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BURMA RELATED NEWS
- January 15, 2003.
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HEADLINES
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AP - India Judge Wants Thai Airways
Hijacking Suspects Charged
AP - Security Council members call
for better protections against children becoming soldiers
AP - Chinese Vice Premier Li visits
Myanmar
AP - Changing politics a worry for
Myanmar refugees
AP - Trial of Myanmar activists in
1990 Thai Airways hijacking case to begin in April
Reuters - Activists urge UN to do
more for children in war
Silicon India - India looking at
bringing gas from Myanmar
Bkk Post - Plan to free region of
drugs by 2015
Asian Tribune - Burmese and other
Refugees discriminated
The Australian - Burma denies
'child-soldier' army
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday January 15, 12:48 AM
India Judge Wants Thai Airways Hijacking Suspects Charged CALCUTTA (AP)--A Calcutta judge Tuesday ordered prosecution lawyers to file charges in the trial of two Myanmar pro-democracy dissidents accused of hijacking a Thai Airways plane 12 years ago. Judge Chandan Kumar Lahiry asked the state prosecutor to frame the charges against Soe Myint and Htin Kyaw by April 2 so the trial could begin without further delay. Soe Myint, who is out on bail, appeared before the court Tuesday and pleaded not guilty to the initial charges. Soe Myint and Htin Kyaw are accused of diverting a Thai Airways (H.TAI) Bangkok-Yangon flight to Calcutta on Nov. 10, 1990 by threatening the crew with a bar of soap disguised as a bomb. At the time, the two said they hijacked the aircraft to draw world attention to the pro-democracy movement of Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in military-ruled Myanmar. Suu Kyi's party won general elections in May that year but was barred by the military from taking power. Soe Myint and Htin Kyaw initially received widespread sympathy in India, whose government supported Suu Kyi. They were given bail. Their case has been stuck in the courts system for the past 12 years and Soe Myint went to live in the Indian capital of New Delhi, from where he opened an information service on Myanmar. The charges against him were never dropped and he was arrested in April 2002 in New Delhi and brought to Calcutta. Soe Myint's lawyer, Nandita Haksar, said Tuesday that the police arrested her client, claiming that he had jumped bail granted 12 years ago and ignored summons. But Soe Myint has never received any summons, she said. It wasn't clear why Soe Myint's case has been revived after a gap of 12 years. But soon after Soe Myint's arrest last year, his wife, Thin Thin, said the arrest was the result of the renewed friendship between the Indian government and the Myanmar military junta. The two governments have exchanged high-level official visits in the past two years. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Security Council members call
for better protections against children becoming soldiers
Tue Jan 14, 8:58 PM ET By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The Security Council is expected to adopt a resolution later this week calling on members to consider sanctions against governments and insurgents that use child soldiers, U.N. officials said Tuesday. Council members welcomed a U.N. list exposing governments and insurgents who use child soldiers during a daylong open debate in which nearly 50 countries spoke out against the exploitation of youngsters in armed conflicts. Olara Otunnu, the U.N. special representative for children and armed conflict, said he expected the council to adopt a resolution by the end of the week that would impose sanctions if those on the list fail to stop recruiting and using child soldiers. A draft of the resolution obtained by The Associated Press would impose travel, financial, and arms restrictions if those on the list did not make "substantial progress in ending the recruitment and use of child combatants ... within eight months." "It's important to send a signal if improvement hasn't been made," Otunnu said, stressing that sanctions would only be opposed if countries and groups didn't halt the practice. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's third report on children and armed conflict ? submitted to the 15-nation Security Council last month ? included a list of 23 organizations and governments that recruit and use children as soldiers, including government and rebel groups in Burundi, Congo, Liberia, Somalia and Afghanistan. The list only singled out countries and conflicts on the Security Council's official agenda, although Annan's report noted that children also have been recruited for combat in Colombia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, Sudan, northern Uganda and Sri Lanka. "The tragic fact is that children continue to be victimized in the most cynical and cruel manner in conflicts around the world," Annan said during Tuesday's debate. "The time has come to ensure that the hard-won gains in crafting a protection regime for children are applied and put into practice on the ground." Deputy U.S. Ambassador Richard Williamson and several other delegates asked Annan for an expanded list next year of the worst abusers of children in all conflicts, not only those being discussed by the world body. "Our moral and legal obligations compel us to force these harmful practices ... into the light of day," he said. "The crushing consequences on children in armed conflict must be ameliorated." The draft resolution requested that Annan submit a report to the Security Council by Oct. 31 that would detail progress made by the parties on the list, and specific proposals on ways to ensure the most effective monitoring and reporting on the application of international standards. Otunnu told the AP that there was widespread support to include all groups and governments accused of exploiting children in conflict on the list. Congo's U.N. ambassador Atoki Ileka defended his government, saying it had ended the use of child soldiers, but he said the volatile African nation needs financial support to end abuse among rebel groups. The debate was sometimes politically charged, with the Israeli and Palestinian U.N. representatives trading blame for the suffering and deaths of children from both sides in renewed Middle East violence. The United Nations estimates that some 300,000 children worldwide are being used as soldiers despite recent initiatives aimed at protecting them, including an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which set an age limit of 18 for compulsory recruitment and direct participation in hostilities. The statute establishing the International Criminal Court also classified the conscription, enlistment or use in hostilities of children under 15 as war crimes. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Chinese Vice Premier Li visits
Myanmar
Tue Jan 14, 9:48 AM ET YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Chinese Vice Premier Li Lanqing and a 75-member entourage arrived in Myanmar Tuesday for a three-day goodwill visit, officials said, just days after a high-level Myanmar delegation visited China. China is Myanmar's northern neighbor and its closest international ally. The West shuns Myanmar's military regime because of its poor human rights record and failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government. Li arrived three days after the leader of Myanmar's ruling junta, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, returned from a six-day visit to China. During Than Shwe's visit, China agreed to grant Myanmar 50 million Chinese Yuan (US$6 million) for technological cooperation between two countries, and a preferential loan of US$200 million for economic development. Myanmar's economy is stagnant, and its treasury is believed to lack substantial foreign reserves. During his trip to China Than Shwe held talks with top leaders including President Jiang Zemin, Vice President Hu Jintao and chief legislator Li Peng. He signed agreements on economic and technological cooperation, and on cooperation in health and sports. Li's planned activities while in Myanmar were not announced. He arrived from Malaysia, and is on a tour will also take him to India, South Africa and Thailand. His delegation included China's ministers of education and technology, along with six vice ministers. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Changing politics a worry for
Myanmar refugees
Tue Jan 14, 1:58 PM ET By DAVID LONGSTREATH, Associated Press Writer WALLAY, Thailand (AP) - The shifting winds of geopolitics are not favorable for people fleeing the grip of Myanmar's military government for neighboring Thailand, as they've been doing for years. Thailand has lately been seeking to warm up its often frosty relations with Myanmar, mainly by making refugees less welcome ? and even sending some back. But Thai hearts are still opening up to poor and frightened people forced from their homes. In the tiny northern Thai village of Wallay, about 300 meters (yards) from the border, relief workers on Tuesday were giving food and shelter to villagers fleeing battles between government troops and ethnic rebel guerrillas in Myanmar, also known as Burma. The dry season has arrived, which means that the pace of hostilities is quickening once again. Some 614 recently-arrived members of Myanmar's ethnic Karen minority are living on the grounds of the village's Buddhist temple. Mothers nurse their sick babies; youths tend the family pigs, a portable form of wealth that made the journey with them. Ten heavily armed Thai soldiers overlook the scene, but the mood is not menacing. International private relief agencies, which form a consortium called the Burmese Border Committee, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR, have sent assistance. Rice and used clothing are handed out. Old women sit quietly aside, smoking Myanmar-style cigars called cheroots. "With the assistance from UNHCR and the Burmese Border Committee, we give them food and shelter here until the situation is back to normal, when we send them back," said Worasit Wanichkulchailert, chief of Phopphra district in Tak province, 370 kilometers (230 miles) northwest of Bangkok. It's a scene that's has been repeated hundreds, if not thousands, of time over the past few decades. Since it obtained independence in 1948, Myanmar has faced scores of rebellions from ethnic groups seeking autonomy. The most enduring struggle has been that of the Karen, one of the few groups not to sign a cease-fire with the latest military regime, which came to power in 1988. The legacy of the long, hard struggle of the Karen can be found in the vast number of their people staying in Thailand, many as needed but exploited laborers whose illicit presence is winked at by officials. There are probably more than 1 million Myanmar nationals living in Thailand, most of them Karen. More than 100,000 live in long-established but ramshackle refugee camps close to the border. Ethnic rebels such as the Karen, who often use Thailand as a de facto rear base, have long put a strain on Thai-Myanmar relations. But critics fear that moves by the government of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to curry favor with Myanmar's ruling military junta ? by returning political activists, army deserters and illegal migrant workers ? endanger legitimate asylum seekers. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Trial of Myanmar activists in
1990 Thai Airways hijacking case to begin in April
Tue Jan 14,12:20 PM ET By CHANDRA BANERJEE, Associated Press Writer CALCUTTA, India - A Calcutta judge on Tuesday ordered prosecution lawyers to file charges in the trial of two Myanmar pro-democracy dissidents accused of hijacking a Thai Airways plane to India 12 years ago. Judge Chandan Kumar Lahiry asked the state prosecutor to file the charges against Soe Myint and Htin Kyaw by April 2 so that the trial could begin without further delay. Soe Myint, who is out on bail, appeared in the Barasat Court near Calcutta Tuesday and pleaded innocent to the initial charges. Htin Kyaw's whereabouts are unknown. Soe Myint and Htin Kyaw are accused of diverting a Thai Airways Bangkok-Yangon flight to Calcutta by threatening the crew with a bar of soap disguised as a bomb on Nov. 10, 1990. At the time, the two said they hijacked the aircraft to draw world attention to the pro-democracy movement of Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in military-ruled Myanmar, which is also known as Burma. Suu Kyi's party won general elections in May that year, but the ruling military junta refused to hand over power. Soe Myint and Htin Kyaw initially received widespread sympathy in India, whose government supported Suu Kyi. Both were released on bail 12 years ago, and the case was ignored until last year. Soe Myint went to live in the Indian capital, New Delhi, where he opened a service providing news and information on Myanmar. The charges against him were never formally dropped, and he was arrested in April 2002 and brought to Calcutta. Soe Myint's lawyer, Nandita Haksar, said Tuesday that the police arrested her client, claiming that he had jumped bail granted 12 years ago and ignored repeated summons. But the lawyer said Soe Myint had never received any summons. It was not clear why the case has been revived after 12 years. Soon after Soe Myint's arrest last year, his wife, Thin Thin, said the arrest could be due to the recently renewed friendship between the Indian government and Myanmar's military junta. The two countries have exchanged high-level official visits in the past two years. Officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the case. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Activists urge UN to do more
for children in war
By Evelyn Leopold UNITED NATIONS, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Activists and a group of U.S. senators urged the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to name, shame and punish governments or rebels that forced children into warfare and abused them sexually in about 35 armed conflicts around the world. The 15-member body, which held an all-day debate on the subject, has adopted several resolutions setting out paths and programs to protect children and is expected to adopt another resolution later this week. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in opening the council meeting, said ``the time has come to ensure that the hard-won gains in crafting a protection regime for children are applied and put into practice on the ground.'' ``The tragic fact is that children continue to be victimized in the most cynical and cruel manner in conflicts around the world,'' he said. Annan and Olara Otunnu, his special envoy for children in war zones, last month listed 23 governments and insurgents that abused children in conflicts. But the report concentrated on those in Burundi, Congo, Liberia, Somalia and Afghanistan, areas where the Security Council is involved. The activists from several major groups, such as Care, Save the Children and Human Right Watch, said all parties and governments, such as Myanmar, who continue to recruit or use child soldiers should be named explicitly. ``The problem is much bigger than five countries,'' said Jo Becker, who represented a coalition of groups that has placed governments and rebels on a ``watch list'' for abusing children. Peacekeeping missions should include child advocates, the council should have a working group to monitor progress and sanctions should be considered against repeated offenders, the advocacy groups said at a news conference after they consulted with council members in meetings organized by Mexico. Becker, an official of Human Rights Watch, said two sticking points on council negotiations on a resolution were expanding the list of parties and what actions, if any, should be take against perpetual violators. In addition, 16 U.S. senators, headed by Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, and Lincoln Chafee, a Rhode Island Republican, urged the United States to insist that the list of offenders be broadened and that actions be considered against them. Specifically, they mentioned Myanmar's military government, rebels in Colombia and Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army, which for years has carted off boys and girls to the Sudan for warfare and sexual abuse. U.S. representative Richard Williamson agreed the name and shame list should be expanding, saying, ``Our moral and legal obligations compel us to force these harmful practices, these damaging activities, into the light of day,'' he said. Nasser al-Kidwa, the Palestinian U.N. observer, told the council that Israel's siege of occupied territories not only resulted in deaths of children but inflicted emotional trauma. Otunnu, in his address, however, also urged Palestinian authorities to prevent children being used as suicide bombers. ``We have witnessed child victims at both ends of these acts,'' he said. ``Children have been used as suicide bombers and children have been killed by suicide -------------------------------------------------------------------- SiliconIndia
India looking at bringing gas from Myanmar IANS - Tuesday, January 14, 2003 NEW DELHI: India is looking at the feasibility of bringing gas from a block in Myanmar in which two state-owned oil and gas majors have taken equity stake. The offshore exploration Block A1 near Sittway in Rakhine state in the northern part of Myanmar is operated by Daewoo International, which holds a majority stake. India's exploration major ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the overseas arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, holds 20 percent stake in the block while GAIL (India) Ltd holds 10 percent and Korea Gas (KOGAS) the remaining 10 percent stake. "We are looking at the possibility of bringing gas from Block A1 in Myanmar through a 550-km pipeline, which is estimated to cost Rs.20 billion," GAIL India chairman Proshanto Banerjee said on the sidelines of the Petrotech 2003 meet here. Estimated to have gas reserve of 13.4 trillion to 47.3 trillion cubic feet, Banerjee said of the block: "The seismic survey has been completed, and we hope to start drilling the first test well by October/November. "During the two to three years it will take for commercial production of gas to begin, we hope to use the intervening period to develop the gas pipeline infrastructure to India." With demand for natural gas expected to grow faster than the average four percent annual rise in oil demand, India is looking at various sources within the country and overseas to procure supplies to meet the widening gas between demand and supply. At 60 million standard cubic meters per day, the gas supply is almost 50 percent short of the current demand in India. Despite promising gas discoveries on both the east and west coast areas in the country, India is continuing to explore alternative venues to import gas. Under study are offshore and onshore gas pipeline projects for import of gas from Iran. For the offshore pipeline, which will not pass through Pakistan territory, Snamprogetti have been appointed as the consultants by India and Iran. As the nodal agency appointed by India to study the offshore pipeline project, GAIL India is awaiting the techno-feasibility report about the deep-sea project. "Snamprogetti is expected to complete the ocean survey programme by 2003-end and the results will be used for doing the techo-feasibility study," said Banerjee. Envisaged in 1990, the pipeline project has failed to take off with India reluctant to take the risk of the 2,100-km pipeline project passing through Pakistan while bringing gas from Iran's Bandar Abbas port to Gujarat. While India is still to commit itself to the plan, a Russian firm Gazprom has been commissioned by Pakistan to conduct surveys for the pipeline over the land as well as through shallow waters. The pipeline via land route is estimated to cost around $4 billion, and several fold more by the deep-sea route. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post -
Wednesday 15 January 2003
Plan to free region of drugs by 2015 Opium cultivation in Burma, Laos falling Cheewin Sattha Asean and China want to make this region drugs-free by 2015. Meeting in Chiang Mai on Monday for a regional drugs forum, delegates from the 10 Asean countries and China said encouraging opium growers to turn to alternative plants was one way to do it. The meeting, hosted by the Narcotics Control Board, was aimed at strengthening cooperation between Asean countries and China. Asean comprises Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines and Burma. Representatives from the United Nations Drugs Control Programme, the United States, Japan, Australia and Britain were also at the meeting. They were taken to royally-initiated opium-substitute crop projects on Doi Inthanont. Sanong Chinnanond, a specialist and coordinator for alternative development with the UNDCP, said opium cultivation in Burma and Laos was falling. However, UNDCP was still worried about opium cultivation in war-torn Afghanistan. Phanthakone Champosith, from Laos, said her country wanted to be opium-free by 2005. In 2002, authorities cut opium plantations from 14,000 rai to 8,000 rai, she said. Htun Aung, a Burmese official, said Burma expected to have drugs under control by 2014. China agreed to join other countries in encouraging growers to turn to substitute crops. Britain is spending 120 million baht on promoting substitute crops in Burma's Shan state this year. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-01-15 Burmese and other Refugees discriminated . Refugees from Burma are discriminated. Allegations of this nature are surfacing about the regional office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Thailand. It has been, brought to the notice that the regional office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Bangkok is adopting and practicing highly discriminatory measures and subjecting the refugees with untold misery and grief. It is further alleged that the regional office of the UN refugee agency tends adopt policies that exploits the refugees. Allegations are leveled that in case of a person or persons, whose status has been confirmed either as refugees or as a person of concern with the UNHCR regional office in Bangkok, they are being discriminated. It is said that a Burmese, whose status has been confirmed either as a refugee or as a person of concern receives a paltry sum of Baht 2,500 per month as subsidy and a familied person gets in addition, Baht 500 per dependent. But, in the case of non-Indo Chinese refugees, they are given a monthly subsidy of Baht 3600 per person and each dependent receives an additional sum of Baht 1,800 per month. Even the non-Indo-Chinese refugees alleged that this monthly subsidy amount paid by the UN Agency is nothing when compared with the subsidy and other facilities given by the same agency in other countries in Asia. They further alleged this amount is not keeping up with the rising cost of living in Thailand. It is further revealed that the Refugees Agency started paying this amount when one US $ Dollar was Baht 25 and still this amount is being continued, without any review even after the Thai Government floated the Baht in 1997. (Today one US Dollar is around Baht 42.) They alleged that UNHCR?s refugee support staffs are paid in thousands, nearly a monthly salary, minimum of US Dollar 1,000, with additional perks.It is further said that their monthly salaries are continuously reviewed at a regular intervals, by the UNHCR, according to the Dollar fluctuation against the Thai Baht. One refugee when contacted by Asian Tribune told that the UNHCR regional office in Bangkok continues to exploit the refugees. He said that the refugees are never considered for employment opportunities that occur in the UNHCR regional and other offices. ?Whereas,? he emphasized, ?UNHCR must consider giving highest preference to refugees, when filling up vacancies.? He further said, ?refugees are only considered for translation, interpretation jobs and for other menial positions with the UNHCR support agencies.? Again he alleged that, if in case the UNHCR employs an outsider as a translator or an interpreter, that person is being paid Baht 1,300 per day or else for the translation of one refugee applicant?s case record. But in the case of a refugee, if employed either as a translator or as an interpreter, that person is only paid a paltry some of Baht 300 per day and in the case of translation that amount is paid in case two applicants case records are translated. The Burmese refugees laments that the UNHCR is practicing discrimination in the midst of the refugees by paying paltry amount as subsidy. The spokesman for the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma when contacted told that they are aware of this discriminatory practice adopted by the UNHCR office in Bangkok. Also the spokesman said that they are aware that the UNHCR office in Bangkok underpays to refugees who work with UNHCR as translators, interpreters and staffs in the medical and in other fields. He said that unwittingly UNHCR is practicing this form of exploitation of the refugees, which is highly condemnable. Several refugees when contacted said that they have never met an officer from the UNHCR regional office either for consultation or counseling. They said that they have to go through their native language-speaking translators or through the Bangkok Refugee center for their needs and information. Asian Tribune learns that the UNHCR staffs who work in the Bangkok office consider themselves as civil servant working for a United Nations Organizations and not as some one working for the humanitarian organization where their services are required to redress a human being afflicted with sufferings and tragic situation. -------------------------------------------------------------------- The
Australian
Burma denies 'child-soldier' army January 15, 2003 BURMA has denied allegations by Human Rights Watch and the UN Children's Fund that its armed forces had forcibly recruited large numbers of child soldiers. "There is no credible evidence of recruitment of child soldiers," Burma's UN ambassador, Kyaw Tint Swe, told the UN Security Council. In a report to the council last month, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said "testimonies received by UNICEF confirm" reports by Human Rights Watch that the armed forces and armed groups in Myanmar had pressed children into service. Swe countered that Annan's report had "departed from its mandate" under council Resolution 1379 to investigate the abuse of children in conflict zones on the council's agenda. "The situation in Myanmar (Burma) is not a threat to international peace and security," he said. In a list attached to his report, Annan named 23 parties in areas on the council's agenda. During the meeting, several speakers, including UNICEF director Carol Bellamy, urged the council to expand the list to include other conflicts. US representative Richard Williamson said the army in Burma should be listed. "Some of the worst violations of children on armed conflict are not included on the list," he said. British ambassador Jeremy Greenstock said his government was "especially concerned about Burma, where consistent reports indicate wide, systematic and forced recruitment and training of children for use in combat." Swe said reports about his country were politicised and based on interviews with about 30 insurgents in neighbouring countries. -------------------------------------------------------------------- |