BurmaNet News Jan 13, 2004

[editor at burmanet.org]

Jan 13, 2004 Issue # 2404


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: KNU Plan Second Trip to Rangoon
Irrawaddy: Kachin Form Investigative Body

BUSINESS / MONEY
AFP: Myanmar slaps sudden ban on rice exports
Xinhua: Myanmar imports half of consumed edible oil
Xinhua: Myanmar's fishery production doubled in decade

REGIONAL
AFP: Asian nations agree to fight digital divide
AFP: Six Myanmar nationals found shot dead in southern Thailand

INTERNATIONAL
Amnesty: Burma: Amnesty Finds Human Rights Deteriorating, Calls for
Action Not Words

OPINION / OTHER
News & Observer: Fitness for trial at issue in delay
Ethnic NewsWatch: A Prayer for Burma

STATEMENT
Statement of DPNS meeting



INSIDE BURMA
___________________________________

Jan 13, Irrawaddy
KNU Plan Second Trip to Rangoon

Kyaw Zwa Moe and Shah Paung

January 13, 2004—A high-ranking delegation from the Karen National Union
(KNU) will travel to Rangoon this week to discuss an official ceasefire
agreement with Burma’s military leaders, well-placed Karen sources said
today.

Dr Saw Simon Tha, chairman of the Rangoon-based Karen Development
Committee, told The Irrawaddy that the delegation will arrive in the
capital on Dec 15 and meet with top Burmese leaders regarding a
ceasefire agreement.

Exiled Karen sources said Gen Bo Mya, deputy chairman of the KNU, will
lead the delegation, which will meet Burmese Prime Minister Gen Khin
Nyunt during the trip. A senior KNU member from Mae Sot, Thailand, who
asked not to be named, said the delegation is now in Bangkok.

Bo Mya, 76, who is also commander-in-chief of the KNU’s army, has been
fighting successive Burmese governments with the KNU for 55 years. The
upcoming trip will mark his first visit to the Burmese capital.

Dr Saw Simon Tha, a well-known professor of neurosurgery, met a
delegation of junior KNU officials in the Burmese capital in early
December and will meet the KNU representatives this week. He said the
two sides will discuss other issues of interest to Karen people living
around the world, in addition to meeting about a ceasefire. He did not
offer specifics about the other issues at this time.

 Dr Saw Simon Tha said the two sides will discuss other issues of
interest to Karen people living around the world, in addition to
meeting about a ceasefire.

The KNU, Burma’s largest armed ethnic group, made a verbal ceasefire
agreement with the military government in early December after five of
its junior officials met Gen Khin Nyunt in Rangoon.

The verbal agreement was the result of several meetings between the
junta’s spokesperson, Col San Pwint, and KNU leaders, including Bo Mya,
who began talks in November. However, some KNU sources continue to
report skirmishes between the KNU and government troops.

The senior KNU member based in Mae Sot, on the Thai-Burma border, said
the latest delegation may include more than a dozen KNU officials,
including liaison officer Lt-Col Soe Soe and several commanders.

He added that the two sides may discuss the road map proposed by Prime
Minister Gen Khin Nyunt in late August if they are able to broker a
permanent ceasefire.

_____________________________

Jan 13, Irrawaddy
Kachin Form Investigative Body

By Naw Seng

Kachin rebel leaders in northern Burma have formed a commission to
investigate the current power struggle amongst their leadership. Members
of the commission are meeting with military commanders today.

Dr Tu Ja, a general secretary of the Kachin Independence Organization
(KIO), said the group is seeking pertinent information which will help
them address the leadership crisis. He added that the investigation
should be concluded in the next several days.   "It is too early say
anything yet," said Dr Tu Ja. "This is just a misunderstanding."

 We will purge and punish if people are found guilty. —Col N’ban La

Last Wednesday, officials from the KIO arrested an undisclosed number of
alleged mutineers, just days after Col Lasang Aung Wa, the intelligence
chief of the KIO’s armed wing, reportedly told another officer that a
group of officers loyal to him had taken control of the group’s mountain
headquarters at Liaison Bum in Kachin State.

Lasang Aung Wa, who is believed to be hiding in China, denies all
accusations of a coup plot, saying there has been a misunderstanding
between KIO leaders. He sent a letter to KIO headquarters saying he
would accept any decision arrived at by the KIO central committee, but
he will not return to KIO headquarters until the decision is announced.

A Kachin source close to Lasang Aung Wa said the KIO’s top leaders will
be reshuffled after the current problems are resolved. He believes some
central committee members manufactured rumors of a coup led by Lasang
Aung Wa.

The source says Lasang Aung Wa did not flee because of any coup attempt,
but because Dr Tu Ja told him to flee before the arrival of Chief of
Staff Col N’ban La. Lasang Aung Wa left because he believed the chief of
staff was a threat to him due to the rumors of a coup attempt, said the
source.

Col N’ban La said he will also stand by the investigative body’s
decision. "We will purge and punish if people are found guilty," he
said.

A warrant for Lasang Aung Wa, believed to be forthcoming, has not yet
been issued.


BUSINESS / MONEY
____________________________________

Jan 13, AFP
Myanmar slaps sudden ban on rice exports

Myanmar has imposed a sudden, six-month ban on rice exports in an
apparent bid to curb public discontent by keeping prices down, sources
said.

The ban, effective from January 1, was discovered by traders only when
their goods were blocked from leaving the country.

However, analysts say the move may have backfired by driving prices
dramatically lower, sparking fear among rice farmers.

Traders also face legal action from foreign firms who placed large
orders for rice.

"Authorities have a penchant for coming up with such ad hoc measures
without considering adverse effects," one analyst noted.

The ban is especially surprising given the government's decision in
April to halt its involvement in the rice trade, including lifting
controls on exports.

The move was welcomed by farmers who boosted production in anticipation
of better prices. The current harvest is more than 21 million tonnes,
according to official figures.

But with the bumper crop now hitting the markets, prices for paddy, or
unhusked rice, have dropped from 180,000 kyat per hundred baskets (2,090
kilograms) to less than 100,000 kyat -- an amount that does not cover
production costs.

"The military authorities are very wary of any potential security risks
such as public dissatisfaction that could be brought on by spiralling
prices," another analyst said.

The last major unrest in Myanmar was the student-led 1988 democracy
uprising, which was brutally suppressed by the regime. Although
politically motivated, it came amid dire economic turmoil in the
Southeast Asian nation.

The six-month ban is also being applied to chillis, onions, sesame and
maize -- all classified as essential foods by the government.

Consumers have become the inadvertant winners, paying 3,300 kyat per
23-kilogram (50-pound) bag of rice, 40 percent lower than last year. The
prices of chilli, onion, sesame and maize have fallen by 10-20 percent.

But those who do not grow their own rice or other crops in Myanmar are
in fact the minority, with some 70 percent of the 51 million people here
estimated to work or live on farms.

The junta has also quietly started to pay state employees an extra 5,000
kyat (around five dollars at black market rates) per month to compensate
for the loss of a rice subsidy last April.

"We were told that this money was a sort of rice allowance, since we no
longer receive our rice rations," a low-level state employee from the
information ministry told AFP.

According to analysts, the junta feared that once news of the extra
payment for 1.2 million employees spread, unscrupulous entrepreneurs
would hike up prices, placing the crucial staple out of the reach of
ordinary workers.

"But the move may have backfired as prices plunged much more than
expected and has hit rice farmers hard," one analyst told AFP.

Myanmar's economy is already reeling under decades of mismanagement by
the military, with international sanctions, upped last year following
the detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, also biting hard.

The international legal ramifications of the surprise ban are only just
starting to be felt as Myanmar companies fail to deliver on contracts,
says one company official.

With the April announcement of controls on exports being lifted, some 25
companies began stockpiling extra rice for export, thrilling farmers as
their crops commanded better payments, the official said.

He said his joint venture company, which has been unable to deliver 500
tonnes of paddy promised to a Singaporean firm, may now be just one
facing legal action.

Analysts suspect the ban could be reversed earlier than in six months,
as the government realises it is losing precious hard currency.

"This is like a self-imposed economic sanction that authorities can well
do without," one analyst said. _____________________________

Jan 13, Xinhua
Myanmar imports half of consumed edible oil

Myanmar produces some 250,000 tons of edible oil annually but still has
to import the same amount of palm oil to meet its demand, the local
Business Tank reported in its latest issue.

The country is making efforts to expand cultivation of palm especially
in the southern Tanintharyi division to reduce edible oil import, the
state-run Myanma Perennial Crop Enterprise was quoted as saying.

According to official statistics, Myanmar's cultivated areas of oil
crops, including groundnut, sesame, sunflower and palm, has reached 2.6
million hectares.

Meanwhile, the country is establishing a five-year project for edible
oil production, seeking loan from the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries. Under the project, three modern edible oil mills
will be respectively built in Mandalay, Magway and Shan divisions and
states.

Besides, Myanmar signed in last September an agreement with the Food and
Agriculture Organization in Yangon on technical cooperation for
sufficiency of edible oil in the country. _____________________________

Jan 13, Xinhua
Myanmar's fishery production doubled in decade

The fishery production of Myanmar reached 1.61 million tons in the
fiscal year 2002-03, more than doubled from the 730,000 tons in 1990-91,
the local Business Tank reported in this month's issue.

Meanwhile, the fishery export earning increased markedly to 317. 38
million US dollars in the fiscal year from 68.4 million in 1993-94, the
Department of Fisheries was quoted as saying.

As fishery industry is benefiting over two million people, the
government is striving to ensure the optimum and sustainable use of
aquatic resources as well as economic efficiency.

Myanmar, endowed with rich and inland marine resources, has a
sustainable yield of about one million tons per year from marine source
alone. Natural lakes, reservoirs, river systems and ponds cover a total
area of about 8.2 million hectares as estimated.

The fishery sector stands as the third mainstay of Myanmar's economy
after agriculture and forestry, contributing 9 percent to its gross
domestic product with its export accounting for up to 7 percent of its
total exports.

The country's per capita consumption of fish stands at 25 kilograms
yearly.


REGIONAL
____________________________

Jan 13, AFP
Asian nations agree to fight digital divide

Asian nations on Tuesday agreed to share their information technology
resources to overcome the digital divide between rich and poor in the
region and pledged to widen Internet use.

A declaration issued at the end of the two-day Asia IT minister's Summit
in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad said the 31 nations which
attended would set up community information centres in the region.

It said the region was committed to making information technology
accessible to all, including the disadvantaged and poor.

Arun Shourie, India's information technology minister, said the forum
also decided to undertake regional level discussions on the
standardisation of technology.

"Everyone was very eager to share with others what they have developed,"
Shourie told reporters at the end of the summit.

The delegates who attended the summit included IT ministers and
representatives from Nepal, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and
Tajkistan.

The declaration called for the setting up an Asian Institute of
Information System Auditors.

It also said the nations would work towards developing local language
technologies and adopt a code of ethics for collection, digital
documentation and publication of cultural resources.

A number of studies were proposed for the construction of a broadband
network environment in Asia, it said.

"Feasible mechanisms for sharing bulk bandwidth among Asian countries to
reduce the overall cost of setting up international gateways for each
nation will be identified," the document said.

It also said there would be increased cooperation between Computer
Emergency Response Teams of Asian nations.

The next summit will be hosted by Bahrain and the subsequent one in 2006
by Myanmar.

_____________________________

Jan 13, AFP
Six Myanmar nationals found shot dead in southern Thailand

Six Myanmar migrant workers including two children were found brutally
murdered in southern Thailand, police said Tuesday.

The bullet-ridden bodies of three men, a woman, a seven-year-old girl
and a three-year-old boy were discovered in a shack late Sunday on a
rubber plantation in Chumphon province, police in Tha Sae district said.

The adults apparently were migrant labourers with legal work permits,
while all six were believed to be relatives but police were unable to
confirm their family ties.

"Police suspected that all of them were shot dead on Friday evening, but
the incident took place in a very remote village at a rubber
plantation," about 460 kilometres (286 miles) south of Bangkok, a
policeman said.

Police said a personal feud, extortion or robbery may have been the
motivation for the attack, but so far no suspects had been arrested.

In November three fishermen believed to be Myanmar nationals were
stabbed to death in southern Thailand, while six Myanmar construction
workers were killed in May.

More than one million illegal workers reside in Thailand, the government
says, the vast majority of them from Myanmar. Such workers typically
take on poorly-paid jobs in factories and the agricultural and fisheries
sectors.



INTERNATIONAL
____________________________

Jan 13, Amnesty International, UK
Burma: Amnesty Finds Human Rights Deteriorating, Calls for Action Not
Words

Following its second ever visit to Burma Amnesty International has found
that the human rights situation in the country has deteriorated
significantly since its first visit at the beginning of 2003 and has
called on the Burmese military government to take urgent action to end
arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detention and unfair trials.

During the 17-day visit Amnesty International met with government
officials and interviewed 35 political prisoners but was denied access
to National League for Democracy (NLD) leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who is
currently held under de facto house arrest.

The human rights organisation has documented the arrest of scores of
people for non-violent political activities since the violent attack on
the NLD on 30 May this year which saw the beginning of an ongoing
crackdown on all opposition. Many of those arrested have now been
sentenced to long prison terms.

Amnesty International said: "Our visit has strongly reinforced our
concerns about political imprisonment, arbitrary arrests, prolonged
incommunicado detention and unfair trials."

In August of this year, the SPDC (State Peace and Development Council,
Burma's military government) declared that it would reconvene the
National Convention in order to draft a constitution. Last week in
Bangkok, the Burmese foreign minister, U Win Aung, reportedly pledged
that the transition process would be conducted in an "all-inclusive
manner" involving all groups.

Amnesty International continued: "The military government keeps making
noises about its commitment to 'change' and 'transition'. The most
concrete demonstration of any commitment to change would be the
immediate release of all prisoners of conscience.

"The government told us to be patient, and that change may come soon.
But these assurances ring hollow in the face of continuing repression.
We will judge progress on human rights in Burma by concrete improvements
on the ground. Fine words, and vague promises for the future without any
timetable for change carry little weight."

Amnesty International urges the Burmese authorities to:

- Release all prisoners of conscience immediately and unconditionally;
they include members of parliament elect, journalists, doctors, lawyers,
teachers and young activists. Selective releases of a few high profile
individuals will not suffice.

- Stop the use of repressive legislation to criminalize freedom of
expression and peaceful association; the government is still using
colonial-era legislation to sentence people for staging solitary
protests and for discussing social and economic issues

- End the use of administrative detention provisions to hold prisoners
of conscience without trial and to prolong the incarceration of
political prisoners who have completed their sentences; existing
provisions allow for up to five years detention without charge, trial or
recourse to appeal in the courts

- Address the black hole of incommunicado detention without charge or
trial carried out by military intelligence personnel and other members
of the security forces.

A full public statement on the Amnesty International mission findings is
available from the press office.

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/deliver/document/15062


OPINION / OTHER
_____________________________________

Jan 13, The News & Observer
Fitness for trial at issue in delay

HILLSBOROUGH -- A judge is expected to decide today whether a Burmese
refugee accused of repeatedly stabbing his estranged wife with a butcher
knife more than three years ago is competent to stand trial.

Ye Myint, 33, formerly of Carrboro, is charged with attempted murder and
assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious
injury. According to police, Myint attacked his then-wife, Day Mu, as
she was leaving the home of friends with their young son in Carrboro.

Questions about Myint's competency have kept the case from proceeding
far in the past three years. Cultural and language barriers have made
those questions all the harder to answer.

The prosecution's only witness at a competency hearing Monday testified
that he thinks Myint is feigning mental illness because he fears
deportation to a brutal regime where he would be subjected to torture
and execution.

Dr. Charles Vance, a forensic psychiatrist who evaluated Myint during
two hospitalizations at Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh, testified that
he observed Myint rocking back and forth, mumbling to himself, banging
his head, climbing the bars of his room and apparently unaware of
others' presence.

But Vance was also aware of behavior he considered inconsistent with
genuine mental illness. Vance described instances in which Myint acted
quite rationally, only to revert to psychotic behavior.

Once, Myint's entire demeanor changed during a conversation with an
interpreter before he acted like his usual self in front of Vance. When
Vance delivered letters from Myint's wife during divorce proceedings, he
seemed unaware of him and the letters.
But later, Vance observed Myint poring over a letter.

"That sort of lighting-quick change is not consistent with psychosis,"
Vance said.

Because Myint has been granted refugee status in the United States, the
government in his homeland would automatically view him as someone who
has participated in rebellions, Vance said.  Seen in that light, faking
mental illness makes sense, he said.

Dr. George Corvin, a forensic psychiatrist in private practice in
Raleigh, testified for the defense that Myint suffers from
post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression. Corvin, who has
met Myint seven or eight times over the past three years, concluded that
Myint is unable to participate in his defense.

The post-traumatic stress disorder may stem from the political turmoil
in his homeland. He was shot in the leg and spent time hiding in the
jungle. He also worked in a hospital where he witnessed many traumatic
injuries and death, Corvin said. The symptoms may have become more
apparent after his arrival in the United States when he had difficulties
adjusting to his new life, Corvin said.

An intense hatred of mental health professionals can explain the seeming
inconsistencies in Myint's behavior, Corvin said.  Myint is thought to
have spent time in a Burmese institution in the mid-1980s, the kind of
place where the mentally ill would have been warehoused, sedated and
ill-treated, Corvin said.

What Vance described as inconsistencies, Corvin saw as Myint becoming
agitated and causing trouble around the type of people he despised.  If
he were truly faking mental illness, Corvin said, Myint ought to be
"putting on his very, very best act" in the courtroom. But Myint sat
quietly at the defense table throughout the proceeding, listening to the
interpreter next to him.

Dr. Tun Nyein, who has interpreted for Myint and his court-appointed
lawyers previously, said Myint was hostile and distrustful of his
lawyers. Further, he has no understanding of the U.S. legal system, said
Nyein, an assistant dean at N.C. Central University.

Myint has no understanding of concepts like presumed innocence, doesn't
know what a jury is and can't relate to the idea that the state has
appointed lawyers to help him, Nyein said. ____________________________

Jan 13, Ethnic NewsWatch
A Prayer for Burma

Kenneth Wong, Santa Monica Press

A Prayer for Burma recounts Kenneth Wong's quest to fully understand his
multiple identities by returning to his native homeland after several
years of living in San Francisco. Wong, ethnically Chinese born and
raised in Burma, eloquently and honestly describes what it feels like to
navigate his own identities in a land where he can play the foreigner as
he can play the native.

Wong is the foreigner in that he stays in a hotel and wants to sightsee
like any tourist would do. Yet he also wants to visit with old friends
he severed ties with when moving to the United States. His ability to
speak Burmese allows him to slip in and out of these roles, choosing the
one that is most convenient for the situation.

So much of Wong's memoir reminded me of my complicated identity and that
of my father's especially when visiting Thailand. My father is from
Thailand and my mother is Chinese, but she and her mother were both born
in California.  I have both a Thai and American birth certificate. For
example, in Thailand, like Burma, temples allow Thai citizens free
entrance while they charge foreigners. While I should qualify to enter
in temples for free, my inability to speak Thai automatically sends me
to the foreigner line. Wong and his father make the ethical decision of
choosing to be foreigners on this day. I feel since I have dual
citizenship that I should be able to get in the other line and that when
officials at the temple say no, they are saying that I am not Thai. I
enjoyed being able to identify with Wong.

I imagine A Prayer for Burma would be the perfect book to take when
traveling there. Wong's description of the physical landscape, the
people, the culture and the politics is outstanding. This book could
better serve its readers if it also had simple maps.

In Wong's quest for understanding his identity, he is able to find not
what divides us all, but rather, he discovers what unites all humans and
in the end, the answer seems so simple. ____________________________

STATEMENT

Jan 10, Democratic Party for a New Society
Statement of Emergency Central Committee Meeting


 An emergency Central Committee meeting of the Democratic Party  for a
New Society (DPNS) was held from January 6 to 8, 2004 at the
Thai-Burma border. The Central Committee has discussed recent political
development in Burma, its future plans and strategic cooperation among
the democratic opposition groups.

 1. The DPNS views that the current State Peace and Development  Council
(SPDC's) 7 Step-roadmap and National Convention as a political
maneuver to respond to the crisis of politics, social and economy after
the May 30th attack on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's motorcade.

Moreover, the ultimate aim of the regime is favoring the military
dominance over civilian rule in the future political transformation and
military control of state power legitimately. The DPNS, in principle,
holds the idea that today crisis in Burma must be solved through the
political dialogue. The DPNS urges the military authority that the
crisis of Burma could not offer any further options and to procrastinate
political dialogue. The DPNS believes that this is the right time for
SPDC to open talks with the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by
Daw Aung San Suu Aung, which won a landslide victory in 1990 multi-party
general election.  The DPNS, in any condition, does not accept the
National Convention and its outcome, exclusion of the NLD participation
and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. If the SPDC has genuine political willingness
to solve the country problems through the National Convention,
minimally, the DPNS demands to fulfill the following conditions;

1. freedom of speech and assembly;

2. people participation in the constitutional drafting process and

3. repealing some restrictive measures, particularly, the DPNS demands
to revoke the Order No. (5/96),  "Protective laws against all disruptive
acts against the national convention and attempt to hinder peaceful
transition of state power of Burma", restricting people participation in
writing and drafting constitution.

In addition, the leadership of the NLD, including Chairman U Aung Shwe,
Vice-chairman U Tin Oo and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi must be released from
detention and meetings and consultation must be allowed freely.

The DPNS also demands to withdraw the (104) principles and its (6)
objectives of the National Convention, which were unrealistically and
undemocratically imposed during the last suspended sham National
Convention.

2. The DPNS observes that some on going meetings between the junta and
the KNU in regards of cease-fire agreement. The DPNS acknowledges that
the people of Karen who have been fighting a civil war more than a half
century for a greater autonomy must deserve an opportunity of peace, not
lesser than other nationals in the world.  The DPNS urges the SPDC to
end countrywide hostilities and to carry out a sustainable peace rather
than temporary cease-fire and to achieve a political settlement that
could guarantee a long-lasting peace in Burma.

3. The DPNS accepts its role yet as a "pressure and supporting group"
for democratization in Burma and will continue its full-scale support
and cooperation with the 1990 election winning party, NLD and popular
leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The DPNS will strive to achieve solidarity
among the democratic opposition camps, in and outside of Burma. As a
toll, the DPNS supports the proposal of veteran politician, Thakhin
Thein Pe, for the urgent need of "a Nationwide United Front" encircling
the NLD.

4. The DPNS reaffirms its commitment to strive until democracy in Burma
and meanwhile, the DPNS pursues to build up a "political forum"
representing views and visions of the new generation of Burma.

Central Committee
Democratic Party for a New Society

For more information, please contact; 09-8503603, 09-8584328,
055-546187. E-mail: hq at dpns.org http://www.dpns.org
____________________________________