BurmaNet News, July 24-26, 2004

[Editor]

July 24-26, 2004, Issue # 2524


INSIDE BURMA
DVB via BBC: Burma opposition radio says alternate political road map in
circulation
Xinhua: Myanmar's capital area doubled in 8 years

DRUGS
AFP: Myanmar praises Asia's anti-drugs effort, urges West to do more
AFP: Five million stimulant pills seized in Myanmar raid

HEALTH / AIDS
Xinhua: Myanmar to get huge global fund for fighting deadly diseases

REGIONAL
Nation: Migrants to be deported
Press Trust of India: Myanmarese land will not be allowed for anti-India
activities
Xinhua: Myanmar to promote implementation of Sino-Myanmar border agreements

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: Shan leader passes away

OPINION / OTHER
Washington Post: Denying Democracy

INTERVIEW
RFA interview with US Dept. of State on FBC’s Dr. Zar Ni


INSIDE BURMA
______________________________________

July 25, Democratic Voice of Burma via BBC Monitoring
Burma opposition radio says alternate political road map in circulation

Text of report by Burmese opposition radio on 23 July:

It has been learned that a parallel road map criticizing the seven-point
road map of the SPDCV State Peace and Development Council has been
spreading in Rangoon recently. The parallel road map began appearing at
the Martyr's Day ceremony held recently 19 July and a political source in
Rangoon told DVB Democratic Voice of Burma that the road map called fair
and just road map for Burma has been in distribution since.

The parallel road map, which DVB has received a copy, is proposed by Mr
Leon de Riedmatten, the Rangoon representative of UN secretary-general's
special envoy Mr Razali Ismail, and contains eight pages. Mr Leon begins
his introduction by stating that the new proposal, which is acceptable by
all parties, is presented since the democratic forces internally and
internationally could not accept the one-sided road map sponsored by the
SPDC. Basically, the alternate proposal pointed out the individual
weaknesses of the seven-point road map proposed by SPDC Prime Minister Gen
Khin Nyunt and explained in detail the proposal of the new road map. In
particular, the SPDC should amend the procedures of the National
Convention and open the door for the participation of the National League
for Democracy and the ethnic groups in the National Convention process.

At the same time, the proposal provided detailed explanations on how the
international community should lift the restrictions, including the
economic sanctions, step by step if the SPDC make the proposed changes and
how the carrot and stick approach should be applied if the SPDC comply
with the proposal.

______________________________________

July 26, Xinhua News Service
Myanmar's capital area doubled in 8 years

YANGON: The municipal area of Myanmar's capital of Yangon has been
expanding in a fast rate, doubling in the past eight years, a local news
journal reported Monday.

Expanding to the east, Yangon's municipal area has increased to 686 square
km this year from 344 sq-km in 1996 with the population having grown to
5.8 million this year from 5.56 million in 2000, the Myanmar Times quoted
the Yangon City Development Committee as saying.

The population density in the downtown area stands 57,937 per sq-km now.

Meanwhile, the government has projected to further expand the area of
Yangon by more than 77 sq-km in the next six years to cover more than 770
sq-km by 2010.

Efforts are being made by the government to build Yangon into a city that
is in conformity with the characteristics of a modern one.

Yangon was founded by Myanmar King Alaungpaya in 1755.


HEALTH / AIDS
______________________________________

July 25, Xinhua News Service
Myanmar to get huge global fund for fighting deadly diseases

Yangon: Myanmar will get 35.6 million US dollars in grants from the Global
Fund for fighting three deadly diseases in the country -- tuberculosis
(TB), malaria, and AIDS, a local weekly news journal reported Sunday.

Quoting sources with the Geneva-based Global Fund for Asia and the
Pacific, the Myanmar Times said the two-year grants, which include 19.2
million dollars for the campaign against AIDS alone, will be disbursed
through the United Nations agencies to Myanmar by September-October.

Myanmar, joining with over 100 nations, constitute part of the global
experiment to stop the spread of the three diseases.

Under these funds, Myanmar's fight against the three diseases will be
expanded especially in the prevention programs with increased access to
treatment.

Myanmar has been implementing a 3-year anti-HIV/AIDS program since 2003
which includes promotion of 100-percent condom use and prevention of
mother-to-child HIV transmission.

According to official statistics, As of 2003, a total of 6,727 AIDS cases
were reported and 45,968 HIV infections estimated in Myanmar, while total
deaths out of AIDS cases went to 2,843 in the country.

As for TB control, the government has, since 1997, been adopting the
Directly Observed Treatment Short Course (DOTS) strategy in treating the
disease as recommended by the World Health Organization. Partly with the
aid of the Global Drug facility in terms of TB medicines for three years,
60 percent of the TB patients received treatment annually under the
strategy and 82 percent of them were cured, adding to about 100,000 cured
TB patients since 1997.

With regard to fight against malaria, Myanmar has provided tens of
thousands of insecticide-treated mosquito nets for people in high-risk
areas in the country. Official figures reveal that there has been
significant decline in the mortality rate out of malaria since 1996. Three
years ago, it registered that 1.2 percent of its population contracted
malaria and the disease accounted for about 6 deaths in every 100,000
people.


DRUGS
______________________________________

July 25, Agence France Presse
Myanmar praises Asia's anti-drugs effort, urges West to do more

Yangon: Myanmar, fresh from two huge drug busts, said Sunday that Asian
states have done well in their fight against narcotics but urged Western
governments to do more to combat the scourge.

The ruling military junta said it had seized nearly 600 kilos (1,320
pounds) of heroin, 5.6 million methamphetamine pills and key
methamphetamine ingredients in separate July raids, highlighting the
nation's crackdown on drug producers and traffickers.

Myanmar is the world's second largest producer of illegal opiates after
Afghanistan but the UN states that the country has seen a two-thirds
reduction in opium poppy production since 1996.

"Myanmar is confident that more outstanding achievements will be
forthcoming as Asian countries in the region have joined hands to
eradicate drugs with combined efforts," the junta said in a statement.

"As the Asian countries work together in the fight against narcotic drugs,
we urge those nations with the largest markets for heroin in the world to
join in the efforts in making the world, or at least their own citizens,
safe from the danger of drugs," it said.

No specific nations were mentioned in the statement, but the junta has
consistently vented its frustration in the past year at what it sees as
Washington's failure to cooperate in Yangon's war against drugs.

The United States has traditionally been a top market for opiates grown
and processed in Asia, but the United Nations warned that the world's most
populous continent was also acquiring a taste for hard drugs.

Yangon in its statement labelled the global narcotics industry a "menace
to mankind."

A March UN report said soaring opium cultivation in Afghanistan, porous
borders throughout the region, and the massive production of
methamphetamines were fuelling a growing drug crisis in Asian countries
like China and Thailand.

But there has been success in cutting production in Myanmar and a similar
drop in Laos, the world's third largest illegal opiate producer, where the
UN said opium cultivation dropped 45 percent in the past year.

______________________________________
______________________________________

July 24, Agence France Presse
Five million stimulant pills seized in Myanmar raid

Yangon: Myanmar authorities seized 5.5 million amphetamine-type stimulant
pills in a raid on a northern village, state media reported Saturday, just
weeks after one of the country's biggest heroin busts.

Intelligence officers acting on a tip-off searched Laukkai township in
northern Shan state on July 4 and seized the tablets along with 28 kilos
(62 pounds) of ephedrine, an ingredient used in the production of
amphetamines, the New Light of Myanmar reported.

Police arrested Sit Laung Chein for possession of the pills, it said. No
further details were provided.

The report comes 10 days after police announced the seizure of more than
500 kilos (1,100 pounds) of heroin in southern Myanmar that was being
trafficked by boat.

Myanmar is part of the Golden Triangle drug producing area which includes
parts of Laos and Thailand and is one of the world's biggest suppliers of
opium.

The United Nations said earlier this year that opium production in Myanmar
had been slashed by two-thirds since 1996, but booming trafficking in
methamphetamines remains a major concern.


REGIONAL
______________________________________

July 25, The Nation
Migrants to be deported - Rungrawee C Pinyorat & Khwandao Jitpana

Immigrant workers must register by 31st or face expulsionn

All illegal migrant workers from Burma, Cambodia and Laos who have not
registered with the government by Saturday's deadline will be deported,
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said yesterday.

'After July 31 illegal workers will be arrested and deported to their
countries in any circumstances,' the prime minister said in his weekly
radio address.

He called on local officials to try to get as many illegal workers in
their areas as possible to register.

The government launched the registration of illegal workers from the three
countries on July 1, aiming for a longterm solution to the massive influx
of foreign workers. About 1.2 million are expected to register with the
Labour Ministry.

Thailand has long been a prime destination for migrants from neighbouring
countries who flee their homelands for fear of political persecution or in
search of better economic prospects. Their lack of legal status has made
them subject to exploitation.

One example is that of Burmese workers in a Taiwaneseowned company in Tak
province's Mae Sot district, who were fired in 2002 after demanding that
their employer pay them the minimum daily wage of Bt133 in accordance with
Thai law.

Thaksin said 766,643 illegal workers had registered so far, of whom
550,000 were Burmese, 115,000 Laotian and 97,000 Cambodian.

He said that unscrupulous agents who had offered to register illegal
workers for a smaller fee than that set by the government would face legal
action for deception.

Migrant workers who register with the government have to pay a Bt3,800 fee
for a medical checkup, medical insurance and a work permit.

Traffickers of migrant workers into Thailand will face up to 10 years in
jail, a Bt100,000 fine or both, and their wealth may be confiscated by the
AntiMoney Laundering Office, Interior Minister Wan Muhamad Noor Matha told
officials at a meeting in Chiang Mai's City Hall yesterday.

He said the prime minister had agreed to offer rewards for tipoffs that
led to the arrest of human traffickers and illegal workers after the
registration period.

Officials will carry out searches of workplaces and households suspected
of hiring illegal workers from August 1, Wan Noor said.

'The employers of illegal workers and the workers themselves will face
severe penalties as this problem has an impact on national security,' he
said.

______________________________________

July 24, The Press Trust of India
Myanmarese land will not be allowed for anti-India activities

New Delhi: Myanmar on Saturday assured India that its territory will not
be allowed to be used for anti-India activities.

This assurance was given by visiting Myanmarese Foreign Minister U Win
Aung during wide-ranging discussions with his Indian counterpart K Natwar
Singh.

Asked if the issue of Naga insurgents figured in the talks, External
Affairs Ministry spokesman said bilateral issues were discussed including
terrorism.

"Global terrorism was discussed... The Foreign Minister of Myanmar gave an
assurance that no no terrorist group would be allowed to use Myanmar's
territory for activities which are inimical to India," he said.

India, he said, had proposed cooperation with Myanmar to fight terrorism
and counter-proposals to that have been received from Yangon. These were
being "examined and studied," he said.

New Delhi and Yangon also decided to enhance their trade to one billion U
S Dollar by year 2006. Two border trading points had been opened earlier
to carry forward bilateral trade.

The Myanmarese Foreign Minister, who arrived on a three-day visit on
Friday, called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this evening.

Observing that Myanmar could act as a "bridge" between India and South
East and South East Asia as well as India and Association of South East
Asian Nations (ASEAN), the spokesman said the two leaders recalled their
meeting in December 2003 during which they had discussed
Indo-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway project.

Singh, who had met his Myanmarese counterpart on the sidelines of the
Asean Reional Forum meeting in Jakarta earlier this month, also talked
about economic and energy cooperation.

India offered assistance to Myanmar in the fields of information
technology, HRD, railways, highways and inland water transport, among
others.

______________________________________

July 24, Xinhua News Service
Myanmar to promote implementation of Sino-Myanmar border agreements

Yangon: Myanmar will promote the implementation of agreements between
China and Myanmar on border areas management and cooperation.

Myanmar Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt was quoted by the Saturday's
official newspaper The New Light of Myanmar as saying that he expressed
Myanmar's aspiration to promote border area management and cooperation
with China during his recent official visit to China.

Khin Nyunt said during his visit to China, he met with Chinese leaders and
discussed matters on promoting cooperation in ensuring prevalence of law
and order in border areas and border areas development and in the fight
against drugs.

The border has always been kept as a peaceful one contributing much
towards bilateral economic developments and uplift of socio- economic
lives of the local peoples at the border, he stressed.

An agreement on border areas management and cooperation between China and
Myanmar was signed here in March 1997.

Four meetings between high-ranking officials of the two countries on
implementation the terms of the agreement were held alternately from 1999
to 2002 in Beijing and Yangon.

Moreover, the Border Security Co-operation Agreement between the Myanmar
Ministry of Home Affairs and the Chinese Ministry of People's Security
came into force beginning June 17, 2002, contributing much towards the
joint control of cross-border crimes such as illegal border crossings,
gambling, arm smuggling and narcotic drug trafficking.


INTERNATIONAL
______________________________________

July 26, Irrawaddy
Shan leader passes away - Nandar Chan

Eminent Shan scholar and ethnic leader Dr Chao Tzang Yawnghwe, aka Eugene
Thaike, passed away at his home in Canada on Saturday, aged 65. He is
survived by one son and daughter and his wife, Nu Nu Myint Yawnghwe.

In May, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor and he underwent radiation
treatment in June. He was released from the hospital on July 19 but fell
ill again a couple of days later before dying on July 24.

Chao Tzang was born on April 26, 1939 in Yawnghwe, of what was then called
the Federated Shan States. His father, Sao Shwe Thaike, was the first
president of Burma after it gained independence from Britain in 1948. His
mother, Sao Hearn Hkam, former president of the Shan State War Council,
passed away in January last year.

Chao Tzang graduated from Methodist English High School in Rangoon in 1957
and was awarded a Bachelor of Arts in History from Rangoon University in
1961. For the next two years, he taught English at Rangoon University
before he joined the Shan State Independence Army, or SSIA, in 1963 and
took a position as a political officer. That year, he took part in failed
peace negotiations with Rangoon.

In 1971, he co-founded the Shan State Progress Party, the political arm of
the Shan State Army. In 1976, he came to Thailand after he and several
others were ousted by the party’s pro-communist faction.

In 1985, he resettled in Canada. He was awarded a doctorate in political
science in 1997 from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver,
where he was also a lecturer for several years.

In 1998, he co-founded the United Nationalities League for Democracy
(Liberated Area).

This past March, he became chairman of the Ethnic Nationalities Solidarity
and Cooperation Committee, which advocates tripartite dialogue to break
Burma’s political impasse.

During his career, Chao Tzang was a respected commentator on Burmese and
Shan affairs. His book, The Shan of Burma: Memoirs of a Shan Exile, was
published by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore in
1987. He also wrote several articles and opinion pieces for the Bangkok
Post and other publications.

Funeral services will be held on July 30 and 31 in Coquitlam, British
Columbia.


OPINION / OTHER
______________________________________

July 26, The Washington Post
Denying Democracy - Fred Hiatt

Boston: Eight summers and two conventions ago, when the Democrats gathered
in Chicago to renominate President Bill Clinton, their National Democratic
Institute honored one absent democrat with its highest award.

The laureate was Aung San Suu Kyi, crusader for freedom in Burma, and she
was absent because she feared that if she left her country, the dictators
in charge would not let her back. The Americans who honored her hoped,
just as the Nobel Peace Prize committee that honored her in 1991 had
hoped, that international attention might embarrass those dictators and
nudge them toward openness and conciliation.

And today? If we've learned anything, it is that Burma's corrupt regime is
beyond embarrassment. Aung San Suu Kyi is under house arrest. Her husband,
who accepted the award in Chicago on her behalf, died outside of Burma,
having been denied a final visit with his wife. Fourteen months ago she
narrowly escaped an attack by regime thugs. More than 1,000 peaceable
democrats are in prison; others have died there; many have been tortured.
Just a few weeks ago a Burmese was sentenced to seven years simply for
approaching the house where Suu Kyi is confined.

In the eight years since Chicago, Burma's regime has forced thousands more
children and adults into something close to slave labor. Its army has
pursued a policy of rape as a weapon of terrorism against ethnic
minorities in the provinces. Of Burma's 50 million people, between 1
million and 2 million have fled to neighboring countries, primarily
Thailand; an estimated 600,000 to 1 million are internally displaced.

"At the moment, we in the movement for democracy are facing a lot of
difficulties," Suu Kyi noted, with typical understatement, in a statement
she managed to send to Chicago eight years ago. The difficulties have
multiplied, but amazingly, neither she nor many of her followers have
given up.

She is the daughter of Burma's independence hero, himself assassinated in
1947, when she was a toddler and he was 32. She studied abroad but
returned in 1988, to care for her dying mother, as Burma seemed to be
stirring toward democracy. "Very reluctantly, Aung San Suu Kyi began to
speak out, answering her people's call -- simply, fearlessly, and to
electrifying effect," Madeleine Albright, then ambassador to the United
Nations, recounted in Chicago. "Within two years, she was the leader of a
democratic movement that won more than 80 percent of the parliamentary
seats contested."

Burma's dictators never allowed that parliament to meet, and their nation
has been declining ever since.

If they cannot be shamed, can they be pressured? That we do not know, for
the United Nations, and most nations of the world, despite a tremendous
quantity of pious rhetoric, have never really tried. We know "engagement"
has not worked; Burma's neighbors in ASEAN, the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations, began trying that in 1997, and they have been humiliated
time and again by Burma's sullen and implacable refusal to liberalize even
in the most cosmetic ways.

The United States, under both Clinton and President Bush, has imposed
increasingly stiff economic sanctions, championed by Republicans such as
Sens. Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and John McCain (Ariz.) and Democrats such as
Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Tom Lantos (both of California). The
sanctions hurt Burma's regime, which also controls most of the nation's
underdeveloped economy, but their impact is greatly weakened by Europe's
refusal to join in. As Kavi Chongkittavorn, one of the region's best
journalists, recently wrote, the European Union's primary concern remains
ASEAN's status as "a huge market and a gateway to the rest of Asia and the
Pacific."

The Europeans are facing another choice between principle and mercantilism
this fall, when Burma hopes to join a summit of European and Southeast
Asian nations due to meet in Hanoi in October. Some European countries
(notably Britain and the Czech Republic) believe the regime has had more
than enough time to prove itself; others would like to kowtow again. True
to form, the regime so far withholds even the minor concessions of
political liberalization that would allow the "engagers" to save face.

Inside Burma, meanwhile, it remains dangerous for members of Aung San Suu
Kyi's party to talk politics; illegal for them to print a newsletter;
impossible for them to consult their elected party leader. The prosaic
business of the convention here in Boston for the next four days, that is,
would be life-threatening for them.


INTERVIEW
______________________________________

July 24, Radio Free Asia
RFA interview with US Dept. of State on FBC’s Dr. Zar Ni

The following is an unofficial translation of a broadcast made in Burmese
on July 24, 2004:

Master of Ceremony: United States did not support Dr. Zar Ni, a leader of
US based Free Burma Coalition in his trip to Burma, an official from US
Department of State told RFA. Dr. Zar Ni went to Rangoon on May 31, 2004
and met with the Burmese military junta’s officials. RFA already broadcast
the interview with DR. Zar Ni on his trip to Rangoon on July 16 and 17,
2004. Dr. Zar Ni told the RFA firmly that his trip was supported by the US
Government.

Dear Listeners; regarding with this issue, RFA’s U Min Zin had a chance to
ask an official from US Department of State exclusively. Please listen.

RFA: Dear listeners: Dr. Zar Ni told the RFA and the other media that he
got official support from the US Department of State to make a visit to
Rangoon. We contacted the State Department to confirm his claim. When we
asked what kind of support rendered by the State Depart to Dr. Zar Ni,
because Dr. Zar Ni claimed that his trip was supported by the US
Department of State (US DOS), an official from US DOS answered as follows:

Answer: With respect to support, the answer is no. Zarni was not traveling
at behest of request of or on behalf of US govt. He did meet with US
officials in Washington before he traveled and he informed them his
intention. But US policy toward Burma remains unchanged. Zarni, I
understand, indicated July 17 interview with Radio Free Asia that he once
supported sanctions in Burma he now questions their efficacy. United State
considers the sanction on Burma is useful tool to encourage the regime
change the policy to release Aung San Suu Kyi and other political
prisoners and open the NLD offices and engage the democratic opposition   
 in dialogue leading to democracy and national reconciliation.

RFA: It was the official reply of US DOS. If so, why did US DOS in
Washington meet with Zar Ni before his trip? We asked. The reply is;

Answer: We meet many elements of Burmese Diaspora here. But I said he is
not traveling at behest of or on behalf of US government

RFA: OK, if there are usual practices in meeting with Burmese dissidents,
did US embassy in Rangoon facilitate anything for Dr. Zar Ni during his
trip?

Answer: And also US embassy in Rangoon neither facilitates Zarni's travel
nor met with him during his visit to Burma.

RFA: Do you know what kind of document Zarni used when he entered Burma or
returned US.

A. I'd have to refer you to Department of Home Land Security regarding any
question about his immigration status.

RFA:  Department of Homeland Security is a new department established only
after September 11 terrorist attack and responsible for immigration
issues. Dr. Zar Ni was granted political asylee status in the US due to
his claim that he will be in danger of arrest and torture by the military
regime if he were forced to return to Burma. We asked that is there any
possibility that he violated the immigration rule by visiting Rangoon,
where he claimed as a dangerous place?

US DOS official referred to check with US Department of Homeland Security.
He also said that it (US DHS) would be the appropriate department to find
out Dr. Zar Ni’s immigration status.