From editor@burmanet.org Thu Apr 10 21:47:12 2003 From: editor@burmanet.org (editor@burmanet.org) Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2003 16:47:12 -0400 (EDT) Subject: BurmaNet News: April 10 2003 Message-ID: <25619.207.10.94.131.1050007632.squirrel@webmail.pair.com> April 10 2003 Issue #2213 INSIDE BURMA AFP: Senior General Than Shwe, sole helmsman of Myanmar Irrawaddy: National Center for Disease Control Says no SARS Cases in Burma Australian: Poor drink from hope's wellspring MONEY Xinhua: Foreign investment in Myanmar declines in 2002 Xinhua: Industrial exhibition ends in Myanmar Guardian: PR weaponry, City Diary REGIONAL Bangkok Post: Seized Teak Timber to be Sold AFP: Cambodia going the way of "narco-state" Myanmar: opposition leader Xinhua: ASEAN agrees to further eliminate non-tariff trade barriers INTERNATIONAL AFP: Reform drive in Myanmar has "ground to a halt": US STATEMENTS U.S. Senator Max Burns Calls for Release of Political Prisoner INSIDE BURMA Agence France Presse April 10 2003 Senior General Than Shwe, sole helmsman of Myanmar By Pascale Trouillaud YANGON: Behind the glacial politics and economic shambles of Myanmar is just one man, Yangon-based diplomats and experts believe: Senior General Than Shwe, the junta's number one. The country is officially ruled by a triumvirate, with Than Shwe, as chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), at the peak. Deputy Senior General Maung Aye, vice chairman of the SPDC and vice commander of the armed forces is number two, and General Khin Nyunt, first secretary of the SPDC and chief of military intelligence, takes third place. But in the opaque world of Myanmar politics, analysts detect evidence that Than Shwe is the man who makes the ultimate decisions. Recent reports suggested that Than Shwe was poised to retire because of his age -- he turns 70 this year -- and his health problems. "Than Shwe has everything in hand," according to one analyst, who said the junta's unwillingness to open a dialogue with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi unquestionably bore his mark. Other experts blame him for Myanmar's disastrous policy of economic self-sufficiency, its restricted diplomatic efforts -- which only cover its Asian neighbours, especially China -- and even the amazing whitewash of the heritage of Ne Win, who died in December. The dictator, to whom Than Shwe owes his rise, had been humiliated by being kept under virtual house arrest while his son-in-law and three grandsons stagnated in prison after being condemned for attempting a coup against the regime. While Khin Nyunt interacts with foreign visitors and his activities are covered constantly by Myanmar's tightly-controlled media, the uncharismatic Than Shwe tends to stay out of the spotlight. Such has been his practice in his 11 years as boss. He emerges only for official occasions such as Armed Forces Day in March, during which he makes short, dull speeches warning of the risks of "chaos and instability" and "interior and external enemies", reflecting his obsession with security. "When (US President) George Bush choked on a pretzel, the whole world knew. With Than Shwe, people do not even know how many children he has," one businessman said but added that his reclusiveness should not be misinterpreted. "We know that Than Shwe is the only one that counts," the businessman said. A Western diplomat said Than Shwe was "a one-man show" and "the chief of the nation". "He is image-moulding with his visits abroad, really consolidating his image as supreme leader... He keeps himself inaccessible in a royal way," the diplomat said. Ambassadors rarely meet Than Shwe, except to present their credentials. Irrawaddy, a magazine of exiled Myanmar dissidents, had on the cover of its last issue a drawing of the general installed on a throne, entitled: "The Reign of Than Shwe". "Over the last three years, Than Shwe has been gradually and quietly consolidating his power, despite reports that he was ill and would soon retire," said Irrawaddy, published from the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai. The general is the head of state and holds the two highest posts: prime minister in his capacity as chairman of the SPDC and commander-in-chief of the Tatmadaw, or military, one of the largest forces in Asia. He is also the minister of defence. Experts say Than Shwe is "the big obstacle" to any opening of a dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi, although he did release the Nobel peace laureate from house arrest in May last year. "Than Shwe might have understood she is more popular than him after her release," said one high-ranking diplomat, pointing to the thousands of people who have flocked to see the leader on her seven trips outside the capital. Than Shwe, people say, hates Aung San Suu Kyi. "She is the only person who could steal power away from him," the western diplomat said. In economics too the general pursues unenlightened policies, exiles say. Irrawaddy reported that he has sidelined advisors advocating the opening of the country's economy. "Than Shwe likes what he hears: namely false statistics and inflated, unrealistic growth projections," the magazine wrote. Many believe that the general dislikes hearing bad news and cannot grasp the gravity of the current banking crisis, which has dangerously squeezed Myanmar's money supply. "The suspicion is that the top military leaders know very well about the issue," says a western businessman. "But they are reluctant to pass (the information) on to the senior general because he doesn't like to receive bad news." ____________ The Irrawaddy April 10 2003 National Center for Disease Control Says no SARS Cases in Burma By Kyaw Zwa Moe With the death toll from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) mounting worldwide, Burmese health officials offered further assurance that there are no cases in the country. "To date, there are no Burmese patients suffering from SARS, and no one is carrying SARS into our country from abroad," the Director of Burma’s Department of Disease Control, Dr Soe Aung, told The Irrawaddy yesterday. "To prevent the disease, we announced a national alert on March 19 and started an anti-SARS operation, which included organizing a special physicians unit dedicated to preventing any outbreaks." Health department officials are still concerned that SARS cases could surface in Burma since it is spreading in neighboring countries. Dr Soe Aung believes SARS would have to enter Burma via the Mingaladon or Mandalay international airports. Medical teams have been deployed in both locations to check passengers from abroad for the virus. "We keep an especially close eye on flights from China and Singapore," remarked the doctor. Dr Soe Aung also said that the Burmese language state-run newspapers have educated the public about the medical risks by running articles about SARS, along with notices on how to protect against the disease. Residents in Rangoon confirmed that the newspapers included SARS-related items on a daily basis. They added that government-run Myanmar Radio and Television has televised roundtable discussions on SARS, featuring notable physicians. Although aware of the disease, the Burmese are reportedly unfazed. "They don’t seem worried like the citizens in neighboring countries, because they neither see nor hear of anyone suffering or dying from the disease in Burma," said a doctor from a private clinic in Rangoon. "Though most people wear masks to protect against the virus in neighboring countries, Burmese people still don’t use them," he added. People in the capital have reported seeing masks for sale at drug stores but a Rangoon resident said that he has seen only one person wearing a mask thus far. Some residents of the capital are questioning the veracity of government statements related to SARS due to word of mouth reports of Burmese cases. "We don’t know for certain whether anybody is infected with the disease, but I have not seen any patients with SARS as of yet," said a physician in private practice in Rangoon. "There are rumors that some people in Rangoon are infected, but nobody can confirm them." Skeptics wonder if the military government would be forthcoming if any outbreaks did occur in Burma. In the past, bad news related to health has been covered up and some fear a lack of honesty about SARS could have disastrous affects. SARS has killed more than 100 people and infected nearly 2,800 worldwide since its discovery in mid February. ____________ The Australian April 10 2003 Poor drink from hope's wellspring By Kimina Lyall, * Southeast Asia correspondent in Sinbyugyun, Burma Wherever Burma got its reputation as a tropical country, it was not here. At this time of year Sinbyugyun, just west of the country's centre, is as hot, dry and dusty as an Australian hamlet in drought. Last week, on an otherwise typical sweltering summer's day, hundreds of sand-poor local farmers here left their fields and crowded Sinbyugyun's main dirt road, sitting on their haunches holding little more than a fan and some leaves and flowers of offering. For their first time in their lives, they were waiting for a glimpse of the woman they hope can quench their long desire for democracy -- Aung San Suu Kyi. On her seventh journey across the country since she was released from house arrest almost a year ago, the Nobel peace laureate passed through here, about 600km north of Rangoon, on her way to remote Chin state, in Burma's far northwest. I stumbled across the scene in this nondescript village ballooning with dust and excitement, becoming the first foreign journalist to witness, albeit unofficially, Suu Kyi's rallying cries in her native countryside. It was hard to tell what delighted the villagers more: Suu Kyi's imminent arrival or the presence of a foreign witness to their plight. "Please tell your Prime Minister," said one man. Tell him what? He held open his hands. "Tell him." Here, the locals had little more than nothing. The sandy soil from their seasonally dry riverbeds sustains them only in part, with crops of cotton, nuts and sunflowers. What they sow, their Government reaps. One man said he needed 3000 kyat ($5.85) a month to educate each of his five children. That's one basket of his produce at local market rates. But he is not allowed to take his beans to the market, and is instead forced to sell to government officials, who give him 300 kyat per basket. "It is no good," he shrugged. "If I do not sell it to them, they will take my land." By the time she finally arrived, the National League for Democracy leader was almost crushed by the crowd's pressing euphoria. The flowers of offering had browned in the sun and the few locals lucky to be present for a short audience with her were suddenly stone-silent with awe. They found their voices again when she took to a balcony to speak, competing for airspace with loudspeakers set up by the local authorities belting out songs urging the people to repel "enemies". "If you want to be free of this kind of harassment, you have to fight for democracy," she yelled at the cheering crowd of perhaps 1000 people, about half the town's population. The NLD plans these trips in secret, announcing them quietly the day she leaves Rangoon. Locals learn about the itinerary from Radio Free Asia -- the official Burmese media never mentions Suu Kyi by name -- and word of mouth. We learned it their way, driving through Burma's countryside noticing dozens of people sitting in the hot sun, proudly displaying their pale rust-coloured NLD shirts and peacock badges. When we stopped to ask what they were waiting for they said: "Her." In Sinbyugyun, one woman said the crowd gathered at 7am for what turned out to be a 20-minute midday visit. They knew to wait, she said, because "the village chief told us not to. He said, 'you are not allowed to go out to see Aung San Suu Kyi tomorrow'." It is quiet rebellions like this that Burma's generals cannot extinguish. Since her release from house arrest last year, Suu Kyi has visited all but the country's far north and far south, but there are no signs of democracy talks promised by the junta. Little sign either of political freedom for any of Burma's 48 million people, or foreign visitors for that matter. In Sinbyugyun, after Suu Kyi had left, we were grilled about our presence by a plainclothes "immigration officer" who spoke only a little English. "Did you talk to her?" he demanded. "What did she say?" Actually, Suu Kyi's few words in English were one of the rare signs of optimism in this hope-starved nation. "There will be change," she said. "Because the people want it." MONEY Xinhua News Agency April 10 2003 Foreign investment in Myanmar declines in 2002 Foreign investment in Myanmar declined by 16.5 percent in 2002, recording 49.2 million US dollars compared with 2001, said the latest data of the Central Statistical Organization. These contracted investments were absorbed in the sectors of oil and gas (44 million), mining (3.38 million) and manufacturing (1.82 million), of which the 44 million was injected by investors from Malaysia, while the 3.38 million by that from Switzerland and the 1.82 million by those from China's Hong Kong and the Republic of Korea. The Malaysian investment constituted the year's single investment coming from countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which used to be Myanmar's largest foreign investors. Over 2001, there were 10 countries and regions investing in the country including four ASEAN members --Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia --and the investment sectors cover manufacturing, construction, hotels and tourism, and mining. According to official statistics, since opening up to the outside world in late 1988, Myanmar had drawn 7,447.38 million dollars of contracted foreign investment as of the end of 2002, of which ASEAN took up 3,844 million or 51.6 percent. Out of 26 countries and regions investing in Myanmar, major investors were lined up as Singapore (1,507 million), the United Kingdom (1,401 million), Thailand (1,289 million) and Malaysia ( 639.5 million), taking up 20.24 percent, 18.82 percent, 17.31 percent and 8.59 percent of the total foreign investment respectively. Meanwhile, since March 2002, Myanmar government has introduced a new measure which restricted foreign investment by stopping issue of import and export permits to Myanmar-based wholly-owned foreign trading companies. ____________ Xinhua News Agency April 10 2003 Industrial exhibition ends in Myanmar YANGON: The Myanmar Industrial Exhibition 2003 ended in the second largest city of Mandalay in northern part of the country on Wednesday with sales of industrial products amounting to 1.54 million US dollars, according to the exhibition sources. In the 22-day exhibition which began on March 19, about 1,800 items of domestic products were displayed including foodstuff, consumer goods and industrial products. Myanmar has been working for the systematic advancement of its industrial sector by harmoniously developing the state, private and cooperative sectors. Since 1996, the country has established 18 industrial zones in nine states and divisions for the development of the private sector where a total of 4,496 factories and plants have gone into production, producing agricultural machinery, import-substitutes, consumer goods and foodstuff. As its industry is under-developed, Myanmar still has to import great deal of capital goods, intermediate goods and consumer goods annually. To promote its industrial development and gradually transform an agricultural country into an agro-based industrial one, Myanmar formed the Industrial Development Central Committee in May 1999 and worked out a 30-year plan for the development from 2001 to 2031. According to official statistics, there has been a total of more than 57,000 industrial enterprises in Myanmar, up 15,000 from 1988. Of them, about 1,600 are state-owned, over 50,000 are private-operated and the rest go to the cooperatives. The Guardian April 9, 2003 PR weaponry The decision to invite British American Tobacco to speak at a conference next week on corporate social responsibility suggests the ideals that surrounded the issue are truly going up in smoke. Why would anyone want to learn from BAT's "social accountability manager", David O'Reilly, about the human face of the tobacco giant when it supports one of the world's most vile military dictatorships with a factory in Burma? Why would anyone want a lecture on social responsibility from a company that is regularly accused of not doing enough to stamp out smuggling and specialises in products that kill thousands each year? "It is like inviting the BNP to speak at an anti-racist conference because they say they aren't racist," says John Jack son, the director of the Burma Campaign. "Companies genuinely committed to CSR are having their work undermined by companies like BAT which use it as a PR tool to deflect criticism," he adds. Its hard to disagree - but then it has become increasingly difficult to separate the goodies from the baddies because it is the dirtiest businesses that are putting most energy into CSR. City diary Richard Adams Wednesday April 9, 2003 The Guardian Ethical Corporation magazine - always an exciting read, especially for its "agony aunt" column - is holding a conference on corporate social responsibility in London tomorrow. Rather than pack the meeting with speakers from groovy Body Shop types, the organisers invited British American Tobacco to address it - although presumably not on "Why our partnership with the blood-stained tyrants of Burma is highly ethical". REGIONAL Bangkok Post April 10 2003 Seized Teak Timber to be Sold By Kultida Samabuddhi About 2,000 teak timber impounded after the 1997 illegal logging scandal will be hauled out of Salween national park and sold to logging operators, Deputy Agriculture Minister Newin Chidchob said yesterday. He would visit the national park in Mae Sariang district, Tak province, on Monday to inspect the confiscated logs and a storage site. Local environmentalists, however, strongly oppose the idea, saying that it would lead to new illegal logging activity which has subsided as a result of a heavy suppression campaign following the Salween scandal. Mr Newin said Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra asked him on Tuesday to check the amount of high-grade teak logs confiscated from illegal loggers in Tak province, and consider how to make a profit from them. The logs have been left in the forest. I will ask the Forestry Department and Forest Industry Organisation to collect them. However, the logs will not be sold unless we are offered a very good price,'' said Mr Newin. The seized timbers were likely to yield a sizeable amount of revenue for the government. Preecha Rattanaporn, chief of the wildlife sanctuary division, said the 2,000 logs were in the custody of the Tak provincial forestry office. However, the timber could not be sold because the police were still investigating the case, he said. In 1997, logging operators illegally felled trees in Salween national park, hauled them into Burma and imported them back as Burmese logs to conceal their origins. The discovery and subsequent investigation led to the transfer of several forestry officials to inactive posts. Some faced legal action for colluding with logging operators to plunder Salween forest. The logs are kept in several storage sites in the national park and Salween Wildlife Sanctuaries in Tak and Mae Hong Son province. The biggest pile of 13,000 teak timber is in Tak's Ban Tak district. Panithi Tangpathi, chairman of Tak Chamber of Commerce, also a member a local conservation group, said the plan to haul the timber out and sell it would lead to serious illegal logging in Salween forest. Illegal loggers and state officials could conspire to fell more trees in protected forest. ____________ Agence France Presse April 10 2003 Cambodia going the way of "narco-state" Myanmar: opposition leader WASHINGTON: Cambodia is consumed by corruption and plagued by lawlessness and could soon duplicate Myanmar's role as a "recalcitrant narco-state," Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy warned Wednesday. Rainsy also told an audience at a Washington think-tank that Hun Sen's government was guilty of serious intimidation of voters and electoral fraud, ahead of general elections in July. "Five more years of lawlessness under Hun Sen will make Cambodia into a prime staging ground for the terrorists of the age," Rainsy said at the American Enterprise Institute. "Burma also provides a preview of the direction that Cambodia is headed," he said, referring to Myanmar's former name which is preferred by opposition politicians there. "Lacking a mechanism for political change, Burma remains under the thumb of a corrupt military junta and poses a constant threat to its own people and to the larger world through its opium trade. "Without change, Cambodia is not far off from ressembling this recalcitrant narco-state." Rainsy warned that the chances of opposition candidates in Cambodian elections due in July were already doomed. "By controlling the political and electoral playing field, using state power and resources, Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party wins elections before the final vote is cast," Rainsy said. "A free and fair election in 2003 is not attainable at this moment in time." The United States has raised repeated concerns about what it says is politically motivated violence in Cambodia, and harrassment of candidates from the Sam Rainsy Party and other groups. Rainsy met several senior State Department policymakers during his trip to Washington, including informal encouters with Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs James Kelly and his counterpart in the department's bureau of human rights, democracy and labor, Lorne Craner. ____________ Xinhua News Agency April 10 2003 ASEAN agrees to further eliminate non-tariff trade barriers JAKARTA: Member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have agreed to gradually eliminate non-tariff trade barriers as part of the effort to boost regional trade, a senior official of the Indonesian Ministry of Industry and Trade has said. The agreement was reached during the ASEAN Economy Ministers Meeting in Laos last week. "All of the trade ministers have agreed to remove non-tariff barriers before the year 2005," Pos Hutabarat, director general for industry and international cooperation of the trade ministry, was quoted by The Jakarta Post as saying Thursday. "The ministers have promised to identify the non-tariff barriers in their respective countries and register them with the ASEAN secretary," he said. Pos said non-tariff barriers continued to hamper efforts to boost regional trade, although the grouping began the process of implementing the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) in 1993. The full implementation of AFTA was completed in January this year, with import tariffs on almost all products traded in the region slashed to between zero and 5 percent. ASEAN members, however, still impose non-tariff barriers to protect local producers against an influx of imported products. These non-tariff barriers include import licensing and quota systems for certain products. ASEAN, which groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, has a combined market of more than 500 million people. Pos said removing non-tariff barriers was also aimed at boosting ASEAN's competitiveness ahead of the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Union in 2010. Under the program, ASEAN countries must further slash import tariffs on several products to zero. ASEAN countries have established a high-level task force to help find ways to boost competitiveness in the region. The task force members will meet in Kuala Lumpur next month. "Aside from the problem of non-tariff barriers, the task force will also discuss various issues ahead of the ASEAN Summit in Bali in October," Pos said. One of the main items on the agenda for the ASEAN Summit is to appoint President Megawati Soekarnoputri as ASEAN chairwoman for the period of October 2003 to October 2004. INTERNATIONAL Agence France Presse April 10 2003 Reform drive in Myanmar has "ground to a halt": US WASHINGTON: A UN-brokered bid to promote political dialogue between Myanmar's military rulers and Aung San Suu Kyi's democratic opposition has "ground to a halt," the United States said in a report published Thursday. The State Department assessment, passed to Congress every six months, renewed US concern over Myanmar's human rights record, its treatment of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), its anti-drugs program and economic crisis. Washington and the European Union are considering whether to impose further sanctions on the regime, in the event the situation does not improve, the report adds. "Efforts to foster peaceful democratic change in Burma essentially ground to a halt over the past six months," the Conditions in Burma report said. "While there have been some positive developments, the regime has become more confrontational in its exchanges with the NLD, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, and has offered few signs of progress towards their stated commitment to a political transition to democracy." Nevertheless, the report did note that the opposition had been able to start the task of rebuilding its network, having reopened a quarter of its offices around the country. It also noted that Aung San Suu Kyi, who enjoys firm US support, had been able to visit Shan and Rakhine states to greet supporters. But the report also bemoaned the fact that 1,300 political prisoners remained behind bars, and that the junta's promised prisoner releases had stopped as of late November. The United States, Britain and other western states refer to Myanmar as Burma, a term outlawed by the junta, but preferred by the opposition. STATEMENTS Burns Calls for Release of Political Prisoner April 9, 2003 ***Dr. Salai Tun Than, UGA graduate*** (Washington, D.C.) - U.S. Representative Max Burns (R-GA) spoke on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives today calling for the immediate release of Dr. Salai Tun Than, a graduate of the University of Georgia in Athens, who is being held as a political prisoner by the Burmese government. Dr. Tun Than's imprisonment was brought to Rep. Burns' attention by students at the University of Georgia's chapter of Amnesty International and the Student Government Association. Representative Burns made the following statement from the floor: "Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on a matter of great importance to my constituents in Athens, Georgia - the unlawful imprisonment of Dr. Salai Tun Than. Dr. Tun Than, a graduate of the University of Georgia, is being held as a political prisoner by the Burmese government for making a pro-democracy speech. He is 74 years old, in poor health, and may not live through the ordeal of imprisonment. "The Burmese government is a military dictatorship, and it does not respect the individual freedoms that we as Americans hold so dear," Matthew Daley, the State Department chief for the Bureau of East Asia and the Pacific, testified on Burma before the House International Relations Committee last month. He said, 'The military dictatorship in Burma severely abuses the human rights of its citizens. There is no real freedom of speech, press, assembly, association, or travel. Patterns of abuse are even worse in ethnic minority areas.' "Mr. Speaker, the situation in Burma is unacceptable. We must work to stop this regime from imprisoning political dissidents, and work toward a freer nation for all Burmese citizens. I call on the Burmese government for the immediate release of Dr. Tun Than." Off the House floor Burns added, "My office will continue to monitor Dr. Tun Than's situation. I appreciate the efforts of the students at UGA who have worked so hard to bring attention to Dr. Tun Than's imprisonment." From editor@burmanet.org Thu Apr 10 22:15:21 2003 From: editor@burmanet.org (editor@burmanet.org) Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2003 17:15:21 -0400 (EDT) Subject: BurmaNet News: Correction Message-ID: <37117.207.10.94.131.1050009321.squirrel@webmail.pair.com> Dear Readers: Please note the following correction: The Hon. Max Burns is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, not a senator. The title of Mr. Burns' statment, which was featured in today's BurmaNet News, should have read: "U.S. Representative Max Burns Calls for Release of Political Prisoner." We apologize for the error. Sincerely, Editor