BurmaNet News, December 18-20, 2004

[Editor]

December 18-20, 2004, Issue # 2623

“A few days ago, Thailand's prime minister returned from a visit to the
neighboring totalitarian state of Burma and pronounced the detention there
of Aung San Suu Kyi "reasonable." This would be the rough equivalent of a
foreign leader's journeying to South Africa during apartheid and endorsing
the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela
”
- “A test from Burma,” Washington Post editorial, December 18, 2004


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Myanmar junta dismantling intelligence unit headed by former PM
Japan Economic Newswire: Myanmar renames military intelligence unit
AFP: Myanmar to import gas-powered cars to fight rising oil bill
Narinjara: ALD demands a genuine statehood for Arakan State
DVB: Burma military junta arrests four political activists
DVB: Burma army still uses child soldiers

BUSINESS
Xinhua: Myanmar to start OPEC-funded edible oil project

REGIONAL
AFP: Southeast Asia edges closer to economic integration amid general rebound

INTERNATIONAL
AP: Tentative Unocal deal could alter behavior of multinationals
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Asian democracy groups demand release of Aung San
Suu Kyi

OPINION / OTHER
Washington Post: A test from Burma
Statesman (India): Hang on, Yangon


______________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

December 19, Agence France Presse
Myanmar junta dismantling intelligence unit headed by former PM

Yangon: Myanmar's military junta has begun the complete dismantling of a
military intelligence unit formerly headed by disgraced premier Khin
Nyunt, former intelligence officials and diplomats said Sunday.

"Corporals or sergeants with more than 10 years service can get
retirement, but servicemen with under 10 years service are being sent to
the infantry," a former official, who did not want to be named, told AFP.

He said 2,000 of an estimated 10,000 military intelligence (MI) members
were retired or transferred by the junta on Wednesday, adding the unit was
expected to be completely dismantled by the end of the month.

MI's main unit based in the capital Yangon was the first to go, with its
senior members forced into retirement, he said.

"General Kyaw Win, deputy chief of military intelligence and another three
high-ranking officials were retired on December 15."

Yangon-based diplomats confirmed the unit was being scrapped.

"Some members were detained after (former premier) Khin Nyunt's arrest but
the rest are now being retired or transferred," a diplomat, who did not
want to be named, told AFP.

"In the meantime the unit has already undergone a name-change to the
Office of Military Affairs Security," he said.

The unit, which was headed for two decades by Khin Nyunt, had been at the
centre of a wide-ranging purge following his sacking and arrest in October
on corruption charges.

The former premier -- who favored limited dialogue with detained
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi -- was replaced by junta hardliner
General Soe Win.

The intelligence unit had been targeted by rivals loyal to the head of the
junta, Senior General Than Shwe, over what they claimed was a nationwide
anti-corruption campaign in the wake of Khin Nyunt's ousting.

In October the junta scrapped the National Intelligence Bureau, the body
that gave widespread powers to MI officers.

The intelligence wing was believed to control much of the black market and
drug money in Myanmar -- the world's second largest opium producer -- and
is a bitter rival of hardline army factions loyal to the junta leadership.

Analysts said the unit had been "acting like the mafia" and using its
elite status to collect substantial "unaccountable income".

MI corruption was believed to be particularly strong along the border
areas, which deal with most imports from neighbouring China, India and
Thailand.

Myanmar is ranked among the top five most corrupt countries in the world
in a global corruption index released by watchdog Transparency
International.

Diplomats and analysts have stressed that the non-MI military faction is
also deeply involved in corruption. One former ambassador to Yangon
described it as so entrenched that it was simply viewed as unofficial
taxation or the accepted way of doing business.

_____________________________________

December 19, Japan Economic Newswire
Myanmar renames military intelligence unit

Yangon: Myanmar's junta recently changed the name of the Directorate of
Defense Services Intelligence to the Office of Military Affairs Security
in an apparent bid to eliminate both the image and shadow of the
scandal-tainted military intelligence unit, diplomatic sources said
Sunday.

The DDSI, in existence since Myanmar gained independence from Britain in
January 1948, was generally referred to as Military Intelligence, or MI.

Almost all senior MI officials have been removed or detained following the
sudden ouster in October of former Prime Minister Gen. Khin Nyunt, who
headed DDSI for two decades.

Maj. Gen. Kyaw Win, deputy chief of DDSI for 11 years, retired last week
together with junior DDSI personnel down to the rank of sergeant,
according to the sources.

Khin Nyunt was 'permitted to retire for health reasons' on Oct. 19 and
placed under house arrest following the arrest of over 160 border
officials under MI's command. The officials were found to be involved in
massive corruption at the Myanmar-China border checkpoint at Muse, north
of Yangon.

The government also dissolved the MI-led state intelligence agency, the
National Intelligence Bureau, on Oct. 22.

Over 14,000 prisoners, said to have been wrongly charged by the NIB, were
released from various prisons around the country between Nov. 18 and Dec.
11.

_____________________________________

December 19, Agence France Presse
Myanmar to import gas-powered cars to fight rising oil bill

Yangon: Myanmar's military junta has loosened tight auto import
restrictions to put more natural gas-powered cars on the road, officials
said Sunday, as petrol prices skyrocketed in the isolated country.

"Import licenses for 1000 buses, 100 trucks and pick-ups as well as 100
sedans will be issued to registered private companies," a trade ministry
official told AFP without indicating where the vehicles would be imported
from.

It would be the first time Myanmar had allowed large-scale auto imports,
he said, adding another 5,000 vehicles already in the country were being
converted to run on gas.

Petrol prices in Myanmar have nearly doubled over the past two months and
commercial drivers have told AFP they were being forced by to buy fuel
illegally from private homes, which is marginally cheaper as it comes from
untaxed, stolen or smuggled supplies.

Myanmar is a net buyer of petrol and diesel but exports natural gas.

Gas production capacity averages around 1.0 billion cubic feet per day in
Myanmar, according to French energy giant Total, which is one of dozens of
oil and gas exploration and production firms to sign deals with the junta.

The cash-strapped nation in September also signaled plans to raise its oil
production by 67 percent this year to reduce costly petrol and diesel
imports.

While Myanmar heavily restricts imports of cars, some 30,000 new luxury
vehicles are estimated to have been smuggled in from neighbouring China
and Thailand.

Analysts say there are only about 300,000 vehicles in Myanmar, half of
which are in Yangon.

____________________________________

December 15, Narinjara News
ALD demands a genuine statehood for Arakan State

Dhaka: The Arakan League for Democracy (in Exile) today issued a statement
for Arakan State Day.

The statement proclaimed that even though Arakan was granted statehood in
1974, its essence and characteristics are not that of a genuine state.

All three the characteristics of political powers, namely judicial,
legislative and executive have always been under the strong control of the
central government.

The Arakanese have no say in the affairs of their State, and all of their
rights are being violated under a fake federalism, which have been
practiced by successive central governments since independence in 1948.

The Arakanese joined actively in the Burmese independence struggles with
the Burmans against the Japanese and British colonial rulers.

However, after independence, the Arakanese were not even given a State
status but regarded as a part of Burma Proper. Historically, Arakan has
been an independent kingdom; and the Arakanese have been an independent
people for many millennia.

The current military junta have treated the Arakanese like a slave colony
through means such as forced labour, forced relocation, and forced
confiscation of the Arakanese ancestral land.

The statement also expressed the fear of forced labour and forced
relocation that will result from the project of natural gas pipeline
export to India.  The junta is planning to sell natural gas from Arakan to
India, but not letting the Arakanese use their own natural resources or to
receive benefits from them.

Statehood granted on 15th December 1974 by the then BSPP government of Ne
Win is not a genuine statehood, but a public relation exercise to
legitimise its illegal rule.

The statement also urged Arakanese and other nationalities of Burma to
struggle against the current junta since the genuine statehood and
federalism can only be achieved in a democracy ridden of the
ultra-nationalist junta.

The Arakan League for Democracy won 11 Parliamentary seats during the 1990
election, and it is also the third wining political party of that
election.

_____________________________________

December 20, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burma military junta arrests four political activists

The military authority in Rangoon arrested four NLD members on 19 December
for distributing human rights educational leaflets. The four arrested were
U Ba Myint, Chairman of the Ahlon Township NLD and South Dagon Township
NLD members Ma Theigi, Aung Moe San and U Ba Tint.

NLD's spokesman U Lwin confirmed the news but said that he did not know
why they were arrested.

An NLD member who is to detainees told DVB that they were arrest for
publication and distributing of human rights leaflets on 10th December -
International Human Rights Day. Tow of the detainees, U Ba Myint and Aung
Moe San had been in prison before.

_____________________________________

December 17, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burma army still uses child soldiers

Burma’s military junta, State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) is
still using child soldiers for its army.

On 5 December, SPDC soldiers forcibly took away five under-aged children
from Se-Ywa Village, Khayan Township, Rangoon Division to be used as
soldiers. According to an eyewitness, the soldiers told the villagers that
the people of Burma would be strong only the army is strong and grabbed
five children who came along to the meeting.

Moreover, Maung Htay Kyi Aung, a child soldier from Khayan Township who
deserted the army was recaptured and taken back to the army base in Karen
State by the authorities. Some soldiers are being forced to stay on in the
army to do menial jobs such as feeding animals and fetching water without
getting proper salary, and even if they the rights to quit.

_____________________________________
BUSINESS

December 20, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar to start OPEC-funded edible oil project

Yangon: Myanmar will start implementing a 12.3-million-US-dollar edible
oil project next month, funded by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC) to help upgrade its oil crops production for
self-sufficiency, the local Myanmar Times reported Monday.

The five-year project, which is the biggest of its kind since 1988 and
also involves another 2 million dollars provided by the government itself,
would assist farmers in 36 main oil seed growing areas and help cut the
import of edible oil, the Myanma Agricultural Services was quoted as
saying.

The project deals mainly with the development of oil palm and four oil
seed crops -- sesame, groundnut, sunflower and soybean.

Myanmar obtained the OPEC's international development fund in May last
year after a six-month feasibility study conducted by the Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO), the sources said, adding that the loan was
provided at an annual interest rate of 1 percent payable in 25 years.

OPEC had previously provided Myanmar with loans for agriculture,
telecommunications, energy, transport and water supply improvement
networks.

According to official statistics, Myanmar produced some 250,000 tons of
edible oil annually but still has to import the same amount of palm oil to
meet its local demand.

Myanmar's cultivated areas of oil crops including the four oil crops and
palm have reached 2.8 million hectares.

Meanwhile, Myanmar has been making efforts to turn southern Tanintharyi
division into an oil bowl of the country.

_____________________________________
REGIONAL

December 20, Agence France Presse
Southeast Asia edges closer to economic integration amid general rebound -
Karl Malakunas

Singapore: Southeast Asia edged closer towards European-style economic
integration and historic trade deals with its giant neighbours in 2004 as
the region's economies rebounded from last year's SARS crisis.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders' summit held in
the Laotian capital of Vientiane in November was the main vehicle for
developments in the group's long and complex path towards closer economic
ties.

The 10 ASEAN nations agreed at the summit to a six-year programme to
fast-track trade liberalisation and regional integration that would help
create a powerful ASEAN community of 500 million people by 2020 at the
latest.

The six-year plan aims to remove tariffs on products by 2010 for ASEAN's
six more developed members -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

The group's less-developed members -- Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam
-- will have until 2015 to drop their tariffs.

ASEAN members also signed a separate agreement to liberalise tariffs in 11
key sectors, including autos, textiles and electronics, by 2007 for their
six more developed members and 2012 for the other four.

The summit also led to progress in ASEAN's efforts to integrate with the
much larger economies of the Asia-Pacific, specifically China, Japan,
South Korean, India, Australia and New Zealand.

Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and his ASEAN counterparts signed
historic trade pacts to pave the way for the world's biggest free-trade
zone by 2010, covering nearly two billion people.

The pacts include an agreement to liberalise tariff and non-tariff
barriers on traded goods and one to set up a mechanism to resolve trade
disputes.

Japan sealed a similar trade pact with ASEAN at the Vientiane summit that
aims to create a tariff-free bloc by 2012. The two sides agreed to start
talks in April.

South Korea also committed to start free-trade talks with ASEAN in 2005,
while Australia, New Zealand and ASEAN agreed to begin negotiations next
year with the aim of freeing up trade within a decade.

India, keen not to miss out on its share of trade in Southeast Asia, also
signed a pact to establish a free-trade area with most of ASEAN by 2011.

The agreements form the core of a push by ASEAN to eventually create a
powerful East Asia free-trade zone that can compete with the United States
and Europe.

While ASEAN's leaders were busy on macro-economic strategies, most of the
economies in the region expanded rapidly as they recovered from the impact
of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) crisis in 2003.

Singapore, the economic hub for Southeast Asia, offered the most striking
turnaround, recovering from 1.1 percent economic growth in 2003 to be on
track for an ASEAN-leading expansion of 8.0-8.5 percent this year.

In Indonesia, Southeast Asia's most populous nation, surprisingly peaceful
and stable elections that saw Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono replace Megawati
Sukarnoputri as president augured well for the archipelago's economy.

Indonesia's central bank said last month the economy was expected to grow
5.0 percent this year, up from 4.1 percent in 2003, supported by improved
levels of domestic consumption and investment.

Thailand is officially expected to record growth of 6.2 percent this year,
but this is down from the government's forecast of 8.0 percent in January
as Muslim unrest in the south, outbreaks of bird flu and high world oil
prices take their toll.

Throughout the region, Southeast Asia's economies are expected to grow an
average 6.2 percent this year after 5.7 percent in 2003, according to the
Asian Development Bank's latest Outlook update.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

December 20, The Associated Press
Tentative Unocal deal could alter behavior of multinationals - Paul Chavez

Los Angeles: U.S. corporations could change the way they do business
overseas in reaction to the pending settlement of a human rights case that
claims oil giant Unocal should be held liable for slave labor, rape and
other crimes allegedly committed during the building of a pipeline in
Southeast Asia, experts said.

The closely watched case has been the leading legal effort by human rights
groups to hold multinationals accountable in U.S. courts for alleged
abuses abroad. It relies on the 1789 Alien Tort Claims Act, a once-obscure
statute that can allow foreign nationals to file suit in the United
States.

Unocal in 1996 was among the first companies sued under the statute, and
the case was the first involving a corporation that was granted
jurisdiction in federal court. About two dozen other companies have since
been hit with lawsuits for allegedly being complicit in human rights
abuses abroad.

"More and more companies operate in nations where the rule of law is not
enforced and basic human rights are not protected," said Susan Aaronson,
director of the Kenan Institute's Washington Center for Globalization
Studies, a think tank. "As a result of the Unocal case, more companies
will worry not only about their own behavior, but about their partners."

Under a tentative deal announced Dec. 13, El Segundo-based Unocal would
make unspecified payments to 14 anonymous villagers in the military
dictatorship of Myanmar. The company also would fund improved living
conditions in the region around the $1.2 billion Yadana pipeline and
enhance company educational programs to reaffirm its commitment to respect
human rights.

The suit alleged that Myanmar soldiers raped women and girls after male
family members were taken away to become slave laborers on the pipeline.
The military also is accused of forcing people out of their homes to make
way for the project.

The plaintiffs include a couple who alleged their baby daughter died from
injuries suffered after a soldier kicked the infant and her mother into a
fire.

Unocal was a minority partner in the consortium that built the pipeline.
It has consistently denied that any human rights abuses occurred. Company
lawyers have declined further comment on the settlement.

Other multinationals that could be targeted by human rights lawyers have
been watching the case, said Scott Greathead, chief executive officer of
World Monitors Inc., a New York-based firm that provides consulting
services on corporate responsibility.

By publicly announcing a tentative settlement, "Unocal is taking a step
that a lot of other companies are going to think about taking, and they'll
see what the consequences for Unocal are," Greathead said.

He believes Unocal made a good decision.

"You don't want to spend your goodwill and corporate reputation on winning
a technical legal victory and losing the larger battle of harming a
brand," he said.

Bill Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, cautioned
that it might be too early to draw conclusions about the impact of the
proposed deal.

"We don't have details and all the substance of the settlement," Reinsch
said. "Until you get details, I don't think anyone in the corporate
community will over-interpret this."

The federal court has set a Feb. 1, 2005, deadline for both parties to
file a joint status report on whether the deal has been finalized.

When Congress passed the Alien Tort Claims Act 215 years ago, it was
primarily used to prosecute pirates. It went all but unused for decades
until a New York federal appeals court in 1980 upheld its use by the
sister of a 17-year-old boy who was allegedly tortured by a police officer
in Paraguay.

The ex-officer was later discovered living illegally in the United States
and selling hot dogs in Brooklyn. The Center for Constitutional Rights
dusted off the statute and cited it in filing its lawsuit against him.

Despite pressure from the Bush administration and business groups such as
the National Foreign Trade Council, a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3
in June that the statute could apply in certain circumstances for claims
alleging violations of widely accepted international norms.

The agreement in principle to settle the Unocal case was announced the
same day the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was scheduled to hear
arguments about the litigation.

About two dozen other lawsuits filed by human rights lawyers and nonprofit
groups remain in the courts, including two involving other major oil
companies.

San Ramon-based ChevronTexaco Corp. was targeted over alleged killings in
1998 by the Nigerian military during an oil project. Exxon Mobil Corp. has
been sued over alleged human rights abuses in the 1990s in Indonesia.

The ChevronTexaco case is being pursued in federal court in San Francisco,
while the Exxon Mobil case was filed in district court in Washington, D.C.

Both firms said the Unocal settlement wouldn't influence their strategies
against the suits.

"We view the lawsuit to be without merit and will continue to defend
ourselves against it," said Jeff Moore, a ChevronTexaco spokesman.

Susan Reeves, a spokeswoman for Exxon Mobil Corp., said the company
"condemns human rights violations in any form and has actively expressed
those views to governments and others around the world."

The United Nations has asked University of Minnesota Law School professor
David Weissbrodt to develop wide-ranging human rights guidelines for
multinationals, Greathead said.

Some multinational corporations also can adopt guidelines such as the
"Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights" developed in 2000 by
the United States and England for mining and energy companies.

Lawsuits "have made companies think hard and constructively about these
issues and how to avoid these liabilities," Greathead said. "Even
companies that haven't been sued yet are thinking about them."

_____________________________________

December 20, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Asian democracy groups demand release of Aung San Suu Kyi

Taipei: Representatives of pro-democracy movements in 13 Asian countries
called Monday for the release of Myanmar's (Burma's) pro-democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi due to new concerns over her security and health.

The statement was issued at the end of a meeting of the World Forum for
Democratization in Asia (WFDA), hosted by the Taiwan Foundation for
Democracy. Representatives from 13 Asian countries attended a workshop of
the forum entitled "Democratization in Asia's Closed Societies".

"On December 14, the 1991 Nobel Laureate's team of personal bodyguards was
withdrawn from her compound and her access to medical attention was
drastically reduced, just weeks after Burma's military regime officially
extended her detention by a year," the activists said in their statement.

"These threats and intimidation by the Burmese regime clearly signal that
Burma must be disqualified from chairing ASEAN. Instead of releasing Aung
San Suu Kyi, Burma's generals have placed her at greater risk," the
statement said.

Suu Kyi led her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), to a
landslide victory in Burma's last general elections held in 1990. She has
been under house arrest since May 2003, and was recently informed that her
detention would be extended for another year. She was last detained after
a military-organized mob attacked her and her supporters, killing scores
of unarmed civilians.

The workshop participants also called for the release of all prisoners of
conscience in Asia, including Thich Huyen Quang, Thich Quang Do and Nguyen
Dan Que of Vietnam, as well as Tenzin Delek, a Tibetan monk facing the
death sentence, and Hu Shigen, a long-term detainee suffering from poor
health, in China.

Workshop participants also expressed serious concerns over the harassment
and detention of activists from Bhutan and North Korea who sought refuge
in Nepal and China.

The WFDA, launched in Taipei this year, is a platform for cooperation
among democratic movements, networks and organizations in Asia.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

December 18, The Washington Post
A test from Burma

A few days ago, Thailand's prime minister returned from a visit to the
neighboring totalitarian state of Burma and pronounced the detention there
of Aung San Suu Kyi "reasonable." This would be the rough equivalent of a
foreign leader's journeying to South Africa during apartheid and endorsing
the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela or coming to the United States during
the civil rights movement and saying it seemed like a good idea to lock up
Martin Luther King Jr. That Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is
elected, and ostensibly a democrat, makes his comment all the more
puzzling. But he is also a wealthy business tycoon, as Sen. Mitch
McConnell (R-Ky.) intimated in a statement yesterday: "Thaksin would be
wise to place principles ahead of profit with respect to Thailand's
relationship with Burma."

These seemingly arcane matters became suddenly urgent Thursday with the
news that Burma's regime has further isolated Aung San Suu Kyi in her
house arrest. The junta ordered half of her guards to leave her house, and
her access to a physician was reduced to one weekly visit. Given that the
generals who rule Burma have tried to kill her, it was no surprise that
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan immediately expressed "serious concern."
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher also weighed in: "We hold the
Burmese junta solely responsible for her health, safety, security and
well-being," he said.

Expressions of concern are good, but now Mr. Annan needs to go further.
Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, is the legitimate leader of
her nation, having won an electoral landslide in 1990. Those in the Asian
nation's junta have never recognized the results, however, instead
confining her, imprisoning and torturing many of her supporters, and
waging a criminal war of rape and ethnic cleansing against many of Burma's
ethnic groups. Their rule is a danger to neighboring states and the world,
because their impoverished nation has become an epicenter of drugs and
HIV. If ever a situation merited concerted international action, this
would be it; if ever the United Nations faced a challenge to its
relevance, this would be the moment.

_____________________________________

December 20, The Statesman (India)
Hang on, Yangon

Delhi must see sense to desist While the Bhutan Royal Army cracked down on
Ulfa and Bodo insurgents in December last year, the Indian Army confined
itself to blocking escape routes. Nor does it have any direct role in the
ongoing Myanmar military offensive against North-east groups like NSCN
(Khaplang) and Ulfa, despite reports of an imminent joint exercise. It is
inconceivable that vice-Chief of Army Staff Lt-Gen. Shantonu Choudhry was
ignorant of the ceasefire between the Centre and the Khaplang unit for the
past three years when he said in Kolkata last week that the Army was ready
and awaiting Yangon's nod to put their act together. Though the Khaplang
group is not a party to the Nagaland peace process, like the Naga National
Council which first took up arms against the establishment, it is a factor
in state politics. What Myanmar is doing is its internal affair but any
involvement of the Indian Army would risk violating the ceasefire. However
much the Army might justify jumping in because the truce is not applicable
to Myanmar, the Centre will be seen as playing partisan to please the
collective NSCN-IM leadership now in Nagaland. The timing of the Myanmar
operations suggests the main objective is to clear its border areas where
Khaplang's writ runs. But if Yangon was so keen on flushing out the
unwanted guests, it could have acted soon after the Bhutan operations.
Admittedly the poorly equipped military junta may not have the necessary
wherewithal, but last December some "vehicles" carrying Indian "military
equipment" were said to have passed through Manipur's border checkpost of
Moreh. Last week's clashes between the Army and Manipur's proscibed UNLF,
having links with the NSCN(K), in Chandel along Myanmar corroborates what
is going on. Many border villagers were forced to flee to Myanmar. The
Centre must see the Myanmarese operations do not trigger an influx from
across the border and create problems for Nagaland as happened after the
1992 Myanmar episode. Peace is what Nagaland needs most.