BurmaNet News, May 18, 2004

[Editor]

May 18, 2004, Issue # 2478

“When the plenary meeting or the meeting of delegate groups are in
progress, the delegates are not allowed to walk out individually or in
group and to mock others.”
- Brigadier-General Kyaw Hsan, Minister of Information, as quoted in
Associated Press


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Myanmar junta cuts NLD phone lines, another crackdown looms
SCMP: Myanmar democracy negotiations open amid boycotts
Independent: Chinese Flocking To Gaming Tables of Burma's Sin City
AP: NC Delegates Told Not to Walk Out or Make Anti-national Remarks
RSF: Sports journalist Zaw Thet Htwe has death sentence commuted

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Burmese Activists Flee Rangoon for the Border

BUSINESS
Xinhua: Myanmar designates 2004-05 as industrial development year

REGIONAL
AFP: U.N. envoy condemns Suu Kyi detention; seeks Indian, Chinese help to
deal with Myanmar
Nation: Khin Nyunt plans visit to Thailand next month

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: Bush extends sanctions on Myanmar for another year


INSIDE BURMA
_____________________________________

May 18, Agence France Presse
Myanmar junta cuts NLD phone lines, another crackdown looms

Yangon: Aung San Suu Kyi's pro-democracy opposition said the military
government cut the phone lines to its Yangon headquarters as it began
constitutional talks Monday, and that it expected more punitive measures.

"This is an indication that we are in for some hard times," National
League for Democracy (NLD) spokesman U Lwin said late Monday.

The NLD's ramshackle headquarters in downtown Yangon were only reopened
last month after being slammed shut in May last year as part of a
crackdown on the party that saw its entire leadership put under detention.

Aung San Suu Kyi and her deputy Tin Oo remain under house arrest but other
top members have been progressively released ahead of the constitutional
convention which kicked off Monday despite an NLD boycott.

The government refused the NLD's demands to release its leader and relax
repressive rules surrounding the forum, which will come up with
resolutions that will form the basis of a new constitution for Myanmar.

U Lwin said he regretted the regime's decision to push ahead with the
convention, which political observers say has been stripped of any
credibility by the NLD's decision.

"I am very disappointed that they are more comfortable dealing with armed
groups than people like us who are non-violent and not armed," he said,
referring to the ethnic armies who attended the talks.

"We will go on asking for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's release and do what we
have to do under the circumstances."

Myanmar's junta allowed the NLD leadership to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi
at her home for discussions on whether to attend the forum, but U Lwin
said they had been refused another meeting since Friday when they
announced the boycott.

_____________________________________

May 18, South China Morning Post
Myanmar democracy negotiations open amid boycotts - Larry Jagan

Bangkok: Myanmar began constitutional discussions billed as the first step
towards democracy yesterday amid much pomp and ceremony, but without Aung
San Suu Kyi's opposition party.

More than a thousand delegates, hand-picked by the junta, heard the head
of the National Convention, Lieutenant-General Thein Sein, tell them that
this was a historic step on the road to democracy.

The participants were also told they were to finish drawing up the
principles upon which the country's new constitution will be based. After
the formal opening, delegates were assigned to committees to begin their
work. The delegates will remain at the convention venue for weeks or
months until the charter is hammered out.

But the absence of Ms Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy
(NLD) is a blow to the credibility of the government's national
reconciliation process. The US and European embassies also boycotted the
opening ceremony because of the NLD's decision not to participate.

"The NLD does not believe that it will be able to benefit the nation by
participating in the National Convention," party chairman Aung Shwe said.
The fact that two of the party's leaders, Ms Suu Kyi and U Tin Oo, are
still under house arrest made it impossible for the NLD to realistically
consider itself part of the National Convention.

An Asian diplomat in Yangon said: "The problem is that although Prime
Minister Khin Nyunt understands the importance of including the
pro-democracy parties in the National Convention, his superior General
Than Shwe sees no need to involve them in drawing up the new
constitution."

General Than Shwe's antipathy towards Ms Suu Kyi is well known. He has
also frequently told the UN envoy to Myanmar, Razali Ismail, that under
the country's reconciliation process, political parties would contest
fresh elections once the new constitution was ratified and that there was
no real role for them before that.

The tension between the country's three top generals has brought the
reconciliation process to a halt. The pragmatists around General Khin
Nyunt have been frustrated by the slow pace of reform.

It appears that the prime minister's days may be numbered.

And unless General Than Shwe decides to push the dialogue process ahead
personally, the chances of political reform in the coming months is
extremely remote.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse, Associated Press

_____________________________________

May 18, The Independent
Chinese Flocking To Gaming Tables of Burma's Sin City - Jan McGirk

Mong Lar: Burma's wild east is taking on a definite Chinese flavour.
Forget about an unofficial tourism boycott called by the Burmese
pro-democracy opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. There's no stopping the
busloads of high-rollers, who have been banned from placing bets inside
China for the past half century.

By the end of this year, at least 200,000 tourists are expected to have
crossed into the frontier town of Mong Lar alone. It is the boom town that
heroin built. And now it is rapidly transforming into a bloated sin city
popular with day-tripping Chinese gamblers and others eager for cut-price
vice.

Some 50 casinos have sprung up and adorn the horizon like giant neon
jukeboxes. They lie just beyond the Chinese border to lure players into
Shan State, an autonomous region run by ethnic guerrilla armies.

The Chinese yuan currency flows onto the gaming tables. Purportedly, even
more is laundered behind the scenes.

Gesturing at a vast plaza of snack-carts parked under plastic awnings
where call girls clutching state-of-the-art mobiles shelter from the
drizzle, a tea vendor chuckles: "Welcome to Mong Lar. They say our GDP is
guns, drugs, and prostitutes." A dozen Chinese sex workers play a board
game with a long-legged Chechen transvestite. Normally, says one sullen
blonde, groups of Taiwanese businessmen can be counted on, but just now
business is slow.

>From miles away, Mong Lar's illuminated gold pagoda gleams. A monument
beneath it, with spiky towers painted a garish bubble-gum pink, is a
drug-eradication museum erected by Khun Sa, the notorious Burmese druglord
who turned his 1996 surrender into an economic strategy and lives off his
drug wealth in Rangoon.

Under pressure from the junta, the narcotics barons of what is called
Special Region 2 claim to have abandoned heroin trafficking. But sexual
tourism has been embraced. Souvenir condom packs are on sale at the museum
gift shop.

Brothel customers devour exotic meat in the belief that it will magically
enhance their sexual stamina and there are places that cater for them 24
hours a day. Wines stewed with serpent or what appears to be tiger penis
are on tap.

At the intriguingly-named Power Long Hotel, a "stimulating and hygienic"
genital wash is supplied along with the toothpaste and soaps. Room service
has extra telephone numbers if a customer has specific sexual hankerings.
Room rate cards at other luxury hotels include charges for renting rooms
by the hour.

In Mong Lar, gangsters and guerrillas have succumbed to another addiction
introduced by the British, golf. A plush nine-hole course was built two
years ago and subtlety is not a selling point: the country club logo is an
S slashed with two golf clubs to make a dollar sign. U Sai Lin, a local
druglord, is said to have funded the project.

The area is run by the Eastern Shan State Army which claims to have
abandoned drug trafficking. But Mong Lar has been the centre for opium
traders ever since the British Empire promoted poppy cultivation 120 years
ago. Control of the trade passed first to fleeing Chinese Nationalist
troops, then to Beijing-supported Communist fighters, to Vietnam-era CIA
pilots who flew heroin cargoes on Air America and finally to the hill-
tribe warlords.

Tribal guerrilla armies still hold sway in Shan State, but Bao Youxiang,
the chieftain who runs Pang Kham gambling town to the north, blames cross-
border heroin syndicates for any illicit drug trade. Chinese gangsters, he
claims, collect suitcases of heroin from crude laboratories, where the
refined drug is 10 times stronger than the gooey black gum smoked in
dirt-poor hamlets upcountry.

_____________________________________

May 18, Associated Press
NC Delegates Told Not to Walk Out or Make Anti-national Remarks

Rangoon: Delegates to the National Convention billed by Burma’s military
government as a first step toward democracy have been told they cannot
walk out of meetings or make any anti-national remarks.

A code of ethics and discipline published in a state newspaper on Tuesday
is apparently aimed at ensuring that the assembly that began Monday will
not be marred by ugly scenes or a show of dissent against the military
rulers.

The convention already has limited credibility because of a boycott by the
main opposition National League for Democracy, or NLD, which is staying
away to protest the junta’s refusal to free its general-secretary Aung San
Suu Kyi and vice-chairman Tin Oo from house arrest and allow the opening
of party offices.

The junta’s hard-line stand has drawn widespread international criticism
with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urging southeast Asian nations to
pressure Burma to release Suu Kyi. The European Union expressed
“disappointment and concern” and was joined by the United States, Malaysia
and Thailand in criticizing the junta.

“Thailand believes that the door is not totally closed. There is still
time for all parties to face each other and find a common acceptable
solution,” a Thai government statement said, which also called for the
release of Suu Kyi.

Many diplomats in Rangoon and critics have dismissed the National
Convention, with its stated aim to propel the country toward democracy, as
a sham in the absence of the National League for Democracy party and the
continued detention of Suu Kyi, who was taken into custody almost a year
ago.

The junta claimed the convention started successfully with 1,076 of the
1,088 invited delegates attending. However, the delegates—most of them
hand-picked—have been given a list of do’s and don’ts.

Soon after the opening ceremony, Minister of Information Brig-Gen Kyaw
Hsan read out a “code of ethics and discipline to be followed by the
delegates to ensure the successful holding of the National Convention,”
the official Myanma Ahlin daily reported.

“When the plenary meeting or the meeting of delegate groups are in
progress, the delegates are not allowed to walk out individually or in
group and to mock others,” according to the rules.
“The regulations are prescribed not for repression but for the interest of
the national races and the delegates,” Kyaw Hsan told the delegates on
Monday.

The delegates were told not to express disloyalty to the state, not to
discuss “irrelevant matters,” and not to accept any other country’s
patronage.

Burma, which has been under military rule since 1962, does not have a
constitution. The current group of generals came to power in 1988 after
crushing a pro-democracy movement that saw the rise of Suu Kyi as an
opposition leader.

The junta called elections in May 1990 but refused to hand over power
after the NLD won about 80 percent of the seats. The government assembled
a similar National Convention in 1993, attended by the National League for
Democracy.

In November 1995 the NLD’s 86 delegates walked out, complaining that their
views were being ignored by the junta and that the party was being forced
to rubber stamp the military’s decisions. The assembly was adjourned in
March 1996.

By then, the convention had approved six principles for a new
constitution, including a guarantee that the military will have a major
role in any future government. The junta says the six principles are still
valid.

_____________________________________

May 18, Reporters Sans Frontières
Sports journalist Zaw Thet Htwe has death sentence commuted

The Supreme Court has commuted death sentences against four people,
including sports journalist Zaw Thet Htwe, to three years in prison.

Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières) and the Burma Media
Association (BMA)
welcomed the 12 May Supreme Court decision to quash the death sentence
against the journalist
and his co-accused.

The leniency shown by the judges discredited the military governments'
absurd accusation that Zaw Thet Htwe was involved in a conspiracy against
the military junta, said the international press freedom organisation,
joining the BMA in calling for Htwe's immediate release.

A military court on 28 November 2003 sentenced the sports journalist and
eight others to death
for "high treason" for attempting to kill the leaders of the military
junta. The editor of the First Eleven was accused of sending information
to opposition militants abroad. He was tortured during interrogation
carried out by the military secret service (MIS). His arrest was really
linked to the success of his sports magazine First Eleven, specialising in
football, and its independent editorial line.

His three co-defendants Min Kyi, Aye Myint and Zaw Myo Htet were accused
of sending information to the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
Five other defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment. The families
were only notified of the verdicts the following day.

At the beginning of April, their lawyer, U Naing Ngwe Ya, said; "They were
not found in possession of any explosives or anti-government documents
(Š). There was no act of treason and they should be immediately and
unconditionally released."

Also in April, Reporters Without Borders and the BMA urged the Supreme
Court, in the light of the
arbitrary and unfair trial in the lower court, to accept the innocence of
the journalist and his fellow accused Htwe's wife, Ma Khine Cho Zaw Win,
is to be allowed visit her husband in Insein Prison on 23 May.

Vincent Brossel, Asia - Pacific Desk, Reporters Sans Frontières
5 rue Geoffroy Marie, 75009 Paris
Tel : 33 1 44 83 84 70, fax : 33 1 45 23 11 51
asia at rsf.org, www.rsf.org


ON THE BORDER
_____________________________________

May 18, Irrawaddy
Burmese Activists Flee Rangoon for the Border - Kyaw Zwa Moe

Mae Sot: More than a dozen Burmese political activists have fled to the
Thai border area from inside Burma in recent weeks due to fears of arrest.
The heightened surveillance and tighter restrictions on political
activists is believed to be related to Monday’s reopening of the National
Convention, which is tasked with drafting a new constitution.

“One reason I left my country is because of the security problem,” said
former student activist Ye Maw Htoo, aged 33, who arrived at the Thai
border two weeks ago. “I would have been sent back to jail even if I just
touched politics in the first week of May.”

He said the authorities have tightened surveillance on former political
prisoners and long-time activists recently because of the National
Convention. The convention has been boycotted by the main opposition
National League for Democracy party, or NLD, and ethnic parties, including
the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy—Burma’s second-biggest
political party.

In recent days, at least fourteen activists, most of them former political
prisoners, fled the country, according to the Thai-based Assistance
Association for Political Prisoners-Burma.

Ye Maw Htoo was a member of the All Burma Federation of Student Union that
was banned by Rangoon. He has been arrested two times and served a total
of 10 years in prison for political activities since 1988.

The former student activist said he wanted to continue with his political
activities, but that it was difficult to take part in politics inside the
country because everyone is kept under watch by the Office of the Chief of
Military Intelligence, or OCMI.
Kyaw Thwin, who was elected to a parliamentary seat for Kayan township,
Rangoon Division, on the NLD ticket in 1990, and another three NLD party
cardholders from Kachin State, left Burma on April 6, also to avoid
political persecution. Kyaw Thwin, a long-time political activist, has
been arrested on three occasions since 1974 and has spent nearly 10 years
behind bars in all.

He said that before the government restarted the convention, OCMI officers
imposed more restrictions on him, including a ban on travel without
approval.

Ye Maw Htoo said he thought more political activists would leave because
of restrictions.


BUSINESS
_____________________________________

May 18, Xinhua News Agency
Myanmar designates 2004-05 as industrial development year

Yangon: Myanmar has designated the 2004-05 fiscal year beginning April as
the country's industrial development year (IDY), aiming at developing the
sector with high momentum.

At a meeting of heads of industrial zones on Monday, Minister of
Industry-1 U Aung Thaung said only when the industrial sector develops at
a fastest pace, then the sector could be modernized and vital for the
state development, state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported
Tuesday.

Aung Thaung, who is also chairman of the Myanmar Industrial Development
Committee (MIDC), disclosed that out of the country's 19 industrial zones,
three which are the Mandalay, Monywa and Taunggyi Ayetharya have been
covered by the industrial zone upgradation program during the IDY.

Myanmar formed the MIDC in 1995 and has so far established 19 industrial
zones across the country for harmonious development of the sector
especially the private industries.

There are 6,830 private industries in the industrial zones with 37,500
outside the zones, according to industry sources.

Official statistics show that there are more than 100,000 private
industries in the whole of Myanmar with over 2 million workers being
employed and 90 percent of the industries are small and medium ones
categorized into 13 kinds, most of which are foodstuff producers.

The figures also reveal that Myanmar's industrial sector, which
contributes about 9 percent to the gross domestic product, grew from 21.8
percent in 2001-02 to 22.6 percent in 2003-04 which ended in March under
its third five-year plan which started 2001-02.


REGIONAL
_____________________________________

May 18, Associated Press
U.N. envoy condemns Suu Kyi detention; seeks Indian, Chinese help to deal
with Myanmar - Jasbant Singh

Kuala Lumpur: A U.N. envoy wants India's new government as well as China
to pressure Myanmar's military rulers into releasing pro-democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi.

Former Malaysian diplomat Razali Ismail also denounced the continued
detention of the Nobel Peace Prize winner as unacceptable.

The junta says she must stay under house arrest in Rangoon to protect
national security and stability while it holds a constitutional convention
to chart the nation's future.

Suu Kyi and her supporters are not taking part in this week's convention,
which critics say will only seek to enshrine the powers of the generals.

"I believe and a lot of people believe, if Suu Kyi is released ... she
will be a factor in bringing about better stability and security," Razali
told a news conference.

Razali said Myanmar's two neighbors, India and China, should influence the
military.

"I have a feeling that the new government of India ... will be able to
help me more," Razali said. "I am going to go to China, and really appeal
to the Chinese to do more than they have done."

Razali urged that a timeline be set for Suu Kyi to be freed "well before"
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations holds an annual summit in
Vientiane, Laos, in November.

ASEAN admitted Myanmar, also known as Burma. as a member in 1997 with
unfulfilled hopes that it would encourage a return to democracy.

Grumblings by Malaysia and Thailand that Myanmar could risk suspension
have been undercut by ASEAN's principle of noninterference in members'
internal affairs and the requirement to take decisions by consensus.

"Individual ASEAN countries can take a leaf from the people of ASEAN,"
Razali said. "I think the people of ASEAN want the release of Aung San Suu
Kyi."

Razali said that he is ready to return to Myanmar as soon as possible to
meet with government leaders and see if Suu Kyi can be released under a
series of steps, if that makes the generals more comfortable.

"This is not an excuse to keep Aung San Suu Kyi longer without being
released," Razali said.

The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962. Suu Kyi, daughter of
independence hero Aung San, has been held under house arrest for most of
the past 15 years.

In 1991, a year after her party overwhelming won elections that the
military allowed and then ignored, she won the Nobel Peace Prize for her
nonviolent promotion of democracy.

_____________________________________

May 18, The Nation
Khin Nyunt plans visit to Thailand next month

Burmese Prime Minister Khin Nyunt will pay a courtesy visit to Thailand
early next month as part of a regional tour of Association of Southeast
Asian Nation member countries.

Khin Nyunt assumed the post of prime minister last August.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Sihasak Phuangketkeow said yesterday that Khin
Nyunt was due to meet Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra during his one-day
visit on June 4.

The two countries are expected to discuss various bilateral issues,
including economic cooperation and the Thai-initiated forum to discuss
Burma's roadmap to democracy and national reconciliation.

Khin Nyunt last August announced the reconvening of the National
Convention to draft a constitution as part of the first step of the
roadmap.

The opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) backed out of the
convention, which began yesterday, after the junta refused to release its
leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Foreign Ministry yesterday issued a statement expressing
disappointment over Rangoon's decision to proceed with the convention
without the participation of the opposition party.

Bangkok hoped to see restrictions on the NLD's political activities lifted
immediately and all parties represented at the convention, the ministry
said.


INTERNATIONAL
_____________________________________

May 18, Agence France Presse
Bush extends sanctions on Myanmar for another year - P. Parameswaran

Washington: US President George W. Bush on Monday extended for another
year sanctions on military-ruled Myanmar "for large-scale repression of
the democratic opposition."

The move came as the junta launched a national convention north of
Myanmar's capital Yangon without first releasing democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi.

Bush said in a statement he was "continuing for one year" the national
emergency declared on May 20, 1997, by his predecessor, Bill Clinton,
which led to sanctions to punish the Myanmar regime.

The declaration incorporated a ban on new US investments to the Southeast
Asian state and was followed by a prohibition of imports.

To put more pressure on the junta to improve its human rights record,
promote democracy and gain cooperation in anti-narcotic efforts, Bush in
July added new sanctions -- including a ban on all financial services and
certain property dealings -- by executive order after Congress gave him
the authority to do so in a new law.

The law, known as the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act, received broad
bipartisan support and was passed by a wide margin in both houses.

The US sanctions now include an arms embargo and the suspension of all
bilateral aid.

The United States also maintains visa restrictions on Myanmar's senior
government officials, and is opposed to all new lending or grant programs
by international financial institutions.

Since 1990, the United States has kept its diplomatic representation in
Myanmar at the charge d'affairs level.

In a letter to Congress, Bush said Myanmar's actions and policies were
hostile to US interests and posed a "continuing unusual and extraordinary
threat" to US national security and foreign policy.

"For this reason, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the
national emergency with respect to Burma (Myanmar's old name) and maintain
in force the sanctions against Burma to respond to this threat," he said.

Congress would have to convene to pass a joint resolution to keep the ban
on imports from Myanmar in place.

Secretary of State Colin Powell had recently backed calls for the renewal
of the import ban.

"This is a right move," said Jeremy Woodrum of the activist group US
Campaign for Burma as he welcomed Bush's move to renew the sanctions. "Now
would be a disastrous time to lift pressure on the Burma regimne," he
said.

Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy
boycotted the national convention which began Monday, billed by the junta
as the first step towards democracy.

Most of the 1,000-plus delegates were hand-picked by the regime.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan was said to be "dismayed" that
the junta had opened the talks without the presence of the political
opposition, saying its credibility was at risk.

"The secretary general reiterates that, for the national convention to be
credible, it must be all-inclusive and that all the delegates must be able
to express their views without sanction," Annan's spokesman said in a
statement.

In a statement released at talks in Brussels, the council of European
Union foreign ministers also expressed "deep disappointment".