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BURMA RELATED NEWS - April 21,
2003.
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HEADLINES
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Reuters - Singapore
Airlines says regional unit to cut flights
Reuters -
INTERVIEW-UN Myanmar envoy frustrated by Yangon, seeks visit
Reuters - INTERVIEW-Iraq
crisis boosts case for UN overhaul-Razali
Asia Pulse - Indian
Govt May Ban Some Countries From Bidding for Oil Blocks
AP - 30 N Koreans Held in
Australia Drug
Bust
TI - Myanmar
junta ignoring peace: Karen rebels
The Nation - Timberscam logs cannot be found
The Nation - Crime Does 'pay'
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Monday April 21,
5:21 PM
Singapore Airlines says regional unit to cut
flights
SINGAPORE, April 21 (Reuters) - Singapore Airlines Ltd said on Monday
its regional carrier SilkAir will cut flights in May due to a drop-off in demand
from the deadly SARS virus, bringing the total reduction in services to 35 per
week.
Singapore Airlines said in a statement that the latest
service reductions, which includes flights cancelled in April, brings the total
capacity cut to 24.3 percent.
The affected flights include
services to Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar and
Cambodia.
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INTERVIEW-UN Myanmar envoy frustrated by
Yangon, seeks visit
By Patrick
Chalmers
KUALA LUMPUR, April 21 (Reuters) - United Nations envoy to Myanmar, Razali
Ismail, said on Monday he wanted to return there at once for another try at
brokering talks between the military government and the opposition led by Aung
San Suu Kyi.
The veteran Malaysian diplomat was last in Myanmar,
the impoverished Southeast Asian country also known as Burma, more than five
months ago.
He said he was now waiting for a fresh invitation from
the ruling military to return.
``I am concerned that I have not
gone back there for more than five and a half months,'' Razali told Reuters in
an interview.
``I think it is very important that I be given a
chance to go back to Myanmar right now.''
Frustrated with the lack
of progress on dialogue on political reform in Myanmar, Razali said in November
he was considering giving up his post. He later said he would soldier on.
The Yangon junta seemed last week to hint it was willing to start
talks with Suu Kyi, saying in an unusually conciliatory statement it had
``complete trust'' in her commitment to ensuring the ``smooth and stable
development of Myanmar.''
The text, issued to deny allegations
security personnel had harassed Suu Kyi during her travels outside the capital
Yangon, said the military welcomed constructive dialogue, particularly on
education, health and economic development.
But Razali played down
hopes the statement signalled a breakthrough and said the military was
apparently only being positive in connection with Suu Kyi's movements, not
political dialogue, as initially thought.
``We all grabbed at
something indicative of much bigger than what it is,'' Razali said of the
military's statement. ``I had hoped so, I would have been delighted if this had
been so.''
Confidence-building talks between Suu Kyi's National
League for Democracy and the junta led to her release from house arrest last
year, raising hope for talks on ending four decades of military rule.
But the NLD, which won a landslide election victory in 1990 but
was never allowed to govern, is still waiting for talks.
Razali
said the military government's failure to extend him a fresh invitation to visit
was not a good sign.
``It's going to the point where it's
negative. The international community must draw its own conclusions,'' he said.
Razali rejected the suggestion the military was stalling for time
on reform, saying there were reasons for delays. But he said he wanted the
generals to honour their commitment.
``I would hold the government
to the public commitment that they've made -- that they are the last military
government in Myanmar and that they are in the process of transition.''
Nobel peace prize winner Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar's
independence leader Aung San, has spent years under house arrest since getting
involved in politics during a failed pro-democracy uprising in
1988.
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INTERVIEW-Iraq crisis boosts case for UN
overhaul-Razali
By Patrick Chalmers
KUALA LUMPUR, April 21 (Reuters) - Reform of the United Nations is now
needed more than ever since the Iraq crisis has revealed the shortcomings within
the institution, one-time General Assembly president Razali Ismail said on
Monday.
The Malaysian diplomat, who led the last major push to
overhaul the U.N. system in the late 1990s, said the U.S.-led attack on Iraq
might have been avoided had the Security Council already been revamped.
``The world has to search for a new formulation,'' said Razali,
who is the U.N. special envoy to Myanmar.
``The Security Council
cannot be involved in huge issues that deal with security and the lives of
people on the basis of its present structure. That surely must be clear to
everybody,'' he said in an interview with Reuters.
The career
diplomat is touted as a possible replacement to Secretary-General Kofi Annan
when he retires, with the post due to go to an Asian under a traditional
rotation system.
But Razali denied any ambition to take the job.
His 1997 plan suggested the Security Council be enlarged to 10
permanent members from five, and to 14 non-permanent members from 10, mainly to
boost the presence of developing countries in a body dominated by World War
Two's victors.
He said such an institution would be harder for the
United States, or any other country, to ignore.
``If you are not
able, on a predictable basis, to get the Americans to accept that their best
interests lie through doing things with the U.N., then you have a problem.
``They can walk away...and do what they want to do. You must not
allow such a situation to happen,'' Razali said, adding Iraq was just such an
instance.
The United States attacked Iraq in March, quickly
toppling President Saddam Hussein's regime.
The assault ended
months of divisive diplomacy that saw Washington able to persuade only a handful
of countries of its charge that Baghdad had weapons of mass destruction.
``If you had read the signs earlier, you would have known that the
Americans weren't bluffing,'' Razali said.
``They had worked out
that they would go to Baghdad one way or another,'' he said, adding U.N.
diplomats and opponents of the invasion could have done more to provide credible
alternatives.
A workable plan to ``de-fang'' Saddam, with support
from major powers in the region such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, was one
possibility, he said.
Razali's reform plan, for a time the focus
of serious lobbying and negotiations, eventually ran out of steam as countries
wrangled over who would get the additional seats.
The Malaysian
said his plan failed in part because of disagreements among developing
countries, singling out Pakistan's opposition to India winning a permanent
member seat as one major obstacle.
Asked about chances of reform,
he laughed: ``I have no clue what the prospects are, but it should be
attempted.''
He rejected the idea that the United States under
President George W. Bush would be an implacable opponent to reform.
``There are people who are alarmed or even disgusted at what's
happened. Even people working in the government of the United States, some of
them that I know, are quite aghast at what has happened.
``We
cannot accept: 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'. In many ways the U.N. is
broken. We have to fix it.''
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Karen rebels accuse Myanmar junta of ignoring peace
overtures
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ An ethnic rebel group of Myanmar on Monday
accused the country's military rulers of ignoring its peace overtures, saying
the junta only wants to perpetuate its power.
The Karen National
Union also admitted blowing up sections of a natural gas pipeline in Myanmar on
March 29 and April 15 to highlight the fact that the responsibility for ``a
meaningful dialogue in Burma lies squarely'' with the junta.
The
KNU, which has been fighting for autonomy for decades, is one of the few
remaining rebel groups in Myanmar, or Burma, which did not sign a cease-fire
with the junta after it took power in 1988.
Peace talks between
the two sides broke down in 1996 and since then the group has had no contact
with the junta.
The KNU is demanding multilateral talks involving
the government, the ethnic minorities such as the Karen and Myanmar's main
opposition group, the National League for Democracy of Nobel peace laureate Aung
San Suu Kyi.
KNU president Ba Thien said in a telephone interview
from his base in the border area between Myanmar and Thailand that the
government was ``buying time.''
``They are trying to delay the
talks, but anyway I still hope that peace talks will take place one day,'' he
said.
In a statement dated April 19, and received Monday, the KNU
said it targeted the gas pipeline also to bring global attention to the junta's
military purchases with revenues from natural gas sales.
According
to the Myanmar government, the section of the pipeline damaged by explosives is
near Hnitkayin village, about 105 kilometers (65 miles) south of the Mon State
capital of Mawlamyine. The other section sabotaged is in Warbotaw village, 21
kilometers (13 miles) northwest of Karen state capital, Pa-an.
The
pipeline carries natural gas from offshore fields for use in Myanmar, and is
considered much less important than another line going to Thailand, Myanmar's
main gas buyer.
The pipeline to Thailand, partly owned by Western
and Thai oil companies, has long been controversial. Human rights activists say
it was built by forced labor, with workers drafted by the government.
If the government ``continues to kill and oppress KNU and the
Karen people, and commit similar abuses against the country, it shall receive
appropriate response and punishment,'' the KNU statement said.
The
junta, which refused to hand over power after losing the 1990 elections to Suu
Kyi's party, began holding reconciliation talks with her in October 2000 but no
progress has been made. Ethnic minorities have been sidelined in the
reconciliation process.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Monday April 21, 3:46 PM
Indian Govt May Ban Some
Countries From Bidding for Oil Blocks
PORT BLAIR,
April 21 Asia Pulse - The Indian
government is likely to debar certain countries from bidding for some oil and
gas blocks to be offered in the fourth round of New Exploration and Licensing
Policy [NELP] to be announced in the first week of May.
"We are
going with the Defence Ministry (on security considerations of oil and gas
blocks). Defence consideration is utmost in our mind while going for
exploration," Federal Petroleum Minister Ram Naik said.
The Defence
Ministry is believed to have suggested that companies from China, Pakistan,
Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh and the entire Arab world be kept out
of the bidding process for the two oil and gas blocks to be offered in the
Andaman and Nicobard Islands due to security concerns.
Refusing to
elaborate on the security concerns raised by the Federal Defence Ministry, Naik
said he would hold another round of discussions with Defence Minister George
Fernandes towards the end of this month where modalities on the blocks to be
offered would be worked out.
Incidentally, the Indian Defence
Minister is currently on a week long tour of China and is expected to return on
April 27. Petroleum Ministry officials said the entire list of countries
suggested by the Defence Ministry may not be barred from NELP-IV bidding.
--------------------------------------------------------------
30
N Koreans Held in
Australia Drug
Bust
Mon Apr
21, 3:22 AM ET
By JAMIE TARABAY,
Associated Press Writer
SYDNEY, Australia - A five-day
sea chase and dramatic boarding by the Australian navy of a North Korean cargo
ship could end up shedding light on the reclusive communist state's alleged
involvement in the international drug trade.
The high seas drama ended
Sunday when special forces troops boarded the 4,480-ton Pong Su in heavy seas
about 75 miles northeast of Sydney. The operation began after the ship's North
Korean captain and crew repeatedly ignored police demands to
stop.
The captain and 29 crew of the
Tuvalu-registered ship were refused bail Monday, and were to appear in court on
Tuesday. None has yet been charged with any offense.
Australian Federal Police
suspect the ship transported 110 pounds of heroin seized last week in southern
Victoria state. Police said the
drugs had a street value of $48 million.
Four men, two Malaysians, a
Singaporean and a Chinese national, were arrested last week in
Australia and
charged with importing the heroin taken from the ship. The body of another man
was found on a beach after he apparently drowned while bringing the drugs
ashore.
The impounding of a
North Korea
(news - web sites) state-owned ship and its crew could have major diplomatic
ramifications for
Australia, a
close ally of the United
States. It comes as
Washington and
Pyongyang prepare for talks on
North Korea's
suspected nuclear weapons program.
Prime Minister John Howard was
informed last Wednesday that the vessel may have to be boarded when the Pong Su
refused orders to sail to the nearest port. He was kept updated on the ship's
movements throughout the course of the week, the Sydney Morning Herald reported
Monday.
When Australian special forces
boarded the boat on Sunday they met with no resistance, but the captain refused
to cooperate as the vessel was searched for weapons, Rear Admiral Rayton Gates,
maritime commander of
Australia, was
quoted as saying.
North
Korea has in the past allegedly resorted to the
drug trade to prop up its flailing economy, and to fund its huge army and
expensive weapons development programs.
Japanese officials have
accused the North Koreans of filtering methamphetamines and other drugs into its
illegal market. They claim a North Korean government agency could be behind the
trade.
In March, Japanese coast
guards nabbed a fishing boat that had traveled through
North Korea with
a supply of drugs.
"It's nothing less than
state-organized crime ? to feed the Japanese stimulants and put them out of
commission," opposition lawmaker Takeshi Hidaka said at the time.
Australian Federal Police
spokesman Tony Negus said he believed the heroin haul in his country originated
from the Golden Triangle area in southeast Asia, one of the world's main
drug-producing areas where the borders of
Myanmar,
Thailand and
Laos
meet.
Australian authorities
impounded the Pong Su in Sydney
Harbor.
After the navy stormed the
ship on Sunday, Howard said the operation showed the government was determined
to stop illegal drugs entering the country.
"This sends a clear signal to
international drug traffickers that Australian authorities are determined to
stop illegal import of drugs and will do whatever is necessary to ensure that
the people responsible face the full force of Australian law," Howard said in a
statement.
The three men arrested last
week were Kiam Fah Teng, 45, and Yau Kim Lam, 44, both Malaysians, and Qwang
Lee, 34, of
Singapore. The
identity of the Chinese suspect was not immediately available.
They face possible life
sentences if convicted of importing the heroin.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Times of
India
Myanmar
junta ignoring peace: Karen rebels
AP[
MONDAY, APRIL 21, 2003
12:14:17 PM ]
BANGKOK:
An ethnic rebel group of
Myanmar on
Monday accused the country's military rulers of ignoring its peace overtures,
saying the junta only wants to perpetuate its power.
The Karen National Union also
admitted blowing up sections of a natural gas pipeline in Myanmar on March 29
and April 15 to highlight the fact that the responsibility for "a meaningful
dialogue in Burma lies squarely" with the junta. The KNU, which has been
fighting for autonomy for decades, is one of the few remaining rebel groups in
Myanmar, or
Burma, which did
not sign a cease-fire with the junta after it took power in 1988.
Peace talks between the two
sides broke down in 1996 and since then the group has had no contact with the
junta. The KNU is demanding multilateral talks involving the government, the
ethnic minorities such as the Karen and Myanmar's main opposition group, the
National League for Democracy of Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu
Kyi.
KNU president Ba Thien said in
a telephone interview from his base in the border area between
Myanmar and
Thailand that
the government was "buying time." "They are trying to delay the talks, but
anyway I still hope that peace talks will take place one day," he said. In a
statement dated April 19, and received on Monday, the KNU said it targeted the
gas pipeline also to bring global attention to the junta's military purchases
with revenues from natural gas sales.
According to the
Myanmar
government, the section of the pipeline damaged by explosives is near Hnitkayin
village, about 105 kilometres (65 miles) south of the
Mon
State capital of Mawlamyine. The
other section sabotaged is in Warbotaw village, 21 kilometres (13 miles)
northwest of Karen state capital, Pa-an.
The pipeline carries natural
gas from offshore fields for use in
Myanmar, and is
considered much less important than another line going to
Thailand,
Myanmar's main
gas buyer. The pipeline to
Thailand, partly
owned by Western and Thai oil companies, has long been controversial. Human
rights activists say it was built by forced labour, with workers drafted by the
government.
If the government "continues
to kill and oppress KNU and the Karen people, and commit similar abuses against
the country, it shall receive appropriate response and punishment," the KNU
statement said. The junta, which refused to hand over power after losing the
1990 elections to Suu Kyi's party, began holding reconciliation talks with her
in October 2000 but no progress has been made. Ethnic minorities have been
sidelined in the reconciliation process.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Nation
Timberscam logs cannot be
found
Saowalak
Tangsaengprateep
Published on Apr 21,
2003
Nearly half of more than 13,000 logs seized during the
Salween timber scandal five years ago are now missing, according to a source at
the Agriculture Ministry.
About 4,000 logs were missing from their
storage site in Tak and another 2,000 from Mae Hong Son, according to the
preliminary finding of a probe launched last week by Agriculture Minister Soraat
Klinprathum, the source said.
Soraat said yesterday that Prime
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra had raised the subject of the Salween timber at last
Tuesday?s Cabinet meeting. The premier asked him to check on the timber and
decide whether it should be used by the state or auctioned off, he
said.
Soraat appointed an investigation team headed by his deputy
Newin Chidchob and comprising the chiefs of the Royal Forestry and National Park
departments and representatives from the military.
?All officials
involved face strict punishment,? the minister said yesterday.
A
recent attempt by Forestry Industry Organisation officials (FIO) to move 2,000
logs stored in Mae Hong Son to a wood processing factory in Kamphaeng Phet was
ordered stopped as it did not have ministerial approval.
A total of
13,615 logs purportedly imported from Burma were seized on suspicion of being
felled illegally in the Salween Wildlife Sanctuary in Mae Hong Son. About
twothirds of the timber was stored in Tak and the rest in Mae Hong Son,
controlled by local authorities including the FIO.
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The Nation
Crime Does 'pay'
Duangporn Bodart
Published on Apr 21, 2003
Outspoken and blunt, Suthin Wanbovorn is a tough journalist
who has just written an explosive book that is bound to fly off the shelves in
no time at all ? read on and find out why!
Since its publication in
January, Suthin Wanbovorn?s book has taken the local literary world by storm.
No, it didn?t win a SeaWrite award, nor was it written by a celebrity yet ?Ruang
Yak Laow Khong Nakkhao Sai Chon? a(Stories From a Crime Reporter) has an
exceptional ingredient to become a best-seller in its own
right.
The book was initially spurned by some cautious
publishers.
?I finished it three years ago. Nobody dared to print
it, and the book stayed idle with one publisher for so long I decided to
retrieve it. I told my son, ?you?d better save it for my funeral?,? Suthin
smiles broadly.
Fortunately he didn?t have to wait until his
passing. Instead, he sought another publisher following a recommendation by a
respected friend ? who noted that he was sure the books would quickly fly off
the shelves. The reason?
?Because those who are mentioned in the
book would rush to buy and burn them all at once,? says Suthin, with an impish
grin.
Actually, ?Ruang Yak? has nothing to do with crime or crooked
thieves. It?s a compilation of first-hand experiences ? from confrontations with
the powers-that-be - to conflicts in neighbouring countries.
It
unwittingly portrays a harsh existence of a seasonal journalist who has put his
life on the line in the search for truth. And while the book deals mostly with
serious situations, there is a rich vein of humour running
throughout.
Suthin is an individual who received no formal
education, but has been reporting news in English for more than two decades. He
is a persona non grata among politicians, who abhor his pertinent and
straightforward questions.
However, for a legion of reporters,
Suthin is considered kind, supportive and gentle. He is branded as a ruthless
reporter, but he shows no sign of aggression. The 55-year-old has become a
somewhat legendary journalist who knows no fear.
?There is nothing
to be scared of when you are searching for the truth. Time and again I was
called names, received death threats, but it never prevented me from giving up,?
he says emphatically.
Hailing from Trang where he finished a
mandatory education, Suthin, a kamnan?s son, left his hometown for Bangkok at
the tender age of 12 to stay with his brother ? then an assistant of Sithao ? a
well-known comedian. Suthin became a household helper, running errands for
grown-ups. But young Suthin also spent much of his time reading all kinds of
books from a library.
When he turned 16, Suthin joined the
Rockerfeller Foundation?s Office. ?I worked for three to four years doing
everything,? he says. Then he joined the British Embassy briefly before being
dismissed for having joined the Student Uprising in 1973. After the massacre,
Suthin headed for Chiang Mai to teach. Three years later, another political
upheaval occurred. He was subsequently considered as ?an enemy of the state? and
was forced to seek a refuge for a while.
When he returned from a
safe haven, he got a job in a Pattaya hotel. Again he was fired after the
employer had found out that he instigated a protest against the hotel after a
staff member was sacked after she became pregnant.
His tumultuous
life took another turn when he applied for a job at UPI to become a tele-type
operator. Thanks to his talent in analysing what was newsworthy, he was quickly
promoted to being a reporter.
All in all, this was an eventful
time. The diversity of experiences ? communist insurgence, a series of the
coup-d? etat in the country, the on-going warfare between the guerrilla and
minority armies against the governments in Indochina ? had given Suthin wide and
interesting spectrum of news reporting.
Suthin, who never dreamed
of becoming a reporter, stayed 11 years at UPI before joining
Reuters.
?I was approached by Reuters during a flight back from
Burma. The news chief told me I had something essential for reporters ? the guts
to ask controversial questions,? he recalls.
The news chief had
noticed Suthin at a press conference held by high-ranking Thai officials and
representatives from the Burmese military regime. The event had been staged to
tell the public that Burmese dissidents, who had earlier sought political asylum
in Thailand, had been sent back and had arrived safely in their homeland.
Present at the press conference was a group of Burmese
?returnees?. But Suthin sensed it was a set-up. He asked the whereabouts of one
of the leading dissidents. A man stood up and announced it was him that Suthin
was looking for.
But the entire audience was taken aback when
Suthin produced the picture of the missing man ? who looked nothing like the
impostor. The incident obviously upset the Burmese ruling members.
Confronting the authorities with such damning evidence and firing
bombshell questions has become synonymous with Suthin, an element he attributes
to his childhood up-bringing.
He grew up in what he called ?a
confrontation society? where ordinary people had to fight the authorities to
survive. ?For Southerners, authorities ? whether governmental or political ? are
called ?Nai? (superior). We were taught not be scared of them. They were not
untouchable. Anyone who dared to confront the Nai were highly admired,? he
said.
?A good reporter should never develop a close tie with any
party, because you will never get anything from the source?s opponents,? he
says.
Furthermore, he adds, if journalists are too close to certain
figures they will be too ?kreng jai? (considerate) to report objectively. He
cited an example of when the government of the late Chatichai Choonhavan was
toppled. The closet reporter of the Rajakru?s camp, who knew about the imminent
fall three days earlier, didn?t dare break the news.
?But we
[Reuters] did, and it caused an uproar among political figures,? says Suthin ?
who is currently working part-time for the Associated Press.
That?s
why Suthin prefers to remain incognito. He makes no friends in the political
arena. Bombarded by his ruthless enquiries politicians would furiously hark
back, ?Who the hell are you??
There is a joke among reporters that
Suthin should be the last one to pose questions as every time he fires a salvo,
it always stirs fury among the sources ? bringing an abrupt end to any
interview.
In retrospect, Suthin says it?s an ironic that his
undiplomatic stance works as a protection shield for him. ?Whenever I was
targeted by certain parties, the opposite side would always warn me to go and
hide.?
Good news for politicians, however, as Suthin confides that
after spending many years in journalism, he?s now concentrating more on training
his son to be a tennis champion.
The bad news is ? he will also
focus more on writing. So watch out.
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