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BURMA RELATED NEWS
- November 14, 2002.
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HEADLINES
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Reuters - Manila police defuse small
bomb at Myanmar embassy
Reuters - Thai PTT Q3 earnings pared
by forex losses
Reuters - Thailand eyes $5.5 bln
hydro scheme with Myanmar
AP - Police defuse letter bomb
addressed to Myanmar embassy in Manila
Kyodo News - U.N. envoy cancels
meeting with Suu Kyi
AFP - Myanmar's generals not ready
for talks: NLD
AFP - Aung San Suu Kyi meets Shan
state supporters
AFP - Two French nationals detained
in Myanmar for illegal entry
AFP - EU mulls visa ban against
Belarus president
Asia Times - Fears of Mekong free-for-all as China goes it alone Asia Tribune - Democratization
would contribute nation building in Myanmar - Japanese Premier
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Friday November 15, 8:16 PM
UPDATE 1-Manila police defuse small bomb at Myanmar embassy MANILA, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Philippine police said on Friday they defused a letter bomb at Myanmar's embassy in Manila, the latest in a series of explosive devices also sent to the country's missions in Japan, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia. Myanmar authorities have blamed what they called dissident groups of exiles living outside the military-ruled state. "It was a letter bomb," a police source told Reuters. "There was a blasting cap. It's in a small white envelope." No one was injured and the embassy was not evacuated. Radio reports said there was a card inside the envelope that read "Saving all my love for you, Happy Birthday". The letter, which carried postal markings, was not addressed to anyone in particular. The return address was a street in the Thai capital, Bangkok. The envelope contained a button-sized battery with electrical wiring and a blasting cap, the radio report said. Similar devices were found at the Myanmar embassies in the previous cases. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Friday November 15, 1:57 PM
Thai PTT Q3 earnings pared by forex losses BANGKOK, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Thailand's biggest energy firm, PTT Plc (PTT), said on Friday its third-quarter net profit fell 19 percent year-on-year due to foreign exchange losses and taxes, despite higher sales. But PTT's 60-percent owned upstream oil and gas subsidiary, PTT Exploration and Production Plc (PTTEP), fared better with a three-percent rise in net profit year-on-year in the quarter, which beat market forecasts. PTT has a monopoly on gas transmission with its petrochemicals and gas exploration and production subsidiaries and is seen as a good proxy for Thailand's economic upturn. The Thai government recently raised its 2002 economic growth forecast to over 4.5 percent. The economy grew just 1.8 percent last year. Analysts said both PTT and PTTEP were good dividend plays with attractive annual dividend yields of more than five percent and solid growth prospects. PTT, which listed on the Thai bourse last December, made a net profit of 4.39 billion baht ($101.1 million) in the third quarter, against a net profit of 5.45 billion baht last year. The result missed expectations of 4.48 billion baht profits. PTT said it had foreign exchange losses of 1.18 billion baht in the third quarter, compared with forex gains of 945 million baht in the same period last year. It said it had to pay income taxes of 1.39 billion baht in the quarter of this year, while it did not have to pay such taxes before it was privatised. PTT said its sales rose by four percent in the third quarter to 104.8 billion baht. Natural gas consumption in Thailand for the first eight months of this year rose 8.2 percent to 376,900 barrels a day, PTT data showed. PTT's main earnings driver remains PTTEP, which made a net profit of 3.08 billion baht in the third quarter of 2002, compared with 2.99 billion baht in the same period last year. The result beat forecasts of 2.74 billion baht profits. PTTEP said its sales rose eight percent year-on-year in the third quarter. It had forex losses of about 584 million baht. Since 1998, PTTEP has developed several new gas fields in Myanmar and off the Thai coast, but the completion of the Pailin II project in the Gulf of Thailand this year is expected to be the last major addition to output for the foreseeable future. By the mid-session break, shares in PTT were down 0.64 percent at 38.75 baht, while PTTEP shares were up 1.6 percent at 125 baht. This compared with a 1.4 percent gain in the overall Thai stock market. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thailand eyes $5.5 bln hydro
scheme with Myanmar
By Pisit Changplayngam BANGKOK, Nov 15 (Reuters) - A top Thai power official said on Friday he would meet Myanmar's military rulers next week to discuss a deal to build a $5.5 billion, 5,000 megawatt hydropwer dam on the Salween river along their common border. State power producer Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) president, Sithiporn Rathanaopas, told a news conference the joint venture deal would supply electricity to both countries. Yangon-based diplomats say the Myanmar economy is crumbling because of chronic mismanagement by the ruling generals. Power shortages are common, sometimes lasting days, causing factories to shut down. ``It will be a government-to-government project with an equal investment in the scheme,'' Sithiporn said. ``Initially, we may have to put in the money first through our capital or through issuing bonds.'' Sithiporn did not give any more details, but said the dam could start its commercial operations by 2013 at the earliest. Analysts say Thailand has a healthy power reserve of around 40 percent, with the planned Nam Theun 2 project in Laos helping to meet expected new demand stemming over the next decade. They say a reserve of 15 percent is a minimum safety level. The government this year shelved two planned private coal-fired power stations, funded partly by Japanese investors, because reserves were so strong. At the time, analysts said EGAT had lobbied against the projects, fearing its role as Thailand's dominant power producer could be threatened by new, more efficient plants. In September, the Thai government dropped plans to liberalise power production and create a power pool in which private producers would compete with EGAT. Currently Thailand has a combined electricity production of 23,000 MW -- around 15,000 MW of the total production belong to the EGAT and private producers generate the rest. Under a Power Development Plan approved by EGAT's board on Friday, demand for new power plants is likely to come in 2009. EGAT plans to renovate 10 current plants to prolong their working life another 15 years. Thailand's long-term power production plan promotes purchases of hydropower from neighbours. EGAT already buys some power from Laos and has signed preliminary agreements with Cambodia, and China to purchase hydropower from those countries. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Police defuse letter bomb
addressed to Myanmar embassy in Manila
2 hours, 30 minutes ago MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Police said Friday they defused a letter bomb sent to the Myanmar embassy in Manila that would have been powerful enough to kill a person. Jovito Gutierrez, police chief of the financial district of Makati city, said embassy officials called police to report the "suspicious" letter. A bomb squad was able to immediately dismantle the device, which would have exploded once opened, he said. Inside the envelope, which had a Thai postmark, was an electronic greeting card that normally plays music. It was rigged with extra battery to ignite a powerful blasting cap, which is normally used to detonate larger bombs. "It could blow away your hand and it could even kill you," Guttierez said. Myanmar's military government in Yangon earlier blamed anti-government groups based in Thailand for mailing apparent letter bombs to Myanmar embassies in Japan, Singapore and Malaysia last month. The letters sent to Tokyo and Singapore contained bombs, said Lt. Col. Nyan Lin, a senior intelligence officer, and the letter to Kuala Lumpur carried a message about pro-democracy demonstrations that shook Myanmar in 1988. The protests were violently quashed by the military, which set up a junta that still rules the country. Gutierrez said the embassy in Manila had been warned by its home office to be suspicious of letters coming from Bangkok. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ U.N. envoy cancels meeting
with Suu Kyi
Friday, November 15, 2002 at 09:30 JST YANGON (Kyodo) ? U.N. special envoy Razali Ismail, now in Myanmar to advance dialogue between the junta and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition camp, on Thursday canceled a scheduled meeting with Suu Kyi, according to a senior official of her National League for Democracy (NLD). NLD secretary U Lwin said Razali went to the NLD head office in the evening and told U Lwin he canceled a planned visit to Shan State capital Taunggyi. No reason was given, U Lwin said. (Kyodo News) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Myanmar's generals not ready
for talks: NLD
YANGON, Nov 15 (AFP) - Myanmar's military leadership is still not ready to hold a crucial political dialogue with the opposition aimed at beginning a transition to democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) said Friday. The country's leader, Senior General Than Shwe, met with UN envoy Razali Ismail Thursday in talks critical to the diplomat's bid to revitalise a stalled reconciliation process. But NLD spokesman U Lwin, after Razali briefed him on the talks, said he was concerned that little progress has been made. "They are not ready yet," U Lwin told AFP of the junta's leaders, "but still, they must get ready in due course. "We have to go through this, it is critical," he continued. "There is no way out unless we talk. It is the life and death of the country." Landmark contacts between the junta and the opposition have completed a confidence-building stage, but since Aung San Suu Kyi's release from house arrest in May a hoped-for political dialogue has failed to materialise. The spokesman said Razali was "reluctant" to discuss the substance of his 15-minute meeting with Than Shwe, but said the envoy did get the opportunity to pose key questions to the military leader about why a dialogue had yet to take place. It was not known if Than Shwe directly addressed the dialogue issue. "Mr. Than Shwe said they are doing everything good for the country," U Lwin said. Razali is in the midst of his ninth mission to Myanmar and earlier this week the envoy warned he would quit if the junta failed to make progress on democratic reforms. But U Lwin said Razali had assured him he would stay on as UN general secretary Kofi Annan's personal representative to Myanmar. "He said he will stay, yes," U Lwin said of Razali. "He shared with us ... that he will keep on doing this, until he achieves the objectives." Razali told Malaysiakini Internet news service before departing for Yangon that he was hoping to get the process moving again and wanted answers as to why the dialogue process has slowed down. He said he hoped to convey to Than Shwe the mounting international concern over "why since the lifting on the restrictions on Suu Kyi in May, a dialogue did not take place. "A promise was made to me that there would be a dialogue," he said. Razali is known to be deeply disappointed with the junta's refusal to release some 1,300 political prisoners in the nation's jails. In a meeting Thursday with ethnic party leaders he said he had urged Than Shwe to hasten the release of political prisoners which began at the beginning of 2001 and suggested 200 more be released by the end of the year. The international community appears also to be becoming increasingly irritated with the junta's stalling tactics over political dialogue. In a statement timed to coincide with Razali's visit, the United States hit out at the ruling generals and said there was no sign that "discussions critical to the future" were under way. "Given such a positive step earlier this year, we expected that dialogue between the regime in Burma and Aung San Suu Kyi would be well under way by now," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. The NLD's U Lwin said that despite the junta's apparant refusal to take firm measures towards a transition, he saw the face-to-face meeting between the UN envoy and Than Shwe as a step forward. "Of course it is," U Lwin said. "We still have some contact or communication. This is our only channel, so we must make good use of it." Myanmar has been ruled for the past four decades by a military government which has refused to cede power despite a landslide election victory claimed by the NLD in 1990. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Aung San Suu Kyi meets Shan
state supporters
YANGON, Nov 15 (AFP) - Myanmar pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi met hundreds of supporters Friday on a tour she was continuing through Shan state despite the cancellation of a trip there by a UN envoy visiting the country, a source in her party said. But diplomatic sources confirmed that while the UN's Razali Ismail had scrapped his visit to the state, his aides who accompanied him to Myanmar flew Friday from Yangon to the southern Shan capital of Taunggyi where Aung San Suu Kyi was engaged in political business. "The three went there this afternoon," a diplomatic source said of UN aides Hitoki Den and Damon Bristow, as well as Razali confidant Leon de Riedmatten of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue. It was not immediately clear if the aides had met with the Nobel peace laureate after arriving in Shan state. Aung San Suu Kyi has been exercising her newly won right to travel freely in the country by spending an extended period in the restive state, where she is opening four offices of her National League for Democracy (NLD), the party said. She met some 500 supporters and party members in Taunggyi, where she helped erect signboards at the newest NLD office and warned them against seeking personal gain through politics. "Please do not join the party because you want privileges," the source quoted her as saying. "Your actions should be in the interests of not just yourself but the majority of the people." "The Lady", as she is commonly known through much of the country, was due to spend several days in and around Taunggyi before eventually proceeding north to the town of Lashio. "In Shan state, the movement of the military is much heavier than in the rest of the country," NLD spokesman U Lwin said. "It is an interesting place for her to visit and to start talking about democratisation." Aung San Suu Kyi has made several political trips around the country since she was released in May from 19 months under house arrest with a guarantee that she would have complete freedom of movement. On Thursday Razali said he had scrapped his trip to Shan state after meeting with Myanmar's leader, Senior General Than Shwe, in talks critical to the diplomat's efforts to revitalise a stalled reconciliation process. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Two French nationals detained
in Myanmar for illegal entry
YANGON, Nov 15 (AFP) - Two French nationals have been detained in Myanmar for the past four days after crossing into the military-ruled state from Thailand without visas, a diplomat here said Friday. The two men "have been detained since Tuesday at the border post because they lacked visas, and verifications are being made," the French diplomat told AFP. They crossed the border opposite the southern Thai city of Ranong and were taken into custody at Kawthoung, in an area of southern Myanmar known as Victoria Point. The pair, who are in their thirties and hail from Paris and the southeastern city of Toulon, "acknowledged they have crossed the border without visas after they took a boat. "They said they wanted simply to go and have a drink on the other side," the diplomat said. The French Embassy in Yangon said it would make an official diplomatic inquiry into the matter on Friday with Myanmar's ministry of foreign affairs. Myanmar is one of the world's most isolated nations and remains intensely suspicious of foreigners crossing illegally into the country, particularly those whom it believes may be dissidents or foreign correspondents posing as tourists. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ EU mulls visa ban against
Belarus president
BRUSSELS, Nov 15 (AFP) - Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko -- dubbed the "last dictator of Europe" -- and top members of his government could be banned from entering European Union countries, officials said Friday. At a two-day meeting starting Monday, EU foreign ministers will examine a visa ban on Lukashenko -- whose authoritarian rule has been roundly condemned by Europe and the United States. The ministers "very likely ... will take a decision on Monday or Tuesday concerning visas we're no longer prepared to give to certain members of the government and power structures in Belarus", European Commission spokesman Gunnar Wiegand said. Asked whether the EU candidate states that border Belarus -- Latvia, Lithuania and Poland -- would support the visa ban, Wiegand said: "I imagine so." A diplomat said there is a "large consensus" in the EU to declare Lukashenko and his government members personae non grata. The ban would cover 52 people including the president, ministers and deputy ministers of Belarus, according to a list seen by AFP. The visa ban would also apply to members of the presidential administration, state-run television and the supreme and constitutional courts. The ban, however, would not apply to meetings held on EU territory organised by international bodies. EU candidate the Czech Republic has already refused to grant a visa to Lukashenko to attend a NATO summit in Prague next week, the CTK agency said Friday citing a diplomatic source. Czech Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda had said Thursday that Prague was likely to bar Lukashenko. "The time has not yet come for a final decision but I know in which direction we are heading," Svoboda said, after saying in the past he was leaning towards refusing a visa for Lukashenko. NATO officials have said both Lukashenko and Ukraine President Leonid Kuchma, who is accused by the United States of breaking the UN arms embargo on Iraq, would not be welcome at the summit. The iron-fisted Lukashenko has been in power since 1994 and was re-elected last year in a poll that was widely seen as rigged. He has been repeatedly denounced by Western governments for flagrant abuses of human rights and for failing to reform any of the republic's flailing Soviet-era institutions. After EU enlargement in 2004, Belarus will lie on the Union's eastern borders. The EU already has visa bans in place against the leaderships of Zimbabwe and military-run Myanmar. Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, however, was allowed to attend a June summit in Rome of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation. Unlike in the case of Mugabe, the EU will stop short of freezing the assets held in member states of Lukashenko, the diplomat said. At their last meeting on October 21, the EU foreign ministers "expressed serious concern about the situation of democracy and human rights in Belarus". The EU has also said it "deplores" a decision by the Belarus government to eject the sole remaining representative in Minsk of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Alina Josan. Belarus threw Josan out of the country at the end of October after accusing the pan-European security body's Minsk mission of interfering in its internal affairs. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Asia Times - Nov 16,
2002
Fears of Mekong free-for-all as China goes it alone By Alan Boyd SYDNEY - China and Myanmar have opted to stay outside a prominent agency overseeing development of the Mekong Basin, as six riparian states prepare to invest billions of dollars in infrastructural projects. Diplomats said the two countries had rebuffed the latest overtures from the Mekong River Commission (MRC), evoking fears that poor management controls might lead to conflict over resources. The MRC is widely viewed as the grouping most suited to fill the regulatory hole in Indochina as the growth zone of 60 million people prepares to establish a landbridge with the rest of Southeast Asia. Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and China are expected to spend as much as $100 billion harnessing the region's economic potential, starting with a $1 billion package of transport, telecommunications and energy projects. Outside cash will have to be found for the next phase. But investors have been put off by the lack of a representative body that can institute an independent framework of checks and balances. Although many schemes will have an impact outside the countries where they are sited, there is no common legal code, limited disputes procedures and no agency capable of ensuring that smaller states - or river communities - are not trampled in the headlong development rush. "Transboundary resource management requires cooperative international mechanisms. These international frameworks for the Mekong region are unfortunately uncoordinated, overlapping and driven mostly by economic and political interests rather than environmental ones," lawyer Tashi Tsering noted in a recent study of the Mekong's management structure. Initial investment is being overseen separately by the MRC and the Greater Mekong Sub-Region (GMS), an initiative established 10 years ago by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to capitalize on the end of Cold War tensions. The MRC's main contribution has been in the energy field, with a capital-intensive network of hydroelectric dams that centers on a massive exploitation of Laotian tributaries of the Mekong. Other projects, mostly related to improved navigation, are being devised by the Golden Quadrangle, a loose forum between Thailand, Laos, Burma and China that was set up in 1993. Then there is the ASEAN-Mekong Basin Development Cooperation, dating from 1995, with a mandate to integrate farming, mining, forestry, industry, transport, telecommunications, energy, tourism, trade and investment activities. In addition, the ADB is promoting specific development assistance for Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia through the Forum for Comprehensive Development in Indochina, which dates back to 1993 and is mostly backed by Japanese aid groups. Apart from the ADB, at least five other lending agencies are active in Indochina: International Bank for Reconstruction And Development (IBRD); International Development Agency (IDA); International Finance Corporation (IFC); Multilateral International Guarantee Agency (MIGA); and Global Environment Facility (GEF). Seven United Nations organizations have specific programs for developing the region, as do nine national governments. The latter generally operate through the MRC or the various ADB plans. Yet none of these agencies has a monitoring function outside its own programs, and there have been no concerted efforts at consensus planning, a shortcoming that concerns some aid donors. "It is unrealistic to suggest that aid programming should not include significant infrastructure projects. Notwithstanding this, the development plans for the basin advanced by agencies such as the ADB and the MRC, if implemented, will result in a region that has far greater potential for serious resource conflicts," warned Australia's state-owned AusAID in a project evaluation. Other than the GMS schemes, development has so far been predominantly at the behest of individual governments, with little or no consultation being undertaken outside their borders. China has constructed two hydropower dams on the upper Mekong, which it calls Lancang, without offering compensation for reduced water flows to farmers and fishermen further downriver. Vietnam built the Yali Falls dam without considering the possible repercussions on Cambodia's important Tonle Sap system. Few impact studies have been undertaken for Laos' 20 dam projects. Thailand has not invited countries downstream to participate in planning for its proposed diversion of 2.2 billion cubic meters of water per year from the Kok and Ing rivers in the Mekong Basin. The MRC has a disputes mechanism, but it is useless without the involvement of China and Myanmar, even though the lower four countries comprise 77 percent of the basin's total area and account for more than 80 percent of water flow. Myanmar has spurned the MRC because it has only a token involvement in the basin. China's motivations are more complex, but are believed to be related to the body's traditional domination by Thailand and Vietnam. "Frankly, there is very little in it for the PRC. The risk is that it would expose itself to closer scrutiny by the neighbors, whereas now it can act with total impunity in the infrastructure sector," said a diplomat. Thailand gained the ascendency in the MRC after an acrimonious showdown with Vietnam over water sharing in the early 1990s that came to a head with the proposed re-admission of Cambodia following the end of its civil war. The outcome was the 1995 Agreement on Cooperation for the Sustainable Development of the Mekong River Basin, a landmark accord that laid a basis for joint development of resources. However, it also ensured that this development would be undertaken in compliance with the national objectives of its two strongest members, while Laos and Cambodia effectively became client states. In the most graphic illustration of this unequal marriage, Laos was positioned as a significant hydroelectric producer on the understanding that almost all output would go to the Thai power grid. "Whereas the previous agreement gave any one member country the right to veto another's project if concerned about adverse impacts, the new agreement only gives member countries the right to prior notification and consultation," said Tashi. "For example, the lower riparian states' (the weaker states') concerns for flood control, management and mitigation are given only secondary importance compared to Thailand's concerns for hydropower development under MRC's Water Resources and Hydrology Program. "And the commission's relationship to its non-party members, particularly China, reflects Thailand's relation to those states," he said. GMS and the Golden Quadrangle both had their origins in attempts to bridge the dialogue gap between the four downstream and two upstream states, but have had only partial success. While the GMS encompasses all riparian states, it is weakened by the ADB's unwillingness to act as a coordinator with the MRC; apparently deterred by the MRC's lack of accountability, ADB deals directly with individual countries. Similarly, the Golden Quadrangle has snubbed Cambodia and Vietnam, reportedly to avoid political strains between Hanoi and Beijing, which faced off over Cambodia in the 1970s and 1980s. Five of the six Mekong states are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), while the sixth - China - consults regularly through the ASEAN Plus 3 dialogue. But ASEAN has not shown any inclination to take a leadership role in the Mekong Basin, having added Indochina to its list of special economic zones only a few years ago. "ASEAN is in the unique position of having a dual mandate - it has political clout as well as economic - and can help close the development gap between its northern and southern halves," said an Asian diplomat. "It is unfortunate that some countries prefer to take a unilateral approach, even though we know this works against the spirit of sharing resources [and] the overriding desire to avoid potential conflict." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Asia Tribune
Date : 2002-11-15 Democratization would contribute nation building in Myanmar - Japanese Premier Prime Minister Koizumi stated that in order for Myanmar to succeed in its nation-building and peace-building efforts, the government needed to make its own efforts toward democratization. During the ASEAN+3 Summit Meeting held at Phnom Penh, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi held bilateral meetings with Than Shwe of the Union of Myanmar (Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)). At the meeting, Prime Minister Koizumi stated that in order for Myanmar to succeed in its nation-building and peace-building efforts, the government needed to make its own efforts toward democratization. In response, Prime Minister Than Shwe explained Myanmar's efforts toward democratization, outlining the points as follow: Since her release in May, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been free to visit anywhere inside of Myanmar, including all of the development project sites such as dams, bridges and irrigation facilities. Moreover, the National League for Democracy (NLD) is free to engage in political activities. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is soon scheduled to visit Irrawady Division, a major region both in terms of economy and population. In addition, she has met with relevant ministers of the government on 13 occasions and with a liaison officer 107 times. Than Shwe further added that in order to comprehend Myanmar issues, it is important not to confine Myanmar's political situations into the relations between himself and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, but also to consider the fact that there are 135 ethnic minorities in Myanmar with their own complex problems. Subsequently, Prime Minister Koizumi made the following statements: (a) He understands the points pointed out by Prime Minister Than Shwe; (b) The international community expects that the efforts toward democratization would contribute to nation-building and peace-building, and Prime Minister Koizumi would like to encourage Prime Minister Than Shwe to make efforts toward reforms; (c) He understands Prime Minister Than Shwe's request not to simplify Myanmar's political situations to the terms between him and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. However, it is also important to understand that the international community views Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as the symbol of democratization. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |