Daily News- April 06 - 2003- Sunday
  • "Nuclear reactor" equipment reportedly shipped to Burmese naval base
  • Aung San Suu Kyi draws crowds
  • Myanmar labels latest rape accusations as "too ridiculous"
  • Banking crisis pushes Burma's economy closer to the edge
  • Security boosted as protestor remains inside British embassy in Burma
  • Retired Myanmar ambassador criticizes US for war against Iraq


    • "Nuclear reactor" equipment reportedly shipped to Burmese naval base

    Source: Democratic Voice of Burma, Oslo, in Burmese 1430 gmt 3 Apr 03

    We have learned that two fully-loaded freighters carrying Russian equipment needed for the building of a nuclear reactor arrived at SPDC [State Peace and Development Council] naval base on Zadetkyi Kyun in Kawthaung Township 31 March. The equipment was shipped via Singapore aboard two freighters, Mandalay, and Pinya.

    Democratic Voice of Burma correspondent Myint Maung Maung sent this report.

    [Myint Maung Maung] The two freighters docked for inspection at No 58 Naval Base on Zadetkyi Kyun on 31 March and proceeded to Rangoon with an escort of naval vessels providing security. The two freighters, Mandalay and Pinya, were reported to be carrying over 5,000 tons of equipment needed to build a nuclear reactor and shipped from Russia.

    The equipment presumably will be used to build a nuclear reactor which is being planned on Kalagok Kyun in Mon State.

    A group of 32 Russian experts led by a director of the SPDC's Ministry of Energy had been surveying the land and enviroment around Kalagok Kyun from 25 March to 3 April. A report from Mon sources said SPDC Army had confiscated more than 300 acres of farmland belonging to the local Mon people.

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    Aung San Suu Kyi draws crowds

    The Australian, Australia

    THOUSANDS of people in Burma's western Chin state turned up to greet visiting pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi despite threats from local authorities, a spokesman from her party said.

    Suu Kyi departed Rangoon last Thursday for a ten-day visit to the state, during which she would open offices of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party and meet with party officials.

    "Everywhere she goes, people turn up. They're not allowed to go and visit her, but anyway the people try to see her, to reach her," NLD spokesman U Lwin told AFP.

    He estimated that around 10,000 people had turned out hoping to catch a glimpse of her last night at Chin state's Gangaw, a town about 560 kilometres northwest of Burma's capital.

    "The only trouble is the local authorities - instead of looking after her, they are indirectly disturbing her. They are always telling people not to go to her," he said."This time they haven't put any obstacles on the road, but they are warning people not to see her.They say if they go to her, they will learn a lesson, things like that."

    Aung San Suu Kyi, who is on her seventh trip outside Rangoon since being released from 19 months of house arrest last May, has complained before of local officials attempting to obstruct her movements while travelling.

    The most serious incident occurred late last year in Rakhine state, where in the town of Myauk-Oo she climbed aboard a fire engine to prevent it from dispersing a crowd of 20,000 people with high-pressure hoses.

    Both the United States and Britain have expressed concerns over the harassment of the leader, who was given a promise that she would enjoy complete freedom of movement when she was freed last year.

    The Nobel peace laureate is currently in the Chin state capital Hakha, 675 kilometres from Rangoon, where she was scheduled to open two party offices on today, U Lwin said.

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    Myanmar labels latest rape accusations as "too ridiculous"

    YANGON (AFP) - Myanmar's military junta on Sunday labelled as "too ridiculous" a report released in Washington last week which found the country's armed forces used systematic rape as a weapon of war against ethnic women.

    The report by the Washington-based Refugees International Group (RI), based on interviews with women on the Thai-Myanmar border, suggested that the use of rape by Myanmar's armed forces was more widespread than first reported last year.

    RI documented 43 rapes among women from the Karen, Karenni, Mon, Tavoyan and Shan ethnic groups and found some 75 percent of women interviewed reported knowing someone who had been raped.

    "Rape is widespread and committed with impunity, both by officers and lower ranking soldiers. The culture of impunity contributes to an atmosphere in which rape is permissible," RI spokeswoman Veronika Martin said.

    But the junta said in a statement Sunday that while rape cases may have occurred in the country, rape was not being used as a weapon of war.

    "Isolated rape cases may have happened in certain areas as is happening in many other countries around the world," the junta's statement said.

    "But 'systematically using rape as a weapon of war' is just too ridiculous and these organisations that are putting out such preposterous allegations need to be reminded that the Myanmar Defence Forces also comprises ethnic Kayin, Shan, Kayah, Mon and various other national races," it said.

    "The government of Myanmar thinks that it is regretful to learn that certain individuals or organisations who may have good intentions are misled by those who wish to keep Myanmar unstable and fractured by creating misunderstanding and sowing seeds of mistrust among its national races," it added.

    Allegations that Myanmar's Tatmadaw, or armed forces, used rape as a war weapon first arose last May in a report called "Licence to Rape" by two Thai-based Shan rights groups.The report documented 625 sex attacks on Shan women and girls by Myanmar soldiers, mostly between 1996 and 2001, and drew international outrage. The junta has repeatedly denied and fiercely condemned the allegations.

    In December the US State Department said that the US consulate in the northern city of Chiang Mai had found evidence supporting the accusations made by the rights groups.It also repeated the allegations in a report released last week, which again drew sharp denials from the junta.

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    Banking crisis pushes Burma's economy closer to the edge

    Source : AFP

    A banking crisis in Burma has led to strict limits on withdrawals, a suspension of cheque and credit card services, no lending and a huge shortage of currency, all of which are hitting many people hard.

    The bankruptcies of a few small money-lenders in mid-February initially sparked the crisis, which saw thousands panic and rush the country's 20 private banks.

    The banks had attracted a large concentration of savings by offering interest rates six times higher than public institutions.

    A near-absence of official comment from the military junta, and insufficient short-term measures devised by monetary authorities to deal with the sudden liquidity cruch then worsened the crisis, diplomats and businesspeople in Rangoon say.

    The most important private banks, including the Asia Wealth Bank (AWB) -- which held more than 200 million dollars, or 43 percent of total deposits of private banks and the Chinese-run Yoma Bank were immediately affected and the others were soon hit, a western analyst said.

    "Of course, the private banks were not managed with great orthodoxy. They lent always on short-term credit and often to the rich, who bought gold, four-wheel drives, houses," the analyst said.

    "This created a true speculative bubble. Gold prices here are above world levels, and property prices per square metre are not far off Tokyo or New York."

    As a stop-gap measure, the central bank injected 25 million dollars into private banks, he said.

    Borrowers were ordered to repay 50 percent of their loans immediately, while bank withdrawals were limited to between 50 and 100 dollars each week per account, a paltry sum for companies needing to pay wages or suppliers.

    As a result of its scarcity, the kyat, which had been trading on the widely-used blackmarket at around 1,100 to the dollar, shot up -- brutally for many -- to 750. It now hovers at the 900 point.

    The kyat's appreciation would be welcome news for the junta, which risks mistaking it as a sign of a healthier economy, according to analysts.

    Officially, there is no banking crisis.

    "They try to camouflage the crisis. They passed on orders to news publications: it doesn't exist," one observer said.

    Diplomats and analysts agree that authorities are not dealing with the crisis.

    "Usually in a banking crisis the government tries hard to prevent it from spilling over into the general economy -- the government steps in and guarantees deposits," a western diplomat said.

    "Here the government has refused to fix the situation."

    The consequences are already visible, with enterprises unable to pay for their raw materials closing or shifting their employees to part-time work in an industrial park in Rangoon.

    Meanwhile shops in the capital are suffering a drop of 30 percent of their turnover since the start of the crisis, according to figures from a western embassy.

    And if farmers are unable to sell their produce in the next few weeks as the current harvest ends, they will not be able to sow their crops next season.

    "The whole economy is paralysed," declared a western businessman. "And I am paralysed too, because at this stage there is no point in expanding my business. People are depressed... There is absolutely no cash."

    An Asian diplomat said the crisis is affecting everyone.

    "It does impact on the entire spectrum of the economy. For businesspeople, the traders, it is important for this government to find lasting solutions," he said.

    The evaporation of the money supply has prompted a crisis of confidence in the banking system: The weekly Myanmar Times reported that sales of safes have doubled in Rangoon since the panic began.

    "People trusted their banks and suddenly they can't withdraw money," said a businessman of Myanmar origin, who said the crisis had brought "a great deal of uncertainty, especially for the poor and the underprivileged." More generally, a high-ranking diplomat said, "this creates resentment and generally reinforces the feeling of how badly the government is handling the economy."

    The major effects, however, are difficult to ascertain because of the huge parallel economy in Burma, which is largely fed by drugs money.

    "The banking crisis will reinforce the weight of the underground economy," said another diplomat.

    With its pathological fear of social unrest, the junta has apparently ensured that the largest companies have sufficient liquidity to meet the payment of salaries for March.

    "The government will not let massive layoffs take place," predicted another western diplomat. "They also keep a close watch on rice distribution, wages and salaries."

    An army of the unemployed and famished farmers taking to the streets would be the worst-case scenario for the generals.

    But this is a still tiny risk, according to one Yangon-based observer who pointed to the "the apathy, aplasia of Myanmar's people, who are used to living from day to day" under the junta's yoke.

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    Security boosted as protestor remains inside British embassy in Burma

    Rangoon, April 6 (AFP) - Security was boosted outside the British embassy in military-ruled Burma Sunday to prevent a protestor who fled there to avoid arrest last week slipping away, a special branch officer said.

    The small permanent police presence outside the embassy had been boosted to around 50 officers, witnesses said.

    "The security officials are there hoping to arrest him if he tries to leave, " the special branch officer said.

    A diplomatic source from another embassy told AFP that the British were awaiting orders from London.

    "They are waiting for instructions from London on how to proceed," he said.

    The man sought refuge in the embassy on Friday when authorities arrested another man he was protesting with, according to a statement released by the junta soon after the incident.

    The pair had been waving flags emblazoned with fighting peacocks -- a traditional symbol of resistance to military rule in Burma -- and disturbing the peace, the junta said.

    British diplomats have remained unavailable to comment on the incident.

    The junta statement said that authorities were conducting an investigation because the pair were suspected of being linked to a March 27 bomb blast in downtown Rangoon, which killed two government workers.

    Demonstrations are strictly forbidden in Burma, but individuals occasionally flout the law, usually by protesting against the ongoing rule of the regime.

    In January two Buddhist nuns were arrested after protesting the rising cost of living. They too carried a flag with a fighting peacock.

    The junta continues to rule despite Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) winning a landslide election victory in 1990.

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    Retired Myanmar ambassador criticizes US for war against Iraq

    YANGON, April 6 (Xinhuanet) -- Official newspaper The New Light of Myanmar on Sunday carried a signed article criticizing the United States for its war against Iraq and calling for an end to it with peaceful solution.

    Being a sole super power in the world after the disintegration of the former Soviet Union, it is specially needed for the United States to be fair and objective in dealing with the international affairs, wrote U Maung Maung Soe Tint, a retired Myanmar ambassador, in the article titled "War and Peace."

    Just because Iraq did not destroy the weapons of mass destruction according to the time-frame does not justify the US war on Iraq without the mandate of the Security Council, the article said.

    The US-led forces are invading Iraq not only to disarm the latter but also to overthrow the government of a sovereign country,the article said, pointing out that even their allies have been opposing the war and tens of thousands of people of the world are staging demonstrations to protest the invasion.

    The article condemned the United States for continuing the war against the will of the people of the world disregarding their call for halting the war and demand for a political solution within the framework of the United Nations.

    Citing the UN Charter which prohibits solving a problem with the use of force, the article warned, "Violation of the UN charteris like burning one's own house. It is sure that these acts will lead to self-destruction."

    Meanwhile, the Myanmar government is still keeping silence on the war as it has entered the 18th day.

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