Dear Readers
Please sign petition for the country's most prominent political prisoner,
professor Dr. Salai Tun Than
http://www.petitiononline.com/Burma362/petition.html
--------------------------------------------------------------
BURMA RELATED NEWS - April 30,
2003.
--------------------------------------------------------------
HEADLINES
--------------------------------------------------------------
AP - Thai PM
Declares War On Drugs A Major Success
AP - 26 people
quarantined with SARS-like symptoms in Myanmar
Dow Jones - Thai
PM: Prelim Free Trade Deal With India Likely In July
AFP - Indian space
agency in talks with global firms to tap markets
Hindustan Times -
SARS alert sounded along Myanmar border
Kyodo News - Mori
arrives in Yangon on 3-day visit
Asian Tribune -
Burmese democracy activists urge govt to halt Salween Dam
project
Asian Tribune - Two
Journalist Released from the Burmese Prison with Amnesia and Serious Mental
Disorder .
--------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday April 30,
6:03 PM
Thai PM Declares War On Drugs A Major
Success
BANGKOK (AP)--Thailand's three-month war on drugs ended
Wednesday with the prime minister declaring it a major success despite
international concern about more than 2,000 unexplained killings during the
crackdown.
Describing the drug trade and growing addiction as public
enemy No. 1, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra had launched an all-out war
against drug pushers on Feb. 1, giving security forces three months to control
the scourge.
"We've eradicated about 90% (of the problem)," Thaksin told
reporters without elaborating.
He said the government will be able to
"eradicate all drugs in Thailand" by Dec. 2. However, he didn't comment on the
high death toll.
A total of 2,274 people have died nationwide since Feb.
1, including 42 suspects shot by police, according to official statistics
released Wednesday. The United Nations and other human rights activists fear
many were summary executions.
The government hasn't specified how many
of the remaining deaths were directly related to the drug war, but says most
were victims of gang wars or were suspected informants killed by drug dealers.
However, police recorded about 460 homicide reports every month in 2000
and 2001 - and about 1,500 in the first month of the anti-drug campaign.
"The government has seriously violated human rights by using the killing
method to suppress drugs," said Jaran Ditapichai, a member of the National Human
Rights Commission, an independent body.
"It is impossible to eradicate
drugs or destroy drug networks by killing the poor or small-time drugs runners.
The major drugs traffickers are still walking free," he told The Associated
Press.
In February, the special rapporteur of the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights, Asma Jahangir, expressed "deep concern" about
allegations of "excessive use of force resulting in extra-judicial executions."
Thaksin has shrugged off the criticism.
More than 81,000 suspected
dealers and manufactures have surrendered or were arrested, the Interior
Ministry said. A total of 269,383 drug addicts have turned themselves in for
rehabilitation.
More than 12 million amphetamine pills, along with
assets worth over 1.2 billion baht ($1=THB42.82) have been seized since Feb. 1.
Drug agencies estimate that more than 1 billion amphetamine pills are
smuggled into Thailand each year, and that more than 3 million Thais are
addicted to the drug. Large amounts of heroin are also believed to be smuggled
in.
Most of the drugs come from neighboring Myanmar's border districts,
where drug lords operate in autonomous zones, free of interference from the
central government.
Also Wednesday, Cambodia's visiting Prime Minister
Hun Sen praised the crackdown.
"If Thailand could break down drugs, I
could benefit from it. The neighboring countries could benefit from it. So I'm
very grateful to Mr. Thaksin," he said.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday April 29, 11:11 PM
26 people quarantined with
SARS-like symptoms in Myanmar
YANGON, Myanmar
(AP) _ Myanmar has confined 26
people in hospital for observation after they showed symptoms of SARS, but has
found no cases of the disease so far, a senior health official said Tuesday.
Deputy Health Minister Dr. Mya Oo said at a news conference 25 Myanmar
nationals and one person from Taiwan were showing symptoms of severe acute
respiratory syndrome. They were being kept at the Contagious Diseases Hospital
in Yangon.
The 26 confined cases include a high-ranking military
officer, Mya Oo said, without identifying him further.
He said the
government, in close cooperation with the World Health Organization, has taken
stringent measures to prevent a SARS outbreak.
``We are taking extreme
precautions to prevent the outbreak of the disease. I will not extinguish the
fire only after it breaks out, but will prevent it before the fire starts,''
said Mya Oo.
Preventive measures include forming medical surveillance
teams, preparing isolation wards at the Contagious Diseases Hospital and
educating the public through state media.
Mya Oo said that health
personnel deployed at airports, seaports and border crossings to identify
visitors suffering from symptoms of SARS checked 15,000 people between April 1
and 27.
He said that 206 people who had traveled from SARS-affected
countries had been kept under medical observation for two weeks after their
arrival.
They were not quarantined, but received daily visits from
health personnel. About one-fourth of the 206 were staying at hotels, and the
remainder at their homes.
Speaking at the same news conference, the WHO
resident representative in Myanmar, Dr. Agostino Borra, described the
government's efforts to fight the disease as satisfactory.
The leader of
Myanmar's ruling junta, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, on Tuesday attended a summit
meeting in Bangkok of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China on
how to combat SARS.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday April 30, 5:15 PM
Thai PM: Prelim Free Trade
Deal With India Likely In July
BANGKOK (Dow Jones)--Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra
said Wednesday he expects Thailand to sign a preliminary Free Trade Agreement
with India around July.
"We will gain access to the market of a billion
people, while we have a 63 million population," Thaksin told reporters.
He said local consumer product makers stand to benefit from the upcoming
agreement.
"There will be surges in demand for Thai goods. Therefore, we
are seeking agreements with Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar to act as a middleman
selling their products abroad," Thaksin said.
He said strong
competitions in the U.S., Japan, and Europe, Thailand's key markets, are
crimping profits of Thai exporters.
Sananchart Devahestin, director
general of the Foreign Ministry's South Asian, Middle East and African Affairs
Department, said India has requested that Thailand reduce tariffs on Indian
products like tea, while Thailand will ask India to allow more flights between
the two countries.
"Currently, flights to India are limited to 4,000
seats a week. We are trying to push for 7,000," he said.
Sananchart
added Thaksin will visit Sri Lanka May 12-16 and initiate a new direct flight
between Colombo and Phuket, Thailand's southern seaside resort.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Indian space agency in talks with global firms to tap
markets
Wed Apr 30, 3:34 AM ET
BANGALORE, India
(AFP) - India, struggling to find a
market for its satellite launch vehicles, is trying to tap global markets by
joining a foreign consortium, an official has said.
"Today there is a
glut in the launch-vehicle market," Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, chairman of
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), told AFP on Wednesday.
Kasturirangan, who is also the chief of India's Space Commission, said
Western nations launch satellites on their own vehicles.
"It is a
complicated geopolitical issue. Developing the launch vehicle market is not
purely your capability and reliability that dictates everything.
"I
think you will have to play it in a consortium mode, maybe in a strategic
partnership mode," he said.
India is offering its polar satellite launch
vehicle capable of launching 1,000-1,200 kilogramme (2,205-2,640-pound) units.
Next month it will stage the second flight of its geosynchronous
satellite-launch vehicle, which caters for communication satellites.
Kasturirangan said ISRO has an agreement with the European Space Agency
to incorporate India's polar satellite launch vehicle in Ariane launches, but is
yet to get a contract.
ISRO is aiming at similar tie-ups with other
established agencies to promote its launch vehicles and is negotiating with
firms such as US-based Lockheed Martin.
"We are discussing with quite a
lot of such aerospace firms across the Western world. The whole idea is to see
whether there can be mutually beneficial business arrangements.
"From a
financial angle it could be an attractive proposition," Kasturirangan said. "The
partnership could be in joint building of systems, joint marketing and joint
operations."
He said Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of ISRO, has
earned about one billion rupees (21 million dollars) since it was formed about a
decade ago.
The corporation has contracts for receiving data from Indian
remote sensing satellites in about 13 countries including the United States and
Japan.
It also has contracts with nations such as Myanmar to provide
support to ground stations.
"A major contract is with Intelsat where we
have leased nine transponders from INSAT 2E for revenues of 100 million over 10
years," Kasturirangan said. Transponders are devices which relay radio signals.
"We have also started leasing transponders to several broadcasters in
the country and providing consultancy services. So revenues have slowly grown
from a few million rupees to touch one billion now," he said.
But
Kasturirangan said ISRO was not keen to see Antrix grow into a large
corporation.
"Our idea is to bring together a potential marketing entity
including industrial houses to use the space capabilities that India has created
and market it and create a viable commercial base for this activity," he said.
About 550 small and large Indian firms built systems and parts for the
space programme and ISRO said it would further outsource its requirements.
"Lot of space activities of a regular nature should remain within the
industries. They will work closely with Antrix to get support in terms of how to
orient their space products so that it becomes marketable," Kasturirangan
said.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Hindustan Times
SARS alert sounded
along Myanmar border
IANS
Guwahati, April 30
Troops
have been put on high alert along the winding North-Eastern border with Myanmar
to prevent suspected SARS victims from entering India.
Police and
paramilitary personnel have been deployed in strength at vulnerable exit and
entry points all along the 400-km-long unfenced border Mizoram shares with
Myanmar.
"Security forces apart, we have posted doctors along the border
to enforce strict screening of SARS cases," Mizoram Health Minister F. Malsawma
said.
"We are taking no chances because the threat of SARS hitting the
state is on the higher side because of close proximity to South Asian nations
via Myanmar."
Tribal Mizos living on either side of the border require no
documents to travel up to 40 km into each other's country.
A person from
Mizoram can go to Myanmar through the border and likewise someone from the other
side can come to Mizoram without any restriction.
"This traditional
practice of free movement of people along the borders makes Mizoram a vulnerable
state for spreading the killer disease," the minister said.
Mizoram also
shares a border with Bangladesh.
Special teams of doctors and paramedics
posted along the border have been ordered to check any visitor from Myanmar
suspected of having the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that has killed
more than 300 people worldwide.
India's northeast has not reported any
confirmed cases of the killer pneumonia.
"We have already identified a
hospital to treat SARS patients," Malsawma said.
In adjoining Assam
state, health authorities have enforced strict screening of all passengers at
the Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport where a weekly flight operates
between Guhawati and Bangkok.
"After the outbreak of SARS, passengers
travelling to and from Bangkok have dropped by more than 80 percent," an airport
official said.
Health officials say the whole of India's northeast and
particularly Assam's principal city Guwahati, the gateway to the region, have
become vulnerable to SARS following the detection of two SARS cases in
Kolkata.
"We cannot screen all those reaching Guwahati by train and road
from West Bengal and hence the worry," an Assam official said.
Meanwhile,
rumours of a person dying of SARS in Dimapur, the commercial hub of Nagaland,
have triggered panic with people thronging chemists to buy masks.
"A
person who arrived from Hong Kong recently died and unless all his family
members are tested and put on quarantine we cannot rest in peace," said N. Sema,
a local businessman.
Nagaland authorities denied the person died of
SARS.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Mori arrives in Yangon on 3-day
visit
Wednesday, April 30, 2003 at 06:21 JST
YANGON,
April 30 Kyodo - Former Prime
Minister Yoshiro Mori arrived in Yangon Tuesday evening on a three-day goodwill
visit.
Mori, who is leading an 11-member delegation, is scheduled to meet
separately with Senior Gen Than Shwe, chairman of the ruling State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC), and Gen Khin Nyunt, the SPDC first secretary, on
Wednesday.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Asian Tribune
Date :
2003-04-30
Burmese democracy activists urge govt to halt Salween Dam
project
Bangkok, April 29, (TNA): Burmese democracy
activists today called on the Thai and Myanmar governments to halt construction
work on the Salween Dam project, warning that it would have a devastating impact
on the environment, culture and lifestyles of local people.
Led by Mr
Nasser Atwarin, the group of around 10 demonstrators called on the two
governments to give up work on the project until a successful solution could be
found to the political problems surrounding minority ethnic groups across the
Myanmar border.
The group also called on the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations to push for tripartite discussions to solve Myanmar?s internal
problems, while calling on the Rangoon regime to release political prisoners and
urging Thailand to halt the repatriation of Burmese refugees.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-04-30
Two
Journalist Released from the Burmese Prison with Amnesia and Serious Mental
Disorder .
By Zin Linn - A former political prisoner of Burma
According to reliable source in Rangoon, it has been learned that
the Burmese military junta has released 3 political prisoners on this 29th
April. Out of the three, two were Dr. Zaw Min and Htay Thein; another name is
not known yet.
Both Dr. Zaw Min and Htay Thein were arrested in July
1989, when the military authorities accused them of being connected with
communist underground unit. In a press conference on 8 August 1989, Gen. Khin
Nyunt stated that the two of them actively participated in the 1988 democracy
movement under the guidance of communist party's Rangoon underground unit.
Subsequently, they were charged under the security act 5(J) and unlawful
association act 17(1)&(2) and the military court sentenced each to 20 years
of imprisonment in November 1989.
In1992, the military authorities made
an announcement of general amnesty to prisoners who had been sentenced to more
then 10 years before 1992 and had their sentenced reduced to 10 years. In
addition, in accordance with "Chapter 11, article 59 (5)" of the Burmese Jail
Manual, "A person who has acted in accordance with prison regulations has the
right for parole at least 60, 70 or 90 days a year." According ly the prison
terms of Htay Thein and Dr. Zaw Min ended by 1999, as both were not released on
annual parole as per the prison regulations during the their terms of
sentence.
According to a report of the Assistance Association for
Political Prisoners (Burma), Dr. Zaw Min and Htay Thein were afflicted with
mental health problems and were denied medical treatment in the Mandalay Prison,
located in the middle Burma. The two have been experiencing mental health
problems since 1999 as they were refused with parole even after their prison
terms expired. In addition, they have not received proper medical care, as there
is no psychotherapist available in Mandalay Prison, where they detained for
years.
According to the family members, Htay Thein has attempted to
commit suicide several times. His aged and blind mother who lives in Rangoon
hasn't been able to visit him for years. In the case of Dr. Zaw Min, he was
unable to recognize even family members who visited him recently.
Moreover, both of them are promising writers. Dr.Zaw Min is also known
as a well-known short-story writer Zaw Nat Zaw. Htay Thein was a lecturer in the
University of Rangoon when he was arrested and also known as a literary critic
and poet with a pen-name of Naung Kyaw.
Reporters Without Borders
(Reporters Sans Frontières) the Burma Media Association (of Burmese journalists
in exile) and the Asian Tribune have always voiced their concern about the
health of the detained journalists including Dr. Zaw Min(Zaw Nat Zaw) and Htay
Thein(Naung Kyaw). Over 30 prisoners of conscience are journalists, writers and
poets.
At present, U Win Tin (The 2001 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press
Freedom Prize Winner), U Own Kying( Aung Wint , editor of Bo-ta-htaung Daily
& NLD MP), Sein Hla Oo( Maung Nwe Oo, editor of Bo-ta-htaung Daily & NLD
MP), Kyi Tin Oo(poet & editor),U Khin Maung Swe(Columnist on Taw-win
magazine & NLD MP),Aung Zin Min(poet & editor of New Style magazine), U
Htwe Myint(ex-BBC staff reporter),Aung Myint(Phyapon Nilon Oo,poet & editor)
and Dr. Khin Zaw Win( Research writer) are in urgent need of medical treatments
as they are suffering with terminal illness in the junta's notorious
prisons.
As for U Own Kying (Aung Wint, editor of Bo-ta-htaung Daily),
who is also an NLD MP, has been suffering serious illness, including diabetes
with hypertension and facing a fatal situation. Unfortunately, the military
regime takes advantage of releasing limited number of prisoners, in order to
reduce international pressure especially to move sanctions against them and that
practice leads many prisoners towards the graveyard. Burmese people are
disappointed with the current situation puzzling why international community
fails to launch a concerted effort for free political
prisoners.
Addendum
A later news came in on telephone line that
the unknown prisoner released together with the two journalists was U Tin Myint,
an engineer by profession from Kyauk-se near Mandalay. He also was accused as a
supporter of communist party, arrested on 31 October 1989, and sentenced to 20
years imprisonment. He also has some health problem. (Zin
Linn)
Source:
* Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
(Burma)
* Prison-source-in-Rangoon
Asian Tribune urges the
international community to flood the office of the State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC) with thousand and thousands of appeal for the release of the 189
dying prisoners - our brothers in distress. International Campaign to Free 189
Burmese political Prisoners dying in various prisons in Myanmar
--------------------------------------------------------------
|