Daily News-November-22-Wednesday-2000

  • ASEAN differences, difficulties to weigh on summit
  • Amnesty calls for release of Aung San Suu Kyi
  • Human Rights groups criticises Aussie Govt's policy on Burma
  • UK irked at contact with Burma
  • India offers Burma $15m loan
  • Armed Burmese prisoners emerge from Thai jail with hostages
  • Aung San Suu Kyi marks two months under house arrest
  • India and Burma to step up counter-insurgency efforts
  • Burmese,S.Korea sailors rescued after hitting reef
  • ILO Censures Burma despite Asian opposition
  • Burma's Forced-labour row threatens to thwart economic integration bid
  • Armed Burmese prisoners head for border with hostages

    • ASEAN differences, difficulties to weigh on summit
    Source: Reuters
    By John O'Callaghan

    SINGAPORE, Nov 21 (Reuters) - ASEAN leaders meet this week to talk trade and stress their ostensible unity but, if previous sessions are anything to go by, the summit will produce a raft of good intentions but little in the way of concrete action.

    With political instability and economic woes weighing heavily in many parts of Southeast Asia, analysts said the 10-nation bloc and its Chinese, South Korean and Japanese guests will have a tough time finding the common ground to which they aspire.

    Daniel Gay, an economist at Strategic Intelligence in Singapore, said the array of domestic problems merely emphasised inequalities within the Association of South East Asian Nations. ``It makes you wonder how much they've actually got to benefit from free trade with each other or more open trade,'' he said. ``You have Singapore revising up its GDP (gross domestic product) growth forecast to 10 percent nearly this year and right at the other end of the scale you've got Indonesia, which is going to be lucky if it grows four percent.''

    Hot potatoes like China-Taiwan relations, military rule in Myanmar and the disputed Spratly Islandshave little chance of making it to the table.

    THE WILL VERSUS THE WAY

    For a region still weathering the effects of the 1997-98 crisis that declawed all but Asia's strongest tiger economies, talk of recovery, prevention and progress will pervade the four-day gathering in Singapore.

    ``We will discuss the present difficulties we are faced with,'' Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said recently. ``But we should not just be wringing our hands and lamenting that we have big problems.''

    The agenda is likely to feature plans for ASEAN central banks to set up a foreign-currency swap scheme to help fend off the sort of speculative attacks that savaged many of the region's currencies three years ago, triggering a deep recession. The air will also be thick with talk of free-trade agreements to build on recently announced country-to-country deals.

    On Tuesday, China said Premier Zhu Rongji would explore the establishment of a free-trade zone between Beijing and Southeast Asian countries when he attends the regional summit this week. But Sofyan Wanandi, director of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta, said the shocks of the economic crisis have prompted many nations to give priority to pressing issues at home at the expense of regional cooperation. ``Because of the crisis, everybody is trying to survive on their own,'' he said.

    ``The commitment is still there but whether the implementation now...of a set of priorities that they could commit themselves to can be achieved -- that is something we have to find out.'' But Richard Feinberg, a professor at the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California in San Diego, said the bloc still had a key role.

    ``The fact that there are some political tensions in some important ASEAN countries in a way makes ASEAN all the more important because you want to try to keep international economic policy on track in the midst of political tensions,'' he said. ``That's the test of an international regime -- can it withstand moments of political distress in member states?''

    MYANMAR UNDERLINES QUESTION OF CLOUT

    There are also question marks over ASEAN's ambition to play more of a role in resolving political and security disputes.

    The group agreed in July to set up a three-member ministerial fire-fighting panel, but ASEAN's policy of non-interference may leave the ``troika'' without any real clout.

    This dilemma is acute in the case of Myanmar, whose military regime ignored a 1990 election victory by the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) and has since kept a tight rein on party leader Aung San Suu Kyi and senior NLD officials.

    Western unhappiness over the way Myanmar's generals have dealt with the NLD could derail a long-delayed meeting between ASEAN and European Union foreign ministers in Laos in December.

    ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- nations as disparate in their development as in their politics. ``To outside powers with extensive interests in the region, such as the United States, Australia and Japan, it is important that ASEAN recover its cohesion and play a positive role in regional security,'' he wrote recently.

    The summit will be the third time in five weeks that Asian leaders have gathered in various forums. They met their European Union counterparts in Seoul and then their Pacific Rim partners in Brunei just last week.
    Amnesty calls for release of Aung San Suu Kyi
    source : ABC

    Rights group Amnesty has called for the immediate release of Burma's democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi and other opposition leaders as they prepared to mark two months under house arrest.

    Bruma's military regime laid down the restrictions on September 22 after the National League for Democracy members attempted to board a train to Mandalay, in the country's north.

    It was Aung San Suu Kyi's latest attempt to test the junta's travel ban that restricts her to the capital and prevents her from attenting party meetings elsewhere in Burma.
    Human Rights groups criticises Govt's policy on Burma
    source : ABC

    The Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, has received criticism of Australia's policy on Burma at a Human Rights forum in Melbourne.

    Burmese support groups attended the meeting at Parliament House, demanding Australia suspend its human rights workshops in Burma.

    They claim the workshops give the dictatorship legitimacy and are alienating the Burmese opposition.

    But Mr Downer rejected the claims, saying its better to do something than nothing at all.

    "We are doing the right thing by trying to bring to the attention of middle-ranking civil servants in Burma what are international human rights norms, and it is our view that is a small contribution but it is a contribution to advancing the cause of human rights," he said.
    UK irked at contact with Burma
    The Times of India (New Delhi)

    NEW DELHI: Indo-British ties are currently at an all time high, but there are seeming contradictions on certain vital issues. This was evident from remarks on Pakistan and Myanmar vis- a-vis India made by visiting British minister of state for foreign and commonwealth affairs Peter Hain.

    Hain, who welcomed India's announcement of a unilateral ceasefire during Ramzan, said that Britain wants India and Pakistan to take up their disrupted dialogue because tension between the two newest nuclear states is dangerous to the entire region.

    While he appreciated Indian compulsions for engaging the military junta in Myanmar, he said he could not help wondering ``how the world's largest democracy,'' can `fraternise with a regime that viciously suppresses democracy''.

    Hain met minister of state for external affairs Ajit Panja, and held talks with National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra. He is expected to call on external affairs minister Jaswant Singh. Britain, which has already ratified and signed the CTBT, wants India to sign it. But Hain refused to speculate on the CTBT's future if George Bush becomes the next US President. The Republicans while supporting non- proliferation have refused to ratify the treaty in the US Senate.

    He said he would take up the case of Peter Bleach, now languishing in a Calcutta jail for the Purulia arms drop case, with the Indian government. Five Russian co-accused in the case have been let off and have returned home. The British are not asking for his release, but want to know why Bleach was not treated on par with the Russians.

    Despite these hiccups, the news on the bilateral front is good. India and the UK are working closely on the new knowledge based technology. Hain said Britain regards India as the biggest knowledge base for IT and hopes for IT partnership between India and Britain.
    India offers Burma $15m loan
    The Times of India News Service

    NEW DELHI: India will provide a loan of $15 million to Myanmar for purchasing industrial and electrical equipment. The two countries have decided to establish necessary infrastructure to promote border trade.

    The agreement was signed by the finance ministers of the two countries during the recent week-long visit of Myanmar's vice-chairman of the ruling State Peace and Development Council, General Maung Aye.

    Gen Maung had participated in wide-ranging discussions on economic cooperation, cross-border projects and international terrorism, among other topics, with Pime Minister Vajpayee and others. ``Views were also exchanged on checking the cross-border insurgency and drug trafficking,'' said an external affairs ministry spokesperson.
    Armed Burmese prisoners emerge from Thai jail with hostages
    BANGKOK, Nov 22 (AFP)

    Eight armed Burmese prisoners holding a Thai jail governor and six of his staff hostage have broken through the prison gates and driven outside the compound in a pick-up truck, police said Wednesday.

    Provincial police chief Major General Surasri Sunthornsarathoon said negotiators were now trying to win the release of the hostages, two of whom have been shot and injured.

    "The driver of the car is holding a hand grenade and the prison chief is sitting on his lap," he told AFP.

    "Inside the cabin, another convict is holding a gun," he added.

    Witnesses at the scene said sharpshooters had taken up their places on top of vans parked around the entrance to the jail in Samut Sakhon provincial jail, which lies about 36 kilometres (22 miles) from Bangkok.

    The hostage-takers have demanded that the governor, who has been shot in the hand, and his deputy travel with them to a border town and ensure their safe passage to Burma.

    Corrections Department director general Siva Saengmanee told reporters that apart from governor Somwong Sirivej, the hostages included five warders and a prison teacher, who has also been wounded.

    A huge security presence involving about 500 commandos and well-armed uniformed and plainclothes police has been laid out around the jail.

    Television footage earlier showed one of the gunmen parading a terrified hostage in front of the cameras, as a media contingent of about 200 reporters and crews gathered outside the compound.

    Witnesses said gunshots had been heard from the compound since the hostage drama began mid-morning.

    The Corrections Department said the gunmen were not political prisoners, but were all facing criminal charges, including drugs offences. Their cases were still being heard through the courts.
    Aung San Suu Kyi marks two months under house arrest
    YANGON, Nov 22 (AFP)

    Amnesty International has called for the release of Burma's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior members of her party who Wednesday marked two months spent under house arrest.

    Burma's military regime laid down the new restrictions on September 22 after the National League for Democracy (NLD) leaders attempted to board a train to Mandalay, in the country's north.

    It was Aung San Suu Kyi's latest attempt to test the junta's travel ban that restricts her to the capital and prevents her from going about party business in Burma.

    "The international community should step up pressure on the Burmese government to release these prisoners of conscience without delay. Detaining people to silence them is completely unacceptable," Amnesty said.

    "All 10 of these leaders are prisoners of conscience, arrested solely for their peaceful political opposition activities," the human rights campaginers said in a statement released late Tuesday.

    Amnesty said it had obtained the names of 80 NLD members and supporters who were detained in Burma's notorious Insein jail after being arrested when they went to farewell Aung San Suu Kyi at Rangoon central station.

    "There are fears for their health, as torture of political prisoners is common in Burma," it said.

    After a decade of intimidation and harassment from the military authorities, the Nobel laureate now faces a new crisis as efforts are made to evict her from her home, and to remove the NLD from its headquarters.

    The owners of the Rangoon building where the NLD has been based since its inception in 1989 have served notice to evict their high-profile tenants.

    And Aung San Suu Kyi's US-based brother Aung San Oo has filed suit over half the Rangoon residence that once belonged to their late mother.

    The opposition figurehead was summonsed to appear in court Tuesday over the claim, but failed to appear, enabling her brother's legal representatives to continue their case on a unilateral basis.

    She is believed to be seeking legal advice in what may be a precursor to a private settlement with Aung San Oo.

    Western sources in Rangoon said the timing of the two eviction attempts was unlikely to be a coincidence.

    "This is obviously a move that is at least government-aided, if not govt-orchestrated," said one observer.

    "The obvious conclusion is that they are trying to crush the NLD. They know that nobody would dare rent property to Aung San Suu Kyi or the NLD so it appears they are going after them on a fundamental basis."

    Whether they were doing this to pressure the party into some sort of compromise, or to destroy the movement completely, was not yet known, he said.

    But the observer cautioned against writing off the party's chances to work its way out of the predicament.

    "It's making things difficult for them, certainly, particularly as their leaders are under house arrest, but these things don't tend to weaken the NLD's position," he said.
    India and Burma to step up counter-insurgency efforts
    NEW DELHI, Nov 22 (AFP)

    India and Burma said Wednesday they had agreed to step up joint efforts to counter the threat of separatist insurgency along their common border.

    "The two sides agreed to take steps to ensure peace and tranquility along the India-Burma border," said a joint statement released after a week-long visit by General Maung Aye -- number two in Burma's military regime.

    The general's visit had stirred up some controversy because India is also sympathetic to Burma's pro-democracy movement led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

    Indian and Burmese troops have been cooperating 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.

    The joint statement said both countries had also agreed to take steps to "give content to cross border cooperation which would directly benefit populations living on both sides."

    Economic and commerical relations would also be stepped up, it added.

    During a meeting with Indian industrialists in New Delhi, Maung Aye encouraged businesses to invest in Burma's agriculture, fisheries, pearl cultivation and mining sectors.

    Tourism, infrastructure and energy were also identified as areas which had "immense potential."
    Burmese,S.Korea sailors rescued after hitting reef
    Source : ABC News

    KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22-- Seventeen Burmese and South Korean sailors were rescued after drifting in a lifeboat in the South China Sea for five days after their ship hit a reef and sunk, a Malaysian newspaper reported on Wednesday.

    The crew of the Panama-registered "Marine Dove" abandoned the sinking ship on November 13 and were picked up on November 17, one of the rescued sailors told the New Straits Times. "We drifted in our lifeboat for about five days. It was very difficult for us," Aye Kyawhe, a Myanmar national said in Tawau, a town in Malaysia"s Sabah state on Borneo island, where the crew were taken.

    The ship was heading to China with a load of logs when it struck the reef about 100 nautical miles off the Spratly Islands.

    The submerged vessel was spotted by rescuers on November 16. An aerial search the following day found the men in the lifeboat. The rescued crew members were fine, Aye said. "We got a medical check-up and now we are all resting."
    ILO Censures Burma despite Asian opposition
    Source : IPS-Inter Press Service

    GENEVA-- The executive body of the International Labor Organization (ILO) had to wade through the resistance of Asian nations to open the way for sanctions against Burma for its widespread use of forced labor.

    The actions could cost Burma aid from other governments, international institutions, as well as public and private entities.

    The ILO resolution calls for the unprecedented implementation on Nov. 30 of its constitution's Article 33, enacting measures of censure against the Burmese government.

    The Burmese delegation responded by announcing in Geneva that it would refuse all future collaboration with the ILO.

    The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), which headed the campaign against the Rangoon military regime, estimates there are approximately one million people subjected to forced labor in Burma.

    The application of measures by the international community will likely mean the government's plans to boost income from tourism will fail. The country took in $100 million in tourism in 1999 and had projected $200 million for next year, according to the ICFTU.

    The ILO Governing Body stated that its Commission of Inquiry had not observed progress in Burma towards adopting the international convention against forced labor.

    As a result, the decisions adopted last June by the International Labor Conference were left intact, and call for applying sanctions against an ILO member nation for the first time in the organization's 81-year history.

    Several Asian nations attempted until the eleventh hour to defer the issue with a proposal presented by Malaysia, and sponsored by the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam, to postpone discussion until the next sessions of the Conference.

    The Malaysian delegation maintained that the Burmese government had made "serious efforts" to apply the measures adopted by the Conference.

    Other countries that backed delaying action against Rangoon included China, India, Japan and Russia. Meanwhile, European and Latin American nations, as well as labor and corporate delegates, supported the condemnation.

    The Governing Body, the ILO's executive, is comprised of 28 government representatives, 14 labor delegates and several from business organizations.

    Its decision was based on the negative report presented by the technical co-operation mission that visited the country in October.

    But the origin of the censure dates back to recommendations made by the 1998 Commission of Inquiry, which found that forced labor in the country was "widespread and systematic."

    The Commission's recommendations called for Burma to "take concrete actions" toward implementing the international convention against forced labor, which the country ratified in 1955.

    The ICFTU affirmed that, despite the recommendations, the Burmese military continued to harass residents in rural areas, forcing them to perform, without pay, all kinds of tasks, ranging from road repair, barracks maintenance and weapons transport to growing crops that were sold for the army's profit.

    The Brussels-based global union said the Burmese military dictatorship is concerned that sanctions could strangle the country's economy, which -- apart from drug-trafficking -- depends heavily on sales to Thailand of natural gas from the deposits in the Andaman Sea.

    The international sale of natural gas was made possible by the pipeline built by Elf-Total-Fina and Unocal, two companies "harshly criticised for their use of forced labor and the displacement of the local population," said the ICFTU.

    The sanctions of the International Labor Conference, to take effect at the end of this month, call for a full investigation, trial and punishment for those found guilty of forced labor.

    They also establish that future sessions of the Conference will assess "the implementation of the Commission of Inquiry's recommendations at future sessions of the Conference so long as Burma has not been shown to have fulfilled its obligations."

    Another point of the resolution recommends that ILO members "review their relations with Burma and take appropriate measures to ensure that such relations do not perpetuate or extend the system of forced or compulsory labor in that country."

    ILO Director-General Juan Somavˇa is to "inform international organizations working with the ILO to reconsider any cooperation they may be engaged in with Burma and, if appropriate, to cease as soon as possible any activity that could have the effect of directly or indirectly abetting the practice of forced or compulsory labor."
    Burma's Forced-labour row threatens to thwart economic integration bid
    Source: South China Morning Post

    SINGAPORE--International pressure on Burma over its use of forced labour threatens to overshadow efforts towards economic integration at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) leaders summit this week.

    "It's important that Asean demonstrates to the outside world that as an organisation, we can get our act together," Singapore Foreign Minister S. Jayakumar said ahead of the weekend summit where economic cohesion and strengthening ties with China, Japan and South Korea will top the agenda.

    Mr Jayakumar said the 33-year-old grouping had to devise new ideas and projects showing its 10 members were working together. "Asean is going through a rather critical period of its history," he said, stressing the need to prevent a two-tier arrangement between older members and the newer entrants - Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Burma. Asean also includes Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Brunei.

    With Asean still seen as weakened and drifting as a result of its slow response to the economic crisis in 1997, host Singapore is anxious to drive home the integration theme.

    An Asean agreement seeking to use information technology to link the countries closer together and explore e-commerce possibilities will be signed by the leaders of the 10 countries.

    The initiative aims to harmonise Internet laws, narrow the digital divide and enhance inter-government co-operation on information technology concerns.

    The Asean leaders are also scheduled to meet Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.

    Hopes of a thaw in Asean-European Union strains over Burma have been dashed by the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) unprecedented decision last week to call for economic sanctions against Burma for failing to comply with a global treaty on eradicating forced labour.

    Burma's admission into Asean in July 1997 strained ties with the West. The United States and EU cited its poor human rights record and failure to acknowledge the election win of the National League for Democracy in 1990.

    An Asean-EU meeting scheduled for Laos from December 11 to 12, which would have marked an easing of tensions, now appears likely to be postponed after several European countries said they would not send their foreign ministers in the aftermath of the ILO's decision to impose the sanctions on November 30.

    Asean army commanders pledged at their first meeting yesterday to consider how their forces could join together to handle humanitarian disasters.
    Armed Burmese prisoners head for border with hostages
    BANGKOK, Nov 22 (AFP)

    A band of Burmese prisoners holding a Thai prison governor and several warders hostage have driven out of the jail with their captives, leaving the dead body of one hostage behind, police said Wednesday.

    The eight gunmen, armed with hand guns and grandes, have said they are heading west to a border town where they will demand safe passage back to Burma.

    The convicts, who police said were all facing trial for criminal offences including drug trafficking, seized governor Somwong Sirivej, a prison teacher, and six wardens mid-morning.

    After a tense eight-hour stand-off where they paraded one of their captives in front of the television cameras, the gunmen dismantled the main prison gates and drove out of the compound in a stolen pick-up truck.

    A convoy of security forces, including commando units, took off in pursuit as police mounted a search of the prison compound, where the rest of the 2,000 prisoners were locked in their cells.

    "In a preliminary search of the area, we found one dead body. We believe it is the prison teacher who was taken hostage earlier," said police doctor Santi Kitcharuek.

    Prison governor Somwong Sirivej has been shot in the hand, but police said they believe the warders have not been wounded.

    The chief hostage-taker, who identified himself as Win, phoned up a local radio station from a mobile phone as the group drove towards the border, and gave a running commentary on the pursuit.