AFP - Rangers clash with Muslims in
Thai refugee camp, three injured
AFP - Reform drive in Myanmar has
"ground to a halt": US
ABC online -
Burma junta stalls dialogue with
oppsition
Asian
Tribune - Myanmar Govt praises Pinheiro for ?constructive?
role
Asian Tribune - Myanmar:
Deadly SARS prompts isolation
action
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Friday
April 11, 6:59 PM
Rangers clash with Muslims in Thai refugee camp, three
injured
CHIANG MAI, Thailand, April 11
(AFP) - Three people were seriously
injured when paramilitary security opened fire on demonstrators after a clash
with Muslims at a refugee camp in western Thailand, camp officials and witnesses
said.
The incident occurred Thursday night after four rangers
guarding Baegalor refugee camp, in Tak province near the Myanmar border,
detained a Muslim religious figure for attempting to connect a water supply line
without permission, they said.
"After his arrest, the Muslim
leader was tied up at a tree and they cut his beard with a knife," a witness in
the camp told AFP.
"Muslim refugees believed (such an act)
humiliated their religion and their community leader," he said, adding that more
than 100 Muslim refugees then rushed to protect the detained man and attack the
rangers, witnesses said.
Most of the rangers fled the scene but
one pulled out an assault rifle and opened fire into the crowd before people
beat him unconscious, the sources added.
A senior camp official
confirmed the incident, and said one ethnic Karen woman and a Muslim man
suffered gunshot wounds.
"The two refugees are being treated in
the refugee camp medical centre," the official said, adding that the ranger was
taken to hospital in Thasongyone district.
Authorities have
ordered Baegalor camp sealed while they conduct an investigation and boost
security.
Baegalor, located 475 kilometers (295 miles) northwest
of Bangkok, is home to 40,000 mainly ethnic Karen refugees from Myanmar,
including 8,000 Muslims.
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Thursday
April 10, 21:12 PM
Reform drive in Myanmar has "ground to a halt": US
WASHINGTON, April 10 (AFP) - Reform talks between Myanmar's generals and
Aung San Suu Kyi's democratic opposition have "ground to a halt," and the West
is mulling new sanctions on the military-run state, the United States said
Thursday.
A State Department report renewed US concern over
Myanmar's human rights record, its treatment of the opposition National League
for Democracy, and its economic crisis.
Washington and the
European Union are considering whether to impose further sanctions on the
regime, in the event the situation does not improve, the report sent to Congress
last month but released publicly Wednesday, added.
"Efforts to
foster peaceful democratic change in Burma essentially ground to a halt over the
past six months," the Conditions in Burma report, compiled every six months,
said.
"While there have been some positive developments, the
regime has become more confrontational in its exchanges with the NLD, led by
Aung San Suu Kyi, and has offered few signs of progress towards their stated
commitment to a political transition to democracy."
Nevertheless,
the report did note that through a UN-sponsored dialogue, the opposition had
been able to start the task of rebuilding its network, having reopened a quarter
of its offices around the country.
It also noted that Aung San Suu
Kyi, who enjoys firm US support, had been able to visit Shan and Rakhine states
to greet supporters.
But the report bemoaned what it said was the
continued detention of 1,300 political prisoners, and said the promised prisoner
releases had stopped as of late November.
The NLD won an
overwhelming election victory in 1990, which was never recognised by the junta.
In a clear signal that hopes of the last 18 months for an easing
of the rule of the State Peace and Development Council, as the military
government refers to itself, have dimmed, the report raised the prospect of new
punishments by Western states.
"Both the EU and the United States
are now considering the advisability of increasing sanctions on Burma."
Current sanctions include investment bans, and restrictions on
lending to Myanmar by international financial bodies, and have contributed to
the deterioration in the country's economy.
The report warned
Myanmar's banking crisis, prompted earlier this year by soaring inflation and
government restrictions on interest rates, could get even worse.
"Several private banks may fail within the next several months,"
the report said.
"Since the private banks hold a majority of bank
deposits in Burma, this will have a major impact on their customers' savings and
on the payments system throughout Burma."
Ranging through drugs
and human rights concerns, the report repeated allegations, made recently by
several pressure groups that members of Myanmar's armed forces had been involved
in raping ethnic women -- which have been forcibly denied in Yangon.
It also reiterated that Myanmar was cutting back on production of
opium, though it remained a major supplier. Some areas, particulary those
controlled by the ethnic Wa group had seek skyrocketing output of
metamphetamine, it said.
But the report, noting small-scale US aid
to AIDS prevention projects and democracy and social programs in the country,
did hold out a slim hope of help for Myanmar -- should it decide to reverse
course and submit to international demands for political reform.
"Should there be significant progress in Burma in coming months on
political transition, economic reform, and human rights, the United States would
look seriously at additional measures that could be applied to support the
process of productive change."
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The regime has become more
confrontational in its exchanges with the NLD, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, and has
offered few signs of progress towards their stated commitment to a political
transition to democracy.
The report also notes that
1,300 political prisoners remain behind bars and the junta's promised prisoner
releases had stopped as of late November.
Asian Tribune
Date :
2003-04-11
Myanmar Govt praises Pinheiro for ?constructive?
role
By Thet Khaing
Yangon,
April 07 - 13: The government has urged the United Nations special human rights
rapporteur on
Myanmar, Mr
Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, to continue in his role, describing his work as
?constructive and positive?.
?The Government of Myanmar
hoped that the Special Rapporteur would maintain and carry forward his
constructive and positive approach in representing the human rights situation in
Myanmar,? the ambassador to the UN in Geneva, U Mya Than, told a meeting of the
UN Human Rights Commission in the Swiss city on March 31.
U Mya Than said
Myanmar had
achieved ?sustained, steady and significant? improvements in human rights during
recent years.
The ambassador?s comments
followed an address to the meeting by Mr Pinheiro on his latest visit to
Myanmar, which
he cut short after finding a listening device in Yangon?s
Insein correctional facility during an interview.
Mr Pinheiro, who was on his
fifth visit since his appointment in late 2000, left
Yangon on March 24, two days ahead of
schedule.
A UN statement on Mr
Pinheiro?s address said the government had ?expressed regret, apologised and
pledged to investigate the incident and take action against those found
responsible.?
The statement said Mr Pinheiro
had met Secretary 1 of the State Peace and Development Council, General Khin
Nyunt, on March 22 for ?frank and constructive? talks.
The UN envoy said the
government had been supportive of his proposal to assess alleged human rights
abuses in Shan
State and elsewhere.
The proposal follows an
invitation made by the government to Mr Pinheiro late last year to investigate
the allegations.
Mr Pinheiro also welcomed the
government?s cooperation with the international organisations in a bid to
improve human rights standards, the statement said.
He said human rights workshops
sponsored by the Australian government, a government assurance to cooperate with
international non-government organisa-tions and its continued cooperation with
the International Labour Organisation were positive steps in ? building
confidence at the international level?.
The Australian government has
conducted nine human rights courses in
Myanmar during
the past three years. Earlier this year,
Canberra has announced a new
three-year training program focused on the rights of women and
children.
In February, the government
for the first time allowed a visit by Amnesty International and promised
continued cooperation with the London-based group.
The statement quoted Mr
Pinheiro as saying that while such developments were welcome, they were no
substitute for ?real advancement on substantial human rights issues where the
progress had regrettably been very limited and not at the pace or level that he
had expected.?
- The
Myanmar Times:
April 07-13 -
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Asian Tribune
Date :
2003-04-11
Myanmar:
Deadly SARS prompts isolation action
By Health Reporter Nwe
Nwe Aye
Yangon,
April 07-13: THE government has stepped up measures aimed at isolating
Myanmar from a
deadly form of pneumonia that has caused scores of deaths throughout the world,
most of them in East Asia.
The temporary measures include
an order for the
Myanmar
embassies in Hong Kong and
Singapore to
stop issuing visas and a ban on
Myanmar citizens
from travelling to both destinations, which took effect on March
28.
They follow the deployment of
medical teams at Yangon and
Mandalay international airports two
weeks ago to screen arriving passengers for symptoms of the disease, known as
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
The latest measures were
announced on April 1 by Secretary 1 of the State Peace and Development Council,
General Khin Nyunt, in his capacity as chairman of the National Health
Committee.
General Khin Nyunt told a
meeting of the committee that the decision to introduce the visa ban followed
the discovery that a returning Yangon resident had stayed
at a hotel in Hong Kong linked to the SARS outbreak in
the territory.
He said the resident, a
28-year-old German employed by the Uniteam shipping company, had shown no
symptoms of the virus when he was screened at Yangon
airport on March 29.
The businessman is among more
than 4200
Myanmar and
foreign travellers to have been screened by the airport medical
teams.
General Khin Nyunt said the
temporary ban on travel to Hong Kong and
Singapore
excluded Myanmar
working there, going there as transit passengers, and merchant
seamen.
He urged the Ministry of
Health to extend surveillance activities to checkpoints along the borders with
Thailand and
China, where the
disease is first believed to have emerged in
Guangdong
Province last
November.
A senior official from the
Health Department told Myanmar Times late last week that
Myanmar had
recorded no cases of SARS.
Dr Soe Aung, the department?s
deputy director-general, urged the public to remain vigilant and report any
suspected cases.
Meanwhile, Myo Theingi Cho
reports travel agents and hotels say bookings have fallen by between 10 per cent
to 25 per cent because of the SARS scare and the effect of the war in
Iraq.
Mr Kazuto Yamazaki, from the
Legend Travel and Tour company, said cancellations were running at about 10 per
cent, but noted that bookings for April were low anyway because it marked the
start of the low season.
Another company that
specialises in the Japanese market, SM Tours and Transport, said three big
groups from
Japan had
cancelled trips to
Myanmar.
?Compared to last April,
bookings are down by about 25 per cent,? said U San Win Chein, the tour manager
at SM.
The managing director at
Sunbird travel company, Mr Werner Rumpf, said about 10 per cent of its bookings
had been cancelled, most by travellers in western countries.
Traders hotel said
reservations were down about six per cent compared to the same time last
year.
The hotel?s reservations
manager, Ko Win Kyaw Oo, said most of the cancellations were from
Hong Kong,
Singapore and
Thailand, which
have been badly affected by the SARS outbreak.
The Grand Plaza Parkroyal
hotel reported a few cancellations from the
United States
because of the war in
Iraq but said it
had not lost bookings because of SARS.
Reservations at the Pansea
hotel were down by up to 30 per cent on the same time last year, said its room
division manager, Ko Aung Ko Ko.
- The
Myanmar Times:
April 07 - 13 -
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