BurmaNet News, December 7, 2004

[Editor]

December 7, 2004, Issue # 2614


INSIDE BURMA
AP: Karen guerrillas to resume peace talks with Burma junta in early 2005
Xinhua: Myanmar top leader meets Lao PM
Xinhua: Myanmar seeks to bring down car accident death rate

ON THE BORDER
Narinjara: Bangladesh funds Arakanese monument renovations
Indo-Asian News Service: ULFA base demolished by Myanmar: NSCN leader

REGIONAL
AP: Thai leader to discuss Suu Kyi in talks with Myanmar leader
New Straits Times (Malaysia): Suu Kyi's release 'crucial to reconciliation'

OPINION / OTHER
Nation: Burma must get serious about drugs

PRESS RELEASE
Amnesty International: Myanmar: Political prisoners still behind bars

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INSIDE BURMA

December 7, Associated Press
Karen guerrillas to resume peace talks with Burma junta in early 2005

Mae Sot: Ethnic Karen rebels said Monday they expect peace negotiations
with Burma’s military government to resume early next year, after the last
round of talks was interrupted by a change in the junta’s leadership.

A negotiating team from the Karen National Union, or KNU, was en-route to
the Burmese capital Rangoon when the prime minister, Gen Khin Nyunt, was
ousted on October 19.

The 16-member delegation met informally with government negotiators, but
returned to their bases along the border with Thailand after being told
further talks would be postponed because of the shake-up.

Talks with the junta had been conducted under the auspices of Burma’s
Office of the Chief of Military Intelligence, or OCMI, which was also
headed by Khin Nyunt. Since the aborted talks, the KNU has through
mediators established contact with the new military intelligence
chief—Rangoon region commander Maj-Gen Myint Swe—to set up new
negotiations, said David Htaw, the foreign affairs chief for the Karen
group.

“We have already gotten into telephone contact,” said David Htaw. He said
new talks were expected early next year.

The KNU, which has been fighting for autonomy in eastern Burma, began
ceasefire talks late last year. Both sides have declared a provisional
truce, though government forces continue to carry out counterinsurgency
operations in Karen State.

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December 7, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar top leader meets Lao PM

Yangon: Chairman of the Myanmar State Peace and Development Council
Senior-General Than Shwe met with visiting Lao Prime Minister Boungnang
Vorachit here Tuesday afternoon, state-run Radio Myanmar reported.

Boungnang also met with his Myanmar counterpart Lieutenant- General Soe
Win, the report said without disclosing details about both of the
meetings.

During his visit, the Lao PM will attend the opening ceremony of the
Myanmar-hosted World Buddhist Summit due to open in Yangon on Thursday, it
is learnt.

Boungnang arrived here earlier on Tuesday on an official goodwill visit to
Myanmar at the invitation of Soe Win.

It is Boungnang's second visit to the country since August 2001.

______________________________________

December 7, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar seeks to bring down car accident death rate

Yangon: Myanmar is seeking to bring down the car accident death rate under
a drafted national road safety strategy action plan which is part of a
Southeast Asian regional one, Myanmar Times reported Tuesday.

The plan, which would be implemented in three phases once it was approved
by the government, would seek to cut the car accident death rate to 20 per
10,000 vehicles from 27 per 10,000 vehicles in 2003, the road transport
authorities were quoted by the newspaper as saying.

The first phase of the plan will include road safety education campaign,
it said.

There were over 1,300 deaths of road accidents across Myanmar in 2003.

The country has more than 900,000 registered motor vehicles including
motor-cycles as of August this year with 4,000 to 5,000 cases of road
accidents reported annually.

As over 50 percent of the registered vehicles are motorcycles, the plan
has prescribed that 90 percent of motorcyclists are to wear helmets and 70
percent of the drivers to use seat belts to help reduce death and injury
rate.

The regional road safety strategy, approved at a meeting of transport
ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Phnom
Penh last November, is expected to save more than 900 lives in Myanmar
during the next five years, it added.

The regional road safety strategy was drafted under guidelines of the
Asian Development Bank.



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____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

December 7, Narinjara News
Bangladesh funds Arakanese monument renovations

Dhaka: The Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Khalida Zia visited the Arakanese
villages (known as Awakyan region) under the Kawakatta Township of 
Pauktawa Khali district, on the 2nd of December.

During her visit she promised 10 million Taka to renovate the Buddhist
temples and monasteries in the region.

When Zia visited the Arakanese villages she met with the local Arakanese
people to discuss the difficulties that the Arakanese minority is facing.

The PM also visited the Sri Mangla Monastery, which was built in 1926.  It
was the Arakanese that built Bangladesh’s biggest Buddha image, and they
were also responsible for the construction of many of the wells and lakes
built in Bangladesh.

Zia’s visit is the first of a Bangladeshi Prime Minister to an Arakanese
village since independence 33 year ago.

According to a government publication in 1947-48, there were 5,190
households consisting of about 100,000 Arakanese in the region, but
currently there are only about 515 households with 10,000 Arakanese.

After Burma’s independence most Arakanese fled to Burma due to harassment
and land grabbing from the Muslim population, said a local Arakanese.

The current government’s conviction is that the Arakanese fled the region
because of the acute poverty and underdevelopment. Hence, it aims to
provide development for the region.

By renovating these old Buddhist Monasteries and Pagodas and making the
beaches accessible, the region will attract foreign tourists and this will
be beneficial for the region’s economy, said Prime Minister Zia at a
public rally.

Awakyan region is 300 miles south west of the capital Dhaka, and is
adjacent to West Bengal, India.

When the Burmese king Bo Daw Phara invaded Arakan in 1784, hundreds of
thousands of Arakanese people fled from Kyaukphyu, Rambree, and Man Aung
in Arakan across the sea and settled in this region of Bangladesh.

_____________________________________

December 7, Indo-Asian News Service
ULFA base demolished by Myanmar: NSCN leader

Guwahati: Myanmar has overrun a key Indian separatist base in a continuing
military offensive to evict separatist rebels from its soil, militant
leaders said on Tuesday.

The Myanmarese military over the weekend demolished a camp of the outlawed
United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) along the Chindwin river in the
north of that country, said Kughalo Mulatonu, a leader of the SS Khaplang
faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN).

The NSCN, fighting for a tribal homeland in Nagaland, had also lost about
five to six camps since the military offensive began a week back, he said.

"The ULFA lost one of its two camps in Myanmar although there were no
casualties," Mulatonu said.

"The troops raided the ULFA camp and decamped with some weapons and
military hardware."

The ULFA is a rebel group fighting for an independent homeland in Assam
state. It had had set up bases inside Myanmar after they suffered heavy
reverses last year following a military crackdown by Bhutan.

The ULFA was not immediately available for comments.

The military operation by Myanmar is directed against the NSCN that has at
least 50 camps with some 5,000 guerrilla fighters entrenched in fortified
bunkers in the Sagaing Division in northern Myanmar, Mulatonu said.

At least four other militant groups from India's northeast, where numerous
tribal and ethnic groups are fighting for greater autonomy or
independence, have training camps in northern Myanmar's thick jungles --
all of them sheltered there under the patronage of the NSCN.

"All the revolutionary groups, including the ULFA, are staying under our
command as the area in Myanmar is our domain," said another senior NSCN
leader Athrom Konyak.

"Earlier there were about 500 ULFA cadres inside Myanmar, but now they
have just about 50 of their boys left with the remaining having entered
Assam for carrying out some special operation."

"We are committed to giving full protection and assistance to the ULFA and
other revolutionary groups from Manipur sheltered in Myanmar," Konyak
added.

The NSCN said Myanmarese troops were preparing for heavy bombardments on
rebel camps in the next few days.

"The enemy soldiers were moving in 60mm and 90mm mortars and rocket
launchers and we are equally prepared to beat back the troops with all our
might," Mulatonu said.

At least three brigades (about 10,000 personnel) are involved in the
operation in military-run Myanmar, he said.

There has been no immediate confirmation of the military offensive from
Myanmar although Indian army officials' quoting intelligence inputs say
"something was on" inside the neighbouring country.

The NSCN's Khaplang faction has been observing a ceasefire with New Delhi
since 2001 although peace talks are yet to begin.

In October Myanmar's military strongman General Than Shwe ended a visit to
India with a pledge that the junta would not let Indian rebels operate
from its soil.

The last time Myanmar launched a military operation against the NSCN and
other Indian rebels was in 2001 when at least a dozen separatists were
killed.

India and Myanmar share a 1,640 km long unfenced border, allowing
militants from the northeast to use the adjoining country as a springboard
to carry out hit-and-run guerrilla strikes on federal soldiers.

More than 50,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency in the
northeast since India's independence in 1947.

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REGIONAL

December 7, Associated Press
Thai leader to discuss Suu Kyi in talks with Myanmar leader

Bangkok: Thailand's prime minister said Tuesday he plans to discuss the
detention of Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi with the
military-ruled country's top leader during a visit there later this week.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's visit comes amid increasing pressure
from other Southeast Asian nations on Myanmar's military rulers to release
Suu Kyi, who has been in government custody since May last year.

Thaksin told reporters Tuesday that he will raise Suu Kyi's detention with
Senior Gen. Than Shwe on Thursday, when he is scheduled to make a half-day
trip to the Myanmar capital Yangon to attend the World Buddhist Summit.

Thaksin declined to elaborate, but said the leaders planned to discuss
Myanmar's national reconciliation process and efforts to restore
democracy.

The scheduled trip comes amid tensions between Myanmar and some of its
fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

ASEAN members such as Malaysia and Indonesia, which have for years
patiently backed the ruling junta, have recently expressed frustration at
Myanmar's hardline policies and unfulfilled promises of democratic reform.

On Monday, Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Myanmar should
release Suu Kyi to show the international community it is serious about
reform.

Thaksin's government, however, has demurred from overtly criticizing the
junta.

Suu Kyi was taken into custody in May last year after her motorcade was
attacked in northern Myanmar by a mob supporting the ruling junta.

The Nobel peace laureate's National League for Democracy party won a 1990
general election, but was not allowed by the military to take power.

ASEAN consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar,
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

_____________________________________

December 7, New Straits Times (Malaysia)
Suu Kyi's release 'crucial to reconciliation'

Kuala Lumpur: The release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is
crucial in Myanmar's road map to democracy as it would help the nation's
reconciliation process, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said
today.

He added that if democracy was on the cards, it would have to include
participation from all parties and that would mean the release of Suu Kyi.

He said it was confirmed Suu Kyi would remain under house arrest and that
an end-date to the detention was not known.

"They (the junta) only say they have not released her and she will
continue to be under house arrest," he said after the opening of the
Second East Asia Forum at Shangri-La Hotel today.

A spokesman for her political party, the National League for Democracy,
had said last week Suu Kyi had been told she would be held under house
arrest at least until September.

"I think they should look at their road map so that it has credibility and
the international community believes they are going to proceed as they
have promised," Syed Hamid said.

On a report the United States would review its relationship with Asean in
2006, when Myanmar takes over the chair of the group, if Suu Kyi was not
released by then, Syed Hamid said the threat served no purpose.



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OPINION / OTHER

December 7, The Nation
Burma must get serious about drugs

With friends like our ‘ally’ to our west and north, Thailand hardly needs
enemies

Trying to score some quick political points, Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra, in his first encounter with his Burmese counterpart, Soe Win,
called on the newly installed chief to track down and hand over Wei
Hsueh-kang, a notorious drug lord wanted by both the US and Thailand.

Soe Win would not say yes or no, but his silence has been interpreted as
believing the request to be wishful thinking on Thaksin’s part. Wei is
wanted by the US for heroin trafficking and carries a US$2-million
(Bt78.2-million) price on his head. The Thai authorities also want him for
jumping bail in 1988 on similar charges.

Wei commands a sizeable battalion within a self-styled pro-Rangoon
militia, the United Wa State Army (UWSA), operating from an area just
kilometres away from Thailand’s northern border. Perhaps the chairman of
the UWSA, Bao Yu-xiang, put it best in an earlier interview: “The
allegations about Wei are not our problem. Thailand had him, and Thailand
let him go.”

Confirming Bao’s position, Burma’s drug tsar, Brig-General Kyaw Htein,
speaking to reporters at a Chiang Rai narcotics forum earlier this year,
said that Rangoon has no position in regard to Wei.

Basically, this means that if this convicted drug dealer, commanding a
considerable force within one of the world’s largest armed
drug-trafficking groups, were to fall from the sky in front of the Burmese
authorities, he would be permitted to go about his business, assuming that
his knees were not broken.

For the past three years, the Thaksin administration has condemned the
UWSA, accusing the ethnic army of flooding the region with millions of
methamphetamine pills on a weekly basis and the world with tonnes of the
finest-grade heroin. Some senior Thai Army officers have publicly accused
their Burmese counterparts of accepting bribes for turning a blind eye to
such illegal activities and called for a military solution.

Part of the reason why Rangoon has not resorted to military force against
the Wa and the other drug armies is that the junta does not want to turn
the clock back to the days when Burmese troops slugged it out with the
different ethnic armies.

As for why Rangoon does not take Thaksin’s request seriously, that has a
lot to do with Thaksin himself. Consistency has never been Thaksin’s
strong suit, as witnessed by his decision to help Rangoon whitewash the
UWSA by funding a crop-substitution and community-development project in
the Wa stronghold adjacent to Chiang Rai’s Mae Fa Luang sub-district.

Thailand’s top brass, sent to attend the opening ceremony for this
project, clasping hands with Chairman Bao and Wa children had observers
and diplomats alike scratching their heads in wonderment and confusion.

But problems connected with the UWSA churning out methamphetamines and
other drugs just a stone’s throw away from Thai soil do not involve drug
production alone. The UWSA has demonstrated the extremely close
relationship between Burma’s illicit drug industry and the generals who
rule the country with an iron fist. It also reflects on Thailand’s lack of
sound policy and consistency in dealing with the Rangoon regime and the
drug lords who come part and parcel with it.

Moreover, current trends towards globalisation make it easier for illicit
drugs to wash up onto different shores around the world. “The problem is
we don’t have enough intelligence,” said Zhang Dao-ming, a regional
Interpol official, at a recent Asean conference on narcotics in the
Philippines.

Some countries, said Zhang, are not even willing to share whatever
information they have.

The recent impressive show of cross-border cooperation between Chinese and
Thai officials who broke up a drug-trafficking ring that smuggled 463
kilograms of Burmese heroin into China for re-export to Europe is a good
example of what can be achieved. The suspected kingpin, Chinese national
Liu Gang-yi, was arrested on October 29 and deported to China the very
next day. Altogether, seven of the suspected traffickers were arrested in
China, Liu being the only one nabbed in Thailand. A similar haul of 354kg
of Burmese heroin was made in Yunnan, two years ago.

While progress has been made, as evidenced by these two cases, total
victory remains elusive.

Thailand and neighbouring governments must comprehensively address such
issues as sources of funding for drug production, supplies of precursor
chemicals needed to manufacture methamphetamines, clandestine drug-making
laboratories and smugglers who routinely engage in fire fights with Thai
troops along our northern border.

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PRESS RELEASE

December 7, Amnesty International
Press Release: Myanmar: Political prisoners still behind bars

Amnesty International is today publishing a document detailing hundreds of
the political prisoners still behind bars in Myanmar. The organization is
calling on the Burmese authorities to release all prisoners of conscience
and to reform the justice system.

There are more than 1,300 political prisoners in Myanmar. Amnesty
International's document includes farmers, politicians, teachers, lawyers,
students and nuns, imprisoned solely for their peacefully-held views and
activities.

To see the document please go to:
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engasa160072004

To see a related public statement please go to:
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engasa160112004