BurmaNet News: April 29 2003

[editor at burmanet.org]

April 29 2003 Issue #2225

INSIDE BURMA

Xinhua: Myanmar claims no occurrence of SARS cases
Irrawaddy: SARS summit held; suspicious death in Rangoon

DRUGS

Naiton: Police nab four, seize 7000,000 speed pills
AFP: Chinese premier meets Thai PM for economic, drug talks

MONEY

Xinhua: Thai trade exhibition to be held in Myanmar
TV Myanmar: [Burmese leader receives Japanese entrepreneurs]

INTERNATIONAL

IPS: Dialogue becomes war of words
Athens Banner Herald: Reform call heard from USA to Myanmar; UGA alum on
hunger strike
Red and Black: Alumnus goes on hunger strike

INSIDE BURMA

Xinhua News Agency April 29 2003

Myanmar claims no occurrence of SARS cases

Myanmar claimed Tuesday that there has been no occurrence of Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) so far in the country.

Myanmar Deputy Minister of Health Mya Oo told reporters that Myanmar has
been making efforts in SARS surveillance, prevention and control though no
outbreak has so far been reported in the country.

Since March 19, the country has been notifying and educating its people
the main symptoms of the disease through public media such as newspapers
and radio and television.

Besides, it has formed the Steering Committee and the Working Committee
for Prevention and Treatment of SARS to strengthen its preventive efforts
against the disease, he disclosed.

He also revealed that during this month, the Myanmar authorities have made
regular medical observations for at least two weeks on 206 foreign
passengers as well as 26 local citizens arriving from SARS-infected
countries and regions.

Since the outbreak of SARS was reported in the world, the Myanmar Health
Ministry has been taking various precautionary measures to strengthen the
screening of passengers with symptoms of the disease at airports,
seaports, border and customs checkpoints as well as banning visa
temporarily for entry by Myanmar's embassy in Singapore and
consulate-general in Hong Kong.

The ministry has also warned its health staff to be on alert to the
occurrence of the deadly disease and be ready to give effective medical
treatment in case of outbreak as well as to guard themselves against the
disease.

Meanwhile, hotels and tourism sources here said the related industry has
been affected to some extent under SARS threat. As international tourists
are keeping away from travelling in Asia, travel and bookings in Myanmar
have plunged.

The sources disclosed that 23 to 60 percent of such reservations have been
canceled.
_______

Irrawaddy April 29 2003

SARS Summit Held; Suspicious Death in Rangoon
By Kyaw Zwa Moe

April 29, 2003—Burmese Sr-Gen Than Shwe joined other regional leaders
today in Bangkok for a SARS summit aimed at further controlling the
epidemic. Burma’s Department of Health, meanwhile, insists that there are
no cases of the respiratory ailment in Burma despite the death last week
of a businessman in Rangoon who had just returned from China’s Guangdong
Province.
Leaders of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) will discuss
measures to control the spread of SARS. After Asean leaders meet, they
will include Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and Hong Kong Chief
Executive Tung Chee-Hwa in the discussions.
According to reports, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will declare
Thailand "a SARS zero-transmission country" after the summit.
Meanwhile, news surfaced last week that a Chinese businessman died of SARS
in Rangoon. But Dr Soe Aung, deputy director general of the Department of
Health, yesterday denied the accusation.
The victim, who was in his mid-50’s, died two weeks after returning from
Guangdong, which is thought to be the epicenter of SARS.
"His death is not because of SARS," Dr Soe Aung told The Irrawaddy
yesterday from Rangoon. "We carried out an autopsy, which showed that his
heart was larger than normal. And we knew from his staffers that he
suffered from hypertension days before he died."
Dr Soe Aung added that his internal organs would be sent to Bangkok for
furthers testing to ensure the death is unrelated to SARS.
Another physician in Rangoon, however, said the cause of death actually
was not clear. He said doctors in Burma are still concerned about SARS due
to the high volume of business traffic between Rangoon, Hong Kong and
other parts of China.
"We don’t know exactly yet which disease he died from," said the doctor in
Rangoon. "And there are many Chinese businessmen here who come and go from
Burma. Someone can carry SARS to our county."
The Department of Health has increased its preventative measures at
airports, especially Mandalay International Airport, according to Dr Soe
Aung. He said that more international flights would be landing in Mandalay
after May 1.
Burma started an anti-SARS program on March 19 and organized a special
unit to combat its spread. SARS has killed more than 300 people worldwide
and has infected over 5,500 people in roughly 30 countries.

DRUGS

Nation April 29 2003

Police nab four, seize 700,000 speed pills

Four drug suspects were arrested and 700,000 methamphetamine pills worth
Bt5 million confiscated in a sting operation in Chiang Rai province on
Saturday, anti-narcotics police said yesterday.

An anti-drugs police team said they contacted a suspected drug agent in
Burma's Chiang Tung province, Jai Kaeo, 42, and set up a deal for the
pills.

Jai Kaeo's brother, Bangkok resident Jing, and Jing's wife, Sawai
Kaeobuadi, represented him in negotiations with the undercover police
team, they said. Jai Kaeo reportedly told police he would deliver the
pills to them at a petrol station in Chiang Rai's Mae Sai district on
Saturday night.

At the petrol station, police arrested Jai Kaeo and his companion, Pol
Sergeant Pimol Kaeosiri of Mae Sai police station, and seized the pills.
At the same time in Bangkok, another team captured Jing and Sawai in
Bangkok's Bangkok Yai district.

Jai Kaeo said he was a trader of motorcycle spare parts in Burma, and was
hired by a man called Tia to act as his drug agent. Tia had already paid
him Bt200,000, and promised to pay another Bt300,000 after he successfully
delivered the pills, Jai Kaeo said.

Meanwhile, in Songkhla's Sadao district on Sunday, anti-narcotics police
and officials of the US Drug Enforcement Administration arrested four
Malaysian nationals on charges of ecstasy trafficking.Police said they
found 645 ecstasy pills in their possession.

The four suspects were identified as Tan Khangmeng, 51; Kuai Tian Kheng,
41; Boo Ui, 24; and Lim Pinwan, 25. They were arrested in front of the PP
Hotel, about 200 metres from the Thai-Malaysian border checkpoint.

Colonel Phongthep Praphatanan of the anti-narcotics police said ecstasy
pills sell for Bt800 apiece in Hat Yai City.

------------

'Ya ba' doctor out on bail

A doctor arrested on Saturday for allegedly trafficking in
methamphetamines was yesterday released on bail.

Dr Chayut Piromsawat, 34, caretaker director of the Bangkok Metropolitan
Administration's Health Service Centre No 7, was allowed temporary release
after his mother Bang-on offered bail of Bt350,000.

The doctor and his girlfriend Pornpan Jiratthitipong, 23, were caught in a
police sting operation allegedly in possession of methamphetamines.

Bangkok Deputy Governor Praphan Kitisin yesterday said a committee had
been established to investigate the allegations against Chayut. The doctor
would be dismissed if found guilty, Praphan said.
________

Agence France Presse April 29 2003

Chinese premier meets Thai PM for economic, drugs talks

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao Tuesday held talks with Thailand's Prime
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, ahead of an emergency summit of ASEAN leaders
and China on SARS.

The session marks Wen's first official meeting outside China since taking
office in March.

"The meeting started as scheduled at 10:15 am (315 GMT)," Thai government
spokesman Sita Divari told AFP.

"They will talk about economic ties, the Asia bond, which is nearly
finished, anti-drugs cooperation and bilateral investment," ministry of
foreign affairs spokesman Sihasak Phuangketkeow told reporters.

Thaksin last year proposed the setting up of an Asian bond market to
protect the region against unscrupulous financial speculators and to
promote stable economic growth.

Major General Sornchai Montriwat, the secretary of deputy prime minister
Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, told AFP that a planned meeting between Thaksin and
Myanmar's Prime Minister Senior General Than Shwe was cancelled.

Instead, Than Shwe has held informal talks with Chavalit, the minister
assigned to escort him during his visit.

The ten leaders of ASEAN countries are due to meet here later Tuesday
before also meeting Wen in the first gathering of Asian leaders on the
crisis, which aims to lay down a regional framework to combat the spread
of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

Attention is focused on China at the summit. A World Health Organisation
said Monday that the SARS epidemic appeared to have peaked in countries
outside of China, where substantial numbers of new cases are still being
reported.

MONEY

Xinhua News Agency April 29 2003

Thai trade exhibition to be held in Myanmar

A Thai trade exhibition will be held at the Yangon Trade Center from May 7
to May 10,  according to the Thai Embassy here Tuesday.

The four-day Thailand Exhibition 2003 will be the seventh of its kind
sponsored by the Department of Export Promotion of the Thai Commerce
Ministry, Matyawongse Amatyakul, commercial counselor of the Thai Embassy,
told a press briefing here.

The exhibition is aimed at further strengthening the trade relation as
well as fostering the spirit of goodwill and cooperation between Myanmar
and Thailand.

Participated by about 95 companies, the exhibition is believed to provide
a unique opportunity for Myanmar traders to develop profitable business
links by meeting with prominent manufacturers and exporters of Thailand
and to explore a wide array of products and services.

The exhibits will cover auto parts and accessories, chemical products,
industrial and construction materials, cosmetics, electrical products,
food products, beverages and packaging, furniture, garments and textile,
household products, kitchen ware, leather products, footwear, canned
products, machinery tools and parts, pharmaceutical and sanitary products,
service trade and stationery products.

The first Thai trade exhibition in Myanmar was held in December 1998 and
the last event took place in December 2002.

The Thai Commerce Ministry, finding that the Thai trade exhibitions served
as a symbol of growing economic and trade cooperation between the two
countries, decided to hold two exhibitions annually commencing in 2002.

Myanmar official statistics show that Myanmar's bilateral trade with
Thailand amounted to 1,252.04 million dollars in 2002, accounting for 23.7
percent of the country's total foreign trade and standing as the highest
volume among that with member states of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations during the year.
____________

TV Myanmar April 28 2003

[Burmese leader receives Japanese entrepreneurs]

Gen Khin Nyunt, secretary-1 of the State Peace and Development Council
SPDC , received Mr Toshihiko Hirose, chairman of the Japan-Myanmar Burma
Economic Committee Nippon Keidanren - Japanese Business Federation - and
president and chief executive officer of the Toyo Engineering Corporation,
and party at Zeyathiri Beikman on Konmyinttha in Yangon Rangoon at 1615
today.

U Soe Tha, minister of national planning; Brig-Gen Abel, minister of the
SPDC Office; Maj-Gen Hla Tun, minister of finance and revenue; U Win Aung,
minister of foreign affairs; U Khin Maung Win, deputy minister of foreign
affairs; and Thura U Aung Htet, director-general of the Protocol
Department were also at the meeting.

Mr Yuji Miyamoto, Japanese ambassador to the Union of Myanmar, was also
presented at the meeting.

INTERNATIONAL
Inter Press Service April 29 2003

Dialogue Becomes War of Words
By Larry Jagan

April 29, 2003—UN special envoy Razali Ismail is increasingly frustrated
by the Burmese government's recalcitrance in allowing him another visit to
Burma in hopes of kick-starting the country's fragile dialogue process.
"I am perplexed and disappointed," he said during his visit to Bangkok
earlier this week. "I thought I was a good friend to all parties so I
really cannot understand why I'm being denied access."
Over the past three months, Razali has repeatedly tried to visit Rangoon,
but his requests have been rebuffed by the Burmese regime. UN officials
say military authorities continue to maintain that it is not a convenient
time right now to receive the envoy and have continuously invented a
stream of excuses to delay the visit.
It has been six months since Razali’s last trip, and he is clearly
becoming impatient. Razali has visited Burma every three months or so
since being appointed to the post in Apr 2000 to facilitate discussions
between the Burmese regime and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Publicly, however, Razali continues to put on an optimistic face. "I hope
to visit as soon as possible," he told reporters in Bangkok. But it now
seems certain that he will not be able to visit Rangoon before the
beginning of June at the earliest.
UN officials insist that Razali only needs two days’ notice to travel to
Rangoon, and that all it requires is a call from regime officials.
In the past few weeks, many political leaders and senior diplomats have
urged Burma’s top leader Sr-Gen Than Shwe to allow Razali to visit Rangoon
as soon as possible. UN human rights envoy Paulo Sergio Pinheiro has told
Rangoon that they must allow Razali to visit immediately if they are
serious about national reconciliation.
The European Union has also stressed the need for Razali to be given
access to Burma. The Japanese prime minister's envoy—former Prime Minister
Yomuri Mori—delivered a personal letter from Junichiro Koizumi to Than
Shwe this week, urging the Burmese leader to implement economic reforms
and to allow Razali to return as soon as possible.
But none of these interventions seems to have had much impact. UN
officials say UN Sec-Gen Kofi Annan may have to intervene now.
"The failure to allow Ambassador Razali to visit Burma clearly reflects
the fact that the dialogue process has stalled," Pinheiro said in Bangkok.
Now the stalled dialogue process may even be about to unravel. Opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi has just gone on the offensive accusing the
Burmese generals of insincerity and a lack of commitment to political
reform.
"I have come to the conclusion that the [ruling] SPDC is not interested in
national reconciliation," she told reporters in Rangoon last week.
"National reconciliation is change. They don't want change, but change is
inevitable."
It was Suu Kyi’s harshest public criticism of the military regime since
her release from house arrest last May. Since then, there has been little
progress in the dialogue process. And there has been no real meeting or
contact between the two sides for nearly six months.
The opposition leader blames the military for the failure. In fact, she
told journalists that the situation has actually deteriorated in the past
few months. During her last three trips out of Rangoon—to Shan, Rakhine
and Chin States—her entourage and the party supporters who came to greet
her were harassed and intimidated.
Burma’s military spokesman reacted strongly to the opposition leader’s
accusations and blamed Aung San Suu Kyi and her party for the problems.
According to Col Hla Min, it is her National League for Democracy that is
uncooperative, "by focusing on the negative aspects of the trips and
holding press conferences attacking the government for these
shortcomings".
"On her first trips outside of Rangoon last year, the authorities helped
facilitate visits to government projects and appreciated the constructive
comments and suggestions they received from Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
afterwards," said Col Hla Min.
The opposition leader met with her assigned military intelligence liaison
officer, Brig Gen Than Thun, and passed on her impressions of the
projects, according to government sources. "This has ceased to happen,"
said the spokesman, "and the government would welcome the NLD's
constructive comments and suggestions".
Both the opposition leader and senior military officials say the two sides
should cooperate on humanitarian and development issues like HIV/AIDS,
health and education.
"They [the generals] have shown that they are willing to cooperate with us
in matters of humanitarian aid," Aung San Suu Kyi told a press conference
in Rangoon last week.
Meanwhile, in a recent statement issued to the international press Col Hla
Min said: "The government actively welcomes meaningful and constructive
help in all areas of national development—particularly in education,
health care and economic development."
Burma’s fragile political dialogue process is slowly slipping into a
confrontation that is being waged in the media. "It's becoming a war of
words," said a senior western diplomat in Rangoon.
The fear is that this could quickly destroy any trust built between the
two sides during the two years of dialogue.
"The dialogue now seems to be with the media, and not the diplomats," said
Razali. "This exchange should not be in the public domain but behind
closed doors."
The only way that can happen is for Razali to be allowed back into Burma,
according to UN officials. "The political deadlock can only be resolved if
the two parties sit down together and talk and that is exactly the role Mr
Razali is meant to play," said a UN official.
________

Athens Banner Herald April 29 2003

Reform call heard from USA to Myanmar
UGA alum on hunger strike
By Kate Carter

From his prison cell in the southeast Asian country of Burma, also known
as Myanmar, a University of Georgia alumnus is staging a hunger strike to
protest human rights violations.

Salai Tun Than, a 75-year-old citizen of Burma who received a master's
degree in agronomy from UGA in 1955, is protesting the continued
imprisonment of 1,400 political prisoners, interrogations of prisoners
following visits by United Nations and International Red Cross workers,
unsanitary conditions, and restrictions on religious freedoms, according
to Jeremy Woodrum of the Free Burma Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based
non-profit organization.

Tun Than was sentenced last March to seven years in prison, after donning
an academic gown and distributing copies of a petition demanding political
reforms in the country, which is currently run by a military regime.

Since then, members of UGA's chapter of Amnesty International have lobbied
representatives in the U.S. Senate and House, and three weeks ago
successfully urged U.S. Rep. Max Burns, R-Sylvania, who represents the
Athens area in Congress, to call for the immediate release of Tun Than.

''Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on a matter of great importance to my
constituents in Athens, Georgia - the unlawful imprisonment of Dr. Salai
Tun Than,'' said Burns on April 8, on the floor of the U.S. House of
Representatives. ''... I call on the Burmese government for the immediate
release of Dr. Tun Than.''

Kate Vyborny, a UGA sophomore and a member of the campus Amnesty
International chapter, said she is optimistic about the chances for Tun
Than's release as other politicians have joined Burns in denouncing
Burma's treatment of Tun Than.

''When that kind of international attention is applied, especially from
the United States government, the Burmese government is probably going to
be pressured into letting Mr. Tun Than go,'' she said. ''I think we have a
really good chance at this.''

Woodrum said that Burma has caved to international pressure in the past,
and he hopes that given Tun Than's health, the hunger strike does not last
long.

''As an older man, we're definitely worried about him,'' said Woodrum.
''It's a testimony to his courage that he's willing to do this.''
_______________

Red and Black April 29 2003

Alumnus goes on hunger strike

By AMY LEIGH WOMACK

A University alumnus imprisoned in Burma has begun a hunger strike to
protest violations of human rights and religious liberties.

Salai Tun Than was arrested in 2001 after protesting for an end to
military rule and the restoration of democracy in front of the Ragoon City
Hall in the capital city of Burma.

Jeremy Woodrum, director of the Washington, D.C., office of the Free Burma
Coalition, said Tun Than began his hunger strike Sunday.

"It's what happens over time when things build up," he said.

Another political prisoner, Aung Kyaw Moe, allegedly was beaten to death
while staging a hunger strike in 1998, according to a news release.

Woodrum said Tun Than recently was interrogated by prison officials after
a meeting he had with United Nations and Red Cross officials.

"In these meetings prisoners are questioned about their imprisonment," he
said.

Woodrum said the meetings are designed to be confidential to allow
prisoners the opportunity to be as truthful as possible.

"If the meetings aren't confidential ... well this is Burma, you can be
beaten," Woodrum said.

He said Tun Than has been protesting to use a family Bible and to receive
communion with the assistance of a member of the clergy.

He also has been protesting the physical condition of Burma's prisons.

"Even when he's taken to the hospital, the toilets are dirty," Woodrum
said. "And when you're sick, that can be deadly."

He said the 75-year-old Tun Than is "a very sickly man."

In addition to other goals, Tun Than is leading the hunger strike in a
protest to free all political prisoners in Burma.

"We believe he embodies what (the University) tries to teach students,"
Woodrum said. "If you look at the pillars of the Arch, that is what this
man is."

In Georgia, Congressman Max Burns, Republican, made a statement on the
floor of the House calling Tun Than's imprisonment "unlawful."

Kate Vyborny, a sophomore from Raleigh, N.C. and co-director of the
University's Chapter of Amnesty International, said several students have
been writing letters to their senators urging them to take a stand
regarding Tun Than's imprisonment.

"There is a proven track record that when U.S. officials speak out, the
Burmese government listens," she said.

Woodrum said statements made by U.S. government officials help Tun Than
and other prisoners by "shining some light into darker corners of the
world."

"Pressure is the only thing this or any other regime responds to," he said.

Tun Than earned a bachelor's degree in Burma and then came to the
University to complete a master of science in agronomy degree.

After graduating with his master's degree in 1955, Tun Than attended the
University of Wisconsin, where he completed a doctoral degree.

Vyborny said a candlelight vigil is planned for Tun Than later this week,
but plans were not completed for the vigil as of press time Monday night.