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BURMA RELATED NEWS
- October 24, 2002.
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HEADLINES
-------------------------------------------------------------------- AFP - Cuban dissident wins European
Parliament's rights prize
AFP - Thai oil and gas
giant PTT sees revenue inch up this year: report
AFP - ILO, Myanmar in discussion over
high-level mission
AFP - UN rights envoy visits Myanmar
regional police, court officials
Reuters - RPT-INTERVIEW-Myanmar sees
more dialling into Internet
Reuters - Online-business seen
picking up in Southeast Asia
Reuters - Myanmar Sees More Dialing
Into Internet
AP - Myanmar opposition's proxy
parliament expands ranks
AP - Thai official: Chinese role
expected to be highlight of ASEAN
Xinhuanet - Myanmar calls for
strengthening UN
The Nation - Burmese held for theft
The Nation - Security tops Asean
agenda
Asia Times - Crunch time for UN
envoy to Myanmar
Asian Tribune - Myanmar
report backs forced labor charges against TotalFinaElf
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday October 24, 8:45 AM
Cuban dissident wins European Parliament's rights prize (AFP) - Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya was been awarded the European Parliament's annual Sakharov prize for freedom of _expression_, the European Parliament announced Wednesday. Other candidates who had been in the running for the prize were Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, Sihem Ben Sedrine, spokesman for a Tunisian rights group and Egyptian-American Saad Eddin Ibrahim, a human rights activist jailed for seven years in Egypt. Paya, 50, is a member of the Christian Liberation Movement, which is banned in Cuba but tolerated by the regime of Fidel Castro. The group started a petition demanding a referendum on free elections in the Caribbean island that was eventually signed by 11,000 Cubans. His Project Varela, named in honor of Cuban independence hero Felix Varela, a Catholic priest, was based on a loophole in the Cuban Constitution that allows groups to propose changes to laws when the request is accompanied by 10,000 or more signatures. Even after the petition was presented to the National Assembly, the number of signatures continued to grow, and is now at about 35,000. The Sakharov prize, named after late Nobel Prize winner and Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, has been awarded since 1988 to a person or organisation for significant contribution to the promotion of human rights. The winner is chosen by members of the European parliament. Former winners include Myanmar opposition leader Aung san Suu Kyi and former South African presidnent Nelson Mandela who won the first prize in 1988 while still under house arrest. Paya, a nominee for next year's Nobel peace prize, also shared, with the Organization of American States (OAS), the 2002 Democracy Prize awarded by the US National Democratic Institute. He has not gone to the US to pick up the prize saying that "while I am invited everywhere, I am banned from leaving the country". He dedicated his Sakharov prize win "to all my compatriots who are today in prison". -------------------------------------------------------------------- Thai oil and gas giant PTT
sees revenue inch up this year: report
BANGKOK, Oct 24 (AFP) - Thai oil and gas giant PTT Plc expects its revenues to rise slightly in 2002 compared with last year to 400 billion baht (9.16 billion dollars) on the back of better gas prices, according to a report Thursday. "We are expecting revenues this year to be around 400 billion baht, and so far have already achieved 75 percent of our target in the first three quarters of this year," PTT president Viset Choopiban said in Business Day newspaper. The company's earnings are expected to show further improvement in the fourth quarter, as prices of oil, natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) are expected to continue to rise due to the winter season. PTT had earlier projected consolidated revenues of 380 billion baht for the full year, Viset said. He said the company expects to see earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for next year at the same level as this year and last year. Last year, PTT reported an EBITDA of 43.4 billion baht. PTT had previously said 2002 EBITDA is expected to be lower than in 2001, without providing details. Viset said the EBITDA levels would remain strong even if oil prices decline. Higher-than-expected LPG prices helped the company's bottom line, he added. Surging oil prices helped push up the price of LPG, which is used as fuel in cooking and automobiles, to more than 300 dollars per tonne from about 200 dollars early this year. The higher oil prices have also helped PTT's subsidiary, PTT Exploration Production Plc (PTTEP), according to the report. PTTEP, which prices its gas in line with oil prices, has seen its revenue increase, thus helping the bottomline of its parent company. Gas production and transportation generate the remaining 80 percent of the revenue base. "PTTEP is a great story and it is gaining from its investments in Indonesia and the fields in Burma (Myanmar)," Viset was quoted as saying. He said he expects oil prices to ease next year if hostility in the Middle East is toned down but added that a lower oil price would not hurt the company's projected EBITDA. -------------------------------------------------------------------- ILO, Myanmar in discussion
over high-level mission
YANGON, Oct 24 (AFP) - The International Labour Organisation (ILO) said Thursday it was in talks with Myanmar's junta over sending a high-level mission to the country to implement programs aimed at eliminating forced labour. "What has happened is there has been discussion between the ILO and the government of Myanmar on the possibility of sending a high-level mission to Myanmar, but these discussions have not yet concluded," the ILO's liaison officer in Yangon, Hong-Trang Perret-Nguyen, told AFP. Myanmar is widely condemned by the international community for its use of forced labour. A 1998 ILO inquiry found the practice was "widespread and systematic" and targeted ethnic minorities living in border regions. "There is a possibility that a mission would take place but the dates and the agenda of the mission are not finalised," Perret-Nguyen added. "The subject of the mission, or what the ILO has in mind, is a discussion or finalisation of some plan of action or program to implement the decisions of the government of Myanmar to eliminate forced labour." An earlier statement issued by the military inferred that the mission had already arrived, but a government official told AFP Thursday that they had merely agreed to an ILO proposal for a mission. "The main thing is that we agreed to their visit," he said, adding that they were now deciding on a date. Perret-Nguyen told the Myanmar Times this week that while the government had taken important steps to eradicate forced labour, more needed to be done. "Some very important steps have been taken by the government, in terms of issuing orders, instructions and circulars, but those circulars and orders have to be complemented and supplemented by more specific instructions and then they have to be implemented," she told the semi-official weekly newspaper. -------------------------------------------------------------------- UN rights envoy visits Myanmar
regional police, court officials
YANGON, Oct 24 (AFP) - UN human rights envoy Paulo Sergio Pinheiro visited officials at a regional police station and law court Thursday as part of his ongoing fact-finding mission to Myanmar, according to an official source. Pinheiro, who arrived in Yangon last Thursday to assess the overall human rights situation, is currently on a three-day visit from the capital to Karen and Mon states in the southeast of the country. On Wednesday he met with Christian and Buddhist leaders in Karen state's Kyar-inn-seikkyi, and travelled to Tha-ma-nya-sayadaw, where he called on a highly-revered Buddhist monk of the same name. Pinheiro held talks with democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday, after which he said prospects for a long-running dialogue on national reconciliation in Myanmar were good. "The prospect of dialogue is good. I do not want to elaborate on it. In fact, I have to keep everything confidential," he told reporters after their meeting. Talks between Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar's ruling military junta began in October 2000, but they are widely believed to have stalled, having not even progressed beyond a confidence-building stage. During his 11-day visit here, Pinheiro has also held discussions with leading members of the ruling junta including military intelligence chief General Khin Nyunt and Foreign Minister Win Aung. While outside Yangon, the Brazilian academic is also expected to visit Mawlamyine, the Mon state capital. He is likely to meet with veteran and elderly politicians being held in the jail there, according to Mon political sources. International concern has been regularly raised over elderly and sick prisoners failing to receive appropriate medical treatment while in Myanmar's jails. The junta originally invited Pinheiro to travel to northeastern Shan state, to investigate a report by two Shan women's groups based in Thailand who had alleged that the military used rape as a weapon of war. But Pinheiro cancelled the planned three-day trip, saying it was not possible to do enough fact-finding within the short period. The envoy is due to return to Yangon Friday, and is scheduled to depart Myanmar on October 28. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday October 24, 8:46 PM
RPT-INTERVIEW-Myanmar sees more dialling into Internet By Wong Choon Mei KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Internet usage in military-ruled Myanmar is expected to jump 10-fold in the next two years, although blocks on certain political Web sites and pornographic channels will stay, an official from a state-run agency said on Thursday. Myanmar's ruling junta, in power for four decades, has promised to move towards democracy and gradually liberalise an economy tottering close to collapse. The junta allowed the country to dial into the worldwide Web in January, but not many people in this impoverished nation of 51 million people can afford to go on-line. Pyone Maung Maung, joint-secretary of Myanmar's e-National Task Force, told Reuters 20,000 Myanmar people now surf the Internet and the number could rise to 200,000 in the next two years as connectivity improved. Local and expatriate residents of Yangon say Pyone's figures sounded a little high, adding that high costs prohibited most people from having access though the government had relaxed many restrictions on Internet usage in recent months. Pyone said affordability and scarcity of local content would remain key bottlenecks after the initial explosion of interest. "Our people are still mostly farmers and the per capita income is still low at $700-$750," said Pyone, who was attending an ASEAN Internet Trust Symposium in Kuala Lumpur. "Very few speak English. If there's no local content, there won't be any usage." Myanmar approved the setting up of a second Internet service provider this year, breaking its traditional iron-fist control on the sector by allowing enterprises to take equity in the ISP. Pyone said Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, had overcome fears the Internet would be a source of negative influence for its people, and censorship would be kept low to spur usage. But residents of Yangon say there continues to be some censorship, with many sites blocked. "Compared to the past, many restrictions have been lifted," one Yangon resident told Reuters. "Recently they allowed the general public access. It used to be just about 12 companies that could get on the Internet." Cross-border online purchases still can't be made, though a domestic e-commerce network exists. "At the moment, only domestic e-commerce is possible," Pyone said. "But we are trying to sign pacts with other international and regional partners to enable cross-border online business." He said his government was unlikely to back-pedal on liberalisation, citing communist China as an example of success. China's telecoms and technology sectors have grown by leaps and bounds, and the world's most populous nation is now Asia's biggest buyer of personal computers and cellphones. "There's no reason to, look at China," Pyone said. "We are already a latecomer, if we turn back, we will always be left behind." Myanmar is a poor, agrarian country, whose political and economic isolation meant it was left behind when other Southeast Asian countries industrialised their economies in the last few decades. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday October 24, 6:48 PM
Online-business seen picking up in Southeast Asia By Wong Choon Mei KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 24 (Reuters) - The volume of online business transactions is picking up in Southeast Asia as the Internet becomes more popular, delegates to a technology conference said on Thursday. Malaysia, which has the second highest Internet penetration in the region after Singapore, expects half of its seven million users to transact some form of business on-line this year, up from a third in 2001. A Singaporean delegate said 85 percent of his country's around three million Internet users were likely to engage in electronic commerce in 2003, up from half this year. "E-commerce is here to stay and will grow despite the dotcom bubble bust in 2001," Chai Kwang Chye, parliamentary secretary in Malaysia's communications and multimedia ministry, told an ASEAN Internet Trust Symposium. He said growing familiarity with Internet had helped offset initial fears about security when making payments on-line. Singapore-based Gladwyn Teo said government prodding to raise Internet usage and improve privacy protection had helped rebuild consumer confidence in the Internet. "Once you are used to getting things instantly, you would also want to make purchases on the Net," said Teo, vice president of Data Security Systems Solutions. Teo expects transactions between businesses to lead the growth of e-commerce in Singapore, while government-to-citizen transactions were likely to dominate in countries like Malaysia and Thailand. "Being a hub, the enterprises in Singapore have to take the initiative to make it a success," he said. "In Malaysia and Thailand, payments for electricity or taxes to the government will be the growth drivers." But the delegates warned that unless firms began to get more serious about protecting their systems from viruses and hackers, e-commerce might not take off. "People here are quite aware of the need to protect their systems," said Beverly Miller of New Zealand software firm Marshall Software. "They are just not taking action to go and do it." Myanmar, which just recently opened the worldwide web to its 51 million people, said it is keen to promote e-commerce but security was not "a major concern" for now. "At the moment, security is very much at the service provider level," said Pyone Maung Maung, the joint-secretary of Myanmar's e-National Task Force. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar Sees More Dialing Into
Internet
Thu Oct 24, 8:02 AM ET By Wong Choon Mei KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Internet usage in military-ruled Myanmar is expected to jump ten-fold in the next two years, although blocks on certain political Web sites and pornographic channels will stay, an official from a state-run agency said on Thursday. Myanmar's ruling junta, in power for four decades, has promised to move toward democracy and gradually liberalize an economy tottering close to collapse. The junta allowed the country to dial into the worldwide Web in January, but not many people in this impoverished nation of 51 million people can afford to go on-line. Pyone Maung Maung, joint-secretary of Myanmar's e-National Task Force, told Reuters 20,000 Myanmar people now surf the Internet and the number could rise to 200,000 in the next two years as connectivity improved. Local and expatriate residents of Yangon say Pyone's figures sounded a tad high, adding that high costs prohibited most people from having access though the government had relaxed many restrictions on Internet usage in recent months. Pyone said affordability and scarcity of local content would remain key bottlenecks after the initial explosion of interest. "Our people are still mostly farmers and the per capita income is still low at $700-$750," said Pyone, who was attending an ASEAN Internet Trust Symposium in Kuala Lumpur. "Very few speak English. If there's no local content, there won't be any usage." Myanmar approved the setting up of a second Internet service provider this year, breaking its traditional iron-fist control on the sector by allowing enterprises to take equity in the ISP. Pyone said Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, had overcome fears the Internet would be a source of negative influence for its people, and censorship would be kept low to spur usage. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar opposition's proxy
parliament expands ranks
2 hours, 3 minutes ago YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - In a move that may test the tolerance of Myanmar's military regime, the country's pro-democracy movement said Thursday it is enlarging its self-proclaimed surrogate parliament ? an assembly the government considers illegal. The Committee Representing People's Parliament, or CRPP, was established Sept. 16, 1998, by the opposition National League for Democracy party and other activists. The military reacted harshly, detaining dozens of would-be members of the proxy legislature. The National League for Democracy, headed by Aung San Suu Kyi, swept a 1990 general election but was not allowed to take power. The opposition party said in 1998 that the CRPP would perform the functions of a legislature until a formal parliament is convened, but its activities have been limited to low-profile meetings. The military has not set a date for opening a parliament. The CRPP said its members met Wednesday and decided to expand the group's membership from 10 to 13, giving more representation to ethnic minorities. Aye Tha Aung, who formerly represented four ethnic political parties, would now represent just his own, the Arakan League for Democracy, the CCRP said in a statement. The new members represent the Mon, Shan and Zomi ethnic groups, the statement said. Aye Tha Aung was detained in April 2000 and given a 21-year prison sentence, but he suffers from liver cancer and was released from prison in August on humanitarian grounds. Suu Kyi and the ruling junta have been holding closed-door political reconciliation talks since late 2000, but with little apparent progress aside from the release of several hundred political prisoners. More than 1,000 more are believed to remain in detention. Suu Kyi was released from 19 months of house arrest in May. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Thai official: Chinese role
expected to be highlight of ASEAN
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ China's cooperation with Southeast Asia in trade, agriculture and security issues including terrorism will be the highlight of the ASEAN summit next month in Cambodia, a Thai official said Thursday. Leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations will gather in Phnom Penh for their eighth annual summit Nov. 3-5. Senior officials from China, South Korea, Japan and India will also attend. The talks with China will be the ``highlight of the meeting,'' with China scheduled to sign a framework agreement for an ASEAN-China free trade area to be set up within 10 years, a Thai Foreign Ministry official said on condition of anonymity. He gave no details. ASEAN countries, many of which were booming in the early 1990s but lost ground in the region's 1997-98 financial meltdown, are pushing for closer trade ties with China. Regional policy makers say the best way to keep pace with China's growing economic might is to become its partner. Another crucial result of the meeting will be an ASEAN-CHINA declaration on cooperation in dealing with so-called nontraditional security issues _ including terrorism, computer crimes, drugs and human trafficking _ the official said. China's agriculture minister will sign a memorandum of understanding with ASEAN secretary-general on agricultural cooperation, he said. Other issues expected to come up at the summit include North Korea's reported admission of a nuclear weapons program, a possible U.S. attack on Iraq and the recent terrorist attack on Indonesia's Bali island, he said. ASEAN members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. A special guest at the summit will be South African President Thabo M. Mbeki, who will deliver a speech on his country's partnership with Asia for Africa's development. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar calls for
strengthening UN
Xinhuanet 2002-10-24 00:11:11 YANGON, Oct. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- Myanmar leader General Khin Nyunt Thursday evening called for strengthening of the United Nations so the world body is able to tackle the problems being faced by mankind in the 21st century. Khin Nyunt, first secretary of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), made the call at a ceremony here marking the 57th UN Day. Due to the challenges being faced by mankind today, the international community has unanimously acknowledged that the relevancy of the United Nations is greater than ever, he said, describing the world body as a center for harmonizing the actions of nations in the maintenance of international peace and security and in the search for the solutions of international economic, social, cultural and humanitarian problems. "It is the first and foremost duty of all the member states to ensure that the U.N. never deviates from these time-tested principles in order to protect and promote the common interest of all member states, big or small, rich or poor, powerful or weak," he stressed. Khin Nyunt warned that the development gap between the industrialized and developing countries has continued to widen and the number of people living in poverty has not diminished. He emphasized that it is imperative that poverty alleviation efforts by the U.N. be given unstinting support by the international community. At the ceremony, a message from Myanmar SPDC Chairman Senior- General Than Shwe, read by Foreign Minister U Win Aung, called on all members of the international community to tackle the global problems together in a family spirit. "The problems facing humanity consist of both man-made and natural problems," he said, pointing out that "many of the problems are closely intertwined and the solution of one requires simultaneous solution of another or others with a comprehensive approach and coordinated strategy." On pursuit of development goals, he said, the most fundamental prerequisite is peace -- peace within countries, peace between neighbors and peace among all. He stressed the need for every country to respect and strictly abide by the principles on friendly relations between countries enshrined in the UN Charter and International Law, in one's relations with others in order to firmly root the foundation of peace. Myanmar became the 58th UN member when it joined the organization on April 19, 1948. -------------------------------------------------------------------- The Nation
Burmese held for theft Published on Oct 25, 2002 Police yesterday arrested five Burmese nationals on charges of theft and illegal entry following a tip-off from a taxi driver. Taxi driver Chamnian Chanhom, 38, alerted police that he had taken five suspicious-looking passengers and their cargo of electrical goods from a house in Samut Prakan's Bang Phli district to an apartment building in Bangkok's Lat Krabang district. The passengers did not speak Thai and appeared nervous as they transported a television, a VCD player and an amplifier late Wednesday night, Chamnian told police. Following a search of the apartment building, police found the five, who confessed to committing the robbery. The five, who identified themselves as So, 20, Sai, 18, Art, 22, Jonny, 15 and Ayo, 21, said they stole the electrical goods and Bt35,000 in cash from the house in Bang Phli. They said they went to visit another Burmese worker at the house and decided to commit the robbery after getting drunk. They also admitted that they had illegally entered Thailand to seek employment. -------------------------------------------------------------------- The
Nation
Security tops Asean agenda Marisa Chimprabha Published on Oct 25, 2002 The meeting of Asean leaders in Cambodia next month will focus on international security concerns, particularly the threat of a US-Iraq war, North Korea's nuclear plants, and the Bali bomb attacks, an informed source said yesterday. Asean leaders need to discuss their positions on these issues and present them to the world community, the source said. Leaders from the 10 Asean countries will hold their annual meeting from November 3-5. The leaders of China, India, Japan and South Korea will also attend. The source said that North Korea's revelation of its nuclear capabilities had shocked the world community and Asean leaders would seek a joint position on the issue. The source added that the meeting would be a good opportunity for Asean to formulate a joint position on the US-Iraq crisis. The leaders will also discuss terrorism in the wake of the Bali attack that had struck at the heart of the region and drawn world attention to Southeast Asia. In an attempt to strengthen security cooperation, Asean and China will adopt a joint declaration on non-traditional security issues, including anti-terrorism. The declaration follows the joint Asean-US declaration on terrorism initiated after the September 11 attacks in the US last year. The joint declaration with China is more expansive than that with the US, the source said. "The declaration with the US focused on a single issue - terrorism - while the agreement with China has identified many security areas for cooperation, including human trafficking, economic and computer crimes, and drug trafficking." Apart from security issues, Asean and China will sign a memorandum of understanding on agricultural cooperation as well as the "Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation". The framework agreement will support the Asean-China Free Trade Area, to be established in 10 years, as well as other areas of economic cooperation. The summit will also be the first Asean meeting with the Indian leader, and will strengthen cooperation on economic and transportation issues with India. Asean members will also sign a tourism agreement to facilitate intra-Asean communication, transportation, human-resource development, marketing and the promotion of product quality. The source said the theme of the Phnom Penh summit was "Toward a Community of Southeast Asian Nations". Under the theme, Asean countries will help one another by bridging the development gap so that every Asean country can progress towards the same goal at equal speed. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Asia Times online
Crunch time for UN envoy to Myanmar Oct 24, 2002 By Marwaan Macan-Markar BANGKOK - The United Nations human-rights envoy to Myanmar will have to come up with more than diplomatic niceties during his current visit to the military-ruled Southeast Asian country if his mission is to be viewed as a success. The visit by Paulo Pinheiro, UN special rapporteur on human rights for Myanmar, "will serve as an important test case for the credibility of his mission and of the UN's ability to improve the human-rights situation in Burma", said Sunai Phasuk of Forum-Asia, a Bangkok-based regional human-rights watchdog, using the name the country went by before the military junta changed it to Myanmar. "It is about time that the Burmese regime is pushed to indicate in practical terms how it intends improving the human rights situation," added Debbie Stothard, coordinator of ALTSEAN Burma, a regional network of rights groups. "He [Pinheiro] has to get the regime to act," Stothard said. The task before Pinheiro - getting Yangon's military junta to loosen its stranglehold over the country after developments like the May release from house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi - will not be an easy one. A spate of recent reports on a range of rights abuses reveals the daunting challenge before the UN envoy, who is on an 11-day visit to Myanmar that ends next Monday. On Monday this week, the Brussels-based International Confederation for Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) issued a report saying that forced labor in Myanmar was on the rise. "Massive forced labor is actually on the increase", including people forced into "opium production", states the ICFTU's 350-page report. "Civilians in at least 16 villages in Burma's Southern Tenasserim Division were forced to construct a highway between Knabauk and Maung Ma Gan. Families were often forced to work for 20 days or more per month, each having to build a 20-meter-long, four-meter-wide stretch of road in April 2002," the report stated. Not lost on the ICFTU is the implication of such violations, which occurred between October 2001 to September 2002. Yangon's ruling generals have failed to uphold their promise to the international community to end forced labor. The military government assured the International Labor Organization (ILO) that it would take steps to eradicate forced labor after the UN agency began pressing for such measures in 2001. The US Department of Labor concluded early this year that "millions" of people had been driven into forced labor in Myanmar. Preceding the ICFTU's report was an expose by Human Rights Watch (HRW), the New York-based rights lobby, which accused Myanmar of having the world's highest number of child soldiers. "It appears that the vast majority of new recruits [for Myanmar's army] are forcibly conscripted, and there may be as many as 70,000 soldiers under the age of 18," states the HRW 220-page study, "My Gun Was as Tall as Me", released on October 15. These children, some of whom are as young as 11 years old, "are subject to beatings and systematic humiliation during training" under the Tatmadaw Kyi, as the Myanmese national army is known. "Once deployed, they must engage in combat, participate in human rights abuses against civilians, and are frequently beaten and abused by their commanders," the report stated. Earlier, two minority-rights groups accused the Myanmese army of raping close to 625 women and girls between 1996 and 2001 in the country's eastern Shan state. Released in mid-June, the report titled "License to Rape" triggered Pinheiro's current visit, his second for the year and fourth since being appointed to this post. Yangon said last week that it had invited the UN envoy to investigate the rape charges, which the junta dismissed soon after the report's release. The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), as the military government is officially known, has also forcefully relocated villagers in the rape-affected areas, stated Hseng Noung, spokeswoman for the Thai-based Shan Women's Action Network, one of the rights groups that brought out the report. "We have requested him [Pinheiro] to come to the border areas to meet people who have been victims," she said, referring to areas on the Thai side of the border across Myanmar. Pinheiro had already informed his Yangon hosts that he does not plan to visit the Shan state to investigate cases of alleged rape of Shan women. This is welcomed by rights activists, who say the government-arranged visit would not have allowed rape victims to speak openly to Pinheiro anyway. The UN envoy, however, did visit political prisoners in the notorious Insein prison in the Myanmese capital. There are more than 1,200 political activists behind bars, despite the SPDC's periodic release of political prisoners since early last year. Suu Kyi's release in May after 19 months of house arrest was the most prominent one. Pinheiro met with Suu Kyi on Tuesday but declined to comment on their discussion. Freedom for Suu Kyi and other activists was more of a public relations exercise by the SPDC, said Teddy Buri, president of a group of Myanmese parliamentarians in exile. The release of political dissidents was done "to please the international community" and is not "an indicator of the SPDC's commitment to human rights", Buri said. "There has been time since his [Pinheiro's] appointment for the SPDC to change, but it has not. The situation is coming down to the crunch," said Stothard. (Inter Press Service) -------------------------------------------------------------------- Asian Tribune
Date : 2002-10-24 Myanmar report backs forced labor charges against TotalFinaElf Geneva - According to agency reports, an international trade union organization has accused French energy giant TotalFinaElf of using forced labor in Myanmar, in a report published on Monday. TotalFinaElf has vigorously denied the allegations by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), which claimed the company paid Myanmar's armed forces to round up civilians and force them to work on projects linked to its Yadana gas pipeline. In a statement, TotalFinaElf said it rejected "all accusations concerning forced labor in Myanmar", and dismissed the report as "wild speculation or even pure lies". The firm said it had never had any "contract with Myanmar's army", adding that it had "complete control of the operations in Myanmar and has always respected the usual requirements with regard to people employed on company projects". The publication of the ICFTU report comes after a French state prosecutor opened an investigation last Thursday into claims by two Myanmar citizens that they were forced to work on the Yadana pipeline. It is the first time the company has faced an official French probe into its activities in Myanmar -- formerly known as Burma -- where it has consistently denied claims it uses forced labor. The prosecutor's office handling the case said on Monday the investigation -- which according to French law was opened against unnamed persons -- was focusing on allegations of kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment against an unnamed person or people. In the 350-page ICFTU report published Monday, witnesses testify that the Myanmar military increasingly forced civilians to work during the period from October 2001 through last month. According to the Union Federation of Burma, quoted in the report, civilians from at least 16 villages were forced this year to participate in building a road serving the pipeline. Beginning in April, families were often forced to work on the project but were told by authorities that they would be paid, the report said. In May, after learning that TotalFinaElf had paid the government for their work, laborers asked for their wages and were told their request would be transferred to "higher authorities", the report says. Months later, they are still waiting to be paid. Constructed in 1994-8 by an international consortium led by TotalFinaElf and US group Unocal, the Yadana pipeline transports liquefied gas from the southeastern Andaman sea to neighboring Thailand. The French firm insists maps produced by France's National Geographic Institute prove that there has not been any displacement of villages as a result of the project. Numerous companies have left Myanmar or are on the verge of pulling out because of human rights concerns, according to ICFTU Myanmar expert Janek Kuczkiewicz. "Not TotalFinaElf," Kuczkiewizz said. The French oil group "agrees to sub-contract labour and hides behind a contract signed with the army", he added, while "shutting its eyes" to human rights abuses. The ICFTU report's submission to the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva on Monday coincided with the start of a two-day European Union foreign ministers' meeting that was due to discuss the situation in Myanmar. The organization is campaigning for a ban on investment in the country, and says its researchers are preparing new evidence "of corporations profiting from one of the world's most oppressive regimes", to be released shortly. Forced army conscription and work in the opium poppy fields are on the rise, it says, along with violent attacks on trade union groups. "Multinationals such as TotalFinaElf have long maintained that there is no link between their investments in Burma and the growing use of forced labour," said Kuczkiewicz. "This new evidence poses real questions about the connections between multinationals, the Burmese military and the use of forced labour. The EU must act now." Meanwhile, according to another agency report: TotalFinaElf(TOTF.PA) denies Myanmar rights abuses: According to the report filed from dateline Brussels, a body representing trade unions on Monday accused oil giant TotalFinaElf (TOTF.PA)(TOTF.N) of knowingly profiting from human rights abuses in Myanmar, an allegation the French company denied. The 350-page report by the Brussels-based International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) is not the first time an oil firm has been accused of wrongdoing in the resource-rich country. The report also alleged abuses by Myanmar troops. Many Western firms have stopped sourcing goods from Myanmar following pressure from human rights groups. The Southeast Asian nation, formerly known as Burma, has been treated as a pariah by many Western countries for many years. ``The ICFTU has uncovered new proof that the oil giant TotalFinaElf directly and knowingly profits from forced labour imposed by the Burmese army on civilians,'' the ICFTU said in a statement. The military has ruled the country since 1962. TotalFinaElf flatly rejected the criticism. ``TotalFinaElf reaffirms that it has had complete control, from start to finish, of its operations in this country, and that it has taken into account the daily needs of people employed on its projects,'' the company said in a statement. It said it had provided electricity, medicine, schools and sponsored agricultural projects for the local population. TotalFinaElf has been in the spotlight already this year when Myanmar refugees in France and Belgium said they were taking the firm to court, alleging they were forced into hard labour for the company. The company has called it ``unimaginable'' that it could ever make use of forced labour. Union Critical ``Multinationals such as TotalFinaElf have long maintained that there is no link between their investments in Burma and the growing use of forced labour,'' ICFTU Myanmar expert Janek Kuczkiewicz said in a statement. ``This new evidence poses real questions about the connections between multinational enterprises, the Burmese military and the use of forced labour,'' he said. The report's other allegations, unconnected with the oil firm, included accounts of the Burmese army attacking trade union facilities, looting migrants' food stocks and razing elementary schools, a hospital and a workshop for the disabled. It said it was common practice for the army to force people to march at the front of columns as ``human shields'' to protect the military against rebel ambushes. An ICFTU spokesman said most of its evidence, collected between October 2001 and last month, came from interviews and activists in Myanmar, notably members of underground trade unions. ICFTU said it had sent the report to the United Nations' International Labour Organization. It also called on European Union foreign ministers, who are meeting in Luxembourg on Monday and Tuesday, to ban investment in Myanmar by EU firms. -------------------------------------------------------------------- |