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HEADLINE --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New York Times - Myanmar Works Hard to Keep the Internet
Out Reuters - N.Korea, Philippines establish diplomatic ties Dow Jones - Thai Govt To Share Pete Authority's
Interest Obligations
Bkk Post - Junta claims it foiled embassy raid
Kyodo News - Ethnic rebels attack Myanmar's
narcotics refineries
The Nation - Confirmation awaited on Burma claim
BBC - Thailand battles drug factories
menace
SCMP - Member nations pledge environmental co-operation - Illegitimate Myanmar SPDC can't send a representative New York Times - July 14,
2000
Myanmar Works Hard to Keep the Internet Out By SANDY BARRON In downtown Yangon, Internet entrepreneur Aye Min Oo is busy selling space
on a Web site that he cannot access.
To woo advertisers who are also forbidden to access the World Wide Web in military-ruled Myanmar, formerly Burma, he transports his tourist-oriented Web site's pages the old-fashioned way. "I travel around Yangon and demonstrate the pages on the hard drive of my
laptop," he said. "We e-mail new pages to the webmaster in Belgrade. Hopefully,
some day we will see it online here ourselves."
Aye Min Oo's roundabout access to the Internet may not be ideal, but it is
a rare privilege in isolated Myanmar, a Southeast Asian country of 48 million
people where some of the world's toughest Internet restrictions are vigorously
enforced.
The measures, aimed at fending off the online campaigns of exiled Burmese
opposition groups, restrict e-mail access to fewer than a thousand people who
are close to the ruling party, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).
Access to the World Wide Web is strictly banned, and unauthorized use of a
modem is punishable by 7 to 15 years in jail.
Just one other Web site operates consistently from the country, which has
been widely condemned for human rights violations and the suppression of
democracy. It is the government's own site, which is only available outside the
country. It features tourist and army news in four languages, along with regular
fiery criticism of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for
Democracy party won a 1990 election that the military refused to recognize.
In the decade since then, thousands of democracy activists have been jailed
or have fled the country once known as the "rice-bowl of Asia," now one of the
world's poorest.
Among Yangon's tiny, struggling expatriate and business communities, where
the daily struggles are with boredom and marginalization, the lure of the
Internet has been hard to resist. Dialing into foreign servers is an obvious if
illegal route for frustrated staff members at embassies and other organizations.
In May, communications minister Brigadier-General Win Tin ordered that
"outsiders" be stopped from making illegal use of international telephone and
e-mail services. The order was apparently in response to a bungled attempt by
foreigners to set up satellite equipment in a Yangon hotel. But it was also the
latest in a series of warnings from a government determined to leave no
communications loophole unplugged.
Until last December, foreign organizations could use a handful of private
e-mail services, which were permitted to operate on a self-censoring basis.
One such service was Eagle IT, which was set up in 1996 by Pat James, a
Texan businessman, along with the London-based service provider Digiserve. In
advertisements placed on a venture capital site in the United States last year,
Eagle claimed that "with no domestic competition" and arrangements for intranet
deals with the government, its potential growth was "limitless."
But in late December, the government abruptly closed down the private
firm's service, and staff members were taken in for questioning by military
intelligence officials.
"It was a bit of a disaster," said Mike Blanche, Digiserve's managing
director. "The government just took it over. It just stopped working."
The SPDC then told stranded users that it would be Myanmar's sole e-mail
provider. Recently it announced a plan to expand the number of e-mail accounts
it provides, to 1,000 from around 800, with prices reduced to $290 a year from
around $1,100. Time online costs $3 an hour -- and, predictably, the user's
privacy.
One 70-year-old Burmese expatriate said she was spooked to discover the
fate of a message she had sent from a private office in Yangon during a vacation
to Myanmar.
'I'd given all the gory details of my time there: bad roads, bridges broken
down, well-nigh starvation and misery in the villages," said the woman, who did
not want to be identified because she has relatives inside the country. "When I
got home to Australia, I found out my son had received a mere three lines.
Someone had censored my letter."
Critical information that does make it out of Myanmar travels via
circuitous routes before arriving at Burmese pro-democracy sites like Burmanet,
which is financed by George Soros' Open Society Institute.
Opposition groups based in remote outposts along Myanmar's porous, forested
borders with Thailand and India use laptop computers to post news from refugees
and underground activists. The SPDC denies the reports of forced labor, forced
relocations and extrajudicial killings that flow out of regions where the
foreign press is denied entry.
The government has been unable to halt the damaging effects of
cyber-campaigns by groups like the Free Burma Coalition. The reports helped push
companies like Pepsi to withdraw from Myanmar and led the United States and the
European Union to impose economic sanctions on the country.
"There's no greater economic sanction on Burma than the one the regime
imposes on itself: keeping out the Internet," said Pat Raleigh of the Burma
Action Group's branch in Dublin.
As the rest of Asia rushes toward cyberspace, Myanmar's generals make no
apologies for the country's deepening isolation. "As soon as we find a way to
keep out the undesirable elements, we will make the Internet available," a
spokesman says on the lonely government Web site.
WIRE:07/12/2000 05:51:00 ET
N.Korea, Philippines establish diplomatic ties MANILA, July 12 (Reuters) -
North Korea and the Philippines signed an agreement on Wednesday formally
establishing diplomatic ties. North Korean ambassador to Thailand Jo In
Chol, who signed the agreement with Philippine Foreign Secretary
Domingo Siazon, will serve as Pyongyang"s first ambassador to Manila in a
non-resident capacity, the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a
statement. The normalisation of ties between the two countries left
Myanmar the only member of the Association of South East Asian Nations not
to have any diplomatic relations with North Korea, the statement
added.
ASEAN, which also includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, has invited North Korea to join the ASEAN Regional Forum in Bangkok later this month. The 22-member forum, Southeast Asian"s security consultative group,
includes the United States, Russia, Japan, South Korea, India and
Australia.
The North held the first-ever summit with longtime foe South Korea
last month, reopened ties with Australia in May and established a new
formal bond with Italy in January.
Washington has also recently eased decades-old sanctions on North
Korea.
Friday, July 14 4:18 PM SGT
Thai Govt To Share Pete Authority's Interest Obligations BANGKOK (Dow Jones)--The Thai
government will take over three-quarters of state-owned Petroleum Authority of
Thailand's interest obligations on the latter's Ratchaburi natural gas purchase
contract with Myanmar, a senior PTT official said Friday.
The move follows PTT's inability to meet a payment for about $250 million that was due in February, Songkiert Tansamrit, public relations director of the state-owned oil company, told Dow Jones Newswires. Based on a 6% interest for a hypothetical period of 10 years of interest
servicing, the obligations would cost a total of 4.39 billion baht ($1=THB40.0).
At 8%, the cost rises to THB6.48 billion, Songkiert said.
"The government needs to share the responsibility as the decision to
purchase the gas is part of its national energy policy," he said.
The government will chip in 75.8% of the interest obligations, while PTT
will be responsible for 11.4%. The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand,
or EGAT, will assume the remaining 12.8%, he said.
Under a 25-year "take-or-pay" agreement signed with Myanmar-based Yadana
gas field developers in 1994, PTT was required to take a minimum of 65 million
cubic feet a day (MMCFD) of natural gas when the field came onstream in August
1998.
The amount PTT contracted to buy was to rise incrementally until it reached
525 MMCFD in October 1999. The contract stipulates that PTT is responsible to
pay for gas even if it doesn't take delivery.
The natural gas purchase is meant for EGAT's Ratchaburi power plant,
originally slated for completion in 1999. PTT has already completed construction
of a gas pipeline for the power plant.
Currently, the gas offtake for the still unfinished Ratchaburi complex is
260 MMCFD, Songkiert said.
Bangkok Post - July 14,
2000.
BURMA
Junta claims it foiled embassy raid
Opposition members arrested in Rangoon
Agencies, Bangkok Post in Rangoon Burma has arrested 11 people for distributing anti-junta leaflets and
planning attacks on government buildings and the Thai embassy, official media
reported yesteday.
The "expatriate destructive elements", alleged to be linked to the National
League for Democracy, the All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF) and other
ethnic groups, were arrested in May and June.
The New Light of Myanmar daily said they planned to launch the attacks on
May 27 this year, on the anniversary of the NLD's sweeping election victory in
1990.
"The intention was to frighten the Thai government.. and to create
conditions to sour relations between Myanmar and Thailand," it said. They were
also trying to stir up friction between Burma's police and army, and organise
army deserters, official media said.
The reports were accompanied by photographs of items allegedly seized from
those arrested, including eight grenades, a walkie-talkie, pamphlets, stickers
and computer diskettes.
But the Thai Foreign Ministry expressed reservations about the alleged
intentions of the suspects, saying the Thai embassy in Rangoon should have filed
a report by now if it was targeted for attack.
Oum Maolanond, the ministry's deputy spokesman, also said 11 people would
have a "slim chance" of carrying out terrorist acts in a capital city that was
well guarded and where movements were restricted.
But, he said: "If it is true that they had bad intentions, then the Thai
government has to thank the Burmese government for obstructing these people." Mr
Oum also doubted the arrested included members of the ABSDF as the group had not
shown any intention to use force against Thailand.
The ABSDF also had shown differences with the God's Army, suspected to have
been behind the occupation of a hospital in Ratchaburi in January in which 10
rebels were killed.
Soe Aung, director of foreign affairs for the ABSDF in Bangkok, said he had
received no reports of ABSDF members being arrested in Burma.
Ethnic rebels attack Myanmar's narcotics
refineries
BANGKOK, July 14 (Kyodo) -- A
Myanmar ethnic minority rebel group said Friday it has raided narcotics
refineries near the Thai border area controlled by Yangon's ruling military
junta.
About 30 guerrillas of the Shan State Army (SSA) attacked the heroin and
amphetamine refineries July 7 and arrested three workers at Ban Namkad Takdad,
about three kilometers from the border with Thailand, SSA's spokesman said.
Ten liters of precursor chemical and an unspecified quantity of
amphetamines were confiscated by the guerrillas, the spokesman said.
Refineries at Ban Namkad Takdad are affiliates of a major narcotics
production base at Ban Khailuang, about 20 km from the Thai border.
The Ban Khailuang area has been under the control of Myanmar since drug
lord Khun Sa surrendered to Yangon in 1996, but drug production continues under
Khun Sa's former colleagues and the Wa ethnic minority.
Thai military outposts in the border province of Mae Hong Son confirmed the
raids but questioned the motives of the SSA because the group is also believed
to be involved in the drug trade.
The Nation - July 14, 2000.
Confirmation awaited on Burma claim
THE Foreign Ministry is awaiting official confirmation of a reported plan
by Burmese dissidents to attack its embassy in Rangoon.
Deputy spokesman Oum Maolanon said yesterday the ministry had, so far, only
heard about the alleged plan from media reports quoting the Burmese government.
Other sources were not available at the moment, he said.
Quoting a state newspaper report in Burma, Associated Press said yesterday
that Burmese authorities had arrested 11 dissidents who were planning to carry
out terrorist acts, including the attack on the Thai Embassy.
According to the report, the alleged ringleader was said to be a former
member of the Thai-based All Burma Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF), the main
group for student activists living in exile from Burma's military regime.
The outlawed group is made up of students who fled Burma after thousands of
civilians were gunned down by the military to stop nationwide pro-democracy
rallies in 1988.
Oum said if the report was proven genuine, the Thai government would thank
Burma for preventing the attack.
However, the official said that as far as Thai authorities were concerned
the ABSDF has no record of intending to use force against Thailand.
The Nation, Associated Press
BBC - Thursday, 13 July, 2000, 21:59
GMT 22:59 UK
Thailand battles drug factories menace By Simon Ingram on the Thai-Burmese border Relations between Thailand and Burma are under mounting strain over the
activities of illicit drug manufacturers operating along the border between the
two countries.
Bangkok says about 50 small factories producing a synthetic drug known as
methamphetamine are operating in Burma's northern Shan state, under the control
of the ethnic Wa minority.
Millions of methamphetamine pills are flooding into Thailand, where drug
abuse especially among young people is on the rise.
Thai Village defence units are being set up all along the northern border.
Their purpose is to catch the smugglers carrying consignments of illegal
methamphetamine made in neighbouring Burma.
For the druglords, the remote hilltribe areas provide easy access into
Thailand.
It is a measure of the army's failure to stem the narcotic tide that these
untried militias are being drafted into active service.
I set off towards the border accompanied by tour guides.
Pills produced on 'industrial scale'
From an abandoned army post, I was able to look down into the settlements
where, it is claimed, members of Burma's ethnic Wa minority are manufacturing
methamphetamine pills on an industrial scale.
There are hundreds of kilometres of unmarked, unprotected border, which
amounts to an open invitation in effect to the drug producers in those valleys
over on the Burmese side.
Until only recently, Thailand's biggest drug problem was home-grown.
As Bengt Juhlin of the United Nations Drug Control programme explains, it
is thanks to a largely-successful crop-substitution policy that the fields which
once produced opium poppies are today sprouting corn.
"The problem of synthetic drugs is tending to overtake the traditional
problem we had with heroin," he says.
"I think we can clearly see the threat in the future is in the field of
synthetic drugs."
Road-blocks and vehicle searches can occasionally produce some spectacular
seizures.
However, it is a hit-and-miss process for the police.
Synthetic drugs can be made anywhere and are easily concealed.
The vast haul in a Bangkok police warehouse is probably just the tip of the
iceberg.
It is predicted that 600,000,000 methamphetamine pills will enter Thailand
this year.
The Burmese connection has added acute political sensitivity to the drug
question.
Burmese collusion?
Despite the well-publicised drug burning exercises staged regularly in
Rangoon, Thailand suspects Burma's military government of colluding with the
druglords.
Sukhumbhand Paribatra, Thailand's deputy foreign affairs minister hints
that some kind of retaliation is possible.
"It is a matter of self-preservation," says Mr Paribatra.
"It is a matter of national security and no nation on earth will not
consider all possibilities should such a problem, such a threat to national
security arise."
If the language seems strong it is because synthetic drugs are sweeping
Thai society in a manner that heroin never did.
ethamphetamine abuse is so rampant among the young that schools are
carrying out random urine tests on their students.
A drastic step but unless the supply of drugs can be cut off at source, it
is probably nowhere near enough.
South China Morning Post
Friday, July 14, 2000 ASEAN Member nations pledge
environmental co-operation
ASSOCIATED PRESS in Singapore Updated at 5.18pm:
Southeast Asian lawmakers proposed on Friday that their countries co-operate more closely to reduce industrial pollution and the cross-border dumping of hazardous waste in the region. Delegates proposed at the close of a two-day meeting that Southeast Asian countries with stringent environmental laws help other nations in the region with less strict legislation tighten it up. The proposal arose from concern that hazardous waste produced by industry
in countries with strict environmental laws is being dumped across borders, in
nations where legislation and monitoring may be lax.
It is tougher for a country the size of Indonesia to enforce legislation
than for Singapore, said Singapore parliamentarian Heng Chiang Meng.
Mr Heng chaired the meeting of the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Organisation
ad hoc committee, which opened on Thursday.
Nine of the 10 countries that make up Asean sent representatives. They were
Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand,
Vietnam and Brunei.
Myanmar was invited but did not send a representative to the meeting.
Neither Myanmar nor Brunei has a parliament, and both countries have
special observer status at these meetings, Mr Heng said.
At the close of the meeting, delegates proposed the setting up of a
regional centre where information on hazardous waste and industrial pollution
could be stored. This could be a Web site, which all Asean countries could
access.
The information would help countries which are lagging behind others in
environmental protection learn from those that are more developed, said Mr
Heng. |