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BURMA RELATED NEWS
- December 22, 2002.
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HEADLINES
------------------------------------------------------------------------ AP - Report: Foreign workers to be
'eyes and ears' of Singapore police
AP - Japan to offer new debt relief
to Myanmar
AFP - Myanmar inks deal
with Thai firm on massive hydro-electric dam
AFP - Myanmar AIDS sufferers escape
sorry plight in their homeland
Asian Tribune - Burmese opposition
groups to brace critical period shortly.
Asian Tribune - Sermon atop fire
engine by Suu Kyi to the local junta authorities.
Asian Tribune - Ne Win relatives
continue to languish in Insein jail, as courts keep them waiting
Asian Tribune - Myanmar: Trade ties
Expanded with China
Hoover's Online - Burmese
energy minister inspects Nyaungdon oil, gas field
NYT -
'From the Land of Green Ghosts': Escape From Myanmar
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Report: Foreign workers to be 'eyes and ears' of Singapore police Sun Dec 22, 2:31 AM ET SINGAPORE (AP) - "Cleaning up" has taken on a new meaning for Singapore's foreign maids and street cleaners, who have been called upon to help police fight crime, a news report said Sunday. Twenty-five maids and street sweepers have been trained to act as "eyes and ears" of the police and spot "suspicious characters," The Straits Times newspaper said, quoting officials. "They have been told who they should call when they spot these suspicious characters. They have been told not to confront them or try to arrest them on their own," the paper quoted police Deputy Superintendent Mohamed Redhza as saying. "They can act as the eyes and ears of the police as they carry out their daily chores and work in our neighborhood," legislator Ong Chit Chung was quoted as saying in the report. Police could not immediately be reached for comment on the report Sunday. The initiative has begun in one Singapore suburb and is expected to soon cover the rest of the tightly controlled city-state. This affluent nation of 4 million people employs about 140,000 foreign maids, most from the Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand. Foreign workers also fill many of the low-paying positions in other industries such as construction, manufacturing and food-preparation ? jobs shunned by many Singaporeans. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Japan to offer new debt relief
to Myanmar
Sat Dec 22, 20:43 PM ET TOKYO (AP) _ Japan will forgive 150 billion yen (US$1.25 billion) in loans to Myanmar, relieving about a third of the debt owed to it by the improverished Southeast Asian country, a Japanese newspaper reported Sunday. Tokyo was set to announce the decision at a bilateral meeting on economic support Sunday, the nationally circulated Asahi Shimbun said. The step was being taken as part of the government's policy of extending relief to heavily indebted countries, according to the report. Officials at Japan's Foreign Ministry could not immediately be reached for comment Sunday. Japan is the largest donor of aid to Myanmar, the country formerly known as Burma. It halted new loans following a military takeover in Sept. 1988 but says it is providing development aid on a case-by-case basis as it monitors progress by the junta on human rights and democratization. Myanmar owed Japan more than 400 billion yen (US$3.32 billion) when it suspended its loan program. Since then, the Japanese government has occasionally extended debt-relief grants, including one for more than 1.8 billion yen (US$14.9 million) in Nov. 2001. Myanmar's military government has been harshly criticized by human rights groups and Western countries for its refusal to hand over power to the pro-democracy party led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi after it won general elections in 1990. Distressed with the junta's poor human rights record, the United States and the European Union have imposed economic sanctions against Myanmar. Japan broke ranks with Western-led sanctions against Myanmar last year when it announced plans to give it a US$28 million aid package for a dam project. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Myanmar inks deal with Thai
firm on massive hydro-electric dam
YANGON, Dec 22 (AFP) - Myanmar's military government said it has signed a deal with a Thai company to build a massive hydro-electric dam in southern Shan state, which will help ease the nation's chronic energy shortage. The Ministry of Electric Power and the MDX Group of Companies inked an agreement on the construction of the Tasang power plant on the Than Lwin river on Friday, it said in a statement released on the weekend. "Electricity generated from the plant is to be sold to Thailand and the South-East Asian region. Power will be supplied for local use in accord with the ratio of shares held by Myanmar," it said. The semi-official Myanmar Times quoted MDX Group managing director Swarng Champa as saying that, with a capacity of 4,600 megawatts, the dam will be the biggest of its kind in Southeast Asia. MDX Group will finance the project through its own resources and loans raised in Thailand, he told the weekly newspaper in its edition to be published Monday. Swarng said it will be a build, operate and transfer project, which will eventually be turned over to government ownership, although details on the transfer and the sale of electricity to Thailand are yet to be finalised. A preliminary study carried out three years ago had resulted in plans for a dam 800 metres (875 yards) long and about 220 metres (240 yards) high, he said. The first phase of the project, due to be completed in 2007, involves the installation of a 200 megawatt turbine to provide power for construction purposes and to supply nearby communities. The second phase covers the installation of another three turbines capable of generating 2100 megawatts. In the third phase another three 700 megawatt turbines will be installed and the 200 megawatt turbine upgraded to 400 megawatts. Swarng said the first phase would require an investment of about 400 million dollars, and the Myanmar Times estimated the total cost of the project at four billion dollars. Yangon's population experiences almost daily blackouts, while supply to the rest of the impoverished country is also unreliable. The military government admitted in September that electricity supply currently available to the entire country is now less than 560 megawatts, well below demand of 800 megawatts. Three power plants currently under construction are due to be completed and provide an added 475 megawatts by the year 2003, it said. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Myanmar AIDS sufferers escape
sorry plight in their homeland
CHIANG MAI, Thailand, Dec 22 (AFP) - Shunned and mistreated by a government which would prefer to pretend they didn't exist, HIV-AIDS sufferers from military-ruled Myanmar who make their way into Thailand say they escaped a sorry plight in their home country. Ko Lwin Moe, an 37-year-old trader who was diagnosed with the disease two years ago, says he spent a year being treated at a private clinic in the capital in Yangon before fleeing to Thailand. "I would be dead already if I continued to live in Myanmar," he told AFP. "The Thai doctors simply treat me as a patient, which makes me very happy. But in Yangon the Myanmar medical staff treated me like I was a criminal." After grilling him for details of his financial background to ensure he could pay for treatment, the Myanmar doctors only gave him antibiotics, and at one point told him "You're going to die some time anyway." "I was lucky that I had enough money and the opportunity to leave for Thailand for further treatment," said Ko Lwin Moe, who earns his living importing Thai goods into Myanmar. The United Nations agency UNAIDS estimates that up to 400,000 people among a population of 48 million are infected with HIV, while independent experts working in Yangon say the incidence could be twice as high. However, Myanmar's junta insists that infections are a fraction of those estimated by organisations like the UN, and that a culture of abstinence before marriage and fidelity afterwards will prevent the virus from spreading. The health ministry also rejects World Health Organisation reports condemning health services as among the worst in the world as merely attempts by "reactionary elements" to smear the country's reputation. "The cultural and social values of Myanmar society are found to have a protective effect to a greater extent than in many population groups," junta number-three General Khin Nyunt said in his World AIDS Day speech this month. The government's view, and a lack of accurate information about the disease and how it is spread and treated, has helped create an unhealthy attitude towards HIV-AIDS sufferers in the general community, citizens say. Government health campaigns urge people to "respect family values" and "stay faithful to your spouse" but never mention condoms or the need for drug addicts to use clean syringes. And those who develop the tell-tale signs of the disease -- skin lesions and wasting -- are shunned and left to sink into depression. "In our society, people are labelling those who are HIV positive as the bad guys," said young Myanmar businessman Tun Aung who has several friends living with the disease. "As far as I know there are only a handful of clinics for AIDS patients, which are founded by missionaries and NGOs (non-governmental agencies)," he said, adding that government hospitals do not provide specialised care. Medicine is expensive and usually only available on the black market, he said. Patients can spend between 70 and 300 dollars a month on drugs -- an enormous amount in a country where a teacher's salary is less than 10 dollars. Khin Sein, secretary general of the Burma Medical Group, a health organisation based on the Thai-Myanmar border, said that for the country's sake the government should focus on public health rather issues than politics when dealing with the AIDS crisis. "We are living in a poor country where people can not effort to buy the latest medicines," said Khin Sein, who works as a volunteer at an AIDS clinic in the Thai border town of Mae Sot. "So the only and most effective way to deal with the situation is to provide knowledge about this dreadful disease to the public and teach them how to prevent being infected." Khin Sein said that often, HIV suffers were forced to rely on treatment and advice from pharmacies and unlicensed practitioners in small towns, and then die quickly from opportunistic infections. Others resort to traditional medicines, advertised widely with the consent of the military government despite their dubious efficacy, or from black magic practitioners, while some leave everyday life and enter the monkhood. "I don't understand why the government is so slow to produce the true figures of people who are infected with the virus. We need help and assistance urgently from the outside world," said Ko Lwin Moe "As far as I know people are dying everyday with AIDS." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Asian Tribune
Date : 2002-12-22 Burmese opposition groups to brace critical period shortly. Bangkok Dec. 22: The Democratic forces that are outside Burma and are in Sanglaburi, in Thailand are bracing for a harder time in the near future. All those offices of Burmese various organizations are asked to shut down and the persons connected with such office to leave forthwith. According to information received in Bangkok, on 20 December, in Sanglaburi, soldiers led by the Commander of ninth army went to the offices of the Burmese oppositions, including People's Defence Force (PDF), All Burma Student's Democratic Front (ABSDF), Democratic Party for a New Society (DPNS), Myeik Dawei United Front (MDUF), New Mon State Party (NMSP), Mon Youth Progressive Organization (MYPO) and People's Progressive Front (PPF), and were instructed to move out within two days. When the concerned parties said that it was impossible for them to move out with such short notice, then the Army Commander ordered that all should move out by the end of this year, not only the offices but also the people too must move out. The time frame issued was not the same to the all offices but it varied. The National League for Democracy (Liberated Area) ? NLD (LA) office is asked to move, both office and people within three days. The commander said after three days if anybody remains, the remaining person will be arrested and sent to the jail. It is feared that the situation for the Burmese democratic forces is becoming more critical these days. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Asian Tribune
Date :
2002-12-21
Sermon atop fire engine by Suu Kyi to the local junta authorities. Bangkok, Dec.21: Aung San Suu Kyi declared atop a fir engine, â??I am here in the name of democracy which puts the people ahead of everything else. Our first priority is to serve and support the people ? the police as well as other officials have the same responsibility. I cannot standby and watch my people being bullied by this mannerâ?? It was the most serious case of interference since Aung San Suu Kyi began traveling around Burma after being released from house arrest with promises of complete freedom of movement by the ruling junta. Myanmar's opposition said on Thursday the ruling military tried in vain to stop a crowd of 20,000 people flocking to a rally by Aung San Suu Kyi, reflecting growing political tension in the impoverished nation. U Lwin, Secretary of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), told Suu Kyi had arranged to open an NLD Party office and make a speech to locals on Wednesday in Mrauk Oo town, 400 miles (640km) northwest of Yangon. They found the town almost deserted. â??It was later learned that the people had been ordered not to go out, he said. "But just before (the NLD leaders) left the town, about 20,000 people turned up. Policemen tried to prevent them but they could not stop the people from coming near her." National League for Democracy (NLD) spokesman UL Win said the Nobel Peace laureate climbed on the top of a fire engine to prevent it from dispersing a crowd of 20,000 people with high-pressure hoses in Burma west. "I cannot standby and watch people being bullied in this mannerâ?? he cited her as telling local authorities in Myauk-Oo, an ancient town in Rakhine state which she is touring in a test of her newly won freedom to travel the country. "I am here in the name of democracy which puts the people ahead of everything else. Our first priority is to serve and support the people ? the police as well as other officials have the same responsibility,â?? she said. It was the most serious case of interference since Aung San Suu Kyi began traveling around Burma after being released from house arrest with promises of complete freedom of movement by the ruling junta. U Lwin said that as Suu Kyi left for the state capital of Sitwe early on Thursday she found a huge crowd of townspeople who had gathered to meet her but were being held back on the roadside by baton wielding junta policemen. Overwhelmed by the crowd, the local authorities summoned a fire engine so they could disperse with water hoses, he said. "Seeing this incident unfolding right in front of her eyes, Suu Kyi left her car, made her way right atop the fire engine and requested local authorities to desist,â?? told U Lwin. In the face of her outburst the local authorities backed off and she thanked them for their cooperation before asking the crowd to return home quietly which they did said the NLD spokesman. Along the route to Sitwe, security was very tight with group of more than 30 police manning strategic crossroads in a bid to deter public from gathering to meet the pro-democracy leader he said. "We have informed the central authorities of what transpired and they promised to look into the matter,â?? he said. â??This is the first time people have been prevented from seeing Aung San Suu Kyi.â?? Burmaâ??s junta, it is observed is always careful to prevent large gathering of people, for fear it could erupt into a spontaneous show of support for the democracy movement. However, there were no reports of violence and the police attempts appeared to have been restricted to pushing back the opposition supporters. But it was one of the most serious signs of tension between the military and the NLD since UN brokered talks between the two sides started two years ago. Those talks have so far made little progress. Suu Kyi, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, has been touring Rakhine state to drum up support for her pro-democracy cause. It was her fifth trip to provincial Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, since being released from 19 months of house arrest in May. Her first few trips met no opposition from the authorities but a visit last month to Shan State in northeast Myanmar led to several reports of minor harassment by army and police, who appeared to be angered by the huge crowds she attracted. Suu Kyi's Party won elections in 1990 by a landslide but has never been allowed to govern. The military, who have ruled for most of the last 40 years, say they want some form of democracy eventually but that the country is not yet ready for change. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Asian Tribune
Date : 2002-12-22 Ne Win relatives continue to languish in Insein jail, as courts keep them waiting Yangon, Dec.21: The fate of four relatives of former Burmese strongman Ne Win, who were sentenced to death for plotting a coup, continues to hang in the balance with their patriarch. The son-in-law and three grandsons of former dictator were sentenced to death by hanging in September, after being arrested in March on charges of attempting to involve sections of the army in their plan to seize power. On November 12, Burmaç?´ Supreme Court heard their appeal, and said it would hand down a verdict within three weeks. But on December 5 Ne Win died at his Rangoon home where he had been held under house arrest since March along with his favored daughter Sandar Win. Since then diplomats and the media have been scouring the courtç?´ daily lists for an indication that the appeal verdict is to be released. " This is not an ordinary case so they will want to take more time over it,ã?»a court official said. Although some analysts believed Ne Winç?´ death would give the government a free hand to take action against the four, other said they would want to tread more carefully to prevent antagonizing sections of the army loyal to him. Family sources say the four relatives languishing in separate cells in Rangoonç?´ infamous Insein jail have not been informed of the death of the å¾¹ld Manã?» who ruled Burma with an iron fist for 26 years until 1988. Sandar Win remains under house arrest at the family compound and has not been allowed to receive visitors, but it is unclear whether the ruling junta will take legal action against her, as it has hinted it could do. (Agencies) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Asian Tribune Date : 2002-12-22 Myanmar: Trade ties Expanded with China The bilateral trade between China and Myanmar has kept growing this year, and China has become the third largest trade partner of Myanmar, after Singapore and Thailand, according to the statistics of Myanmar. During the first ten months of this year, the bilateral trade volume amounted US$499 million, registering 3.1 percent year-on-year growth, said sources with the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC). China's export to Myanmar from January to October this year reached US$385 million, up 1.9 percent; and the import reached US$113 million, up 6.7 percent. The major products China exported to Myanmar include electrical and mechanical goods, textile and hi-tech products. With the progressing of the friendly relations between China and Myanmar, China has signed as increasing number of contracts for projects in Myanmar. In the first ten months of 2001, Chinese companies signed 87 project deals, totaling US$186 million. (Agencies) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hoover's
Online
Burmese energy minister inspects Nyaungdon oil, gas field December 21, 2002 5:44am Minister for Energy Brig-Gen Lun Thi, in the company of other officials, inspected the Nyaungdon oil and natural gas field in Nyaungdon region, Irrawaddy Division, yesterday afternoon. At the Nyaungdon oil and natural gas field briefing hall, Managing Director U Sann Lwin of Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise explained the drilling and production at Well No 14, prospects of the field, geological conditions around Nyaungdon area, and the plans to expand oil and natural gas production... Well No 14 has a daily production rate of 6.19m cubic-feet of natural gas and 69 barrels of condensate. Overall daily production from the 14 wells in the Nyaungdon field is 61.12m cubic-feet of natural gas and 1,071 barrels of condensate. The natural gas produced from the field is pumped to power generating gas turbines in Yangon [Rangoon] via the Nyaungdon-Yangon natural gas pipeline. Source: TV Myanmar, Rangoon, in Burmese 1330 gmt 19 Dec 02 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The New York Times
'From the Land of Green Ghosts': Escape From Myanmar By BARBARA CROSSETTE December 22, 2002 In the last four decades of the 20th century, a succession of small-minded generals almost succeeded in ''disappearing'' a whole country: Burma. Sealed off from the outside world by the dictator Ne Win in the 1960's, one of the most promising nations in postcolonial Southeast Asia was then further crippled by his crackpot ideology, the Burmese Way to Socialism. Next came Slorc, the State Law and Order Restoration Council, which rewrote the maps, naming the devastated country Myanmar, a change never recognized by Burmese democrats and their leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Now it is the turn of a renovated junta, the State Peace and Development Council, which has put on a more accommodating face. Aung San Suu Kyi has been freed from house arrest, and tourists are being lured back to a mystical land of intense beauty where a gentle Theravada Buddhism infuses every corner of life. Visitors luxuriate in classy hotels and glide along the Irrawaddy in gleaming cruise boats. But is life for the Burmese any better or freer? Pascal Khoo Thwe, a Burmese writer of uncommon elegance and sensitivity, makes his debut at this critical moment with a powerful portrait of a suffering nation, a portrait that also serves as a caution to outsiders not to be fooled by the military's hastily reconstructed public image. ''From the Land of Green Ghosts'' is a book built around one young man's improbable escape to the West from the isolated land of his tribal forebears, the Padaung, who even in their remote mountains were not beyond the reach of the generals in the capital. Forced conscription, slave labor, arrest or death were what Khoo Thwe and his fellow students could look forward to at home. His flight from military repression took place more than a decade ago, but the outrages of corrupt military rule and its atrocities go on, attested to in reports this year from the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and Human Rights Watch, which says in its survey, ''My Gun Was as Tall as Me: Child Soldiers in Burma,'' that the Burmese army has doubled in size since 1988 and as many as one-fifth of its troops may be young boys. One one level, Khoo Thwe's story is a gripping adventure, but there is much more to it than a tension-filled account of combating government forces and then fleeing on a terrifying, debilitating trek through inhospitable mountains and jungles to the border with Thailand. The misty hills of the author's homeland -- one of several non-Burman ethnic regions of the country, where rebellions have simmered for decades -- are vividly described, along with the local people. His ancestral town, Phekhon, was watered by shimmering mountain lakes, and the earth was bountiful. Mythic imagery was all around, and his was a magical childhood. ''I was brought up not only among my ancestors, but among ghosts and fairies as well,'' writes Khoo Thwe, a third-generation Roman Catholic thanks to an Italian priest who pinned his grandfather in a wrestling match provoked by an argument over the power of God. His Padaung people accepted all religions, while taking special care not to offend the 37 potentially troublesome local nature spirits known as Nats. ''From the Calvary Hill, we had a panoramic view of the whole town and its mix of faith and tribes,'' Khoo Thwe writes. ''There were the Christian quarters with the church spire, the convent, the boarding school to the immediate east and the market by the lake. To the north of the market were the Shan and Intha Buddhists with their monasteries, wooden houses with thatched roofs and paddy fields.'' Khoo Thwe's deep sense of ancestral identity carried him through his tumultuous student days in Mandalay, where he studied English literature and fell in love with a young Burman woman who was a dissident. But his hope for a future life with her was shattered when she was hunted down and killed by the military. If Mandalay taught Khoo Thwe about personal sorrow and the horror of military excesses, it also provided him, by an improbable fluke, with a way out of the prison Burma had become. In the winter of 1988, while he was working in a Chinese restaurant because he was out of money, Khoo Thwe made the acquaintance of a Cambridge professor, John Casey, who had heard in Bangkok about a waiter in Mandalay who loved James Joyce. Arming himself with the names of the two best Chinese restaurants in town, Casey set out to find the young scholar. More than a year later, after Khoo Thwe wrote to him from a refugee camp on the Thai border, pleading for help, Casey found him again and got him out of Southeast Asia, thanks to a scholarship from Cambridge. Shortly after his arrival in England, Khoo Thwe stumbled on a bizarre connection with this strange new land. A couple with an art gallery in the coastal town of Aldeburgh had been told by Casey that Khoo Thwe's Padaung people were known for their ''giraffe women,'' whose necks were elongated by stacks of large metal rings. Khoo Thwe's grandmothers had toured England in a circus in the late 1930's. By chance, the gallery had saved a poster for an exhibition by a sculptor of works devoted to such circus ''freaks.'' The polished brass statue on the poster was of one of those grandmothers. Khoo Thwe did not find his adjustment to life in the West easy. Haunted by the pain of being separated from his family and not knowing the fate of many of his Burmese friends, he plunged into a demanding academic environment very much alone, despite Casey's help. His ultimate success at Cambridge was all the more remarkable, given his homesickness and his ambivalence about life in a place where the warmth of Asian tradition and the comradeship he had known in his youth were missing. ''Individualism was forced upon you,'' he writes. ''I told myself that I was lost, definitely lost, in the modern world.'' Now in his mid-30's and living in London, Khoo Thwe supports the Burmese democracy movement from afar and seems uninterested in putting down roots in Europe. Powerful memories of his homeland still intrude. ''Nearly every night I dream of Shan State, of Phekhon, of Mandalay, of the jungle,'' he writes. Sometimes the dreams confuse old landscapes with new. ''But something never changes,'' he says. ''The pictures are always blurred by mists.'' Barbara Crossette is the author, most recently, of ''The Great Hill Stations of Asia.' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |