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BURMA RELATED NEWS - NOV - 21, 2000. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINE
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AP - Amnesty Group Looks Into
Myanmar
AFP- India and Myanmar to step up
counter-insurgency efforts
AFP - Aung San Suu Kyi marks two months under
house arrest
Reuters - Myanmar
Convicts Escape Thai Prison with Hostages
Reuters - Myanmar,S.Korea sailors rescued after
hitting reef
AFP - Armed Myanmar prisoners head for border
with hostages
AFP - ASEAN to address AIDS and drug
scourges
AFP - Free trade agreements threaten to
undermine ASEAN
AFP - Instability in Indonesia worries Tokyo:
official
AP - Amnesty Intl Urges Myanmar To Free
Opposition Leaders
AP - Southeast Asian
Nations Seek Unity
The Times of India - India offers Myanmar $15m loan
Southnexus - India, Myanmar to ensure peace along border IPS - LABOR: ILO
CENSURES MYANMAR DESPITE ASIAN OPPOSITION
National security interests dictate India's
engagement with Myanmar
India Abroad - National security interests dictate India's engagement with Myanmar India Abroad - India,
Myanmar to develop cross-border communication
The Nation - Hostage-taking drama had a
sense of déjà vu
The Nation - Cross-border shelling ends after 2 days
The Nation - Surin clears air on
ILO
Kyodo News - Myanmar inmates free 4 Thai prison
officials
SCMP - Forced-labour row threatens to thwart
economic integration bid
Tuesday November 21 10:27 PM ET
Amnesty Group Looks Into Myanmar BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -
Amnesty International on Wednesday called for Myanmar's military government to
release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and nine other leaders of her party
from house arrest.
``All 10 of these leaders are prisoners of conscience, arrested solely for
their peaceful political opposition activities,'' the London-based human rights
organization said in a statement received in Bangkok.
Suu Kyi and the other senior members of her National League for Democracy
have been under virtual house arrest since Sept. 21 after she was blocked from
traveling in the country by train. She has been similarly stopped on several
occasions in the past.
Security forces hauled Suu Kyi and deputy party leader Tin Oo out of the
Yangon railway station after they tried to travel to Myanmar's second-biggest
city, Mandalay, for legal political organizing.
Amnesty International said 80 party members and supporters who were
detained when they went to greet Suu Kyi at the rail station are being held at
Insein Prison, Myanmar's largest jail. ``There are fears for their health, as
torture of political prisoners is common in Myanmar,'' Amnesty International
said.
Myanmar's ruling military, which kept Suu Kyi under formal house arrest
from 1989 to 1995, refused to hand over power to the National League for
Democracy after it overwhelmingly won a general election in 1990. In the wake of
the polls, it has harassed and arrested hundreds of party members.
Amnesty International said 1,700 political prisoners are currently held in
prisons throughout Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.
It alleged that ``widespread harassment, surveillance, and other forms of
control such as forced party resignations are all used ... to silence any
opposition and keep the population in a state of fear.''
Wednesday, November 22 3:49 PM SGT
India and Myanmar to step up counter-insurgency efforts NEW DELHI, Nov 22 (AFP) - India
and Myanmar said Wednesday they had agreed to step up joint efforts to counter
the threat of separatist insurgency along their common border.
"The two sides agreed to take steps to ensure peace and tranquility along
the India-Myanmar border," said a joint statement released after a week-long
visit by General Maung Aye -- number two in Myanmar's military regime.
The general's visit had stirred up some controversy because India is also
sympathetic to Myanmar's pro-democracy movement led by Aung San Suu Kyi.
Indian and Myanmar troops have been cooperating in fighting insurgency in
India's northeastern states.
Earlier this year, they carried out a joint operation in which five
militant camps in Myanmar belonging to the Nationalist Socialist Council of
Nagaland were destroyed.
The joint statement said both countries had also agreed to take steps to
"give content to cross border cooperation which would directly benefit
populations living on both sides."
Economic and commerical relations would also be stepped up, it added.
During a meeting with Indian industrialists in New Delhi, Maung Aye
encouraged businesses to invest in Myanmar's agriculture, fisheries, pearl
cultivation and mining sectors.
Tourism, infrastructure and energy were also identified as areas which had
"immense potential."
Wednesday, November 22 4:16 PM SGT
Aung San Suu Kyi marks two months under house arrest YANGON, Nov 22 (AFP) - Amnesty
International has called for the release of Myanmar democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi and other senior members of her party who Wednesday marked two months
spent under house arrest.
Myanmar's military regime laid down the new restrictions on September 22
after the National League for Democracy (NLD) leaders attempted to board a train
to Mandalay, in the country's north.
It was Aung San Suu Kyi's latest attempt to test the junta's travel ban
that restricts her to the capital and prevents her from going about party
business in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.
"The international community should step up pressure on the Myanmar
government to release these prisoners of conscience without delay. Detaining
people to silence them is completely unacceptable," Amnesty said.
"All 10 of these leaders are prisoners of conscience, arrested solely for
their peaceful political opposition activities," the human rights campaginers
said in a statement released late Tuesday.
Amnesty said it had obtained the names of 80 NLD members and supporters who
were detained in Myanmar's notorious Insein jail after being arrested when they
went to farewell Aung San Suu Kyi at Yangon central station.
"There are fears for their health, as torture of political prisoners is
common in Myanmar," it said.
After a decade of intimidation and harassment from the military
authorities, the Nobel laureate now faces a new crisis as efforts are made to
evict her from her home, and to remove the NLD from its headquarters.
The owners of the Yangon building where the NLD has been based since its
inception in 1989 have served notice to evict their high-profile tenants.
And Aung San Suu Kyi's US-based brother Aung San Oo has filed suit over
half the Yangon residence that once belonged to their late mother.
The opposition figurehead was summonsed to appear in court Tuesday over the
claim, but failed to appear, enabling her brother's legal representatives to
continue their case on a unilateral basis.
She is believed to be seeking legal advice in what may be a precursor to a
private settlement with Aung San Oo.
Western sources in Yangon said the timing of the two eviction attempts was
unlikely to be a coincidence.
"This is obviously a move that is at least government-aided, if not
govt-orchestrated," said one observer.
"The obvious conclusion is that they are trying to crush the NLD. They know
that nobody would dare rent property to Aung San Suu Kyi or the NLD so it
appears they are going after them on a fundamental basis."
Whether they were doing this to pressure the party into some sort of
compromise, or to destroy the movement completely, was not yet known, he
said.
But the observer cautioned against writing off the party's chances to work
its way out of the predicament.
"It's making things difficult for them, certainly, particularly as their
leaders are under house arrest, but these things don't tend to weaken the NLD's
position," he said.
Wednesday November 22 9:07 AM ET
Myanmar Convicts Escape Thai Prison with Hostages By Vissuta Pothong BANGKOK (Reuters) - Eight armed
Myanmar prisoners escaped from a Thai jail on Wednesday with at least four
hostages after they shot one man dead, local television reported.
The prisoners, all serving long sentences, were allowed to drive away from
Samut Sakorn provincial prison, about 25 miles southwest of Bangkok, after they
had held seven prison officials hostage for several hours.
The prisoners drove at high speed toward the Thai-Myanmar border with their
hostages, including the governor of the jail, in a light pick-up truck, and were
reported to be trying to cross into neighboring Myanmar.
Thai police kept negotiating with the prisoners as they drove, trying to
persuade them to release their hostages.
``The prisoners have just stopped at a gas station and now they are on
their way toward the border,'' one local television reported.
One of the prisoners, identified as Mong Win, told local radio the group
would release at least two hostages if police gave up the chase.
Television stations said the prisoners had four hostages but local radio
said they were holding five.
A teacher, Udom Chidthongparn, a volunteer who taught Buddhism to prison
inmates, was shot dead before the escape.
Local television said he had been shot while trying to help the prison
governor resist the prisoners.
Police said at least two unidentified people were injured in the incident
but gave no further details.
The prisoners, none of whom is convicted of politically-related offences,
released two hostages, a prison guard and a teacher, as they left the
jail.
At least 500 plainclothed and uniformed police had surrounded the
2,500-inmate jail with dozens of police snipers in position around the prison
compound, witnesses said.
Samut Sakorn police chief Suraseeh Soonthornsathoon told local television
the hostage takers had at least three pistols and two rifles.
Samut Sakorn is a area of labour-intensive industries, which employ large
numbers of immigrant workers, including many thousands from neighboring
Myanmar.
Myanmar exiles have been involved in two serious incidents in Thailand
recently, both linked to groups opposed to the military government in
Yangon.
In October 1999, the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok was taken over by a group
of armed rebels who eventually escaped into the jungle along the Thai-Myanmar
border.
In January, another group of Myanmar rebels, possibly linked with the
embassy siege, burst into a hospital in Ratchaburi Province, just west of
Bangkok, and took 700 staff and patients hostage.
All 10 guerrillas in the hospital siege were shot dead by Thai security
forces.
WIRE:11/21/2000 21:27:00 ET
Myanmar,S.Korea sailors rescued after hitting reef KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22 (Reuters)
- Seventeen Myanmar and South Korean sailors were rescued after drifting in a
lifeboat in the South China Sea for five days after their ship hit a reef and
sunk, a Malaysian newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The crew of the Panama-registered "Marine Dove" abandoned the sinking ship
on November 13 and were picked up on November 17, one of the rescued sailors
told the New Straits Times. "We drifted in our lifeboat for about five days. It
was very difficult for us," Aye Kyawhe, a Myanmar national said in Tawau, a town
in Malaysia"s Sabah state on Borneo island, where the crew were taken.
The ship was heading to China with a load of logs when it struck the reef
about 100 nautical miles off the Spratly Islands. The submerged vessel was
spotted by rescuers on November 16. An aerial search the following day found the
men in the lifeboat. The rescued crew members were fine, Aye said. "We got a
medical check-up and now we are all resting."
Wednesday, November 22 7:53 PM SGT
Armed Myanmar prisoners head for border with hostages BANGKOK, Nov 22 (AFP) - A band
of Myanmar prisoners holding a Thai prison governor and several warders hostage
have driven out of the jail with their captives, leaving the dead body of one
hostage behind, police said Wednesday.
The eight gunmen, armed with hand guns and grandes, have said they are
heading west to a border town where they will demand safe passage back to
Myanmar.
The convicts, who police said were all facing trial for criminal offences
including drug trafficking, seized governor Somwong Sirivej, a prison teacher,
and six wardens mid-morning.
After a tense eight-hour stand-off where they paraded one of their captives
in front of the television cameras, the gunmen dismantled the main prison gates
and drove out of the compound in a stolen pick-up truck.
A convoy of security forces, including commando units, took off in pursuit
as police mounted a search of the prison compound, where the rest of the 2,000
prisoners were locked in their cells.
"In a preliminary search of the area, we found one dead body. We believe it
is the prison teacher who was taken hostage earlier," said police doctor Santi
Kitcharuek.
Prison governor Somwong Sirivej has been shot in the hand, but police said
they believe the warders have not been wounded.
The chief hostage-taker, who identified himself as Win, phoned up a local
radio station from a mobile phone as the group drove towards the border, and
gave a running commentary on the pursuit.
Wednesday, November 22 3:57 PM SGT
ASEAN to address AIDS and drug scourges SINGAPORE, Nov 22 (AFP) - The
threat of an AIDS epidemic and growing drug abuse will be addressed by the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) forum here this week, a Thai
foreign ministry said Wednesday.
The spotlight turned on social concerns after a World Bank study released
earlier this month warned that intravenous drug use is on the rise in the
region, helping to fuel an explosion in the spread of HIV, the virus that causes
AIDS.
"We will raise these issues," said Nittaya Phibulsomgkram, permanent
secretary of the Thai foreign ministry, as senior officials within the ASEAN
grouping began four days of meetings culminating in a leaders summit.
Drug abuse and AIDS are major problems in Thailand, and HIV rates among
intravenous drug users are also rising in other ASEAN countries Vietnam,
Malaysia and Myanmar.
Ahead of the summit, an ASEAN experts meeting was held in Vietnam to thrash
out a joint strategy for controlling the spread of AIDS.
Even though the epidemic had hit southeast Asia later than Africa, Europe
and North Amercia, it was now "on a rapid increase," warned Vietnamese Health
Minister Do Nguyen Phuong.
Information sharing and joint monitoring by ASEAN member states were vital
if the region was to avoid the "pandemic," he said.
The continued failure of at-risk groups to use condoms or clean needles
meant there was a serious danger that the higher rates of infection could spread
to the general population.
The World Bank report said intravenous drug use was rising because of cheap
heroin supplies, deepening poverty and social desperation in the wake of the
1997 economic crisis, as well as a lack of effective law enforcement.
Much of the cheap heroin came from Thailand's neighbour Myanmar, health
officials said.
ASEAN also includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines,
Singapore.
With the exception of Cambodia, "virtually all the other countries in
Southeast Asia are seeing sustained rising high rates of intravenous drug use,"
said Chris Beyrer, director of the US-based John Hopkins University AIDS
Training Program who contributed to the World Bank study on Thailand's HIV/AIDS
crisis.
"Intravenous drug use is a major problem but has not been recognized in
many Southeast Asian states."
In Bangkok, HIV infection rates rose from two percent of IV drug users a
decade ago to over 40 percent today, the World Bank study said.
In the south of Thailand, more than 50 percent of IV drug users are
infected with HIV, and that number seems likely to increase in the next year,
Beyrer said.
Wednesday, November 22 12:32 PM SGT
Free trade agreements threaten to undermine ASEAN SINGAPORE, Nov 22 (AFP) -
Southeast Asian nations opened their annual forum here Wednesday with the
10-nation regional grouping seeking relevancy in a global economy flush with
bilateral free trade agreements.
Accelerating regional economic growth is at the heart of ASEAN's stated
aims, which also include cultural development and regional peace, but at the end
of the day each economy is looking after itself.
"Those who can run faster should run faster. They should not be restrained
by those who don't want to run at all," Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong
said last week when challenged on the free trade agreements (FTAs) the
city-state had entered into.
Malaysia has warned that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
was being undermined by members undertaking FTAs outside the region, and would
weaken the planned ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA).
Singapore has just concluded an FTA with New Zealand and is negotiating
others with Japan, Australia, the United States, Canada and Mexico.
"When we do something outside the ASEAN context which could weaken the
organisation, we must think twice," Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar
said.
The Malay-language Berita Harian newspaper, in an editorial Wednesday,
said: "Singapore may not have done any wrong in legal terms but morally, the
republic's action showed that it had undermined friendship in ASEAN."
However, the Philippines said it was up to ASEAN to reverse the threat
posed by FTAs.
"If ASEAN wants to be significant then ASEAN needs to be a strong free
trade area as well," Manila's assistant trade secretary Jose Antonio Buencamino
told AFP.
ASEAN needed to "show agressiveness" in pursing an ASEAN free trade area
(AFTA) "because if not we will be left behind," said Buencamino who is attending
the ASEAN senior officials meeting ahead of a leaders' summit on Friday and
Saturday.
"If we want to be a significant player in this phenomenon of FTAs ... then
we have to be more aggressive. We should stick to the AFTA schedule."
Although AFTA has yet to take effect, a task force has already been set up
to look into expanding the arrangement to link with the Closer Economic
Relations (CER) pact covering New Zealand and Australia.
The AFTA agreement was designed to take effect from 2003, but a new
protocol has been introduced giving breathing space to sectors having
difficulties in meeting tariff-cut deadlines.
Malaysia will be the first to sign the protocol, asking to defer its pledge
to slash tariffs on auto products from 2003 to 2005.
The issue of free trade was also expected to be raised at landmark ASEAN-EU
talks in Laos next month, the Laotian foreign affairs permanent secretary
Bounkeut Sangsomsak said, confirming the meeting would go ahead.
It will be the first meeting between the two blocs since relations cooled
when ASEAN admitted Myanmar as a member in 1997.
Of the 15 European Union nations, 11 have stated they will attend, Bounkeut
said, negating reports from Bangkok that the talks were in doubt because of poor
EU representation.
Bounkeut said the issue of Myanmar will not be raised at the December 11-12
meeting, which will focus on political security and economic cooperation, with
the likelihood of the World Trade Organisation also being raised.
Wednesday, November 22 1:20 PM SGT
Instability in Indonesia worries Tokyo: official SINGAPORE, Nov 22 (AFP) - Japan
will raise concerns over instability in Indonesia and criticise sanctions by the
International Labour Organisation (ILO) against Myanmar at the ASEAN summit, a
top official said Wednesday.
Indonesia is the largest member of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) and an implosion there would destabilise the entire region, a
senior Japanese foreign ministry official warned.
"Indonesia is a key ASEAN member. If it is destabilised it will have an
adverse effect on the region," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity
on the sidelines of the ASEAN meeting here.
Indonesia remains engulfed in political uncertainty amid President
Abdurrahman Wahid's fragile grip on power and rising calls for independence in
Aceh.
Foreign ministry officials from the 10 ASEAN countries along with officials
from China, Japan and Korea are meeting in the island republic to prepare for
the ASEAN leaders' summit.
The two-day Asean-plus-three summit which starts Friday will include
dialogue with Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori
and South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung.
The Japanese official said developments on the Korean peninsula would also
be to the fore at the leaders' meeting.
"Japan welcomes the meeting by leaders from North and South Korea," he
said, referring to the June summit between Kim Dae-Jung and North Korean leader
Kim Jong-Il, which resulted in an agreement to move toward peace and
reconciliation.
The official said Japan expects "frank exchanges" at the ASEAN-plus-three
summit which Tokyo considers "firmly established" since it was first held in
Malaysia two years ago.
"There is not much opposition from the United States," he said.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has pushed for the formation of
an East Asian Economic Caucus (EAEC) -- a lose trade grouping of ASEAN countries
along with China, Japan and Korea, to which the US has expressed tacit
opposition.
Tokyo would also express its opposition to international pressure mounted
by the ILO on Myanmar over the use of forced labour, he said.
"There have been positive developments in Myanmar," he said but did not
elaborate.
The official said that during its ASEAN-plus-one meeting, Japan would
unveil a report which would highlight ways to foster closer ties between ASEAN
and Japan based on equal partnership.
Wednesday, November 22 11:37 AM SGT
Amnesty Intl Urges Myanmar To Free Opposition Leaders BANGKOK (AP)--Amnesty
International on Wednesday called for Myanmar's military government to release
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and nine other leaders of her party from
house arrest.
"All 10 of these leaders are prisoners of conscience, arrested solely for
their peaceful political opposition activities," the London-based human rights
organization said in a statement received in Bangkok.
Suu Kyi and the other senior members of her National League for Democracy
have been under virtual house arrest since Sept. 21 after she was blocked from
traveling in the country by train. She has been similarly stopped on several
occasions in the past.
Security forces hauled Suu Kyi and deputy party leader Tin Oo out of the
Yangon railway station after they tried to travel to Myanmar's second-biggest
city, Mandalay, for legal political organizing.
Amnesty International said 80 party members and supporters who were
detained when they went to greet Suu Kyi at the rail station are being held at
Insein Prison, Myanmar's largest jail. "There are fears for their health, as
torture of political prisoners is common in Myanmar," Amnesty International
said.
Myanmar's ruling military, which kept Suu Kyi under formal house arrest
from 1989 to 1995, refused to hand over power to the National League for
Democracy after it overwhelmingly won a general election in 1990. In the wake of
the polls, it has harassed and arrested hundreds of party members.
Amnesty International said 1,700 political prisoners are currently held in
prisons throughout Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.
It alleged that "widespread harassment, surveillance, and other forms of
control such as forced party resignations are all used ... to silence any
opposition and keep the population in a state of fear."
Wednesday November 22 5:48 AM ET
Southeast Asian Nations Seek Unity By REGAN MORRIS, Associated Press Writer SINGAPORE (AP) - The nations of
Southeast Asia - ranging from poor, agrarian Laos to ultramodern, Internet-savvy
Singapore - might seem worlds apart when it comes to economic development.
But their leaders will try to bring them closer together this week,
technologically.
Officials of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are set to sign a
free-trade pact on Friday that aims to eliminate duties on information
technology goods and services by 2010. The ``e-ASEAN'' accord, a draft of which
was released Wednesday, also urged members to pass legislation making digital
signatures as legally binding as pen and paper.
The 33-year-old ASEAN comprises liberal democracies like Thailand and the
Philippines as well as one-party regimes such as Laos and Myanmar, also known as
Burma. In addition to technology, Leaders on Wednesday began wrestling with
multiple challenges, including fragile presidencies, dwindling foreign
investment and the rift between rich and poor.
The ``e-ASEAN'' pact also said member states would work to establish
high-speed Internet connections, and make electronic commerce safe and effective
for consumers. It urges ASEAN members Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Brunei and Myanmar to pass legislation
making digital signatures legally binding.
A digital signature is a copy of a person's signature saved in a computer
as an image. If a coffee grower in Vietnam wanted to make a deal with a buyer in
the United States, they could seal their pact by attaching a digital signature
to an e-mailed contract.
Several ASEAN countries, including Thailand and Singapore, have some form
of digital signature legislation on the books. The United States, Germany and
Ireland recently passed digital signature laws.
Another central issue the countries will tackle are the rifts between rich
and poor and dwindling foreign investment. Southeast Asia has been losing out to
Northeast Asia as a destination for crucial foreign investment.
Malaysia has criticized its wealthy, ultramodern neighbor Singapore for its
rapid-fire initiatives to form bilateral free-trade pacts with a number of
countries from New Zealand to the United States.
Malaysian officials say Singapore's moves could undermine the planned
creation of an ASEAN Free Trade Agreement. At the same time, Malaysia insists
that its fragile automobile industry be exempt from AFTA's import duty
eliminations.
India offers Myanmar $15m
loan
The Times of India News Service Nov 22, 2000. NEW DELHI: India will provide a loan of $15 million to Myanmar for
purchasing industrial and electrical equipment. The two countries have decided
to establish necessary infrastructure to promote border trade.
The agreement was signed by the finance ministers of the two countries
during the recent week-long visit of Myanmar's vice-chairman of the ruling State
Peace and Development Council, General Maung Aye.
Gen Maung had participated in wide-ranging discussions on economic
cooperation, cross-border projects and international terrorism, among other
topics, with Pime Minister Vajpayee and others. ``Views were also exchanged on
checking the cross-border insurgency and drug trafficking,'' said an external
affairs ministry spokesperson.
Southnexus
India, Myanmar to ensure peace along border NEW DELHI, Nov 22: India and Myanmar agreed to take steps to ensure peace and tranquility along their border and give an impetus to cross-border cooperation to directly benefit people on both sides. Recognising the need to establish the necessary infrastructure in terms of
cross border transport and communication links, the two countries agreed to
promote frequent exchanges both at the Government and people-to-people levels.
The Tamu-Kalemyo highway, which will link India's north-east with the
western part of Myanmar and beyond, would be handed over soon to Yangon, a joint
statement issued at the end of the week-long visit to India of Gen Maung Aye,
the second-most powerful man in the military regime in Myanmar, said.
The two sides agreed to take necessary steps to expedite ongoing
investigations and feasibility studies in cross border projects like the
Tamanthi Hydroelectric, Kaladan river Navigation and Road and Gas Pipeline
ventures.
Maung, Vice Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council, held
discussions on a wide range of issues with President K R Narayanan, Vice
President Krishan Kant, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Union Ministers
L K Advani and Jaswant Singh.
While acknowledging that India-Myanmar relations were rooted in common
cultural and religious heritage and geographical contiguity, both sides
reaffirmed their desire to promote bilateral relations to a qualitatively higher
and dynamic stage.
Inter Press Service
LABOR: ILO CENSURES MYANMAR DESPITE ASIAN OPPOSITION GENEVA, (Nov. 21) IPS - The executive body of the International Labor
Organization (ILO) had to wade through the resistance of Asian nations to open
the way for sanctions against Myanmar (Burma) for its widespread use of forced
labor.
The actions could cost Myanmar aid from other governments, international institutions, as well as public and private entities. The ILO resolution calls for the unprecedented implementation on Nov. 30 of
its constitution's Article 33, enacting measures of censure against the Myanmar
government.
The Myanmar delegation responded by announcing in Geneva that it would
refuse all future collaboration with the ILO.
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), which headed
the campaign against the Rangoon military regime, estimates there are
approximately one million people subjected to forced labor in Myanmar.
The application of measures by the international community will likely mean
the government's plans to boost income from tourism will fail. The country took
in $100 million in tourism in 1999 and had projected $200 million for next year,
according to the ICFTU.
The ILO Governing Body stated that its Commission of Inquiry had not
observed progress in Myanmar towards adopting the international convention
against forced labor.
As a result, the decisions adopted last June by the International Labor
Conference were left intact, and call for applying sanctions against an ILO
member nation for the first time in the organization's 81-year history.
Several Asian nations attempted until the eleventh hour to defer the issue
with a proposal presented by Malaysia, and sponsored by the Philippines,
Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam, to postpone discussion until the next sessions
of the Conference.
The Malaysian delegation maintained that the Myanmar government had made
"serious efforts" to apply the measures adopted by the Conference.
Other countries that backed delaying action against Rangoon included China,
India, Japan and Russia. Meanwhile, European and Latin American nations, as well
as labor and corporate delegates, supported the condemnation.
The Governing Body, the ILO's executive, is comprised of 28 government
representatives, 14 labor delegates and several from business
organizations.
Its decision was based on the negative report presented by the technical
co-operation mission that visited the country in October.
But the origin of the censure dates back to recommendations made by the
1998 Commission of Inquiry, which found that forced labor in the country was
"widespread and systematic."
The Commission's recommendations called for Myanmar to "take concrete
actions" toward implementing the international convention against forced labor,
which the country ratified in 1955.
The ICFTU affirmed that, despite the recommendations, the Myanmar military
continued to harass residents in rural areas, forcing them to perform, without
pay, all kinds of tasks, ranging from road repair, barracks maintenance and
weapons transport to growing crops that were sold for the army's profit.
The Brussels-based global union said the Myanmar military dictatorship is
concerned that sanctions could strangle the country's economy, which -- apart
from drug-trafficking -- depends heavily on sales to Thailand of natural gas
from the deposits in the Andaman Sea.
The international sale of natural gas was made possible by the pipeline
built by Elf-Total-Fina and Unocal, two companies "harshly criticised for their
use of forced labor and the displacement of the local population," said the
ICFTU.
The sanctions of the International Labor Conference, to take effect at the
end of this month, call for a full investigation, trial and punishment for those
found guilty of forced labor.
They also establish that future sessions of the Conference will assess "the
implementation of the Commission of Inquiry's recommendations at future sessions
of the Conference so long as Myanmar has not been shown to have fulfilled its
obligations."
Another point of the resolution recommends that ILO members "review their
relations with Myanmar and take appropriate measures to ensure that such
relations do not perpetuate or extend the system of forced or compulsory labor
in that country."
ILO Director-General Juan Somav¡a is to "inform international organizations
working with the ILO to reconsider any cooperation they may be engaged in with
Myanmar and, if appropriate, to cease as soon as possible any activity that
could have the effect of directly or indirectly abetting the practice of forced
or compulsory labor."
India Abroad
Wednesday November 22, 1:04 PM National security interests dictate India's engagement with Myanmar By G Parthasarathy In according a warm welcome to top Myanmarese leader General Maung Aye
during his weeklong state visit, New Delhi has conveyed the clear message that
it is going to give paramount importance to its national security interests and
its regional engagement with its eastern neighbors.
The question naturally being asked in the capital's diplomatic circles in
the wake of the visit, that concluded Tuesday, is whether this welcome accorded
to Aye signaled any change in India's approach to relations with Myanmar. What
are the factors that led to this development?
Pragmatism in the pursuit of national security interests has been the
hallmark of the conduct of India's relations with Myanmar over the last seven
years. By 1993, New Delhi had come to the conclusion that even though the
charismatic Aung San Suu Kyi enjoyed immense popularity in the country's
heartland, the military regime was pragmatically making peace with all the
ethnic minorities and bringing an end to long standing ethnic insurgencies. In
these circumstances there was little or no possibility of the military regime
relinquishing power to the National League for Democracy led by Suu Kyi.
Two factors lent urgency to the need for developing a practical and good
neighborly relationship with Yangon's rulers. In the absence of dialogue with
the Myanmar military, insurgency and narcotics smuggling were assuming alarming
proportions in the states bordering Myanmar - Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and
Arunachal Pradesh. Further, taking full advantage of the international isolation
of the military regime, China moved in with substantial economic and military
assistance supported by a trade regime that promoted extensive border trade.
Beijing's growing influence and presence in Myanmar set alarm bells ringing
in the capitals of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), with
Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore embarking on a policy of
"constructive engagement" with Yangon. While western countries led by Britain
resorted to shrill rhetoric and condemned the military regime, their oil
companies did not hesitate to seek lucrative investment opportunities in
Myanmar.
It was against this background that by 1993 quiet contacts were established
with the Myanmar military leadership and a series of agreements signed to deal
with cross-border terrorism and narcotics smuggling and to promote trade and
economic development along the Indo-Myanmar border. Yangon was also quietly
urged that while India understood and appreciated its efforts to strengthen
cooperation with China, there would be serious concern if this cooperation
extended to providing military facilities to Beijing on Myanmar soil. There was
also recognition in New Delhi that there are deep historical doubts and
misgivings in Myanmar about Chinese intentions and policies.
The vicious anti-Chinese rioting in that country in 1967 was only one
manifestation of this. The unprecedented public assertion by Myanmar's Foreign
Minister Win Aung in New Delhi that his country will not allow any outside power
to use its territory against India either for military bases or for the passage
of arms has pleased policy makers in South Block as a vindication of their
policy of quiet engagement of Yangon's rulers.
The last five years have seen increasing cooperation between the security
forces of India and Myanmar in dealing with cross-border terrorism. The
largest-ever coordinated military operation was mounted along the borders of
Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland with Myanmar in 1995 when groups of militants
infiltrating across the borders were challenged and heavy losses inflicted on
them. More recently, the Myanmar Army has cooperated actively this year in
mounting operations against armed insurgents of the National Socialist Council
of Nagaland (NSCN-Khaplang) along Myanmar's borders with Nagaland.
A border trade agreement was signed in 1993 and engineers of India's Border
Roads Organization are now building a road linking the border township of Tamu
on Myanmar's border with Manipur with the railhead at Kalemyo. This road, to be
formally opened shortly, will serve as a vital communications link with Mandalay
in Myanmar. It will also, in course of time, become an integral part of the
proposed Trans-Asian Highway network. Myanmar is becoming a crucial land bridge
linking India with South-East Asia.
Ties with Myanmar are also set to have an important bearing on economic
development in India's northeastern states. Discussions have commenced for
developing the hydroelectric potential of the Chindwin river in Myanmar. This
project would supply nearly 2,000 MW of power for the northeastern states and
eventually for the national power grid. There is also considerable scope for the
use of Myanmar's gas resources from its yet untapped fields.
Finally, Myanmar has become an active partner in efforts to promote
regional economic cooperation in the Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka
Thailand Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) grouping that brings together the
littoral states of the Bay of Bengal. As the South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation (SAARC) stagnates because of Pakistan's unwillingness to
have any meaningful trade or economic cooperation with India, it is only natural
and indeed inevitable that the resulting regional vacuum is filled by other
regional and sub-regional economic groupings that will emerge.
Tuesday November 21, 8:24 PM
India, Myanmar to develop cross-border communication By Rezaul L. Laskar, India Abroad News Service New Delhi, Nov 21 - India and Myanmar have agreed to step up bilateral
cooperation by establishing cross-border transport and communication
infrastructure to boost trade and business ties and take advantage of the "many
economic complementarities" between their countries.
In a joint statement issued Tuesday at the end of the week-long visit to
India by General Maung Aye, the second most powerful leader of Yangon's military
junta, the two countries also vowed to take steps to contain terrorist
activities and enhance economic ties along their 1,643-km-long border. The two
sides described the visit of Aye, the senior most Myanmarese leader to visit
India in a decade, as "highly successful."
The 160-km-long Tamu-Kalemyo highway, constructed in western Myanmar by the
Indian Army's Border Road Organisation, would "contribute significantly to this
cross-border cooperation," the joint statement said. The highway is projected as
the first step towards enhancing road communications between Yangon and the four
northeastern Indian states that border Myanmar.
The creation of transport and communication infrastructure would, the joint
statement said, promote more frequent exchanges both at the government and
people-to-people level, and actively encourage business ties. India sees Myanmar
as the land bridge to the Southeast Asian region.
The two countries also discussed possible Indian participation in major
developmental projects in Myanmar like the Tamanthi hydroelectric project and
the Kaladan river navigation, road and gas pipeline project.
The two sides felt the existing level of cooperation especially in the
economic and commercial fields did not reflect its true potential. Bilateral
trade between the two countries last year was worth $215 million, and India is
Myanmar's largest export market.
Besides economic ties, other issues that figured in Aye's discussions with
Indian leaders was cooperation to curb the activities of extremist groups and
drug traffickers along the Indo-Myanmar border and reports of China's growing
influence in Myanmar.
Both sides expressed satisfaction at the level of cooperation in tackling
terrorism and insurgency, with Union Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani
highlighting the successes achieved by the Myanmar Army in operations against
anti-Indian guerrillas.
Myanmar Foreign Affairs Minister Win Aung, who was part of Aye's
delegation, had told journalists that Yangon would not allow its territory to be
used as a launching pad for anti-India activities.
Aye, who visited India at the invitation of Vice-President Krishan Kant,
was accompanied by a 16-member delegation that included Myanmar's Deputy Prime
Minister Lieutenant General Tin Hla. He called on President K.R. Narayanan and
met with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, External Affairs Minister Jaswant
Singh and Advani.
New Delhi extended a $15 million credit line to Myanmar during Aye's visit
for the purchase of industrial and electrical equipment from India. This follows
the full utilisation of an earlier $10-million credit line for setting up
industrial plants and purchasing railway rolling stock.
Vice-President Kant accepted an invitation from Aye to visit Myanmar while
similar invitations, made on behalf of the Myanmar Prime Minister, Senior
General Than Shwe, to Narayanan and Vajpayee were also accepted. The president
and the prime minister also invited General Shwe to visit India.
Aye's visit, however, exposed divisions within the government over New
Delhi's stance in recent years towards Yangon's military junta. Defense Minister
George Fernandes, a staunch supporter of the pro-democracy movement in Myanamr,
stayed away from all official functions organised for the Myanmar delegation.
The visit also provoked criticism from Myanmarese pro-democracy activists
based in India who staged demonstrations in New Delhi and some of the
northeastern states bordering Myanmar. The activists also expressed concern over
the possible supply of Indian defense hardware to Myanmar.
The Nation - Nov 23,
2000.
Hostage-taking drama had a sense of déjà vu YESTERDAY'S jailbreak in the coastal province of Samut Sakhon was the
latest of several violent incidents on Thai soil involving Burmese nationals,
about one million of whom live and work illegally in the country.
In October last year, five armed dissidents seized the Burmese Embassy in
Bangkok, holding dozens of officials and scores of tourists hostage, as they
called for the release of all political prisoners and the restoration of
democracy in their military-ruled homeland.
The stand-off ended when Deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra gave
himself to the armed group in return for release of the hostages. A helicopter
took them to a rebel-controlled area along the Thai-Burmese border, where the
deputy minister was released and the armed men went free.
Then in January, 10 members from a similar group seized Ratchaburi Hospital
and held hundreds of medical personnel and patients hostage. They demanded that
the Thai First Army stop shelling Karen villages across the border adjacent to
Suan Phung district.
The then-commander of the region, Gen Thaweep Suwanasingha, was quick to
blame a rag-tag group of ethnic Karen rebels, known as the God's Army, for the
incident in what appeared to be a desperate attempt to justify the week-long
shelling of Karen villagers.
The crisis ended when Thai commandos rushed the hospital in an early
morning raid and killed all 10 of the hostage-takers. The next day all 10
bodies, wrapped in white cloth from head to toe, were revealed to the public.
nSpeaking to The Nation in Singapore yesterday, Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan said the Samut Sakhon incident would not affect bilateral relations. He also hoped the drama would be solved peacefully. "I am not familiar with the details of the incident, but it is our hope
that it will not escalate and that it can be settled in a peaceful way. It of
course would not affect relations between Thailand and Burma."
Surin said he had already informed his Burmese counterpart, Win Aung, of
the incident, whom he said had no prior knowledge of the drama.
The Thai minister was speaking after having a half-hour talk with Win Aung
on the sidelines of Asean Informal Summit.
The Nation - Nov 23,
2000.
Cross-border shelling ends after 2 days TWO days of cross-border shelling between Thai and Burmese government
troops ended yesterday after the opposing military units held talks, a senior
Thai army official said.
"They came over and asked to talk," said Third Army Region deputy commander
Maj General Chamlong Phothong.
"We said fine and the shelling ended there."
Chamlong said the shelling started on Monday and continued into the next
day. The Burmese had started the exchange following a raid by the Shan State
Army (SSA) against a drug laboratory belonging to an ethnic army allied with the
Rangoon government, he said.
"They started firing mortars at us. We merely responded to their action.
All of our shelling was return fire," Chamlong added.
The Burmese shells landed well over a kilometre inside Chiang Rai's Mae Fah
Luang district.
Chamlong said the Burmese troops had fired about six or seven mortar
rounds. "I understand that Shan soldiers raided a drug lab that belonged to
another ethnic group," Chamlong said. "But, for whatever reason, the Burmese
[government] troops began to shell us instead. Perhaps they thought we had
crossed the border and raided the place."
Thai newspapers reported that one Burmese soldier died in the shelling.
Chamlong could not confirm this but said there were no Thai casualties. The SSA
have in the past carried out attacks against drug labs along the border to
attract international support for its fight against the military junta.
The Nation -Nov 23,
2000.
Surin clears air on ILO BY MARISA CHIMPRABHA SINGAPORE - Thailand yesterday defended its decision not to support an
Asean effort to ward off International Labour Organisation action against Burma
for its use of forced labour.
Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan explained Thailand's position in a meeting
with his Burmese counterpart, Win Aung, on the sidelines of the Asean Informal
Summit Meeting.
"I made it clear to Win Aung that it is common that we Asean countries
cannot have a common position on every issue. On some of them we have to base
ourselves on facts and the actual situation," Surin said.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Don Pramudwinai quoted Win Aung as saying that
he understood and respected Thailand's decision, but wished it was otherwise.
"Burma understands that Thailand has the right to take its own position, but it
expected that its neighbouring countries should have helped it on this issue,"
Don quoted Win Aung as telling Surin.
Malaysia had proposed that Asean issue a statement of support of Rangoon in
the face of the harsh ILO report on Burma's labour practices, but Thailand
disagreed. Asean operates on a consensus basis. Surin and Win Aung also
discussed issues of mutual concern yesterday, including illegal Burmese
migrants.
Surin said he welcomed Rangoon's first official statement that Burma would
welcome its people back if they return through the route by which they sneaked
into Thailand.
Burma has in the past refused to take back these immigrants, saying they
belonged to anti-government groups or were rebels..
Surin also called on Burma to take stringent measures to suppress
drug-producing factories along the border. "We understand that the Burmese
government may not have access to those factories, some of which are located in
areas controlled by rebels. But we believe that if the governments concerned are
serious about the issue, concrete action can be launched to tackle the narcotics
problem," he said.
BANGKOK, Nov. 22 Kyodo News
3RD LD: Myanmar inmates free 4 Thai prison officials Six armed prisoners from Myanmar on Wednesday released four of the eight
prisons officials they seized earlier in the day from a prison in Samut Sakhon
Province, 30 kilometers southwest of Bangkok, the local media said.
The hostage takers still hold another three hostages including the prison
chief and two deputies in a pickup truck, which the inmates hijacked from the
prison Wednesday morning, according to TV and radio reports.
South China Morning Post
Wednesday, November 22, 2000 ASEAN - Forced-labour row threatens to thwart economic integration bid DEUTSCHE PRESSE-AGENTUR in Singapore International pressure on Burma over its use of forced labour threatens to
overshadow efforts towards economic integration at the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (Asean) leaders summit this week.
"It's important that Asean demonstrates to the outside world that as an organisation, we can get our act together," Singapore Foreign Minister S. Jayakumar said ahead of the weekend summit where economic cohesion and strengthening ties with China, Japan and South Korea will top the agenda. Mr Jayakumar said the 33-year-old grouping had to devise new ideas and
projects showing its 10 members were working together. "Asean is going through a
rather critical period of its history," he said, stressing the need to prevent a
two-tier arrangement between older members and the newer entrants - Vietnam,
Cambodia, Laos and Burma. Asean also includes Singapore, Indonesia, the
Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Brunei.
With Asean still seen as weakened and drifting as a result of its slow
response to the economic crisis in 1997, host Singapore is anxious to drive home
the integration theme.
An Asean agreement seeking to use information technology to link the
countries closer together and explore e-commerce possibilities will be signed by
the leaders of the 10 countries.
The initiative aims to harmonise Internet laws, narrow the digital divide
and enhance inter-government co-operation on information technology concerns.
The Asean leaders are also scheduled to meet Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji,
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.
Hopes of a thaw in Asean-European Union strains over Burma have been dashed
by the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) unprecedented decision last
week to call for economic sanctions against Burma for failing to comply with a
global treaty on eradicating forced labour.
Burma's admission into Asean in July 1997 strained ties with the West. The
United States and EU cited its poor human rights record and failure to
acknowledge the election win of the National League for Democracy in 1990.
An Asean-EU meeting scheduled for Laos from December 11 to 12, which would
have marked an easing of tensions, now appears likely to be postponed after
several European countries said they would not send their foreign ministers in
the aftermath of the ILO's decision to impose the sanctions on November 30.
Asean army commanders pledged at their first meeting yesterday to consider
how their forces could join together to handle humanitarian disasters. |