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BURMA RELATED NEWS
- January 20, 2003.
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HEADLINES
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Dow Jones - INDIA PRESS: Gas Reserves
Detected In Myanmar JV Block
AP - Myanmar foreign minister visits
India, keen to attract trade and investment
AP - Regional police conference opens
with Indonesian president talking tough on terror
AFP - Rebel leader offers
conditional surrender to Myanmar
AFP - Myanmar invites Indian
investment, urges regional summit
AFP - Seven Myanmar nationals
arrested in Thai crackdown on illegal immigrants
AFP - Ten Myanmar
nationals return home after rescue in Indian waters
Hoover's online - Gail Set To Lap Up
New Huge Gas Reserves In Myanmar
The Nation - Proposal for
bilingual border
Asia Times - ASEAN and China's
regional concerns
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday January 20, 11:39 AM
INDIA PRESS: Gas Reserves Detected In Myanmar JV Block NEW DELHI (Dow Jones)--Potentially huge natural gas reserves have been detected in the offshore joint-venture exploration Block A-1 in Myanmar, Financial Express reports, quoting unidentified Indian Petroleum Ministry officials. India's state-owned firms Gas Authority of India Ltd. (P.GAI), or GAIL, and ONGC Videsh Ltd. have a stake in the block. In a letter to the country's Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Ram Naik, GAIL said the block has gas reserves of 907 billion cubic meters and recoverable gas reserves of 625 billion cubic meters, the report said. "Such huge...gas reserves, if established through exploration, can sustain a peak production of 60 million standard cubic meters of gas per day for a period of 20 years," the letter says, according to the report. The current level of consumption of natural gas in India is around 65 million cubic meters a day. Gas Authority is in talks with partner Korean Gas Co. for marketing its 10% share of gas from Block A-1, the report said. "GAIL is also studying the feasibility of laying a 550-600-kilometer offshore pipeline from Block A-1 to India through the exclusive economic zone of Bangladesh," the report quoted one of the officials as saying. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar foreign minister
visits India, keen to attract trade and investment
Jan 20 7:17 AM ET By NIRMALA GEORGE, Associated Press Writer NEW DELHI, India - Long-isolated Myanmar is opening its doors to the world and wants to attract trade and investment, its foreign minister said Monday. "In the past, we had closed our doors to the outside. Now we are ready. We are opening our doors to trade and investment," Win Aung said during a visit to India. He is the first Myanmar foreign minister to visit since the current military junta came to power in 1988, cracking down on a pro-democracy movement, which soured relations with India and Western countries. Myanmar, also known as Burma, still struggles to attract investment. Win Aung said India's position is advantageous for renewed trade because of the border it shares with Myanmar and their centuries-old tradition of commerce. Referring to India's "Look East" policy of expanding trade and ties with Southeast Asia, Win Aung said Myanmar offered enormous business potential in information technology, telecommunications and infrastructure building. "We're right there and ready to share our border with India for prosperity of the entire region," he told the Confederation of Indian Industry. The junta abandoned socialism when it took power, but the economy verges on bankruptcy because of mismanagement by the regime and pressure from pro-democracy advocates for an economic boycott. The regime also keeps tight control on information and forbids unauthorized public use of the Internet. According to statistics published by the Myanmar Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development, only one foreign company made a major investment in the first half of 2002 ? worth US$1.5 million. Win Aung was scheduled to hold discussions over the next two days with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha and Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, and security issues were expected to head the agenda. After the 1988 pro-democracy crackdown, India supported opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, but its relations with the junta improved after New Delhi received Myanmar's help in suppressing Indian insurgent groups operating in dense jungles straddling the two countries. India is one of Myanmar's main trading partners. Bilateral trade between them stood at US$435 million last year, although most of it was routed through Singapore. During a visit to Myanmar in February 2001, Singh, who was then India's foreign minister, opened a 160-kilometer (100-mile) long road linking the border town of Moreh in India's remote northeast with Kalewa in Myanmar. The road is planned to be extended to Mandalay, Myanmar's second largest city. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Regional police conference
opens with Indonesian president talking tough on terror
Mon Jan 20, 1:59 AM ET By MICHAEL CASEY, Associated Press Writer JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri on Monday urged Southeast Asian nations to cooperate more closely in the fight against terrorism, saying that her administration was determined to eradicate "crimes against humanity." Speaking at the opening of a three-day conference on terrorism organized by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Megawati said the Oct. 12 Bali nightclub bombings had hurt the country's economy and the government's efforts to promote ethnic and religious diversity. "We in Indonesia have had a bitter experience," she said. "The national life, which we have been building based on diversity, has undergone immense damage as a result of these attacks." Southeast Asia has emerged as a major front in the international war on terrorism. Malaysia and Singapore have arrested dozens of terrorist suspects who allegedly planned attacks on Western targets, while U.S. troops have assisted Filipino security forces in a major crackdown on the Abu Sayaff Muslim terror group in the country's southern islands. Nearly 200 delegates are attending the conference, among them police chiefs from the 10 ASEAN nations. Participants will discuss ways to better share resources and information in combatting transnational crime and are expected to agree on forming a joint anti-terrorism task force. The conference is also scheduled to deal with the sensitive issue of extraditing terrorism suspects from one country to another. Megawati, criticized as being soft on terrorism before the Bali bombings in which nearly 200 people died, used her speech to portray Indonesia as a country that had learned many painful lessons from the attacks. "I consider this gathering as a significant step forward that reflects our determination to combat terrorism," she said. "I want to underline the urgency with which we should bring about effective cooperation in the fight against such a common enemy." "(Terrorism) does not only cause fear and panic but in fact poses a threat to humanity," she said. "Its indiscriminate (attacks) on innocent victims make terrorist acts crimes against humanity." Last November, leaders from the 10 countries discussed ways to jointly protect citizens and tourists from Bali-style bombings. Determined to show the world that their homelands are safe, the leaders decided to hold their next summit this year in Bali. ASEAN is made up of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Rebel leader offers
conditional surrender to Myanmar
CHIANG MAI, Thailand, Jan 21 (AFP) - The leader of the rebel Shan State Army (SSA) offered to surrender to Myanmar's military junta if the United Nations moves to protect his people, a statement received here Monday said. "We are ready to surrender if the world believes that drugs can be eradicated (in the region) by this, but the UN and other international bodies must intervene and guarantee the safety of the Shan people and restore their rights," SSA leader Yord Serk said in the statement. The SSA, one of two major armed insurgent groups in Myanmar yet to sign a ceasefire agreement with the junta, has in the past called for peace talks with Myanmar's junta but has refused to lay down arms during negotiations. York Serk also said in the statement he would be willing to testify to an international court that the SSA was not involved in the lucrative drugs trade, as often charged by Myanmar's junta. He also expressed willingness to provide information his rebel army has collected on the drugs factories that dot Myanmar's borders with Thailand, Laos and China. The factories produce massive quantities of heroin and methamphetamines that are then shipped worldwide. The Thai army has estimated that as many as one billion methamphetamine pills could flood Thailand alone this year, where addiction has reached the crisis point. "I am making this appeal for a chance to testify about the narcotic drug problems in the Shan state, and also to suggest ways to eradicate drugs from my experience," Yord Serk said. Myanmar forces are reportedly gearing up for their regular dry season offensive against the SSA in eastern Shan state, which borders Thailand's north. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar invites Indian
investment, urges regional summit
NEW DELHI, Jan 20 (AFP) - Myanmar Monday invited Indian investments in information technology, agriculture, infrastructure and energy and asked regional leaders to join a summit to boost economic cooperation. Addressing the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here, U Win Aung, the visiting foreign minister of the ruling junta, said the regional Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand Economic Cooperation (BIMST-EC) formed in 1997 had not shown any progress. "BIMST-EC has not moved far enough or fast enough," Aung said. "What we need is a vision to move forward and work together ... what we need is a summit level meet next year." Noting the strategic location of the BIMST-EC countries at the heart of the Asian Pacific, Aung said the region was home to about a quarter of the world's population and represented a huge market. Economic progress within the grouping would result in other countries joining BIMST-EC, he said. Aung also noted that Myanmar was alone among the 10 members of the Association of South East Asian Nations to share a border with India and China, adding, "We sense that India is catching up (with China)." India became an ASEAN sectoral dialogue partner in 1992 and was elevated to a full dialogue partner three years later, allowing the nations to hold talks at ministerial level. India and ASEAN -- which groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore Thailand and Vietnam -- held their first summit meet in Phnom Penh last November. After the summit, Myanmar had advocated that ASEAN hold annual summits with India, Aung said. "We regard our neighbours as our friends," the minister said, adding that Myanmar was willing to open its borders to trade for the "prosperity of the whole region." After beginning about seven years ago in Moreh in the northeastern state of Manipur, bilateral trade between India and Myanmar had jumped from 84.7 million dollars to 435 million dollars in the past decade, he said, urging Indian businessmen to invest in Myanmar. It is estimated that daily transactions at the Moreh border market are worth about three million rupees (62,500 USD). An Indian foreign ministry official said India was actively involved in infrastructure projects in Myanmar. Along with Thailand, the two countries have agreed to build a 1,400 kilometer (900 mile) road to connect Moreh in Manipur to Mae Sot in Thailand, running through the ancient city of Bagan in central Myanmar. Another project to exploit the Kaladan river for navigation and connect the northeastern Indian state of Mizoram to the port of Sittwe was also on the cards, the official said. India's state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) have joined South Korea's Daewoo International and the Korean gas company to prospect for gas in Myanmar, the official said. A report in the Financial Express newspaper Monday said the consortium had struck gas in the field off the Rakhine coast and GAIL was exploring how to bring gas to India through an offshore pipeline. Aung, who arrived in New Delhi Sunday, was to meet India's foreign minister Yashwant Sinha and finance minister Jaswant Singh later Monday. He is scheduled Tuesday to hold talks with India's privatisation minister Arun Shourie and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Seven Myanmar nationals
arrested in Thai crackdown on illegal immigrants
BANGKOK, Jan 20 (AFP) - Thai authorities have arrested seven Myanmar nationals on the first day of a week-long crackdown on illegal immigrants in western Thailand, a government official said Monday. "Today we started an operation aimed at making a clean sweep of illegal immigrants in the district, which will run until the 24th (of January)," said a senior official from Sangkhlaburi district in Kanchanaburi province. "I can confirm that today seven Myanmar nationals were arrested for being illegal immigrants," he told AFP, adding that they would be questioned before being sent back across the border. The operation was being carried out jointly by the army and local government, he added. However, a Myanmar dissident based in Thailand claimed the seven were arrested because they were members of activist groups opposing Myanmar's military rule. "These three women and four men were arrested because they were members of the National League for Democracy (Liberated Area), the Democratic Party for New Society (DPNS) and two other women's activist groups," said Kyaw Kyaw Htet, chairman of activist group the People's Democratic Front. He said the detainees would be tortured or thrown into jail if they were handed directly to Myanmar authorities. The Sangkhlaburi district official, however, denied the arrests were made because the people were anti-Yangon activists. "We have never arrested any Myanmar nationals for being dissidents or students," he said. In late December two batches of Myanmar dissidents illegally based in Kanchanaburi were deported and their offices closed down, although the exact number of people sent back was not revealed by the Thai army. The army said at the time that the deportation was merely enforcing Thai immigration law and was not done to appease Myanmar's junta. Amnesty International has already expressed fears that more political activists would be sent back across the border where they would face human rights violations. In June last year Thailand's National Security Council vowed to clamp down on dissident groups from Myanmar. It accused the dissidents of being intent on using Thai territory as a springboard to carry out attacks. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Ten Myanmar nationals return
home after rescue in Indian waters
YANGON, Jan 20 (AFP) - Ten men from Myanmar have returned home after spending ten days adrift on a raft made of empty oil drums before being rescued by an Indian vessel in the Bay of Bengal, a lawyer said Monday. "The Indian cargo vessel Min Noble, manned by an all-Indian crew, was heading for China when it found them adrift in the sea on a makeshift raft and rescued them," a lawyer representing Steamship Mutual of London, the insurers of the Min Noble, told AFP. The men, whose motorised boat had sunk, were severely dehydrated and when picked up had only two tins of evaporated milk left between them, the lawyer said. An eleventh member of the group died while being transported to shore, she said, adding that the rest had arrived back in Myanmar late Saturday and were being questioned by Myanmar authorities. It was unclear what work the men did, she said. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Hoover's
online
Gail Set To Lap Up New Huge Gas Reserves In Myanmar January 19, 2003 5:39pm Indications of large gas accumulations have come to light in the offshore block A-1 in Myanmar, where ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) and Gail India Limited hold joint equity stakes with Daewoo International of Korea and the Korean Gas Company (Kogas). Senior petroleum ministry officials disclosed that Gail, in a recent communique to Union petroleum minister Ram Naik, has informed that the A-1 block in Myanmar has 訴n-place gas reserves of 32 trillion cubic feet (907 billion cubic meters) and recoverable gas reserves of 22 tcf (625 bcm). "Such huge quantum of gas reserves, if established through exploration, can sustain a peak production of 60 million standard cubic meters of gas per day (mmscmd) for a period of 20 years," says Gail in its letter to the petroleum minister. Incidentally, the current level of consumption of natural gas in India is between 60-65 mmscmd. Three structural prospects and one lead have been identified from the interpretation of new and old seismic data in the A-1 block in Myanmar. The first prospect has been assigned success ratio of more than 42 per cent and potential recoverable gas reserves of 10 tcf. The well is expected to take two and a half months for completion. Officials said Gail has the rights to market 90 per cent of the gas production from this block including the shares of OVL and Daewoo International. Currently Gail is in talks with Kogas for marketing its 10 per cent share of gas, they added. "Gail is also studying the feasibility of laying a 550-600 km offshore pipeline from Block A-1 to India through the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of Bangladesh and the nearest landfall point in India will be Haldia in West Bengal. However, as this pipeline would be within the EEZ of Bangladesh, the consent of the government of Bangladesh would be required for this," officials said. The other option, officials said, would be to lay a pipeline avoiding the Bangladesh EEZ limits but this would make the pipeline expensive due to increase in length and deep waters of up to 2000 meters. The foreign minister of Myanmar, U Win Aung, is in India from January 19-24 and during his stay he is scheduled to meet Vice-President, Prime Minister, finance minister, disinvestment minister and petroleum minister. According to officials, the government of Myanmar is supportive of developing gas trade with India and discoveries of huge gas reserves in Block A-1 will support a pipeline project for gas supplies to the Indian market. "India could thus provide a natural market for gas from A-1 block subject to negotiations of competitive gas prices with the government of Myanmar," they added. The A-1 block in Myanmar extends over 3885 square meters off the Rakhine coast and is the westmost block of Myanmar, in closest proximity to India. Daewoo International holds a 60 per cent equity followed by OVL at 20 per cent and Gail and Kogas at 10 per cent each. -------------------------------------------------------------------- The Nation
Proposal for bilingual border Supinda na Mahachai Published on Jan 20, 2003 In an effort to strengthen ties, the government has proposed that children living on either side of the Thai-Burmese border learn both Thai and Burmese at school. Education Minister Pongpol Adireksarn said he had raised the idea with the secretary-general of Burma's military junta, Lt-General Khin Nyunt, during a three-day official visit to the country, which ended yesterday. Pongpol visited Rangoon as chairman of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (Seameo). Apart from Thailand and Burma, other members of Seameo are Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam. "I also proposed that Thailand and Burma jointly compile a Thai-Burmese dictionary, as part of a campaign to improve mutual understanding," Pongpol told The Nation. Thailand and Burma have been engaged in a war of words in recent months, with Burma accusing Thailand of supporting Burmese rebels, while Thailand has branded Burma as a major source of methamphetamines. Pongpol took an opportunity to visit Seameo's regional Centre for History and Tradition, which has been assigned to review national history to create the first regional history book. Other Seameo members are also working on the project. Once the reviews are complete, each nation's official history will be translated into English. Seameo members will then compile the accounts into a regional history book. Pongpol said he would propose a meeting in March to discuss the progress of the book. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Asia Times
Online
Jan 21, 2003 ASEAN and China's regional concerns By Phar Kim Beng HONG KONG - In a speech at the University of Hong Kong on January 10, Fu Ying, secretary general of Hong Kong's Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Asia Department, affirmed that China would commit itself to becoming a force for peace and stability in Southeast Asia and that it would not be a threat despite the magnitude of its growth. Echoing the view of President Jiang Zemin at the 16th Communist Party Congress that neighboring countries be "treated with kindness", Fu Ying also spoke of China's benevolent intent in handling various territorial, border and fishing disputes throughout the region. Strengthening ties with its neighbors has been the official diplomatic strategy of China since 1996, and increasing US influence in Asia has given the strategy a new sense of importance and urgency. But how has China improved its relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)? Official relations between China and ASEAN began in July 1991 when Beijing started attending the ASEAN Post-Ministerial Conference (ASEAN PMC). Since July 1994, China has also become a full dialogue partner of ASEAN and a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). Last November, at the eighth ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh, China signed reached various agreements with the Association, including the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Between ASEAN and the People's Republic of China, the Declaration on Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, and the Joint Declaration on Cooperation in Non-Traditional Security Issues. Correspondingly, there has also been a rise in the quality of China's diplomatic representation in Southeast Asia. Mely Caballerro-Anthony of the Institute of Defense and Analysis in Singapore said: "China has expressed interest in acceding to the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, and to work towards signing the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapons-free Zone." The two agreements underscore the willingness of China to refrain from the use of force as an instrument of policy. On the southwestern border of China, China has been improving its relationship with ASEAN member nation Myanmar. China has supplied more than US$1.6 billion in arms to Myanmar and continues to train a significant number of its military. Senior General Tan Shwe, the current head of state and chairman of the military State Peace and Development council that controls the country, has made an official visit to China. He was accompanied by General Khin Nyunt, who is in charge of intelligence and international affairs. Can China keep up its warm ties with ASEAN and its members? There is every likelihood that this is what China plans to do as it tries to free itself from the encirclement of the United States. If China's history of foreign relations is taken into further account, Beijing's words can indeed be taken at face value. William C Kirby is Geisinger professor of history and dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. He has focused much of his research on 20th-century Chinese diplomacy and China's views toward international relations. "China has no tradition of trying to forge and maintain alliances," he said. "It had not been part of the international strategic alignments and alliances that developed from 1866-1917, into which Japan had been drawn in 1902 [when Japan became the first Asian power to sign the Sino-British Treaty with a Western power]. Between 1911 and 1949, when China saw first the formation of the republic, before power was handed over to the communists, China made no major overtures to its Asian neighbors, caught as it was in the vortex of civil war and internal turbulence". From its independence in 1949 until the opening of China three decades later, China had sought security in alliances with superpowers; first with the Soviet Union, then the United States. Neither alliance was altogether successful. With the Soviet Union, China failed to obtain Moscow's help in building a nuclear device. By 1969, China and the Soviet Union were already involved in bitter border conflicts that threatened to end in an open, and possibly nuclear, war between the two communist foes. When China warmed to the United States to offset the Soviet Union in 1972, its relationship lasted only until the end of the Cold War in 1989. Since then, the relationship between Beijing and Washington has been marked as much by cooperation as by mutual suspicion of each other's strategic designs. Now that China's power has gradually grown, it has become imperative for Beijing to get up to speed in cultivating good ties with Southeast Asia. Such a relationship is critical because when measured from the standpoint of gross domestic product, China's GDP is only one-quarter that of Japan and one-tenth that of the United States. In other words, just as China is growing - a process accompanied by the attendant siphoning of critical foreign direct investment (FDI) away from Southeast Asia - Beijing has to ensure that members of ASEAN remain closely bonded to China, not other stronger and richer powers. The strategy of reassurance is indeed important in the context of China's impact on Southeast Asia. China's accumulated net FDI totaled some $309 billion for 1980-2000, of which 95 percent, or some $284 billion, was attracted in 1993-2000. On the other hand, ASEAN's accumulated net FDI totaled only $172 billion for 1980-2000. The danger does not lie here alone. China's manufacturing prowess is also displacing that of Southeast Asia, indeed, even Japan. According to Andy Xie, chief economist at Morgan Stanley (Hong Kong), "The FDI growth is fueling China's rapid rise in mass manufacturing as reflected in the doubling of the country's share in global merchandise exports to 5.1 percent in 2002 from 2.2 percent in 1992. Indeed, China is not challenging only ASEAN. China's export increase this year is equal to its total exports in 1990. China's exports are now equal to 79 percent of Japan's compared with 22 percent in 1990 and 14 percent in 1980. If it sustains the 12 percent annual growth rate of the past five years, China's exports will exceed Japan's by 2005 and the United States by 2009." Given such figures, coupled with the possibility that China might dominate the entire mass manufacturing spectrum, hence leaving little room for Southeast Asia to innovate, it is little wonder that China is trying its best to ensure good ties with Southeast Asia. Yet the outreach to Southeast Asia is not entirely altruistic. It has been worked into the grand strategic calculation of China to cultivate a multipolar world in which the United States, the current preeminent power, would not be able to dominate. Similarly, China's diplomatic overtures to ASEAN are aimed at preempting members of the organization from increasing their bilateral security cooperation with the United States (including joint military exercises). Another aim is to prevent Indonesia and Australia from further enhancing their military relationship after the signing of a security pact in 1995. To be sure, Beijing is trying to forge a diplomatic strategy to prevent other countries from "uniting" against China by virtue of a perceived fear of a "China threat", economic or otherwise. That said, the principal focus has been on countering the lengthening shadow of the United States on the region. Having observed the relative facility of US military operations conducted in the Persian Gulf and especially in the Balkans, it can be observed that neither prospective adversaries nor international organizations pose much of a constraint on the United States' decisions about where and when to act abroad. By cultivating its ties with ASEAN, China can potentially put a check on US influence and accessibility to Southeast Asia. -------------------------------------------------------------------- |