|
------------------------------------------------------------------------
BURMA RELATED NEWS - September
07, 2002.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
HEADLINES
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Reuters - Japan, ASEAN may start
economic partner talks in '03
Bkk Post - Kraisak ups anti-abuse
campaign
Bkk Post - Rangoon's generals ignore
simmering social unrest
The Nation - After the tragedy, the
blame
AFP - US rebukes Myanmar over
jailing of NLD activists
AFP - Thai senator slams Myanmar with
Shan rape allegations: report
Xinhuanet - Thailand allows
illegal alien workers to stay temporarily
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Saturday September 7, 5:22 PM
Japan, ASEAN may start economic partner talks in '03 TOKYO, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Japan and Southeast Asian nations could start discussions towards wide-ranging economic cooperation, including a free trade agreement, as early as next year, Japanese media said on Saturday. Japan proposed such an economic partnership earlier this year with the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in what has been widely seen as a bid to keep China's influence in the region under check. China agreed last year to establish a free-trade area with ASEAN within 10 years. Quoting a report by a group of experts from both Japan and ASEAN, Kyodo news agency said a committee will be formed to draw together a basic framework of contents and concrete plans for such a partnership by autumn of 2003. Should this be approved at a Japan-ASEAN summit scheduled for late in 2003, official negotiations could then begin, Kyodo quoted the report as saying. No time frame was given for reaching such an agreement. Kyodo said the report would be submitted at a gathering of finance ministers from Japan and ASEAN in Brunei next week. No Japanese government officials were immediately available to comment on the report. Japan has been pushing for closer ties with Southeast Asia as a counterweight to China's growing influence in the region, with emphasis on a broad economic partnership. However, many hurdles exist for achieving a free trade agreement, which has met strong opposition from protected Japanese sectors, such as farming. Japan has only concluded one free trade agreement so far, with Singapore -- an ASEAN nation which has no significant agricultural exports. Other ASEAN members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bangkok Post -
Saturday 07 September 2002
Kraisak ups anti-abuse campaign Strongest words yet to condemn attacks Supoj Wancharoen and Pradit Ruangdit Kraisak Choonhavan upped the ante in his campaign against Burma's treatment of ethnic minorities yesterday, using his strongest language yet to condemn what he called systematic rape, torture and murder on a large scale. Mr Krasaik, chairman of the Senate foreign affairs committee, insisted that as many as 600 Shan women had been systematically raped by Burmese troops. ``In the central plains of the Shan state, unarmed villagers were threatened and suppressed. The worst are systematic rapes. More than 600 people have been raped. Some of them have been raped for three to four years. ``The victims included 11-year-olds and even a 60-year-old. Most rapes were started by colonels and completed by their subordinates. They raped in villages and military camps and two-thirds of the victims were killed,'' Mr Kraisak said at parliament. ``Children and adults were tortured and killed without a reason. They were soaked in hot water and had their heads punctured and were left to bleed. We have the names of the victims and Burmese soldiers responsible,'' he said. Mr Kraisak vowed to continue exposing alleged abuses in Burma. He had asked the United Nations to investigate and sent the details to its headquarters in Geneva and local branches of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. His committee obtained the details from reports of the Shan Human Rights Foundation and the Shan Women's Action Network. The information matched what his panel had heard itself from Shan refugees in Wiang Haeng district, Chiang Mai, on a visit there on Aug 15. Burmese soldiers from at least 52 bases together with Wa colleagues had abused the ethnic people sexually, he said. On Tuesday, Burma's Labour Minister Tin Win and intelligence deputy chief Kyaw Win denied the claims, saying Mr Kraisak hated Burma and supported the Shan United Revolutionary Army. Mr Kraisak said he had no hatred of Burma but sympathised with the Burmese people. Without the junta, Mr Kraisak said, Burma would be a much more developed place, especially in terms of tourism. What was unacceptable was the way Burma violated the human rights of its own people. The Thai government was also at fault, Mr Kraisak said, for trying to deny entry to Burmese refugees and allowing them to live on their own in border areas. Sixty were killed by flash floods in the North this week. Although Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra insisted that refugees would be treated fairly, staff from the National Security Council admitted a directive to reject refugees existed. If the government did not want to take care of the refugees, it should hand over the burden to the United Nations. Mr Kraisak said the Thaksin government was too keen to please Burma, and to no avail. Thailand, he said, paid Burma 37 billion last year for the unfinished gas pipeline connected to the Yadana gasfields. It had also paid 400 million baht to build roads and 20 million baht to suppress drugs in Burma. Despite the favours, Burma closed its border with Thailand in May, and its soldiers skirmished along the boundary, Mr Kraisak said. The Chuan Leekpai government steered clear of Burma, but during its term in office Rangoon had closed only its Tachilek border pass. Meanwhile, 93 women's groups yesterday asked the government not to push Shan minority people back to Burma, where rape and other forms of brutality awaited them. In a letter to Mr Thaksin, the groups said the government should protect Shan people on the border by working with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to set up refugee camps and giving refugees access to humanitarian aid. The government must not send the Shan people back to Burma without taking into account the situation in the Shan State and ``behaviour'' of Burmese soldiers, they said. ``More importantly, the government must not send Shan women and children back to face sexual assaults in Burma,'' they said. They based their calls on a report, ``Licence to Rape'', by the Shan Women's Action Network and the Shan Human Rights Foundation, two Thai-based groups. The report documents 173 cases of rape and sexual violence against Shan girls and women by Burmese troops between 1996 and 2001. It claims 83% of the cases involved rape by Burmese soldiers, a quarter resulting in the death of the victims. Some 61% were gang-rapes or repeated rapes. The report says only one assailant was punished and the penalty was light. ``The report proves that Burmese soldiers used rape as a weapon in their war against the Shan rebels fighting for independence,'' the letter said. Burma claims the report was fabricated by people with connections to the Shan State Army in a bid to discredit it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bangkok Post -
Saturday 07 September 2002
Rangoon's generals ignore simmering social unrest AUNG ZAW ?We are on the brink of starvation,'' a Rangoon-based senior journalist in his 50s last week told the Irrawaddy a magazine published in Chiang Mai. However, his warning won't reach the Burmese people or authorities. This journalist, who writes regular columns for several well-known journals and magazines, knows well that he would never be permitted to put his dire prognosis into print. Burma's military leaders do not like to hear such things. Instead, they prefer to read reports prepared by bureaucrats and economists who deliberately amplify Burma's GDP growth, while ignoring the realities facing the poverty-stricken country. But on the streets in Rangoon, the journalist's words have the inescapable ring of truth. In the past few days, Burma's currency, the kyat, has plummeted to new all-time lows on the black market. By the end of last week, the beleaguered unit had hit an unprecedented level of 1,100 kyat to the dollar, after losing some 10% of its value over a one-week period. Today, it has fallen further to a level of 1,200 to the dollar. And the bottom is still nowhere in sight. While this precipitous plunge will play havoc with the country's medium- and long-term economic planning _ which is seldom better than farcical at the best of times _ in the here and now, it is already pushing many citizens to the edge. As the kyat plummets, prices are skyrocketing, making even the most basic foodstuffs prohibitively expensive. ``The price of eggs is outrageous these days,'' the journalist complained. A single egg fetches 30-40 kyat these days, not much by international standards, but enough to put them beyond the reach of ordinary Burmese. ``Only the middle class can afford to eat eggs now,'' noted the journalist. Even more alarmingly, the crime rate in Rangoon and Mandalay appears to be rising. In June, a wealthy Chinese woman was robbed and murdered by her former cook. The incident, which took place in downtown Rangoon, shocked residents of the city. Similar cases have also been reported in Mandalay, Burma's second largest city. In the suburbs of the city, there have been reports of looting by large crowds. To stem fears of growing insecurity, government papers have been instructed to avoid reporting this recent crime wave. But this has done little to put people's minds at rest. ``People are worried about security like never before,'' said one Rangoon resident. Despite growing hardships and simmering unrest, Burma's ruling generals have shown no sign of moving towards much-needed economic reforms. Instead, they've demonstrated once again that they are in deep denial about their incapacity to meet the country's most basic needs. On Aug 16, at a regular weekly press conference, Brig-Gen Thura Myint Maung, the deputy minister of home affairs, became defensive when a reporter for a foreign wire service asked him about rising unemployment and the issue of human trafficking, which is fuelled by the Burmese people's desperate search for work in neighbouring countries. Rather than answer the question, the general simply reiterated the myth that Burma is a land of plenty. ``If you step out of your home, you can catch fish and prawns,'' he reportedly told his audience of incredulous journalists. While it is difficult to say if Thura Myint Maung's off-the-cuff comments really reflect the government's grasp of conditions facing the great majority of Burmese, it is clear that official statistics paint a picture of the economy that few Burmese could even begin to recognise. Burma's minister for national planning and economic development, Soe Tha, recently claimed that the country had achieved an economic growth rate of 10.5% in the fiscal year to the end of last March. He said the high growth rate was the result of opening up the economy and adopting a market-oriented system to raise the economic and social conditions of the people. According to one insider, however, UN envoy Razali Ismail was ``disappointed'' with the figures cited by Soe Tha when he met the minister during his recent visit to Rangoon. Japanese experts and government officials who have also been pushing for economic reform in Burma reportedly shared Mr Razali's dismay at the junta's unrealistic assessment of the country's economic performance. Sources in Tokyo and Rangoon say that foreign observers have been especially troubled by evidence that Gen David Abel, the junta's economics tsar, has been sidelined. According to the well-informed sources, the move to marginalise Gen Abel, who is regarded as open to reform proposals, was engineered by Prime Minister Than Shwe. The source added that Gen Than Shwe has begun to roll back some of the tentative reforms already in place. At a recent meeting between Burmese and Japanese officials in Tokyo, Gen Abel was conspicuously absent. Instead, Gen Than Shwe sent Dr Than Nyunt, chairman of the civil service selection and training board, who wields little or no influence over economic policy. After more than a decade of at least professing to want progress, it appears that the Burmese regime is regressing. ``We are heading back to the Ne Win era, when reports were prepared by puppet ministers and bureaucrats who didn't dare to upset the Old Man,'' commented one journalist. Economic mismanagement under the dictatorship of Gen Ne Win forced Burma to seek Least Developed Country (LDC) status in 1987, a year before the country was rocked by massive social and political upheaval. As things stand at the moment, many observers fear that the regime could be setting the stage for more unrest, as the country's social and economic crisis deepens against a backdrop of frustration with the slow pace of political change. Rangoon-based observers warned the government should begin to look into the seriousness of the situation. Instead, government leaders have been seen visiting temples and attending ribbon-cutting ceremonies. The fear among some observers and journalists in Rangoon is that the military may use Burmese Muslims as scapegoats if the situation gets out of control. In the past, authorities have diverted attention from political and social problems by creating anti-Muslim riots in the predominantly Buddhist country. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Nation
After the tragedy, the blame Pim Koetsawang The writer is a member of Friends Without Borders Published on Sep 7, 2002 The flash flood that swept through Ban Mae Khong Kha and Ban Mae Sala refugee camps in Mae Sarieng, Mae Hong Son province, drowned 16 Karen residents. Another 26 people, still missing, are believed to be dead. More than 200 huts were swept away while a hundred more structures, including four schools, two health centres and two rice stores, were wrecked. The most painful thing is that even while the Karen refugees grieve over the loss of their loved ones and their homes, they are being blamed for causing the flood by destroying the forests. The chief of Salween National Park is reported to have said, "Most refugees are involved in illegal logging," [Krungthep Turakij, September 4], while the deputy chief of the Royal Forestry Department reportedly said, "Refugees cut trees illegally and slash and burn forest to clear land for farming," [Bangkok Post, September 5]. How many times already have the government authorities, especially the Royal Forestry Department (RFD) and the National Security Council (NSC), blamed the marginalised peoples, making them scapegoats for deforestation? How many times has this been done with no clear evidence? The highlanders in Thailand have been scapegoats for a long time now. And in the past few years, Karen and Karenni refugees, the least of these marginalised people, have been pushed into this role. From research done by Friends Without Borders, a Thai non government organisation, the Ministry of Interior established Ban Mae Khong Kha in Salween National Park in 1995. The park was declared a protected area only in 1994, affecting Karen villagers from Mae Khong Kha, Huay Hom, Tha Ta Fang and Huay Hang villages who have lived in and protected the forests there for generations. The first group of refugees were relocated from Khateeta, near the Salween River. The Interior Ministry then moved others from several small camps there. With the arrival of the Karen fleeing human rights violations and persecution in Burma, the total population rose to 15, 574. In the survey and during interviews with refugees, Karen villagers, and local authorities in Mae Sarieng, no one said the refugees were heavily involved in illegal logging. The records for 2000 show only three cases, and those arrested were carrying traditional wood-cutting equipment like hand saws, which can't be used for large-scale logging. The accusation of slash-and-burn farming by refugees is even more of a joke, as it is risky enough, both for refugees and Karen villagers, just to collect leaves, bamboo shoots, and dry branches for their everyday activities (their needs are fewer than city people's) without being arrested. Incidentally, the refugees reported that there were people who urged them to cut logs, and that they were local Thai businessmen and local authorities. Very few dared to go because they knew they alone would be blamed. Refugee camp committees and local officers constantly warn them not to go as well. Most refugees in border camps are Karen and Karenni, the indigenous people living with the forests the same way as the highlanders in Thailand. They have their own methods to manage natural resources, based on their traditional wisdom. So, who is destroying the forests? It is true that it is difficult for forest rangers to catch those who cut logs deep in the forest. But how are the logs transported out of the forest? Is it that easy to pass the RFD checkpoints located everywhere? How is it done without anyone knowing? The RFD and NSC have been trying to relocate the refugee camp from Salween national park for a while now. However, as much as 79 per cent of the land in Mae Hong Son has been declared a protected area already. (Even the Thai highlanders have nowhere to live.) Now that this tragedy occurred, they seem to have found a way to raise the issue again. But for what reason? The question is whether we really want to preserve our forests? Have we ever seriously listened to the villagers who have lived in, used, and protected the forests for generations? Who actually benefits from illegal commercial logging? Why restrict subsistence, rotational farming and encourage commercial agriculture, which uses a lot of chemicals? Why relocate refugees from over 30 small camps into a few crowded camps, which cause landslide easily. And finally, why must the bad guys always be the marginalised people? Why it must be those whom we see as "the others": ethnic Karen, Lahu, Lisu, Akha, Mein, Hong, and refugees? Why, when there is a problem, do we just blame things on the listed scapegoats with no effort to show any evidence, while these people have to make every effort and use all their resources to prove their innocence? And will finding scapegoats be enough to preserve our natural resources? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ US rebukes Myanmar over
jailing of NLD activists
WASHINGTON, Sept 6 (AFP) - The United States rebuked Myanmar on Friday after two members of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) were jailed for three years for dissident activity. The State Department said the arrests of the two men "appear inconsistent with the regime's stated commitment to political reform," dealing a new blow to Myanmar's recent efforts to improve its appalling relations with Washington. "We urge the regime to release all those detained for the peaceful _expression_ of their political views," the department said in remarks to AFP. "We expect these cases to be handled according to international norms of due process." The two activists -- Aung Thein and Kyaw Naing Oo, both members of the NLD youth wing -- were arrested on August 22 and tried successively on August 23 and 26, NLD officials in Yangon said. They were found guilty under a 1950 emergency provision act and sentenced Thursday, even as seven other NLD members were released from jail in a gesture designed to mark a European Union delegation visit to Yangon this weekend. Myanmar's ruling junta also announced Thursday that 39 female prisoners and another prisoner jailed "for connection with unlawful organisations" had been freed from jail. Hundreds of political prisoners have been released since the beginning of 2001 in goodwill gestures linked with fledgling talks between the junta and the opposition, but 1,500 are believed to still be incarcerated. Aung San Suu Kyi has said her party's top priority is to secure the release of all the political prisoners and suggested last month that a mass release would be a precondition to a long-awaited political dialogue with the regime. The arrests come amid rumors here in the dissident community that initial contacts between the junta and Aung San Suu Kyi prodded by UN envoy Razali Ismail have cooled. The State Department had no comment on that issue, but stressed that it hoped a substantive dialogue could begin soon. Myanmar, which is treated as a pariah state by Washington and some of its Western allies has recently made attempts to improve its standing in the US capital, hiring a lobbying firm and making major policy announcements here rather than in Yangon. In a statement issued here in July, the junta claimed it was victim of a vicious "smear" campaign designed to frustrate its goal of improving poisoned relations with the United States. The tirade followed allegations that Myanmar troops had systematically raped women and girls in Shan state. "These allegations are completely false, and we refuse to be deterred by those who would stand in our way of seeking cooperation with the United States on drug eradication, terrorism and promotion of human rights," said the statement. The United States has warned junta that a bevy of sanctions and investment restrictions will be lifted only when substantial progress is made towards democratic reform. Washington is a staunch supporter of Aung San Suu Kyi, who's NLD won an overwhelming election victory in 1990 never recognised by the government. It also accuses Yangon of doing too little to crack down on the trade in illegal narcotics. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thai senator slams Myanmar
with Shan rape allegations: report
BANGKOK, Sept 7 (AFP) - In a verbal attack on neighbouring Myanmar, a leading Thai senator has reiterated accusations that Yangon's military committed systematic rape and murder of hundreds of Shan minority women, reports said Saturday. Kraisak Choonhavan, chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, revisited the controversial allegations originally made in July by Thai-based Shan rights groups, but he went a step further by telling parliament that 400 of the victims were killed. "More than 600 people have been raped" in eastern Myanmar's Shan state, the Bangkok Post quoted Kraisak as saying. "Most rapes were started by colonels and completed by their subordinates. They raped in villages and military camps and two-thirds of the victims were killed," he added. Kraisak said he had names of the victims and the soldiers responsible for the atrocities, the English-language daily reported, but it did not elaborate. The report "Licence to Rape", released in July by two Thai-based Shan rights organisations, detailed the rapes of 625 girls and women, mostly between 1996 and 2001, prompting international outrage. Kraisak said the information matched what his Senate panel had heard from Shan refugees during a parliamentary inquiry in Chiang Mai province on August 15. Myanmar has rejected the rape allegations as "preposterous accusations" resulting from political pressure. The senator's statements appear designed to put the heat on Yangon as it hosts a European Union (EU) delegation on a three-day mission beginning Sunday. The delegation expects to meet senior junta generals as well as Myanmar's pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, said officials from Denmark, which currently holds the revolving EU presidency. It also comes as two members of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) were sentenced to three years in jail for possessing a dissident journal, even as seven other party members were released from jail in a gesture designed to mark the EU delegation visit. Yangon has also been struggling to finalise dates for key bilateral talks with Bangkok aimed at defusing tensions which spiralled to crisis level since a border row erupted in May, prompting Myanmar to seal its border with Thailand. The talks between the countries' foreign ministers were originally set for last Friday but were postponed by Yangon because of apparent scheduling conflicts. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thailand allows illegal alien
workers to stay temporarily
BANGKOK, Sept. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- The Alien Worker Committee of the Thai Labor and Welfare Ministry announced that the illegal alien workers in the country were allowed to stay temporarily for one year but must register with authority from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, the Nation TV reported Saturday. Dej Boonlong, Thai Labor and Welfare Minister revealed that the ministry had received the order to register those illegal alien workers, most of whom come from Laos, Cambodian and Myanmar. For the time being, 566,240 alien workers had been registered with the Thai government before Aug. 26, 2001 under the supervision of the Public Health Ministry, the report said, adding that the Public Health Ministry had provided necessary assistance to the alien workers in order to control diseases. According to the laws, the alien workers are administered by three ministries - Interior Ministry, Public Health Ministry and Labor and Welfare Ministry in Thailand. Thus the illegal alien workers must to register again if they wanted to stay in the country, Dej said, explaining the register this time would keep the workers under the supervision of the Interior Ministry, which would work to reduce crimes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |