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BURMA RELATED NEWS - October
05, 2001.
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HEADLINES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- AFP - Singapore clamps tight security around
ailing Myanmar ex-leader
Channel NewsAsia - Clinical trials to find
option for treating liver cancer
AP - More Attention Urged for AIDS in
Asia
Bkk Post - Ministers
to hold talks on terrorism
Bkk Post - Chavalit aide
given control of new panel
Xinhuanet - Cambodian FM to Visit Myanmar
Xinhuanet - Myanmar Seizes Large Amount of
Stimulant Drugs
Kyodo News - ILO
delegation meets Myanmar leader Than Shwe
NSTP - Developing rail services to offset losses
of airline, shipping industries
NSTP - Eight Myanmar nationals nabbed in forged
immigration papers scam
SCMP - Former dictator Ne Win near death in
Singapore hospital
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday October 5, 1:59 PM
Singapore clamps tight security around ailing Myanmar ex-leader SINGAPORE, Oct 5 (AFP) - The
health of former Myanmar dictator Ne Win was shrouded in mystery Friday
following reports he was in a coma, with tight security blocking access to his
private room at Singapore General Hospital.
The 90-year-old was flown to Singapore last weekend and admitted to the
coronary care unit at the hospital's National Heart Centre.
A Thai military intelligence source said the former autocrat, who seized
power in 1962 in Burma, which he later renamed Myanmar, and stepped down in
1988, had slipped into a coma and was unlikely to recover.
But a man identifying himself only as a family friend, told AFP at the
hospital Friday that it was inaccurate to say Ne Win was in a coma.
"He's sleeping now, and in a stable condition," he said without
elaborating.
Several men in shirts and ties stood outside Ne Win's hospital room, and
visitors to other patients in the ward said police and security guards were
patrolling the area.
One hospital source told AFP that no staff other than approved doctors and
nurses were allowed into Ne Win's room.
Other sources said Ne Win's family had demanded no publicity, and they were
under strict orders to divert all calls to the Myanmar embassy.
Embassy staff refused to even acknowledge Ne Win was receiving medical
treatment in Singapore.
"We are unable to comment. He is a private citizen now," an embassy
counsellor Ohn Kyaw said.
An unidentified diplomat told AFP: "We don't know anything about this. Do
not contact our embassy."
An AFP reporter who went to the coronary care unit was told by nurses Ne
Win was not a patient, before three hospital staff escorted her from the
building.
As a young man, Ne Win was a key member of the "Thirty Comrades" which
joined with Japan in World War Two to fight British colonialism under the
charismatic leadership of independence hero Aung San, who was assasinated in
He seized power in a 1962 coup, ruling until 1988, by then an ageing and
reviled dictator who would come into conflict with Aung San's daughter, Aung San
Suu Kyi after she emerged at the head of the pro-democracy movement.
By the time he stepped down, Myanmar -- once considered one of Asia's
potentially wealthiest countries -- was one of the world's poorest thanks to his
stubborn neo-Marxist "Burmese Way to Socialism."
Analysts say Ne Win has continued to wield influence behind the scenes
despite having withdrawn from power, saying that significant political change is
unlikely to occur while he remains alive.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Channel NewsAsia
Friday October 5, 6:18 PM Clinical trials to find option for treating liver cancer Liver cancer is the fourth biggest killer in Singapore, and it is men who
suffer most.
The problem confronting doctors and patients alike is that when it is
diagnosed, it is already too late.
Cancer specialists from 9 countries in the region have come together to
decide on the best strategy to tackle this silent killer.
Dr Pierce Chow, Consultant (Department of Surgery), Singapore General
Hospital, said, "The only proven way of treating this disease is actually
surgery, but liver cancer or primary liver cancer being such, most patients are
in a stage of the disease where surgery is no longer possible at the moment they
are diagnosed by the doctor."
In fact, in most parts of Asia, only 10 to 15 percent of patients can
undergo surgery.
That leaves the vast majority of sufferers without any options.
To try to turn the tide, the first of 3 trials was started 4 years ago with
329 patients from 9 different countries.
Associate Professor Lucien Ooi, Chief, (Hepatobiliary Surgery), National
Cancer Centre, said, "One of the beauties of doing a study like this is
involving many countries, so it's multi-national, multi-centre, and therefore
people like from Myanmar for example, from Indonesia, from Australia, from
Taiwan who are keen to participate."
Strict rules were set to ensure there was consistency.
The first 2 studies also looks at Tamoxifen, a drug that has been used for
30 years to treat breast cancer, but now may offer some hope for those people
with inoperable liver cancer.
Associate Professor Ooi said, "What we are trying to do in the third study
is to try and administer a particular nuclear material, and this would reduce
the chance of long term recurrence, hopefully therefore curing the patient of
liver cancer."
Doctors are expecting the first results in 2 years.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday October 5 10:19 AM ET
More Attention Urged for AIDS in Asia By EMMA TINKLER, Associated Press Writer MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -
Delegates at an AIDS conference warned governments in Asia and the Pacific on
Friday that they can no longer ignore an epidemic that has infected 6.4 million
people in the region and is spreading quickly.
Activists also called on drug companies to put people before profit in the
fight against AIDS. Drug manufacturers have come under increasing pressure to
lower their prices for poorer countries.
Representatives from 40 countries attended a gala ceremony Friday night to
officially open the Sixth International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the
Pacific, which runs until Wednesday in the southern Australian city of
Melbourne.
Some 36 million people around the world are living with HIV, the virus that
leads to AIDS, according to the United Nations' AIDS agency, UNAIDS. In East
Asia and the Pacific, about 6.4 million people carry the virus.
Werasit Sittitrai, Associate Director of UNAIDS' Asia, Pacific and Middle
East Division, said the congress comes at a time when some countries have become
complacent about the virus.
``A lot of countries feel that AIDS is not here, and will not be here,''
Sittitrai said at a news conference before the opening.
Indonesian HIV activist Suzana Murni said not enough people with the
sickness were able to get drugs in Asia.
``I believe important drugs like HIV drugs should be available as a choice
for patients and not a luxury,'' said Murni. ``We must put people's life before
profit.''
A U.N.-sponsored report released Thursday by Monitoring the AIDS Pandemic
Network, a non-governmental organization, showed that the once relatively low
levels of infection of HIV/AIDS in Asia have increased markedly.
While only Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia showed substantial HIV epidemics
in 1999, the virus has now begun spreading rapidly in Indonesia, Iran, Japan,
Nepal and Vietnam, the report said. In China - home to a fifth of the world's
people - the infection is moving into new groups of the population, the report
said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - October 05,
2001.
Ministers to hold talks on terrorism
Other transnational crimes on agenda
Sa-nguan Khumrungroj
Asean security ministers will meet in Singapore next week to discuss
measures to deal with terrorism and other transnational crimes, an informed
source said.
Sombat Uthaisang, deputy interior minister, will represent Thailand in the
Oct 9-11 meeting, which assumes more urgency following the Sept 11 terrorist
attacks in the United States.
The ministers will discuss ways to enhance information exchanges on
terrorism networks, legal co-operation, and to step up training against
sophisticated cross-border syndicates.
Also on the agenda are cyber crimes, violation of intellectual property,
trafficking in drugs and precursor chemicals, arms smuggling, money laundering
and piracy at sea.
The meeting of Asean security ministers, the third of its kind, will be
followed later this month by a gathering of police chiefs from Thailand,
Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Burma in the Indonesian island resort of
Batam.
Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines, Vietnam are the other members of
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The police chiefs are due to discuss co-operation in monitoring regional
Muslim militants suspected to have links with the Taleban in Afghanistan or to
support Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in the attacks in New York and
Washington.
The police chiefs also will discuss ways of enhancing information linkages
to flush out kidnapping gangs in the region.
Results of the meeting would be sent up to the Asean summit in Brunei in
early November.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - October 05,
2001.
Chavalit aide given control of new
panel
Wassana Nanuam
Gen Vichit Yathip, an army specialist, has been named head of a new working
committee on border relations.
Gen Vichit is known to have close ties with senior officers in Laos,
Cambodia and Burma.
Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, the defence minister, has been pushing for the
committee.
``The committee would not deal with intelligence but focus mainly on
strengthening ties and promoting border co-operation,'' said one officer.
Gen Vichit has worked as one of Gen Chavalit's close aides for the last two
decades.
The general is a former chief of the defence minister's staff officers and
was shifted to the army in the last military reshuffle.
Gen Vichit held covert talks in Rangoon to defuse recent tensions with
Burma.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cambodian FM to Visit Myanmar
Xinhuanet 2001.10.05 20:48:55 PHNOM PENH, October 5 (Xinhuanet) -- Hor Namhong, Cambodia's senior
minister and foreign minister, will pay a working visit to Myanmar on
October 8 to 9, 2001, as a special envoy of Prime Minister Hun Sen,
according to a press release on Friday from the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and International Cooperation.
During the visit, Hor Namhong will meet with Than Shwe, chairman of
the State Peace and Development Council and prime minister of Myanmar, the
release said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar Seizes Large Amount of
Stimulant Drugs
Xinhuanet 2001.10.05 11:52:02 YANGON, October 5 (Xinhuanet)
-- The Myanmar authorities seized 566,830 tablets of stimulant drugs in
Tachilek, the country's eastern Shan state, near the end of last month,
according to the Myanmar Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control
Friday.
The seizure was made by a combined team comprising local intelligence
unit and the police force when they raided and combed a village in the township
on September 28.
Along with the stimulant drugs, some arms and ammunition were also
confiscated, the sources said.
Eleven people were arrested in connection with the case, it said,
adding that they were punished under the country's Narcotic Drugs and
Psychotropic Substances Law.
According to an earlier official report, the authorities seized in the
country 3.75 million stimulant drug tablets in August along with 288.56
kilograms (kg) of opium and 21.33 kg of heroin, punishing 436 people who
got involved in 281 drug-related cases in that month.
In addition, during August, the authorities also raided a
narcotic-drug refinery in Tachilek, seizing 26 persons , 25 various kinds
of weapons, 717 rounds of ammunitions and other chemicals used in refining
drugs.
More statistics show that during the first half of this year, the
authorities exposed a total of 1,536 drug-related cases, seizing 474.91 kg
opium, 27.89 kg heroin, 8,371 kg of marijuana, 6. 14 million stimulant drug
tablets, 1,889 kg of ephedrine and 269. 28 liters of phensedyl, and punishing
2,187 drug offenders.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- ILO delegation meets Myanmar leader Than
Shwe
YANGON, Oct. 5 Kyodo - A
visiting high-level delegation from the International Labor Organization (ILO)
on Friday called on Myanmar leader Sr. Gen. Than Shwe after completing a
three-week visit to investigate allegations of forced labor in the country,
official television reported.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- The New Straits Times Press - October
05, 2001.
KUALA LUMPUR Developing rail services to offset losses of airline, shipping industries by Ahmad Suffian Rail services should be developed in Asia to offset losses in the airline
and shipping industry caused by the fear of international terrorism.
International Union Of Railways' chairman Yoshitaka Ishii said governments
in the region should co-operate to to form a transcendary railway link.
We should take advantage of the present economic problems affecting the
airline and other transportation sectors, to boost the railway sector as it can
develop the economy, enhance the people's living standards, and solve energy and
environment problems.
He was speaking to reporters at the UIC Meter Gauge Conference themed
Future strategies for Meter Gauge Railways here today.
Also present were Kyushu Railway deputy manager for strategi management
Koihi Otsubo and UIC director V.C. Sharma.
He said rail transport was also faster than sea transport in reaching
land-based destinations in Peninsular Malaysia, Indo-China, throughout Japan and
the vast continents of Africa, Asia-Europe, China, Russia, Northern Europe and
Northeast America.
Countries with Meter Gauge Railways include Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar,
Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Phillippines and Australia which can be integrated
to create a transcendary railway links across several continents.
Yoshitaka said a well-planned and effectively-managed railway station could
invigorate the economy and also an entire community.
A railway station serves not only as a gateway to a city but also as the
centre for commercial activity and communications. It can boast the convenience
of a self-contained town while providing direct connections for a monorail,
local transport services and railway trains.
It could also have shopping centres and a hotel.
Citing an example, he said the Nagasaki Station, which was completed last
year, was the largest station in Kyushu.
This landmark station is a hive of activity with 136 shops, a hotel and
even a cinema complex.
Yoshitaka, who is also board chairman of Kyushu Railway Company, believes
that railway stations should be lively places where people an mingle and
gather.
We are continuosly improving our major Kyushu stations. Travellers can find
all they need at these stations, from hotels to convenience stores,
supermarkets, movie theaters and even sports facilities.
The Minami Fukuoka Station also offers residential apartments and a daycare
centre while Nishi Kagoshima Station has public and medical centres.
Over the past 14 years, he said JR Kyushu had improved its transportation
services to facilitate faster, more convenient and comfortable inter-city
travel.
Previously knows as Japan National Railways before its privatisation in
1987, JR Kyushu has increased the number of express trains operating throughout
Japan from 161 to 325 presently.
We want to achieve excellent railway businesses by sharing information and
building cooperative relationships with ASEAN countries, to further boost the
railway transport sector in this region, he added.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- The New Straits Times Press - October
05, 2001.
KUALA LUMPUR Eight Myanmar nationals nabbed in forged immigration papers scam by P. Sharmini The Immigration Department has detained eight Myanmar nationals believed to
have been providing forged immigration documents to foreign workers.
Officials also seized 28 passports of foreign workers in the arrests which
are likely to be connected to 11 arrests for similar offences in Penang on
Monday.
They also seized RM7,000 worth of equipment used in the manufacture of the
documents including a computer, two printers, a scanner and several rubber
stamps.
Immigration Enforcement division director Zainuddin Ab. Hadi said the eight
were arrested in Ops Serkap conducted on a house in Pandan Indah.
He said the men had been remanded under the Immigration Act for 14
days.
Zainuddin told a Press Conference that the majority of the passports seized
belonged to workers in the industrial sector.
Zainuddin said those arrested had knowledge and expertise in using the
computer to produce forged documents.
"From our records, Myanmar and Bangladeshi nationals usually are the ones
with this knowledge," he said.
Meanwhile, thirty-six women, believed to be guest relations officers, were
arrested yesterday during a raid on a karaoke outlet in Puchong.
Forty-one people, including 36 foreign nationals were detained for ,either
not having valid travelling documents or work permits.
Of the 36, 32 are women aged between 18 to 32 years from Indonesia(11),
Thailand(one), Vietnam(10), Cambodia(six), China and Myanmar(four each).
The remaining nine are men, five locals and four from Myanmar.
Fourteen enforcement officers, led by Zainuddin, also involved
policemen.
Zainuddin said the department will now set up holding centres at the venue
of each raid to allow foreign workers who did not carry their documents to
obtain them.
The directive to do so, he said, was issued at a nationwide meeting with
enforcement officials on Aug 29.
Holding centres will allow the workers, to contact their employers for
their documents.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- South China Morning Post
Friday, October 5, 2001 MYANMAR - Former dictator Ne Win near death in Singapore hospital AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Bangkok Myanmar's reclusive former dictator, Ne Win, 90, had slipped into a coma at a Singapore hospital and was "not likely to live long", a Thai intelligence source said last night. A source close to the family said: "Ne Win's health condition is very, very serious." About 30 members of the family had gathered at Singapore General Hospital,
this source said.
Ne Win seized power in Burma, which he renamed Myanmar, in a 1962 coup and
stepped down in 1988. He was reported to have left Yangon in recent days with
the family of his daughter, Sandar Win, who is a medical doctor and has looked
after his health - which was said to have been unstable when he left.
As a young man, Ne Win was a key member of the Thirty Comrades, who joined
Japan in World War II to fight British colonialism under the charismatic
leadership of independence hero Aung San, who was assassinated in 1947.
In 1988, by then an ageing and reviled dictator, he came into conflict with
Aung San's daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi, after she emerged at the head of the
pro-democracy movement.
By the time he stepped down, Myanmar - considered in 1962 one of Asia's
potentially wealthiest countries - was one of the world's poorest nations thanks
to his stubborn neo-Marxist "Burmese Way to Socialism".
Analysts say Ne Win has continued to wield political influence behind the
scenes despite having withdrawn from power. Significant political change in
Myanmar is unlikely while he remains alive, they say.
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