|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HEADLINES --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bangkok Post - Labouring over Burma relations Reuters - China Executes 10, Vows Crackdown on World
Drug Day
AFP - Malaysia declares war on drugs, appeals for public support The People's Daily - China Assists Myanmar in Building
School
The People's Daily - Myanmar Makes Remarkable
Achievements in Drug Fight Bangkok Post - Drugs output in Myanmar rising, warns Thailand International Herald Tribune - Rangoon Thanks You Bangkok Post - Ethnic groups' relocation spurs concern Bangkok Post - Hunt for meat as 17 fall victim Bangkok Post - Editorial Labouring over Burma relations Kyodo News - Myanmar economic workshop ends, more talks to follow Bangkok Post - June 26,
2000.
Editorial Labouring over Burma relations Some three years into the great Burma experiment, the government's policy
is looking weaker and weaker. The theory was that bringing the Rangoon
dictatorship into Asean would make the Burmese leaders more aware of their
obligations to treat their people well.
The idea was that taking pains to have correct diplomatic relations would
encourage Burma to negotiate seriously and compromise graciously, as most
countries do.
What a letdown. Since 1997, Burma has not taken a single step towards
ending its brutality of its people. The dictatorship continues to pick off
members of the opposition one by one, by jailing, brutalising or openly
intimidating them. Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party won the only free election in
the history of Burma, remains under what can only be called house arrest.
If Burma has retained its violent tyranny at home, it has increased its
pugnacious defiance in the international arena. Far from adopting recognised
international diplomacy, Burma has openly hidden behind the legitimacy of Asean
to increase its international outrages.
Instead of adapting to the reasonable Asean form of neighbourly
disagreements, Burma has stepped up its quarrelsome and confrontational method
of approaching international disputes.
Diplomacy Burma-style is that if Burmese drug traffickers are making a
problem for Thailand, it's too bad-but Burma has to help the traffickers to keep
its own internal peace.
But if Burma has a problem with a terrorist attack on its embassy, that is
also Thailand's problem, so cut off Thai fishing rights. And keep them cut off.
So it is that Thailand faces yet another problem even as Bangkok officials
organise the Year 2000 Asean ministers' conferences which mark Burma's third
anniversary in the group.
The International Labour Organisation has finally had the fortitude to
recognise the egregious use of forced labour by the Burmese government. The ILO
membership, which is to say every country in the world, has voted overwhelmingly
to condemn Burma.
It has left Rangoon a way out. The ILO has given Burma until November to
stop forcing its citizens to work as slaves for the state-and to show it has
stopped. But of course, Burma will do no such thing. Rangoon again hid behind
the Asean skirts, with Malaysia speaking against the ILO action.
The dictatorship's undiplomatic response to the ILO is that it is all a
foreign plot meant to hurt innocent Burma. There is no forced labour in Burma at
all-only patriotic people who volunteer to work on state projects for
free.
If you believe this defence, we have a bridge we would like to sell to you.
Our Foreign Ministry, to their credit, did not join the tiny, Malaysia-led
chorus speaking up for Burma. Everyone in Thailand knows that Burmese are
forced, often at gunpoint, to work for the Rangoon regime. Many have been killed
performing porter work for the army. Many Thais know of such cases personally,
and it is fruitless even for the notoriously friendly Thai government to try to
argue otherwise in Burma's defence.
It appears clear, however, that Burma has no intention of ending the state
violence. So come November, Thailand will have to decide what to do at the ILO
meeting. In the name of Asean solidarity, it can vote in favour of the nation
which supplies our illicit drugs and slams our success at removing terrorists
from their embassy without a casualty. In the name of justice and, even, common
sense, it can vote to condemn and further sanction Burma-which will happen with
or without the Thai vote.
Or, more likely, the Thai delegation can be very busy at the time the vote
is taken. An abstention might show Burma we cannot support their most appalling
abuses. But it would show we still wish to have civilised talks with Rangoon.
That is the way most nations do business.
The People's Daily
Monday, June 26, 2000, updated at 15:46(GMT+8) Sci-Edu China Assists Myanmar in Building School
A cornerstone-laying ceremony for the building of a primary school with the
assistance of the Chinese embassy in Myanmar took place Monday.
The ceremony was attended by Myanmar Education Minister U Than Aung, Deputy
Ministers Brigadier-General Soe Win Maung and U Myo Nyunt and Chinese Ambassador
Liang Dong.
Liang said at the ceremony that the event is of special significance in the
days of marking the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic
relations between China and Myanmar.
The school, which can accommodate 500 students, is located in the capital's
Yankin township and will be completed by the end of this year.
WIRE:06/26/2000 08:45:00 ET China Executes 10, Vows Crackdown on World Drug Day BEIJING (Reuters) - China
executed 10 convicted drug criminals Monday, backing up its International
Anti-Drug Day vow of "merciless punishment" for drug crimes, state media
said.
But the State Council, or cabinet, acknowledged in a white paper that "the situation is grim for the anti-drug struggle" and called for a repeat of China's success in eradicating opium in the 1950s. The government's first white paper on narcotics carried a slew of
statistics showing that drug abuse in the world's most populous country
had staged a comeback since Mao Zedong's puritanical Communists wiped it
out 50 years ago.
The amount of drugs confiscated in 1999 increased by 33.6 percent
over 1998, while the number of addicts reached 681,000 last year, up from
520,000 in 1995 and 148,000 in 1991, the paper said.
Drug-control agencies cracked more than 800,000 drug cases and
confiscated nearly 40 tons of heroin, almost 17 tons of opium, 15 tons of
marijuana and 23 tons of methamphetamines, said the paper, issued by the
official Xinhua news agency.
Most of China's illegal drugs came from abroad, the paper said, and
it vowed to plug up porous borders with drug-producing neighbors and to
staunch the influx of chemicals needed to make narcotics.
"It is highly necessary to strengthen international cooperation in
drug control to promote the battle against narcotics worldwide and
radically solve the drug problem in China," it said.
China has boosted technical and agricultural aid to the
heroin-producing "Golden Triangle" states of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos --
which share a border with China's drug-plagued province of Yunnan -- to
help eradicate poppy production, it said.
China had also stepped up cooperation in drug control with its
neighbors to the north and west: Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and
Tajikistan, it said.
Two of the 10 executed Monday after the Supreme People's Court
rejected their appeals were heroin smugglers Chen Xinyuan from Taiwan and
Tsai Dehui from Hong Kong, Xinhua said.
From 1997 to 1999, China cracked 548 cases of illegal buying, selling
and smuggling of precursor chemicals and confiscated more than 1,000 tons
of illegal chemicals used in processing drugs, including ephedrine, which
is used for making methamphetamine.
During a tour of China last week by the U.S. government anti-drug
czar Barry McCaffrey, the United States and Chinese authorities signed an
agreement to share evidence relating to crime and drugs.
Monday, June 26 4:18 PM SGT
Malaysia declares war on drugs, appeals for public supportSHAH ALAM, June 26 (AFP) -Despite some of the world's toughest laws against trafficking, Malaysia Monday declared drug abuse its number one enemy and urged parents, teachers and bosses to unite in fighting the scourge. "Drug abuse is the number one enemy of the country. We want to make Malaysia a drug-free country. Drug abuse will destroy the nation," said Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. "And as long as drugs are available, the drug threat will remain," he told reporters after launching an anti-drugs day, in conjunction with the United Nations' International Day against drug abuse. Abdullah said the war against drug abuse must go on because many addicts who complete rehabilitation programs return to their old habits. "We cannot relax in our fight against drug abuse. I hope all parties will cooperate with the government to eradicate this threat," he said. Abdullah, who is also home minister, said there must be continued efforts to prevent drug abuse and also to find ways to keep former addicts who have been treated from going back to it. Lee Lam Thye, vice-president of Pemadam, a government funded anti-drug body, said Malaysia faced an uphill task in battling drug abuse as the number of young addicts was rising. "We must renew out commitment to protect our citizens from the scourge of drug abuse and trafficking," he was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times newpaper Monday. The death sentence is mandatory for anyone caught with 15 grams (half an ounce) or more of heroin or morphine. Data released by the National Narcotics Agency shows that Malaysia had 35,359 known addicts last year, of whom 17,444 were repeat cases. Some 26,554 are aged between 19 and 39. Abdullah admitted that the government faced a problem of capacity. "We are unable to treat all the addicts. It takes time to treat those who are in the centres," he lamented. The narcotics agency said at the end of March 2000, 8,480 addicts were undergoing treatment at 27 drug rehabilitation centres nationwide. Abdullah urged families and employers not to reject treated former addicts. "If they are treated as outcasts, they will join their former friends and return to their old habits," he said. He said action to stamp out the supply of drugs must be intensified. "We have to deny the product in the market. We cannot be lax in our duty," he said, when asked whether drugs could be obtained easily on the streets. Abdullah expressed concern that chemically-made drugs -- amphetamine-type stimulants -- were becoming increasingly popular. Last year there were 774 arrests for "designer drugs" compared to 264 the previous year. Abdullah also expressed fears that injecting heroin and sharing needles exposes addicts to HIV infection. The narcotics agency said in the first three monthes of the year, 667 addicts out of the 8,480 undergoing rehabilitation were HIV victims. A customs official told AFP that heroin arrived in Malaysia from the heroin-producing areas of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos -- popularly called the Golden Triangle. "Our close proximity to the Golden Triangle and entry of illegals into the country makes enforcement activities difficult," he said. The People's Daily
Monday, June 26, 2000, updated at 08:52(GMT+8) World Myanmar Makes Remarkable Achievements in
Drug Fight
The "Golden Triangle" area bordering Myanmar, Thailand and Laos is the main
base where opium and heroin are produced. For many years, narcotic drugs have
not only run rampant there but also been illegally smuggled to every part of the
world.
In face of the grave danger brought to Myanmar and the international
community, Myanmar has launched anti-drug battles year by year and has scored
remarkable achievements.
According to the figures released by Myanmar's Central Committee for Drug
Abuse Control (CCDAC), during the 12 years between 1988 and 1999 and with the
cooperation of its army units,
police force and customs departments, Myanmar exposed over 50,000
drug-related cases, arrested over 70,000 drug offenders, seized 29,833 kilos of
opium, 4,448 kilos of heroin, 6,880 kilos of
marijuana, 503,528 liters of precursor chemicals and 55.89 million tablets
of stimulants, and destroyed 110 heroin refineries.
In addition, during the period, Myanmar also destroyed 37,379 hectares of
poppy cultivation, resulting in reduction of 400 tons of opium output annually.
Of the 32,794 kilos of drugs destroyed, heroin accounted for 3,679 kilos,
while opium represented 23,646 kilos. The destruction also included 24.26
million tablets of stimulant drugs.
In April 1997, there established a "drug-free" zone in Mongla region,
eastern part of Shan state.
According to official statistics, there is now a total of 86,537 drug
addicts in Myanmar. To help them give up drug addictions and regain health, the
Myanmar government has set up six treatment centers in Yangon, Mandalay,
Myitkyina,Taunggyi, Lashio and Kyaing Tong, catering to 2,000 addicts annually.
In addition, the country also established eight rehabilitation centers
under the Social Welfare Department for ex-addicts.
Due to efforts of years, Myanmar's poppy cultivated area and drug
production dropped markedly. The Myanmar CCDAC said, in 1999, the country's
poppy cultivated area reduced by 31 percent as
compared with 1998, while its drug production dropped by 38 percent from
the same year.
To demonstrate its achievement made in drug control and to educate people
on the danger of drugs and to stay away from them, Myanmar is building two drug
control museums.
Up to now, Myanmar has reached memorandums of understanding on regional
drug control action plan with China, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. It
also signed agreements on bilateral
cooperation in drug control with India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Russia and the
Philippines.
Another measure is increasing of investment in drug-cultivating and
producing border areas and minorities-inhabited areas to raise their living
standard and change their traditional way of
livelihood which depends on drug cultivation.
Although Myanmar has made big achievements in drug eradication, due to
domestic security and problems in international assistance, the success is not
as anticipated.
Myanmar has started in 1999 implementing a 15-year plan worth 255 million
U.S. dollars, aimed at total elimination of drugs covering 51 cultivating and
producing townships.
In order to realize the aim as early as possible, Myanmar has urged the
international community to enhance cooperation, and moreover, to further extend
aid.
Bangkok Post - June 26,
2000.
Drugs output in Myanmar rising, warns
Thailand
BANGKOK -- Drugs production and trafficking from Myanmar is increasing
rapidly, posing a serious threat to Thailand and other countries in the region,
the Thai army has said.
Speaking on a tour of Thailand's Golden Triangle region, on the borders of
Myanmar and Laos, Thai military officials said the mass relocation of ethnic
minorities within Myanmar over the last year had fuelled a massive increase in
drugs production.
A report by the Thai security agency says that by May this year, about 50
methamphetamine factories had recently been established inside Myanmar close to
the Thai border and 10 others had been set up in Laos.
Each of the factories could produce at least 100,000 tablets of the drug
per day, it said.
""This means that by next year they can produce more than two billion
tablets of Yaba (methamphetamine) which is three times bigger than last year,''
a Thai regional army spokesman told reporters.
""We estimate 1999 output at 600 million tablets,'' he said.
Washington says Myanmar is the world's second-largest producer of illicit
opium and heroin, exceeded only by Afghanistan.
Vast quantities of heroin and other drugs produced in Myanmar make their
way through Thailand to addicts in the United States, Western Europe and
Australia. --Reuters
The International Herald
Tribune
Paris, Monday, June 26, 2000 Rangoon Thanks You -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Washington Post Service -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The decision by the U.S. Supreme Court last week invalidating Massachusetts's Burma law represents a blow to state efforts to encourage democratization in repressive countries - albeit a lesser blow than many people feared. The 1996 Massachusetts law effectively prohibited state agencies from dealing with companies that do business in Burma. But the unanimous court held that the state's restrictions were preempted when Congress passed its own sanctions regime later that year. The Massachusetts law, the court held, conflicted with the federal statute, and the constitution gives the federal government supremacy within its designated areas of responsibility, of which foreign affairs is one. The court's decision is mercifully narrow. It does not generally prevent
states or localities from using their procurement policies to send messages in
the future, as long as Congress has not itself passed legislation that could be
seen to conflict with those policies. Nor does it prevent states or
municipalities from making symbolic political statements about international
affairs. States should still be able to enact laws, as Massachusetts did, that
may then push Congress itself to act.
Narrow as it is, though, the decision is troubling. No one doubts that
Congress had the power to preempt the Massachusetts law in enacting its
sanctions, but it did not do so expressly, nor is there any evidence that it
meant to do so implicitly or that members of Congress believed that they were
doing so. To the contrary, the federal law was a leap onto a bandwagon that
Massachusetts was driving.
Particularly on a matter as central to state sovereignty as procurement by
state agencies, the political branches ought to be accountable for voiding state
policy, and the court should not relieve them of that burden.
Recent events in Burma only bolster the wisdom of Massachusetts's position.
Last month the military junta that runs the country arrested two elderly women
for the crime of renting office space to the National League for Democracy, the
party that won elections 10 years ago that the junta has systematically
dishonored. Human rights monitors report that they were released last week. But
the junta's campaign against Burma's brave democrats intensifies month by month,
and the Supreme Court's action sends a dispiriting message to those who live
under this most brutal of regimes. There was no little irony in the lawless
junta congratulating America's justices for making ''the right decision.''
Bangkok Post - June 26, 2000.
Army mobilises for new onslaught in the North Ethnic groups' relocation spurs concern Wassana Nanuam
The army will brace itself for a possible influx of illicit drugs from
Burma once the Wa and Kokang ethnic groups, already notorious for their drug
producing activities, are relocated by Rangoon to areas adjacent to the northern
Thai border.
The drug situation in the North could get even more serious once the two
Burmese ethnic groups are moved near the Thai border, said a source at the Pha
Muang task force.
Burma recently announced that it would be relocating 50,000 ethnic Wa from
Mong Yawn to Ban Phiangkham, opposite Chiang Mai's Mae Ai district, along with
5,000 Kokang families to Mong Tuan, Mong Sad and Mong Hang, opposite Mae Hong
Son's Pang Mapha district and Chiang Mai's Wiang Haeng and Chiang Dao
districts.
Burma says the relocation is part of efforts to encourage these groups to
grow substitute crops instead of opium.
According to the source, the Kokang, a Shan-Chinese ethnic group, had
surrendered to the Burmese government under a special deal around the middle of
last year. The deal also requires it to help Rangoon fight the Shan State Army
forces.
Under the agreement, Rangoon promised to set aside land for the Kokang and
allow them to produce illicit drugs, the source said.
Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt , State Peace and Development Council Secretary One and
head of the military intelligence, personally presided over a weapons handover
ceremony in the Kokang-controlled area in March this year. Senior Burmese
military figures recently visited Mong Hang and promised to turn the area into a
special economic zone, the source said. The Kokang specialise in heroin
production. The Third Army Region foresees a sharp surge in heroin production
this year.
Lt-Gen Watthanachai Chaimuenwong, the third army commander, said it was
very likely that heroin would be widely produced again after the recent seizure
of more than 30kg of the drug in a single raid.
There were around 50,000 rai of opium plantations in Thailand ten years
ago. Most of the opium growing areas were later destroyed and now there are only
around 4,000 rai left in the region. Opium is the base ingredient for heroin
production.
With the ongoing narcotics crackdown mainly focussing on methamphetamine,
heroin producers have seized the opportunity to produce more opium, said Lt-Gen
Watthanachai.
The army has now put emphasis on intelligence gathering by increasing
patrols in drugs-prone border areas.
The Third Army commander said 46 hilltribe villages in Mae Hong Son and
Chiang Mai would be given anti-narcotics lessons to prevent the spread of drugs
in their communities.
Lt-Gen Watthanachai said Burma has promised to co-operate with Thailand in
eradicating the production of illicit drugs along their common border. However,
Rangoon has been unable to suppress narcotics trafficking in areas controlled by
ethnic minority groups.
Bangkok Post - June 26,
2000.
ANTHRAX INFECTION
Hunt for meat as 17 fall victim
Source is imported goats and sheep Aphaluck Bhatiasevi The number of people confirmed infected with anthrax
rose to 17 yesterday as disease control officers tried to track down the meat
from more than 300 goats and sheep brought into the country from Burma.
The animals were slaughtered in Phichit, where the regional hospital has since been overwhelmed with people seeking treatment. Dr Somsong Rakphao, director of the Communicable
Diseases Control Department, said a close watch was being kept on wet markets in
Nakhon Sawan, where some of the infected meat was thought to be on
sale.
He confirmed the anthrax came from animals brought into
the country legally from Burma, through Mae Sot district in Tak
province.
Once the meat was tracked down the outbreak would be
rapidly brought under control, he said.
At least 245 people who said they had eaten goat meat
from the shipment went to Phichit hospital for an examination over the weekend.
Officials said 17 had been admitted with confirmed anthrax
symptoms.
They were suffering from symptoms such as diarrhoea and
rashes, staff said.
Their condition was not serious, but they were being
closely watched.
Phichit provincial livestock authority chief Venis
Suwannawong said controls were being put on the movement of livestock in Muang,
Phoprathabchang, Samngam and Vachirabarami districts.
Bangkok Post - June 26,
2000.
Editorial Labouring over Burma
relations
Some three years into the great Burma experiment, the government's policy
is looking weaker and weaker. The theory was that bringing the Rangoon
dictatorship into Asean would make the Burmese leaders more aware of their
obligations to treat their people well.
The idea was that taking pains to have correct diplomatic relations would
encourage Burma to negotiate seriously and compromise graciously, as most
countries do.
What a letdown. Since 1997, Burma has not taken a single step towards
ending its brutality of its people. The dictatorship continues to pick off
members of the opposition one by one, by jailing, brutalising or openly
intimidating them. Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party won the only free election in
the history of Burma, remains under what can only be called house arrest.
If Burma has retained its violent tyranny at home, it has increased its
pugnacious defiance in the international arena. Far from adopting recognised
international diplomacy, Burma has openly hidden behind the legitimacy of Asean
to increase its international outrages.
Instead of adapting to the reasonable Asean form of neighbourly
disagreements, Burma has stepped up its quarrelsome and confrontational method
of approaching international disputes.
Diplomacy Burma-style is that if Burmese drug traffickers are making a
problem for Thailand, it's too bad-but Burma has to help the traffickers to keep
its own internal peace.
But if Burma has a problem with a terrorist attack on its embassy, that is
also Thailand's problem, so cut off Thai fishing rights. And keep them cut off.
So it is that Thailand faces yet another problem even as Bangkok officials
organise the Year 2000 Asean ministers' conferences which mark Burma's third
anniversary in the group.
The International Labour Organisation has finally had the fortitude to
recognise the egregious use of forced labour by the Burmese government. The ILO
membership, which is to say every country in the world, has voted overwhelmingly
to condemn Burma.
It has left Rangoon a way out. The ILO has given Burma until November to
stop forcing its citizens to work as slaves for the state-and to show it has
stopped. But of course, Burma will do no such thing. Rangoon again hid behind
the Asean skirts, with Malaysia speaking against the ILO action.
The dictatorship's undiplomatic response to the ILO is that it is all a
foreign plot meant to hurt innocent Burma. There is no forced labour in Burma at
all-only patriotic people who volunteer to work on state projects for
free.
If you believe this defence, we have a bridge we would like to sell to you.
Our Foreign Ministry, to their credit, did not join the tiny, Malaysia-led
chorus speaking up for Burma. Everyone in Thailand knows that Burmese are
forced, often at gunpoint, to work for the Rangoon regime. Many have been killed
performing porter work for the army. Many Thais know of such cases personally,
and it is fruitless even for the notoriously friendly Thai government to try to
argue otherwise in Burma's defence.
It appears clear, however, that Burma has no intention of ending the state
violence. So come November, Thailand will have to decide what to do at the ILO
meeting. In the name of Asean solidarity, it can vote in favour of the nation
which supplies our illicit drugs and slams our success at removing terrorists
from their embassy without a casualty. In the name of justice and, even, common
sense, it can vote to condemn and further sanction Burma-which will happen with
or without the Thai vote.
Or, more likely, the Thai delegation can be very busy at the time the vote
is taken. An abstention might show Burma we cannot support their most appalling
abuses. But it would show we still wish to have civilised talks with Rangoon.
That is the way most nations do business.
Kyodo News
YANGON, June 26
Myanmar economic workshop ends, more
talks to follow.
A two-day workshop in Yangon to discuss Japanese support
for Myanmar's economic reform efforts closed Monday pledging to continue talks
in small committees, organizers said. The gathering of industry, university and government delegates now plans to agree at the next meeting this fall in Tokyo on specific short-term targets for Myanmar's reforms and hammer out technical assistance measures Japan may provide, they said. |