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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kyodo News - 4 Myanmar dissidents groups in
Japan merge
Reuters - Landslide kills eight in southwest
China
AP - Japanese Burial
Spawns Thai Tourism
Australian Broadcasting Corporation - Aung San Suu Kyi predicts democracy for
Burma
SHAN Herald Agency - News Brief on Wa
SHAN
Herald Agency - UNDCP official: Crops diminishing, but amount of drugs
increasing
Xinhua -
Myanmar-Singapore Bilateral Trade Drops in 1999-2000
Bkk Post- Anwar
sentence 'tarnishes Asean's image' Analysts say region far from
democracy
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BURMA RELATED NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Myanmar dissidents
groups in Japan merge
Tokyo, Aug. 14 Kyodo - Four
Myanmar dissident groups in Japan supporting pro-democracy movement leader Aung
San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy have merged to better promote
democracy in Myanmar, dissident sources said Monday.
The Newly formed “League for Democracy in Burma” will takeover all
functions of the four and will have a membership of more than 100, they
said.
The four groups are the Burmese Association in Japan (BAIJ), the Burma
Youth Volunteer Association (BYVA), the Students Organization for Liberation of
Burma and Burmese Women’s Union-Japan Branch, according to the sources.
Another Myanmar dissident group active in Japan, the National League for
Democracy (Liberated Area – Japan Branch), refrained from joining the new group,
they added.
The BAIJ and BYVA were formed in the aftermath of the Burmese military’s
suppression of democracy uprisings in 1988.
As a result of the crackdown, Japan and other major nations halted aid to
the country. But Japan appears to be relaxing its sanctions recently, the
sources said, referring to the Japanese stance on its official development
assistance (ODA) to Myanmar.
Japanese officials who attended a two-day workshop in Yangon in late June
to discuss Japanese support for economic reforms in Myanmar, reportedly said
they were considering resuming ODA to the country as part of humanitarian
assistance to states around the Mekong River.
WIRE:08/14/2000 04:48:00 ET
Landslide kills eight in southwest China BEIJING, Aug 14 (Reuters) -
Eight people were killed by a landslide triggered by heavy rains on the
China-Myanmar border and 10 are missing, local officials said on Monday. Rescue
workers had pulled 26 injured people, including a small child, from a dormitory
and power plant buried in Sunday"s mudslide in Dehong prefecture in the
southwestern province of Yunnan, the officials said. The official Xinhua news
agency gave different casualty figures, reporting that of 45 people caught in
the mudslide, nine were dead, nine were missing and 27 were rescued. The
landslide, set off by successive days of rain, followed a smaller one on
Saturday in the border region, home to the Dai and Jingpo ethnic minorities, the
officials said.
Sunday August 13 3:24 PM ET
Japanese Burial Spawns Thai Tourism By MICOOL BROOKE, KHUN YUAM, Thailand (AP) - As
World War II dragged to a bloody close in 1945, Imperial Japan's 15th army was
in retreat from Burma. About 20,000 wounded and exhausted soldiers died during
the long march home.
Their death - and their memories - are bringing unexpected prosperity to
this dirt-poor border village: It was here, at a Buddhist temple-turned-field
hospital, where many of the Japanese soldiers breathed their last.
A joint Japanese-Thai excavation program to find the remains, plus
pilgrimages by Japanese veterans and their families to honor the war dead, have
spawned a tourism industry catering especially to the Japanese, the local police
chief said.
``Because of its fascinating history, Khun Yuam is on the road to becoming
... like the bridge on the River Kwai,'' said Lt. Col. Cherdchai Chomchavat,
referring to the bridge on the infamous Death Railway that Japanese forces built
using Allied prisoners as laborers.
Thousands were buried in and around Khun Yuam, which has remained virtually
unchanged over the last five decades - a one-street village of about 100
families, mostly subsistence farmers living in thatch-roofed bamboo huts set
amid lush wild vegetation.
Japanese officials first surveyed the Khun Yuam area in 1978, when they
excavated 362 remains near the border with Burma, now known as Myanmar. A joint
survey with the Thai Fine Arts Department conducted in 1998 estimated that as
many as 7,000 remains are present at 39 locations in the district.
Nowadays, about two dozen Japanese make the arduous trip every weekend to
Khun Yuam, 500 miles northwest of the Thai capital of Bangkok. They first travel
by train or by road to the town of Mae Hong Son, then complete the remaining
40-mile journey by taxis or buses on a potholed road.
Most make a day trip, though a 12-room guesthouse opened in the village
earlier this year.
To commemorate ``Victory Japan Day,'' the day Japan ceased hostilities in
1945, relatives plan private services Tuesday at the Japanese War Museum in Khun
Yuam. The museum houses a large collection of war relics, including rifles,
swords, helmets, bugles and heavy machine guns.
``We have nothing interesting other than World War II military history and
the skeletons of dead soldiers,'' said Cherdchai, the police chief, who also is
the museum's curator.
In the middle of the village is the sprawling 100-year-old Muay To temple
complex, which housed the Japanese 15th Army's field hospital. The makeshift
facility treated soldiers who marched through hundreds of miles of jungle to
reach the sanctuary of Thailand, a wartime ally, after the failed invasion of
India and the debacle in Myanmar.
Around the temple - a renovated modern structure of gold painted slanted
roof - are shrines built by the Japanese relatives. Most are gravestone-style
memorials dedicated to ``warriors of heaven,'' each surrounded by a metal
gate.
Cherdchai said the construction of the shrines generated employment in the
village. Some Japanese are also funding charity programs and student
scholarships, he said.
War veteran Nagase Takashi, 83, spent $15,000 of his pension this year to
build a ``Stars and Dew'' temple at Khun Yuam to honor fallen Japanese soldiers,
including his brother-in-law. The temple is a spartan prayer room, the far end
dominated by a large metallic statue of a sitting Buddha.
Takashi, a resident of Kurashiki city, told the AP during a recent visit
that he was compelled to do something to honor the 15th Army's war dead.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation - Aug 14,
2000.
Aung San Suu Kyi predicts democracy for Burma Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is predicting the country's
junta will eventually lose its grip on power, allowing democracy to take root.
In her first U-S network television interview in 11 years, the Nobel prize
winner said she would continue her political battle.
Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won an overwhelming
victory in general elections in Burma in 1990.
But the military government has never recognised the result and is accused
by opponents in the West of human rights abuses and political repression.
SHAN Herald Agency News Brief on Wa August 14, 2000
Burmese troops draw rations from Wa Since the Wa entry into areas west of Mongton-BP1 road in June, only one battalion-- IB 225 commanded by Ltc. Chit Hla -- remains in the Mongtaw-Monghta area, once warlord Khun Sa's stronghold. And not more than 10 soldiers are stationed at each post in Mongkyawt, Mongtaw and Monghta. Meanwhile, the United Wa State Army units are filling the vacuum in Nakawngmu, Mongkyawt, Kiu Hulom and Loihtwe, the strategic mountain overlooking Thailand. Many sources agree that several Burmese outposts from Mongpiang to Monghsat, Monghsat to Tachilek, and Nakawngmu to Mongkyawt are drawing rations from the UWSA. Also reported, however, were some instances revealing Wa exasperation with the rather preposterous situation. One of them occurred on 25 July at Mongkyawt when the Wa unit stationed there was butchering a cow bought from the villagers. The unidentified Burmese officer, upon hearing the news, sent his men to receive their share of the meat. Whereupon the Wa commander, also unidentified, was reported to have said: "You are government troops and should do better than just expecting to be waited on hand and foot." The soldiers went back empty-handed. Chinese being Favored over Wa? Travelers coming through Nakawngmu, roughly halfway between Mongton and BP1, say most of the Wa officers, captain upwards, are either Chinese or Chinese speaking Was. During their stopovers in Nakawngmu, it is not unusual to see privates, aged between 14 and 15, washing the 4-wheel trucks with the number-plates beginning with SW -- an unmistakable warning to ambitious checkpoints on the road that they are not to be stopped or searched-- while their officers celebrate with food and drinks. "All Wa vehicles we see here are Tigers (Tiger Toyotas) and Fords 4x4 imported from Thailand," says one source. "Each battalion appear to be outfitted with at least 14-15 offroaders." Nakawmgmu getting bigger Nakawngmu, once an unknown village, is getting notorious for its drugmarket and,as a result, is getting bigger especially after the Wa influx. There are more than 50-60 Karaoke pubs plus 2-3 massage parlors. Land, fields and gardens are being confiscated at will by the Was, who have set up a new sub-village of their own in the northern part. "Every house there has a satellite dish and electricity generator," say the sources. They do not know whether owners who lost their lands were paid damages but some homes in Hsaikhao, Monghsat Township, are being paid K. 20,000 to be vacated. "We've already bought the whole territory from Gen Khin Nyunt," one Wa officer was reported to have said. Wa Angry with Gen Maung Aye? After warlord Khun Sa surrendered in 1996, the UWSA was reportedly demanded by Gen Maung Aye to move back to their original territory near the Chinese border in the north. "The Bumese wanted us to stay when Khun Sa was here, and now that Khun Sa is no more a threat, they want us to return," said a Wa commander. "We shall not succumb to their demand. We will never retreat. There shall be only advance until the whole territory this side of the Salween is ours." It is speculated that Rangoon, failing in their plan to remove the Was, are using them as cannon fodders against Yawdserk and Thailand. "They had tried to use Kokangs against the SSA before," said a retired MTA officer, "but it did not work out the way they wanted." SHAN Herald Agency UNDCP official: Crops diminishing, but amount of drugs increasing August 14, 2000 An informed source from Taunggyi told S.H.A.N. he met an official from the UN Drug Control Program who said the availability of drugs is on the rise just as crops in the project areas are disappearing. "In the project areas, we see no poppy fields any more, but drugs seem to become more available," he was reported to have told the source. The UNDCP has been introducing a crop substitution program called "Alternative Development Program" in the Shan State. The source said the official did not elaborate his laconic remark. According to the New Light of Myamar, poppy acreage in Burma is dropping: 1997 -89 151,200.006 acres Local people, however, say poppy fields under the protection of the local authorities, are moving and extending out side the project areas. "A Japanese official I met also agreed with the assessment of the UNDCP guy," said the source. Myanmar-Singapore Bilateral Trade Drops
in 1999-2000
YANGON (Aug. 14) XINHUA -
Bilateral trade between Myanmar and Singapore amounted to 883.1 million U.S.
dollars in fiscal year 1999-2000 which ended in March, dropping by 10 percent
compared with 1998-99, according to the latest data issued by Myanmar's Central
Statistical Organization.
Of the bilateral trade in the fiscal year, Myanmar's import from Singapore
was worth 748.9 million dollars, reducing by 115.7 million or 13.38 percent
compared with 1998-99, while its export to Singapore was valued at 134.2 million
dollars, increasing by 17. 3 million dollars or 14.79 percent compared with the
previous fiscal year.
The Myanmar-Singapore bilateral trade accounted for 23.15 percent of
Myanmar's total foreign trade.
Singapore stood as Myanmar's largest trading partner in the fiscal year,
followed by China (400 million dollars), Thailand ( 393.83 million dollars),
Japan (321.92 million dollars), South Korea (262.12 million dollars), Malaysia
(255.41 million dollars) and Indonesia (139.5 million dollars).
Singapore, in addition to being Myanmar's largest trading partner, is also
the country's largest investor, so far injecting 1.504 billion in 69 projects
since Myanmar opened to foreign investment in late 1988.
Bangkok Post - Aug 14,
2000.
Anwar sentence 'tarnishes Asean's image' Analysts say region far from democracy Saritdet Marukatat Former Malaysian deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim's controversial
conviction is tarnishing the image of Asean, according to analysts.
Sunai Phasuk, of the Asian Network for Free Elections, said the case showed
the region was still far from democracy and good governance.
Anwar's fate was an example of how Malaysia and other Asean nations
continued to interfere with their internal juridical systems, he said.
After the 1997 financial crisis, some Asean nations called for good
governance, transparency and accountability of all member states.
One cause of the crisis was thought to be a reluctance of nations to warn
their neighbours before reverting to the Asean non-interference policy.
Anwar's situation and that of the Assembly of the Poor in Thailand and the
National League for Democracy in Burma shows the region has no rule of law, he
said.
Even Singapore and Malaysia use their internal security acts to control
political opponents, he said.
Mr Sunai, speaking at a seminar organised by Forum-Asia, said good
governance had a long way to go in Asean and there were no just laws in the
region.
Anwar was sentenced to nine years in jail for sodomy and six years for
corruption.
The sodomy charge was considered an attempt by the Malaysian leader to
destroy Anwar's popularity with Muslim supporters.
Pranee Thiparat, director of the Institute of Security and International
Studies, was concerned about the implications of the case on other countries in
the region.
He said it could jeopardise efforts to make Asean more democratic.
There was also a trend among Asean countries to follow the footsteps of
Singapore by introducing laws requiring accountability and transparency, but
without democracy.
Asean groups Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and
Vietnam. |