From editor@burmanet.org Tue Dec 3 18:55:21 2002 From: editor@burmanet.org (editor@burmanet.org) Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2002 13:55:21 -0500 (EST) Subject: BurmaNet News: November 26 2002 Message-ID: <44063.207.10.94.131.1038941721.squirrel@webmail.pair.com> November 26 2002 Issue #2129 (Repost) INSIDE BURMA Irrawaddy: Complaint over harassment on Suu Kyi trip SCMP: Military rulers will dictate Myanmar’s future; the self-serving attitude of the top generals will ensure their survival DRUGS Xinhua: Myanmar exposes over 1,900 drug-related cases REGIONAL Mizzima: Indian exporters punch Burmese agricultural markets Independent: Myanmar PM due on 17 December AFP: India ends ban on powerful separatist Naga guerrillas AFP: One million new AIDS infections in Asia-Pacific in 2002: UN STATEMENTS/OTHER FBC: Burlington Coat Factory wraps up Burma buys Editor's Note: Burmanet.org site INSIDE BURMA Irrawaddy November 26 2002 Complaint over Harassment on Suu Kyi Trip Burma's opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) has lodged an official complaint to the ruling junta after local military intelligence (MI) officers reportedly harassed party leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in northern Shan State, an NLD official said today. Suu Kyi finished her trip in the south of the state last week, then headed north when harassment by MI officers began. In the party's convoy on its way from Taunggyi to Maymyo, a local intelligence van sped up to take videotape Suu Kyi's car at the front of the convoy. As the van rushed to get ahead of the convoy, one of the NLD escort motorcycles fell and crashed on the roadside. U Lwin, an NLD spokesperson, said incidents in the town of Muse, northern Shan State were worse. Before Suu Kyi arrived at the town, military intelligence officers instructed local people not to welcome the democracy leader. Local people on motorcycles were banned from going out to welcome the opposition leader. Restrictions meant that fewer people went to greet Suu Kyi at the local NLD office, sources say only around 200 supporters gathered to see her. Intelligence officers watched Suu Kyi closely. "Local intelligence videotaped Aung San Suu Kyi even when she went to rest room," U Lwin told The Irrawaddy. "She told authorities that it wasn't appropriate, but they continued." In Hispaw, local people were also warned to stay away from Suu Kyi and NLD officials visiting the area. Despite restrictions and harassment in Maymyo, Muse and Hispaw, around 50,000 supporters welcomed Suu Kyi when she arrived in the town of Kyaukme. The NLD office in Rangoon confirmed that Suu Kyi was in Mandalay today where she would stay overnight. Suu Kyi is due to return to Rangoon tomorrow. Suu Kyi began her trip to Shan State on Nov 13. It was her first trip to the state since her release from house arrest in May this year. ___________ South China Morning Post November 26 2002 Military rulers will dictate Myanmar's future The self-serving attitude of the top generals will ensure their survival By William Barnes A COUPLE OF years ago, a technocrat in Myanmar showed signs of distress at a military seminar when his proposals for greater transparency and more free markets were ignored. Afterwards the army chief, General Maung Aye, threw an arm around him and said: "Don't take it so personally if we don't accept all your ideas." The technocrat later recounted how his unspoken reply was: "Damn you. It is for the sake of the country that I am saying this, not my pride." In the small world of privileged Yangon, the ruling generals are often talked about as if they were willful children: arbitrary, impulsive, mistake-prone and very, very stubborn. Political dialogue in Myanmar - the best hope for a breakthrough - between the military regime and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi "doesn't seem to be getting very far", as James Kelly, United States Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, pointed out last week. Knowing what the senior military leaders think, see and want is now more important than ever. Knowing what they want is probably the easiest to answer: legitimacy. This would provide cover for the top generals to carry on playing their power games and to justify their past actions. It would also safeguard their personal wealth and security. To probe beyond those logical assumptions is much harder: to simply write them off as unsophisticated thugs misses the point that they are efficient in protecting themselves with both guns and a sincerely held belief in their "mission". Even now, critics of the regime frequently describe it as if it had hardly changed from the days when the old strongman, Ne Win, held his one and only press conference in 1958. The waiting journalists could hear the great man berate his underlings as he approached the venue: "Damn fools. Why do you want to hold a press conference? What do you want me to say?" And he said nothing. Ne Win was a one-off: eccentric, shy, cunning and ruthless. But his influence must now be minimal with generals who play golf with the leaders of friendly countries, hold press conferences and participate in international forums. Yes, the economy is a disaster, but the State Peace and Development Committee, as the ruling junta styles itself, does make a fist of being an administration that intends to stick around. "Most ethnic Burmans and all minorities see the regime as a praetorian guard protecting a privileged caste; to believe otherwise, it seems to me, underestimates their intelligence," said American Myanmar-watcher Shelby Tucker in a recent study. Perhaps, but as others have pointed out, the massive expansion of the military means most families in the heartlands have at least one relative in uniform - with access to better quality and cheaper food. "The same individuals who in the privacy of their own living room watch the evening news and denounce the always-featured junta members, cabinet ministers and regional commanders, will spend the next day scheming to get their son or nephew into the Defence Services Academy," said historian Mary Callahan. Foreigners who laugh quietly at the outrageously crude exhortations that to betray the military is to betray the nation, and similar sentiments, on huge billboards scattered around Yangon, rarely realise the messages are directed as much at members of the regime as anyone else. The military sometimes talks as if it is virtually synonymous with the nation: if it survives then so does the country. This may be self serving, but it is more true, in a sense, than many critics would like to admit. More than four decades of blunt military rule have seen many non-military institutions crumble. Any organisation or group that is not supported by the regime is suspect - and quickly neutered. This applies to the monkhood. When the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon - writer Somerset Maugham's "stab of hope in the dark night of the soul" - was being fitted with a new decorative crown on its spire, state-run television ran almost round-the-clock coverage. Yet hardly a saffron robe was seen. Instead, senior generals filled the screen for days. The exercise showed how the generals bow to no one, but it also illustrated their desperate search for legitimacy. Even if it is a game of raw power between uniformed leaders at the top, the regime can operate knowing that the history of modern Myanmar is in many respects the history of its army. It "won" independence, it held the heartlands against marauding rival ethnic groups and it beat a big communist insurgency. To enter the new Defence Services Museum in Yangon is to enter history, a primer in military justification. "Visitors are expected to tour dozens of displays and leave with a sense that nothing good in contemporary Burma came to pass without the hard work of the tatmadaw military ," wrote one visitor. Yet, by focusing on their own security and privileges, the generals and their friends have merely extended the divide that separates them from the ordinary people, despite the ocean of propaganda about the "servants of the people". Loyalty is so valued that marauding soldiers in the ethnic uplands go unpunished and, closer to Yangon, quiet mayhem unfolds. Yangon remains awash with speculation about the more brutal criminal activities of Ne Win's three grandsons - sentenced to death by hanging for treason. More recently, there was an ugly anti-military riot in the capital when a monk who protested about the near-rape of a friend by a neighbourhood militia was badly beaten. Exasperated "friends" of the military can jokingly refer to generals as if they were difficult relatives, while others run in fear of their lives. The conundrum for critics hoping to see the generals bowed or broken is that they survive in an oasis of self-justification that provides a logic for resisting their own ousting. The theory that they must eventually accept that the country is now in such a dire state that it should be placed under new management does not take into sufficient account their staying power. And stay they will - for a while yet. DRUGS Xinhua News Agency November 26 2002 Myanmar exposes over 1,900 drug-related cases The Myanmar authorities have exposed 1,966 drug-related cases since the beginning of this year, disclosed Police Chief Brigadier-General Khin Yee Tuesday. Meeting with the press, Khin Yee also disclosed that during the period, the authorities seized 300 kg of heroin, 1,737 kg opium as well as 9.191 million tablets of stimulant drug. He revealed that from April 1999 to November this year, the authorities destroyed 63,112 acres of opium poppy plantations in the country. He further disclosed that since April this year, the authorities also destroyed 165.646 tons of poppy seeds turned in by farmers in five divisions and states under a poppy seeds exchange project. The five divisions and states are Mandalay, Shan, Kayah, Rakhine and Kachin. The destroyed poppy seeds have prevented cultivation of 41,050. 9 hectares of opium fields from which 446.32 tons of opium can be produced. According to official statistics, Myanmar burnt up seized narcotic drugs for 16 times in the capital of Yangon since 1990 and 27 times in border areas since 1991. The narcotic drugs, destroyed in Yangon alone including 3,970 kg of heroin, 26,722 kg opium, 5,852 kg marijuana and 115.8 million tablets of stimulant, valued at 4,919 million dollars. Myanmar started implementing a 15-year drug elimination plan in 1999, covering 54 drug cultivating and producing townships. ____REGIONAL______ Mizzima November 26 2002 Indian Exporters Punch Burmese Agricultural Markets Guwahahti, After incurring huge ongoing revenue losses due to overseas manufactured goods illegally flowing across the Indo-Burma border, it seems that the Indian Commerce Ministry is now breathing a small sigh of relief. Indian agricultural products have reversed the flow of revenue by hitting the Burmese markets over the last couple of years. And the figures indicate that the volume of export to Burma has been steadily increasing. According to statistics gathered by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), the export figure of agricultural products with Burma during 1999 was recorded at Rs 3 crore (US$ 620 000), while in 2001 it stood at over Rs 7 crore (US$ 1.45 million). The export figures for 2002 thus far have been recorded at Rs11.18 crore (US$ 2.32 million). During this period, Indian traders have exported various items including fruit and vegetable seeds, fresh mangoes, pickles, buffalo meat, poultry products, cocoa products, basmati rice and cereal products. "Our agricultural products have dominated the Burmese markets due to their quality, and keep in view that we are planning to produce and export different items as per demand within Burma", an official source told this correspondent today. The APEDA representative went on to say that while Indian vegetable seeds have been in high demand in the world market in general, these seeds have been particularly popular in Burma. "Apart from vegetable seeds, buffalo meat and poultry products have also been popular in the Burmese markets. In view of a growing demand for poultry products, we have set a high target", he said, adding that during 1999 about 545 metric tons (MT) of poultry products were supplied and in 2000-2001 the export of poultry products had touched 743 MT. Expressing satisfaction over the increasing volume of export from India to Burma, the APEDA official stated that if the trend continued, then Burma would become a major market for India. The APEDA has been encouraging growers and traders in North East India to export apples and pineapples to Burma. The North Eastern Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, both of which share a border with Burma, have been under pressure to maximise their apple and pineapple production. The APEDA has been supporting growers in adopting a scientific farming methodology in order to produce high quality fruit that can then be used to tap the Burmese markets. The APEDA source said that the authorities should take a pragmatic step towards creating a legal trading channel with Burma, a move that would benefit the country in the long term. _______ The Independent November 26 2002 Myanmar PM due on 17 December Myanmar Burma Prime Minister Senior Gen Than Shwe will pay an official visit to Bangladesh on 17-18 December at the invitation of Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, foreign office sources said yesterday. The date of Than Shwe's visit was finalised during the just-concluded official tour of Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan to Myanmar. The foreign minister visited Yangon Rangoon on 20-22 November and held talks with his Myanmar counterpart U Win Aung. A coordination meeting, held at the foreign office yesterday, discussed the programme and preparation of the forthcoming visit of the Myanmar head of the government. According to tentative programme, Senior Gen Than Shwe will arrive in Dhaka 17 December morning leading a high-level delegation of his government. Official talks between the heads of the government of Bangladesh and Myanmar will be held on the same day. Whole gamut of bilateral relations including economic cooperation between the two countries will dominate the talks, sources said. Than Shwe will call on President Iajuddin Ahmed and meet the leaders of FBCCI Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry before leaving for home on 18 December afternoon. _____ Agence France-Presse November 26 2002 India ends ban on powerful separatist Naga guerrillas India on Tuesday lifted a ban on a powerful northeastern tribal rebel group in a bid to end separatist violence that has claimed 25,000 lives since 1947, officials said in New Delhi. They said the decision to reverse the ban on the most powerful faction of the rebel Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) was likely to pave the way for peace talks and end five decades of bloodshed in Nagaland state. Home ministry officials said the government of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee decided not to re-impose the ban, which lapsed Tuesday, on the NSCN splinter group headed by guerrilla leaders T. Muivah and I. C. Swu. The ban on the NSCN was renewed two years ago. Government sources said preliminary parleys would begin soon with Muivah and Swu before official-level peace talks could begin in India. The move, which comes amid a bilateral ceasefire, could help broker a solution to the Naga insurgency in the country's troubled northeast, which borders Bhutan, Bangladesh, China and Myanmar. The last round of tentative peace talks between India's negotiator, K. Padmanabhaiah, and Naga rebel leaders was in Amsterdam in July. Previous rounds were held across South Asia. The rebel leaders have in the past refused to meet in India due to the sheaf of criminal charges pending against them in the states of Nagaland, Manipur and Assam. As a goodwill measure, the Nagaland state government has withdrawn cases against the main leaders of NSCN. The NSCN has fought for decades to create an independent homeland for ethnic Nagas in Nagaland, which borders Myanmar. Last year India mulled extending the truce with the NSCN to Naga rebels in neighboring states, but the move was scuttled amid violent protests by members of separate ethnic groups who feared a "Greater Nagaland" was being created. The NSCN split in 1988 and New Delhi has separate ceasefire agreements with the two rival groups. The ceasefire with the faction led by Swu and Muivah opened August 1, 1997 and has been renewed annually since. The ceasefire with the junior NSCN faction was implemented last year. ______ Agence France-Presse November 26 2002 One million new AIDS infections in Asia-Pacific in 2002: UN One million people in the Asia Pacific region became infected with HIV this year, while an estimated half a million others died from the disease, the United Nations said Tuesday. In its end of year report, the UNAIDS agency said that in the face of an epidemic which continued to spread there was a "vital need" for prevention programmes focusing on people most at risk of infection. "We have a narrow window of opportunity to prevent the epidemic from becoming much worse in Asia ... but many governments in the region still don't see the epidemic as one which needs to be addressed with urgency," said UNAIDS regional team leader Tony Lisle. "Around 11 million people in Asia will become HIV infected in the next five years, and unless the response to the epidemic is greatly increased and expanded in scale we will really have a major problem," he told a press conference. The UNAIDS report said infection rates in most Asian nations, with the exception of Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia, remained low. But these figures masked serious epidemics localised in certain communities and districts. "India's national adult HIV prevalence rate of less than one percent offers little indication of the serious situation it faces," it said, noting that a massive 3.97 million people in the country were infected by the end of 2001. In China, epidemics have broken out among groups including blood donors, IV drug users and sex workers in the southern provinces of Yunnan, Guangxi and Guangdong, it said. "Unless effective responses rapidly take hold a total 10 million Chinese will have acquired HIV by the end of this decade -- a number equivalent to the entire population of Belgium." An upsurge of injecting drug use has been identified as a major new source of infection, with more than 50 percent of IV drug users in parts of Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand and India found to be HIV-positive. In Indonesia, where IV drug use was virtually unknown just a decade ago, up to 196,000 people are now thought to be injecting narcotics, fuelling an epidemic of HIV infection. "National estimates indicate that some 43,000 (Indonesia) injecting drug users are already infected with HIV. With needle-sharing the norm, HIV is likely to spread much more widely throughout this population in the next few years." UNAIDS announced that next year the global AIDS campaign will focus on discrimination against people living with HIV-AIDS. Lisle said recent research found that 31 percent of HIV positive people seeking hospital treatment in the Indonesian capital Jakarta were refused access. "This is a very common story around the region ... stigma and discrimination is clearly preventing and hampering responses," he said. However, there was some good news in the end-of-year report, with Cambodia singled out as a success story after rocketing infection rates were successfully stabilised. HIV prevalence among sex workers there has declined from 42 percent in 1998 to 29 percent in 2002, thanks in part to condom campaigns which saw their use increase from 37 percent in 1997 to 90 percent in 2001. "In Cambodia over the past four or five years the epidemic has been turned around. It is definitely a combination of government commitment with the involvement of civil society and the community," said UNAIDS program development director Werasit Sittitrai. STATEMENTS/OTHER Free Burma Coalition November 26 2002 Burlington Coat Factory Wraps Up Burma Buys Largest U.S. Coat Retailer Becomes 34th Company to Ban Products from Burma WASHINGTON and BURLINGTON, NJ - Burlington Coat Factory, the largest U.S. seller of coats with $2.5 billion in sales and over 300 stores, has announced that it will no longer stock merchandise made in the Southeast Asian country of Burma, due to the human rights situation there. The statement follows a two-month education campaign by human rights supporters and Burmese refugees. Burlington has been stocking a significant quantity of products from Burma, including by brands like Karl Kani, Rocawear, and Rafaella. “By selling products from Burma, companies help prop up Burma’s military dictatorship,” says Ko Ko Lay of the San Francisco Burma Roundtable. “Businesses like Burlington have come to realize this, and they don’t want any part of it. We commend them for their principle.” In a November 22 letter to the Free Burma Coalition, Burlington stated, “…this will confirm that all merchandise buyers at Burlington Coat Factory…are being instructed not to purchase any goods manufactured in Myanmar.” Burlington joins 33 other companies in banning products from Burma, including retailers like The Children’s Place, which has recently pledged to cease all production in Burma and Federated Department Stores, the largest upscale retailer in the U.S., which implemented a policy against stocking Burmese-made goods in September. The U.K. oil company, Premier, also announced its withdrawal from Burma in September. Members of the Free Burma Coalition, the American Anti-Slavery Group, Sacramentans for International Labor Rights, and other groups first wrote to Burlington in March after finding whole racks of products bearing “Made in Burma” tags. The UN, the International Labor Organization, the U.S. State Department, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have repeatedly condemned human rights abuses under the military regime. Last month Human Rights Watch issued a report showing that Burma leads the world in child soldiers, with over 70,000. Burma’s regime, led by strongman Than Shwe, takes boys of the streets at gunpoint and forces them to join the military, according to the report. Burma has also been repeatedly condemned in recent months over the military’s mass rape of women in ethnic minority areas. “Unfortunately, there are still a few companies, like Lord & Taylor, that support Burma’s dictators through trade,” says Heidi Maclean of the Sacramentans for International Labor Rights, “But more and more are saying ‘No’ to forced labor, rape, and child soldiers.” _______ Editor's Note Dear readers: I am pleased to announce the inauguration of the new BurmaNet News site, which can be located at www.burmanet.org. Though the BurmaNet staff is still in the process of revamping our rather voluminous archives, readers will have access to the last month of BurmaNet issues. If you have any questions or comments about our new website, please direct email to editor@burmanet.org. Thank you for your patience, Editor From editor@burmanet.org Tue Dec 3 19:16:29 2002 From: editor@burmanet.org (editor@burmanet.org) Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2002 14:16:29 -0500 (EST) Subject: BurmaNet News: December 3 2002 Message-ID: <52396.207.10.94.131.1038942989.squirrel@webmail.pair.com> December 3 2002 Issue #2130 INSIDE BURMA Narinjara: White Elephant on its trip to Rangoon DVB: Policemen urged to test HIV Myanmar Times: FAO allocates more funds to aid rural poor GUNS IMNA: Hongsarwatoi Restoration Party No. 7 Battalion Major Blain Son and some HRP soldiers return to NMSP DRUGS FEER: unimpressed by Burma’s war on drugs CSM: Diplomatic pitfalls frustrate Thailand’s antidrug fight Retuers: Dazed and confused over Thai opium ride TV Myanmar: Thailand to grant aid for model Burmese anti-drug village MONEY DVB: Gambling or rebellion Bangkok Post: Burma Agrees to join Thailand in dam project REGIONAL Forum Asia: Persecuted Muslims fear deportation to military Burma AFP: Russia may be seeking full dialogue in ASEAN security forum MISCELLANEOUS The Times: Today in Parliament INSIDE BURMA Narinjara News December 3 2002 White Elephant on its trip to Rangoon Another white elephant from Rakhine State in the western part of Burma is on its way to Rangoon, the capital, according to our correspondent quoting officials. The elephant reached Sandway (Thandway), the coastal tourist resort of western Burma, in the evening of the day before yesterday. Light Infantry Battalion 34 was in charge of transporting the elephant from Sittwe to Thandway. From Sandway Light Infantry Battalion 55 was taking all necessary steps to ship her on the same evening to Rangoon. The elephant was previously brought from Buthidaung to Sittwwe on 21 November. A group of troops led by Lieutenant Colonel Aung Naing Tun carried the white elephant on the tugboat, Ye-gyant to Sittwe. The four-year old cow elephant was captured on July 18th this year at a point between Buthidaung and Rathedaung in the Mayu Hills Range. Department of Forest Produces Manager, U Nyunt Way, led a team to capture the elephant. The team temporarily paralyzed her using an anaesthetic shot before capturing her. The white cow elephant stands 4ft 8in, has white hair, coconut shell coloured skin, pearly white eyeballs, white nails, and one-and-a-half-foot long task. Last year two more so-called white elephants were captured in the same region. __________ Democratic Voice of Burma December 1 2002 Policemen urged to test HIV The Central Police Directorate in Burma is instructing all policemen to be tested for HIV and the results are to be given at the end of this month. But it was not clear why the policemen have to check for HIV positive and more importantly what would happen to those who found HIV positive. However, according to DVB sources, the immediate concern for the policemen is lack of financial supports for the test. The police are finding it difficult to follow the order. The police forces throughout the nation are co-ordinating with health authorities to follow the order but because of lack of medical equipment in hospitals they are facing the possibilities of paying for the tests at outside clinics. At the outside clinic, each test is charged 300 kyats and most police are unable to afford with their meagre salary. According to the estimate of the WHO, there are about 500,000 people infected with HIV and the considerable numbers of them are policemen and soldiers. _____ Myanmar Times November 25-December 1 2002 FAO allocates more funds to aid rural poor By Myo Lwin Aid provided under a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation poverty alleviation program will help about 25 households raise seasonal crops in their residential compounds at Taikkyi, about 30 miles north of Yangon. The US$6350 allocated for the project last week follows funding of $9400 provided last September to Too-chaung village in Ayeyarwaddy Division which has enabled 40 families to produce fish sauce. Both allocations were proposed by the Agricultural Planning Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, which also monitors the projects. The funds were provided under the FAO’s Telefood program, which has raised more than $9 million in donations throughout the world since being launched by the Rome-based organisation in 1997. Many of the donations were pledged in telephone calls to fund-raising centres. The allocations were the first to be provided to Myanmar under the Telefood program, said project co-ordinator Daw Mi Mi Maw, a staff officer at the Agricultural Planning Department. Daw Mi Mi Maw said the program was aimed at helping the poorest people in rural areas to help themselves. Funds from the FAO were used to provide farm implements, seeds, fertiliser, pesticides and agricultural training. She said the FAO would make more funding available under the program if the two projects proved to be successful. ________ GUNS Independent Mon News Agency December 3 2002 Hongsarwatoi Restoration Party No. 7 Battalion Major Blain Son and some HRP soldiers return to NMSP Yesterday Hongsarwatoi Restoration Party (HRP) No.7 battalion Major Blain Son and 21 of HRP soldiers with arms returned to New Mon State Party (HRP)in Three Pagoda Pass. Nai Blain Son who had long contact with NMSP returned to NMSP No.2 Operation troop Major, Major Nyan Tun and well come by NMSP vice army chief General Aung Naing. General Aung Naing said in the well coming celebration in Japanese Well, Three Pagoda Pass Township "they are well coming and they will resettle the soldier return to them to the suitable place and no punishment for them." Mostly of soldier return to NMSP with Major Blain Son were served in NMSP before they separated with Colonel Pan Nyunt. Nai Blain Son was who caught NMSP General Secretary Nai Rot Sa on June 24, 2002. ________ DRUGS Far Eastern Economic Review December 2 2002 Unimpressed By Burma's War on Drugs A number of United States congressmen are up in arms at recent reports that the U.S. may soon take Burma off a list of major drug-producing countries. The move would allow the military government in Rangoon to receive counter-narcotics assistance from Washington. Protest letters soon followed. Among them was one from incoming Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, who wrote in a November 25 letter to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice: "News reports of more and cheaper Burmese heroin reappearing on the streets of Australia and China than at any time in the past two years . . . call into question the integrity of any counter-narcotic effort" by the military junta in Burma. A senior State Department official says no decision on whether to recommend removing Burma from the list would be made before December. But Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly said in a November 21 speech that Rangoon's cooperation on narcotics "has continued to improve in real terms." McConnell insisted in his letter that there is "no consensus among experts" about the level of Burma's cooperation on controlling narcotics. "Given Burma's aggressive amphetamine production, there is no question that the [government] remains a clear and present danger to the people of Burma and the entire region." House of Representatives members Ilena Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican, and Tom Lantos, a Democrat from Florida, sent a similar letter of protest to Secretary of State Colin Powell. ________ Christian Science Monitor December 3 2002 Diplomatic pitfalls frustrate Thailand's antidrug fight By Simon Montlake Thais sideline a US-trained commando force in their bid to boost ties with Burma. PHITSANULOK, THAILAND - A special US-trained commando force created to block a flood of illegal drugs into Thailand has been sidelined by a delicate diplomatic two-step between Thailand and Burma (Myanmar), its neighbor and the source of the drugs. Known as Taskforce 399, the unit was set up last year and trained by US Special Forces troops. It is equipped with surveillance and combat equipment, including Black Hawk helicopters and night-vision goggles. US officials say Thailand quietly sought their help amid public alarm over the rapid spread of methamphetamine pills, known to Thais as ya ba or crazy medicine. An estimated 5 percent of Thailand's 62 million people are addicted to the speed pills, which cost as little as $1 each and are readily available across the country. "When you have methamphetamine showing up in your primary schools, it's time to sit up and take notice," says a US military official. "Nobody wants these drugs pouring over their border." The US is also getting a taste of this problem: In August, customs officials in California seized 75,000 ya ba pills sent to Sacramento from Thailand and Laos, the largest-ever bust. And heroin continues to flow out of Burma and to the US, via smuggling routes in Thailand and China. But initial optimism that US trainers and equipment might help turn the tide against traffickers has given way to frustration. Thai Army sources, diplomats, and observers in the rugged, 1250 mile-long border area say that Taskforce 399 has pulled back in recent months as Thailand has sought to repair diplomatic and commercial ties with Burma's military rulers. Relations between the two countries took a nosedive in May when Thai troops shelled Burmese troops that were battling Shan rebels along the border. Burma promptly closed all land crossings to Thailand, slamming the door to trade. The border reopened in October after months of talks between the two governments. Few details were offered publicly, but diplomats say Burma wanted firm assurances that Thai troops wouldn't stray across the border - even to track drug couriers. Burma also said it objected to the presence of "foreign" troops near its border, although US and Thai military officials say that US troops assigned to train Taskforce 399 are advisers and don't join Thai antidrug operations. "[Burma] is quite nervous; they don't want the US government involved in this kind of stuff ... Thailand is in a delicate situation. Its relationship with Burma may be getting better, but there are still problems on the border and they may be losing the war on drugs," says Aung Zaw, a Burmese exile and magazine editor. At the heart is a dilemma for countries trying to stem the outflow of drugs from Burma: How to cooperate with a government with only nominal control over its territory. Much of the ya ba and heroin trafficked across the border is traced to ethnic insurgents such as the United Wa State Army that signed cease-fires with the junta. Drug-control experts say Burma has made strides recently in combating opium, the raw ingredient in heroin, by promoting alternative crops for farmers, a strategy that Thailand has used successfully to curb its opium trade. Last year Burma's heroin production fell to 950 tons, a 14-year low, according to the US Drug Enforcement Agency. But those favoring cooperation with Burma say there's no sign of a crackdown on ya ba labs. "Opium fields are easy to detect, but methamphetamine factories are hidden from sight and can't be easily found, and they're located in areas that the Burmese government doesn't control," says Yngve Danling, an adviser to the UN Drug Control Program. Critics see Burma's inaction as deliberate, and accuse its generals of profiting from the trade, a charge denied by the regime. Whatever the reason, the drugs keep arriving. This week, the Thai Army warned that the UWSA was developing new routes to traffic up to 1 billion pills into Thailand over the next year. Some Army officers bemoan their chances of success without "hot pursuit" of traffickers who slip across the border, which is porous and poorly demarcated. "We can cooperate with Burma with our [antidrug] intelligence but they don't have enough troops to do the job," complains a Thai general. Taskforce 399 was supposed to strike back at the drug lords. Using $2 million from the US Defense Department's counternarcotics budget, it was designed as a lethal, rapid-response unit ready to swoop in on armed convoys that cross into Thailand at night. In reality, the taskforce currently has only about 100 men assigned permanently, with another 460 men seconded from Army and border police units. Thai officers say this lack of manpower prevents them from reacting quickly to intelligence tip-offs, since they need approval to mobilize. Some say the handicap is intentional: Officers are under orders to avoid firefights in sensitive areas that could upset Thai diplomacy. Lt. Gen. Udomchai Ongkasing, commander of the 3rd Army that guards the border, says Taskforce 399 has a "small target" for now, and that cooperation is the way forward. "We only use Taskforce 399 inside our border. We care that Myanmar isn't happy about 399 operating along the border...[so] if we try to coordinate with the Myanmar junta to help us suppress drugs, this is better," he says. That policy can work, say observers, only if Burma stamps out UWSA drug labs or Thailand loses its appetite for ya ba. So far, neither looks likely. ______ Reuters December 3 2002 Dazed and confused over Thai opium ride First reactions to Thailand's giant new opium museum in the Golden Triangle are confused: pleasant surprise at cool air after the intense tropical heat, but then disorientation, shock, even fear. Visitors enter the 40-hectare complex through a long, dark, mist-filled tunnel, which winds into the base of a hill past bas-reliefs of distorted human figures before emerging suddenly into bright sunlight in front of a field of poppies. "This is the mystery, the contradiction of opium," says Charles Mehl, head of research for the Mae Fah Luang Foundation, which has just completed the $10 million museum. "Opium is one of the very best drugs we have for treating chronic pain and bringing relief from suffering. But it can also be one of the worst, destroying lives if it is used for recreation or exploited for commercial gain." Built into a hillside by the Mekong River on the northern tip of Thailand, the museum lies at the heart of the Golden Triangle. Chiang Saen town is about 750 km (470 miles) north of Bangkok, overlooking the junction of the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. The Golden Triangle is a largely lawless region that last year produced more opium and heroin than Afghanistan and more synthetic stimulant pills than all the rest of the laboratories in Southeast Asia put together, drugs agencies say. Trippers Western backpackers and busloads of other day-trippers pour daily into the picturesque Chiang Saen district, in Chiang Rai province, to buy souvenirs on the Mekong's banks. Some try illicit puffs on opium pipes in nearby villages. The museum, which will open officially early next year, aims to exploit this tourist business, luring the curious with the promise of entertainment and impressive audio-visual displays in English and Thai. But as visitors progress down the labyrinthine corridors that stretch across three floors, the warnings against narcotic abuse gradually become more powerful. "People think at first they know what they will see -- a quaint presentation about hilltribes growing opium. But that's only a small part of the story," said Mehl. Mae Fah Luang has fought a 15-year battle against drug-taking and addiction in Chiang Rai province, establishing what the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) says is probably the best anti-drugs crop-substitution program in Asia. Lessons from that program, which has succeeded in the nearby Thai mountains of Doi Tung in part by offering farmers of opium poppies a better income from alternative crops such as coffee and macadamia nuts, are built into the museum. But it also offers a thorough lesson in the history of opium, its derivatives such as heroin and laudanum, and explains how the drugs trade has helped change the world for hundreds of years. Tragedy and trauma Thought to have been used first along the coast of the Mediterranean, archeologists say the earliest evidence of opium was found in Switzerland dating from the neolithic period. It was a popular sedative in ancient Egypt and Greece before spreading to northern Europe and Asia and becoming a key commodity that was exchanged for Chinese tea and other spices by the British and Dutch. With 360-degree special effects, the museum traces the 19th century opium wars between Britain and China before looking at prohibition in the 20th century and official efforts, often spectacularly unsuccessful, to stop the use of illegal drugs. The museum asks visitors to themselves decide what could be the best approach to narcotics -- prohibition, drug eradication schemes, decriminalization or legalization -- but it pulls no punches on the tragedy and trauma inflicted by drugs on abusers. A final, heart-wrenching gallery recounts the powerful true stories of victims of drug abuse around the world through intimate video testimonies by their families. "The feelings which develop through a visit to the museum change towards the very end when there is evidence of the death and suffering that drug abuse produces," said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the Vienna-based UNODC. "The end message is very strong, namely that use of drugs should be fought. Society has to use all its instruments, which means law enforcement for sure, but not only law enforcement. Prevention and treatment are equally important." _____ TV Myanmar December 2 2002 Thailand to grant aid for model Burmese anti-drug village Myanmar and Thai delegates discussed plans on the project for construction of Yaungkha model village in Wa region at Special Anti-Drug Office in Tachilek on 30 November morning at 0815 local time . It was attended by 10-member Myanmar delegation led by Col San Pwint, deputy head of department of the Office of the Chief of Military Intelligence and the four-member Thai delegation headed by Mr Disnada Diskul. The meeting discussed the programme under which Thailand will grant 20m baht in aid to build the village. The two sides agreed to promptly implement the project covering the construction of a school with the capacity of 500 students and a 16-bed dispensary and discussed matters on agricultural and development tasks of the village. ________ MONEY Democratic Voice of Burma December 1 2002 Gambling or Rebellion? Illegal gambling is again on the increase in Burma during this month due to poverty and economical difficulties. The authorities are doing their best to crackdown on all types of gambling and gamblers but they are not arresting the main gambling centres. The problems have increased after only gamblers and small gambling centres were arrested and prosecuted. The problem is made worse by the insistence of the groups who signed ceasefire deal with the SPDC on opening their gambling centres. They threaten to re-join the rebels if their demands are not met. During a recent religious festival in Yenanggyaung, central Burma, the local authorities allowed gambling centres to be opened officially. And at a religious festival in Putao, Kachin State, a SPDC sergeant open fired after a quarrel with the gambler. According to a lottery tickets vendor, the government sponsored 'Aungbale' lottery shops are doing slow trade because of the illegal gambling. _________ Bangkok Post December 3 2002 Burma Agrees to Join Thailand in Dam Project Burma has agreed in principle to join Thailand in a US$ 5.5-billion hydro-power dam on the Salween River, but opinions remain split over the location of the project. Energy Minister Pongthep Thepkanchana said he had instructed Sitthiporn Rattanopas, governor of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat), to study the possibility of constructing the power plant on the Thai side. Once a site was found, the minister said he might visit his Burmese counterparts to further discuss the possible joint investment in the project. Mr Sitthiporn, who discussed the proposal with a senior Burmese official during his recent trip to the country, said Rangoon wanted the 3,000-megawatt power plant to be built in Tha Sang district in Burma. However, Egat wanted the plant to be built on the Thai side, in Mae Sariang district of Mae Hong Son. The authority argued it would be easier to negotiate for loans and persuade investors if the project was on Thai soil. He said the final decision on the project would hinge on discussions between the leaders of the two countries. Mr Sitthiporn said he had also proposed the possibility of Rangoon hiring Egat to generate power using natural gas from the Yadana and Yetagun fields off the coast of Burma, to be delivered through PTT Plc's pipeline. Burma would benefit from the proposal, as the country could consume power at lower prices because fuel costs would be negligible and Rangoon did not need to invest in a power plant. "Although there remains a difference over the suitable location of the hydro-power project, it should be regarded a good starting point for the two countries to make use of natural resources by jointly generating power." Egat officials plan to visit China on Thursday to observe hydro-power generation from the country's largest dam. They will gather information from the study tour and apply it to the Salween project. Egat expected the Salween power project, if built on the Thai side, would enable the country to enjoy a lower price of power, at 0.80 satang per unit, compared with a unit price of 1.60 satang for power purchased from two hydro-power plants in Laos. ________ REGIONAL Forum Asia December 3 2002 Persecuted Muslims Fear Deportation to Military Burma Over 4,000 undocumented Rohingya asylum seekers camping near local administration buildings in Teknaf, Bangladesh fear deportation to military-ruled Burma. The asylum seekers, members of a stateless Muslim ethnic minority group from Burma’s Arakan State, have been living in appalling conditions since 15 November, after being evicted from the houses in Teknaf, Bangladesh, where they were taking refuge. The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia) called on the Government of Bangladesh and the UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee agency, today to abide by international humanitarian principles and ensure that the group is not forcibly deported to Burma. Forum-Asia, a regional human rights organization, is concerned for the safety of the asylum seekers who are likely to face continued discrimination and human rights abuses should they be returned to Burma. The authorities in Bangladesh, who claim there are about 25,000 illegal Rohingya immigrants in Teknaf area alone, began to evict Rohingya from the area in November, forcing over 600 families to camp out in front of the Teknaf district offices, without adequate food or clean water. Local MP Mr. Shah Jahan told reporters that the “push-back” process would start soon. Forum-Asia sources report that more than half the asylum seekers living in the makeshift camp are children, many malnourished, and shelters made from leaves and plastic sheets are being shared by two to three families. Sources say that many of the asylum seekers are refugees who had been sent back to Burma previously, only to flee again due to continued abuses by the Burmese military. Rohingya are a minority Muslim group who live under strong oppression in Burma’s Arakan State. The Rohingya are stateless, and are subject to severe restrictions on their movement within Burma, often being used as forced labour by the military. According to a Human Rights Watch report of July 2002, the persecution of Muslims in Burma has intensified since September 11, 2001. One Rohingya man in the Teknaf camp said: “I left the country [Burma] when I could no longer bear the amount of forced labour…. The Burmese Army will just kill us if we go back. The Bangladesh Government repatriated many refugees to Burma after the last refugee crisis. Why are they coming back again, like me? No one can go back and stay until there is some peace in Burma. If they are sent back forcefully, they will come back again after a short time. No, I will not go back! If they send me by force, I will jump in the Naf River!” ________ Agence France-Presse December 3 2002 Russia may be seeking full dialogue role in ASEAN security forum China and Russia were seeking closer ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a Chinese official said Tuesday, in a possible effort to seek a full dialogue role for Moscow in the ASEAN regional forum (ARF). China and Russia "restated a willingness to maintain close consultations within the ASEAN Regional Forum framework," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said. "China is willing to give the necessary assistance to Russia in establishing communication with this mechanism in areas of common concern." Liu was responding to questions concerning a joint Sino-Russian declaration signed Monday by presidents Vladimir Putin and Jiang Zemin which specifically cited the ARF's importance to security in the Asian Pacific region. The forum is a "10 plus three" mechanism that refers to an ongoing security dialogue between the 10 ASEAN members plus China, Japan and South Korea. "Russia also recognized the importance of the mechanism of the 10 plus three," Liu said when asked if China supported Russian participation in the grouping. He refused to say that Russia was seeking a full role in ARF or to clarify what kind of assistance China was prepared to offer. "I have nothing to add on this at present," Liu said. ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. In Monday's declaration, Moscow and Beijing said ASEAN "has played a constructive role in establishing a new form of state-to-state relationship in the Asian Pacific region and believe that the ARF is an effective mechanism for political dialogue on regional issues." ________ MISCELLANEOUS The Times (London) December 3 2002 Today in Parliament Lords: 2.30pm Waste and Emissions Trading Bill; Medical Act (Amendment) Order; debate on developments in Burma. From editor@burmanet.org Tue Dec 3 19:16:29 2002 From: editor@burmanet.org (editor@burmanet.org) Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2002 14:16:29 -0500 (EST) Subject: BurmaNet News: December 3 2002 Message-ID: <52396.207.10.94.131.1038942989.squirrel@webmail.pair.com> December 3 2002 Issue #2130 INSIDE BURMA Narinjara: White Elephant on its trip to Rangoon DVB: Policemen urged to test HIV Myanmar Times: FAO allocates more funds to aid rural poor GUNS IMNA: Hongsarwatoi Restoration Party No. 7 Battalion Major Blain Son and some HRP soldiers return to NMSP DRUGS FEER: unimpressed by Burma’s war on drugs CSM: Diplomatic pitfalls frustrate Thailand’s antidrug fight Retuers: Dazed and confused over Thai opium ride TV Myanmar: Thailand to grant aid for model Burmese anti-drug village MONEY DVB: Gambling or rebellion Bangkok Post: Burma Agrees to join Thailand in dam project REGIONAL Forum Asia: Persecuted Muslims fear deportation to military Burma AFP: Russia may be seeking full dialogue in ASEAN security forum MISCELLANEOUS The Times: Today in Parliament INSIDE BURMA Narinjara News December 3 2002 White Elephant on its trip to Rangoon Another white elephant from Rakhine State in the western part of Burma is on its way to Rangoon, the capital, according to our correspondent quoting officials. The elephant reached Sandway (Thandway), the coastal tourist resort of western Burma, in the evening of the day before yesterday. Light Infantry Battalion 34 was in charge of transporting the elephant from Sittwe to Thandway. From Sandway Light Infantry Battalion 55 was taking all necessary steps to ship her on the same evening to Rangoon. The elephant was previously brought from Buthidaung to Sittwwe on 21 November. A group of troops led by Lieutenant Colonel Aung Naing Tun carried the white elephant on the tugboat, Ye-gyant to Sittwe. The four-year old cow elephant was captured on July 18th this year at a point between Buthidaung and Rathedaung in the Mayu Hills Range. Department of Forest Produces Manager, U Nyunt Way, led a team to capture the elephant. The team temporarily paralyzed her using an anaesthetic shot before capturing her. The white cow elephant stands 4ft 8in, has white hair, coconut shell coloured skin, pearly white eyeballs, white nails, and one-and-a-half-foot long task. Last year two more so-called white elephants were captured in the same region. __________ Democratic Voice of Burma December 1 2002 Policemen urged to test HIV The Central Police Directorate in Burma is instructing all policemen to be tested for HIV and the results are to be given at the end of this month. But it was not clear why the policemen have to check for HIV positive and more importantly what would happen to those who found HIV positive. However, according to DVB sources, the immediate concern for the policemen is lack of financial supports for the test. The police are finding it difficult to follow the order. The police forces throughout the nation are co-ordinating with health authorities to follow the order but because of lack of medical equipment in hospitals they are facing the possibilities of paying for the tests at outside clinics. At the outside clinic, each test is charged 300 kyats and most police are unable to afford with their meagre salary. According to the estimate of the WHO, there are about 500,000 people infected with HIV and the considerable numbers of them are policemen and soldiers. _____ Myanmar Times November 25-December 1 2002 FAO allocates more funds to aid rural poor By Myo Lwin Aid provided under a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation poverty alleviation program will help about 25 households raise seasonal crops in their residential compounds at Taikkyi, about 30 miles north of Yangon. The US$6350 allocated for the project last week follows funding of $9400 provided last September to Too-chaung village in Ayeyarwaddy Division which has enabled 40 families to produce fish sauce. Both allocations were proposed by the Agricultural Planning Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, which also monitors the projects. The funds were provided under the FAO’s Telefood program, which has raised more than $9 million in donations throughout the world since being launched by the Rome-based organisation in 1997. Many of the donations were pledged in telephone calls to fund-raising centres. The allocations were the first to be provided to Myanmar under the Telefood program, said project co-ordinator Daw Mi Mi Maw, a staff officer at the Agricultural Planning Department. Daw Mi Mi Maw said the program was aimed at helping the poorest people in rural areas to help themselves. Funds from the FAO were used to provide farm implements, seeds, fertiliser, pesticides and agricultural training. She said the FAO would make more funding available under the program if the two projects proved to be successful. ________ GUNS Independent Mon News Agency December 3 2002 Hongsarwatoi Restoration Party No. 7 Battalion Major Blain Son and some HRP soldiers return to NMSP Yesterday Hongsarwatoi Restoration Party (HRP) No.7 battalion Major Blain Son and 21 of HRP soldiers with arms returned to New Mon State Party (HRP)in Three Pagoda Pass. Nai Blain Son who had long contact with NMSP returned to NMSP No.2 Operation troop Major, Major Nyan Tun and well come by NMSP vice army chief General Aung Naing. General Aung Naing said in the well coming celebration in Japanese Well, Three Pagoda Pass Township "they are well coming and they will resettle the soldier return to them to the suitable place and no punishment for them." Mostly of soldier return to NMSP with Major Blain Son were served in NMSP before they separated with Colonel Pan Nyunt. Nai Blain Son was who caught NMSP General Secretary Nai Rot Sa on June 24, 2002. ________ DRUGS Far Eastern Economic Review December 2 2002 Unimpressed By Burma's War on Drugs A number of United States congressmen are up in arms at recent reports that the U.S. may soon take Burma off a list of major drug-producing countries. The move would allow the military government in Rangoon to receive counter-narcotics assistance from Washington. Protest letters soon followed. Among them was one from incoming Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, who wrote in a November 25 letter to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice: "News reports of more and cheaper Burmese heroin reappearing on the streets of Australia and China than at any time in the past two years . . . call into question the integrity of any counter-narcotic effort" by the military junta in Burma. A senior State Department official says no decision on whether to recommend removing Burma from the list would be made before December. But Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly said in a November 21 speech that Rangoon's cooperation on narcotics "has continued to improve in real terms." McConnell insisted in his letter that there is "no consensus among experts" about the level of Burma's cooperation on controlling narcotics. "Given Burma's aggressive amphetamine production, there is no question that the [government] remains a clear and present danger to the people of Burma and the entire region." House of Representatives members Ilena Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican, and Tom Lantos, a Democrat from Florida, sent a similar letter of protest to Secretary of State Colin Powell. ________ Christian Science Monitor December 3 2002 Diplomatic pitfalls frustrate Thailand's antidrug fight By Simon Montlake Thais sideline a US-trained commando force in their bid to boost ties with Burma. PHITSANULOK, THAILAND - A special US-trained commando force created to block a flood of illegal drugs into Thailand has been sidelined by a delicate diplomatic two-step between Thailand and Burma (Myanmar), its neighbor and the source of the drugs. Known as Taskforce 399, the unit was set up last year and trained by US Special Forces troops. It is equipped with surveillance and combat equipment, including Black Hawk helicopters and night-vision goggles. US officials say Thailand quietly sought their help amid public alarm over the rapid spread of methamphetamine pills, known to Thais as ya ba or crazy medicine. An estimated 5 percent of Thailand's 62 million people are addicted to the speed pills, which cost as little as $1 each and are readily available across the country. "When you have methamphetamine showing up in your primary schools, it's time to sit up and take notice," says a US military official. "Nobody wants these drugs pouring over their border." The US is also getting a taste of this problem: In August, customs officials in California seized 75,000 ya ba pills sent to Sacramento from Thailand and Laos, the largest-ever bust. And heroin continues to flow out of Burma and to the US, via smuggling routes in Thailand and China. But initial optimism that US trainers and equipment might help turn the tide against traffickers has given way to frustration. Thai Army sources, diplomats, and observers in the rugged, 1250 mile-long border area say that Taskforce 399 has pulled back in recent months as Thailand has sought to repair diplomatic and commercial ties with Burma's military rulers. Relations between the two countries took a nosedive in May when Thai troops shelled Burmese troops that were battling Shan rebels along the border. Burma promptly closed all land crossings to Thailand, slamming the door to trade. The border reopened in October after months of talks between the two governments. Few details were offered publicly, but diplomats say Burma wanted firm assurances that Thai troops wouldn't stray across the border - even to track drug couriers. Burma also said it objected to the presence of "foreign" troops near its border, although US and Thai military officials say that US troops assigned to train Taskforce 399 are advisers and don't join Thai antidrug operations. "[Burma] is quite nervous; they don't want the US government involved in this kind of stuff ... Thailand is in a delicate situation. Its relationship with Burma may be getting better, but there are still problems on the border and they may be losing the war on drugs," says Aung Zaw, a Burmese exile and magazine editor. At the heart is a dilemma for countries trying to stem the outflow of drugs from Burma: How to cooperate with a government with only nominal control over its territory. Much of the ya ba and heroin trafficked across the border is traced to ethnic insurgents such as the United Wa State Army that signed cease-fires with the junta. Drug-control experts say Burma has made strides recently in combating opium, the raw ingredient in heroin, by promoting alternative crops for farmers, a strategy that Thailand has used successfully to curb its opium trade. Last year Burma's heroin production fell to 950 tons, a 14-year low, according to the US Drug Enforcement Agency. But those favoring cooperation with Burma say there's no sign of a crackdown on ya ba labs. "Opium fields are easy to detect, but methamphetamine factories are hidden from sight and can't be easily found, and they're located in areas that the Burmese government doesn't control," says Yngve Danling, an adviser to the UN Drug Control Program. Critics see Burma's inaction as deliberate, and accuse its generals of profiting from the trade, a charge denied by the regime. Whatever the reason, the drugs keep arriving. This week, the Thai Army warned that the UWSA was developing new routes to traffic up to 1 billion pills into Thailand over the next year. Some Army officers bemoan their chances of success without "hot pursuit" of traffickers who slip across the border, which is porous and poorly demarcated. "We can cooperate with Burma with our [antidrug] intelligence but they don't have enough troops to do the job," complains a Thai general. Taskforce 399 was supposed to strike back at the drug lords. Using $2 million from the US Defense Department's counternarcotics budget, it was designed as a lethal, rapid-response unit ready to swoop in on armed convoys that cross into Thailand at night. In reality, the taskforce currently has only about 100 men assigned permanently, with another 460 men seconded from Army and border police units. Thai officers say this lack of manpower prevents them from reacting quickly to intelligence tip-offs, since they need approval to mobilize. Some say the handicap is intentional: Officers are under orders to avoid firefights in sensitive areas that could upset Thai diplomacy. Lt. Gen. Udomchai Ongkasing, commander of the 3rd Army that guards the border, says Taskforce 399 has a "small target" for now, and that cooperation is the way forward. "We only use Taskforce 399 inside our border. We care that Myanmar isn't happy about 399 operating along the border...[so] if we try to coordinate with the Myanmar junta to help us suppress drugs, this is better," he says. That policy can work, say observers, only if Burma stamps out UWSA drug labs or Thailand loses its appetite for ya ba. So far, neither looks likely. ______ Reuters December 3 2002 Dazed and confused over Thai opium ride First reactions to Thailand's giant new opium museum in the Golden Triangle are confused: pleasant surprise at cool air after the intense tropical heat, but then disorientation, shock, even fear. Visitors enter the 40-hectare complex through a long, dark, mist-filled tunnel, which winds into the base of a hill past bas-reliefs of distorted human figures before emerging suddenly into bright sunlight in front of a field of poppies. "This is the mystery, the contradiction of opium," says Charles Mehl, head of research for the Mae Fah Luang Foundation, which has just completed the $10 million museum. "Opium is one of the very best drugs we have for treating chronic pain and bringing relief from suffering. But it can also be one of the worst, destroying lives if it is used for recreation or exploited for commercial gain." Built into a hillside by the Mekong River on the northern tip of Thailand, the museum lies at the heart of the Golden Triangle. Chiang Saen town is about 750 km (470 miles) north of Bangkok, overlooking the junction of the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. The Golden Triangle is a largely lawless region that last year produced more opium and heroin than Afghanistan and more synthetic stimulant pills than all the rest of the laboratories in Southeast Asia put together, drugs agencies say. Trippers Western backpackers and busloads of other day-trippers pour daily into the picturesque Chiang Saen district, in Chiang Rai province, to buy souvenirs on the Mekong's banks. Some try illicit puffs on opium pipes in nearby villages. The museum, which will open officially early next year, aims to exploit this tourist business, luring the curious with the promise of entertainment and impressive audio-visual displays in English and Thai. But as visitors progress down the labyrinthine corridors that stretch across three floors, the warnings against narcotic abuse gradually become more powerful. "People think at first they know what they will see -- a quaint presentation about hilltribes growing opium. But that's only a small part of the story," said Mehl. Mae Fah Luang has fought a 15-year battle against drug-taking and addiction in Chiang Rai province, establishing what the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) says is probably the best anti-drugs crop-substitution program in Asia. Lessons from that program, which has succeeded in the nearby Thai mountains of Doi Tung in part by offering farmers of opium poppies a better income from alternative crops such as coffee and macadamia nuts, are built into the museum. But it also offers a thorough lesson in the history of opium, its derivatives such as heroin and laudanum, and explains how the drugs trade has helped change the world for hundreds of years. Tragedy and trauma Thought to have been used first along the coast of the Mediterranean, archeologists say the earliest evidence of opium was found in Switzerland dating from the neolithic period. It was a popular sedative in ancient Egypt and Greece before spreading to northern Europe and Asia and becoming a key commodity that was exchanged for Chinese tea and other spices by the British and Dutch. With 360-degree special effects, the museum traces the 19th century opium wars between Britain and China before looking at prohibition in the 20th century and official efforts, often spectacularly unsuccessful, to stop the use of illegal drugs. The museum asks visitors to themselves decide what could be the best approach to narcotics -- prohibition, drug eradication schemes, decriminalization or legalization -- but it pulls no punches on the tragedy and trauma inflicted by drugs on abusers. A final, heart-wrenching gallery recounts the powerful true stories of victims of drug abuse around the world through intimate video testimonies by their families. "The feelings which develop through a visit to the museum change towards the very end when there is evidence of the death and suffering that drug abuse produces," said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the Vienna-based UNODC. "The end message is very strong, namely that use of drugs should be fought. Society has to use all its instruments, which means law enforcement for sure, but not only law enforcement. Prevention and treatment are equally important." _____ TV Myanmar December 2 2002 Thailand to grant aid for model Burmese anti-drug village Myanmar and Thai delegates discussed plans on the project for construction of Yaungkha model village in Wa region at Special Anti-Drug Office in Tachilek on 30 November morning at 0815 local time . It was attended by 10-member Myanmar delegation led by Col San Pwint, deputy head of department of the Office of the Chief of Military Intelligence and the four-member Thai delegation headed by Mr Disnada Diskul. The meeting discussed the programme under which Thailand will grant 20m baht in aid to build the village. The two sides agreed to promptly implement the project covering the construction of a school with the capacity of 500 students and a 16-bed dispensary and discussed matters on agricultural and development tasks of the village. ________ MONEY Democratic Voice of Burma December 1 2002 Gambling or Rebellion? Illegal gambling is again on the increase in Burma during this month due to poverty and economical difficulties. The authorities are doing their best to crackdown on all types of gambling and gamblers but they are not arresting the main gambling centres. The problems have increased after only gamblers and small gambling centres were arrested and prosecuted. The problem is made worse by the insistence of the groups who signed ceasefire deal with the SPDC on opening their gambling centres. They threaten to re-join the rebels if their demands are not met. During a recent religious festival in Yenanggyaung, central Burma, the local authorities allowed gambling centres to be opened officially. And at a religious festival in Putao, Kachin State, a SPDC sergeant open fired after a quarrel with the gambler. According to a lottery tickets vendor, the government sponsored 'Aungbale' lottery shops are doing slow trade because of the illegal gambling. _________ Bangkok Post December 3 2002 Burma Agrees to Join Thailand in Dam Project Burma has agreed in principle to join Thailand in a US$ 5.5-billion hydro-power dam on the Salween River, but opinions remain split over the location of the project. Energy Minister Pongthep Thepkanchana said he had instructed Sitthiporn Rattanopas, governor of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat), to study the possibility of constructing the power plant on the Thai side. Once a site was found, the minister said he might visit his Burmese counterparts to further discuss the possible joint investment in the project. Mr Sitthiporn, who discussed the proposal with a senior Burmese official during his recent trip to the country, said Rangoon wanted the 3,000-megawatt power plant to be built in Tha Sang district in Burma. However, Egat wanted the plant to be built on the Thai side, in Mae Sariang district of Mae Hong Son. The authority argued it would be easier to negotiate for loans and persuade investors if the project was on Thai soil. He said the final decision on the project would hinge on discussions between the leaders of the two countries. Mr Sitthiporn said he had also proposed the possibility of Rangoon hiring Egat to generate power using natural gas from the Yadana and Yetagun fields off the coast of Burma, to be delivered through PTT Plc's pipeline. Burma would benefit from the proposal, as the country could consume power at lower prices because fuel costs would be negligible and Rangoon did not need to invest in a power plant. "Although there remains a difference over the suitable location of the hydro-power project, it should be regarded a good starting point for the two countries to make use of natural resources by jointly generating power." Egat officials plan to visit China on Thursday to observe hydro-power generation from the country's largest dam. They will gather information from the study tour and apply it to the Salween project. Egat expected the Salween power project, if built on the Thai side, would enable the country to enjoy a lower price of power, at 0.80 satang per unit, compared with a unit price of 1.60 satang for power purchased from two hydro-power plants in Laos. ________ REGIONAL Forum Asia December 3 2002 Persecuted Muslims Fear Deportation to Military Burma Over 4,000 undocumented Rohingya asylum seekers camping near local administration buildings in Teknaf, Bangladesh fear deportation to military-ruled Burma. The asylum seekers, members of a stateless Muslim ethnic minority group from Burma’s Arakan State, have been living in appalling conditions since 15 November, after being evicted from the houses in Teknaf, Bangladesh, where they were taking refuge. The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia) called on the Government of Bangladesh and the UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee agency, today to abide by international humanitarian principles and ensure that the group is not forcibly deported to Burma. Forum-Asia, a regional human rights organization, is concerned for the safety of the asylum seekers who are likely to face continued discrimination and human rights abuses should they be returned to Burma. The authorities in Bangladesh, who claim there are about 25,000 illegal Rohingya immigrants in Teknaf area alone, began to evict Rohingya from the area in November, forcing over 600 families to camp out in front of the Teknaf district offices, without adequate food or clean water. Local MP Mr. Shah Jahan told reporters that the “push-back” process would start soon. Forum-Asia sources report that more than half the asylum seekers living in the makeshift camp are children, many malnourished, and shelters made from leaves and plastic sheets are being shared by two to three families. Sources say that many of the asylum seekers are refugees who had been sent back to Burma previously, only to flee again due to continued abuses by the Burmese military. Rohingya are a minority Muslim group who live under strong oppression in Burma’s Arakan State. The Rohingya are stateless, and are subject to severe restrictions on their movement within Burma, often being used as forced labour by the military. According to a Human Rights Watch report of July 2002, the persecution of Muslims in Burma has intensified since September 11, 2001. One Rohingya man in the Teknaf camp said: “I left the country [Burma] when I could no longer bear the amount of forced labour…. The Burmese Army will just kill us if we go back. The Bangladesh Government repatriated many refugees to Burma after the last refugee crisis. Why are they coming back again, like me? No one can go back and stay until there is some peace in Burma. If they are sent back forcefully, they will come back again after a short time. No, I will not go back! If they send me by force, I will jump in the Naf River!” ________ Agence France-Presse December 3 2002 Russia may be seeking full dialogue role in ASEAN security forum China and Russia were seeking closer ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a Chinese official said Tuesday, in a possible effort to seek a full dialogue role for Moscow in the ASEAN regional forum (ARF). China and Russia "restated a willingness to maintain close consultations within the ASEAN Regional Forum framework," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said. "China is willing to give the necessary assistance to Russia in establishing communication with this mechanism in areas of common concern." Liu was responding to questions concerning a joint Sino-Russian declaration signed Monday by presidents Vladimir Putin and Jiang Zemin which specifically cited the ARF's importance to security in the Asian Pacific region. The forum is a "10 plus three" mechanism that refers to an ongoing security dialogue between the 10 ASEAN members plus China, Japan and South Korea. "Russia also recognized the importance of the mechanism of the 10 plus three," Liu said when asked if China supported Russian participation in the grouping. He refused to say that Russia was seeking a full role in ARF or to clarify what kind of assistance China was prepared to offer. "I have nothing to add on this at present," Liu said. ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. In Monday's declaration, Moscow and Beijing said ASEAN "has played a constructive role in establishing a new form of state-to-state relationship in the Asian Pacific region and believe that the ARF is an effective mechanism for political dialogue on regional issues." ________ MISCELLANEOUS The Times (London) December 3 2002 Today in Parliament Lords: 2.30pm Waste and Emissions Trading Bill; Medical Act (Amendment) Order; debate on developments in Burma. From editor@burmanet.org Tue Dec 3 19:16:29 2002 From: editor@burmanet.org (editor@burmanet.org) Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2002 14:16:29 -0500 (EST) Subject: BurmaNet News: December 3 2002 Message-ID: <52396.207.10.94.131.1038942989.squirrel@webmail.pair.com> December 3 2002 Issue #2130 INSIDE BURMA Narinjara: White Elephant on its trip to Rangoon DVB: Policemen urged to test HIV Myanmar Times: FAO allocates more funds to aid rural poor GUNS IMNA: Hongsarwatoi Restoration Party No. 7 Battalion Major Blain Son and some HRP soldiers return to NMSP DRUGS FEER: unimpressed by Burma’s war on drugs CSM: Diplomatic pitfalls frustrate Thailand’s antidrug fight Retuers: Dazed and confused over Thai opium ride TV Myanmar: Thailand to grant aid for model Burmese anti-drug village MONEY DVB: Gambling or rebellion Bangkok Post: Burma Agrees to join Thailand in dam project REGIONAL Forum Asia: Persecuted Muslims fear deportation to military Burma AFP: Russia may be seeking full dialogue in ASEAN security forum MISCELLANEOUS The Times: Today in Parliament INSIDE BURMA Narinjara News December 3 2002 White Elephant on its trip to Rangoon Another white elephant from Rakhine State in the western part of Burma is on its way to Rangoon, the capital, according to our correspondent quoting officials. The elephant reached Sandway (Thandway), the coastal tourist resort of western Burma, in the evening of the day before yesterday. Light Infantry Battalion 34 was in charge of transporting the elephant from Sittwe to Thandway. From Sandway Light Infantry Battalion 55 was taking all necessary steps to ship her on the same evening to Rangoon. The elephant was previously brought from Buthidaung to Sittwwe on 21 November. A group of troops led by Lieutenant Colonel Aung Naing Tun carried the white elephant on the tugboat, Ye-gyant to Sittwe. The four-year old cow elephant was captured on July 18th this year at a point between Buthidaung and Rathedaung in the Mayu Hills Range. Department of Forest Produces Manager, U Nyunt Way, led a team to capture the elephant. The team temporarily paralyzed her using an anaesthetic shot before capturing her. The white cow elephant stands 4ft 8in, has white hair, coconut shell coloured skin, pearly white eyeballs, white nails, and one-and-a-half-foot long task. Last year two more so-called white elephants were captured in the same region. __________ Democratic Voice of Burma December 1 2002 Policemen urged to test HIV The Central Police Directorate in Burma is instructing all policemen to be tested for HIV and the results are to be given at the end of this month. But it was not clear why the policemen have to check for HIV positive and more importantly what would happen to those who found HIV positive. However, according to DVB sources, the immediate concern for the policemen is lack of financial supports for the test. The police are finding it difficult to follow the order. The police forces throughout the nation are co-ordinating with health authorities to follow the order but because of lack of medical equipment in hospitals they are facing the possibilities of paying for the tests at outside clinics. At the outside clinic, each test is charged 300 kyats and most police are unable to afford with their meagre salary. According to the estimate of the WHO, there are about 500,000 people infected with HIV and the considerable numbers of them are policemen and soldiers. _____ Myanmar Times November 25-December 1 2002 FAO allocates more funds to aid rural poor By Myo Lwin Aid provided under a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation poverty alleviation program will help about 25 households raise seasonal crops in their residential compounds at Taikkyi, about 30 miles north of Yangon. The US$6350 allocated for the project last week follows funding of $9400 provided last September to Too-chaung village in Ayeyarwaddy Division which has enabled 40 families to produce fish sauce. Both allocations were proposed by the Agricultural Planning Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, which also monitors the projects. The funds were provided under the FAO’s Telefood program, which has raised more than $9 million in donations throughout the world since being launched by the Rome-based organisation in 1997. Many of the donations were pledged in telephone calls to fund-raising centres. The allocations were the first to be provided to Myanmar under the Telefood program, said project co-ordinator Daw Mi Mi Maw, a staff officer at the Agricultural Planning Department. Daw Mi Mi Maw said the program was aimed at helping the poorest people in rural areas to help themselves. Funds from the FAO were used to provide farm implements, seeds, fertiliser, pesticides and agricultural training. She said the FAO would make more funding available under the program if the two projects proved to be successful. ________ GUNS Independent Mon News Agency December 3 2002 Hongsarwatoi Restoration Party No. 7 Battalion Major Blain Son and some HRP soldiers return to NMSP Yesterday Hongsarwatoi Restoration Party (HRP) No.7 battalion Major Blain Son and 21 of HRP soldiers with arms returned to New Mon State Party (HRP)in Three Pagoda Pass. Nai Blain Son who had long contact with NMSP returned to NMSP No.2 Operation troop Major, Major Nyan Tun and well come by NMSP vice army chief General Aung Naing. General Aung Naing said in the well coming celebration in Japanese Well, Three Pagoda Pass Township "they are well coming and they will resettle the soldier return to them to the suitable place and no punishment for them." Mostly of soldier return to NMSP with Major Blain Son were served in NMSP before they separated with Colonel Pan Nyunt. Nai Blain Son was who caught NMSP General Secretary Nai Rot Sa on June 24, 2002. ________ DRUGS Far Eastern Economic Review December 2 2002 Unimpressed By Burma's War on Drugs A number of United States congressmen are up in arms at recent reports that the U.S. may soon take Burma off a list of major drug-producing countries. The move would allow the military government in Rangoon to receive counter-narcotics assistance from Washington. Protest letters soon followed. Among them was one from incoming Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, who wrote in a November 25 letter to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice: "News reports of more and cheaper Burmese heroin reappearing on the streets of Australia and China than at any time in the past two years . . . call into question the integrity of any counter-narcotic effort" by the military junta in Burma. A senior State Department official says no decision on whether to recommend removing Burma from the list would be made before December. But Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly said in a November 21 speech that Rangoon's cooperation on narcotics "has continued to improve in real terms." McConnell insisted in his letter that there is "no consensus among experts" about the level of Burma's cooperation on controlling narcotics. "Given Burma's aggressive amphetamine production, there is no question that the [government] remains a clear and present danger to the people of Burma and the entire region." House of Representatives members Ilena Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican, and Tom Lantos, a Democrat from Florida, sent a similar letter of protest to Secretary of State Colin Powell. ________ Christian Science Monitor December 3 2002 Diplomatic pitfalls frustrate Thailand's antidrug fight By Simon Montlake Thais sideline a US-trained commando force in their bid to boost ties with Burma. PHITSANULOK, THAILAND - A special US-trained commando force created to block a flood of illegal drugs into Thailand has been sidelined by a delicate diplomatic two-step between Thailand and Burma (Myanmar), its neighbor and the source of the drugs. Known as Taskforce 399, the unit was set up last year and trained by US Special Forces troops. It is equipped with surveillance and combat equipment, including Black Hawk helicopters and night-vision goggles. US officials say Thailand quietly sought their help amid public alarm over the rapid spread of methamphetamine pills, known to Thais as ya ba or crazy medicine. An estimated 5 percent of Thailand's 62 million people are addicted to the speed pills, which cost as little as $1 each and are readily available across the country. "When you have methamphetamine showing up in your primary schools, it's time to sit up and take notice," says a US military official. "Nobody wants these drugs pouring over their border." The US is also getting a taste of this problem: In August, customs officials in California seized 75,000 ya ba pills sent to Sacramento from Thailand and Laos, the largest-ever bust. And heroin continues to flow out of Burma and to the US, via smuggling routes in Thailand and China. But initial optimism that US trainers and equipment might help turn the tide against traffickers has given way to frustration. Thai Army sources, diplomats, and observers in the rugged, 1250 mile-long border area say that Taskforce 399 has pulled back in recent months as Thailand has sought to repair diplomatic and commercial ties with Burma's military rulers. Relations between the two countries took a nosedive in May when Thai troops shelled Burmese troops that were battling Shan rebels along the border. Burma promptly closed all land crossings to Thailand, slamming the door to trade. The border reopened in October after months of talks between the two governments. Few details were offered publicly, but diplomats say Burma wanted firm assurances that Thai troops wouldn't stray across the border - even to track drug couriers. Burma also said it objected to the presence of "foreign" troops near its border, although US and Thai military officials say that US troops assigned to train Taskforce 399 are advisers and don't join Thai antidrug operations. "[Burma] is quite nervous; they don't want the US government involved in this kind of stuff ... Thailand is in a delicate situation. Its relationship with Burma may be getting better, but there are still problems on the border and they may be losing the war on drugs," says Aung Zaw, a Burmese exile and magazine editor. At the heart is a dilemma for countries trying to stem the outflow of drugs from Burma: How to cooperate with a government with only nominal control over its territory. Much of the ya ba and heroin trafficked across the border is traced to ethnic insurgents such as the United Wa State Army that signed cease-fires with the junta. Drug-control experts say Burma has made strides recently in combating opium, the raw ingredient in heroin, by promoting alternative crops for farmers, a strategy that Thailand has used successfully to curb its opium trade. Last year Burma's heroin production fell to 950 tons, a 14-year low, according to the US Drug Enforcement Agency. But those favoring cooperation with Burma say there's no sign of a crackdown on ya ba labs. "Opium fields are easy to detect, but methamphetamine factories are hidden from sight and can't be easily found, and they're located in areas that the Burmese government doesn't control," says Yngve Danling, an adviser to the UN Drug Control Program. Critics see Burma's inaction as deliberate, and accuse its generals of profiting from the trade, a charge denied by the regime. Whatever the reason, the drugs keep arriving. This week, the Thai Army warned that the UWSA was developing new routes to traffic up to 1 billion pills into Thailand over the next year. Some Army officers bemoan their chances of success without "hot pursuit" of traffickers who slip across the border, which is porous and poorly demarcated. "We can cooperate with Burma with our [antidrug] intelligence but they don't have enough troops to do the job," complains a Thai general. Taskforce 399 was supposed to strike back at the drug lords. Using $2 million from the US Defense Department's counternarcotics budget, it was designed as a lethal, rapid-response unit ready to swoop in on armed convoys that cross into Thailand at night. In reality, the taskforce currently has only about 100 men assigned permanently, with another 460 men seconded from Army and border police units. Thai officers say this lack of manpower prevents them from reacting quickly to intelligence tip-offs, since they need approval to mobilize. Some say the handicap is intentional: Officers are under orders to avoid firefights in sensitive areas that could upset Thai diplomacy. Lt. Gen. Udomchai Ongkasing, commander of the 3rd Army that guards the border, says Taskforce 399 has a "small target" for now, and that cooperation is the way forward. "We only use Taskforce 399 inside our border. We care that Myanmar isn't happy about 399 operating along the border...[so] if we try to coordinate with the Myanmar junta to help us suppress drugs, this is better," he says. That policy can work, say observers, only if Burma stamps out UWSA drug labs or Thailand loses its appetite for ya ba. So far, neither looks likely. ______ Reuters December 3 2002 Dazed and confused over Thai opium ride First reactions to Thailand's giant new opium museum in the Golden Triangle are confused: pleasant surprise at cool air after the intense tropical heat, but then disorientation, shock, even fear. Visitors enter the 40-hectare complex through a long, dark, mist-filled tunnel, which winds into the base of a hill past bas-reliefs of distorted human figures before emerging suddenly into bright sunlight in front of a field of poppies. "This is the mystery, the contradiction of opium," says Charles Mehl, head of research for the Mae Fah Luang Foundation, which has just completed the $10 million museum. "Opium is one of the very best drugs we have for treating chronic pain and bringing relief from suffering. But it can also be one of the worst, destroying lives if it is used for recreation or exploited for commercial gain." Built into a hillside by the Mekong River on the northern tip of Thailand, the museum lies at the heart of the Golden Triangle. Chiang Saen town is about 750 km (470 miles) north of Bangkok, overlooking the junction of the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. The Golden Triangle is a largely lawless region that last year produced more opium and heroin than Afghanistan and more synthetic stimulant pills than all the rest of the laboratories in Southeast Asia put together, drugs agencies say. Trippers Western backpackers and busloads of other day-trippers pour daily into the picturesque Chiang Saen district, in Chiang Rai province, to buy souvenirs on the Mekong's banks. Some try illicit puffs on opium pipes in nearby villages. The museum, which will open officially early next year, aims to exploit this tourist business, luring the curious with the promise of entertainment and impressive audio-visual displays in English and Thai. But as visitors progress down the labyrinthine corridors that stretch across three floors, the warnings against narcotic abuse gradually become more powerful. "People think at first they know what they will see -- a quaint presentation about hilltribes growing opium. But that's only a small part of the story," said Mehl. Mae Fah Luang has fought a 15-year battle against drug-taking and addiction in Chiang Rai province, establishing what the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) says is probably the best anti-drugs crop-substitution program in Asia. Lessons from that program, which has succeeded in the nearby Thai mountains of Doi Tung in part by offering farmers of opium poppies a better income from alternative crops such as coffee and macadamia nuts, are built into the museum. But it also offers a thorough lesson in the history of opium, its derivatives such as heroin and laudanum, and explains how the drugs trade has helped change the world for hundreds of years. Tragedy and trauma Thought to have been used first along the coast of the Mediterranean, archeologists say the earliest evidence of opium was found in Switzerland dating from the neolithic period. It was a popular sedative in ancient Egypt and Greece before spreading to northern Europe and Asia and becoming a key commodity that was exchanged for Chinese tea and other spices by the British and Dutch. With 360-degree special effects, the museum traces the 19th century opium wars between Britain and China before looking at prohibition in the 20th century and official efforts, often spectacularly unsuccessful, to stop the use of illegal drugs. The museum asks visitors to themselves decide what could be the best approach to narcotics -- prohibition, drug eradication schemes, decriminalization or legalization -- but it pulls no punches on the tragedy and trauma inflicted by drugs on abusers. A final, heart-wrenching gallery recounts the powerful true stories of victims of drug abuse around the world through intimate video testimonies by their families. "The feelings which develop through a visit to the museum change towards the very end when there is evidence of the death and suffering that drug abuse produces," said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the Vienna-based UNODC. "The end message is very strong, namely that use of drugs should be fought. Society has to use all its instruments, which means law enforcement for sure, but not only law enforcement. Prevention and treatment are equally important." _____ TV Myanmar December 2 2002 Thailand to grant aid for model Burmese anti-drug village Myanmar and Thai delegates discussed plans on the project for construction of Yaungkha model village in Wa region at Special Anti-Drug Office in Tachilek on 30 November morning at 0815 local time . It was attended by 10-member Myanmar delegation led by Col San Pwint, deputy head of department of the Office of the Chief of Military Intelligence and the four-member Thai delegation headed by Mr Disnada Diskul. The meeting discussed the programme under which Thailand will grant 20m baht in aid to build the village. The two sides agreed to promptly implement the project covering the construction of a school with the capacity of 500 students and a 16-bed dispensary and discussed matters on agricultural and development tasks of the village. ________ MONEY Democratic Voice of Burma December 1 2002 Gambling or Rebellion? Illegal gambling is again on the increase in Burma during this month due to poverty and economical difficulties. The authorities are doing their best to crackdown on all types of gambling and gamblers but they are not arresting the main gambling centres. The problems have increased after only gamblers and small gambling centres were arrested and prosecuted. The problem is made worse by the insistence of the groups who signed ceasefire deal with the SPDC on opening their gambling centres. They threaten to re-join the rebels if their demands are not met. During a recent religious festival in Yenanggyaung, central Burma, the local authorities allowed gambling centres to be opened officially. And at a religious festival in Putao, Kachin State, a SPDC sergeant open fired after a quarrel with the gambler. According to a lottery tickets vendor, the government sponsored 'Aungbale' lottery shops are doing slow trade because of the illegal gambling. _________ Bangkok Post December 3 2002 Burma Agrees to Join Thailand in Dam Project Burma has agreed in principle to join Thailand in a US$ 5.5-billion hydro-power dam on the Salween River, but opinions remain split over the location of the project. Energy Minister Pongthep Thepkanchana said he had instructed Sitthiporn Rattanopas, governor of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat), to study the possibility of constructing the power plant on the Thai side. Once a site was found, the minister said he might visit his Burmese counterparts to further discuss the possible joint investment in the project. Mr Sitthiporn, who discussed the proposal with a senior Burmese official during his recent trip to the country, said Rangoon wanted the 3,000-megawatt power plant to be built in Tha Sang district in Burma. However, Egat wanted the plant to be built on the Thai side, in Mae Sariang district of Mae Hong Son. The authority argued it would be easier to negotiate for loans and persuade investors if the project was on Thai soil. He said the final decision on the project would hinge on discussions between the leaders of the two countries. Mr Sitthiporn said he had also proposed the possibility of Rangoon hiring Egat to generate power using natural gas from the Yadana and Yetagun fields off the coast of Burma, to be delivered through PTT Plc's pipeline. Burma would benefit from the proposal, as the country could consume power at lower prices because fuel costs would be negligible and Rangoon did not need to invest in a power plant. "Although there remains a difference over the suitable location of the hydro-power project, it should be regarded a good starting point for the two countries to make use of natural resources by jointly generating power." Egat officials plan to visit China on Thursday to observe hydro-power generation from the country's largest dam. They will gather information from the study tour and apply it to the Salween project. Egat expected the Salween power project, if built on the Thai side, would enable the country to enjoy a lower price of power, at 0.80 satang per unit, compared with a unit price of 1.60 satang for power purchased from two hydro-power plants in Laos. ________ REGIONAL Forum Asia December 3 2002 Persecuted Muslims Fear Deportation to Military Burma Over 4,000 undocumented Rohingya asylum seekers camping near local administration buildings in Teknaf, Bangladesh fear deportation to military-ruled Burma. The asylum seekers, members of a stateless Muslim ethnic minority group from Burma’s Arakan State, have been living in appalling conditions since 15 November, after being evicted from the houses in Teknaf, Bangladesh, where they were taking refuge. The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia) called on the Government of Bangladesh and the UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee agency, today to abide by international humanitarian principles and ensure that the group is not forcibly deported to Burma. Forum-Asia, a regional human rights organization, is concerned for the safety of the asylum seekers who are likely to face continued discrimination and human rights abuses should they be returned to Burma. The authorities in Bangladesh, who claim there are about 25,000 illegal Rohingya immigrants in Teknaf area alone, began to evict Rohingya from the area in November, forcing over 600 families to camp out in front of the Teknaf district offices, without adequate food or clean water. Local MP Mr. Shah Jahan told reporters that the “push-back” process would start soon. Forum-Asia sources report that more than half the asylum seekers living in the makeshift camp are children, many malnourished, and shelters made from leaves and plastic sheets are being shared by two to three families. Sources say that many of the asylum seekers are refugees who had been sent back to Burma previously, only to flee again due to continued abuses by the Burmese military. Rohingya are a minority Muslim group who live under strong oppression in Burma’s Arakan State. The Rohingya are stateless, and are subject to severe restrictions on their movement within Burma, often being used as forced labour by the military. According to a Human Rights Watch report of July 2002, the persecution of Muslims in Burma has intensified since September 11, 2001. One Rohingya man in the Teknaf camp said: “I left the country [Burma] when I could no longer bear the amount of forced labour…. The Burmese Army will just kill us if we go back. The Bangladesh Government repatriated many refugees to Burma after the last refugee crisis. Why are they coming back again, like me? No one can go back and stay until there is some peace in Burma. If they are sent back forcefully, they will come back again after a short time. No, I will not go back! If they send me by force, I will jump in the Naf River!” ________ Agence France-Presse December 3 2002 Russia may be seeking full dialogue role in ASEAN security forum China and Russia were seeking closer ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a Chinese official said Tuesday, in a possible effort to seek a full dialogue role for Moscow in the ASEAN regional forum (ARF). China and Russia "restated a willingness to maintain close consultations within the ASEAN Regional Forum framework," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said. "China is willing to give the necessary assistance to Russia in establishing communication with this mechanism in areas of common concern." Liu was responding to questions concerning a joint Sino-Russian declaration signed Monday by presidents Vladimir Putin and Jiang Zemin which specifically cited the ARF's importance to security in the Asian Pacific region. The forum is a "10 plus three" mechanism that refers to an ongoing security dialogue between the 10 ASEAN members plus China, Japan and South Korea. "Russia also recognized the importance of the mechanism of the 10 plus three," Liu said when asked if China supported Russian participation in the grouping. He refused to say that Russia was seeking a full role in ARF or to clarify what kind of assistance China was prepared to offer. "I have nothing to add on this at present," Liu said. ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. In Monday's declaration, Moscow and Beijing said ASEAN "has played a constructive role in establishing a new form of state-to-state relationship in the Asian Pacific region and believe that the ARF is an effective mechanism for political dialogue on regional issues." ________ MISCELLANEOUS The Times (London) December 3 2002 Today in Parliament Lords: 2.30pm Waste and Emissions Trading Bill; Medical Act (Amendment) Order; debate on developments in Burma. From editor@burmanet.org Tue Dec 3 19:16:29 2002 From: editor@burmanet.org (editor@burmanet.org) Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2002 14:16:29 -0500 (EST) Subject: BurmaNet News: December 3 2002 Message-ID: <52396.207.10.94.131.1038942989.squirrel@webmail.pair.com> December 3 2002 Issue #2130 INSIDE BURMA Narinjara: White Elephant on its trip to Rangoon DVB: Policemen urged to test HIV Myanmar Times: FAO allocates more funds to aid rural poor GUNS IMNA: Hongsarwatoi Restoration Party No. 7 Battalion Major Blain Son and some HRP soldiers return to NMSP DRUGS FEER: unimpressed by Burma’s war on drugs CSM: Diplomatic pitfalls frustrate Thailand’s antidrug fight Retuers: Dazed and confused over Thai opium ride TV Myanmar: Thailand to grant aid for model Burmese anti-drug village MONEY DVB: Gambling or rebellion Bangkok Post: Burma Agrees to join Thailand in dam project REGIONAL Forum Asia: Persecuted Muslims fear deportation to military Burma AFP: Russia may be seeking full dialogue in ASEAN security forum MISCELLANEOUS The Times: Today in Parliament INSIDE BURMA Narinjara News December 3 2002 White Elephant on its trip to Rangoon Another white elephant from Rakhine State in the western part of Burma is on its way to Rangoon, the capital, according to our correspondent quoting officials. The elephant reached Sandway (Thandway), the coastal tourist resort of western Burma, in the evening of the day before yesterday. Light Infantry Battalion 34 was in charge of transporting the elephant from Sittwe to Thandway. From Sandway Light Infantry Battalion 55 was taking all necessary steps to ship her on the same evening to Rangoon. The elephant was previously brought from Buthidaung to Sittwwe on 21 November. A group of troops led by Lieutenant Colonel Aung Naing Tun carried the white elephant on the tugboat, Ye-gyant to Sittwe. The four-year old cow elephant was captured on July 18th this year at a point between Buthidaung and Rathedaung in the Mayu Hills Range. Department of Forest Produces Manager, U Nyunt Way, led a team to capture the elephant. The team temporarily paralyzed her using an anaesthetic shot before capturing her. The white cow elephant stands 4ft 8in, has white hair, coconut shell coloured skin, pearly white eyeballs, white nails, and one-and-a-half-foot long task. Last year two more so-called white elephants were captured in the same region. __________ Democratic Voice of Burma December 1 2002 Policemen urged to test HIV The Central Police Directorate in Burma is instructing all policemen to be tested for HIV and the results are to be given at the end of this month. But it was not clear why the policemen have to check for HIV positive and more importantly what would happen to those who found HIV positive. However, according to DVB sources, the immediate concern for the policemen is lack of financial supports for the test. The police are finding it difficult to follow the order. The police forces throughout the nation are co-ordinating with health authorities to follow the order but because of lack of medical equipment in hospitals they are facing the possibilities of paying for the tests at outside clinics. At the outside clinic, each test is charged 300 kyats and most police are unable to afford with their meagre salary. According to the estimate of the WHO, there are about 500,000 people infected with HIV and the considerable numbers of them are policemen and soldiers. _____ Myanmar Times November 25-December 1 2002 FAO allocates more funds to aid rural poor By Myo Lwin Aid provided under a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation poverty alleviation program will help about 25 households raise seasonal crops in their residential compounds at Taikkyi, about 30 miles north of Yangon. The US$6350 allocated for the project last week follows funding of $9400 provided last September to Too-chaung village in Ayeyarwaddy Division which has enabled 40 families to produce fish sauce. Both allocations were proposed by the Agricultural Planning Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, which also monitors the projects. The funds were provided under the FAO’s Telefood program, which has raised more than $9 million in donations throughout the world since being launched by the Rome-based organisation in 1997. Many of the donations were pledged in telephone calls to fund-raising centres. The allocations were the first to be provided to Myanmar under the Telefood program, said project co-ordinator Daw Mi Mi Maw, a staff officer at the Agricultural Planning Department. Daw Mi Mi Maw said the program was aimed at helping the poorest people in rural areas to help themselves. Funds from the FAO were used to provide farm implements, seeds, fertiliser, pesticides and agricultural training. She said the FAO would make more funding available under the program if the two projects proved to be successful. ________ GUNS Independent Mon News Agency December 3 2002 Hongsarwatoi Restoration Party No. 7 Battalion Major Blain Son and some HRP soldiers return to NMSP Yesterday Hongsarwatoi Restoration Party (HRP) No.7 battalion Major Blain Son and 21 of HRP soldiers with arms returned to New Mon State Party (HRP)in Three Pagoda Pass. Nai Blain Son who had long contact with NMSP returned to NMSP No.2 Operation troop Major, Major Nyan Tun and well come by NMSP vice army chief General Aung Naing. General Aung Naing said in the well coming celebration in Japanese Well, Three Pagoda Pass Township "they are well coming and they will resettle the soldier return to them to the suitable place and no punishment for them." Mostly of soldier return to NMSP with Major Blain Son were served in NMSP before they separated with Colonel Pan Nyunt. Nai Blain Son was who caught NMSP General Secretary Nai Rot Sa on June 24, 2002. ________ DRUGS Far Eastern Economic Review December 2 2002 Unimpressed By Burma's War on Drugs A number of United States congressmen are up in arms at recent reports that the U.S. may soon take Burma off a list of major drug-producing countries. The move would allow the military government in Rangoon to receive counter-narcotics assistance from Washington. Protest letters soon followed. Among them was one from incoming Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, who wrote in a November 25 letter to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice: "News reports of more and cheaper Burmese heroin reappearing on the streets of Australia and China than at any time in the past two years . . . call into question the integrity of any counter-narcotic effort" by the military junta in Burma. A senior State Department official says no decision on whether to recommend removing Burma from the list would be made before December. But Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly said in a November 21 speech that Rangoon's cooperation on narcotics "has continued to improve in real terms." McConnell insisted in his letter that there is "no consensus among experts" about the level of Burma's cooperation on controlling narcotics. "Given Burma's aggressive amphetamine production, there is no question that the [government] remains a clear and present danger to the people of Burma and the entire region." House of Representatives members Ilena Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican, and Tom Lantos, a Democrat from Florida, sent a similar letter of protest to Secretary of State Colin Powell. ________ Christian Science Monitor December 3 2002 Diplomatic pitfalls frustrate Thailand's antidrug fight By Simon Montlake Thais sideline a US-trained commando force in their bid to boost ties with Burma. PHITSANULOK, THAILAND - A special US-trained commando force created to block a flood of illegal drugs into Thailand has been sidelined by a delicate diplomatic two-step between Thailand and Burma (Myanmar), its neighbor and the source of the drugs. Known as Taskforce 399, the unit was set up last year and trained by US Special Forces troops. It is equipped with surveillance and combat equipment, including Black Hawk helicopters and night-vision goggles. US officials say Thailand quietly sought their help amid public alarm over the rapid spread of methamphetamine pills, known to Thais as ya ba or crazy medicine. An estimated 5 percent of Thailand's 62 million people are addicted to the speed pills, which cost as little as $1 each and are readily available across the country. "When you have methamphetamine showing up in your primary schools, it's time to sit up and take notice," says a US military official. "Nobody wants these drugs pouring over their border." The US is also getting a taste of this problem: In August, customs officials in California seized 75,000 ya ba pills sent to Sacramento from Thailand and Laos, the largest-ever bust. And heroin continues to flow out of Burma and to the US, via smuggling routes in Thailand and China. But initial optimism that US trainers and equipment might help turn the tide against traffickers has given way to frustration. Thai Army sources, diplomats, and observers in the rugged, 1250 mile-long border area say that Taskforce 399 has pulled back in recent months as Thailand has sought to repair diplomatic and commercial ties with Burma's military rulers. Relations between the two countries took a nosedive in May when Thai troops shelled Burmese troops that were battling Shan rebels along the border. Burma promptly closed all land crossings to Thailand, slamming the door to trade. The border reopened in October after months of talks between the two governments. Few details were offered publicly, but diplomats say Burma wanted firm assurances that Thai troops wouldn't stray across the border - even to track drug couriers. Burma also said it objected to the presence of "foreign" troops near its border, although US and Thai military officials say that US troops assigned to train Taskforce 399 are advisers and don't join Thai antidrug operations. "[Burma] is quite nervous; they don't want the US government involved in this kind of stuff ... Thailand is in a delicate situation. Its relationship with Burma may be getting better, but there are still problems on the border and they may be losing the war on drugs," says Aung Zaw, a Burmese exile and magazine editor. At the heart is a dilemma for countries trying to stem the outflow of drugs from Burma: How to cooperate with a government with only nominal control over its territory. Much of the ya ba and heroin trafficked across the border is traced to ethnic insurgents such as the United Wa State Army that signed cease-fires with the junta. Drug-control experts say Burma has made strides recently in combating opium, the raw ingredient in heroin, by promoting alternative crops for farmers, a strategy that Thailand has used successfully to curb its opium trade. Last year Burma's heroin production fell to 950 tons, a 14-year low, according to the US Drug Enforcement Agency. But those favoring cooperation with Burma say there's no sign of a crackdown on ya ba labs. "Opium fields are easy to detect, but methamphetamine factories are hidden from sight and can't be easily found, and they're located in areas that the Burmese government doesn't control," says Yngve Danling, an adviser to the UN Drug Control Program. Critics see Burma's inaction as deliberate, and accuse its generals of profiting from the trade, a charge denied by the regime. Whatever the reason, the drugs keep arriving. This week, the Thai Army warned that the UWSA was developing new routes to traffic up to 1 billion pills into Thailand over the next year. Some Army officers bemoan their chances of success without "hot pursuit" of traffickers who slip across the border, which is porous and poorly demarcated. "We can cooperate with Burma with our [antidrug] intelligence but they don't have enough troops to do the job," complains a Thai general. Taskforce 399 was supposed to strike back at the drug lords. Using $2 million from the US Defense Department's counternarcotics budget, it was designed as a lethal, rapid-response unit ready to swoop in on armed convoys that cross into Thailand at night. In reality, the taskforce currently has only about 100 men assigned permanently, with another 460 men seconded from Army and border police units. Thai officers say this lack of manpower prevents them from reacting quickly to intelligence tip-offs, since they need approval to mobilize. Some say the handicap is intentional: Officers are under orders to avoid firefights in sensitive areas that could upset Thai diplomacy. Lt. Gen. Udomchai Ongkasing, commander of the 3rd Army that guards the border, says Taskforce 399 has a "small target" for now, and that cooperation is the way forward. "We only use Taskforce 399 inside our border. We care that Myanmar isn't happy about 399 operating along the border...[so] if we try to coordinate with the Myanmar junta to help us suppress drugs, this is better," he says. That policy can work, say observers, only if Burma stamps out UWSA drug labs or Thailand loses its appetite for ya ba. So far, neither looks likely. ______ Reuters December 3 2002 Dazed and confused over Thai opium ride First reactions to Thailand's giant new opium museum in the Golden Triangle are confused: pleasant surprise at cool air after the intense tropical heat, but then disorientation, shock, even fear. Visitors enter the 40-hectare complex through a long, dark, mist-filled tunnel, which winds into the base of a hill past bas-reliefs of distorted human figures before emerging suddenly into bright sunlight in front of a field of poppies. "This is the mystery, the contradiction of opium," says Charles Mehl, head of research for the Mae Fah Luang Foundation, which has just completed the $10 million museum. "Opium is one of the very best drugs we have for treating chronic pain and bringing relief from suffering. But it can also be one of the worst, destroying lives if it is used for recreation or exploited for commercial gain." Built into a hillside by the Mekong River on the northern tip of Thailand, the museum lies at the heart of the Golden Triangle. Chiang Saen town is about 750 km (470 miles) north of Bangkok, overlooking the junction of the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. The Golden Triangle is a largely lawless region that last year produced more opium and heroin than Afghanistan and more synthetic stimulant pills than all the rest of the laboratories in Southeast Asia put together, drugs agencies say. Trippers Western backpackers and busloads of other day-trippers pour daily into the picturesque Chiang Saen district, in Chiang Rai province, to buy souvenirs on the Mekong's banks. Some try illicit puffs on opium pipes in nearby villages. The museum, which will open officially early next year, aims to exploit this tourist business, luring the curious with the promise of entertainment and impressive audio-visual displays in English and Thai. But as visitors progress down the labyrinthine corridors that stretch across three floors, the warnings against narcotic abuse gradually become more powerful. "People think at first they know what they will see -- a quaint presentation about hilltribes growing opium. But that's only a small part of the story," said Mehl. Mae Fah Luang has fought a 15-year battle against drug-taking and addiction in Chiang Rai province, establishing what the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) says is probably the best anti-drugs crop-substitution program in Asia. Lessons from that program, which has succeeded in the nearby Thai mountains of Doi Tung in part by offering farmers of opium poppies a better income from alternative crops such as coffee and macadamia nuts, are built into the museum. But it also offers a thorough lesson in the history of opium, its derivatives such as heroin and laudanum, and explains how the drugs trade has helped change the world for hundreds of years. Tragedy and trauma Thought to have been used first along the coast of the Mediterranean, archeologists say the earliest evidence of opium was found in Switzerland dating from the neolithic period. It was a popular sedative in ancient Egypt and Greece before spreading to northern Europe and Asia and becoming a key commodity that was exchanged for Chinese tea and other spices by the British and Dutch. With 360-degree special effects, the museum traces the 19th century opium wars between Britain and China before looking at prohibition in the 20th century and official efforts, often spectacularly unsuccessful, to stop the use of illegal drugs. The museum asks visitors to themselves decide what could be the best approach to narcotics -- prohibition, drug eradication schemes, decriminalization or legalization -- but it pulls no punches on the tragedy and trauma inflicted by drugs on abusers. A final, heart-wrenching gallery recounts the powerful true stories of victims of drug abuse around the world through intimate video testimonies by their families. "The feelings which develop through a visit to the museum change towards the very end when there is evidence of the death and suffering that drug abuse produces," said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the Vienna-based UNODC. "The end message is very strong, namely that use of drugs should be fought. Society has to use all its instruments, which means law enforcement for sure, but not only law enforcement. Prevention and treatment are equally important." _____ TV Myanmar December 2 2002 Thailand to grant aid for model Burmese anti-drug village Myanmar and Thai delegates discussed plans on the project for construction of Yaungkha model village in Wa region at Special Anti-Drug Office in Tachilek on 30 November morning at 0815 local time . It was attended by 10-member Myanmar delegation led by Col San Pwint, deputy head of department of the Office of the Chief of Military Intelligence and the four-member Thai delegation headed by Mr Disnada Diskul. The meeting discussed the programme under which Thailand will grant 20m baht in aid to build the village. The two sides agreed to promptly implement the project covering the construction of a school with the capacity of 500 students and a 16-bed dispensary and discussed matters on agricultural and development tasks of the village. ________ MONEY Democratic Voice of Burma December 1 2002 Gambling or Rebellion? Illegal gambling is again on the increase in Burma during this month due to poverty and economical difficulties. The authorities are doing their best to crackdown on all types of gambling and gamblers but they are not arresting the main gambling centres. The problems have increased after only gamblers and small gambling centres were arrested and prosecuted. The problem is made worse by the insistence of the groups who signed ceasefire deal with the SPDC on opening their gambling centres. They threaten to re-join the rebels if their demands are not met. During a recent religious festival in Yenanggyaung, central Burma, the local authorities allowed gambling centres to be opened officially. And at a religious festival in Putao, Kachin State, a SPDC sergeant open fired after a quarrel with the gambler. According to a lottery tickets vendor, the government sponsored 'Aungbale' lottery shops are doing slow trade because of the illegal gambling. _________ Bangkok Post December 3 2002 Burma Agrees to Join Thailand in Dam Project Burma has agreed in principle to join Thailand in a US$ 5.5-billion hydro-power dam on the Salween River, but opinions remain split over the location of the project. Energy Minister Pongthep Thepkanchana said he had instructed Sitthiporn Rattanopas, governor of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat), to study the possibility of constructing the power plant on the Thai side. Once a site was found, the minister said he might visit his Burmese counterparts to further discuss the possible joint investment in the project. Mr Sitthiporn, who discussed the proposal with a senior Burmese official during his recent trip to the country, said Rangoon wanted the 3,000-megawatt power plant to be built in Tha Sang district in Burma. However, Egat wanted the plant to be built on the Thai side, in Mae Sariang district of Mae Hong Son. The authority argued it would be easier to negotiate for loans and persuade investors if the project was on Thai soil. He said the final decision on the project would hinge on discussions between the leaders of the two countries. Mr Sitthiporn said he had also proposed the possibility of Rangoon hiring Egat to generate power using natural gas from the Yadana and Yetagun fields off the coast of Burma, to be delivered through PTT Plc's pipeline. Burma would benefit from the proposal, as the country could consume power at lower prices because fuel costs would be negligible and Rangoon did not need to invest in a power plant. "Although there remains a difference over the suitable location of the hydro-power project, it should be regarded a good starting point for the two countries to make use of natural resources by jointly generating power." Egat officials plan to visit China on Thursday to observe hydro-power generation from the country's largest dam. They will gather information from the study tour and apply it to the Salween project. Egat expected the Salween power project, if built on the Thai side, would enable the country to enjoy a lower price of power, at 0.80 satang per unit, compared with a unit price of 1.60 satang for power purchased from two hydro-power plants in Laos. ________ REGIONAL Forum Asia December 3 2002 Persecuted Muslims Fear Deportation to Military Burma Over 4,000 undocumented Rohingya asylum seekers camping near local administration buildings in Teknaf, Bangladesh fear deportation to military-ruled Burma. The asylum seekers, members of a stateless Muslim ethnic minority group from Burma’s Arakan State, have been living in appalling conditions since 15 November, after being evicted from the houses in Teknaf, Bangladesh, where they were taking refuge. The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia) called on the Government of Bangladesh and the UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee agency, today to abide by international humanitarian principles and ensure that the group is not forcibly deported to Burma. Forum-Asia, a regional human rights organization, is concerned for the safety of the asylum seekers who are likely to face continued discrimination and human rights abuses should they be returned to Burma. The authorities in Bangladesh, who claim there are about 25,000 illegal Rohingya immigrants in Teknaf area alone, began to evict Rohingya from the area in November, forcing over 600 families to camp out in front of the Teknaf district offices, without adequate food or clean water. Local MP Mr. Shah Jahan told reporters that the “push-back” process would start soon. Forum-Asia sources report that more than half the asylum seekers living in the makeshift camp are children, many malnourished, and shelters made from leaves and plastic sheets are being shared by two to three families. Sources say that many of the asylum seekers are refugees who had been sent back to Burma previously, only to flee again due to continued abuses by the Burmese military. Rohingya are a minority Muslim group who live under strong oppression in Burma’s Arakan State. The Rohingya are stateless, and are subject to severe restrictions on their movement within Burma, often being used as forced labour by the military. According to a Human Rights Watch report of July 2002, the persecution of Muslims in Burma has intensified since September 11, 2001. One Rohingya man in the Teknaf camp said: “I left the country [Burma] when I could no longer bear the amount of forced labour…. The Burmese Army will just kill us if we go back. The Bangladesh Government repatriated many refugees to Burma after the last refugee crisis. Why are they coming back again, like me? No one can go back and stay until there is some peace in Burma. If they are sent back forcefully, they will come back again after a short time. No, I will not go back! If they send me by force, I will jump in the Naf River!” ________ Agence France-Presse December 3 2002 Russia may be seeking full dialogue role in ASEAN security forum China and Russia were seeking closer ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a Chinese official said Tuesday, in a possible effort to seek a full dialogue role for Moscow in the ASEAN regional forum (ARF). China and Russia "restated a willingness to maintain close consultations within the ASEAN Regional Forum framework," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said. "China is willing to give the necessary assistance to Russia in establishing communication with this mechanism in areas of common concern." Liu was responding to questions concerning a joint Sino-Russian declaration signed Monday by presidents Vladimir Putin and Jiang Zemin which specifically cited the ARF's importance to security in the Asian Pacific region. The forum is a "10 plus three" mechanism that refers to an ongoing security dialogue between the 10 ASEAN members plus China, Japan and South Korea. "Russia also recognized the importance of the mechanism of the 10 plus three," Liu said when asked if China supported Russian participation in the grouping. He refused to say that Russia was seeking a full role in ARF or to clarify what kind of assistance China was prepared to offer. "I have nothing to add on this at present," Liu said. ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. In Monday's declaration, Moscow and Beijing said ASEAN "has played a constructive role in establishing a new form of state-to-state relationship in the Asian Pacific region and believe that the ARF is an effective mechanism for political dialogue on regional issues." ________ MISCELLANEOUS The Times (London) December 3 2002 Today in Parliament Lords: 2.30pm Waste and Emissions Trading Bill; Medical Act (Amendment) Order; debate on developments in Burma. From editor@burmanet.org Tue Dec 3 19:16:29 2002 From: editor@burmanet.org (editor@burmanet.org) Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2002 14:16:29 -0500 (EST) Subject: BurmaNet News: December 3 2002 Message-ID: <52396.207.10.94.131.1038942989.squirrel@webmail.pair.com> December 3 2002 Issue #2130 INSIDE BURMA Narinjara: White Elephant on its trip to Rangoon DVB: Policemen urged to test HIV Myanmar Times: FAO allocates more funds to aid rural poor GUNS IMNA: Hongsarwatoi Restoration Party No. 7 Battalion Major Blain Son and some HRP soldiers return to NMSP DRUGS FEER: unimpressed by Burma’s war on drugs CSM: Diplomatic pitfalls frustrate Thailand’s antidrug fight Retuers: Dazed and confused over Thai opium ride TV Myanmar: Thailand to grant aid for model Burmese anti-drug village MONEY DVB: Gambling or rebellion Bangkok Post: Burma Agrees to join Thailand in dam project REGIONAL Forum Asia: Persecuted Muslims fear deportation to military Burma AFP: Russia may be seeking full dialogue in ASEAN security forum MISCELLANEOUS The Times: Today in Parliament INSIDE BURMA Narinjara News December 3 2002 White Elephant on its trip to Rangoon Another white elephant from Rakhine State in the western part of Burma is on its way to Rangoon, the capital, according to our correspondent quoting officials. The elephant reached Sandway (Thandway), the coastal tourist resort of western Burma, in the evening of the day before yesterday. Light Infantry Battalion 34 was in charge of transporting the elephant from Sittwe to Thandway. From Sandway Light Infantry Battalion 55 was taking all necessary steps to ship her on the same evening to Rangoon. The elephant was previously brought from Buthidaung to Sittwwe on 21 November. A group of troops led by Lieutenant Colonel Aung Naing Tun carried the white elephant on the tugboat, Ye-gyant to Sittwe. The four-year old cow elephant was captured on July 18th this year at a point between Buthidaung and Rathedaung in the Mayu Hills Range. Department of Forest Produces Manager, U Nyunt Way, led a team to capture the elephant. The team temporarily paralyzed her using an anaesthetic shot before capturing her. The white cow elephant stands 4ft 8in, has white hair, coconut shell coloured skin, pearly white eyeballs, white nails, and one-and-a-half-foot long task. Last ye