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BURMA RELATED NEWS
- October 31, 2002.
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HEADLINES
-------------------------------------------------------------------- AFP - ASEAN, China leaders to sign
framework for landmark free trade pact
AFP - Myanmar lodges official protest
over Thai border shootings
AFP - Malaysia's Mahathir
makes farewell ASEAN summit appeareance
AP - Myanmar blames Thai-based
dissidents for sending letter bombs
AP - Myanmar calls surrogate
parliament expansion 'normal'
AP - Five drug traffickers sentenced
to death
Reuters - Police destroy suspected
letter bomb at Myanmar embassy
UN News Centre - UN human
rights expert urges Myanmar to allow credible probe of alleged abuses
Bkk Post - Special forces chief
given inactive post
Bkk Post - Help sought to free
region of child soldiers
The Star - Sixteen from Myanmar
jailed for illegal entry
Xinhuanet - Myanmar embassies
abroad threatened by bomb attacks: spokesman
Xinhuanet - UN envoy to renew visit
to Myanmar
Asia Times - UN's Myanmar
envoy calls for probes
Asia Tribune - UN Burma
Rapporteur Concerned by Reports of Rape, other Human Rights
Abuses.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday October 31, 5:01 PM
ASEAN, China leaders to sign framework for landmark free trade pact (AFP) Leaders of China and Southeast Asian countries meeting in Cambodia next week will sign a framework pact on the creation of the world's largest free-trade zone within the decade. Tariff cuts on selected farm products under an "early harvest package" will start as early as next year, well ahead of the full implementation of the proposed Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-China Free Trade Agreement (FTA), according to the framework. In addition, both parties will also "explore the feasibility of an early harvest programme for trade in services in early 2003," a draft of the framework obtained by AFP said. Senior economic officials from ASEAN and China who met in Singapore in mid-October put the finishing touches to the document to be presented at the November 3-5 annual ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh, which would also gather the leaders of Japan and South Korea. Under the framework, negotiations will start next year for a full FTA covering trade goods and services as well as investments. It also provides for a work programme covering various areas of economic cooperation and allow for an "early harvest" of benefits before the pact's full implementation. If realised, the free trade zone will be the biggest in the world covering 1.7 billion people, an aggregate gross domestic product of almost 2.0 trillion dollars and two way trade worth 1.2 trillion dollars. Analysts said the FTA will provide an avenue for ASEAN, whose image has been tarnished by political troubles in some key member states, to engage its giant neighbour as an economic partner rather than a competitor. "It means we have freer access to the huge domestic market of China. This is where ASEAN should explore the possible areas where we can benefit from China's free market," said Jose Tongzon, a China watcher and economics professor at the National University of Singapore. In Phnom Penh, the leaders will make the "final decision" on when the FTA will be fully established, a spokesman for the Singapore trade ministry said. One possible date is 2010 for China and the six original ASEAN states -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand -- and 2015 for less developed ASEAN members Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, the spokesman said. A highlight of the framework is the provision of the "early harvest package" under which ASEAN and China will progressively eliminate tariffs on selected farm products within three years starting next year even before the FTA's full effectivity. Products covered under the early harvest package are live animals, meat and edible meat offal, fish, dairy produce, other animals products, live trees, edible vegetables and fruits and nuts. A few "additional products" from other sectors agreed upon by China and individual ASEAN states could be included. According to a draft of the framework, tariff rates higher than 15 percent will be reduced to 10 percent by 2003, five percent by 2004 and zero percent by 2005. Tariff rates of between five and 15 percent will be trimmed to five percent next year and zero onwards. Tariffs of five percent or less will have the rates abolished by next year. The proposed ASEAN-China FTA is part of a series of engagements the 10-nation regional bloc is planning with its more prosperous Northeast Asian neighbours to deepen regional integration, lessen dependence on the US market and maintain its relevance as an investment destination. During a September meeting in Brunei, the economic ministers of ASEAN and Japan agreed that both parties should start considering a framework for their own closer economic partnership as soon as possible. The proposed ASEAN-Japan Closer Economic Partnership will include elements of an FTA, a situation that could put the spotlight on Tokyo's sensitive agriculture sector. South Korea, the only missing part of the East Asian FTA jigsaw puzzle, has said it was studying the feasibility of an FTA with ASEAN. Tongzon, the economist, lauded the early harvest package, saying this would give ASEAN a headstart before China begins cutting tariffs to the rest of the world under its World Trade Organisation (WTO) commitments. "China is going to implement WTO commitments by 2005. If we can have tariffs eliminated or reduced among ourselves before China can extend it to the rest of the world, we can have an early benefit," he said. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar lodges official
protest over Thai border shootings
YANGON, Oct 31 (AFP) - The Myanmar government Thursday lodged an official protest with Thailand over a spate of killings of Myanmar nationals on the troubled common border and insisted the culprits be caught and punished. Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win told reporters that Thailand's ambassador in Yangon was summoned to receive the protest note and that one had been sent to Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai. Military intelligence official Lieutenant Colonel Nyan Lin said the shootings occurred on October 27 at the Tachilek-Mae Sai border crossing. He said a group of more than 20 people, 15 of them wearing Thai police uniforms, had deliberately shot at three Myanmar nationals, killing one and seriously injuring another. "The other victim, Aung Ko Lat, who was quietly fishing on our side of the river border was also shot and killed," he said. Nyan Lin said the incidents showed that elements in Thailand were attempting to provoke a border incident, shortly after the frontier was reopened after a five-month diplomatic row between the neighbours was resolved. Khin Maung Win said these sorts of incidents inevitably cropped up along the 1,300 mile (2,100 kilometre) border and that they would not necessarily impair the recently normalized relations between the two countries. "We have emphasized however that since these uncalled for incidents, especially after the border gates had just been recently opened, could impact negatively on our friendly relations, serious and effective action should be taken against the culprits," he said. Myanmar slammed its border checkpoints shut in May after clashes between its troops and another ethnic militia which it accused Thailand of assisting. They were finally reopened after intensive negotiations between the neighbours defused the row. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Malaysia's Mahathir makes
farewell ASEAN summit appeareance
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 31 (AFP) - Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad will attend his farewell Southeast Asian summit in Cambodia next week, leaving a legacy as a strong-willed statesman and moderate Islamic leader in a region shaken by religious extremism and terrorist attacks. Known as a West-basher for championing the interests of the developing world, Mahathir muted his criticisms of Washington and threw his support behind the US-led war against terrorism after the September 11 attacks in the US -- detaining 72 suspected Islamic militants since late last year. On the economic front, he will be remembered for refusing to follow other ASEAN members who sought International Monetary Fund rescue packages during the 1997-98 financial crisis and instead imposed unorthodox currency controls that insulated Malaysia from monetary shocks. With the exception of Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah who succeeded his father in 1967, the 76-year-old Mahathir is the longest serving leader in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with 21 years at the helm. Under Mahathir, Malaysia accelerated its shift from an agricultural backwater into a middleweight industrial center producing electronics and cars. He is the last leader from ASEAN's old guard, who once included the late Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines and former Indonesian ruler Suharto who was ousted in 1998. Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew has become a senior minister and roving envoy since handing over the premiership to Goh Chok Tong in 1990. Mahathir himself will hand the reins over to his deputy Abdullah Ahmad Badawi after hosting the Organisation of the Islamic Conference summit in October 2003, three months after marking 22 years in office. He is likely to press home the need to identify the root causes of terrorism during the November 4-5 ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh after the bloody bomb blasts in Indonesia's Bali resort island brought the scourge to the region's doorstep, diplomats say. "He will push for states to come out with general guidelines on what are the root causes of terrorism, which has been his mantra for the past one year," a diplomat told AFP. The premier is also likely to urge ASEAN members to accede to an anti-terrorism pact signed in Kuala Lumpur in May by Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, he added. Mahathir's vision of an East Asian Economic Grouping -- a powerful alliance with a market size of over two billion people in 13 countries -- will take shape during the summit, which also gathers leaders or high-ranking officials from China, Japan, South Korea and India. He mooted the idea of an East Asian caucus over a decade ago but it was shot down by the US amid fears if could form a protectionist trade bloc. ASEAN last year endorsed a free trade area with China and agreed to explore plans to enlarge it to include South Korea and Japan. Mahathir has offered to host an ASEAN-plus-three secretariat but it was rejected in July by Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia, who fear it would undermine the existing one in Jakarta. "We hear he will call now for an ASEAN-plus-three bureau instead of a secretariat in Kuala Lumpur. This will be his last legacy before he steps down," a diplomat said. The premier may also rally support for an ambitious 2.5 billion dollar trans-ASEAN railway linking Singapore to Kunming in China which has been stalled by a lack of funds, he added. Malaysia will head the rail project secretariat for five years from early 2003. The Malaysian doctor-turned-politician has been credited with ASEAN's unification, ignoring western pressure to embrace military-ruled Myanmar into the fold during Kuala Lumpur's chairmanship in 1997. Laos was admitted at the same time and Cambodia was also to have been inducted to complete the regional integration during ASEAN's 30th anniversary bash but political infighting in Phnom Penh delayed its entry until 1999. "He is the unifier of Southeast Asia. ASEAN will lose an eloquent statesman and a champion of the developing world," said Malaysian Institute of Strategic and International Studies chairman Noordin Sophie. Singapore's Lee calls Mahathir a "fierce and dogged fighter," supporters hails him as a visionary and critics flayed his authoritarian methods. But Mahathir bids farewell to the tune of his favourite song: "I did it my way." -------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar blames Thai-based
dissidents for sending letter bombs
Thu Oct 31, 5:39 AM ET YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Myanmar's military government on Thursday blamed anti-government groups based in Thailand for mailing apparent letter bombs to Myanmar embassies this week and described the senders as terrorists. Embassies in Japan, Singapore and Malaysia received "suspicious letters" with Thai postmarks, Lt. Col. Nyan Lin, a senior intelligence officer, said at a press briefing. The ones to Tokyo and Singapore contained bombs, he said, while the letter to Kuala Lumpur carried a message about pro-democracy demonstrations that shook Myanmar in 1988. The protests were violently quashed by the military, which set up a junta that still rules the country. "All three envelopes have Bangkok postmarks (and) are obviously sent by Thai-based anti-government terrorist groups," deputy intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Kyaw Win said. "We cannot yet pinpoint which group is responsible but investigations are proceeding." No major exile groups have any history of carrying out such actions and none has claimed responsibility. Japanese police said a greeting-card sized envelope containing explosives and a detonator was delivered Monday to the Myanmar embassy in Tokyo, but handled by police without causing injury. Myanmar officials said the letter had been addressed to the ambassador, but suspicions arose because his name was written incorrectly and it had no return address. The Myanmar embassy in Singapore on Wednesday received a suspicious envelope that was detonated without causing any damage, they added. Singapore police confirmed Thursday that they had destroyed a letter bomb sent from Bangkok containing a low-grade detonator. Though no explosives were enclosed, police said it had the potential to cause a mild burn if opened. They said it contained a message written in Burmese, the language spoken in Myanmar, but did not reveal the text. Myanmar is also known as Burma. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar calls surrogate
parliament expansion 'normal'
Thu Oct 31, 4:01 AM ET YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Myanmar's military government Thursday shrugged off as "normal party activity" a recent move by the democratic opposition to expand a surrogate parliament that the junta 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 responded by detaining dozens of would-be members. Last week, CRPP members expanded the self-proclaimed proxy parliament's membership from 10 to 13 to give fuller representation to ethnic minorities. "The move is nothing unusual," said Brig. Than Tun on the sidelines of a press conference. "The expansion of CRPP is just a normal party activity." 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. National League for Democracy leader Aung San 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 and release of Suu Kyi from 19 months of house arrest in May. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Five drug traffickers
sentenced to death
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ A Thai court on Thursday sentenced five drug traffickers to death and a sixth to life in prison for trafficking 7.7 million methamphetamine tablets and 116 kilograms (255 pounds) of heroin. The suspects, all men, were arrested in January last year while delivering the drugs. All were members of ethnic hill tribe minorities from northern Thailand. The government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, when it took power early last year, said it would use the death penalty to deter the massive and growing trade in illegal drugs, especially methamphetamine. A Bangkok Criminal Court document identified those sentenced to death Thursday as Chairath Tan, Supachai Krachaechan, Sunsiang Yoeh, Raksith Nimitrkul and Sombat Pinthong. The sixth convicted man, Pratheep Thaweeapiradeeroj, received a life sentence because he confessed when he was arrested. Methamphetamine trafficking and consumption is a major social problem in Thailand, which says the drugs come from neighboring Myanmar. The war on drugs is a top priority of Thaksin's government. According to Amnesty International, 10 people were executed by machine-gun fire and at least 72 people were sentenced to death in 2001 in Thailand, and at the end of the year some 300 people remained under sentence of death. The numbers have increased this year. Despite the executions and the seizure of millions of methamphetamine tablets, there is no sign that the drug trade has slowed down. Most of those arrested are low-level couriers rather than organizers of the trade. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday October 31, 4:53 PM
Police destroy suspected letter bomb at Myanmar embassy SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Myanmar's embassy in Singapore received a letter containing a small detonator and called in the city state's bomb squad to destroy the device, a police spokesman said on Thursday. The letter, written in the Burmese language and posted from Bangkok, aroused the suspicions of staff when it was received on Wednesday after similar letters had turned up recently at Myanmar's diplomatic missions in Japan and Malaysia. Myanmar authorities blamed the letters on "dissident terrorist groups" of exiles living outside the military-ruled state. Senior military intelligence official Lieutenant Colonel Nyan Lin told a news conference in Myanmar that the letters had Thai stamps and had been posted from Thailand. He said the letter sent to Yangon's mission in Japan contained two small button-sized batteries connected by electrical wire to a detonator and a small tube of explosives. The device was defused safely, he said. Four decades of military rule in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, have created a large population of Myanmar political exiles in Thailand, many hostile to Yangon's ruling generals. Singapore police said preliminary investigations of the letter at the Myanmar mission there showed it contained a low-grade detonator without any explosive, the spokesman said. "Had the letter been opened it may have caused a mild burn," the spokesman said. Myanmar officials said the letter was discovered at the Singapore mission on October 30. The packages in Japan and Malaysia were discovered on October 28 and 29. -------------------------------------------------------------------- UN NEW CENTRE
UN human rights expert urges Myanmar to allow credible probe of alleged abuses 28 October ? Wrapping up a 10-day fact-finding mission to Myanmar, a United Nations expert today urged the country?s authorities to allow a credible investigation of allegations that the military and armed groups committed widespread human rights violations in ethnic minority areas. Calling in particular for a probe of charges relating to sexual violence in Shan State, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, proposed that the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) consider allowing an adequate presence of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) ?in all conflict areas? of the country. ?The ICRC could then assess the humanitarian situation on an on-going basis, report confidentially to the authorities and work out with them appropriate measures to ensure the security and protection of the civilian population wherever needed,? Mr. Pinheiro said. He also called for a probe of the alleged forced conscription of child soldiers in Myanmar. During his stay in the country, which began on 17 October, the Special Rapporteur met with a number of senior officials as well as members of the governmental Human Rights Committee. Mr. Pinheiro also visited the Insein Central Prison, where he confidentially interviewed over a dozen inmates, including several recent political prisoners and those whom he had met during his previous visit to Myanmar in February. In addition, the Special Rapporteur met with leaders of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), as well as representatives of other political parties, the UN country team, the diplomatic community, international civil society organizations, the international and local business community, as well as religious leaders and recently released political prisoners. The Special Rapporteur travelled to a several different parts of the country, meeting with civilian and military authorities, visiting police offices and lock-ups, and interviewing prisoners. He said he received ?full cooperation? from the Myanmar Government, and plans to report his findings to the UN General Assembly on 6 November. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post -
Thursday 31 October 2002
Special forces chief given inactive post Transferred after Rangoon complaints Wassana Nanuam The head of the army's special forces, Col Boonchu Kerdchoke, has been transferred to an inactive post following complaints from Rangoon. The Burmese junta accused the head of the Lop Buri-based unit of causing tension along the border, an informed army source said yesterday. The transfer was ordered by the new army chief, Gen Somdhat Attanand. It came as a surprise to army insiders because the colonel was widely known to be close to former army commander Gen Surayud Chulanont, now the supreme commander. Gen Somdhat did not see eye-to-eye with Gen Surayud, sources said. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra moved Gen Surayud to the supreme command in September in a move seen to appease Rangoon following complaints he had also caused tensions. During the army's Surasi 143 military exercise in May, special forces under Col Boonchu's command were deployed near the border with Burma in Chiang Mai's Wiang Haeng district, not far from fierce clashes between Burmese troops and rebel fighters of the Shan State Army. Rangoon alleged Thai forces under the colonel's command assisted the Shan rebels. Col Thirapong Urairert, deputy chief-of-staff of the 1st special forces division, will become Col Boonchu's successor. ``Col Boonchu's transfer was directly related to his supposed direct involvement in the rising of tensions along the border area with Burma in May,'' a source said. Col Boonchu had been expecting the change ever since Gen Surayud was removed from the army command. The source said Gen Somdhat was unhappy Col Boonchu failed to inform him about the alleged covert operation. Gen Somdhat was then army chief-of-staff. ``Gen Somdhat was not aware of what was going on at the border area since the officer had direct contact with the army chief and bypassed him,'' the source said. A source close to Col Boonchu said the colonel totally rejected the allegations made by Rangoon. ``Thai border forces never went across the border as claimed by Burma. All he did was fulfil his duty as a soldier and protect the country's sovereignty,'' he said. The colonel is a graduate of Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy Class 26 and was army security chief when Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh was army commander. Gen Surayud appointed Col Boonchu regimental commander of special forces last year. - Col Chamni Rukrueng, one of Gen Somdhat's trusted aides, will take over the 1st infantry regiment, Col Ek-nant Rattanasopha, 1st infantry division chief-of-staff, will take over the 11th infantry regiment and Col Prasop Srimuangphan, 1st artillery regiment deputy commander, will now head the regiment. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post -
Thursday 31 October 2002
Help sought to free region of child soldiers Unicef calls for govt to raise involvement Saritdet Marukatat The United Nations Children's Fund has urged the government to play a greater role in helping put an end to child soldiers in Southeast Asia. Unicef Executive Director Carol Bellamy said despite having no bad record on under-age combatants, Thailand and the region's other countries should not sit idly by doing nothing, because the problem was a common concern for the region. ``It's not good enough for somebody saying it's not in my backyard, therefore, it's not my problem,'' she said. ``This is a problem of East Asia and the Pacific.'' According to its study launched yesterday, Burma, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines have 70,000 child soldiers, or almost a quarter of the world's total. They have been forced to fight for government and non-governmental forces in what the UN agency deemed ``an illegal and morally reprehensible practice.'' Five of the studied nations are in Southeast Asia, with two of them _ Burma and Cambodia _ sharing their common border with Thailand. Unicef's assessment on the problem in Burma was based on interviews with children at the Burmese border after Rangoon refused access to researchers. Rangoon has strongly denied it uses children in battle. The Unicef chief remained pessimistic about the outlook, saying that the problem was largely ignored by governments. She said children were being recruited in ``extensive numbers'' in the region due to easy access to arms and continued conflicts in some countries. Asked about the role of Thailand, Ms Bellamy called for regional efforts and discussion ``among governments and leaders across borders'' to stop children being abused, and supported political pressure and political will in the war against the problem. ``We certainly think that political dialogue, political pressure and political will are very important in making changes in this area,'' she added. ``The fact that this kind of exploitation may not be happening in a particular country does not mean that the leader of that country might not speak out,'' she reiterated. The Unicef chief also urged the government to ratify an optional protocol banning children under 18 years of age from being involved in hostilities, and setting clear standards for the recruitment of those under 18. ``The first thing Thailand could do is to ratify an optional protocol,'' she added. The government has ratified only the 1990 convention of the rights of child, which sets the legal minimum age for recruitment at 15. -------------------------------------------------------------------- The Star online -
Thursday, October 31, 2002
Sixteen from Myanmar jailed for illegal entry Sixteen Myanmar nationals were jailed a total of 99 months by two magistrate courts yesterday for entering Malaysia illegally, while one was jailed six months for overstaying. The 16 were Tahir Suitalor, 20, Syed Kasim, 51, Maung Gye, 35, Maung Ta, 30, C. Alam Mohamad Sidik and Habas Ahmad Abdul Rahman, both 26, Mahmud Husin Omar Hakim and Abul, both 32, Ahlin, 19, Win Naing, 28, M.D. Rashid, 33, Abeng Kin and Ong, both 23, Win and Lwin, both 25, and Nai, 22. They were separately charged with entering the country without valid passes or permits between Aug 2 and Oct 19. They were each ordered to serve jail terms ranging from six months to eight months. All were also ordered to receive one stroke of the rotan, except Syed Kasim and Ahlin because of their age. Maung Win Tin, 34, was jailed six months for being in Taman Sri Hijau, Perak Road here, at 5.10pm on Aug 14, although his social visit pass had expired on July 15. All pleaded guilty yesterday after a Myanmar language interpreter explained the respective charges to them. In an unrelated matter, contract worker Soon Loong Beng, 30, denied attempting to steal a Flower Horn fish worth RM8,000 belonging to Ng Hooi Kar, 47, from an aquarium at the latter?s fish shop in Free School Road at 1.30pm on Oct 27. Soon was allowed RM4,000 bail pending trial on April 11. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar embassies abroad
threatened by bomb attacks: spokesman
Xinhuanet 2002-10-31 15:33:00 YANGON, Oct. 31 (Xinhuanet) -- A Myanmar government spokesman saidon Thursday that Myanmar embassies in Tokyo and Singapore were threatened by bomb attacks during the last three days. An envelope of greeting-card size, hidden with explosives and sent anonymously on Monday to the Myanmar Embassy in Tokyo from Thailand, was defused by a Tokyo bomb squad resulting in no injuries, Tokyo police was quoted by Major-General Kyaw Win, vice chief of the military intelligence, as saying at a press briefing here. Another letter containing a detonator, sent from Thailand and addressed to the Myanmar Embassy in Singapore, was also defused onWednesday by the Singapore bomb squad, he said. The spokesman charged his country's anti-government organizations in exile in Thailand with committing these acts, saying that these cases are under investigation. This was the first time that Myanmar embassies abroad have beenthreatened by such parcel bomb attacks. In a recent statement of the Myanmar government, it has pledgedcommitment to cooperate with the United States and the international community in fight against terrorism by sharing information with the United States on the terrorists operating along the country's western border. -------------------------------------------------------------------- UN envoy to renew visit to
Myanmar
Xinhuanet 2002-10-31 21:34:28 YANGON, Oct. 31 (Xinhuanet) -- United Nations Special Envoy RazaliIsmail will renew his visit to Myanmar on Nov. 12, confirmed Myanmar Deputy Foreign Minister U Khin Maung Win at a press briefing here Thursday. It will be Razali's 9th official trip to Myanmar since his appointment as the envoy in April 2000 and also the mission's second tour after Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi (ASSK)was released from 19-month house arrest on May 6. The upcoming trip of Razali is expected to further his effort to speed up Myanmar's national reconciliation process. Razali, during his last visit to Myanmar in August this year, mainly met with General Khin Nyunt, First Secretary of the State Peace and Development Council and ASSK, General Secretary of the National League for Democracy (NLD). He described all these meetings as very "productive." Razali was believed to have initiated the confidence-building talks between the government and the NLD since October 2000. The talks brought about the release of ASSK and 326 NLD members and activists. However, no exact timetable has so far been set by the government to further the talks after ASSK's release. The NLD won a landslide victory in the 1990 general election sponsored by the military with 396 parliamentary seats out of 485. However, the NLD complains that it has never been allowed to take office although the election ended more than 12 years ago. Meanwhile, the government regards itself as a caretaker or transitional one, saying that it has no intention to hold on to power for long. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Asia Times - Nov 1,
2002
UN's Myanmar envoy calls for probes By Marwaan Macan-Markar BANGKOK - The United Nations human-rights envoy to Myanmar, Paulo Pinheiro, has asked the country's military government to permit independent investigations into rights violations, in the face of recent reports that sexual violence, rape and conscription of child soldiers are commonplace there. Human-rights allegations "are not to be denied; allegations are to be investigated", Pinheiro, the UN special rapporteur on human rights for Myanmar, said at a news conference here on Wednesday. "There is a need to have credible, independent investigations. That is the case in any part of the world, where you have to have credible assessments," said Pinheiro, who finished his 11-day fact-finding mission in Myanmar on Monday. This mission, his third since being appointed to the UN post last year, began on October 17. "I have expressed to them [the military government] that it is necessary to put in place independent investigations. I am convinced that there are very serious human-rights violations that need to be investigated, because in some of them there is a pattern of repetition of these allegations in the last 15 years," he said. The Brazilian diplomat's call will serve as a crucial indicator as to how far Yangon's rulers are willing to change their practice of dismissing allegations of human-rights violations as fabrications. That was the stance Yangon maintained after a report released earlier this month by the New York-based rights lobby Human Rights Watch (HRW), which charged that Myanmar had the highest number of child soldiers - as many as 70,000 - in the world. The majority of these children had been "forcibly conscripted", according to the report titled "My Gun Was as Tall as Me". But Yangon denied the charge and accused HRW of attempting to tarnish Myanmar's image. The junta was as dismissive of another report released in mid-June by two minority-rights groups, which accused the Myanmese army of raping close to 625 women and girls between 1996 and 2001 in the country's eastern state of Shan. The military government forced village elders in Shan state to sign petitions that the rapes did not occur, says Hseng Noung, spokeswoman for the Thai-based Shan Women's Action Network, one of the rights groups that contributed to the report. The pressure that Pinheiro is applying on the Myanmese government is necessary, she says, because "right now, inside the Shan state, no team can investigate freely". "Pinheiro's call is unprecedented and it is a slap in the face of the Burmese government," added Sunai Phasuk of Forum-Asia, a Bangkok-based regional human-rights watchdog. "It means he has been convinced that there have been serious violations, such as sexual violence and rape." The UN envoy's position also challenges a common practice of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), as the military government is officially known, of appointing government teams to investigate rights violations, Sunai points out. "After the report on the rapes, the SPDC appointed its own investigation teams, including a military one, that said no systematic rapes took place," Sunai said. However, as another UN agency revealed on Wednesday, securing space for independent human-rights investigation in Myanmar is a daunting task. Yangon bluntly refused to permit the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to conduct a study of child soldiers conscripted by the government and ethnic rebel groups in Myanmar. "We did make a request to conduct interviews inside Myanmar, but could not do so," said Bo Viktor Nylund of the East Asia and Pacific division of UNICEF at a press conference. "So we had to conduct the interviews along the [Thailand-Myanmar] border." "We need to engage the Myanmar government in greater depth on this issue," added Carol Bellamy, UNICEF's executive director, during the news conference to launch a study on the shattered lives of child combatants in six countries across the region. Among the Myanmese child soldiers interviewed for the report "Adult Wars, Child Soldiers", was a boy who was 12 when he was conscripted. "I still want to take revenge because I am separated from my family. I want to give them [the government soldiers] the same suffering I have had," he told UNICEF researchers. "I feel I was coerced," added another child from Myanmar, who was conscripted into the army when he was 13. "I knew nothing. I regret it now. I am not satisfied with my situation." One in four of the world's 300,000 child soldiers is found in the East Asian and Pacific region, states the UNICEF report. The six countries it surveyed are Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Myanmar. Apart from charges of child conscription and the military's rapes of girls and women, Myanmar has also been taken to task for forced labor, suppressing press freedom and jailing political opponents. Pinheiro will present his findings of his visit to Myanmar to the UN General Assembly in New York next Wednesday. "The cycle of human-rights violations needs to be broken, and there is a need for policies and mechanisms in place to prevent the repetition of these violations," he said. He conceded, however, that his recent trip provided some evidence that Yangon has been willing to address criticism about its political prisoners by making periodic releases of detainees, and by not disputing the number of the prisoners it holds - estimated at more than 1,200. "The SPDC has not contested these numbers. What is positive is a serious concern [by the government] to discuss the issue without denial," Pinheiro said. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Asia Tribune
Date : 2002-10-31 UN Burma Rapporteur Concerned by Reports of Rape, other Human Rights Abuses. Professor Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar (Burma), met with representatives from the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia) and other Thai and Burmese human rights groups today to discuss the human rights situation in Burma. Forum-Asia also raised concerns about reports of the use of rape as a weapon of war by the Burmese military in ethnic minority areas. Professor Pinheiro said he was convinced that the pattern of sexual violence in Burma must be investigated independently, transparently and credibly, and went on to add that his team are now investigating reports of sexual violence, forced relocation and the forced conscription of child soldiers. Professor Pinheiro agreed to visit refugee camps and shelters along the Thai-Burma border when he returns to Thailand in February 2003, following a request from Forum-Asia that he talk to Burmese refugees in order to gain a clearer picture of human rights violations in Burma. In response to reports of political arrests in Burma, Professor Pinheiro said he was aware that the SPDC, Burma?s ruling military junta, continue to arrest and detain people on political grounds. Forum-Asia and other human rights groups discussed key human rights violations common in Burma, such as the numerous cases of torture committed by the Burmese military, and wished Professor Pinheiro well in his future efforts to promote the improvement of human rights in Burma. -------------------------------------------------------------------- |