|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
BURMA RELATED NEWS - May 19,
2001.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
HEADLINES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- AP - India Separatist Group Says It
Killed 50 Myanmar Soldiers
AP - Rebel Group Vows Continued Fight
Against Myanmar Regime
AP - Thai Police Seize 1 Million
Methamphetamine Pills
Dow Jones - ASEAN, Nuclear Weapon
States Remain Apart
Reuters - Nuclear-free status
discussed at SE Asian meeting
The Daily Star - Last Mughal
emperor's grave evoking new passions in Myanmar
The Nation - With tourism
know-how,Laos and Burma will surge ahead of Thailand
Bkk Post - Surayud puts army on
alert
Bkk Post - Rice and drugs fight top
prime ministerial agenda
Bkk Post - Karen leader re-elected DAB
chairman
Bkk Post - Detainees in poor
health in Burmese cells
Xinhuanet - Myanmar Teachers
Urged to Protect Youth Against Wrong Belief
Asiaweek - Talking
Points
Asiaweek - Read All About
It
The Times - 'Travelers Should
Boycott Burma'
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday May 18, 10:53 PMIndia Separatist Group Says
It Killed 50 Myanmar Soldiers
GAUHATI, India (AP)--An Indian separatist guerrilla group
operating out of bases in Myanmar said Friday it repelled a Myanmar army attack
and killed 50 soldiers in less than two weeks.
"Since Wednesday, the area is again under our control,"
Kitovi Zhimomi, general secretary of the banned National Socialist Council of
Nagaland (Khaplang Group), said when reached by the phone at his base in India's
northeastern state of Nagaland.
Zhimomi said three rebels also were killed in the fighting
that began May 6. There was no immediate comment by the Myanmar military junta.
The gun battle was fought in northwest Myanmar, across the
Mon and Tuensang districts of India's northeastern state of Nagaland.
Nearly 900 Myanmar nationals have fled their villages in
the battle zone and taken refuge in the adjoining Indian territory in Nagaland,
state police chief Lokhe Sema said.
The Indian and Myanmar governments are providing food and
relief to the civilians, Sema said.
The NSCN, fighting for an independent Nagaland state,
split in 1988 into two factions - NSCN (Isac-Muivah) and the NSCN (Khaplang).
The NSCN (Isac-Muivah) group has signed a cease-fire
agreement with India and is holding peace talks with the government for a
solution to the Naga insurgency problem.
The rival group, the NSCN (Khaplang), has also signed a
truce accord with the Indian government, but it is yet to begin peace
negotiations.
Meanwhile, the Indian Army has denied local newspaper
reports that it has launched a joint offensive with the Myanmar army against the
NSCN (Khaplang) separatists.
The Indian army has no role in the fighting in the Myanmar
territory, an Indian Army officer said on condition of anonymity.
India and Myanmar exchanged high-level visits in recent
months. External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singhs trip to Myanmar was followed by
the visit of a high-level Myanmar military delegation to India.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday May 19, 2:31 PM
Rebel Group Vows Continued
Fight Against Myanmar Regime
MAE SOT, Thailand (AP)--A rebel organization, greatly weakened by
defections, has said it wants to force Myanmar's military rulers to agree to
talks by stepping up its attacks on the army, according to a press release
Saturday.
The Democratic Alliance of Burma, which ended a four-day
conference Thursday, attracted 55 leaders of 19 armed ethnic groups and
political parties opposed to Myanmar's government.
The alliance called for tripartite dialogue among the
regime, the DAB and the party of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
"The Alliance will escalate political and military
activities to achieve the process of tripartite dialogue," the statement said.
Once a potent force, the DAB was largely crippled after
the military rulers cut separate peace deals with several ethnic minority rebel
groups, including the Kachin and Mon.
The Karen National Union remains the only important group
still fighting the military leaders. KNU Gen. Bo Mya was re-elected to head the
DAB at the conference.
The conference welcomed secret talks reportedly taking
place between Suu Kyi and the military but added that such dialogue should be
based on "mutual respect and equal status of the parties."
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace prize winner, remains under virtual
house arrest in Yangon, Myanmar's capital. The regime is widely condemned for
human rights abuses, including the jailing of opposition figures.
The conference accused the military government of
trafficking in narcotics and condemned its ongoing border feud with Thailand.
The DAB's third conference was held in an undisclosed
"liberated area" near the Thai border.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday May 19, 4:44 PM
Thai Police Seize 1 Million
Methamphetamine Pills
BANGKOK (AP)--Police in northern Thailand seized 1.1
million methamphetamine pills hidden in a police car heading from the border
with Myanmar, a radio station said Saturday.
Police Sgt. Banleng Atchan, 40, was arrested after police
at a road block searched his car and found the speed pills as well as 4
kilograms of chemicals, reported the INN radio news agency.
Police acted on a tip-off about a large cache of
methamphetamines being smuggled from Myanmar, also known as Burma, to Chiang
Rai, 680 kilometers north of Bangkok.
The radio said Banleng confessed that he brought drugs and
the chemicals from Myanmar's Tachilek area and was going to meet buyers in
Chiang Rai.
The Thai government believes the United Wa State Army is
operating several methamphetamine factories along Thailand's northern border and
flooding Thailand with the illegal substances.
The Wa organization, described by the U.S. as one of the
world's largest drug trafficking outfits, was once among a dozen ethnic minority
rebel armies fighting the central government. But it signed a peace pact with
the regime, which allowed the group to retain its weapons and some autonomy over
territory.
Last month, more than 13 million methamphetamine tablets
were confiscated in northern provinces along the Myanmar border.
The government accuses Myanmar's ruling military of
turning a blind eye to the production of methamphetamine on its soil, a charge
Myanmar denies.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday May 19, 7:46 PM
ASEAN, Nuclear Weapon States
Remain Apart
NEW YORK (Dow
Jones)--The Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the five
nuclear powers remain apart over a treaty to free Southeast Asia from nuclear
weapons, although the two sides have narrowed their differences, ASEAN sources
said Saturday, Kyodo reported.
"The differences have been narrowed down, but key points
have not been cleared yet," the sources said about direct consultations Saturday
among officials from ASEAN, Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S. in
Hanoi, according to Kyodo.
During the meeting, representatives of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam negotiated with their counterparts from the nuclear powers over the conditions required to get the five to sign the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone (SEANWFZ) Treaty. "The participants only agreed to continue their
consultations, but the date and venue have not been fixed," the sources said.
The nuclear powers, notably the U.S., want ASEAN to narrow
the SEANWFZ, which now covers territories, continental shelves and the exclusive
economic zones of the 10 ASEAN members.
The U.S. is apparently concerned that acceding to the
treaty as it now stands would affect the navigation rights of its nuclear-armed
vessels, as well as its nuclear strategy.
In 1999, China expressed its readiness to accede to the
protocol but no concession has been made so far. Russia also showed an intention
last year to join the treaty.
The treaty, signed by ASEAN leaders in Bangkok in December
1995, took effect in March 1997. It stipulates that Southeast Asia should
prevent the production, testing or storage of nuclear weapons inside and outside
the region. Treaty signatories also undertake not to dump or allow other states
to dump radioactive materials or wastes in the zone.
The Hanoi meeting was the second formal SEANWFZ meeting
among the 15. The first was in Kuala Lumpur in 1997 shortly after the treaty
took effect.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday May 19, 5:44 PM
Nuclear-free status discussed
at SE Asian meeting
HANOI (Reuters) - Senior Southeast Asian officials
wrapped up on Saturday a three-day regional security meeting in Hanoi with talks
on a protocol to make the region a nuclear-free zone.
Officials from the Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN) met on Saturday morning with diplomats from five nuclear-capable nations
- China, France, Russia, Britain and the United States - to discuss the
proposal.
ASEAN has declared itself a nuclear weapons free zone.
Delegations from the United States and North Korea left
the country on Saturday without a hoped-for meeting on the sidelines of the
forum to reopen dialogue between the superpower and the Stalinist country it
calls a threat to world stability.
The Hanoi talks were a preliminary meeting to set the
agenda for the annual ASEAN Regional Forum to be held in the Vietnamese capital
in July.
James Kelly, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for
Asia and Pacific affairs, did not meet Ri Yong Ho, the head of the North Korean
delegation, beyond cordial handshakes, a U.S. official confirmed.
After a flurry of groundbreaking meetings last year,
engagement between the United States and North Korea has slowed under the new
administration of U.S. President George W. Bush.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said this week in
Washington that re-engagement was important, but would come only at "the
appropriate time."
ASEAN groups Brunei, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines,
Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
In addition to those countries, 13 others -- among them
the United States, Russia, China, Japan, and North and South Korea -- had
delegations attending the Hanoi meetings.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Daily
Star - May 20, 2001
Last Mughal emperor's grave
evoking new passions in Myanmar
AP, Yangon
After he died in exile in British captivity, the last
Mughal emperor of India was buried and forgotten as a footnote in
history.
Nearly 140 years later, Bahadur Shah Zafar is stirring new
passions.
Since the discovery of his grave in 1991 in a quiet, leafy
part of Yangon, the foreign king has been worshipped as a "pir," or saint, by
Myanmar's Muslims as well as people of other faiths.
The tomb has also become the focus of a diplomatic tussle
between India and Pakistan, with both trying to assert themselves as the
rightful inheritors of the emperor's legacy. Pakistan, carved out of India as a
homeland for Muslims when British colonial rule ended in 1947, maintains Zafar
was a Muslim emperor rather then an India emperor.
"Who was this man called Zafar? He was a Mughal Muslim
king who ruled India," Pakistan Embassy diplomat Sahebzada Khan
said.
But to the caretakers of Zafar's mausoleum, he was simply
a saint, a poet-scholar and a symbol of communal harmony.
"He was not only a king but also a saint. Even Buddhists,
Hindus and Christians come here to seek his blessing," said Abdul Rahim, A
member of the committee that manages the mausoleum.
He said 20 to 25 people visit his tomb every day and sit
at its foot to meditate, believing that wishes made there are fulfilled.
Zafar's aura of holiness is due to his reputation as a
scholar of Sufism, an ascetic movement within Islam. The folklore and the
mystery surrounding his long-lost grave has added to the mysticism.
During his time, Zafar was one of the foremost poets of
the Urdu language and an accomplished calligrapher. His poems, or ghazals, are
still popular in India and Pakistan, the two countries that together formed the
Moghul empire that was established in 1526. It ended when Zafar was dethroned by
the British in 1858.
He died four years later at age 87 after penning his own
epitaph in the form of a 'ghazal," a bitten lament against the British for
leaving him to die in a foreign land:
How unlucky Zafar is! For his burial, He couldn't get even
two yards of earth In my beloved country.
Born to a Muslim father and a Hindu mother, Zafar
succeeded to the throne in 1837 but only as a figurehead. India was really
controlled by the British East India Company.
When Muslim and Hindu soldiers of the East India Company
revolted in May 1857, Zafar became a rallying point for what some now call
India's first independence war. the mutineers proclaimed Zafar the true emperor
of India. But the rebellion was crushed and Zafar was exiled for life to
Myanmar, or Burma as it was known.
In Yangon, Zafar was kept in a shed attached to the
bungalow of a junior British officer. He died on Nov 7, 1862, and his grave was
deliberately concealed to prevent it from becoming a focus of nationalist
sentiments.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Nation - May 19,
2001.
Letters to Editor With tourism know-how,Laos and Burma will surge ahead of Thailand Jack Gilead - BANGKOK Listening to more hype about how to improve the tourist
industry here in Thailand is becoming quite dull. Reading about it in the major
dailies is even worse. This minister says this, that minister says something
else. Committees are established, then re-established. Ideas are hashed about
and rehashed again, over and over.
TAT says lots of things but in reality does crappola. Thai
Airways is in on the windbag tactics as well.
This has been going on for years. No one has yet to act,
only fantasise. It certainly keeps the bureaucrats in their jobs.
The "Amazing Thailand" slogan is at this point old hat.
There is nothing more amazing about Thailand than Burma, Laos, Cambodia or
Vietnam. Try them. You'll see. Let's find a new slogan.
TAT should work with the government to lower the
ridiculously high fees charged tourists at historical sites. While "Khon Thai"
are fabulously friendly, it's the people who run the historical sites, the
airlines, the tourism areas, who are surly and don't give a damn.
I found "Khon Lao" have the same fabulous smiles. Lao is a
country of spectacular beauty, unspoiled when compared to Thailand. I found the
officials at Lao sites helpful, informative, and just over-willing to be helpful
and do things to make the tourists understand what it was all about . I found
Burma another spectacular country (regardless of its political
situation).
If Thailand wants its share of the tourist market, it is
time to follow the old American _expression_, "Do it or get off the pot".
It took close to 20 years to get the BTS project off the
table into reality. By the time Thailand translates what it wants for the
tourist industry into reality, it might take another 20 years. By that time, our
Asian neighbours will be well ahead of us. They have what it takes. All they
need is the marketing know-how.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - May
19, 2001.
Surayud puts army
on alert
Order triggered by junta's pledge to Wa Subin Khuenkaew
Troops have been put on alert at the border with Burma
following Rangoon's warning that its soldiers would fight side-by-side with the
United Wa State Army against any intruders.
The alert order for the Third Army, which supervises the
northern border, came directly from the army commander-in-chief, Gen Surayud
Chulanont.
Gen Surayud said the border situation was very volatile at
the moment and anything could happen.
"We cannot predict what is going to happen next," Gen
Surayud said after his inspection trips yesterday to several border areas in
Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Mae Hong Son.
The army chief said he was surprised by Burma's pledge to
have its soldiers fight alongside Wa guerrillas in future border
clashes.
The pledge was made by Brig-Gen Kyaw Win, deputy military
intelligence chief, who said Burmese government troops would use its firepower
to defend Wa territory along the border with Thailand.
He also accused Thailand of raising border tensions with
"deliberate intrusions".
"Let's ponder what it (the Burmese warning) really means,"
Gen Surayud said while talking with reporters at an army barracks in Chiang Dao
district, Chiang Mai, where he was briefed on the latest border situaiton by the
Third Army's Pha Muang task force.
As Burma's close neighbour, Thailand wanted to maintain a
good relationship with it, Gen Surayud said. However, the Thai army would
respond accordingly to any border incursions that were intentional and
provocative, he warned.
The border dispute at Doi Lang in Chiang Mai's Mae Ai
district, and at Koo Teng Na Yong in Chiang Rai's Mae Sai district, was "nothing
new", the army chief said.
The two border spots have long posed a problem, he said.
The problem should be referred to a higher border committee if it is to be
settled properly.
Earlier, the Burmese military junta had demanded a swift
withdrawal of Thai troops stationed at 26 outposts in the Doi Lang area, which
the Burmese said was located deep inside their territory.
However, the Burmese claim was totally dismissed by Lt-Gen
Wattanachai Chaimuenwong, the Third Army chief.
He also warned any Burmese attempts to settle the dispute
by force could lead to war.
Gen Surayud also suggested yesterday that a neutral and
independent body should be allowed to verify Burma's claim that its border area
now under Wa control is not a major drug-producing site.
He was responding to Rangoon's attempts to clear the image
of its ally, including a recent press visit to Mong Yawn, the United Wa State
Army's new town located close to the Thai border.
It would be more credible if an internationally recognised
and independent organisation was allowed to visit Mong Yawn to verify Rangoon's
claim that the town was free of illicit drugs, Gen Surayud said. It was "too
easy" to organise a press tour of the town and then declare that it was not a
major drug production site, he said.
Last week, representatives of six countries participating
in a drugs meeting in Rangoon were taken to visit Mong Yawn, which Thai
authorities said was being built with drug money.
Earlier Lt-Gen Wattanachai also branded the press tour as
an attempt to fool the world that the Wa army was not involved in drugs
production and trafficking along the border. Thailand believes the UWSA is the
main producer of methamphetamines flooding the country.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - May
19, 2001.
Rice and drugs
fight top prime ministerial agenda
Closer trade links but no deals likely Achara Ashayagachat
Co-operation on drug suppression and rice prices will top
talks between Thai and Chinese leaders, Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai
said yesterday.
Today's visit by Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji
reflected strong and special ties between the countries, he said.
The Chinese leader had broken diplomatic tradition to
honour Thailand, by paying an official visit to Bangkok before the more junior
Thai prime minister visited Beijing.
One of the issues to be raised by Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra would be co-operation with China against illicit drugs.
The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding
last October and Beijing agreed to exchange drug suppression officials with
Bangkok.
The foreign ministers of Burma, China and Thailand have
already agreed to hold talks on drugs. Mr Thaksin will ask whether Mr Zhu would
agree to upgrade the talks to a higher level, and whether other countries, such
as Laos, should be included.
Thailand would also seek China's endorsement of a rice
price stabilising scheme to prevent a price war among the world's major rice
producers, Mr Surakiart said.
The Vietnamese and Thai prime ministers had already agreed
in principle to continue co-operation, while Pakistan's leader Gen Pervez
Musharraf had expressed interest in joining the plan, he said.
How to build up rice price co-operation among the four
countries was also on the agenda.
Mr Zhu was likely to raise closer co-operation in East
Asia, particularly economic co-operation so as to add more value to agricultural
and processed products.
China's links in the Mekong sub-region would also come up,
including navigation in the Mekong river and China's aviation policy on closer
links with other Mekong countries.
Mr Surakiart said Mr Zhu would rather reaffirm Beijing's
pledge to buy more rice, rubber and dried longan from Thailand than strike any
deals. Mr Zhu would also meet Parliament Speaker Uthai Pimchaichon, Senate
Speaker Manoonkrit Roopkachorn, Defence Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, Bangkok
governor Samak Sundaravej, and former premiers Chuan Leekpai and Anand
Panyarachun.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - May
19, 2001.
Karen leader re-elected DAB
chairman
Anti-Rangoon Karen National Union leader Bo Mya has been
re-elected chairman of the Democratic Alliance of Burma which consists of nearly
20 democracy groups.
A statement issued during the third DAB meeting held in a
border area of Burma opposite Tak on May 14-17 said Gen Bo Mya was elected
chairman for the third time.
Ye Htut of the Australia-based Overseas Burma Liberation
Front was made his deputy while Aung Moe Zaw of the Democratic Party for Society
was elected secretary-general.
Another three democracy groups-the Arakan League for
Democracy, Naga National League for Democracy and Mergui-Tavoy United Front-will
become members.
The meeting was host to 64 representatives and observers
from 19 democracy groups in Burma.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - May
19, 2001.
Detainees in poor
health in Burmese cells
Government urged to seek their release Eleven villagers from Kra Buri district in Ranong province
are being held in poor conditions in Burma, say relatives.
They want the government to intervene after the group was
detained almost a month ago.
The group, including two school boys, was reportedly
fishing in the bordering Kra Buri river on April 20 when Burmese soldiers
emerged and arrested them.
They are Mon Chumanee, 42, her son Noppadol, 13, Anant
Rittipat, 31, Manit Rittipat, 21, Ruab Thongkham, 35, Boonyuen Ketkaew, 42,
Boonyuan Ketkaew, 20, Kiart Suetrong, 15, Panom Worasing, 23, Visanu Worasing,
16, and Saravut Kiawwong, 13. They are detained at a police station in
Kawthaung.
Paka Kiawwong, Saravut's mother, said she had visited her
son three times, each of which cost her at least 3,000 baht in entrance
fees.
The detainees had no change of clothes and got only one
meal a day, she said.
She urged the authorities to seek the release of the
group. Her son suffered convulsions and should be in school, she said. Nob
Worasing, mother of Panom and Visanu, said her family was in trouble as it
depended on both sons.
Border co-ordinators in Ranong have asked for their
release but Kawthaung officials replied that the decision depended on
Rangoon.
The Thais were charged with intrusion in Burmese waters
and unauthorised fishing.
Suriya Sawasdi, a former provincial councillor and a
co-ordinator, said he would take relatives to Bangkok next week to seek help
from the interior and foreign ministers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar Teachers Urged
to Protect Youth Against Wrong Belief
2001.05.19 13:00:11 YANGON, May 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Myanmar leader
Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt has urged teachers in the country to protect
youth against possessing wrong belief such as assuming the material
progress and wealth and undisciplined freedom as modernization and
development.
He made the call at the opening ceremony of a special
refresher course for basic education teachers here on Friday, official
newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported Saturday.
Khin Nyunt, first secretary of the Myanmar State Peace
and Development Council, said that rapid emergence of new technologies and
globalization has brought not only the scientific and technological
progress to the nations but also associations between their social
behaviors, social values, traditions and culture.
Under these circumstances, failure to nurture the youth to
have a clear national outlook will lead to the end of their life because
of uncertain desires, forlorn expectation, uncertain ventures and wrong
enticements resulting from the repercussion of a plethora of information
data and cultural penetration, he stressed.
It is required to train youth to understand and value
the Myanmar social norms such as loving kindness, sympathy,
kindness, politeness, compassion, nobility, the will to serve
other's interests, humanitarian duties and humanitarian codes of
conduct, the Myanmar leader said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Asiaweek
May 25, 2001 VOL.27 NO.21 Talking Points
At least once every two weeks, for the past eight months, a black limousine
with tinted windows has entered the compound at No. 54 University Avenue,
Yangon, where democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi lives under house arrest. The
limousine carries Maj.-Gen. Kyaw Win, who represents Myanmar's military regime
in talks aimed at securing an accord with Suu Kyi. As a provisional settlement
looms, these are the key players:
The Icon
Aung San Suu Kyi, 55 Suu Kyi led the National League for Democracy to a sweeping election victory in 1990, but the result was never honored. Imperious, stubborn and principled, she does not compromise easily. But her party has been decimated and the people yearn for normalcy. Convinced the junta is united in wanting a settlement, she is ready to cut a deal — and willing to remain sequestered until it is achieved. The Dealmaker Maj.-Gen. Kyaw Win, 56 Rare among the Burmese military, Kyaw Win is a man of culture. Now deputy head of the nation's intelligence services — only Khin Nyunt ranks higher — he keeps a low profile. Increasingly impressed by Suu Kyi, he recently said their "discussions on transition are going very well." He's a favorite of Gen. Than Shwe, so everyone knows he's dealing from the top. The Instigator Senior Gen. Than Shwe, 68 The nation's paramount leader since 1992, Than Shwe has balanced conflicting factions in the military. Seizing the moment, he decided last September to open talks with Suu Kyi, and met her himself at the outset. He aims to install a "disciplined" democracy — and will not step down until an agreement is reached. The Mediator
Razali Ismail, 61 Malaysia's former president of the United Nations General Assembly, Razali serves as a special envoy of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. More important, he is an emissary of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, the Asian leader most admired by the Myanmar regime. Razali, working on Than Shwe as well as Suu Kyi, helped bring the two sides together. His job now is to keep them talking. Secret Horse-trading Could Lead To This Deal • A new Council of Ministers will act as a transitional government before
elections within three to five years. It will comprise civilians and military
men.
• Suu Kyi will not be a member of the new council, but may join the future
elected bicameral government — perhaps as its leader.
• During the transition period the two sides, plus representatives of the
ethnic minorities, will finalize a new constitution.
• The constitution will guarantee the military up to 25% of seats in
parliament.
• Ethnic minorities will be given very limited autonomy.
• Generals will be given an amnesty for any abuses committed after
1988.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Asiaweek
MAY 25, 2001 VOL.27 NO.21
Read All About It It's a difficult business being the censored voice of a country on the verge of great change. But the Myanmar Times manages, and potential investors should take heed By ROGER MITTON IN YANGON Does Ross Dunkley have problems? You bet he does. Like all publishers, he
faces the usual vexations in keeping a newspaper afloat — finding advertisers,
chasing stories, meeting deadlines. Other concerns are less mundane. Power
outages mean office computers and printing presses regularly sputter to a halt.
Telephone lines and Internet connections are whimsical at best. On-the-job
training for about 60 local staff members eats into the daily routine.
Sometimes, just finding enough paper and ink to print the weekly Myanmar Times
is a major battle. And then there's the fact that Dunkley can hardly report the
biggest story in town — ongoing talks between Myanmar's military dictators and
democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi. That omission makes critics sneer:
Dunkley's journal is not just in bed with the devil, it's the devil's
advocate.
Does Dunkley care? Not one bit. More than a year since launching the
English-language Myanmar Times, the 43-year-old Australian editor and
businessman (he's chief executive of publisher Myanmar Consolidated Media) is
having the time of his life. "We have strung together a very good team." he
says. "It's a great atmosphere at our offices." Dunkley acknowledges that his
papers accommodate government censors. He is unapologetic about having a junta
colonel's son as his deputy CEO. In fact, Dunkley insists that simply by
publishing, he is encouraging Myanmar's liberalization. "If you look back at
where we were one year ago, the sort of stories we ran then and compare them
with today, there is a big difference," he says. And when the country finally
opens up, Dunkley reckons his papers will be sitting pretty. "Competitors will
have a hard time chasing us," he says.
Junta lapdog, liberalizing influence — or maybe a bit of both. It's a
tricky line the Myanmar Times is walking. But it's a line that businesses should
be watching, because Myanmar is set to open up soon. The eight-month-old talks
between Suu Kyi and the junta appear to have bogged down, but they haven't
stopped. The outlines of a compromise are slowly emerging. It won't be a
democracy, not right away, but it won't be an outright dictatorship, either.
Civilians will join generals in government, and Myanmar will enter a halfway
house where investment will be internationally acceptable, if still heavily
scrutinized by global human rights watchdogs. The Myanmar Times, as it strives
to produce a credible product and turn a profit in the most politically
sensitive of businesses, journalism, could become a model for how to operate in
the coming new Myanmar.
For the moment, the investment climate could hardly be worse. Government
incompetence and tough international sanctions imposed because of the junta's
abysmal human rights record have meant that most blue-chip foreign investors
pulled out years ago. A few remain, such as oil companies Unocal of the U.S. and
Total of France, but they are targets of protests and lawsuits in the West for
having benefitted — if only indirectly, they claim — from the regime's use of
slave labor.
Politics aside, Myanmar has a private enterprise culture in which
businesses can thrive. After spending the '90s publishing a newspaper in Ho Chi
Minh City, Dunkley has nothing but praise for the privately-owned printers he
deals with compared with the state-owned presses of Vietnam. Once the opening
comes, small enterprises like the Myanmar Times will lead the country's growth.
They will train Myanmar's workers and managers, the way the Times is training
from scratch reporters and editors who at least have an inkling about
professional standards.
Among the few sectors holding up is the textile industry. Yangon is ringed
by 384 garment factories, owned by investors from Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia
and Taiwan as well as by locals. Yet consumer boycotts prompted many Western
labels to end contracts. "Most of my U.S. customers were targeted and that
nearly killed me," says one factory owner. He is still hopeful, though. The
talks between Suu Kyi and the regime already have made a difference. "There's a
positive dialogue going on," he says. "The Americans have backed off [on more
sanctions] until they see the outcome."
Worries that the talks are near breakdown have grown recently in the
absence of concrete signs of progress. The situation is fragile, but the two
sides are continuing to meet. The regime knows politics is crippling the
economy, and the generals want Suu Kyi to endorse investment. At least twice a
month Maj.-Gen. Kyaw Win, a favorite of supreme leader Than Shwe, visits Suu
Kyi's home. Other participants in the meetings say the two get along well, both
being educated, no-nonsense pragmatists. Both sides have made
confidence-building gestures. The regime has released more than 100 members of
her National League for Democracy from detention, although hundreds more remain
in jail. At Suu Kyi's urging, the NLD has stopped holding daily meetings at its
Yangon headquarters.
The four-month absence from Yangon of Razali Ismail, the United Nations
special envoy who helped bring the two sides together last October, has added to
concerns about the talks. But one participant in the dialogue says neither side
felt Razali's presence is needed at the moment. "There is too much heat
generated when he visits," he says. "We want to do this on our own." But Razali
may be called in to help break an impasse caused by regional commanders balking
at some of the compromises the two sides are considering.
Suu Kyi has avoided meeting Western diplomats, but she did have a private
audience last month with United Nations human rights rapporteur Paulo Sergio
Pinheiro. Afterwards he said: "There are several signs that indicated evolution
leading to an eventual political opening." Reading those signs, the head of the
U.S. diplomatic mission in Yangon, Priscilla Clapp, says: "We are witnessing for
the first time in decades some rays of hope."
It's a story that Dunkley at the Myanmar Times can't report. At present,
his paper doesn't enjoy a stellar reputation. "It's a pro-government rag," says
a Western diplomat. A recent issue blared "Summer Sizzler!" about Yangon's
unusually hot weather, without mentioning the collapsing value of the local
currency or plans for electricity rationing. Yet the paper has some (perhaps
dull) teeth. "It does carry some criticism of government policy," says another
diplomat. "There've been stories about the lack of Internet access, about
inflation, health and education matters."
Dunkley says he pushes government censors, who must okay every story.
Occasionally he even wins — rewording a report instead of having to drop it
altogether. "In some ways we are a litmus test to an opening up process," he
says. "People can criticize you from over the fence, but when you are sitting in
the chair you have to be patient. Some [regime] people are still learning that a
little liberalization in the media is a good thing." Suu Kyi and the NLD appear
on the pages of the paper when news merits, without the derogatory tags common
in the official media, if they mention her at all. While not critical, the Times
is helping to create some breathing space for non-junta views, space where a
host of books and journals covering sports, fashion, motoring and international
affairs have begun to sprout.
So what's the payoff for all the journalistic kowtowing? The Myanmar Times
isn't making money yet, though that didn't stop Dunkley from launching a
Burmese-language sister paper in March. But it is coming out every week,
building a corps of journalists, and cultivating a circle of readers and
advertisers. And when a settlement comes and foreign investment held back during
Myanmar's ostracism starts flowing in, he reckons the Times will shine in a new,
competitive environment. And as for those who call him a stooge for the junta,
Dunkley thinks they should get over it. Maybe he'll editorialize on that subject
one day. One day soon.
The Times
'Travelers Should Boycott
Burma'
Burmese people want freedom from a brutal regime, not tourists, argues European MEP Glenys Kinnock Wednesday, May. 9, 2001 On March 19 this year TIME Asia published a Travel Watch article on the
debate raging on travel to Burma. Glenys Kinnock, a member of the European
Parliament, has long argued against travel to the military-run country. This is
her response to TIME's "Burmese Daze: Should We Boycott or Go?"
Holidays, of course, should be about fun and relaxation. But how many of us have ever questioned our right to travel and enjoy total freedom of movement? Probably not many. And yet this is a very real issue -- you could say it's a matter of life
and death -- for those in a certain country who are asking us to make an ethical
decision to stay away at present. They're not some radical, out-of-touch
extremists; in fact, they form a democratically elected party that won 82% of
the seats in a parliament that has never been allowed to convene. These people
have made very clear policy decisions, specifically asking foreign visitors to
stay away, until the brutal military junta that rules the country allows them to
take up their rightful place in government. The country is Burma. And the party
that has pleaded with tourists not to visit their country is the National League
for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.
Recent evidence given to the United Nation's International Labour
Organisation (ILO) estimates that around 8 million men, women and children are
forced to labor on construction projects, including those linked to tourism,
every year. Hundreds of thousands of Burmese people have been forcibly relocated
from their homes over the last few years in order to develop the country's
infrastructure, much of which was created in order to boost tourism. In light of
this evidence the ILO adopted a resolution last year, which called on its
members to review their relations with Burma.
In spite of these horrors, though, many in the media and the travel
industry have consistently argued for tourism to Burma to continue -- often
arguing that it benefits Burmese people. In fact, only the tiniest minority of
Burma's 48 million people are even touched by tourism. Around 75% make their
living from agriculture; of the remaining 25% only a small percentage comes into
contact with tourists. So whilst you may be able to give a few dollars to
benefit someone working in the tourism industry, the scales don't quite balance
when tourism is simultaneously helping to prop up a regime that keeps 48 million
people in the most desperate poverty.
In a country that has measured the opinions of its people only once in the
last 41 years, and even then chose to disregard them, there is little to guide
us as to what ordinary Burmese people really feel about tourism. Wild claims
from some in the industry that the "overwhelming majority" want tourism are pure
fantasy. The fact is the NLD is the only party mandated to represent the
interests of Burma's people -- and theirs is a voice that continues to draw the
support and respect of people both inside and outside the country, despite a
vicious campaign of persecution by the regime to silence it.
I have been fortunate enough to meet Suu Kyi, after travelling into the
country under the cover of a tourist visa obtained in Bangkok. Her courage and
heroism is breathtaking, and her grace, composure and dignity affected me
deeply. She is a remarkable woman, with sharp political insight, a fierce
determination to bring about freedom in Burma, and a strong and phenomenal sense
of calm given the personal suffering she endures and the extreme pressure she is
under. She and the NLD are trying to work out nonviolent strategies to oust a
regime that has few competitors in terms of its horrific human rights record.
One night, after meeting Suu Kyi, I found a scrap of paper on my pillow in
my hotel room in Rangoon. It was inscribed with her name -- nothing more -- and
was presumably put there by a brave hotel worker trying to communicate support
for the pro-democracy leader. That simple act took infinite courage.
Burmese people want freedom from a tyrannical and brutal regime -- one
engaged in killings, rape, genocide and the perpetration of relentless misery. I
remain convinced that we must respond to this terrible human suffering. We have
a duty and a responsibility to call for political action and for the isolation
of the regime.
Suu Kyi has asked a simple thing of the international community. She hasn't
asked for us to be courageous; she hasn't asked for money; she hasn't asked for
military help. She's asked for sanctions so that the junta will be starved out
of existence. I believe the international community should impose sanctions, but
there is also something that ordinary citizens can do: we can impose our own
sanctions and not go on holiday to Burma.
As Suu Kyi has said: "Sometimes breadth of vision dictates that travel be
curbed in the interests of justice and humanity".
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- |