BurmaNet News, June 23, 2004

[Editor]

June 23, 2004, Issue # 2502


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: KNU ceasefire talks likely to continue

ON THE BORDER
Nation: Villagers want border reopened

INTERNATIONAL
EUObserver.com: Brussels berated for cancelling Asian meetings
Mirror: Sorted and the City: trouble fault for Jjb's kit

OPINION / OTHER
Statesman: Junta Rule - Soe Myint
Business Times: Don't hold Asem hostage over Yangon

ANNOUNCEMENT
RFI: French radio broadcasts from border
AI: Sports journalist remains imprisoned while Europe hits football frenzy


INSIDE BURMA
______________________________________

June 23, Irrawaddy
KNU ceasefire talks likely to continue - Shah Paung

Peace talks between Karen insurgents and Burma’s military government are
likely to continue after the country’s National Convention adjourns
briefly, said a high-ranking Karen official.

Col Ner Dah Mya of the Karen National Union, or KNU, said he expects the
convention, tasked with drafting a new constitution, to take recess some
time soon, but he could not give a specific date. The junta did not invite
the KNU to the convention.

The Karen colonel also said that he and other KNU leaders met with
government official Brig-Gen Kyaw Thein in Bangkok to discuss the
ceasefire negotiations. The KNU has not yet selected delegates for the
visit, Ner Dah said.

The KNU sent a delegation to Rangoon in December before the official
ceasefire talks began with the junta on January 15. The two sides have
tentatively agreed to halt fighting but have not yet concluded a formal
peace deal.

The Karen Information Center says that Karen and Burmese soldiers have
skirmished more than 200 times since formal peace negotiations began,
until the end of May.

During his visit to Bangkok Kyaw Thein met with KNU deputy chairman Gen Bo
Mya, who is receiving treatment in a Bangkok hospital for diabetes. Ner
Dah, son of Bo Mya, said his father’s health condition is improving
slowly.

Bo Mya has been in hospital in Bangkok since mid-April for treatment on a
blood circulation problem in his big toe, a complication arising from
diabetes.

Dr Saw Simon Tha, an ethnic Karen and professor of neurology will arrive
in the Thai capital on Friday to examine Bo Mya.

Saw Simon Tha is a chairman of the Rangoon-based Karen Development
Committee. He is also attending the National Convention, which many ethnic
groups have boycotted because of the tight restrictions set by the junta.


ON THE BORDER
______________________________________

June 23, The Nation
Villagers want border reopened – Atcha Piyatanang

Residents of Arunothai village in Chiang Dao district have called upon the
government to consider reopening the border checkpoint with Burma at Pa
Wok Narrow, which has been closed since April 9, 2002 following
drug-related violence and security concerns.
Chiang Dao district administrative officer Boonruen Garamun submitted the
request to Deputy Interior Minister Pramuan Ruchanaseeri, saying that
since the situation had calmed down and Pa Muang division troops have been
working to secure the border, Pa Wok Narrow should be opened again.

Local residents hope the government will reopen the checkpoint to allow a
resumption in cross-border trade between Thailand and Burma.

'Eighty per cent of people passing through this checkpoint are Burmese
coming to buy consumer goods in Thailand, so reopening Pa Wok Narrow is in
Thailand's interests,' Boonruen said.

Local people would cooperate with state officials to prevent a recurrence
of drug trafficking through the crossing, he said.


INTERNATIONAL
______________________________________


June 23, EUObserver.com
Brussels berated for cancelling Asian meetings - Andrew Beatty

The European Union has come under fire for cancelling two meetings with
Asian partners amid a bitter dispute over Burma (Myanmar's) role in the
talks.

Two meetings between EU and Asian finance ministers scheduled for the next
few months have been cancelled amid EU objections to Yangon's
participation in the talks.

The EU has objected to Burma's participation due to the military junta's
repeated human rights violations.

The decision to cancel the talks because of Burma's participation has
caused acrimony between the EU and the 10 Asian nations that make up ASEM.

"Just because they are not satisfied with one country, it should not then
cause the meetings to be abandoned. They should not try to impose
conditions, it's not productive", Malaysia's Foreign Minister Syed Hamid
Albar is reported as saying.

The EU's decision has called into question a major summit due to be held
later this year in Hanoi.

With South East Asian countries as well as China, Japan and South Korea at
that summit the meeting is important to both sides and tempers have become
frayed.

Some Asian countries were cited as saying that they should not recognise
the EU's new members at the talks if Burma, Cambodia and Laos are not
recognised as new members of the Association of South East Asian
countries.

Internally the EU is split over what to do about the meeting and no
decision has yet been taken.

______________________________________

June 23, The Mirror
Sorted and the City: trouble fault for Jjb's kit - Andrew Penman and
Michael Greenwood

High street store JJB Sports has broken its vow not to sell clothing made
in torture-state Burma.

The pounds 630million company said last July: "We do not source any of our
stock from Burma and have no intentions of doing so."

But we found an outfit from the Sergio Tacchini brand in JJB on London's
Oxford Street. A pounds 39.99 top was marked "Made in Myanmar" - the name
used by Burma's dictatorship.

Our discovery comes as the Burma Campaign UK called on tennis stars Goran
Ivanisevic and Juan Carlos Ferrero, who are sponsored by Tacchini, to ask
the firm to quit Burma. Campaigner Mark Farmaner said: "The regime in
Burma is notorious for imprisoning and torturing political opponents,
persecuting ethnic minorities and using rape as a weapon of war."

JJB's chief exec Tom Knight called us yesterday to apologise, claiming the
clothes had slipped through the net. He said the offending items would be
removed from shelves straight away.


OPINION / OTHER
______________________________________

June 23, The Statesman (India)
Junta Rule - Soe Myint

India Should Put Pressure On Myanmar Regime To Free Suu Kyi

Hope of democratic reforms in Burma are fading fast. Myanmar’s military
leadership has hardened its attitude to the democratic opposition led by
Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Rangoon’s generals seem set on their
seven-point “roadmap for democracy’’ with or without the support of the
National League for Democracy which won the 1990 general elections. Their
goal is obvious: to legitimise the military’s political role.

An indication of the junta’s fist-clenching posture was the arrest of Suu
Kyi in May last year. She had been released from house arrest in May 2002,
and was busy meeting her supporters and re-building her party’s
grassroot-level organisations. During one such journey, on 30 May 2003,
Suu Kyi and her party were brutally attacked by thugs allegedly sponsored
by the regime.
Suu Kyi and NLD vice-chairman U Tin Oo were taken prisoner, and several
members and supporters of the NLD were reportedly killed in this attack.
Burmese pro-democracy activists now refer to this attack as the “Depayin
massacre’’.

Global outrage

Suu Kyi’s arrest provoked outrage across the globe, including in India,
the United States, the European Union and the Association of South East
Asian Nations. The Burmese military government’s response came in the form
of a document that purports to support democracy but is an attempt to
subvert democratic institutions. There was no time-frame for the
seven-point “roadmap for democracy’.
The junta appointed the powerful military intelligence chief, General Khin
Nyunt, Prime Minister in August 2003. The roadmap, among other things,
recommends reconvening a national convention whose members were handpicked
by the junta and completion of a draft new constitution. The junta
abolished Burma’s last constitution when it came into power in 1988 and
the country has no constitution now.

The convention, initiated in 1993, was suspended three years later after
NLD delegates walked out in protest, accusing the government of preventing
their functioning in a democratic manner. On 17 May this year, the Burmese
regime re-convened the convention, but the NLD opted to stay out after the
junta refused to release Suu Kyi and U Tin Oo and allow party offices to
reopen. Political parties representing Burma’s key ethnic nationalities
which had successfully contested the 1990 election — among them the Shan
National League for Democracy (SNLD) — followed NLD’s lead and refused to
participate in the convention.

Outside Burma, UN secretary-general Kofi Annan and several governments,
including those of Thailand and Malaysia, voiced their concern. The UN
human rights envoy to Burma, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, stated that the
convention, in its current incarnation, lacks credibility. “This political
transition will not work; it will not work on the Moon, it will not work
on Mars”, he said. “They (the military leaders) can insist, but they will
not be successful”.

None of this deters the Burmese government. The convention opened on 17
May with 1,076 delegates, including representatives of the Kachin
Independence Organisation. What the ruling military government, the
election-winning NLD and non-Burmese ethnic groups did was to adopt a
common and pragmatic approach towards resolving the country’s
long-standing political stalemate. This deadlock prevented Burma from
developing into a modern and truly democratic nation. All stakeholders,
including the Myanmar Armed Forces, must live up to their role in national
reconciliation and nation-rebuilding and recognise the vital role others
have to play.

Burma and India have historically had close ties and cultural links.
Buddhism originated in India and flourished in Burma. Burma’s first
generation growing up under colonial rule received its higher education at
Calcutta University. Independent India lent its constitutional expert Sir
BN Rau to Burma when Burma’s post-independent future was being drawn up.

Strategic interests

Pandit Nehru and Burma’s independence hero Aung San, father of Suu Kyi,
were “brothers-in-arms” in their fight against colonialism. Netaji based
his Azad Hind Fauj in Burma during World War II. On his way to London to
conclude the Aung San-Attlee Agreement for Burma’s independence from the
British, Aung San stopped over in Delhi to confer with Nehru who gave a
coat to Aung San so that he could shield himself from Europe’s harsh
winter. Wearing that coat, Aung San became Burma’s national symbol.

India offered asylum to U Nu, the first and last democratically elected
Prime Minister of independent Burma after he was overthrown by a military
coup, led by General Ne Win, in 1962. When a nationwide pro-democracy
uprising broke out in 1988, India under Rajiv Gandhi supported the Burmese
democracy movement. In 1993, the Indian government honoured Suu Kyi with a
high civilian award, the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International
Understanding.

India has adopted a realistic approach in pursuit of its strategic
interests. Since 1998, India has extended $50 million in credit to the
Burmese regime. Another $57 million will be given to upgrade the Yangon
Mandalay railway. In addition, India has contributed $27 million to the
building of the 160-km Tamu-Kalewa highway. India has become Burma’s
second largest export market after Thailand, absorbing 25% of Burma’s
total exports. India also hopes to double bilateral trade with Burma to $1
billion in the next three years. It is planning to buy gas from Burma,
benefiting the military regime to the tune of millions of dollars.

Engagement with the military junta stems from a multiplicity of factors.
Modern-day Burma poses a strategic challenge on India’s eastern flank and
at its maritime frontiers. The increasing Chinese influence in Burma and
in the Indo-Burmese region has worried India. Chinese support to various
insurgency groups in the north-east and the fact that Burma has served as
a base for many of these insurgents has led the Indian government to
engage with Burma’s military government.

India, perhaps, hopes to avoid or limit a Chinese presence in the Indian
Ocean. It is also likely that India hopes it could prevent Burma from
becoming a Chinese pawn moving against India’s economic and security
interests. Moreover, Burma is seen as India’s gateway to Asia, in
particular to South-east Asia. At the end of 2003, Indian vice-president
Bhairon Singh Shekhawat visited Burma. The Burmese military junta’s
General Than Shwe is set to visit India in the near future.

It is debatable, however, whether India’s so-called “strategic interests”
have been served by its past decade of friendship with Burma’s dictatorial
regime. I am not arguing that India should reverse its current policy on
Burma. However, India has scope for positive action. Rangoon’s generals
should not be left in any doubt that India stands firmly by the democratic
aspirations of the Burmese people.

At present, around 1,500 Burmese refugees and asylum-seekers live in New
Delhi. About half of them are recognised by the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees as refugees. But the rehabilitation of Burmese
refugees in India has been a major UNHCR failure. The majority of Burmese
in India face tremendous hardship. UNHCR has started implementing a
phase-out programme, which cuts the meagre subsistence allowance to
refugees on the assumption that refugees should earn their livelihood in
India. However, the majority of Burmese in New Delhi have no access to
remunerated work.

Burmese prisoners

The case of 36 Burmese prisoners in the Andaman Islands also deserves
attention. On 12 February, 1998, the Indian army arrested 36 Burmese
nationals — 25 Arakans and 11 Karens — in a military operation called
“Operation Leech” in the Andamans Sea. They were charged in 1999 under the
“Arms and Explosive Substance Act” and under section 3(1) (b) of the
“National Security Act” of 1980. The Indian military failed to produce the
evidence to prove these allegations. For more than six years, these
Burmese have been held without trial. India’s foreign policy towards Burma
must be based on the common aspirations of the two peoples: democracy.

Natwar Singh, India’s present foreign minister, wrote in 1995 in an
article entitled “The Heroic Lady of Myanmar”: ”I conclude by appealing
that India do more to expose the totalitarian regime of Burma and make
every effort to ensure Suu Kyi’s unconditional release. That is the least
we can do for Aung San’s brave daughter”. The UN’s special envoy to Burma,
Razali Ismail, recently urged India to apply pressure on the Burmese
military junta to release Suu Kyi.

India’s new government is alarmed at reliable reports suggesting that the
Burmese government has succeeded in purchasing nuclear-reactor technology
from North Korea. Without doubt, there would be great cause for Indian
concern if Burma, which has comfortable friendships with China and
Pakistan (both nuclear nations), attains nuclear status.

The least India can do for Burmese democracy is to help expose the
authoritarian rule in Burma.

(The writer has been living in India as a refugee since 1999 and is Editor
In-Chief of Mizzima News, specialising on Burma and related issues.)

_____________________________________

June 22, Business Times (Singapore)
Don't hold Asem hostage over Yangon - Shada Islam

The European Union's (EU) decision to cancel two upcoming meetings with
leading Asian countries because of differences over Myanmar's
participation in the talks could turn out to be a fatal blow for the
Asian-Europe Meeting (Asem), the forum for Asia-Europe cooperation
launched amid much aplomb in Bangkok in 1996.

The EU's decision to call off the gathering of European and Asian finance
ministers in Brussels in July and an encounter of the two sides' economic
ministers in Rotterdam in September has certainly caused outrage in many
Asian members of Asem.

Although a planned summit of EU and Asian leaders in Hanoi in October has
not been scrapped, prospects for the meeting are also looking bleak. The
problem is simple: Asian countries want Asem to include military-ruled
Myanmar.

But EU governments - led by Britain - have refused the request, arguing
that Myanmar's ruling junta has made no progress in improving human rights
or releasing opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest.

The EU is adamant, however, that its 10 new members should have automatic
entry into Asem. Dutch government suggestions that the three Asian and 10
new EU states could be given observer status at the upcoming Asem meetings
has failed to win the backing of all EU governments.

So is Asem ready to be assigned to the dustbin? And despite all these
years of talking about alliances and region-to-region cooperation, are
Europe and Asia destined to always be mere acquaintances, never real
friends?

Certainly, the current mood in both regions is not conducive to
cool-headed discussions about the future or indeed on how best to tackle
relations with military-run Myanmar.

Asians are justifiably angry at what they view as the EU's short-sighted
approach to dealing with their region. How unfair - how unacceptable - say
Asian diplomats in Brussels that the EU has been ready to endanger the
entire Asem relationship because of problems with one country.

EU policy on Myanmar has always been messy, unclear and fuzzy, say Asians
and now the Union has allowed differences over Myanmar to torpedo years of
Asem endeavours to create a closer Asia-Europe dialogue to balance
America's overwhelmingly dominant role across both regions.

Europeans argue that their decision to cancel Asem meetings was not an
easy one. The 25-nation Union was torn for a long time between its
commitment to fight for human rights and democracy in Myanmar and a
growing acknowledgement among many EU members that Asem should not become
hostage to differences over one nation.

'Our relationship with Asia is extremely important . . . we matter to Asia
and Asia matters to us,' EU external relations commissioner Chris Patten
told reporters in Luxembourg last week.

But the EU was also 'particularly concerned about the deplorable
situation' in Myanmar, Mr Patten said, adding that the regime in Yangon
had overseen a 'calamitous' deterioration in the life of its deeply
impoverished people and failed to deliver on promises of political reform.

Asian governments were probably as disappointed as the Europeans at the
military junta's failure to make progress in bringing democracy to the
country, added Mr Patten. Asians would, in fact, be surprised if the EU
did not express its views on human rights, Mr Patten insisted. EU foreign
and security policy chief Javier Solana was equally insistent that he
would not face hostility when he attends an Asian regional forum meeting
in Jakarta in early July.

'We will not feel embarrassed at all. The embarrassment should be for
Myanmar,' Mr Solana said. Perhaps. But there is little doubt that Asem is
in dire trouble. And reviving the relationship will require the kind of
mature dialogue and rational discussion that both sides appear incapable
of - at least for the moment.

And yet the two regions should and must talk and engage with each other.
Europe and Asia are dynamic trading partners, increasingly investing in
each other's economies and are equally committed to a rapid conclusion of
the new World Trade Organization (WTO) round on liberalising global trade.

But perhaps even more importantly, the two regions face common challenges.
Both have to stand up to a United States in increasingly unilateral mode.
Both face the threat of terrorism and extremism and both believe in a
multipolar world where multilateral institutions, the United Nations and
the WTO, have the leading role.

What a pity, therefore, that Asem is being allowed to fall into disrepute.
The generals in Myanmar are unlikely to feel the consequences of Asem's
demise. But in an increasingly interdependent world, other Asian countries
and the EU will certainly suffer if Asem is allowed to perish.


ANNOUNCEMENT
_____________________________________

June 23, Radio France International (RFI)
French radio broadcasts from border

RFI has produced several stories from the Burma-Thai. They are available
at www.rfi.fr. Please note that the radio broadcasts are in French. One
story deals with French-oil company Total’s explicit use of forced labour
in construction in Burma.

_____________________________________

June 23, Amnesty International
Myanmar (Burma): Sports journalist remains imprisoned while Europe hits
football frenzy

Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders are calling on sports
journalists to give their support to imprisoned Burmese sports editor Zaw
Thet Htwe and seven students believed to have been detained for their
sporting activities.

Zaw Thet Htwe is the editor of a popular Burmese sports magazine, First
Eleven. He was initially sentenced to death in November 2003 but his
sentence was reduced to three years imprisonment on 12 May 2004.
International pressure helped to contribute to the commutation of his
sentence and the two organisations are hopeful that additional pressure
could help secure his full release.

The military junta accused Zaw Thet Htwe of involvement in a “conspiracy”
against the government and charged him with “high treason”.

However Amnesty International and Reporters without Borders believe that
he is a prisoner of conscience, arrested for exercising his right to
freedom of expression. He had reportedly taken the risk of exposing
irregularities on the part of Burmese sports officials.

The seven law students, who have been in detention since June 2003, are
believed to have been arrested because they set up a student sports union
in their university without official permission.

Aung Gyi, Aung Ko Lwin, Kyaw Maung, Myo Myint Tun, Myo Than Htut, Nang
Siang None and Win Htut Lwin were sentenced to terms of between seven and
fifteen years’ imprisonment and were reportedly ill-treated after their
arrest.

They are among more than 1,350 political prisoners detained in Myanmar,
many of whom have been arrested for their peaceful political activities.

An online petition for the release of Zaw Thet Htwe and the seven students
has been set up on www.rsf.org.