Daily News-March-29- 2001- Thursday

  • ILO says Burmese response to forced labour questions : disappointing
  • Southeast Asia Risk Pointers - Burma
  • 4 activists detained for showing off Suu Kyi T -shirt at Burmese embassy reception
  • Little breakthrough expected during April talks
  • Chavalit aides launch Burma body
  • Lao Deputy PM to Visit Burma
  • Singapore To Further Cut Foreign Construction Workers
  • Burmese police chief said Burma's efforts 'belittled'
  • UN human rights envoy to visit Burma for first time
  • Thai-Burmese Border Warms Up By Troop reinforcements

    • ILO says Burmese response to forced labour questions : disappointing

    Australian Broadcast Corporation News

    The International Labour Organisation says it is disappointed with the Burmese government's response to recommendations that it abolish forced labour.

    In an unprecedented move last November, the ILO called on its members to review their ties with Burma and take steps to ensure their ties did not help continue or extend forced labour.

    The ILO asked recently to visit Myanmar to give an objective evaluation of the regime's efforts to counter the problem.

    However, the United States says the presence in Rangoon of the I-L-O would be "useless" because of concealment by the Burmese authorities.

    The I-L-O says it received a letter from Myanmar's minister of labour, General Tin Ngwe, last month which said Burma would continue to take measures to ensure forced labour was illegal.
    Southeast Asia Risk Pointers - Burma

    www.janes.com

    Setting a precedent for its future behaviour, the State Law and Order Council (SLORC) - a direct descendant of the Burmese Socialist Programme Party along with the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) - assumed power in September 1988 after brutally repressing pro-democracy demonstrations. Since seizing power the SLORC has ignored election results, viciously suppressed political opposition and coerced insurgency forces into the regime.

    Throughout 2000 the SPDC conducted an increasingly harsh campaign to eliminate the last vestiges of political dissent. The National League for Democracy (NLD), which won the 1990 parliamentary election but was never allowed to govern, came under intense pressure to renounce ties with its talismanic head, Aung San Suu Kyi. Several key NLD figures are routinely subjected to repressive measures initiated by SLORC, whose ultimate aim is to disband the movement thereby further entrenching their illegitimate regime.

    Despite its moribund and primarily agrarian economy, Myanmar was severely affected by the Asia-wide economic downturn of the late 1990s. The SPDC continues to shift away from the economic policy of Ne Win's `Burmese Road to Socialism' to a more market-oriented system, and now actively encourages foreign investment. However bureaucratic and political impediments persist, and the country's economy has continued to deteriorate.

    Infrastructure development lags badly behind other countries in the region. Road, rail and port facilities are of poor quality. Education, health and social services are woefully under funded. However the literacy rate is high even though its colleges and universities have been closed for most of the past ten years.

    Myanmar is one of the world's largest producers of heroin, with manufacture occurring in the `Golden Triangle' sector of the eastern Shan State. In recent years Myanmar has also a become a major producer of amphetamines and other `cocktail drugs' that are widely distributed in Southeast Asia and transited to western markets. After three years of poor production, 2000 provided a bumper crop of opium because of favourable weather and growing conditions.

    Myanmar's strategic location between South and Southeast Asia is important, particularly to China, which in recent years has wooed the country with extensive military and economic assistance. Chinese attention resulted in India softening its previously critical approach to Myanmar.
    4 activists detained for showing off Suu Kyi T -shirt at Burmese embassy reception

    Source : The Nation / AP

    KUALA LUMPUR - Four activists were arrested last night for staging a 'fashion statement' at a Burmese embassy reception meant to celebrate armed forces day.

    The four - three Malaysians and a Burmese - have been detained by Dang Wangi police. Their colleagues harbour grave concerns for the safety of the Burmese, who they fear will be deported to Burma.

    The detainees were part of a group of 20 people who walked into the reception. To the amazement of about 200 guests, the group took off their shirts and blouses to reveal Aung San Suu Kyi T-shirts.

    Police were called when the protesters refused to leave when asked by embassy officials and hotel security guards, the spokesman said. But by the time police arrived, most of the protesters had gone.

    The four were being detained for questioning and face trespassing charges, which carry a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a fine, the spokesman said. The Burmese national also faces deportation and possibly other charges because he did not have valid travel documents.

    Altsean-Burma, a human rights group which organized the protest, identified the arrested Burmese national as Peter Hee Man, an ethnic Chinese. K.P. Lee, the leader of the Burma's pro-democracy group in Malaysia, was also arrested.

    Altsean-Burma was able to speak briefly with KP Lee of the Burma Solidarity Group Malaysia as he was being admitted to the police lock-up.

    "There were about 200 guests, mostly from the Malaysian military and government," he said. "Many diplomats from Asean countries were also there. They were all very surprised. The Burmese military officials were extremely embarrassed and angry."

    Lee said the group had not expected the reception to be so accessible. "We thought we could just stand outside, but we were tempted to walk in because it was so easy."

    "We wanted to highlight the fact that while these people were partying, tens of thousands of ethnic people were suffering from the Burmese military's atrocities. Over a thousand people are political prisoners in Burma."

    "We hope we will be freed soon," he added. "It would be silly to jail us because we wore the 'wrong' clothes to a party."

    Malaysia enjoys close ties with the Burma's military government, which has ruled the country since 1962.
    Little breakthrough expected during April talks

    Shan Herald Agency for News 27 March 2001 No: 03-13

    A military intelligence officer remarked recently that he did not think the upcoming regional level talks between Rangoon and Bangkok would amount to much, according to a source from Tachilek.

    The officer from MI-24 (Tachilek branch), whose name is withheld here to protect the source, said on Friday (23 March), Given the fact that Gen Thein Sein will have to refer everything back to the top, I don't suppose there'll be any significant decisions.

    The Regional Border Committee (RBC) will meet on 2-4 April and co-chaired by Maj- Gen Thein Sein, Commander, Triangle Region Command (Eastern Shan State) and Lt-Gen Wattanachai Chaimuenwong, Commander, Third Regional Army (northern Thailand) in Kengtung.

    The gate on the Burmese side of the Friendship Bridge between Tachilek and Maesai, Chiangrai, is still welded and Joint patrols by Burmese and Wa troops west of Tachilek to prevent attacks by Shan State Army of Yawdserk are being carried out each night, said the source. Foodstuffs for Tachilek such as chicken, fruit and vegetables are being transported from Kengtung each day.
    Chavalit aides launch Burma body

    source : The Nation

    BY SA-NGUAN KHUMRUNGROJ,VEENA JANROUENG

    DEFENCE Minister Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh's close aides are set to launch a friendship association with Burma in a bid to promote cultural and business ties between the two countries.

    Gen Pat Akkanibutr, chief adviser to Gen Chavalit, said the association would be a mechanism to boost bilateral cooperation. "It could also be a body to help screen Thai firms wishing to do business in Burma," the retired officer said.

    Burmese leaders needed such a body to help weed out companies with bad records, Pat said. "They are fed up with the behaviour of some Thai companies which were irresponsible when a problem occurred," he said.

    Pat would chair the association on the Thai side, while former deputy foreign minister and one-time envoy to Thailand, U Nyunt Swe, would be his Burmese counterpart. Prospective association members include retired Thai general Sanan Kachornklam, also a close Chavalit aide.

    Each country would need to register the association with its respective authorities, Pat said. "Thailand has already registered the association and is waiting for the Burmese side to do the same," he said.

    The mandate and structure of the association is still unclear, pending discussions by both sides. Pat recently sent a paper broadly outlining the body's proposed mandate and structure to the Foreign Ministry for acknowledgement, a source said.Thailand already has bilateral friendship associations with Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia and China, to promote areas of cooperation that both sides are comfortable with. These have a mixed bag of present and retired government officials as well as private sector representatives as members. But their mandate is not to seek solutions to bilateral problems.

    Chavalit has established a personal rapport with Burmese leaders since his tenure as army chief. Bilateral ties hit an all-time low earlier this year following a military offensive by Rangoon, when Wa and Shan fighting spilled across the northern border near Mae Sai.
    Lao Deputy PM to Visit Burma

    source :peopledaily

    Lao Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence Lieutenant-General Choummaly Sayasone is due to arrive here on Thursday for a three-day official visit to Myanmar .

    Sayasone is to pay the visit at the invitation of Myanmar Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Military Affairs Lieutenant-General Tin Hla, said an official announcement here Wednesday.
    Singapore To Further Cut Foreign Construction Workers

    SINGAPORE, March 28 (Bernama) -- Singapore will further cut intake of foreign construction workers from non-traditional source countries by 5 per cent in its latest annual revision.

    The Manpower Ministry said today from June 1, the foreign worker allocation for new building, upgrading and civil engineering projects would be reduced by 5 per cent.

    Singapore's non-traditional source labour comes mainly from China, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar and Sri Lanka with minimal numbers from Pakistan, the Philippines and Indonesia.--BERNAMA
    Burmese police chief said Burma's efforts 'belittled'

    Source : Bangkok Post

    Rangoon is committed to the war on drugs and has co-operated closely with Thailand, but certain western countries have demeaned its efforts, the Burmese police chief said yesterday.

    The central committee for drug abuse control had exchanged information at all levels with the Narcotics Control Board, Pol Maj-Gen Soe Win said.

    Law officers from the two countries met twice-yearly through the UN Drug Control Programme.

    Law enforcement along the border involved the military, customs and police, but the "politics" of certain western countries had belittled Burma's co-operation with Thailand and other neighbours.

    He defended the ethnic Wa, regarded by Thailand as major methamphetamine producers. Senior Thais had seen livestock and cash crop farming during a tour of the Wa area last year, he said. "The Thai media has pictured the wrong guy," he said during a break at Asean talks on transnational crime.
    UN human rights envoy to visit Burma for first time

    Rangoon, March 29 (AFP)

    The United Nations' newly appointed special human rights rapporteur on Burma, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, has been given permission to visit here for the first time next month, a government spokesman said.

    Pinheiro's predecessor Rajsoomer Lallah, who resigned in November, was never authorised by Burma's military regime to visit the country during his term in the post.

    "Yes, first week of April," a senior spokesman for the Burma's junta said in a written statement to AFP, in response to a query over plans for a visit by Pinheiro, who was appointed in February.
    Thai-Burmese Border Warms Up By Troop reinforcements

    Source : Far Eastern Economic Review (April 5)

    Burma has sent troop reinforcements to bolster heavily fortified positions along the border with Thailand, raising fears of renewed armed clashes between the neighbours.

    Local residents in eastern Burma believe the soldiers may be preparing to attack camps of the separatist Shan State Army just inside Burma. Burma's military junta says the SSA gets help and sanctuary from Thailand.

    Local residents say that in the third week of March they saw 120 trucks, each carrying 20-35 soldiers and 120-millimetre and 82-millimetre mortar rounds, heading south from the garrison town of Kengtung in easternmost Burma to Tachilek, opposite Mae Sai in northern Thailand.

    Thai and Burmese forces fought for two days in this area in early February after Burmese troops occupied a Thai paramilitary base on the border. Another 120 army trucks have been seen recently on the road from Mong Hsat in eastern Burma heading in the direction of Loi Laem, a stronghold of the SSA, one of the few ethnic rebel groups still fighting Rangoon.

    Observers say Thailand is sympathetic to the Shans because they have attacked narcotics production sites across the border that are reportedly run by another minority group allied to the Burmese government.

    Meanwhile, the Burmese recently bought as many as 100,000 82-millimetre mortar rounds from Vietnam through private arms dealers, according to Western and Thai intelligence sources, who said the Vietnamese did not know the identity of the ultimate client.