BurmaNet News: June 22-23 2003

[editor at burmanet.org]

June 22-23 2003 Issue #2267

INSIDE BURMA

DPA: Myanmar junta blames Suu Kyi for breakdown of reconciliation
Kaladan:  Fighting between pro-NLD and anti-NLD soldiers
AP: Under a placid surface, fear and apathy follow opposition leader’s arrest
Xinhua: Myanmar FM stresses necessity of national reconciliation

MONEY

Xinhua: US sanctions threaten Myanmar garment industry
Xinhua: Chinese-built machinery factory to be handed over to Myanmar
AP: Myanmar to boost gasoline, diesel fuel imports

DRUGS

Bangkok Post: Shan plants move to Laos to dodge law

INTERNATIONAL

DPA: Annan: Myanmar opposition leader kept in deplorable conditions

REGIONAL

AFP: Japanese deputy FM meets Myanmar No. 3 [to] push for Suu Kyi’s release
Asia Tribune: Burmese Rohingya refugee in Bangladesh: their miserable
plight exposed
New Light of Myanmar: Burmese foreign minister returns from ASEAN meetings
in Cambodia, Thailand

STATEMENTS/OPINIONS

Washington Post: How best to rid the world of monsters
Washington Post: Where is she
Dictator Watch: Relief mission, mine victim, and additional analysis of Burma

INSIDE BURMA

Deutsche Presse Agentur June 23 2003

Myanmar junta blames Suu Kyi for breakdown of reconciliation

Myanmar's (Burma's) ruling junta has blamed democracy campaigner Aung San
Suu Kyi for the violent clash on May 30 that scuttled the country's
reconciliation process and landed her in jail, a report said Monday.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Myanmar Times, Myanmar Foreign
Minister U Win Aung insisted the detention of Suu Kyi, 58, will be lifted
when the situation in the country returns to normal.

"When we are saying on the record that it is temporary then it will be
temporary," he was quoted as saying last Thursday in the Cambodian
capital, Phnom Penh.

The newspaper, which like all media in Myanmar is strictly controlled by
the junta's censors, quoted Win Aung as saying the May 30 clash between
supporters and opponents of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy in
northern Myanmar was a severe setback to reconciliation efforts.

"Before May 30 we had been filled with hope and optimism that national
reconciliation was on track and would pave the way for a smooth and
peaceful transition to democracy," Win Aung said.

The government claimed four people were killed and 48 injured in the
clash, but opposition sources claimed a much higher casualty count, with
estimates ranging at 70 or more killed.

Win Aung portrayed the clash as an outcome of Suu Kyi's failure to
cooperate with the government's peace-making gestures.

"When the government demonstrated its willingness to cooperate, she did
not reciprocate," he said. "She refused to scale down calls for pressure
at home and abroad. She even opposed assistance offered to Myanmar by
friendly countries."

Win Aung insisted the military government was working toward an eventual
turn-over of power to civilians.

"What we are working for is a civilian government to emerge, not military
government to prolong its stay in power," he said.

After a year-long respite from house arrest, Suu Kyi was detained shortly
after the May 30 violence and was believed to be held in the infamous
Insein Jail on the northern outskirts of Yangon (Rangoon).

Suu Kyi, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her non-violent campaign
to bring democracy to the military-ruled nation, has spent most of her
time since 1988 under house arrest in Yangon.

Although she was under house arrest at the time, her NLD party won the
country's 1990 general election, but the junta refused to hand over power
and jailed or exiled most of the winning candidates.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and U.S. President George W.
Bush have led a worldwide chorus of appeals to the junta to release Suu
Kyi.
_______

Kaladan Press June 22 2003

FIGHTING BETWEEN PRO- NLD AND ANTI- NLD SOLDIERS

Sittwe, June 22: On 12 June, an armed fighting was occurred between
pro-NLD and anti- NLD soldiers in the battalion No. 232 in Sittwe, the
capital of Arakan State, according to our correspondent of Sittwe.

The fighting was broken out while the SPDC soldiers were talking among
them about the present political situation of Burma in the camp. Some pro-
NLD soldiers said that the present military Government has pushed the
country into “Lower Development Country (LDC)” by unskilled full
management since 1988. Therefore, we don’t even get our salary regularly
and are always under oppression of higher ranks. They also said that the
event of May 30 at Depayin towards NLD members was unjustified. It was a
pre-planned attack to the NLD supporters by the Government backed thugs,
according to a military close related to our correspondent.

 Some anti- NLD group said that the NLD party is being backed by western
countries specially USA and UK. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is main figure of
NLD, who married a westerner and passed her most lives in western
countries. If NLD will get the power, the country will become fully
westernized. Under these circumstances, the SPDC’s rule will be better
than the NLD’s rule, which is dominated by western countries, he further
added.

These barging brought them into quarrelling and quickly changed into armed
fighting between two groups. Over 100 rounds bullets were fired during the
half –an –hour encounter, source said.

By involving Battalion No.20 and artillery Battalion of Sittwe, the
skirmish was stopped dead, source further said.

During the gun fighting, 3 soldiers were seriously wounded including one
Tat Naing and immediately they were sent to Army Hospital of Sittwe for
medical treatment, sources said.

Another six pro-NLD soldiers were suspended from their duty and kept them
in the camp, a source in the military camp said.
___________

Associated Press June 23 2003

Under a placid surface, fear and apathy follow opposition leader's arrest

By SHELLY CULBERTSON EDITOR'S NOTE - Shelly Culbertson, traveling in Asia
on an academic fellowship, wrote this story for the AP after a recent
visit to Myanmar.

By the ancient Shwedagon Pagoda, its spires shimmering with gold, a tour
guide proudly shows off a memorial to a 1920 student uprising against
British colonial rule, and manages to slip in a more contemporary touch.

He tells how, as a student, he was part of the protests launched from this
spot in 1988 against his country's military dictators.

But there have been no student demonstrations, no fiery speeches at the
roughly 25-story-high monument, no flicker of discontent in the streets of
the capital, in the days since the generals arrested Aung San Suu Kyi, a
heroine of the pro-democracy forces.

Speaking one's mind may be riskier than ever. People never know when they
might be overheard by a government agent disguised as a harmless
bystander. They'll talk to foreigners, assuming they're unlikely to be
allied with the regime, but don't want to be identified in print. They say
careless words can lead to arrest, torture, even execution.

"The military is afraid of students. They keep us under their boot," said
the guide, who wears a sarong and white cotton shirt and whose broad smile
reveals teeth reddened by betel nut juice.

He speaks ungrammatical but expressive English, a vestige of British rule
that ended in 1947. The military took over in 1962, and after brutally
crushing the 1988 uprising, it closed the universities. By the time they
reopened, it was too late for the guide, like thousands of others, to
complete his degree.

Yangon seems tranquil compared with cities in neighboring countries.

The streets and sidewalks are clean and filled with smiling faces. Drivers
obey stoplights. The trains run on time. Street intersections are
dominated by large red billboards euologizing the government in
white-lettered messages. One of them reads: "Crush all internal and
external destructive elements as the common enemy."

Stores sell South Korean, Taiwanese and Japanese brand stereos, washing
machines and flat screen televisions. Videos of the latest Hollywood and
Hong Kong action movies are available. Tea shops entertain guests with
hip-hop Myanmar music and pirated copies of Western CDs, this month's
flavor being the band "Linkin Park."

If Myanmar seems oddly quiet, it is because many are tired of struggle and
just want to improve their lives.

The most famous of the Texas-sized country's 42 million people is nowhere
to be seen. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate for her struggle for
democracy, has been in prison - "protective custody," the regime calls it
- since May 30, when government supporters clashed with her supporters in
northern Myanmar. She turned 58 on Thursday, and the British government
says she is being kept in a two-room hut at a prison near Yangon, still
wearing the clothes she was arrested in three weeks ago.

In a tea shop in a poor neighborhood, where customers on low stools sip
milky sweet tea, a couple of journalists sat down to chat.

"People talk about football in the street, but in their hearts they are
very angry," said one, wearing a Banana Republic T-shirt and a longyi, or
sarong.

"The people won't protest. They want to, but they are afraid to take
risks. Even I am afraid to take risks," he said.

The young man gave his first name as Maung and didn't want his publication
described.

His colleague, a freelance writer named Kyaw, remarked that "Burmese
people like their tea so sweet because life is so bitter." Burma was the
country's name until the regime changed it to Myanmar, and Rangoon to
Yangon.

He said the regime, which calls itself the State Peace and Development
Council, had tripled its army of secret police since 1988.

"They are everywhere. They look just like me," he said.

The guide said he and his friends stop talking whenever strangers are
present.

Saw, a businessman, sat in his clean but drab office drinking Star -
Pepsi-Cola until the U.S. company stopped doing business with the regime -
and explained why he thought the pro-democracy struggle was futile.

"Democracy is just not in our nature here," he said. "It is the way of
life in American democracy, but we don't have that. Fighting by democratic
means is not effective here."

Because jobs and educational opportunities are scarce, many younger people
look abroad. But getting a passport and foreign currency entails great
expense and red tape.

Some do correspondence courses with foreign universities. Those who can
afford it surf the Web at one of only two Internet cafes in Yangon,
looking for opportunities abroad.

The government controls Web access and does its best to shut out foreign
news sources, but many listen in secret to British Broadcasting Corp.
radio or watch illegal satellite TV.

The guide says he likes his job because he can talk openly to foreigners
and hopes they will tell the world about life in Myanmar.

But when it comes to his own people, he says, "I am only free to think.
Not free to speak, do, hear or see."
________

Xinhua News Agency June 23 2003

Myanmar FM stresses necessity of national reconciliation

Myanmar Foreign Minister U Win Aung has stressed the necessity to give
priority to national reconciliation through which peace, security and
stability could be brought back to the country where disunity had
prolonged for most of the years since its independence.

In an interview with the Myanmar Times in Phnom Penh, Cambodia during the
just-ended  36th Foreign Ministers Meeting of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN), U Win Aung said that Myanmar's national
reconciliation process experienced a "set back" resulting from the May 30
bloodshed in northern Myanmar's Sagaing division where opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi (ASSK) was making a political trip.

The government claimed that it was a clash between supporters of the
National League for Democracy (NLD) and supporters of the government, in
which four people were killed and 48 injured.

U Win Aung insisted that the arrest of NLD General Secretary ASSK
following the violence was a "temporary protective custody," while saying
"If anything happens to ASSK, every blame will be put on the government." 
ASSK will be set free after the situation returns to normal, he said.

He went on to accuse ASSK of failing to cooperate with the government,
refusing to scale down calls for pressure at home and abroad and opposing
aid offered to Myanmar by friendly nations.

He said Myanmar put the hope of its future on the successful completion of
the constitutional process, referring it to the government-designed
National Convention, which began in 1993 and has adjourned since 1996.

The minister maintained that "what we are working for is a civilian
government to emerge, not military government to prolong its stay in
power."

However, the NLD , which was a winning party in the 1990 general
elections, complained that the election has ended for more than 13 years,
the government has yet to complete the process of power transfer to the
winning party for the emergence of an elected civilian government as
promised then.

Meanwhile, the international community, including the United Nations, the
United States, the European Union and the ASEAN, is calling on the Myanmar
military government to immediately release ASSK and hold a substantive
dialogue with the NLD as early as possible to bring about the country's
national reconciliation.

MONEY

Xinhua News Agency June 23 2003

US sanctions threaten Myanmar garment industry

Myanmar's garment industry is being threatened by  impacts from possible
sanctions against Myanmar by the United States in the wake of Myanmar's
political issue of May 30 violence over which the United States has urged
the military government to release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi who
has been in detention in a secret location.

Quoting the garment industry sources, the Myanmar times warned on Monday
that possible US ban on all imports from Myanmar would affect the jobs of
350,000 garment industry employees if the legislation of the US Senate on
June 11 to impose such ban is passed by the House of Representatives and
endorsed by President Bush.

If orders ceased out of sanctions, the garment factories in Myanmar would
have to be suspended and employees in the industry would be hard hit, the
sources said.

There are more than 200 garment factories in Yangon, most of which
manufacture clothes for the US and European markets through orders from
traders in Singapore, China's Hong Kong and South Korea, and 80 percent of
the garment products in Myanmar are destined for the United States with
the rest to Europe.

According to official statistics, Myanmar had 400 garment factories in
2001, exporting products worth 400 million US dollars to the United States
during the year.

Impacted by a slowdown in the sector, the number of factories in operation
had dropped to only over 200, according to the sources.
____________

Xinhua News Agency June 23 2003

Chinese-built machinery factory to be handed over to Myanmar

A Myanmar agricultural machinery factory, built by the Zhejiang Sifang
Group of China and is being under trial production since May this year,
will be officially delivered to the Myanmar side by the end of August.

The Chinese-built machinery factory occupies a land area of 71, 620
square-meters and a building area of 25,753 square-meters in Kyaukse,
northern Mandalay division and is considered as the largest one of its
kind in Myanmar.

Built with a long-term interest-free loan from the Chinese government and
a total investment of 144.88 million Chinese yuan renminbi (about 17.5
million US dollars), the factory will produce annually 10,000 sets of
Gongnong-type 16-horse-power walking tractors and 5,000 sets of reaper.

Myanmar has a low degree of agricultural mechanization and the mechanized
farming area accounts for only 2.835 million hectares of its total
cultivation area of 10.12 million hectares.

The factory is expected to enhance Myanmar's agricultural mechanization.
__________

Associated Press June 23 2003

Myanmar to boost gasoline, diesel fuel imports

Myanmar's military government plans to increase gasoline and diesel fuel
imports this year to meet demand that is growing while the domestic supply
is shrinking, a newspaper reported Monday.

Myanmar imported US$200 million in fuel last year, but will need to
purchase more this year to make up for the shortfall, The Myanmar Times
reported, quoting an unidentified Energy Ministry official.

The report did not say how much additional fuel would be imported.
Officials were not immediately available for comment.

Myanmar suffers a constant fuel shortage due to limited domestic oil
production and tight foreign exchange reserves. Gasoline has been sold
under a rationing system in the capital, Yangon, since 1980.

Once one of the region's most important oil producers, Myanmar pumped
32,000 barrels of crude oil per day in 1979. But production has declined
gradually while consumption has increased.

Myanmar produced approximately 16,000 barrels of crude per day in 2002, or
5.8 million barrels total, according to official figures.

The report in the semi-official newspaper said Myanmar consumes about 2.4
million barrels of gasoline a year and 7.9 million barrels of diesel fuel,
relying mostly on imports from Malaysia.

DRUGS

Bangkok Post June 23 2003

SHAN PLANTS MOVE TO LAOS TO DODGE LAW
By Anucha Charoenpo

Heavy suppression by Thai authorities has forced drug producers to move
their production bases from Mong Yawn in Burma's Shan state to northern
Laos.

The government's crusade against drug use in Thailand from February to
April also presented obstacles to drug producers, who found it more
difficult to smuggle in their products from Burma via northern routes.

Lt-Col Manop Khaikhunthod, of the 2nd Army's Surasakmontree task force,
said many of the drug laboratories around Mong Yawn had been relocated to
the area of Khwang Bo Kaew in northern Laos. His intelligence officers had
yet to confirm how many laboratories have been set up in his area of
responsibility _ the upper northeastern provinces of Loei, Nong Khai,
Nakhon Phanom and Mukdahan. But he cited two separate seizures of drug
precursor chemicals as backing up the intelligence reports.

The first seizure _ 2,000kg of caffeine _ occurred in March last year at
Sri Chiang Mai district, Nong Khai. Two Thais and three Lao people were
caught while preparing to smuggle it across the Mekong river to Vientiane.

Then 286 containers of sulphuric acid were seized at Pak Huang immigration
checkpoint in Thalee district, Loei, in March this year.

An arrested Thai confessed to smuggling the precursor via Luang Prabang in
Laos and to Khwang Bo Kaew.

Drug producers have taken advantage of the geographical circumstances of
Khwang Bo Kaew. Most of the area is mountainous, appropriate for setting
up drug-producing bases, and the location is still near Shan state,'' he
said.

Lt-Col Manop said methamphetamines produced by the laboratories in Laos
were loaded on vehicles from Khwang Bo Kaew via Luang Prabang through
Chaiyaburi and Vientiane provinces to Lao border villages, before being
smuggled to the upper Northeast of Thailand. Sometimes boats were used for
smuggling along the same route.

He divided drug dealers in the upper Northeast into three groups. The
first group included those travelling from Chon Buri, Prachin Buri,
Chachoengsao, Sa Kaew and Trat provinces.

These drug dealers entered Laos to buy illicit drugs from Lao drug agents
in Vientiane themselves. They often entered and left via permanent
immigration checkpoints. Police has arrested drug traffickers using these
channels three times this year.

The second group of drug dealers were natives of the upper northeastern
border provinces. Most were small- to medium-scale dealers and had close
ties with Lao people.

In the last group were Lao drug dealers with close ties to Thai counterparts.

INTERNATIONAL

Deutsche Presse Agentur June 23 2003

Annan: Myanmar opposition leader kept in deplorable conditions

Myanmar (Burma) opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is being held in a
prison under "truly deplorable" conditions, U.N. Secretary General Kofi
Annan said Monday, calling on the Myanmar government to release her
immediately.

Annan said he has received reports that Suu Kyi, leader of the National
League for Democracy (NLD), is being held in the Insein Jail, near the
capital of Yangon (Rangoon), by the country's military junta under a law
to "safeguard the state against the dangers of subversive elements".

He said he "considers the conditions under which she is being held -
incommunicado and without charge - to be truly deplorable".

The military government arrested Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and
other NLD leaders on May 30 after anti-government protests.

Annan's special envoy for Myanmar, Malaysian diplomat Ismail Razali,
visited Yangon in mid-June and was allowed to meet Suu Kyi, who has been
jailed and held repeatedly under house arrest by the military junta.
Razali said she appeared healthy and was not injured when she was
arrested, as previously reported.

Annan said Yangon's military government should heed calls from the
international community to release Suu Kyi and other NLD members.

It should also "acknowledge that the people of Myanmar are overwhelmingly
in favour of change" and should "join hands with all parties, including
the NLD, to bring a national reconciliation in Myanmar as soon as
possible", Annan said. dpa tn ls

REGIONAL

Agence France Presse June 23 2003

Japanese deputy FM meets Myanmar No.3 [to] push for Suu Kyi's release

Japan's deputy foreign minister Tetsuro Yano met Monday with one of
Myanmar's most powerful generals in a bid to secure the release of
detained pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, officials said.

Yano, on a one-day mission to Myanmar, met briefly with military
intelligence chief General Khin Nyunt, the third-ranking leader in the
country, to deliver what official sources here said was a message from
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

"It was a very short courtesy call, most probably to deliver the letter,"
an official source told AFP.

"As far as we know he has not asked to see Aung San Suu Kyi," the source
said of Yano.

The Japanese envoy, who arrived from Thailand where he represented Japan
at the Asia Cooperation Dialogue at the weekend, also lunched with his
counterpart Khin Maung Win and held talks with Home Minister Tin Hlaing, a
key junta figure who monitors activities involving the opposition.

Sources here say Tin Hlaing has also been instrumental in the junta's
ongoing investigation into the deadly violence of May 30 which preceeded
Aung San Suu Kyi's arrest.

Yano was scheduled to leave Yangon for Bangkok Monday night.

Japan, Myanmar's top donor country, has threatened to cut off tens of
millions of dollars in aid if it does not release the Nobel peace laureate
and several others arrested after the deadly clashes in which her
entourage was attacked by a junta-backed mob.

On Saturday a Japanese foreign ministry spokesman reiterated his
government's warning that Tokyo may "reconsider our relations" with the
junta, known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), if no
action is taken.

The only outsider to have seen Aung San Suu Kyi in the last three weeks is
UN envoy Razali Ismail, who pronounced her fit and well and in "good
spirits".

The British government, however, said Thursday she was being held in a
"two-room" hut at the notorious Insein prison outside Yangon, without even
a change of clothes.

The Japanese ministry spokesman, Hatsuhisa Takashima, said Japan had not
set a deadline for the National League for Democracy (NLD) party leader to
be released, but that it wanted to see her freed "as soon as possible."

Other senior NLD figures have also been put under detention since the
clashes, which broke out during a political tour of northern Myanmar.
Dissidents and rights groups fear dozens of people were killed in the
violence.

The violence and the arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi have sparked international
outrage, with the United States leading the condemnation.

Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD won a landslide victory in 1990 elections that were
never recognized by Myanmar's military rulers.

Suu Kyi, the 58-year-old daughter of Burma's independence hero Aung San,
has endured several years under house arrest, with the most recent
restrictions on her lifted in May 2002 before her detention three weeks
ago.
__________

Asia Tribune June 22 2003

Burmese Rohingya Refugee in Bangladesh : Their Miserable plight exposed
By Md. Sadek

Rohingya refugees have become stateless in the world. They have been
denied of their citizenship in the soil of their birth. They are being
discriminated against. Now, they are in a pan of hot oil. According to the
report of Burma Centrum Netherlands (BCN), they are the people “Caught
between a crocodile and a snake”.Today, June 20, is the third annual World
Refugee Day designed by the United Nations as a day to recognize the
world’s refugees. The main purpose of World Refugee Day is to draw
attention to the plight of refugees, celebrate their courage and
resilience, and a renewed commitment to solving refugees problems. It is
also an opportunity to recognize the contribution which refugees make to
the countries which host them.In this year the UNHCR cares for 20 million
refugees and other displaced persons in the world, of whom approximately 7
million are the young people between 12 and 24. According to Lutheran
Immigration Refugee Service (LIRS), some 15 million refugees and 20
million displaced persons have been forced into exile within their own
countries, the population of whom 80% are children and women. Now, they
are facing the difficulties, all these refugees encounter, but they are
also submitted to particular hardship because of their young age and
specific vulnerability. Especially, the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh
face an uncertainty. They are subjected to exploitation, abuse and
violence. and with no access to education. Rohingya refugee children and
youth have the same wishes and dreams as children all over the world to go
to school, to play games and spots, to be surrounded by the friends and
family, to feel safe and secure, to have a home, but they are threatened
ill-treated, and uncared and neglected. Thus they have an uncertain and
unsecured future.At present, some 220,000 Rohingya refugees are residing
in Bangladesh in serious vulnerable condition. Out of them 1,217 families
or 4,000 refugees are passing their life in a sub-human condition in
Teknaf slum, in make shift dustbin huts with sky roof and riverbed without
any help from any quarters.In addition, some 21,000 more Rohingya refugees
still exist in two separate camps in Cox’s Bazaar. They have earned the
fate to return back to their home with no measurable solution. Besides,
approximately 200,000 undocumented Rohingyas are passing their life in
Cox’s Bazaar and Bandarband Districts, in an inexpressible
condition.However, all these Rohingyas have crossed the border to
Bangladesh to escape Burmese military persecution and to find a durable
solution for the long standing problem of the Rohingyas to which the UN
Refugee Agency, INGOs, Govt. of Bangladesh and the International
Communities are well aware but no effective step have yet been taken for
this neglected people “Burmese Rohingya Refugees” except repatriation,
which is considered as push back and forced repatriation according to
Paris Report.On this particular occasion of the World Refugee Day 2003, we
would like to draw kind attention of the International Communities, UN
Refugee Agency, Govt. of Bangladesh, INGOs and other Human rights and
Humanitarian Organizations and Individuals to take an immediate measure to
recognize all undocumented Rohingyas as refugees and to find a durable
solution of their problem, implementing the second and third (Settlement
and Re-settlement) mandates of the UN relating to the Refugee Convention
1951 and Protocol 1967.
_________

New Light of Myanmar June 22 2003

BURMESE FOREIGN MINISTER RETURNS FROM ASEAN MEETINGS IN CAMBODIA, THAILAND

 Minister for Foreign Affairs U Win Aung arrived back here by air this
evening from Thailand after participating in the 36th ASEAN Ministerial
Meeting (AMM), the ASEAN Plus Three Foreign Ministers' Meeting, the 10th
ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the ASEAN Post Ministerial Conferences (PMC)
and the Third Ministerial Meeting on Mekong-Ganga Cooperation held in
Phnom Penh, Cambodia, from 15 to 20 June 2003 and the Second Asian
Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) Ministerial Meeting held in Chiang Mai,
Thailand, on 21-22 June.

The minister was welcomed back at Yangon International Airport by Minister
for Home Affairs Col Tin Hlaing, Minister for Health Dr Kyaw Myint, Deputy
Minister for Foreign Affairs U Khin Maung Win, ambassadors and officials
of the Thai and Cambodian embassies and officials of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs.

During his stay in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Minister U Win Aung attended the
36th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) on 16 and 17 June, the ASEAN Plus
Three (China, Japan and Republic of Korea) Foreign Ministers' Meeting on
17 June, the 10th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) on 18 June, the ASEAN Post
Ministerial Conferences (PMC Plus 10) on 19 June and the Third Ministerial
Meeting on Mekong-Ganga Cooperation on 20 June. The minister also
travelled to Chiang Mai, Thailand and participated in the Second Asian
Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) Ministerial Meeting on 21 and 22 June. Minister
U Win Aung, at the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting, explained the latest
developments in Myanmar (Burma) and discussed the effective implementation
of Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI) work plan, and at the 10th ASEAN
Regional Forum, he explained the latest developments, national
reconciliation and democratization process in Myanmar (Burma). At the
ASEAN and Dialogue Partners Foreign Ministers' Meeting (MPC Plus 10), he
discussed the drugs problems as the lead speaker. The minister explained
anti-narcotic drugs activities in ASEAN region and Myanmar's drugs
eradication programmes and achievements. Minister U Win Aung acted as the
co-chairmen of ASEAN-Japan and ASEAN-Republic of Korea Foreign Ministers'
Meeting on 19 June. Myanmar will serve as a country coordinator for ASEAN
and Republic of Korea from June 2003 to June 2006 for a three-year period.
The minister also performed as the chairman of the Third Ministerial
Meeting of Mekong-Ganga Cooperation and adopted to draw up the Phnom Penh
Road Map for cooperation a mong member countries.

Minister U Win Aung attended the Signing Ceremony of Joint Declaration of
the Foreign Ministers of ASEAN and the Russian Federation on Partnership
for Peace and Security, and Prosperity and Development in the Asia-Pacific
Region and signed with the Foreign Ministers of ASEAN and the Russian
Federation.

The minister, during his stay in Phnom Penh, together with ASEAN foreign
ministers paid a courtesy call on Samdech Hun Sen, prime minister of the
Kingdom of Cambodia, on 16 June. The minister also met and discussed with
Foreign Minister of Cambodia Mr Hor Namhong, Foreign Minister of the
Philippines Mr Bals F Ople, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of
the Lao People's Democratic Republic Mr Somsavat Lengsavad, Malaysian
Foreign Minister Datuk Syed Hamid Albar, Brunei Acting Foreign Minister
HRH Princess Hajah Masna, Vietnamese Foreign Minister Mr Nguyen Dy Nien,
Singaporean Foreign Minister S. Jayakumar on 14 June, Chinese Foreign
Minister Mr Li Zhaoxing and Japanese Foreign Minister Ms Yuriko Kawaguchi
on 17 June, Australian Foreign Minister Mr Alexander Downer on 18 June,
New Zealand Foreign Minister Mr Phil Goff, Indian External Affairs
Minister Shri Yashwant Singha and Thai Foreign Minister Dr Surakiart
Sathirathai on 19 June and UNDP Administrator Mr Mark Mallock Brown on 20
June.

Minister U Win Aung met correspondents of Asahi Shinbun, NHK, Kyodo, CNN,
BBC and Myanmar Times and replied to their queries. The minister also met
the correspondents together on 19 June and explained to them the recent
developments in Myanmar. Minister U Win Aung and Minister Dr Surakiart
Sathirathai signed the MoU between the Government of the Union of Myanmar
and the Government of the Kingdom of Thailand on Cooperation in the
Employment of Workers on 21 June. Director-General U Thaung Tun and
Director U Aung Than of Political Department of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs also returned together with the minister.

STATEMENTS/OPINIONS

Washington Post June 23 2003

How Best to Rid the World of Monsters
By Fred Hiatt

Almost everyone who opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq, both here and
overseas, agreed that Saddam Hussein was a monster. "We're glad the
dictator is gone," they say now. "But war was the wrong way to unseat
him."
Fair enough. But then, what is the right way? Aung San Suu Kyi might like
to know.
In case you haven't been following the news from the other side of the
world, she is the leader of pro-democracy forces in Burma, a lush,
predominantly Buddhist nation of Southeast Asia. At the moment she is
thought to be in Insein Prison, the terror center outside Burma's capital,
where dog kennels have been converted to torture cells and prisoners are
forced to beat each other bloody for the entertainment of guards.
If Saddam Hussein's rule was monstrous, the regime of Burma's junta is no
less so. Ethnic cleansing, rape as an official tool of repression, heroin
and HIV/AIDS as primary exports, a vast security apparatus spreading fear
throughout society, slave labor -- Burma's got it all.
But Burma has something that distinguishes it from most totalitarian
systems, too. In Iraq, Hussein's apologists could claim, up to the very
last minute, that the Iraqi people loved him. You could scoff at the
claim, but you couldn't absolutely prove it false. In Burma, you can
declare with mathematical certainty that the regime is illegitimate: It
lost a 1990 election to the National League for Democracy, which won 82
percent of parliamentary seats even though its leader -- the same Aung San
Suu Kyi -- was under house arrest at the time. Those elected were never
permitted to take their seats. Quite a few, in fact, ended up in Insein.
Given all that, you might ask why regime change is not on the world's
agenda. Last week the United Nations General Assembly adopted a $2.17
billion budget for the coming year for peacekeeping operations. Why
nothing for democracy-keeping?
It's accepted, now, that the "international community," as we call it when
no one wants to take responsibility, would have been justified if it had
violated Rwanda's sovereignty to prevent genocide there -- that is was
morally remiss, in fact, in failing to do so. Many nations supported the
violation of Serbia's sovereignty to save the people of Kosovo from
forcible eviction from their homes. The people of Burma have been
suffering far longer. Yet somehow, as in North Korea, it is considered
perfectly moral to stand aside and watch crimes against humanity that just
unfold in slower motion than Rwanda's. The Burmese generals are permitted
to shield themselves behind a sovereignty that does not legitimately
belong to them. Leaders around the world go on receiving their ambassadors
and embracing their foreign ministers.
Is it fanciful to dream of a democracy-keeping force that would liberate
the people of North Korea (where at least 2 million have died of
officially induced starvation) or Burma? No doubt. Jacques Chirac would be
upset, Kofi Annan would remind us of the absence of consensus, George Bush
would see no issues of national security to justify the use of force. But
then, what would they do?
Sen. Mitch McConnell has one suggestion, and he persuaded 96 other
senators to go along: a ban on imports from Burma. Such economic
punishments often have little effect, or end up hurting poor workers more
than rich generals. U.S. business almost always opposes sanctions.
But for a couple of reasons, Burma might be different. The regime -- which
calls itself the State Peace and Development Council -- controls most of
the economy and so would be immediately affected. U.S. clothing and shoe
importers, who account for most Burmese goods sold in this country, became
so disgusted by the child labor and other coercive practices of the regime
that, through their trade association, they actually endorsed an import
ban before the Senate voted. Amartya Sen, the Nobel Prize-winning
economist and development expert, said Friday that sanctions "are more
likely to be effective there than almost anywhere else I can imagine" --
provided other countries join in.
With which McConnell agrees. "Our actions will not be truly effective
until our European allies and Burma's neighbors also place pressure on the
junta," he said last week.
And that brings us back to all those politicians who bowed to no one in
their disdain for Saddam Hussein -- but who insisted war could never be
the answer. They have a chance to show that another way might work. Aung
San Suu Kyi is waiting.
____________

Washington Post June 22 2003

Where She Is

SINCE GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED goons attacked Burmese democracy leader Aung
San Suu Kyi and her supporters on a provincial road May 30, the Nobel
Peace laureate has been in confinement and virtually cut off from the
world. In editorials earlier this month urging that Aung San Suu Kyi be
freed, we asked, "Where is she?" Now we know -- and the answer could
hardly be more discouraging. According to the British Foreign Office, the
corrupt generals who rule Burma moved her from a "guesthouse," where she
had been held ostensibly for her own protection, to the notorious Insein
Prison, a colonial-era monstrosity where old dog kennels have been
converted to torture cells. The disclosure of the move came on Aung San
Suu Kyi's 58th birthday -- a nice touch, and well in keeping with the
usual mode of operation of Burma's ruling thugs, who a few years back
refused to allow Aung San Suu Kyi's husband to visit her even when he was
dying of cancer.
Usual methods, yes, but other governments can no longer respond with their
usual apathy. Burma is a beautiful, resource-rich nation of 50 million
people, strategically located at the crossroads of India, China and
Southeast Asia. Its largely Buddhist population, once among the
best-educated in Asia, has fallen into poverty after a half-century of
military misrule. Thirteen years ago the generals, misreading their
subjects as dictators so often do, permitted an election -- and Aung San
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won more than four out of five
parliamentary seats, even though she was under house arrest at the time.
The generals nullified the election and kept the NLD leader under house
arrest for most of the succeeding decade. They put hundreds of would-be
parliamentarians and other NLD activists in prison. They continued to run
the economy into the ground, while Burma's drug trade flourished and the
generals enriched themselves corruptly.
Last year, under international pressure, the dictators released Aung San
Suu Kyi and promised a dialogue leading toward democracy. But once again
her popularity -- freedom's popularity -- seems to have surprised them.
They cracked down more brutally than before, settled back to see whether
the world cared -- and so far seem to have seen little reaction that might
worry them. On June 11 the Senate, led by Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), voted
97 to 1 to cut off imports from Burma, which would deal a blow to the
generals, who control most of the economy. A companion House bill seemed
to be making progress late last week. The White House and Secretary of
State Colin L. Powell have issued some tough statements.
But actions of real consequence? So far, none. Southeast Asian foreign
ministers, meeting last week in Cambodia with Mr. Powell, agreed to send a
delegation to Burma no later than October. October? While one of the
world's most courageous political leaders languishes in one of its most
infamous jails? Where are Kofi Annan and the U.N. Security Council? Where
are the executive orders that President Bush could issue today? "If the
international community has the political will to stand for freedom in
Burma, change can come to that beleaguered country," Mr. McConnell said
last week. He's right. Inside Insein Prison, and throughout the larger
prison that Burma has become, a lot rides on that "if."
________

DICTATOR WATCH June 23 2003

Contact: Roland Watson, 66-(0)7-0795846, roland at dictatorwatch.org
Please see www.dictatorwatch.org for links to the reports and photography
described below.

RELIEF MISSION, MINE VICTIM, AND ADDITIONAL ANALYSIS OF BURMA

Dictator Watch has posted a report, with photography, of a May/June relief
mission into Paan District, Karen State, Burma, which among other things
brought medical aid to over 1,200 internally displaced persons. This
report also describes, including through interviews with twenty IDPs, the
Burmese army's ongoing campaign of murder, torture and destruction of
homes and villages; its use of forced labor; and its involvement in the
narcotics trade.

We also have a report, with photography, about a Karen man from Tenasserim
Division who in April stepped on a landmine set by the Burmese army (to
prevent displaced villagers from returning home and also to disrupt the
little commercial trade that survives in Karen State). This man, who was
fleeing forced labor, survived the explosion, a field amputation, and two
subsequent hospital amputations. He is separated from his wife and
children, unlikely ever to be reunited with them, and he must now,
somehow, rebuild his life. (Donations are welcome.)

Lastly, we wish to comment further on the ongoing crisis - which we
believe is also an historic opportunity - precipitated by the Burmese
dictatorship (SPDC) through its ambush and attempted assassination of Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi. Our view is that there are four critical points that
must now be recognized.

1. The SPDC will wait as long as possible, perhaps years, before it
releases Daw Suu Kyi. This is because, when it does, its lies about what
happened on Black Friday will be irrefutably revealed.

2. While the support given the SPDC by India, Bangladesh, Japan, Australia
and the United Nations is significant (the last through Special Envoy
Razali, who is effectively the dictatorship's international voice), it is
the aid provided by China and the members of Asean that is most critical
to its ongoing survival. We have little hope that China's position can be
changed. Also, we believe that Asean will never voluntarily support
democracy in Burma. This is because it prefers that the country remain a
dictatorship. Asean itself is a club of dictators, and it will never turn
against one of its own. (One wonders why the Philippines, the only nation
in the group that is even close to a functioning democracy, has anything
to do with it.)

Because of this, we believe that Asean should become the target of a
worldwide boycott, of its tourism centers and its other goods and
services.

We do not make this suggestion lightly. We have no wish to harm in any way
the ordinary people in any of the Asean member nations. However, the
rulers of these nations are recalcitrant in the extreme. They will only
change their policy on the SPDC if they are forced to do so. (Similarly,
we reiterate our long-standing call for a boycott of China.)

3. The SPDC will never willingly give up power. This is not a situation
where the techniques of activism and diplomacy will be sufficient to yield
democracy. It demands internal rebellion and/or foreign intervention.

4. For the latter, we applaud the new sanctions now being legislated by
the US. However, we note that sanctions should never be implemented in
isolation; rather, they should form part of an overall plan to effect the
transition to democracy. We therefore call on the US and all other nations
that want to demonstrate that they truly do support democracy in Burma,
through actions not only words, to:  recognize the National League for
Democracy as the legitimate government of Burma; designate the SPDC as a
terrorist regime; and hold an emergency meeting of the United Nations
Security Council to devise and implement such a plan.

Further, we would ask the UN to commit to the defense of the people of
Burma, and prepare for military intervention in the event that the people
of Burma rise up and the dictatorship reacts as it did in 1988. It must be
noted that were the SPDC to be confronted militarily, they would likely
surrender (or flee) immediately, because the bulk of the Burmese army
would lay down their arms and refuse to fight.

We would also comment that for such resistance inside Burma to develop the
psychology of the people must change. The people of Burma are cowed and
they believe that they are powerless. But this is not true! They have
power, even power sufficient to expel the dictators on their own. To
recognize this they need only begin to fight back. Everyone inside Burma,
on their own or in small groups, has the ability to do something to oppose
the regime, with minimal risk, even if it is just defacing the ridiculous
SPDC propaganda billboards that dot the cities and countryside. Further,
through such steps the people of Burma will realize that they do have
power and that larger actions, involving more people, also are possible.

To promote this psychological shift, we implore the leaders of the
democracy movement who are outside Burma, in their interviews on Radio
Free Asia, the Democratic Voice of Burma, the BBC and VOA, to talk to the
people in the country and encourage such empowerment.