Daily News-January 11 - 2001- Thursday

  • Exiles hail Suu Kyi meeting as breakthrough
  • Thailand welcomed the secret dialogue
  • Burmese Leader Stresses Importance of National Unity
  • Burma border protest to Bangladesh
  • God's Army fighters get ultimatum
  • Alleged drug trafficker who was sought by U.S. is arrested in Thailand
  • Britain welcomes direct dialogue between Suu kyi, junta
  • Vietnam sticks to non-interference line on Burma
  • Burma's UMFCCI Membership Grows
  • Burma Carries out Greening Project in Dry Zone
  • Junta leaders playing their own game
  • Exiles' hopes tempered by distrust for regime
  • Mahathir proves his loyalty

    • Exiles hail Suu Kyi meeting as breakthrough

    source : SMH
    By Craig Skehan, Herald Correspondent in Bangkok

    Burmese student leaders in exile are hailing talks between the democracy activist Ms Aung San Suu Kyi and the military junta as a historic breakthrough.

    Diplomats have reported a series of contacts between the National League for Democracy (NLD) and the military, including a meeting of Ms Aung San Suu Kyi and the regime's first secretary and head of military intelligence, General Khin Nyunt.

    Ms Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of the past five months under house arrest after two attempts to reach supporters in the countryside were blocked.Five democracy activists who supported her most recent attempt to travel by train to the northern city of Mandalay were jailed for up to 21 years.

    The All Burma Students Democratic Front yesterday praised the contact with the military.A spokesman said: "We're very optimistic. It has been a long conflict. This is the most positive sign we've seen since the general election."

    Some diplomats cautioned that Ms Aung San Suu Kyi had met General Khin Nyunt several times before in the past decade. Talks in 1995 broke down and were followed by an anti-democracy clampdown.

    This time, the junta and democracy activists have incentives to make concessions.

    Diplomatic pressure on the regime is growing, while the economic situation is deteriorating amid internal mismanagement and the drying up of foreign investment.And the NLD's activities have been increasingly restricted, while it faced the threat of a complete ban unless there is a break in the impasse.

    With rumblings emerging from some regional military commanders about the economically debilitating political stalemate, leadership tensions at the top may also have helped clear the way for the talks.

    Diplomats say General Khin Nyunt and a rival, General Maung Aye, have long been jockeying for dominance, giving rise to speculation General Khin Nyunt's meeting with Ms Aung San Suu Kyi was partly aimed at keeping him at the centre of power.

    The concession also maintained diplomatic face for the United Nations' special envoy on Burma, the former Malaysian diplomat Mr Razali Ismail, who visited the country last week.

    Malaysia, which was among the countries that pushed for Burma's admission to the Association of South-East Asian Nations, Rangoon's longtime ally Singapore, and Japan,which holds out the prospect of substantial development aid, have all pressed the Burmese generals to talk to the NLD leader.

    A UN report late last year compared living conditions in parts of Burma to sub-Saharan Africa, and another UN report warned that a catastrophic HIV-AIDS epidemic was looming in the impoverished nation.

    In December, European Union nations mostly avoided sending ministers to a Europe/Asia development summit in Laos as a protest at the harsh suppression of dissent in Burma.The EU then said Burmese delegates would not be welcome to a follow-up meeting scheduled to be held in Europe in 2002 unless there were signs of progress.
    Thailand welcomed the secret dialogue

    source : The Nation

    THAILAND welcomes the secret dialogue between Burma's military junta and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Rattakit Manathat said yesterday.

    The talks were a positive development which it was hoped would lead to the national reconciliation within Burma that Thailand and the international community wished to see, he added.

    "The Thai government would like to praise the tireless efforts of the UN secretary-general and his special envoy, and hopes that they will continue pursuing this matter," Rattakit said.

    The secret talks between Lt General Khin Nyunt - No 3 in the Burmese junta - and Aung San Suu Kyi were revealed this week by UN special envoy Razali Ismail, who visited Burma last week and held talks with both sides.
    Burmese Leader Stresses Importance of National Unity

    YANGON, January 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Myanmar leader Lieutenant- General Khin Nyunt has stressed the importance of national unity, calling on his country people to fight against neo-colonialists with union spirit.

    "The one and only force to fight against the neo-colonialists interfering in the internal affairs is national unity with union spirit," said Khin Nyunt, first secretary of the Myanmar State Peace and Development Council, at a preparatory meeting here Tuesday on observance of the upcoming 54th anniversary Myanmar Union Day which is falling on February 12, official newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported Wednesday.

    He charged some foreign super powers, who are employing neo- colonialist tactics, and the "destructionists" group owing allegiance to them, with attempting to interfere in Myanmar's political, economic and social sectors.

    He recalled Myanmar's national unity was jeopardized after the colonialists had waged three aggressive wars against the country and adopted the divide-and-rule policy.

    He pointed out that Myanmar people had to suffer the consequences of that evil legacy even after Independence had been regained in 1948, complaining the inability of the successive governments to consolidate national unity which resulted in the nation's lagging behind in development.

    On February 12, 1947, Myanmar ethnic leaders met at the Panlong Conference in northeastern Shan state, sponsored under the leadership of the late Myanmar independence hero General Aung San, and signed the Panlong Agreement to strive in unity for the country's independence from the British colonial rule. Myanmar won independence on January 4,1948.
    Burma border protest to Bangladesh

    source : BBC

    Burma has launched an official protest with the Bangladesh Government over what it calls unprovoked firing by Bangladeshi troops on Burmese soldiers on Monday.

    The Bangladesh border police chief, Major-General Rahman, confirmed they had received the Burmese protest - but denied their action was unprovoked.

    He said the construction of a dam on the River Naaf,which forms part of the border between the two countries, was a violation of the 1966 agreement signed between the two countries.

    The Burmese authorities say the dam is being built by civilians and the government has nothing to do with it.

    But they suspended the construction work after the Bangladesh foreign ministry summoned the Burmese ambassador in Dhaka to protest over the dam.

    Reinforcements

    Meanwhile, the two sides have massed troops on the 500 km-long border and put their forces on alert.But the Bangladeshi authorities say the government is trying to defuse tension through diplomatic channels.

    Bangladesh says the dam on the River Naaf would flood or cause erosion in its territory and harm shrimp cultivation projects.

    Burma and Bangladesh were good neighbours until last year when they deployed troops following reports that Burma was laying landmines in border areas, apparently to stop insurgent activity.
    God's Army fighters get ultimatum

    Bangkok Post - January 09, 2001.

    Surrender in a week or face death hunt

    The Karen God's Army guerrillas who killed six Thai villagers in Suan Phung district of Ratchaburi on Dec 30 have been given a week to surrender or they will be tracked down and shot.

    Army chief Gen Surayud Chulanont said the army had contacted the guerrillas through their relatives living along the border to turn themselves in to Thai authorities within seven days.

    A large number of Karen people would have difficulty crossing the border if the attackers did not surrender, as it would be sealed and security stepped up, he said.

    According to Gen Surayud, the anti-Rangoon Karen National Union has promised to help with the search for the 15 guerrillas, for fear of repurcussions from the possible closure of border passes.

    More than 200 villagers staged a rally in front of Suan Phung district yesterday to demand the relocation of Karen refugees away from their community.The villagers told the district chief they wanted the refugees removed from the camp in Tham Hin village of Suan Phung district.

    They criticised officials of the camp and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for negligence of duty, saying many Karen refugees entered and left the camp freely. Some reportedly provided food supplies to the so-called God's Army.

    District chief Phayakphan Porkaew promised to look into the complaint and forward their demand to higher authorities.
    Alleged drug trafficker who was sought by U.S. is arrested in Thailand

    By UAMDAO NOIKORN, Associated Press

    BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thai police said Wednesday that they have arrested a suspected drug trafficker sought by the U.S. government, which charges that he was the accountant for what used to be the world's largest heroin smuggling syndicate.

    Yang Wan-Hsuan -- for whom the U.S. government has offered a $2 million reward -- was arrested Tuesday night in Chiang Mai, 360 miles north of Bangkok, Thai narcotics police told a news conference.

    Police Gen. Pornsak Durongphibul told reporters that Yang is wanted in Thailand for illegally entering the country and on suspicion of smuggling heroin and amphetamine into Thailand. He will be handed over to the United States only after the Thai investigations are over, Pornsak said. Thai authorities hope to arrest more members of his gang.

    Yang was indicted in 1994 in a New York federal court for attempted conspiracy to import heroin into the United States and distribution of heroin. According to the U.S. State Department, he was the accountant for the heroin smuggling syndicate known as the Shan United Army. The State Department said his nationality is Chinese.

    Yang's arrest was part of an ongoing joint Thai-U.S. operation launched in 1994 that targeted top members of the Shan United Army, formerly headed by Khun Sa. According to the State Department, Yang used to be Khun Sa's confidential secretary.

    Khun Sa was once the biggest heroin trafficker in the Golden Triangle, the opium and heroin-producing region where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet. More than a dozen top members of his ring have been arrested, and many extradited to stand trial in the United States.

    Khun Sa remains at large in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
    Britain welcomes direct dialogue between Suu kyi, junta

    LONDON Jan. 11 Kyodo - Britain on Wednesday welcomed direct dialogue between Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the ruling junta.

    ''We are encouraged by reports of contacts between Aung San Suu Kyi and the military regime,'' Foreign Office Minister John Battle said in a statement.

    He said the positive developments may soon lead to ''a substantive political breakthrough,'' with the early release of Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) colleagues.

    But Battle was cautious, saying, ''We do not intend to relax our international pressure for respect for democracy and human rights for the Burmese (Myanmar) people until we see real progress.''

    In New York on Tuesday, a U.N. spokesman said Myanmar's military government has begun direct dialogue with Suu Kyi. The U.N. made the announcement after Razali Ismail, the U.N. special envoy for Myanmar, concluded his third visit there since July last year.

    Last April, Britain, along with European Union (EU) partners, agreed to extend for six months its visa restrictions against officials of the military government. It also agreed to ban the export of equipment that could be used for internal repression or terrorism.
    Vietnam sticks to non-interference line on Burma

    source :The Times of India

    HANOI: Vietnam declined to comment on Wednesday on news the military junta in Yangon was engaged in talks with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, sticking to its longstanding line that outside countries should not interfere in Myanmar.

    "We do not make any commentaries on the domestic affairs of other countries," said a terse one-line statement from foreign ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh.

    As current holder of the rotating presidency of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Hanoi has made every effort to prevent the 10-member grouping from heeding mounting international pressure to intervene.

    On the eve of a breakthrough ministerial meeting with the European Union in Laos last month, at which ASEAN finally broke its silence on Myanmar and issued a joint statement calling for an "early dialogue" between the junta and the opposition, Hanoi insisted it would brook no discussion of the issue.

    Myanmar's political situation was "its internal affair and will not figure on the agenda of the Vientiane meeting," a foreign ministry statement said, even though Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien signed up to the joint statement just four days later.

    Itself a regular butt of Western human rights criticism, Vietnam routinely insists on the principle of non-interference in other countries' internal affairs and also roundly criticised Western intervention in the former Yugoslavia. (AFP)
    Burma's UMFCCI Membership Grows

    YANGON, January 11-Xinhuanet- The number of membership of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry(¨UMFCCI) has grown to 9,186 as of November 2000 after it was restructured and upgraded in April 1999, according to the latest issue of the Business magazine published by the federation.

    The membership includes 5,700 local companies, 697 foreign companies incorporated in Myanmar and 2,789 individual businessmen.

    The UMFCCI, a member of the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce 8(£¨ICC ) since December 1989, has established relations with its international counterparts, joining CCI of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(¨ASEAN ) in October 1997 after Myanmar was integrated into the regional grouping in July that year.

    The federation aims at enhancing national economic development, cooperating and coordinating with the government in economic and social activities, and leading the Myanmar business integrated into international trade and globalization.

    According to the magazine, so far, the UMFCCI has signed 18 memorandums of understanding on bilateral cooperation with foreign business and trade organizations.

    Meanwhile, the UMFCCI hosted the 56th ASEAN-CCI Council Meeting in May 1999, participated by 148 foreign entrepreneurs from 13 countries and regions.
    Burma Carries out Greening Project in Dry Zone

    YANGON, January 11 (Xinhuanet) -- Myanmar has been carrying out a greening project of dry zone as a national task to prevent loss of natural resources and create an area suitable for human habitation in the next 50 years. The government has worked out plans for the effective implementation of the special nine-district greening project and gives priority to undertaking them.

    State-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar said on Thursday that the government is striving for realizing the project which will ensure long-term benefit for posterity. The project includes exploration of water resources, preservation and extension of forests, establishment of firewood plantations for villages and extensive use of firewood substitute fuel.

    The nine districts are scattered in three divisions of Mandalay, Sagaing and Magway having a total population of 17 million or 34 percent of the country's.

    The region is hot and has low rainfall which measures about only 50.8 centimeters annually. The newspaper said that forest plantations stretching over 71, 685 hectares have been established in the region since 1994 and so far 141,750 hectares preserved and protected.

    A total of 62 dams have now emerged in the region with over 2,000 small embankments and ponds built. Due to these efforts, it added, three divisions in the nine districts have rice in surplus now. According to the newspaper, the country is extending the nine districts to 13.

    Of Myanmar's total land area, 50 percent are covered with forest. Of them, 18.6 percent are reserved and protected public forests and the country is planning to increase the area to 30 percent.
    Junta leaders playing their own game

    Source : South China Morning Post

    The Burmese military, determined as it is to resist outside pressure, is still vulnerable to division within its ranks, say observers seeking to explain a junta chief's decision to talk to opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

    The man, powerful intelligence leader Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, may require a political success to come out on top in his tussle with army chief General Maung Aye, said Josef Silverstein,a US academic and Burma-watcher. "This may only be part of it. There are, I believe, rumblings of discontent coming up through the ranks and particularly from the powerful regional commanders. This is telling the leaders that things can't go on as they are."

    On Tuesday, a UN spokesman said members of the military Government, which has stopped Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy from governing despite its landslide election victory in 1990, had held initial talks with her and are expected to hold more substantive discussions soon. The meetings began in October.

    He was speaking after UN special envoy Razali Ismail ended a five-day trip to Rangoon by saying he was optimistic about prospects for dialogue between the 1991 Nobel peace prize winner and the Government. Aung San Suu Kyi has experienced years of isolation and harassment at the hands of Burma's military leadership. She spent six years under house arrest by the military until 1995 and three months ago was again padlocked inside her house after a nine-day protest against government restrictions on her freedom of movement.

    Most Burma-watchers accept that Khin Nyunt and Maung Aye are engaged in a subtle but earnest skirmish to see who replaces the ailing General Than Shwe, the ostensible junta leader, who has wanted to retire for some time.

    Since, in effect,the army chief controls the guns, he should ultimately be able to check any moves the intelligence chief makes. If, however, Khin Nyunt can finesse a political opening that pleases the regime's foreign critics while at the same time protecting the army's dominance, he will have arguably cemented a claim to the centre of power.

    "Maung Aye has recently been to India, Laos, China and other places saying, 'I'm in charge'. It would be a tremendous feather in Khin Nyunt's cap if he could pull this off. Much harder to knock him to one side," Professor Silverstein said.

    The intelligence chief and his intelligence establishment have a reputation for being more pragmatic and sophisticated than the line commanders. Yet no one thinks this makes them more liberal. The army prizes loyalty above all other virtues and runs a firm united front, although the overwhelming evidence must have made clear to even the most blinkered officer that the country is sinking.

    No Burma-watcher claims to be able to discern with any certainty how far the regime might be prepared to risk taking dialogue and negotiations.

    "When push comes to shove, I don't think these guys will be willing to share power. I doubt they even think about it. That doesn't mean that ultimately there won't be a big change because they may underestimate their ability to control the pace of events," said one Bangkok-based military analyst yesterday.

    He said: "When it goes public on this, the army will try to pretend that it is talking from a position of strength. That's where the UN may be useful because it could be a fig leaf of cover.

    "The army's win-win solution would be to start talks without the population getting excited. That's why I think this will be a slow process." he said.
    Exiles' hopes tempered by distrust for regime

    Source : South China Morning Post

    Burmese exiles were yesterday optimistic that a potential break in the political stalemate might result from recent secret meetings between opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and junta intelligence chief Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt.

    But their optimism was tainted by their knowledge of the military's reluctance to even hint at sharing power for fear of opening the political floodgates.

    The opposition leader has met General Khin Nyunt before, notably in early 1995 before her release from six years of house arrest, but international pressure has increased in the past five years.

    Even Asian "friends" of the regime, such as Japan and Singapore, have urged it to break the stalemate by dealing with Ms Aung San Suu Kyi. The latest United Nations envoy trying to broker talks, Razali Ismail, is a former diplomat from Malaysia, a close Burma ally. Singapore, the largest foreign investor in Burma, yesterday welcomed the recent talks and said they showed "the importance of patient and quiet diplomacy".

    Thailand said it hoped "confidence-building efforts" would continue.

    "You can't deny that it is exciting. The regime has tried everything to break her and her popularity and yet here is a big leader talking face to face with her. It must be significant," said one Rangoon-based diplomat.

    However, British activist John Jackson said hopes had been raised before only for the regime to withdraw and say "we were only inquiring after the health of our little sister".

    The ruling generals were quite adept at giving small signs of hope in a clumsy attempt to pander to international concern for a country with a rapidly crumbling social and economic base, he said.

    US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said on Tuesday: "We will have to see where this leads and whether it is a genuine dialogue, rather than the kind of patronising and cruel conversations that were evident when I was there." She met Ms Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon in 1995 when Ms Albright was a UN ambassador. The opposition leader is regularly referred to in the media as an irrelevance whose "silly" antics are tolerated because she is the daughter of independence hero Aung San.

    The regime has claimed to be working towards a multi-party democracy. According to Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, the regime has been prepared to offer only a sham democracy, with a powerless opposition.

    Her National League for Democracy maintains that its overwhelming victory in a 1990 parliamentary election, subsequently ignored by the military, should be respected. But Ms Aung San Suu Kyi has hinted strongly that some lesser, transitory arrangement might also be acceptable.
    Mahathir proves his loyalty

    Source : South China Morning Post

    On his return from a six-day visit to Burma on Tuesday, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said he found that the "negative situation" often presented in foreign reports about the country was untrue. "I find that the [Burmese] Government gives emphasis to development, including that involving its people in rural areas," he said, adding that there were "great investment opportunities" in the country for Malaysian companies.

    It was the kind of upbeat remark that the Burmese authorities have come to expect from Dr Mahathir, regarded as a loyal friend of the regime. That friendship, analysts believe, has made the job of Razali Ismail, the United Nations special envoy to Burma, and a Malaysian, somewhat easier.

    It may also have been used by Dr Mahathir to persuade the Burmese junta to make a gesture to appease critics within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and improve its international image. That may have led to the start of dialogue with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

    Analysts believe Dr Mahathir's visit to Burma, which started as Mr Razali was on his third mission to Rangoon and ended just before the talks between Ms Aung San Suu Kyi and junta leader Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt were revealed, was intended to reaffirm his support for the regime and reinforce its commitment to continuing the dialogue.

    Malaysia has been critical of Burma in the past. Rangoon was attacked in the Malaysian media before its admission to Asean in 1997 over its alleged ill-treatment of Muslims and the destruction of mosques. An Islamic youth movement called for the deferral of its acceptance into Asean.

    But Dr Mahathir was determined to bring all Southeast Asian countries into Asean and he was the driving force behind Burma's entry despite American and European opposition.

    He also resisted efforts to change Asean's approach of "constructive engagement" towards Burma, insisting members must stick to their policy of "non-interference in the internal affairs of another state".

    Responding to suggestions Asean should be more interventionist, Dr Mahathir said the group's policy had produced "tremendous results".

    Dr Mahathir, a caustic critic of the West, nevertheless follows a pragmatic approach to the sort of foreign investment that leads to development and wants other countries, such as Burma, to adopt the Malaysian system.

    Analysts say Dr Mahathir believes an economically stronger Burma will benefit Asean in its efforts to become an influential economic region.