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BURMA RELATED NEWS - July 11,
2001.
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HEADLINES
---------------------------------------------------------------- AFP - Telecoms officials mull ways to transform
ASEAN into cyber-region
Reuters - ASEAN ministers to try to narrow
development gap
Bkk Post - Wa shift drug bases from Burma to
Laos
The Nation - Prescott
pressed on drugs
Xinhuanet - Over 441,500 Motor Vehicles in
Operation in Myanmar
ST - Hopes for release of more Myanmar leaders
NSTP - Malaysia's forest management a
success
---------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday July 11, 3:41 PMTelecoms officials mull ways to
transform ASEAN into cyber-region
KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 (AFP) - Senior officials Wednesday began a two-day meeting on ways to prepare Southeast Asia for the knowledge economy. The meeting will precede the first meeting on Friday of telecommunications
ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Talks will focus on developing infrastructure for telecoms and information
technology in the region, said a senior official at Malaysia's Energy,
Communications and Multimedia Ministry.
"As the stage of development varies for ASEAN members, we will see how we
can help weaker countries such as Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar through
private-sector initiatives," he told AFP.
Officials will also discuss efforts to create a skilled workforce to cope
with the transition to the knowledge-based era.
Talks would also centre on the digital divide in the region and how to
improve the rate of IT literacy, he added.
ASEAN telecoms senior officials first met in Brunei last October.
A Malaysian delegate said the meeting was likely to discuss a proposed
"mutual recognition agreement" (MRA) on product certification. For example, he
said products tested in Malaysia and exported to Singapore would not have to be
certified again in Singapore.
"I think everybody will endorse plans for MRA and set a date for when they
are ready to implement this," he added.
According to a Malaysian ministry statement, ministers will Friday sign an
agreement on ASEAN cooperation in telecoms and IT.
The document formalises the establishment of the ASEAN telecoms ministers
and senior officials forums and identifies broad areas of cooperation, it
said.
"Among the critical areas are infrastructure development, trade and
investment, harmonisation of telecommunications and IT policies, content
development and public-private sector collaboration," it added.
Idros Abdul Hamid, an officer with the Jakarta-based ASEAN secretariat,
said it would engage a professional consultant next week to assess the readiness
of member countries to embrace IT and to study investment opportunities and the
digital divide.
A report would be presented at the ASEAN summit in Brunei in
November.
Idros said around 20 private-sector led projects have been initiated over
the past two years, including the creation of a "virtual marketplace" for
farmers and an e-ASEAN tourism portal.
---------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday July 11, 8:07 PM
ASEAN ministers to try to narrow
development gap
BANGKOK, July 11 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian foreign ministers will agree to try to narrow the development gap between their countries at their annual meeting in Hanoi later this month, Thailand said on Wednesday. Thailand's Foreign Ministry said Bangkok also planned to propose the
10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) work more closely with neighbours China, Japan and South Korea to
fight the illegal drugs trade.
The 34th annual ASEAN Ministerial Meeting from July 23-24 will be followed
by a meeting of the security-focused ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).
Topics on the ARF agenda, which involves ASEAN's dialogue partners
including the United States and China, include tension on the Korean peninsula
and international crime.
Foreign ministers from all 10 ASEAN member nations are due to attend the
Hanoi meeting. The theme this year is: "ASEAN: United, Stable, Integrated and
Outward Looking."
ASEAN groups Brunei, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia,
Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
The ARF comprises the ASEAN 10, the 15-member European Union, the United
States, Russia, China, Japan, North and South Korea, Australia, Canada, India,
Mongolia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is due to represent the United States
at the talks.
---------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - July 11,
2001.
Wa shift drug bases from Burma to
Laos
One million pills made every month Subin Khuenkaew
The United Wa State Army is moving its methamphetamine production bases
from Burma to areas in Laos opposite Chiang Rai, Phayao and Nan.
The Third Army and the Narcotics Control Board have common intelligence
that drug factories were being moved from Burmese areas opposite Chiang Mai to
Bo Kaew and Chai Buri provinces of Laos.
The new spots are adjacent to Chiang Saen, Chiang Khong and Wiang Kaen
districts in Chiang Rai, and several areas opposite Phayao and Nan.
A military source said the Wa moved 11 factories to an area opposite Chiang
Saen in addition to five other factories already run by Shan people who were
former members of the Mong Tai Army. Their combined production capacity should
reach a million pills a month.
The move reportedly received co-operation from Hmong people, including
former Hmong rebels, who helped arrange new locations and armed troops to guard
the factories.
"The authority of the Lao government does not reach to such areas. This
allows the outlaws to share the benefits from drugs," the source said.
The source said the move might have resulted from pressure applied by Asean
members and China on the Burmese government to stop drugs production on its
soil.
Military intelligence expected more smuggling to originate from Laos,
crossing the Mekong river to Chiang Saen, Chiang Khong and Wiang Kaen, as well
as on land routes across the border to Phayao and Nan.
"Smugglers should rely mainly on the Mekong river. They can use long-tailed
boats to reach Chiang Rai, their major destination. Drug smuggling is not new in
the area but it was done on a small scale in the past. Active smuggling will now
take place," the source said.
Col Nakhon Sripetphan, commander of the Pha Muang task force, said his
force was moving its anti-narcotics focus to the Thai-Lao border in the North,
especially along the Mekong river border.
The military would not, however, neglect old smuggling routes along the
Thai-Burmese border, Col Nakhon said.
---------------------------------------------------------------- The Nation - July 11,
2001.
Prescott pressed on drugs
VORAPUN
SRIVORANART
Thailand yesterday requested Britain to separate the issue of narcotics
from that of Burma so as to effectively tackle the problem, which is regional in
scope.
The message was conveyed by Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai to the
visiting British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott during their luncheon
discussion yesterday at the Foreign Ministry.
Surakiart said that he understood the firm British policy on the imposition
of sanctions on Burma because of its record on human rights and democracy.
However, he said such a policy should not hinder the efforts to comprehensively
tackle the drug scourge plaguing the region.
Surakiart urged Prescott to treat drugs and Burma as separate issues and
said that London should assist in the joint effort to address the problem. If
not, he said that Britain could end up being an end user [of the
Burmese-produced drugs] itself, he said.
Surakiart said Prescott personally concurred with the proposal and agreed
to discuss the matter with Britain's Foreign Minister Jack Straw. Prescott was
also very interested in the upcoming four-country drug summit in Kunming
involving Thailand, Burma, Laos and China.
At present, Britain along with its European Union allies is sticking to
stringent punitive measures against the military regime in Rangoon. Hence, every
kind of assistance, except on humanitarian grounds, is prohibited.
The European private sector has alsobeen discouraged in investing in
Burma.
Thailand and Britain also agreed to push the Kyoto Protocol forward at the
Convention on Climate Change amid concerns about the US' refusal to support the
agreement, which could unravel the whole process.
Surakiart said Thailand, which had already signed the protocol, would enter
into ratification if its vote would help in bringing the agreement into effect.
He pledged to submit the protocol for cabinet approval as soon as there was a
sign that there was significant support for it in the international
community.
So far, 84 countries have signed the protocol, of which 34 have ratified
it. The protocol requires at least 54 countries to ratify for it to be
effective, with half of them being major carbon-monoxide-emission nations.
Prescott stressed the need for cooperation and he said the Thai government
had made it clear that it wanted to see a movement towards the realisation of
the agreement.
He had visited India and China before coming to Thailand to open an
international conference on biotechnology food, co-sponsored by the British
government and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. He is
scheduled to leave for Japan today with the Kyoto protocol high on the
agenda.
Prescott welcomed the conference since it offered an avenue for exchange of
views between all parties concerned. He said the debate was "open and honest"
and the protests had not turned violent.
Meanwhile, Prescott asked Surakiart about the possibility of the British
Broadcasting Corporation's English-language news being broadcast on FM radio in
Thailand.
Both parties also agreed to enhance the exchange of information between the
two countries' private and public sectors regarding infrastructure-development
schemes.
---------------------------------------------------------------- Over 441,500 Motor Vehicles in
Operation in Myanmar
2001.07.11 11:21:02 YANGON, July 11 (Xinhuanet) --
The number of motor vehicles in operation in Myanmar reached 441,549 at
the end of February this year, an increase of 11,850 from a year ago,
according to government-released figures.
The official Economic Indicators, published by Myanmar's Central
Statistical Organization, said in its latest issue that the total
registered motor vehicles running in the country included 174,570
passenger cars, 53,816 trucks, 16,890 buses and 174,507 motor
cycles.
These motor vehicles used in Myanmar were mainly manufactured in
Japan and most of them are second-hand or outdated ones since the import
of brand-new vehicles decreased.
Meanwhile, more than 819,000 persons in Myanmar are holding driving
licenses, the country's Ministry of Transport disclosed.
Official statistics show that Myanmar has so far built 6,916.8 km of
roads since 1988 when the present government took office with its total
length extending up to 30,232.8 km now. Of them, 80 roads are designated as the
country's union highways stretching 24, 659 km.
Myanmar enacted a new Highways Law in November 2000, aimed at
bringing about easier communication and transportation among regions of
the country for quick flow of commodities.
The country has also laid down plans for systematic and better
transportation, building more new roads along with bridges in its bid to
uplift socio-economic life of local people and development of the nation.
Accordingly, there has been a number of local private companies building
roads in the country under the build-operate-transfer contracts with the
transport authorities.
---------------------------------------------------------------- The Straits Times - July 11,
2001.
CURBS ON OPPOSITION
Hopes for release of more Myanmar leaders By Geraldine Goh - IN JAKARTA MYANMAR'S leading opposition party has welcomed the release of another
batch of its members from detention, but has indicated that contrary to reports
of a political breakthrough with the government, there continues to be a
standoff.
Mr U Lwin, the National League for Democracy's (NLD) executive committee
secretary, said in a telephone interview from Yangon that talks between the two
sides, which started last October, had been progressing slowly.
He expressed relief that the ruling State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC) had released seven NLD members detained at military camps known as
'government guesthouses'.
But at the same time, he expressed hope that the government would lift
restrictions on three of the party's top leaders - including Nobel Peace
Laureate and NLD secretary-general Aung San Suu Kyi - who remain under house
arrest.
The other two key leaders are party chairman U Aung Shwe and vice-chairman
U Tin Oo who were placed under house arrest last September.
Mr U Lwin, who was Deputy Prime Minister from 1969 to 1980 during the
government of General Ne Win, said that recent 'positive' developments also
included the fact that the NLD had been allowed to reopen half of its 40 branch
offices in and around Yangon.
Last Friday, seven elected representatives of the NLD were freed from
detention - the fourth batch of releases in the past month.
They were among the last of some 200 supporters who were detained more than
three years ago when the NLD, which won the 1990 general election, tried to
unilaterally convene a Parliament.
Eight NLD members were released on June 14 this year, five others a week
later and nine more party members were set free on June 28.
Analysts saw the releases as indicating that the government was easing
restrictions on the party.
This was accompanied by more recent speculation that Ms Suu Kyi could be
released from house arrest.
This followed reports of a forthcoming visit to Yangon later this month by
Thai Defence Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, who has close ties with Myanmar's
military leadership.
The Thai minister has been quoted as saying that he is confident that the
current dialogue between the junta and the opposition could lead to
reconciliation.
---------------------------------------------------------------- The New Straits Times Press
July 11, 2001.
IPOH - Malaysia's forest management a
success
By P.Chandra Sagaran Malaysia has been listed as one of the countries to successfully implement
the sustainable forest management concept, according to a report released by the
International Tropical Timber Organisation recently.
The report, prepared by independent consultants Dr Duncan Poore and Thang
Hooi Chew, said that Malaysia, Cameroon, Indonesia, Guyana, Myanmar and Ghana
were managing some of their forests sustainably to achieve the ITTO Year 2000
objective.
This objective is that all exports of tropical timber products should come
from sustainably managed forests by 2000.
The report stated that Malaysia had a demarcated permanent forest area
complemented by protected areas and virgin jungle reserves.
It also said that progress had been made in most countries to establish
permanent forest areas.
However, they said illegal logging and poaching remained problems in many
countries.
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