BurmaNet News, June 8, 2004

[Editor]

June 8, 2004, Issue # 2491

"
the regional grouping has disempowered itself and undermined capacity to
resolve conflicts in its own constituency. Burma's current situation is
proof that Asean's position [of unconditional engagement] is a miserable
failure."
- Regional Strategy Meeting Statement, Alliance for Reform and Democracy
in Asia, June 8, 2004


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Ethnic leader forced out

ON THE BORDER
Nation: Mae Sot: Burmese health dilemma

BUSINESS / MONEY
Xinhua: Myanmar benefits from China's import tariff cut

REGIONAL
AP via Irrawaddy: Malaysian lawmakers urge Burma reforms
Korea Herald: Indians in Myanmar, neither here nor there

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: Paris votes to make Myanmar democracy activist honorary citizen

ANNOUNCEMENT
ARDA: Activists Urge: Disqualify Burma as 2006 Asean Chair


INSIDE BURMA
______________________________________

June 8, Irrawaddy
Ethnic Leader Forced Out - Nandar Chann

A top leader of a Shan political party was forced out of his post
recently, said a close friend of his family.

Sai Tun Aung was the vice chairman of the Shan Nationalities League for
Democracy, or SNLD, and an elected member of parliament from Lankho
Township in Shan State.

The government-run newspaper the New Light of Myanmar on Sunday published
an article saying that Sai Tun Aung left his post on May 29 because “He
felt that it was terribly wrong for the [SNLD] not to attend the National
Convention because of the influence of the National League for Democracy.”

But a friend of Sai Tun Aung’s family said local military intelligence
officers visited the vice chairman’s house in Lashio a few days ago and
forced him to sign a letter of resignation. He added that the officers
threatened Sai Tun Aung’s family if he didn’t relinquish his post and that
they are keeping close watch on his house.

SNLD leader Hkun Htun Oo expressed surprise with the resignation and said
Sai Tun Aung never voiced objections to the party’s decision not to
participate in the constitution-drafting National Convention, which kicked
off on May 17. He added that Sai Tun Aung would be welcomed back to the
party if he wishes.

The SNLD won 23 seats in the 1990 general election, making it the
second-largest vote-winner, after the National League for Democracy.

The National League for Democracy opposition party and several ethnic
parties did not attend the National Convention because the military
government would not change its proceedings, which guarantee the military
a major role in any future government.


ON THE BORDER
_____________________________________

June 8, The Nation
Mae Sot: Burmese health dilemma - Punnee Amornviputpanich

Greater risk of disease as 'illegals' avoid care because of fear of
arrest, expulsion

Tak: Burmese illegal workers avoid getting medical treatment at Thai
hospitals, fearing that contact with authorities will see them deported.

'That's why these immigrants inadvertently become carriers of diseases,'
said Seri Thongmak, secretary general of Pattanarak Foundation.

Dr Kanoknart Pisuttakul, director of Mae Sot Hospital in Tak, said if left
untreated they could spread harmful diseases to others.

'Can you see how children under these immigrants' care become infected'
Can you imagine how they can pass on diseases to others in a packed
factory'' she said.

Many Burmese tuberculosis patients drop out of treatment programmes before
completing the full six-month course, allowing the disease to grow
resistant to drugs and more difficult to treat, she said.

The doctor urged employers to ensure their Burmese workers get medical
check-ups. She also called on relevant authorities to allow alien workers
to buy health insurance for Bt1,200 a year.

'I think they will be happy to pay, and it will reduce the government's
financial burden,' she said.

Mae Sot hospital treated 15,982 foreign patients last year and had to
shoulder Bt16.1million in treatment costs, Kanoknart said.

'Malaria, tuberculosis and syphilis are common diseases among Burmese
immigrants,' she said.

Pranom Somwong, an official at an organisation working to help foreign
immigrants, warned the government's policy of shunning alien workers would
only exacerbate the spread of harmful communicable diseases.

The government could seek aid from international organisations such as the
World Health Organisation to recoup expenses to treat the immigrants, she
said.

Pattanarak Foundation's Seri suggested the Public Health Ministry could
save money by promoting good health rather than reacting to illnesses by
just providing treatment. Tan Wei, a Burmese volunteer in his 30s, said it
pains him to see many Burmese girls undergoing illegal abortions that also
threaten their lives. 'They don't have money to raise a child and are
worried that their employers will fire them if they are pregnant,' he
said.

A Burmese illegal worker at a clothing factory in Tak's Mae Sot district
said employers did not want to take care of their workers and immediately
deport women who get pregnant. 'That's why most female workers have to
undergo abortions,' she said.

Dr Cynthia Maung, who fled Burma and provides free treatment to Burmese
patients on the Thai border, said her clinic receives more than 200
Burmese a day.

Her patients are mainly from two groups: those working in Thailand and
those travelling to Thailand in search of medical care.

'Most of them are suffering from malaria,' she said.

Burmese travel to Thailand because they cannot find medical treatment in
their home country, Dr Cynthia said.

'We should sympathise with them. If we view them as people in need of
help, there will be no problem in our eyes. You know, many pregnant women
have complications and without proper medical assistance, their babies
will die a painful death in Burma,' she said.

Dr Cynthia, who won the 2002 Ramon Magsaysay Award for community
leadership, said authorities nab many Burmese immigrants on their way to
her clinic.

Fia, a Burmese nurse on the border, said her people rarely receive medical
treatment because Burmese hospitals often sell drugs to underground rings
and demand large sums of money before rendering medical care.

A Burmese woman named Noi said she fears her uncle will lose his eyesight
because he suffers from corneal ulcers.

'A hospital in Burma demanded nearly Bt 500,000 but we couldn't afford
that,' she said after taking him to the clinic run by Dr Cynthia.

Noi was told that her uncle's condition needed treatment at larger
facilities. But was wouldn't risk it.

'We dare not go further to district hospitals in Thailand as we fear
arrest. I have to take him home now and let fate guide his way,' she said.

_____________________________________



BUSINESS / MONEY
_____________________________________

June 8, Xinhua News Service
Myanmar benefits from China's import tariff cut

Yangon: Myanmar has benefited from China's cut of import tariff on its
products in one way when the ASEAN market is opening for Myanmar products
under the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA).

China decided early this year to unilaterally cut import tariff on over
100 Myanmar products along with those of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam under
a framework agreement of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) and China initiated in November 2002.

The Myanmar Ministry of Finance and Revenue has recently called on
entrepreneurs in the country to make use of the opportunities to reap more
benefits from the cut.

According to Chinese official statistics, China-Myanmar bilateral trade,
including the border trade, reached 1.07 billion US dollars in 2003 with
China's exports to Myanmar amounting to 900 million dollars and its
imports from Myanmar 170 million dollars. China has proposed an increase
of bilateral trade volume to 1.5 billion dollars by 2005.

ASEAN and China are heading for the establishment of a free trade area
between the two regions.

Meanwhile, the six older ASEAN members --Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore and Thailand --had reduced their import tariffs
with a wide range of products to zero percent in 2003, the ministry said.

Under the AFTA, the four newer members --Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and
Vietnam (CLMV)--are to lower their tariffs to between zero and 5 percent
by 2005. The reduced tariffs apply to products with ASEAN Certificate of
Origin.

According to the Customs Department of the ministry, Myanmar's exports to
ASEAN members amounted to 1.22 billion US dollars in the fiscal year
2002-03, of which those using the ASEAN certificate of origin accounted
for only 2.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the country's imports from regional members reached 1.19
billion dollars during the fiscal year, of which those using such
certificate represented almost zero.

ASEAN plans to totally remove all import duties in the region by 2010 for
the six original members and by 2015 for the four newer members.


REGIONAL
_____________________________________

June 8, AP via Irrawaddy
Malaysian Lawmakers Urge Burma Reforms - Sean Yoong

Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia might stop defending Burma’s ruling generals
against international criticism if they do not take more serious steps
toward political reform and release pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi,
a Malaysian official said Tuesday.

The failure of Burma’s military regime to move faster toward democracy is
hurting relations between Western governments and Southeast Asian
countries, which take a softer approach in dealing with Burma, said Nazri
Aziz, a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.

“We cannot go on and on without light at the end of the tunnel,” Nazri
told reporters. “We have come to the point where we have our limits. We
can’t go on defending them like this.”

Nazri was speaking on behalf of a newly formed caucus of about two dozen
Malaysian members of Parliament—from both the government and
opposition—who say they are dissatisfied with the pace of Burma’s
democratic process.

Malaysia has been a key Burma supporter and helped it enter the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, in 1997 despite
international objections over its human rights record.

But even Malaysia has shown signs of exasperation as its approach to
Burma—engaging it instead of imposing sanctions like some Western
nations—has had little success in spurring democratic reform.

Burmese Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt visited Malaysia last week and
assured his counterpart, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, that the junta was moving
toward democracy.

Abdullah “told Khin Nyunt that he must buck up, and something must come
out of this,” Nazri said. “He told Khin Nyunt that the future is
democracy, and before things get worse, [the junta] better find a
compromise” with political dissenters.

The current junta in Burma came to power in 1988 after crushing a
pro-democracy uprising. It held elections in 1990, but refused to give up
power when Suu Kyi’s party won in a landslide.

Suu Kyi has been held in detention and subsequent house arrest since May
last year, when a pro-junta mob clashed with her supporters in northern
Burma.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party is boycotting a
constitutional convention in Burma to protest her detention. Critics have
described the convention, which began May 17, as a sham to cover up the
regime’s failure to allow democracy.

Malaysian legislators involved in the caucus said they would try to
persuade parliamentarians in other Asean countries to support their
efforts to speed up Burma’s reforms and eventually visit Burma in a
possible attempt to meet with Suu Kyi.

However, they stressed their comments were made in their individual
capacities as members of Parliament and would not necessarily be binding
on the Malaysian government.

_____________________________________


June 8, The Korea Herald
Indians in Myanmar, neither here nor there - Sudeshna Sarkar

Sulekha Biswas is young, pretty and holds a well-paid job. Yet, she can't
find a husband. It's not that she is extremely choosy; it's simply that
there are very few eligible bachelors in her community. Sulekha belongs to
a Bengali family from Kolkata but she herself has never been to the city.
Her parents met and married in Rangoon and Sulekha has spent all her life
in the Buddhist country. "My brothers have gone back to Kolkata," she
rues. "Opportunities are drying up here, they say. But I have never been
to Kolkata and am scared to venture into the unknown."

Sulekha's brothers were lucky to have been able to return. For there are
thousands of people of Indian origin who have been living in Myanmar for
over four generations and yet "belong" neither to the host country nor to
India.

The last official census in Myanmar was held in 1983 and the results
published in 1986. At that time, there were 428,428 persons of Indian
origin, or PIOs, in Myanmar - the majority Hindus - followed by Sunni
Muslims. Accordingly, the current population would be about 600,000.

According to Singhvi Report, commissioned by the Government of India, the
exact size of the community is a matter of conjecture, but there could be
about 2.5 million PIOs living in Myanmar. The majority of them, the report
guesstimates, are Muslims, who account for about 1.3 million and could
include immigrants from Bangladesh. About 800,000 are Hindus and 400,000
Christians and Sikhs.

However, in so large a diaspora, only about 2,000 persons hold Indian
passports. In other words, about two to four million people are
"stateless," possessing no citizenship documents. Though they have been
living in the country for more than four generations, speak Burmese
fluently and have adopted local customs, they are still not Myanmar's
citizens for lack of documents required by the Burmese Citizenship law of
1982. This implies they cannot travel outside the country and this has
contributed to weakening their ties with India.

Adding to the woes of these people is their low economic status. The
Indian Embassy in Rangoon estimates that most of the PIOs in and around
the capital work as domestic help, mechanics, construction workers and
petty traders. Their financial status differs sharply from that of the
affluent non-resident Indians, or NRIs, in Myanmar, who either run
export-import businesses or are employed by big firms in India, Singapore
and Thailand.

The Indian diaspora would like their children to be educated in Indian
schools so that they imbibe "Indian" values. However, Myanmar's laws don't
permit an Indian curriculum in schools and the Yangon Kendriya Vidyalaya
too has closed. Nor can these individuals afford to have their children
educated abroad. From the 1960s to the 80s, Myanmar had been under a
military regime that follows a policy of diplomatic isolation,
dissociating itself even from Non-Aligned Movement and stressing the
policy of nationalization. The use of Burmese was encouraged at the
expense of English, which was also the language of the hated colonial
rulers who annexed Myanmar in the 19th century and made it part of India.
Consequently, though over 90 percent of the population is literate, very
few speak or understand English.

During British rule, Indians dominated the civil services and even
businesses, the latter being controlled by the rich Chettiyar community of
moneylenders from southern India. But after Independence in 1948, Prime
Minister U Nu's land reform policy ensured that foreigners did not hold
any land, triggering an exodus of rich Indians. Gen. Ne Win, who took over
after a coup in 1962, boosted the departure of foreigners with his policy
of Burmanization - the takeover of businesses by the government.
Non-Burmese citizens were also excluded from government jobs, had no vote
and faced restrictions on travel and change of residence.

"My father was a civil servant," says Muthuswamy, now in his 60s. "But
because of the change in policy, I couldn't get myself a government job.
So I worked with an Indian insurance company. Even they had to leave after
the nationalization. I have six daughters and it's a very hard life. But
how can I go back?"

After the democracy movement in 1988 led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu
Kyi - currently under house arrest in Rangoon - the Indian Embassy was
regarded with suspicion by the military government. The latter believed
that the embassy had supported the movement and that Indians were Suu Kyi
sympathizers. According to a report, "Thereafter, Indians were viewed with
much suspicion and, therefore, the Burmese were hesitant to have good
social relations with Indians settled in Myanmar." However, things
improved post-1988 when, following Gen. Ne Win' resignation, the economy
was thrown open to liberalization.

If the PIOs in Myanmar are told they could have a wish granted, most of
them would like to be granted citizenship. Despite the military regime in
the country, which prevented Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party
from coming to power, though it swept the 1990 elections, and the
restriction on Internet access and political activities, the PIOs in
Myanmar prefer to stay on where they are. Some of them, as well as those
who have left Myanmar, still dream of receiving compensation from the
government for the takeover of their lands and properties and have been
urging the Indian Embassy to take up their cause.

The embassy, as well as New Delhi, has raised the issue with Rangoon. As a
first step, a delegation on outstanding financial and consular matters
visited Rangoon in late 2003 for discussions with the Myanmar government.
But when or whether the dream will be fulfilled is anybody's guess.

For the moment, the PIOs have to be satisfied with the issuance of the
"white card." It is a document issued to children of stateless PIOs that
allows certain rights. Though the card does not grant citizenship, the
PIOs now have a ray of hope: the government has agreed to decide their
status on a case to case basis when they attain majority.

Faced with problems and aspirations, the PIOs have little time to ponder
the changes taking place in distant India. When the results of the 14th
parliamentary elections were announced and Dr. Manmohan Singh was named
the new prime minister of the world's largest democracy, it created little
stir among these people. "I know who the prime minister of India is," said
a Tamil cabbie in Rangoon. "It's Rajiv Gandhi."

The writer, the Kathmandu-based correspondent of The Statesman, was
recently in Rangoon.


INTERNATIONAL
_____________________________________

June 8, Agence France Presse
Paris votes to make Myanmar democracy activist honorary citizen

Paris: Municipal councillors in Paris voted Tuesday to make Aung San Suu
Kyi, the detained leader of Myanmar's democracy movement, an honorary
citizen of the city.

The motion, put forward by Green Party members, was backed by Socialist
councillors who dominate the City Hall.

"She more than deserves this," the municipal official in charge of
international relations, Pierre Schapira, said.

The honour is to be formally awarded on June 19, the date of Aung San Suu
Kyi's 59th birthday.

The activist and Nobel peace laureate has spent the past year confined to
her Yangon home on orders of Myanmar's military rulers.

PRESS RELEASE
_____________________________________

June 8, Alliance for Reform and Democracy in Asia
Activists Urge: Disqualify Burma as 2006 Asean Chair

Asean's Unconditional Engagement a Failure, More Sanctions Needed

Asian supporters of democracy and human rights in Burma have urged Asean
to disqualify the Burmese military regime from chairing the regional bloc
in 2006, in the absence of irreversible steps to achieve National
Reconciliation, and political and economic reforms.

The call was made at a Regional Strategy Meeting held in Thailand this
weekend. Participants came from 40 organisations in 10 countries,
including regional bodies, NGOs, political parties and labour groups.

A statement issued by the meeting emphasised that "Asean and the
international community need to focus more effort and resources to
advocate effectively for genuine reforms in Burma.

" ...the regional grouping has disempowered itself and undermined capacity
to resolve conflicts in its own constituency. Burma's current situation is
proof that Asean's position [of unconditional engagement] is a miserable
failure."

The statement also criticised Asean member states for refusing to
recognise the human rights of asylum-seekers and activists from Burma:
"The security threats have been worsening in the past year, particularly
in Thailand and Malaysia."

The statement endorsed efforts to "Sustain and widen sanctions against the
military regime, including economic sanctions and an embargo on military
equipment and expertise.

"Sanctions, particularly economic sanctions, are vital non-military
options to support the democracy movement in Burma. Hence, the
continuation and expansion of such sanctions are needed."

The activists insisted that the Burmese regime was sensitive to
international pressure and opinion, describing the SPDC's imposition of
bizarre rules at the current National Convention in Rangoon as "desperate
measures designed to prevent any opportunity for delegates to absent
themselves" that prove the "junta's fear of further losing credibility".

They called for Asean and the international community to withdraw support
from the National Convention and the regime's roadmap, and instead, insist
on tripartite dialogue premised on observance of human rights and
democratic principles.

The release of the regional strategy meeting statement was deferred for
security reasons. The full text of the Declaration of the Regional
Strategy Meeting on Burma is available at
http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs/June-8-decl.htm

Enquiries:

Ms Elizabeth Wong, Executive Director, Alliance for Reform and Democracy in
Asia (ARDA). Tel: +6016 257 9750, Email <eliwong at langkasuka.org>

Mr Boonthan Verawongse, Executive Director, Peace & Human Rights Resource
Centre. Tel + 661 866 2136, Emai <hrnet at mozart.inet.co.th

Mr Gus Miclat, Executive Director, Initiatives for International Dialogue
(IID). Tel: +63 917 701 3099, Email <gus at iidnet.org>


ANNOUNCEMENT
_____________________________________

On the Road to Depayin: Speeches by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is now available
at http://altsean.org/ontheroad.html.

It features photos and excerpts of speeches made by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
taken in the weeks before her entourage was attacked on May 30, 2003. This
is new material.