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BURMA RELATED NEWS - January
29, 2002.
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HEADLINES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - Bra company pulls out of
Burma
AFP - Malaysia, UNHCR under growing pressure
over Myanmar refugees
AFP - Thai crop substitution program wins a
battle in war on drugs
AFP - Swiss lingerie firm to pull out of Myanmar
in working condition flap
Reuters - Daewoo sells Myanmar gas project stake
to India
Reuters - Vietnam detains Vietnamese-Australian
with heroin -paper
AP - Thais To Shun Drug Dealers,
Users
Reuters - Korea targets 1.5 T gold output via
Ivanhoe venture
BBC - Burmese exiles appeal to
Malaysia
BBC - India and Asean to boost ties
VOA News - UN Seeks International Aid to Fight
Burma Opium Production
Bkk Post - Face-off on
Burmese refugees
Bkk Post - Global help urged for Burma's war on
opium and speed pills It's a humanitarian issue, says UN man
Xinhuanet - Myanmar's Sugar Export to Rise
Sharply
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - Monday, 28 January, 2002, 22:47
GMT
Bra company pulls out of Burma Triumph International, a leading European luxury lingerie firm, has
announced it is pulling out of Burma after coming under sustained pressure from
labour organisations and exiled Burmese groups over working conditions.
It says it will close its factory there within the next four months and lay
off about 1,000 workers.
Campaigners accused Triumph of using forced labour and said they had proof
that child workers were used to upgrade the facilities on the site. They also
accused the company of supporting the military government.
Burma has one of the worst human rights records in the world and its
working practices have been condemned by the United Nations' International
Labour Organisation.
In November 2000, the ILO called on its members - governments, unions and
employers - to reconsider their ties to Burma because of the persistence of
forced labour.
Triumph has denied that any of its facilities make use of forced labour,
insisting that conditions for its employees there are much better than the norm.
The company started operating in Burma in 1996, and by the following year
had established a factory producing underwear for export.
No future
Activists stepped up their activities two months ago with the launch of a
high-profile campaign in Great Britain, with the catchphrase "Support Breasts,
Not Dictators".
A statement from the company blamed the increasingly emotional tenor of the
debate.
But a company spokesman, Aloyse Hirzel, told the BBC that a further reason
for the pull-out was that the company saw no prospect of democratic change
within Burma in the near future.
He said Triumph was working on a social plan to help employees in Burma who
would lose their jobs, and this would consist of some form of compensation.
The Burma campaign has hailed the news as a significant victory - and
warned that the announcement should serve as a warning to other companies
operating in Burma.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday January 29, 5:45 PM
Malaysia, UNHCR under growing pressure over Myanmar refugees KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 29 (AFP) -
The UN refugee agency and Malaysia came under increased pressure from human
rights and political groups Tuesday over the planned deportation of 28 asylum
seekers from Myanmar.
The ethnic Rohingya Muslims entered the UN High Commisioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) centre in the capital on Friday to seek refugee status but were handed
over to Malaysia's immigration authorities Saturday.
Malaysian immigration deputy director Ahmad Ismail said the immigrants
would be held in a detention camp pending approval from Myanmar for their
repatriation.
Amnesty International Malaysia urged the UNHCR to review the cases of the
16 adults and 12 children.
"The cavalier manner in which they were handed over to the police with no
apparent regard to their safety does not inspire confidence in the UNHCR,"
Amnesty said in a statement.
"We urge the Malaysian government not to deport the Rohingyas who will most
certainly face persecution if they are repatriated to Myanmar."
Independent Malaysian rights group Suaram urged the UNCHR to exercise a
"more expansive and encompassing approach" towards the Rohingyas and called on
the Malaysian government to provide them temporary visas until lasting solutions
were found.
Teresa Kok, a member of parliament from the opposition Democratic Action
Party, said she had written to the government to seek temporary shelter for the
28 until the political situation in Myanmar improved.
"Considering that the 28 Rohingya refugees are expected to face severe
punishment from the Burmese government upon their deportation back home, the
government should show concern and allow them to stay on in Malaysia or
alternatively send them to a third country," Kok said.
She also urged the government to protest the UNHCR's refusal to grant them
refugee status, saying this was "clearly contemptous and grossly unfair to
Muslims".
On Monday, the Rohingya Information Center office here protested the UNHCR
action, saying the 28 were among some 7,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees stranded in
Malaysia since fleeing persecution by Myanmar's military regime 1988.
It appealed to the Malaysian government to give them temporary shelter
until they could safely return to their homeland.
The move to seek asylum by the 28 Myanmar immigrants came amid an intense
police crackdown on illegal immigrants after recent riots by Indonesian workers
here.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday January 29, 1:04 PM
Thai crop substitution program wins a battle in war on drugs (AFP ) - The hillsides in this rural corner of northern Thailand, perched at the outskirts of the infamous Golden Triangle, were once ablaze with red opium poppies. But farmers in Doi Tung, a cluster of villages in Chiang Rai province some
840 kilometers (522 miles) north of Bangkok, are now reaping a new harvest of
macadamia nuts, coffee beans and orchid blossoms.
This province bordering Myanmar, once known as one of the richest
opium-producing areas in the world, has been gradually transformed by a crop
substitution scheme launched 14 years ago by the Thai royal family.
To eradicate poppy cultivation that has long fuelled the booming illicit
narcotics trade, Thai royals founded the Doi Tung Development Project, which
works alongside farmers throughout Chiang Rai.
Disnadda Diskul, chairman of the project, said the plan was launched at the
request of the Thai princess mother, who saw a need for farmers to find
alternative crops and find livelihoods independent of the drugs trade.
Poor hilltribes in particular had become dependent on poppy cultivation, he
added.
"They know drugs are illegal, but they have to survive," Disnadda told AFP.
"There is no other way for them to live."
He said the project at first asked farmers to refrain from growing poppies
and take up work as labourers, with a reforestation plan to fill tracts once
used to harvest poppies with trees.
In addition to obstructing land once used for poppies, Disnadda said the
project's advisors introduced several lucrative crops such as coffee beans,
macadamia nuts and and orchids.
They also taught villagers to make and sell handicrafts, he added.
Since its launch in 1988, the Doi Tung Development Project has converted an
area of 93,515 rai, or 150 square kilometers (93 miles), where 1,300 local
people work.
Villagers tilling the fields in this rugged border region have seen their
income grow exponentially, from 3,772 baht (86 dollars) in 1989 to 24,356 baht
(552 dollars) per capita last year.
Disnadda said the success of the program had shown that when people have
"jobs to feed themselves, they will not think about drugs."
"I can say that there is no poppy growing in the area of Doi Tung at all,"
he said. "We have to help them to help themselves, not keep helping them."
Based on Doi Tung's success, the Thai government has decided to help
neighboring Myanmar battle the narcotics trade, which is rife along their shared
border, with a 20 million baht (453,500 dollar) aid package.
The money will be used to launch a similar project in Yongkha, a town some
56 kilometers (35 miles) west of the Thai border checkpoint of Tachilek,
opposite Thailand's Mae Sai district.
"I am very confident the sustainable development project will work and help
Myanmar as we hope," Disnadda said, adding that there would be no details of the
Myanmar project until Thai officials finished a survey of the area.
Thailand is facing a drug crisis, with some 800 million methamphetamine
tablets, known here as "ya baa" or crazy medicine," expected to flow into the
kingdom this year from drug labs inside Myanmar
A health ministry survey last year found that some 2.65 million Thais, or
4.3 percent of the population, are hooked on drugs -- the vast majority to
methamphetamines.
However, the UN said this week that regional opium production could shift
from Afghanistan to Myanmar despite five years of poppy crop reductions.
Opium production in Myanmar has reportedly fallen by some 35 percent in the
past five years thanks to crop substitution programs and the efforts of
international organisations.
But in 2001, Myanmar represented 68 percent of the total volume of opium
produced worldwide compared with 23 percent for Afghanistan.
A year earlier, the figures were almost the exact reverse, according to the
UN.
Thai narcotics officials have also said they expect opium production to
proliferate thanks to new technology to facilitate poppy growing.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday January 29, 4:57 AM
Swiss lingerie firm to pull out of
Myanmar in working condition flap
(AFP) - Swiss lingerie group
Triumph International is to pull out of Myanmar because of a "public debate"
over working conditions that have been condemned by the International Labor
Organization, a company statement received here said.
"Triumph International has taken a decision in principle under which it
will soon stop production in Myanmar," the company said.
"The decision is motivated by a public debate in Europe on the political
situation in Mynamar that has become increasingly charged emotionally."
Swiss activists grouped in a movement called Campaign Clean CLothes
launched a campaign a year ago to pressure the firm to pull out of Myanmar,
accusing it of using forced labor.
Last November, British activists mounted a boycott of the company's
products.
Triumph International has denied that any of its facilities in Myanmar make
use of forced labor, insisting that conditions for its 1,000 employees there are
much better than the norm.
The ILO in November 2000 called on its members -- governments, unions and
employers -- to reconsider their ties to Myanmar because of the persistence of
forced labor.
Triumph International, which has produced lingerie in Myanmar since 1997,
for the last several months has tried to find another group to take over its
operations in the country.
But having failed to find a buyer it has decided to close down its
activities there gradually.
"Ending production in Myanmar will impose serious personal difficulties on
our workers, which Triumph sought to avoid," the company said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday January 29, 9:52 AM
Daewoo sells Myanmar gas project stake to India SEOUL, Jan 29 (Reuters) - South
Korea's Daewoo International <47050.KS> has sold 30 percent of its
stake in a gas project off Myanmar to two Indian energy companies, a company
spokesman said on Tuesday.
India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) took 20 percent of the stake
in the gas project in the A-1 gas field off Myanmar's northwest coast.
State-run gas marketing firm Gas Authority of India Ltd bought the
remaining 10 percent.
Daewoo International signed the contracts with the two Indian companies on
Monday.
"We've successfully completed the planned stake sale and we will remain as
the largest shareholder with a 60 percent stake," Daewoo spokesman Kim Bum-seok
told Reuters.
Last month, Daewoo sold a 10 percent stake to state-run Korea Gas Corp
<36460.KS>, Korea's sole gas importer and distributor.
The stake sales are aimed at reducing the estimated $1 billion cost of
developing the gas field, he said.
Daewoo was granted development rights to the site in the Bengal basin in
August 2000.
A second feasibility study began in June 2001 estimated the block could
yield about 10 trillion cubic feet of gas or 1.8 billion barrels of oil
equivalent.
Daewoo shares were up 13 percent at 2,955 at 0037 GMT on Tuesday
outperforming a 0.13 percent gain in the broader stock index
<.KS11>.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday January 29, 1:48 PM
Vietnam detains Vietnamese-Australian with heroin -paper HANOI, Jan 29 (Reuters) - A
34-year-old Australian woman of Vietnamese origin was detained at the weekend
before boarding a flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Sydney with nearly a kilo of
heroin, official media said on Tuesday.
The state-run Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper said Nguyen Thi Kim Hieu
was detained at the city's Tan Son Nhat airport on Saturday night while boarding
the flight carrying nearly 812 grams (1.8 lb) of heroin.
She has been charged with drug trafficking, the paper said. Customs
officials were not immediately available for comment.
The paper said Hieu, whose hometown in Australia was not given, had
testified she was hired to take the drugs to Sydney for a payment of 30,000
Australian dollar. Further investigation was under way, he said.
Trafficking in as little as 600 gram (1.3 lb) of heroin is punishable by
death or life imprisonment in Vietnam. Execution is carried out by firing squad.
Last November, another Vietnamese-Australian woman was also detained at the
same airport as she prepared to board a flight to Sydney with 881 grams (about
two lb) of heroin.
At the time, Thanh Nien quoted police as saying the woman could have been a
courier for a trafficking ring with links to the Golden Triangle
heroin-producing region.
Myanmar, Laos and Thailand constitute the Golden Triangle, the world's
second largest source of heroin, most of which comes from Myanmar.
Vietnam is an important transit point for drugs from the region.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday January 28 10:49 AM ET
Thais To Shun Drug Dealers, Users By BUSABA SIVASOMBOON, Associated Press Writer BAN PA-KWOW, Thailand (AP) -
Seated in a Buddhist temple, the villagers scribbled on pieces of paper and
dropped them in a box. The secret ballots contained names of friends, relatives
and neighbors suspected to be drug traders or users.
If the accusations turned out to be true, the offenders would have to
reform or else be shunned.
The threat of social sanctions is the latest weapon in a widening war on
drugs, especially methamphetamine, the synthetic stimulant that has been
declared Thailand's public enemy No. 1.
But the inform-on-your-neighbor strategy worries some Thais.
``To humiliate publicly, disgrace and shame people, is against human rights
and the law,'' said Thongbai Thongpao, a leading civil liberties lawyer. ``This
kind of measure will lead to social conflict with people in the village, making
enemies of each other.''
However, authorities say the methamphetamines, being smuggled with impunity
from neighboring Myanmar, have become such a problem that tough measures are
needed.
The army says an estimated 700 million methamphetamine tablets were
smuggled into Thailand last year, a sevenfold increase since 1988. Only about 10
percent was seized by the authorities.
The Health Ministry estimates 2.4 million of Thailand's 62 million people
use the drug.
Secret ballot forums were introduced in October in Chiang Rai province,
about 400 miles north of Bangkok, in the notorious Golden Triangle where the
borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet.
So far 340 of Chiang Rai's 1,510 villages have held forums.
``Our policy is to try to wipe out the medium- and small-scale dealers,
because these guys are the ones who spread the drugs to teen-agers,'' provincial
police chief Maj. Gen. Wut Witittanont said.
``We think social sanctions will help us a lot,'' he said.
Thai villages are close-knit communities of a few hundred inhabitants each,
and people are assumed to know what the neighbors are up to.
Realizing that villagers can provide the best intelligence about drugs,
authorities decided to enlist their help in fighting the scourge after
conventional law enforcement methods made little progress.
In Chiang Rai alone, about 12,000 people are known to be addicted, but many
more are suspected of involvement with drugs. Gov. Rungrith Makarapong says the
worst-hit areas are those bordering Myanmar, such as Mae Chan district where Ban
Pa-Kwow is located.
Ban Pa-Kwow's 200 or so adults knew what was at stake when they gathered at
the Buddhist temple last week.
The meetings work like this: each villager is asked to write the name of a
person suspected to be involved in using or trafficking in drugs. The unsigned
papers are deposited in a box.
Officials then read out the names, which are copied on a blackboard. A
person whose name appears more than five times must answer the assembly. A
confession results in the accused being sent for medical help. A denial leads to
more discussion among villagers.
If a majority finds the accusation warranted, the offenders are made social
pariahs. People are urged not to help them with their harvests or invite them to
parties, or even talk with them.
Such sanctions can be effective because villagers depend on each other,
said Yongyut Tiyapairat, a lawmaker from Mae Chan district who brought
journalists to observe the forum.
The names of blacklisted individuals are given to police. So far, the
meetings have contributed 1,000 names to the police watch list, said Wut, the
police chief.
The forums don't follow court-like procedures of evidence, but it is
assumed that the opinion of a majority of villagers assembled safeguards against
score-settling and malicious finger-pointing. Wut said there have been no
complaints of wrongful ``convictions'' so far.
Aye Kanpeng, a 47-year-old farmer in Ban Pa-Kwow, is among those who
support the program.
``Authorities alone cannot get rid of all drugs and sellers and addicts,''
he said. ``My son is 25 years old and not an addict, but I fear one day he will
follow his friends and try drugs.''
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday January 29, 4:11 am Eastern
Time
Korea targets 1.5 T gold output via Ivanhoe venture SEOUL, Jan 29 (Reuters) - South
Korea will restart domestic gold production of 1.5 tonnes per annum from March
via a joint venture with Ivanhoe Mines (Toronto:IVN.TO - news) (Australia:IVN.AX
- news), state-run Korea Resources Corporation said on Tuesday.
The country, one of the world's top 10 gold consumers, used to produce more
than one tonne of gold up until 1997, a Korea Resources official said.
Korean Exploration Co Ltd, a joint venture with Ivanhoe Mines Ltd, will
produce 1.5 tonnes of pure gold from March, the official told Reuters.
The potential value of the gold lode located in Chollanam-do province, in
southwestern Korea, was estimated at 49 billion won ($37.37 million), the
official said.
Ivanhoe, listed on the Toronto and Australian bourses, currently also mines
gold in Kazakhstan and copper in Myanmar and Mongolia.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - Monday, 28 January, 2002, 13:36
GMT
Burmese exiles appeal to Malaysia An exiled Burmese Muslim group has called on Malaysia to provide temporary
shelter for ethnic Rohingya asylum-seekers, instead of deporting them.
The Rohingya Information Centre said it was unsafe for the group of Burmese Muslims to return home at present. It criticised as inhuman the decision by the United Nations refugee agency
to hand over 28 asylum-seekers to the Malaysian immigration department on
Saturday.
The group said it would appeal to the Organisation of the Islamic
Conference to intervene.
A UN spokesman Lowell Martin told the BBC that those handed over had
already had their asylum applications rejected previously, and were likely to be
deported.
The group said about 7,000 ethnic Rohingya refugees are stranded in
Malaysia, since fleeing persecution in Burma more than a decade ago.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - Monday, 28 January, 2002, 14:00
GMT
India and Asean to boost ties By Larry Jagan in Bangkok India and the south-east Asian countries of Asean are to hold two major
summits this year to boost their economic and political co-operation.
Senior government officials of all the countries involved, who have held a
meeting in Kuala Lumpur, say that India is to host an investment summit in
September to try to boost the growing economic ties between them.
The summit will propose strategic industries for co-operation and
investment.
Two-way trade currently stands at $8.5 billion, and although it has doubled
in the last five years, it is still less than half of the target.
Computer industry
India will also take part in a full Asean-India summit in Cambodia in
November.
Asean already has regular summit meetings with the leaders of China, Japan
and South Korea.
India's advanced computer industry makes it an area where there is great
potential for co-operation.
There is already a strong bilateral relationship between Singapore and
Bangalore - India's equivalent of Silicon Valley.
Singapore and Thailand are at the forefront of south-east Asia's vigorous
economic courtship of India.
Better marketing
Asean has been the main beneficiary of the growing trading relationship,
with the value of exports to India being more than double that of India's
exports to south-east Asia.
India's main exports to Asean are pharmaceuticals and computer soft-ware.
Indian officials are convinced that with a more concentrated marketing
effort, India can boost its exports to the region significantly in the near
future.
Officials at the forum said they thought more frequent discussion between
India and Asean was now needed as the scope and depth of Asean-India
co-operation expanded.
Privately Indian officials are delighted as it represents Asean's
recognition of India's international importance, something Delhi has long
craved.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- VOA News - UN Seeks International
Aid to Fight Burma Opium Production
Ron Corben Bangkok 28 Jan 2002 15:36 UTC United Nations drug control officials are calling on the international
community to ease restrictions on humanitarian aid to Burma's military
government. The officials say urgent funding is needed to help farmers give up
their opium crops in northern Burma.
During a conference in Bangkok, U.N. officials called for more aid to
curtail illegal opium production, particularly in Burma. The United Nations and
many countries have long fought the opium trade in Burma, as well as in
neighboring Laos and Thailand - the so-called Golden Triangle countries. Opium
is made into the highly addictive and illegal drug heroin.
Sandro Cavani, the U.N. Drug Control Program representative for Asia and
Pacific, warns the governments of the region may soon face a new challenge if a
recent crackdown on opium production in Afghanistan cuts world heroin supplies.
"It is highly probable there is the risk that the drought of heroin, the
drought of opium, might soon represent a challenge for the Golden Triangle, of
course Myanmar and Laos, which are the producing countries in the region," he
said.
Mr. Cavani says the continuing international diplomatic isolation of Burma
only makes the fight against opium harder. U.N. officials warn that without
help, farmers can not find alternative crops to grow.
Many nations and human rights groups have called for aid to be restricted
to Burma until the military government improves its human rights record. The
U.N. Drug Control Program representative in Rangoon, Jean-Luc Lemahieu, says
opium reduction programs in Burma need more international support to ensure
success.
The United Nations, with $12 million in funds from the United States and
Japan, is working to wean Burma's northern Wa people away from opium farming.
U.S. data show opium production in Burma fell to 860 metric tons in 2001
from a peak of 2,500 metric tons in 1996. But Mr. Lemahieu says more resources
are needed.
"There is one thing in reducing it fast, there is another thing in giving a
livelihood, a sustainable livelihood to the farmers who are dealing
traditionally with opium, and that is not coming forward."
Mr. Lemahieu says delay will only lead to higher social and economic costs
related to opium production. Farmers often become addicted to their product,
while the violence of the drug trade can be damaging to village life.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Face-off on Burmese refugees
ANALYSIS / THAI-UK RELATIONS Thailand's foreign
minister, in London on an official two-day visit, is likely
...
Bangkok Post, Tue 29 Jan 2002 LARRY JAGAN
Foreign Minister Surakiat Sathirathai will later today meet his British
counterpart, Jack Straw, and Burma is expected to feature prominently in talks,
which will also focus on the international fight against terrorism, the battle
against drugs and the problems of the world economy.
The United Kingdom wants to discuss several concerns about Thai policy
towards Burma with the Thai foreign minister, according to government
officials.
The main issue of contention at the moment is Thailand's treatment of
potential asylum seekers.
In November, the Thai authorities forcibly repatriated 63 ethnic Karen
asylum seekers, which was done against the advice of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees
``The refugees are now in hiding across the border in Burma, along with
another 600 Karen villagers and fear for their lives,'' say aid workers along
the Thai-Burma border.
The UK, along with the rest of the European Union, the United States and
Canada, have officially protested twice to the Thai government over the forced
repatriation, urged them to allow the villagers to cross the border into
temporary safety while their refugee status is determined by the UNHCR.
The Thai government has continually rejected the European concerns and
insist that the villagers are not in danger. Aid workers who work in the refugee
camps say the Karen are in fact in an area where there has been intermittent
fierce fighting for more than two months, largely between two breakaway Mon
rebel groups.
The government is backing the assessment of the local military commanders
and refuses to reconsider the case. The army insists the area is safe.
``They're in the safest possible area,'' said Kachadpai Burusapatana,
secretary-general of the National Security Council.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra reiterated the government's stand on the
refugees when he briefed heads of diplomatic missions recently.
At least one European ambassador believes the EU must continue to
vigorously press the Thai government on this case.
There is even talk of the European Council adopting a motion criticising
Thailand's policy.
``The Thai government must realise that the EU is not criticising
Thailand's humanitarian record,'' said one diplomat.
``They have been very generous with refugees _ from Cambodia and Laos, as
well as Burma. But they must ensure that international standards of treatment
are maintained in every case.''
In the meantime, the British foreign minister will be raising the issue
directly with Mr Surakiat.
According to government officials, Ben Bradshaw, the junior foreign office
minister, was briefed thoroughly on the issue when he visited Thailand last
month, and believes the UK must take a firm stand on it.
London also wants to ensure that Thailand understands the European position
on how the political process in Burma can be best encouraged as well as the
situation of Burmese refugees and illegal migrants in Thailand.
The dialogue process, as the talks between the opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi and the Burmese generals is known, is entering a critical stage. The UN
special rapporteur for human rights, Paulo Sergio Pinherio, will visit Burma in
a fortnight's time, followed by the UN secretary-general's envoy, Razali Ismail.
Then, in mid-March, the EU troika will also visit Rangoon.
The issue which preoccupies everyone is how to speed up this process, and
support the work of the UN envoy in particular.
Rangoon is desperate to get more aid _ and the opposition leader has agreed
in principle to the resumption of ``limited humanitarian aid''.
However, the EU believes this should only be forthcoming once there is
significant political progress in Rangoon. The fear is that some countries _
Japan and Thailand _ have been too eager with their offers of financial
support.
``The UK will be trying to impress on Mr Surakiat that the international
community must keep in step on Burma,'' said a government official.
``What must be avoided at all costs is a situation where Rangoon is given a
chance to play one country off against another.''
- The author is Southeast Asia analyst for the BBC, and is currently based
in Bangkok.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Global help urged for Burma's war
on opium and speed pills It's a humanitarian issue, says UN
man
Bangkok Post, Tue 29 Jan 2002 Achara Ashayagachat
The United Nations drug agency yesterday called on the international
community to step up assistance towards drug suppression in Burma, and to
consider it a humanitarian issue.
Jean-Luc Lemahieu, the Rangoon-based representative of the UN International
Drug Control Programme, said Burma was replacing Afghanistan as the world's
biggest opium producer.
He called for stronger legal enforcement among regional states, and curbs
on demand in Thailand as a means to beat the problem of methamphetamines.
``Thailand is now the biggest consumption area in the Southeast Asian
region, so even if Burma is no longer an methamphetamine producer, production
could pop up somewhere else,'' he said.
Burma produced about 865 tonnes of opium last year, as against 1,085 tonnes
in 2000, continuing a downward trend since 1996 when production peaked at 1,760
metric tons, he said at the launch of a new book Opium Reduction in Thailand
1970-2000: A Thirty Year Journey.
To keep up this momentum, the international community had to give more
assistance, he said.
``The political situation [in Burma] is one thing, but now with the gradual
political will from Rangoon to combat the drugs problem, it's time to act. We
have to tackle drugs as a humanitarian issue,'' he said.
``Better livelihood seems not to be coming forward,'' he said.
With 68% of the global production now concentrated in Burma, drugs posed
regional security problems, he stressed.
``Opium relates to poverty so we need to provide food security, and with
the alarming rate of the HIV/Aids spread in Burma, the drugs problem cannot now
be neglected.''
Currently, the UNDCP could only cover one part of the Wa-controlled region
with yearly assistance of US$12 million for five years.
``If we want to see a drastic impact on the opium situation, we need a
three-to-four fold [increase] for the northern Wa region and the Gogang area,''
he said.
Mr Lemahieu expressed concern about drugs consumption in Shan state, where
95% of the national opium cultivation is concentrated.
``Drug production and drug abuse problems are intertwined and we need to
tackle both supply and demand sides,'' he said.
Asked if Thai experiences could be of use to counter-drug efforts in Burma,
he said the community approaches were very important but it was more difficult
to deal with middlemen and local authorities, he said.
Burma faced a unity problem as it did not have a leader like His Majesty
the King of Thailand, he pointed out. Even with Rangoon proclaiming political
will to reduce drugs production, the Wa and the Gogang seemed not to respect
it.
Because opium production increased after Rangoon's ceasefire with ethnic
groups in late 1980s, Mr Lemahieu doubted Rangoon could free the Wa state of
drugs by 2005 as announced.
``Even Thailand needs 30 years to remarkably reduce opium and you still
need to solve some other problems. How can Rangoon do it, especially with the
limited resources?''he said.
``The situation there could not be changed overnight, we need to engage
[the ethnic people], we need to learn from them to bring them in and also
educate them to change their mindset, so the tasks go slowly and we need
continuous assistance to maintain the sustainable solution,'' he said.
The methamphetamine problem was rooted in greed while opium stemmed from
poverty, he said.
Intensified regional law enforcement was imperative to efficient
suppression.
``Why lots of them at border areas? Because the interception rate between
production and consumption place is lax, so cross-border co-operation among
neighbours including China, Burma, Thailand, and Laos is very important.''
Strengthened regional co-ordination and exchange of intelligence last year
saw tangible positive results in arrests of four major drug traffickers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar's Sugar Export to Rise
Sharply
Xinhuanet 2002-01-29 10:50:24 YANGON, January 29 (Xinhuanet)
-- Myanmar's sugar export is predicted to reach 100,000 tons in the present
fiscal year 2001-02 ending March with the export earning from it to amount to 25
million U.S. dollars, according to the state-run Myanma Sugarcane Enterprise
(MSE).
During the last fiscal year of 2000-01, the country exported only 20,000
tons of the commodity, fetching 5 million dollars.
Since 1994, Myanmar's cultivated area of sugarcane has expanded from 52,650
hectares in the past to 162,000 hectares, while the number of sugar mills set up
by the government has risen from 8 to17.
To ensure operation capacity of the mills during the production season,
harvesting of about 3.7 million tons of sugarcane are needed, according to the
MSE.
Myanmar grows sugarcane mainly in five divisions and states of Mandalay,
Bago, Magway, Sagaing and Shan.
Myanmar sells its sugar on export market at a price of about 250 U.S.
dollars per ton.
Sugarcane is one of Myanmar's four pillar crops and extensive and intensive
cultivation of the crop is being made around the areas of sugar mills for
sufficient supply of cane to the mills.
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