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BURMA RELATED NEWS - April 28,
2002.
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HEADLINES
----------------------------------------------------------------- Reuters - Myanmar junta says major progress in
Suu Kyi talks
AP - Myanmar says "significant progress" in
political rift imminent
VOA News - Burmese Military Expects Significant
Progress in Talks with Opposition
Xinhuanet - Thailand Offers Myanmar Loans to
Build Road
The Nation - Border
tense after firefight
Bkk Post - Strongman to target druglord's
company
Bkk Post - Troops fan out ahead of demarcation
move
Bkk Post - Clash
follows arrest of two Wa intruders
----------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday April 28, 7:48 PM Myanmar junta says major progress in Suu Kyi talks By Aung Hla Tun YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's
military government said on Sunday it would make an announcement within days on
significant progress in reconciliation talks with pro-democracy opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Labour Minister Tin Win told a news conference that the government would
make a major announcement "in a few days". Asked what progress had been achieved
in the talks, he said: "Just wait and see."
Razali Ismail, the United Nations special envoy to Myanmar, ended a
four-day visit to the country on Friday saying he expected a breakthrough soon
in the peace process.
"A few important developments may well happen quite quickly," said Razali,
a Malaysian diplomat who helped broker the secretive talks between the junta and
Suu Kyi that started in October 2000.
Diplomats say the government's announcement could be the release from house
arrest of Suu Kyi. The 56-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner has been kept
confined to her lakeside Yangon residence, with her telephone line cut, for 18
months.
But more probably, diplomats say, the government will announce another mass
release of political prisoners.
More than 200 have been freed since the talks with Suu Kyi began, but
Amnesty International says about 1,500 are still languishing in jail.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won Myanmar's last election
in 1990 by a landslide, but the military government refused to hand over power.
Myanmar has faced international isolation and economic sanctions over its human
rights record and its treatment of Suu Kyi and the NLD.
WORLD WANTS SUU KYI FREED
The release of Suu Kyi, the charismatic daughter of assassinated
independence hero Aung San, is widely regarded as the single most important step
the junta could take to show the outside world that it is considering political
change.
And a major gesture is necessary if Yangon is to avoid another wave of
international sanctions.
The start of talks between the junta and Suu Kyi was hailed as a major
breakthrough, but no concrete progress has yet been announced and patience is
wearing thin.
Many diplomats fear the military is in fact hardening its attitude towards
the talks with Suu Kyi.
The junta said last month it had foiled a coup bid by relatives and cronies
of elderly former dictator Ne Win. His son-in-law and three grandsons were
arrested and are to be put on trial for high treason, which carries the death
penalty.
Many in Myanmar welcomed the arrests. Ne Win began decades of dictatorial
military rule in Burma when he seized power in 1962. He presided over the
country's decline from being one of Asia's richest to one of its most backward.
Many analysts doubt a coup was ever seriously planned, and say the
allegations are being used by the military to purge its ranks. They say the
purge has strengthened the hand of hardliners opposed to making any concessions
to Suu Kyi.
Razali's latest visit was initially scheduled for last month, but the junta
asked him to postpone it at the last minute, raising questions about the future
of the dialogue with Suu Kyi.
The military government said on Sunday it was setting up a special tribunal
to try the coup plotters.
Asked when the trial would begin, Major-General Kyaw Win, deputy chief of
military intelligence, said: "We don't know yet. At the moment arrangements are
under way to form a special tribunal and legal experts are processing the
information obtained from the investigation and interrogations."
----------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar says "significant
progress" in political rift imminent
Sun Apr 28, 4:55 AM ET YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -
Myanmar's military government said Sunday that "significant progress" in healing
the 12-year-long rift between the junta and the pro-democracy movement will be
revealed within days.
The announcement follows the latest mediation mission by an envoy from the
United Nations to reconcile the military rulers and the opposition, led by Nobel
Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
The two sides have been holding secret talks since October 2000.
"Significant progress, a kind of action, will take place in a few days.
Wait and see," Labor Minister Tin Win told reporters.
But asked whether Suu Kyi might be freed from 18 months of house arrest,
the minister said, "I don't think so." He gave no other details.
U.N. envoy Razali Ismail ended his seventh visit to Myanmar Friday amid
optimism that some kind of breakthrough in the deadlock would take place. He
said developments could unfold "quite quickly" and that he was "optimistic"
after holding talks with junta leader Gen. Than Shwe.
The deep division between the two sides stems from the military's refusal
to hand over power to Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, which swept
general elections in 1990.
The junta, which seized power in 1988, instead has jailed and harassed Suu
Kyi's followers and placed her under house arrest for years at a stretch.
Razali's two-year mediation effort has yielded some results: 258 political
prisoners have been freed and the National League for Democracy has been allowed
to reopen 35 of the more than 300 branches it once had in Yangon.
But human rights groups say more than 1,000 political detainees remain in
jail, and the military has made no known move to hand over power to the winners
of the 1990 elections.
The U.N. Human Rights Commission has recently blasted Myanmar's human
rights record, citing "arbitrary executions, enforced disappearance, rape,
torture, inhuman treatment, forced labor" and other violations.
Although diplomats are more optimistic after the latest round of mediation,
there remains a great deal of speculation about what if any significant
concessions the military might make.
Little information has surfaced about the secret reconciliation talks
between Suu Kyi and the generals.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Burmese Military Expects
Significant Progress in Talks with Opposition
VOA News 28 Apr 2002 10:37 UTC Burma's military government says significant progress in reconciliation
talks with the opposition democracy movement can be expected in a few days.
Labor Minister Tin Win made the announcement today in Rangoon after the
visit last week of United Nations envoy Razali Ismail.
However, Tin Win discounted the possibility that Aung San Suu Kyi, leader
of the opposition National League for Democracy would be released from virtual
house arrest anytime soon.
Burma's military government refused to turn over power after the NLD won
nationwide elections in 1990.
Democratization talks that began in October of 2000 have led to the release
of more than 200 political prisoners, but have yielded few other results.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Thailand Offers Myanmar Loans to
Build Road
Xinhuanet 2002-04-27 10:26:15
BANGKOK, April 27 (Xinhuanet)
-- Thailand offered Myanmar 300 million baht (6.9 million U.S. dollars)
low-interest loans to a cross-border road project, the newspaper Nation reported
Saturday.
According to the report, renovation of the road linking Mae Sot,700
kilometers north of Bangkok, to the Myanmar town of Pa-an was discussed during a
meeting between Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and Maung Aye, Myanmar's
Vice Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), who paid an
official to Thailand from April 23 to 25.
The 160-kilometer road is also part of an ambitious plan mappedout at a
recent meeting by Thailand, Myanmar and India for land transport of goods and
passengers.
Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Ratthakit Manathat revealed that besides
the loans, Thailand would offered aid worth 80 million baht (1.8 million
dollars) to upgrade the first 18-kilometer road from the Thai border.
Details yet to be hammered out include developing Myanmar's southern port
of Tavoy, he said.
----------------------------------------------------------------- The Nation
Border tense after firefight
Published on Apr 28, 2002
The situation remains tense at the border in Mae Fah Luang district
following exchanges of cross-border shelling between Thai troops and pro-Rangoon
Wa rebels on Friday and yesterday, a senior army official said yesterday.
Ten Wa soldiers were reportedly killed in the fighting.
Colonel Surasak Boonsiri, a task force commander, said a brief firefight
broke out on Friday at a volunteer ranger camp as some 60 Wa rebels tried to
rescue two of their men who were in Thai custody.
The volunteer rangers earlier captured two Wa rebels who had ventured 300
metres into Thai territory. The two were believed to be guards for a drug convoy
run by drug warlord Wei Xieu-kang.
Surasak said after the Wa rebels were forced to retreat back to their two
camps opposite Baan San Maked, they launched sporadic mortar assaults, prompting
Thai troops to return fire.
The United Wa State Army has been branded by the US government as a major
drug producing and trafficking group in Southeast Asia.
Media reports said that about 10 of the attackers had been killed and that
one of the captured men was a close relative of drug kingpin Wei Hsueh-kang.
But neither the death toll nor the identity of the captured man, a Wa army
leader surnamed Wei, could be confirmed.
Clashes and incursions along the border with Burma are common, as Burmese
troops engage with ethnic minority rebels and Thai frontier forces try to halt
the massive influx of drugs from Burma.
The government has accused Burma's military rulers of failing to curb a
rampant drug trade along the border. Burma has denied the accusation.
The United Wa State Army is a former guerrilla group that signed a
cease-fire with the Burmese government and now enjoys virtual autonomy in
eastern Burma.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Sunday 28 April 2002
Strongman to target druglord's company
UWSA-linked firm `to close in two weeks'
Yuwadee Tunyasiri and Sermsuk Kasitipradit
Burmese army chief Gen Maung Aye has promised to put out of business a
company owned by drug kingpin Wei Hsueh-kang, a major benefactor of the United
Wa State Army.
The army chief, also deputy chairman of the State Peace and Development
Council, gave his pledge after Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra informed him
about the nefarious activities of the company.
``I told the SPDC deputy chairman that intelligence reports had revealed
the Hong Pang company was responsible for trafficking drugs into Thailand,'' Mr
Thaksin said yesterday during his weekly radio address.
Gen Maung Aye was quoted as saying ``the company would not exist within two
weeks.''
Mr Thaksin said bilateral ties had been much strengthened during the
Burmese general's visit to the country, adding Rangoon's co-operation in drug
suppression would boost relations further.
Gen Maung Aye had been granted an audience by His Majesty the King, who was
informed by the military strongman that Rangoon was seeking a new era of
co-operation.
Rangoon began a crackdown on businesses linked to the drug trade earlier
this month.
The Hong Pang Group, set up to launder illicit revenue, had already been
targeted, along with the Golden Star Group of Jai Luen, a leading Shan
trafficker.
Burmese intelligence chief Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt had also instructed Pao Yu Yi,
a UWSA military commander, that Rangoon would no longer tolerate its involvement
in the drug trade.
UWSA, responsible for most drug trafficking around the Golden Triangle,
subsequently issued a statement instructing its militia to cease drug
activities.
``The statement was a farce as the drugs trade is UWSA's main source of
income,'' said one senior officer.
According to an intelligence source, Rangoon had recently barred all UWSA
troops from areas under its control.
``The situation is potentially explosive,'' said a security analyst.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post-Sunday 28 April 2002
Troops fan out ahead of demarcation move Bid to prevent foreign troop encroachment Wassana Nanuam Army troops have been deployed along the Thai-Burmese border ranging from Kanchanaburi to Tak to prevent any encroachment prior to border demarcation. Army chief Surayud Chulanont said he had ordered the Surasi and Naresuan
task forces to send patrol teams to guard an 8km stretch of the border from
Kanchanaburi's Sangkhla Buri district to Tak's Umphang district to confirm Thai
boundaries and curb encroachment before the border demarcation process started.
The army says the move is necessary because Burmese troops have frequently
strayed across this part of the border and encroached on Thai soil in the past
three years.
Burmese soldiers attacked Karen Nation Union guerrillas and set fire to the
Suriya forest protection unit in Sangkhla Buri in 1997.
Last year, a Thai soldier was killed and two injured in a clash with
Burmese troops who entered Ban Le Tong Ko in Umphang.
Gen Surayud said it was uncertain when Bangkok and Rangoon could agree on
demarcation of the 2,401km border as problems with Burmese minorities remained,
but stopping any encroachment now would help.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Sunday 28 April 2002
Clash follows arrest of two Wa
intruders
Post reporters
Skirmishes between soldiers and Wa troops erupted along the Burmese border
on Friday evening after the arrest of two Wa men in Mae Fa Luang district.
Col Surasak Boonsiri of the 4th Cavalry Regiment said the gunfight occurred
when some 60 Wa soldiers and Muser hilltribe volunteers surrounded Ban Pong Hai
checkpoint after the arrest of two Wa intruders, one of whom was the chief
volunteer's son.
The 241st Cavalry Battalion retaliated after the foreign troops opened
fire, he said.
More than 10 mortar shells landed on Thai soil after their retreat back
into Burma.
Col Apisit Nuchbussaba, commander of the 241st Cavalry Battalion, said the
Wa base at Ban Or Lor in Burma was likely to have been badly damaged in the
gunfight, which continued throughout Friday night.
A number of cannons were reportedly sent to the area yesterday, while two
armed helicopters patrolled the border area. The two arrested Wa men were
detained at the 4th Cavalry Regiment's headquarters.
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