BurmaNet News: February 12 2003

[editor at burmanet.org]

February 12 2003 Issue #2173

INSIDE BURMA

AFP: Aung San Suu Kyi calls for dialogue, reconciliation in Myanmar
Xinhua: CRPP calls for dialogue between Myanmar govt. opposition
AP: Myanmar marks 56th Union Day with calls for unity, democracy
AP: Rights group says military gang-raped women in Myanmar during Red
Cross visit

MONEY

Nonviolent Activist: No dollars for dictators

REGIONAL

Nation: Phnom Penh boss sacked
BusinessWorld: ADB offers grants to detect regional economic weakness
AP: Hun Sen warns that Mekong development could dry up vital Tonle Sap lake

STATEMENTS

Chin National Front: Statement on the 56th anniversary of Union Day in Burma

INSIDE BURMA

Agence France-Presse February 12 2003

Aung San Suu Kyi calls for dialogue, reconciliation in Myanmar

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi Wednesday called for dialogue
with the military government to start a process of national reconciliation
but questioned the junta's desire for talks.

"We, on our part, are putting all our efforts to start such a dialogue for
the sake of national reconciliation...," the National League for Democracy
(NLD) leader said at a ceremony marking the 56th anniversary of Myanmar's
Union Day.

"The question is, how much does the State Peace and Development Council
really want such a dialogue?" she asked in an address at the NLD
headquarters attended by representatives of Myanmar's ethnic minorities,
diplomats and some 400 NLD members. The dialogue, which the NLD hopes
would end four decades of military rule, was expected to start last May
after the junta released Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from house
arrest.

It was the only practical way towards real development, Aung San Suu Kyi
said. She urged the ruling military to show their "love for the nation by
action and not just by words."

Union Day marks the unification of Myanmar's different ethnic groups in
1947 which led to its independence from Britain.

Aung San Suu Kyi, whose father Bogyoke Aung San engineered the
unification, said national reconciliaton was necessary to solve the
social, economic and political woes besetting the nation.

Her party was ready to work with anyone at any time to achieve this goal.

"We don't look upon anybody as our enemy... we don't bear any malice
towards anyone ... (and) we will not hesitate to work together with anyone
for the sake of the nation," Aung San Suu Kyi said.

In a Union Day message read out an official ceremony, military leader
Senior General Than Shwe urged the nation "to strive in harmony, for the
emergence of a state constitution that would pave the way for the building
of a new discipline-flourishing democratic state."

The ceremony, held under tight security, was attended by an 10,000
specially invited people.

Than Shwe also warned the nation to look out for threats from "external
and internal elements" who were "using various ways and means to
constantly hinder and sabotage our development tasks."

Military authorities last week announced the arrest of 12 people -- NLD
members and a Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) activist --
who it said were involved in anti-government activities.

The NLD-sponsored Committee Representing Peoples Parliament (CRPP), which
includes members of ethnic minorities, also called for political dialogue,
the release of political prisoners and political freedoms.

The CRPP was established after the military government refused to
recognise the NLD's overwhelming victory at the 1990 polls.
____________

Xinhua News Agency February 12 2003

CRPP calls for dialogue between Myanmar govt, opposition

The Committee Representing the People's Parliament (CRPP) of Myanmar on
Wednesday called on the military government to start a dialogue with the
opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) without pre-conditions.

The CRPP, an alliance comprising mainly the NLD, Shan NLD, Rakhine
Democracy League, Mon Democracy Party and Zomi National Congress, was
formed by the NLD on Sept. 16, 1998, with the aim of affecting the
convening of parliament and carrying out the work of parliament in the
interim before it can be convened.

In its statement on the occasion of the country's 56th anniversary of the
Union Day, the CRPP said the present problems of the country are political
with those of the ethnic nationalities and economic, social and
educational problems need to be resolved urgently as national problems.
"The present situation of the country is disastrous," it warned,
attributing the main cause of deterioration in those sectors to the
deprivation of democratic institutions, the denial of the right of
self-determination of the ethnic nationalities and the abuses of
fundamental human rights.

Although the government has declared that a new chapter in politics has
opened up, the orchestrated obstructions that Aung San Suu Kyi (ASSK), NLD
general secretary, encountered in her recent journeys to the Rakhine state
and Ayeyarwaddy division indicated that confidence building between the
government and the NLD has not yet achieved, it said.

It also warned that national reconciliation cannot be achieved by words
alone nor political slogans can resolve the problems. It recalled that
dissension between political parties, groups and ethnic nationalities
since independence had led to insurrections, resulting in the failure of
the national reconciliation.

It further warned that without national reconciliation, there cannot be a
peaceful and developed democratic state and a federal union that
guarantees the equal rights of the ethnic nationalities cannot be
established.

Commenting on the observance of the Union Day, the CRPP pointed out that
at present, with the abrogation of the constitution of the country, the
form and essence of the union has disappeared and the union spirit is
fading away.

It stressed the need to lay down and implement a union policy which would
hold firm to the fundamental principles based on the spirit of the union.

The CRPP demanded the release of all political prisoners unconditionally,
allowance of all political parties to function freely and the general
public to engage in political activities without restrictions and
obstructions, and permission of freedom of publication.

Meanwhile, the NLD held a ceremony at its headquarters here to mark the
Union Day, in which ASSK said despite abundance in natural resources,
Myanmar stands as one of the poorest countries in the world due to absence
of settlement of the country's national reconciliation problem.

Myanmar's Union Day was designated on Feb. 12, 1947, when ethnic leaders
met at the Panlong Conference in northern Shan state, sponsored under the
leadership of late independence hero General Aung San, and signed the
Panlong Agreement to strive in unity for the country's independence from
the British colonialist rule. Myanmar regained its independence on Jan. 4,
1948.
______________________

Associated Press February 12 2003

Myanmar marks 56th Union Day with calls for unity, democracy

Myanmar's ruling junta urged ethnic unity and warned against "destructive
elements" while the opposition renewed calls for democracy at ceremonies
Wednesday marking the country's 56th Union Day anniversary.

The holiday commemorates the signing of a 1947 agreement by ethnic leaders
and the late independence hero Gen. Aung San, father of democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi, to resist British colonial rule.

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, won independence from Britain in 1948.
The junta's top leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, said in a message at a
flag-hoisting ceremony that the country fell to imperialists because of a
lack of unity and regained independence only after forging ties among
diverse ethnic groups.

He stressed the importance of efforts by the ruling State Peace and
Development Council to bring together ethnic groups in Myanmar's
insurgency-wracked border regions.

Than Shwe warned that Myanmar must guard against "destructive elements"
that "cannot bear to see the flourishing of national solidarity and the
development of sound political, economic and social environments."

"The entire national people must always remain vigilant against these
elements and ward off the dangers posed by them," he said in a statement
read by Yangon military commander Maj. Gen. Myint Swe at People's Park.

The ceremony was attended by government officials and representatives from
Myanmar's various ethnic groups.

Official newspapers reported that the government would celebrate this
year's Union Day anniversary by opening a technology college and a
500-line phone exchange in Panglong, where the agreement to resist British
rule was signed 56 years ago.

Panglong is 480 kilometers (300 miles) northeast of the capital, Yangon.

In a separate ceremony, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi reiterated
demands for a dialogue with the ruling military, adding that only
democracy would bring equality for the country's ethnic minorities.

"To solve the current problems, and in the interest of the people, we urge
the SPDC to commence the dialogue as soon as possible," she said at the
Yangon headquarters of her National League for Democracy party.

"Anyone impeding the reconciliation process is lacking in patriotic
spirits," Suu Kyi told hundreds of supporters and diplomats from the
United States, Britain, Italy, Japan and Australia, ethnic minority
leaders and U.N. representatives.

The ruling junta came to power after crushing a pro-democracy movement in
1988. It called elections two years later but refused to honor the
results, which gave the NLD a landslide victory.

The two sides have been holding reconciliation talks since late 2000, but
no real progress appears to have been made.
_______________

Associated Press February 12 2003

Rights group says military gang-raped woman in Myanmar during Red Cross visit

Myanmar government soldiers gang-raped an ethnic minority woman - even as
an International Red Cross team was investigating human rights conditions
only a few kilometers (miles) away, a Thai-based human rights organization
charged Wednesday.

A military patrol detained the 35-year-old Shan woman in her house, and
eight soldiers raped her in the presence of her four children, the Shan
Women's Action Network said.

The alleged incident took place on Jan. 30 in a village near Laikha town
in northeastern Myanmar's Shan State, said Hseng Noung, a spokeswoman for
the group. She cited informers for the group who live in the region. The
Shan are one of several ethnic minorities who have been battling Myanmar's
central government for decades in attempt to gain autonomy.

Myanmar's military government did not respond to faxed requests for
comment on the allegations, but it has repeatedly denied using rape as an
instrument of war.

A Red Cross spokesman on Wednesday said on condition of anonymity that the
group was unaware of the reported rape.

The Shan Women's Action Network last June issued a report, titled "License
to Rape," which claimed to document 173 cases of rape and sexual violence
by Myanmar troops against girls and women from the Shan ethnic minority.
The report was co-authored by the Shan Human Rights Foundation.

The U.S. government in December said a State Department investigation
backed up the report's allegations of sexual violence against Shan women.

The nongovernment organization Refugees International, based in
Washington, D.C., said last October that its own interviews with Myanmar
refugee women living in Thailand also indicated widespread rape by
soldiers in Myanmar's Shan State and other areas near the Thai border.

Myanmar's government tried to discredit the "License to Rape" report,
noting its authors were linked to Shan anti-government guerrilla groups.

It responded to the State Department's findings with a statement saying
that "the notion of rape as a systematic national policy is abhorrent to
the Government of Myanmar, which has never ordered, supported or condoned
rape in any form."

The statement quoted Myanmar government spokesman Hla Min as saying
Myanmar was ready "to assist and fully cooperate with any independent
international organization," and had agreed to let the International
Committee of the Red Cross carry out its humanitarian work in areas where
alleged rapes were committed.

MONEY

Nonviolent Activist February 12 2003

“No Dollars for Dictators”
By Dan Beeton

Forty years after the dictator Ne Win seized power in a coup, Burma
remains under military rule. But Burmese refugees and supporters of
democracy and human rights have scored a series of victories against the
iron-fisted military dictatorship, now led by General Than Shwe. From
Thailand to California, from refugee camps to campuses, activists are
waging a campaign to exert economic and political pressure on the regime.

Many of the leaders of this international movement are Burmese who
organized the country’s largest ever uprising in 1988, remarkable also in
its generally nonviolent character. But these student leaders and others
fled after the military violently crushed the demonstrations, killing as
many as 10,000 people in a massive bloodbath. In 1990, the regime allowed
free and fair elections, but when the results favored future Nobel Peace
Prize Recipient Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the junta annulled them
and placed Aung San Suu Kyi and the elected Members of Parliament under
arrest. The military has ruled ever since, and although the junta freed
Aung San Suu Kyi in 1995 and again, after re-arresting her, in 2002, there
has been no substantive political progress.

Escaping human rights abuses back home, Burmese activists founded the
international Free Burma Coalition in 1995, eventually bringing together
U.S.-based groups including Global Exchange, the American Anti-Slavery
Group, and Rainforest Action Network and such Burmese-Thai organizations
as All Burma Federation of Students Unions and the Assistance Association
for Political Prisoners. Modeled on the successful anti-apartheid movement
of a decade earlier, the coalition pressures Burma’s dictatorship through
consumer boycotts and public education campaigns. The coalition gained an
international profile through successful boycotts against
companies—including Pepsi Cola and oil giants Texaco and Arco—that had
gone into business with Burma’s junta. More recently, it targeted Western
companies buying up the regime’s exports, taking aim especially at
clothing importers and retailers; the coalition’s current goal is to
deprive the regime of the massive revenue it generates by selling
sweatshop goods to U.S. markets.

“When you buy something labeled ‘Made in Burma,’ you help perpetuate
widespread forced labor in the country,” says the coalition’s Director of
Policy and Strategy and former political prisoner Aung Din.
“Infrastructure for the garment factories themselves has been built with
forced labor—even using children.” The U.S. State Department’s human
rights report on Burma reads, “Forced labor, including forced child labor,
has contributed materially to the construction of industrial parks
subsequently used largely to produce manufactured exports including
garments.”

The regime makes money from taxing exports at the astounding rate of ten
percent. Export trade is now a significant source of cash for the regime;
it is likely that from Burma’s $1.4 billion in exports during the first
half of 2002, the junta took away at least $140 million in hard cash.

Aung Din sees it as no coincidence that as U.S. companies like Pepsi and
Texaco pulled out of Burma in the mid-1990s, the regime began to export a
greater quantity of garments and other products to the United States.
Beginning in spring 2000, the coalition took action, calling on companies
to cease production in Burma and to ban clothing, ceramics, and other
products made in Burma from their stores. Some, like Fila, JanSport, and
the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart responded quickly, announcing
“no-Burma” policies. But others ignored the call to ban business with
Burma, and that’s when the grassroots pressure began. The coalition
launched e-mails, phone calls, letters and pickets against U.S.
corporations that have been boosting the regime’s rag trade. Upscale
retail giant Federated Department Stores, the Children’s Place and, most
recently, Burlington Coat Factory have all been on the receiving end of
thousands of anti-Burma trade communications, and all have since decided
to cease stocking products made in Burma. “We saw a lot of other large
retailers were going down this path and it was determined a good idea,”
Burlington Coat Factory’s general counsel Brian Flynn told a news service.
“It’s socially responsible, and it’s good business. We don’t want to be
associated with [that] sort of practice.”

A few companies continue to profit from a garment industry built on
slavery and help Burma’s dictatorship maintain its stranglehold on power;
it will take still more grassroots action to convince them to stop.

Burma’s Biggest Investor
The U.S. corporation believed to be helping provide the most revenue to
Than Shwe’s brutal dictatorship is Unocal, the California-based oil
colossus. While oil companies Texaco, Arco and—just last September—Premier
have all succumbed to activist pressure and yanked their operations in
Burma, Unocal remains the most stubborn target of the Free Burma boycotts.
Even more than when it cozied up to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan (and
according to press reports only halted its project plans in that country
after the 1998 Al Qaeda attacks on U.S. embassies), Unocal has dug in its
heels and deepened its ties to Burma’s regime. The company sold off its
entire chain of “76" service stations in 1997 in order, some have
suggested, to avoid noisy protests.

Unocal’s pipeline project in Burma has grown notorious for the many
alleged human rights abuses associated with it. Burmese plaintiffs are
suing the company in U.S. courts over violations including forced labor,
rape and murder. The plaintiffs claim that Burma’s military forced many to
work on the project’s infrastructure and, in the course of providing
“security” for the pipeline, forcibly relocated others to make way for it.
Similar cases against companies including Shell Oil have followed.

Unocal has fought back against the Free Burma Coalition and its allies,
playing a leading role in the successful effort to strike down the
Massachusetts Burma Law that barred state contracts with firms doing
business in Burma. Since no amount of bad publicity seems to convince the
oil giant that it should leave Burma, activists have decided to force the
company out by making it unprofitable to remain there. On campuses across
the country, students are leading successful campaigns to urge university
divestment of stock in Unocal and other companies operating in Burma.

Late last year, students at the University of Virginia persuaded the
school to dump 50,000 shares in Unocal. The school made the decision after
receiving a letter supporting divestment signed by seven Nobel Peace
laureates including the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Rigoberta
Menchú Tum, Oscar Arias, Betty Williams and Jody Williams. “While Unocal
turns its back on the conditions surrounding its pipeline, its [partner],
the illegal military junta, [is] torturing, killing, raping and enslaving
thousands of people,” the letter said.

“This decision makes me proud to be a student at the University of
Virginia. We hope that the University of Michigan and [academic pension
fund] TIAA-CREF will take action against this rogue oil company as well,”
UVA student and Free Burma Coalition member Andrew Price said at the time.

Price was referring to two of the campaign’s notable successes. University
of Michigan students voted that the university should divest itself of $20
million worth of stock in companies doing business with Burma’s regime—a
significant move, since one of Unocal’s board members, Marina Whitman, is
a business professor at the school. And in addition to campus divestment
campaigns, the Free Burma Coalition has organized a new effort to pressure
Unocal through some of its largest investors: pension funds.

When TIAA-CREF, the pension fund of choice for many teachers and
professors in the United States, held its annual participants’ meeting
November 7, the coalition’s Aung Din and Andrew Silver were there to urge
the fund to take action to support human rights in Burma. Since TIAA-CREF
holds 1,506,000 shares of stock in Unocal, the coalition requested that
the fund use its shareholder power to urge Unocal to leave Burma and
divest itself of the Unocal stock if the company refuses. This request was
backed up by the signatures of over 100 TIAA-CREF holders, including many
well-known educators like anti-apartheid leader Dennis Brutus,
linguist-activist Noam Chomsky, international law scholar Richard Falk and
former member of Congress Father Robert Drinan.

“We do not want our retirement funds, or any TIAA-CREF funds, to be
generated from repression and abuse,” the letter said. The appeal also
called for the fund to dump immediately its stock in Singapore
Technologies, a subsidiary of which supplies weapons to Burma’s military.
The same subsidiary, Chartered Industries, shipped ordnance to the Burmese
regime just before it cracked down on the pro-democracy uprising in 1988.
But as with the garment trade holdouts, it appears that it will take still
more grassroots action to persuade TIAA-CREF to drop its stock in
Singapore Tech and take action on Unocal.
Dan Beeton is the Campaigns Director of the Free Burma Coalition.
What You Can Do
• Consumers can write to May Department Stores Chair and CEO Eugene S.
Kahn, May Department Stores Co., 611 Olive St., St. Louis, MO 63101 (or
fax to (314)342-3064) to urge that all May stores, including Lord &
Taylor, Foley’s, Filene’s and Hecht’s, stop selling Burma-made products.
• Students can learn about taking action for a free Burma on campus by
clicking on “Student Action” at www. freeburmacoalition.org.
• Educators with funds in TIAA-CREF can sign on to the shareholders’
letter at
www.freeburmacoalition.org/frames/campaigns/Tiaa-Cref/tiaa-cref%20letter.htm
and can encourage other TIAA-CREF shareholders to participate in the
campaign by signing the letter.
• For general information about the Free Burma Coalition and its
campaigns, write, call or e-mail Free Burma Coalition, 1101 Pennsylvania
Ave. SE, #204, Washington, DC 20003; (202)547-5985;
info at freeburmacoalition.org; or see www.freeburmacoalition.org.


REGIONAL

The Nation February 12 2003

Phnom Penh boss sacked
By Marisa Chimprabha and Kavi Chongkittavorn

The Cambodian government yesterday dismissed Phnom Penh Governor Chea
Sopara, reportedly for failing to control anti-Thai riots last month which
resulted in the razing of the Thai Embassy and Thai businesses in Phnom
Penh.

Sopara is the first high-ranking official sacked as a result of the
violence on January 29, which badly shook the long-standing good relations
between the neighbours.

He will become his country's ambassador to Burma. Prime Minister Hun Sen's
government is reportedly deliberating taking action against other
officials who failed to respond in time to the riots, which caused an
estimated Bt2 billion worth of damage to the embassy and Thai-owned
companies.

The Thai government's investigation into the incident has focused on
Sopara's role.

Thai officials have accused him of being a major figure in forging
anti-Thai sentiment in Cambodia and of favouring non-Thai foreign
investors, especially Vietnamese.

Many observers believe his dismissal has come about at the request of Thai
government in a bid to normalise cross-border relations as soon as
possible.

Although the Cambodian police are officially under the command of their
director-general General Hok Lundy, Sopara is authorised to deploy them in
the event of any unrest in the capital.

His dismissal comes in spite of his closeness to Hun Sen. But a long-time
observer said the link was weaker than that to Lundy, who is related to
Hun Sen through the marriage of their children.

Cambodia was calm yesterday. The Thai Embassy and the Royal Phnom Penh
Hotel, which were looted and set afire, remained sealed off.

But Khmer TV channels have maintained their ban on advertisements for Thai
goods and on a Thai soap opera.

Hun Sen ordered the stations to dump a drama series starring Thai actress
Suvanan Kongying, who was accused by Hun Sen and the Cambodian press of
saying Angkor Wat belonged to Thailand.

Some Cambodian hotels with satellite reception have suspended Thai
programming for "security" reasons.

Kosit Chatpaiboon yesterday began his second day as Thailand's charge
d'affairs to Cambodia.

He replaces Ambassador Chatchawed Chartsuwan, who was recalled following
the turbulence.

Kosit said he and his team were in the process of setting up new offices
in a former residence of Japanese diplomats.

He said he would ask for more officials to help him establish the new
office so that consular service could resume as soon as possible.

Meanwhile Cambodian police released on bail two Cambodian journalists
arrested nearly two weeks ago on charges of inciting massive anti-Thai
riots.

Broadcaster Mam Sonando and the editor of Rasma Kumpuchea, In Chansivutha,
were arrested days after the January 29 riots.
_________

BusinessWorld February 12 2003

ADB offers grant to detect regional economic weakness

The Philippines, together with 10 other countries, is expected to benefit
from a new technical assistance (TA) offered by Asian Development Bank
(ADB) aimed at developing early warning systems to detect possible
financial and economic weaknesses within the region.

The $250,000 vulnerability assessment project would put into operation a
regional warning system prototype developed under another TA approved in
June 2001. "The 1997 Asian financial crisis underscored the role of
effective economic and financial surveillance, not only at the national
and global levels but also at the regional level, in maintaining stability
and sustaining growth in a highly globalized economic environment," an ADB
document pertaining to the project noted.

Aside from the Philippines, other nations expected to benefit from the new
ADB initiative include Cambodia, China, Indonesia, South Korea, Laos,
Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

"The TA will finance the modification of the regional EWS prototype... to
suit individual countries' circumstances; the development of special
computer software and operational manuals training of concerned government
officials of participating countries to operate the models," the ADB said.

Possible modifications that would be made include exploration of
alternative data sources, fine-tuning model variables and accommodation of
specific requests from governments, the bank added.

Surveillance units have already been set up in finance ministries of
countries like Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines, Thailand and
Vietnam.
___________

Associated Press February 12 2003

Hun Sen warns that Mekong development could dry up vital Tonle Sap lake
By Ker Munthit

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday warned that
Cambodia's Tonle Sap lake -- a vital source of fish in the impoverished
country -- could dry up if development projects are handled carelessly on
the Mekong River upstream from the lake.
Environmentalists have said dams, canals, and other Mekong development in
China threaten the river.
China is a close ally of Cambodia as well as one of its major foreign
investors and aid donors, and Hun Sen didn't name any countries in his
remarks.
The 4,880-kilometer (3,030-mile) Mekong starts in China and runs through
Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. It feeds Tonle Sap and other
waterways along its course.
Hun Sen said the construction of hydroelectric power dams and navigation
canals on the upper Mekong River poses "great concerns" in downstream
countries such as Cambodia. "The consequence ... is that the Tonle Sap can
dry up, (eventually) bringing an end to the freshwater fishing industry,"
Hun Sen said at an international conference on river management.
Tonle Sap, meaning "Great Lake," is Southeast Asia's biggest freshwater
lake. Area residents have relied upon its fish for centuries. The lake has
an area of about 10,000 square kilometers (3,900 square miles) in the wet
season but shrinks considerably in the dry months.
In recent years Cambodian officials have noted a drop in the lake's fish
population, which they attribute to upstream development.
"Believe me, the drying up of Tonle Sap will not just affect Cambodia but
the entire region," Hun Sen said. "The change in the level of water flow
is an important factor ... relevant to sustainability of the livelihood
and biodiversity in the region."
During the annual rainy season, the swollen Mekong River dumps extra water
into Tonle Sap, flooding surrounding areas and providing spawning grounds
for fish.

STATEMENTS

Chin National Front February 12 2003

Statement on the 56th anniversary of Union Day in Burma
By Chin National Front

Today, the 12th of February 2003, marks fifty sixth year since national
representatives of the Kachin, Chin, Burman, and Shan signed the historic
Panglong agreement to collectively achieve speedy freedom from the British
and to establish a Union state based on an underlined principle equality.

Under the guise of a union of multi-ethnic constituents, the Union of
Burma has now in its 56th years of existence, while the very essence and
basic principle that underpinned its foundation as a Union state quality
as been betrayed from the very onset. Non-Burman ethnic nationalities, as
a result, have since found themselves in a condition in which the very
survival of their culture, traditions, language and literature are being
endangered.

Without imminent and justifiable external threat, military dictatorial
regimes that have successively assumed political power have constantly
sought to expand and empower their military might in order to silence the
voice of those who endeavor to bring about ethnic equality within a
genuine union labeling them as neo-colonists, external agents, and
terrorists in order to mislead the public to justify its systematic
genocidal campaign against various ethnic nationalities.

The National Convention the regime has been holding with its handpicked
delegates only represents a sham and is aimed entirely at entrenching
military dominance and its chauvinistic policies. Such attempt will not
succeed in providing a framework for the emergence of a genuine federal
union. On the contrary, the Chin National Front is strongly convinced that
ONLY under an environment of peace and democracy, and a type of Panglong
Conference at which respective ethnic nationalities are represented by the
representatives of their own choice, will succeed in framing a genuine
federal state.

It is therefore evident that in building the future federal state, force
and military might are not the solution. Only by political dialogue and
negotiation involving all ethnic nationalities, can the aspiration for
genuine federal union be achieved. As such, it is imperative that there be
immediate political dialogue, given the urgency for bringing about
negotiated solution.

Date: 12 February 2003
Central Executive Committee
Chin National Front