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BURMA RELATED NEWS - NOV - 21, 2000. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINE
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Reuters - Suu Kyi no show at
court case over Yangon home
AP - India, Myanmar Renew Talks
On Trade, Security Issues
AP - New Move By Massachusetts
Lawmaker On Myanmar Sanctions
AP - US Army Slated For Radical
Change In Future - General
Dow Jones - Thai Deputy PM
Proposes Asean Customs Union
Asia Pulse - Economic
Integration Top Agenda at Asean Informal Summit
AP - Asean Army Commanders Hold
Inaugural Meeting In Thailand
Southnexus - India agrees to
extend credit to Myanmar
Indivitual - ASEAN differences,
difficulties to weigh on summit
Ananova - Dissident stays away from court fight with brother
ABC online - Human Rights groups criticises Govt's policy on Burma
The Economic Times - India,
Myanmar talk of ambitious partnership
SCMP - US lawmaker considers sanctions
NYT - A New Burmese Leisure
Class: Army Capitalists
WIRE:11/21/2000 03:53:00
ET
Suu Kyi no show at court case over Yangon home YANGON, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi, under house arrest, failed to turn up for a hearing over the ownership of
her lakeside Yangon home on Tuesday, despite promises by the military to allow
her to go to court.
Pro-democracy campaigner Suu Kyi, 55, is being sued by her
estranged elder brother, Aung San Oo, a U.S. citizen, for half the home in an
elite residential area of the Myanmar capital.
Adjourning the hearing in her absence, Judge U Soe Thein
told a Yangon Sub-Division court the hearing would continue ex parte on November
27. It was not immediately clear why Suu Kyi did not appear. A court official
told the court he had tried to serve a summons on Suu Kyi but she had refused to
accept it. He said he then stuck the summons on the gate to her compound.
Military authorities had said Suu Kyi was free to go to
court but neither she, nor her supporters, were available to confirm this or to
make any other comment on the case. Motivation for the lawsuit was also unclear.
The sprawling house and gardens on University Avenue overlooks Yangon"s Inya
Lake and is estimated to be worth about $2 million, according to one local
estate agent.
The lawyer for Aung San Oo, U Kyaw Zeya, said his client
wanted to partition the premises and had asked to be granted the power to
administer the estate. He declined to give further details.
LAWSUIT CONVENIENT FOR MILITARY
But the legal action is also very convenient for Myanmar"s
military authorities, which have been trying for years without success to get
Suu Kyi to leave the country and give up her political struggle. Suu Kyi, the
1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, and her National League for Democracy (NLD) have
been locked in a battle for the hearts and minds of the Myanmar people for more
than a decade.
The NLD won the country"s last general election in 1990 by
a landslide but has never been allowed to govern. The ruling generals say
Myanmar is not ready for democracy.
The United States and its western allies in turn accuse
the military government of widespread human rights abuses, including torture,
imprisonment without trial and the use of forced labour. The military has
cracked down hard on the NLD in recent months since the party stepped up a
campaign to highlight its demand for democracy and human rights in the
impoverished country.
Suu Kyi has been kept confined to her home since September
22 when she was prevented from travelling by train to the city of Mandalay to
meet party members. Since then, her telephone has been cut and diplomatic access
barred, local residents and diplomats say.
The only person to visit her has been U.N. special envoy
Razali Ismail, who met her twice in October during a four-day visit to Myanmar
aimed at easing political tensions. Other NLD leaders have been detained or kept
locked in their homes and the military has issued a series of pronouncements
through its newspapers suggesting it may be planning decisive action to silence
its opponents.
Suu Kyi has been living in the Yangon house since she
returned from Europe to nurse her ailing mother in 1988. Suu Kyi and Aung San Oo
are children of Myanmar independence hero General Aung San, who was assassinated
in 1947 when the country was on the threshold of independence from
Britain.
Tuesday, November 21 1:58 AM SGT
India, Myanmar Renew Talks On
Trade, Security Issues
NEW DELHI (AP)--After years of being cautious neighbors,
India and Myanmar on Monday renewed attempts to widen trade relations, address
security concerns and back each other on international issues.
Gen. Maung Aye, the second highest leader of Myanmar's
ruling junta, met with Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Foreign
Minister Jaswant Singh and Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani with his high-level
delegation of government ministers and officials, the Indian foreign office
said.
"The basic thrust of the discussions was on ways to
enhance trade and economic cooperation between the two countries in the areas of
border trade, infrastructure and energy, and on security issues, including
cross-border terrorism and drug smuggling," foreign ministry spokesman Raminder
Jassal told reporters.
India's relations with Myanmar deteriorated following the
bloody suppression of a pro-democracy uprising in 1988 by the Myanmar military
and the two countries have in recent years sought to ease tension through
bilateral visits.
India did not raise the issue of democracy during the
current trip.
"While we follow the ideals of democracy, we do not
interfere with the internal affairs of other countries," Jassal said.
Maung Aye is vice chairman of the ruling State Peace and
Development Council, a military council that since 1962 has ruled the country
formerly known as Burma.
The seven-day trip is Maung Aye's second this year. He
made a one-day visit to Shillong in eastern India on Jan. 7, days after Gen.
V.P. Malik, then India's chief of the army staff, went to Myanmar.
Officials from both countries discussed cooperation in
setting up hydroelectricity, road and river navigation projects, deep sea port
development and the possible supply of gas from Myanmar to India. New Delhi also
provided to Yangon a $15 million credit that will be used to buy industrial and
electrical equipment from India.
Both countries promised to support each other within
international organizations. India said it would also back Myanmar in its
dispute with the International Labor Organization, which has imposed sanctions
on Yangon over the use of forced labor.
Tuesday, November 21 8:19 AM SGT
New Move By Massachusetts Lawmaker On Myanmar Sanctions BOSTON (AP)--A
lawmaker who sponsored Massachusetts' first-in-the-nation law levying sanctions
against Myanmar says he'll adopt another strategy to put economic pressure on
the southeast Asian country.
State Rep. Byron Rushing said Monday he plans to file
legislation that would penalize companies that do business with Myanmar, also
known as Burma, in order to pressure the country to improve human rights and
move toward democracy.
Rushing's announcement comes five months after the U.S.
Supreme Court overturned a 1996 Massachusetts law that made it harder for
companies to trade with Myanmar.
Simon Billenness, an investment analyst who helped Rushing
draft the 1996 proposal, said the new proposal would be more able to withstand
legal challenges because it doesn't target Myanmar by name.
The Supreme Court ruled the previous Massachusetts law
infringed on the U.S. president's power to conduct foreign policy, but
Billenness said the new proposal would only target countries sanctioned by the
International Labor Organization, an agency of the U.N.
Myanmar is the only country the ILO has recommended
sanctions against, Billenness said.
The ILO on Thursday asked its 56 country-members to impose
economic sanctions against Myanmar because of government-sponsored forced labor
on roads, railways, military installations and tourist infrastructure.
"It would be a Burma-free, free-Burma law," said
Billenness.
The ILO sanctions are to go into effect Nov. 30.
Like the 1996 law, the new proposal would allow companies
doing business with Myanmar to sell goods and services to the state only if
their bid was 10% lower than any other bid, Rushing said.
Rushing also plans to file legislation that would prohibit
the state from buying the stock of companies doing business in Myanmar.
Los Angeles and Minneapolis have both passed such laws,
but Massachusetts would be the first state to do so, Rushing said.
The state invests billions of dollars in stocks, most of
it from the pensions of state employees and public school teachers. On Monday,
the state's Pension Reserves Investment Trust had a market value of $30.4
billion, according to a spokesman for the state Treasurer's Office.
A spokesman for the state's largest business lobby said
state lawmakers shouldn't be able to "stigmatize" companies that do business in
a particular country or sell a certain product.
"I think it's a bad idea at the state level," said Robert
Ruddock, a spokesman for the Associated Industries of Massachusetts. "The
appropriate location for concern about foreign policy is at the national
government level, not the state government level."
Ruddock said Rushing's proposal, if approved, would open
the door for lawmakers to target any number of other countries -and more to the
point, to penalize companies that do business there.
In fact, state lawmakers considered targeting Indonesia,
the world's fourth most populous country and one of Asia's fastest growing
economies, but the bill never passed after the initial Myanmar law was struck
down.
Rushing said efforts to foster democracy and improve human
rights in Myanmar mirror previous efforts from the early 1980s when
Massachusetts used sanctions to target another country.
"It's the next South Africa," Rushing said.
Tuesday, November 21 8:46 PM SGT
US Army Slated For Radical Change In Future - General HUA HIN, Thailand (AP)--The U.S. Army is being transformed into a
versatile force of the future, not only to win wars but also to help allies in a
range of peacetime operations, said the Army chief of staff Tuesday.
The rejuvenated force will be capable of humanitarian aid,
counter-drug strikes and peacekeeping operations, Gen. Eric Shinseki said.
"We must provide not only...a force that can fight and
win...but also serve, first and foremost, as a force for peace," Shinseki said,
addressing a meeting of Southeast Asian army commanders in this southern resort.
Shinseki, a guest speaker, said the U.S. Army should be
able to engage "with our allies to promote stability (and) assure mutual
security."
Army commanders from the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations were meeting as a group for the first time, representing Brunei,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
In an opening speech, Thai Army Chief Gen. Sarayud
Chulanont said the gathering would "convey a strong message of the region's
determination to preserve peace and stability" after the turbulent years since
the 1997 Asian financial meltdown.
Sarayud said at a news conference that the seven
commanders agreed to cooperate on disaster relief by helping each other with
equipment, personnel and other aid in case of need.
A framework for cooperation will be outlined in a
memorandum of understanding to be drafted by Thailand by January.
Laos, Myanmar - also known as Burma - and Vietnam, whose
army chiefs didn't attend the gathering because of prior engagements, won't be
part of the disaster agreement, Sarayud said.
ASEAN nations are at peace with each other, but straddle a
broad political spectrum, from the democracy of Thailand and the Philippines to
military leadership in Myanmar and communism in Laos and Vietnam.
Shinseki said that in 10 years since the end of Cold War,
U.S. strategists learned that the Army "does not have the force characteristics
it needs today or that it will need in the future."
"To address these shortcomings, we have decided to
undertake our most comprehensive effort in over a century," he said.
The path to the transformation is three-pronged: to
sustain the current force strength; to make it more high-tech so it can be more
responsive, versatile and agile in times of deployment; to invest in an interim
capability to fill the operational gap between heavy and light forces, Shinseki
said.
Tuesday, November 21 4:43 PM SGT
Thai Deputy PM Proposes Asean Customs Union BANGKOK (Dow
Jones)--Thai Deputy Prime Minister Supachai Panitchpakdi
proposed Tuesday the creation of a customs union among the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations as a step to prepare for rising competition from China.
Supachai, who is also commerce minister and will head the
World Trade Organization in 2002, said Asean nations must strengthen ties in
view of China's pending entry in WTO.
Speaking at a roundtable on Asean's Free Trade Area, he
said a customs union could be the next step after AFTA is set up. However, he
didn't elaborate on how such a plan would be implemented and whether the issue
would be raised at an Asean informal summit in Singapore later this week.
Asean Secretary General Rodolfo Severino said a study on
the impact of China's WTO entry on Asean nations, handed to member states
earlier this week, concluded that overall the move will be positive for the
region.
"The bottom line is that China's entry will be good for
Asean countries," Severino told the seminar.
He said the move will create a broader market for Asean
products, encourage Chinese investment in the region and open the Chinese market
for Asean investments. On the downside, there could be more intense competition
between China and Asean in third-country markets and the potention of investment
diversion from the region.
But Severino noted that foreign direct investment has been
dropping in Southeast Asia regardless of China's WTO entry and it would be
difficult to assess in the future how much of that drop could be attributed to
China.
Severino also sought to dispel criticism that AFTA risks
being derailed due to a lack of political commitment among its members.
"Apprehension over AFTA's death as a result of the 1997
financial crisis never materialized," he said. "It makes no sense to reverse the
course, it would be self-destructive."
Asean members appeared to backtrack on a commitment to
reduce tariffs when they agreed last month to set up a concessions system for
nations not willing to adopt the agreed tariff cuts. The issue was raised after
Malaysia refused to proceed with an agreed tariff cut on automobiles and
insisted on a three-year delay in implementation to 2005.
The 10 member grouping comprises Thailand, Singapore,
Brunei, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia and the
Philippines.
Tuesday, November 21 3:50 PM SGT
Economic Integration Top Agenda at Asean Informal Summit SINGAPORE, Nov 21 Asia
Pulse - Asean leaders gather here this week for their fourth
informal summit still faced with the task of steering the Southeast Asian
grouping through the flux that hit the region economically and politically since
the Asian crisis.
Economic integration and a framework agreement to
facilitate E-commerce among Asean's 10 member countries will top the agenda when
the leaders meet over Friday and Saturday.
Singapore's Foreign Minister S.Jayakumar has described the
meeting as important because Asean is going through a rather critical period of
its history and Asean has to send the right signals that it can get its act
together after having lost some lustre due to the Asian crisis and political
changes in some member countries.
It will also be significant how much ground the Asean
leaders can cover with their counterparts from China, South Korea and Japan when
they meet in their dubbed Asean Plus Three meetings.
Coming here are Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, Japanese Prime
Minister Yoshiro Mori and South Korean President Kim Dae Jung.
Once the booming economic "tigers" of the world, there are
concerns that Asean has lost its appeal for investors in favour of Northeast
Asia and could suffer a further setback when China, with its vast labour and
abundant raw materials, joins the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Foreign direct investment flows into Asean stood at
US$16.9 billion last year with investments from the United States rising more
than seven times from 1998 but the figure was a 14 per cent drop from
1998.
The leaders are also expected to mull over how to prevent
a two-tier Asean between its six established members, Brunei, Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and their newer and poorer
entrants, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.
The E-Asean Framework Agreement to be inked by the leaders
on Friday has been hailed as an achievement for the grouping to vault ahead into
the knowledge-based economy and globalisation.
The framework agreement covers the development of an Asean
information infrastructure, facilitation of E-commerce, liberalization of
info-communications technology goods, services and investments,
capacity-building including human resource development, E-society and
E-government.
The bigger challenge here is how Asean can bridge the
digital divide not only among themselves but also with the Asia-Pacific and the
rest of the world.
The Asean Plus Three dialogue is likely to dwell on the
currency swap arrangement agreed between Asean and China, Japan and South Korea
to provide temporary financing for members facing balance of payment
problems.
The swap arrangement is the latest regional initiative to
bring about currency stability after the upheavals learnt from the Asian
crisis.
A proposed Asian Monetary Fund (AMF) targeting the same
was strongly opposed under the old International Monetary Fund (IMF) regime
fearing that it would undermine the global organisation.
But there are hopes that the AMF idea may revive under new
IMF managing director Horst Kohler who seems to favour regional monetary
cooperation to complement the IMF.
Singapore's Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew has also lobbed
the idea that Asean can band together with Northeast Asia and Australasia to
form a sub-grouping called Asean Plus Three, Plus Two within the Asia Pacific
Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum.
Lee, speaking yesterday to the Asia Society Australasia
Centre in Sydney, said such a group would better advance the common interests of
the western side of the Pacific in trade liberalization and help to resist any
resurgence in protectionism.
Adding Australia and New Zealand to the regional
sub-grouping could bring the United States around "more by persuasion than
argument", the Straits Times reported Lee as saying.
Tuesday, November 21 12:55 PM SGT
Asean Army Commanders Hold Inaugural Meeting In Thailand HUA HIN, Thailand (AP)--Southeast Asian army commanders met together
for the first time Tuesday for talks on cooperation in peacekeeping operations
and disaster relief, but three chiefs failed to show, officials said.
Thai Army Chief General Sarayud Chulanont said the
gathering would "convey a strong message of the region's determination to
preserve peace and stability" after the turbulent years since the 1997 Asian
financial crisis.
"This economic crisis signaled a key message that the
security and prosperity of countries in this region are inextricably linked,"
said Sarayud in his opening address to the one-day meeting in the southern
resort of Hua Hin.
However, the army chiefs of Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam
aren't attending and have sent deputies in their place. The other seven army
chiefs of Association of Southeast Asian Nations are present, representing
Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
Myanmar's army commander is on an official visit to India;
the Lao commander is busy with preparations for the 25th anniversary of the
communist revolution Dec. 2; and Vietnam's commander visited Thailand just last
week, Thai officials said.
Sarayud said the multilateral gathering was a chance to
identify "common security concerns."
"Dialogue remains the best way to prevent new disputes
from arising and for defusing rising tensions over current disputes and
differences," he said.
Asean nations are at peace with each other but straddle a
broad political spectrum, from the democracies of Thailand and the Philippines,
to military-run Myanmar, and communist Laos and Vietnam.
They also have competing claims to the Spratlys Islands in
the South China Sea, which are believed to lie atop oil and mineral deposits.
The Thai commander singled out disaster and humanitarian
relief as an area where Asean army chiefs could cooperate.
Later Tuesday, guest speaker U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen.
Eric K. Shinseki was due to give an address on peacekeeping operations.
Last year, Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia
contributed troops to the international peacekeeping effort in East Timor, to
maintain order after pro-Indonesian militia groups ran amok in the half island
after its people voted for independence from Indonesia.
Southnexus
India agrees to extend credit to Myanmar NEW DELHI, Nov 21: India has agreed to extend 15 million
US Dollar credit to Myanmar for sourcing industrial and electrical equipment
from this country even as Yangon on Monday offered to cooperate with India in a
big way in the power sector and supply of natural gas.
An agreement was signed by the two sides for the credit
line, which marks an increase from the earlier amount of 10 million Dollars, a
foreign office spokesman told reporters.
Yangon's keenness in forging closer ties with India was
conveyed during talks visiting Gen Maung Aye, the second-most powerful man in
the military regime in Myanmar, had with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and
External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh.
The two sides discussed ways to enhance bilateral trade
and economic cooperation including border trade, energy, infrastructure
development and security issues like cross border terrorism and drug smuggling.
Myanmar has assured New Delhi that its soil would not be
allowed to be used by Naga insurgents for anti-India activities. Maung, Vice
Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council, also met Congress president
Sonia Gandhi.
Vajpayee and Singh reiterated India's commitment to
establishing closer political ties and deeper economic interaction with Myanmar.
They observed that the two countries had civilisational connectivities, a common
cultural and religious heritage and geographical contiguity.
Individual
ASEAN differences, difficulties to weigh on summit November 21, 2000 5:56am Source: Reuters By John O'Callaghan SINGAPORE, Nov 21 (Reuters) - ASEAN leaders meet this week
to talk trade and stress their ostensible unity but, if previous sessions are
anything to go by, the summit will produce a raft of good intentions but little
in the way of concrete action.
With political instability and economic woes weighing
heavily in many parts of Southeast Asia, analysts said the 10-nation bloc and
its Chinese, South Korean and Japanese guests will have a tough time finding the
common ground to which they aspire.
Daniel Gay, an economist at Strategic Intelligence in
Singapore, said the array of domestic problems merely emphasised inequalities
within the Association of South East Asian Nations.
``It makes you wonder how much they've actually got to
benefit from free trade with each other or more open trade,'' he said.
``You have Singapore revising up its GDP (gross domestic
product) growth forecast to 10 percent nearly this year and right at the other
end of the scale you've got Indonesia, which is going to be lucky if it grows
four percent.''
Hot potatoes like China-Taiwan relations, military rule in
Myanmar and the disputed Spratly Islandshave little chance of making it to the
table.
THE WILL VERSUS THE WAY
For a region still weathering the effects of the 1997-98
crisis that declawed all but Asia's strongest tiger economies, talk of recovery,
prevention and progress will pervade the four-day gathering in Singapore.
``We will discuss the present difficulties we are faced
with,'' Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said recently. ``But we should
not just be wringing our hands and lamenting that we have big problems.''
The agenda is likely to feature plans for ASEAN central
banks to set up a foreign-currency swap scheme to help fend off the sort of
speculative attacks that savaged many of the region's currencies three years
ago, triggering a deep recession.
The air will also be thick with talk of free-trade
agreements to build on recently announced country-to-country deals.
On Tuesday, China said Premier Zhu Rongji would explore
the establishment of a free-trade zone between Beijing and Southeast Asian
countries when he attends the regional summit this week.
But Sofyan Wanandi, director of the Centre for Strategic
and International Studies in Jakarta, said the shocks of the economic crisis
have prompted many nations to give priority to pressing issues at home at the
expense of regional cooperation.
``Because of the crisis, everybody is trying to survive on
their own,'' he said.
``The commitment is still there but whether the
implementation now...of a set of priorities that they could commit themselves to
can be achieved -- that is something we have to find out.''
But Richard Feinberg, a professor at the Graduate School
of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California
in San Diego, said the bloc still had a key role.
``The fact that there are some political tensions in some
important ASEAN countries in a way makes ASEAN all the more important because
you want to try to keep international economic policy on track in the midst of
political tensions,'' he said.
``That's the test of an international regime -- can it
withstand moments of political distress in member states?''
MYANMAR UNDERLINES QUESTION OF CLOUT
There are also question marks over ASEAN's ambition to
play more of a role in resolving political and security disputes.
The group agreed in July to set up a three-member
ministerial fire-fighting panel, but ASEAN's policy of non-interference may
leave the ``troika'' without any real clout.
This dilemma is acute in the case of Myanmar, whose
military regime ignored a 1990 election victory by the opposition National
League for Democracy (NLD) and has since kept a tight rein on party leader Aung
San Suu Kyi and senior NLD officials.
Western unhappiness over the way Myanmar's generals have
dealt with the NLD could derail a long-delayed meeting between ASEAN and
European Union foreign ministers in Laos in December.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- nations as
disparate in their development as in their politics.
Carl Thayer of the Asia-Pacific Center for Security
Studies in Honolulu said ASEAN was in need of the leadership that Indonesia, now
preoccupied with domestic problems, once provided.
``To outside powers with extensive interests in the
region, such as the United States, Australia and Japan, it is important that
ASEAN recover its cohesion and play a positive role in regional security,'' he
wrote recently.
The summit will be the third time in five weeks that Asian
leaders have gathered in various forums. They met their European Union
counterparts in Seoul and then their Pacific Rim partners in Brunei just last
week.
Ananova - Nov 21,
2000.
Dissident stays away from court fight with brother Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has failed to show for a
court hearing on a lawsuit filed by her brother claiming half-ownership of the
Yangon residence where she is currently under virtual house arrest.
After hearing a report from the Yangon district court official who had
served a subpoena against Suu Kyi last week, presiding Judge Soe Thein has ruled
that notice has been duly served and the case will be heard on November
27.
Suu Kyi, who has been confined to her home by Myanmar's military government
since September 22 after she tried twice to venture outside Yangon on party
political business, did not send a lawyer or representative to the 40-minute
hearing.
The case is a fresh headache for the 55-year old Nobel laureate, whose
party is also facing eviction from their Yangon headquarters. Her brother Aung
San Oo is an American citizen and lives in California, and is known to disagree
with his sister's political views.
Aung San Oo, not believed to be in Myanmar, did not appear in court but his
agent and lawyer did.
Kyaw Win, the official who served the summons, told the court nobody had
received the summons when he first visited Suu Kyi's house on Yangon's
University Avenue, so he returned with a local official the next day.
On that occasion, Suu Kyi had come out in person and refused to accept the
summons, so it was pasted on the gate of her house.
Judge Soe Thein said the official's report is proof that summons has been
duly served.
The contested two-acre property was given to Suu Kyi's mother, Khin Kyi, by
the government of Myanmar, then known as Burma, after her husband, national hero
General Aung San, was assassinated in July 1947.
Suu Kyi, who used to live in England with her husband and two sons,
returned to Myanmar in April 1988 to look after her ailing mother and has lived
in the house since then.
ABC online - Nov 21,
2000.
Human Rights groups criticises Govt's policy on Burma The Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, has received criticism of
Australia's policy on Burma at a Human Rights forum in Melbourne.
Burmese support groups attended the meeting at Parliament House, demanding
Australia suspend its human rights workshops in Burma.
They claim the workshops give the dictatorship legitimacy and are
alienating the Burmese opposition.
But Mr Downer rejected the claims, saying its better to do something than
nothing at all.
"We are doing the right thing by trying to bring to the attention of
middle-ranking civil servants in Burma what are international human rights
norms, and it is our view that is a small contribution but it is a contribution
to advancing the cause of human rights," he said.
The Economic Times
Tuesday Nov 21 2000 India, Myanmar talk of ambitious partnership NEW DELHI - AFTER years of being cautious neighbours, India and Myanmar on
Monday renewed attempts to widen trade relations, address security concerns and
back each other on international issues.
Gen Maung Aye, the second highest leader of Myanmar's ruling junta, met
with Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, foreign minister Jaswant Singh
and home minister Lal Krishna Advani with his high-level delegation of
government ministers and officials, the foreign office said.
"The basic thrust of the discussions was on ways to enhance trade and
economic cooperation between the two countries in the areas of border trade,
infrastructure and energy, and on security issues, including cross-border
terrorism and drug smuggling," foreign ministry spokesman Raminder Jassal told
reporters.
India's relations with Myanmar deteriorated following the bloody
suppression of a pro-democracy uprising in 1988 by the Myanmar military and the
two countries have in recent years sought to ease tension through bilateral
visits.
India did not raise the issue of democracy during the current trip.
"While we follow the ideals of democracy, we do not interfere with the
internal affairs of other countries," Jassal said.
When journalists on Friday asked Advani about the government having
relations with a military regime in Myanmar that has been criticized for human
rights abuses, he said: "We weighed all the pros and cons but in international
relations, we have to take into account our national interests."
Maung Aye is vice chairman of the ruling State Peace and Development
Council, a military council that since 1962 has ruled the country formerly known
as Burma.
The seven-day trip is Maung Aye's second this year. He made a one-day visit
to Shillong in eastern India on January 7, days after Gen V P Malik, then
India's chief of the army staff, went to Myanmar.
Officials from both countries discussed cooperation in setting up
hydroelectricity, road and river navigation projects, deep sea port development
and the possible supply of gas from Myanmar to India.
New Delhi also provided to Yangon a $15-million credit that will be used to
buy industrial and electrical equipment from India.
Both countries promised to support each other within international
organizations. India said it would also back Myanmar in its dispute with the
International Labor Organization, which has imposed sanctions on Yangon over the
use of forced labour.
The presence of Naga rebel camps in Myanmar, across the border from
Nagaland, was a primary focus of talks during the visit and Maung Aye told
Indian officials that his army had recently destroyed five camps of the rebels
who were seeking to make Nagaland independent.
Maung Aye arrived in India on November 14, visiting the Buddhist religious
hub of Gaya, and Bangalore, before his arrival in New Delhi on Thursday night.
The Myanmar delegation includes deputy prime minister Lt Gen Tin Hla, also
the minister for military affairs, and the ministers for foreign affairs,
finance, commerce, power, industry and science and technology. - AP
South China Morning Post -
Tuesday, November 21, 2000 BURMA - US lawmaker considers sanctions ASSOCIATED PRESS in Washington A lawmaker who sponsored Massachusetts' first-in-the-nation law levying
sanctions against Burma says he will adopt another strategy to put economic
pressure on the country.
State Representative Byron Rushing said overnight (HK time) he plans to file legislation that would penalise companies that do business with Burma, to pressure the country to improve human rights and move toward democracy. Mr Rushing's announcement comes five months after the US Supreme Court
overturned a 1996 Massachusetts law that made it harder for companies to trade
with Burma.
Simon Billenness, an investment analyst who helped Mr Rushing draft the
1996 proposal, said the new proposal would be more able to withstand legal
challenges because it doesn't target Burma by name.
The Supreme Court ruled the previous Massachusetts law infringed on the US
president's power to conduct foreign policy, but Mr Billenness said the new
proposal would only target countries sanctioned by the International Labour
Organisation (ILO), an agency of the United Nations.
Burma is the only country the ILO has recommended sanctions against, Mr
Billenness said.
The ILO has asked its 56 country-members to impose economic sanctions
against Burma because of government-sponsored forced labour on roads, railways,
military installations and tourist infrastructure.
''It would be a Burma-free, free-Burma law,'' said Mr Billenness.
The ILO sanctions are to go into effect November 30.
Like the 1996 law, the new proposal would allow companies doing business
with Burma to sell goods and services to the state only if their bid was 10
percent lower than any other bid, Mr Rushing said.
Mr Rushing also plans to file legislation that would prohibit the state
from buying the stock of companies doing business in Burma.
Los Angeles and Minneapolis have both passed such laws, but Massachusetts
would be the first state to do so, Mr Rushing said.
The state invests billions of dollars in stocks, most of it from the
pensions of state employees and public school teachers.
The New York Times - November
21, 2000
A New Burmese Leisure Class: Army Capitalists By BLAINE HARDEN MANDALAY, Myanmar — Every morning and every evening in this city with the
sweet-sounding name, thousands of poor people take a long, sullen look at how
the other half lives.
Commuting by foot, on bicycles and packed into pickup taxis, the poor
travel along a road that runs beside what they call "generals' village," a
cluster of new mansions of a size and gaudy splendor that would not look out of
place in the Hamptons.
Protected by high fences and set back behind well-tended lawns, the
three-story houses have satellite dishes on the roofs, sport utility vehicles in
the driveways and servants in the kitchens.
The poor do not choose to torment themselves twice each day with this
vision of unattainable affluence. They have no choice. In the last decade the
military government has forced tens of thousands of them out of their homes in
downtown Mandalay. It sent them to a distant shantytown in a former rice paddy
and gave them just one road back to town: past the generals' fine new
houses.
The let-them-eat-cake quality of urban planning points to a new wrinkle in
the military dictatorship that for four decades has ruled what used to be called
Burma.
Having thrown off the egalitarian shackles of what they once called "the
Burmese way to socialism," the generals and their families are getting rich and
flaunting it.
Their conspicuous consumption, which many here describe as deeply offensive
to Burmese traditions, seems to celebrate the rapidly widening gap between the
very rich and the very poor.
Golf has become their game of choice. Wherever generals have gathered for
work or play in the last five years, construction of golf courses has boomed,
even as spending on schools and health care has fallen to per capita levels that
are among the lowest in the world.
Children of the generals have become highly visible players in real estate,
retailing, tourism and publishing. They typically do not invest their own money
and rarely do any work, but they have their names on the businesses and collect
their percentages, say local businessmen and Western diplomats. The pre-eminent
crony capitalist among the children of the brass is believed to be Sandra Win,
daughter of the government's founding dictator, the now retired Gen. Ne Win. She
is said to have interests in scores of businesses and major real estate
developments.
"In the past few years, the ruling generals have turned more toward crony
capitalism by rewarding personal friends and family members with preferential
treatment," according to a Country Commercial Guide published here in September
by the American Embassy. "The result of this deliberate policy of corporate
favoritism is to create a business environment in which personal connections to
the generals, rather than business skills or technical merit, are the most
important factors for corporate success."
There is not much space at the top of the money-grabbing pyramid here,
Western diplomats say. Only a few hundred senior officers and their families,
out of a military that has doubled in the last decade to more than 400,000
soldiers, are allowed to use their power to make themselves rich, the diplomats
say.
Several local businessmen and journalists who cover business here echoed
that assessment. None wanted their names published, because the government has a
history of harassing, jailing and sometimes torturing critics. |