Daily News-January 27 - 2001- Saturday

  • Japan urged to focus on human rights in Burma
  • Burma In Stage Of Political Evolution
  • U.S. welcomes release of Burma opposition leader
  • Jailed Burmese activist awarded Norwegian prize
  • DVB: An F-16 Intrudes Southern Burma Airspace
  • Burma Holds Second Women's Conference
  • Thai Fishing industry wants new coalition to cajole Rangoon

    • Japan urged to focus on in Burma

    source :The Yomiuri Shimbun
    By Ikuko Higuchi Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer

    European Parliament Member Glenys Kinnock on Friday called on Japan to pay greater attention to human rights issues in Myanmar, before the European Union sends a delegation to the country from Jan. 29.

    Speaking to reporters at a Tokyo hotel, Kinnock said the EU will take a hard-line approach to Myanmar in terms of economic sanctions to end the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition National League for Democracy leader.

    Kinnock described the recent dialogue between Suu Kyi and the country's ruling military junta as, "a prisoner having discussions with the jailer."

    "I'd like your government to insist that if the talks are to be taken seriously,then they (government of Myanmar) must release all political prisoners, and allow them freedom of speech and association."

    She also urged Japan to take a more active role in maintaining stability in the Asia-Pacific region, citing the example of Australia. She did not mention whether or not Japan should consider deployment of its forces abroad, but said that Japan could invest its money and resources in ways that bring contentment to people in areas of conflict and gave them a stake in creating peace--such as investing in education and building schools, as the EU is trying to do.

    Kinnock is visiting Japan to participate in a humanitarian crisis conference being held in Tokyo by the EU and the United Nations.
    Burma In Stage Of Political Evolution: Official Information

    YANGON, January 26 (Xinhuanet) -- Myanmar's current political situation is still in the stage of an evolution from a single party unitary state with a centrally-planned economic system to that of a multi-party democratic union of autonomous states with a market-oriented economic system, said a government-released Information Sheet available here Friday.

    Quoting a news bulletin recently published by the Myanmar embassy in London, the Information Sheet said it is evolution rather than a rapid transformationsimply because "Myanmar is determined to set its own priorities and avoid the disruption of social,moral and cultural fabrics that characterized the nation and its people for centuries."

    It stressed that there need not be a fixed universal formula for achievement of democracy, saying that each region of the world, inhabited by different people with different beliefs should be allowed to develop themselves without being pressured.

    The Information Sheet blamed the United States government of the recent past with arrogantly going on to carry out its threat to ban new investments in Myanmar unilaterally yielding to pressure from domestic political activists.

    It pointed out that the ban-threat has had little or no effect on a country making economic progress by simply opening its borders to neighboring countries.

    The Information Sheet praised itself that Myanmar has a remarkable capacity to survive isolation,saying that the strategy of exerting pressure for political change through economic sanctions is ineffectual and counter-productive.

    The Information Sheet warned that "Sanctions that lead to deprivation of the people's rights to basic amenities such as food sufficiency, health care and education etc. can easily induce a backlash of the people against the powers that imposed such measures."
    U.S. welcomes release of Burma opposition leader

    WASHINGTON Jan. 25 Kyodo - The United States on Thursday welcomed the release of more than 20 members of Myanmar's pro-democracy National League for Democracy (NLD) from prison.

    Tin Oo, vice chairman of the NLD, and 19 other NLD members have been released since Wednesday after four months of detention.

    Washington welcomes the move and ''we hope it's another step forward in the process of dialogue that was initiated earlier this month,'' State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told a news briefing.

    Tin Oo had been held in a military camp outside Yangon since Sept. 22, after he and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi led a sit-in at the Yangon central railway station with NLD youths, while Suu Kyi and seven other NLD Central Executive Committee members were restricted to their homes.

    Boucher said Tin Oo was allowed to return home but he is still apparently barred from receiving visitors.

    The U.S. thus urges the Myanmar government to lift the remaining restrictions on Tin Oo and release all political prisoners still in detention or under house arrest, the spokesman said.
    Jailed Burmese activist awarded Norwegian prize

    Jan. 25, 2001

    BANGKOK, Thailand (AP)- A political activist reported to be ailing in a remote prison in western Myanmar has won a Norwegian award for his nonviolent struggle against the country's military dictatorship, it was announced Thursday.

    The Student Peace Prize will be awarded this year to Min Ko Naing and the All Burma Federation of Student Unions, ABFSU, which he helped found and led.

    Min Ko Naing, whose real name is Paw U Tun, was the most prominent student activist involved in Myanmar's abortive 1988 popular uprising against military rule.

    The 50,000 Norwegian krone (dlrs 5,625) award was announced Thursday by the International Student Festival in Trondheim Foundation on its website. The group aims to promote international student culture.

    ``ABFSU has been awarded the prize for their courageous, enduring and nonviolent struggle against one of the world's most brutal regimes,'' said the announcement of the prize, honoring work promoting democracy and human rights.

    Bo Gyi, a Myanmar student exile in Thailand who heads a support group for political prisoners, said the award not only honored Min Ko Naing personally, ``but also shows support for the student movement in Burma as a whole.''

    Arrested in March 1989, Min Ko Naing whose pseudonym means ``Conqueror of Kings'' was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for having delivered anti-government speeches and agitating unrest. His sentence was later commuted to 10 years under a general amnesty, but he has not been released.

    An India-based Myanmar opposition news service, the Mizzima News Group, reported earlier this month that the 38-year-old Min Ko Naing was in deteriorating health at Sittwe prison in Arakan State, 525 kilometers (325 miles) northwest of Yangon.

    Citing an unidentified fellow political prisoner who had been released two weeks earlier, the news service said Min Ko Naing urgently needed medical treatment.

    ``He has to totally depend on iron bars of the prison to walk even a few feet and he suffers from severe pains of his lower body. If it goes on like that, he will soon be a handicapped person'', the Arakanese prisoner was quoted saying. Myanmar prison activist Bo Gyi also said Min Ko Naing was in Sittwe prison.

    In 1994, the London-based human rights group Amnesty International said it had reports that Min Ko Naing was severely tortured and ill treated during the early stages of his detention and his health has suffered as a consequence.

    The Student Peace Prize will be officially presented on March 8 in Norway. The biennial award was first presented in 1999 to a student activist from East Timor, Antero Benedito da Silva.
    DVB: An F-16 Intrudes Southern Burma Airspace; Armed Forces Put on Alert

    source : Burmanet

    [FBIS Translated Text] An F-16 fighter jet intruded Burmese airspace in Kawthaung District this afternoon. The Defense Services units--army, navy, and air force along the border in Kawthaung District are now put on alert. DVB [Democratic Voice of Burma] correspondent Myint Maung Maung filed this report.

    [Begin Myint Maung Maung recording] This F-16 jet fighter intruded Burmese airspace at 1415 in the afternoon from Chaungchi army camp east of Bokpyin Township.

    The aircraft flew over Bokpyin Township and Kawthaung and then headed due south towards the sea at an altitude of 3,000 feet.

    Although many rounds were fired from the 20 mm Orlly Guns and Bofors Guns from Kawthaung's seven-mile hill long range artillery unit, the intruder went unscathed. Immediately, all army, navy, and air force units in Kawthaung District were put on alert.

    Two A5M jet fighters have already arrived in Kawthaung from Rangoon while three frigates are heading towards Kawthaung. The intrusion of the F-16 jet fighter is still not known.
    Burma Holds Second Women's Conference

    YANGON, January 26 (Xinhuanet) -- The Second Myanmar Women's Conference (MWC) began here Thursday to lay down effective action plans for national women's development as a follow-up of the First MWC held in December 1998.

    The two-day conference is sponsored by the Myanmar National Committee for Women's Affairs (MNCWA).

    Speaking at the opening of the conference, First Secretary of the Myanmar State Peace and Development Council Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt stressed the need to acquire the advancing technologies in globalization in carrying out the tasks,official newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported Friday.

    He called for paying serious attention to preserving and safeguarding the national traits in carrying out the task for acquisition of modern technologies.He warned against infiltration of alien culture,emphasizing the need to be more serious in nurturing the mass of Myanmar women to cherish and preserve their culture and tradition, promote cultural heritage, strengthen nationalism and patriotism, and safeguarding their originality with national awareness.

    The MNCWA was formed on July 3, 1996. The day of the formation was designated as Myanmar Women's Day which is observed every year.The MNCWA is reported to have been successfully implementing the Myanmar national action plan for advancement of the country's women covered by the action plans for women's development of the 1995 Beijing Declaration of the Fourth World Women's Conference.

    Meanwhile, Myanmar signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in July 1997 and hosted the Regional Consultation on Violence Against Women and Role of Health Sector in January 1999.

    Myanmar's women population accounts for 50.34 percent of the country's 50.12 million population, according to official statistics.
    Thai Fishing industry wants new coalition to cajole Rangoon

    Source : Bangkok Post

    The fishing industry hopes the Thai Rak Thai-New Aspiration coalition will use its connections with the Burmese military to secure the early re-opening of Burmese waters to Thai fishermen.

    "We would like to see the new government use all connections it has to start frank talks and improve relations with Burma," said Wanchai Sangsukiam, president of the Thai Overseas Fisheries Association.

    "Not only should the ministers of foreign affairs and agriculture deal with the issue, the prime minister and the defence minister should also help negotiate," he said.

    Mr Wanchai said the government needed to ensure adequate supply of marine resources and promote the fishing industry as a whole.

    Burma closed its waters in retaliation for the Democrat-led government's handling of the embassy seizure crisis in October 1999 that resulted in kidnappers being released on the border.

    Wicharn Sirichai-Ekawat, of Sirichai Marine Fishery, said Rangoon was keen to open talks with a non-Democrat government, and the new coalition should seize the opportunity.

    Strong connections that New Aspiration leader Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh and Thai Rak Thai adviser Gen Chettha Thanajaro enjoyed with the Burmese military leaders should be an advantage, Mr Wicharn said.

    Talks with Burma should cover all matters of interest, including fishing, ethnic minorities as well as natural gas, technical and financial issues.

    "We have to make clear where our national interest lies. If security and economy top the list, we may no longer need the Karen to be our buffer zone," he said.

    "Then we have to remove them from the border and if we need uniformed people to talk with Rangoon on the matter, we should not hesitate to do so," Mr Wicharn said.

    Fishery products are the second largest foreign exchange earners after agricultural goods, bringing in $3.5 billion in the first 10 months of last year, according to the Commerce Ministry's Department of Export Promotion.

    Mr Wicharn said Pitak Intarawithayanunt, a former deputy foreign minister, would be good as foreign minister.