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BURMA RELATED NEWS
- October 17, 2002.
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HEADLINES
-------------------------------------------------------------------- AFP - Myanmar rejects Human Rights
Watch report on child soldiers
AFP - UN rights envoy to arrive in
Myanmar amid rising criticism of junta
Reuters - ADB sees higher growth in
East Asia, but warns of risks
Reuters - India's Vajpayee says
reform drive irreversible
AP - Report: Myanmar hands over
Chinese drug fugitive
AP - New blasts rock
border town as junta blames Karen rebels
AP - Myanmar dismisses report on boy
soldiers as attempt to pressure
BBC - UN to probe Burma rape
allegations
Bkk Post - Bomb blasts rock
town opposite Tak
The Nation - Blast mars border
opening
ST - Myanmar army has 70,000
child-soldiers
BT Online- OPINION - Jockeying for
power in Myanmar
KNU - KNU Statement on
Explosions in Myawaddy
Mizzima - Drugs smuggling
in Kachin State
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday October 17, 3:22 PM Myanmar rejects Human Rights Watch report on child soldiers YANGON, Oct 17 - (AFP) - Myanmar's military regime rejected a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report which estimated that more than a fifth of the soldiers serving in its national army could be children under the age of 18. The report released Tuesday by the US-based watchdog found that children as young as 11 were being forcibly recruited into the army where they were made to participate in human rights abuses. "The government of Myanmar refutes the claims made by the HRW and furthermore finds it very difficult to understand on what basis it is making such claims saying that 20 percent of the national army is made up with underage (people)," the junta said in a brief statement on Thursday. The report claims to be the most comprehensive study of its kind and drew on interviews with more than three dozen current and former child soldiers. According to the investigation, army recruiters focus on boys at train and bus stations and markets, threatening them with jail if they fail to join. The boys are given no opportunity to contact their families, and are sent to camps where they undergo weapons training and are routinely beaten and brutally punished if they try to escape. Myanmar's army has doubled in size since 1988, and with an estimated 350,000 soldiers, it is now one of the largest in Southeast Asia. Human Rights Watch said estimates put the number of conscripts under the age of 18 at more than 70,000. The rejection of the report comes ahead of the arrival here Thursday of UN rights envoy Paulo Sergion Pinheiro who will spend two weeks here. During his visit, Pinheiro has been asked to investigate allegations made in another recent report, which found that the military used rape as a weapon of war against the Shan ethnic minority. Myanmar's government has repeatedly denied the rape allegations contained in a study released by two Thai-based Shan rights organisations in July. The investigation, which drew international outrage, detailed the sexual assault of 625 girls and women, mostly between 1996 and 2001. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday October 17, 7:44 PM
UN rights envoy to arrive in
Myanmar amid rising criticism of junta
YANGON, Oct 17 (AFP) - UN human rights envoy Paulo Sergio Pinheiro was due to arrive in Myanmar Thursday on an 11-day mission that comes after a series of damning human rights allegations have been levelled against the junta. During his fourth trip to Myanmar, the Brazilian academic is expected to investigate the claims as well as meet with democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi and top junta leaders. In the latest report to attack the regime's rights record, the US-based watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tuesday it believed that more than a fifth of the soldiers serving in Myanmar's army could be under the age of 18. Its investigation found that children as young as 11 were being forcibly recruited into the national army where they were made to participate in human rights abuses. And in July, two Thai-based rights organisations representing the Shan ethnic minority released a report claiming the military used rape as a weapon of war against their people. Myanmar's government has repeatedly denied the rape allegations and said this week that it had invited Pinheiro to make an "independent review" of the claims. Earlier Thursday it also rejected the HRW report which drew on interviews with more than three dozen current and former child soldiers. "The government of Myanmar refutes the claims made by the HRW and furthermore finds it very difficult to understand on what basis it is making such claims saying that 20 percent of the national army is made up with underage (people)," the junta said in a statement. Pinheiro, who is to arrive in the Myanmar capital late Thursday, is scheduled to make a three-day visit to Shan state beginning on October 22. The Shan Women's Action Network (SWAN) which helped compile the rape report said Thursday that it welcomed Pinheiro's plans to visit Shan state but had little faith it would improve the situation there. "We are not expecting too much from his visit because we doubt that he could really find out the right persons to inquire," said the group's spokeswoman Hseng Noung. "The mission was at the invitation of Yangon's military regime and they will show him only what they want." Hseng Noung said that according to its sources in Shan state, Myanmar authorities had already taken steps to cover up the truth in many areas where major human rights and sexual abuses were taking place. Forced relocations of villagers in affected regions had taken place and residents were forced to sign documents saying that people in the area had experienced no problems with local authorities or soldiers, she said. In a report to the UN General Assembly released Monday, Pinheiro said the "recent mellowing on the political front" in Myanmar was not enough to improve the human rights situation. He urged the UN to get ready to help with the transition to democracy, saying: "The present delicate situation... needs to be handled with great care and generosity on the part of those who wish the people of Myanmar well." Pinheiro is due to leave Yangon on October 28. No date has been set for a meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, who was released in May from 19 months under house arrest. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday October 17, 2:51 PM
ADB sees higher growth in East Asia, but warns of risks By Raju Gopalakrishnan MANILA (Reuters) - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Thursday that East Asian economies, especially China, were likely to expand more this year than earlier estimated, but warned the risks to unfettered growth had increased. A war in Iraq or a slowdown in industrialised countries could swiftly derail the region's economic health, the Manila-based multilateral institution said in a quarterly report. Relatively healthy exports so far this year, a rebound in domestic demand because of expansionary policies and restructuring and an improvement in private capital flows had led to higher-than-expected growth in the region, it said. On average, China, South Korea and the 10 countries in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) should grow 6.0 percent this year, up from an estimate of 5.8 percent in July, it said. However, growth in 2003 would be about 5.9 percent, down from the July estimate of 6.2 percent, primarily because of slower expansion in industrialised countries and consequently a fall-off in demand for Asian exports. "This scenario is however subject to a higher degree of uncertainty now than in July, with most of the external risks on the downside," the ADB's Asia Economic Monitor said. It named these primarily as much slower growth in industrialised countries, which would hurt exports from Asia, and a possible U.S. attack on Iraq, which would heighten uncertainty and lead to an immediate spike in oil prices. STAGFLATION RISK It said higher oil prices would lead to stagflationary effects on East Asia -- lower growth and higher inflation. However, so far, prospects for this year looked upbeat. According to the ADB, China was expected to grow 7.7 percent in 2002 against the earlier forecast of 7.4 percent, Thailand 4.3 percent against 3.7 percent, Malaysia 4.2 percent against 4.1 percent, Indonesia 3.5 percent against 3.4 percent and the Philippines 4.2 percent against 3.8 percent. Korea's growth was estimated at 6.1 percent, the same as in July while Singapore's forecast was downgraded to 3.8 percent from the previous 4.2 percent. ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. ADB said economies in the region should maintain a two-pronged approach to external risks. "First, they should remain ready to initiate appropriate fiscal and monetary responses should export prospects deteriorate sharply," it said. "Second, countries should push ahead with the remaining agenda of financial and corporate restructuring and reform in order to improve resilience to external shocks." -------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday October 17, 4:49 PM
India's Vajpayee says reform drive irreversible NEW DELHI, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said on Thursday the country's economic reform programme would not be abandoned despite recent hitches and the government was aiming for an 8.0 percent GDP growth rate. "Like an elephant, the Indian economy might be somewhat slow to gather momentum, but when it does so, it is unstoppable and irreversible," Vajpayee said in an inaugural address to the first India-ASEAN business summit. "Our reform process continues to target high growth with balanced equitable development. Our ambitious GDP growth target of 8.0 percent exhorts us to stay on this path. There can be no looking back." India has set a target of 8.0 percent annual growth in its gross domestic product over the next five years. India undertook economic reforms back in 1991, but the process has lost momentum because of opposition from political parties, trade unions and bureaucratic hurdles. Parliament has yet to approve several key plans, such as cutting government stakes in state-run banks, labour reforms and proposed legislation to curb the soaring fiscal deficit. DEBT DOWNGRADED Vajpayee's assurance came after fresh doubts about India's reform drive following a recent government decision to defer privatisation of two large oil firms due to political opposition. It also follows last month's downgrading of India's local currency debt ratings to "junk" level by ratings agency Standard & Poor's, which cited growing debt and weak public finances. India's GDP grew 5.4 percent in 2001/02 (April-March), up from four percent in the previous fiscal year, but way off the double-digit levels that analysts say are needed to wipe out poverty in the world's second most populous nation. Economic growth has been slower than this, even though India opened up to foreign competition in the early 1990s to encourage expansion after more than four decades of socialism and Soviet-style central economic planning. Vajpayee also called on ASEAN economies to forge a strong relationship with India to act as a cushion against the global economic slowdown. REGIONAL INTEGRATION "The global economic slowdown provides an immediate context for closer regional integration. Western economies which have been the mainstay of Asia's foreign investments and export-led growth today face uncertain prospects of recovery," he said. India's southern city of Bangalore is a global information technology centre and the country needs help in power, roads, infrastructure, urban services and airports, which Vajpayee said provided "further complementarity" with ASEAN. "Meanwhile, India continues on an uninterrupted growth trajectory, averaging an economic growth of about 6.0 percent. We should, therefore, build on the complementarities between India and the ASEAN economies." Two-way trade between India and ASEAN countries is less than $10 billion. Vajpayee said India and ASEAN should work towards a preferential trade arrangement to promote "economic integration". "We see a regional trade and investment area as a near-term objective of India-ASEAN economic relations," Vajpayee added. ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Report: Myanmar hands over
Chinese drug fugitive
Thu Oct 17, 5:51 AM
ET
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) _ Myanmar authorities turned over a drug trafficking suspect to China this week, the state-run media reported Thursday. It was the seventh such handover since authorities began such actions about a year ago. Chinese national Li Jin Kang, 35, and four accomplices were wanted by Chinese authorities on accusations they smuggled nearly 13 kilograms (29 pounds) of heroin into China's southwestern province of Yunnan in April, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported Thursday. Yunnan is the main smuggling route into China from Myanmar _ part of Southeast Asia's notorious drug-producing ``Golden Triangle,'' where Myanmar borders Laos and Thailand. Li's alleged accomplices were arrested earlier in China, but Li escaped into Myanmar, the newspaper said, adding that Li was arrested at Laukkai in northeastern Myanmar on Sept. 19. He was handed over in the presence of top Myanmar and Chinese police officials at a border checkpoint in Chinshwehaw, 910 kilometers (570 miles) northeast of Yangon on Tuesday, the newspaper said. China has stepped up anti-drug efforts with other governments in recent years as addiction to heroin, especially in Yunnan, has surged. Myanmar has also stepped up anti-drug activities in an effort to showcase its cooperation with the international community. Its military government is shunned by much of the West for its poor human rights record and failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government. Cooperation following Beijing's first anti-drug pact with its Southeast Asian neighbors last year resulted in China's biggest heroin seizure on record when a joint Chinese-Myanmar police raid seized 675 kilograms (1,490 pounds) of the drug in Yunnan in November. -------------------------------------------------------------------- New blasts rock border town as
junta blames Karen rebels
Thu Oct 17, 6:53 AM ET YANGON, Myanmar (AP) _ Two bombs exploded on a bridge and by an army camp near a border town Thursday, residents said, and Myanmar's military government blamed ethnic rebels for two earlier blasts in the area. No casualties were reported in the explosions, the residents said, who asked not to be named. One bomb explosion damaged a concrete bridge, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) west of the border town of Myawaddy, said residents who crossed into the Thai town of Mae Sot. One traveler said another bomb exploded by the nearby camp of the Myanmar army's Light Infantry Battalion 356. He said Myanmar authorities were searching for the bombers house by house, and sending cars around with loudspeakers seeking aid to capture them. On Thursday, the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper said the explosion that occurred in Myawaddy on Tuesday was caused by a time bomb planted by the Karen National Union rebel group. The blast occurred soon after the Thai-Myanmar border reopened after a four-month closure due to tensions between the armies of the two countries. The newspaper said another bomb that exploded on Wednesday in the town was also planted by the KNU, one of the last major ethnic rebel groups that hasn't reached a peace agreement with the junta. The Karen National Union is fighting for autonomy in the predominantly Karen areas in eastern Myanmar. It did not immediately respond to the junta's accusations. The New Light of Myanmar, which usually serves as a mouthpiece of the junta, said the explosions did not cause any damage or casualties. ``The KNU terrorists group was systematically scheming to commit terrorist acts to panic the people, to delay flow of commodities, and to jeopardize Myanmar-Thai normalized relations,'' the newspaper said. It said authorities also discovered and defused a U.S.-made anti-personnel mine planted near a school in Myawaddy allegedly planted by the KNU. It gave no other details. Meanwhile, Myanmar traders said that despite the reopening of the border they still faced restrictions on business. One of them said they had been banned from sending to Thailand fresh fish, onion, garlic and chili, all of which are major exports. Another said they had to pay bribes to Myanmar officials to get through. The travelers said the night market in Myawaddy had also been closed. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar dismisses report on
boy soldiers as attempt to pressure
Thu Oct 17, 8:39 AM ET YANGON, Myanmar (AP) _ Myanmar's military government on Thursday denied that it has recruited a large number of children to serve as soldiers, saying the allegation is an attempt to tarnish the country's image. In a report released Tuesday, Human Rights Watch claimed that as many as 70,000 soldiers in Myanmar's national army were under 18, with the vast majority forcibly conscripted. It said children are being snatched off the streets and forced to fight. ``It is an allegation that has no basis whatsoever,'' the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. ``As the report appears to be based on the testimony of so-called deserters in Thailand, their statements are indeed very questionable,'' it said. The statement pointed out that the report appeared on the eve of a visit by Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, who is scheduled to arrive in the country later Thursday for a 12-day visit to investigate allegations of rape by Myanmar soldiers. ``As such the report is nothing but an attempt to put pressure on Myanmar and to interfere in the internal affairs of the country,'' the statement said. ``The report is just another example of the attempts to tarnish the image of Myanmar and the Myanmar Tatmadaw (armed forces).'' It said the army strictly enforces a regulation prohibiting the enlisting of anyone under the age of 18 into the armed forces. ``On the other hand the use of child soldiers by the armed insurgent groups is well documented,'' it said, citing the case of twin 12-year-old soldiers Johnny and Luther Htoo, who led an armed Karen guerrilla group known as God's Army until their surrender to Thai authorities in early 2001. One rebel group, the Karen National Union, says it takes in orphans but denies using child soldiers in combat. The New York-based Human Rights Watch said that recruiters for the army catch boys at bus and train stations, markets and other public places, threatening them with jail if they refuse to join. Recruits are allegedly sent to camps where they undergo
weapons training, are routinely beaten and brutally punished or killed if they
attempt to escape. Boys as young as 12 are sent into combat and forced to commit
abuses against civilians, it said.
2002-10-17 Thu 08:39 -------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - Wednesday, 16
October, 2002, 23:02 GMT 00:02 UK
UN to probe Burma rape allegations By Larry Jagan BBC Burma analyst The United Nations Human Rights Rapporteur for Burma, Professor Paolo Sergio Pinheiro, is scheduled to begin another mission to the country on Thursday. During his 11-day trip he will be meeting government ministers, ethnic leaders and members of the opposition, including the leader of the National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi. Mr Pinheiro's primary concern this visit will certainly be to investigate the allegations that the Burmese army routinely rapes ethnic women along the border with Thailand. Two organisations representing the Shan community said in a report earlier this year that Burmese troops had raped more than 600 Shan girls and women since 1996. But UN officials say Mr Pinheiro will not be trying to assess the validity of the specific allegations on the report recently published by the two human rights groups based in Thailand. Generals' denial Instead, they say, he will be looking at the broader issue of the safety of women in conflict areas along the border. While he will be visiting Shan state to see the situation there for himself, he is likely to be urging the Burmese generals to give his research team extended access to Shan state after he leaves. The Burmese Government has already dismissed the claims as a tissue of lies created by organisations whose sole desire is to discredit the regime. But the generals will be disappointed if the UN envoy is going there to back their position. Political prisoners Mr Pinheiro is also concerned about the conditions of Burma's prisons and the issue of political prisoners. The military government has freed more than 300 since they started secret talks with the opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, two years ago. But more than 1,000 are still in jail, according to international human rights groups. The UN envoy Razali Ismail who brokered the talks between the two sides, has been urging the generals to free the remaining political prisoners as soon as possible. Mr Pinheiro has also consistently urged the regime to release all the country's political prisoners immediately. He is likely to be reinforcing that message again on this trip. Progress on this issue is needed if the dialogue process between the opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and the generals is to make any further progress. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post -
Thursday 17 October 2002
Bomb blasts rock town opposite Tak Attack `prompted by reopening of passes' Supamart Kasem Security has been beefed up on both sides of the border after six bombs were found planted in and around the Burmese town of Myawaddy, opposite Mae Sot district, within 36 hours of Rangoon reopening its checkpoints. No injuries were reported after three of the bombs exploded, while the remaining three were discovered and disarmed before they could be detonated. Burmese authorities had warned of possible sabotage attacks by parties adversely affected by the border reopening, said Maj Wittaya Ruangmaneeya, chief of thhe Thai-Burma Co-operation Office. ``The Burmese believe the bombs were meant to maim or kill,'' he said. ``They were planted as a terror tactic by individuals who would rather see the border remain closed.'' The 23rd Infantry Regiment Task Force was put on high alert as a precaution. The first bomb exploded at noon on Tuesday, the day checkpoints were reopened, about two kilometres from the border, opposite Ban Rim Moey. A second bomb at this site was discovered and disarmed before it could be detonated. The second blast was reported yesterday at 6.30 am, near the Thai-Burmese Friendship Bridge. A second bomb near the bridge, but also close to a school, was disarmed. The third bomb to explode went off about 8.40am yesterday, opposite Ban Rim Moey. A second bomb here was also disarmed. Mae Sai checkpoint in Chiang Rai province was also warned of possible attacks. ``The Burmese recommended we intensify security, but they didn't pinpoint potential targets,'' said Ronnarong Sukthavorn, customs chief at the checkpoint. However, the likelihood of bomb attacks being carried out in Tachilek, opposite Mai Sai, was considered low as Burmese troops were in complete control of the town. In Myawaddy, several groups were vying for control, Mr Ronnarong said. Meanwhile, Burmese immigration authorities arrested 136 people who were stranded on Thai soil when the checkpoints closed because their border passes had expired. -------------------------------------------------------------------- The
Nation
Blast mars border opening Published on Oct 17, 2002 The border crossing between the Mae Sot district of Tak province and the Burmese town of Myawaddy was rocked by a huge bomb blast yesterday morning, just one day after the border was re-opened, police said. A second explosive device was found undetonated near a pier controlled by the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, a splinter militia group aligned with the Burmese government. Nobody claimed responsibility for the bombing, but Thai authorities suspected that it was the work of a "group who wanted to disrupt the opening of the border crossing". There were no reports of injury but a cargo truck was slightly damaged by the blast. Burma shut the border in late May in response to clashes involving Thai and Burmese soldiers as well as Wa militia and Shan rebels fighting for autonomy from the Rangoon government. Yesterday's explosion occurred shortly after dawn on the bank of the Moei River, which separates the border town of Myawaddy with Mae Sot district. -------------------------------------------------------------------- The Straits Times -
OCT 17, 2002 THU
Myanmar army has 70,000 child-soldiers YANGON - Myanmar's army has an estimated 70,000 soldiers under 18 years of age, the largest number of child soldiers in the world, Human Rights Watch said in a report. Children as young as 11 years old are being forcibly snatched off the streets and recruited into the army, which has an estimated 350,000 soldiers, the New York-based group said in a report on its website. Myanmar's ruling junta denied the allegations: 'The government finds it very difficult to understand on what basis it is making such claims, saying that 20 per cent of the national army is made up of underage children.' The human rights group said the 220-page report, titled 'My Gun was as Tall as Me', drew on extensive interviews with current and former child soldiers, and examined recruitment by the national army and 19 different armed opposition groups. It said recruiters for the national army apprehend boys at train and bus stations, markets and other public places, threatening them with jail if they refuse to join the army. Ms Jo Becker, advocacy director of the group's Children's Rights Division, said that Myanmar's record on child soldiers was 'the worst in the world'. The army uses 'threats, intimidation and often violence to force young boys to become soldiers'. The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers last year estimated that more than 300,000 children were fighting as soldiers in 41 countries. The London-based coalition said the children, about 120,000 of them in African armies, were used as front-line fighters, minesweepers, spies, porters and sex slaves. International law prohibits recruiting children under the age of 15, while several United Nations conventions speak out against children under 18 serving as soldiers. --AP -------------------------------------------------------------------- The Business Times
Online
October 17, 2002
OPINION - Jockeying for power in Myanmar By Harish Mehta WHAT should one make of the sentences of death by hanging of the son-in-law of former Myanmar dictator Ne Win and his three grandsons? Was there really a coup attempt? For one thing, it means General Than Shwe, the current strongman of Myanmar, wants to become an even stronger man, if that were possible. But he has to keep looking over his shoulder at other members of the ruling troika: vice-chairman Maung Aye and first secretary Khin Nyunt. It also means that the former strongman, ex-dictator General Ne Win, variously said to be either 92 or 94 years old, is apparently still capable of mustering a rabble of dissenters. And all these questions arise only because Gen Ne Win's family has lost no opportunity to enrich themselves. As their wealth grew, they developed political ambitions as well. But strongmen rulers do not tolerate dissent well (and sometimes not at all). Gen Than Shwe did what the political science textbooks say he would do: crack down on Gen Ne Win's family. And so four of them were sentenced to death. By making an example of them, the message goes to the generals, brigadiers and colonels in the ruling junta: don't mess with Gen Than Shwe. The 'ruling strongman versus ex-strongman' drama had been simmering on the back burner for several years in the economically-devastated country and would have gone on but for the fact that Gen Ne Win and his supporters started baiting Gen Than Shwe. So, just a few days before the sentences were handed down, the National Unity Party (NUP) - a political reincarnation of Gen Ne Win's Burma Socialist Programme Party that ruled till 1988 - suddenly came out with stinging criticism of the ruling military junta for mishandling the economy. Everything the party said was, of course, true - that people are suffering from rising consumer prices and inflation, and that life is generally miserable. Of course, the irony is that Myanmar was one of South-east Asia's most dynamic economies in the 1950s, and it was Gen Ne Win's very rule that turned it into an economic disaster. By the time the present junta had worked on the economy, the country had become a basket case. But the NUP went too far in calling for the emergence of a constitutionally elected government to solve the country's political and economic problems. Gen Than Shwe found the criticism from Gen Ne Win's supporters just too hard to swallow. On top of that, he was fed up with the bad behaviour of Gen Ne Win's family members, many of whom were involved in murky business partnerships with military officers in the ruling junta. Many of those deals broke one law or the other, and everyone involved ought to have been charged a long time ago. But they were tolerated. The latest provocation was just too much to bear. That Gen Ne Win should again be attempting to exercise power through the NUP, while his children incite some junta officers to rebellion, was, in Gen Than Shwe's eyes, more than any mortal strongman could bear. So thus it was that on Sept 26, a court in Yangon sentenced Gen Ne Win's son-in-law Aye Zaw Win, 54, and the latter's three sons - Aye Ne Win, Kyaw Ne Win, and Zwe Ne Win, all in their 20s - to death by hanging for high treason. They were accused of attempting to recruit senior military officers to stage a coup earlier this year. Aye Zaw Win is the husband of Sandar Win, the wealthy favourite daughter of Gen Ne Win. He is thought to be mainly interested in making money; but Sandar is known to harbour political ambitions, and may have even seen a role for herself in promoting her father's questionable legacy. So her husband may have paid a price for her ambitions. The junta then turned on its own unruly ranks. Four senior military officers, including two regional commanders, were sacked for their involvement with the Ne Win clan. With the threat from the Ne Win clan and their political supporters neutralised, Gen Than Shwe now controls power unmolested. But his problems are not over. Jockeying for power continues within the ruling troika, along with vice-chairman Maung Aye and first secretary Khin Nyunt. Gen Khin Nyunt is Ne Win's protege and is seen as a rival to Gen Maung Aye. Moreover, Gen Khin Nyunt was the man who personally held endless rounds of talks with National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and he is believed to be leaning towards a settlement with her more than his troika colleagues. With Ms Suu Kyi demanding greater democracy, and rivalries running through the ranks of the junta, Yangon is not a place a strongman can sleep easy at night. The writer is an Indochina specialist based in Bangkok. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Karen National
Union
KNU Statement on Explosions in
Myawaddy
October 17, 2002 1. We, the KNU, have learned that two explosions occurred in Myawaddy, a border town in Kawkareik District of Karen State, opposite Tak Province of Thailand, on October 15 and 16, 2002. 2. October 15 was the date on which the Thai-Burma friendship-bridge was reopened for border crossing, after closure for five months. We view the reopening of border crossing as beneficial to the peoples of both Thailand and Burma, and we have no policy against it. 3. We would like to categorically state that the two explosions have nothing to do with us, the KNU. We have no doubt that it was the work of one of the factions in the SPDC, which would lose by reopening of the border crossing or which wanted to hurl allegations against the ethnic and democratic opposition groups in order to tarnish their image. 4. Factions in the SPDC are involved in high-paying illegal activities, directly or indirectly, such drug smuggling, consumer goods smuggling, gambling, human trafficking and extortion of traders and legitimate businesses. Each faction is controlled by a head at the highest level of the SPDC hierarchy. Each faction tries to keep out of the way of the other, but a clash of interest and show of force occur at times at the lower levels. 5. A clash of interest at high levels normally leads to elimination of the opposing faction or leader. A case in point is the elimination the SPDC 2nd Secretary Gen. Tin U or the elimination of Ne Win's son-in-law. As the economic condition is getting worse, we may expect more clashes among the various factions. 6. In conclusion, we would like to affirm that we, the KNU, always bear in mind the interest of the peoples of Thailand and Burma and we have no policy to harm in anyway the good relations between the two countries. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Drugs smuggling in Kachin
State
Mizzima News 15 October 2002 Thun Nain According to local reports, the smuggling of drugs in Kachin State -especially in a large cities like Hupin, Moe Kong, Phakant and Myitkyina - is steadily on the rise. According to local information, drugs are traded illegally at five different locations in Hupin, at ten locations in Moe Kong, and at six locations in Myitkhina. In Phakant too drugs are easily available. Reportedly, the retail price for one bottle of Penicillin in Myitkyina ranges between 40,000 and 50,000 Kyats, while in Moe Kong one would have to pay 8,000 and in Hupin 10,000. Not only have local authorities failed to eradicate the illegal selling of drugs effectively; in many cases they are actively involved. Some drug smugglers, already arrested, pay their way out - if they can afford it. It appears that although the military authorities know of the locations of illegal drug sales, they conveniently forget this knowledge, given appropriate payment. As a result of official complicity, drug smuggling increases. As do the number of drug addicts and AIDS patients. -------------------------------------------------------------------- |