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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reuters - Calcutta port workers hold up ship
from Myanmar
AFP - Myanmar university re-opening a sham, say
Aung San Suu Kyi, activists
Dow jones - S Korea Daewoo Corp To Explore Oil
Field Offshore Myanmar
NSTP - Local news: New headache for
MPSA?
Xinhua - Fourteen Myanmar pirates sentenced in China Bkk Post - Workers flee Burma after army
clash
Bkk Post - Mission shows Rangoon accepts need to
open up
The Nation - Suu Kyi scoffs at reopening
of universities
BBC - Indian dockers in Burma solidarity
move
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BURMA RELATED NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WIRE:08/21/2000 11:27:00 ET
Calcutta port workers hold up ship from Myanmar CALCUTTA, India, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Workers in India"s eastern Calcutta
port have held up a ship from Myanmar since Sunday to press for trade union
rights and democracy in that country. The ship, M.V. Pagan, is now expected to
sail out on Monday night after a delay of 24 hours, a spokesman for the ship"s
agent, Everett India, said. He said the workers did not allow the ship to leave
the docks at the river port of Calcutta because the International Transport
Workers" Federation had issued a circular to delay the ship. He said workers
also demanded better working conditions for sailors from Myanmar, where a
military regime is in power.
Tuesday, August 22 5:34 PM SGT
Myanmar university re-opening a sham, say Aung San Suu Kyi, activists BANGKOK, Aug 22 (AFP) - The
re-opening of Myanmar's universities last month after a four-year suspension is
a sham aimed at defusing criticism of the regime, opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi said in a message conveyed by activists who returned from Yangon
Tuesday.
Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) invited the group,
including academics, youth workers and student union representatives, to join
200 opposition members who held an education forum in the capital Monday.
In a videotape smuggled out of the military-run country, the Nobel laureate
urged govermments and student groups to campaign for education to be made freely
available in Myanmar, and not to be used as a political tool.
"The universities have been reopened because of pressure on the government
but this is a mere surface job to make people believe there has been progress in
Myanmar," she said.
Political change must be achieved before the education system is reformed
because the two are inextricably linked, she said.
"We would like governments and the student organisations of the world to
think of education in Burma as part of our broader political situation," Aung
San Suu Kyi said, using the country's former name.
At a news conference in Bangkok, the activists said the NLD believed only
25,000 students had returned to their classes, far less than the 60,000 the
military has claimed.
And the academic year has been compressed into three months to push through
a student backlog caused by 12 years of sporadic closures.
"Burma's education system is in dire straits. The students know this and
reject it as a sham," said Graham Bailey of the Free Burma Campaign in South
Africa.
"Education is being used as a political tool and people are being prevented
from learning how to think."
The activists said students have returned to their studies under
unacceptable conditions, including being compelled to swear a compulsory oath of
allegiance to the junta.
Campuses have been moved far out of Yangon to rural sites chosen for their
close proximity to military barracks where any dissident activity can be quickly
suppressed.
This was proving the main barrier to students resuming their studies, they
said. Some students were forming study groups and pooling their funds to enable
one member to travel out to the campus and take notes for the others.
Teachers and text books were scarce and many courses were being studied by
correspondence.
Bailey said the military government had been forced to open the
universities because of criticism from fellow Association of Southeast Asian
Nation (ASEAN) members.
"It's no coincidence that they announced the opening on the same day that
the ASEAN meeting opened here in Bangkok," he said.
Myanmar's universities have been sporadically closed since a popular
uprising in the summer of 1988 threatened to topple the military regime.
The Yangon junta imposed strict restrictions on universities in the wake of
a student revolt in December 1996, formally suspending classes for all second
and third-year university students.
S Korea Daewoo Corp To Explore Oil Field Offshore MyanmarSEOUL (Dow Jones)--South Korea's Daewoo Corp. (Q.DWO) said Tuesday it signed a contract with Myanmar's state-run Myanma Oil & Gas Enterprise to obtain exclusive rights to explore an oil field offshore Myanmar.The contract also gives Daewoo Corp. a right to product distribution. The block A-1 oil field is located west of Myanmar in the Bay of Bengal and is estimated to contain 500 million barrels of crude and 3 trillion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas valued at $10 billion. Daewoo Corp. plans to invest 20 billion won ($1=KRW1,114.3) in the oil field during the next four years. Exploration is expected to begin in September, the South Korean company said. New Straits Times Press
Tuesday, August 22 6:30 PM SGT
Local news: New headache for
MPSA?
FROM a squatter settlement to a rubbish dump. And residents of Taman Kosas in Ampang want the Ampang Jaya Municipal
Council to fence up the land to prevent more rubbish from being dumped
there.
The land was formerly a haven for Myanmar and Indonesians who built
squatter homes just behind the housing estate some five years ago.
Following The Malay Mail's reports, the MPAJ and police demolished the
village three months ago with a promise that it would be developed as soon as
possible.
But now, the land has been turned into an illegal rubbish dump. People from
all over throw their household rubbish there.
"It is sad that the MPAJ has not done anything to prevent this. Now it has
gone out of control," said a resident.
"Even old planks from the old squatter houses were not cleared. It looks
like they're going to have another headache unless they act fast," he
added.
The area attracted a lot of attention early this year following a Malay
Mail report that it was a `safe haven' for Myanmar beggars.
Raids conducted by the police resulted in them being deported and their
houses demolished.
Only a backlane separated the village and the housing estate. Residents
claim that the foreigners had caused endless problems to them.
(Xinhua)-08/21/2000
Fourteen Myanmar pirates sentenced in China The Higher People's Court of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
handed down second court verdicts Monday ranging from imprisonment to death for
14 Myanmarese pirates charged with raiding a Taiwanese cargo ship and setting
its 21 crew members adrift in the Andaman Sea.
The head of the pirate gang, Maung Htay Aung, was given the death sentence
with a two year reprieve. Kwaw Soe and Kyaw Soe Lin were sentenced to life in
prison, and all their personal property was confiscated.
Eleven other pirates were also sentenced to prison terms from three to ten
years. They have been handed out various fines and been deported from
China.
The pirates hijacked the Marine Master cargo ship in the small hours of
March 17, 1999, which was sailing through the Andaman Sea south of Myanmar,
heading from China's eastern port of Zhangjiagang to Calcutta, India, when the
pirates boarded the ship.
Armed with guns and knives, the pirates hijacked the ship and seized alkali
as well as crew members' valuables with a total value of more than 5.8 million
yuan (US$698,000).
The crew was forced into a lifeboat, which floated for 10 days before being
rescued by fishermen from Thailand. Meanwhile, the pirates disguised the cargo
ship and sailed it to the port of Shantou in south China's Guangdong Province,
where they sold the cargo of alkali. When the ship arrived at the city of
Fangchenggang in Southern Guangxi for repairs on June 8, local police spotted it
and arrested the pirates.
On January 31, this year, at a public trial at the Fangchenggang
Intermediate People's Court, the first trial sentences were handed down. After
the trial, all the pirates appealed their convictions to the Higher People's
Court of Guangxi.
Bangkok Post - Aug 22,
2000.
Workers flee Burma after army clash Tak Fifty Burmese workers and eight Thais working in a Karen National
Union-controlled sawmill fled into Ban Mae Ja Rao yesterday, after Rangoon
troops overran the factory.
The ensuing early morning skirmish drove the workers across the border.
They were afraid to return, fearing a second clash.
The hour-long exchange of mortar and gunfire could be heard several
kilometres away.
A source said the KNU were outnumbered and eventually forced to retreat. A
large number of casualties was reported.
Border patrol soldiers have been put on alert for any incursion, after the
KNU's Special Force Battalion 101 was reported moving to recapture the
mill.
The Rangoon troops torched the mill and burned processed timber.
Tak Force's Fourth Regiment in Mae Ramad district dispatched reinforcements
along the border for security reasons.
Bangkok Post - Aug 22,
2000.
INTERVIEW / ASDA JAYANAMA Mission shows Rangoon accepts need to open up The Thai permanent representative to the UN spoke to 'Burma Debate'
magazine about Thailand's attitude to the International Labour Organisation
mission to Burma in May.
Did Thailand support sending the ILO technical co-operation mission to
Burma in May?
Yes, we did. We are still in favour of the country resolving the problem in
a peaceful, non-pressured way if possible. So with this view in mind, of course
we were in favour of a technical mission going to Myanmar (Burma) to work things
out.
The only question is, how successful was this technical mission? I believe
the mandate of the mission was to try to assist Myanmar in implementing the
resolution of the International Labour Conference. And that is the way countries
and delegations will judge it.
Of course, we were in favour of the technical mission, but there has to be
substantive work too. It should not be perceived as a delaying tactic.
Why do you think the government of Burma agreed to accept the
mission?
This problem of forced labour has been on the table for some years. I think
the government of Myanmar has only lately begun to think of it as a serious
problem that it has to solve. We, in the region, have strongly urged them to do
something about it.
We don't want to isolate them. We want to bring them into the international
community. I think all of us in the region have encouraged them to work this
out. So I believe that this invitation was part of an understanding on the part
of the government of Myanmar of the need to accommodate the international
community, and of course more importantly, to live up to their own commitment
under the ILO Convention.
Do you think there could sincerely be some change within the government
regarding their views on this issue?
I think they will have to change, but the question is how fast. I think
there is a feeling with the regime that: "We have to change, but we are going to
change in our way." That is my perception. A non-democratic regime is used to
deciding things for itself, and interaction with outsiders is one of the things
that it has to learn.
At the conference, the government of Malaysia and some other Asian
countries co-sponsored an alternative to the resolution of the governing body.
Would Thailand have been a co-sponsor given the opportunity?
When you co-sponsor something in an international forum it must be
something that you agree with 100%. Politically you should also do everything
you can to convince other countries to support it.
"Co-sponsor" means two things: first that you agree 100% with the text and
secondly that you want to be politically involved in advancing it. We did not
agree 100% with the text of that resolution.
Basically, on this matter, I think the Myanmar delegation should have done
more to defend itself, rather than having others do it for them. The reason that
we did not agree with the alternative resolution was because the text did not
encourage Myanmar enough to abide by the resolution.
The Asean labour ministers held a meeting before the ILO conference. What
position did Thailand take at that meeting regarding the ILO
recommendations?
Basically, I think the labour ministers wanted to give political
encouragement to Myanmar for them to implement the ILO resolution. Since it was
held before the ILO meeting, I know the Myanmar government wanted a show of
political support. And it got political support.
I believe the trend at that meeting was to urge Myanmar to have a meeting
with the ILO and to urge the ILO to accept the invitation to send a team
there-to encourage Myanmar and the ILO to work together, which of course we
supported.
When it came to the vote on the final resolution at the ILO meeting in
Geneva, Thailand chose to abstain. It did not vote against the resolution, as
many of the Asean governments did. Why was that?
You could look at it two ways. First of all, we abstained because we
thought the resolution was too strong. But at the same time, we didn't vote
against it because we also think that Myanmar should do more to follow through
on the recommendations of the ILO.
In your view, what does the Burmese government need to do between now and
November in order to prevent the points in the resolution from being
implemented?
It has to show a definite commitment that it's willing to work out a
comprehensive programme with the ILO to completely eliminate forced labour. It
is not a question of: "Okay, we will do this, we will do that." The ILO needs a
road map, in detail, not just a simple agreement.One of the things the ILO
suggested to the government of Burma as a result of its technical mission was to
establish an ILO presence in Burma. Is this something that the Thai government
would support?
This is something for the ILO and Myanmar to work out. If Myanmar agrees,
of course that would be very good because it would show a definite sincerity. In
the minds of many countries, you cannot properly observe the situation if you
don't have a presence there, and you cannot really supervise something from
outside. But I heard that they are not very agreeable to a permanent ILO
presence. So I think this is, to some degree, a test.
What type of parameters or conditions do you feel would have to be in place
for such a presence to be effective?
The host country should respect the immunities and privileges of the ILO as
an international organisation. The ILO must be able to implement its work
plan-it needs freedom of movement and access to workplaces. Eventually where
everything is worked out to mutual satisfaction, the ILO's permanent presence
should not be needed.
Before concluding, I would like to make a general remark. Thailand's
attitude towards the ILO situation is a little different from the other Asean
countries, geo-politically and also on social issues.
We are right next door to Myanmar. Other countries are farther away. They
enjoy the luxury of distance, but we the burden of proximity. Thus the first
thing that comes to our mind regarding Myanmar's internal policies and
activities is their effects, especially negative ones, on Thailand.
Look at the almost one million illegal workers from Myanmar in Thailand,
and the large number of displaced people on the Thai side of the Thai-Myanmar
border. There is also the huge production of amphetamine tablets on the Myanmar
side of the Thai-Myanmar border by ethnic Wa and their illegal distribution into
Thailand. In this regard, forced labour in Myanmar, among other things, is
linked to these movements of people from Myanmar to Thailand.
So when Asean solidarity is invoked in the International Labour Conference,
we will have to take into consideration these movements of people to Thailand
and other related negative problems, and of course their solutions. This does
not mean good relations with neighbours are unimportant, but there are other
goals in our foreign policy, and when goals contradict one another, we must know
how to balance them.
The Nation - Aug 23,
2000.
Suu Kyi scoffs at reopening of
universities
By DON PATHAN
BURMESE opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said that the reopening of
the universities in Burma is a sham and urged students from other countries to
put pressure on their respective governments to call for democracy in the
trouble-plagued country.
In a videotaped interview released yesterday to the media in Bangkok, the
Nobel Peace laureate said the reopening of the universities had come about amid
pressure from the local and international communities.
The move does not represent progress, she said. "The consensus of opinion
is that the universities have been opened because of pressure, both external and
internal, and this is a mere surface job to make people think that there has
been progress," Suu Kyi said.
She added that Burma's education system would remain in a mess unless there
was democracy in the county.
The statement was made in Rangoon on Monday during a one-day forum on
education hosted by the opposition National League for Democracy party. Fourteen
human-rights activists from 10 countries also took part in the event, which was
attended by nearly 200 NLD members.
"Students everywhere, all over the world, are very, very effective in
getting their governments to see what should be done, what ought to be done,
especially with regard to such basic needs as human rights and education and
development," Suu Kyi said.
Meanwhile Graham Baily, a former anti-apartheid activist from South Africa
who took part in the forum, accused the Burmese generals of using education for
political gain.
He compared the scheme to his home country during the apartheid era.
"[Burmese] people have been denied the right on how to think," Baily said.
Ronny Hansen, project manager of Worldview Rights in Norway, dismissed the
government's claim that 60,000 students had registered at the universities,
saying the real figure was about 25,000.
The Burmese military government shut down universities in December 1996
after pro-democracy rallies and student unrest.
Ragnhild Skinnes of the National Union of Students in Norway blasted the
junta for forcing the students to take an oath to stay out of politics, saying
the move constituted taking away political rights.
The Bangkok-based Altsean human-rights organisation's Debbie Stothard
warned the international community against complacency over Rangoon's decision
to open the universities. "What we are concerned is that the inter-national
community will get complacent and say this is good news and then proceed to pay
off the military in terms of great aid and trade," Stothard said.
A number of campuses have been relocated outside the capital, and a number
of courses on politics and history have been excluded from the curriculum, the
activists said. In August 1998 Burmese authorities arrested a group of 18
pro-democracy activists in Rangoon for handing out materials urging the people
to speak out against the junta. They were immediately deported after being
charged with sedition.
Suu Kyi's NLD won a landslide victory in the 1990 general election but was
denied the fruits of victory by the junta.
Her party continues to speak out against military rule in Burma and has
consistently urged the international community to issue sanctions against the
regime.
BBC - Tuesday, 22 August, 2000, 12:17
GMT 13:17 UK
Indian dockers in Burma solidarity move A Burmese cargo ship impounded by dock workers in the Indian port of
Calcutta has finally left for Rangoon.
The ship had been prevented from leaving since Sunday when Indian dock
workers began protesting against what they called inhuman working conditions on
board.
The vessel finally departed after the protestors were assured that their
demands for better working conditions for the Burmese would be met by the ship's
owners.
It's the second time this year that Indian port workers have held up a
Burmese ship. They say the protests are a show of solidarity with the Burmese
sailors who they say often go without adequate food and water and a proper
salary.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
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