WIRE:05/04/2000 08:22:00 ET
Myanmar Supreme Court dimisses
opposition appeal
YANGON, May 4 (Reuters) - Myanmar's Supreme Court on Thursday
dismissed an appeal by the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD)
concerning law suits it brought against the country's military rulers for
abuse of power.
The NLD filed the complaints against the
director-general of the National Intelligence Bureau, Home Minister
Colonel Tin Hlaing, Information Minister Major-General Kyi Aung and
election commission chairman Ba Htay.
NLD sources also said the complaints were directed against military
intelligence chief Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, considered the most
powerful figure in the military government.
The beleaguered party accuses the leaders of illegally detaining NLD
members, forcing them to resign from the party and of organising mass
rallies to denounce elected representatives.
The Supreme Court first dismissed the complaints last October.
Thursday's appeal was heard and rejected by two judges.
The NLD, led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, won Myanmar's
last election in 1990 by a landslide but the military ignored the result
and has since tried to silence dissent through arrests and
intimidation.
The NLD estimates there are 2,000 political prisoners in Myanmar,
most of them its members.
As a final resort, the party can still appeal to the Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court against the ruling on the complaints, but analysts see
no chance of it succeeding.
Last month state-controlled newspapers threatened the NLD with a ban
and its members with jail for bringing the law suits but said this should
not be taken as an act of intimidation.
WIRE:05/03/2000 18:28:00
ET
Calif. plan would bar investments in six countries
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California's treasurer has called for the
nation's largest pension fund to follow tighter economic, human rights and
political standards when investing overseas, in a proposal that would
effectively bar the fund from investing in six countries, including Brazil
and Egypt.
The proposal by California Treasurer Phil Angelides
would strengthen the standards the giant California Public
Employees' Retirement System, or Calpers, uses when making debt or
equity investments in emerging markets. The new criteria also would
forbid investments in Indonesia, Malaysia, Peru and Turkey.
The stakes are high for the $172 billion pension fund, which already
bars stock purchases in 15 countries, including Colombia, India and
Russia.
Egypt was on the prohibited list but Calpers staff last June
recommended allowing equity investment there. Officials at consulates of
the six countries could not be reached immediately for comment.
At the end of 1999, Calpers had about a $608 million equity
investment in the six countries and a total of $2.5 billion in emerging
markets overall.
Under the proposal, Calpers would be expected to sell off its
holdings in those countries, although there were no details or timetable
for those divestments.
"Strong standards are critical to protect Calpers, its members and
taxpayers against investments in countries where the political, economic,
or societal climate could lead to adverse financial results," Angelides
wrote in a report he presented to the Calpers investment committee this
week.
The proposal, which would require countries to meet more stringent
financial criteria based on factors such as exchange rate stability and
income distribution, wades into the debate of whether public investment
should be also be subject to social concerns.
The plan includes a screening process to establish that countries
have political freedom and essential civil liberties, basic worker rights
and a free press. Angelides argues these factors are crucial to the
stability of a country and key in sustained economic development and
growth.
"A free press is necessary to gauge and monitor the risks of specific
investments, as well as countries as a whole," Angelides said.
The plan, however, does allow for exceptions if there are signs the
country is a prudent investment. It also seeks to extend the pension
fund's corporate governance activism to include firms doing business in
emerging markets in which Calpers invests.
Critics charged, however, that the plan was troubling because it
allows state officials to delve into foreign policy and might not serve
the best interests of pensioners.
"This is clearly an attempt by an elected official in the state of
California to shape foreign policy," said Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow
at the Institute for International Economics in Washington.
"If I were a pensioner depending on Calpers, I would be very troubled
because this is basically political policy masquerading as investment
policy."
Emerging markets traditionally hold more risk for pension funds such
as Calpers, but offer potentially large returns.
According to Angelides, this is not always the case. His report says
the pension fund's annualized three-year returns ending Dec. 31 were minus
28.7 percent in Indonesia, minus 24.4 percent in Malaysia and minus 25.1
percent in the Philippines.
Calpers is scheduled to discuss the plan when its investment
committee meets May 15. Angelides also will make a similar proposal later
this year for the State teacher's system, which has $2.44 billion invested
in emerging markets.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court is weighing the 1996 Massachusetts
Burma Act, which sought to limit purchases from companies that do business
with Myanmar, formerly called Burma.
A decision in the case, expected by the end of June, could have
far-reaching implications as a number of other states or cities adopted
similar measures in the 1980s and 1990s involving Myanmar and other
foreign nations.
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Wednesday, May 3 1:56 PM SGT
Myanmar Min: Asean,EU Mtg Won't Happen Without
Myanmar
YANGON (AP)--A long-delayed ministerial meeting between the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the European Union won't take place
without Myanmar, the military state's foreign minister said Wednesday.
Minister Win Aung told a press briefing at the foreign ministry in Yangon
that Asean wouldn't discriminate against one of its own members by agreeing to a
formula for the meeting that would sideline Myanmar.
Myanmar is ostracized by the West because of the ruling military regime's
human rights record and refusal to cede power to the party of Nobel Peace
Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi after it swept general elections in 1990.
High-level EU-Asean meetings have been canceled since Myanmar was admitted
into the Southeast Asian grouping in 1997. The E.U. nations opposed Myanmar's
entry into Asean and refuse to sit at the same table as top Myanmar officials.
"The Asean-E.U. meeting didn't take place last year as scheduled because of
the E.U. stance on Myanmar," Win Aung said.
"We are now targeted with visa restrictions. If there is no visa, I won't
attend the meeting and Asean won't go without one of its members."
Under a sanction first imposed in 1996, the E.U. doesn't grant visas to
senior officials of the Myanmar regime.
Yet E.U. ministers "reaffirmed the importance" they attach to good relations
with Asean and proposed a ministerial meeting with Asean nations later this
year, although it wasn't clear how the diplomatic obstacles could be overcome to
make it happen.
Asean Secretary General Rodolfo Severino said "the prospects are becoming
brighter" for a meeting of E.U. and Asean foreign ministers.
"Several options are being considered and there has been an improvement in
the atmosphere," he told a press conference in Yangon Monday.
Bangkok Post - May 4,
2000.
Karen renegades release two
Thais
Tak-The pro-Rangoon Democratic Karen Buddhist
Army yesterday freed two Thai hostages in return for a ransom of more than
300,000 baht.
Somkid Tita, 37, a forestry official, was set free on an islet in the Moei
river opposite Ban Tha-art.
His 64-year-old father Tunjeng and his wife Somsoi, 28, met the Karen
kidnappers on the islet to pay 202,500 baht for the return of Mr Somkid without
being accompanied by officials.
Pichai Vijitthai, a currency dealer, was released on the islet after a woman
identified as Arunee Bainana paid 100,000 baht to the Karen guerrillas.
Mr Pichai, who was abducted in Myawaddy on Tuesday with 250,000 baht in kyat,
said his captors had kept him chained in a pit.
The Nation - May 4, 2000.
Refugees will be monitored for ADB
meet
MAE Hong Son province has established an ad hoc centre to monitor Burmese
students' activities in refugee camps in border areas, provincial governor Phot
U-thana said
The centre is based in Mae Hong Son's city hall.
Officials from 10 relevant agencies have been working together at the
centre in a bid to ensure security in Thailand's northern provinces during the
Asian Development Bank's 33rd annual meeting being held in Chiang Mai.
Phot said he had assigned provincial chiefs in areas bordering Burma to
closely watch the movements of Burmese students sheltered in refugee camps.
Refugees in those facilities would be forbidden from protesting or rallying
for any demands during the ADB meeting, he said.
Phot said the Ban Mae Kongkha-Tha Sala refugee camp in Mae Sariang district
was sheltering many members of the insurgent Karen National Union.
He had ordered the Mae Sariang district chief to consider the record of
each resident at the camp.
The authority was concerned some of them might be connected to the God's
Army guerrilla group.
In Chiang Rai, a non-governmental organisation which offers support for
Aids patients plans to lead a protest of about 200 people with HIV, timed to
coincide with rallies by 34 other groups nationwide.
The groups object to the bank's policy of forcing the Thai government to
privatise all public hospitals, Thai Network of People Living with HIV/Aids
chairwoman Rattana Khamchan said.
Aids and HIV patients would begin rallying on Saturday, she said .
They oppose the privatisation of public hospitals because they fear
subsidies for medical expenses for low-income HIV and Aids patients will be
stopped.
Poor patients would then have to shoulder all the cost of expensive
treatment, she said.
And most could not afford such treatment, Rattana said.
The Nation
South China Morning Post
Thursday,
May 4, 2000
BURMA
Regime accuses West of
hypocrisy
WILLIAM BARNES in Bangkok and AGENCIES in Rangoon
Rangoon launched a vitriolic attack on the West yesterday, accusing
countries such as Britain and the United States of blatant hypocrisy while
issuing a flat denial that it was guilty of gross human rights violations.
At a combative news conference, Foreign Minister Win Aung referred to recent
world news stories, such as the Elian Gonzalez case, to show up what he said
were the double standards at work in Western capitals.
"Human rights violations mean cruelty to people, killing grounds, people
slaughtered like animals," he said. "We don't have mass disappearances or mass
graves here."
Western governments and watchdog groups charge Burma's military rulers with
a string of offences, including the use of forced labour and the systematic
persecution of political opponents and ethnic minorities.
The military regime raised eyebrows on Tuesday by threatening in a state
newspaper to kill opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. This came as economic
ministers of members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) met
in Rangoon. Informed observers said yesterday the "extraordinary behaviour"
showed that the ruling generals thought such threats met with the approval of
other Asean leaders, or at the least demonstrated that "constructive engagement"
had failed to soften the regime.
The army newspaper the Mirror said that Ms Aung San Suu Kyi and her
followers could be executed or face life imprisonment for high treason for
having contact with dissidents. The paper claimed the "power-crazy" Nobel Peace
Prize laureate was angering ordinary Burmese by blocking foreign aid and
spreading disunity.
Although such claims are not so unusual - the state press runs cartoons
denigrating Ms Aung San Suu Kyi on an almost daily basis - they come at a time
when the regime has been preening itself as host to Asean and its three dialogue
partners, China, Japan and Korea. Top leaders in the junta have claimed that
their hosting of the meeting demonstrates that Burma is now generally accepted
to be a respectable nation, even though virtually all full Asean members are
automatically eligible to host the meeting.
Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, the regime's powerful intelligence chief,
presented to his visitors "a country that is peaceful, stable and economically
vibrant, with people full of zest and full of confidence for the future". This
showed, said one critic, that the regime has learnt the jargon of international
posturing if nothing else. By also attacking Ms Aung San Suu Kyi and arresting
40 members of her National League for Democracy, the military has also shown it
thinks harsh repression is acceptable, said the co-ordinator of the Alternative
Asean Network on Burma, Debbie Stothard.
"The implication is that the regime thinks this is acceptable. I hope that
some at least of the other Asean leaders feel uncomfortable," she added.
A Rangoon-based diplomat argued that the Government was becoming
increasingly nervous with the approach of the 10th anniversary of the 1990
election, in which the National League for Democracy picked up most seats. The
military quickly aborted the result when it realised its puppet party had failed
to win popular support, and the parliament has never sat.
South China Morning Post
Thursday,
May 4, 2000
BURMA
Fine-tuning of power-sharing blamed for
delays
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Burma's Foreign Minister, Win Aung, said yesterday that drafting a new
constitution to end military rule had been taking years because of the need to
fine-tune power-sharing provisions.
The National Convention, which was
formed to write a new constitution, has not gathered in full session for more
than four years and has been boycotted by the main opposition party, which has
called the process "a sham to prolong military rule".
But Mr Win Aung said that the process was going well, even though he
acknowledged there was no way of knowing when the convention's work would be
completed. There is no deadline.
When the convention last met in full session in March 1996 - before the
National League for Democracy led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi launched
its boycott - only six of a proposed 15 chapters had been adopted.
Mr Win Aung said if a constitution was instituted too quickly without
resolving all possible complications - for example, the military junta has long
said that the country's rebellious ethnic minorities must be accommodated - it
would be inviting danger later on.
Convention members, along with special advisers, had been meeting at least
three times a week - "sometimes all day" - and had overcome a number of
important issues, said Mr Win Aung.