BurmaNet News, July 1, 2004

[Editor]

July 1, 2004, Issue # 2508


INSIDE BURMA
AP: Suu Kyi's party unconvinced she will be allowed to run in next election
Xinhua: Myanmar PM to visit China

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Migrant registration process hits snag

BUSINESS / MONEY
Xinhua: ASEAN tourism meetings review programs in progress

REGIONAL
FT: Asean set for EU clash over softer line on Burma

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: EU criticises ASEAN over soft Myanmar stance, warns of failed state
AFP: Myanmar military forcing ethnic groups out of villages: US movement
AFP: US to propose ASEAN action for democratic reforms in Myanmar

ANNOUNCEMENT
Shanti Volunteer Association: Talk & Art Exhibit at San Francisco World
Affairs Council


INSIDE BURMA
______________________________________

July 1, Associated Press
Suu Kyi's party unconvinced she will be allowed to run in next election -
Aye Aye Win

Yangon: Detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party on Thursday
dismissed as unrealistic a reported pledge from Myanmar's military
government that she would be allowed to run in future elections.

On Wednesday, Indonesia's foreign minister said his Myanmar counterpart,
Win Aung, had promised during a closed-door meeting in Jakarta that Suu
Kyi would be able to run in polls - the goal of the junta's so-called
roadmap to democracy.

But U Lwin, spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, called
Win Aung's reported comment an attempt to convince Myanmar's neighbors
that the junta was serious about political reforms.

"How does Win Aung know that she will be allowed to run in future
elections?" said U Lwin. "Will the new election law allow Aung San Suu Kyi
to take part?"

"I don't want to blame Win Aung, but what Win Aung said is not realistic,"
he told The Associated Press, noting that the country has no constitution
and the junta still hasn't made any substantive reform.

U Lwin added "it is regretful if ASEAN leaders believe what Win Aung had
said."

Win Aung is in Jakarta to attend a meeting of foreign ministers of the
10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace prize winner, has been under house arrest for more
than a year.

Myanmar's military rulers barred her from standing in the last election in
1990, claiming her loyalty to Myanmar was questionable because of the 28
years she spent abroad and her marriage to a Briton. Suu Kyi never gave up
her Myanmar citizenship.

Suu Kyi's party won a landslide victory in the election anyway, but the
military refused to hand over power.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, is holding a national convention to draft a
constitution that would allow a return to civilian rule. But no timeline
has been set, and the NLD is boycotting the process, largely because of
Suu Kyi's house arrest.

On the Net:

Myanmar government statement:

http://www.myanmar-information.net/political/english.pdf

______________________________________

July 1, Xinhua News Service
Myanmar PM to visit China

Beijing: Myanmar Prime Minister Khin Nyunt will pay an official good-will
visit to China from July 11 to 17 at the invitation of Chinese Premier Wen
Jiabao.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue made the announcement
here Thursday at a press conference.


ON THE BORDER
______________________________________

July 1, Irrawaddy
Migrant registration process hits snag - Shah Paung and Anna Brown

Thailand’s massive registration scheme for its estimated one million
migrants living illegally in the country was set to begin today. But when
several migrants turned up at two registration offices in the border town
of Mae Sot, officials turned them away, explaining that they were not yet
ready to register the workers, said Pranom Somwong of the Thai-based
Migrant Assistance Program.

The Thai Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare announced recently that
foreign workers from Burma, Cambodia and Laos could register to work
legally in the country. The process was scheduled to run from July 1 to
31.

The measure was aimed at existing migrant workers only, but others flooded
into the country in hopes of landing a job before the registration
deadline closed.

Several landlords and employers in Mae Sot are refusing to cooperate with
the registration process, says Pranom, because it is generally cheaper to
pay-off local authorities to turn a blind eye to unfair labor practices,
such as paying workers a wage below the legal minimum.

However, some employers of Burmese migrants were seen at the immigration
office in Mae Sot registering their workers for permits today, according
to Moe Swe, head of the Mae Sot-based Yaung Chi Oo Burmese Workers’
Association. They were given forms to pass on to workers. A Mae Sot-based
journalist said that the Thai labor ministry would begin issuing work
permits to migrant workers on June 22.

A factory worker in Mae Sot said he did not have to go to the immigration
office because his employer went for him, carrying photos of him and his
co-workers to the registration office.

Migrants who are properly registered should be granted health coverage
under the Thai national healthcare system. They should also be eligible
for work permits at the end of the month, entitling them to full labor
protection.

The costs of the permits vary depending on the worker’s intended length of
stay—2,450 baht (US $59) for a three-month permit, 2,900 baht for a
six-month permit and 3,800 baht for a one-year permit. Last month,
however, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Wan Muhamad Noor Matha announced that
new applicants would have all fees waived, except for a 1,900 baht fee for
a medical check-up.

But Pranom says that migrants are not convinced their rights will be
upheld under the new registration system. Many Burmese migrants fear that
their personal information will be given to the Burmese junta, which could
endanger their families in Burma.

Of the roughly one million migrant workers in Thailand, 80 percent are
from Burma. Last year only about 400,000 migrants workers registered with
the Thai Labor Ministry.

Manh Ba La Sein, who assists migrants in Mae Sot, said today that local
Thai authorities announced by loudspeaker that all migrants—workers and
non-workers—must register.

The registration process marks the first time that Thailand will recognize
non-working migrants.


BUSINESS / MONEY
______________________________________

July 1, Xinhua News Service
ASEAN tourism meetings review programs in progress

Yangon: A series of meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) on tourism, which began on Monday in eastern Myanmar's Taunggyi,
have reviewed some programs in progress with regard to the development of
regional tourism.

The ASEAN Task Force meetings on tourism marketing, investment and
manpower development discussed progress of publishing ASEAN map in Chinese
language for market promotion of the regional tourism industry,
maintenance of ASEAN tourism website, information program for third phase
of ASEAN tourism movement and implementation of regional tourism
agreement, state-run daily The New Light of Myanmar reported Thursday.

The meetings also deliberated over putting on the list of tourism
investment from regional member countries on Website of the ASEAN
Secretariat, holding of ASEAN tourism investment exhibition, setting up of
the funds for ASEAN tourism investment and task of the investment work
committee in the ASEAN tourism agreement.

Besides, matters on organizing workshops and training on tourism,
management of tourism resources and establishment of website were also
discussed.

The meetings are being followed by other meetings until later Thursday
between ASEAN and China, Japan, South Korea and India on tourism
cooperation.

Meanwhile, Myanmar has launched tourism promotional campaigns in some
major Asian cities including New Delhi, Osaka, Tokyo, Singapore and
Malaysia for increased tourist arrivals.

Official figures show that tourist arrivals in Myanmar by air and by land
crossing border totaled nearly 600,000 in 2003, while contracted foreign
investment in the sector of hotels and tourism has so far amounted to 1.06
billion US dollars since Myanmar started to open to such investment in
late 1988.


REGIONAL
______________________________________

July 1, Financial Times
Asean set for EU clash over softer line on Burma - Shawn Donnan and Victor
Mallet

Jakarta: A year after putting unprecedented pressure on Burma's military
rulers, south-east Asian foreign ministers again softened their line
yesterday, adopting a more muted criticism of the country at the end of
their annual ministerial meeting.

Their stance, contained in a joint communique, is likely to cause a
conflict with their European counterparts ahead of a planned summit later
this year.

The foreign ministers from the Association of South East Asian Nations
(Asean) are due to meet their counterparts from the US and Europe as well
as China, Japan and South Korea for annual talks over the coming two days.

However, the issue of Burma and the ongoing detention of pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi now risks overshadowing those talks, with the
European Union threatening to abandon a planned summit in Hanoi in October
if Asean insists on Burma attending.

According to Indonesia's foreign minister, Hassan Wirajuda, Burma told its
neighbours yesterday it was prepared to allow Ms Suu Kyi to run in
elections once a new constitution was drafted by a convention now under
way. He also urged outsiders not to "belittle" Burma's "efforts," saying
"there has been progress".

However, in their final communique, Asean ministers chose not to name Ms
Suu Kyi, as they have previously. They also did little more than point to
their statements last year, adding only that they had urged Burma to allow
"all strata" of society to take part in the ongoing constitutional
convention and "continue their efforts to effect a smooth transition to
democracy".

Asean's calls last year in Cambodia for "a peaceful transition to
democracy" were seen as an unprecedented step away from the body's policy
of non-interference in member's affairs.

But in the year since, some Asean members have grown frustrated with the
lack of progress by Burma, which joined in 1997, but has since become a
recurring distraction in relations with other regional groupings such as
the EU.

The EU wants to include its 10 new members in the annual Asia-Europe
Meeting forums while Asean wants to see its three latest additions -
Burma, Cambodia and Laos - at the table.

However, the EU has objected to Burma's inclusion and earlier this month
cancelled two separate sessions between finance and economic ministers
scheduled for later this year and has threatened to walk away from the
Hanoi summit should Asean insist on Burma being there.


INTERNATIONAL
______________________________________

July 1, Agence France Presse
EU criticises ASEAN over soft Myanmar stance, warns of failed state - Karl
Malakunas

Jakarta: The European Union sharply criticised Southeast Asian nations on
Thursday for failing to censure Myanmar's military rulers at a regional
summit here, and warned the country was in danger of becoming a failed
state.

However the EU's two foreign policy chiefs, Javier Solana and Chris
Patten, said they would continue negotiations with the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) over a planned Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM)
this year that is in jeopardy because of their dispute over Myanmar.

Solana told reporters in Jakarta he was unimpressed with an ASEAN foreign
ministers' statement released after their summit on Wednesday that called
for a smooth transition to democracy in Myanmar but failed to mention
detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

"There's nothing there... I would have preferred to have had something in
it," Solana, the EU's foreign policy "high representative" and future
foreign minister, said when asked about the joint communique.

The ASEAN statement was much weaker than a draft initially discussed among
the ministers that would have "reiterated the need for the release of Aung
San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy members".

A similar statement by ASEAN leaders at their annual summit in Bali last
year had called for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, but Myanmar lobbied
hard for the foreign ministers to water down the group's stance.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda defended the statement on
Wednesday, saying it did not "reduce the engagement of ASEAN with regard
to Myanmar".

He also said Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung had told his ASEAN
counterparts that Aung San Suu Kyi would be allowed to join elections
after the completion of a constitution through a national convention that
began last month.

But Solana, who was in Jakarta for Friday's ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF),
rejected assertions that Win Aung's promise was a positive development.

"I'd prefer to see actions (rather) than words. I don't expect a statement
saying they are going to be good. It's much better that they take steps,"
he said.

Patten, the EU External Relations Commissioner who was also in Jakarta for
the ARF, painted a grim picture of life in Myanmar under the junta, which
has ruled the nation since 1962.

He said Myanmar was a place of "terrible poverty where there is a pandemic
of AIDS and where there is no sign of political or economic progress".

"(Myanmar poses) a problem for this region ... and you shouldn't be
surprised if we in Europe are concerned that what we may be seeing is the
explosive creation of another failed state."

The European Union is one of the harshest critics of Myanmar's military
rulers and has imposed trade sanctions in an effort to pressure the junta.

Aung San Suu Kyi's party won elections in 1990 by a landslide but has
never been allowed to rule.

Following his diplomatic victory at the ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting,
Win Aung expressed his displeasure at the EU.

"Sometimes it's very unfair," Win Aung said when asked about the EU's
insistence that Myanmar not join the nine other ASEAN members at the ASEM
summit tentatively scheduled for October in Hanoi.

"For us the whole country... it's very important for our peace and
stability how to build a nation."

The ASEM summit has been thrown into doubt over ASEAN's determination for
Myanmar to attend. ASEAN has countered that if Myanmar can not take part,
neither can the 10 nations that joined the EU on May 1.

Solana said he would meet with Japanese and Vietnamese officials in
Jakarta on Friday to try to negotiate a way for the meeting to go ahead
and hinted the EU was prepared to make some concessions.

"We are going to do our utmost to have the meeting in Vietnam... there has
to be some movement everywhere," Solana said.

However he would not be drawn on whether that might mean allowing Myanmar
to attend ASEM. "I'm not going to enter into any possible formulations,"
he said.

Meanwhile, elected pro-democracy members of Myanmar's parliament living in
Thailand accused ASEAN foreign ministers of going soft on the junta.

"ASEAN should engage not only the junta but also the National League for
Democracy and should meet Aung San Suu Kyi and her party's senior
leaders," a spokesman for the group, Zin Linn, told AFP.

______________________________________

June 30, Agence France Presse
Myanmar military forcing ethnic groups out of villages: US movement

Washington: A US-based group campaigning against human rights abuse in
Myanmar charged Wednesday that the Southeast Asian country's military
regime was stepping up a brutal campaign against ethnic groups.

Hundreds of people are being driven out of their villages in Karenni State
northeast of Myanmar's capital Yangon, the US Campaign for Burma group
said, showing photos of some of the displaced people taken earlier this
week.

The group said in a statement that the milutary's move was part of a
"systematic and brutal campaign" against ethnic nationalities that has
left between 600,000 and one million people internally displaced and
forced between one and two million people to flee to neighboring
countries.

"This regime's abuses are forcing innocent, defenseless children into the
jungle," said Stephen Dun, a board member of US Campaign for Burma. Burma
is Myanmar's previous name.

Dun said the affected villages were around the Nat Thaung Mountain, about
50 miles (80 kilometers) from Myanmar's border with Thailand,

He said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), whose foreign
ministers are holding their annual meeting in Indonesia's capital Jakarta,
should condemn Yangon for the forced relocation of villages closer to
military bases.

"From these locations, villagers are forced to provide labor for the
military regime's infrastructure projects," he said.

Myanmar is a member of ASEAN, whose ministers concluded their meeting
Wednesday with a call for a smooth transition to democracy in the
army-ruled state.

The ministers made no mention of Myanmar's detained opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy won 1990 elections by a
landslide but which have never been recognized by the ruling junta.

Myanmar's national convention to draft a constitution, which began on May
17, has also been boycotted by the democratic opposition and described as
a sham by international human rights groups.

The US Campaign for Burma urged US Secretary of State Colin Powell to
condemn Myanmar's recent abuses at the ASEAN meeting.

The United States as well as Europe, who will join ASEAN members Friday
for a meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum, had been pressing the group to
take a stronger line against Myanmar.

A planned Asia-Europe (ASEM) summit in Hanoi in October is in jeopardy
because of the Myanmar issue.

______________________________________

June 29, Agence France Presse
US to propose ASEAN action for democratic reforms in Myanmar - P.
Parameswaran

Washington: US Secretary of State Colin Powell will seek action from
Southeast Asian states to bring about democratic reforms in Myanmar during
upcoming talks with his regional counterparts, an official said.

"What he is going to do is to urge more action by ASEAN in believing that
we in the United States have taken a particular position on sanctions,"
Assistant Secretary of State Lorne Craner told AFP.

Craner was speaking ahead of Powell's annual meeting with foreign
ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in
Jakarta.

Myanmar is among the 10 member states of ASEAN, whose foreign ministers at
their annual meeting last year made an unprecedented call for the release
of the military-ruled nation's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The stand represented a historic departure from ASEAN's long-standing
policy of non-interference in members' internal affairs.

But Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest and her National League
for Democracy (NLD) party's activities continue to curtailed.

Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD party won 1990 elections by a landslide, but has
never been permitted to rule by the junta.

Craner said Southeast Asian states had an important role in bringing about
democratic changes in their neighbor Myanmar.

"What we have learned these few years around the world, whether it is in
Zimbabwe or Belarus or Cuba or elsewhere is that having the neighbors also
engaged to whatever extent in trying to make a reform in a country is
very, very helpful," he said.

Craner did not say whether the United States would propose any specific
action.

"This is a belief that we all share in the administration, that we have
strengthened our own policy on Burma and we have asked others to
strengthen their policy on Burma," he said, referring to Myanmar's old
name.

Both the US House of Representatives and the Senate have overwhelmingly
approved resolutions seeking renewal of trade sanctions against Myanmar to
pressure Yangon to hold talks with Aung San Suu Kyi.

The United States already bars investments into Myanmar, which will take
over the rotating chair of ASEAN in 2006.

"There could be no greater loss of face for that association than being
under the guidance of the SPDC," said US Senator Mitch McConnell, a vocal
Myanmar critic. The SPDC is the official name of the military junta.

Powell will also attend a meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the
biggest official security forum in the Asia-Pacific region, where Myanmar
is expected to come under fire from US and the European Union for human
rights abuses and repression of democratic opposition.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told AFP during his visit to
Washington last week that Myanmar was expected to brief the ASEAN meeting
on the progress of its "roadmap" for its democratization.

But the first step in the roadmap, a constitutional convention which began
on May 17, has been boycotted by the democratic opposition and called a
sham by the United States and international rights groups.

The opposition NLD has boycotted the meeting because the military rulers
refused to free Aung San Suu Kyi or relax repressive rules surrounding the
forum.

"While not telling them what to do, it is important for them to listen to
the views of the international community," Syed Hamid said.

"We should keep on encouraging the Myanmar side to get them (the
opposition) to be involved in the democratic process at whatever stage so
that the perception of exclusion is not there," Syed Hamid said.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said before retiring last year
that Yangon might have to be expelled if it continued to defy world
pressure to release Aung San Suu Kyi.


ANNOUNCEMENT
______________________________________

July - August 2004, Shanti Volunteer Association
Art Exhibit at San Francisco World Affairs Council


My Important Things: Children's photographs of Karen Refugee Camps
Event organized by Takafumi Miyake

Some 140,000 Karen refugees have fled their homeland areas in the Karen
State of Myanmar/Burma and now reside in Thailand.  Many refugees have
been in ten camps near the Thai-Burma Border, some since 1988.  From
300,000 to 500,000 others are unrecognized displaced who live near the
border area as undocumented workers and unofficial refugees. In this
unique photographic exhibition, Takafumi Miyake, of the Shanti Volunteer
Association, Tokyo, Japan, gave cameras to children in the refugee camps
and asked them to photograph their family, friends and other important
things in their lives. The result is a beautiful and heart-breaking
portrayal of the day to day events of a child in the Karen refugee camps.

312 Sutter Street, 2nd Floor San Francisco

********************************
TUESDAY, JUL-06-2004

MAKING VOICES HEARD: EDUCATION AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION SERVICES TO KAREN
REFUGEES IN THAILAND CAMPS

Takafumi Miyake, Deputy Secretary General, Shanti Volunteer Association

Stephen McNeil, Assistant Regional Director for Peace Building, American
Friends Service Committee

Stephanie Guyer-Stevens, Producer and Project Coordinator of Outer
Voices

The Karens are an indigenous people of 14 million living in the Southeast
Asian countries of Thailand and Burma, with the majority living inside
Burma. Traditionally, most Karens are farmers. The Karen in Burma have
suffered oppression for decades under successive regimes.
In Thailand, incarceration, forced labor and re-settlement, denial of
political representation and citizenship rights, among other human rights
violations, have led thousands of Karen to move into refugee camps. Our
speakers will discuss the current state of the Karen refugees in Thailand
and the role conflict-resolution has played in helping the Karen people.

REGISTRATION 5:30 PM, PROGRAM 6:00 PM,
MEMBERS - FREE, NONMEMBERS - $12, STUDENT NONMEMBERS - $5
AT THE COUNCIL, 312 SUTTER STREET, SUITE 200, SAN FRANCISCO, CA, 94108
COSPONSORED BY AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE, JAPAN SOCIETY, AND
JAPAN-U.S. COMMUNITY EDUCATION AND EXCHANGE