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-------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINES -------------------------------------------------------------------- AFP - Aung San Suu Kyi calls for dialogue, reconciliation in Myanmar AP - Rights group says military gang-raped woman in Myanmar during Red AP - Myanmar marks 56th Union Day with calls for unity, democracy Reuters - Myanmar's Suu Kyi calls for talks, generals defiant Reuters - Thailand burns drugs as deaths, rights fears rise Asian Tribune - Feb. 12 - Burma Union Day message by Shan Democratic Union Xinhuanet - CRPP calls for dialogue between Myanmar govt, opposition -------------------------------------------------------------------- Aung San Suu Kyi calls for
dialogue, reconciliation in Myanmar
YANGON, Feb 12 (AFP) - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi Wednesday called for dialogue with the military government to start a process of national reconciliation but questioned the junta's desire for talks. "We, on our part, are putting all our efforts to start such a dialogue for the sake of national reconciliation...," the National League for Democracy (NLD) leader said at a ceremony marking the 56th anniversary of Myanmar's Union Day. "The question is, how much does the State Peace and Development Council really want such a dialogue?" she asked in an address at the NLD headquarters attended by representatives of Myanmar's ethnic minorities, diplomats and some 400 NLD members. The dialogue, which the NLD hopes would end four decades of military rule, was expected to start last May after the junta released Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest. It was the only practical way towards real development, Aung San Suu Kyi said. She urged the ruling military to show their "love for the nation by action and not just by words." Union Day marks the unification of Myanmar's different ethnic groups in 1947 which led to its independence from Britain. Aung San Suu Kyi, whose father Bogyoke Aung San engineered the unification, said national reconciliaton was necessary to solve the social, economic and political woes besetting the nation. Her party was ready to work with anyone at any time to achieve this goal. "We don't look upon anybody as our enemy... we don't bear any malice towards anyone ... (and) we will not hesitate to work together with anyone for the sake of the nation," Aung San Suu Kyi said. In a Union Day message read out an official ceremony, military leader Senior General Than Shwe urged the nation "to strive in harmony, for the emergence of a state constitution that would pave the way for the building of a new discipline-flourishing democratic state." The ceremony, held under tight security, was attended by an 10,000 specially invited people. Than Shwe also warned the nation to look out for threats from "external and internal elements" who were "using various ways and means to constantly hinder and sabotage our development tasks." Military authorities last week announced the arrest of 12 people -- NLD members and a Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) activist -- who it said were involved in anti-government activities. The NLD-sponsored Committee Representing Peoples Parliament (CRPP), which includes members of ethnic minorities, also called for political dialogue, the release of political prisoners and political freedoms. The CRPP was established after the military government refused to recognise the NLD's overwhelming victory at the 1990 polls. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Rights group says military
gang-raped woman in Myanmar during Red
Feb 12 5:40 AM
ET
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ Myanmar government soldiers gang-raped an ethnic minority woman _ even as an International Red Cross team was investigating human rights conditions only a few kilometers (miles) away, a Thai-based human rights organization charged Wednesday. A military patrol detained the 35-year-old Shan woman in her house, and eight soldiers raped her in the presence of her four children, the Shan Women's Action Network said. The alleged incident took place on Jan. 30 in a village near Laikha town in northeastern Myanmar's Shan State, said Hseng Noung, a spokeswoman for the group. She cited informers for the group who live in the region. The Shan are one of several ethnic minorities who have been battling Myanmar's central government for decades in attempt to gain autonomy. Myanmar's military government did not respond to faxed requests for comment on the allegations, but it has repeatedly denied using rape as an instrument of war. A Red Cross spokesman on Wednesday said on condition of anonymity that the group was unaware of the reported rape. The Shan Women's Action Network last June issued a report, titled ``License to Rape,'' which claimed to document 173 cases of rape and sexual violence by Myanmar troops against girls and women from the Shan ethnic minority. The report was co-authored by the Shan Human Rights Foundation. The U.S. government in December said a State Department investigation backed up the report's allegations of sexual violence against Shan women. The nongovernment organization Refugees International, based in Washington, D.C., said last October that its own interviews with Myanmar refugee women living in Thailand also indicated widespread rape by soldiers in Myanmar's Shan State and other areas near the Thai border. Myanmar's government tried to discredit the ``License to Rape'' report, noting its authors were linked to Shan anti-government guerrilla groups. It responded to the State Department's findings with a statement saying that ``the notion of rape as a systematic national policy is abhorrent to the Government of Myanmar, which has never ordered, supported or condoned rape in any form.'' The statement quoted Myanmar government spokesman Hla Min as saying Myanmar was ready ``to assist and fully cooperate with any independent international organization,'' and had agreed to let the International Committee of the Red Cross carry out its humanitarian work in areas where alleged rapes were committed. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar marks 56th Union Day with
calls for unity, democracy
Feb 12 4:35 AM
ET
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) _ Myanmar's ruling junta urged ethnic unity and warned against ``destructive elements'' while the opposition renewed calls for democracy at ceremonies Wednesday marking the country's 56th Union Day anniversary. The holiday commemorates the signing of a 1947 agreement by ethnic leaders and the late independence hero Gen. Aung San, father of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, to resist British colonial rule. Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, won independence from Britain in 1948. The junta's top leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, said in a message at a flag-hoisting ceremony that the country fell to imperialists because of a lack of unity and regained independence only after forging ties among diverse ethnic groups. He stressed the importance of efforts by the ruling State Peace and Development Council to bring together ethnic groups in Myanmar's insurgency-wracked border regions. Than Shwe warned that Myanmar must guard against ``destructive elements'' that ``cannot bear to see the flourishing of national solidarity and the development of sound political, economic and social environments.'' ``The entire national people must always remain vigilant against these elements and ward off the dangers posed by them,'' he said in a statement read by Yangon military commander Maj. Gen. Myint Swe at People's Park. The ceremony was attended by government officials and representatives from Myanmar's various ethnic groups. Official newspapers reported that the government would celebrate this year's Union Day anniversary by opening a technology college and a 500-line phone exchange in Panglong, where the agreement to resist British rule was signed 56 years ago. Panglong is 480 kilometers (300 miles) northeast of the capital, Yangon. In a separate ceremony, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi reiterated demands for a dialogue with the ruling military, adding that only democracy would bring equality for the country's ethnic minorities. ``To solve the current problems, and in the interest of the people, we urge the SPDC to commence the dialogue as soon as possible,'' she said at the Yangon headquarters of her National League for Democracy party. ``Anyone impeding the reconciliation process is lacking in patriotic spirits,'' Suu Kyi told hundreds of supporters and diplomats from the United States, Britain, Italy, Japan and Australia, ethnic minority leaders and U.N. representatives. The ruling junta came to power after crushing a pro-democracy movement in 1988. It called elections two years later but refused to honor the results, which gave the NLD a landslide victory. The two sides have been holding reconciliation talks since late 2000, but no real progress appears to have been made. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar's Suu Kyi calls for
talks, generals defiant
BANGKOK, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Reconciliation between Myanmar's opposition and military seemed as far away as ever on Wednesday with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi calling for talks while the ruling generals railed against threats to stability. Speaking at a ceremony to mark Union Day, Suu Kyi said Myanmar's economy and society were suffering because of the political impasse between the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) and the opposition. ``I would like to call on the SPDC...to immediately start dialogue for the good of the entire people,'' Suu Kyi told a gathering of supporters and diplomats at the headquarters of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party. ``We need to recognise that we lack unity and reconciliation. Our problem will not disappear if we merely keep pretending not to know its existence.'' Union Day commemorates a 1947 agreement between Suu Kyi's father, independence hero General Aung San, and leaders from several ethnic minorities, guaranteeing them freedom to choose their political destiny. To mark the occasion, military leader General Than Shwe issued a statement attacking ``destructive elements'' in Myanmar -- a euphemism for the opposition the military often used until U.N.-brokered confidence building talks began with the NLD in late-2000. The talks led to Suu Kyi's release from house arrest last May, but have since stalled. ``Destructive elements within and without the nation cannot dare to see the flourishing of national solidarity and the development of some political, economic and social environment,'' said the statement, published by Myanmar's state media. ``The entire people must always remain vigilant against these elements and ward off the dangers posed by them.'' The military government said on Monday it had arrested 12 opposition activists for plotting to blow up a prison and a railway station. A military intelligence spokesman said seven of those arrested were low-level members of the NLD. Rights watchdog Amnesty International estimates Myanmar still has 1,200 to 1,300 political prisoners, despite a series of releases over the past two years. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Thailand burns drugs as
deaths, rights fears rise
By Chris Johnson BANGKOK, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Thailand burned six tonnes of illegal narcotics on Wednesday as part of an anti-drugs crusade that has already led to almost 90 killings and raised fears of human rights violations by over-zealous authorities. Officials in the ancient capital of Ayutthaya, just north of Bangkok, torched $81 million of stimulant pills, opiates and other drugs in a giant incinerator containing 3.5 tonnes of methamphetamines and 315 kg (695 pounds) of heroin. ``We are confiscating so many drugs in our campaign against traffickers that we have no choice but to burn the seizures,'' Deputy Public Health Minister Pracha Promnog told officials at the ceremony, which was broadcast live on television. The burning is part of a major crackdown on drugs that has seen fierce gun battles between police and suspected traffickers across Thailand, from the capital to the northern mountains of the Golden Triangle on the borders of Myanmar and Laos. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra launched this month what he called ``an-eye-for-an-eye'' operation to make the country drugs-free by May in a three-month blitz on criminal gangs. But critics say it is wholly unrealistic to expect a brief campaign to remove such a well established and lucrative criminal business and the police methods have drawn widespread protests. Rights groups say the campaign involves a shoot-to-kill policy by police which amounts to extra-judicial execution. Local newspapers reported on Wednesday a U.N. human rights envoy had requested permission to visit following complaints against the police, but had been asked to delay the trip. CONFIDENT A U.N. official contacted by Reuters confirmed that a long-planned visit to Thailand by a representative of Secretary General Kofi Annan had been postponed but declined to say if the trip was linked to the drugs campaign. Thai officials argue the anti-drugs crusade is the only way to break the back of a multi-billion dollar business that dwarfs many legitimate industries in the country and has ensnared hundreds of thousands of their citizens. ``I am confident that our three-month campaign will eradicate all narcotics from Thailand,'' Pracha said. Officials say up to one billion pills of methamphetamine -- a stimulant called ya ba or ``crazy medicine'' in Thai and related to the drug known as ``ice'' in the United States -- will flow into Thailand this year from secret chemical factories in the Golden Triangle, many in Myanmar. Myanmar also produces hundreds of tonnes of opium each year, making it the second biggest producer after Afghanistan, according to drugs agencies. Most of the drugs pass through Thailand on their way to customers in the West, the agencies say. Rights groups have welcomed the Thai commitment to fighting the drugs trade but say the methods being used are unacceptable. In the first week of the campaign, police figures show 87 people were killed in drugs-related cases. Of these, police say they shot dead only eight suspected traffickers during arrests, while the rest died at the hands of criminal gangs. Rights groups doubt this and say the anti-drugs crusade has given police a green light to kill whoever they dislike. ``Thailand has now become a land of fear,'' Jaran Ditapichai, a member of the country's Human Rights Commission, told a television station on Wednesday. Amnesty International said it was extremely worried by the methods Thailand was using in its campaign. ``What we have seen in Thailand in the last 10 days is something which Amnesty is gravely concerned about,'' Amnesty Asia-Pacific Director Demelza Stubbings told Reuters Television. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-02-12 Feb. 12 - Burma Union Day message by Shan Democratic Union On this day, February 12th -- fifty-six years ago -- the Union of Burma or "Burma", as it is generally known nowadays, was born. A treaty -- the Panglong Accord -- signed by the founding fathers of the Union, created the Union of Burma. U Aung San, the Yawnghwe prince (Sao Shwe Thaike) and other Shan princes, Chin and Kachin leaders. Panglong signified the coming together of several and different national states, or "pyi-daung" in Burmese and hence, the name "Pyidaung-zu", meaning the coming together or union of national states. As the name signifies, it was a union of equal national states with no state subordinated to another, and no ethnic group superior or subordinated to others. This is the spirit and intent of Panglong, the core meaning of February 12th, Union Day. This spirit and legacy of February 12th -- the Union Day -- is yet to be honored in full. The Shan Democratic Union solemnly reiterate on this noble day of February 12th -- the Union day -- that together with all ethnic brothers and sisters, and hand in hand with Burman compatriots, we will continue along the path pioneered by our founding fathers, to give flesh to their aspirations of diverse peoples living together in equality, dignity, freedom, and solidarity. We hear what the military rulers have been saying since 1962 when the mastermind of Burman chauvinist, the late General Ne Win, usurped power. The military rulers claim to have kept the country together and have repeatedly expressed fear of secession and the breakup of the Union. The fact is, no one has the desire to break up the Union. The ethnic nationalities took up to arms as a self-defense measure, to resist unlawful dictatorship, and to restore the Panglong spirit. Now that the destructive and lawless Ne Win era has ended, the time has come for all of us to re-examine and learn from the past, and to explore together the shape of our common future. It is now time to put aside all the passion and wrath, the violence and the brutalities of the Ne Win era and, as compatriots living on the same earth and drinking from the same river, rebuild the nation and our Union of Burma. The path ahead is not difficult for we already have with us a blueprint for a prosperous, harmonious, united nation-state. This blueprint -- the Panglong Accord and spirit -- has been with us since the creation of this country. The Shan Democratic Union therefore calls upon all compatriots from all nationalities and from all walks of life, and importantly, the SPDC (the State Peace and Development Council) and members of the armed forces, to join hand and work together to realize the dreams of our founding fathers and U Aung San. They have shown us the way, and it is our duty to walk this path, a path that leads all the diverse peoples and cultures of the country from a tragic and ugly past to a beautiful future: a Union of national states where freedom, equality, human-dignity, and the rights of all as human beings and as citizens are honored in both words and deeds. -------------------------------------------------------------------- CRPP calls for dialogue
between Myanmar govt, opposition
Xinhuanet 2003-02-12 18:00:47 YANGON, Feb. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- The Committee Representing the People's Parliament (CRPP) of Myanmar on Wednesday called on the military government to start a dialogue with the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) without pre-conditions. The CRPP, an alliance comprising mainly the NLD, Shan NLD, Rakhine Democracy League, Mon Democracy Party and Zomi National Congress, was formed by the NLD on Sept. 16, 1998, with the aim of affecting the convening of parliament and carrying out the work of parliament in the interim before it can be convened. In its statement on the occasion of the country's 56th anniversary of the Union Day, the CRPP said the present problems of the country are political with those of the ethnic nationalities and economic, social and educational problems need to be resolved urgently as national problems. "The present situation of the country is disastrous," it warned, attributing the main cause of deterioration in those sectors to the deprivation of democratic institutions, the denial of the right of self-determination of the ethnic nationalities and the abuses of fundamental human rights. Although the government has declared that a new chapter in politics has opened up, the orchestrated obstructions that Aung San Suu Kyi (ASSK), NLD general secretary, encountered in her recent journeys to the Rakhine state and Ayeyarwaddy division indicated that confidence building between the government and the NLD has not yet achieved, it said. It also warned that national reconciliation cannot be achieved by words alone nor political slogans can resolve the problems. It recalled that dissension between political parties, groups and ethnic nationalities since independence had led to insurrections, resulting in the failure of the national reconciliation. It further warned that without national reconciliation, there cannot be a peaceful and developed democratic state and a federal union that guarantees the equal rights of the ethnic nationalities cannot be established. Commenting on the observance of the Union Day, the CRPP pointed out that at present, with the abrogation of the constitution of the country, the form and essence of the union has disappeared and the union spirit is fading away. It stressed the need to lay down and implement a union policy which would hold firm to the fundamental principles based on the spirit of the union. The CRPP demanded the release of all political prisoners unconditionally, allowance of all political parties to function freely and the general public to engage in political activities without restrictions and obstructions, and permission of freedom of publication. Meanwhile, the NLD held a ceremony at its headquarters here tomark the Union Day, in which ASSK said despite abundance in natural resources, Myanmar stands as one of the poorest countries in the world due to absence of settlement of the country's national reconciliation problem. Myanmar's Union Day was designated on Feb. 12, 1947, when ethnic leaders met at the Panlong Conference in northern Shan state, sponsored under the leadership of late independence hero General Aung San, and signed the Panlong Agreement to strive in unity for the country's independence from the British colonialist rule. Myanmar regained its independence on Jan. 4, 1948. -------------------------------------------------------------------- |