Daily News-January 28 - 2001- Sunday

  • Special rapporteur on Burma appointed by UNHR
  • Calendar of events with regard to Burma
  • Burmese surgeons successfully perform kidney transplant in Mandalay
  • Airspace Intrusion Puts Burmese on Alert
  • EU Delegation To Arrive In Burma Sunday
  • European mission to test the waters in Burma
  • ABSFU asked to free student leader Min Ko Naing

    • Special rapporteur on Burma appointed by UNHR

    GENEVA, Jan 25 (Burma Peace Foundation) - The United Nations Human Rights Commission has appointed Professor Paulo Sergio Pinheiro of Brazil as its new Special Rapporteur on Burma in succession to Judge Rajsoomer Lallah.

    Prof Pinheiro, who teaches at the Centre for the Study of Violence in Sao Paulo, is currently a visiting professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

    He brings five years experience as Special Rapporteur on the east African country of Burundi to his new job. An official announcement is expected shortly."
    Calendar of events with regard to Burma

    Source: PD Burma

    January 29th - 31st The EU troika to visit Burma
    February 5 - 6thMeeting of Solidarity Groups, Brussels
    February 6thJames Mawdsley to address the European Parliament, Brussels
    February 15th Conference on Burma, Stockholm. Oluf Palme International Center Swedish NGO Foundation for Human Rights
    February 15 - 16thBurma Donor Meeting, Sweden
    March 8thNext session of the Governing Body of the ILO Forced labour in Burma to be discussed
    April EU Common Position Review. Inter-Parliamentary Conference, Cuba
    March/AprilUN Human Rights Commission, Geneva
    May 13 - 20thUN LDC III, UN conference on the LDC-countries, Brussels
    May 27th 11th Anniversary of the 1990 elected.
    May ARF Senior Official Meeting, Hanoi
    JuneMeeting in the Governing Body of the ILO
    June 19th Aung San Suu Kyi birthday party and Burmese Women's Day
    JulyBelgium takes over EU Presidency. 8th RFA Ministerial Meeting, Hanoi. 34th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting and Post-Ministerial Conference. ASEAN Summit.
    Aug. 31st - Sep.7thWorld Conference against Racism and Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and related intolerance, South Africa.
    December 1stWorlds Aids Day
    December 10th10th Year Anniversary of the Nobel Peace Prize for Aung San Suu Kyi.
    Burmese surgeons successfully perform kidney transplant in Mandalay

    source : NLM

    Yangon, 26 Jan- The renal transplant was performed for the first time at the operation theatre of Kidney Surgical Unit of Mandalay General Hospital at 8.37 am yesterday.

    Patient Ma Marlar, 33, has been suffering from the renal disease for about one year.Though her kidney had been cleaned with the machine for over 100 times, she could not free from the disease.

    Father U Aung Thein, 53, donated his one kidney to his daughter, the patient.

    For surgical kidney transplantation, tissues of the donor and the patient can be checked up in Yangon. In conducting the kidney transplantaion, Director-General Dr Paing Soe of Medical Research Department (Upper Myanmar) led the renal medical specialists group.

    First, Professor Dr Sai Lun Maung, Assistant Surgeons Dr Tun Tun and Dr Than Win Zaw of Urosurgical Unit of Mandalay General Hospital led by Professor Dr Than Aye of Urosurgical Unit of Yangon General Hospital, accompanied by nurses led by Senior Nurse Daw Myint Myint Aye, started surgical kidney operation to take out the one kidney from donor U Aung Thein at 8.37 am and successfully completed at 10 am.

    Anaesthetists who took part in the operation were Professor Thant Zin and Dr Khin Khin Nyein, Dr Kyi Kyi San, Dr Aye Ko and Dr Ar Yu of MGH led by Professor Dr Tin Myint of YGH. Professor Dr Than Aye together with Dr Min Thu and Nurse Daw Mai Thangsh maintained the kidney.

    Specialists Dr Toe Lwin and Dr Win Myaing led by Dr Than Aye, accompanied by operation theatre nurse Daw Kyu Kyu Mon and nurses performed the surgical operation to transplant a kidney on patient Ma Marlar at 10.16 am and substituted at 11 am. The transplant was successfully completed at 1.10 pm.
    Airspace Intrusion Puts Burmese on Alert

    source : Irrawaddy.org

    Army, navy and air force units were on high alert in Kawthaung District, at Burma's southern tip, amid reports of an intrusion into Burmese airspace by a military aircraft on Jan 24.

    According to confirmed reports,shots were fired from a long-range artillery unit based near Kawthaung after the aircraft,believed to be an F-16 fighter, entered Burmese territory around 2 p.m. on Wednesday. The plane apparently escaped unscathed.

    Residents of Kawthaung said they saw the jet fly over the town as it headed due south towards the open sea. "I was sleeping at home when suddenly my house started shaking. I ran out to see what it was," said one witness contacted by The Irrawaddy.

    Kawthaung residents also reported a heavy military presence in the town the following day, and said that authorities briefly closed the port in the morning.According to     a report from the Democratic Voice of Burma, a dissident radio station, two A5M jet fighters and three frigates were immediately dispatched to Kawthaung from Rangoon to deal with the situation.

    There were also unconfirmed reports from Ranong, just across the Thai-Burma border from Kawthaung, that artillery shells fired in pursuit of the jet landed in Thai waters, injuring several Thai and Burmese fishermen.

    The aircraft apparently originated in Thailand, although there has so far been no official statement from either Bangkok or Rangoon to confirm this. In 1998, a Thai army helicopter was shot down by Burmese troops near the border town of Mae Sot. No investigation of the incident ever took place, and Rangoon never apologized.
    EU Delegation To Arrive In Burma Sunday

    Rangoon, Burma (Dow Jones)--A three-member European Union delegation will arrive in Burma Sunday evening ahead of two days of meetings in Rangoon with government officials and opposition leaders including Aung San Suu Kyi, Kyodo News reported, citing diplomatic sources.

    According to Kyodo, The delegation, comprising officials from France, Belgium and Sweden, will hold talks with government officials Monday and will call on Foreign Minister Win Aung later in the day, the sources said.

    The delegation will meet Suu Kyi, leader of the pro-democracy National League for Democracy, Tuesday before leaving the country Wednesday, Kyodo reported, citing the sources.

    The EU delegation visit was agreed on at a ministerial meeting between the E.U. and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations last December.

    The 15-member E.U. objected in 1997 to allowing Burma - then a new ASEAN member - a seat in the talks, citing the country's poor human rights record and suppression of democratic opposition forces.
    European mission to test the waters in Burma

    BANGKOK, Jan 28 (AFP)

    A European Union delegation is to visit Burma this week on a mission to judge the new mood in the military-run country and encourage the junta and the opposition to embark on an historic dialogue.

    The four-member team arrives in the capital Rangoon three weeks after the United Nations announced that opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi had held face-to-face talks with the junta's powerful number-three.

    UN envoy Razali Ismail, who brokered the secret contacts, reported that they were paving the way for "more substantive discussions" which could end a decade of political deadlock.

    Since then the regime has extended a series of concessions that have gone some way to improving the poisonous atmosphere between the two sides.

    The septuagenarian vice-chairman of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), Tin Oo, was released from four months in detention last Thursday in a gesture aimed squarely at the European officials' visit.

    The developments have been greeted enthusiastically by the NLD as well as Rangoon's diplomatic community and the network of dissidents living in exile.

    But the views of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for four months and largely out of touch with the outside world, remain unknown.

    Sweden's ambassador to Bangkok Jan Axel Nordlander said the European Union team's three-day trip to Rangoon beginning late Sunday, where they have been assured of a meeting with the Nobel peace laureate, comes at a critical time.

    "It will give the Union an opportunity to get first-hand knowledge of what the opposition thinks about the dialogue so far," he said. "After that we will know better the prospects for the future."

    The ambassador said there were signs Aung San Suu Kyi had temporarily accepted the house arrest restrictions with the view they would help cement plans for a dialogue before they are exposed to public scrutiny.

    "It seems at this time that Aung San Suu Kyi herself is accepting for the time being, in a temporary way, these conditions as long as the dialogue goes on.

    "It appears that the dialogue is more important than her own personal situation ... and that is of course a very courageous attitude."

    For now, a mood of "cautious optimism" reigns among those closely involved with the talks, who are excited about the process but actuely aware that the junta holds all the cards and will be loath to relinquish its grip on power.

    "This is only the beginning and things will take time ... but events are definitely moving in the right direction," said one European diplomatic source in Rangoon.

    "This is a good start. Both sides are trying to find a way out of the deadlock," said another source in Bangkok. "There is an atmosphere and a momentum now that will be difficult to roll back."

    The opposition Democratic Voice of Burma also welcomed the olive branches extended by the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), which has also ordered the state-run media to stop haranging Aung San Suu Kyi.

    "We should give some credit to the SPDC for stopping slanderous writings against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD, and for not hearing the usual daily arrest and torture of NLD members," it said in a recent broadcast that quoted a party representative.

    "Together with the news that the talks between the SPDC and NLD leaders have produced some understanding, sources close to the SPDC said a new transition government could emerge in Burma in the near future."

    Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who has become one of the regime's leading allies, has also reportedly urged Rangoon's generals to hold a general election within the next few years.

    Burma "should hold a general election a few years later ... People's interests should take precedence over political parties' interests," he told Japan's Mainichi Shimbun newspaper.

    Mahathir said the junta's leader Senior General Than Shwe told him during a visit to Rangoon earlier this month that he understood the recommendation and expressed constructive opinions about holding a dialogue with the junta.

    The EU team, made up of representatives from Sweden and Belgium -- the current and future holders of the bloc's rotating presidency -- as well as the EU commission and its foreign policy chief, also plans to see Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt and Foreign Minister Win Aung.

    But the results of its talks are unlikely to be known before Wednesday when they have agreed to speak with the press on their return to the Thai capital Bangkok.
    ABSFU asked to free student leader Min Ko Naing

    Source : Bangkok Post

    A pro-democracy Burmese student organisation is calling for the ruling junta to free Min Ko Naing, a student leader in the August 1988 uprising.

    A statement issued by the All Burma Federation of Students Union was distributed along the Thai-Burmese border on Friday.

    Min Ko Naing, alias Paw Oo Htun, was elected chairman of the ABFSU in 1988 to lead the uprising which led to a nationwide military crackdown. Thousands of students were killed, wounded, or arrested.

    Min Ko Naing was arrested on March 13, 1989 together with many protest leaders. He was sentenced to long-term imprisonment on subversion charges.

    At present he is being detained in Sittwe prison in Arakan state, western Burma, and reported to be in poor health.

    Last Thursday the ABFSU and Min Ko Naing were awarded the Student Peace Prize for 2001 by the Student Peace Prize Committee, based in Trondheim, Norway.

    The ABFSU, in the statement, vowed to continue with the struggle for freedom of politicians, students and those who fought for democracy in Burma.