Please visit this page and sign
the petition for Mr. Soe Myint, the Editor (Founder) of Mizzima
News
http://www.petitiononline.com/soe123/petition.html
--------------------------------------------------------------
BURMA RELATED NEWS - April 06,
2003.
--------------------------------------------------------------
HEADLINES
--------------------------------------------------------------
AFP - Banking
crisis pushes Myanmar's economy closer to the edge
AFP - Myanmar
labels latest rape accusations as "too ridiculous"
AFP - Thousands
flock to see Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi despite threats
AFP - Security
boosted as protestor remains inside British embassy in Myanmar
Bkk Post - Wan Nor
denies traffickers back at work
Xinhuanet - Retired
Myanmar
ambassador criticizes US for war against
Iraq
--------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday April 6,
2:12 PM
Banking crisis pushes Myanmar's economy closer to the
edge
YANGON, April 6 - (AFP) - A banking crisis in Myanmar has led to
strict limits on withdrawals, a suspension of cheque and credit card services,
no lending and a huge shortage of currency, all of which are hitting many people
hard.
The bankruptcies of a few small money-lenders in mid-February
initially sparked the crisis, which saw thousands panic and rush the country's
20 private banks.
The banks had attracted a large concentration of
savings by offering interest rates six times higher than public
institutions.
A near-absence of official comment from the military
junta, and insufficient short-term measures devised by monetary authorities to
deal with the sudden liquidity cruch then worsened the crisis, diplomats and
businesspeople in Yangon say.
The most important private banks,
including the Asia Wealth Bank (AWB) -- which held more than 200 million
dollars, or 43 percent of total deposits of private banks and the Chinese-run
Yoma Bank were immediately affected and the others were soon hit, a western
analyst said.
"Of course, the private banks were not managed with
great orthodoxy. They lent always on short-term credit and often to the rich,
who bought gold, four-wheel drives, houses," the analyst
said.
"This created a true speculative bubble. Gold prices here are
above world levels, and property prices per square metre are not far off Tokyo
or New York."
As a stop-gap measure, the central bank injected 25
million dollars into private banks, he said.
Borrowers were ordered
to repay 50 percent of their loans immediately, while bank withdrawals were
limited to between 50 and 100 dollars each week per account, a paltry sum for
companies needing to pay wages or suppliers.
As a result of its
scarcity, the kyat, which had been trading on the widely-used blackmarket at
around 1,100 to the dollar, shot up -- brutally for many -- to 750. It now
hovers at the 900 point.
The kyat's appreciation would be welcome
news for the junta, which risks mistaking it as a sign of a healthier economy,
according to analysts.
Officially, there is no banking
crisis.
"They try to camouflage the crisis. They passed on orders
to news publications: it doesn't exist," one observer
said.
Diplomats and analysts agree that authorities are not dealing
with the crisis.
"Usually in a banking crisis the government tries
hard to prevent it from spilling over into the general economy -- the government
steps in and guarantees deposits," a western diplomat said.
"Here
the government has refused to fix the situation."
The consequences
are already visible, with enterprises unable to pay for their raw materials
closing or shifting their employees to part-time work in an industrial park in
Yangon.
Meanwhile shops in the capital are suffering a drop of 30
percent of their turnover since the start of the crisis, according to figures
from a western embassy.
And if farmers are unable to sell their
produce in the next few weeks as the current harvest ends, they will not be able
to sow their crops next season.
"The whole economy is paralysed,"
declared a western businessman. "And I am paralysed too, because at this stage
there is no point in expanding my business. People are depressed... There is
absolutely no cash."
An Asian diplomat said the crisis is affecting
everyone.
"It does impact on the entire spectrum of the economy.
For businesspeople, the traders, it is important for this government to find
lasting solutions," he said.
The evaporation of the money supply
has prompted a crisis of confidence in the banking system: The weekly Myanmar
Times reported that sales of safes have doubled in Yangon since the panic
began.
"People trusted their banks and suddenly they can't withdraw
money," said a businessman of Myanmar origin, who said the crisis had brought "a
great deal of uncertainty, especially for the poor and the
underprivileged."
More generally, a high-ranking diplomat said,
"this creates resentment and generally reinforces the feeling of how badly the
government is handling the economy."
The major effects, however,
are difficult to ascertain because of the huge parallel economy in Myanmar,
which is largely fed by drugs money.
"The banking crisis will
reinforce the weight of the underground economy," said another
diplomat.
With its pathological fear of social unrest, the junta
has apparently ensured that the largest companies have sufficient liquidity to
meet the payment of salaries for March.
"The government will not
let massive layoffs take place," predicted another western diplomat. "They also
keep a close watch on rice distribution, wages and salaries."
An
army of the unemployed and famished farmers taking to the streets would be the
worst-case scenario for the generals.
But this is a still tiny
risk, according to one Yangon-based observer who pointed to the "the apathy,
aplasia of Myanmar's people, who are used to living from day to day" under the
junta's yoke.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday April 6, 3:19 PM
Myanmar labels latest rape
accusations as "too ridiculous"
YANGON, April
6 - (AFP) - Myanmar's military
junta labelled as "too ridiculous" a report released in Washington last week
which found the country's armed forces used systematic rape as a weapon of war
against ethnic women.
The report by the Washington-based Refugees
International Group (RI), based on interviews with women on the Thai-Myanmar
border, suggested that the use of rape by Myanmar's armed forces was more
widespread than first reported last year.
RI documented 43 rapes
among women from the Karen, Karenni, Mon, Tavoyan and Shan ethnic groups and
found some 75 percent of women interviewed reported knowing someone who had been
raped.
"Rape is widespread and committed with impunity, both by
officers and lower ranking soldiers. The culture of impunity contributes to an
atmosphere in which rape is permissible," RI spokeswoman Veronika Martin
said.
But the junta said in a statement Sunday that while rape
cases may have occurred in the country, rape was not being used as a weapon of
war.
"Isolated rape cases may have happened in certain areas as is
happening in many other countries around the world," the junta's statement
said.
"But 'systematically using rape as a weapon of war' is just
too ridiculous and these organisations that are putting out such preposterous
allegations need to be reminded that the Myanmar Defence Forces also comprises
ethnic Kayin, Shan, Kayah, Mon and various other national races," it
said.
"The government of Myanmar thinks that it is regretful to
learn that certain individuals or organisations who may have good intentions are
misled by those who wish to keep Myanmar unstable and fractured by creating
misunderstanding and sowing seeds of mistrust among its national races," it
added.
Allegations that Myanmar's Tatmadaw, or armed forces, used
rape as a war weapon first arose last May in a report called "Licence to Rape"
by two Thai-based Shan rights groups.
The report documented 625 sex
attacks on Shan women and girls by Myanmar soldiers, mostly between 1996 and
2001, and drew international outrage. The junta has repeatedly denied and
fiercely condemned the allegations.
In December the US State
Department said that the US consulate in the northern city of Chiang Mai had
found evidence supporting the accusations made by the rights
groups.
It also repeated the allegations in a report released last
week, which again drew sharp denials from the junta.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday April 6, 3:34 PM
Thousands flock to see
Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi despite threats
YANGON,
April 6 (AFP) - Thousands of people
in Myanmar's western Chin state turned up to greet visiting pro-democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi despite threats from local authorities, a spokesman from her
party said Sunday.
Suu Kyi departed Yangon last Thursday for a
ten-day visit to the state, during which she will open offices of her National
League for Democracy (NLD) party and meet with party officials.
"Everywhere she goes, people turn up. They're not allowed to go
and visit her, but anyway the people try to see her, to reach her," NLD
spokesman U Lwin told AFP.
He estimated that around 10,000 people
had turned out hoping to catch a glimpse of her Saturday night at Chin state's
Gangaw, a town lying around 563 kilometres (350 miles) northwest of Myanmar's
capital.
"The only trouble is the local authorities -- instead of
looking after her, they are indirectly disturbing her. They are always telling
people not to go to her," he said.
"This time they haven't put any
obstacles on the road, but they are warning people not to see her. They say if
they go to her, they will learn a lesson, things like that."
Aung
San Suu Kyi, who is on her seventh trip outside Yangon since being released from
19 months of house arrest last May, has complained before of local officials
attempting to obstruct her movements while travelling.
The most
serious incident occurred late last year in Rakhine state, where in the town of
Myauk-Oo she climbed aboard a fire engine to prevent it from dispersing a crowd
of 20,000 people with high-pressure hoses.
Both the United States
and Britain have expressed concerns over the harassment of the leader, who was
given a promise that she would enjoy complete freedom of movement when she was
freed last year.
The Nobel peace laureate is currently in the Chin
state capital Hakha, 675 kilometres (420 miles) from Yangon, where she was
scheduled to open two party offices on Sunday, U Lwin said.
Chin
state, which borders India, is home to Myanmar's Chin ethnic minority.
Anti-Yangon activity in this state has been extremely low relative to other
states with substantial minority populations in military-ruled Myanmar.
Suu Kyi's trips have been aimed at reinvigorating the NLD, which
won 1990 elections by a landslide but has never been permitted to rule by the
military.
Talks aimed at national reconciliation brokered by the
UN began two years ago, but have not yet moved beyond a confidence-building
phase.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday April 6, 1:55 PM
Security boosted as protestor
remains inside British embassy in Myanmar
YANGON,
April 6 (AFP) - Security was boosted
outside the British embassy in military-ruled Myanmar Sunday to prevent a
protestor who fled there to avoid arrest last week slipping away, a special
branch officer said.
The small permanent police presence outside
the embassy had been boosted to around 50 officers, witnesses said.
"The security officials are there hoping to arrest him if he tries
to leave," the special branch officer said.
A diplomatic source
from another embassy told AFP that the British were awaiting orders from London.
"They are waiting for instructions from London on how to proceed,"
he said.
The man sought refuge in the embassy on Friday when
authorities arrested another man he was protesting with, according to a
statement released by the junta soon after the incident.
The pair
had been waving flags emblazoned with fighting peacocks -- a traditional symbol
of resistance to military rule in Myanmar -- and disturbing the peace, the junta
said.
British diplomats have remained unavailable to comment on
the incident.
The junta statement said that authorities were
conducting an investigation because the pair were suspected of being linked to a
March 27 bomb blast in downtown Yangon, which killed two government workers.
Demonstrations are strictly forbidden in Myanmar, but individuals
occasionally flout the law, usually by protesting against the ongoing rule of
the regime.
In January two Buddhist nuns were arrested after
protesting the rising cost of living. They too carried a flag with a fighting
peacock.
The junta continues to rule despite Aung San Suu Kyi's
National League for Democracy (NLD) winning a landslide election victory in
1990.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Bangkok Post - Sunday 06 April
2003
Wan Nor denies traffickers back at work
Interior Minister Wan Muhamad Nor Matha has
dismissed an army report warning the trafficking of drugs from Burma had
resumed, saying the only methamphetamine currently being sold in the country was
smuggled before the launch of the government's war against drugs on Feb
1.
Third Army chief Picharnmeth Muangmanee said traffickers had
recommenced the smuggling of methamphetamine from Burma into northern provinces.
However, Mr Wan Nor said yesterday tight border controls had successfully
eradicated the trafficking of methamphetamine, forcing Wa rebels within Burma to
cease production.
The only speed pills currently available in
Thailand were old stocks that dealers risked selling because of soaring prices,
he said.
Mr Wan Nor said he had ordered authorities in coastal
provinces to ensure pills were not brought in by sea, and to look out for
shipments of cocaine, which he said dealers may seek to sell instead of
methamphetamine.
He claimed the government would eradicate drugs by
His Majesty the King's birthday on Dec 5, saying the crackdown would intensify
in the 30 provinces with the highest drug-related death
tolls.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra also said drugs would be
wiped out by year-end, despite earlier vowing to achieve this goal within three
months.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Retired
Myanmar
ambassador criticizes US for war against
Iraq
Xinhuanet
2003-04-06 15:16:03
YANGON,
April 6 (Xinhuanet) -- Official
newspaper The New Light of Myanmar on Sunday carried a signed article
criticizing the United
States for its war against
Iraq and calling
for an end to it with peaceful solution.
Being a sole super power in
the world after the disintegration of the former Soviet
Union, it is specially needed for the
United States to
be fair and objective in dealing with the international affairs, wrote U Maung
Maung Soe Tint, a retired
Myanmar
ambassador, in the article titled "War and Peace."
Just because
Iraq did not
destroy the weapons of mass destruction according to the time-frame does not
justify the US
war on Iraq
without the mandate of the Security Council, the article said.
The US-led forces are invading
Iraq not only to
disarm the latter but also to overthrow the government of a sovereign
country,the article said, pointing out that even their allies have been opposing
the war and tens of thousands of people of the world are staging demonstrations
to protest the invasion.
The article condemned the
United States
for continuing the war against the will of the people of the world disregarding
their call for halting the war and demand for a political solution within the
framework of the United Nations.
Citing the UN Charter which
prohibits solving a problem with the use of force, the article warned,
"Violation of the UN charteris like burning one's own house. It is sure that
these acts will lead to self-destruction."
Meanwhile, the
Myanmar
government is still keeping silence on the war as it has entered the 18th
day.
--------------------------------------------------------------