhood.
So is the RSS looking east as part of a plan to restore the former glory of
Akhanda Bharat? The organisation says no, although it does believe that the
``cultural unity'' between Buddhism and Hinduism could be an ideal defence
against China.
Although New Delhi has been cultivating Maung Aye, the external affairs
ministry knows nothing about the RSS's new geostrategic venture.
When contacted, RSS pracharak and BJP vice-president JP Mathur said RSS
activity -- sometimes under the name Bharatiya Swayamsevak Sangh or Hindu
Swayamsevak Sangh -- has been taking place regularly in many countries in
Europe, America, Africa and Asia. ``I myself attended such camps in Britain and
America,'' Mathur remarked.
So will the people of Burma be treated to the sight of spindly legs
sticking out under ballooning `knickers' and angry tracts against Christian
missionaries? Only time will tell.
Foreign Investment in Myanmar Picks Up in
1999-2000
YANGON (Aug. 1) XINHUA - Foreign investment in Myanmar picked up a little in fiscal year 1999-2000, which ended in March, with 55.61 million U.S. dollars following a two consecutive years' fall in the investment since 1996-97, according to the latest figures issued by the Central Statistical Organization. Myanmar's foreign investment fell from 2.814 billion dollars in 1996-97 to
777.394 million in 1997-98 and then to 29.455 million in 1998-99.
The investment in 1999-2000 came from eight countries and regions with
Thailand and Britain leading with 16.5 million dollars and 15 million dollars,
followed by China's Hong Kong (5. 742 million dollars), Cyprus (5.25 million
dollars), Japan (5.095 million dollars), Singapore (3.826 million dollars),
South Korea (2.82 million dollars) and Indonesia (1.377 million dollars).
The investment covered sectors of fishery, mining, oil and gas,
manufacturing and hotels and tourism.
Of the total investment during the fiscal year, that from member countries
of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN) took up 21.703 million
dollars or 39 percent.
In the previous two consecutive fiscal years, due mainly to the impact of
the Asian financial crisis, Myanmar's foreign investment dropped sharply,
bringing about a reduction of 70 percent of direct investment from ASEAN member
countries.
According to official statistics, since Myanmar opened to foreign
investment in late 1988, the country had drawn from 25 countries and regions a
total of 7.119 billion dollars of the investment as of the end of April
2000.
Bangkok Post - Aug 1,
2000.
THAI-BURMESE BORDER Karen deny meeting Wa in talks Alliance with drug groups ruled out Supamart Kasem
Tak Some of the 65 illegal Burmese immigrants held at the Immigration Police
headquarters after their arrest at a garment factory in Bang Khae district. _
KOSOL NAKACHOL
The Karen National Union has denied a report that four anti-Rangoon ethnic groups held a meeting over the weekend with the United Wa State Army. KNU president Saw Ba Thin said he neither attended nor heard about any such
meeting taking place near the northern Thai border.
He said the report was probably either a mistake or an attempt by "third
parties" to discredit the groups.
The drug-producing Wa were engaged in a fight for independence with Rangoon
but signed a peace agreement in 1989 which gave them some autonomy in northern
Burma.
Saw Ba Thin said the KNU had a policy of fighting against the production,
sale and smuggling of drugs, which have damaged the lives of the Karen
people.
"We refuse to form an alliance with any Burmese minorities involved in
drugs until they stop selling drugs and begin to co-operate with us to fight for
democracy and peace in Burma," he said.
He said the KNU remains in alliance with the National Council of the Union
of Burma, National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, Democratic
Alliance of Burma, National League for Democracy and the Wa National
Organisation.
The KNU and their allies still want all parties to sit down with the State
Peace and Development Council and bring about democracy and peace in
Burma.
"I don't understand how Burmese Foreign Minister Win Aung could tell Asean
that the military junta was unable to crack down on the Wa drug business even
though it could suppress the National League for Democracy, which was elected by
more than 80% of the people in the 1990 general election," he added.
Bangkok post - Aug 1,
2000.
Rebels lose stolen
vehicle
Supamart Kasem Mae Sot Border patrol police fired a grenade to sink a bamboo raft carrying a
stolen vehicle destined for pro-Rangoon Karen rebels.
At dawn on Sunday, a patrol unit spotted the raft loaded with a Toyota
pick-up truck on the Moei river in Ban Wang Takien, tambon Tha Sai Luad.
When police ordered the men on board the raft to surrender, they began
shooting, and a brief gunfight ensued.
The men, believed to be elements of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army,
jumped overboard and swam to the Burmese side of the river.
Police fired on the abandoned raft with a grenade launcher and sank
it.
Pol Maj Noppakhun Bamrungpong, deputy commander of the 346th company said
that several stolen vehicles had been smuggled across the river in the past few
months due to increased demand by drug gangs, including the Red Wa.
He said it was difficult to eradicate the smuggling of stolen vehicles
because some local officials and border villagers were involved in the illegal
trade. (Send your protest letter to Japanese Government and Japanese Bussiness Companies before August 8. Stage demonstration in front of Japanese Embassies around the world on Aug 8.) |