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BURMA RELATED NEWS - December 30,
2001.
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HEADLINES
----------------------------------------------------------------------- AFP - 2002 forecast for Asia: more bloodshed and
death
AFP - Southeast Asia to achieve landmark free
trade goal on January 1
NYT - For Many
Burmese, China Is an Unwanted Ally
The Nation - DRUG LORD HAD STYLE: Home used for
TV shows
The Nation - EDITORIAL: A major victory in the drugs
fight
Xinhuanet - Myanmar Govt Spokesman on Domestic
Issues
----------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday December 30, 10:40 AM2002 forecast for Asia: more
bloodshed and death
(AFP) -With India and Pakistan at flashpoint, Afghanistan's future uncertain and many national insurgencies festering, the grim forecast by analysts for Asia in 2002 is more bloodshed and death. Although regional experts believe conflict is not necessarily on the rise
in Asia, decades-old points of tension will next year inevitably lead to a
repeat of the thousands of violent deaths that occurred in 2001.
"If you start looking at conflicts throughout the region, you see an
inability of countries to resolve tensions that lead to these conflicts," the
Asia Pacific editor of the respected Jane's Defence Weekly, Robert Karniol, told
AFP.
"Essentially all of these conflicts date back a very long time."
Karniol pointed to the menacing build-up of Pakistan and Indian troops
along their border and in the disputed Himalayan state of Kashmir as an example
of unresolved tensions leading to conflict.
The nuclear rivals have fought two wars over Kashmir since they gained
independence from Britain in 1947. Karniol said the latest crisis stemmed from
the same issues as those that sparked the previous conflicts.
"This is the most recent flare up in 50 years of tension... and the only
thing we can say with any degree of certainty is they haven't addressed the core
issues."
Meanwhile the Muslim separatist drive in Kashmir, which India accuses
Pakistan of backing, continues to exact a grisly toll.
According to official Indian figures, separatist-related violence in
Kashmir claimed 3,440 lives in 2001, including 2,017 militants, 927 civilians
and 496 security personnel.
The US-led military action inside nearby Afghanistan during 2001 has also
thrown up many potential regional security pitfalls for 2002, despite the early
promise of the war-ravaged nation's new government, according to Karniol.
"The consequences of America's actions are very unpredictable for
Afghanistan, for Pakistan and for Central Asia," Karniol said.
Hong Kong-based regional analyst Lau Siu Kai agreed, warning Pakistan,
which had previously supported the Taliban regime, now had a potentially
unfriendly government on its western border in Afghanistan as well as India to
the east.
"Right now Pakistan is facing hostility on both sides of its boundaries so
it is under a lot of pressure," said Lau, the Hong Kong Institute of Asia
Pacific Studies' associate director.
Elsewhere in Asia, experts predict thousands of people will die in ongoing
national crises in a manner little different from 2001 and previous years.
In Sri Lanka, an average of 2,000 people have been killed each year since
the Tamil Tigers began their push for an independent homeland in the island's
northeast in 1972.
And although Sri Lanka's new prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, is
pushing for peace, with his government and the Tigers in the midst of their
first bilateral truce in six years, Karniol is not optimistic.
"In the past the Tamil Tigers have used peace negotiations and ceasefires
as an excuse to regroup and reinforce and have come back even stronger," he
warned.
In Indonesia, 2001 was another bloody year with human rights monitors
estimating 1,700 people were killed in a government crackdown on separatist
guerrillas in the resource-rich province of Aceh.
Indigenous Dayak tribes slaughtered about 500 Madurese migrants in the
jungles of Borneo in March. And in the far eastern province of Irian Jaya, the
leader of the independence movement, Theys Eluay, was among more than 50 people
killed as the government beefed up security forces.
In the Philippines, the centuries-old battle between the national
government and Muslims seeking an independent homeland in the south claimed
hundreds of lives. A resurgent communist movement also caused deaths.
And in Nepal, more than 500 people were killed as Maoist rebels stepped up
a five-year rebellion to overthrow the monarchy.
Other armed insurgents committed to their bloody path include at least 30
rebel groups in India's northeastern states, whose demands range from secession
to greater autonomy and the right to self-determination.
More than 75,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency in the
northeast since India's independence from Britain 54 years ago.
In neighbouring Myanmar, the battle between ethnic Karen rebels and the
military junta has led to as many as 300,000 people being internally displaced
and countless others killed.
Aside from national insurgencies, major regional tensions are poised, as
always to become international flash points, analysts say.
Karniol rates the tensions between China and Taiwan, the two Koreas and
India and Pakistan as the three with the most potential to flare into major
conflicts.
China regards Taiwan as a renegade province awaiting reunification after
they split in 1949 at the end of a civil war while North and South Korea have
been technically at war for more than 50 years.
However Lau believes most countries are becoming increasingly pragmatic and
will not instigate a conflict with rivals, mainly because it would hurt the
economy.
"For example even though there's a conflict between China and Taiwan, both
sides are exercising a great deal of restraint... all countries in this part of
the world have too much at stake to wage war against each other," Lau
said.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday December 30, 12:01 PM
Southeast Asia to achieve landmark free
trade goal on January 1
(AFP) - Southeast Asia will
achieve a key free trade goal this week when six of 10 nations in the region
eliminate duties on almost all products they had pledged under a tariff
liberalisation scheme a decade ago.
Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand are
scheduled to bring down tariffs on a wide range of manufactured and agricultural
products to between zero and five percent on January 1, 2002 under the ASEAN
Free Trade Area (AFTA) plan.
The six countries, the first members of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN), account for more than 96 percent of trade in the region.
"January 1, 2002 is very significant because effectively, most of Southeast
Asia will be a free trade area by then," ASEAN spokesman M. C. Abad told
AFP.
The four other ASEAN members, newcomers Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and
Cambodia, are scheduled to reduce tariffs to no more than five percent from
2006.
With the dismantling of tariff rates under AFTA, Southeast Asia would
enhance its competitive advantage as an international production base and serve
as a catalyst for greater efficiency in production, Abad said.
"At the same time, the free trade plan would give Southeast Asian consumers
wider choice for better quality consumer products at competitive rates," he
said.
The current average tariff on goods traded among ASEAN members is estimated
at about 3.5 percent -- down from 12.76 percent when AFTA took off in
1993.
The ASEAN free trade pact gives duty free privileges to products traded
among member countries and which have at least 40 percent local content.
AFTA was adopted by the six original members in 1992 and implemented a year
later to bring intra-regional tariffs to zero to five percent.
The original deadline to achieve the plan was 2008.
However, three years after AFTA's launching, ASEAN decided to speed up its
implementation by five years to 2003.
It was advanced by another year to 2002 as a result of the regional
financial and economic crisis of 1997-1998 and greater pressure of competition
from other countries.
"That decision clearly demonstrated ASEAN's commitment to maintain
Southeast Asia's economic competitiveness through economic integration," Abad
said.
Under the free trade pact, ASEAN members have the option to temporarily
exclude some products from AFTA to give breathing space for key domestic
industries to develop before facing full-blown competition.
Malaysia, for example, has won a two-year delay in opening up its
heavily-protected auto sector.
The two biggest products in intra-ASEAN trade at present are electrical
machinery and equipment, and machinery and mechanical appliances.
Currently, only 1,675 of 44,062 specified items traded among the ASEAN six
would have tariffs above five percent, Abad said.
ASEAN leaders have agreed to completely eliminate all import duties in the
region by 2010 for the six original members and by 2015 for the new
members.
Intra-ASEAN trade accounts for about 20 percent of the region's annual
total trade of more than 700 billion dollars, officials say.
ASEAN's major trading partners are the United States, the European Union
and Japan.
Southeast Asian leaders are planning to establish a mega East Asia free
trade zone, covering ASEAN and China, Japan and South Korea with a total market
of more than two billion people.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- The New York Times
December 30, 2001
For Many Burmese, China Is an Unwanted
Ally
By MARK LANDLER
MANDALAY, Myanmar ? Each morning here, in the Buddhist heartland of the
country once known as Burma, dozens of monks clamber onto ramshackle buses and
leave this stately, sprawling city.
The monks, their black-lacquer begging bowls swinging from their shoulders,
head for a handful of dusty new settlements that ring Mandalay. Once there, they
hop off the buses and begin the ancient practice of begging for food.
This peculiar reverse commute is dictated by shifting demographics: the
Burmese who can be relied on to give food to the monks have been largely forced
out of the center of Mandalay by rampant development.
Most of the building has been financed by developers from southwestern
China. Garish concrete-and- glass hotels, shopping malls and houses surround the
crenelated red- brick walls of the Mandalay Fort, which protected Burma's royal
palace until it fell to British troops in 1885.
Thousands of Chinese merchants and traders have streamed into Mandalay
since the late 1980's. New to Myanmar and numb to its religious traditions, they
brush off the begging monks.
"The Chinese live in lavish houses," said one prominent dissident. "They
make us feel like second- class citizens in our own town. That's why we dislike
them."
China's brash presence in this former capital is only the most visible
facet of the complex relationship between Myanmar and its hulking northern
neighbor. While ethnic Chinese were historically less influential here than in
Thailand or Vietnam, China has assumed a disproportionate role in postcolonial
times because Myanmar has taken a course radically different from that of its
neighbors.
Shunned by the West ? first through its own choice as it experimented with
socialism and later for its remorseless crackdown on the democracy movement ?
this isolated and impoverished country has turned to Beijing for military aid.
In recent years, the relationship has turned commercial. Myanmar is now the
largest trading partner of Yunnan Province, just across its northern border.
While China ranks only 15th in foreign direct investment in Myanmar, its leaders
are eager to do more business.
President Jiang Zemin visited Myanmar in mid-December, signing agreements
to increase investment and to cooperate on agriculture and oil production.
It was the first visit by a Chinese leader since the military junta crushed
a democracy movement led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in 1988.
Mr. Jiang gazed at treasures like the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, the
capital, once known as Rangoon, and the Buddhist temples in Bagan. He also gave
a rosy endorsement to the reviled junta, declaring that Myanmar "must be allowed
to choose its own development path suited to its own conditions."
In Mandalay, city bosses welcomed Mr. Jiang with a red-and- white banner
stretched across the main highway. On the streets, however, feelings toward the
Chinese leader were no warmer than toward the Chinese developers.
"Of course, the government rounded up people to cheer," said a local tour
guide. "But nobody else paid attention."
Even Myanmar's generals are said to be ambivalent about their close ties to
Beijing. Analysts say the tanks, warships and other military equipment that
China sells to Myanmar tend to be shoddy and unreliable.
Nor can older leaders of the junta forget that China's government supported
a Communist insurgency against the government here for decades. Beijing
abandoned that policy in the late 1970's ? simultaneously opening its economy
and cultivating ties with neighboring countries.
By 1990, Myanmar could not afford to resist China's importunings. The West
had condemned it for ignoring the results of an election that gave overwhelming
victory to Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy. She was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 but has spent seven of the last 11 years
under house arrest.
In early December, several fellow Nobel laureates, meeting in Oslo, Norway,
issued a fresh call for the release of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, known here as "the
lady." More American companies are severing ties to Myanmar, while those that
keep them are coming under sustained pressure from Burmese activist
groups.
"The isolation of Burma by the West has driven it into the arms of China,"
said Ma Thanegi, a former democracy activist and now a journalist. "The
government knows it, and they do not like it."
As memories of the 1988 crackdown fade, however, Myanmar is finding it
easier to forge ties with other countries ? particularly for buying arms. Russia
recently sold 10 MIG-29 fighter jets to Yangon, while diplomats say the Russian
government is helping to build a nuclear power plant in central Myanmar.
Yet because of history and geography, China is likely to remain Myanmar's
indispensable ally for the foreseeable future. Experts say the Chinese
government is more determined than ever to strengthen ties because it views
Myanmar as its economic gateway to Southeast Asia.
"If you develop the infrastructure, the distance from Yunnan through Burma
to the sea is much smaller than putting goods on a train and transporting them
all the width of China to Shanghai," said Robert Karniol, Jane's Defence
Weekly's Asia-Pacific editor, who is based in Bangkok.
China has already built a road connecting a border town in Yunnan with a
port on the Irrawaddy River, north of Yangon. It has given dredges to Myanmar to
make the river navigable for deeper cargo ships.
The effect of China's investments on ordinary Burmese is harder to judge.
Thanks largely to the Chinese, Mandalay has become a boomtown, with flashy
shopping malls, traffic jams and a stubborn drug problem.
But those changes have done nothing to ease the fear and alienation that
come with life under a military dictatorship. In Mandalay, as elsewhere, the
universities have been padlocked to prevent unrest. Satellite campuses, with
drab cinder- block buildings, have been erected outside town.
The Chinese are viewed by the many who loathe the government as complicit
in its acts of repression. People here say Chinese developers have paid off
local officials to give them access to prime real estate. They point to the
baronial houses of these officials as evidence of the corruption.
Indeed, the rise of the Chinese in Myanmar ? and their cozy alliance with
the junta leaders ? has deepened the sense of oppression for some Burmese.
Democracy advocates are as critical of these corrupt outsiders as they are of
their homegrown dictators.
"China is our next-door neighbor, and it is so huge," said the dissident,
who is a lifelong resident of Mandalay. "Even if we built a great wall with
bricks very high, a few of them would jump over. But it would be enough.
Instead, we've opened the door and allowed them to pour in."
----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Nation
DRUG LORD HAD STYLE: Home used for TV shows Published on Dec 30, 2001 It may come as a surprise to television viewers that a mansion that served
as a luxurious backdrop for their favourite dramas was in fact the home of drug
lord Wei Xieu-kang.
Among the property raided by Thai police this week was a home on
Ratchadapisek Road belonging Wei's wife that has often been used as a location
for television commercials and drama programmes.
In the economic bubble era prior to the 1997 economic crisis, advertising
production teams were seen working at the mansion four or five times a
month.
But over the past year or so, the owner of the house did not allow any
production, people in the neighbourhood said. Ithipat Ratanapanu, now a director
for iTV, said he directed the "Koo Thoranong'' series for Channel 3 and used the
mansion as a location. But he never met the owner of the home.
To get inside, he contacted the housekeepers and paid a rent of Bt10,000 to
use the house between 6am and 6pm or Bt1,000 per hour.
"This mansion was perfectly embellished. The hall is luxuriously decorated
with a standard swimming pool, park and waterfall. Every room was allowed [for
filming] except the room of the owner's child," Ithipat said.
He said he did not know why the owner had stopped allowing the use of the
home as a location.
Warayuth Milinthachinda, a director of Channel 3, said he used the mansion
in his TV drama, "Khunying Chomkaen", a few years ago. He paid Bt15,000 to
Bt20,000 for the site from 8am till 9pm. "I have never met the owner of the
house. I was shocked when I learnt of the reports,'' Warayuth said.
Meanwhile police have seized another Bt100 million in assets from relatives
of Wei.
The move was the latest in the government's bid to crack down on
drug-trafficking rings and cut off their funding.
Police on Thursday seized houses, land deeds, automobiles, jewellery and
cash in bank accounts in the cities of Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, where
Wei is believed to be operating his suspected drug business.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Nation
EDITORIAL: A major victory in the drugs
fight
Published on Dec 30, 2001
Once again a major criminal has been hit where it hurts most, through the
seizure of his ill-gotten gains
The coordinated raids on the houses of fugitive drug kingpin Wei Xieu-kang
and his associates led by the Office of the Anti-Money Laundering Commission in
cooperation with anti-drug officials and police on December 26 was remarkable in
terms of the depth and breadth of the operation, which will have significant
repercussions for the anti-drug campaign in Thailand. The operation was the
biggest anti-money laundering case since regulations under the 1999 Money
Laundering Control Act came into effect in October 2000.
A wide range of alleged ill-gotten assets, including houses, luxury cars,
jewellery, cash, bank accounts, land deed titles and other valuables were
forfeited.
Under the money laundering law, the owners of the seized assets will be
required to prove beyond doubt that they had acquired them through legal means,
otherwise the assets in question will be confiscated and liquidated to raise
funds for the anti-drugs campaign.
Wei Xieu-kang, a major drug kingpin who is known by his Thai names of
Prasit or Charnchai Cheewinnitipanya, was sentenced in absentia to life
imprisonment in 1994 after being convicted of possessing 600 kilogrammes of
heroin.
He had jumped bail a few years earlier and continues to evade the long arm
of the law. He is also wanted by United States anti-narcotic officials, who have
put a price of US$2 million on his head.
Bringing the convicted drug trafficker to justice will not be easy. With
his enormous wealth, Wei had been able to continue running his drug syndicate
inside and outside of Thailand for a very long time before his arrest in the
early 1990s, after which he was able to buy his way out of captivity and
escaped.
The seizure of Wei's assets is a powerful reminder to the government that
the escape of such a high-profile drug trafficker is a sad indictment of
Thailand's law enforcement authorities, many of whom remain rampantly corrupt.
As long as these people continue to wear their uniforms, it will be
impossible to win the war against drugs. It has been said many times before that
the drug battle cannot be won unless it is accompanied by a sweeping campaign
against corruption in the government and Thai society at large.
Thailand continues to be a major drug transit point, despite the gallant
efforts of a handful of dedicated police officers backed by drug fighters from a
number of other countries, particularly the United States.
It is also in the grip of a serious plague of amphetamine use that is
threatening major social dislocation in many communities unless it is brought
under control. All of this is because little is being done to identify the
criminals in uniform through relatively simple checks on their assets.
While the seizure of Wei's assets may signal a significant victory for the
authorities, it can in no way be regarded as the tide of battle being turned
against the traffickers and the corrupt. However, it is great to see the
anti-money laundering law being used effectively by the government.
Apart from the Bt100 million-plus worth of cash and assets seized from Wei,
anti-money laundering officials have also grabbed assets worth about Bt470
million since the beginning of this year, mostly in connection with drug
trafficking.
The Office of the Anti-Money Laundering Commission deserves kudos for this
outstanding performance as it is implementing a law that is designed to hit drug
traffickers where it hurts most - taking away the proceeds of their hideous
trade.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar Govt Spokesman on Domestic
Issues
Xinhuanet 2001-12-30 12:09:02 YANGON, December 30 (Xinhuanet)
-- A Myanmar government spokesman has elaborated the government's view and stand
on domestic issues covering the status of the armed forces, insurgency and the
role played by the armed forces.
In an official statement issued here Saturday night, Colonel Hla Min, a
high-ranking official of the Office of Strategic Studies of the Myanmar Defense
Ministry, disclosed that the number of the current Myanmar armed forces totals
350,000, the majority of whom are army.
He denied that it is aiming for 500,000. "That is not true, because Myanmar
doesn't have any enemy or threat from outside," he said.
He admitted that the Myanmar armed forces are one of the most ill-equipped
ones in the world, adding that they are just trying to modernize or mechanize
the present forces but are still unsuccessful.
Relating to the country's insurgency, Hla Min said the insurgency started
right after its independence in 1948, adding that the government has wasted
time, energy, money in fight against the armed groups in the nation.
He stressed the first focus of having peace and stability back in the
country when the present government took over the state power.
He disclosed that 98 percent of all the former armed groups have made peace
with the central government with only 2 percent remaining to follow suit which
are the Kayin and the Karenni groups.
"We are very patiently waiting for them to come back and join hands with
us," he said.
Talking about Myanmar's future politics, he said that the country's new
constitution designates that the military will have 25 percent of the seats in
the parliament appointed by the commander and chief of the defense
services.
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