[burmanet2-l] Burma Related News - Jan 06, 2003.

["TIN KYI" <tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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