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The Straits Times, 21 May
2000
Myanmar junta
ready to take on monks
Monks threaten march on capital
unless Yangon makes peace with opposition politician Aung San Suu Kyi's National
League for Democracy
YANGON -- Myanmar's ruling junta is prepared to take on monks who are threatening
to boycott the government and march on the capital, government sources have
said.
"If they come out in force, the government will come out in force,"
the source said, referring to a group of Buddhist monks based in Mandalay.
The monks have circulated a letter saying they will "take up action",
including turning monasteries into protest centres and launching a march from
Mandalay to Yangon, if there is no political progress between the junta and Ms
Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) by Thursday. The more
than 250,000-strong Buddhist monkhood in Myanmar has a long history of
involvement in political affairs.
Government sources told AFP that military
intelligence has infiltrated the monkhood and has information regarding the
monks' plans. The military has stepped up the pressure on Nobel peace laureate
Suu Kyi's opposition party, ahead of the 10th anniversary of her May 27, 1990
election-win, which the junta does not recognise.
Opposition radio reported
that 29 monks were arrested last week week at a peaceful demonstration in the
southern city of Mergui while Myanmar state-run media said yesterday that more
than 400 members of the NLD had resigned.
Last month the NLD said Aye Tha
Aung, one of Myanmar's top opposition politicians, was arrested and placed under
military custody, in a first-ever arrest of a member of the NLD's representative
committee.
Myanmar also lashed out at US Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright on Friday, for calling on Yangon to respect the democratic wishes of
its people and renewing a commitment of support to Aung San Suu Kyi.
"Myanmar urges Ms Albright to contribute in a realistic and responsible way
in Myanmar's present democratisation process," said a statement issued by the
government spokesman.
"The government of Myanmar is in fact determined and
committed to fulfil the aspirations of the people of Myanmar," the statement
said. -- AFP,Reuters
The Nation, 21 May
2000
Embassy raider gets death
sentence
RANGOON –
An antigovernment protestor who allegedly helped take over
the Burmese embassy in Bangkok last year has been sentenced to death by a
Burmese court, Burma’s statecontrolled newspaper reported yesterday.
Saw Tin
Oo, who was detained by the Thai police outside the Burmese Embassy amid the
hostage crisis last October, was sentenced for treason by the Rangoon East
District Court on Thursday, The New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported.
Thai immigration officials released Saw Tin Oo on February 29. But he was
arrested the following day by Burmese authorities in Myawaddy, across from Mae
Sot district. “The authorities had been tracking the terrorists who seized the
embassy,” and members of the Defence Services Intelligence arrested Saw Tin Oo
in the town of Myawaddy on March 1, the report said.
Human Rights Watch Asia
said Thai authorities took five Burmese from Bangkok in February to the
Friendship Bridge linking Mae Sot with Myawaddy. The men were then deported to
Burma, then met on the other side by Burmese authorities and later incarcerated,
the human rights organisation claimed.
“It’s very distressing to get this
news because there has been no clear proof that this person, Saw Tin Oo, was
directly involved in the hostagetaking incident. It also goes to show that any
Burmese dissident deported to the border is being placed in danger,” said Debbie
Strothard, director of AltSean, a Southeast Asiabased human rights organisation.
According to Strothard, the Burmese government is using the death sentence
to scare off any planned protests for the upcoming 10th anniversary of the
landslide election victory by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi’s party,
the National League for Democracy, which was ignored by the military.
The
newspaper report said Saw Tin Oo was sentenced on two charges in addition to
treason, receiving three years imprisonment for membership of an unlawful
organisation and five years for violating the immigration act.
Courts in
Burma are not believed to have sentenced anyone to death for treason in recent
years, although they have handed down death sentences to drug traffickers. But
death sentences are rarely, if ever, carried out.
The embassy raiders said
they were members of a group called the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors
(VBSW). The group was believed to have about a dozen members and was apparently
formed for the specific purpose of carrying out the embassy raid. Armed with
AK47 assault rifles and grenades, they took over the embassy for 22 hours before
releasing more than three dozen hostages in return for safe passage by
helicopter to the ThaiBurmese border.
After the drama, the VBSW members took
refuge with another fringe rebel group called God’s Army, allegedly led by twin
12yearold boys believed to have mystical powers.
Members of both groups were
suspected of taking part in a raid on Ratchaburi hospital in eastern Thailand in
January, allegedly staged to publicise artillery attacks by the Thai and Burmese
military on civilians living at their camp.
Thai commandos stormed the
hospital in a predawn raid and killed all 10 hostagetakers. At least one of the
hospital raiders was identified by Thai authorities as being among the group
which took over the embassy.
The New Light of Myanmar account said Saw Tin
Oo was a member of both the VBSW and God’s Army, which it claimed he joined in
1997. It said he had previously joined a mainstream rebel group, the Karen
National Union, in 1985.
The ThaiBurmese border has been the base of a
number of resistance movements. Many members are former university students who
fled Burma after the military staged a brutal crackdown on prodemocracy
demonstrators in 1988.
The Nation, Associated Press
LAST MODIFIED: Saturday, 20-May-00 11:20:10 EDT
Bangkok Post, May 21,
2000
Government and the drug
wars.
Why can't the government put together a solid, supportive
case for a national effort against drug trafficking? The epidemic of drug abuse
is crippling a generation of our nation. It has been more than a year since
Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai stated that the drug trade was the top threat to
our national security. The military, the police, the media and the public all
agree. So why is our anti-drug effort so paltry, so fractured. Why is it so
ineffective?There are many answers to this question-and that is the crux of the
problem. The Army says there is not enough action against Burma, source of most
of the illicit drugs. The security departments believe population movements in
Burma hold the key to the problem. The old-line anti-drug agencies such as the
Office of Narcotics Control Bureau insist that better surveillance and
crackdowns on drug dealers will stem the drugs trade.
Justice officials have filled our nation's jails with drug
offenders, and maintain that if they step up, and keep up the pressure, drug use
will decline. Police show off increasing statistics of arrests of drug
offenders, and promise more. Health experts believe that more rehabilitation is
the main answer to wean our country off drugs, old and new. Non-government
agencies mainly recommend a policy to stop intimidating drug users while
ensuring strict observance of the rights of drug traffickers.
There is more. Educators, our foreign ministry, foreign
diplomats have their opinions about our effort to stem drug trafficking and
abuse. But surely it is clear that Thailand has no clear policy to fight this
terrible, debilitating epidemic.
The blame for this lies squarely with the government, and
particularly the prime minister. Premier Chuan has failed either to mobilise or
to support a rational, supportable effort to slow, and then to stop, the
epidemic of methamphetamine, heroin and designer-drug use. With the public
clearly in favour of such a programme, what is holding up Mr Chuan?It is clear
that community action is necessary. The Army has begun to set up networked
villages to protect our country from Burma-based traffickers. Peer pressure will
encourage drug users and smugglers alike to give up their habits-under penalty
of being ostracised. Such projects can easily be adapted throughout the nation.
No anti-drug programme will succeed without national support. But a proper
programme can involve everyone in an effort to stop the traffickers and wean the
young people off drugs.
It is time for the government to stop dawdling and start
leading a campaign against drug smuggling and abuse. Drug traffickers must be
singled out, identified and dealt with by our justice system. The public will
support any crackdown against major drug traffickers. If politicians, senior
government officers or teachers are involved, it is even more urgent that they
be arrested and processed by the courts. The government can make "flying squads"
of anti-drug police available to deal with influential figures involved in the
trade.
We must also formulate a policy towards drug abusers.
Clearly, it is not in anyone's interest to fill our prisons with such minor
criminals. Nor can we allow drug users to endanger themselves and others in
normal society. Rehabilitation centres must be set up, so abusers can be
convinced to give up their habits.
They must also be encouraged to work with other abusers in
their community when they are released.
Mr Chuan and other political leaders have already wasted
too much time. The drug problem is our leading national problem. The government
and opposition alike must help to unite the country. Every segment of the
population is willing to help a proper, thought-out campaign which seeks to
punish the guilty and help the victims. An entire generation is at
risk.
The Straits Times, MAY 21 ,
2000
Don't be
manipulatedu Aung San Suu Kyi tells
Japan.
BANGKOK -- Burma opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi has launched a special appeal to Japan, the regional
economic powerhouse, not to be "manipulated" by the Yangon junta, reports said
on Sunday.
"We know that the people of Japan bear (us) goodwill. We would
not like that goodwill to be manipulated by those who want to use it for their
own ends," the National League of Democracy leader said in a video marking the
tenth anniversary of her party's election victory, which the junta disallowed.
"Let the people of Japan talk with their hearts to the people of
Burma (Myanmar) and decide what is best course of action," she said.
Myanmar's opposition has targeted Japan several times this year
as its leaders suspect Tokyo of preparing to resume commercial links with
Yangon, largely severed after democracy protests were bloodily suppressed in
1988.
Japan has agreed to increase its supply of humanitarian aid to
Myanmar if Myanmar embraces reform.
Former Japanese prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto held talks with
leaders of the Yangon government last December during a "private" mission to
ascertain Myanmar's economic needs.
In an interview with a Japanese newspaper earlier this year,
Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi warned that foreign investment in Myanmar
would only swell the coffers of the military government.
She has repeatedly asked international companies not to invest
in Myanmar until the junta recognises NLD's 1990 victory. -- AFP
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