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Burma Related News - February 14,
2002.
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Headlines
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Swissinfo English - Focus-Echoes of Burma
railway linger
Swissinfo English - Myanmar releases imprisoned
poet
BBC - Burma says success imminent
BBC - Freed reporter attacks Burma prison
sham
BERNAMA - 80 Roads In Myanmar Upgraded As Union Highways
AFP- High-ranking Indonesian military delegation in
Yangon
AFP- Myanmar talks making progress, success imminent:
junta
MCNBC - Myanmar releases imprisoned poet after UN plea
Bkk Post - Police freeze B4m stock transaction Linked to drug
lord Wei Hsueh-kang
Bkk Post - Troops told to hold off on retaliating
Bkk Post - Readying the fireworks
NSTP - Myanmars, Thais, Indons form bulk of illegal aliens
deported last year ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Swissinfo English Focus-Echoes of Burma railway linger By Jeremy Lovell LONDON (Reuters) - Owen Eva
found God while crammed with 700 other prisoners of war into the hold of a
rusting freighter in February 1945, caught up in the Japanese army's retreat
from Singapore under relentless assault by the returning Allies.
"Three days out, two of the three ships full of prisoners were torpedoed by
the Allies and we were told the waters we were entering the next day were even
more dangerous," he told Reuters.
The Japanese evacuation ships were unmarked and thousands of allied POWs
died locked in their holds, as unsuspecting Allied submarines wreaked revenge on
their retreating enemies.
"It was an awful experience. But it was in part responsible for my decision
to join the Church of England," Eva said during a reunion of veterans to mark
the 60th anniversary of the fall of Singapore to the Japanese army on February
15, 1945.
Two years after World War Two ended with U.S. atomic bombs on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki and the defeat of Japan, Eva was ordained a priest and went on to spend
most of his working life in the English port city of Liverpool.
But his experiences as a Japanese POW building the infamous 415-kilometre
Burma railway, where on average one person died for every 28 metres of track
laid, changed his life for ever.
Captured just 10 days after arriving in Singapore when the British island
fortress fell to the advancing Japanese, Eva spent a year on the "death railway"
which took only 13 months to build.
"Conditions were bad. Food was very low. But we were in Kinsayok camp in
the middle of the line. The further up the line you went the worse the
conditions became," said Eva, now 84.
There was just one doctor for 1,000 men in the camp, and each day 500 men
had to drag themselves out to work on the railway.
There were no facilities, little food, and no medicine. Diseases such as
malaria, dysentery and cholera were everywhere, adding to the miseries of
malnutrition, exhaustion and brutality.
FORGIVE BUT NEVER FORGET
"At any one time half the people were in the camp hospital and too ill to
move, let alone work. But for each person who was sent to the hospital, one
person from there had to come out and join the work party," said Eva, who
retired as a canon in 1986.
"We learned how to support each other. Even though you knew there might be
worse to come you would still get through," he added. "There was humanity in the
face of complete inhumanity."
More than 100,000 Indian, British and Australian troops were taken prisoner
by the Japanese when General Arthur Percival unconditionally surrendered
Singapore.
Most spent the next three-and-a-half years in crude Japanese camps being
beaten, starved and worked beyond exhaustion, building the Burma railway or
repairing airfields.
Thousands died of disease, malnutrition, their injuries, by execution or
drowning. They were dubbed "the forgotten army" because it was not until years
after the war that the real stories of their horrific experiences finally came
to be told.
Many -- but by no means all -- have forgiven. None has forgotten.
"You have to leave it behind you. You must never forget, but you must learn
to forgive," Eva said.
William Drower, now 86, another Briton captured in Singapore and spent time
working as a Japanese translator on the railway.
"I saw a good deal of the camps. Conditions varied from execrable to just
plain bad," he said. "We lost about a third of our chaps to cholera, dysentery
and starvation."
INTRODUCTION TO BRUTALITY
Drower once spent two months in solitary confinement at Tamarkan camp for
having the temerity to tell a Japanese guard someone ought to show him how to
treat POWs properly.
"Unfortunately he was the boyfriend of the sergeant-major in charge of the
prisoners and it got back to the authorities. I suppose it was a bit ill-advised
really," he said.
After the war Drower joined the British diplomatic service and served in
Batavia (now Jakarta), London, Geneva and Washington.
"My time as a POW was an introduction to brutality. Conditions were
terrible. But there is a better world now," he said.
Jim Bradley, now 90, was captured in 1942, force-marched to the end of the
railway where 1,200 of his 1,600 companions died within three months. He
escaped, was recaptured, tortured, sentenced to death, reprieved, starved in
solitary confinement, sentenced to eight years hard labour and liberated in
1945.
During his recovery after liberation, and after spending nearly a year in
solitary confinement in Singapore's notorious Outram Road punishment jail and
the equally infamous Changi prison, he vowed to lead an outdoor life.
He came back to Britain and became a fruit farmer in the southern county of
Sussex, finally retiring in 1984.
"I hated the Japanese during the war, but I have nothing against them now,"
he said.
But for others their experiences as helpless prisoners remain as a dark
stain across their lives.
British Lieutenant-Colonel Reg Burton was blown up, captured and regularly
beaten by the Japanese.
During his 3-1/2 years as a captive he caught 16 different diseases and was
so badly beaten that he lost the ability to father children.
Swissinfo English
Swiss time 14:13, Thursday 14.02.2002
Myanmar releases imprisoned poet BANGKOK (Reuters) - Myanmar's military government has freed a man
imprisoned for 12 years for writing a poem criticising the army and penning a
letter to the United Nations over prison conditions.
The release of Myo Myint and four other political prisoners follows a plea
by a United Nations human rights envoy who is visiting the country.
The five were released from Tharrawaddy prison 100 kilometres (60 miles)
north of Yangon on Wednesday, media rights group Reporters Without Borders said
in a statement.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar, Paulo
Sergio Pinheiro, urged the ruling generals to release Myo Myint, the statement
sent to Reuters on Thursday said.
Pinheiro is on a 10-day trip to the Southeast Asian country to complete a
report on the rights situation. A positive report from Pinheiro could lead to a
softening of the West's stance towards Yangon's military rulers.
The United States and the European Union maintain aid and trade sanctions
on Myanmar, but have said they could change their policy if there is progress
towards democracy and an improvement in the country's human rights record.
Myo Myint was released two years before the end of his sentence. A court
gave him a seven year jail term in 1990 for writing the poem, and a further
seven years in 1996 for writing a letter to the U.N. about harsh prison
conditions.
According to human rights campaign group Amnesty International, about 1,500
political prisoners languish in Myanmar's jails.
Many of the prisoners were arrested soon after a sweeping 1990 election
victory by the opposition National League for Democracy. The party was prevented
from taking power by the military.
NLDleader Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house
arrest.
BBC - Wednesday, 13 February, 2002,
13:58 GMT
Burma says success imminent The military authorities in Burma have freed five more pro-democracy
figures, and spoken of imminent success in their dialogue with opposition
leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
A government statement said the ongoing process of reconciliation was slow, but steady. The developments come amid mounting international pressure on the military
authorities, with a US government report raising the possibility that sanctions
might be lifted if talks with Aung San Suu Kyi produce tangible results.
The releases come as the United Nations human rights envoy, Paulo Sergio
Pinheiro, tours the northern state of Kachin.
The Burmese Government says it has released more than 200 opposition
members since it started talks with Aung San Suu Kyi in October 2000.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
BBC - Thursday, 14 February, 2002,
13:21 GMT
Freed reporter attacks Burma prison sham A Burmese magazine editor, who has just been freed from prison, has accused
the prison authorities of misleading international envoys.
Myo Myint Nyein was serving a 14-year jail term when he was freed on
Wednesday in an apparent goodwill gesture coinciding with the visit of the
United Nations human rights envoy, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro.
But in a BBC interview, Myo Myint Nein said it was normal practice for
prison authorities to relax restrictions on the prisoners ahead of such
inspections, allowing detainees to talk to each other and move around more
freely.
He said normal rules allowing prisoners out of their cells for only 15
minutes a day were reimposed after the visits.
Myo Mying Nyein vowed to continue taking part in political activity to
support the national reconciliation process.
He was imprisoned for 12 years for writing a satirical poem and a letter to
the UN about harsh prison conditions.
Last year he was given a press freedom award by Canadian Journalists for
Free _expression_.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service Malaysian National News Agency
February 14 , 2002 14:57PM
80 Roads In Myanmar Upgraded As Union
Highways
YANGON, Feb 14 (Oana-Xinhua) -- Eighty motor roads in Myanmar linking the country's states and divisions have been upgraded and extended stage by stage to become union highways, according to sources at the Myanmar Ministry of Construction. The union highways extend as long as 24,659 kilometers.
The aim of building highways is to ensure easy link between the nation's
northernmost and southernmost regions and the areas between the eastern end and
western tip in all weather conditions, the sources said.
Official statistics show that Myanmar has so far built 6,819 km of motor
roads since 1988 when the present government took office with its total length
extending to 28,758.6 km now.
Meanwhile, bridges on these highways, especially those on the
Yangon-Mandalay highway where traffic is the heaviest in the country, are being
upgraded to withstand a load of up to 60 tons from the previous 13 tons and the
highway to become a six-lane one from the present four-lane's.
Thursday February 14, 12:05 AM
High-ranking Indonesian military delegation in Yangon BANGKOK, Feb 13 (AFP) - The
Indonesian defence ministry's Lieutenant General Johny Lumintang held talks in
Yangon on Wednesday with senior officials of Myanmar's ruling military regime,
state-run media reported.
The defence ministry's secretary general, who headed a group of
high-ranking Indonesian military officials, called on the junta's influential
number-three Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt and Foreign Minister Win Aung, TV
Myanmar said in a broadcast monitored here.
Khin Nyunt is also head of the country's powerful military intelligence
unit.
The talks were held at Yangon's defence ministry and were also attended by
senior Indonesian diplomats to Myanmar, the report said.
It gave no details of the discussions, saying only that the talks had been
"friendly and amicable."
Wednesday February 13, 5:07 PM
Myanmar talks making progress, success imminent: junta (AFP) - The historic dialogue
between Myanmar's military junta and democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is
progressing steadily and success is "imminent", a government spokesman
said.
The spokesman on Wednesday rejected criticism from the United States and
pro-democracy ethnic political parties in Myanmar that the pace of the talks,
which began in October 2000, is too slow.
"Myanmar's ongoing process might seem to be slow to some but it is a steady
and sure process where success is imminent. In fact, there is a saying 'slow and
steady wins the race'," he told AFP in a statement.
The military regime this week faced mounting pressure to speed up the
secret dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been held under house arrest
since a month before the unprecedented contacts began.
In a report to Congress, the US government said Monday that the talks had
contributed to mutual understanding and secured the release of some 180
political prisoners, but much more needed to be done.
"The United States welcomes this confidence-building process but urges the
regime to move from confidence building to genuine political dialogue with Aung
San Suu Kyi aimed at returning the country to democracy and civilian rule," it
said.
The report, prepared by the State Department and the US embassy in Yangon,
also held out the prospect of an easing of US sanctions against Myanmar if there
was tangible progress towards democracy.
The junta spokesman said the dialogue was "progressing in the positive
direction" and characterised the current political climate in Myanmar as "more
encouraging and forthcoming" than many other troubled nations.
"There are nations in South Asia, South East Asia, Middle East, Eastern
Europe, Latin America where talks have totally failed and there are no peaceful
options left," he said.
"There are even countries where talks have not only failed but the
situation has gone from bad to worse with fighting flaring up."
Pro-democracy ethnic political parties this week also urged the junta to
increase the dialogue's momentum and "take speedy measures to come to a
political agreement".
Observers hope the talks will plot a way out of the stalemate that has
beset Myanmar since the junta disregarded the National League for Democracy's
landslide victory in 1990 elections.
MSNBC
Myanmar releases imprisoned poet after UN plea BANGKOK, Feb. 14 ? Myanmar's military government has freed a man imprisoned
for 12 years for writing a poem criticising the army and penning a letter to the
United Nations over prison conditions.
The release of Myo Myint and four other political prisoners follows a plea
by a United Nations human rights envoy who is visiting the country.
The five were released from Tharrawaddy prison 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Yangon on Wednesday, media rights group Reporters Without Borders said in a statement. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar, Paulo
Sergio Pinheiro, urged the ruling generals to release Myo Myint, the statement
sent to Reuters on Thursday said.
Pinheiro is on a 10-day trip to the Southeast Asian country to complete a
report on the rights situation. A positive report from Pinheiro could lead to a
softening of the West's stance towards Yangon's military rulers.
The United States and the European Union maintain aid and trade sanctions
on Myanmar, but have said they could change their policy if there is progress
towards democracy and an improvement in the country's human rights record.
Myo Myint was released two years before the end of his sentence. A court
gave him a seven year jail term in 1990 for writing the poem, and a further
seven years in 1996 for writing a letter to the U.N. about harsh prison
conditions.
According to human rights campaign group Amnesty International, about 1,500
political prisoners languish in Myanmar's jails.
Many of the prisoners were arrested soon after a sweeping 1990 election
victory by the opposition National League for Democracy. The party was prevented
from taking power by the military.
NLDleader Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest.
But since U.N.-brokered talks between the NLD and the government began in
late 2000, more than 200 political prisoners have been released and the NLD has
been allowed to reopen many of its offices.
Bangkok Post
Thursday 14 February 2002 Police freeze B4m stock transaction Linked to drug lord Wei Hsueh-kang Dirty-money police have frozen a stock exchange transaction worth over four
million baht because it was believed linked to a drug trafficking network
operated by Wei Hsueh-kang.
An unidentified individual had acquired shares in three finance firms and
sold them in separate tranches.
The combined value of the shares was more than four million baht, Pol Col
Peerapan Premphume, secretary-general of the Money Laundering Commission,
said.
The transaction was frozen on February 12.
There was firm evidence the share offloading was an attempt to launder
illegal money, he said.
The shareowner had connections with the fugitive drug kingpin, who is
wanted by the United States for drug trafficking.
Pol Col Peerapan said he would seek authorisation next week to expand the
investigation into the suspect's other assets, to find out if any had been
laundered and were thus subject to confiscation.
Pol Col Yuthamool Dissaman, the deputy secretary-general, said on Feb 11
the suspect had sold 500 shares in the first company, 120,000 shares in the
second and 1,300 in the third.
The suspect said the buyer would pay in cash and made an appointment with
the handling brokers to settle the payment yesterday.
The Stock Exchange of Thailand has summoned three stock brokerage firms
hired to trade the shares to answer queries.
Kittirat na Ranong, the SET president, said the brokers would be asked if
the suspect had ordered the trading be done in cash.
The stock exchange had registration records of the finance firms from which
the shares were acquired.
Regulations prohibited traders from paying cash in share transactions
exceeding two million baht.
This was a preventive measure against money laundering.
Many traders instead resorted to spreading their purchases through many
small accounts and buying shares from each account to a value just below two
million baht. This enabled them to evade SET monitoring.
The split-trade method was suspi-cious but common, as brokers needed not
report the transactions.
Most honest traders paid with a cheque or via account debit, which required
screening by banks.
Mr Kittirat said brokers would not be legally liable unless they conspired
to conceal trading information.
Kiatnakin Finance, one of the firms the shares had been bought from, issued
a statement saying it had co-operated with the Money Laundering Commission by
furnishing a report detailing the suspect's trading history.
The report, however, could not be publicly divulged for reason of client
confidentiality.
Pol Col Peerapan said a finance firm failing to make a report on request
was liable for a maximum 300,000 baht fine.
Bangkok Post
Thursday 14 February 2002 Troops told to hold off on retaliating Subin Khuenkaew Thai troops have been told to think twice before responding to stray
cross-border shelling in the Burmese army offensive against ethnic rebel
bases.
Third Army chief Lt-Gen Udomchai Ongkhasing visited the disputed Doi Lang
area in Mae Ai district yesterday.
Troops are on high alert, but he told them to think twice before taking
military action.
Formal protests would be lodged if stray shells landed on the Thai side of
the border. Troops should return fire only if it was clear that cross-border
shelling was meant to cause serious damage, he said.
Burmese people fleeing from fighting would be given temporary refuge, and
sent back when things returned to normal, Lt-Gen Udomchai said.
Bangkok Post
Thursday 14 February 2002 Readying the fireworks Those nice people across our western border have decided the polite thing
to do is to warn us to expect a few shells landing on our soil. u Here in
Thailand, we no longer allow our ministers to double as members of parliament.
But this concept has yet to take hold in neighbouring Laos. u Even with all the
money in the world and powerful connections, Suriya is finding political life
not all it is cracked up to be.
Aco-ordinated attack by Burmese forces on Shan State Army positions
straddling the border along Chiang Rai's Mae Fah Luang district can be expected
at any time.
Thousands of Burmese government and United Wa State Army troops have been
deployed fronting five SSA bases, including the main command at Gor Wan.
Col Surasak Boonsiri, commander of the 4th Cavalry Regiment, was told about
the planned attack on the SSA on Tuesday by Lt-Col Tu Ong, commander of the
526th rapid forces battalion, at an informal meeting of the Township Border
Committee.
Lt-Col Tu Ong reportedly asked for understanding should any artillery
shells stray into Thai territory.
Burmese government troops tried unsuccessfully last year to seize Gor Wan.
They suffered heavy losses when the Thai 3rd Army launched an artillery attack
in response to intrusions by Burmese forces and the capture of the army outpost
at Ban Pang Noon, 500m inside Thai territory.
Gen Maung Aye, the Burmese army chief, launched his own retaliatory attack
by accusing Gen Wattanachai Chaimuenwong, the 3rd Army commander at the time and
now an army assistant commander, of being over-zealous in his response and of
causing far too many Burmese casualties. It is estimated that between 80 and 100
Burmese troops were killed in the 3rd Army bombardment.
Gen Wattanachai has replied that the strong response was called for as the
Burmese intrusion was a deliberate action and the intruders had ignored a call
to withdraw.
Gen Wattanachai was transferred from the command of the 3rd Army in the
annual military reshuffle late last year. He had repeatedly questioned Rangoon's
sincerity in bringing an end to the drug trafficking from Burma to Thailand
across our northwestern frontier in the area under the command of the 3rd
Army.
Burmese troops wanted to use the outpost at Ban Pang Noon as a base for an
assault on the SSA base at Gor Wan, which is protected by a force of 800 troops
and is well positioned to repulse any frontal assault by advancing forces.
Gor Wan looks impregnable except through an assault from Ban Pang Noon,
according to one seasoned observer. But he expected the Burmese dry-season
campaign this year to be particularly torrid.
The capture of Ban Pang Noon heightened border tensions dramatically last
February, to the point of a stand-off between Thai and Burmese troops across the
frontier bordering Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.
Things have changed enormously since then, especially since a
getting-to-know-you visit by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to Rangoon in
June.
The groundwork for Mr Thaksin's visit had been laid by the ``we're all
generals together network''. Defence Minister Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh had
beforehand sent his chairman of advisers Gen Patt Akanibutr and another
lieutenant, Gen Vichit Yathip, to patch things up with the Burmese military
junta.
Then Gen Wattanachai was replaced as 3rd Army chief by a more amenable
Lt-Gen Udomchai Ongkhasingh, who has made it a priority to foster ties with the
chaps across the way. He has called for restraint from his troops and has
ordered them to avoid all confrontations with Burmese troops that might harm
border co-operation.
This new chumminess between Thais and Burmese has Jao Yawd Serk, the SSA
military commander, worried and he knows the defence of Gor Wan this year could
be much tougher than in the past.
The New Straits Times Press
Thursday, 14 February 2002 KOTA BARU Myanmars, Thais, Indons form bulk of illegal aliens deported last year by Sharifah Mahsinah Abdullah Illegal immigrants from Myanmar, Thailand and Indonesia formed the majority
of 8,345 immigrants deported by the Kelantan Immigration Department last
year.
Department director Che Kamaludin Che Amah said today during the period,
the department extradited 4,071 Myanmars, Thais (2,199) and Indonesians
(1,153).
The rest were from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia
and Singapore.
Foreigners were either sent back via the ports in the country or through
the State's checkpoints in Rantau Panjang and Pengkalan Kubor.
Thais and Myanmars were deported through our checkpoints but the others
were sent back via Penang or Port Klang and the Kuala Lumpur International
Airport.
Che Kamaludin said during the same period, 2,850 foreigners mostly from
Thailand, were arrested by the department and other authorities for various
offences under the Immigration Act.
They were detained for entering the country without travel documents,
overstaying and working without permits, he said.
A total of 159 illegal immigrants from various countries are still at the
department's detention camp in Tanah Merah waiting for deportation.
"The figure are until late last year but the number is increasing every
day," he said. "The figure might be more today."
The 159 detainees comprises 84 Indonesians, Myamars (30), Cambodians (14),
Bangladeshi (17), six each from Thailand and Pakistan and another two from
Singapore. |