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BURMA RELATED NEWS
- October 10, 2002.
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HEADLINES
-------------------------------------------------------------------- AFP - Proposed economic pact with
Japan will "lift ASEAN's GDP"
AFP - Burmese dissidents
predict military regime might soon negotiate reforms
AFP - Cambodia to ban gun carrying and outdoor eating for ASEAN summit
AFP - North Korea slams US over religious freedom
report
AFP - Reporters Without Borders calls
on Myanmar to release prisoners
Reuters - Myanmar frees prisoners
before U.N. envoy's visit
Reuters - China withdraws death
sentences for church leaders
AP - Myanmar government releases
prisoners _ but criticized over new alleged arrests
Bkk Post - Ethnic rebels will be
closely watched, says new minister
BBC - Burma releases
prisoners
Independent - Strategic significance
of the Andamans
Xinhuanet - Human trafficking
eradication in Asia has long way to go
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday October 10, 3:34 PM
Proposed economic pact with Japan will "lift ASEAN's GDP" SINGAPORE, Oct 10 (AFP) - A proposed trade pact with Japan could lift ASEAN's economic output by two percent and boost its exports to the Asian economic giant by 21 billion US dollars, a senior Singapore trade official said. ASEAN must enhance its business environment in order to continue attracting Japanese foreign direct investment (FDI) which has remained strong despite the rising attraction of China, Minister of State for Trade and Industry Raymond Lim said Thursday. "The gains from working together will be substantial," Lim said in a speech at the annual ASEAN-Japan Business Meeting. "The benefits of a FTA (free trade agreement) with Japan would even surpass those from a FTA with China due to the complementary nature of the Japanese and ASEAN economies," he said. In a trip to the region earlier this year, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's call for a closer economic partnership with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) received backing from the region's leaders. If the vision of a proposed trade pact is realised, Lim said the 10-member regional bloc's export volumes to Japan would grow by 21 billion dollars by 2020, while Japanese exports to the region would also receive a similar boost. "ASEAN's GDP (gross domestic product) growth will be boosted by 2.0 percent," he added. Trade between Japan and ASEAN between 1995 and 2001 was worth 54 billion dollars, higher than the 48 billion dollars between China and Japan. "The economic ties between Japan and ASEAN therefore remain strong," Lim said. Isao Kaneko, president and chief executive of Japan Airlines, who co-chaired the meeting, said Japan has "consistently directed approximately twice as much foreign investment" into the 10-member regional bloc than it has to China. He said the proposed ASEAN-Japan free trade pact should be further expanded to cover all of East Asia, which would include China and South Korea. "There may be different ways to go about it: bilateral, multilateral or comperehensive ways in forming regional integration," he told the delegates. "The important thing is, however, that we make steady progress as an ultimate goal in the formation of an economic partnership of all the countries of East Asia," he said. During a meeting in Brunei last month, the trade minsters of ASEAN and Japan said they should start considering a framework that could lead to an FTA within 10 years. ASEAN, which groups Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, is about the finalise a framework agreement on a proposed free trade pact with China which they also hope to seal within 10 years. The framework -- which will guide negotiators -- is to be signed by the leaders of ASEAN and China when they meet for a summit in Cambodia next month. South Korea has said it has directed a feasibility study on the possibility of a free trade accord with ASEAN. ASEAN however is not keen on an East Asian free trade area, saying the regional bloc would be overshadowed by its bigger and wealthier Northeast Asian neighbours. This is why ASEAN prefers to negotiate separate free trade pacts with China, Japan and South Korea. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday October 10, 12:44 PM
Burmese dissidents predict
military regime might soon negotiate reforms
OTTAWA, Oct 9 (AFP) - Burmese dissidents meeting here Wednesday suggested the military regime running their country might be ready to negotiate reforms with the international community, a move which could lead to the installation of a democratic government. Sein Win, the "prime minister in exile" of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, said he felt the military regime in Burma, also known as Myanmar, was now ready to negotiate with the opposition for the installation of a democratic government. What the international community needs to do now is exert extra pressure on the military regime, Win told reporters as Burmese non-governmental organizers were here for a one-day meeting with officials and activists. "The Burma problem has to be solved by dialogue -- there is no other way," Win said, rejecting the idea of an armed rebellion against the military junta. Since the release in May from 19 months of house arrest of democratically elected Aung San Suu Kyi, the attitude of the junta toward political opponents has started to shift, with the "freeing of political prisoners, but at a very slow pace," he added. By contrast, the economic situation in the country, punished with heavy economic sanctions for refusing political reforms, is deteriorating rapidly. With the economy collapsing, the military regime is being fully stretched, Harn Yawnghwe, director of the "Euro-Burma office" in Brussels, said here. Workers are looting government warehouses for rice, refugees continue to flood into China and Thailand and some one million Burmese remain "internally displaced" within Burma, he added. "The time is now ripe to pressure the military government," Yawnghwe suggested. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday October 10, 02:11 AM
Cambodia to ban gun carrying
and outdoor eating for ASEAN summit
PHNOM PENH, Oct 10 (AFP) - The Cambodian government is to launch a crackdown on the carrying of guns and ban outdoor eating ahead of the upcoming ASEAN summit, officials said Thursday. Chief of cabinet for Phnom Penh municipality, Man Chheoun, said authorities intended to enforce a strict prohibition on the carrying of short and long firearms before and during the ASEAN Summit. "This will be done not only by the Phnom Penh municipality, but the campaign will be orchestrated at a national level," he told AFP. A formal request was expected to be made to Cambodia's Interior Ministry from Phnom Penh governor Chea Sophara and include a request to clear sidewalks of restaurant tables and chairs. There is no shortage of guns in Cambodia, a legacy of nearly three decades of war which ended in 1998. This combined with a culture of impunity has allowed the gun trade to flourish. Man Chheoun said a strict prohibition on the carrying of legal firearms would also be enforced. He said letters would be sent to people living on the main streets of the capital ordering them to "clear chairs, tables or anything that could block the walking path of the main street." "We will inform them that this summit will be the greatest honor for all of Phnom Penh residents and the entire Cambodian nation," he said. The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) will hold its annual summit in Cambodia for the first time this November. ASEAN groups Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. Heads of state, or high ranking officials are also expected from China, Japan, South Korea, South Africa and India. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday October 10, 05:17 AM
North Korea slams US over
religious freedom report
SEOUL, Oct 10 (AFP) - North Korea on Thursday denounced the United States for labelling the Stalinist state in a recent State Department report as one of the world's worst offenders in restricting religious freedom. The North's foreign ministry spokesman, quoted by state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), said the report was "a product of (Washington's) hostile policy." "The freedom of religious belief and religious activities is fully guaranteed by the law in the DPRK (North Korea)," the spokesman said in a KCNA dispatch monitored here. "The US anti-DPRK diatribe ... is an undisguised and shameful interference in the internal affairs of the DPRK, a product of the hostile policy pursued by the Bush administration against the DPRK," he added. US President George W. Bush branded North Korea, together with Iran and Iraq, as part of an "axis of evil" early this year. The US State Department on Tuesday listed North Korea as repressing religious freedom for the second consecutive year in its annual report, which also included China, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Sudan. "Genuine religious freedom does not exist," the US report said, citing reports by human rights groups that members of underground churches have been beaten, arrested, or killed in North Korea. The US "International Religious Freedom Report 2002" has further damaged relations between Pyongyang and Washington which recently clashed following a visit to North Korea by a senior US envoy. The North accused James Kelly, the US special envoy who visited Pyongyang last week to convey Washington's concerns over a perceived regional military threat from North Korea, of taking an "arrogant and high-handed" stance. Pyongyang has also been listed for years on another US State Department report of states sponsoring terrorism. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Reporters Without Borders
calls on Myanmar to release prisoners
BANGKOK, Oct 10 (AFP) - Press rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association (BMA) Thursday called on Myanmar's junta to release dozens of dissidents imprisoned recently for possessing banned newspapers. "This new crackdown is evidence of the military regime¹s hostility towards the pluralism of information," said Robert Menard, secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontieres - RSF). "It is intolerable that dozens of Burmese people should be imprisoned simply for having read or distributed a newspaper," he wrote in a letter to Myanmar's Home Minister Colonel Tin Hlaing signed jointly by BMA president U Thaung. RSF said some 30 activists, mostly former political prisoners, were arrested and interrogated by intelligence services last month for possessing opposition publications including a Thai-based newspaper Khit Pyaing. More than a dozen people are still being held in undisclosed locations, it added. The two groups also asked Tin Hlaing to persuade the junta to allow the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) to launch a newspaper. NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi reportedly requested a licence to publish a newspaper after her release in May from 19 months under house arrest. The US State Department earlier this month sharply criticised the arrests of the 30 opposition activists, describing them as a "significant step backwards" for hopes that the junta is easing its iron grip on political activity. "We continue to urge the regime to release all those detained for the peaceful _expression_ of their political views," an official said. Exiled opposition groups have claimed the arrests expose the junta's pledge to permit people to freely indulge in political activities as a sham. Aung San Suu Kyi has said her party's top priority is to secure the release of all the political prisoners in the country's jails. The Nobel peace laureate suggested in August that a mass release would be a precondition to her beginning a fully fledged political dialogue with the Yangon junta. The two sides have been engaged in a dialogue aimed at national reconciliation since October 2000. Hundreds of political prisoners have been freed since the dialogue began, but between 1,300 and 1,500 are believed to be still incarcerated. According to RSF and the BMA, almost 40 people have been arrested over the last two years for having distributed or read an opposition newspaper printed in Thailand. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar frees prisoners before
U.N. envoy's visit
By Aung Hla Tun YANGON, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Military-ruled Myanmar has freed 31 political prisoners, including seven members of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), a week before a visit by a United Nations human rights envoy, the NLD said on Thursday. The opposition party said most of the freed prisoners were former students arrested more than six years ago, while the seven NLD members were elderly senior officials. All were released on October 9. ``All seven NLD members are around 60 years of age and they are senior officials from some township NLD offices in Yangon Division,'' party spokesman U Lwin told Reuters. He said about 180 NLD members were still in prison. Human rights group Amnesty International say more than 1,000 political prisoners languish in Myanmar's jails. The U.N. human rights envoy to Myanmar, Brazilian academic Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, is due in the country for a 10-day visit to assess the rights situation on October 17, having postponed his visit by four days. ``He said that he had to postpone his visit because of some pending matters he had to deal with in Brazil and we agreed to it,'' a Myanmar government official told Reuters. Pinheiro's has visited Myanmar three times, but this will be his first since the government freed Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace prize, from 19-months of house arrest in May. Diplomats say pressure from the international community, including economic sanctions imposed by the United States and European countries, persuaded the ruling generals to free Suu Kyi. But many analysts say the generals, desperate for investment to pull the country out of a deepening economic crisis, are trying to clean up the country's image but have no real intention of releasing their grip on power. The Myanmar government said last month it had invited Pinheiro to visit in a bid to dispel allegations its troops used rape as a weapon of war against ethnic minority girls and women. The invitation followed criticism by Washington and a report from two minority rights groups saying Myanmar troops had raped at least 625 girls and women between 1996 and 2001 in Shan state in the east of the country. Pinheiro submitted a report to the United Nations in April, saying the conditions for political prisoners in Myanmar's jails had improved since they were allowed visits from the Red Cross two years ago. He called for the immediate release of all political prisoners, most of whom were detained after the military refused to recognise victory by the NLD in 1990 elections. The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962. -------------------------------------------------------------------- China withdraws death
sentences for church leaders
HONG KONG, Oct 10 (Reuters) - A Chinese court on Thursday spared the lives of five Christian church leaders who had been sentenced to death, but handed down heavy penalties of up to life imprisonment for injury and rape, a rights group said. The judgement came after a surprise two-day retrial ahead of a summit between the presidents of China and the United States later this month, and after a U.S. report this week that found little improvement in religious freedom in China. Gong Shengliang, founder of the underground South China Church, which has been branded by Beijing as an ``evil cult,'' received a life sentence for injury and rape, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said in a statement. For injury charges, key church members Xu Fuming and Hu Yong were jailed for life while Gong Bangkun and Li Ying were given 15-year terms, the group said. Gong Shengliang, Xu and Hu had previously been given death sentences, while Gong Bangkun and Li had been given suspended death sentences. Their previous charges included involvement with an ``evil cult.'' At their appeal against the ruling last month, the high court of central China's Hubei province repealed their death sentences and a retrial subsequently took place at a municipal intermediate court on Wednesday and Thursday. In its latest judgement, the court acquitted the five, together with 12 other church members, of ``evil cult'' charges. Four of the 12, who were previously convicted only of ``evil cult'' offences, walked free on Thursday. The Hong Kong group said the other eight received sentences lighter than 15 years of imprisonment, but did not elaborate. It also did not elaborate on the alleged crimes involving injury and rape. It said the defendants would appeal against the latest judgement. China bans all religious activity outside state-backed religious organisations, but rights groups say millions of people worship regularly in underground churches and prayer groups. On Monday, the United States, in its annual report on religious freedom around the world, found improvements in Afghanistan, Egypt and parts of southeastern Europe but little change in countries such as China, where religious worship is most severely restricted. The report issued by the U.S. State Department names the same six countries as in 2001 -- China, Cuba, Laos, Myanmar, North Korea and Vietnam -- as victims of totalitarian or authoritarian attempts to control religious belief or practice. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar government releases
prisoners _ but criticized over new alleged arrests
Thu Oct 10,10:31 AM ET BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Myanmar's military government has arrested dozens of dissidents for distributing banned newspapers, a press freedom group said Thursday. The allegation came as the government announced the release of 31 other political prisoners. Late last month, intelligence officers arrested about 30 political activists for possessing opposition publications, said the Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders, better known by its French acronym RSF. Nearly 40 people have been arrested over the past two years in Myanmar, also known as Burma, for distributing or reading opposition newspapers ? mostly printed in neighboring Thailand ? RSF said in a statement issued with the Burma Media Association, an exiled Myanmar opposition group based in Washington, D.C. Some of those arrested have been tortured or given heavy prison sentences, the statement claimed. In a joint letter to Myanmar Home Affairs Minister Col. Tin Hlaing, the two groups demanded the immediate release of all those imprisoned "simply for having read or distributed a newspaper." Meanwhile, the government said it freed 31 political prisoners, including seven members of the opposition National League for Democracy party, on Thursday. It was one of the largest groups of dissidents freed in a single day since such releases began after the ruling junta and the opposition started reconciliation talks two years ago. The junta is believed to hold up to 1,500 political prisoners, including several hundred members of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, which won a 1990 general election but was not allowed to take power. More than 300 of Suu Kyi's party's members have been freed since the talks began. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post -
Thursday 10 October 2002
Ethnic rebels will be closely watched, says new minister Wassana Nanuam Defence Minister Thammarak Isarangkura na Ayudhaya says Burmese ethnic rebels operating along the western border will be closely watched to prevent them stirring up trouble that may create misunderstandings with Rangoon. Border problems could be avoided if ``third parties'' were not allowed to use Thai soil to stir up trouble. ``If we did not allow other people to cause misunderstandings in the border area then problems can be prevented,'' the new defence minister said. He would follow guidelines set by his predecessor, Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, in using personal ties with the military to strengthen ties with neighbouring countries. Once Rangoon reopened its border, expected on Oct 15, he would issue new instructions on control of border passes to avoid further problems. Gen Thammarak said there was much to be learnt from past events which led to heightened tensions between Bangkok and Rangoon along the border. A defence source said Gen Chavalit, who is deputy prime minister in charge of security affairs, had sent his army advisory chairman Gen Vichit Yathip, his close aide, to Rangoon last week to seek cooperation in reopening the border, which Rangoon closed on May 22. Gen Chavalit said Rangoon's decision to open its border checkpoints next Tuesday was a good sign for bilateral relations. Gen Thammarak also emphasised the need for fraternity and unity in the armed forces. Without it the military would be reduced to a laughing stock. He urged the armed forces not to be selfish or bicker among themselves. ``It's embarrassing and we'll be ridiculed,'' he said. -------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - Thursday, 10
October, 2002, 13:56 GMT 14:56 UK
Burma releases prisoners The Burmese military government has released 31 prisoners, including seven members of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD). The move comes a week before a visit by a United Nations human rights envoy. An NLD spokesman said most of those released on Wednesday were former students, arrested more than six years ago, while the NLD members were elderly senior officials of the party. The UN human rights envoy to Burma, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, is next week due to make his first visit to the country since the authorities freed the NLD leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, from house arrest in May. The invitation followed allegations that Burmese troops used rape as a weapon of war against ethnic minority females - an allegation the authorities deny. Earlier this month the Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, said after visiting Burma and meeting Aung San Suu Kyi that she was sceptical about the military government's promises of reforms. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Independent-Bangladesh
Strategic significance of the
Andamans
Prakash Nanda 10 Oct 2002.
India's first "Joint Service Command" (Unified command) of the three services and the Coast Guard that was created in the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands completed one year of its formation on October 8, 2002. Named as Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC), it is intended to ensure "impregnable surveillance and security of land, water and air space "of the Andaman and Nicobar "region" as a whole. It is under the direct control of the Chairman of the Committee of the Chiefs of Staff. In fact, the ANC is supposed to be "the laboratory" for the eventual unified command of the three services at the national level. Why of all the places the Andaman and Nicobar Islands were chosen to be providing the base for Indian's first unified command? A recent visit those islands by the present writer revealed that they are strategically too significant. The Northern most point of the Andaman group of islands is barely 190 Nautical Miles, or approximately 300 Kilometers from the Myanmar mainland. From the Coco Islands, which house, today, the Chinese maintenance and berthing facilities, it is just 18 kilometers. Similarly, the southernmost point of the Nicobar group of islands, called the "Indira Point" is just 150 or so kilometers from Sumatra. Phuket in Thailand is only 273 nautical miles away from Indira point. These aspects of the geographical location of the Andaman and Nicobar islands are all the more significant when one realises that their distance from any part of the Indian mainland is about 1200 kilometers (1255km from Calcutta, 1190 km from Chennai and 1200 km from Vishakhapatanam). Significantly, these islands create a series of choke points which not only help them dominate western entry to the Straits of Malacca (hence the whole of Southeast Asia, China, two Koreas and Australia) from Europe and West Asia but also any movement between the Far East and Calcutta, Cox's Bazaar(Bangladesh), or Yangon (Rangoon.) In addition, these islands also control any movement between Trincomolee (Sri Lanka) or Visakhapatnam and Yangon. The Andamans provide the key to the eventual success of the much talked about "Look East Policy" of India (policy towards the Asia-Pacific reason). It is the close proximity of Andaman and Nicobar Islands with the Southeast Asia that make India as much a part of that region as that of South Asia. As it is, the region has already been marked by the emergence of some regional economic orgainisations like the ASEAN, of which India is a dialogue partner, the APEC, which India is aspiring to join, BIMSTEC (consisting of Bangladesh, India , Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand), and Mekong Gaga Cooperation Project(involving India , Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam). What is noteworthy in this context is that all these organisations have member countries, which, with the notable exception of landlocked Laos, are all maritime countries. In this sense, the Andamans provide the most ideal logistics base from where sea power could extend its reach. In fact, India has been conducting regular joint naval exercises and joint-military training with the Southeast Asian countries, both bilaterally and multilaterally. Since 1995, the Indian Navy has been hosting regular gathering of warships from these countries at Port Blair. Every two year bilateral gatherings of this nature are held and these are called "Milan" of warships. Countries that have participated include Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and the United States. Significantly, as per the latest Indo-US accord, Indian naval ships based in Port Blair are escorting these days all the American vessels from Singapore to Diego Garcia. However, India's cooperative naval diplomacy in the region has not been reciprocated by China and Myanmar. In fact, China has always resented the growing Indian naval activity in the region. In early 1993, Zhao Nanqi, director of the General Staff Logistics Department of the Chinese Navy, issued a top-secret memorandum that explained in great detail the PLA's strategic plans to consolidate control over the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean under the new doctrine of "high-sea defense." Zhao stated that "We can no longer accept the Indian Ocean as only an ocean of the Indians". Accordingly, the most urgent task identified by the Chinese navy has been to consolidate control over the Strait of Malacca so that no other power is capable of blocking its surge the moment it was capable of surging into the Indian Ocean. If Yossef Bodansky, Director of the Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare of the U.S. Congress is to be believed, in 1995, Beijing resolved to markedly expedite its surge, at the least parts of it, so that it would be impossible for its "enemies" to forestall its rise to global power. It decided to "to encircle the Strait of Malacca and, through covert operations, create intolerable conditions for potential enemies and opponents in the region". Bodansky writes that "it has become imperative for the PRC to consolidate direct control over both approaches to the Strait of Malacca while neutralizing the states in between through covert action. The two approaches to the Strait of Malacca can be dominated from the Spratly islands and Burma's coastline on the Bay of Bengal. The key to the covert action is having Beijing's close allies-Iran and Pakistan-either win over the Muslim governments of the key regional states or subvert the Muslim population of other key states in the region so that the internal crisis and instability will prevent them from resisting the Chinese strategic surge and rise to hegemonic position". Bodansky's point is that the Islamist subversion of several countries in Asia is intensified because of the strategic interests of a third party- China-and, to a lesser extent, of its close allies like Pakistan who bear the brunt of the sponsorship of, and support for the terrorist escalation has been shared by many analysts the world over. This aspect is all the more important in the post- September 11, 2001 phase of fight against international terrorism. Indeed, Islamist forces sponsored by Pakistan are destabilising the local states overlooking the Strait of Malacca. The Islamists have gained more influence in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines (courtesy the ISI-trained Abu Sayyaf forces). They have been subverting Thailand-using both the local Patans in the countryside and spectacular operations by expert terrorists arriving from the sponsoring states-while also maintaining subversive infrastructure in Indonesia as deterrence for Jakarta, as well as taking over the struggle of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar to exercise additional pressure on Yangon to cooperate with Beijing. The case of Myanmar assumes special significance for India. China has installed a major maritime reconnaissance and electronic intelligence station on Great Coco Island. Along with the Small Coco Island where the Chinese Army is also building bases, these two islands provide a great opportunity to China to be based at a crucial point in traffic routes between the Bay of Bengal and the Strait of Malacca. The Coco Islands are also an ideal place for monitoring the major Indian naval facilities in Andaman and Nicobar Islands and missile launches in the Chandipur of Balasore in Orissa and the satellites' launching at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. Chinese strategists see Myanmar occupying the same place in the Chinese calculus of deterrence vis-à-vis India in South-Southeast Asia that Pakistan does in South-Southwest Asia. In fact, triangular relations among China, Myanmar and Pakistan are particularly disturbing to India. Pakistan has invited China for development and construction of her strategic naval base at Gwadar on the Makran coast. This Pakistan-China defence project has far wider strategic significance; for it gives China access and basing facilities in the Indian Ocean and in close proximity to the Straits of Hormuz. It also amounts to maritime encirclement of India in the sense that with the presence at Gwadar at one end and at Cocos at the other, the Chinese Navy can pose few problems to India. What all this underscores is that India has to continuously and methodically monitor and contain the growing triangular relationship among China, Myanmar and Pakistan. And in task, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are destined to play a vital role. h.l The case of Myanmar assumes special significance for India. China has installed a major maritime reconnaissance and electronic intelligence station on Great Coco Island. Along with the Small Coco Island where the Chinese Army is also building bases, these two islands provide a great opportunity to China to be based at a crucial point in traffic routes between the Bay of Bengal and the Strait of Malacca. The Coco Islands are also an ideal place for monitoring the major Indian naval facilities in Andaman and Nicobar Islands and missile launches in the Chandipur of Balasore in Orissa and the satellites' launching at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.p Prakash Nanda is our Nepal Correspondent -------------------------------------------------------------------- Roundup: Human trafficking
eradication in Asia has long way to go
Xinhuanet 2002-10-10 15:18:47 BANGKOK, Oct. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Trafficking in woman and children for forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation has been recognized by many Asian countries as a priority development problem, but effective measures to eradicate the crime still a desirous gift for experts and victims. As more than 150 European and Asian human rights experts attended a United Nations-sponsored conference from Oct. 7 to Oct.9 in Bangkok with an aim to step up operation to combat the growing phenomenon of human trafficking, some optimistic officialsdescribed the 25-country gathering as "the beginning of a more substantive cooperation among the countries of Asia and Europe." However, more experts said before the effective measures, such as every country adopting a set of proposals on prevention, service, advocacy and demand, and setting up a regional network tomonitor and control human trafficking, were taken into effect, people will still stand in starting point as ever before. In her opening speech at the conference, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific Deputy Executive Secretary, Keiko Okaido described human trafficking as "a major concern for many countries in the Asian region, either as sites of origin, transit or destination." Her view was shared by the experts, officials and representatives of the non-governmental organizations which provided a lot of terrible examples and figures. According to the estimate of Tides Foundation, there are more than 300,000 prostitutes in Thailand, of which one of third are minors who have been sold to brothel from neighboring countries tomeet the demand of "sex tourists". In Cambodia, 35 percent of the total 100,000 prostitutes are minors, 48 percent of them are abducted and sold. In the Thai-Cambodian border, the guest can pay the brothel owners 500 to 600 US dollars to "buy a girl's freedom". In India, among the 2.3 million prostitutes, a quarter are minors, most of them were bought by the brothel owners from their parents through economic incentives, such as fake jobs or marriagepromises. The UN Population Fund consultative meeting in Slovakia last week said Southeast Asia is the world's largest source of trafficked persons, with more than 225,000 people trafficked everyyear, and is a major destination for sex tourism, while the South Asia is the third largest source of the world. More sadly, the bloody facts had been figured out for many years and many concerned international agreements, conventions andprotocols had been adopted, but human trafficking still remains tobe the fastest-growing transnational crime. So the participants of the seminar appealed that the international society to review and rework its tactic for the longtime war. UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) specialist Jean D'Cunha said that many well-intentioned efforts to curb the trafficking, which tend to focus on immediate post-trafficking assistance, suchas arresting, detaining and deporting trafficked persons as illegal immigrants, only resulted in placing the onus unfairly on the victims of an unjust social order and a chain of coercive and deceptive events. She brought forward the suggestion that trafficking should be treated as a development concern instead of solely as a social problem, with a focus on long-term preventive measures that take into account unsafe and discriminatory environments, and build women's capacity to deal with exploitation. It's no doubt that D'Cunha's idea is mulled, but it is also very difficult to be carried out. Some experts argued that gender inequalities is maybe a more complex question than human trafficking, for this reason, how to design and implement the effective measures to set up the prevention system and which measure would be the most effective ones for every country, both are the puzzled questions. In fact, during the discussions of the seminar, experts found because of the multiformity of the Asian countries, implementing laws required by the international covenants, cooperation between different countries and lots of measures which had been inked in papers for many years were only desires of few peoples. Thus, Alfhild Petren, senior adviser at the Swedish Foreign Ministry, a sponsor of the seminar pointed out at the closing ceremony that more research needs to be done and "we still need to find ways to measures." For experts, the first step will better be figuring out the firm number of trafficked persons -- because the victims all are illegal immigrants, there is no data about their numbers till now -- at least, it will benefit the combat rather than an acting plan which can not be brought into effect. -------------------------------------------------------------------- |