BurmaNet News April 21, 2005

[Editor]

April 21, 2005 Issue # 2702

INSIDE BURMA
CNN: Myanmar 'used chemicals' on rebels
Xinhua News Agency: Peace groups in Myanmar oppose Shan group independence
declaration
Xinhua News Agency: Myanmar top leader leaves for Asian-African summit
Irrawaddy: Rangoon canvasses opinions on independent Shan State
SHAN: Key Shan parties cold-shoulder Shan "government"

ON THE BORDER
Bangkok Post: Bordering on a deliberate killing

DRUGS
AFP: Myanmar opium crop eradication continues: UN

ASEAN
Japan Economic Newswire: Prince Ranariddh says Myanmar will abandon ASEAN
chairmanship
AFP: Myanmar refuses to give ground over ASEAN chairmanship

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: Unions urge EU to take stronger stance on Burma
The New Zealand Herald: Exiled Burmese call for sanctions

______________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

April 21, CNN
Myanmar 'used chemicals' on rebels - Jessica Le Masurier

Military forces in Myanmar have been accused by an international rights
group of using chemical weapons on rebel fighters.

The incident allegedly took place near the country's northwestern border
with Thailand in February, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) said
Thursday.

Some of the Karenni rebels, who have been fighting a long-running war with
the country's military government, described a "yellow vapor" with a
"pungent and irritating odor."

"Their eyes started watering and they tasted a bitter odor" followed by "a
burning sensation" in their throats, said CSW's president, Australian
physician Dr. Martin Panter, who traveled to the area to examine five of
the rebel fighters.

"Thirty minutes later they began to cough up blood. Blisters began to
appear on their skin and they were unable to walk," Panter told CNN.

Some later suffered from blisters and acute diarrhea, they told him.

Panter said he believed the rebels' symptoms were consistent with exposure
to chemicals, including mustard gas.

He said he hoped the alleged attack would not be "just another atrocity in
the litany in the of human rights abuses that fall on deaf ears."

The British Foreign Office said it was concerned by the allegations and
would examine any evidence.

The Myanmar Embassy in London declined to comment on the allegations.

Myanmar, which has a population of about 48 million people, has been ruled
by a military junta since 1962. Former prime minister Khin Nyunt unveiled
a seven-step road map to democracy in 2003 but many criticized it, saying
there was no role for opposition parties.

The United Nations and Western countries have also criticized the military
government for its poor human rights record and failure to hand over power
to a democratically elected government.

Nyunt himself was ousted from power last year by a group believed to be
hard-line members of the junta opposed to his relative moderation in
dealing with the pro-democracy movement, led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

Aung San Suu Kyi, of the National League for Democracy (NLD), has spent
more than nine of the past 16 years under some form of arrest.

There have also been calls by the international community for Myanmar to
be refused the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) in 2006 unless it carries out democratic reforms.

____________________________________

April 21, Xinhua News Agency
Peace groups in Myanmar oppose Shan group independence declaration

A number of former anti-government ethnic armed organizations, which have
returned to the legal fold, have successively opposed to a Shan ethnic
group of Sao Hkam Hpa for its April 17 declaration of the formation of an
independent Shan state federal government to secede from the union of
Myanmar, according to Thursday's official media reports.

The group of Sao, son of the late first Myanmar President Nyaungshwe
Sawbwa Sao Shwe Thaike, along with other related groups, was outlawed by
the government on Tuesday which charged the group's acts as "disturbing
and endangering peace and stability and law enforcement of the state."

These peace groups opposing to the Sao group's acts in their respective
statements carried on the New Light of Myanmar, include Shan State Army
(SSA), Shan State National Army (SSNA), Shan State Nationalities People's
Liberation Organization, Pa-O National Organization, Kokang Nationalities
Peace Group (Special Region-1), Palaung National Group (Special Region-7),
Shan State Special Regions 4 and 5, Karenni National Peace and Development
Party and Karenni Nationalities People's Liberation Front.

Other social organizations voicing the same opposition comprise the Union
Solidarity and Development Association and Myanmar Women 's Affairs
Federation, according to the paper.

Since the government adopted a policy of national reconciliation in 1989,
17 anti-government armed groups have made peace with the government,
returning to the legal fold under respective ceasefire agreements.

Meanwhile, over 170-strong brigade-11 of the SSNA, led by U Kan Na, which
reached a ceasefire agreement with the government in 1995 but was allowed
to retain arms, surrendered their weapons to the government in Lashio,
northern Shan state on April 12. The SSNA was a splinter group of former
drug warlord Khun Sa's Mong Tai Army, according to earlier reports.

____________________________________

April 21, Xinhua News Agency
Myanmar top leader leaves for Asian-African summit

Chairman of the Myanmar State Peace and Development Council Senior-General
Than Shwe left here Thursday for the Asian-African Summit in Jakarta and
the commemoration of the Golden Jubilee of the Asian-African Conference in
Bandung.

Myanmar Foreign Minister U Nyan Win had departed for Jakarta on Tuesday in
advance to attend the ministerial meeting of the Asian- African summit.

The Asian-African Conference (Bandung Conference) was held in Indonesia's
Bandung in 1955, initiated by five Asian nations -- Indonesia, India,
Myanmar, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Pakistan, following the establishment
of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence in 1954, jointly advocated
by China, India and Myanmar.

The Bandung Conference was based on the five principles of peaceful
coexistence -- mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity,
mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs,
equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence.

Myanmar, being one of the three advocators of the five principles and one
of the five initiators of the Bandung Conference, has urged all nations in
the world to stick to the five principles to prevent conflicts, according
to a noted scholar of the Myanmar Institute for International Studies
(MIIS) under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Myanmar attaches much importance to the five principles, on which its
diplomacy is based. It has never interfered in others' internal affairs
and will not tolerate such interference in its internal affairs by others,
the scholar said.

____________________________________

April 21, Irrawaddy
Rangoon canvasses opinions on independent Shan State - Nandar Chann

A senior officer of the military regime and representatives from ethnic
ceasefire groups met in Lashio, capital of Northern Shan State, on
Wednesday to discuss their views on an independent Shan State, according
to ceasefire groups.

Maj-Gen Myint Hlaing, commander of the government’s Northeastern Regional
Command, met members of seven ethnic ceasefire groups based in Lashio,
including the United Wa State Army, the Shan State Army (North), the Shan
State National Army, and the Palaung State Liberation Organization.

“[Myint Hlaing] asked about our views on the secession of Shan State,
which was declared abroad” said a UWSA officer based in Lashio. The
secession was announced Sunday by elderly Shan leaders in exile. The
officer speculated that the military’s interest seemed geared towards
publicizing the ceasefire groups’ responses.

Some ethnic groups in Shan State have already rejected Sunday’s
declaration of independence. The SSNA, a ceasefire group, said that they
had no knowledge of the proclamation of an independent Shan State, despite
the claim of the Shan exiles that their “Federated Shan State” has the
popular support of 48 out of 56 townships in Shan State.

____________________________________

April 20, Shan Herald Agency for News
Key Shan parties cold-shoulder Shan "government"

Conscious of the need to explain themselves in the face of a bombshell
declaration of Independence by a group of Shan elders on Sunday, 17 April,
both the Shan Democratic Union and the Restoration Council of Shan State,
the Shan State Army 'South''s political wing, have both come out to wash
their hands off their compatriots in spite of their aversion to "washing
their dirty linen in public," as one Shan dissident put it:

"It is not possible to agree with the formation of (an independent Shan)
government," reads the SDU statement issued today. "(It) does not have the
endorsement of the SNLD (Shan Nationalities League for Democracy that won
the most seats in Shan State in the 1990 elections and whose leaders are
in jail since February), the ceasefire armies and even the Restoration
Council of Shan State."

The SDU believes a genuine federal union, and not a sovereign independent
state, as a more viable political objective, it adds.

When it comes to language, the words of Col Yawdserk, Chairman of the
RCSS, who is currently in a life and death struggle against the United Wa
State Army's 171st Military Region opposite Maehongson, appears to be
blander. "I was not notified in advance of the group's plan (to declare
Independence)", he told S.H.A.N.. "In fact, I first heard about it only
through S.H.A.N. report. I don't agree with what they've been doing, but
that doesn't mean I'm totally opposed to it. Each and everyone of us has
the duty to do what one feels is good for the country. But we must confer
with each other first in order to avoid grave consequences."

The RCSS had already issued a statement on 18 April to clarify that its
former website, www.shanworld.org, was taken over by the Sao Surkhanpha
group after the RCSS's webmaster resigned and defected to the group.

Meanwhile, more than 70 Shan exiles had rallied in front of the Burmese
embassy yesterday in Bangkok in support of the Independence declaration.
The dissidents, donning red headbands and waving miniature Shan flags,
sung the national anthem and chanted their anti-Rangoon slogans. The whole
event lasted 1 hour, 11:00 - 12:00.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

April 21, Bangkok Post
Bordering on a deliberate killing

The Burmese troops came looking for food and clothing and left behind a
dead Thai policeman in an area supposedly governed by rules of engagement.
The Mahachon party is starting to look more and more like the Sanan
Kachornprasart party. A radio sideline might be ending prematurely

Last week's clash between Burmese troops and Thai border police at Ban
Pang Saen Krua in Chiang Mai's Mae Ai district was the first time in
several years that Burmese forces had disturbed the peace in what was once
a very tense area.

A border patrol officer was killed in a firefight after five to seven
troops crossed the border from Burma looking for food and clothing. Ban
Pang Saen Krua is located just a few kilometres from Doi Lang, a mountain
site covering 32sqkm claimed by both Thailand and Burma.

Several hundred armed troops from both countries are deployed at 20
outposts straddling Doi Lang, once a military stronghold of former drug
kingpin Khun Sa.

Villagers alerted Border Patrol Police forces after they spotted five
Burmese troops venturing into Ban Pang Saen Krua. The firefight took place
around 10am.

"This was quite unusual as normally the security forces from the two sides
stick to the rules of engagement for this area by not using force to
resolve problems," said one Thai security officer.

Border Patrol Police earlier this year replaced the 3rd Army forces and
paramilitary rangers deployed in the Doi Lang area.

Several BPP officers were angered by last week's incident as their forces
did not receive back up from the 3rd Army. They said 3rd Army commander
Lt-Gen Picharnmeth Muangmanee was also playing down the incident even
though a Thai policeman had been killed.

"Is this part of the government's appeasement policy towards Burma?" one
officer demanded. He also said the killing of the border patrol officer
appeared to have been deliberate, and the dead man's fellow officers were
terribly demoralised.

"Would the army remain so indifferent if one of its men, and not a BPP
officer, was killed?" he asked.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was in Chiang Mai at the time of
the clash for the Songkran holiday, issued an instruction that the
incident should not be allowed to escalate and worsen tensions along the
border.

A day after the clash, Pha Mueng Task Force commander Maj-Gen Pairat
Thongjatu, who is in charge of security operations in the north of Chiang
Mai, instructed the border forces to remain calm and refrain from anything
that might renew tensions along the border.

_____________________________________
DRUGS

April 21, Agence France Presse
Myanmar opium crop eradication continues: UN

The United Nations temporarily suspended its opium crop eradication
programme conducted with the Myanmar government, but has since resumed it,
the UN's drug agency representative said on Thursday.

News reports had earlier said the eradication programme was suspended and
UN expatriate staff asked to leave.

Operations were suspended for 10 days in the Wa region of Shan state in
January-February 2005 as a security precaution, UN Office on Drugs and
Crime Myanmar representative Jean-Luc Lemahieu told AFP.

When the the United States indicted eight Wa leaders on drugs charges in
January, the UNODC and other UN agencies operating in the region "played
it safe" and withdrew all their staff, regardless of nationality, he said.

However, after 10 days the UN staff returned, the eradication campaign
resumed, and "everything is normal," Lemahieu said.

Thai officials last week said they had stopped development assistance
projects for ethnic Wa people because the villagers continued growing
opium. These areas are geographically separate from the UN's projects.

Some 1.2 million people in 260,000 households are involved in opium
cultivation, mostly in Shan state which borders China and also forms part
of the Golden Triangle with Thailand and Laos, a UNODC survey said in
October 2004.

Areas planted with opium poppies in Myanmar were reduced by 29 percent in
2004 compared with 2003, the UNODC survey conducted with Myanmar's
military government said.

The Myanmar military junta has set a June 2005 deadline for eradicating
opium from the Wa region.

The UNODC's efforts at helping dirt-poor opium farmers to plant
alternative crops remains hindered by a lack of funds, Lemahieu said.

Some 600,000 people are being helped by the UNODC and its partners, but
more than two million people are affected by the government's opium
eradication programme.

Only 15 million dollars of the 26 million dollars the UNODC needs for a
five -year alternative crops programme has been received from donor
countries including Japan ..."

"We cannot be satisfied," Lemahieu said. "We still need a lot more
resources."

_____________________________________
ASEAN

April 21,Japan Economic Newswire
Prince Ranariddh says Myanmar will abandon ASEAN chairmanship

Phnom Penh: Myanmar will announce in the coming future its decision not to
assume the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in
July next year, Cambodia's Prince Norodom Ranariddh said Thursday.

'Because of internal problems, Myanmar has agreed not to host the ASEAN
summit next year, and in the future Myanmar will announce it,' Prince
Ranariddh said.

Myanmar is now under pressure from countries, including the United States
and Malaysia, which have urged it not to lead ASEAN next year if it cannot
bring about national reconciliation, advance democratic reforms and
release political prisoners, including democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

The prince made the remarks to reporters in Phnom Penh just hours after
Prime Minister Hun Sen left for Indonesia to attend an Asia-Africa summit
in which Myanmar's junta chief Sr. Gen. Than Shwe will participate.

The prince, however, did not elaborate on the Myanmar issue. He is the
head of the National Assembly and a leader a political party in the
coalition government led by Hun Sen.

The chairmanship of ASEAN rotates by alphabetical order among its 10
members, and based on this procedure, Myanmar is slated to chair the ASEAN
Standing Committee and host the ASEAN summit in 2006 after Malaysia hosts
this year's summit.

As the Myanmar issue is being closely monitored by all ASEAN member states
and the international community, another high-ranking Cambodian government
official told Kyodo News, 'The possibility of abandoning its chairmanship
is high based on information collected from the junta.'

'Cambodia as well as other ASEAN member states will not object or rule out
Myanmar's decision. It is the internal problem of one member state, and
noninterference is clearly stipulated in ASEAN's rules,' the official said
on condition of anonymity.

In bilateral talks in Cambodia earlier this month, Hun Sen told Myanmar's
Prime Minister Lt. Gen. Soe Win that Cambodia supports Myanmar in hosting
next year's ASEAN summit.

Soe Win said Myanmar was frustrated with pressure from the international
community to improve human rights and advance democratization.

ASEAN's members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar,
Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.

_____________________________________

April 21, Agence France Presse
Myanmar refuses to give ground over ASEAN chairmanship

Myanmar on Thursday maintained defiance in the face of international calls
to give up the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
because of its poor democracy and rights record.

Speaking in Jakarta ahead of this weekend's golden jubilee summit of Asian
and African leaders, Myanmar's Foreign Minister Nyan Win said the
chairmanship issue was an internal matter and it would not be swayed by
foreign pressure.

"This is our decision," Nyan Win said curtly after a bilateral meeting
with his Indonesian counterpart Hassan Wirayuda.

There have been repeated demands for Myanmar to withdraw from chairing the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations because of its alleged human rights
abuses and continued detention of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu
Kyi.

The United Nations, the European Union and the United States have all
objected to Myanmar taking the ASEAN reins, labelling Yangon's promises of
democratic reform a sham.

Asked about the criticism of its rights record and allegations that
Myanmar was unfit to take charge of the regional bloc, Nyan Win added
simply: "No comment."

Leaders of other ASEAN nations are divided over whether to strip Myanmar
of the alphabetically-rotating chairmanship and were unable to reach a
consensus over the issue at a retreat of foreign ministers in the
Philippines last week.

But they urged Nyan Win's military junta to confirm swiftly whether it
wanted to proceed or else find a way to bow out gracefully.

Speaking after his talks with Wirayuda, the Myanmar foreign minister said
their meeting had not touched on the ASEAN issue.

"We discussed the Asian-African commemorative summit. No need to discuss
the internal situation," he said.

Analysts have warned that disagreements over Myanmar could threaten the
stability of ASEAN at a time when the bloc is trying to assert its
presence in a region dominated by the powerhouse economies of India and
China.

Thailand's Foreign Minister Kantathi Supamongkhon, also speaking after a
meeting with Wirayuda, said Myanmar was aware of the situation and has
said it would not be an obstacle to ASEAN unity.

"We have conveyed a message of concern of the international community to
Myanmar," he told reporters.

"Myanmar has emphasized the fact that they are moving ahead with national
reconciliation as well as the process of democracy and also they
emphasized that they feel very strongly that ASEAN unity comes first and
the interest of ASEAN comes first."

Kantathi said he was optimistic the Myanmar questioned could be answered
within the near future.

"I am convinced that the chairmanship situation will be resolved in a very
good way," he added.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

April 21, Irrawaddy
Unions urge EU to take stronger stance on Burma - Aung Lwin Oo

International trade unions have called on the European Union to take
harsher measures against Burma’s junta, complaining that Rangoon has
failed to meet the EU’s demands to improve the country’s political
situation.

Two Europe-based labor unions, the International Confederation of Free
Trade Unions and the European Trade Union Confederation, sent a joint
letter on Wednesday to EU External Relations Commissioner Benita
Ferrero-Waldner, urging the EU to strengthen its measures and impose
stronger sanctions on Rangoon.

“Contrary to earlier hopes, the situation inside the country has not
improved since the last revision of the EU Common Position,” says the
letter. The Common Position on Burma comprises the EU’s shared set of
measures designed to promote progress towards democracy and end human
rights abuses in the country, adopted in 1996. Currently, the Common
Position includes an arms embargo, trade restrictions, a ban on visas for
the regime’s top-ranking officials and a freeze on their assets.

“The EU must firmly confront the military government over human rights
violations, including forced labor, and reject the empty promises,” the
labor unions’ letter continues. The letter was sent one day before the
semi-annual meeting of the European Council of Foreign Ministers, which
will discuss the EU’s Common Position.

The letter points out that the EU’s previous demands on the junta to take
positive steps toward reform, including releasing opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi and allowing political freedom in the country, have not been
met at all. The trade unions also dismissed the EU’s current stance on
Burma as “seriously inadequate,” despite an earlier EU announcement that
it will tighten existing measures.

The two European trade bodies urged the EU to adopt six measures,
including an end to investment and all other commercial involvement in
Burma by European-registered companies. This would include a termination
of financial transactions and transfers and a guarantee that European arms
do not reach Burma via third countries.

During a March meeting of ministers from the EU and the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations in Jakarta, the EU hinted at possibly taking a
more accommodating stance towards Burma by opening dialogue with the
junta.

_____________________________________

April 21, The New Zealand Herald
Exiled Burmese call for sanctions

Exiled Burmese democratic leaders have urged the New Zealand Government to
stop its "immoral" exports of dairy produce to their home country ruled by
a military junta.

A small group met Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff yesterday to argue
the case for trade sanctions against Myanmar - the country formerly known
as Burma.

New Zealand, in common with most other countries including the European
Union and the United Nations, has not agreed to impose economic sanctions
on Myanmar.

Mr Goff said it was widely believed that economic sanctions hurt only the
ordinary people while regimes and military forces survived.

However, the general secretary of the National Council of the Union of
Burma, Maung Maung, told the Herald that most Burmese could not afford
dairy products in the country where the defence budget was more than 10
times larger than the health budget.

"Those things that are brought into Burma never get to the people ... only
a small minority would be doing the buying."

He said while New Zealand exports to Myanmar were small, about $5.9
million per annum,and mainly milk powder, it was wrong to sell products to
the totalitarian regime.

"It is a moral thing we are asking."

Mr Goff told the Herald the meeting had concentrated on wider issues such
as how to reform the ruling regime and restore democracy and human rights.

"Our trade with Myanmar is overwhelmingly exports of dairy products. At a
time when New Zealand is working with other countries through the World
Food Programme to alleviate malnutrition in Myanmar, withholding products
needed by families for basic nutrition makes absolutely no sense.

"We would simply be punishing ordinary people in Myanmar for the sins of
their Government, when they are already victims of the repressive nature
of that Government."

Mr Goff said New Zealand was instead applying sanctions against military
leaders and their families through denial of visas for travel or
education.

New Zealand would also continue to help victims of repression in Myanmar
by accepting 125 refugees this year as part of its annual refugee quota.

He said New Zealand had, and would continue, to be an outspoken critic of
the military regime as long as human rights abuses and the suppression of
democracy continued.

"New Zealand's opposition to the suspension of democracy and human rights
abuses in Myanmar, including the ongoing detention of Aung San Suu Kyi,
has been strong and consistent," he said.

"We have expressed this view directly to the Myanmar Government and
publicly in front of Myanmar's Asean partners."