Burma Related News- May 13, 2000.

[TIN KYI <tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Friday, May 12 11:03 PM SGT

Myanmar Opposition Calls For Release Of Detained Members

YANGON, Myanmar (AP)--Myanmar's main opposition party has condemned the arrests last week of several of its members, including a winning candidate from 1990's general election who was never allowed to take his seat.

The National League for Democracy, in a statement received Friday by The Associated Press, called for the immediate release of its four party members.

Than Lwin, elected representative of Madaya township, Mandalay Division, and three other NLD members were arrested on several charges, including threatening peace and stability, according to a report published in the state-run New Light of Myanmar daily last Friday.

The NLD swept the 1990 elections by a landslide, but the ruling military refused to honor the results.

Hundreds of NLD members have since been jailed, often without trial, and the military regularly organizes mass rallies denouncing the party, which the NLD says citizens are forced to attend by the authorities.

The NLD statement, dated May 10, stated that Than Lwin had been released on January 30 this year after 18 months of detention on other political charges.

It said that during his detention, he was constantly pressured to resign as elected representative and as Chairman of his township's branch of the NLD.

"The arrest of Than Lwin and three other party members showed that there was no rule of law in the country. We strongly denounce the activities of the authorities and request the immediate release of Than Lwin and the members," the statement said.

Last month, one of the 10 members of an NLD-backed proxy parliament and more than 40 NLD youth wing members were also arrested, apparently accused of having links to anti-Yangon rebel groups at the Thai-Myanmar border.

Channel NewsAsia

Saturday, May 13 10:00 PM SGT

ASEAN urges labour organisation to resolve issues with Myanmar quickly

ASEAN Labour Ministers have urged the International Labour Organisation to send a technical cooperation mission to Myanmar as soon as possible.

They hope that will help resolve outstanding issues on forced labour between Yangon and the ILO, before the organisation's annual Congress in Geneva next month.

The Ministers made the call at the end of a two-day meeting in Manila.

Myanmar has often been accused of using forced labour.

And since Myanmar is an ASEAN member, that controversy has held up the implementation of two major ASEAN labour projects that were to have been supported by the ILO.

These are the Human Resources Development Plannning and the Programme on Industrial Relations.

ASEAN Ministers said the projects are important to help countries in the region promote employment following the regional financial crisis.

At their Manila meeting, the Ministers also discussed the issue of child labour.

They agreed on the need to eliminate the problem through education and technical assistance.

They reiterated their commitment to ensure socio-economic development and stability to help promote sustainable growth in the region.

 

Vietnam News Agency
VIET NAM, MYANMAR SIGN COOPERATION ACCORDS

 

 Ha Noi, May 12 (VNA) -- Viet Nam and Myanmar signed an Agreement on Avoidance of Double Taxation, an Agreement on Cultural Cooperation, and an Agreement on Investment Promotion and Protection in Yangon on May 12.
   The signing ceremony took place soon after Prime Minister Phan Van Khai arrived in the capital of Myanmar for an official four-day visit to the country.

 

   Earlier, the Vietnamese leader was given a State welcome ceremony. Sen. Gen. Than Shwe, Chairman of the Myanmar State Council of Peace and Development (SCPD) and Prime Minister and his wife were present at the welcome ceremony.

 

   The two leaders had a brief meeting at the Government Guest House of Myanmar.

 

   PM Than Shwe warmly welcomed the visit to Myanmar by PM Khai, his wife and entourage, saying the visit is of great significance as it has brought positive sentiments to the Myanmar people and helped boost bilateral multi-form cooperation between the two countries.

 

   The same day, PM Khai and his wife received Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, first Secretary of the SCPD, and his wife.

 

   PM Khai and his entourage visited the Shwedagon Pagoda, which was built 2,580 years ago in the capital city of Yangon. They also visited several public welfare establishments in the south of Okkalapa.

 

   Also on May 12, Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien met with Myanmar counterpart U Win Aung while Agriculture and Rural Minister Le Huy Ngo met with Myanmar Agriculture Minister Nyunt Tin. Other members of the delegation had contacts with their Myanmar counterparts. During those meetings, the two sides discussed direction and concrete measures to boost bilateral ties in the furtherance of talks held between the two PMs the same day.

 

   PM Than Shwe and his wife held a banquet in honour of PM Khai, his wife and entourage.--VNA

 

Bangkok Post - May 13, 2000.

METHAMPHETAMINE

Precursor of 500 million pills seized

Sermsuk Kasitipradit

A1.2-tonne consignment of ephedrine, enough to make 500 million methamphetamine pills, was seized in Fang district on Thursday night.

Two men, one a special forces soldier, were arrested with the stimulant, believed bound for the United Wa State Army in Burma, said the commander of the Phamuang Task Force.

Local security units, including Fang police, under Pol Col Voradet Intarasak, were responsible for the unprecedented seizure, said Maj-Gen Somboonkiat Sithidecha.

"This amount of ephedrine could lead to the production of 500 million pills," said Maj-Gen Somboonkiat, supervising security and the army's drug-suppression drive along border areas of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.

Jurin Laksanavisit, the PM's Office minister supervising the Narcotics Control Board, believed the precursor was destined for the Wa militia, regarded as the largest drug trafficker in the Golden Triangle.

Pol Col Voradet said Sgt Boonsong Khiewkerd, 39, of the Chiang Mai-based 5th special forces regiment, and Kittiyani Chan-in were arrested in a raid on a house in Ban Sao-hin, Muang district. "We have closely followed the suspects for quite some time," said Pol Col Voradet.

Bangkok Post , May 13, 2000.

NARCOTICS

Addicts and traffickers warned to go 'cold turkey'

Officials give them 3 months to comply

Supamart Kasem in Tak
Drug traffickers and addicts in Mae Sot district have been told to quit in three months or face random urine testing and social sanctions in addition to legal action.

District chief Samart Loyfa said he was joining forces with police and the military in a campaign against drugs.

Local officials had been told they, their subordinates and local villagers must cease all involvement with drugs.

"Drugs have become a national problem. Legal action alone is not enough to fight it, we also need social sanctions.

"Villagers are being advised not to associate with traffickers and addicts who refuse to quit.

"If not, the district office will deprive them of public welfare like medical subsidies and funeral contributions," he said.

About a fifth of the 77 villages in Mae Sot had been checked so far, and at least 300 drug traffickers and about 800 addicts had been uncovered. The investigation would extend to all villages by the end of the month.

After a three-month grace period, authorities would start making random urine checks on villagers and local officials, Mr Samart said.

There were 1,245 inmates in Mae Sot prison, 938 of whom were drug offenders, he said. uGen Mongkol Ampornpisit, the supreme commander, wants more border crossings shut down to halt the influx of drugs from the United Wa State Army in Burma.

The only effective way to fight drug trafficking is to tighten up border security and take drastic action against traffickers, the general said yesterday.

Since Thailand could not rely on Burma, it would have to deal with the problem itself, he said.

Rangoon had pledged co-operation but at the same time said it had no control on the Wa, he said.

"I have heard the Burmese premier say on several occasions that Rangoon can't control the Wa. But Burma has also shown some signs of co-operating with us."Mong Yawn, the Wa town built on drug money, had become more developed than some Thai towns thanks to money from Thai addicts, he said.

The Japan Times: May 14, 2000
Myanmar's Karens fight for freedom

 

By RICK MERCIER
Special to The Japan Times

 

MAE SOT, Thailand -- Theirs is the longest-running insurgency in Asia, against a regime widely recognized as one of the world's most repressive. And yet the Karen National Union, which launched a guerrilla war in 1949 to secure a homeland for the Karen ethnic minority in eastern Myanmar, is anything but a household name.
The KNU, which seeks an autonomous Karen state within a new Myanmarese federation, needs the world's help to resolve its conflict with the military junta in Yangon, said Mahn Sha Lah Phan, general secretary of the KNU, in an interview in the Thai border town of Mae Sot.

 

Mahn Sha said intense international pressure could force Myanmar's ruling military junta to enter into meaningful dialogue with the KNU. "If there is concerted pressure from the international community as well as domestic pressure, there is the probability that they [the junta] would accept dialogue," he said.

 

The KNU general secretary emphasized the need for tough trade sanctions against Myanmar, as well as a strict arms embargo.

 

Mahn Sha called on international nongovernmental organizations to denounce countries such as Japan that provide economic assistance to Yangon, and said that Western oil companies that have invested in a natural-gas pipeline running through eastern Myanmar "have been hurting the Karen population to a very serious extent."

 

NGOs should "single out countries like Japan and denounce them," Mahn Sha said.

 

Japan has broken ranks with Western nations and formulated a policy of "constructive engagement" with Yangon. Tay Tay, secretary of the Karen Refugee Committee, said "constructive engagement will mean giving money, and that money will go to the military."

 

Mahn Sha said oil firms that have invested in a $200 million natural-gas pipeline were partly responsible for human-rights abuses against Karens. The pipeline to supply natural gas to Thailand runs through Karen homelands.

 

During the construction of the pipeline in the early 1990s, Mahn Sha said, numerous Karen villages were forcibly relocated, and Karen villagers were conscripted as construction workers for the project. He said the three major foreign investors in the pipeline -- the United States' Unocal, France's TotalFinaElf and Britain's Premier -- were complicit in human-rights violations that included forced labor, executions, rape and arbitrary arrests.

 

The British government last month urged Premier to withdraw from Myanmar because of the military junta's human-rights record. Premier has said that it has no intentions of pulling out of the $200 million gas project.

 

In the U.S., 15 plaintiffs representing thousands of Karen refugees have filed lawsuits against Unocal, charging that the California-based oil firm was complicit in human-rights abuses by the Myanmarese military. Unocal denies the plaintiffs' allegations.

 

A U.S. federal judge in Los Angeles will hear arguments on May 22 to decide whether the suits -- which are the first to ever name a U.S. corporation as a human rights violator -- can go to trial.

 

By some estimates, more than 30,000 Karen civilians have died as a result of Myanmarese military actions in the past decade. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Myanmar's Karens -- who number about 7 million -- remain displaced by fighting. According to the KRC, more than 90,000 Karens have taken refuge in Thailand. It is believed that another 300,000 Karens are internally displaced.

 

Mahn Sha said the Myanmarese were practicing "ethnic cleansing" against the Karens, and compared the situation in Myanmar to Bosnia. The KRC's Tay Tay drew similar analogies, saying: "When we told our people about Bosnia and Kosovo, they said, 'Oh, we have gone through that.' "

 

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook condemned Yangon's treatment of Karens last month during a visit to a refugee camp in Thailand. "I have heard enough and I have seen enough to know that the people that are here only came here because they were fleeing from brutality, from military action," he said.

 

The Myanmarese government has reached ceasefire agreements with all of the country's other ethnic insurgencies in recent years, but the KNU finds fault with the deals Yangon has made with the rebel groups.

 

"The Shan, the Mon, the Karenni -- a number have reached ceasefire agreements, but they are still no nearer to any negotiated settlement of problems" facing Myanmar's ethnic groups, Mahn Sha said.

 

The KNU started dialogue with the ruling State Peace and Development Council earlier this year, but fresh fighting between the insurgents and government troops last month sent thousands of Karen civilians fleeing into Thailand and led the KNU to break off talks.

 

The Karen insurgents envisage establishing a Karen state with its own legislature and governor, along with its own system of taxation. The rebels also demand control over natural resources in Karen territory.

 

The KNU's forces have decreased markedly since 1995, when its headquarters in Manerplaw was overrun by Myanmarese forces. Mahn Sha said that rebel troops now number about 10,000 and that they still control key stretches of Myanmar along the Thai-Myanmarese border.

 

A small splinter Karen rebel group calling itself God's Army gained notoriety in January for its alleged involvement in the takeover of a hospital in the Thai town of Ratchaburi. The group is led by twin boys whom the fighters believe possess supernatural powers.

 

Although the Karens have suffered greatly during the war, "resistance is better than submission to total domination by the Myanmar chauvinists, because they have a policy to destroy the Karen as a people," Mahn Sha said.

 

The rebels' general secretary said the KNU would not accept Yangon's demand that the insurgents renounce armed resistance as a precondition for any peace agreement.

 

Mahn Sha said the junta leaders "are the ones who have to renounce armed force. They have seized power relying on armed force and they have ruled the country with arms."

 

Harshly repressive military governments dominated by members of the majority Myanmarese ethnic group have held power in Myanmar since 1962, when a coup led by Gen. Ne Win ousted an elected civilian government.

 

Since 1988, when the military brutally crushed huge prodemocracy demonstrations, a military junta has ruled by decree. More than 1,300 political prisoners languish in Myanmarese jails, according to the U.S. State Department.

 

(Rick Mercier is a freelance journalist who frequently writes on human-rights issues.)