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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BURMA RELATED NEWS - DEC - 04, 2000. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINE
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AFP - Myanmar number two visits Laos ahead of
EU-ASEAN meeting
Reuters - Alcatel to hire 1,500 in Asia in
2001
Reuters - India to intensify operations against
rebels in Assam
Reuters - Suu Kyi lawyers to contest Yangon
house court case
Asia Pulse - Asean Allows Non Se Asian Nations
to Accede to Treaty
AP - Anti-Mine Campaigners Renew
Pressure
Bkk Post - Burma loses three in fierce
fighting
The Times of India - Fighting erupts along Myanmar border
Hong kong Standard - Police ring Suu Kyi's residence
BBC - Burmese leader meets Laotian
officials
SCMP - Junta taking no chances
Monday, December 4 9:27 PM SGT
Myanmar number two visits Laos ahead of EU-ASEAN meeting VIENTIANE, Dec 4 (AFP) - The
number two in the Myanmar military junta, Maung Aye, held talks in Vientiane
Monday as European Union ministers prepared to end a three-year-old boycott of
the junta's representatives in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The powerful Myanmar army chief headed a high-ranking 19-strong delegation,
which included Foreign Minister Win Aung, for the three-day visit, Lao sources
said.
Win Aung is expected to stay on in the Lao capital for next week's
breakthrough meeting between EU and ASEAN ministers, their first since Myanmar's
admission to the southeast Asian grouping in 1997.
The delegation went straight into talks with Lao leaders, although details
were not immediately available from officials of the two highly secretive
regimes.
Laos was celebrating a national holiday Monday after festivities marking
the 25th anniversary of the communist regime on Saturday and all government
ministries were closed.
Lao security officials also carefully shielded the Myanmar delegation when
they returned to their city centre hotel for an evening reception.
Security was tight around the presidential palace throughout the day with
armed police mounting roadblocks on surrounding streets.
Several Myanmar armed opposition groups have strong support across the
Mekong in neighbouring Thailand.
Vientiane has also itself been the target of a mystery bombing campaign
over the past eight months which has killed one person and wounded more than 40,
according to diplomats.
It was the second foreign visit by the Myanmar number two in as many months
after a long period in which he made none.
Last month he travelled to neighbouring India for talks in which he reached
agreement on joint efforts to counter separatist insurgency along the common
border.
Monday December 4, 1:48 am Eastern
Time
Alcatel to hire 1,500 in Asia in 2001 HONG KONG, Dec 4 (Reuters) -
French telecommunication equipment firm Alcatel said it would hire 1,500 new
employees for its Asia Pacific operations in 2001, expanding its regional
workforce by 15 percent to meet expected stronger demand for its Internet
network products.
``Asia had a crisis for the last three years, and investment was at quite a
low level. What we are seeing now is a strong economic recovery with in fact a
back log of pent-up demand in many cases,'' said Ron Spithill, the
Shanghai-based president of Alcatel Asia Pacific.
He was speaking at the ITU Telecom Asia 2000 trade show in Hong Kong.
The new hires will be made in the 16 markets that make up Alcatel's Asia
Pacific operations, including Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Philippines,
Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Myanmar,
Brunei, Australia and New Zealand, the company said in a statement.
Spithill said the Asian operations account for eight to nine percent of
Alcatel's total business, and Asian orders are expected to grow 90 percent for
the 2000 year.
``Perhaps the percentage will not be as high next year, but I believe it
will (still) be several times the industry growth rate,'' Spithill added.
He reiterated Alcatel's global sales projection of 27 billion euros for
2000.
Alcatel currently employs about 5,000 staff in China, making up half its
10,000-member Asia Pacific workforce.
China also will get the largest share of the new recruits, in line with the
company's high growth projections for that market, although Spithill did not
specify the number of hires slated for the mainland operations.
The new China employees will work to develop broadband Internet access,
data and mobile Internet, the company said.
About 80 percent of the 1,500 new staff would be local hires in the various
markets, and more than half would work in the research and development as well
as sales and marketing divisions.
WIRE:12/04/2000 02:55:00 ET
India to intensify operations against rebels in Assam NARENGI, India, Dec 4 (Reuters)
- India will intensify counter-insurgency operations in the northeastern state
of Assam to contain a recent surge in violence promoted by Pakistan-backed
guerrillas, a military commander said at the weekend.
"Our operations will be more proactive and there will be visible presence
of security forces in the state," Lieutenant General Mahesh Vij told reporters
near Guwahati, Assam"s largest city. "But the operations will be more
people-friendly and will make sure normal life is not disturbed," he added.
Since October 21, guerrillas from the United Liberation Front of Asom
(ULFA) have killed around 70 people in the state, most of them non-Assamese
settlers. The killings have stirred widespread outrage in Assam, one of India"s
seven northeastern states racked by separatist and tribal insurgencies.
"Those were pure, simple and basic terrorist acts by the militants at the
behest of Pakistan"s ISI, because the ISI wants to see the northeast boiling,"
Vij said. The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is Pakistan"s premier
intelligence agency which India often blames for promoting militant unrest in
its territory, especially the revolt-racked state of Jammu and Kashmir. Formed
in 1979, ULFA is seeking independence for an estimated 25 million people of the
oil-and-tea-rich state circled by China, Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
It accuses New Delhi of exploiting the state"s resources, neglecting the
local economy and flooding the area with outsiders. Indian Defence Minister
George Fernandes also accused the ISI at the weekend of supplying weapons to and
training militants in India"s northeast.
Assam police chief Hari Krishna Deka added that ULFA leaders have also
received weapons and training from the Myanmar-based Kachin Independent
Organisation (KIO) for several years. Last month, the vice-chairman of the State
Peace and Development Council and commandar-in-chief of the Myanmar army,
General Maung Aye, said during a state visit to India his government would
destroy camps of Indian insurgents in Myanmar.
In the past two years, about 3,000 rebels have surrendered to government
forces following differences with their leaders and New Delhi has stepped up its
offensive against diehard militants.
WIRE:12/04/2000 04:24:00 ET
Suu Kyi lawyers to contest Yangon house court case YANGON, Dec 4 (Reuters) -
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will be allowed to contest a law suit
filed by her estranged brother over the ownership of her lakeside Yangon home, a
judge ruled on Monday.
Suu Kyi, 55, is being sued by her elder brother, Aung San Oo, a U.S.
citizen, for half of the home in an elite residential area where she is under
house arrest.
Judge U Soe Thein decided in November to hear the case in absentia after
Suu Kyi failed to appear in court. But the judge told the Yangon court on Monday
he had no objections to Suu Kyi"s lawyers and an agent presenting evidence on
her behalf. "The plaintiff"s side does not object," he told the court. He
adjourned the case till December 7.
Myanmar"s government has said Suu Kyi would be allowed to leave her house
to attend court proceedings, but she has given her three lawyers the power of
attorney.
Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been confined to her
residence with all diplomatic access barred and her telephone cut for more than
two months.
Several senior members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) face
similar restrictions. The NLD won the country"s last general election in 1990 by
a landslide but has never been allowed to govern.
The legal action filed by her brother is convenient for Myanmar"s military
authorities, which have been trying for several years without success to get Suu
Kyi to leave the country and give up her political struggle. Real estate agents
in Yangon estimate the value of her estate, including the colonial style
two-storey house where she has lived since 1988, at about $1 million.
Monday, December 4 7:57 AM SGT
Asean Allows Non Se Asian Nations to Accede to Treaty JAKARTA, Nov 30 Asia Pulse -
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations [ASEAN] has announced the entry into
force of a protocol that would allow non-Southeast Asian states to accede to the
Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia.
Accession to the treaty would enable non-Southeast Asian countries to take
part in certain regional processes in settling disputes, ASEAN said in a
statement issued here Wednesday.
"This enabling instrument reaffirms ASEAN's policy of engagement in
managing conflicts and competition among the states in the Asia-Pacific region,"
ASEAN Secretariat spokesman MC Abad Jr said in the statement.
The 24-year-old treaty serves as a code of conduct of inter-state relations
in the region.
It is the only diplomatic instrument in the region that establishes a
mechanism for the pacific settlement of disputes, the statement said.
Under the treaty, parties shall constitute a high council, which consists
of a representative at the ministerial level from each of the parties, to take
note of disputes which could disturb regional peace and stability, it
added.
Accession to the treaty is by consent of all the states in Southeast Asia,
the statetment added.
The treaty was originally signed by the five founding members of ASEAN in
1976 and by all subsequent members.
Papua New Guinea, an ASEAN observer, has also signed the treaty.
ASEAN consists of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Monday, December 4 8:59 PM SGT
Anti-Mine Campaigners Renew Pressure GENEVA (AP) - Anti-land mine
campaigners marked Monday's third anniversary of the signing of a global treaty
to ban the weapons with a call on 54 governments to drop their ``excuses'' for
staying out of the accord.
The treaty, clinched in Ottawa, Canada on Dec. 4, 1997, has now been signed
by 139 countries and ratified by 109. It bans stockpiles of mines and commits
nations to destroy stocks within four years and clear all mines from their
territories in 10 years.
The United States, China and Russia - among the world's major holders of
land mine stockpiles - have yet to sign.
``The civilian victims of land mines are tired of being told excuses,''
Jody Williams, who won the 1997 Nobel Peace prize for campaigning against land
mines, said in a statement.
``They are tired of being told that this nation has unique circumstances,
that that nation has special security requirements,'' she said.
The United States says it needs land mines to deter North Korea from
invading South Korea. President Clinton wants Washington to approve the treaty
by 2006, but only if the armed forces can produce an alternative. Russia and
China say they need land mines for defensive purposes.
The International Campaign to Ban Land Mines condemned Russia, Uzbekistan,
Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Congo and Angola - which has signed the treaty - for
continuing to lay the mines.
It also blasted their use by rebel groups in places including Congo,
Angola, Sudan, Myanmar, Colombia, Chechnya and Kashmir.
Nations that have ratified the Ottawa accord are in Geneva this week for a
regular meeting to discuss implementation of the treaty, which came into force
on March 1 last year.
Bangkok Post - Dec 04,
2000.
BORDER - Burma loses three in fierce fighting KNU attack centres on operational bases Supamart Kasem
Three Burmese soldiers were killed and three others wounded in fierce
fighting with Karen National Union rebels opposite Kanchanaburi on Saturday, a
KNU source said yesterday.
KNU soldiers of the 6th Division launched an attack on three operational
bases of the 710th Light Infantry Battalion at Tabute and Htee Hta Taw
villages.
Both sides exchanged rounds of 81m and 60mm mortar and M79 grenades during
the 30-minute conflict.
The Burmese soldiers retreated, leaving behind three bodies, three rifles
and ammunition.
One KNU soldier was seriously wounded.
Last week, Maj Kyi Win, commander of the 18th Battalion of the KNU's 6th
Division, his wife and four other people were killed when the 999th Battalion of
the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army attacked Ywar Dan Shay village on
Myawaddy-Pa-an road opposite Mae Sot district.
The source claimed the KNU had killed a large number of Burmese and DKBA
soldiers over the past four months in Karen state.
Following two major attacks, the KNU captured Burmese operational bases at
Labohae and Bayin Naung opposite Phop Phra and Mae Ramat districts of Tak and
seized a large quantity of weapons and ammunition.
As part of the dry-season offensive, about 5,000 Burmese troops of the
Southeastern Force and 22nd, 33rd, 44th and 88th infantry divisions have been
deployed along the border from Tak to Kanchanaburi, the source said.
The KNU and other minority groups have called for Rangoon to end the
conflict in Burma which has dragged on for over 50 years but the Burmese junta
has rejected the request.
The conflict also prevented a group of foreign and Thai light airplane
enthusiasts from entering Burma, across the Friendship Bridge from Mae Sot on
Saturday. The 26-member group, flying in 20 small private planes, were taking
part in the Winter Tour Rally 2000. They included Thais, Malaysians,
Singaporeans, British and Americans.
The Times of India - Dec 04,
2000.
Fighting erupts along Myanmar border MAE SOT: Fighting has flared up along the Thai-Myanmar border, with Karen
rebels claiming on Sunday to have killed three Myanmar soldiers and wounded
three others.
The Myanmar army has been stepping up attacks recently against the Karen
National Union, the last major ethnic insurgency group still fighting the
central government.
A KNU spokesman in this border town said rebel troops attacked a Myanmar
light infantry column opposite the Thai province of Kanchanaburi on Saturday,
inflicting the casualties and capturing three rifles, ammunition and a compass.
One Karen soldier was seriously wounded in the clash, said the spokesman, who
demanded anonymity.
The military activity stopped a group of foreign and Thai light airplane
enthusiasts from entering Myanmar, also known as Burma, across the Friendship
Bridge from Mae Sot on Saturday.
The 26-member group, flying in 20 small private planes, were taking part in
the Winter Tour Rally 2000. They included Thais, Malaysians, Singaporeans,
British and Americans, including Tom Claytor who has several around-the-world
solo flights to his credit.(AP)
Hong Kong Standard - Dec 05,
2000.
Police ring Suu Kyi's residence Agence France-Presse RANGOON: Tight security ringed Aung San Suu Kyi's house yesterday after the
release of several of her lieutenants and ahead of a key hearing of a property
suit the opposition leader faces.
A police cordon surrounded her residence and there were no signs that she
would be allowed freedom, despite the junta's decision on Friday to release six
members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) from house arrest, observers
said.
A Burmese government spokesman had said on Friday that ``the temporary
restrictions on the six NLD CEC [central executive committee members] has been
lifted ... and they are resuming their normal activities...''
``U Aung Shwe, U Tin Oo and Daw Suu Kyi are requested to continue their
stay in the present position for the time being,'' the spokesman said.
Ms Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since September 22, when she and other NLD leaders attempted to board a train in Mandalay, in the country's north. Tensions between the Nobel laureate and the junta remained high due to a
property suit filed by her brother and due to resume hearing today.
The brother, Aung San Oo, is seeking to obtain half ownership of her
Rangoon home, which belonged to their late mother Khin Kyi.
Ms Suu Kyi did not appear at the Rangoon divisional court late last month
for the first hearing, and at that time Judge U Soe Thein made a ruling that, as
neither the opposition leader nor her lawyers were present, the case would
proceed without their involvement.
Ms Suu Kyi's lawyers are attempting to gain representation at the hearing.
The Burma Lawyers' Council, a Thailand-based exile group, has said the case
could clear the way for the ruling State Peace and Development Council to evict
Ms Suu Kyi from the house and cripple her party.
As a United States citizen, the brother would be forced to hand over his
half of the property to the military government if he won the suit.
BBC - Monday, 4 December, 2000, 14:54
GMT
Burmese leader meets Laotian officials The second-in-command of Burma's military government, General Maung Aye,
has been holding talks with officials in the Laotian capital, Vientiane.
Details have not yet been released.
Reports from Laos say that security has been stepped up during the visit
with armed police mounting roadblocks around the presidential palace.
General Maung Aye is accompanied by a nineteen-strong delegation, which
includes the Foreign Minister Win Aung.
The foreign minister is expected to stay on after the three-day trip for
next week's meeting of European Union and ASEAN ministers.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service.
South China Morning Post
Monday, December 4, 2000 BURMA - Junta taking no chances AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Rangoon Tight security ringed democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi's residence
yesterday after the Government released several of her lieutenants before a
court hearing in which she could lose the house.
Ms Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since September 22. Police
have cordoned off her residence and there are no signs she will be freed,
despite the junta's decision on Friday to release six members of her National
League for Democracy (NLD) from house arrest.
Tension between the Nobel Peace Prize winner and the junta is running high
because of a property suit filed by her brother, Aung San Oo, which Rangoon
Divisional Court is due to resume hearing tomorrow. Mr Aung San Oo is seeking to
obtain half-ownership of the Rangoon home, which belonged to their late mother,
Khin Kyi.
Ms Aung San Suu Kyi did not appear at the first hearing in late November,
and at that time Judge U Soe Thein ruled that because neither the opposition
leader nor her lawyers were present, the case would proceed without them.
Since then, however, four lawyers including the Nobel laureate's main
representative, U Tun Tin, have sought to overturn the decision. The judge is
expected to decide tomorrow whether to allow Ms Aung San Suu Kyi's lawyers to
participate.
The Burma Lawyers' Council, a Thailand-based exile group, said the case
could clear the way for the junta to evict Ms Aung San Suu Kyi from the house
that has served as a crucial gathering point for her NLD.
As a US citizen, Mr Aung San Oo would be forced to hand over his half of
the property to the junta it he won the suit. While not overtly political, he is
much less critical of the regime than his sister, and the two are not close.
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