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BURMA RELATED NEWS
- December 11, 2002.
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HEADLINES
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Reuters - Suu Kyi says Myanmar reform
could be slow
Reuters - Swiss peacemakers in Aceh
set sights on Myanmar
Reuters - Japan seeks peacemaker role
as aid budget shrinks
AP - Daughter of former dictator Ne
Win holds religious rite
AFP - Myanmar's Suu Kyi confident
political change on the way: report
AFP - Myanmar polishes charm
offensive in US
AFP - Thailand invites
Myanmar junta figure for talks over drugs crisis
AFP - Myanmar rebels claim Thai
military killed leader after embassy siege
Bkk Post - Alarming influx of
illegals
Bkk Post - Officials to discuss
suppression drive
BBC - Fighting Burma's drugs
trade
Asian Tribune - Human
Rights Violation is the Way of Life in Burma.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Wednesday December 11, 11:32 AM
Suu Kyi says Myanmar reform could be slow BANGKOK (Reuters) - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said she is confident political change will come to the military-ruled country but the process could be slow, the British Broadcasting Corporation said on Wednesday. The BBC Web site quoted Suu Kyi as saying in an interview that talks between her National League for Democracy (NLD) party and the junta had made some progress since her release from 19 months of house arrest in May, but there was still "some way to go". Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, said she was hopeful of progress towards political reform by this time next year and that she did not think it was impossible that some political change could take place "within months". BBC television on Wednesday quoted Suu Kui in an excerpt from the interview as saying she did not know when the time would be right for change, but adding: "I don't think it will take too long for the simple reason people long for change and we are working as hard as possible for the kind of change that will benefit our country." The NLD won Myanmar's last democratic elections in 1990 by a landslide but has never been allowed to govern. Instead its members have been arrested and party offices have been shut. The junta has said it wants some form of democracy eventually but that too speedy a transition would destabilise the country, formerly known as Burma. Suu Kyi and the generals began secretive talks two years ago as part of a reconciliation process brokered by U.N. special envoy to Myanmar Razali Ismail. That led to hopes for a speedy move towards democracy. But despite the release of several hundred political prisoners, the United Nations says more than 1,000 opposition activists remain behind bars and there are no signs yet of real political change. Suu Kyi's pro-democracy opposition movement has asked the international community to maintain sanctions against the country until there are signs of reform and discourages tourism. The BBC Web site quoted Suu Kyi as urging foreign travellers keen to visit Myanmar to be patient. "We have not yet come to the point where we encourage people to come to Burma as tourists," she said. The Web site said the BBC World Service radio would broadcast the interview with Suu Kyi in full on December 15. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Swiss peacemakers in Aceh set
sights on Myanmar
11 December, 2002 04:26 GMT+08:00 By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - The Swiss humanitarian group that brokered a ceasefire in Indonesia's restive Aceh province said on Tuesday it was seeking a go-between role between Myanmar's military government and the democratic opposition. Martin Griffiths, director of the Henry Dunant Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, said the group was playing a low-profile role in supporting United Nations attempts to promote dialogue between the State and Peace Development Council (SPDC) junta and pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. "We help by being in the country, having daily contact with Aung San Suu Kyi and the SPDC," Griffiths told Reuters in an interview. He did not say whether the SPDC had been receptive. Myanmar's military has kept a tight grip on power for the past 40 years, ignoring the results of 1990 elections which Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won by a landslide. The government has released hundreds of political prisoners since late 2000, including Suu Kyi, and has pledged to return the impoverished southeast Asian country to democracy -- although not to a timetable, which has sparked scepticism. "We give advice or pass messages and advise U.N. envoy Razali Ismail when he makes a visit," Griffiths added. "The U.N. clout and presence are necessary, but we can discreetly help out with things that might be difficult for them to do." The Geneva-based centre was set up in January 1999 to promote dialogue in internal conflicts. "As a small, private organisation, we can be useful as a so-called 'weak mediator' -- independent, low-profile but with no axe to grind," he said. The centre began talks with Indonesian officials and separatist rebels from the Free Aceh Movement in August 1999. After achieving little in two years, the centre turned to international advisers with military and diplomatic clout. Among the six advisers were retired U.S. Army General Anthony Zinni, former Yugoslav foreign minister Budimir Loncar, and former Thai foreign minister Surin Pitsuwan. "Advisers came into the process a year ago because we felt we needed some greater leverage...They made a big difference," said Griffiths, a former senior U.N. official in Kosovo and other hotspots. Zinni is also a U.S. envoy for the Middle East. "As 'wise men', we do represent the international community but not formally. If we were here as direct representatives of our governments, it might have been much more difficult in many ways for both sides," Zinni told Reuters. "I think this sort of privatisation of peace is a needed option in a lot of places, where maybe a U.N. solution or a solution of some other regional political organisation...would not work." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Japan seeks peacemaker role as
aid budget shrinks
By Isabel Reynolds TOKYO, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Japan, its foreign aid budget shrinking under pressure from a stagnant economy, is mapping out a strategy to make better use of its still vast resources and carve out a new role as a peacebroker. Burdened with the worst public debt among advanced nations, Japan slashed its foreign aid budget by 10 percent to 910.6 billion yen ($7.35 billion) in the year to March 2003. The Finance Ministry wants to lop off more off next year. But while Japan has slipped to second after the United States as a disperser of global aid, it tops the list in Asia, doling out 57 percent of the region's total official development aid. Japan now wants to use that clout to take a higher profile in global affairs by helping find funds for trouble spots trying to forge peace deals after prolonged conflicts. Last week, Japan hosted a donors' conference for Indonesia's strife-ridden Aceh province as an inducement to a peace pact -- signed on Monday -- to end decades of bloody conflict and announced it would do the same for Sri Lanka next year, after sponsoring peace talks in Tokyo. ``This is a new set of policies and a new set of agendas...for helping the world to become a more peaceful place,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Hatsuhisa Takashima told reporters. The Sri Lanka donors conference was announced after a breakthrough in talks between rebel Tamil leaders and the Sri Lankan government in Oslo, but ahead of any formal peace deal. ``Japan wants to involve itself more in consolidation of peace, in the peace-building phase, prior to the completion of the framework of peace...,'' Japan's special envoy to Sri Lanka, former U.N. undersecretary Yasushi Akashi, told reporters during last week's visit here by Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. SECURITY CONCERNS The new effort to focus aid on global trouble spots is in part an attempt to play a role in maintaining world security after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. Such security worries led Tokyo to host a donors' conference for Afghanistan last January, itself pledging $250 million for the war-torn land in 2002. Tokyo agreed last week to provide up to $350 million for the conflict-ridden southern Mindanao region of the Philippines. Japan is also expected to be heavily involved in the reconstruction of Iraq after any attack by the United States. The Foreign Ministry's Takashima denied that the new emphasis was risky for Japan, saying the recipients would be troubled areas ``where years of conflict have been continuing and yet there are some signs of hope for peace emerging.'' Just this week the Foreign Ministry said it would review its decade-old ODA ``charter'' setting out basic policy to take account of new concepts such as human security and peace building. FORGIVENESS Japan has also done an about-face on debt forgiveness to heavily indebted poor countries, announcing on Tuesday that it would forgive up to 900 billion yen in ODA loans to countries such as Bangladesh, Myanmar and Ghana from next March. ``The purpose of the current system was to urge them (heavily indebted poor countries) to make self-help efforts, but it has put a burden on them...'' Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi told a news conference on Tuesday. Rapid change, however, may be hard to achieve in an overseas aid system that has been criticised for everything from corruption to lack of coordination. ``There are too many agencies involved. We have no strategy to speak of for any country or for any region,'' said Professor Yoshiaki Abe, an aid expert at Tokyo's Waseda University. Scandals involving bribes and kickbacks for foreign aid projects have also made it tough for Tokyo to persuade voters of the strategic importance of foreign aid at a time they would rather see money spent at home on Japan's struggling economy. Critics like Abe say the aims of Japan's aid programme need to be spelled out better. ``ODA has to be more effective, but what exactly does that mean? I don't think that has been decided in a way that is clear to the general public,'' he said. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Daughter of former dictator Ne
Win holds religious rite
Wed Dec 11,12:46 AM ET YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - The eldest daughter of former dictator Gen. Ne Win offered food and saffron robes to Buddhist monks on Wednesday in memory of her father who died last week under house arrest. Only a handful of close relatives attended the quiet ceremony at Sandar Win's lakeside residence in Yangon. Ne Win, who ruled Myanmar with an iron fist from 1962 to 1988, died last Thursday at the age of 91. It is a Buddhist custom in Myanmar, also known as Burma, to hold a merit-making ceremony on the seventh day after a person's death. Ne Win had been under house arrest with Sandar Win since the March 7 arrest of her husband and three sons for attempting to overthrow the military government. They were sentenced to death in September and have appealed. State media and the government ignored Ne Win's death. He was cremated without the military honors usually granted a general. Ne Win, a hero of Myanmar's struggle for independence from Britain, presided over the country's demise from prosperity to poverty, as he trampled a fledgling democracy and imposed military rule, turning the country into an international pariah. A government official said Sandar Win's status as a detainee under house arrest has not changed after her father's death. "She will remain as she was before. She is still under house arrest," he said on condition of anonymity. Foreign diplomats said they cannot send condolences to the family as the government has not made any official announcement of the death or opened a condolence book. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Myanmar's Suu Kyi confident
political change on the way: report
BANGKOK, Dec 10 (AFP) - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi reportedly said Tuesday she was confident political change would come to the military-ruled country, but warned the process could be slow. "We are confident change will come -- not as quickly as most of us would wish, but it will come," she told the BBC in an interview posted on its website. The Nobel peace laureate's remarks will boost confidence in the slow-moving national reconciliation process which observers in the Myanmar capital Yangon had feared was on the verge of complete breakdown. United Nations envoy Razali Ismail, who brokered historic contacts between the ruling junta and Aung San Suu Kyi two years ago, has voice frustration that the process has failed to move into a proper political dialogue. But the leader of the opposition National League for Democracy told the BBC that the contacts with the regime had made some headway since her release in May from house arrest, although there was "some way to go". For the first time she put a timeline on the prospects for political reform, saying she was hopeful of progress by this time next year and that it was not impossible that change could take place "within months". Aung San Suu Kyi maintained the conciliatory stance towards the ruling generals which she has adopted since her release from 19 months of detention, saying she felt "no personal animosity" towards them. "I get along with them well enough. After all it was my father who founded the Burmese army and I do have a sense of warmth towards the Burmese army," she said, using the country's former name. In contrast to Aung San Suu Kyi's positive tone, Razali said after his ninth mission to Myanmar in November that he was disappointed after making little progress towards reinvigorating the reform process. "There were discussions between the junta and the NLD at the lower levels but this was not tantamount to a dialogue, he said at the time. "I am always disappointed where there are no full results but that's the nature of my mission." And in late November the NLD commemorated National Day with a call for a speedy beginning to a "meaningful political dialogue" with the junta. The NLD won a landslide election victory in 1990 but it was prevented from taking power by the military, which has ruled Myanmar in one form or another for the past four decades. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Myanmar polishes charm
offensive in US
WASHINGTON, Dec 10 (AFP) - Myanmar on Tuesday fired a new shot in its US charm offensive, holding an unprecedented reception for congressional aides at the residence of its ambassador to Washington. The event, open only to members of the Congressional Legislative Staff Association (CLSA), is part of campaign to dilute US scorn towards the military-ruled state -- which so far appears to have had little success. An invitation to the heavily-controlled reception, obtained by AFP, offered CLSA members two early evening hours in the company of Linn Myaing, Yangon's ambassador here. A confirmation notice sent to members who signed up, warned of the importance of showing up at the event, registering apparent concern that any controversy about the event could deter guests. "Remember, you are not only representing yourself, but your boss and the Congress as well," it warned. DCI Group, the Yangon junta's US-based lobbying firm said it had nothing to do with the reception and no-one at the embassy was available for comment. The United States is a fierce critic of Myanmar's military regime, and its treatment of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), which won an overwhelming 1990 election victory that was never recognized by the junta. Myanmar, treated as a pariah state by Washington and some of its Western allies, has recently tried to improve its standing in the US capital, hiring DCI Group and making major announcements to the media here, before releasing information in Bangkok or Yangon. 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. Last month, news reports here said that mid-level officials in the State Department were considering removing Myanmar's name from the US list of the world's major drugs producers. Myanmar has made strenuous efforts in recent times to prove that it is serious about eradicating opium production in the country, sending anti-drugs czar Colonel Kyaw Thein to Washington to meet senior US officials earlier this year. Removal of its name from the list would be a major boon for Yangon, and fulfill one of its primary goals in relations with the United States. But it would likely be resisted by supporters of the embattled opposition of Aung San Suu Kyi in the US Congress and the non-governmental organisation community. Campaigners fear that the junta would showcase its new status and portray it as international acceptance of its rule. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thailand invites Myanmar junta
figure for talks over drugs crisis
BANGKOK, Dec 11 (AFP) - Deputy prime minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said Wednesday he had invited the Myanmar junta's number-three Khin Nyunt to Thailand to discuss bilateral ties and the drug-trafficking problem. "I have invited Khin Nyunt to come to Chiang Rai in the next few days to exchange views and ideas over cooperation between the two countries including on the drugs problem," Chavalit told reporters. The deputy premier said that at the meeting in the northern border town, he would put forward his idea of joint military patrols at border checkpoints to avert conflict between the neighbours. "Thailand will push for the joint deployment of both Thai and Myanmar troops at border checkpoints, which are prone to drug smuggling, to avoid misunderstandings," he said. Thailand and Myanmar spent the first half of this year embroiled in a bitter diplomatic war over border clashes between rival ethnic armies accused of involvement in the drugs trade. Although the spat has since been healed, new niggles have emerged recently after the Thai army said it expected one billion "speed" pills to be trafficked across the border next year from drug labs in Myanmar. The Thai government also voiced disappointment over the military regime's failure to cooperate in plans to repatriate nearly one million illegal Myanmar workers from Thailand. Myanmar's junta has repeatedly and angrily denied allegations that it is engaged in the drugs trade, which United States and Thai anti-narcotics authorities believe is controlled by ethnic armies allied to Yangon. It has rejected the army's "billion pills" estimate and urged the institution "to contribute in a more constructive and meaningful way in the regional and international war against narcotic drugs". Chavalit said no date had yet been set for the meeting with Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, who is Myanmar's chief of military intelligence. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Myanmar rebels claim Thai
military killed leader after embassy siege
BANGKOK, Dec 11 (AFP) - A Myanmar rebel group has claimed that its leader Kyaw Ni, who carried out the 1999 siege of the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok, was captured and executed by the Thai army the following year. The Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors (VBSW) said in a statement mailed to AFP that Kyaw Ni, better known as Johnny, was arrested on the Myanmar border with the help of elements in an allied rebel group in July 2000. Johnny was one of a band of VBSW gunmen who seized the Myanmar mission in Bangkok in protest against the military regime, holding 38 people hostage for more than 24 hours. "If Johnny committed a crime, Thailand should have taken action according to the law. Such activities, taking people into custody without public knowledge and execution, violate human rights by Thailand," the rebel group said. "The truth of the incident should be uncovered and those involved should be investigated by Amnesty International," it said, adding it did not reveal the abduction before because it felt vulnerable to further action by the Thai army. Johnny's movements were shrouded in mystery after the embassy siege, which ended when Thai officials negotiated a deal which saw the hostages released and the rebels flown to the border in a helicopter. The VBSW holed up with a group known as the Karen God's Army, which was led by cheroot-smoking 12-year-old twin brothers Luther and Johnny Htoo. In February 2000 God's Army rebels slipped accross the border into Thailand and took over a provincial hospital with several hundred patients, demanding Myanmar and Thai troops cease attacks on them. The hospital siege ended when Thai special forces stormed the building killing all 10 gunmen -- at least two of whom were reported to have been VBSW members. The VBSW said that elements in the Karen National Union (KNU), a leading rebel group fighting the Myanmar junta which dwarfs both the VBSW and the now-defunct God's Army, betrayed Johnny as a favour to the Thai army. In July 2000 a group of top Karen leaders led by central committee members Mahn Nyein Maung and Myint Thein went to see him at a God's Army camp and invited him to move into safer territory which they controlled, it said. Citing the testimony of a VBSW cadre who accompanied Johnny, the group said that when he left the following day with KNU forces he was delivered into the hands of Thai soldiers. Later, the rebels learned he had been killed. Mahn Nyein Maung, currently the KNU's joint secretary, admitted to attending the July meeting but denied he was involved in Johnny's death. "It is true that I went to see Johnny... and we asked him to move into territory under our control for his safety," he told AFP. "But we are arrested by Thai authorities on our return from there. "I also heard that Johnny was killed, but I don't know when or where," he added. Thailand's army denied any knowledge of Johnny's capture or death. "I don't have that information. All we can confirm was that 10 people died after we cleared the hospital," said spokesman Colonel Somkuan Seangpattaranetr. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bangkok Post -
Wednesday 11 December 2002
Alarming influx of illegals Protected forests being put at risk Theerawat Khamthita The senate foreign affairs committee says an ``alarming influx'' of illegal Burmese immigrants is putting protected forests at risk and could cost local people their jobs. Most government policies on Burma were designed to boost trade or improve transport links and ignored the impact on local communities, said panel chairman Kraisak Choonhavan. The influx of immigrants had led to a mini-population boom in Chiang Rai, leading to increases in forest encroachment and slash-and-burn agriculture. ``The problems are mounting, and if Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and the Thai Rak Thai MPs from the North continue to ignore the issue, they will suffer heavy criticism,'' he said. Mr Kraisak estimated the number of immigrants nationwide at four million. More than 55,000 Karen refugees joined one of four camps in Mae Hong Son this year, taking the number of refugees in the province to 200,000, which is almost equal to the number of registered Thai citizens. Tak province was sheltering 140,000 refugees in 11 camps, most of which had expanded into protected forest areas. Mr Kraisak said he was worried the flood of illegal immigrants would eventually threaten the livelihood of people living in border areas of Tak, Mae Hong Son, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bangkok Post -
Wednesday 11 December 2002
Officials to discuss suppression drive International help urged for Burma Anucha Charoenpo Senior Thai and Laotian drug officials will meet in Chiang Mai tomorrow to discuss the progress of drug suppression in the two countries. The seventh bilateral meeting will last till Sunday and will review drug suppression operations the two countries have carried out over the past year, said Pittaya Jinawatr, director of the northern narcotics control office. Mr Pittaya said as the host of the meeting, he wanted officials to share information on drugs to improve future operations. He said narcotic drugs, especially methamphetamines, have continued to flow in from Burma as Rangoon has been unable to stop ethnic minority groups, particularly the Wa, from producing them. ``Thailand is now unhappy because Burma cannot control its ethnic minority groups,'' he said. Although Burma has claimed to have launched anti-drug campaigns over the past years, the operations have yet to show results, he said. Mr Pittaya called on the international community to pay more attention to the burgeoning drugs situation in Burma. Developed countries like the United States and Japan should provide full assistance to Burma to eradicate drugs, regardless of the political and human rights violations there. Mr Pittaya said without the international community's help for Burma, the chance to see Asia free from drugs by the end of 2005 was slim. He predicted the production of illicit drugs during the next five years was likely to increase. He said there has been no indication so far that there would be a decline in the methamphetamine output from Burma. The inflow of the speed pills this year was expected to reach 800 million tablets by the year-end, he said. Mr Pittaya also predicted an increase in opium cultivation in Thailand next year because of an increase in world demand for heroin. The opium output from highlands along the Thai Burmese border in Mae Hong Son, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai could be expected to feed refineries in Burma. Mr Pittaya said his office's latest survey showed that opium poppy cultivation would expand to 8,000 rai from this year's 7,800 rai. The crop, if allowed to be harvested, could yield up to 32 tonnes of heroin. Heroin from the Golden Triangle, the drug-producing northern area where Thailand, Laos and Burma meet, was gaining popularity among its users in the US, Canada, Fiji and Australia. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ BBC - Wednesday, 11
December, 2002, 11:37 GMT
Fighting Burma's drugs trade Burma's ruling generals and their Wa allies on the country's north eastern border have pledged big cuts in opium production, hoping to head off international criticism. Larry Jagan, the BBC's Burma analyst, reports. Bao Yuxiang, the notorious drug warlord and commander of the United Wa State Army, says he will dramatically cut production of opium poppy in areas under his control within the next 12 months. "I have promised to make the Wa areas drug-free by 2005 and I will," he told the BBC in a recent interview in his home-base of Pangshang, on the border with China. The Wa are one of the main poppy growers in Burma's Golden Triangle - situated in the north-west tip of the country bordering, China, Laos and Thailand. UN drug officials now estimate that most of the world's illicit heroin originates in this inhospitable and mountainous region. Profitable crop The Wa have been involved in the drugs trade for decades, largely because of the difficulty of growing any other cash crops, and lack of industry. Since 1989 the Wa have had a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese military junta. During much of that time opium production has sky-rocketed. But in the last few years poppy cultivation has declined dramatically, say UN drug control officials. Mr Bao, who along with his three brothers commands the 20,000-strong United Wa State Army (UWSA), says that over the past two years, the Wa have begun to resist the temptation to continue growing poppy. UN financial assistance has been used for crop substitution projects, including fruit trees and tea plantations, and to set up small-scale industries like tea production and slate manufacturing factories. "In some areas the Wa have reduced the amount of land under poppy cultivation by up to 80%," said an independent Australian researcher, Jeremy Milsome, who has just completed several months of detailed surveys in UWSA areas. "Last year, overall the UWSA managed an average reduction of poppy production of more than 30%," he said. Most independent assessments of opium production in the Wa areas also show a major reduction in the amount of poppy that is cultivated. Allegations continue But despite this, the Wa are still blamed by Thai army chiefs for millions of amphetamines that flood into Thailand every year, and by Western governments like the United States for most of the heroin on the streets of Europe and North America. These are allegations which Mr Bao vigorously denies. "It makes me fed up and angry... I'm tired of hearing it. It's nonsense," he said. But the allegations continue, and with the new growing season at its height, there is increasing international concern about the production of opium in Burma's Golden Triangle. The Burmese authorities are now insisting that poppy cultivation this season will be half as much as last year. "We hope to cut opium production by 50% in the current production year [2002-3]," said the head of Burma's drug suppression committee, police colonel Hkam Awng. "There will be a dramatic reduction in poppy cultivation in the coming year," the Burmese Foreign Minister Win Aung told the BBC. "You will see!" 'Too fast, too soon' But UN officials are worried about the possible impact of this planned rapid decrease in poppy cultivation. They fear that as a consequence, poor farmers who are dependant on growing the illicit drug will suffer. "A 50% reduction is revolutionary and we should be happy with that," said the head of the United Nations Drugs Control Programme in Rangoon, Jean-Luc Lemahieu. "But it's too fast, too soon. I don't see enough income coming in for the opium poppy farmers and I'm concerned that we'll have a humanitarian crisis on our hands as a result." UN officials fear that if there are no viable substitute cash crops or income generating schemes for the poor farmers, the result will be that they have no alternative but to return to poppy production the following year, as happened in Afghanistan. And while the Burmese authorities continue to insist they are doing all they can to reduce opium production, the reality is that amphetamine tablets, known as crazy medicine or ya baa, continue to flood across Burma's borders, especially into Thailand. Thai military officials are warning that Thailand is facing an invasion of more than a billion tablets next year - most of which will be produced in the Golden Triangle. "The precursor chemicals needed for the manufacture of amphetamines are not produced in Burma and are illegal here," Win Aung told the BBC. "They come from India, Thailand and China. More needs to be done to stop the smuggling of these chemicals across our borders." But as many experts point out, the only way to effectively combat drug trafficking is to suppress the demand for it as well as cut its production. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Asian Tribune
Date : 2002-12-11 Human Rights Violation is the Way of Life in Burma. By K.T.Rajasingham Bangkok, Dec.11: In Burma more than 50 percent of the budget allocation goes to meet the military expenses, which includes the purchase of sophisticated modern lethal weapons to kill those democratic minded, ordinary, innocent Burmese, who long for a change in the country. Dr. Sann Aung, Minister of the Prime Minister?s Office (East) of the National Coalition Government of Burma, made this critical observation yesterday, at a human rights panel discussion. Thai ? Burma Coordinating Committee conducted yesterday a panel discussion, - Burma: Human Rights Violations A Way of life, at the Student Christian Center, Bangkok, to celebrate the International Human Rights Day. One of the panelists, Dr. Sann Aung, when addressing said, The Burmese Army rulers is not allocating any funds for the Education of the Burmese children. Each year they allocate only just one percent of fund in the country?s budget for education, while they allocate more than 50 percent for Military, to buy sophisticated modern equipment used for the extermination of the innocent people.? He revealed that for the last so many years, more than 40 percent of the Burmese children are not attending to school as there is no facilities available to them for their education.? He added that another 30 percent go to school only to study in the primary sections, which is up to 4th standard. He said with a heavy heart, ?Today our children are purposely kept illiterate, which is a grave human crime. "In Burma daily all sorts of human rights violations are happening. In Burma, military is the main source for forced labor. Military always use the forced labor. Forced labor is used for the infrastructure development, such as for the construction of roads, dams and bridges,? Dr. Sann Aung explained.? The Minister in exile told that forced labor in the urban areas are lessening due to pressure exerted by our democratic movement through the international community, but it is used in the rural areas and in the border areas of Burma. Dr. Sann Aung lamented that more than 2 percent of the Burmese population are afflicted with HIV Aids. Unfortunately the military junta use to treat this terminal disease with laxity. In the year 2000, the Military Government of Burma allocated just US$ 50,000 for HIV aid prevention and cure in Burma. He added that rape is used as a tool by the Burmese army to terrorize and subjugate the populace. This year Shan women organization and Shan Human Rights group jointly did a wonderful job by collecting and indexing in the form of a report, ?Licence to Rape? the rape incidents in the Shan state. This report exposed the inhuman activities of the Burmese army internationally. Dr. Sann Aung added, ?It should not be presumed that rape is only happening in the Shan state. This menace is widespread and occurring all over Burma. Our mothers, sisters and daughters are today not safe in Burma and the inhuman Burmese army is frequently attacking them. "In the Mon area,? he described, ?there was a recent report, where a16 year girl was gang- raped in front of her family. Through rape the Army is terrorizing the ordinary women and children in the country.? He urged the international Community to pressurize the Burmese junta. He appealed to the international community to exert as much as pressure required to force the junta to the negotiation table with a view to bring about a change towards a democratic form of government. Jaran Dita-Phichai, Commissioner for the National Commission on human rights in Thailand also participated in the panel discussion. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |