BurmaNet News, Jan 14, 2004

[editor at burmanet.org]

Jan 14, 2004 Issue # 2405


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Thousands of ethnic Karenni in Myanmar driven from their homes
DVB: Burmese sea-gypsies forced to live on land for tourists
DVB: Burmese soldiers kill civilian in a hit and run incident

DRUGS
Xinhua: Myanmar seizes large amount of stimulant tablets
The Star: Ring using Myanmars to traffic drugs busted

BUSINESS / MONEY
Xinhua: US sanctions affects Myanmar's garment production

REGIONAL
JEN: High court nixes Myanmar refugee's demand for damages from state

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: UN defends remarks on Myanmar junta


OPINION / OTHER
News & Observer: Case resolved in knife attack
Dictator Watch: Emergency in Eastern Burma


[CORRECTION: Our Jan 10-12, 2004 BNN news item “Karenni Burma: Total’s
former security chief talks,” sourced from Le Nouvel Observateur
incorrectly reported the name of Jean-Michel K as Jean-Michel Kouchner . 
BurmaNet News apologizes for this error - Ed]


INSIDE BURMA
___________________________________

Jan 14, AFP
Thousands of ethnic Karenni in Myanmar driven from their homes

Some two thousand ethnic Karennis have been driven from their homes by
Myanmar troops sweeping the border between Karenni and Shan states this
month, a Karenni leader said Wednesday.

Deputy commander of the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP)
Major-General Aung Mya told AFP that nine battalions of Myanmar soldiers
had been sent to the area northeast of Yangon and razed some parts.

"Myanmar troops have burned down six villages and 40 rice barns and seized
several hundred cattle. The attack caused about 2,000 villagers to flee
their homes and run away to the Thai border," he said.

"We don't know why Myanmar sent the troops to attack us," he added.

Aung Mya charged that the attacks showed Myanmar's government was
insincere in progressing with peace talks with the group.

According to sources close to the government, peace mediators held talks
with the KNPP last month to tell them that a ceasefire agreement they
signed in 1995 remained in force despite the KNPP returning to fight
shortly afterwards.

The mediators told them they could return to the terms of the accord and
join in Yangon's national reconciliation process, the sources said.

Myanmar's junta announced in August last year a seven-point plan for
shifting the country to democracy, with the first step being a national
convention to draft a constitution some time this year.

According to the state-run press, several of Myanmar's ethnic leaders have
pledged their support to the so-called "road map".

The KNPP's Aung Mya said that in retaliation for the recent razings, the
KNPP had sent troops to attack army bases about 100 kilometres (60 miles)
southwest of the Karenni capital Loikaw.

There were no report of casualties, he said, but in separate clashes a few
days ago opposite Thailand's Mae Hong Son province, six Myanmar soldiers
were killed and two Karenni soldiers died.

A recent traveller to the area confirmed that fighting was going on in
Karenni state and casualties had occurred.

The Myanmar junta did not immediately respond to inquiries about the unrest.

Ethnic insurgencies have plagued Myanmar's border areas since the
Southeast Asian nation gained independence from Britain in 1948. By the
end of the 1990s, the junta had signed ceasefire accords with 17 groups,
leaving a handful however still fighting Yangon's rule.
_____________________________

Jan 14, Associated Press
Myanmar's largest ethnic rebel group to send delegation to Yangon

Myanmar's largest guerrilla group said Wednesday it will send one of its
top leaders and a 20-member delegation to the capital of Yangon this week
to discuss a possible peace deal with the ruling military.

Representatives of the Karen National Union, led by Vice Chairman Bo Mya,
will fly from Bangkok to Yangon on a Myanmar military plane Friday, the
group's secretary, Man Sha, told The Associated Press.

A diplomatic source in Yangon, however, said the delegation would travel
to the Myanmar capital on a Thai military flight.

The KNU, the only major rebel group that has not formally agreed to lay
down arms, said last month it was committed to peace talks with the
military government, but wanted future rounds to be held in the Thai
capital to preserve neutrality.

The rebels and government troops stopped fighting for the first time in
years after an initial round of official peace talks was held in Yangon in
December.

No formal agreement was signed, but Bo Mya, who did not attend the talks,
said earlier "we agreed in words to a cease-fire."

He said if the Myanmar government declares an official cease-fire, the KNU
will do the same and will also consider attending a government-proposed
national convention on drafting a constitution.

The Karens, a minority in Myanmar, have been fighting for more than five
decades for autonomy for the Karen state bordering Thailand.

Government offensives in 1995 and 1997 wiped out the fighters' main
headquarters, and the rebels now wage a low-level war.

Bo Mya said earlier that negotiations could take two years. He added that
Karen refugees in the jungles and in Thai camps should not go back to
their homes because the situation remains dangerous.

Myanmar's ruling military seized power in 1988 after crushing a
pro-democracy uprising. It has reached cease-fire agreements with more
than a dozen rebel groups by offering them limited autonomy.
_____________________________

Jan 14, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burmese sea-gypsies forced to live on land for tourists

General Khin Nyunt, the Prime Minister of Burma’s military junta, State
Peace and Development Council (SPDC) visited and ‘inspected’ Salon
sea-gypsy villages on 12 January for the benefits of tourists.

The visit was arranged before the coming Salon sea-gypsy festival which
many foreign tourists are expected to turn up.

Burmese soldiers from local naval bases forced the Salons, who normally
live on boats in the deep sea, to live on land in ‘human zoos’ so that the
junta could charge tourists money.

The Salons (generally known as Mokens) who were arrested and forced to
give up life on sea were sent to Nyaughwi, Lanpi, Kyuntale and Phila
islands.

They are finding it hard to survive on land as they have neither have the
experience of foraging in the jungles nor settling down on land.
_____________________________

Jan 14, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burmese soldiers kill civilian in a hit and run incident

One youth was killed and two were seriously wounded by a military vehicle
driven by soldiers in charge of the security of TOTAL gas pipeline at
Kanbauk region, Tenesserim Division in southern Burma.

The victims were knocked down from their motorbike on Kabauk motorway by a
vehicle driven by soldiers from Infantry Battalion 282 under the command
of Coastal Command.

The soldiers did not stop the car to help their victims but drove away.
Maung Zeya, the son of U Thein Zaw from Pharchaung Village died on the
spot and his brother Thiha broke his legs, hands and jaw. The other victim
was thrown onto the roadside. The motorcycle was cut into two.

No military officer attended the funeral of Maung Zeya in sympathy. No
compensation is given to the victims’ families and moreover, they are to
be sued for a broken headlight during the accident.

The French oil company TOTAL has been working with the Burmese military
junta to extract gas from Mattaban Gulf in southern Burma and sell it to a
Thai oil company.

The pipeline conveying the gas goes through Burmese villages which were
forcibly removed and destroyed by Burmese army.


DRUGS
____________________________________

Jan 14, Xinhua
Myanmar seizes large amount of stimulant tablets

The Myanmar authorities seized 40, 550 tablets of stimulant drugs in
Tachilek, Shan state of the country, last month, said a report of the
Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control Wednesday.

The seizure was made by a team comprising local intelligence unit and the
police force when they searched two houses in the area on Dec. 29 with 68
rounds of ammunition being confiscated.

Two local people were arrested in connection with the case, the report
said, adding that they were punished under the country's Narcotic Drugs
and Psychotropic Substances Law.

Official statistics show that during 2002, the Myanmar authorities seized
9.4 million tablets of stimulant drugs along with 1,988 kg opium, 333.88
kg heroin, 314.4 kg morphine, 281.98 kg marijuana and 1,723 kg ephedrine.

During the year, the authorities also smashed nine opium refineries in
northern Shan state of the country.

Meanwhile, a report of the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime issued
in last June and based on the satellite and field survey, said that
Myanmar's poppy cultivated area was 62,100 hectares in 2003 and its opium
output was estimated at 810 tons during the year, a reduction of 24
percent from 81,400 hectares and 2 percent from 828 tons respectively in
2002.
_____________________________

Jan 14, The Star
Ring using Myanmars to traffic drugs busted

JOHOR BARU: Police here believe that they have crippled a syndicate using
Myanmars to traffic drugs following the arrest of 35 people.

Johor police chief Deputy Commissioner Datuk Musa Hassan said the
suspects, 31 of them Myanmars, were picked up in two days of operations
which began Friday at residential areas in Taman Johor Jaya, Taman Desa
Jaya and Ulu Tiram after a tip-off.

DCP Musa said five of the syndicate members aged between 13 and 64 years
old, were detained under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 which
carries the mandatory death sentence upon conviction.

They are being remanded under the Criminal Procedure Code until Jan 19 to
assist in the investigation.

He said 30 Myanmars who were also aged between 13 and 64, were nabbed for
not having valid travel documents. They were handed over to the
Immigration Department for further action.

He also said police confiscated nine packets of heroin totalling 4kg,
worth RM207,000 in the market, RM18,850 in cash believed to be from the
drug sale, and a car.

“This syndicate was monitored since last month. It was active in the Johor
Jaya and Ulu Tiram areas,” he told reporters.


BUSINESS / MONEY
____________________________________

Jan 14, Xinhua
US sanctions affects Myanmar's garment production

The US economic sanctions on Myanmar have affected the country's
industrial production with at least 20 garment factories in a Yangon
industrial zone being closed down, the local Business Tank reported in its
January issue.

Although there are still 75 such factories in operation, they have lost US
market, resulting in a downward trend in their garment product exports,
the industrial zone's management committee was quoted as saying.

The Hlaingtharyar Industrial Zone in the capital, established in 1995,
represents the most developed one out of 18 in Myanmar.

Consequently, the existing garment factories in operation have to seek
markets in countries of the European Union (EU) and other regions, the
report said.

Under the "Burma (Myanmar) Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003," the United
States has tightened sanctions on Myanmar on account of the last May 30
incident and the continued detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi
(ASSK).

The US sanctions not only ban imports from Myanmar including garment
products but also freeze the military government's assets in the United
states. The sanctions also expand the current ban on granting US visas to
Myanmar government officials and codify the existing policy that opposes
new international loans or technical aid to the country.


REGIONAL
____________________________

Jan 14, Japan Economic Newswire
High court nixes Myanmar refugee's demand for damages from state

The Tokyo High Court overturned on Wednesday a district court decision to
have the state pay damages to a Myanmar man for rejecting his request for
refugee status and detaining him, saying the state's action was lawful.

Presiding Judge Nobuo Akatsuka said the burden of proof should lie with
the person seeking to become a refugee, and that the truth about his
persecution in his homeland is not something that could be known
immediately by a third party.

Akatsuka's decision reverses the ruling by the Tokyo District Court that
said both the state and the refugee applicant should bear the burden of
proof.

The district court also ordered the state to pay the man 9.5 million yen
in damages.

The Justice Ministry's Immigration Bureau said the latest ruling was
appropriate, while the man described it as a harsh ruling that fails to
show understanding of the feelings of refugees and situation they face.

The 31-year-old man, who lives in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward, was seeking
damages totaling 11.77 million yen, claiming the rejection of his
application for refugee status was illegal and he suffered emotional
torment due to subsequent detention.

But the high court termed the state authorities' measure 'legitimate,'
saying it was unnatural the man did not immediately apply for refugee
status even after he was refused entry to Japan for business purposes.

According to the ruling, the man belonged to a Myanmar minority group and
fled Myanmar due to oppression of the democracy movement there. He arrived
in Japan in March 1998.

The ruling said his application for refugee status was rejected, and as a
result, he was detained for about a year.

The man then filed a lawsuit to appeal the rejection.

In the course of court proceedings, the Justice Ministry said it learned
about details of his case and decided to grant him refugee status.

The man then sought compensation from the state over the rejection and
subsequent detention.


INTERNATIONAL
____________________________

Jan 14, AFP
UN defends remarks on Myanmar junta

A UN spokesman on Tuesday played down criticism from leading Myanmar
exiles over UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's cautious support for the
ruling junta's pledge to move toward democracy.

He said Annan had simply been urging the junta -- which currently has
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for the third time
since it came to power in 1988 -- to keep its word.

Annan last month said he welcomed its assurances that it would reconvene a
national convention, draft a new constitution and implement a seven-step
"roadmap" to democracy in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

The exiles then blasted Annan's statement in a letter last week written
under the banner of the International Campaign for Democracy in Burma.

"We are deeply disappointed in you and your envoy Razali Ismail for
lending your words of support," the exiles said. "What we need now are
actions -- not promises."

But Farhan Haq, an Annan spokesman, said: "What we're trying to do is hold
them to their commitments. The junta has made these commitments and we
want to see it keep them. It was a statement to help push the process
along."

After 12-nation talks in December, Annan envoy Razali Ismail said he was
"encouraged" by the military government in Myanmar's "commitment to want
to take the necessary steps" toward democracy.


OPINION / OTHER
_____________________________________

Jan 14, The News & Observer
Case resolved in knife attack

HILLSBOROUGH -- The three-year legal saga of a Burmese refugee accused of
attacking his wife with a butcher knife came to a close Tuesday when he
entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors after being found competent
to stand trial.

Ye Myint, 33, formerly of Carrboro, pleaded guilty to assault with a
deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury. A charge of
attempted murder was dismissed.

Myint was sentenced to a minimum of four years and 10 months and a maximum
of six years and seven months in prison.

Myint attacked his then-wife, Day Mu, on Dec. 17, 2000, as she was leaving
the Carrboro home of friends with their young son, authorities said. Myint
stabbed Mu in the face, head and legs, causing 20 to 31 separate
lacerations, said Assistant District Attorney Kayley Taber. Mu needed
stitches and staples to close the wounds and spent two days in the
hospital, Taber said.

Questions about Myint's competence had prevented the case from moving
forward. Myint was hospitalized twice at Dorothea Dix, the state mental
hospital in Raleigh, and was for some time in the psychiatric unit of
Central Prison.

"Each time we were ready to move forward in his case, he'd start acting
psychotic," Taber said.

Superior Court Judge Steve Balog, visiting from Alamance County, agreed
Tuesday with a psychiatrist testifying for the state that Myint was
feigning mental illness to avoid prosecution.

That psychiatrist, Dr. Charles Vance, testified during the first part of
the competency hearing Monday that Myint was doing the best job of faking
it that he had ever seen.

And with good reason, Vance said, since Myint, as a political refugee,
would face brutal punishment if returned to Burma. Myint said he
participated in the student rebellion against Burma's military regime
before coming to the United States as a refugee.

Dr. George Corvin, a defense witness, observed similar erratic behavior
but concluded Myint was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and
unable to stand trial.

Myint's former and current court-appointed attorneys, Steve Freedman and
pubic defender James Williams, respectively, each described difficulties
explaining the most basic legal concepts to Myint and his apparent
inability to hold a rational conversation. Defense witnesses testified
that Myint was hostile to his attorneys and could not comprehend that the
government would appoint attorneys to help him.

After finding Myint competent, Balog asked Myint a series of questions
before accepting his guilty plea -- a procedure that took about
three-quarters of an hour rather than the usual few minutes.

Myint responded through an interpreter that he understood some ideas, such
as his right to remain silent. But others required more explanation.

"He said he didn't understand very well about the jury," Tin Hlaing, the
interpreter, said on one occasion.

Balog explained that the jury decides the facts of the case while "the
judge, which I am, tells them how to apply the law to find them."

Myint tried several times to speak about the stabbing -- interjecting that
both he and his wife were guilty and that he was taking revenge -- before
confirming that he was willingly pleading guilty.  Balog explained once
that he was not asking Myint to confess, and at other times that he would
be allowed to make a statement later.

Myint also made pleas for leniency. He said he had never been in jail
before, which Balog explained had already been considered.

Myint choked up and wiped his eyes on his shirt as he said he had lost his
son, now in Mu's custody, and feared deportation.
____________________________

Jan 13, Dictator Watch
Emergency in Eastern Burma

Contact: Roland Watson, roland at dictatorwatch.org

January 13, 2004

This is an update on the internally displaced person (IDP) crisis now in
progress in eastern Burma. Please also see:
www.dictatorwatch.org/prhumanitariancrisis.html, and for associated
photography, www.dictatorwatch.org/phshows/ethniccleansing.html.
(Note: one of the photos is disturbing.)


As described in the following report, there are now over 2,000 new IDPs
inside Karen State. They are the subjects of ethnic cleansing - it is
happening Right Now – and are under extreme duress. Without relief, which
can only come if the nations of the world, and the United Nations, demand
that the SPDC cease and desist, many of them will die. This demand can be
made directly through envoys resident in Rangoon, to the SPDC's
representatives around the world, and through their primary foreign ally,
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand. Further, if this demand is
not met, we recommend intervention, a humanitarian military intervention,
to save these individuals' lives.

If you are a democracy activist, please do everything you can to bring
this pressure to bear, including by informing any press contacts that you
have. This is news from Burma that should not be ignored.

Regarding the SPDC leaders, Than Shwe, Maung Aye and Khin Nyunt, we should
remember the IDPs when we consider their "roadmap to democracy" and
"national convention."  The generals are among the most brutal, despicable
people on earth. If they are not rightly killed in the liberation of the
nation, they must be jailed for life.


Free Burma Rangers report
Karen and Karenni Update
January 11, 2004

There are now over 1,000 Karenni IDPs and 1,000 Karen IDPs on the
Karen-Karenni border, just inside northern Muthraw district, Karen State.
This is due to ongoing attacks by the Burma Army.

The Burma Army is concentrating on clearing all Karenni refugees out of
southern Karenni State and is burning rice barns, chasing civilians out of
their villages, and laying landmines around the abandoned villages. The
Burma Army has crossed over to the Karen State side of the border and
chased the villagers of Ka Lae Lo, Lay Wa, Say Ba Ti and Marmee from their
villages. They burned down 2 rice barns at Ka Lae Lo village and planted a
landmine on the main trail out of Ka Lae Lo about 500 meters from the
village. On January 7 at 11.45 (Burma Time), a 17-year-old  boy stepped on
a landmine (Burma Army mine MM2 or the same type Chinese manufacture),
outside of Ka Lae Lo village and lost his leg from the knee down. A FBR
team who was nearby interviewing the villagers whose rice barns were
burned along with another KNU medic responded and applied first aid. An
emergency amputation was conducted and the boy was stabilized and then
carried for four days to a mobile clinic. He is alive and is recovering.
On Jan 8, the same FBR team witnessed the Burma Army burn down a villagers
rice barn (Yu Hae Daw Ko village farm), across the river in Karenni State.

Karenni villagers fleeing the attacks reported that three persons had died
of starvation inside Karenni State and that many more were trapped in the
jungle north of the Mawchi-Toungoo road. An unknown number of Karenni IDPs
have fled to Toungoo District of the Karen state.

On 26 December 2003, the Burma Army ordered all Karenni villagers north
and south of the Mawchi road to relocate to Mahntahlayn near Pasaung (on
the west bank of the Salween river), or be shot on site. On 29 December
the Burma army began to force these villagers out of their villages. The
largest concentration of IDPs who have fled these attacks are in the
northern Muthraw district, where 995 Karenni IDPs and 678 Karen IDPs  are
in hiding together. Rice is running out and although there is a relief
team providing emergency medical assistance, medicine will run out in two
weeks if there is no resupply. Karenni have reported that the Burma Army
is building a new road from Mawchi south east to Htee Lay Kee in #1
township of District 2 to serve the new Wolfram mine there. The Burma Army
has forced the villagers of #2 and #3 townships of District 2 to relocate
along the Mawchi-Toungoo road and to porter for the Burma Army as well as
to build a new army camp one mile west of Mawchi at Kaw Ku. This started
on December 10, 2003. Also starting on this same date, 80 Karenni women
and 40 Karenni men have been forced to carry supplies for the Burma Army
from Mawchi to the Karen-Karenni border.

The Karenni also report that the Burma Army has brought 1,000 new soldiers
up from the Kaukkyi area (Naunglybin District, Karen state), to reinforce
these operations. The Karenni say the Burma Army is taking advantage of
the Karen unofficial ceasefire to concentrate their forces against the
Karenni.
____________________________________