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Bangkok Post - June 14,
2000.
BURMA Contacts with junta favoured
But rebuff could be costly, says groupSupamart Kasem in
Tak
The National League for Democracy Liberation Area is moving ahead with its plan to seek peace talks with Rangoon, Burma's opposition party and ethnic minorities. A source who observed last week's third NLD/LA conference said the NLD/LA was adamant on its policy to find resolutions to problems in Burma through negotiations among the Aung San Suu Kyi-led NLD, Burma's State Peace and Development Council, and ethnic minority representatives. According to its statement publicised in Burma after the meeting, the group has given full support for the proposed establishment of the Committee Representing People's Parliament and will seek the global community's recognition of the panel. The NLD/LA has also pledged to participate in the review of Burma's draft constitution written by the National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB). However, the group has threatened to join hands with Burmese minorities and pro-democracy rebels against the military dictators and declare their country the Federation Union of Burma if the compromising policy fails. At the10-day NLD/LA conference held in a Burmese border area opposite Tak last week, the election of the new executive committee was completed with U Tin Aung, a former NLD chief from Kachin state, being made the chairman. The fifty participants at the meeting represented the NLD Council in Rangoon, the NLD Central Committee members, the minister of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma and observers from the Karen National Union, All Burma Muslim Union and All Burma Students' Democratic Front. South China Morning Post
Wednesday, June 14, 2000 BURMA Boatload of arms linked to Tigers WILLIAM BARNES in Bangkok
The Burmese navy's interception of a boatload of weapons and ammunition off the country's south has lent credence to claims that Tamil Tigers, fighting for an independent homeland in Sri Lanka, are smuggling arms through the area. The navy killed two men - one a Tamil Tiger and the other from an ethnic-Arakan group opposed to the Burmese Government - when it opened fire on the boat west of the port of Tavoy, according to the Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma. Sri Lanka's Government has long claimed that Tamil Tigers buy weapons in
the Thai arms market and smuggle them through the thick jungles of Tennasserim,
where Tavoy is located.
The interception happened on June 4, and such a long distance north of Thai
territory that it would appear to support the Sri Lankan claims, first made in
the mid-1990s, that weapons are finding their way through Tennasserim.
The involvement of the Arakan resistance group points up links between them
and the Tamil Tigers who, according to a military analyst, probably cut out some
guns for them in return for help in creating supply routes.
Protests by the authorities in Colombo may have caused the Burmese
authorities to close a quite overt Tamil Tiger base about five years ago. But so
much fuss has been made recently over the Thai resort island of Phuket's role as
a conduit for arms that this may be a sign the Tigers are refurbishing other,
perhaps older, routes.
Those killed in the boat were thought to be a Tamil Tiger named Tibanbe and
a member of the Arakan resistance army, Khing Thaung Zam. Four other men,
another suspected Tiger, two Arakanese and an ethnic Mon, were taken to the
Burmese naval base near Mergui.
The boat contained 33 handguns, 42 M16 rifles, nine machineguns of Chinese
origin, and more than 100 boxes of M16 and AK-47 ammunition.
Thai authorities were embarrassed in April when police stumbled across a
Thai-based Tiger supporter, Christy Lawrence, in the process of brazenly
shipping sophisticated communications gear, propaganda material and uniforms to
the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. A search of a shipyard part-owned by
Lawrence uncovered a half-built mini-submarine similar to one seized by Sri
Lankan government forces near Jaffna.
The Nation - June 15, 2000. Unesco blasted for 'aiding' Burmese junta
GROUPS working to improve human rights in Burma yesterday blasted Unesco for cooperating with the country's ruling junta in its drive to attract foreign tourists. "It's outrageous for a UN agency to be assisting Burma's military regime in promoting tourism to the country at this time," said Yvette Mahon of Burma Campaign UK. "They're obviously not listening to their colleagues in the ILO and other UN institutions who have condemned the regime for direct links between tourism and human rights abuses. By helping one of the world's most brutal dictatorships in this way they are helping ensure that these kind of abuses continue," she added. In an official statement released on Tuesday, the Burmese junta said it would host a seminar on "Safeguarding of Cultural Heritage and the Role of the tourism Industry in Burma" to be held from June 19 to 23. It said the seminar was organised "in cooperation with Unesco and co-sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Hotels and Tourism". When asked yesterday to comment on Unesco's involvement, the London-based Burma Campaign UK and Tourism Concern criticised the Paris-based agency for acting in opposition to other UN organisations. Last month, the two groups added a boycott of Lonely Planet publications to their campaign of opposing tourism in Burma. "We wonder if it is a case of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing. Unesco should consult its colleagues in the ILO who have accused Burma of 'crimes against humanity' for its exploitation of 'the practice of forced labour - nothing but a contemporary form of slavery - on the people of Burma'," said Lara Marsh at Tourism Concern. Marsh said that for a number of years her organisation has tried to raise awareness of human rights abuses connected to the development of tourism in Burma. It has also urged tour operators, travellers and guidebook publishers to respect the wishes of Burma's pro-democracy leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi, "not to travel, encourage or facilitate tourism to Burma while that country remains under brutal military rule." The Burmese official statement said hotels, airlines and tour services will provide assistance in organising the seminar. It is not known if any of the leading hotel chains such Accor or Novotel that have operations in Burma or if tour operators and major international airlines are involved in the seminar. Marsh said any organisation or individual that encourages tourism to Burma is guilty of disrespect for the human rights abuses that occur as a direct result of tourism development there, such as the use of forced labour to construct tourism-related infrastructure and people being forced out of their homes. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is currently debating sanctions against the Burmese junta for its use of forced labour. For the past 10 years, the UN General Assembly in New York and the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva have passed an annual resolution condemning the military regime's human rights abuses. Neither Unesco headquarters in Paris nor its regional office in Bangkok could be reached for comment yesterday.
BY YINDEE LERTCHAROENCHOK The Nation |