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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kyodo News - Myanmar
dissidents ask Japan not to help junta.
NSTP - Business: Amalgamated Metal to build acid
plant in Myanmar
BBC - Exiles mark Burma anniversary
Kyodo News - Myanmar
closes border checkpoint due to bomb fears
The Nation -Cambodia and Myanmar to coordinate anti-drugs
efforts
Bkk Post -Border alert
BBC - Railway of Death lures fortune
hunters
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BURMA RELATED NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kyodo News
Tokyo Aug 8, 2000. Myanmar dissidents ask Japan not to help junta. A group of Myanmar dissidents on Tuesday asked the Japanese government to
"cease all aid" to Myanmar and urge Japanese companies not to invest there until
the military junta hands over power to elected parliamentarians.
About 50 Myanmar dissidents staged a rally in front of the Foreign
Ministry in Tokyo to mark the 12th anniversary of the junta's suppression of a
pro-democracy uprising. They said similar protests were planned Tuesday at
Japanese embassies around the world.
The protesters sumitted a statement to the ministry calling for Japan to
end all financial support for Myanmr. The statement also accused Tokyo of
"overtly trying to resume help" to the junta folowing its suspension of official
development assistance (ODA) to Myanmar in 1988.
They also asked Japan to withdraw its financial support for the Salween
River dam project in their country, to release detained political asylum
seekers, and to investigate a case in which they said two Myanmar dissidents
were beaten by Myanmar officials at a junta-sponsored concert in Tokyo in
1999.
Japanese officials attending a two-day workshop in Yangon in late June on
Japanese support for economic reforms in Myanmar, reportedly said they
were considering resuming ODA to the country as part of humanitarian assistance
to countries surrounding the Mekong River.
The forum, comprising government, industry and university delegates from
the two sides, reportedly plans to agree at its next meeting this fall in Tokyo
on specific short-term targets for Myanmar's reforms and to hammer out technical
assistance measures that Japan may take.
The New Straits Times
Wednesday, August 9 6:31 PM SGT
Business: Amalgamated Metal to build
acid plant in Myanmar
AMALGAMATED Metal Corporation Bhd will construct a US$8.9 million (RM33.82
million) sulphuricacid plant in Myanmar making it the largest investment from
Malaysia since the economic slowdown in 1997. Business Development manager Kenny
Teoh said the plant will become one of the largest sulphuricacid plants in
Myanmar with a capacity to produce 100 tonnes a month.
"There are many small sulphuric acid plants in Myanmar but none as large as the one we are going to build," he said. The company will handle the project together with its local partner Serge Pun and Associates with AMC holding a 60 per cent stake in the project. "We are in the process of completing the engineering design of the plant. Construction of the plant is scheduled to begin next year," he said, adding that the plant would be operational by the end of 2001. Teoh said the product manufactured will be for domestic use only. Sulphuric acid is mainly used to manufacture urea, ryons, and to extract copper. "This is AMC's first investment in Myanmar. The company plans to further invest in the country when the opportunity arises," he said, adding that whatever profit realised by the plant will be reinvested in Myanmar. AMC is invloved in engineering and fabrication activities. The company has been actively involved in the petrochemical as well as the oil and gas industries. In fact, the company has participated in the construction of many chemical plants in Peninsular Malaysia. Malaysia is the fourth largest investor in Myanmar, among 23 investor countries. Out of total investment of over US$7 billion, investment by Malaysian companies as of December 1998 was over US$580 million. BBC-Wednesday, 9 August, 2000, 06:23
GMT 07:23 UK
Exiles mark Burma anniversary Burmese exiles in the United States have held vigils to mark the
anniversary of the 1988 shootings of pro-democracy activities in Rangoon.
Hundreds of protestors were shot dead on the streets as a military junta prepared to over from General Ne Win, who had ruled the country for decades. Some 150 activists rallied outside the Burmese embassy in Washington,
calling for the military to hand over power to pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi.
There was no sign of demonstrations in Rangoon itself, after Aung San Suu
Kyi said last month that her National League for Democracy (NLD) would not mark
the anniversary of the demonstrations held 12 years ago on the auspicious date
of 8-8-88.
The NLD won elections in 1990, but the military has refused to recognise the result. The Washington protestors said they were targetting Japan, which the NLD
suspects of planning to resumt commercial links with the Burmese regime.
Japan says it is considering increasing a humanitarian aid programme, but
only if the military government introduces reforms.
Thai protest
A demonstration was also held by 300 Burmese students living in a Thai
refugee camp, after the authorities there refused to allow a protest in the
capital, Bangkok.
Wearing red headbands bearing the fighting peacock symbol of the pro-democracy movement, they called for an end to human rights violations by the military government and the release of all political prisoners. The Thai authorities have limited the movements of Burmese exiles since the
storming of Burma's embassy in Bangkok last October.
The Thai authorities are now pushing for the resettlement to third
countries of all 1,580 residents of the Maneeloy refugee camp by the end of this
year.
Myanmar closes border checkpoint due to
bomb fears
BANGKOK, Aug. 9 (Kyodo) -- Myanmar authorities in the border town Myawaddy have closed a border checkpoint near Thailand following an intelligence tip a dissident group may attempt to ''initiate chaos'' to commemorate the 12th anniversary of a 1988 uprising, a Thai official said Wednesday. The checkpoint linking the Thai border district of Mae Sot and Myawaddy was
closed, barring people from traveling and trading between the two sides from
Aug. 9 until the Myanmar authorities feel there are no more threats to
stability, the official said.
Myanmar authorities informed their Thai counterparts Tuesday they will also
tighten security in Myawaddy and along the bank of Meoi River, which runs
between the two countries during the period when the border checkpoint is
closed, the Thai official said.
Myawaddy authorities claimed they had received intelligence information
indicating dissident group ''8888'' movement to try to undertake destabilizing
moves.
The Nation - Aug 9,
2000.
Cambodia and Myanmar to coordinate anti-drugs efforts Filed at 12 : 37 am (THLD time)
PHNOM PENH, Aug 8 - Cambodia's anti-narcotics czars flew to Myanmar on
Tuesday for top-level talks amid mounting international pressure on both
countries to stamp out booming drugs trafficking and production, officials said.
The unprecedented effort to coordinate and share information on narcotics
will focus on amphetamine production, Cambodian officials said.
"This is the first time that the two countries have shared experience on
curbing the drugs trade," the deputy-secretary general of Cambodia's
anti-narcotics authority, Lu Ramin, told reporters before departing.
"The production of other drugs in Cambodia is decreasing, but there are
signs of the production of amphetamines."
A delegation led by Interior Minister Sar Kheng, and including national
police chief Hok Lundy and Lu Ramin, left for a four-day visit to Yangon on
Tuesday morning, where they will meet with powerful junta first secretary and
military intelligence chief Khin Nyunt and junta chairman senior general Than
Shwe.
Lu Ramin said that Myanmar -- which forms part of the notorious Golden
Triangle drugs producing region along with Laos and Thailand -- had much
experience dealing with illicit narcotics production.
"We need to draw on that ... We need to reduce drugs production in
Cambodia."
Myanmar is the world's largest producer of opium, from which heroin is
derived, accounting for over half of the global crop, while Cambodia has
increasingly become a transit point for drugs shipments.
The Yangon junta has come under harsh international criticism, particularly
from the United States, for its alleged collaboration in the narcotics trade and
failure to clamp down on producers, charges the military regime denies.
US officials say amphetamine production is growing alarmingly in Myanmar,
satisfying a growing demand for the drug in neighbouring countries, particularly
Thailand.
The Thai army estimates that 600 million amphetamines pills were smuggled
into the country last year from jungle refineries inside the Myanmar border.
The Cambodian government has also come under pressure to stamp out the
drugs trade amid fears of widespread military involvement in smuggling narcotics
from the Golden Triangle, and the increased local harvesting of marijuana.
(AFP)
Bangkok Post - Aug 9,
2000.
Inbrief Border alert Mae Hong Son-The Third Army is to send units to four districts bordering
Burma to prevent military incursions and stem the inflow of drugs.
Army troops will be deployed to patrol trafficking routes in Muang, Khun
Yuam, Pang Mapha and Pai districts, and paramilitary rangers will be sent to Mae
Sariang, Sop Moei and Mae La Noi districts.
The move comes amid clashes between Burmese forces and fighters of the
Karenni National Progressive Party opposite Mae Hong Son.
BBC - Tuesday, 8 August, 2000, 18:38
GMT 19:38 UK
Railway of Death lures fortune hunters By Damian Grammaticas in Sangkhlaburi, Thailand
The Thai Government is warning people not to search for treasure buried by
the Japanese Army in the Second World War.
The warning comes after six people died while exploring a cave where
Japanese gold is supposed to be hidden.
There are numerous stories about the fabulous wealth the Japanese forces
are believed to have secreted away in various parts of Thailand before their
defeat.
Many of the rumours centre on an area of jungle close to the border with
Burma, not far from the infamous Bridge over the River Kwai.
The bridge was built as part of the so-called Railway of Death.
Sixteen-thousand Allied prisoners of war and 100,000 Asians died building
the line.
Vorawat Suvanarit is a local historian who has spent 10 years searching for
the gold.
"People believe that the Japanese, who built the railway between Thailand
and Burma, took some gold and hid it in the forests of Kanchanaburi," he says.
"There are at least 10 different stories about the Japanese treasure."
A Buddhist monk claims to have seen bars of gold and the bodies of 100
Samurai warriors inside a cave near the town of Sangkhlaburi.
Last month, the six people who died - all from Thailand - dug their way
into the cave, where two train carriages full of war booty are supposed to be
hidden.
Sixty metres underground they ran out of oxygen and suffocated.
Thai Government officials say people should give up the search.
'Greedy'
"They are greedy, selfish fortune-hunters" says Doctor Plodprasop
Surasawadee, the Secretary-General of the Thai Royal Forest Department.
"I would like to warn them that they will be in trouble for sure."
The Japanese are believed to have gathered their treasure from all over
South-East Asia and brought it to Thailand.
Nobody has ever found any of the gold, but that has not stopped people
trying.
The six deaths have led to a temporary lull in the search.
However, the promise of riches that many in Thailand can only dream about,
means others may still be willing to risk their lives too.
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