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BURMA RELATED NEWS
- January 08, 2003.
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HEADLINES
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AFP - China lends Myanmar 200 million
dollars
AP - Authorities in four countries
freeze US$11 million assets of convicted Thai drug trafficker
PD -Jiang Holds Talks with Myanmar
Head of State
Bkk Post - Military denies forcing
Karen to Burma
Oneworld - Thai Authorities Pushed
Karen Villagers into Burma
Bkk Post - Smugglers of alien workers
`will feel heat'
Bkk Post - Rangoon refuses to lift
ban
The Nation - Army 'pushed 11 Karen'
into Burma
The Nation - IN BRIEF: PM plans
Rangoon trip
GuamPDN - Determined
woman leads people of Burma in hope for democracy -------------------------------------------------------------------- China lends Myanmar 200
million dollars
BEIJING, Jan 8 (AFP) - China said it will give Myanmar 200 million US dollars in preferential loans for economic development as the junta's leader met vice-president Hu Jintao Wednesday. Senior General Than Shwe, chairman of Myanmar's State Peace and Development Council, is on his second trip to China and vowed closer ties with his neighbour. "We place great importance upon developing good relations with China," he said after meeting Hu. State press said the loans were offered to deepen bilateral economic cooperation. On Tuesday the two sides signed six bilateral agreements on health, sport and trade. President Jiang Zemin said the two sides should continue to cooperate on regional and international issues, and within the framework of multilateral mechanisms such as the United Nations and the ASEAN Regional Forum. Sino-Myanmar relations have generally been strong, except for a brief period during the 1960s when the Cultural Revolution swept across China and spilled over the border into Myanmar. Analysts say China has boosted its influence in Myanmar in a bid to secure strategic access to the Andaman Sea, where it is funding a sea port. It is also interested in offsetting India's growing links with the junta, they say. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Authorities in four countries
freeze US$11 million assets of convicted Thai drug trafficker
Wed Jan 8, 2:25 AM ET BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Anti-money laundering authorities have frozen US$11.62 million in assets that a convicted Thai drug trafficker has stashed away in four countries, an official said Wednesday. After a five-year probe, assets and bank accounts linked to Prasert Laonapharung were frozen in Thailand, Singapore, Luxembourg and Switzerland, said police Col. Peeraphan Premputi, the secretary-general of Thailand's Anti-Money Laundering Office. Prasert was arrested in 1995 in Bangkok for trafficking 20,000 methamphetamine pills. He was sentenced to three years in jail in 1997, but has remained at liberty while waiting for Thailand's Supreme Court to hear his appeal. Prasert later declared himself bankrupt and divorced his wife. But Peeraphan alleged that Prasert used the divorce as a pretext to launder drug money through his wife's name, which she changed four times. Officials last month searched three houses of Prasert's ex-wife and froze about 288 million baht (US$6.72 million) worth of cash, debentures, jewelry, cars and property after she was unable to explain how she acquired the assets, Peeraphan told The Associated Press. With the cooperation of foreign anti-money laundering authorities, police last week froze another US$4.9 million in the wife's bank accounts in Singapore, Luxembourg and Switzerland, Peeraphan said. Peeraphan said his office will ask legal authorities to have the assets confiscated. Neither Prasert nor his wife have been arrested. Authorities said they also have evidence linking Prasert with fugitive Wei Hsueh Kang, an ethnic Chinese drug lord in Myanmar who is wanted in the United States on charges of heroin trafficking. The U.S. government has offered a US$2 million reward for his capture. He is also wanted by Thailand to serve a life imprisonment imposed in 1987 on drug trafficking charges. Wei fled after jumping bail at that time. --------------------------------------------------------------------
People's Daily
Online
Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, January 08, 2003 Jiang Holds Talks with Myanmar Head of State China is to offer 200 million US dollars in preferential loans to Myanmar to aid its economic development, Chinese President Jiang Zemin said Tuesday. During his talks with visiting Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council of Myanmar Than Shwe in the Great Hall of the People this afternoon, Jiang said the two countries should further strengthen economic cooperation, adding that China would support Chinese enterprises conducting cooperative ventures in Myanmar. He expressed the wish that Myanmar keep improving its investment environment so as to facilitate Chinese investment and cooperation. He said the two countries should expand cooperation in such fields as science, technology, culture, education, sports, public health and tourism. He said the two sides should continue to coordinate and cooperate on regional and international issues and within the framework of multilateral mechanisms such as the United Nations and the ASEAN Regional Forum. Than Shwe said Myanmar is satisfied with the progress in Myanmar-China cooperation in agriculture, exploration of human and natural resources, and construction of infrastructural facilities. He said Myanmar, a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), was ready to help China strengthen its relations with ASEAN. After the talks, Jiang and Than Shwe attended the signing ceremony for three agreements on economic and technological cooperation, cooperation in public health, and sport cooperation. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Bangkok Post -
Wednesday 08 January 2003
Military denies forcing Karen to Burma Wassana Nanuam The military has denied forcing Karen villagers in Kanchanaburi to move into Burma, according to Maj-Gen Mana Prachakchit, commander of the Surasi Task Force. Maj-Gen Mana said 11 villagers in Sangkhla Buri district had returned to Burma of their own volition. Their departure last Friday was in response to warnings from the military, which was clamping down on illegal workers. The commander said the villagers had no evidence to verify Thai citizenship. The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development has voiced concern, saying the villagers were Thai who had lived in the area for decades. Some had ID cards issued by Thai authorities but these were destroyed when their houses were burnt down by armed defence volunteers during a raid in 1993. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Oneworld
Thai Authorities Pushed Karen Villagers into Burma The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) is concerned about reports that Karen villagers in Sakhlaburi district were forcefully pushed into Burma. On 3 January 2003, troops from the Ninth Infantry Division of the Army and armed defense volunteers of Sakhlaburi district administration rounded up 11 Karen villagers, including a two months-old baby and old women, and forcefully sent them into Burma. The arrest and deportation were carried out after the Thai authorities issued a warning to 65 Karen villagers in Wia Ka Di village, tambon Nong Lu, Sakhlaburi district, Kanchanaburi Province on 24 December 2002 to evacuate their homes within three days. Villagers appealed for help from the National Human Rights Commission and the Low Society of Thailand, which could temporarily stop the deportation after the end of a three-day deadline on 27 December 2002. But troops from the Ninth Infantry Division and officials from the local administrative authorities told villagers in the morning of 3 January 2003 that they would all be pushed across the border. The incident in Wia Ka Di village was explained by the Ninth Infantry Division as "a regular crackdown on illegal migrants". However FORUM-ASIA has firsthand information confirming that all of the 11 Karen villagers were from local communities in Sangkhlaburi district, and their families have settled down in Thailand for many decades. Some of them possessed identification cards issued by the Thai authorities, but their documents were destroyed when their houses were burned by armed defense volunteers of Sakhlaburi district administration during the raid in 1993. More important, even Karen villagers without identification cards were protected by the Thai Cabinet Resolution on 27 August 2002, which provided them a whole year for the verification process and no deportation order could be issued against them until at least August 2003. FORUM-ASIA also finds out that all of the 11 villagers did not have a chance to have their status verified, as it should be according to normal procedures in the arrest and deportation of illegal migrants. The deportation of 11 Karen villagers, including small children and old women, has put their lives in great danger. By having their citizenship denied by the Thai authorities, these villagers are now stateless and highly vulnerable to abuses and persecution by the Burmese authorities. The Thai government was recently criticized by the international community after troops from the Ninth Infantry Division rounded up 65 Karen villagers in Wia Ka Di village on 24 December 2002 and gave them a three-day deadline to leave the country. During the raid, there were reports that three huts and stocks of rice paddy belonged to villagers were burned. [Ends] For Further information or comments contact: Sunai Phasuk, FORUM-ASIA Spokesperson + 66 (0) 1 632 3052 Posted on Monday, January 06 @ 03:19:08 EST by forumasia --------------------------------------------------------------------
Bangkok Post -
Wednesday 08 January 2003
Smugglers of alien workers `will feel heat' Wassana Nanuam The army will renew efforts to stop the smuggling of illegal Burmese workers as their number continues to grow. Maj-Gen Mana Prachakchit, commander of the Surasi Task Force, said the smugglers collected 3,000-5,000 baht from each worker. Some Thais had also collected a 200-baht passage fee from workers who sneaked into the country via any of 92 channels along the border. Tough action awaited smugglers as members of anti-Rangoon minority groups had entered Thailand among the workers, Maj-Gen Mana said. ``From now on the Surasi Task Force will also immediately deport illegal workers. In the past we were lenient by giving them some time. ``Soldiers will be stationed at Morakha and Wia Kati border villages in Kanchanaburi's Sangkhla Buri district, and deport Burmese and tribesmen without identity cards,'' he said. While action would be tough, violence would not be used, Maj-Gen Mana said. The closure of offices of 10 minority groups in Sangkhla Buri district had upset their supporters, he said. ``But we have to comply with the government's policy not to let minority groups from outside carry out activities on Thai soil.'' --------------------------------------------------------------------
Bangkok Post -
Wednesday 08 January 2003
Rangoon refuses to lift ban Burma has turned down a request to lift an entry ban on 14 Thai journalists. Third Army commander Lt-Gen Udomchai Ongkhasing said the request was made during the Regional Border Committee meeting in Moulmein in Dec. The Burmese military junta blacklisted the journalists, saying they had belittled the Rangoon government and written anti-Burma articles since May last year. The journalists work for two English-language newspapers, the Bangkok Post and the Nation, and six Thai-language newspapers. The ban was imposed shortly after Thailand blacklisted Ma Tin Win, a columnist of Burma's official New Light of Myanmar newspaper for her scathing articles about Thailand and its monarchy. --------------------------------------------------------------------
The
Nation
Army 'pushed 11 Karen' into Burma Published on Jan 8, 2003 A leading human-rights organisation yesterday blasted the Royal Thai Army for violating an international convention by forcibly pushing 11 ethnic Karen villagers, including women and an infant, back into Burma. The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum Asia) said yesterday the Ninth Infantry Division had placed the group in danger by forcibly sending them back across the border despite their long-term residence in Kanchanaburi's Sankhla Buri district. Sporadic fighting between Karen rebels and Burmese government soldiers has been common in the area recently, the group said. Some of those allegedly forced back into Burma had been issued with Thai identification cards, Forum Asia said, but their documents were destroyed when their houses were burned by "armed-defence volunteers" from the Sankhla Buri administration during a raid in 1993. The rights group said the villagers were given a chance to have their status re-verified, as it should be according to normal procedures in the arrest and deportation of illegal migrants. --------------------------------------------------------------------
The
Nation
IN BRIEF: PM plans Rangoon trip Published on Jan 8, 2003 Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told yesterday's Cabinet meeting that he would travel to Burma next month to discuss cooperation in the suppression of drug trafficking. He added that the government would organise a workshop on drug suppression on January 12 at the Suan Dusit Rajabhat Institute. Meanwhile, Defence Minister General Chavalit Yongchaiyudh will visit Rangoon on January 27 to discuss a range of bilateral issues, including drug suppression. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Guam Pacific Daily
News
Wednesday, January 8, 2003 Determined woman leads people of Burma in hope for democracy After his ninth mission to Burma in late November 2002, U.N. special envoy Ismail Razali admitted frustration at his failure to get the Rangoon generals to revive talks with dissident leader Aung San Suu Kyi. After months of quiet diplomacy and delicate maneuvers by the United Nations to get the generals to talk to Suu Kyi on transition from military rule to democracy, Suu Kyi was released from house arrest May 6, 2002. There was an atmosphere of optimism all around, in spite of junta leader Khin Nyunt's warning that such transition must not be "done in haste and in a haphazard manner." But the cautiously optimistic Suu Kyi told BBC Dec. 10, "We are confident change will come -- not as quickly as most of us would wish, but it will come." Not within months, because talks have "some way to go." A devout and gentle Buddhist, Suu Kyi was conciliatory and expressed no animosity toward the military men who denied her freedom for years. Suu Kyi was put under house arrest for the first time in July 1989 for "endangering the state," after she vowed at her mother's funeral in January 1989 to serve the Burmese people without fear of the personal cost. She campaigned for reforms. The junta agreed to let her leave Burma then, but she declined to be exiled from the land of her birth. International pressure and sanctions won Suu Kyi's release in July 1995, but she was prohibited from traveling outside Rangoon. In 1996, hundreds of political activists, her followers, were arrested and detained. In March 1999, the junta even denied an entry visa to Suu Kyi's British husband, Michael Aris, who had cancer. He died without having been reunited with his wife. Between 1998 and 2000, Suu Kyi attempted to leave Rangoon several times to visit her followers in the provinces. She was stopped each time and was returned home. In September 2000, Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest again, this time for 19 months, until her release in May 2002, with a promise of freedom to travel. Suu Kyi told her people that, "My release is not a major triumph for democracy; my freedom is not the object of our struggle," and that she was committed to achieving democracy. After her release, Suu Kyi made five trips out of Rangoon. All went fine until the incident during her fifth trip, when she traveled to Rakhine state some 300 miles away. On Dec. 18, the authorities sent baton-wielding police and a firetruck to disperse 20,000 people who came to greet her. She saw what was happening, stepped out of her car, climbed atop the fire engine, and told the local authorities that their job was to serve the people, not to hurt them. The authorities withdrew. Suu Kyi thanked the crowd for welcoming her and told them to go home. They did. On Dec. 31, she accused the central authorities of harassment. Suu Kyi never planned to lead the dissidents. She was happy to be the wife of a British scholar of Tibetan and Himalayan studies at Oxford, and the mother to their two sons, Alexander, born in 1973, and Kim, born in 1977. However, things changed after a phone call from Rangoon March 31, 1988, that informed Suu Kyi of her mother's severe stroke. She flew home the next day. She arrived in Rangoon as thousands took to the streets to protest a currency devaluation and to demand reforms. The protest culminated in a mass uprising Aug. 8, 1988, that spread countrywide, and resulted in the deaths of 6,000 to 10,000 protesters. Suu Kyi was born in June 1945. She was only 2 years old when her father, Burma's independence hero, was assassinated. She was raised by her mother, Ma Khin Kyi, a nurse at Rangoon General Hospital, and was schooled in Rangoon until she was 15. When her mother became Burma's only woman ambassador in 1960, Suu Kyi followed her to her post in New Delhi. There, Suu Kyi studied politics at New Delhi University, developed friendships with Indira Gandhi's sons, Rajiv and Sanjay, and became attracted to Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of non-violent resistance and religious tolerance. That powerful political socialization process molded Suu Kyi. In 1964 she moved on to Oxford, where, in 1967, she earned a B.A. in philosophy, politics and economics. It was at Oxford that she met Aris. They were married in 1972. Suu Kyi returned to Rangoon in 1988 as important events unfolded. On Aug. 26, she gave her famous Shwedagon Pagoda address to a crowd of half a million people: "I could not, as my father's daughter, remain indifferent to all that was going on." When the National League for Democracy was created Sept. 24, 1988, Suu Kyi became its secretary-general, and became a threat to the generals. Though under house arrest at the time of the elections, Suu Kyi's NLD party won 82 percent of the legislative seats in Burma's first general election, on May 27, 1990. The military junta annulled the result. Suu Kyi's story continues to offer lessons on the values of determination and hope. --------------------------------------------------------------------
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