BurmaNet News, August 18, 2004

[Editor]

August 18, 2004, Issue # 2541


ON THE BORDER
Thai News Service: Over 12,000 foreigners die from sickness in Thailand
this year
Thai News Service: Construction of new cross-border road on progress
SHAN: Dissidents mull over National Accord rough

DRUGS
OANPNA: Police seizes suspected chemicals and drugs

REGIONAL
IPS: Thailand, in need of workers, eases up on migrants

INTERNATIONAL
AP: Annan calls for immediate release of Myanmar opposition leader and
urges government to demonstrate commitment to restore democracy
WMRC: US Court rejects human rights case against Unocal

OPINION / OTHER
LA Times: Sanctions have gotten a bum rap

PRESS RELEASE
United Nations: Secretary-General calls for immediate release of Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi

______________________________________
ON THE BORDER

August 18, Thai News Service
Over 12,000 foreigners die from sickness in Thailand this year

Most of the foreign patients were reported in the western Kanchanaburi
Province (2,419 cases), followed by the eastern Prachinburi Province
(1,633 cases), and the northern Chiang Mai Province (1,646 cases),
according to the epidemiologist of the Ministry of Public Health.

There were also over a dozen of foreign patients who were infected with
some other communicable diseases, she added.

However, 1,034 suffered from unknown diseases, she said.

The foreign patients were mostly sick from five diseases, including
diarrhea (5,133 cases), malaria (2,568 cases), pneumonia (702 cases), and
poisonous food and hemorrhagic fever (533 cases).

Most of the foreign patients, or 70.16%, were Myanmar immigrant workers,
followed by those from Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and China, she
disclosed.

In the January-July period, 12,456 foreign patients, aged less than one
year to 34 years, were reported in the country's 71 provinces, 19 of whom
later died, said Ms. Pensri Chitranamsap, one of the bureau's
epidemiologists.

______________________________________

August 18, Thai News Service
Construction of new cross-border road on progress

Tourism through the border checkpoint is limited because local Myanmar
soldiers on the other side of the border do not permit most tourists from
Thailand to enter the country.

A local leader Somchai Peekaew in Prachuap Khiri Khan told TNA today that
a local budget of more than 50 million baht has been allocated for the
extension of an existing road linking the main Petchkasem Highway with the
new cross-border road at the Singkhon Border Checkpoint.

This road project had nothing to do with a plan to open the Singkhon
Border Checkpoint in the province's Maung district as a permanent trade
route, according to Pisal Nako of Vantage company which was awarded the
concession from the Myanmar government to build the road.

The proposed two hundred kilometre long highway to Marid, across the
border in Myanmar, is expected to require an investment of nearly three
billion baht.

______________________________________

August 18, Shan Herald Agency for News
Dissidents mull over National Accord rough

The last session of the 3-day 4th State Constitutions Seminar, 14-16
August, was perceptibly dominated by the discussions on the drafting of a
National Accord to counter Rangoon's charter guidelines, S.H.A.N.
correspondent reports from the border:

"To design a lasting constitution, a set of guidelines honored by all is
most essential", Thein Oo, Chairman of Federal Constitution Drafting
Committee and elected representative from Mandalay, reminded the meeting
attended  by delegates from various state constitution drafting
committees. "It is simply not enough to say the people disapprove the Six
Objectives.
It's time we make ourselves clear to the rest of the world."

"The National Accord, on adoption, must be a counter balance to the
junta's Six Objectives, particularly the 6th (Participation of the
military in the leading role of national politics in the future state)",
he added.

Several participants seconded Thein Oo's motion. "Without a counter
proposal, who's going to see the difference?" exclaimed a Mon delegate.

"We need to finalize everything before 2006 (when Burma assumes chair of
the regional grouping, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, better
known by its acronym, Asean)", urged another.

Groups that are still dallying with the idea of independent sovereign
states also received advice to make up their minds.

"Our neighbors wish to know what our pick is, Independence or Federation,"
hinted one.

The 9-point draft of the National Accord includes the establishment of a
federal union, multi-party democracy, protection of democratic and basic
human rights, residual powers for the member states, concurrent powers
between federal and state governments, bicameralism, equal power to both
Houses, equal status between states and the union capital and adequate
protection of indigenous and minority rights.

The constitution drafting movement by the dissidents began in 1993 under
the auspices of the National Council of the Union of Burma, but the
process was interrupted by the fall of Manerplaw, then the armed
opposition's capital, in 1995. The movement was revived under the
leadership of the late Chao Tzang Yawnghwe in 1998.

It is illegal for the people of Burma to draft or even discuss about the
constitution.

______________________________________
DRUGS

August 17, Organisation of Asia-Pacific News Agencies
Police seizes suspected chemicals and drugs

Bangkok: Police have seized a major haul of suspected drugs and illicit
chemicals close to the border with Myanmar.

More than 1,200 litres of liquid chemicals, suspected to be precursors for
the production of illegal narcotics, have been seized at a checkpoint in
the northern province of Mae Hong Son's Mae Sariang district.

The chemicals were found in a vehicle that was stopped at the checkpoint.

The driver, Udomchai Jaimaha, has been arrested.

Local police believe the chemicals, in 80 plastic tanks, were to be
delivered to three shops in Muang, Mae La Noi and Khun Yuam districts in
Mae Hong Son.

A native of Maung district, Mr. Udomchai, told police that he had bought
the chemicals from a shop in the nearby Chiang Mai Province.

He claimed that he did not know it was illegal to possess the chemicals.

He has not yet been charged, but is being detained pending the results of
laboratory tests on the chemicals to determine whether they are illegal.

Meanwhile, local police in Chiang Rai's Mae Jan district have arrested a
Myanmar man after they found nearly 300 amphetamine tablets and heroin on
him.

The drugs were found on the suspected trafficker during a routine search
of a bus, after it was pulled over at a checkpoint on the Mae Jan-Chiang
Rai road. (TNA)-E009.

______________________________________
REGIONAL

August 17, Inter Press Service: Thailand, in need of workers, eases up on
migrants - Marwaan Macan-Markar

Bangkok: Burmese migrant workers are displaying a new sign of confidence
about their status as labourers in Thailand. Talking freely on the streets
of the Thai capital in their own language is one of them.

Such openness is also accompanied by a feeling of security that police
harassment is waning.

"I have less to worry now; I feel more comfortable when I go out to meet
my friends," Hla Hla Aye, a Burmese migrant worker employed as a maid in
one of Bangkok's high-rise apartment blocks, admitted in an interview.

This 25-year-old's sense of ease was shared by some of her friends, also
migrant workers from Burma, who had gathered in a leafy compound on Sunday
to swap stories and discuss education opportunities.

"There was always this fear before when we were on the streets. So we
would talk less or not at all to avoid being noticed," adds 32-year-old
Than Than Htay, who has been toiling as a domestic worker in a number of
homes in Bangkok for the past 13 years.
Even migrant rights campaigners are witnessing the changing environment,
particularly when they have to meet the men and women who have slipped
across the border from neighbouring Burma, Laos or Cambodia.

"We can now work with them in the open, unlike before, where we had to
distribute information with care, secretly," Jackie Pollock of the Migrant
Action Programme, a non-governmental organisation based in the northern
city of Chiang Mai, told IPS.

Till early this year, however, the climate was different, with activists
chronicling the regular pace of abuse directed at migrant workers in
public.

And there is little doubt as to what led to this change:The Thai
government's new migrant labour policy that is in the throes of
implementation.

That Bangkok means business is also being asserted by recent messages
directed to Thai factory owners, often a major employer of migrant labour,
in provincial towns.

Last week, Labour Minister Uraiwan Thienthong urged employers in the north
western province of Tak to treat migrant workers humanely. "We want
employers to uphold humanitarian principles. Don't take advantage of the
migrant labourers," she told a meeting of local business entrepreneurs.

Under the new migrant labour programme, where workers from neighbouring
countries have been assured more care and freedoms, a key feature is the
workers' right to independently register themselves with Thai authorities.

Previously the worker had to depend on the employer to submit the
registration papers.

The new programme, which marked its first phase through July, also
guarantees registered migrant workers the right to change jobs during the
year, an option that was denied to them previously, and the chance of
opening a bank account.

Bangkok also welcomed the dependents of this foreign work force to
register in an effort to document their presence and offer a measure of
protection.

Such progressive steps and the aggressive campaign launched by the
government for all migrant workers to register has resulted in an
unprecedented success, say migrant rights activists.

It is reflected in the nearly 1.2 million migrant workers who registered
across the country between Jul. 1-29, the period that marked the initial
stage of this initiative.

This marked an over two-fold increase in the number of registered migrant
workers from the previous year, which averaged close to 500,000. In 2001,
when Thailand launched a migrant workers registration programme, only
568,000 responded.

What remained consistent, though, was the breakdown of the countries they
came from, with most of them hailing from Burma, followed by Thailand's
two other neighbours, Laos and Cambodia.

Out of this year's 1.2 million registrations, for instance, over 800,000
came from Burma, nearly 173,000 from Laos and over 155,000 from Cambodia,
according to figures from the labour ministry.

Most of the migrant workers are in jobs that Thai labourers are turning
away from. They include domestic work, the agriculture sector, the fishing
industry, the garment and manufacturing sector and the construction
sector.

But despite the current minimum wage enshrined in Thai law - - 135 baht
per day (3.30 U.S. dollars) -- the monthly earnings of migrant workers
vary, some being woefully underpaid while some receiving the stipulated
minimum salary.

In Tak province, home to over 100,000 migrant workers -- due to the many
garment factories located there - the Burmese workforce earn, on average,
50 to 80 baht a day (1.25 to 2.0 dollars), according to migrant right
activists.

On the other hand, domestic workers like Hla Hla Aye, who live with their
employers, earn 3,500 baht (87.50 dollars) a month.

Such pay scales reveal the scale of exploitation migrant workers face,
says Mo Swe, leader of the Yaung Chi Oo Workers Association, a Tak
province-based group fighting for the rights of migrant workers

"The new government programme is doing little to reduce the abuse of
migrant workers in their work place," Mo Swe said during an interview.

"They are still forced to work for 11 hours a day and they cannot refuse
overtime work even if they are tired."

But Burmese political activists do not expect this dismal reality to stop
the flood of people pouring through the porous Thai- Burma border into
Thailand. What is more, the July registration is also revealing the
changing profile of the migrant workers coming from Burma.

"We are seeing new faces, people from central Burma and from the areas
closer to the Indian border," Myint Wai of Bangkok-based the Thai Action
Committee for Democracy in Burma told IPS.

They are adding to the migrants coming from the Shan, Karen, Mon and
Burman ethnic groups, he said. "It shows how the economic situation is
worsening inside Burma and more people are forced to leave for jobs in
Thailand."

______________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

August 18, Associated Press
Annan calls for immediate release of Myanmar opposition leader and urges
government to demonstrate commitment to restore democracy - Edith M.
Lederer

United Nations: Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for the immediate
release of Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and urged the
government to open "a substantive dialogue" with opposition parties and
ethnic minorities to demonstrate its commitment to restore democracy.

He warned on Tuesday that Myanmar's efforts to draft a new constitution
will lack international credibility until the government considers
opposition views.

On July 9, Myanmar adjourned a constitution-drafting convention after
nearly two months of closed-door discussions. It is unclear when it will
resume.

The convention, which began May 17, has been billed by the junta as a
first step toward restoring democracy, but has been dismissed by the
opposition as a sham. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, or
NLD, boycotted the convention because the government refuses to release
her from house arrest.

Annan urged Myanmar's ruling State Peace and Development Council, "as a
first step towards democratization and national conciliation, ... to make
full use of the National Convention's adjournment by immediately releasing
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi," according to a statement from U.N. associate
spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

Last month, the NLD launched a campaign seeking the immediate and
unconditional release of Suu Kyi and other political detainees, collecting
signatures around the country.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner has been in detention since May 2003, when
the military cracked down on her party after a violent clash between her
followers and government supporters. The NLD won a landslide victory in a
1990 general election but was not allowed to take power by the junta,
which seized control in 1988 after brutally suppressing mass pro-democracy
protests.

Annan urged Myanmar's ruling junta to engage the NLD and other political
parties "in substantive dialogue on how they can work together for the
benefit of the people of Myanmar," Dujarric said.

The secretary-general said it also "remains essential for a mutually
acceptable agreement to be reached" with ethnic minority groups that have
signed cease-fires with the government, he said.

In August 2003, Myanmar Prime Minister Gen. Khin Nyunt announced a
seven-point "road map" for restoring democracy, outlining a path to
national elections and a new government. In December, Myanmar's Foreign
Minister Win Aung made a commitment at an international forum in Bangkok
to implement the "road map," starting with a National Convention to draft
a constitution.

Myanmar does not currently have a constitution. An earlier constitution
introduced in 1974 was dropped after the military assumed power in 1988.

Dujarric said "it is the secretary-general's judgment that the National
Convention does not currently adhere to the recommendations made by
successive resolutions of the General Assembly."

"The secretary-general believes that unless and until the views of the ...
NLD and other political parties are sought and considered, the National
Convention and the road map process will be incomplete, lacking in
credibility, and therefore unable to gain the full support of the
international community, including the countries of the region," he said.

Annan expects all countries in the region "to take a leading role" in
urging Myanmar's rulers "to accelerate the process of democratization and
national reconciliation," Dujarric said.

The secretary-general also urged the government to allow his envoy, Razali
Ismail of Malaysia, "to return to Myanmar as soon as possible" to continue
his efforts to promote national reconciliation, he said.

______________________________________

August 18, WMRC Daily Analysis
US Court rejects human rights case against Unocal - Mike Hurle

Significance

Myanmar is a country with significant hydrocarbon potential, but
investment has been deterred by the state's economic mismanagement and
high legal, political and reputational risks.

Implications

The latest lawsuit has ended with the case against Unocal being dropped,
but campaigners will now be looking for a route with which to take the
case directly to the relevant subsidiaries.

Outlook

Unocal is the most high-profile foreign company operating in Myanmar and
has pledged to stick with its investments in the country despite ongoing
criticism of its links with the despised military regime. Campaigners may
take heart from the fact that several prominent shareholder groups have
already joined the criticism of the company.

Unocal Fends Off Damaging Human Rights Case

A Supreme Court in Los Angeles (US) has dropped a high-profile human
rights lawsuit relating to Unocal's activates in Myanmar. The case invoked
the Alien Tort Act, a 200-year old law that allows foreigners to issue
lawsuits against US companies operating in their country, and alleged the
company was complicit in abuses perpetrated by the local armed forces
during construction of the Yadana gas pipeline built in the 1990s. Whilst
there is little dispute surrounding the events that took place in Myanmar,
Judge Victoria Gerrard Chaney ruled that since Unocal did not directly
control its subsidiaries' affairs relating to security and human rights,
it should not be held accountable for any reported violations.

This appears to raise the possibility that campaigners could now take
their case directly to those subsidiaries, further prolonging a case that
has now rumbled on for over eight years. A case was first put against
Unocal in 1996, after human rights group EarthRights International
collected testimony of torture and sexual abuse from villagers living
along the route of the Myanmar pipeline. That case was dismissed in 2000,
but was followed by the present lawsuit, which got under way in June 2002,
on behalf of 14 villagers.

Outlook and Implications

The latest ruling sets an important precedent for other multinational
companies involved in politically sensitive regions around the world, as
Unocal's subsidiaries have effectively shielded the company against damage
to its reputation. This will be especially welcome news for companies in
the light of the US Supreme Court's decision earlier this year not to
overturn the Alien Tort Act.

Those seeking compensation for human rights abuses may be disappointed by
today's ruling, particularly given that the earlier signs had been so
promising for them. Last year Chaney claimed that, 'Prior to its
involvement in the pipeline project, Unocal had specific knowledge that
the use of forced labour was likely and nevertheless chose to proceed', a
comment that was seized on as recognition of Unocal's failings. Unocal has
already been forced to defend itself against criticism from shareholders,
including several large pension fund managers. Campaigners will now look
for a route to take the case to the relevant subsidiaries. However, since
these are registered in Myanmar and Bermuda it is not clear whether the
case will be debated again in a US court. Prosecuting the subsidiary
rather than the parent company may be seen as a compromise for human
rights campaigners who would be hoping to inflict some high-profile damage
to Unocal's reputation. However, if such a case can be brought it could be
equally effective in forcing other companies to apply better codes of
conduct and vigilance over human rights matters.

______________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

August 18, Los Angeles Times
Sanctions have gotten a bum rap - David Baldwin

Pundits despise them, but they can be effective in Myanmar and elsewhere.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Myanmar's pro-democracy movement, has
spent at least nine of the last 13 years under house arrest. When the Bush
administration recently renewed economic sanctions against Myanmar, aimed
at pressuring that nation's military regime to pursue democratic reforms
and at winning Suu Kyi's release, it triggered the usual negative response
from pundits everywhere.

Ever since the League of Nations' economic sanctions against Italy failed
to stop the invasion of Abyssinia in 1936, the consensus among pundits has
been that applying such pressure doesn't work. It is rarely noted that the
league's 1936 action might well have worked if oil had been included on
the embargo list and if the United States had supported the sanctions.

Despite the belief that sanctions don't work, every U.S. president since
1936 has used them. Why? Because they can be useful foreign policy tools.

Along with military force, propaganda and diplomacy, they constitute the
basic instruments of statecraft. In order to evaluate the worth of
sanctions, then, one must understand the basic rules of statecraft.

The first basic rule is that nothing works perfectly. A study by the
Institute for International Economics of 116 cases found the success rate
of sanctions to be about 33%. Some see this as evidence that such measures
do not work and should be abandoned. Not necessarily. A baseball player
who gets a hit only 33% of the time is a star, not a bum. It may well be
that in statecraft as in baseball, .333 is a pretty good "batting
average."

The second rule is that nothing will work alone. None of the tools of
statecraft works well by itself; each is best used in conjunction with the
others. Military force alone is insufficient to win wars -- as the
situation in Iraq amply demonstrates. That economic sanctions alone are
unlikely to bring democracy to Myanmar does not mean that they cannot make
a useful contribution toward that end.

Third, costs matter as much as benefits. Military force may well be more
effective in achieving some foreign policy goals, but it is likely to be
more costly than economic sanctions.

Still, one of the arguments made in favor of invading Iraq was to rid the
U.S. of the costs of maintaining sanctions against Hussein's regime -- for
example, the oil embargo. With more than $150 billion appropriated thus
far for the military effort in Iraq and billions more expected, the idea
of invading Iraq in order to save money seems ludicrous. And that does not
include such nonmonetary costs as the loss of lives and international
respect.

Policymakers understand that the low costs of economic sanctions sometimes
make them preferable to more effective tools, such as military force. No
one has seriously suggested, for example, that military force be used to
bring democracy to Myanmar.

The fourth rule of statecraft is that alternatives matter. It is not
enough to tell policymakers that sanctions won't work in Myanmar or
elsewhere; one must tell them what would work better. As the octogenarian
said when asked whether he was enjoying old age, "Compared with the
alternative, I am enjoying it very much." Likewise, in evaluating economic
sanctions, one must ask, "Compared with what?"

Do economic sanctions work? One interesting thing about this question is
that it is almost never asked about military force, propaganda or
diplomacy -- the main alternatives to economic sanctions. Yet the answer
is the same for each type of statecraft. Sometimes it works, and sometimes
it doesn't.

The fact is, there is no all-purpose instrument that works better in all
situations. It is good to remind ourselves that the alleged accumulation
of weapons of mass destruction by Saddam Hussein in the 1990s was often
cited as evidence that economic sanctions weren't working. In retrospect,
it appears that they may have been working better than anyone suspected.

In the end, the question "Do sanctions work?" grossly oversimplifies the
issue by implying a yes or no answer. It would be better to ask, "How
successful are sanctions likely to be, with respect to which goals, at
what costs, and compared with which alternative tools of statecraft?"

No matter how useful or useless sanctions eventually turn out to be in
Myanmar, one thing is sure: Putting economic pressure on governments we
hope to influence or change will remain a potentially useful addition to
the diplomatic tool kit. Presidents understand this even if pundits do
not.

David Baldwin, a political science professor at Columbia University, is
the author of "Economic Statecraft" (Princeton University, 1985).

______________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

August 17, United Nations, Office of the Secretary-General
On Myanmar, Secretary-General calls for immediate release of Daw Aung San
Suu Kyi, engagement in `substantive dialogue' with NLD, other political
parties

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for
Secretary-General Kofi Annan:

One month has passed since the National Convention, reconvened on 17 May
by the State and Peace Development Council (SPDC), was adjourned on 9
July. The Secretary-General considers this to be an appropriate moment to
comment on the proceedings thus far, and to elaborate on the United
Nations' expectations in the future process.

The Secretary-General accepts that Myanmar faces complex and difficult
challenges in its transition to democracy and its quest for national
reconciliation. For this reason, he cautiously welcomed the announcement
by the Government of its seven-stage road map in August 2003, and
acknowledged the potential role that a body such as the National
Convention could play in this process.

It is the Secretary-General's judgement that the National Convention does
not currently adhere to the recommendations made by successive resolutions
of the General Assembly. The Secretary-General believes that, unless and
until the views of the National League for Democracy (NLD) and other
political parties are sought and considered, the National Convention and
the road map process will be incomplete, lacking in credibility and,
therefore, unable to gain the full support of the international community,
including the countries of the region.

The Secretary-General believes that the recent statements and submissions
reflecting on the rights and powers to be exercised and shared at the
Union and Region/State level reportedly made by some ethnic nationality
ceasefire groups were a positive development, although the National
Convention authorities reportedly required them to amend their proposals.

As a first step towards democratization and national reconciliation, the
Secretary-General calls on the SPDC to make full use of the National
Convention's adjournment by immediately releasing Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and
engaging the NLD and other political parties in substantive dialogue on
how they can work together for the benefit of the people of Myanmar. It
also remains essential for a mutually acceptable agreement to be reached
with the ethnic nationality ceasefire groups. The Secretary-General
further urges the SPDC to allow his Special Envoy to return to Myanmar as
soon as possible to continue his facilitation efforts.

The Secretary-General expects the countries of the region, including ASEAN
member States, to take a leading role in actively counselling the SPDC to
accelerate the process of democratization and national reconciliation. In
the event that verifiable progress occurs, he remains committed to taking
appropriate measures to underpin progress, in partnership with the
international community.