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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BURMA RELATED NEWS - January - 13, 2001. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINE
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CSM - Breakthrough in Burma - talks are a start
Xinhua - ASEAN Tourism Ministers Meet in
Brunei
The Daily Star - Land mine blasts along
Myanmar border continue
The Independent-bangladesh - Myanmar continues to deploy troops along border TI - Rights
group flays Mahathir call for investment in Myanmar
TI - Thailand
supporting ethnic rebels: Myanmar press
Bernama - MYANMAR BANS CARTOON CAMPAIGN AGAINST AUNG SAN SUU
KYI
The Christian Science
Monitor
FRIDAY, JANUARY 12, 2001 Breakthrough in Burma - talks are a start Meetings between Aung San Suu Kyi and government are first positive step in years. By Simon Ingram - Special to The Christian Science Monitor BANGKOK, THAILAND Burmese opposition groups are urging the international community to keep up
pressure on the military government in Rangoon, the capital, amid hopes that the
country's long-running and costly political stalemate may have finally broken.
Tuesday's announcement by the United Nations of the first meeting between
the military junta and the opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, in more than
five years has sparked expressions of unusual optimism.
"This is a historic breakthrough," says Teddy Buri, of the Bangkok-based
National Council of the Union of Burma. "It shows that despite the hard-line
posture they strike in public, the generals realize - in their heart of hearts -
that there needs to be a change."
Clearly, there is still a very long way to go. Ms. Suu Kyi herself remains
under what amounts to house arrest - a restriction imposed last September, when
security forces barred her from meeting supporters outside the capital. It's far
from clear when these - and even harsher punitive measures against her senior
colleagues in the National League for Democracy - will be lifted.
The crackdown on the NLD had unleashed a fresh torrent of criticism from
Western governments. Late last year, the International Labor Organization called
for tougher action against Burma, also called Myanmar, because of its alleged
failure to end forced labor and continued reports of massive human rights
violations.
Observers say that it was the threat of tighter sanctions against a country
whose economy is already in dire straits that prompted the military leadership
to change tack and agree to talks with Suu Kyi. But some question the sincerity
of a regime that regularly heaps venom on the woman who led the NLD to victory
in elections in 1990 - a victory that has never been honored. Until just days
ago, state-run newspapers derided Suu Kyi as a witch and a traitor to her people
(her marriage to the late British academic Michael Aris earned her particular
scorn).
Credit for nudging the generals toward compromise should probably go to UN
envoy Razali Ismail. It was Mr. Ismail who, at the end of a five-day visit to
Rangoon, broke the news of the meeting between Suu Kyi and Lt.-Gen. Khin Nyunt,
secretary one of the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). It
subsequently emerged that the first round of secret talks had actually taken
place in October.
Razali, formerly Malaysia's ambassador to the UN, described the meeting as
"extremely significant." He added: "It's what the UN and international community
were hoping would happen, and we're very glad this has taken place."
He dismissed the idea that the talks had been a military publicity stunt.
"These talks are being conducted with good faith on both sides."
Significant, too, was the role played by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad, who also visited Burma last week. Dr. Mahathir has frequently sided
with Rangoon in the face of censure from Western governments, and helped smooth
Burma's accession to the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in
1997, overriding doubts expressed by other member states.
If - as diplomats believe - the Malaysian prime minister urged his Burmese
interlocutors to show flexibility, they would have found it hard not to listen.
According to Mr. Buri, it will require further diplomatic intervention from
Mahathir and other governments with friendly ties to Rangoon - including China
and Japan - to ensure the process of dialogue doesn't stall. "There are many
things we'd like to see happen," Buri says. "But let's take it one step at a
time."
ASEAN Tourism Ministers Meet in
Brunei
2001.01.13 12:38:02 KUALA LUMPUR, January 13 (Xinhuanet) -- ASEAN tourism ministers
Saturday began their fourth meeting in Brunei's capital city of Bandar
Seri Begawan to discuss efforts towards achieving tourism excellence in
the region.
The meeting's theme "The Pinnacle of Tourism Excellence" reflects
ASEAN's collective efforts in achieving the ultimate objective of becoming
a preferred tourist destination, Brunei Industry and Primary Resources
Minister Abdul Rahman Taib said at the opening of the meeting, according
to a fax message from his ministry to Xinhua.
The minister said the initiative to market ASEAN as a tourist
destination would contribute to the success of the Visit ASEAN Campaign
2002, which will be launched in Bander Seri Begawan.
"We now have a plan of action to market the ASEAN region as a single
tourist destination, to promote environmentally sustainable tourism, to
encourage tourism investments into and within ASEAN, to strengthen tourism
manpower development and to facilitate intra- ASEAN travel," Abdul said.
The minister said that these ongoing efforts will continue to serve
as the engine that will power ASEAN towards achieving excellence in
tourism.
He also believed that the regional recovery from the financial crisis
would spawn a new vigor in intra-ASEAN tourism.
However, he said that to sustain ASEAN's competitiveness in tourism,
ASEAN needs to be bolder in its approach with a more liberal tourism
regime and at the same time should take full advantage of the
opportunities brought about by information communication technology.
Abdul said ASEAN members, fortunate to have an amazing range of cultural
diversity and heritage, should seek to complement each other's tourism
experience and continue to commit themselves to promoting the region as a
whole.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar,
the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The Daily Star
Land mine blasts along Myanmar border continue From Our Correspondent COX'S BAZAR, Jan 12: Explosion of land mines along Bangladesh-Myanmar
border continued for the third day today, creating panic among people in border
villages of Bangladesh, sources said.
Local people and BDR sources said, a series of land mine explosions took
place in Naikkongchhari, Fultali and Amtali border areas.
Two cows were killed in land mine explosions at Amtali 'Zero point' this
morning. Panic-stricken Bangladeshi villagers are fleeing their homes. Villagers
said a series of land mines planted by Myanmar border forces Nasaka in the zero
line of the border exploded near border pillar number 47 and 48 in the last
three days.
BDR jawans requested the woodcutters and local people not to go near border
pillers as Nasaka continued to plant land mines along the border.
Our correspondent from Bandarban reports, Nasaka imposed curfew along
20-kilometre bordering areas on their side on January 10.
The curfew was imposed in the backdrop of massing of troops along Myanmar
border. BDR and Nasaka exchanged fire on January 18 over construction of a dam
over river Naf by Nasaka.
BDR sources said, a flag meeting between the two sides will be held on
January 14 at Ulubonia, Cox's Bazar.
The Independent Bangladesh
Myanmar continues to deploy troops along border from Our Correspondent COX’S BAZAR, Jan 12: Myanmar continues to deploy troops along its border,
BDR sources said.
"We are well equipped to protect the territorial integrity of our country,"
BDR Sector Commander Col. Shawkat Ali told newsmen here.
Meanwhile, the senior Myanmar army officials including the Director General
of the military intelligence service and the Nasaka sector commander visited the
advanced positions along the border, according to reports received from across
the border.
Myanmar also amassed its army copter squads at Balibazar and Dhekubania
bases in Monngdu and the helicopters have already started patrolling the 200-km
border with Bangladesh.
More border troops have been deployed at Tumbruleft, a Nasaka base, only
half a kilometre away from Gundoom in Ukhyia thana of the district of Cox’s
Bazar.
The Times of India - Saturday, 13
January 2001
Rights group flays Mahathir call for investment in Myanmar KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's call for more Malaysian
investment in Myanmar is a "disgrace to the nation," a rights group said
Friday.
The Suaram group accused Mahathir, who returned Tuesday from a week-long
visit to Myanmar, of "taking advantage of the sufferings of the Burmese
(Myanmar) people for profits."
Mahathir said on his return that the military government was trying to
develop the country and its people. He reacted favourably to the junta's call
for more Malaysian investment.
Suaram said in a statement that Mahathir had turned a blind eye to serious
rights violations in Myanmar.
It said the junta, which refuses to hand over power to the opposition
despite losing a 1990 election, was holding at least 1,200 political prisoners,
oppressing the opposition, seizing civilians for forced labour and killing
members of ethnic minorities.
Suaram said foreign investment "will only benefit the military junta as
corruption and abuse of power is rampant in the government."
The UN envoy to Myanmar Razali Ismail, a Malaysian, has played a key role
in promoting secret reconciliation talks between the junta and opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi, it emerged this week.
Malaysia practises what it calls a policy of constructive engagement with
Myanmar, which joined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 1997 with
Kuala Lumpur's sponsorship. (AFP)
The Times of India - Saturday, 13
January 2001.
Thailand supporting ethnic rebels: Myanmar press YANGON: Myanmar's official press hit out at neighbouring Thailand on
Friday, accusing it of giving weapons and moral support to ethnic rebels along
their common border as relations reached a new low.
"Successive Thai governments have over the years given sanctuary to Myanmar
ethnic rebels along the common border with the intention of maintaining a
'buffer zone' between the two countries," the Mirror daily said.
"This attempt to breathe life into a dying tiger is beginning to backfire
and is causing a lot of headaches for them," it said, citing a string of violent
incidents staged by ethnic rebels inside Thailand.
In December, rebel gunmen believed to be members of God's Army, a guerrilla
band led by teenage twins Luther and Johnny Htoo, launched a raid on a Thai
border town that left six people dead.
A rebel siege of Yangon's embassy in Bangkok in 1999, as well as last
year's bloody hostage-taking at a provincial Thai hospital also strained
relations between the neighbours.
The official press report said the border "buffer zone" had begun to
disappear in recent times, thanks to peace deals the Myanmar government has
forged with most of the armed rebel groups in the region.
In an effort to reinvigorate the ethnic militias Thailand was supplying
them with arms under the pretext they were fighting narcotics production in
border regions, it said.
International assistance "both legal or otherwise" was also being
solicited, it added.
The tongue-lashing in the state media came despite expectations that
relations would warm with the election last weekend of Thaksin Shinawatra and
his Thai Rak Thai party. Senior members of Thaksin's entourage are seen as more
sympathetic to the junta's position than the outgoing administration of Prime
Minister Chuan Leekpai. (AFP)
Malaysian National News Agency
January 13 , 2001 12:36PM MYANMAR BANS CARTOON CAMPAIGN AGAINST AUNG SAN SUU KYI YANGON, Jan 13 (Bernama-DPA) - The Information Ministry of Myanmar(Burma)
has ordered state-run media to stop printing cartoons and commentaries
lambasting opposition leaders such as Aung San Suu Kyi, a government source said
on Saturday.
Saturday editions of the New Light of Myanmar newspaper, the government's
main mouthpiece, had dropped their wonted commentaries attacking the National
League for Democracy (NLD), suggesting the ban may have gone into effect.
The order follows an alleged "breakthrough" in Myanmar's long-standing
political deadlock between the ruling junta and Suu Kyi's NLD, which won the
1990 general election but has been denied power for the past decade.
United Nations special envoy for Myanmar, Razali Ismail, has announced that
a political dialogue had been initiated between the regime and Suu Kyi as of
October last eyar and talks were ongoing.
Thus far, there has been no official reaction to Razali's announcement in
Myanmar's tightly controlled and mostly state-owned media, expect for the toning
down of attacks on the opposition on Saturday.
Foreign diplomats based in Yangon have been advising the regime to stop
their "stupid cartoons" against Suu Kyi in the local media, many of which have
ridiculed her private affairs such as her marriage to the late Michael Aris, a
British professor who died two years ago.
--BERNAMA-DPA
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