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BURMA RELATED NEWS - January 02,
2002.
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HEADLINES
----------------------------------------------------------------------- AP - China Says Drug Addiction
Up
IHT - An Isolated Burma Is Open for
Business With China
Bkk Post - Warmer ties good news for
border casinos
Xinhuanet - Japan Extends 13.8
Mln Dollars of ODA to Myanmar in 2001
----------------------------------------------------------------------- China Says Drug
Addiction Up
The Associated Press, Mon 31 Dec 2001 BEIJING (AP) ?
The number of known drug addicts in China has topped 900,000, fueling crime and
the spread of AIDS, state media said Monday.
More than 30 percent of robberies are committed by addicts
to pay for drugs, the reports said. They said two-thirds of new AIDS cases are
linked to sharing of dirty needles by heroin users.
The reports add to new openness about AIDS and drug abuse
in China after years of official denial that neither was a serious problem.
The total of 901,000 addicts known to police is up from
860,000 at the end of last year, the Xinhua News Agency and newspapers said,
citing Minister of Public Security Jia Chunwang. They said 745,000 of the known
addicts are heroin users.
Police and customs officials will use new ``high tech''
means to combat drug crime, the reports quoted Jia saying without giving
details.
Jia said China will cooperate more closely with Myanmar
and Laos ? neighboring countries in the drug-producing ``Golden Triangle.'' He
said they would cooperate on drug seizures and in introducing crops to
substitute for opium cultivation.
China has 28,133 confirmed AIDS cases, though experts say
the number of people infected is probably more than 600,000.
The total number of drug traffickers caught also is
rising, Xinhua said. It said police caught 67,500 between January and November ?
10,000 more than all trafficking arrests in 2000.
Police seized some 14.6 tons of heroin and opium, 4.6 tons
of methamphetamine and almost 2 million pills of the amphetamine ecstasy, Xinhua
said.
China's communists nearly wiped out drug addiction after
the 1949, executing traffickers and confining addicts to treatment centers.
But looser social controls in the past two decades have
allowed the drug trade to flourish once again, despite harsh measures to combat
it.
China executes traffickers found with more than 50 grams
(1.75 ounces) of heroin.
The news reports Monday said some 286,000 addicts were
sent to mandatory drug rehabilitation centers in the first 11 months of
2001.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- The International Herald Tribune
An Isolated Burma Is Open for Business With China Mark Landler New York Times Service Monday, December 31, 2001 MANDALAY, Burma Each morning, in the Buddhist heartland of Burma, dozens of
monks clamber onto ramshackle buses and leave this stately, sprawling city.
. The monks, their black-lacquer begging bowls swinging from their shoulders, head for a handful of dusty new settlements that ring Mandalay. Once there, they hop off the buses and begin the ancient practice of begging for food. . This peculiar reverse commute is dictated by shifting demographics: The Burmese who can be relied on to give food to the monks have been largely forced out of the center of Mandalay by rampant development. . Most of the building has been financed by developers from southwestern China. Garish concrete-and-glass hotels, shopping malls and houses surround the crenelated red-brick walls of the Mandalay Fort, which protected Burma's royal palace until it fell to British troops in 1885. . Thousands of Chinese merchants and traders have streamed into Mandalay since the late 1980s. New to Burma and numb to its religious traditions, they brush off the begging monks. . "The Chinese live in lavish houses," said one prominent dissident. "They make us feel like second-class citizens in our own town. That's why we dislike them." . China's brash presence in this former capital is only the most visible facet of the complex relationship between Burma and its hulking northern neighbor. While ethnic Chinese were historically less influential here than in Thailand or Vietnam, China has assumed a disproportionate role in postcolonial times because Burma has taken a course radically different from that of its neighbors. Shunned by the West, first through its own choice as it experimented with socialism and later for its remorseless crackdown on the democracy movement, this isolated and impoverished country has turned to Beijing for military aid. . In recent years, the relationship has turned commercial. Burma is now the largest trading partner of Yunnan Province, just across its northern border. While China ranks only 15th in foreign direct investment in Burma, its leaders are eager to do more business. . President Jiang Zemin visited Burma in mid-December, signing agreements to increase investment and to cooper- ate on agriculture and oil production.It was the first visit by a Chinese leader since the military junta crushed a democracy movement led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in 1988. . Mr. Jiang gazed at treasures like the Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon, and the Buddhist temples in Bagan. He also gave a rosy endorsement to the reviled junta, declaring that Burma "must be allowed to choose its own development path suited to its own conditions." . In Mandalay, city bosses welcomed Mr. Jiang with a red-and-white banner stretched across the main highway. On the streets, however, feelings toward the Chinese leader were no warmer than toward the Chinese developers. . "Of course, the government rounded up people to cheer," said a local tour guide. "But nobody else paid attention." . Even Burma's generals are said to be ambivalent about their close ties to Beijing. Analysts say the tanks, warships and other military equipment that China sells to Burma tend to be shoddy and unreliable. . Nor can older leaders of the junta forget that the Chinese government supported a Communist insurgency against the government here for decades. Beijing abandoned that policy in the late 1970s - simultaneously opening its economy and cultivating ties with neighboring countries. . By 1990, Burma could not afford to resist China's importunities. The West had condemned it for ignoring the results of an election that gave overwhelming victory to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 but has spent 7 of the last 11 years under house arrest. . In early December, several fellow Nobel laureates, meeting in Oslo, issued a fresh call for the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, known here as "the lady." . More American companies are severing ties to Burma, while those that keep them are coming under sustained pressure from Burmese activist groups. "The isolation of Burma by the West has driven it into the arms of China," said Ma Thanegi, a former democracy activist and now a journalist. "The government knows it, and they do not like it." . As memories of the 1988 crackdown fade, however, Burma is finding it easier to forge ties with other countries - particularly for buying arms. Russia recently sold 10 MiG-29 fighter jets to Rangoon, while diplomats say the Russian government is helping to build a nuclear power plant in central Burma. Yet because of history and geography, China is likely to remain Burma's indispensable ally for the foreseeable future. Experts say the Chinese government is more determined than ever to strengthen ties because it views Burma as its economic gateway to Southeast Asia. . "If you develop the infrastructure, the distance from Yunnan through Burma to the sea is much smaller than putting goods on a train and transporting them all the width of China to Shanghai," said Robert Karniol, the Asia-Pacific editor of Jane's Defense Weekly. . China has already built a road connecting a border town in Yunnan with a port on the Irrawaddy River, north of Rangoon. It has given dredges to Burma to make the river navigable for cargo ships. . The effect of Chinese investments on ordinary Burmese is harder to judge. Thanks largely to the Chinese, Mandalay has become a boomtown, with flashy shopping malls, traffic jams and a stubborn drug problem. But those changes have done nothing to ease the fear and alienation that come with life under a military dictatorship. In Mandalay, as elsewhere, the universities have been padlocked to prevent unrest. Satellite campuses, with drab cinder-block buildings, have been erected outside town. . The Chinese are viewed by the many who loathe the government as complicit in its acts of repression. People here say Chinese developers have paid off local officials to give them access to prime real estate. They point to the baronial houses of these officials as evidence of the corruption. . Indeed, the rise of the Chinese in Burma - and their cozy alliance with the junta leaders - has deepened the sense of oppression for some Burmese. Democracy advocates are as critical of these corrupt outsiders as they are of their homegrown dictators. . "China is our next-door neighbor, and it is so huge," said the dissident, who is a lifelong resident of Mandalay. "Even if we built a great wall with bricks very high, a few of them would jump over. But it would be enough. Instead, we've opened the door and allowed them to pour in." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Jan 02,
2002.
Warmer ties good news for border casinos More Thai gamblers going to Tachilek Teerawat Khamtita Cross-border casinos opposite this border province are expected to thrive
after relations between Thailand and Burma improve.
Two large casinos, Regina & Golf Club and Golden Triangle &
Paradise Resort in Burma's Tachilek town, have drawn a number of foreign
gamblers, particularly Thais.
The number of gamblers has risen after relations between Thailand and Burma
showed signs of improvement.
Regina & Golf Club, opened about 4-5 years ago, is located in San
Saitai village in Tachilek, about 4km from Chiang Rai's Mae Sai checkpoint. The
casino _ equipped with a gambling room with 50 slot machines, a restaurant, a
50-room hotel and a golf course _ is jointly run by a group of Thai businessmen
and politicians. It attracts about 50-100 gamblers daily.
The number of gamblers visiting this casino increased after the Mae Sai
checkpoint was reopened late last month. Thai gamblers normally crossed the
border to Burma via this checkpoint as it was more convenient. Each was charged
40 baht in border pass fee.
Laksana Jariyawattanasakul, managing director of Regina Shan Yo Ma Complex,
a subsidiary of Regina & Golf Club, was confident more tourists would visit
Tachilek and the casino complex in view of better ties.
Executives of Golden Triangle & Paradise Resort are also optimistic.
The casino, opposite Chiang Rai's Chiang Saen district, is run by Prasit
Pothasuthon, brother of former agriculture minister Prapat Pothasuthon. It is
located on a 100-rai plot opposite Chiang Saen's Sob Ruak village and is
equipped with a restaurant, a duty-free shop, a five-star hotel and a gambling
hall with more than 100 slot machines. It attracts about 300 gamblers a
day.
The move by Thailand and Burma to build a bridge from Sop Ruak village to
Burma was welcomed by the casino management and Thai gamblers.
At present, there is only one temporary border checkpoint at Sop Ruak. Thai
people are not allowed to cross the border into Burma via this temporary
checkpoint.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- Japan Extends 13.8 Mln Dollars of
ODA to Myanmar in 2001
Xinhuanet 2002-01-02 10:19:07 YANGON, January 2 (Xinhuanet)
-- The Japanese government extended a total of 1.689.2 billion yens (about 13.8
million U.S. dollars) of Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Myanmar in
2001, according to figures provided by the Japanese Embassy here.
In 2001, the Japanese government resumed its ODA to Myanmar after a 13-year
suspension of such aid to the country since 1988 due to political reason.
The Japanese grant programs under the ODA in the year included two
health-related, one sports-related and two construction related projects.
Meanwhile, up to 2001, the Japanese government had provided aid for debt
relief to Myanmar for 20 times including that of 3.594 billion yens (about 29.22
million dollars) extended during 2001, according to Myanmar official
statistics.
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