BurmaNet News: January 29 2003

[editor at burmanet.org]

January 29 2003 Issue #2166

INSIDE BURMA

Kao Wao: Rape used as a weapon of war
IMNA: Forced logging for new army base

MONEY

Irrawaddy: Up, up and away

REGIONAL

AFP: Thai-based monitors fear for the lives of 15 imprisoned in Myanmar
SCMP: Political prisoners in Myanmar feared killed
DPA: ASEAN urged to remove non-tariff barriers
AP: South Korea grants refugee status to four asylum seekers from Myanmar
and Cameroon

INSIDE BURMA

Kao Wao January 20 2003

Rape used as a weapon of war

LICENSE TO RAPE: RUNAWAY SOLDIERS DISCLOSE
(Based on SWAN’s report and Kao-Wao, January 20, 2003)

According to Shan Women's Action Network (SWAN), three soldiers who
defected from the Burmese Army at the Thai-Burma border on January 17,
2003 testified that their officer boasted about raping women.
The soldiers, aged 17, 19 and 26, who had defected with their weapons from
Infantry Battalion 226 testified that their commanding sergeant Myint Htay
had boasted to them last month about having raped "five or six" women in
Shan State.

The three soldiers, all forcibly recruited into the SPDC Army within the
past year, were stationed at the border for only a few months, after
undergoing training near Kengtung.  "If officers feel comfortable boasting
to their troops about raping women, it is clear that the culture of
impunity for sexual violence in the SPDC Army is still in place," said
Hseng Noung of the Shan Women's Action Network.
The soldiers, one of whom was only 16 when arrested at a bus station in
Central Burma and forced to enlist, also said that there were child
soldiers as young as twelve stationed at the SPDC camp opposite Piang
Luang. It remains to be seen how the soldiers’ testimonies will affect the
Burmese government’s denial of SWAN’s report on rape charges that
attracted international and public condemnation.  The Burmese government’s
refusal to uphold the rights of woman on this charge indicates quite
clearly the gender bias in Burmese society that they are devalued in all
civil matters and whose testimonies of rape charges in Shan State were
ignored and discredited.

Meanwhile, abuse, violence and discrimination against women go unpunished
in other parts of Burma where the territorial Burmese army patrols.
Recently, according to a source from Khaw-Zar village, Ye township, troops
from Infantry Battalion No. 273 being charged with the attempted rape of
three women on November 7, 2002 in a village replied that they could “do
anything they want.”

In searching for the Mon armed group, the Battalion No 273, surrounded the
village and attempted to rape three women in the process, they targeted
two Mon cultural dancers and a schoolteacher, a witness who recently
arrived to the border said.  They were freed after the schoolteacher asked
the soldiers not to harm them.  "The dancers stalled the soldiers saying
they were sick before other people started to arrive,” said the witness.
"This is a black area and we can do anything we want," the army officer
angrily told the villagers after the village headmen reported the case to
him.

“These villagers came from another village for a cultural show organized
by the teachers in the area.  They had to travel quite a distance to see
the show but it was cancelled due to incident.  This has routinely
happened to us like the Shan women, the only consistent thing that the
Burmese Army seems to be able to do," said Nai Ba, a 67-year-old man.
___________

Independent Mon News Agency January 22 2003

FORCED LOGGING FOR NEW ARMY BASE

Civilians from Mon State were ordered to collect lumber for the
construction of a battalion of the Burma Army in their area.

In January, reported the IMNA Mon News group from the Thailand Burma
border, Anin and Htin-Yuu (Kwan Proi) villages of Thanbyu Zayat Township
were forced to cut down trees and saw it into 280 tons of lumber, which
will be used to construct a new artillery regiment No. 315.

The local witness said Anin and Htin-Yuu villages were busy cutting logs
after receiving an order from the authorities in early January.  "The
order we received from the village headmen said we need to cut down trees
from our areas and saw it into lumber.   If we don’t provide this amount,
then we have to buy it, 280 tons in total required by the army”, a
villager said.
"Because of this order, if we can’t buy lumber from other places, we have
to cut all of our rubber plantation trees,” protested another villager.
According to the IMNA source, Mon farmers need to find laborers and hire
the equipment needed for the logs and pay for all expenses. For those who
have to buy lumber from the outside, they have to pay 200, 000 Kyat per
ton.
The villagers complained this is the first time that they have had to
provide lumber to the authorities and the Burmese Army under force.

MONEY

Irrawaddy January 29 2003

Up Up and Away
By Kyaw Zwa Moe

Economic stability of any nature is an enigmatic concept for Burma’s
military leaders. Massive inflation, cronyism and an ever-widening
disparity between the rich and poor pervade Burma as commodity prices
continue to shoot through the roof.
To ostensibly combat this, the country’s leaders have been
uncharacteristically busy during the first month of the year, sending
high-level diplomatic missions to Bangladesh, China and most recently
India in hopes of shoring up much needed support for their tattered
economy.
Junta leaders did leave China with US$ 200 million in secured loans. But
these visits have yet to ease the burden on the ground as rice, oil and
gasoline continue to reach record highs. Rangoon residents have also
reported an increase in crime, as some people can now only afford one meal
a day.
These government missions have actually worked in the opposite direction,
with rumors in Rangoon instead fueling an increase in prices.
"When it comes to prices, no news is good news for us," a Rangoon resident
told The Irrawaddy today. "If any news about it [commodity prices] comes
out, prices will certainly rise."
Commodity prices have been rising since the first of the year after the
ruling State Peace and Development Council jacked transportation fares for
airplanes, trains and buses by three to four times. Late year floods have
also allegedly added to the jump in consumer pricing for rice and other
edible goods.
Rumors have been rife that government staffers are to receive a raise to
offset these inflationary pressures. The rumor, which has yet to come to
fruition, would seem like good news just about anywhere else in the world.
But government workers in Burma are afraid that another price hike will
immediately follow their raise.
"I don’t want my salary to be increased," said a low-ranking official in
Rangoon. "Increasing our salary will cause prices to rise, and the amount
of salary increase will be just a little bit, but because of that, the
prices will be even higher."
This rumor has already caused prices to skyrocket in Rangoon. The price of
high quality rice is now 600 kyat (US $1= 1,100 kyat) for a pyi (approx.
2-kg), which was only 450 kyat in December. Likewise, peanut oil is now
2,400 kyat for one viss (1.63 kg), which last month was 1,800 kyat.
Business sources in Rangoon say this month’s fare hike also caused the
kyat to jump from 1,030 to 1,180 on the black market. While news of
China’s financial aid package reportedly caused the kyat to strengthen for
a week, economic realities soon won over.
The regime often deals with a sliding currency by arresting black market
moneychangers. There are no confirmed reports of this occurring over the
last couple of weeks. Nonetheless, currency traders have temporarily moved
further underground until the situation dissipates.
"Due to the news of arrest, we are playing hide-and-seek to trade dollars,
mostly on the phone," said a moneychanger in Rangoon. "That's why the
exchange rate is also floating. Although one dollar may currently be about
1,100 kyat, the price now tends to change depending on individual dealers
and customers."
Rangoon is generally regarded as a safe haven from crimes beyond the petty
level. Recently, however, two murders occurred in Rangoon during home
robberies. One of the victims, a moneychanger living in Lanmadaw Township,
was stabbed to death. There are also reports of more brazen robberies
being carried out during daylight hours.
"These crimes are a signal of the current situation, that people are on
the brink of starvation," a well-known Burmese author recently said. "Yet
the people have long suffered in a severe economic situation. But all they
can do is secretly blame the junta's economic mismanagement."
Alongside the recent Chinese loans, the Burmese regime has also been
hailing the arrival last year of 500,000 foreign tourists, and the US $100
million they brought with them. But these cheers are falling on deaf ears
as many of the country’s 50 million inhabitants continue to eat just once
a day.
"They [the military leaders] may earn millions of dollars, but that
doesn't go to the people, just to their pockets," the author added. "The
most fundamental thing for the people is just to eat two meals a day, but
now that has become a problem."

REGIONAL

Agence France-Presse January 29 2003

Thai-based monitors fear for the lives of 15 imprisoned in Myanmar

A Thai-based group monitoring prisoners in Myanmar said Wednesday it had
evidence concerning the disappearance of 15 political prisoners that it
would release pending an expected mission by Amnesty International to the
country next week.

Tate Naing, the secretary-general of the Assistance Association for
Political Prisoners (AAPP) told AFP the group wanted to observe the
response from the Yangon generals to the visit by the human rights
watchdog.

"We would like to wait and see the response from Yangon over this case
concerning human rights, their willingness to tell the truth as well as
how much they are respecting the international community," Tate said.
"AAPP has details of those missing political prisoners but we have decided
to keep them for a while."

The group released a statement on Monday saying that it feared that at
least seven and possibly 15 prisoners who have disappeared in Myanmar over
the past nine months after being removed from prison by the military had
been killed.

It called on Yangon to investigate the disappearances and to allow the
United Nations and international rights groups such as Amnesty
International to conduct their own investigations.

"Several of these cases relate to prisoners who were deported by the Thai
government and therefore we also strongly urge Thailand to cease all
deportations to Burma (Myanmar) until such time as a proper screening
process is in place to protect persons of concern from miscarriages of
justice at the hands of the SPDC," the statement said.

The junta calls itself the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

The first seven prisoners were arrested in November 1992 and were last
heard of in March 2002 when military officials took them from Myeik prison
in southern Tanintharyi division to an undisclosed location, the statement
said.

Two others have been missing since being taken from their cells in Myeik
prison last September, it said.

Another six, including a member of Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition National
League for Democracy, Ma Lwin, have been detained in a jail in the border
town of Kawthaung since February last year. They disappeared in July after
being similarly transferred to an undisclosed location, the group said.

Three of these six are anti-Yangon activists who were deported by Thai
authorities directly to Myanmar officials in southern Kawthaung, the
statement added.

Since a UN-brokered dialogue between the government and Aung San Suu Kyi
began in October 2000, more than 400 political prisoners have been
gradually released in Myanmar.

However, an estimated 1,200-1,300 remain behind bars.
________

South China Morning Post January 29 2003

Political prisoners in Myanmar feared killed Concerned at the fate of the
missing inmates, a monitoring group says Thailand had previously deported
some of them

By William Barnes

The 15 political prisoners who have "disappeared" from Myanmarese jails in
the past nine months may have been killed, says a monitoring group.

The Thai-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said it was
also concerned that several of the missing prisoners had previously been
deported by Thailand. It said the Thai government appeared increasingly
committed to a policy of breaking up opposition groups along the border to
appease the junta in Myanmar. "We've been surprised and shocked. We do not
want it to be true but we worry that they have been disposed of. I can't
really explain why the Myanmar military would do that," said Bo Kyi, the
association's joint secretary. The violent suppression of pro-democracy
demonstrations in 1988 showed that the ruling military regime would wash
the streets with its opponents' blood if necessary, said Bo Kyi, but it
had not taken this sort of action recently.

However, there have been notorious precedents of "disappearances"- two
important Shan nobles - one the country's first president - were never
seen again after being arrested in the 1962 coup.

The association also learned last September that four political prisoners,
who had been deported by the Thais, were removed from Kawthaung prison in
the country's southern panhandle to Lam Pake Island. They had not been
heard of again.

The four members of the opposition had been handed over to Myanmar
soldiers by the Thai police in line with a new policy of no longer
tolerating activists who have long operated in a "grey zone" of unofficial
freedom along the border.

The islands to which these prisoners were believed to have been taken to
contain no jails or even military camps. "It makes us very worried. We
fear the worst," said Bo Kyi.

The prison monitoring agency said that no more deportations should be
authorised until reputable human rights organisations like Amnesty
International, the Red Cross and United Nations' groups had been able to
confirm that these prisoners were still alive. The association admitted
that it was difficult to verify that information from inside Myanmar jails
was true. But it said inmates claimed that were tortured frequently,
conditions were dreadful and food inadequate. Monitors estimated that 82
political prisoners had died since 1988, including a close family friend
of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was arrested for possession of
a fax machine.

Seven members of the opposition National League for Democracy party were
arrested a year ago in the same area in the south - and two of them had
since been mysteriously "transferred" to another outlaying island.

Of nine members of a small opposition group arrested a decade ago on the
Thai border, two had been released without being tried two years ago but
the rest had been taken to another southern island, after which news of
them dried up.

Ms Suu Kyi has made the release of all political prisoners - the
association says 1,422 are held by the government - one of her key demands
before genuine political negotiations take place.
______________

Deutsche Presse-Agentur January 29 2003

ASEAN urged to remove non-tariff barriers

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) needs to remove
non-tariff barriers and open up service sectors to offer investors an
attractive business environment, Singapore's Minister for Trade and
Industry George Yeo said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the Bintan Industrial Park on the Indonesian island south of
Singapore, Yeo said ASEAN has become a substantial free trade area for the
first six members of the grouping since the beginning of 2003. "However,
this is not enough because big countries like China and India have also
entered the global marketplace offering very low costs of production," Yeo
said.

"We have to integrate ASEAN further by removing non-tariff barriers and
opening up our services sectors so that we have a single economic space of
500 million people," he said.

ASEAN groups Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand,
Brunei, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar (Burma).

"If we are fragmented into 10 separate economies, each of us will not be
able to play at full strength," Yeo warned.

He said a successful model of development cooperation between Singapore
and Indonesia's Riau province will lead to an extention of cooperation to
other provinces.

The flow of investments into Bintan and Batam islands continues to be
healthy despite the uncertainties in Indonesia, Yeo said, noting the two
islands attracted more than 300 million U.S. dollars worth of investment
last year.

Eighty new foreign companies came in in addition to the more than 570
already there, Yeo said.

There are reasons to be confident that Southeast Asia will remain
competitive in manufacturing, even as China continues to grow, he said,
citing a longer history in advanced manufacturing and well-developed
knowledge clusters.

"What we are doing in the Riaus should be an example for other parts of
ASEAN," Yeo said. "Synergistic cooperation is win-win."
____________

Associated Press January 29 2003

South Korea grants refugee status to asylum-seekers from Myanmar, Cameroon

South Korea on Wednesday granted refugee status to four asylum seekers
from Myanmar and Cameroon.

With the latest approval, South Korea has recognized a total of six
refugees since it first granted such status to an Ethiopian man in 2001,
said Kim Pan-gyun, an official at South Korea's Justice Ministry. Of those
recognized Wednesday, three were Myanmar citizens opposed to that
country's military junta who entered South Korea between 1996 and 1998,
Kim said.

The asylum seeker from Cameroon was a member of the country's opposition
party who applied for refugee status in 2001, he said.

South Korea, which became a signatory of the United Nations treaty on
protecting refugees in 1992, is currently studying the cases of some 70
other asylum seekers.

Since 1994, 166 people have applied for refugee status in South Korea.
South Korea has rejected applications from 58 and some people withdrew
their applications, Kim said.