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Reuters, 8 March 2000
Thai soldiers kill five
Myanmar drug rebels
BANGKOK, March 8 (Reuters) - Thai soldiers killed
five drug traffickers believed to be members of a Myanmar rebel group,
an army spokesman said on Wednesday.
The soldiers intercepted about 30 suspected members of the United Wa State Army before dawn on Tuesday in jungle about two km (1.3 miles) inside Thailand's Chiang Mai province, the spokesman told Reuters. The area lies within the notorious poppy-growing Golden Triangle, which straddles the borders of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos. The UWSA, a rebel group that has reached ceasefire with Myanmar's military government, is actively involved in the opium trade. "Initial reports show that at least five ethnic Wa drug gangsters were killed," the spokesman based at the border said. "The area is not completely cleared yet so it is possible that there might be more dead." On February 28, Thai police shot dead three Wa drug suspects in the jungle near Chiang Mai. AP, 8 March 2000
Myanmar's Suu Kyi Marks Women's Day
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - In an address smuggled out of Myanmar to mark International Women's Day today, pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said her countrywomen bear the brunt of economic and political hardship in the military state. ``Our political problems are such that there are now many political prisoners in Burma,'' said Suu Kyi in a videotaped statement made available to news organizations in Bangkok. ``When men are taken prisoners, it is the womenfolk who are left to struggle.'' Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her peaceful struggle for democracy against the military regime in Myanmar, also known as Burma. The military regime overturned her party's resounding victory in general elections the previous year, but refused to recognize the result. Hundreds of members of her National League for Democracy have since been jailed in Myanmar, one of the world's poorest countries. Suu Kyi was under house arrest for six years before her release in 1995. Her movements and political activities remain heavily restricted. ``The longer I work in politics, the more I am convinced that there is a need to work for women's rights,'' she said. ``Women and children are always the ones who suffer most in times of crisis.'' Suu Kyi said men had a privileged position in Myanmar culture, although it was often women that were the source of courage for men, and women who had a greater spirit of endurance. ``This is not to say that I do not appreciate what men have done for our cause. But on this day, I would like to express my admiration for women all over the world, in Burma and elsewhere,'' she said. She appealed to the United Nations and international financial institutions to take immediate action to help protect women and children worldwide against violence and poverty, and to employ women to design and implement programs of assistance. Suu Kyi also lent her support to a campaign launched today called the World's March of Women 2000 by women's groups in 139 countries, to lobby governments and international organizations to overcome violence and poverty afflicting women. South China Morning Post, 8 March 2000 General asks diplomats to up pressure ASSOCIATED PRESS in Rangoon A senior leader of Burma's military Government has urged the country's ambassadors to launch a diplomatic offensive against other nations demanding the regime become more democratic. The orders handed down by Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt, the powerful head of military intelligence, follow a weekend meeting in Seoul, South Korea, of diplomats and officials from 14 countries on the stand-off between the military and the pro-democracy movement led by Aung San Suu Kyi. "A group of nations is trying to dominate the world by using political, economic, diplomatic and military might," he said in the official press. "These nations are blatantly ignoring the norms of international relations such as equality, sovereignty and territorial integrity and are interfering in the internal affairs of other countries under the pretext of human rights and democracy." Burma has previously accused Western nations, led by the United States, of trying to destabilise the country by imposing economic sanctions. The sanctions are aimed at forcing the military, which has ruled since 1962, to end human-rights abuses and relinquish power to a democratic government. They have failed to force the military to even talk to Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. Her opposition National League for Democracy won elections the military allowed in 1990, but failed to uphold when government-backed parties lost. The Seoul meeting was a follow-up to one held in England in 1998 by nations concerned about the stalemate. Then, they reportedly decided to offer the regime financial incentives to making concessions. The offer was rejected. Officials at the Seoul meeting have disclosed no details. Burma lobbied its nine fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations not to attend, but Asean members Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines all sent delegations. Officials from the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, Britain and the United Nations also attended. "The Seoul meeting is nothing more than a scheme hatched by Western countries to put pressure on Myanmar," a Burmese Foreign Ministry statement said, adding it "would surely not bring about positive results".
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