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BURMA RELATED NEWS - December
09, 2001.
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HEADLINES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- AFP - Thai company to build 5.25 mln dlr resort
in Myanmar: report
AFP - Nobel peace laureates join call for
release of Aung San Suu Kyi
AFP - Malaysia's human rights situation worsened
this year: group
AP - Annan Arrives to Accept Nobel
Prize
The Observer - Call to boycott Burma bras
Bkk Post - Activists
want Suu Kyi freed on peace prize anniversary
The Nation - Burmese closing in on
Shan
Xinhuanet - TV Relay Stations Reach 145 in
Myanmar
Xinhuanet - Myanmar to Open First Maritime
University
NSTP - 423 illegals rounded up in major police
ops
NSTP - Illegals also caught up in balik lampung
rush
BBC - Peace greats urge Suu Kyi
release
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday December 9, 3:38 PM
Thai company to build 5.25 mln dlr resort in Myanmar: report BANGKOK, Dec 9 (AFP) - A Thai
company plans to build a 5.25-million-dollar hotel in Myanmar catering to
domestic tourists and international travellers on package tours, a report said
Sunday.
Singthong Thammarongwit, director of Jaguar Travel and Tour Company, signed
an agreement with Myanmar's hotel and tourism chief Khin Maung Latt to build the
100-room resort hotel, the Myanmar Times newspaper reported.
The property -- to be built over two years in the military-ruled state --
will be located in a border area near the Three Pagodas Pass, famous as a
stopping point along the route of the infamous World War II "death railway."
The historic railway, featured in the book and film "The Bridge on the
River Kwai", was built under deadly conditions by thousands of Allied and Asian
prisoners of war held by the Japanese military.
Khin Maung Latt reportedly praised the project, saying it would create jobs
for local residents and would boost tourism in Myanmar.
The hotel and tourism chief estimated that the resort would lead to a
four-fold increase in the number of tourists visiting the Three Pagodas Pass,
according to the Myanmar Times.
An official from Myanmar's Hotels and Tourism Ministry was quoted as saying
that Thai tourists would be allowed to cross the border at the pass, but only
international tourists on package tours would be able to stay at the
hotel.
The resort would be the latest such venture launched by Thai investors in
Myanmar.
Last week, a Thai senator and businessman announced plans to build a nudist
colony on Myanmar's St Luke's island in the Andaman Sea, for which he was
granted a 45-year concession.
Local reports said the Thai entrepreneur, Vikrom Isiri, earlier launched a
casino and luxury hotel on Myanmar's Son island, also in the Andaman Sea, for
which he also has a 45-year concession.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday December 9, 1:27
PM
(AFP)Nobel peace laureates join call for release of Aung San Suu Kyi Twenty Nobel Peace Prize winners led a worldwide appeal demanding that Myanmar's military rulers release 1991 Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and free 1,500 other political detainees. The laureates, led by South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and East Timor
independence leader Jose Ramos-Horta, signed the appeal here as the highlight of
a worldwide series of ceremonies marking the 10th anniversary Saturday of Aung
San Suu Kyi's Nobel award.
Gathered under a winter drizzle in front of Norway's parliament, the
laureates demanded that Burmese military ruler General Than Swe "release Aung
San Suu Kyi and all political detainees, providing for their freedom of speech,
movement and association without restriction."
Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik backed the appeal, while US
President George W. Bush issued a statement here praising her as a "tireless
champion for democracy and human rights," but stopping short of joining the
demand for release of Myanmar political prisoners.
"Her actions demonstrate how a life of quiet dignity can serve as a
powerful force for good," he said of the democracy campaigner, who has been
under house arrest for 15 months and has not left Myanmar for more than a decade
for fear the army will bar her return.
Tutu, in Oslo with the other Nobel Peace laureates for five days of events
marking the centennial of the prize, said of the diminutive activist: "In moral
stature, she is a giant.
"Big men are scared of her. Armed to the teeth and they still run
scared."
Bondevik, who visited Aung San Suu Kyi in the Myanmar capital of Yangon in
1997, lamented that she had never been able to travel to Norway to receive her
prize, awarded in 1991.
"Her decades-long efforts for non-violent political change are a flame of
hope for all democracy," Bondevik said.
Former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright, gathered with other US
dignitaries in Washington, addressed the assembly by video link saying, "We
stand together, united across lines of party and confession, nation and race,
gender and creed to honor her cause and call for her freedom and that of her
people."
"To Burma's leaders, our message is this: 'You and you alone are
repsonsible for your nation's isolation and misery.
"Your time is not forever and you will be remembered with contempt unless
you begin now to move towards democractic change."
The Nobel letter called on Than Swe, head of the ruling military "State
Peace and Development Council," to comply with UN resolutions demanding
negotiations with political parties and ethnic minorities on a return to
democracy.
Tibetan spritual leader Dalai Lama, former Polish president Lech Walesa,
and writer and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel were among the other Nobel
laureats who signed the letter.
In parallel with the Oslo ceremony, gatherings were organised Saturday in
some 35 other cities, from Tokyo to London and Washington, broadcast by
satellite to 140 locations and available over the Internet, organizers
said.
In Yangon, the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) reopened a
key office Saturday to mark the 10th anniversary of Aung San Suu Kyi's
prize.
In their letter, the Nobel Peace laureates welcomed recent steps by Myanmar
authorities such as the release of some political prisoners and easing of some
curbs on political activities.
But they noted that, according to Amnesty International, 1,500 NLD
supporters remain in detention, including 19 elected members of
parliament.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday December 9, 5:35 PM
Malaysia's human rights situation worsened this year: group KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 9 (AFP) -
Malaysia's human rights situation worsened this year amid rising arrests under a
draconian security law allowing detention without trial, a rights group charged
Sunday.
The number of people detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for
their political and religious beliefs rose from four last year to 25 this year,
Suaram said in its annual human rights report.
At least 400 arrests were made by police in connection with peaceful
assemblies and political rallies were frozen nationwide since July,
It said the government also seized on the September 11 terror attacks in
the United States to legitimise its use of the ISA and other arbitrary
detentions.
"2001 has been a very bad year for human rights," Suaram director Kua Kia
Soong told a news conference.
"The government seems to be setting the climate that allows the use of ISA
and for compromise on human rights... it is a setback for human rights in this
country."
Kua said more than 80 non-governmental organisations earlier this year
began a campaign seeking the abolition of the ISA but the move was "sabotaged"
by the September 11 tragedy -- used by the government to justify the need for
the law.
"The ISA is an instrument of state terrorism. It is a convenient (excuse)
to keep young opposition leaders under detention," he said.
More than a dozen leaders of opposition parties were detained under the ISA
earlier this year on claims they were trying to topple the government but no
evidence was made public.
The report said a total of 2,520 people were detained this year under
various detention without trial laws including the ISA.
"Crackdowns and punitive measures taken against university students for
speaking up also increased tremendously in 2001," it said. Two student leaders
were earlier this year detained under ISA and those vocal in their dissent were
either expelled, suspended or fined.
The report said 78 people were banned in May from travelling overseas for
having tarnished Malaysia's image on previous trips, while 2,291 foreign
nationals have been blacklisted from entering Malaysia.
It said this year also witnessed "unabated torture in custody, some leading
to death," citing several cases which escaped public attention.
The country also continued to mete out the death penalty for various
offences ranging from drug trafficking to murder, with 159 people currently on
death row pending appeals.
Kua said the National Human Rights of Commission (Suhakam) lacked serious
committment to its cause and appeared to "back down each time it receives some
flak from the government."
He noted that Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in his keynote address at an
international forum in Dubai in April said he felt "good" dictators were needed
in some developing countries to cope with globalisation.
"If these words are anything to go by, the status of human rights in
Malaysia may well be facing gloomier days... we are headed towards stormier
weather," Kua added.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday December 8 2:42 PM ET
Annan Arrives to Accept Nobel Prize By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer OSLO, Norway (AP) - U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) arrived Saturday to accept his
Nobel Peace Prize, as several laureates from previous years ended a peace
symposium marking the 100-year anniversary of the award.
The three-day gathering, which drew 28 Nobel Peace Prize winners to discuss
global conflict in the 21st century, was held amid increased violence in the
Middle East and the U.S.-led war against terrorism.
Norwegian Nobel Committee member Gunnar Staalsett called the leveled World
Trade Center as ``a symbol of this age'' and said the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks
were ``a hijacking of our common values.''
Several participants said terrorism should be fought by addressing social
problems and arms control, not with military strikes, and warned against
violating human rights in the campaign against terror.
``The victory of terrorism is to convert democracies into parties of
terrorist states and we should jealously watch that this will not happen,''
Staalsett said in closing remarks at the Holmenkollen resort on the slopes above
the Oslo fjord.
Later, laureates led by Jose Ramos-Horta and Desmond Tutu rallied at the
Norwegian parliament and signed an appeal for the release of Myanmar's democracy
movement leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Suu Kyi, who won the peace prize in 1991, has been detained at her home in
Myanmar, also known as Burma, since September 2000 after she defied official
restrictions by attempting to travel outside the capital, Yangon, for a
political meeting.
Annan will receive the $940,000 award, which he shares with the United
Nations (news - web sites), in an elaborate ceremony Monday at Oslo's city hall,
followed by a banquet.
Arriving at the airport, Annan called the United Nations a ``unique,
indispensable organization.''
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the peace prize to the United Nations
and the secretary-general on Oct. 12 for their roles at the ``forefront of
efforts to achieve peace and security in the world.''
Annan was to deliver the Nobel lecture after receiving the award, while the
president of the U.N. General Assembly, South Korean Foreign Minister Han
Seung-soo, will accept on behalf of the organization.
The awards were created by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel in his will
and are always presented on the anniversary of his 1896 death.
The prizes in literature, medicine, physics, chemistry and economics are
presented the same day in Stockholm, Sweden, where more than 160 laureates were
gathering for similar centennial celebrations.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Call to boycott Burma bras
Campaigners target lingerie made famous by Nell McAndrew in protest over factory where workers earn 70p a day Nick Paton Walsh Sunday December 9, 2001 The Observer A leading line of luxury lingerie, promoted by Kelly Brook and Nell
McAndrew, will be subjected to a fierce boycott campaign this week. As part of
the protest, women will be urged to 'support breasts, not dictators' in a series
of posters of models wearing barbed-wire bras.
Campaigners are furious that the lingerie manufacturer Triumph International has rented a factory in Burma, where workers are paid 70p a day, and where the military leaders have a record of human rights abuses and use of slave labour. The protesters want the company to withdraw from the troubled state and
will this week launch its anti-Burma campaign, just as Triumph starts to promote
its latest line of lingerie using a computer-generated 'cyber model', similar to
Lara Croft.
'Triumph are clearly in Burma for the abundance of cheap labour and the
prospect of a "compliant" workforce,' said Yvette Mahon, director of Burma
Campaign, the organisers of the protest. 'They are supporting - financially,
politically and morally - an illegitimate military junta that oppresses and
impoverishes 48 million people.'
In the past, Triumph has used TV presenter Brook and the model McAndrew -
upon whose physique the video game character Lara Croft was based - to promote
their products. But now the provocative poses are to be mimicked in new posters
featuringmodels wearing barbed-wired underwear.
In recent months, other British high street retailers, including BHS and
Burton Menswear, have ended involvement in the region in the face of public
protests about work conditions there.
This latest campaign is particularly controversial because it is also
claimed the factory site was refurbished by child labour just before Triumph
moved in. Last week the company refused to comment on this.
It did admit to paying tax to the Burmese government, prompting criticism
that it was providing 'financial support' for the regime. Yet it said its
concern for its workers was very important, and that none of the items made in
the Burma factory was sold in Europe. It also added that a worker in its factory
is paid the same as a middle-ranking Burmese civil servant, and 'in that
situation it is more than acceptable'.
But working practices in Burma have been condemned by the United Nations'
International Labour Organisation. European employers have been urged not to
'perpetuate or abet' forced labour in Burma.
'It is particularly incumbent upon foreign governments and companies to be
extremely careful not to be seen to be supporting a regime or set of economic
practices which are clearly contrary to international human rights. They should
also not be seen to exploit the people of Burma,' said Peter Brannen, director
of the ILO, London.
Spokeswomen for Brook and McAndrew, whose contracts to promote the firm
have expired, said they were not aware of Triumph's involvement in Burma..
Burma, otherwise known as Myanmar, held elections in 1990 in which the
opposition party of Aung San Suu Kyi won a decisive victory. But the military
junta refused to relinquish power and Aung San Suu Kyi has been persecuted ever
since.
Activists have tried to enforce a worldwide economic boycott, and the
British Government discourages trade, tourism and investment in the state. MPs
voiced their fury at the factory, which Triumph hires from the Union of Myanmar
Economic Holdings (UMEH), in which the Burmese Ministry of Defence has a 40 per
cent shareholding. It is claimed the board members of UMEH are also linked to
the military.
'This is outrageous,' said Jenny Tonge MP, international development
spokeswoman for the Liberal Democrats, who has Rachel Goldwyn, the activist who
was jailed in Burma for singing a pro-democracy song, among her constituents.
'It is a terrible state,' she said. 'They should not invest in a country
that abuses human rights in this way.'
Triumph International is owned by a German parent company, which has number
of international subsidiaries, including one registered in Britain. It insisted
the conditions of its workers 'met European standards'. The company says the
factory is run under the 'Triumph Code of Conduct', and so no child or forced
labour is used and the factory is safe. Workers also receive paid holiday and
sick leave.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - December 09,
2001.
Activists want Suu Kyi freed on peace
prize anniversary
Vow to continue push for democracy
Supamart Kasem
Burmese pro-democracy groups have demanded the release of the country's
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to mark the 10th anniversary of her being
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
About 100 members of more than 20 pro-democracy groups made the call during
celebrations marking the Nobel Prize's centenary and tomorrow's 10th anniversary
of Mrs Suu Kyi's prize.
The celebrations were at a fair held by the National Council of the Union
of Burma, the country's parliament in exile, in Tak, near the Thai-Burmese
border.
Among participants were the Karen National Union's supreme commander Gen
Tamalabaw, the NCUB's health minister, and representatives from the All Burma
Students' Democratic Front.
Burma's military regime, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC),
has held the opposition leader under house arrest since September last year. It
is the second time Mrs Suu Kyi _ leader of Burma's main opposition party, the
National League for Democracy _ has been under house arrest. A NCUB statement
said the celebrations were aimed at showing the world that Burmese people would
continue pushing for democracy.
``We consider Aung San Suu Kyi as the people's leader. She deserves the
world's great honour for her sacrifice, bravery and fight for better things _
democracy and peace _ for the Burmese people,'' the statement read.
Rangoon should release her and all of the country's estimated 1,500
political prisoners without condition and allow Burmese political parties to
organise political activities freely, the statement read. NCUB secretary-general
Maung Maung Aye said there was no sign the Burmese regime would free up the
country with no progress in talks between the NLD and the council.
``More than 1,500 political prisoners, including many MPs, are in jail. Ten
of them were recently sentenced to seven more years in prison. Bans have been
imposed on activities by political parties. This shows that the SPDC does not
want democracy in Burma.''
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE NATION, MAE SOT
Burmese closing in on Shan Wiwatchai Somkum Published on Dec 9, 2001 Almost a thousand Burmese soldiers and their Wa allies are moving in on
rebel Shan positions along the Thai-Burmese border, and Thai troops are on high
alert to prevent fighting from spilling across the border.
Army officials yesterday said they believed the large mustering of troops
could be the prelude to the beginning of all-out fighting.
About 20 flatbed trucks, each carrying about 50 Burmese and Wa soldiers
from the border town of Tachilek, are heading towards a Shan State Army (SSA)
stronghold in Mong Kan, about 35 kilometres north of Tachilek.
Many had mortars and all were armed with light assault weapons, said one
Thai Army officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Border officers said Thai troops had been placed on high alert, amid
growing fears fighting could spill over the border into Thailand.
The officer said Thai soldiers had spotted Wa troops digging deep into
positions along the border road near Mae Fah Luang district. The Wa are said to
be preparing for a possible assault by Shan rebels.
The area, exposed on a hilltop with little room to manoeuvre or escape, has
come under attack by the SSA in the past, resulting in heavy casualties on the
government side.
Sporadic clashes between the Shan rebels and the Burmese have occurred
during the past three weeks. But the current mobilisation of troops could very
well be "the beginning of an all-out offensive by the Burmese side," the officer
said.
The SSA is reinforcing troops in the area, he added.
The ethnic Wa soldiers are members of the United Wa State Army (UWSA), a
pro-Rangoon group that signed a cease-fire with the military government in 1989
in return for autonomy.
Headquartered in Panghsang, on the Burma-China border, the UWSA has during
the past decade expanded its operations along the Thai border, as well as
relocating ethnic Wa and Chinese from the northern areas to newly created towns
adjacent to Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai provinces.
Previous Thai governments have declared the UWSA a threat to the nation's
security and closed off border checkpoints leading to the group's southern
strongholds.
But the current administration has reversed the policy by establishing
dialogue with the drug army.
Thai officials have reportedly promised to help the Wa drug army with
financing what they claim is a major crop-substitution scheme.
And yet some observers have suggested the scheme is destined for failure
because the UWSA itself, not local villagers, is in direct control of Burma's
massive illicit drug industry.
Methamphetamine, opium and refined heroin are smuggled across the porous
Thai-Burmese border in vast amounts each year.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- TV Relay Stations Reach 145 in
Myanmar
Xinhuanet 2001-12-09 13:23:04 YANGON, December 9 (Xinhuanet)
-- Television (TV) relay stations operating in the whole of Myanmar have reached
145, said an official of the Myanmar information authorities recently.
U Khin Maung Htay, director general of the state-run Myanma Radio and TV
(MRTV), said the department plans to open two more such stations by the end of
this year, one at Ayeyawaddy division's Pathein, about 160.9 kilometers
(km) west of Yangon and the other at Bago division's Minhla, 160.9 km
northwest of the capital.
Myanmar's TV relay stations use equipment imported from China, Italy and
Japan.
Myanmar has a regular viewers of the MRTV programs which account for nearly
90 percent of the country's total population,
the official said, adding that the programs broadcast for an average of 10 hours a day during the week and 14 hours a day at weekends. TV was introduced in Myanmar in 1980 and the country has two TVstations --
the state-run MRTV and the military-operated Myawaddy TV.
Meanwhile, the country is also making efforts to promote its radio and TV
services in conformity with global changes and
development, arranging to upgrade its radio and TV machine and equipment by changing its present TV system to digital one. The MRTV is now made available of transmission of satellite news with the
cooperation of the Cable Networks News (CNN) and the Japan Broadcasting
Corporation (NHK).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar to Open First Maritime
University
Xinhuanet 2001-12-09 12:10:00 YANGON, December 9 (Xinhuanet)
-- Myanmar will open a Maritime University, the first ever one in the country,
in August next year, aiming at producing international-standard maritime
officers, engineers and architects for ship building, according to sources at
the Myanmar Ministry of Transport Sunday.
At the university run by the ministry, six degree courses will be conducted
which cover naval architecture, marine engineering, port and harbor engineering,
river and ocean engineering, marine electrical systems and electronics, and
nautical science.
The university will initially admit a total of 300 students to study these
courses, each of which takes five years, the sources said.
Meanwhile, the Myanmar government is also planning to open an Aerospace
Engineering University to produce aerospace engineers.
According to official statistics, the government built 110 universities and
colleges in the last 13 years since 1988 when it took office, bringing the total
number of institutes of higher learning to 142 at present.
Meanwhile, during the period, the number of students studying at these
higher education institutions increased by 416,719, bringing their total number
to 556,456.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- The New Straits Times Press
KUALA LUMPUR 423 illegals rounded up in major police ops by Lee Shi-Ian Police rounded up about 423 illegal immigrants, including 39 children,
during a major operation conducted here early this morning.
Sixty-four women were also among those picked up by police during the
seven-hour operation which began at 11pm.
Police also arrested 15 drug addicts who were caught by surprise as they
were 'chasing the dragon' having just 'shot up'.
About 850 personnel from various agencies participated in the operation led
by deputy city police chief Datuk Dell Akbar Khan.
Personnel from the Selangor and city police headquarters, Sentul and Gombak
district police headquarters, General Operations Force, Federal Reserve Unit,
Rela, police air wings and dog tracking unit participated in the
operation.
This is one of the biggest operations which we have mounted to crack down
on illegal immigrants, Dell said.
The operation was conducted at various areas around the Selayang wholesale
market which we have been monitoring for some time.
It is understood that illegal settlements have sprung up at areas around
the wholesale market.
Police picked up 156 Indonesians, 150 immigrants from Myanmar and 117
immigrants listed as others.
All those detained by police were initially sent to the Selayang police
station to have their statements recorded and documented.
For those illegal immigrants who claimed that they had valid papers, police
will seek the assistance of the Immigration Department and the National
Registration Department to verify the papers.
The drug addicts arrested, which included five Sabahans, are expected to be
sent to the drug rehabilitation centre.
The illegal immigrants are expected to be sent to the Langkap Detention
Centre near Teluk Intan where they will be housed until they are deported back
to their respective countries.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- The New Straits Times Press
KANGAR Illegals also caught up in balik lampung rush by Alina Simon Illegal immigrants are also caught up by the balik kampung fever with many
choosing Perlis as a convenient exit point to return home for the coming Hari
Raya and Christmas celebrations.
But they may instead, find themselves celebrating the long festive holiday
at detention centres as the Immigration Department is intensifying checks at all
entry points including outstation bus terminal here.
Three Myanmar illegal immigrants who took an overnight bus trip from Kuala
Lumpur to balik kampung were detained after getting down at the terminal.
State Immigration director Rosli Mahmud said the three aged between 20 and
21 were detained after they got off the bus.
"We believe many aliens from the neighbouring countries up north will take
the opportunity to go home during the festive season and they will take the bus
or train to come here," he said, adding that plainclothes officers had been
deployed to check the passengers at these points.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Peace greats urge Suu Kyi
release
BBC, Saturday, 8 December, 2001, 20:07 GMT Nobel peace prize winners and politicians from around the world have paid
tribute to the Burmese opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and called for her
release from house arrest.
They appealed to the military regime in Burma to release 56-year-old Aung
San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for the last 13 years, despite
winning elections in 1990.
The event marks 10 years since Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the peace prize
for her continued non-violent resistance to the junta.
"In physical stature she is petite and elegant, but in moral stature she is
a giant," said the retired Anglican Archbishop from South Africa, Desmond
Tutu.
"Big men are scared of her. Armed to the teeth and they still run scared,"
he said.
Empty seat
The laureates have come together for festivities celebrating 100 years of
the peace prize.
But Geir Lundestad, non-voting secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee
said they were all thinking of the empty chair that belonged to Aung San Suu
Kyi.
In a letter, the laureates called on Than Swe, the head of the ruling
regime, to release of other political prisoners in Burma and comply with UN
resolutions demanding negotiations on democracy.
Messages of support came from around the world.
President George W Bush lauded Aung San Suu Kyi, addressing by satellite
link a rally of hundreds assembled in the rain in front of the Norwegian
parliament building.
"In the face of great hardship she has never wavered in her commitment to
peaceful change," Mr Bush said, although he did not add his voice to calls to
release other political prisoners.
Global support
The UK Foreign Minister Jack Straw urged the military leaders to use
current talks with Aung San Suu Kyi as an opportunity to move the country
towards democracy.
"Her strength has given hope to thousands of Burmese who have endured great
hardship for holding firm to these beliefs," he said in London, in a statement
that follows an appeal by the UK-based human rights charity Amnesty
International earlier this week.
The event was one in more than 30 taking place around the world, including
a peace concert held at Bangkok's Thammasat University where Thais joined
Burmese immigrants in support of democracy in the neighbouring country.
The events took place amid reports that the NLD had reopened a key office
in Kamayut township, near the University of Yangon, the scene of the 1998
pro-democracy uprising which was crushed by the junta.
Since last October, Aung San Suu Kyi has been holding secret United
Nations-brokered talks with junta leaders, which have led to the release of
nearly 200 political prisoners.
'Absolutely confident'
Aung San Suu Kyi has not appeared in public since September 2000, when she
was put under de facto house arrest for attempting to travel outside the capital
Rangoon for a political meeting.
Her telephone has been disconnected, but she reportedly has access to a
shortwave radio.
In a videotaped statement released last year, Aung San Suu Kyi said she
remained optimistic.
"We are absolutely confident that democracy will come to Burma," she said.
"It is important that we achieve our goal quickly because people suffer too
much."
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