From editor@burmanet.org Wed Nov 20 20:40:53 2002 From: editor@burmanet.org (editor@burmanet.org) Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 15:40:53 -0500 (EST) Subject: BurmaNet News: November 20 2002 Message-ID: <26287.207.10.94.131.1037824853.squirrel@webmail.pair.com> November 20 2002 Issue #2125 INSIDE BURMA Bangkok Post: Dialogue remains stuck at talks about talks stage Xinhua: Myanmar says national reconciliation process moving forward Irrawaddy: Political prisoner dies in his cell GUNS Muslim Information Center Burma: Armed fighting arises between DKBA groups in Burma AFP: Dozens feared dead as infighting hits Myanmar ethnic community MONEY Nation: Cheaper Burma gas REGIONAL FT: China modernization march turns Mekong into battleground Narinjara: 4000evicted Rohingyas camp near Teknaf border Network Media Group: Two Burmese opposition students taken to Bangkok Myanmar Embassy MISCELLANEOUS OSI Burma Project/SEA Initiative Internship Program ___INSIDE BURMA______ Bangkok Post November 20 2002 Dialogue remains stuck at talks about talks stage By Larry Jagan The UN special envoy has paid another visit hoping to move the generals forward. And again he looks to have left disappointed. Burma's fragile dialogue between the country's generals and the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi may be on the brink of collapsing. Despite three years of international pressure and the concerted mediation efforts of the UN through its special envoy Razali Ismail, the prospect of democratic reform seems as far away as ever. What is now clear is that the future of the process is in the balance, and can only be saved if the generals match their promises of reform with action. Mr Razali has just completed his latest mission to Rangoon without securing any real concrete progress in the dialogue process. ``It seems we are still at the talks about talks stage,'' one senior Western diplomat in Rangoon said. ``It's now up to the regime to prove they are serious about political reform.'' At the end of his latest trip to Rangoon, Mr Razali told the Bangkok Post that he had established that there was no interactive dialogue going on between the two sides, although there had been regular contact between them since the opposition leader was freed in May. This is just not good enough, the envoy said. ``Dialogue about substantive issues is essential if a lasting and durable national reconciliation is to be achieved,'' he said. Mr Razali has been pressing the generals for more than six months now to do just that. UN officials say he believed when he secured Ms Suu Kyi's release on May 6 that it also signified the generals' willingness to start substantive political talks with the opposition leader. He has made no secret of the fact that he has been upset and angry at the junta's failure to talk directly to Ms Suu Kyi in the last few months, despite their promises to do so when he was in Rangoon in early August. UN officials say this again was his key message to the generals on this visit. One of the key objectives of his trip was to see the country's top general, Than Shwe _ which he managed to do, and hear from him why the dialogue process seemed to have stalled. While it may have been a short meeting, some 20 minutes according to reliable sources in Rangoon _ it was fruitful. Diplomatic sources in Rangoon say the atmosphere at the meeting was friendly and the exchange cordial. ``The crucial thing was that Razali actually met Than Shwe this trip and conveyed the international community's message directly to him without having to go through intermediaries,'' a senior Western diplomat in Rangoon said. The Burmese leader is reported to have told Mr Razali that the government is doing all it can, but things have to take their course and cannot be hurried. Apart from acting as the representative of world opinion, Mr Razali also continued to pursue his role as interlocutor between the generals and the pro-democracy opposition. Mr Razali told the Bangkok Post he had suggested to both sides that they consider reconvening and revamping the National Convention _ which the generals set up nearly 10 years ago to draw up a new constitution _ provided all the parties involved in the process of national reconciliation agreed. But there are several stumbling blocks that will affect whether Mr Razali's suggestion of reviving the National Convention can be implemented. After all, the National Convention was set up to draw up a new constitution with most of its 700 delegates being handpicked by the government. Most diplomats believe that the convention was only pursuing the generals' instructions and was not in a position to draft an independent and democratic constitution. Ms Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, soon felt it was not being given a real role and walked out of the National Convention in 1995, calling it a sham. At the time, the NLD leaders said it was unrepresentative and undemocratic. Proposals made by the pro-democracy minority were consistently blocked. This would have to change if the NLD were to consider participating in a reconvened convention. During his trip to Rangoon last week, Mr Razali made it very clear that his proposal entailed restructuring the National Convention in a way that was agreeable to all parties involved in the national reconciliation process. This has been met by a mixed reaction amongst the parties concerned. The military has all along insisted that a new constitution must be drafted by the National Convention. The ethnic political parties, like the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, which have continued to attend the convention despite the NLD boycott, are sympathetic. ``The recommendation has merit,'' said the senior Shan politician and SNLD leader Khun Tun Oo. ``We would support the proposal as long as the convention was made more representative and became a platform where all political opinions could be expressed freely.'' The reconvening of the National Convention is more problematic for the NLD. For it the crucial issue remains acknowledging the results of the 1990 national elections which it won overwhelmingly but the generals have ignored ever since. It is the elected representatives who should be drafting the constitution, most pro-democracy activists argue. ``The NLD central executive committee would give Mr Razali's s proposal careful consideration,'' the NLD spokesman U Lwin told the Bangkok Post. ``But any move in that direction must come from them [the military government].'' Diplomats in Rangoon say that if the generals are interested in resuscitating the convention and are serious about political reform then they should release all the remaining elected MPs _ there are still more than 15 in prison, almost all of them from the NLD. The generals will also have to consider reinstating those political parties which fought the 1990 elections but were de-registered without any legal hearings. For the international community and the pro-democracy parties in Burma the role of the MPs and the ethnic groups would have to be paramount in the drafting of the new constitution if a revamped and restructured National Convention is to be reconvened. In the meantime, Burma's generals are continuing to insist that they are committed to political reform _ a message that Burma's military government spokesman reiterated again this week. Burma's third most important leader, the intelligence chief, General Khin Nyunt has assured Mr Razali that the talks with the opposition NLD have not stalled, he said, in an interview carried in this week's edition of the Myanmar Times _ a semi-official English-language weekly magazine published in Rangoon. The best way for the generals though to show their commitment to the dialogue process would be the release of a significant number of political prisoners. ``I urged the State Peace and Development Council to release at least 200 political prisoners by the end of the year,'' Mr Razali said. Privately though, UN officials have indicated that he actually urged the military leaders, including senior General Than Shwe, to free a minimum 300 political prisoners. The number and speed of releases is now likely to be seen as a concrete measure of the generals' stated commitment to democratic reform. But there is little evidence that the generals are prepared to make even this kind of gesture let alone enter serious structured political negotiations with Ms Suu Kyi. _____ Xinhua News Agency November 20 2002 Myanmar says national reconciliation process moving forward A Myanmar government spokesman said Wednesday that his country's national reconciliation process is moving forward. In a statement extending the government's appreciation to a recent visit to Myanmar by UN Special Envoy Razali Ismail, government Spokesman Hla Min described Razali's efforts in the process as "persistent and patient". Noting Razali's balanced approach and determination to assist in the ongoing dialogue in the process, Hla Min said, "Razali's frank discussion with State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) Chairman Senior-General Than Shwe, Vice Chairman Vice-Senior General Maung Aye and Secretary-1 of the SPDC General Khin Nyunt helped clarify issues and continued to expand confidence". "We very much appreciate the hard work of UN special envoy Razali and hope that friends of Myanmar worldwide will support this process with patience and understanding of the complexity of the situation," he went on to say, adding that the government is encouraged after Razali's five-day visit last week. Hla Min cited one of the facts that since 1990, the Myanmar government has achieved much in its progression toward national unity, concluding agreements with 17 anti-government armed groups and bringing them into the legal fold. He pledged the government's commitment to working with all national races to ensure an enduring national reconciliation and steady progress toward building a more unified and peaceful nation. In a renewed effort to speed up Myanmar's national reconciliation process, Razali made an official visit to the country from Nov. 12 to Nov. 16, which was also the ninth since his appointment as the envoy in April 2000. During his trip, Razali also met opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi (ASSK), General Secretary of the National League for Democracy (NLD), in addition to the government leaders. However, no details of their talks were disclosed by both sides. At the end of his visit on last Saturday, Razali said he was disappointed with little progress in restoring dialogue between the government and the opposition, adding that "I can't expect good results all the time." He expressed continued belief that "dialogue on substantive issues is essential if lasting endurable national reconciliation in Myanmar is to be achieved". Razali was believed to have initiated the confidence-building talks between the two sides since October 2000 which resulted in the release of ASSK and 334 NLD members and its activists. However, no timetable has been set by the government to further the talks after ASSK's release despite repeated calls by the NLD to start a substantive dialogue on the future of the country. Meanwhile, the international community including the UN has also been calling for such a dialogue between the government and the opposition to bring about national reconciliation in the country as early as possible. The NLD won a landslide victory in the 1990 general election sponsored by the military, gaining 396 parliamentary seats out of 485. However, the NLD complained that it has not been allowed to take office until now although the election has ended for more than 12 years. Meanwhile, the government insists that it is a care-taker or transitional one with no intention to hold on to power for long. ________ Irrawaddy November 20 2002 Political Prisoner Dies in his Cell By Naw Seng Another political prisoner inside Tharawaddy Prison in central Burma died last Friday, sources close to his family told The Irrawaddy. U Maung Ko, aged over 50, died of a heart attack while in detention. U Maung Ko was arrested in 1996 under charge 5(J) of Burma’s Emergency Provision Act 1950. Authorities accused him of sympathizing with the Communist Party of Burma (CPB) and he was sentenced to seven years in prison. "We have found that the death rate of political prisoners is rising rapidly these days, because of poor medical treatment and torture," said Bo Kyi, from the Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners (Burma) (AAPP), based in Thailand. According to AAPP, U Maung Ko is the 82nd political prisoner to die while in the custody of the current military regime. U Maung Ko is the fourth political prisoner to die this year. Other political prisoners who have died since July include: Mai Aik Pan, leader of Palaung State Liberation Front; U Aung May Thu, also held inside Tharawaddy Prison; and U Sai Phat, a National League for Democracy (NLD) leader from Shan State. Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, UN human rights rapporteur, said during his visit to Burma last month that conditions for political detainees held in Burmese prisons are improving. He estimated about 1,450 political prisoners are still being held in Burmese prisons. In 1990, another U Maung Ko, from the NLD, died while being held in an interrogation center. Also in the early 1990s, a third U Maung Ko, who was an alleged underground cell leader of the CPB, died during interrogation by the junta. _____GUNS______ Muslim Information Center Burma November 20 2002 Armed fighting arises between DKBA groups in Burma On November, 16, 2002, a day-long armed fighting took place between two Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) groups resulting in heavy casualties from both sides and the leader of breakaway DKBA group, Major Pha Dae reportedly committed suicide, according to a group of villagers near the fighting place in Pa-an district of Karen State, who requested not to be identified. The villagers said that an Abbot very close to Myaing Gyi Ngo, the supreme leader of the DKBA imposed trade restriction on DKBA Battalion (555) at Paw Pa Hta camp, which angered its commander Major Pha Dae. On the fateful day, Major Pha Dae, with his strong 60 armed men, captured arms and ammunitions from soldiers of other DKBA camps along Thai Burma border and established their separate base at Ta Gaw Ywa Hill, the villagers said. The fighting occurred when the other DKBA central troops led by Mat Tat Lam tried to recapture the Hill, the villagers said. At least 8 DKBA soldiers from Major Pha Dae-led breakaway group were executed by the central troops after surrendering to the central forces. DKBA is an alliance armed group of ruling SPDC military regime. ________ Agence France-Presse November 20 2002 Dozens feared dead as infighting hits Myanmar ethnic army Fighting between factions of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), an ethnic militia aligned with the Myanmar junta, is feared to have left dozens dead, Thai military sources said Wednesday. "There was internal fighting and a massacre in the DKBA, but we cannot confirm the number of casualties, we are checking," said Major Prayoon Phonok, commander of a civil affairs taskforce in the Myanmar border region. "Initially I heard some 50 DKBA militia were killed, but it is still unclear," he told AFP. The Karen National Union (KNU), a rival militia which is waging a decades-old guerrilla war against Myanmar's military government, said some two dozen DKBA members were killed in the gun fight on November 16. KNU secretary general Pado Mahn Sha said an armed group of 60 junior and low-ranking DKBA left their base inside Myanmar and took a position on a nearby hill to wage an all-day assault on their former headquarters. Myanmar government troops joined the battle to support the DKBA leaders at the headquarters in Myaing Gyi Ngu, he said. "The DKBA leaders have good contacts with Myanmar's military which are making them rich while low-ranking members are poor, with not even enough food," Pado Mahn Sha said. "I believe this is the result of a divide-and-rule policy over the DKBA by the Myanmar government and I feel sorry for the low-level DKBA members." Prayoon said the rebel faction's leader, Captain Pa Aee, went into negotiations with Myanmar soldiers but he was ambushed and committed suicide to avoid being held captive. The Thai officer also said he believed the conflict stemmed from a lack of funds in the DKBA, caused by a business conflict within the ethnic army. ___MONEY____ The Nation November 20 2002 Cheaper Burma gas By Watcharapong Thongrung PTT Plc yesterday announced that it had signed an amendment to the natural-gas sales contract with the Yetagun consortium in Burma, reducing the price of gas by Bt4.2 billion a year. Anon Sirisaengtaksin, senior executive vice president of PTT, said that apart from the price reduction the Yetagun consortium had also agreed to grant Bt800 million in funding to the Ratchaburi power plant. The money will be used to buy equipment that will allow the plant to consume more gas in its generation of electricity. The Yetagun consortium - led by Premier Oil - signed the original contract with PTT in 1995 to supply gas produced from an offshore field in Burma's Gulf of Mataban. PTT's upstream arm - PTT Exploration and Production - also has a stake in the consortium. Anon said that PTT also succeeded in amending the contract in terms of postponing an increase in the volume of gas purchased. PTT had earlier committed to increase its purchase from 200 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) to 260mmcfd by last month. This is now delayed until January. The next increase to 400mmcfd, previously slated for April 2004, has been postponed to February 2005. The price reduction will apply to volume above 300mmcfd, which will now be priced at 90 per cent of the price of oil, said Anon. For example, if the oil price is US$20 (Bt865) a barrel, or equivalent to $3 per million British Thermal Units (BTUs), the price of gas for the amount above 300mmcfd will be at $2.70 per million BTUs. ___REGIONAL______ Financial Times November 20 2002 China modernisation march turns Mekong into battleground By AMY KAZMIN and RICHARD MCGREGOR The riverthe Chinese call Lancang used to flow lazily through Xishuangbanna, a quiet rural region of China that is home to a number of ethnic minorities who spill comfortably over the porous borders with Laos and Burma. >From its source high on the Tibetan Plateau, the Mekong River, as it is known to the rest of the world, is one of the most bio-diverse inland waterways in the world. It flows 4,880km through some of the poorest regions in Asia, a basin inhabited by millions of small subsistence farmers who depend on the river's bounty for their survival. Today China and the Asian Development Bank see the river as an asset in the region's modernisation. Construction has already become of a string of hydro-electric dams that will eventually send electricity to energy-hungry industrial centres in China's southern Guangdong province and around Shanghai. It is part of China's "Go West" policy, which aims to ensure that the benefits of the country's roaring growth are not limited to the coastal regions, but also spread towards more remote provinces. Yet China's southern neighbours - Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam - are deeply worried about the consequences of the ambitious plans to develop their shared waterway. Thai environmental activists and experts in global research institutes warn that the huge Chinese projects will in effect "kill" the river - by destroying its fragile ecology, including the prime breeding grounds for the fish that now nourish millions of people. Such fears have turned the Mekong - once identified with America's military adventures in Indochina - again into a battleground, the latest front in environmentalists' global war against big dams. "The Mekong is our mother and will be so forever," says Niwat Roikaew, an activist from the small Thai town of Chiang Kong, which sits on the bank of Mekong, facing Laos. "We must fight for the life of the river and for our communities' future." However, even as they fret about how the massive Chinese dams will affect them, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand have erected and are planning their own smaller dams on some of the Mekong's tributaries. This has muted their complaints. "If they start criticising dams in China that puts them in a bind, because they want to build their own dams," says Dave Hubbel, an activist with Terra, a Thailand-based environmental group. "They are just quietly hoping somebody will stop China, but that nobody will stop them." The Mekong's bounty that is now under threat includes sediment-rich soil that allows for highly productive riverside cultivation in the dry season, and more than 1,200 species of fish, including the giant Mekong Catfish, which many along the river revere. China is already constructing the 292-metre high Xiaowan hydroelectric dam, which will cost Rmb22.2bn (Dollars 2.7bn, Euros 2.66bn, Pounds 1.7bn) and is due to be completed in 2012. Second in size only to the Three Gorges dam on the Yangtze river, Xiaowan is the third of eight dams Beijing plans to build on the river. Beijing is also pushing a scheme to dynamite the many rapids and shoals that have long hindered navigation of the Mekong. Burma, Laos and Thailand have all signed up to the programme - which will enable large cargo ships to ply the river - and some blasting has already begun. China says it has made a "comprehensive" study of the Xiaowan's environmental consequences, and insists the impact of the dam - and the blasting of the rapids - will be negligible. But activists contend the dams and the blasting will submerge the homes and farmlands - and otherwise destroy the livelihoods - of the regions' weakest, most vulnerable people, while profiting more affluent people. "The benefit and the cost are in different places," said Xu Xiaogang, an academic and environmental activist in China. An independent evaluator has condemned the Chinese-led environmental study for the rapid-blasting project as "fundamentally flawed", and said its findings were mere "speculations". Activists have recently won support from an unexpected quarter: Thailand's army. The military is worried that dynamiting the rapids of the Mekong - which serves as the border between Thailand and Laos - could hasten erosion along river banks, influencing the location of a boundary that has never been properly delineated. The army has ordered a halt to some of the blasting until the border issue can be settled. But in the long-term, China, is unlikely to face much resistance from its poorer neighbours. "You are talking about negotiation between unequal partners who are trying to find an equitable solution," said Rajat M. Nag, director of the ADB Mekong Division. However, he insists that there will be give and take. "This will be a matter of goodwill, bargaining power and trade-offs." ___________ Narinjara News November 20 2002 4000 Evicted Rohingyas camp near Teknaf border Evicted by a combined police and army drive, at least 4,000 Muslim Rohingyas have taken shelter at a makeshift camp nears Teknaf border, according to the daily star. Apart from the 21,000 Rohingya refugees living in the town refugee camps in the country, a number of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar are living in the border area said the township administration. These Rohingya people are living in hardship under open sky near the Teknaf Township office. Most of them do not want to go back to Burma. Severe torture by the Mogh ( Rakhaing) people compelled them to leave to country, they noted. However, the administration remained tight-lipped about whether these Rohingya Muslims are refugees. _________ Network Media Group November 20 2002 Two Burmese opposition students taken to Bangkok Myanmar Embassy November 20, 2002 Two Burmese exiled students who have applied for recognition to UNHCR were arrested and taken to Myanmar (Burmese) Embassy in Bangkok by Thai special police on November 19, while they were going to a NGO office for assistance. After refusing and struggling in front of the embassy, they were finally sent to Immigration Detention Center (IDC) in Bangkok, said Aung Khine, a Burmese refugee student in Bangkok. Than Oo, 25 and Naing Aung, 21 years old were arrested on the way to Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) around 11 am on Tuesday. When they reached to Myanmar (Burmese) Embassy, they refused to go inside and after struggling for some time, police agreed to send them to IDC. But, police handed the personal documents of them to Myanmar Embassy, including biographies, photographs of them while they were in All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF) and other documentation, which they took with them as identification for themselves to JRS, said a Burmese student who got phone contact with them after they had reached to IDC. "They were sent to Burmese Embassy. When they reached to the embassy, they refused and told the police that they cannot go to embassy. So, finally they were sent directly to IDC. We referred the case directly to UN," said a relief worker, Ye Yint, who works with National Catholic Commission on Migration, a religious NGO helping refugees and migrants in Bangkok. "As soon as they were arrested, we got the information. So, we contacted to UN office first. UN took immediate action. As I know so far, they are still in IDC. UNHCR will try for their release. I learnt that to send them to the border has also been postponed," Ye Yint continued. Daw Cho Cho, mother of Naing Aung, who lives with them in Bangkok, said, "(Burmese) Embassy took their bios and photos. So, they cannot go to the border. I am afraid that Thai will send them to the border. If they were sent to the border, people from other side (Burmese authorities) will come and get them." Two students were ex-members of All Burma Students Democratic Front and they applied for recognition of UNHCR in Bangkok during May and June of this year. UNHCR had issued them "protection papers" which were dismissed in September for unknown reason, said Burmese students in Bangkok. This is the first time that Thai police tried to send opposition members to Burmese embassy. Thousands of Burmese students fled to Thailand and border areas after crack down of military regime on pro-democracy uprising in Burma during 1988. Some students also fled to border in 1990s to avoid the suppression the Junta. Around two thousand students have resettled in third countries with the help of UNHCR. Hundreds of students are still left in Thailand and border areas. _____MISCELLANEOUS______ OSI Burma Project/ SEA Initiative Internship Program Request for Applications The Open Society Institute (OSI) is seeking applications from organizations interested in participating in an Internship Program. The program aims to provide Burmese and ethnic people from Burma an opportunity to gain hands-on training while contributing to the work of local, regional and international organizations. Additionally, the program hopes support institutional exchange between Burmese and SEA organizations and encourages Burmese organizations to consider hosting non-Burmese interns from the region. We are looking for organizations that have the capacity to provide a learning environment, while at the same time anticipate that they can benefit from an intern. Host organizations should have the time to provide basic relevant training for the intern and also be able to equip them with skills that will be useful beyond the period of the internship. Factors for organizations to keep in mind while considering or planning for an intern are: time availability and ability of staff to train and supervise the intern; needs and interests of the individual intern; skill level, experience and competence of the intern in relation to what they will be expected to accomplish. It is recommended that a comprehensive skills and needs assessment of the proposed intern be conducted. Organizations will be selected to host an intern by OSI and an advisory board based in Chiang Mai. Intern selection will be the responsibility of the host organization presuming the application process is both open and fair. The program coordinator and the advisory board will provide support for organizations and interns, including periodic visits to participating organizations. [The Burma Project/ SEA Initiative is a project of the Open Society Institute. For more information, please visit our website at www.burmaproject.org] Applications Applications are due 15 December 2002. Organizations interested in hosting an intern should contact Heather Marciniec (hmarciniec@sorosny.org) to request an application and/or additional information.