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BURMA RELATED NEWS - August 29,
2001.
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HEADLINES
------------------------------------------------------------------ Reuters - Top Myanmar general to visit Thailand
next week
AFP - United Nations envoy meets with Aung San
Suu Kyi
Asia-Inc - Killing me softly...
AFP - UN envoy meets with Suu Kyi, diplomats,
ethnic leaders in Myanmar
AFP - ASEAN must integrate faster to face
Chinese challenge: Severino
AFP - by Karen Wong
AFP - Rise of new leaders augurs well for ASEAN,
but reforms are key: Severino
AP - Thai Police Crack Drugs Ring Laundering
Money On Thai SET
BBC - Burma envoy continues talks
ABC online - China promises to step up efforts
to stem flow of illegal drugs
The Nation - Workers get new freedom
The Nation - 'SET used in drug-cash scam'
Bkk Post - Report fingers Rangoon for state bias
against minorities
Bkk Post - Chavalit
tells Burma exiles not to rally
Kyodo News - U.N. envoy meets Myanmar
junta
------------------------------------------------------------------ Wednesday August 29, 1:59 PM
Top Myanmar general to visit Thailand next week BANGKOK, Aug 29 (Reuters) -
Myanmar military intelligence chief Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt will pay an
official visit to Thailand next week, officials said on Wednesday.
The September 3-5 visit by Khin Nyunt, who is Secretary One of the ruling
State Peace and Development Council is aimed at soothing tension over drugs
smuggling and border clashes.
"The bottom-up approach of negotiating between local units to solve
bilateral problems did not work since they were not authorised to make any real
decisions," Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Jongsak Panichkul told Reuters.
"So the top-down approach, where leaders of both sides meet regularly, will
help solve all the problems better."
Khin Nyunt, who will be the guest of Deputy Prime Minister and Defence
Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, will also be granted an audience with King
Bhumibol Adulyadej.
Relations between the two countries have hit fresh lows this year after a
series of clashes along their 2,400 km (1,490-mile) border. Both sides accuse
each other of backing ethnic minority armies involved in the narcotics trade.
Ties have improved since an official visit by Thai Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra to Yangon in June.
Chavalit, a former army commander and prime minister, often speaks of his
good relationship with key leaders in military-ruled Myanmar. He has been
promoting "defence diplomacy" where the military assists the foreign ministry in
promoting relations with other countries.
Khin Nyunt is to meet King Bhumibol on September 4, an honour usually given
to heads of state and very important national figures.
Other details of his visit were not disclosed for security reasons, but
Thai newspapers have reported he plans to visit Shin Corp Plc, a telecoms
company founded by Thaksin.
------------------------------------------------------------------ Tuesday August 28, 10:06 PM
United Nations envoy meets with Aung San Suu Kyi YANGON, Aug 28 (AFP) - UN envoy
to Myanmar Razali Ismail met with democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi at her
residence Tuesday as part of a mission to promote her historic dialogue with the
junta, sources said.
The Malaysian diplomat spent nearly two hours at the lakeside villa,
immediately after hour-long talks with the military regime's powerful
intelligence chief, Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt.
Razali arrived in Myanmar on Monday, a day after the junta released two
senior members of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) who had
been under virtual house arrest since September.
The release of Tin Oo and Aung Shwe, which was hailed as a significant
goodwill gesture by observers in Yangon, left Aung San Suu Kyi the sole NLD
leader confined to her house by the military regime.
Before the release of her two top lieutenants, the democracy leader was
said to be frustrated at the slow pace of the releases, with some 170 freed in
small groups since the secret talks began.
But the NLD said Monday that she "expressed great satisfaction" at the
decision to allow the pair to go free, a move that could help revive the party's
activities.
Observers hope that Razali's visit will accelerate the pace of the
dialogue, which he helped initiate last October.
The contacts, the first since 1994, are aimed at initiating an official
national reconciliation dialogue that could lead to democratic reforms after
four decades of absolute military rule.
Earlier Tuesday the UN envoy held talks with high-ranking officials,
including Foreign Minister Win Aung, and attended a luncheon for diplomats and
business leaders.
On Wednesday he is to meet with representatives of six pro-democracy ethnic
political parties who are anxious to be invited to join the 10-month-old talks
between the opposition and the junta.
He is expected to see both Khin Nyunt and Aung San Suu Kyi once more before
leaving, as he has on his previous four visits.
Sources told AFP that Razali appeared to be in good spirits at the luncheon
and hopeful his trip would be productive after months in which the process
appeared to have slowed down.
"Razali had not yet met any of the main players so he was not able to say
anything other than he is very hopeful that things will work out," said one of
the guests.
"But he seems to be in a happier frame of mind and I suppose we will know
more in the next few days."
Observers of the political process believe that at some stage, when there
have been enough prisoner releases, Aung San Suu Kyi will make a long-awaited
statement on the talks.
Diplomats say Razali plays a vital role in bridging the gap between the
generals and the democratic opposition, which has never been allowed to take
power despite winning a landslide election victory in 1990.
"As long as Razali is engaged, his visits have always had an impact, she
(Aung San Suu Kyi) will continue to put her trust in him," said one Western
ambassador.
------------------------------------------------------------------ Asia-Inc (Aug 27, 2001)
Killing me softly...
Dominic Faulder explains how corruption, ineptitude and sanctions have turned Myanmar into something less than an economic powerhouse By: Dominic Faulder BRIGADIER GENERAL ZAW THUN surveyed his rapt audience of business people
before making a startling admission in English. It would cost him his job as
deputy minister of national planning and economic development. "They're killing
me softly with the system," he confided. Addressing a seminar on the Burmese
economy, Zaw Thun had already run through a long list of how "they" - the
hardline generals of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) which rules
Myanmar - were doing just about everything wrong. "Some who are hold-ing
responsibility in the country lack proper awareness," he noted tactfully.
Zaw Thun's extraordinary address in July last year was probably the
frank-est admission of failure from a serving officer since General Ne Win
seized power in 1962. Ne Win set his country off along his idiosyncratic
"Burmese Road to Socialism", dispatching it to economic oblivion. Ne Win's
military heirs still cling to half- baked policies as often as not fuelled by
numerology and astrology. When news of his comments eventually leaked, Zaw Thun
was fired and confined to his home. The fact that he was subsequently released
may be attributable to his good connections to SPDC chairman Senior General Than
Shwe and former dictator Ne Win. The supernatural shrine in his father's
gar-den, of the type so beloved by many of the wives of the senior generals, is
also thought to have played a part in his avoiding a long meditational spell at
the capital's infamous Insein jail.
Zaw Thun, a perfectionist who reputedly once threw away his golf clubs in
frustration at his own shortcomings on the links, languishes out of office in
Yangon. It can be small consolation that his grim observations about the dire
state of the Burmese economy are even truer today than a year ago.
The double-digit GDP growth claimed by the junta, which Zaw Thun said was
at most 6%, has certainly dropped. Foreign exchange reserves were down to about
$US220 million in mid-2000, and cannot have improved. Despite the junta's
imposition of draconian import curbs, the annual balance of payments deficit has
been running at around $US500 million due to the almost total lack of domestic
manufacturing. Far from being self sufficient, the Burmese economy remains
dependent on imports for most consumer items, and also to meet its basic energy
requirements.
The cost of petrol and diesel jumped 50% to more than 900 kyat to the
gallon from April to May this year. In January and February, domestic crude oil
production was down 11%. Revenues from natural gas sales to Thailand have never
met expectations, and major investments are required if domestic oil and gas
deposits are ever to be exploited for domestic benefit.
This looks unlikely in even the medium term, given the sanctions imposed by
Western powers. Foreign direct investment dropped more than 50% in the first two
months of this year compared to 2000, totalling a paltry $US4 million; hardly a
statement of international confidence in the most resource-rich country in
South-East Asia. According to the Myanmar Times, residential rental rates are
down to about 40% of those in the "halcyon days" of 1996-97, evidence that
foreign investors and entrepreneurs are simply not setting up shop.
Last year, tourist arrivals fell nearly 10%, to 235,000, and dropped by
nearly a third in the first two months of this year. Official tourist figures
are dubious since they include cross-border movements. These have been adversely
affected by spats and closures along the troubled border with Thailand.
Even with the opening of a large international airport at Mandalay (a third
is on the way at Pegu, north of Yangon), Myanmar's overall tourism performance
remains dismal. Arrivals by air at Rangoon in the late 1980s were around 40,000
annually. In 2000, these had not even tripled to 120,000. By comparison,
Cambodia, a country with one-fourth the population of Myanmar, managed more than
400,000 visitors last year and is on course for one million in 2003. Yet, in all
South-East Asia, Myanmar's Pagan ranks a worthy second to Cambodia's Angkor
complex as a heritage attraction.
But if Zaw Thun has been vindicated in anything, it is the spectacular
crash of the kyat. Last year, he revealed that he had tried to persuade the
junta to deregulate and float the currency before 1996-97 when the market value
was between 150 to 200 kyat per dollar. He reckoned that the move then might
have knocked the free market value of the currency to about 300 kyat at that
time, but that by 2000 it would have tumbled to 600.
Ne Win's old fixed exchange rate of 6.7 kyat remains defiantly in place,
foiling the best efforts of many to do business with the country. However, in
mid-May, the free-market rate on the kyat plumbed record depths of 950 to the
dollar before rallying to around 740. Gold prices also rose steeply. The value
of Foreign Exchange Certificates, which visitors are forced to buy, has long
since diverged from their nominal dollar value.
Many observers contend that Myanmar's mounting economic crisis can be
traced back to well before the Asian economic flu struck in 1997, and is firmly
rooted in the junta's economic ineptitude and misgovernance.
Certainly, Myanmar has well and truly missed the foreign-investment boat,
which is unlikely to come around again any time soon. Myanmar gained little
impetus from the regional boom of the 1990s in large part because of the
regime's inability to implement meaningful economic and political reform.
Have sanctions aggravated this situation? "Absolutely," says Maureen
Aung-Thwin of the Open Society in New York. "But worse than actual sanctions is
the fact that, under the present political and economic situation, even if
sanctions were lifted, companies - not major Western ones - wouldn't rush in."
Over the past three years, the junta has been increasingly circumspect
about the economic data that it reveals. This serves to cloud, but not conceal,
the severity of the crisis. "I think the situation is bad, but I don't know how
bad," concedes Tin Maung Than, one of Myanmar's best known journalists, who
lives in exile in Bangkok. "How, when foreign reserves are only meant to be
worth two months' of imports, can they survive?" he asks.
Black revenues from the booming narcotics trade may be part of the answer.
Myanmar's unbridled drug industry, which can only benefit from Taleban curbs on
opium production in Afghanistan, has reduced relations with Thailand to near
military and open verbal warfare. Even Thailand's cherished royals have been
lambasted recently in the Burmese state media, and one of their projects
shelled.
Perhaps the only upside in this economic quagmire is that the junta finally
seems to have been forced to enter into a dialogue of sorts with Aung San Suu
Kyi's National League for Democracy. Closer to power, her party would
undoubtedly attract the multilateral assistance denied to the junta. "Neither
side has a way out, but there are some areas open to compromise," argues Tin
Maung Than.
But the NLD is by no means a catch-all solution. The party has been
devastated. Even without making any allowance for its wholly forgivable
inexperience in government, 38 of the MPs elected in 1990 are dead, 74 have been
locked up in one way or another, and 123 have been coerced into resigning.
Others have fled abroad.
------------------------------------------------------------------ Wednesday August 29, 5:29 PM
UN envoy meets with Suu Kyi, diplomats, ethnic leaders in Myanmar YANGON, Aug 29 (AFP) - UN envoy
Razali Ismail met with democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and top members of her
party Wednesday, and scheduled talks with diplomats and ethnic leaders as he
worked to speed democratic reform in Myanmar.
The Malaysian diplomat, whose fifth trip to the military-run country ends
Thursday, consulted widely among the groups whose support will be crucial in any
transition to civil government.
He made a return visit to Aung San Suu Kyi's lakeside residence where he
spent almost two hours the previous day discussing her landmark dialogue with
the junta which began 10 months ago.
On the eve of Razali's arrival Monday the regime released two top members
of the opposition National League Democracy (NLD), but the party's figurehead
remains under loose house arrest restrictions imposed last September.
Razali visited the NLD's downtown headquarters earlier Wednesday for
meetings with its decision-making body, the Central Executive Committee, as he
tried to accelerate the pace of the political thaw.
He was characteristically tight-lipped after the talks, saying he had "no
statement to make", but a senior party spokesman confirmed that a mood of
cautious optimism continued to prevail.
"We did have many problems to talk about and we are satisfied he understood
them. His main function here is to mediate and facilitate and he said he would
do everything in his power to achieve success," said party spokesman U
Lwin.
The NLD secretary sidestepped suggestions that Aung San Suu Kyi had become
frustrated over the slow pace of prisoner releases which form a vital part of
the confidence-building process set in motion by Razali.
"We have already called for the release of all political prisoners and we
will continue to do so," he said.
"We have our speed and they have their speed," he said when asked whether
the release of almost 200 of Myanmar's estimated 1,800 political prisoners over
recent months had been enough to satisfy the party.
With the release of top NLD members Tin Oo and Aung Shwe over the weekend,
rumours are beginning to swirl that another development may be in the offing,
such as a statement on the content and progress of the secret dialogue.
But U Lwin said it was impossible to say what the next move would be in the
reconciliation process which has moved painfully slowly since starting late last
year.
"I'm not a fortune teller and I can't foresee the future," he said.
As well as seeing Aung San Suu Kyi Wednesday Razali is due to hold a
session with diplomats from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN).
His packed schedule includes talks with non-governmental organisations as
well as the ethnic political parties who have expressed frustration over their
exclusion from the dialogue between the democratic opposition and the military
government.
In the evening he will hold a dinner meeting with diplomats from the OECD
(Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) nations.
Razali is to leave Yangon at noon Thursday (0530 GMT) with a stop-over in
the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur before flying to New York where he will
report on the visit to UN chief Kofi Annan.
------------------------------------------------------------------ Wednesday August 29, 4:50 PM
ASEAN must integrate faster to face Chinese challenge: Severino SINGAPORE, Aug 29 (AFP) - The
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) must integrate its economies
faster if it wants to compete with giant neighbour China, the head of the
regional bloc said Wednesday.
"ASEAN countries recognize that they must integrate their economies faster
because investors are looking for large, integrated markets rather than small,
fragmented ones," ASEAN Secretary-General Rodolfo Severino said.
Speaking at a university forum here, Severino said: "ASEAN knows that it
must strengthen its competitiveness internally."
As a group, ASEAN's 10 member countries represent a market of 500 million
people and an attractive base for multinational companies.
The surge of China's economy and the rush of investments there has been
taken as challenges by ASEAN, which groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, he
said.
To better compete, ASEAN members must remove bottlenecks and efficiencies
in essential services, reduce corruption, maintain the rule of law, undertake a
massive overhaul of educational systems and promote the use of information
technology, he said.
Severino said the key to ASEAN's competitiveness is the successful
implementation of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) which commits the group's
more developed members to slash tariffs to between zero and five percent by 2003
and at a later date for the poorer members.
But members can go further to bring down tariffs to zero and eliminate
non-tariff barriers.
Members should also promote products standardization, liberalize trade in
services one or several steps ahead of the World Trade Organization, enhance
physical linkages through railways and road networks and integrate domestic
telecommunications systems, he said.
Among the most difficult areas would be harmonizing domestic laws and
regulations that affect trade and investments, including rules of fair trade,
competition policy, government procuremement, products standards and environment
standards, he said.
------------------------------------------------------------------ Wednesday August 29, 7:57 PM
by Karen Wong
HONG KONG, Aug 29 (AFP) - South
East Asian countries have to look within their own region for future economic
growth rather than relying on the United States, the head of a regional economic
council said Wednesday.
"ASEAN has to look within itself. It has to look somewhat inward," the
secretary-general of the Pacific Basin Economic Council (PBEC) Robert Lees said
in an interview.
Member countries of the Association of South East Asian Nationshave seen
their economic growth weaken or disappear in the face of the US-led global
slowdown.
Due to increased competition around the world, it is getting harder to
"export yourself out of your problems", he said citing the example of
Japan.
He said the United States has been the main engine of the world economy and
since the Asian financial crisis, which broke out in mid-1997, the US has been
the "only game in town".
"That's just not sustainable," Lees said.
ASEAN has to "get its proverbial act together".
"And how? By really have leaders get together... to say that we have to
make this ASEAN free trade area work."
"The barriers have to go down, as you know there is still evidence there to
protect their own little interests and certain industries."
The ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) commits the group's six more developed
members to slash tariffs to between zero and five percent by 2003 and at a later
date for the poorer members. Malaysia has won agreement for its motor vehicle
industry to be exempted from AFTA until 2005.
Lees said the total population of half a billion people in the 10 ASEAN
member states makes the region a "very interesting market".
PBEC is a US-based business organisation which boasts a membership of more
than 1,100 corporations in 20 economies around the Pacific Rim.
Lees' comments in Hong Kong, echoed those made by the head of the regional
bloc who was speaking at a university forum in Singapore on Wednesday.
"ASEAN countries have to recognize that they must integrate their economies
faster because investors are looking for large, integrated markets rather than
small, fragmented ones," ASEAN Secretary-General Rodolfo Severino said.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Lees said a positive sign for the region was recent leadership changes in
countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia.
"After a period of weak leadership, I think we're now starting to see some
strength on the leadership front," he said.
However, he noted that better corporate governance and transparency were
needed to attract foreign investors.
Governments have to take a tough stand against corruption. They have to pay
civil servants "decent living wages" so they would not be tempted into
corruption. The increased use of technology would improve transparency, for
example by introducing online bidding for government contracts, Lees said.
------------------------------------------------------------------ Wednesday August 29, 6:42 PM
Rise of new leaders augurs well for ASEAN, but reforms are key: Severino SINGAPORE, Aug 29 (AFP) - The
emergence of new and younger leaders in the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) has laid the foundation for a return of investor confidence, but
policy reforms remain the key, ASEAN chief Rodolfo Severino said
Wednesday.
"It requires more than young leaders to convince investors. What matters is
policy," Severino said in an interview with AFP.
He said the rise to power of Megawati Sukarnoputri in Indonesia, Gloria
Arroyo in the Philippines and Thaksin Shinawatra in Thailand should stabilise
the region and help put it back on the radar screens of investors.
With these new leaders in place, "we see the beginnings of coherent
policies in some of the major economies of ASEAN," he said.
He described the flurry of diplomacy that saw Megawati tour all 10 ASEAN
members and Arroyo and Thaksin visiting Singapore last week as a "good
coincidence".
These visits "brought attention to ASEAN and it focused the minds of these
leaders on ASEAN at the same time" ahead of a summit of Southeast Asian leaders
in Brunei in November, he said.
Megawati's choice of cabinet officials, which has won praise and led to the
signing of a letter of intent with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), would
be helpful for investments into ASEAN's biggest country, said Severino, who was
in Singapore to speak at a university symposium.
The agreement with the IMF, which would allow the resumption of loans of up
to five billion US dollars, "should bolster investor confidence and subject
Indonesia to certain standards that they have to abide by," he said.
But he said Indonesia was not yet over the hump, as it faced challenges to
restore the rule of law, deal with separatist threats as well as human resource
development and integrating with the rest of the region.
"You can't resolve these overnight. The important thing is to make clear
the basis for growth... is laid so that investments will come in anticipation of
the growth," he said.
"Until we see a self-sustaining inflow of investments, then we cannot say
that Indonesia is over the hump. It takes more than a change of president," he
added.
Speaking to students at the National University of Singapore earlier
Wednesday, Severino said ASEAN must integrate its economies faster and find new
niches if it wants to compete with giant neighbour China.
"ASEAN countries recognize that they must integrate their economies faster
because investors are looking for large, integrated markets rather than small,
fragmented ones," he said.
In the interview, he said ASEAN was "moving in that direction but, because
there are 10 members involved, maybe the decision making process is slower than
I would like."
As a group, ASEAN's 10 member countries -- Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia,
Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam --
represent a market of 500 million people and a more attractive base for
multinational companies.
Severino said the key to ASEAN's competition was the successful
implementation of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) which commits the group's
more developed members to slash tariffs to between zero and five percent by 2003
and at a later date for the poorer members.
But members can go further to bring down tariffs to zero and eliminate
non-tariff barriers and customs bottlenecks.
"In my mind we'll have to move a bit faster on services, on transportation,
on harmonisation of rules, on product standards and make sure that the AFTA
commitments stick," he said.
In addition, ASEAN had to reduce corruption, maintain the rule of law,
undertake a massive overhaul of educational systems, promote the use of
information technology and integrate domestic telecommunications. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Wednesday August 29, 2:30 PM
Thai Police Crack Drugs Ring Laundering Money On Thai SET BANGKOK (AP)--Thai Police said
Wednesday that they have cracked a drugs ring that laundered at least 70 million
baht ($1=THB44.24) on the Stock Exchange of Thailand.
Five Thai suspects were arrested and more than one million methamphetamine
pills seized in sting operations in the cities of Chonburi, Chiang Mai, Chiang
Rai and Bangkok Monday and Tuesday.
Police Col. Vichai Saengprapai, chief investigator for the case, said one
of the suspects, Chadaporn Euachua, had laundered at least THB70 million of
black money through Adkinson Securities Co. (H.ADK) on the Thai stock market.
Police believed the cash was linked to the United Wa State Army, an ethnic
army in neighboring Myanmar thought by narcotics experts to be the main producer
of illegal drugs in Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle. Huge quantities of heroin
and methamphetamines are smuggled from Myanmar, also known as Burma, to
Thailand.
Thai narcotic suppression police and the Anti-Money Laundering Commission
say they have launched a nationwide crackdown against black money as part of a
concerted attempt by Thailand to control the drugs menace.
"This is the first case that we discovered of drugs money laundered through
a securities company," Vichai said.
The five suspects were detained on charges of conspiring to traffic drugs
and with violating the money laundering act, he said.
A spokeswoman for Adkinson Securities Co. said that the company was shocked
by the allegation of money laundering and was investigating. It would issue a
statement later, she said, on customary condition of anonymity.
Police said the THB70 million money was transferred from two Thai
companies, Siam Power 1999 Co. and Chanayon Import-Export Co. for investment in
stocks through Adkinson Securities.
A spokeswoman for the Stock Exchange of Thailand, or SET, said it wasn't
the duty of the SET to investigate the case, but rather the anti-money
laundering commission. She spoke on customary condition of anonymity.
------------------------------------------------------------------ BBC - Tuesday, 28 August, 2001, 16:06
GMT 17:06 UK
Burma envoy continues talks By Larry Jagan in Bangkok United Nations special envoy Razali Ismail is continuing his efforts to
mediate between Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the country's
military rulers.
The Malaysian diplomat met General Than Shwe and military intelligence
chief Lt General Khin Nyunt before visiting Aung San Suu Kyi in her home.
She has been under house arrest since last September.
Talks, initiated by Mr Razali, have been going on for nearly a year.
On the eve of this trip, Burma's military junta released two other senior
leaders of the National League for Democracy, Aung Shwe and Tin U.
With their release, the NLD can now work much more effectively.
Aung Shwe and Tin U have held several long meetings with Aung San Suu Kyi.
The main issue for the NLD remains the release of more political prisoners.
There are more than 1,500 political prisoners still in Burma's jails.
A senior NLD member told the BBC that Aung San Suu Kyi's message to Mr
Razali was very clear - the military government should release all political
prisoners as soon as possible as a goodwill gesture.
Timetable for releases
A party spokesman said they accepted that not all prisoners could be
released immediately, but a timetable should be drawn up aiming to free them all
by the end of the year.
The NLD is also beginning to feel that talks should proceed beyond what it
calls the confidence-building stage.
Party leaders understand that the military must see benefits from
continuing the talks.
As a result, the NLD's leaders are prepared to see the international
community offer Burma what it calls limited assistance.
A senior NLD source said humanitarian aid for child care, health and
education would be considered acceptable if the military agreed to certain
benchmarks.
It now remains for Mr Razali to convince the Burmese generals that they
should accept the NLD's proposals.
Only then will the international community consider reducing Rangoon's
economic isolation.
------------------------------------------------------------------ BBC - Tuesday, 28 August, 2001, 17:34
GMT 18:34 UK
Asian states anti-drugs initiative China and three of its South East Asian neighbours have pledged to increase
cooperation to tackle the region's drugs trade.
The agreement between China, Thailand, Laos and Burma includes law
enforcement agencies sharing more intelligence reports in the hunt for drug
traffickers; opium farmers in the region will also be encouraged to grow other
crops.
The moves were agreed during two-day talks between representatives of the
four countries in Beijing.
China estimates that 80% of the drugs entering the country come from the
Golden Triangle on the borders between Thailand, Burma and Laos.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
------------------------------------------------------------------ Australian Broadcasting Corporation
August 29, 2001.
China promises to step up efforts
to stem flow of illegal drugs
China is promising to step up its efforts to stem the flow of illegal drugs
pouring across its borders.
China correspondent Tom O'Byrne reports the heads of regional anti-drug
agencies have been meeting in the Chinese capital.
The ambitious promise from China's top anti-drugs police officer comes amid
sobering statistics that 80-percent of all China's drug traffic is now entering
through the so-called Golden Triangle that includes Laos, Burma and Thailand.
The drug law enforcement heads of all four countries have vowed to improve their
co-operation in a bid to slow the cross-border boom in heroin, opium and
amphetamine traffic, notably the designer drug ICE. Official Chinese statistics
show more than 10-tons of heroin and ice have been confiscated in the southern
region so far this year, but widespread corruption and graft have left the
country's borders porous to illegal drug traffic.
------------------------------------------------------------------ The Nation
Workers get new freedom
Naridsa Sooksanan
Published on Aug 29, 2001
More than three million foreign labourers already in the country are
expected to register after the Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to permit an
unlimited number of them to work in any province and at almost any job they
choose.
The programme allows migrant labourers to be able to work without the
restrictions on numbers, geographical areas and types of work that they had
earlier faced. Previous administrations had allowed them to work only in certain
industries located mainly in border provinces.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet ordered state security agencies to seal all borders
yesterday to prevent a flood of foreigners pouring into the country to take
advantage of the decision.
Labour Minister Dej Boonlong urgently pushed forward the proposal for
Cabinet approval as Friday's deadline to allow illegal foreign workers to stay
in the country was drawing near.
A few days earlier Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said he had rejected
the Labour Ministry's plan because it lacked support measures and punishment to
prevent the influx of foreign workers. He ordered the National Security Council
to draft measures to prevent a surge of criminal activities and an influx of
foreign labourers that might result from the relaxation of restrictions.
"Police said their computers are full of records of crimes committed by
these foreign migrants. Some were repatriated but then they come back,'' Thaksin
said.
While Thaksin is in China on his official visit, Dej said he asked Deputy
Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh to have the Cabinet decide on the
proposal.
Foreign labourers would be permitted to work in agricultural and livestock
farming, mining, brick and porcelain factories, construction, rice mills,
fisheries, manual labour, domestic work and other kinds of jobs.
They would not be subject to paying taxes and would not be covered by the
daily minimum wage law. They would have to renew their work permit twice a year
and face repatriation for failing to do so in time.
The Cabinet gave the Labour Ministry 30 days to prepare for the
registration.
The ministry requested Bt20.8 million to cover the cost of hiring temporary
staff for the registration.
Labour permanent secretary Irawat Chanprasert said employers had already
notified the ministry that they would bring as many as 810,000 foreign workers
to register with the ministry. Samut Sakhon was reported to have the most
migrant workers wanting to register with 100,000, followed by Ranong with 43,000
and Phang-nga with 37,000.
Irawat estimated that more than 100,000 employers in Bangkok are expected
to take their foreign maids to register with the ministry. "Having them legally
registered would help prevent crimes because we would have their records,'' he
said.
Prapat Photiworakul, chairman of the Employer Organisation Council, said he
supported the government's decision but opposed the collecting of Bt4,450 fee
per worker per year. The fee might drive employers to paying less "under the
table", he said. "The government used to charge Bt3,500 but only a small number
of workers turned up to register," he said.
He called on the government to reconsider the amount of the fee before
implementing the plan.
------------------------------------------------------------------ The Nation
'SET used in drug-cash scam'
Published on Aug 29, 2001
Police have uncovered a major drug-trafficking network suspected of
laundering money through a securities company.
The nationwide crackdown included operations in the northern city of Chiang
Rai as well as Bangkok and Chon Buri. Police said they had linked a supply of
amphetamine precursor chemicals from the United Wa State Army to cash
transactions used to buy shares in Thai firms listed on the Stock Exchange of
Thailand through Adkinson Securities Co.
Five people were arrested with "ya ba" methamphetamine pills, guns and
Bt3.35 million in cash in Chon Buri, said Lt General Anant Piromkao, the
Metropolitan Police Commissioner.
The five, led by Chadaporn Euachua, were arrested following confessions
from three other suspects who earlier confessed to having obtained ya ba from
the Chadaporn gang.
The money was transferred through Siam Power 1999 Co and Chanayon
Import-Export Co when they invested Bt72 million in stocks through Adkinson
Securities Co as a legitimate concern.
In a related development, the Anti-Money Laundering Commis-sion said
yesterday it had seized more than Bt500 million in assets and cash earned in
four drug transactions, its secretary-general Pol Lt Wassana Permlap said
yesterday.
Police arrested 11 drug suspects and seized Bt4.8 million in cash, bank
accounts worth Bt3.4 million, 27 ornaments, title deeds to 351 rai of land, two
traditional Thai-style teak houses, four cars, four motorcycles, 10 trucks,
pistols, computers and mobile phones.
Among the suspects were Pol Sgt Pornchai Menkam of Mae Fah Luang district
police station, a border patrol police officer and Kamnan Chankaew Suprakan |of
Tambon Pasak, Chiang Saen district.
------------------------------------------------------------------ Bangkok Post - August 29,
2001.
BURMA - Report fingers Rangoon for
state bias against minorities
Issue to be raised at Durban conference
A report documenting forced labour and discrimination against ethnic
minorities in Burma was released yesterday on the eve of Friday's World
Conference Against Racism in Durban.
``For an ethnic minority in Burma, where one of the world's most repressive
regimes holds power, discrimination is a part of life,'' said Naw Musi, an
ethnic Karen and Thailand-based co-ordinator of EarthRights International's
Women's Rights Project.
``My colleagues and I have experienced this first hand, and now we have
interviewed scores of victims who confirm the widespread pattern of ethnic
discrimination in my country by the military junta.''
The report, Valued Less Than A Milk Tin, was researched by staff of
EarthRights International who interviewed mainly Karen and Shan victims of
state-sponsored discrimination, forced labour, rape, destruction of identities
and suppression of language.
The report documents state-sponsored discrimination against minorities in
schools and government institutions, discriminatory violence in conflict zones,
and a pattern of targeting minorities for the worst abuses of forced
labour.
EarthRights International will use the Durban conference to call on the
Burmese junta to sign and ratify the International Convention on the Elimination
of Racial Discrimination, allow the use and teaching of ethnic minority
languages, culture and history, and eliminate the use of forced labour and
forced relocation by the military.
------------------------------------------------------------------ Bangkok Post - August 29,
2001.
KHIN NYUNT VISIT
Chavalit tells Burma exiles not to rally
Defence Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh yesterday warned Burmese students
against a reported plan to stage a protest in Thailand during the visit by
Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt on Sept 3-5.
Gen Chavalit said it would be improper for Burmese students to stage any
move or protest on Thai soil, especially when Burma's State Peace and
Development Council's first secretary is in Thailand as the government's
guest.
The visit would help push for policy implementation since further talks
would be held on issues discussed by both sides during the Thai authorities'
recent visit to Rangoon, he said.
The defence minister said issues included fishery and alien labour
problems, the repatriation of Burmese refugees, and trade and investment
co-operation.
------------------------------------------------------------------ U.N. envoy meets Myanmar
junta
Wednesday, August 29, 2001 at 09:30 JST YANGON — (Kyodo News) U.N.
special envoy to Myanmar Razali Ismail met Tuesday with the ruling junta's first
secretary, Lt Gen Khin Nyunt, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Japanese
Ambassador to Myanmar Shigeru Tsumori separately.
Razali met the Japanese ambassador in the morning, Khin Nyunt at the
Defense Ministry in the afternoon for about a 70-minute discussion, then went to
Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi's home in the early evening.
------------------------------------------------------------------
U.N. envoy meets Suu Kyi
again
YANGON, Aug. 29, Kyodo - U.N. special envoy Razali Ismail called on
Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi again Wednesday afternoon, the second
meeting since Razali arrived in Yangon earlier this week.
He met with the Nobel Peace Prize laureate for two hours Tuesday evening. After a working lunch with ambassadors to Myanmar from the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, China, Japan and South Korea at a hotel, Razali went to meet with Suu Kyi for another hour and a half. Earlier Wednesday, Razali had a more than one-hour discussion with eight executive committee members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) at the NLD head office in Yangon. It is not immediately known why he called on Suu Kyi again. Razali is charged with convincing Myanmar's ruling generals to cede to a democratically elected government. ------------------------------------------------------------------ |