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BURMA RELATED NEWS - July 02,
2001.
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HEADLINES
---------------------------------------------------------------- SMH - Thais reel under flood of drugs from Burma
Irish Times - Burma
faces financial collapse
Reuters - Myanmar military releases top Suu Kyi
aide
AP - Suu Kyi's Cousin
Released From Myanmar Prison
BBC - Burma: Suu Kyi's cousin
released
AP - Thai Soldier Shoots 4 Colleagues Before
Killing Himself
AFP - Myanmar junta releases Aung San Suu Kyi's
cousin from jail
The Nation - Letters - History against us in drugs battle
Bkk Post - Drug lord recovers from partial
paralysis
NewsWeek - Burma: The Class
Barrier
Asia Times - Myanmese inmates have friends
on the outside
---------------------------------------------------------------- Sydney Morning Herald (Jul 2, 2001) Thais reel under flood of drugs from Burma By Alex Spillius in Doi Kew Hung Scan even the most detailed map of the Thai-Burmese border and you will be lucky to find Mong Yawn. There is certainly no hint of a bustling community with its own army and barracks, a school, a hospital, a casino and a hydro-electric power plant. Yet the town is one of the Golden Triangle's biggest success stories. The
reasons are clearly visible to the Thai soldiers peering through high-powered
binoculars across the border into what is nominally Burma.
Clearly visible in the valley ringed by craggy mountains are a pair of
large, shed-like buildings where, the Thais claim, up to 300,000 pills are
manufactured every day.
Consisting chiefly of caffeine and the common cold cure ephedrine, the
pills are sent across the border into Thailand's Chiang Mai province, carried by
ant armies of smugglers along hundreds of forest trails.
Burmese officials claim that the buildings are rice warehouses. If so, it
must be a particularly expensive strain of rice. Until recently little more than
a simple bamboo settlement, like the surrounding villages that it now dwarfs,
Mong Yawn now has a population of some 60,000 and is expected to grow to 80,000
within two years.
International experts estimate that a billion pills will leave Mong Yawn
and about 30 other factories in Burma this year. Two-thirds of them will be
consumed in Thailand, which is fast becoming a nation on "speed".
Mong Yawn is controlled by an obscure guerilla force, the United Wa State
Army (UWSA), a segment of the small but ferocious Wa tribe that gave up
headhunting only a generation ago.
They were never mastered by British colonialists or the military regimes of
independent Burma. Now the Thais are finding them hard to defeat in a war
against the drug methamphetamine.
A Bangkok-based expert describes the UWSA's operation as a "country within
a country" and the Wa as the new kings of the Golden Triangle, the mountainous
region where Thailand, Laos and Burma converge and central authority has never
had a grip.
For Thailand, the effects are horrendous. The press is full of stories of
unemployed men wild on crazy medicine, as methamphetamine is known, committing
serious acts of violence.
Schools have introduced urine testing to combat rampant abuse, while one in
10 novice monks have sought help for addiction.
The Thai army has beefed up border patrols, seizing 18million pills this
year and provoking fierce clashes with the UWSA and regular Burmese forces, who
have pledged to defend the guerillas against Thai "incursions".
Last month, the Thai and Burmese leaders agreed jointly to fight drug
production and to resolve border tension. But there is much patching up to do.
The two sides have engaged in months of mutual recrimination, with senior
officers on both sides accusing the other of profiting from drugs.
The Thais have accused Rangoon of turning a blind eye to the UWSA's
activities as a reward for ending their guerilla war 12 years ago.
But Wei Hseuh-kang, the mastermind of the UWSA, travels freely between
Thailand and Burma, is a citizen of both and is able to exploit corrupt
officialdom on either side.
Whenever he leaves Mong Yawn, he knows an army of 20,000, equipped with
automatic weapons, artillery and heat-seeking surface-to-air missiles will
protect his interests.
---------------------------------------------------------------- Irish Times
Monday, July 2, 2001
Burma faces financial collapse
With inflation at 20 per cent and rising rapidly, many Burmese can no
longer pay for basic necessities, reports Nicole Veash from Rangoon
BURMA: Burma is facing its biggest economic crisis of recent years and has
just two months foreign currency reserves left, local diplomats say. With
inflation running at 20 per cent and rising sharply, the cost of many consumer
goods is spiralling out of control.
Diplomats based in Rangoon say that recent fighting on the Thai-Burmese
border, which hit exports badly, proved to be the catalyst for the financial
freefall.
"We know that government officials have been going round to money-lenders
in the capital trying to buy up dollars, so we suspect that they only have a few
months of hard currency reserves left," said one.
In the past few weeks, the value of the Burmese currency has halved to
around 800 kyat to the dollar. In some shops, labels have been removed from
goods because prices are changing so rapidly.
In the past month there have even been whisperings of discontent from
Burmese, who know that any form of dissent can lead to years of
imprisonment.
Mr Mo Chu (33), a bus driver, says that even basic necessities are now
beyond his reach.
"Everything has doubled in price since April," he said. "A sack of rice, a
cup of tea, even clothes - it's all so expensive."
One month ago, a sack of rice cost 2,400 kyat. This month the same rice was
selling in Rangoon for 4,000 kyat; while a cup of tea went up from 35 to 70 kyat
in the same period. Bus fares and taxi prices have similarly increased.
The price of petrol on the black market has seen a 300 per cent rise.
Meanwhile, the country's ruling junta is thought to be propping up the
economy by printing more money, a move that could further fuel inflation and add
to Burma's economic difficulties.
Despite the economic problems Burma's second city of Mandalay and much of
northern Burma is proving to be a magnet to entrepreneurial Chinese businessmen
from across the border.
Happy to exploit the moribund Burmese market, which many Western companies
have boycotted in protest at the unelected regime, they are providing cheaply
made goods to a product-starved nation. In the city's Zeigyo market, the stalls
are packed high with Chinese goods.
Prof Wiorasakdi Mahatdhanopol, from Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University,
observed: "Despite Burma's economic problems, the Chinese know that the country
is a huge market for their products.
"The Burmese people are poor and they can't afford to buy the materials
needed to manufacture their own products or pay for things from neighbouring
countries like Thailand.
"By selling their goods inside Burma at very low prices," Prof
Mahatdhanopol said, "the Chinese are cleverly positioning themselves as the
dominant force in their neighbour's economy."
---------------------------------------------------------------- Monday July 2, 9:50 PM
Myanmar military releases top Suu Kyi
aide
YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's
military government on Monday released the jailed top aide of opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi, raising optimism among political observers about progress in
peace talks.
Aye Win, 60, who is also Suu Kyi's cousin, was released after serving a
five-year sentence on charges of subversion.
"Aye Win was released this afternoon," a family member told Reuters.
A government spokesman confirmed the release and said Aye Win, who worked
as Suu Kyi's personal secretary until his arrest on May 21, 1996, was in good
health.
Members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party on Monday
expressed optimism over the release, saying it was a positive sign of progress
in talks between the NLD and the military.
"We welcome if anyone is released from prison. Since there are some
political prisoners who have not been released even after serving their terms,
we cannot say there is no significance to this release," said one NLD
politician, who declined to be identified.
Talks aimed at ending Myanmar's long-running political stalemate between
the NLD and the ruling military began in October last year, but have remained
highly secretive.
The government has released 22 detained NLD members since the middle of
June, raising hopes for the talks among diplomats and observers in Yangon.
Aye Win was sentenced on June 15, 1996, under Myanmar's Law Safeguarding
the State from the Danger of Subversive Elements.
---------------------------------------------------------------- Monday July 2, 6:17 PM
Suu Kyi's Cousin Released From
Myanmar Prison
YANGON (AP)--A cousin of
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was released from prison Monday after
completing a five-year jail term for subversion, an official statement said.
Aye Win, 59, formerly a liaison officer for Suu Kyi, was released at 1:30
p.m. (0700 GMT) from Yangon's Insein prison.
"He is in good health and is now reunited with his family," said the brief
statement issued by the military government.
Aye Win was jailed in June 1996 under a law protecting the state against
subversive elements. Political prisoners in Myanmar, also known as Burma, are
often not released even when they have completed their sentences.
A member of Aye Win's family confirmed the release and said he was in good
health.
He is the latest in a string of detainees from Suu Kyi's National League
for Democracy to be freed in recent months, as a result of secret talks between
Suu Kyi and the military regime.
The NLD won general elections in 1990 but has never been allowed to take
power. Hundreds of its members have been jailed.
Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar's national hero, Gen. Aung San, has been
under virtual house arrest since Sept. 22 when she attempted to travel outside
Yangon on party business in defiance of official restrictions on her movements.
Aye Win is the son of Ba Win, a brother of Aung San. Ba Win died alongside
Aung San when he was gunned down in 1947, a year before the country achieved
independence from Britain.
---------------------------------------------------------------- BBC- Monday, 2 July, 2001, 14:31 GMT
15:31 UK
Burma: Suu Kyi's cousin released A cousin of the Burmese pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been
released from detention.
Aye Win - formerly a close aide to Miss Suu Kyi - had served five years for
subversion.
His release means that more than 20 opposition political activists have
been freed in recent weeks.
Correspondents say this a sign that progress is being made in talks between
Miss Suu Kyi and the military authorities.
She is still being held under virtual house arrest.
The opposition National League for Democracy won elections in Burma in
1990, but has never been allowed to take power.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
---------------------------------------------------------------- Monday July 2, 4:00 PM
Thai Soldier Shoots 4 Colleagues Before
Killing Himself
BANGKOK (AP)--A Thai soldier
posted at the Thai-Myanmar border shot four fellow soldiers to death at a jungle
camp before killing himself, police said Monday.
Pvt. Pramual Choksi, 23, fired his M-16 assault rifle at troops in his own
unit while on duty at a military camp on the bank of Moei River in Tak province,
230 miles northwest of Bangkok.
Pramual then fled before fatally shooting himself late Sunday after police
and army soldiers tracked him down less than a mile from the camp, Police Maj.
Teng Boonsong said.
Teng said that Pramual apparently was under stress caused by family
problems.
---------------------------------------------------------------- Monday July 2, 4:47 PM
Myanmar junta releases Aung San Suu
Kyi's cousin from jail
YANGON, July 2 (AFP) - Myanmar's military regime Monday released the cousin of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from jail, sources said, in the latest sign of progress in talks between the opposition and the junta. Aye Win, a close aide to the Nobel peace laureate, was allowed to leave
Yangon's notorious Insein prison Monday after completing a five-year sentence, a
family member told AFP.
Political prisoners are not routinely released at the end of their
sentence, but in the last few weeks the junta has allowed dozens of members of
the National League for Democracy (NLD) to leave the jails and government
guesthouses where they were detained.
On Thursday it freed nine more senior party members, bringing to 26 the
number of opposition MPs elected in the disallowed 1990 ballot who have been
given their liberty.
The military government has said the concessions reflect progress in talks
with Aung San Suu Kyi which began in October, and which have raised hopes that a
national reconciliation process may soon get under way.
The democracy leader is believed to have demanded the junta release
political prisoners and allow the party to re-open its offices around the
country before the contacts develop into a full-blown dialogue.
Four groups of NLD MPs have now been released since UN envoy Razali Ismail
visited Yangon in early June on a mission to bring new impetus to the fledgling
talks -- the first between the two sides since 1994.
Razali is credited with acting as the catalyst for the contacts, which
appeared to have run into problems several months ago.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has welcomed the military government's
decision to release the opposition members.
Through his spokesman, Annan last month called on both sides "to build on
this momentum to achieve further progress in their dialogue process."
Last week, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw also welcomed the releases
and the re-opening of some of the NLD's offices, saying the developments "are
grounds for optimism."
"I welcome reports that a number of political prisoners have been released
in Burma," said Straw.
"They have been incarcerated for far too long. This will provide a boost
for the voices of freedom and democracy.
"We now look forward to further releases, as part of the confidence
building measures we hope the regime will take in support of its dialogue with
NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi."
---------------------------------------------------------------- The Nation - July 02,
2001.
Letters to the Editor
History against us in drugs battle
Kenny Descherelle(TORONTO)
With all the summits and talk over Thailand's drug problems, one has to
understand this has been festering for more than five decades. If we are to
include the old monopoly, Thailand has had over one hundred years
experience.
In his book "The Politics of Heroin", Alfred W McCoy, professor of
Southeast Asian History at the University of Wisconsin, gives an accurate and
clear picture of Thailand and the region. In his book he names those entrenched
in the Thai military, police and political system who virtually looked the other
way or were directly involved in the cultivation and distribution routes.
In 600-plus pages he spells out in detail the strategy of Thailand and
Burma, partners for many years. Now, with the current drug ya ba in vogue, one
doesn't have to wait for the harvest. The imported chemists can make all they
need within months of production.
Thailand also has to remember that as long as there is no economic stimulus
for its neighbour Burma, drugs will never ever stop entering Thailand. There
will always be a market and a buyer, along with the protection afforded the
sellers and distributors. Money talks.
Along with Laos, Burma will continue to flood the region [with drugs].
Juntas and regimes care little about the effects on your country. Wake up,
Thaksin, this is one fight you are sure to lose.
---------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - July 02,
2001.
KHUN SA - Drug lord recovers from
partial paralysis
Rumours of Bangkok treatment denied Subin Khuenkaew
Khun Sa, former Golden Triangle opium warlord, is back on his feet after
suffering partial paralysis, according to a reliable source who claims to have
seen him at his home in Rangoon two months ago.
The former leader of the Mong Tai Army, who is now 67, was capable of
walking around his house, but needed help in many ways, the source said.
"He had to be spoon-fed. If he tried to feed himself, he ended up spilling
everything on his clothes."
He said the former drug warlord also had trouble remembering things, and
needed help getting up and lying down.
Thai drug officials confirmed they had also heard about Khun Sa's
condition, but denied rumours he had slipped into Thailand for medical treatment
in Bangkok.
The source said Khun Sa had been treated for his paralysis by a Chinese
doctor through an arrangement made by Lo Hsing-han, another surviving ex-drug
warlord.
The military junta initially refused to allow the Chinese doctor to treat
him because they did not want outsiders to enter Khun Sa's residence in Rangoon,
which was guarded by Burmese soldiers.
Khun Sa was still watched by at least five soldiers at all times.
The source, a former attendant, said Khun Sa still thought of Ho Mong, his
last mountain stronghold before he surrendered to Rangoon on Jan 7, 1996, and
wanted to return to spend his final days there.
However, there was almost nothing left in Ho Mong for Khun Sa to go back
to, the source said.
His five houses-three at Ho Mong and two at Mong Mai-were all run-down.
They had been emptied by his minor wives, who took all the furniture and
anything else of value to their new homes in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and
Tachilek.
"It would cost a lot to put even one of them back in shape," the source
said.
Khun Sa has been given a concession to operate a passenger bus and truck
service between Rangoon and nearby towns, but allows his youngest son to look
after his money and business.
Tan Kyaw, or Pitak Changtrakul, 31, has been making frequent trips from
Rangoon to Myawaddy, opposite Mae Sot in Tak, to look after the family's
businesses and to pursue his plan to build an 80-room hotel-casino.
---------------------------------------------------------------- NEWSWEEK - July 02, 2001.
Burma: The Class
Barrier
School’s open—but only for docile techies By Tony Emerson July 9 issue — At his house in Rangoon, Tin shows off black-and-white photos of his brothers and sisters in university cap and gown. In a nation where education is revered, Tin is proud of his family, and worried for himself. Since students led an uprising in 1988, Burma’s ruling generals have shuttered the universities more often than not, including four of the last five years. Tin, 24, is a pedicab driver and a math major at the University of Rangoon—when it is open. “I have to graduate,” he says, with an eye to the pictures on the wall. Burma has the only government on earth that places such hurdles between its
citizens and an education. Many teachers and students have fled to the United
States, Thailand and Singapore. Burma’s universities are currently open, but
only for technical subjects and for students who vow in writing to avoid
politics. Old city campuses have been replaced by new ones close to Army bases.
Tiny private schools now offer classes, but not enough. When the United States
Information Service opened classes last year, fistfights erupted among students
vying to get in. Says exiled editor Tin Maung Than, “Knowledge is
paralyzed.”
---------------------------------------------------------------- Asia Times Online - July 02,
2001
Southeast Asia - Myanmese inmates have
friends on the outside
By Satya Sivaraman MAE SOT, Thailand - In this limited club, the minimum qualification for
membership is at least a few years spent in one of Myanmar's numerous and
notorious prisons.
Welcome to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a
lobby group set up by former Myanmese political prisoners in exile to campaign
for the release of those still in jail and to find financial support for their
families inside Myanmar. Since its inception in 1999, the group has emerged as a
consistent voice on behalf of the country's jailed dissidents and a constant
reminder to the rest of the world about their plight under the military regime.
"We do not admit even seasoned pro-democracy activists fighting the
military regime in Myanmar if they have not spent some time in a Myanmese jail,
" says a proud Bo Kyi, the softspoken chairman of the AAPP who spent eight years
in jail. A former student activist, his crime, like that of all other AAPP
members, was to demand the restoration of democracy in Myanmar.
Since the pro-democracy uprising in 1988, hundreds of student and other
activists have been imprisoned by the military junta in Yangon for treason,
subversion and other charges. According to the AAPP, there are now more than
2,500 political prisoners inside Myanmar. The human rights group Amnesty
International sets the figure at around 1,700.
From its office in the western Thai town of Mae Sot bordering Myanmar, the
AAPP monitors the situation of political prisoners and tries to create public
awareness about their condition. The organization also collects funds from
supporters worldwide to be channeled to families of political prisoners, who use
this for both their own sustenance as well as for regular visits to their kin in
jail.
"The AAPP is the first step toward creating an independent Myanmese human
rights body and I think they have a strong vision to work on the transition to
justice in future Myanmar," says Min Zin, a Burmese journalist based in
Thailand.
In its brief couple of years of existence, the AAPP has run several
international campaigns for the release of political prisoners, most notably on
behalf of well-known student leader Min Ko Naing who has been in prison since
1989. Serving a 20-year sentence, Min Ko Naing has been held for long periods in
solitary confinement and is currently reported to be in poor health.
"The idea of setting up an organization of former Myanmese political
prisoners was born not just because of the growing numbers of prisoners under
the repressive military government but also in recognition of their special
needs," says Bo Kyi.
Often imprisoned without trial, physically tortured and psychologically
tormented, Myanmar's political prisoners need concerted efforts both to secure
their release as well as rehabilitation once they come out of prison, he
explains. "It was the combination of physical torture, the systematic attack on
my emotions, thoughts and the lack of information about anything outside the
prison that was unbearable," recalls Ko Myo, a 26-year-old former student
activist who now lives in exile. He spent six years in prison, out of which
nearly three were in solitary confinement.
Human rights activists and former detainees say physical torture is rampant
in Burmese prisons and is the first line of attack pursued by authorities when
they try to extract information from prisoners or break their morale, and
intimidate them into abandoning their political goals.
"When the activists or suspected persons arrive at an interrogation center,
they are treated very brutally and they have no choice except to confess what
they know," says an AAPP document on the status of prisoners in Myanmar. It says
new prisoners are kept in the interrogation center for one to three weeks,
during which there is non-stop interrogation by rotating teams of military
intelligence personnel. Most are not allowed to sleep and usually not fed or
given any water, the paper adds.
On a routine basis, critics say, the methods of abuse and torture include
electrocution, sleep denial, forcing people to stand or squat in uncomfortable
positions for long periods of time, rolling iron or wood rods along a person's
shins, pouring water over a person's head covered in plastic and forcing them to
kneel on sharp stones or pieces of glass. Some women also suffer from sexual
abuse, such as having some or all of their clothes removed during interrogation.
According to the AAPP's estimates, at least 43 political prisoners are
known to have died in custody since the military's suppression of the democracy
movement in 1988, although the true number could be much higher.
"One of the most frightening aspects of being a prisoner is that Myanrmese
prisons have become distributing centers of communicable diseases, such as AIDS,
because one needle is used on many political prisoners when they feel sick or
are vaccinated," adds Bo Kyi. According to him, many of the deaths in custody
have been also because there is not enough medicine, doctors or timely treatment
and the prisoners' health deteriorates as a result of torture, improper food and
inappropriate accommodation.
In 1997, the Myanmese regime, under pressure from various international
human rights groups as well as its own need to improve its global image,
announced a program to improve prison conditions. But the improvements, the AAPP
says, have been too minor to make any difference.
Since May 1999 for example, the International Committee of the Red Cross
has been allowed to visit prisons inside Myanmar. But AAPP activists point out
that the prisons are usually "well prepared and spruced up" prior to such
visits, making the entire exercise a public relations stunt.
Some prisoners, like Tun Zaw Zaw, an opposition youth leader arrested in
June 1998 who lost his vision while in prison, have been given an early release.
But hundreds of others who are critically ill continue to languish in Burmese
jails.
The AAPP is also skeptical about the release of several dozen political
prisoners, mostly belonging to the opposition National League for Democracy
(NLD), since January this year. It points out that much more needs to be done
urgently. The release of prisoners, including many NLD members of parliament who
won in the 1990 elections that the junta refuses to recognise, follows months of
dialogue between the regime and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi for the
normalization of political activity in the country.
"The release of these activists has been possible only because the regime
wants to continue its political dialogue with the NLD. But we will welcome such
moves only when the authorities release hundreds of political prisoners every
month," said an AAPP statement on the recent developments inside Myanmar.
A fundamental change in the condition of Myanmese political prisoners will
come only when there is a democratic government that respects human rights and
values and solves political problems in the right way, the group
maintains.
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