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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BURMA RELATED NEWS - OCT - 19, 2000. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINE
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Times - Rangoon holds on to
British activist
Reuters - Thailand hopes to close Myanmar student camp soon AFP - Myanmar junta under intense pressure as
ILO delegation arrives
AFP - Thailand blasts UNHCR for criticism of
Myanmar refugee camps
AFP - British diplomats confident of activist's
release from Myanmar
AP - ILO Team To Assess Myanmar's Efforts To End
Forced Labor
AP - EU-Asia Summit Set To Endorse Koreas
Reconciliation
Bernama - M'SIA FEELS
MYANMAR'S ISSUE NOT APPROPRIATE TO BE DISCUSSED AT
ASEM
Aftenposten -
Bondevik to lead
politicians for Burma
The Age - Downer
concern for jailed Burmese activists
IT - Rebels, Myanmar army clash; six
killed
ABC online - 200
refugees flee into Thailand from Burma
Xinhua - ASEAN RAILWAY
OFFICIALS' CONFERENCE ENDS IN MYANMAR
BBC - Jailed for their beliefs
The Times (UK)
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 18 2000
Rangoon holds on to British activist BY TIM REID JAMES MAWDSLEY, the British pro-democracy activist, had still not been released from his Burmese jail last night despite promises made on Monday that he would be freed as soon as possible. The Burmese authorities refused to explain why they had not released Mr Mawdsley, who has spent 412 days in solitary confinement after being sentenced to 17 years’ hard labour last September. The obfuscation by the junta produced a day of high anxiety and confusion
in the capital Rangoon where Mr Mawdsley’s mother, Diana, has been staying since
September 4.
Mr Mawdsley, 27, a committed Roman Catholic who has endured great
privations while in jail in the northern town of Kengtung, has a broken nose and
possible internal injuries after three days of beatings inflicted two weeks ago
for writing on his cell wall.
Mrs Mawdsley, speakingfrom the British Embassy compound in Rangoon, said:
“We don’t know whether James will be released into our care or kept under arrest
until the moment he is put on to a plane.
“We have no idea when they are releasing him or how he will get to Rangoon.
“I don’t even know if I will be allowed to travel back to London with him.
Not being allowed to would be awful.”
John Jenkins, the British Ambassador in Rangoon, said that he had been in
close touch with the Burmese authorities yesterday about Mr Mawdsley’s release.
“The Burmese authorities said he will be released in a day or two and we
are hoping to hear further news very shortly,” he said.
WIRE:10/19/2000 09:31:00 ET
Thailand hopes to close Myanmar student camp soon BANGKOK, Oct 19 (Reuters) -
Thailand"s national security chief said on Thursday he hoped to close a Myanmar
student camp along the Thai-Myanmar border early next year after all dissidents
had been relocated to third countries.
National Security Council Secretary-General Khachadpai Burusapatana told
reporters the Maneeloy Refugee Camp, around 150 km (95 miles) west of Bangkok,
could be closed if all remaining 1,300 students had been moved as planned. He
said Thailand had coordinated with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to
relocate more than 1,000 Myanmar students to other countries since last year.
"If the relocation rate continues, by early 2001 we may have a chance to
close down the camp," he said. Maneeloy, one of 11 refugee camps along the
Thai-Myanmar border housing a total of around 140,000 refugees, is resident to
pro-democracy student activists who fled Myanmar after crackdowns by the
military in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The Myanmar military held democratic elections in 1990, which were won by
the National League for Democracy of Aung San Suu Kyi. But the result of the
polls was ignored, encouraging many opposition supporters to flee the country.
Kachadpai defended Thailand against criticism by U.N. High Commissioner for
Refugees Sadako Ogata who said living conditions at a Thai camp for refugees
from Myanmar were very poor. "I am sorry about what she said because Thailand
has been abiding by the humanitarian principle in helping these refugees over
the past 15 years," he told reporters.
Ogata said on Tuesday she was sorry and "quite shocked" after visiting the
camp at Ban Tham Hin on the border with Myanmar. The 16 acre (6.5 ha) camp 150
km (90 miles) west of Bangkok, is home to some 8,200 refugees from Myanmar"s
ethnic Karen minority. Khachadpai said Ogata only conducted a "superficial"
visit to the camp, without seeing how Thai people lived in the area near the
camp, which were worse than the conditions endured by the refugees.
Thursday, October 19 8:55 PM SGT
Myanmar junta under intense pressure as ILO delegation arrives BANGKOK, October 19 (AFP) -
Myanmar's military junta is under intense pressure from the United Nations to
fall into line with the international community or risk being permanently
branded a pariah state.
A procession of influential figures, including UN special envoy Razali
Ismail and the UN high commissioner for refugees, have visited Yangon in recent
days to try to convince the generals to engage with the rest of the world.
They have reminded the junta that they are obliged to respect commitments
made in the various charters and treaties to which they are a signatory, and
that it is in their own interests to play by the rules.
On Friday, it is the turn of a delegation from the International Labor
Organisation (ILO) which will monitor what steps have been taken to stamp out
forced labour.
The team of experts is headed by Francis Maupain from France, as was the
first delegation which visited Myanmar at the end of May. They plan to stay in
the country for a week, depending on the progress they make during that
time.
Myanmar has been in the ILO's sights for some time, particularly since 1998
when a commission of inquiry found that forced labor -- which is considered a
form of slavery -- was "extremely widespread in the country".
The commission also urged the army to stop imposing its own brand of forced
labor on private citizens.
The ILO has given the junta until the end of November to act on the issue
or face a review of relations with the body's member states and organisations
which could be extremely damaging to the regime.
By all accounts, the military government is taking the threat seriously. It
has already said it is "ready to cooperate with the ILO."
Labor Minister General Tin Ngwe promised to carry out the necessary reforms
in a letter written in May after the ILO delegation's visit, implicitly
acknowledging for the first time that the problem existed.
He assured the Geneva-based body that Myanmar hoped it had shown it was
"sincere in its efforts to resolve the issue of the allegations of forced
labour".
He said necessary action had been taken to ensure the issue was tackled,
and that the country would consider measures to ensure the prevention of forced
labour in the future.
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions has put the number of
people in Myanmar subjected to different forms of forced labour at more than
800,000.
In a report, it said village chiefs have been ordered to supply people to
work as porters in army camps or for road building, or face threats of fines or
other sanctions.
Villagers incapable of contributing to communal work were subjected to
extreme physical violence, it said.
Despite the damning picture, a senior spokesman for the regime in Yangon
expressed optimism over the ILO visit on the eve of the mission's arrival.
"The team is made up of legal and technical experts and they will be
working from that point of view. They are quite aware of the situation here and
are not as critical as the media are saying," he told AFP.
He said the issue of forced labor had been turned into a "political game"
designed to focus criticism on Myanmar.
Analysts say that of all the recent high-profile visits to Myanmar, the
ILO's arrival is the most crucial to the fate of the country, which is suffering
from a severe economic malaise.
If it is ostracised by the ILO, Myanmar risks attracting further
international sanctions, adding to the load that has already helped cripple its
economy.
The junta is hoping to walk the fine line between making the concessions it
needs to secure development aid from donor nations, while also maintaining its
iron grip on dissent within its borders.
To that end, it said this week that it will release British-Australian
democracy activist James Mawdsley, who was sentenced to jail for 17 years in
1999 for distributing pro-democracy pamphlets in Myanmar.
It also announced Wednesday it had released six elderly political prisoners
in line with a special request made last week by Ismail during his visit as an
envoy of UN chief Kofi Annan.
The generals have also received -- discreetly -- Vietnamese Foreign Affairs
Minister Nguyen Dy Nien, as Hanoi has taken up the revolving presidency of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
It is one of many signs that they are anxious to curry favour with
neighbouring nations who are becoming increasingly irritated with Myanmar's
behaviour, and fear it will bring the whole region into disrepute.
Behind its belligerent and ultra-nationalist facade, the junta is more than
ever in danger of complete isolation.
With so many doors already slammed in its face it apparently has no desire
for the ILO to also turn it out into the cold.
Thursday, October 19 8:50 PM SGT
Thailand blasts UNHCR for criticism of Myanmar refugee camps BANGKOK, Oct 19 (AFP) -
Thailand Thursday blasted the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for
describing as "substandard" its camps for thousands fleeing fighting in
Myanmar.
The UNHCR must also put more effort into facilitating the return to Myanmar
of more than 100,000 people in camps in Thailand, a senior Thai official
said.
"It is unfair to blame Thailand, when we help refugees and uphold their
human rights," said a statement from the Thai foreign ministry.
"The refugees in the camp are in similar or better conditions than the Thai
people who live outside the camp," it said. "The Thai government has never
received any complaints about the camp."
One camp, Tham Hin, houses more than 8,000 refugees, most of them ethnic
minority Karen who have fled fighting between the Myanmar army and the Karen
National Union militia.
It is about 10 kilometres (six miles) from the Myanmar border.
UNHCR chief Sadako Ogata Wednesday blasted the camp, which she visited, as
one of the worst in the world.
"I'm told by colleagues that some camps are better and some are worse. If
there are any worse, I can't imagine them," she said.
"The camp is much, much too crowded and the shelter situation is really
substandard... It is quite depressing."
Tham Hin has as poor sanitation and facilities as some emergency camps the
UNHCR set up in Africa and other extremely poor areas afflicted by conflict, she
said.
But the Thai foreign ministry countered, saying when British Foreign
Secretary Robin Cook visited Tham Hin on April 20 he had remarked on the fine
conditions.
Many non-governmental organisations and representatives of foreign missions
in Bangkok also have been to Tham Hin without criticism, the ministry
added.
"The UNHCR should provide more financial assistance if they want to improve
the refugees' lives," it said.
National Security Council secretary general Khachadpai Burusapatana added:
"The UNHCR should put more effort into negotiating with Myanmar, not just talk
one time and then say it was not a success."
The UNCHR "must keep up its approach to Myanmar after the visit is over ...
it should put pressure on Myanmar," he said.
Otherwise, there will be no durable solution to the refugee problem, he
said.
Although Thailand has said it wants to repatriate the refugees within three
years, Ogata said that was highly unlikely.
Ogata, who also visited Myanmar on October 15 and 16, said Wednesday she
was not optimistic the refugees would return soon to Myanmar without a
fundamental change in policy by the military junta.
Thursday, October 19 5:10 PM SGT
British diplomats confident of activist's release from Myanmar YANGON, Oct 19 (AFP) - British
diplomats here said they were confident jailed democracy activist James Mawdsley
would be released Friday, but Myanmar's military junta said he may not be
allowed home until next week.
"We are working with the foreign ministry on a Friday release," a
spokesperson for the British embassy said Thursday, adding that a number of
"logistical" matters were still being discussed.
The embassy's vice-consul is to travel Friday to Keng Tung prison, 630
kilometres (390 miles) north of Yangon, and hoped to return to Yangon with
Mawdsley the same day.
"I'm sure he knows he is to be released ... and I'm sure he's very happy,"
the spokesperson said.
Mawdsley was jailed for 17 years in September 1999 after being caught
distributing pro-democracy leaflets. He had already been deported twice from
Myanmar in the two previous years.
His mother, Diana Mawdsley, is waiting in Yangon for her son's release and
the pair are expected to take the first available flight out of the
country.
However, a senior spokesman for the Myanmar junta said late Wednesday there
was a significant amount of work to be done before Mawdsley is released from the
jail where he has spent more than a year.
It could take "several days to work through the technicalities involved,"
the spokesman told AFP.
Analysts say Myanmar's decision to release Mawdsley is aimed at removing an
increasingly troublesome irritant in its relations with the world
community.
A diplomatic row erupted between Myanmar and Britain last month after
Mawdsley said he had been beaten by his guards after complaining about being
kept in solitary confinement.
And last week the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
declared the 27-year-old activist was being held in prison illegally.
The Myanmar embassy in London has said the decision to let him go was based
on the "personal offers" of unnamed "prominent politicians" to persuade him
never to return illegally.
But diplomats said that while it is possible the junta was responding to
representations by the British and Australian embassies -- Mawdsley is a citizen
of both -- it was more likely motivated by a desire to be seen as cooperative
and responsive to Western concerns.
The government also announced Wednesday that it had released six elderly
political prisoners in line with a special request made last week by visiting UN
special envoy Razali Ismail.
Myanmar has been under the spotlight in recent months since opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi made a highly publicised bid to travel outside Yangon in
defiance of a travel ban that limits her to the capital.
On Friday the military government will host a delegation from the
International Labour Organisation (ILO) which is checking progress on measures
to halt forced labour.
The junta is keen to impress the ILO, which has given it until the end of
November to act on stamping out forced labor or face a review of relations with
the body's member states.
The ruling generals are also thought to be increasingly anxious to win
favour among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which are fed up
with the bad publicity surrounding Myanmar's membership of the group.
The European Union halted ministerial contacts with ASEAN after Myanmar
joined in 1997.
A landmark meeting of foreign ministers from the two blocs planned for
December could still be derailed by the row over the junta's treatment of Aung
San Suu Kyi and a wider crackdown on her National League for Democracy.
Many believe Myanmar hopes Mawdsley's release will go some way to
mollifying the EU and smoothing the way for the meeting to go ahead.
Thursday, October 19 7:11 PM SGT
ILO Team To Assess Myanmar's Efforts To End Forced Labor YANGON (AP)--An International
Labor Organization delegation will arrive this week in Myanmar, which faces
unprecedented censure by the United Nations agency unless it can show it is
trying to stop the use of forced labor, officials said Thursday.
The five-member ILO mission is scheduled to arrive in Yangon Friday at the invitation of Myanmar's military government and will stay for up to one week, said an ILO official in Bangkok. A Myanmar government spokesman said the team would meet with Labor Minister
Thin Ngwe. No other details of the program were available Thursday.
The mission will make a report to be considered by the ILO's governing body
which in June approved unprecedented measures against Myanmar.
ILO delegates voted to recommend that ILO members - governments, workers
and employers - "review their links with Myanmar and take appropriate measures
to ensure (Myanmar) cannot take advantage of such relations to perpetuate or
extend the system of forced or compulsory labor."
However, the resolution, which was strongly opposed by Asian nations, put
off action until the ILO governing body meets in Nov. 2-17 to review the
situation.
Myanmar has long been assailed by the U.N. and Western countries for
suppression of democracy and its human rights record - including use of unpaid
civilian labor on infrastructure projects.
The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962. The current regime organized a
general election in 1990 but refused to yield power to the victorious party of
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Myanmar is one of Asia's poorest countries and its government claims that
civilians contribute their labor voluntarily to promote development of the
nation.
Thursday, October 19 8:37 AM SGT
EU-Asia Summit Set To Endorse Koreas Reconciliation SEOUL (AP)--It is a summit
called to bring together East and West, but the European and Asian leaders
gathering here this week will have their minds concentrated on the sudden
rapprochement between North and South in Korea.
South Korean President Kim Dae-jung can expect his Nobel Peace prize-winning efforts to reach out to communist North to receive a ringing endorsement from a two-day gathering that starts Friday and brings together leaders from the 15 European Union and 10 Asian nations. Kim met in advance of the summit with Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji Wednesday
to brief him on the latest political changes on the Korean peninsula following
the historic inter-Korean summit with the North in June.
With U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright expected to make a historic
first visit to North Korea before the end of the month, the U.S. and China are
cast as the main international partners to the Koreans' efforts to bring
permanent settlement on the Cold War's last frontier.
Nevertheless, the Europeans hope to do their bit for peace on the
peninsula.
The European and Asian leaders are to adopt a declaration on Saturday
backing Kim's "sunshine policy" and pledging to help reintegrate North Korea
into the international community.
Several E.U. nations are mulling an end to their diplomatic boycott of
Pyongyang and are keen to emphasize their financial contribution to the North.
E.U. External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten said last week the E.U.'s
head office has spend EUR180 million in aid to North Korea in the past few years
and is considering further EUR20 million grant help poor farmers there.
"We're big contributors to stability and security in the Korean peninsula,"
Patten told reporters at E.U. Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
The opportunity to give support to Korean reconciliation fits in with the
Europeans' drive to give a greater security dimension to the biennial Asia
Europe Meetings, known as ASEM.
Some Asian nations are wary of that. China in particular opposes any
European efforts to interfere in what Beijing considers domestic issues.
Myanmar, E Timor Among The Other Issues
European leaders will have to tread carefully to avoid upsetting the
Chinese, who Monday repeated a threat to use military force against Taiwan if
the island attempts a formal split from China or refuses to indefinitely to
discuss reunification.
Among other political issues are likely to come up at the summit, Indonesia
could face demands to do more to protect East Timorese refugees and
international aid workers who have been subjected to deadly attacks by
pro-Jakarta militia in West Timor.
The Europeans are also likely to urge other Asian nations to press
Myanmar's military rulers to improve human rights in the nation formally known
as Burma.
"I hope the (other Southeast Asian) nations themselves will put pressure on
the regime in Burma, not excluding Burma from dialogue, but using dialogue with
Burma to press for change," Patten said.
At the previous ASEM summits in 1996 in Bangkok, Thailand, and in London
two years ago, Asian leaders were unhappy at being lectured on human rights and
preferring to focus on economics and trade.
Economic talks in Seoul are likely to include support for the relaunch of a
new round of world trade opening talks following the failure of last December's
attempt in Seattle, discussions on China's bid to join the World Trade
Organization and the risk to both regions from rising oil prices.
The aim of the European-Asian summits is to bring European companies and
investors closer to Asia - a region where the United States has gained much
economic and political clout in the last 50 years.
In all, some 30,000 police officers have been called on to provide security
for the two-day summit here. Many were already on high alert Wednesday around
the summit venue, a towering glass-and-steel convention center, to prevent
Seoul's volatile students staging a repeat of the riots that have disrupted
recent international set pieces.
The leaders from China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore,
Vietnam, Thailand and Brunei will attend the summit, along with their
counterparts from France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands,
Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Portugal, Greece, Austria, Ireland and
Luxembourg.
Philippine President Joseph Estrada is staying home to fight calls for his
impeachment over alleged involvement in illegal gambling.
On Thursday, E.U. and Asian foreign ministers meet to prepare the summit.
Malaysian National News Agency
October 18 , 2000 22:43PM
M'SIA FEELS MYANMAR'S ISSUE NOT APPROPRIATE TO BE DISCUSSED AT ASEM From E. Sivabalan SEOUL, Oct 18 (Bernama) --
Foreign Ministry Secretary-General Datuk Abdul Kadir Mohamad said on Wednesday
Myanmar should not be a subject of discussion at the third Asia-Europe Meeting
(Asem) beginning here Friday unless it is about Yangon's membership in the
grouping.
"We feel it is not appropriate (to discuss about Myanmar) because they
(Myanmar) are not here," he told Malaysian journalists here on Wednesday. Abdul
Kadir said if at all the summit wanted to discuss about Myanmar, it should be
confined to the issue of its membership in Asem.
He said this when asked on reports that the European side may tie Myanmar's
membership with the so-called human rights violations in Yangon.
Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia are the only three Asean countries not yet
members of the five-year-old grouping currently made up of the seven "old" Asean
members, 15 European states and the European Commission.
At the last Asem in Bangkok in 1996 and London in 1998, some European
countries were against the entry of Myanmar into the grouping, saying that
Yangon will first have to deal with its "human rights record".
On the two-day third Asem, Abdul Kadir said Asian senior officials met here
on Wednesday to take a common stand ahead of the Asem senior officials meeting
(SOM) here tomorrow.
He said their job was to try and prepare the drafts of the three key
documents that would be adopted at the summit on Friday.
They are the Chairman's Statement, the Seoul Declaration and the Asia
Europe Cooperation Framework (AECF) 2000. The Chairman's Statement, Abdul Kadir
said, would give a run down of the latest issues agreed upon by the leaders
while the Seoul Declaration to be adopted on Friday would approve the Korean
Peninsula peace initiative.
The AECF, he said, would be revised, if necessary, by the leaders before
they adopt it. The document consists of a detailed plan of action to be
undertaken by Asem member states in the next decade.
"There is really no regular agenda to follow in Asem," he said indicating
that the leaders were free to discuss any matter of mutual interest so long as
it was not controversial.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad is scheduled to arrive here
later tomorrow to attend the meeting.
Aftenposten - Oct 19,
2000.
Bondevik to lead politicians for Burma Former Norwegian prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik has been chosen to
head an international network of politicians working for democracy in Burma.
Bondevik founded and headed the group in 1996-97.
Bondevik told the annual meeting of PD Burma thatpressure had to be mounted
against the military regime in Burma, and that a dialog between the regime and
Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi was necessary for a transfer to
democracy.
The Age - Oct 19, 2000.
Downer concern for jailed Burmese
activists
By PAUL DALEY
FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT CANBERRA Thursday 19 October 2000
Today's completion of the Federal Government's latest controversial human
rights seminar for officials in Burma's oppressive military regime coincides
with new concerns by Foreign Minister Alexander Downer for the welfare of
Burmese political prisoners.
The Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday confirmed that the third human
rights seminar for 25 middle-ranking Burmese officials finishes in Rangoon
today.
Three staff from Melbourne's Monash University had conducted the latest
workshop on international law on behalf of DFAT, a department spokesman said.
Fifty other officials attended the two previous seminars, he said.
Australia has been widely criticised by the international community for
engaging Burma's oppressive State Peace and Development Council through the
human rights seminars.
While Mr Downer has consistently argued that the best way to change the
situation in Burma is through human rights dialogue, his statement yesterday
strongly suggests that Australia still holds grave fears for dissidents in
Burma.
In a statement yesterday welcoming the imminent release of
British-Australian human rights activist James Mawdsley from jail in Burma, Mr
Downer said he remained "deeply concerned that there are still many Burmese
political prisoners in Burma, including members of legitimate political
parties".
"Australia strongly believes that the only way to resolve Burma's political
problems is through sustained and constructive dialogue, in particular with
(Burma's democratically elected leader) Daw Aung San Suu Kyi," Mr Downer
said.
Despite his stated concern for the dissidents, Mr Downer's statement also
suggests that Australia's diplomatic representations to the Burmese government
helped to secure Mr Mawdsley's release.
"At Mr Mawdsley's request, the British embassy had assumed full consular
responsibility for him ... The Australian Government however has been very
concerned about Mr Mawdsley's welfare, especially in recent weeks when there
were reports that he had been mistreated in prison," Mr Downer said.
"I welcome Mr Mawdsley's release, and am pleased that the Burmese
authorities took account of the many representations made on behalf of Mr
Mawdsley."
The latest Australian seminar concludes just days after a United Nations
investigator said human rights in Burma had continued to deteriorate with the
government suppressing all opposition political activity.
Rajsoomer Lallah, the UN Commission on Human Rights' independent expert on
Burma, said he continued to receive reports of government policies and
directives aimed at eliminating the opposition National League for Democracy
through intimidation, threats, coercion and political charges against its
members.
The Times of India - Oct 19
2000.
Rebels, Myanmar army clash; six killed MAE SOT, Thailand: Fighting between the Myanmar military and the
anti-government ethnic minority Karen National Union (KNU) has killed six people
and driven two hundred refugees into Thailand, the Thai army said
Wednesday.
About 100 Myanmar army soldiers, aided by troops from the Democratic Karen
Buddhist Army (DKBA) -- a militia which allies itself with Myanmar's military
junta -- attacked a KNU base in eastern Myanmar early Wednesday morning, the
Thai military said.
After an hour of fierce fighting, the Yangon military retreated, leaving
one KNU soldier dead. The Myanmar army suffered five deaths, the Thai army said.
The fighting reportedly caused about 200 people to flee from the area near
the base, opposite Thailand's western Mae Ramat district, into Thailand.
One Thai army officer said he expected more fighting at the same base in
the coming weeks because Myanmar troops were beginning their annual dry season
offensive against the KNU.
The KNU have been fighting the central government since Myanmar gained
independence from Britain more than half a century ago. But KNU fighters now
control only small pockets of territory.
The fighting has driven more than 100,000 refugees across the border and
into camps in Thailand. AFP
ABC online - Oct 19,
2000.
200 refugees flee into Thailand from Burma More than 200 refugees from Burma have fled to a Thai border district
following fresh clashes between Burmese troops and ethnic minority guerrillas.
Thai military officers in the region say at least five Burmese soldiers and
one Karen guerrilla were killed in the clash.
They say about 100 Burmese soldiers and fighters from the Democratic Karen
Buddhism Army, a former insurgent group now allied to Rangoon, attacked an area
occupied by the Karen National Union.
The refugees are staying in a village in the border district of Mae Ramat
in the northwestern province of Tak.
Malaysian National News Agency
October 19 , 2000 13:17PM ASEAN RAILWAY OFFICIALS' CONFERENCE ENDS IN MYANMAR YANGON, Oct 19 (Oana-Xinhua) --
The two-day 22nd Conference of Railway General Managers of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ended here yesterday after issuing a joint press
release.
The press release said the general managers discussed improvement of rail
operations within a five-year period, private sector's participation in the rail
services, relations between the governments and railway companies, and trade and
exchange of machinery and spare parts.
Alongside, the technical working group discussed developments of ASEAN
cooperation in transport, upgrading of rail tracts, signaling and communication
systems, maintenance of locomotives and coaches, modernization of rail services
and health-care services for railway staff.
The conference decided to hold the next conference in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia in 2001.
The conference was attended by delegates from Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam as well as from the ASEAN Secretariat
and Economic and Social Council of Asia and the Pacific.
Present on the occasion were also observers from Australia, the United
States, Japan, France and India.
Except Singapore and Brunei, all ASEAN countries are members of the ASEAN
Railways Association (ARA), which Myanmar and Laos joined in August 1998.
BBC - Thursday, 19 October, 2000,
15:03 GMT 16:03 UK
Jailed for their beliefs As the British human rights campaigner James Mawdsley is freed from jail in
Burma, BBC News Online looks at what motivates prisoners of conscience.
James Mawdsley is set to return to the UK after spending more than a year in solitary confinement in a Burmese prison. His crime? Carrying pro-democracy leaflets, after twice before being
deported.
Burma is just one of the 61 countries holding - or believed to be holding -
prisoners of conscience, according to Amnesty International's 1999 annual
report.
Closer to home, a handful of people in the UK - modern-day conscientious
objectors - have done time for refusing to pay tax that will fund the military.
Yet going to prison is an extreme way to make a point. What motivates
people to take such a stand?
Carlos Reyes is a trustee of Chile Democratico, a group of exiles based in
London.
In the 1970s, he was detained for campaigning against the military coup
that swept General Augusto Pinochet to power.
"I was abducted from my home by the secret police and taken to a police
centre, where I was tortured for six months, and then put in a concentration
camp."
A journalist and a socialist, he became a target while investigating the
fate of other pro-democracy supporters who had disappeared.
Although well aware of the danger, he refused to go into hiding.
For the first six months after his capture, Mr Reyes was himself one of the
disappeared: "Nobody knew whether I was alive or dead."
He was then moved to an army-run prison, where he passed messages to his
wife when she came to visit. She, in turn, gave the information to human rights
groups.
"When you were detained, the government denied that you were there," Mr
Reyes says.
"So we passed information about the prisoners to the Red Cross, the United
Nations and Amnesty International, who would put pressure on the government. In
this way, we saved a lot of lives."
Commanders from the special forces would visit the cells to carry out
beatings and spot-searches, Mr Reyes says.
"But it was important to make the public aware of what was happening in
Chile, otherwise people tend to believe the government's propaganda.
"It was very important to be in there, to feel the pain and understand the
brutality."
Pacifist in wartime
During World War II, some 60,000 Britons, including some women, refused to
be conscripted because they believed war was wrong.
Many were given conscientious objector status by tribunals; others agreed
to carry out non-combat duties. But 3,000 were jailed.
Barbara Roads, a Quaker, spent a month in Holloway Prison for refusing to
register for fire-watching duties. She was pregnant at the time.
"I always saw defence work as being as important to the country as the
offensive side, so I wouldn't have anything to do with any of it," Mrs Roads
says.
"I wrote to the fire chief and explained my reasons. He said he understood
my point of view, but it was illegal."
She was summonsed to appear in court and fined £5, which she refused to
pay.
"Going to prison was the way that was open to me to make a protest against
the war.
"If I had been called up to join the army and go into the trenches, I would
have refused to do that - but you can only refuse to do what you are asked to
do."
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