BurmaNet News, December 2, 2004

[Editor]

December 2, 2004, Issue # 2611


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Myanmar opposition loses appeal to free four party members
Mizzima: Myanmar Times' Partner in Jail
AFP: Nobel Laureates call for release of DASSK

DRUGS
Xinhua News Agency: International NGO drug control workshop opens in Myanmar
AP: Four Mekong nations plan joint patrols against drug smugglers

REGIONAL
Xinhua News Agency: Myanmar leader reaffirms adoption of "one-China" policy

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: Canada faces new heat on prospective Myanmar sanctions
The Nation: Buddhist meet plan slammed

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: Burma thumbs its nose at regional grouping

______________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

December 2, Agence France Presse
Myanmar opposition loses appeal to free four party members

Four officials from Aung San Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party in Myanmar have
lost appeals against seven-year jail terms and remain behind bars after
missing out on a release programme for 9,248 inmates, their lawyer said on
Thursday.

The four were jailed in September for distributing National League for
Democracy (NLD) party material to the town of Mae Sot across the border in
Thailand. Their attempts to quash the convictions failed at a Yangon
court, lawyer Nyan Win told AFP.

The party lodged the appeal despite believing they would be released under
a programme announced last month by the ruling military junta, but they
were not among the estimated 40 dissidents who were let out. Democracy
activists dismissed the releases as a sham.

"We will continue and take the appeal to the (higher) Supreme Court in
Yangon," said the lawyer.

Tin Myint, 58, San Ya, 38, Than Than Htay, 48, and Yi Yi Win, 45, were
jailed after being interrogated by military intelligence officials.

The body was headed for two decades by General Khin Nyunt, the former
premier who was sacked and put under house arrest in October for
corruption. The regime has since purged military intelligence of his
supporters.

The junta last month announced two batches of prisoners would be released
because they were "improperly" jailed by intelligence officers.

But the Assistance Assocation for Political Prisoners, based at Mae Sot,
said those released were from a "hastily compiled list of prison inmates
who were about to finish their respective terms - criminals who were due
for release within a few days or weeks."

The military regime was "brashly and audaciously" using the releases to
try to dupe the international community while continuing to arrest
dissidents and extending the detention of other figures including Nobel
peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, it said in a statement.

Aung San Suu Kyi was told on Saturday that her period of house arrest
would be extended by a year. She has been in detention since May 2003.

"We intensely urge the international community as well as the people of
Burma (Myanmar's former name) to raise objections and complaints against
the relentless deceitfulness of the Burmese military regime," it said.

The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962. The NLD won elections by a
landslide in 1990 but has never been allowed to rule.

____________________________________

December 2, Mizzima
Myanmar Times' Partner in Jail

Sonny Swe, Burmese partner of a local leading weekly The Myanmar Times,
has been detained for an alleged national security reason, according to
sources close to the Rangoon-based paper.

Mr Sonny, 36, son of detained Brigadier-General Thein Swe, a close ally of
ousted Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt, was arrested at Mandalay
International Airport on last Friday.

A close friend to Mr Sonny said he was detained not for the alleged
irregularities of business operations but for politically-motivated
allegations, adding that the young businessman might exploit his father's
former political rights to get himself business interests.

"He seems to have a greater interest in businesses rather than political
affairs," the close friend said.

With Mr Sonny arrested already in notorious Insein prison along with his
younger sister Ma Marlar, the future of the paper has become regrettably
unclear.

However, as hopefully predicted, Mr Sonny's wife Yamin Htin Aung has taken
his place as Deputy Chief Executive Officer, continuing to timidly run the
paper with her Australian partner CEO Ross Dunkley who holds a 49 percent
of the stakes.

It is obvious that the quality of the paper's news contents has been
drastically declined during the past few weeks, which would possibly be
continuing to be so.

An informed observer said the paper was probably closed down in a few
months unless Ross Dunkley took bold measures such as developing a new
business partnership.

Among the other measures might be a plan to slash political contents and
lobby the Ministry of Information to establish a special deal with it.

As recently forced by the military authority upon local publications, the
paper is to cover reports from military sources, such as those in relation
to popular students' leader Min Ko Naing, who was free under the
government's two vacate schemes carried out late last month.

An informed source close to the paper quoted Ross Dunkley as saying that
any staff member who was found to have contacted and talked to released
political dissidents would be nothing but fired.

Like in many local businesses, almost all the staff members of Myanmar
Consolidated Media Co., Ltd., which began running the paper in February
2000, are selfishly career-oriented.

"The company's corporate culture has enforced individualism and
opportunism among all the employees," criticised most local media persons.

The 250-staffed paper has a circulation of 25,000 in Burmese edition while
English edition claims 3000 copies a week.

____________________________________

December 1, Agence France Presse
Nobel Laureates call for release of DASSK

Three Nobel peace prize winners joined an international chorus of protest
over the extended house arrest of fellow laureate and Myanmar opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Authorities in Myanmar on Monday prolonged by another 12 months the house
arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been detained for a total of nine
years since 1989.

The move prompted a wave of international condemnation, with United
Nations (news - web sites) Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites)
and various governments, including those of the United States, former
colonial ruler Britain and Germany piling scorn on Myanmar’s ruling junta.

Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan woman won who this year’s peace prize for
decades of environmental work and who, like her Myanmar counterpart, has
been the target of state brutality for championing multi-party democracy,
called for her Aung San Suu Kyi’s release.

“We demand that she be freed and freedom and democracy returns to her
country,” she told AFP in Nairobi.

To make this a reality, the world “needs to exert more pressure on that
regime,” said Maathai.
Maathai was taking part in a panel discussion on peace in Africa, together
with Iranian lawyer and human rights activist Shirn Ebadi who won the 2003
Nobel peace price for work on behalf of women and children in her country,
and Jody Williams of the US who in 1997 won the Nobel accolade jointly
with the group she coordinates, the International Campaign to Ban
Landmines.
Williams told AFP that she visited Aung San Suu Kyi in February last year
and was told to ask the “international community to isolate the
dictatorial regime in Burma (Myanmar)... until they accept democracy for
its people as well as release her.”

“We must do more to support her,” said Williams.

Shirn Ebadi said: “It is a shame that she will remain in prison. We are
calling for her unconditional release. She should have been with us here
today.”

Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy, began
her latest period under house arrest in May 2003 following a violent clash
between her supporters and a pro-junta mob. Her party said on Monday her
arrest had been extended for another year.

It is the Nobel peace laureate’s third period of house arrest since she
took up the democracy struggle in 1988.

The NLD won 1990 elections in Myanmar but was never allowed to rule by the
military, which has held power since 1962. The party’s offices have also
been shut down.

_____________________________________
DRUGS

December 2, Xinhua News Agency
International NGO drug control workshop opens in Myanmar

The 14th Workshop of the International Federation of Non-Governmental
Organization (IFNGO) and ASEAN NGOs on prevention of drugs and substances
abuse was inaugurated here Thursday to review measures taken in drug
eradication efforts.

The three-day workshop, hosted by Myanmar for the first time with the
theme -- "Strive for New Destiny: ASEAN Drug Free 2015", will discuss the
strategies laid down for the realization of the theme's objectives and
exchange information, technique and strategies for implementing the
related activities.

Myanmar Minister of Home Affairs Major-General Maung Oo stressed at the
opening session the significant role played by the international and local
NGOs, saying that the community outreach approach initiated by them is far
more effective than the institutional approach pursued by the government.

Maung Oo, who is also chairman of the Central Committee for Drug Abuse
Control of Myanmar, gave an account of the active participation in drug
control sector by the Myanmar Anti-Narcotics Association (MANA), the
country's NGO which came into being in 1994.

He also briefed the meeting some achievements made by Myanmar in combating
drugs with its own resources by adopting two-pronged strategies and three
tactics -- law enforcement, supply and demand reduction.

He disclosed that Myanmar has completed implementation of the first
five-year phase of its 15-year total drug eradication plan started in
1999-2000, adding that in the new destiny project, an integral part of the
plan, a total of 162,730 kilos of poppy seeds have been destroyed .

He quoted the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) as saying that
Myanmar's poppy cultivation has decreased to 44,200 hectares in 2004 from
81,400 hectares in 2002, bringing down the opium yield to 370 tons from
828 tons correspondingly.

Besides, an opium yield survey, jointly conducted by Myanmar and the
United States, has also indicated that the poppy cultivation in the
country has dropped to 30,888 hectares in 2004 from 163,110 hectares in
1996, resulting in the decrease in the opium yield to 292 tons from 2,560
tons comparatively.

Noting that the country's Mongla region and the Kokang region have become
opium free zones in 1997 and 2003 respectively, he added that the Wa
region is striving to be a similar zone in 2005.

MANA became a member of IFNGO in 1999.

The workshop was attended by delegates from IFNGO secretariat, member
countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and
observers.

_____________________________________

December 2, Associated Press
Four Mekong nations plan joint patrols against drug smugglers

Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and China will launch joint patrols along the
Mekong River in a coordinated effort to crack down on drug smuggling in
the region, a high-ranking Thai counter-narcotics official said Thursday.

Thailand already has bilateral patrols with Laos and Myanmar but this
would be the first joint effort involving the four Mekong countries, said
police Lt. Krisna Polananta, secretary general of Thailand's Narcotics
Control Board.

Personnel from each country would serve aboard the others' boats under the
plan, which was agreed on in principle at a meeting this week in Bangkok
of Asia-Pacific Heads of National Drug Law Enforcement Agencies.

No date has been fixed for the start of the program, under which Thailand
would initially provide most of the necessary resources, including boats.
Having law enforcement authorities of the different nations aboard would
allow them to exercise their authority in whatever territory they tracked
suspects to.

"The fact that the river is an open area makes it difficult for officials
to monitor and stop drug traffickers, and smuggling along the Mekong river
has been increasing," Krisna said.

The region includes the infamous Golden Triangle, a major drug producing
area where the borders of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet.

The area has traditionally been a major source of the world's supply of
opium and its derivative, heroin. Myanmar is the world's second biggest
producer of heroin after Afghanistan, and in recent years has become a
major maker of methamphetamine, mostly smuggled to Thailand.

The three-day meeting was attended by some 130 participants from 24
countries, including the United States, China, Cambodia, Vietnam,
Australia, Malaysia and Singapore. Four European countries - Belgium,
Germany, Italy and Sweden - attended as observers.

The meeting discussed ways to dismantle clandestine laboratories, improve
drug suppression and anti-money laundering measures and enhance
international cooperation on combatting drug trafficking.

_____________________________________
REGIONAL

December 2, Xinhua News Agency
Myanmar leader reaffirms adoption of "one-China" policy

Myanmar leader Vice Senior-General Maung Aye Thursday reaffirmed that his
country will continue the " one-China" policy and develop friendly ties
with China.

Maung Aye, Vice-Chairman of the Myanmar State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC) and Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Defense Services, made
the remarks when he met with General Ge Zhenfeng, visiting Deputy Chief of
General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA).

General Ge said China attaches importance to the friendly bilateral
relations between China and Myanmar, and the exchange between the two
armed forces constitutes an important part of the two countries' ties.

General Ge stressed that the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on
establishment of border defense talks mechanism and management of border
affairs, to be signed during the visit, will help strengthen the exchange
and cooperation between the two armed forces in the sector of border
defense and jointly safeguard peace and tranquility in the border areas.

The MoU will conform to the fundamental interest of the two peoples,
having important significance in furthering the two countries'
good-neighborly ties, he added.

At the invitation of Myanmar SPDC member and Chief of General Staff (Army,
Navy, Air Force) General Thura Shwe Mann, Ge, who leads a border defense
delegation, began a five-day visit here from Wednesday.

On the same day, the two generals had discussions on strengthening the
ties between the two countries as well as the two armed forces, and border
defense talks mechanism and management of border affairs.

The meeting and talks were attended by Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar Li
Jinjun and Military Attaches Senior-Colonel Ma Shoudong.

During the visit, defense ministries of the two countries will sign the
MoU. Previously, China has set up such mechanisms with neighboring Russia,
Mongolia, India and so on.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

November 2, Agence France Presse
Canada faces new heat on prospective Myanmar sanctions

Canada's government faced new parliamentary pressure Wednesday to slap
sanctions on Myanmar's junta, after democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi's
house arrest was extended for another year.

Sein Win, prime minister in exile of Myanmar, the former Burma, called on
Ottawa to slap sanctions on Yangon immediately, saying harsh punishment
was the only hope for the military-ruled country's persecuted democrats.

He testified to a multi-party parliamentary committee which voted
unanimously to press the government to impose severe economic sanctions.

The panel called on the Canadian government to "condemn more forcefully
the repeated and systematic human rights violations committed by the
military junta in power in Burma."

Specifically, the government is urged to review current export and import
regulations as they may affect Myanmar.

The committee also called on the government to review legislation which
permits sanctions against rogue regimes, and to impose a ban on further
investment in Myanmar.

Sein Win told the Canadian MPs that economic sanctions were essential if
there was to be any hope in ending the junta's rule in his country, and
noted that Myanmar was due to head the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) in 2006.

So far, ASEAN has shown no sign it will block Myanmar from taking the
helm, despite a US threat to boycott meetings with the regional bloc.

Sein Win, head of the National Coalition of the Union of Burma, reeled off
a list of abuses against members of parliament elected in Myanmar in 1990,
who have never been allowed to assume their seats, many of whom have done
jail time.

Authorities in Myanmar on Monday prolonged by another 12 months the house
arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been detained for a total of nine
years since 1989.

Stockwell Day, foreign affairs spokesman for the main opposition
Conservative Party, said: "It's up to democracies like ours to speak out
at the United Nations and other bodies against regimes that stifle
democracy."

Sein Win suggested Canada should follow a model being studied by the
European Union which he described "as sectoral sanctions" -- targeting
specific industries and investments.

And, he said, the West should set a timetable of 2005 or 2006 for Myanmar
to transition to democracy.

_____________________________________

December 2, The Nation
Buddhist meet plan slammed

Human rights organisations yesterday blasted Burma for organising a World
Buddhist Summit, saying the regime is “no way worthy of hosting such an
event” because of its abuses.
“Its systematic abuse of human rights throughout the nation contradicts
the fundamental principles of Buddhism,” said a statement signed by five
international rights organisations.

“This mix of Buddhism and politics also highlights the regime’s abuse of
religion to polish its image, as well as its lack of sensitivity towards
non-Burmese, many of who are not Buddhists, at a time of particular
concern regarding progress towards national reconciliation,” it said.
Rangoon is reportedly planning to hold the summit on December 9 to 11 in
the capital, despite failing to attract a Japanese co-sponsor.

According to the statement, the junta had approached the Japanese Buddhist
Federation for assistance with this summit but the federation
“immediately, and sensibly, rejected the invitation”.
About 2,500 delegates from 40 countries are expected to attend the summit.

“We are concerned that delegates intending to participate are not informed
about the severity of human rights [abuses] in Burma,” the statement said.

“We call on all intending participants to examine the facts and join us in
our call for the summit’s cancellation.”

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

December 2, Irrawaddy
Burma thumbs its nose at regional grouping—Marwaan Macan-Markar

Southeast Asian leaders ended a two-day summit in the Laotian capital
Vientiane with a calculated political stab in the back from a fellow
member of their regional group, Burma.

That Rangoon’s military rulers had the sense of occasion to humiliate the
Association of South-east Asian Nations or Asean was evident by the timing
of their move to further oppress Burma's pro-democracy leader, Aung San
Suu Kyi.

On Monday, a senior member of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the
opposition party that Suu Kyi heads, confirmed to the media that the junta
had sent officials to extend Suu Kyi's term of house arrest by another
year.

“This is clearly a slap in the face of Asean,” Debbie Stothard of the
Alternative Asean Network on Burma (ALTSEAN), a regional human rights
lobby, told IPS. “It just shows how confident the military regime is about
ASEAN - that it will not pressure Burma to free Suu Kyi nor push it
towards democratic reform.

On the eve of the summit meeting in Laos, analysts speculated that
Rangoon’s rulers would have to explain the lack of progress on political
reform in Burma, the recent reshuffle of its appointed prime minister and
the fate of Suu Kyi to the other leaders of the economic grouping.

This meeting of Asean — which includes Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia,
Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam — was also
expected to bring global attention to this regional body for signing an
ambitious agreement with China to create the world's largest free trade
area by 2010.

However the popping of champagne bottles over that trade deal, signed late
Monday, were spoiled by Burma’s decision to detain Suu Kyi further — a
development that magnifies the hardline stance of the military strongmen
at the helm, led by Senior Gen. Than Shwe.

The State Peace and Development Council or SPDC appears to have no qualms
about an Asean backlash, said Aung Naing Oo, research associate at the
Burma Fund — a Washington D.C.—based think-tank of Burmese academics in
exile.

“They are prepared to go ahead with their own agenda even if it is plainly
stupid as this week's decision to detain Suu Kyi further while the ASEAN
summit was on,” he told IPS.

Rangoon has made it a habit of flaunting its oppressive stripes in the
face of Asean since it was invited to become a member in 1997. Such a
healthy disregard for this regional body prevails despite Asean’s leading
members, like the prime minister of Thailand, protecting Burma from
critical barbs fired by the British or U.S. government.

The unflinching assault on Suu Kyi and her party have been a consistent
indicator. The generals in Burma, also called Myanmar, have denied the NLD
from staking a claim in the country’s political life despite its landslide
victory at a parliamentary election in 1990. Suu Kyi was under house
arrest then, only to be released in 1995.

She was detained again for two years by the junta between 2000 to 2002.
Her current detention followed an attack on her and her party members by
thugs linked to the military regime in late May.

In addition to Suu Kyi, the junta has filled close to 39 jails across the
country with 1,400 political prisoners, among who include
parliamentarians, writers, pro-democracy activists and Buddhist monks.

Burma’s ability to expose Asean for its lack of courage to stand up for
democracy and human rights is due to the group’s much vaunted principle of
non-interference on domestic issues of its member countries.

The region’s founders, who ruled during a time when Asean was better known
for its dictators and authoritarian leaders, conceived this
see-hear-and-speak-no-evil principle. Those who benefited from the
non-interference principle were former strongmen Suharto, the president of
Indonesia, and Ferdinand Marcos, the president of the Philippines, and
authoritarian leaders like Mahathir Mohamed, prime minister of Malaysia,
and Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's premier.

But now the very principle that the region's leaders hold sacred and have
benefited from has come to haunt ASEAN, since Burma is due to assume the
leadership of the regional body in 2006.

“Asean will be committing suicide in terms of its international
credibility and its achievements as a region will suffer a huge blow if
the Burmese generals take over,” says Stothard. “The next six months will
reveal by just how much Asean wants to hurt itself by letting Burma get
away.”

The prospect of Burma further lowering Asean’s significance on the global
stage comes at a time when this regional group is desperately trying to
reinvent itself after it was shaken to its roots - and relegated to a
marginal entity after years of economic glory-following the 1997 financial
crisis.

The consequence of such a dire scenario has not been lost on some of the
parliamentarians in the region, resulting in an unprecedented political
development led by Malaysian legislators.

A bi-partisan group of Malaysian parliamentarians, with support from
legislators in Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Singapore,
have mounted a campaign to deny Burma the chairmanship of Asean.

“The chairmanship of Asean cannot be awarded to Myanmar in 2006, without
undergoing systemic and irreversible change in its governance,” declared a
statement released by the Asean parliamentarians at the end of their
four-day meeting on Sunday.

The legislators even hinted that the region would be better off if Burma
was stripped of its Asean membership. “We call for the immediate review of
Myanmar’s membership of Asean.”

For members of Burma’s opposition, the meeting in Kuala Lumpur was a
revelation. It suggested the panic that has set in within South-east
Asia's capitals of the burden Asean will have to bear if Burma becomes the
chairman.

“The military is seeking the chairmanship of Asean to enhance its
legitimacy,” said Aung Naing Oo, the researcher. “But will Asean grant the
military its wishes after this week's summit?”