Daily News-December-05-Tuesday-2000

  • Burma junta cited for long list of rights abuses in UNGA
  • AIDS Epidemic In Burma "Fastest Growing" In South-east Asia
  • Burma Independence Group Appeal For Suu Kyi's Release
  • Karen guerrillas kill 5 Burmese troops
  • Thai Former army chief Gen Chettha meets junta to boost party ties

    • Burma junta cited for long list of rights abuses in UNGA
    source :Reuters

    UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 4 — The U.N. General Assembly accused Myanmar's military government of condoning rape, torture, mass arrests, forced labor and summary executions, among other abuses, to suppress dissent.

    In a four-page resolution adopted without a vote on Monday, the 189-member body praised the southeastern Asian nation, formerly known as Burma, only for allowing the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit detainees earlier this year.

    As in past years, the resolution urged the ruling military junta, which has refused to give up or share power, to release political prisoners from jail and allow the National League for Democracy (NLD) and its leader to operate freely.

    NLD members have been subject to intimidation and sentenced under an arsenal of laws in what the resolution called a legal system ''effectively used as an instrument of oppression.''

    The League, headed by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, won elections in 1990 by a landslide but has never been allowed to govern. She has been under house arrest off and on for years.

    The assembly expressed ''grave concern at the increasingly systematic policy of the Government of Myanmar to persecute the democratic opposition, National League for Democracy members, sympathizers and their families.''

    The junta, the resolution said, indulged in ''arbitrary arrests and detention and abuse of the legal system, including harsh long-term prison sentences.''

    It deplored such abuses as ''extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, enforced disappearances, rape, torture, inhuman treatment, mass arrests, forced labor, including the use of children, forced relocation, and denial of freedom of assembly, association, expression and movement.''

    The resolution was based on a report by Rajsoomer Lallah, a former Mauritius chief justice, who described the suffocating grip on all parts of society of Myanmar's military junta.

    Some of the worst violence was committed against civilians belonging to minorities, particularly the Shan, Karen, Karenni and Rohingya groups, he said.

    Arrests can be for such ''violations'' as tuning a radio to a Voice of America program or hanging up a poster calling for a political dialogue. Many prisoners lack medical attention, have inadequate diets and are kept ''in tiny cells meant for dogs.''

    While numerous jailed dissidents are students, the entire country suffers from a lack of education, with the government spending only 1.2 percent of its gross domestic product on education, one of only 11 countries to do so, Lallah said.

    Health and welfare fared no better, according to the resolution. It expressed grave concern at high rates of malnutrition among youngsters. The government also failed to address the growing spread of HIV-AIDS infection.
    AIDS Epidemic In Burma "Fastest Growing" In South-east Asia
    SINGAPORE, Dec 05 (HealthAnswers) - Experts monitoring the AIDS epidemic in Myanmar say it is now the fastest growing in South-east Asia. A survey in 1995 predicted that half a million people in Myanmar would have HIV/AIDS by this year. That number now looks conservative.

    Said Dr Chris Beyer of Johns Hopkins University: "Unfortunately, epidemic is exactly the right word. It is much more on the order of 700,000 to 800,000 cumulative infections. And there have already been 50,000 to 100,000, if not many more, deaths."

    In a school for girls, health educators battle to get the safe sex message out, despite cultural sensitivities.

    AIDS educator Dr Nyun Nyun said: "Your body is valuable to you. Your life is of value. Keep your value and you keep your head up."

    While high risk sexual activity is prevalent in the country, the promotion of condoms is not allowed. According to Channel NewsAsia, AIDS is not an issue Yangon's military rulers want out in the open. Not only are they playing down the problem, they are also reluctant to disclose the extent of the epidemic.

    The rest of the world is also refusing to deal with the government, making it difficult for international health educators to do their job. The disease tends to spread along truck routes, with the highest incidents of HIV occurring on the country's border.

    Myanmar, which until now has labelled HIV/AIDS a foreign disease, is now at the epicentre of an epidemic, and this could mean trouble for its Asian neighbours.
    Burma Independence Grp Appeal For Suu Kyi's Release
    YANGON (AP)--A group of veterans of Myanmar's struggle for independence have urged the ruling junta to lift restrictions imposed on opposition leaders including Aung San Suu Kyi, according to a statement obtained Tuesday.

    Led by 90-year old Bohmu Aung, one of Myanmar's 'Thirty Comrades' who led the fight for independence from Britain achieved in 1948, the group also appealed to the military government to ease political tensions through dialogue with its opponents.

    "We urge that restriction of movement imposed on leaders of the National League for Democracy be lifted and amnesty given to those detained for their political activities," said the statement dated Nov. 20, the 80th anniversary of National Day.

    The statement was signed by 28 people, including veteran politicians and others said to be taking an "active interest in the country and the people." It was addressed to the State Peace and Development Council, as the junta is known.

    The top three officials in the NLD, General Secretary Suu Kyi, Chairman Aung Shwe and Vice Chairman Tin Oo have been confined to their homes since Sept. 22 after Suu Kyi defied authorities by trying twice in one month to travel outside Yangon on party business.

    Six other members of the party's central executive committee were also put under virtual house arrest for ten weeks, but the restrictions were lifted Friday.

    The NLD faces steady harassment. The party swept general elections in Myanmar, also known as Burma, in 1990, but the military refused to honor the result. Hundreds of NLD members have been jailed.

    Eleven representatives who were elected to the would-be parliament under the NLD banner in 1990 but have since left the party, issued a similar plea on Nov. 12, appealing to the junta to form a constitutional government.

    The SPDC took power after crushing massive prodemocracy demonstrations in 1988, killing thousands. It still maintains that it is a transitional administration but efforts to write a constitution have been stalled for the past five years.

    In a letter addressed to the SPDC leader Gen. Than Shwe and the chairman of the Election Commission, the ex-NLD members said Myanmar faced a "myriad of obstacles" including "unresolved political problems" that were hampering development.

    They urged the government to hold a dialogue with the opposition or complete framing a constitution.

    Among the signatories were Tin Tun Maung, Kyi Win and Than Tun who were expelled from the NLD several years ago after they criticized the party's leaders for their uncompromising opposition to the government.

    The NLD withdrew from a government-organized national convention to frame a constitution in Nov. 1995 claiming that the process was "undemocratic." Among other things, the proposed charter was set to guarantee a military presence in any future government. The convention which began in 1993 has been adjourned since 1996.
    Karen guerrillas kill 5 Burmese troops
    MAE SOT, Thailand: Five Myanmar soldiers were killed in fighting along the Thai border between the Army and the rebel Karen National Union (KNU) ethnic militia, officials said Monday.

    Roughly 300 troops armed with mortars and light weapons attacked three KNU bases in Myanmar, opposite the border town of Mae Sot, late Sunday evening, Thai border officials said.

    In fierce fighting the KNU repelled the Myanmar troops, killing five and injuring at least a dozen, they said. Three KNU soldiers were also injured in the battle. About 350 refugees fled into Thailand to escape the fighting, the border officials said.

    Thailand has recently grown increasingly concerned over rising cross-border violence, which is expected to increase as the Myanmar Army embarks on its annual dry season offensive against the KNU.

    Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan raised the issue of cross-border violence in talks with his Myanmar counterpart Win Aung on the sidelines of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meetings last week.

    And early this month Thai authorities were forced to consider the evacuation of 3,000 villagers on the Myanmar border because of fighting between government troops and rebels.

    The KNU has fought an exhausting 51-year battle for greater autonomy against the central government in Yangon and is one of the last major insurgent groups fighting the junta.

    Thailand is home to more than 120,000 refugees from Myanmar, many of whom live in camps along the Thai side of the border. (AFP)
    Thai Former army chief Gen Chettha meets junta to boost party ties
    Source : Bangkok Post

    Former army chief Gen Chettha Thanajaro visited Rangoon last week, apparently to boost the stature of Thai Rak Thai party.

    Gen Chettha, contesting the Jan 6 general election on Thai Rak Thai's party list, met Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt to discuss the situation between Thailand and Burma, a source said.

    The two discussed a proposed road construction project worth more than US$230 million (9.9 billion baht), fishing concessions and tax cuts for Thai exporters, the source said.

    The 130km road project linking Kanchanaburi's Sangkhla Buri and Burma's Tavoy is being considered by Myanmar Investment Committee.

    Burma revoked fishing concessions for Thai fishermen following the siege of its embassy in Bangkok by Burmese rebels in October 1999.

    The source said Khin Nyunt told Gen Chettha things would change for the better with a change of government after Thailand's election.

    "Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt also wished Thai Rak Thai party and Gen Chettha success in the election. He hopes things will get better after the change," the source said.

    Gen Chettha, who has maintained close ties with the Burmese military leader, is placed 17th on Thai Rak Thai's party list.

    His visit to Burma is seen as a move to lure support from business groups with vested interests in Burma.

    Gen Chettha is scheduled to help the party's campaign in Ranong during a rally on Dec 17-18.

    Supreme Commander Gen Sampao Chusri and military top brass are scheduled to visit Rangoon on Dec 12-13.