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BURMA RELATED NEWS
- December 02, 2002.
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HEADLINES
------------------------------------------------------------------------ AFP - World AIDS Day marked across
Asia with calls for urgent action
AFP - Only two foreign firms answer
Myanmar's mining call: report
AP - Three Myanmar nationals found
dead in Thailand
DowJones - Rising Opposition In SE
Asia To Free Trade With China
WT - A blunder on Burma
Xinhuanet - Thai trade
exhibition to be held in Myanmar
Bkk Post - Crop switch
project for Burma soon
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sunday December 1, 10:47 PM
World AIDS Day marked across Asia with calls for urgent action BEIJING, Dec 1 - (AFP)The AIDS crisis spreading across Asia was accorded official recognition from China to Afghanistan, as countries marked World AIDS Day. Marches and awareness campaigns were held across the region Sunday as Asia begins to acknowledge its soaring AIDS rates. India, with an estimated four million HIV-infected individuals, is second only to South Africa in terms of absolute numbers. And in China, the world's most populous country, the central government has acknowledged one million cases of AIDS and HIV, up from 600,000 last year. The UN has suggested, however, that the number of Chinese infected with HIV could soar from an estimated 1.5 million to more than 10 million by the end of the decade. China has about three years to contain infection by HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, which official estimates suggest is increasing by 30 percent per year. "At the moment we know the epidemic is still growing very quickly and it will continue," said Rodney Hatfield, the Thailand-based deputy regional director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). "The biggest thing is for everyone to accept this is a major problem that can actually, eventually, if not handled properly, interrupt China's economic growth." Criticized for its failure to properly respond to a spiralling HIV crisis, China marked World AIDS Day with awareness-building events in 13 cities. On Saturday, the government premiered a television documentary on HIV/AIDS prevention in a rural village on the outskirts of Beijiing. University students gathered at the capital's Great Hall of the People for a government-backed event to increase awareness of the Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome, and were addressed by two AIDS sufferers. It was the first time AIDS patients had made a public address inside the important meeting hall. "I really hope all the government departments will give us support and care and help us to buy medicine to continue living," said one of the men, who identified himself only by his surname Wei. UN officials applauded China for making "significant" progress in the past two years -- from finally admitting it has a problem with HIV/AIDS to releasing more realistic estimates of the number of sufferers and raising awareness. Beijing-based UNICEF senior project officer Ray Yip said the central government also needed campaigns to eliminate the stigma attached to the illness, for which there is no known cure. But the social stigma still attached to AIDS is not endemic to China. Jahnabi Goswami, speaking at a rally in northeastern India attended by thousands of people, said "society at large is very cruel to people living with AIDS." "We need help and mental support more than anything else." Goswami, the first woman in Assam to publicly declare her HIV status, is one of more than 100,000 HIV-positive patients who live in India's seven northeastern states, where the disease has spread rapidly due to the region's acute drug problem. The states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura border the heroin-producing "Golden Triangle" of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand and has high rates of intravenous drug use -- a key cause of HIV infection here. The states account for less than three percent of India's one billion-plus population but are home to more than 30 percent of the country's total intravenous drug users, according to estimates. "AIDS has become a real threat to the northeast and unless checked, our future generations will fail to see the light of the day," Assam Health Minister Bhumidhar Barman said. However word from Thailand was that infection rates were slowing from 150,000 new cases in 1992 to 25,000 last year. "It's manageable," Mechai Viravaidya, a high-profile AIDS activist in Thailand, told AFP. "But it means we have to do a lot more public education." International assistance is crucial to stop the potentially catastrophic spread of AIDS into once-isolated Afghanistan, the United Nations said Sunday. Returning refugees who may be carrying sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs), increased intravenous drug use in the country's south and prostitution could make Afghanistan a hotbed of HIV/AIDS infection. "In Afghanistan we do not know the exact situation of the epidemic but we know HIV is present," said Nigel Fisher, the UN deputy special representative for Afghanistan, in a Kabul address to mark World AIDS Day. "Today signals a fresh start for Afghanistan. The openness and willingness to act early to ensure the epidemic does not reach catastrophic proportions is obvious." Ending discrimination against HIV carriers and high-risk groups such as sex workers and intravenous drug users was the best way to control the disease, which the World Health Organisation estimates has infected 100 people in Afghanistan so far this year. "Discrimination drives the epidemic underground," said Fisher. "It is important this does not happen in Afghanistan." Hoping to end discrimination against Vietnamese AIDS patients, more than 2,000 people took to the streets of Hanoi Sunday. International health experts have long criticised Hanoi for focusing on HIV/AIDS as an affliction affecting "social evils," rather than raising awareness among the wider population. In a state-sanctioned event led by Vice President Truong My Hoa, marchers circled Hanoi's Hoam Kiem lake carrying banners saying "Be friends with HIV carriers" and "Don't shun AIDS victims." Government figures show 56,495 people were HIV positive by the end October but experts say the true number of those infected is at least 200,000, under-reported due to limited testing facilities and a reluctance to admit the full extent of Vietnam's epidemic. More than 2,000 people including health workers, students, sex workers and people who have HIV or AIDS joined a rally through the streets of Nepal's capital Kathmandu on Sunday. There are an estimated 58,000 people living with HIV and AIDS in Nepal, according to figures from UNAIDS -- the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS -- and so far 151 have died of the disease. However Bangladesh says only 20 people have died from AIDS with another 248 HIV-positive. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sunday December 1, 03:05 PM
Only two foreign firms answer
Myanmar's mining call: report
YANGON, Dec 1 (AFP) - Only two foreign companies have submitted bids to prospect for minerals in 42 blocks of land in the latest bidding round offered by the Myanmar military junta, a report here said. Britain's Lion Mining Financing Company offered to explore for platinum in northernmost Kachin state, while Chinese firm Deli Ruili Pearl and Jewels expressed interest in searching for lead, zinc and silver in northeastern Shan state, sources close to the Ministry of Mines told the Myanmar Times. They were the only firms to submit bids for operations in 42 exploration blocks in the two states as well as in northern Sagaing and central Mandalay divisions, the semi-official weekly said in its edition to be published Monday. Closing date for the bids was November 18, after the original date was extended by a month, it said. The bidding round was the fourth open to foreign companies since 1994, and was aimed at developing more of the impoverished country's natural resources, it added. Ivanhoe Mines of Canada is involved in a 50-50 joint venture partnership with the government in the huge and controversial Monywa copper project, which began in 1998 and produces 27,500 tonnes of copper a year. Monywa has caused controversy in Canada, where rights groups have linked the project to mass conscription of forced labour and called for Ivanhoe to cease investment in Myanmar. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Three Myanmar nationals found
dead in Thailand
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ The bullet-ridden bodies of three youths believed to be from Myanmar were found Monday on a roadside in a northern suburb of Bangkok, police said. They said the killings were probably the result of a drug dispute. The victims _ one male and two females, all in their early 20s _ had been shot in the chest, apparently at close range, police Lt. Col. Boonlert Reungpongpan said. Police said each victim was carrying several hundred tablets of the illicit stimulant methamphetamine and documents written in the Myanmar language, indicating they may have come from that country. ``We believe the killing was the result of a double-crossing among drug traders,'' Boonlert said. The bodies were found in the town of Prathum Thani, which is known as a major transit point for drug and human smugglers coming from neighboring Myanmar. In March, the bodies of 13 migrant laborers from Myanmar were found dumped in Prachinburi province, 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Bangkok. The workers suffocated in the back of a truck while being smuggled to a factory in Prathum Thani, according to investigators. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Monday December 2, 11:25 AM
Rising Opposition In SE Asia To Free Trade With China This item was also published in the Dec. 2 issue of The Asian Wall Street Journal. By Tom Wright - Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES JAKARTA -(Dow Jones)- Opposition to free trade with China is mounting in Southeast Asia, less than a month after the announcement of a groundbreaking deal to liberalize trade across the region. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, signed an agreement with China in early November to work toward the creation of a massive free trade area covering 1.8 billion people by 2010. That agreement promises to give Southeast Asian exporters access to China's growing middle class, an important alternative to the U.S. markets on which they have previously depended. Already, China's importance as a trading partner with Asean is ballooning. Exports to China from Asean's six major economies plus Taiwan and South Korea grew 50% in the first half of this year, according to the World Bank. Meanwhile, exports to the U.S. and Japan are flat, the World Bank said. But while China buys sugar from Thailand and is soon to become a major importer of natural gas from Indonesia, cheap Chinese manufactured goods ranging from textiles to motorcycles flood back into Southeast Asia, luring consumers away from local products. That inflicts pain on local producers and threatens the livelihood of low-skilled laborers around the region. So far, the backlash is strongest in Indonesia, where garment manufacturers have faced stiff competition from Chinese rivals, first in export markets overseas and now increasingly at home. Indonesia's trade ministry is proposing to raise tariffs on garment imports to 40% - the maximum possible under World Trade Organization rules - from 15%-20% at the moment, says Trade Minister Rini Soewandi. "We are looking at it as a short-term situation, but we don't know," she said in an interview. "In the end it depends on the impact (of imports) on the condition of our people." The ministry also recently tightened laws to stop smuggled Chinese textiles. Business owners in other industries, too, are expressing concern. "We are facing a problem because the cost in Indonesia compared to China is too high," said Anton Supit, chairman of the Indonesian Shoe Manufacturing Association. "We are not ready for free trade." In Thailand, low-cost imports of motorcycles and electrical appliances from China are prompting complaints from local manufacturers, says Supavud Saicheua, an economist at Merrill Lynch in Bangkok, who adds: "Down the road this might become a problem." Pressure to protect Southeast Asia industries could end up derailing Asean's efforts to foster closer trade ties with China. So far, the two sides have agreed to liberalize trade in agricultural goods ranging from animal products to fruit and vegetables over three years starting in the middle of the decade. But China has so far excluded rice and palm oil from the deal, two critical export commodities for Southeast Asia. Negotiations over which manufactured products to include are likely to be even more contentious and drag on for many years, especially if pressures from local producers continue to rise. Any footdragging on efforts to integrate more closely with China could end up marginalizing Southeast Asia's role in the global economy. China's cheap manufacturing and huge market attracts over two thirds of total foreign investment coming into East Asia every year. Without access to China's nearly 1.3 billion consumers through a free-trade zone, foreign investors would have even less incentive to invest in Asean. Even without China, Asean is still perusing free trade. The planned Asean Free Trade Area aims to reduce production costs through economies of scale and integrate a market of 500 million people. Under the AFTA agreement, six of Asean's members -Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Brunei- are supposed to reduce tariffs to below 5% on a wide range of goods by Jan. 1 next year. (The other members of Asean -Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos- have between 2006 and 2010 to comply.) But this has fallen short of expectations due to fears that even free trade among neighbors within Southeast Asia would lead to job losses. Countries have excluded industries from the AFTA scheme to protect local producers: Malaysia continues to impose large tariffs on vehicle imports to shield its national car maker, Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional Bhd., or Proton; The Philippines has excluded its petrochemical businesses; and Indonesia decided recently it won't reduce tariffs for textile goods, Ms. Soewandi said. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Washington
Times
EDITORIAL ? December 2, 2002 A blunder on Burma The State Department has a fairly abominable record when it comes to Southeast Asia, and last week brought a reminder of why that is. According to The Washington Post, department officials are close to recommending that the president remove Burma's designation as a major drug-producing country. Ordinarily we'd chalk up this report to the usual agitation by Foggy Bottom's pro-Burma sect. But informed people in and out of the administration say the ongoing discussions are more serious than in recent years, and spokesmen for the department have declined to dismiss the theory immediately. More disturbingly, in a speech a week ago, Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly said that "Burmese cooperation with the international community on narcotics issues has continued to improve in real terms." If things have gotten better in Burma, that's because the country has no place to go but up. It's true, for instance, that Afghanistan is expected to replace Burma this year as the top opium-producing country. But that has more to do with a rise in production in the post-Taliban steppe than any significant decrease in the Burmese hills. It's true, too, that heroin production has decreased significantly in Burma over the last decade. But that's offset by another trend: The alarming and steady rise in amphetamine production, in which Burma now leads the world. None of these factors makes the case for Burma's removal from the drug-peddlers' list. But the State Department's certification is premised upon good-faith actions by the government to get tough on drugs ? the enforcement of money-laundering laws, for example, and efforts to seize drug lords ? and not necessarily on overall reduction. Still, even by this yardstick, Burma doesn't measure up. Burma does have a counter-narcotics program that frontline Western officials say appears to operate fairly independently. But they hasten to add that its operations are deliberately small-scale. Token seizures and raids are conducted, but serious traffickers go unimpeded. That's because the drug racket in Burma is so firmly entrenched that any serious effort to clamp down would purge the junta from top to bottom. In exchange for cease-fire agreements in its unwinnable war against the Wa and Shan tribes in the mid- and late 1990s, the cash-strapped regime agreed to turn a blind eye to their drug-running ? so long as it received kickbacks. These took the form of taxes and also the establishment of urban laundromats masquerading as legitimate businesses. "The whole thing really works through their banks," a knowledgeable Western official on the Thai-Burmese border told us in August. "Each bank has one large boss behind it, and they make remittances to officials from ill-gotten proceeds." The problem in Burma isn't drugs; it's the junta itself. But Foggy Bottom can't seem to find its way to this obvious point. In congressional testimony in June, for example, Deputy Assistant Secretary Matthew Daly said it's possible to "pursue better communication and cooperation with Burma [on drugs] without diminishing our support for political reform and national reconciliation." That shows a serious lack of judgment. The junta's complicity in the drug trade is part and parcel of its repression. The regime uses its drug money to dig its heels in deeper, upping surveillance on democratic activists in the cities and buying Chinese weapons to stamp out resistance by the republican Chin, Karen and Karenni hill tribes. But the State Department knows this all too well. The last time the U.S. legally gave counter-narcotics money and aid to Burma was in 1988, and the junta used the weaponry to brutally suppress democratic uprisings in Rangoon. Removing the military regime from the drug list could open it up to massive U.S. funding and assistance, and there's no reason to believe the autocrats would act any differently today. If the junta is serious about getting tough on drugs, it could start by turning over U Khun Sa, a "former" opium lord currently serving time in his mansion in Rangoon. The United States has long sought to extradite Khun Sa, but the regime claims this would violate the terms of his surrender. And the junta, of course, never goes back on its word ? just ask Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy. After the Burmese people handed her and her party a landslide victory in 1990 elections, the junta refused to cede control and tightened its grip. According to The Post's survey of "experts," taking Burma off the most-wanted list would be "an important psychological boost for the repressive government." Somehow, we doubt that President Bush is game for pampering the psyches of thugs, and the pro-Burma lobby at State should try being useful for a change. The first step is to affirm unequivocally Burma's position as a world pariah. The second is to dangle goodies to other nations, particularly China and fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), so that they halt their policy of engagement. China's regional ambitions make that a tricky and difficult strategy to pursue, but the cause is good. Murderous thugs have no business strutting the world stage. The State Department should hasten the happy day of their fall. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thai trade exhibition to be
held in Myanmar
YANGON, Dec. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- A Thai trade exhibition will be held at the Yangon Trade Center here from Dec. 12 to Dec. 15, aimed at further strengthening the trade relations as well as fostering the spirit of goodwill and cooperation between Myanmar and Thailand. The four-day Thailand Exhibition' 2002, to be participated by about 113 companies, will be the sixth of its kind and the second in this year. Organized by the Department of Export Promotion of the Thai Commerce Ministry, the exhibition will provide a unique opportunity for Myanmar traders to develop profitable business links by meeting with prominent manufacturers and exporters of Thailand and to explore a wide array of products and services, said the organizer Monday. The exhibits will cover auto parts and accessories, chemical products, children products, construction material and hardware, cosmetics, electronic products, beverage and packaging, furniture, garments and textile, fashion accessories, household products, machinery tools and parts, pharmaceutical and sanitary products, service trade and stationery products, the organizer disclosed. The first Thai trade exhibition in Myanmar was held in December 1998 and the fifth, which was also the last event, took place in May this year. The Thai commerce ministry, finding that the Thai trade exhibitions served as a symbol of growing economic and trade cooperation between the two countries, decided to hold two exhibitions annually commencing from this year. Official statistics show that Myanmar's bilateral trade with Thailand amounted to 579.66 million dollars in the first half of 2002, accounting for 23.45 percent of the country's total foreign trade and standing as the highest volume among that with member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations during the period. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bangkok Post - Sunday
01 December 2002
Crop switch project for Burma soon Border area in Shan state to be developed Porpot Changyawa Thailand will soon resume a crop substitution project in a Burmese border area with international aid, in a joint effort to suppress narcotics in Burma, one of the world's biggest producer of illicit drugs. M.R. Disnadda Disakul, director of the royally-initiated Doi Tung project, said on Friday that the development programme in Burma's Muang Yong Kha would kick off with a school for 500 students and a health centre expected to be completed within three months. The work would begin as soon as the Burmese government agrees on the details, he added. Muang Yong Kha is in Shan State and about 50 kilometres from the Burmese border province of Tachilek, opposite Chiang Rai's Mae Sai district. It is now home to more than 2,500 hilltribe people and is likely to grow further as some 300,000 more are being relocated from northern Burma to the town. Most residents are in serious need of sanitation, education and infrastructure. The resumption of the project illustrates improving ties between the two countries which had deteriorated during border clashes early this year, resulting in the project being held back. In essence the project will set up means of irrigation and substitute appropriate cash crops for opium poppy fields, which currently cover almost 100,000 acres of land along the Burmese eastern border area opposite Thailand. The crops will include coffee, macademia nuts, and Sa trees for paper production. Job training will be provided. These are already part of the Doi Tung project in Mae Fah Luang district, initiated by the late Princess Mother in 1987. The programme to develop Muang Yong Kha was initiated following a visit to Rangoon in June last year by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, during which Thailand handed over the first 20-million-baht instalment for the programme. Some surveys and feasibility studies of the area in Burma were taken before the programme was put on hold after the Thai-Burmese border closure in May. ``Burma is now ready to discuss details of the programme,'' M.R. Disnadda said. ``At the same time, several countries have shown interest in backing it.'' The project in Burma needs as much as 160 million baht. The director said it has attracted Japan, Australia, Singapore, the United States and the United Kingdom, which have offered to provide aid once it begins. The United Nations Office of Drug Control and Crime Prevention has also offered to support the programme. ``Details of the project as well as international assistance need the approval of both local and central authorities. We will not force them to accept the programme,'' he added. M.R. Disnadda insisted, however, that the execution of the programme should be in line with Thailand's Doi Tung project. A meeting with Burmese high-ranking officials was held yesterday on whether Burma would accept international offers, but the outcome was not yet known. Antonio Maria Costa, the UN agency's office executive president, praised the Doi Tung project, which has eradicated poppy fields in Thailand's northern provinces in the past 15 years with cash crops and job training. Mr Costa also invited M.R. Disnadda to meet Afghanistan's warlords in January next year to discuss the feasibility of developing similar programmes there. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |