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BURMA RELATED NEWS - October
24, 2001.
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HEADLINES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reuters - Jakarta plans refugees meeting as
another boat found
BBC - Burma imposes curfew on troubled
town
Bkk Post - Mekong
nations in co-operation pact
Bkk Post - Senate
panel to hold talks
Xinhuanet - Myanmar
Pledges to Cooperate With U.N.
Xinhuanet - ASEAN Annual
Summit to Discuss Terrorism
Kyodo News - Myanmar
minister tells Tanaka Japan's aid important
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday October 24, 9:51 PM
Jakarta plans refugees meeting as
another boat found
By Achmad Sukarsono JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia
said on Wednesday it would hold a regional meeting over an escalating refugee
crisis while Australia said it knew who organised an ill-fated boat that sank
last week, killing 350 mostly Iraqi immigrants.
Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda told reporters Jakarta would convene the
meeting with Australia and other Asian countries next month over the thousands
of illegal immigrants from the Middle East and Afghanistan risking their lives
to reach Australia.
Underscoring the potential for further disaster, police have rounded up 242
Afghani asylum seekers whose boat ran aground last Sunday on far eastern Rote
island, a local journalist said.
He said the Australia-bound boat had left from the West Timor town of
Kupang in the area but ran aground when its engines failed. None of the refugees
were hurt and they were now holed up in a hotel on Kupang, 2,000 km (1,250
miles) east of Jakarta.
The journalist, speaking by telephone from Kupang, gave no further details.
Attempts to reach police were unsuccessful.
Only 44 people survived last Friday's tragedy, one of Indonesia's worst
maritime disasters. The overcrowded boat was heading for Australia's remote
Christmas Island, a popular landing target for thousands of asylum-seekers who
use Indonesia as a staging post every year.
"We will take the initiative to hold a regional meeting with some ASEAN
members... as well as the (the refugees') prospective designated country,
Australia, and hopefully their countries of origin," Wirajuda told reporters.
ASEAN is the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations. Wirajuda
gave no date for the meeting or any precise details on what the talks would seek
to achieve.
CRISIS COULD WORSEN
But Wirajuda warned of a bigger wave of asylum seekers following U.S.-led
strikes on Afghanistan, launched this month in response to the September 11
hijack attacks on the United States that killed more than 5,000 people.
"With the military action on Afghanistan, we have to anticipate that the
wave of refugees will get bigger," he said.
Speaking on Australian radio, Australian Immigration Minister Philip
Ruddock said Canberra had identified an Egyptian people smuggler operating out
of Jakarta as responsible for last week's ill-fated boat journey.
He said Australia had informed Jakarta several times the Egyptian man was
behind people smuggling. Officials in Jakarta were not immediately available to
comment.
"We know who the person was who arranged this particular package of
travellers and he put 400 people on a boat 10 metres (30 feet) long that could
only take 150 people," Ruddock said.
"We have offered to Indonesia to accept by way of extradition all of the
people smugglers and to try them."
The two countries have an extradition treaty.
Thousands attempt the treacherous journey from Indonesia every year. The
immigrants usually reach Indonesia via Malaysia and wait for years to get on a
boat or try to get refugee status from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR), which will resettle them -- but only if a nation agrees to take them.
EVEN LEGAL REFUGEES BOARD BOATS
Raymond Hall, regional representative of the UNHCR, said officials were
trying to corroborate accounts of survivors from last Friday's disaster that
about 30 people on the boat already had recognised refugee status.
He said the complicated process of resettlement had made many legal
refugees distrustful of the process and impatient.
"Initial indications indicate there might be as many as 30 people who have
recognised refugee status," Hall said.
"Governments are not lining up to offer resettlement places. Australia will
take none of the recognised refugees (from Indonesia). Other countries say...
'we are prepared to take some but why should we take the leading role'."
"It's difficult for the refugees to understand the limitations of the
United Nations. So, they can be very distrustful," said Hall, speaking in
Jakarta.
Hall said some of the possible 30 recognised refugees on the boat obtained
their status in Jakarta. He estimated that six of them had survived.
He added that it would be no surprise to see a repeat of last week's
tragedy if authorities failed to crack down on the network of people smugglers
and stop such rickety boats from sailing.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - Wednesday, 24 October, 2001,
13:00 GMT 14:00 UK
Burma imposes curfew on troubled town The Burmese Government has imposed a curfew on the town of Hintada to
prevent violence between Muslims and Buddhists.
A government spokesman said there had been what he described as an
incident, but the situation was now calm.
Unconfirmed reports from the town described rioters setting fire to houses.
Tensions between the two communities are rising, and this is the fourth
town in which inter-communal trouble has been reported in recent weeks.
In one recent incident, a Muslim leader said about 200 Buddhist monks had
gone on a rampage in the town of Prome, destroying around 40 shops owned by
Muslims.
In a statement, the government said it would not condone hate crimes or
harassment targeted against Muslims, or any other religion.
But reports from inside Burma say the government is imposing travel
restrictions on Muslims.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - October 24,
2001.
Mekong nations in co-operation pact
Chiang Rai _ Four Mekong river nations have agreed to co-operate in trade,
investment and commercial navigation.
The agreement was reached during the first meeting of the Joint Economic
Quadrangle Chamber of Committee (JEQC) in China's Yunan province between Oct
18-19.
A senior Thai official said representatives from Thailand, Laos, China and
Burma have agreed to tackle major obstacles in trade and commercial
navigation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - October 24,
2001.
Senate panel to hold talks
Supamart Kasem
The Senate foreign affairs panel will today hold talks with representatives
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees about Burmese refugees in
northern border provinces.
Expected to be raised during the talks is a group of Burmese refugees who
came to Thailand to flee poverty rather than unrest, said senator Udon
Tantisunthorn.
The planned talks have been agreed by the National Security Council's
secretary-general Kachadpai Burusapatana, said the senator, who once chaired a
Senate panel studying minority groups along the Thai-Burmese border.
``Some refugees didn't flee from unrest. They fled from poverty. When they
were arrested they sought shelter in the refugee camps,'' Mr Udon said.
The refugees in border camps have posed problems for Thailand by allegedly
felling trees, polluting water resources and posing health risks to locals, Mr
Udon said. As ties with Rangoon had improved, it was time to talk of
repatriation, he said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar Pledges to Cooperate With U.N.
Xinhuanet 2001.10.24 11:16:38 YANGON, October 24 (Xinhuanet)
-- Myanmar pledged on Wednesday to fully cooperate with the United Nations
(U.N.) in realizing the noble objectives of the organization.
"The Union of Myanmar, as a member nation of the U.N. organization,
is certain to fully cooperate with the U.N. organization in translating
the noble purposes of the organization into action," said official newspaper The
New Light of Myanmar in an article marking the 56th anniversary of the
U.N. Day
The article maintained that the materialization of the purposes and
objectives of the U.N. relies fully on the support and cooperation of all
member nations.
The four purposes of the U.N. include maintenance of international
peace and security, development of friendly relations among nations,
cooperation in solving international economic, social, cultural and
humanitarian problems and being a center for harmonizing the actions of
nations in attaining these common ends.
The article stressed that cooperation with the U.N. is one of the
main points in Myanmar's foreign policy which it described as an
independent and active one based on the Five Principles of Peaceful
Coexistence.
It noted that Myanmar, since becoming a member of the U.N., has been
cooperating with the U.N. agencies and actively taking part in the
organization's programs.
The U.N. came into existence on October 24, 1945, beginning with 51
member countries and the membership has now increased to 192
nations.
Myanmar became a U.N. member on July 19, 1948, more than six months
after it regained independence on January 4 that year and was the 58th
member of it then.
U Thant from Myanmar held the post of U.N. secretary-general during
the period from 1961 to 1971.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- ASEAN Annual Summit to Discuss
Terrorism
Xinhuanet 2001.10.24 19:43:48 JAKARTA, October 24 (Xinhuanet)
-- The annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
will discuss terrorism, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said
here Wednesday.
The minister said ASEAN members would discuss further cooperation and
schemes to fight terrorism.
"Terrorism will be one of the agendas discussed at the (ASEAN)
meeting," he was quoted by the Jakarta Post.com online news service as
saying.
The ASEAN summit, which runs from November 4 to 7 this year, will
also be attended by nonmember countries Japan, China and South Korea,
Hassan added.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar minister tells Tanaka Japan's
aid important
TOKYO, Oct. 24 Kyodo - Myanmar
National Planning and Economic Development Minister Soe Tha told Foreign
Minister Makiko Tanaka on Wednesday that Japan's anticipated aid for
rehabilitating an aging hydroelectric power station is crucial, a ministry
official said.
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