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BURMA RELATED NEWS - December
07, 2001.
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HEADLINES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- AFP - Thai senator to launch nudist camp in
Myanmar
AFP - Cigarette producers capitalise on ASEAN
free trade plan to expand
Asia Pulse - Mekong Region Countries Plan to
Strengthen Ties
AP - UNICEF Reports on Child
Prostitution
BBC - 'Free Aung San Suu Kyi'
TI - 'Myanmar army attacking resettled
villagers'
TI - China smashes terrorist outfit active in
Myanmar
Xinhuanet - Myanmar Implementing Long-Term Teak
Project
NSTP - Cops nab Thai, Myanmar speed
dealers
NSTP - Contract worker gets four years for
carnal knowledge with teenager
ST - Myanmar refugees fear Thai camp
closure
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday December 7, 2:54 PM
Thai senator to launch nudist camp in Myanmar BANGKOK, Dec 7 (AFP) - A Thai
senator plans to build a nudist colony in military-ruled Myanmar that caters to
Europeans who "like to take their clothes off in public", a report said
Friday.
"Everybody (guests) will have to be naked," Chairat Meksukree, an advisor
to Thai senator and businessman Vikrom Isiri, was quoted as saying in the Nation
newspaper.
Vikrom, a successful entreprenuer, was granted a 45-year concession by the
Myanmar junta to build the camp on St Luke's island in the Andaman Sea, Chairat
said.
The nudist colony would be Vikrom's latest tourism venture following the
launch of a casino and luxury hotel on Myanmar's Son island, also in the Andaman
Sea, for which he also has a 45-year concession, the Nation said.
Vikrom also plans to build a luxury resort complete with golf course and
dolphin shows in Ranong province bordering Myanmar by the middle of next year,
Chairat told the paper.
He added that the Thai politician recently set up Phuket Air, the kingdom's
newest airline, to fly customers from Bangkok to Ranong, where the planned
casino and nudist colony would be just a boat ride away.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday December 7, 1:28 PM
Cigarette producers capitalise on ASEAN free trade plan to expand Manila, Dec 7 (AFP) - Cigarette
manufacturers are finding a new haven in Southeast Asia as they take advantage
of a regional free trade plan which shields them from steep tobacco taxes and
high production costs.
Faced with shrinking Western markets, top tobacco firms are relocating to
Southeast Asia to keep prices low, maximise access to nations in the region with
underdeveloped tobacco-control measures and cuddle up to enticing markets,
including China, health officials say.
"I know of companies that really want to develop tobacco industries in this
region but I don't have specifics as to how many but I am sure they are
increasing," Shigeru Omi, the World Health Organisation's (WHO) regional
director for the Western Pacific, told a media briefing in Manila this
week.
With smokers making up more than half of Southeast Asia's 500 million
population, the WHO is concerned about a continued rise in tobacco use and
aggressive marketing and lobbying by cigarette producers, he said.
In the Philippines, a 300-million-dollar cigarette production facility was
launched recently by Philip Morris, the world's largest tobacco
manufacturer.
British American Tobacco, the world's second largest tobacco company, has
also clinched the right to form a 40-million-dollar joint venture in Vietnam
with a local state-owned tobacco firm.
The tobacco processing plant will be the most modern factory of its kind in
Vietnam, which has one of the world's highest tobacco consumption rates among
males.
"Finding new customers in developing countries in Asia and the Pacific is
an attractive option for the industry, particularly as it adjusts to shrinking
North American and Western European markets," Omi said in a report released to
the media.
A free trade agreement of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) commits member countries to lowering import tariffs to between
zero and five percent on products traded among themselves beginning 2003.
For example, cigarettes now manufactured in the Philippines will become a
local ASEAN product if at least 40 percent of the tobacco used is from that
country. The cigarettes will be exempt from customs duties when traded among
other ASEAN member countries.
"This lowers or maintains the low cost of cigarettes and makes it more
enticing for current and would-be smokers, particularly the young, to buy," Omi
said.
ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
ASEAN officials argue however that while tobacco firms may escape heavy
import tariffs through the ASEAN free trade plan, they can still be hit with
heavy domestic taxes by individual nations.
Robert Teh, the director for economic cooperation at the ASEAN secretariat,
said that although the free trade pact required member countries to lower import
tariffs, they were free to set "appropriate domestic or internal taxes" on such
products as alcohol, tobacco or automobiles.
"You may wish to note that many ASEAN countries slap high domestic taxes on
cigarettes because together with alcohol, these products generate a fair amount
of tax revenues for the government," he told AFP in reply to written
queries.
Tobacco use is one of the greatest public health problems in Southeast
Asia, a key component of the WHO's larger Western Pacific region where one
person dies every 32 seconds from tobacco-related causes.
Cigarette lobbyists argue that the tobacco trade creates jobs and benefits
economies "but if you look at the real cost, this is a myth," said Annette
David, technical officer for the tobacco-free initiative at the WHO regional
office in Manila.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday December 7, 11:02 AM
Mekong Region Countries Plan to Strengthen Ties HANOI, Dec 7 Asia Pulse - The
six member countries of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) have announced a new
10-year strategy aimed at strengthening cooperative ties.
In a joint statement at the group's Tenth Ministerial Conference in Myanmar
on Thursday, they declared "the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) countries
envision a Mekong sub-region that is more integrated, prosperous, and
equitable."
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed to back the co-operation
between the GMS members Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, China's Yunnan
Province and Vietnam.
The new strategy envisages greater cooperation to realise the region's
potential. Policies and infrastructure linkages facilitating cross-border trade,
investment, tourism and other forms of economic co-operation, as well as
development of human resources and skill levels have been agreed.
But considerable emphasis has also been placed on ensuring that the
development process is equitable and sustainable, and that environmental and
social interests are kept firmly in focus.
Ministers from the various countries agreed too that the implementation of
the programme would entail member countries strengthening their national
institutions.
In the new programme is a detailed three-year plan involving 10 flagship
projects expected to cost US$900 million.
ADB vice president Myoung-Ho Shin endorsed the need for co-operation. "The
terrorist attacks have worsened an already bleak world economic outlook, causing
downward revisions in growth forecasts the world over, including in this region.
In this context, it is even more important that GMS countries work together so
as to benefit from each other's strengths."
In one of the most significant developments at the Myanmar meeting,
Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam signed a landmark cross-border agreement to
facilitate the flow of people and goods. China and Myanmar are expected to get
on board soon.
The agreement simplifies and harmonises regulations and procedures relating
to transport across borders to facilitate speedy joint inspections.
The ministers hailed the agreement as a vital complement to free trade
among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China, saying it
would maximise the benefits of major road projects in the region.
Established in 1992 with ADB assistance, the GMS Programme has helped build
trust and confidence through conferences and joint initiatives, and resulted in
a series of infrastructure projects.
It has so far executed 10 projects worth US$2 billion. It has also
addressed environmental and social issues such as HIV/AIDS and drug
trafficking.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday December 7 2:03 PM ET
UNICEF Reports on Child Prostitution By GRANT PECK, Associated Press Writer BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - An
estimated one-third of the sex workers in Southeast Asia are children, and
poverty is driving more boys and girls into the sex trade, said a report
released Friday by UNICEF.
``What experienced child protection workers sense is that the problem is
growing, fueled by conditions of poverty, illiteracy, AIDS and drug abuse,''
said UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund.
The report was released as part of the 2nd World Congress against
Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, to be held Dec. 17-20 in Yokohama,
Japan. The congress will explore how to protect the victims of sexual
exploitation and reduce the demand for child sex workers.
UNICEF's report notes that it is difficult to know exactly how many
children are involved in the sex trade because of its illicit and usually
underground nature.
But it said surveys by government and private organizations have found vast
numbers of children working in the sex industries of the Mekong sub-region.
UNICEF said the surveys found that 30-35 percent of all sex workers in the
region, which comprises Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos and Yunan and
Guangxi provinces of southern China, are between 12 and 17 years old.
It also said about 60 percent of Indonesia's 71,000 registered sex workers
are between the ages of 15 and 20, and that non-governmental organizations
estimate there are hundreds of thousands of children involved in the sex trade
in Thailand, even though government estimates put the figure at 12,000-18,000.
UNICEF said one indicator of the vast size of the sex trade was an
International Labor Organization estimate that it accounts for 14-16 percent of
Thailand's total gross domestic product.
It said most of the girls and women entering the sex trade do so to escape
poverty, or physical, sexual or mental abuse at home.
``Many have been raped or abandoned by a boyfriend or husband... Given the
cultural, economic and individual complexities of their situation, it is hard to
suggest that these women and children have any real freedom of choice. The sex
trade feeds on the despair, ignorance and poverty of those it seeks to
exploit.''
The report also said sex tourism, which is well established in Thailand,
has grown in Cambodia and Vietnam, but the demand there is driven mostly by
local clients.
``Moral double standards prevail in many countries in the region,'' it
said. ``While female prostitution is condemned as shameful, the practice of both
married and single men using prostitutes is culturally acceptable.''
UNICEF charged that even though the scale of the sexual trade in children
is clearly huge, ``their abuse is denied for shame or fear of retribution,
covered up and disguised, so even now the world has no true way of knowing how
widespread is their exploitation.''
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - Friday, 7 December, 2001, 12:07
GMT
'Free Aung San Suu Kyi' Amnesty International has called on Burma's military rulers to release
Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, as other former
laureates gathered to commemorate 100 years of the award.
It is 10 years on Saturday since Aung San Suu Kyi won the award, but she
will not be joining other living laureates gathering in Oslo.
Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy convincingly won the
elections held in May 1990, but the military junta failed to hand over power.
Since last October, the democracy leader has been holding secret United
Nations-brokered talks with junta leaders, which have led to the release of
nearly 200 political prisoners.
Amnesty is renewing its appeal for Aung San Suu Kyi to be allowed her
freedom.
"On this occasion we renew our calls for her release, and for the release
of hundreds of other prisoners of conscience," the London-based group said in a
statement received in Bangkok.
Husband's death
Aung San Suu Kyi has not appeared in public since September 2000, when she
was put under de facto house arrest for attempting to travel outside the capital
Rangoon for a political meeting.
Her telephone has been disconnected, but she reportedly has access to a
shortwave radio.
She has been detained at her lakeside home for much of the last 13 years,
including the year she was awarded the Nobel Peace prize.
Her son Alexander Aris collected it on her behalf.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 56, was unable to travel to the UK when her academic
husband Michael Aris died of cancer in 1999, fearing the junta would not allow
her back into Burma.
In a videotaped statement released last year, Aung San Suu Kyi said she
remained optimistic.
"We are absolutely confident that democracy will come to Burma," she said.
"It is important that we achieve our goal quickly because people suffer too
much."
The Norwegian Nobel Institute has been holding a series of celebrations to
mark the 100th anniversary of the peace prize, in the run-up to Monday's
presentation of this year's award to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Other former prize winners due to attend include South Korean President Kim
Dae-jung, and the Dalai Lama.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Times of India - December 07,
2001.
'Myanmar army attacking resettled villagers' BANGKOK: Myanmar's army has been attacking settlements of the Karen ethnic
minority, forcing many to flee toward the border with Thailand, a relief agency
claimed on Friday.
According to the committee for Internally Displaced Karen People, nine
Myanmar army battalions launched attacks on November 11 in three areas of Papun
district in Karen State in northeastern Myanmar
Armed Karen insurgents, seeking more autonomy for their people, have been
fighting the government for more than five decades. The fighting has displaced
many Karens from their villages, who now live in temporary settlements such as
the ones reportedly being attacked by the army.
The committee detailed attacks beginning shortly after midnight on November
11 which have driven at least 800 people north and east out of their homes.
"Most fled with only the clothes on their backs. Those on the run include over 70 children from a primary and middle school that was located on the Bilin River," said the committee. The Myanmar government did not immediately respond to the claim.
The committee said there were no casualty figures, adding that these are
usually low because people generally can flee ahead of the government troops.
But it added there was "an immediate need for relief supplies such as food,
cooking pots, and especially now for blankets and warm clothes."
The committee is a Karen organization that operates on the Myanmar-Thai
border, gathering information on the plight of the internal refugees and
provides limited assistance.
Earlier this month, the committee issued a report saying 37,007 Karen
remained displaced in Papun district where over 50 villages were forcibly
relocated.
It said that people from the nearby districts of Nyaunglebin, Taungoo and
Thaton districts had also resettled also in Papun district since fleeing army
attacks last year.
"This has put a strain on the people of this district as they struggle to help feed these new arrivals from their own stocks," it said, adding that food shortages forced some people to refugee camps in Thailand. The report claimed that Myanmar's army "continues its attacks... destroying
rice supplies, torturing and executing villagers, looting villages, relocating
people by force, conducting forced labor, and terrorizing the population by the
systematic laying of land mines throughout each district."
The army has a history of harshness in dealing with ethnic insurgents in
the country's border regions.
The London-based human rights group Amnesty International said in June that
ethnic minorities continue to be repressed, mostly with forced labor.
Earlier this month, the UN's International Labor Organization said after an
inspection tour that legislation enacted in Myanmar last year had failed to wipe
out forced labor.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Times of India - December 07,
2001.
China smashes terrorist outfit active in Myanmar BEIJING: China, which is on high alert against terrorist attacks, has
smashed a cross-border terrorist group that operated in the south-west province
of Yunnan and neighbouring Myanmar.
Six members of the group, including Huang Yuequan, who masterminded the
Myanmar Democratic Allied Army, has been sentenced to various jail terms, the
official Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday night.
Huang was sentenced to 14 years in jail by the intermediate People's Court
of Dehong prefecture, it said, adding that five other members were sentenced to
between one and seven years in jail.
Huang and Ruan Guoquan, began to plot the establishment of the organisation
in December 2000, and sought the assistance of a Myanmar terrorist group in the
process.
On January one, 2001, the organisation was formed with Huang as the
"commander" and Ruan as the "chief of staff".
They soon began to recruit members from China and Myanmar. Zhai Ruiqiang,
Luo Dong, Han Liangbu and Yang Rongying from China became members.
The Myanmar Democratic Allied Army had weapons, uniforms, credentials,
symbols and rules.
With some 22 members given secret military training, the organisation
engaged in kidnapping, robbery and other crimes, netting them about
$6,000.
In April this year, they demanded protection money from a Myanmar gambling
house and plotted a military raid on the police station in Mujie, a border town
on the Chinese side.
Another member, identified as "Old Meng", is still on the run, police in
Kunming, Yunnan's capital, said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar Implementing Long-Term
Teak Project
Xinhuanet 2001-12-07 12:48:48 YANGON, December 7 (Xinhuanet)
-- Myanmar is implementing a 40-year long-term teak cultivation project, aiming
at growing teak plantations of 324,000 hectares during the plan period, local
weekly journal The Myanmar Times reported in its latest issue.
Quoting an official of the Forestry Department of the Myanmar Ministry of
Forestry, the journal said the project began in 1998 and the department had
planted 32,400 hectares of teak in the lastfour years.
It added that the plantations are being established in five divisions of
Bago, Mandalay, Yangon, Sagaing, Magway and Ayeyawaddy.
Myanmar's teak enjoys a good reputation in the world and 85 percent of the
teak in the world market is produced in Myanmar.
In the international market, Myanmar fetches about 1,400 U.S. dollars per
ton with its teak logs and 1,800 dollars per ton with its sawn teak.
According to official statistics, in the first half of this year, Myanmar
exported 154,842 cubic-meters of teak, while in 2000,it sold abroad 302,810
cubic-meters of teak, earning nearly 200 million dollars of foreign exchange.
Timber is Myanmar's second major export earner only after agricultural
products, accounting for 20 percent of the country's total export.
Myanmar's forest covers 50 percent of its total land area, registering 33
million hectares.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- The New Straits Times Press - December
08, 2001.
ALOR STAR Cops nab Thai, Myanmar speed dealers by Sharanjit Singh A Thai and two Myanmar nationals were arrested for trafficking 10,000 'pil
kuda' (an amphetamine-type-stimulant) near the duty free complex at Bukit Kayu
Hitam.
The suspects, aged between 27 and 37, were arrested shortly after they
walked across the border from Thailand about 11am yesterday.
A team of undercover narcotics police detectives had earlier trailed the
suspects from Thailand.
State Narcotics Department deputy chief Deputy Superintendent Mazlan Osman
said the seized pills had a street value of about RM100,000.
The pills, which are said to be popular among labourers, fishermen and long
distance bus and lorry drivers, are sold in the market for between RM10 and RM17
each.
Police believe the suspects were trying to establish links with local
pushers to sell the pills before they were arrested.
Mazlan said the suspects were arrested as they were waiting for local
pushers to show-up.
"However, the suspects tried to make a run for it after realising they were
being watched. They were arrested after a short chase," he said.
Mazlan said detectives later found several packets filled with the pills in
the trouser pockets of the men.
The suspects have been remanded and are being investigated under Section
39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act, an offence which carries the mandatory death
sentence.
In a related development, Mazlan said police were alarmed by the abuse of
pills like Ecstasy and pil kuda, especially among teenagers.
He said investigations showed pushers were trying to dispose such pills to
teenagers in urban areas like Kota Setar and Kuala Muda.
"The pushers try to convince youths that taking such pills would enable
them to be more active and also improve their studying abilities.
"Youths should not be taken in by such nonsense as the claims are not true
and taking such pills could also lead to addiction," he said, adding police
would step-up raids at known youth hang-outs to check on drug abuse.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- The New Straits Times Press - December
07, 2001.
PENANG
Contract worker gets four years for carnal knowledge with teenager by Aida Ahmad A contract worker was sentenced to four years' jail by the Sessions Court
today after he pleaded guilty to an alternative charge of having carnal
knowledge with a 13-year-old girl four months ago.
Emran Hossain Mozammel Haque, 30, committed the offence at a house at
Pengkalan Weld between 9pm and 12am from April to Aug 29.
He was originally charged with raping the girl.
Today Deputy Public Prosecutor Azman Abu Hassan tendered the alternative
charge under the Women and Girls Protection Act, 1973.
In mitigation, S. Rethinakumar, who represented Emran, urged the court to
consider the plea of guilty.
He said Emran had known the girl for a year and she willingly committed the
act.
"After the girl gave birth, the DNA test and the chemist report showed that
Emran was the father. It is clear that he now has a responsibility towards the
child," said Rethinakumar, adding that Emran was also willing to marry the
girl.
Rethinakumar asked the court to impose a minimal jail sentence.
However, Azman submitted that although Emran had pleaded guilty, the court
should consider the seriousness of the crime.
"A heavy punishment should be imposed, he said.
He added the defence counsel had said that there was no force, but that was
not the issue because the purpose of the Act was to protect young girls.
Azman said the court should also consider the fact that Emran was a
foreigner who came to Malaysia to work, but had instead taken advantage of a
young girl.
"He may be remorseful. But the result of his action is irreversible, which
is damage to the victim's future and a baby born out of wedlock," he said.
Meanwhile, in a related case, a Bangladeshi and Myanmar worker, who were
alleged to have raped the same girl, were acquitted after the prosecution
withdrew the charge.
Pervez Nesar Ali Piswas, 30, was alleged to have committed the offence at a
house at Jalan Sungai Pinang at 9pm sometime last year.
Harun Lalmia, 18, from Myanmar, was alleged to have raped the girl on two
separate occasions, at a flat at Jalan Jelutong at 2pm last year and at a house
at Jalan Kelawei at 11am in May.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Straits Times - December - 07,
2001.
Myanmar refugees fear Thai camp closure
Former activists who fled after a failed uprising in 1988 face deportation
to their homeland and, most likely, arrest by military authorities there
MANEELOY (Thailand) - When Thailand closes its camp here for Myanmar
political refugees later this month, at least 80 inmates face deportation to
their homeland - the last place they want to be.
'I can't eat or sleep now,' asylum seeker Sisimoe said from behind the
razor-wire perimeter fence.
'I know my country very well. I can't escape arrest by the military
government.'
Maneeloy Holding Centre in western Ratchaburi province is the main Thai
camp for former student activists at the forefront of a 1988 democracy uprising
in Myanmar.
Many of them fled to Thailand after the uprising was crushed by the
military in a crackdown that killed hundreds, possibly thousands, of civilians.
Thai officials said the camp, which now holds fewer than 500 people - about
160 of them children - will be closed before Christmas.
In most countries, Sisimoe, 40, who uses only one name, would be among the
elite.
She has a university education and is fluent in three languages.
Instead, she lives in poverty and exile.
Since Maneeloy opened in 1992, nearly 4,000 inmates have been granted
asylum in other countries such as the United States, Canada, and Australia.
Losing patience with Myanmar dissidents on its soil, Thailand began pushing
for their speedy resettlement after student radicals - including two former
Maneeloy inmates - took hostages at gunpoint at the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok
in October 1999.
The incident ended peacefully.
Officials said 100 inmates at Maneeloy will be deported as illegal
immigrants, including 80 whose asylum applications have been turned down by the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The Thai government has warned it will use force if the inmates do not go
back peacefully.
Interior Minister Purachai Piemsomboon has gone so far as to describe them
as 'rubbish'.
According to the UNHCR, 185 other inmates are set to be resettled in third
countries; another 191, who arrived at the camp after a Dec 1999 deadline set
for asylum seekers by Thailand, appear destined for other refugee camps at the
Thai-Myanmar border that house more than 120,000 villagers displaced by
fighting.
The UN estimates Myanmar has as many as 1,600 political prisoners.
Maung Maung Oo, 37, who was once jailed in Myanmar for smuggling a photo of
an arms shipment to dissidents abroad, said: 'If I could, I would go back to
Myanmar. But how many of my comrades are in prison there?'
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