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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reuters - N.Korea Talks Security, China Jabs at
U.S.
International Herald Tribune - Burma Stands Up
to North Korea
AFP - Asia failing to stop nuclear
proliferation: Canada
AFP - Asian forum works through long list of security
woes
AP - Malaysia, Myanmar JV To Build $8.9 Mln Plant In
Myanmar
AP - Asean Welcomes
New Pragmatic European Approach To Myanmar
Kyodo News -
Myanmar receives 'lenient' treatment in Bangkok talks
The Guardian - UK firm
linked to Burma slavery
The
Nation - EU maintains its stand on
Burma
The
Rangoon Post - Perspective
The Nation - UNDP assessing needs of
Mekong sub-region
The Nation - Asean, EU ministers set for
meeting
The Nation -Letters -
Exiled Burmese students can hardly be apolitical
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INTERNATIONAL
PROTEST AGAINST JAPANESE GOVERNMENT ON AUG 8.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday July 27 8:05 AM ET
N.Korea Talks Security, China Jabs at U.S. By Umesh Pandey BANGKOK (Reuters) - North Korea delivered its first speech at an Asian
security meeting Thursday and said it hoped its new-found colleagues would take
a fair stand in efforts to secure peace on the Korean peninsula.
China and Russia, as expected, attacked U.S. anti-missile plans which they
said jeopardized the region's stability.
North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun told representatives of 36 other
states, including all the major nuclear powers, he saw Pyongyang's admission to
the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) as a positive step for Korean security.
``We expect that the ARF will take (a) just and proper approach to the
issues of securing peace of the Korean peninsula,'' he said in a speech.
The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum is a
consultative grouping of Asian and Western countries including the United
States, European Union, Russia and China.
China made good its vow to use the forum to attack U.S. plans to build a
missile defense shield to protect its troops and allies in Asia from missiles
fired from states such as North Korea. Russia also blasted the missile defense
proposal.
``Against The Tide Of Our Times''
``Some people are hawking the Theater Missile Defense (TMD) against the
tide of our times,'' Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan said in his
speech.
``Such developments are compromising the regional confidence-building
efforts and aggravating the instability of the regional security,'' he
said.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov used the ARF to slam the National
Missile Defense (NMD), a broader U.S. missile shield scheme also bitterly
opposed by China.
``The U.S. plans to develop the NMD are a matter of deep concern. As a
result, further Strategic Offensive Arms reduction would become impossible and
the entire system of arms reduction and limitation agreements would be
revised,'' Ivanov said.
Thursday's ARF meeting also tackled North Korea's missile program, East
Timor and a mechanism for preventive diplomacy in the region.
Thai officials said Western countries also brought up the issue of human
rights and drugs in Myanmar, whose military government has been widely condemned
for crushing democracy and using citizens for forced labor.
All sides are keen to make sure this week's meetings, the first between the
North Korean foreign minister and his counterparts from South Korea, the United
States and Japan, are not derailed by a serious row.
``Precious Opportunity''
``This is a precious opportunity for us. We have to nurture and cherish
this,'' South Korean foreign ministry spokesman Choi Young-jin told reporters
after Paek spent more than 30 minutes with his southern counterpart Lee
Joung-Binn Wednesday.
That pattern was certain to be repeated Thursday and in bilateral meetings
Friday as no one wanted to disrupt progress made since June's historic summit
between North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and South Korean leader Kim
Dae-jung.
Pyongyang is working to improve ties with its neighbors to rescue its
economy, ruined by neglect and central planning.
But Seoul, Tokyo, Washington and others will want to see tangible progress
on security and signs of a scrapping of Pyongyang's missile program before
offering much in return.
Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono told the forum that proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction and missiles were the root problem to be
solved.
Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy said North Korea's engagement with
ARF did not in itself undermine U.S. arguments about theater missile defense
systems.
``We are a long way from having any confidence about North Korean actions
and potential,'' he told a news conference.
Canada formally recognized North Korea Wednesday and said it hoped to
achieve full diplomatic relations later this year.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will meet Paek Friday in the highest
level talks yet between the United States and the Stalinist state.
Paris, Thursday, July 27,
2000
Burma Stands Up to North KoreaBy Aidan Foster-Carter International Herald
Tribune
LEEDS, England - Burma's rulers are frequent targets of
international condemnation. Yet they are standing firm on at least one issue of
principle that might be expected to win them international support - North
Korean terrorism.
Since the Philippines established diplomatic ties with North Korea on July 12, Burma is the last ASEAN member to refuse to establish such relations with the regime of Kim Jong Il. North Korea's foreign minister, Paek Nam Sun, is attending the annual meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum on security in Bangkok this Thursday. One might expect Asia's two most inward-looking states to be friends. Indeed they were, until Oct. 9, 1983. That was when North Korean agents (one of whom was captured and confessed) blew up the Martyrs' Mausoleum in Rangoon, in a bid to assassinate the visiting South Korean president, Chun Doo Hwan. Mr. Chun escaped but 17 senior South Koreans and four Burmese died. Burma severed relations. North Korea is on the diplomatic offensive. Relations have been opened this year with Italy, Australia and Kuwait, in addition to Pyongyang's participation in the recent inter-Korean summit. It is pressing Burma to let bygones be bygones. Rangoon's response is simple: North Korea must first admit its act of terrorism, and officially apologize. Thailand, which is hosting this year's meeting of the regional security forum, has long sold rice to North Korea - or given it, since Pyongyang rarely pays. But even Thai tolerance snapped last year when North Korea sent a hit squad to kidnap a defecting diplomat and his family. The diplomat escaped only when the car that was to spirit them across the Lao border crashed. Bangkok was furious - but it did not break off ties, nor even seek an official apology. Should the forum avoid the issue of North Korea's violent behavior in the past? Or should North Korea be required to make amends, or at least reciprocate in some tangible form? Part of the problem is that the United States set a fateful precedent with the Geneva Agreed Framework of October 1994. Under that deal, a U.S.-led consortium is giving North Korea half a million tons of fuel oil annually, and building new light water reactors worth more than $5 billion to generate electricity in the energy-short North. This rewards Pyongyang for freezing nuclear activity that is illegal under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, of which it is a member. Dealing with North Korea entails difficult choices about priorities, compromise and reciprocity. But principle should not be sacrificed. Must the price of peace be letting Pyongyang get away with murder? Burma doesn't think so. - Aidan Foster-Carter, an honorary senior research fellow at Leeds University, commenting for the International Herald Tribune. Thursday, July 27 4:19 PM SGT
Asia failing to stop nuclear
proliferation: Canada
BANGKOK, July 27 (AFP) - Asia
is failing to effectively prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction in the region, Canada's foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy said
Thursday.
Many Asian countries "have not been particularly strong contributors to
arms-control regimes, and absolute paralysis has taken place at disarmament
conferences," he said.
Speaking here on the sidelines of the Assocation of Southeast Asian Nations
Regional Forum (ARF), Axworthy told reporters that "a lot of ARF members just
don't want to discuss nonproliferation issues."
Members of the forum, Asia's only security working group, include China,
India, the United States, Japan and now North Korea, which is attending for the
first time.
When asked which ARF members are dragging their feet on nonproliferation,
Axworthy said, "It's clear. You only have to look at who has not signed the
conventions" on nonproliferation.
US officials recently highlighted the dramatic rise in military
expenditures in South Asia and the Korean peninsula and said that Asian nations
are acquiring more nuclear arms.
"Asia has increasingly become prominent in the world's political, security
and commercial affairs and so too has it become an increasing factor in the
world of proliferation, unfortunately," said Assistant Secretary of State for
Non-Proliferation Robert Einhorn on a visit to Hong Kong last month.
North Korea has been accused of stockpiling weapons of mass destruction and
indiscriminately selling nuclear technology to states in the Middle East, Africa
and South Asia.
Despite his general pessimism about nonproliferation, Axworthy expressed
hope that North Korea's joining the ARF and the recent establishment of
diplomatic relations with several major states, including Canada, would curb
nuclear proliferation in Asia.
"Only by dealing directly with North Korea ... can we use the channels to
try and persuade them towards a more concrete commitment," he said.
At the ARF meeting Thursday, Russian officials echoed Axworthy's hopes for
a crackdown on regional proliferation.
"Russia favors the efforts to establish a nuclear weapon-free zone in
Southeast Asia and regards it as a real contribution to the strengthening of the
nuclear non-proliferation regime," it said in a statement.
An Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) treaty binds its 10
member-states and other signatories not to develop, manufacture, acquire,
possess or have control over nuclear weapons, station and transport nuclear
weapons by any means, or test or use nuclear weapons, within the region.
But no such treaty exists for the Korean Peninsula or South Asia.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Thursday, July 27 7:09 PM SGT
Asian forum works through long
list of security woes
BANGKOK, July 27 (AFP) -
Asia's top security forum Thursday pledged to work for long-lasting peace in the region after it waded through the long list of issues that pose real threats to stability. Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan said there was an unparallel level of
"openness, frankness and sincerity" during the half-day ASEAN Regional Forum
(ARF) meet, and he warmly welcomed North Korea as its 23rd member.
"Everybody expressed satisfaction and confidence that the latest addition
to the ARF will contribute to better world peace, better understanding and
higher confidence for our region," he said.
"After six years of hard work and tremendous challenge, the ARF has taken
off, the ARF is now airborne."
Surin said members expressed the hope that the reunification of North and
South Korea would "happen in due course."
The members also discussed regional hotspots including the Korean
peninsula, Fiji, the South China Sea and East Timor.
On the Spratlys, Surin said ARF members encouraged the "exercise of
self-restraint" by countries involved and said that a working group on the
proposed code of conduct for the region would meet in China next month.
"We agree the code of conduct should not be a legal document but an
_expression_ of political will of all the countries ... All of us concurred the
situation is not serious, that tension is not being built," he said.
Surin said ARF members voiced support for the "sovereignty, territorial
integrity and national unity of Indonesia," but called for further joint action
to resolve East Timor's refugee problem and militia activity there.
He said New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Australia expressed concern over
East Timor "but the overall picture is still very much positive, that we have
together arrested the deteriorating situation."
Thailand said ARF members also deplored the death of a UN peacekeeper in
East Timor this week and urged the international community to help the
territory's reconstruction and rehabilitation process.
Surin said the effect of globalisation on security was another key concern
among members, who sought deeper consultation, exchanges and transparency among
the international community.
And he briefed the meeting on the "enormity of the drug problem", proposing
that the UN Drugs Program organise a congress in the region along with Myanmar,
Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
The Thai statement said the ARF ministers agreed to map out cooperative
approaches to eliminate transnational crime -- especially drugs, piracy,
trafficking of women and children, and small arms.
They also took note of the serious implications of other issues such as
money laundering, corruption and computer crime.
The ministers agreed that Asia-Pacific's security outlook remained positive
but said ARF must give "due consideration to economic, social and human
components of security and the need to promote regional cooperation."
They said they hoped the trend of improvement in relations between the
world's major powers would continue.
In the South Pacific, they hailed the recent release of hostages in the
Fiji political crisis but called for an "early return to democratic
government."
The ministers also urged nuclear capable states to make efforts towards
disarmament.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The ARF also includes Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India,
Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Russia, South
Korea, and the United States.
Thursday, July 27 12:29 PM SGT
Malaysia, Myanmar JV To Build $8.9 Mln Plant In MyanmarYANGON, Myanmar (AP)--In the largest Malaysian investment in this country since the Asian economic crisis struck, Amalgamated Metal Corporation signed a joint venture agreement with a local partner to build a $8.9 million sulfuric acid plant, the companies said Thursday.The agreement, signed Wednesday between the Malaysian company and Myanmar's Serge Pun and Associates, calls for the plant to be constructed in the Mingaladon Industrial part in a northern Yangon suburb, a statement by the joint venture said. Full-scale production is planned to begin by the end of 2001. AMC, a leading engineering firm in Malaysia, will invest 60% in the project and SPC 40%. The project will be known as Myanmar Industrial Chemical Resources Ltd. Malaysia is the fourth largest investor in Myanmar. Out of total investment of over $7 billion, investment by Malaysian companies as of December 1998 was over $580 million. More recent statistics weren't immediately available but foreign investment has fallen dramatically in recent years, and began to decline even before the Asian crisis struck in mid-1997. Thursday, July 27 12:57 PM SGT Asean Welcomes New Pragmatic European Approach To MyanmarBANGKOK (AP)--The outgoing chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations welcomed Thursday the European Union's new "pragmatic" approach to military-run Myanmar. The EU said Wednesday it would keep in place sanctions against Myanmar but would drop a stipulation banning it from holding ministerial dialogue with the entire Southeast Asian bloc. "I am glad that we can restore the relations between the EU and Asean," Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan said. "We have wasted years with nothing getting better, so confrontation is no good." He made the comments after meeting with Chris Patten, head of external relations for the EU's executive commission, and foreign policy chief Javier Solana, and French minister of state Charles Josselin. All are taking part in the Asean Regional Forum, Asia's largest security conference. The new policy will allow Myanmar to sit at a joint Asean-EU ministerial dialogue, to be held in Vientiane, Laos, Dec. 11-12. Issues for discussion at the Asean-EU meeting will include drug problems, human trafficking, science and technology, human resources development political troubles and security, Surin said. Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been ostracized by much of the world since a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 1988, followed by its refusal to honor the 1990 election victory of the opposition party led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The EU objected strongly to Myanmar's admission to Asean in 1997 and has refused to join high-level talks in which members of its military regime are present. Asean has refused to hold a dialogue with the EU without Myanmar. "The EU has had a more pragmatic attitude about Myanmar," Surin said Thursday. "The EU understands that isolation is not the way out." Asean comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. On Wednesday, Patten said the EU had recently beefed up its sanctions against Myanmar and - in a major change of policy - had decided not to let "the issue of Burma to hold the E.U.-Asean dialogue hostage." Patten nonetheless slammed the regime for suppression of democracy and abuse of human rights and said it had a destabilizing influence on Southeast Asia. He praised Suu Kyi as a "torchbearer for democracy." Patten said the EU plans to expand humanitarian aid to Myanmar - which under 38 years of military rule has slipped from being a rice bowl of Asia to one of the world's poorest countries. It is the second-largest world producer of heroin after Afghanistan. Kyodo News
BANGKOK, July 27
Myanmar receives 'lenient' treatment in Bangkok talks Myanmar received ''lenient'' treatment in talks
between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its dialogue
partners during the ASEAN Regional Forum meeting this year, an ASEAN official
said Thursday.
Myanmar's ruling junta's suppression of democracy activists, human rights violations and production of illicit drugs were previously focuses of heated debates, particularly from the United States and the European Union (EU). The Guardian
UK firm linked to Burma
slavery
Maggie O'Kane
Thursday July 27, 2000 A British company, Premier Oil, went ahead with a £500m project to pipe gas
through Burma despite warnings that its partner, the Burmese military, was using
slave labour - including children - on the pipeline, according to an internal
report obtained by the Guardian.
Premier's American partner, Texaco, has since pulled out of Burma. But despite the British government taking the unprecedented step in April of asking Premier to leave, the oil company has refused. The Burmese have been accused of using "security" issues in the pipeline
area of Tanasserim to drive ethnic Karen people from the land. There are now
120,000 Karen living in refugee camps and human rights groups say at least
30,000 Karen have been killed. The army's tactics include rape and summary
executions.
The report says the army was extorting money from local people and using
children and forced unpaid labour - described by the special UN rapporteur to
Burma as a modern form of slavery - to build military barracks.
"The harsh conditions of those carrying out the labour, including young
children and the testimony of local people, belies the government claim that
such work is voluntary," said the report.
Mr Jamieson, Premier Oil's chief executive, said he was unaware of any
military barracks constructed in the area and that he would have to check the
location.
Premier said it was aware of the contents of the report but had not been in
charge of the pipeline - just a member of the consortium - when the abuses took
place. The company said it reported any abuses it encountered to the "relevant
authorities".
Burma's democratic leader and the Nobel peace prizewinner, Aung San Syu
Kyi, held under house arrest for the last 10 years, has said Premier "should be
ashamed of itself" for continuing to give moral and financial support to the
military government.
Wilfred Wong of the Jubilee Campaign, the Westminster-based human rights
organisation, said: "It is nonsense for Premier to say it reports abuses to the
'relevant authorities'. The relevant authorities are the Burmese military.
Premier should admit they are working with mass murderers."
Since its takeover of the pipeline from Texaco in 1997, Mr Jamieson insists
that Premier has ensured that the work was carried out according to the highest
"international employment standards".
People who worked on the pipeline told Earth Rights International that the
"Englishmen" (a name the Karen use for white foreigners) were aware of what was
going on. A 15-year-old girl interviewed by Earth Rights said: "I had to clear
bushes and other things. While we were working, there were two English guys
watching us. On the first two days the English came and gave us 200 kyt (£1.04)
for a day. On the third day the soldiers came back again and said, 'Your work
yesterday was not good enough'. We didn't see any English and we didn't get
paid."
Texaco pulled out of Burma in 1997 after pressure from the US government
and Royal Dutch Shell's chief executive said recently that it would not consider
working in Burma "with the current situation."
The Nation - July 27, 2000.
EU maintains its stand on Burma
THE European Union reiterated yesterday that it would not lift sanctions against Burma, but would keep a channel open for future humanitarian assistance to the country. EU Commissioner for External Relations Chris Patten told reporters the European region's policy on Asean had been "sensible and balanced" so far. He said the breakthrough that will lead to a ministerial meeting of the two blocs in Vientiane later this year was an indication of solid cooperation between the members, despite a lull period because of the differences over Rangoon. Patten made it clear the EU wants to provide humanitarian assistance to alleviate suffering in Burma, perhaps through various non-government organisations involved in projects in the country. Currently, about 6 million euros (Bt231 million) is earmarked for humanitarian assistance, mainly to refugees. However, he said, the aid could only be provided when circumstances permitted. In short, a certain degree of cooperation from the ruling regime would be required. EU will send its own troika in October to assess the situation in Burma and nudge opposing parties into dialogue. It despatched a troika to Rangoon last year, but to no avail. Burma is the only Asean member yet to sign a 1980 EC-Asean cooperation agreement under which signatory states are eligible for EU assistance packages. Laos and Cambodia acceded to the accord on Tuesday. Patten said the EU would not let political disapproval of the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) spoil overall relations with Asean and humanitarian considerations. "Asean in particular is regarded as an extremely important part," said Patten, before adding "for us, the most important thing is to establish dialogue with Asean on a sensible basis. "We are right not to allow the issue of Burma to take EU-Asean hostage," he said. Patten said he expected some progress would be made at the upcoming joint Asean-EU ministerial meeting. However, he also made it clear that the EU would pull no punches, especially on Burma, if the Rangoon military junta goes against its collective values of democracy, human rights and rule of law. He then voiced strong support for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whom he hailed as a "torch bearer of democracy and freedom". However, it should not be construed that, by pursuing this policy, the EU was trying to impose its own solution to problems inside Burma, he said. Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong before the territory was handed over to China, stressed the need for more political substance at the 3rd Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) to be held in Seoul in October, aside from economic cooperation. The EU wants to cooperate with Asia on non-security matters such as demining operations and stopping proliferation of small arms, among others. Patten commended the rapid consolidation of the Asean grouping and the East Asian trio which consists of China, Japan and South Korea as being "extraordinary, sensible and healthy" and a good example for other regions to emulate. Patten will attend the Asean Regional Forum today, and the subsequent Post Ministerial Meeting. The Rangoon Post Perspective July 27, 2000 Divide and Rule in Shan State à la SPDC By: Ai Tai (Shan State) In order to conquer and rule the non-Burman ethnic groups, the Burmese military have repeatedly divide and stirred up problems among the ethnic groups within Shan State. They have tried this thrice recently. First, the SPDC formed a Lahu Militia unit in the area east of the Salween, where SSA troops are active. These militia men were permitted to trade in whatever they like, on condition that they fight the SSA troops. However, after the Lahus learned that they were going to be used as instruments of SPDC, they refused to fight the SSA troops. In process, some of the local SPDC commanders were shot dead by their own Lahu militias, when they were urged to fight SSA troops. Following this occurrence, SPDC discarded this plan to use Lahu militias as its instrument. Secondly, the Ko Kangs were used. They were sent in to settle in the SSA's active areas in the East Salween area. These Ko Kangs were given arms and allowed to establish drug refineries. These drug refineries should be a bait to lure SSA troops to raid, and it was hoped that SSA and the Ko Kangs would fight each others as rivals in process. But it did not occur according to the SPDC's plan. SSA straigthened this out by sending a message to the Ko Kangs, explaining the anti-narcotics policy of the SSA, also emphasizing that Shans and Ko Kangs are kins and have been living side by side for years and should not fight each other to benefit the SPDC. After this, the Ko Kangs discarded their plans and refused to become instrumental to the SPDC. Thus, the second plan also failed to materialize. The third and last one is the SPDC plan to use the UWSA against SSA. Wa troops were stationed around Loi Htway, Loi Keu Hoo Lom and Mong Kyawt . The SPDC told the Was that these areas will be incorporated into the Wa State, provided the UWSA fight the SSA-S, coupled with the right to do business and trade of all kinds. This agreement with the UWSA to help the SPDC troops was hatched in a meeting between SPDC's 65 IB and UWSA's 171st brigade in Mongton on 15 June 2000. But whatever the agreement, the Was soon found out that they could do nothing without the permission of the local Burmese troops. They now know that they would become the instruments of the SPDC. More than 40 years of experience has taught the non-Burman ethnic resistance armies to be sceptical and this time around, they seem to have learned the hard lesson and are refraining to become instrumental to the SPDC's policy of divide and rule. The Nation - July 27,
2000.
UNDP assessing needs of Mekong
sub-region
BY KULACHADA CHAIPIPAT
THE United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is considering Asean's appeal for international support to develop human resources in the Mekong sub-region, which encompasses all three new Asean members, Laos, Cambodia and Burma. UNDP Asian and Pacific director David Lockwood discussed the issue during a
series of informal meetings with Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan while the Asean
Ministerial Meeting took centre stage this past week.
Lockwood also met with Surin's counterparts from Laos, Cambodia and Burma
in the corridors of the Asean Ministerial Meeting, to assess their needs. The
UNDP's current five-year assistance program for Asia ends next year.
"We will begin the process of consultation with the Asean secretariat and
individual Asean countries in the [coming] months to assess their needs," he
said. The UNDP will produce a needs assessment report, to present to the
executive committee, by April next year.
Lockwood said that while all of the new Asean members had human resource
problems, he had learned from his meetings that their needs were varied.
He said, for example, Laos was currently concerned about the rapid
development of information technology sweeping the region.
Asked whether the current level of funding to Burma would increase, he
said: "I would say we can only sustain the current program with Burma, due to
political sensitivity".
The UNDP's primary funding source is countries opposed to the current
Burmese regime, such as the United States and Canada.
As a result, said Lockwood, only humanitarian programmes, currently
focussed on community development and HIV/Aids programmes would probably be
approved.
The UNDP currently has bilateral programmes with Laos, Cambodia and
Vietnam, to increase their capability to attend year-round Asean activities.
It has also offered public and private sector training programmes under a
trilateral framework, using Thai expertise to help develop human resources in
the Asia Pacific region.
The multi-funding agency established dialogue with Asean in 1975 to help
strengthen the organisation, which at that time comprised five members.
Asked about a possible UNDP role in the Mekong agenda, for which Asean was
pushing, Lockwood said the organisation could offer expertise in human resources
development, but it was not keen on infrastructure development.
The development banks were better suited to that role, he said.
"The advantage we have is that we are capable of mobilising multi-lateral
resources and funding, to finance national projects with regional dimensions,"
he said.
Asean ministers will have to defend their Mekong agenda when they meet with
dialogue countries today to discuss bilateral issues and seek potential donors'
assistance.
Several countries harbour doubts about Asean's push for the Mekong agenda.
Because there are several development agencies and donors already involved
in developing the Mekong region, funding for new programmes could be hard to
come by.
The Nation. - July 27,
2000.
Asean, EU ministers set for
meeting
TRANSNATIONAL crime and drug trafficking will be high on the agenda at
today's Post Ministerial Meeting (PMC) when Asean foreign ministers meet their
European Union (EU) dialogue partners, diplomatic sources said yesterday.
Cambodia and Laos will also sign the 1980 Asean-European Commission
Cooperation Agreement, which will enable them to take part in all bilateral
functions and assistance between the two regional groupings.
The EU refused to allow Burma to sign on to the agreement citing the
military junta's unfavourable human and labour rights records. Burma and Laos
joined Asean in 1997, while Cambodia became a member last year.
Besides transnational crime, Asean ministers and their EU counterparts will
exchange views on regional, international and economic issues, sources said.
Among the issues to be discussed during the meeting today are developments
on international economic and financial issues, the trafficking of women and
children, drugs as well as human resource development in the Mekong sub-region.
The ministers are expected to exchange views on East Timor, Burma and the
outcome of the meeting between Asean ministers and their counterparts from
China, Japan and South Korea.
There will also be a ceremony for the establishment of the Japan-Asean
General Exchange Fund, into which financial aid given to Asean from Tokyo will
be placed.
In the joint communique released at the end of the 33rd Asean Ministerial
Meeting on Tuesday, the ministers expressed hope that their dialogue partners
would make it a priority to support the recovery and growth of Asean.
--------------------------
The statement also called on the EU to cooperate with Asean in trade,
investment, market access, human resource development, science and technology,
information technology, the environment and social and cultural development.
In the past year, economic cooperation was the most important aspect of
Asean's relationship with its EU dialogue partners. At today's meeting, social
and political problems are also to be discussed between Asean and the EU.
The Nation - July 28,
2000.
Letters - Exiled Burmese students
can hardly be apolitical
From your report "Apolitical Burmese students preferred" [The Nation, July
21], I was shocked to learn that Australia, a country to which we, Burmese
students, have owed a debt of gratitude for accepting a great number of us for
resettlement, has recently shown a hard-to-swallow face to us.
I am a Burmese student who is in the middle of the process of resettling to
Australia. Just because a handful of Burmese students have caused trouble in
Thailand, should the rest be indiscriminately looked at in the same light?
Is it a problem that could jeopardise Thai-Australian relations if a
resettled Burmese student, who has obtained Australian citizenship and become a
doctor, returns to Thailand to help save the lives of tens of thousands of
Burmese refugees along the Thai-Burmese border? What about a journalist or a
human rights activist?
Although the news item said Australia did not lay down resettlement
conditions for Burmese students, it is obvious that some of us have been waiting
for almost two years, and others for longer periods, which we have never
experienced from any other third country except Canada.
It is a shame for Australia to slow down our resettlement process because
of a hypothetical concern that Burmese students may try to return to Thailand to
cause trouble. What an irony that Australia plans to conduct human-rights
training for the terrorist Burmese rulers in Rangoon who have destroyed the
entire nation and its population. Countless Burmese people have been killed,
intimidated, tortured and imprisoned. We fled from Burma under grave fear of
persecution. If Australia has a heart to deal with such a regime, why is it
afraid of those of us who are innocent and stateless?
I would like to request the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and Canberra
to please let us know as soon as possible which of us is or isn't eligible under
the resettlement programme as there are none of us without a political
background.
A Burmese Student
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