BurmaNet News: October 10 2002

[editor at burmanet.org]

THE BURMANET NEWS
A listserv covering Burma
October 10 2002 Issue #2103
www.burmanet.org

INSIDE BURMA

BBC: Burma releases prisoners
DVB: Burma appoints new police director-general, promotes military officers
DVB: Burma bans free trading of rice, other basics in Arakan, Mon states
AFP: Reporters Without Borders calls on Myanmar to release prisoners
Radio Myanmar: Burmese leaders urge TV officials to produce better programmes

MONEY

Asia Times Online: Oil firm’s pullout buoys Myanmar lobby

INTERNATIONAL

Asia Times Online: Australians debate Myanmar policy
AP Worldstream: Myanmar government releases prisoners, but criticized over
new alleged arrests
DPA: Myanmar embassy lashes out at US senator’s call for regime change
Reuters: Canada lashes Myanmar for stifling democracy
Ottawa Citizen: Myanmar military is using rape as a weapon: opposition group

ON THE BORDER

Xinhua: Thai army to closely watch Myanmar rebels in border areas
Global News Wire: Thailand, Myanmar to jointly suppress illegal border trades

___INSIDE BURMA_______

British Broadcasting Corporation
October 10 2002

Burma releases prisoners

The Burmese military government has released 31 prisoners, including seven
members of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD).
The move comes a week before a visit by a United Nations human rights envoy.
An NLD spokesman said most of those released on Wednesday were former
students, arrested more than six years ago, while the NLD members were
elderly senior officials of the party.
The UN human rights envoy to Burma, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, is next week
due to make his first visit to the country since the authorities freed the
NLD leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, from house arrest in May.
The invitation followed allegations that Burmese troops used rape as a
weapon of war against ethnic minority females - an allegation the
authorities deny.
Earlier this month the Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, said
after visiting Burma and meeting Aung San Suu Kyi that she was sceptical
about the military government's promises of reforms.
________

Democratic Voice of Burma
October 9 2002

BURMA APPOINTS NEW POLICE DIRECTOR-GENERAL, PROMOTES MILITARY OFFICERS

As the top three generals in the SPDC State Peace and Development Council
have been promoted, there were also promotions in the army, navy, air
force, and other armed organizations.

In accord with the promotion notification dated 10 September, Col Khin
Maung Tin, commandant of Shande Air Training School in Meiktila, was
promoted to brigadier-general and Col Thein Swe, head of External
Intelligence Division, Ministry of Defence, was also promoted to
brigadier-general. Lt-Col Si Thu, General Staff Office Grade-1 from the
Directorate of Defence Services Intelligence DDSI , was promoted to
colonel and Lt-Col Ko Ko Maung, military attache of the Burmese embassy in
Thailand, was also promoted to colonel.

Col Kyaw Thein, Col Than Tun, Col Thein Swe, Col Myint Zaw, and Col Kyaw
Han, all heads of division from the DDSI, were also promoted to
brigadier-generals. Furthermore, senior military officers from the army,
navy, and air force with the rank of lieutenant-colonel and above were
also given a one step promotion.

At the same time, regional Military Operations Management Command MOMC
commanders were also promoted and reshuffled. Among them, Brig-Gen Khin
Yi, commander of MOMC 21 based in Mong Mit, has been transferred and
appointed as Director-General of Myanmar Burma Police Force.

DVB Democratic Voice of Burma has learned that tactical commanders and
regional military operations commanders from the regional military
commands were also transferred, removed, and permitted to resign.

______

Democratic Voice of Burma
October 9 2002

BURMA BANS FREE TRADING OF RICE, OTHER BASICS IN ARAKAN, MON STATES

The SPDC State Peace and Development Council authorities have banned the
trading of four kinds of commodities to Arakan State. Four basic
commodities - rice, cooking oil, chilies, and onions, have been prevented
from trading in Arakan State from 25 September. Narinjara News reported
that although these four commodities were allowed to trade freely
previously, now anyone who wants to trade in these four commodities needs
an import and export licence. DVB Democratic Voice of Burma has contacted
a truck depot that used to send the commodities from Rangoon warehouses to
Arakan State. DVB Correspondent Aye Aye Mon conducted the interview.

Aye Aye Mon We heard that trading of rice, cooking oil, and onions to
Arakan State have been prohibited. Did you know anything?

Unidentified employee We did not receive any official letter. Well, many
companies phoned and ask us about the prohibition but unfortunately we
could not give any concrete confirmation. Some people took some rice in
their baggage but of course they were caught when searched. So now the
authorities say other commodities are also prohibited.

Aye Aye Mon Although there has been no official letter, did you hear any
relevant news?

Unidentified employee We heard that the ban includes whole and split peas,
garlic, onions, dried chillies, and edible palm oil.

Aye Aye Mon Have you stopped sending commodities to Arakan State?

Unidentified employee Of course, we have stopped sending the banned
commodities. Otherwise we could not trade. We cannot stop our work, so we
send other commodities.

Aye Aye Mon What you mean is you are not sending rice, cooking oil,
chillies, and onions but you are sending other commodities to Arakan
State.

Unidentified employee Yes, we are sending (?slippers), tea leaves, rice
flour, among others.

Aye Aye Mon We heard that in future you might need a licence to trade in
these four basic commodities.

Unidentified employee We have not heard anything.

Aye Aye Mon Suppose if they impose such restrictions, what do you think
would be the ramifications to the trading business, warehouses, and car
terminus?

Unidentified employee We have to monitor the situation closely. We cannot
just let it go. Otherwise the people on the other side will suffer and the
prices will go up. The people will face difficulties for their food... End
of recording

Similarly, trading in six basic commodities including rice and yarn has
been prohibited in Mon State, and many home weaving industries have faced
a yarn. The necessary yarn for the weaving industries in Mon State has
been sent from upper Burma. Local residents said the ban was imposed after
a convoy of Shaysaung freight trucks carrying yarn from Mandalay was
stopped and the merchandise confiscated at the Sittang Bridge checkpoint
on 3 October.
_____

Agence France-Presse
October 10 2002

Reporters Without Borders calls on Myanmar to release prisoners

Press rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media
Association (BMA) Thursday called on Myanmar's junta to release dozens of
dissidents imprisoned recently for possessing banned newspapers.

"This new crackdown is evidence of the military regimes hostility towards
the pluralism of information," said Robert Menard, secretary-general of
Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontieres - RSF).

"It is intolerable that dozens of Burmese people should be imprisoned
simply for having read or distributed a newspaper," he wrote in a letter
to Myanmar's Home Minister Colonel Tin Hlaing signed jointly by BMA
president U Thaung. RSF said some 30 activists, mostly former political
prisoners, were arrested and interrogated by intelligence services last
month for possessing opposition publications including a Thai-based
newspaper Khit Pyaing.

More than a dozen people are still being held in undisclosed locations, it
added.

The two groups also asked Tin Hlaing to persuade the junta to allow the
opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) to launch a newspaper.

NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi reportedly requested a licence to publish a
newspaper after her release in May from 19 months under house arrest.

The US State Department earlier this month sharply criticised the arrests
of the 30 opposition activists, describing them as a "significant step
backwards" for hopes that the junta is easing its iron grip on political
activity.

"We continue to urge the regime to release all those detained for the
peaceful expression of their political views," an official said.

Exiled opposition groups have claimed the arrests expose the junta's
pledge to permit people to freely indulge in political activities as a
sham.

Aung San Suu Kyi has said her party's top priority is to secure the
release of all the political prisoners in the country's jails.

The Nobel peace laureate suggested in August that a mass release would be
a precondition to her beginning a fully fledged political dialogue with
the Yangon junta.

The two sides have been engaged in a dialogue aimed at national
reconciliation since October 2000.

Hundreds of political prisoners have been freed since the dialogue began,
but between 1,300 and 1,500 are believed to be still incarcerated.

According to RSF and the BMA, almost 40 people have been arrested over the
last two years for having distributed or read an opposition newspaper
printed in Thailand.
_______

Radio Myanmar
October 9 2002

BURMESE LEADERS URGES TV OFFICIALS TO PRODUCE BETTER PROGRAMMES

A work coordination meeting on broadcasting of MRTV-3 programmes of the
Myanmar Radio and Television Department under the Ministry of Information
was held at the Myanmar Radio and Television Department's meeting hall on
Pyay Prome Road, Yangon Rangoon , at 1630 local time today. Gen Khin
Nyunt, secretary-1 of the State Peace and Development Council SPDC ,
addressed the meeting. Information Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw San first
reported in details on the status of MRTV-3 broadcasting - pilot
broadcasting project for local and foreign audience and regular
broadcasting to foreign nations - methods and requirements for expanding
programmes, and progress on the construction of the MRTV New Studio
Complex.

Brig-Gen Thein Zaw, minister of communications, posts, and telegraphs,
then reported on ways and means for expanding the MRTV-3 programmes and
the status of cooperation being provided by the ministry...

After that, SPDC Secretary-1 Gen Khin Nyunt held discussions and attended
to the needs mentioned in the reports. In his address, he said
broadcasting of the MRTV-3 programmes have now reach to a certain extent.
Therefore, by reviewing the past broadcasting programmes and implementing
the objectives, measures will be taken to produce more effective TV
programmes by fulfilling technological requirements and correcting the
past mistakes.

He said the MRTV-3 programmes are being produced to let the world know
about the true political, economic, social, and cultural situation in the
country. He called on technicians and responsible officials to coordinate
in the task for production of better programmes.

__MONEY____

Asia Times Online
October 10 2002

Oil firm's pullout buoys Myanmar lobby
By Tom Fawthrop

LONDON - After Britain's Premier Oil finally yielded to years of pressure
from a British lobby and pulled out of its controversial US$650 million
investment in Myanmar last month, human-rights campaigners hope to
escalate their campaign to halt all Western investment in the Southeast
Asian country. The military junta's systematic use of torture and the
routine deployment of forced labor gangs have been documented and
condemned in a series of United Nations reports and resolutions.

Premier Oil's Yetagun gas pipeline from Myanmar to Thailand represented
one of the biggest sources of European financial support for the State
Peace and Democracy Council (SPDC) government in Yangon. It was the first
oil company to sign an exploration deal with Myanmar's military in May
1990 and gas started flowing in May 2000.

In 1990 the military junta annulled election results that showed a
landslide victory for the opposition National League for Democracy led by
Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Many Myanmar-solidarity groups sprang up
in Western countries to pressure their governments to cut off all aid to
Yangon and stop any foreign investment in support of the regime.

The latest success in driving foreign investment out of Myanmar was hailed
by Burma Campaign UK director John Jackson as a warning to other
investors. Jackson declared: "The demise and fall of Premier is a warning
to any company thinking about investing in Burma - it's more trouble than
it's worth. We won't stop here, we won a battle but not the war. The
pressure needs to be turned up on TotalFina and Unocal, who are as guilty
as Premier for propping up one of the most brutal regimes in the world."

The former US administration of president Bill Clinton administration
imposed full sanctions against any US investments in Myanmar. The British
government implements the European Union guidelines that ban all military
and economic aid to Myanmar, and denies visas to prominent SPDC and
government leaders.

The British Labour government's former foreign secretary Robin Cook had
also urged the UK oil company to get out of Myanmar. "I'm going to make it
quite clear, we do not approve of what Premier are doing, they know that
perfectly well. We would much rather they stopped and they know that
perfectly well." But Premier Oil still refused to withdraw.

During 2001 many other investors did withdraw, including 18 Australian
companies. Pressure is mounting on all the remaining oil companies
investing in Myanmar. Unocal and TotalFina are currently facing separate
court actions over human-rights violations. Non-governmental organizations
argue that the oil companies provide financial support to the state-run
Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE).

Constructive or destructive engagement?

A debate has raged throughout the 1990s on the best way to bring about
change in Myanmar - by sanctions and keeping up the pressure or by quiet
diplomacy and investment dubbed by Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN)
countries as a policy of "constructive engagement".

However, the pro-democracy movement saw "constructive engagement" as
nothing more than a cover for profits and propping up a pariah regime.
Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's pro-democracy leader and Nobel laureate,
declared: "Premier Oil is not only supporting this military government
financially, it is also giving it moral support, and it is doing a great
disservice to the cause of democracy. It should be ashamed of itself."

Premier's partners comprised of Petronas of Malaysia, Nippon of Japan, the
Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT) and the junta's own oil and gas
company, MOGE. Premier's share in the consortium was 26.67 percent.

The field is expected to produce gas for at least 20 years. UK energy
consultancy Wood Mackenzie has estimated that Myanmar's earnings from
Premier's Yetagun field would have been about $823 million through to
2025.

Yetagun is the second gas field to start extracting gas in Myanmar, the
Unocal/Total consortium's Yadana field being the first. Construction of
both pipelines is now complete and both projects share a common gas buyer,
PTT.

Both the Yetagun and Yadana projects in the remote Taninthayi region of
southern Myanmar have been plagued by human-rights controversy. In March
2001, 15 Myanmese citizens who claim their human rights were violated by
the construction of Unocal's pipeline defeated Unocal's attempt to remove
their cases from the California State Court.

But Premier was not easily swayed from its chosen path of engagement and
profit. In response, Premier produced a social audit report dealing with
the impact of the project in Myanmar, as well as mapping out monitoring
practice in the future to ensure net benefits to local communities. The
report stressed "a process of stakeholder engagement", but crucially it
failed to engage those most affected by the company's investment - those
who have experienced human-rights abuse. Burma Campaign dismissed all
Premier's efforts as "window-dressing which was designed to conceal the
reality of destructive engagement".

The foreign investor exodus

Premier Oil claims its pullout was not motivated by the pressure from the
international protest and the pro-democracy lobby, but was purely a
business decision. However, Jackson told Asia Times Online: "What really
triggered the withdrawal was the exposure of the two directors from
Amerada Hess, a US company sitting on the board of Premier Oil in
violation of UK company law, and US sanctions against investments in
Burma."

Amerada had told US shareholders that their investments in Premier would
not be used for the Myanmar project, but in reality no such stipulation
was made, which exposed the US partner to legal action in violation of US
sanctions and also company law in the United Kingdom.

In recent years there has been a spate of foreign investment projects
withdrawing from Myanmar. The Anglo-Norwegian engineering group Kvaerner
ASA announced the cancellation of a $30 million deal with Premier
Petroleum Myanmar Ltd within 24 hours of having signed the deal. The
cancellation came after fierce public criticism from the Norwegian media
and human-rights groups.

Sara Lee, a leading retailer of underwear in the United States with nearly
$17.5 billion in annual revenue and owner of Hanes, Hanes Her Way, Leggs,
and Just My Size brands, ceased production of its garments in Myanmar. In
a letter to the Free Burma Coalition, Sara Lee vice president and chief
counsel Melvin L Ortner wrote, "We want the Free Burma Coalition to know
that production in Burma violates both our global operating principles and
our supplier selection guidelines ... two of our licensees did use Burma
facilities in direct violation of their contract with us ... We have taken
immediate steps with both licensees to confirm that neither will make our
product in Burma again."

In January the Burma Campaign UK won a major victory over the Swiss
company Triumph International, which has been producing garments in
Myanmar. After a short and aggressive high-profile campaign against
Triumph, the company agreed to withdraw from Myanmar by May.

Total foreign investment in 2001 shrank to a mere $17.5 million even
though EU guidelines for dealing with Myanmar are very far from being real
sanctions. Investors and ASEAN had hoped that the release of Aung San Suu
Kyi from house arrest this year would be the beginning of real dialogue
between the generals and the opposition on how to move the country out of
its current political and economic quagmire. However, in spite of the
economic crisis, the generals appeared to be committed to clinging to
power, sending a negative signal to foreign investors.

After the success in ousting Premier Oil, the next ones on the "dirty
list" in the sights of British human-rights groups are the accountancy
firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the Kuoni Travel business in Britain.
Kuoni is based in Switzerland and has vacation business interests in
Britain including Kuoni Travel in Dorking, plus House of Specialists and
Voyages Jules Verne in London. It also controls Alp Air Holdings in Jersey
but its main involvement in Myanmar comes through a Pandaw and Pagodas
cruise operation it runs to Yangon and Mandalay.

With fewer and fewer Western investors, Myanmar is increasingly dependent
on its regional friends, led by Malaysia, Singapore and China, all anxious
to exploit the country's rich natural resources. But without political
change, that investment will not be enough to stem the country's spiraling
economic decline.

____INTERNATIONAL_____

Asia Times Online
October 10 2002

Australians debate Myanmar policy
By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY - Australia is facing challenges from within on its policy toward
Myanmar, which is closer to the Asian way of dialogue and engagement than
to the Western approach of harsh criticism and economic sanctions.

Canberra continues to insist that further isolating the already reclusive
military government in Yangon has done nothing to hasten democratic reform
in the Southeast Asian country. But the debate continues on whether
dialogue has any more chance of success.

The latest discussions about Australia's policy on Myanmar were sparked by
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer's 24-hour visit to the country on
October 2 - five months after Yangon released opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi from house arrest.

Downer's visit - he spoke to Yangon officials and to Suu Kyi herself -
made him the first Australian minister to visit Myanmar in almost two
decades. He was also the highest-level official from a so-called Western
country to visit the military-run state in recent years.

The logic behind his visit has been that Australia is just about the only
Western country that has kept communication lines open with Yangon, along
with a modest aid program. This, the argument goes, means that Canberra
could have unique clout with the junta.

Analysts here say, however, that Canberra must listen to criticism of
Australia's policies from no less than Suu Kyi herself, who conveyed her
dissatisfaction with Downer's visit and the Australia-funded human-rights
training for Myanmese government officials.

"When someone at the center of a democracy movement [Suu Kyi] criticizes
this program, the Australian government must take this criticism
seriously," argued James Arvanitakis, member of the management committee
of Aidwatch, which oversees the country's aid schemes. "It's not some
white middle-class human-rights activist who is saying this," he pointed
out.

But Robert Templer, Asia program director with the International Crisis
Group, welcomed the Downer initiative in starting a dialogue with Yangon
and said the hardline approach with Myanmar has clearly not produced
results.

"The current line taken by most Western countries has been to isolate
Burma and cut it off from most international forums and to cut off
contacts with it. That hasn't done much to shift the positions of a
government that is already extremely isolated," he said, using the former
name for Myanmar, as it has been officially known since 1989. "So I think
a greater deal of engagement is useful, but you can't expect results
overnight with any sort of program like that," he added.

Arvanitakis was much less optimistic: "The aid program to Burma on
human-rights education is similar to the one Australia conducted for
Indonesia during the Suharto regime. We had nothing to show for it."
_______

Associated Press Worldstream
October 10 2002

Myanmar government releases prisoners _ but criticized over new alleged
arrests

Myanmar's military government has arrested dozens of dissidents for
distributing banned newspapers, a press freedom group said Thursday.

The allegation came as the government announced the release of 31 other
political prisoners. Late last month, intelligence officers arrested about
30 political activists for possessing opposition publications, said the
Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders, better known by its French
acronym RSF.

Nearly 40 people have been arrested over the past two years in Myanmar,
also known as Burma, for distributing or reading opposition newspapers -
mostly printed in neighboring Thailand - RSF said in a statement issued
with the Burma Media Association, an exiled Myanmar opposition group based
in Washington, D.C.

Some of those arrested have been tortured or given heavy prison sentences,
the statement claimed.

In a joint letter to Myanmar Home Affairs Minister Col. Tin Hlaing, the
two groups demanded the immediate release of all those imprisoned "simply
for having read or distributed a newspaper."

Meanwhile, the government said it freed 31 political prisoners, including
seven members of the opposition National League for Democracy party, on
Thursday.

It was one of the largest groups of dissidents freed in a single day since
such releases began after the ruling junta and the opposition started
reconciliation talks two years ago.

The junta is believed to hold up to 1,500 political prisoners, including
several hundred members of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National
League for Democracy, which won a 1990 general election but was not
allowed to take power.

More than 300 of Suu Kyi's party's members have been freed since the talks
began.

________

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
October 10 2002

Myanmar embassy lashes out at U.S. senator's call for regime change

Officials at the Myanmar (Burma) embassy in Phnom Penh lashed out at U.S.
Senator Mitch McConnell's recent call for a "regime change" in Cambodia
and Myanmar, a statement said Tuesday.

Embassy officials dismissed the comments by the U.S. lawmaker as
"extremely rude and totally irrelevant in the current regional context" in
a statement sent to news agencies. "The regime change is his wishful
thinking which will never happen in this region," embassy officials said.
"Myanmar is now going through an evolution. But there are some who want to
turn it into a revolution."

In a statement dated September 13 and titled, "Needed: Regime Changes in
Burma and Cambodia," McConnell asked U.S. President George W. Bush to
consider regime changes in these two countries.

The call was in response to their recent commitments "to counter, prevent
and suppress all forms of terrorist acts," he said.

"Given the actions of Southeast Asian hardliners in Yangon (Rangoon) and
Phnom Penh, last month's pledges to combat terrorism ring hollow,"
McConnell said.

"It would serve American interests in the war on terrorism -as well as
benefit the welfare of the people of Burma and Cambodia - for regime
changes to occur in those countries," he said.

The Myanmar embassy argued that McConnell was unaware of the government's
efforts to move "phase by phase" to reach the objective of a "modernized,
well-developed and peaceful nation within a consolidated union and
supportive economic infrastructure."

"Careless, irresponsible comments from people like (McConnell),
interfering in Myanmar's domestic politics, can not and will not help our
nation-building task," officials said.
_____

Reuters
Ocotober 9 2002

Canada lashes Myanmar for stifling democracy

OTTAWA, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Canada launched a strong attack on Myanmar on
Wednesday, accusing the military government of stifling democracy and
urging it to start serious talks immediately with opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi.
Myanmar -- formerly called Burma -- has freed hundreds of political
prisoners over the last two years, including more than 300 members of Suu
Kyi's National League for Democracy.
The releases began after the ruling generals started confidential talks
with Suu Kyi, which they said were aimed at eventually bringing democracy
to Myanmar.
But David Kilgour, Canada's Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific, said
there were few signs the junta was serious about introducing democratic
reforms.
"The (junta) has yet to provide any substantive reason for anyone to
believe that it intends to give up power or even to engage in substantive
negotiations with Aung San Suu Kyi," he said in a speech.
"We have yet to be convinced that any tentative steps toward opening the
system are anything more than a public relations exercise."
Sporadic talks between Suu Kyi and the junta over the last two years have
yet to move beyond "confidence building", officials say. Suu Kyi -- who
was freed from 19 months of house arrest in May -- has repeatedly called
for meaningful talks to begin as soon as possible.
The National League for Democracy overwhelmingly won an election in 1990,
but the military refused to hand over power.
Kilgour said poverty, infant mortality, malnutrition among children and
HIV infections were increasing rapidly in Myanmar and said an estimated
1,400 to 1,600 political prisoners remained in jail, often in terrible
conditions.
"Any meaningful consideration of engagement by Canada with the regime in
Burma depends on the unconditional release of all political prisoners," he
said, adding that Ottawa had no plans to reestablish full relations with
Myanmar.
In 1988 Canada broke off high-level bilateral ties and suspended official
commercial relations with Myanmar while withdrawing all support for
Canadian firms doing business in the country.
"Despite the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, Canada does not feel the regime
has made sufficient progress toward democracy and respect for human rights
to warrant changing our policy toward Burma," Kilgour said.
_____

Ottawa Citizen
October 10 2002

Myanmar military is using rape as a weapon: opposition group

By Elaine O'Connor

The Myanmarese military is systematically raping ethnic Shan women as part
of a military strategy, according to a new study.

At least 625 women and girls have alleged they were raped by members of
the military between 1996 and 2001, according to the report, titled
Licence to Rape. It was compiled by the Shan women's group and the Shan
Human Rights Foundation, non-profit organizations formed in opposition to
the Myanmarese government. (The country was formerly known as Burma.) "The
use of systematic rape may not be written in the military's policies in
paper but, in practice, they're using rape as a weapon of war against the
ethnic people and terrorizing the community," said women's group founder
Hseng Noung, who was in Ottawa yesterday speaking at a conference
sponsored by the Canadian Friends of Burma at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

"We want to make sure that the international community really knows what
the actual situation is," said Ms. Noung, now living in Thailand.

Of the 173 cases studied in detail in the report, the majority were
perpetrated by officers, often in groups and in front of their troops.
Many involved beatings, mutilation or suffocation, and at least 40 of the
women were killed after the attacks.

Eleven assaults took place inside military bases, while 24 women were
seized and kept for up to four months by troops as "comfort women."

The offender was punished by his commanding officer in only one of the
incidents, the report stated.

Following the release of the report, the Women's League of Burma has
called for a UN fact-finding mission to the Thailand-Myanmar border to
investigate incidences of sexual violence committed by the military.

Many more women may not have reported abuse out of fear, or an inability
to speak enough of the language to report the incident to military
authorities, the report said.

In July, the U.S. State Department decried the alleged abuses and urged
the Myanmarese government to investigate. The Burmese State Peace and
Development Council initially dismissed the report as "unverified
testimonies of so-called victims." It conducted its own investigation and
concluded the reports were "false and fabricated."

____ON THE BORDER_____

Xinhua News Agency
October 10 2002

Thai army to closely watch Myanmar rebels in border areas

BANGKOK, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) --The Thai military will closely watch the
movements of Myanmar's ethnic rebels operating along the Thai-Myanmar
border to prevent them stirring up new troubles in bilateral relations.

Thailand's new Defense Minister Thammarak Issarangkura na Ayuttaya was
quoted by the state-owned radio as saying on Thursday. "We will not allow
the third parties to cause misunderstandings between the two countries,"
he said.

The minister, who assumed office earlier this week after a cabinet
reshuffle, said he will follow his predecessor, Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, in
establishing sound military-to-military ties to enhance the kingdom's
friendship with neighboring nations.

His remarks followed Myanmar's recent decision to re-open its border
checkpoints with Thailand, which have been shut down for nearly 5 months
since the Myanmar government accused Thailand of supporting Myanmar's
anti-government ethnic groups in May.

Thammarak said once the border is re-opened on Oct. 15 as scheduled, he
will instruct the Thai army to enhance border security measures, so as to
avoid further problems with Myanmar.

"There was much to be learnt from past events which led to heightened
tensions between the two countries along the border," he said.

A number of Myanmar's anti-government rebel groups are operating along the
Thai-Myanmar border, often causing problems between the two countries.
_______

Global News Wire
October 10 2002

THAILAND, MYANMAR TO JOINTLY SUPPRESS ILLEGAL BORDER TRADES

Thai and Myanmar Authorities Will Work Together to Prevent Illegal
Cross-Border Businesses After Reopening of the Common Border Normal
contacts between people of Thailand and Myanmar will resume next week when
Myanmar re-opens checkpoints at three major crossings opposite the
Northern Provinces of Chiang Rai and Tak and the Southern Province of
Ranong.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the new agreement was secure during
a meeting between Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs Tej Bunnag and
Myanmar officials in Yangon early this week. According to the Prime
Minister, the three checkpoints will reopen on October 15 with no
preconditions.

He said the two countries would be now working together on strategies to
prevent illegal activities including drugs trafficking.

The Prime Minister emphasized that the Thai - Myanmar conflict, which led
to the closure of Myanmar checkpoints in May this year, was not originated
from border problems, but was resulted from lack of understanding in each
other's policy.