BURMA NEWS INTERNATIONAL

 

30 November 2004

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(1) Chin National Front Appreciates Release of Political Detainees

(2) No sweat, no UN Security Council agenda, says academic

(3) No trader dares import Thai goods to Burma via Three Pagoda Pass  route

 

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Chin National Front Appreciates Release of Political Detainees.

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Khonumthung News Group

Aizawl 30 th November 2004.

 

The Chin National Front, (CNF) welcomes and appreciates recent

political developments in Burma, where certain unlawfully held

political detainees have been released after CNF holding its fourth

central executive committee meeting at its head office on Nov. 19-26.

 

In its statement, the Chin National Front said, "The party welcomes

the release of the pro-democratic political detainees and opined that

it will be a positive development for strengthening the unity of the

country and a possible faster track to restoration of democracy." The

statement was released on the final day of the fourth central

executive meeting after its third general conference.

 

The Chin National Front further appealed to the State Peace And

Development Council (SPDC) regime to release the house-arrested

National League for Democracy leaders Daw Aung  San  Suu Kyi, U Tin Oo

and all other political detainees. The party believes it will further

reinforce the continuing process of restoration of democracy in the

country.

 

"The previous amnesty of the fraudulently held detainees includes pro-

democracy activists. The SPDC must keep their promise and release more

pro-democracy activists in the near future," stated Pu Thomas

Thangnou, chairman of the Chin National Front.

 

Burmese Radio broadcast that the present military junta officially

announced Nov. 18 that the 3,937, on Novmeber 25 pro-democracy

activists unlawfully detained by the ex-prime minister Khin Nyunt-led

Military Intelligence Agency should be released. However, less then

1,000 activists have been released so far. Ko Min Ko Naing, the

student leader who led the 1988 democracy uprising, was released with

probably 30 other activists. On November 25, the military junta also

announced releasing 5000 prisoners.

 

Any pro-democracy and political activists of Chin State and the NLD

state-level leaders of Matupi Township who were detained during the

visit of NLD leader Daw Aung San Su Kyi have not been released so far.

 

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No sweat, no UN Security Council agenda, says academic

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29 November 2004

 

The resolution by the US Senate Sept. 22 calling for the UN Security

Council (UNSC) to intervene in Burma's crisis means not that things

will be plain sailing from now on, but more of the old-fashioned

blood, sweat and tears on the part of the opposition, warns a Burma

scholar in exile.

 

"First of all,"  writes Min Zaw Oo, director of the US-based Outreach

and Strategy, Free Burma Coalition, "the Senate's call is a resolution

(and) not a bill that is a law."

 

Moreover, the Senate cannot ask the UNSC to launch a specific action,

because the UN is not its jurisdiction but that of the government

administration. Also the resolution had not called on the Bush

administration to bring Burma's case to the UNSC.

 

Min Zaw Oo, who also serves as the Thailand-based director of the

Institute for Community and Institutional Development, notes that the

US under the Clinton administration attempted in 1997 to introduce

Burma's case to the UNSC following the visit to Burma by Secretary of

State Albright. "However, the plan to discuss Burma at the UNSC was

quickly retreated after unofficial consultations with key council

members."

 

The US since had put Burma on both a nuclear and genocide watch list.

Nevertheless, Washington has yet to find any strong reason to discuss

Burma on the floor of the UNSC on these topics, although according to

the Oslo-based Democratic Voice of Burma, the Council did deliberate

on the Burma Army's sexual violations in late October.

 

The world's highest organ, on its part, does not hold a first class

track record of either making or keeping peace in and among nations, a

job for which it was entrusted, he says.

 

"The UN General Assembly issued annual resolutions condemning (South

Africa)'s apartheid policy after the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, but

no action was taken." "Even Rwanda's UN-intervened genocide was

largely ignored by the UNSC in the beginning."

 

The UNSC's intervention can be provided by the following one or more

reasons:

•           A country's threat to the regional security or world

peace.

•          Genocide and/or Crime against Humanity.

•         Wills of superpowers.

 

In Burma's case, not only the wills of the superpowers were wanting,

but "none of the neighboring countries, especially Thailand that (has)

suffered from most spillover effects of Burmese conflicts, view

Burma's potential threat as serious enough to bring the care of the

UNSC."

 

As for sanctions, he says, "The real change depends on how the regime

perceives the deprivation under sanctions." For example, "De Klerk's

(South African) government had negotiated with the ANC (African

National Congress of Nelson Mandela) with much better economic

performance compared to the current Burma."

 

(The late Chao Tzang Yawnghwe, 1939-2004, on the other hand, gives a

different slant to the question: There is no economic sanction per se.

There is only a very soft investment sanction. The real sanction comes

from the regime that does not want any economic reforms and/or

economic liberalization for investment to go into Burma. The noises it

makes about "economic sanctions (don't work)" are self-serving noises

to get loans and assistance as in the BSPP years.)

 

Last but not least, Min Zaw Oo counsels that Burma's awareness

campaign, which must from now on focus onto legislative campaigns

rather than campus-based boycott campaigns in the past, must strive to

surpass the structural constraints of  international politics.

 

Min Zaw Oo, a student dissident since he was 14, is a master graduate

from the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. His ICID, he

says, promotes progressive education among grassroots and youth

leaders. He is currently preparing to continue his advance study on

security and conflict management.

 

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No trader dares import Thai goods to Burma via Three Pagoda Pass-

Thanpyuzayart route

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Independent Mon News Agency

November 29, 2004

 

No traders have dared to import Thai goods into Burma at the start of

this year's routing season on the Three Pagoda Pass to Thanpyuzayart

road because locally based military are seizing imported goods,

according to local traders at Three Pagoda Pass.

 

The cars started their routing via the Three Pagoda Pass-Thaphyuzayart

road Nov. 24 when just a small number of cars was routed in a day,

according to a routing car owner. “We only carry people. We do not

dare carry goods,” a routing car owner with a car license."

 

“The army tried to seize every imported good. That’s why nobody dares

to carry (them) in their cars at the moment,” said a general goods

trader based in Three Pagoda Pass.

 

Cars without licenses that were routed in previous years do not dare

use the road. Although the cease-fire groups and local traders

negotiated with the local base army to allow the route, Nankwin

village-based Burmese Military Operation Tactical Commander Col. Tin

Aye denied cars without licenses enttry to Thapyuzayart Township.

 

According to a routing car owner, cars with licenses can be routed,

and the commander told him the army does not care to seize cars from

cease-fire groups.

 

“If the cease-fire groups guarantee car owners protection for their

cars against seizure, car owners will use the route. But the cease-

fire groups can’t give guarantees for that. At the moment, car owners

do not dare use the route because everything is illegal,” a car owner

close to the cease-fire groups said.

 

The army strongly restricted importing Thai goods such as cars,

drinks, food, oil, makeup and some other goods.

 

“If the army continues restricting and barring Thai goods, the Thai-

Burma border trade in the area will decrease,” a trader said,

expressing his opinion.

 

Trading was delayed on the border this year as 100 more car-trading

businesspersons lost their jobs. Most are businesspersons joined in

doing business with cease-fire groups and some members of ceasefire

groups.

 

According to a routing car owner, three cars without licenses were

routed Nov. 27, but the tactical commander did not allow tthem to

cross at Nankwin village, about 30 miles further from Three Pagoda

Pass.



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