BurmaNet News: July 10 2003

[editor at burmanet.org]

July 10 2003 Issue #2281


INSIDE BURMA
DVB: NLD members arrested in Magwe Division

DRUGS
Xinhua: 4 nations agree to strengthen cooperation to suppress drug in
Mekong river subregion

REGIONAL
Nation: Exiles oppose relocation
AP: Report: Thaksin says he warned Myanmar that development could be
"destroyed" by sanctions over Suu Kyi
AFP: Koizumi, Abdullah agree to pressure Burma
Kyodo: EU ASKS JAPAN FOR MORE PRESSURE ON BURMA TO RELEASE SUU KYI
Nation: Border talks scheduled



INSIDE BURMA

Democratic Voice of Burma July 10 2003
NLD members arrested in Magwe Division

It is reported that 3 NLD members from Yenangyaung and one NLD youth from
Natmauk were arrested on the 6th and 8th of July by the military
intelligence [MI].

They are the chairman of Yenaungyaung, U Khin Win, the secretary U Maung
Maung, the chief organiser Ko Than Aung and Ko Aung Thein Myint, a youth
member of Natmauk Township NLD Youth.

They are accused of rallying MPs to put their signatures in a letter
written by Magwe Division NLD to be sent the SPDC leader General Than Shwe
in concerning with the Dipeyin [Tabayin] incident.

On the 6th of July, the chief organiser Ko Than Aung and Ko Aung Thein
Myint were arrested and charged with the hated Act 5J.

On the 8th of July, the chairman U Khin Win and the secretary U Maung
Maung were arrested.

The DVB asked U Han Zaw, the chairman of Magwe Division NLD and he
explained the content of the letter as follows:

U Han Zaw : In the letter, we urged the authority to release all the
people who were arrested during the Dipeyin incident including Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi and Grandpa U Tin Oo and to re-open all the NLD offices and to
enquire into what had happened and publish the findings of what really
happened. They planned to write the letter and send it to General Than
Shwe. Ko Than Aung a youth from Yenangyaung was arrested between Natmauk
and Myothit on his way from Natmauk. They seem to be interrogating him and
the chairman and secretary of Yenangyaung.

U Han Zaw also pointed out that their activities are those of a winning
party within the rule of law and they had done nothing
illegal:

U Han Zaw : Our party is not outlawed yet and we think that should do our
duties with our colleagues and other elected representatives in orderly
way and with discipline. From our points of view, these people are
completely innocent. We believe that it is our duty to keep on our
activities.


DRUGS

Xinhua July 10 2003
4 nations agree to strengthen cooperation to suppress drug in Mekong river
subregion

Anti-drug authorities from Thailand, China, Myanmar and Laos agreed at a
meeting in Chiang Rai, 700 kilometers north from Bangkok, to strengthen
cooperation in applying legal tools to suppress illegal drug production
and smuggling in the Mekong river subregion, the Bangkok Post reported
Thursday.

According to the report, during the meeting which is aimed at finding ways
to fight the trafficking in illegal drugs along the river that runs
through the four nations, officials agreed to set up a network to
coordinate mutual campaigns against drug traffickers and dealers.

The network covers ports of the four nations along the Mekong river,
including Jing Hong port in China, Ban Pong port in Myanmar, Huay Sai port
in Laos, and Chiang Saen and Chiang Kong ports in Thailand.

Wang Qianrong, deputy director-general of China's Office of the National
Narcotics Control Commission, was quoted as saying that as the
methamphetamines and heroin were entering southern China through the
Mekong river, the agreement on multilateral cooperation should intensify
the fight against drugs in the region.

Welcoming the cooperation, Linthong Phetsavan, head of the permanent
secretariat of the Lao Commission on Drug Control and Supervision, also
said the joint efforts between the 4 nations would make it more difficult
to smuggle drugs and precursors through this route by traffickers.

Rasamee Vistaves, deputy secretary-general of Thailand's Narcotics Control
Board, noted the anti-drug cooperation was gaining momentum.

She revealed that Thailand had sent a list of wanted drug suspects to
Myanmar, China and Laos, and major arrests had been made in China and
Myanmar. She cited the seizure of 354 kilograms of heroin in China last
year and the arrests of 12 drug suspects in Myanmar.

Thanks to their cooperation, illicit drug production was now in decline in
the Golden Triangle, she said.

She hoped the 4 nations would launch joint patrols on the Mekong river in
addition to the current cooperation, which must be sustained to put more
pressure on the region's drug syndicates.


REGIONAL

Nation July 10 2003
Exiles oppose relocation
By Rungrawee C Pinyorat

A group of Burmese exiles yesterday voiced their objection to the
government's decision to send them to border camps, saying they could be
attacked and killed by Burmese soldiers if relocated.
"It is not safe for political dissidents to live in border camps. We could
be attacked, kidnapped and killed by Burmese soldiers stationed along the
border," said Aung Naing Htwe, the secretary-general of the 1,000-member
Joint Action Committee for Democracy in Burma (JACDB).
Aung Naing Htwe left his career as an English lecturer at Rangoon
University in 1996 after coming under severe government harassment.
Aung Naing Htwe said that the Burmese exiles were grateful to Thailand for
providing shelter for displaced people from Burma, although he added that
the government should provide a place in Bangkok for Burmese people with
the UN's People of Concern (POC) status, rather than sending them to
potentially dangerous border areas. Government representatives met
officials from the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
last week and agreed to relocate 1,600 Burmese exiles whom the UNHCR had
granted POC status to camps along the Thai-Burmese border.
It is still unclear to which camps the Burmese POC will be transferred.
Aung Naing Htwe denied the government's accusation that a group of the
exiles had been involved in planning "terrorist" attacks or other illegal
activities.
Karn Sermchaiwong, a member of the Law Society of Thailand, said the
government should find a "holistic" solution to the problem of Burmese
immigrants.
Sending Burmese dissidents to border camps is not a lasting solution
because more political asylum seekers will enter the country in the
future.
Kritaya Archavanitkul, a researcher at Mahidol University's Population and
Social Research Institute, also criticised the government, saying the
decision to send Burmese exiles to border camps was aimed at pleasing the
Burmese junta.
_____________

Associated Press July 10 2003
Report: Thaksin says he warned Myanmar that development could be
"destroyed" by sanctions over Suu Kyi

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said he warned neighboring Myanmar
its economic development could be destroyed by international sanctions
being threatened to protest its recent crackdown on the country's
pro-democracy movement.

Thaksin, in an interview published Thursday in Malaysian newspaper The New
Straits Times, said Thailand was maintaining amicable ties with Myanmar's
military junta while urging it to re-engage with detained pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

"We keep a dialogue going with the government of Myanmar all the time and
tell them of the world's concerns," Thaksin was quoted as saying. "I tell
them of the imminent sanctions ... I tell them that if they have sanctions
imposed on them, their country will be in difficulties."

Myanmar, also known as Burma, is facing stiff economic sanctions from
Japan and the United States in protest over Suu Kyi's detention after a
May 30 bloody clash between her supporters and backers of the junta, and a
crackdown on her opposition movement.

The junta is under broad international pressure to release Suu Kyi,
including from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which last
month broke from a core policy of not commenting on the domestic affairs
of its members to urge her freedom.

Thaksin said ASEAN's stance on Myanmar was still one of "constructive
engagement ... but more modern than in the past."

"You are trying to help your friend," he said. "But sanctions will destroy
the economic development of our neighbor. So we should voice this concern
to them."

Suu Kyi's party won general elections by a landslide in 1990 but was
barred by the military from taking power. Reconciliation talks between the
two sides that started in late 2000 have apparently stalled.

In the interview, Thaksin also touched on the situation in Thailand's
Muslim-dominated south, where he said the distribution of illegal weapons
was linked to the regional extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah, which the
government only recently conceded has a presence in the predominantly
Buddhist country.

Violence is common in the southern region near the border with Malaysia,
and authorities usually blame attacks on bandits. Thai police recently
arrested four suspected members of Jemaah Islamiyah in the south and
accused them of plotting bomb attacks on embassies in Bangkok.

Thaksin said most crimes in Thailand's south were similar to those in
other parts of the country.

But he added: "Some are different, such as weapons like AK-47 and M-16
rifles, which have become a commodity in the south because of activities
related to Jemaah Islamiyah" and a long-running Muslim insurgency in
Indonesia's nearby Aceh province.

He said this "isn't much of a serious problem" and that "with Malaysian
cooperation we can handle it easily."
_____________

Agence France Presse July 10 2003
Koizumi, Abdullah agree to pressure Burma

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Deputy Prime Minister
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi agreed at talks in Tokyo today to pressure Burmese
junta over its detention of Aung San Suu Kyi.

"The current situation is not desirable," Abdullah said, according to a
Japanese official.

"I want Myanmar (Burma) to understand this is not interference with
domestic affairs, but an expression of concern as a friend and neighbour,"
he said in comments translated into Japanese.

Protective custody

Foreign ministers at an Asean meeting in Phnom Penh last month urged Burma
to release the pro-democracy leader, a departure from its usual stance of
not mentioning conditions in its member countries.

Koizumi stressed at the 30-minute meeting that Burma needed to democratise
in order to receive new Japanese aid, after Tokyo told the regime last
week it would be cut off.

"In order to create an environment that would enable us to provide such
assistance, Burma needs to listen to the opinions of the United States,
Europe, and the international community," Koizumi was quoted as saying by
the official.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been held under what the junta calls "protective
custody" since attacks on her supporters by a government-backed mob on May
30.

September meeting

Koizumi and Abdullah also confirmed plans to hold a meeting of government
officials, academics and business leaders in September in Malaysia to
enhance economic ties between the two countries, the official said.

The talks could include an aim to launch a free trade agreement.

Abdullah is to formally take over from Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad
in October, when the 77-year-old leader has pledged to retire after 22
years in power.

Asean groups Burma, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

__________

Kyodo News Service July 10 2003
EU ASKS JAPAN FOR MORE PRESSURE ON BURMA TO RELEASE SUU KYI

Tokyo, 10 July: A senior European Union (EU) official has called on Japan
and other Asian countries to increase pressure on Myanmar's (Burma)
military rulers to release detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Etienne Reuter, an Asian affairs expert and minister-counsellor of the
delegation of the European Commission in Tokyo, said in a recent interview
with Kyodo News that Japan should freeze not only its official development
assistance (ODA) but all other aid to Myanmar, and refuse to issue visas
to its military leaders.

Japan announced last Friday that it will suspend fresh ODA to Myanmar in
protest at the junta's detention of Suu Kyi. A Foreign Ministry official
says the government is eyeing further punitive measures unless she is
freed. Japan has long been softer on Myanmar than many of its Western
allies that have imposed trade restrictions and other sanctions on the
country, whose ruling junta seized power after Suu Kyi's National League
for Democracy (NLD) overwhelmingly won the free election in 1990 but was
never allowed to govern. Reuter urged Japan's leaders to work for stronger
international pressure for the release of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate
and the establishment of democracy in Myanmar in the run-up to a summit of
the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) next year to be coordinated by Japan and
Vietnam. Reuter, a former EU ambassador to Hong Kong, who has visited
Myanmar twice, most recently in February, said a change of government in
the country can only be achieved by outside pressure and is a major
concern for the international community, especially from the human rights
perspective.

"Burmese people live in fear of their military government and lack the
stamina to realize a regime change similar to that of the people's power
revolution in the Philippines," he said. "The military is just too
powerful," he said in explaining why the Myanmar people have not been able
to successfully oppose the junta.

Myanmar intelligence chief Gen Khin Nyunt on Saturday dismissed
international pressure for Suu Kyi's release, indicating the junta's
determination to continue detaining her. Reuter reiterated in the
interview the EU's demand that Suu Kyi be immediately freed and that the
junta allow democracy and promote dialogue with the NLD. He also said EU
sanctions against Myanmar would not be effective unless regional powers
with some influence on the country, such as Japan and China, take a
tougher stance against the junta by such means as stopping aid and grants
and refusing to issue visas for its leaders. Japan, a major aid donor to
Myanmar, provided the country with about 2bn yen in grants in fiscal 2002
that ended 31 March.

International outrage over Suu Kyi's treatment is increasing as her
detention continues, with the United States and the EU threatening harsher
sanctions. The junta has responded by sending its foreign minister and
deputy foreign minister on a tour of Asian capitals, showing pictures of
Suu Kyi in detention in an effort to allay concern.

Japan has long taken a policy of engagement with the country, imposing no
restrictions on private companies conducting trade and investment in
Myanmar. Suu Kyi and some members of the NLD have been detained since what
the junta says were violent clashes between NLD supporters and pro-junta
demonstrators in northern Myanmar on 30 May.
___________-

Nation July 10 2003
Border talks scheduled

Thailand will host a ministerial meeting with Laos, Burma and Cambodia at
the end of this month to discuss trade cooperation, Government spokesman
Sita Divari said yesterday.

The foreign and tourism ministers, plus their counterparts from the
neighbouring countries, will attend the two-day meeting, beginning on July
31, he said.

The secretary-general of Thailand's National Economic and Social
Development Board will also attend.

The talks would aim to find ways to curb the flow of labourers into
Thailand by creating jobs for them in their own countries, Sita said.

One way of doing this, he said, would be to move production of some goods,
particularly agricultural products, to these countries, where the raw
materials are, as suggested by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

This would increase the income for those countries, he said.

Thailand accounts for 91 per cent of the four countries' combined GDP.

Bangkok would also negotiate bilateral agreements with each of the three
countries on border trade, goods production, services and development
projects, Sita said.