BurmaNet News, October 2-4, 2004

[Editor]

October 2-4, 2004, Issue # 2572

INSIDE BURMA
Xinhua: Myanmar minister to attend ASEM 5
Xinhua: Myanmar, India hold consultations to promote ties
SHAN: Opposition in need of new game plan to keep friends in line

BUSINESS / MONEY
Narinjara: Trade gap between Bangladesh, Myanmar widens
Kyodo News: Myanmar eyes removal from money laundering 'non-cooperative' list
AFP: Focus to inject four million dollars into Myanmar oil operations: report

REGIONAL
Reuters: Myanmar still irritant as Asia, Europe heads meet.
NDTV: Home Secretary meets Myanmar officials
Rediff.com: Violence roots in Bangladesh, Myanmar: Gogoi

INTERNATIONAL
Time Asia: Asia Online Heroes 2004; Aung San Suu Kyi
BBC: Burmese exile groups allege government interfering in magazine poll
AFP: Chirac to skip Myanmar welcome ceremony at Asia-EU summit

OPINION / OTHER
The West Australian: Time to play hardball with Rangoon's despots

______________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

October 4, Xinhua
Myanmar minister to attend ASEM 5

A minister will lead a Myanmar delegation to attend the fifth Asia-Europe
Meeting (ASEM 5) to be held here on Oct. 8-9, said a local official on
Monday.

"The Myanmar delegation will be led by a minister, not foreign minister,"
Assistant to the Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Trung Thanh
said at a press conference regarding ASEM 5.

Excluding some delegations who will participate in the summit at
ministerial level, heads of state and government of most ASEM members will
attend it, he noted.

The European Union (EU) formerly did not want Myanmar to attend the
meeting, saying that the country has bad status on human rights.

It was rumored that Myanmar's new Foreign Minister Nyan Win, a
major-general who left the army to take up the post, would represent the
military government to participate in ASEM 5, and that he would be
accompanied by Labor Minister Tin Win, another former army officer.

Some 1,000 delegates from 39 delegations will participate in the event,
including 26 founding members -- 15 EU state members, the European
Commission and 10 Asian countries, namely Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Japan and South Korea,
Thanh said, noting that a ceremony will be held before ASEM 5's opening
ceremony to admit 13 new members, namely Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Poland,
Hungary, Czech, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovenia, Malta and
Cyprus.

ASEM 5, whose overall title is "Further Revitalizing and Substantiating
the Asia-Europe Partnership", will adopt three statements -- the
chairman's statement, a declaration on closer ASEM economic partnership
and a declaration on dialogue among cultures and civilizations. Its
delegates are to focus their discussions on recent regional and
international developments, new global challenges, promotion of the
Asia-Europe economic partnership, and cultural diversity and national
cultures in the age of information technology and globalization.

______________________________________

October 4, Xinhua
Xinhua: Myanmar, India hold consultations to promote ties

Visiting Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran held consultations with his
Myanmar counterpart U Kyaw Thu here Monday to promote bilateral relations,
diplomatic sources said.

During the meeting, the two reviewed the progress of bilateral ties
including the implementation of agreements signed between the two nations
over the past few years.

The mechanism for such bilateral consultations was established under a
protocol signed in January last year when former Myanmar Foreign Minister
U Win Aung visited New Delhi.

Myanmar Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt also met with Saran here on
Monday, state-run Radio Myanmar reported. Saran arrived here Sunday for
the bilateral consultations.

Relations between Myanmar and India have been growing after Myanmar joined
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1997.

A visit to India by Vice-Chairman of the Myanmar State Peace and
Development Council Vice Senior-General Maung Aye in November 2000 has
brought the two countries closer.

Since 1997 until 2003, India extended to Myanmar 50 million US dollars of
credit for industrial development under their economic and technological
cooperation. In July 2004, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed
on India's provision of a credit worth over 56 million dollars for
upgrading Myanmar's rail transportation.

Besides, a visit to Yangon by Indian Vice-President Bhairon Singh
Shekhawat in November 2003 produced an agreement on mutual visa exemption
for diplomatic and official passport holders and a MoU on cooperation in
human resources development.

According to official statistics, Myanmar-India bilateral trade, including
the border trade, amounted to over 400 million dollars in 2003 with India
standing as Myanmar's 4th largest trading partner after Thailand, China
and Singapore during the year.

Myanmar's export volume to India was registered at 325 million dollars,
while its imports from India at 75 million dollars. India stands as
Myanmar's second largest export market after Thailand, absorbing 25
percent of its total exports. It plans to increase its trade with Myanmar
to 1 billion dollars by 2006.

____________________________________

Oct 3, SHAN
Opposition in need of new game plan to keep friends in line

More needs to be done to create a Burma formula acceptable to both the
opposition and its western "friends", particularly the European Union and
the United States, according to Sai Wansai a.k.a. Sai Myo Win, General
Secretary of the Shan Democratic Union, one of the four panelists at the
joint European Policy Center-Ebert Stiftung Dialogue held in Brussels on
30 September.

"Resolving EU-Asean relationship and international conflict resolution in
Burma are two sides of the same coin and needs to be tackled together, not
separately," said Wansai at the meeting on Isolation or Engagement: Can
the EU and Asia agree on how to treat Burma? "We need to find some
workable formula or solution, which is different from what we have so long
been accustomed to."

He thought that neither isolation nor engagement approach tended to be
effective when applied separately. To achieve maximum results, he urged,
both approaches should be used in tandem.

He was especially critical on what was officially termed by the Asean as
'Constructive Engagement Policy'. The objective for admitting Burma into
the regional alliance in 1997, he said, were "to woo Burma away from (the)
Chinese orbit, reform its economy and coax the junta to become more
reasonable in resolving the (trans-national) problems, such as drugs,
HIV/AIDS, refugee and unofficial mass migration". He concluded that these
objective have failed to bring desired results.

He therefore suggested a 4-point proposal:
Creation of a joint EU-Asean Task Force on Burma
Adoption of a benchmark policy of carrot and stick
Consideration of a 'consensus minus one' or 'Ten minus one' approach
Application of power mediation, also known as coercive diplomacy
Coming back from Brussels , Wansai remarked that the meeting was
satisfactory, although he expressed disappointment with some of the
non-governmental organizations. "It is quite depressing to see some NGOs
acting like governments in power," he told S.H.A.N., "defending and
excusing what EU has decided. No one was trying to break new ground but
rather apologetic, I must say."

The European Union had on 14 September agreed to allow Burma's
participation at the 8-9 October Asian-Europe summit meeting in Hanoi
below the level of head of state or government, a position criticized by
some Members of the European Parliament as a dangerous signal to the
regime. The EU ministers countered by pointing out that they had also
agreed to tighten sanctions against the regime if Aung San Suu Kyi is not
released by 8 October.

The European Policy Center (EPC) is a think-tank made up of companies,
professional and business federations trade unions, diplomatic missions,
regional and local bodies as well as NGOs. "With lots of big international
corporate members, the EPC is quite pro-business," observed Wansai.

'Consensus minus one' means it will take more than one dissenting member
to block consensus. Ten minus one, on the other hand, means Asean (that
has ten members) without Burma_Editor's note.

_____________________________________
BUSINESS / MONEY

October 4, Narinjara
Trade gap between Bangladesh, Myanmar widens

The trade gap between Bangladesh and Myanmar has widened drastically since
the 1997-98 fiscal year.

Previously, the export volume of Bangladesh to Myanmar was higher than
that of the import. However since the 1997-98 fiscal year, Bangladesh has
imported more goods from Myanmar than it has sent exports to that country.

According to information from the Export Promotion Bureau, the export and
import ratio of Bangladesh and Myanmar was 1:0.90 in 1996-97 rising to
1:27.8 just a year later.

During 1996-97, Bangladesh exported goods valuing Taka 14, 73 Crore, to
Myanmar and the imports from that country valued Taka 16.23 Crore. 
However, just a year after in 1997-98, Bangladesh only exported goods
worth Taka 6.26 crore to Myanmar, while the imports from Myanmar amounted
to the much larger figure of Taka 38.88 Crore, bringing the ratio to
1:27.8.

Since 1997-98, the trade volume index between the two countries has
consistently showed widening gaps. In the fiscal year of 1996-97, the
trade volume ratio between the two countries was almost equal, was 1:1.95
in 1995-96, and was 1:1.79 in 1994-95.

In 1998-98, the export earnings of Bangladesh from Myanmar was only Taka
6.10 Crore, while the import expenditure was Taka 74.22 Crore in 1999-00,
with export earnings of only Taka 3.00 Crore. In the fiscal year of
2000-01, the export earnings were Taka 5.88 Crore, while the import
expenditure was Taka 133.26 crore. The year of 2001-02 saw export earnings
of Taka 13.78 Crore, while the import expenditure was Taka 97.29 crore.

In the fiscal year of 2002-2003, Bangladesh exported Myanmar goods valued
at Taka 5.7 Crore, while its imports from Myanmar amounted to Taka 151.3
Crore, resulting in a trade imbalance of Taka 145.6 Crore.

The volume of bilateral trade between the two countries over the last
couple of years only further exemplifies the widening trade gap against
Bangladesh.

The primary exports from Bangladesh to Myanmar are chemical products and
knitwear.  On the other hand, it imports cereals, wood and wood products,
wood charcoal, residues and waste from food industries, and ready-made
animal fodder from Myanmar.

_____________________________________

October 3, Kyodo News
Myanmar eyes removal from money laundering 'non-cooperative' list

Myanmar is ready to work with the international community to counter money
laundering and other illegal activities committed by international
criminal groups, a semiofficial newspaper reported Monday.

''Myanmar is prepared to collaborate with the international community to
counter money laundering problems,'' police Col. Sit Aye, head of the
financial intelligence unit, was quoted as saying by the Myanmar Times.

He said Myanmar is now working to change its ''non-cooperative country''
status with the Financial Action Task Force, an international body in
charge of safeguarding the global financial system against money
laundering and terrorist financing, by trying to implement international
norms and standards in its anti-money laundering laws.

Myanmar has since June 2001 been included on a list created by the
Paris-based FATF of countries as having critical deficiencies in their
anti-money laundering systems or a demonstrated unwillingness to cooperate
in anti-money laundering efforts.

At that time, Myanmar had yet to criminalize money laundering for crimes
other than drug trafficking, there were no anti-money laundering
provisions for financial institutions, and there was an absence of a legal
requirement to maintain records and to report suspicious or unusual
transactions.

Myanmar moved to correct the situation in June 2002 by enacting an
anti-money laundering law.

But the FATF subsequently determined that Myanmar had failed to establish
a framework to engage in effective international cooperation in the fight
against money laundering and that its anti-money laundering law lacked
implementing regulations necessary to make it enforceable.

Last November, FATF members began applying a series of additional
countermeasures against Myanmar, including tougher scrutiny of financial
transactions with that country.

While Myanmar adopted further anti-money laundering legislation in April,
the FATF soon concluded that it too contains ''serious deficiencies that
will need to be addressed.''

The FATF has said it will consider removing its countermeasures when
Myanmar has established a framework for effective international
cooperation on legal matters.

Sit Aye said the government has recently provided training on money
laundering and financial terrorism to officials from state-owned and
private banks.

''International syndicates tend to base their operations in countries with
the weakest legislation and enforcement, which will jeopardize all the
other countries,'' he said.

_____________________________________

October 3, Associated Free Press
Focus to inject four million dollars into Myanmar oil operations: report

Focus Energy plans to spend a further four million dollars on its oil
operations in Myanmar, where the private firm is already one of the
largest onshore producers, the Myanmar Times said.

The company will spend the money drilling new wells in the country's
north, according to the edition of the semi-official weekly to be
published Monday.

"Now we are drilling two development wells and at the end of the year we
expect to drill another nine wells, mostly development wells," Focus CEO
Maurie Drew told the weekly.

Drew said that of the 1,000 oil wells the firm had taken over from the
state-run Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise at Htaukshabin and Kanni
oilfields, only 300 were producing oil.

But he said production at those sites was increasing and many old wells
were being repaired in preparation to being reactivated.

"Now we are producing about 2,500 (barrels per day) and we have a plan to
increase production, we produce a little bit more every month."

Focus is a privately-owned energy company registered in the British Virgin
Islands, while the major shareholders are based in Switzerland.

It began operations in Myanmar in 1997 and is responsible for about 15 per
cent of total onshore oil production in the military-ruled country.

Myanmar has signed dozens of oil and gas exploration and production
contracts with foreign firms.

The cash-strapped nation last month signaled plans to increase its total
oil production by 67 percent this year to reduce costly petrol and diesel
imports.

_____________________________________
REGIONAL

October 4, Reuters
Myanmar still irritant as Asia, Europe heads meet - Christina Toh-Pantin

HANOI - The absent member will be the one holding centre-stage at a
meeting in Hanoi of leaders of Asia and Europe. In a hard-fought
compromise, Myanmar's ruling junta will not send its government head.

The biennial Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit of heads of government will
convene without Myanmar Prime Minister Khin Nyunt after European protests
against Yangon's violations of human rights and its house arrest of
democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

Instead, a Myanmar minister is expected to be his country's chief
representative at the ASEM enlargement ceremony held at a five-star hotel
in Vietnam's capital to welcome his country and 12 other new members to
the 25-country ASEM.

"I think everyone will be so relieved that the meeting is taking place
that not too much will be expected from the agenda," said Southeast Asia
expert Ralf Emmers of the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies in
Singapore.

It was a tough compromise that allowed the two-day summit opening on
Friday to stay on track after two ASEM ministerial meetings were cancelled
because Myanmar attended.

"Until a couple of months ago both parties were sceptical that it would
take place," Emmers said referring to the European Union and the
Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

"And the fact that it is taking place is an important step in ASEAN-EU
relations," he said.

Yangon won't be let off the hook, diplomats said.

"The Europeans will register their continued deep concern and express
their hope that the Asian partners will help keep the pressure on
Myanmar," said one European diplomat in Hanoi who said the issue would
probably be brought up during a dinner and not on the formal agenda of the
three main sessions.

The EU has warned that if Suu Kyi is not released by the start of ASEM and
Myanmar has not met other demands set out in April that it will tighten
sanctions at the next EU foreign ministers meeting on Oct. 11.

Yangon attends ASEM for the first time along with fellow Southeast Asia
members Laos and Cambodia, while the European Union is adding its 10 new
members to the group.

Too much was at stake for both sides to allow the talks to fail this year,
analysts said.

"When you look at the European side it is important for them to have
growing relations - with China in particular - and to maintain their good
stand with ASEAN countries," said Emmers.

Billed as an informal way for leaders to discuss issues of mutual concern,
the summit will include French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Japan Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi.

It will cover terrorism, globalisation, epidemics, trade partnerships,
promotion of national cultures as well as ASEM's future. China is likely
to lobby Europe to drop its arms embargo imposed after the bloody 1989
Tiananmen Square crackdown.

COMPLEMENTARY RELATIONSHIPS

France's Chirac is expected to push development of economic ties with
China. Britain, which led the opposition to Myanmar's participation, is
making its point by sending Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.

And both Asian and European partners to the meeting are eager for a
complementary relationship to their crucial ties with the United States.

"Asia sees this as a complementary relationship," said Emmbers. "For both
Europe and Asia it is a key relationship to manage well because Europe for
Asia and Asia for Europe offers a complementary relationship beyond the
United States," he said.

As one of the few major groupings that does not include the United States,
ASEM is a chance for closer interaction among the participants and for
Europe to play a bigger role.

"The U.S. will be an unseen power hovering over the ASEM meeting," said
Mark Hong, who heads the Russia programme at Singapore-based Institute of
Southeast Asian studies.

Because the talks are non-binding, some analysts doubt ASEM's usefulness.

"ASEM holds out more in the realm of symbolic and political posturing than
concrete results," said Carl Thayer, professor of politics at the
Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra.

"It is badly in need of a vision statement and a plan of action."
(Additional reporting by Jane Macartney).

_____________________________________

October 4, New Delhi Television (NDTV.com)
Home Secretary meets Myanmar officials

Following from the Centre's promise to launch a joint campaign against
militant outfits like the NDFB, the Home Secretary has begun a meeting
with officials from Myanmar in Delhi.

Four of India's Northeastern states share a border with Myanmar.

Officials say they are hoping to bring Yangon on board to carry out joint
patrolling at the 1,600 kilometer long borders to stop the large scale
movement of NDFB cadres, said to be behind the violence in Assam.

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has asked the Centre to convince Myanmar
to carry out action similar to the Bhutanese crackdown earlier this year
that considerably weakened the bases of militants groups like ULFA and
NDFB.

_____________________________________

Oct 3, Rediff.com
Violence roots in Bangladesh, Myanmar: Gogoi - G Vinayak

Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil has accepted Assam Chief Minister Tarun
Gogoi's suggestion for a pan northeast counterinsurgency strategy to deal
with the increasing violence unleashed by various militant groups.

Emerging from a meeting with Gogoi and his top civil and police officials,
Patil told the media at Guwahati's Borjhar airport while on his way to
Dimapur in Nagaland: "We will do everything possible to help the region
bring the volatile law and order situation under control as we will not
allow it to happen any more. I fully agree with the Assam chief minister
that a well-coordinated counter-insurgency operation across the region is
needed at the moment."

Gogoi has been advocating an unified operation ever since militants of the
banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and United Liberation
Front of Asom (ULFA) were driven out of their hideouts in the jungles of
Southern Bhutan in the wake of 'Operation All Clear' launched by the Royal
Bhutan Army in December 2003.

"The militants are now spread all over the region after their dispersal
from Bhutan," Gogoi maintains.

He now wants New Delhi to take up the matter of destroying Indian militant
bases in Bangladesh and Myanmar with Dhaka and Rangoon respectively.
"Unless these roots are uprooted, violent incidents will continue," Gogoi
says.

Terming the incidents in Assam and Nagaland as "unfortunate", Patil said,
"We will take bold and strong steps to deal with the situation firmly."

More than 60 people have been killed since Saturday in violent incidents
in Nagaland and Assam. Even as Patil and Gogoi were confabulating,
militants of the banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB)
triggered a series of blasts across Assam.

Security officials say NDFB is trying to make its presence felt since
October 3 its its 18th raising day.

Meanwhile after arriving at Dimapur, Patil visited both the blasts spots
and then met the injured victims in the Dimapur Civil Hospital. Later, he
held a long discussion with state's Chief Minister N Rio and his Cabinet
colleagues.

_____________________________________

INTERNATIONAL

Isuue dated: October 11, 2004 / Vol. 164, No. 15, Time Asia
Asia Online Heroes 2004; Aung San Suu Kyi

For her steadiness and her steadfast belief in the powers of democracy and
peaceful protest, 40.4% of voters nominated Aung San Suu Kyi as Asia's
Online Hero for 2004. The daughter of Aung San, an independence leader who
helped free Burma from colonialism under the British in 1948, Aung San Suu
Kyi rose to the fore of the pro-democracy movement, only to see it
violently suppressed in the early 1990s by Burma's ruling military junta.
She has spent most of the time since then under house arrest, locked up in
her family home on University Avenue in the Burmese capital of Rangoon,
but remains a beacon of hope for her people. In 1991 she was awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize, and remains the only living recipient of that award
incarcerated.

Hundreds of readers wrote in to nominate Aung San Suu Kyi as Asia's Online
Hero, many praising her courage and integrity. "She has remained
determined and dedicated to freedom even under circumstances most of can't
even imagine," wrote one reader. "Having traveled to many parts of Burma,
I was amazed at the respect, inspiration and hope she brought to Burmese
people everywhere," added a visitor. Another reader lauded that her
long-running, one-sided struggle with Burma's generals, noting that "she
is only one citizen, whom 450,000 strong soldiers are afraid of." As one
Burmese reader summed up, Aung San Suu Kyi "is the hero of our nation."

[For full results please visit:
http://www.time.com/time/asia/2004/heroes/poll_results2.html  - Ed]

_____________________________________

October 4, BBC
Burmese exile groups allege government interfering in magazine poll

Text of report by Burmese opposition radio Democratic Voice of Burma web
site on 2 October

[Newsreader] Most people might be aware that Burma's democracy leader Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi is leading the Time magazine's on-line 2004 Asian Heroes
special poll. But the polls changed dramatically yesterday and today when
former jailed Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who had been
trailing at third position with 5 per cent, shot up to 36 per cent while
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who had been leading with more than 50 per cent,
dropped to about 40 per cent.

Exiled Burmese democratic forces were suspicious of this sudden change and
attributed it to the State Peace and Development Council [SPDC] Military
Intelligence's Cyber Department and the Burmese military attache offices
worldwide. But, military affairs observer U Htay Aung, based at the
Burma-Thailand border, told the following to DVB [Democratic Voice of
Burma] about his opinion.

[U Htay Aung] We discovered an unusual happening during the last two days.
Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim caught up with the poll leader
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. We noticed that it was not the voting of the
Malaysian opposition nor the public but the work of the SPDC Military
Intelligence which wanted any other person except national leader Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi to win the poll. We heard that the junta's Cyber Warfare Group
and the Myanmar [Burma] Computer Emergency Response Team were ordered to
do that. In observing the on-line poll we learned that the Time magazine
had proposed 20 people and allocated 100 per cent. In other words, when
you voted for one person, that person's vote percentage would increase
while the rest would decrease. The two front-runners were Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi and Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim. They were going neck to
neck and the percentage was changing every minute. We felt that everyone
in the junta's group was sitting in front of the computers and voting
on-line and many believed it to be the work of the military junta.

[Unidentified correspondent] That was U Htay Aung. In order to have
another point of view DVB contacted Ko Thet Soe Lwin, a computer expert
from Bangkok-based Computer Generation Network, CGN.

[Ko Thet Soe Lwin] Yes, that was possible because I was on-line last night
and noticed the change. The other night, Anwar was only over 17 per cent
but yesterday evening he shot up to 37.7 per cent. Daw Suu [referring to
Aung San Suu Kyi] was at 37.9 per cent. I was shocked to see the rapid
rise in the votes and knew that it was very unusual. When I studied
carefully it became clear that somebody was deliberately doing it.

What I want to focus is the voting system. It is not a one person one vote
system. You can go to the web site and vote as many times as you want. So
whether you are the military or the opposition you can easily go to the
web site and vote multiple times to increase the percentage.

[Correspondent] I want to ask both of you. If you attributed this unusual
incident to the SPDC, then on the other hand, couldn't the democratic
forces which have many computers with access to the Internet and could
even outnumber the SPDC, do something. Would it be fair to say that Daw
Suu votes decreased because of less voting by the opposition or the voting
was less systematic than the SPDC?

[U Htay Aung] We sent reminder e-mails to discussion groups and friends
urging them to vote and we would also make telephone calls to lobby for
support. One thing was certain we did not sit down and vote for Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi all day.

[Ko Thet Soe Lwin] Some did not get all the information. Now the
percentage had increased. I checked this morning and saw that Daw Suu had
40.7 per cent, Anwar Ibrahim was at 37.7 per cent, and the Dalai Lama more
than 20 per cent. I have not checked the latest poll as yet.

[Newsreader] That was the latest situation regarding the Time's 2004 Asian
Heroes special poll. As the results will be announced on the Time Asia web
site on 4 October, everybody is waiting in anticipation to see the results
which this cyber warfare will bring in the next 24 hours.

_____________________________________

Oct 4, Associated Free Press
Chirac to skip Myanmar welcome ceremony at Asia-EU summit

French President Jacques Chirac will not attend a ceremony welcoming
Myanmar to an Asia-EU summit in Vietnam on Thursday, officials in Paris
said.

Chirac's spokesman, Jerome Bonnafont, said Monday the president would be
wrapping up a two-day state visit to Vietnam on that day and would be
inspecting an archeological site over a former imperial city in the centre
of the country.

The European Union has objected to Myanmar joining the Asia-Europe Meeting
(ASEM) to take place Friday and Saturday in Hanoi because of the
junta-ruled nation's human rights violations.

EU officials only agreed to attend the summit on condition the Myanmar
regime send a relatively low-ranking delegation.

Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos are all to formally join the ASEM, along with
the European Union's 10 new members, in a ceremony Thursday, on the eve of
the actual summit.

Chirac is to attend the summit on Friday as part of an Asian tour whose
centrepiece will be a four-day state visit to China starting the next day.

French officials say the president intends to "politely and discreetly"
raise the issue of China's poor human rights record during the visit to
Beijing, whose main aim is to drum up opportunities for French investment.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

October 2, The West Australian
Time to play hardball with Rangoon's despots

Diplomacy and constructive engagement do not appear to have made any
headway in fixing Burma's undemocratic ways.

The military junta has convened meetings and proclaimed its democratic
intentions, but has yet to bring any tangible change for its people.

It is becoming difficult to overlook charges by people such as Daw San San
that the military leadership is power-hungry and will hold Ms Suu Kyi
hostage to ensure its survival.

The proponents of constructive engagement, including the Association of
South-East Nations, must be becoming increasingly embarrassed, with little
room left to manoeuvre.

United Nations special representative Razali Ismail, who was optimistic
about progress last April, is now believed to be disillusioned.

Human rights abuses remain widespread. Soldiers are accused of continuing
to rape women and trafficking them into prostitution in Thailand. Edith
Cowan University Burma Study Group conveners Nancy Hudson-Rodd and Myo
Nyunt have reported rampant slave labour to the International Labour
Organisation but there is no evidence the junta has taken any action.

At least 1000 political prisoners remain in the junta's feared jails.
Freedom of speech, organisation and expression remain curbed. And there
has been no attempt to allow the opposition to reopen its offices.

It is appalling that people are dying from lack of clean water while the
regime spends tens of millions of dollars on military jets and tanks.

The United States has enforced the Burma Freedom and Democracy Act, which
bans all imports from Burma, new investments by US companies and visits by
military leaders.

With a new round of lobbying by Burma pro-democracy groups in the United
Nations, the Security Council may be encouraged to take up the issue. This
would be a severe~ blow for supporters of constructive engagement, a
worthy principle so long as it leads to results.

The junta must free Ms Suu Kyi and introduce democratic reforms quickly.
Or, like many despotic regimes, it will paint itself into a tragic corner
and shame the countries that stood by it.