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BURMA RELATED NEWS - MAY 17,
2002.
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HEADLINES
----------------------------------------------------------------- Reuters - Suu Kyi Leaves Myanmar Capital in
Freedom Test
WP - Burmese Officer Visits To Discuss Drug
Efforts
Reuters - Suu Kyi wants talks with Myanmar junta
in weeks
AFP - Aung San Suu Kyi in first cautious move
outside central Yangon
AFP - ASEAN agrees to unified plan of action to
combat terrorism
Reuters - Myanmar vows crackdown on poppy
farmers
Reuters - U.N. expects fresh Myanmar moves
toward democracy
Reuters - INTERVIEW-Suu Kyi impatient on talks
with Myanmar junta
AP - U.N. Seeks Democracy in
Myanmar
AP - Myanmar's Suu Kyi Tests
Freedom
AP - U.N. should seize momentum after Aung San
Suu Kyi's r-elease
BBC - Aung San Suu Kyi rallies party
FT - Aids catches Burma's junta off
guard
The Star - Myanmar cops to help trace stolen
vehicles
Bkk Post - Burma, S'pore no-show disappoints
hosts
Bkk Post - Burmese shelling forces
2,000 to flee
----------------------------------------------------------------- Suu Kyi Leaves Myanmar Capital in Freedom
Test
Fri May 17, 3:56 AM ET By Aung Hla Tun YANGON (Reuters) -
Pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, released last week from house
arrest, put her new freedom to the test on Friday with her first unrestricted
trip outside the Myanmar capital in more than four years. Party officials said
her visit to a provincial office of her National League for Democracy (NLD) in
Shwepyitha, some 20 miles north of Yangon, met no objections from the
authorities.
"It all went smoothly," NLD Secretary U Lwin told Reuters. "She had no
problems with the authorities. The trip had already been arranged."
All previous attempts to leave Yangon in recent years were blocked by the
ruling military. Her most recent spell in house arrest came after she made
several high-profile attempts to travel outside Yangon in 2000 in defiance of
travel restrictions.
Suu Kyi was driven away from her lakeside home at around 9 a.m. on Friday
and returned around 1:45 p.m.
NLD officials said Suu Kyi met party officials in the township and gave a
short speech.
It was the first time since October 1997 that Suu Kyi had been allowed to
make a trip outside Yangon.
Suu Kyi was released from 19 months of house arrest on May 6 after
protracted secretive talks with the military generals who have ruled the
impoverished country for the last 40 years.
She said in a radio interview on Thursday night that all restrictions on
her movements had been lifted and although this had yet to be tested she did not
anticipate problems.
PREVIOUS TRAVEL ATTEMPTS BLOCKED
A bid to travel south of the capital by road in August 2000 led to a
nine-day roadside stand-off when police blocked her car. She was eventually
forcibly returned home, sparking an outcry from the international community.
A month later Suu Kyi was stopped from traveling by rail to the city of
Mandalay and placed under house arrest where she remained until her release last
week.
Diplomats say the junta has been afraid in the past that Suu Kyi could stir
up rebellion in the provinces if she is allowed to roam free, holding public
meetings and focusing opposition to the generals' autocratic rule.
The NLD won the country's last elections in 1990 but has never been allowed
to govern, stirring international anger and a successful campaign to isolate
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.
Suu Kyi, the charismatic daughter of Myanmar's independence hero Aung San,
has been held under house arrest for much of the last decade.
But the attitude of the government appears to have softened over the last
year, thanks in part to talks brokered by U.N. special envoy Razali Ismail, who
has visited the country seven times over the past two years.
Razali said at the United Nations on Thursday that Suu Kyi's release
indicated Myanmar was on track for national reconciliation and democratic
reform.
"Her release sets the momentum," he said.
----------------------------------------------------------------- The Washington Post
Burmese Officer Visits To Discuss Drug Efforts By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, May 16, 2002; Page A22 A senior member of Burma's military is meeting with Bush administration
officials from at least five agencies this week, including the State Department
and the White House, to discuss the country's drug eradication efforts,
officials confirmed yesterday.
The visit by Col. Kyaw Thein, largely unpublicized by the administration,
appears to represent the most extensive contacts between a Burmese official and
the U.S. government in years. Former president Bill Clinton in 1996 imposed a
ban on visits by officials in a position to formulate policy, generally those at
the rank of general.
While the United States has coordinated its sanctions against Burma with
the European Union, Kyaw is specifically mentioned as ineligible for a visa to
EU countries, according to the text of the ban.
Administration officials said the visit was unrelated to the decision
earlier this month by the military junta to release Burmese democracy activist
Aung San Suu Kyi after 19 months of house arrest.
Officials said the trip had been in the works long before the release of
Suu Kyi, and that the sole purpose of the visit was to discuss ways the
Southeast Asian nation could address its drug problems. In February, Kyaw
participated in a survey of poppy fields with U.S. officials in Burma.
But human rights activists say Burma frequently has used its counterdrug
efforts as leverage to gain greater international recognition and cooperation.
Some said the Kyaw visit, coming on the heels of the political breakthrough in
Rangoon, may send the wrong message to the military regime.
Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), a member of the House International Relations
Committee, sent a letter to the State Department criticizing the meetings as a
"profound mistake," giving the impression the United States is already softening
its stance toward the government.
Lantos said that Kyaw is on the list for promotion to general, which "makes
a mockery" of the ban on visits by high-ranking Burmese government officials.
"If the visit doesn't violate the letter of the ban, it violates the spirit,"
said Lantos spokesman Matt Gobush.
Administration officials have said Suu Kyi's release would have no effect
on a wide range of economic and other sanctions the United States has imposed on
Burma, and they said yesterday that political discussions were not planned with
Kyaw.
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage met yesterday with the U.N.
special envoy for Burma, Razali bin Ismail, and afterward the State Department
said it would continue to press for political reforms in Burma.
"We hope it [the release of Suu Kyi] indicates that the Burmese regime is
serious about moving forward with political reform," said State Department
spokeswoman Lynn Cassel. "Significant concrete steps toward national
reconciliation and political reform," such as the unconditional release of all
prisoners, "will spur a positive response," she said.
Kyaw met Monday with Assistant Secretary of State Rand Beers for what an
official called a "frank discussion" on drug issues. He is also to meet with
Mathew P. Daley, the deputy assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific
affairs.
The State Department said Kyaw will meet with a "wide range of U.S.
government agencies," including the Office of National Drug Control Policy at
the White House, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Justice and
Treasury departments.
The State Department, in a report in March, said that Burma last year
became the world's largest producer of illicit opium after the former Taliban
regime banned opium production in Afghanistan. Burma is also the primary source
of amphetamine-type stimulants in Asia, producing an estimated 800 million
tablets per year, and the State Department says Burmese officials have done
little to address the problem.
"Burma has taken some useful counternarcotics measures in 2001, but they
are too limited in duration and scope to have had a significant impact on the
overall narcotics situation thus far," the report said.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Friday May 17, 5:52 PM
Suu Kyi wants talks with Myanmar junta in weeks BANGKOK, May 17 (Reuters) - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, newly released from house arrest, said on Friday she hoped "substantive" talks with the ruling junta would begin within weeks. The Nobel Peace Prize winner told Reuters in an interview she was a
"cautious optimist" on the chances of political reform and thought "the sooner
that the talks start the better for the country".
"I think that we would like something substantive to begin within a matter
of weeks," she said by telephone from the Myanmar capital of Yangon.
Suu Kyi, 56, was released from 19 months of house arrest on May 6 after
protracted secretive talks with the generals that have ruled the impoverished
country, formerly known as Burma, for the past 40 years.
The charismatic daughter of Myanmar's independence hero Aung San leads a
party that won the country's last general elections in 1990 by a landslide but
has never been allowed to govern.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Friday May 17, 4:54 PM
Aung San Suu Kyi in first cautious move outside central Yangon (AFP) - Myanmar's newly freed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi made a cautious first visit to a party office outside central Yangon. "Aung San Suu Kyi visited the Shwepyitha township office of the NLD," a
source from her National League for Democracy told AFP on Friday, emphasising
she had not left Yangon.
"She has not gone out of the capital. This was a routine trip to one of the
satellite township offices, which have been open since last year. She went to
reorganise the youth group there."
Shwepyitha township lies around 18 kilometres (11 miles) north of central
Yangon, adjacent to Insein township. Four satellite townships have sprung up
outside Yangon since the military took power in 1988.
Aung San Suu Kyi was released on May 6 after 19 months under house arrest
at her lakeside villa.
This second period of house arrest -- the first lasted from 1989 to 1995 --
was imposed in September 2000 after she made several attempts to leave Yangon on
party business.
Her attempt to travel to the township of Kawhmu, which defied an order
confining her to Yangon, culminated in a nine-day standoff.
When she again attempted to travel, this time to northern Mandalay on party
business, the junta escorted her home, before placing her under house
arrest.
Aung San Suu Kyi has said the military regime has not placed any conditions
on her release this time, and that she is free to travel where she wishes.
But observers have said the Nobel peace laureate would likely maintain a
discreet profile in order not to provoke the military regime, in a new spirit of
cooperation between the two sides, who have been engaged in a national
reconciliation dialogue since October 2000.
Friday's trip, a likely stepping stone towards a longer trip, occurred
without any hitches.
"The Lady", as she is known, travelled to the township by car, accompanied
by the NLD's vice-chairman Tin Oo and Soe Myint, chairman of the Yangon Division
of the NLD supervisory committee of the township offices, the party source
said.
She visited the office from 10:00 to 11:30 am (0330 to 0500 GMT) to help
organise the filling of vacant positions on the youth group's organising
committee, he added.
"This is the beginning of routine visits to township offices," the NLD
source said of her Shwepyitha trip.
Observers have been waiting for the leader to test the waters by making a
trip to another NLD office.
"It (her trip) is just a natural progression of what has been said before
by the government and Aung San Suu Kyi, that her release is unconditional," one
Yangon businessman told AFP.
"And she's been saying that she wants to rebuild her offices."
Her movements are being closely monitored by diplomats and observers, with
her first forays outside Yangon likely to be tense as the junta nervously
watches for signs of mass support for the leader.
"People expect her to go out of Yangon to go to other parts of the country.
I think that when that happens, they will assume that it is natural for her to
do so," the businessman added.
"The public, the people here can travel -- so it's natural for somebody
like her to do likewise."
Aung San Suu Kyi's priority since her release has been to reorganise her
NLD party, which won a landslide election victory in 1990 that was never
recognised by the military.
The party was left decimated by a campaign of intimidation and repression
that the military regime began in the mid-1990s.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Friday May 17, 3:41 PM
ASEAN agrees to unified plan of action to combat terrorism (AFP) - Senior officials from 10 Southeast Asian nations agreed closer cooperation was needed to counter terrorism in a draft statement to be adopted by security ministers next week. "The theme of the work plan contained in the ASEAN ministers' joint
communique -- special ASEAN ministerial meeting on terrorism -- is the need for
closer cooperation," one senior official told AFP on Friday, on condition of
anonymity.
The ASEAN officials agreed there was an urgent need to combat terrorism and
transnational crime.
"We note with concern the close links between transnational crime and
terrorism and that this lends greater urgency to our efforts to combat
transnational crime" the draft joint communique obtained by AFP said.
The official said proceeds from organised crime syndicates often ended up
funding terrorist activities. He did not elaborate.
After two days of intense and frank discussions, the 10-member Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) senior officials agreed on the draft which
will be submitted to their respective ministers to discuss and adopt.
The home (interior) ministers of the ASEAN countries will gather in Kuala
Lumpur from Monday for a two-day meeting.
Pointing out the significance of the agreement, the official said: "ASEAN
now has a work plan. We know how to counter terrorism together. This has been a
fruitful meeting.
"ASEAN is now equipped with a work program to combat terrorism," he said,
adding it would be implemented within the next three months.
The work program agreed in the draft communique includes an exchange of
information and development of multilateral or bilateral legal arrangements to
facilitate apprehension.
ASEAN officials also agreed to enhance cooperation and coordination in law
enforcement and intelligence sharing and to develop regional training
programs.
Asked about the plan, Major General Amarin Niemskul, deputy commissioner of
special branch with the Royal Thai police, said ASEAN was committed in its fight
against terrorism and transboundary crime.
But there was a need to concentrate on follow-up action against crimes such
as against drugs "instead of meeting more," he said.
"The drug problem is a big problem. We need more action. We need a lot of
hard work," he told reporters on the sidelines of the officials meeting.
But Amarin said tough laws and action to combat drugs would not ensure
success if the economic problems of those who cultivate opium-producing poppy
crops were not addressed.
"We need to help them first. We have to create other ways for them to earn
an income then we can enforce the laws," he said.
Asked if fears that illegal money made through drugs was being used to
finance terror groups were real, Amarin said: "It is common knowledge that all
terror groups need funding.
"Most of the time, money comes from illegal activities related to drugs,"
he said, adding that Thailand had close cooperation with neighbouring Myanmar in
the war against drugs.
Myanmar's Colonel Sit Aye, director of international relations department,
told reporters that Yangon was optimistic that drug planting activities in the
country would be eradicated with the introduction of the alternate cash crop
planting in April and tough policing.
Sit Aye said there was no evidence that drug money was being used to
finance terror groups. "This is just an imagination."
According to the latest State Department anti-narcotics report published
earlier this year, Myanmar is the world's largest producer of illicit opium. It
is also the primary source of amphetamine-type stimulants in Asia.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar,
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Friday May 17, 4:28 PM
Myanmar vows crackdown on poppy farmers KUALA LUMPUR, May 17 (Reuters)
- Myanmar will crack down on poppy growing in a bid to stem drug output in the
country, which in 2001 regained its spot as the world's top opium producer, a
Myanmar official said on Friday.
Colonel Sit Aye, director of International Affairs at Myanmar's Home
Ministry, said on the sidelines of an ASEAN meeting in Kuala Lumpur that farmers
had been told to turn to other crops.
"If they grow illicit crop, we will destroy it and take legal action," he
told reporters.
Myanmar forms one corner of the infamous "Golden Triangle" opium-growing
region -- along with parts of Thailand and Laos -- which officials say has
overtaken Afghanistan as the world's primary source of heroin.
Myanmar is the only country on which the United States has imposed limited
sanctions on grounds that it has not cooperated in efforts to crack down on
drugs.
Officials from the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN) began three-day talks on Thursday to seek ways to fight cross-border
crimes such as terrorism and drug trafficking.
Their work precedes a May 20-21 meeting of ASEAN home
(interior) ministers on terrorism in the Malaysian capital.
ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Sit Aye said his government had given poppy farmers seeds for alternative
crops such as corn and sugar cane ahead of the next poppy planting season
beginning in September.
"If their land is filled with these crops, there will no room for them to
plant poppies," he said.
"So far, the cultivation of rice, corn and sugar cane have been successful.
The only problem is marketing," he said.
Myanmar was described in the U.S. State Department's 2001 report on
narcotics flows as the largest producer of illicit opium, though its opium yield
survey conducted jointly with the United States showed a drop of more than 20
percent from 2000.
Colonel Kyaw Thein, head of Myanmar's counter-narcotics operations, met a
senior U.S. official in Washington this week in the first such visit for years
as glacial relations thawed a bit.
Improving the mood was the recent release by Yangon's military regime of
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from 19 months of house arrest.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Friday May 17, 4:36 AM
U.N. expects fresh Myanmar moves toward democracy By Irwin Arieff UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The
release of Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was a sign the country's
military rulers were on track toward political reform, and the United Nations
should hold it to its commitments, a U.N. special envoy said on Thursday.
Razali Ismail, a veteran Malaysian diplomat who has visited Myanmar seven
times over the past two years for secret talks aimed at encouraging political
change, said Suu Kyi's release indicated "we are on the track again" in pushing
for national reconciliation and democratic reform.
"Her release sets the momentum. From the point of view of the United
Nations, we would like to maximise the momentum to bring early conclusions," he
said.
Under tremendous international pressure, the government released
56-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi from 19 months of house arrest on
May 6 and has called for immediate substantive talks with the military
government aimed at political reform.
In Myanmar, her release was widely seen by diplomats as an attempt by the
generals to get sanctions lifted rather than the start of genuine momentum for
political change.
But Razali said, "There is a commitment on the part of the military to make
a move to democratic constitutional government."
"This commitment has repeatedly been reaffirmed over time. The United
Nations must make the military regime beholden to these commitments," he said.
As a next step, he said, Suu Kyi could begin discussions with the
government aimed at releasing political prisoners, granting political parties
greater freedom and economic reforms, he said.
After four decades of military rule, Myanmar -- formerly Burma -- is one of
the poorest nations on earth, its economy in tatters and its human rights record
one of the world's worst.
Diplomats say the country suffers from chronic bad management, and
sanctions imposed by countries including the United States and the European
Union have taken a heavy toll.
Razali said the attraction of foreign aid and the economic successes of
many fellow members of the Association of South East Asian Nations, which
includes Malaysia, were a big incentive for change.
The only way for Myanmar to attract the kind of international aid it needed
to catch up economically with many of its ASEAN partners "would be to take clear
steps toward democracy," he said.
With encouragement from Razali and the United Nations, secretive
reconciliation talks began in late 2000 between Myanmar's military and Suu Kyi's
party.
But they have so far yielded few concrete results beyond the release of Suu
Kyi and several hundred other party members from various jails.
Suu Kyi has said her top priority would be to win the release of the
members of her National League for Democracy party still in jail. More than
1,000 of them remain imprisoned in Myanmar, according to Amnesty
International.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Friday May 17, 7:12 PM
INTERVIEW-Suu Kyi impatient on talks with Myanmar junta By Chris Johnson BANGKOK, May 17 (Reuters) -
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, declaring herself impatient for
change in the military-ruled country, said on Friday she hoped for substantive
political talks with the junta within weeks.
The winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, released from 19 months of house
arrest on May 6, told Reuters in an interview she was cautiously optimistic on
the chances of a move towards democracy in the country formerly known as Burma.
"The sooner that the talks start, the better for the country because there
is so much work to be done in Burma," she said by telephone from the Myanmar
capital of Yangon.
"I think that we would like something substantive to begin within a matter
of weeks."
Suu Kyi, 56, is the charismatic daughter of Myanmar's independence hero
Aung San. She leads a party that won the country's last general elections in
1990 by a landslide, taking 80 percent of the seats, but has never been allowed
to govern.
Instead the military, in power for 40 years, merely tightened its grip. Suu
Kyi and her colleagues in the National League for Democracy (NLD) have been
arrested, locked up and harassed.
Since emerging as the leader of the pro-democracy movement in 1988, Suu Kyi
has spent more than six years confined to her lakeside villa in suburban Yangon
and most of the rest of the time her movements have been severely restricted.
But the attitude of the government appears to have softened over the last
year, thanks in part to talks brokered by U.N. special envoy Razali Ismail, who
has visited the country seven times over the past two years.
TRIP OUTSIDE YANGON
Suu Kyi has said the military has promised not to restrict her movements
and she put this to the test on Friday, venturing out by car on her first
unrestricted trip outside the Myanmar capital since October 1997.
Suu Kyi visited an NLD office in Shwepyitha, some 20 miles
(32 km) north of Yangon, and made a speech to party activists.
The trip passed off without incident and party officials said later that
the military had been notified of the trip in advance.
Asked whether the trip had been a success, Suu Kyi replied:
"Yes. It was. It went very well."
Suu Kyi declined to give a timetable for political change in her country,
saying it would be "very foolish" of anyone to say exactly when Myanmar was
going to become a full democracy.
"I don't think anybody can say. As soon as possible is what we say -- and
the sooner the better."
But she said she was optimistic.
"I have always said I am a cautious optimist and nothing has ever happened
to make me change my mind. My view is that when you set out to achieve something
you don't just depend on hope, you put in a lot of hard work," she said.
"What is important now is that everyone who wants to see change in Burma
should put in a lot of hard work, rather than sit around wondering whether one
can trust the regime or not." Asked how long the political talks with the
government would last, Suu Kyi laughed: "That is very difficult to say --
especially as the talks haven't even begun!"
Suu Kyi said she thought the pro-democracy movement and the junta had a
similar understanding of what constituted democracy.
GOAL OF DEMOCRACY UNDISPUTED
The military government has always said it wanted to move towards democracy
but that the impoverished country, which is made up of dozens of different
ethnic minorities, was simply not ready for the kind of freedoms enjoyed by
other nations.
Suu Kyi rejected suggestions that Myanmar was not ready for democracy or
needed a strong, military government, saying no one should underestimate the
capability of the people.
"I don't think a country falls apart simply because there isn't a 'strong'
government -- 'strong' in a totalitarian sense. I think a truly strong
government is one that has the support and trust of the people."
The goal of democracy itself was not at issue, she said.
"I think this is something on which we both can agree -- that Burma has to
work towards democracy. I think the questions that will have to be settled are
how we are going to work towards democracy and how quickly."
The people of Myanmar were impatient for change, she said, and no one was
less patient for change than her.
"You could say that we are the least patient of the lot because after all
we are the ones who have had to struggle very, very hard," she said. "We are
certainly not patient in the sense that we are prepared to wait and wait and
wait. But what we have is perseverance.
"We are prepared to persevere whatever the obstacles, and if it were up to
us to decide when we get democracy, we would have got it many, many years ago."
Suu Kyi, who was unable to travel to see her dying husband, British
academic Michael Aris in the last stages of terminal cancer in 1999, said she
hoped soon to see the rest of her family and meet up with her two sons.
"I hope so," she said. "I would very much like to see them and I am sure --
I hope -- they would very much like to see me. I hope we will be able to arrange
something."
----------------------------------------------------------------- U.N. Seeks Democracy in
Myanmar
The Associated Press, Thu 16 May 2002 UNITED NATIONS (AP) ? The
United Nations should seize the momentum following the release of Myanmar's
opposition leader to push for an early transition from military to democratic
rule, the U.N. special envoy to Myanmar said Thursday.
But Razali Ismail, whose mediation was crucial in securing Aung San Suu
Kyi's freedom from house arrest after 19 months, cautioned that ``the movement
towards democratic government must be home-grown'' and can't be imposed from
outside.
``Her release sets the momentum, and from the point of view of the U.N., we
would like to maximize that momentum to bring early conclusions,'' Razali told a
news conference.
``I think there is a commitment on the part of the military to make the
transition from military government to civilian constitutional government. This
commitment has been confirmed over and over, over a course of time. The U.N.
must make the military beholden to those commitments,'' he said.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been under military rule since 1962.
The current junta came to power in 1988 after crushing a pro-democracy
movement and two years later it annulled the results of the 1990 general
elections that Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won. She was put
under house arrest from 1989 to 1995 and again in September 2000 until May 6.
With Razali's mediation the junta and Suu Kyi have been holding closed-door
reconciliation talks since October 2000, raising hopes of an eventual political
settlement.
Suu Kyi's release was preceded by an unusual promise by the junta to allow
``all citizens to participate freely in the life of our political process.'' But
her release and this promise ? made in a statement distributed to foreign media
outlets ? were blacked out in the state-controlled media.
When asked about the possibility of elections, Razali said ``pressure is
the last thing you utilize when you deal with governments, particularly when you
deal with one as nationalistic as the present one in Myanmar.''
``The government of Myanmar understands clearly how interested the
international community is, the U.N. is, in seeing the evolution towards
representative, civilian, democratic government,'' he said.
``If you're talking in terms of an election there must be a lot of
preparations. But what we are trying to facilitate here is the ability of the
parties to have confidence in each other ? to work out something even at the
transitional stage ... where they begin to share efforts and responsibilities in
dealing with the interests of Myanmar.''
National reconciliation, he said, should include release of political
prisoners, greater political activity for all parties not just the National
League for Democracy, and the ability for Suu Kui and others to deal with issues
confronting the country, ``perhaps even looking at economic reforms.''
``Some economic reforms in Myanmar can precede political reforms,'' Razali
noted.
He said he had no idea what a transition would look like, in terms of
political power-sharing. Suu Kyi has said she wants to move to discussions on
the political process and democratization, and Razali said her party must have a
timetable, but it wouldn't help to make it public.
Any transition must be ``home-driven,'' he stressed. ``It is what level the
various political parties are comfortable with. We can't push the envelope too
far. It may take six months (for a) transition, it may take longer. They must
find their comfort zone in doing this. And they know very well what are the
expectations of the international community.''
Razali, a Malaysian businessman and former U.N. ambassador who made seven
trips to Myanmar to try to break the deadlock between the junta and Suu Kyi,
said he will continue trying to facilitate the reconciliation process though
perhaps in ``a more unstructured way.''
----------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar's Suu Kyi Tests
Freedom
The Associated Press, Fri 17 May 2002 YANGON, Myanmar (AP) ?
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi visited a party office on the outskirts of
the capital Yangon in the first test of her political freedom since her release
from house arrest on May 6.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate drove from Yangon to Shwepyitha, less than
20 miles from downtown Yangon, to meet with activists and officials at the party
office.
The last time Suu Kyi ventured outside the city ? defying a government
order against traveling ? the military junta put her under house arrest. That
was in September 2000, and Suu Kyi was not freed until this month.
Suu Kyi was accompanied by Tin Oo, the vice chairman of her National League
for Democracy party, and some youth members, said party officials, speaking on
condition of anonymity.
It was Suu Kyi's first visit to a party office besides the NLD headquarters
in the capital in 13 years. Even though her trip took Suu Kyi only a little
beyond Yangon, it serves to demonstrate the military government's willingness to
make good on its pledge to allow Suu Kyi full political freedom.
Details of Suu Kyi's visit and her activities were not immediately
available.
She left her lakeside home unannounced at about 9 a.m., apparently to avoid
a large crowd of supporters and journalists following her.
Suu Kyi was released on May 6 after 19 months of confinement that began
when she defied a government order barring her from traveling outside Yangon in
September 2000. The release came as a result of reconciliation talks she has
held with the junta since October 2000.
Suu Kyi last traveled to the countryside for party work in 1988 soon after
she formed the National League for Democracy in the aftermath of a bloody
crackdown by the junta on a pro-democracy uprising.
She was put under house arrest in 1989. The junta called elections in 1990
but refused to honor the results when the NLD scored an overwhelming victory.
Suu Kyi was freed in July 1995 and traveled to the southern city of
Moulmein without problems, but her subsequent attempts to travel outside the
capital for party work were thwarted by the junta.
The reconciliation talks between the two sides have been brokered by
special U.N. envoy Razali Ismail, who told a news conference in New York on
Thursday that he believes the military government is committed to making the
transition to civilian constitutional government.
----------------------------------------------------------------- U.N. should seize momentum after Aung San Suu
Kyi's release to push early transition from military to democratic government in
Myanmar
Thu May 16, 3:27 PM ET By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations should seize the momentum following the
release of Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to push for an early
transition to democracy, the U.N. special envoy to Myanmar said Thursday.
But Razali Ismail, whose mediation was crucial in securing the Nobel
laureate's freedom from 19-month house arrest, cautioned that "the movement
towards democratic government must be home-grown."
"Her release sets the momentum, and from the point of view of the U.N., we
would like to maximize that momentum to bring early conclusions," Razali told a
news conference.
"I think there is a commitment on the part of the military to make the
transition from military government to civilian constitutional government. This
commitment has been confirmed over and over, over a course of time. The U.N.
must make the military beholden to those commitments," he said.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been under military rule since
1962.
The current junta came to power in 1988 after crushing a pro-democracy
movement and two years later it annulled the results of a general election that
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won. She was put under house
arrest from 1989 to 1995 and again in September 2000 until May 6.
With Razali's mediation the junta and Suu Kyi have been holding closed-door
reconciliation talks since October 2000, raising hopes of an eventual political
settlement.
Suu Kyi's release was preceded by an unusual promise by the junta to allow
"all citizens to participate freely in the life of our political process." But
her release and this promise ? made in a statement distributed to foreign media
outlets ? were blacked out in the state-controlled media.
When asked about the possibility of elections, Razali said "pressure is the
last thing you utilize when you deal with governments, particularly when you
deal with one as nationalistic as the present one in Myanmar."
"The government of Myanmar understands clearly how interested the
international community is, the U.N. is, in seeing the evolution towards
representative, civilian, democratic government," he said.
"If you're talking in terms of an election there must be a lot of
preparations. But what we are trying to facilitate here is the ability of the
parties to have confidence in each other ? to work out something even at the
transitional stage ... where they begin to share efforts and responsibilities in
dealing with the interests of Myanmar."
National reconciliation, he said, should include release of political
prisoners, greater political activity for all parties not just the National
League for Democracy, and the ability for Suu Kyi and others to deal with issues
confronting the country, "perhaps even looking at economic reforms."
"Some economic reforms in Myanmar can precede political reforms," Razali
noted.
He said he had no idea what a transition would look like, in terms of
political power-sharing. Suu Kyi has said she wants to move to substantive
discussions on the political process and democratization, and Razali said her
party must have a timetable, but it wouldn't help to make it public.
Any transition must be "home-driven," he stressed. "It is what level the
various political parties are comfortable with. We can't push the envelope too
far. It may take six months (for a) transition, it may take longer. They must
find their comfort zone in doing this. And they know very well what are the
expectations of the international community."
Razali, a Malaysian businessman and former U.N. ambassador who made seven
trips to Myanmar to try to break the deadlock between the junta and Suu Kyi,
said he will continue his efforts.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, 17 May, 2002, 08:30 GMT 09:30 UK
Aung San Suu Kyi rallies party By Somchai
Suwanban
Head of the BBC's Burmese Service Aung San Suu Kyi has the revival of her National League for Democracy
political party as one of her top priorities.
The military government has systematically dismantled the organisation and
infrastructure of the NLD during the past 10 years.
Many NLD political workers and grass roots activists have been forced to
abandon their membership, some coerced into joining the government-sponsored
Union, Solidarity and Development Association (USDA).
The NLD needs to attract younger members
The USDA has apparently become stronger during Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest and it could turn into a political party should there be an election. It is essential for Aung San Suu Kyi to go out and meet demoralised NLD
members in order to breath new life into the party which won an overwhelming
majority in the May 1990 elections.
The party is now almost defunct and left with an ageing executive committee
and little inspiration among the rank and file.
Aung San Suu Kyi needs to rebuild the NLD's political structure and attract
younger members up and down the country to work with her, 'to empower the
powerless' as she put it.
Slow process
Aung San Suu Kyi will also be pushing for the release of more political
prisoners.
Burma has turned a new page, but it will take quite a long time to fill in
the blanks
But this will be difficult. The military government has no interest in setting free key political activists who would be able to strengthen the NLD's political appeal. The government is actively supporting the USDA as a political proxy when
the electoral battle lines are eventually drawn up.
But that may be a long way off. After almost 19 months of 'confidence
building' talks, many people are now asking what comes next. Some ethnic leaders
have said they want to be part of the next step.
But ethnic political aspiration has always been a thorny and complicated
issue in Burmese politics. Some historians believe that the issue may be partly
behind the 1947 assassination of Aung San, Aung San Suu Kyi's father.
After the confidence building phase, the military government and Aung San
Suu Kyi will next engage in 'talk about talk' before the actual reconciliation
can begin.
Burma has turned a new page, but it will take quite a long time to fill in
the blanks.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Financial Times
Aids catches Burma's junta off
guard
By Amy Kazmin Published: May 16 2002 17:19 | Last Updated: May 16 2002 17:27 Burma's two state-owned television channels normally offer a bland diet of
traditional musical performances, Chinese martial arts dramas, documentaries on
local factories and long shots of generals inaugurating dams and bridges.
Sensitive events, such as last week's release of democracy advocate Aung San Suu
Kyi, are ignored.
But one station has recently been serving up spicier fare - a
Burmese-language soap opera about an affluent business family whose widowed
patriarch was infected by HIV during a fling with an attractive young woman.
Produced with help from UN Aids, the 10-part drama is, by staid local
standards, sensational. Early scenes depict the patriarch's son spending a
drunken night with his girlfriend, then taking her to meet his ailing father. It
turns out that she is the one who infected the older man with HIV.
Later, characters discuss how condoms can be used to prevent HIV
transmission.
It took nearly two years for Burma's conservative ruling generals to let
the series go on air, but aid workers hope it augurs a new, more pragmatic
approach towards what is shaping up to be a significant HIV/Aids epidemic.
At the same time, western countries are quietly preparing to step up their
own support for local Aids prevention efforts, even as they maintain other
sanctions against the junta.
"People are dying from Aids and people are getting infected every hour that
goes by in the day," says Steven Honeyman, an aid worker who recently spent five
years in Burma with PSI, the non-governmental organisation behind the television
serial. "If there are things we could do to prevent that, we should be doing
them."
A UN official familiar with the epidemic asks: "What will be the point of a
political breakthrough if you have a country that could be devastated by an
HIV/Aids epidemic? We can't wait. We have to respond."
With huge numbers of migrant workers and busy, porous borders in the
opium-producing Golden Triangle, Burma has the makings of an Aids hotspot.
Plenty of men spend long months away from home working - and patronising
commercial sex workers in their idle time. Many others seek jobs in more
affluent Thailand, which has both a booming sex industry and its own serious
Aids problem.
Burma's borders with China and India are key points in heroin trafficking
routes, with plenty of injecting users along the way. The UN estimates that at
least 500,000 of Burma's 50m people have already been infected with the virus.
Until now, though, Burma's junta has largely ignored the long-term threat
HIV/Aids poses to the country's future, seduced by their own rhetoric about
impeccable national morality. The Aids budget this year is equivalent to just
$84,000 (£57,500).
While the national Aids programme sends teams to distribute condoms and
information to high-risk populations, their efforts are hampered by lack of
resources. The authorities have also banned, on moral grounds, national
campaigns to promote condoms.
The involvement of international aid donors has so far been limited, partly
due to the regime's attitudes and partly to Ms Suu Kyi's opposition to any aid
or investment in Burma until there is political change.
Donor funding for Aids programmes last year was less than $3.5m, compared
with Thailand where the government and donor countries together have spent
$30m-$90m a year over the last 10 years.
But with the Aids toll increasingly visible, attitudes seem to be shifting.
A top general last year told a local newspaper that Aids was "a national
concern" and the regime recently raised its estimate of national HIV infections
to 179,000, up from its previously claimed 30,000.
International donors have sent missions to Burma to study the situation,
and the European Union has agreed to provide E5m (£3.4m) to UN and NGO Aids
prevention work.
With Ms Suu Kyi now freed from house arrest, aid workers are hoping that
more money will follow. Shortly after her release, Ms Suu Kyi hinted that she
would alter her stance on humanitarian aid as part of a broader dialogue with
authorities, and diplomats have suggested she and her supporters may even work
with the regime on a joint committee to supervise humanitarian aid.
"We want what is best for the people of Burma as quickly as possible," Ms
Suu Kyi said. "The most important elements are accountability and transparency.
Whatever is given to the people should get to them in a right way."
----------------------------------------------------------------- The Star
Friday, May 17, 2002
Myanmar cops to help trace stolen vehicles KUALA LUMPUR: Myanmar will give Malaysia its full co-operation in
investigating vehicles reported stolen here and smuggled into the country via
Thailand.
Police Colonel Sit Aye, director for International Relations Department,
said Myanmar police were ?ever willing? to assist any Asean member country in
investigations pertaining to transnational crimes.
?The government of Myanmar, especially the police force is very particular
about transnational crimes. So far we have not heard of any such vehicles seized
but will look into it if there is any request by our fellow colleagues,?
?We are currently facing traffic jams in our country and the government is
concerned about it. We are checking if any of the vehicles are smuggled,?? he
said at the Second Asean senior Officials Meeting on Transnational crime here
yesterday.
When asked if stolen Malaysian vehicles were being sold to the United Wa
army in his country, he said:
?We are not aware.?
He said Myanmar police would investigate and give full co-operation if
there were any such vehicles there.
The Star had reported on April 29 that car thieves with international links
had smuggled the stolen cars to Thailand and disposed the vehicles to the
clandestine United Wa army in Myanmar.
The syndicate?s operation came to light following Thai police operations
along the Thai-Myanmar border of Chiang Rai.
Thai and Malaysian police, in a joint operation, managed to recover 20
four-wheel drives stolen from Malaysia and smuggled into Thailand.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Friday 17 May 2002
Burma, S'pore no-show disappoints
hosts
Saritdet Marukatat
Anti-landmine campaigners are disappointed that Burma and Singapore failed
to turn up for Thai-hosted regional talks to tackle the landmine problem.
Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan, a member of the Thailand Campaign to Ban
Landmines, an NGO umbrella outfit, said while Singapore was virtually free of
the problem, Burma produced and deployed more landmines than any other country
in Southeast Asia.
Thailand wants Rangoon to sign an international pact to ban landmines, but
Burma continues to deploy them against minority groups.
International Campaign to Ban Landmines co-ordinator Liz Bernstein said the
number of people injured or killed by mines in Burma was increasing.
Despite the absence of the two countries, the talks managed to put the
problem into a regional perspective and boost confidence in attempts to find a
solution, the NGO said.
Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines and
Vietnam joined the two-day meeting.
Southeast Asia is one of the world's most heavily mined areas. One person
is killed or maimed by mines in Asean every two hours. In Thailand, people in 19
border provinces live in fear of landmines.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Friday 17 May 2002
Burmese shelling forces 2,000 to
flee
Mortar shells fired from inside Burma forced about 2,000 people, 500 of
them schoolchildren, to flee Ban Mae Konken village in tambon Mahawan of Mae Sot
district, Tak province, yesterday.
No one was hurt but the village school was ordered closed for half a
day.
The shelling by an unidentified force inside Burma began at 12.15am.
Three mortar rounds landed near the homes of Ming Khammukdee, 45, Seerai
Ruankham, 48, and Tha Chaichana, 55, causing damage to the houses and some of
their belongings, as well as power lines and fruit trees.
Another mortar round landed near Wat Huai Mahawong and five others on a
rice field near the village.
Narong Huayphat, the kamnan of tambon Mahawan, said that before the
shelling he had received a telephone warning from a Burmese man that the village
would be shelled in retaliation for Wednesday's attacks on two Burmese outposts
by Karen National Union rebels.
A formal protest against the shelling would be made to Burmese
authorities.
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