BurmanNet News, June 26-28, 2004

[Editor]

June 26-28, 2004, Issue # 2505


INSIDE BURMA
AP: Myanmar's state media blames 'terrorists' for bombing
NLM via BBC: Burmese press conference names rail station bombs suspect
S.H.A.N.: Junta plays dirty game, claims convention delegate

ON THE BORDER
Nation: Struggling to stem Ranong's tide of HIV

BUSINESS
AFP: Tourism rising in military-ruled Myanmar: report

REGIONAL
AFP: Indonesia says EU to blame if Asia-Europe summit collapses over Myanmar
AFP: Police rearrest Myanmar activists freed by Malaysian court: rights group
Nation: Reaching trade pact with US no simple task

OPINION/ OTHER
Japan Times: People of Myanmar need Asia's help
International Herald Tribune: EU lectures on human rights ring hollow


INSIDE BURMA
______________________________________

June 28, Associated Press
Myanmar's state media blames 'terrorists' for bombing

Yangon: A bomb attack Sunday near Yangon's central railway station was the
work of "terrorists" trying to cause panic and disrupt the government's
moves to draft a new constitution, military-ruled Myanmar's official media
said Monday.

The government gave the same explanation for three homemade bombs that
went off before dawn on Saturday in the same area. Four unexploded bombs
were discovered nearby.

No casualties or damage were reported in the two days of bombings, and no
group claimed responsibility.

The ruling junta blamed the bombings Saturday on dissident groups in exile
in neighboring Thailand, accusing them of trying to disturb the ongoing
National Convention to draft a constitution. It described the bombers as
terrorists.

Government officials did not comment on the bombing Sunday in front of the
railway station but newspapers - which serve as the mouthpieces of the
junta - used similar terminology to describe the perpetrators.

"The plot was made by terrorists with the aim of harming and frightening
the public, of jeopardizing the ongoing National Convention and of
spreading fabricated news to the effect that there is no peace and
tranquility in Myanmar," the New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.

The Burmese-language Myanma Ahlin daily published a similar report.

Bombings are rare in the tightly guarded capital, although there is a
well-organized armed opposition to the junta along Myanmar's eastern
border with Thailand.

In 1997, the junta charged that a Thailand-based group planned to bomb the
Chinese and Indonesian embassies. The dissidents were also blamed for a
parcel bomb that killed the daughter of one of the military government's
top generals.

One of those exiles, Pyi Thit Nyunt Wei, is the son of Nyunt Wei, a
central executive committee member of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's
National League for Democracy party.

The junta also blamed anti-government dissidents for the explosion of a
bomb placed in a garbage dump near a park in the capital in March last
year that killed a municipal worker and injured three others. Dissident
groups denied responsibility.

The current junta came to power in 1988 and refused to step down after the
opposition, led by Suu Kyi, won elections two years later.

______________________________________

June 27, New Light of Myanmar via BBC Monitoring International Reports
Burmese press conference names rail station bombs suspect

Text of press conference with Brig-Gen Kyaw Thein of the Ministry of
Defence on 26 June at Tatmadaw guest house on Inya Road, Rangoon;
published in English by Burmese newspaper The New Light of Myanmar web
site on 26 June

Yangon (Rangoon), 26 June A press conference on explosion of mines planted
by terrorists in the environs of Yangon Railway Station early in this
morning was held at the Tatmadaw guest house on Inya Road here this
evening. Present on the occasion were State Peace and Development
Council's Public Relations and Information Work Committee Chairman
Minister for Labour U Tin Winn, Vice-Chief of Military Intelligence
Maj-Gen Kyaw Win, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs U Khin Maung Win,
Deputy Minister for Information Brig-Gen Aung Thein, senior military
officers, departmental heads, media officials of the Ministry of
Information, Myanmar Foreign Correspondents Club Patron U Hla Htway,
President U Sao Kai Hpa and members and guests. Brig-Gen Kyaw Thein of the
Ministry of Defence explained matters relating to the explosion of mines
planted by terrorists. He said that terrorists planted mines in the busy
environs of Yangon Railway Station to harm the public. Three mines
exploded and security unit members cleared the place and had found four
more mines.

With the aims of harming and frightening the public and disturbing the
on-going National Convention and spreading fabricated news that there is
no peace and tranquillity in Myanmar, saboteurs who have connections with
Pyithit Nyunt Wai (a) Maung Maung of Federation of Trade Union of Burma
(FTUB), ABSDF (All Burma Students Democratic Front), NLD (National League
for Democracy) (LA), NCGUB (National Coalition Government of the Union of
Burma), Democratic Party for New Society (DPNS) and related organizations
exploded the mines. Pyithit Nyunt Wai is a fugitive and his father is NLD
Central Executive Committee member U Nyunt Wai. Pyithit Nyunt Wai was a
staff member of Myanma Gems Corporation in 1988. While he was serving
duties there, precious gems under his charge were lost. He was responsible
and while actions were to be taken against him, he fled to the other
country. He attempted to reform the saboteur team named Hawk in 1992. In
the year 1994, he met with Reman Htoo, secretary of Kayinni terrorist
group (KNPP) in Chiangmai and asked the latter to explode bombs in Kayah
State by providing 50,000 baht. In 1997, Pyithit Nyunt Wai sent Myo Aung
Thant to enter via Kawthoung and explode bombs in Myanmar by providing him
with eight C-3 gelignites, ten detonators, wires and related things hidden
in a rice-cooker. Authorities concerned exposed it in time and the case
was disclosed to the public on 27 June 1997.

Authorities concerned exposed and arrested those who planned to commit
destructive acts and related persons on Martyr Day in July 2003. In this
connection, Pyithit Nyunt Wai met Min Kyi (a) Naing Min Kyi and Shwe Mann
in Maesot in Thailand in March 2003. He told them to collect news after
formation of small groups in the country. He also provided a satellite
telephone to send local news and monetary assistance.

The seventh meeting of National Council Union of Burma (NCUB), an
anti-government organization, was held at a place in a border area from 3
to 8 May 2004. Pyithit Nyunt Wai was chosen as general secretary of that
organization due to spending a large sum of money. The NCUB is an
organization that cooperated with Democratic Alliance of Burma (DAB), NLD
(LA) and National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB).

Making use of money he received from organizations in foreign nations,
Pyithit Nyunt Wai bought cars for some important members of NCUB and
provided cash for them in order to get a post in the organization. After
receiving the post of general secretary of NCUB, he said within three
months he would commit destructive acts at home and abroad including
explosions in connection with political condition.

No one was hurt in the explosion of mines. No matter how the terrorists
plot the destructive acts in Myanmar, there is no great danger as people
of the country are pious. The security units are trying to expose the
terrorists.

Brig-Gen Kyaw Thein replied to the queries raised by the journalists and
the press conference ended at 5.45 p.m. (local time) After the press
conference, media officials and foreign correspondents observed
documentary photos related to the explosion of mines planted by terrorists
in environs of Yangon Railway Station and seizures of mines and
documentary photos of saboteurs who entered the country to commit
destructive acts on Martyr Day 2003 under public fighting project and
seizure of explosives.

______________________________________

June 26, Shan Herald Agency for News
Junta plays dirty game, claims convention delegate

The military government's agents in the still ongoing National Convention
have been busy playing one delegation against another throughout,
according a participant from Shan State.

"Each one of the 13 delegations that had jointly submitted a paper
(proposing that most legislative powers remain in each constituent state)
has been met and lectured on the benefits of presenting separate
proposals," said the representative from the Other Invited Delegates
group, one of the eight Convention groupings as classified by the
conveners.

The group consists of 90 delegates from 28 armed organizations that have
either concluded truce pacts with or surrendered to Rangoon and 15
individuals. The remaining seven groups are Political parties,
Representatives-elect, National races, Peasants, Workers,
Intellectuals-intelligentsia and state service personnel.

He claimed that none of the 13 delegations had been swayed by the
officials' "sweet words," though it had succeeded in convincing Kokang, Wa
and Mongla delegations to put together a separate set of proposals. "Their
main proposition is to deal with them as Union Territories, thus coming
under direct control of central government instead of state," explained
the delegate. "Their rationale is that all the three regions border with
China, thus requiring a high security attention from the center."

He however was not sure if the three entertained ulterior motives as well.
In the past, two principalities had applied for secession to the Shan
States Council. As a result, Kokang was allowed to secede from Hsenwi but
remained in the Shan federation, while Mongpai's application was left
pending a referendum and response in favor by the Karenni-Kayah state
which Mongpai aspired to join. (The prince of Mongpai, called Mobyay by
Burmese, nevertheless, failed to realize his dream, as he was unable to
resolve existing disputes with the Karennis.)

To no none's wonder, he said, Aung Kham Hti's Pa-O National Organization
expressed its total endorsement for the government's 6 objectives and 104
constitutional guidelines. "The rest, many of whom had initially sided
with the 'Band of 13', later backed off saying they could not afford to
offend Rangoon," he complained. "What they do now is to speak in words
that are accommodating, if not out rightly approving, of the government's
stance."

One of the diversions offered by the National Convention Convening
Commission was allowing the delegates to watch the late night European
football tournament that began on 12 June and has just entered the
quarter-finals. "Everyday you see hundreds of delegates asleep in their
seats in the air-conditioned hall, while the speaker reads out his paper,"
he laughed, "although compulsory meeting hours are just between 09:00 -
12:00."

The rest of the day was for group discussions, to which most of the groups
had reportedly not taken much seriously.

He also thought that the Convention had already run its course. "It's time
all of us, including the generals, take a break," he said.

The delegates would begin their 7th week on Monday at Nyaunghnapin camp
where the convention is being held.

This historic step towards democracy, as hailed by Rangoon, has been
disparaged by the junta's critics as "sham", as it was boycotted by the
majority of representatives elected in 1990.


ON THE BORDER
______________________________________

June 28, The Nation
Struggling to stem Ranong's tide of HIV - Jim Pollard

One of the world's biggest NGOs and several overseas governments have
focused on the drastic needs and health concerns of Burmese workers in
this southern port

The sores all over Mor Ter's arms are a telltale sign for anyone with even
just a basic knowledge of Aids. And her son's regular cough suggests that
he too is not long for this world.

Dr Win Maung checks the four-year-old's chest with his stethoscope while
we sit on the floor nearby. Mor Ter's room seems about as grim as her fate
' plastic sheeting on one wall and not a single item of any material
value.

It's dim, stuffy and there's little privacy ' children crowd the doorways
on either side, staring at Mor Ter (not her real name) and her visitors.
We're in the midst of a row of squalid wooden homes, perched a metre or
two over what looks like an open sewer.

This small 32-year-old woman has a shy polite dignity. But it's not hard
to sense the tremendous hurt inside her as she talks about the agonies
she's had to endure. It keeps us quiet.

Her back is sore and she feels weak. Her second husband, a Burmese
fisherman, has not returned ' hasn't contacted her for five months. She's
had to deal with the near certainty she'll never see him again.

Mor Ter used to work for a company collecting fish at Ranong's morning
markets. Her first husband, the father of her child, was also a Burmese
fisherman. He died of Aids several years ago.

In a few days, after four years here, she's going back home to Rangoon
'for the last part of her life'. Mor Ter holds her son close with both
arms wrapped around him, like the final love of her life.

Her parents are in their fifties and no longer work, she said, but she has
five younger sisters who can take care of her son when she dies. World
Vision is providing her with expenses and their staff will escort her back
to Rangoon.

'She wouldn't let us test her boy's blood [for HIV],' Dr Win Maung said
later.

Win Maung is also from Rangoon, but works for the aid group on a special
HIV project in Ranong supported by the Japanese, Australian, Canadian, US
and Thai governments.

Tens of thousands of Burmese flock to the port, which has 47 piers for its
fishing fleet, and is just a short boat ride from Kawthaung, Burma's
southernmost point. Many have sneaked in lately as the deadline to
register alien workers, July 1 to 31, nears.
About 7,000 to 8,000 work on the boats, but there are also ice factories,
freezer rooms and packing factories. The work is tough, sometimes
dangerous and the Burmese are often mistreated ' ripped off by
unscrupulous boat owners, and subject to 'shakedowns' for money, or sex,
by some of the local police.

But with business at a virtual standstill and minimal opportunities at
home, they're prepared to do almost anything to make some kind of future
for themselves and their families.

A long way from home and normal social influences, they do what they can
to get by. About 120 young women are sex workers in karaoke bars in the
Bang Rin area near the port. Many were frighteningly ignorant about HIV
when they began such work, with sex still a taboo subject not broached by
conservative parents, especially in rural parts of Burma.

One of them was Jasmine (not her real name), a slender flat-faced
20-year-old who also has HIV. She's much healthier than Mor Ter and more
fortunate, in that both her husband, a fisherman, and six-month-old baby
have tested negative to HIV. Her status was detected during pregnancy
tests and she was given drugs to stop her baby getting the disease.

Jasmine's afraid of discrimination ' her neighbours don't know yet that
she has the virus. World Vision has Burmese staff to help people such as
this. One is Pyoe Win, 32, who lost her husband to Aids eight months ago.
She joined the NGO at the beginning of the year and helps look after Aids
patients such as Jasmine and Mor Ter, bringing them food and attending to
other needs.

'I never really found out about the disease at home,' Pyoe said. 'I had a
concept of what it was, but didn't know until I got here nine months ago.'
Her husband worked as a labourer on construction sites in Phuket ' he told
Dr Win Maung he visited brothels there while Pyoe was back in Burma with
their two children.

Other Burmese staff work with the fishermen. The aid group tries to find
at least one person on every vessel who can act as a trainer and pass on
knowledge and advice about 'life skills' to other crewmembers.

In military-style barracks where about 1,000 fishermen and their families
live, I joined Dr Win Maung and World Vision staff for an informal
discussion with a group of young fishermen. The aid group has brochures in
Burmese about self-esteem and safe sex. They suggest the fishermen strive
for a precious life, and develop skills to help them 'navigate danger
zones' en-route to their life goals.

There are several golden rules they stress to the fishermen in regard to
sex and HIV: 1) abstain, or stay strictly faithful to your wife, or
partner; 2) always use condoms; 3) try to avoid getting very drunk; and 4)
don't decorate or try to enlarge your penis by inserting studs, stones or
oils in the foreskin.

The latter is a common problem among fishermen, Dr Win Maung said at the
aid group's local office. Hundreds of Burmese, Lao, Thai and Cambodian
crewmen in Ranong, Pattani and Mahachai have tattoos on their organs, or
have implanted studs, marbles or other stones inside their foreskin.

'They want to have bigger organs. But they always encounter breakage when
they put on the condom,' he said, adding that Thai managers of trawlers
appeared to have encouraged crews to do this.

World Vision also targets young women via four non-formal schools for
Burmese workers in Ranong, to try to limit the number of unwanted
pregnancies and induced abortions. Some of the sex workers in the bars are
just 15 or 16 years old.

Dr Win Maung said 130 Burmese ' 86 men and 44 women ' had been found with
HIV in the port between February 2002 and January this year. 'Ten to 20
have been dying a month since my arrival here,' he said, adding that he
also operates a mobile clinic that visits areas where the Burmese workers
live, usually behind factories, or away from the main roads.

The project aims to get the Burmese to utilise public health services ' a
big problem because very few have passports, which are expensive and
difficult to get, or work registration papers and fear they will be
deported if they go to government hospitals.
WV staff said only 12,000 of the 80,000 or so Burmese workers in Ranong
province have work registration papers. This is why the group has set up a
local clinic with Dr Win Maung and others who can speak Burmese, Mon or
Karen.

About 30 people come to the clinic every day. It provides general
treatment, counselling, pre- and post-natal care for pregnant women, plus
vaccines for children. Given the huge health risks and desperate need,
it's aid that's absolutely vital.


BUSINESS
______________________________________

June 27, Agence France Presse
Tourism rising in military-ruled Myanmar: report

Yangon: Military-ruled Myanmar has recorded a major jump in tourist
arrivals, much of it fueled by a rise in day-trippers entering from China
and Thailand, the Myanmar Times said.

Nearly 600,000 foreign visitors arrived last year, an increase of more
than 110,000 on the figure for 2002, with tourism generating 116 million
dollars, up from 99 million dollars in 2002, according to the edition of
the semi-official weekly to be published Monday.

It said border tourism skyrocketed 44 percent from 2002, accounting for
more than half of all visitors last year.

The rise occurred despite the international outcry over the junta's
ongoing detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and a crackdown on
her pro-democracy party since an ambush on her motorcade in May last year.

The director of the junta's Tourism Promotion Department, Nyunt Nyunt
Than, told the newspaper that Myanmar was experiencing booming tourism
during the current wet season, indicating that next year's figures would
be even higher.

"If more tourists come in during the low tourist season, there is no doubt
that we will see many more during the high season," Nyunt Nyunt Than was
quoted as saying.

The weekly said a survey conducted by the junta at Myanmar's largest
airport had revealed that visitors from Thailand topped the list of Asian
tourists, accounting for 10.8 per cent of the overall total of 59 percent,
followed in order by Taiwan, Japan and China.

Germany provided the highest number of tourists from non-Asian countries
followed by the United States, France, Britain and Italy.

However the average length of stay and average daily spending by tourists
last year was reportedly 7.5 days and 80 dollars, the same as for 2002.

Myanmar's military regime sees the tourism industry as an important source
of foreign exchange to boost the country's economy, which is in tatters
due to decades of economic mismanagement and ongoing international
sanctions.

Sanctions were toughened by the United States and the European Union
following Aung San Suu Kyi's detention while new economic aid was
suspended by Japan, the regime's largest donor.

The Nobel peace laureate's National League for Democracy party supports a
ban on tourism as advocated by certain human rights groups until the
government introduces democratic reforms.


REGIONAL
______________________________________

June 28, Agence France Presse
Indonesia says EU to blame if Asia-Europe summit collapses over Myanmar -
Jason Gutierrez

Jakarta: The European Union would be to blame if a scheduled summit with
East Asian countries collapsed over concerns about the rule of Myanmar's
military junta, a senior Indonesian diplomat said Monday.

Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said the EU was
guilty of double standards -- insisting its 10 new members could
automatically join the October talks but seeking to block Myanmar's
participation.

The two-day summit of heads of state and government from Asia and Europe
is due to open in Hanoi on October 8.

"One must not lose sight of the fact that on the side of the EU, they are
insisting to have all 10 of their new members as a group in toto,"
Natalegawa told reporters.

ASEAN countries on the other hand "don't make it our business to examine
the conduct of (EU) individual countries or put them under a microscope
before admitting them or agreeing to their participation" in the
Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), he said.

Senior officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
are in Jakarta hammering out a solution in a bid to break the impasse
ahead of meetings of the 10-nation grouping's foreign ministers this week.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

ASEAN wants its three newer members -- Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar -- to be
included in the biennial summit in return for the participation of 10
European countries which officially joined the bloc earlier this month.

However, some EU members are opposed to Myanmar's entry unless the
military regime lifts restrictions on opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi
and other prominent figures in her embattled National League for Democracy
party.

The incoming EU Dutch presidency expressed hope this month that the row
would be resolved, even as it called on the junta to improve its treatment
of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Natalegawa said ASEAN foreign ministers would include the Myanmar issue in
a joint communique after their talks here on Wednesday. The draft
paragraph, however, is still far from complete.

Diplomats attending the meetings here told AFP that the Philippines and
Indonesia were pushing for a firm statement urging Myanmar to change its
handling of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Myanmar officials, however, have insisted that the matter was domestic,
hiding behind ASEAN's policy of non-interference in each other's internal
affairs.

Netalegawa said ASEAN officials also hoped to break the impasse, but was
asking for "mutual respect" between the two regions.

"It's really in the hands of Europe. They are the ones creating the
situation," he said, stressing that ASEAN's insistence to allow Myanmar to
sit in the talks "is a reasonable view".

An initial draft of the joint communique of the ministerial meeting
indicated that a paragraph on the Myanmar issue would be formulated
subject to developments.

But it reaffirms its "continued support to the participation of Cambodia,
Laos and Myanmar concurrently in the upcoming (ASEM summit)".

"We want the statement to be stronger, but Myanmar keeps on insisting that
it is an internal domestic issue," one Filpino official said.

"I doubt if they (the junta) would agree on the word 'release'," in the
final text referring to Aung Sang Suu Kyi," the official added.

______________________________________

June 28, Agence France Presse
Police rearrest Myanmar activists freed by Malaysian court: rights group

Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian police on Monday rearrested 22 pro-democracy
activists from Myanmar, including a five-year-old boy, who had been held
on charges of illegal assembly, a rights group said.

The group, Voice of the Malaysian People (Suaram), described the move as a
mockery of justice.

In a statement, Suaram coordinator Eric Paulsen said the group "condemns
in the strongest terms the re-arrest".

The 22, including the boy, were first arrested on May 17 while protesting
against Myanmar's ruling military junta outside Myanmar's embassy in Kuala
Lumpur.

They were held in a police lock-up until Monday, when magistrate Aizatul
Akmal Maharani discharged them, their lawyer Latheefa Koya told AFP.

They were then rearrested by police outside the courtroom on immigration
charges.

"I fear they will be deported, the possibility is always there," Latheefa
said.

She said police had also arrested two other Myanmar nationals who were
present to provide moral support but they were later released.

Under Malaysian laws, a gathering of five people or more without a permit
can be termed an "illegal assembly" and they can be arrested, she said.

Paulsen demanded authorities release all the Myanmar nationals immediately
without condition.

"These arrests ... certainly bode ill for the future and well-being of
refugees and asylum seekers in Malaysia," he said.

Paulsen said the action by the police mocked and displayed "blatant
disrespect for the judiciary, international law and ethical practices".

The 22 had staged their protest outside the embassy here as Myanmar's
opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) refused to attend key
constitutional talks in Yangon.

There are some 500,000 Myanmar citizens in Malaysia as foreign workers,
asylum seekers and refugees.

The NLD boycotted the constitutional talks because Myanmar's military
rulers refused to free its leader, democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, from
house arrest or relax repressive rules surrounding the forum.

Aung San Suu Kyi was taken into custody a year ago after a clash between
her supporters and a junta-backed mob.

______________________________________

June 28, The Nation
Reaching trade pact with US no simple task

A free-trade agreement with the US will not be an easy deal, Jeerawat Na
Thalang reports.

When negotiations on a free-trade agreement with the US kick off today,
Nitya Pibulsongkram, head of the Thai team, will find them to be the most
complicated to date because of the element of international diplomacy.

The FTA concluded with Australia was partly a product of geopolitical
strategy, which symbolically counts Australia as a good friend of Asean
through what one diplomat described as 'back-door diplomacy'. Yet the
political factor did not dictate the course of those negotiations.

Apart from trade benefits, the sea change in US international diplomacy
after the September 11 events, Thailand's policy towards Burma and the
Treaty of Amity will be at the back of negotiators' minds.

'The single worst mistake a candidate's country can make is to assume an
FTA with the US will be a straightforward technocratic exercise,' Hunton &
Williams LLP said in a report prepared for the government.

For example New Zealand saw its FTA talks with the US delayed for several
years by its longstanding resistance to visiting and hosting rights for
nuclear-powered US navy ships.

Hunton & Williams noted that the FTA would promote Thailand's status as a
good American ally. The Pentagon is still miffed that the Cabinet issued a
resolution following September 11 and the US war in Afghanistan that
Thailand would remain neutral while other countries in the region seized
the opportunity to show their support for the US. The FTA would help
restore Thailand's reputation as Washington's good friend and
long-standing ally.

In a letter to Congress seeking approval to start negotiating an FTA with
Thailand, US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said the FTA would
foster economic growth. But Thailand is not only the US's 18th largest
trading partner with US$19.7 billion (Bt800 billion) in trade in 2002 but
also a key regional ally on military and security matters as well as a
partner in the global war on terrorism.

Over the past year the government has pursued bilateral FTAs with various
countries, partly because of the stalemate in the Doha round of trade
liberalisation under the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The US is a
natural target as it absorbs one-fifth of Thai exports. However, the
Thailand Development Research Institute reports that the Kingdom has been
losing share in the US market to countries like China and Mexico.

The FTA should boost Thailand's exports to the US by 3.4 per cent and
imports by 4.7 per cent while adding 1.34 per cent to gross domestic
product growth, the institute said.

Trade statistics are not the sole topic on the table, especially in areas
where the decision-making process does not leave Zoellick any autonomy to
strike a deal. The US negotiators have to go through a series of public
hearings with testimony from different groups. The Trade Promotion
Authority Act of 2002 has given Congress supervision of trade policy, a
hot issue in this presidential election year.

Some US congressmen have built up pressure by linking human rights with
trade. One is Mitch McConnell, a leading proponent of US sanctions against
Burma. Congressman Dennis Kucinich has also urged Zoellick to 'address
Prime Minister Thaksin's repressive policies and his cosying up to Burma's
brutal military junta' to win a congressional mandate for trade talks with
Thailand.

The Thai-US Treaty of Amity will also become a major bargaining point. The
government has sought to extend to other countries the special rights now
granted to US investors in Thailand and vice versa under the treaty. The
WTO requires fair treatment among its members but allows Thailand and the
US to extend preferential treatment for 10 years under
most-favoured-nation exemptions.

Once the exemptions end in January, Thailand is unlikely to seek further
exemptions or offer the same privileges to all other WTO members. Instead
both sides may reconstruct the treaty in the form of a WTO-consistent FTA
to maintain the privileges for Thai and US citizens.

If the US' FTAs with Singapore and Chile serve as models, a dispute
settlement panel will be set up that can rule on cases relating to US and
Thai interests outside the judicial systems.

The FTA is expected to lift the standard for intellectual-property
protection above what Thailand has promised the WTO, raising concern among
local activists that it would limit patient access to cheap drugs.Unlike
the agreement with Australia, the US-Thai FTA talks have been closely
watched because they will not only have a stronger impact on local
business but also set a benchmark for future FTA deals, especially the one
now being negotiated with Japan.


OPINION/ OTHER
______________________________________

June 28, The Japan Times
People of Myanmar need Asia's help - Nyunt Shwe

Myanmar's stubborn military regime has decided to carry on with its
controversial constitutional convention even as National League of
Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her lieutenant, U Tin U, remain
under house arrest. The last time a free and fair election was held - in
1990 - the NLD won a landslide victory, taking 395 of 485 parliamentary
seats.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has voiced his concern and worry about
the manner in which the military regime, the State Peace and Development
Council, or SPDC, is conducting the national convention, but his efforts
have not born any fruit.

The United States and Britain have criticized the convention, while
demanding the immediate release of Suu Kyi, but Myanmar's generals have
replied that America and Britain should stop lecturing them about
democracy as the failure in Iraq shows how interference in another
country's affairs only worsens the situation.

It is crucial that Myanmar's prodemocracy forces gain the support of Asian
countries, but this is difficult. Thailand, China, India and Malaysia
could all have a tremendous impact on the situation should they so desire,
but they may be unwilling to abandon the economic concessions awarded by
the SPDC. It is more likely that they will remain indecisive, stating that
they will deal with the situation in their "own way."

We must also not forget how the recent trip by Myanmar's Prime Minister
Gen. Khin Nyunt to Malaysia and Thailand resulted in a change in Bangkok
and Kuala Lumpur's tone regarding Suu Kyi's house arrest and NLD
participation in the national convention.

This seems to indicate that there are only three countries that could play
a positive role in solving Myanmar's problem: America, Japan and China.

China, however, is not likely to take on such a role. And cultural and
historical differences between the U.S. and Myanmar mean that America's
involvement is also not likely the answer.

In this context, Japan is the most suitable country to help Myanmar's
conflicting parties reach an honorable solution. Not only would the
Myanmarese benefit immensely, but Tokyo would enhance its position as a
regional leader.

NLD secretary U Lwin has lamented the disunity of activists who live
abroad and the existence of so many splinter groups and parties. He has
also criticized overseas-based activists who unrealistically criticize the
NLD, saying that the people inside who subsist on rice gruel understand
the position and difficulties of the NLD better than those who are "biting
dollars" abroad.

A few scholars and political activists have accused the NLD of overlooking
the reality of the situation in Myanmar. Yet the NLD has neither ignored
the historical role played by the Myanmar Army nor the Army's future role
in the making of the new Myanmar.
The NLD knows the physical strength of the Army as well as the fact that
the Army has lost its original mission of serving the people. The Army's
lack of moral fiber has negated its role, and it has been despised by the
majority of the people for 16 years.

In the aftermath of the May 2003 Depeyin massacre, which led to the most
recent house arrest of Suu Kyi, Myanmar's most revered writer, Ludu Daw
Amar, said she thought nothing could be achieved without bloodshed.

This raises a question that should be considered by the NLD and all
Myanmarese: Should Myanmar's citizens take up arms and revolt, or should
they follow the strategy of the African National Congress, which exposed
the brutality and unfairness of South Africa's apartheid government and
quickened its end?

Surely, violence against the government is no answer as it would result
only in coercion and suppression against prodemocracy forces, particularly
the NLD. As for the military regime, it should return to its Buddhist
roots and recall the aim of the founding father of the army: to serve the
people of Myanmar, and to be loved and honored by them. The generals
should dwell upon the following quotations from the ancient monk Yuanwu,
and let their egos go.

"Thus human actions have many faults and errors - this is something
neither the wise nor the foolish can avoid - yet it is only the wise who
can correct their faults and change for the better, whereas the foolish
mostly conceal their faults and cover up their wrongs."

Nyunt Shwe is a freelance journalist based in Tokyo. Formerly he served as
an elected township leader in the National League for Democracy.

______________________________________

June 26, The International Herald Tribune
EU lectures on human rights ring hollow - Philip Bowring

The Asia-Europe summit

Hong Kong: Arrogance and hypocrisy remain two repetitive themes of
Europe's approach to East Asia. In the balance at the moment is the future
of the Asia-Europe summit due to be held in Hanoi in October over the
participation of Myanmar, a member of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations, or ASEAN. The meeting is supposed to group the EU 15 with the
ASEAN 10 plus China, Japan and South Korea.

If Europe bans Myanmar from a Euro-Asia Finance Ministers meeting due to
be held in Brussels next month, ASEAN will exclude the new EU members from
the summit, which will thus collapse.

There are plenty of reasons to regard the Yangon regime with the utmost
distaste. It was always unwise of ASEAN to admit the country until it
demonstrated a modicum of effort to move towards a political and economic
structure more in line with the rest of the group. ASEAN efforts to
influence Myanmar's rulers have been largely ignored and the pro-democracy
leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, remains under house arrest.

EU members are entitled to boycott Myanmar if they wish, but neighbors in
the region have to deal with realities on the ground. EU efforts to
determine ASEAN members' own policies are quite extraordinarily arrogant.

More than that, they focus largely on the person of Aung San Suu Kyi
rather than on the many other evils of the regime -- drug dealing,
corruption, oppression of minorities, economic failures. She may be a
Nobel Price winning heroine. But former Prime Minister Zhao Ziyang of
China has been under house arrest for a lot longer -- 15 years -- without
a squeak from the Europeans although he arguably did more for
liberalization than Aung San Suu Kyi could ever do.

Indeed, Europe has tried harder than almost anyone to ingratiate itself
with his jailers, the perpetrators of Tiananmen.

As for Vietnam, its political structure is as closed as that of Myanmar,
and Singapore runs close to Hanoi when it comes to suppression, through
one means or another, of political dissent and challenges to the ruling
party. Malaysia's former deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, is also
widely seen as a political prisoner.

Europe has an uncanny ability to try to create cause celebres in countries
which mean little to it but allow former colonial governments to exercise
"saviour" instincts on behalf of oppressed Asians and Africans. But once
political or commercial advantages loom large the liberal instincts are
too often quickly forgotten.

That has long been the case with Singapore, whose utility has triumphed
over liberal pronouncements by European governments and driven most
western media to unparalleled levels of self-censorship.

Just this week, the Singapore-based Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), partly
funded and staffed by the EU, was accused by the International Federation
of Liberal Youth, a grouping of youth representatives from liberal and
democratic political parties, of withdrawing at the last minute support
for a meeting in Kuala Lumpur because of participation by Young Democrats
of Singapore, an opposition group.

A long self-justificatory denial by the ASEF public affairs director,
Albrecht Rothacher, ended by hoping that the allegation "was not
calculated to create difficulties between ASEF and the government of
Singapore, our host country" -- a remark which only served to contrast the
difference between Europe's view of political oppression in Singapore and
in Myanmar.

It was the case with Indonesia under Suharto and is very much the case
with China today. National self-interest is triumphing over proclaimed
ideals. That is hardly surprising but it is more hypocritical than the
equally self-interested attitudes of China towards Myanmar.

As for ASEAN, the more lecturing it faces from faraway Europeans on how to
deal with Yangon, the less pressure it is likely to apply. Let ASEAN, like
the EU, learn its own mistakes.