BurmaNet News: May 1 2003

[editor at burmanet.org]

May 1 2003 Issue #2227

INSIDE BURMA

Xinhua: Myanmar top leader calls for building modern nation
TV Myanmar: SARS surveillance instituted at airports, ports, border
checkpoints
AP: 26 people quarantined with SARS-like symptoms in Myanmar

DRUGS

AFP: Myanmar seizes 555 kilos of heroin and opium, arrests 48

INTERNATIONAL

AFP: Japan ex-PM holds talks with Myanmar military leader
Canton Repository: Students stop eating to protest sweatshops

STATEMENTS

Friends of the Earth: Kuoni Travel pulls out of Burma

INSIDE BURMA

Xinhua News Agency May 1 2003

Myanmar top leader calls for building modern nation

Myanmar top leader Senior-General Than Shwe Thursday called on his
country's blue-collar and white-collar workers to take part in the drive
to build a modern, developed and peaceful nation.

Than Shwe, chairman of the State Peace and Development Council, made the
call in his message on the occasion of the International Workers' Day
which falls on Thursday.

He recalled Myanmar had to live under unjust subjugation of the
colonialists for more than 100 years who adopted the divide-and-rule
policy to break up unity among the national brethren.

"During the time when Myanmar should have been in the process of national
rehabilitation project after the restoration of independence, the nation
lacked peace and stability and all the nation-building efforts were in
vain because of the multi-colored armed insurgency that broke out due to
the colonialist schemes to break up the union," he blamed.

At present, he pointed out,  the neo-colonialists are manipulating the
international organizations and hurling various slanders and accusations
at Myanmar, charging them with pretending to act as the protectors of
human rights and workers' rights to break up unity among the national
people.

He warned the workers of being aware of such perpetration.

He also recalled that the anti-colonialist spirit, national spirit and
union spirit of the workers have been put to the test and recorded in
history for many times.

He urged the workers to take part in the nation-building endeavors,
safeguarding the nation against the danger of the neo-colonialists
together with the entire people,  while upholding their good traditions.
________

TV Myanmar April 30 2003

SARS surveillance instituted at airports, ports, border checkpoints

The outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, SARS, occurs in 26
countries all over the world. Although there has been no local
transmission of the disease found in Myanmar Burma , the disease breaks
out in neighbouring countries.

In accordance with the guidance of the National Health Committee chairman,
preventive measures against the disease are being taken in advance in
Myanmar. Surveillance works are being carried out for preventing the
spread of the disease through those who have contracted the virus, at
international airports, international ports and border checkpoints
starting from 20 March.

The passengers arriving at Yangon Rangoon and Mandalay international
airports are given the Surveillance Form on board to provide information
on their travel. At the health counter of the arrival lounge, the forms
are collected and necessary information is asked. The signs of the disease
are checked and body temperature is taken. Physicians check the travellers
with the temperature of 38o.C and above and those with signs of the
disease at a separate room at the airport. Travellers with no sign of the
disease are allowed to enter the country and are provided with a
Surveillance Form.

The staff at the immigration counter also check the traveller's passports
to know the countries they transited. If a traveller is found coming from
the SARS-infected country, he is taken to the special health room and
specialists again check him. If a traveller is suspected of infection of
SARS, he is sent to the designated hospitals and put under surveillance.
If a traveller coming from the infected area shows no sign of the disease,
he is allowed to enter the country and his address is asked. Health staff
daily inspect him whether he shows the symptoms of the disease or not
during the course of 10 days.

The health and airport personnel carrying out the surveillance and
inspection work at Yangon International Airport wear face masks and those
handling the luggage wear gloves.
__________

Associated Press April 29 2003

26 people quarantined with SARS-like symptoms in Myanmar

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) _ Myanmar has confined 26 people in hospital for
observation after they showed symptoms of SARS, but has found no cases of
the disease so far, a senior health official said Tuesday.

Deputy Health Minister Dr. Mya Oo said at a news conference 25 Myanmar
nationals and one person from Taiwan were showing symptoms of severe acute
respiratory syndrome. They were being kept at the Contagious Diseases
Hospital in Yangon.

The 26 confined cases include a high-ranking military officer, Mya Oo
said, without identifying him further.

He said the government, in close cooperation with the World Health
Organization, has taken stringent measures to prevent a SARS outbreak.

``We are taking extreme precautions to prevent the outbreak of the
disease. I will not extinguish the fire only after it breaks out, but will
prevent it before the fire starts,'' said Mya Oo.

Preventive measures include forming medical surveillance teams, preparing
isolation wards at the Contagious Diseases Hospital and educating the
public through state media.

Mya Oo said that health personnel deployed at airports, seaports and
border crossings to identify visitors suffering from symptoms of SARS
checked 15,000 people between April 1 and 27.

He said that 206 people who had traveled from SARS-affected countries had
been kept under medical observation for two weeks after their arrival.

They were not quarantined, but received daily visits from health
personnel. About one-fourth of the 206 were staying at hotels, and the
remainder at their homes.

Speaking at the same news conference, the WHO resident representative in
Myanmar, Dr. Agostino Borra, described the government's efforts to fight
the disease as satisfactory.

The leader of Myanmar's ruling junta, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, on Tuesday
attended a summit meeting in Bangkok of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations and China on how to combat SARS.

DRUGS

Agence France Presse May 1 2003

Myanmar seizes 555 kilos of heroin and opium, arrests 48

A Myanmar special task force seized a massive 555 kilograms (1221 pounds)
of heroin and raw opium and arrested 48 alleged drug producers and
traffickers in a sweep through eastern Shan State, official media said
Thursday.

The task force included members of the Wa, the ethnic group whose United
Wa State Army (UWSA) is aligned with Yangon and is believed to be deeply
involved in drugs production and trafficking in Myanmar.

The authorities seized 75 kilos of heroin and 383.8 kilos of raw opium,
and 720.7 litres of precursor chemicals from a dozen drug refinery huts in
Kyanu village after a brief firefight with armed gunmen March 30, the New
Light of Myanmar said.

After reported confessions from those detained, the task force on April 28
seized an additional 96.1 kilos of heroin and 1,035 litres of chemicals
from the house of a man identified as Sai Yi, the English-language paper
added.

The chemicals, used in the drugs refining process, were smuggled in from
Thailand, it said.

Guns, ammunition, bank account books and records, five motorcycles and two
cars were also seized in the raids, it added.

The task force was a joint mission involving "members of the team of the
special region 2 of northern Shan State," which is the territory of the
UWSA, which signed a cease-fire agreement in 1989 with Yangon's ruling
military junta.

Further investigations were underway to expose the remainder of the drug
ring, the paper said.

Earlier this year Afghanistan toppled Myanmar as the world's biggest
producer of opium, the source of heroin, but the Southeast Asian nation
remains a major source of the narcotic despite declining output for the
sixth straight year to 630 metric tonnes in 2002, according to a drugs
strategy report from the United States.

INTERNATIONAL

Agence France Presse May 1 2003

Japan ex-PM holds talks with Myanmar military leader

Former Japanese prime minister Yoshiro Mori concluded a three-day visit to
Myanmar Thursday during which he held a rare lengthy meeting with military
ruler Senior General Than Shwe, officials and diplomatic sources said.

Japan is the biggest aid donor to Myanmar and Mori, who resigned as
premier in 2001 but remains an MP, led an 11-member team to the Southeast
Asian state to discuss economic ties and other bilateral issues.

"This is just a further indication of the ongoing Myanmar-Japan
cooperation process," a Japanese embassy source told AFP.

He also confirmed Mori's one-hour meeting Wednesday night with Than Shwe,
the length of which strongly suggests the discussions went far beyond the
typical visit paid to the general.

"It was not just a mere courtesy call," the embassy source added.

Mori also held talks with General Khin Nyunt, the number three in the
ruling State Peace and Development Council and chief of military
intelligence, as well as Foreign Minister Win Aung, government sources
said.

On Wednesday Mori took in a tour of Yangon, stopping at schools as well as
Yangon's anti-drugs museum, while Thursday saw him visit a war cemetery
outside the capital as well as a nurses training college built with
Japanese aid.

Japan suspended all but a small amount of humanitarian aid in the
aftermath of a 1988 military coup in Myanmar and crackdown on
pro-democracy demonstrators, but the flow of funds resumed in 1994.

In February Japan's overseas aid agency JICA said it planned to spend
about 20 million dollars in Myanmar in the fiscal year beginning last
month despite a reduction in its overall budget.

Despite no longer being Japan's leader, Mori was accorded all the courtesy
due a visiting head of state, reflecting the importance Myanmar attaches
to relations with its largest benefactor.

Yangon-based diplomats said there was speculation that Mori had come to
Myanmar in an effort to urge Than Shwe to make changes to the impoverished
country's policies.

Myanmar government sources said they did not expect any dramatic policy
change or deepening of Japanese assistance to Yangon as a result of the
visit.

In what was seen as a crucial meeting last August between Myanmar
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Japan Foreign Minister Yoriko
Kawaguchi, Suu Kyi told the minister she would no longer oppose foreign
aid provided it fell within strict guidelines.

Mori was not scheduled to meet with the Aung San Suu Kyi on his trip,
sources said. He was was due to leave Myanmar later Thursday.
__________

Canton Repository May 1 2003

Students stop eating to protest sweatshops
By JOSH WEIR
AKRON — Sara Cutlip has lost 12 pounds after not eating for seven days.
But she is hanging in there.
The University of Akron junior and graduate of Jackson High School is
participating in a hunger strike to protest Akron’s affiliation with
Holloway Sportswear, which “does business in Burma,” she said.
Burma is now referred to as Myanmar by its militaristic government, but
the land has long been known as a haven for sweatshops and unfair labor
practices.
In fact, the American Apparel and Footwear Association has recommended
that American businesses stay out of Myanmar due to its violation of human
rights and labor laws, said Cutlip. Big-name companies such as Nike and
Wal-Mart have pulled out of the country altogether.
Joining Cutlip in the protest is junior Rachel Wacker, a graduate of
GlenOak High School. The women are part of Students Taking Action for New
Democracies. The group hopes to ensure that apparel sold on campus is not
made in sweatshops.
The group’s actions have been effective, according to Cutlip. University
officials have discussed the issue recently with the group, ending nearly
eight months of silence. But no serious negotiations have taken place.
Student response has been positive. The group, which has protesters in the
Buchtel Commons each day, has asked students to wear orange clothing as a
show of solidarity.
Cutlip said she is doing OK physically, but feels more tired each day the
hunger strike lingers.
“I’m winding down ... . I stopped driving my car on the second day.”

STATEMENTS

Friends of the Earth May 1 2003

Kuoni Travel pulls out of Burma

Europe's sixth largest travel company, Kuoni Travel, announced that it
would pull out of Burma and that it will not return until democracy is
restored. The move follows pressure from The Burma Campaign UK and Friends
of the Earth and increases pressure on those UK companies still
collaborating with the military regime, such as Orient Express and British
American Tobacco.

Burma, ruled by one of the most brutal military dictatorships in the
world, is the subject of a tourist boycott following calls by Aung San Suu
Kyi, leader of Burma's democracy movement, for tourists to stay away.
Tourism provides the Burmese generals with an important source of foreign
currency.

Slave labour has reportedly been used to build tourist infrastructure.

Friends of the Earth Corporate Accountability Campaigner Craig Bennett said:

"Any company operating in Burma is propping up an illegitimate military
regime. It's great that Kuoni has pulled out, but they leave behind BAT
and Orient Express flying the flag for corporate irresponsibility.

"Surely, it's about time Patricia Hewitt changed UK company law to make UK
plc behave? Profits must stop coming before people and the environment."