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BURMA RELATED NEWS - March 17,
2003.
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HEADLINES
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AP - Myanmar leader
says anti-drug efforts ignored
AP - Southeast
Asian foreign ministers to discuss looming war on Iraq at informal meeting
AP - U.N.
human rights body meeting opens under shadow of likely war in Iraq
AFP - Myanmar junta
leader leaves Vietnam after official visit
PNS - BD Wants
Close Relation With Myanmar To Reduce Dependence On India
Asian Tribune -
Vietnamese, Myanmar leaders discuss ways to elevate
co-operation.
IB - 'Myanmar ready
to lease land for rice cultivation'
Bernama - Asean
Foreign Ministers Start Arriving For Informal
Meeting
Mizzima - SPDC
fails to take action against rapist in Kachin
State
Mizzima - Rajya
Sabha worried by Indo-Burma border problems
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Report:
Myanmar leader says anti-drug efforts ignored
Sun Mar 16, 6:10 AM
ET
YANGON, Myanmar (AP)- A top Myanmar leader has accused some Western
nations of ignoring the country's anti-drug efforts for political reasons,
state-run newspapers reported Sunday.
Gen. Khin Nyunt, the
military government's third-ranking leader, cited U.S. figures that showed sharp
declines in the cultivation of opium poppies, used to make heroin, according to
a report in the state-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper.
"However, some
western powers turned a blind eye to Myanmar's anti-drug achievements for
political reasons and has categorized Myanmar as a nation not cooperating in
anti-narcotics efforts," Khin Nyunt was quoted as saying in the Myanma Ahlin
newspaper. The report appeared in two other official newspapers.
The report did not say which countries Khin Nyunt was referring to
in the remarks made Saturday at the country's Drug Elimination Museum in Yangon.
Khin Nyunt said Myanmar would strive to eradicate drugs from the
country by 2014.
Myanmar is the world's second-largest producer of
opium after Afghanistan (news - web sites), even though opium production
declined from 2,560 metric tons (2,822 U.S. tons) in 1996 to 630 tons (694 U.S.
tons) in 2002, according to U.S. figures.
But as opium production
has fallen, production of the illegal stimulant methamphetamine has boomed in
jungle laboratories along the Thai-Myanmar border, Thai officials say.
The Myanmar regime has long been criticized for failing to crack
down on illegal drug production. Western anti-drugs aid has been limited because
of the junta's poor human rights record and failure to hand over power to a
democratically elected government.
The United States has
repeatedly refused to certify Yangon's government as meeting its standards for
drug crackdowns, effectively denying almost all U.S. aid to every government
sector.
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Southeast Asian foreign ministers to discuss looming war
on Iraq at informal meeting
Mar 17 5:09 AM
ET
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP)- Southeast Asian foreign ministers are
expected to voice strong opposition to a looming war in Iraq at an informal
meeting beginning Tuesday in Malaysia, a senior diplomat said.
Ong
Keng Yong, secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said
the stand of the 10-member grouping "is we should not have war because war is
going to bring us all kinds of economic problems," the national news agency
Bernama reported.
After an emergency summit Sunday in the Azores
with allies Britain, Spain and Portugal, U.S. President George W. Bush made it
clear that diplomatic efforts for Iraq to disarm its alleged weapons of mass
destruction would end by Monday night.
The three-day meeting of
ASEAN foreign ministers will be held at a beach front resort in Sabah state on
Borneo island. Ong said the ministers would not issue any statement to condemn
the war during the informal talks.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed
Hamid Albar said he believed war was imminent even without U.N. approval as
"nobody can stop the United States because they are the world's superpower."
Syed Hamid said the 24-hour deadline to the United Nations was
tantamount to challenging the world body's credibility.
"It is
important not to reduce the state of the U.N. Security Council to nothingness,"
Bernama quoted him as saying.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad has voiced strong opposition to a U.S.-led war against Iraq, even with
the U.N. Security Council's approval.
The ASEAN foreign ministers
meeting will be followed by a meeting of senior officials from members countries
of the ASEAN Regional Forum on counterterrorism and transnational crime on March
21 at the resort in Sabah.
The two-day meeting will bring together
officials from foreign ministries, armed forces and law enforcement agencies of
ARF member countries.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia,
Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
ARF consists of the 10 ASEAN members plus Australia, Canada,
China, the European Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, North and South Korea (news -
web sites), New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Russia and the United States.
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U.N. human
rights body meeting opens under shadow of likely war in Iraq
Sun
Mar 16,11:09 AM ET
By NAOMI
KOPPEL, Associated Press Writer
GENEVA
(AP)- The United Nations' top human
rights body starts its annual six-week meeting Monday under the shadow of a
likely war in Iraq that has activists fearing that nations will hold off
condemning the worst offenders for political reasons.
The United
States regularly seeks to attack China's human rights record during the U.N.
Human Rights Commission, and also backs criticism of Russia for alleged abuses
in Chechnya. But this year Washington desperately needs the support of the two
permanent Security Council members as it tries to obtain a resolution on
attacking Iraq.
"It is possible that the United States may
sabotage a Chechnya resolution in the name of securing Russian support for an
Iraq resolution at the Security Council," said Kenneth Roth, executive director
of New York-based Human Rights Watch.
Observers also believe it is
unlikely that Washington will even propose a resolution criticizing China this
year.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de
Mello also expressed his concern about the political horse-trading surrounding
the meeting.
"When you start linking human rights issues to
national interest, national strategies, geopolitics of one or several members of
the United Nations then you're lost," he said.
"I realize each of
these issues must be put into its political context. But when human rights
issues are used or misused or not used to serve political interest ... then
obviously I regret it."
There was no immediate comment from the
United States, whose delegation is expected to arrive in Geneva only shortly
before the meeting opens. Jeane Kirkpatrick, former U.S. ambassador to the
United Nations during President Ronald Reagan's administration, will head the
U.S. delegation.
The commission, founded by former U.S. first lady
Eleanor Roosevelt in 1946, considers a wide range of human rights issues, from
torture, physical attacks and executions to the right to food, housing,
education and free speech.
The 53-nation body is always turbulent,
but looks set to be doubly so this year after members elected as chairwoman the
ambassador of Libya ? a country described by the United States as having a
"horrible" human rights record.
A number of other countries widely
accused of human rights abuses also are members of the commission this year,
including Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.
The members are
elected to two-year terms by the U.N. Economic and Social Council based on
regional groupings. The chairmanship traditionally revolves between the regions
and this year fell to Africa. Libya was the only candidate put forward by the
African Group.
"There is a perverse incentive that exists within
the U.N. today where ... governments that are the most disrespectful of human
rights have the greatest incentive to try to get on the Human Rights Commission
because their top priority is to avoid condemnation," Roth said.
"Some two dozen governments are on the commission not to uphold
the purposes of the commission but rather to frustrate it. That needs to be
changed."
Human Rights Watch proposes that countries should only
be eligible for election to the commission if they have ratified the major human
rights treaties, allow free access to commission investigators and have not been
recently condemned by the body.
Such a rule would affect several
unlikely countries, including the United States, which has refused to sign a
number of major treaties, and Australia, which withdrew its standing invitation
to human rights investigators after criticism of its policies on asylum seekers.
"We believe standards of that sort are necessary, otherwise we
aren't far from seeing abusive governments holding a majority, and that will
turn the Commission into a laughing stock," Roth said.
The
European Union this year is expected to table resolutions attacking the human
rights situation in Sudan, Congo, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, North Korea, Iraq, Congo
and Chechnya. For the first time, the EU and the United States also plan a joint
resolution criticizing the Central Asian state of Turkmenistan.
Poland, which is due to join the EU next year, may bring a
resolution on Uzbekistan at Brussels' urging.
The EU also leads an
annual assault on the death penalty, to the irritation of the United States,
China and a few others, while members pass a string of resolutions criticizing
Israeli actions in the Palestinian territories despite U.S. opposition.
Last year, the United States was not a member of the commission
and maintained a low profile. No other country came forward to propose a
resolution condemning human rights in China, and the condemnation of Cuba only
narrowly passed.
Washington is again trying to persuade Latin
American countries to come forward with a resolution on Cuba, and likely will
itself sponsor a resolution on human rights abuses in Belarus.
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Myanmar junta leader leaves Vietnam after official visit
HANOI, March 17 (AFP) - Myanmar's military leader Senior General
Than Shwe left Vietnam Monday after a three-day visit to strengthen bilateral
relations with the communist country.
Than Shwe headed for home
after meeting with Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh, a
foreign ministry official said.
The junta head held talks with
President Tran Duc Luong and Prime Minister Phan Van Khai on Saturday and with
Vietnam's National Assembly chairman Nguyen Van An on Sunday.
The
talks focused on promoting economic and trade ties and co-operation.
Last year trade between the two countries stood at 12 million
dollars but they are hoping it will increase to 30 million dollars by 2005.
Vietnam and Myanmar, both authoritarian regimes and targets of
Western criticism over their human rights records, retain close political
links.
The
visit was Than Shwe's third to the communist nation. He was last here in 1998
for Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit.
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PakNews.com
BD Wants Close Relation With Myanmar To
Reduce Dependence On India
Updated on 2003-03-17 12:33:54
DHAKA, Bangladesh: Mar 17 (PNS) - The alliance government of Bangladesh
strives to develop closer relations with her immediate neighbour Myanmar to
reduce dependence on India.
The two-day visit of Bangladesh Prime
Minister Begum Khaleda Zia to Myanmar that begins on March 19 next is expected
to bring the two neighbouring countries closer.
The visit takes
place in the shadow of India's relentless media campaign and postponement of
food grains export to Bangladesh. Among others, Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan,
Commerce Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury and senior government officials
are expected to accompany the Prime Minister.
Bangladesh and
Myanmar are expected to set up a joint trade commission during the visit.
Commerce Minister of the two countries are expected to head the proposed joint
trade commission, which will regularly review trade and identify products for
exchange.
The two neighbours are also expected to change the
existing border trade agreement signed in 1994 to prohibit trading of third
country products.
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Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-03-17
Vietnamese, Myanmar leaders discuss ways to elevate
co-operation.
Hanoi, March 15: President Tran Duc
Luong and chairman the State Peace and Development Council of the Union of
Myanmar, Senior General Than Shwe, discussed orientations and measures aimed at
elevating the two countries' multi-faceted co-operation in the future at their
talks in Hanoi on March 15.
The talks was held after Chairman Than
Shwe's arrival in Hanoi in the morning of March 15 to begin a three-day official
friendship visit.
The senior general was welcomed in a red-carpet
ceremony by President Tran Duc Luong, who said the visit would help strengthen
the traditional friendship and comprehensive co-operation between Vietnam and
Myanmar and promote the bilateral ties, especially in economy and
trade.
At the talks, President Luong underscored Vietnam's
consistent policy of placing importance in promoting friendship and co-operation
with Myanmar on a bilateral basis as well as within the co-operation framework
of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the region and the world
at large.
For his part, Chairman Than Shwe expressed his hope for
further expansion of friendship and mutually benefit co-operation with
Vietnam.
The two leaders were satisfied with developments in the
two countries' traditional friendship and multi-dimensional co-operation.
Particularly since President Luong's visit to Myanmar in May last year, the two
countries have increased their constant contacts, exchanged visits, and boosted
their economic and trade ties.
They underlined their resolve to
press ahead with the implementation of the signed agreements in such areas of
the two countries' potential as economy, trade, agriculture, forestry, health
care, and education on par with their political ties.
On
international issues, they held that, in face of complicated developments in
regional and international arena, the two countries should step up their
co-operation and co-ordination in order to consolidate unity and co-operation in
ASEAN for peace, co-operation and development in Southeast Asia and the world at
large.
They emphasised their active involvement in the sub-Mekong
region co-operative projects on the basis of ensuring the harmonious interest of
the Mekong upstream and downstream countries.
On the afternoon of
the same day, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai met with the visiting Myanmar senior
general. Prime Minister Khai affirmed that the Vietnamese people always bear in
mind the Myanmar people's support for Vietnam's past struggle for national
liberation.
The two countries should work out concrete measures to
develop their co-operative relations for the mutual benefit, he further
said.
In addition, Vietnam is able to co-operate with Myanmar in
the fields of agriculture and fisheries.
Vietnam has obtained
remarkable achievements in eradicating hunger and reducing poverty in recent
years, and is ready to exchange its experiences with Myanmar, Mr Khai
stressed.
Mr Khai agreed with his guest that the two countries
should enhance co-operation in education, health care and culture in addition to
trade and business.
For his part, Senior General Than Shwe noted
that the trade ties between his country and Vietnam remain modest and that
effective and practical measures should be taken to raise the two-way trade
turnover, thus making it equal to the existing friendly ties between the two
countries.
Senior General Than Shwe said he hoped that Myanmar and
Vietnam would further expand their co-operation in education, health care and
culture.
In the evening, President Luong and his wife hosted a
banquet in honour of Myanmar Chairman Than Shwe and his wife.
They
raised toasts to the prosperity and happiness of Vietnam and Myanmar.
(VNA)
- Nhan Dan -
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Independent-Bangladesh
17-03-2003.
'Myanmar ready to lease land for rice
cultivation'
BSS, Dhaka
The whole trade
statistics of Bangladesh with Myanmar will come under change once the proposed
agreements on account trade and direct shipping services will be signed between
the two countries, said business sources.
On this point a business
source in Dhaka told BSS that Myanmar's real export to Bangladesh stood at US$
171 million last year, but officially, the export value has been reported only
at US$ 16.94 million. Bangladesh's export to Myanmar appears to be over US$ 50
million at the same time but the officially reported statistics refers it to US$
2.39 million.
Explaining, how it happens, the source said, most
Myanmar exports to Bangladesh come through Singapore and treated as Singapore's
export here. The bulk of these transactions on both sides take place through
informal exchange of money called hundi transaction.
The business
sources said these anomalies in the trading would slowly disappear once the
proposed account trade agreement will be signed and direct shipping from both
sides would start moving. Both the agreements are scheduled to be signed during
Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia's three-day official visit to Myanmar beginning
on March 19.
A 16 member business delegation is leaving Dhaka on
March 18, prior to Prime Minister's departure for Yangoon. Noted industrialist
and president of Bangladesh-Myanmar business council Rashed Maksud Khan will
lead the business team. There will be also a week-long Bangladesh trade fair in
the Myanmar capital on this occasion to which about 90 Bangladeshi firms are
going to participate, said the sources.
Sources said that the visit
of Bangladesh Prime Minister to Myanmar which is taking place following a
similar visit of Myanmar Prime Minister to Dhaka recently, is being considered
as significant in the diplomatic circle.
Actually, it is the
outcome of Bangladesh's eastward move which Dhaka initiated in recent past in
search of more trade gains and economic development, they said. agreement on
direct shipping services, the source said in the first phase it will be between
Bangladesh and Myanmar, only to be extended with Thailand in the next
phase.
This is how the eastward move is working, said the source
pointing to parallel initiative to revive the road link with Myanmar as well. It
will ultimately end up to opening road link with Thailand, he said. Referring to
new opening in trading, a business source said, Bangladesh has started exporting
RC coal to Myanmar which is used in manufacturing corrugated tin sheet. A
business house in Chittagong recently exported its first 10,000 tons consignment
to a buyer in Yangoon. That buyer used to buy it earlier from suppliers in Japan
and Korea and now he has replaced it with a Bangladeshi
supplier.
Bangladesh's business stalls in Yangoon's trade fair will
also put on display the CR Coal items. Other products to be on display in the
fair will include varieties of industrial products, cables, toiletries, ceramic
and melamine products, CI sheets, cement, softwares and garments accessories.
As Bangladesh is having a huge export potential, so also Myanmar
is having it in the form of rice, timber, fish, bamboo and a host of other agro
products and industrial raw materials.
Myanmar is even ready to
lease land for rice cultivation by Bangladeshi entrepreneurs, said Rashed Maksud
Khan. He said Myanmar was once the focal business point in this part of the
region and Yangoon was its business hub.
" We want to rediscover
Yangoon's business potential once again," he said talking about the forthcoming
visit of his business delegation to that country.
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Malaysia National News Agency
March 17 , 2003
20:27PM
Asean Foreign Ministers Start
Arriving For Informal Meeting
KOTA KINABALU, March
17 (Bernama) -- Asean foreign
ministers and senior officials began arriving in this seafront city Monday for
the three-day Asean Foreign Ministers Informal Meeting at Nexus Resort
Karambunai, about 25km from here.
Among those who arrived today
were foreign ministers of Cambodia Hor Namhong, S. Jayakumar of Singapore and
Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar.
Asean
Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong, who assumed the post late last year, also
arrived for the meeting.
Met by reporters at the Kota Kinabalu
International Airport here this evening, Syed Hamid said being an informal
meeting, there would be no specific agenda to be deliberated on.
"I think this is a free-wheeling discussion, there is no fixed
agenda. It will cover intra-Asean issues and how to further strengthen the
grouping as well as issues in East Asia and Iraq and other matters concerning
member countries," he said.
They are also expected to discuss
preparations for the 36th Asean Ministerial Meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in
June.
"We hope this informal meeting will forge closer friendship
among Asean member countries on matters of common interests like politics and
economy," he said.
Asked whether there would be bilaterals on the
sidelines of the meeting, Syed Hamid said: "I don't think there will be...we
will be meeting in a very informal environment and if there is anything to talk
about, we always talk."
Asean, formed in 1967, groups Malaysia,
Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore, which are Asean's founding
nations, and Brunei, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.
Following the informal meeting, an Asean Regional Forum (ARF)
Inter-Sessional Meeting on Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime will be
held at the same venue on March 21 and 22.
The ARF, which would
focus on movements of people, goods and security documents, would be in pursuant
to the decision reached at the 9th ARF in Brunei Darussalam in July last year.
The ARF was formed in 1994 during the post-Cold War era to promote
confidence-building, preventive diplomacy and conflict resolution in the
Asia-Pacific region.
ARF comprises the 10 Asean member countries
and its 10 dialogue partners namely Australia, China, Canada, the European
Union, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea and the United States.
Mongolia, North Korea and Papua New Guinea are also members of the
ARF which is an annual dialogue and consultation forum among foreign ministers
of member countries. -- BERNAMA
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SPDC fails to take action against rapist in Kachin State
Mizzima News
11 March 2003
According to
locals, a young Kachin girl from Li Su was raped and killed by a Chinese gold
trader in Shwe Maw, a gold-digging area situated in Myitkyina Township in Kachin
State. Reportedly, local SPDC authorities have not yet taken any action with
regard to this incident.
The rapist is reported to have left a
bundle of 3-lakh kyats on the girl?s corpse. The girl was only 20 years old and
had been working for a Chinese-owned gold digging business.
Licenses for gold digging along the Irrawady were issued and sold
by the SPDC-controlled Northern Star Company from 2001. Many gold digging plots
are occupied and run by Chinese, employing local people at Dong Fang Shwe Maw,
La Pha Shwe Maw, and Mali Yang Zup Shwe Maw.
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Rajya Sabha worried by Indo-Burma border
problems
Mizzima News(March 16,
2003)
Guwahahti: In a bid to solve the perennial
border dispute between India and Burma, the Burmese junta has submitted a
"four-point" formula to the Indian External Affairs Ministry. Indian External
Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha informed the Rajya Sabha that the ministry was
examining the formula submitted by the "Myanmar Government" to solve the border
tangle.
Rajya Sabha members expressed serious concern over the
spurt in activities of militant groups and increasing drug trafficking along the
Indo-Burma border. They also voiced concern regarding encroachments by the
Burmese junta on a vast stretch of Indian land near the Tamu sector, which
causes upsetment among people living along the border. Worries were expressed
specifically at the fact that no initiative had been undertaken either by Burma
or by India despite the growing militancy problem.
Worries are
occasioned mainly because several areas of the international border have yet to
be demarcated. The Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Mizoram have
witnessed a series of violent incidents perpetrated by the underground
organisations from the Burmese side. Moreover, taking advantage of a lack of
border surveillance, drug trafficking is also on rise in northeast India.
The External Affairs Minister informed the House that the Indian
government had already taken up the matter with his Burmese counterpart during
his recent visit to India.
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