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BURMA RELATED NEWS - February 19,
2003.
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HEADLINES
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Reuters - FTC
Considers Unocal Fuel Patent Charges
Reuters - Myanmar
banks besieged by fearful customers
AFP - Drugs prices
skyrocket as Thailand's anti-drugs war bites hard
AFP - Pressure must
be maintained for change in Myanmar: Aung San Suu Kyi
Bkk Post -
Account-trade first for Thailand, Burma
The Nation -
EDITORIAL: Climate of distrust is all-pervasive
BBC - Burma limits
bank withdrawals
Asian Tribune -
Mae Hong Son business suffers after ban on
Burmese
Asian Tribune - PTT signs fuel distribution deal with
Myanmar
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Wednesday February
19, 7:02 AM
FTC Considers Unocal Fuel Patent
Charges
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Trade
Commission is considering bringing charges that Unocal Corp. formed a monopoly
in the West Coast gasoline market through clean-fuel patents, a source familiar
with the FTC's deliberations said on Tuesday.
A meeting on the
issue had been scheduled for Tuesday by the FTC's five commissioners but was
postponed due to heavy snow. It will likely be held later this week, the source
said.
The imminent FTC decision was first reported by the Wall
Street Journal, which said the charges against Unocal would allege that its
patents could drive up pump prices in California and elsewhere by as much as 5
cents a gallon.
Lawyers close to the case told the Journal that
the FTC's investigation found it could cost consumers $2 billion to $4 billion
over the life of Unocal's patents on the gasoline blended to meet state
clean-air standards.
At issue is whether Unocal helped California
come up with clean-fuel standards without disclosing it had applied for patents
on some of the formulas.
Unocal denies that it misled California
regulators, and says that its dealings with the state are protected under the
law, according to the report.
"These are valid patents," Charles
Strathman, Unocal's chief legal officer, told the newspaper, and if the FTC
challenges them, "they are changing the rules in the middle of the game."
"The hard evidence in the case law shows that Unocal didn't do
anything improper," Barry Lane, a Unocal spokesman, told Reuters. "In fact, this
same matter has already gone through the courts -- the U.S. District Court in
Los Angeles, the Court of Appeals in D.C., and it was before the Supreme Court."
"This effort with the Federal Trade Commission has been a
political effort by the defendants in the case. We want to take it out of that
political arena and into the impartial light of the courts," said Lane.
Unocal rival, Exxon Mobil Corp. asked the FTC to probe the patent
claims back in early 2001 after the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a ruling that
it and other oil companies owed patent fees to Unocal.
The vote to
file federal administrative charges against Unocal is expected to be unanimous,
the Journal said. The FTC is expected to allege that in the early 1990s, Unocal
helped the California Air Resources Board and federal regulators come up with a
clean-fuel standard without disclosing that it had also sought patents on some
of the formulas, the article said.
Unocal spokesman Lane said the
company did nothing improper by not disclosing its patent applications and said
that CARB officials testified during a 1997 trial that they weren't deceived or
misled by Unocal's behavior.
The Journal also reported on Tuesday
that a U.S. federal appeals court has said it will rehear an earlier ruling and
decide whether to reinstate a civil lawsuit against Unocal for alleged brutality
against villagers in Myanmar.
Shares of Unocal closed up 38 cents,
or 1.5 percent, to $26.52 on the New York Stock Exchange
Tuesday.
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Myanmar banks besieged by fearful
customers
BANGKOK, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Hundreds of people queued
outside banks in military-ruled Myanmar on Tuesday, fearful for their savings
after authorities imposed limits on withdrawals to slow a run on deposits,
witnesses said.
Runs on banks started last week amid mounting
concern following the collapse over the past few months of 16 deposit-taking
companies that had lured investors with exorbitantly high interest rates.
The panic withdrawals have continued despite an assurance of
banks' viability by the impoverished Southeast Asian nation's central bank last
week, forcing the military government to impose limits on bank deposit
withdrawals on Friday.
About 1,000 people lined up outside the Bo
Aung Kyaw Street branch of the country's largest private bank, the Asia Wealth
Bank, in central Yangon on Tuesday.
Dozens of plainclothes police
were among the crowd and the bank was kept closed until the afternoon, when
people were allowed in to make withdrawals.
Dozens of people also
gathered outside the branches of other smaller private banks around the city.
``We were allowed to withdraw one million kyat last Friday, but on
Monday they limited withdrawals to 500,000 kyat per week,'' said one
businessman. ``This morning, we are now only allowed to withdraw 100,000 kyat
per week,'' he said.
The official exchange rate in Myanmar is six
kyat to the U.S. dollar. On the black market it is about 1,000 kyat to the
dollar.
``Withdrawals suddenly surpassed deposits due to panic
drawing. Now the central bank has controlled the withdrawals of all banks,'' a
central bank official told Reuters.
The government has blamed the
run on deposits on ``destructive elements'' spreading false
rumours.
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Wednesday February 19, 1:57 PM
Drugs prices skyrocket
as Thailand's anti-drugs war bites hard
BANGKOK,
Feb 19 (AFP) - The price of
methamphetamines in Thailand has skyrocketted more than 200 percent since the
start of an all-out war against drugs.
Six government ministries
met here to review the anti-drugs campaign which officials have said has claimed
596 lives since it was launched 19 days ago and led to the seizure of more than
six million amphetamine tablets.
"In Bangkok the price of
methamphetamines soared to 200 baht (4.65 dollars) per tablet from 60 baht,
while in Chiang Mai the prices jumped to 300 baht from 100 per pill," they said
in a statement.
The crackdown had led to drug addicts in Thailand's
northeastern regions to cross into Laos where methamphetamines cost only 20 to
30 baht a tablet, they said.
The campaign is aimed at ridding the
kingdom of drugs within three months, with some four percent of the population
estimated to be addicted to methamphetamines which pour in from neighbouring
countries, notably Myanmar.
Office of Narcotics Control Board
Lieutenant General Chidchai Vanasathidya told reporters after the meeting that
only 319 people killed in the campaign were on an official blacklist of
suspected traffickers.
"Of all more than 500 dead people there were
only 319 on the drug blacklist and police must investigate the motive of the
killings and arrest culprits in the more than 200 other deaths," Chidchai
said.
He said the government was considering measures to protect
witnesses to prevent "cut out" killings -- in which traffickers could kill
people to stop them from talking to police.
The interior ministry
said Tuesday that 588 had been killed in the anti-drugs campaign, although
police on Monday announced 319 deaths. Chidchai said officials were working to
reconcile these figures.
He said the campaign, which officials say
has curbed trafficking, would turn its focus onto major drug dealers. "In the
next move the government would concentrate on major drug dealers being both
arrested and prosecuted, as well as confiscation of assets."
The
statement said the campaign had curbed drug smuggling into Thailand by ethnic
minorities in north and northeast, although smuggling in the south had
increased.
Interior Minister Wan Muhamad Nor Matha said the
ministries and the ad hoc National Drug Suppression Centre would investigate
some 720 government officials accused of being involved in trafficking.
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Pressure must be maintained for change in Myanmar: Aung
San Suu Kyi
BANGKOK, Feb 19 (AFP) - Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said
international pressure should be maintained to force military-ruled Myanmar to
move towards democracy, a fellow Nobel peace laureate who met her said
Wednesday.
Jody Williams, 1997 Nobel peace prize winner and a
campaigner against landmines, visited Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar this week to
deliver personal messages of support from other laureates, a statement released
here said.
Aung San Suu Kyi, herself a Nobel peace laureate, said
at their meeting that the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
would have to engage in dialogue with other groups in Myanmar to achieve peace,
the statement from the Nonviolence International Southeast Asia organisation
said.
"There is no way for the SPDC to escape dialogue if we want
to achieve a peaceful transition," Aung San Suu Kyi was quoted as saying.
Williams said: "Outside of the country there is the usual debate
about whether outside pressure helps or hinders the dialogue process.
"On this point Suu Kyi was very clear that pressure both inside
and outside the country are critical to bringing about democracy in Burma
(Myanmar), and noted that such pressure has already made a difference."
Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy
(NLD), was released from 19 months of house arrest in May. Her party won general
elections held in 1990, but the military government refused to recognise the
result.
"Despite numerous competing demands for the international
community's attention, and even though Suu Kyi has been freed from house arrest,
the policy of her party remains unchanged: the time is not right for foreign
investment, lifting of sanctions nor tourism in Burma," the statement said.
"The time will be right when there is meaningful dialogue which
moves forward the process of democratisation in Burma."
Aung San
Suu Kyi was optimistic for the future of her country, it added.
"She stated that the struggle has gone on for too long, and that
the people of Burma should not have to wait much longer, but is firm in her
conviction that democracy will prevail," it said.
The statement
also noted the increasing number of landmine victims in Myanmar, formerly called
Burma, where the military government's fight against ethnic rebels has resulted
in the planting of landmines.
"Victims are claimed by an
increasing number each year and more land is polluted by landmines laid by all
sides in the armed conflict which continues in the border areas of the country,"
the statement said.
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Bangkok Post - Wednesday 19 February
2003
Account-trade first for Thailand, Burma
Thailand and Burma have signed a deal for their
first account-trade transaction with an initial value of US$1.5 million (64.5
million baht).
The system is a measure to boost intra-Asean trade
and reduce foreign-exchange risks. Cash is used only to cover any discrepancy in
value at the contract's end.
Thailand's Public Warehouse
Organisation and the Myanmar Agricultural Product Trade will manage the
deal.
Thailand intends to buy 11,000 tonnes of mung beans, black
beans and soya beans, 2,000 tonnes of maize and 400 tonnes of black tiger prawns
and fish fillets in the next six months. Burma plans to import construction
materials such as floor tiles and aluminium frames, second-handed machinery and
more than 16,000 tonnes of steel products.
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The Nation
EDITORIAL: Climate of
distrust is all-pervasive
Published on Feb 19, 2003
Shan State Army leader Colonel Yawd Serk was right to
dismiss suggestions that Thailand could play a mediating role between Burma's
ethnic groups and the generals in Rangoon. Yawd Serk accused the Burmese junta
of not being sincere with their offers of negotiation. He deemed the green-light
for the Thai government to get involve in bringing an end to the conflict in
Burma as a ploy to crush the ethnic armies, some of whom have been fighting for
autonomy for over 50 years since independence from Britain.
The
veteran combat leader, who controls pockets of resistance in Burma, said
"surrendering weapons alone is not the way to restore peace and tranquillity in
the Shan State".
Indeed, past experience has shown that whenever
Thailand tries to broker a peace deal between Burma and its insurgent groups, it
always ends up putting the latter in a worse off position.
Be they
Mon, Karenni or Karen, Thailand's efforts do not seem to include a sense of
fair-play or justice for the minority groups.
Moreover, Thailand
has never done anything to earn the trust of the Burmese generals, who have
consistently accused the country of using the anti-Rangoon forces as
proxies.
But judging from the lucrative natural resources in these
areas, it is not difficult to see the motives behind the Thai involvement. Greed
and vested interests always rear their ugly heads. And so when Thai officials
come to Rangoon, one can be sure that the Burmese generals are waiting
eagerly.
Yawd Serk's statement was seen as an attempt to put the
brakes on the idea that Thailand should become a mediator.
One can
speculate as to what motivates the Shan commander, whom Burma has consistently
accused of being a Thai proxy, to make such a statement.
It should
be noted that the accusation of being a proxy also goes the other way. The Thai
Army has said the same about the 20,000-strong pro-Rangoon United Wa State Army,
nearly half of whose troops are situated along the Thai border, producing
methamphetamines and flooding the Kingdom with them all year
round.
Moreover, the suggestion of giving financial rewards to
Burmese troops for making drug arrests has come across to many as a very absurd
idea. It would not be hard for the underpaid, overworked Burmese government
soldiers to exploit the system. But this time around, it is the Thai premier who
has initiated the idea.
What Thailand has failed to understand is
that the drug problem, which is overwhelmingly methamphetamines-related, is not
on the supply side of the equation.
Officers in the front line
along the northern border say plenty of precursors and raw materials are readily
available to make up for any shortfall in supply resulting from Thai law
enforcement. All the drug producers have to do is to order new batches to be
manufactured at a snap of their fingers.
To make matters worst,
Thailand's soft approach towards Burma has permitted Rangoon to turn a blind eye
to the illicit activities of the country's drug lords, most of whom operate
independently along the Thai border.
For years, the world community
has condemned the Burmese government for turning a blind eye to the crimes of
the drug lords and their armies, be it the Kokang and the Shan of the past
decade, or the Wa of today.
Yawd Serk was right to say that the
Burmese generals are more interested in "annihilating their opposition and
subduing all non-Burmese ethnic nationalities" than seeing a genuine, permanent
peace and a drug-free Thai-Burma border.
There has never been a
sense of trust between the ruling junta and its minority groups. One should not
forget that those so-called "ceasefire" groups are just what they are -
cease-fire. Nothing more.
And until Burma can come up with a
genuine political settlement acceptable to all parties, Thailand will continue
to bear the brunt of its neighbour's internal problems.
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BBC - Wednesday, 19 February, 2003, 08:57
GMT
Burma limits bank
withdrawals
Reports from Burma say the authorities
have imposed limits on cash withdrawals and money transfers to prevent a run on
banks.
The move follows panic withdrawals last week, after the
collapse of two deposit companies offering high interest rates.
The reports say government assurances failed to allay the fears of
hundreds of people who queued up to withdraw their savings.
They
are now restricted to withdrawing 500,000 kyat a week, a figure officially worth
more than $70,000, but said to be worth no more than $500 at the unofficial
rate.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
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Asian Tribune
Date :
2003-02-19
Mae Hong Son business suffers after ban on
Burmese
Mae Hong Son, February 18,
(TNA): The Mae Hong Son Chamber Commerce today urged the provincial
administration to reconsider a ban on small-scale Burmese traders buying goods
in the province, saying that the local economy was suffering as a
result.
Mr Phoolsak
Sunthornphanichakij, chamber president, said that the ban, in effect since
January, had caused a worrying reduction in amount of cash circulating in the
local economy. An easing of the restriction allowing large-scale Burmese traders
to purchase goods from Mae Hong Son shops had done little to solve the problem,
as they found it difficult to transport the goods back across the border due to
an army ban on lorries crossing the border into
Myanmar.
Mr Phoolsak warned that he
would raise the matter with the provincial governor in the middle of next
month.
One large-scale Burmese
trader, Mrs Ah Fang, said that she took goods from
Myanmar to sell
in Mae Hong Son, retuning with foam flip-flops and vegetable oil to sell in
Myanmar.
However, due to the army ban on lorries crossing the border transportation costs
had soared, and she now had to hire people to carry the goods across on their
backs.
She said that if the ban was
lifted traders from Tong Kee district in
Myanmar would be
able to conduct more business in Mae Hong Son.
But provincial governor Suphot
Laowansiri denied that the province banned Burmese traders from crossing over
into Mae Hong Son, saying that local officials had perhaps misinterpreted
orders. He said that the province was always supportive of border trade, and
expressed confidence that before long Mae Hong Son businesses would hear good
news about the opening of a permanent checkpoint.
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Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-02-18
PTT signs fuel distribution deal with
Myanmar
Bangkok, Feb 18 (TNA): PTT Plc has signed a
deal with the state-owned Myanmar Petroleum Product Enterprise (MPPE) to
distribute fuel worth one billion baht a year through two border passes in
Myanmar.
Apisit Rujikeatkamchorn, senior executive vice president
of PTT, said the company would supply the fuel worth around one million baht a
month through the two petrol stations in Song Island opposite the southern
province of Ranong and Tha Khelex opposite Mae Sai District of Chiang
Rai.
The fuel supplied by PTT will include gasoline, diesel and
lubricant oil. We will become a single distributor of fuel in the border passes.
The deal will strengthen ties of the two oil companies and add value to products
of each other.
He said PTT also had plan to negotiate to supply fuel in other
areas in Myanmar where the demand for oil has gradually increase in tandem with
the country's development.
Still, PTT did not intend to set up
service stations in the country yet because it was rather difficult for the
company to oversee its petrol stations established overseas.
He
said the PTT's service station in Tha Khelex would be under the management of
the Myanmar government.
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