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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BURMA RELATED NEWS - DEC - 02, 2000. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINE
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FEER - Opium Bonanza For
Burma
AFP - Prominent Myanmar writer
flees to Thailand
IHT - Burma Beyond the Pale
The Times of India -
Myanmar number-two Maung Aye to visit Laos
The Times of India -
Japan to discuss Myanmar's economic reform next
week
The Straits Times - Thai forces on Myanmar border asked to be alert
The Business Times - Ong Beng
Seng buys 49% of Myanmar Airways
Bkk Post - Drug
arrests
Bkk Post - Corruption
flourishing behind bars
The Nation - Karen an integral
part of the precious Thung Yai
BBC - Brown urges rich to drop
debt
Far Eastern Economic Review INTELLIGENCE - Opium Bonanza For Burma Issue cover-dated December 7, 2000 Burma is set to enjoy a bumper opium crop after three
years of relatively poor production. Cold weather and heavy rain in northern
Burma seriously affected opium production and prompted many traffickers to turn
to methamphetamines to make up for lost income. But Thailand-based narcotics
intelligence officers say Burma's main drug-trafficking group, the United Wa
State Army, has over the past year moved tens of thousands of poppy farmers
south to areas nearer the border with Thailand, where weather conditions are
better. They reckon there are now more than 3,000 hectares of new poppy fields
in the areas where the farmers have been resettled, which means that Thailand
can expect a new flood of heroin when the opium is harvested in January and
February. The UWSA expects to harvest more opium than its own refineries can
handle for conversion into heroin, and at a mid-September meeting in the border
town of Tachilek, it promised to supply raw opium to heroin refineries operated
by other traffickers in far northeast Burma's Kokang area, the narcotics agents
say. Another problem for Thailand is that the UWSA and all the other groups at
the Tachilek meeting have ceasefire agreements with the Burmese government and
are recognized as special police forces. Moreover, the movement of people from
the north to the south has been described as a "drug eradication effort" by the
UWSA, the Burmese government and even the United Nations International Drug
Control Programme's office in Rangoon.
Saturday, December 2 3:59 PM SGT
Prominent Myanmar writer flees to Thailand YANGON, Dec 2 (APF) - Prominent Myanmar writer Tin Maung Than has
fled to Thailand and may be seeking asylum in the West to escape increasing
pressure from the country's military government, sources said
Saturday.
Tin Maung Than, a noted intellectual and social
commentator, is believed to have left Myanmar with his family about two weeks
ago.
Friends of the Harvard-educated writer told AFP that the
junta had refused him permission to travel to the United States to begin a PhD,
and that he decided to skip the country so he could continue his
studies.
He initially travelled to the Thai capital Bangkok but it
was not known whether he had already left for a third country.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Bangkok was not
available for comment Saturday but the office has a blanket ban on commenting on
individual applications for political asylum.
Tin Maung Than, a medical doctor by training, has had
several brushes with Myanmar's censors, particularly in his capacity as editor
of a private magazine entitled "Thinbawa", or "Your Life".
An article where he described the deterioration of
Myanmar's education system since the days of British colonial rule was famously
completely censored from the publication.
But his latest run-in with the junta came several months
ago when he became instrumental in releasing an explosive speech by a government
minister who made a rare public criticism of the junta's economic
policies.
Deputy minister for national planning and economic
development Zaw Htun was forced to stand down after he accused the government of
gross economic mismanagement.
Sources in Yangon said Tin Maung Than was one of a small
group of people who disseminated the speech and finally managed to have it
loaded onto the Internet.
His writings also include several books including novels
and educational works, but his output dropped off in recent months as he came
under increasing pressure from the authorities.
The International Herald
Tribune
Burma Beyond the Pale THE WASHINGTON POST Friday, December 1, 2000 Not in 81 years had the International Labor Organization
imposed such sanctions, but Burma is a special case. The ILO, a United Nations
arm in which unions, businesses and governments participate, found that the
Asian nation has so flagrantly violated international norms that sanctions had
to be imposed. In particular, its ruling generals were found guilty of
encouraging forced and slave labor in "a culture of fear."
. Burma is a special case in part because its dictators cannot even pretend to reflect the will of their people. In 1990 they permitted a national election. A pro-democracy party headed by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of Burma's hero of independence, won four out of five parliamentary seats. But Parliament never met; the generals refused to accept the results. . The United States has imposed restrictions on investment, but that has not stopped companies such as Unocal from mounting major efforts in the country. Nor has it prevented trade, much of which enriches only the generals. Companies that do business in Burma now more than ever will have to explain themselves. So will nations that sought to water down the ILO action, including fellow autocracies like Malaysia and China and, more surprisingly, democracies like India and Japan. Those nations, though, found themselves very much in the minority, just as Burma finds itself more isolated than ever. - THE WASHINGTON POST. The Times of India -
Dec 02, 2000.
Myanmar number-two Maung Aye to visit Laos YANGON: Myanmar's powerful army chief Maung Aye, number
two in the military regime, is to visit Laos on Monday, according to the
official press and sources in Yangon. The visit comes after Laos celebrates the
25th anniversary of the communist regime Saturday, and before it hosts a
landmark ASEAN-EU ministerial meeting on December 11-12.
The gathering of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations and European Union representatives will be the first time the two blocs
have met at that level since Myanmar joined ASEAN in 1997. A spokesman for the
military government said Maung Aye's visit would not coincide with the ASEAN-EU
meeting.
It is believed that Foreign Affairs Minister Win Aung, who
is accompanying him to Laos, will stay on for the meeting Maung Aye travelled to
neighbouring India earlier this month, after a long period where he made no
officials visits.
In New Delhi, he forged an agreement with the Indian
government to step up joint efforts to counter the threat of separatist
insurgency along their common border. (AFP)
The Times of India -
Dec 02, 2000.
Japan to discuss Myanmar's economic reform next week TOKYO: Japan and Myanmar will hold a two-day meeting here
next week to discuss Yangon's economic reform, but Tokyo has no plan to announce
any fresh aid to the country, officials said Friday. More than 20 government
officials, businessmen and economists from the two countries are expected to
attend the consultative workshop starting on Monday, the officials
said.
David Abel, minister for the office of Myanmar's State
Peace Development Council, is among the planned participants, they said. During
the meeting, Japan will propose "intellectual support such as raising human
resources," a foreign ministry official said. But "we will make no agreement to
provide yen loans during the upcoming meeting," the official said.
Japan suspended all but a small amount of humanitarian aid
to Myanmar in the aftermath of the 1988 military takeover, but agreed in
February last year to help finance reconstruction of Yangon airport. Japan has
stated its willingness to increase its supply of humanitarian aid if the
military government embraces reform. (AFP)
The Straits Times -
Dec 02, 2000.
Thai forces on Myanmar border asked to be alert With seasonal combat flaring anew, the army urges its troops to prevent the fighting from spilling onto Thai soil and keep any foreign forces out BANGKOK - Thailand has ordered its soldiers on the border
with Myanmar to be especially alert as seasonal combat flares anew between
Myanmar government forces and ethnic rebels, a Thai army spokesman has said.
'The dry season is here and fighting inside Myanmar has
already taken place. The fighting seems fiercer this year and it has started
earlier than usual,' said Colonel Somkuan Saengpatranetr.
He said no Thai reinforcements have been sent to the
border.
The dry season usually starts around the beginning of
November, and traditionally the less-mobile conventional forces of the
government take advantage of the improved weather conditions to launch
offensives.
The spokesman said the Thai army has instructed its
personnel to prevent the fighting from spilling onto Thai soil and keep any
foreign forces out.
At the beginning of November, Myanmar government troops
launched attacks on two strongholds of the Karen National Union, resulting in
heavy fighting during which at least two artillery shells landed on Thai soil.
Thai villagers in the immediate area in Tak province, 370
km northwest of Bangkok, were temporarily evacuated.
Soon after, some 125 Karen rebel troops overran a Myanmar
military camp after heavy fighting near the Thai border in their most
significant victory in recent months.
About 30 Myanmar government forces fled the Tojo
Mountaincamp, leaving a trail of blood and one dead comrade.
In late October, a Thai soldier was killed in a clash with
intruding Myanmar forces in a northern Thai province, Col Somkuan said.
The Karen National Union (KNU) forces are believed to
number 2,000-3,000, a fraction of their armed strength in their heyday more than
one decade ago, when they controlled huge tracts along the Thai-Myanmar
frontier. --AP
The Business Times -
2 Dec 2000
Ong Beng Seng buys 49% of Myanmar Airways By Kalpana Rashiwala ONG Beng Seng's Region Air has clinched a 49 per cent
stake in Myanmar Airways International (MAI) and will help with the management
of the airline from Jan 1.
Sources did not reveal the price the Singapore businessman
paid. Under the deal, Region Air will not only take a stake in MAI but will also
provide management, marketing, accounting, cost control, technical and
operations management of the airline.
Region Air Myanmar chairman George Yin Soon noted that MAI
is a "lesser-known but good airline" which the tie-up aims to improve.
The airline's fleet currently comprises only two
146-seater Boeing 737-400s leased from Malaysian Airline System. It flies to
regional destinations such as Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Hongkong.
Among other things, Region Air will help upgrade MAI's
systems and procedures and introduce new technology to improve aircraft
management, yields and load factors.
In October, SIA Engineering Company bagged a five-year,
$40 million aircraft maintenance contract from Region Air.
Mr Ong, who controls Singapore-listed Hotel Properties Ltd
(HPL) with his in-laws, was hit badly during the regional financial crisis
between 1997 and 1998.
He had to sell off a string of assets, including stakes in
the Four Seasons hotels in Milan and London, Hotel Pennsylvania in New York, a
prime site at Surfers Paradise on Australia's Gold Coast -- and even his
personal jet.
Market watchers note that he appears to be coming under
siege at HPL by the dynamic cousin-duo of Quek Leng Chan and Kwek Leng Beng, who
have been raising their stake in the company gradually.
However, Mr Ong seems to be expanding again. Last month,
an associate company of HPL snapped up a Bangkok youth hostel, YMCA Collins
International House, for 340 million baht (S$13.6 million). It plans to convert
it into an upmarket hotel.
His wife, Christina, has also begun to spread her wings in
the fashion world after having seen them clipped during the crisis
years.
The Bangkok Post -
Dec 02, 2000.
Inbrief Drug arrests Four Burmese were charged with trafficking in 8,000 speed
pills in Suan Luang district yesterday following the arrest of a gang member in
the Ramkhamhaeng area.
Ah Ming sae Chen, a suspected major dealer, and three
aides were arrested in a raid on a room in Future hotel, in Ramkhamhaeng Soi 44.
Earlier, Pi Kham, a Burmese gang member, was charged with trafficking in 6,000
pills at The Mall, Ramkhamhaeng.
In a separate raid, Sompong Jongthun was arrested at a Big
C branch in Bang Pakok by police who seized 44,000 pills from his apartment in
Din Daeng.
Bangkok Post - Dec
02, 2000.
Corruption flourishing behind bars The Samut Sakhon jailbreak drama ended with the death of
all Burmese prisoners in Kanchanaburi. But a lot of questions remain over how
Thai prisons are run.
First of all, we must ask how the Burmese prisoners
managed to obtain the weapons and equipment used to carry out the jailbreak?How
could these weapons pass through security checks at Samut Sakhon jail?A similar
question had been raised earlier when prisoners escaped from maximum security
cells at Bang Kwang Prison in Nonthaburi by sawing off iron bars.
These incidents point to serious flaws in the Corrections
Department's administrative system, which is allegedly infested with corruption
and bribery.
A prisoner who escaped from Loei provincial prison some
years ago confessed after being re-arrested that he had paid 1.5 million baht to
four prison officials who arranged his escape. Without help from prison
officials, how could he pass through four locked doors that were manned by
guards 24 hours?Likewise, how could the Burmese prisoners obtain the guns that
ostensibly passed through Samut Sakhon prison's security checks?Corruption and
bribery are part and parcel of life behind prison walls. Well-to-do prisoners
can live a comfortable life behind bars if they have the money to bribe prison
officials.
Drugs are also available inside the prison to those who
can afford them. Traffickers only have to grease the palms of corrupt
Corrections officials to pry their dirty trade in the "twilight zone" of
condemned criminals.
Outsiders have no wish to peek into the lives of these
prisoners, let alone government officials in charge of Corrections affairs. Not
surprisingly, the above-mentioned problems remain unsolved.
There are very few officials who understand the structural
flaws of the Corrections Department. In short, Thailand lags behind many other
countries in the development of corrective procedures.
A prison is supposed to be a place where prisoners serve
their time and learn to reform themselves so that they can become good citizens
when they rejoin the outside world.
In reality, Thai prisons are a breeding ground for drug
trafficking, gambling and corruption.
These illegal activities go on unchecked by
outsiders.
With no other means to make a living once they are freed,
former convicts often commit the same or more serious crimes.
Meanwhile, daring jailbreaks by armed prisoners continue
to grab newspaper headlines.
Editorial from Krungthep
Turakij
The Nation - Dec 03,
2000.
Karen an integral part of the precious Thung Yai Anthropologist REINER BUERGIN puts a compelling case for letting the Karen remiam in their Villages in Thung Yai sanctuary in a special report for The Nation ONLY recently the Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary
again made its way into Thai newspapers. Forest encroachment and illegal
immigration seem to be endangering one of the most precious forest areas in
Thailand, requiring determined action by the military and the Royal Forest
Department.
It is not the first time Thung Yai has made "headlines".
Even before the area was declared a Wildlife Sanctuary in 1974, it received
national attention in 1973, when a helicopter accident revealed a poaching party
of military men and industrialists. The case, made public by students, became a
trigger in the events leading to the overthrow of the Thanom-Prapas regime in
October 1973.
In 1987/88, Thung Yai, for the first time, attracted
international attention in the debate on the Nam Choan Dam. The success of a
broad public alliance to stop the dam project in the sanctuary was a milestone
for the environmental movement and the emerging civil society in Thailand.
In 1991, the international community acknowledged the
outstanding ecological value of Thung Yai, declaring it a World Heritage Site
for its high biological diversity and the numerous rare and endangered species
living there.
Until the 1990s, the Karen people living in Thung Yai
scarcely appeared in the news about the sanctuary, even in the case of the Nam
Choan debate when they were the most affected group in resettlement plans.
But the Karen have lived in the area for a long time. The
first historic reference to their residence may be found in Thai and Burmese
chronicles of the late 18th century. They tell us that more than 200 years ago,
in 1775 and 1785, Karen living around Three Pagodas Pass (Phra Chedi Saam Ong)
and Sangklaburi, were supporting Thai troops fighting the Burmese army.
Before 1822 Karen of this western border area received
formal settlement rights from the governor of Kanchanaburi, and their leader was
conferred the rank of nobility, Khun Suwan.
When the status of Sangklaburi was raised to that of a
muang (district), between 1827 and 1839, the Karen leader of the muang was
awarded the title of Phra Si Suwannakhiri by King Rama III. Since 1873, Phra Si
Suwannakhiri resided in Sanepong, which became the centre of the muang and
nowadays is one of the Karen villages lying within the Thung Yai Naresuan
Wildlife Sanctuary.
During the second half of the 19th century this muang was
of considerable importance for Siamese kings, guarding part of their western
border with British-Burma, and Karen living there were consulted for the
delineation of the border between Thailand and Burma under King Rama V.
It was only in the beginning of the 20th century, after
the establishment of the modern Thai state, that the Karen in Thung Yai lost
their former status and their importance for the Thai state. Now, at the turn of
the new century, they are reappearing on the political agenda as forest
encroachers and illegal immigrants.
In the beginning of the 1990s, with the declaration of
Thung Yai as a World Heritage Site, the Royal Forest Department (RFD) decided to
relocate the Karen. Thanks to the advocacy of concerned environmentalists,
journalists and foresters, who became interested in the Karen of Thung Yai and
came to hold in high regard their way of life, the case became public. The RFD,
for the time being, withdrew from the relocation plan.
Instead, the RFD, supported by the military, started to
severely restrict the use of traditional land by the Karen. These restrictions
caused increasing problems for many households who could not grow enough rice.
At the end of the century, the RFD once again seems
determined to solve the problem in its own way. As the villages were established
before the Wildlife Sanctuary was declared, there seems to be no legal
provisions for resettlement, at least for the moment. Therefore the RFD is
trying to convince the Karen to resettle voluntarily.
In April 1999 the director general of the RFD broke off an
important annual religious festival of the Karen in Thung Yai while military
troops were burning down the religious shrines of the Karen built for the
ceremonies.
Afterwards, a group of soldiers and forest rangers marched
through the sanctuary demanding villagers stop growing rice. They destroyed
houses, personal belongings, field huts and rice barns. The commander of the
military troops involved declared the operation a "pilot project" in their
efforts to control local communities to prevent forest destruction in and around
protected areas.
In September 2000 they resumed their efforts, raiding
villages in Thung Yai, threatening the people and reaffirmed their will to
resettle them, at the same time allegedly confiscating ID cards.
The reasons given for these operations in Thung Yai are of
national interest and security. The Karen are accused of destroying the forests
and wildlife of the sanctuary, even being illegal immigrants encroaching on one
of Thailand's last and most valuable forest areas. Having spent some time in
Thung Yai, I have come to love this beautiful and precious treasure of Thailand
that as a World Heritage Site deserves international attention. Furthermore, I
had the chance to learn quite a lot about the people and forests in Thung Yai.
With these experiences in mind, I can hardly believe the accusations regarding
the Karen in Thung Yai.
In 1996/97, I did a field study in the sanctuary,
including a comprehensive survey of all households in the six villages of Tambon
Laiwo. I found that almost 80 per cent of the people living in these villages
were born in Thung Yai, about 9 per cent of them were born outside Thung Yai in
Thailand, and another 11 per cent were born in Burma. Between 1993 and 1997,
only nine households with about 40 people had sought refuge from the troubles in
Burma.
I can understand that Thailand has a "national interest"
in guarding its territory against illegal intruders. But the majority of Karen
living in Thung Yai have been there since birth, and some for generations. Most
of the Karen living in Thung Yai have ID cards. Unfortunately some of the Karen
born in Thailand do not have an ID card, even if their families have been living
there for generations. While living in Thung Yai, I frequently heard of the
difficulties of the Karen to claim their right to Thai nationality or to receive
temporary blue ID cards. Because of these accounts, which I have no reason to
doubt, I don't have difficulty imagining ID cards being confiscated by the
military.
Today the Karen in Thung Yai predominantly grow rice for
subsistence needs on swidden and paddy fields supplemented by a great variety of
other crops grown in gardens, swidden fields and fallows. For most of the
households monetary income is only of minor concern. In 1996, the mean annual
income per person for all the villages in the sanctuary I studied was about
Bt1,300, and about 35 per cent of households had annual incomes per person of
less than Bt500.
Their traditional forest and land use for subsistence
depends on short cultivation periods (generally one year) and long fallow
periods from 5-10 (and more) years. As many studies by now have shown, these
rotational swidden systems can be very well sustainable, even increasing
biodiversity and food resources for wildlife.
For their fields, the Karen in Thung Yai do not clear any
mature forests. They use fallows - generally bamboo forests - within the
traditional land use areas of the different villages. In 1996, the six villages
in the sanctuary I studied used less than 1,250 rai of swidden fields and less
than 440 rai of paddy fields. Even assuming a mean fallow period of 10 years,
the total land use area of the villages, including fields and fallow areas, was
less than 1 per cent of the total area of the Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife
Sanctuary.
This traditional land use system, with its fields and
fallow areas, for a long time has been an integral part of Thung Yai. It is not
only used by the Karen, but also by many animals feeding on and living in these
manmade environments. It is no threat to the forests of the sanctuary, but
rather enriches it!
Resettlement of the Karen will not support the protection
of the sanctuary but rather create disadvantages and new problems. Not only
would their resettlement diminish cultural diversity by destroying a specific
culture related to its specific environment with its rich indigenous knowledge
about this environment, it also would diminish the bio- and ecosystem diversity
within the sanctuary.
So why should Thailand bear the high costs of resettling
villagers who have proved that they are able and willing to care for the forests
of their homeland? Villagers who have by more than 99 per cent expressed their
wish to remain in their villages, even if they would have the possibility to
earn more money or receive more land outside the sanctuary!
On the basis of the study I did in Thung Yai I very much
support the proposition of Alongkot Chukae of Wildlife Fund Thailand to consider
the possibility of designating Thung Yai as a "Cultural Landscape World Heritage
Site".
BBC - Saturday, 2
December, 2000, 17:01 GMT
Brown urges rich to drop debt Chancellor Gordon Brown has pledged to write off the debt
payments made to the UK from the world's poorest countries, urging other rich
nations to follow suit.
He said that all debt payments to the UK from 41 of the
world's poorest countries, amounting to over £1bn, had either now been stopped,
or would be held in trust for the day they can be returned to fund poverty
reduction.
Mr Brown told a Drop The Debt rally organised by Jubilee
2000 in London's Trafalgar Square: "Because poverty is so great and the need so
urgent, neither you nor I want the richest countries to benefit any more from
the debts of these poorest countries.
"So I can say to you - and to all 41 countries on behalf
of the British Government - I will renounce our right to receive any benefit
from the historic debt owed by all the 41 most indebted countries."
Countries in conflict
Cameroon, Tanzania and Mozambique are among 12 countries
that have, during the last year, met certain key requirements set out by the
government to have their debts cleared.
Eight others, including Nicaragua, Chad and Malawi, are
expected to qualify by Christmas.
The commitment made by the International Monetary Fund and
World Bank to these countries will lead to over £600m in debts to the UK being
written off - benefiting 200 million people.
But 21 other countries have failed because they are still
involved in violent conflict or have not shown sufficient commitment to reducing
poverty, improving the health and education of their people, or instituting
democratic reforms.
For these countries, the chancellor said that Britain
would now backdate 100% debt relief with immediate effect, and all payments
would be held in trust for the day they become eligible for debt relief.
He also called for a "a new global alliance of governments
and civil societies" to make "a reality of the virtuous circle of debt reduction
poverty relief and sustainable development".
On Saturday Financial Secretary Stephen Timms was
travelling to Zambia, Malawi and then South Africa to explain the new initiative
and talk to leaders about debt relief.
Celebrity support
Thousands of campaigners, including Live Aid founder Bob
Geldof, attended Saturday's Drop the Debt rally, calling on wealthy countries to
step up their actions to ease the burden of debt on the world's poorest people.
Mr Geldof praised the chancellor's initiative, and said:
"It means Britain absolutely leaps ahead of other countries on a moral
platform."
The rally comes just weeks before the end-of-year deadline
for the cancellation of all unpayable Third World debt, set by Jubilee 2000 on
its foundation in 1996.
Creditor nations agreed at last year's Cologne Summit to
scrap £78bn owed them by poor countries, but so far only about £8bn of this has
actually been written off.
It is thought the 52 countries in most urgent need of
relief still owe a total of £268bn and Jubilee 2000 believes up to £214bn needs
to be written off to end the crisis.
Saturday's event forms part of the run-up to a lobby of
the G7 summit of industrialised nations in Genoa, Italy, next July, at which the
group will urge wholesale scrapping of debts.
Drop the Debt leader Adrian Lovett believes the summit
could be the big breakthrough the group hopes for.
"I'm asking everyone who cares about fairness and justice
to join with us in a huge push to persuade the world's leaders to Drop the
Debt."
But the United Nations has warned that debt relief is not
enough to help some of the world's poorest countries, most of which are in
Africa.
As well as dropping third world debt, it has urged rich
countries to double their foreign aid and to open their markets to exports from
poor countries.
The 41 countries are:
Angola; Benin; Bolivia; Burkina Faso; Burundi;
Cameroon; Central African Republic; Chad; Democratic Republic of Congo; Republic
of Congo; Ivory Coast; Ethiopia; Gambia; Ghana; Guinea; Guinea-Bissau; Guyana;
Honduras; Kenya; Laos; Liberia; Madagascar; Malawi; Mali; Mauritania;
Mozambique; Burma; Nicaragua; Niger; Rwanda; Sao Tome and Principe; Senegal;
Sierra Leone; Somalia; Sudan; Tanzania; Togo; Uganda; Vietnam; Yemen and Zambia.
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