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BURMA RELATED NEWS - February 24,
2003.
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HEADLINES
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AP - U.N. drug
agency: Myanmar's success in cutting opium brings hardship for farmers
AP - Myanmar to
introduce tougher punishment for antique smugglers
AFP - Bangladesh
working on road link with Myanmar: minister
AFP - Myanmar
junta's request for US dialogue "outrageous" says rights
group
AFP - Myanmar junta
denies Aung San Suu Kyi verdict "politically motivated"
ST - Commentary -
Myanmar talks with US? It'll be fruitless
Bkk Post - NGOs
`hampering' Burmese peace effort
Asian Tribune -
Officials seize - Khun Sa assets.
Asian Tribune -
Police seize Bt 80m assets of Burmese drug king?s
relative
Asian Tribune -
Burma: Rule of fear and torture still blocks hope for
democracy
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U.N. drug
agency: Myanmar's success in cutting opium brings hardship for farmers
Feb 24 6:45 AM ET
By
AYE AYE WIN, Associated Press Writer
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Myanmar's success in cutting opium
production by half in the past seven years is posing serious problems to poor
farmers who were dependent on the crop for a living, a United Nations drug
official said Monday.
Jean-Luc Lemahieu, the representative in
Myanmar of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, said international assistance is
needed to ease the hardship of farmers as they don't have new sources of income.
"No sufficient resources were made available for alternative
income generation," Lemahieu told a press conference. "We have seen a reduction
of 50 percent since 1996-97. For us this is too fast ? for the simple reason
that we have not seen proportional income revenues created for the opium
farmers."
Myanmar is the world's second biggest producer of opium
after Afghanistan, even though it managed to reduce opium production by half
from 1,760 tons in 1996 to 828 tons in 2002. Opium is the raw material of
heroin.
UNODC estimates that as many as 300,000 of Myanmar's 42
million people still rely on opium cultivation for a living ? mostly ethnic
minority villagers in rugged frontier areas. These farmers see little of the
vast profit gleaned by drug traffickers and heroin producers.
"For
humanitarian reasons we ask the international community as well as the
government to focus more on the fate of opium farmers and their families," said
Lemahieu. "Without alternative income, it's very hard for opium poppy farmers to
survive."
The United Nations has heavily promoted crop
substitution as a way to curb opium production, convincing farmers to grow legal
crops which can be legitimately marketed. The same approach was taken
successfully years ago in neighboring Thailand.
But the United
Nations has limited resources and a poorly managed national economy means
Myanmar's military government also has little to spend on such projects.
Further constraints are caused by the attitude of the United
States and other Western countries, which limit aid to Myanmar because of its
poor human rights record and failure to hand over power to a democratically
elected government, as well as its alleged failure to seriously limit drug
trafficking.
Lemahieu said the U.N. view is that although
Myanmar's government still has a lot to do to tackle the drug problem, it has
the political will and means and resources to do so.
The United
States has repeatedly refused to certify Yangon's government as meeting its
standards for drug crackdowns, effectively denying almost all U.S. aid to every
government sector.
Lemahieu noted that German and Italy also don't
like the military regime, but still give aid for humanitarian
reasons.
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Myanmar to introduce tougher punishment for antique
smugglers
Feb 24 7:47 AM ET
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Myanmar is to introduce tougher penalties to
prevent antique smuggling from the country, a newspaper reported Monday.
The Ministry of Culture will increase the maximum fine and prison
term for illegal export of antiques, currently punished with up to 6 months jail
or a fine up to 5000 kyats (US$833 at the official exchange rate, or US$4.55 at
the black market rate), or both.
"The Ministry of Culture is
redrafting antique protection rules to protect the country's vast cultural
wealth," Min Wai, deputy director of the Archaeology Department at the ministry,
was quoted as saying in the Myanmar Times.
Min Wai did not specify
how much the maximum fine and imprisonment term would be increased.
He could not be reached Monday for further comment because he was
at a meeting, according to his office assistant.
Decades of
international isolation have helped to curb the export of antiques from
military-ruled Myanmar, but increasingly items ranging from ancient Buddha
statues to colonial-era curios are seeping through its borders.
According to the 1957 Antiquities Act, antiques are defined as any
object created before 1886, the year when Myanmar, then known as Burma, was
colonized by the British. The act prohibits antiques
trafficking.
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Bangladesh working on road link with Myanmar: minister
DHAKA, Feb 24 (AFP) - Bangladesh is holding talks with Myanmar
and Thailand on a project to build a road connecting the countries, as the South
Asian country pursues a look-east policy, a minister said.
"High-level talks are going with the Myanmar and Thailand
governments on the road link," Communications Minister Nazmul Huda told
parliament late Sunday.
He said technical and finance committees
were set up to undertake the project during a December visit to Bangladesh by
Myanmar Senior General Than Shwe.
Cash-strapped Bangladesh is
hoping to boost its exports by moving closer to the economic powers of ASEAN,
the Association of South East Asian Nations.
Last month Bangladesh
and Myanmar began a shipping service, marking the first sea vessel to travel
legally between the neighbours since a 1988 coup in Yangon.
The
developments come as Bangladesh goes through a rough patch in relations with its
other neighbour, India, triggered by an Indian drive to crack down on what New
Delhi says is illegal Bangladesh immigration into the country.
Dhaka, however, has said its look-east policy would not affect
ties with its western neighbour.
Myanmar, then known as Burma, was
one of 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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Myanmar junta's request for US dialogue "outrageous" says
rights group
BANGKOK, Feb 24 (AFP) - A regional human rights group on Monday
slammed Myanmar's recent call for a constructive dialogue with the United States
as "outrageous".
The ruling State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC) last Thursday released a statement requesting that Washington "roll up
its sleeves, open its heart, and join with us to bring a better life to the
people" by entering talks.
The call came in response to a warning
from the United States that it was losing patience with the junta and was
examining what extra sanctions it could impose in the absence of a promised
dialogue with the democratic opposition.
The Bangkok-based
Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma (Altsean-Burma) said the call was "outrageous
in the light of the junta's refusal to enter into 'constructive dialogue' with
the people of Burma," referring to Myanmar by its former name.
"The world is getting fed-up of the SPDC's empty promises,
systematic human rights abuses, man-made economic crisis and increasing
harassment of Aung San Suu Kyi and democracy supporters," the rights group said
in a statement.
"The SPDC must take responsibility for its own
actions and put their money where their mouth is by taking concrete,
irreversible steps towards democracy and national reconciliation in Burma."
The junta has been engaged in UN-brokered talks on national
reconciliation with democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi since October 2000, but
they are yet to progress beyond a confidence-building stage.
In
its statement last week the junta decried the threat of US sanctions, saying
they would impede economic growth, deprived the Myanmar people of job
opportunities and directly hurt healthcare and education.
Altsean-Burma said: "The reality is that the regime's gross
economic mismanagement is hurting the people of Burma more than any sanctions
could.
"A redistribution of the SPDC's enormous military budget to
social services could provide basic healthcare and education to the people of
Burma."
Washington is a staunch critic of Myanmar, and a strong
supporter of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for
Democracy party won a landslide election victory in 1990, which has never been
recognised by the military.
The United States currently maintains
an investment ban, travel restrictions for Myanmar officials and an arms embargo
on Yangon among other sanctions.
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Myanmar junta denies Aung San Suu Kyi verdict "politically
motivated"
YANGON, Feb 24 (AFP) - Myanmar's military government Monday denied
opposition charges that the guilty verdict delivered to democracy leader Aung
San Suu Kyi last week in a wrongful restraint case was politically motivated.
"The government of Myanmar categorically rejects the charge by the
National League for Democracy (NLD) that a recent court verdict against Aung San
Suu Kyi was 'politically motivated'," it said in a statement.
The
Nobel peace laureate was found guilty by a Yangon court Friday of unlawfully
restraining her cousin Ko Soe Aung from entering the lakeside compound where
they were residing separately last year.
She was fined 500 kyat --
50 US cents at blackmarket rates or 83 dollars according to the official rate --
in lieu of seven days in jail.
The dispute began last May when
Aung San Suu Kyi filed a complaint against Ko Soe Aung at the same court for
physically assaulting her.
Two months later Ko Soe Aung filed a
counter-complaint against her for wrongfully preventing him from entering the
compound. The court had been hearing both cases since then.
Ko Soe
Aung was also found guilty and paid a 1,000 kyat fine.
Aung San
Suu Kyi's verdict, however, was suspended after she staged a half-day courtroom
sit-in, calling the judgement "unfair".
The NLD released a
statement saying the verdict "smacked of politics".
"Any court
case involving the NLD will be resolved according to the instructions of the
military authorities," it said.
The government's statement Monday
said the charge was "completely untrue".
"Aung San Suu Kyi's own
use of the Myanmar courts is proof of her faith in the judicial system," the
statement said, adding that it was "unfortunate to see the NLD leadership
'playing politics' with the judicial system."
NLD chairman Aung
Shwe had also condemned the verdict, labelling it a "politically motivated
move".
Aung San Suu Kyi has had a tense relationship with the
junta, which released her from 19 months of house arrest last May.
Her NLD party won elections held in 1990, but the military refused
to recognise the result.
UN-brokered talks between Aung San Suu
Kyi and the junta which commenced in October 2000 aimed at national
reconciliation are yet to move beyond a confidence-building
stage.
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The Straits Times - FEB 24, 2003
MON
Commentary - Myanmar talks with US? It'll be fruitless
By Lee Kim Chew
IN AN
unprecedented move, Myanmar's military regime is seeking talks with the United
States about the country's political future.
It wants 'pragmatic,
useful advice on making the transition to a stable democracy', the Yangon
government that once scoffed at an offer of a US$1 billion (S$1.75 billion)
World Bank loan in return for democratic change declared last
Thursday.
But don't bet on the apparent turnaround signifying a
change of heart among Yangon's generals.
True, several hundred
political prisoners have been freed recently and the regime has opened the doors
to Amnesty International, the Red Cross and the International Labour
Organisation.
United Nations Special Rapporteur Paulo Pinheiro
notes that prison conditions for political prisoners have improved, with fewer
cases of beatings and torture.
On the other hand, the junta is
still arresting political dissidents and National League for Democracy (NLD)
activists, and refusing to start a dialogue to engage pro-democracy leader Aung
San Suu Kyi and her party.
Which makes it clear why the generals
are making peace overtures to Washington: because they hope to ward off new
sanctions which the Bush administration plans to impose on the
regime.
The US declared last week that its patience was running
out. 'We, along with the United Kingdom and others, are considering all options,
including further sanctions,' warned Mr Lorne Craner, the US Assistant Secretary
for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour.
Myanmar, in
dire economic straits with inflation spiralling upwards at 50 per cent a year,
in tandem with a currency falling in value, cannot afford new
sanctions.
Symptomatic of the crisis was the massive run on its
banks last week, which forced the central bank to restrict money transfers and
limit withdrawals from private banks to a paltry 200,000 kyat (S$317) a week,
bringing business to a standstill.
On top of that, Myanmar's border
problems with Thailand remain unresolved, thus hampering bilateral trade and
adding to Yangon's economic woes.
According to aid agencies, the
refugee flow into Thailand worsened last year, and about a million people have
been displaced within Myanmar because of the war with ethnic
minorities.
The ostracised regime gets little foreign aid, and it
is starved of soft loans from international lending
agencies.
Although the European Union (EU) lifted its visa embargo
and allowed Myanmar to join the Asean-EU ministerial talks in Brussels last
month, it wants Asean countries to put more pressure on the junta to undertake
political reforms.
In contrast to the junta, Ms Suu Kyi, a Nobel
peace laureate, has the support of the West.
Last week, the
US-based Freedom Forum awarded her the Al Neuharth Free Spirit of the Year Award
and US$1 million for her advocacy of democracy.
The Bush
administration is insisting on genuine democratic change in Myanmar as a
precondition for dropping its sanctions.
The signs point however,
to a renewed standoff between her and the generals, as mutual restraints give
way to mutual recriminations.
According to foreign diplomats, the
regime's grassroots organisation is distributing pamphlets that vilify her and
her cause.
She, in turn, has called for international sanctions to
stay as long as the regime procrastinates in starting a political dialogue with
her party.
Given the intransigence on both sides, Yangon's latest
call for talks with Washington will be a fruitless exercise.
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Bangkok Post - Monday 24 February
2003
NGOs `hampering' Burmese peace effort
Wassana Nanuam
Support from
NGOs for Burmese ethnic groups is complicating the government's effort to
mediate peace talks between Rangoon and the rebels.
A senior
military source said the NGOs would be closely watched as authorities tried to
bring the parties to the negotiation table. Thailand has offered to mediate a
decade-long conflict between Rangoon and minority groups. The offer was made
during Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's recent visit to
Burma.
The source said continued outside support for minority
groups made it hard for Thailand to persuade them to join the talks. Gen
Thammarak Isarangkura na Ayudhaya, the defence minister, said Mr Thaksin had
asked the Defence Ministry and armed forces to promote national reconciliation
between Burma and the rebels. The task was difficult because both sides were
sticking by their positions, he said. If peace prevailed on the border, the
government would encourage firms to invest in factories or farms on the Burmese
side to create jobs for Burmese people. This would help stem the flow of illegal
workers and spread of drugs, he said.
The Thailand-Burma Economic
and Cultural Association will lead a movie team to make a feature film on drug
suppression in Burma. The feature film is intended to show Burma's sincerity
about tackling drugs. Gen Sanan Kachornklam, secretary-general of the
association, said the film-makers led by producer Joay Bangchak would start work
in Rangoon on Feb 26. Burma had also approved filming in a border area.
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Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-02-24
Officials seize - Khun Sa
assets.
Bangkok, Feb. 24: Anti-narcotics police and
officials yesterday seized nearly 200 kilograms of jade and more than Bt200
million in other assets allegedly belonging to a drug-trafficking
syndicate.
Apichart Thanomsap, deputy secretary-general of the
Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO), said the officials simultaneously raided
nine places in Bangkok, Pathum Thani, Chiang Mai and Phayao provinces
yesterday.
"All these places are suspected of laundering money from
drug trades," he said.
Officers from the Narcotics Suppression
Bureau and the Office of Narcotics Control Board took part in the
raids.
An informed source said the nine places raided were linked
to "retired" Burmese drug baron Khun Sa, also known as Chang Chi
Fu.
The assets seized belonged to Kittisak Mee-ngern, aka Chang
Zhao Khang, and Anan Mee-ngern, aka Chang Zhao Ming, who are related to Khun Sa,
the source said.
Anan and his wife, Sumontha, were convicted of
drug trafficking more than 10 years ago and have already served their jail
terms.
In Bangkok, police seized nearly 200kg of jade from the
offices of JYK Company, of which Kittisak is the managing director. The company
operated out of a three-storey townhouse owned by Kittisak.
In
Pathum Thani, police found more jade in a house belonging to Kittisak's wife,
Parinya Limthirakul. The house doubled as a jade-processing factory and had six
workers.
Simultaneously, officials searched Anan's luxurious
mansion and several houses owned by his relatives in Chiang Mai and seized the
properties, although no illegal items were found there.
The
officials also seized an ostrich farm in Phayao belonging to
Kittisak.
The source said Anan ran many businesses in the North
that were suspected to be fronts for laundering money from drug
trafficking.
Wanida Piyachaiyapruk, a younger sister of Parinya,
also allegedly laundered money from the drug trade through her jewellery
business, the source said.
- The Nation -
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Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-02-24
Police seize Bt 80m assets of Burmese drug king?s
relative
Bangkok, February 23, (TNA): ? Police
raids across the country this morning resulted in the confiscation of assets
worth more than Bt80 million belonging to a relative of the infamous Burmese
heroin warlord Khun Sa.
Officers from the Drugs Suppression
Division joined with officers from the Office of the Narcotics Control Board and
Office of the Anti Money Laundering Board carried out the raids in the early
hours of the morning, beginning with the Bangkok business address of Mr Kittisak
Meengern, or Jang Sao Kang, Khun Sa?s nephew.
Soon afterwards
police raided two more addresses in Bangkok, including the home of Mr Kittisak?s
common law wife, four addresses in Chiang Mai and one in
Phayao.
This morning?s raids follow on from arrests made six years
ago, when police seized over a million amphetamines tablets and 20 kilograms of
heroin.
Police said that Mr Kittisak and his wife, Miss Parinya
Limtheerakul, used a jewellery business as a front company to hide their drug
business and money laundering activities. The court had thus ordered the
confiscation of assets worth more than Bt80 million, mostly in the form of bank
deposits, land title deeds and buildings.
However, police said that
no illegal substances had been discovered in today?s raids.
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Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-02-24
Burma: Rule of fear and torture still blocks hope for
democracy
By James Pringle -
Rangoon
With fresh arrests of pro- democracy followers of
the Burmese opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and violent threats to
'annihilate destructive elements', Burma's hard-line military regime has served
notice that a new UN-brokered dialogue on the country's political future seems
in danger of floundering, with few signs of real movement towards
reform.
The dialogue started last May, amid cautious hopes of a new
opening after the release from 19 months of house arrest of Nobel peace prize
laureate Suu Kyi -- she had earlier spent six years detained in her run-down,
wooden, lakeside villa.
The detention of 12 pro-democracy
supporters and the aggressive statement by the information minister, prompted
the US to signal that, together with Britain, it may impose additional sanctions
because of lack of progress towards ending the long political
stalemate.
'Destructive elements' are the regime's code-words for
Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD), which won the 1990
elections by a landslide, but were never permitted to take power. For its part,
the European Union called on Rangoon to release all political prisoners and
immediately hold a substantial dialogue with the NLD. Kofi Annan, the UN
Secretary-General, said national reconciliation should begin with 'constructive
dialogue'.
The junta alleged those arrested tried to blow up a
prison and a railway station and promised a 'fair trial'.
Lorne
Craner, US assistant secretary of state for human rights, said: 'We remain
highly sceptical about the regime's commitment to any political
transition.'
The regime, he added, 'suppresses political dissent by
censorship, persecution, beatings, disappearances and
imprisonment'.
This is apparent to any visitor here. Few doubt that
Burma's military chiefs rule through fear, repression and torture. Most people
are afraid to discuss politics; those few who dare, talk only in whispers.
Seemingly concerned because its economy is in a tailspin, the junta told
Washington on Friday it would welcome 'pragmatic, useful advice on making the
transition to a stable democracy'.
Rangoon was just stalling for
time, observers said. Long lines of nervous Burmese lined up outside banks
making panicky withdrawals of their savings after the central bank limited pay-
outs. New statistics showed foreign investment dropped 14.7% last
year.
For her part, Suu Kyi said tough economic sanctions and
tourist boycotts against Burma must continue until the military government
begins meaningful dialogue. But through all this, Burma's ruling military caste,
whose troops gunned down 3000 students at pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988,
continued to act in its uniquely bizarre way.
State-controlled
media reported that General Khin Nyunt, the feared intelligence chief who
oversees 1200 political prisoners in the Burmese gulag -- a political joke here
can mean seven years breaking rocks -- used holy water and fragrances to
'baptise' a white [albino] elephant, which traditionally represents power and
prosperity.
Once prosperous, Burma, with a population of 42
million, now ranks as one of the world's 10 poorest countries after more than
four decades of inept mismanagement since General Ne Win seized power in 1962.
Per capita income, at £194, is in free fall, and the price of rice has
trebled.
Ne Win recently died in disgrace aged 92, arrested by his
own prot?g?s, while his son-in-law and three adult grandsons are to be hanged
for treason if appeals fail. They were caught with three small voodoo dolls,
made to resemble Burma's top three generals, who were enraged that pins had
apparently been applied as in the late Francois 'Papa Doc' Duvalier's
Haiti.
Attacks against Suu Kyi, daughter of national hero General
Aung San who won independence from Britain in 1948, had largely ceased after she
began closed-door discussions with the generals. But they had been pushed into
dialogue by international pressure and talked through gritted teeth, leading to
the present impasse.
Suu Kyi did visit NLD offices outside Rangoon,
but in January supporters greeting her in one centre were beaten with batons and
sprayed with fire hoses.
Burma certainly has pariah status.
Washington maintains an investment ban, travel restrictions for Burmese
officials and an arms embargo -- only US sanctions on Iraq are
tougher.
Last late year, a US State Department investigation
reported Burma used rape as a weapon against ethnic minorities and human rights
groups allege the army includes more child soldiers than any other fighting
force worldwide.
To be fair, during recent travels to Kiplingesque
Mandalay, the ancient temples of Pagan beside the muddy Irrawaddy, and Lashio,
way-station on the second world war's infamous Burma Road to China, I saw fewer
signs of forced labour than on earlier visits. Nor did I notice underage
soldiers, though they could be deployed in the Shan state against ethnic
minorities.
At Maymyo, an old British hill station, there are plush
new private hotels and golf courses for the privileged -- and corrupt --
military elite.
Nobody ever said dialogue and a political opening
was going to be easy in what is probably the world's most isolated state after
North Korea. When I interviewed Suu Kyi in her dusty, wooden-built NLD party
headquarters on her release last May, she told me: 'I think this is a far more
delicate situation than any we have seen in the past.'
Still
charismatic and beautiful at the age of 57, with her porcelain skin and jasmine
in her hair, Suu Kyi spoke of the new political process, which was to ultimately
involve power-sharing, as a 'difficult balancing act'.
But her
dialogue partners are nothing if not eccentric. Ne Win, the late dictator, had
an obsession with numerology, especially the number nine, so he issued banknotes
of 45 and 90 kyats, the Burmese currency . Today's power- holders have their own
obsessions. Although number one and two in the ruling triumvirate, Senior
General Than Shwe and General Maung Aye, keep a lower profile, they all like to
be photographed making offerings in the Buddhist temples that dot the Burmese
landscape.
General Khin Nyunt, the number three, revels in a
personality cult, preening for the cameras -- his multiple pictures dominate the
grotesque parody of a press, which used to dub Suu Kyi a 'genocidal prostitute'
and 'a foreigner's floozie'.
Suu Kyi's late husband, Oxford
professor Michael Aris, died of cancer in 1999, shortly after Rangoon denied him
a visa to see his wife one last time.
Near where he keeps his
three living white elephants, Khin Nyunt has built his temple over a large
natural rock he believes resembles an elephant, though to other Burmese it is
just a rock.
Detached from reality, the military elite, brutalised
after years in power, lives sumptuously in huge villas, while most Burmese exist
just above the hunger line. Seen from a rattling night train, village homes are
lit by candle-power only. The military chieftains fear democracy because they
think it could mean tribunals -- they have seen Slobodan Milosevic on trial at
The Hague and, worse, Nicolae Ceausescu shot in Romania. Yet they remain a law
unto themselves. Last week, four traffic policemen were arrested for daring to
stop a car carrying a general's daughter.
But their obsessions with
endlessly making merit in Buddhist temples and baptising white elephants
suggests that Burma's ruling generals are wrestling with their own
demons.
Under the Eastern cosmic law of cause and effect, they know
their crimes are an anathema in Buddhism. They appear, because of the killings,
the tortures, the press-ganging for slave labour and the pointless cruelty to
Suu Kyi and the late Michael Aris, to fear for their own future reincarnations.
With good reason, it would seem.
- Sunday Herald -
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