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BURMA RELATED NEWS - April 04,
2003.
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HEADLINES
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AFP
- Protestor arrested as another flees into British embassy in Yangon: junta
AP
- Myanmar man takes refuge in British Embassy
BBC
News - Burma breaks up protest
Asian Tribune - Myanmar to shut checkpoint after Mae Hong Son
limits trade area
Hoover's online - Ivanhoe Mines to expansion of Monywa
project
Xinhuanet - Myanmar's Khin Nyunt complains of
pressures from internal, external forces
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Fri Apr 4, 07:23 PM ET
Protestor arrested as another flees into British embassy
in Yangon: junta
YANGON, April 4 (AFP) - One demonstrator was arrested Friday and
another sought refuge inside the British embassy here after holding a small
demonstration in the Myanmar capital, the military government said.
"This morning, at 9:30 a.m., two people holding fighting peacock
flags were shouting and disturbing the peace and security in front of the
British embassy in Yangon," according to a statement released by the junta.
One demonstrator dressed like a Buddhist monk escaped capture and
entered the grounds of the British embassy, the statement added.
"According to diplomatic sources, the one who entered the British
embassy is endangering embassy security," it said.
The junta said
the two demonstrators were from the town of Pegu, north of Yangon.
Authorities are conducting an investigation, it said, as the pair
are suspected of being connected with a March 27 bomb blast in downtown Yangon
which killed two government workers outside a telephone exchange.
British diplomats were not immediately available.
Flags bearing a peacock are a traditional symbol of resistance
against military rule in the country.
Myanmar's junta strictly
forbids demonstrations of any kind. Individuals however are intermittently
arrested in the capital for protesting in public, usually against the ongoing
rule of the regime.
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Myanmar man takes refuge in British
Embassy
Fri Apr 4, 06:46 PM ET
YANGON, Myanmar
(AP) _ A Myanmar man took refuge
inside the British Embassy Friday after being chased by policemen while staging
a political protest, officials and sources said.
He was still in
the embassy eight hours after the incident, and government officials were
negotiating with British diplomats to get him out, presumably to arrest him,
sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Sources said the
diplomats were apparently seeking assurances from authorities about the
protester's well being.
A government statement said ``at 9:30 this
morning two males, one of them in monk's robes, holding a fighting peacock flag
started shouting in front of the embassy.''
The fighting peacock
is the symbol of the pro-democracy movement, indicating that the two men were
demonstrating against Myanmar's military junta.
The government
statement said they ``tried to disrupt peace, stability and tranquility,'' but
did not elaborate.
It said security personnel arrested the man in
the monk's robes while the other ran into the embassy compound. It said both men
were believed to be from Pago town, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Yangon.
Police interrogated the monk to find out if he has any links with
a March 27 bomb explosion that took place about 2 kilometers (1 mile) from the
British Embassy in downtown Yangon.
The statement said ``according
to diplomats having the man inside the embassy could hurt the security,'' but
did not explain why the embassy has not given him up yet.
British
Embassy staff contacted by telephone said they have been instructed by their
superiors not to speak to anyone about the incident. The British ambassador was
not available for comment.
Myanmar's military rulers, who have
been in power since 1962, do not tolerate public demonstrations against the
government.
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BBC
News - Friday, 4 April, 2003, 11:00 GMT 12:00 UK
Burma
breaks up protest
By Larry Jagan
BBC
Burma analyst
A small and peaceful anti-government
demonstration has taken place in the Burmese capital Rangoon, near the British
embassy.
The protest was immediately broken up by the security
police who were on guard at the embassy as part of the increased security
measures because of the war in Iraq.
According to an eye-witness,
the authorities detained one demonstrator, but the rest escaped.
Two Buddhist monks were among the protestors as well as a student,
who waved the flag of the pro-democracy party, the National League for
Democracy.
A spokesperson for the British embassy told the BBC
that the visa section had been closed for the rest of the day as a result of the
protest.
Public protests in Burma are very rare, and are always
sharply dealt with by the authorities.
Earlier this year, two nuns
were detained while staging a protest against the country's deepening economic
crisis in the centre of Rangoon.
Last year, several students
staged lightning demonstrations in Rangoon. They were also speedily arrested,
and the two leading student activists sentenced to 14 years in jail.
The government fears a repeat of the massive pro-democracy
demonstrations of 1988 which brought the country to a standstill for months
before the generals seized power in a bloody coup.
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Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-04-04
Myanmar to shut checkpoint after Mae Hong Son limits trade
area
Mae Hong Son, Apr. 3, (TNA): Myanmar today
prepared to close the Baan Na Mon checkpoint in retaliation for a decision by
the Mae Hong Son provincial administration to limit the area in which Myanmar
nationals can purchase consumer goods from Thailand.
TNA reporters
learnt that Chao Maha Cha, leader of Myanmar?s Southern Shan State, has said he
will shut the border crossing on April 6, due to dissatisfaction with Mae Hong
Son?s decision to allow Burmese nationals to travel no further than a
12-kilometre radius around Baan Huay Sai Khao to purchase consumer goods from
Thailand. The Southern Shan leader has said that there are no goods on sale in
the area in question, and that Myanmar citizens are suffering as a
result.
The decision follows a visit last month to Chao Maha Cha by
Lt Gen Ong Tuay, commander of the 3rd Special Army Division, and Maj Gen Khin
Mong Min, leader of the Eastern Army, who gave the Southern Shan leader the
green light to go ahead with the checkpoint closure.
But Mae Hong
Son Governor Suphot Laowansiri today defended his decision to limit cross-border
trade, saying that the movements of Myanmar nationals within the province had to
be kept under control, as large numbers of Myanmar nationals who came into Mae
Hong Son to purchase goods refused to return across the border.
Not
everyone on the Thai side was satisfied, however. At the Mae Hong Son Chamber of
Commerce, chamber president Somchai Sithisantikul said that the checkpoint
closure would lead to problems in cross-border trade, adding that he would
convene an emergency meeting of the province?s border trade committee to work
out ways to solve the problem.
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Hoover's Online
Ivanhoe Mines Ltd -
new independent scoping study recommends staged expansion of Monywa project to
129,000 tonnes of LME Grade A copper cathode/y.
April 4, 2003
5:18am
Edward Flood, Deputy Chairman of Ivanhoe Mines Ltd
announced that the production of LME Grade A copper from the Monywa Copper
Project (Monywa) in Myanmar could increase by 450% following the implementation
of a proposed new, independent expansion plan developed by Ausenco Ltd, of
Perth, Australia. The Ausenco plan calls for Monywa's current production rate of
28,000 tonnes/y to rise to 129,000 tonnes in stages spread over six years - a
level that would establish Monywa as Asia's largest and lowest-cost copper
producer using the advanced heap-leach, solvent extraction and electrowinning
copper recovery process. Highlights of the proposed Monywa expansion plan are:
the generation of an after-tax net present value of $440 M at a discount rate of
10%; an internal rate of return of 70%; estimated total production costs,
including realization costs, of $0.46/pound of copper produced; and capital
costs of $315 M over six years, of which only $40.9 M in external funding will
be required. The plan covers the Phase II development of the large Letpadaung
deposit in conjunction with ongoing mining of the current Phase I Sabetaung,
Sabetaung South and Kyisingtaung deposits. Ausenco estimates that the capital
costs to progressively expand production to 129,000 tonnes/y will be $315 M
spread over six years. Due to the success of the current Phase I S&K mining
operations at Monywa, Ausenco estimates that $275 M of the projected required
capital for Phase II would be financed internally from the project's operating
cash flow. The Ausenco plan was prepared for Myanmar Ivanhoe Copper Co Ltd
(MICCL), which owns and operates the Monywa Copper Project. MICCL is a 50:50
joint venture between Ivanhoe Mines and No 1 Mining Enterprise, a state-owned
company. Implementation of the plan is contingent on the approval of the MICCL
Board and the successful outcome of high-level financing meetings with
Australian, Japanese, Korean and Chinese investors who have expressed interest
in participating in the planned expansion. Total measured and indicated
resources at Letpadaung are 946 M tonnes grading 0.43% copper, using a cut-off
grade of 0.15% copper. In addition, the deposit contains inferred resources of
332 tonnes grading 0.35% copper, using the same cut-off grade. The copper
resources at the Letpadaung deposit are included.
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Myanmar's Khin Nyunt complains of
pressures from internal, external forces
Xinhuanet 2003-04-04
00:13:16
YANGON, April 4 (Xinhuanet) -- Myanmar leader General Khin Nyunt
has complained that his country is facing political, economic and social
pressures resulting from the instigations made by internal and external
"destructionists."
Khin Nyunt, first secretary of the State Peace
and Development Council, made the complaint here on Thursday when meeting with
members of the Myanmar National Committee for Women's Affairs, official
newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported Friday.
These
pressures and various kinds of disturbances have exceeded the country's capacity
of endurance on all fronts, the Myanmar leader said.
He stressed
the need to be aware of "the conspiracies of the internal and external
destructive elements to cause disturbances hindering the development drive, to
keep the nation under economic sanctions, and to halt the inflow of foreign
investments and arrival of tourists into Myanmar."
Khin Nyunt
charged these elements with making slanderous accusations including sexual
violence against ethnic women, human rights abuses, use of child soldiers and
forced labor, noting if there are no internal and external disturbances under
the influences of politics, the nation will achieve more progress.
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