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BURMA RELATED NEWS
- January 29, 2003.
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HEADLINES
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AP - South Korea grants refugee status to
asylum-seekers from Myanmar, Cameroon
AP - Myanmar announces massive increases on
phone call charges
AFP - EU looks beyond Myanmar in ASEAN talks
Reuters - Asia steps up oil security as war
looms
Bkk Post - Burma looks abroad to avert focus at
home
The Nation - Where is our soldier, Army asks
Asian Tribune - Trade unions protest at waiver
of EU visa ban on Burmese dictatorship
Asian Tribune - Speak the truth and you die,
says Burmese commander to Shan people
Asian Tribune - SPDC : TheTerror
Regime
Asian Tribune - A new "tie" between Wa and
Rangoon
VOA News - EU, ASEAN Ministers Back More Talks
in Burma
ST - EU and Asean ministers pledge closer
trade and intelligence ties
-------------------------------------------------------------------- South Korea grants refugee status to asylum-seekers from Myanmar, Cameroon Jan 29 6:16 AM ET SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korea on Wednesday granted refugee status to four asylum seekers from Myanmar and Cameroon. With the latest approval, South Korea has recognized a total of six refugees since it first granted such status to an Ethiopian man in 2001, said Kim Pan-gyun, an official at South Korea's Justice Ministry. Of those recognized Wednesday, three were Myanmar citizens opposed to that country's military junta who entered South Korea between 1996 and 1998, Kim said. The asylum seeker from Cameroon was a member of the country's opposition party who applied for refugee status in 2001, he said. South Korea, which became a signatory of the United Nations treaty on protecting refugees in 1992, is currently studying the cases of some 70 other asylum seekers. Since 1994, 166 people have applied for refugee status in South Korea. South Korea has rejected applications from 58 and some people withdrew their applications, Kim said. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Myanmar announces massive increases on phone
call charges
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) _ Local fixed-line phone call charges in Myanmar will rise fivefold, and cellular phone charges sixfold, starting Saturday, an official announcement said. The announcement, seen Wednesday at phone billing offices, said local calls on land line phones will cost 15 kyat per minute, up from to 3 kyat per minute now. One U.S. dollar is worth 6.9 kyat at the official exchange rate _ but on the black market, where the vast majority of currency is changed, the dollar fetches about 1,100 kyat. The announcement said a one-minute call on a mobile phone will cost 25 kyat, compared to about 4 kyat now. Myanmar's ruling military junta runs the country's telephone services as a monopoly. The government increased train and plane fares within the country by 200 percent beginning Jan. 1. --------------------------------------------------------------------
EU looks beyond Myanmar in ASEAN talks
BRUSSELS, Jan 28 (AFP) - The European Union Tuesday assailed the military's grip on power in Myanmar but insisted it no longer wanted the country to hold its lucrative relations with Southeast Asia "hostage". In a two-day meeting between foreign ministers from the EU and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the EU gave a blunt message that Myanmar's junta had to embark on democratic reform through talks with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten said EU member states found Myanmar "profoundly troubling", citing the military's failure to relinquish power, the country's AIDS crisis and its narcotics production. "At this meeting, we had the most comprehensive and detailed discussion that we've had yet on Burma/Myanmar," he said. But Patten added: "We've held the view for some time that our dialogue with ASEAN shouldn't be held hostage to our concerns about the situation in Burma/Myanmar." The two-yearly meeting between two of the world's biggest trading blocs took place on EU territory for the first time with an official from military-run Myanmar, Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win, in attendance. The EU temporarily lifted a visa ban against junta leaders to allow him to attend the Brussels gathering, a move hailed by ASEAN as a breakthrough that allowed the two sides to re-engage on other pressing issues such as trade and global terrorism. ASEAN Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong told AFP that the EU challenged the Myanmar minister "in a very assertive way" about human rights and restrictions placed on Aung San Suu Kyi since her release from house arrest in May last year. "I did not see a meeting of minds on this particular issue but what is positive is that this exchange was conducted in a fairly constructive way. There was no acrimony," the Singaporean official said. Britain, Italy and Sweden, speaking for all 15 EU members, spoke "forcefully" of the need for a return to democracy in Myanmar, an EU diplomat said on condition of anonymity. "But this was not a Burma meeting. There was a much broader agenda," he said. The EU and ASEAN foreign ministers urged North Korea to reverse its decision to withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty to help defuse a nuclear stand-off with the United States. They also adopted a joint anti-terrorism declaration pledging closer police cooperation, in the wake of the bombing last October of a nightclub on the Indonesian island of Bali which killed at least 190 people, mostly young Westerners. The ASEAN chief said the EU ministers had conveyed a positive message on trade. "What came across is the idea that we should look at Southeast Asia as one single market of 500 million-plus people, and the EU side explained, hey, we have done this single market thing for a long time and maybe we have some experiences that we can share," Ong said. After losing out in recent years to the cheaper labour markets of China, ASEAN in November signed a deal with the communist giant to create the world's biggest free-trade area (FTA) by 2015, embracing 1.7 billion people. Similar talks have been launched with Japan. Ong said an FTA with the EU remained a long-term goal, but for now he agreed with Patten that both regions would work through the World Trade Organisation to secure a new global trading regime. In 2001, the EU was ASEAN's second-largest export market and third-largest trading partner after the United States and Japan. "But we are concerned that we should be able to encourage more European investment in ASEAN and I think that the more that it's possible for ASEAN to promote economic integration, the more likely it is that we'll see success in attracting investors," Patten said. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Asia steps up oil security as war
looms
By Tanya Pang SINGAPORE, Jan 29 (Reuters) - With war looming in the oil-rich Middle East, governments across Asia are stepping up emergency measures to protect energy-hungry economies from a possible crude price spike which would sap the region's fast growth. With benchmark crude prices hovering close to 26-month peaks over $35 a barrel, import-dependent Asia, which has little by way of emergency stocks, is gearing up to safeguard supplies by stockpiling or enforcing measures to limit consumption. South Korea, China, the Philippines and Thailand announced concrete emergency measures this week, while India, Bangladesh have been steadily extending inventories (see table below). ``We are ready to face any difficulty if there is an interuption in supplies. We are keeping our tanks full,'' Indian Oil Minister Ram Naik told Reuters on Wednesday. Unexpected events such as the eight-week opposition strike in Venezuela, which has strangled sales from the world's fifth biggest exporter, and the possibility of war disrupting crude flows from the Middle East have reinforced Asia's vulnerabilty. ``For the last two to three months three factors have been supporting the market: the Venezuelan strike, Iraq and Asian buying,'' said Sarah Emerson, managing director at Energy Security Analysis (ESAI) in Boston. ``Asian governments and refiners tend to build inventory in a crisis, whereas Western countries don't have that kind of speculative buying pre-crisis, they have stocks,'' she said. About 60 percent of Asia's daily crude requirement of 21 million barrels is shipped in from other continents, with roughly 10 million barrels a day coming from Middle East producers. Only Japan and South Korea, which import virtually all their energy needs, have built appreciable state emergency reserves exceeding the minimum standard of 90 days of consumption set by the West's energy watchdog, the International Energy Agency. Without that buffer, regional economies would be hard hit by soaring energy bills. Since the 1997 financial crisis, Asia has been trying to boost domestic consumption as a cushion against external economic shocks. An oil price surge may hit consumer spending and corporate investment making Asia more reliant on exports. The 10 ASEAN nations agreed at an unprecedented meeting with China, Japan and South Korea in Osaka, Japan, in September that concerted action was needed to step up energy security through cooperation and coordination of emergency policy. ASEAN comprises Thailand, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Singapore and Myanmar. Analysts say the huge cost of building and maintaining inventory gives emerging economies little incentive to stockpile fuel. ``China is most likely to build strategic stocks as it still has fast growing demand growth. It is enormously dependent on Middle East crude and it can foot the bill,'' said ESAI's Emerson. ``India may be able to one day, but only if the oil companies bear the brunt of the cost. Frankly, Southeast Asian nations will talk about regional reserves but they just cannot afford it.'' Following are measures announced in January by Asian governments: + China said on January 29 it would start to build this year a reserve of 150 million barrels of crude. + The Philippines said on January 29 refiners must hold a minimum 30-day inventory of crude and oil products by February 3. Bulk oil suppliers must hold a minimum 15-day inventory and all players were required to have a minimum seven days of supply of liquefied petroleum gas. + South Korea said on January 28 it may partially release oil stocks if Middle East benchmark Dubai crude hits $33 a barrel. It said it would cut import tariffs and local taxes on oil products and limit some business energy use if Dubai crude went into the range $29-$33. If Dubai topped $35, it said it would release more reserve oil, deepen tax cuts, set a ceiling price for local oil products and use funds set aside to subsidise refiners' oil imports and cut oil products exports. + Thailand said on January 28 it had drawn up a contingency plan in the event of war including a stop to oil products exports and special crude imports from Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. Bangkok has kept strategic oil stocks of 50 days of consumption since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. + India said on January 7 that state refiners had raised oil products inventories to meet demand for 35-40 days and had enough crude to keep refineries running for one month. + Bangladesh said on January 7 it had 340,000 tonnes of oil products and 175,000 tonnes of crude in stock to meet demand for 20-25 days. It also said it was seeking emergency oil imports from Malaysia, Thailand and Brunei. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Bangkok Post - Wednesday 29
January 2003
Burma looks abroad to avert focus at home Talks with the liberal opposition look to be going nowhere, and this is sure to hurt relations with the West. So Rangoon is now fostering closer friendships with those not so concerned with such issues. LARRY JAGAN Burma's foreign minister has made an historic visit to India, which diplomats in Rangoon are attributing to the military rulers' renewed diplomatic offensive intended to disguise the failure of their secret talks with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The Jan 19-24 visit by Win Aung was the first by a senior Burmese leader to India for more than 15 years. While in New Delhi, he met Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and held talks with several key cabinet ministers, including his counterpart Jaswant Sinha. Trade and investment were high on the agenda, but diplomats in Rangoon believe that what the visit really signified was the near collapse of talks with Ms Suu Kyi. ``The Burmese government is preparing to withstand tougher economic sanctions from the West by strengthening economic ties with its Asian neighbours,'' said a senior Western diplomat who declined to be identified. For Win Aung though, this trip to India was most significant. Although there were few concrete results to boast about, the two foreign ministers signed a protocol which establishes regular bilateral ministerial consultations. The two countries also agreed to strengthen cooperation on several bilateral projects, mainly in the fields of infrastructure, energy and information technology. The two governments plan to set up a joint Business Council to help encourage greater private Indian investment in Burma. India is also considering offering Burma a considerable new commercial credit line to help Indian businessmen. The government already has a guaranteed credit line of $25 million, and government officials say this is now likely to be doubled. ``There are many Indian businesses with factories in Southeast Asia who are interested in establishing pilot projects in Burma, but so far they have been deterred by the political situation there,'' said one Indian businessman who is involved in the import and export industry. ``This is likely to increase now that there is a modicum of official support for companies interested in Burma.'' One of Win Aung's main aims on this trip to India was to drum up trade and investment. ``We are opening our doors to trade and investment,'' he told a conference of Indian businessmen in Delhi. ``Burma's strategic position, at the crossroads of South Asia and East Asia, meant that investors stood to reap substantial benefits from investing in Burma.'' Win Aung proposed a regional summit next year of countries involved in the regional grouping BIMST-EC, the Bangladesh, India, Myanmar (Burma), Sri Lanka and Thailand Economic Cooperation forum, to further boost regional cooperation. He said that while this forum, set up more than five years ago, had opened up avenues for bilateral and multilateral cooperation in trade and economic development, more needed to be done. ``What we need is a vision for the future so that we can work together and make the whole region prosperous,'' Win Aung told the members of the Confederation of Indian Industries. In the past few years, trade between the two countries has begun to expand rapidly. In the past 10 years, the value of bilateral trade has grown nearly eight-fold. Officially, India is now Burma's fourth most important export market, with beans, pulses and wood products being the major export items. Burma's main imports from India are pharmaceuticals, iron and steel. But more than anything else, Rangoon is anxious to see more Indian investment in its energy sector. There is substantial Indian interest in infrastructure projects, including the completion of a major highway connecting India's northeast with Thailand, through Mandalay and Rangoon. It is also building a port, Sittwe, on the Burmese coast to help increase maritime trade. India's leading state-run energy companies Oil and Gas Cooperation and the Gas Authority of India Ltd are involved in exploration works off Burma's west coast and are also interested in onshore exploration rights. India is also keen to access Bangladesh's huge gas reserves, but for years Dhaka has been no more than lukewarm to the proposal. Tapping into the Burmese gas fields would certainly be an incentive for India to strengthen its bilateral economic ties with Rangoon. The Burmese foreign minister should see trade with India grow in coming year as result of this trip. In an effort to boost economic ties between the two countries, India's businessmen plan to send a delegation from their northeast to Burma to explore further cooperation. A trade and industry fair, the Made in India Show, is planned for Rangoon later this year. But the formal results aren't as important as the strategic partnership that was clearly forged during the trip. Win Aung was greeted as a friend and given enormous attention by his hosts. He, in turn, made it clear wherever he went that Burma saw India as a major potential ally. ``We regard India not only as an important neighbour but as a country with which we are linked culturally and historically,'' he said. ``In some ways, India is our motherland.'' For India, this is a welcome approach to their bilateral relations. New Delhi has been anxious to improve its strategic and economic ties with Burma for some time as part of its strategy to contain China's increasing influence in Southeast Asia as a whole, and Burma in particular. Many Indian diplomats admit privately that this is one of the main strategic objectives behind the Indian government's Look East foreign policy. It is no coincidence either that Win Aung's visit to India came shortly after Burma's top leader, General Than Shwe, visited China. Burma is anxious not to be too reliant on any one ally. ``Rangoon now sees good ties with Delhi as a way to balance their dependence on Beijing for trade, soft loans a nd military hardware,'' said a senior Asian diplomat. There is no doubt that Rangoon is conducting a concerted campaign to improve relations with all its neighbours. Gen Than Shwe has visited both China and Bangladesh in the past two months, Win Aung has now been to India, and Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will visit Rangoon in February. Diplomats in Rangoon believe this diplomatic offensive reflects the fact that the talks with opposition leader Suu Kyi have stalled. ``There is no dialogue between Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the SPDC [State Peace and Development Council, as Burma's ruling body is called]. The process has completely stalled,'' National League for Democracy spokesman U Lwin said this week. In light of this, the United States and Europe are considering adopting tougher economic sanctions later this year if there is still no significant political progress after United Nations envoy Razali Ismail's next visit to Burma, currently expected to take place in March. ``With the international community preoccupied with the potential conflict in Iraq, the Burmese junta think the pressure to reform is off them for the present,'' said a senior US diplomat. ``It looks like they are just going to stiff it out.'' That appears to be the real reason behind Burma's diplomatic offensive. Burma's intelligence chief, Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, has often told the United Nations envoy and other Asian leaders that Burma did not fear a full-scale boycott by the West as it would get all the aid, trade and investment it needed from its neighbours. - Larry Jagan is a freelance writer based in Bangkok who specialises on Burma. Until recently he was the news and current affairs editor for the Asia and the Pacific for the BBC World Service. --------------------------------------------------------------------
The Nation
Where is our soldier, Army asks Published on Jan 29, 2003 The army asked Burma yesterday to locate a Thai sergeant who went missing on Burmese soil about four years ago, an informed source said yesterday. Thai officials raised the issue at a meeting in Tachilek of the Thai-Burma Township Border Committee, co-chaired by Colonel Apichart Meesommon of Pa Muang Task Force and Lt Colonel Aye Saw, a commander of a taskforce representing Burma. "We repeated our request for the Burmese side to help us find Sgt Sawang Nokklai, who went into Burma and disappeared in 1998. We have heard nothing about him since then although we have made the request several times," the source said.The meeting took place at a hotel in the Burmese border town of Tachilek, which is across from Mae Sai. The Burmese side was also told that it has not yet paid an electricity fee of Bt1.4 million for power it purchased from a power plant in Chiang Rai's Mae Sai district. In the meeting, Burma asked the Thai side to investigate an incident in which it claimed that a group of Burmese rebels fled into a Thai village opposite the province's Mae Fah Luang district after attacking a Burmese military base. Col Apichart was quoted as saying that the Thai side had strictly adhered to its commitment not to allow any armed group to use Thailand as a base to attack Burma and other neighbouring countries. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-01-29 Burma: Trade unions protest at waiver of EU visa ban on Burmese dictatorship Brussels, 27 Jan, (ICFTU OnLine): The ICFTU and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) have protested to the European Union over the attendance of representatives of the Burmese military dictatorship at a Ministerial meeting between the European Union and ASEAN countries in Brussels on 27 and 28 January. On 16 October 2002, the EU Council of Ministers renewed its longstanding visa ban on members of Burmese regime, amongst other sanctions. The ICFTU maintains that by granting a visa to SPDC Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win, the EU is being inconsistent with its own policy decisions. Khin Maung?s visit takes place against the background of continued repression in Burma, generalized forced labour and attacks on trade unionists and other democracy activists by the military junta. International concern is also growing about the lack of any genuine progress in the so-called ?secret dialogue? process between the generals and the democratic opposition. Despite the release from house arrest of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in May 2002, heavy restrictions remain on the National League for Democracy, including monitoring of their communications and movements, and threats against NLD activists. ?The Burmese dictatorship continues to run the country as virtual forced labour camp, with the military compelling adults and children to work for the army and on infrastructure projects?, said ICFTU General Secretary Guy Ryder, adding that ?the European Union should uphold its formal commitment not to allow representatives of this vicious regime to enter Europe, let alone take part in these talks. The EU decision risks conferring some degree of respectability on one of the world?s most repressive regimes and sending a signal to the junta that their duplicitous actions, talking about dialogue but in fact increasing repression, can lead to international credibility?. The ICFTU last October submitted a comprehensive file of evidence to the UN?s International Labour Organisation detailing the continued use of forced labour in Burma, including torture, rape and murder of civilians. Under pressure from the ICFTU, Global Union Federations and Burma democracy groups, several multinational companies have decided to withdraw from the country, however the international trade union movement?s monitoring of foreign investment shows that over 300 multinationals continue to have business links with the military regime. The ICFTU will join a number of Brussels-based organisations at a demonstration against Khin Maung?s visit, on Tuesday 28 January. * * The demonstration will take place at 10:00am in front of the EU Council of Ministers (Justus Lipsiusus Building), Rue de la Loi (next to the Schuman roundabout). --------------------------------------------------------------------
Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-01-29 Speak the truth and you die, says Burmese commander to Shan people As tongues start wagging following surprise invitation by Rangoon to Amnesty International, the UK-based human rights organization, reports have arrived that people in southern Shan State were already warned of the expected visit and instructed to "cooperate with the Army" or risk being punished fatally. According to several sources coming to the border, village headmen in southern townships were summoned to township administrative offices towards the end of December when they were informed to "keep quiet" about the oft-reported excesses committed by the Army to the visiting "foreigners". "We will slice your tongues and cut your necks, if it becomes known to us that you have failed to cooperate by informing against us," said an officer representing Col San Htun, the area commander of Kunhing, 130 miles east of Taunggyi. He was later identified by a visiting headman as Captain Pyay Hpyo Way, Commander of the "commando unit" that was implicated in the killings of ten lent observers on 22 September 2002 in the neighboring Namzang Township, a day after one Burmese soldier was killed in a clash with the Shan State Army "South" of Col Yawdserk. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-01-29 SPDC : TheTerror Regime Khur Tai Korn Khaw First, if there is any organization fitted to be labeled "terrorist", it is the Burmese military junta, the SPDC. Consider this facts: according to UNCHR there are nearly half a million internally displaced persons (IDP) within Shan, Karen, Karenni, Mon and Arakan States, due to the four-cuts policy of the SPDC. The military junta's earth-scorch tactics and terrorizing the populace have directly contributed to this horrible plight and displacement; it is not their own making. Thousands of refugees in Thailand, India and Bangladesh are living evidences of SPDC's terrorizing the population. If this Burmese junta were not a "terror regime", one wouldn't know what name you should affix to it. Secondly, the now defunct "Union of Burma" is made up of Kachin, Shan, Karenni, Karen, Mon, Arakanese, Chin and many ethnic sub-groups. All of these ethnic nationalities are co-owner of the now defunct "Union". The Burmese military have conveniently abolished the "Union Constitution", which was the sole legal bond between the Burma Proper (Burman State) and the all the other non-Burman ethnic groups. As such, the Union of Burma does not exist anymore in a legal-constitutional sense. Thus, the Burmese army is a foreign occupation force encroaching on all non-Burman ethnic areas and the ethnic nationalities are waging a resistance war against Burmese domination. In official terms, the Burman State and all the other non-Burman States have no more contractual obligation to be within the "Union of Burma" for it don't exist anymore. It is as simple as that. The insistence of the Burmese junta that the union must not disintegrate holds no water, for as stated above, there is no such entity in a legal-constitutional sense period. To top all these, the Burmese military continues to implement its "racial supremacy" and "Burmanization" policies, at the expense of all the non-Burmans' ethnic identities and rights of self-determination. It is absurd for the SPDC's lobbyist to act as if it is the victims of a terror campaign, when it is the sole responsible party for all the man-made disasters and human sufferings occurring in Burma today. - Japan Today - Discussion page. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Asian Tribune Date : 2003-01-29 A new "tie" between Wa and Rangoon Bangkok, Jan. 29: Some 4-500 Wa are still facing off besieging Burmese troops in the area north of the former Kuomingtang stronghold in eastern Shan State, according to a report by local Lahu and Shan sources. The area of dispute is between the Namyawng in the north and Namkai in the south, both being tributaries of the Mekong. The Burmese had been trying to push armed units of their Wa ally to areas west of the Kengtung-Tachilek highway, said a Shan source from Tachilek. Earlier, there was some exchange of fire between the Wa and Light Infantry Battalion 571 between 13-15 January, according a Lahu source, but no casualties were reported from either side. Wa billboards and posters in Paliao, where the former airfield of the Kuomingtang and fruit orchards of Wei Hsuehgang as well as his pig farms are located, were being smashed and burnt by Burmese troops, he said. The Wa force in the area is commanded by "Yingjang Khawd" (Battalion Commander Khawd), known for his daring rescue of a Wa leader from Burmese forces in the Monghsu gemland after he was arrested on drug charges 4 years earlier. Bao Yuhua, the youngest of the Bao brothers, is his immediate commander, according to the Lahu source. (Bao Yuri, the eldest is the "political commissar" of Wa forces along the Thai border, while Bao Yuqiang, the second brother, is the supreme leader of the Wa. The third, Bao Yuliang, is the "Mayor" of Mongmai.) Detailed reports are scarce because the local populace are being prohibited from traveling outside their immediate environs, said the Lahu source. Border watchers say they are still following the events. "One thing that stumps us is why the conflict has dragged for nearly a month when Rangoon and Panghsang (the Wa capital) are supposed to be on good terms," said a Thai security officer in Chiang Mai. In the meantime, a meeting has been called by Gen Khin Nyunt to be held in Panghsang a.k.a. Pangkham sometime this week. All ceasefire groups in Shan State have been invited. "It is not known what's on the agenda," said a Shan ceasefire officer. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Asia Pacific EU, ASEAN Ministers Back More
Talks in Burma
VOA News 28 Jan 2003, 23:01 UTC European and Asian foreign ministers say Burma's national reconciliation process is in a "fragile state" and all sides must keep talking. The ministers issued a statement Tuesday after two days of talks in Brussels between the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The statement says the ministers had a frank discussion on Burma and noted cooperation there between the military government and U.N. and Red Cross officials. But the EU wants complete freedom of movement for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The statement says all sides in Burma must be involved in bringing back democracy and human rights. Burma's Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win attended his first ever ASEAN ministerial meeting. The European Union temporarily lifted a travel ban on Burmese officials so he could travel to Brussels. The sanctions were imposed against Burma's military government because of its human rights record. The European and Asian foreign ministers also addressed trade and political issues. They promised to boost cooperation among their various police and intelligence agencies, noting the importance of sharing sensitive information related to terrorism. ASEAN brings together Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. --------------------------------------------------------------------
The Straits Times - JAN 29, 2003
WED
EU and Asean ministers pledge closer trade and
intelligence ties
They set aside perennial problem of Myanmar and agree to boost cooperation between police and security agencies By Matthew Saltmarsh BRUSSELS - Foreign ministers from EU and Asean wrapped up a two-day meeting here yesterday, citing some progress on the perennial bilateral problem of Myanmar, while pledging closer links in trade and intelligence sharing in the battle against terrorism. The talks started on Monday and went on through dinner and into Tuesday. It covered the key issues facing the two regions and beyond: Iraq, terrorism, North Korea, the Middle East, trade and the global economic situation. An important agreement of the talks was one that will boost cooperation between the police and security agencies of the two regions. Singapore Foreign Minister S. Jayakumar highlighted the shared 'soul searching' among the two sides in the fight against terrorism, a point he raised at a private retreat late on Monday. Recent terror attacks had made the European Union more aware of Asia, he said. He also said that both sides recognised the necessity for 'our regions and our friends to ensure that groups that stand for moderation in the Muslim world succeed'. Explaining the impact of closer intelligence sharing in terrorism, Asean Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong said: 'In terms of speed of information from one reliable security agency to another, it will be much faster. 'And then in terms of how you process the information, it's also going to be much more professional,' he added. Myanmar, while allowed to take part in the talks, was chided over its lack of democracy and poor human rights record. It was also urged to open up its economy to market reforms, diplomats said. 'Several EU countries raised their concerns but Myanmar said only that this was a sensitive issue and asked the EU not to pressure it. 'Myanmar said it needed more time to move towards democracy,' one diplomat said. The Asean country has been a stumbling block to EU-Asean relations. Foreign ministers from the two blocs have met every other year since 1978. But the accession of Myanmar to Asean in 1997 put the political dialogue process on hold. Differences over how to treat the country, which has been under military rule since 1962, are the main reason that there has been no upgrading of the 1980 EU-Asean cooperation agreement. EU officials have been especially critical of the Myanmar government's continued harassment of veteran opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. But at the latest meeting, both the EU and Asean sought to overcome the issue. The EU temporarily lifted a visa ban against junta leaders to allow Myanmar's Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win to join his Asean colleagues. The EU has various restrictions on Myanmar. They include an arms embargo, visa bans, an asset freeze on senior regime members and the suspension of trading privileges because of forced labour. This was the first time the EU had allowed Myanmar to be represented at such a high-level meeting since the country was admitted to Asean. The meeting also reaffirmed the need for closer trade relations. Mr Jayakumar noted that while the EU side was not yet ready to enter into free-trade agreements with Singapore or the bloc as a whole, Asean's series of free-trade arrangements and blueprints with China, India, Japan, Korea and the United States 'struck a resonance' with the Europeans. The EU's executive arm, the European Commission, is currently preparing a new strategy paper on relations with South-east Asia, which it plans to finalise in spring. While officials here stress that the paper is still being worked on, they are confident that it can form an 'innovative' basis for a new start in ties that would be able to circumvent Myanmar. The next Asean-EU ministerial meeting will be held in an Asean country in 2005. -------------------------------------------------------------------- |