|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
BURMA RELATED NEWS - April 22,
2002.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
HEADLINES
----------------------------------------------------------------- AFP - Thailand on guard for flood of cheap
ecstasy pills: report
Reuters - Degree in Gambling Seems a Sure
Bet
The Dawn - Pressure on
Myanmar junta
IHT - A crisis visit to Burma
ABC online - UN says upcoming visit to Burma
will boost democracy process
The Nation - Wa working on cheap ecstasy
----------------------------------------------------------------- Monday April 22, 11:27 AM
Thailand on guard for flood of cheap ecstasy pills: report BANGKOK, April 22 (AFP) - A
wave of cut-price ecstasy tablets could flood the Thai market if druglords in
neighbouring Myanmar succeed in their efforts to produce the pill more cheaply,
a report said Monday.
The Narcotics Control Board said Myanmar's Red Wa ethnic militia, which is
accused of controlling much of the cross-border narcotics trade, was attempting
to mass-produce the designer drug.
"If the group succeeds, ecstasy is set for widespread use among Thai
teenagers," the board's secretary general Kitti Limchaikij was quoted as
saying.
Currently, ecstasy is priced at between 800 and 1,200 baht per pill
(18.50-27.70 dollars), putting it out of reach to all but well-off youngsters,
Kitti said.
But if the Red Wa manage to churn it out in vast quantities, he said, the
"party drug" could become as popular as the methamphetamines which have already
swept the country and led to massive addiction rates.
"People of working age and night-club patrons are also prospective
clients," he said.
Kitti said most of the ecstasy reaching Thailand was either brought in by
European travellers for their personal use, or trafficked by gangs who transport
the pills from production centres in the Netherlands.
"We are keeping a close eye on the second group. They produce the drug and
sell it themselves," he said.
However, the ecstasy problem in Thailand is dwarfed by the smuggling of
methamphetamines, known here as "ya baa", or crazy medicine.
The Thai army fears some 800 million methamphetamine pills could be
smuggled across the border from Myanmar this year.
General Maung Aye, number two in Yangon's ruling military junta, is due to
arrive here Tuesday for a four-day visit which will see drugs as a major issue
on the agenda, Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said last week.
Global narcotics authorities said in February that after having trailed
Afghanistan for a decade, Myanmar again became the world's largest producer of
opium in 2001, accounting for as much as 60 percent of global supply.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Degree in Gambling Seems a Sure
Bet
Mon Apr 22, 6:45 AM ET MANILA (Reuters) - The
Philippines could soon be the first country to offer a degree course in
blackjack and roulette if plans for a gambling academy are approved.
"It is a baccalaureate degree, Bachelor of Science in Gaming Management,
something like that, so we can professionalize it," Efraim Genuino, head of
state-owned Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (PAGCOR), told a local radio
station.
The gaming group had the expertise to produce gambling graduates as it has
trained gambling staff in-house since the 1980s, company officials said.
Pending approval from the authorities, the academy will offer courses in
gaming skills for table supervisors in popular games such as blackjack, poker
and roulette, they said.
Genuino said he was sure the course would be popular and he hoped graduates
would work overseas and help the Philippine economy.
"We know many will apply because jobs are guaranteed," Genuino said.
"What's important here is for us to be able to export people who can help our
country."
About 7.5 million Filipinos work abroad and the money they send home is
major source of income for many families.
Neighboring countries such as Laos and Myanmar had already expressed an
interest in the gambling course, another company official said.
The Philippines has produced at least one well-known, reputed gambler --
ousted president Joseph Estrada who has been seen on video playing high stakes
games in a casino.
The former movie star, who is celebrating his 65th birthday on Friday, is
in custody in a military hospital and facing plunder charges for amassing wealth
during his term, partly through alleged bribes from illegal gambling
syndicates.
----------------------------------------------------------------- The Dawn- 22 April 2002
Monday 08 Safar 1423
Pressure on Myanmar junta
By Andrew Marshall
BANGKOK: It is crunch time for Myanmar's ruling generals. A visit by UN
Special Envoy Razali Ismail this week could be the last chance for the military
to show it is serious about political change in the impoverished and isolated
country.
Diplomats says patience with the military rulers is running out after more
than 18 months of secretive talks with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and
unless it can prove the dialogue is more than just a sham, heavier sanctions are
set to follow.
If Razali, who is due to arrive in Myanmar on Tuesday, fails to find signs
that concrete progress is being made in the talks, the process could well
unravel. "This is probably the biggest test he has had," said a senior Western
diplomat in Yangon. "If he leaves Burma at the end of this visit with nothing,
then it could be all over. People can't keep giving the government the benefit
of the doubt forever."
Top of the international community's demands is the release of 56-year-old
Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, who has been held under house
arrest for 18 months. "Releasing her is the one thing they could do now that
would give them some breathing space and keep the talks on track," the diplomat
said. "They can't carry on claiming to be building democracy while Suu Kyi is in
confinement."
The talks between Suu Kyi and the junta were hailed by the international
community as a breakthrough. Since they began, the government has released more
than 200 political prisoners and ended its criticism of Suu Kyi in state media.
But more than 1,000 political prisoners are still in jail, and the government
has been silent on what progress the talks have made - if any.
Suu Kyi, too, is silent. Her telephone line is cut, she cannot leave her
house, and her visitors are screened by the military and limited to a handful of
diplomats.
Activists in Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), which won
Myanmar's last election in 1990 but was never allowed to take power, are
increasingly restless over the lack of progress. So too are the country's many
ethnic parties, who fear they could be left out of any political settlement.
Diplomats say Razali may resign if this trip yields no progress. That would
probably lead to stricter sanctions by the United States, Europe and Japan,
pushing Myanmar's tottering economy even deeper into crisis. The omens are not
good ahead of Razali's trip.
Razali's latest visit was initially scheduled for last month, but the junta
asked him to postpone it at the last minute, fuelling fears about the future of
the dialogue with Suu Kyi.-Reuters
----------------------------------------------------------------- The International Herald Tribune
A crisis visit to
Burma
Mike Jendrzejczyk IHT Monday, April 22, 2002
WASHINGTON The world may get a glimpse of what is really going on in Burma
when the United Nations' special envoy, the Malaysian diplomat Razali Ismail,
visits Rangoon this Monday.
. In trying to keep a political dialogue on track between Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, head of the National League for Democracy, and military authorities, he has to convince the country's top generals that a major breakthrough is needed to keep the process alive. Progress might open the door for the expanded humanitarian and other international assistance needed by Burma. . Razali's visit was scheduled for March but was deferred after the arrest of four relatives of Ne Win, the 92-year-old former dictator who retired in 1988. The government says they will be put on trial on charges of high treason, a capital offense, for attempting a coup. . The coup charges have provided General Than Shwe, a leading figure in the ruling junta, with a convenient pretext to consolidate his grip on power. . The arrests and the delay in Razali's trip fueled speculation on a split in the government's top ranks, between "reformers" and "hard-liners," that could sink any chances of the confidence-building talks with the league moving to serious discussions about a democratic transition. Razali is expected to push for the release of more than 1,000 political prisoners, including hundreds of detained pro-democracy activists and at least 17 members of Parliament elected in 1990. The UN human rights expert on Burma, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, reporting to the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, has stressed that the release of all political prisoners is important "not only as an end in itself but also because it is regarded by the leadership of the league as a prerequisite for moving to the next phase of talks." . Pinheiro gave Rangoon credit for freeing more than 200 political detainees since the beginning of last year, while complaining that the process was going much too slowly. He also praised Burma for allowing some league offices to reopen. . But just days before the UN commission took up Burma, the government announced a harsh seven-year prison sentence for a retired academic, Salai Tun Than. He was arrested last November for holding a peaceful protest in front of Rangoon City Hall calling for democracy. . It appears that the ruling generals are as determined as ever to crush any open dissent, while at the same time carrying on a process of dialogue internally and pursuing engagement externally with the international community. Such a two-track approach is not sustainable. . Another key test of the government's willingness to change is its response to the International Labor Organization's demands for an end to forced labor. It has failed to take the necessary steps to halt the army's use of forced labor. The practice continues especially in the building of infastructure projects and in certain ethnic minority areas. . If the Razali visit is to have any chance of success, the pressure on Burma must be maintained, and not only by Western governments. Japan and the Association of South East Asian Nations should also be actively involved in persuading the generals to end the current impasse. . The writer is Washington director for Asia at Human Rights Watch. He contributed this comment to the International Herald Tribune. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 22/04/2002 05:49:48 | ABC Radio Australia
News
UN says upcoming visit to Burma will boost democracy process The United Nation's says the upcoming visit of its special envoy to Burma
will boost Rangoon's democratisation process.
Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Burma,
says the visit by Mr Razali Ismail could provide the necessary momentum leading
to the creation of a civilian administration in Burma.
Mr Razali has been instrumental in facilitating dialogue on national
reconciliation between the Rangoon military regime and the National League for
Democracy, led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
The diplomat is due in Burma on Tuesday for a three-day visit in what Mr
Pinheiro says he hopes will provide much needed momentum to the process of
confidence building and national reconciliation.
Ms Suu Kyi, whose NLD was barred by Myanmar's ruling military junta from
assuming power after a landslide election victory in 1990, has been under
virtual house arrest in her Rangoon home since September 2000.
----------------------------------------------------------------- The Nation
Wa working on cheap ecstasy Published on Apr 22, 2002 Ecstasy pills could become as popular as methamphetamines if current
efforts to make them cheaper succeed, the Narcotics Control Board warned
yesterday.
There have been reports that the Red Wa group in Burma has been working on
producing cheaper ecstasy pills, said the board's secretary-general, Kitti
Limchaikij.
"If the group succeeds, ecstasy is set for widespread use among Thai
teenagers," he said.
Currently priced between Bt800 and Bt1,200 a pill, ecstasy use now is
generally restricted to youths from well-to-do families, Kitti said.
Because the drug heightens physical sensations teenagers will be eager to
use it during sex, he said.
"People of working age and night-club patrons are also prospective
clients," he said.
Kitti said two groups are mainly responsible for the spread of ecstasy in
the Kingdom. The first group consists of European tourists who bring along small
quantities of the drug for their personal use during their stay. They also sell
pills to fellow tourists, he said.
The second group consists of Asian drug pushers who smuggle the pills into
Thailand in large lots. They are mostly from China, Singapore, Hong Kong, and
Malaysia, Kitti said.
"We are keeping a close eye on the second group. They produce the drug and
sell it themselves," he said.
The traffickers use the Netherlands as a hub to send the drug to Asia, he
said.
In the past year, authorities seized 67,244 ecstasy pills and the users
were found to be mainly sex workers and teenage nightclub goers in big cities.
Ecstasy use has also been reported at small parties in private residences.
----------------------------------------------------------------- |