--------------------------------------------------------------
Friday August 1, 9:09 AM
Judge says Calif. law rules
in Unocal Myanmar case
LOS ANGELES, July 31
(Reuters) - A Los Angeles judge
ruled on Thursday that oil company Unocal Corp. is subject to California law in
a suit that claims the firm was partly responsible for allowing troops guarding
a pipeline project in Myanmar to rape, murder and enslave villagers living
nearby.
The suit, filed almost three years ago, accuses the Los Angeles
area-based Unocal of ignoring the alleged human rights abuses while a 39-mile
(63-km)-long, $1.2 billion natural gas pipeline was laid by a consortium that
included Unocal subsidiaries.
Unocal had sought to have the case removed
to Myanmar, the former Burma, where the alleged abuses took place, or to
Bermuda, where the subsidiary companies are incorporated.
Daniel
Petrocelli, the lead attorney for El Segundo, California-based Unocal, said the
company was considering its options, including seeking immediate relief.
He added that, "There is nothing about California involved in this case
other than the parent companies that the plaintiff chose to sue being located in
California. The parent companies did not invest in the project."
Los
Angeles Superior Court Judge Victoria Chaney disagreed, saying that "prior to
its involvement in the pipeline project, Unocal had specific knowledge that the
use of forced labor was likely, and nevertheless chose to proceed."
The
judge said Burmese law was indeterminate," and said two corporations requesting
Bermuda law be applied -- Unocal Myanmar Operation Corp. and Moattama Gas
Transportation Co. -- do not do business in Bermuda.
She discounted
using Burmese law because "even in the unlikely event that these statutes
authorized the violent and oppressive behavior at issue in this case, this court
would refrain from applying (Burmese law) for public policy reasons."
Plaintiffs' attorney Dan Stormer called the decision "a great victory
for the villagers." The case in state court is expected to start in about two
months.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday July 31, 10:05 PM
Myanmar to discuss Thai
plan on Suu Kyi
By Tessa Unsworth
BANGKOK (Reuters) -
Myanmar's foreign minister says he is ready to discuss Thai proposals to resolve
an impasse over the detention of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
Foreign Minister Win Aung, in Bangkok for a meeting of regional foreign
ministers on Friday, will also hold bilateral talks with his Thai counterpart,
Surakiart Sathirathai.
"Yes, we are going to discuss everything," Win
Aung told Reuters when asked on Thursday if the release of Suu Kyi would be on
the two ministers' agenda.
International pressure is mounting on
Myanmar's military, which has ruled the country since a 1962 coup and ignored a
1990 election victory by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.
United
States President George W. Bush signed a bill on Monday closing the U.S. market
to imports from Myanmar, and key donor Japan has cut off new aid. Myanmar's
Southeast Asian neighbours have taken the unprecedented step of publicly
criticising the junta.
Thailand, fearing an influx of economic migrants
from its western neighbour, is against sanctions and has proposed that key
Western and Asian countries meet the Myanmar junta to hammer out a "road map"
for democratic transition in the country.
"The current situation is
challenging Myanmar to do something," Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Sihasak
Phuangketkeow told reporters on Thursday.
"ASEAN has already expressed
its view. The ball is in Myanmar's court now to turn this challenge into an
opportunity to engage the international community and its internal factions".
The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is one of the few
groups that accepts Myanmar as a member. Last month it gave Yangon an
unprecedented rebuke over Suu Kyi.
During Win Aung's visit to Indonesia
this week, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said the junta had
pledged to resolve the crisis before an October ASEAN summit.
Wirajuda's
comment appeared to catch Win Aung off guard, who would only say Suu Kyi's
arrest would not be prolonged.
SAVING FACE
Some
Myanmar experts say increasing international pressure on Myanmar will not speed
up Suu Kyi's release.
"It is like a cat, if you pull the tail, it draws
back," said Pornpimon Trichot from Chulalongkorn University's Institute of Asian
Studies.
"It is not that they don't want to release Aung San Suu Kyi,
they want to release (her) because they can see the problems lying ahead...It is
the matter of how to get out of it gracefully," he told Reuters Television.
Red Cross officials, allowed to meet Suu Kyi for the first time since
her detention two months ago, said on Tuesday she was in good health and high
spirits.
Some Yangon-based diplomats and Myanmar exile groups say the
military orchestrated the May 30 violence which led to the arrest of the
58-year-old Nobel laureate.
They say hundreds of pro-government youths
set upon Suu Kyi's convoy with clubs while she was touring central Myanmar,
killing dozens. The government denies this and says four people died.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Friday August 1, 8:47 PM
Myanmar wants "cool down"
before Suu Kyi release
By Nopporn Wong-Anan
BANGKOK (Reuters) -
Myanmar's military rulers are isolating democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi to
prevent political anarchy which could destroy the country, and will free her
when the situation cools, Foreign Minister Win Aung says.
"We don't have
any intention to prolong that arrangement. We are waiting for the cool down," he
told reporters without giving any kind of timetable for her release.
"The only concern for us is not to let the country fall down into total
collapse," Win Aung said on the sidelines of a regional foreign ministers'
meeting in Bangkok.
"When the political situation is uprising and anarchy,
we are preventing that," he added, speaking English.
Myanmar's military,
which has ruled since a 1962 coup, has so far ignored Western sanctions and an
unprecedented public rebuke from its Southeast Asian neighbours for holding Suu
Kyi, 58.
She has been kept in a secret location -- for her own
protection, the government says -- since a May 30 clash between her supporters
and pro-government youths while she was touring central Myanmar.
"We
don't have any kind of intention of animosity against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. That
is why we have not taken any legal action against her and her party," Win Aung
said.
Some Yangon-based diplomats and Myanmar exile groups say the
military orchestrated the violence in which they say dozens of opposition
supporters were killed.
The government denies this and says four people
died. It blames Suu Kyi for fuelling chaos in the country.
Human rights
group Amnesty International said on Wednesday that rights abuses in the former
British colony had risen sharply since Suu Kyi's arrest.
THAI
MEDIATION OFFER
Thailand, fearing an influx of economic
migrants from its western neighbour, has proposed that key Western and Asian
countries meet the Myanmar junta to hammer out a "road map" for democratic
transition in the country.
Win Aung and his Thai counterpart, Surakiart
Sathirathai, discussed the Thai plan during a 90-minute bilateral meeting.
"I am now taking these suggestions and discussions with me back home
because they are things that cannot be discussed in an hour," Win Aung later
told reporters.
Win Aung had been lukewarm on the Thai plan during his visit
to Indonesia this week, saying "home-grown solutions" were best.
Surakiart said he would invite the United Nations special envoy to
Myanmar, Razali Ismail, to Bangkok in two weeks to discuss a timetable for the
international forum, which could include the United States, Britain, China,
member states of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Japan.
"This forum will give everyone an opportunity to work together and not
just read their prepared statements," Surakiart said.
--------------------------------------------------------------
BBC News - Friday, 1 August,
2003
Opposition MP escapes Burma
The BBC has
learnt that a jailed Burmese opposition MP has escaped from Burma.
Daw
San San was jailed for passing state secrets to foreign broadcasters - including
the BBC Burmese section.
She was elected as a member of parliament for
the National League of Democracy in the election of 1990, which the Burmese
military leadership refused to recognise.
She was imprisoned in 1997, but
was released in August 2001.
Daw San San is now in an undisclosed
location somewhere along the Thai-Burma border.
From the newsroom of the
BBC World Service
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Nation
Japan backs push for road map on
Burma
Rungrawee C Pinyorat
Published
on Aug 1, 2003
Japan, Burma's key aid donor, has expressed
support for the road map towards national reconciliation in Burma proposed by
Thailand, Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said yesterday.
Surakiart said that Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawakuchi was
receptive to Thailand's proposed road map and had recommended that Surakiart
brief the Japanese ambassador to Thailand on the matter.
Japan has
suspended all financial assistance to Burma since the ruling military junta's
failure to comply with international requests to release detained pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and facilitate a process of national reconciliation.
Since 1998, Japan has provided assistance to Burma in the form of grants
and technical aid. Japanese aid to Burma in 2001 totalled US$69.9 million (Bt2.9
billion).
Other countries that have given backing to Thailand's proposal
to organise an international forum to discuss a road map, include Australia,
Austria, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and the United Kingdom.
Meanwhile, Jan Kavan, president of the 57th session of the United
Nations General Assembly, said in Thailand yesterday he welcomed the initiative
and thanked the government for not repatriating Burmese dissidents against their
will.
The government has stepped up efforts to regulate the political
activities of Burmese dissidents in the country in the wake of Aung San Suu
Kyi's detention. It is currently preparing to relocate Burmese who have been
under the protection of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) to border camps.
The specific location has yet to be announced.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Nation
US needs to re-think planned sanctions
against Burma
Published on Aug 1, 2003
Isolating
pariah states economically not only hurts ordinary citizens but further
entrenches despotic leaders
The US Congress has voted almost unanimously
(418 to 2 in the House of Representatives and 94 to 1 in the Senate) to tighten
trade and financial sanctions against Burma, whose despotic regime harasses and
repeatedly imprisons the country's rightful leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. She won
the presidential election in 1990 but the military prevented her from taking
power.
But sanctions are the wrong approach, for international
marginalisation hurts ordinary citizens far more than it hurts dictatorial
regimes. It's time to curtail the use of economic sanctions and to make them
better targeted at despots.
The most famous sanctions in recent history
were those imposed on South Africa during the apartheid era. Much of the world
community stopped trading with South Africa, and stopped making investments in
South African-based enterprises. Those sanctions did, it seems, help speed the
demise of that barbaric system. But one great success does not negate the many
failures. Moreover, it is quite possible that the world community could have
supported the overthrow of apartheid in other ways.
Of course, sanctions
can be effective in hurting the economy of the target country. Economic
development in today's global economy depends on each country being integrated
into the worldwide network of production, trade and investment. A national
economy that is excluded by sanctions is likely to stagnate or even
collapse.
Thus, the South African economy experienced an absolute decline
in per capita output during the years of widespread sanctions. But sanctions
were not the only reason for decline. Political unrest also devastated the
economy, as did a fall in world gold prices that coincided with the
anti-apartheid movement in the final years. Still, South Africa was hurt badly
by sanctions, and the same has been true for many other countries.
Cuba
bears a heavy economic burden today not only as a result of its own internal
economic mistakes but also because of the barriers to trade and investment
imposed by the US since the 1960s. Haiti went into an economic tailspin when
America imposed sanctions in the 1990s, ostensibly to re-establish democracy.
Even today, the US blocks aid for Haiti because some right-wing US Congressmen
are intent on toppling President Aristide, whom they abhor.
Iraq and
North Korea have likewise been battered by sanctions. In Iraq during the 1990s,
millions of children suffered repeated illnesses and vast numbers died because
international sanctions contributed to ruining the country's economy. North
Korea's economy utterly collapsed in the 1990s, leading to widespread famine.
Once again, this results from a combination of North Korea's political
despotism, atrocious economic policy, and international sanctions.
Burma
has already paid an extremely high price for its isolation. International
organisations have cut back or eliminated their work in the country, and much
bilateral foreign aid has been eliminated, too. One result is that HIV/Aids has
run rampant, and the country has received almost no help in getting the epidemic
under control. Burma's HIV/Aids crisis is now by far Southeast Asia's
worst.
Although sanctions clearly create suffering in many places, how
often have they achieved the desired goal? In Burma, Iraq, North Korea and Cuba,
despotic regimes not only survived the imposition of sanctions, but became more
despotic. These regimes were able to blame foreigners for domestic hardships,
even when it was their own policy mistakes and human rights abuses that caused
the crises.
Indeed, sanctions weaken an economy and public health, but do
not necessarily make it more likely that a despotic regime will collapse.
Sanctions purportedly undermine the regime by causing widespread unrest and by
reducing the government's power base and tax collections. But sanctions also
weaken the ability of the private sector to finance an opposition, tend to cut
off the domestic opposition from international sources of support, and reduce,
rather than increase, international awareness of the abuses taking
place.
Some additional effects are even more pernicious. When legal means
of business are outlawed, illegal means become more attractive. Many countries
under sanction, such as Burma, become sources of global illegal trafficking in
drugs, arms, money laundering, and forced labour. Drug trafficking or other
illegal activities can overtake the whole government, turning it from despotism
to international organised crime.
Does this mean that the world should do
nothing about despotic regimes? There is no easy answer, but to the extent that
it is possible to weaken a government without weakening an economy, such steps
should be taken. For example, so-called "smart sanctions" focus more narrowly on
the political leadership.
Smart sanctions include denial of international
travel privileges to despots and their families, and subjecting those despots to
the risk of international prosecution. Leaders can thus be made prisoners in
their own countries. Smart sanctions can also specifically target the trade in
military goods, cutting off despotic regimes' armed forces. Moreover, foreign
aid can be shifted away from government towards non-governmental organisations,
strengthening the civil societies in such countries.
It is easy to vote
against Burma's government, but it is harder to foster political change.
Starving Burma's economy is unlikely to help, but it is certain to deepen the
suffering of its people. Of course, countries that embrace the use of sanctions
do not intend this, but that does not lessen their responsibility for the
outcome.
Jeffrey Sachs
Jeffrey D Sachs is professor of Economics
and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Nation
Letters - Burma may one day become a conduit
for democracy in China
Published on Aug 1, 2003
What
Win Aung, minister for foreign affairs of Burma, wrote in "Don't push Burma back
into its shell" [July 26] reflects his unbelievable lack of touch with
international reality. As a defender of his regime, he should be better aware of
the coming storm in the form of The Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003 in
which the US is calling for support from all corners and to use all available
resources to help the democratic opposition to the regime there to gain ground.
The US measures will not only be economic sanctions and a boycott of the
Burmese leadership, as widely heard, but also envisages the SPDC's removal,
including the formation of democratic institutions in Burma.
Therefore,
this time it is not going to be business as usual like going back into their
shell. It will be most critical for all parties concerned - Burma, Thailand,
Asean, China, Japan, the EU, and the UN alike, and most of all for the regime
itself which is being attacked from all over the world.
Win Aung is a
seasoned international traveller and has close associations with many important
international leaders but still shows his naivety about international affairs
and global democratic developments. So, for the rest of the members of the junta
who spend most of their time in "their shell", there is absolutely no hope for
them to understand anything.
Win Aung's theory of Burma's dangers
throughout time - its land becoming a trade route for the British; the Japanese
occupation to cut off the allies' supply route; and the Cold War-contested area
between India and China - seems inadequate. He should further consider the
scenario of Burma eventually becoming a democratic supply route from Thailand to
China through Burma.
Sun Jupiter
VIA INTERNET
--------------------------------------------------------------
Bangkok Post - Friday 01 August 2003
EDITORIAL - What will it take to rescue Burma?
President George W. Bush of the United States imposed
economic sanctions on Burma on Monday when he signed into law the Freedom and
Democracy Act. Two days later, the military regime in Rangoon indicated that
Aung San Suu Kyi might be freed before the Asean summit in October. So, is a
western boycott of the repressive dictatorship working? Not really.
The
State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the junta ruling Burma with an iron
fist, has a history of making tall promises and falling short on delivery. This
time, it really only hinted at the possibility of freeing the Nobel peace
laureate. It would not say outright that she would be released. It merely said
the contentious issue of her detention would be ``resolved''.
While Burma
might enjoy the games it plays with the West by exploiting the sympathies of
neighbouring countries, the generals running the show in Rangoon would be
mistaken in believing that their recent troubles will go away simply by
stonewalling the rest of the world. The brutality of the attack on Ms Suu Kyi's
convoy on May 30, when government thugs, reportedly including prisoners from
Mandalay jail, clubbed and stabbed to death around 70 democracy supporters, even
stirred Asean into breaking its long-standing rule of not interfering in the
affairs of member nations. It called for the release of the Burmese opposition
leader, and Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia, who had been
instrumental in bringing Burma into Asean, went so far as to raise the
possibility of expelling Burma from the regional grouping.
The American
sanctions will deprive Burma of about $350 million (14.68 billion baht) a year
in earnings from exports to the US over a period of three years. They also
freeze the regime's financial assets in American banks and ban its officials
from entering the US. Burmese exports to America are mostly garments. An
estimated 100,000 textile workers might lose their jobs, but the members of the
junta, who have long had their assets frozen, will not be directly
affected.
The European Union has imposed similar sanctions. Together with
the US boycott, these will place a considerable strain on the Burmese economy.
However, the lion's share of Burma's trade is with India, China and Thailand. As
long as these countries continue to do business, the western economic boycott is
unlikely to bring down the regime, even if it does force some short-term
concessions.
The situation is the more worrying because many Burma
watchers believe the very nature of the well-planned attack on May 30 showed
that the hard-liners in the junta, led by Gen Than Shwe, the country's top
leader, may have won the internecine battle over moderates like Lt-Gen Khin
Nyunt, the powerful intelligence chief, on what to do with Ms Suu Kyi. The
hard-liners apparently decided that they did not need to engage in
reconciliation talks with the opposition leader.
That would be a serious
miscalculation. A full-scale international boycott of Burma, particularly one
sanctioned by the United Nations, is quite possible. In this event, Burma would
become such an international pariah that even Asean and China would have to
reconsider their dealings with Rangoon.
The SPDC appears to be
uninterested in Thailand's proposal for a road map to democracy in Burma. Though
details of the road map are sketchy, it should seek to entice the hard-liners
into adopting a more moderate view. The key condition to be put to the junta
must be the unconditional release of Ms Suu Kyi. As risible as some might regard
the Thai road map, it is possibly the last chance for the junta to settle a
political conflict that otherwise might prove its undoing.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Taipei Times
One in four brides
last year came from abroad
By Roger
Liu
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Aug 01, 2003,Page 1
A quarter of the 173,000 Taiwanese men who got married last year did so
to a foreign woman, Directorate General of Budget Accounting and Statistics
(DGBAS) figures showed yesterday.
The majority of these women came from
China, Hong Kong and Macau, with the others coming from Southeast Asian
countries such as Vietnam, Myanmar and Thailand.
According to a survey
released last month by Ministry of the Interior's Department of Household
Registration, foreign women are the best, and sometimes only, choice for
Taiwanese men who are old, handicapped or from rural areas of the country such
as Penghu, Yunlin, Chiayi, Nantou and Pingtung.
Another reason for the
rise in foreign spouses could be the increasing independence of Taiwanese women,
which for some makes them less appealing as wives.
"Taiwanese girls of
the younger generation are too wild and lack loyalty to their husbands," said a
26-year-old taxi driver in Taipei. "Foreign girls from Southeast Asia and China
are more submissive."
The immigration of these foreign brides has begun
to influence the country's demographics. A decade ago, the ratio of men to women
was 106 to 100.
With the influx of 230,000 foreign women over the past
10 years, this ratio has fallen to 103.95 to 100.
"The immigration of
foreign brides is an important factor in this," Chen Tzu-ho (é?³å?å??), section chief
of the department of population at the Ministry of the Interior, said yesterday.
"And it has caused many social problems."
One of these is the cultural
and language gap between the foreign brides and their husbands and children,
according to an interior ministry report published two months ago.
"Most
foreign mates are not accustomed to society here," the report said. "They lack a
network of support from friends and family, which usually causes their families
with Taiwanese to disintegrate."
The children of such unions are another
emerging social problem. Most of the foreign mothers have received only a
minimum education and may be too young to assume their maternal
responsibilities.
"And if the mothers cannot speak Mandarin, how can the
children learn from them?" Chen said.
Chen said his ministry was working
on a plan with other government agencies to deal with the problem.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Friday August 1, 11:17 PM
Razali, Yano agree to press
Myanmar for Suu Kyi's release
KUALA LUMPUR
(Kyodo) - Visiting Japanese Senior
Vice Foreign Minister Tetsuro Yano on Friday agreed with U.N. special envoy to
Myanmar Razali Ismail that Japan and members of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) need to pressure Myanmar's military government to win the
release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Razali was quoted by
Japanese officials as telling Yano that Japan and ASEAN need to pressure Myanmar
to release Suu Kyi and promote democracy.
--------------------------------------------------------------