BurmaNet News: May 19 2003

[editor at burmanet.org]

May 19 2003 Issue #2239

INSIDE BURMA

AFP: One killed by bomb in Myanmar
VOA: Burma to build observation tower despite UN concerns
SCMP: Muslims bear full brunt of Myanmar’s oppressive rule

GUNS

DVB: Karen group reports five Burmese troops killed in clash
DVB: Karen group deplores Indian arms sales to government

MONEY

AFP: Thailand, Myanmar ink agreement on second border bridge

REGIONAL

AP: Myanmar vows to investigate national arrested in Pakistan on charges
of aiding al-Qaida
Narinjara: 7 Burma delegation arrives at Dhaka for borders talks
DPA: Myanmar lashes out at Cambodia opposition party leader
DPA: Thailand tightens security amid reports of assassination threat
Bangkok Post: Survey starts for new road from Myawaddy
Xinhua: Australia to provide more aid for Myanmar projects

INTERNATIONAL

Time Asia: The UN envoy would be allowed back into Burma

INSIDE BURMA

Agence France Presse May 17 2003

One killed by bomb in Myanmar

YANGON: One person was killed and 47 others injured in a bomb blast at a
cinema in Myanmar’s northern Pyu town, state-run press reported Saturday.

The attack Thursday evening was blamed on the rebel Karen National Union
(KNU), newspapers including the English-language New Light of Myanmar
reported. “While people were watching the film in a privately-owned cinema
in Pyu at about 9:15 pm Friday, a bomb planted by the KNU insurgent group
exploded, causing 48 people to be severely wounded,” said reports
datelined Friday.
____________

Voice of America May 18 2003

Burma to Build Observation Tower Despite UN Concerns

Burma's state tourism chief says construction of a 60-meter observation
tower in the ancient city of Bagan will go ahead despite concerns
expressed by the United Nations.
Bagan is a collection of more than 2,800 11th and 12th Century Buddhist
monuments covering 80 square kilometers in remote central Burma.
A newspaper report published Sunday in the weekly Myanmar Times quotes the
director general of hotels and tourism as saying the Namying, or High
Palace, Tower will help preserve the world-famous archaeological site.
Khin Maung Latt says the tower will keep tourists from climbing on ancient
temples to get a better view.
The tower is to be situated near Bagan's golf course. Preservationists at
UNESCO, the United Nation's cultural body, say the tower will be out of
scale with the rest of the site and detract visually from the historic
monuments.
UNESCO has designated Bagan as a World Cultural Heritage site.
_____________

South China Morning Post May 17 2003

Muslims bear full brunt of Myanmar's oppressive rule

Among Myanmar's oppressed religious and ethnic minorities, Muslims are the
worst off under the military junta, say diplomats and analysts in Yangon.

There are about eight million Muslims in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar,
whose population is estimated at 50 million.

A senior Islamic leader said Muslims were subjected to the worst
discrimination, including mass rape, slavery, arbitrary confiscation of
land, travel restrictions and systematic exclusion from government jobs.

He also accused the regime of instigating extremist Buddhists to target
Muslim women and children. He charged government agencies with aiding and
abetting widespread killings of Muslims and destruction of Muslim homes,
businesses and mosques.

Our only hope is a civilian administration headed by the National League
for Democracy's Aung San Suu Kyi. She is fully aware of our plight. Only
she can deliver us from the hell we are living in, the senior leader said.
Muslims across Myanmar pray five times daily to God that Ms Suu Kyi
somehow comes to power.''

Ms Suu Kyi, 57, is a practising Theravada Buddhist but is widely regarded
as a champion of embattled Muslims and Christians. Analysts said there
were many Muslims in her inner circle.

A western diplomat said the junta, the State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC), deliberately projected Muslims as hate objects to divide the
population and divert attention from a mismanaged economy and misrule.

Myanmar authorities regularly refuse to register Muslims as citizens to
deny them jobs, employment, the right to go to court and to get passports.

The Muslim community leader appealed to Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and
Bangladesh - Muslim-majority countries that have good political and trade
relations with Myanmar - to exert pressure on the junta, particularly
leader General Than Shwe, to stop frequent attacks on Muslims and restore
religious freedoms.

Last year, US-based human rights groups urged the United Nations special
envoy to Myanmar, Razali Ismail, to take up the persecution of Muslims
with the military government. A diplomat said Mr Ismail raised it but the
junta denied the accusation.

The US State Department's International Religious Freedom Report for last
year  slammed the junta for widespread prejudice against Muslims and a
sharp increase in anti-Muslim violence.

In the 1990s, the army launched several campaigns to force Muslims out of
Myanmar, resulting in exodus of tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims into
Bangladesh.

The senior Muslim leader said that even today, Muslim students interested
in pursuing higher studies in universities were asked to shave their
beards and eat pork as a pre-condition for admission or state
scholarships.

GUNS

Democratic Voice of Burma May 19 2003

KAREN GROUP REPORTS FIVE BURMESE TROOPS KILLED IN CLASH

It has been learned that fighting broke out between the KNU Karen National
Union troops and SPDC State Peace and Development Council forces yesterday
in Kawkareik Township, Karen State. The KNU ambushed the SPDC troops
killing an officer, Capt Zaw Htaik, three corporals, and a private. DVB
Democratic Voice of Burma correspondent Khaing Thazin filed this report.

Khaing Thazin A battle broke out between the first company from KNU 6th
Brigade Special Battalion and first military column led by Capt Zaw Htaik
from SPDC LIB Light Infantry Battalion No 710 about 20 km south of Myawadi
between Phalu and Kyaukkhet Villages. Regarding the battle, KNU news and
information officer Phado David Takapaw gave the following details.

Phado David Takapaw It happened yesterday 17 May . The battle took place
between Phalu and Kyaukkhet Villages. From the SPDC side, Capt Zaw Htaik,
three corporals, and a private were killed and many were wounded. From our
side, we seized one M-1 automatic rifle, 10 60mm mortar shells, and other
military equipment. We suffered one casualty.
_____________

Democratic Voice of Burma May 16 2003

Burma: Karen group deplores Indian arms sales to government

Indian military officials have admitted recently that India have been
selling weapons and military equipment to the SPDC [State Peace and
Development Council] military government. The KNU, Karen National Union,
issued a statement today strongly condemning the countries selling weapons
to the military government including India, China, and Russia. DVB
[Democratic Voice of Burma] correspondent Khaing Thazin presents the
following report on why the KNU issued such a statement.

[Khaing Thazin - recording] The KNU statement says; the SPDC military
government seized state power by terror and brutality relying on military
might after killing thousands of people in 1988. The military clique has
not only refused to handover power to the NLD [National League for
Democracy], the winning party in the 1990 elections, but has also been
tyranizing the NLD by various means. Furthermore, the SPDC military
government, which is the biggest terrorist military clique, has been
terrorizing the ethnic nationalities by waging a brutal war against them.
In this brutal war, the SPDC troops, by its policy, have been perpetrating
murder, looting, unlawful arrest and torture, rape, and forced labour.
While such conditions prevail, the sale of weapons to the SPDC by some
leading countries of the world and neighbouring countries is extremely
deplorable and is tantamount to commission of an extremely heinous crime.
This is KNU General Secretary Phado Mahn Sha.

[Phado Mahn Sha] We pointed out that the sale of weapons to the junta by
some leading countries is extremely deplorable. At the same time, instead
of selling military weapons we urge them to pressure the military
government for emergence of national reconciliation and to engage in
genuine political dialogue.

MONEY

Agence France Presse May 19 2003

Thailand, Myanmar ink agreement on second border bridge

Thailand and Myanmar signed an agreement Monday to build a second
friendship bridge across their border, foreign ministry officials said.

Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai and his Myanmar counterpart
Win Aung signed the memorandum for construction of the bridge in the
Myanmar border town of Tachilek, opposite Mae Sai in Thailand's
northernmost Chiang Rai province.

The ceremony was witnessed by military-run Myanmar's number three, General
Khin Nyunt, who is Secretary One of the ruling State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC), a Thai foreign ministry official said.

After the signing ceremony, Khin Nyunt and the foreign ministers crossed
into Thailand for a ground-laying ceremony in Mae Sai, a border town on
the edge of the notorious drug trafficking area known as the Golden
Triangle, where Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet.

The bridge, a 90-metre (297-foot) span, will be built entirely with Thai
government funding of 38 million baht (903,000 dollars), and should be
completed in six months, the official said.

The first friendship bridge between the two neighbours, who have had a
testy relationship in recent years strained by border skirmishes and the
drugs trade, was erected in the late 1990s between Thailand's Mae Sot and
Myanmar's Myawadee.

Following the bridge agreement the two sides were to discuss issues of
mutual concern including the return of Myanmar migrant labourers who had
worked in Thailand, the official said.

REGIONAL

Associated Press May 19 2003

Myanmar vows to investigate national arrested in Pakistan on charges of
aiding al-Qaida
By GRANT PECK

Myanmar said Monday it will investigate the case of one of its citizens
arrested in Pakistan for suspected links to the terrorist group al-Qaida.

"The government of Myanmar will investigate this allegation with utmost
urgency once it has the opportunity to review the information and
materials obtained by the Pakistani authorities," government spokesman
Col. Hla Min said in a statement.

Burmese national Abdul Mutallib, 27, was arrested Thursday in the southern
Pakistani port city of Karachi following information from two al-Qaida
suspects in police custody.

The two suspects, Mohammed Anwar and Habibullah, were arrested last month
in Karachi with Waleed Mohammed Bin Attash, a Yemeni national suspected of
involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks, and three others.

Attash is also the alleged mastermind behind the USS Cole bombing off
Yemen in 2000 that killed 17 U.S. sailors.

Mutallib allegedly bought weapons for Attash and others, Pakistani police
investigator Abdul Hamid Gulla said.

Myanmar said it was sharing information with the United States and other
countries "on terrorists operating along Myanmar's western border and
within the region" with connections to al-Qaida and Afghanistan's Taliban.

The government statement claimed that "an armed Muslim separatist group
calling themselves Rohinga issued a unilateral 'Declaration of
Independence,"' from Myanmar. It said that some of its members were
trained by the Taliban in Afghanistan and in terrorist training camps in
the Middle East.

The Rohinga, usually called Rohingya, operate in Myanmar's western Rakhine
state near the border with Bangladesh.

Little information has emerged about links between radical Islamic groups
and Myanmar, aside from a handful of reports about rebels receiving
training in Afghanistan before the fall of its Taliban government.

A report on terrorism issued in January by the Singaporean government
mentioned an alleged link between the Rohingya and regional terrorist
groups focused around Jemaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaida linked group
suspected of masterminding the Bali bombings that killed 202 people in
October last year.

It said Jemaah Islamiyah's spiritual leader Abu Bakar Bashir, now in
custody in Indonesia, initiated an alliance with the Philippine's Moro
Islamic Liberation Front, as well an unnamed "jihad" group in southern
Thailand and a faction of the Rohingya who have exiled themselves in
Bangladesh.

Myanmar's Arakan Rohingya National Organization has denied links to al-Qaida.
_________

Narinjara News May 19 2003

7 Burma delegation arrives at Dhaka for border talks

A seven-member Burma delegation led by Director General of Immigration U
Maung Thay arrived at Dhaka yesterday to attend the meeting, according to
today the daily star.

The team also brings together officials from immigration, migration,
social welfare and relief ministries.

The general level meeting of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) and the Immigration
Headquarters of Burma opens to discuss border issues at the BDR
headquarters in Dhaka today, the source said.

Major General Mohammad Jahangir Alam Chowdhury will lead the 12-member
Bangladesh team at the meeting. The Bangladesh team will also include
officials from the BDR headquarters and representatives from home,
foreign, disaster management and relief ministries and survey directorate,
joint river commission and immigration and passport directorate.
___________

Deutsche Press Agentur May 19 2003

Myanmar lashes out at Cambodian opposition party leader

Myanmar's (Burma's) embassy in Phnom Penh lashed out at Cambodia's
opposition party leader for calling their country a "recalcitrant
narco-state" during a recent visit to Washington D.C., a newspaper
reported on Monday.

In an address to a think-tank in the U.S. capital last month, Sam Rainsy
drew a comparison between the direction Cambodia is headed and Myanmar,
which "remains under the thumb of a corrupt military junta and poses a
constant threat".

"Mr. Sam Rainsy has gone too far in labelling (Myanmar) as a 'recalcitrant
narco-state,'" the embassy said in a statement sent to the
English-language Cambodia Daily newspaper. "This accusation is prejudiced
and politically-motivated."

The statement denied claims by Rainsy about its thriving opium trade,
saying that poppy eradication, crop substitution and infrastructure
development in drug-prone border areas have worked together to suppress
the country's drug production.

"Mr. Sam Rainsy's accusation that (Myanmar) poses a constant threat to its
own people and to the larger world through the opium trade is absolute
nonsense," the statement said. "This fictitious situation will never
arise. Mr. Sam Rainsy should therefore stop worrying about it."

The statement went on to detail the Myanmar's efforts to combat opium and
methamphetamine production, and warned against the dangers of foreign
intervention in domestic governance issues.

"Attempts from outside to set direction for (Myanmar) to move would not
only hinder the pace of democratization but also prove to be
counterproductive," the statement said.

"(Sam Rainsy's) silly remarks belittle the two sovereign countries and
should therefore be retracted," it added.
____________-

Deutsche Presse Agentur May 19 2003

Thailand tightens security amid reports of assassination threat

More than 1,000 police and military personnel were deployed to protect the
Thai cabinet at a meeting in the tourist resort of Pattaya Monday amid
reports that Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was targetted for
assassination.

Defence Minister Thamarak Isarankura claimed U.S. intelligence officials
had issued a fresh warning of a possible attack on Thaksin.

Speaking to reporters in Pattaya, 80 kilometres southeast of Bangkok,
Thamarak cited an intelligence report that an 80 million baht (1.9 million
dollar) price had been put on Thaksin's head by leaders of an ethnic Wa
drug-dealing gang in neighbouring Myanmar (Burma).

"Our intelligence units have been on alert for a long time," Thamarak
said. "We need to check this report on movements of drug dealers."

He said the likely motive for the would-be assassins was Thaksin's
high-profile war on drugs, which has been reported to have disrupted the
United Wa State Army's lucrative cross-border trade in amphetamines and
heroin.

He said the recent upsurge in terrorist attacks worldwide had increased
concern over a possible attack in Thailand.

Thamarak first disclosed the alleged assassination plot against Thaksin in
March.

At that time the reports were discounted by some critics who said they
appeared to be aimed at deflecting concern by human rights groups about
Thaksin's war on drugs, which was launched on February 1 and has claimed
more than 2,000 lives.

Speaking to reporters at Pattaya's swank Royal Cliff Beach Resort hotel,
the venue of the cabinet meeting, Thaksin himself appeared unconcerned by
the alleged assassination threats.

"This (security) is normal procedure," he said. "I'm not so concerned
about the reports (of assassination threats)."

However, as he spoke he was surrounded by a tight cordon of security men,
in sharp contrast to his usual relaxed style.

Thaksin said the alleged U.S. report appeared to match intelligence
information obtained by Thai intelligence sources in March about a
possible Wa druglord assassination bid.

Security measures included deployment of Special Branch officers, local
police and naval units in and around the hotel, along with a bomb-disposal
robot and x-ray screening.

Guests at the hotel were prevented from entering a restricted area used by
cabinet ministers.

Despite the security scare and continued concern over the spread of the
SARS virus, Thaksin said he was confident the country's vital tourism
industry would quickly recover.

He predicted the industry would suffer only about a 5 per cent decline
this year and would bounce back quickly after promotions to attract move
visitors from Asia, Japan and Europe.

But he admitted it would be tough to attract Americans during the present
world political climate.

Tourism and Sports Minister Sontaya Kunplome said Monday he would propose
a budget of 2.9 billion baht (69 million U.S. dollars) at the cabinet
meeting for a tourism promotion drive.
_____________

Bangkok Post May 19 2003

SURVEY STARTS FOR NEW ROAD FROM MYAWADDY
By Supamart Kasem

Thai and Burmese officials have begun the surveying of a planned
18-kilometre highway to link Myawaddy, opposite Mae Sot district, with
inner Burma.

The dual carriageway road would be seven metres wide and lined with asphalt.

Design work will be completed in July and construction begin in October,
said Viroj Vacharasin, deputy chief of the Tak highway construction
centre. It is being built with an 80-million-baht grant. The 18km road
will run from Myawaddy to a village called Thinganyinaung.

The Highways Department will handle construction which will take an
estimated 18 months.

Construction would take that long because the road has to pass through
rough terrain and cross many streams, Mr Viroj said.

Chaphan Chawacharoenphan, chairman of the Tak Chamber of Commerce, said
the road marked the start of a United Nations plan to connect the Asian
Highway with neighbouring countries to the West _ from Mae Sot in Thailand
to Burma, Bangladesh and the Middle East, connecting to Europe at
Azerbaijan.

The road will back up an Industry Ministry plan to set up a Mae Sot
economic zone with an initial fund of eight billion baht. The plan has yet
to be approved by cabinet,'' Mr Chaphan said.

The road is also part of the plan for a highway connecting Thailand, Burma
and India agreed by the foreign ministers of those countries last year in
Mandalay.

In line with this plan India has built a road to Tamu, a border town in
Sagaing division of Burma and handed over the building equipment to Burma
to extend the road to Rangoon.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai and Burma's State Peace
and Development Council first secretary Khin Nyunt will lay a foundation
stone for a new cross-border bridge in Mae Sai district in Chiang Rai
today.

The bridge will connect Tha Phakkad on the Thai side with Ban Mae Khao on
the Burmese side and will be built with a Thai grant of 38 million baht.
___________

Xinhua News Agency May 19 2003

Australia to provide more aid for Myanmar projects

The Australian government will provide an aid of 7.8 million Australian
dollars (about 5 million US dollars) to help Myanmar's humanitarian work
and fight HIV/AIDS for the current fiscal year 2003-04 which began in
April, the local Myanmar Times reported Monday.

The report quoted the AusAid, the Australian government's overseas aid
agency, as saying that the agency's fund for the year is 1.6 million
Australian dollars (about 1.03 million US dollars), more than the previous
fiscal year of 2002-03.

These funds would be used for those projects implemented by the United
Nations and non-governmental organizations, it disclosed.

The funding would benefit more than 230,000 returnees to western Rakhine
state from Bangladesh as well as would effect the reduction of anaemia
among an estimated 31,000 women and children in a township near Yangon, it
said, adding that the fund will also be spent for a program of conducting
human rights workshops by Australian experts to train Myanmar civil
servants on protection of human rights.

According to the AusAid, more than 200 Myanmar civil servants have been
trained in nine workshops held since Australia began funding the program
in 2000.

The Myanmar government and the Australian Human Rights Commissioner agreed
in Yangon in August 1999 on cooperation in the field of human rights.

INTERNATIONAL

Time Asia May 19 2003

The U.N. envoy would be allowed back into Burma
BY ROBERT HORN

Razali Ismail, the United Nations special envoy to Burma, is a devoted
practitioner of quiet diplomacy. His subtle prodding was widely credited
with persuading Burma's military junta to free, in May last year, the
Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest. So it was a
surprise when, in late April, the Malaysian diplomat told reporters in
Bangkok he was "perplexed and disappointed" with the generals' refusal to
grant him a visa for the past six months so that he could try to foster
dialogue between the two sides: "I really cannot understand why I'm being
denied access." Apparently the change in tactics was effective. Junta
spokesman Colonel Hla Min announced last week that the U.N. envoy would be
allowed back into Burma for four days beginning June 6. Several analysts
said the generals may have relented because of hints the European Union
and the U.S. were considering broadening economic sanctions against the
regime. Burma's banking system is already near collapse, prices for rice
and other essentials are spiraling higher and government harassment of the
opposition is on the increase. But as a diplomat in Rangoon conceded, the
generals have so little contact with outsiders that "none of us really
know the reasons behind the decisions." Few in Rangoon expect, however,
that Razali's visit will move the long-promised reform process forward.
Even in a miserable economic climate, the junta is buying time.