BurmaNet News: April 7 2003

Mon Apr 7 17:02:10 EDT 2003

April 7 2003 Issue #2210

INSIDE BURMA

Dallas Morning News: Rangoon’s ‘Lady’ may be world’s bravest womn
AFP: Myanmar labels latest rape accusations as ‘too ridiculous’
Gold Coast Bulletin: Suu Kyi cheered
Xinhua: Myanmar calls on UN to continue role in humn rights
AFP: ICRC tries to probe deeper into Myanmar

MONEY

AFP: Myanmar junta to ease its stranglehold on rice
Narinjara: Banking crisis pushes Burma’s economy closer to the edge

DRUGS

Irrawaddy: Karen women arrested with Yaa Baa

REGIONAL

Xinhua: Thai soldiers kill 2 Myanmar drug smugglers
TV Myanmar: Minister returns from informal meeting of ASEAN ministers

INTERNATIONAL

AP: Myanmar protester still sheltering in British Embassy
DVB: ‘Nuclear reactor’ equipment reportedly shipped to Burmese nval base

EDITORIALS

NYT: A global catalog of wrongs

INSIDE BURMA

Dallas Morning News April 6 2003

Rangoon's 'Lady' may be world's bravest woman
By RENA PEDERSON

RANGOON, Burma – I was speechless for a moment when Aung San Suu Kyi
entered the room and said "Good afternoon" in her precise born-in-Burma,
schooled-at-Oxford accent. She has an aura about her, a palpable strength
of character, that immediately signals that you are in the presence of
someone special.
It had taken more than a year to set up the meeting with the Nobel Peace
Prize winner, so I was worried that the meeting might be anti-climactic.
But she didn't disappoint. If anything, she proved more articulate and
impressive in person than I could have imagined.
"The Lady," as everyone calls her, may be the bravest woman in the world.
After all, she has gone toe to toe with a brutal military regime. They
have guns. She has only ideas and principles. And she has held her own,
even though the generals have thrown her in jail, locked her in her house
and hounded her.
The first surprise was that she has a mischievous sense of humor. Aware
that she had some pressing matters to attend to, I told her that I had
honed my questions to 20 to be respectful of her time.
"Twenty questions?" she said with a smile. "It sounds like a quiz show –
'20 Questions.' " But she answered every one. And stayed for a few more.
I slipped in a question that had stayed in my mind for years. Back in the
1990s, when she was placed under house arrest, I read that she had to sell
off some of her possessions and furniture to survive. To keep her mind
agile and fill her days, the newspaper article said, she played her family
piano for hour after hour – until it fell so badly out of tune, she
couldn't bear to hear the notes. And the years stretched on.
So I asked: Has she been able to play her piano since the military
released her from house arrest in May? "Oh, no, I'm afraid not," she said.
"I wouldn't want to torture others with my playing – or torture myself.
I'm afraid my fingers have forgotten how to play."
And how is her health after 13 years of confinement? Though she was on
intravenous support during a hunger strike once and her hair fell out for
a while from malnutrition, she reassured me that her health is fine now
except for spondylitis, an inflammation of the vertebrae. She treats it
with neck exercises, she said. "Perhaps everyone in Burma needs to stiffen
their spine," she added, a joking commentary on the difficulty of rallying
the beaten-down people against the repressive regime.
She works out fairly often on a Nordic track cross trainer to keep fit and
meditates daily to stay spiritually centered. But she doesn't get up
before dawn anymore, she said, because her work often stretches late into
the night.
As with Vaclav Havel in Czechoslovakia and Nelson Mandela in South Africa,
fate has chosen Aung San Suu Kyi to be the symbolic voice of an oppressed
people – in her case, Myanmar. Though they won Nobel Prizes as well, the
difference is that they are free today in democratic countries. She
remains the only democratically elected leader in the world who hasn't
been allowed to take office.
The Myanmar military has kept her from doing so despite her party's
landslide victory in 1990. When Mr. Havel was released from prison, he got
to assume elected office. Likewise, Mr. Mandela had a leader like F.W. de
Klerk with whom to negotiate. "I haven't seen a De Klerk," she observed
dryly in our interview.
Aung San Suu Kyi often is compared to her father, Gen. Aung San, who
started the democracy movement in what then was called Burma, because she
looks like him and is just as dedicated to her country. So I asked what
attributes she shares with her mother, a war nurse who became ambassador
to India. "A sense of duty," she said quickly. She added after some
thought, "Discipline ... courage ... determination ... I think I get those
qualities from both my parents."
She has learned their lessons well. She traveled to Oxford to study as a
young girl and later married a classmate who became an Oxford professor.
She gave up her quiet life as a mother of two in England to return to
Burma in 1988 to care for her ailing mother – and was asked to stay and
help lead the fight for democracy. She did, beginning a long, painful
separation from her family. The government even kept her from seeing her
husband, Michael Aris, before he died of prostate cancer.
Asked if she is in contact with her sons, who live in the United States
and United Kingdom, her eyes flickered just a moment before she answered,
"Yes, of course." She isn't given to self-pity or self-congratulation. She
often reminds that she isn't the only one in her party working for
democracy, just the most visible one. Many of her closest advisers remain
in prison, have fled the country or have died in the struggle for
democracy.
Still, she soldiers on, refusing to compromise on her principles of
nonviolence, refusing to enrich herself by capitalizing on her fame,
refusing even to give up her sense of humor despite a grim situation.
At the end of our interview, I teasingly bet her that I was taller, as a
way of finding out her height. "Oh, you think so?" she said with a girlish
laugh. "Stand up, and we'll see. Take off your shoes." Side by side, she
was about an inch taller. She was pleased.
But it was I who felt taller for having met her.
__________

Agence France Presse April 6 2003

Myanmar labels latest rape accusations as "too ridiculous"

Myanmar's military junta on Sunday labelled as "too ridiculous" a report
released in Washington last week which found the country's armed forces used
systematic rape as a weapon of war against ethnic women.

The report by the Washington-based Refugees International Group (RI), based
on interviews with women on the Thai-Myanmar border, suggested that the use
of rape by Myanmar's armed forces was more widespread than first reported
last year.

RI documented 43 rapes among women from the Karen, Karenni, Mon, Tavoyan and
Shan ethnic groups and found some 75 percent of women interviewed reported
knowing someone who had been raped.
"Rape is widespread and committed with impunity, both by officers and lower
ranking soldiers. The culture of impunity contributes to an atmosphere in
which rape is permissible," RI spokeswoman Veronika Martin said.

But the junta said in a statement Sunday that while rape cases may have
occurred in the country, rape was not being used as a weapon of war.

"Isolated rape cases may have happened in certain areas as is happening in
many other countries around the world," the junta's statement said.

"But 'systematically using rape as a weapon of war' is just too ridiculous
and these organisations that are putting out such preposterous allegations
need to be reminded that the Myanmar Defence Forces also comprises ethnic
Kayin, Shan, Kayah, Mon and various other national races," it said.

"The government of Myanmar thinks that it is regretful to learn that certain
individuals or organisations who may have good intentions are misled by
those who wish to keep Myanmar unstable and fractured by creating
misunderstanding and sowing seeds of mistrust among its national races," it
added.

Allegations that Myanmar's Tatmadaw, or armed forces, used rape as a war
weapon first arose last May in a report called "Licence to Rape" by two
Thai-based Shan rights groups.
The report documented 625 sex attacks on Shan women and girls by Myanmar
soldiers, mostly between 1996 and 2001, and drew international outrage. The
junta has repeatedly denied and fiercely condemned the allegations.

In December the US State Department said that the US consulate in the
northern city of Chiang Mai had found evidence supporting the accusations
made by the rights groups.

It also repeated the allegations in a report released last week, which again
drew sharp denials from the junta.
__________

Gold Coast Bulletin April 7 2003

Suu Kyi cheered

THOUSANDS of people in Burma's western Chin state turned up to greet
visiting pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, despite threats from local
authorities, her political party said yesterday.

Suu Kyi departed Rangoon on Thursday for a 10-day visit to the region,
where she opened offices of her National League for Democracy Party and
met with party officials.

"Everywhere she goes, people turn up. The only trouble is the local
authorities, they are indirectly disturbing her. They are always telling
people not to go to her."

___________

Xinhua News Agency April 7 2003

Myanmar calls on UN to continue role in human rights

The Myanmar government has called on the United Nations to continue its
role in the country's human rights and appraised the work of the UN
special envoy to Myanmar on human rights as constructive and positive.

Quoting Myanmar Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva U Mya Than, the
local Myanmar Times reported Monday that the Myanmar government hoped UN
Special Envoy Sergio Pinheiro would carry forward such work in the
country.

U Mya Than made the remarks at a meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission
in Geneva on March 31 following a report to the meeting by Pinheiro on his
latest visit to Myanmar.

Pinheiro cut short his mission to the country, leaving Myanmar two days
ahead of schedule in late March following discovery of a listening device
hidden in the room in a Yangon jail where he was making confidential
interview with political prisoners.

The Myanmar authorities have expressed regret and apology over the
incident, promising to make full investigation in this connection.

Meanwhile, Pinheiro welcomed Myanmar government's cooperation with
international organizations in the efforts to improve human rights in the
country and said that the sponsoring of human rights workshops in
cooperation with the Australian government during the past three years was
a positive step in building confidence at the international level.
_________

Agence France Presse April 7 2003

ICRC tries to probe deeper into Myanmar

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Monday that it
was trying to convince Myanmar's military government to extend the areas
of the country the relief agency is able to visit near the Thai border.

Last November, the ICRC was allowed into the eastern areas for the first
time to provide protection for people in villages and check on conditions
in prisons or labour camps there.

The areas in Shan and Kayin states are riven by conflict between the
military and rebel or ethnic groups, but an ICRC official said they wanted
to move deeper into the areas as well as into the north of Karen state.

"The discussions to have an even greater presence in these problem areas
are continuing," Peter Krakolining, deputy head of operations for South
East Asia said.

The visits to about 80 prisons, labour camps, agricultural camps and road
building sites in Myanmar since May 1999 were having a positive impact on
conditions there, according to ICRC officials.

They include private interviews with prisoners.

Myanmar's junta has long been criticised for its poor human rights record,
which rights groups and western governments have said includes forced
labour, censorship and violations of religious freedom.

ICRC said it was monitoring conditions for about 2,997 detainees, ranging
from political prisoners to common law detainees, and had registered 1,665
of them last year.

"The visits are significant, they have an impact," Michel Ducraux, head of
the ICRC's office in Myanmar told journalists.

"We make recommendations and work on corrective measures should the case
arise -- and it arises," he said, adding that the ICRC will be "very
careful to make sure our presence will not be cosmetic".

The checks on detention camps were organised with the military
government's home ministry.

"I cannot rule out the possibility that some other instances have
something, I don't know, but it's just to make it clear that we're not
naive enough to think that we have total command of the situation,"
Ducraux said during a visit to the agency's headquarters.

"There are at least people on the side of the authorities who are willing
to make some efforts and some steps, otherwise it will mean nothing," he
added.

"In front of us we have a body or an authority which is not homogeneous,
let's put it this way," Ducraux said.

The human rights group Amnesty International on Tuesday criticised
Myanmar's military government for the slow pace of release of political
prisoners and a lack of other steps taken since its first-ever visit there
in January.

It estimated that there were 1,200 political prisoners in the country.

MONEY

Agence France Presse April 7 2003

Myanmar junta to ease its stranglehold on rice

Myanmar's military government is to scrap a 40-year-old paddy procurement
policy and loosen up its hold on rice exports to make way for more
private-sector involvement, agriculture officials said Monday.

The decision, taken at a high-level junta meeting last week and yet to be
formally announced, would signify a dramatic change in policy in a country
where agricultural production and trade has been tightly controlled for
decades.

"The new policy will be introduced starting from the next harvest season"
later this year, a high-ranking official at the ministry of agriculture
told AFP.

The procurement method currently practised allows the government to buy up
10 percent of overall production at officially fixed and heavily deflated
prices.

The grain is then redistributed to government employees, military
personnel and their families as a subsidy, while the rest was kept as
reserve stock for emergencies and for export.

Under the new scheme farmers will no longer have to shoulder the burden of
selling a portion of their produce to the government at prices as low as
one sixth the prevailing market price, experts said.

"This is a major policy shift obviously aimed at making market forces take
over, and is certain to make a positive impact on rice farmers, who will
be the main benefactors," one local rice expert said.

Rice is Myanmar's primary agricultural product, and at least 12 million
out of an estimated labour force of 16 million people are farmers.

Annual rice production is estimated this harvest season as surpassing 21
million metric tons.

Once one of Asia's leading rice exporters, Myanmar exports less than one
million tons annually despite an increase in production, as more rice is
consumed domestically.

Analysts say there are now indications the junta, faced with financial
woes including a debilitating banking crisis, is looking seriously at
easing other controls as well, such as those on gasoline and electricity.
_________

Narinjara News April 7 2003

Banking Crisis pushes Burma’s Economy Closer to the Edge

A banking crisis in Burma has led to strict limits on withdrawals, a
suspension of cheque and credit card service, no lending and a huge
shortage of currency, all of which are hitting many people hard, according
to today’s the independent quoted from AFP, Rangoon. The bankruptcies of a
few small money-lenders in mid-February initially sparked the crisis,
which saw thousands panic and rush the country’s 20 private banks. The
banks had attracted a large concentration of savings by offering interest
rates six times higher than public institutions. A near-absence of
official comment from the military junta, and insufficient short-term
measures devised by monetary authorities to deal with the sudden liquidity
cruch then worsened the crisis, diplomats and businesspeople in Rangoon
say. The most important private banks, including Asia Wealth Bank (AWB)-
which held more than 200 million dollars, or 43 per cent of total deposits
of private banks and the Chinese-run Yoma Bank were immediately affected
and the others were soon hit, a western analyst said. “ Of course, the
private banks were not managed with great orthodoxy. They lent always on
short-term credit and often to the rich, who bought gold, four- wheel
drives houses,” the analyst said. “ This created a true speculative
bubble. Gold prices here are above world levels, and property prices per
square metre are not far off Tokyo or New York. As a stop-gap measure, the
central bank injected 25 million dollars into private banks, he said.
Borrowers were ordered to repay 50 per cent of their loans immediately,
while bank withdrawals were limited to between 50 and 100 dollars each
week per account, a paltry sum for companies needing to pay wages or
suppliers. As a result of its scarcity, the kyat, which had been trading
on the widely used black-market at around 1,100 to the dollar, shot up
brutally for many to 750. It now hovers at the 900 point. The kyat’s
appreciation would be welcome news for the junta, which risks mistaking it
as a sign of a healthier economy, according to analysts. Officially, there
is no banking crisis. They try to camouflage the crisis.

DRUGS

Irrawaddy April 7 2003

Karen Women Arrested with Yaa Baa
By Aung Su Shin/Mae Sot

Two Karen women from Burma were arrested on drug charges at a checkpoint
on the Mae Sot-Tak highway on Saturday, according to Mae Sot police.
Acting on a tip, officers searched the pair and found 7,000 yaa baa pills
hidden in one of the women’s sandals.
Sources say the women were travelling legally, having crossed into
Thailand via the Thai-Burma Friendship Bridge carrying official border
passes. Police found the pair aboard a Tak bound bus that was stopped at
the Naung Boa checkpoint.
The two were identified as Naw Among, 25, and Naw Mya Kyine, 15, both of
Pa-an’s Na Kyone Village. Pa-an is the capital of Burma’s Karen State.
Naw Among denied any knowledge of the pills during questioning. "We paid
broker Naw Ami in Myawaddy 7,000 baht (US $160) to arrange jobs for us in
Tak. Before we made the trip she said my old sandals were not appropriate
and made me wear a new pair," Naw Among explained to the police. "Naw Ami
said she would follow us to Tak on a different bus. Now we are in
trouble," she added.
Police Maj Anuwat Suwannaphume stated that Thai authorities have contacted
Myawaddy officials regarding the allegations against Naw Ami. "We have to
investigate more whether there is really a Naw Ami in Myawaddy or whether
Naw Among is herself a trafficker," he said.
Officers familiar with the investigation reported that the pills featured
a letter "R", a symbol commonly found on yaa baa produced in Karen State.
The women face life imprisonment if found guilty in Thai court.

REGIONAL

Xinhua News Agency April 7 2003

Thai soldiers kill 2 Myanmar drug smugglers

Thai soldiers shot and killed 2 Myanmar people trying to smuggle 67,000
methamphetamine pills into Chiang Mai province, 900 kilometers north of
Bangkok, the Bangkok Post reported Monday.

Soldiers of Pha Muang Task Force, a special unit in charge of suppressing
drug traffic along the border, hid about 10 meters from the Tharua Din Dam
temporary border crossing of Thai-Myanmar border after received tip-off.

Four Myanmar people passed the border at 4 a.m. Sunday. When they were
called over for a search, they opened fire with assault rifles on the
soldiers.

The two groups exchanged gunfire for 10 minutes, and two Myanmars were
seen retreating to their side of the border.

At daybreak, the soldiers found two bodies riddled with bullets. Two
rucksacks were packed with methamphetamine pills, while a hand-grenade lay
near a dead smuggler.

Apichart Meesommon, commander of the task force, said the crossing suited
smugglers because it was away from outposts.

He said he would propose to close the crossing permanently.
_________

TV Myanmar April 6 2003

MINISTER RETURNS FROM INFORMAL MEETING OF ASEAN MINISTERS

The Myanmar Burmese delegation led by Brig-Gen Abel, minister of the State
Peace and Development Council SPDC Chairman's Office, arrived back here by
air in the evening of 5 April after attending the Informal Meeting of
ASEAN Economic Ministers held at Luang Prabang, the Lao People's
Democratic Republic, from 2 to 4 April.

The minister and his delegation were welcomed at Yangon Rangoon
International Airport by Minister for Finance and Revenue Maj-Gen Hla Tun,
Minister for Labour U Tin Winn, and departmental officials concerned. The
Myanmar delegation arrived at Luang Prabang in the afternoon of 2 April
and Minister Brig Gen-Abel held cordial talks on bilateral trade promotion
with Indonesian Industry and Trade Minister Ms Rini M. S. Soewandi in the
conference hall of Pansea at 1830 on 3 April,

On the same day, the minister and party attended the Informal Meeting of
ASEAN Economic Ministers. Passage omitted

On the morning of 4 April, Minister Brig-Gen Abel and members of his
delegation attended the coordination meeting between ASEAN Economic
Ministers and European Union Commissioner Mr Paseal Lamy. The status of
the current economic cooperation between ASEAN and European Union was
reviewed and tasks of the future were discussed at the meeting.

INTERNATIONAL

Associated Press April 7 2003

Myanmar protester still sheltering in British Embassy
By AYE AYE WIN

A man who took refuge in the British Embassy last week after police tried
to arrest him for staging a political protest was still inside the
diplomatic compound on Monday, according to Myanmar and British officials.

The man, in his 20s, protested outside the embassy in downtown Yangon with
a Buddhist monk on Friday. They shouted slogans and waved a flag showing
the "fighting peacock," the symbol of the country's pro-democracy
movement.

The monk was detained by police, but the man, who has not been identified,
fled into the embassy. Myanmar's military government tolerates very little
political dissent, and spontaneous demonstrations, very rare, are usually
quashed within minutes.

Myanmar officials who asked not to be identified told The Associated Press
the man was still inside the embassy building on Monday.

Embassy spokeswoman Anne Macro said "nothing has changed since last
Friday," but declined to give further details.

About a dozen policemen and more than 20 plainclothes police and
intelligence officers have been loitering in the vicinity of the embassy
since Friday, presumably to arrest the protester when he comes out.

Myanmar authorities have suggested the protesters could be linked to a
small bomb blast that killed a municipal worker and injured three others
on March 27 about two kilometers (one mile) from the embassy.

An official concerned with security matters, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said Monday "the suspect is believed to be an important link in
the recent terrorist bomb incident in Yangon."

"Failure to make a swift and effective investigation in terrorist
incidents can cause more innocent lives to be lost," the senior member of
Myanmar's Transnational Crime Prevention Unit said.

A Myanmar government statement issued the day of the protest said the two
demonstrators "tried to disrupt peace, stability and tranquility." It said
both men were believed to be from Pago town, 80 kilometers (50 miles)
north of Yangon.

The statement said that "according to diplomats having the man inside the
embassy could hurt the security," of the embassy, but it did not
elaborate.
_________

Democrataic Voice of Burma April 5 2003

"Nuclear reactor" equipment reportedly shipped to Burmese naval base

We have learned that two fully-loaded freighters carrying Russian equipment
needed for the building of a nuclear reactor arrived at SPDC [State Peace
and Development Council] naval base on Zadetkyi Kyun in Kawthaung Township
31 March. The equipment was shipped via Singapore aboard two freighters,
Mandalay, and Pinya.

Democratic Voice of Burma correspondent Myint Maung Maung sent this report.

[Myint Maung Maung] The two freighters docked for inspection at No 58 Naval
Base on Zadetkyi Kyun on 31 March and proceeded to Rangoon with an escort of
naval vessels providing security. The two freighters, Mandalay and Pinya,
were reported to be carrying over 5,000 tons of equipment needed to build a
nuclear reactor and shipped from Russia.

The equipment presumably will be used to build a nuclear reactor which is
being planned on Kalagok Kyun in Mon State.

A group of 32 Russian experts led by a director of the SPDC's Ministry of
Energy had been surveying the land and enviroment around Kalagok Kyun from
25 March to 3 April. A report from Mon sources said SPDC Army had
confiscated more than 300 acres of farmland belonging to the local Mon
people.

STATEMENTS/EDITORIALS

New York Times April 7 2003

A Global Catalog of Wrongs

round this time each year, the State Department produces a remarkable
document detailing the human rights practices and problems of almost every
country in the world. Dispensing with the niceties of diplomatic language,
the report looks at friend and foe alike with candid scrutiny.
Among the nations that come in for criticism are a number of members of
President Bush's Coalition of the Willing for the invasion of Iraq —
embarrassing company in a campaign whose aims include liberating the Iraqi
people from dictatorship. Uzbekistan routinely tortures detainees and some
have died in custody. Eritrea has ended freedom of the press and restricts
religious freedom. Azerbaijan arbitrarily detains dissidents and rigs
elections. Significant violations are noted in such other coalition
members as Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Georgia, Macedonia, Rwanda,
Uganda and Ethiopia. In all seven, the overall human rights situation was
rated as poor.
Of course, the "axis of evil" also rightly comes in for plenty of scorn.
The White House's main security concern has been these countries' weapons
programs and alleged links to terrorism. But Iraq, North Korea and Iran
also victimize their own people. Baghdad has ordered executions without
trial, political murders, torture and deadly persecution of Shiite
Muslims. North Korea is an absolute dictatorship with detention camps,
torture and harsh prison conditions, including deliberate starvation.
Iran, relatively better, is still horrific, with arbitrary arrests,
disappearances and sadistic punishments like stoning and flogging.
Several other governments deserve dishonorable mention. Myanmar, formerly
Burma, is responsible for punitive rape by soldiers, forced relocation of
ethnic minorities, forced labor and conscription of children.
Turkmenistan's self-glorifying autocrat models his repressive rule on
Stalin's.
China is much freer than before. But its sheer size makes it the world's
No. 1 quantitative violator of human rights. Beijing executed more than
3,000 people last year, many without due process. It uses torture, forced
confessions, imprisonment in psychiatric hospitals and lengthy detentions
with no right to communicate with family members or lawyers.
The report cites several countries for withholding sleep and food to
extract confessions, techniques some have charged American authorities
with using in Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. These methods are
correctly listed under the heading of "Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman
and Degrading Treatment and Punishment." Washington should reject them and
should refuse to hand over prisoners to countries that routinely use
torture. The rights report must become a tool not just for documenting
abuses, but also for combating them.

April 7 2003 Issue #2210

INSIDE BURMA

Dallas Morning News: Rngoon’s ‘Lady’ may be world’s bravest womn
AFP: Myanmar labels latest rape accusations as ‘too ridiculous’
Gold Coast Bulletin: Suu Kyi cheered
Xinhua: Myanmar calls on UN to continue role in humn rights
AFP: ICRC tries to probe deeper into Myanmar

MONEY

AFP: Myanmar junta to ease its stranglehold on rice
Narinjara: Banking crisis pushes Burma’s economy closer to the edge

DRUGS

Irrawaddy: Karen women arrested with Yaa Baa

REGIONAL

Xinhua: Thai soldiers kill 2 Myanmar drug smugglers
TV Myanmar: Minister returns from informal meeting of ASEAN ministers

INTERNATIONAL

AP: Myanmar protester still sheltering in British Embassy
DVB: ‘Nuclear reactor’ equipment reportedly shipped to Burmese nval base

EDITORIALS

NYT: A global catalog of wrongs

INSIDE BURMA

Dallas Morning News April 6 2003

Rangoon's 'Lady' may be world's bravest woman
By RENA PEDERSON

RANGOON, Burma – I was speechless for a moment when Aung San Suu Kyi
entered the room and said "Good afternoon" in her precise born-in-Burma,
schooled-at-Oxford accent. She has an aura about her, a palpable strength
of character, that immediately signals that you are in the presence of
someone special.
It had taken more than a year to set up the meeting with the Nobel Peace
Prize winner, so I was worried that the meeting might be anti-climactic.
But she didn't disappoint. If anything, she proved more articulate and
impressive in person than I could have imagined.
"The Lady," as everyone calls her, may be the bravest woman in the world.
After all, she has gone toe to toe with a brutal military regime. They
have guns. She has only ideas and principles. And she has held her own,
even though the generals have thrown her in jail, locked her in her house
and hounded her.
The first surprise was that she has a mischievous sense of humor. Aware
that she had some pressing matters to attend to, I told her that I had
honed my questions to 20 to be respectful of her time.
"Twenty questions?" she said with a smile. "It sounds like a quiz show –
'20 Questions.' " But she answered every one. And stayed for a few more.
I slipped in a question that had stayed in my mind for years. Back in the
1990s, when she was placed under house arrest, I read that she had to sell
off some of her possessions and furniture to survive. To keep her mind
agile and fill her days, the newspaper article said, she played her family
piano for hour after hour – until it fell so badly out of tune, she
couldn't bear to hear the notes. And the years stretched on.
So I asked: Has she been able to play her piano since the military
released her from house arrest in May? "Oh, no, I'm afraid not," she said.
"I wouldn't want to torture others with my playing – or torture myself.
I'm afraid my fingers have forgotten how to play."
And how is her health after 13 years of confinement? Though she was on
intravenous support during a hunger strike once and her hair fell out for
a while from malnutrition, she reassured me that her health is fine now
except for spondylitis, an inflammation of the vertebrae. She treats it
with neck exercises, she said. "Perhaps everyone in Burma needs to stiffen
their spine," she added, a joking commentary on the difficulty of rallying
the beaten-down people against the repressive regime.
She works out fairly often on a Nordic track cross trainer to keep fit and
meditates daily to stay spiritually centered. But she doesn't get up
before dawn anymore, she said, because her work often stretches late into
the night.
As with Vaclav Havel in Czechoslovakia and Nelson Mandela in South Africa,
fate has chosen Aung San Suu Kyi to be the symbolic voice of an oppressed
people – in her case, Myanmar. Though they won Nobel Prizes as well, the
difference is that they are free today in democratic countries. She
remains the only democratically elected leader in the world who hasn't
been allowed to take office.
The Myanmar military has kept her from doing so despite her party's
landslide victory in 1990. When Mr. Havel was released from prison, he got
to assume elected office. Likewise, Mr. Mandela had a leader like F.W. de
Klerk with whom to negotiate. "I haven't seen a De Klerk," she observed
dryly in our interview.
Aung San Suu Kyi often is compared to her father, Gen. Aung San, who
started the democracy movement in what then was called Burma, because she
looks like him and is just as dedicated to her country. So I asked what
attributes she shares with her mother, a war nurse who became ambassador
to India. "A sense of duty," she said quickly. She added after some
thought, "Discipline ... courage ... determination ... I think I get those
qualities from both my parents."
She has learned their lessons well. She traveled to Oxford to study as a
young girl and later married a classmate who became an Oxford professor.
She gave up her quiet life as a mother of two in England to return to
Burma in 1988 to care for her ailing mother – and was asked to stay and
help lead the fight for democracy. She did, beginning a long, painful
separation from her family. The government even kept her from seeing her
husband, Michael Aris, before he died of prostate cancer.
Asked if she is in contact with her sons, who live in the United States
and United Kingdom, her eyes flickered just a moment before she answered,
"Yes, of course." She isn't given to self-pity or self-congratulation. She
often reminds that she isn't the only one in her party working for
democracy, just the most visible one. Many of her closest advisers remain
in prison, have fled the country or have died in the struggle for
democracy.
Still, she soldiers on, refusing to compromise on her principles of
nonviolence, refusing to enrich herself by capitalizing on her fame,
refusing even to give up her sense of humor despite a grim situation.
At the end of our interview, I teasingly bet her that I was taller, as a
way of finding out her height. "Oh, you think so?" she said with a girlish
laugh. "Stand up, and we'll see. Take off your shoes." Side by side, she
was about an inch taller. She was pleased.
But it was I who felt taller for having met her.
__________

Agence France Presse April 6 2003

Myanmar labels latest rape accusations as "too ridiculous"