Daily News- December 23 - 2002- Monday
  • Burma's AIDS sufferers escape sorry plight in their homeland
  • Chinese Jingdezhen Ceramics Exhibition Opens in Myanmar
  • Burma Expanded Trade ties with China


    • Burma's AIDS sufferers escape sorry plight in their homeland

    CHIANG MAI, Thailand (AFP) - Shunned and mistreated by a government which would prefer to pretend they didn't exist, HIV-AIDS sufferers from military-ruled Burma who make their way into Thailand say they escaped a sorry plight in their home country.

    Ko Lwin Moe, an 37-year-old trader who was diagnosed with the disease two years ago, says he spent a year being treated at a private clinic in the capital in Rangoon before fleeing to Thailand.

    "I would be dead already if I continued to live in Myanmar," he told AFP. "The Thai doctors simply treat me as a patient, which makes me very happy. But in Yangon the Myanmar medical staff treated me like I was a criminal."

    After grilling him for details of his financial background to ensure he could pay for treatment, the Burmese doctors only gave him antibiotics, and at one point told him "You're going to die some time anyway."

    "I was lucky that I had enough money and the opportunity to leave for Thailand for further treatment," said Ko Lwin Moe, who earns his living importing Thai goods into Burma.

    The United Nations agency UNAIDS estimates that up to 400,000 people among a population of 48 million are infected with HIV, while independent experts working in Rangoon say the incidence could be twice as high.

    However, Burma's junta insists that infections are a fraction of those estimated by organisations like the UN, and that a culture of abstinence before marriage and fidelity afterwards will prevent the virus from spreading.

    The health ministry also rejects World Health Organisation reports condemning health services as among the worst in the world as merely attempts by "reactionary elements" to smear the country's reputation.

    "The cultural and social values of Myanmar society are found to have a protective effect to a greater extent than in many population groups," junta number-three General Khin Nyunt said in his World AIDS Day speech this month.

    The government's view, and a lack of accurate information about the disease and how it is spread and treated, has helped create an unhealthy attitude towards HIV-AIDS sufferers in the general community, citizens say.

    Government health campaigns urge people to "respect family values" and "stay faithful to your spouse" but never mention condoms or the need for drug addicts to use clean syringes.

    And those who develop the tell-tale signs of the disease -- skin lesions and wasting -- are shunned and left to sink into depression.

    "In our society, people are labelling those who are HIV positive as the bad guys," said young Burmese businessman Tun Aung who has several friends living with the disease.

    "As far as I know there are only a handful of clinics for AIDS patients, which are founded by missionaries and NGOs (non-governmental agencies)," he said, adding that government hospitals do not provide specialised care.

    Medicine is expensive and usually only available on the black market, he said. Patients can spend between 70 and 300 dollars a month on drugs -- an enormous amount in a country where a teacher's salary is less than 10 dollars.

    Khin Sein, secretary general of the Burma Medical Group, a health organisation based on the Thai-Burmese border, said that for the country's sake the government should focus on public health rather issues than politics when dealing with the AIDS crisis.

    "We are living in a poor country where people can not effort to buy the latest medicines," said Khin Sein, who works as a volunteer at an AIDS clinic in the Thai border town of Mae Sot.

    "So the only and most effective way to deal with the situation is to provide knowledge about this dreadful disease to the public and teach them how to prevent being infected."

    Khin Sein said that often, HIV suffers were forced to rely on treatment and advice from pharmacies and unlicensed practitioners in small towns, and then die quickly from opportunistic infections.

    Others resort to traditional medicines, advertised widely with the consent of the military government despite their dubious efficacy, or from black magic practitioners, while some leave everyday life and enter the monkhood.

    "I don't understand why the government is so slow to produce the true figures of people who are infected with the virus. We need help and assistance urgently from the outside world," said Ko Lwin Moe.

    "As far as I know people are dying everyday with AIDS."

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    Chinese Jingdezhen Ceramics Exhibition Opens in Myanmar

    Source : China's Peoples Daily

    A 12-day exhibition of fine ceramic products of China's Jiangxi Jingdezhen opened at the Yangon Trade Center Monday.

    Attending the inaugural ceremony were Myanmar Minister of Commerce Brigadier-General Pyi Sone, Chinese Ambassador to MyanmarLi Jinjun, Economic and Commercial Counselor of the Chinese Embassy Jin Honggen, Chairman of the Myanmar China Huanyu Thama (Group) (MCHTG) Co Ltd Zhao Jidong and Deputy General Manager of the China Jingdezhen International Economy and Technique Cooperative Company (CJIETCC) Ning Ruhe.

    Ambassador Li said at the ceremony that Jingdezhen city is China's most famous origin of ceramic products. This exhibition will display to Myanmar people ceramic products featuring a complex of traditional handicraft and modern arts, classic cultureand modern civilization, showing a development trend of China's ceramics in the new era and enabling Myanmar people to know more about China's ceramics culture.

    He hoped that through the exhibition, it will deepen the exchange of ceramics culture and links between the two countries and promote their friendship and cooperation in the ceramic field.

    At the ceremony, Vice-General Manager Ning said the year 2002 is the first year after China's entry into the World Trade Organization and is also the opening year when China's economy heads for the junction linking the world in all aspects.

    This exhibition also builds a platform of carrying out productsdeal and information exchange for China's ceramics culture, havingan important significance in speeding up the link of China's traditional ceramics culture with international junction and development of China-Myanmar bilateral trade, he added.

    The exhibition is jointly sponsored by the MCHTG Co Ltd and theCJIETCC.

    Participating in the exhibition are 36 manufacturers with theirproducts of more than 2,000 kinds in six categories.

    It is the first Chinese ceramics exhibition to have been held in Myanmar.

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    Burma Expanded Trade ties with China

    Source : Asian Tribune

    The bilateral trade between China and Burma has kept growing this year, and China has become the third largest trade partner of Burma, after Singapore and Thailand, according to the statistics of Burma.

    During the first ten months of this year, the bilateral trade volume amounted US$499 million, registering 3.1 percent year-on-year growth, said sources with the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC).

    China’s export to Burma from January to October this year reached US$385 million, up 1.9 percent; and the import reached US$113 million, up 6.7 percent.

    The major products China exported to Burma include electrical and mechanical goods, textile and hi-tech products.

    With the progressing of the friendly relations between China and Burma, China has signed as increasing number of contracts for projects in Burma.

    In the first ten months of 2001, Chinese companies signed 87 project deals, totaling US$186 million.

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