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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BURMA RELATED NEWS - January - 27, 2001. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINE
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Daily Yomiuri - Japan urged to focus on
human rights in Myanmar
Bkk Post - Fishing industry wants new
coalition to cajole Rangoon
Bkk Post - Editorial - Rangoon must act fast to curb
Aids FT - Junta ready to soften on Suu
Kyi
The Daily Yomiuri - January 27,
2001.
Japan urged to focus on human rights in Myanmar By Ikuko Higuchi Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer European Parliament Member Glenys Kinnock on Friday called on Japan to pay
greater attention to human rights issues in Myanmar, before the European Union
sends a delegation to the country from Jan. 29.
Speaking to reporters at a Tokyo hotel, Kinnock said the EU will take a
hard-line approach to Myanmar in terms of economic sanctions to end the house
arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition National League for Democracy
leader.
Kinnock described the recent dialogue between Suu Kyi and the country's
ruling military junta as, "a prisoner having discussions with the jailer."
"I'd like your government to insist that if the talks are to be taken
seriously, then they (government of Myanmar) must release all political
prisoners, and allow them freedom of speech and association."
She also urged Japan to take a more active role in maintaining stability in
the Asia-Pacific region, citing the example of Australia. She did not mention
whether or not Japan should consider deployment of its forces abroad, but said
that Japan could invest its money and resources in ways that bring contentment
to people in areas of conflict and gave them a stake in creating peace--such as
investing in education and building schools, as the EU is trying to do.
Kinnock is visiting Japan to participate in a humanitarian crisis
conference being held in Tokyo by the EU and the United Nations.
Bangkok Post - January 27,
2001.
Fishing industry wants new coalition to cajole Rangoon Hopes rest on its ties with Burmese junta Achara Ashayagachat The fishing industry hopes the Thai Rak Thai-New Aspiration coalition will
use its connections with the Burmese military to secure the early re-opening of
Burmese waters to Thai fishermen.
"We would like to see the new government use all connections it has to
start frank talks and improve relations with Burma," said Wanchai Sangsukiam,
president of the Thai Overseas Fisheries Association.
"Not only should the ministers of foreign affairs and agriculture deal with
the issue, the prime minister and the defence minister should also help
negotiate," he said.
Mr Wanchai said the government needed to ensure adequate supply of marine
resources and promote the fishing industry as a whole.
Burma closed its waters in retaliation for the Democrat-led government's
handling of the embassy seizure crisis in October 1999 that resulted in
kidnappers being released on the border.
Wicharn Sirichai-Ekawat, of Sirichai Marine Fishery, said Rangoon was keen
to open talks with a non-Democrat government, and the new coalition should seize
the opportunity.
Strong connections that New Aspiration leader Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh and
Thai Rak Thai adviser Gen Chettha Thanajaro enjoyed with the Burmese military
leaders should be an advantage, Mr Wicharn said.
Talks with Burma should cover all matters of interest, including fishing,
ethnic minorities as well as natural gas, technical and financial issues.
"We have to make clear where our national interest lies. If security and
economy top the list, we may no longer need the Karen to be our buffer zone," he
said.
"Then we have to remove them from the border and if we need uniformed
people to talk with Rangoon on the matter, we should not hesitate to do so," Mr
Wicharn said.
Fishery products are the second largest foreign exchange earners after
agricultural goods, bringing in $3.5 billion in the first 10 months of last
year, according to the Commerce Ministry's Department of Export Promotion.
Mr Wicharn said Pitak Intarawithayanunt, a former deputy foreign minister,
would be good as foreign minister.
Bangkok Post - January 27,
2001.
Editorial - Rangoon must act fast to
curb Aids
The admission by Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, First Secretary of the ruling State
Peace and Development Council, that Aids is a threat to Burma is welcome news.
Though belatedly, it should mean that the military junta accepts a horrible fact
of life, and by implication wants to remedy it.
But sceptics are also entitled to think that the generals simply want to
remove another source of criticism ahead of a European Union delegation
beginning a three-day visit to the country on Monday.
"HIV, Aids. It's a national cause. If we ignore it, it will be the scourge
that will destroy entire nations," Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt said in a recent interview
with the Myanmar Times, a partly private-owned weekly newspaper.
In November, Mya Oo, the deputy health minister, had spoken of a "political
background" to the discussion on Aids, and blamed "reactionary elements" for
"insulting" Burma.
Thirteen months earlier, in October 1999, Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt himself claimed
the Aids scare was being used by the junta's political enemies to "attack
Myanmar".
The United Nations Programme on HIV-Aids (UNAids) estimates that 530,000 of
Burma's 48 million people are HIV-positive. A Medecins Sans Frontieres
specialist, who has spent six years working on HIV-Aids prevention in Burma,
believes the real number of sufferers could be anywhere between 200,000 and
1,000,000.
Before Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt's public admission, Burmese officials had quietly
told UNaids that 47%of the prostitutes in Rangoon and Mandalay were found
infected when tested last year. Censored government figures said another 57% of
the heroin addicts tested positive.
In the interview, Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt pleaded lack of funds, saying Burma
could not afford the US$2 per person it would cost to conduct tests. But this
rang hollow in view of the junta's military spending in 1999 of US$2.1 billion,
or 6.8% of the gross domestic product, according to Thai army figures. By
comparison, Thailand's military bills amounted to only 1.5 % of GDP.
In addition, Burmese authorities have been indifferent to a Thai proposal,
put forward last year, for a package approach to solving the spread of Aids
along the Thai-Burmese border by curbing prostitution and drug addiction.
To convince doubters that there has been a real reversal on the question of
Aids and a genuine concern with the health threat towards the Burmese people,
the junta has to follow through by putting action into words, and by sustaining
the effort.
Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt said the health ministry was raising HIV awareness among
villagers, which indeed is a must. But what is being done to prevent the spread
of Aids through prostitution and heroin addiction in a culture where
needle-sharing is the custom?If the generals want help to fight Aids, and they
clearly need it, they have to show more concern for public health in general by
raising its priority ranking and allocating more budget to the sector.
The timing of Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt's admission raises the momentum started by
the reported "breakthrough" on the political front, with talks he is said to
have started in October with Aung San Suu Kyi of the National League for
Democracy.
Following encouraging reactions to that event from the region, including
from Thailand and Singapore, the junta followed up by allowing food parcels to
detained NLD members, and most recently by releasing 19 NLD members after
holding them for four months.
If nation-building matters, the admission on Aids should be more than part
of the thaw, with the generals ensuring and sustaining real care for sufferers
and protecting more from succumbing to the scourge. The Financial Times.
Junta ready to soften on Suu Kyi By Amy Kazmin Published: January 26 2001 19:39GMT | Last Updated: January 26 2001 20:07GMT In a Rangoon courtroom this week, Judge U Soe Thein gave a rare break to Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's pro-democracy leader: the judge threw out a lawsuit by Ms Suu Kyi's estranged brother seeking half of the family house where the Nobel Prize winner now lives under virtual house arrest. It was a decision aimed at the court of world opinion, one more in a series
of small, conciliatory gestures by Burma's military regime towards their
long-time adversary. It follows the announcement earlier this month that Ms Suu
Kyi and Burma's chief of military intelligence, Lt Gen Khin Nyunt, have held
direct talks since October aimed at breaking the long political impasse that has
relegated Burma to the margins of the international community.
"To me, it is an indication that they (the junta) don't want to make things
worse. They want to make things better," David Steinberg, director of the Asian
Studies Institute at Georgetown University, said of the judge's ruling.
The military made another offering on Thursday, releasing Tin Oo, the
septuagenarian vice-chair of Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD),
and more than 80 opposition members, held in custody since Ms Suu Kyi tried
unsuccessfully last September to visit party workers in Mandalay.
After years of political stalemate, diplomats and analysts see the
tentative change in public posture towards Ms Suu Kyi and the NLD as a
reflection of the junta's desire to improve its international image, amid
intensifying economic and social pressures at home.
The Burmese currency, the kyat, is rapidly depreciating amid economic
stagnation and dwindling investment. A growing Aids epidemic threatens to take a
heavy toll on the country, which Khin Nyunt publicly acknowledged this week
after past denial. The potential impact of sanctions imposed by the
International Labour Organisation last November have also raised fresh
uncertainties for the economy.
Even the Association of South East Asian Nations, which embraced Burma as a
new member in 1997, has shown impatience as the regime's disdain for human
rights has tarnished Asean'sown image.
Prodding from Razali Ismail, the UN special envoy on Burma, and also from
trusted friend Mahathir Mohammed, the Malaysian prime minister, appears to have
persuaded the junta that engaging Ms Suu Kyi - who has been under virtual house
arrest herself since the aborted Mandalay trip - might help turn down the
international heat.
Sceptics, of course, recall that Burma's military rulers met twice with Ms
Suu Kyi in 1994, then broke off talks, having pronounced Ms Suu Kyi as too
inflexible.
This time, the junta's overture follows a vigorous campaign to weaken the
NLD, by shutting party offices and detaining members until they "renounce" the
party.
Still, there are hopes that the interaction may lead to some incremental
concessions, or tentative steps to allow the NLD to function more freely. Mr
Steinberg said one sign of progress could be if the stalled efforts to draft a
constitution were to resume with the participation of the NLD, which earlier
bowed out of the effort.
"Do I believe the government will turn over power to the opposition? No. Do
I think there may be some sort of accommodation? That is conceivable," he said.
"You're looking at eroding the rigidity of power, rather than changing the
structure of power."
For Burma's military rulers, the potential pay-off of a few democratic
risks is high. Australia, Japan, and India have already deepened their political
contacts with the regime, in part to counter China's ever-strengthening
political and economic influence, and several potential donors are clearly ready
to boost the flow of aid, if there are signs that Burma is on a path to change.
Japanese businesses, in particular, have been clamouring for their
government to resume large-scale development assistance to Burma, but Tokyo has
been reluctant to fully break with western sanctions until there are signs of
political progress.
"Asean and Japan set some conditions. They have said 'look we don't expect
you to become democratic overnight, but you've got to be seen to be doing
something'," said one western diplomat based in Bangkok.
A new Republication administration in Washington could also soon face
renewed pressure from American companies to re-examine the investment sanctions
imposed on Burma, where vice-president Dick Cheney has past business links. A
high-level European Union delegation is also due to arrive in Burma next week to
assess the situation and express support for any dialogue.
Jan Axel Nordlander, Sweden's ambassador to Thailand, said it was
"premature" to discuss the lifting of sanctions, but said the prerequisite to
any softening would be "tangible steps towards the reinstatement of democracy
and respect for human rights". It looks as if the regime may have taken the
first tentative steps on what is nevertheless a long road ahead.
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