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BURMA RELATED NEWS - March 16,
2003.
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HEADLINES
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AFP - Myanmar
releases 45 prisoners
AFP - Wa drug lord
denies ordering hit on Thai PM: report
Channel NewsAsia -
Some 800 people take part in Singapore Polytechnic
relay
Asian Tribune - U
Lwin castigates - Resolutions on Burma so far are not put into force
effectively
The Boston Globe -
Within Burma's outward smiles, winces of pain
NST - Student
killed, two injured in a fight
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Sunday March 16,
1:56 PM
Wa drug lord denies ordering hit on Thai PM: report
BANGKOK, March 16 (AFP) - The commander of Myanmar's United Wa State
Army (UWSA), said to be the world's largest drug army, has denied hiring a hit
man to kill Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, according to a report
published Sunday.
UWSA's Bao Youxiang dismissed recent charges by
Thai authorities that his group was responsible for placing a bounty on
Thaksin's head worth a reported 80 million baht (1.88 million dollars).
They are "groundless rumours," he said in a telephone interview
with The Nation newspaper from his Panghsang headquarters in northern Myanmar.
"Our group does not have the capacity to carry out such an
operation."
Thaksin on Wednesday said he had been targeted by
foreign mafia-style elements furious over his government's ruthless war on drugs
which kicked off February 1.
Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit
Yongchaiyudh said he believed recent reports that Bao Youxiang and his associate
Wei Hsueh-kang were responsible for the death threat on the premier.
Most of the methamphetamines sold in Thailand are believed to be
produced in neighbouring Myanmar by ethnic Wa groups, particularly the
Yangon-aligned UWSA.
Yangon denies it is involved in producing the
stimulant pills, hundreds of millions of which are expected to flood into
Thailand this year according to police.
Bao Youxiang also told the
paper his group is not engaged in illegal drug production or trafficking. The
United States says the 20,000-man UWSA is the world's largest drug army.
Thaksin's anti-drugs campaign has reduced the trafficking of
methamphetamines into Thailand, but police say it has also led to the deaths of
nearly 1,500 people, mainly traffickers killed by drug bosses aiming to silence
their associates.
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Sunday March 16, 6:17 PM
Some 800 people take part in
Singapore Polytechnic relay
Channel NewsAsia - Some 800 runners recently took
part in the annual Singapore Poly Campus Relay which covered some 30 kilometres
of the campus.
The participants, with painted faces and in colourful attire,
included the polytechnic's staff, students, alumni members and even secondary
school students.
Singapore Polytechnic's School of Business
director, V Maheantharan, said: "It's a great opportunity for me to mingle with
the students and to lead my staff team at the race itself. I think it's an
incentive for me to keep fit."
Kaung Sitt, a Myanmar student, said:
"In Myanmar, we participated in Mayor's marathon. We participated individually
and not really like a team. It seems like it's promoting team spirit more
here."
Five cast members of MediaCorp's Channel 5's forthcoming
drama "Light Years" were also at the race to lent their
support.
"Light Years, first of all, is set in a poly as well. So,
like Poly 50 Relay, we need a lot of support from our friends and team spirit,"
said MediaCorp actress Caroline Cheong.
And team spirit was
definitely in the air, as the runners continued their run despite the downpour.
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Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-03-16
U
Lwin castigates - Resolutions on Burma so far are not put into force
effectively.
U Lwin, the Secretary of the National
League for Democracy let out his exasperation over those resolutions, which are
yet to be implemented. He has expressed utter futility of the UN Special Envoy
Paulo Sergio Pinheiro report to the Human Rights Commission and said, ã?»He (Paulo
Sergio Pinheiro) has not changed his attitude and his reports will follow the
usual pattern. We have got used to this. We gain nothing from
itã?»
In an interview with the Burmese language service of the Voice
of America, U Lwin castigated: no discussions have been held yet. In practice
all his recommendations do not become resolutions. Resolutions have been taken
one after another. There are now over 10 resolutions. Not one resolution has
been effectively carried out. This is my personal reaction. I do not know about
the others. Resolutions are passed, but it depends on the agencies to
effectively implement them. The UN Agencies in a country have to deal with the
government and the rulers there. They know the hard existing facts so
resolutions remain as resolutions and they can never be entirely
implemented.
The following is a transcript of an interview with NLD
Secretary U Lwin regarding NLD's views on the report of UN Special Envoy Paulo
Sergio Pinheiro who will be in Burma from the 19th to the 26th March. His
previous visit was in October of last year.
In his report to be
submitted to the Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva, Switzerland between
the 17th and 24th March, he has stated that, the sooner the international
community assist the better and smoother the change will be in Myanmar, that
difficulties for political change exist and that high expectations for immediate
transition is not practical.
U Lwin: He has not changed his
attitude and his reports will follow the usual pattern. We have got used to
this. We gain nothing from it.
VOA: Mr. Pinhero was appointed by
the United Nations. His report is important. Isn't it?
U Lwin:
Reports are important but how effective are they? His report will be submitted
to the Commission then a draft resolution is written as a matter of procedure.
There are sections that are accepted and others are not. This recommendation may
or may not be included in the resolution.
My view is that making
this recommendation will be better for his entry here. He is trying to please
all three kinds of audiences and this is nothing unusual for him. I said that we
gain nothing by this because it is not a UN resolution. He can think what he
likes, write what he likes. What is important is the resolution taken by those
who read the report.
VOA: What is your reaction to Mr Pinheiro's
recommendation that the policy be engagement and not isolation?
U
Lwin: People do not act on what he says. Will Mr Bush act according to what he
says? Will the EU listen to him? You can understand this, I think. Mike Obrien's
report the other night was not in conformity with his recommendation. He writes
like this, and then he comes here and has discussions. He hasn't arrived here as
yet. No discussions have been held yet. In practice all his recommendations do
not become resolutions. Resolutions have been taken one after
another.
There are now over 10 resolutions. Not one resolution has
been effectively carried out. This is my personal reaction. I do not know about
the others. Resolutions are passed, but it depends on the agencies to
effectively implement them. The UN Agencies in a country have to deal with the
government and the rulers there. They know the hard existing facts so
resolutions remain as resolutions and they can never be entirely
implemented.
VOA: What about the release of prisoners? How is that
progressing?
U Lwin: It is not happening. Not even a hint of such.
They just say things but in fact and in truth prisoners are not being
released.
VOA ã?»We hear that more arrests are being made. Are they
arresting people in large numbers now?
U Lwin ã?»The latest report in
the papers is about the arrest of 7. After interrogation, 4 were released. I
know that Shan U Saing Nyunt Lwin, Assistant Secretary was arrested. He has not
been released neither has his case been sent to court.
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The Boston Globe
LETTER FROM
RANGOON
Within Burma's outward smiles, winces of pain
By Rafael D. Frankel, Globe Correspondent,
3/16/2003
ANGOON, Burma -- Ivy grows outside apartment
walls, most buildings are cracked, and the sidewalks in this once-elegant
capital are crumbling. Still, Rangoon is sprouting luxury hotels, high-rise
office buildings, and its fair share of upscale nightclubs.
Burma is a
country of contradictions, but the signs that it is deteriorating are not all
visible. Instead, they lie in the frayed fabric of a nation coming apart at the
seams, falling behind in its economic, educational, and health care
status.
Except for the short bananas sold on street corners for a
few cents apiece, life here contrasts sharply with some other Southeast Asian
capitals.
In Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and in Hanoi -- both bouncing
back from decades of conflict -- motorbikes buzz around, carrying their busy
drivers to and from work.
In Rangoon, the streets are clogged with
20-year-old cars running on spare parts and spewing black exhaust. The military
junta that runs Burma and that refers to the nation as Myanmar, has outlawed
motorcycles in the city and has raised taxes on cars so high that only the rich
can afford new vehicles.
Burma, as one Western expatriate put it
recently, ''is an undeveloping country.''
According to the United
Nations, more than 35 percent of Burmese children suffer from malnutrition in
what was once called the Rice Bowl of Asia. The health-care and education
systems are in shambles, threatening to produce an entire generation in which
ignorance and disease are the norm rather than the exception.
It is
hard to determine exactly why the Burmese are no longer getting enough to eat.
''It's nearly impossible to get the true story,'' said a Western diplomat, who
like others here spoke only on condition of anonymity. ''You cross-reference
your facts and the things that match up three or four times you call the
truth.''
So goes information dissemination in a totalitarian
country.
Most likely, a combination of uneven distribution and
overexporting has increased by more than 100 percent the prices for staples such
as rice and cooking oil, the diplomat said. ''The poorest could face an
increasingly difficult situation,'' he reported.
Meanwhile, only half of
Burma's children complete Grade 5 because of gross underfunding by the
government and an ingrained bribery system. Although school is supposed to be
free, some teachers ask parents for ''donations.''
In addition, the
younger generation is not keeping pace in learning English. When visitors need
directions or are curious about current events, it is Burmese at least older
than 40, who studied under the remnants of the English colonial system, who can
speak with foreigners.
The effects of the education system are
being felt in several ways. For example, there are no qualified architects or
engineers to build the military's pet-project bridges over the Irrawaddy River;
Chinese and Europeans are recruited instead.
In addition, there are
no doctors coming up to take the place of those who are retiring, no small
problem for a country where HIV infects almost 500,000 people, according to the
United Nations, and is spreading rapidly. And with endemic cholera and
tuberculosis, a public health crisis exists from which there is no discernible
escape, a local doctor said.
Pinched by a government-mandated
25-cent consultation fee, the relatively few young Burmese doctors are
cutcorners -- and endangering their patients -- by reusing syringes, the doctor
said.
With myriad ills afflicting Burma, the people would be
forgiven if they sank into societal depression. Nevertheless, as with all
Southeast Asian countries, a gentle smile is still the rule.
''The
Burmese are the most charming oppressed people in the world,'' American author
Jeff Greenwald said after a recent
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New Straits Times
Student killed, two injured in a
fight
Jalina Joheng
KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 16:
A college student was killed while two others suffered injuries following a
fight in a coffee shop in on Jalan Desa, Kepong early today.
Gombak
police chief Assistant Commissioner Massari Hashim said Dicky John, 21, from
Sarawak, succumbed to his injuries at a car park near an apartment block in Desa
Dua Apartment at Desa Aman Puri Kepong about 4.30am.
Earlier, John
and his friends were having drinks after playing snooker game nearby when they
were approached by eight foreigners.
"It was learnt that the eight
men, believed to be Myanmar nationals, confronted the victims and started
attacking them with beer bottles," Massari said.
After they were
attacked, the students walked home to seek help from their housemates but John
collapsed and died near the carpark.
Massari said police had taken
statements from the victim's housemates and eye-witnesses. The motive for the
attack is still being investigated.
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