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page and sign the petition for Mr. Soe Myint, the Editor (Founder) of Mizzima
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BURMA RELATED NEWS - February 13,
2003.
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HEADLINES
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AP - Lavish
christening held for white elephant
AFP - Asian
rights body calls for release of Myanmar political prisoners
Asian
Tribune - Report released by Christian Solidarity Worldwide Confirms abuse of
authority in Burma.
Asian
Tribune - Concerned at arrests in Myanmar, Annan says dialogue is key to
reconciliation
Asian
Tribune - Report on Burma by the Christian Solidarity
Worldwide
Bkk Post -
Bid to break the impasse
Bkk Post -
EDITORIAL - A novel approach fraught with peril
The Nation -
EDITORIAL: Energy minister needs a new vision
ST - Thaksin
to mediate between Yangon and rebels
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Lavish
christening held for white elephant
Feb 13 6:48 AM
ET
By AYE AYE WIN, Associated
Press Writer
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - A rare white elephant, a traditional symbol
of royalty, power and prosperity, has been officially christened at a lavish
ceremony in Myanmar's capital, state-run newspapers reported Thursday.
Gen. Khin Nyunt, the third-ranking leader of the ruling military
junta, sprinkled a four-year-old female white elephant with consecrated water
laced with gold, silver and precious gems, the Myanma Ahlin daily reported.
The animal, given the name Rati Marlar, or Elephant Flower, was
surrounded by guards dressed in traditional royal garb.
After the
ceremony, eight well-wishers paid 1 million kyat (about US$167,000 at the
official rate of exchange, or US$930 at the free market rate) each to feed the
white elephant.
Rati Marlar was the third white elephant captured
in the past two years in Myanmar's jungles. All three elephants are kept at a
special park with an elaborate pavilion next to a man-made waterfall, ponds, and
trees.
White elephants have been revered for centuries in
Southeast Asia and seen as a symbol of kingship in Myanmar ? also known as Burma
? Thailand and Laos. They are not actually white and look much the same as other
elephants except for certain features such as fair eyelashes and toenails, light
colored hair or reddish hue of the skin.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Asian rights body calls for release of Myanmar political
prisoners
BANGKOK, Feb 13 (AFP) - A leading Asian rights body said Thursday
it had written to Myanmar's military rulers to urge them to release 12
pro-democracy activists arrested for anti-government activities.
The junta said the 12, most of them members of the National League
for Democracy (NLD) led by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, would be given
a fair trial and considered innocent until proven guilty.
The
military announced their arrests on Monday saying some of them had been found
with anti-government materials.
In its letter the Asian Forum for
Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia) also urged the junta to start dialogue
with the opposition NLD and ethnic minorities to begin a process of national
reconciliation.
The letter to the head of the ruling State Peace
and Development Council (SPDC), Senior General Than Shwe, noted there were
already some 1,300 political prisoners in Myanmar's jails whom the international
community had consistently said should be released.
It said the
latest arrests would "only signal to the international community that more time
will be needed to verify the consistency of the SPDC's sincerity in endorsing...
sustainable peace and (the) national reconciliation process."
"We
sincerely urge the SPDC to show greater tolerance and stop the ongoing culture
of arresting dissident pro-democracy activists who merely voice their opinion
and assert their rights to association through peaceful means," it said.
Yangon said in its statement Thursday: "The government regrets
that a small group of political figures were recently arrested for violating
national laws. They will, of course, be tried fairly in a court of law, and are
considered innocent until proven guilty."
The government said
political parties in the country should "take responsibility for helping Myanmar
make a peaceful transition to democracy, by respecting the rule of law."
The junta has refused to recognise the results of the 1990 general
elections in which the NLD won 392 of 485 contested seats.
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Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-02-13
Report released by Christian Solidarity Worldwide Confirms abuse of
authority in Burma.
Child soldiers and gang-rape
survivors In Burma give testimonies In the Christian Solidarity Worldwide
Report. The report of the s Christian Solidarity Worldwide was just released on
11 February.
According to an interview found in the report, a
14-year-old boy has told CSW of his experiences as one of an estimated 70,000
child soldiers forced to fight for the Burmese regime.
Kyow, who
fled his frontline army unit, told a CSW fact-finding team to the Thai-Burmese
border in late November 2002, that he was just 11 when he was abducted by
uniformed soldiers while waiting at a bus stop. He was not allowed to contact
his parents and has been unable to locate them for the past three
years.
Kyow, a Buddhist, has begged the world to tell the Burmese
regime not to force children to fight. He said there were many children of a
similar age in the military camp, and it is estimated that 20 percent of the
total number of Burmese Army soldiers are under 18.
After eight
months in the Ta Kyin Koe First Battalion Camp in Danyigorn District, Kyow was
sent to a training camp for regular soldiers in the Fifth Battalion, where he
underwent five months of military training before being sent to the frontline in
Pa-pun district, Karen State.
The boy said 15 soldiers in his unit
of 30 were about his age. The children were forced to undertake regular military
activities, and were beaten by officers. Over the course of eight months, Kyow
witnessed ethnic Karen villages being attacked and the villagers rounded up and
forced to work as porters for the army.
Kyow told CSW that Burmese
Army soldiers were under orders to burn, rape and kill when they entered a Karen
village.
"With the Burmese Army it was like hell," Kyow said. "It
is not good for a child to be a soldier. Tell the international community to
speak to the regime, to tell them not to grab children and force them to be
soldiers."
In a report released last week, Christian Solidarity
Worldwide revealed further evidence that children are forced to undertake
military activities and that women are gang-raped by troops from the State Peace
and Development Council (SPDC), Burma's ruling military junta.
The
report also provides fresh evidence of the serious human rights abuses
perpetrated by the SPDC, chiefly against the non-Burman ethnic civilian
populations. These campaigns include mass scale forced labor, the use of humans
as mine sweepers, military offensives against civilians, forced relocation
programmes, extensive and indiscriminate use of landmines, rape, mass killing,
shooting on sight, the destruction of villages and crops, extortion, and
generally denying ethnic populations their basic means of
subsistence.
In addition to visiting Karen and Karenni areas, CSW
also went inside Shan State. The team interviewed 12 Shan women who had recently
arrived at an Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) site. All of them recounted
how they had been gang-raped by SPDC soldiers on more than one occasion in the
past two years. They said women in Shan State are used as army porters by day
and gang-raped by SPDC troops by night.
22-year-old Nan from
Southern Shan State told CSW that she was gang-raped by SPDC troops on more than
five occasions in the past two years. To escape from the Burmese army, Nan had
to flee from village to village but wherever she fled, the same thing happened.
"The troops came, they took whatever they wanted, burnt, killed and destroyed
whatever they did not want. They captured the women and used us as
porters."
Another woman, Baiyoke, recalled how she and her two
teenage daughters were gang-raped by over 50 SPDC soldiers two years ago. Both
her daughters were subsequently murdered by the troops - one suffocated, the
other shot in the waist and forehead. "I still have vivid image of the bodies of
my daughters wrapped in plastic sheets," Baiyoke said.
Testimonies
given by over 30 individuals who had personally suffered at the hands of the
Burmese Army further add to the evidence that these campaigns are systematic and
are designed to subdue, integrate and annihilate targeted non-Burmans and to
eliminate resistance groups. As such, the SPDC's policies can be described as
genocide or ethnic cleansing.
Referring to these campaigns in a
debate in the House of Lords in December, Baroness Caroline Cox, CSW UK's
President, said: "Many Karen and Karenni people regard Britain with respect and
affection. They remember with appreciation the dignity that they were afforded
by the British administration, and they recall how many of them died fighting
alongside British forces and, sometimes, for British soldiers. The international
community in general and Britain in particular, have a moral imperative to help
to save the lives of thousands of innocent civilians who are suffering and dying
in Burma today at the hands of a brutal regime."
(Kindly note that
the identity of the witnesses in this report is protected. The names that appear
in this report are not their true names.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-02-13
Concerned at arrests in Myanmar, Annan says dialogue is key to
reconciliation
UN News Centre, Feb. 12: ? Voicing
concern at the arrests by the Myanmar authorities of 12 members of opposition
parties, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today reiterated his strong
belief that national reconciliation should begin with a constructive dialogue
between the Myanmar authorities and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
"For such
a constructive dialogue to move forward, the opposition parties, including NLD
[the National League for Democracy], should be able to engage freely in
political activities in Myanmar," said a statement released by a spokesman for
Mr. Annan.
(Statement Attributable to the Spokesman for the
Secretary-General on Myanmaris given separately, at the end of this news
item.)
The Secretary-General once again urged the Myanmar
authorities to release without delay all political prisoners, and to engage in
substantive political dialogue with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the spokesman said.
Mr. Annan's Special Envoy, Razali Ismail is facilitating such
dialogue.
New York, 12 February 2003 - Statement Attributable to
the Spokesman for the Secretary-General on Myanmar
The
Secretary-General is concerned by the arrests by the Myanmar authorities of 12
members of opposition parties, including 7 members of the National League for
Democracy (NLD) as well as Sai Nyunt Lwin, the Secretary-General of the Shan
National League for Democracy (SNLD). He reiterates his strong belief that
national reconciliation should begin with a constructive dialogue between the
Myanmar authorities and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, which is being facilitated by his
Special Envoy, Razali Ismail. For such a constructive dialogue to move forward,
the opposition parties, including NLD, should be able to engage freely in
political activities in Myanmar. He once again urges the Myanmar authorities to
release without delay all political prisoners, and to engage in substantive
political dialogue with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
The 12 people
arrested include 7 members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), as well
as Sai Nyunt Lwin, the Secretary-General of the Shan National League for
Democracy (SNLD), according to the statement.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-02-13
Report on Burma by the Christian Solidarity
Worldwide
This is the executive summary of the Fact
finding visit conducted by UK based Christian Solidarity worldwide on the Thai
Burmese birder in November 2002.
Evidence of gregarious human
rights violations perpetrated by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
was obtained from interviews with over 30 individuals who have personally
suffered at the hands of the Burmese military. Alongside these interviews, CSW
teams also talked to a number of individuals and organizations working closely
with the ethnic nationals.
The SPDC?s campaigns directed against
the ethnic civilian populations include mass scale forced labor, the use of
humans as mine sweepers and bullet shields, military offensives against civilian
villages, forced relocation programmes, extensive and indiscriminate use of land
mines in civilian areas, rape, mass killing, shooting on sight, destruction of
villages and crops, starvation, extortion, and denial of basic means of
subsistence.
The cumulative effect of these brutal
institutionalized campaigns can be described as ethnic cleansing or genocide in
that they are designed to subdue, ?integrate? and annihilate targeted non-Burman
ethnic populations and to eliminate resistance groups.
An estimated
70,000 civilians have become internally displaced in 2002 alone. Many are dying
from lack of basic medical care.
In Karen State, the SPDC controls
most of the towns and cities where many relocation camps are situated. The
internally displaced populations (IDPs) under the control of the SPDC are
subject to chronic human rights violations, including frequent calls to forced
labor. According to a recent report published by the Karen National Union (KNU),
between January and December 2002 the SPDC / DKBA troops tortured 375 civilians,
shot 92 on sight, conscripted 6,307 villagers into forced labor, burnt down 631
houses and two villages, destroyed 51 farms and raped at least six women in
reachable areas in Karen State alone. In excess of 10,589,560 Kyat and 230,987
Baht, equivalent to a total of £11,290, was extorted from poor farmers. These
stark statistics reflect the grave magnitude of the repression committed against
the Karen people.
Much of Karenni State has been subject to SPDC?s
scorched-earth policies and destruction. The majority of the villages in Shadaw
region (approximately 100) and about 100 villages around Mawchi (No. 2
district), for example, have reportedly been destroyed by the SPDC troops.
Meanwhile, the number of Karenni fleeing across the Thai-Burma border has
diminished in 2002. The decline is a reflection that the areas closer to the
border have largely been rid of their inhabitants. Meanwhile, the journey to the
border is too hazardous and too far for many of those living deeper inside the
country to attempt. Without international community intervention, there is a
real risk that the situation in Karenni State will escalate into a de facto
ethnic cleansing, or even a physical and cultural genocide.
The
Shan describe their homeland as being ?under Burmese occupation? for the past
five decades. ?If [the Burmans] were fair and just we would never have taken up
arms against them,? explained Colonel Yawd Serk, the leader of the
Reconciliation Council of Shan State.
Colonel Yawd Serk appealed to
the United Nations and other international bodies to recognise the desire of the
seven ethnic states ? Shan, Karen, Karenni, Mon, Chin, Arakan and Kachin ? for
equal rights and autonomy in a federal Burma, and called for the withdrawal of
SPDC troops from the ethnic areas. He also urged the international community to
put pressure on the SPDC to allow international observers and reporters complete
free access to all areas of Burma.
Both the Karen and Shan
leadership told CSW that foreign investment in Burma is financing the
dictatorship to continue their repression against the ethnic nationalities.
Instead, the ethnic leadership urged the international community to put pressure
on the junta to engage in meaningful peace talks with the National League for
Democracy (NLD) under Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the ethnic representatives, under
the supervision of the United Nations.
Christian Solidarity
Worldwide-UK and Christian Solidarity Worldwide-Australia jointly conducted a
fact-finding visit into the Karen, Karenni and Shan areas over a period of two
weeks in late November 2002 to ascertain the human rights situation in the
eastern border of Burma.
CSW is an international,
interdenominational Christian human rights and aid organization, with partners
in the UK, USA, Canada, India, Scandinavia, Australia and Hong Kong. Our mission
statement is to ?work for the religious liberty of persecuted Christians,
helping others suffering repression, children in need and victims of disaster
throughout the world?. CSW UK, Australia and Hong Kong have been making regular
visits and providing humanitarian assistance to the displaced in the eastern
border of Burma for many years.
For the full report, further
information, a photograph of a group of landmine victims or crayon drawings of
the atrocities in Burma by children, contact Richard Chilvers at Christian
Solidarity Worldwide on 020 8949 0587 or 020 8942 8810 or email
richard.chilvers@xxxxxxxxxx or visit CSW's website at www.csw.org.uk
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Bangkok Post - Thursday 13 February
2003
Bid to break the impasse
The
defence minister has been given a challenging assignment: to bring Burma's
ethnic rebels to the negotiating table with Rangoon; - Labour Minister Suwat
Liptapanlop has caught the premier's eye, and as the next leader of Chart
Pattana, will he merge his party with Thai Rak Thai?
Defence
Minister Gen Thammarak Isarangkura na Ayudhaya is setting up a committee to see
how to effectively implement Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's initiatives for
peace along the common border with Burma.
Mr Thaksin briefed his
ministers during Tuesday's weekly cabinet meeting about achievements reached
during his two-day official visit to Rangoon last weekend. The premier is
convinced that if there is permanent peace along the border area, it would help
bring development and prosperity to the area, once known as a fierce fighting
zone between Burmese troops and ethnic rebels.
The premier said
Burmese Prime Minister Gen Than Shwe was quite supportive of the idea and had
agreed to let Thailand act as coordinator to help bring ethnic rebels to the
negotiating table with Rangoon.
The premier reportedly instructed
the defence minister, a former armed forces intelligence chief, to help execute
the idea into workable details.
Mr Thaksin believes the relentless
fighting waged by Burmese ethnic minorities has spurred the drug trade, as
rebels produced and sold illicit drugs to finance the war.
``This
task is challenging,'' said the defence minister of his
assignment.
Gen Thammarak is known not only to have special ties
with leading Burmese military junta but also key members of ethnic
rebels.
The defence minister is fully aware of the impasse between
Rangoon and the ethnic rebels, who are bent on fighting if Rangoon does not drop
its precondition that the ethnic rebels first lay down their
arms.
``We have to talk to all parties concerned to see what
compromise can be reached that would eventually help break the impasse,'' the
defence minister said. Gen Thammarak added that at the negotiating table
everyone could propose anything and he was hopeful that finally all sides would
reach a common ground to break the impasse ``if they have a genuine desire for
peace''.
Five minority groups have recently established a united
front against Rangoon. They are the Shan State Army, the Karen National Union,
the Karenni National Progressive Party, the Arakan Liberation Party and the
Kachin National Front.
The KNU and SSA, regarded as the strongest
rebel groups, made their stance clear that unless Rangoon changed its condition
they saw no reason why they should turn up at the negotiating
table.
A defence insider said the issue was quite complicated and
difficult to resolve since there was also involvement of a third powerful party
which, for decades, has given financial and military support to the ethnic
rebels.
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Bangkok Post - Thursday 13 February
2003
EDITORIAL - A novel approach fraught with peril
From the perspective of Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra,. the logic is clear. Thailand is suffering from the rebels' armed
struggle against Rangoon so a Thai should jump in to help them make
peace.
Such a simple recipe. So strange that it hasn't been tried
by any of his predecessors over the past 50-odd years, he might
think.
The prime minister is, of course, choosing to overlook the
cardinal rule of non-interference that governs the conduct of international
relations. Faced with opponents, he might argue that rules are there to be bent,
especially when adherence to them has brought no tangible benefit. Fresh back
from his weekend visit to Burma, the prime minister announced as one of his
triumphs the ruling generals' agreement to let ``us'' play a role in bringing
themselves and ethnic rebels based along the border to the negotiating
table.
General Thammarak Isarangkura na Ayudhya, the defence
minister, has been assigned to follow through on the proposal and will be going
to Burma soon to discuss ways and means of implementing it. While the generals
in Rangoon are yet to give their side of the story, aides say the prime minister
advanced the initiative in the belief that peace between the junta and the
ethnic rebels would contribute to the process of national reconciliation in
Burma and make life easier for Thailand. If the ethnic minorities and the
generals can see eye-to-eye, law and order as well as prosperity would come to
the 2,400km-long border between the two countries. That, in turn, would end the
criss-crossing of refugees, inflow of migrant workers, trafficking in drugs,
overspill of stray shells and spread of lethal diseases that have endangered
Thai people and drained Thai resources in the face of dwindling international
assistance.
Because Thailand stands to directly benefit from peace
between the protagonists, a Thai individual barely qualifies as a mediator, who
by definition has to observe the cardinal rule of neutrality.
In
addition, Thailand hardly enjoys the trust of both sides, which a mediator must
to be effective. While leaning heavily towards the side of the generals, with
two visits by the prime minister in two years, the government has allowed abuses
to go on against ethnic minorities unchecked. The latest was the military raid
on an old Karen village in Sangkhlaburi district of Kanchanaburi in late
December, in which 65 people were rounded up after three houses and communal
rice stocks were burned.
With the consent of protagonists, and all
the support in the world, Malaysian diplomat Razali Ismail, in his capacity as
the United Nations special envoy, has made little headway in his efforts to
encourage dialogue between Rangoon and Aung San Suu Kyi, of the National League
for Democracy. In an interview in November, Mr Razali said the two sides had not
advanced much further than talking about talks.
Given that national
reconciliation in Burma requires agreement between the junta, Ms Suu Kyi and
ethnic minorities, two stages of discussions might be necessary, first between
two groups, before all three come together.
Mr Thaksin's urging for
talks between the junta and the ethnic rebels is sound but he should not advance
himself or Thailand as a mediator. The country has too much to lose from any
default. Another Asian individual or country with leverage over Burma but
sharing no border with it would be better placed.
That, apparently,
was the wisdom that led to the appointment of Mr Razali for the UN-led
effort.
Mr Thaksin should tap his influential Asian friends with
stakes in Burma for ideas on this, rather than act off his own bat and risk
inviting more trouble.
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The Nation
EDITORIAL: Energy minister needs a new
vision
Published on Feb 13, 2003
What was
going through Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra?s mind when he picked his close
aide Prommin Lertsuridej as the new head of the Energy Ministry is anybody?s
guess. Among the possible reasons is Prommin?s background as a student activist
in the 1970s. His connections with activists who today are playing crucial roles
in opposing a number of controversial power plants just might help to break the
impasses that have plagued those projects for nearly a decade.
But
if that?s the case, it could be misconstrued thinking, for what Prommin really
needs to be successful in his new Cabinet post are not his activist connections
but a new vision in energy management.
The more vocal and informed
sections of our society have for some time now been calling for a new direction
in the country?s energy management. So it is not especially pertinent that
Prommin tries to find solutions to individual projects; rather, it is the entire
energy sector that needs reform.
On the one hand, academics and
NGOs are demanding decentralisation of power production, transparency and
accountability in forecasting and planning, while on the other,
environmentalists are seeking alternative energy that is produced from sources
that are locally available and more sustainable, as well as more friendly to
health and ecology than fossil fuels.
For several decades the
management of Thailand?s energy sector has largely been monopolised by two
agencies ? the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) and the
National Energy Planning Office (Nepo).
Naturally they will waste
little time in making their position known to the new minister, but if Prommin
is to listen to them critically, he will not hesitate to point out any flaws in
their policies and practices.
Both agencies still operate on the
assumption that, for reasons of future security, more is better.
That is the reason they have opted to continue expanding the
country?s power supplies. This might have been appropriate prior to the 1997
economic crisis. But with more than 30 per cent of the existing 26,000 megawatts
now sitting idle, it is time for a careful review of our power policy and to
correct the flaws.
For example, Egat should have thought more about
improving its efficiency instead of rushing to invest in the Salween hydro
projects in Burma?s Shan State.
Egat engineers have admitted on
several occasions that much of the current energy supplies are being wasted
because of old and inefficient electricity transmission lines. So why wasn?t
this question of wastage properly addressed before plans were made to build new
power stations?
Dams have long lost their ?flavour of the month?
status in the international community. In respect of the Salween, one of the
world?s major waterways, the dam will not only inundate dense tropical forests
but destroy the homes of many ethnic people in both Thailand and Burma. And
that?s not to mention international condemnation for doing business with the
repressive Burmese regime.
It seems Egat and Nepo have never taken
energy conservation seriously in their five-year power development plans (PDP).
The amount of power to be saved seemed too insignificant.
Apart
from hydro power, the latest PDP continues to focus on imports of fossil fuels
such as coal, diesel and natural gas for power production. This bias has
curtailed initiative as well as resources that could be put into more viable,
sustainable and environmentally safe energy sources. No wonder we have never
fully developed the capacity of solar and wind power.
There is no
more appropriate time for Prommin to ?think differently, act differently?.
Instead of trying to mollify opponents to these controversial projects, he
should transform the sector with a view to ensuring sustainable development and
environmental protection and natural resource conservation.
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The Straits Times - FEB 13, 2003
THU
Thaksin to mediate between Yangon and rebels
BANGKOK - Myanmar has agreed to let Thai Prime
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra play the role of a mediator between the ruling
regime and ethnic rebels, the Bangkok Post said in a report.
It
quoted a source close to Defence Minister Thammarak Isarangkura na Ayudhya as
saying that it was Mr Thaksin's own initiative to help bring about national
reconciliation, hoping it would help solve problems along Thailand's common
border with Myanmar.
If the rebels agree to end their armed
struggle, Mr Thaksin believes law, order and prosperity would return to Myanmar,
a security officer said.
'In the long run that would help solve the
problems of drug trafficking and illegal workers,' he added.
The
officer said a panel would be formed to work out details and help coordinate
talks with leading ethnic rebels in Myanmar.
Mr Thaksin confirmed
this on his return from Myanmar on Tuesday, saying: 'Myanmar is pleased to let
us play a supportive role (in bringing about national
reconciliation).'
The premier was quoted by the Bangkok Post as
saying he raised the issue of ethnic rebels operating along the Thai-Myanmar
border for discussion with his Myanmar counterpart, Senior General Than Shwe,
during his two-day official visit.
He also said that General
Thammarak would soon go to Myanmar to discuss ways to implement his
proposal.
About five minority groups are fighting against the
ruling regime.
Among them are the Shan State Army (SSA), the Karen
National Union, the Karenni National Progressive Party, the Arakan Liberation
Party and the Kachin National Front.
But Col Yawd Serk of the SSA
has said that truce talks with Yangon were unlikely unless it drops its demand
that the SSA lay down its arms first.
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