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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ananova - Mother of
jailed activist to visit him in Burma
Radia Australia - Canberra criticised over
Burma's detention of human rights activist
IT - 82 Myanmar nationals deported from
Mizoram
The Nation - THAI CLINIC: The misuse of
amphetamines
Reuters - Myanmar border guards kill four
Bangladeshis
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BURMA RELATED NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ananova
Last updated: 17:26 Saturday 19th August 2000. Mother of jailed activist to visit him in Burma The mother of a British human rights activist held in a Burmese jail says
she will go to Burma after hearing that her son's appeal against a 17-year
sentence has been rejected.
Diana Mawdsley said: "I really do not know what the next step will be, but
I will go out there and just see how things are."
Her son James, 27, from Lancashire, was jailed last September for promoting
democracy in Burma and distributing leaflets urging people to protest against
the military regime there.
Referring to news of the appeal, Mrs Mawsley said: "I am glad at least to
know. But the case against James could not possibly stand up in any decently
ordered society."
She has now received her visa and plans to fly out to Burma on September 4
on an open-ended ticket. "I think the situation will now become political. It
certainly cannot be put to rest," she added.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "Although we have not heard from his
lawyer, we have heard through reasonably reliable sources in Rangoon that his
case has been dismissed."
Mr Mawdsley's father David, angered by the news, said: "The whole country
is constipated. Everything has to come from the top. They are very cruel people
and this is what James is trying to draw attention to.
"We have to accept that the Burmese - I am not talking about the normal
people, but the junta - are not only incompetent but totally dishonest."
The family has been in communication with Lord Daniel Brennan QC, who is
willing to go to Burma and fight on Mr Mawdsley's behalf.
Mr Mawdsley senior spoke to his son last month and saw him in June. He
said: "He looked remarkably well. He has been doing weight training using water
bottles as weights. It is the solitary confinement that is really getting to
him."
Radio Australia - Aug 20,
2000.
Canberra criticised over Burma's detention of human rights activist An Australian woman is preparing to travel to Burma to see her human rights
activist son in jail after his appeal to be freed was lost.
Diana Mawdsley said she was "shocked" to learn her 27-year-old son James
had lost his second appeal against a 17-year jail sentence.
James, who holds British and Australian passports, was arrested with
anti-government leaflets in August last year.
It was the third time he'd been detained in Burma.
Mrs Mawdsley, who now lives in England, said she'd been granted a visa and
would be leaving early next month.
She also spoke of her disappointment at the response of the Australian
government to her son's plight, describing Britain's attitude as more
robust.
The Times of India - Aug 20,
2000.
82 Myanmar nationals deported from Mizoram AIZAWL: Mizoram on Friday deported 82 Myanmar nationals who were arrested,
tried and convicted under relevant sections of the Foreigners Act, the police
said.
The foreigners were taken to Mizoram-Myanmar border river of Tiau where
Myanmarese authorities formally received them, the police said.
They were arrested in anti-foreigners' drive launched by the state police
during the last fortnight and were sentenced to seven to 14 days in jail by the
district courts here.
Earlier this month, 107 Myanmarese nationals had been deported by the
government.
State Home Minister Tawnluia earlier said that any foreign national who
stayed in the state illegally, even if they belonged to ethnic Mizo group, would
be legally deported. (PTI)
The Nation - Aug 20,
2000.
THAI CLINIC: The misuse of amphetamines This week we focus on amphetamines. Dr Sombat Phunawakul, internal medicine The amphetamine group of drugs is referred to as being psychotropic,
meaning having an affect on the mind, mood or other mental processes. The drug
is also known among users as pep pills or speed, and locally as horse drug, or
"yaa baa" (crazy drug). There are a number of derivatives such as ephedrine,
methamphetamine and dexamphetamine.
Amphetamine is crystalline, odourless, bitter to the taste, generally
available in white, yellow, blue, or mixed-colour tablets, triangular pellets,
or heart-shaped tablets with a horse's head, or with the word "London" pressed
on the tablet.
The most popular among this group of drugs is methamphetamine. It is
available in orange tablets with "WY" characters pressed on the tablet. The
current trend has been to blend methamphetamine and heroine to boost the drug's
addictive power and make kicking the habit nearly impossible. The drug is
available to the wealthy class of young people in big cities in the form known
as Ecstasy.
How amphetamine is used:
1. Swallowed, which is the traditional way employed by farmers and truck
drivers.
2. It is injected intravenously, normally in conjunction with heroine or
sedatives.
3. It can be smoked by crushing the substance and inserting it into a
cigarette.
4. It is inhaled with the aid of a straw. The methamphetamine is crushed
and placed on aluminium foil, where it is burned and the smoke inhaled. This is
popular and known among students and youngsters as "catching the dragon".
Physical and biomedical effects produced by amphetamines:
1. It stimulates the central nervous system, making sleep impossible.
2. It raises blood pressure, and accelerates the heartbeat.
3. It suppresses appetite, causing drug users to feel like eating less. It
is used as a weight-loss drug.
4. It stimulates the respiratory process, resulting in accelerated
breathing.
5. It stimulates the frontal area of the brain causing a momentary flash of
ideas. It can also cause shaking and trembling.
Symptoms of amphetamine addiction
For people who take up to 20-30 grams a day:
There may be a lack of appetite, excitability, restlessness, shaky hands,
profuse sweating, flatulence, high blood pressure, accelerated rate of
respiration, protracted awareness, diarrhoea or constipation, dry or cracked
lips, irritability, hostility, wide pupils, or chain smoking.
Psychological effects: heavy users of the drug experience a sudden,
temporary crazy-like state, such as being psychotic and paranoid. They may
resort to defending themselves with whatever they have in their hands, or they
may try to hide. They may be inarticulate and experience hallucinations. This
may lead to extreme acts of danger such as scaling a high pole or building,
walking in traffic or inflicting pain or death on others. Others suffer fever,
raised blood pressure, increased pulse, shortness of breath, muscular spasms,
fainting and even death.
Long-term addiction causes the mind to be overworked, constantly stimulated
and strained, leading to weakened health. Long-term addicts tend to contract
infectious diseases easily, experience inflammations, lung ailments, kidney
dysfunction, wide changes of mood, deterioration in mental health, chronic
mental illness or permanent psychosis.
Withdrawal symptoms
Amphetamine addicts who stop taking the drug feel tired and fatigued. They
lose their appetite, are listless, confused, have headaches, sweat profusely,
experience stomach pain, alternate between chills and fever, suffer irritability
and complain frequently. They may be suicidal and withdrawn. All these symptoms
follow a few days of separation from the drug, and may continue for a week or
more.
A growing number of addicts have been reported on university campuses.
Normally, the symptoms reported are mild. Addicted students tend to be irritable
and tired. They can normally kick the addiction with the help of medication.
Some students suffer from psychoactive symptoms after long dependence on the
drug.
Curing addiction
Addicts should be educated on the long-term effects of amphetamine use. The
drug deteriorates cognitive functions. After two to five years of addiction,
effects of the drug on the mental processes begin to appear. Cures lie in
medications that help inhibit the addictive feeling of the drug on patients, and
drugs that help regulate the psychotropic effects of amphetamines. Behavioural
therapy may also be needed.
WIRE:08/20/2000 09:17:00 ET
Myanmar border guards kill four Bangladeshis COX"S BAZAR, Bangladesh, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Myanmar border guards on Sunday shot
and killed at least four Bangladeshi fishermen near Saint Martin Island in the
Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh police said. The police said a fishing boat with 16
crew on board cruising inside Bangladesh"s territorial waters came under fire
from the Myanmar guards and sank. Two injured fishermen were rescued, but ten
others were still missing, they said but gave no other details. "One body has
already been recovered, and we are trying to retrieve three others floating in
the Bay," Sub-inspector Abdul Gafoor at Teknaf police station told Reuters.
Bangladesh often alleges that Myanmar forces intrude into its territory and kill
or abduct its citizens from the frontiers.
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