BurmaNet News: September 20-21, 2003

[editor at burmanet.org]

September 20-21, 2003 Issue #2331

INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Earthquake in Central Burma
DVB: Interview with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s family doctor, Dr Tin Myo Win
AP: Indonesian special envoy arrives for talks on political deadlock
AFP: Aung San Suu Kyi's recovery may see her shifted home: analysts
Irrawaddy: Forced Backing for Road Map

DRUGS
Mizzima: Inventive new drug trafficking strategies on Indo-Burma border

MONEY
BP: Asian Framework Sought
AFP: US sanctions ravage Myanmar garment industry, but economic chaos
subsiding

REGIONAL
Xinhua: Bangladesh, Myanmar to discuss military cooperation
UNB: Myanmar Delegation in Bangladesh

INTERNATIONAL
Nation: Germany Urged to Join Thailand in Offering Help to Burma


----INSIDE BURMA----

The Irrawaddy   September 22, 2003
Earthquake in Central Burma
By Naw Seng

A severe earthquake hit central Burma late last night.

An official from the Kaba Aye Seismology Survey Center in Rangoon said the
quake began at 12:46am local time and measured 6.7 on the Richter scale.
Its epicenter lied east of Taungdwingyi town, 220 miles north of Rangoon.
Taungdwingyi town is home to nearly 60,000 people.

There have been no reports of casualties, but the official said he was
aware of "a lot of damage." A preliminary report from the US Geological
Survey’s National Earthquake Information Center said, "This earthquake may
have caused damage due to its location and size."

The Australia Broadcasting Company reported that three ancient pagodas
collapsed in Taungdwingyi.

A spokesperson from the Myanmar Red Cross Society in the capital, which is
actively involved in responding to fires, floods and landslides inside
Burma, said its office has not yet received a damage and casualties report
from its local office in central Burma.

In July 1975, an earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale occurred in
central Burma and destroyed or heavily damaged many monuments, temples and
pagodas in Pagan, Burma’s ancient city.


Democratic Voice of Burma, Oslo, in Burmese September 21, 2003
Interview with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s family doctor, Dr Tin Myo Win

DVB : Could you explain to us the latest situation on Daw Suu’s operation?
Dr Tin Myo Win : The operation went ahead smoothly at 11.15am on Friday.
It is 100% successful. There was no complication. She is well.

DVB : You are not allowed to say what kind of disease, I presume?

Dr Tin Myo Win : Since we became doctors, we have been sticking to our
medical ethics. What we can say is the operation is 100% successful. From
health point of view, there is no defect.

DVB : Were you told to lead the operation?

Dr Tin Myo Win : Yes. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi arrived at Asia Royal on the
eve of Wednesday at 10.30. On Thursday, we made preparations and we
started to operate at 11.15am.

DVB : How long would she be in the hospital before she is discharged?

Dr Tin Myo Win : No date is set for her discharge. The decision will
depend on the condition of the stitch. We will check it every day. At the
moment, we have no decision when to discharge her. She will only be
discharged after the stitching threads are taken away.

DVB : Diplomats in Rangoon and NLD members want to see Daw Suu, I heard.
What are their chances of seeing her?

Dr Tin Myo Win : At the moment, there could be complication on the wound
if she meets people. The wound could be infected. She needs to rest.
Yesterday, I explained to diplomats and NLD members that it was my
decision not to let her see people yet. But whether they could see her
later or not is nothing to do with me. It will depend on the decision of
the authority concerned


DVB : Are there a lot people who want to see her at the hospital?

Dr Tin Myo Win : Yesterday, I had to explain to NLD members on her health
condition three times. There were about 100-150 NLD members. I told them
that her condition is good. Although people say that she has cancer, 99%
is not true because we know it from the operation and we are making sure
that it is not so. I explained to them thus. She has regained
consciousness and she is able to walk and the like. I told them not to
worry and to go home. I am keeping flowers and the like they gave to her.

DVB : 
People are saying that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi should be kept at home
after she is discharged from the hospital


Dr Tin Myo Win : The question of where they are going to keep her depends
on the authority’s decision.

DVB : Were you allowed to see her regularly during the previous three month?

Dr Tin Myo Win : Yes, I was allowed to see her after Mr Razali and the
ICRC. I have been seeing her regularly every month.

DVB : Do you have a good relationship with authority concerned for her sake?

Dr Tin Myo Win : Yes. We have to consult with the authority concerned to
have operation at Asia Royal because this is a private hospital. The
reason for choosing Asia Royal is because I have been operating patients
there. It was my decision to operate her at Asia Royal.

DVB : What do you have to say to assure people that there is nothing to
worry for her?

Dr Tin Myo Win : The operation was successful on Friday because of the
‘metta’ or loving kindness of the international community especially the
organisations in connection with Burma. I want to say that there is
nothing to worry for her health. At the moment, she has recovered fully.


The Associated Press   September 21, 2003
Indonesian special envoy arrives for talks on Myanmar's political deadlock
By AYE AYE WIN, Associated Press Writer

YANGON: An Indonesian envoy arrived in Myanmar Sunday in a fresh effort to
seek the release of detained pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi, 58, is currently recovering in a private Yangon hospital after
being admitted last week for what was described as major surgery, but has
not been allowed visitors. Doctors have declined to give details about her
operation.

Her personal physician, Tin Myo Win, said Sunday that she was well, and
able to eat solid food for the first time since surgery.

Former Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas told reporters he had been
sent to Myanmar as a special envoy by President Megawati Sukarnoputri. He
declined to provide details about his visit.

But Alatas is expected to convey the growing concerns among the 10-nation
Association of Southeast Asian Nations about Suu Kyi's detention.
Myanmar's fellow ASEAN members have been reluctant to criticize the
military regime.

Myanmar's ruling junta, already shunned by many Western nations because of
its poor human rights record, was further isolated when it detained Suu
Kyi in May after she and her followers were caught in a violent clash with
a pro-government mob in northern Myanmar.

Since then, Suu Kyi - who won the 1991 Nobel Prize - has been held at an
undisclosed location, despite appeals from world leaders for her release.
The junta has said she will be freed, but have refused to specify when.

On Sunday, members of her National League for Democracy party gathered
outside the Asia Royal Cardiac and Medical Center, where she is
recuperating, to leave small gifts and flowers.

"We are very worried about Aung San Suu Kyi," said 35-year-old NLD member
Myint Myint Khine. "We pray for her health everyday and we come to the
hospital everyday hoping to hear some words about our leader."

In response to growing international pressure, the regime has said it has
a plan for restoring democracy, but has not given many details.

State-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported Sunday that a mass rally
attended by 15,000 people was held Saturday in support of the roadmap.

The report in Sunday's newspaper said the rally was organized by the Union
Solidarity and Development Organization, or USDA, which is a junta-backed
group.

In 1998 the military seized power after crushing a pro-democracy movement.
It held elections in 1990, but refused to recognize the results after Suu
Kyi's party won.


Agence France Presse   September 21, 2003
Aung San Suu Kyi's recovery may see her shifted home: analysts
By Samantha Brown

BANGKOK: Aung San Suu Kyi's recovery from surgery may provide Myanmar's
generals with a face-saving way of shifting the pro-democracy leader from
secret detention to house arrest, analysts and diplomats said at the
weekend.

The fiesty opposition leader underwent a three-hour operation on Friday
described as both major and semi-urgent by her personal physician Tin Myo
Win, re-igniting international concerns about her health.

Dr. Tin Myo Win said Saturday she was recovering well after the surgery,
carried out to treat gynaecological and other unspecified conditions, and
was walking around. He could not give a timeframe for her discharge.

Aung San Suu Kyi, 58, has been held incommunicado by Myanmar's military
rulers at a secret location since being detained after her supporters were
attacked by a junta-sponsored mob on May 30.

Since then and until her admission into the privately-run Asia Royal
hospital Wednesday, the only outsiders to see the leader have been UN
special envoy to Myanmar Razali Ismail and representatives from the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The ICRC last saw her on September 6 and said that she was "well".

Analysts are now anxiously waiting to see what the ruling State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC), which has not yet commented on Aung San Suu
Kyi's hospitalisation, will do when she is deemed fit enough to leave the
clinic.

"Nobody knows here what will happen after she recovers. We don't have any
information or any indication (from the junta)," an Asian diplomat told
AFP.

"They may say that for her to have good treatment, she should stay at her
house rather than a government guesthouse."

The junta is under intense pressure from the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) to release Aung San Suu Kyi ahead of the regional
grouping's summit in Bali on October 7.

Former Indonesian foreign minister Ali Alatas, who has been named a
special envoy to Myanmar to negotiate the release of Suu Kyi on behalf of
the grouping, said Friday that he would probably leave for Yangon next
week.

Her continued detention during the summit would severely embarrass ASEAN,
which faced international criticism in 1997 for admitting Myanmar as a
member.

A well-placed source in Yangon told AFP last week that the United Nations'
Razali will travel to Yangon on September 30 for a 48-hour visit, sparking
further anticipation that the junta may offer concessions before the ASEAN
meet.

The junta's shifting of Suu Kyi from secret detention to house arrest
"could buy them some credibility, and maybe dilute international pressure
if not completely, then a little bit," Sunai Phasuk from regional rights
group Forum Asia said.

"It would be good for Razali, who is trying to get people to be patient
with the SPDC, and good for ASEAN before the summit to see that they are
giving a concession," he said.

"It's a win-win way out for everyone," he added, noting however that there
would be an ongoing fight to secure her complete release and democratic
reform in Myanmar, which has been ruled by the military for four decades.

A move back to her famed lake-side residence would begin a third stint of
house arrest for Aung San Suu Kyi, who has already spent seven-and-a-half
years confined to her home by the military.

Still, analysts suspect that access to her would be very much restricted
and she would most likely not have any access to foreign diplomats.

Debbie Stothard from regional network Altsean-Burma agreed that the
generals may send Suu Kyi home, but noted it would only be a very
short-term solution for them before the pressure to free her is upped
again.

"It's been generally expected that her detention would be commuted to
house arrest, and this provides an opportunity to do so on humanitarian
grounds," she said.

"But unless there are actual reforms and actual dialogue taking place
towards reform, ASEAN is going to be constantly put in this position of
having to defend the military regime because they can detain her as they
like.

"If her detention is actually commuted to house arrest, it is a sign that
international pressure is working."

The move, however, is unlikely to satisfy the international community,
including Myanmar's harshest critic, the United States.


The Irrawaddy   September 22, 2003
Forced Backing for Road Map
By Kyaw Zwa Moe

Burma’s military-backed civilian association forced people to attend a
rally Saturday in Rangoon, to show their support for the government’s
"road map" plan for the country’s future.

The Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) organized the
rally at Thuwunna Stadium in Thingankyun Township. It comes three weeks
after Prime Minister Khin Nyunt took his new position and presented a
seven-point road map to resolve Burma’s political stalemate. His proposal
included resuming the constitutional drafting process and staging
elections at an undetermined time.

The state-run newspaper, the New Light of Myanmar, claimed over 15,000
people attended Saturday’s rally in eastern Rangoon.

"Students and staff from some schools and government offices around
Rangoon were ordered to attend the rally," said a resident who lives near
the stadium. The USDA sent cars to transport people from outlying
townships, he added.

Another Rangoon resident said the USDA gave 200 kyat (US $0.20) and free
lunch to some of those participating in the rally.

Members of the USDA office in the eastern district Rangoon told The
Irrawaddy that the association plans to stage similar rallies in other
states and divisions across the country, but they refused to elaborate.

The USDA was formed in 1993 and now claims to have 16 million members
around the country. The USDA has organized past rallies against the
opposition National League for Democracy (NLD). Most recently, the USDA
reportedly hired people to attack the NLD and its supporters on May 30 in
Depayin.


----DRUGS----

Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)  September 20, 2003
Inventive new drug trafficking strategies on Indo-Burma border

Guwahati:  While the governments of India and Burma have taken steps
against the growing incidence of drug trafficking along the international
border, the traffickers have started to adopt novel strategies to convey
their consignments to different destinations. Animals and even fish find a
role in this business, leaving Indian and Burmese authorities at a loss
regarding counter-trafficking strategies.


“Animals, particularly buffalos, are now commonly used by the
traffickers“, says Wangshing (name changed). The 22-year old Manipuri
youth was arrested a few months back in Moreh near the Indo-Burma border
with a consignment of  ephedrine tablets. Wangshing, now arrested under
the Narcotics Prevention Act, says buffalos are fed plastic bags
containing heroin and amphetamine tablets with the help of hollow bamboo
sticks. The traffickers later collect the bags from the buffalo dung.

Dwelling on two years of experience in drug trafficking, Wangshing states
that heroin is mainly brought from the Thai-Burma border and then sent to
the region through Moreh and Champhai (Mizoram), meeting popular demand.
“During my time we used to send drugs through Moreh which was less risky
than other routes due to the large-scale movement of people along the
border”, he adds. Some traders with dual citizenship certificates, both
Indian and Burmese, are able to exit India when the situation is tense and
flee to Burma and vice versa.

Wangshing’s gang of three has been decimated by shooting encounters with
the security forces during a shot-out on the way of trafficking a
consignment of  aphedrine tablets. Wangshing tells of his history of drug
abuser turned drug trafficker. Drug trafficking, he says,
”is one-way traffic. I knew only a few Burmese and I did not know their
names”. He professed no knowledge of the involvement of underground groups
and Burmese military personnel in trafficking; any such involvement, he
says, is kept secret.

Wangshing narrates how traffickers use local youths in the border areas
who have full information of the movement of security forces. ”Nobody
wants to get involved in the drug field but the prevailing situation
compels people to get involved anyway. The people in the border areas are
very poor so they have become a soft target of the drug traffickers”, he
adds.

Wangshing is not alone: there are hundreds of youths in Mizoram, Manipur,
and Nagaland in the north east of India who have become victims of drugs.
The situation is aggravated by the passivity of the Burmese and the Indian
government. Governmental employment schemes for youths in the border areas
are the urgent need of the hour if the generation of the future is to be
saved from deadly drug abuse.



----MONEY----

Bangkok Post  September 20, 2003
Asian Framework Sought
By Achara Ashayagachat

Thailand will push for a free-trade-area framework with Bangladesh, Burma,
India and Sri Lanka when its leaders meet in Phuket early next year.

Also on the agenda will be closer cooperation on tourism and improved
transport links. Senior officials of Bimst-Ec (Bangladesh, India, Burma,
Sri Lanka and Thailand-Economic Cooperation) were preparing a draft of the
leaders' declaration for the summit to be held on Feb 9, said Pisan
Manawapat, head of the Foreign Ministry's International Economic Affairs
Department.

India and Sri Lanka already had a free-trade area while Thailand and India
would take a similar step next month.

The framework would help other members prepare for a region-wide
free-trade area in the medium or long term, Mr Pisan said.

Thailand, as summit host, would also propose that the Bangkok-based
Institute of Trade Development (ITD) offer training on rules of origin to
enhance trade among member countries, he said.

Future cooperation would also focus on construction, healthcare,
education, fisheries and energy, Mr Pisan said.

A formal announcement of 2004 as the Visit Bimst-Ec Year and a football
match featuring under-21 players from all member countries would be other
summit highlights.

The Bimst-Ec forum was first held with only four countries in 1997. Burma
joined the group shortly after that.

Next year's summit would be preceded by meetings of senior official and of
foreign ministers, Mr Pisan said.


Agence France Presse   September 21, 2003
US sanctions ravage Myanmar garment industry, but economic chaos subsiding

YANGON: Tough new US sanctions against Myanmar are ravaging its valuable
garment industry but local businesspeople are adapting to find a way
around the punitive measures in their latest bid to survive the country's
moribund economy.

"There was inevitably complete chaos initially because there had been no
preparations for the sanctions," said one Western diplomat of the
measures, which completely paralysed trade in this heavily
dollar-dependent nation after being introduced in August.

The sanctions include a ban on all imports from Myanmar, worth 356 million
dollars a year, and are aimed especially at the crucial textiles trade.
They also freeze property holdings and financial assets held by members of
the ruling junta in US banks, and halt foreign remittances.

"Since then the government has made some small changes to its policies and
businesspeople, who are pretty clever and have faced a lot of problems of
one sort or another over the years, have managed to adapt to some degree,"
the diplomat added.

Traders are now using the euro to conduct foreign transactions that can no
longer be denominated in dollars in a fallback measure that has won
approval from the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), which
was hit with the sanctions after detaining democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi in May.

Another strategy has been to shift to border trade with Thailand, China,
India and Bangladesh, which was legalized in 1988 when the current regime
took over in a bid to acquire much-needed imports and find a market for
exports.

A recent edition of Myanmars leading business magazine, Living Color,
estimated that in future 40 percent of all exports and 80 percent of
imports will be traded over the border, exchanged for dollars and local
currency as well as barter deals.

Despite these measures, the sanctions have further dampened an economy
still reeling from a banking crisis that hit the country earlier this
year.

That crisis led to strict limits on bank withdrawals, a suspension of
cheque and credit card services, no bank lending and a huge shortage of
currency.

"This may be a good turn of events for small and intermediate businesses
which are certain to proliferate at the borders, but for us there will be
the extra headache of logistics as well as added overheads including
paying off corrupt officials before our goods can reach Yangon", said
prominent businessman Maung Maung Thaung.

"After a trial run at the border, I found it more expedient to stick to
regular trade and face whatever uncertainty arises," he told AFP.

Foreign exchange transaction costs are also proving to be a hardship for
businesses that operate on relatively slim profit margins, forcing sharp
increases in retail prices on consumer items.

The most dramatic effects of the sanctions are being felt by workers in
the garment sector who have been laid off in their thousands as the US
turns away the goods they once produced.

"More than 50 percent of the 300 or so textile and garment factories have
already closed shop since the US embargo was announced and thousands have
been rendered jobless," a manager at a factory in the industrial zone
north-west of Yangon told AFP.

Garment factories are reportedly closing down at the rate of one or two a
day as orders dry up, and plastic bag and cardboard box manufacturers have
also been hard-hit.

Although some manufacturers are still busy supplying the European market,
the United States accounted for 70 percent of garment exports in trade
worth about 350 million dollars last year.

The future looks grim for the thousands of workers, mostly women from poor
families, who have been made jobless and now face a difficult search for
work in Yangon, or a return empty-handed to their home villages and towns.

"Most of them who came to work in the garment factories from outside the
capital continue to remain stranded with no chance of getting another job
in the near future," said a source in the industry.

Myanmars garment workers mostly assemble piecework in factories thrown up
by Korean and Taiwanese firms keen to take advantage of low overheads and
cheap labour.

According to figures provided by the labor registration office, some
70,000 skilled workers have been laid off over the last two months, along
with the same number of unskilled day-workers.

Meanwhile, there are no indications that the measures are succeeding in
their aim of prompting the regime to embark on democratic reforms and
release Aung San Suu Kyi, who was taken into custody after violent clashes
between her supporters and a pro-junta gang.

"The sanctions are a pain in the neck but people eventually come to learn
to live with it," said Bernard Pe-Win from the Forum discussion group in
Yangon.

Growth in the commercial sector will be slowed, but the measures will not
force the country to "run up the white flag" or bring about any change in
a regime which is secure in the knowledge that it is a net exporter of
food, he said.

"They have a psychological and symbolic impact, but will it bring the
country to its knees? The answer is absolutely no," he said. "And will it
bring this government down? I think the answer is very clear: no."


----REGIONAL----

Xinhua General News Service   September 21, 2003
Bangladesh, Myanmar to discuss military cooperation

DHAKA, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- The visiting top military personnel of Myanmar
will discuss military cooperation with their Bangladeshi counterparts on
issues including sharing of intelligence and arms purchase, reported the
Daily Star on Sunday.

A 12-member military delegation of the Myanmar Armed Forces headed by
Lieutenant General Aung Htwe, commander of the Bureau of Special Operation
under Myanmar's Defense Ministry, arrived Dhaka Friday on a six-day
goodwill visit to Bangladesh.

According to Bangladeshi military sources, at the top of the agenda of
Myanmar's delegation is naval cooperation at the Bay of Bengal. The two
sides will discuss sharing of naval intelligence to curb sea piracy.

The sources also said the strategic significance of the visit stems from
another prospective cooperation on arms purchase. Dhaka is learnt to have
prepared a shopping list of defense hardware that Myanmar produces.

Myanmar officers are also scheduled to discuss the collaboration against
transborder drug trafficking and arms smuggling, as these issues seem to
have bedeviled the relations between the border forces of the two
countries, added the sources.

Dhaka thinks the 444,000 strong Myanmar armed forces are capable of
increasing deterrence along the Bay of Bengal if a strategic partnership
forged between the two countries, according to the sources.


United News of Bangladesh   September 21, 2003
Myanmar Delegation

Dhaka: The visiting Myanmar military delegation led by Lieutenant General
Aung Htwe visited a number of military installations in Chittagong today
(Sunday).

The delegation members visited Bangladesh Naval Base at Patenga and
Bangladesh Military Academy (BMA) at Bhatiary and witnessed the training
and academic activities of the Academy with keen interest.

They also visited Rangamati in the afternoon.

Earlier in the morning, the delegation members paid a courtesy call on
Chief of the Naval Staff Rear Admiral Shah Iqbal Mujtaba at the Naval
Headquarters in Banani.

Members of the delegation remained with the Navy Chief for some time and
exchanged views on military training and other academic activities of the
armed forces of both the countries.


----INTERNATIONAL----

The Nation (Thailand)   September 20, 2003
Germany Urged to Join Thailand in Offering Help to Burma

Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai yesterday urged Germany to join
Thailand in offering economic assistance to Burma as an incentive for the
ruling military junta to implement its recently announced seven-point road
map towards national reconciliation and democracy. The minister discussed
the matter with his German counterpart Joschka Fischer, and said that
Fischer supported the idea.

Surakiart said he realized that Germany, as a member of the European
Union, had extended trade sanctions against Rangoon after the arrest of
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. "Joining Thailand to help Burma
achieve the goal is a possible path for Germany, despite being a member of
the EU," he said, noting that Germany was among those EU members that
subscribed to a softer approach towards Burma. The United Kingdom and
Scandinavian countries are among the more "hard-line" members of the EU
who have urged strict measures to pressure Burma to move towards
democracy. Thailand would keep Germany updated on political developments
in Burma, as Germany is not directly involved in the engagement, he said.

Surakiart said he had also briefed Fischer on the current situation in
Rangoon after Aung San Suu Kyi's surgery, informing the German minister
that she is now safe. Germany indicated willingness to join an
international forum to discuss political solutions to the ongoing deadlock
in Burma, he said.

Thailand, however, wants to see whether the junta can achieve internal
reconciliation by itself before taking any further steps, Surakiart said.
New Burmese Prime Minister Khin Nyunt recently announced the seven-point
road map, including free and fair elections, after strong pressure from
the international community for political reform in Rangoon.

In the meeting with Fischer, Surakiart also discussed restricting
international terrorist movements and agreed to an increase in
intelligence information exchanges between security agencies. Germany also
indicated a willingness to enter into "a strategic economic partnership"
with Thailand to enhance economic relations, he said. The two countries
have already set up a mechanism known as the Joint Economic Committee -
the first meeting of which was in March this year - to boost economic
ties, he added.