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BURMA RELATED NEWS - June 18,
2003.
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HEADLINES
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Reuters - Powell
takes on Myanmar over Suu Kyi
Reuters - Powell
Set for Showdown with Myanmar on Suu Kyi
Reuters - Myanmar
Denies Red Cross Access to Suu Kyi
Reuters - Court
Ponders if U.S. Firm Liable for Abuse Abroad
Reuters - Citing
Nazis, lawyers say Unocal should be tried
Reuters - Myanmar
frees Hong Kong Falun Gong member
AFP - US to take
harsh stand on Myanmar: Powell
AFP - US leads
pressure on North Korea, Myanmar at Asian security
forum
AFP - China,
Russia, India counter growing US muscle in Southeast
Asia
AFP - ASEAN's
Myanmar policy may face review: Philippines FM
NYT - Opinion -
Asia Finds Its Voice on Myanmar
CST - S.E. Asia
group tells Myanmar to free Nobel laureate Suu Kyi
G&M - Canada
threatens to toughen policy against Myanmar
CSM - A symbolic US
crackdown on Burma
The Australian -
Release Suu Kyi: Downer
Kyodo News -
Asia-Pacific ministers take on N. Korea, Myanmar
Bkk Post - Govt
told to stop peddling junta's views to Asean
Bkk Post -
Emergency shelter for migrants urged
Bkk Post -
EDITORIAL - Asean shows signs of baring its claws
Bkk Post - Focus -
Eyewitness details attack on opposition leader
Xinhuanet - WHO
calls for dengue fever control in Myanmar
Asia Times - Golden
opportunities in northern Myanmar
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Powell takes on Myanmar over Suu Kyi
Wed Jun 18,9:30 PM ET
By Ed
Cropley
PHNOM PENH, June 18 (Reuters) - The United States won Asian support on
Wednesday to demand Myanmar's junta release Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and
end decades of military rule by restoring democracy.
U.S. Secretary of
State Colin Powell also told a security summit in the Cambodian capital that
North Korea's nuclear ambitions were Washington's most urgent weapons
proliferation worry. His comments came on the same day Pyongyang threatened to
boost its nuclear deterrent.
At the end of the one-day meeting, foreign
ministers of the 23 members of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which includes
Southeast Asia as well as such countries as Russia and China, demanded Suu Kyi's
release. No country had suggested an embargo against the junta, said Cambodian
Foreign Minister Hor Namhong.
The demands hardened up an unprecedented
rebuke a day earlier by Association of South East Asian Nation members against
one of their own when they broke with 36 years of non-interference by urging
Myanmar to release Suu Kyi, who marks her 58th birthday on Thursday.
``Together, we must tell the Burmese leaders to free Aung San Suu Kyi,
to free her supporters, and to free the people of Burma by returning democracy
to that nation,'' Powell told ministers in Phnom Penh.
Suu Kyi, who has
spent years under house arrest, was detained again on May 30 after her followers
clashed with supporters of the military government during a rural tour.
``I am pleased that the Foreign Minister (of Myanmar) didn't repudiate
my messages or push the line that Aung San Suu Kyi deserved to be in
detention,'' said Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
``NO ISSUE OF GREATER URGENCY''
While the
ministers were meeting, North Korea vowed to strengthen its nuclear deterrent
and dismissed a U.S. call for multilateral talks as a tactic. The rebuke, issued
by the North's foreign ministry, ensured discussions among forum participants
would focus on its weapons ambitions.
``With respect to the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction...no issue is of greater urgency to
the U.S. than North Korea's nuclear weapons programmes,'' Powell said.
``We can't help a North Korea that does not abandon the goal of having
nuclear weapons.''
Powell's message on curbing the North's weapons
programme was delivered in the presence of an ambassador from the reclusive
communist nation, which has snubbed the summit by saying its foreign minister
was too busy to attend.
The United States, China and North Korea met in
Beijing in April to seek a diplomatic solution to the issue. Since then,
Washington has pressed Pyongyang to agree to expand any future talks to include
South Korea and Japan.
``All delegates who talked touched upon the North
Korean nuclear programme,'' Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hatsushisa
Takashima told a news conference.
Attention must be paid to the security
concerns of Japan and South Korea, Hor Namhong said. Both lie within range of
the missiles of North Korea, which was enraged after President George W. Bush
branded it as part of an ``axis of evil'' along with Iran and pre-war Iraq.
Terrorism, too, was on the agenda with an agreement to battle piracy and
crimes on the high seas that are a source of funds.
``Together, we must
send a strong message that there is no place to hide in the region for
terrorists or for anyone who harbours terrorists,'' Powell said.
He
praised the region's commitment to tracking down militants and singled out
Cambodia and Thailand for praise after their arrests in the past few days of
several suspected members of the al Qaeda-affiliated Jemaah Islamiah group
blamed for the Bali bombings.
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Powell Set for Showdown with Myanmar
on Suu Kyi
Tue Jun 17,10:13 PM ET
By Jane
Macartney, Asian Diplomatic Correspondent
PHNOM
PENH (Reuters) - The United States
was set for a showdown on Wednesday with impoverished Myanmar over liberty for
Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, while North Korea sought to avoid criticism by
snubbing an Asian security meeting.
Secretary of State Colin Powell
joined foreign ministers from the 10-member Association of South East Asian
Nations (ASEAN) as well 13 counterparts including Japan, South Korea and Russia
for the ASEAN Regional Forum's annual security summit that will focus on
Myanmar, North Korea's nuclear ambitions and combating terror.
The
one-day session follows a meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers in the Cambodian
capital, Phnom Penh, that resulted in an unprecedented rebuke of one of their
own when members broke with 36 years of non-interference by urging Myanmar to
release pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi.
Powell fueled the international
chorus of demands for liberty for Suu Kyi, who will mark her 58th birthday on
Thursday, by saying the United States wanted to wait for a response from
Myanmar's military rulers before tightening the screws.
"We want to see
Aung San Suu Kyi released as soon as possible and allowed to participate in a
political process in Burma in a democratic way," Powell said later on Tuesday.
"I think it is necessary for us to take a harder line toward Burma,"
Powell said, but added: "Let's see whether the Burmese react or not and we'll
determine after their reaction... what our policy will be."
Suu Kyi, who
has spent years under house arrest, was detained again on May 30 after her
followers clashed with supporters of the military government during a rural
tour.
Pressure to act on Myanmar follows a decision on Monday by the
European Union to tighten sanctions on the military government by adding an arms
embargo and visa bans and asset freezes on more than 150 officials in the junta.
Myanmar's usually talkative foreign minister, Win Aung, left his hotel
for the meeting stony-faced and silent.
A day earlier he had failed to
override ASEAN's unprecedented decision to question one of its own in a final
communique that contained a rare mention and rebuke of a member.
Officials said debate had not eroded the ASEAN principle of
non-interference, but heated discussion behind closed doors and admissions that
Myanmar's actions were hurting the reputation of the entire group clearly marked
a departure for a group long seen as a talking shop.
WORRYING
ABOUT NORTH KOREA, TERROR
Powell, on a whirlwind trip to a
region where he is anxious about the spread of extremist violence as well as
North Korea's nuclear plans, said he would raise the issues of both Suu Kyi and
North Korea.
"I will once again make the point that they have to stop
(their) nuclear weapons development program that they have under way and the way
to do it is through multilateral dialogue."
The issue of North Korea led
talks when ASEAN ministers met counterparts from China, South Korea and Japan a
day earlier.
ASEAN voiced anxiety over North Korea's nuclear ambitions
and regret that its foreign minister had snubbed the meeting.
North
Korean Ambassador-at-large Ho Jong arrived for the forum but refused to answer
any questions.
Terrorism, too, will be on the agenda with two
agreements expected, one on maritime security, piracy and crimes on the high
seas, and the other on border security and documentation.
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Wednesday June 18, 7:26 PM
Myanmar Denies Red Cross
Access to Suu Kyi
YANGON
(Reuters) - Myanmar's military
government has denied a request by the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) to see detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, an official from
the agency says.
The ICRC's representative in the country, Michel
Ducreaux, said Home Minister Tin Hlaing had allowed access to all other leaders
of Suu Kyi's opposition party detained with her late last month after a clash
between her supporters and a pro-government group.
"We are given
complete access to the persons who have been detained in connection with the
event on May 30. But the only exception is Aung San Suu Kyi," Ducreaux told
Reuters.
Ducreaux did not disclose the whereabouts of the detained
leaders of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), who include the
party's vice chairman, Tin Oo.
"We will have to visit many places, and
we will visit wherever they are. We will keep trying to have access to Aung San
Suu Kyi."
A U.N. envoy visited Suu Kyi last week and said afterwards she
had not been hurt in the clash and was in good spirits.
Dissidents and
some diplomats say a group of pro-junta youths, wielding bamboo and iron rods,
set upon Suu Kyi's convoy and local villagers on May 30, killing at least 70.
The government says four people died in the clash.
Suu Kyi's detention
has sparked outrage in many Western capitals, with the United States and the
European Union threatening stiffer sanctions against Yangon.
This week
the region's main political group, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations,
broke with three decades of tradition to criticise Myanmar, one of its own, with
foreign ministers saying they wanted Suu Kyi freed soon.
Asian states
are under mounting pressure from Washington to take a firm line with Myanmar,
also known as Burma.
"Together, we must tell the Burmese leaders to free
Aung San Suu Kyi, to free her supporters, and to free the people of Burma," U.S.
Secretary of State Colin Powell told a gathering of foreign ministers in
Cambodia on Wednesday.
The army has ruled the country since a 1962 coup.
It ignored a 1990 landslide election victory by the NLD and kept hundreds of
activists imprisoned for a decade.
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Court Ponders if U.S. Firm Liable for Abuse
Abroad
Tue Jun 17, 1:16 AM ET
By Carolyn
Abate
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court will hear oral
arguments on Tuesday in what could be a landmark case to determine if U.S.
corporations can be sued for human rights abuses that occur abroad.
The
hearing stems from two 1996 lawsuits against Unocal Corp. which claimed that
villagers in rural Myanmar, formerly Burma, were subjected to forced labor,
rape, torture and murder by the military during construction of a natural gas
pipeline partially funded by the oil company.
Both lawsuits claimed
violations of state law and the law of nations under the Alien Tort Claims Act,
a once obscure statue written in 1789 that allows foreign nationals to sue for
human rights abuses in U.S. courts.
The case before the Ninth U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals has galvanized parties on both sides, with numerous
briefs filed in support of the plaintiffs and Unocal.
"Unocal isn't the
first (such case), but it has garnered a lot of attention," said Laurel
Fletcher, acting director of the Human Rights Clinic at the University of
California, Berkeley. "It has raised squarely the issue: What can U.S. companies
do on foreign soil?"
Unocal is appealing to an 11-judge appeals panel of
the Ninth Circuit Court a decision handed down by a three judge panel of the
same court in September 2002 that said the company could be sued.
The
three judge panel, which overturned a lower court judge's ruling that the
company could not be sued, compared Unocal's actions in Myanmar to the German
armaments firm Krupp which used slave labor during World War 2 and was tried for
war crimes afterward. It said a jury should be allowed to decide if Unocal was
liable for human rights violations.
The State Department has asked the
court to dismiss the entire case. In its brief, the Bush administration
expressed concern that similar suits could be brought against some of its
closest allies in the country's war on terror. It also cited the possibility
that prisoners in Guantanamo Bay could file suits against the U.S. government.
El Segundo, California-based Unocal has remained steadfast that it holds
no responsibility for the host nations' actions. Attorneys for the plaintiffs'
argue that Unocal knowingly entered into a joint agreement with an oppressive
military regime with a suspect human rights record.
The Los Angeles
Times quoted plaintiffs in the suit as saying the military abuses began only
after the pipeline construction began.
"Before they came and built the
pipeline, there were no soldiers," said one woman identified as Jane Doe 2,
"When the pipeline came, it destroyed our lives. We lost our home. We lost our
livelihood. We lost everything."
If the Ninth Circuit appeals panel
rules in favor of the plaintiffs some experts say the decision will be a
financial blow to Unocal and host of other multinational companies such as
Coca-Cola Co. and Exxon Mobil Corp. that face similar suits.
Others say
a ruling against Unocal would have a limited impact. "The decision would be
binding only in the Ninth Circuit," said Fred Lampert, a business law professor
at the University of California Hastings College of Law in San Francisco.
Unocal has been fighting the lawsuit for nearly seven years.
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Wednesday June 18, 8:44 AM
Citing Nazis, lawyers say
Unocal should be tried
By Carolyn Abate
SAN FRANCISCO, June 17 (Reuters) - Citing precedents set at the Nuremberg
trials of Nazis and their collaborators, lawyers for villagers in Myanmar asked
a U.S. appeals court on Tuesday to order oil company Unocal to face trial for
using slave labor to build a natural gas pipeline there.
The hearing
before an 11-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals stems from two
1996 lawsuits against Unocal Corp. that claimed rural villagers in the former
Burma were subjected to forced labor, rape, torture and murder by the military
during construction of a pipeline partly funded by the oil company in a deal
with the government.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued that the
decisions in the Nuremberg trials after 1945, which pressed suits against
businesses that benefited from Nazi slave labor, such as Krupp, applied to the
Unocal case.
"This case is consistent with the Nuremberg principles,"
said Terry Collingsworth, executive director of the Internal Labor Rights Fund.
"Unocal hired the military, had a contract, and gave them logistical support,
vehicles. And this went on for seven years."
The Yadana natural gas
pipeline connects an offshore gas field to Thailand and is operated in a
partnership with the government of Myanmar including Unocal, Thailand's PTT and
France's Total . Unocal has repeatedly defended its investment in the former
Burma, saying it has helped build roads and improved schools and hospitals.
Justice Alex Kozinski of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals asked
Collingsworth where the liability stopped. If consumers brought tennis shoes
from companies that used forced labor would they be liable, he asked. "Where
does this ... go? How do you draw the line?" said Kozinski.
18TH
CENTURY LAW
The attorney for El Segundo, California-based
Unocal, Randy Oppenheimer, said Unocal had no control over the Myanmar military
and did not actively participate in the alleged human rights violations. "With
the Nuremberg cases you have an active participant," he said. "They do not
include aiding and abetting, but are direct participants."
The judges
pressed the issues of the Nuremberg case and its relevance to the civil suit
before them. After a round of questions that touched on a private entity's
responsibility to report human rights abuses and what defines slave labor, they
raised the possibility that Unocal turned a blind eye to the alleged abuses.
Both lawsuits claimed violations under the Alien Tort Claims Act, a once
obscure statute written in 1789 and now used in human rights cases, which allows
foreign nationals to sue for human rights abuses in U.S. courts.
Although the original case was thrown out of federal court in 2000, last
year a three-judge panel from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that
ruling, saying that a jury should be allowed to decide if Unocal was liable in
"aiding and abetting" the alleged human rights violations.
But the
justices differed on which standard of law -- international or U.S. Common Law
-- should be applied when assessing this type of liability for a private
corporation.
In what could be a landmark case for U.S. corporations, the
11-judge panel agreed to rehear the case to settle the dispute over which
standard of law to apply. A court may take a year to issue a decision in the
case.
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Myanmar frees Hong Kong Falun Gong
member
Wed Jun 18,8:05 PM ET
HONG KONG, June 18
(Reuters) - Myanmar has released a
Hong Kong follower of the Falun Gong spiritual movement it had jailed under
pressure from China which bans the group, Hong Kong adherents of the movement
said on Wednesday.
Chan Wing-yuen, 71, was escorted to Hong Kong by
Myanmar secret agents on June 9, Hong Kong members said in a statement. He had
spent a year and a half in prison, far short of his seven-year sentence.
``It is believed that the release is owing to a global effort in rescue
from Falun Gong practitioners, also support and assistance from many governments
and NGOs (non-government organisations) who care about human rights and
freedom,'' the statement said.
Chan was arrested in December 2001 after
unfurling a banner protesting against the Falun Gong crackdown by then Chinese
president Jiang Zemin who was visiting Myanmar. Chan had gone to see relatives
there.
In January 2002, Chang was jailed for seven years for attempting
to subvert Myanmar. He called the charge groundless.
Falun Gong
practitioners from different parts of the world have since written, telephoned
and faxed messages to the Myanmar government and to Chinese embassies urging
Chan's release.
China branded Falun Gong an ``evil cult'' in 1999 after
thousands of followers shocked the government with a mass protest around the
Beijing leadership compound near Tiananmen Square demanding official recognition
of their faith.
The group combines elements of Taoism, Buddhism and
traditional Chinese breathing exercises with the ideas of its founder, Li
Hongzhi.
--------------------------------------------------------------
US to take harsh stand on Myanmar: Powell
Tue
Jun 17,11:59 AM ET
PHNOM PENH (AFP) - US Secretary of State Colin Powell said
Washington will take a harsh stand on Myanmar following a fresh crackdown on its
opposition, including the detention of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
"We want to see Aung San Suu Kyi released as soon as possible and
allowed to participate in the political process of Burma (Myanmar's former name)
in a democratic way," he told reporters accompanying him to the Cambodian
capital, where he is scheduled to attend regional security talks Wednesday.
The Myanmar issue, the North Korean nuclear problem and international
terrorism are expected to top the agenda at the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF)
annual talks.
Powell said the United States had thought there would be
movement in the democratic process in Myanmar, "but all of that has now been
blocked by the government and they are moving backwards.
"It is
necessary for us to take a harder line with Burma," he said.
ASEAN
foreign ministers earlier Tuesday jointly called for the early release of Aung
San Suu Kyi in a landmark move following their annual meeting here.
The
statement from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ministers
marked an unprecedented departure from their policy of non-interference in
members' domestic affairs.
Both the United States and Europe have
already introduced tougher sanctions against the military-ruled nation since the
Nobel peace laureate's detention, while Japan has warned Myanmar that it may
suspend economic aid over the issue, a foreign ministry spokesman said here
Tuesday.
Powell said he would also raise North Korea's nuclear ambitions
at the ARF meeting.
"I will once again make the case that they have to
stop this nuclear weapons development program," he said, adding that the United
States would not bend on its demand for talks with the North to include other
nations.
North Korea on Tuesday accused the United States, Japan and
South Korea of developing plans to mount a blockade against it and threatened
retaliation after the three nations issued a joint statement on Friday in which
they said they would step up cooperation to end Pyongyang's alleged illicit
trade in drugs and counterfeiting.
Powell said that a maritime security
intiative, expected to be endorsed by the United States and ASEAN this week,
dealt mainly with piracy on the high seas, but could be expanded to include
elements of US plans to boost the interdiction of weapons and other illegal
material from international waters.
"There could be a broader agenda for
discussing maritime security," he said. "But whether these efforts will blend
together at some point, it's too early to say."
The annual ARF meeting
has served in the past as a neutral venue for high-level talks between the
United States and North Korea, but Pyongyang's Foreign Minister Paek Nam-Sun
will this year send an envoy to Phnom Penh instead of attending in person.
The secretary of state said he would also raise the issue of HIV/AIDS,
unrest in Indonesia's Aceh and the need for Cambodia's July 27 elections to be
free, fair and open.
"(I) will also talk about the need for free open
elections next month and the need for parties to have access to the media and
all the other instruments of free, open and fair elections," Powell said.
Powell plans to spend less than 48 hours on the ground in Cambodia. He
will depart Thursday for Bangladesh and then Jordan and Israel, where he aims to
push ahead faltering Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.
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Wednesday June 18, 7:30 PM
US leads pressure on North
Korea, Myanmar at Asian security forum
PHNOM PENH
(AFP) - The United States led
pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear drive and for Myanmar to embrace
democratic reforms during high-level talks at Asia-Pacific's top security
forum.
While China cautioned that Pyongyang's "security concerns" cannot
be brushed off lightly, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Washington would
not compromise on its demand for multilateral talks to break the
impasse.
Powell urged Southeast Asian nations to join the United States
in pressing North Korea to agree to multilateral talks on ending its nuclear
weapons programs, a senior State Department official said.
"With respect
to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction ... no issue is of greater
urgency to us than North Korea's nuclear weapons program," Powell said according
to the official.
"ASEAN's help in keeping pressure on North Korea is
absolutely necessary if we are to achieve the goal that all of us seek: a
diplomatic solution that leaves the peninsula, the region and the world safer,"
the official quoted him as saying.
Powell told the ASEAN Regional Forum
(ARF) that the United States would not give in to Pyongyang's insistence on a
bilateral dialogue, according to the official.
"There is nothing the
North Koreans can say to us that we will not share with our partners," Powell
said.
"And there is no proposal that will come from us without the
concurrence of our partners. There is, therefore, no need for a bilateral
dialogue."
However, North Korea Wednesday rejected outright the idea of
multilateral talks, saying it was part of Washington's strategy to crush the
regime, according to a foreign ministry statement carried by the official Korean
Central News Agency (KCNA).
"It has become clear that the US insistence
on multilateral talks is not to resolve the nuclear issue peacefully but to
camouflage its act of isolating and stifling our country," a spokesman told the
KCNA.
Following initial three-way talks in Beijing in April, the United
States is insisting on five-party talks to include China, Japan and South Korea
as well as North Korea and the United States for the next round.
Chinese
Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing appealed to the international community Wednesday
to consider the "security concerns" of North Korea while demanding a nuclear
weapons-free zone on the Korean peninsula.
"We believe, of course, there
should be no nuclear arms on the peninsula, it should be nuclear free," he said
at the ARF talks.
"At the same time, of course, the DPRK's (Democratic
People's Republic of Korea) security concerns should be appropriately
addressed," he said, without elaborating.
Powell was backed by Australian
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer who said Canberra and Washington shared the
same objectives.
"There's no doubt that members of the ASEAN Regional
Forum want a nuclear free Korean peninsula and we expect North Korea to fulfill
its responsibilities and abandon its nuclear programs," he told
reporters.
North Korea downgraded its attendance at the meeting, sending
only an envoy. Powell also headed a charge to urge the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) to pressure military-ruled Myanmar after its recent
detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and democracy
crackdown.
"This is not a matter of ASEAN interfering in Burma's
(Myanmar) internal affairs," the same official quoted Powell as
saying.
"It is a question of ASEAN insisting that one of its members heed
the deep concerns of its neighbors and of the international community," Powell
said.
An ASEAN delegate attending the one-day talks told AFP that the
foreign ministers of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Japan had also "called
for the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi."
Their demands follow the
ASEAN foreign ministers' issuing of an unprecedented call here Tuesday for the
early release of Aung San Suu Kyi, breaking their tradition of non-interference
in members' internal affairs.
The democracy icon was arrested late last
month along with other members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party
following brutal attacks on her supporters by a junta-backed mob in northern
Myanmar.
The NLD won 1990 elections by a landslide but has never been
permitted to rule by the junta.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia,
Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and
Vietnam.
The ARF comprises ASEAN plus Australia, Canada, China, the
European Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, South Korea, North Korea,
Papua New Guinea, Russia and the United States.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday June 18, 4:23 PM
China, Russia, India
counter growing US muscle in Southeast Asia
PHNOM PENH
(AFP) - Nuclear powers Russia, China
and India want to forge strategic partnerships with Southeast Asia to counter
growing US influence and assertiveness in the region, officials said.
The
three have given "strong signals" to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) that they would sign up to the grouping's Treaty of Amity and
Cooperation (TAC), effectively a non-aggression pact among the 10 ASEAN member
states.
The treaty was originally signed in 1976 by ASEAN's five founding
members -- Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and
Thailand.
Russia, China and India are the first to offer to sign up to
the pact to "demonstrate that we are benign powers and do not desire your
territory," an ASEAN diplomat said
"We believe the three will sign the
agreement in Bali" during the annual summit meeting of ASEAN leaders in October,
the diplomat told AFP.
"This is going to be very symbolic because it was
in Bali that the original regional concept of maintaining peace and security
evolved," he added.
Russia will this week also sign a joint declaration
on "partnership of peace, security, stability and cooperation in the
Asia-Pacific region" with ASEAN, an overarching cooperation
framework.
The move by the three nuclear powers to forge such pacts comes
at a time when the United States is stamping its influence in the region under
the guise of the international fight against terrorism, analysts
said.
With nudging from Washington, ASEAN foreign ministers made an
unprecedented call Tuesday for the early release of Myanmar's opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi from detention by her country's military rulers.
This is
payback time for Southeast Asia, which is getting enormous assistance from the
United States in its uphill battle against groups linked to Osama bin laden's
al-Qaeda network trying to establish a pan-Islamic state in the region, analysts
said.
But some ASEAN members themselves are worried about the
high-profile US influence in the region, including Indonesia, which has come
under pressure from Washington for its strong-arm approach in containing a
revolt in its Aceh province.
"If we put this renewed assertiveness in the
context of American dominance in the international arena and its ability to
impose its will through its unrivalled military capability, we can understand
the worries of some ASEAN nations that this could very well turn out to be
American dominance in this region too," said Andrew Tan, an analyst with the
Singapore-based Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies.
"This worries
Russia and China and India as well and it is not surprising that they want to
sign the TAC too. It could be symbolic but this is the way of communicating a
political message," Tan told AFP.
All three powers, like the United
States, are ASEAN's dialogue partners.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday June 18, 3:38 PM
ASEAN's Myanmar policy may face review: Philippines FM
MANILA, June 18 (AFP) - Myanmar has been warned behind closed doors
that its ASEAN neighbors may review their "constructive engagement" policy with
Yangon unless the government made progress on political reforms, Philippines
Foreign Secretary Blas Ople said.
The warning was delivered to Myanmar
Foreign Minister U Win Aung by some of his Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) counterparts at a ministerial meeting in Phnom Penh this week,
Ople wrote in the Manila Bulletin newspaper on Wednesday.
"Meeting here
in a 'retreat' format, meaning behind closed doors, the ASEAN foreign ministers
called their Myanmar colleague to account for the slow pace of the political
reforms in Myanmar," Ople said.
At the same meeting, "some hinted at a
review of ASEAN's 'constructive engagement' policy if visible results were still
not forthcoming."
The policy refers to ASEAN's decision to admit Myanmar
into the fold, which was at variance with the policy of ASEAN's Western allies
including the United States and the European Union to isolate Yangon to force it
to improve its human rights record.
The ASEAN meeting was held in the
Cambodian capital amid an international uproar over the detention by the ruling
military junta of pro-democratic activist Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate
whose supporters figured in a deadly fracas with a pro-government mob last
month.
Ople said he told the Myanmar foreign minister: "Unfortunately,
now that you are part of ASEAN, all the fraternal countries share your
accountability before the world community.
"It is not fair that the
image of ASEAN is being defined by the events transpiring in your country. The
truth is that we are all eager to help in whatever way we can," he added.
Ople said that with the closed door meeting, ASEAN "had made a clean
break with the past," referring to the ASEAN principle of non-interference in
each other's internal affairs.
"Now with the Myanmar precedent, the
principle still stands. But no country from here on may claim absolute immunity
from collegial scrutiny if certain policies or acts of commission or omission
tended to put the whole organization in disrepute or undermine its credibility."
He said Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar suggested at the
meeting that the group consider adopting a "Declaration on Human Rights, which
would bind all the countries of ASEAN, including their legislatures and courts."
Ople said U Win Aung made an "eloquent, impassioned plea for a little
more patience with his government," and assured his colleagues from Brunei,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and
Vietnam that it was "doggedly pursuing the path of total reconciliation and
peaceful dialogue."
The minister also promised rapid progress on the
completion of the new Myanmar constitution that would follow a federal form of
government, he said.
Ople announced in Phnom Penh on Tuesday that ASEAN
ministers have agreed in principle to endorse an Indonesian proposal to send a
high-level delegation to Myanmar in a bid to help the national reconciliation
process, but gave no timetable.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The NewYork Times
June 17, 2003
Opinion - Asia Finds Its Voice on
Myanmar
After arresting the Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in a violent attack on her supporters late last month,
Myanmar's military junta has finally reaped the broad international opprobrium
it has long deserved. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations yesterday broke
with its dubious tradition of not criticizing member governments and urged
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, to release Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi.
Freeing her is an urgent necessity. But Asean should demand more. When
Secretary of State Colin Powell meets the group's foreign ministers Wednesday in
Cambodia, he should encourage them to keep up the pressure.
As Asean's
unusual outspokenness indicates, the barbaric cruelties of Myanmar's junta,
which seized power 15 years ago after crushing a democracy movement, truly set
it apart. Washington recently corroborated accusations that Myanmar's army has
carried out mass punitive rapes of women and girls, targeting ethnic minorities.
The Bush administration has also complained about forced labor and
relocation of civilians. The State Department has cited Myanmar for failing to
effectively combat opium and methamphetamine exports that have ravaged its
neighbors, including other Asean members. The junta has ignored the results of
democratic elections in 1990 that were overwhelmingly won by Mrs. Aung San Suu
Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy.
These actions have been
as well known to the other Asean countries and to China, Myanmar's other
important neighbor, as they have been to Washington. The economic and diplomatic
support these countries have given Myanmar's rulers up to now has diluted the
effectiveness of sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe. If Asean is
now ready to stop coddling the junta, better days for Myanmar's long-suffering
people may at last be in sight.
Chicago Sun Times
S.E. Asia group
tells Myanmar to free Nobel laureate Suu Kyi
June 18, 2003
BY JIM GOMEZ
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia--The
Association of Southeast Asian Nations urged Myanmar's military rulers Tuesday
to free pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a landmark rebuke to a member
that reflects strong international pressure for her release.
Myanmar
replaced Burma as the country's name in 1989.
Japan's Foreign Minister
Yoriko Kawaguchi hinted that Tokyo will suspend millions of dollars worth of aid
to Myanmar if it does not release Suu Kyi ''immediately'' and allow democratic
reforms.
Japan, though not in ASEAN, is Myanmar's top aid donor.
Meeting in Cambodia's capital, the 10-nation ASEAN said it would
consider sending a delegation to Myanmar to meet with Suu Kyi, the 1991 winner
of the Nobel Peace Prize.
In a joint statement issued at the end of
their two-day meeting, the ASEAN foreign ministers said they ''looked forward to
the early lifting of restrictions placed
on ... Aung San Suu Kyi.''
The action was unprecedented for a group that has considered
non-interference in member affairs a founding principle. ASEAN adopted the
statement unanimously, even though Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung said he was
unhappy with the outcome.
Myanmar detained Suu Kyi on May 30 after a
clash between her supporters and government backers. AP
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Globe and Mail
Canada threatens to toughen policy
against Myanmar
Wednesday, Jun. 18, 2003
Associated Press
Canada's foreign minister said Wednesday the country may take
tougher measures against Myanmar if pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi
remains a prisoner of the military regime.
"We believe that the generals
need to understand that Suu Kyi has to be released and released as immediately
as possible and given an opportunity to carry on her political role in the
country," Foreign Minister Bill Graham told reporters.
Mr. Graham spoke
before the opening of a two-day meeting of Asia-Pacific foreign ministers.
Sharp criticism is expected to be levelled against Myanmar's ruling
junta and its moves to crush Ms. Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party.
The
minister said Canada has already withdrawn preferential tariffs and would
consider what other measures could be taken if the Nobel Peace Prize winner is
not released from military custody.
Ms. Suu Kyi and members of her
National League for Democracy were arrested following a bloody May 30
confrontation in northern Myanmar.
The military says four persons died
but opposition groups describe a brutal attack during which as many as 70 people
were killed when government sympathizers attacked Ms. Suu Kyi's motor cavalcade.
Mr. Graham said Canada would raise the issue at Wednesday's session and
hoped a strong statement on Myanmar would be forthcoming from the ASEAN Regional
Forum.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has traditionally
opted for a policy of "constructive engagement" when dealing with Myanmar,
avoiding direct criticism of its military regime or any involvement in its
domestic affairs.
But ASEAN ministers veered from this policy Tuesday
when they urged the junta to release Ms. Suu Kyi.
"We found that
constructive engagement has not worked," Mr. Graham said.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Christian Science Monitor
A
symbolic US crackdown on Burma
By John
Hughes
from the June 18, 2003 edition
SALT
LAKE CITY ? When I was a correspondent covering Asia in the '60's, three
countries resisted my efforts - and those of other Western correspondents - to
visit.
Despite cables I sent monthly for six years to Beijing asking to
let me report on the then-closed country of China, there was never a response.
Similar monthly cables to Hanoi produced no visa to enter North Vietnam, but an
occasional cable in response blasting US policy and actions in South Vietnam.
The third inhospitable country I was trying to get into was Burma, run by a
paranoid military junta that kept its country sealed off from most of the world
- especially from inquiring reporters. After much effort, I got a visa for my
one and only trip to Rangoon under highly regulated conditions.
The visit
didn't produce great reporting. I wrote about what I could see of a poor,
backward land under tight military control. I recorded the comments of unhappy,
but cautious, Burmese. I talked with diplomats, themselves limited to what they
could do and see. Government officials were available to track my sources but
not provide information. Finally, I did manage to hire a Jeep and slip away for
an overnight visit to Pagan, a place of wondrous temples and ruins, which
enabled me to see something of the country outside the capital. When I returned
to Rangoon, I hadn't been in my hotel room five minutes when the phone rang. It
was my government contact, a colonel in the Information Ministry.
"I just
got back from a wonderful visit to Pagan," I told him proudly.
"We know
that, Mr. Hughes," replied the colonel solemnly. "We know where you are all the
time."
It is a wonder that in all the years since, Burma - now also known
as Myanmar - has continued to be able to keep the world at bay while repressing
the most slender shoots of democracy and establishing one of the most dismal
human rights records of any country in the world.
But at last, the US is
turning a spotlight on Burma. As Secretary of State Colin Powell said in an
opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal last week, "It is time to reassess our
policy toward a military dictatorship that has repeatedly attacked democracy and
jailed its heroes."
Burma has no known weapons of mass destruction. It's
not known to harbor any Al Qaeda cells. It has no great strategic importance to
the US. There is no diplomatic capital to be made from rousting the Burmese
junta. But it has triggered official US ire simply because of the abominable way
it treats human beings. That's a response in which Americans can all take
pride.
The catalyst for the new US action was a brutal attack earlier
this month on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her political lieutenants as her
motorcade traveled in the northern part of the country. Suu Kyi, winner of the
1991 Nobel Peace Prize, has spent much of the past 14 years under house arrest
for her pro-democracy views. A year ago, the regime freed her to travel within
the country, in a bid to stifle international criticism and pressure. The
government promised talks to discuss opening the political system, but these
haven't been forthcoming. The attack on Suu Kyi, her placement anew in
"protective custody," and a crackdown on her pro-democracy supporters suggest
that hopes for any reform initiated voluntarily by the junta are in
vain.
Mr. Powell's strong language suggests that the US is about to
increase pressure on the Rangoon regime. Junta officials are currently barred
from visiting the US. The Bush administration has voted against loans to Burma
from the World Bank and other international financial institutions. Now the
White House and Congress are collaborating on measures that would bar imports
from Burma and freeze its government's assets in the US.
Just how well
such sanctions bite remains to be seen, because Burma's Southeast Asian
neighbors continue to trade with it. But what the US is doing will certainly
have symbolic significance. It signals to foreign corporations that investment
in Burma may not be a productive venture. And it's a strong signal to the
generals who rule the country that their long reign of repression is no longer
unnoticed by the outside world.
? John Hughes, a former editor of
the Monitor, won the 1967 Pulitzer Prize for his reporting of the Communist coup
attempt in Indonesia in 1965 and the ensuing purge.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Australian
Release Suu Kyi:
Downer
By Catharine Munro
June 18,
2003
FOREIGN Minister Alexander Downer today met his Burmese
counterpart Win Aung and called for the military junta to release opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Mr Downer said Australia would not be able to
reestablish a human rights training workshop with Burma until the regime began
to liberalise.
But he rejected the US approach of sanctions, saying they
were yet to have any effect and would never be supported by key Asian
governments.
"I took the opportunity of stressing to the Burmese foreign
ministry that the administration should release Aung San Suu Kyi," Mr Downer
told reporters after the meeting.
Suu Kyi was put into "protective
custody" along with members of her opposition party earlier this month after her
car was surrounded by a violent demonstration.
Mr Downer said Foreign
Minister Win Aung understood the strength of feeling from fellow members of the
Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Earlier this week, the
group broke with a convention on not commenting on the internal affairs of
fellow members by calling on the junta to release Suu Kyi.
"They clearly
privately have been more robust than the consensus statement that was issued
yesterday," Mr Downer said on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum, a
security meeting of 23 Asia Pacific countries.
"I think and I can tell
you this from talking with the Burmese foreign minister that the ASEAN foreign
ministers have had a real affect on him and on the foreign ministry.
"Whether that's going to lead to any changes back in Rangoon, we'll just
have to wait and see."
Mr Downer denied that Australia was out of step
with the United States, which has made strident calls for Burma to release Suu
Kyi.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell was also due to hold talks with
Burma today, having last week described the junta as thugs.
"We share
the same objectives, Australia and the United States, in relation to Burma," Mr
Downer said.
"For quite some time America has taken the sanctions route
in terms of dealing with Burma.
"I have often made this point. The
sanctions haven't worked, they haven't changed the situation in Burma.
"But I'm not ... claiming that our policy has delivered a glorious new
era of liberalism in Burma either.
"I think we just need to grind
away at it in our own different ways."
Mr Downer said the US would never
find enough international momentum to make sanctions against Burma work.
"I doubt they would make too much difference unless you were able to get
ASEAN and China on board and I think you're whistling in the wind if you think
that's going to happen," he said.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Asia-Pacific ministers take on N. Korea, Myanmar
By Takehiko Kajita
PHNOM PENH, June
18, Kyodo - Tough issues on North
Korea's nuclear ambitions and Myanmar's latest crackdown on opposition took
center stage at Wednesday's high-profile security talks among foreign ministers
from the Asia-Pacific region.
The ministers of the 23-member ASEAN
Regional Forum (ARF) also exchanged views on issues of concern such as the fight
against terrorism and regional situations.
On the Korean Peninsula, they
pressed for a peaceful resolution to the issue of Pyongyang developing nuclear
weapons and called on North Korea to restart cooperation with the International
Atomic Energy Agency and reverse its decision to pull out of the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty.
In the chairman's statement, the ministers
''supported the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula'' and ''called for a
peaceful solution of the nuclear problem there for the sake of durable peace and
security in the region.''
They also welcomed recent positive moves
toward those goals, including talks held in Beijing among North Korea, the
United States and China and the resumption of high-level inter-Korean talks in
Pyongyang, the statement said.
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said
the Beijing talks should be the foundation for bringing peace and stability back
to the Korean Peninsula.
''I believe the Beijing dialogue has made a
good start for working out the peaceful solutions of the Korean nuclear issue,''
he told reporters.
''We believe, of course, there should be no nuclear
arms on the peninsula. The peninsula should be nuclear-free. At the same time,
the DPRK's (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) security concerns should be
appropriately addressed,'' Li said.
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko
Kawaguchi said Tokyo wants Japan and South Korea to be involved in any further
talks among North Korea, the U.S. and China, according to Japanese Foreign
Ministry spokesman Hatsuhisa Takashima.
But chances of that happening
appear slim at the moment.
In Pyongyang, the official Korean Central
News Agency (KCNA) issued a report Wednesday in which North Korea rejected the
idea of five-way talks.
''The situation has come to the point where we
unavoidably can't pin hopes on any multilateral talks,'' KCNA said, quoting a
Foreign Ministry spokesman.
On Myanmar, the ARF ministers urged release of
the country's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the restoration of
democracy there.
''They welcomed the assurances given by Myanmar that
the measures taken (against the democracy movement) were temporary and looked
forward to the early lifting of restrictions placed on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and
the NLD (National League for Democracy),'' the chairman's statement said.
Yangon cracked down on the opposition, arresting Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace
prize laureate, after what the junta terms a ''clash'' on May 30 between
supporters of her NLD and backers of the military regime.
This triggered
an international furor, with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell calling
Myanmar's ruling generals ''thugs'' and vowing to push the other ASEAN countries
to confront Myanmar at the ARF talks.
This year's ARF meeting followed a
two-day gathering of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that
ended Tuesday. It, in turn, will be followed by ASEAN's series of talks with
dialogue partners from outside the region.
ASEAN's members are Brunei,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand and Vietnam.
The ARF consists of the 10 ASEAN states along with
Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, New
Zealand, South Korea, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Russia and the U.S.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Bangkok Post - Wednesday 18 June 2003
Govt told to stop peddling junta's views to Asean
PM
says sanctions would backfire
Post reporters
The government
should stop acting as a mouthpiece for the Burmese military junta, Kraisak
Choonhavan, chairman of the senate committee on foreign affairs, said
yesterday.
As long as Thailand insisted on maintaining good ties with
Rangoon, other Asean members would be reluctant to openly condemn the detention
of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
``I think it's time for
the government, especially the foreign minister, to stop being the junta
government's mouthpiece. Thailand and Asean must take a lead in this matter,''
said Mr Kraisak.
The senator said Burma had never really tried to push
for national reconciliation, despite claims to the contrary.
Prime
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday rejected calls for Thailand to impose
sanctions on Burma to press for the release of Mrs Suu Kyi.
Sanctions
were unlikely to bring about any changes in Burma, but they would have
repercussions on Thailand, he said.
Action already being taken to obtain
the release of the National League for Democracy leader was good
enough.
Mr Thaksin's comments followed the talks on Mrs Suu Kyi's
detention by Asean foreign ministers meeting in Phnom Penh, and the group's
subsequent call for her early release.
``Whether or not the US will
provide more aid to Burma or impose sanctions has nothing to do with Asean,'' Mr
Thaksin said.
``What we are doing here is pushing Rangoon to commit
itself to democratic development.''
--------------------------------------------------------------
Bangkok Post - Wednesday 18 June 2003
Emergency shelter for migrants urged
Deportation
impedes their fight for rights
Ploenpote Atthakor
An emergency shelter is urgently needed for Burmese migrant
workers abused by their employers, human rights advocates and labour activists
said.
Lawyers and Burmese-Thai interpreters should also be provided at
the shelter, said Wilaiwan Tia of the Women Workers' Unity Group.
The
call was made at a workshop on the protection of migrant workers' rights, where
workers' representatives told of their ordeals ranging from bad working
conditions, physical assaults and poor wages.
They said many workers were
forced to work long hours without getting any overtime pay.
The workshop
was organised by the National Human Rights Commission, Law Society of Thailand,
and local NGOs.
Ms Wilaiwan said an emergency shelter for abused workers
is urgently needed amid reports of widespread abuse of workers' rights by
employers.
Labour welfare officials said the language barrier posed a
major problem causing delay in their work. Also, there was a severe shortage of
manpower. Many workers therefore turned to local NGOs for help.
The NGOs
said most Burmese workers were reluctant to take their cases to court for fear
they would lose their residence permits.
Under the current registration
regulations, a migrant worker who gets into a dispute with his or her employer
must seek a new employer within seven days or face deportation.
Burmese
workers involved in court cases who have been sent back to Burma must obtain a
border pass in order to be able to return to Mae Sot town to attend a court
hearing.
The activists urged that the current regulations be amended,
saying those entering into a court battle should be allowed to remain in
Thailand until their cases are over.
``The seven-day permit is not
practical and it places the workers in a more difficult situation,'' said
Sitthisak Samsee of the Law Society.
The activists cited the case of 34
workers who sued Nut Knitting after it defied an order by the Tak labour and
welfare office that a total of 4.6 million baht be paid to the
workers.
The workers were sent back to Burma's Myawaddy border town while
court hearings continued in their absence.
The activists proposed that
either the state provides a temporary shelter for the workers or they should be
allowed to continue working while court proceedings are under way.
Jaran
Dita-Apichai, of the National Human Rights Commission, said a memorandum of
understanding on migrant labour protection is needed among state agencies. Such
a document would require law enforcers to treat migrant labourers as the damaged
parties rather than offenders.
``There is only an MoU concerning human
trafficking in which crime victims are protected under the law. Similar practice
is needed for migrant labourers in trouble,'' he said.
Aruni Srito, of
the Women Workers' Unity Group, said talks are under way with the Labour
Ministry to seek better protection measures for migrant workers.
``It is
agreed a working group, representing labourers and state officials, will be set
up to look into the problems,'' she said.
Meanwhile, the activists raised
doubt over a claim by the Tak Chamber of Commerce that abuse of workers' rights
was almost non-existent in Mae Sot.
It claimed only 10% of the local
factories had breached the labour law.
Ms Arunee was not convinced,
saying the mushrooming of new factories in Mae Sot in the past few years must
have something to do with the availability of cheap labour.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Bangkok Post - Wednesday 18 June 2003
EDITORIAL - Asean shows signs of baring its claws
It should be lost on no-one that it is a more mature
Asean entering annual security talks today in Phnom Penh with most of the rest
of the world, including the United States, the European Union, China, India,
Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Over the past two days, the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations has broken with its tradition of
non-interference in member states' affairs by questioning Burma about the events
of May 30 when opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was attacked and she was
placed in detention.
This is a major departure for the 36-year-old club,
a grouping linking mainly one party-rule states averse to criticism, even from
fellow club members. Although it is well known that Burmese foreign minister Win
Aung cannot speak for the entire regime in Rangoon, his willingness to be
accountable to Asean colleagues is a start. With the whole world watching, one
can only hope that this will lead to Rangoon's hard-liners coming to their
senses sometime soon.
Asean's coming of age stems in part from the
initiative of Thailand's former foreign minister Surin Pitsuwan, who should now
feel vindicated. The career diplomat was frowned upon by older colleagues for
daring to suggest that Asean adopt ``constructive engagement'', or discussion of
internal problems deemed important to the region as a whole. In discussing Burma
this week, Asean has admitted that the problem is international and reflects
poorly on the grouping as a whole.
The Asean ministers are calling for
the release of Suu Kyi, who has been detained, held under house arrest or
closely monitored for the greater part of the past 13 years that she has lived
in Rangoon. Her latest arrest has put Burma high on the agenda of the Asean
Regional Forum, which takes place today in Phnom Penh. And the reaction from
western members over the past two weeks has sparked fears of a bitter East-West
confrontation.
US President George W. Bush led the calls for the release
of Suu Kyi, drawing Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra into a similar statement
while he was in Washington last week. US Secretary of State Colin Powell
subsequently wrote an article published in a regional newspaper condemning the
``thugs'' Rangoon allegedly had employed against Suu Kyi and her supporters.
Most recently, the European Union stepped up sanctions against the regime,
adding visa bans and asset freezes on more than 150 officials, and suspending
trade privileges.
Beyond the calls for the release of Suu Kyi, Asian
leaders are playing their cards close to their chests. But the impression is
that both sides are sticking to their positions _ the West to sanctions, and
Asians to the softer approach of humanitarian aid, trade and, in Thailand's
case, preferential trade.
Having tolerated the situation in Burma for 13
years since Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won elections, and achieved
little through their different approaches, perhaps both Asian and western powers
should try something new. This might require sacrifices from Burma's larger
neighbours, China and India. They might be reluctant to displease the generals,
given the strategic and economic interests, but Beijing and New Delhi should
recognise the long-term benefits of using their leverage. Thailand, for its
part, must stop appeasing the generals, and maintain a consistent stand in
dealing with them.
The discussions in Phnom Penh today could come up
with a prescription for ``shock and awe'' or for soft-soaping the junta in
Burma. Whatever the choice, it should achieve something concrete. The wish list
is clear: a national reconciliation process that is charted by a cross-section
of Burmese society, including members of the junta, the pro-democracy
opposition, and the country's ethnic minorities.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Bangkok Post - Wednesday 18 June 2003
FOCUS / DETENTION OF SUU KYI
Eyewitness details
attack on opposition leader
If eyewitness accounts are to be
believed, Aung San Suu Kyi is very lucky to have escaped unhurt from the
violence of May 30.
AUNG ZAW
Burma's military government is sticking to its story before the
press and the international community that the attack in northern Burma on Aung
San Suu Kyi on May 30 was provoked by her opposition National League for
Democracy.
Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win told diplomats in
Rangoon last week that four people were killed and 50 were injured in the
violence. He said the trouble started when Suu Kyi's convoy sped into an
anti-NLD crowd.
``Allow me to say categorically,'' the deputy minister
said, ``that the allegations that the attack was premeditated are
unfounded.''
But more and more independent findings indicate that this
was not the case. The American embassy in Rangoon sent two investigators to the
site last week and they reported the attack was planned.
Moreover,
eyewitness accounts from northern Burma indicate that more than four people were
killed and the attack appeared to have been an ambush backed by the government
and its mass organisation Union Solidarity Development Association. USDA is led
by Senior General Than Shwe, head of the ruling military
government.
Exile groups say they believe as many as 70 people were
killed, while reports from international news agencies have suggested that the
death toll is closer to 80. NLD sources in Mandalay report that people saw dead
bodies being taken away in trucks.
An eyewitness now in hiding described
the May 30 clash, in a letter obtained by this correspondent, as an organised
attack on Suu Kyi and her supporters. The letter writer said he witnessed the
events in Depayin township in Sagaing division.
According to the
eyewitness, Suu Kyi and her entourage left Butalin township for Depayin at
around 6.30pm. As the convoy left the town, an unspecified number of vehicles
carrying USDA members started trailing NLD cars and motorcycles.
As Suu
Kyi and her entourage arrived at Kyi village about 5km from Depayin, villagers
came out to welcome Suu Kyi and other party members. Then the trouble began. As
Suu Kyi and her members drove past the waving villagers, a monk stopped Suu
Kyi's car and asked her to give a speech. Other eyewitness accounts also said a
group of monks stopped her car.
Suu Kyi's bodyguards told the monk that
it was already too late in the evening for the convoy to stop. But the monk
insisted, the letter reports.
Meanwhile, the USDA members who were
following the convoy began to attack the villagers who were standing nearby. As
the violence continued, more vehicles arrived. USDA members moved closer to the
NLD entourage. NLD members looked as though they did not expect the USDA to
attack, the letter says.
Several witnesses now say that USDA members and
thugs carried iron bars and bamboo and iron spears. The monk and his followers
stood by and watched the beating. It was reported that many men dressed as monks
were seen during the attack.
The beating of NLD members and leaders began
soon after the supporters were set upon. Those sitting inside vehicle were
attacked. Others were told to get out of their cars and were stripped of their
clothes. Some people, including female NLD members, were left naked, the letter
says.
Thugs shouted: ``Death to you, death you.''
Other accounts
from opposition sources inside Burma said USDA members shouted insults like:
``Are you protecting the wife of Kala?'' Kala is a derogatory term for Indians
and Muslims in Burma but it is also used as an insult for Westerners.
In
the past, the Burmese military government has used the term to deride Suu Kyi.
The opposition leader is the widow of British academic Michael Aris, who died in
March 1999.
USDA members moved in and beat NLD members over the head as
they tried to protect Suu Kyi's car. NLD youth members chained their arms to
guard Suu Kyi's car but they were knocked to the ground.
After Suu Kyi's
car windows were broken, USDA members and thugs began beating the opposition
leader with sticks, but her driver, Kyaw Soe Linn, was able to speed off towards
Depayin.
Witnesses said there was blood on her head and shoulders. But
UN special envoy Razali Ismail, who met Suu Kyi in Rangoon last week, said she
was not injured in the attack.
During the commotion, Tin Oo, the NLD
vice-chairman, was seen fighting with an assailant. He got out of his car and
ran, the letter said.
USDA members wielding bamboo clubs and iron rods
chased NLD members as they tried to run to Depayin. But more USDA members were
waiting in the town. Some supporters tried to escape the violence by hiding in
rice fields, the letter says.
The letter names some of the NLD supporters
who were injured and are presumed dead. They include Htut Soe (from Rangoon),
Paw Khin (an NLD MP from Myinchan), Win Aung and Zaw Lin (of Amarapura,
Mandalay), Aung Ko, Khin Aye Myint (a well-known NLD member), Khin Maung Oo (a
photographer from southwest Mandalay), U Chit Tin (from northwest Mandalay), and
Nyunt Nyunt (a female NLD member from northwest Mandalay).
Even as the
violence raged on, people from Depayin came out and chanted: ``Long Live Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi.''
Military vehicles arrived soon after and local army
units confronted villagers from Depayin. The letter states that gunfire could be
heard but it was not clear whether troops were shooting directly at people or
into the air.
The situation remained volatile until 2am. According to a
government press briefing: ``The disorder and brawl occurred from about 8pm to
11pm... The situation was put under total control about midnight.''
The
witness says he saw Tin Oo's vehicle on Saturday morning in a small canal near
the scene of the attack with its windows smashed. Several vehicles were burned.
The interior of two vehicles belonging to the Mandalay offices of the NLD were
said to be soaked with blood.
US embassy staff found considerable debris
along the road near the clash. They saw torn and bloodied clothing, numerous
weapons and smashed headlights and mirrors.
About 60 NLD members who had
managed to hide from the attackers returned to the site of the clash and
regrouped after sunrise. Army, police and local officials soon arrived and took
most of them away in a truck.
Among those arrested were Thet Htun Oo (an
NLD MP) and Aung Soe and Hla Oo (NLD members from Mandalay).
After
hearing the news of the clash, many supporters tried to follow Suu Kyi's car but
were intercepted and attacked. The eyewitness reports that nails were planted on
the road and tyres were shot.
The letter also says Win Mya Mya, a
well-known NLD member from Mandalay, was arrested by local army Captain Aung
Naing. Win Mya Mya's family members have no idea where she is being held. An NLD
source in Mandalay said her arm was broken in a beating but there has been no
independent confirmation she sustained any injuries.
Hospital staff in
Monywa near the attack site said they had not admitted any injured NLD members.
Phone lines in Monywa and Depayin were cut.
The letter says many of the
NLD supporters still in hiding have no food and many are wounded and in need of
medical treatment.
The state, meanwhile, continues to arrest
pro-democracy supporters.
- Aung Zaw is the editor of Irrawaddy
magazine.
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WHO calls for dengue fever control in Myanmar
Xinhuanet 2003-06-18 13:46:49
YANGON, June 18
(Xinhuanet) -- The World Health
Organization (WHO)has called for increased public involvement in the control and
prevention of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF), a life threatening disease
occuring in Myanmar intermittently especially in the northern Mandalay division.
A team of WHO specialists, who visited the division recently, suggested
that this disease could be controlled and eradicated through wider community
participation as done in Central Java, Indonesia where they have evaluated the
dengue eradication programs, the local Myanmar Times reported in its latest
issue.
The WHO experts also suggested that a vaccine against the DHF is
yet to be developed, the report said.
The experts called for building
stronger partnership in the campaign with the Myanmar Red Cross Society and
local and international non-governmental organizations to achieve more success,
based on the on-going campaign with limited resources.
The DHF mostly
causes death among children aged under 15 in Southeast Asia including Myanmar
and the factors that contribute to the DHF include population increase,
urbanization and a lack ofeffective mosquito control.
DHF was first
detected in Yangon in 1969 and a major outbreak of the disease followed in 1970,
which was confined to Yangon until 1973. The first case in Mandalay division was
detected in 1974 and major outbreaks have occurred in the division about
everyfour years with the most recent in last year.
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Asia Times - Jun 19, 2003
Golden
opportunities in northern Myanmar
By Qin
Chaoying
The Golden Triangle is a kind of cork on the
development of South and East Asia. Strategically located on the borders of
China, India and Thailand, it de facto hinders the development of communications
and exchanges among these areas. Roads are blocked and normal trade is made
impossible, but from here instability spreads all over neighboring areas. Drugs
- particularly heroin, opium and methamphetamine - are sold from here to the
rest of Asia. Drug money and criminal organizations cast their tentacles from
here. Gangs and interest groups spin from here spurring the political divide
among these neighboring countries that help the gangs' survival.
In a
way, the greatest concrete strategic obstacles to the process of Asian
integration are in this single region, northern Myanmar. The solution to its
problem is thus crucial for the whole of Asia. The following is a proposal that
envisages a strategy to help solve the issue peacefully.
The background
and the elements of a solution
In the past 10 years, trade in narcotics has
increased continuously all over the world. According to some estimates, its
global value has risen from US$500 billion in 1993 to about $1 trillion, roughly
the amount of the total capital flow of three big strategic industries, namely
information, finance and health. Drugs, beside harming people's health and
inflicting mounting damage on society, have become a huge onus on global
economic activity as they severely affect global economic and financial order.
The Golden Triangle area is notorious for drug production. In order to
eradicate this problem, many governments and organizations all over the world,
including China, have participated over several years in local anti-drug
activities. There is a common understanding on the issue: the substitution of
crops is the only strategy to eradicate the problem of drug production in the
region.
At present, the number of drug users worldwide exceeds 200
million. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the number of
persons using opium, heroin and related drugs is more than 176 million. Around
the Golden Triangle, it is estimated that drug addicts in Myanmar number more
than 400,000; 500,000 in Thailand; 150,000 in Malaysia; and more than 300,000 in
northern Vietnam.
The latest report from the International Criminal
Police Organization (Interpol) states that before 1995 heroin produced in the
Myanmese part of the Golden Triangle constituted more than 70 percent of world
production. Afterward, Myanmar's share of the world drug market was taken over
by South American countries, but its volume of production has certainly not
decreased. According to data from the United Nations, the poppy-growing area did
not experience any change in the period.
In 1995 the China Society for
Strategy and Management Research (CSSMR), a Chinese non-governmental
organization (NGO), started a program to develop northern Myanmar and eradicate
drugs from the area. Since that time, CSSMR has obtained some good results and
has gained plenty of experience. This ongoing program has entered a substantive
phase. It received authorization to proceed and the support of the central
government of Myanmar, plus the approval of the local authorities.
CSSMR's field experience has led it to believe that the substitution of
crops is absolutely indispensable for drug control in northern Myanmar and in
the Golden Triangle region as a whole, but it does not get to the heart of the
problem. It is necessary to change radically the characteristics of the local
economy. This, accompanied by a program to help the local people build modern
administrative institutions and establish the rule of law, it will eventually
lead to the peaceful eradication of poppies and the end of the production of
heroin. For this purpose, it is necessary to take into consideration the
long-term development of the local economy, which should fit the local natural
and cultural environment.
If the only measure adopted is the
substitution of crops, this will eventually only lead to a new surge in crops
used for the production of drugs.
Based on this evaluation, CSSMR's
basic orientation is to establish a non-governmental multilateral international
cooperation institution that all countries involved and their armed forces can
accept. This should be suited for the complicated situation of the
drug-producing region of the Golden Triangle in order to attain a stable
foothold in the area and directly mobilize the positive elements of the local
nationalities and all concerned sides.
CSSMR believes that even just the
beginning of an international effort to solve the problem of drugs in northern
Myanmar could usher in a new era of development in Asia. In the late 1980s the
peace process in Cambodia - until then a Cold War battlefield and crossroads of
the conflicting interests of Thailand, Vietnam and China, with some involvement
also by the United States and Japan - boosted regional confidence and trade,
which triggered a new wave of investment in the region and laid the foundation
for the miracle of economic development in East Asia. As is well known, this
lasted until the 1997 financial crisis. As northern Myanmar is wedged among
China, India and Southeast Asia, a solution to its problem could ease exchanges
between these three continent-size areas and thus boost development in the
region and in the world.
Here is the state of the program conducted by
CSSMR.
1) The authorities of the eastern Danbang second special zone offered
overall cooperation and active participation.
2) The Myanmese government
agreed to CSSMR sending personnel to the designated development areas to
undertake surveys.
3) The Myanmese government agreed to the use of Chinese
planes by CSSMR in the designated area to conduct aerial examination.
4) The
Myanmese government welcomes the idea that CSSMR is to coordinate the
participation in investment, development and aid of the Chinese and other
governments, non-governmental organizations, enterprises and individuals.
5)
The investment program, the drug-control programs, the non-profit and
development programs for the minority areas in the border regions all are
granted preferential treatment and government support.
6) The expert group of
CSSMR has obtained good results in its preliminary examination of the natural
resources in the Wa area.
In addition, with regard to the crucial aerial
surveys, if there is a need for future expansion of the scope of the surveys,
this can be discussed; the Myanmese government provides local support and
refueling facilities.
The advantages and opportunities inherent in the
ongoing program deserve special emphasis:
1) The Wa region shares a common
border with China, and people on both sides of the border share the same
language and the same cultural traditions, so communication is relatively
convenient.
2) CSSMR is an NGO; as such, thanks to a more effective use of
international resources, the support of the concerned countries, enterprises and
individuals, can play a role of bridge for the peaceful local development.
3)
In the period between 1995 and 2001 the CSSMR established a fundamental level of
trust with the Myanmese side through effective work on the ground.
4) The
elimination of drugs, the development of the economy and the construction of a
stable borderland can obtain the support of the Chinese and Myanmese governments
and people.
5) The discrepancies in the price of commodities and services
between that area and other regions create an opportunity for trade that can be
pivotal in developing the local economy.
6) Currently Myanmar is relatively
stable within its borders, yet there is a lack of funds and technology, and
international sanctions create a great opportunity to get started with the
implementation of a drug-substitution program.
Detailing the
CSSMR program
CSSMR has obtained the
authorization to develop the eastern Danbang 2nd special zone, which is a Wa
area of 15,000 square kilometers, for the most part consisting of mountains,
rivers and highland. The population is about 400,000. Forty percent of the
consumption of grains is not locally produced. The area producing opium
corresponds to 70 percent of the total output of Myanmar and some 43,000
hectares. The primary production potentials of the area include gold, gems,
small-scale mining, as well as grains and timber. There are some small
machine-repair shops. The local transportation and communication facilities are
backward, the education and sanitation levels very low. The central Myanmese
government has invested little in the past 12 years in the Wa area, and
basically only in infrastructure, although not enough for development needs. At
present the authorities of the Wa area are in fairly good control and have an
internal need - as well as the wish - to develop an economic alternative to
drugs.
The long-term CSSMR plan for northern Myanmar is divided into
three phases: investigating the resources; drawing a plan for opening up and
development; and gradually implementing the plan.
First, it is necessary
to conduct a full investigation on the conditions for development in northern
Myanmar. Then, the second phase should be to try to collect capital and projects
on the basis of this investigation. For this purpose a center for the
development of the region could be established that would coordinate the efforts
of all neighboring countries and the concerned international community. This
center should be concerned with the cultural as well as economic development of
the region and should draft a ten-year plan that could be subjected to Myanmar's
central authorities for approval.
The third phase should focus on the
development of the natural resources, infrastructure, crops replacement,
cultural and health care and tourism.
The exploitation of natural
resources should be conducted with a full environmental awareness in order not
to spoil the local environment. The natural resources of northern Myanmar are
plentiful, as the region is the richest in the whole of Asia. In Asia there is a
huge demand for forestry products, which could be provided by this region.
Furthermore there are plenty of precious stones and gold. The local economy
could well thrive on forestry, precious metal and stones, and tourism.
In addition to this, there is a need to build up infrastructure: roads,
power plants, crop-processing facilities, telecommunication. Beside facilitating
exchanges between northern Myanmar and bordering countries, this would improve
the quality of jobs available to the local people. This in turn would be
extremely helpful to improve the general cultural level and enhance their legal
awareness on the harm caused by consumption and trafficking of drugs.
On
substitution crops, CSSMR would recommend the plants used in Chinese traditional
medicine, particularly suitable for growing in the local climate. These plants
would certainly have a market in China and elsewhere.
The most important
aspect of this development process is the possibility of creating a sustainable
cash flow, which would decrease the reliance on funds from international
organizations and governments. At a broader level, it could break the vicious
cycle of planting poppies.
The human basis for the development
program
To eliminate the difficulties of drugs' eradication, it is necessary
to heed the mobilization of the positive elements in the local population.
In particular, the armed forces of northern Myanmar possess three
important positive elements that can facilitate the anti-drug work supported by
international cooperation. As compared with the cartels of Medellin or Cali,
Colombia, the advantages are significant:
1) South American drug-trafficking
cartels are only profit-minded. The Golden Triangle's armed groups traffic drugs
to finance their ultimate political goals of independence or autonomy.
2) The
relationship between South American drug-trafficking cartels and drug farmers is
purely commercial. Farmers are de facto hired by drug-trafficking cartels. The
relationship in the Golden Triangle between drug-trafficking armed groups and
poppy farmers is more ethnic - it is that of "chief of a tribe" and "ruler and
subjects". The production of drugs and trafficking is regulated by old tribal
rules.
3) South American drug-trafficking groups and drugs are symbiotic. If
drug trafficking is eliminated, these groups would also disappear. For this
reason they will not disappear without eliminating the demand for drugs. The
Golden Triangle nationalist armies existed before their engagement in drug
trafficking and there is not a necessary relation between their existence and
the eradication of drug trafficking. Actually, under certain conditions they
want the elimination of drugs. In fact, Kun Sha, as head of the armed forces of
the Shan ethnic group, has already pleaded to the world to help the Shan people
lead the war on drugs. From 1973 the Shan started to produce almost every year
plans to control and eradicate drug production and trafficking: the "six-year
anti-drugs plan", the "five-to-seven-year poppy-substitution plan", etc. The
so-called "New Heroin Kingdom of Northern Myanmar Wa Liberation Front" in 1994
published a series of resolutions to strengthen drugs control, which stipulated
explicitly that drug traffickers would receive five levels of punishment up to
the death penalty. The Shan eastern alliance in July 1995 published an
"announcement against drugs" forbidding trafficking in its area. The Guogan
Democratic Alliance at the end of 1995 drafted an anti-drugs decree "to stop
completely all drug activities from January 1, 1996" and "help people develop
proper production", and issued regulations on tax breaks to encourage normal
economic activities.
Lately the Golden Triangle has developed two
favorable conditions that could be conducive to the fundamental solution of the
problem. The first is that a high official of the Myanmese government announced
that "public or concealed armies from minority people in the forest areas or
other political organizations will be allowed to retain their armed organization
within the borders of the country provided they do not disturb again the
domestic public order, and cooperate with the government in developing the
economy". This new policy, recognizing the objective reality, was well received
by the armed forces of the various ethnic groups, and more than ten organized
armed groups have signed a ceasefire agreement with the government. The northern
part of Shan state, near the Chinese border, regained peace, and this creates an
opportunity for international economic cooperation for eradicating drugs.
Second, some armed ethnic groups and autonomous political groups took advantage
of this period of peace to start off with economic development, and under strong
international (particularly Chinese) pressure certain results in combating drug
production have been achieved.
The non-governmental multilateral
international approach
The principles of non-government multilateral
international cooperation are the following. First, avoid the difficulties of
penetrating the Golden Triangle experienced by official organizations in the
past. Second, establish an organization headed by highly prestigious
international figures who would be able to coordinate international
organizations and related countries and can be accepted by the ethnic groups of
the Golden Triangle and the Myanmese government.
So far the
international community has sponsored two methods in the Golden Triangle to
crack down on drugs: first, the use of military force to enforce anti-drug
policies. This method, although sometimes successful to a degree, was a failure
overall. The proof is that heroin production in the area has not diminished, but
rather has increased greatly. Another method was implemented in northern
Thailand: the crop-substitution plan. This program, with the support of four UN
institutions and 15 countries and organizations, obtained very positive results.
But there is still a problem: it is impractical to use Thailand's anti-drug
experience in the complicated situation of the Golden Triangle. The northern
Thailand program is based on assistance given to each household in the mountain
region to support drug-crop replacement, and this needs a peaceful environment
and local recognition of the legitimacy and authority of the Thai government. By
contrast, in northern Myanmar armed forces of the different ethnic groups set up
separatist power centers in a vast mountain area, while the Myanmese government
lacks sufficient authority. In any case, the result was that the positive
achievements of the northern Thailand substitution program created a wave of
drugs that almost drowned Myanmar, as the cultivation took deeper roots over the
Myanmese border.
It is crucial that the overall plan should be feasible
in the local circumstances. The CSSMR thus proposes to start development with
the "buyout formula". This program has the following characteristics. We need to
change the main driving force: the elements among the nationalities now
producing drugs must be mobilized to oppose drugs. In the past, international
organizations and the countries concerned mainly tried to enforce the anti-drug
policies in northern Myanmar through the central government and its troops,
which didn't have any real control on the key areas. This led to a situation
where international organizations and concerned countries became the target of
hostility by the ethnic groups and their armed forces in the Golden Triangle.
The new plan will have to bring to the fore the anti-drug activism of
the people. In other words, the local people have to be mobilized to assist and
not to oppose the anti-drug efforts. We also need to shift from military means
as the main anti drug measure to peaceful, multifaceted economic development. If
one relies on the power of the Myanmese government and armed forces to forbid
drugs, the result will be an "anti-drug war" that would turn into ethnic
massacres between ethnic groups and ethnic oppression. Everybody in the Golden
Triangle has seen or heard of the massacres, arsons and plunders of the Myanmese
army.
Instead, the method of buying out it is a peaceful economic
measure which makes full use of the two advantages of the area, ie its
geographical position and its wealth of natural resources.
In the first
stage, the central goal of the buyout plan is to enlarge the scale of the local
industries and thus establish an exchange with the local people producing drugs.
This should create a mechanism of reciprocal interest in the expansion of the
new industry and thus progressively bring the people growing drugs within the
scope of the normal economy so they would voluntarily give up their illegal
business.
Of crucial importance for the success of buyout development
plans is the quick formation of key industries, geared for the needs of the
domestic and foreign markets. In order to obtain decisive effects in a not too
long lapse of time it is necessary to extensively invest in local resources with
international support. For instance: to build roads and basic water and
electricity facilities, to put in place education facilities, to explore and
develop mineral reserves, to create an ecological agricultural production base
using modern farming methods.
This is possible only by radically
changing the economic environment and the industrial structure centered on the
single production of drugs and connecting the area with the rest of the world;
and by using such development projects to bring the leaders of the local
minorities on our side, ie in support of the international commodity markets.
Only at that point will we be in a position to plainly demand the tribal chiefs
to quit the production of drugs. In addition, a way out for the old drug
smugglers and warlords has to be offered, so that they can be reintegrated in
the local society.
The pattern along which at first the buyout
industrial development would organize the production of thousands of mountain
households can be "company + local base + farm household". In the plan for the
conversion of drug crops implemented in northern Thailand, there was too much
dispersion.
The scattered dwellings of farmers and scattered crop
transformation can hardly constitute scale benefits and there are neither
organizational forces nor a system of guarantees suitable to today's markets and
able to help mountain people who have converted their crops to adjust and
manage. The result is fluctuating incomes and difficulties in entering the
market to the point that part of the farm households go back to drug production.
The operating pattern "company + local base + farm household" pursues the
combination of industry, agriculture, commerce and science. In the initial phase
the local market must open to the world so that profit can be generated for the
thousands of households engaged in the conversion of drug plantations. Technical
training and technical achievements can be the basic channel for poverty relief
and the promotion of wealth. The UN could establish training centers that
improve technical knowledge to mountain people, which could learn about the
variety of plants that can substitute for poppy crops. This does not deny the
importance of official cooperation with the prohibition of drugs and law
enforcement operations. On the contrary, the efficacy of official cooperation
and the punitive pressure maintained through crackdowns is an essential
guarantee for the buyout development. At the same time, the above plan also
fills the gap left by the larger international organization.
The
drug-producing areas of northern Myanmar have excellent conditions for
agricultural production. They are particularly suitable for coffee, tea, cocoa,
tobacco, pepper, sugarcane, natural gum, bananas and plants for medicines and
spices. These high-return products could include also special kinds of nuts from
abroad and products currently developed in Yunnan, an area from which commercial
experience can be drawn.
If we take the production of coffee as an
example, we would produce up to 3,500 yuan per mu (US$6,340 per hectare), but
the production of opium in northern Myanmar locally yields only 1,500 yuan per
mu (about $2,720 per hectare). This is to prove that there is a huge economic
potential for the substitution of poppies.
Furthermore, the cultivation
of grains in northern Myanmar is rather primitive. Rice is planted only once a
year. Therefore there is a great potential for the improvement of techniques and
higher yields.
The area is ideal for raising cattle, horses and sheep in
a similar fashion as in Australia. Australian techniques for raising animals
could be used in the area and to set up related industries for the processing of
husbandry. There is potential for canned foods, for treatment of wool and of
leather. China and Southeast Asia could be potential great markets for these
substitution products. All of these should be conducted with full respect for
the environment and this could be attained without harming income.
Infrastructure to connect Asia
Northern Myanmar is
squeezed among the great markets of China, Southeast Asia and South Asia but the
local transportation network is very backward, although the geographical
conditions are excellent. In a direct line the distance between China and
Thailand is only 150 kilometers. Therefore, opening up a road route linking
China, India and Thailand is crucial. To do this it is necessary to open up the
river communication system of the Mekong and build a highway between Yunnan and
Thailand crossing the Jindong area in Myanmar and connecting it with India.
In this situation implementing hydro-power projects could solve local
power deficits and create ideal conditions for substitution crops. There are
many rivers in northern Myanmar with a lot of water and there is a great
potential for hydro-power plants of large, medium and small size. Besides, water
can also be used to power grain and lumber mills. Electric power produced in the
area of northern Myanmar through hydro-power plants can also be sold to
neighboring countries and the profits could be used locally. China and Thailand
could be the first clients of this electricity.
Opening up the mining
industry could provide the first substantial seed money for further development.
In northern Myanmar gemstones, gold, manganese, antimony have already been
discovered. Local Chinese government is at the moment cooperating with the
eastern alliance of Shan in exploiting local manganese mines and these Shan are
at the moment leaning less on drug productions. International companies could be
also drawn to the areas for the exploitation of local resources.
The
international tourist industry could have the double benefit of bringing in
necessary cash and exposing the local people to the world. Northern Myanmar is
near the famous tourist attractions of northern Thailand, drawing more than a
million tourists a year. Here there are plenty of historical relics, natural
scenery and extraordinary local customs. Furthermore, tourism could also develop
in neighboring Laos, starting a regional economic process.
Qin
Chaoying is secretary general of Strategy and Management, a Beijing business
magazine.
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