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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BURMA RELATED NEWS - SEP 27, 2000. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINE
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - 'Barbaric attack' on jailed
Briton
ABC online - Human rights activist beaten in Burmese prison
BBC- British protest over
Burmese jail assault
BBC - Burma deny reports of jail assault
AFP - Junta blockades Aung San Suu Kyi's party
headquarters on anniversary
AFP - Press freedoms could change political
landscape of post-crisis Asia
AP - US Trying To Put Myanmar On Security
Council Agenda
AP- U.S. Tries To Put Myanmar on
Agenda
AP - Suu Kyi's Democrats Fight To
Survive
AP - Myanmar Shuts Suu
Kyi's Party HQ On 12th Anniversary
Channel NewsAsia - Singapore youths return from community project in
Myanmar
The Daily Telegraph - Cook attacks Burmese junta
over beating of jailed Briton
Fox News - 12 Years of
Defiance: Suu Kyi Still Struggling For Democracy in Myanmar
Asia Times - Myanmar alone in using landmines in Southeast
Asia
BKK Post -
Raid triggers Burma offensive
The Nation - Anti-drug meet attracts regional
heavyweights
The Nation - Opinion - From denial to undeniability: Unocal and atrocities in
Burma
SCMP -
Anniversary prompts harsh
restrictions
SCMP - US concerned over
Suu Kyi's plight
BBC
- Wednesday, 27 September, 2000, 09:21 GMT 10:21 UK
'Barbaric attack' on jailed Briton The father of a British man serving 17 years in a Burmese jail for
distributing pro-democracy leaflets says his son has been badly beaten in
prison.
Human rights activist James Mawdsley, 27, is understood to have been attacked after protesting at being transferred to solitary confinement. His father, David Mawdsley, described the attack as an "act of barbarism"
and called for international pressure on Burma's military regime.
"He was beaten up by 15 men," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"He got a broken nose. He has blackened eyes.
"But what we are really concerned about is the rest of his body, because
they could have damaged his liver, his kidneys or his spleen."
Military blamed
James Mawdsley has been held at the prison in the remote town of Keng Tung,
390 miles north east of Rangoon, since his arrest in the city of Tachilek last
September.
His mother Diana has gone to Burma to establish contact with her son, but
has been unable to speak to him about the attack.
Mr Mawdsley said Burma's authorities were directly to blame for the attack.
"There is no doubt in my mind, no matter what they say, the junta has
ordered this," he said.
"No-one does anything in Burma unless it comes right from the top and I
have no doubt at all that this was a deliberate act."
Sanctions
He called for international pressure to help his son and urged companies
such as Premier Oil to stop investment in the country.
"Burma is looking for credibility and this is another case of them losing
credibility," he said.
"This junta has to go and it has got to be through outside pressure."
James Mawdsley, from Southport, Lancashire, was arrested last September and
charged with carrying anti-government literature, after twice previously being
deported from Burma.
He lost his appeal against the sentence in August but is hoping for another
hearing in November.
'Rights violated'
The Foreign Office confirmed that Ambassador John Jenkins had "protested in
the strongest terms" to the Burmese authorities about Mr Mawdsley's treatment.
Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said he was shocked to hear James had been
beaten in prison.
"I understand the prison authorities have also removed his food and
possessions," he said.
"This is an outrageous violation of his human rights. It is yet another
example of the Burmese regime's utter lack of respect for the standards of the
international community."
Amnesty International reports that Myanmar, as Burma is now known, has a
record of widespread human rights violations, particularly against ethnic
minorities such as the Karen people.
James' protest called for an end to the genocide against the Karen people,
the re-opening of the universities and dialogue between National League for
Democracy and the military regime.
ABC online - Sep 27, 2000. Human rights activist beaten in Burmese prison A British-Australian human
rights activist has been severely beaten for three days in his Burmese prison
cell.
BBC -
Tuesday, 26 September, 2000, 18:57 GMT 19:57 UK
BBC -
Wednesday, 27 September, 2000, 15:36 GMT 16:36 UK
Burma deny reports of jail assault The Burmese military government has dismissed as ridiculous allegations
that a British human rights activist was severely beaten while serving a
seventeen-year jail sentence.
The British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, said he was shocked and appalled
by reports from British officials that James Mawdsley -- who was arrested last
year while campaigning against the Burmese authorities -- had suffered a broken
nose and black eyes after he was allegedly beaten with bamboo poles.
He is reported to have been punished for complaining about being kept in
solitary confinement.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
Wednesday, September 27 12:04 PM SGT
Junta blockades Aung San Suu Kyi's party headquarters on anniversary YANGON, Sept 27 (AFP) - Myanmar's regime Wednesday
blockaded the headquarters of Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition National League for
Democracy (NLD) to prevent any celebrations marking the NLD's 12th
anniversary.
Military intelligence and police manned roadblocks closing off the road in
front of NLD headquarters, even though Aung San Suu Kyi and other NLD leaders
are under de facto house arrest, an AFP reporter witnessed.
They also patrolled the area and forced traffic entering and leaving the
capital to detour around the street where NLD headquarters is located.
NLD members were not allowed entry to their party headquarters on
Wednesday, the 12th anniversary of the founding of the party which in 1990 won a
landslide victory in elections subsequently annulled by the ruling junta.
Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and other NLD central executive committee
members have been under house arrest since last Friday when they were escorted
home from Yangon central station by police.
They had been prevented from boarding a train to the northern city of
Mandalay to investigate reported crackdowns on the party.
NLD deputy chairman Tin Oo is being held on a military base 50 kilometres
(30 miles) north of Yangon.
US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright Tuesday vowed to keep the pressure
on the junta over its treatment of Aung San Suu Kyi.
"I can assure you that I will not let this issue drop. We are trying to
make the others move. It's not easy," said Albright.
"I think this is one of the saddest cases where, 10 years after she, her
party and she, were elected they are not allowed to take their rightful position
and there is no dialogue between her and the Burmese (Myanmar) government,"
Albright said.
The NLD headed by Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of independence hero General
Aung San, was founded on September 27, 1988 after the military government
announced it would hold elections.
More than 200 political parties were formed in 1988, of which the NLD is
the last remaining opposition force. All the rest of the parties have signed
deals with the junta or been crushed.
In May 1990 parliamentary elections, the NLD won 392 out of 485 seats. The
military government, then known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council,
annulled the result.
Wednesday, September 27 4:34 PM SGT
Press freedoms could change political landscape of post-crisis Asia SINGAPORE, Sept 27 (AFP) - Growing press freedoms and a thirst
for democracy born out of the 1997 Asian financial crisis will impact on the
traditional means of governing in the region, a conference here was told
Wednesday.
The media, with the level of freedom it now enjoys, can influence how
countries in Southeast Asia make the transition to democracy, experts said at
the conference.
"The democratic impulse set out in the crisis cannot be wished away even in
these days of recovery," Simon Tay, chairman of the Singapore Institute of
International Affairs, said in a speech.
"Where once governments used to impose responsibility on the media, the
media can now exercise greater freedoms of speech," he said.
"The media can both assist and detract in the region's transition to
democracy," he added.
Indonesia, Southeast Asia's most populous country, is making a difficult
journey towards democracy, said Abdul Razak, the permanent secretary for the
Confederation of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations)
Journalists.
"It's very dificult to manage a transition from a past system which is
authoritarian, to a democracy," he said.
The financial crisis in 1997-1998 shot down the notion that the region's
past economic success, which was referred to as the "Asian miracle", was built
on peculiarly Asian values, Tay said.
"We no longer believe in that miracle. We have come to recognize the
corruption and cronyism in so many of our elites and their dealings," Tay
said.
Having witnessed the human cost of the crisis, Asians now want policies
that are accompanied by "greater inclusion and equity," he said.
"Democractic persuasion will be a key factor for reform and further
liberalisation in Asia," he said.
Despite the faster-than-expected recovery from the crisis, substantial
reform was still required.
"This is not only a matter of economic policy," he said.
"Dealing with the human and social aftermath of the crisis will be a future
preoccupation for ASEAN," he said, referring to the grouping of Brunei,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand and Vietnam.
"The media can help persuade citizens to support reform, or it can lead
opposition to it."
ASEAN's policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of member states
may also be severely tested in the new era of democracy and media freedom, Tay
said.
"Indeed, as the media becomes more regional and penetrates borders, it may
increasingly see and speak across borders."
However he warned that the media was also a source of potential tension in
the region.
For instance, ASEAN's reticence over the Indonesian forest fires that
blanketed Southeast Asia with thick haze and smog in 1997 put the association's
members in limbo, Tay said.
"What is the role of the regional media in this issue," he said.
"Is it a critic of Indonesia and a tool of other governments if it gives
attention to the fires? Or is it a friend of the peoples of the region, and of
Indonesia, given the effects that they suffer?" he said.
Wednesday, September 27 7:23 AM SGT
US Trying To Put Myanmar On Security Council Agenda UNITED NATIONS (AP)--For the second day in a row Tuesday,
the United States raised Myanmar's confinement of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung
San Suu Kyi and tried to put it on the agenda of the U.N. Security Council.
The United States wants the U.N. Secretariat to brief the council on the military junta's crackdown on Suu Kyi, top leaders of her opposition National League for Democracy, and between 80 and 100 members of her support network. But Russia, China and Malaysia are reluctant to raise the issue on grounds
that it involves internal domestic politics, or that it doesn't constitute a
threat to peace and security, Western diplomats said.
U.S. deputy ambassador Nancy Soderberg said Tuesday that Washington will
continue to consult with council members "to try to work out a way forward," and
will keep raising Myanmar's actions in the council.
Suu Kyi and eight other central executive committee members of her party
have been under virtual house arrest since Sept. 22 in the latest crackdown on
the pro-democracy movement in Myanmar.
"We strongly condemn these actions by the government in Burma and call once
again on them to lift the restrictions against Aung San Suu Kyi and her
supporters," Soderberg said.
"They are violating the most basic of human rights - freedom of access in
your own country - and we hope that they will lift these restrictions and enter
into dialogue with her," Soderberg said.
On Aug. 24, Suu Kyi and 14 party colleagues were blocked by security forces
outside Yangon as they were traveling to a party meeting in the countryside.
They refused to return home and camped beside their vehicles for nine days,
until the police took them back to the capital and confined them to their
residences.
A government announcement on Sept. 14 that restrictions on Suu Kyi and her
followers were being lifted was welcomed by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan
and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
But after the latest crackdown, Soderberg said, "We appear to be back at
square one."
Suu Kyi led a pro-democracy uprising against the military in 1988 and was
put under house arrest a year later. Her National League for Democracy won
general elections in 1990, but was prevented from taking power.
Hundreds of its members have since been jailed, and the military has
rejected calls for a political dialogue with the opposition. Suu Kyi was let out
of house arrest in 1995, but her movements remain severely restricted.
Wednesday, September 27 9:22 AM SGT
U.S. Tries To Put Myanmar on Agenda By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer UNITED NATIONS (AP)
- The United States wants the U.N. Security Council to take up the issue of
Myanmar's confinement of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, but several
countries are reluctant to put the issue on the agenda.
For the second day in a row on Tuesday, the United States spoke out in the
council against the Myanmar military junta's crackdown against the pro-democracy
leader.
The United States wants the U.N. Secretariat to brief the council on
Myanmar's actions against Suu Kyi and her backers - a move that most likely
would lead the council to issue a statement taking a position on the crackdown.
But a number of delegations are reluctant to raise the issue on grounds
that it involves internal politics, or that it doesn't constitute a threat to
peace and security.
Western diplomats said Russia, China and Malaysia raised these issues.
U.S. deputy ambassador Nancy Soderberg said Tuesday that Washington will
continue to consult with council members ``to try to work out a way forward,''
and will keep raising Myanmar's actions in the council.
``There's disagreement within the Security Council on exactly how to handle
it procedurally, but we're all very concerned about the situation there,'' she
said.
Suu Kyi and eight other central executive committee members of her party
have been under virtual house arrest since Friday in the latest crackdown on the
pro-democracy movement in Myanmar.
``We strongly condemn these actions by the government in Burma and call
once again on them to lift the restrictions against Aung San Suu Kyi and her
supporters,'' Soderberg said.
On Aug. 24, Suu Kyi and 14 party colleagues were blocked by security forces
outside Yangon as they traveled to a party meeting in the countryside. They were
put under house arrest for two weeks, then tried last week to travel out of the
capital by train. Once more they were stopped and confined once more.
Suu Kyi led a pro-democracy uprising against the military in 1988 and was
put under house arrest a year later. Her National League for Democracy won
general elections in 1990, but was prevented from taking power.
Hundreds of its members have since been jailed, and the military has
rejected calls for a political dialogue with the opposition. Suu Kyi was let out
of house arrest in 1995, but her movements remain severely restricted.
Wednesday, September 27 1:37 PM SGT
Suu Kyi's Democrats Fight To Survive By MATTHEW PENNINGTON, Associated Press Writer BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Twelve years of defiance have won
worldwide respect for Myanmar's democracy heroine, Aung San Suu Kyi. But back
home under military rule, she is struggling to keep her decimated party alive.
Her National League for Democracy, which marks its 12th anniversary
Wednesday, has been weakened by resignations forced by the regime. Party offices
have been closed and members arrested. Dozens of its elected lawmakers who
refuse to stand down are detained in state ``guest houses'' until they change
their minds.
Suu Kyi, 55, recently raised the stakes in her war of wills with the
dictatorial regime by defying, twice in one month, the restrictions on her
movements, the latest last Thursday.
Yet in doing so, the 1991 Nobel Peace laureate has pushed her party to the
brink in its confrontation with the junta, which has weathered decades of
international isolation and criticism.
``Over the past 21/2 years the NLD has managed a series of planned
confrontations with the government to test how far it could go and to generate
international support,'' said David Steinberg, director of Asian Studies at
Georgetown University in Washington.
``This has been an effective strategy ... But at some point the military
may say 'enough is enough' and declare the party illegal,'' he said in a
telephone interview.
On Monday a government statement denounced ``The so-called `war of
endurance' and `stop me if you dare' campaigns orchestrated by NLD.'' It said
every government step ``has been challenged, ridiculed and impeded,'' delaying
Myanmar's ``orderly transition to a multiparty democracy.''
The regime came to power 12 years ago and maintains it is a transitional
administration, but shows no tolerance of dissent. Experience shows it turns the
screw tighter against the NLD every time Suu Kyi tries to assert her political
rights.
After a nine-day standoff last month when Suu Kyi's motorcade was blocked
on its way south of the capital, she was forced back to Yangon and confined to
her home for two weeks. The party said at least 11 NLD members were arrested and
for the first time the party headquarters was raided and searched.
When she was tried to travel by train on Thursday to Myanmar's second city,
Mandalay, authorities said all tickets were sold out and placed restrictions
again on party leaders. Suu Kyi is under virtual house arrest once more and
party vice chairman Tin Oo detained in a government guest house.
The party also is treading on dangerous ground by insisting it will draft a
constitution for Myanmar. The government regards that as a crime punishable by
up to 21 years in prison.
The NLD was formed in 1988, two weeks after the junta took power in what
was then known as Burma.
The military gunned down thousands of protesters nationwide, but two years
later organized general elections. The NLD, bolstered by Suu Kyi's popularity as
the daughter of Myanmar's late independence hero, Aung San, won 82 percent of
the seats. Still, the military refused to yield.
Two years ago, the NLD set up a proxy parliament. Many of the 392 members
elected in 1990 were forced to resign or were disqualified on technicalities.
Today, the military says, only 109 remain valid members of a would-be
parliament.
In May, the military claimed some 50,000 party members had resigned, and an
official press commentary said that less than 10 percent of the original
membership remains. The NLD dismissed the figures as fictitious but has none of
its own.
A U.S. State Department report published in February accused the regime of
waging ``a systematic nationwide campaign to destroy the NLD without formally
banning it.''
Suu Kyi, who was released from six years of house arrest in 1995,
tenaciously clings to the popular mandate, but with hundreds of supporters
behind bars, she has little room for maneuver.
Analysts say the recent worsening of the deadlock may be the beginning of
the endgame that might lead to the banning of the NLD, but only if the regime is
ready to weather a storm of international condemnation.
The regime will face international scrutiny in the coming months, which
will likely deter it from taking drastic action, said Josef Silverstein, a
Myanmar expert at Rutgers University.
In December, Myanmar is to attend a meeting in Laos between foreign
ministers of Southeast Asia and Europe, whose relations have been snarled for
three years by a dispute over Yangon's participation.
With Europe now ready to engage them, Myanmar's partners in the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations would not be pleased to see the junta crossing any
red lines.
Wednesday, September 27 2:42 PM SGT
Myanmar Shuts Suu Kyi's Party HQ On 12th Anniversary YANGON, Myanmar (AP)--Military authorities kept opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi under virtual house arrest and barred supporters from
opening the headquarters of her party on its 12th anniversary Wednesday.
The National League for Democracy usually commemorates Sept. 27 with a large party meeting, but an NLD official said Tuesday that it had canceled this year's event as Suu Kyi and other party leaders have been confined to their homes by authorities. The party had wanted to keep its office open but NLD members who tried to
open it up were told by security officers on duty outside that it was closed
Wednesday and would be open again Thursday. No reason was given.
"I'm very disappointed," said one annoyed NLD member, who didn't want to be
named. "We're coming here simply to gather not to cause any problems."
A trickle of NLD supporters arrived after her, some carrying food for a
planned party lunch and were turned away. They were outnumbered by the more than
40 plainclothes military intelligence officers and special branch police who
photographed and filmed on video NLD members.
A few riot police with batons were visible and others were concealed in
nearby buildings. City traffic was earlier snarled by a roadblock mounted on the
approaches to the NLD's downtown headquarters, which was later lifted.
Suu Kyi and eight other central executive committee members of the NLD have
been under virtual house arrest since Friday after she made her second attempt
in one month to travel upcountry.
Security forces hauled Suu Kyi and deputy party leader Tin Oo out of the
Yangon railway station last week after they tried to travel to Myanmar's second
biggest city, Mandalay, for party work. Officials say Tin Oo is being kept at a
government guest house.
The NLD was officially registered on Sept. 27, 1988, less than two weeks
after the current crop of generals took power. The junta held elections in 1990,
but refused to give up power when the NLD won overwhelmingly.
The military government has physically prevented Suu Kyi from traveling
outside Yangon on several occasions. Her frequent acts of defiance have been
answered by stricter crackdowns on NLD members. The regime claims Suu Kyi is a
lackey of foreign powers opposed to its rule.
Channel NewsAsia
Wednesday, September 27 4:10 PM SGT Singapore youths return from community project in Myanmar The first group of tertiary students on an expedition to Myanmar under the
Youth Expedition Programme have returned after an 18-day trip working on a
community project.
The student-initiated project was a success and the students built seven houses and a playground for a village. Twenty-five Civil Engineering students from the National University of
Singapore staged a campus-wide presentation to share their experiences and to
inspire others to take up the challenge of community work.
The two-year-old Youth Expedition Programme, which targets Junior College
students, has actually attracted interest from tertiary students keen to work on
overseas community projects.
Mr Michael Lee, Team Leader, said: "Personally I was there to touch lives,
to see for myself the different living conditions, and as well as how different
it is to work and do community service."
The students said a big challenge which they had to cope with was how to
raise 30 percent of the funds they needed, about $15,000, through various
activities before they left for Myanmar.
The rest of the costs were paid by the Singapore International
Foundation.
Students teams from the National University of Singapore and Nanyang
Technological University will carry on the good work with other projects in
Myanmar and Chiangrai.
The Daily
Telegraph - Sep 27, 2000.
Cook attacks Burmese junta over beating of jailed Briton By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor THE Foreign Office and Christian groups expressed outrage last night after a British human rights campaigner was severely beaten for three days in a Burmese jail. British officials said James Mawdsley, 27, who is serving a 17-year sentence for distributing pro-democracy literature in a Burmese border town, suffered a broken nose, two black eyes and bruises. Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, said: "This is an outrageous violation
of his human rights. It is yet another example of the Burmese regime's utter
lack of respect for the standards of the international community . . . The
Burmese cannot treat our nationals like this." Mr Cook said British officials
had protested to the Burmese authorities in Rangoon.
The Burmese ambassador to London is expected to be summoned by the Foreign
Office today. Mr Cook said: "They must now either release James or transfer him
to a prison in Rangoon where our staff can keep a close eye on his
welfare."
Mr Mawdsley, a committed Catholic and a former student at Bristol
University, was visited yesterday in Kengtung by the British vice-consul in
Burma, Karen Williams, who discovered that he had been beaten by prison guards
after protesting at his detention in solitary confinement.
His father, David, said: "He was beaten up by 15 men with bamboo sticks. We
are extremely concerned. James has not been seen by a doctor and they might have
done irreparable damage to his internal organs. The prison authorities would not
have done this of their own accord. They have been told to do it by the junta.
If James was not white they would have killed him long ago. The Burmese junta
are scum."
Mr Mawdsley's mother, Diana, has been in Rangoon for the past three weeks
trying to see her son. She has refused to abide by Burmese conditions that he
sit inside a glass box during the visit to prevent physical contact. Mr Mawdsley
was jailed last year after a trial in which he had no representation.
A spokesman for Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a Christian campaign group,
said: "Conditions for James just seem to get worse and worse without the
international community taking any decisive action. What is happening to James
Mawdsley is sadly only the tip of the iceberg. The junta's brutal suppression of
both the pro-democracy opposition and the country's ethnic minorities has gone
on for far too long. It is a human rights tragedy of massive proportions."
Foreign Office sources said that at the weekend Burmese authorities
prevented British diplomats from visiting Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition
leader and Nobel peace laureate. She has been under house arrest since last
Friday, after she and other leaders of the National League for Democracy were
stopped from boarding a train to the northern city of Mandalay to investigate
reported crackdowns on the party. The NLD won a landslide general election
victory in 1990, but the result was ignored by the junta.
Fox News
12 Years of Defiance: Suu Kyi Still Struggling For Democracy in Myanmar Wednesday, September 27, 2000 By Matthew Pennington BANGKOK, Thailand — Twelve years of defiance have won worldwide respect for
Myanmar's democracy heroine, Aung San Suu Kyi. But back home under military
rule, she is struggling to keep her decimated party alive.
Her National League for Democracy, which marks its 12th anniversary
Wednesday, has been weakened by resignations forced by the regime. Party offices
have been closed and members arrested. Dozens of its elected lawmakers who
refuse to stand down are detained in state "guest houses" until they change
their minds.
Suu Kyi, 55, recently raised the stakes in her war of wills with the
dictatorial regime by defying, twice in one month, the restrictions on her
movements, the latest last Thursday.
Yet in doing so, the 1991 Nobel Peace laureate has pushed her party to the
brink in its confrontation with the junta, which has weathered decades of
international isolation and criticism.
"Over the past 2 ½ years the NLD has managed a series of planned
confrontations with the government to test how far it could go and to generate
international support," said David Steinberg, director of Asian Studies at
Georgetown University in Washington.
"This has been an effective strategy ... But at some point the military may
say 'enough is enough' and declare the party illegal," he said in a telephone
interview.
On Monday a government statement denounced "The so-called `war of
endurance' and `stop me if you dare' campaigns orchestrated by NLD." It said
every government step "has been challenged, ridiculed and impeded," delaying
Myanmar's "orderly transition to a multiparty democracy."
The regime came to power 12 years ago and maintains it is a transitional
administration, but shows no tolerance of dissent. Experience shows it turns the
screw tighter against the NLD every time Suu Kyi tries to assert her political
rights.
After a nine-day standoff last month when Suu Kyi's motorcade was blocked
on its way south of the capital, she was forced back to Yangon and confined to
her home for two weeks. The party said at least 11 NLD members were arrested and
for the first time the party headquarters was raided and searched.
When she was tried to travel by train on Thursday to Myanmar's second city,
Mandalay, authorities said all tickets were sold out and placed restrictions
again on party leaders. Suu Kyi is under virtual house arrest once more and
party vice chairman Tin Oo detained in a government guest house.
The party also is treading on dangerous ground by insisting it will draft a
constitution for Myanmar. The government regards that as a crime punishable by
up to 21 years in prison.
The NLD was formed in 1988, two weeks after the junta took power in what
was then known as Burma.
The military gunned down thousands of protesters nationwide, but two years
later organized general elections. The NLD, bolstered by Suu Kyi's popularity as
the daughter of Myanmar's late independence hero, Aung San, won 82 percent of
the seats. Still, the military refused to yield.
Two years ago, the NLD set up a proxy parliament. Many of the 392 members
elected in 1990 were forced to resign or were disqualified on technicalities.
Today, the military says, only 109 remain valid members of a would-be
parliament.
In May, the military claimed some 50,000 party members had resigned, and an
official press commentary said that less than 10 percent of the original
membership remains. The NLD dismissed the figures as fictitious but has none of
its own.
A U.S. State Department report published in February accused the regime of
waging "a systematic nationwide campaign to destroy the NLD without formally
banning it."
Suu Kyi, who was released from six years of house arrest in 1995,
tenaciously clings to the popular mandate, but with hundreds of supporters
behind bars, she has little room for maneuver.
Analysts say the recent worsening of the deadlock may be the beginning of
the endgame that might lead to the banning of the NLD, but only if the regime is
ready to weather a storm of international condemnation.
The regime will face international scrutiny in the coming months, which
will likely deter it from taking drastic action, said Josef Silverstein, a
Myanmar expert at Rutgers University.
In December, Myanmar is to attend a meeting in Laos between foreign
ministers of Southeast Asia and Europe, whose relations have been snarled for
three years by a dispute over Yangon's participation.
With Europe now ready to engage them, Myanmar's partners in the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations would not be pleased to see the junta crossing any
red lines.
Asia Times -
Sep 27, 2000.
Southeast Asia Myanmar alone in using landmines in Southeast Asia By Teena Gill CHIANG MAI - Phe Gai Hte was so intent to find food that he failed to
notice a device embedded in the soil as he walked back to his deserted village
in eastern Myanmar. The next thing he knew, he was on the ground and in great
pain. But what he saw horrified him - where his left leg used to be was a mere
piece of bone, with some flesh hanging loosely around it.
That happened just months ago. Today, Phe Gai Hte is still struggling to
recover from his traumatic and violent encounter with one of the anti-personnel
landmines that dot most of Myanmar.
As more and more countries worldwide agree to ban the manufacture and sale
of landmines, the Myanmar military remains the sole armed force in Southeast
Asia using the destructive and inhumane devices, and one of only three in the
whole of Asia, according to a recently released Landmine Monitor report.
The Landmine Monitor is produced by the International Campaign to Ban
Landmines, which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997. Its latest report says
that 10 out of Myanmar's 14 states and divisions are mined, and that the country
had some 1,500 landmine victims in 1999 alone. In the Karen state, where Phe Gai
Hte is from, one person is either injured or killed by a landmine every day.
Sam Kalyani, an activist with the Chiang Mai-based organization Images
Asia, says: ''It is difficult to estimate what the latest figures of landmine
victims are (in Myanmar). Most are treated by mobile medical teams going in from
the Thai side of the border, or admitted to Thai hospitals. But they are very
visible.''
In truth, the devastation caused by such mines in Myanmar is now estimated
to be the highest in Southeast Asia, surpassing even Cambodia, where mines
planted by all the factions involved in the civil war there made it one of the
most heavily mined countries in the world. As of 1997, Cambodia was estimated to
have some 10 million landmines.
While other weapons can be targeted specifically at an enemy, landmines are
obviously less discriminate and are usually left to continue to wreak havoc even
after an armed conflict has ended. Every year, some 25,000 civilians - 32
percent of them children - across the globe are killed, wounded, or maimed by
landmines. Many more are driven from their homes and fields after these are
found to contain mines.
Myanmar itself makes landmines, but mines from a number of other nations
such as China, Israel, Russia and the United States have also been found in the
country. Experts say these could have been purchased by either Myanmar's
military junta, which calls itself the State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC), or the various ethnic armies fighting Yangon. There are about a dozen
armed resistance groups battling with the military regime, including ethnic
minority groups from the Shan, Karen and Karenni states in the east of Myanmar,
and Chin and Arakan states in the west.
Many of those killed or maimed by landmines, however, are civilians like
Phe Gai Hte. Thei San of the All Myanmar Students Democratic Front (ABSDF), an
exiled group of pro-democracy student activists, says: ''The reason casualties
are so high today is because of a change in tactic by the Myamar army. They want
to make sure all insurgency areas are cleared of local people, including those
hiding in forests, so they are heavily mining all these areas.''
Working in Karen state, Thei San says that this new method came into force
only last November.
Myanmar is among those believed to have the largest concentrations of
landmines in the world today, along with Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia and the
former Yugoslavia. In Southeast Asia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines and Thailand have already either signed or ratified the Mine Ban
Treaty, which came into force in March 1999.
But while the growing international outcry over landmines has helped lead
to the decline in the production and sale of the deadly devices, there are still
some 85 to 110 million uncleared mines in about 60 countries around the world.
About 250 million mines are also known to be in the arsenals of 105 countries.
Of the three main types of mines in use across the world, the Myamar junta
is known to produce two. These are modeled after the Chinese Type 58 blast mine
and the Chinese Type 59 stake-mounted fragmentation mine. The fragmentation mine
is designed just for the purpose of killing and is effective up to 50 meters
from the site of detonation. The more common blast mine does not necessarily
result in fatalities when activated, but it certainly maims. Experts estimate
that up to 50 percent of those who step on landmines die as a result of the
impact or from loss of blood and infection.
The United Nations has noted that while it takes only between US$3 and $11
to make a landmine, removing one can cost anywhere from $300 to $1,000.
In Myanmar, Sam Kalyani says, the most important issue concerning landmines
is ''rehabilitation. This could take another 20 to 30 years if the conflict
continues''.
Another activist working along the Thai-Myanmar border adds, ''Even when
the civil war in Myanmar ends, and even if there is democracy in Myanmar, this
will still be a pressing issue. The impact will be felt for many, many years.''
Bangkok Post -
Sep 27, 2000.
WAR ON DRUGS Raid triggers Burma offensive Junta troops attack Shan State soldiers Subin Khuenkaew in Chiang Mai Burma's ongoing military offensive against a Shan State Army position,
opposite Chiang Dao district here, was triggered by an SSA raid on a
methamphetamine plant near the Thai border, sources said yesterday.
An SSA source said Shan troops recently raided the plant and seized some
100,000 speed pills.
However, six SSA soldiers had been captured. The raid prompted Burmese
government forces to start attacking an SSA position located at Hill 800, about
5km southwest of Kiew Pha Wok pass in Chiang Dao, on Saturday.
Three Burmese battalions-the 277th from Muong Hsat, 519th from Muong Tuan,
and the 527th based in the area-continued to lay siege to the SSA position for
the fourth day yesterday.
The din of fighting could be heard on the Thai side of the border,
especially near Ban Muang Na Nua, about 500m from the battleground.
The Burmese side reportedly suffered five killed and many injured.
One Shan soldier was killed and four others wounded. The source said two
battalions of the United Wa State Army were supporting the Burmese troops but
had not taken part in the attack.
Meanwhile, another Burmese battalion from Ho Mong had laid siege to another
SSA position located opposite Ban Nam Phiang Din in Pang Ma Pha district.
The Nation -
Sep 27, 2000.
Anti-drug meet attracts regional heavyweights MINISTERS overseeing the fight against crime and narcotics in several Asian
countries will attend an international drug conference here next month, aimed at
wiping out illicit drugs in the Asean region by 2015.
Among those who have confirmed attendance are China's State Councillor Luo
Gan, who is a senior Politburo member; Cambodia's Secretary of State for the
Interior Ministry Lt Gen Em Sam An and Under Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs Long Visalo; Burma's Deputy Minister for Home Affairs Brig Gen Thura
Myint Maung, and Vietnam's Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem.
Australia said its Minister for Justice and Customs, Amanda Vanstone, would
participate in the October 11-13 meeting, while India will send Minister of
State for Finance Dhananjay Kumar and South Korea Changjong Yoo,
director-general of the Violent Crime Department and a senior official of the
Supreme Prosecutors' Office.
European countries and the US have yet to name their representatives.
The conference, "In Pursuit of a Drug Free Asean 2015", is being co-hosted
by the Thai government and the UN Drug Control Programme.
Organisers expect about 150 participants from more than 30 countries in
Asia, Europe and America and various international organisations such as the UN
Development Programme, Asian Development Bank, and the Colombo Plan.
The conference took shape at the meeting of Asean foreign ministers in
July, where they decided to advance the deadline to free the Asean region of
drugs from 2020 to 2015.
According to Charivat Santaputra, deputy director-general of Foreign
Ministry's International Organisations Affairs Department, Asean countries and
China would sign an accord on "Asean and China Cooperative Operations in
Response to Dangerous Drugs". The agreement will serve as a joint plan of action
to combat narcotics trading.
Charivat said participants are expected to share views on the drug
situation and the anti-drug measures taken up in their countries.
As the drug trade affects producing, transit and consumer nation,
international cooperation and commitment are needed to combat it, he added.
They are also expected to pledge cooperation and work out comprehensive
cooperative measures to hit at drug production, trafficking and consumption, he
said.
Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai will inaugurate the conference, whilePM's
Office Minister in charge of narcotics, Jurin Laksanavisit and Foreign Minister
Surin Pitsuwan will co-chair the meeting.
The Nation -
Sep 27, 2000.
Opinion - From denial to undeniability: Unocal and atrocities in Burma Lawyers for victims of Burmese brutality during the building of the Yadana
pipeline are confident that a lawsuit against Unocal will prevail, writes Jed
Greer.
For the past four years, lawyers working on behalf of Burmese victims of
human rights violations have sought to hold the American petroleum corporation
Unocal accountable in a landmark lawsuit, John Doe I, et al, v Unocal Corp, et
al.
On August 31, the presiding judge found that Unocal did in fact know of and
benefit from atrocities committed by Burma's army in connection with the
building of the Yadana gas pipeline, a joint venture project in which Unocal was
involved. The judge also ruled, however, that Unocal cannot be held liable and
dismissed the case. People unfamiliar with the US judicial system may be
surprised by this perplexing outcome.
Thus it is important to be clear about what this decision means and what it
does not mean.
First, what the decision means. In his opinion the judge completely
validates the plaintiffs' factual allegations. Unocal can no longer deny that
egregious abuses occurred on its project. Indeed, the judge observed, "[t]he
violence perpetrated against Plaintiffs is well documented . . . and need not be
recited in detail[.]"
In addition, the judge noted that the plaintiffs had presented evidence
"demonstrating . . . that the [pipeline] project hired the military to provide
security for the project, a military that forced villagers to work and entire
villages to relocate for the benefit of the project; that the military, while
forcing villagers to work and relocate, committed numerous acts of violence; and
that Unocal knew or should have known that the military did commit, was
committing, and would continue to commit these tortuous acts." Further, he
wrote, "the evidence does suggest that Unocal knew that forced labour was being
used and that [Unocal and Total, another joint venture partner in the Yadana
project] benefited from the practice[.]"
Such an acknowledgement is a major victory for the plaintiffs. In an
interview following the decision, Unocal's spokesperson claimed that the company
did not dispute its knowledge of the human rights violations. This statement is
at odds with previous public relations efforts. Unocal has long denied that
there is any evidence to support this suit.
Recent documentation of these atrocities - murder, rape, torture, forced
labour and relocation - came in May of this year when EarthRights International
released the most comprehensive report to date on the subject.
Now, what the decision does not mean. It doesn't mean that the case is
over. The plaintiffs' lawyers are appealing the decision, a process that will
take at least a year. But given the unprecedented nature of this lawsuit, it was
always likely that it would go to an appeals court.
Nor does this decision mean that Unocal never can or will be found liable.
The appeals court will review the legal standards the presiding judge used in
dismissing the case. Only if the appeals court determines that there is no way
whatsoever for the plaintiffs to make their legal claims will it agree with the
presiding judge. That is a very favourable position from the plaintiffs'
standpoint, and plaintiffs' lawyers are confident that the appeals court will
reverse the judge's decision and allow the case to go to trial.
That is as it should be. Beyond the legal issues involved, Doe v Unocal is
an early test case for determining the boundaries of corporate responsibility in
the age of globalisation.
Proponents of globalisation tout the many benefits of an increasingly
integrated global economy; rarely are we given a picture of globalisation's
downside, its flesh-and-blood victims. How the US court system ultimately
handles the Unocal case is no less a moral than legal question.
JED GREER works with EarthRights Inter-national.
ERI is co-counsel in Doe v Unocal.
South China Morning Post
Wednesday, September 27, 2000 BURMA - Anniversary prompts harsh restrictions ASSOCIATED PRESS in Rangoon Military authorities kept opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi under virtual
house arrest and barred supporters from opening the headquarters of her party on
its 12th anniversary on Wednesday.
The National League for Democracy usually commemorates September 27 with a large party meeting, but an NLD official said that it had cancelled this year's event as Ms Suu Kyi and other party leaders have been confined to their homes by authorities. The party had wanted to keep its office open but NLD members who tried to
open it up were told by security officers on duty outside that it was closed on
Wednesday and would be open again on Thursday. No reason was given.
''I'm very disappointed,'' said one annoyed NLD member, who did not want to
be named. ''We're coming here simply to gather not to cause any
problems.''
A trickle of NLD supporters arrived after her, some carrying food for a
planned party lunch and were turned away. They were outnumbered by the more than
40 plainclothes military intelligence officers and special branch police who
photographed and filmed on video NLD members.
A few riot police with batons were visible and others were concealed in
nearby buildings. City traffic was earlier snarled by a roadblock mounted on the
approaches to the NLD's downtown headquarters, which was later lifted.
Ms Suu Kyi and eight other central executive committee members of the NLD
have been under virtual house arrest since Friday after she made her second
attempt in one month to travel upcountry.
Security forces hauled Ms Suu Kyi and deputy party leader Tin Oo out of the
Rangoon railway station last week after they tried to travel to Burma's second
biggest city, Mandalay, for party work. Officials say Tin Oo is being kept at a
government guest house.
The NLD was officially registered on September 27, 1988, less than two
weeks after the current crop of generals took power. The junta held elections in
1990, but refused to give up power when the NLD won overwhelmingly.
In other developments, British officials have summoned Burma's ambassador
in London to protest the ''outrageous'' prison beating of a British democracy
campaigner.
James Mawdsley, 27, was beaten with bamboo poles for protesting about his
solitary confinement, his father said.
''He was beaten up by 15 men. He got a broken nose, he has blackened
eyes,'' David Mawdsley said.
British vice consul Karen Williams also reported that Mr Mawdsley had a
broken nose and two black eyes when she visited him on Monday at the prison in
the town of Keng Tung, 630km northeast of the Rangoon.
Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said the attack on Mr Mawdsley was ''an
outrageous violation of his human rights'' by the authorities in Burma.
South China Morning Post
Wednesday, September 27, 2000 US concerned over Suu Kyi's plight ASSOCIATED PRESS at the United Nations The United States has raised Burma's confinement of Nobel Peace Prize
winner Aung San Suu Kyi overnight (HK time) and tried to put it on the agenda of
the UN Security Council.
The United States wants the UN Secretariat to brief the council on the
military junta's crackdown on Ms Suu Kyi, top leaders of her opposition National
League for Democracy, and between 80 and 100 members of her support
network.
But Russia, the mainland and Malaysia are reluctant to raise the issue on
grounds that it involves internal domestic politics, or that it doesn't
constitute a threat to peace and security, Western diplomats said.
US deputy ambassador Nancy Soderberg said overnight that Washington will
continue to consult with council members ''to try to work out a way forward,''
and will keep raising Burma's actions in the council.
Ms Suu Kyi and eight other central executive committee members of her party
have been under virtual house arrest since September 22 in the latest crackdown
on the pro-democracy movement in Burma.
''We strongly condemn these actions by the government in Burma and call
once again on them to lift the restrictions against Aung San Suu Kyi and her
supporters,'' Ms Soderberg said.
''They are violating the most basic of human rights - freedom of access in
your own country - and we hope that they will lift these restrictions and enter
into dialogue with her,'' Ms Soderberg said.
On August 24, Ms Suu Kyi and 14 party colleagues were blocked by security
forces outside Rangoon as they were travelling to a party meeting in the
countryside. They refused to return home and camped beside their vehicles for
nine days, until the police took them back to the capital and confined them to
their residences.
A government announcement on September 14 that restrictions on Ms Suu Kyi
and her followers were being lifted was welcomed by UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan and US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
But after the latest crackdown, Ms Soderberg said, ''We appear to be back
at square one.''
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