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BURMA RELATED NEWS - May 29, 2003.
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HEADLINES
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AFP - Thai forces
harass while murders remain unsolved: Amnesty
Bkk Post - Hundreds
arrested as police crack down on illegal aliens
Bkk Post - Just who
is to blame?
Bkk Post - Aliens'
work permits to be renewed for another year
The Nation - The
ball is firmly in junta?s court
Asian Tribune -
Burma tower plan for Bagan needles UN
CNN - Ashcroft's
Justice, Burma's crimes and Bork's revenge
Asahi - Reforming
refugee law is just the first step
Freedom News - The
usual fabricated story of the SPDC
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Thai forces
harass while murders remain unsolved: Amnesty
LONDON,
May 28 (AFP) - Thai police and
military forces committed offences against refugees, human rights defenders and
ethnic minorities in 2002, while the murders of more than 30 migrant workers in
Thailand went unsolved, Amnesty International said Wednesday.
Three
Karenni refugees were raped by soldiers in March outside a refugee camp in
northern Thailand, the London-based rights watchdog said in its report on 2002.
"Three soldiers were arrested in connection with the attack and remained
in detention but at the end of the year it was not known if they had been tried
and sentenced," the report said.
The report detailed several other
incidents involving paramilitary forces and police using undue force in handling
protestors.
"Human rights defenders, particularly land rights activists,
were subjected to surveillance, harassment and intimidation," the report said,
citing several incidents.
Meanwhile 26 farmers and land rights activists
were arbitrarily arrested and seven were detained without bail for six weeks,
the group said.
"The authorities claimed that the farmers were
cultivating privately-owned land, although there was compelling evidence of
widespread corruption in issuing land deeds for property and that some of the
land had originally been given to authorities," it said.
The group also
highlighted the fact that no one was brought to justice by the end of 2002 for
the deaths of 33 migrant workers from Myanmar, the report noted.
Police
in February found the bodies of 20 Karen workers who had been blindfolded, had
their wrists tied behind their backs and their throats cut.
In March,
the bodies of 13 other Myanmar migrants were also found.
"Preliminary
investigations indicated that they had been dumped there after suffocating to
death hidden under a load of vegetables in a truck," the report said.
The report said that chronic overcrowding problems in Thailand's
notorious jails continued, where its says 260,000 people were reportedly held in
prisons designed to hold 100,000.
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Bangkok Post - Thursday 29 May 2003
Hundreds arrested as police crack down on illegal aliens
Supamart Kasem
Immigration police
have intensified their crackdown on human smuggling as part of the government's
anti-mafia campaign.
About 500 aliens have been arrested in Tak alone
this week.
Immigration police chief Pol Lt-Gen Charnwut Wacharapuk said
in Mae Sot district, Tak, yesterday that he would ``uproot'' human smuggling
gangs at all cost. The return of deported aliens would no longer be
tolerated.
The rackets were flourishing because government officials and
local politicians were also involved in them, he said.
Although the
suppression of illegal immigration had been intensified, Pol Lt-Gen Charnwut
said the arrested aliens would not be mistreated. He condemned employers who
used dark influence to take advantage of alien labourers. Four Thais have also
been arrested in Mae Sot and Mae Ramat districts for allegedly hiring and
providing housing to illegal immigrants. About 500 aliens, mostly Burmese, have
been arrested so far.
Anuthep Tan-ekkul, 28, was arrested at a garment
factory in Mae Sot along with 33 Burmese workers and three Taiwanese who had no
work permits.
Thavorn Chasamrong, 26, was charged with hiring 114 Burmese
workers illegally in Mae Ramat.
Kamolthip Wangkham, 24, and Jirapong
Kraiwareewilai, 57, were arrested for allegedly housing 42 illegal Burmese in
Mae Sot. In addition, 294 other illegal Burmese immigrants were rounded up from
several other areas in Mae Sot. All the Thai suspects would be prosecuted and
the aliens repatriated, Pol Lt-Gen Charnwut said.
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Bangkok Post - Thursday 29 May 2003
Just who is to blame?
Seven people died last
week just across the border in Burma in a series of bomb explosions and the
ambush of a fuel convoy. This was followed by an outbreak of finger-pointing. u
Some people can't wait to get a finger in the national politics pie. But there
are others who feel they can resist the temptation. u The Thaksin government has
had its way with the civil service again, replacing another career officer with
its own choice.
Spent bullet shells found scattered around the scene of
an ambush of nine fuel tankers near Burma's Kengtung township last Thursday
might help shed some light on the attackers. They might, but not necessarily,
say some security officers.
The Burmese military junta believes members
of the Shan State Army were responsible for the Kengtung ambush and a series of
bomb attacks a day earlier near Tachilek. Seven people died altogether in the
two attacks, including two Burmese civil servants.
The first incident
took place on Wednesday at Tachilek, a border town opposite Chiang Rai's Mae Sai
district. Four bombs went off, including one at a statue honouring the revered
Burmese monarch Bayinnaung.
The following day, a convoy of nine fuel
tankers belonging to Myanma Petroleum Products Enterprise travelling between
Tachilek and Kengtung were ambushed by gunmen. Three drivers were killed and six
vehicles destroyed.
Four days later, Rangoon called a press conference at
which it accused the Shans of the attacks. It also accused the ethnic minority
group of trafficking in drugs.
Rangoon did not back its claims with any
evidence, merely speculating that a company commander named Hsantit led the
ambush.
Col Yawd Serk, the Shan State Army commander, dismissed the
allegations and said the attacks were most probably the result of a dispute
between factions of the United Wa State Army, a Rangoon ally and the suspected
producer of hundreds of millions of methamphetamine pills that find their way
into Thailand.
Major-General Kyaw Win, the junta's deputy chief of
military intelligence, believes the attacks were aimed at hurting ties between
Bangkok and Rangoon. He said they were intended to destroy the border
trade.
Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, deputy prime minister in charge of
national security, has cast doubt on the claim the Shan were involved. He also
thought the attacks might arise from a conflict of interest among members of the
United Wa State Army, or others in Burma.
"They [Shan State Army] do not
have the capacity to launch attacks away from their area of influence," he
said.
An intelligence officer said the shells found at Kengtung are used
with German assault rifles produced in Burma and used widely by government
forces.
The Thai 3rd Army's Pha Muang Task Force, which is in charge of
security along the border in the far north, is not ruling out the possibility
that Wa rebels played a part in the attacks.
"This [finding of spent
shells] might prove nothing since those who are not happy to see strengthened
ties between Thailand and Burma might have supplied weapons which could cause a
wide rift between us," said one Thai security officer.
He said it did not
matter who was behind the attacks but there were people "who might not be happy
with the improved ties between Thailand and Burma who will try to ruin
them".
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Bangkok Post - Thursday 29 May 2003
Aliens' work permits to be renewed for another year
Penchan Charoensutthipan
The
national panel tackling illegal alien labour problems has approved a proposal
seeking to renew work permits for 400,000 migrant workers for another
year.
Labour Minister Suwat Liptapanlop said 409,339 registered alien
workers would be allowed to renew licences for another year in the general
labour, fisheries, housework, animal farming and agricultural farming
sectors.
Employers who hire alien workers would be required to register
too.
The panel will now consider whether to renew work permits for people
working in factories and gas stations.
However, factories or firms with
Board of Investment privileges would not be allowed to employ alien
workers.
Mr Suwat said the panel's next meeting would focus on imports of
migrant workers from neighbouring countries. Thailand has signed a memorandum of
understanding with Laos concerning imports of workers and is expected to sign a
similar MOU with Cambodia and Burma.
Alien workers are expected to
receive their long-delayed work permits in August.
Pinyo Veerasuksawat,
member of an NGO on alien workers, says the government has been too slow to
issue work permits. Registered workers carry a receipt as proof of registration,
but that is all they get.
``They carry that piece of paper around and it
is easily torn or damaged. Several alien workers have been arrested or pressured
for money,'' he said.
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The Nation
The ball is firmly in
junta?s court
Published on May 29, 2003
Denying an
accusation by the Burmese military junta that the Shan State Army (SSA) was
responsible for the recent fatal bomb attacks in the border town of Tachilek,
SSA leader Colonel Yawd Serk says peace is possible only when Rangoon agrees to
a dialogue that Bangkok has promised to mediate and to cut a cease-fire deal
with all insurgent groups.
Following are excerpts from an interview
given by Yawd Serk to Nation reporters on May 21 - the day the SSA celebrated
the 45th anniversary of its resistance to junta rule - at its Loi Tai Lang base
camp opposite Mae Hong Son.
What is the latest fighting situation
between the SSA and the Burmese army?
There has been fighting every day.
Rangoon has increased its military strength. It has trained more than 1,000 new
soldiers. Burmese soldiers had been disguised as SSA soldiers and forced
villagers to work for them. They also forced villagers to fell trees to make
camps and to find food for them. This is being done to instil a feeling of hate
among villagers towards the SSA.
However, we don't think the Burmese
army will make any military moves against us now as there still are many
internal problems inside Rangoon.
What is the progress of the political
approach?
We have been waiting for two months already for the dialogue
with Rangoon that Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra had offered to mediate. We
are still waiting. We fully support the role of Premier Thaksin. Yet, it remains
to be seen if he still maintains his will, or how he is going to turn that will
into practice. However, we would very much like him to negotiate with Burma on a
dialogue with us.
If Burma really wants a dialogue, then peace will be
given a chance. If Burma wants real peace it will have to first cut a cease-fire
deal with all groups. Then it must honour the spirit of the 1947 Panglong
Agreement [that acknowledged the autonomy of the Shan] and move back from Shan
state. Next, it must follow all resolutions of the United Nations.
If
Burma refuses to enter into dialogue with us and other groups, we will move to
have the UN revoke its status, and we want Britain to take the lead in this
initiative.
Indeed, our Shan nation was established even before the
signing of the Panglong Agreement in 1947. Our Shan national flag was presented
at the UN headquarters before the Burmese flag.
What is the prospect of
a dialogue between the SSA and Rangoon, as the Burmese military junta has always
insisted that your outfit surrender?
Then Burma must surrender first.
Either dialogue or we fight, that's it. If the dialogue cannot take place, then
the fighting will become even fiercer as we also have reinforced our military
strength.
If Burma continues to act and behave like it is at present, it
will be in an even more difficult situation.
How is the situation
regarding the ethnic groups going to change if there is a regime change in Burma
whereby opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party
becomes the government?
We hope for that change. Yet there still needs
to be talks between her party and several ethnic groups. However, we haven't yet
heard Aung San Suu Kyi talk concretely about her policies regarding ethnic
groups. What we want is real democracy where every group enjoys equal rights.
Do you want to see another role for Bangkok than just as a mediator?
As Thai and Shan (or Tai) people are linked by history, we want Thai
people, the Thai government and the Thai military to help us. We want Thai
people to learn and acknowledge the plight and suffering of our people who live
in fear and who have to shed tears everyday. The problem is that our plight and
our struggle are not being seen and understood.
Some Thai military
officials say they want the SSA to move far away from the Thai border to prevent
the fighting from spilling over into Thailand.
We already stay in our
land. We do not make military moves against the Burmese soldiers. The problem
depends on Burma, not us.
Today there are news reports about bombings at
Tachilek. The Burmese military government pointed the finger at us. We deny the
accusation. This is our auspicious day. We do only good deeds. Maybe the Burmese
government knows that this is our important day and wants to tarnish our
reputation.
How special is this year's anniversary?
Nothing
special. We celebrate this event every year in order to make merit for, and to
honour, our soldiers who have been killed in the fighting with Burmese soldiers.
What is the progress of the planned joint military training between
different ethnic groups?
We still maintain that plan. We are joined in
the same spirit because we have the same goal and the same enemy. This year we
have other allies to participate in the parade of our army. They are the Karen
National Union (KNU), the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), the Arakan
Revolutionary Party (ARP) and the Chin National Democratic Front (CNF). We want
these allies to be united in order to enter into dialogue with
Burma.
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Asian Tribune
Date :
2003-05-29
Burma tower plan for Bagan needles UN
By Jan McGirk in Bangkok
Bangkok,
May 29: Burma plans to erect a 200ft (60 metre) observation tower that would
loom over the venerable temple city of Bagan, despite concerns expressed by the
United Nations that it would be jarringly out of scale.
U Khin Maung
Latt, the tourism director general, said construction of the Nanmying, which
translates as High Palace, could be completed in a year. He said the tower would
protect one of South-east Asia's most significant archaeological sites by
keeping tourists from climbing on fragile monuments to take snapshots of
sunsets.
Sprawling over 40 square kilometres, Bagan is the main tourist
attraction in Burma after the golden Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon.
Bagan,
the ancient capital, was described by the adventurer James Scott as a
"pagoda-studded plain" and has more than 2,000 exquisite temples, pagodas and
stupas dating from the 11th and 12th centuries.
The UN, which has helped
restore some of the earthquake-damaged monuments since 1975, has designated
Bagan a World Heritage Site. Preservationists at the UN cultural agency Unesco
are alarmed that the tower would detract from the historical setting, a ghost
city of monasteries, hidden frescoes, and bell-shaped shrines. U Khin said the
tower was inspired by traditional architecture and would "enhance
tourism".
The published plans show that the tower, which would be built
beside a golf course in the archaeological zone, would resemble a postmodern
pagoda crossed with a stunted Seattle space needle.
- Independent.co.uk -
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Ashcroft's Justice, Burma's crimes and Bork's
revenge
By Joanne Mariner
FindLaw
Columnist
Special to CNN.com
Wednesday, May 28, 2003
Posted: 1:02 PM EDT (1702 GMT)
(FindLaw) -- Given the chance to
protect corporate interests, the Bush administration is predictably happy to
take it. Ditto for the prospect of undermining international justice.
But it's not every day that the opportunity arises to accomplish both
objectives at once. It takes a case like John Doe I v. Unocal Corp., a civil
damages action currently pending in U.S. federal court.
In a brief
recently filed in the Unocal case, the administration -- in the person of
Attorney General John Ashcroft -- sets out to defend an oil company, reaffirm
the president's untrammeled power over foreign policy, and eviscerate a law that
has provided a modicum of justice to victims of rights abuses from around the
world.
All that and more. In an added plus, the brief also gives the
administration a vehicle for highlighting the wit and wisdom of Robert Bork.
Bork, the right wing's original judicial martyr, is very much in the thoughts of
an administration that is currently fighting bruising confirmation battles in
Congress.
Forced labor, murder, rape and torture
The plaintiffs in
the Unocal case are Burmese villagers who claim that they were subjected to
forced labor, murder, rape, and torture during the construction of a gas
pipeline through their country. Soldiers allegedly committed these abuses while
providing security and other services for the pipeline project.
Jane Doe
I, one of the plaintiffs in the case, testified that when her husband tried to
escape the forced labor program, he was shot at by soldiers, and that, in
retaliation for his attempted escape, she and her baby were thrown into a fire.
Her child died and she was badly injured.
Other villagers described the
summary execution of people who refused to work, or who became too weak to work
effectively.
There is little doubt that such crimes occurred. Human
Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and a host of other groups have
exhaustively documented them. In 1995, when pipeline construction was beginning,
the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution urging Burma (also known as
Myanmar) to put a stop to its practices of torture, forced labor and summary
executions. Even the Justice Department, whose "friend of the court" brief was
filed this past May 8, was willing to acknowledge the "blatant human rights
abuses" committed by Burma's military government.
The only serious
factual issue in the case is the extent of Unocal's responsibility for the
crimes. The plaintiffs claim that Unocal aided and abetted the Burmese military
in its campaign of abuse, an assertion that Unocal vigorously denies.
'Practical assistance'
The Unocal case is now pending before the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. The lower court that first heard the
case dismissed it, finding insufficient proof of Unocal's involvement in the
abuses.
A panel of 9th Circuit judges that ruled unanimously to reverse
the dismissal heard the appeal. The court found that the evidence presented by
the villagers supported the conclusion "that Unocal gave practical assistance to
the Myanmar Military in subjecting Plaintiffs to forced labor."
As the
court described it, this practical assistance "took the form of hiring the
Myanmar Military to provide security and build infrastructure along the pipeline
route in exchange for money or food." The assistance "also took the form of
using photos, surveys, and maps in daily meetings to show the Myanmar Military
where to provide security and build infrastructure."
Moreover, the court
found, the evidence supported the conclusion "that Unocal gave 'encouragement'
to the Myanmar Military in subjecting Plaintiffs to forced labor."
Besides ruling for the plaintiffs on the forced labor issue, the court
also reversed the district court's dismissal of the murder and rape claims,
finding sufficient evidence of Unocal's complicity in those abuses. But the
panel decision, issued in September 2002, was vacated in February, when the
Ninth Circuit decided to rehear the case en banc (in other words, sitting as a
panel of 11, rather than three, judges).
The Alien Tort Claims
Act
Except for a token acknowledgment of the Burmese government's human
rights abuses, the Justice Department's brief ignores the facts of the case.
Rather than attempting to defend Burma and Unocal on the factual record, it
instead aims to destroy the legal basis of the villagers' suit.
In its
brief, the Justice Department embarks on a wholesale attack on the Alien Tort
Claims Act (ATCA), the law underlying the villagers' claims. For over twenty
years, since the landmark 1980 case of Filartiga v. Pena-Irala, courts have
ruled that the ATCA permits victims of serious violations of international law
abroad to seek civil damages in U.S. courts against perpetrators found in the
United States.
The Justice Department's proposed interpretation of the
law would radically narrow its scope. The law would be changed so dramatically,
in fact, that as the Department itself acknowledges, it would be rendered
"superfluous."
If the 9th Circuit adopts this approach, victims of human
rights abuses abroad will no longer be able to rely on the U.S. courts for any
hope of justice. And no more will multinational corporations, enticed by other
countries' lower wages, laxer worker protections -- and, possibly, ineffective
and corrupt judicial systems -- have to worry that abuses they commit in foreign
countries may come back to U.S. courts to haunt them.
The Justice
Department's current view of the ATCA represents a radical break from past
practice. No previous administration has ever challenged the legitimacy of ATCA
suits against gross human rights abusers.
There is, however, some
precedent for the Department's restrictive view of the law. And its source --
then-judge Robert Bork -- is telling. In 1984, back when he was a member of the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Bork wrote a concurring opinion in
the case of Tel-Oren v. Libyan Arab Republic that vigorously challenged the use
of the ATCA in human rights suits.
The Justice Department's brief is
littered with approving references and quotes from Bork's Tel-Oren concurrence.
The Department clearly hopes, with this case, to establish Bork's views as the
authoritative position of the 9th Circuit.
To do so would, of course, be
an important step toward convincing the Supreme Court, which has yet to rule on
the ATCA's use in human rights cases, to follow suit.
From the ATCA to
the ICC
The Justice Department's offensive against the ATCA may be a
testament to the law's growing relevance. It was only in 1993 that plaintiffs
began suing multinational companies under the ATCA for alleged complicity in
human rights violations abroad.
Since that time, there have been at
least twenty-five such cases. Although the courts have dismissed most of them,
and have not rendered any judgments against companies, the ATCA has clear
potential as a tool for policing corporate perpetrators of human rights abuse.
Indeed, the ongoing cases have already set alarm bells ringing in the corporate
world.
Yet there is another obvious basis for the Justice Department's
effort to sabotage the law. Equal to this administration's solicitude for
corporate welfare is its loathing of international justice.
It may seem
like quite a leap from the ATCA to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Yet
the underlying concepts -- that one country's gross human rights abuses might be
of legitimate concern to an outside forum, and those international human rights
standards might be legally enforceable, rather than merely hortatory -- are the
same.
With the ATCA and the ICC, the Bush administration is attempting
to protect human rights abusers at the expense of their victims. Only if justice
and accountability are ignored does this effort make sense.
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Asahi.com
POINT OF VIEW - Reforming
refugee law is just the first step
Kazumoto Momose and Kanako Ida:
Long deplored by civil rights lawyers and
humanitarian aid experts as outdated and unfavorable to refugees, the system for
granting asylum is now the focus of a reform bill sponsored by the
government.
Regarded by some as an improvement over the current
Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law, critics nonetheless complain
the reform bill still lacks the ``correct'' spirit necessary to adequately
address the global refugee problem today.
The bill purports to improve
the lot of asylum seekers with the following amendments to the law:
(1)
Do away with the 60-day provision that requires anyone applying for recognition
of refugee status to do so within 60 days of entering Japan.
(2) Create a new
system, under which asylum seekers who meet a prescribed set of conditions will
be issued a temporary stay permit.
(3) No more deportation of asylum seekers
while their applications are being screened. This applies also to those who do
not qualify for a temporary stay permit.
(4) Permanent residency will be
automatically granted to those who have been recognized as refugees, provided
they meet a prescribed set of conditions.
Under the current law, asylum
seekers can face deportation as illegal aliens unless they have entered Japan on
a valid visa. The reform bill seeks to rectify this situation, which the United
Nations High Commission for Refugees and other human rights groups acknowledge
as ``one step in the right direction.''
However, objections are being
raised against items (2) and (4) for attaching conditions to refugee protection.
The conditions prescribed by the bill are that ``application for a temporary
stay permit must be made within six months of entering Japan,'' and that ``the
applicant must have arrived in Japan directly from a nation or territory where
his or her life, freedom or safety was at risk.''
The government's reason
for specifying such conditions is believed to be that anyone who escapes
persecution at home ought to apply for recognition of refugee status immediately
after leaving his or her country.
However, a UNHCR survey of those who
have been recognized as refugees over the last 10 years showed that, of the 77
people the UNHCR was able to interview, only nine had come directly to Japan. As
for last year's 108 applicants, only 24 were direct arrivals.
Tin Win, a
48-year-old political refugee from Myanmar (Burma), arrived in Japan in November
1996 via Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. ``For geographical and social
reasons, people from my country have no choice but to first make it to one of
the neighboring nations,'' he explained. ``But few of those nations are
signatories to the 1981 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, and most
are on close terms with the Myanmar military dictatorship. There was no way I
could seek asylum in any of those neighboring countries soon after leaving my
country.''
Win has since been recognized as a refugee by the Japanese
government, but he said he was skeptical whether people like him would fare any
better after the proposed legal reform.
Meantime, the government must
improve the screening process itself as well. Last month, the Tokyo District
Court awarded 9.5 million yen in damages to a Myanmar refugee who had sued the
Japanese government for holding him in detention for 11 months while his
application for refugee status was being screened. Eventually it took four years
for him to get the status.
The court ruled that the screening official
didn't believe the man's statement from the start and did not even bother to
check its veracity.
In the case of an Afghan asylum seeker who challenged
the government's refusal to recognize his refugee status, a screening officer
who testified for the government stammered on the stand, ``The Taliban? Isn't
that the name of one of the ethnic groups in Afghanistan?'' His remark revealed
his ignorance of even the most basic, common-sense knowledge required by the
case he was handling.
There are more than 40 screening officers around
the nation, but only eight are full-time professionals, and they are to be found
only in Tokyo and Osaka. The rest double as immigration control officers who
specialize in cracking down on illegal aliens.
The Foreign Ministry,
however, believes this arrangement is desirable from the standpoint of
familiarizing the officers with ``all aspects of how to deal with foreign
nationals, including asylum seekers.''
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Freedom News
29 May 2003
The usual
fabricated story of the SPDC
The SPDC said they have
captured three SURA terrorists, who had detonated bombs and ambushed their oil
tankers on the motor road between Tachilek and Mong Phyak. These kind of stories
are the usual fabricated ones churn out by the SPDC on a regular basis.
In reality, not even a single SSA soldier has surrender to the SPDC
recently. The three soldiers, whom the Junta said to be captured, were just
civilian and ex-MTA soldiers.
The three said persons are:
1. Sai
Tip. Born by a Chinese father and Akhar mother. He had never been a soldier in
the MTA, but he was close to some of the MTA members.
2. Maj.: Sai Oo is
a Shan and he is now more than 50 years old. Since the surrender of MTA in 1996,
he has never been involved in any political movement.
3. Maj.: Hsai Let
is a Chinese. Not one of these 3 people belongs to SSA and the story was totally
false.
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