AP,12 Mach 2000Myanmar Denies Forcing Relocation
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - The military government has denied claims by some 700 Karenni refugees who have entered Thailand from Myanmar in recent days who said they were forced out of their homes. The refugees have told Thai authorities that they were seeking shelter in Thailand to escape forced relocation by Myanmar troops from southern Karen state to a drought-stricken area in northern Myanmar. In a faxed statement to The Associated Press, the military government said that no such relocation was under way. The Thai border with Myanmar, also known as Burma, is strung with camps holding some 120,000 refugees. Many in recent years have said they were driven from their homes in scorched-earth campaigns by the Myanmar military, which has ruled the country since 1962, aimed at reducing support for ethnic rebels. In the past decade, the government has reached cease-fires with most rebel armies that once operated along the border, but it still faces increasingly ineffective challenges from groups fighting on behalf of the Karennis and ethnic Karens. AFP, 12 March 2000 Myanmar government outrages citizens with forex schemeYANGON Myanmar's military government has sparked outrage among expatriate workers with a new scheme to funnel off half of their income to alleviate the country's chronic foreign exchange shortage. Under the rule, Myanmar expats must send home 50 percent of their earnings through an official bank which distributes foreign exchange coupons (FECs) which their familes can use here in return, analysts here said. The scheme, which previously only applied to Myanmar sailors, has prompted concern that often poorly paid expats working in Thailand and elsewhere will no longer be able to support themselves. Many exiles work abroad and send money home to relatives struggling to scratch out a living in Myanmar's crisis-afflicted economy. Expats already pay a 10 percent tax on their foreign earnings to the country's nearest embassy. Sources here say letters of complaint have been sent in droves to the highest levels of the government, uniting embassy workers, businessmen and bluecollar workers. "The new law is sure to make life miserable for those people ekeing out a living abroad where even the ten percent tax to the embassy takes a small bite out of their small earnings," said one worker here who requested anonymity. If the scheme is applied fully, it would appear to make it impossible for many expats to survive abroad as most live on the margins already and could not bear the loss of half their earnings. A Myanmar government spokesman told AFP the law only applied to Myanmar citizens who have families and other expats were not affected. Furthermore, reports have been circulating in the expat community in Thailand that the ruling has been so unpopular that it may soon be changed or dispensed with altogether. Opponents of the law say the labour department in Yangon has been submerged with questions on the new ruling and is not geared up to deal with registrations which cost a hefty 200 dollars. Only three officers were dealing with applications, which had been mired in paperwork, said one recent applicant, also on condition of anonymity, adding only 10 cases could be vetted per day, despite queues of 50 people or more. Having paid 50 percent of his earnings to the authorities the applicant was forced to find two guarantors required under the rule. "It didn't matter who I brought in for the purpose ... they wouldn't have cared less even if I brought in two beggars for the purpose ... as long as they held identity cards," he said. Critics of the government also say expats may simply falsify their incomes in a bid to avoid losing all their earnings. Myanmar's economy is mired in a crisis brought on by sanctions and investment restrictions imposed by foreign powers critical of its human rights record and an investment drought triggered by the Asian crisis. The official currency, the kyat, trades officially at around six to the dollar but on the black market it is much lower in value, at around 200-300 to the greenback. Given rampant inflation, visitors to Myanmar often find themselves using sheafs of kyat notes, dollar bills and foreign exchange coupons which are worthless outside the country to pay bills. Foreign visitors are also required to change a minimum amount of foreign currency on arriving at Yangon airport. Chosunibo, 12 March 2000 Myanmar Students Demonstrate in SeoulTwenty students from Myanmar who escaped from their country and are illegally residing in Seoul demonstrated against the Myanmar Embassy Sunday on the twelfth anniversary of the self-proclaimed human rights day, commemorating the shooting of six students by the police. The students sang protest songs and walked backwards and forwards between the embassy and the residence of the minister of foreign affairs and trade.
Among the protesters was Maung Lwin, a leader of the People's Vanguard an underground movements from the Rangoon Institute of Technology. He said that he was residing in Korea illegally because he did not know the regulation stipulating that he must apply for refugee status sixty days after arrival in the country. Yan Naentung of the Rangoon School of Economics told reporters that police in Myanmar interrogated his parents after monitoring his phone calls.
The Washington Post, 12 March 2000 AIDS outbreaks follow Burma's heroin trafficBurma, the world's second-largest producer of opium and heroin (behind
Afghanistan), is suffering from its own twin epidemics of drug addiction and
AIDS. The findings of the research team, led by Chris Beyrer of the Johns
Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, underscore how quickly local drug
trafficking can carry HIV into remote, previously unaffected areas.
``In every market town along [a trafficking] route, there are new outbreaks
of drug use,'' said Beyrer, whose findings were published in the January issue
of the journal AIDS. ``Overland routes involve local people, highways, local
traders and, sadly, have led to this burgeoning AIDS epidemic for India, China
and Vietnam.''
Opium production in Burma doubled in 1989, the year after that country's
authoritarian military regime, known as the State Peace and Development Council,
assumed control. Although production has declined in the past three years, Burma
currently accounts for about 80 percent of the opium production in Southeast
Asia, according to a State Department report released last week.
The primary opium-growing region is in northeastern Burma, in areas belonging
to various ethnic groups that are often controlled by local leaders with their
own drug-trafficking armies.
The research project began about 18 months ago, when Beyrer was invited by
the Chinese government to help investigate an HIV outbreak among heroin users in
the southern province of Guangxi, bordering Vietnam. ``On both sides of the
border, the amount of heroin had been very rapidly increasing,'' Beyrer said.
The upsurge ``appears to be a phenomenon of the last decade. ... It's very
disturbing to China.''
This border area is a mountainous rain forest, impossible to patrol, Beyrer
said. Heroin from Laos and Burma was being transported into northern Vietnam.
Chinese users and small-scale traffickers ``were going across, meeting their
Vietnamese counterparts on the other side, and testing heroin'' by
self-injection, often sharing needles.
The researchers, who used three separate techniques to track the spread of
HIV along the drug-trafficking routes, found clear evidence that specific viral
subtypes follow the heroin routes. For instance, in Guangxi province, subtype E
is common, mimicking the situation in most of Southeast Asia. In Yunnan
province, along China's border with Burma, subtype C prevails. Most of the
earliest cases of HIV infection in China were discovered in three border
counties in Yunnan province, among male drug addicts and their wives. Asia Pluse, 13 March
2000 KUALA LUMPUR, March 13 Asia Pulse - The maturing of new container markets,
following the admission of Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos into Asean, will
open up vast opportunities for new ports like Malaysia's Port of Tanjung Pelepas
(PTP), Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today. He said PTP is therefore in a good position to provide a better platform for
Malaysia to capture these growing markets as the port would have the single
largest container handling facilities in the region outside Singapore.
The Prime Minister said this at the launch of the Pelabuhan Tanjung Pelepas
2000 conference and exhibition in southern Johor Bahru city after launching the
RM2.28-billion port this morning at Gelang Patah on the southern tip of the
Malaysian penisula.
Strategically situated at the confluence of international shipping lines with
just 45 minutes navigation time away, he said PTP saw itself as offering a
viable and alternate port of call to shipping lines in this region.
"Located on 1,935 acres (about 774 hectares) of greenfield site, PTP will
enhance Malaysia's port sector's contribution to Malaysia's development," he
said.
On the impact of the new era of globalisation on the international trade
sector, Dr Mahathir said with globalisation, world markets were increasingly
independent of regulated policies and as a result would become highly
competitive.
Increasingly, he said, companies were outsourcing their needs to achieve the
lowest cost and highest quality to remain viable.
Dr Mahathir noted that shipping lines and ports had benefited from this by
dealing with third party logistics providers who were able to "network" a
diverse chain of players within the global logistics chain.
"With shipping lines embarking on larger Super Post Panamax vessels, the
world's demand for containership cargo is expected to continue to increase with
reduced overall freight rates," said the Prime Minister.
This, the government believed, would lead to further port expansion and a
surge in demand for both port and shipping sectors, moving further towards the
growth of the global logistics business providing effective avenues and choices
of cargo owners, he said.
Dr Mahathir said PTP also aspired to develop into a regional transhipment hub
and had aimed to be on par with existing international ports like Singapore and
Hong Kong.
"With a state-of-the-art Information Technology system, PTP gives instant
access to its purpose-designed Integrated Terminal and Port Management
Information System (ITPMIS)," he said.
By synergising the port's operations and communication centres, the ITPMIS
facilitated a free-flow of updated information and provided near paper-less
transactions among port personnel, shipping lines, marine services and freight
forwarders, he said. PIL KUDA, found in Thailand, is believed to have been produced by Myanmar
guerillas to finance their war. Thai police investigations revealed that the WY Ding guerillas, based along
the Myanmar-Thailand border, are making the pills.
The drug is smuggled to Chengmai and Cheng Rai in northern Thailand, before
being distributed to Bangkok and elsewhere. The pill is popular in Haadyai,
Songkla, Danok, Sungai Golok, Tai Bai Nakhonsitamarat and along the
Malaysia-Thai border towns.
Golok deputy CID chief Major Jefferi Sulaiman Kun said Pil Kuda is popular
among Thai youngsters and tourists, particularly Malaysians who visit the town.
"It is now more popular than heroin and ganja," he said.
Based on the arrest of dadah users in Golok over the past six months, many
were caught for possession of Pil Kuda.
He also said their investigations revealed the pill, sold at between RM3 and
RM4 each, had been smuggled from the Myanmar border towns. The pill was then
sold for between RM10 and RM15 in Thailand.
Investigations also showed that the pill was smuggled to Malaysia and
subsequently sold for between RM30 and RM40. "Some of the pills were also
smuggled back into Thailand after they were processed and different chemicals
added to give it an extra kick," he said.
The processed pills were subsequently sold in the northern Thai States for
about RM60. Kun said although they have stiff drugs law in the country, the
lucrative business does not prevent traffickers from smuggling the pills in and
out of Thailand. South China Morning Post, 13 March
2000 Remittance demand angers expats
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Rangoon
The military government has sparked outrage among its workers who have gone
overseas with a scheme to funnel off half of their income to alleviate the
country's chronic foreign exchange shortage. Under the rule, Burmese expatriates must send home 50 per cent of their
earnings through an official bank.
In return, the bank distributes foreign exchange coupons their families can
use, analysts said.
The scheme, previously applied to Burmese sailors, has prompted concern that
often poorly paid expatriates working in Thailand and elsewhere will no longer
be able to support themselves.
Expats already pay a 10 per cent tax on their foreign earnings to the
country's nearest embassy.
"The new law is sure to make life miserable for those people eking out a
living abroad where even the 10 per cent tax to the embassy takes a small bite
out of their small earnings," said one worker.
If the scheme is applied fully, it would appear to make it impossible for
many expats to survive abroad as most live on the margins already and could not
bear the loss of half their earnings.
A Burmese Government spokesman said the law applied only to Burmese citizens
who had families and other expatriates were not affected.
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