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BURMA RELATED NEWS - December
13, 2001.
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HEADLINES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Asia Times - Exiles lose patience with dialogue
Asia Times - Campaigns put pressure on firms to
leave
BBC - China strengthens ties with
Burma
AP - Chinese President Visits
Myanmar
AFP - Myanmar dissidents at Thai camp will not
be sent back: UNHCR
AFP - God's Army twins allowed to stay in
Thailand: official
AFP - Chinese president signs agreements with
Myanmar, begins tour
Reuters - China's Jiang inks seven Myanmar
agreements
Asia Pulse - China, Myanmar Expand Trade
Ties
BKK Post - Three-year repatriation goal urged
for Burmese refugees
Xinhuanet - Chinese President Arrives in Ngapali Xinhuanet - Chinese President Plants Friendship
Tree
Xinhuanet - Myanmar to Launch Aerospace
Engineering University
Kyodo News - Myanmar
junta releases 4 more political prisoners
AFP - Myanmar frees
four political prisoners
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Asia Times - Dec 13,
2001.
Exiles lose patience with dialogue By Marwaan Macan-Markar BANGKOK - Exiled Myanmar human rights activists are losing patience with
the woefully slow progress made in over a year's dialogue between the military
government and the political opposition, as well as a UN special envoy's quest
to nudge Yangon toward more democracy.
Despite these talks, the release of nearly 200 political prisoners, and yet
another recent visit to Myanmar by UN envoy Razali Ismail, there is little sign
that the country's strongmen are in the mood for political change. "There are no
clues to gauge the direction the talks are taking," said Ye Hutt, a ranking
member of the Bangkok-based Myanmar Lawyers' Council, one of many groups formed
by Myanmar exiles living in neighboring Thailand. "Everything is behind closed
doors, and the rulers are tight-lipped," he adds.
The talks have been shrouded in secrecy since they began 14 months ago
between the government and the opposition, led by the detained pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi. "There is a need for openness, like a statement from
the government revealing its stand on this effort," Ye Hutt says.
In the past few days some indicators of how the dialogue is progressing
have emerged, but they have been contradictory. Aung San Suu Kyi has warned that
full dialogue has yet to start, while the ruling State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC) has said that it is committed to creating a "functioning
democracy".
"It is not that dialogue has begun," Japanese Foreign Minister Kabun Muto
quoted Suu Kyi as saying. "It is a period in which both sides are attempting to
erase mutual mistrust." The generals, meanwhile, said in a statement released on
Monday that they are working with Suu Kyi to find a political settlement.
"Today, we are all in the process of joining hands, walking on the same path
toward our common objective," they said.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) have also said that talks
with the military must start yielding more tangible results. The NLD said that
any further delays in reaching democracy could lead to "undesirable negative
effects". "It is now necessary to develop, step by step, the confidence building
talks between the SPDC and NLD into meaningful dialogues," the NLD said.
Soe Aung of the Bangkok-based National Council of the Union of Myanmar
(NCUB) also feels that the ongoing dialogue initiated by Razali Ismail, a former
Malaysian diplomat, is slow to show results. "The SPDC must show political will
to speed up the talks," Soe Aung said. Following his visit to Yangon, Razali was
reticent about the substance of the talks he had with members of the junta in
the Myanmar capital and Suu Kyi. However, he was quoted as being hopeful about
"the eventual outcome" of his mission, which is to push for human rights and
democracy in a country that has been oppressed by the dictates of a military
regime that came to power in 1988.
But Aung Zaw, editor of Irrawaddy, an independent magazine that covers
Myanmar from the Thai city of Chiang Mai, does not share this optimism. "It is
very unlikely that an agreement will be reached. I don't share his views, nor do
a lot of people inside Myanmar," Aung Zaw said. "Razali's understanding of
Myanmar is also limited."
Some activists believe that this harsh assessment, including the critique
that the Yangon government is gaining political mileage from the talks, is not
misplaced in the face of evidence filtering out of Myanmar. While Yangon claims
that it has permitted the NLD to reopen its offices in the towns, the reality
reveals the limits on the freedom of association - members of the government's
intelligence wing have become a permanent fixture nearby, monitoring NLD
activities, activists say.
There are also discrepancies in Yangon's assertion that it has freed close
to 200 political prisoners, largely NLD activists, since January, the month
Razali's initiative became known. "Most of them were freed because their
sentences had expired," asserts Hutt, the Myanmar lawyer. "But they have not
been so keen to free the other political prisoners, about 1,500 or more, some of
the strongest NLD voices."
Then, there is the long-time criticism of Yangon for its use of forced
labor, including that by the International Labor Organization (ILO) in November.
A team from this United Nations agency found that forced labor still exists in
Myanmar, a charge that exposed the SPDC's failure to end such abusive form of
work. The ILO team, which spent four weeks in September and October
crisscrossing Myanmar, said that forced labor is being used by the military and
by the authorities for government infrastructure. The large military presence at
Myanmar's border areas means they are particularly vulnerable, it added.
For Myanmar human rights activists, the ILO's critique underscored Yangon's
failure to implement the law it had introduced a year ago against forced labor.
"Clearly there is a gap between what the government says and does," observed Soe
Aung of the NCUB. "The ILO team's report reveals the real situation regards the
SPDC's attitude toward rights."
According to both regional and international human rights monitors, forced
labor in Myanmar ranges from clearing forests, repairing roads and carrying
goods for the military, to more dangerous work such as minesweeping. In
addition, there have been continued reports of "widespread human rights abuses,
including extra-judicial killings and rape", stated the Alternative ASEAN
Network on Myanmar (ALTSEAN), a Bangkok-based rights lobby. "There is no redress
for such violations as there is widespread disrespect for the rule of law and no
independent judiciary to punish such," it said.
Human rights abuses are also the order of the day in the conflict-affected
areas such as the states of Shan, Karen and Mon, according to the New York-based
Human Rights Watch. "In the west, the SPDC continue to deprive the ethnic
minority Muslim Rohingya of full citizenship rights," the group said.
"The SPDC has to negotiate with all the ethnic minorities for democracy to
prevail," said Myint Myint San, a Myanmar activist at ALTSEAN. "The government
has to recognize women and children, too, unlike now, where they are a low
priority."
Still, some consider it an achievement that the dialogue in Myanmar has
continued this long. The longer it keeps going, the harder it may be to end.
Meanwhile, people like Soe Aung are clinging on to hope that the talks will
prompt change: "We need to make this process irreversible."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Asia Times - Dec 13,
2001.
Campaigns put pressure on firms to leave By Danielle Knight WASHINGTON - US environmentalists and human rights activists have joined
labor unions to pressure the a New York-based oil company to sell its ownership
of a British company that invests in Myanmar. Meanwhile, consumers are being
urged to boycott a European lingerie maker until it closes its factory in
Myanmar.
Citing the Myanmar military regime's abuse of human rights, activists are
urging Amerada Hess, best known as a petrol retailer in the eastern United
States, to divest its 25 percent stake in London-based Premier Oil, which does
business in Myanmar. Carl Tursi, a spokesperson for Amerada Hess, said that the
company's investment in Premier is "ring fenced" and does not include contracts
in Myanmar. "We do not have any people in Myanmar and we do not participate in
discussions or decisions about Myanmar," he said. Tursi acknowledged, however,
that the company is concerned about its image and reputation and hinted at
possible action.
Until last month, Hess's investment in Premier was subject to a standstill
agreement that barred the US company from adding to or selling from its stake in
the British firm. "Now that it has expired, we are free to look at that
investment, like we look at all our investments," Tursi said.
Activists said that they are determined the company not just look, but act.
This week, they began picketing Hess petrol stations across the United States.
Heidi Quante, coordinator of the non-governmental Myanmar Project, said
that Amerada Hess should follow the example of US companies that have pulled out
of Myanmar. These include Texaco, ARCO, and Amoco. "Hess's connection to
Myanmar's junta puts it in the company of a small number of pariah corporations
still doing business with this internationally reviled regime," said Quante.
Relations between Myanmar and the United States have been poor since the
Myanmar military refused to honor the results of 1990 elections swept by the
National League for Democracy (NLD) and its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi,
who later won the Nobel Peace Prize, and other opposition and civil society
leaders were arrested in a crackdown that has effectively lasted more than 10
years. Suu Kyi has called for sanctions against the regime as the best way to
force it into negotiations over a transition to democratic rule.
In November, in an unprecedented action, the International Labor
Organization (ILO) called for all member countries to "review their relations"
with Myanmar in light of that country's failure to redress confirmed reports of
forced labor.
In addition to concern about military repression, Washington accused the
junta and top military officers of failing to cooperate with its efforts to
combat opium and heroin production, protecting known traffickers, and sharing in
the profits of the drug trade.
Under pressure from grass-roots activists, former president Bill Clinton
banned all new US investment in Myanmar from 1997, but his order did not address
existing contracts, such as a major gas pipeline project co-financed by San
Francisco-based Unocal, or orders by apparel companies for goods produced by
Myanmar factories.
Amerada Hess's 25 percent ownership of Premier Oil apparently was not
subject to Clinton's executive order because it was not considered a direct
investment in Myanmar, said Marco Simon, a fellow at Washington-based Earth
Rights International, which also called on Hess to divest from Premier.
So far, over 50 companies worldwide have left Myanmar due to international
pressure. But many Asia-based companies, including Malaysia's Petronas energy
company, and some European companies, such as France's TotalFinaElf oil firm,
remain.
British activists have pressured Premier to divest from projects including
the Yetagun natural gas pipeline, a joint venture with the Myanmar government
that, activists said, is one of the junta's principal sources of revenue. Rights
activists have charged that soldiers providing security for the pipeline have
subjected civilians to forced labor, forced relocation, rape, torture, and
murder.
Environmentalists have also protested against the pipeline because it cuts
through the Tenasserim rainforest, one of the largest intact forests in
Southeast Asia and home to numerous endangered species, including elephants and
rhinoceros.
Activists said that abuses in the Yetagun pipeline region are not isolated
occurrences but are part of a pattern of increased military presence near energy
infrastructure. Despite oil executives' assertions to the contrary, abuses
continue and "severe forced labor and beatings have occurred in the pipeline
region within the past year", said Quante.
Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest, has also called for the oil
company to withdraw.
A growing number of global corporations have left Myanmar as a result of
mounting pressure by human rights groups, including such companies as British
Home Stores, Liz Claiborne, C&A, Ericsson, Heineken, Phillips, Levi Strauss,
Apple, Pepsi Cola, Reebok and Fosters. Many multinational corporations are
reconsidering their Myanmar operations, including Orient Express/Sea Containers,
Unocal, Total, Mitsubishi, Suzuki, and British American Tobacco, most of whom
have public campaigns directed against them.
Human rights groups are now urging consumers to boycott European lingerie
maker Triumph International until it closes its factory in Myanmar. The Myanmar
Campaign UK said that "Foreign companies and Myanmar's dictators are becoming
richer, while Myanmar's oppressed people grow ever poorer".
Triumph International, a Swiss-based multinational company, have a factory
located on an industrial estate called Pyin-Ma-Bin, north of Yangon. In its
defense, Triumph has said that it is concerned about dismissing over 1,000 of
its workers in Myanmar. "The Triumph factory in Myanmar is built to European
standards and offers our employees safe and modern working conditions," Triumph
said. "The factory is operated within the Triumph code of conduct therefore no
child or enforced labor is employed. In keeping with the whole Triumph
International Group, the welfare of our employees is of paramount importance."
Under the slogan "Support Breasts - not Dictators", the Myanmar Campaign
UK-led campaign against Triumph features a barbed wire bra, a hard-hitting image
which protesters say represents the company's disregard for human rights in
Myanmar.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - Wednesday, 12 December, 2001,
19:00 GMT
China strengthens ties with Burma Chinese President Jiang Zemin has held talks in Rangoon with Senior General
Than Shwe at the start of his first visit to the military-ruled country.
President Jiang was earlier given a lavish red-carpet welcome on arrival
for his three-day trip.
The Associated Press news agency reported that representatives of the two
countries signed seven agreements after the talks between the two leaders.
The visit comes after a decade of cooperation between the two states but
also amid some tension over drug-trafficking and Burma's military links with
India
The agreements signed on Wednesday cover technical and economic
cooperation, investments, security and cooperation in fisheries.
Burma relies heavily on China for arms and investments.
'Friendship'
According to AP, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan told a news
conference that Beijing was offering $100m in aid and investment to Burma.
Most of that disbursement was to go towards human resources development, he
was reported as saying.
But a BBC correspondent says that although the two countries have been
close allies for more than a decade, there has been growing friction between
them recently.
He says China is likely to demand that Burma do more to stamp out the
cross-border drugs trade.
Nevertheless, President Jiang could not have received a warmer welcome from
the country's top three leaders.
As well as Than Shwe, chairman of the ruling State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC), President Jiang was also greeted by Vice Chairman General Maung
Aye and head of military intelligence Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt.
The visit comes as Burma faces increased international pressure from
leaders and human rights groups to release from house arrest pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The 1991 Nobel Peace laureate was placed under house arrest in September
2000, 10 years after her National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide
election that the military refused to recognise.
Democracy hopes
Over the last year, Aung San Suu Kyi has been holding secretive United
Nations-brokered talks with junta leaders which have raised hopes of a
breakthrough.
However in comments reportedly made to former Japanese Foreign Minister
Kabun Muto, Aung San Suu Kyi cautioned that dialogue had yet to start in full.
"It is a period in which both sides are attempting to erase mutual
mistrust," she was quoted by Japan's Jiji Press news agency as telling Mr Muto.
Her comments were reported following a statement by Burma's ruling State
Peace and Development Council saying it was committed to creating a "functioning
democracy".
But the NLD has said talks must start yielding more tangible results.
Indian influence
Chinese officials have said that Mr Jiang's visit is aimed at "enhancing
understanding, friendship and co-operation" and will include the signing of
bilateral agreements.
Our correspondent says China is also aiming to strengthen its influence in
Burma to counter the regime's growing military ties with India.
On Tuesday Burma announced the release of more than 200 Chinese prisoners
ahead of Mr Jiang's arrival as "a sign of goodwill".
An official statement did not say why the prisoners had been jailed, but an
opposition report said some had been arrested on charges of illegal entry.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chinese President Visits
Myanmar
The Associated Press, Thu 13 Dec 2001 YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Chinese President Jiang Zemin
toured Myanmar's spiritual center on a landmark state visit Thursday after
offering fresh support for the military state's hobbled economy.
Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung escorted Jiang and his wife, Wang Yeping,
on a tour of Yangon's towering Shwedagon Pagoda, the predominantly Buddhist
country's most important religious site.
Wearing socks, the president circled the 322- feet high golden edifice,
treading the cool marble floors usually thronging with barefoot worshippers. The
pagoda was closed to the public during his visit.
Jiang started a four-day trip in Yangon on Wednesday when he held official
talks with Myanmar military leader Gen. Than Shwe. China announced it was
investing $100 million in 12 major projects to help Myanmar in agriculture,
infrastructure and human resources development.
China is a leading trading partner and investor in Myanmar, which struggles
to drum up foreign investment because of sanctions from Western countries and
economic mismanagement by the regime.
Kong Quan, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman, told a news conference late
Wednesday that Than Shwe explained to Jiang the political situation in Myanmar —
where the regime has been in a decade-long stalemate with opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi.
Jiang commented that each country ```has its own right to choose the path
that suits the country,''' Kong said.
The two countries signed agreements on matters including economic and
technical cooperation and cooperation in border security.
The China National Petroleum Corporation and the Myanma Oil and Gas
Enterprise also signed an agreement for oil drilling at the Pyay Field in
central Myanmar.
Myanmar's regime has relied heavily on Beijing — not just economically, but
for supplies of weapons to expand its military — during a decade of
international isolation after it crushed a democracy uprising in 1988, killing
hundreds, probably thousands, of civilians.
Jiang is the first Chinese president to visit since then.
It comes as the two other major Asian powers, India and Japan, are also
vying for influence in Myanmar, which has a strategically important location in
a region that is increasingly opening up for transnational trade.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday December 13, 7:37 PM
Myanmar dissidents at Thai camp will not be sent back: UNHCR BANGKOK, Dec 13 (AFP) - The
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Thursday that Myanmar
political dissidents at a Thai camp due to close this week would not be forced
back to the military-ruled state.
But some Myanmar nationals not considered refugees at the Maneeloy Holding
Center, which houses exiles from the Myanmar regime's 1988 crackdown on
pro-democracy activists, would be "sent back," according to a Thai
official.
Johanshah Assadi, the UNHCR's Bangkok-based regional representative, told
AFP that the agency had resettled nearly all the camp's 2,200 refugees in 10
different countries since October 1999.
About 150 refugees at the camp, where some dissidents on Tuesday launched a
hunger strike against the closure of the center planned for Saturday, were
awaiting deportation to third countries, he added.
The UNHCR representative said some 200 other "persons of concern" would be
moved to a different location in Thailand.
"These 200 will be moved according to the government's wishes to a border
location in Thailand," he said. "No question of them being returned to Myanmar.
No refugees or persons of concern will be sent back to Myanmar."
A third group of people, estimated by Thai officials to number about 100,
had been classified by the Thai government as illegal immigrants, Assadi
added.
These people would face legal action and be "sent back home" to Myanmar
after the holding center closes, Thai National Security Council secretary
general Kachadpai Burusapat told reporters last week.
Kachadpai said protestors at the camp -- one of whom told AFP they were
beyond the help of the UNHCR and feared for their safety -- were angry because
they could not go to a third country.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said in June that the Maneeloy center and
refugee camps along the Myanmar border would be gradually closed, and that he
would tackle the problem of illegal immigrants, who number about a
million.
Thailand is home to more than 120,000 refugees who fled fighting between
Myanmar troops and ethnic independence armies. Many of them are from the Karen
minority and live in camps on the Thai side of the border.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday December 13, 5:47 PM
God's Army twins allowed to stay in Thailand: official BANGKOK, Dec 13 (AFP) - Johnny
and Luther Htoo, the twin boys who led a band of Myanmar rebels known as God's
Army, will be allowed to stay in Thailand as there is nowhere else for them to
go, an official said Thursday.
The young brothers once thought by their followers to have mystical powers
surrendered along with other members of their militia to Thai authorities in
January, and have since been held at a border police station.
Thai authorities had said they were discussing a possible resettlement plan
with US officials, but the twin brothers said they were afraid to move to the
United States after the terrorist attacks of September 11.
Instead, the boys said they would rather live at a refugee camp for Myanmar
ethnic Karens in Thailand's western Ratchaburi province where several of their
friends are staying.
"They want to stay here, and if no country will take them, we are ready to
allow them to stay," the secretary general of Thailand's National Security
Council, Kachadpai Burusapat, told AFP.
He added that Thailand had left open the possibility of third-country
resettlement for the twins, who are believed to be about 13 years old and used
to swagger about smoking cheroots while toting automatic rifles.
But Kachadpai said authorities had made little progress in finding a new
home for the boys, who were reunited earlier this year with their parents found
living at a border refugee camp.
Asked whether Johnny and Luther had been classified as refugees rather than
illegal immigrants, an official at the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees said the Thai government's offer implied refugee status.
"The government has already given them some kind of de facto refugee
status," said UNHCR regional representative Johanshah Assadi.
"As with all cases that appear in the border region, it's the government
who decides who's admitted and who's not."
The former boy leaders were once worshipped by their ethnic Karen followers
who believed they had mystical powers that made them invincible in battles
against Myanmar troops along the Thai border.
After their surrender to Thai troops in January, the Htoo brothers debunked
the myths surrounding their militia band and said they dreamed only of going to
school and living like ordinary children.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday December 13, 3:40 PM
Chinese president signs agreements with Myanmar, begins tour YANGON, Dec 13 (AFP) - Chinese
President Jiang Zemin began a recreational tour of Myanmar on the second day of
an official visit during which he has signed seven economic cooperation pacts
with the military state.
With his official schedule completed, Jiang visited Yangon's famous Shwe
Dagon pagoda early Thursday and was due to leave for a day's rest and recreation
at the Ngapali beach resort on the Bay of Bengal.
He is scheduled to visit the northern archaeological site of Bagan on
Friday before leaving the same day for Mandalay, the ancient capital some 450
miles north of Yangon, where there is a large Chinese population.
In Mandalay, where a rising tide of Chinese migrants have set up
flourishing businesses, Jiang will tour local cultural and religous sites such
as the Golden Palace before departing for Beijing on Saturday.
Jiang, the first Chinese president to travel to Myanmar since the current
regime took power in 1988, signed a raft of agreements with Myanmar, including a
plan to collaborate on managing border areas.
The porous border between China and Myanmar spans more than 2,000
kilometers (1,242 miles), and is known for rampant drug production and
trafficking, particularly with the southern Chinese province of Yunnan.
The HIV/AIDS virus has also spread through the border region at an alarming
rate, according to recent reports.
The Chinese president also inked deals on economic and technological ties,
livestock and fisheries, and oil recovery from Myanmar's Payay field, where
plans are afoot to renovate ageing oil wells.
At a press conference late Thursday, Kong Quan, a spokesman for the Chinese
delegation said Chinese investment here totalled 100 million dollars spread
across 12 projects.
The memoranda of understanding were signed by official delegates after a
top level meeting between Jiang and the chairman of Myanmar's ruling State Peace
and Development Council (SPDC), Senior General Than Shwe.
"At their meeting this afternoon, the leaders of the two countries placed
emphasis on development of the agriculture sector, human resources and
development of infrastructure, especially in electric power, transport and
communications," Kong told reporters.
The spokesman also confirmed that 216 Chinese and two Taiwanese, who had
been jailed for "various offenses," were released by Myanmar's ruling junta on
the occasion of the visit.
In an arrival statement earlier Thursday, Jiang said his trip was aimed at
"enhancing mutual understanding, deepening friendship and expanding cooperation"
through an exchange of views between the countries.
"I also wish to learn more about the the economic and social development of
the country," he said, adding that he was confident his visit would "achieve
positive results."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday December 13, 2:53 PM
China's Jiang inks seven Myanmar agreements By Aung Hla Tun YANGON (Reuters) - Chinese
President Jiang Zemin has inked seven agreements with Myanmar at the start of a
four-day visit to the southeast Asian country, officials said.
The agreements aim to improve ties between the two neighbours in the areas
of border cooperation, economic and technical cooperation, investment,
agriculture, fisheries, oil production and animal quarantine.
"President Jiang Zemin said at the official meeting that efforts would be
made to promote co-operation in three main areas -- agriculture, utilisation of
natural resources and human resources, and infrastructure," Chinese spokesman
Kong Quen told a news conference late on Wednesday after Jiang's arrival.
He said a "protocol on cooperation in border areas" would supplement a 1997
agreement, which sought to increase cross-border trade and cultural ties. He
gave no further details on the agreements.
The head of Myanmar's military government General Than Shwe signed the
agreements for Yangon.
Jiang is the first Chinese head of state to visit Myanmar since Yangon's
current military regime seized power in 1988.
According to Kong, discussions between Jiang and Than Shwe centred on
China's "open door" investment policy.
Than Shwe praised China's rapid development and invited Chinese firms to
invest in Myanmar, Quen said.
Impoverished Myanmar followed a policy of economic isolation for decades
following independence from Britain in 1947.
In 1995, the country joined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) hoping to attract new investment and develop trade links with the
outside world.
But the 1997 Asian economic crisis led to a slump in foreign investment
from the region.
And much of the West -- including the United States and the European Union
-- has shunned contact with the ruling military, which they accuse of human
rights violations.
They also want a transition to democracy through reconciliation with the
opposition National League for Democracy led by Nobel peace laureate Aung San
Suu Kyi.
In contrast, relations between Myanmar's military government and China have
warmed in recent years, with Beijing becoming a key supplier of arms to its
southern neighbour.
This has caused growing concern in other countries in the region,
especially in India, that Beijing's political and economic influence is moving
rapidly southwards.
But China still only ranks 15th in terms of foreign direct investment in
impoverished Myanmar, although $60 million worth of investment projects are
currently under discussion.
China says it currently has 12 investment projects in Myanmar, worth a
combined $100 million.
In the fiscal year to March 2001, Myanmar imported $293 million worth of
goods from China. Exports to China amounted to $104 million.
Jiang leaves Myanmar on December 15.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday December 13, 11:32 AM
China, Myanmar Expand Trade Ties BEIJING, Dec 13 Asia Pulse -
The bilateral trade between China and Myanmar has kept growing this year, and
China has become the third largest trade partner of Myanmar, after Singapore and
Thailand, according to the statistics of Myanmar.
During the first ten months of this year, the bilateral trade volume
amounted US$499 million, registering 3.1 per cent year-on-year growth, said
sources with the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation
[MOFTEC].
China's export to Myanmar from January to October this year reached US$385
million, up 1.9 per cent; and the import reached US$113 million, up 6.7 per
cent.
The major products China exported to Myanmar include electrical and
mechanical goods, textile and hi-tech products.
With the progressing of the friendly relations between China and Myanmar,
China has signed an increasing number of contracts for projects in Myanmar.
By the end of 2000, there were 752 contract agreements between Chinese and
Myanmar companies, with a value of US$1.786 billion.
In the first ten months of 2001, Chinese companies signed 87 project deals,
totaling US$186 million.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Dec 13,
2001.
Three-year repatriation goal urged for Burmese refugees Can't wait for peace talks to bear fruit Achara Ashayagachat Thailand should set a timeframe of three years for the repatriation of
Burmese refugees and begin preparing for that goal, an adviser to Defence
Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said yesterday.
Gen Sanan Kajornklum said a process should be drawn up pending a tripartite
agreement on the repatriation between Thailand, Burma and the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees.
``If we do not start now, we will go nowhere,'' he told a seminar organised
by the UNHCR. ``The three-year aim is just a timeframe. If the Thaksin
government achieves this during its tenure, that would be great. After all, it
depends on progress in national reconciliation inside Burma.''
The government should seize the opportunity of ``improving bilateral
relations'' to begin preparations toward eventual repatriation, said Gen Sanan,
who played a key role in the return of Cambodians to their homeland in the early
1990s.
UNHCR data compiled in October showed 108,804 Burmese refugees were living
in 11 holding centres in Mae Hong Son, Tak, Kanchanaburi and Ratchaburi.
Gen Sanan proposed the setting up of co-ordination centres along the border
to screen, register, train and educate refugees.
Gen Sanan dismissed fears that Rangoon might not accept the return of
ethnic minorities, and said they could be represented in a committee entrusted
with repatriation preparations.
``When I was head of the repatriation centre for Cambodian refugees, all
Khmer factions were included in the preparatory process for their return home,
so Burma's ethnic minorities could do the same,'' he said.
But human rights advocates at the seminar on ``Permanent Solutions for
Refugees and Displaced Persons'' opposed the early repatriation of
Burmese.
Chalida Tacharoensuk, co-ordinator of the Asian Forum for Human Rights and
Development, said there could be no permanent solution to the problem of
refugees and displaced persons until justice and political freedoms were
restored in Burma.
Thailand's task was to help push towards this end and to ``reconsider our
policy to allow displaced persons to cross the border into Thailand while there
is still fighting inside Burma'', she said.
Tirawat Sucharitkul, aide to HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn and a
former UNHCR officer, was supportive of Gen Sanan's idea.
He said the Thai government and UNHCR should work out a clearer position
towards a permanent solution.
``Whether that goal should be reached in three or five years, we should
start something now,'' Mr Tirawat said.
``Dialogue between Thailand and Burma is needed and the UNHCR should try
harder to advance the process.''
Like Gen Sanan, he said Thailand should not pressure Rangoon too much but
rather respect the administration.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chinese President Arrives in
Ngapali
Xinhuanet 2001-12-13 22:16:19 NGAPALI (Myanmar), December 13 (Xinhuanet) -- Visiting Chinese President Jiang
Zemin arrived in this coastal tourist resort of Ngapali Thursday afternoon,
continuing his state visit to Myanmar.
Aung Htwe, chairman of the Rakhine State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC), greeted Jiang at the Thantwe Airport and hosted a dinner for Jiang here
Thursday evening.
After the dinner, Jiang watched performances given by local artists.
Earlier, Jiang and his entourage were seen off by Than Shwe, chairman of
the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) of Myanmar, at the Yangon
International Airport.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chinese President Plants
Friendship Tree
Xinhuanet 2001-12-13 21:19:23 YANGON, December 13 (Xinhuanet)
-- Visiting Chinese President Jiang Zemin planted a tree in the People's Square
here Thursday morning to mark the "pawkphaw" (fraternal) friendship between the
two peoples of China and Myamnar.
This is the first tree ever planted in Myanmar by a Chinese leader.
Myanmar Foreign Minister U Win Aung and Yangon Mayor U Ko Lay accompanied
Jiang during the planting and gave introductions to the tree.
Among loud applause, Jiang added earth and water for the tree.
Madhuca Longifolia, the evergreen tree, can grow over 100 feet high and
live hundreds of years. Myanmar people believe that this tree is magic
because the tree's branch, leaf, flower and fruit can be taken as ingredients of
medicine.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar to Launch Aerospace
Engineering University
Xinhuanet 2001-12-13 10:22:42 YANGON, December 13 (Xinhuanet)
-- Myanmar will open an Aerospace Engineering University, the first ever in the
country, in August next year, aiming at producing international-standard
aerospace engineers and officers, according to sources at the Ministry of
Science and Technology Thursday.
At the university run by the ministry, three degree courses will be
conducted which cover aerospace propulsion and flight vehicles,
aerospace-avionics and aerospace- electrical systems and instrumentation.
The university will initially admit a total of 150 students to study these
courses, each of which takes five years, the sources said.
Meanwhile, the Myanmar government has also planned to open its first
maritime university, also in August next year, to produce international-standard
maritime officers, engineers and architects for ship building.
According to official statistics, the government built 110 universities and
colleges in the 13 years since 1988 when it took office, bringing the total
number of institutes of higher learning to 142 at present.
Meanwhile, during the period, the number of students studying at these
higher education institutions increased by 416,719, bringing their total number
to 556,456.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar junta releases 4 more political
prisoners
YANGON, Dec. 13 Kyodo - Myanmar
released four more members of the pro-democracy National League for Democracy
(NLD), including Than Lwin, who won a parliamentary seat in the 1990 general
election, on Thursday from prison in Mandalay in central Myanmar, an official
press release said. (17 :26)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar frees four political
prisoners
YANGON, Dec 13 (AFP) -
Myanmar's military government Thursday released four political prisoners who
belong to democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy
(NLD), according to an official statement.
The regime said an NLD parliamentarian, Than Lwin, had been freed along
with three party members -- Than Htik, Nyein Maung and Myao Naing, also known as
Maung Maung.
The releases brought to 194 the number of political prisoners freed from
prison since January.
"This afternoon one MP-elect and three members of the NLD party were
released from the correctional facility in Mandalay altogether totalling 194,"
the statement said.
"They are all in good health and back together with their respective
families."
Aung San Suu Kyi has spent the past year in secret talks with junta
leaders, which observers hope will herald a fully-fledged reconciliation process
that could one day introduce democracy to Myanmar.
The military regime has held the Nobel peace laureate under house arrest at
her lakeside residence since September 2000, when she attempted to travel to the
northern city of Mandalay in defiance of a travel ban.
Western countries, international activist groups and Myanmar's democratic
opposition have demanded the release of an estimated 1,500 political prisoners,
of whom 800 are NLD members, still being held in Myanmar's jails.
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