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BURMA RELATED NEWS
- January 06, 2003.
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HEADLINES
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AP - Myanmar junta leader departs on
visit to China
AFP - Myanmar junta
leader arrives in Beijing
AFP - New ASEAN chief
says region must cooperate to meet China challenge
AFP -
Bangladesh, Myanmar feeder service in the offing to boost trade
Bkk Post - Land snapped up on border
Bkk Post - UWSA drug production still a worry, says Prem
BKk Post - Editorial - Confronting the serious problems
The Nation - New leaders, new challenges emerge for Asia
Boston Globe - EDITORIAL - Misplaced trust in Burma
Asian Tribune - National League for Democracy of Burma,
hardened it stand on policy and principles.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar junta leader departs
on visit to China
Sun Jan 5,10:20 PM ET YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - The leader of Myanmar's ruling junta left Monday for a six-day state visit to China, a close economic and military ally of a regime that is shunned by the West for suppressing democracy. Senior Gen. Than Shwe, the chairman of the ruling State Peace and Development Council, was invited by Chinese President Jiang Zemin (news - web sites) who visited Myanmar in December 2001. Than Shwe is accompanied by his wife and a 63-member official delegation that includes the No. 3 junta leader, Gen. Khin Nyunt, and the ministers for foreign affairs, agriculture, energy and information, officials said. Than Shwe last visited China in 1996. Myanmar's military regime has relied heavily on China for economic support and weapons since it came to power in 1988 after crushing popular protests for democracy. The junta's actions have often been compared to Beijing's Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989. China also does not join the international criticism of the junta over its refusal to accept the general election victory of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in 1990. According to Chinese statistics, bilateral trade totals US$600 million annually, making China Myanmar's third largest trading partner after Singapore and Thailand ? though that official figure probably underestimates trade that goes unreported across their shared border. Impoverished Myanmar, also known as Burma, offers China a potential path to the Indian Ocean. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Myanmar junta leader arrives
in Beijing
BEIJING, Jan 6 (AFP) - Myanmar junta leader Senior General Than Shwe arrived Monday for a six-day official visit accompanied by his military intelligence chief and other ministers, state media said. Than Shwe, on his second trip to China as chairman of the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), was invited by President Jiang Zemin. The Xinhua news agency said he was to hold talks with Jiang, his expected successor Hu Jintao and Premier Zhu Rongji before visiting the southwestern city of Chengdu. Diplomats in Yangon said the visit was particularly significant due to the imminent new leadership in China under Hu. "This latest visit will provide new opportunities for enhancing mutual understanding, extending common views and strengthening friendly cooperation between the two neighbours," a diplomatic source said. Sino-Myanmar relations have always been strong, except for a brief period during the 1960s when the Cultural Revolution swept across China and spilled over the border into Myanmar. Ties took a turn for the better after the 1998 military coup when Myanmar was shunned by most other nations, obliging it to turn towards its big northern neighbour to help develop its infrastructure. Than Shwe, number two in the military hierarchy at that time, was the first high-level Myanmar visitor to China after the takeover, leading a huge delegation there in 1989. Jiang made his first visit to Myanmar in December 2001, when the countries signed cooperation agreements in the agriculture, natural and human resources and infrastructure sectors, in addition to agreeing on new soft loans. Analysts say China has boosted its influence in Myanmar in a bid to secure strategic access to the Andaman Sea, where it is funding a sea port. It is also interested in offsetting India's growing links with the junta, they say. --------------------------------------------------------------------
New ASEAN chief says region
must cooperate to meet China challenge
JAKARTA, Jan 6 (AFP) - Southeast Asian nations must work together and hone their competitiveness to meet an increasingly strong business challenge from Northeast and South Asia, ASEAN's new chief warned Monday. "Given the very strong potential for economic growth in East Asia and South Asia, if we don't put ourselves on the radar scope of investors and businessmen, by default people will just go to Northeast Asia and South Asia," said Ong Keng Yong. "So we have to continue to keep knocking on people's doors and telling people to come to look at Southeast Asia," Ong told a press conference after taking office as secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Ong, a Singaporean former diplomat, took over from Rodolfo Severino of the Philippines as head of the 10-nation grouping. ASEAN took a further step towards economic integration on January 1, with the original six members slashing import tariffs to under five percent for most products. The aim is to establish the ASEAN Free Trade Area by 2015 at the latest. But Ong said economic integration still has some way to go and urged member states to examine their competitiveness in attracting foreign investment. "In the old days we didn't have this problem because everybody saw ASEAN as the best manufacturing base," Ong said. "But now we have competitors. They are competing openly, professionally and quite effectively against investment coming into Southeast Asia." Ong proposed joint efforts to attract foreign investment and overseas business. "It would be a good idea if we can say instead of everybody promoting their own sector we can combine to get people to come to Southeast Asia." A similar approach should be used to promote tourism region-wide. Ong declined to describe China as an economic threat and said its growth creates opportunities for Southeast Asia to supply both raw materials and finished products. "Our strategy to investors must be, 'Okay you can produce 70 percent of things in China and the other 30 percent (in Southeast Asia).... "If we approach this (rise of China) as a zero sum game, then we are likely to lose. "As China grows everyone feels it is a vacuum sucking all investment to China," Ong told the press conference. "Very few start looking at the potential for China being a buyer for other components and other parts, other manufactured goods and even processed agricultural goods. "If I am able to convince investors and get them to put part of their operation in ASEAN and the other part in China, I think we will be able to buy at least three to five years of good times for own ASEAN economies," Ong said. "If we don't do all this now they will just simply close shop and go to China." Ong, who took office on his 48th birthday, also played down the row between Singapore and Malaysia over a disputed island and said ASEAN should not get involved. He said bilateral cooperation continued despite the dispute. "Let the foreign ministers of Malaysia and Singapore sort it out. Today it is Malaysia and Singapore, tomorrow it will be somebody else," Ong said. "If you get into it, ASEAN will never have any time for any other things." ASEAN links Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Bangladesh, Myanmar feeder
service in the offing to boost trade
CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh, Jan 6 (AFP) - A feeder shipping service between Bangladesh and neighbouring Myanmar is in the offing to boost bilateral trade, official sources said Monday. The sources in Chittagong Port and Mercantile Marine Department said the government had already asked a private shipping company to start operating its feeder container vessels on the Chittagong-Myanmar route as soon as possible to increase bilateral trade. "A high-level meeting to this effect was held recently on this issue and if the service starts on this route, the trade gap between the two countries will come down to a great extent," one port official said. Imports from Myanmar include timber, maize, rice and fish, while exports include fertiliser, cement and medicines, but there are no official estimates bilateral trade, which is said to be very small. Smuggling also takes place across the border. The official said the step was a follow up to the landmark visit by Myanmar Senior General Than Shwe in December when the countries pledged to boost bilateral ties to overcome economic challenges facing them both. "The Myanmar government has also agreed to place a container vessel on the route," he said. Shipping sources said due to a lack of vessels, the state-owned Bangladesh Shipping Corporation was unable to provide the service immediately, so the government opted for the private HRC Shipping Lines, which is already operating feeder vessels between Chittagong and Sri Lanka as well as Malaysia. Than Shwe was the first leader of Myanmar's junta to visit Bangladesh. The last leader to come was the then Burmese president Yu San Wu in 1986. Myanmar, formerly Burma, was among the first countries to recognise Bangladesh after it won independence from Pakistan in 1971. But relations were strained in the early 1990s when around 250,000 Rohingya Muslims flooded into Bangladesh from Myanmar, claiming atrocities by the junta. Ties have improved since then, with the repatriation of most of the refugees under a United Nations agreement, but more than 20,000 still live in camps in Bangladesh. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Bangkok Post - Monday
06 January 2003
Land snapped up on border The reopening of a border checkpoint opposite a village in Mae Hong Son province has led to land speculation in Burmese border areas. Many land plots in Hua Muang town, a former stronghold of former drug kingpin Khun Sa, had been bought by Chinese Haw and Ko Kang ethnic businessmen, said a border source. Land prices soared following the agreement by Thailand and Burma to reopen the border checkpoint at Huay Phung village in Mae Hong Son, opposite Hua Muang town. Defence Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh will preside over the reopening of the checkpoint on Jan 10. The source said a group of Thai businessmen also planned a casino in Hua Muang town. Chao Maha Ja, the town ruler, said he had asked a construction firm to speed up repair of roads in his town before the opening ceremony. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Bangkok Post - Monday
06 January 2003
UWSA drug production still a worry, says Prem Statesman briefed on latest border meeting Wassana Nanuam Privy Council chairman Gen Prem Tinsulanonda has expressed concern that the United Wa State Army (UWSA) shows no sign of curtailing drug production just across the border in Burma. The Burmese minority group, which is allied with Rangoon, is held responsible for most of the methamphetamines and heroin smuggled into Thailand. Gen Udomchai Ongkasingha, the Third Army commander, said after a meeting with the statesman at his Si Sao Theves residence that Gen Prem was worried the end of drug production was nowhere in sight. Gen Udomchai told Gen Prem the UWSA continued to make and supply drugs. They smuggled them across the border and there were frequent clashes with Thai patrols. The UWSA has said it would permanently end all drug production by 2005. Gen Udomchai said he believed Rangoon was sincere in its promise of cooperation in drug suppression. Gen Udomchai said he had briefed Gen Prem on the joint Regional Border Committee meeting in Moulmein on Dec 26-28. At the meeting, the Narcotics Control Board agreed to inform Burmese authorities of the location of drug factories so Rangoon could close them down. Gen Udomchai said the army had no plans for another full-scale military exercise similar to Surasee 143 held last year near the Burmese border. Rangoon had felt threatened by the exercise. In future, the two governments would advise each other in advance of any military training close to the border. Gen Udomchai said Gen Prem thought the army should feel free to hold military exercises provided they did not affect neighbouring countries. Earlier, Gen Prem had advised Defence Minister Gen Thamarak Isarangkura na Ayudhaya, Supreme Commander Gen Surayud Chulanont and the armed forces leaders to put their minds and efforts into drug suppression. He also told them to clearly identify the ``enemy'' in the war against drugs. Gen Udomchai said Rangoon would be officially informed about Her Majesty the Queen's coming visit to border villages in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Mae Hong Son next week. The Queen would stay at Puping Ratchanives Palace in Chiang Mai. The army would ensure ample security to a prevent a recurrence of incidents like last year when shells from fighting between Burmese and rebel minority troops landed close to a village the Queen was due to visit. Gen Udomchai said Burmese army chief Gen Maung Aye had informed him of intelligence reports that Col Yawd Serk, leader of the Shan State Army, was engaged in the drug trade. It was possible, he said. The SSA needed money to finance its fight with Rangoon. The army recently clashed with drug smugglers, many of whom carried SSA identity cards. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Bangkok Post - Monday
06 January 2003
Editorial - Confronting the serious problems It is a serious failing of politicians that they are procrastinators. It often makes sense to them to delay decisions, put off problems and deal with the easy matters first. But our leaders are elected to lead. It is thus encouraging to see signs of action in a drug programme that was suffering from inaction, crippled by a lack of leadership and endangered by infighting and indecision. It remains to be seen if the government will follow through but it is directly addressing serious shortcomings, and that is encouraging. A fairly rapid series of steps was announced over the holidays. There will be a new man at the very top of the leading anti-drugs agency. The nation's intelligence apparatus is to get a major overhaul so that offices start talking to each other instead of guarding their information. And the army chief is heading to Burma to put that regime on the spot on cooperation against traffickers _ a task Burma has refused to address. These are all important steps in a much needed campaign to revitalise a flagging effort against the leading security threat. The government has a congenital ability to see visions of a happy future. A booming economy and prospering workers and farmers cannot be achieved without basic security. Drug abuse has put an entire generation of young Thais at risk for their mental and physical health. Drug trafficking has corrupted entire villages and senior officials. The stalemate between drug traffickers and corruption fighters was clear. For that reason, it was necessary to replace the head of the major anti-drug agency, the Office of the Narcotics Control Board. Some will see the ouster of ONCB chief Kitti Limchaikit as scapegoating. They are wrong. Mr Kitti simply was unable, for a number of reasons, to energise the nation's most important programme. Whether Pol Lt-Gen Chidchai Wannasathit is the right man for the job remains to be seen. The assistant national police chief has the background and reputation to fight drug trafficking. On the other hand, he appears determined to put the drug fight more firmly in police hands, and that conflicts with the government policy to battle big-time traffickers, not the drug abusers. Lt-Gen Chidchai should move quickly to make it clear he will institute a wide-ranging battle that stresses education and rehabilitation while he goes after the few Mr Bigs. The order by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to improve communications among intelligence agencies is as welcome as it is overdue. As if to stress the problem, National Security Council chief Gen Vinai Pattiyakul called current drug efforts a failure. He said there are a minimum of two million serious drug abusers, and ever-younger people are becoming addicted. Mr Thaksin's order was aimed mostly at increasing the abysmal, frankly embarrassing failures in anti-drug efforts. But it highlighted a general failure of getting needed information from bureaucratic intelligence bureaus into the hands of security officers. Of course, the drug effort will fail without cooperation from Burma. Rangoon has taken small efforts against opium and heroin trafficking. These tiny steps have aroused scepticism even from the United Nations. More seriously, Rangoon refuses to tackle the methamphetamine trafficking of the Wa allies. Army commander Somdhat Attanant goes to Rangoon this weekend, and one hopes he will address this failure directly. The Thai military is unlikely to convince Burma to conduct joint patrols to neutralise the Wa properly. But Gen Somdhat must try to convince the regime to put in proper lines of communication to combat the cross-border traffickers. Thailand must do a lot more to fight the drugs scourge, but without Burmese help it is impossible to prevail. --------------------------------------------------------------------
The Nation
2003: THE YEAR AHEAD FOR ASIA: New leaders, new challenges emerge for Asia Published on Jan 6, 2003 An overview from The Nation's Regional Desk Burma The world community will continue to keep its fingers crossed, hoping that the tentative dialogue between pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the ruling State Peace and Development Council gets off the ground. Suu Kyi's supporters in the US and other Western countries have expressed concern over the slow pace of the tentative dialogue between the National League for Democracy leader and the junta. The Nobel Peace Prize winner has endured long periods of house arrest and seen thousands of her supporters sentenced to jail terms by the military government. Pressure will continue to mount on UN Special Envoy Razali Ismail, the Malaysian career diplomat sent to Rangoon to broker the dialogue. But if history is any indication, the junta may just tough it out for another year - or longer - before making any concessions in spite of the international condemnation and economic sanctions against the regime. --------------------------------------------------------------------
A BOSTON GLOBE
EDITORIAL - Misplaced trust in
Burma
1/6/2003 THERE HAVE been disturbing signs recently of a penchant in the State Department to whitewash the brutal military junta that rules Burma. Last month the US charge d'affaires in Rangoon told a newspaper controlled by the junta that the regime ''has done a good job on counter narcotics.'' The diplomat, Carmen Martinez, even said: ''We can understand how it is difficult to have a democracy in a multiracial and multireligious society.'' This was one of several hints that some officials in the Bush administration may have been maneuvering to change Burma's designation as a major producer of narcotics. This is a priority for the junta and the lobbying firm it has hired to alter its deserved reputation for cruelty and criminality. The next step would be to end US sanctions against new investment in Burma. These sanctions are meant to last as long as the regime refuses to engage in genuine political dialogue with the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy won 392 of 485 seats in Parliament in a 1990 election that the junta has refused to honor. The junta has not stopped protecting drug lords and their money-laundering operations. In recent years there has also been an explosion in methamphetamines, which are produced under the junta's jurisdiction and exported to neighboring Thailand with calamitous consequences. Within Burma, a combination of drug use, poverty, and scanty health care has fostered a rapid rise in rates of HIV and AIDS. For Burma's neighbors, the catastrophe wrought by the junta has become a multiform regional threat. The dictatorship's suppression of a legitimately elected government has led, step by step, to a flood of deadly exports: drugs, AIDS, and cross-border violence. One of the junta's most horrific crimes has been its army's systematic and widespread raping of women and girls from ethnic minorities such as the Shan and the Karen. To its credit, the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor sent an investigator to the Thai-Burma border in August to evaluate reports by local human rights groups of hundreds of Shan women and girls being brutally raped, most often by officers. A State Department report confirming the earlier reports was declassified last month. Congress should hold hearings on the junta's human rights abuses and focus on the use of rape to terrorize civilians. With the United States about to regain its seat on the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, President Bush should ask for a UN inquiry into all the junta's human rights violations. And to help bring about a democratic regime change in Burma, all imports from that country should be banned, at least until the junta engages in a dialogue with Suu Kyi that can lead to the revival of democratic government. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-01-06 National League for Democracy of Burma, hardened it stand on policy and principles. Bangkok, Jan. 06: The National League for Democracy has hardened its position with the State Peace Development Council (SPDC), considered as the strong nucleus of the junta?s power-holding organization in Myanmar. The NLD has taken exception to the position of the SPDC and has emphasized that it will not accept the holding of another Parliamentary general election in Myanmar, without the junta coming forward to honor the results of the 1990 free and fair parliamentary elections. The NLD also reminded the SPDC to abide by the annual continuous resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly and honor the will of the people. Given below the important issues focused in the statement issued by the Central Executive Committee, National League for Democracy, Rangoon, on 04 January, on the occasion of the country?s Independence Day (Unofficial translation from Burmese): Prior to the holding of substantial political talks with exchange of ideas on equal terms between the National League for Democracy and the State Peace and Development Council, the National League for Democracy makes the following statement to clarify its stand. # The unconditional and immediate release of all political prisoners is requested. # It will not accept the holding of another election without the authorities first honoring the results of the 1990 free and fair elections and abiding by the annual and continuous resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly calling on the SPDC to honor the will of the people. # On the subject of a National Convention, we recall that on 18/10/1990 Secretary 1 of the then State Law and Order Restoration Council, now State Peace and Development Council, made the following statement at the Magwe Division, Kyunchaung Fetilizer Plant opening ceremony. ?It is the responsibility of political parties and the successful candidates of the elections to convene a National Convention. SLORC will play an assisting role only? Since nothing has changed about the National Convention and the undertaking as given above has not been fulfilled, the NLD will not be participating. # On the subject of drawing up the state constitution, on the 3rd July, 1990, Chairman of the State Law and Order Restoration Council declared thus:- ?It will be necessary to draw up a state constitution after the multiparty general elections. I have mentioned this in my speech on the 5th July, 1989. I have already said that the State Law and Restoration Council will not be writing that document. I cannot allow myself to be the accused in this matter. The drawing up of a state constitution is the responsibility of the elected party to work in consultation with the successful candidates?? The National League for Democracy will not accept any provisions in a constitution which is written by this National Convention. # The limited investments by international organizations (including financial institutions) is the result of the uncongenial political climate and it impacts negatively for only a section of the community. Humanitarian aid and assistance by foreign countries and governments (for example, control and management of AIDS) must be bona fide and open. We firmly adhere to the principle that humanitarian assistance should be transparent, accountable and independently monitored. # We definitely specify that the time is not ripe for promoting tourism. # We are firmly committed to the Committee Representing the People?s Parliament. The above policies and principles remain firm and we will continue to adhere to them. This is an unequivocal statement of our position. --------------------------------------------------------------------
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