Burma Related News-April 18, 2000.

Tuesday, April 18 5:47 PM SGT

British FM to tackle Myanmar issues in Thai visit

BANGKOK, April 18 (AFP) -

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook arrives in Thailand Tuesday on a visit sure to highlight London's hawkish attitude towards the military government in neighbouring Myanmar.

Cook, who is expected to land in Bangkok late Tuesday evening after visiting India, will meet Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai and Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan on Wednesday.

British officials here said a vigorous discussion is likely on Myanmar, which Britain ruled as colonial Burma until 1948.

"We can expect a good exchange of views on Burma, a comparison of interests (highlighting) the fact that Burma is a phenomenal burden on Thailand," said a British embassy spokesman.

Myanmar's status as one of the world's top producers of illegal drugs is a constant irritant to Thailand, and one of many problems best tackled by a transition to democracy in Yangon, the spokesman said.

Cook will refer to both Thailand's "burden" and the plight of pro-democracy activists and refugees when he visits a transit camp in western Thailand on Thursday.

Thailand is home to more than 100,000 refugees from Myanmar who have fled either persecution by the military government or fighting between junta troops and insurgent groups.

Britain is one of the military regime's strongest critics and has been a staunch supporter of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose British husband died last year.

Britain and -- to Yangon's fury -- Thailand, a fellow member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, sent representatives to an international conference on promoting political reform in Myanmar held in South Korea last month.

Sources and reports have indicated the talks in a Seoul hotel were aimed at kickstarting a long-frozen dialogue between Yangon's miltary rulers and the democratic opposition of Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Myanmar frequently accuses the London government of interfering in its affairs and brands accusations that it is guilty of gross human rights abuses as post-colonial meddling.

Myanmar's poisoned political climate is a constant headache for the government of democratic Thailand and conflict often spills over its borders.

In January, 10 ethnic Karen rebels were shot dead after seizing a hospital and hundreds of hostages in western Ratchaburi province.

The incident followed an earlier siege last year by rebels at the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok which ended peacefully.

Cook is also expected to praise Thailand's efforts to overhaul its economy following the financial crisis which erupted in 1997.

And pushing the role of British companies in the recovery, he will tour a new branch of the British supermarket chain Tesco's.

Cook is due to leave Thailand for Nepal on the last leg of his Asian tour on Thursday.

DAWN - April 18, 2000.

UN aiding Myanmar in anti-Muslim drive: body

PARIS, April 17: A leading international human rights group on Monday accused the UN refugee agency of cooperating with Myanmar in the expulsion of its Muslim minority.

In a report on the flight of 100,000 of the Rohingya people to Bangladesh since 1996, the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) said the UNHCR is "entrapped in an insane policy, in complete contradiction to its mandate."

The UNHCR was called on in 1991 to organize the repatriation to Myanmar's Arakan province of a quarter of a million Rohingyas who fled to Bangladesh to escape a campaign of terror by the state authorities.

Most of those refugees have now returned, the FIDH said, but now a new and more subtle form of "ethnic cleansing" is in process, and thousands of Rohingyas are once again moving across the border.

By refusing to acknowledge this and by continuing to work with the Myanmar authorities, "the UNHCR now bears a heavy part of the responsibility in the current exodus of the Rohingyas," the report said. "Collaboration with the Burmese government seriously compromises the image of the UNHCR. The Rohingyas do not really consider the agency as an independent organisation ... but rather as a partner of the government," the report said.

According to FIDH, the Myanmar authorities have long harbored the aim of emptying Arakan of its Muslim Rohingya population, and are pursuing policies of discrimination and underdevelopment to force them out. "The Burmese authorities, with the collaboration of the UNHCR, have prevented massive departures," the report said.-AFP

South China Morning Post
Tuesday, April 18, 2000
BURMA

Rangoon detains three for sabotage
REUTERS in Rangoon

The military Government said yesterday it had arrested three "saboteurs" sent by opposition groups to plant explosives in Rangoon.
State newspapers said Soe Thi Ha, 29, Aung Hlaing Win, 25, and Naing Lin Aung, 30, were arrested along the Burmese-Thai border between April 1 and 11.

They quoted military sources as saying the three planned to blow up unidentified sites in the Burmese capital during the Maha Thingyan water festival, which began last Thursday and finished on Saturday. They had also planned to instigate riots, they said.

The newspapers said those arrested were members of various opposition groups, including the National League for Democracy (NLD) and the All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF). They gave no further details.

A government statement said the men were sent by a group called People's Power 21st Century (PP-21).

A spokesman for the NLD denied those arrested had any connection with the party.

"The accusation is groundless, and I think those victims who are being detained by the military Government are scapegoats of dictatorship propaganda," said Thien Oo, a member of an NLD "government in exile" who was speaking from the Burmese-Thai border.

A spokesman for PP-21, a pressure group linked to the ABSDF, said the suspects did not belong to his group.

"I strongly deny the accusation that the suspects belong to either PP-21 or ABSDF," said Moe Thee Zun, spokesman for the front, who is also chairman of PP-21. "The PP-21 was formed to support a peaceful solution in Burma [Myanmar]."

Led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the NLD won Burma's last democratic election in 1990 by a landslide but has never been allowed to govern. It is avowedly non-violent.

BBC-Tuesday, 18 April, 2000, 08:41 GMT 09:41 UK

Rare pro-democracy protest in Hanoi

A group of about thirty protesters have staged a rare demonstration demanding democracy in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi.

Witnesses say the protesters, farmers from the southern Dong Thap province shouted and raised a banner calling for democracy outside a meeting of the powerful central committee of the Communist Party.

Witnesses say police were present but there were no reports of arrests. Farmers often come to Hanoi to lodge complaints about local corruption, abuse of power and disputes over land, but there street protests are rare.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service

APRIL 18, 04:45 EST

Suharto's Daughter Questioned

By IRWAN FIRDAUS
Associated Press Writer

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Former dictator Suharto's eldest daughter was questioned today in connection with a massive corruption scandal in which her father has been named a leading suspect.

After arriving surrounded by bodyguards, Siti Hardijanti Rukmana was questioned for five hours about her involvement as treasurer of a charity foundation.

Last week, state attorneys issued a summons demanding that Rukmana answer questions about the case involving the misuse of millions of dollars channeled through several foundations controlled by Suharto's superrich family.

Suharto, who has been the target of graft allegations since he was forced from office amid riots in May 1998, has denied any wrongdoing but evaded extensive questioning, claiming to be too sick.

After today's questioning, Rukmana contradicted herself when answering a question about her father's health.

``Suharto is healthy,'' she said, before changing her mind and saying ``Father is sick.''

Last Thursday, prosecutors banned Suharto from traveling overseas for one year and ordered him not to leave Jakarta.

Rukmana's brother Bambang Trihatmodjo also was summoned to appear today, but his lawyers said he would not turn up. They did not say why.

Meanwhile, prosecutors have extended the detention of Mohamad ``Bob'' Hasan, a former cabinet minister and one of Suharto's closest friends, media reports said today.

On March 28, Attorney General Marzuki Darusman ordered Hasan to be held for 20 days in connection with a probe into the embezzlement of $87 million in government funds earmarked for a reforestation project.

The Jakarta Post reported today that prosecutors have extended his detention by another 20 days.

Hasan, Suharto's longtime friend and economic adviser, enjoyed a virtual monopoly over the logging industry during Suharto's regime. He also is one of the largest single debtors of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency — a state agency set up to revive Indonesia's graft-ridden banking system — with amassed debts of more than $710 million.