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BURMA RELATED NEWS - MAY
09, 2002.
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HEADLINES
----------------------------------------------------------------- The Independent (UK) - Don't be fooled: Burma's
generals cannot be trusted
San Diego Union-Tribune - Can democracy emerge
in Myanmar?
AFP - Myanmar junta says reconciliation talks
with Suu Kyi to resume soon
Reuters - Suu Kyi and junta prepare for new
talks in Myanmar
Reuters - U.S. grants visa to senior Myanmar
official
Reuters - Expert says China's economy at risk
from HIV/AIDS
Reuters - Myanmar's simmering divisions cloud
peace prospects
AP - Myanmar opposition says Suu Kyi will soon
visit countryside
Reuters - Vietnam says respects Myanmar decision
on Suu Kyi
Reuters - Trial of
ex-dictator's relatives to resume in Myanmar
AP - Myanmar says opium production will decline
this year
AP - Thai police: One killed in explosion
at hotel in Myanmar border town
----------------------------------------------------------------- The Independent (UK)
Pascal Khoo-Thwe: Don't be fooled: Burma's
generals cannot be trusted
09 May 2002 The release of Aung San Suu Kyi earlier this week from house arrest by the
military rulers of Burma has been hailed as a new dawn. That could be true if
all parties respond to the new atmosphere. But it would be premature to trust
the generals to keep their promises that Suu Kyi will be not be restricted in
her activities, and that there will be political dialogues: in the past they
have never failed to break just about every promise they have given.
They have released her because of pressures brought against them, partly
through sanctions, by the international community. The economy is in a state of
collapse, and the regime needs all the foreign income it can get. Yet foreign
pressure is not the whole answer. Careful thought should be given to the
rebuilding of the country so there is no return to the worst days paranoia,
hatred and mistrust.
Since gaining independence from Britain in 1948, Burma has never been at
peace with itself. The burden of running a war-ravaged country suffering
intractable economic, ethnic and political problems proved impossible for the
inexperienced and idealistic politicians of the day. Eventually, the army, led
by General Ne Win, took power in a coup in 1962 with the excuse that they were
saving the country from disintegration.
My tribe, the Kayan Padaung, who are famous for the practice of placing
brass rings around the necks of our women, were on the receiving end of repeated
military brutalities. Through the 1960s many of us were forced to flee our homes
in south-eastern Burma, and many still live in refugee camps in Thailand. I was
born in 1967 into a twilight zone where old tribal practices continued but
modern life was being ruthlessly imposed upon us.
During my life I have seen my country led down a path of spiralling
self-destruction exacerbated by civil war and mismanagement of the economy by a
one-party system. Burma, having been the richest country in South-east Asia
before the Second World War, had by 1988 become one of the poorest nations and
biggest producers of heroin.
In 1988, the country rose in revolt, and thousands of civilians, students
and even monks were gunned down by military police and soldiers on the streets
even though they were taking part in peaceful protests. I was part of those
protests and subsequently felt I had to join the rebels in resistance to the
military regime.
In the subsequent election of 1990, the National League for Democracy led
by Suu Kyi won a landslide victory while she was still under house arrest. But
the military authority refused to hand over power. Suu Kyi was released briefly
and put under house arrest again. With the savage repression it seemed that hope
had been extinguished. Now she is released for the second time. For millions of
ordinary Burmese, for whom the privations of daily life take precedent over
politics, Suu Kyi, remains almost the only hope of a better future.
If Burma is to become a stable nation again, its rulers, whoever they
maybe, have to sort out the huge problems that have been built up under the
dictatorship: the collapsing economy and system of education, health, narcotics,
and the grievances of the ethnic minorities who make up nearly 40 per cent of
Burma's population. These problems are all interconnected and have to be dealt
with together: they all spring from the damage done to civil society and
national morale over 40 years of misrule.
First, the economy must be revived, starting with the rebuilding of
long-neglected telecommunications, roads and rails. There must be reforms on
constitutional, legal and bureaucratic issues to make the new system more
transparent and accountable.
Aung San Suu Kyi acknowledges the ethnic complexities of the country, and
she is the only politician who can do a deal with the minority peoples so that
they would genuinely accept being part of the Union of Burma.
There is little doubt that the ethnic leaders and the people of Burma are
tired of conflicts and civil wars. Even soldiers are reluctant to fight their
fellow countrymen in the name of law and order. If the generals negotiate in
good faith it is possible that problems going back to 1948 can be solved.
Dialogue should be commenced as soon as possible, giving the ethnic people the
responsibility for their own affairs. Such is the exhaustion that a genuinely
federal system might now be possible for the first time.
Narcotics present a much more difficult problem. They are produced in
massive quantities by some ethnic groups who have signed ceasefire agreements
with the ruling junta, and some of the generals are implicated in trafficking.
The army must be reformed so that the soldiers work for the people, not for
their generals only. Foreign help is also necessary to help curb the huge Aids
epidemic that is sweeping the country.
It is not clear that the generals have any intention of surrendering power.
Aung San Suu Kyi's release hints that there is a possibility of change. Outside
pressure on the regime should not let up ? otherwise her release will turn out
to have been just a gesture to buy time. Things can easily go wrong again, and
the Tamadaw (army) will have another chance to drag the country back to a
hideous Year Zero.
----------------------------------------------------------------- San Diego Union-Tribune
GEORGIE ANNE GEYER Can democracy emerge in Myanmar? May 8, 2002 Last spring when I was in Burma, I was walking around the glorious
Schwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon one morning when a Burmese woman, in typical long
and draped dress, suddenly took my hand. Silently, she led me to one of the
historical markers in the shrine.
In elliptical Burmese fashion, she pointed to an old photograph. It showed
a handsome young man, with unusually fine features, in military uniform and hat
? and I recognized that it was a picture, probably from the 1940s, of Gen. Aung
San, once the great hero and hope of Burma.
Then the woman looked very straight and steadily at me, as our eyes met in
unmistakable understanding. "He was the founder of our military," she said. Then
she let go of my hand and walked away into the crowd.
This is the way things happen in Burma, now renamed officially (but not
popularly) Myanmar. This is the way people "communicate." She told not a single
lie. As a matter of fact, the elegant-looking Gen. Aung San was indeed the
founder of the Burmese military. The fact that, after his still-mysterious
assassination in 1947, the country fell into decades of brutish military rule
was only implied.
She didn't say anything about the tens of thousands of Burmese and
tribesmen taken for forced labor by the present-day Burmese dictatorship; she
didn't mention the reality that Burma has been in a veritable state of civil war
for at least the last 13 years; she didn't once say anything about the prevalent
belief that "no one ever comes out of prison in Burma." All she said was that
Gen. Aung San had founded the Burmese military ? a long time ago ? and that was
true.
But this week, there is finally hope in that country of 40 million
impoverished and miserable people, who are dying on a land that is a veritable
pot of gold. After 12 years of house arrest, the general's virtually worshipped
daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been set free by the military to again engage in
politics.
In a country rich with everything from timber to oil to gold and rubies,
the GNP is a miserable $180 a year. Though members of the military were mulcting
the country with their own private, money-making schemes, finally even they had
to see that it could not go on like this. Foreign sanctions placed on the
country by the United States, the European Union and international donor nations
have blessedly had their effect here.
What will this mean? The witty and impassioned Aung San Suu Kyi is expected
to move firmly, but cautiously, as she re-enters political life under her
National League for Democracy. The military has said she will have total
political freedom. Some 600 other political detainees also have been released
from prison in recent months, so she will have a real party again to lead. But
the military, with its enormous force of 400,000, has made it clear that it is
not going away, so she will have to come to some compromises.
Expect her to embody her philosophy of "engaged Buddhism," or Buddhism that
encourages active involvement of everyone to solve social and political
problems. (The large group of Buddhist monks in Burma has long been believed to
be a potential, if passive, subversive force against the military.)
Expect, too, a steady return to some form of representative government,
maybe even elections within the next two years ? with the military slowly
agreeing to a new role.
Last spring, for instance, several of us spoke quietly with members of the
military government one night. When one visitor brought up the "Turkish model" ?
in which the Turkish military many years ago recognized Turkish democracy, but
nevertheless remains in the background as a "guarantor of the nation" ? the
Burmese present did not object to the idea.
At the Museum of Military History in Rangoon, a still-elegant British
colonial city, you can get an idea of what this military thinks of itself. They
are "everything to the nation." They are the "father and mother of the nation."
They have made what are effectively slave laborers of their population because
"we fight for the nation, they should work for the nation."
The infighting in the higher ranks is also playing into Aung San Suu Kyi's
release. The top three military men ? Khin Myunt, Than Shwe and Maung Aye ? are
referred to in the newspapers as "No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3." In the darkly
suspicious mood of the country, they all sleep at the same military compound
downtown every night, lest one should get any idea that he really is No.
1.
There is little question that it is the diminutive and beautiful woman who
is truly No. 1 in Burma. She was victorious in the last election in 1990, when
her party won 82 percent of the parliamentary seats, after which the military
totally took over the country. While under house arrest in 1991, she continued
writing and speaking (at her home) and won the Nobel Peace Prize for her courage
against the dictatorship.
Now, we can hope, she will have her chance ? as will Burma. Moreover, there
is a strong sense among the Burmese that their general has finally
returned.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday May 9, 2:24 PM
Myanmar junta says reconciliation talks with Suu Kyi to resume soon (AFP) - Myanmar's military government said it would soon resume landmark national reconciliation talks with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was freed from house arrest earlier this week. "Talks aimed at national reconciliation between Aung San Suu Kyi and the
military authorities will be resuming very soon," deputy chief of military
intelligence Major General Kyaw Win told reporters Thursday.
Kyaw Win's comments were the first official statement on the dialogue since
the Nobel peace laureate was freed Monday from 19 months under house
arrest.
Aung San Suu Kyi said after her release that the initial
"confidence-building" phase of the talks begun in October 2000 had been
completed, and they would now begin tackling policy issues.
However, Kyaw Win side-stepped questions aimed at confirming whether the
initial phase was wrapped up.
"If we didn't have confidence in each other from the beginning, the
dialogue would not have started in the first place," he told reporters.
The unprecedented talks, which were brokered by UN envoy Razali Ismail, are
believed to have been on hold in recent weeks while both sides focused on the
impending release of the National League for Democracy leader.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday May 9, 3:46 PM
Suu Kyi and junta prepare for new talks in Myanmar By Aung Hla Tun YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's
ruling military and pro-democracy opposition said on Thursday they were
preparing for a new round of talks following the release of Aung San Suu Kyi
from house arrest this week.
The talks have been stuck in a "confidence-building phase" over demands for
the opposition leader's release since they were brokered by the United Nations
18 months ago.
The 56-year-old opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner was released
from house arrest on Monday after 19 months.
"The release of Aung San Suu Kyi cannot be seen as the triumph of
democracy...We must step up from this stage to meaningful political dialogue,"
the central executive committee of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD)
said.
"We haven't changed our basic policy matters for the time being. These
matters must be resolved through talks," it said in the two-page statement in
Burmese language.
The NLD said it would adopt a flexible stance in the talks, but had not
given up its demands that the results of 1990 elections it won be recognised.
The party said it also stood by earlier calls for foreign investment
boycotts and still backed economic and aid sanctions while the country was ruled
by the military.
It also called for the unconditional release of all political prisoners.
There are an estimated 1,500 political prisoners still detained in Myanmar
jails, according to Amnesty International.
Major-General Kyaw Win, vice-chief of military intelligence, told reporters
both sides were ready to move on, but he did not say when the new round of
national reconciliation talks would start.
CONFIDENCE
"We have confidence in each other. That is why we will be talking...It has
been agreed between Aung San Suu Kyi's side and ours to carry out these matters
(the talks) after coordinating," he said.
Kyaw Win said the two sides had agreed not to reveal anything at the
moment. "But we will be able to tell you at appropriate times in future when the
talks progress in momentum," he added.
Talks between the junta and the NLD began secretly in 2000.
The NLD statement said Suu Kyi planned to travel outside the capital Yangon
in the near future to help organise party activists in other areas. A similar
statement about her travel plans was made on Monday.
Suu Kyi's most recent spell under house arrest came after she made a number
of high-profile attempts to travel outside Yangon in 2000 in defiance of travel
restrictions.
A bid to travel south of the capital by road in August 2000 led to a
nine-day roadside stand-off when police blocked her car. She was eventually
forcibly returned home, sparking an outcry from the international community.
A month later, Suu Kyi was stopped from travelling by rail to the city of
Mandalay, and placed under house arrest, where she remained until her release
this week.
Suu Kyi's first attempt to leave Yangon will be a test of how much leeway
the military regime will offer her.
Analysts say she seems to be taking a more conciliatory approach this time,
trying to avoid actively embarrassing the ruling generals.
She has agreed that the road to her house, once a focal point for protest,
should remain closed for the moment.
Her release was widely seen by diplomats as an attempt by the generals to
get sanctions lifted rather than the start of genuine momentum for political
change.
The military has ruled Myanmar for four decades, and says the multi-ethnic
country could disintegrate if it moves towards democracy too quickly, but the
desperate state of the economy may have forced their hands.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday May 9, 9:55 AM
U.S. grants visa to senior Myanmar official By Elaine Monaghan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior
U.S. lawmaker on Wednesday accused the Bush administration of waiving a visa ban
to let a senior member of Myanmar's military regime visit Washington too soon
after the release on May 6 of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The U.S. State Department said the May 13-17 visit by Colonel Kyaw Thein
was not covered by the visa ban, which remains in place, because it applies to
military officials of higher rank. It also said the Burmese counter narcotics
official was visiting the United States on a long-planned trip and not related
to the release of Suu Kyi.
"The purpose of the visit is to emphasise what steps the Burmese need to
take to stop narcotics production and trafficking," State Department spokeswoman
Jo-Anne Prokopowicz told Reuters. "It's important to note that the visit has
been scheduled for some time and is unrelated to Aung San Suu Kyi's release."
"We will not be offering the Burmese counter narcotics assistance and our
sanctions will remain in place," she added.
Representative Tom Lantos of California, the leading Democrat on the U.S.
House of Representatives International Relations Committee, questioned the
decision to allow the visit in a May 8 letter to Assistant Secretary of State
for East Asian and Pacific Affairs James Kelly obtained by Reuters.
Lantos said the decision was a "profound mistake" as it prematurely sent a
signal the administration was softening its stance after the release from 19
months of house arrest of the country's pro-democracy leader, Suu Kyi.
President George W. Bush on Monday welcomed Suu Kyi's release as a possible
"new dawn" but the administration has said it expected other major changes in
the military-ruled state before lifting sanctions.
The sanctions include an arms embargo, an investment ban, suspension of
bilateral aid, visa restrictions and a freeze on new lending and grant programs
by international agencies that require U.S. backing to approve loans.
Former President Bill Clinton imposed the visa restrictions in an executive
order in 1996 in which he cited "continuing political repression by the military
regime in Burma."
It barred Burmese nationals "who formulate or implement policies that
impede Burma's transition to democracy or who benefit from such policies,"
including their immediate family members, from entry into the United States.
"Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's release is a good first step, but Burma's military
leaders must take a series of concrete actions on the political, security and
economic front before the international community should even consider
revisiting or lifting sanctions," Lantos wrote.
"Imagine my surprise when I learned, less than 24 hours after the release
of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, that the State Department had granted a visa for a
high-ranking Burmese military official to come to the U.S. next week to engage
in a dialogue on how to resume counter-narcotics cooperation."
----------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday May 9, 5:19 PM
Expert says China's economy at risk from HIV/AIDS By Andrew Priest SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China must
address its growing but still largely hidden HIV/AIDS problem or risk derailing
strong economic growth, economist Jeffrey Sachs said on Thursday.
Sachs called on the Chinese government to recognise the epidemic, increase
surveillance on the rate of infection and boost flagging public health spending,
particularly in rural areas.
If left unaddressed, the spread of HIV/AIDS, propelled through China by
migrant workers, prostitutes and needle-sharing among intravenous drug users,
would dent economic development through lower worker productivity and reduced
household saving.
"When countries get healthier they get wealthier," Sachs, a Harvard
University professor and economics adviser to United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan, told a seminar on the sidelines of the Asian Development Bank's 35th
annual meeting.
"Asia is at risk of a profound increase in HIV/AIDS which needs to be
addressed before it explodes," he said.
"We don't know the scale of the problem in China, but we know it may soon
be millions of people. These are not subjects politicians want to talk about.
"Commercial sex worker prevalence in major Chinese cities is large even if
it is hidden. China also has one of the largest populations of migrant workers.
The risk of multiple infection from AIDS is very high now," Sachs said.
Chinese health officials estimate 850,000 people have contracted the HIV
virus, an increase of more than quarter of a million over last year's figure.
Beijing went public with its fight against AIDS last year after state media
exposed the rampant spread of the HIV virus in rural Henan province, where
farmers sold their blood to purchasing stations.
The United Nations says China could have 10 million HIV/AIDS sufferers by
2010 unless it acts decisively.
HEALTHY IS WEALTHY
Sachs said that higher infection rates could hit tourism, divert resources
from other social services and prompt skilled workers to flee communities.
The spread of infection would probably also hit household savings, vital as
a pool of investment capital, as money is spent on medicines. Healthier workers
were also more productive.
Soaring HIV/AIDS infection levels in southern Africa have led firms to cut
investment. There have also been reports of multinational companies hiring three
workers for each skilled position as replacements if trained workers die.
Sachs, who becomes director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University
in New York in July, said China's public sector should take more responsibility
for health, particularly in rural areas where there is little public health
provision.
China's HIV/AIDS problem is mirrored in other Asian countries like India
and Myanmar, Sachs said.
Huge health investments in Asia in the 1940s and 1950s in everything from
family planning, antibiotics and the control of malaria were critical components
of the East Asian economic boom over the last four decades, Sachs said.
"There is still a considerable way to go to realising the potential," he
said noting that infant mortality rates were still seven times higher in East
Asia than in the high income parts of the world.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar's simmering divisions
cloud peace prospects
Thu May 9, 2:33 AM ET By Andrew Marshall YANGON (Reuters) - If Myanmar's
ruling junta ever reaches agreement with pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi on
the country's future, it will only be the start of the road to peace.
The next step will be getting the Shan to agree. And the Karens. And the
Rakhines, the Kachins, the Lahus, the Mon, the Palaungs, the Pa-o, the Wa, the
Karennis, the Padaungs, the Akhas, the Kokangs and the Chin.
Myanmar's tortuous ethnic tapestry comprises at least 135 subgroups. Its
mountains and jungles are home to a dizzying array of rival tribes, religions,
political factions, guerrilla groups and narco-armies bristling with high-tech
weaponry.
The military government is dominated by ethnic Burmans and Suu Kyi is also
ethnic Burman. Burmans make up about 70 percent of the country's population and
have traditionally occupied the plains of central Myanmar, surrounded by
mountains inhabited by dozens of rival groups.
Analysts say the military's dictatorial policies are founded on the same
fear that haunted generations of Burmese kings over the centuries -- the fear
that unless they are subdued, the warlike hilltribes could destroy the country.
The junta uses the danger of national disintegration as one of the main
justifications for its harsh rule. And, analysts say, Myanmar's ethnic divisions
are also a major obstacle to peace.
"The Burmese always felt they were surrounded, always felt they had to
subdue the hill people as harshly as they could," said a Western diplomat in
Yangon. "The military still believes the country could fall apart if it loosens
its grip."
Any peace deal would have to give each of Myanmar's minorities
representation in parliament, analysts say. But given the country's ethnic
diversity, this could be almost impossible.
Some fear that democracy would only lead to a new round of ethnic
bloodletting -- and a return of military rule.
HEAVY HAND OF HISTORY
The past hangs heavy over Myanmar politics.
The Burmans have tried for centuries to subdue the hill peoples. During
talks on independence from Britain, the country's frontier states were offered
the option of separate independence.
But some minorities were offered considerable autonomy, as well as the
right to secede after 10 years, and in the end Burma became independent as a
single nation in 1948.
Since then, the country has been riven by ethnic conflict. Multiple
insurgencies quickly broke out after independence. The chaos paved the way for
military dictator Ne Win to seize power in 1962. The military has ruled ever
since.
Battles have raged for decades in Myanmar's forests and hills as the army
tried to crush separatist guerrillas. In the 1980s and 90s the junta tried a
different tack, offering considerable autonomy to ethnic rebel groups that ended
their armed struggle.
Many agreed, although some -- notably the Shan State Army and Karen
National Union -- are still fighting.
"The military believes that only force can keep these groups in check and
that it was only through force that they secured these peace deals," the
diplomat said. "The fear is that without force, many of these groups would want
to break away."
Myanmar's second largest ethnic group, the Shan, make up about nine percent
of the population. The Shan National League for Democracy (SNLD) came second in
Myanmar's last elections in 1990, but the results were ignored by the military.
SNLD leader Hkun Htun Oo says he believes ethnic groups could be persuaded
to stay part of Myanmar if they had enough autonomy.
"Their main aim is to get equality and self-determination in political and
administrative affairs," he told Reuters in Yangon. "So long as they get this, I
don't think they will break away."
But Hkun Tun Oo is a moderate. Any peaceful settlement in Myanmar will have
to find ways of placating more warlike ethnic groups, including the world's
biggest narco-army -- the Wa.
THE WILD WA
The Wa have always been objects of fear, known as "the wild Wa" by other
ethnic groups. A mysterious tribe who say they are descended from tadpoles, they
were headhunters for centuries and only gave up decapitating rivals in the
1970s.
Since then, they have gained control of much of Myanmar's heroin trade and
have also branched into the lucrative production of methamphetamines and ecstasy
in remote jungle laboratories.
The United Wa State Army (UWSA), as the narco-army calls itself, has 20,000
troops and an arsenal that includes surface-to-air missiles, according to Jane's
Defence Weekly.
Its earnings have funded modern cities in the Golden Triangle, a network of
businesses active in all aspects of Myanmar's economy -- and an extremely
formidable arsenal.
Foreign drug enforcement officials say dryly that the UWSA is Myanmar's
largest foreign-exchange earner.
Since 1989, when the UWSA struck a peace deal with the junta in Yangon, it
has run the territory it controls as a private fiefdom. It has its own border
checkpoints, levies its own taxes, and is left to pursue its vast drugs business
unmolested.
Foreign countries have demanded the UWSA is put out of action. It is
difficult to see how any democratic government that emerged in Yangon could
avoid going to war with the Wa.
"The Wa would be quite happy to be left in peace to produce their drugs,"
the diplomat said. "But of course, sooner or later somebody is going to have to
try to stop them."
Many other ethnic groups, embittered by years of perceived oppression by
Yangon, will also be unlikely to want to be part of a democratic Myanmar. Unless
a solution can be found to win them over, analysts say, there is a real risk
that if the country ever returned to democracy, it would violently
implode.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar opposition says Suu Kyi
will soon visit countryside
ASSOCIATED PRESS YANGON, Myanmar, May 9 ? The opposition National League for Democracy said Thursday that its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, will soon visit party offices in the countryside, in the first test of her political freedom since being released from house arrest this week. Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace laureate, was released Monday after 19 months
of confinement that began when she defied a government ban on her traveling
outside Yangon. She has not been allowed to travel to the countryside for
political work in the last 13 years.
The NLD said in a statement that Suu Kyi ''will be allowed to freely
conduct the political activities as the general secretary of the NLD and will
visit NLD organizational offices in the country soon.''
The statement echoed a government spokesman's comments Monday that there
will be no restrictions on Suu Kyi and she will be allowed to travel freely.
Suu Kyi formed the NLD in September 1988 after the ruling military crushed
a pro-democracy uprising. She then went around the country to organize the
party, before being put under house arrest in July 1989 as her movement gathered
support.
When she was freed six years later in July 1995, she went on a pilgrimage to the southern city of Moulmein without problems but her subsequent attempts to travel outside the capital for party work were thwarted by the junta. Her latest attempts in August and September 2000 led to her most recent round of house arrest. The NLD statement said that Suu Kyi's release ''cannot be assumed as a
democratic triumph'' but a step toward democracy and human rights. It called on
the government to speed up the release of political prisoners. Human rights
groups say more than 1,000 remain in prison.
The party pledged to work with the military to resolve divisive issues such
as the drafting of a new constitution and a resolution of the 1990 election,
which the party won by a landslide. A key NLD demand of the past decade has been
that the military honor the election result.
Meanwhile, a senior Myanmar junta official said Thursday the 18-month-old
reconciliation process between Suu Kyi and the government would continue but
that neither side would divulge details of talks ? as before Suu Kyi's release.
Maj. Gen. Kyaw Win, deputy chief of military intelligence, said the process
''will continue according to the mutual agreements on both sides.''
Suu Kyi hinted Monday that she expected the negotiations to take place
behind closed doors. She told a news conference that she had ''never subscribed
to the tell-all school of thought.''
Since regaining her freedom, Suu Kyi has resumed active leadership of the
NLD and has met with diplomats from the United States, Europe and the United
Nations.
She has also huddled with leaders from Myanmar's many ethnic groups, who
she says must be included in the national reconciliation process.
She was expected to meet with U.S. diplomats on Thursday and the Japanese
ambassador to Myanmar on Friday.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Vietnam says respects Myanmar decision
on Suu Kyi
HANOI, May 9 (Reuters) ? Vietnam, a one-party state accused of holding
political prisoners of its own, said on Thursday it respects Myanmar's decision
to free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Responding to a request for comment on Suu Kyi's release from house arrest
in Yangon on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh told a news
briefing:
''We support the effort of the Myanmar government toward national
reconciliation, political stability, boosting cooperation and national
construction and development.
''In this spirit, we respect all internal decisions made by Myanmar,'' she
said.
Vietnam and Myanmar are fellow members of the Association of South East
Asian Nations, a bloc whose ties with EU countries have been hurt by Myanmar's
human rights record.
Myanmar's military government says it has released 600 political prisoners
in recent months and more could be freed soon. London-based human rights
watchdog Amnesty International estimates around 1,500 remain incarcerated.
Responding to another question as to whether Hanoi's amnesty of prisoners
coinciding with the anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War on April 30
included any considered dissidents by international rights groups, Thanh said:
''It is necessary to say there are no political prisoners and nobody is
detained for their thought, only criminals who are detained for violating the
law.''
Thanh said 1,173 prisoners were released early under the amnesty and
another 12,206 had sentences shortened.
She said this was an annual tradition that rewarded prisoners who had
''repented their sins, regreted their crimes and served their sentences well.''
Vietnam's ruling Communist Party tolerates no organised opposition to its
rule or public shows of dissent.
In recent months it has detained three dissidents for posting
anti-government material on the Internet.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Trial of ex-dictator's relatives to
resume in Myanmar
YANGON, May 9 - Reuters ? The
trial of four relatives of former dictator Ne Win accused of plotting to
overthrow Myanmar's military junta resumes on Friday, officials said, with the
defendants facing execution if found guilty.
The geriatric former strongman's son-in-law and three grandsons were
arrested at a Yangon restaurant in early March and accused of planning a coup
together with a clique of military officers and a practitioner of black magic.
More than 100 people, including four top military men, were rounded up last
month and questioned in connection with the plot, in a purge which foreign
diplomats and analysts say was aimed cementing the ruling junta's rule.
Myanmar Deputy Chief of Military Intelligence Major-General Kyaw Win said
the second hearing in the trial would begin at 10 a.m. (0330 GMT) on Friday at a
court in the notorious colonial era Insein prison in Yangon.
''It's an open trial,'' he told a news conference, adding that local
journalists would be allowed into the court.
Foreign diplomats in Yangon said it was unlikely the accused had been
seriously planning a coup, and the arrests were more likely a sign of a struggle
between hard-liners in the junta and those seeking more cooperation with the
pro-democracy opposition.
Ne Win and his daughter have been confined to their home in Yangon since
the arrests, although the junta has not yet directly implicated them in the
plot.
Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, one of Ne Win's most bitter
political enemies, was released from 19 months under house arrest on Monday,
just days after the trial opened.
However, diplomats and analysts say her release did not necessarily
indicate a major step towards political reform. It was more likely a bid to
placate Western criticism and get international sanctions lifted.
HIGH TREASON
Ne Win's four relatives are charged with high treason, which carries the
death penalty, but legal sources said if they were found guilty they were more
likely to face long prison terms.
Ne Win seized power in a military coup in 1962 and ruled Myanmar for more
than quarter of a century.
He stepped down in 1988 and handed power to a new generation of generals
when the country was convulsed by pro-democracy protests which were bloodily put
down by the military.
Even after he relinquished power, Ne Win, now at least 90 years old, was
believed to wield power behind the scenes.
After he seized power, he embarked on what he called ''The Burmese Way to
Socialism,'' running the country according to a mixture of communist central
planning and Buddhist mysticism.
Astrologers were among his most important advisers and many of his
decisions were based on the pronouncements of fortune tellers.
Deeply superstitious, Ne Win even replaced the country's banknotes with
denominations which were multiples of nine, which he believed was his lucky
number.
Under his rule, Myanmar, then known as Burma, went from being one of the
richest countries in Asia to one of the poorest.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar says opium production will
decline this year
Thu May 9, 7:25 AM ET YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Opium
production in Myanmar, the world's biggest producer of the drug, will drop
significantly this year due to the destruction of poppy plants, crop
substitution programs and bad weather, the government said Thursday.
Brig. Kyaw Thein, a member of the state's Central Committee for Drug Abuse
Control, told a news conference that opium production had declined to 865 metric
tons (954 US tons) in 2001 compared to 1,065 metric tons (1,174 US tons) in 2000
and would drop even further this year.
Kyaw Thein said more than 10,500 hectares (26,000 acres) of opium poppy
plantations had been destroyed this year.
"Opium production in Myanmar will drop due to the government's crop
substitution efforts, destruction of opium poppy cultivation and unfavorable
weather conditions forecast," Kyaw Thein said. He is scheduled to attend an
anti-narcotics conference in Washington next week.
After the former Taliban rulers of Afghanistan banned opium poppy
cultivation, Myanmar returned to its position as the world's largest producer of
illicit opium, according to the U.S. State Department. Myanmar is also the
primary source of amphetamine type stimulants in Asia, the State Department
says.
The Myanmar junta says with the help of the United Nations it is doing
everything it can to eradicate the production of opium and heroin, which is
refined from opium. Among its chief tools are U.N.-sponsored programs that give
opium farmers incentives to grow other cash crops such as maize, beans and
lentils.
Kyaw Thein said some trading companies along the border that were allegedly
engaged in drug business had been shut down. Others had been warned to stay away
from drug trafficking, he said.
He refused to say how many companies had been closed and who their owners
were.
The government also publicizes drug raids, which lead to confiscation of
substantial amounts of drugs.
On Wednesday, the government said authorities exposed 221 drug-related
cases in March, seizing large quantities of opium, heroin, morphine, marijuana,
stimulant pills and other ingredients used to make drugs. A total of 307 people
were arrested in March, it said.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Thai police: One killed in
explosion at hotel in Myanmar border town
Thu May 9, 5:32 AM ET BANGKOK, Thailand - (AP)An
explosion severely damaged a hotel in a Myanmar border town Thursday and
reportedly left one person dead and dozens injured, Thai police said.
The cause of the blast in Tachilek town was not immediately known but a
bombing was suspected, said police Col. Wichai Rupelek in the neighboring Thai
border town of Mae Sai, about 700 kilometers (430 miles) north of Bangkok.
The destroyed roof of the three-story Riverside Hotel could be clearly seen
from the Thai side, Wichai said. The two towns are separated by a river 30
meters (100 feet) wide.
He quoted witnesses who came to Mae Sai as saying that one person was
killed and several dozen people injured. The nationalities of the victims were
not known.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack and there was no immediate
comment by the Myanmar authorities in the capital, Yangon.
Ethnic Shan rebels are fighting for autonomy in this region of Myanmar, but
are generally active in the countryside rather than towns.
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