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HEADLINES
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AP - Aung San Suu Kyi
wins $1 million Freedom Forum award
AP -
AP - Thai prime minister
hails first stage in war on drugs as a success
AFP - Drug suppression tops agenda on
Thai PM's
Asian Tribune -
Asian Tribune - The fearless first
lady of
Asian Times - Thaksin's trip to
The Nation - Road to
The Nation - A crowded agenda for
Thaksin's
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Aung San Suu Kyi wins $1 million
Freedom Forum award
Fri Feb
7,
WASHINGTON (AP) _
Neuharth, the forum's founder, and Charles Overby,
its chairman, traveled to
Suu Kyi received the award for her ``free-spirited,
non-violent struggle for human rights and democracy'' in
Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, Suu Kyi was
put under house arrest by the military in 1989. In 1990 her party, the National
League for Democracy, won an overwhelming election victory but the military
government refused to recognize the results.
Throughout the 1990s Suu Kyi was sporadically held
under house arrest, the last period from September 2000 to May 2002. She was
released from formal house arrest on
``I want the people to be able to hold their heads
high as free human beings,'' Neuharth quoted her as saying in his account of
their meeting in the USA Today newspaper's Friday edition .
She said on her most recent trip to the countryside,
the military government attempted to disrupt her meeting with fire trucks.
``One of the most interesting points of the trip was
when the authorities tried to intimidate the public by bringing in fire
trucks,'' she said in taped comments to Neuharth and Overby. ``I suppose they
meant the people to understand that if they didn't disperse they would be hosed
down.''
After asking that the engines be removed, she said
she climbed on one of the trucks to address the crowd and the vehicle was then
moved.
Suu Kyi cannot attend a March 20 ceremony in
``I will never leave until I can return to this
country freely,'' Suu Kyi said.
The first winner of the forum's award in 1992 was
Terry Anderson, chief
Martin O'Malley & Owen Wood, CBC
News Online
Updated:
Aung San Suu Kyi is the daughter of one of
The ruling junta ? "political party" would be too
generous a concession ? goes by the Orwellian name of the State Law and Order
Restoration Council (SLORC).
The news event that brought Suu Kyi back into
prominence in May 2002 was her release from 19 months of house arrest in her
barricaded villa in
There was outrage around the world in 2000 when Suu
Kyi tried to leave
Suu Kyi (pronounced Soo Chee) was two years old when
her father ? the de facto prime minister of newly independent
A watershed in her life was 1988, when Suu Kyi
received a call from Burma that her mother had suffered a stroke and did not
have long to live. Suu Kyi returned to
She arrived back in
Next came a general election in 1990, which political
parties were allowed to contest. Suu Kyi headed the National League for
Democracy (NLD), which won a landslide victory, with 80 per cent support. This
was not be tolerated by the SLORC leaders, who refused to recognize the election
results. Worse, SLORC put the elected pro-democracy leaders under house arrest,
including Suu Kyi.
Despite the restrictions of house arrest, Suu Kyi
continued to campaign for democracy, and for this she won the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1991.
One of Suu Kyi's most dramatic speeches was in 1995,
soon after she was released from nearly six years of house arrest, when she
spoke to a global women's conference in
In her speech, she said, "?to the best of my
knowledge, no war was ever started by women. But it is women and children who
have always suffered the most in situations of conflict." She mentioned "the war
toys of grown men." Without specifically targeting her SLORC opponents, but her
words dripping with gentle sarcasm, Suu Kyi went on to
say:
"There is an outmoded Burmese proverb still recited
by men, who wish to deny that women too can play a part in bringing necessary
change and progress to their society: 'The dawn rises only when the rooster
crows.' But Burmese people today are well aware of the scientific reason behind
the rising of dawn and the falling of dusk. And the intelligent rooster surely
realizes that it is because dawn comes that it crows and not the other way
around.
"It crows to welcome the light that has come to
relieve the darkness of night. It is not the prerogative of men alone to bring
light to the world: women with their capacity for compassion and self-sacrifice,
their courage and perseverance, have done much to dissipate the darkness of
intolerance and hate, suffering and despair."
It was a powerful speech, subtly crafted for the
targeted audience in her homeland.
In 1999, Michael Aris, was dying of prostate cancer
in
The day Aris died, on his 53rd birthday on
The police did not stop the supporters from visiting
Suu Kyi in her time of grief. But they took the names and addresses of all those
who attended at the service to honour the husband from whom she had been
separated since she left
Fri Feb
7,
TOKYO (AP)
_
The refugees included six from
By comparison, roughly 100,000 refugees from
Last year's applicant tally in
Although their applications for refugee status were
turned down, 40 additional people were allowed to stay in
Refugees may live in
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Thai prime minister
hails first stage in war on drugs as a success
Fri Feb
7,
Concerned by the massive flow of
stimulant methamphetamines from neighboring
``Drugs have infiltrated all parts
of society so I have to use strict measures. If we don't use strict measures we
won't make it,'' Thaksin said Saturday during his weekly radio address.
Thaksin said the campaign has
already netted 5,700 suspects, 3.8 million speed pills and 129 million baht
(US$3 million) in seized assets.
He did not mention the killing of
suspected traffickers, but English-language The Nation newspaper said 74
suspects had been killed by police and hit men from drug syndicates since the
campaign was launched.
Human rights groups have said they
feared the high number of deaths could indicate summary executions by police.
They noted the government has publicly threatened to kill suspected drug dealers
and offered high rewards.
Thaksin said he would also ask his
Cabinet to approve higher rewards to police who make seizures of drugs and
assets of traffickers.
``I have to encourage the
authorities with increased rewards so that those who are good feel encouraged
and those who think they might do bad might think it is better to earn a reward
than a bribe,'' he said.
The prime minister said the drug
issue would be discussed during his two-day visit to
The Thai Health Ministry estimates that more than 3 million of the country's 64 million people are consuming methamphetamines.
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Saturday February 8,
Drug suppression tops
agenda on Thai PM's
The status of illegal migrant
workers, ethnic minorities and economic relations will also figure prominently
in talks with junta leaders during his official but low-key two-day visit, his
second to the country since taking office two years ago.
"Anti-drugs cooperation will top his
agenda," a senior government official told AFP.
Thaksin is to broach comprehensive
drugs suppression measures, hoping to persuade
Thaksin has said he would seek a
clear stance from
"Of course I will raise the problem
of drug factories on the border and make clear the problem must be solved," the
premier said recently.
Thaksin's trip comes days after his
government launched an all-out three-month war on drugs hoping to completely
eradicate the scourge domestically, especially the trafficking of
methamphetamines.
A second senior Thai official said
the trip was also "aimed at strengthening relations after the border incident
last year and to show Thai sincerity in solving all types of problems as well as
cooperation with the
Bilateral ties between the historic
enemies were strained to the limit last May when deadly border clashes led
Thaksin, whose administration has
focused its foreign policy on solidifying relations with its neighbours, ordered
a series of fence-mending trips by senior officials since the border crisis.
Thaksin has said he will raise with
Thaksin is due to meet Sunday with
the country's ruler, State Peace and Development Council chairman Senior General
Than Shwe, and with first secretary Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt Monday.
The premier has no plans to travel
to the capital Yangon, where a more formal forum would await him and where human
rights watchdog Amnesty International is concluding its first-ever visit to the
country.
It also effectively precludes
Thaksin from meeting opposition leaders such as Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel
peace laureate released last year from house arrest.
The official itinerary would send
the delegation to the northern mountain town of
The official talks are set for the
beach resort of Ngapali on the
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Asian
Tribune
Date : 2003-02-08
This is the first information
received relating to the anti Muslim riots that occurred in
The
There are 11 buildings accommodating
teachers and students, 1 mosque, 2 classrooms, 1 engine room, 1 cookhouse, 1
sick room, 1 bath house and 10 latrines.
It is alleged that Maung Myo Thant,
a resident of Myoma Ward, Inywa, student of this school had a clandestine
meeting with his sweetheart, resident of Shwebontha Ward, Inywa on
The following day (
The students reported the events of
the previous night to their principal. They were made to assemble and warned by
the deputy head not to leave the school premises
unnecessarily.
At about half past one in the
afternoon, the Inywa YaYaKa asked U Hamid (School Committee Chairman) to forbid
the students from going outside the school compound. If they needed to buy tea
or pan it should be purchased for them by the people outside and brought to
them.
At
At
About 100 houses belonging to
Muslims in Aleyat Ward were stoned and damaged. Another 7 houses including U
Hamid?s and Daw Ma Ma?s (School Committee Chairman) were looted and set
ablaze.
The mob, armed with fire rings,
torches, axes, and hatchets first and foremost destroyed and burnt down the
engine room, then set fire to the mosque and the residential buildings. At the
same time, the students were attacked and beaten up.
The next day (25th) about 60 Muslim
houses in the upper area of the town were attacked and
looted.
Of the 125 boarders attending the
Muslim school most were young. They fled for their lives when the place was set
on fire. Jewelry, money, furniture were looted and carted away from the houses
that were looted including that of the School Chairman. The new and old
structures of the Araby Muslim school, the houses of the teachers, the store
house, computer, typewriters, books, furniture ? everything was destroyed. Total
value amounts to one thousand lakhs.
The Police were fully aware of the
situation prior to the riots. During the fire, the Police Commissioner U Kyi
Nyunt was in Inywa. He did nothing to prevent the destruction of the houses and
the school, but he was safe and secure in the High School premises near by. The
truth of the matter is that the people are in dire straits because the cost of
rice has raised to 500 kyat a pyi.
On the 26th January, about fifty
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Asian
Tribune
Date : 2003-02-08
The fearless first
lady of
Her "crime": She and her National
League for Democracy party won an overwhelming election victory. The military
thugs who run this country of 48 million people refused to recognize the
election results.
Since last year's lifting of her
confinement, the "First Lady" of
Foreign journalists are banned in
The only wall decoration in her
sparsely-furnished living room is a huge 8-foot-by-12-foot painting of her
father, the late Gen. Aung San. He was assassinated in 1947, two months before
he was to become the first prime minister of then independent
"I want the people of
"I would especially like the
richness of spirit of our young people to soar to meet all challenges."
If Ms. Suu Kyi could achieve those
goals in her lifetime, she would transform an enslaved
- Florida.Com - Editorial Page -
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Thaksin's trip to
By Marwaan
Macan-Markar
BANGKOK - Thai Prime Minister
Thaksin Shinawatra's scheduled visit to Myanmar on Sunday will be pivotal for
his newly launched crusade against drugs here at home, since that neighboring
country is the font from where the narcotics flow.
In the days ahead of his departure,
Thaksin has not played down this connection, given his plans to make the
trafficking of drugs along the Thailand-Myanmar border a central feature of his
talks with
"I will discuss the drugs issues
with the Burmese to work out joint measures against drug trafficking along the
border," the premier was quoted as saying in Thursday's Bangkok Post, an
English-language daily.
It is a position that is being
warmly received here for two reasons: no Thai prime minister until Thaksin has
made the drug problem a key focus in talks with the Myanmar government and, in
doing so, he is being perceived as one determined to triumph in the war on
drugs.
"This is the first time that a Thai
prime minister has made the drug issue a main theme for the talks with the
Burmese government," said Chayachoke Chulasiriwongs, head of the
international-relations department at
Yet Thaksin faces a daunting
challenge on this international front, given the amount of narcotics, largely
amphetamine pills, that are produced in
What is more,
The best-known group in the drug
trade is the United Wa State Army (UWSA), which belongs to a Myanmese ethnic
community and operates out of Shan state, along the Thai border.
The uninterrupted flow of drugs from
the UWSA has been blamed for amphetamine addiction attaining unprecedented
heights in
According to newspaper reports here,
there are more than 600,000 students across the country, from primary schools to
universities, who are drug addicts.
The number of people treated for
methamphetamine or ya ba, a type of amphetamine, has been rising sharply in
It is this reality that triggered
Thaksin's anti-drugs crusade, under which he gave the police three months, from
February to April, to mount an intense crackdown to rid the country of drugs.
"This is a good strategy, because it
is being enforced across the country, so there is no getting away from one
province to another," said Chart Chai, deputy secretary general of the Narcotics
Control Board. "Earlier, it was only done in a few provinces in the north.
"The prime minister has also warned
that bad officials, those who let the drug traffickers get away, will be
punished," he added. "A monitoring system has been set up by the government to
evaluate performances."
In the first week of this anti-drug
crusade, the Thai public has witnessed dramatic results: more than 1,000 dealers
and producers were arrested and more than 3,000 people in the drug trade turned
themselves in. Over last weekend, according to some reports, the police seized
more than 700,000 methamphetamine pills.
But there has been a darker side to
this act of social cleansing - charges by human-rights defenders and some
journalists of police abuse, resulting in what they call a steadily spreading
reign of terror.
"The government policy is calling
for the suppression and elimination of people suspected to be in the drug trade
by any means," said Jaran Ditapichai, a member of the national Human Rights
Commission. "Some suspects have been killed through extrajudicial methods."
On the first day of the Thai
government's war on drugs, four drug suspects were shot dead. In Sakhon Nakhon,
a province in northeastern
They "piled up a dozen donated
coffins in front of their office as a warning to drug traffickers: Stop or end
up in one of them," he said. "It's rather obvious that the police in many areas,
under pressure from their superiors to 'perform,' have resorted to extrajudicial
killings to show results."
But these voices of concern are no
match in volume to the groundswell of public support Thaksin's anti-drug crusade
has received so far. According to a poll conducted this week in the Thai capital
by the Bangkok-based
(Inter Press Service)
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Thai casino gamblers
seen flocking to
Wassana Nanuam
The closure of the Thai-Cambodian
border after last week's riots in
Defence Minister Gen Thammarak
Isarangkura na Ayudhaya said the border closure had partly caused Thai gamblers
to flock to casinos in
``Thais who are addicted to gambling
but cannot visit casinos in
They would be asked to refrain from
gambling in
Burapa, Suranaree and
Chanthaburi-Trat task forces overseeing the border with
Though it had to react in a tough
manner to the rioting in
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The
Nation
Road to
Phoowadon
Duangmee
Published on
By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin'
eastward to the sea,
There's a
For the wind is in the palm trees,
and the temple-bells they say:
'Come you back, you British soldier;
come you back to
- From
'
It's been 110 years since British
writer Rudyard Kipling wrote this poem that described the beauty of
Sheltered from mass tourism for many
years the delights of
"Journalist!" exclaims a
stony-faced, sarong-wearing immigration officer as he leafs though my passport
and then passes it on to his colleague, who is peering intently at my friend's
documents.
"He is a journalist too," says the
colleague accusingly. They are edgy and suspicious.
The two officers then step out from
behind the counter and take in the 30 or so people waiting to be processed. Then
it dawns on them: They are all journalists! Their animated Burmese is beyond me,
but their horrified expressions suggest that their embassy staff in
"Yes, we all are journalists. But
we're travel writers, not political reporters," I say, trying to smooth things
out. It doesn't work. The officers don't see a difference; to them a journalist
is a journalist. But we have the visas and they reluctantly allow us
through.
The truth is, this 147-year-old city
has had it rough. At first, you feel as if
The city was hit badly by a fearsome
earthquake in 1883 that damaged many pagodas and monasteries. Two years later,
the British took over. The Japanese bombed the city in 1942 causing considerable
damage, and three years later the
The Burmese junta has attempted to
bring back the glory days by reconstructing the
A visit to Zeicho Market on 84th
Street offers household products and "trendy" cosmetics, but more interesting is
the large open-air market, a couple of streets away.
Huge piles of banana, unknown local
fruits, flowers, and sacks of colourful spice powders are lined up along the
pavement. The sharp scent of burning cheroots makes an interesting mix with
"tanaka" - a herb-based powder most Burmese use as a cosmetic.
Two little florist girls in the
market giggle when I ask if a small bunch of green leaves are edible. One girl
shakes her head quickly, and puts the leaves into her palms, as if to make a
"wai". It's a cute moment: strolling around a market in a foreign land allows
one to behave a little ridiculously. The locals like it. It provides
entertainment.
"Hello. What your name?" asks a
Burmese monk in his broken English, as he approaches me in the middle of the
market.
It seems the monk wants to practice
English with tourists because he is holding a small notebook. He looks at my
face for a second, and then tries another question.
"Where you
from?"
"I am from
"
Our English lesson is over.
As the Tatmadaw and the political
junta, the SPDC, continue to rule
"Many people have become monks,"
says our local guide, Sai Yee Kyawk. "It's become normal for them to approach
tourists for money in
Southwest of
Right behind the shrine is a small
building with six bronze Khmer figures. Three are lions, two are male warriors,
and one is Erawan - the three-headed elephant. It's said that these figures were
originally cast at Angkor Wat in
Apart from the pagoda tours, there's
plenty to see in
Nonetheless, the Burmese have been
trying very hard to rid themselves of the British shadow. The Burmese, who once
drove on the left like the British, now drive on the right but in second-hand
Japanese cars designed for driving on the left.
Overtaking is a death-defying act
that often fails in its defiance.
"The government changed the rules
just to do something different than the British," says Ko Tun Oo, while driving
us to Zeicho morning market.
For locals, it might be worth the
hassle, as driving on any side of the road at least gives them a bit of freedom.
But for us, it wasn't worth the risk on the roads to
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The
Nation
A crowded agenda for
Thaksin's
Supalak
Ganjanakhundee
Don
Pathan
Published on
Hard pressed by an influx of
narcotics from
Beside putting his "good neighbour"
policy on line, Thaksin's February 9-10 visit to
At the start of his administration,
the premier had come out forcefully. Overlooking the possibility that his
country may be losing its moral authority, Thaksin was convinced that his brand
of diplomacy would force the Burmese to do things his way.
Today, Thaksin finds himself in a
corner. The premier is left with a constant reminder that after two years of
fence-mending trips by himself and his lieutenants, coupled with olive branches
extended to the junta, his
To come out and change tack now
would amount to admitting defeat, which critics said is not in his
nature.
Indeed, the mood today is a far cry
from the show of force that the premier put on when he assumed the premiership
two years ago. Officials still talk about how the Chiang Rai drug seminar two
years ago raised their eyebrows when slides of Burma's security chief General
Khin Nyunt, along with large hauls of drugs confiscated from Burmese drug lords,
were shown to the packed house of officials.
But today it's business as usual.
Drugs, insurgencies, overlapping claims, refugees and illegal migrants remain
the fundamental problems that continue to define, and plague, Thai-Burmese
relations.
The United Wa State Army (UWSA), a
pro-Rangoon group which
The total number of villagers being
relocated from the Wa-controlled area to areas along the Thai border should
reach 100,000 by this year, said Bao Yu-xiang, chairman of the UWSA in a recent
interview with The Nation.
The Thai Army and drug agencies say
millions of methamphetamines cheaply produced in UWSA's clandestine labs
continue to flood
Analysts say
Analysts point out that although
only a handful of armed rebel groups still exist in
In his upcoming visit, Thaksin will
be pushing the Burmese generals to designate border areas from Mae Hong Son to
Chiang Rai as "drug free" zones.
"The idea is to seal your own border
in the same manner that was used to starve out Khun Sa and his Mong Tai Army,"
said a senior military officer who spoke on condition of
anonymity.
The Thai government is banking on
the notion that
There have been suggestions that
Thaksin will have to bring up
The previous Thai administration had
also employed this tactic, known at the time as "constructive intervention", but
it rubbed not only
There have been suggestions that a
"carrot and stick" approach be employed but few are convinced that the Burmese
generals will fall for such a scheme.
Like any other authoritarian
leadership, the Burmese, say analysts, are very solid and united when it comes
to any negotiations.
Although the nature of Thai-Burmese
relations has changed little over the past two years, Thaksin will not find the
same old
Over the past two years,
And in spite of the enormous
pressure from the West,