------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------ "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies" ---------------------------------------------------------- The BurmaNet News: May 26, 1995 Issue #179 NOTED IN PASSING: Now, by request of SLORC, Thai forces are making a huge media show of going into the camps and confiscating the weapons, which in some cases they handed out themselves to begin with. They are making every effort to cast the refugees as 'armed insurgents' and not real refugees and attempting to turn Thai public feeling against the refugees, possibly in preparation for a sudden and large-scale forced repatriation operation. See BURMANET: SUGARLAND BLUES AT UNOCAL ANNUAL MEETING HOUSTON CHRONICLE: PROTESTERS CRASH UNOCAL MEETING KHRG: NOTIFICATION TO BURMANET USERS KHRG: THAI ARMY THREATENS RETURN OF KAREN REFUGEES BURMANET: A BILL ON THE HILL WOULD PRESSURE SLORC NATION: DESPITE RIGHTS ROW, US MAY TRAIN BURMA TO COMBAT DRUG TRAFFIC NATION: UN OFFICIAL CLAIMS VIJIT'S ESTIMATE ON REPATRIATION OF REFUGEES SLORC'S FIGURE NATION: KAYAN LEADER REPORTED MURDERED BYVA-JAPAN: NLD JAPAN PLANNING MEETING HELD NATION: BURMESE UPRISING INSPIRES CANNES FILM OCC: OCC PROFESSOR EAGERLY AWAITS DEBUT OF MOTION PICTURE ABOUT BURMA ---------------------------------------------------------- o-------------------------------o The BurmaNet News is an | | electronic newspaper | Iti | covering Burma. 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[including back issues of the BurmaNet News as .txt files] BurmaWeb: http://www.uio.no/tormodl Burma fonts: http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~lka/burmese-fonts/moe.html Ethnologue Database(Myanmar): http://www-ala.doc.ic.ac.uk/~rap/Ethnologue/eth.cgi/Myanmar TO ACCESS INFORMATION ABOUT BURMA VIA GOPHER: gopher csf.colorado.edu. Look under the International Political Economy section, then select Geographic_Archive, then Asia, then Burma. [If anyone knows the email address of the person running this gopher or the Burma section of it, please contact BurmaNet: strider@igc.apc.org] ---------------------------------------------------------- BURMANET SUBJECT-MATTER RESOURCE LIST BurmaNet regularly receives enquiries on a number of different topics related to Burma. The scope of the subjects involved is simply too broad for any one person to cover. BurmaNet is therefore organizing a number of volunteer coordinators to field questions on various subjects. If you have questions on any of the following subjects, please direct email to the following coordinators, who will either answer your question or try to put you in contact with someone who can: Arakan/Rohingya/Burma- [volunteer needed] Bangladesh border Art/archaeology/: [volunteer needed] Campus activism: tlandon@u.washington.edu Boycott campaigns: tlandon@u.washington.edu Buddhism: Buddhist Relief Mission, c/o NBH03114@niftyserve.or.jp Fonts: tom@CS.COLGATE.EDU History: zar1963@violet.berkeley.edu Kachin history/culture: 74750.1267@compuserve.com Karen history/culture: 102113.2571@Compuserve.com Karen Historical Society Mon history/culture: [volunteer needed] Naga history/culture: [volunteer needed] [Burma-India border] Pali literature: "Palmleaf" c/o burmanet@igc.apc.org Shan history/culture: [volunteer needed] Tourism campaigns: bagp@gn.apc.org "Attn. S. Sutcliffe" World Wide Web: FreeBurma@POBox.com Volunteering: Dr. Christina Fink c/o burmanet@igc.apc.org [Feel free to suggest more areas of coverage] ---------------------------------------------------------- BURMANET: SUGERLAND BLUES AT UNOCAL ANNUAL MEETING [Based on reports by Gandalf and Legolas] Unocal was embarassed for a second year running at their annual shareholders meeting, held in Sugar Land, Texas on May 22, 1995. Although the company switched the meeting to Houston, some 30 activists turned up. The meeting was held in Texas probably in an attempt to avoid the large demonstration that occurred outside its annual meeting at its headquarters in Los Angeles last year. About ten people opposed to the pipeline were allowed inside the meeting room where 300 shareholders were gathered. They were allowed to address the share-holders at the meeting although few questions were generated by those present. A Mon monk, speaking through an interpreter, addressed the meeting as did Dr. Thaung Htun (A.B.S.D.F.). Others there included Ko Latt from LA (who is a refugee student), rainforest action people from LA and SF. Unocal defended their involvement in the pipeline, saying that their presence was purely economic and denied charges of their complicity in the worsening human rights situations in Burma. The protest event was given fairly good coverage in the local media as there were four TV and two radio stations present. One Unocal official was overheard telling the Mayor of Sugarland that the company would not hold their meeting in his town next year. If so, Sugarland joins Seattle Washington and Berkeley California as cities Unocal won't be holding its next meeting in. Seattle and Berkeley have passed ordinances restricting business with companies that like Unocal, do business in Burma. HOUSTON CHRONICLE: PROTESTERS CRASH UNOCAL MEETING May 23, 1995 By David Ivanovich ------------------ Unocal Corp. officials might have figured moving the annual meeting from down town Los Angeles to suburban Sugar Land would make for a somewhat quite session. Any such notions were quickly dispelled Monday when banners reading "Unocal Supports Slave Labor in Burma" and "Save Burmese Rainforests / No Deals with Dictators" went up along U.S. 59. Human rights groups hammered away at company officials Monday, insisting Unocal pull out of military-controlled Burma, which is called Myanmar by its rulers and Unocal officials. Unocal, France's Total the Petroleum Authority of Thailand and Burma's state owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise are developing the Yadana Fields in the Sea of Andaman, an area believed to hold 5.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The group plans to construct a $1 billion, 260-mile pipeline from the Yadana Field east across Burma to Thailand. Unocal officials made clear Monday the project is a cornerstone of the company's strategic plan. "In Thailand alone gas markets are projected to grow more than 50 percent by the year 2000-and more than double by 2010," Unocal Chief Executive Roger Beach said. "We intend to be a major player in supplying this growing market." "Unocal is not the only U.S oil company operafing in Burma. White Plains, N.Y based Texaco is exploring for oil and gas off the coast of Burma in the Gulf of Martarban. But Burma is a pariah in the international community and its relations with the United States are strained. The country's millitary government, the State Law and Order Restoration Council(SLORC), invalidated the results of a 1900 democratic election and placed opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest. While American companies remain the largest foreign investors in the country, the U.S government charging that opium and heroin doubled under the current rulers has moved to isolate Burma. "The Wall Street Journal," a publication not exactly known for its liberal politics, noted in a Feb. 10 editorial: "We have argued for commerce and investment where it strengthens civil societies vis-a-vis dictators. But these deals, by putting money directly into SLORC's pocket, only make a richer prize out of political power. The prospect of vast petro dollars gives the generals yet another reason to cling to office no matter how many bodies of their fellow citizens pile up". At the annual meeting Monday,Protesters told stories of Burmese citizeens being relocated to make way for the pipeline or even being forced to work in slave labor camps. "My home is not very far from the area where Unocal wants to build a pipeline," said Nai Ong Mon,secretary-general for the Indigenous Mon Council of Burma, now living in Philadelphia. "Does Unocal consider it has any responsibility for the people whose property was seized for the pipeline? They were living there before the United States was discovered." Human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch say they have documented cases of Burmese being forced to clear land to build a railroad. And many protesters insist Burmese civilians now are being forced to construct the pipeline as well. That outrageous accusation angered Unocal's outgoing chairman,Richard Stegemeier, who noted that the railroad has no connection to the pipeline. And he argued that reports of slave labor on the pipeline must be false since construction has not begun. "There is no slave labor on a pipeline that doesn't exist," Stegemeier said. Stegemeier said the company sent representatives to the villages in the affected area to investigate complaints. "We have not observed, ourselves, any human rights violations in the area in which we work, Stegemeier said. And Stegemeier argued there is only so much a U.S company working in a foreign land can do. "We are by necessity, apolitical," Stegemeier said. It's not only smart business, but it's often required by law and certainly by our contracts". Thaung Htun with the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma warned that if Unocal does not pull out now, a democratically elected government will not honor its contract if the military is forced out of power. The protesters sponsored a stockholder proposal to beef up the company's ethics code. The board recommended shareholders vote against the proposal and it was roundly defeated. Burma, however was not the only issue on the protesters' agenda. They also criticized Unocal's environmental record and its planned construction of a sour gas plant in the Slave Field in Alberta, Canada, over the objections of the local Lubican Lake Indian tribe. ((passage omitted relating to Unocal staff reduction and moving to Sugar Land)) KHRG: NOTIFICATION TO BURMANET USERS May 16, 1995 KAREN HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP It has recently been brought to our attention that SLORC representatives in at least one SLORC Embassy have been given open and direct access to BurmaNet. While realizing that InterNet is not a secure medium at the best of times, we still feel that this was a most unfortunate decision by the organizers of BurmaNet (i.e., allowing SLORC on the BurmaNet). As our reports contain information from villages inside Burma, we have an obligation to the people of those villages to do our utmost to protect them from SLORC retaliation. Therefore, we have no choice but henceforth to withhold certain of our reports from BurmaNet distribution. Reports which we do upload onto BurmaNet will be scanned beforehand, and any specific information which would be of use to SLORC Intelligence in pinpointing villages will be blotted out. Certain individual testimonies or portions of reports may have to be dropped entirely. This process will also result in a greater time lapse before the reports can be uploaded. Our direct contacts should note that they will continue to receive the normal versions of our reports, but that these will not be identical to the BurmaNet versions, which will be much more strictly 'blacked out'. We are presently considering the possibility of establishing a direct Internet mailing list for our reports in order to get around this problem for contacts who want fuller versions of the reports than will appear on BurmaNet. Anyone interested in being on such a list should send a message to KHRG c/o strider@igc.apc.org, including an explanation of your interest in Burma and at least one reliable reference (preferably with an email address) within the Burma-interest community. As a result of this situation, we must also request people who obtain our reports on paper NOT to upload them onto BurmaNet. Karen Human Rights Group KHRG: THAI ARMY THREATENS RETURN OF KAREN REFUGEES KAREN HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP: COMMENTARY UPDATE / URGENT ACTION REQUEST May 16, 1995 The future of Karen refugees continues to grow more desperate, as the Thai approach to the problem of cross-border attacks by SLORC and DKBA appears to have entered a new and extremely worrying phase. While the DKBA claims that it will only hold off its attacks if the Thais forcibly repatriate refugees, the Thai authorities appear to be preparing to appease them and the SLORC by doing just that. Since the cross-border attacks began in February, Thai officials have made it quite clear to local refugee camp leaders that they were unwilling to provide sufficient forces to secure the camps against attack. They therefore authorized and even encouraged camps to create their own security forces. In some cases these security forces were allowed to be armed with a few small arms to defend the camp, and in some cases they remained unarmed. In some remote camps north of Mae Sariang, the local Thai forces even supplied the arms to the camp security group. Now, by request of SLORC, Thai forces are making a huge media show of going into the camps and confiscating the weapons, which in some cases they handed out themselves to begin with. They are making every effort to cast the refugees as 'armed insurgents' and not real refugees and attempting to turn Thai public feeling against the refugees, possibly in preparation for a sudden and large-scale forced repatriation operation. The Thai language media, which is 'self-censored' and largely owned by the Thai military, is going along with the show. While disarming whatever limited camp security there has been up until now, the Thais are NOT providing any increase in Thai military protection for the camps. Truckloads of Thai soldiers arrive at the camps, have themselves filmed marching through the camp and then pile back on their trucks and leave. They are only securing Thai towns in the area, not refugee camps, while there is evidence that their retaliatory helicopter 'attacks' against SLORC and DKBA forces have all been faked. However, the Thai media is full of images of convoys of Thai Army trucks, APCs and helicopters to convince the public that something is being done. This is an Urgent Action request for all people concerned with Burma to mobilize their governments, NGOs and public opinion to prevent any mass forced repatriation of Karen refugees by Thai authorities. These people are refugees, not armed 'insurgents', and camp security groups only took up arms to defend their camps with the agreement and cooperation of Thai authorities, and because Thailand refused to protect its own territorial sovereignty. The refugees state that they cannot return to Burma in conditions of safety and dignity right now, and all available human rights evidence supports them in that assertion. Thailand is right now vulnerable to international pressure, because they plan to sponsor SLORC to this year's ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Brunei this July and they would rather not be the subject of an international verbal attack by ASEAN's international dialogue partners. Chuan Leekpai's government also faces a strong domestic lack of confidence right now. At the same time, as this is being written American and Thai forces are participating in Operation Cobra Gold in other parts of Thailand, the largest joint military exercise in Southeast Asia. It is certainly ironic that the Thai and American Armies can throw all their effort into such a practice exercise at the same time that Thailand allows the SLORC Army, one of the world's most condemned gangs, to invade its western border without even putting up a fight. BURMANET: A BILL ON THE HILL WOULD PRESSURE SLORC May 26 A section of HR 1561, The American Overseas Interest Act a Bill being proposed in the U.S. Congres would reduce the American diplomatic presence in Rangoon and pressure the United Nations to cut funding for several agencies working in Burma. The purpose of the bill is to cut some of the support the regime is receiving from international agencies and from Americans doing business in Burma. At this stage, HR 1561 authorizes appropriations for the Department of State and related agencies for fiscal years 1996 and 1997. At this stage, it's still just a bill, but according to observers in Washington, the language on Burma stands a good chance of passage in some form. The actual text of the bill that deals with Burma is as follows: HR 1561- American Overseas Interest Act Submitted by Congressman Benjamin Gilman Chair. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chapter 3 - BURMA Sec. 2651-United States Policy Concerning the Dictatorship in Burma A. Sense of Congress. It is the sense of Congress that the President should take steps to encourage the United Nation to- 1. Impose an international Arms Embargo on Burma. 2. Affirm support for Human Rights and the protection of all Karen, Karenni and other minorities in Burma. 3. Condemn Burmese officials responsible for crimes against humanity. 4. Take steps to encourage multilateral assistance programs for refugees from Burma in Thailand and India; and 5. Reduce United Nations activities in Burma, including UNDP(Un ited Nations Development Programs), UNICEF(United Nations Children's Fund)' UNFPA(United Nations Family Planning Agency), World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) , and UNDICP(United Nations International Drug Control Programs) activities. B. Reduction in Diplomatic presence- It is the stance of Congres s that the President should reduce the diplomatic presence of the United States in Burma by reducing the total number of member of the Foreign Service stationed in Burma on the date of the enactment of this act. NATION: DESPITE RIGHTS ROW, US MAY TRAIN BURMA TO COMBAT DRUG TRAFFIC 25.5.95/The Nation Rangoon -US authorities trying to plug the pipeline that supplies America with 70 per cent of its heroin are debating whether to give Burma money to fight drug traffcking. The United States now supplies no such aid, insisting that Burma first put a stop to human rights violations and adopt democratic reforms. Deputy US Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Hubbard said recently that any direct US aid to the Southeast Asian nations's ruling junta would " grant legitimacy to a regime that seized power by overturning democratic elections and presecuting its opponents." But there are indications this stance may change, given the amount of heroin smuggled from Burma into the United States. The results are violence, the spread of Aids, overdose deaths among some 600,000 heroin addicts and enrichment of crime syndicates. Proponents of anti-narcotics assistance to Rangoon say training Burmese police, sharing intelligence an dprovidign funds and equipment such as helicopters and communication gear would stem some of the heroin tide. While large-scale aid is not foreseen, knowledgeable sources expect at least training assistance and more funds channelled to UN drug programmes in Burma this year. " Clearly if you going to deal with the heroin problem you have to engage Burma," said Dr Lee Brown , director of White House Office on Drug Control Police and the Clinton administration's top anti-drug official. Another huge crop of about 2,500 tonnes of opium was harvested in Burma late 1994 and early this year. Refined into heroin in remote laboratories ,the drug is traficked to North America, Europe , Australia and Asian nations. As this latest avalanche of white powder rolls into American cities, a new heroin strategy is in the final states of foumulation before being sent to President Cliton . American cfficials in Southeast Asia say Brown's office, the US Drug Enforcement Administration and teh section of the US State Department dealing with narcotics favour more cooperation with Rangoon . Opposed to closer ties are the State Department's human rights officials and members of the National Security Council . The controversy blew into the open when DEA agent Richard A Horn sued last year after being abruptly reassigned from the US Embassy here . He charges the State Department subverted his work in Burma and purposely hoodwinked the US Congress and public about Rangoon's successful anti-narcotics efforts . In a now two-year campaign against Khun Sa, the Burmese Army has suffered hundreds of dead while disrupting the operations of an opium warlord wanted by the United States . They have also started a UN- backed programme to substitute opium with cash crops . " Western countries haven't really recognized what we have done," said Brig Gen David Abel, a member of Burma's ruling military council, in a recent interview in Rangoon. "We have sacrificed life and limb. Nobody has come forward to say you have done this very well . They just close their eyes purposely." The Burmese junta argues that with out international support it can only take limited action; that weaning opium growers from their deadly crop takes years; and that it has little access to opium - growing areas controlled by insurgent armies. "Some of the Western countries seem to have mixed narcotics and politics. We see narcotics and politics as different," said Col Kyaw Win , a key officer in Burma's anti-narcotics drive. DEA officials have said pretty much the same thing. NATION: UN OFFICIAL CLAIMS VIJIT'S ESTIMATE ON REPATRIATION OF REFUGEES SLORC'S FIGURE 24.5.95/The Nation A SENIOR Thai official said yesterday that more than 10,000 Karen refugees have returned to Burma, But a UN refugee agency representative in Bangkok put the number at about 3,000. Defence Minister Vijit Sookmark pointed out that it is Thai policy to repatriate refugees, and said Rangoon had agreed to their return . "So far, I have been told that more than 10,000 Karen refugees have already returned to Burma " he said. But Ruprecht von Arnim, of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees [UNHCR] office, said " this figure is from Slorc". The State Law and Order Restoration Committee [Slorc] is the ruling junta in Rangoon. " It is definitely not 10,000 Karen who returned to Burma, maybe 3,000 -we are not sure," he said. Some 10,000 Karen fled Burma this year when the Democratic Kayin Buddhist Organization [DKBO] broke from the Karen National Union [KNU] and joined forces with the government . Together they inflicted a number of heavy defeats on KNU forces along the border. Since then the DKBO " has been trying to drive their family members from Thailand," von Arnim said." That was the purpose of the incursions. But [the refugees were unwilling to return], so they used more forceful methods." DKBO fighters raided several refugee camps inside Thailand last month to either abduct refugees or burn down their homes to force them back. Von Arnim said he did not know about conditions on the Burmese side or if it was safe for the Karen to return because his agency has no representative there. "The Burmese government has not expressed any wish yet to have UNHCR monitor the return of the refugees," he said." The Thais have said yes, but they can't authorize the UNHCR to work in Burma." On April 28, about 1,000 huts were torched at the main camp of Huay Manok . Thai authorities have since been relocating all new arrivals to a "safe area " at Mae La, 10 km from the border. But every time a camp is closed, "people disappear", von Arnim said. Some may go back to Burma, but others just move elsewhere in Thailand