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BURMA RELATED NEWS
- October 14, 2002.
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HEADLINES
-------------------------------------------------------------------- AP - Myanmar denies U.S. charges on
religious freedom
AP - Suu Kyi makes new trip to countryside
to rebuild party
AP - Indonesian Islamic cleric denies
responsibility for deadly Bali
AFP - Opposition leader Suu Kyi makes
political trip to northern Myanmar
AFP - UN urged to prepare for work in
Myanmar
Bkk Post - PM delegates new line of
responsibility
The Nation - Kobsak issues terror warning
for SE Asia
Asian Tribune - Burma in throes of turmoil,
despite peace efforts ? alleges leaders in exile.
Xinhuanet - Myanmar calls for ASEAN states
to fight against food insecurity
Xinhuanet - Myanmar to add 10 TV relay
stations in border areas
Xinhuanet - Britain to help Myanmar fight
HIV/AIDS
Xinhuanet - Myanmar to take part in
ASEAN trade fair
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Myanmar denies U.S. charges on religious freedom Mon Oct 14,10:15 AM ET YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Myanmar's military government on Monday dismissed as politically motivated U.S. allegations that it restricts religious freedom. The Foreign Ministry claimed some information in the U.S. State Department's annual International Religious Freedom Report "came from insurgent groups or unscrupulous persons with the aim of damaging the image of Myanmar." Myanmar was classified along with five other countries the report said were guilty of totalitarian or authoritarian attempts to control religious belief or practice. The others were China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea (news - web sites) and Vietnam. "This classification does not in any way represent the true situation in the country," the ministry said in a press release. The report, issued last week, said that people can worship officially recognized religions as they please in Myanmar, but that the government infiltrates or monitors virtually all organizations, including religious ones, and discriminates against minorities. "It systematically has restricted efforts by Buddhist clergy to promote human rights and political freedom, has discouraged or prohibited minority religions from constructing new places of worship, and, in some ethnic minority areas, has coercively promoted Buddhism over other religions," the report said. Denying all these charges, the Foreign Ministry said the allegations "are groundless and they must be considered as being politically motivated and represent an attempt to exert pressure and interfere in the internal affairs of the country." Myanmar is a predominantly Buddhist country, but it also has Muslim, Christian and Hindu minorities. The military has ruled the country since 1962 and has faced tough criticism from the United States and other Western countries for its poor human rights record and ignoring its defeat in a democratic election in 1990. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Suu Kyi makes new trip to
countryside to rebuild party
Mon Oct 14,07:32 AM ET YANGON, Myanmar (AP) _ Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi left Monday on her latest trip outside the capital to rebuild her National League for Democracy party, which has suffered from years of government repression. The trip to Pyi _ also known as Prome _ is the Nobel Peace laureate's third political trip outside Yangon since the junta released her from house arrest on May 6. Pyi is a trading town about 240 kilometers (150 miles) northeast of Yangon. Suu Kyi began closed-door talks with the junta in late 2000 to break the deadlock that began when the military refused to recognize the results of a 1990 general election, which Suu Kyi's party won in a landslide. Instead, the military began harassing and detaining pro-democracy activists, for which it was condemned and isolated by Western nations, including the United States. Suu Kyi, 57, left for Pyi in a motorcade accompanied by party Vice Chairman Tin Oo and about a dozen youth party members, said party spokesman U Lwin. In addition to attending the installation of party office signboards at Pyi and elsewhere, Suu Kyi plans to visit government irrigation and dam projects, he said, adding that she will make more such trips after the upcoming end of the rainy season. Suu Kyi visited the northern city of Mandalay in June and Moulmein in the last week of July. Before her release from house arrest on May 6, Suu Kyi had been blocked from traveling outside the capital. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Indonesian Islamic cleric
denies responsibility for deadly Bali
Mon Oct 14,04:25 AM ET JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) _ A radical Indonesian Islamic cleric, a key terror suspect in the world's most populous Muslim nation, on Monday flatly denied responsibility for the weekend's massive nightclub bomb blasts in Bali that killed 188 foreign tourists. ``All the allegations against me are groundless. I challenge them to prove anything,'' said Abu Bakar Bashir, accused by some governments of heading Jemaah Islamiyah _ a shadowy al-Qaida linked group that aims to set up a pan-Islamic Southeast Asian state. ``I suspect that the bombing was engineered by the United States and its allies to justify allegations that Indonesia is a base for terrorists,'' he told The Associated Press in telephone interview from Solo, a city in central Java, where he runs an Islamic boarding school. Many of the dead and wounded from the blasts and a subsequent fire were Australian vacationers. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has identified Jemaah Islamiyah as the prime suspect in the attack, though no group has yet claimed responsibility. Australia is one of Washington's strongest supporters in the U.S.-led war on terror and has wholeheartedly backed the Bush administration's hardline stand against Iraq. It also angered many Indonesian nationalists when it deployed peacekeepers to East Timor to end a wave of violence that swept that territory after it voted for independence from Indonesia in 1999 Jemaah Islamiyah is accused of plotting a series of bomb attacks against the U.S., British and Australian embassies and other Western targets in neighboring Singapore last year. According to U.S. security officials, Jemaah Islamiyah resembles al-Qaida in its organization and like al-Qaida, operates across international boundaries. The group, which seeks to establish a pan-Islamic state in Southeast Asia, is believed to have cells in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Myanmar and Thailand. The United States has sought Indonesia's help in the war on terror. The country has arrested several suspects and shared intelligence, but ignores U.S. calls for the arrest of other suspected terrorists, including Bashir. On Monday, Indonesian police declined to say whether any action would be taken against Bashir. ``We are still investigating. I cannot saying anything about anyone, including him,'' said national police spokesman, Maj. Gen. Saleh Saaf. In the past, Bashir _ a scholar-like preacher who wears a beard, wire-rimmed glasses and a white skull cap _ has denied that he is a terrorist or has links with terrorism. He has warned that jailing him would provoke the ire of many Muslims, who make up about 90 percent of Indonesia's 210 million people. In an interview with AP last month, Bashir said: ``I am not fighting against the American people but against the U.S. government. The government and the Jews are fighting against Muslims. It's part of a crusade by America to attack Islam. The United States hates me because I struggle in the name of Islam.'' Suspicions against Bashir hardened following the arrest of an alleged al-Qaida-linked operative, Omar al-Faruq, in Indonesia on June 5. Al-Faruq was handed over to U.S. authorities and, according to a CIA document cited by Time magazine recently, implicated Bashir in a plot to bomb U.S. embassies in Southeast Asia on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. The threats led to the closure of diplomatic missions in Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam. Singapore has arrested 32 members of Jemaah Islamiyah since December. Malaysia has also arrested more than 60 Muslim radicals _ some of them allegedly belonging to Jemaah Islamiyah. Another alleged leader of the group _ Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi _ is serving a 12-year jail term in the Philippines after pleading guilty earlier this year to possessing explosives. Bashir has insisted that he doesn't not know al-Faruq nor any other alleged terrorists. The former Suharto dictatorship jailed Bashir in the late 1970s on subversion charges for promoting an Islamic state. He later fled to Malaysia for 14 years to avoid additional jail time. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday October 14, 05:25 AM
Opposition leader Suu Kyi makes political trip to northern Myanmar YANGON, Oct 14 (AFP) - Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi departed Monday for a four-day political trip outside the capital Yangon as she continued to exercise her newly-won right to travel freely around the country. The Nobel peace laureate was en route to the town of Pyay in Pago division, some 180 kilometres (110 miles) north of Yangon, sources from her National League for Democracy (NLD) told AFP. "She is presently heading for Min Hla which is around midway between Yangon and Pyay where she will break the journey for lunch," the NLD official said. "The trip is basically party-related during which she will naturally take the opportunity to meet the local people and receive feedback on their living conditions," he said. Escorted by NLD vice chairman Tin Oo and 15 members of the party's youth wing, she will spend the night in a town along the way before arriving in Pyay on Tuesday morning. Aung San Suu Kyi's first attempt to travel to Min Hla in July 1998 was aborted when military authorities stopped her before she could cross the state line and she was forced to head back home. Similar attempts to travel outside of Yangon were also thwarted until a stand-off over a planned trip to the northern city of Mandalay resulted in the opposition leader being placed under house arrest. She was freed in May after spending 19 months confined to her lakeside home, on the understanding she would be free to travel around the country on party business. Since then she has made several extended trips and others to outlying districts of the capital. The latest four-day trip is taking place ahead of a visit by UN human rights envoy to Myanmar Paulo Sergio Pinheiro who is expected to arrive on October 17. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday October 14, 12:14 PM
UN urged to prepare for work
in Myanmar
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 14 (AFP) - The UN special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar urged the United Nations on Monday to get ready to help with the transition to democracy in a country that was treated for years as a pariah. In a report to the UN General Assembly, rapporteur Paulo Sergio Pinheiro said "the present delicate situation... needs to be handled with great care and generosity on the part of those who wish the people of Myanmar well." It was "essential to discourage international public opinion" from accepting a simplistic good-and-bad explanation of events in Myanmar, he said. Pinheiro noted "the recent mellowing on the political front" since the release by the military junta on May 6 of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi after 19 months of house arrest. But more fundamental reforms were needed, notably to give people access to justice, he said. The international community should start thinking about how it could help in such ways as reviewing prison conditions, examining national laws and training police and judicial officials, he said. The United Nations "should begin assessing the priorities for its engagement, including through the involvement of the executive boards of some of its agencies, funds and programmes," he said. Pinheiro, who last visited the country in February, said he was "not in a position to accept statements made by government sources in May 2002 that there were no more political prisoners in Myanmar." The report was dated August 9 and transmitted to the General Assembly on Monday by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. On Thursday, the junta said it had freed 31 political prisoners, including seven pro-democracy opposition members, in one of the largest of a series of releases announced over the past two years. Pinheiro said he had written to the authorities in March, giving the names of 104 political detainees who should be immediately released. They included 19 elected members of parliament, 22 people who had been arrested for communicating with the UN about human rights, and 33 people who had been held after serving their sentences in full. The release of all political prisoners was one of four fundamental conditions for a credible, democratic transition, he said. The others were: including all components of society in a political dialogue; lifting restrictions on political parties and rebel groups that had signed a ceasefire with the government; and the holding of free elections. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Bangkok Post - Monday
14 October 2002
PM delegates new line of responsibility Thaksin keen on mediating role Wassana Nanuam Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has delegated 12 lines of responsibility regarding bilateral cooperation with Burma to eight ministries and an anti-drugs agency. The move means the Foreign, Defence, Interior, Transport, Agriculture and Cooperatives, Commerce, Labour, and Public Health ministries, and the Office of the Narcotics Control Board, have to closely work with Burmese authorities on 12 aspects. These include military leaders visiting each others' countries, drug suppression, trade and agriculture, fisheries, immigrant labour employment, deportation of Burmese refugees, transport route development, tourism, imports and exports, border disputes, crime and efforts to resolve Burma's internal problems. Mr Thaksin will deal with Burma's internal situation and promoting tourism between the two countries. A source said Mr Thaksin wanted to play a mediating role for Burma, and was keen to push for the formation of a national reconciliation government between the State Peace and Development Council and leaders of all minority groups, including National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in a bid to create peace there. Mr Thaksin raised the national reconciliation government proposal with Gen Maung Aye, deputy chairman of Burma's ruling SPDC, during his visit to Thailand in April. The prime minister has instructed the Foreign and Defence ministries to coordinate with Burmese authorities on reconciliation. --------------------------------------------------------------------
The
Nation
Kobsak issues terror warning for SE Asia Don Pathan Published on Oct 14, 2002 A prominent MP warned yesterday that terrorists could open a second front in Southeast Asia. Kobsak Chutikul, the deputy chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the region is being seen as a "soft spot" where terrorist cells could operate. He was speaking before news broke of the bomb blasts in Bali. A massive crackdown in the Middle East, Europe and North America, coupled with a lack of political will among countries in the region to work together in countering terrorism, have made the region that much more attractive for international terrorists, Kobsak said. Moreover, pockets of militant radicals in the region could also hurt the confidence of foreign investors looking to come into the region. Before speaking of the terrorist threat, Kobsak said Asean has an image problem and risks losing its international standing as well as the confidence of foreign investors if it continues down its current path. "Asean is fading from the consciousness of the international community," Kobsak said on his return from Singapore. The committee has so far toured seven Asean countries to make an assessment of where the regional grouping is headed.Kobsak said there was a growing concern among Asean members that unity is lacking. He said the Asean-plus-3 (China, Japan and South Korea) arrangement and other initiatives are good for East Asia, adding that the region should embrace them. However nobody believes they should come at the expense of a weaker Asean. Asean must continue to be the driving force behind these initiatives or risk losing its relevancy, he said. The region-wide economic crisis beginning in 1997 showed that Asean has inherent problems that have yet to be addressed. Moreover, said Kobsak, the fact that Asean has become a two-tier organisation - between the newer but less-developed members and the original core- does not help the situation at all. Kobsak said some of the member countries have expressed concern over the challenge from China. They point to the stack of foreign investments that have gone to the Communist giant that could have otherwise gone to Laos, Cambodia or Vietnam. Singapore and Malaysia, and to some extent Thailand, could afford to lose out on these type of low-tech investments, Kobsak said. But the fact that these investments could have gone to some of the Asean members but went to China instead should be a point of concern. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Asian Tribune
Date : 2002-10-12 Burma in throes of turmoil, despite peace efforts ? alleges leaders in exile. K.T.Rajasingham So far, 73 political prisoners have died in prisons in Burma. The last to die was Sai Kai Pha, aged 60 years, the Deputy head of the Shan State and the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Aung San Suu Kyi. The Burmese government authorities arrested him on 13 September.? This was revealed by Dr.Sann Aung, the Minister of the Prime Minister?s office of the exiled National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma and by Teddy Buri, Member of Parliament and the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of the Union Burma, in an exclusive interview with Asian Tribune. Both the leaders in exile told Asian Tribune that earlier in 2 September Mai Pik Pan of the Palaung ethnic group and Ni Aung May Thu of the National League for Democracy too died in the Burmese prison whilst in captivity. They said according to their count so far 73 political prisoners have died in various prisons within Burma. They added the prison deaths is causing too much of concern for them. In the interview with Asian Tribune, they stressed that the release of Aung San Suu Kyi is a good step, but not enough. According to them so far the Burmese government has released about 300 political prisoners, but still there are more than 1,500 political prisoners languishing in the prisons all over Burma. They urged that all the political prisoners should be released forthwith unconditionally. They pointed out that the political parties who oppose the government are not allowed any free movement within Burma. The National League for Democracy is not allowed to print political materials and the worst is that the NLD is prohibited even to print membership application forms. They alleged that in the rural areas, human right violations are rampant. They said the armed forces are engaged in forced labor and forced relocation of the villagers and also they alleged of women and girls being raped and molested by the armed forces. The government continues with military offensives against various ethnic groups determinedly, whilst the ethnic groups have incessantly sought from the government for ceasefire for the last so many years, in vain. Those groups who have entered a ceasefire agreement with the government is waiting for negotiation with the government for the last so many years. So far the government had not shown any inclination of negotiation with those ethnic group they entered into ceasefire agreements. The generals who control the government in Burma believe in military solution to the political problem said Teddy Buri and Dr.Sann Aung. They pointed out the Burmese government wanted the arms group in Burma to simply surrender and that?s all. According to their terminology, they have indicated to those arms groups who have come forward to enter into a ceasefire agreement with the government, the generals have told them ?to return to the legal fold.? ?Which mean,? they said in the interview,? to give up your arms and surrender.? --------------------------------------------------------------------
Myanmar calls for ASEAN states to
fight against food insecurity
Xinhuanet 2002-10-14
03:40:59
YANGON, Oct. 14 (Xinhuanet ) --The Myanmar minister of agriculture and irrigation Monday called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) states to move into higher gear to fight against food insecurity facing the region. Myanmar Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation Nyunt Tin made the call at the opening session of the 48th Governing Board Meeting of the Southeast Asia Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) Southeast Asia Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture. He noted that the food security situation still remains severe in Asia, over 500 million people in Asia, including about 160 million children, still lack access to adequate food. Under such circumstances, he said, the efforts by the ASEAN nations to secure a sustainable agricultural development through human resources development research, exchange of knowledge and policy support has been seen highly invaluable. Giving an account of Myanmar's agricultural development, the minister said that Myanmar constitutes the largest land-mass in Southeast Asia, and has been endowed with rich natural resources and its agricultural production has all along, apart from meeting domestic requirement, allowed surplus for export. He said Myanmar's agricultural sector grew by 6 percent during the five years period from 1997 to 2001, contributing 36 percent of the gross domestic product and 24 percent of the total export earnings and employing 64 percent of the labor force. In its efforts to further raise the agricultural production, during the past decade, Myanmar built 138 various-sized dams and reservoirs, bringing about the irrigated areas to 1.98 million hectares in 2001-02 from 200,000 hectares in 1988-89. The area under irrigation increased to 19 percent from 12 percent of the net sown area during the same period, he said. However, the minister admitted that there still remain constraints in the country's drive towards sustainable agricultural development, saying that yields per hectare for certain crops remain low due to inadequacy of inputs, farm machinery, funds and related infrastructure. The SEAMEO is a treaty organization established in 1965 to promote regional cooperation in education, science and culture. It comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, and its associate members are Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands and New Zealand. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Myanmar to add 10 TV relay stations
in border areas
Xinhuanet 2002-10-14
00:12:55
YANGON, Oct. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Myanmar is planning to build 10 Television (TV) relay stations in its remote border areas where domestic news and information are hardly accessible. According to the state-run Myanma Radio and Television (MRTV), the 10 stations are to be built in the northern and eastern border regions and the construction work is expected to start by the end of this year. The addition of such TV relay stations in border areas is also aimed at reducing foreign influence culturally, the sources said. The MRTV said that it needs another 100 such stations across the country as its mountainous terrain limits the broadcasting accessibility of relay stations. Myanmar, with 156 TV relay stations in operation now, claims that the regular viewers of the MRTV programs account for nearly 90 percent of its total population. Out of the country's 324 townships, reception is possible in 266 or 82 percent. TV was introduced in Myanmar in 1980 and the country has two TV stations -- the state-run MRTV and the military-operated Myawaddy TV. Meanwhile, the country is also making efforts to enhance its radio and TV services in conformity with global changes and development, arranging to upgrade its radio and TV machine and equipment by changing its present TV system to digital one. The MRTV is now making satellite news available with the cooperation of the Cable Networks News (CNN) and the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK). --------------------------------------------------------------------
Britain to help Myanmar fight
HIV/AIDS
Xinhuanet 2002-10-14
00:12:00
YANGON, Oct. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Britain has decided to help Myanmar fight HIV/AIDS with some related projects planned for the next three years, local newspaper Myanmar Times reported Monday. An aid of 15 million US dollars would be extended through United Nations agencies for use in the planned projects under the UN-Myanmar Joint Action Plan on the disease, the British embassy in Yangon was quoted as saying. Meanwhile, the World Food Program is also working out a 4.7- million-dollar project next year involving a program to feed AIDS- infected orphans. At present, under Myanmar's National AIDS Program, a 1.7- million-dollar project to promote 100-percent condom use in 10 townships in the country is also being funded by the UN Population Fund. According to the UN AIDS agency in Myanmar, the country needs 34 million dollars for the planned projects in the current fiscal year, of which about one third had been extended. HIV/AIDS is recognized as one of the three priority communicable diseases in Myanmar. The other two are malaria and tuberculosis. According to the World Health Organization, 3,817 AIDS cases were reported and 510,000 HIV infections estimated in Myanmar by the end of 2000 with 760 cases per 100,000 people. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Myanmar to take part in ASEAN trade
fair
Xinhuanet 2002-10-14
00:13:10
YANGON, Oct. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Myanmar will take part for the first time in an ASEAN Trade Fair due to open in Bangkok, Thailand later on Monday, according to the Ministry of Commerce. The Myanmar delegation attending the week-long fair, which is also the first one to include all 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), is headed by Minister of Commerce Brigadier-General Pyi Sone. Nearly 30 Myanmar companies will display their products at the fair including gems and jewelry, wooden wares and furniture, and handicrafts. Myanmar's bilateral trade with ASEAN members totaled 2,443.77 million US dollars in the fiscal year 2001-02 which ended in March, growing 52.6 percent from the previous year, according to official statistics. The Myanmar-ASEAN members trade accounted for 46.1 percent of the country's total imports and exports during the year with its imports from ASEAN members amounting to 1,302.26 million dollars and its exports to them 1,141.51 million dollars. Of Myanmar's bilateral trade with ASEAN members during 2001-02, trade with Thailand represented the highest volume with 1,073.1 million dollars or 20.2 percent of the country's total imports and exports, followed by that with Singapore and Malaysia. --------------------------------------------------------------------
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