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HEADLINE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AFP - Education crisis forces Myanmar youth into sex, drugs trade: activists AFP - Demographic effect of AIDS south of Sahara
will be like Black Death
The Times of India - Yugoslavia, Myanmar to
expand relations
Bkk Post - Burma bans goods to foil Karen rebels Reuters - Myanmar opposition to file legal complaint on vote SCMP - Joint patrols sought to stem drug flood Kyodo - 500 Karen refugees flee to Thailand following Myanmar clash The Nation - Govt's anti-drug efforts lambasted BBC - Karen refugees flee Burma
BBC - Burma rejects opposition law
suit
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SPECIAL -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Times - A nun's tale of arrest and torture Times - The Dalai Lama: 'It's Time to Prepare
New Leaders'
Monday, July 10 6:04 PM SGT
Education crisis forces Myanmar youth
into sex, drugs trade: activists
BANGKOK, July 10 (AFP) - Myanmar is facing a crisis among its youth who, barred from the education system, have been forced to leave the country or turn to the sex and drugs trade, an activist group said Monday. Myanmar's universities, which in the past have proved breeding grounds for
anti-government unrest, have been sporadically closed since a popular uprising
in the summer of 1988 threatened to topple the military regime.
Since the new school year began in late June, only about 40 percent of
qualified secondary school graduates have been able to take up their university
places, the All Burma Students' Democratic Front said.
Standing in their way is the economic downturn that hit Asia in 1997, and
the junta's determination to prevent universities again becoming a threat to its
hold on power, the group said in a statement.
Many students have been ruled out of further education because they refused
to guarantee that they will not be involved in political activity.
More fundamentally, worsening poverty has put university out of reach of
young people whose families are no longer able to support them, it said.
About 300,000 students who left high school from 1996 onwards are now
slipping through the education gap, said ABSDF spokesman Sonny Mahinder.
"Many of them have to leave the country to try to find work to support
their families and ensure their own survival," he said.
The student group said transport is also a major problem now that campuses
have been relocated to satellite towns far away form urban centres, under the
watchful eye of military and riot police bases.
"These reopened institutions also have insufficient accommodation, teaching
equipment and well-trained teachers.", said the group.
The government's efforts to exclude young civilians from the education
system, leaving them with little to do and no hope for the future, was
destroying their generation, the group said.
"The crisis situation in Burma has also led to increasing numbers of young
people to fall prey to the sex industry, alcohol abuse, drug abuse and
consequently, HIV-AIDS."
"It is clear that this crisis faced by the young people in Burma is the
result of the (government's) oppressive policies and practices aimed at young
civilians whom they see as a threat to the regime's hold on power," the ABSDF
said.
Myanmar's military government claims education is a priority but devotes
only 0.5 percent of the country's Gross National Product to it, compared to
about 2.7 percent spent by other Southeast Asian countries.
Monday, July 10 6:40 PM SGT
Demographic effect of AIDS south of Sahara will be like Black DeathDURBAN, South Africa, July 10 (AFP) -AIDS will soon cause the population of worst-hit African countries to fall, marking the first time a disease has triggered demographic decline since the Black Death six centuries ago, an expert said Monday. A leading US demographer said seven southern African countries had an estimated HIV rate of 20 percent or more among their adult population -- Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. "By 2003, Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe will be experiencing negative population growth of one to three percent," said Karen Stanecki, in charge of the Health Studies Branch in the US Census Bureau's Population Division. Namibia and Swaziland are also nearing negative population growth, she said. It will take up to 50 years for these countries' population to recover -- and the prediction is based on the current state of the epidemic, which is spreading in the region at a pace that was unimaginable five years ago, she said. Stanecki told AFP that she believed that the effect of AIDS would mark the first time a disease will have caused a national population to shrink since the bubonic plague ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351. An estimated 25 million Europeans died in that outbreak, and it took until the start of the 16th century before the region's population reached its pre-1347 level. Stanecki, in a presentation to the International AIDS Conference here, painted this tableau of the AIDS' advance across southern Africa: -- incidence of HIV 10 years ago was below one percent of the adult population. In Botswana and in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province, it is now more than 35 percent. In parts of rural Zimbabwe, the infection rate among pregnant women reaches nearly 60 percent; -- life expectancy in some countries is plummeting towards 30 years and below, "a level that has probably not been seen since the start of the 20th century." Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe all currently have life expectancies below 40 years of age. Without AIDS, they would have been 50 years or greater. By comparison, life expectancy in Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand, which are three badly-hit Asian countries, has fallen by three years; -- far more women than men are dying from AIDS, a phenomenon that will have dramatic effects for the future. Two decades from now, there will be a huge imbalance in the South African population in favour of men, especially in the 30-50 age range. "We've never seen population pyramids like this," Stanecki admitted; -- the economic and social cost is mounting as men and women of working age succumb to the epidemic. In some countries there is an alarming shortage of teachers, health-care workers, civil servants and experienced military officers; -- the toll among children is soaring. "Eighty percent of deaths among children under five in Zimbabwe in 2010 will be due to AIDS." Sub-Saharan Africa has borne the brunt of the global AIDS epidemic. Of the 34.3 million people around the world carrying HIV or AIDS, 24.5 million are black Africans. However, Stanecki stressed that it was not the same picture across Africa. The situation in East Africa, while bad, is better than in southern Africa, and the rates in West Africa were far lower and had shown no sign of a spectacular takeoff. "Aggressive programmes" to educate populations about HIV risk were bearing fruit in Uganda and Senegal especially. The equivalent success stories in Asia were the Philippines and Indonesia. Paul Delay, a specialist with the US government's aid organisation USAID, said many experts were stunned by the speed, severity and complexity of the disease's spread. "We continue to underestimate this epidemic," he said. The Times of India
July 10, 2000. Yugoslavia, Myanmar to expand relations BELGRADE: Yugoslavia and Myanmar pledged broader cooperation in trade and
technology Sunday at the conclusion of a three-day visit by the Asian nation's
foreign minister.
"We will do everything we can to help each other," Myanmar's Foreign
Minister Win Aung was quoted by the official Tanjug news agency as saying after
his meeting with Yugoslavia's Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanic and Prime
Minister Momir Bulatovic.
Win Aung was the latest foreign official to visit Belgrade, where President
Slobodan Milosevic's government has been strengthening ties with Iraq, Libya,
Cuba and other regimes commonly bound by the fact that they are outlawed by
Western powers.
Win Aung also criticized the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, launched to
make Milosevic accept a peace deal for the ethnic conflict in Yugoslavia's
Kosovo province.
"I was wondering why the people of Yugoslavia had to go through all the
horrors of war and to suffer so much, why its property had to be destroyed," Win
Aung said, adding that he considered the Yugoslav people independent, and that
they would not bend to pressure from outside.
Myanmar, earlier Burma, has been ruled since 1962 by a military junta.
Since then, the country has been internationally isolated for suppressing
dissent and violating human rights. (AP)
Bangkok Post - July 10, 2000.
Burma bans goods to foil Karen
rebels
Mae Hong
Son
Burma has banned imports of 17 commodities from Thailand into its eastern border area opposite Mae Hong Son in a bid to cut the food supply of ethnic minority rebels in Kayah state. The order, issued by Burma's eastern army commander, followed a series of attacks by Karenni National Progressive Party rebels on Burmese soldiers. NKPP rebels had burned down two trucks loaded with logs and arrested two Burmese soldiers during a raid near the Burmese border last week. The banned imports include seasoning powder, soft drinks , biscuits, chewing gum, cake, wafers, chocolate, canned food, liquor, beer and cigarettes. WIRE:07/09/2000 04:01:00 ET
Myanmar opposition to file legal complaint on vote YANGON, July 9 (Reuters) -
Myanmar"s opposition National League for Democracy said on the weekend it
would take legal action against the head of the ruling military council
over its failure to abide by election laws.
The NLD, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Su Kyi, won more than 80 percent of the seats in a 1990 election but the military ignored the result. The NLD move came a few days after a new U.N. envoy to Myanmar,
Razali Ismail, ended his first visit to the country during which he met
top military officials and Suu Kyi.
The NLD said in a statement the military"s failure to abide by the
election law it had enacted had caused the party "grievances."
The party said it would file legal action against the chairman of the
ruling military council, General Than Shwe.
The NLD said it notified authorities of its intention to file the
legal action on July 4 but it did not elaborate on the type of legal
action or say where it would be filed.
Political analysts said the NLD"s move was symbolic.
Myanmar"s military has ruled the country, tolerating no opposition,
since 1962. The current military council was formed after troops crushed a
nationwide pro-democracy uprising in 1988.
Last week state-run newspapers called for the NLD to be banned,
saying it was colluding with terrorists to undermine the country.
In a related development the military told leaders of the Buddhist
clergy to expel "undisciplined" monks from temples nationwide, the
state-run Kyemon newspaper reported on Sunday.
Minister for Religious Affairs U Aung Khin told senior Buddhist monks
on Saturday undisciplined monks were tarnishing the dignity of the
clergy.
Buddhist monks have traditionally played a leading role in opposing
authority in Myanmar, previously known as Burma.
Buddhist monks at times led opposition to British colonial rule and
were often at the forefront of democracy protests in 1988 and the early
1990s.
Myanmar monks exiled in Thailand have said in recent months their
colleagues at home would soon begin a public campaign to push for dialogue
between the military and the opposition.
There are a total of 400,000 monks at more than 50,000 monasteries
throughout the country.
South China Morning Post
Monday, July 10, 2000 THAILAND Joint patrols sought to stem drug
flood
GRETCHEN PETERS in Bangkok The Government in Bangkok is pressing Burma to launch joint patrols of
their shared 2,400km border to stem the massive flow of methamphetamine tablets
smuggled into Thailand.
Under the plan, proposed by the Thai Foreign Ministry, the two armies would share intelligence about drug smuggling rings and co-ordinate their efforts to patrol the porous border. Thai military authorities estimate that more than one billion
methamphetamine pills, known locally as yaba or "crazy medicine", will be
smuggled into Thailand from Burma this year. Yaba has created a huge drug
addiction problem in Thailand, with tens of thousands of new addicts every year,
many of them students and young professionals.
"This is something we really want to do and we hope the Burmese side will
co-operate, because, according to their side of the story, all of the drugs are
produced by ethnic minorities," said Thai government spokesman Akapol
Sorasuchart.
Burma's Wa and Kokang ethnic groups, both previously linked to opium and
heroin smuggling, are the biggest producers of methamphetamine pills, which can
be made in simple laboratories for less than HK20 cents each.
Thai security reports say there are already more than 50 factories making
yaba along the border. It is rumoured that the Thai military has plans to launch
air strikes to wipe out the factories, though that is considered a last-ditch
step that will only be taken if Burmese authorities fail to co-operate. Burma's
military rulers consider the border area a war zone and have insisted they are
doing everything they can to stamp out illicit drug production in their
impoverished nation.
Thai officials privately say they have not had much progress in persuading
the junta to co-operate with troops on their side of the border. In an interview
published yesterday in the English-language Bangkok Post, Thai Foreign Minister
Surin Pitsuwan said that Thailand's often-fraught diplomatic relationship with
Burma "requires patience".
Mr Surin said he believes Burmese authorities are genuinely mindful of
Thailand's concern over the drug problem. But he complained that the pace of
efforts to fight drug smuggling was moving too slowly. "I think it's a matter of
necessity that we have to work together," Mr Surin said. "If the Government of
Myanmar [Burma] says it will take five years to solve the drug problem then we
must think about what we can do together during that time. And that's what we
are determined to do."
500 Karen refugees flee to Thailand
following Myanmar clash
BANGKOK, July 10 (Kyodo) -- About 500 Karen refugees fled to
Thailand on Monday following a clash between the Myanmar army and guerrillas of
the Karen National Union (KNU), a Thai military officer said.
About 200 to 300 Myanmar soldiers attacked a small KNU base near the Thai
border district of Tha Song Yang in Tak Province, about 700 kilometers northwest
of Bangkok.
Gunshots were heard on the Thai side of the border around 9:30 a.m., but
there was no report of casualties, said Col. Chainarong Thanaron, commander of a
special task force stationed in Mae Sot district of the province.
The Thai military had deployed about 100 troops at border to prevent
intrusions into Thai territory while the Myanmar soldiers were pursuing the
rebels, he said.
The 500 refugees -- believed to be family members of KNU fighters living in
nearby areas -- have hidden in the jungle in the Thai border area.
Thai authorities in Tha Song Yang district are attempting to prevent them
from traveling deeper into the district.
Thailand is already home to more than 100,000 Myanmar refugees, mostly
Karens, who fled violence at home.
The Nation - July 10, 2000.
Govt's anti-drug efforts lambasted BY PREECHA SA-ARDSORN AN academic has criticised as insincere the Chuan administration's efforts
to crack down on narcotics, especially the officially estimated 800 million
amphetamine tablets that cut a destructive swath across society every year.
The Chuan government in general -- and Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan in
particular -- has never displayed courage in confronting Burma, which the
government blames as the source of the problem, said ML Phansoon Ladawan, a
sociology lecturer at Chiang Mai University and an authority on the drugs trade
plaguing northern Thailand.
Corrupt bureaucrats, law enforcement officials and politicians have helped
perpetuate the narcotics problem, he added.
Thailand has accused its neighbour of producing and smuggling amphetamines
and turning Thailand into a drug den, he said, adding Rangoon has denied the
charges, saying the raw materials used to produce amphetamines would need to be
imported from its neighbours.
Thai authorities have used international forums to urge Burma to cooperate
in efforts to suppress the drug trade. But Burma has dismissed the calls as
little more than a public relations ploy aimed at raising Thailand's image as a
committed drug-buster, he said. Rangoon has understandably responded to
Thailand's calls with non-action, he added.
Burma has questioned Thailand's ultimate motive in calling for a joint
crusade against drugs, as it believes Thailand uses ethnic minorities living
around the Thai-Burmese border as a buffer between the two historical rivals,
Phansoon said. He noted relations between Thailand and Burma have been
characterised by distrust since Thailand was twice sacked by powerful Burmese
armies hundreds of years ago.
Rangoon is not convinced of Thailand's willingness to get tough on the
minorities producing drugs on Thai soil, the academic said. The Burmese have
argued Thailand has talked about the necessity of cracking down for two decades
and yet nothing it has done has come close to eradicating drugs, he said.
Phansoon characterised the current drug situation in the north as a war by
surrogates of the two neighbours.
Thai authorities have for years pointed an accusing finger at Burma as home
to amphetamine production.
Among the big key seizures made by Thai authorities in recent times was the
arrest of Sgt Maj Boonsung Khiaokerd last month with a woman companion in Chiang
Mai's Fang district. Police said he was caught transporting from the capital
more than one tonne of ephedrine, one of the main raw materials used for making
amphetamines.
Two weeks ago another Thai was caught in Mae Ai district shipping from
Bangkok magnesium stearate, another material for the production of the drug.
The Nation
BBC-Monday, 10 July, 2000, 15:22 GMT
16:22 UK
Karen refugees flee Burma More than 100,000 Burmese refugees are sheltering in Thai camps
More than 1,700 ethnic Karens from Burma have fled into Thailand to escape
fighting between government troops and rebels from the Karen National Union
(KNU).
It is reportedly the second time in three months that refugees from Lobohe, a village about 2km from the Thai-Burma border, have crossed into Thailand because of clashes in the region. The KNU has been fighting the Burmese Government for greater autonomy for more than 50 years. Earlier this month, Thailand asked the international community to help it
repatriate over 100,000 Burmese refugees living in camps on the Thai-Burma
border.
Attack
Reports said the villagers had already fled to Thailand once before, but
had crossed back to Burma a month ago when they thought peace had settled in the
region.
"We want to stay on Burmese soil. We never intended to spend our life in
Thailand," one refugee, Saw Pha, told Associated Press news agency.
"About one month ago we went back to Labohe village. We had set up a new
school and clinic. The children had been going to school for about two weeks,"
Saw Pha said.
"Now the Burmese army have attacked again and we have to escape again."
Thai authorities were not immediately able to confirm the number of
villagers who had entered the country on Sunday.
Karen community leaders said 1,746 had crossed the border, with few or no
possessions.
BBC-Monday, 10 July, 2000, 12:46 GMT 13:46 UK
Burma rejects
opposition law suit
Burma's military government has dismissed as "whimsical and
symbolic" an opposition legal complaint over its failure to recognise the result
of elections held a decade ago. The National League for Democracy (NLD), which is lead by the Nobel Prize
winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, filed the suit with the Supreme Court last week. The NLD emerged the overwhelming victor in nationwide elections held in 1990 winning over 80% of the seats. However, the military government has refused to relinquish power. It is the second time the group has filed such a complaint - a similar suit filed last year was rejected for lack of evidence. In its latest move the NLD names the head of the ruling military council, General Than Shwe and the chairman of Myanmar's Election Commission accusing them of violating electoral law and harassing NLD members. However, in a statement released on Monday, the government said the NLD's move was a headline making gesture. 'Stable democracy' Speaking in the capital, Rangoon, spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Hla Min said the NLD should behave "in a more responsible and constructive manner with the aim of doing serious work in solving Myanmar's real challenges". He added that the government was "working hard to develop
Myanmar [Burma] in its transition to a stable democracy". "Realistically, new democracies do not automatically succeed and in fact many fail when they are built on fragile foundations and unrealistic expectations." The 1990 elections were held two years after the military regime brutally crushed a pro-democracy uprising. Although the NLD remains a legal party in Burma its members are often subject to intimidation and arbitrary arrest by the Burmese authorities. Many of its elected MPs and senior officials have been held for months without charge in Burmese jails. TIMES - JULY 17, 2000 VOL. 156 NO. 2
The Price of Protest A nun's tale of arrest and torture By MEENAKSHI GANGULY Dharamsala Any smart teenager knows that it is only the stupid or the desperate who
take on someone much bigger and stronger than them. Norzin Wongmo, a tall,
serene Tibetan nun says she was desperate. So on the morning of Dec. 9, 1993,
Wongmo, then 16, and seven other nuns walked from their Shugseb nunnery to
Barkhor, the main temple area in Lhasa, mingled with the crowd of devotees and
then started shouting slogans against the Chinese occupation of Tibet. The
protest was over in an instant: the ever-vigilant police pounced upon them, tied
their arms behind their backs and began dragging them off. As they were taken
away, the nuns shouted, "Free Tibet!"
The dream of a free homeland is rapidly disappearing. Among Tibetans these
days, it is mostly the nuns and monks, those most affected by China's religious
repression, who continue to protest against the occupation. "The Chinese are
always saying that we Tibetans are content in their regime," says Wongmo, now in
exile in India. "I wanted to let them know that we are not happy."
After her arrest, Wongmo was taken to the infamous Gutsa Detention Center
for rigorous interrogation: Who started the protests? Who told you Tibet was a
free country? "When I said that no one had told me, that I knew Tibet had been
forcibly occupied by the Chinese, they would not believe me," says Wongmo, who
grew up in Chinese-controlled Tibet. "'You are too young,' they said."
Wongmo's insubordination was punished with a vengeance. She says she was
kicked, beaten, flogged with a rubber cord (which permanently damaged her left
eye) and given electric shocks in her vagina with a cattle prod. Human rights
activists say these are common forms of torture in Tibetan prisons. So is aerial
suspension, where a prisoner is hung from a ceiling and choked on chili or coal
fumes. Some are stripped and left standing in the snow, chased by vicious dogs
or chained in cuffs that lacerate the ankles or wrists. Almost all of the actual
torture and interrogation, in fact, is carried out by ethnic Tibetan troops.
"They were my own people, Buddhists like me," says Wongmo. "I felt sad for them
because they were giving me so much pain and they would get that same pain
later."
After eight months of detention, Wongmo and her fellow nuns were tried and
sentenced to six years in Drapchi prison. "Every day, we were forced to say that
Tibet is a part of China," she recalls. Released in December 1998, she fled to
India. Staring out her window at a remote nunnery near Dharamsala, Wongmo says
she is happy to get back to her religious training. She kisses a picture of the
Dalai Lama, vowing: "As long as the Dalai Lama is alive, there is still hope for
freedom."
TIMES - JULY 17,
2000 VOL. 156 NO. 2
INTERVIEW
The Dalai
Lama: 'It's Time to Prepare New Leaders' The Dalai Lama says he still has hope The Dalai Lama says China still has no clue how to win Tibetans' loyalty. Without any sincere offer of dialogue from Beijing, his only hope is that the communist regime will one day be replaced by a more sympathetic government. Until then, he can do little more than lobby for international support. His Holiness spoke with TIME's New Delhi correspondent Meenakshi Ganguly at his monastery in McLeod Ganj about his people's past, present and future. Excerpts: TIME: You have been in exile now for four decades. Did you think you would be away this long when you left? Dalai Lama: Intellectually, yes, we were prepared for a long period. But emotionally, we expected that within a few years things would change. TIME: How much have things actually progressed? Dalai Lama: On the positive side, it is very clear that Marxist totalitarianism has no future. Now only China is left. It is just a matter of time. It may take another few decades or a few years, but one thing is certain: the communist system is not going to last in China. Another change is that the awareness among Chinese people is increasing, including awareness of the Tibetan issue. The outside world is also much more aware of Tibet. And, most important, there is much more awareness among Tibetans inside Tibet. But there are also negative developments. Now, in many of the bigger towns like Lhasa, Tibetans are a minority. Their lifestyle is changing; their language is half-Tibetan, half-Chinese. TIME: Do you think China has any policy toward Tibet? Dalai Lama: No, I don't think so. Just crush. Any resistance, just crush. Suppress. TIME: If Beijing were to offer fresh talks, what would you say? Dalai Lama: The same thing I've been saying for 20 years: let's follow the middle path. We don't want complete independence. Beijing can manage the economy and foreign policy, but genuine Tibetan self-rule is the best way to preserve our culture. TIME: Can the Tibetans ever be loyal to a Chinese regime? Dalai Lama: The other day I mentioned that in the past 41 years, never has the Indian government told us that we should be loyal to India. But because the government of India helped us a lot and respects Tibetan culture, we have some amount of loyalty. This is human nature. Even animals, if you look after them sincerely, become loyal. When I was young, I had a beautiful parrot. One attendant always fed that parrot and so it was absolutely loyal to him. I got a little bit jealous. On a few occasions, I fed it. But it never showed me any loyalty. Then I used a stick. And then the loyalty was absolutely gone. The Chinese are always using the gun. And yet, they want the Tibetans to be loyal to them. How is that possible? TIME: If you simply went back to Tibet, what would Beijing do? Dalai Lama: They would kick me out. Or put me in a nice guesthouse. And if anyone asked, "Where is the Dalai Lama?," they'd say, "He is resting." TIME: Why did the Karmapa run away from Tibet? Dalai Lama: His explanation to me was that he wanted to serve Tibetan dharma [divine law] and Tibetan people. But these two goals could not be achieved if he had remained in Tibet, even though the Chinese attitude toward him personally was not bad. I asked him why he was uncomfortable or unhappy in Tibet. He told me that he used to hear stories of arrests and beatings. TIME: The Karmapa is being seen as your heir as leader of the Tibetan people. Is that how you view him? Dalai Lama: Not in that way. But I have told him—and I have said this publicly—that my generation is growing old, and the time has come to prepare the next generation of spiritual leaders. The Karmapa is one of the important leaders, especially for the Kagyu sect. There are some bright young lamas in other sects, too. TIME: There seems to be conflict these days within Tibetan Buddhism. Dalai Lama: Tibetan history is over 1,000 years old. We have always had six or eight problem monks. There have always been mischief-makers. But Westerners think that everything about Tibet is very good. Then there is some trouble, and their image of Tibet changes completely. TIME: There is also conflict because Tibetan people are growing impatient of waiting to return to their homeland. Should you change your position in relation to China? Dalai Lama: Despite all the setbacks, my position has not changed. I am fully committed to the middle path. Yes, from an individual's point of view, 40 years is quite a long time—it is one lifetime. But for a nation's history, 40 or 50 years is nothing. Our cause is just. Even though the result may not materialize in one's own lifetime, the struggle for the preservation of our culture and spirituality is worthwhile.
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