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BURMA RELATED NEWS - February - 10, 2001. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINE
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AFP - China faces uphill battle against drugs:
official
AP - Report: China Drug Addiction
Soars
Bkk Post - Hilltribe people evacuated as
Burmese battle the Shan
Bkk Post - Russia offers Burma nuclear
reactor
BBC - Russia offers Burma nuclear
reactor
Earth Times - Water management poses challenges for Southeast Asia
MSNBC News - Myanmar govt-NLD talks may soon bring
''gestures''
Bkk Post - Mine
casualty
Bkk Post - City heroin bust linked to Khun
Sa's son
Xinhua - Myanmar Emphasizes Importance of Trade
Sector in Economic Plan
Xinhua - Myanmar Striving for Economic
Development: Leader
Xinhua - Myanmar Blames Colonialists for
Hindering National Development
Saturday, February 10 4:06 PM SGT
China faces uphill battle against drugs: official BEIJING, Feb 10 (AFP) - China
faces an uphill battle against illegal drugs amid an increase in drug-related
crime and addiction, a senior official in charge of the country's anti-drug
campaign said according to state media Saturday.
Bai Jingfu, deputy director of the National Narcotics Control Commission,
said the number of drug-related cases China cracked last year increased by 48.7
percent from 1999 to 96,000 cases, the Xinhua news agency reported.
The number of drug addicts also increased, by 26.3 percent to 860,000
people, he said in remarks made to a meeting of the commission Friday,
The rise in addicts was largely due to an increasing number of people
taking the methamphetamines "ice" and ecstasy, Bai said.
"Ice" is made just across China's southern border in the neighbouring
Golden Triangle region which comprises opium producing areas of Myanmar, Laos
and Thailand
Bai said the infamous region had shifted its drug-making center northward,
closer to China, and increased its production of ice, which was sure to have a
grave impact on China's fight against drugs.
In 2000, the Golden Triangle had about 113,000 hectares of opium poppies,
which could produce 1,000 tons of heroin.
Ninety percent of the heroin seized by Chinese police came from the Golden
Triangle area, Bai noted.
The quantity of ice -- crystal methamphetamine -- seized by police last
year soared 30.6 percent, to 20.9 tons compared with the previous year as use of
the drug spread, Bai said.
From 1991 through 1998, China discovered 170 ice-related criminal cases and
confiscated 7.3 tons of the drug.
In 1999 alone, those figures rose to 190 ice-related cases, involving 16
tons of the drug.
Authorities last year also confiscated 6.3 tons of heroin, 2.4 tons of
opium and some 215 tons of chemicals illegally used to make narcotics.
The government is stepping up its treatment of drug addicts, Bai
said.
Last year, some 243,000 drug addicts in China were treated at compulsory
rehabilitation centers, 60,000 more than the previous year, Bai said.
The government is planning to clamp down on the flow of drugs from the
Golden Triangle, wipe out drug smuggling rings and promote a drug-free society,
Bai said.
But previous state media reports have warned that stemming the growth of
drug use has been difficult for Chinese authorities because of the profit
margins involved. One ecstasy pill sells for around 300 yuan (36 dollars) but
costs only 0.5 yuan to produce, they said.
Saturday, February 10 12:20 AM SGT
Report: China Drug Addiction Soars BEIJING (AP) - Exploding use of
ecstasy and methamphetamines have sent drug addiction in China soaring by more
than 25 percent over the past year, compounding an already serious problem with
heroin abuse, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday.
The figures, announced at a national conference on drug abuse, drew pledges
from Public Security Minister Jia Chunwang for stronger measures, especially
along China's border with the ``Golden Triangle'' drug-producing region in Laos,
Myanmar and Thailand, Xinhua said.
Police also will crack down harder on manufacturing, sales and consumption
of drugs and stricter controls will be placed on chemicals used in drug
production, the report quoted Jia saying.
China punishes drug dealing harshly, and Thursday's Legal Daily reported
six members of a gang that smuggled ice from the Philippines have been sentenced
to death in southern Guangdong province. Six others were given prison terms of
15 years to life in the case, which yielded a haul of 4,400 pounds of the drug.
China practically eradicated widespread opium use after the communist party
came to power in 1949 by shooting dealers and wiping out supplies of the drug.
However, loosened social controls and rising incomes have produced a
pandemic of addiction over the past decade that crude methods of prevention and
rehabilitation have so far been unable to stem.
Numbers of registered drug addicts rose by 180,000 to 860,000 at the end of
2,000, an increase of 26 percent, Xinhua reported.
Although most are heroin addicts, many also abuse methamphetamines and
ecstasy, drugs that were unknown in China 10 years ago, it said.
Ninety percent of the heroin sold in China comes from northern Burma, which
is also the source of most other drugs used in China, the report said. However
domestic production is growing, with overseas drug-producing gangs now bringing
their techniques to China, the report said.
Bangkok Post - February 10,
2001.
Hilltribe people evacuated as Burmese battle the Shan Hilltribe people have been evacuated from border villages as fighting
continues nearby between Burmese troops and Shan State Army soldiers,
authorities said.
A series of clashes was reported yesterday in an area about 3km inside
Burma, opposite Mae Fa Luang district.
About 200 villagers were moved to safer areas on the orders of Chainarong
Boonvivattanakarn, chief of Mae Fa Luang district, after fresh fighting erupted
on Thursday.
Pol Maj Rang Inthana, commander of the 327th border patrol unit of Mae Chan
district, said Rangoon forces had launched a dry-season campaign against rebels.
Small arms fire and explosions, probably from rocket-propelled grenades, had
been heard across the border since Monday, alarming villagers.
At least six Burmese soldiers were reportedly killed, but so far there were
no reports of casualties among the SSA troops, he said.
The Burmese military is thought to have sent two rapid deployment units to
the area.
One of the groups clashed with Thai rangers three months ago.
He said the terrain was very rough and it was unlikely Burmese troops would
seize the SSA base opposite the district.
Bangkok Post - February 10,
2001.
ANALYSIS / BURMESE POLITICS
Time to move
forward
Stagnating in a stalemate has not taken, and will not take, Burma anywhere-politically or internationally. Tin-Maung Than
The European Union delegation rightly pointed out last week that trust
building is a keyword in the Burmese dialogue between Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the
Nobel Peace laureate and leader of the majority of the people's representatives;
and Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, Secretary (1) of the military government and chief of
military intelligence.
Since it has been agreed the meeting will be strictly confidential, we do
not have any hint how the dialogue is going on.
In the media, the EU troika did not suggest any idea how international
community could help the trust building process. At the moment, it seems there
is nothing the EU, United States, Japan or Asean can do but simply wait and
watch.
After an exhausting and vain conflict for more than a decade, building
trust is a tough job. Yet, both parties can enrich their political life in the
process. I think three elements are essential in the current pre-negotiation
stage: to close the communication gap; to adopt a systematic approach; and to
see politics in a future perspective.
The communication gap: When one does not receive the other's intended
message, there is a gap in communication between two persons. The gap is usually
immense in politics. In a conflict, the gap is too enormous to reflect each
other rightly in one's imagination. So, both sides are working on their own
interpretations and assumptions without realising their visual defects, which
are perpetually aggravated by their political prejudices along with the punches
and pain in the ring.
That was what happened between the opposition and the military. One of the
political events that widened this gap between them was the opposition's demand
for an interim government in 1988.
The ruling socialist group at that time went along with the opposition to
hold multi-party elections, but refused to form an interim government. The
opposition's concern was fairness in elections.
As for the ruling group, it did not see any point in accepting the demand
since it had already given its word that the members of Central Executive
Committee and the government would not compete in the elections.
Each group did not get the other's intended message and saw the demand or
rejection as a deceit. Thus each framed the other in moral context, honesty and
integrity-and both were trapped in distrust.
Identifying and explaining such events are necessary in building trust.
Without closing the gap in communication, both sides may find it hard to hammer
out real political differences.
A systematic approach: Politics tends to give us a complete run-down on the
good-guy/bad-guy scenario. In the international media, the generals were
monsters, while Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and democrats were villains in the
state-controlled press.
Lack of a mechanism to express discontent and dissenting opinions made
people think in black and white. An authoritarian system never allows its people
to view various perspectives.
The systematic approach focuses on the system only in the context of the
underlying system. Moreover, the approach sees events as an interaction of
forces rather than a singular event as a cause. In other words, it is the
explanation of the circular cause and effect. The systematic approach says that
it is we all, not you or I, who are responsible for any good or bad results. In
the Burmese context, the military, the opposition and the people were
responsible for what happened in the country.
Future perspective: We need to save our future because we would have
already lost it if we remain in the current state of affairs.
The paradigm of past reactive policies on both sides centred on each other.
Paradoxically, they were not free at all because they were bound to each other,
so that when one caught the other in a corner, the hunter found himself in the
same corner too.
At the dialogue, talking about controversial Burmese past and present
scenarios without a systematic approach, may result in a vicious circle of
blaming each other.
Now it is time for the leaders to project themselves into the future in
both the regional and international perspective.
Comparative regional projection may further reveal the backwardness of
Burma relative to its Asian neighbours. The idea is to turn the negative, that
is, poverty and backwardness, into a political asset. Separation of the future
from the past and present may need intellectual and imaginative efforts.
When the political focus is shifted to the future and other countries, the
space for policy becomes larger for both parties. The thinking becomes global;
the outlook becomes outward.
The politics of manipulating each other is compressed. The objective
becomes competition with foreign countries and this would be nationalism in a
globalised technological age, which will hopefully release the military from its
defensive, preventive and isolated nationalism.
Furthermore, the future perspective will also bring a sense of competency
into the Burmese political forces, which is, traditionally, highly
personal.
International academic support: The international community can enhance the
process of trust building by sponsorship of research and seminars. I think they
can go parallel with the dialogue. It might be an academic interest to do
research in the systematic approach to see how misunderstanding is generated
between both sides. The academic community may also hold a seminar on "The
Future of Burma". It may be best if it is held in Rangoon, with the
participation of leaders from various political interest groups in the
country.
The seminar should offer as much information in detail as possible so that
participants are really able to live in the future.
The objective is to stimulate their nationalism and give them sense of
urgency in the future perspective and thus release them from their professional
bias.
I am hopeful that the image of both parties in the public's eyes becomes
neutral and positive after the dialogue and seminar because the frame of
reference is not each other.
The vital strategy at the moment is to release both sides from the past and
to look for "an area of least resistance and common interest".
The writer is a former editor of the recently banned Thintbawa
(Your Life) magazine.
BBC - Saturday, 10 February, 2001,
06:05 GMT
Russia offers Burma nuclear reactor The Russian government is to discuss the possibility of building a nuclear
reactor in Burma for what it describes as research purposes.
The Atomic Energy Ministry in Moscow says the proposal is for a joint
venture to construct and operate the reactor.
It says a full scheme will be presented to the Russian government for
approval if the authorities in Rangoon accept the proposal.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
Water management poses challenges
for Southeast Asia
By MICHAEL A. BENGWAYAN © Earth Times News Service O CHI MINH CITY--The ancient Chinese adage of "Do not give a man fish, but
teach him how to fish" is becoming untrue in many parts of the 2,600 mile long
Mekong river today.
That is because there are less fish to catch. In fact, more than 5,000 people marched in Thailand and Laos in 1998 to protest the giant hydroelectric dams which they say are not benefiting them. But it is not only fish that trouble the waters of the Mekong river today.
The waters themselves pose the greatest potential for provoking conflict among
China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
The threat of these nations going to war because of water may become real
in the future if there are no new guarantees of cooperation which offset the
distinct advantage of the upstream countries over its downstream
neighbors.
Consider this: The Mekong river, which originates from the icy plateaus of
Qingai western China and which flows through Tibet to Yunan, China to the Mekong
delta in Vietnam, supports the agricultural and economic life of some 30 million
Chinese and 150 million people in the downstream countries.
The people depend on the river and its tributaries for food, water,
transport and social activities. The rivers' annual flood drought cycles are
essential for the sustainable production of food crops along the banks of the
river during the dry season.
But all is not well in Mekong today.
Along the river's stretch, which is the tenth longest river in the world
and the heart and soul of mainland Southeast Asia, China is completing two large
dams even as five more are in progress. These reservoirs will hold back more
than 50 percent of the 90 billion cubic meters (bcm) of water volume that China
normally discharges to the Mekong river through Laos.
Laos has already constructed four of targeted 23 dams. Their reservoirs
would hold back 73 percent of the total bcm annual volume that Laos contributes
to the Mekong. And, Thailand, even with only four small dams, still plans to
divert 10 bcm of water from the Mekong or 20 percent of the total 54 bcm that
Thailand contributes to the river.
Where does this put Vietnam? The said projects, according to Nguyen Huu
Chung of the Vietnam Mekong Development, were implemented by the Mekong River
Commission which Vietnam says do not benefit Vietnam. Still, Vietnam bears most
of the damage potentially caused by the projects. Worse, much needed water is
withheld by the upstream countries, reducing irrigation potential in Vietnam and
obstructing the free movement of fish and disrupting their reproductive cycle,
critics charge.
Vietnam is complaining that much of the hydropower generated by the
Mekong's waters is either used by the upstream countries or sold to Thailand,
the most developed country along the Mekong.
Chung complains that because of the Mekong River Commission (set up by UNDP
in 1995 to coordinate development projects along the Mekong),the upstream
countries built infrastructures without consulting Vietnam, a violation of the
original provisions of the 1957 Agreement (when Vietnam was still a member). It
also deviates from the United Nations 1997 Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of
International Water Course, which spell out responsibilities of upstream
countries to downstream countries.
Chung's complaints stem from the fact that some upstream countries, like
China, still hold the view that they have "absolute sovereignty" over water
within their borders and have little obligation to their neighbors.
Vietnam is not the only one complaining. Thousands of residents along
Mekong, especially from Laos and Thailand are up in arms about the series of
developments along the river. First, the 60 MW Nam Leuk dam in Phou Khou Khuoay
National Biodiversity Conservation area in Vientiane province, Laos, has
worsened logging, the International River network for Southeast Asia (IRNSEA)
says. Costing $130 million loaned out from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and
completed three years ago, IRNSEA also alleges the environmental impact
assessment of the dam is riddled with flaws.
Below Nam Leuk is the 210 MW Nam Theu Hinboun, located in Bolokhamaxai and
Khammoune, Central Laos. It is being blamed by residents as the reason for major
decline in fish harvests, flooding of fields and erosion of the agricultural
land's fertile banks. Loans from ADB, as well as Swedish and Norwegian private
firms, were used to build the dam, against much of the peoples' protests, IRNSEA
reported.
The project that angers most Laotians is Nam Theu 2 also in Khammoune. It
is the largest in the country and costs $1.2 billion. The amount is three times
more than Laotian government budget yearly and equivalent to the Laotian GDR.
Laotians feel it is a waste of money, particularly so because there are no
buyers of the hydroelectricpower produced.
In Thailand, Thai communities along the Mekong, particularly those affected
by the Pak Mun dam, are pushing the government hard to compensate them for their
losses. The dam, a 136 MW hydropower project, is adversely affecting 30,000
people, causing decreased fish production, blocked migration of fish and
responsibility for diseases like schistosomiasis and liver and intestinal
flukes, critics say.
All these projects show indications of "development-gone-wrong." The Probe
International, a private Canadian group working for pro-people development along
Mekong says, "the hydropower development in the Mekong river is causing problems
similar to those in the past. Private monopolies (instead of public monopolies)
are being created resulting in pricing regimes that discriminate against
consumers in favor of the private sector promoters. It is resulting in poorly
designed regulatory regimes which lead to excess capacity, environmental
destruction and inefficient energy use. Worse, it has displaced impoverished
rural communities."
Probe added that because the projects are heavily subsidized by
multinational development banks, export credit agencies and bilateral agencies,
Mekong hydropower developers through extraordinary expropriation power given
them, can externalize the real cost of their schemes.
Critics charge that the specter of a "water crisis" in this part of
Southeast Asia is now not only due to scarcity and declining food production but
also illogical national infrastructure planning which is affecting the
already-drained national coffers of some countries. This is especially true for
Laos.
MSNBC News
Myanmar govt-NLD talks may soon bring ''gestures'' YANGON, Feb. 9 — Myanmar's National League for Democracy (NLD) expects to
see positive gestures from both sides soon as a result of its recent landmark
talks with the military government, sources close to the NLD said on
Friday.
The country's ruling generals may choose to mark March 27, celebrated by
the military as Armed Forces Day and by the pro-democracy opposition as
Resistance Day, with a major gesture of goodwill, the sources said.
The NLD, led by charismatic Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, had
decided for its part not to hold public events to mark the Union Day national
holiday on February 12, a day that usually sees ritual denunciations by the
party of the military.
The party did not want to embarrass the government at this time and risk
upsetting the discussions.
''We think March 27 could see an important gesture,'' one source told
Reuters. ''That day is symbolic for everyone in this country and such a move
would be appropriate.''
On March 27, 1945, Aung San, Suu Kyi's father and Myanmar's independence
hero, called on his national resistance fighters to throw the occupying Japanese
forces out of the country.
Suu Kyi has met senior government figures face to face since October in the
first protracted high level talks since 1995.
Diplomats say she has met the powerful Secretary One of the ruling State
Peace and Development Council, Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, and other military
intelligence officials.
She may also have met other military leaders, possibly accompanied by other
NLD figures, they say.
All sides say the talks are ''at a sensitive stage'' and have refrained
from commenting directly on their substance.
''CONFIDENCE BUILDING''
The government, NLD and diplomats have all described the talks as
''confidence building,'' designed to end years of political stalemate in the
impoverished country.
For years the military government refused to meet Suu Kyi, saying she was
not the leader of Myanmar's opposition but a stooge of Western powers.
Suu Kyi waged a high profile campaign against the military government,
calling for international sanctions and encouraging condemnation of the regime
and its treatment of the NLD.
The NLD won Myanmar's last democratic election in 1990 by a clear margin
but has never been allowed to govern.
The military says the country is not ready for democracy and has imprisoned
and harassed many NLD leaders. Suu Kyi spent several years under house arrest in
the 1990s and has recently been detained in her Yangon home for months.
Diplomats say Myanmar still has between 1,600 and 1,700 political
prisoners, 35 of whom were members of parliament elected in the 1990 polls.
NLD sources say the government might release some of these prisoners on or
around March 27. The two sides might also agree to make a joint statement on the
talks or even announce an example of progress.
Diplomats say both sides need to show evidence in the coming weeks and
months that the encounters are making progress if they are to keep their
supporters on side.
The talks already appear to have produced some results.
The government recently released 85 political prisoners, including NLD Vice
Chairman Tin Oo, and government newspapers have stopped attacking Suu Kyi and
the NLD. The NLD and many of their supporters have curtailed open criticism of
the government.
Bangkok Post - February 10,
2001.
Mine casualty Tak-A Thai was killed by a landmine in a border area of Burma opposite Mae
Ramat district yesterday.
Somkrit Phetpanya, 54, from tambon Mae Jarao, died on the way to Mae Ramat
hospital after he stepped on the mine while picking up wild products in the Maw
Pa Su area.
Police said Mr Somkrit, who sustained wounds to the chest, crossed into
Burma with four friends who were unhurt. They said they had warned local people
of the danger of mines in the area.
Bangkok Post - February 10,
2001.
NARCOTICS City heroin bust linked to Khun Sa's son Wassayos Ngarmkham Three people linked with a drug ring run by Khun Sa's son were arrested at
a hotel as they were allegedly about to smuggle almost 9kg of heroin out of the
country, police said yesterday.
Heroin smuggling suspects, from right, Thdioso Ntlhophi, Abudadar
Yakub and Wanpen Nimalor appear after their arrest yesterday. - Kosol
Nakachol
Thdioso Ntlhophi, 42, from South Africa, Abudadar Yakub, 38, from Ghana, and Wanpen Nimalor, 36, of Bangkok, were arrested in a room at the Ambassador hotel on Sukhumvit road. Seized in the raid were 8.8kg of heroin said to be smuggled in from Burma,
four large picture frames to be used for hiding the drugs and two passports in
the names of Rungarun sae Lim and Jongsiri Triphli.
Pol Lt-Gen Priewpan Damapong, a police commissioner in charge of drug
suppression and prevention, said the arrests resulted from police inquiries into
drug trafficking from Burma.
The narcotics were believed to have come from a syndicate under the
leadership of Khun Sa's son Chao Jam Hueng.
Chao had allegedly made a deal with Red Wa in Burma to manufacture drugs
for export to other countries via Thailand.
Pol Lt-Gen Priewpan said the heroin was worth about 470,000 baht a
kilogramme on the local market and 10 times more overseas.
He said drug rings usually use women such as Mrs Wanpen to avoid
suspicion.
Mrs Wanpen said she was paid 10,000 baht a kilogramme to deliver the drugs
from an apartment in Suan Luang district. The suspect, who sells African food in
the Pratunam area, said she was approached by a woman who had been arrested on
drug charges.
The heroin was supposed to be picked up by Pakistani gang members, she
added.
Myanmar Emphasizes Importance of
Trade Sector in Economic Plan
2001.02.10 12:45:06 YANGON, February 10 (Xinhuanet)
-- Myanmar leader Lieutenant- General Khin Nyunt projected the annual average
growth of gross domestic product is 10 percent in the country's third
five-year national economic plan (2001-2006) period, reported
official newspaper The New Light of Myanmar Saturday.
Meeting with officials of the Myanmar Ministry of Commerce here on Friday,
Khin Nyunt, first secretary of the Myanmar State Peace and Development
Council, said the aims of the trade sector in the economic plan are to
give priority to importing capital goods, food stuff and raw materials, to
increase the ratio of the cooperative and the private sectors in import
business, to reduce deficit and to increase surplus in export and import
business, and to reduce the government sector and to increase the
cooperative and the private sectors in export business.
He urged the ministry to give priority to extending new markets
abroad.
The trade sector, which is the second largest after the agricultural
sector, contributes 20.9 percent to Myanmar's entire national economy,
while the production sector shares 60.3 percent and services sector 18.8
percent.
Myanmar Striving for Economic
Development: Leader
2001.02.10 12:45:06 YANGON, February 10 (Xinhuanet)
-- Myanmar is launching efforts to enable the country to get abreast with other
nations for rapid economic development and raise the standard of living of
the people, said Myanmar leader Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt
Friday.
Khin Nyunt, who is first secretary of the Myanmar State Peace and
Development Council, made the remarks when meeting with officials of the
country's Ministry of Commerce, official newspaper The New Light of
Myanmar reported Saturday.
He pointed out that at present, the developing nations have formed
organizations region-wise to ward off the attempts of some big nations to
dominate and manipulate them and to overcome the challenges as an
effective force.
In this situation, he stressed the need for his country to extend, on
self-reliance basis, economic cooperation with friendly nations holding common
views in strengthening and developing the national economy.
He pointed out that there saw day-by-day improvement in the economic
cooperation with member nations of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations and the BIMST-EC, another sub-regional economic grouping which
includes Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
In the process of globalization, he said, the financial market and
the trade sector have become related to each other the world over,
emphasizing the need for the state and the private sectors to cooperate in
striving to be able to keep pace with the international trend, to compete
with other nations in the international market and to use electronic and
communication technology in the economic sector.
Myanmar Blames Colonialists for
Hindering National Development
2001.02.10 12:45:06 YANGON, February 10 (Xinhuanet)
-- Myanmar leader Lieutenant- General Khin Nyunt has blamed colonialists and
neo-colonialists for hindering the country's national development,
reported official newspaper The new Light of Myanmar Saturday.
Meeting with delegates of Myanmar national races attending the
country's upcoming Union Day celebration which falls next Monday, Khin
Nyunt, first secretary of the Myanmar State Peace and Development Council,
recalled that Myanmar national people were subjected to torture and
exploitation of colonialists for over 100 years.
Khin Nyunt, who is also chairman of the Committee for Organizing the
54th Anniversary Myanmar Union Day, accused some neo-colonialist nations
of imposing economic sanctions on Myanmar in an attempt to sow seeds of
mistrust among the national races to destroy the national solidarity.
He urged the delegates to seriously uphold the objectives of the
country's Union Day to safeguard the national policy.
Myanmar's Union Day was designated on February 12, 1947 when Myanmar
ethnic leaders met at the Panlong conference in northeastern Shan state.
Myanmar regained independence on January 4, 1948 from the British
colonialist rule.
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