BurmaNet News, July 17-19, 2004

[Editor]

July 17-19, 2004, Issue # 2519


INSIDE BURMA
AP: Myanmar junta stops Suu Kyi supporters from entering her father's
mausoleum on death anniversary

HEALTH / AIDS
Nation: HIV/AIDS: Burmese “browbeaten”

BUSINESS / MONEY
Xinhua: Myanmar moving garment export target to Europe
AFP: Japan pledges aid to Myanmar despite ongoing detention of Aung San
Suu Kyi

REGIONAL
AFP: Thai public backs drug campaign despite worldwide condemnation AFP:
Myanmar fires on boats in fishing rights fight with Thais
Xinhua: Thailand to crackdown on illegal labor from August
Mizzima: India eyeing Burma's seaport

INTERNATIONAL
Fort Wayne News Sentinel: Burmese refugees form unified group

OPINION / OTHER
Burma Issues: China's role in Burma: Can the SPDC survive without Chinese
support?
Burma Issues: Mobilization of the masses: How much of a threat is the USDA?

PRESS RELEASE
SEAPA via IFEX: Military Intelligence cracks down on distribution of
politically-sensitive songs; band members and concert organisers arrested


INSIDE BURMA
______________________________________

July 19, Associated Press
Myanmar junta stops Suu Kyi supporters from entering her father's
mausoleum on death anniversary - Aye Aye Win

Yangon: Security forces in military-ruled Myanmar stopped opposition
activists from entering the mausoleum of independence hero Gen. Aung San
to mark the 57th anniversary of his assassination Monday, while his
daughter, democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, remained under house arrest.

It was the second year that Suu Kyi missed the ceremony at Aung San's
mausoleum, the only official event that the junta had previously allowed
her to attend.

The government reviles Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi, but her father
is officially considered a hero for his struggle for independence for
Myanmar - then known as Burma - from its former colonial master, Britain.

Aung San and eight other Cabinet ministers were gunned down by a political
rival on July 19, 1947, six months before formal independence. The
assassination is marked every year as Martyr's Day with an official
function at his mausoleum.

A few hours after government officials left the mausoleum Monday, about
100 members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party - most of
them wearing party uniforms and badges - marched to the mausoleum from the
party headquarters, about 300 meters (yards) away.

They were stopped by security forces, who allowed only about 20 people who
were not wearing the badges or uniforms into the mausoleum.

"We cannot take off our jackets, badges and T-shirts, so we paid respect
to our fallen leader from where we were stopped," said one NLD official,
speaking on condition of anonymity.

The marchers had earlier participated in a private ceremony at the NLD
headquarters presided by party chairman Aung Shwe, who read out a
statement calling for "genuine democracy" to solve the country's economic,
social, educational and health problems.

Martyr's Day was an important event in Myanmar's calendar for years, but
has been gradually downgraded since Suu Kyi rose to prominence following a
1988 pro-democracy uprising that was crushed by the junta.

The junta called elections in 1990 but refused to hand over power after
the NLD won overwhelmingly. Suu Kyi has since spent long periods in
detention or house arrest.

She was arrested again in May 2003 following a deadly clash between her
supporters and a pro-government mob.

"Ignoring the election results and holding on to power on the grounds of
such irrelevant excuses as lack of national stability ... is dishonest and
will not win the trust and respect of the people," the NLD statement said.

Since 1996, official newspapers have abandoned an earlier tradition of
publishing commemorative Martyr's Day biographical sketches of Aung San
along with photos of slain leaders and articles extolling them.


HEALTH / AIDS
______________________________________

July 18, The Nation
HIV/AIDS: Burmese “browbeaten” - Don Pathan & Phermsak Lilakul

Thai officials effectively denying treatment to migrants, doctors allege

Fear of and intimidation by Thai police and government officials have
denied Burmese migrant workers and hilltribe people along the northern
border access to HIV/Aids treatment and education, according to a study by
the Physicians for Human Rights presented at the 15th International Aids
Conference.

'The failure to reach these vulnerable communities is not only a failure
of human rights, it is a virtual assurance that HIV/Aids will continue to
be a problem for Thailand,' said Dr. Chris Beyrer, an expert on HIV/Aids
in Southeast Asia.

Beyrer is one of the authors of the report

'No Status: Migration, Trafficking and Exploitation of Women in Thailand '
Health and HIV/Aids Risks for Burmese and Hill Tribe Women and Girls'
released yesterday at the conference.

That report found that many Burmese migrant workers are subjected to abuse
by their employers and corrupt officials who threaten them with
deportation, while the hilltribes are prevented from accessing adequate
health services and education because of their 'stateless' status. Beyrer
said a significant number of sex workers along the border are either
Burmese or hilltribe.

Programmes have been set up for them, but since then many programme
workers have forced to go underground because of political pressure.

The report called for a genuine and concerted effort to crack down on
traffickers and urged the government to provide migrant workers needed
access to official assistance.

Thailand hosts about 500,000 registered migrant workers, most of them
Burmese. Many have given birth while working in Thailand but there is
still no reliable way to register these births.

A report on migrant fishermen's vulnerability to HIV/Aids in Thailand,
made by CARE, an international humanitarian organisation identified
failures in mainstream HIV/Aids prevention and treatment services.

The report said migrant fishermen in Thailand have no access to HIV/Aids
prevention and treatment as most of them are undocumented, illegal
immigrants. They were especially vulnerable to the epidemic as they
usually go to brothels and use condoms inconsistently while on shore
leave.

Lee-Nah Hsu, an official from the United Nations Regional Task Force on
Mobility and HIV, said that inadequacies in health services for migrant
workers reflected the lack of collaboration between agencies in each
sector.

______________________________________


______________________________________



BUSINESS
______________________________________

July 19, Xinhua News Service
Myanmar moving garment export target to Europe

Yangon: Myanmar is moving its garment export target to Europe amid renewed
economic sanctions by the United States, expecting to increase the export
to the region by 6 million dozen garments this year, the local Myanmar
Times reported Monday.

Due to the impact of the sanctions, there remains now about 160 garment
factories in operation in Myanmar with a work force of more than 100,000
out of 400 such factories with 350,000 employees in 2000 when it produced
almost 35 million dozen garment batches with an export value of 397
million US dollars, the report quoted private garment industry sources as
saying.

Since the US tightened its sanctions on Myanmar in August last year on
account of the year's May 30 bloody incident, some garment factories'
employment and productivity reduced by 20-50 percent as the majority of
their buyers were from the US, the sources said.

The industries are looking for new markets in a bid to overcome the
challenge of sanctions, it added.

Meanwhile, Myanmar has also criticized the US's renewed sanctions as a
negative approach  which does not help build a sound economy and develop a
sustainable democracy in Myanmar.

According to official figures, Myanmar-US trade amounted to 218 million
dollars in 2003, of which Myanmar's exports to the US represented 201
million.

______________________________________

July 18, Agence France Presse
Japan pledges aid to Myanmar despite ongoing detention of Aung San Suu Kyi

Yangon: Japan is to provide 344 million yen (3.1 million dollars) in aid
to help Myanmar battle environmental degradation, the Myanmar Times said,
despite the ongoing detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Japan last year threatened to suspend aid to Myanmar if the junta did not
release pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, where she
currently remains.

The money is aimed at combating widespread erosion in central Myanmar
caused by deforestation and drought, according to the semi-official weekly
to be published Monday.

The weekly said the aid pledge had been signed under the Japanese
government's grant aid scheme by ambassador Yuji Miyamoto.

Japan is the biggest creditor nation and aid donor to Myanmar. It
suspended all but a small amount of humanitarian assistance in the
aftermath of the 1988 military takeover, but the flows of funds resumed in
1994.

The United States and European Union have introduced tougher sanctions
against Myanmar in the wake of international anger over the detention of
Aung San Suu Kyi following an attack on her motorcade in May last year.

______________________________________


REGIONAL
______________________________________

July 19, Agence France Presse
Thai public backs drug campaign despite worldwide condemnation

Bangkok: The Thai public overwhelmingly backed the government's brutal and
widely criticised anti-drug crackdown last year that left up to 3,000
people dead, according to a university poll Monday.

Nearly 95 percent of the 4,817 people questioned backed the government's
tough stance against the drug problem despite complaints of extra-judicial
killings and widespread rights abuses.

Thailand was criticised by governments and the United Nations over its
harsh tactics that reached their peak in early 2003. The United States
said arbitrary arrests and killings had hurt the kingdom's human rights
record.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra hit back saying most of the killings
involved drug dealers shooting each other and insisted the government was
addressing the issue within the limits of the law.

A report by the New York-based Human Rights Watch this month said that the
anti-drug campaign had driven users underground, prompting fears of a
renewed explosion in cases of HIV/AIDS.

However Bangkok's Assumption University poll found the crackdown proved
popular with the Thai public, alarmed over an epidemic of youth drug
addiction fuelled by cheap methamphetamines flooding over the border with
Myanmar.

Thaksin's populist focus has seen his government's popularity rise four
points to 56 percent since February, as the country's political parties
embark on pre-election manoeuvring with polls scheduled for early next
year.

All the indications suggest a big win for the Thaksin administration with
popularity for the main opposition Democrat Party falling from 16 to 10
percent over the same period, according to the survey conducted during
July.

______________________________________

July 19, Agence France Presse
Myanmar fires on boats in fishing rights fight with Thais

Bangkok: Twenty-eight fishermen were rescued after a Myanmar frigate fired
on two Thai trawlers in the latest clash between the two countries in a
long-running battle over fishing rights, a senior Thai naval official said
Monday.

Myanmar seized the two boats in separate confrontations off the countries'
shared coastline in the Andaman Sea on Saturday, forcing six Thais and 22
fishermen from Myanmar to abandon ship. They were picked up by a Thai
naval patrol.

Myanmar has seized more than 150 Thai boats since 2001. The latest seizure
could cause a diplomatic row as Thai officials claim the seizures took
place in Thai waters.

"We have to investigate carefully before deciding what our reaction will
be or lodging a protest," said Captain Chaiyos Sunthornnak, the director
of the Thai-Myanmar fishing coordinating committee.

"We are investigating whether the Myanmar frigate came into Thai territory
or was chasing them from its own territory," he said.

The row began when Myanmar cancelled fishing licenses to Thai vessels in
1996, complaining that too many foreign crews were exploiting the waters
off its coasts.

It drew back from an outright ban with an agreement this year to allow up
to 500 Thai fishing vessels to operate in Myanmar waters.

The poverty-stricken Myanmar regime -- hard hit by international sanctions
because of the continued detention of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi --
expects to earn more than 250 million dollars from selling fishing
licenses during the next five years.

______________________________________

July 18, Xinhua News Service
Thailand to crackdown on illegal labor from August

Bangkok: Thai Police Bureau Sunday issued a stark warning to employers and
laborers from Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia that severe penalties were in
store for failure to register on the government's foreign labor scheme by
the end of July.

Noting that the Interior Ministry's month-long amnesty for illegal
laborers from the three nations was about to expire at the end of the
month, Police Bureau spokesman Pol. Maj. Gen. Pongsapat Pongcharoen urged
foreign laborers and their employers to register with the government by
the end of the month, the Thai News Agency reported.

The amnesty, which allows foreign workers to register for free, will
enable them to remain in Thailand without the threat of arrest until June
30 next year, by which time they will be expected to have requested a
legal work permit.

Pol. Maj. Gen. Phongsak warned that from August 1 onwards, police
nationwide would sweep the country for foreign workers failing to register
on the scheme.

Over 100,000 foreign workers have registered in Bangkok since the scheme
was launched at the beginning of the month. The scheme has proved most
popular in border provinces and other areas requiring high levels of
foreign labor.

______________________________________

July 17, Mizzima News
India Eyeing Burma's Seaport - Nava Thakuria

The Indian Government has consented to build a seaport in Burma within two
years said Mr. Amalok Rathan Kohli, governor of Inida’s Mizoram state
which borders Burma.

“The port, to be set up in Akyab(Sittwe) of Burma with a USD 500 million
budget, has been planned to be completed within seven-eight years,” Mr.
Kohli told this correspondent. But he admitted that no final agreement has
been made to date.

The Kolodyne River, the largest river in Mizoram, has its source in
eastern Burma and flows through Chimtuipui District to the Bay of Bengal
near Burma. The planned port will connect Mizorum State with sea trade.

Mr. Kohli recently disclosed the interest of the Indian Government in a
port on Burma’s coastline saying that such efforts would improve trade
ties between India and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)
countries.

Speaking about the impact of the proposed seaport, the governor added, “It
will help boost the economy of NE India as well as the entire country.
After all, the Northeast has to be developed as a bridge with the
Southeast Asia.”

The governor expresses confidence that important goods from Kolkata in
eastern India could be transported via this port to reach Mizoram, which
is otherwise a land locked state.

Burma and India have already proposed an ambitious plan to expand trade
ties up to the volume of one billion US dollar annually by 2006.

Mr. Kohli also said the Mizoram government has planned to open four new
border trade points with Burma in near future. At present there is only
one trade point which is in the Champai district.

“The initiative has shown that New Delhi has finally begun to recognize
the importance of extending its trade by land to Southeast Asia. Burma’s
readiness to cooperate with India in helping to develop a transport
corridor has assumed great importance for India,” Mr. A. Mukherjee, a
trade expert based in Guwahati, said.


INTERNATIONAL
______________________________________

July 17, Fort Wayne News Sentinel
Burmese refugees form unified group- Kevin Kilbane

The new organization opens a Burmese Community Office

The bright red, white and blue of American and Burmese flags dominate the
wall behind a desk and filing cabinet in the sparsely furnished office at
Centlivre Village Apartments.

Across the room, dry-erase boards track the status of calls for assistance
and alert volunteers to important community news. But it is a small, round
table -- barely a foot tall -- that represents the hub of activity of the
week-old local Burmese Community organization.

Sitting on the floor around that table, members of the central executive
committee plan how to address the social service, employment and cultural
needs of Burmese living in Fort Wayne.

"We will try to be the cornerstone," said Kyaw Thet, coordinator of the
organizing, information and legal affairs subcommittee.

The creation of a unified community organization gives Burmese a stronger
voice in local affairs and in the development of policies for refugees,
said Fred Gilbert, a local social worker who works closely with such
communities.

"The difficulties faced by newcomers affect all citizens in Fort Wayne,
and new groups can shine a creative light on problems as well as
solutions," Gilbert said.

The Burmese fled their homeland -- since renamed Myanmar -- in the late
1980s to escape persecution by the ruling military regime. The first
Burmese refugee arrived here in 1988. Fueled in part by access to jobs,
the community has grown to about 2,000 -- the largest Burmese community in
the United States.

The effort to form a central leadership committee began about a year ago,
said Ven Kuthala, a monk who serves as an adviser to the group. As in its
members' homeland, the local Burmese Community organization includes
representatives from various Burmese ethnic groups, such as the Mon, Karen
and Chin.

The groups initially operated independently but gradually have
collaborated more, Gilbert said.

That cooperation led to a local Burmese community conference June 19, said
Yarzar Oo, who also serves as an adviser to the local executive committee.
After discussion and debate, local Burmese elected the 22-member central
executive committee to lead their community.

In addition to chairman Tin Aye and a four-member administrative cabinet,
the executive committee includes coordinators of subcommittees working in
eight specialized areas: youth, women's affairs, economic affairs,
finances, organizing, information and legal affairs, education, literature
and culture, and health and social affairs.

The executive committee since has concentrated on opening the office in
Centlivre Village, which is home to 40-50 Burmese families. The office,
which is staffed solely by volunteers, is open daily.

The office is actually an apartment in building 2917 Centlivre Village
donated, said Sharon Dosen, complex manager.

People being resettled here by Catholic Charities, the major sponsor of
refugee resettlement in Fort Wayne, and refugees who relocate here from
another U.S. city, frequently find their first housing here at Centlivre
Village, Dosen said. Catholic Charities assists most for four months on
basic needs. The groups helps those in a job search for longer.

She and two co-workers help newcomers settle into apartments, and Catholic
Charities can assist with housing, employment and medical care for a
limited time. But the people need a long-term liaison.

Need for help

Initially, the Burmese Community organization will focus on basic needs --
food, shelter, health and employment. Afterward, it will help with tasks
ranging from finding a grocery store to getting children registered for
school.

"Most people have a lot of problems with the language at hospitals and
clinics," Thet said.

The Burmese Community office will provide interpreters so people can get
proper medical care, he said. Office volunteers also plan to educate
Burmese about health needs, childhood vaccinations, and government and
local programs that assist people with health care.

Secondly, central executive committee members want to help local Burmese
find jobs, Oo said. Working people then can donate money to care for other
Burmese in need.

Eventually, Burmese community leaders hope people will be earning enough
to send funds to pro-democracy groups working to end the military
dictatorship in Myanmar, he said.

Along with providing for people's basic needs, the central committee also
will devote effort to preserving Burmese tradition and culture, especially
among refugees' children, Oo said.

Most parents in the local Burmese community lived through the 1988
government crackdown on the student pro-democracy movement in Myanmar.
Students then fled into jungles on the country's border with Thailand to
escape persecution by military leaders.

Many children, however, have been born in refugee camps or in the United
States. Those here now grow up learning English and going to U.S. schools.
Local Burmese want their children to understand the culture they come from
and the struggle to re-establish democracy in their homeland. "This new
generation is very important," Oo said.

______________________________________

July 17, Burma Issues Newsletter
Mobilization of the Masses: How Much of a Threat is the USDA? - L. Hancock

"People were all bloody. We were all broken. I was lucky to have escaped
I
bumped into their people who were lying in wait for us. They were chasing
us like animals. They also beat up people who were on the motorbikes in
front...We had to drive our car into the paddy-fields
At about ten, we
heard spurts of gun-shots. We saw burning cars
I don’t know who was alive
and who was dead. All of them were lying flat on the ground with flowing
blood.”1 That’s what twenty-six year old witness Ko Wunna Maung of
Mandalay testified, describing the chilling violence that occurred on
“Black Friday”, May 30, 2003. He was driving alongside the car that held
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, when hundreds of NLD (National League for Democracy)
supporters in a convoy of twenty cars and twenty-five motorbikes fell
under attack by gunfire, catapults, bamboo stakes, and steel and iron
pipes. More than a year has passed since the Depayin Incident occurred,
and an influx of reports and eye-witness accounts have been published, yet
the exact details of what happened that night remain vague. Amidst all
this uncertainty one thing is abundantly clear: the statement made by the
governing SPDC (State Peace and Development Council) that 4 people were
killed and 50 injured at the hands of the NLD2 is undoubtedly a farce. The
500 to 1,000 recruited attackers responsible for the imprisonment, rape,
murder and injury of the uncountable NLD members and supporters were under
the direct orders and orchestration of the SPDC and the United Solidarity
and Development Association, or USDA.

For full text, please see:
www.burmaissues.org/En/Newsletter/BINews2004-06.php#threat

______________________________________

July 17, Burma Issues Newsletter
China's Role in Burma: Can the SPDC Survive Without Chinese Support? - A.
Robb

In recent years, the Burmese regime has become ever more isolated from the
international community. Western governments, especially, have imposed
tough economic and political sanctions. Even neighbouring countries, such
as normally friendly Thailand and Malaysia, have recently criticised the
SPDC over the continued detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and the exclusion of
opposition members from the current National Convention. But there’s still
one country that won’t say anything negative about Burma’s undemocratic
government, its ongoing human rights abuses, or its serious environmental
problems. China, it seems, can be counted on to support the Burmese junta,
no matter what.

For full text, please see:
http://www.burmaissues.org/En/Newsletter/BINews2004-06.php#Chinese

______________________________________

July 15, Southeast Asian Press Alliance via IFEX
Burma alert: Military Intelligence cracks down on distribution of
politically-sensitive songs; band members and concert organisers arrested

Military Intelligence cracks down on distribution of politically-sensitive
songs; band members and concert organisers arrested

Burma's Military Intelligence (MI) has renewed a nation-wide crackdown on
politically-sensitive music. According to Mizzima News agency sources, the
latest target is a newly-released CD containing songs by an exiled Burmese
contemporary hip hop band, Myanmar Future Generation (MFG).

On 20 June 2004, the MI arrested members and concert organisers of a new
hip hop band named 9mm after they performed their first concert at the
Strand Hotel in Rangoon. In addition to their own songs, 9mm's performance
featured MFG songs, according to the Mizzima News sources. The sources
said the detainees were taken to an unknown MI location in the capital for
interrogation. They were released on 9 July.

Meanwhile, the MI in Taunggyi, the capital of Shan State, began conducting
an investigation into students who may possess MFG's CDs. According to a
27 June Mizzima News report, the move followed a tip from MI agents in
Rangoon that the CDs were secretly being distributed by a student group
named New Generation.

The report quoted a student from Taunggyi as saying that the student group
downloaded the songs, which contained lyrics about freedom and democracy,
from MFG's website. MFG's songs are also being distributed in Mandalay.

Burmese dissident groups in exile are increasingly using songs and other
forms of art to spread freedom and democracy messages inside the country
to avoid reprisals by the military junta.

The MFG, founded in 2003, consists of 15 members living in exile. Their
whereabouts and identities are kept secret for security reasons.

To listen to and download MFG's songs, see: http://mm-fg.net

This alert was prepared by SEAPA with information from Mizzima News.

For further information, contact Kulachada Chaipipat or Rosario Liquicia
at SEAPA, 538/1 Samsen Road, Dusit, Bangkok, 10300 Thailand, tel/fax: +662
243 5579, e-mail: seapa at seapabkk.org, Internet: http://www.seapabkk.org




Ed, BurmaNet News