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BURMA RELATED NEWS - October
01, 2001.
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HEADLINES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reuters - India ONGC Videsh in talks for Myanmar
exploration
Reuters - Former
Myanmar leader in Singapore for treatment
Financial Express - OVL likely to pick 30% in
Daewoo’s Myanmar project
Bkk Post - Alien worker headcount needs army
help
Bkk Post - TB, Aids
may ravage villages on border
Bkk Post - Group seeks
action on illegal aliens
Xinhuanet - Construction of ICT Park Under Way
in Myanmar
NSTP - Immigration detains 11 foreigners as part
of fake passport scam
Irrawaddy online - Burmese Journalist
Receives Award
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday October 1, 3:41 PM
India ONGC Videsh in talks for Myanmar
exploration
BOMBAY, Oct 1 (Reuters) - ONGC
Videsh, a subsidiary of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation is in talks with Korea's
Daewoo International Corp <47050.KS> and Indonesia's Pertamina, for
investments in exploration blocks in Myanmar, a senior official said on Monday.
"We are in talks with many companies including Daewoo and Pertamina for
exploration blocks in the region," the official who did not wish to be named
told Reuters.
He declined to give details of the discussions.
The Financial Express newspaper said on Monday ONGC Videsh was in advanced
negotiations with Daewoo International to pick up a 30 percent stake in the
Arakan offshore exploration block, near Myanmar's border with Bangladesh.
The block in the Bengal basin is estimated to have eight trillion cubic
feet of gas reserves, it said.
The paper quoting unnamed sources said ONGC Videsh was also in talks with
Indonesia's state-run oil company Pertamina for investing in two blocks in
Moattama offshore.
ONGC Videsh has been seeking opportunities abroad as the domestic output of
state-run ONGC, India's largest oil exploration firm, has been falling because
its main oil fields are declining.
It is already negotiating for exploration blocks in Iran, Iraq, Indonesia,
Algeria, Libya and Venezuela.
ONGC Videsh currently has a 20-percent stake in the giant Russian field,
Sakhalin-1 and a 45-percent stake in a gas field in Vietnam.
Former Myanmar leader in Singapore for
treatment
YANGON, REUTERS, Oct. 1 -
Former Myanmar military leader Ne Win, who ruled the reclusive country for more
than 25 years and is still rumoured to wield behind-the-scenes influence, has
travelled to Singapore for medical treatment, sources said.
''Ne Win left for Singapore for medical treatment on September 29,'' a
source close to Ne Win's family told Reuters.
The 91-year-old Ne Win, who has suffered strokes in the past, has at times
travelled secretly to Singapore for medical treatment since relinquishing formal
power in 1988.
His last public appearance was in March 2001, when he held a party at a
Yangon hotel and provided brunch for 99 monks.
Ne Win believes the number nine has mystical significance, and in 1987
replaced the country's banknotes with denominations which are multiples of nine,
such as 45-kyat and 90-kyat notes.
Then army commander Ne Win seized power in a coup in 1962 and ruled the
country until 1998, when he relinquished the leadership of the Burma Socialist
Programme Party.
Under his system of a ''Burmese way to Socialism,'' the country went from
being one of the richest nations in Asia to one of the poorest.
Although Ne Win no longer has a formal political role, he is believed to
still command influence and respect among the country's current military
rulers. Financial express(India)
OVL likely to pick 30% in Daewoo’s Myanmar project Anupama Airy New Delhi, Sept 30: ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) — the international arm of Oil
and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) — is in the advanced stages of negotiations
with Daewoo International Corporation of Korea for picking up 30 per cent stake
in an offshore exploration block in Myanmar.
The offshore block (A-1) in Bengal basin is estimated to have eight
trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas reserves and is currently fully-owned by Daewoo
International. The exact location of the block is in the Arakan offshore in
northwestern offshore Myanmar, near the border with Bangladesh.
Company sources revealed that Daewoo has agreed to farm out 30 per cent
stake in this block to OVL, provided the latter is prepared to bear 200 per cent
of the participating interest through the first extension period ie the drilling
stage.
OVL, sources said, has agreed in-principle to this condition laid by Daewoo
and is finalising other details with the owners, including the possibility of
acquiring ‘operatorship rights’.
The Sangu field, which is a producing gas field of about one tcf, is also
located in offshore Bangladesh to the north of Block-A in the same basin. An
approval to invest in Block A1 in offshore Myanmar has been given by OVL’s board
last month, sources said.
Top official sources said that even Gas Authority of India (Gail) has
evinced keen interest in picking up 10 per cent stake in this block and has also
recently made an offer to Daewoo Corp. Company sources said that OVL had earlier
approached Gail to make a joint offer to Daewoo but Gail had gone ahead and
submitted its independent offer of 10 per cent in July this year.
Petroleum ministry officials said that as OVL has been made by the
government as a nodal agency to invest in oil and gas blocks abroad, Gail may be
asked to join hands with OVL and the two can together submit a joint bid. “Even
IndianOil is doing the same thing and is submitting joint bids with OVL for all
overseas oil and gas blocks,” the officials said.
Investment in this block of Daewoo was also recommended by a team of senior
petroleum officials, who recently visited Myanmar in April this year. OVL is
also looking at investing in other two blocks (M1 and M2 in Moattama offshore)
and has initiated talks with Pertamina of Indonesia for jointly investing in
these blocks.
OVL officials said that OVL and Pertamina have agreed to co-operate in the
exploration projects in third-world countries as per an MoU signed in November
last year.
During discussions with Pertamina, Myanmar was identified as a potential
country for joint participation. “OVL now plans to pursue jointly with Gail and
Pertamina the detailed technical and commercial evaluation of exploration blocks
M-1 and M-2 in Myanmar,” the officials said.
Bangkok Post - October 01,
2001.
Alien worker headcount needs army help The Employment Department will ask the military and other agencies to
co-operate in the registration of immigrant workers.
Pusak Thammasarn, deputy department chief, said almost 500,000 alien
workers were expected to register with labour offices. More than 60,000 migrant
workers were registered as of Thursday.
Mr Pusak said local labour offices were asked to seek the co-operation of
military units to facilitate the registration of alien workers.
In Chiang Rai, a total of 7,746 immigrant workers were registered with
labour authorities during the last four days. Among the registered workers were
7,589 Burmese, 155 Lao and two Cambodians.
Bangkok Post - October 01,
2001.
TB, Aids may ravage villages on border
Teerawat Khamthita
Tuberculosis and Aids have emerged as major threats to villagers living
along the Thai-Burmese border.
Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan said it was increasingly likely
these two deadly diseases would quickly spread along the border.
The minister on Saturday went to Tachilek in Burma, opposite Mae Sai
district, to co-chair a health exhibition with her Burmese counterpart Maj-Gen
Ket Sein.
Government spokesman Yongyuth Tiyapairat said ties between Burma and
Thailand would improve if the two countries joined forces to tackle the
diseases.
Sources said many Burmese and Shan women increasingly crossed the border to
work in Mae Sai brothels.
Young girls were reportedly paid 3,000-5,000 baht to relinquish their
virginity. But brothel operators invariably received half the girls'
money.
Bangkok Post - October 01,
2001.
Group seeks action on illegal aliens
Local communities and business groups have urged the government to tackle
problems caused by foreigners slipping into the country illegally.
Senator Udon Tantisunthorn said for over 10 years the country had to
shoulder the burden of housing almost 200,000 illegal aliens, most of whom
escaped unrest in Burma.
More than 100,000 Burmese also entered the country illegally and took up
jobs here.
The alien workers infiltrated the workforce and previous governments failed
to either register them as legal workers or force them out. Their numbers were
increasing every year, he said.
Repatriating them was not the solution, he said, since they were bound to
return to escape hardship at home.
The senator suggested the Burmese government be asked to find them jobs so
they wouldn't be tempted to come back to Thailand.
Paniti Tungpati, president of the Tak Chamber of Commerce, said fostering
unity in Burma would lessen conflict there and decrease the chances of Burmese
fleeing to Thailand.
Construction of ICT Park Under Way
in Myanmar
Xinhuanet 2001.10.01 20:40:55 YANGON, October 1 (Xinhuanet)
-- Myanmar is building an Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
Park in the capital of Yangon, aimed at paving the way for the country's youths
to enter the field of computer science, widening the future
information technology (IT) field and accelerating its functions.
According to sources at the Myanmar Computer Technology Development
Council Monday, as soon as the building of the ICT park, which includes a
telecommunication data center, is completed, exhibitions, workshops and seminars
will be held and training courses be conducted at the park to accelerate
the development rate of work related to ICT.
The ICT park is believed to render much assistance to Myanmar to
partake in the globally developing software program with the country's
available human resources.
Myanmar has been striving for the development of the ICT, working out
strategies and policies to meet the challenges arising in this knowledge age and
participate in the global competition.
Accordingly, the Myanmar government is giving encouragement and incentive
to investment in the field by private sector, especially in education and human
resources development for the IT.
In cooperation with fellow members of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN), Myanmar joined in signing the Electronic (e)-ASEAN
Framework Agreement in November 2000, pledging to implement the e-ASEAN
initiative to strive for providing access to the country's 52 million
people having a tele- density of 0.53 per 100 people.
The New Straits Times Press - October
01. 2001.
PENANG Immigration detains 11 foreigners as part of fake passport scam by Aida Ahmad The Penang Immigration Department detained 11 foreigners for not having
proper documents in two raids recently.
Among them were three women who were believed to be members of a major
syndicate specialising in issuing false work permits and fake passports.
An Immigration enforcement team raided a flat in Taman Tun Hussain,
Seberang Jaya on Sept 21 and arrested two Indonesian women and a man from
Myanmar.
In a follow-up action on Sept 24, the detained Myanmar national led a team,
headed by enforcement unit chief Bardril Mohd Yusof, to a house in Jalan P
Ramlee where they arrested five more illegal immigrants.
"The house was used by the syndicate to distribute false stickers and
rubber stamps to the immigrants whom they harboured," department director Mohd
Zamberi Abdul Aziz said at a Press conference in his office here today.
The enforcement unit seized, among other things, 113 false rubber stamps of
Malaysian, Myanmar, Thailand, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Singapore immigration
authorities, 17 false temporary employment passes, three false Thai Visa
stickers, four rubber stamps, 10 false foreign workers' identity cards and a
false Fomema health card.
They also confiscated a false front cover of an Indonesian passport and 35
false Myanmar, Thailand, Bangladesh, Nepal and Indonesian passports.
The suspects are being investigated under Section 55(D) of the Immigration
Act 1959/63 for making, falsifying or altering visiting passes, rubber stamps or
passports.
They face a penalty of a maximum 10 years' imprisonment or a fine of not
more than RM30,000 and whipping, upon conviction.
"We believe that the syndicate's masterminds are still at large," said Mohd
Zamberi.
He added that through investigations, the syndicate had been operating here
since early this year.
Irrawaddy online
Burmese Journalist Receives
Award
By Zarny Win October 1, 2001—An imprisoned Burmese journalist will be awarded the
International Press Freedom Award in abstentia by the Toronto-based Canadian
Journalists for Free _expression_ (CJFE). CJFE announced last week that it had
chosen Myo Myint Nyein as one of two winners for this year’s award.
The Washington-based Burma Media Association (BMA) nominated Myo Myint
Nyein for the award earlier this year. Human rights groups and Burmese political
groups working in exile supported the nomination. Myo Myint Nyein’s daughter
along with one BMA representative will receive the award on his behalf on
November 8th in Canada.
"I'm very proud of my father," said his daughter Darli Myo Myint Nyein who
now lives in Japan. "I am pleased that he participated in these activities for
the sake of the people and the country," she added.
Myo Myint Nyein was the editor of Payphuhlwar, a former monthly magazine in
Burma, before his incarceration. He is currently in Tharawaddy prison, in lower
Burma.
He was sentenced to seven years in prison in 1990 on charges of
contributing to an anti-government publication. He was given an additional seven
years in 1995 along with twenty-three other inmates for smuggling information
out of prison regarding conditions at Rangoon’s Insein prison. The report was
read at the Annual Meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission that
year.
This is the second Burmese journalist to receive the award. Daw San San
Nweh also received the award in 1998 before being released earlier this year.
Each year, CJFE honors journalists who are unjustly imprisoned for their
writings and dedication to freedom of the press.
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