BurmaNet News, Aug 3, 2004

[Editor]

August 3, 2004, Issue # 2530


INSIDE BURMA
Thai News Service: Rangoon ready for fresh round of talks
AP: Myanmar Prime Minister Blasts Economic Sanctions

BUSINESS
Thai News Service: Thai company to survey for oil in Myanmar
Xinhua: Myanmar special industrial park to contribute to AFTA: report

REGIONAL
Nation: Time has run out:

OPINION / OTHER
FT: Asian neighbours do not want chaos in Burma
FT: The questions over aiding and abetting
Nation: A Burmese test for the future of Asem


INSIDE BURMA
______________________________________

August 3, Thai News Service
Rangoon ready for fresh round of talks

Mr. Thaksin is due to visit Myanmar's top leader, Gen. Gen Than Shwe, in
the near future for informal talks, but has so far refused to give an
exact date.

Asked the question on every reporters' lips - when opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi would be released - Mr. Thaksin said: "Myanmar feels that the
constitution-drafting process is going well, but in terms of the release
of Aung San Suu Kyi, they want to reconsider the appropriate timing.
Myanmar does not want anyone interfering in its internal affairs. It wants
to determine the appropriateness of the release by itself in order to
uphold its honour as a nation".

"Gen. Khin Nyunt thanked Thailand for its intentions and sincerity, and
said that he would consult and consider when best to hold the next Bangkok
Process meeting", the prime minister said.

Mr. Thaksin said that Gen. Nyunt expressed awareness of the role of the
talks in allowing Myanmar to explain its intentions towards the
international community, and to make the international community aware of
Rangoon's limitations in achieving democracy, whether its minority groups,
poverty, or lack of development.

However, the process was repeatedly stalled by Myanmar, which delayed
setting a definitive date for the meeting, while its constitution drafting
process was underway.

The first round of 'Bangkok Process' talks, aimed to ease Myanmar's
transition into democracy, was held last December, with a second round
tabled for late April.

Speaking after one-to-one talks with his Myanmar counterpart Gen. Khin
Nyunt today, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said that Gen. Nyunt had
spoken of the 'Bangkok Process' talks as a good forum for discussion, and
had promised to hold a second round of talks simultaneous with its second
round of constitution-drafting.

______________________________________

August 3, Associated Press
Myanmar Prime Minister Blasts Economic Sanctions

Myanmar's prime minister said economic sanctions and political pressure
imposed by powerful countries only widen the gap between his country's
rich and poor and lead to human rights abuses, state media reported
Tuesday.

Prime Minister Gen. Khin Nyunt said that no nation could stand alone in
today's world of globalization and that Myanmar had opened its door to
friendship with other countries, the Myanma Ahlin newspaper reported.

"However, instead of extending a welcoming hand, some powerful nations
have chosen to isolate Myanmar under the pretext of politics and impose
pressures and economic sanctions which not only widen the rich and poor
gap but also violate human rights," he reportedly said.

Khin Nyunt didn't elaborate or identify any countries, but apparently was
referring to the U.S. and member countries of the European Union, which
have imposed sanctions against Myanmar over its poor human rights record
and failure to introduce democracy.

Last month, U.S. President George W. Bush signed legislation renewing
economic sanctions, including a ban on U.S. imports from Myanmar, a freeze
on the assets of its senior officials and a prohibition on virtually all
payments to the country.

The sanctions were first introduced a year ago in an effort to prod the
junta to release pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace
Prize winner, and other political prisoners in the country also known as
Burma.

Khin Nyunt said Myanmar was "committed to establishing a disciplined
democratic state that is stable, peaceful, modernized and developed"
regardless of whether it receives international support or not. Khin Nyunt
was speaking at a teacher's training course north of Yangon on Monday, the
paper said.

A year ago, Khin Nyunt unveiled a so-called road map to democracy leading
to free elections and a new government. The junta began implementing the
road map in May, when it launched a national convention to draft
guidelines for a new constitution.

But the opposition party boycotted the meeting and dismissed it as a sham
after the junta refused to release Suu Kyi from house arrest.


BUSINESS
______________________________________

Aug 3, Thai News Service
Thai company to survey for oil in Myanmar

Exploration of the other two, M7 and M9 will begin next year. The gas from
these sites has been sold to the electricity generation plants in
Rachaburi and Ayutthaya.

The first two, which came on line nearly ten years ago, are in Yadana and
Yetagun. PTT currently has investments in four sites in Myanmar to produce
oil and gas. Industry experts believe this indicates that there is great
potential for the commercial production of oil from PTT's concessions.
A large deposit of oil and gas has been found in the two concessions M3
and M4 by the state-run Myanmar Oil and Gas.

The first phase of exploration will cost more than 25 million US dollars,
or one billion baht, said the PTT source. This would allow a thorough
survey to be completed before any investment is made in extraction.  If
commercially viable quantities of petroleum are found in that time, PTT
will be granted exploration rights for a further three years.

Under the contract, the company will have exploration rights for a year to
survey for deposits of crude oil in Blocks M3 and M4, which has a combined
area of 18,000 square metres in the Gulf of Myanmar.

A delegation, led by Thai Energy Ministry, Dr. Prommin Lertsuridej, will
sign a production-sharing contract with the Myanmar government on 10
August, a PTT source told TNA.  The Myanmar government will allow PTT to
survey for oil in two new areas near the Yanada deposit, according to the
Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra.

______________________________________

Aug 3, Xinhua
Myanmar special industrial park to contribute to AFTA: report

Myanmar's projected special industrial park in southern Yangon's
Thanlyin-Kyauktan, which is to involve Chinese investment, will play an
important role in the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), said a local news
journal Tuesday.

The speedy emergence of the special industrial park, which lies at a point
where an international seaport can be built, will help Myanmar's industry
to be competitive against the pouring in of cheap foreign goods under the
AFTA, said the Myanmar News Gazette.

For the establishment of the special industrial park, infrastructure
construction is underway and a master plan is being drawn for investors
which includes attractive policy guidelines to provide privileges such as
various tax exemption and long-term insurance.

The Thanlyin-Kyauktan special industrial park project was introduced after
Myanmar Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt paid an official and goodwill
visit to China last month.

In accordance with the AFTA, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) plans to totally remove all import duties in the region by 2010
for the six original members and by 2015 for the four newer members which
include Myanmar.

Meanwhile, under a framework agreement of ASEAN and China initiated in
2002, China has unilaterally cut import tariff on over 100 Myanmar
products along with those of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

Besides, under an early harvest plan, which is an advanced countrywise
program of the ASEAN-China FTA targeted for establishment by 2010, Myanmar
and China have started some free trade activities, covering 596 items of
products, the tariff on which is set to be ultimately removed by 2009.


REGIONAL
______________________________________

Aug 4, The Nation
Time has run out

More than 800,000 Burmese registered their presence as foreign workers in
Thailand as the deadline expired yesterday for those working illegally
here to report themselves to authorities.

Altogether, about 1.2 million illegal foreign workers showed up, with the
Burmese accounting for 70 per cent of the total, according to the
Department of Employment.

The registration would give the legal status as well as some state
benefits such as healthcare to foreign labour.

The nationwide registration campaign kicked off July 1, offering a
temporary amnesty to illegal workers from Burma, Laos and Cambodia.

According to the registration statistics, there are more than 1.2 million
people from the three countries in Thailand, including more than 660,000
males and almost 550,000 females. The majority of those registering are
Burmese in origin, more than 850,000 people making up 70.4 per cent of the
total number.

Foreign workers from Laos ranked second highest with more than 180,000
people in the country.

Employers of foreign labourers also must register under the government rule.

Police spokesman Maj-General Pongsapat Pongcharoen said the government had
given employers, foreign labourers and their families and householders
providing accommodation for illegal workers the chance to register and
comply with the law.

He added that it was an opportunity for foreigners to work legally in
Thailand.

After registering, foreigners were required to pay Bt600 for a medical fee
and Bt1,300 for medical insurance. If they intended to work in the
country, they also had to pay Bt1,900 for a work permit.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has said that he will not extend the
registration deadline.

As of today, police will enforce stricter rules in arresting unregistered
foreign workers and preventing them from continuing to work in the
country.

'Illegal foreign workers will be jailed for three months and/or fined up
to Bt5, 000. The employers will be jailed for no more than three years
and/or fined up to Bt60, 000,' Pongsapat said.

The provinces with the highest numbers of registered foreign workers are
Bangkok, Tak, Samut Sakhon, Chiang Mai and Ranong provinces in that order.

In Bangkok the registrants are concentrated in the areas of Bang Bon, Bang
Khae, Chom Thong, Prawet and Chatuchak.

The Ministry of Labour conducted the first registration of foreign workers
three years ago. In 2001 the number of registered foreigners was about
580, 000 but declined to about 400, 000 in 2002 and only 200,000 in 2003.

'This year we saw an increased number of registered aliens because we also
allowed their wives and children to register. It's a different situation
from three years ago,' said Chuthatawat Intharasuksri, director-general of
the Department of Employment.

'The number was predictable this year,' he added.

This year's registration differs from the previous efforts because there
are more government agencies such as the Labour, Interior and Public
Health ministries cooperating in the effort.

Chuthatawat said that foreign workers could solve the problem of a
shortage of manual and household labourers.

However, the registration campaign also is intended to help prevent
criminal cases in the immigrant community, threats to national security
and the spread of contagious diseases.


OPINION / OTHER
______________________________________

August 3, Financial Times
Asian neighbours do not want chaos in Burma

The US administration has opted for punitive sanctions. Mr Jackson would
like to see other governments follow the US lead.

If most countries did so, Burma might well collapse like a pack of cards.
But it is for this very reason that most governments have decided to
remain engaged. Burma's regional neighbours in particular do not want to
see chaos in the country. So practically every country in the
Asian-Pacific region has publicly stated that it has no intention of
applying sanctions, and without their support any sanctions policy has no
hope of success. Industrial giants such as China, India, Russia and even
Japan, ever watchful of US reactions, maintain normal relations with the
junta.

A score of countries, from Israel though Pakistan, Thailand, Singapore,
South Korea to Australia, believe that sanctions are not the answer. There
is no chance of any agreement on sanctions in the UN Security Council.

Many Burmese will tell you that Aung San Suu Kyi, pro-democracy opposition
leader, is their only hope. But most will also tell you that she is wrong
on sanctions. Until she gets it right, she will remain sidelined from the
political process in Burma.

The junta will see to that, because they know that countries in the
Asian-Pacific region will reluctantly accept the political reality that
they can dictate. This is not what we would like to happen, but it is what
is likely to happen.

__________________________________

Aug 2, Financial Times
The questions over aiding and abetting

Does a group of Burmese villagers have the right to take legal action in
the US against a US oil company over alleged complicity in murder and
forced labour in their home country? Unocal, the oil company, will shortly
resume its efforts to persuade a federal appeals court in California that
they do not.

The case will provide a first test of last month's Supreme Court ruling on
the Alien Tort statute, an 18th-century law controversially invoked by
human rights groups in a series of cases against US companies.

Daniel Petrocelli of O'Melveny & Myers, the law firm representing Unocal,
claimed the Supreme Court had delivered a "sound rejection" of the way the
statute has been used against business; Amnesty International, echoing
other human rights groups, argued instead that the court had upheld the
act's "core principles".

Passed into law by the first Congress in 1789, the Alien Tort statute gave
US federal courts jurisdiction over "any civil action by an alien for a
tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the
United States".

In 1980, the law was reinterpreted and successfully used by relatives of a
torture victim to sue a retired Paraguayan police officer living in the
US. Human rights groups and environmentalists have sought to extend its
scope to include corporations, sparking a struggle with business groups.

Some 20 Alien Tort cases have been brought against corporations; only five
have survived a motion to dismiss, with eight more facing a motion to
dismiss. The Unocal case is the most advanced, despite a brief from the US
Justice Department arguing against the plaintiffs' use of the statute.

In its ruling last month (on a case involving the federal government), the
Supreme Court argued that the statute should be limited to violations that
are "specific, universal and obligatory" under international law. This,
the court suggested, should involve "an international law norm with
definite content and acceptance" similar to the principle of piracy in the
18th century.

Lawyers representing the Burmese villagers in the Unocal case believe the
complaints - of complicity in acts of murder, forced labour and rape -
will be sufficient to bring the case to trial.

"We have slavery, we have torture, we have crimes against humanity as part
of our claim," said Dan Stormer, of the law firm Hadsell & Stormer, who
argued on behalf of the Unocal plaintiffs. "They can pound the table all
they want, but we are going to get to argue this case in court."

Rights activists believe that other high profile cases

- including complaints against ExxonMobil, Talisman Oil, Shell and
ChevronTexaco - will be able to meet the Supreme Court's tort standard,
though this will be contested.

"It is our view that the allegations in this complaint consist of
statements or charges . . . which are not universally held concepts of
international law," says Martin Weinstein, a lawyer at Willkie Farr
Gallagher, who is defending ExxonMobil in a case arising from its
operations in Indonesia. Other less defined cases, including litigation
against US companies that worked in South Africa under apartheid, are
widely expected to fall short of the standard.

Meanwhile, US business groups have expressed disappointment that the
Supreme Court failed to shut the door on Alien Tort claims against
corporations.

"These cases are going to end up in the Supreme Court anyway, and the
court will over time end up defining what in its judgment constitutes the
law of nations, and what does not. But that seems to us a fairly
circuitous way of doing things," said Bill Reinsch, head of the National
Foreign Trade Council.

Later this month, the American Bar Association will report on its efforts
to find a consensus between business and human rights groups on amending
the statute in the interests of greater legal certainty.

In California, Sandra Coliver, of the Center for Justice and
Accountability, believes the Ninth Circuit appeals court - widely regarded
as liberal - will send the Unocal case for trial, sparking an appeal to
the Supreme Court.

"The Ninth Circuit has framed the issue as 'What is the standard for
judging a company as an aider and abetter?' Do you look at international
law, or do you look at US law, or even Burmese law?" she says. "But I
think the Justice Department and Unocal will raise the broader question .
. . of whether a corporation can be held liable at all."

__________________________________

Aug 3, The Nation
A Burmese test for the future of Asem - Natee Vichitsorasatra

It is a just two months until the next Asia Europe Meeting (Asem) summit,
this time in Hanoi. These two remaining months will stand as a test as to
whether Asem, a forum that has been variously described as 'lacking in
substance' and 'forum-fatigued' to 'ambitious' and 'indispensable', is
considered valuable enough to receive a lifeline from all parties
involved.

Equally importantly, the results of this test will be an indicator of
exactly how much interest the Asian and European Union (EU) sides of Asem,
especially the latter, have left in the ongoing process.

The Asem process has never been so endangered since its initiation in
1996. The inaugural meeting in Bangkok was filled with high expectations
and the promise of equal partnership and reciprocity, occurring within an
informal dialogue. The optimism was watered down with the ensuing Asian
economic crisis and few people took much notice of the Copenhagen Asem IV
Summit, a meeting that focused largely on the control of terrorism.

Instead of growing into a mature and structured framework for cooperation
in its fifth upcoming summit, the Asian and European counterparts of Asem
are instead wrangling over the issue of Burma.

Indonesia and Thailand have already criticised the decision to cancel two
ministerial meetings, which they said had been made without proper
consultation with Asean.

This seems to point towards an increasing disinterest in Asem from its
European members. The focus of the Asem process has been mainly on the
economic side and trading figures show that the Asian side of Asem has
been the main beneficiaries of closer channels of access to their European
counterparts.

Even today, the EU's trade deficit with their Asem partners remains an
issue on the table at Asem Summits. Eurostat figures show EU's external
trade with China, one of the main motivations for cooperation in the Asem
process, begin to see a widening trade deficit which quadrupled from 11.6
billion (Bt579 billion) in 1995 to 44.6 billion in 2000. Similar, though
less drastic trends exist within the trade figures of EU trade with the
rest of the Asian Asem members.

If the EU's interest in Asem had waned due to the Asian economic crisis
and the continued trade deficit with Asia, the lack of interest would have
increased with Asean+3's almost complete refusal to discuss sensitive
political issues, denying the EU a coveted position in becoming a major
actor in the region. Since Asem I, human rights have constantly been a
European concern, whereas Asian participants have preferred an exclusive
focus on trade.

At Asem II, Europe informally raised the issues of human rights, labour
practices, arms control and non-proliferation issues. It received little
cooperation from countries such as Indonesia, China, and Burma, on the
issues of East Timor and internal affairs, respectively. At Asem III, the
EU embarrassed itself by not being able to make a common response to the
question of establishing diplomatic relations with North Korea, despite
the 'Declaration for Peace' announced in Seoul.

The Copenhagen Summit yielded little beyond issues of economic
cooperation, as the Council of Minister was only able to express its
dissatisfaction with the slow progress of democratic restoration in Burma,
but little else. By then, the EU obviously realised that it was not
benefiting from either the political or the economic pillars of Asem.

The 'New Partnership with Southeast Asia' communication from the
Commission drafted in 2003 appears to be the EU's new means to fix what
might have become a deadlocked Asem. It is clear that while it offers an
increased flexibility in the EU's relationship with Asean, issues of
conditions have been placed as a further bargaining chip in the
cooperation process between the two regions.

According to the European Commission, an 'essential element' clause must
be included in all future bilateral agreements with countries of Southeast
Asia. At present only Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia have signed this, while
other present bilateral agreements lack this clause. This clause also
offers a way out for the EU, which would be more reluctant in placing
conditions into its relationship with potentially lucrative China than it
would with Asean member states.

It appears that the EU may have already decided that the Asem process is
expendable and highlighting the issue of Burma with apparently little room
for negotiation makes a mockery of Asem's principles of 'equal
partnership' and 'reciprocity'. If an April 2004 report from Burma
Campaign UK is any indication, Britain, one of the most vocal against
inclusion of Burma in the Asem process, ranks as the second largest
investor in Burma in the past decade, with US$1.4 billion (Bt57.8 billion)
of approved investment.

Current EU sanctions against Burma are also widely perceived as
ineffective and lacking in impact. In addition, the EU is clearly guilty
of double standards because it is not demanding the exclusion of one-party
communist states such as Laos, Vietnam or China.

A debate on whether Burma deserves to join international forums which
would definitely benefit the military regime needs to continue, but if the
EU's member governments do not soften their stance concerning Burma's
inclusion in Asem, the forum's principles of equal partnership,
reciprocity and flexibility are thrown out of the window.

Meanwhile, Asem's credibility as a promising and much-needed forum between
Asia and Europe takes a large hit. If the Asem V Summit in Hanoi does not
contain more substance and full top-level cooperation from all member
states, it will be difficult for anyone to take the already struggling
process seriously.