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BURMA RELATED NEWS
- December 17, 2002.
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HEADLINES
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AFP - Myanmar junta leader arrives in
Bangladesh on maiden visit
AFP - Thai army kills five suspected
traffickers on Myanmar border
Reuters - Myanmar PM in Bangladesh
for trade, refugee talks
AP - Thai high court rules Myanmar
gas pipeline legal
IPS - U.N. 'Names and Shames'
Recruiters of Child Soldiers
Asian Tribune - Myanmar gets
low-calibre Indian artillery
Asian Tribune - Myanmar to follow Doi
Tung Royal Project
Bkk Post - OutLook - Fostering
ties with fellow Buddhists
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Myanmar junta leader arrives in Bangladesh on maiden visit DHAKA, Dec 17 (AFP) -Myanmar's leader Senior General Than Shwe arrived on his maiden visit to neighbouring Bangladesh as Dhaka pursues ties with South East Asian nations to boost its export market. A 21 gun-salute heralded the arrival of Than Shwe, Myanmar's military commander-in-chief, prime minister and defence minister, at Dhaka's colourfully decorated Zia International Airport where he was greeted by Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and cabinet members Tuesday. He reviewed an armed forces honour guard before driving to the nearby National Martyrs' Memorial, dedicated to those who died in Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence. Myanmar, formerly Burma, was among the first countries to recognise Bangladesh after it won independence from Pakistan in 1971. Than Shwe, whose planned trip last year was cancelled due to illness, is the first Myanmar junta leader to visit Bangladesh. In 1986 the then president Yu San Wu came to Dhaka. He is accompanied by a 38-member delegation on his two-day visit, including his wife Daw Kyaing Kyaing and two daughters. The delegation also includes Foreign Minister Win Aung, Commerce Minister Brigadier General Pyi Sone and Industry Minister Aung Thaung. Than Shwe is due to hold talks with Zia later Tuesday to discuss bilateral ties "particularly in the areas of trade, economic cooperation and road linkage between the two countries," a foreign ministry official said. He will also meet President Iajuddin Ahmed. The foreign ministry said the junta leader's trip was a "landmark" to provide impetus to strengthen relations between the two countries. The visit comes as Bangladesh is pursuing ties with South East Asian countries to boost its export market, and analysts here said the trip would be a "step forward" in achieving its goal. "Bangladesh's geopolitical location allows it to serve as a bridge between South Asia and Southeast Asia," Foreign Minister Morshed Khan said. Bangladesh is seeking to enter the Asian Regional Forum, the first step in becoming a dialogue partner of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), as part of its efforts to develop ties with its eastern neighbours who have made great economic strides. A road linking Dhaka with Yangon is also among Bangladesh's top priorities. Foreign affairs analysts said a road link between the two capitals would open wider links to ASEAN member countries. ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Current trade between Bangladesh and Mynamar is very small. Relations between the neighbours were strained in the early 1990s when around 250,000 Rohingya Muslims flooded into Bangladesh from Myanmar, claiming atrocities by the junta. Ties have improved since then, with the repatriation of most of the refugees under a United Nations agreement, but more than 20,000 still live in camps in Bangladesh. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thai army kills five suspected
traffickers on Myanmar border
BANGKOK, Dec 17 (AFP) - Five suspected drug traffickers have been killed in a fierce gunbattle with Thai soldiers near the Myanmar border that also netted a haul of weapons and cash, the army said Tuesday. A group of about 15 armed men engaged in a 10-minute firefight with Thai troops Sunday in Chiang Mai province, about six kilometres (four miles) from the frontier, the army said in a statement. Three AK-47 assault rifles, two hand grenades and 370,000 baht (8,500 dollars) in cash was left at the scene when the rest of the gunmen fled, it said, adding that they were believed to be from the Myanmar-allied ethnic Wa militia. Third Army Commander Major General Udomchai Ongkasing said the group was ferrying money earned in the drugs trade. "They were armed drug traffickers who were carrying money back to their base because they don't want to deposit it in Thai banks any more," he said, adding that the government had been confiscating suspect cash. Since October there have been four clashes between Thai troops and drugs traffickers which have left 10 gunmen dead and 15 arrested. The Thais accuse the United Wa State Army, a group which has signed a ceasefire deal with Myanmar's military government, of controlling the trade in opium and methamphetamines. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Myanmar PM in Bangladesh for trade,
refugee talks
Tue Dec 17, 2:06 AM
ET
DHAKA, Dec. 17 (Reuters)? Myanmar Prime Minister Than Shwe became the first leader of his country to visit neighbouring Bangladesh on Tuesday when he arrived for talks likely to cover trade and Muslim refugees. Bangladeshi Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia greeted Than Shwe at Dhaka airport when he flew in for a two-day visit. As well as trade and economic cooperation, the leaders are likely to discuss the repatriation of thousands of Myanmar Muslim refugees in Bangladesh, officials said without giving details. Several hundred thousand Muslims from the west of mostly Buddhist Myanmar fled to predominantly Muslim Bangladesh in 1992, alleging persecution by the Myanmar military. Most have gone home but about 21,000 are still in Bangladeshi camps. Bangladesh says their delay in going back is because of ''foot-dragging'' by Myanmar authorities. Bangladesh officially imports goods from Myanmar worth nearly $20 million a year and exports items worth $5 million but much more unofficial trade goes on between the two countries, business officials said. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thai high court rules Myanmar
gas pipeline legal
Tue Dec 17, 3:24 AM ET BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Dismissing objections from social and environmental activists, Thailand's Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday that construction of a gas pipeline from Myanmar to Thailand was legal. Prominent social critic Sulak Sivaraksa had petitioned the court to rule the pipeline illegal, arguing that it violated the Thai constitution by damaging the environment and private property. The 238-kilometer (148-mile) pipeline was built between 1996 and 1998. It carries natural gas from Myanmar across the border to an electrical power plant in Thailand's Ratchaburi province, 95 kilometers (60 miles) west of Bangkok. The plant has been operating since Oct. 2000. The court ruled by a vote of 12 to 1 that the state-controlled Petroleum Authority of Thailand, or PTT, did not violate the law by building the pipeline. Two judges who had originally voted not to accept Sulak's petition did not vote. "The majority of judges ruled that PTT has the legal right to lay the pipeline through the jungles and cut down trees if necessary. It is not against the constitution. But if the agency caused damage to public or private property, PTT will have to pay compensation," Judge Jul Adirek said at a news conference. Thai environmentalists say the pipeline's construction damaged rain forests and displaced wildlife. Social and political activists charge that the project profits fund Myanmar's military regime, which has a poor human rights record and refuses to hand over power to a democratically elected government. They also charge that Myanmar's military junta used forced labor to build pipeline infrastructure on its side of the border. A U.S. federal appeals court in September reinstated a lawsuit on behalf of Myanmar farmers, alleging that Unocal Corp. ? part of the consortium that built the pipeline ? was legally responsible for the alleged human rights violations. The allegations against the El Segundo, California-based Unocal include complicity in slavery, murder and rape, which the farmers say were carried out by the Southeast Asian nation's military. The military provided the company with security and other help in the pipeline venture with the Myanmar government. Unocal has repeatedly denied the accusation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITICS: U.N. 'Names and
Shames' Recruiters of Child Soldiers
1 hour, 24 minutes ago Thalif Deen,Inter Press Service UNITED NATIONS, Dec 16 (IPS) - The United Nations is for the first time ''naming and shaming'' governments and armed groups that continue to deploy child soldiers in violation of international agreements. In a 14-page report to the U.N. Security Council, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has identified 23 insurgent groups and five member states - Afghanistan, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Somalia - that still recruit or use children as soldiers. ''This report breaks new ground,'' U.N. Under-Secretary-General Olara Otunnu told reporters Monday. Otunnu, U.N. special representative for children and armed conflict, said that ''for the first time in an official report to the Security Council, those who violate standards for the protection of war-affected children have been specifically named and listed''. The 23 armed groups listed include Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), the Juba Valley Alliance and Rahanwein Resistance Army in Somalia, Mai-Mai and the Union des Patriotes Congolais in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Front pour la defense de la democratie of Burundi and several factions associated with the former Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. Last year, the Security Council asked Annan to submit a report on child soldiers - specifically naming governments and insurgent groups - involved in conflicts currently on its agenda. In requesting the list, Otunnu said, the Council sent a message that those who violate children's rights during conflicts cannot continue to do so with impunity and that they will be held accountable for their actions. ''It is a bold step forward in global efforts to render unacceptable the exploitation and victimization of children during times of conflict,'' he added. The study also lists several countries whose conflicts are not on the Security Council agenda but where armed groups continue to use child soldiers. These include some of the world's worst offenders - Colombia and Myanmar - along with Nepal, the Philippines, Sudan, Uganda and Sri Lanka. The study also singles out Angola, Kosovo, Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau as nations where demobilization of child soldiers is under way. The London-based 'Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers' reacted positively to the report. ''We see this report as a solid foundation for acting to end this shameful practice. Now that the names of some governments and armed groups abusing children are public, the challenge to the Security Council is to demand accountability and take action to stop children being used as soldiers,'' Coalition Coordinator Casey Kelso told IPS. The coalition, which includes Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Defense for Children International, the Quaker United Nations Office and the International Save the Children Alliance, has also urged the 15-member Council to make field visits ''to the gravest situations threatening children''. In a 195-page study released last month, the Coalition listed 72 parties to armed conflicts that continue to use children in war and more than 25 others that have recruited children in the past. The study described Myanmar (formerly Burma) as the world's largest single user of child soldiers, estimated at more than 70,000. ''Children as young as 11 are forcibly recruited into Myanmar's national army,'' said Kelso. Ranking behind Myanmar is Colombia, which is estimated to have 6,000 to 14,000 child soldiers. Boys and girls as young as eight years old there are recruited into armed groups, para-militaries and militias. In Sri Lanka, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which has been battling a separatist war in the north-east of that country, ''has a long record of using child soldiers as well as a record of breaking commitments to end their recruitment and use'', the coalition said. Kelso said he hopes that when the Security Council discusses the report in January next year it will also focus on child soldiers in conflicts that are not on its agenda. Jo Becker of Human Rights Watch said her organization has documented large-scale forced recruitment of children by Burma's national army, and believes the country may have the largest number of child soldiers in the world. In northern Uganda, she pointed out, the abduction of children for use as soldiers by the Lord's Resistance Army has increased dramatically in recent months. At least 10,000 children have been abducted over the last 15 years. ''We urge the Security Council to actively monitor the countries named on the Secretary-General's list, and to demand progress or suffer possible sanctions,'' Becker added. ''The Security Council should also expand its scrutiny to include all countries where children are being recruited or used in violation of international law.'' The 1990 U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) set the legal minimum age for recruitment at 15. But an 'Optional Protocol' to the CRC, which came into force in February this year, outlaws the involvement of children under 18 in any hostilities and sets strict standards for the recruitment of those under 18. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Asian Tribune
Date : 2002-12-17 Myanmar gets low-calibre Indian artillery New Delhi: In line with its new policy of doing business with the military junta in Myanmar, India has begun shipping low-calibre artillery pieces, ammunition and pyrotechnic signalling devices to Yangon. The first consignment of these artillery pieces, drawn from ordnance stores at Jabalpur and Panagarh, was shipped last month. The Army's Eastern Command will also be sending the second consignment, comprising ammunition for the artillery, mortar pieces and signal hardware. Once the shipment is completed, an Army delegation will travel to Myanmar to familiarise their counterparts with the equipment. The cargo for Yangon includes: * 40,000 rounds of high-explosive (HE) ammunition for the 75/24 mm howitzer * 5000 rounds of smoke ammunition for the 120-mm mortar and 20,000 rounds of HE mortar ammunition * 25,000 rounds for the 40 mm L-70 AD gun * Pyrotechnic signalling devices, 25,000 rounds each of red, green and white * 5000 rounds for the Carl Gustav rocket launchers The military export follows the visit to India in February this year by Maj Gen Thura Shwe Mann of the SPDC - the junta functions as the State Peace and Development Council - which evinced interest in Indian ordnance equipment. Sources at Army headquarters said the Myanmarese fancied the 105-mm artillery gun but the request was turned down. Artillery pieces of lower calibre were instead shipped across with the promise to "familiarise and train" them. In February 2001, India signalled the start of a new phase in relations with its eastern neighbour when the then External Affairs Minister, Jaswant Singh, flew to Myanmar to open the strategic Kalay-Kalewa-Kyigon-Tamu road constructed by the Indian Border Roads Organisation. This stretch will form part of the designated Asian Highway from Singapore to Istanbul. New Delhi considers Yangon as the gateway to the ASEAN though it is aware of the growing Chinese influence in Myanmar. India is also discussing measures to check North-East insurgents operating out of bases in Myanmar. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Asian Tribune
Date : 2002-12-17 Myanmar to follow Doi Tung Royal Project Bangkok, Dec 16 (TNA): Myanmar will use a royal project on the development of Doi Tung as an example for addressing its narcotic problem, according to a T.V. news report. Kitti Limchaikij, Secretary-General of the Office of the Narcotic Control Board (ONCB), told reporters on Monday that Rangoon had been interested in the Doi Tung Royal Project in the northen province of Chiang Mai, which has successfully substituted opium plantations to those of economic crops, and would follow the royal project to address the drugs problem in its country, said the news report of Modernine T.V. (T.V. Channel 9). Kitti led a Myanmar delegation, led by Myanmar police chief to visit the Doi Tung Royal Project. The Myanmar police chief also heads the Myanmar central committee on narcotic control, according to the T.V. news report. "Myanmar will follow the Doi Tung Royal Project to turn its Yong Kha area, about two kilometres from the Thai border, to become plantations of economic crops to address the drugs problem in the country", Kitti was quoted by the Modernine T.V. as saying. Ban Yong Kha has about 20,000 population, most of whom are red wa. Kitti said that Myanmar and Thailand had also agreed to coordinate and cooperate more closely in tackling the drugs problem. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bangkok Post -
Tuesday 17 December 2002
OutLook - Fostering ties with fellow Buddhists Thai dignitaries participate in `kathin' ceremony in Rangoon Story by HEAMAKARN SRICHARATCHANYA The solemn chanting of Namo Tassa evoked the feeling that one was attending a religious ceremony at a temple somewhere in Thailand. But the person intoning the prayer was clad in a white shirt over a sarong; it wasn't a Thai-style sarong and he obviously wasn't a Thai monk. The man was taking the lead in one of the more important religious events of the year in Burma _ a ceremony to offer royal kathin robes bestowed by His Majesty the King. It took place last month at the Mahavisuddhayon Shwekyin (Great and Pure Dhamma) Monastery in Bahan township, Rangoon. Established in 1958 with donations from the Sein family, the monastery is currently home to 300 monks and 50 novices. The ceremony has been held every year since 1995 to strengthen the bond between neighbours which share the same belief in Theravada Buddhism. Our government is of the view that the promotion of religious and cultural ties between Burma and Thailand will further strengthen the bilateral relationship, particularly on a people-to-people basis. The Burmese authorities recommend to which temple the royal kathin robes should go. ``From the monasteries in Yangon [Rangoon] and Mandalay divisions, we picked this one since its abbot is one of only six monks still alive who know the sacred Tipitakadhara off by heart,'' said Sann Lwin, 58, director-general of Burma's Department of Religious Promotion and Propagation. The examination for the Tipitakadhara is the highest and most difficult of those held by Burma's Ministry of Religious Affairs. ``Last year, we selected the monastery whose abbot was the first to pass the qualifying exam. Now it's the turn of this monastery; its abbot, Sayadaw Sirindabhivamsa, is the second living monk to pass.'' Other factors in making the decision, according to Sann Lwin, were that the monks here are renowned for their strict observance of the Vinaya, the Buddhist canon, and that their temple is recognised as a Pali monastic university. Participating in the approximately three-hour ceremony were key figures from both countries. The permanent secretary of Thailand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tej Bunnag, presented the robes to Burma's minister of religious affairs who in turn offered them to the monks. Other guests included Thai ambassadors and their families, members of the Thailand-Myanmar Cultural and Economic Cooperation Association and officials from Burma's Ministry of Religious Affairs. Also in attendance were Burma's Supreme Patriarch and his deputy, temple abbot Sayadaw Sirindabhivamsa, senior monks and novices. All in all some 150 individuals took part. Apart from the robes themselves, other objects presented to the monastery included a shoulder bag, ceremonial fan and alms bowl embroidered with HM the King's insignia plus daily necessities including medicine, an electric saw, food containers and glassware. The principal Buddha image at Maha-visuddhayon Shwekyin Monastery is made from pearly white alabaster and dressed in golden robes. Alabaster is widely used in Burma for carving Buddha statues. In addition to the robes and other accessories, Tej Bunnag also presented to the monastery 10,000 baht in cash from His Majesty and US$4,651 (199,993 baht) from the Thai government. The ceremony ended with guests giving alms to all the monks and novices present. The last monk in line was not the youngest novice, but the abbot himself. Barefooted, he opened his alms bowl to receive an offering, allowing the donor to make merit that hopefully will tighten the bonds between our two countries. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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