|
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
BURMA RELATED NEWS - February 12,
2002.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
HEADLINES
----------------------------------------------------------------------- Kyodo News - Myanmar
junta leader urges national unity on Union Day
Reuters - Myanmar military says internal
security at risk
UN Wire - U.N. Rights Envoy Meets Top
Officials
AFP - US pressures Myanmar to move faster on
political reform
BBC - Analysis: Burma's generals feel the
heat
BBC - Child soldiers banned by UN
law
MSNBC - Myanmar
military says internal security at risk
CSM - Beneath Burma's Jurassic
shell
Bkk Post - Udomchai set to visit Doi Lang hill
for first-hand look
ST - Myanmar sliding into economic catastrophe
VOA News - US Welcomes Government-Opposition
Dialogue in Burma
----------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar junta leader urges national unity on Union
Day
YANGON, Feb. 12, Kyodo -
Myanmar junta leader Sr. Gen. Than Shwe on Tuesday urged the country's ethnic
minorities to unite and ''oppose all destructionists'' inside and outside
Myanmar interfering with the country's stability and development.
In a speech to mark Myanmar's 55th Union Day, Than Shwe, chairman of the
ruling State Peace and Development Council, stressed that national sovereignty
must be protected with national unity.
The anniversary was celebrated at People's Square with a simple
flag-raising ceremony attended by representatives of all ethnic minorities.
The event marks the day when ethnic minorities in border areas signed the
Panglon Agreement with the majority Burmese on Feb. 12, 1947, to unite to seize
independence from Britain.
Myanmar regained independence on Jan. 4, 1948.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday February 12, 9:17 PM
Myanmar military says internal security at risk By Aung Hla Tun YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's
military government, bogged down in talks with the pro-democracy opposition for
over a year, called on Tuesday for people to work with the armed forces to ward
off internal threats to stability.
Military leader General Than Shwe used his annual Union Day message to call
for help to build a "disciplined" nation, but the tone of the message was much
less conciliatory than a year ago when the talks had just begun.
The National League for Democracy (NLD) of detained opposition leader and
Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, in a separate message, called for
peaceful reconciliation with the country's military rulers.
The general's message, read out by a ruling party official at a rally in
the capital Yangon, denounced unspecified "destructionists from inside and
outside the nation, who are disturbing the state's stability, peace,
modernisation and development".
The military traditionally uses Union Day -- the anniversary of a deal
between Myanmar's main ethnic groups in 1947 that paved the way for independence
of what was then Burma from Britain -- to sharply criticise the opposition.
That criticism fell almost silent last year thanks to talks between Suu Kyi
and the junta.
This year's message was not as vitriolic as in the past but the tone was
less conciliatory than a year ago, when United Nations-brokered talks between
the military and Suu Kyi's party had just begun.
The level of criticism may reflect difficulty in the dialogue. The
government has released some political prisoners and allowed the League to
reopen some offices, but the opposition has shown frustration over the slow pace
of the talks.
RECONCILIATION CALL
The League held a separate ceremony marking Union Day.
"What we are having is a political problem and we should solve it by
political methods," League Chairman Aung Shwe said in a speech to some 500 party
faithful and foreign diplomats.
The event was held at the party's headquarters in Yangon and attended by
members of ethnic groups and U.N. special human rights envoy Paulo Sergio
Pinheiro, who is visiting the country to assess human rights progress for a
report to the world body.
Suu Kyi, who led the League to a landslide election victory in 1990 but was
never allowed to govern, is under house arrest and was not present at the
ceremony.
According to human rights watchdog Amnesty International, some 1,500
political prisoners still languish in Myanmar's jails.
Pinheiro told Reuters he would probably meet with Suu Kyi after a three-day
visit to Kachin State starting Wednesday.
The government's celebrations were held at the golden Shwedagon Pagoda,
which towers over central Yangon. Around 15,000 people from government-linked
organisations and Myanmar's ethnic groups turned up to hear Than Shwe's message.
Representatives of six major ethnic groups used Union Day to issue a
statement calling for a federal state.
"We honestly believe that it is more crucial for non-disintegration of the
Union to practice a genuine federal system rather than controlling the Union by
the strength of the armed forces," a statement received by Reuters said.
"Lessons should be taken from the disintegration of the Soviet Union and
Yugoslavia, which were controlled by a single-party system," it said.
Myanmar's generals, in power since the early 1960s, have shrugged off
Western criticism of military rule, arguing a strong hand is vital to hold the
ethnically diverse country together. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar: UN Wire, Mon 11 Feb 2002
U.N. Rights Envoy Meets Top Officials U.N. human rights envoy Paulo Sergio Pinheiro met today with top ministers
from Myanmar's government as part of a fact-finding trip to the country
scheduled to conclude Feb. 19.
Pinheiro spent the day meeting with Foreign Minister Win Aung, Home
Minister Tin Hlaing and Labor Minister Tin Win. He is slated to meet with
the head of the dissident National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi, and
with military intelligence head Khin Nyunt. The U.N. official will also
spend three days in the northern state of Kachin to visit a prison and meet with
ethnic minority leaders, Reuters reports.
The visit is in preparation for a report slated for presentation before the
U.N. Human Rights Commission in April. Yangon is said to be eager for a
positive report in hopes of a softening of international sanctions against the
military regime and a freeing up of aid funds for the impoverished country
(Reuters/MSNBC.com, Feb. 11).
U.N. special envoy Razali Ismail today spoke of progress in attempts at
reconciliation between the government and the NLD. "It's moving along,
maybe not as fast as it should," Razali said, adding, "These kind of things are
difficult; they take time."
Razali is expected to visit Myanmar beginning March 19 -- his seventh
official visit -- to meet with Prime Minister Than Shwe and with Suu Kyi.
The trip will last four days, Myanmar's deputy foreign minister said
Saturday.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday February 12, 10:31 AM
US pressures Myanmar to move faster on political reform (AFP) - The United States urged
Myanmar's military rulers in a report to speed up their tentative political
dialogue with confined democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
In a report to Congress Monday, the US government, one of Yangon's most
vociferous critics, held out the prospect of an easing of US sanctions against
the country, in the event of tangible progress towards democracy.
Aung San Suu Kyi and representatives of junta leaders are currently engaged
in a covert confidence building progress, envisaged at paving a way out of the
stalemate that has afflicted Myanmar since annulled elections in 1990.
"The United States welcomes this confidence building process but urges the
regime to move from confidence building to genuine political dialogue with Aung
San Suu Kyi aimed at returning the country to democracy and civilian rule," said
the report.
"Critical next steps include release of the over 1,000 political prisoners
still in jail, Aung San Suu Kyis full release from house arrest, full and free
operation of NLD party headquarters."
The report, prepared by the State Department and the US embassy in Yangon,
noted that the dialogue process had contributed to some mutual understanding,
and the release of around 180 political prisoners.
"Aung San Suu Kyi has emphasized that she is hopeful regarding the current
talks, but has not revealed any of the substance of the discussions.
"She has also indicated that she will not emerge from confinement unless
she is allowed to fully and freely resume all her duties."
The assessment, a regular six-month survey of events in Myanmar mandated by
Congress, came out on the day UN Human Rights envoy Paulo Sergio Pinheiro met
senior junta leaders at the start of a 10-day visit to the country.
Its findings, including a condemnation of deteriorating living conditions,
could anger the junta on the eve of Union Day, the date when ethnic minorities
agreed to join a national union, paving the way for independence from Britain in
1948.
The United States and the European Union levy coordinated sanctions against
Myanmar designed to convince the junta to improve human rights and move towards
a democratic transition.
"Should there be significant progress toward those goals, the United States
would look seriously at measures to support a process of constructive change,"
the report said.
Aung San Suu Kyi heads the opposition National League for Democracy, (NLD)
which won the 1990 elections which were never recognised by the military.
The report also noted that the government-controlled media had halted
vituperative attacks on Aung San Suu Kyi, and permitted a number of NLD offices
to open nationwide.
But while its criticism of the junta was comparatively muted, the report
bemoaned living conditions in Myanmar, the former Burma.
"The quality of life in Burma continues to deteriorate. Poverty is
widespread, and the economy has continued to show the effects of a growing
government deficit, rising inflation, shortfalls in energy supplies and
continuing foreign exchange shortages.
"The overall human rights situation in Burma remains deplorable, and
widespread human rights abuses continue.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - Tuesday, 12 February, 2002,
12:50 GMT
Analysis: Burma's generals feel the heat By the BBC's Burma analyst Larry Jagan in Bangkok Burma's military junta is under increased international pressure to step up
its dialogue with the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Both the US Government and the United Nations envoy, who brokered talks
between the generals and the opposition leader, are warning Rangoon that they
are growing impatient at the lack of progress.
These calls come just as there is increased speculation in Rangoon that the
military authorities may release Aung San Su Kyi from house arrest within weeks.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since September 2000.
Her National League for Democracy party won an overwhelming election
victory in 1990 that was never recognised by the junta.
Growing impatience
In its latest report to Congress, the US Government says it is time for the
talks to move from the confidence-building stage to what it calls "genuine
political dialogue... aimed at returning the country to democracy and civilian
rule."
Washington's comments reflect a growing concern internationally that the
Burmese generals are dragging their feet and are not really prepared to talk
about substantive political change.
The UN envoy, Razali Ismail is also beginning to get impatient.
"It's moving but the talks are not going as fast as they should," he said
in Kuala Lumpur.
Prisoner release
Mr Razali has consistently told the BBC that the dialogue process was a
difficult one and not to expect major events or milestones.
His uncharacteristic outburst may be an attempt to put pressure on the
Burmese junta to move the process forward before he arrives on his next visit in
March.
"The UN envoy left Burma's military leaders in no doubt that he expected
them to move the reconciliation process from the confidence-building stage to
substantive dialogue," said a source close to the Mr Razali.
"Everyone knows what steps need to be taken."
Those steps must include the immediate release of the remaining elected MPs
and freeing the opposition leader from house arrest.
Diplomats in Rangoon believe these were the two main issues which were
discussed when Aung San Suu Kyi met General Than Shwe two weeks ago
That meeting was seen as a sign that the dialogue process may be on the
verge of a breakthrough.
That is certainly what the UN human rights rapporteur for Burma, Professor
Paulo Pinheiro will be concentrating on during his current fact-finding mission.
UN sources say Mr Pinheiro will be pressing the Burmese junta on the issue
of political prisoners as part of the international community's efforts to bring
about democratic reform in Burma.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - Monday, 11 February, 2002, 23:12
GMT
Child soldiers banned by UN law By the BBC's Emma Jane Kirby in Geneva A United Nations treaty which bans children from being drafted into combat,
comes into force on Tuesday, following its ratification by the required number
of signatory states.
It is estimated that about 300,000 children are currently participating in
fighting, in more than 35 countries.
Ninety-four countries have now signed the optional protocol to the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibits governments and rebel
groups from deploying children under the age of 18 in any form of armed
conflict.
With 14 countries ratifying the treaty since it was adopted by the UN
General Assembly in May 2000, the protocol is now no longer optional, but
enforceable.
Pressure
A spokesman from the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, says he
is convinced the treaty will make a difference.
"With that international consensus, I think comes a powerful political
sanction," said Rory Mungoven.
"Those that stand outside the consensus are under increased pressure. And I
think we can see that having effect in the number of governments that have
changed their position, the number of armed groups that have made public
commitments on this principle, and you can see their response."
Napoleon Adok, a former child soldier from Sudan, also welcomed the treaty,
warning that children who were forced to take part in combat were often damaged
for life.
"The child that has been instilled with anger and poisoned, remains as a
cultural landmine, that lives for a long time as a cause of any instability. So
for me personally, I am so grateful that this is a beginning of a wider process,
and I expect many thing to happen."
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, and
campaigners, will mark the treaty's enforcement with a special ceremony in the
grounds of the UN's European headquarters in Geneva.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- MSNBC
Myanmar military says internal security
at risk
YANGON, Feb. 12 ? Myanmar's military government, bogged down in talks with
the pro-democracy opposition for over a year, called on Tuesday for people to
work with the armed forces to ward off internal threats to stability.
Military leader General Than Shwe used his annual Union Day message to call
for help to build a ''disciplined'' nation, but the tone of the message was much
less conciliatory than a year ago when the talks had just begun.
The National League for Democracy (NLD) of detained opposition leader and
Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, in a separate message, called for
peaceful reconciliation with the country's military rulers.
The general's message, read out by a ruling party official at a rally in
the capital Yangon, denounced unspecified ''destructionists from inside and
outside the nation, who are disturbing the state's stability, peace,
modernisation and development.''
The military traditionally uses Union Day -- the anniversary of a deal
between Myanmar's main ethnic groups in 1947 that paved the way for independence
of what was then Burma from Britain -- to sharply criticise the opposition.
That criticism fell almost silent last year thanks to talks between Suu Kyi
and the junta.
This year's message was not as vitriolic as in the past but the tone was
less conciliatory than a year ago, when United Nations-brokered talks between
the military and Suu Kyi's party had just begun.
The level of criticism may reflect difficulty in the dialogue. The
government has released some political prisoners and allowed the League to
reopen some offices, but the opposition has shown frustration over the slow pace
of the talks.
RECONCILIATION CALL
The League held a separate ceremony marking Union Day.
''What we are having is a political problem and we should solve it by
political methods,'' League Chairman Aung Shwe said in a speech to some 500
party faithful and foreign diplomats.
The event was held at the party's headquarters in Yangon and attended by
members of ethnic groups and U.N. special human rights envoy Paulo Sergio
Pinheiro, who is visiting the country to assess human rights progress for a
report to the world body.
Suu Kyi, who led the League to a landslide election victory in 1990 but was
never allowed to govern, is under house arrest and was not present at the
ceremony.
According to human rights watchdog Amnesty International, some 1,500
political prisoners still languish in Myanmar's jails.
Pinheiro told Reuters he would probably meet with Suu Kyi after a three-day
visit to Kachin State starting Wednesday.
The government's celebrations were held at the golden Shwedagon Pagoda,
which towers over central Yangon. Around 15,000 people from government-linked
organisations and Myanmar's ethnic groups turned up to hear Than Shwe's message.
Representatives of six major ethnic groups used Union Day to issue a
statement calling for a federal state.
''We honestly believe that it is more crucial for non-disintegration of the
Union to practice a genuine federal system rather than controlling the Union by
the strength of the armed forces,'' a statement received by Reuters said.
''Lessons should be taken from the disintegration of the Soviet Union and
Yugoslavia, which were controlled by a single-party system,'' it said.
Myanmar's generals, in power since the early 1960s, have shrugged off
Western criticism of military rule, arguing a strong hand is vital to hold the
ethnically diverse country together.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Christian Science Monitor
Commentary > Opinion from the February 12, 2002 edition Beneath Burma's Jurassic shell By Anna Husarska
RANGOON, BURMA - Burma remains the odd-fashioned dictatorship I remember
from a few years ago.
Upon arrival every foreigner is forced to buy $200 worth of Monopoly-money coupons, which is a Burmese way of ducking the dollarization in the tourist sector. Then come the ubiquitous red government billboards - some in English, some
in Burmese - listing so-called "People's Desire," such as, "Oppose those relying
on external elements acting as stooges, holding negative views."
To help visitors hold only positive views of Burma (renamed Myanmar),
hotels supply them with the daily "New Light of Myanmar," which makes good old
"Pravda" read like "Cosmopolitan." Few alternative sources of information exist:
no Internet access, foreign papers only in a few hotels, satellite dishes banned
until last year.
But beneath the Jurassic shell, the situation here has changed subtly in
the past few years. So it may be time for the West to reexamine its approach to
this endearing country and its distasteful generals. Little data are available,
but the few known facts are staggering: In 2000 the World Health Organization
ranked Burma 190th of 191 countries on health-care delivery; the agency UNAIDS
says that 1 million Burmese out of 40 million are infected with the HIV/AIDS
virus.
The reasons for Burma's humanitarian challenges are incompetence and
mismanagement by a military junta, but it does not help that Burma is receiving
very little overseas development aid - in 1997, $1 per capita as compared with
$35 per capita in Cambodia or $68 in Laos.
Indeed, ever since the protests that culminated on 8/8/88, when the Burmese
people under the leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi rejected the 26-year-old
military regime, the West's approach to Burma has been simple: minimal aid and a
trade boycott aimed at forcing the regime to relinquish power and discouraging
tourism.
Two years later, this policy was reinforced when the democratic opposition
took 82 percent of the seats in an election that the junta called for, deluded
about its own popularity.
This was more than 10 years ago. Since then, the generals have not given up
one inch of power. Their human rights record is still abysmal; Aung San Suu Kyi
remains under house arrest.
So why should the West reexamine its approach? One reason is that the
current tack does not seem effective enough. Nobody is calling for a softening
of the trade boycott: It should and will be maintained, perhaps even made
tougher, but it alone cannot bring democracy to Burma. The junta still managed
to find enough cash last year to buy 10 Mig-29 fighters from Russia for $130
million, and this year added a nuclear reactor to the shopping cart.
However, the boycott and the West's ostracism may have prompted the junta
to open talks with Aung San Suu Kyi. These talks, which started in October 2000,
are another reason for the West to reexamine its policy toward Burma, because
the opposition, too, is reassessing its tactics. (My Burmese friends point to
the overthrow of two dictators - Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic and Indonesia's
Suharto - to explain why the junta is now willing to speak with its
arch-enemy.)
The third reason to reexamine Western policy toward Burma is concern for
the physical and intellectual survival of the people, endangered by falling
living standards. Furthermore, if the Afghanistan experience has offered any
lesson, it is that when a country hits bottom, it may become prey to scourges
whose effects go beyond its borders. (For starters, Burma has overtaken
Afghanistan as an opium producer and exporter in recent years.)
If one listens to the foreign non-governmental organizations, the
international government agencies working here, and to the Burmese people in
Burma, one must conclude that there can and ought to be a significant increase
in humanitarian aid to Burma. However, this is a maverick idea likely to provoke
many a frown or raised eyebrow.
The arguments against more humanitarian aid are well known. Chief among
them is that Aung San Suu Kyi herself has opposed aid in the past. But recently
"The Lady" has been privately suggesting that, with the right oversight,
humanitarian aid is welcome. She cannot openly call for it, because she might
undermine or distract from the larger goal of restoring democracy.
The other arguments against humanitarian aid for Burma are that it will
legitimatize the dictators' illegal hold on power; it will be diverted or
stolen; it will reward fake local nongovernmental organizations involved in its
distribution. Those arguments are valid in all similar situations. But strict
oversight, well-defined rules of operation, and a strong information campaign
about the sources and objectives of the aid may minimize the damage.
All international nongovernmental groups have had to weigh carefully the
pros and cons of working here. They have all responded with a definite
yes.
What's more, last June eight UN agencies working in Burma announced that
the country is "on the brink of a humanitarian crisis" and asked for "a dramatic
overhaul of budget allocation" to Burma because "the nature and magnitude of the
humanitarian situation does not permit delaying until the political situation
evolves."
And what do the people of Burma think? The vox pop. cannot be read
publicly. Overzealous censorship screens every printed word, even calendars and
food wrappings. But asked privately, dissidents who respect Ms. Suu Kyi all say
that humanitarian aid should be increased.
I will be clear: Proponents (both Burmese and non-Burmese) of increased
humanitarian aid do not suggest abandoning the political battle for the
restoration of democracy. But as an expert on HIV/AIDS who worked here put it:
"The stick does not work. The international community has a moral duty to the
people of the country to try the carrot."
----------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Tuesday 12 February
2002
Udomchai set to visit Doi Lang hill for first-hand look Troop told to avoid confrontations Subin Khuenkaew Wassana Nanuam The Third Army chief will visit the disputed Doi Lang hill in Chiang Mai
today in the wake of Sunday's attack on a Burmese army patrol by an unknown
group just across the border.
Lt-Gen Udomchai Ongkhasingh wanted to get a first-hand look at the border
situation, said Col Pairath Thongjatu, his civilian affairs chief.
Thai border troops have been instructed to build up understanding with
their Burmese counterparts and to avoid any confrontation which could lead to
fresh border tensions, Col Pairath said.
Three Burmese soldiers were injured on Sunday when their patrol team was
ambushed by unidentified men in an area opposite Mae Ai district, where Doi Lang
is located.
Hundreds of Thai and Burmese troops have been deployed in the
32-square-kilometre disputed area.
Doi Lang was once the military base of drug warlord Khun Sa, who
surrendered to Burma's ruling military junta in 1995.
A senior Third Army officer believed the attack on Burmese troops on Sunday
was a well-planned attempt to cause suspicion and mistrust between Thailand and
Burma. The officer said the anti-Rangoon Shan State Army might be behind the
attack.
The Shan rebels stood to gain from a renewed Thai-Burmese border tension,
he said.
But the SSA military chief, Jao Yawd Serk, denied his group had anything to
do with the attack on Sunday.
Col Samphan Sriratchbuaphan, chief of a military-trained paramilitary
regiment which has deployed its men at Doi Lang, said so far there has been no
response from the Burmese side to a Thai request for details about the Sunday
clash across the border.
``We don't know exactly what was happening there and it was just our pure
assumption that a foreign force may have been involved in the attack,'' said the
colonel.
The officer said there were no guerrillas from the SSA or other Burmese
ethnic groups operating in the area where the clash took place.
There were only fighters of the United Wa State Army which was an ally of
the Rangoon junta, he said.
Meanwhile, a Burmese army officer was reported killed and another seriously
injured on Sunday afternoon when they stepped on a booby-trap bomb.
They were returning to their outpost, located opposite Ban Mae Moh village
in Mae Fa Luang district, after meeting Thai officers on border
co-operation.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Straits Times
Myanmar sliding into economic
catastrophe
Mismanagement by the junta has made the country scrape bottom, and it is only kept afloat by the parallel black economy By Tom Fawthrop IN PHNOM PENH SKYROCKETING prices, collapsing public services and power blackouts that
regularly engulf the Myanmar capital in darkness for up to 20 hours at a time
are indications of an economic catastrophe in the making, according to diplomats
and residents.
A Yangon journalist, who has witnessed many harsh economic times in his
country's history, said: 'This is the worst of all times, we have hit the
bottom.'
The energy crisis, say several Western embassies, is a result of the
economic mismanagement by the military regime that has been in power since
1988.
A Singapore businessman staying at the Traders Hotel in Rangoon, who spoke
on condition of anonymity, commented: 'The economy is very unstable, power cuts
are hurting the manufacturing sector, nobody wants to invest here right
now.'
A diplomat from the sub-continent regarded Myanmar as 'a shrinking
economy', and he reported that some foreign investors were pulling out.
The country has failed to deal with the fast-declining gas supply from its
onshore fields, resulting in the irony that an energy-rich state suffers the
worst fuel crisis in the region.
While Yangon residents are starved of electricity, neighbouring Thailand
enjoys a steady supply of natural gas from Myanmar amounting to 750 million
cubic feet of gas per day, from a pipeline built and managed by a French
company.
Most of Yangon's gas reserves are offshore, but little has been done to tap
them.
According to Western analysts, the foreign exchange crisis is so acute that
the country's current reserves are no more than US$240 million (S$440 million) -
only enough to cover the next six weeks of imports of essential goods, thus
limiting its capacity to import sufficient fuel.
This has resulted in the black market price of petrol shooting up by 600
per cent in less than a year, say taxi drivers.
Much-needed foreign investment and tourism are scared off by the
difficulties of doing business, uncertainties about the future, and the European
Union's ban on development aid to the military regime.
The German lingerie company Triumph, here since 1996, decided recently to
cease operations in response to the economic situation and pressure from
human-rights groups in Europe.
Prices of even basic foodstuff have skyrocketed since last year. Several
embassies here estimated inflation at more than 50 per cent.
The last budget figures based on 2000-01 showed a deficit of 220 billion
kyat (S$61 billion) out of a total budget of 600 billion kyat.
Last year, budget figures were not published, but economists reckon growth
to be no more than 2 per cent and inflation over 50 per cent.
The World Health Organisation ranks the efficacy of Myanmar's health system
at 190 out of 191 nations.
Public services - sanitation, public transport, electricity and water
supply - are all falling apart.
It is not unusual for private businessmen to operate generators, collect
garbage and provide pumps for water supply - at a price of course - for those
neighbourhoods that can afford it.
In spite of the official economy's spiralling decline, a total collapse
like in Argentina is not on the cards.
The parallel black economy, based on the smuggling of gems and teak,
gambling and narcotics is estimated to account for more than half of the
nation's finance and trade.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- Asia Pacific US Welcomes
Government-Opposition Dialogue in Burma
VOA News 12 Feb 2002 10:50 UTC The United States has welcomed what it calls positive concrete steps that have taken place since Burma's military government began talks with the country's democratic opposition in October of 2000. A U.S. State Department report released Monday says the dialogue has
contributed to mutual understanding and the release of some 180 political
prisoners.
But at the same time, the report calls for the release of more than 1,000
other political prisoners and the lifting of restrictions on opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi.
It goes on to express disappointment with what it says is the deteriorating
quality of life in the country, where poverty is widespread.
The report says Burma's human rights situation remains "deplorable," with
widespread human rights abuses.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- |