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BURMA RELATED NEWS - September
03, 2002.
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HEADLINES
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Reuters - Myanmar to Take Action Against Student
Protesters
Asia Pulse - Bangladesh to
Decide on Gas Exports to India Within a Month
Reuters - 14 dead as houses
collapse in rain-soaked Thailand
AP - Myanmar kyat slips to record low against dollar
Xinhuanet - Natural gas
contributes much to Myanmar's economy
Reuters - EU mission to urge
Myanmar to start democracy talks
AFP - Myanmar junta shrugs
off currency's decline, denies rice shortage
AFP - Myanmar says relations
with Thailand improving after border row
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Myanmar to Take Action
Against Student Protesters
Tue Sep 3, 4:40 AM ET
By Aung Hla Tun
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Myanmar's
military government said on Tuesday it would take legal action against two
students arrested in last month for staging an anti-government protest.
Thet Naung Soe and Khin Maung Win were detained after mounting a protest in
front of the city hall in the capital Yangon. Rights groups say Thet Naung Soe
unfurled the flag of Myanmar's underground student union, which shows a fighting
peacock, while Khin Maung Win handed out leaflets.
The two were among around 15 students arrested last month ahead of a visit by
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. The other students -- detained,
rights groups say, for belonging to a literary discussion group -- have been
released.
The fighting peacock flag is a potent symbol of student protest in Myanmar.
Students were at the forefront of pro-democracy protests in 1988 that were
bloodily put down by the military, earning international condemnation for the
junta.
Asked about the fate of the two students, Major-General Kyaw Win, deputy
chief of military intelligence, told a news conference on Tuesday: "Action will
be taken against the two students who remain in custody, in accordance with the
prevailing laws." He did not say which laws they had broken.
The arrests last month raised concerns among rights groups that the junta was
planning a new crackdown on opponents.
The government has freed hundreds of political prisoners over the last two
years, including more than 300 members of the National League for Democracy
(NLD) led by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
The releases began after the ruling generals started confidential talks with
Suu Kyi, which they said were aimed at eventually bringing democracy to Myanmar,
formerly called Burma.
Following strong international pressure, Suu Kyi was released from 19 months
of house arrest in May. But since then she has had no meetings with senior
members of the junta.
Sporadic talks held with the junta over the last two years have yet to move
beyond "confidence building," officials say. Suu Kyi has repeatedly called for
meaningful talks to begin as soon as possible.
The 57-year old Nobel peace laureate has also said the release of all
political prisoners is a precondition for political progress in Myanmar.
Suu Kyi's NLD was the overwhelming winner of an election held in 1990, but
the military refused to hand over power.
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Tuesday September 3, 2:06 PM
Bangladesh to
Decide on Gas Exports to India Within a Month
DHAKA, Sept
3 Asia Pulse - Under pressure to
export natural gas to India, Bangladesh on Monday said it will decide on the
issue within a month as further delay would cause loss of market for the
country.
Bangladesh's state minister for energy M Mosharraf Hossain said
the authorities have already initiated a dialogue among trade and commercial
bodies in the country over the issue that has become a matter of intense
political debate in the country.
He said delay in making a decision
could mean that Bangladesh would lose market for its gas.
Last week, 2
national committees recommended to the government that with the present gas
reserves, the nation should not export. The experts, however, said limited
exports could start as new discoveries are made.
Upon receiving the
committees' recommendations, Khaleda Zia said she would seek "national
consensus" over the issue.
President of main opposition Awami League
Sheikh Hasina has expressed opposition to gas exports.
Mosharraf Hossain
said he hoped that international oil companies will start fresh exploration once
a decision on exports is taken. He also said the government is about to approve
a private sector proposal for supply of gas from Myanmar to India through
Bangladesh.
Asian Development Bank last week asked Bangladesh government
to decide early on the issue of gas export to India saying the decision is
necessary to clear a US$250 million pipeline project.
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Tuesday September 3, 6:02 PM
14 dead as
houses collapse in rain-soaked Thailand
BANGKOK
(Reuters) - At least 14 people were
killed and more than 20 were missing after their makeshift houses on the banks
of an overflowing stream collapsed after heavy rain in northern Thailand,
officials said on Tuesday.
Interior ministry and provincial officials
said rescue workers found the 14 victims almost 24 hours after a bank of the
stream in the northern Mae Hong Son province collapsed in heavy monsoon rains on
Monday.
They said the victims were Karen hilltribe refugees who had fled
fighting in neighbouring Myanmar.
Officials said the search for victims
was hampered by problems in reaching the remote refugee settlement, home to more
than 13,000 people. Roads to the area had been cut off by flood waters, they
said.
Widespread monsoon rains have lashed most of Thailand in the past
two weeks, triggering heavy flooding in dozens of provinces.
The
interior ministry said the latest incident raised the death toll from the floods
to 28.
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Myanmar kyat slips to
record low against dollar
Tue Sep 3, 7:20 AM ET
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - With the
local kyat currency falling to a record low against the U.S. dollar, Myanmar's
military government on Tuesday denied rumors that it plans to introduce a larger
denomination bank note.
Speculation that the government will withdraw 200- and 500-kyat denomination
notes and introduce a new 5,000 kyat note is "not true," Col. San Pwint of the
Defense Ministry told a news conference.
The kyat has declined in value by more than 15 percent in recent days,
hitting a record low of 1,130 kyats to the U.S. dollar on the black market
Saturday, causing the prices of imported goods such as medicine and construction
materials to soar.
The kyat traded at 740 to the U.S. dollar in February, slipped to 950 in
early August and has been falling steadily since. The kyat exchange rate
improved slightly on Tuesday, reaching 1,090 to the dollar.
The kyat's official exchange rate has stayed at 6 to the dollar, but most
major business transactions and many consumer sales are based on the black
market exchange rate.
The black market is tolerated by the government as necessary to carry on
business, because the kyat is not convertible outside the country.
The government has provided no explanation for the kyat's recent decline,
saying only that exchange rate fluctuations are common in other countries.
"It is hard to give a clear explanation for such a depreciation," Labor and
Culture Minister Tin Win told reporters.
The government usually blames rumormongers and market manipulators for
currency instability. Authorities often react to sudden rises in the exchange
rate by warning black market dealers or in some cases arresting them and giving
them long jail sentences.
The present crop of ruling generals came to power after crushing a popular
uprising for civilian rule, triggered by demonetization of bank notes and
widespread hardship in 26 years of ruinous socialist military rule.
The government also denied rumors of a rice shortage in Yangon due to
flooding in recent weeks. The country's rice stores and paddy fields were not
affected by rising waters in rivers such as the Irrawaddy, it said.
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Natural gas contributes much to Myanmar's economy
Xinhuanet 2002-09-03 10:08:17
YANGON, Sept. 3
(Xinhuanet) -- Natural gas has
contributed a lot to Myanmar's economy with its high export value and extensive
use in electricity generation.
The export earning through gas accounted
for about 200 million US dollars or 11 percent of the country's total export
value annually in the past four years, becoming a major dollar earner along with
the nation's agricultural, forestry and fishery export goods.
Myanmar
produced 8,787.4 million cubic-meters of natural gas in the fiscal year 2001-02
ending last March, of which 6,713.4 million cubic-meters or 76.3 percent were
exported to earn hard currency, while the rest were stored for domestic use
including for electricity generation.
The electricity yielded by natural
gas represents 54 percent ofthe total produced in the country. In 2001-02,
3,072.69 million kilowatt-hours (kwh) were generated by gas out of a total of
5,671.78 million kwh yielded by the state's Myanma Electric Power Enterprise
(MEPE).
So far seven new oil and gas fields have been found at the
country's inland blocks, while three discovered at its offshore areas.
According to official statistics, Myanmar has a proven recoverable
onshore natural gas reserve of 1.7 trillion cubic-feet(TCF) (48,110 million
cubic-meters) and offshore gas reserve of 14TCF (396,200 million cubic-meters).
Meanwhile, foreign investment in Myanmar's oil and gas sector has
reached 2.563 billion dollars since late 1988. These investments include those
under 34 contracts in exploring oil and gas at 47 inland blocks and 15 joint
venture contracts with Myanmar in the same undertakings at 25 offshore blocks at
Mottama,Tanintharyi and Rakhine coastal areas.
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EU mission to urge Myanmar to start democracy
talks
By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - A
four-member European Union delegation will visit Myanmar next week, officials
said on Tuesday, in a trip aimed at pressing the junta to free political
prisoners and start talks with the pro-democracy opposition.
``The EU
troika delegation is scheduled to visit Myanmar from September 8 to 10,''
foreign ministry official U Thaung Tun told Reuters in Yangon.
Many EU
foreign policy missions are undertaken by a so-called troika, a team led by an
official from the country currently holding the presidency of the bloc.
Diplomats said a Danish official would lead the EU team visiting Myanmar.
The team is due to meet senior leaders of the military government and
members of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), including Nobel
peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
``Their terms of reference include
discussing the release of all political prisoners, the chances of holding
meaningful political talks between the military and the NLD, and granting
humanitarian assistance to Myanmar,'' said a European diplomat in Yangon.
The visit is the fourth by a EU delegation since 1999.
The
previous visit, in March, shed little light on the country's murky political
machinations. Some senior members of the ruling junta said they were too busy to
meet the delegation, and members of the EU team were unable to reveal any fresh
insights into Myanmar's political future.
Since then, the one
significant change has been Suu Kyi's release from 19 months of house arrest in
May.
But the military government has held no talks with Suu Kyi since
her release from house arrest, and her demands for a substantive dialogue on the
country's political future have so far gone unanswered.
The military
began confidential meetings with Suu Kyi in October 2000, but the two sides have
yet to begin substantive political discussions.
Last month, the United
Nations special envoy to Myanmar, Razali Ismail, said meaningful talks would
begin soon. But since then, hopes of an imminent breakthrough have faded.
Diplomats say the main reason the junta has eased its stance towards Suu
Kyi is the dismal state of the economy -- the ruling generals want to get
international sanctions lifted. But they say the junta hopes to avoid making any
further concessions to Suu Kyi and the NLD.
The EU maintains a range of
sanctions on Myanmar, and has said it will not ease sanctions unless there is
political change.
The NLD won Myanmar's last elections, in 1990, by a
landslide. But the military refused to hand over power.
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Myanmar junta shrugs off currency's decline,
denies rice shortage
YANGON, Sept 3 (AFP) - Myanmar's military junta Tuesday shrugged
off the currency's alarming slide to record lows of 1,150 to the dollar and
denied rumours that Yangon is facing a severe rice shortage.
"This is no
big deal... many countries regularly face currency fluctuations and Myanmar is
no exception," said Labor Minister Tin Winn.
"It is difficult to assess
the reasons even after studying all the factors involved," he told reporters at
a regular press conference.
After hovering around the 1,150 mark for the
past few days, the kyat has now strengthened slightly to 1,100 amid rumours that
the government is planning to intervene to prop up the currency, perhaps by
flooding the market with dollars.
Market observers said that if nothing
was done to curb the losses, the kyat could fall to 1,500 "any time now". They
also noted that the government's previous measures to protect the currency had
only had a temporary impact.
Deputy military intelligence chief Major
General Kyaw Win said at the same briefing that he was unsure if any specific
measures were to be taken on the kyat, which spent most of last year at about
600-700 to the dollar.
"We are constantly trying to control the
situation so that the kyat will not deteriorate too much and that there will not
be too much fluctuation," he told reporters.
A range of factors are
putting pressure on the currency, including the closure of the Thai-Myanmar
border since May, a new money-laundering law and the military regime's efforts
to put illegal currency traders out of business.
Another junta spokeman,
Colonel San Pwint San Pwint, also quashed widespread rumours that the capital
Yangon is facing a severe rice shortage because of recent flooding in parts of
the country.
"There has been no destruction of any rice-storage
facilities anywhere in the country because of the floods, and there is a regular
flow of rice to Yangon so no shortage is being experienced here," he told
reporters.
San Pwint attributed the rumours to "speculators" attempting
to "manipulate prices".
Shops in Yangon have hiked the prices of basic
commodities such as rice and cooking oil in recent weeks but the junta is trying
to ensure limited amounts of the staples are available to poor citizens.
Long queues can be seen around Yangon as people wait for their turn to
buy small amounts of subsidised commodities at prices well below those on the
spiralling open market.
The Myanmar Times said late last month that the
military-run country is battling its worst floods in more than 30 years and that
up to a million acres (404,700 hectares) of land has been affected.
There have been reports of looting in far-flung states as supplies run
low despite government efforts to enforce rationing.
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Myanmar says relations with Thailand improving
after border row
YANGON, Sept 3 (AFP) - Myanmar's ruling military junta said
Tuesday that its relations with historic adversary Thailand were on the mend,
after a May border clash sparked a diplomatic row between the neighbours.
"Bilateral relations will improve in the future, it will not do
otherwise," deputy military intelligence chief Major General Kyaw Win told
reporters here ahead of key talks between the two sides set for Friday.
Foreign Minister Win Aung is due to travel to Thailand for the meeting
aimed at ending the rancor and divisiveness that have marked bilateral ties over
the past four months.
Kyaw Win said that the talks would also address
the re-opening of the common border, which has been sealed since Yangon slammed
shut border crossings in the wake of the row.
The spokesman admitted
that bilateral ties have been at a "standstill" lately, but that Yangon was now
"quite positive" about the future of relations with Thailand.
He also
dismissed criticism of the junta by dissident groups and Thai politicians as
"insignificant".
Relations between the two countries spiralled on May 20
when border clashes erupted between the Myanmar junta and ethnic Shan rebels,
which Yangon accuses Thailand of assisting.
The two countries exchanged
official protest notes, and Myanmar barred official visits and sealed all the
border checkpoints, crippling bilateral trade.
But after returning from
a fence-mending trip to Yangon last month Surakiart said relations had
"normalized".
Lawmakers and human rights groups criticised a crackdown
on Myanmar activists in Thailand last month and said it was clearly part of the
Thai government's efforts to secure Myanmar's agreement on reopening the border.
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi also protested the action,
telling the Chiang Mai-based magazine Irrawaddy that "it is not appropriate to
crack down on dissidents and pro-democracy supporters who do not break the
laws."
Meanwhile, a foreign ministry source confirmed that a European
Union delegation would arrive in Yangon on September 8, describing it as a
"routine visit" ahead of the United Nations General Assembly.
"The team
is expected to be here for two days and will meet with top leaders as well as
high officials of the foreign ministry,' the source told AFP, but declined to
give specifics as their program "has not been finalised".
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