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BURMA RELATED NEWS - August 23,
2001.
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HEADLINES
------------------------------------------------------------------ AFP - Thailand PM urges greater ASEAN
cooperation, dialogue
AFP - Two centuries of rare jewels to go on
display next week in Delhi
Reuters - Malaysia under fire for plan to whip
illegals
Reuters - Experts work to preserve Asia's
traditional music
Reuters - Cambodia king hails Jakarta ties as
Megawati visits
Kyodo - Lao premier
ends 4-day visit to Myanmar
NP - Kvaerner pulls out of Burma
contract
Bkk Post - Ministerial meeting a crucial
decider
Bkk Post - Armed men
take hostage into Burma
Xinhuanet - Indian Company to Build Dyeing
Factory for Myanmar
------------------------------------------------------------------ Thursday August 23, 2:35 PMThailand PM urges greater ASEAN cooperation, dialogue SINGAPORE, Aug 23 (AFP) - Thai
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Thursday urged fellow members of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to step up cooperation to
confront the challenges posed by globalisation.
In light of the global economic slowdown and spluttering US economy, it was
more crucial than ever that ASEAN countries work closely together, Thaksin said
in a public speech on his first visit to the city-state as premier.
Thaksin singled out the realisation of the ASEAN Free Trade Area as the key
to accelerating intra-regional cooperation and pooling resources by the
10-member regional grouping to face up to the challenges of globalisation.
"If AFTA was considered significant for ASEAN's future when it was first
conceived, its materialisation has become more crucial than ever against the
backdrop of the adverse economic conditions in the world," Thaksin said.
"There can be surely no turning back if we are to realise our long awaited
goal of a vibrant ASEAN market of over 500 million people," he added, addressing
more than 1,200 delegates including leading businessmen, diplomats and
academics.
The ASEAN summit in November in Brunei "will be of great relevance in
reaffirming our political commitment to the ASEAN Free Trade Areaprocess and the
intensification of regional integration," Thaksin said.
No one country could afford to go it alone and it is only through sharing
of resources that the region can prosper, said the Thai premier, who was to
leave later Thurday after a two-day visit.
"Countries have found that there is strength in numbers and that such
groupings can enable the member countries to effectively pool their resources
for the benefit of the grouping as a whole," said Thaksin.
"One thing for sure is that countries no longer have the choice to stand
alone in isolation from the rest of the world. We must join hands together to
assist one another through these difficult times in order that we may face a
brighter and more prosperous future together."
It would not be easy to reach a consensus among the 10 ASEAN members but
"for the spirit of AFTA, we have to keep it alive and do our best and at the
same time we have to understand each other," he said.
Both Thailand and Singapore are ready to start the ball rolling for ASEAN
and other members can join later, Thaksin said.
Under the proposed AFTA agreement, ASEAN's six more developed members --
Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines and Singapore -- must cut
import tariffs to a maximum five percent by January 2003.
Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam have been given longer.
Malaysia has obtained a two-year reprieve for its heavily-protected auto
market, while the Philippines has said it may delay opening up its petrochemical
sector.
Thailand and Jakarta have sought compensation in the form of trade
concessions from Malaysia for the delay.
------------------------------------------------------------------ Thursday August 23, 8:56 PM
Two centuries of rare jewels to go on display next week in Delhi NEW DELHI, Aug 23 (AFP) - A
rare collection of jewels valued at up to 2.12 billion dollars and including the
world's third largest diamond will go on display for the first time next week at
India's National Museum in New Delhi, officials said Thursday.
The jewels, collected over 225 years by a dynasty in southern India, will
be on display for six weeks, at an exhibition to be opened Wednesday by Prime
Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
"This is the first time that the collection is being showcased for the
public," Culture and Tourism Ananth Kumar told reporters.
The jewels were amassed by seven generations of nizams, or Muslim rulers,
of the erstwhile princely state of Hyderabad beginning in the 18th century until
the early 1900s.
The collection consists of 173 pieces of jewellery -- including the Jacob
diamond, believed to be the third largest diamond in the world.
The bulk of the collection is made up of exquisitely crafted turban
ornaments, necklaces, belts, buckles, armlets, finger rings, toe rings, ear
rings, buttons and cuff links, combining the craftsmanship of artisans from
northern and southern India of the time.
"We could say the collection is worth anywhere between 30 billionmillion
dollars) to 100 billion rupees (2.12 billion dollars). One cannot evaluate
antiquity," Kumar said.
While most of the diamonds in the jewellery came from the Golconda mine in
central India, the collection contains emeralds from Colombia, rubies from
Myanmar and pearls from the Iraqi city of Basra, an official release said.
The collection had remained in the custody of two trusts created by the
last nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, to safeguard the family's wealth.
However, after India abolished the privy purses given to princes in 1972,
many noble families began sending precious belongings abroad for fear of them
being taken over by the government.
To stem the outflow, the government that year established an act allowing
it to "acquire and safeguard Indian antiques," Kumar said.
The government acquired the 173 pieces in 1995 after 17 years of protracted
legal battle and paying 2.18 billion rupees.
Kumar said elaborate security arrangments were in place for the New Delhi
exhibition, including special guards from the home ministry.
"The jewels are well secured," he said.
The jewels were brought to New Delhi in June by a special Indian air force
plane and kept in the strongest vault of the central bank, an Indian official
said.
The exhibition in New Delhi will be followed by another in Hyderabad, the
ancestral seat of the Asaf Jah dynasty.
------------------------------------------------------------------ Thursday August 23, 9:32 PM
Malaysia under fire for plan to whip illegals KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A Malaysian rights groups on Thursday chastised the government for renewing plans to whip illegal immigrants, saying it was punishing people cheated by employment syndicates. "Migrant workers sell, mortgage their land or property, enter into severe
debt through loans and pay for their legal employment in Malaysia," Tenaganita,
a woman's rights group which has done research on illegal labour in Malaysia,
said in a statement.
The statement said the government by proposing whipping to deal with the
problem was behaving like a batterer.
Deputy Prime Minister and Home (interior) Minister Abdullah Badawi said on
Wednesday a cabinet committee was considering whipping as a way of discouraging
illegal immigrants, whom labour unions estimate number more than a million in
Malaysia.
Higher fines against employers were also being considered, Abdullah said.
Most foreign workers in Malaysia come from Indonesia, India, Bangladesh,
Thailand, Myanmar and the Philippines.
The government had toyed before with the idea of whipping illegals, which
is practised in neighbouring Singapore, but dropped the plan after opposition
from rights groups.
But the arrest of some 50,000 foreigners for various immigration offences
in the first six months of this year seems to have prompted a rethink.
"The committee agreed on the need to adopt this approach as a deterrent,"
Abdullah said on Wednesday.
Authorities have stepped up deportation of illegals, sending 14,000 back in
the first seven months of the year and nearly 90,000 in 2000.
Tenaganita said its research showed that many foreigners became illegal
after arriving in Malaysia because those who brought them in failed to do the
necessary documentation.
It said there was no comprehensive policy or protection for foreign
labourers, adding a law proposed in 1995 to cover foreign workers' rights was
dropped without explanation.
------------------------------------------------------------------ Thursday August 23, 10:30 PM
Experts work to preserve Asia's traditional music SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Experts
from nine Southeast Asian nations are nearing completion of a three-year project
to document the region's fast-disappearing ethnic music.
"It's the survival of Asian music," project director Joseph Peters told
Reuters on the sidelines of a news conference in Singapore on Thursday. "As the
young begin to modernise, slowly it will dissipate."
The project, funded by the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN),
is one of the largest international music programmes in the world.
Even so, it captures only about 10 percent of the musical genres across the
region, Peters said.
Teams of local musicologists, music educators and technical staff from nine
ASEAN countries -- Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, the
Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam -- headed to villages and towns to record
people playing and singing traditional music.
The teams, which are finalising their work in Singapore this week, aim to
produce a book accompanied by 10 compact discs by the early part of next year.
"One of the main reasons why (traditional music) has not become part of the
life is because independence came very fast to our countries and we had to adapt
Western systems," said Peters, who is also head of the Singapore team.
The recordings include a Singapore Indian orchestra telling an epic story,
whimsical love songs sung by Vietnamese couples and heart-pounding percussion
from the Philippines played day and night in the rice planting season until the
first shoots emerge.
"Our traditional music is more functional than aesthetic," said Professor
Mohamed Ghouse bin Nasuruddin of the Universiti Sains Malaysia. "In rural areas,
our traditional music has connections with planting, exorcism and so on."
The book and CDs will be made available to educational institutions
worldwide when completed. The ASEAN Secretariat holds the copyrights to the
recordings and discussions are underway on whether to market the package
commercially.
"Westerners have always come and taken Asian music and incorporated it into
their curriculum but it's from their perspective," Peters said.
"(It's time) for us to do something for our own people."
------------------------------------------------------------------ Thursday August 23, 5:11 PM
Cambodia king hails Jakarta ties as Megawati visits By Ek Madra PHNOM PENH (Reuters) -
Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri visited Cambodia on Thursday on the
fourth leg of a whirlwind southeast Asian tour to reassure neighbours about her
efforts to deal with her country's woes.
Megawati was greeted at Phnom Penh's Pochentong airport by Cambodia's King
Norodom Sihanouk, after a brief morning stop-over in the northern Cambodian town
of Siem Reap, home to the famous 9th-12th century temples of Angkor.
Megawati was scheduled to meet top government officials at the Royal Palace
in Phnom Penh on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning before leaving for
Myanmar.
Before Megawati's arrival, King Sihanouk made rare comments to the media
hailing the close ties between the two countries.
"Her visit is aimed at improving our relationship and co-operating in all
fields together on the international stage," the king said.
Also on the tarmac to greet Megawati were Queen Norodom Monineath, National
Assembly President Prince Norodom Ranariddh and Senate President Chea Sim, along
with hundreds of flag-waving children, civil servants and diplomats.
Megawati started her Asian tour in the Philippines earlier this week, then
headed to Vietnam and Laos.
Cambodia is the fourth stop in an eight-day trip to all nine fellow member
states of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) -- the
Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Brunei, Singapore and
Malaysia.
Diplomats have said Megawati's regional tour was in part aimed at
displaying her confidence in weathering troubles at home.
Megawati's tour highlights a week of diplomatic forays by ASEAN leaders
anxious to find ways to put their countries back on the world investment map.
On Wednesday, Vietnam's Luong left on a four-day official visit to South
Korea, the first ever visit there by a Vietnamese president.
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo also began a trip this week to
Brunei and then Singapore.
Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who assumed office just four
months ago, flew to Singapore on Wednesday.
------------------------------------------------------------------ Lao premier ends 4-day visit to
Myanmar
YANGON, Aug. 22, Kyodo - Lao
Prime Minister Bounnhang Vorachit left Yangon on Wednesday, ending a four-day
goodwill visit to Myanmar.
Accompanied by his wife and a 19-member entourage, the Lao leader arrived
Sunday and immediately held talks with Myanmar leaders led by Prime Minister Sr.
Gen. Than Shwe the same day.
The Lao forestry, industry and deputy transport ministers also held talks
with their Myanmar counterparts Sunday.
While the official Lao delegation visited industrial sites and a special
agricultural zone near Yangon on Monday, Vorachit's wife visited the Women's
Development Center and the gemology museum before the group left for sightseeing
in Mandalay.
They returned to the capital Wednesday and then left for Vientiane.
------------------------------------------------------------------ The Norway Post
22. August 2001 Kvaerner pulls out of Burma contract The Norwegian company Kvaerner has pulled out of a contract with Premier
Petroleum Myanmar Ltd of Burma.
The political situation in the country is given as reason for the Kvaerner
pull-out.
Kvaerner's Singapore office first announced the signing of a contract with
Premier Petroleum Myanmar for the upgrading of an oil platform.
However, as soon as the European leadership were informed of the contract,
they ordered the Singapore office to pull out of the deal, NRK reports.
The contract for upgrading of the Yetagun platform was worth US$ 30
million, around NOK 267 million.
Kvaerner had completed the preliminary work for the project in April this
year, according to a press release from the company.
There is no legal Norwegian boycott of Burma, but the Norwegian authorities
have urged Norwegian firms to refrain from investing in the country.
------------------------------------------------------------------ Bangkok Post - August 23,
2001
FOUR-NATION DRUGS FIGHT
-Ministerial meeting a crucial decider
China wants to hear if summit necessary
Sa-nguan Khumrungroj
China made clear yesterday that next week's ministerial meeting in Beijing
will be crucial to its decision to host a four-country drug summit later this
year.
Chinese, Burmese, Lao and Thai ministers are due to discuss Thailand's
proposal for drug suppression co-operation among the four countries at the Aug
27-28 meeting.
While reaffirming China's support for the idea, Wang Yi, deputy foreign
minister, said Beijing wanted to hear the views of the other countries before
deciding whether ``it is necessary or not'' to hold a leaders' summit.
The proposed summit was discussed during Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji's visit
to Thailand in May.
Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said at the time that China offered
Kunming as the summit venue.
Senior officials met in Rangoon early this month.
The ministerial meeting in Beijing will coincide with Prime Minister
Thaksin Shinawatra's official visit to China.
Mr Wang made the remarks to the Bangkok Post after discussing plans for Mr
Thaksin's visit with Nitya Pibulsonggram, permanent secretary for foreign
affairs.
Mr Wang said Mr Thaksin's choice of China as the first non-Asean country to
visit showed the importance he attached to relations with China.
Mr Wang said there was ``huge potential'' for investment co-operation
between the two countries.
He said Thai businessmen should look at the potential of landlocked regions
in southwestern China in particular.
Mr Wang, who is in charge of Asian affairs, came to Thailand.
He visited the Philippines and Singapore before coming here, and is due to
leave for Burma today.
------------------------------------------------------------------ Bangkok Post - August 23,
2001.
Armed men take hostage into Burma
A villager was abducted by four armed men near the Thai-Burmese border in
Bang Saphan district on Tuesday and taken into Burma.
Police said Chaisak sae Fong, from village No 9, tambon Ronthong, was
taking his cattle to graze when he was stopped by the men armed with
machine-guns, pistols and hand grenades who forced him to take the cattle into
Burma.
A few hours later, they returned to ransack his house. They made off with
1,000 baht in cash and some rice.
Before leaving they told Mr Chaisak's wife, Wassana, to pay a ransom of
400,000 baht for his release.
She informed police of the abduction. Police and military authorities
yesterday set up a co-ordinating centre and contacted a Burmese military unit to
find out which minority group operating in the area was responsible for the
abduction.
There are two minority groups in the area _ the Mon and the Karen.
Local and border patrol police were sent to all passes along the
Thai-Burmese border in Bang Saphan to block the abductors' escape.
------------------------------------------------------------------ Indian Company to Build Dyeing
Factory for Myanmar
Xinhuanet 2001.08.23 10:02:00 YANGON, August 23 (Xinhuanet) -- An Indian company has reached a contract here with Myanmar to build a dyeing and printing factory in the country's northern Mandalay division. The contract between the PEC Ltd of India and the Myanma Textile
Industries of the Ministry of Industry No.1 was signed on Wednesday,
official newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported Thursday.
The Yamethin dyeing and printing factory construction project will be
implemented on a plot of 6.68 hectares, 8 kilometers north of Yamethin in the
division, within 11 months after the signing of the contract, it said.
According to an earlier official report, India's Angelique
International Ltd signed a number of contracts in June respectively with
organizations under Myanmar's Ministry of Industry No.2 for purchasing
machinery totally worth 4.8 million U. S. dollars to be used at production
factories of the ministry.
India began investing in Myanmar only in February 1999 with 4.5 million
dollars as a new foreign investor out of those from 25 countries and
regions investing in Myanmar.
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