Daily News-December-27-Wednesday-2000

  • Shan Super-singer in Chiangmai
  • Tin Maung Than(Thintbawa): Burmese scribe seeks safe haven
  • Army Defectors says Slave labour rife
  • Thintbawa Shut Down, Sources Say
  • Large heroin haul on China-Burma border
  • Junta's Infamous Unit Comes to Rock The Boat Along Thai Border

    • Shan Super-singer in Chiangmai

    Source : Shan Herald Agency

    Shans' most celebrated singer will be in Chiangmai for the New Year celebrations, said a source from the local Shan literature and culture society.

    Hsaimao, 52, with his band from Tachilek, opposite Maesai District, Chiangrai Province, is expected to arrive at Wat Papao, the Shan temple in Chiangmai, on Friday. He is scheduled to perform for 3 consecutive nights, 30 December to 1 January, according to the source.

    The proceeds from the tickets, B. 50 each, shall be used for renovation of buildings inside the temple, support for its non-formal education school and for the activities of the Society, he said.

    5 female singers (Daothong, Hpawngkham, Hawm, Zan and Swayzing) are expected to accompany him.

    Hsaimao became famous in 1970 when his songs were broadcasted by the Shan program in Chiangrai. His most well-known song up to date has been "Lik Hommai Panglong" (The promises of Panglong), composed by Shans' foremost songwriter, Khamleik, in tribute to the 1947 Panglong Conference where Shans decided to form a union with Burma, on the principles of Self-Determination and Democracy.
    Tin Maung Than(Thintbawa): Burmese scribe seeks safe haven

    Source : The Nation

    BEING a journalist in Burma is a lot like walking on the high wire without a net. One false move and you might plunge into the abyss of a political prison.

    That fear is what finally drove writer and publisher Tin Maung Than, 46, to flee across the border in late November with his wife and two children for exile in Thailand and, hopefully, political asylum in the United States.

    Publisher of an influential private journal, Thintbawa (Your Life), which focused on contemporary social issues, Tin Maung Than says a political noose was tightening around his neck as a result of his writing.

    "It was just time to go," he said in Bangkok shortly after his arrival. "The military would not let me travel. I was afraid I might be arrested soon."

    A soft-spoken man who walks with a slight stoop from a spinal ailment, Tin Maung Than seems the kind of man who would be treasured by a developing country. A medical doctor by training and a journalist by choice, he also earned an MBA from Harvard University in 1998. Indeed, the bizarre events that led to his exile would be unimaginable in almost any other country save Burma, where a military junta - the State Peace and Development Council - has held power since September 1988, choking off most forms of dissent.

    In August he was detained, along with another publisher, for five days by military-intelligence agents in Rangoon because he made a handful of photocopies of a speech by the former deputy minister for economic development, Brig-Gen Zaw Tun, that was highly critical of the government's economic policies. The speech, which was eventually picked up by news agencies abroad, led to Zaw Tun's removal from office and was a major embarrassment for the junta.

    "They launched an investigation," Tin Maung Than said. "They went looking for anyone who might have copied the speech. They even brought in this frightened girl who ran the copy shop I used and she didn't know anything about it." After five days of continuous questioning, Tin Maung Than admitted to having copied the speech and signed a "confession".

    As part of the confession he had to state that he knew he would be prosecuted if intelligence agents later concluded that the speech and its release abroad was part of a "political plot".

    The confession was an open invitation for the military to arrest him at any time they felt like it.

    Tin Maung Than stayed safely atop the high wire for several years. Since starting his magazine in 1992, he avoided political subjects and submitted everything to the official Press Scrutiny Board for censoring before publication. "Real journalism is not possible in Burma," he said. "We have to say everything in general terms and let the readers feel the meaning for themselves."

    The magazine concentrated on health and family issues, writing about the HIV/Aids epidemic and other social problems while steering clear of discussing government policies.

    The censors eliminated anything controversial but he received his first scare when an exiled opposition group published an article he wrote on Burma's educational system without his knowledge. The article had earlier been censored but found its way into the hands of government opponents who issued the piece, called "Slave versus Free Education", as a small booklet.

    The military listed the booklet, along with a host of other documents, during a press conference in May called to discuss plots against the regime.

    From that time forward, he worried that the military had placed him under scrutiny. His past, he feared, had come back to haunt him. Tin Maung Than was active in the 1988 popular uprising against former dictator Ne Win which was crushed by the military and he admits to having once been a member of the National League for Democracy, the political party led by Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning dissident. But he left the group in 1990 following parliamentary elections won by the NLD but nullified by the junta.

    "I thought I could do more good on my own, as a writer," he said. "Let other people involve themselves in politics."

    In Burma, however, it is hard for any independent thinker to avoid politics and his past links to the NLD is what finally drove him into exile.

    Fearing arrest was imminent, he left his work at the magazine and began planning his escape. Finally, he went with his family to a border area controlled by insurgents and headed for Thailand.
    Army Defectors says Slave labour rife

    Source : South China Morning Post

    Despite strong international criticism, the military is still using villagers in Karen state as porters and forcing them to build roads and pagodas and grow food against their will and without pay.

    Two soldiers from Burma's armed forces claimed during an interview on the Thai-Burma border that operating in Karen state without porters would be impossible.

    Htun Htun, 19, and Kyaw Khaing, 17, fled their unit, Light Infantry 549, on November 11.

    They are now in Mae La, Thailand's largest Karen refugee camp - home to more than 36,000 people - and hope to find work in Thailand.

    If they are successful they will be the newest arrivals of a growing body of people thought to number as many as one million working illegally in the kingdom.

    The two defectors walked for seven days through mountainous jungle until they encountered members of the Karen National Liberation Army's (KNLA) seventh brigade - a day later they were delivered to Mae La camp.

    To have failed in their flight to freedom through hostile territory would have meant indefinite imprisonment and the prospect of working for nothing on state projects.

    Prisoners, when used as labourers, are routinely chained together at the ankles, they receive less food than civilians and are treated far worse.

    Mr Htun Htun said conditions for porters and forced labourers had in recent months become far more strict.

    The ruling military junta, the State Peace and Development Council, was deeply concerned escapees might make their way to Thailand and convey their experiences to the international media.

    But, surrounded by a hostile population and being seriously undermanned, troops had little option but to engage villagers as porters, he said.

    "We were told not to talk about it [the use of porters] on the radios any more, but we were using them every day," he said.

    "Porters carried everything for us - without them we could not move. When you see a lot of people moving through Karen state together you know they are porters, you don't see the military, soldiers travel behind them using them as screens against landmines and ambushes," he said.

    The pair estimated two to three porters from every 100 died while lugging ammunition or military equipment.

    Some were killed by landmines, others shot by KNLA troops because they were thought to be Burmese soldiers.

    "From a distance it's impossible to tell the difference between soldiers and porters, because the civilians always wear soldiers' backpacks," he said.

    According to the two defectors, the number of porters being used is vast, a single battalion sometimes uses as many as 1,000 at a time.

    Mr Htun Htun's battalion consisted of 178 soldiers - it was seriously undermanned, there was supposed to be 777.

    This year Light Infantry 549 had regularly used more than 1,000 porters at a time, he said.

    "We divide into groups of about 50 and bring up the rear and flank, we tell them [the Karen porters] that they're supposed to show us the way, but really we're worried about landmines and the possibility of an ambush," he said.

    Working conditions for the junta's soldiers were also poor, said Mr Kyaw Khaing.

    "We began work at 6am each day on an empty stomach and worked until noon, then we were given a plate of rice and a spoonful of soya beans, but there was always a lot of rocks in the rice. At night we were given the same meal.

    "There was never enough food and a lot of us were always sick. The official wage was 4,700 kyat a month but really we got about 2,000 kyat because they took money out for food and haircuts and that sort of thing."

    Using the junta's official exchange rate, the monthly pay for soldiers is adequate, about US$783 calculated at six kyat to the US dollar.

    But in reality the exchange rate is about 350 kyat to the dollar, meaning the soldiers received about US$5.70 per month (HK$44) after expenses were deducted from their salaries.
    Thintbawa Shut Down, Sources Say

    source : Irrawaddy.org

    According to reliable sources in Rangoon, Burmese authorities have shut down Thintbawa ["Your Life"] magazine. The sources added that the editorial staff of the magazine were also briefly held for questioning but have since been released. "It was a major blow to the readers," added one source who asked not to be identified.

    Thintbawa is a highly respected magazine whose former chief editor recently fled Burma to escape possible arrest after being interrogated on suspicion of secretly distributing copies of a speech given by former deputy economics minister Zaw Htun. Tin Maung Than, a prominent writer and social critic, fled to Thailand in November and is currently seeking political asylum in a third country.

    Brig-Gen Zaw Htun, a deputy minister for national planning and economic development, was forced to step down after criticizing the ruling military junta's mismanagement of the economy at a seminar held in Rangoon in July.

    The regime suspected that Tin Maung Than and a group of other writers had been circulating copies of Zaw Htun's speech. In an exclusive interview with The Irrawaddy, however, Tin Maung Than denied that he had distributed copies of the speech. But he said Zaw Htun's speech was significant and was in the interest of the people and the country, so he obtained a copy for himself and shared it with people who were interested in reading it.

    Editor Kyaw Win currently runs Thintbawa. Another editor, Maung Thit Sinn, is currently studying in the United States.

    Sources in Rangoon said that military authorities might ask publisher U Tin Maung, also known as U Lay Gyi U Tin Maung, to change the editorial staff of Thintbawa. Others noted that the magazine's publishing license is due for renewal in December. Military officials impose heavy restrictions on magazines and journals, granting only one-year publishing permits.
    Large heroin haul on China-Burma border

    source : ABC news

    Police in southwest China's Yunnan province, which borders Burma, have seized 244 kilograms of heroin hidden in a truck.

    The state Xinhua news agency reports the driver aroused the suspicion of border police at Mukang town.

    The seizure was equal to more than a third of the 604 kilograms of heroin border police in Mukang have confiscated this year.

    China borders the Golden Triangle, which covers parts of Thailand, Burma and Laos, and has become a centre of the heroin trade. Some of the heroin is sold inside China, while large amounts are re-exported to third countries.

    Although heroin seizures in China declined by 27 percent last year to 5.3 tons, there is little to indicate the drug problem is becoming more manageable.

    Last year, more than 37,000 people suspected of drug trafficking were arrested in China, a rise of 8.7 percent from the year before.
    Junta's Infamous Unit Comes to Rock The Boat Along Thai Border

    AShan Herald Agency
    Reporter: Saeng Khao Haeng

    One of Rangoon's most feared units arrived in cities bordering Thailand earlier this month, said several sources.

    Na Sa Ka (Border Control Unit), long active along borders with Bangladesh and India in the west was reported in Tachilek on 2 December. Feared even among junta sphere, its presence was seen by many state functionaries, both military and civilian alike, as bad omen.

    According to the latest count on 17 December, the strength of the unit with its headquarters in LIB 331 is already 120. The total strength would be 702.

    The unit operates directly under "S-1", Lt.-Gen. Khin Nyunt and is empowered to "butt in" the affairs of various local governmental departments i.e. customs, immigration, cross-border trade, census and even township administrations. Its area of operation shall be Tachilek, Monghsat and Mongton, said sources.

    Already, its presence is felt along the border. The Myawaddy-Maesod checkpoints were closed without notice. Thai counterparts in the Tachilek-Chiangrai joint border committee were told they could either change the present border regulations soon or close the border and Rangoon couldn't care less during a meeting two weeks ago.

    "One good thing is that border passes, previously obtained at B.120, has gone down to just B.20," said a source. "Also in the past there were some difficulties for non-Tachilek citizens to get a pass, but now, everyone who has an ID card can get it without going through a lot of procedures".