BurmaNet News, June 30, 2003

[Editor]

June 30, 2004, Issue # 2507

"In this context we gladly note that a member of the ASEAN family,
Myanmar, has added its voice to the cause of promoting democracy. We do
encourage Myanmar to take every action that will add substance to the
expression of its democratic aspirations."
- Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri addresses ASEAN meeting, as
quoted in AFP, June 30, 2003


INSIDE BURMA
Narinjara: SPDC Changes Enemies in Military Training Lectures

ON THE BORDER
Xinhua: Southern Thailand imposes curfew on alien workers to curb illegal
immigration

BUSINESS / MONEY
Irrawaddy: Companies to Skip the "Dirty List"

REGIONAL
AFP: ASEAN ministers call for Myanmar democracy, no mention of Aung San
Suu Kyi
AFP: Indonesia's Megawati signals soft line on Myanmar at ASEAN ministers
meeting
AP: Myanmar: Suu Kyi Can Seek Future Office
Nation: Asean hopeful about EU, Burma

INTERNATIONAL
AP: EU takes aim at Myanmar ahead of Asian security summit
LA Times: Court OKs Foreign-Abuse Suits


INSIDE BURMA
______________________________________

June 30, Narinjara News
SPDC Changes Enemies in Military Training Lectures

Akyab: The Burmese military authority has changed the aim of their
“fighting and organising” military training courses from one of slandering
Aung San Suu Kyi and other National League for Democracy leaders to one of
attacking America and Western influence.

The purpose of the training is to defend Burma against an American
invasion and to cultivate an anti-American spirit in its officials,
according to a local who is linked to the military personnel in the
Arakanese capital of Akyab.

The training consists of anti-American lectures, and encourages
participants to commit suicide bombings if American forces should invade
Burma.

In the training, organisers praise the Iraqi insurgents who have given up
their lives in suicide attacks and ask trainees to follow the patriotic
example they set. Trainees are told that Iraqis embody real patriotism,
that of people giving up their lives for their country.

One attendant told Narinjara correspondent that training lasts one month
and that everyone from sergeant level personnel up to low-ranking official
participates. Attendees come from the departments of Immigration,
Taxation, Military and Police.

The military authority has been conducting the military training courses
at the regional headquarters of Akyab, the capital of Arakan state for
many years.


ON THE BORDER
______________________________________

June 30, Xinhua News
Southern Thailand imposes curfew on alien workers to curb illegal immigration

Bangkok: In a bid to curb influx of illegal foreign laborers, a southern
Thai province bordered Myanmar to the west has imposed curfew on all alien
workers there, local press reported on Wednesday.

Under the night curfew, all alien workers were banned from going out after
7:00 pm, riding motorcycles and using mobile phones, the Ranong governor
Winai Mongkholtharn was quoted by Bangkok Post as saying.

Lying some 568 kilometers south of Bangkok, the Ranong Province shared a
169-kilometer-long border with Myanmar to the west.

Due to the geographic reason, the province has been a main destination of
foreign workers for a long time and illegal immigration has been rampant
in the region.

Last year, 23,701 illegal workers were arrested in the province and
deported. The other 6,373 illegal workers have been repatriated from
January to March this year.

The local authority also set up six checkpoints along the border area to
stem the influx of illegal foreign workers.

However, the governor Winai said it's still hard to control the smuggling
of foreign workers for the long border lying along the province.

On the other hand, many local employers complained that Thai workers were
unwilling to take hard physical jobs in fishery, food process and wood
process etc. Therefore, they had to turned to Myanmar laborers, who
usually were hired at a lower prices.

While trying to crack down on smuggling of alien workers, the Thai
government also conducted registration for those foreign labor.

Altogether 14,164 Burmese workers registered with the authorities last
year, according to chief of Ranong provincial employment office Bunchot
Maneechot, who expected about 50,000 more to register when the new
registration period starts on July 1.

In the whole country, some 288,000 alien workers turned out at the
registration organized by the Labor Ministry in last September.

An estimated 1-2 million migrant workers from neighboring countries now
stay in Thailand illegally, according to local press report.

Last year, more than 106,000 illegal workers, mostly from Myanmar,
Cambodia and Laos, were caught.  A total of 287 employers of illegal
workers, 179 people providing shelter for illegal workers and 125 people
who smuggled them in were arrested.


BUSINESS / MONEY
______________________________________

June 30, Irrawaddy
Companies to Skip the "Dirty List" - Aung Lwin Oo

Some multinational companies plan to avoid getting blacklisted as being
involved in Burma as two different rights groups’ complete their
respective “Dirty Lists”.

On Tuesday, the Brussels-based International Confederation of Free Trade
Unions, or ICFTU, released an updated list of companies with business
links to Burma. The list contains 406 firms and includes 36 new entries.

Meanwhile, the London-based Burma Campaign UK is drafting its own “Dirty
List”’ due to be launched late August 2004. The register is expected to
include about 100 British and foreign companies with a presence in Britain
that have business ties with Burma. Respective lists will reveal the names
of the companies doing business with the regime or Burmese-domiciled
companies.

Amid the release of the two “Dirty Lists”, some companies are reviewing
their operations in Burma. Mark Farmaner, Media Officer at the Burma
Campaign UK told The Irrawaddy by telephone from London that Deutsche
Post, which owns DHL, a global parcel delivery service, and Carnival
Corporation, which operates a cruise ship company that visits Burma, are
reconsidering their involvement in the country.

The group claims that its campaign has prompted a large number of British
companies to withdraw from Burma. Additionally, Burma Campaign UK claims
it has convinced many clothing stores in the United Kingdom to refuse to
purchase Burma-made garments.

“We now have 150 top brandname clothing companies and shops here who
refuse to have any clothes made in Burma in their stores or manufactures,”
said Farmaner. He also added that since the campaign started in 1996, no
large British travel firm has operated in Burma.

The group plans to expand its list to include timber, gems and construction.

Advertising agency WPP and Australia Intrepid Travel pulled out from Burma
in August last year. British American Tobacco, or BAT, divested itself of
its Burmese operation in late 2003.


REGIONAL
______________________________________

June 30, Agence France Presse
ASEAN ministers call for Myanmar democracy, no mention of Aung San Suu Kyi

Jakarta: ASEAN foreign ministers called Wednesday for a smooth transition
to democracy in army-ruled Myanmar but made no mention of detained
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

In a joint communique about their fellow member state they "underlined the
need for the involvement of all strata of Myanmar society in the ongoing
national convention.

"We encouraged all concerned parties in Myanmar to continue their efforts
to effect a smooth transition to democracy," the communique said.

The wording, agreed after a day of debate, was much weaker than a draft
statement which would have "reiterated the need for the release of Aung
San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy members."

A Philippine official told AFP there had been "intense debate" among the
ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations about the wording
on Myanmar.

"What you should ask them (ministers) is, is ASEAN already content with
the little progress in Myanmar?" the official said.

Aung San Suu Kyi's party won elections in 1990 by a landslide but has
never been allowed to rule. Myanmar's national convention to draft a
constitution, which began on May 17, has been boycotted by the democratic
opposition and described as a sham by international human rights groups.

______________________________________

June 30, Agence France Presse
Indonesia's Megawati signals soft line on Myanmar at ASEAN ministers
meeting - Ahmad Pathoni

Jakarta: Southeast Asian foreign ministers held their annual meeting on
Wednesday, with the leader of host nation Indonesia signalling a strong
line on terrorism but a softer approach to controversial military-ruled
member Myanmar.

President Megawati Sukarnoputri, resisting US and European calls for a
stronger ASEAN stance on Myanmar, welcomed what she called its moves
towards democratisation.

In a speech at the presidential palace opening the meeting, she referred
to the "ferment for democracy that is taking place all over the world".

"In this context we gladly note that a member of the ASEAN family,
Myanmar, has added its voice to the cause of promoting democracy," she
said. "We do encourage Myanmar to take every action that will add
substance to the expression of its democratic aspirations."

Megawati also urged the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations to "be at the forefront in the fight against the most inhuman of
multinational crimes, international terrorism". But she indirectly
criticised the US invasion of Iraq.

"A surge of unilateralism in international affairs has shunted aside the
established democratic ways of resolving disputes between and among
nations," she said in reference to the US decision to bypass the United
Nations.

"The conflict in the Middle East and the unending war in Iraq continue to
destabilise the global landscape. The still unresolved nuclear issue on
the Korean peninsula as well as the continuing vulnerability of the East
Asian economy has become a source of our distress."

ASEAN ministers were meeting in closed session for the rest of the day
before issuing a statement. Their focus was on closer economic, political
and security integration to prepare for a European-style ASEAN Community
by 2020.

But Myanmar's continued detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi
threatens to overshadow the meeting Friday of the ASEAN Regional Forum,
which groups ASEAN members and 12 other Asia-Pacific states plus the
European Union.

The US, which is sending Secretary of State Colin Powell to Jakarta, and
the EU have imposed sanctions on Myanmar and want a harder line from the
Southeast Asians.

Myanmar describes its current national convention to draft a constitution
as a step towards democracy. It has been boycotted by the democratic
opposition and described as a sham by international rights groups.

A draft statement prepared for the ASEAN ministers renews calls, first
made last year, for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.

It was unclear whether this would be included in the final statement. A
Philippine official said ministers were still trying to finalise their
position over a working lunch.

The ASEAN region is home to some 500 million people and includes communist
states, a sultanate and newly emerging democracies. Its founding principle
is non-interference in each other's internal affairs.

Megawati said Indonesia's plan for an ASEAN "security community" would let
members take full responsibility for addressing regional threats but would
not involve a military alliance or defence pact. Indonesia was forced to
shelve its plans for a regional peacekeeping force.

The revised plan calls for arrangements among members to peacefully solve
conflicts or mitigate tensions that threaten regional stability, and to
combat transnational crime and terrorism.

Maritime and other forms of terrorism, and efforts to defuse the crisis
over North Korea's nuclear programme, will be key topics at Friday ARF's
meeting.

North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-Sun is among those attending. An
official from his ministry told AFP Wednesday that Paek was willing to
meet Powell on the sidelines.

Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia have already agreed on joint patrols in
the pirate-infested Malacca Strait, through which about half the world's
oil supplies pass. The United States and Singapore fear extremists could
hijack a tanker and turn it into a floating bomb.

The Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah has launched a spate of attacks in
Indonesia and the Philippines and plotted attacks in Thailand and
Singapore.

Megawati also urged fellow members to maintain their guard against
possible epidemics of HIV/AIDS, SARS, bird flu and other diseases which
have hit the region.

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

______________________________________

June 30, Associated Press
Myanmar: Suu Kyi Can Seek Future Office - Chris Brummitt

Jakarta: Myanmar's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will be
allowed to run in future elections, the Indonesian foreign minister said
Wednesday, quoting his Myanmar counterpart.

The comments came at a meeting of foreign ministers of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations in Jakarta. Myanmar's treatment of Suu Kyi, the
1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, is threatening to overshadow the summit and
is testing the 10-member grouping's core policy of noninterference in each
other's internal affairs.

"Myanmar disclosed that once the constitution is established, Madame Suu
Kyi can participate in the future elections," Indonesian Foreign Minister
Hassan Wirayuda told reporters.

Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung made the pledge in a closed-door
meeting, said Wirayuda, who declined to give more details.

Military-ruled Myanmar, also known as Burma, is holding a national
convention to draft a constitution that would allow a return to civilian
rule. But no timeline has been set, and Suu Kyi's National League for
Democracy party is boycotting the process.

Suu Kyi has been detained for more than a year and is currently under
house arrest. The junta has refused to say when she will be released,
insisting that freeing her could cause instability in the country.

Earlier Wednesday, the ministers issued a joint statement that watered
down what ASEAN officials said earlier would be strong language urging
faster political reform in Myanmar.

"We encouraged all concerned parties in Myanmar to continue their efforts
to affect a smooth transition to democracy," the statement said.

ASEAN is coming under increasing pressure from European nations to take a
harder line on Myanmar, but Wirayuda defended the group's approach.

"There has been progress," Wirayuda said, citing as examples the release
of a so-called road map to reform and the national convention. "We should
not belittle its (Myanmar's) efforts."

Earlier this month, the European Union scrapped talks with Asian finance
and economics ministers after they insisted Myanmar be included in an
October summit of Asian and European leaders in Vietnam.

Myanmar is due to take over the ASEAN chair in 2006.

Opening Wednesday's meeting, Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri
urged Myanmar to do more to introduce democratic reforms -- a rare
instance of public criticism of the junta by a fellow Southeast Asian
country.

"We do encourage Myanmar to take every action that will add substance to
the expression of its democratic aspiration," she said in a speech. "We
fervently believe that Southeast Asia ought to be progressive and not
conservative when it comes to public participation in governance and in
the promotion and protection of human rights."

Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta of East Timor, which is not an ASEAN
member but attends its meetings as a guest, said Myanmar's junta regularly
used its veto power in the group to water down criticism.

"ASEAN is embarrassed generally with the inflexibility of the Myanmar
authorities in dealing with Suu Kyi," said Ramos-Horta, who was the 1996
Nobel peace laureate. "What harm has she done to anyone ever?"

______________________________________

June 30, The Nation
Asean hopeful about EU, Burma - Don Pathan

Asean ministers yesterday expressed optimism that the political deadlock
with the European Union over Burma's participation in the upcoming
AsiaEurope Meeting (Asem) would be resolved, while the Burmese envoy
called for understanding and patience.

Burmese Foreign Minister Win Aung is expected to brief his counterparts at
the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) retreat today on
political developments in his country.

Win Aung suggested yesterday that it was unfair to politicise the
detention of prodemocracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

'She is only one person, not the whole country,' Win Aung said.

Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai told reporters yesterday that
Asean remained committed to seeing Suu Kyi released as soon as possible
and that the regional grouping is willing to accommodate Burma in
achieving reconciliation and democratisation.

However, the participation of the opposition National League for Democracy
(NLD) in the National Convention, part of the country's road map to
democracy and national reconciliation, would add credibility to the
process.

Win Aung said the National Convention to draft a constitution was in full
swing but he would not say when it would be completed. The NLD called the
convention a sham and boycotted it.

Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said the deadlock
over Burma's participation should be put on the table during the
discussion with the EU, whom he accused of double standards over the
admission process.

Asean does not object to the EU's inclusion of the 10 new members but the
EU objected to Southeast Asia's admission of Burma to Asem.

Besides Burma, maritime security is high on the agenda for this year's
annual Asean Ministerial Meeting.

Marty called on the media not to play up the possible terrorist threat in
the Straits of Malacca, saying too much publicity could inadvertently give
people with 'ill intention' the wrong idea.

Smuggling and piracy are two real and important issues in the Straits,
said Marty, adding that Asean would like to see these topics given the
same attention as a possible terrorist attack.


INTERNATIONAL
______________________________________

June 30, Associated Press
EU takes aim at Myanmar ahead of Asian security summit - Jake Lloyd-Smith

Singapore: The European Union stepped up its campaign against Myanmar's
ruling junta Wednesday when the EU's commissioner for external relations
said it was best to invest only in countries with a proven respect for
human rights.

Chris Patten's comments came ahead of an annual Asian security gathering
in Jakarta that starts Thursday, at which Europe and Asia's sharply
divergent views on how to handle Myanmar's ruling generals are likely to
feature strongly.

While Asian states have adopted a policy of "constructive engagement" with
Myanmar to promote democratic reform, the EU and Washington continue to
shun the country and have imposed a swath of economic sanctions.

"We happen to believe that the best countries to invest in are the ones
that treat their citizens well," Patten told an audience of diplomats and
executives in Singapore in response to a question about the wisdom of
engaging Myanmar.

Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was detained over a year
ago and remains under house arrest. The EU has demanded her release.

The European grouping has long complained about Myanmar's crackdown on
pro-democracy forces, which won elections in 1990 but were blocked from
taking power by the junta. It has imposed a travel ban on the country's
military and frozen their financial assets in Europe.

By contrast, Asian nations have admitted Myanmar to the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, in a bid to encourage the junta to
moderate its policies.

Earlier this month, the EU scrapped talks with Asian finance ministers
because of their insistence that Myanmar - also known as Burma - take part
in an October summit of Asian and European leaders in Hanoi, Vietnam.

"I think you in the region have much more reason to worry about
instability in Burma-Myanmar than we do outside the region," Patten said.

Patten and other officials are due to attend the ASEAN Regional Forum in
Jakarta on Thursday and Friday, which brings together foreign ministers
from the 10 ASEAN member nations and 14 other countries including the
United States, China and Japan.

The gulf between the EU's position and that held by many Asian countries
was underlined Wednesday in written remarks from Jose Ramos-Horta, East
Timor's foreign minister who, like Suu Kyi, is a Nobel laureate.

"Rather than intensifying an international boycott that shows no signs of
persuading the junta to change its ways, a better strategy would be to
make it more vulnerable to foreign pressure by encouraging tourism and
foreign investment," Ramos-Horta wrote in the Asia Wall Street Journal
newspaper.

______________________________________

June 30, Los Angeles Times
Court OKs Foreign-Abuse Suits - Lisa Girion

Justices say a 1789 law permits a narrow class of such lawsuits. Ruling
may affect a Unocal case.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that foreigners can file lawsuits in
American courts to address some abuses overseas, a decision legal experts
said may provide an opening for human rights cases filed against Unocal
Corp. and other companies to move forward.

By a 6-3 vote, the justices said the Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789 permits
foreigners to sue in the U.S. for violations of certain international
laws. The decision was the court's first major ruling on the obscure law
that has been used successfully by Holocaust survivors and relatives of
people tortured or killed under dictatorships overseas.

In the majority opinion written by Justice David H. Souter, the court said
the door to alien tort suits "is still ajar subject to vigilant
doorkeeping, and thus open to a narrow class of international norms
today."

Business groups had hoped the Supreme Court would eliminate the use of
U.S. courts to enforce international law.

But they applauded Tuesday's decision nonetheless, asserting it would
sharply curtail such suits.

Human rights advocates also claimed victory, saying that suits alleging
corporate complicity in crimes such as summary execution, torture and
slavery were exactly the type of international standards the court cited.

Lawyers on both sides predicted that the first test of the ruling would
come in a celebrated case involving El Segundo-based Unocal.

Fifteen Myanmar refugees have sued the oil giant in federal court in Los
Angeles, alleging that the company is liable for murder, rape and forced
labor allegedly committed by soldiers guarding a gas pipeline project.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was awaiting the Supreme Court's ruling
before deciding whether the claims of the Myanmar villagers should go to
trial.

Tuesday's decision bodes well for the villagers, said Harold Hongju Koh,
incoming dean of Yale University's law school and former assistant
secretary of State for human rights.

A majority of the court upheld the doctrine that "allows litigants to sue
for well-established violations of human rights," Koh said. "They
essentially adopted the language of past decisions" by lower courts,
including the 9th Circuit, in a line of alien tort suits against foreign
dictators, such as the late Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, and their
henchmen.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Clarence Thomas and
Antonin Scalia did not join Souter's opinion.

"This court seems incapable of admitting that some matters ... are none of
its business," Scalia wrote in dissent.

The opinions reflect a battle on the court over whether U.S. courts should
operate in isolation or as a part of an international system of law.

The ruling came in a suit brought by Dr. Humberto Alvarez Machain, who was
kidnapped in Mexico and brought to trial in Los Angeles for allegedly
aiding the torture killing of a U.S. drug agent. Alvarez was acquitted of
the charges against him and sued his alleged kidnappers in federal court
under the Alien Tort Claims Act.

The Supreme Court rejected Alvarez's suit, saying kidnapping was not a
violation of a widely accepted international law. "A single illegal
detention of less than a day, followed by the transfer of custody to
lawful authorities and a prompt arraignment violates no norm of customary
international law," Souter wrote.

Paul Hoffman, a Los Angeles lawyer who represents Alvarez as well as some
of the Myanmar refugees, said the slavery and forced labor allegations in
the Unocal case were the type that the Supreme Court ruled merit federal
court attention.

"This is a huge victory for us," Hoffman said. "It's not great for Dr.
Alvarez, which is a shame. But in terms of the law, it's great. And there
were six justices joining in, so there's no doubt about it."

But Unocal's lead lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli, said the allegations in the
Unocal case were ordinary tort claims and did not fall under federal court
jurisdiction.

The high court's ruling "is not a general invitation to permit ordinary
tort claims to be brought under international law," he said.

"Issues involving local labor conditions, issues involving local crimes
are matters internal to the affairs of a country. These are not the sorts
of claims that would be so specific that resort to international law is
required."

Petrocelli said the ruling represented "a complete vindication for the
rights of American companies doing business abroad."

"The court made clear that there is no ability to bring suits under the
alien tort statute of the sort that had been brought against American
businesses and against Unocal," he said. "Hopefully the 9th Circuit will
follow suit and the case will end swiftly."

Carter Phillips, a lawyer who represented the defendant in the Alvarez
case, said the Supreme Court ruling appeared to keep federal courts open
to hear certain human rights violations.

But he doubts the court would sanction lawsuits against corporations that
are not alleged to be the actual perpetrators.

"A lot of these claims against corporations are based on aiding and
abetting theories," he said. "But that doesn't remotely approach suing a
corporation that does business in one of those countries."