BurmaNet News: June 13 2003

[editor at burmanet.org]

June 13 2003 Issue #2260

INSIDE BURMA

Kyodo: Burmese official says Aung San Suu Kyi may be released this month
DVB: Worries for missing people increase
DVB: Ferry disaster in southern Burma
AP; Myanmar junta says it bears no grudge against Suu Kyi
Economist: Dialogue of the deaf

DRUGS

Xinhua: Thai army urges Rangoon to destroy narcotic factories
Nation: Pre-dawn drug raid: Wa kingpin arrested

ON THE BORDER

AFP: Thai military uncovers bomb in northern border town

REGIONAL

Kyodo: Japanese foreign minister urges Burma to release Suu Kyi
Bernama: Malaysian PM says Burma sanctions would be ‘unproductive’

INTERNATIONAL

RFA: Bush watching Burma closely: Pentagon official
Washington Post: U.S. sanctions bill would ban Burmese imports
NYT: U.S. steps up pressure on Burmese junta
Irrawaddy: Global action on Suu Kyi’s birthday

STATEMENTS/EDITORIALS

U.S. Department of State: Congressional legislation regarding Burma
policy, Secretary Powell’s Op-Ed on Burma
Hindu: India must review Myanmar policy
Mizzima: A review of India’s policy on Burma
AWSJ: A moral foreign policy
NCGUB: NCGUB lauds passage of Burma bill in U.S. Senate

INSIDE BURMA

Kyodo News Service June 13 2003

Burmese official says Aung San Suu Kyi may be released this month

Phnom Penh, 13 June: Detained Myanmar Burma democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi may be released from custody this month if the situation in the
country returns to normal, a Myanmar Foreign Ministry official said here
Friday 13 June. Thaung Tun, director-general of the ministry's political
department, made the remarks in an interview with Kyodo News.

Suu Kyi was placed in "protective custody" following violent clashes on 30
May between supporters of her National League for Democracy and pro-junta
demonstrators in northern Myanmar. Thaung Tun is in Phnom Penh to attend a
series of meetings of Asia-Pacific nations.
__________

Democratic Voice of Burma June 11 2003

Worries for missing people increase

The SPDC has officially stated that 4 people were killed and 50 people
were wounded during the assaults on the NLD at Dipeyin on the 30th of May
but the victims’ names were never officially announced.

The names of those who were arrested and detained were never announced and
their families are not notified and their relatives are increasing feeling
worried about their fates.

The eyewitnesses who were with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and team and managed
to escape said that nearly 100 people could be killed and detained. But
the eyewitnesses are still unable to return to their homes and they are
still hiding for fear of their lives. The relatives of some of the people
who are on the run know that their loved ones are still alive but they are
unable to tell their families where they are hiding. Some families do not
even know whether their loved ones are dead or alive, hiding or arrested.

The MP of No.2, Constituency of Meikhtila Township, Dr. Thein Lwin told
the DVB about the condition of U Than Saung from Thazi who accompanied Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi during her journey as follows:

Dr. Thein Lwin : We have an EC member called U Than Saung from Thazi. He
was with Daw Suu during the trip. His family is very anxious about him. We
haven’t heard any news about him either. He is not in the list of the
wounded. He is not in the list of the arrested either. He was not in the
list of people who were wounded at the time. They have to be on the run
like criminals even though they didn’t commit a crime. We are very worried
for him. They are facing such difficulties that they are unable to return
home because of the government. As some relatives are saying that it might
have been better if their loved ones were killed, the problem should be
solved as soon as possible. The people who are on the run are facing big
problems. They dare not run that way and stay here. We don’t get any news
from U Than Saung. His family is so anxious about him. We are facing these
problems in Sagaing and Mandalay Divisions.

DVB : Is it possible for U Than Saung family to report to the local police
station and tell them that he is missing?

Dr. Thein Lwin : The military intelligence agents came to ask them about
him. The local intelligence agents and the police came to ask them if he
had returned. The family knows nothing. They don’t know what to do. With
the help of the ICRC, we told them to report. We have to do this with the
help of the ICRC.

DVB : As the police and the intelligence agents keep on asking questions
the family about him, isn’t it their purpose to arrest U Than Saung?

Dr. Thein Lwin : If you see it from the bright side, the reason for their
investigations might be that U Than Saung escaped the attacks and he is
still alive. His family believes that they came to ask about him because
he had escaped. But we don’t know the truth.

DVB : Are there many families who are facing the same problems like the
family of U Than Saung?

Dr. Thein Lwin : I can’t estimate. We don’t know how many are arrested or
killed. They said that 4 people were killed and 50 wounded. Who are the 4
people killed? Where are the 50 wounded people from? They should tell the
people with their names and addresses. And those who are not in the list,
are they on the run? The government says officially that only 4 people
were killed and 50 wounded. We don’t know who they are. They have to
announce their names officially so that we will be able to guess.
________

Democratic Voice of Burma June 11 2003

Ferry Disaster in southern Burma

It is reported that an express ferry carrying nearly 500 passengers
including more than 70 children has sunk on the 21st of May and many
passengers are feared to be drowned in the accident.

The ferry belongs to the military commander of Tavoy in Southern Burma and
it is a ferry running along Tavoy – Myeik(Margue) – Kawthaung coastal
route. But the authorities failed to issue a statement on the news of the
sinking of the ferry and the deaths of its passengers to this day. Many
guards are said to be positioned near the location of the incident.

DVB’s Khaing Thazin reports:

Khaing Thazin : The ferry capsized forty minutes after leaving the Tavoy
Port at the mouth of the Tavoy River near a place called Kamoke Kwayt.
There were 482 passengers and there are more than 70 children among them
when the ferry sank. No boats or ferries are allowed to approach the scene
of the accident and the ferry services along Tavoy-Myeik-Kawthaung route
are temporarily suspended. According to the local people, 200 people have
been found so far and it is not known how many of them are dead and alive.
The corpses rescued by fishing boats are confiscated and buried secretly
by the authorities without informing the victims’ relatives. A local Tavoy
resident told the DVB as follows:

A local Tavoy resident : ‘The SPDC imposed news blackout on the accident.
At the moment, the fishermen hauled more than 20 corpses. The victims’
families are not allowed to identify the corpses whether the victims are
their daughters or sons or not. They are imposing news blackout on the
incident.’

The local people are unable to understand the severe restrictions and news
blackout and the relatives of the passengers are still not allowed to find
out about the disaster.
___________

Associated Press June 13 2003

Myanmar junta says it bears no grudge against Suu Kyi
By AYE AYE WIN

Myanmar's military government says it bears no grudge toward opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi, as allies China and Malaysia cautioned the world
against pressuring the generals into giving up power.

The semiofficial Myanmar Times weekly quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Khin
Maung Win as saying the junta will do everything it can to achieve
reconciliation with Suu Kyi, who was put under detention May 30 following
deadly clashes between her supporters and a pro-government mob in northern
Myanmar.

The incident has put diplomatic heat on the junta and prompted widespread
demands for the Nobel Peace laureate's immediate release.

Washington has announced it supports more sanctions against Myanmar, and
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday referred to the junta as
"thugs." The United Nations, meanwhile, is pressing for a resumption of
dialogue between Suu Kyi and the regime to end the political deadlock in
the country.

Khin Maung Win urged "the international community not to further
complicate the prevailing situation in the country," said the
Myanmar-language Myanmar Times, which hit the stands Thursday.

The government "will systematically work towards achieving national
reconciliation and for a democratic reform," it quoted him as saying in a
meeting with foreign diplomats.

"The government bears no grudge or animosity towards Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi," Khin Maung Aye was quoted as saying. Daw is an honorific.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been ruled by the military since 1962.
The current junta, which came to power in 1988 as a transitional
authority, refused to honor the 1990 elections that gave Suu Kyi's
National League for Democracy an overwhelming victory.

A slow-moving national reconciliation process started by U.N. envoy Razali
Ismail in October 2000 came to a standstill after the arrest of Suu Kyi
and the clashes, which critics say were orchestrated by the junta and
caused at least four deaths.

Suu Kyi has been held incommunicado except for a brief meeting with Razali
when the Malaysian diplomat visited the country last week on an
unsuccessful mission to secure her release.

The junta says her detention is "temporary" but has not said when she will
be released despite growing international pressure.

Meanwhile, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, one of the
staunchest allies of the generals, said he still believes that the junta
should be persuaded rather than pressured into bringing change.

"It is not very constructive if we keep on pressing people. Whenever they
comply with something there is no reward; if they do something else, more
pressure is applied. It is unproductive," he told reporters Thursday.

China, another ally, also reiterated its long-standing policy of
nonintervention.

"We believe that the Myanmar people are capable of handling well their own
issues and we sincerely hope that Myanmar will maintain political
stability and economic development," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman
Kong Quan said in Beijing.

In a commentary in Thursday's Wall Street Journal, Powell said: "It is
time for the United States to reassess its policy toward a military
dictatorship that has repeatedly attacked democracy and jailed its
heroes."

Powell said he would turn to ministers attending next week's Association
of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Cambodia to do the same, "despite
their traditional reticence to confront a member and neighbor of their
association." Myanmar is one of the 10 members of ASEAN.

He suggested a ban on remittances to Myanmar so the government could not
benefit from foreign exchange and freezing assets of the junta.
__________

The Economist June 14 2003

Dialogue of the deaf

AUNG SAN SUU KYI, Myanmar's most famous dissident, is "well and in good
spirits", according to Razali Ismail, a UN envoy. If the latter, she has
little reason to be. Myanmar's military junta arrested her last month, and
had not let anyone see her until Mr Razali secured a brief meeting on June
10th. He was able to confirm that she had not been injured, contrary to
reports issued by some opposition groups. But he made no headway on his
other two goals, to secure her release and to revive talks about putting
an end to military rule. Meanwhile, the events surrounding her arrest, and
the fate of other members of her National League for Democracy (NLD),
remain as much a mystery as ever.

The junta still claims that NLD supporters started the fight that led to
Miss Suu Kyi's arrest, by trying to force their way through a crowd of
pro-government demonstrators on a road near the northern city of Mandalay.
But American diplomats, sent to the scene to investigate, found sharpened
bamboo stakes and wooden clubs, along with bloodstained clothing. They
concluded that "government-affiliated thugs" had launched "a premeditated
attack on Aung San Suu Kyi's motorcade." Exile groups also dispute the
claim that only four people died in the melee, putting the figure at up to
100.

The generals have not yet produced Tin Oo, the elderly deputy leader of
the NLD, or any of 16 other missing activists who were with Miss Suu Kyi.
But they have promised an inquiry, and say they will release Miss Suu Kyi
soon. Mr Razali thinks she might be free within a couple of weeks. But the
regime is hardly a model of expeditiousness--it has been promising to
restore democracy for 15 years. Even if the generals do release her, they
have made it abundantly clear that they are not interested in dialogue.
Than Shwe, the most senior figure in the junta, could not even find time
to meet Mr Razali at any point during his five-day visit. Mr Razali
nonetheless says he will be back in Myanmar soon.

Some countries are pushing for a more confrontational approach. America
has announced it will not issue visas to members of the Union Solidarity
and Development Associations, the government militia suspected of mounting
the attack on Miss Suu Kyi. It has also promised to push for legislation
tightening sanctions against Myanmar. And it has asked Myanmar's
neighbours to take a tougher stance.

Regional pressure might be more effective, but it will also be the harder
to mobilise, though Colin Powell says he will be trying next week. On a
visit this week to the White House, Thaksin Shinawatra, Thailand's prime
minister, signed a joint statement demanding Miss Suu Kyi's release. But
at the same time, officials in Thailand were still insisting that dialogue
was the best means to influence the junta. China, another influential
neighbour, is hardly one to criticise repressive regimes. If Miss Suu Kyi
knew how timidly Myanmar's neighbours were reacting to her arrest, she
might be less cheerful.

DRUGS

Xinhua News Agency June 13 2003

Thai Army urges Rangoon to destroy narcotic factories

Thailand's Deputy Army chief Wattanachai Chaimuenwong urged the Myanmar
government to carry out its promise to shut down narcotic production bases
controlled by ethnic groups, the Bangkok Post reported Friday.

Because Myanmar has not been active in destroying the factories from which
most illicit drugs originate, the supply chain through Thailand's northern
border with Myanmar is still intact, Wattanachai said, warning a decisive
stand should be adopted if Myanmar did nothing.

He said despite the signing of a bilateral drugs agreement between the
Thailand and Myanmar, suppression efforts have succeeded only to a certain
extent and no evidence has come to light suggesting Rangoon has destroyed
a single drugs factory.

Rangoon should be doing more than catching culprits and seizing drugs, he
said, adding that large factories run their own laboratories and employ
scientists to develop illicit drugs.

Wattanachai also showed his suspicion over Myanmar's promise that it has
the will to put a permanent end to drugs production in two years.

The report quoted a source as saying that about 30 make-shift drugs
outlets are scattered along the border with at least 10 larger factories
deep into the Pang Sang township under Wa control.
_________

The Nation June 13 2003

PRE-DAWN DRUG RAID: Wa kingpin arrested

Commandos swoop on hilltop teak mansion in northern Chiang Mai

A key aide to one of Burma's most wanted drug kingpins was arrested in a
predawn raid by police commandos yesterday at his house in Chiang Mai.

Laota Saenli, 65, was nabbed along with his two sons - Wicharn, 28, and
Sukkasem, 24 - when 70 heavily armed commandos raided his hilltop teakwood
mansion in the northern city's Mae Ai district.

They were charged with conspiring to have violated the antinarcotics laws.

The commando unit was headed by national police assistant chief Lt General
Priewphan Damapong and Narcotics Suppression Bureau (NSB) commissioner Lt
General Chalermdech Chomphunuch.

The three suspects were immediately transported to a "safe house" in
Chiang Rai before being flown to Bangkok on a police plane. The swift
action was aimed at avoiding possible mob pressure authorities experienced
during two previous searches of the same house in recent years, a source
said yesterday.

After arriving in Bangkok in the afternoon, the trio were accompanied by
police commandos to the NSB headquarters for questioning, during which
they appeared tense.

According to an antinarcotics source, Laota is an active member of the
United Wa State Army, an armed group in Burma notorious as a major drugs
producer. He is also believed to be a key aide to Wei Hsuehkang, a major
drugs baron in this region who has a $2 million price on his head offered
by the US government.

Laota is on the police blacklist of people involved in the drug trade. He
has also fought a case in a Chiang Mai court in which he is accused of
masterminding the murder of a local drug dealer.

Before getting involved with Wei, who has jumped bail after being released
by a Thai court a few years ago, Laota was a key aide to Khun Sa, then the
major drug kingpin in Southeast Asia who has since surrendered to the
Burmese junta, the source said. Wei was also then known as Khun Sa's
righthand man.

According to an antinarcotics source, Laota is an active member of the
United Wa State Army, an armed group in Burma notorious as a major drugs
producer. He is also believed to be a key aide to Wei Hsuehkang, a major
drugs baron in this region who has a $2 million price on his head offered
by the US government.

Laota is on the police blacklist of people involved in the drug trade. He
has also fought a case in a Chiang Mai court in which he is accused of
masterminding the murder of a local drug dealer.

Before getting involved with Wei, who has jumped bail after being released
by a Thai court a few years ago, Laota was a key aide to Khun Sa, then the
major drug kingpin in Southeast Asia.

ON THE BORDER

Agence France Presse June 13 2003

Thai military uncovers bomb in northern border town

Thailand's military has destroyed a bomb planted in the northern town of
Mae Sai which borders Myanmar, officials said Friday.

Intelligence authorities late Thursday tipped off the military's Phamuang
Task Force which discovered the bomb hidden in a cardboard box near a
power station.

"It was destroyed early today," an officer from the task force, which
monitors the northern Thai border region, told AFP. He did not speculate
on who may have been responsible or indicate the size of the device.

Mae Sai lies opposite the Myanmar town of Tachilek, where four people were
killed last month in a series of bomb blasts the Myanmar military
government blamed on the Shan State Army (SSA), an ethnic rebel force
fighting its rule.

REGIONAL

Kyodo News Service June 13 2003

JAPANESE FOREIGN MINISTER URGES BURMA TO RELEASE SUU KYI

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi urged her Myanmar (Burmese) counterpart
Friday (13 June) to release pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi and members of her National League for Democracy (NLD), Foreign
Ministry officials said.

Kawaguchi told Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung by telephone that Japan
hopes Myanmar resolves the issue and wants to see the freedoms and
political activities of Suu Kyi and other NLD members restored, the
officials said. She told Win Aung that she hopes to meet him in Phnom
Penh, which she will visit beginning Monday for a series of meetings with
the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and
their dialogue partners, the officials said.

Suu Kyi and the NLD members were placed in "protective custody" following
violent clashes 30 May between NLD supporters and pro-junta demonstrators
in northern Myanmar.

The officials said Win Aung was quoted as telling Kawaguchi that Japan's
concerns about the issue will be conveyed to Myanmar's leadership.

Win Aung said the government hopes to normalize the situation and is
trying its hardest to do so, the officials said.

Win Aung told Kawaguchi that Myanmar has not abandoned its quest for
democracy and will work to advance it, they said.
____________

Bernama June 13 2003

Malaysian PM says Burma sanctions would be "unproductive"

Putrajaya, 12 June: (Malaysian Prime Minister) Datuk Sri Dr Mahathir
Mohamad said today (12 June) applying pressure on the Burmese government,
which is placing pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi under detention,
would be unproductive.

"It will be not constructive if we keep on exerting pressure on other
people. Whenever they comply with something, there is no reward. If they
do something else, more pressure will applied. It will not be successful,"
he told reporters after launching a book on the founding father of UMNO
United Malays National Organization Datuk Onn Ja'afar, here.

He was asked whether constructive engagement by ASEAN with Burma was still
the best way to deal with the current situation in that country.

A wire report today also said that US Secretary of State Colin Powell had
tightened pressure on Burma's military government over the detention of
Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi.

The report quoted him as saying in an article published in the Wall Street
Journal on Thursday 12 June that he would hold a meeting next week with
Burma's neighbours in ASEAN to discuss action against Burma.

The military government has reportedly placed Suu Kyi in protective
custody since fighting erupted between her supporters and government
henchmen during her trip to the north on 30 May.

INTERNATIONAL

Radio Free Asia June 13 2003

BUSH WATCHING BURMA CLOSELY: PENTAGON OFFICIAL
'We are deeply concerned'

WASHINGTON, June 12, 2003--U.S. President George Bush is pressing
personally for the release of detained Burmese opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi, a senior Pentagon official told Radio Free Asia (RFA). Deputy
Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz also said the United States is pursuing
“every possible avenue” to secure her release and promote democracy in
Burma.

Wolfowitz said he was “personally very concerned, [and] more importantly I
know the whole administration--the U.S. administration including the
President of the United States--have discussed her case and are trying to
pursue every avenue possible to assure her safety, to get her released,
and ultimately the goal is to have the election in that country honored,”
Wolfowitz said in an interview. He was referring to the 1990 electoral
victory of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), which
the ruling junta has simply ignored.

“I was in a meeting with the President with a foreign head of government
where he pressed the case very strongly and made it clear that he
understands what's at stake here, the fundamental issue of human rights
and democracy,” Wolfowitz said. “Aung San Suu Kyi has been a real heroine
in this fight. She is greatly admired here in the United States, and we
are deeply concerned about her situation.”

On Wednesday, Bush joined Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in
calling for "an immediate substantive political dialogue" in Burma. A day
later the Burmese government, which calls itself the State Peace and
Development Council, blamed the NLD for the ongoing political stalemate.

Governments worlwide have called on the junta to release Aung San Suu Kyi,
detained two weeks ago after a clash between her supporters and a
pro-government mob in the northern part of the country. Eyewitness
accounts obtained by RFA's Burmese service suggest that the violence was
orchestrated and provoked by the junta, contradicting official claims that
it erupted spontaneously.

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent much of her adult life under house arrest for
her nonviolent struggle for democracy. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in
1991.

RFA broadcasts news and information to Asian listeners who lack regular
access to full and balanced reporting in their domestic media. Through its
broadcasts and call-in programs, RFA aims to fill a critical gap in the
lives of people across Asia. Created by Congress in 1994 and incorporated
in 1996, RFA currently broadcasts in Burmese, Cantonese, Khmer, Korean,
Lao, Mandarin, the Wu dialect, Vietnamese, Tibetan (Uke, Amdo, and Kham),
and Uyghur. It adheres to the highest standards of journalism and aims to
exemplify accuracy, balance, and fairness in its editorial content.
________

Washington Post June 13 2003

U.S. Sanctions Bill Would Ban Burmese Imports
By Paul Blustein

Outraged over the latest crackdown by Burma's military junta, Congress is
poised to approve legislation that would impose some of the toughest
economic sanctions ever on a country for human rights violations,
including a ban on the importation of Burmese goods.

The Senate passed a sanctions bill by a 97 to 1 vote on Wednesday, amid
indignation over a deadly May 30 attack on the motorcade of Aung San Suu
Kyi, leader of Burma's pro-democracy forces, who was later detained.
Yesterday, the House International Relations Committee approved a similar
bill by voice vote, and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell endorsed the
"goals and intent" of the bills in a signed Wall Street Journal commentary
headlined "It's Time to Turn the Tables on Burma's Thugs."

Business groups are protesting that the sanctions violate international
trade rules, will accomplish little in the absence of cooperation from
other countries, and contravene the longstanding U.S. policy of using
"engagement," including commerce, to change the behavior of dictatorial
regimes. But "when the train is moving 400 miles per hour, not a whole lot
of people want to stand on the tracks," said William A. Reinsch, president
of the National Foreign Trade Council, a corporate-backed organization.

The proposed import ban, which would cut off shipments of textiles and
other Burmese goods to the United States that totaled about $ 356 million
last year, gives the legislation far more of an economic bite than most
other human rights or pro-democracy bills that Congress has passed. The
only comparable laws to be enacted in recent memory, according to Kimberly
Ann Elliott, a expert on sanctions at the Institute for International
Economics, are the embargo on Cuba, the sanctions that restricted commerce
with South Africa's apartheid regime and similar bans on trade with Haiti
in the early 1990s.

The success enjoyed by Burma's congressional critics, whose leaders
include Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), marks
a reversal of a trend away from the use of trade as a weapon for human
rights and other foreign policy purposes. The predominance of the
engagement approach was evident in the approval of "permanent normal trade
relations" with China in 2000, and Powell derided sanctions as exercises
in futility when the Bush administration took office.

So although commerce with poverty-stricken Burma is of scant economic
significance to the United States, business representatives fear that a
trade embargo on Rangoon will give human rights activists and other
proponents of sanctions new momentum to press for trade restrictions on
other countries. After all, if engagement has been judged a clear failure
in Burma's case, that makes it harder to argue that the policy will work
at loosening authoritarian control elsewhere.

"We were kind of on a roll," Reinsch said ruefully. "Someone asked me the
other day for a list of sanctions that had been enacted since [the Sept.
11, 2001 terrorist attacks], and the answer is none. I thought that was a
pretty good record. Then here we go." Besides the Burma legislation,
"there are other bills kicking around," he noted, including one aimed at
Syria, which failed to pass last year but now "has some steam behind it."

Burma is a member of the World Trade Organization, which entitles it to
the same treatment for its exports as other WTO members. So if the
proposed ban on Burmese imports is implemented, Rangoon would presumably
file a complaint with the WTO, and it might win the right to impose a ban
on imports of U.S. goods.

That is a matter of little practical consequence, since U.S. exports to
Burma total only about $ 10 million a year -- less than one-one-thousandth
of 1 percent of total exports -- and the legislation would ban those
exports anyway. But the administration is concerned enough about appearing
to flout WTO rules that Powell's article warned of the need to "take into
account our WTO obligations." He endorsed other provisions of the bills,
including a freeze on the junta's financial assets.

For now, concerns about WTO rules do not seem likely to halt the march
toward sanctions, given the widespread sentiment that the oppression by
the generals in Rangoon has reached intolerable levels.

Even longtime critics of sanctions, such as Senate Foreign Relations
Committee Chairman Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), backed McConnell's bill.
Asked to explain the apparent change of heart, Lugar's spokesman, Andrew
Fisher, said that although the senator "has been opposed to unilateral
sanctions . . . the world is well united against the regime in Burma," and
may join an embargo if Washington leads.

But Burma's main trading partners, including China and Thailand, have
voiced unwillingness to go the sanctions route, and if that continues to
be the case, "U.S. sanctions, or even more broadly, Western sanctions,
probably aren't going to have much of an impact," said Elliott. Still, she
said, "I think somehow, the regime does need to be confronted over its
behavior."
____________

New York Times June 13 2003

U.S. Steps Up Pressure on Burmese Junta
By SETH MYDANS

The United States increased pressure today on the military junta in
Myanmar, as Congress moved to enact tough penalties and Secretary of State
Colin L. Powell said the repression of democracy advocates "will not be
allowed to stand."

Mr. Powell said the White House supported the punitive steps, which would
bar imports from the former Burma, freeze the government's assets in the
United States, widen a ban on visas for its leaders and block aid from
international lenders.

In a commentary published in The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Powell said, "It
is time to reassess our policy toward a military dictatorship that has
repeatedly attacked democracy and jailed its heroes."

On May 30, military-backed thugs attacked a motorcade of the leader of the
democratic opposition, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, killing or injuring scores of
people. It then arrested dozens of her supporters, locked her party's
offices and placed her under what it calls "protective custody."

The moves ended the junta's already waning compromise with Mrs. Aung San
Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, and signaled a return
to harsh suppression of dissent. With the rulers of the poor and isolated
nation hunkered down and its Asian neighbors reluctant to join in economic
sanctions, analysts said the United States was playing a fairly weak hand.

"The junta that oppresses democracy inside Burma must find that its
actions will not be allowed to stand," Mr. Powell said. But the generals
have withstood international condemnation since they seized power in 1988
by crushing a peaceful popular uprising.

A five-year-old ban on new investment by American companies and other
political and economic pressure have done little.

Instead the generals have strengthened their ties with Asian neighbors,
signing trade agreements with China, India, Bangladesh and Thailand. For
China the payoff goes beyond economics to geopolitics, offering potential
access through Myanmar to the Indian Ocean.

Without the cooperation of Asian countries, sanctions can have only
limited effect, Thomas J. Vallely, a Southeast Asia expert at the John F.
Kennedy School of Government, said in an e-mail interview.

"Is it worth using diplomatic capital for Burma with China when North
Korea has a higher priority?" he asked. "Probably not. That is one reason
to be pessimistic."

That difficulty was underscored today when a Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokesman said, "We believe this is something between the Myanmar
government and the opposition, and an internal affair of Myanmar."

Making no reference to democracy or human rights, the spokesman, Kong
Quan, said China's priority was to "maintain political stability and
economic development."

In Malaysia today, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad reaffirmed a similar
hands-off "constructive engagement" policy among Myanmar's Southeast Asian
neighbors.

"It is not very constructive if we keep on pressing people," he said.
"Whenever they comply with something there is no reward. If they do
something else, more pressure is applied. It is unproductive."

Secretary Powell said he would try next week to change that attitude when
he attends a meeting in Cambodia of the foreign ministers of the 10-member
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes Myanmar.

Sanctions are a controversial tactic, though, for more than political
reasons. Like war, they produce collateral damage -- in Myanmar's case
harming the 350,000 people who have found work in garment factories.

"That industry will die, that's all," said U Khin Maung Kyi, a Burmese
economist who lives in Singapore.

American imports from Myanmar totaled about $356 million last year, about
85 percent of them textiles, clothing and footwear, perhaps one-fifth of
the country's officially tallied exports. "The effect on the economy will
be very little," Mr. Khin Maung Kyi said. "The Burmese economy is run on
an informal basis. What is counted in the national income is only 50
percent of what is going on there. That's the main reason the Burmese
generals are very resistant, because they know they can ride on the
informal economy."

On the other hand, he and other analysts said, sanctions are symbolically
important. For one thing, they signal to potential investors that Myanmar
is a risky bet.

For another, they send a message to the ruling generals and their people
that they have not been forgotten in a world seemingly preoccupied by
terrorism and the Middle East.

"People are saying the long-noses should come and help," said U Aung Zaw,
editor of the Burmese exile magazine Irrawaddy, which is published in
Thailand. "People feel very helpless. They feel very depressed. They are
shocked at what has happened and they want somebody to come and help, to
really help."

Given the limited effectiveness of sanctions, Mr. Aung Zaw said he was not
sure what that real help could be.
_________

Irrawaddy June 13 2003

Global Action on Suu Kyi’s Birthday
By Naw Seng

Burmese opposition groups have called for worldwide protests next Thursday
to mark the birthday of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and to
counter junta’s ongoing crackdown on democracy. Suu Kyi will turn 58 on
June 19.
Student leaders in the US, Australia, Japan, Thailand and India have
formed a new movement called the Democratic Federation of Burma to push
for a strong global response. Moe Hein, a Burmese student in Bangkok said:
"We shall no longer confront them politically, but use revolutionary ways
to ensure the ultimate annihilation [of the Burmese military junta]."
Several Thai-based NGOs are planning a candlelight vigil in the northern
city of Chiang Mai on Suu Kyi’s birthday. The Washington-based Free Burma
Coalition (FBC) announced last week that action in the US would take place
from now until June 19. The FBC urged activists across the country to add
volume to the call for Suu Kyi’s release. In Australia, the National Union
of Students says there will also be peaceful protests in cities such as
Melbourne and Sydney next Thursday.
In Geneva yesterday, the Swiss Burma Association and other NGOs
demonstrated in front of the main gate of the United Nations building, and
called for the release of Suu Kyi. Last week, 70 demonstrators marched
from Parliament House in Canberra to the gates of the Burmese embassy.
Since the crackdown on members of the opposition National League for
Democracy on May 30, protests have been held outside Burmese embassies in
Tokyo, Seoul, Delhi, Bangkok, Washington and European capitals to demand
the immediate release of Suu Kyi and opposition members in Burma.
With international pressure mounting, military leaders have tried to shrug
off criticism from aboard. An analyst in Rangoon predicted that the
Burmese junta will release Suu Kyi before her birthday. "The junta will
come up with a surprise before the day," he said.

STATEMENTS/EDITORIALS

U.S. Department of State
Daily Press Briefing
Richard Boucher, Spokesman
Washington, DC
June 12, 2003

4-5  Congressional Legislation Regarding Burma Policy
3,4  Secretary Powell's Op-Ed on Burma

QUESTION: And another matter is -- I've completely forgotten what the
other one was.

QUESTION: Yes, in the opinion piece, the Secretary talked about the
legislation that's up on the Hill that passed the Senate yesterday. It was
unclear to me, though-- maybe it's just because I'm confused -- is the
administration pushing for things - for there to be more sanctions put into
the legislation, or are you happy with the way it is?
MR. BOUCHER: There's two versions of the bill, I think. There's a bill
that Senator McConnell introduced in the Senate that I think passed the
Senate, right? And then there's a bill from Congressman Hyde and
Congressman Lantos that is still working its way through the House of
Representatives. So we're working with both sets of sponsors of the
legislation to try to see how we can work out -- achieve final legislation
that has an appropriate and strong new policy. I'm, frankly, not
personally familiar with every element in those bills. I think most of
what we're looking for is already in there. It's just a matter of how it's
put together and how it's organized.

QUESTION: If you're looking for - if you're happy with the Senate bill as
it is and are trying to reconcile the House bill with that? Or you'd want
the Senate bill?

MR. BOUCHER: I think it's a matter of working with both sets of sponsors
of legislation so that we all come out with something everybody can
support.

QUESTION: And unless I'm mistaken, you just did something unprecedented by
saying that new policy from the podium?

MR. BOUCHER: No. Actually, the Secretary did it in his op-ed. I think he
admitted that we were, in fact, going to change our policy on Burma. We're
going to do something different. Just thought you guys would enjoy that.

QUESTION: Right - it's The Wall Street Journal. But, Richard, this was you
- this is you saying it from the podium, which I don't believe any
spokesman that I've been here, ever heard this --

MR. BOUCHER: Well, let's have a round of applause then.

QUESTION: Exactly. (Laughter.) A change in policy for the first time.

MR. BOUCHER: No, we've come out and talked about new policies. Sometimes
they were the same old thing, (laughter) but we have often talked about
having a new policy.  David.

QUESTION: You are opposed to the rather sweeping trade curbs that this
McConnell version would --

MR. BOUCHER: As you can see from the op-ed piece that the Secretary wrote,
the issue of an import ban -- we do think it's economically important
because of the way the structure of industry is organized and we think it
is an important message to the regime that we can prevent their imports of
products from which they benefit from the income of -- from which they
derive some income. But at the same time, we need to look at that in terms
of our international obligations, in terms of the general need for the
President to have waiver authority. So those kinds of things are being
discussed so we come up with appropriate language.
_________

The Hindu June 13 2003

INDIA MUST REVIEW MYANMAR POLICY
By Soe Myint

In 1988, India was one of the first of Myanmar's neighbours to condemn the
military repression against pro-democracy activists during the nation-wide
uprising. The Indian Embassy in Yangon encouraged Myanmarese student
activists to cross into India, promising shelter and support.

From 1988 to 1990, India followed a policy committed to open support of
the forces of democracy and "complete disengagement" with the ruling
military junta. The then External Affairs Minister (later Prime Minister),
P.V. Narasimha Rao, informed a parliamentary panel in 1989 that "strict
instructions" had been given not to turn back any genuine Myanmarese
refugees. Strangely enough, it was during the Prime Ministership of Mr.
Rao in 1992-93 that India decided to engage with the Myanmarese Generals
for "national interests". Two major factors prompted the Indian
policy-makers to review their policy; insurgency problems on the border
with Myanmar and the increasing Chinese influence. I disagree with J.N.
Dixit, pioneer of India's present engagement policy with the regime
adopted following his March 1993 visit to Yangon, when he said in a recent
interview that "we should be passionate with our own democracy. We should
not take the mission to other countries".

Non-existence of democracy next door is a threat to India's own democracy.
This fear is particularly heightened now that the strength of the
democratic system is being attacked under the guise of a "war against
terrorism".

It is interesting to observe that India has been trying to please the
Generals for over eight years, but the results thus far have been
negligible. China continues to heavily invest in Myanmar with large
amounts of official and unofficial financial and military assistance.
India's achievements after all these years of sweet-talking the Generals
amounts to the sale of a few mountain guns which Myanmar bought not
because it desperately needs India's guns but so that it can tell the
world that the world's largest democracy is supporting them.

The Generals are selling the name of India in public and private forums;
they claim to have the support of their one billion Indian next-door
neighbours.

The Northeast insurgency factor, the Indian military's greatest concern
after Kashmir, deserves further scrutiny. After concerted diplomatic
efforts, the Generals have announced that they would not allow the Indian
insurgents to use Myanmar's soil for anti-India activities. However, it is
a known fact that the NSCN-Khaplang and the PLA insurgents have bases and
training camps in Myanmar's bordering areas with India. The local
commanders are often seen meeting with Indian insurgents. Moreover, India
has a huge deficit in trading. So the question without answers remains:
why is India so soft with the Generals?

It is encouraging to see that the people of India, particularly the
political parties, continue to be supportive towards the democracy
movement. Almost all major political parties, including those in the
Government and the Opposition, have condemned the latest crackdown by the
military junta on the pro-democracy activists and the National League for
Democracy that won in the 1990 general elections with a landslide victory.

This is from the Samata Party statement: "While the world was hoping for
the early restoration of democratic rule in Myanmar, the military junta
has struck another blow against the democratic rights and civil liberties
of the Myanmarese people. The Samata Party demands the immediate release
of Aung San Suu Kyi and others who are languishing in jails for their
commitment to the restoration of democracy."

The Congress has a similar position. "The Congress is concerned about the
whereabouts of Ms. Suu Kyi in Myanmar. Day before yesterday she was
injured while campaigning for the restoration of democracy. She is not
only a fighter for democracy but also a recipient of the Jawaharlal Nehru
Award. The Indian National Congress is concerned about her whereabouts. We
urge the authorities in Myanmar to ensure that no harm is done to her
person," said the Congress spokesperson, Anand Sharma.

The other major parties such as the Communist Party of India (Marxist),
the Communist Party of India, the Samajwadi Party and several prominent
Indians, including Kuldip Nayar (Member of Parliament) and Nirmala
Deshpande, have also called for the immediate release of Ms. Suu Kyi.

So, why has the Indian Government separated itself from the opinions of
Indian political leaders and civil society on its Myanmar policy?

The Indian policy-makers definitely need to review their stand on Myanmar
and its democracy movement. It is not enough that the Government reacted
on the detention of Ms. Suu Kyi with a simple official statement: "We have
been watching very closely with concern the recent developments in
Myanmar". India needs to do more for the people of Myanmar who have shared
decades of friendship with it.

Having a tradition of supporting democracy movements in other parts of the
world, the least India could do is to use its influence with the Generals
to immediately free the Nobel laureate and the recipient of the 1993
Jawaharlal Nehru Award.

The United Nations special envoy, Razali Ismail, has said that he could do
little without the support of regional powers, including India and China.
He specifically asked India to be more supportive towards his efforts in
bringing national reconciliation and the restoration of democracy in
Myanmar. India should carefully heed his request.
__________

Mizzima June 13 2003

A review of India’s policy on Burma
By Mohan Guruswamy

India exists in probably the most unenviable neighborhood in the world.
The countries that surround it are least governed, but that’s not because
they are in an advanced stage of Marxist development. All around us the
institution of State is withering away, in varying degrees, under the
weight of ethnic and religious strife, and competing aspirations further
exacerbated by the avariciousness and ambitions of leaders. But not all of
them are in similar straits. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka might be closer to
India in terms of standards of governance, though that may not be saying
too much for them given what is prevalent here. Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet and
Pakistan are also caught up in their internal struggles, with few of the
institutions that characterize a modern state. But even by such poor
standards Burma would be in a class by itself. It seldom makes the news,
but when it does, it is usually for all the wrong reasons.

In recent days it has been once again in the news because of the renewed
incarceration of Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for
Democracy and winner Nobel Prize for Peace in 1991. The Burmese military
junta has taken her into “protective custody” after a violent incident on
May 30 when her motorcade was ambushed in a northern town by as yet
“unknown” miscreants, and in which she is also said to have suffered
injuries. The Burmese military intelligence chief, Lt.Gen. Khin Nyunt has
on the other hand accused her of “provoking the untoward events.” Suu Kyi
has been under arrest for about half the time since returned to Burma 15
years ago. After her last arrest lasting twenty months she was released in
May 2002.

India shares a 1400 kms long border with Burma that runs arbitrarily
across forested ridges from Arunachal Pradesh to Mizoram. It’s an open
border and the tribal people are free to move up to twenty kms. on either
side. Both countries have made a virtue of a situation over which they
have little control, as the political border is made irrelevant by
geography and history. Though the majority of the Nagas live in India, a
large section lives in Burma. Ditto for the Kukis and Mizos who claim a
close relationship with the Chin peoples of Burma. Historically and
culturally the relationship between northeast India and Burma is a
particularly close one. The Burmese script derives from Pali, the ancient
Indian language before the advent of Sanskrit, and went to them from South
India. Buddhism is the principal religion of the dominant Burmans who
migrated from Yunnan in China after AD 850 and called their new land their
“Suvannabhumi” or golden land.

Like the rest of South Asia with the exception of Nepal and Bhutan, Burma
too was a part of the British Empire and till 1 April 1937 was a part of
British India, when the Government of Burma Act separating it from India
came into effect. The Burmese interaction with the British began with the
conquest of Assam and Manipur by King Alaungpaya (1752-60). For about 70
years Burmese power in the region was unchallenged and blinded by their
successes they took on the British in India. The First Anglo-Burmese War
(1824-26) ended with the Treaty of Yandabo (1826) by which the Burmese
were forced to renounce their claims over Assam and Manipur. After the
Second Anglo-Burmese War (1852-53) that followed the repudiation of the
Treaty of Yandabo by King Pagan, Britain annexed Lower Burma and made it a
province of India. Upper Burma came under British control when King
Thibaw, tacitly encouraged by the French, led his country into the Third
Anglo-Burmese War (Nov 1885), which ended in just two weeks with the
capture of all of Upper Burma.

What followed is a tragic tale of how fate deals with losers on the high
stakes table. King Thibaw, Queen Supayalat and four princesses were exiled
to India, where they were lodged in a dilapidated building on a hill
overlooking the Arabian Sea called Outram House in the coastal town of
Ratnagiri in Maharashtra. After Thibaw died in 1915, the family’s fortunes
dwindled and soon they were reduced to penury. His last daughter, Princess
Phaya, died in Ratnagiri in 1956. Phaya bore a child, Tu Tu, fathered by
the family driver, Gopal. Tu Tu who married a local motor mechanic still
lives in Ratnagiri where she ekes out a selling making paper flowers. Her
children and their children live in various parts of Maharashtra doing odd
jobs. One daughter Jayu Kule lives in Bombay as a domestic servant. Her
daughter Prachi is said to bear an uncanny resemblance to King Thibaw!

Burma, now called Myanmar by the military regime, with a population of
about 49.5 million is a land of great diversity. It is made up of 19 major
ethnic groups. The dominant Burmans (69%) occupy the rich lands along the
Chindwin and Irrawady Rivers that join near Mandalay and flows downwards
part Rangoon (now Yangon) into the Bay of Bengal. The other significant
groups are the Shan (8.5%) who live in the eastern territory abutting
Thailand, Laos and Yunnan province of China, the Kachin (1.4%) who control
the northern territory abutting southern China, the Karen (6.2%) who
dominate the southern territory alongside Thailand, and the Chin (2.2%)
and Rakhine (4.5%) who have common borders with Manipur, Mizoram and
Bangladesh. Besides these there are other powerful tribes (5.8%) like the
Wa, Karenni and Mon. Most of Burma is densely forested and rich in natural
resources, not just jade, rubies, pearls and sapphires, but oil and
natural gas. Burma is the world’s largest exporter of teak.

The traditional rivalries between the dominant Burmans with the other
groups has been the root of all ethnic tensions and has fuelled the
country’s many separatist rebellions. This tension along ethnic lines is
further delineated by the fact that most of the non-Burman ethnic groups
have adopted Christianity, while the Burmans still remain largely
Buddhist. Since 1951, the production of narcotics has become a major
occupation in the tribal regions abutting China and Thailand, and like
elsewhere in the world, the development of narcotics as an industry
coincided with the arrival of the CIA in eternal pursuit of its phantom
wars. Burma’s first drug warlords were these Kuomintang (KMT) Chinese
generals, whose forces the CIA was arming and training to “retake” China.
The drug business then passed into the hands of the tribal warlords like
Khun Sha. This is a high growth business and the military regime derives
“taxes” from it by allowing safe havens for their manufacture. Khun Sha
now runs his business from Rangoon. Drugs are easily Burma’s principal
export, though it is not reflected in the national income accounting.
Today Burma produces 84% of the opium in Southeast Asia and most of it in
Shan State where the warlord Khun Sha’s Mong Tai Army now calls the shots.
On 19 June 2002, Mathew Paley, Dy. Asst. Secretary for East Asian and
Pacific Affairs in the US State Department testified to a Congressional
Committee that Burma now also produced 800 million metha-amphetamine
tablets. It’s not without irony that the Americans now spend a fortune
trying to break the stranglehold of the drug lords and in interdicting the
drug supply chain.

The Americans are great exponents of self-help and like to have their wars
financed and fought by others. Drugs have often been the means of
self-finance. Most of the stuff produced in what has now come to be called
the Golden Triangle ends up in the USA, where its main consumers are the
black underclass. If there was any moral dilemma about this it seems it
was only within the Italian mafia in the USA. This dilemma is depicted in
“The Godfather” in the struggle between Vito Corleone and Socorro. In real
life this gang war was fought between Luciano and Maranzano families and
was called the Castellmarese War, which was the Sicilian region from which
both the gangs hailed. But here in Burma there were no such dilemmas and
the CIA decided that drugs should finance the war against Mao’s China. But
as it so happened by 1971, according to the New York Times (16 May 1971),
10-14% OF US soldiers in Vietnam and 7% of all US factory workers tested
were addicts.

Ever since the Arabs introduced opium to India in the initial years of the
last millennium, the use of opium and its derivatives has driven economies
and history with an intensity that proselytizers of religions and
ideologies would envy. In the sixteenth century the Portuguese introduced
it to indentured Chinese labor in Java. It then spread to China. The East
India Company stole the business from the Portuguese and by 1838 Bengal
was exporting 2400 tons annually to China. When China attempted to close
the trade, the British waged the First Opium War (1839-41) to defend the
principles of “free trade” and “diplomatic equality”. China then tried to
beat imports by allowing opium to be grown in Yunnan. It succeeded. But
when the Communists came to power in 1949, production moved to Burma with
the KMT generals driven out of southern China. In 1950 the CIA began
regrouping the KMT forces in Shan State for a projected invasion of South
China. This trade then expanded to include the generals in Thailand.
Drugs, CIA arms and the dense forests have spawned many insurgencies in
Burma. Out of the 387 known terrorist and insurgent groups in the world
Burma accounts for over 40.

Suu Kyi’s father Aung San was one of the founding fathers of the Burmese
nationalist movement as well as the Burmese Communist Party. Like Subhas
Chandra Bose, Aung San went over to the Japanese side during their
occupation of Southeast Asia, including Burma. When Field Marshal Slim’s
Third Army turned the Japanese back at Imphal and followed triumphantly
down the road to Mandalay and then on to Rangoon, Aung San with great
alacrity switched over to the British side. With Indian independence
looming, the British exit from Burma became inevitable. He then became the
leading figure in the newly formed Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League
that negotiated Britain’s exit from Burma on 4 January 1948. But Aung San
did not live to see freedom for he was mysteriously assassinated on 19
July 1947 as he was presiding over a meeting of the executive council of
the Interim Burmese Government. Interestingly in 1997 on the fiftieth
anniversary of Aung San’s death the BBC2 broadcast a program “Who Really
Killed Aung San?” which strongly hinted a British hand in it. If it was
indeed so, it would be a great irony since the British Government and the
BBC in particular are the greatest proponents of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Since 1962, after U Nu was overthrown, Burma has been under a military
government, whose rapacity and cruelty has been matched by a quirky sense
of economic nationalism, This economic nationalism which has an uncanny
similarity to the ideas of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s original Swadeshi
ideologue, Murli Manohar Joshi, is a mish-mash of xenophobia with a good
bit of mumbo-jumbo like astrology, palmistry and numerology thrown in.
(Note from Editor: The present Indian government is a coalition government
led by Bharatiya Janata Party.) In September 1987 Ne Win demonetized
currency notes in already quixotic 75, 35 and 25 kyat units and replaced
them with 90 kyat and 45 kyat notes, currency units divisible by nine, his
lucky number! Nine didn’t prove lucky after all for this demonetization
triggered off violent protests led by enraged students. The stage was set
for the entry of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi’s mother, Daw Khin Kyi was made Burma’s Ambassador to India in
1960 and Suu Kyi who was 15 years old continued her education in New Delhi
where her circle of friends included Rajiv and Sanjay Gandhi and other
many others at Lady Shriram College. She went on to Oxford University
where she took a PPE. Here she met her future husband, Michael Aris, an
Oxford don. Suu Kyi returned to Burma in 1988 to visit her critically ill
mother, but the events sparked off by Ne Win’s obsession with the number
nine swept her up and soon she was leading the struggle for democracy in
Burma. On 26 August 1988 she told a cheering audience of thousands of
students, office workers and monks in Rangoon: “I could not, as my fathers
daughter remain indifferent to all that was going on. This is Burma’s
second struggle for independence!” Bowing to the pressure the generals
agreed to elections in May 1990. The National League for Democracy led by
Aung San Suu Kyi won 392 of the 495 seats it contested while the military
backed National Unity Party won just 10. The military refused to hand over
power and she continues to fight for democracy, with a little help from
her friends.

Some years ago I crossed over into Burmese town of Tamu from Moreh in
Manipur. Tamil traders dominate the business in Tamu, but the really big
business is in the hands of Chinese businessmen. Tamu is like a Wild West
town with more guns in it than people. It may mostly be a shantytown but
it has some really good Chinese restaurants where the fiery fare can de
dowsed down by plenty of Heineken beer. The trade across Tamu/Moreh now
exceeds more than Rs.1000 crores and the exports from India, by head
loads, consists of light engineering goods and machinery, durables like
pressure cookers, suitcases, pharmaceuticals, garments and lots of acetic
anhydride needed to process heroin from opium base. Most of the goods go
into southern China. On the reverse side there is a flow of scotch whiskey
and other fine liquors, silks from China, teak logs and lots of drugs on
their way to Calcutta and Chittagong for export to the USA, to feed the
unending appetite of the American underclass. But this is not without
collateral damage in India. According to Manchen Hangzou, originally from
Manipur and an AIDS researcher now working in New Delhi, over 40% of the
Manipur youth are addicted to heroin and other drugs, and because of
indiscriminate needle usage over 50% of addicts are HIV positive. This is
no longer a time bomb. The bomb has exploded in northeastern India and the
fallout is traveling westward. This has not even left the security forces
untouched. A few years ago a CRPF (para-military force) convoy was
intercepted by the Bihar Police to find that it was carrying over seven
truckloads of drugs. Investigations revealed that an IGP of the CRPF was
the mastermind, but the matter has got lost in judicial processes and
lethargic prosecution and the officer runs about Delhi, quite freely.

In 1978 Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, then Foreign Minister
visited Burma. In Rangoon he promised that the body of King Thibaw lying
in an obscure grave in Ratnagiri would be returned to Burma where it could
be interred with honors befitting a king. Likewise the body of Bahadur
Shah Zafar, the last Moghul, who was buried in Rangoon, would be returned
to India for similarly befitting interment. He also promised a pension to
King Thibaw’s granddaughter Tu Tu. A princely sum of Rs.250 per mensem was
sanctioned, but the Burmese royalty in India is yet to see a paisa of it!
Our failure to do even this much tells a great deal about our Burma
policy.

(Mr. Mohan Guruswamy is a policy analyst and columnist in India. He was
former advisor to the Finance Minister of India. He contributed this
article to Mizzima News.)
_________

Asia Wall Street Journal June 13 2003

A Moral Foreign Policy

      June 13, 2003

            REVIEW & OUTLOOK
A Moral Foreign Policy
It's not often that a U.S. secretary of state calls an Asian government a
bunch of "thugs." But that was how Colin Powell described Burma's military
junta in an article yesterday1, protesting the regime's recent detention
of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
We're not disputing Mr. Powell's description, or his call for tougher
steps against the junta, such as freezing its financial assets. Quite the
reverse, we're pleased to see the secretary echoing sentiments we've long
been voicing.
It has not always been this way at Foggy Bottom, where human rights often
seem to rank a distant second to maintaining cordial relations on the
diplomatic circuit. Only six months ago, East Asia hands in State were
even trying to get the Burmese regime removed from the U.S. list of major
drug producers, until outrage on Capitol Hill and elsewhere in the Bush
administration put a stop to their efforts.
      And, as The Wall Street Journal's Deputy Editor George Melloan noted
on Tuesday2, some State Department professionals still seem so
traumatized by the Vietnam war that they're reticent about promoting
such values as freedom and democracy elsewhere in the world.
Sometimes that reluctance manifests itself in other ways, such as
the continuing refusal in some quarters to accept that liberating
the Iraqi people from tyranny was one
justification for the war to topple Saddam Hussein.      Fortunately such
attitudes are beginning to change. Perhaps the turning point was U.S.
President George W. Bush's branding of three of the world's regimes --
North Korea, Iran and Saddam's Iraq -- as an "axis of evil" last year,
defying the predictable opposition of many at State. Mr. Bush
continued this new approach of calling brutal dictatorships for what they
are (however much heartburn it causes the diplomats) in an interview with
Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, published last fall, in which he
made public his "loathing" for North Korea's Kim Jong Il.
      Now Mr. Powell has followed suit, in his labeling of Burma's rulers
as "thugs" and endorsement of the tougher measures proposed by
Congress, which the Bush administration (at State's behest) had
previously opposed.
      If the junta is smart, it will now try to head off these measures
(which include a ban on all U.S. imports from Burma, passed
overwhelmingly by the Senate on Wednesday) by releasing Ms. Suu Kyi
before next week's meeting of the Asean Regional Forum in Cambodia,
which Mr. Powell will attend. The announcement that university
classes (which were suspended as part of the crackdown on opposition
activities) will resume in Rangoon on Monday suggests that the
regime is aware of its pariah status.
      While release of the Nobel Peace laureate will be welcomed, it will
not wash away the bloodstains left when the regime's thugs attacked
her convoy on May 30, killing up to 70 of her supporters. Nor will
it be any more than a token gesture, as long as the junta refuses to
engage in any kind of dialogue with Ms. Suu Kyi and her National
League for Democracy.
      The U.S. has many other concerns over Burma, from fears that China
is using it as a base to provoke tensions with India to anxiety
about the true purpose behind the 10-megawatt nuclear reactor the
junta is building with Russian assistance. But judging from Mr.
Powell's op-ed yesterday, human rights considerations rank close to
top of the list.
      That's something Burma's appeasement-minded neighbors in the
Association for Southeast Asian Nations will have to learn to live
with, however much they dislike it. From Thailand to South Korea,
governments in the region are having difficulty coming to terms with
the Bush administration's principled approach to foreign policy that
calls Burma and North Korea the brutal dictatorships that they are,
instead of disguising this in
diplomatic niceties.
      To be sure, this policy has limits. No one in the Bush
administration refers to the Chinese leadership as thugs, even
though many of Beijing's actions -- such as the recent jailing of
several journalists for simply discussing politics with their
friends -- are clear violations of human rights. That's partly due
to China's strategic importance, but also because free-market
reforms are bringing a degree of personal (although not political)
freedom ordinary North Koreans and Burmese can only dream about.
States that are making genuine efforts at reform deserve to have
those efforts acknowledged.
      Nonetheless it would be no surprise if Hu Jintao and his colleagues
read Mr. Powell's article with some interest yesterday.
Dictatorships everywhere are now on notice that, under Mr. Bush's
approach to foreign policy, the days when regimes who repress their
people could shelter behind the conventions of diplomacy are long
gone.
____________

National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma

                                                    Press Release     
June 13, 2003
NCGUB Lauds Passage of Burma Bill in U.S. Senate
The National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB) warmly
welcomes the passage of the "Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003 (S
1215)" by the U.S. Senate on 11 June.  The Bill introduced by Senators
Mitch McConnell and Dianne Feinstein passed with an overwhelming majority
vote of 97-1.
The NCGUB is profoundly grateful to all U.S. Senators who co-sponsored and
voted for the Bill and is particularly indebted to Senators Mitch
McConnell and Dianne Feinstein who have steadfastly stood by Daw Aung San
Suu Kyi and the people of Burma throughout the years, championing the
cause of the Burmese democracy movement in times of urgent need.
The military dictators in Burma are brutal and ruthless in persecuting
political opponents as evidenced by the premeditated ambush in Upper Burma
on 30 May which resulted in the death of scores of members of the National
League for Democracy and other democracy activists.  Reports from Burma
suggest 115 of these people are still missing and their whereabouts are
still unknown today.  According to the National Council of the Union of
Burma, an umbrella organization of ethnic and democracy organizations, the
Military Intelligence, which has detained 17 NLD members in Hkamti Prison,
including youths who provide security for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, is
torturing those detainees to confess that the 30 May incident was not an
ambush but a fight between NLD supporters and those opposed to the NLD.
Prime Minister Dr Sein Win said, "The generals intend to crush the Burmese
democracy movement by getting rid of the NLD and its leadership. If the
reaction from the international community is lukewarm or indifferent it
would be a disaster for our movement inside Burma.  The passage of the
'Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003' is, therefore, crucial in
keeping the hopes of democracy and national reconciliation alive in our
country."
In this regard, the NCGUB is confident that members of the U.S. House of
Representatives will also help the people of Burma realize their
aspirations for democracy by passing the "Burmese Freedom and Democracy
Act of 2003 (H.R. 2330)" initiated by Representative Tom Lantos and others
which was unanimously endorsed by the U.S. House International Relations
Committee on 12 June.