BurmaNet News: January 2 2003

[editor at burmanet.org]

January 2 2003 Issue #2148

INSIDE BURMA

AFP: Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi cautiously optimistic on change
Xinhua: Myanmar political party stresses importance of state constitution
Myanmar Information Committee: Secretary-1 receives UN AIDS executive
director

MONEY

Business Times Singapore: Van der Horst plans Sesdaq move after reverse
takeover
Myanmar Information Committee: Thai carrier launches service to Mandalay

REGIONAL

Bangkok Post: Thammarak calls for patience with Burma
AFP: Southeastern ties not a shift in Bangladesh foreign policy

INISDE BURMA

Agence France-Presse January 2 2003

Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi cautiously optimistic on change

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said Tuesday she remained cautiously
optimistic that political change would come to Myanmar, following the
massive support shown to her by people across the country this year.

"There has never been any reason for me to change my cautious optimism (on
political change)," she told reporters in the capital, at only the second
press conference she has given since being released from 19 months of
house arrest in May.

The Nobel peace laureate attributed her optimism to the thousands of
people who flocked to see her during the several political trips she has
made since then, aimed at resuscitating her National League for Democracy
(NLD) party. "We have been particularly encouraged by the reception we
received in Shan, Mon and Arakan states, by the people of the region," she
said.

"It is most encouraging that there is a tremendous sense of national
solidarity, that there is no distinction being made at the ground level
between the Burmese and the other ethnic nationalities," she added, using
the country's former name Burma.

"Our various ethnic nationalities are all aware of the need for change in
this country and the majority of them are prepared to join hands together
to achieve this change."

On her visits, Aung San Suu Kyi has also striven to engage with ethnic
minority groups who have been excluded from national reconciliation talks
between the ruling junta and the democratic opposition, which were
brokered by the United Nations two years ago.

She said her trips had gone well, although local authorities were
occasionally obstructive in spite of the junta's May promise to allow her
complete freedom of movement.

"On the whole my travels throughout the country have been fairly smooth
.... The authorities, in some cases, have been very, very cooperative and
in other cases perhaps not as cooperative as we might have desired," she
said.

The most serious incident occurred during her trip to western Rakhine
state at the town of Myauk-Oo, where the leader clamoured atop a fire
engine to prevent it from dispersing a crowd of 20,000 people with
high-pressure hoses.

Aung San Suu Kyi described the ongoing reconciliation talks, which have
focused on confidence building and shown few tangible results other than
her release, as being "in limbo".

"There has never been a dialogue, as such," she said, referring to the
political stage of the dialogue still to be commenced by the two sides.

Nevertheless, Suu Kyi said she was hoping for change within "the next year".

"At the end of this year, 2002, I could say that I have been very
heartened by the spirit of our people but I have been saddened by the
situation of this country because our people deserve more than this," she
said.

"They deserve a better standard of living, they deserve a better system of
government ... and I hope that the next year will be able to give them
what they deserve."

In an interview earlier this month she said she was hopeful of progress by
this time next year and that it was not impossible that change could take
place "within months".

The military has ruled Myanmar for the past four decades, and refused to
recognise a landslide election victory claimed by the NLD in 1990.
________

Xinhua News Agency January 2 2003

Myanmar political party stresses importance of state constitution

The National Unity Party (NUP), one of the 10 existing and legal political
parties in Myanmar, stressed on Thursday the importance of drawing up of a
state constitution for the country.

In a message to his party members on the occasion of the 55th anniversary
of Myanmar's Independence Day, which is falling on Saturday, NUP Chairman
U Tha Kyaw complained that as the National Convention has been adjourned
since 1996 after it began in 1993, the task of drawing up of the country's
new state constitution has become dim, resulting in that the task has not
yet been realized up to now. With the absence of a new state constitution,
he pointed out, the realization of peace, stability, national unity and
development for the building of a true democratic state is meeting such
obstacles as foreign intervention and pressure exertion.

Taking note of these key requirements under the present situation, he
expressed the belief that if all national forces unanimously accept this
point, it can be realized as a national task through coordination of their
attitudes of the internal forces.

He maintained that only after the state constitution functions well can
the disturbances, hindrances and foreign interference happening today be
overcome and the country's independence and sovereignty be safeguarded.

Myanmar regained independence from Britain on Jan. 4, 1948.
_______

Myanmar Information Committee December 31 2002

Secretary-1 Receives UN AIDS Executive Director
Chairman of National Health Committee Secretary-1 of the State Peace and
Development Council General Khin Nyunt received UN AIDS Executive Director
Dr. Peter Piot at the Ministry of Defence in Yangon on 30 December.

MONEY

Business Times Singapore January 2 2003

Van der Horst plans Sesdaq move after reverse takeover
By David Boey

LOSS-MAKING construction firm Van der Horst (VDH) intends to transfer its
shares to Sesdaq if the proposed reverse takeover by petroleum explorer
Goldwater Company goes through.

Scant details are available on VDH's 'white knight', but a statement from
the group late on New Year's Eve describes Goldwater as a firm whose
principal business 'is the exploration for and the production of petroleum
in Myanmar'.

Goldwater, which is incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, has issued
and paid-up capital of US$200,000 comprising 200,000 ordinary shares of
US$1. Under a proposed reverse takeover announced on Tuesday, VDH will pay
$30 million via the issue of 600 million new shares in VDH to acquire the
entire issued and paid-up share capital of Goldwater. The deal would give
Goldwater 68 per cent of the enlarged issued and paid-up share capital of
VDH.

This would turn VDH into a firm that owns the rights to operate two of the
largest oilfields in Myanmar and help lift the suspension of VDH shares.
VDH had a capital deficiency of $106.2 million and a net tangible loss per
share of $15.70.

In a separate announcement, VDH said it narrowed its loss for the year
ended September 2002 to $2.2 million, from $37.3 million in FY2001. But
turnover dived 97 per cent to $523,000, from $16 million a year earlier.

VDH's results were boosted by an extraordinary gain following the
voluntary liquidation of two of its units - Van der Horst Hong Kong and
VDH Finance (One).

'There were loans of $107.1 million owing to these subsidiaries resulting
in the write-back of these loans on the liquidations,' VDH said.

VDH's loss per share was pared to 31.9 cents in FY2002 - an improvement
from a loss per share of $5.52 previously. Net tangible assets per share
stayed deep in negative territory. VDH had a negative NTA of $16.74 as at
September 2002, compared with a negative position of $16.04 a year
earlier.
_______


Myanmar Information Committee December 31 2002

Thai Carrier Launches Service to Mandalay
A ceremony at Mandalay International Airport on December 16 welcomed the
inaugural flight from Bangkok of Thailand’s Phuket Airlines, the fifth
carrier to launch a service to Myanmar in 2002. The 45 passengers aboard
the Phuket Airlines flight included the carrier’s chairman, Mr. Vikrom
Aisiri, who told the ceremony that the service would further strengthen
the friendship between the peoples of both countries. An airline official
said the service would also contribute to the development of tourism in
Myanmar. Phuket Airlines’ Myanmar branch manager added that the direct
flights from Bangkok to Mandalay would be convenient for foreign travelers
who wanted to visit such destinations as Bagan, Inle Lake and Taunggyi.
vPhuket Airlines will operate the flights between Bangkok and Mandalay on
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, using a Boeing 737-200 which can carry up
to 118 passengers. The flights are the second international service to be
operated by the airline, which began flying between Bangkok and Chittagong
in Bangladesh earlier this year. The airline also operates flights from
Bangkok to Phuket Krabi and Ranong in southern Thailand. Phuket Airlines
becomes the second foreign carrier after Chinese airline Yunnan Air to
launch flights to Mandalay in 2002. Yunnan Air operates flights to the
city from Kunming. Another three airlines began flights to Yangon in 2002.
They are Lauda Air (Italy), which operates a Milan-Yangon-Phuket service,
Lauda Air (Austria) which has flights linking Vienna, Yangon and Phuket
and the Bhutanese carrier, Druk Air, which flies a
Paro-Dhaka-Yangon-Bangkok route.

REGIONAL

Bangkok Post January 2 2003

THAMMARAK CALLS FOR PATIENCE WITH BURMA
By Wassana Nanuam

Defence Minister Gen Thammarak Isarangkura na Ayudhaya has called for
patience with Burma amid its attempts to stamp out drug production along
the common border, saying it may take a couple of years for Rangoon to
fulfill its promises.

Gen Thammarak said the threat posed by drug traffickers who smuggle their
illicit wares across the border should significantly decrease in 2005,
after the completion of negotiations between the Burmese junta and the
country's ethnic groups, including the Wa. Rangoon was sincere in its
efforts to suppress the production of drugs, but was currently unable to
realise this goal, as it had yet to wrest complete control of border
areas, he said.

It is not easy to wipe out drugs,'' he said. We cannot cast a spell to
make it disappear, but we can reduce the number of shipments that make it
across the border.''

Gen Thammarak said government and military commitment toward drug
suppression would ensure an improvement in the situation, adding closer
co-operation would also be sought with Laos and China.
_________

Agence France-Presse January 2 2003

South Eastern ties not a shift in Bangladesh foreign policy: FM
By Nadeem Qadir

Bangladesh's recent foreign policy initiatives with southeast Asian
countries, dubbed "Looking East," is not a shift in policy but an
expansion of its diplomatic horizons, the foreign minister said Thursday.

Bangladesh in recent weeks has been pursuing ties with Southeast Asian
nations mainly to boost its export markets.

"No, it is not a policy shift, but rather having a policy in that sphere,"
Foreign Minister Morshed Khan told reporters. "There is no shift in our
focus in the already existing areas, but now we are encompassing larger
areas as well as further expanding diplomatic horizons for the benefit of
the people.

Khan reiterated that Bangladesh was well located to be a bridge between
the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), of which it
is a member, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

"We are now following an aggressive foreign policy and want to put our
best both in SAARC and the ASEAN region," Khan said.

"We must take advantage of this" geopolitical location, the minister said.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, while SAARC combines of
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

In the past few weeks Myanmar junta leader Senior General Than Shwe and
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra have visited Dhaka, while
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has been to Bangkok and China.

Khan said the "Looking East" policy would not be at the cost of existing
ties with neighbours or other countries.

"We fully realise the potential of our friendly ties with the United
States and other western countries... relations with the United States
remain a major focus," he said.

"Bangladesh is keen to develop relations with India in the New Year on the
basis of mutual trust, due recognition of the legitimate concerns of
Bangladesh and common challenges that the two countries must face
together, especially for poverty eradication and promoting the prospect
for regional stability," Khan said.

Ties with New Delhi were strained at the end of 2002 over number of
issues, mainly when Indian leaders accused Dhaka of harbouring Islamic
extremists. Dhaka has consistently denied the charges as "baseless and
motivated."