Daily News-November-21-Tuesday-2000

  • Burma allays India's fears
  • Australia Government attempts to mend UN ties
  • General Than Shwe to visit Singapore
  • Peaceful demonstration held infront of "Aung San Oo's resident
  • India, Burma Renew Talks On Trade, Security Issues
  • Burma, hill-tribe girls replace Thai child prostitutes
  • The Ruin of Burma
  • NCGUB Welcomes ILO Decision To Impose Sanctions
  • India lauds Burma's cooperation in battling border insurgency
  • New Move By Massachusetts Lawmaker On Burma Sanctions
  • Suu Kyi no show at court case over Rangoon home
  • India, Burma talk of ambitious partnership

    • Burma allays India's fears
    source :The Times of India News Service

    NEW DELHI: Myanmar foreign minister Win Aung, wrapping up a week-long visit here on Monday, laid to rest New Delhi's anxiety about Chinese military activity in the Coco islands. Primarily it was security concerns that led to a re-think of India's position on Myanmar.

    ``I want to tell the Indian public that any island in my country, or Myanmar's soil, will not be used as a military base by any power against India,'' Win told reporters.

    India has long been suspicious of China's increasing naval presence in that country. There were fears that the facilities granted to China by Myanmar could be used for naval surveillance. Some felt that China could use the Coco Islands as missile pads against specific Indian targets. There has never been any real evidence to prove any of these suspicions, but fears persisted.

    Win Aung said defence minister George Fernandes had also raised the issue of Chinese presence in the Coco Islands when Myanmar's home minister was in Delhi, and the minister had given a similar assurance.

    Speaking of Aung San Suu Kyi, Win said the junta had nothing against her personally. ``We want to free her, the time will come to do that. We hope it will not be long.'' But he refused to give a definite time frame. He said some foreign diplomats posted in Myanmar used their immunity to stir trouble in his country. ``We don't want this kind of interference in our country.''

    Yangon seems particularly pleased with the warm welcome extended to General Maung Aye and his high-level delegation to India. ``We have been isolated for many years because of internal problems in our country, we are still struggling to overcome these,'' Win admitted. ``We welcome the fact that the gap in high-level contacts which had stopped in 1987 has been resumed.''

    The foreign minister said that General Maung has invited President Narayanan to visit Myanmar. He said he was delighted that     the President's wife was from his country.
    Australia Government attempts to mend UN ties
    source : SMH

    By DAVID LAGUE, Foreign Affairs Correspondent

    The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Downer, last night praised the United Nations for boosting human rights, despite the Howard Government's earlier controversial attack on the world body's rights watchdog committees. Mr Downer said the Government remained critical of the UN's overloaded bureaucracy and some workings of its treaty system, but acknowledged its key role in changing the international human rights climate for the better.

    "They have palpably not rid the world of ruthless dictators or serious human rights abusers, but they have contributed to the emergence of a remarkable new human rights culture in international affairs," he said.

    Mr Downer's praise, at a speech at Monash University, signals that the Government is attempting to repair the damage to its international reputation from its decision to downgrade Australia's links with UN human rights treaty committees.

    The Howard Government attracted a storm of protest in August when it downgraded its participation with UN rights treaty committees after one of the bodies slammed Australia's mandatory sentencing laws as racist.

    But Mr Downer said last night that Government leaders guilty of violating human rights were feeling uncomfortable in this new climate that the UN had helped bring about.

    "The Pinochets and Milosevics of the future, still in their prams, are going to grow up in an international environment that will give them pause.

    "They should note the lesson from recent history that those who hold onto authoritarian power by denying their people the right to participate in government, or by sheer terror, will eventually have their day of reckoning."

    Mr Downer also defended the Government's widely criticised move to hold human rights workshops for officials of the Burmese military junta, a policy that is now under review.

    He said the Government had opted to hold the workshops because it was frustrated that other measures had failed to have the "slightest effect" in curbing Burma's human rights abuses.

    He said that 51 Burmese officials had taken part in the three workshops held so far.

    "I would be the last to inflate the prospect of turning around a very poor situation in Burma but the purpose of the initiative was always fairly straightforward, to do something to improve the human rights of the Burmese people."
    SPDC Chairman and Prime Minister Senior General Than Shwe to visit Singapore
    source : NLM

    (NLM) Yangon, 20 Nov-At the invitation of His Excellency Mr Goh Chok Tong, Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore, His Excellency Senior General Than Shwe, Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council and Prime Minister of the Union of Myanmar will attend the Fourth ASEAN Informal Summit and Meetings of the ASEAN Heads of State/Government and Heads of State/Government of the People's Republic of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea scheduled to be held in Singapore on 23 November 2000.
    Peaceful demonstration held today in front of "Aung San Oo's resident
    A group of Burmese living in LA has peacefully staged a protest infront of "Aung San Oo's resident this afternoon. Protesters have denounced the cruel and shameful action of Aung San Oo, who took legal action against his own little sister, who has been subjected to harassment by the military junta for 12 years.

    The protesters have met Aung San Oo who was on the way to going out of the house. His wife Lei Lei Nwe Thein stayed back but didn't come out to meet with the group. Slogans shouted, leaflets and posters were distributed to all their neighbours in 4 directions.

    There will be a demonstration again at the same place 3897 Auburndale Street, San Diego on coming Saturday (Nov 25 ).
    India, Burma Renew Talks On Trade, Security Issues
    NEW DELHI (AP)--After years of being cautious neighbors, India and Myanmar on Monday renewed attempts to widen trade relations, address security concerns and back each other on international issues.

    Gen. Maung Aye, the second highest leader of Myanmar's ruling junta, met with Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh and Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani with his high-level delegation of government ministers and officials, the Indian foreign office said.

    "The basic thrust of the discussions was on ways to enhance trade and economic cooperation between the two countries in the areas of border trade, infrastructure and energy, and on security issues, including cross-border terrorism and drug smuggling," foreign ministry spokesman Raminder Jassal told reporters.

    India's relations with Myanmar deteriorated following the bloody suppression of a pro-democracy uprising in 1988 by the Myanmar military and the two countries have in recent years sought to ease tension through bilateral visits.

    India did not raise the issue of democracy during the current trip.

    "While we follow the ideals of democracy, we do not interfere with the internal affairs of other countries," Jassal said.

    Maung Aye is vice chairman of the ruling State Peace and Development Council, a military council that since 1962 has ruled the country formerly known as Burma.

    The seven-day trip is Maung Aye's second this year. He made a one-day visit to Shillong in eastern India on Jan. 7, days after Gen. V.P. Malik, then India's chief of the army staff, went to Myanmar.

    Officials from both countries discussed cooperation in setting up hydroelectricity, road and river navigation projects, deep sea port development and the possible supply of gas from Myanmar to India. New Delhi also provided to Yangon a $15 million credit that will be used to buy industrial and electrical equipment from India.

    Both countries promised to support each other within international organizations. India said it would also back Myanmar in its dispute with the International Labor Organization, which has imposed sanctions on Yangon over the use of forced labor.
    Burma, hill-tribe girls replace Thai child prostitutes
    BANGKOK, Nov. 20 Kyodo News

    Education and declining fertility are reducing the number of child prostitutes in Thailand's northern provinces, but the continuing high demand for sex with prostitutes are luring children from neighboring Myanmar and from Thai hill tribes into the business, an expert said Monday.

    In Thailand's northern province of Chiang Rai, which is noted for prostitution, children who are at risk of turning to prostitution have increasingly continued studying even after primary school, said Simon Baker, an expert who did a study on prostitution in the province.
    The Ruin of Burma
    The New York Times

    The Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar is a case study in repression and misgovernment. For 12 years a secretive military junta has ground down the liberties and living standards of 50 million people. By banning most contact with the outside world and buying off the leadership of restive ethnic minorities, the junta has deflected serious challenges to its rule, despite the dismal failure of its economic policies and spreading social ills.

    The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962, when it was known as Burma. After the violent suppression of a democracy movement in 1988, an even more ruthless set of generals took charge. They permitted elections in 1990, then ignored the results when democratic forces led by Daw Aung Sang Suu Kyi won an overwhelming victory.

    She has spent 6 of the past 11 years under house arrest. Other leaders of her party have been relentlessly persecuted, university students have been relocated from the cities, and unions and civic associations have been prohibited.

    The junta has banned computer modems, e-mail and the Internet and made it a crime for people to invite foreigners into their homes.

    The Times's Blaine Harden recently reported that Myanmar, which a half-century ago had one of Asia's best health care systems and highest literacy rates, is now near the bottom in these and many other measures of development as government spending has been diverted from schools and health care to the military.

    Most people now live on less than a dollar a day.

    Drug smuggling and AIDS have grown explosively and threaten to spill over to neighboring countries like China and Thailand.

    The United States has led international efforts to isolate Myanmar through economic sanctions, including a ban on new investment. But other Asian countries have been reluctant to apply pressure.

    China, in particular, has helped sustain the junta through military aid. But an increasing number of countries are losing patience.

    Last week the 175- member International Labor Organization took the unusual step of condemning the junta's use of forced labor and invited member countries to impose sanctions.

    A good start would be restricting trade and investment in areas of the economy that profit from forced labor. Washington too should consider additional steps like encouraging disinvestment by American companies.

    Myanmar's people deserve international support in their struggle against a destructive tyranny.
    NCGUB Welcomes ILO Decision To Impose Sanctions
    The Governing Body of the International Labor Organization decided on 16 November to impose sanctions against the military regime in Burma for using forced labor and for its reluctance to take prompt action to end the practice.

    Dr. Sein Win, prime minister of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), hailed the ILO decision, saying, "We welcome any action aimed at ending forced labor and other human rights abuses in Burma. The people of Burma will be relieved to learn that their plight has not gone unnoticed by the international community."

    The NCGUB is grateful to all the labor unions, employers' organizations, and governments that made the sanctions possible and expresses its hope that they will initiate appropriate action when the sanctions take effect on 30 November.

    Already, the Hon. Glenys Kinnock, Labor's spokesperson on Development in the European Parliament, has urged that the European Union "to impose strict conditions on Burma before going ahead with the planned EU-ASEAN meeting, in December in Laos," and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions has called on tour operators to cancel trips to Burma and on multinational energy companies to reconsider their involvement in the gas pipeline projects, and U.S. Deputy Labor Secretary Andrews Samet said the U.S. government would now consult with workers and employers to see what could be done by the United States to press for an end to forced labor.

    The NCGUB is confident that a concerted action by the international community will greatly contribute to the efforts undertaken by the people of Burma to bring an end to the injustices being committed by the military regime.
    India lauds Burma's cooperation in battling border insurgency
    NEW DELHI, Nov 21 (AFP)

    New Delhi on Monday lauded Burma's military junta for extending cooperation in battling cross-border insurgency on the borders of India's northeastern region, officials said.

    Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh made the statement during his talks Monday with General Maung Aye, the number two in Burma's military regime, an official from the Indian foreign office said.

    The two sides also discussed issues relating to bilateral relations and felt the need to take effective steps to establis security in the border areas, the official said after the talks.

    The two sides also decided to enhance cooperation in sectors such as tourism and the development of infrastructure in each other's countries.

    Maung Aye said there was "immense potential" for cooperation in the energy sector. Singh promised to send a team to Burma to study a power project there.

    Maung also spoke about the potential for cooperation in deep sea ports and supply of natural gas to India, a foreign ministry spokesman added.

    When asked whether Singh raised the issue of Burma's return to democracy, the spokesman said New Delhi was committed to "democracy and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries."

    India has vigorously campaigned for international sanctions against Pakistan since the military coup in October 1999.

    New Delhi's engagement of the Burma's junta has provoked controversy as India is also sympathetic to the pro-democracy movement led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

    Indian and Burmese troops have cooperated in fighting insurgency in India's northeastern states.

    Earlier this year, they carried out a joint operation in which five militant camps in Burma belonging to the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland were destroyed.

    India is also keen to engage Burma to counter the growing Chinese influence in the country.

    Maung Aye during his week-long visit invited Indian businesses to invest in Burma, in areas including agriculture, fisheries, pearl cultivation, infrastructure, oil and gas, mining and tourism.
    New Move By Massachusetts Lawmaker On Burma Sanctions
    BOSTON (AP)

    A lawmaker who sponsored Massachusetts' first-in-the-nation law levying sanctions against Burma says he'll adopt another strategy to put economic pressure on the southeast Asian country.

    State Rep. Byron Rushing said Monday he plans to file legislation that would penalize companies that do business with Burma in order to pressure the country to improve human rights and move toward democracy.

    Rushing's announcement comes five months after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 1996 Massachusetts law that made it harder for companies to trade with Burma.

    Simon Billenness, an investment analyst who helped Rushing draft the 1996 proposal, said the new proposal would be more able to withstand legal challenges because it doesn't target Burma by name.

    The Supreme Court ruled the previous Massachusetts law infringed on the U.S. president's power to conduct foreign policy, but Billenness said the new proposal would only target countries sanctioned by the International Labor Organization, an agency of the U.N.

    Burma is the only country the ILO has recommended sanctions against, Billenness said.

    The ILO on Thursday asked its 56 country-members to impose economic sanctions against Burma because of government-sponsored forced labor on roads, railways, military installations and tourist infrastructure.

    "It would be a Burma-free, free-Burma law," said Billenness.

    The ILO sanctions are to go into effect Nov. 30.

    Like the 1996 law, the new proposal would allow companies doing business with Burma to sell goods and services to the state only if their bid was 10% lower than any other bid, Rushing said.

    Rushing also plans to file legislation that would prohibit the state from buying the stock of companies doing business in Burma.

    Los Angeles and Minneapolis have both passed such laws, but Massachusetts would be the first state to do so, Rushing said.

    The state invests billions of dollars in stocks, most of it from the pensions of state employees and public school teachers. On Monday, the state's Pension Reserves Investment Trust had a market value of $30.4 billion, according to a spokesman for the state Treasurer's Office.

    A spokesman for the state's largest business lobby said state lawmakers shouldn't be able to "stigmatize" companies that do business in a particular country or sell a certain product.

    "I think it's a bad idea at the state level," said Robert Ruddock, a spokesman for the Associated Industries of Massachusetts. "The appropriate location for concern about foreign policy is at the national government level, not the state government level."

    Ruddock said Rushing's proposal, if approved, would open the door for lawmakers to target any number of other countries -and more to the point, to penalize companies that do business there.

    In fact, state lawmakers considered targeting Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country and one of Asia's fastest growing economies, but the bill never passed after the initial Burma law was struck down.

    Rushing said efforts to foster democracy and improve human rights in Burma mirror previous efforts from the early 1980s when Massachusetts used sanctions to target another country.

    "It's the next South Africa," Rushing said.
    Suu Kyi no show at court case over Rangoon home
    Source : MSNBC

    Rangoon, Nov. 21 -- Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest, failed to turn up for a hearing over the ownership of her lakeside Rangoon home on Tuesday, despite promises by the military to allow her to go to court.

    Pro-democracy campaigner Suu Kyi, 55, is being sued by her estranged elder brother, Aung San Oo, a U.S. citizen, for half the home in an elite residential area of the Burmese capital.

    Adjourning the hearing in her absence, Judge U Soe Thein told a Yangon Sub-Division court the hearing would continue ex parte on November 27.

    It was not immediately clear why Suu Kyi did not appear.

    A court official told the court he had tried to serve a summons on Suu Kyi but she had refused to accept it. He said he then stuck the summons on the gate to her compound.

    Military authorities had said Suu Kyi was free to go to court but neither she, nor her supporters, were available to confirm this or to make any other comment on the case.

    Motivation for the lawsuit was also unclear.

    The sprawling house and gardens on University Avenue overlooks Rangoon's Inya Lake and is estimated to be worth about $2 million, according to one local estate agent.

    The lawyer for Aung San Oo, U Kyaw Zeya, said his client wanted to partition the premises and had asked to be granted the power to administer the estate. He declined to give further details.

    LAWSUIT CONVENIENT FOR MILITARY

    But the legal action is also very convenient for Burma's military authorities, which have been trying for years without success to get Suu Kyi to leave the country and give up her political struggle.

    Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, and her National League for Democracy (NLD) have been locked in a battle for the hearts and minds of the Burmese people for more than a decade.

    The NLD won the country's last general election in 1990 by a landslide but has never been allowed to govern.

    The ruling generals say Burma is not ready for democracy.

    The United States and its western allies in turn accuse the military government of widespread human rights abuses, including torture, imprisonment without trial and the use of forced labour.

    The military has cracked down hard on the NLD in recent months since the party stepped up a campaign to highlight its demand for democracy and human rights in the impoverished country.

    Suu Kyi has been kept confined to her home since September 22 when she was prevented from travelling by train to the city of Mandalay to meet party members.

    Since then, her telephone has been cut and diplomatic access barred, local residents and diplomats say.

    The only person to visit her has been U.N. special envoy Razali Ismail, who met her twice in October during a four-day visit to Burma aimed at easing political tensions.

    Other NLD leaders have been detained or kept locked in their homes and the military has issued a series of pronouncements through its newspapers suggesting it may be planning decisive action to silence its opponents.

    Suu Kyi has been living in the Rangoon house since she returned from Europe to nurse her ailing mother in 1988.

    Suu Kyi and Aung San Oo are children of Burma's independence hero General Aung San, who was assassinated in 1947 when the country was on the threshold of independence from Britain.
    India, Burma talk of ambitious partnership
    Source : The Economic Times (India)

    AFTER years of being cautious neighbours, India and Myanmar on Monday renewed attempts to widen trade relations, address security concerns and back each other on international issues.

    Gen Maung Aye, the second highest leader of Burma's ruling junta, met with Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, foreign minister Jaswant Singh and home minister Lal Krishna Advani with his high-level delegation of government ministers and officials, the foreign office said.

    "The basic thrust of the discussions was on ways to enhance trade and economic cooperation between the two countries in the areas of border trade, infrastructure and energy, and on security issues, including cross-border terrorism and drug smuggling," foreign ministry spokesman Raminder Jassal told reporters.

    India's relations with Burma deteriorated following the bloody suppression of a pro-democracy uprising in 1988 by the Burmese military and the two countries have in recent years sought to ease tension through bilateral visits.

    India did not raise the issue of democracy during the current trip.

    "While we follow the ideals of democracy, we do not interfere with the internal affairs of other countries," Jassal said.

    When journalists on Friday asked Advani about the government having relations with a military regime in Burma that has been criticized for human rights abuses, he said: "We weighed all the pros and cons but in international relations, we have to take into account our national interests."

    Maung Aye is vice chairman of the ruling State Peace and Development Council, a military council that since 1962 has ruled the country.

    The seven-day trip is Maung Aye's second this year. He made a one-day visit to Shillong in eastern India on January 7, days after Gen V P Malik, then India's chief of the army staff, went to Burma.

    Officials from both countries discussed cooperation in setting up hydroelectricity, road and river navigation projects, deep sea port development and the possible supply of gas from Burma to India.

    New Delhi also provided to Rangoon a $15-million credit that will be used to buy industrial and electrical equipment from India.

    Both countries promised to support each other within international organizations. India said it would also back Burma in its dispute with the International Labor Organization, which has imposed sanctions on Rangoon over the use of forced labour.

    The presence of Naga rebel camps in Burma, across the border from Nagaland, was a primary focus of talks during the visit and Maung Aye told Indian officials that his army had recently destroyed five camps of the rebels who were seeking to make Nagaland independent.

    Maung Aye arrived in India on November 14, visiting the Buddhist religious hub of Gaya, and Bangalore, before his arrival in New Delhi on Thursday night.

    The Burmese delegation includes deputy prime minister Lt Gen Tin Hla, also the minister for military affairs, and the ministers for foreign affairs, finance, commerce, power, industry and science and technology.