|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Times of India - Thailand repatriates
arrested Myanmar citizens
AFP - Singapore's Lee saddened over Suharto's
fate
AFP - Myanmar currency spirals to all-time
low
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BURMA RELATED NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Times of India - Aug 13,
2000.
Asia-Pacific
Thailand repatriates arrested
Myanmar citizens
MAE SOD, Thailand: Eight Myanmar soldiers and a civilian arrested in
Thailand were handed over to Myanmar authorities on Saturday under an amnesty
marking the queen's birthday, officials said.
They were arrested separately in the border province of Mae Hong Song after
losing their way in the jungle, a Thai army official said on customary condition
of anonymity.
Thai officials turned them over to Maj. Win Min Zaw, vice chairman of the
Thai-Myanmar Border Committee, in the middle of the Thai-Myanmar Friendship
Bridge in Mae Sod, about 650 km northwest of Bangkok.
They were freed to mark Queen Sirikit's 68th birthday on Saturday and to
promote Thai-Myanmar relations, the official said. (AP)
Sunday, August 13 11:28 AM SGT
Singapore's Lee saddened over Suharto's fate KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 13 (AFP) -
Singapore Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew in remarks published Sunday said he was
saddened over the corruption charges brought against Suharto, but said the
former Indonesian president had left his mark on history.
Lee also defended ASEAN's non-interference policy and disagreed with
international intervention in Indonesia's Maluku islands amid 19 months of
bloody clashes between Muslims and Christians.
"I feel very sad for Suharto. What his children did, that's different," he
said in an interview with Malaysia's New Sunday Times ahead of a four-day visit
here on Monday, his first in a decade.
Although Suharto was "finished" as a leader, he had left his mark in
history, Lee said.
"He gave Indonesia 32 years of development and Southeast Asia 32 years of
stability, so all of us could grow," he added.
Suharto, 79, who ruled Indonesia for 32-years with an iron fist, was
charged Tuesday with incurring 571 million dollars in losses to the state by
funnelling money from huge tax-free charity foundations he ran into the
businesses of family and friends.
Indonesia's first democratically-elected president, Abdurrahman Wahid,, has
promised to pardon him, but insists he must stand trial first.
A house arrest order on Suharto has been lifted and changed to city arrest
to let him attend the trial, which could start in a few weeks.
Lee said it would take Indonesia, which is the largest and "anchor member"
of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), several years to recover
from its current troubles.
"As Indonesia is sorting out its problems, the other original members --
Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines and Singapore -- should together give ASEAN a
push," he said.
"We have got to let investors know that there are large areas in ASEAN that
are doing well. Joint marketing can help us. Let us go as a team to Europe,
America and Japan."
Lee defended ASEAN's policy of non-interference in members' affairs.
"I did not think it was practical to solve the problems of another country,
especially Indonesia," he said.
"The ASWJ (Asian Wall Street Journal) said in an editorial that sovereignty
is now differently defined and Maluku should have international intervention.
Newspapers can say that but Indonesia will not be comfortable."
Nineteen months of bloody Muslim-Christian clashes in Indonesia's Maluku
islands have left some 4,000 dead and created more than half a million
refugees.
In Australia's case where its troops had played a key role in restoring law
and order in East Timor, Lee said it had been a very "costly exercise,
financially and diplomatically" for Canberra.
Singapore and Indonesia are ASEAN members along with Brunei, Cambodia,
Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
Sunday, August 13 5:56 PM SGT
Myanmar currency spirals to all-time low YANGON, Aug 13 (AFP) -
Myanmar's currency, the kyat, has spiraled to an all-time low against the
dollar, triggering fears here of a major government anti-inflation intervention
in the economy.
On the black market, the truest indicator of the value of Myanmar's
currency, the kyat is now valued at about 400 to the dollar, its lowest point in
its history.
In a commentary Sunday in the state-owned Mirror daily, a writer linked to
the government said the state has recently engaged in a "market-friendly
intervention" in the economy in an effort to prop up the kyat.
This intervention reportedly includes government price subsidies for
gasoline and diesel fuel and a concerted crackdown on the circulation of US
dollars in Yangon and other tourist sites.
But the Mirror commentary denied persistent rumours the Yangon junta would
soon introduce 5,000 and 10,000 kyat notes in an attempt to keep a lid on
runaway inflation.
"Political adversaries and their lackeys ... are attempting to stab the
government behind the back" by "spreading false rumours about price
manipulation," the commentary said.
It urged Myanmar businesspeople to ignore "false rumours deliberately
spread by detractors" and not worry about inflation.
Myanmar's economy has been sinking for some time.
In April, a move to increase civil servants' wages by up to 600 percent
sent inflation skyward, forcing the country's generals to intervene to keep
prices down.
In an effort to combat spiralling commodity prices, the government has
recently set up four "tax-free markets" in Yangon where farmers, mainly from
military-run farms, can sell their produce directly to consumers, mainly
government workers.
A common complaint about the generals who rule Myanmar is that they have
little or no idea how to run an economy.
The result is a primitive and informal system propped up by barter and a
pervasive black market in everything from currency to gasoline.
Physical signs of the decaying economy are obvious.
Power cuts are a daily headache for residents of Yangon and other cities
and prices rise and fall dramatically throughout the year.
Foreign investment has all but dried up owing to the Asian financial crisis
and the stigma attached to investing in a country blamed by the West for serious
human rights abuses.
Myanmar's ruling junta frequently blames external influences and political
foes such as democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for
Democracy party, which won 1990 elections but were denied power, for many of the
country's persistent problems. |