BurmaNet News, August 19, 2004

[Editor]

August 19, 2004, Issue # 2542

"The government of Myanmar appreciates and respects the views and opinions
of the United Nations Secretary-General"
- From Burma’s official statement in response to UN Sec-Gen Annan

INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Flood forces Burmese from homes
AP: Prominent Myanmar democracy leader Kyi Maung, who fell out with
opposition, dies at 85
Reuters: Myanmar non-committal on U.N. call for Suu Kyi release

ON THE BORDER
Reuters: Bangladesh hand backs 133 Myanmar nationals

BUSINESS
Mizzima: Look on Burma: Ministry hints to OIL
Irrawaddy: Garmenting games

HEATLH / AIDS
Myanmar Times: Teens need reproductive health ed

OPINION / OTHER
Mizzima: Mr. Kofi Annan must visit Burma
Irrawaddy: The Chinese conundrum - Aung Zaw

PRESS RELEASE

______________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

August 19, Irrawaddy
Flood forces Burmese from homes - Shah Paung

Rising water levels in the Irrawaddy River have forced thousands of
residents in southwestern Burma to evacuate their homes in recent weeks,
said a local resident by telephone today.

Dr Tin Min Htut, a resident of Irrawaddy Division, said that in Pantanor
Township about 2,000 homes have been abandoned and thousands of farms have
been destroyed since the flooding began on August 8. He also said that at
least three people have died after being bitten by snakes, which have
plagued the area since the river spilled its banks. The water level in the
Irrawaddy subsided slightly earlier this week, but is now rising again, he
added.

Tin Min Htut, who is also a Member of Parliament from the opposition party
the National League for Democracy, or NLD, said that several villagers
have taken shelter in local monasteries but that many still have no place
to stay.

“People here are facing a major food shortage and many have no place to
go,” he said, adding that local authorities have so far delivered no
assistance to the victims. “We need people to help us.”

According to a BBC Burmese service broadcast yesterday, about 400 villages
in Htan Tapin Township in Rangoon Division were hit by severe flooding.

The report also said one person has died and several others have fallen
ill with diarrhea, skin rashes and mosquito-borne diseases but that health
care facilities and available medicines are insufficient to meet demand.

In late July, flooding in Myitkyina, the Kachin State capital in northern
Burma, claimed 50 lives and damaged at least 5,000 homes, according to the
Metta Development Foundation, a Burmese private organization which
promotes development projects in ethnic areas.

______________________________________

August 19, Associated Press
Prominent Myanmar democracy leader Kyi Maung, who fell out with
opposition, dies at 85 - Aye Aye Win

Yangon: Kyi Maung, a former army officer who became a leading member of
Myanmar's pro-democracy movement, died Thursday at the age of 85.

Kyi Maung, who had been in failing health, died of a heart attack, said
his widow, Kyi Kyi.

He was one of the opposition's most popular leaders, noted for his
straightforward style and sense of humor.

In 1989, Kyi Maung joined democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi in founding the
National League of Democracy. He was elected a member of Parliament in the
country's 1990 general election, but Myanmar's military rulers refused to
honor the results of that vote.
He left the NLD in 1997, reportedly because of differences with Suu Kyi,
but remained popular.

Kyi Maung started his political activism decades ago, joining Myanmar's
independence movement from its colonial ruler Britain when he was a
student at Rangoon University. Myanmar, also known as Burma, gained
independence in 1948.

Kyi Maung, who served in the army until 1963, had campaigned against
Myanmar's military rulers for decades. He was jailed for seven years under
the regime of the late Gen. Ne Win, who ruled from 1962-88, and was also
imprisoned several times under the junta that succeeded him.

He is survived by his wife and two children.

______________________________________

August 19, Reuters News
Myanmar non-committal on U.N. call for Suu Kyi release

Yangon: Myanmar's ruling generals issued a bland, non-committal response
on Thursday to a United Nations call for the release of democracy icon
Aung San Suu Kyi to participate in their "road map to democracy".

"The government of Myanmar appreciates and respects the views and opinions
of the United Nations Secretary-General," the government said in a
one-paragraph statement two days after a spokesman for U.N. chief Kofi
Annan issued the call.

"The government of Myanmar welcomes any constructive remarks and
suggestions and shall take them into consideration as we move forward in
reaching our common goals," the Yangon statement said.

But it offered no clue to when the generals might release Suu Kyi, who has
been in detention since May 2003, first in an undisclosed location, then,
after an operation, under house arrest at her lakeside home in Yangon.

Top government officials had conveyed the impression she was sure to be
released before a constitution-drafting National Convention opened on May
17, the first step in the junta's promised roadmap to democracy.

But the convention opened and went into recess without Suu Kyi being freed
and with her National League for Democracy refusing to participate until
she and other leaders were freed.

The convention is not due to re-open after the monsoon season, which
usually ends in November.

______________________________________
ON THE BORDER

August 19, Reuters News
Bangladesh hand backs 133 Myanmar nationals

Dhaka: Bangladesh handed over 133 Myanmar nationals, mostly fishermen,
after they had served jail terms for illegally entering its territory,
officials said on Thursday.

Most of them were picked up while fishing in Bangladeshi waters in the Bay
of Bengal and in the Naaf river, which partly demarcates the two
countries, said a senior official of Bangladesh Rifles, the country's
border force.

"They were handed over to Myanmar forces following talks at Teknaf," the
official said.

Tenknaf is a border town, 500 km (300 miles) southeast of Dhaka, the
Bangladeshi capital. Most of the freed Myanmar nationals had served their
full three-to-six months sentences.

Relations between the neighbours, who share a 320 km (200 miles) border,
had been cool in recent years, specially after some 250,000 Myanmar
Rohingya Muslims crossed into Bangladesh alleging military persecution in
the early 1990s.

Most Rohingyas have returned but about 20,000 still remain in camps in
Muslim-majority Bangladesh. Dhaka officials say the delay in repatriating
them is because of Yangon's foot-dragging.

But ties have improved after Myanmar Prime Minister Khin Nyunt visited
Bangladesh in April.

Following the visit, Yangon released 48 Bangladeshis, mostly fishermen who
were detained for straying into its territory.

Bangladeshi officials said after the latest handover they expected Myanmar
to release 150 more Bangladeshis serving jail terms for offences including
illegal trespass and logging.

______________________________________
BUSINESS

August 19, Mizzima News
Look on Burma: Ministry hints to OIL - Nava Thakuria

The Indian ministry of petroleum and natural gas has asked the state owned
Oil India Ltd (OIL) to look ‘eastward’, with a hint on Burma for
increasing crude oil and gas production in the coming days.

“The petroleum ministry is keen to see OIL looking eastward towards
hydrocarbon-rich Myanmar (Burma), which is virtually in its backyard,”
told a ministry source. It may be mentioned that the OIL chairman and
managing director R. K. Dutta, had recently made a presentation in front
of the petroleum ministry officials in New Delhi, which did not impress
the officials.

They expressed that OIL did not have a proper vision for growth, as it was
primarily confining its operations in NE India only. Few other companies
like the Gas Authority of India Limited (Gail), OIL and the Natural Gas
Corporation Ltd (NGC)-Videsh, have already ventured into Burma.

“Having over 50 years of experience in oil exploration and enjoying the
Burma Shell heritage, OIL can make really a difference. But the company,
despite the experience and knowledge about the resources of  the
neighboring country, OIL has not performed up to its mark,” the ministry
officials expressed.

However, OIL officials have disclosed that the company was set to record a
highest ever crude oil production in the current financial year. “OIL has
set the production target of 3.40 million metric tons with its expanded
network of production. Presently producing at a 3.22 MTPA rate, OIL can
achieve the target with several new discoveries, as well as optimum use of
resources,” told Prasanta Barkakoty, Manger, PR section of the company
based in NE India.

Recently upgraded to a ‘Schedule A’ category PSU, the company had also
decided to drill two horizontal wells for the first time in the history of
OIL this year, mainly for enhancing production from Hapjan and Makum
fields in Assam.

“Further extensive development drilling activities are being initiated for
the exploration of the newly discovered structure in North Chandmari area,
after the successful competition and production from the existing well.
Additional six new wells have been earmarked for drilling in these fields
in the immediate future, out which two will be complete this year to
enhance the potential build up,” added Mr. Barkakoty.

______________________________________

August 16, Irrawaddy
Garmenting games - Samantha Green

Rangoon: Burma’s garment industry has suffered as a result of US
sanctions, but not nearly as badly as regime apologists have claimed.
Exports to Europe and elsewhere continue unhindered while misleading
labeling is used to sell to the US.

San San Pwint, a 25-year old Burmese woman, is typical of many workers in
the garment factories around Rangoon. She spends her days in front of a
machine sewing ready-cut sleeves onto jackets. After work, she and her
fellow workers return to their boarding house where they spend the evening
watching Chinese soap operas on television.

Like many of the other women in the factories, San San Pwint grew up in a
rural farming village on the central plains of Burma. She left school at
the age of twelve to help her parents farm rice but soon tired of the
back-breaking work. “At home in the village there is nothing, only paddy
fields,” she said. “I left because I thought I could build a better life
for myself in the city.”

A relative working in a Rangoon garment factory helped San San Pwint get a
job. After four years at the sewing machine, her ambitions are modest. “I
could be promoted to a floor worker and make more money,” she said, “but
then my friends and colleagues would end up disliking me because I would
be higher than them and have to boss them around. All I want is to stay
working where I am.” But the actions of her government have put her job
and those of tens of thousands of others in jeopardy.

On May 30, 2003 regime-recruited thugs attacked a convoy carrying
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters. Dozens, perhaps
hundreds were beaten to death in the massacre, which lasted hours. Suu
Kyi, who escaped death only through the skill of her driver and the
bravery of her supporters, was placed under arrest. Burma’s exporters to
the US were to suffer for the brutal and senseless act carried out by
their government.

Last year speculation arose concerning the fate of San San Pwint’s
factory. At the time, the US government was debating whether to impose
sanctions on Burma (in Burmese, see bwa yay peiq so hmu, literally “block
off business”). “I didn’t really understand what that meant,” says San San
Pwint, who had never heard the phrase before. “Everyone in the factory was
talking about it and trying to work out what it would mean for us. We
didn’t talk about why the US was putting sanctions on Burma, we just
wondered if we would be able to keep working.”

In September 2003, The Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act came into force
in the US. It banned all imports from Burma into America. Previous to
that, on July 29, the US President signed an executive order that,
effective immediately, prohibited any American financial institutions from
providing any services to Burma.

In 2003 Burmese garment exports to the US were valued at US $324 million
on a CIF (cost, insurance and freight) basis, according to the US
Department of Commerce, making up 85.2 percent of the country’s $380
million in total (legal) exports to the US for the year (in the first
eight months of 2003, US garment imports from Burma made up $251 million
of a total of $276 million). But this is not the whole story—Burma’s
garment exports to Europe alone in 2002 probably exceeded sales to the US.
Burmese-made apparel is also sold to Australia and elsewhere. These
exports continue unhindered.

Burmese women at the quality control desk of a garment factory in Rangoon,
last December. The machinists weren't working overtime that week.

There are no reliable statistics as to how many people worked in garment
factories before the sanctions came into effect or how many are still
employed. According to a Rangoon business consultant there were about 350
export apparel factories operating before sanctions went into place. Many
of those factories had only 200 or fewer employees. Only a handful had
1,000 or more. Although Burmese industry groups—none of which are
independent of the government—claimed that the sector employed more than
350,000 people, it’s doubtful that the real number was much more than
170,000.

The biggest concentration of garment factories is in the Hlaing Thayar
Industrial Estate. A survey carried out earlier this year indicated that
of the 120-odd operations there, only about 20 had closed. Anecdotal
evidence suggests that factory closure since the sanctions came into force
was only 15-20 percent of the total (garments are exported to Europe,
Australia and elsewhere). An April 2004 US State Department report on
Burma estimated that 40,000 to 60,000 workers had lost their jobs. There
have been layoffs and reduced working hours instituted at the surviving
operations.

San San Pwint has noticed that things in the factory are different this
year. Her monthly salary for working an eight-hour shift six days a week
is 6,000 kyat, just over $6. Last year before the sanctions, she could
supplement this by working overtime and was able to earn up to 20,000 kyat
per month. But this year the factory has received fewer orders and she is
seldom required to work overtime. As a result, her earnings have halved
and she can barely make ends meet. Many women have left the factory to
seek better-paying work: staff numbers have fallen from 1,100 employees
last year to only 600.

Thida Win, who works in another garment factory in northern Rangoon, has
watched her monthly earnings shrink to 8,000 kyat. She sends money home to
her parents to support her seven siblings. Thida Win started taking
regular loans from one of the factory managers at a usurious interest
rate. “I am so heavily in debt now that I can’t see a way out,” she said.
“I can’t imagine how I will be able to pay back my loans.”

The country’s garment industry claims that it is rallying against the
effects of sanctions. The Myanmar Times reported in November last year
that many factories were re-opening. The chairman of the Myanmar Garment
Manufacturing Association was quoted as saying that garment companies were
expanding sales to Europe.

One Rangoon factory owner claims that her business is expanding despite
the sanctions. The company has grown from 300 employees in the late 1990s
to 800 workers and has increased exports from 100,000 pieces of clothing
annually to 500,000 in the past year alone. Although “Made in Myanmar”
clothes are banned in the US, the factory sews on different labels such as
“Made in China” or “Made in Thailand” and exports the garments to the US
through the relevant country. There’s plenty of other skullduggery on the
go.

In a country where industrial labor organizations are effectively banned,
in July last year 350,000 “garment workers” signed a petition urging US
President George Bush to roll back the American sanctions. Ma Aye, a young
woman employed in a Rangoon knitting factory, said “The factory manager
passed around blank sheets of paper and told us to sign them. We were not
even told what they were for.”

In October 2003 US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and
the Pacific, Mathew Daley, testified before a congressional subcommittee
that women previously employed in garment factories had been forced into
prostitution by the American sanctions. However, prostitution was rife in
Rangoon before the sanctions were put in place and Mathew Daley has a
history of trying to appease and help the Burmese government (in April
1994, when deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Bangkok, he flew
by Thai military helicopter to a Karen National Union base at Pwe Ba Lu in
the company of a Thai who was trying to convince the rebel group to parlay
for peace with Rangoon—the symbolism was obvious, but ran counter to US
government policy with regard to Burma and earned Daley a hasty
reassignment to India).

The evidence on the ground doesn’t indicate a flood of unemployed garment
workers to the brothels. Many ex-factory workers are reabsorbed into the
local economy, working in markets or as day laborers. In August last year,
the knitwear factory employing Ohn Khin closed down.

“We were told it was because of the sanctions,” she said. “We were all
crying. We had to go our separate ways and didn’t know where we would end
up.” She says that some women were able to find work in other factories
while many returned home to their families in the country. Ohn Khin set up
a sewing shop with her sister-in-law. Using rented sewing machines, the
two take orders to make school uniforms, earning a maximum of only 16,000
kyat a month between them. “I would return to the factory if I could,”
says Ohn Khin. “Even though it was hard work, I don’t care. At least it
was a regular wage.” So much for the workers—how have the sanctions
affected the regime?

The military-owned Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd, or UMEH, levies
its joint-venture partners a $2-3 surcharge per item for every garment
exported, depending on the classification of the piece of clothing. Other
garment producers are required to make similar sized, per-item payments to
the Ministry of Finance & Revenue (UMEH’s joint-venture partners are
exempted).

Local businessmen claim that there is a considerable amount of
under-reporting of exports on the part of clothing manufacturers, so the
revenue to the coffers may well be smaller than the headline numbers
suggest. However, the sales to Europe and elsewhere persist, dampened only
by Burma boycott campaigners.

John Jackson of the Burma Campaign UK, a London-based group lobbying for
sanctions against Burma in Europe, believes that the jobs of
garment-factory workers are a necessary sacrifice. “This is a political
struggle and very difficult choices have to be made,” he said. “There are
far more people than just those who are affected by foreign investment. If
there are no sanctions and you maintain trade and investment as normal
this will only serve to entrench the regime and consign fifty million
people [the population of Burma] to torture and poverty
. This is the
price you have to pay in order to protect a limited number of jobs.”

While the debate over sanctions rages around them, the garment-factory
workers who still have jobs continue with their daily routines. At 9 pm
each night, the gates of the factory that San San Pwint works in, slide
open to let out the late-shift workers. In the dark it is impossible to
make out the faces of the women who glide through the gap. But, every so
often, the headlights of a passing car illuminate their regulation
dark-blue longyi and loose-fitting shirts, glinting briefly off the
aluminum tiffin boxes many of the women carry. As the car drives past, the
scene slips back into darkness.

______________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

August 16-22, Myanmar Times
Teens need reproductive health ed - Nwe Nwe Aye

Increased awareness about reproductive health is necessary for adolescents
to avoid unwanted pregnancy and maternal death, said an official from the
Ministry of Health.

Dr Daw Khin Thet Myaing, the Yangon divisional officer of the ministry’s
Maternal and Child Health Section, was speaking to Myanmar Times at the
sideline of a training workshop on Adolescent Reproductive Health and Post
Abortion Care, held August 2-6 at the ministry’s training centre in Dagon
township.

Dr Daw Khin Thet Myaing said early marriage and pregnancy could put girls
at high risk of maternal death since their reproductive systems were not
yet mature.

She said adolescents should be informed about safe sex and reproductive
health to avoid practices that could increase the risk of contracting
sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.

According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), young people aged
between 12 to 24 constitute approximately 30 per cent of 52 million people
in Myanmar.

The Fertility and Reproductive Health Survey conducted by the UNFPA in
1997 showed that about four per cent of Myanmar people aged 15 to 19 had
already had children.

The survey also indicated that the incidence of teenage pregnancy was
particularly high among the less educated and in rural areas.

The workshop was attended by 45 medical officers, health assistants,
nurses and midwives from Shwe Pyi Thar and North Okkalapa townships in
Yangon, Phyuu and Daik U in Bago Division, and Maubin in Ayeyarwaddy
Division.

Dr Thein Thein Htay, an assistant director of the Maternal and Child
Health Section, said it was important that adolescents should be treated
in a supportive and caring manner when they sought help at public health
facilities.

She said only about 50 per cent of women who suffered from the
complications of abortion sought help from private and public health
facilities.

The delay in seeking treatment was the major cause of maternal deaths, Dr
Thein Thein Htay said.

______________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

August 19, Mizzima News
Mr. Kofi Annan must visit Burma - Myat Soe

The Rwanda genocide was launched in April 1994 against the country's Tutsi
population and moderate Hutus, by Hutu extremists in the government and
the army. Approximately 800,000 people were slaughtered in 100 days. The
UN and its member states failed Rwanda in deplorable ways in 1994,
ignoring evidence that genocide was planned; refusing to act once it was
under way.

According to the independent report, commissioned by Secretary-General
Kofi Annan, the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 can be summarized as a lack of
resources and a lack of will to take on the commitment of the United
Nations, which would have been necessary to prevent or to halt the
killings. After the United Nations had failed to prevent a massive human
tragedy, Mr.  Kofi Annan said, "Of all my aims as Secretary-General, there
is none to which I feel more deeply committed than that of enabling the
United Nations never again to fail in protecting a civilian population
from genocide or mass slaughter."

The question is: Did Mr. Annan make his promise and did he do what he
said? The answer is NO. The United Nations made fatal errors again in its
mission to Angola, where civilians faced starvation and massive human
rights abuse as a result of the resurgent war. The U.N.'s involvements in
Angola, and similar missions in countries like the Democratic Republic of
Congo and Sierra Leone, were disasters because of the United Nations'
ignoring evidence to the conflicts.

Unless Mr. Annan has learned from those many fatal mistakes, the United
Nations still did not prepare to act to prevent acts of gross violations
of human rights in Burma. Even though the 53-nation U.N. Human Rights
Commission unanimously adopted a resolution expressing grave concern over
systematic violations by authorities in Burma, Mr. Annan as
Secretary-General, did not raise to bring actual penalties toward the
Burmese illegitimate regime.

Undeniably, the United Nation resolution becomes a music to the ears of
the notorious generals in Burma who have few friends in the region, also
lent its support to the junta's new roadmap to military way of democracy.
The Burmese brutal regime is enjoying a large measure of understanding and
tolerance from ASEAN, which chose to strictly observe its much-criticized
ban against interference in member nations' affairs.

The evidence is that the conflict in Burma has displaced over one million
people. There are currently more than 1,300 political prisoners in the
notorious jails, many thousands of people in the war zones of Burma, and 4
million citizens have left their own country since 1988. Even many human
rights groups have expressed concern about arbitrary arrests by military
intelligence agents, prolonged interrogation, and the torture and
ill-treatment of detainees.

Yet the United Nations as the most prominent institution in the
international community and has failed to help rescue the Burmese people
from a murderous tyranny that has lasted over 16 years (since 1988), and
today, all human rights groups are still unearthing thousands of victims
in horrifying testament to that failure.

Burma's current situation is at the most critical point in its history. 
Support from all possible sources is needed for the beleaguered democrats
in Burma. In that respect, the United Nations, which is the most prominent
institution in the international community, can play an important role in
resolving the political crisis in Burma.

The U.N and its members must not fail the Burmese people again when they
need protection the most.  Mr. Kofi Annan must realize that your help and
expertise cannot be effectively delivered from your special envoy Mr.
Razali Ismail, or Mr.  Paul Sergio Pinheiro. You must visit Burma and you
must meet both sides (Military regime and the NLD which won in 1990
General Election) to re-enter genuine political dialogue that is aimed at
returning the country to democracy and civilian rule.

The writer Myat Soe is the Research Director of Justice for Human Rights
in Burma.

______________________________________

August 16, Irrawaddy
The Chinese conundrum - Aung Zaw

What role does Burma really play in Beijing’s policy plans?

Eleven bilateral agreements. A commitment to cooperate in the war on drugs
and cross-frontier crime. And a large measure of mutual praise. Those were
the official and much-publicized results of the week-long visit to China
in mid-July by Burmese Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt.

But a week is a long time in politics. Were the high-level talks confined
to adding the finishing touches and signatures to documents on which the
ink had probably already dried? Or were the wider and deeper issues
attached to Burma’s role in China’s forward foreign policy planning
addressed behind the heavy, ornate doors of Beijing’s palaces of power?

Central to China’s regional concerns is its very real interest in seeing a
stable and economically viable Burmese state on its western frontiers.
Some Chinese officials have openly linked stability to "democracy", and
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue is on record as urging a
"good internal and external environment for Myanmar’s [Burma’s]
democratization".

Beijing’s concept of "democratization" doesn’t yet embrace an open
acceptance of Burma’s opposition National League for Democracy, or NLD.
The Chinese Embassy in Rangoon, for instance, keeps a demonstrative
distance from the NLD.

Nor is there any open Chinese sympathy for the plight of its leader, Aung
San Suu Kyi, held under house arrest at her home outside Rangoon for more
than a year. Yet Suu Kyi’s name appears regularly in Chinese media reports
on Burmese developments.

Within Burma, critics of NLD policies call for greater efforts to forge
ties between the Burmese opposition and China, arguing that such a
strategy would undermine the military regime’s propagandistic claim that
Suu Kyi is just a puppet of the West.

It can’t have escaped Beijing’s notice that Suu Kyi has never openly
criticized China or its ties with Rangoon. Chinese foreign policy pundits
must also be aware that Suu Kyi has also never expressed clearly
pro-Western sentiments. Her aides describe her as a nationalist and
maintain she would never, for instance, allow an American military
presence in Burma—another source of comfort for Beijing.

Earlier this year, China’s vice prime minister, "iron lady" Wu Yi, urged
the Rangoon government, during an official visit to Burma, to push the
country’s political situation in a more positive direction. She told junta
chairman Sr-Gen Than Shwe that Beijing wanted to see Burma consolidate
economic development—and at the same time achieve political stability and
national harmony.

Wu Yi's pragmatic political approach highlighted the differences in style
between the Beijing and Rangoon leaderships—the Chinese power structure of
autocrats, politicians and bureaucrats contrasting starkly with a Burmese
executive system rooted in a rigidly military framework, built around
inflexible men in uniform with little idea of economic and investment
policies.

For Burmese observers, this goes a long way towards explaining the success
of Chinese economic policies and the miserable state of affairs in Burma.

China’s interest in a stable Burma was clearly in evidence last year when
it sent a delegation to the Thai-sponsored "Bangkok Process". Its stand on
Burma is also being closely monitored in other regional and international
arenas, particularly in its relations with the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations, or Asean, and its work at the United Nations, whose special
envoy Razali Ismail one year ago called directly on Beijing to help break
political deadlock in Burma. Some dissidents even expect a Chinese
abstention if a resolution calling for sanctions against Burma is ever put
to a Security Council vote.

For now, national interests dictate Beijing’s stand on Burma, and these
are principally economic and military-strategic.

Burma offers China a direct route to the Indian Ocean, and railroad and
oil pipeline projects are under scrutiny in Beijing and Rangoon.

The oil pipeline would connect Kunming, capital of China’s southwestern
Yunnan Province, and Sittwe on the Burmese coast, cutting 1,200 km from
the present sea route between the Persian Gulf and China’s Guangdong
Province, via the Straits of Malacca. More than 60 percent of China’s oil
travels this route.

Relations between Burma and China haven’t always been this positive. They
began well enough when in 1949 Burma became the first country outside the
Communist bloc to recognize China. Rangoon still pursues a "one China"
policy (a stand which won the thanks of President Hu Jintao during Khin
Nyunt’s visit), despite the presence of 300 Taiwanese firms in Burma. Less
than 20 years later, however, relations went into a tailspin.

The bad patch began in 1967, when thousands of Chinese demonstrated in
Rangoon against a Ministry of Education decree banning students from
wearing "unauthorized badges". The ban came at the height of the Cultural
Revolution, when virtually all pro-regime Chinese—at home and
abroad—sported Mao badges.

More than 1,300 Chinese residents of Rangoon were arrested during the
demonstrations, sparking protests by the Chinese Embassy. Demonstrators
turned their anger on the embassy and attacked the compound.

China claimed several hundred people were killed in the clashes. Official
Burmese sources put the figure at 50.

The political consequences were grave. Diplomatic relations were
effectively severed, Chinese aid programs were suspended, Chinese
technicians working in Burma were recalled, young Burmese studying in
China were ordered home.

The unrest—which some said was stirred up to divert attention from severe
rice shortages—came one year after a visit to the United States by Burmese
leader Ne Win. The visit, at the invitation of President Lyndon Johnson,
rang alarm bells in Beijing, and Chinese party chairman Liu Shao-Chi and
Foreign Minister Chen Yi flew to Rangoon with the reported purpose of
trying to persuade Ne Win to cancel the trip.

Relations between Burma and China were paradoxically complicated by a
generous aid program initiated by Beijing in the early 1960s. Former
Deputy Prime Minister Kyaw Nyein, even though known for his pro-Western
views, praised the Chinese aid, which came with no conditions attached.
Some of the aid went to Rangoon’s greatest internal enemy, the Communist
Party of Burma, or CPB, based along the China-Burma border.

Rangoon wasn’t at all happy to see Chinese armaments and military advisers
bolstering the strength of the CPB. Beijing backed off in the face of a
further setback to good relations with Rangoon, and support for the CPB
dwindled from the 1980s onwards.

In 1989, a year after the military junta came to power, the CPB collapsed.
Most of the ethnic groups born out of that split reached ceasefire
agreements with the new regime.

In the same year, Rangoon gave tacit approval to the bloody suppression of
dissident demonstrations in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square—a kind of
reciprocal act for China’s disapproval of the 1988 democracy uprising in
Burma.

In 1990, the first major shipment of arms and ammunition from China
arrived in Rangoon. One year later, 11 Chinese-made F7 jet fighters were
delivered, part of a billion dollar arms deal that included tanks, armored
personnel carriers, naval patrol boats, anti-aircraft guns, missiles,
light arms, ammunition and other military equipment.

There are reports that Rangoon has failed to meet the terms of the arms
deal, and that China is refusing to provide new loans to the Rangoon
regime. The Chinese reluctance to advance more financial aid to Burma is
even being ascribed to American pressure on Bejing.

If that’s the case, and if additional American pressure can lead to a
Chinese abstention in any UN Security Council vote on Burma, a new
scenario emerges in the Burmese political stalemate. And the outlines of
that scenario were undoubtedly apparent behind closed doors at the July
talks in Beijing.