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BURMA RELATED NEWS - June 29,
2001.
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HEADLINES
---------------------------------------------------------------- AP - Suitcase At Myanmar Embassy Causes Bomb
Scare In Bangkok
AP - Suu Kyi's party
opens another branch office outside Yangon
ABC online - Sunrise or Sunset?
The Nation - WAR ON
DRUGS: Regional cooperation needed
Bkk Post - Smuggling attempt thwarted in corn
field
AP - Countries OK Turtle
Protections
NSTP - Malay-speaking Myanmar caught
crossing border with countrymen
Reuters - Myanmar releases nine more jailed opposition MPs ---------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday June 28, 10:07 PM
Suitcase At Myanmar Embassy Causes Bomb
Scare In Bangkok
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP)--Police
rushed to the Myanmar Embassy after an unclaimed suitcase found outside the
compound wall triggered a bomb scare Thursday.
Police cordoned off the area before opening the suitcase, which was found
to contain clothes, police Col. Sanan Imchai told The Associated Press.
He said police received a call around 6 p.m. local time (1100 GMT) that a
suspicious object was lying outside the embassy on Sathorn Road. Three bomb
disposal experts rushed to the scene along with other police and opened the
large, wheeled suitcase, he said.
Police have been on alert in Bangkok since two bombs were discovered at the
Vietnam Embassy on June 19, which were safely detonated by the bomb squad. Three
Vietnamese dissidents have been arrested in connection with the incident.
The Myanmar Embassy was seized by five Myanmar dissidents on Oct. 1, 1999.
Armed with AK-47 assault rifles and grenades, the five students held the embassy
for 22 hours before releasing more than three dozen hostages in return for safe
passage by helicopter to the Thai-Myanmar border.
Hundreds of Myanmar dissidents opposed to the country's military junta live
in Thailand.
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WIRE: 06/29/2001 6:51 am ET
Suu Kyi's party opens another branch
office outside Yangon
The Associated Press
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) Aung San
Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy reopened its second branch
office in as many days Friday amid signs the military regime was easing some of
its restrictions, a party leader said.
More than 40 NLD members were in Hmawbi, 15 miles north of Yangon, to see
the party's distinctive red sign board go up, said Soe Myint, chairman of the
the NLD's Yangon organizing committee.
Another branch office is due to reopen Wednesday in Shwepyitha, a satellite
town in northwestern Yangon, he said.
Authorities have given the party permission to reopen 18 branch offices
around the capital, Yangon, the result of secret talks between Suu Kyi and the
generals that began last October, their first direct contact in six years.
On Thursday, a party office opened at Taikkyi, about 40 miles north of
Yangon, the first since the military junta closed many of the 40 branches in and
around the capital in a 1998 crackdown.
The government also freed nine more party members Thursday in its latest
concession to the pro-democracy opposition that swept 1990 general election but
was not allowed to take power. Dozens of detainees from the NLD have been freed
since the start of the year.
Suu Kyi, however, remains under house detention, enforced since Sept. 22
when she tried to travel to a party office outside Yangon in defiance of
restrictions by the military on her movements.
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Sunrise or
Sunset?
World Excited By Milosevic’s Capture, But Balkans Weary ABC News online June 29 — A year ago, it seemed as though Slobodan Milosevic was firmly
entrenched as Yugoslavia's leader. Today, the former dictator sits in a prison
at The Hague, waiting to be tried on war crimes charges.
Milosevic arrived early this morning in the Netherlands facility that
houses the International War Crimes Tribunal. His journey began Thursday when
Yugoslav officials turned Milosevic over to face trial for alleged atrocities
committed in Kosovo.
"We're witnessing one of the most significant events in post-War European
history, where a nation has voluntarily turned over to an international tribunal
for trial one of the most dangerous and maniacal European leaders since Hitler,"
said Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee.
President Bush called it proof the Balkan nation wanted to turn away from
"its tragic past and toward a brighter future."
Reaction in Europe was no less sweeping.
"It's a historic day for the Balkans. It's a historic day for Europe, for
everyone who believes in democracy and the international rule of law," said
European Commissioner Chris Patton.
The proceedings before the tribunal will be the first war crimes trial for
a former head of state.
13 Years of Milosevic
During the course of his 13-year authoritarian reign, Milosevic fomented a
reawakening of Serb nationalism that saw his country through crippling wars in
Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo and the rending of the old state of
Yugoslavia along ethnic lines.
Milosevic was indicted by the tribunal in The Hague in May 1999, charged
with crimes against humanity and accused of responsibility for atrocities
committed during the Kosovo conflict.
But Milosevic managed to hold onto power until elections last September
ignited a "bloodless revolution" and led to the regime of current President
Vojislav Kostunica.
Since April, Milosevic has been held in Belgrade's Central Prison while
authorities investigated allegations of corruption and abuse of power during his
tenure.
The transfer of Milosevic to The Hague was a "victory for accountability
over impunity," said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
"Guilt will be individualized and will start from the top," said Croatian
President Stipe Mesic.
An international donors conference for the war-torn region is taking place
in Brussels today, one day after Milosevic's removal from Yugoslavia.
His imprisonment clears the way for Yugoslavia to receive around $1.3
billion in reconstruction aid, and is expected to further boost pledges of aid
for the country.
Dutch Detention
After arriving at the U.N. detention center in The Netherlands on Thursday
night, Milosevic was given a medical checkup and told of the charges he is
facing.
He is being held in a single cell in comfortable conditions from where he
will be able to speak to his family by telephone for five or six minutes
everyday.
According to sources at the Yugoslav Interior Ministry, Serbian President
Milan Milutinovic, who was indicted for war crimes with Milosevic, has decided
to give himself up to the war crimes tribunal and to testify against his
political benefactor.
Officials say he is expected to make his first court appearance on Tuesday.
Dawn of a New Day, or Groundhog Day?
"The Serbs will now move on," said Richard Holbrooke, the former U.S
ambassador to the United Nations, on ABCNEWS' Nightline. "They are rid of the
man who wrecked their country, wrecked their region and destabilized
South-Central Europe." Peace, however, may not come immediately for Yugoslavia.
Milosevic still has a good amount of support throughout the country — in
Belgrade, about 3,000 pro-Milosevic supporters nosily protested the government
and attacked news crews after hearing about the transfer.
Protests also occurred in neighboring Greece, where some fear NATO has
designs to place the region under its control.
Kostunica himself criticized Milosevic's move to The Hague as illegal
although he acquiesced and allowed the transfer.
But Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, a more radical reformer, said
Milosevic had to be surrendered in light of international threats of isolation
and a freeze on financial aid.
Kostunica called for "cool heads" as the government seemed to be at
loggerheads with itself, but already some officials were claiming to see
twilight, not a new dawn.
"This kind of hyper-nationalism and the corruption that fueled it in
Serbia, it's going to die hard and it's going to be a continuing struggle,"
retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who was the NATO supreme allied commander in Europe
during the 1999 conflict with Yugoslavia, said on Nightline.
ABCNEWS' Jim Wooten at The Hague contributed to this report.
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The Nation - June 29,
2001.
WAR ON DRUGS: Regional cooperation
needed
Vorapun Srivoranart
Sanctions against Burma would lead nowhere in the fight against narcotics
but a concerted international effort would lessen the border area’s dependence
on drug money, a prominent Chinese scholar said yesterday.
Traditional crop substitution schemes and a joint effort between local
authorities are no longer sufficient to address the growing popularity of
methamphetamines, which are not a derivative of opium, explained Chen Lufan,
chairman of the Yunnan Association for Southeast Asian Studies.
Lufan told a meeting on the Wa and the drug problem at Chulalongkorn
University that drugs have become a problem of humanity that requires all the
countries bordering the infamous Golden Triangle to strengthen their
effort.
In addition, the United States and the United Nations must be actively
involved, he said.
Chen welcomed the upcoming drug summit between Thailand, China, Laos and
Burma as a “good first step” since Thailand and China the countries hurt the
most.
He said Chinese society is being destroyed by a flood of methamphetamines,
known in Thailand as yaa baa, coming chiefly from Burma, where ethnic minorities
wield power.
While there are currently 600,000 registered drug addicts in China, with
400,000 in southwestern Yunnan province alone, he estimated the actual number to
be in the tens of millions.
China, he said, is trying to synchronise its “Go West” development drive,
in which Yunnan is incorporated, with ongoing support for alternative crops in
Burma in order to address the basic problem of narcotics.
A healthier economy in Chinese towns along the SinoBurmese border would
have a positive spillover effect onto the Burmese side.
Liu Zhu, vice president of the Yunnan Institute for Southeast Asian
Studies, said that people on both sides of the border speak the same language
and have common bloodlines conducive to the transfer of technology.
“We start by training the Chinese along the border and let them transfer
their knowhow to their Burmese relatives,” he said.
These projects are being conducted between the local government in Yunnan
and ethnic minority groups, not between Beijing and Rangoon, Chen said.
He said Rangoon has only nominal influence over its border areas in which
ethnic minority armies enjoy almost full freedom of action with their own
administrative and taxing systems. However, the junta’s influence is starting to
creep into areas such as the Kokang.
The ceasefire accords of 1989 further enticed the ethnic minorities,
especially the United Wa State Army (UWSA), which has become the largest
producer, to find a source of funding for development through drug money.
“The mass production of narcotics in northern Burma is a security threat to
China,” Liu said. She said that in the past decade, Yunnan authorities had
invested over 300 million yuan (Bt1.64 billion) and had dispatched its officials
on more than 3,000 missions to minoritycontrolled areas such as Kachin, Shan,
Kokang and Wa states to assist in development.
The development assistance, explained Liu, included planting rubber, coffee
and tropical fruit, producing teakwood and building four electricity plants with
a total capacity of 12,000 watts, and a 700kilometre road in the UWSAcontrolled
area.
But the cropsubstitution schemes in this area are facing difficulty due to
the rugged terrain, while the prospects for tourism remain poor. However,
successes in other areas are being lauded by the UN Drug Control Programme as a
good model, said Liu.
---------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - June 29.
2001.
Smuggling attempt thwarted in corn
field
Tak A volunteer village patrol yesterday found 200,000 methamphetamine pills in
a corn plantation in Mae Sot district.
The patrol spotted about 10 men in the plantation. They fled before they
could be questioned, but left behind a backpack and a fertiliser sack containing
the speed pills. The plantation is near Mae Kon Ken village, in tambon Mahawan,
about two kilometres from Palu camp in Burma.
Samart Loyfa, the Mae Sot district chief, said authorities stepped up
patrols a few days ago after Myawaddy officials told border officers an attempt
was expected to smuggle 100,000 speed pills into Thailand.
Also yesterday, a joint police and military unit discovered 50 Burmese, 18
men and 32 women, hidden under vegetables on a six-wheel truck at a checkpoint
on Mae Sot-Tak road.
Boonrat Sikhamma, 37, the driver, admitted he was being paid 3,500 baht per
person to take them to Bangkok.
He was charged with smuggling in illegal workers.
---------------------------------------------------------------- Countries OK Turtle
Protections
The Associated Press, Thu 28 Jun 2001 NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Eight
countries, including the United States, have agreed to back programs protecting
six sea turtle species in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asian waters, the U.N.
Environment Program said Thursday.
The U.S. and the other countries — Australia, Comoros, Iran, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Sri Lanka and Tanzania — agreed to 24 programs and 105 projects to
help reverse the decline of the turtles.
``You have different problems in different countries,'' said Douglas Hykle,
deputy executive-secretary of the Convention on Migratory Species in the
Philippines, where the agreement was signed Sunday.
``You have egg collection, you have meat harvest, which is particularly bad
in Indonesia, and you also have interaction with fishing,'' he said. ``This is a
problem in India where a lot of turtles get caught in fishing nets.''
Hykle cited Malaysia as an example of the decline, saying a healthy
population of thousands of leatherback turtles has been reduced to less than 50
nests each year because of over-harvesting.
The eggs are seen as a delicacy in some countries and others consider them
an aphrodisiac, Hykle said in a telephone interview from Bonn, Germany.
The agreement should lead to better coordination between the countries so
that they share information of best practices to conserve the loggerhead, olive
ridley, green, hawksbill, leatherback and flatback turtles, Hykle said.
It will also reduce commercial harvesting of the turtles and their eggs, he
said, adding that it was hoped more than 30 other countries would also sign the
agreement, which takes effect Sept. 1.
---------------------------------------------------------------- The New Straits Times Press -
June 29, 2001.
Malay-speaking Myanmar caught
crossing border with countrymen
He acted as illegal immigrant agent By Shahrum Sayuthi A Myanmar, who himself is an illegal immigrant, was caught acting as an
illegal immigrant agent along with four of his countrymen after they crossed the
Thai-Malaysian border near here yesterday.
Perlis Anti-Smuggling Unit commander for Chuping ASP Khamis Hamzah said the
illegal immigrants, aged between 22 and 48 years' old, were caught by his men
and Rela members in the vicinity of Kampung Batu Betangkup at about
7.30am.
He said the 24 year-old Myanmar, who could speak Malay, was a construction
worker in Penang. Initial investigations showed that he had acted as the guide
for the group.
"The group was caught after they wandered out of a secondary forest area in
search of food. We believed they had been in the area for quite a while to wait
for other 'tekong darat' to pick them up.."
Khamis, who was speaking to reporters at the State Anti-Smuggling Unit camp
in Chuping today, said the illegal immigrants were detained under Section 6(3)
of the Immigration Act 1959/63 for entering the country without proper travel
documents.
He said the illegal immigrants would be handed over to the Immigration
Department for further action.
Members of the Anti-Smuggling Unit had also foiled an attempt to smuggle
RM2,000 worth of goods after they stopped a lorry at Batu Lapan, Beseri near
here at 4pm yesterday.
The goods included rice, clothes, toys and a variety of snacks.
The driver of the lorry was released after paying a compound. Khamis said
the case had been refered to the Customs Department in order to trace the owner
of the lorry and the confiscated goods.
---------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday June 28, 8:05 PM
Myanmar releases nine more jailed
opposition MPs
YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's
military government said on Thursday it had released nine more pro-democracy
politicians in a further concession to the opposition led by Aung San Suu Kyi.
All nine freed on Thursday were politicians from Nobel laureate Suu Kyi's
National League for Democracy (NLD) who had been elected in Myanmar's 1990
general election.
The NLD won that election convincingly but was never allowed to govern by
the military.
Earlier this month, the ruling State Peace and Development Council released
13 political prisoners, who were also elected in the 1990 election, from
government detention centres, which it calls "guesthouses".
Several NLD offices were also allowed to open, but Suu Kyi has remained
under de facto house arrest since September.
The government says around a dozen NLD politicians elected in the 1990
election are still in detention.
Tension between the military and the NLD has eased since October, when
secretive talks began between Suu Kyi and the country's ruling generals.
"Due to the understanding achieved between the SPDC government and NLD
party, the politicians staying at government guesthouses have returned home to
their respective families... in good health," a government spokesman told
Reuters.
One NLD politician who was released two weeks ago told Reuters that
Thursday's releases were another positive sign.
"We believe this is a clear sign of improvement in the talks," the
politician said.
The MP said several opposition party offices were opening this week, and
that hopes were high among diplomats and political observers that more top-level
opposition members would be released soon.
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