Please visit this
page and sign the petition for Mr. Soe Myint, the Editor (Founder) of Mizzima
News
http://www.petitiononline.com/soe123/petition.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------
BURMA RELATED NEWS - February 25,
2003.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
HEADLINES
--------------------------------------------------------------------
AP - Along the
India-Myanmar border, a people celebrate _ and worry about _ their culture
AP - Thai army
officer killed in Golden Triangle drug raid
Reuters - Myanmar
rejects charge Suu Kyi verdict political
Asia Times -
Myanmar: Real reform or a nervous junta?
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Along the
India-Myanmar border, a people celebrate _ and worry about _ their culture
Mon Feb 24, 8:34 PM ET
By
WASBIR HUSSAIN, Associated Press Writer
LEKHAPANI, India (AP)- Khaong Imphum left home more than
two weeks ago, hiking and taking car rides through the mountains of Myanmar and
into India to reach this small town.
"I'm very excited," said
Khaong, a petite 20-year-old woman wearing a red hand-woven dress, taking a
break from the dancing and drumming of the festival that brought her. "It feels
really nice to be with my own people in a different country."
Every year, in the mountains of eastern India, members of the
ethnic group known as the Singpho in India, and the Kachin in neighboring
Myanmar, gather to celebrate the Shapawng Yawng Manau Poi ? a festival that
honors their ancestors, but is also increasingly a rallying point for their own
cultural identity.
The Singpho in India, who number about 15,000
and are concentrated here in the northeastern state of Assam and neighboring
Arunachal Pradesh, are just one small outpost of far larger Kachin communities
in Myanmar and China.
They are afraid for their future in India,
worried they will be swallowed by the larger ethnic groups, particularly the
Assamese, who dominate the area.
They speak the Kachin language in
a region where Assamese is commonly used. They are Buddhists among larger
populations of Hindus, Muslims and Christians. Even their clothing ? men and
women often wear pants formed by cloth they wrap around themselves ? differs
from the Western garb typically seen here.
"Our identity is at
stake," said Gauri Gam Singen, a teacher from Ouguri, one of the 27 Singpho
villages in Assam. "We fear we could get lost due to assimilation with the rest
of the communities in the area," he said, speaking in Assamese.
While India's northeast is riven by often-violent ethnic
separatism, the Singphos, who sometimes refer to themselves as Kachin, are proud
of their citizenship.
"We are Indians first, then Kachins. We want
to live in India, but with our culture and identity intact," said Rajesh
Singpho, a young community leader.
The issue of cultural
protection is largely focused now on language and marriage. Community leaders
are requesting that the state government switch to the Kachin language for
Singpho primary schools, and are also encouraging Singpho to marry within the
tribe.
While the task is daunting, they have not lost hope.
Innaw Ladgam, a college student from Arunachal Pradesh, said the
festival was one way to keep the culture alive. "We get to meet our kinfolk from
far and near that help us stay united," he said.
He is among some
2,000 members of the community ? most of them Singphos from India ? who came to
the two-day gathering, celebrating their heritage under a huge covering of
bamboo poles and palm leaves.
The festival was held along the
Stilwell Road that crosses the India-Myanmar border to the Kachin heartland in
Myanmar. The road, built by U.S. forces in World War II and named for the
American Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell, eventually reaches into the Chinese city of
Kunming, another Kachin stronghold, some 1,700 kilometers (1,020 miles) from
here.
Community leaders, as well as the governments of Assam and
Arunachal Pradesh, want the road's border crossing ? closed after India's
independence from British rule in 1947 ? reopened. The nearest border post
between India and Myanmar is hundreds of miles away, making legal travel nearly
impossible in the area. While the governments of India, Myanmar and China have
met in recent years to discuss reopening the road, no decisions have been
reached.
"We can no longer afford to have walls around us," said
Pradyut Bordoloi, who is Assam's forest minister and a member of the State
Assembly.
The Singphos, who are believed to have crossed into
Assam in the 18th century, think of themselves as an international community.
"Our people are spread over India, Myanmar and China. Our land was ... divided
by manmade boundaries," said Pabitra Ningda, a tea planter.
Even
today, borders barely exist for many of them. Soldiers may guard passes in the
cloud-capped Patkai mountains that separate India and Myanmar, but villagers can
easily cross the frontier on innumerable foot paths.
At the
festival, turbaned boys and girls performed the Thongka Manou, the main folk
dance of the Singphos, while organizers were busy arranging a meal of buffalo
meat and steamed rice wrapped in banana leaves.
Then, the meal
over, the Singphos danced into the night.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Thai army officer killed in Golden Triangle drug raid
Tue Feb 25, 4:28 PM ET
BANGKOK,
Thailand (AP) _ An army officer
leading a raid in northern Thailand was killed by suspected drug traffickers,
becoming the first army officer slain in the country's ferocious crackdown on
illicit drugs, officials said Tuesday.
The three-month campaign,
launched Feb. 1 by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has claimed the lives of
about 500 suspects, a 9-year-old boy and a pregnant woman in drug-related
incidents.
Human rights groups have voiced concerns over the
killings, accusing police of following a ``shoot-to-kill'' policy or arranging
the shootings. Police say just 22 of the killings were carried out by officers,
acting in self defense.
Sgt. Samai Songsri, 38, was leading 40
soldiers in a Tuesday morning raid on Pakzeam, a hilltribe village in Chiang Mai
province about 580 kilometers (370 miles) north of Bangkok, when a villager
hiding in a hut shot and killed him.
The gunman escaped through
the back of the hut, an army spokesman told The Associated Press on condition of
anonymity, adding that soldiers had launched a search for the suspect.
Pakzeam village is part of the notorious Golden Triangle, an area
along the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos where drug production
flourishes.
The village was targeted in the clampdown after
intelligence sources confirmed that it had been used as a transit point for
drugs trafficked from neighboring Myanmar, also known as Burma.
The anti-drug campaign has focused on the stimulant
methamphetamine, produced mostly in jungle laboratories along the Myanmar
border.
Thai officials estimate that up to 1 billion
methamphetamine tablets will be trafficked into the country this year, fueling
an addiction crisis among some 3 million Thais.
Despite criticism
and a sharply rising death toll, the campaign has won broad public support,
according to a poll published Monday showing that 70 percent of respondents were
satisfied with the government's tough measures.
But another poll
found that 52 percent believed police had at least tacit connections with
killings they have attributed to feuding drug traffickers.
Meanwhile, the Education Ministry released a report Tuesday
listing 42 school officials suspected of involvement in drug trafficking,
according to the state Thai News Agency.
Education Minister
Pongpol Adireksarn was quoted as saying that 39 of them worked at the elementary
school level and that most of them were teachers.
At least a dozen
of the suspects have been dismissed, and 14 of them are currently under
investigation, Pongpol said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Myanmar rejects charge Suu Kyi verdict
political
YANGON, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Myanmar's military government
rejected on Tuesday an allegation that a recent court verdict sentencing
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to one week in jail or a small fine was
politically motivated.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy
(NLD) party said the military prompted a cousin of the NLD party leader to file
a case against her in a domestic dispute.
After a standoff in a
Yangon court on Friday when the opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate
refused to pay the fine, the sentence was suspended by a higher court pending
review.
``The government of Myanmar categorically rejects the
charge by the National League for Democracy that the recent court verdict
against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was politically motivated,'' the government
spokesman's office said in a statement.
The junta accused Suu Kyi
of ``hypocrisy'' for protesting the ruling, in which her cousin, Soe Aung, was
also found guilty and fined.
Suu Kyi filed a lawsuit against her
cousin last year shortly after her release from 19 months house arrest. She
accused him of ``outraging the modesty of women'' after a scuffle outside a
residence they share on May 10.
Soe Aung then filed a suit of his
own, accusing Suu Kyi of ``wrongful restraint'' for barring him from entering
the compound.
The court sentenced Soe Aung to one week in jail or
a 1,000 kyat fine, which he paid the same day. Suu Kyi received a 500 kyat fine
or a week in jail, but refused to pay.
The official exchange rate
in Myanmar is six kyat to the U.S. dollar, making the fine about $83. However,
it takes about 1,000 kyat to buy a dollar on the widely used black market.
Suu Kyi's NLD won 1990 elections in Myanmar by a landslide but was
denied power by the ruling military. Suu Kyi has spent much of the past decade
under house arrest.
Her latest release in May came after heavy
international pressure and months of U.N.-mediated confidence-building talks,
sparking hope the junta was moving towards reform.
But the talks
have stalled and the gulf between the opposition and military appears to be
widening.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Asia Times - Feb 26, 2003
Myanmar:
Real reform or a nervous junta?
By Alan Boyd
SYDNEY - The military regime in Myanmar, prodded by close
ally China and fears of a social backlash from a crippled economy, may be
preparing to come in from the cold. The reclusive junta has sent out a series of
diplomatic signals in recent weeks that appear to offer democratic reforms in
exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions that are draining off badly
needed foreign investment.
In its latest statement, issued in
Yangon late last week, the junta offered to open a dialogue with the United
States on "making the transition to a stable democracy".
"The
government invites the US to join us in open constructive dialogue toward
humanitarian, economic and political development," an official spokesman said.
According to the US State Department, no formal approach had been
made as of Friday. However, some European diplomats believe change may be in the
air, pointing to a more conciliatory tone in the junta's stream of anti-Western
vitriol.
How far the junta might be willing to bend is not clear,
as Washington and its allies are unlikely to accept anything less than an end to
the military's harsh three-decade hold on power. But the message coming out of
Yangon is that it wants a tradeoff: some form of power-sharing agreement in
return for the acceptance of Myanmar back into the global community.
"We have seen this pattern before of deflecting international
censure by means of limited concessions that can easily be rolled back once
attention has shifted somewhere else," said a European envoy. "What we do detect
is an erosion of their comfort zone, and this is probably an economic reaction.
The sanctions are hurting, and [the generals] evidently don't know which way to
turn".
Imposed by the European Union and the United States in
1996, the sanctions have succeeded in diverting foreign investment elsewhere,
with dozens of multinationals opting to pull out to avoid retail boycotts.
Direct capital inflows from abroad fell by 14.7 percent in the first 10 months
of 2002 compared with the same period a year earlier, according to the Central
Statistical Organization, with only the oil and gas sectors holding firm.
About US$7.4 billion has been committed since Myanmar launched
market reforms in 1988 that ended 26 years of self-imposed isolation. But a
substantial portion of this capital never arrived. One reason is that
nationalists have gradually regained the political ascendancy, even passing an
edict last March that restricts trade activities by wholly-owned foreign firms.
However, the sanctions affect only a relatively narrow band of
resource and manufacturing industries with links to the business and political
elite, and have had little impact on the junta's siege mentality. It is more
likely that the reform overtures are a reaction to the social fallout from
economic privation, partly caused by inept public policies, which has become a
sensitive political issue.
Farmers rioted in some rural regions
late last year over the poor government response to severe flooding that pushed
up food prices and exposed the inadequacy of the state's social-security system.
Agriculture contributes 40 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and employs
three-quarters of the population, but is hampered by a breakdown of transport
and distribution networks, and an obsessive interest in costly mechanization
processes.
Likewise, the urban middle classes are incensed over
the junta's failure to arrest a steady currency devaluation, blamed on the
sanctions and a spiraling budget deficit, that has wiped out scores of dollar
fortunes. Last week the government was forced to bail out ailing private banks
after a rush on Yangon deposits that was apparently sparked by the collapse of
shady investment schemes.
Inefficient state-owned enterprises are
another revenue drain, with most functioning as umbrellas for cronyism and
political loyalty. Privatization efforts have foundered because the bulk are not
considered worth retaining.
Military self-interest is a prime
cause of public resentments. The budget deficit is popularly believed to have
resulted from a failure to check rampant corruption and massive spending on
military hardware and infrastructure - the latter often with a defense
objective.
Undeterred, fiscal chiefs have responded to the revenue
shortfall by imposing punitive tax measures that have merely added to the
economic burden and created fresh village tensions.
As social
pressure builds, the junta is looking for a way out that will not require too
many political sacrifices. But some observers doubt that this will be possible
in the prevailing economic conditions.
"Achieving a national
consensus to resolve Burma's economic crisis requires a national dialogue that
will also address the legitimacy deficit, the political instability, and the
social justice concerns of the population," the pro-reform Burma Fund warned in
a recent report. "Without fundamental political reforms, no government can hope
to solve the economic crisis in Burma."
Pressure has also come
from some unlikely external sources. Malaysia and Singapore, two of the leading
foreign investors in Myanmar, have both urged the junta to open a dialogue, as
have Japan and China. The Chinese connection is viewed as crucial, as Beijing
has become Myanmar's most influential neighbor by virtue of a generous program
of development aid and a growing defense relationship.
Anxious to
secure a route to the Indian Ocean for its landlocked western provinces, China
has said publicly that it wants the leadership to make enough concessions to
ensure a stable and durable system of government. Junta leader General Than Shwe
met last month with Chinese President Jiang Zemin and party leader Hu Jintao in
what was seen partly as an attempt by China to speed up the lagging reform
process.
China is also believed to have played a role in the
release from house detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi last May,
and the resumption of direct talks between the military and her National League
for Democracy (NLD).
However, opposition remains strong in Yangon
against any further concessions to the NLD, which won a democratic election
after a bloody nationwide uprising in 1988, but has never been allowed to take
power.
"Frankly, the talks are less a statement of intent than a
convenient shield against additional sanctions. They have not make any
appreciable progress and we don't expect this position to alter until there is a
collective political will to change," said another diplomat.
Intelligence strongman Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, the
third-ranking member of the junta, indicated in August that it had no intention
of handing over power to Aung San or anyone else. "The world is full of examples
where a hasty transition from one system to another led to unrest, instability
and even failed states," he said.
But that was before the death in
December of influential former ruler Ne Win, whose implacable opposition to a
deal with the NLD had been widely viewed as the biggest impediment to reform. It
was Ne Win who dragged Myanmar - then known as Burma - into isolation in 1962
and played the central role in the suppression of the failed 1974 and 1988
pro-democracy movements.
Although he stepped aside in 1998 to
reduce tensions, the former postal clerk and army officer was believed to still
be the central junta figure until his family was implicated in a farcical coup
plot last March. Skeptical diplomats believe that the "coup" was fabricated to
discredit and neutralize the 92-year-old Ne Win, who was hindering efforts to
establish a political formula that would ease external pressures without
loosening the junta's grip.
This is believed to be based on a 1990
concept of allowing the NLD to operate openly as an opposition grouping while
guaranteeing the armed forces a continuing role as power broker - probably by
transforming the junta into a political party.
There would
probably be no role for Aung San Suu Kyi, even though her late father is
recognized as the founder of modern Burma and is revered in military circles for
his role as a liberation fighter against the Japanese and British colonizers.
Suu Kyi, by comparison, is despised and feared by the junta for her enormous
grassroots popularity. It appears likely she will be forced into the background
as part of any political compromise.
"I don't think they can
accept her on any terms, and nor can she be seen to serve alongside the
architects of the NLD's downfall. What they will want is people they can more
easily control, the NLD moderates," said the European diplomat.
"But we are getting a little ahead of ourselves. Genuine change,
if indeed there is any, will come slowly and on the junta's terms, when it feels
sufficiently assured of its own position in the new order to allow in
newcomers."
--------------------------------------------------------------------
|