--------------------------------------------------------------
Monday June 23, 7:25 PM
Japan urges Myanmar to free
Suu Kyi
YANGON (Reuters) - A Japanese minister have met Myanmar's
military rulers to try to persuade them to free pro-democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi, a Japanese diplomatic source says.
International anger with the
generals has mounted since they detained the Nobel peace prize winner on May 30
after a clash between her supporters and a pro-junta group.
Japan, the
main aid donor to the impoverished country formerly known as Burma, sent its
deputy foreign minister, Tetsuro Yano, to meet Myanmar's military intelligence
chief Khin Nyunt, third in command in the junta, the source said on Monday.
He said Myanmar's foreign minister, Win Aung, attended the meeting, but
gave no further details. Yano, who was in Yangon for just a few hours and was
scheduled to leave later on Monday, also separately met Home Minister Tin
Hlaing, the source said.
Japan said last week it would consider scaling
back assistance to Myanmar if Suu Kyi is not released.
The Myanmar junta
has said it is holding Suu Kyi for her own personal safety and says it will free
her soon.
Former colonial power Britain says Suu Kyi is being held in
the "notorious" Insein jail, the biggest prison in the British empire before
1945, on the northern outskirts of Yangon.
A six-member team from the
International Committee of the Red Cross left Yangon on Sunday to see around a
dozen leaders of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) believed held in
the Mandalay area in central Myanmar.
But the team's leader, Michel
Ducreaux, told Reuters last week the junta had denied access to Suu Kyi.
The NLD swept to a landslide election victory in 1990 but has been
prevented from taking power by the military, which has ruled Myanmar in various
guises since a 1962 coup.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Monday June 23, 10:12 AM
Asian Ministers Agree To
Promote Regional Bond Market
CHIANG MAI, Thailand
(AP)--Foreign ministers from 18
Asian countries on Sunday agreed to promote bond markets in the region to avoid
another financial crisis of the kind that devastated regional economies six
years ago.
At the end of a two-day Asia Cooperation Dialogue meeting,
the ministers issued a declaration affirming their commitment to promote
"efficient and sustainable Asian bond markets for the betterment of Asia and its
financial system."
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who released
the declaration, called for a self-reliant and interdependent Asia whose
prosperity will benefit not just the region but the world at large.
"Our
aim is to create Asia that is more prosperous, more competitive and a better
place for our children," he said.
Proponents hope regional bond markets
will provide stable supplies of long-term capital for Asia's private sector.
At present, Asian savings often go to global markets before being
channeled back as high-risk premium loans. Sudden changes in capital flows were
a major factor behind the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98.
The
declaration also hailed the establishment on June 2 of a US$1 billion Asian Bond
Fund in which many ACD members - including Japan, China and Thailand - will pool
their reserves to buy Asian government bonds.
India is eager to set up a
second Asian Bond Fund and is willing to contribute initial seed money of US$1
billion on its own, Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai told reporters.
Thaksin said although Asia's US$1.4 trillion in foreign reserves
represents half of the world's total international reserves, Asia has never used
that money to create more wealth within the region.
"These reserves -
our own reserves - were used to create and add more wealth to the western
hemisphere," he said.
Asia "must try to manage its own assets, resources
and strengths in such a way that creation of our financial instruments will
serve us best," he said.
The ACD meeting, launched by Thaksin last year,
also discussed ways to promote cooperation in other areas such as energy
security, poverty reduction, information technology, tourism and human resources
development.
The forum brought together foreign ministers from 18
nations - the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus
Japan, South Korea, China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bahrain and Qatar.
Asean's members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Kazakhstan,
Kuwait, Oman and Sri Lanka will join ACD when it holds its third meeting in
China next year.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Myanmar Uneasy After Suu Kyi's Arrest
Sun Jun
22,12:50 PM ET
By SHELLY
CULBERTSON
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - By the ancient Shwedagon Pagoda, its spires
shimmering with gold, a tour guide proudly shows off a memorial to a 1920
student uprising against British colonial rule, and manages to slip in a more
contemporary touch.
He tells how, as a student, he was part of the
protests launched from this spot in 1988 against his country's military
dictators.
But there have been no student demonstrations, no fiery
speeches at the roughly 25-story-high monument, no flicker of discontent in the
streets of the capital, in the days since the generals arrested Aung San Suu
Kyi, a heroine of the pro-democracy forces.
Speaking one's mind may be
riskier than ever. People never know when they might be overheard by a
government agent disguised as a harmless bystander.
They'll talk to
foreigners, assuming they're unlikely to be allied with the regime, but don't
want to be identified in print. They say careless words can lead to arrest,
torture, even execution.
"The military is afraid of students. They keep
us under their boot," said the guide, who wears a sarong and white cotton shirt
and whose broad smile reveals teeth reddened by betel nut juice.
He
speaks ungrammatical but expressive English, a vestige of British rule that
ended in 1947. The military took over in 1962, and after brutally crushing the
1988 uprising, it closed the universities. By the time they reopened, it was too
late for the guide, like thousands of others, to complete his degree.
Yangon seems tranquil compared with cities in neighboring countries.
The streets and sidewalks are clean and filled with smiling faces.
Drivers obey stoplights. The trains run on time. Street intersections are
dominated by large red billboards euologizing the government in white-lettered
messages. One of them reads: "Crush all internal and external destructive
elements as the common enemy."
Stores sell South
Korean, Taiwanese and Japanese brand stereos, washing machines and flat screen
televisions. Videos of the latest Hollywood and Hong Kong action movies are
available. Tea shops entertain guests with hip-hop Myanmar music and pirated
copies of Western CDs, this month's flavor being the band "Linkin Park."
If Myanmar seems oddly quiet, it is because many are tired of struggle
and just want to improve their lives.
The most famous of the Texas-sized
country's 42 million people is nowhere to be seen. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize
laureate for her struggle for democracy, has been in prison ? "protective
custody," the regime calls it ? since May 30, when government supporters clashed
with her supporters in northern Myanmar.
She turned 58 on Thursday, and
the British government says she is being kept in a two-room hut at a prison near
Yangon, still wearing the clothes she was arrested in three weeks ago.
In a tea shop in a poor neighborhood, where customers on low stools sip
milky sweet tea, a couple of journalists sat down to chat.
"People talk
about football in the street, but in their hearts they are very angry," said
one, wearing a Banana Republic T-shirt and a longyi, or sarong.
"The
people won't protest. They want to, but they are afraid to take risks. Even I am
afraid to take risks," he said.
The young man gave his first name as
Maung and didn't want his publication described.
His colleague, a
freelance writer named Kyaw, remarked that "Burmese people like their tea so
sweet because life is so bitter." Burma was the country's name until the regime
changed it to Myanmar, and Rangoon to Yangon.
He said the regime, which
calls itself the State Peace and Development Council, had tripled its army of
secret police since 1988.
"They are everywhere. They look just
like me," he said.
The guide said he and his friends stop talking
whenever strangers are present.
Saw, a businessman, sat in his clean but
drab office drinking Star ? Pepsi-Cola until the U.S. company stopped doing
business with the regime ? and explained why he thought the pro-democracy
struggle was futile.
"Democracy is just not in our nature here," he
said. "It is the way of life in American democracy, but we don't have that.
Fighting by democratic means is not effective here."
Because jobs and
educational opportunities are scarce, many younger people look abroad. But
getting a passport and foreign currency entails great expense and red tape.
Some do correspondence courses with foreign universities. Those who can
afford it surf the Web at one of only two Internet cafes in Yangon, looking for
opportunities abroad.
The government controls Web access and does its
best to shut out foreign news sources, but many listen in secret to British
Broadcasting Corp. radio or watch illegal satellite TV.
The guide says
he likes his job because he can talk openly to foreigners and hopes they will
tell the world about life in Myanmar.
But when it comes to his own
people, he says, "I am only free to think. Not free to speak, do, hear or see."
--------------------------------------------------------------
Report: Myanmar to boost gasoline, diesel fuel imports
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) _ Myanmar's military government plans to
increase gasoline and diesel fuel imports this year to meet demand that is
growing while the domestic supply is shrinking, a newspaper reported Monday.
Myanmar imported US$200 million in fuel last year, but will need to
purchase more this year to make up for the shortfall, The Myanmar Times
reported, quoting an unidentified Energy Ministry official.
The report
did not say how much additional fuel would be imported. Officials were not
immediately available for comment.
Myanmar suffers a constant fuel
shortage due to limited domestic oil production and tight foreign exchange
reserves. Gasoline has been sold under a rationing system in the capital,
Yangon, since 1980.
Once one of the region's most important oil
producers, Myanmar pumped 32,000 barrels of crude oil per day in 1979. But
production has declined gradually while consumption has increased.
Myanmar produced approximately 16,000 barrels of crude per day in 2002,
or 5.8 million barrels total, according to official figures.
The report
in the semi-official newspaper said Myanmar consumes about 2.4 million barrels
of gasoline a year and 7.9 million barrels of diesel fuel, relying mostly on
imports from Malaysia.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Japan asks junta to free Suu
Kyi
YANGON, June 23, Kyodo - Japan's Senior Vice Foreign Minister
Tetsuro Yano met Monday with a senior junta figure in Myanmar to seek the
release of detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Yano, who
arrived in Yangon earlier Monday for a one-day visit, held more than an hour of
talks with intelligence chief Gen. Khin Nyunt, secretary of the ruling State
Peace and Development Council.
Foreign Minister Win Aung was present at
that meeting.
The Japanese vice minister met separately with Home
Affairs Minister Col. Tin Hlaing to ask the junta to release Suu Kyi, who has
been in ''protective custody'' since a clash between her supporters and junta
supporters in Depei-yin in northern Myanmar on May 30.
Several other top
leaders of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy have also been detained since
the incident.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has not been allowed
to meet outside visitors since her detention, said to be in Insein Prison,
except U.N. special envoy Razali Ismail on June 10. It is unlikely Yano will
meet with her.
Foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) demanded last week Myanmar's
ruling generals release Suu Kyi, an unprecedented call from ASEAN for one of its
own to put its domestic political house in order.
ASEAN, which groups
Thailand, the Philippines, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia,
Singapore and Brunei with Myanmar, has in the past avoided criticizing the
domestic policies of any individual ASEAN member.
The ARF consists of
the 10 ASEAN countries plus 13 others from the Asia-Pacific region, including
the United States, Japan and Australia.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Chinese-built machinery factory to be handed over to
Myanmar
Xinhuanet 2003-06-23 13:54:42
YANGON, June 23
(Xinhuanet) -- A Myanmar
agricultural machinery factory, built by the Zhejiang Sifang Group of China and
is being under trial production since May this year, will be officially
delivered to the Myanmar side by the end of August.
The Chinese-built
machinery factory occupies a land area of 71,620 square-meters and a building
area of 25,753 square-meters in Kyaukse, northern Mandalay division and is
considered as the largest one of its kind in Myanmar.
Built with a
long-term interest-free loan from the Chinese government and a total investment
of 144.88 million Chinese yuan renminbi (about 17.5 million US dollars), the
factory will produceannually 10,000 sets of Gongnong-type 16-horse-power walking
tractors and 5,000 sets of reaper.
Myanmar has a low degree of
agricultural mechanization and the mechanized farming area accounts for only
2.835 million hectares of its total cultivation area of 10.12 million hectares.
The factory is expected to enhance Myanmar's agricultural
mechanization.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Britain to enforce tighter visa regimes for citizens of 16
countries
Xinhuanet 2003-06-23 20:17:43
LONDON, June
23 (Xinhuanet) -- Nationals of 16
countries will need a visa to travel through Britain on their way to a third
country, the British Home Office announced on Monday.
The restrictions,
which will come into force at midnight on Monday, will affect citizens from
Albania, Belarus, Burundi, Cote d'Voire, Gambia, Liberia, Macedonia, Moldova,
Myanmar, Nepal, the Palestinian Territories, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone,
Sudan and Vietnam.
According to the Home Office, those visiting Britain
from thesecountries already need visas, and the change means they will also need
a visa in order to pass through the country on their way to other destinations.
Commenting on the move, Home Office minister Beverley Hughes said it was
part of a strategy to continue to strengthen British borders.
"The
ability to travel to the UK without a visa when claiming to be on the way
somewhere else is a relatively cheap and easy wayto circumvent our immigration
controls," Hughes said," We are tightening up our procedures to put a stop to
this abuse."
--------------------------------------------------------------
The New Zealand
Herald
Myanmar's
Titanium Orchid defies the tyrants
23.06.2003
By
JAN McGIRK
A guard paced outside Aung San Suu Kyi's dingy
two-room hut at Insein Prison near Rangoon where the martyr of Myanmar's
pro-democracy movement turned 58 last week.
No birthday amnesty was on
offer for the tortured nation's "Titanium Orchid", who has spent 14 years facing
down the brutal regime of the generals who rule the country.
For three
weeks, they have held her in "protective custody" despite worldwide protests.
Suu Kyi has suffered as a martyr for her country's still-born democracy,
which was snuffed out in 1990 after the military junta ignored her election
victory.
She was jailed and her party, the National League for
Democracy, was banned.
Under house arrest for almost eight years, she
refused the chance to visit her husband, Michael Aris, on his deathbed in
England for fear of being refused readmission to Myanmar and forced into
permanent exile.
Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, endured
the loneliness of her years of house arrest with the help of Buddhist meditation
and playing classical piano.
But her political supporters have had to
contend with the full rage of the military.
Myanmar's generals, who run
one of the world's cruellest dictatorships, will not be cowed by protests and
the talk of sanctions from Western Governments.
They have close business
links across much of Asia and investment is booming.
European Union
heads of state, meeting in Greece, have been silent on Suu Kyi's fate.
The US is unambiguous in its condemnation of Myanmar, which it describes
as a place where there is "no real freedom of speech, press, assembly,
association, or travel" and where security forces monitor citizens' movements
and communications, search homes without warrants and move people forcibly
without compensation or legal recourse.
But as in Europe, there is no
talk in Washington of bringing about "regime change" in Myanmar.
Rangoon
is dotted with new hotels and infrastructure projects built with forced labour
and Asian investment money.
A pipeline owned by Western oil companies is
brutally protected by Myanmar's military.
A day after US Secretary of
State Colin Powell described Myanmar's leaders as "brutal thugs", his birthday
greetings to Suu Kyi were brushed aside.
Grinning nervously at a summit
of Asian ministers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Myanmar's Foreign Minister, Win
Aung, protested: "We are not a brutal people. If we were brutal, there would be
signs of brutality all across the country."
The junta was holding Suu
Kyi to protect her against potential assassins, he claimed.
Myanmar also
blocked a birthday call to Suu Kyi from British Foreign Office Minister Mike
O'Brien.
Three weeks after a National League for Democracy (NLD) rally
northwest of Mandalay ended in an ambush and massacre in which at least 70 of
Suu Kyi's supporters are said to have died, the opposition leader is wearing the
blouse and skirt in which she was arrested.
In Rangoon, where followers
refer to her simply as "the lady", in case they are overheard by Government
stooges, there were no public demonstrations of loyalty.
Party offices are
padlocked, activists who have not been jailed have gone into hiding.
Universities and colleges were reopened last week for the first time
since her arrest, but a tight lid is being kept on student dissent.
Exiles say Myanmar has not been so tense since the 1988 student
uprisings, when soldiers killed thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators.
Their list of complaints against the Myanmar Government is long. The
nation is resource-rich but utterly impoverished and isolated because of
mismanagement.
The regime is reviled for allowing drug traffickers to
move opium and methamphetamines across the Golden Triangle.
It uses
child soldiers, condones torture and rape, and builds the tourist infrastructure
with forced labour.
Human Rights Watch has documented how tens of
thousands of villagers in central and northern Myanmar faced Army curfews,
looting, and restrictions on movement.
Tens of thousands of other
villagers in eastern and southeastern Myanmar are displaced in the jungle, where
the Army has been fighting insurgent groups.
Released from house arrest
13 months ago, Suu Kyi remained a thorn in the side of the military.
She
called for a tourist boycott of the country's golf courses and hotels, built by
indentured labour.
In releasing her, Myanmar's dictator, Than Shwe,
miscalculated.
He had assumed that the NLD was a spent force. He was
galled by the rapturous reception she got on her tour upcountry when tens of
thousands of listeners came to her rallies.
He also expected more
rewards from the international community for letting Suu Kyi speak again,
believing the US and the European Union would lift sanctions.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Bangkok Post - Monday 23 June 2003
Shan plants move to Laos to dodge law
New mountain,
river smuggling routes
Anucha
Charoenpo - Udon Thani
Heavy suppression by Thai
authorities has forced drug producers to move their production bases from Mong
Yawn in Burma's Shan state to northern Laos.
The government's crusade
against drug use in Thailand from February to April also presented obstacles to
drug producers, who found it more difficult to smuggle in their products from
Burma via northern routes.
Lt-Col Manop Khaikhunthod, of the 2nd Army's
Surasakmontree task force, said many of the drug laboratories around Mong Yawn
had been relocated to the area of Khwang Bo Kaew in northern Laos.
His
intelligence officers had yet to confirm how many laboratories have been set up
in his area of responsibility _ the upper northeastern provinces of Loei, Nong
Khai, Nakhon Phanom and Mukdahan. But he cited two separate seizures of drug
precursor chemicals as backing up the intelligence reports.
The first
seizure _ 2,000kg of caffeine _ occurred in March last year at Sri Chiang Mai
district, Nong Khai. Two Thais and three Lao people were caught while preparing
to smuggle it across the Mekong river to Vientiane.
Then 286 containers
of sulphuric acid were seized at Pak Huang immigration checkpoint in Thalee
district, Loei, in March this year.
An arrested Thai confessed to
smuggling the precursor via Luang Prabang in Laos and to Khwang Bo
Kaew.
``Drug producers have taken advantage of the geographical
circumstances of Khwang Bo Kaew. Most of the area is mountainous, appropriate
for setting up drug-producing bases, and the location is still near Shan
state,'' he said.
Lt-Col Manop said methamphetamines produced by the
laboratories in Laos were loaded on vehicles from Khwang Bo Kaew via Luang
Prabang through Chaiyaburi and Vientiane provinces to Lao border villages,
before being smuggled to the upper Northeast of Thailand. Sometimes boats were
used for smuggling along the same route.
He divided drug dealers in the
upper Northeast into three groups. The first group included those travelling
from Chon Buri, Prachin Buri, Chachoengsao, Sa Kaew and Trat
provinces.
These drug dealers entered Laos to buy illicit drugs from Lao
drug agents in Vientiane themselves. They often entered and left via permanent
immigration checkpoints. Police has arrested drug traffickers using these
channels three times this year.
The second group of drug dealers were
natives of the upper northeastern border provinces. Most were small- to
medium-scale dealers and had close ties with Lao people.
In the last
group were Lao drug dealers with close ties to Thai counterparts.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Nation
REGIONAL PERSPECTIVE: Asean is making virtue
out of necessity
KAVI CHONGKITTAVORN
Published on Jun 23, 2003
At the end of the first session of
their retreat at the Cambodiana Hotel, the Asean foreign ministers' comfort
level had reached a high point in its 36-year history: they discussed recent
developments in Burma for 90 minutes with unusual candour. From that moment on,
Burma had all but lost its immunity from peer criticism.
For six years,
Asean members had endured and unwaveringly sheltered its pariah colleague from
international criticism, believing that unspoken pressure and goodwill would
help the national reconciliation process and encourage Burma to adopt a more
positive outlook toward democracy. It had the opposite effect.
When Aung
Sann Suu Kyi was taken into custody on May 30, Asean was completely caught off
guard. The Asean ministerial meeting was only two weeks away. The focus was on
North Korea's nuclear weapons programme. No one in Asean thought the Burmese
junta leaders would stir up yet another political crisis.
In retrospect,
the regime must have thought whatever they did, Asean would always come to their
defence. They have done so since 1997. But this time around, the junta
miscalculated the grouping's reaction. Asean called for Suu Kyi's immediate
release.
Before the Asean ministers reached that conclusion, it had
taken them a week to fully understand the severity of the May 30 incident. The
US embassy immediately dispatched its officials on that very day to gather
information and evidence at the site where Suu Kyi's convoy was attacked and an
unknown number of her supporters killed.
The finding was clear that the
clash were premeditated, perpetrated by thugs backed by the regime. Suddenly,
the attack became a rallying template for protests around the world. Thanks to
strong US, EU and Japanese pressure and harsh words, Asean could not stand
silent.
Then the Asean ministers had another week to absorb the growing
condemnation against Suu Kyi's detention. When the meeting began, the Asean
ministers poured out their criticisms. The ministers from the Philippines,
Malaysia and Singapore felt strongly that the grouping had lost creditability
because of Burma's behaviour. They complained too about the lack of Burmese
cooperation with Ismail Razali, not only as a UN special envoy but as an Asean
representative who assumed this sensitive assignment. Asean wants to have good
ties with its trading partners. Most of all, the grouping does not want to
repeat the cycle of acrimonious exchanges with its dialogue partners over Burma.
If anything, Asean's only regret was that it should have stepped up
pressure against Burma on its own much earlier on. Nonetheless, the language in
the joint communique was weak, except for the call for Suu Kyi's freedom.
Without following up on this commitment, Asean's action will be viewed as a
face-saving response to the US's hardening position and as a means to avoid
future attempts to bring Burma before the UN Security Council.
Although
there was no explicit time frame for her release, obviously Burma has another
three years until 2006, when Rangoon will host the annual Asean meeting, to
ameliorate the political climate and prove its worth. Otherwise it risks a
make-or-break situation with the Asean family.
As the new Asean chair,
Indonesia suggested Asean dispatch a team to Rangoon to help Burmese Foreign
Minister Win Aung convey the grouping's views and to secure Suu Kyi's freedom.
Back in 1994, when Rangoon was about to sign the Treaty of Amity and
Cooperation, Asean ministers refused to respond to her letter of appeal,
submitted through the Asean Secretariat, warning of the dire consequences of
admitting Burma.
While analysts have credited Asean for growing openness
this year, it is too premature to conclude Asean is changing towards more
democratisation. If anything, the Phnom Penh meeting highlighted the huge
perception gap between the old and new members. More than Asean would like to
admit, members' different political outlooks - something Asean decided to bypass
in admitting new members - have already hampered their cooperation.
For
instance, this time new members have again refused to support the establishment
of a regional human rights mechanism, even though conservative old members
backed the plan, which has been under discussion for the past decade.
Wishing to resume a leading political role, Indonesia is urging its
Asean colleagues to bridge the gap on political and security issues affecting
the region. Asean does agree on common positions on issues such as
non-interference from major powers, a Southeast Asia nuclear-weapons-free zone
and the anti-terrorism campaign.
But it still lacks a
conflict-resolution mechanism that can propel the grouping to a new level of
cooperation. The Bangkok Declaration of 1967 was a political declaration of the
five founding members. All Asean agreements are non-binding. But to enhance the
power to the organisation, Asean would need a charter that is the source of
authority to implement agreements and policies. And, if necessary, reprimand
those members that do not comply.
Strange as it may seem, Suu Kyi's
detention could serve as a new catalyst for Asean to broaden its common
political and security views. Indonesia's proposal to establish an Asean
security community augurs well for the current atmosphere, even though that
country is still embroiled itself with many regional conflicts.
There is
one caveat. The joint communique also suggested Asean prefers regionalisation
over internationalisation of Burma's problems, which can essentially block off
foreign criticism and involvement. In 1980, Malaysia and Indonesia agreed on the
Kuantan principle during the peak of the Cambodian conflict to discourage
foreign intervention in the region's domestic affairs. It briefly shifted the
debate away from the occupation of foreign troops in Cambodia to perceived
outside threats towards the region.
To avoid that trap, Asean must work
closely with international players that have brought about the pressure on Burma
in the first place and focused on the national reconciliation process and
political dialogue.
Otherwise, the future is bleak and the pariah nation
will continue to stand out as Asean's sore thumb.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Malaysian National News Agency
June 23 , 2003
16:25PM
Myanmar To Import More Fuel From
Malaysia
YANGON, June 23 (Oana-Xinhua) -- Myanmar planned
to import a little more than 200 million US dollars worth of petrol and diesel
in 2003 compared with 2002 to meet the country's fuel demand, the local Myanmar
Times reported Monday.
Quoting the Ministry of Energy, the report said these
fuel were mainly imported from Malaysia.
According to official
statistics, Myanmar produced 5.92 million barrels (787,000 tons) of crude oil in
2002.
The country annually consumes 100 million gallons of petrol and
over 300 million gallons of diesel.
Myanmar has 3,154 million barrels
(419.5 million tons) of recoverable reserve of crude oil in onshore and offshore
areas.
Meanwhile, there are 19 inland oil fields in Myanmar where
foreign companies from Indonesia, Bahamas, Britain, Cyprus and China are
operating at present.
Contracted foreign investment in Myanmar's oil and
gas sector reached 2,402 million dollars in 56 projects as of the end of 2002
since late 1988, the statistics show.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Malaysian National News Agency
June 23 , 2003
18:11PM
Malaysia To Host AMEM And Some In
Langkawi
KUALA LUMPUR, June 23 (Bernama) -- Malaysia will host and chair the 21st
Asean Ministers of Energy Meeting (AMEM) on July 3, 2003 in Langkawi,
Kedah.
There will also be the 21st Senior Officials Meeting on Energy (SOME),
the 4th SOME-METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan) Consultations
and the 2nd SOME+3 (China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea) Consultations,
which are scheduled to take place from June 30 to 2 July, 2003.
The 21st
AMEM/SOME organised by the Ministry of Energy, Telecommunications and Multimedia
Malaysia will take place at the Berjaya Langkawi Beach & Spa Resort,
Langkawi.
Secretary-general of the Ministry of Energy, Communications
and Multimedia, Datuk Dr Halim Shafie said, " AMEM is an annual forum of ASEAN
Energy Ministers that serves as a platform to promote cooperation in the energy
sector between member countries."
The last AMEM was held in Bali,
Indonesia in 2002.
At the 21st AMEM, the ministers are scheduled to
deliver their respective statements and consider as well as adopting the report
of SOME in areas of cooperation namely, the Asean Power Grid, the Trans-Asean
Gas Pipeline Project (TAGP), Energy Efficiency and Conservation, New and
Renewable Sources of Energy, Coal, and Regional Outlook, Policy and
Environmental Analysis.
"The ministers will also adopt related
recommendations on the 4th SOME-METI Consultations, 2nd SOME+3 Consultations and
operations of the Asean Centre for Energy (ACE)," Halim told reporters at a
media conference here Monday.
As part of the agenda of the 21st AMEM, he
said the ministers would also be briefed on the developments and activities of
the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and programmes and
activities of Asean Council on Petroleum Security Agreement.
He said the
meeting would end with the adoption of the 21st AMEM Joint Statement and Report
by the Ministers.
In conjunction with 21st AMEM/SOME, winners of the
Asean Energy Awards organised by the ACE will also be announced at the gala
dinner to be held on July 2003.
Halim said the award was to promote
excellence in the energy field by giving recognition to both public and private
sectors's effort in adopting good practices in the areas of energy efficiency,
conservation and new and renewable sources of energy.
He said all
ministers responsible for energy from 10 Asean member countries, namely Brunei
Darussalam, Cambidia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand, and Vietnam, have confirmed their attendance.
Malaysia's
delegation to the 21st AMEM/SOME is headed by Minister of Energy, Communications
and Multimedia, Datuk Amar Leo Moggie, while the senior officials comprised of
representatives from other government agencies namely those from Energy
Commissions, Tenaga Nasional Bhd, Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas), Malaysian
Energy Centre and the Association of Independent Power Producers.
A
total of more than 120 officials and industry players are expected to
participate in this year's 21st AMEM/SOME.
-- BERNAMA
--------------------------------------------------------------
The DAWN - 23 June 2003
Myanmar's
stance on Suu Kyi annoys Asean states
By Larry
Jagan
BANGKOK: International outrage continues to mount over
the continued detention of Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, with
Yangon's neighbours in Southeast Asia fidgeting at the political - and perhaps
economic - price of the country's intrasigence.
So far, Europe has
stepped up sanctions on Myanmar and the United States is introducing tougher
economic measures.
Even the countries of Southeast Asia are getting
annoyed with Myanmar's military rulers. At their annual meetings in Phnom Penh
this week, the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) urged the Myanmar government to release Aung San Suu Kyi as soon as
possible.
Most foreign ministers understood that Myanmar's political
problems were tarnishing the image of the organization as a whole."
Unfortunately, now that you are part of ASEAN, all the fraternal countries share
your accountability before the world community," Philippine Foreign Minister
Blas Ople told his Myanmar counterpart Win Aung. "It is not fair that the image
of ASEAN is being defined by the events transpiring in your country."
Although the communiqués at the end of the ASEAN sessions and the
regional strategic meeting ASEAN Regional Forum were mild in their language, Win
Aung was left in no doubt that most of his Asian colleagues were running out of
patience with Yangon.
"Most ASEAN countries understand that the latest
events in Myanmar are a huge step backwards, which puts the national
reconciliation process in danger of collapse," said a senior diplomat at the
Phnom Penh meeting. "They also know that this would undoubtedly have
implications for the future peace and prosperity of the region - not just
Myanmar," he said.
News that Aung San Suu Kyi is actually being held in
Myanmar's notorious Insein prison on the outskirts of Yangon will only increase
calls for her immediate release.
According to diplomatic and opposition
sources, she is being kept in a two-room hut within the prison complex. She is
being denied access to reading and writing materials and her lawyer. "It is for
all intents and purposes solitary confinement," said a diplomat in Yangon.
Before returning to Yangon, Myanmara's Win Aung told reporters at the
ASEAN meetings: "We don't have any animosity against Aung San Suu Kyi. She will
be released - when the situation in the country returns to normal."
The
UN envoy to Myanmar, Razali Ismail, has renewed his appeal to Yangon to clarify
the conditions of Suu Kyi's detention. "When I met with (her) on 10 June, she
told me that she was being held under Section 10-A," Razali told IPS.
Under this law, the government can hold incommunicado a person suspected
of subversive activities for at least 60 days, and up to a total of 180 days
without charge. This can be extended to five years in all.
"Since my
return from Myanmar, I have been studying closely the implications of detaining
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi under Section 10-A," said Razali. "Her detention under 10-A
would seem to be at variance with the government's claim that Aung San Suu Kyi
is being held in 'protective custody'."
"The government should clarify
the situation immediately by releasing Aung San Suu Kyi - who, in the view of
the UN, does not pose a threat to Myanmar's stability and security, but rather
can contribute significantly to it," he added.
Legal experts in Myanmar
say there is no such thing as protective custody under the law. The military
regime instead has placed her in the equivalent of preventive detention under
the State Protection Law, reserved for people deemed to be threats to peace and
security. But even under these regulations, prisoners have the right to legal
counsel.
International experts also say this law is in breach of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Myanmar has signed. At the same
however, several countries in the region have similar regulations known as
internal security acts. Aung San Suu Kyi was detained under this act when she
was placed under house arrest for the first time in 1989 for nearly six years.
The Red Cross has been given permission to see the political prisoners
detained after the events of the May 30 attack against Suu Kyi and her
supporters, which led her being put under 'protective custody'. But it continues
to be denied access to Aung San Suu Kyi.
"It seems likely that the
pro-democracy leader is likely to remain in solitary co confinement for the
minimum period of two months," said a senior diplomat. "The fear is that she may
even be kept there for the full five years without a trial."
For ASEAN,
the confrontation with the west - the United States in particular - may be over.
Secretary of State Colin Powell has left and is embroiled in other matters in
the Middle East. But Southeast Asia will still have to cope with the problems
that Myanmar's military leaders' intransigence is bringing down on the region.
Both the United States and the EU are threatening even stronger measures
against Myanmar's military rulers if they do not release Suu Kyi soon and start
substantive talks with her and her party - the National League for Democracy.
Southeast Asian governments fear that Europe may start considering a
tourist ban as well, something they do not need in the aftermath of the Iraq
war, SARS and the suspicion of potential terrorist attacks in the region
"ASEAN - Thailand in particular - is worried about the possibility of a
tourist ban on Myanmar, either bilaterally or collectively, as this is likely to
severely affect their own industries as well," said a senior Asian diplomat who
did not want to be identified. So although Asia's leaders can breathe more
easily now that the ASEAN meetings are over, they know that there will be
increased pressure on them to take concrete action on Myanmar. -Dawn/The
InterPress News Service.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Canberra Times
Burma's rulers
impervious to international pressure
David Scott
Mathieson
Monday, 23 June 2003
BY THE ACCEPTED
criteria, Burma deserves to be named on any Axis of Evil. It is ruled by a
military regime that suppresses democracy, brutally represses the country's many
ethnic groups, floods global markets with heroin and methamphetamines, and has a
small but growing nuclear-research program.
Despite clear need for regime
change, the international community has pursued in vain multiple avenues of
engagement with the Government, the misnamed State Peace and Development
Council.
On Black Friday, May 30, the change that many had hoped was
slowly coming to Burma was violently reversed. A convoy carrying opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters on a tour to reopen offices of the
embattled National League for Democracy was attacked by government forces.
In an assault by soldiers of the Union Solidarity and Development
Association, police and prisoner labour, the convoy was set upon by an armed mob
resulting in an estimated 70 deaths. The party's leaders, including Suu Kyi and
Tin Oo, sustained injuries and were placed under "protective custody" to avoid
further disorder, according to the Government.
All military units in the
country were placed on alert to suppress the expected social upheaval. The
regime postponed the new university semester, fearing that students would
mobilise and take to the streets.
Preliminary investigations by the
United States Embassy and pro-democracy groups in Thailand have found evidence
that the attack was planned by hardliners in the military. The events have
reversed what many observers argued was the closest the country had come to real
change.
Yet even these arguments were based more on hope than any
substantive concessions by the regime. The international community has relied on
three avenues for engaging the SPDC in the past few years.
The first is
the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy, Malaysian diplomat Razali Ismail. He
was credited with bringing the two sides closer to dialogue in a series of
secret meetings since 2000 and for the release of Suu Kyi from house arrest in
May 2002.
His meeting with Suu Kyi on June 9 was criticised by most
observers for repeating the SPDC's version of events and failing to ascertain
the extent of Suu Kyi's reported injuries. This response, and his contentious
business deals with the Burmese Government mean his reputation is almost
certainly irreparable.
UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights Professor
Paulo Sergio Pinheiro had long championed what he termed the
regime's
"positive changes", and chafed at the NLD's criticism of his reports to the UN
General Assembly. He had been subjected to a growing chorus of international
criticism for his calls for greater engagement.
Then he discovered a
bugging device under his table while he was interviewing a political prisoner in
March. His response to the events of late May was obvious: "[It] will be
extremely difficult to try to continue supporting growing engagement instead of
isolation."
The third avenue has been more circumspect and successful.
The International Labour Organisation has maintained consistent criticism over
forced labour in Burma for infrastructure programs and counter-insurgency
operations.
It has increased pressure on the regime to reform its
practices of oppression, and identified its attempts to conceal its continued
use of these practices.
Yet how has the rest of the world community
reacted to Black Friday?
The US, long criticised for being loud in words
and quiet in action on Burma, reacted strongly. Secretary of State Colin Powell
warned that "the thugs who now rule Burma [must] understand that their failure
to restore democracy will only bring more pressure against them and their
supporters."
Then the US Senate passed the Burmese Freedom
and
Democracy Act of 2003, which reinforces sanctions, visa bans and an
asset freeze of all military and USDA officials. A long-time critic of the
regime, Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, argued that the import ban would
deprive the regime of an estimated $US470 million ($A700 million).
The
European Union promised further sanctions, and its member states were united in
condemning the Government's actions in May. Australia gave a stern warning for
restraint, and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer suspended the contentious
human-rights training for Burmese public servants, part of Australia's aid
program. China and Japan, long the regime's supporters, said the internal
affairs of Burma were not their business.
The Association of South-East
Asian Nations, which admitted Burma to membership in 1997, demurred from overtly
criticising the recent events at its ministerial meeting in Cambodia this week.
Colin Powell cajoled them into at least an _expression_ of concern.
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi threatened to sever Tokyo's
large aid budget unless the SPDC began some reforms.
Sanctions in place
since 1997 by both the US and the EU have been a notable failure. They do not go
far enough in pressuring the regime, and Burma's key trading partners, notably
China, Thailand and Singapore have not imposed sanctions, which would hurt the
SPDC directly.
Long-time Burma watcher David Steinberg wrote recently
that increased import and export bans would not work. The banning of textile
imports from Burma would, he argued, merely put out of work hundreds of factory
workers and not directly affect the regime itself.
This was echoed by
the regime's spokesmen, who invoked the self-sufficiency of the isolationist
Socialist regime between 1962 and '88. That experiment resulted in widespread
protests for change in 1988, leading to the massacre of an estimated 10,000
people that ushered in the SPDC's precursor, the State Law and Order Restoration
Council.
Sanctions and further international pressure on Burma are
probably doomed to failure. The shifts in the struggle between pragmatists and
hardliners in the regime have clearly favoured the anti-reformers. The elevation
of two anti-Suu Kyi officers to senior posts in the regime shows that the forces
for change in the government have, for now, been defeated. The rising stars in
the military, Lieutenant-Generals Soe Win and Thura Shwe Mann, both reported to
have been involved in planning the Black Friday attack, are evidence that the
pragmatic faction of the SPDC led by Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt has lost this
round to open the country more.
Orchestrating all of this is the head of
the SPDC and Prime Minister of Burma, Senior General Than Shwe, whose endurance
at the apex of power is one of the main impediments to reform.
The other
factor, and the most crucial, is the ideology of the military. The generals all
share the opinion that the military must continue to have the final say in
running Burma.
As they have proved woefully inadequate in doing this and
impervious to outside criticism, their removal will be a test for the
international community for a long time.
David Scott Mathieson is a PhD
student at the Australian National University.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-06-23
Daw
Aung San Suu Kyiâ??s health and life is in absolute
danger
Nwe Aung, Chairman, Burma Bureau Germany in an
open letter expressed his fear and anxiety about safety and survival of Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi in the notorious and infamous Insein prison. He writes that the
People of Burma are acting courageously but the respond from the international
community is inadequate.
He adds: The Generals are playing a poker game
of high stakes with the international community. The world must respond
effectively by downgrading the diplomatic relations, by imposing total
sanctions, by sending those generals responsible for crimes to the International
Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, by bringing Burmaâ??s issue to the UN
Security Council, by international intervention if not military intervention,
etc.â??
In conclusion he publicly alleges: â??Otherwise the international
community too would be held responsible for aiding and abetting the Burmese
junta for crimes against humanity.
The full test of open letter written
by Nwe Aung, Chairman, Burma Bureau Germany is given below:
Daw Aung San
Suu Kyi has reached her 58th birthday, unfortunately she had to spend her
birthday for the first time of her life incommunicado at the most notorious
Insein jail in Burma, in which food and drinking water are extremely miserable.
Medical treatment is not available and inmatesâ?? chances survival is very remote.
When compared with the Guantanamo Bay, near Cuba, it is relatively much
extravagant and luxurious than the Insein prison.
At present, she is
being held under the most draconian of the despotic Burmese military laws of the
juntaâ??s - â?? The 1975 State Protection Lawâ?? provide for detention without access
to the lawyers or contact with the family members, up to a period of five years
without the prospect of appeal. It is reported that She continues to wear the
same clothes in which she was arrested on the â??Black Fridayâ??, the 30th of May
2003 in northern Burma, on which the military-sponsored goons brutally committed
premeditated massacre on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters. She had been
held incommunicado under house arrest twice before from 1989 to 1995 and from
2000 to 2002, for the second time. This is the first time that she is being held
incommunicado directly at the notorious Insein jail.
The Burmese
military generals are utmost unreliable. They will never hesitate to commit any
sort of crimes, if they feel threatened. Now, they do feel threatened by Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi and by the international community. Since they cannot do
anything to the international community, they do definitely have intentions to
take revenge on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
The first time they tried to
assassinate her on the â??Black Fridayâ?? this year has failed. So, they transferred
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from â??protective custodyâ?? to notorious Insein prison. She
is now in their absolute blood-stained hands. The Burmese military generals are
famous for various gruesome torturing methods that lead to either slow or fast
death. They used, it is alleged, special medicines, chemicals, drugs, herbal
extracts, toxic heavy metals and compounds, etc. in their gradual torturing
methods. There have been a lot of instances that the political prisoners
suffered from mental and physical disturbances during their prison terms and
thereafter. It is very suspicious that even ICRC has not been allowed access to
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi would refuse to take the
prisonâ??s food and drinking water. She would as well even refuse to take any
medicines. The is every possibility that she might even go on a hunger strike in
the near future. But for how long??? The military will not care for what she is
doing in the prison. In the end they might hospitalised her under strict
observations. By then it would be probably too late. I feel that precaution is
always better than cure.
The Generals are playing a poker game of high
stakes with the international community. The people of Burma are courageous and
they refused to be silenced. But the world refuses to act adequately. The world
must respond effectively by downgrading the diplomatic relations, by imposing
total sanctions, by sending those generals responsible for crimes to the
International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, by bringing Burmaâ??s
issue to the UN Security Council, by international intervention if not military
intervention, etc. Otherwise the international community too would be held
responsible for aiding and abetting the Burmese junta for crimes against
humanity.
Nwe Aung
Chairman, Burma Bureau Germany
Contact
Information Postfach 27 03 66, D-50509 K�ln, Germany
Telephone: ++49-2173
9073 35
Fax: ++49-2173 9073 34
eMail: NweAung@xxxxxxx
burmabuero@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
--------------------------------------------------------------
Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-06-23
Factional fighting within
the Burmese Army in Arakan State.
Kaladan Press Network
from the Arakan State in Burma, reports of a factional encounter occured at
Sittwe, the capital of Arakan in the midst of the soldiers of battalion No: 232
on June 12, due to the May 30 incident, where Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the
leaders of the National League for Democracy were involved.
According to
the report, the encounter took place, after the verbal duel ended up in a
quarrel, where pro and anti NLD armed cadres were involved and subsequently
three of them sustained serious gunshot injuries.
The full text of the news
story reported Kaladan Press Network on June 22 is given below:
On 12
June, an armed fighting occurred between pro- NLD and anti- NLD soldiers in the
battalion No. 232 in Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State, according to our
correspondent of Sittwe.
The fighting broke out while the State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC) soldiers were talking about the present political
situation of Burma in the camp. Some pro- NLD soldiers said that the present
military Government has pushed the country into "Least Development
Countries(LDC)" by unskilled full management since 1988. Therefore, we don't
even get our salary regularly and are always under oppression by the higher
ranks. They also said that the event of May 30 at Depayin involving NLD members
was unjustified. It was a pre-planned attack on the NLD supporters by the
Government backed thugs, according to sources close to military. related to our
correspondent.
During the course of the discussion, some anti- NLD group
said that the NLD party is being backed by western countries esspecially USA and
UK. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is the main figure of NLD, who married a westerner and
passed most of live in Western ccountries. If NLD will get to power, the country
will become fully westernized. Under these circumstances, the SPDC's rule will
be better than the NLD's rule, which would be dominated by western countries,
theyhe further added.
The conversation heated up an ended in quarrel and
ultimately changed into a armed fight between two the groups. Over 100 rounds of
bullets were fired during the a half an encounter, source said.
By
involving Battalion No.20 and artillery Battalion of Sittwe, the skirmish was
brought to an end, the source further said.
During the encounter, 3
soldiers were seriously wounded including one Tat Naing and immediately they
were sent to Army Hospital of Sittwe for medical treatment, it was
told.
Another six pro-NLD soldiers were suspended from duty and kept in
the camp, the sourceconnected with the military camp said.
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