Daily News-March-26- 2001- Monday

  • Tight security laid out for Burma's Armed Forces Day
  • Burma moves to quash currency rumours
  • Embassy Failed to Accept 8000 Postcards of Min Ko Naing
  • Burmese rights protester to fight for Tories
  • Wa fighters deserting Junta troops
  • Drugs high on border talks agenda
  • Junta Urged To Hold Talks Before Armed Forces Day
  • Thai PM To Visit Burma In April To Discuss Drug Issue
  • Thailand and Burma ministers to talk in Chile

    • Tight security laid out for Burma's Armed Forces Day

    YANGON, March 25 (AFP) - The Myanmar junta is laying down a heavy security presence around the capital Yangon ahead of its most important event of the year, Armed Forces Day.

    On Tuesday it will mark the day in 1945 when General Aung San, Myanmar's independence hero and the father of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, called on national resistance fighters to throw out the occupying Japanese forces.

    Hordes of soldiers are already at work patrolling the neat thoroughfares of the city, many of them brandishing steel probes used to search for explosives while others are even shaking down trees to check for devices.

    Yangon neighbourhoods have been woken during the night by security patrols checking to see if any non-residents are being harbored inside homes and cars are being searched at random. The parkland venue for the centrepiece of the celebrations, an elaborate military parade, has already been cordoned off and the closure of many thoroughfares has caused bad traffic snarls.

    Religious rituals at the former Resistance Park have also been affected by the security cordon -- the recital of Buddhist chants to ward off evil spirits has this year been done by tape recording and not by actual monks.

    "This is a particularly delicate time of the year for the government here, with Armed Forces Day coming up," one Western diplomat told AFP. "They are normally overly security conscious at this time of the year."

    The celebrations take place this year amid ongoing talks between the junta and Aung San Suu Kyi which appear to be paving the way for their first official dialogue since 1994.After years of dreary deadlock between the two sides, the talks have sparked a political renaissance in Yangon which for months has been buzzing with rumours and intrigue.

    Earlier this month the junta was forced to dismiss persistent rumours that its leadership has been riven by a coup or power struggle between intelligence chief Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt and military strongman General Maung Aye.

    The stories were given fresh impetus in February after junta number-four Lieutenant-General Tin Oo died in what the authorities said was an accidental helicopter crash.Dissident groups claimed that Tin Oo, a trusted aide and likely successor to Maung Aye, was deliberately killed -- a theory largely discounted by diplomats and observers in Yangon.

    Reliable observers also dismiss the coup rumours and say there are absolutely no signs of turmoil in the military-run country.

    Exiled democracy activists have also tipped March 27 as the likely date for an "important gesture" from the regime, which in recent months has made a series of concessions to the opposition led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

    However, most observers are confident that the Nobel peace laureate, who has been held under house arrest since September, will not be released before the talks made substantial headway.

    "In the way of developments it is probably going to be a matter of months rather than weeks before we see anything," the diplomat said.
    Burma moves to quash currency rumours

    YANGON, March 25 (AFP) - Myanmar has moved to quash rumours that its dollar-denonimated special currency, the Foreign Exchange Certificate (FEC), is about to be withdrawn after suffering a steep decline in value.

    State Central Bank deputy chairman Than Lwin told the Myanmar Times that the authorities had no intention of taking FECs out of circulation and that the rumours which have swept Yangon were totally baseless.

    "Even if they were taken out of circulation the Central Bank would have to make a full refund in dollars," he said.

    Myanmar's military government put the FEC into circulation in 1995, as a substitute for the US dollar to be used inside the country where it was illegal for nationals to handle hard currency.

    While the unit value of the FEC was originally equivalent to one dollar, since late last year it has declined in value to the point where by mid-February it sold at a 25 percent discount to the greenback.

    The growing price disparity has been attributed to over-printing of the special currency, which has meant that the amount in circulation exceeds the number of dollars collected by the government.

    The shortfall was quickly accounted for in the local economy and some restaurants in Yangon began charging 15 percent more for meals paid for in FECs instead of dollars.

    With the city awash in FECs and demand shrinking, people eager to hedge their bets offloaded the currency and bought up dollars or gold, sending the price of gold shooting up.

    In another symptom of the nation's economic decline, the kyat plunged to an all-time low of 503 against the dollar on the free market last month, compared to an official exchange rate of six to the dollar.

    Than Lwin said he expected the anomaly in the FEC and dollar rates to correct themselves in due course. His view was supported by the current conversion rate which has shifted to 528 kyats to the dollar against 480 kyats to the FEC, a difference of just 48 kyats compared to 100 kyats a few weeks ago.

    "I believe the disparity between the dollar and the FEC will gradually decrease without any need for the authorities to intervene and the financial markets will soon return to normal," the central banker said.

    Than Lwin attributed the rumours of the FEC's withdrawal to a misinterpretation of a recent Trade Ministry notification concerning taxation on border trade which was being "deliberately spread by unscrupulous traders."

    The ministry said last November that the dollar and the currencies of two border nations could now be used in transactions.

    "Rumours of impending removal of FECs were started by traders when officials at border points who misinterpreted the Trade Ministry notification initially refused to accept FECs," he said.

    Than Lwin's comments were reported in the debut edition of the Myanmar-language version of the "Myanmar Times" which hit the newsstands Friday. The original English-language Myanmar Times weekly, the nation's first private newspaper in more than three decades, was launched a year ago.
    Embassy Failed to Accept 8000 Postcards of Min Ko Naing

    By Tin Maung Htoo (Burma Media Association)
    March 23, 2001

    Over 8000 postcards signed by Canadian students asking for freedom of imprisoned Burmese student leader Min Ko Naing was stuck after the Burmese Embassy in Ottawa was reluctant to accept when it was delivered on March 21.

    Canadian students from different universities along with some Burmese student activists marched from Ottawa University to Burmese Embassy in order to deliver those postcards that they collected from various universities in Ontario and Quebec.

    Before the march, they held an event at the University of Ottawa,during which a guest speaker Ken Wewa, a Nigeria journalist and human rights activist and Warren Alland, the president of Rights and Democracy and former solicitor general of Canada, gave speeches about Min Ko Naing. Two of Burmese and Canadian student activists and a representative of Canadian Labor Congress also delivered speeches in the event.

    While they were marching to Burmese Embassy, they chanted "Free,Free, Freedom for Min Ko Naing", "Free, Free, Freedom for all students", and "article 26, the rights to education" in English, French and Burmese. They also carried a cell on the truck in which a young Canadian female student was demonstrated as a prisoner.Students also carried Min Ko Naing's pictures and other student prisoners' names on the posters.

    When they reached to the embassy, they read some poems that composed by Burmese students during 1988-democracy uprising and gave speeches asking freedom for Min Ko Naing.When they tried to deliver postcards, it was in vain because the embassy informed that they were not available to accept those postcards.

    After unsuccessful attempt to deliver several packages of postcards to the embassy, members of Canadian Postal Workers' Union who presented at the event announced that they would accept the postcards and make sure to deliver those postcards to the embassy officials.

    Rights and Democracy, Canadian Friends of Burma, Burmese Students' Democratic Organization, and Ontario Public Interest Research Group sponsored the event and jointly working the campaign. The campaign is now widely spread in Canada and the rest of the world.

    Min Ko Naing who has been in prison for 12 years now is reported to be deteriorating his health condition in prison. Until recently, he has been awarded several prizes for his devotion for restoration of Democracy and Human Rights in Burma, among others, the 2000 John Hunphery Freedom Award from Canada and the 2001 Student Peace Prize in Norway.
    Burmese rights protester to fight for Tories

    By Adam Lusher
    www.telegraph.co.uk:80
    Sunday 25 March 2001

    A HUMAN rights campaigner who spent 14 months in a Burmese jail for protesting against the military junta is to turn his attention to Britain's New Labour.

    James Mawdsley revealed that when the general election is called, he will be campaigning for the Conservative Party. He said last night: "I can't wait until the Tory Party is back in office. I just have Tory blood. We share the same outlook. I believe passionately in the Conservative philosophy of individual responsibility and the prime importance of freedom and justice."

    Mr Mawdsley, 27, was imprisoned twice during his campaign against the Burmese regime. The second time, he served 14 months of a 17-year jail sentence for distributing protest leaflets and singing pro-democracy songs. He was kept in solitary confinement and suffered severe beatings before being released last October.

    Back home in Ormskirk, Lancashire, he said he hoped to finish writing The Heart Must Break, a book about his experiences, in time to play a role in the election. Tomorrow he will get a taste of what is to come by visiting four constituencies near his home with the local parliamentary candidates and talking to Conservative Association members

    Mr Mawdsley said his experience in Burma had strengthened his Conservative beliefs. "I like government giving us our freedom so we can address what concerns us about situations abroad," he said. "When I returned to Britain, I said the prison phase of my work in Burma had finished, and I would work through political means. I feel far more optimistic doing that within the Tory Party than I would with Labour. The Tories are most concerned with justice.

    "Look at how Mrs Thatcher dealt with the Iron Curtain and the Argentinian junta in the Falklands. She understood this about dictators: you have to stand up to them. There are people in all political parties who are concerned about Burma.

    Mr Cook and his colleagues did well. It's just that I believe the Tories can do better. It is going to take real political courage. I met William Hague a few weeks ago, and I trust him far more than anyone in the Cabinet.

    "An ethical foreign policy is a nice idea but I get the impression that our Government is far too beholden to the press and the fickleness of the electorate to be effective."
    Wa fighters deserting Junta troops

    Shan Herald Agency for News - 24 March 2001

    The Thai worker, who requested his name withheld, said he saw several Wa fighters that left earlier with junta units returning to Mongyawn just before his departure. One of them reportedly told him of the clash between the Burma Army and the Shan State Army on 10 February between Mongliang and Paleep villages in Mongpiang Township. "It ended inconclusively," the fighter said.

    "But henceforth the Burmese would place us in the vanguard that didn't make us feel right."

    The Wa told him that they had brought down thousands of their people down to the border areas where they would be defenseless against the SSA's punitive campaigns if there were any. Besides, the Wa had invested so much in developing the area that they could not afford a war with the Shans that would result in hundreds of millions of baht in loss.

    "We therefore decided to leave them," he said. It was also believed that Burma Army units were not anxious for a fight with the Shans either.

    Lt.-Col. Kawnzuen from Loi Kawwan, opposite Chaingrai Province, also told S.H.A.N. the Wa had ceased their tunnel-digging activities for some time now.Earlier reports said the Wa were engaging in building tunnels towards Shan positions.
    Drugs high on border talks agenda

    Source : Bangkok post

    The reported involvement of politicians in the drug trade will be raised during scheduled border talks with Burma.

    Third Army commander Lt-Gen Wattanachai Chaimuenwong said unit commanders agreed the issue should be on the agenda at a meeting in Phitsanulok last week.

    The 17th Regional Border Committee meeting is planned in Keng Tung, Burma, from April 2-4 . Lt-Gen Wattanachai will lead the 32-member Thai delegation, which will include senior police officers and officials from the Foreign and Interior ministries.

    The Burmese delegation will be led by Maj-Gen Thein Sein, commander of Burma's Triangle Region Force.

    Ties between the two nations have ebbed since Thailand accused Rangoon of helping the United Wa State Army produce methamphetamines for illegal sale in Thailand. The Burmese in turn claimed many Thai state officials and politicians were behind the drug trade.

    A military source said the army had information that at least 10 politicians, from two political parties, were involved in the methamphetamine trade in the Third Army area.

    Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has asked for a report from the army and pledged to take action against anyone found involved.

    Burma will also be asked why it has kept the Tachilek checkpoint closed while Thailand unilaterally opened its side of the border, and to allow cross-border trade to resume.

    Thailand will also propose that both sides withdraw their troops from disputed areas around Kuteng Nayong in Chiang Rai's Mae Sai district and Doi Lang in Chiang Mai's Mae Ai district to facilitate proper border demarcation. Burma will be warned of retaliation if its troops continue to cross into Thailand when operating against ethnic rebels.
    Junta Urged To Hold Talks Before Armed Forces Day

    Rangoon (AP)--An antigovernment group Monday urged Burma's military rulers to hold democracy talks with the opposition even as authorities threw an unprecedented security blanket in the capital ahead of the Armed Forces Day holiday.

    The National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, based in neighboring Thailand, called on the military to turn itself into an organization that safeguards the Constitution and respects the will of the people.

    The National Coalition mostly comprises members from the main legal opposition party, the National League for Democracy, which won a landslide victory in the 1990 general elections but was never allowed by the military to assume power.

    The party is led by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who is currently under house arrest after her repeated attempts to conduct political work in Burma.

    Her father, independence hero Gen. Aung San, led the Burmese army to rise against Japanese occupation forces in 1945, an event that is celebrated as Armed Forces Day every year on March 27 with a military parade at Resistance Park next to U Wisara Road.

    In a statement released in Bangkok, Thailand, the National Coalition said the nationalist aims of the army under Gen. Aung San were "entirely different" from the motives of the current military regime. The military has ruled Burma since a 1962 coup.

    "The change has been a great loss for the country," it said.

    No Opposition for Junta

    The junta brooks no opposition and has subjected members of Suu Kyi's party to harsh repression. But hopes of reconciliation were raised after the junta was reported late last year to be engaged in secret talks with Suu Kyi.

    The army must "sincerely accept the fact" that Burma's problems cannot be solved by "force and terror," the National Coalition statement said.

    It said the only way to end the problems is for "all concerned to hold dialogue and resolve them politically."

    The government didn't immediately respond to the statement.

    In preparation for the Armed Forces Day, authorities closed off for the first time in memory the U Wisara Road, since Saturday.

    Besides, barbed wire barricades were placed at crossroads manned by armed soldiers. Most other roads were also blocked with parked military trucks. Pedestrians were allowed to pass through after soldiers searched their baskets, bags and even lunch boxes. No one was allowed to walk in front of the park, which was cordoned off to both traffic and pedestrians.

    While there are no known specific threats to disrupt the commemoration, a number of ethnic minority insurgent groups, based mostly along the country's eastern border, continue their long-running armed struggles for autonomy.

    An explosion Monday rocked the eastern town of Myawaddy on the border with Thailand but there were no reports of casualties, residents said. No details were available.
    Thai PM To Visit Burma In April To Discuss Drug Issue

    BANGKOK (AP)--Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said Monday he expects to visit Burma next month to discuss the drug problem and border disputes, the main issues vexing relations between the two countries.

    Thaksin told reporters that he would probably go to Burma in late April. "It'll be a talk between leaders," he said without elaborating.

    There was no immediate confirmation of the trip by Burma.

    Relations between the two neighbors have fallen to an all-time low in recent months over Thailand's accusations that Burma's military junta is turning a blind eye to its drug lords.

    Officials say most of the drugs in Thailand come from Burma where they are produced largely by the United Wa State Army, a former ethnic rebel group that signed a cease-fire with the junta. Burma says Thailand should first clean up its own house and crack down on corrupt politicians who have secret deals with the drug lords.

    Thammarak Israngkul na Ayudhaya, the minister in the Prime Minister's Office, said the government has asked Rangoon for its blacklist of drug kingpins that it says includes names of Thai politicians.

    The war of words between the two countries eased recently after Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai called a cease-fire.

    Meanwhile, the Office of the Narcotics Control Board issued a report showing the production of methamphetamines by United States Wa Army would go up to 700 million tablets this year from 500 million tablets last year.

    Thai-Burmese relations have also suffered over border disputes and the activities of anti-Rangoon ethnic rebel groups based along the border. Burma says Thailand encourages and helps the rebels, a charge Thailand denies.
    Thailand and Burma ministers to talk in Chile

    Source : MSNBC / Reuters

    BANGKOK, March 26 --Thailand said on Monday it would hold talks with its estranged neighbour, Burma, at the East Asia-Latin America Forum in the Chilean capital of Santiago from March 29 to 30.

    Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai told reporters he hoped to talk to Burma's delegation head, Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win, at the meeting on how to improve the countries' relationship, which has been severely strained in recent weeks.

    ''What I will state with my counterpart is neighbours should tackle each problem individually; not let one problem adversely effect the entire relationship,'' said Surakiart.

    Relations between the two neighbours dived last month after border skirmishes between Burmese troops, their allies in the United Wa State Army (UWSA), and anti-government Shan rebels.

    Thailand says the battles spilled over onto Thai soil, forcing a response. Burma denies this.

    Bangkok says the UWSA is the source of hundreds of millions of methamphetamine stimulant tablets flooding Thailand each year, and has accused Yangon of turning a blind eye to the problem.

    Burma says Shan rebels are the main drug traffickers.

    he two countries, which share a 2,400 km (1,490 miles) border, have waged a war of words since the February clashes.

    Surakiart said planned discussion items included the restoration of border trade, strengthening of fishing cooperation and bilateral tourism promotion.

    Surakiart said he would also attend a planned informal meeting of foreign ministers from the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Yangon on April 30.''I anticipate that Myanmar would view this ASEAN meeting as my courtesy visit and I will agree on that anticipated invitation,'' Surakiart told reporters.

    Burma's foreign ministry said Monday the tentative plan for the ASEAN meeting had not yet been confirmed.

    ''If the planned meeting takes place, the two ministers will discuss bilateral issues,'' a spokesman said.