BurmaNet News: March 11 2003

[editor at burmanet.org]

March 11 2003 Issue #2192

INSIDE BURMA

AFP: Myanmar plan to eliminate forced labor not adequate: ILO
Chinland Guardian: Health fear rises as Chin refugees enter fourth week of
hunger strike
DVB: General Maung Aye hospitalized in Singapore

MONEY

Morning Star: Human rights group slams tourism firm over Burma
Mizzima: Guwahati trade fair explores gems trade in NE India
Xinhua: Bangladeshi trade fair to be held in Myanmar

REGIONAL

Bangkok Post: Focus now on smugglers’ links with border villagers
Washington Post: Thailand’s drug war leaves over 1,000 dead
AFP: Myanmar junta head to visit Vietnam
Narinjara: Burmese SPDC junta award religious title to a Buddhist monk in
Bangladesh

STATEMENTS

Myanmar Information Committee: Myanmar urges U.S. to make proper judgement
based on factual evidence

INSIDE BURMA

Agence France Presse March 11 2003

Myanmar plan to eliminate force labour not adequate: ILO

Plans by Myanmar's military government to end forced labour are not yet
adequate or credible, a Yangon-based International Labour Organisation
(ILO) officer said Tuesday during a visit to Thailand.

Myanmar is the only country in the world where forced labour is imposed by
authorities and is in talks with the ILO to draw up a plan to eliminate
the practice, ILO liaison officer Hong-Trang Perret-Nguyen told AFP.

"In spite of very serious and very constant discussion with the government
I have not been able to convince the authorities to take steps I consider
necessary for the plan to be a credible plan," Perret-Nguyen said.

A main sticking point was an ILO demand that Yangon agree to establish a
credible system to verify allegations of forced labour and prosecute
offenders.

The ILO also wanted Myanmar to establish a pilot region where forced
labour would be stopped immediately and its prohibition strictly enforced.
Yangon had instead proposed an area where a public information campaign
against forced labour would be increased, she said.

Other government proposals included translating orders prohibiting forced
labour into ethnic languages and distributing pamphlets about the issue.

"I have to note there has not been enough progress in discussions with
government to enable me to present a joint text" of the plan to the ILO,
Perret-Nguyen added.

The ILO has offered to help implement an agreed plan which included
sourcing financial support for it. The organisation could also seek
further pressure on Myanmar if it does not take steps against forced
labour.

The country has made some progress, admitted Perret-Nguyen, who has been
in Myanmar since October.

"They have come from a position of complete denial of the existence of
forced labour to recognition of forced labour and now have the presence of
the ILO in the country," she said.

Forced labour in Myanmar typically involves work as porters for soldiers
or in road and other construction projects. Most allegations of its use
are against the army.

The liaison officer said her impression after visits to various parts of
the country was that "the situation is really very serious and people
continue to suffer from practices of forced labour."

Myanmar is widely condemned by the international community for its use of
forced labour. A 1998 ILO inquiry found the practice was "widespread and
systematic" and targeted ethnic minorities living in border regions.

A report written by Perret-Nguyen due to be discussed by the ILO's
governing body in Geneva this month said:

"The situation in areas near to the Thai border where there is continuing
insecurity and a heavy presence of the army, as well as in northern
Rakhine state, is particularly serious and appears to have changed
little."

The manner in which forced labour was imposed had changed in some
instances, Perret-Nguyen found. For example, sources said military units
tended to verbally tell village heads to provide forced labour instead of
using written orders as before.

"Demands for labour appeared to have been substituted in some cases by
forced contributions (of materials, provisions or cash). It also appears
that the authorities are more commonly making payments to those whom they
requisition, although usually at well below prevailing rates," the report
said.

One of Perret-Nguyen's trips was to the Yadana gas pipeline operated by
French oil group TotalFinaElf which has been accused of using forced
labour in Myanmar.

"I did not see any evidence of forced labour for the benefit of
TotalFinaElf," she said.
_____________

Chinland Guardian March 10 2003

Health Fear Rises As Chin Refugees Enter Fourth Week Of Hunger Strike
By Salai Za Uk Ling

Three Chin asylum seekers from Burma who have been on hunger strike in
front of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office in New
Delhi enter their fourth week of protest amidst fears for their
deteriorating health conditions.

Six Chin refugees, four men and two women between the ages of 20 to 40,
started an indefinite hunger strike on February 17 to demand refugee
status from the United Nations, which has already rejected them as
refugees. Three of the six hunger strikers including two women ended their
protest this week shortly after they received final rejections following a
hasty re-interviews conducted by UNHCR which says there is no further
ground for reopening their cases.

Concerns are growing for the health of the three remaining protesters as
they enter their fourth week of fasting and as UNHCR continues to refuse
to recognize them as “person of concern.” The refugees have spent three
weeks without food staging a sit-in protest in front of UNHCR office in
New Delhi and are still showing no sign of giving up. They are demanding
that UNHCR recognize them as refugees saying they face persecution in
Burma, a military-ruled country that is known for committing gross
violations of human rights.

On March 1, 2003 as concerns were rising for their health, the dehydrated
refugees were dragged away from their makeshift camp in front of UNHCR,
loaded into a police truck and transported to All India Institute for
Medical Science, where they were treated for severe dehydration. “They
tried to refuse the medical treatment saying they would rather die of
hunger unless UNHCR grant them a re-interview,” reported one Chin refugee
who has been helping the hunger strikers. “It’s extremely sad to see that
the agency that is supposed to be helping them hasn’t shown the slightest
sympathy to the plights of these people,” he said.

The six hunger strikers represent the frustration shared by hundreds of
others whose plights are being ignored by the UNHCR office in New Delhi.
In an open letter addressed to UNHCR Chief of Mission in India, Chin
refugees expressed their disappointment over UNHCR’s continued refusal to
give them “reasonable and due process” in assessing their cases. They
alleged that the United Nations refugee agency’s harsh policies on Chin
refugees are influenced by pressures from the host government. They
accused UNHCR of trying to ward off responsibility for protection of
refugees due to “financial constraints” facing the agency.

“This is not the first time that UNHCR has neglected the plights of
Burmese refugees in India,” said four Nordic Burmese support groups in
their letter to UNHCR. They said that UNHCR’s indifferent attitudes have
created a situation in which refugees are compelled to resort to extreme
measures as the only available solution to achieve attention to their
plights.

UNHCR Chief of Mission Lennart Kotsalainen however defended the policy of
his office in his letter to the four Nordic Burmese Committees saying that
it was “incoherent claims” presented by the asylum seekers that resulted
in rejection of all their cases. He insisted the asylum seekers were
motivated to come to New Delhi by the belief that they would be resettled
to a third country.

The remark yielded an even more angry response from the refugees. They
said that the remark has served to add an insult to their suffering and
pain.

Meanwhile, UNHCR has informed some 30 recognized refugees that their
Subsistence Allowance would be terminated as part of the agency’s program
to encourage self-reliance among urban refugees. According to UNHCR’s
notice, the provision of Subsistence Allowance has deterred Burmese
refugees from making sufficient effort toward integrating in society,
learning languages or picking up skills.

“We are encouraging self reliance activities for the refugees through
skills and vocational training to help them to acquire skills which will
allow them to earn an income in the informal sector since the Indian
government does not issue work permits,” said UNHCR Chief of Mission
Kotsalainen, contrary to 46-page evaluation report issued by UNHCR in
November 2000 which states “Unassisted refugees cannot be regarded as
‘self-reliant’ if they are living in abject poverty and are obliged to
engage in illicit activities in order to survive...refugees who have very
limited access to public services and social support systems cannot
realistically be expected to attain self-reliance”.

More than 1000 Burmese refugees, mostly ethnic Chin, are taking shelter in
the Indian capital after fleeing political repression and human rights
violations in Burma. Many unassisted refugees are surviving by collecting
left-over vegetables in the local markets.

According to Chin Human Rights Organization, more Chin refugees are likely
to arrive in New Delhi due to mass eviction of refugees in northeast India
of Mizoram State.
__________

Democratic Voice of Burma March 10 2003

General Maung Aye hospitalised in Singapore

It is reported that the SPDC’s vice-Chairman General Maung Aye was
hospitalised yesterday in Singapore in emergency. The 65 year old general
has been suffering from enlarged prostate and he has been receiving
treatment at Mingaladon military hospital for a week, said a doctor. But
his condition hasn’t improved and he was sent to Singapore, according to
AFP news. The Singapore General Hospital also confirmed that the general
is in the hospital to news agencies. According to the records compiled by
the DVB, General Maung Aye was born at Kantbalu, Sagaing Division around
1940s and he attended Maymyo Military Academy in 1955. His official
registration number is DC-7875 and a graduate of the first batch of the
academy. He presently holds the positions of the deputy defence minister
and commander-in-chief of the army on the ground. He is the main
controller of the army and he is known to be uncompromising towards the
oppositions and ethnic nationals and he is against the talk with Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi and ceasefire agreements with armed ethnic groups.

U Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Burmese military expert based on the Sino-Burmese
border told the DVB about the general as follows:

A: He was a graduate of the 1959 first batch of the academy. Then, around
1975, he became the commander of the Northeast Command’s IB 67. After 76,
in 77, he became a strategist of the Northeast Command. Then, at the end
of 78, he became the second in command of Battalion 77. Then, at the end
of 1979 [15 November], he became the director of the defence ministry’s
arsenal. He was there quite long, from 79 to 85. In 1985, he became the
commander of Battalion 77. In 1986, after more than a year, he became the
commander of the Northeast Command. During his time as an active soldier,
we see nothing noteworthy in his military skills. But in March 1990, he
was awarded the ‘Yetagun’ military honour on the Revolution Day by the
then SLORC. He never expected to progress from the commander position to
the present state. There were three talented people up for the post
including him: the others being General Nyan Linn, and General Tun Kyi.
Under this circumstance, he became the second on command and the commander
in chief.’

U Khin Maung Myint, an ex-captain who attended the first batch of the
academy with Maung Aye expressed his opinion as follows:

A: What I want to say is this comes from being tired mentally and
physically, especially with the dire affairs of the nation. If they keep
on going with the military system, the country and people will sink and
sink further and everyone will be in trouble. The best thing is – in order
the situation to return to normal, they should hand the power back to the
people. If they don’t do that, during their lifetimes and after their
deaths, I don’t want them to be the culprits of the nation’s ruin.

MONEY

Morning Star March 11 2003

Human rights group slams tourism firm over Burma

HUMAN-RIGHTS campaigners slammed tourism company Intrepid Travel yesterday
for its decision to return to Burma.

Intrepid, an Australian travel company with offices in Britain, pulled out
of Burma in 1999 after an online vote. It was concerned that its presence
was not only financially benefiting the country's brutal military
dictatorship but was also a tacit approval of the regime.

Burma Campaign UK director Yvette Mahon saidy: "By resuming tours to
Burma, Intrepid Travel are resuming their funding of the dictatorship.

"There is no way for tourists to visit Burma without money going to the
regime."

Tourism is a vital source of income for the dictatorship in Burma,
providing it with millions of pounds every year.

The junta spends 40 per cent of the national budget on the military.

Burma Campaign groups in Europe and Australia are asking supporters to
bombard Intrepid with emails urging it to reconsider its decision.
 ____________

Mizzima March 11 2003

Guwahati trade fair explores gems trade in NE India

Guwahati:   Burmese jewellery and precious stones are in demand on the
Indian market due to their quality and design. According to U Khin Maung
Kyi and Daw Khin Than Khine, Burma has earned a good part of its revenue
by exporting precious stones and decorative jewellery for the past several
years.
Kyi and Khine of Khine Mingalar, Rangoon, participating in an
international trade fair held in Guwahati (Assam), opined that 'Myanmar'
and India should explore the trade potential between them with an eye to
garnering more revenue. They themselves feel encouraged by  Indian demand
and are now looking forward to expanding trade in the North East Indian
market.
The international trade fair, organised by a leading  organisation to open
trade links between North East India and other countries, received an
overwhelming response from participants from four countries - Burma,
Bangladesh, Iran and Pakistan. Significantly, the Burmese participated in
the trade expo for the first time this year.
Commenting that "India is our main country of export", Kyi and Khine
talked about Burmese mines producing precious stones that enhance the
country's economy. "Our products are also in such steady demand because we
always maintain our quality", Khine added.
Like other trading groups, these gem traders underline their perception
that improved trade routes between India and Burma would help cement good
relations between the two countries.
__________

Xinhua News Agency March 11 2003

Bangladeshi trade fair to be held in Myanmar

The Fourth Bangladeshi Trade Fair will be held at the Yangon Trade Center
here from March 20-22, the local weekly Myanmar Times reported in its
latest issue.

Quoting the Bangladeshi embassy sources, the report said over 60 companies
out of expected 90 have confirmed participation in the three-day fair
organized by the Bangladesh Export Promotion Bureau in cooperation with
the Myanmar Ministry of Commerce and the Bangladeshi embassy.

On display at the fair will be leather, chemical, ceramics, plastic,
pharmaceutical and textile goods.

The third trade fair of its kind was held in March last year attended by
72 companies, in which a large number of contracts between Bangladeshi
companies and Myanmar government agencies and private enterprises was
reached and the sources anticipates the number of such contracts to
increase this year.

Myanmar and Bangladesh have been working to set up a joint trade
commission that will discuss trade difficulties between the two nations
and conclude an agreement on coastal shipping links.

According to Bangladeshi official statistics, bilateral trade between
Bangladesh and Myanmar stood only over 100 million US dollars annually in
the past few years.

REGIONAL

Bangkok Post March 11 2003

FOCUS NOW ON SMUGGLERS' LINKS WITH BORDER VILLAGERS
By Teerawat Kumtita

Smuggling by Burmese drug producers and their relatives and friends in
border villages is now being targeted, with extra intelligence officers
posted to the area.

Chiang Rai Governor Narin Panichkij said it was believed each village had
one major dealer and 8-10 smaller drug traders. On each trip across the
border they smuggled from 100,000 to one million methamphetamine pills.

Travel on foot between the villages and the Red Wa drug production centre
across the border, Yawn township, took only about two hours, he said.

At these villages, methamphetamines from Burma were often traded for cars
and motorcycles stolen from elsewhere.

Some of the traffickers were not Thai nationals so were not on the
province's blacklist and were harder to find.

It was hoped that posting extra intelligence officers to the border area
would help overcome this drawback.

So far there had been about a 30% decrease in drugs in all areas targeted
in the anti-drug campaign, including Mae Fa Luang and Wiang Pa Pao
districts, he said. The goal was to achieve at least a 75% reduction.
Major drug traffickers were now the priority, not street dealers.

Of the 2,300 arrests made in Chiang Rai so far, around 800 were found in
possession of 10,000 speed pills or more.
___________

Washington Post March 9 2003

Thailand's Drug War Leaves Over 1,000 Dead
Brutal Campaign Draws Concern Of Rights Groups
By Alan Sipress

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- When Thailand's prime minister launched a campaign
Feb. 1 to eradicate drugs from his country within three months, skeptics
predicted the effort would prove no more successful than his earlier
pledges to eliminate pollution and untangle Bangkok's notorious traffic
jams.

But within days, the seriousness of the initiative became brutally clear.
Police reported at least 300 drug-related slayings over the first two
weeks, and by March 1, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra announced that
1,100 people had been killed during the offensive.

Government officials say most of the killings have been the result of
violence among rival drug gangs panicked by the crackdown. Police
acknowledge responsibility for only about 30 of the deaths, saying these
were largely self-defense shootings.

Human rights activists, however, suspect that many of the killings have
been carried out by Thai security forces and allied gunmen as they try to
meet Thaksin's quota for  reducing the number of drug producers and
dealers on a government list of suspects.

"According to our research, most of them are killed by the police, because
they want to meet the target," said Somchai Homlaor, secretary general of
Forum Asia, a human rights  group. "They think if the drug dealers are
brought to court, they will be released again. A better way to solve the
drug problem is to kill them."

His group reported it has uncovered at least three cases in which drugs
were planted on victims before their bodies were turned over to the
coroner.
U.N. special human rights envoy Asma Jahangir recently added her "deep
concern" to the mounting criticism, issuing a statement citing
"allegations of excessive use of force  resulting in extrajudicial
executions."

Increasingly nervous about Thailand's international reputation, the
Foreign Ministry called diplomats from more than 50 countries to a
briefing Monday to make the government's case. "It's necessary for the
government to take decisive action to deal with the drug
problem," Foreign Ministry spokesman Sihasak Pheungketkaew said after the
session. "We are not insensitive to the concerns of the international
community, but we want the international community to see our side of the
story."

Drug use has ravaged Thailand, where the government estimates 5 percent of
the population uses methamphetamines produced in the jungles just over the
border in Burma and known locally as "yaa baa" or crazy medicine. This
makes Thailand the world's largest
consumer of the drug, according to the United Nations' International
Narcotics Control Board.

While vowing to continue the sweep, Sihasak said Foreign Ministry
officials had reassured the diplomats that police were under strict
instructions to abide by the law. "The campaign does not mean we will
condone excessive use of force or weapons by the authorities," he said.

Admitting that police have made some mistakes in waging the anti-drug war,
Thaksin has guaranteed that all killings will be investigated. He also
announced he would establish two committees to monitor the police and
protect informants and witnesses.

But he also has evinced continuing resentment of foreign criticism. He was
quoted last month by the Nation newspaper in Bangkok as saying Thailand
should "do away with the thinking of foreigners" about human rights.

Interior Minister Wan Muhamad Nor Matha, speaking to reporters on the eve
of the crackdown, set the tone for police operations against suspected
drug traffickers. "They will be put behind bars or even vanish without a
trace. Who cares? They are destroying our country," he said.

Based on public opinion polls, most Thais agree. A survey conducted in the
third week of February by the Suan Dusit Institute showed that more than
90 percent of respondents backed Thaksin's campaign. It remains unclear,
however, whether this resounding support will weather continuing
disclosures about excessive violence.

Thai media widely reported the death last month of a 9-year-old boy who
was shot as police tried to arrest his parents, suspected drug dealers. He
was gunned down in the back seat of a car driven by his mother as she fled
the police. Though authorities initially blamed the shooting on unknown
assailants, three police officers have been arrested in connection with
the boy's death.

Other victims include a pregnant woman, a 1-year-old boy killed in a
shooting that injured his mother, and a 75-year-old grandmother suspected
of peddling methamphetamines, according to press reports. The government
has not named the assailants in these cases.
_____________

Agence France Presse March 11 2003

Myanmar junta head to visit Vietnam

Myanmar's military leader Senior General Than Shwe will pay a three-day
official visit to Vietnam from Saturday, the foreign ministry here said.

His visit, at the invitation of Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong, is
aimed at "promoting bilateral relations between the two countries," a
ministry official said Tuesday.

"The two sides will also exchange views on regional and international
issues of mutual concern."

It will be Shwe's third trip to the communist nation, following his last
visit in 1998 for the leadership summit of ASEAN (Association of Southeast
Asian Nations) states.

The junta head, who will be accompanied by his wife, is scheduled to leave
the country on Monday.

Vietnam and Myanmar, both authoritarian regimes and targets of western
criticism over their human rights records, retain close political links.
_________________

Narinjara News March 11 2003

Burmese SPDC junta award religious title to a Buddhist monk in Bangladesh

The Burmese Ministry of Religious Affairs has declared an award of a
Buddhist religious title to a monk at Ramu, under Cox’s Bazaar district in
the south-eastern part of Bangladesh, our correspondent quoted a monk in
the Buddhist monastery.

The monk, Satyapriyo Mahathero, will be awarded the Aggamaha
Saddhammajotikadhaja title (translated, ‘forerunner of the holder of the
flag of the religious light') in a formal function to be held in Rangoon
on March 17th, on the occasion of the Tabaung Month (Falgun) Full Moon day
celebration.

The monk also said that it is usual for the Burmese junta to confer such
titles to the prominent monks of Bangladesh every year.  Another monk in
the area told our correspondent that, the Burmese junta only selects those
Buddhist monks for the award who have never gone against the junta. 
Prominent monks like Abbot U Pandita Mahathero of Chowdhurypara, who is an
eminent monk in the international arena hailing   from Cox’s Bazaar
district, has never been in the good book of the successive Burmese juntas
because of his support for democracy and antagonistic stand against the
Burmese juntas.  The abbot is the Chairman of the Rakhine Marma Sangha
Council of Bangladesh, an organization of Buddhist monks.

The monk, Styapriyo studied in Burma and is an author of a number of books
on Buddhism.  Ramu is called as Pan-wa in Rakhine and Burmese languages
and the small town is famous for the old Buddhist monasteries with
elaborate woodcarvings built by Rakhine people who lived there in large
numbers previously.

The award has been made to the prominent monks of the Theravada School,
the important orthodox sect practised in South and South-east Asia
including Burma, since the time of dictator Ne Win’s socialist regime took
up ‘clean-up campaign’ of the Buddhist Order around 1980.  A distinguished
Buddhist monk from the opposition demanded that the title award ceremony
itself is a political affair rather than religious and the junta conducts
it every year to drum up support from the Buddhist population in the
region.

STATEMENTS

Myanmar Information Committee March 8 2003

Myanmar Urges U.S. To Make Proper Judgement Based On Factual Evidence

The people of Myanmar together with its Government are disappointed to
learn that the U.S. Secretary of State has unfairly listed Myanmar for
"severe violations of religious freedom."Myanmar is a land where the
people of all faiths enjoy religious freedom and harmony in practice. The
nation also prides herself on the fact that all the major religions of the
world flourish side by side in complete harmony, peace and understanding.
During 1998 a respectable independent team consisting of the founder of
the South Asian Forum for Human Rights and the recipient of the Award for
Abu Sayeed Chowdhury Human Rights in Social Services (1987) and Magsaysay
Award for International Understanding (1987) Reverend Richard W. Timm, CSC
and the Chairpersom of Ain O Salish Kendra, Gano Shahajji Sangstha and
Bangladesh Institute of Human Rights and National Consultant, GRAMEEN
Courts Project (UNDP Project), Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary
Affairs of Bangladesh, Justice K.M. Subhan visited Myanmar during January
1998 to look into various humanitarian aspects. The team had worked on
human rights, legal and humanitarian issues for over four decades in
Bangladesh, Southeast Asia and elsewhere. During their visit to a number
of villages and local communities which they had selected in the Mon and
Kayin States and after having interviews with the locals freely, they came
up with the following remarks in their official reports which were
submitted to the U.S. Congress: " There is marked religious and ethnic
harmony which makes it possible for all religions and ethnic groups to
live and work freely together" and "We saw a good example of communal
harmony in that a Hindu temple, Buddhist pagoda, Muslin mosque and Baptist
church, were on the same road, one after another. "The Muslims we talked
to said that they number about 100 families and they live in harmony with
all without discrimination"
In a similar instance, an editor and publisher of the Bangladesh weekly
economic newspaper Economic Times came to visit Myanmar in September 1999
and after his visit he wrote an article entitled, "Myanmar--A Model for
Developing Nations". The article appeared in the Economic Times as well as
in many other popular dailies in Bangladesh. In his article the author
started "Yangon is a city of Pagodas and Temples, but Mosque and Churches
are there and people are free to perform their religious rites which
probably are not allowed even in some of the countries who were
instrumental in the imposition of sanctions on Myanmar." Recently, during
the 1st week of March 2003, a delegation from Switzerland led by Rev. Dr.
Konrad Raiser, General Secretary, World Council of Churches visited
Myanmar. During the Reverand's visit not only was he cordially received by
the top government leaders and other senior officials but was also
extended full cooperation as well. Frank exchange of views on promotion of
religion and peace were also discussed among others.
Religion is a highly sensitive and volatile issue in every country and
there are a lot of outstanding examples of religious conflicts and
upheavals occurring in many places around the world including the United
States. Therefore, the Government of Myanmar together with its people
believes that it is absolutely improper and insensitive to accuse other
nations or governments on the basis of hearsay evidence.