|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
BURMA RELATED NEWS - September
11, 2001.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
HEADLINES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- AFP - Mahathir, Lee show contrasting styles at
ASEAN business awards
Reuters - Thailand to grant GSP rights to three
neighbours
Reuters - Mahathir warns ASEAN of trade
globalisation risks
Bkk Post - Shan accept
olive branch
Bkk Post - EDITORIAL - How to turn off the
refugee flood
AlertNet - Myanmar police seize pills,
guns from drug camps
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday September 11, 5:30 PM
Mahathir, Lee show contrasting styles at ASEAN business awards SINGAPORE, Sept 11 (AFP) -
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Singapore Senior Minister Lee Kuan
Yew displayed a wide ideological chasm when they accepted a joint award here as
Southeast Asia's elder statesmen.
The two veteran politicians were jointly honoured by the region's business
community in a black-tie dinner late Monday for their services to the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). But that's where the similarity
ended.
While Singapore's founding father pressed for "stronger connections" with
the world's major economies, Mahathir launched a tirade against the world
economic order and called for the imposition of a tax on rich countries.
While Lee said that the region had lost its clout after the 1997 financial
crisis, Mahathir hailed ASEAN as an "economic and political force that has to be
reckoned with," one that could "play a role to bring about a more equitable
world economic order."
Railing against the "unscrupulous rogue currency traders" who he said
orchestrated the crash of 1997, the 75-year-old Malaysian premier made repeated
calls for ASEAN to form a united front for global financial reforms.
"Clearly the trend in globalisation is towards maximising the opportunities
for the already rich to make more and more money at the expense of the
sovereignty of countries," said Mahathir, an outspoken champion of the
grievances of the developing world.
He urged ASEAN countries to look closely at the record and proposed agenda
of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as "we must know fully and exactly what
are the possibilities and dangers which the international economic regime will
pose for us" before the next WTO ministerial meeting in Doha, Qatar.
Adding that matters like labour standards, human rights, democracy and
child labour must be discussed in other forums, he said linking them with trade
and investment only puts tremendous pressure on poor countries.
"The rich countries had taken more than a century to reach their present
status of social, economic and political sophistication. It is unrealistic to
expect developing countries to achieve such levels of sophistication overnight,"
he said.
Mahathir, who drew laughter when he called himself the "universal
recalcitrant," repeated a proposal to impose a tax on rich countries in order to
"return some of their profits to the world," daring ASEAN countries to advocate
the idea.
Lee too said that ASEAN governments had important roles to play but urged
them to build stronger links with world major economies like the Australia, the
European Union, Japan, New Zealand and the United States.
And while Mahathir said ASEAN was moving towards a truly integrated
economy, Lee was less bullish.
"Unless investors can use the comparative and competitive advantages of the
different countries of ASEAN ... we may be sidelined," said the 77-year-old, who
served as Singapore's prime minister from 1959 to 1990.
The two leaders are the last members of the older generation of ASEAN
leaders -- who once included the late Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines and
the ailing former Indonesian ruler Suharto -- still in positions of power.
They were given the ASEAN Achievement Millennium Award by the ASEAN
Business Forum, receiving silver medallions engraved with their faces plus
handcrafted crystal trophies.
ASEAN, which groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar,
the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, was formed in 1967 as a
pro-western grouping and a forum for addressing regional tensions.
It unites a market of more than 500 million people and is striving to
create a free trade zone within the decade.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday September 11, 3:33 PM
Thailand to grant GSP rights to three neighbours BANGKOK, Sept 11 (Reuters) -
Thai Finance Minister Somkid Jatusripitak said on Tuesday Thailand would soon
give preferential tariff treatment for products imported from Laos, Vietnam and
Myanmar.
Somkid told reporters reduced tariff rates under Thailand's Generalised
System of Preferences (GSP) of zero to five percent would be adopted mostly for
agricultural products and commodities bought from the three countries.
He said the favoured tariffs would be effective after Thailand announced
its decision at an AFTA (ASEAN Free Trade Area) Council meeting in Hanoi on
September 14.
The minister said Thailand would give GSP rights to 24 Laotian products out
of about 65 items sought by the country. Vietnam would be entitled to reduced
tariffs for 19 products out of 65 requested items, and Myanmar, 30 out of 80.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday September 11, 2:02 AM
Mahathir warns ASEAN of trade globalisation risks SINGAPORE (Reuters) -
Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, in his familiar stance as a defender
of developing countries, warned South East Asian nations on Monday to look after
themselves first before backing trade globalisation.
Mahathir, speaking in Singapore after receiving ASEAN Achievement
Millennium Award, said countries in ASEAN (the Association of South East Asian
Nations) must first reach a consensus before giving support to the formulation
of a new international trade and investment regime.
"If ASEAN is to be meaningful it must look after the interest of all its
members," he said.
Mahathir, still furious over currency traders' attack on the region four
years ago, also repeated his verbal attacks on them, together with developed
countries and the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
He said nowhere should ASEAN be more united than in any negotiation of a
new world economic order at the WTO's next meeting in Doha, Qatar, in November.
The European Union and the United States hope to launch a new round of
world trade liberalisation talks in Doha to help boost a flagging world economy.
"We have had a foretaste of globalisation when the currency traders
devalued our currencies and precipitated a financial crisis of unprecedented
severity," he said.
BORDERLESS MARKTET
Mahathir said what was frightening was the preparation being made by "the
rich" to take full advantage of the WTO and the free borderless market.
"We see the huge corporations and banks of the rich already merging and
acquiring each other so that they become colossal and unbeatable," he said.
"But when business corporations become richer and bigger than most nation
states, they will want to dictate to the whole world so as to cater to their
unlimited greed. Nations will cease to be independent," Mahathir said.
Singapore's Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew, was also given the ASEAN award.
In his speech, he said that unless investors could use the comparative and
competitive advantages of ASEAN to manufacture and carry out final assembly of
different products for sale within ASEAN and for export, the ASEAN region might
be sidelined.
"The logic of the situation is simple. If ASEAN is a joint market of 500
million people, though with less average per capita purchasing power than
China's 1.25 billion, the prospects must be better for all in ASEAN," Lee said.
Mahathir and Lee were presented with specially struck medallions bearing
their portraits for creating dynamic economies with political stability.
The WTO's last effort to launch world trade talks collapsed amid street
protests and teargas in Seattle in December 1999, when countries failed to agree
on a negotiating agenda.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Sep 11,
2001.
Shan accept olive branch
Subin Khuenkaew
The Shan State Army is ready to hold peace talks with Rangoon if asked, or
fight on, its leader Col Yodsuek said.
The SSA leader and chairman of the Shan State Restoration Council told the
Bangkok Post his group would be willing to hold talks with the Burmese
government at any time to bring about peace in Burma.
Preliminary discussions should be co-ordinated by Thai authorities, he
said. This would ensure the SSA and Rangoon would have the chance to learn out
what the other side wanted to raise at peace talks, Col Yodsuek said.
``In fact, I am ready in every way, either to continue our fight with
Burmese troops or to enter into peace talks,'' he said.
`` In 1999 and 2000 I sent letters asking for talks with Burma but there
was no response. We thought that Burma just wanted to fight us.''
Col Yodsuek said the SSA's 758th division was continuing the battle against
five Burmese five battalions near Kengtung and Nam Jang towns in Shan state as
part of the SSA's fight against deforestation.
Asia World Company had obtained a concession from Rangoon to log in
Kengtung's abundant teak forest.
He said a number of Burmese soldiers were reported killed in clashes at Nam
Jang, about 150km northwest of Mae Hong Son province.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Sep 11,
2001.
EDITORIAL - How to turn off the
refugee flood
Less than 20 years ago, Thailand provided shelter for more than one million
refugees from Indochina, China and Burma. That emergency has ended. Although the
country still houses tens of thousands of unfortunate people, officials describe
refugees as a manageable problem. Most come from Burma, where the region's most
tyrannical government drives people from their homes.
Thailand, in a way, is fortunate. The world refugee situation has grown
worse in the last 20 years. As Thailand slowly emptied and closed its refugee
camps, the number of oppressed people fleeing tyrannical, violent or just
shamefully incompetent governments has grown. Millions are on the move or are
camped in often life-threatening filth and poverty. Since 1989, more than five
million people have applied for asylum in the European Community. More than 3.7
million Afghans alone live in refugee camps in Iran and Pakistan.
Last month, Australia focussed the spotlight on the world's refugee problem
in an unfortunate manner. After asking a Norwegian freighter to rescue a
foundering boatload of Afghans, Canberra flatly refused to allow any of the
400-plus people to set foot on Australian soil. A week of high drama and low
diplomacy resulted in acceptance of the refugees by New Zealand and Nauru. Only
the four Indonesian people smugglers were taken to the Australian mainland _ for
trial.
The drama off Christmas Island highlighted the complicated, sad and venal
sides of the refugee problem. The 400 people rescued by the freighter all had
paid a high price for their less-than-steerage voyage to Indonesia. Gangs work
throughout Asia organising groups of refugees. Passport forgers, corrupt
immigration officers, crews of small boats all take their cuts of exorbitant
people smuggling fees.
Those who suffer, just as 20 years ago, are the mistreated refugees and the
tiny number of smuggling gang members who are arrested and brought to justice.
Yet the source of the refugee problem does not lie with the refugees _ because
people will always seek a better way of life for themselves and their families.
Australia also is wrong that the refugee traffickers lie at the bottom of the
problem. They only exist to fill a demand.
Governments today are as obstinately unwilling as 20 years ago to speak out
or act against the blatantly violent or inept policies which create refugees.
The Burmese in Thailand, like their brother Afghan, Iranian, Cuban or North
Korean refugees, want to live in their own countries. They have fled violent,
uncompromising governments who often have driven them out.
Successful, prosperous and ethical governments attempt to support all
citizens. Most countries in the world do not cause their citizens to flee. They
open lines of discussion, they seek to meet popular aspirations, they provide
channels where discontented people can voice their ideas and make alternative
suggestions. The Burmas, Afghanistans, North Koreas and Cubas of this world
demand everyone obey a single, rigid concept.
Stopping the flow of refugees cannot be achieved by force. Australia will
continue to fight a human tide if it focusses only on the middlemen who shunt
refugees from their home countries to Australia. The policies of the Taleban,
the war in Sri Lanka and the rigid authoritarianism of Iran make refugees.
People will always flee the violent military junta in Rangoon and the rigid
Stalinism of Pyongyang.
So long as the world community puts up with uncivilised, violent behaviour
of its own members, it also will suffer the flood of refugees. When governments
give their citizens a chance to prosper in freedom and security, the flood will
stop.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- AlertNet
11 Sep 2001 06:08
Myanmar police seize pills, guns from drug camps YANGON, Sept 11 (Reuters) -
Myanmar police seized weapons and over four million methamphetamine pills in
raids on drug refining camps near the Chinese border in August, state-media said
on Tuesday.
Anti-drug squads also uncovered 110 kg (242 lb) of opium, the raw form of
heroin, when they arrested a trafficker in the Kokang Region, 670 miles north
east of the capital Yangon.
"Moreover, authorities...seized three arms and China-made handgrenades and
chemicals for drug refining," official media reported.
Cross-border cooperation between China and Myanmar to try and stem the tide
of illegal drugs from the region has increased since an accord signed in
January.
Yangon has signed a similar agreement with Bangkok, but relations between
the two countries have long been uneasy because of Thailand's claims drugs from
Myanmar are flooding across the border.
Bangkok has said the United Wa State Army (UWSA), an ethnic minority
militia group allied to the Yangon government, is the main producer of heroin
and the hundreds of millions of methamphetamine pills flooding Thailand.
Myanmar denies the UWSA is involved in the drugs trade and says the rebel
Shan State Army (SSA) is the region's main drug producer. Yangon has accused the
Thai army of backing the SSA and profiting from the drugs trade.
Thai-Myanmar relations have improved in recent months after a series of
high level exchanges but earlier this year there were several skirmishes along
their 2,400 km (1,490 mile) border.
Drug addiction is growing in China, and the country has become an important
gateway for heroin produced in the Golden Triangle, which straddles Myanmar,
Thailand and Laos.
Ministers from Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and China met in Beijing last month
to discuss ways to improve cooperation in the war on drugs.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- |