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BURMA RELATED NEWS - MAY 22-23,
2002.
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HEADLINES
----------------------------------------------------------------- AP - Razali to return to Myanmar for more
concessions by junta
CSM - Long, quiet
ethnic war in Burma
MJS - A brighter day for Myanmar
Dawn - Is democracy
nearer in Burma?
AFP - Thai PM downplays conflict as Myanmar
seals border
Reuters - Malaysia extends amnesty for illegal
immigrants
Reuters - Suu Kyi hopes talks can bring
democracy to Myanmar
Reuters - Myanmar shuts border with Thailand as
tensions rise
Reuters - Asia drug chiefs unite to chip away at
"ice" abuse
AP - UN envoy to return to Myanmar for more
concessions by junta
Xinhuanet - Retired Myanmar Diplomat On Drug
Control
Kyodo News - Suu Kyi visits another NLD branch
office
VOA News - Burma Protests After Thailand Fires
on Drug Traders Across Border
The Nation - BORDER TENSION: Junta shuts
checkpoints
Bkk Post - Surayud
says Thai leaders did not know
----------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, May 22, 2002
Razali to return to Myanmar for more concessions by junta KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -
The U.N. envoy who brokered this month's release of democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi from house arrest plans to return to Myanmar soon to seek further
concessions from its military government.
Razali Ismail said on Wednesday that U.S.-led economic sanctions against
the Southeast Asian country were likely to remain until it was clearer that the
junta was cooperating with the Suu Kyi to end a long political deadlock.
Razali met U.N. officials in New York last week and said Wednesday that he
would make his eighth visit to Myanmar in a few weeks.
The generals freed Suu Kyi on May 6 after 19 months of house arrest.
However, they have not announced a date for talks with the opposition
leader, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her nonviolent promotion of
democracy.
"They are not going to tell you when they are going to meet,'' Razali, a
retired Malaysian diplomat, told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.
"You shouldn't look for a situation where it is a formalized structured
arrangement.''
Euphoria over Suu Kyi's release has given way to questions about when the
military, which has ruled since 1962, will hold talks with Suu Kyi and her
National League for Democracy.
The party won parliamentary elections in 1990, but was never allowed to
take office. Suu Kyi has spent most of the past dozen years under various
degrees of confinement.
Hundreds of political prisoners remain behind bars.
"The priorities are more releases of people who are in custody of the
government, greater freedom of activity for all political parties, not just the
NLD, matters like that,'' Razali said.
Progress in reconciliation talks was vital for the lifting of economic
sanctions, Razali said. Myanmar is among the world's poorest countries.
"It is not a question of asking for sanctions to be lifted,'' he said. "It
is having things happen in the country that would make it unnecessary for the
sanctions to be there.''
Razali made the comments at the public signing of an agreement with a local
bank to handle the flotation on Malaysia's stock exchange of Iris Technologies,
a microchip document company that he chairs.
Iris and Razali were at the center of conflict-of-interest questions on the
eve of Suu Kyi's release when it was revealed that the company had sealed a deal
to supply the Myanmar government with high-tech passports.
Razali has rejected accusations that the deal compromises his work with the
United Nations, which appointed him as a part-time envoy to Myanmar, also known
as Burma, in April 2000.
On Wednesday, Razali said he would not give up his jobs at either the
United Nations or Iris. He holds a substantial stake in the company.
"I am disciplined enough, I think I have enough integrity, to be able to
deal with whatever my responsibilities are and whatever my business commitments
are quite separately,'' Razali said.
Razali said he had spoken to Suu Kyi on the issue and quoted her as saying
it was "no problem.''
U.N. authorities have said Razali did not violate the organization's rules.
- AP
----------------------------------------------------------------- Long, quiet ethnic war in
Burma
As the ruling junta talks with Suu Kyi, troops continue
to attack ethnic groups.
By Dan Murphy | Special to The Christian Science Monitor
LER PER HER, BURMA ? The day after Burma's military rulers released
democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, they also ordered the
destruction of Kho Kay village, say ethnic leaders. Soldiers from three
different battalions descended on the ethnic Karen village on May 7 and gave the
residents an ultimatum: Leave or be shot.
Then the soldiers, eyewitnesses say, slaughtered the villagers' livestock and burned their 27 houses and 30 rice barns. The villagers got away with their lives, but not much else. As Ms. Suu Kyi begins talks on political reform with the ruling generals in
Rangoon, the capital, the continued attacks on Karen villages near Thailand's
border put her release into perspective as a very small step in a country with
perhaps the worst human-rights record in Asia. President George Bush on Friday
renewed sanctions on Burma, citing the regime's repressive measures.
The sanctions make it illegal for US companies to invest in Burma (called
Myanmar by the ruling junta), and they prevent aid institutions such as the
World Bank from lending there.
In Burma's frontier provinces, there's an ongoing, lop-sided battle where
government troops evict villagers and destroy property.
"I can't think of a month in the past few years where something like that
hasn't happened,'' says Saw Bathin Sein, chairman of the Karen National Union
(KNU), an ethnic party that supports Suu Kyi and has a 2,000-member guerrilla
army.
This month, he says, seven Karen villages have been destroyed and 15
villagers killed. Human-rights workers, diplomats, and spokesmen for the Shan,
Karenni, Lahu, and other ethnic groups in outer Burma report similar oppressive
tactics by the ruling junta.
Burma has about a dozen ethnic insurgencies, though most are fighting for
autonomy, not independence.
Travel to these areas is restricted. But a steady trickle of refugees to
Thailand's border carry news. They say the secretive military government, which
calls itself the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), has been
systematically displacing ethnic minorities. The government, however, says that
national unity is its overriding concern, and says it is taking appropriate
steps to hold the country together.
The junta, which took power in 1962, has made Burma one of the world's most
closed societies: E-mail is illegal, and so is airing opinions about the
government. More than 1,000 political prisoners are held captive. Yet more
disturbing, say escaped ethnic members, are the millions of subsistence farmers
forced to neglect their crops and act as porters for troops ? one of the reasons
that a third of Burmese children are malnourished. Sometimes villages are
destroyed and their rice fields sown with landmines, forcing people to live in
SPDC garrison towns, where they become a ready labor pool for the
military.
The intent of the evictions is twofold: to punish villagers for
antigovernment sympathy, and to create internal discord.
"Scorched-earth tactics to deny rebels access to support from the
population remain widespread,'' says Chao Tzang Yangwhe, a former ethnic Shan
rebel who is now a political scientist and democracy activist in Chiang Mai,
Thailand. "They're creating poverty."
Ler Per Her is a camp of simple bamboo huts for about 500 displaced Karens
nestled amid the limestone hills inside Burma.
Moo Haw says she's been on the run for three years, since a detachment of
100 soldiers settled in Wah Mi Kla, her village.
She says the soldiers began taking livestock and rice and forcing the
villagers to work as unpaid porters, carrying boxes of ammunition and food into
the jungle, sometimes for days at a time. Weak or slow workers were beaten. "The
worst was when they used the rifle butts on people,'' says the grandmother
through teeth stained black from chewing betel nut, a stimulant.
In late 1999, the villagers were given a day's notice to evacuate to a
"relocation center," an armed camp where villagers needed military approval to
go out and work the fields.
"We had to get out," says Moo Haw. She fled with her family and neighbors,
leaving everything behind. "We're still afraid, but I hope that they won't be
able to come here again."
The villagers have learned going home is a mistake. Kle Po Khlo, a widow
whose husband was killed by a landmine, says her uncle tried to return to gather
coconuts from their village, which is only a day's walk away. He was shot out of
a tree. "If they see us, they'll just shoot," she says.
Aid workers and activists estimate that more than 2 million Burmese have
been displaced by such tactics and are hiding in the jungle inside Burma or
living along the Thai border.
Last Wednesday, Karen rebels attacked a Burmese military post in Palhu, a
short distance from the Thai border. After the rebels fled, the Burmese
retaliated by lobbing five shells into a neighboring Thai village, since the
Burmese sometimes accuse the Thais of providing tacit support to the
Karen.
The Karen have been fighting central control since 1949, shortly after
Burmese independence hero and Suu Kyi's father, Aung San, was gunned down by a
rival general.
Karen leaders say they want a stake in a democratic, federal union of Burma
led by Suu Kyi. "We support her, because we think we can trust her," says Saw
Bathin Sein, who has opposed Burma's rulers since 1949. For now, he says the
Karen feel they have little choice but to take up arms. The SPDC's use of forced
labor and other atrocities make it "a matter of survival."
Suu Kyi, who is from the country's dominant Burman ethnic group, is aware
of the stakes. Within hours of her release from house arrest, she met with
ethnic political leaders in Rangoon and pledged to give them an equal seat at
the table in talks with the military.
But the country's chances for true reconciliation are being undermined by
the military's use of ethnic militias. "It's a classic strategy: Divide and
rule,'' says Bathin Sein.
Since 1999, for example, 126,000 members of the Wa minority who
traditionally live along the Chinese border have been forced to move south, into
a mostly ethnic-Shan area along the Thai border, according to a recent report by
the Lahu National Development Organization.
Mr. Chao and others say that might just be the point ? to make the country
so unstable military rule looks like the best option. "The SPDC are sowing a
whirlwind," says Chao.
----------------------------------------------------------------- A brighter day for Myanmar
Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on May 20, 2002. Aung San Suu Kyi has a long and unusual name, though not a familiar one, at
least not to many Americans. But she is almost certainly working on that, and
because she is seeking her country's liberation - not just fame - her effort
deserves everyone's support.
Her homeland, Myanmar, formerly Burma, is a nation in southeast Asia that
has been governed continuously since 1962 by a regime that has reduced its 50
million people to poverty and oppression. She herself has been under house
arrest twice - first from 1989 to 1995 and then from September 2000 until just a
few days ago.
So powerful is her cause that even though she was under arrest at the time,
Suu Kyi's political party won 80% of the parliamentary seats in a 1990 election,
the last time a reasonably free and fair vote was held in Myanmar. Far from
accepting the results, however, the government annulled them and put many of the
should-be parliamentarians in jail. In 1991, Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Prize
for Peace.
Perhaps the government finally realized that imprisoning a Nobel laureate
was a political gaffe that would doom the regime to international pariah status;
perhaps Suu Kyi's freedom was the direct result of secret negotiations between
the government and a United Nations envoy, Razali Ismail, of Malaysia. In any
case, a government spokesman said, "She is at liberty to carry out all
activities, including her party's."
She and her supporters already have begun to make public statements, but
time will tell whether this will continue. Suu Kyi's earlier release ended when
she tried to resume her political work, and this one may end in a similar way.
If the government's promise is to be taken seriously, officials will not only
permit Suu Kyi to travel and speak freely, but will organize free, fair and open
elections and allow her party to participate.
And if Suu Kyi deserves to be free from house arrest, more than 1,500 other
political prisoners (including 20 members-elect of parliament from the 1990
elections) deserve to be released from prison immediately.
The people of Myanmar earn, on average, $300 a year. The World Health
Organization ranks medical care in Myanmar among the worst in the world. Myanmar
cannot hope to improve on its dismal statistics unless it breaks out of its
isolation and assumes a wider role in the world. Suu Kyi hopes to lead the way,
and she deserves a chance.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Dawn-21 May 2002 Tuesday
Is democracy nearer in
Burma?
By Ashfak Bokhari
Burma's charismatic opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, known for her
exemplary courage, was freed in the first week of this month by the country's
ruling military junta after 19 months of house arrest, giving rise to
speculations that a gradual return to democracy was imminent in the country.
Human rights organizations were, however, quick to warn that her release
does not mean that re-introduction of democracy was round the corner in a
country which has been under military rule since General Ne Win staged a coup in
1962. The generals adopted what they called the "Burmese way to socialism" - an
autocratic dispensation that virtually froze the country's prospects for
economic growth and prosperity and instead blighted with poverty and repression.
Ne Win stepped aside in 1988 in the face of a popular uprising that was
violently crushed by the military which put in place the current, equally
repressive, government. It also renamed the country Myanmar, held a general
election in 1990 but then nullified the results as being unacceptable to the
ruling junta. Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), had won
an overwhelming majority (82 per cent) of the seats in the legislature.
The junta's refusal to hand over power to the NLD prompted many western
countries to impose political and economic sanctions on the military regime. Suu
Kyi was placed under house arrest in 1989 and was freed after six years. On that
occasion, too, her release had fuelled similar hopes and speculation in Burma
and abroad about restoration of democracy.
Suu Kyi, 56, has become a legendary figure in Burma's history for
maintaining a dignified poise in her devotion to the cause of democracy in her
military ruled country. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for
struggling against, in the words of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, "a regime
characterized by brutality". The committee had described her as "one of the most
extraordinary examples of civil courage in Asia in recent decades".
Suu Kyi had shown an early interest in Gandhi's non-violent philosophy his
political struggle for India's freedom from colonial rule but herself stayed out
of politics until she returned to her homeland from Britain in April 1988 to
nurse her ailing mother. Three months later, in July, she saw a popular uprising
being mercilessly suppressed. She began travelling around the country to
mobilize the masses against military rule. Her British husband, Michael Aris,
who was been a visiting professor at Harvard University, was last seen by her in
1989. When he was dying of cancer in England in 1999, the Burmese government
refused to let him visit his wife in Rangoon. Suu Kyi decided not to leave the
country to see her dying husband, because she knew she would not be allowed to
return to Burma. She has also not seen her sons, Alexander, 27, and Kim, 23,
since September 1989, when their passports were revoked. They are studying in
England.
In a statement soon after her release on May 6, she surprised many by
stating that she would now adopt a more conciliatory approach to the troika of
hard-line generals and that she was "ready to cooperate" with them in an effort
to promote political reform. She carefully avoided criticizing the regime that
has seriously harmed her party and kept her confined for more than six of the
past 12 years. Instead, she preferred to give the government "credit where
credit is due" for releasing her. The government suggested that it, too, was
interested in reconciliation, saying it was committed "to allowing all of our
citizens to participate freely in ... our political process".
In fact, the only option the two sides were left with and after an
understanding between the junta and Suu Kyi (endorsed by major powers) was to
bring an end to the international sanctions which have now begun to bite. At
present, Burma's coffers are all out empty and there seems to be no way of
raising revenue of any kind. The money it has earned from the sale of natural
gas from the Andaman Sea to Thailand amounts to about 400 million dollars a year
- not enough to run the country. Opium exports are the other means that help
sustain the military regime economically.
The West and the United States, in particular, are also willing to soften
their stance on Burma in the face of growing pressure of multinationals. It is
evident from the fact that the Bush administration has been quick to waive a
visa ban on the visit of a senior member of Burma's military regime to
Washington in the wake of Aung San Suu Kyi's release. The US State Department
has, however, tried to justify the visit from May 13 to 17 by saying that
Colonel Kyaw Thein was not covered by the visa ban, which remains in place,
because it applies to military officials of higher ranks. It also said the
Burmese counter-narcotics official's visit to the United States was already on
the cards and not related to the release of Suu Kyi.
The US gesture is a signal to the Burmese generals that Washington may help
them wriggle out of the economic crisis if more concessions being demanded by
Suu Kyi were made. Even Japan has announced recently that it will give Burma's
military government five million dollars to renovate a hydro-electric plant
apparently as a reward for freeing Suu Kyi. Secret talks between the two sides
being conducted through the good offices of UN special envoy Razali Ismail since
October 2000 have led to the release of over 250 political prisoners, allowed
the NLD to reopen its offices in Rangoon, and culminated in the release from
house arrest of Suu Kyi.
The junta, known officially as the State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC), appears to have finally caved in under international pressure to soften
its repressive policies - to avoid tougher political and economic sanctions. The
European Union renewed its economic embargo on April 22 and the EU parliament is
facing pressure from its members for a ban on investments in Burma. The US
Congress has legislation pending before it for an additional ban on imports and
Washington was already poised to impose a series of severe economic and travel
restrictions on Burma, in addition to a ban on investment, bilateral aid and
arms sales.
Analysts believe that Suu Kyi has struck a deal with the junta over her
release, but both sides are maintaining a studied silence on its terms. Though
the opposition leader has asked the international community to maintain its
economic embargo, she has, at the same time, made a number of conciliatory
gestures. She has not given any call for protest rallies or demonstrations and
has agreed to inform the authorities if she wished to travel outside the
capital. At a press conference in Rangoon, Suu Kyi hinted at ongoing
negotiations, saying "the phase of confidence building [with the junta] is over"
and we "look forward to moving across to a more significant phase." Amnesty
International estimates that 1,500 political prisoners still remain in Burmese
jails.
Suu Kyi's preference for greater reliance on international sanctions and
the West's sympathy for her cause than on people's power to achieve her
objective of democratic restoration speaks of her adherence to the norms of
capitalist democracy. In the midst of mass anti-government protests in 1988, she
had adopted a similar stance and called off the demonstrations after reaching an
agreement with the military junta on holding of national elections. The generals
used the opportunity to crack down on more militant opponents and strengthened
its hold on power. After losing the 1990 election, the junta simply ignored the
result.
The US and other major powers, it seems, have been backing Suu Kyi against
the military less out of any concern for democracy and more because of a
realization that the junta has become an obstacle to foreign investment in which
the western firms are keenly interested, as the country is seen to promise good
profits because of its cheap labour and the absence of trade union bodies.
Burma's is a highly regulated economy.
President Bush has joined other western leaders in hailing Suu Kyi's
release, calling it "a new dawn". The European Union's key leader, Javier
Solana, has described it a vindication of her "long campaign for political and
human rights" that could help begin the process of Burma's "re-integration into
the international community".
After years of bitter confrontation, these developments are seen as the
most hopeful indication that the military and its democratic opposition could be
on way to a peaceful settlement. Their ultimate goal is a broader sharing or a
transfer of power. But making that happen will require Suu Kyi to eschew both
confrontational rhetoric and some of the demands she has made of the government.
Striking a conciliatory posture, she has held out an assurance to the generals
that she would not use her newly-won freedom to barnstorm the country or hold
large public rallies. It is evident that the NLD has realized that confrontation
won't work any more and that if it wants an orderly democratic transition to
materialize, it will have to find a way to coexist with the ruling junta for
some time more.
Such a prospect may not be easy for the NLD rank and file to swallow nor
would the ordinary people be able to appreciate Suu Kyi's changed stance. There
are already reports of concern among the common Burmese over Suu Kyi's failure
to adopt a tougher stand against the generals. Although the generals had long
opposed any public role for Suu Kyi, they appear to have calculated that the
costs in lost aid and the threat of additional sanctions outweighed the
political risks involved in setting her free. One diplomat commented to the
Washington Post: "Releasing Suu Kyi was the easy step. The generals know she's
not going to rock the boat too much, and they're getting a lot of good publicity
for it."
----------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday May 23, 4:06 PM
Thai PM downplays conflict as Myanmar seals border (AFP) - Thai Prime Minister
Thaksin Shinawatra played down the surprise closure by Myanmar of its border
with Thailand as a "misunderstanding".
"It looks like a misunderstanding. I think the problems will be resolved in
a few days," he told reporters Thursday after a spate of incidents that has
intensified tension on the border.
"Misunderstandings are normal for neighbouring countries that share a
common border."
Deputy Defense Minister Yuthasak Sasiprapa said that "inaccurate reports"
may have been responsible for the abrupt decision by Myanmar's ruling military
regime.
"Inaccurate reports from the border area to the government in Yangon may
have prompted the authorities to seal off the border," Yuthasak told
reporters.
"The closure of the border checkpoints was very sudden, leaving some Thais
stranded inside Myanmar, and some Myanmar nationals stranded here." he
added.
Thai army spokesman Colonel Somkuan Saengpattaranetr confirmed that all
three official border checkpoints, plus a temporary checkpoint at the Three
Pagodas pass, had been closed on the Myanmar side.
"We didn't close our checkpoints, and we have no idea why Myanmar closed
theirs," Somkuan quoted the Thai army commander-in-chief, General Surayudh
Julanond, as saying.
A Myanmar military source told AFP late Wednesday that the checkpoints of
Myawaddy-Mae Sot, Tachilek-Mae Sai and Kawthaung-Ranong were closed for "an
indefinite period" from 7:00 pm (1230 GMT) Tuesday.
The Thai press reacted angrily to the border closure.
"It is a direct breach of agreements with Thailand and its people. It is
the sort of action that has caused such a lack of respect for the Burmese regime
throughout the world," the Bangkok Post said.
The paper also noted that crossings to Myanmar's money-making casinos
remained open.
"The dictators ordered the commercial checkpoints closed all along the
border. But it left open the crossings to casinos... The Burmese policy of
sucking money from Thais at casinos is unappreciated."
Tensions along the border have escalated in the past week, with both sides
swapping protest notes Monday after Thai troops and the United Wa State Army
(UWSA), a Yangon-aligned ethnic militia, traded fire across the border in
Thailand's Chiang Mai province, some 750 kilometres (469 miles) north of
Bangkok.
The UWSA is accused of controlling much of the heroin and amphetamine
trafficking that is rife along the Thai-Myanmar border.
On Tuesday, Myanmar's military regime accused the Thai army of launching
artillery attacks against several of its military bases in the same area, in
coordination with the rebel Shan State Army (SSA).
Deputy military intelligence chief Major General Kyaw Win said in Yangon
that the group was receiving heavy artillery support from Thai bases, and the
junta may resort to "another option" other than diplomacy to resolve the
spat.
Thai authorities Thursday also sought to distance themselves from the SSA,
an anti-Yangon insurgent group often involved in clashes with the UWSA in the
border area.
"We will clarify with the Myanmar government that Thailand has never
provided support to the Shan group in an upcoming Township Border Committee
meeting," Deputy Defense Minister Yuthasak said.
A serious dispute between the UWSA and SSA flared up in February 2001, and
sparked a clash between the Thai and Myanmar national armies.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday May 23, 12:09 PM
Malaysia extends amnesty for illegal immigrants KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 (Reuters)
- Malaysia has extended an amnesty for illegal immigrants to give them more time
to arrange passage home before new laws and punishments, including whipping,
come into effect, government officials said on Thursday.
A campaign since March to drive out an estimated 600,000 illegals has led
to only about 55,000 people volunteering to go, the home (interior) ministry
said.
"When we feel adequate time has been given, we will announce the final date
for the amnesty period to end," Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Abdullah
Badawi was quoted as saying in The Star newspaper.
The amnesty, which allows people to leave without punishment, was announced
ahead of amendments to the immigration law recently approved by parliament.
Officials have warned that once the new law was gazetted, possibly in June,
those caught could be whipped or slapped with stiffer fines and jail terms.
The Indonesian, Bangladesh and Indian embassies have been inundated by
people applying for travel papers to go home.
A home ministry official told Reuters the grace period was extended on
humanitarian grounds and also because agencies could not cope with a deluge of
deportations.
"It's pointless for the government to set a date when there are so many
logistical problems such as having adequate flights to send these people back,"
the official said.
One of Southeast Asia's wealthiest nations, Malaysia has about two million
foreign workers, including the estimated 600,000 illegal immigrants. Most of
them are Indonesians, employed in factories, plantations and construction sites,
and as domestic servants.
Authorities routinely conduct swoops on illegal immigrants, deporting
thousands at a time. But since last year, the crackdown has intensified,
following a series of violent incidents mainly involving Indonesians.
In the first two months of this year, authorities deported 15,037
Indonesians and 1,352 Myanmar nationals. In March and April about 1,600
Indonesians were sent home.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday May 23, 5:35 PM
Suu Kyi hopes talks can bring democracy to Myanmar By Aung Hla Tun YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi told supporters on Thursday she hoped talks
with the military government could unite the country and build democracy.
Suu Kyi, released from 19 months of house arrest this month, has been
holding talks with the junta since October 2000 but says they have not yet begun
to tackle substantive issues and are still at the confidence-building stage.
The military government, which calls itself the State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC), insists it is committed to democracy but says moving too fast
could unleash anarchy.
"We believe in the right to disagree. It's a very good tradition to settle
a dispute at the table. I believe that if there are any disagreements among
political organisations, we can settle them through talks," Suu Kyi said.
"Similarly, we hope to overcome the disagreements between the SPDC and the
democratic forces by holding talks," the 56-near-old Nobel peace laureate told a
gathering of veteran Myanmar politicians who held a ceremony to welcome her
after her release.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) scored a landslide victory in
Myanmar's last elections in 1990 but the military refused to hand over power.
Suu Kyi has spent years under house arrest since emerging at the forefront of
the pro-democracy movement in 1988.
"It has been more than a decade, 14 years, since we started working for the
emergence of democracy. But there still remain a number of unsatisfactory
things," Suu Kyi said.
"There are still some political prisoners. And it is also very regrettable
that we have not yet embarked on democracy."
Since her release on May 6, Suu Kyi has repeatedly called for substantive
talks to begin as soon as possible. The international community, which has
isolated Myanmar and imposed economic sanctions, also wants to see political
progress soon.
Suu Kyi said the NLD could not bring about democracy in Myanmar unless the
junta showed willing.
"Although the NLD is making efforts as a major political force, we cannot
accomplish it alone," she said. The military has ruled the impoverished country
for four decades. Analysts and diplomats say the parlous state of the economy is
the main factor pushing the government to make concessions.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday May 22, 7:20 PM
Myanmar shuts border with Thailand as tensions rise By Vithoon Amorn BANGKOK (Reuters) - Myanmar
closed three major border checkpoints on Wednesday in the latest salvo in an
escalating row following Thai artillery shelling across the frontier earlier
this week, a Thai military officer said.
A senior Thai army officer told Reuters Myanmar had shut the northern
border crossing between Mae Sai and Tachilek, the western checkpoint between Mae
Sot and Myawadi, and the crossing between Ranong and Victoria Point on the
Andaman Sea coast.
Major General Saprang Kalayanamitr, deputy commander of the Thai northern
region, said he was told by Myanmar that the border crossings were closed for
security reasons.
Earlier on Wednesday, Thailand said it would withdraw thousands of troops
from northern provinces bordering Myanmar in an effort to ease tension after a
series of clashes between rival ethnic militias along the frontier.
Thai Defence Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said he had ordered the Thai
army to call off military exercises in four border provinces after Myanmar
complained that Thai troops were involved in attacks on its border posts.
Yangon sent a protest letter to Bangkok on Monday saying the Thai army
provided artillery support for an attack by the Shan State Army ethnic militia
on Myanmar border stations.
AVOID CONFRONTATION
"I have ordered that the exercises are called off in order to avoid
confrontation," Chavalit told reporters. "We have held talks (with Myanmar
officials) and will talk with them again in a few days."
Thai troops said on Monday they traded cross-border artillery and mortar
fire with a Myanmar ethnic militia near Thailand's Mae Hong Son and Chiang Mai
provinces in what army sources said could be a possible prelude to larger-scale
clashes.
The border incidents prompted Myanmar's military government to accuse
Thailand of supporting terrorism and of backing an assault by Shan forces on
several lightly armed surveillance position.
Thai military sources said last week the Thai army planned a major
incursion into Myanmar to seize the headquarters of the United Wa State Army, a
heavily armed drug militia with bases in Myanmar along the border.
But senior Thai officers denied on Wednesday that such an incursion was
planned against the Wa.
General Saprang said Myanmar's abrupt border closure did not follow the
correct procedures and Thailand would protest the move.
Thai border officials said about 200 Thais, mostly tourists, were stranded
in Tachilek in Myanmar on Wednesday after the checkpoint closure.
Thailand and international anti-narcotics agencies say the Wa army is a
major producer and supplier of opium, heroin and the stimulant methamphetamine,
known in its crystalline form in the West as "ice".
Thailand says the Wa are the major source of the estimated 900 million
methamphetamine pills expected to flood into Thailand this year from the Golden
Triangle region where the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet.
Myanmar's military government says the Wa army, a close ally of Yangon, is
not responsible for drugs production and instead blames the Shan rebels.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday May 23, 5:51 AM
Asia drug chiefs unite to chip away at "ice" abuse BEIJING (Reuters) - Asian drug officials said on Wednesday they planned to expand intelligence sharing and drug abuse programmes in China and Southeast Asia to stem a growing tide of trafficking in the party-drugs "ice" and "ecstasy". The senior officials from China, five Asian countries and the United
Nations said they also pledged at the meeting in Beijing to root out plant and
chemical drug precursors used to make the stimulants which are increasingly
popular at nightclubs and rave parties across Asia.
Talks between the drug officials have traditionally focused on the rampant
trade of heroin in the so-called "Golden Triangle" area -- spanning Laos,
Thailand and Myanmar.
But they are turning more on the fast-emerging problem of amphetamine-type
substances (ATS), said an official from the United Nations International Drug
Control Programme (UNDCP).
"Methamphetamines are the new challenge," he said on the sidelines during
the final day of a three-day meeting. "It's a new epidemic and it's spreading".
Methamphetamines and amphetamines are stimulant drugs commonly referred to
as uppers and speed and include "ice" and "ecstasy".
Thailand, ridden with "ice" and "ecstasy" abuse, wants more effort to
control demand for the substances, said Deputy Secretary-General of Thailand's
Narcotics Control Board Rasamee Vistaveth.
"It's a drug for pleasure, for entertainment, for group gathering rather
than heroin which is a kind of depressant," she said.
"If we can control the precursors and essential chemicals quite well, then
it would help decrease or stop the production of the amphetamines," she said.
But compared to the opium trade, which radiates from the "Golden Triangle",
ATS are more difficult to track, the UNDCP official said.
"Methamphetamines can be made with equipment that I could put in the boot
of my car," he said.
STEPS FORWARD
Much of the region's "ice" and "ecstasy" is mixed in China.
Beijing has stepped up a crackdown on drugs as sweeping economic reforms
have boosted incomes and caused the number of known drug addicts to rocket in
recent years.
A top Chinese drug official said on Monday that traffickers from Shanghai
to Guangdong province who colluded with regional cartels were using legal
pharmaceutical laboratories as a front to run drug rackets.
Ephedra plants cultivated in northwestern China were the source for most of
the country's "ecstasy" drugs, manufactured in tablet form, and crystallised
"ice", the UNDCP official said.
By contrast, the ATS entering Myanmar from India was made from sugar cane
converted into molasses, he said.
The UNDCP official said ATS samples found in Myanmar showed China had made
major strides in terms of seizures in the last year but that India lagged
behind.
The Myanmar authorities have handed over to China a handful of key Chinese
drug lords caught in the Golden Triangle in the last eight to 12 months,
demonstrating the success of U.N.-organised liaison offices, he said.
"Cooperation between China and Myanmar is increasing," he said. "It's new
and it's a success story."
----------------------------------------------------------------- UN envoy to return to Myanmar for
more concessions by junta
Wed May 22, 3:27 AM ET By JASBANT SINGH, Associated Press Writer KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - The U.N. envoy who brokered this month's release
of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest plans to return to
Myanmar soon to seek further concessions from its military government.
Razali Ismail said on Wednesday that U.S.-led economic sanctions against
the Southeast Asian country were likely to remain until it was clearer that the
junta was cooperating with the Suu Kyi to end a long political deadlock.
Razali met U.N. officials in New York last week and said Wednesday that he
would make his eighth visit to Myanmar in a few weeks.
The generals freed Suu Kyi on May 6 after 19 months of house arrest.
However, they have not announced a date for talks with the opposition leader,
who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her nonviolent promotion of
democracy.
"They are not going to tell you when they are going to meet," Razali, a
retired Malaysian diplomat, told reporters in Kuala Lumpur. "You shouldn't look
for a situation where it is a formalized structured arrangement."
Euphoria over Suu Kyi's release has given way to questions about when the
military, which has ruled since 1962, will hold talks with Suu Kyi and her
National League for Democracy.
The party won parliamentary elections in 1990, but was never allowed to
take office. Suu Kyi has spent most of the past dozen years under various
degrees of confinement. Hundreds of political prisoners remain behind
bars.
"The priorities are more releases of people who are in custody of the
government, greater freedom of activity for all political parties, not just the
NLD, matters like that," Razali said.
Progress in reconciliation talks was vital for the lifting of economic
sanctions, Razali said. Myanmar is among the world's poorest countries.
"It is not a question of asking for sanctions to be lifted," he said. "It
is having things happen in the country that would make it unnecessary for the
sanctions to be there."
Razali made the comments at the public signing of an agreement with a local
bank to handle the flotation on Malaysia's stock exchange of Iris Technologies,
a microchip document company that he chairs.
Iris and Razali were at the center of conflict-of-interest questions on the
eve of Suu Kyi's release when it was revealed that the company had sealed a deal
to supply the Myanmar government with high-tech passports.
Razali has rejected accusations that the deal compromises his work with the
United Nations, which appointed him as a part-time envoy to Myanmar, also known
as Burma, in April 2000.
On Wednesday, Razali said he would not give up his jobs at either the
United Nations or Iris. He holds a substantial stake in the company.
"I am disciplined enough, I think I have enough integrity, to be able to
deal with whatever my responsibilities are and whatever my business commitments
are quite separately," Razali said.
Razali said he had spoken to Suu Kyi on the issue and quoted her as saying
it was "no problem."
U.N. authorities have said Razali did not violate the organization's
rules.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Retired Myanmar Diplomat On Drug
Control
Xinhuanet 2002-05-22 13:31:48 YANGON, May 22 (Xinhuanet) -- A
retired Myanmar ambassador has complained that it is hard to stop both
cultivation of opium and trading of narcotics because of difficulties in using
force in solving such problems with social matters involved.
In his article titled "The Drug Trade and Double Standards" in the latest
issue of the weekly Myanmar Times, U Maung Maung Soe Tint, the retired Myanmar
ambassador, said if the cultivation of opium poppy is to be stopped, the
peasants who almost entirely depend on production of opium for their livelihood
will find it hard to make ends meet unless crop substitution schemes are to be
implemented.
On the other hand, he pointed out, It will also be very difficult to
prevent addicts, by law and by force, from taking drugs.
"The poppy farmers remain poor but the traffickers and avaricious
insurgents have become millionaires and billionaires," he also pointed
out.
He argued that if the people who have to grow opium poppy to meet their
food, clothing and shelter needs are to be blamed for the drug problem, then
those who buy narcotics for exorbitant prices for their own use or abuse should
also share the blame.
"If those who use narcotics can be prevented from buying them, the
cultivation and production of narcotics would cease," he argued further.
He said the drug problem is much worse and more ruthless than the September
11 terror attacks on the United States that killed more than 3,000 people.
He stressed the need for the United States to join hands with all nations
in the fight against narcotic drugs just as it cooperates with many nations in
the war against terrorism.
By doing so, it would be of great benefit not only to the United States but
also to the mankind, he concluded.
Meanwhile, Myanmar's opium production has been declining steadily since
1997, according to a Myanmar-U.S. joint survey of Myanmar's opium yield in the
country's Shan state beginning 1993.
The survey shows that the opium production dropped from 2,365 tons in 1997
to 865 tons in 2001, representing a drop of 64 percent, while the country's
poppy cultivation area decreased from151,201 acres (61,189 hectares) in 1997 to
61,824 acres (25,019 hectares) in 2001, a reduction of almost 60 percent.
However, the figures of the United States show that the poppy cultivation
area in Myanmar in 1997 was 381,669 acres (154,457.6 hectares), while that in
2001 was 260,000 acres (105,220 hectares), a reduction of only 31.87
percent.
The International Narcotics Control Board of the United Nations said
Myanmar is the largest opium producing country in the world with its output
accounting for about 50 to 60 percent of the world's opium supply.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Suu Kyi visits another NLD branch
office
Wednesday, May 22, 2002 at 18:30 JST (Kyodo News) YANGON ? National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who
has begun visits to party branches following her release from house arrest,
visited another NLD branch office in Yangon on Wednesday.
Accompanied by NLD vice chairman Tin Oo, central executive committee member
Soe Myint and about a dozen NLD youths, Suu Kyi visited a party branch office in
Dawbon on the eastern outskirts of Yangon by car.
----------------------------------------------------------------- VOA News
Burma Protests After Thailand Fires on
Drug Traders Across Border
Ron Corben Bangkok 21 May 2002 13:13 UTC Thailand and Burma have clashed in an exchange of words after Thai troops
traded artillery and mortar fire across the border with narcotics traders. Burma
is threatening to use other means if diplomatic efforts fail to ease border
tensions.
Burma has issued a strong diplomatic protest to Thailand over the reported
shelling, a day after Thai troops reportedly traded fire with members of Burma's
ethnic Wa people.
Many experts on the drug trade consider the United Wa State Army one of the
world's most powerful drug militias, with as many as 20,000 troops.
Thailand said fighters from Burma's ethnic Shan people attacked two Wa Army
positions. Bangkok said the Thai military fired warning shots when shells from
that fighting fell into Thai territory.
Burma accused Thailand of firing in support of the Shan and providing them
with arms. Burma's military government denies the Wa are involved in narcotics,
and accuses the Shan army of drug trafficking.
Thailand says it faces a flood of up to 900 million amphetamine tablets
produced by the Wa just inside Burma. Thousands of Thai troops, backed by dozens
of tanks, have been on month-long military exercise near the northern border
areas.
Recent reports in Bangkok indicate Burma agreed to moves to curtail drug
trafficking by the Wa, following a recent visit to Thailand by Burma's second
most powerful man in government, General Muang Aye.
But Tuesday, senior Burmese officials denied there was an agreement, and
warned against Thai troops encroaching on Burma's territory.
Burma has accused Thailand of supporting terrorism and of backing attacks
by the Shan State Army. The Shan have been fighting for greater autonomy from
Rangoon for many years.
----------------------------------------------------------------- The Nation
BORDER TENSION: Junta shuts
checkpoints
Published on May 23, 2002
Hundreds of tourists, traders turned away from four gates, as bilateral
ties sour
In response to border skirmishes early this week, Burmese authorities
yesterday closed all four major border checkpoints with Thailand, bringing to an
end the improved relations between the two countries under the government of
Thaksin Shinawatra.
The junta closed the checkpoints connecting Mae Sai and Thachilek, Mae Sot
and Myawaddy, Three Pagoda Pass and Pyathuangsu, and Ranong and Victoria Point
at 6am yesterday. All of the border crossings except the Three Pagoda Pass are
permanent checkpoints that are not supposed to close without advance
notification.
Hundreds of tourists, traders and trucks loaded with goods waiting to cross
the checkpoints to Burmese towns were turned away from the four border gates,
according to Thai local authorities.
Border checkpoints are the main gateways of trade between Thailand and
Burma generating billions of baht annually. Burma usually enforces border
closures whenever it falls into conflict with Thailand.
The latest border conflict took place on Monday after the Thai military
moved thousands of troops to northern border provinces - for activities the
military claimed were routine exercises - amid attacks by the Shan State Army on
several posts of the pro-Rangoon United Wa State Army (UWSA).
Burma accused the Thai military of shelling its territory to help the Shan
guerrillas in the battle. Burmese Deputy Intelligence Chief Kyaw Win on Tuesday
rejected a claim floated by Thai officials via local and foreign media that
General Maung Aye gave the green light to the Thai military to strike
strongholds of the UWSA during his visit to Thailand in April.
Thai officials believe the UWSA is the main producer and exporter of
narcotics - notably methamphetamines - to Thailand.
Maj-General Picharnmet Muangmanee, Deputy Commander of the Third Army
Region, told a press conference in Chiang Mai yesterday that the Thai military
was not involved in the conflicts inside Burma.
Shelling over the past days was just warning rounds after some mortar
shells landed on Thai soil, he said.
The commander insisted that troops were deployed in the northern area this
week for a drill. "But we made it a bit earlier than previously scheduled due to
the situation of narcotics trafficking and the international scenario," he said
without elaborating.
A military source, however, said the Thai army has a plan to suppress
illicit drug refineries believed to be under control of the UWSA in border
areas. The deployment is the pretext for an operation but final decision from a
"higher level" has not yet been made, the source said.
Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said the conflict on the border
would not damage relations between the two countries since the incident was a
minor misunderstanding among local officers.
"I keep contact with my Burmese counterpart Win Aung all the time . . .
there are so many rumours. We need to screen the information we get," he
said.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Thursday 23 May
2002
NORTHERN BORDER SKIRMISHES
Surayud says Thai leaders did not
know
Army retaliation against the United Wa State Army near Chiang Mai's Wiang Haeng district was done without the knowledge of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra or Defence Minister Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, said army commander Surayud Chulanont. He dismissed Rangoon's allegations that the army fired at Burma in support
of the Shan United Army on Monday with the knowledge of the two leading
politicians.
``Neither the prime minister nor the defence minister issued orders to
counter cross-border fire from the UWSA,'' said Gen Surayud, adding that the
army's military response was in line with rules of engagement.
The army had fired warning shots to counter UWSA's cross-border fire.
``We had to counter when cross-border shelling failed to let up,'' said Gen
Surayud, who denied that his troops fired heavy artillery shells or anti-tank
shells as alleged by Rangoon.
The army's Surasi 143 exercise in the upper North was not supposed to
intimidate anyone, he said, denying that forces involved in the exercise were
involved in the cross-border shelling on Monday.
Third Army commander Lt-Gen Udomchai Ongkhasingh said there was no way his
forces had been or would be used for covert cross-border forays.
``We have no intention of sending our forces across the border to attack Wa
militants. Such an operation would encroach on our neighbour's sovereignty,'' he
said.
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