**************************BurmaNet*************************** "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies" ************************************************************* The BurmaNet News: 8 March 1995 Issue #121 NOTED IN PASSING: Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi seems destined to be the Mandela of Myanmar. Little that Yangon's ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council does is likely to change that. But Slorc can contribute substantially to making the process as painless as possible. "We will use various method to destroy the camps. Those who refuse to obey will be regarded as KNU elements and will be destroyed," From SLORC leaflets distributed by DKBO soldiers in Karen refugee camps. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Contents: ***********************INSIDE BURMA*************************** ASIA WEEK: WRITING ON THE WALL FEER: ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT *******************KAREN STATE/KAWTHOOLEI********************* NATION: THE BATTLE FOR KAWMOORA NATION: KAREN WELCOME BANGKOK OFFER OF MEDIATION BKK POST: TOP OFFICIAL CONDEMNS KIDNAPPING AT BORDER BKK POST: BURMA SAYS 9,000 KAREN REFUGEES RETURNED HOME NATION: KAREN LEADER LAUDS CHUAN'S MEDIATION OFFER BKK POST: KNU TO WORK OUT NEW MILITARY STRATEGY BKK POST: NGOS FEAR CROSS-BORDER RAIDS BY BURMESE FORCES ************************SHAN STATE**************************** BKK POST: BURMESE ARMY 'TO MOVE AGAINST DRUG WARLORD KHUN SA' ***************"THE OTHER COUNTRY" [THAILAND]***************** BKK POST: LOGGING COMPANIES DEALING WITH BURMA SUFFER HEAVY LOSSES BKK POST: KHMER INTRUSIONS TO BE RETALIATED *********************INTERNATIONAL**************************** BKK POST: BURMESE JUNTA LEADER TO VISIT VN SEASIA-L: BOB HAWKE & `ASIAN VALUES' ****************************MISC****************************** SCB: SEATTLE TALK--MEDICAL CARE IN BURMA BF: BURMA FORUM TO MEET ON APRIL 29 CARAVAN:BEYOND RANGOON [REPOST] SCB: TEXT OF SELECTIVE PURCHASING LEGISLATION NLM/SLORC: MYANMAR ACHIEVING SUCCESS IN MULTI-SECTORAL APPROACH TO DRUG PROBLEM SCB: REPLY TO IDENTIFY YOURSELF ************************************************************** The BurmaNet News is an ********************************* electronic newspaper * Iti * covering Burma. 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Burma Issues is a Bangkok-based non-governmental organization that documents human rights conditions in Burma and maintains an archive of Burma-related documents. Views expressed in The BurmaNet News do not necessarily reflect those of either NCGUB or Burma Issues] ************************************************************** *************THE BURMANET NEWS--MARCH 8, 1995*************** ************************************************************** ***********************INSIDE BURMA*************************** ASIA WEEK: WRITING ON THE WALL The World Should Get Ready for President Aung San Suu Kyi Prison bars may stall destiny for years, or even decades. But not forever. During the 27 years that it kept Mr Nelson Mandela in jail, Africa's apartheid regime paid a steep price. the country was wracked by racial violence and saw its economy erode. It was an international pariah. Mr. Mandela, by contrast, emerged from his ordeal politically stronger and more mature. Less than four years after his release, he was elected to head a government of national reconciliation - a brief he is carrying out with remarkable aplomb and success. Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi seems destined to be the Mandela of Myanmar. Little that Yangon's ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council does is likely to change that. But Slorc can contribute substantially to making the process as painless as possible. Recently, the junta seemed poised to take a big step in that direction - by releasing Ms. Suu Kyi after more than five years of house arrest. But Slorc squelched such rumours by abruptly announcing that nothing would change until a new constitution was adopted. The charter has been under discussion since 1992 and its completion still looks distant. As things stand, its provisions regarding the Nobel Peace Prize-winner are well-known: they bar her from political office because she is married to a foreigner and has lived abroad within the past two decades. Such effort is likely to be in vain. Ms . Suu Kyi has demonstrated far more than a physical kinship with Aung San, her late father and independence hero. After a visit last month, her husband, the British academic Mr. Michael Aris, conveyed a single message: she would never cut a secret deal with Slorc. That precludes an agreement to leave the country, which could win her release instantly. Her stance underscores the resolve she shares with her father to play an instrumental role in making their nation strong, modern and humane. Ms. Suu Kyi also retains the support of the more than 80% of Burmese who voted in a 1990 general election for her party, the National League for Democracy. Her stature is underpined not only by her integrity, patriotism and commitment to democracy, but also by her acceptability to Myanmar's fractious ethnic groups and her international prestige. Ms. Suu Kyi will re-emerge on center stage whether or not Slorc succeeds in its drive to make Myanmar prosperous. If economic reforms do bear fruit, the experience of neighbors in East Asia - such as South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand - suggests that democracy will follow. Like Mr. Kim Young Sam in Korea, Ms. Suu Kyi could go from being detained oppositionist to president. On the other hand, if the generals make a mess of the economy, internal pressures could intensify to the point where Ms. Suu Kyi would be the only person with the charisma and moral authority save the day. Most analysts agree that economic reforms alone will sustain a modest level of growth, but that a quantum leap won't come without a political transformation. Another catalyst for change inn the years ahead will be the death of Gen. Ne Win. Now 83, the shadowy strongman ruled for 26 years and continues to exercise a powerful influence from behind the scenes. Myanmar's ASEAN neighbors can play a key role. Batter than anyone, they know how to appeal to Burmese sensibilities and help induce positive change. ASEAN avoids the confrontation - and often counter-productive - rhetoric of Western human rights groups, but members agree that the Slorc regime lacks legitimacy. After Yangoon announced that Ms.Suu Kyi's detention would be prolonged indefinitely, chairman Suthin Nappaket of Thailand's House foreign affairs committee proposed immediate mediation by Bangkok. By stepping up their "constructive engagement" of Yangon. ASEAN countries can draw on their own experience to help their neighbor make economic and political progress. An increasingly stable, prosperous and open Myanmar would enhance those same attributes throughout the region. would be huge question marks. The biggest challenge: how the generals, who have minimal education and even less experience in political compromise, can strike a deal with longtime rivals and ease themselves from power without major upheaval. The nation's restive minorities are another wild card. Yet one thing seems certain: these tasks have to be faced one day. The longer they are put off, the more difficult they are likely to prove. Such headway would quickly bring other benefits to Myanmar as well. Democratic power would respond with aid and trade, and international investors would being putting money into the country in a big way. Once Ms. Suu Kyi becomes involved in government, Yangon will be able to attract home the tens of thousands of educated Burmese now in exile. Their expertise is essential if the country is to modernize. ***********************INSIDE BURMA*************************** FEER: ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT Is the opposition doomed to irrelevance? By Bertil Lintner in Bangkok Her supporters like to see her as Burma's Mandela, a prisoner now but a premier or president some day. Certainly, Aung San Suu Kyi is as popular among the Burmese as Nelson Mandela is among South Africa's black majority. And like him, she's viewed internationally as the standard-bearer of her people's freedom. That hopeful analogy is starting to look hollow, however, in the light of recent events. Last year, Burma's ruling generals held talks with Suu Kyi and showed signs of a more liberal attitude towards the opposition. That led some Burma-watchers to suggest she might be freed in January. But instead, she was left under house arrest, and the junta resumed its hard-line stance. At the same time the Burmese army attacked the country's most troublesome ethnic rebels, the Karen National Union. The cap- ture of the Karen headquarters at Manerplaw, on the Thai bor- der, was another heavy blow to the embattled and fragmented opposition. "Mandela had a massive, active movement-the ANC," says a Bang- kok-based analyst, referring to the African National Congress. "Suu Kyi remains popular among the population at large, there- 's no doubt about that. But she doesn't have any organization to back her up." Indeed, in light of the opposition's recent set backs, analysts are questioning the future of Suu Kyi's democracy movement. And as the ruling junta - known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council - increasingly breaks out of its international isolation, some observers are asking whether the democracy movement has any future at all. The death on February 14 of Burma's only democratically elect- ed prime minister U Nu, provided a sobering reminder of the staying power of the military. Overthrown in 1962, the 87- year-old U Nu had slipped so deep into obscurity that the state-controlled media didn't even feel it necessary to report his death. "The Slorc holds power by means of the barrel of the gun, and for the people of Burma - as well as some abroad - this is a very convincing argument to submit and to cooperate in daily life," says a Burma-watcher in Bangkok. "The government may be illegitimate and rejected by the people, but it is neverthe- less there and running the country without seeming to be too much disturbed by moral or ethical considerations." Six years ago, massive street demonstrations rocked virtually every major city and town across Burma. The popular wave swept Suu Kyi, the daughter of independence hero Aung San, to the fore. That movement was crushed, and Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest. But even so, her party, the National League for Democ- racy, won a landslide victory in May 1990 elections run by the junta. The fact that the elected assembly was never convened caused an outcry, and the international community was almost unani- mous in its condemnation of Burma's ruling military. The Unit- ed Nations passed resolutions demanding the released of Suu Kyi and urging the military to respect the outcome of the election. Today, however, what remains of the Suu Kyi's party inside the country has been cowed into submission. Almost the entire original leadership was detained along with Suu Kyi in 1989, and most local party offices have been closed. Like the Chinese democracy movement, its Burmese equivalent is beset by infighting and factionalism. It may be doomed to irrelevance. The Democratic Alliance for Burma - formed after the military crackdown by democracy activists and the ethnic rebel groups who sheltered them in the jungle - fell apart as the ethnic armies signed a string of ceasefire agreements with the junta. The Karen National Union, which lost its headquarters in late January, was one of the last rebel groups still fighting Rangoon. Burma's democracy movement now exists almost entirely in exile. Some exiles are active: Harn Yawnghwe, the son of Burma's first president, Sao Shwe Thaike, publishes a surprisingly non-partisan newsletter in Canada called Burma Alert. A new magazine in New York, Burma Debate, sponsored by the Open Society Institute of the Soros Foundation, also contains articles expressing a rich variety of viewpoints. And in far- away Oslo, some pro-democracy enthusiasts continue to make daily radio broadcasts in Burmese that are beamed across the globe to Burma. However, changes inside Burma especially a fledgling economic boom with substantial foreign investment-are affecting Asian as well as Western preceptions of the country. "The pro- democracy movement has been marginalized. It's been overtaken by events inside the country," says a Western diplomat in Rangoon.For Foreign businesses, the most important of those events is the opening of the resource-rich economy to the outside world. But Asian officials and analysts offer political explanations for the policy of "constructive engagement" adopted by Asean over the past year. Though officially meant to "encourage democratic development" in Burma, Asean's policy of "engaging" the Rangoon generals is motivated more by fears about a growing Chinese influence, Asean officials say privately. China has taken advantage of Burma's isolation to expand its commercial, political and military influence into Southeast Asia, and "Asean wants to counter that," one official says. According to this reasoning, this can be done only by increasing Asean investment in Burma - and making friends with the ruling junta. A Rangoon-based diplomat suggests that Chinese Premier Li Peng's visit to Rangoon in December convinced the government that it has enough backing to stay in power without compromising with its opponents. "Since the visit, the Slorc has resumed the old hard-line rhetoric. There is no more talk of Suu Kyi being 'our dear sister.' Now she is once again 'a foreigner who should go back to Britain'." Asian analysts say the troubles in nearby Cambodia have also hurt the chances of Burma's democracy movement. A UN-run election there didn't deliver the kind of stability needed for economic development. "Obviously, an election is not enough to solve a country's ills. and after the Cambodian experience, no one wants another country to go the same way," says an analyst in Bangkok. Whatever the reasons, Rangoon is starting to appear increasingly confident about ignoring Suu Kyi, just as it ignored U Nu. Despite his stature as an international figure in the 1950s, when he was a founder of the Non-Aligned Movement, U Nu's death went unreported by the state - controlled media. "The military can afford to ignore the death of U Nu. To them, he was just an irritant, a reminder of an old system which they don't want to have back," says a Rangoon-based diplomat. When the military overthrew U Nu in 1962, it inherited a country with one of the highest standards of living in Asia, a high literacy rate and a thriving middle class. It nationalized everything in sight - meaning that the economy was taken over by military-run corporations - and closed off Burma to the outside world. U Nu, who had remained in Burma, resurfaced during the 1988 democracy demonstrations, claiming to still be the legitimately elected premier. But he attracted little notice from the majority of the populace, who rallied around Suu Kyi. The disastrous effects of three decades of central economic planning have pushed the military to return Burma to market economics. But in a sign of their growing confidence, the generals seem to see no need to make simultaneous political concessions.Most Western governments continue to condemn Rangoon for human-rights abuses, but their protests carry less and less weight as neighbouring countries mend fences with the generals. Time, which seemed to be running out for the switching sides. Unless the economic opening of the country truly does force reform, Suu Kyi and the democracy movement might find themselves watching Burma's development from the sidelines. *******************KAREN STATE/KAWTHOOLEI********************* NATION: THE BATTLE FOR KAWMOORA 5 MARCH 1995 Battered and beaten after an extraordinary turn of events this year, Burma's ethnic insurgents say they may have lost their strongholds, but they'll fight on to win the war. Yindee Lertcharoenchok reports. After year of fierce defence in the face of a brutal Burmese military offensive, the KAren guerrillas stronghold of KAwmoora eventually fell to the army of the ruing junta, which in December shocked the world by renewiing its use of force to crush the ethnic insurgency. Since its establishment in 1977. Kawmoora, the 101st special military base of the KNU , had witnessed the ebb and flow of war around its strategic location just 14km north of the border town of Myawaddy. Once a flourishing black market market and one of the most convenient gateways for Thai goods from the northern Mae Sot district of Tak, the bustling trading post was turned into a purely military base after there Burmese Army launched a massive effort to capture it in 1989. All civilian residents were evacuated and traders rerouted their commercial activities through either Myawaddy or other KNU outposts. For the Past 6 years, Kawmoora, located at an oxbow bend in the Moei River, has completely abandoned its original commercial identity. The camp was gradually transformed. Strong bunkers and trenches were constructed throughout the square km territory and homes fortified to withstand heavy artillery shells. Its 200-meter front entrance, the only access for Burmese troops to attack, was heavily layered with landmines, barbed wire and booby traps. As a precaution against assault from the rear by troops who relentlessly crossed the Moei illegally to reach the Thai village of Wang Kaew, the KAren planted booby traps and laced barbed wire along the river bank. At night the wiring was electrified. Before its fall early on Feb21, Kawmoora had become a symbol of resistance against the ruling junta. The KNU had proudly withstook number of offensive, making the town a thorn in the side of successive Burmese rulers in Rangoon. Kawmoora was often the base from which guerrilla hit-and-run strikes were launched against Burmese military outposts in Myawaddy and other towns as well as disruptive attacks on Army movements in the area. The KNU in late 1976 conducted a ground survey for a suitable locatiom that could serve as a new black market and checkpoint for cross border trade - the major source of income for the guerrillas group. The Burmese Army was threatening an imminent attack on Wangkha, a Karen stronghold and chechpoint four km to the south of Kawmoora. In late 1988 and early 1989, several Thai timber companies holding logging concessions in border areas controlled by the KNU, Karenni and Mon, constructed or improved roads in and out of their contractual sites to assist in the extraction of logs. The roads quickly became preferred logistic supply and reinforcement routes for the Burmese Army. In 1989, the Army opened an aggressive battle to crush armed ethnic groups as well as urban pro-democracy students and dissidents who had taken refuge in the strongholds after fleeing Slorc's brutal suppression. From then on, KNU camps began to fall one after another, but Kawmoora managed to resist the military pressure and emerged unscathed. The small Thai village of Wang Kaew, facing Kawmoora from the other side of the Moei, wasn't as fortunate. A number of heavily armed Burmese soldiers gutted the hamlet completly on MAy 20, 1989, in the hopes of attacking the Karen stronghold from the Thai side. Since then, Wang Kaew's residents, who'd evacuated the village before the fighting broke out, have been unable to return. The Burmese forces, managing to capture two small hills overlooking Kawmoora, established and fortified bases there and rein forced their manpower in anticipation of sudden attack orders from Rangoon. In early 1992, as Slorc's jets launched bombing and air strikes against the KNU headquarters at Manerplaw, 200 km to the north, the army made another strike at Kawmoora, but again with little success. The Slorc forces suffered significantly high causalities and losses of material in the Manerplaw operation, and in April announced they were suspending their armed offensive against the KNU "in view of national unity and goodwill". One year later, the junta provide another surprise, declaring a unilateral cease fire against active armed ethnic groups, again for the sake of "national reconciliation", and calling for the remaining insurgents - the Karen, Karenni and Mon - to enter into a peace dialogue. The ceasefire pledge, however, didn't last long. Early this past December, Slorc exploited the KNU's internal religious conflict to strike military against Manerplaw. To the south, Kawmoora too was under heavy pressure. Unexpectedly, KNU leaders, caught off guard by the lighting assaults, ordered a sudden evacuation of Manerplaw when they realized KNU Buddhist defectors were guiding Burmese troops to capture the headquarters. After the fall of Manerplaw on Jan 27, the Army's resolve to crush Kawmoora hardened. Although Kawmoora's commander, Brig Gen Taw Hla, and his deputy, major Than Maung, had vowed to fight to the death to defend the stronghold, they were eventually forced to withdraw their 800 war-ravaged but die-hard forces from Kawmoora as the Burmese bombarded it with thousands of heavy artillary shells, destroying their protective bunkers and shelters. While KNU forces accused the Burmese of firing "some sort of verve agents" against them, Thai border officers said the the weapons were "more like tear-gas rocket" that disabled their victims and caused eyesore and nausea. Despite the fall of Manerplaw and Kawmoora, KNU leaders claimed they were not disheartened, but rather stronger in their determination to fight on for ethnic rights, self- determination and democracy. (TN) *******************KAREN STATE/KAWTHOOLEI********************* NATION: KAREN WELCOME BANGKOK OFFER OF MEDIATION 5 March 1995 THE Karen National Union (KNU), ousted from bases along the Thai-Burma border, yesterday welcome Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai's offer to mediate between the Burmese ethnic groups and the Rangoon junta. The rebel also hailed a statement by a Thai general that the army would see force to reply any Burmese troops who cross the border to attack the refugees who fled to Thailand. In a statement, the KNU said it welcomes Chuan's statement last week that "Tyhailand was willing to act as a mediator to help end the civil war in BUrma." It reiterated KNU's readiness for talks with the BUrmese jun- ta, know as Slorc so as to acheieve peace that the regime dem- onstrate its willingness fopr dialouge. The rebel said Chuan's offer had reportedly been well received by the Slorc, which was studying the proposal. "The KNU is a always willing ...to study any setrious proposal for bringing genuine peace, democracy and respect for human rights in BUrma," it said. NOting reports that armed men beleived to be BUrmese soldiers or breakaway Buddhist Karen fighters had crossed into Thailand and attacked Burmese refugees, the KNU said it "warmly welcomes regent announcement" that the Thai military would use force against the intruders. Burmese troops took advantage of a split in the KNU to launch an offensive againdt the rebels last December. Soldoers overren the the KNU heasdqyarters of Manerplaw in mid-Feb and its Kawmoora stronghld later in the MOnth, driving the remain- ing KAren fighters into the coiuntry side.(TN) *******************KAREN STATE/KAWTHOOLEI********************* BKK POST: TOP OFFICIAL CONDEMNS KIDNAPPING AT BORDER 5 MARCH 1995 THE abduction of another KNU official from a Thai refugee camp on Thursday by an armed force from Burma was condemned yesterday by National Security Council deputy security General Kachaadpai Buruspattana. Mr Kachadpai earlier inspected the border area opposite Kawmoora camp from which KNU forces recently withdrew. The camp has been occupied by BUrmese troops. "THe kidnapping might have stemmed from personal conflicts or might be political. "The kidnappers came to Thailand and returned after the operation, so the Thai authorities could not do anything. It is not yet clear which gruop was responsible. Thailand has lodged a protect with Burma," he said. Suspected members of a rebel splinter faction, the DKBA, allegedly raided a refugees camp at the MAe Tha Waw on Thursday and seized at gunpoint KAren guerrillas official Saw Kyaw Lay. Mr Kachadpai said the Third Army had told all border units to provide security for refugees and Thais in the area. The siezure of former KNU camps along the border by Rangoon troops would bring about peace and order along the border, he said. The KNU's vow to conduct guerrillas warfare was an internal affair for Burma. Thailnd would not interfere. No foreign forces would be allowed to use Thailand as a spring board for attack on the other side, he said. The KNU issued a statement welcoming the announcement by Task Force 34 commander Adirek Yaemnganriab that the Third Army Region has authorised the used of force against BUrmese troops violation Thai territority, and that the Thai militayr would try to protect refugrr camps in Tak and Mae Hong Son provinces. It also welcomed Premier Chuan Leekpai's statement that Thailand was willing to act as a mediator to end the civil war in Burma. (BP) *******************KAREN STATE/KAWTHOOLEI********************* BKK POST: BURMA SAYS 9,000 KAREN REFUGEES RETURNED HOME 4 March 1995 More than 9,000 ethnic minority Karen refugees have returned to Burma from camps in Thailand in recent months, Burma's state-run Radio Rangoon reported. The radio in a broadcast monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation in Bangkok late on Thursday, said 2,500 Karen people returned to an area near the former Karen guerrilla headquarters at Manerplaw that day. "Furthermore, after learning about the genuine good-will of the government....Karen national families have been trickling back to Myaing gyingu village," the radio said, referring to the headquarters of a Karen splinter faction which mutinied against the Karen guerrilla leadership in December. The radio said the 2,500 who went back on Thursday took the total who have returned so far to more than 9,000. Relief workers in refugee camps on the Thai side of the border say several thousand refugees, most of them the family of members of the splinter faction, have gone back to Burma since December. Up to 10,000 Karen refugees crossed the other way to escape a Burmese government offensive against the guerrillas which began in December. Meanwhile, another senior Karen guerrilla official was seized at gunpoint from a Thai refugee camp and taken back into Burma, Karen refugee officials said yesterday. The official was seized on Thursday by suspected members of the rebel splinter faction_ the Democratic Kayin Buddhist Army (DKBA). The official, identified as Kyaw Rei, was the former leader of a karen guerrilla camp on the Burmese side of the border who took refuge at a Thai camp at Mae Thaw Wa after the Burmese army launched its offensive. It was the third time in a month that members of the DKBA, who joined forces with Burmese government troops after their December mutiny, have seized a senior guerrilla official. Karen refugee officials said the Burmese government wanted to pressure the seized officials to join them and then appeal to the refugees in Thailand to go back to Burma to undermine the support of the main-force rebel group. (BP) ************************SHAN STATE**************************** BKK POST: BURMESE ARMY 'TO MOVE AGAINST DRUG WARLORD KHUN SA' 4 March 1995 A Burmese miliatry spokesman said yesterday that drug warlord Khun Sa would be the next target of the government's drive against rebel elements along its border. "I cannot tell you when the offensives will began, but they will be directed against his headquarters at Ho Mong," Lieutenant Colonel Kyaw Thein told AFP. Khun Sa maintins he is a Shan nationalist leader, but Burma's military government insists his followers are drug-trafficking bandits and has vowed to wipe them out. Kyaw Thein, a senior intelligence officer, said Khun Sa had been excluded from the truce offers made to other ethnic leaders because he is a criminal. Thirteen ethnic minorities have accepted the offers in exchange for regional development aid. In a massive offensive over the past three months, the Burmese army has inflicted a devastating blow to the Karen National Union (KNU), the most powerful ethnic insurgents and one of the three remaining groups which have not signed a ceasefire with the junta. Kyaw Thein said the military was already gearing up for an offensive against Khun Sa. But Khun Sa's headquarters, opposite Thailand's Mae Hong Son province, is heavily defended and many factors_including cooperation from the Thai military_must be considered. "We are hoping that when the offensive starts, Thai military forces will cooperate with us by blocking the border and helping to prevent arms and other logistics from reaching Khun Sa," he said. In 1993, Burmese troops moved against Khun Sa and there were heavy losses on both sides. The rugged area in eastern Burma where Khun Sa operates is part of the so-called Golden Triangle along with northern Thailand and western Laos. Much of the world's herion comes from the Burmese side, and Thailand is a major transit route to the West. Khun Sa, considered one of the world's leading drug runners, has been indicted on drug charges in the United States. Meanwhile, more than 143 kg of herion and 1,455 kg of opium were put to the torch here yesterday in the ninth such destruction of seized illicit drugs. (BP & TN) ***************"THE OTHER COUNTRY" [THAILAND]***************** BKK POST: LOGGING COMPANIES DEALING WITH BURMA SUFFER HEAVY LOSSES 4 March 1995 Four Thai logging firms lost a total of more than 100 million baht in log deals with Burma in the past year, a sawmail source said yesterday. The Burmese also lodged a complaint with the Third Army Region accusing the four companies of forging certificates of origin issued by the Rangoon government. The companies were granted logging concessions for areas opposite Mae Hong Son and were to bring out logs through Pang Mapa and Ban Nai Soy checkpoints in Muang district and Ban Mae Sapey checkpoint in Khun Yuam district. The four companies each paid Rangoon 18 million baht to sign the contracts and several million baht to Burmese minority groups, the source said. The companies claimed Burmese officials later breached the contract and accused them of falsifying the documents. The Burmese note said only two companies _ B&F and Thai Industry Vinyl (1992)_ have official contracts with the Burmese government. According to their contract, B&F would bring out logs through Ban Arunothai in Chiang Mai and Thai Vinyl would use the Ban Sao Hin route in Mae Sarieng district of Mae Hong Son. Last October, Thai Industry Vinyl Co told Burmese officials the company would send 43 workers, logging tools, 13 pickup trucks and saws and machinery to be installed at the sawmill at Ban Mae Ja in Doi Kor town inside Burma. However, the company failed to export timber from Burma since the signing of the contract because Rangoon had asked the company to change the transport route to the Andaman Sea or to bring out timber through Ban Huay Ton Noon in Khun Yuam district. So far, the company has not decided which route would be more suitable and safe for its operations. The company has also taken its workers back to Thailand because of changes in Burmese officials it has to work with. Mae Hong Son Governor Somjet Viriyadamrong said several agencies wanted Thai Industry Vinyl to transport timber through Ban Huay Ton Noon checkpoint after it was opened just over two months ago. He hoped the checkpoint would become an important route for logs from Burma because mae Hong Son authorities had spent more than 20 million baht to improve the road, he said. A border source said Burmese authorities wanted Thai logging firms to change their timber route. (BP) ***************"THE OTHER COUNTRY" [THAILAND]***************** BKK POST: KHMER INTRUSIONS TO BE RETALIATED 4 March 1995 Thai troops will retaliate against intrusions by Cambodian forces, Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai warned yesterday, as protests were lodged against Burma and Cambodia over repeated border incursions. "We will not let Thais be killed without responding," he said. He said the intrusions stemmed from the inability of Cambodian commanders to control their soldiers. But there was no problem at national level between the two governments. The Foreign Ministry yesterday summoned the ambassadors of Cambodia and Burma to receive protest letters. Burmese ambassador U Tin Winn met deputy permanent secretary Saroj Chavanaviraj. His Cambodian counterpart, Roland Eng, met another deputy, Birath Isarasena. The Foreign Ministry has now lodged three official protests through the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok over alleged abductions and repeated intrusions into Thailand by Democratic Kayin Buddhist Organisation and Burmese forces. Deputy Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan said every country had a duty to protect its sovereignty. "This sort of thing should need to be said only once, because it is serious. It shouldn't have to be repeated. "No sovereign country can accept intrusions into territory," he said. About 30 Burmese soldiers and Karen turncoats, led by a former officer of Battalion 104 of the karen National Union, Lt Maung Soe, crossed the border into Thailand's Tha Song Yang district in Tak on Wednesday and kidnapped a Karen judge, San Htone Kaing, from the Ban Huay Ma Noke refugee camp. Mr Surin said the incidents in the past two weeks were all committed by Lt Maung Soe's forces. The Burmese government should "manage" him. "Last Thursday night, the Burmese intruders were spotted one kilometre inside Thai territory. We have to monitor the situation and protect the refugees," he said. The Burmese government should increase its efforts to control its soldiers, he said. Some Cambodian government soldiers intruded into Thailand at Kun Han district, Si Sa Ket province, last Tuesday. Two Thai soldiers were killed and three others wounded in the incident. According to a ministry press release, Mr Birath lodged an aide memoire protesting the incident and artillery shells which landed in Thailand during recent fighting. The Thai Government wants Phnom Penh to investigate the problem and ensure it does not recur. Mr Surin said his ministry was working with the Thai military to ensure a repeat of the incident was avoided. "If these events take place again, we will implement another measure which is more decisive," he said, without elaborating. Mr Chuan said he had told Defence Minister Vijit Sookmark to take military action against foreign intruders. The government would seek compensation from Phonom Penh for the killing of two army-trained rangers in Si Sa Ket province. Army Commander Gen Wimol Wongwanich said the army would take military action over any violation of the country's sovereignty in furture. "Soldiers have guns and we will shoot anyone who crosses into our territory," he said. It was hoped the pending appointment of a Thai Army attache in Cambodia would solve the problem, he said. Army assistant commander Gen Chetha Thanajaro said after a one-day trip to Burma that leading Burmese military officers had apologised to Thailand for the violation of Thailand's sovereignty during the suppression of Karen rebels in recent weeks.(BP) *******************KAREN STATE/KAWTHOOLEI********************* NATION: KAREN LEADER LAUDS CHUAN'S MEDIATION OFFER 6 March, 1995 Dyuplaya, Burma - Karen guerrilla leader Gen Bo Mya has wel- comed Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai's initiative to medi- ate in peace talks between his armed ethnic movement and the ruling Burmese junta. He also urged the primer to provide security for the 70,000 fugitive karen refugees in Thailand, who have been killed ha- rassed and abducted by armed karen and Burmese forces, that surreptitiously cross the border and enter they camps. In his first interview since the Karen National Union (KNU) lost two of its strategic strongholds, including its Manerplaw headquarters, to the Burmese army, Bo Mya said had last week sent a letter to Chuan welcoming and thanking him for his peace initiative. The KNU, he said, "has never rejected peace talks which would bring genuine and lasting peace" to the country, but it is the Burmese junta, officially known as Slorc, who have insisted on a "temporary ceasefire". The Karen general said his movement agreed with Chaun's offer and is still waiting for a reply from him. "We have sent a letter to him. "We have agree with everything he said, and it would be our pleasure to talk with Slorc."Chuan stated late last month that Thailand wanted to see the warning parties hold talks in order to restore peace in Burma and he was pre- pared to help bring the two parties - KNU and Slorc - to the negotiating table. The premier's offer is seen as a direct response to the exiled Burmese Buddhist monk Sayadaw Rewata Dhamma, who strongly urged, after a one month visit to Burma, that Chuan mediates between the two parties, saying this was the best solution for the two countries. While Bo Mya agrees that the decision to have Thailand mediate rests with Slorc, which has repeatedly rejected a third party's involvement in peace negotiations arguing that the matter was Burma's internal affair, he said he believes that "if Thailand put pressure on the Slorc, it could make peace talks possible. Slorc has no respect for Thailand or the Thai authorities. They entered refugees camps and shot at refugees and Thais." "If Thailand wants to do business with Slorc, they should assist the KNU in such talks. If there is peace here, there will be no problem doing business." The Karen general has urged Chuan to also provide security for karen refugees in border camps, saying that the KNU "can't really take care or be responsible" for them as they are on Thai soil. "If we were giving the authority to look after the refugees, we could stop it [the harassment].' Slorc, he said, is directly involved in the frequent and violent harassment of the refugees, as well as Thais, but has tried to blame the raids on the rival break way Karen group, the Democratic Kayin Buddhist Organization (DKBO). "Slorc has sent troops into refugee camps, looting and taking refugees" possessions ... They have tried to make people believe that it was the work of the DKBO, but in fact it was their own soldiers." The camps, he said, are close to the border and the frontier is only separated by the narrow Moei River, making it easy for Burmese troops to cross anywhere and anytime they pleased. The government and Thai border authorities have, in the past month, filed several unheeded protests over the repeated and ongoing territorial violations, intrusions into refugee camps, the shooting, killing and kidnapping of several refugees, KNU leaders and Thai people. Bo Mya said he realized that the world community and the UN have not only failed to stop the Burmese military offensive against the KNU, but also supported the Burmese junta by continuing their arms sales and economic deals with Slorc. "The international community only cares about their own prosperity and business ties [with Slorc]. Slorc has received weapons and ammunition from China so they can launch these huge offensives against us. If Slorc was not supported by the international community that Slorc is not a legitimate government, and it is not for the people. I want them [the world community] to apply pressure on Slorc, to stop doing business or selling arms to them," he appealed. The KNU, said Bo Mya, would have proceeded with its peace efforts since last year as it had agreed to enter into first round peace talks in Rangoon, but the Slorc unexpectedly changed the meeting venue to the Mon state capital of Moulmein. Despite the fall of the KNU bases at Manerplaw and Kawmoora, the 68-year-old general has vowed to carry on the struggle for democracy and "Karen national rights" through guerrilla war- fare. "I don't feel discouraged at all, and neither do other KNU leaders. If you really love your people and your country, you will never give up. People who feel discouraged or disappointed are just fake freedom fighters." The KNU will in the next few days hold an emergency meeting to work out its plans for the future, including military and political strategies and a reshuffle of its 45-member central committee. Bo Mya did not disclose anything about the new KNU leadership, but said "we will increase the number of younger people on the committee." (TN) *******************KAREN STATE/KAWTHOOLEI********************* BKK POST: KNU TO WORK OUT NEW MILITARY STRATEGY 6 MARCH 1995 The KNU has scheduled a high level meeting near the Thai- BUrmese border next week to decide the organIzation's new militAry strategy, following the capture of its key bases at Manerplaw and Kamoora. Top KAren rebel said yeSterday they will also discuss the natural gas pipeline project of US-based Unocal and Total of France which will pass through their territory in TavOy and Mergui. The meeting will be first since the KNU lost its headquarters at Manerplaw in January and Kawmoora late last month to BUrmese Government forces. KNU president over the meeting which, said the sources, may decide whether the rebel group should opposite the pipeline project or open talks with the two foreign oil giants. The 400 km long pipeline will bring natural gas from offshore field in the Mataban Sea, Yadana and Ye Ta Gon, overland through Tavoy and Mergui into Thailand via Ban I Taung, opposite Thong Pha Phum District of Kanchanaburi Province. A Burmese helicopter made an aerial survey of the planned pipeline route during April 4-18 last year And a ground survey will soon be completed, the sources said. Both the KNU and the New Mon State Party which also controls a small chunk of territory near Kanchanaburi said earlier they opposed the pipeline project on the grounds that foreign oil companies would be used to prop up the military regime in Rangoon. He would like the two firms top pay some sort of tax on an annual basis or every three years in exchange for the use of Karen controlled territories to build the pipeline, he said. KNU reports show that the Burmese government has moved heavy machinery to Yebu township in the hope that construction will start soon. A Mon rebel leader also said his men are closely monitoring the progress of the pipeline project. (BP) *******************KAREN STATE/KAWTHOOLEI********************* BKK POST: NGOs FEAR CROSS-BORDER RAIDS BY BURMESE FORCES 6 MARCH 1995 NON-government organizations working in Karen refugee camps along the border with Burma are worried about possible cross- border attacks by armed dissident Buddhist Karen who have joined Rangoon forces in suppressing KNU guerrillas. NGO officials and camp residents, who refuse to be named, said they were not confident in Thai security measures after the Buddhist Karen managed to kidnap two senior KNU officials from refugee camp in two seperate incidents. They claimed members of the DKBO have been unusually active in crossing the border recently. Armed members of the DKBO who crossed into Ban Huay Haeng camp in Tha Song Yang district to kidnap a senior KNU refugees to report to the Burmese military authorities at Myawaddy by yesterday. The DKBO stated in a leaflet distributed among the refugees that the camps a the border prolonged the existance of the kNU which hindered religious freedom and peace. "We will use various method to destroy the camps. Those who refuse to obey will be regarded as KNU elements and will be destroyed," the leaflet said. NGOs sources said many of their officials, who reared for their lives, would leave the camps to spend the night in Mae Sot town. Thai Task Force 34 has provide more troops and armoured personal carries to beef up security for refugees at camps. Task Force 343 Commander Direk Yaem-ngamriab said the Thai military would provide full protection for the camp and would not allow the DKBO force to cross into Thailand again. Thai soldiers would ensure the safety of all Karen refugees as long as they stayed inside the camps, although they would not stop any person wishing to cross back into Burma to report to the authorities there. So far, no Karen refugees have express a wish to go home, he said. Col Direk said he had been told by the Burmese authorities that the sudden closure order from Rangoon was to ensure they safety of a senior official from the Burmese capital who visited the border town at the weekend. Border sources said, however, the closure was more likely to be retaliation for Thailand's announcement that it would take tough action against Burmese soldiers because of a series of border violations in the past two week. (BP) ***************"THE OTHER COUNTRY" [THAILAND]***************** BKK POST: THAI FISHERMEN WILL RETURN 5 MARCH 1995 Meanwhile, the Burmese military junta told the head of a visiting Thai military delegation it would set free 120 Thai fishermern jailed in BUrma for llegally entering its waters, Agence France-press quoted a report on Thai TV Channel 7 yeaterday. The 120 fishermen, most of whom have spent two years in BUrmese jails or are chronically ill or old aged, are expected to return to Thailand by the end of March, Channel 7 said. BUrma deputy Aremed Forces Chief General Maung Aye Commander GEneral Chettha Thanajaro in Rangoon on Friday that BUrma was ready to extrend cooperztion in this case. Maung Aye told GEn Chettha that the Slorc would comply with the Thai Army's request because the junta's suppression of ethnic minority groups in BUrma hads somewhat affected the Thai border, it said. (BP) *********************INTERNATIONAL**************************** BKK POST: BURMESE JUNTA LEADER TO VISIT VN 6 MARCH 1995 SENIOR, General Than Shwe, chairman of Burma's ruling body, will make an official visiting Vietnam soon, official media reported yesterday. Than Shwe, who is chairman of the Slorc has been invited to Hanoi by Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet. The Burmese embassy in Hanoi said last month the visit was expected to talk peace in the second week of March. Burmese State-run Newspaper ave no further details, expect that Than Shwe will be accompanied by his wife. (BP) *********************INTERNATIONAL**************************** SEASIA-L: BOB HAWKE & `ASIAN VALUES' rroche bit.listserv.seasia-l 8:27 AM Mar 3, 1995 (at CSUVAX1.CSU.MURDOCH.EDU.AU) (From News system) Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Cultural relativism lives on. Former Australian Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, who has recently received considerable coverage in the Australian press for being seen to be supportive of the military regime in Burma (which he refers to as Myanmar), has spoken out against Western human rights criticisms of particular governments in Asia. Mr Hawke is reported to have stressed the need `to understand that pain must usually precede gain'. He is also reported to have stated, in a speech in Tokyo: `I have the feeling that `Asian values' or the `Confucian ethic' ... the stress on learning and inter-generational responsibility as well as social collectivism and the more ready acceptance of authority - has provided the environment in which the hard decisions can be made, and be made to stick' (The Australian, 3 Mar. 1995, p3). Interesting that someone who once headed the largest union in Australia should talk of the importance of accepting authority. If anyone comes across items from regional newspapers referring to this particular speech of Mr Hawke please post them. The speech was at the 21st Century and the Asian Era, organised by the Postal Savings Promotion Council. Robert Roche Perth, Australia ****************************MISC****************************** SCB: SEATTLE TALK--MEDICAL CARE ON BURMA tinaholt soc.culture.burma 8:53 PM Mar 4, 1995 (at u.washington.edu) (From News system) Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Wednesday, March 8, the Seattle Area Community Medicine Resident's Interest Group will meet, with speakers discussing health care on the Burma Thai border, specifically working with Dr. Cynthia's Clinic. This will take place at 7:30pm on Wednesday, at Cary Steinberg's place in Capitol Hill. If interested, Call me for directions: leave your name and number on voice mail: 998-8739 and I will call you back. Tina Holt ****************************MISC****************************** BF: BURMA FORUM TO MEET ON APRIL 29 >From U=Win%Counseling%OCC@banyan.cccd.edu Mon Mar 6 12:53:26 1995 From: U=Win%Counseling%OCC@banyan.cccd.edu Date: Mon, 6 Mar 95 12:33:07 PST Subject: The Burma Forum To: strider@igc.apc.org The Burma Forum will be held at Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, California, USA on Saturday, 29 April 1995 from 8AM to 4PM. The registration fee is $20 per person ($10 per full-time student), lunch included. Because we are strapped for cash to pay for speakers transportation, we ask that those who can, to donate an additional amount. We have deliberately kept our fees low because Burma is not exactly a hot topic in California and the higher the fees, the smaller the number of interested people. Speakers include: Josef Silverstein (Rutgers Univ), U Oung Myint Tun (BBC), Carol Richards (Anthropologist), U Mya Maung (Economist, Boston College). Others invited but not yet confirmed are: Bishop Desmond Tutu, Yozo Yokota, Edith Mirante. The symposium will deal with heroin, human rights and the current political situation in Burma. Interested persons may simply send their name, address, phone number, and fees/donations payable to Orange Coast College (Burma Forum) and mailed to Professor Carol Burke, Orange Coast College, PO Box 5005, Costa Mesa, CA 92626, USA. OR write for a brochure. I would like to establish contact with all Burma-hands on the Internet. If anyone anywhere can get hold of a copy the English-language magazine CARAVAN, published in Bangkok, September 1994 issue, I shall be most grateful. There is an article about the motion picture BEYOND RANGOON in it. I was special advisor to Director John Boorman shooting that movie on location in Malaysia from Dec 93 to May 94. It will be entered at the Cannes Film Festival in May and released world-wide in August 1995. Watch for it. Professor U Kyaw Win Orange Coast College Costa Mesa, Calfornia, USA Phone: (714) 432-5860 ************************************************************** CARAVAN: BEYOND RANGOON [REPOST] September 1994; p.78+ [Caravan is an English-language magazine published in Bangkok] "The situation was already tense when writer Nick Palevsky slipped onto the Malaysian set of John Boorman's political thriller Beyond Rangoon. Under threat of censorship, the producers themselves had trimmed the film's title. After a few days observing the action, Palevsky was politely, but firmly removed from the set..." Bill Rubenstein met me in the lobby of Ipoh's Casuarina Hotel. About one evening a week, director John Boorman viewed the rushes which had arrived back from processing in London. Bill, who co-wrote the script, had been reluctant to invite me down to Malaysia. Now that I had been there a few days, he relented and took me to the screening in the temporary offices of "Burmat Productions", on the hotel mezzanine. John Boorman entered the screening room soon after we did, his weather-beaten face fitting his outfit: a Burmese longyi and sandals. He looked me over, frowning. "I don't believe I know you," he said, displeased to have a stranger there, but by then last week's rushes were appearing on the screen... Secrecy fits with Boorman's distant style. He kicked off his career with the ultra-cool, hyper-stylized Point Blank, rendered in a sixties version of film noir and starring Lee Marvin as the tough ex-gangster out for revenge, and Angie Dickinson as the sister of his wayward ex-wife. A writer employed with Metro at the time told me that "...the movie was a mess. Boorman came from the BBC-he had been making documentaries- and completely reorganized the script. But the film was successful and made the studio a ton of money..." Now Boorman shoots a different kind of motion picture, made up of long, complicated sequences shot on location. Best known are Deliverance, based on the James Dickey novel, and Emerald Forest, about the plight of Amazonian Indians in Brazil. Coordinating a crew on location is difficult; Boorman controls people with aloofness. During my time in Ipoh he never fraternised. Early mornings, while the rest of the crew commingled at various tables in the hotel coffee shop, Boorman sat alone, magisterially reading his copy of the International Herald Tribune. On location, cinematographer John Seale would set up the shot, the AD (Assistant Director) would block out the actors, and the rest of the crew would carry out their preparation alone: the energy changed when Boorman-the project's eminence grise-made his appearance, right before filming began. Location Diary, Morning, April 11th: We are driving up the length of Perak State on Malaysia's spanking new expressway, racing past limestone cliffs and lush tropical scenery. I can see Malaysia's attraction for film-makers: it is beautiful and empty, a logistical heaven for moving all the equipment and personnel needed to shoot movies on location. Does this compensate for the perils of censorship? We pay the toll at Perak's royal capital, Kuala Kangsar, and follow the old highway down river, past the golden Walt Disney domes of the sultan's Ubadiah mosque and on to a jungly bend in the Perak River. We slip in the back entrance of a large bamboo hut by the water's edge. A jeep pulls up to the front. One of several soldiers crowded into the jeep jumps out and shouts into the hut. A middle-aged Burmese man in a longyi walks to the door; this is Aung Ko, who plays a dissident professor fleeing government persecution . Aung Ko says something in Burmese to the soldier. "He's saying, there's nobody in here... ," a girl on the crew giggles. Gerry, the mixer, who sits at a large console in the center of the hut, whispers for quiet. The soldier barks out an order in Malay and pushes past Aung Ko into the hut (and out of the camera's view), pointing his rifle at Bill's head for our benefit. More giggles, tension eases, the scene is over. Bill says: "In the script I had named the professor Ko Aung. We auditioned Aung Ko in Paris, where he was teaching-that was his real name- so we just reversed the name in the script." Dr U Kyaw Win, who has been sitting next to me and explaining the action, asks plaintively, "Why is the professor wearing farmer's pants?" Then he shifts his attention to the actor playing the soldier: "I can't stand them speaking Malay. Sophisticated audiences will laugh. There are people out there other than Burmese who can understand our language, you know. And Aung Ko is wearing sandals. He would never be wearing them inside a house!" Dr Win is editor of the Burma Bulletin and consultant on the film. In fact, the camera is much too far away to see whether he's wearing sandals or not. Gerry, who has left his console, assures Dr Win that the shot is one long pan, from the time the jeep starts driving along the river until the exchange between soldier and professor at the doorway of the hut: there are no close-ups. And Burmese dialogue will be looped into the soundtrack later on. It requires many more takes before the scene is right in its entirety. Then Boorman asks the camera man to "Check the gates!" and the crew starts preparing for the next location. Rushes that week consisted of many takes of a single scene: At the beginning, the actors are waist-deep in a pool below a beautiful waterfall. At the end, Burmese soldiers shoot a girl student in the stomach, and she collapses into the pool. Blood billows through the water as she lies face-down, inert. "Cut!" and she resurrects herself, gulping for air, the casualness with which she ignores her artificial wounds making them all the more ghoulish. The scene repeated: Laura, an American who has come as a tourist to Burma, right at the start of the 1988 uprising, hides in a pool with Aung Ko and a young monk. They are accompanied by several students. After a few beats, soldiers pour in from the jungle, but the trio have managed to hide in a cranny under a boulder and some undergrowth. The less fortunate students scatter, the girl gets shot in the stomach again. And so on... Morning, April 12th: The location has moved to a patch of jungle not far from the Sultan's palace in Kuala Kangsar. Patricia Arquette, who plays Laura, is getting her face covered with rouge, and her body sprayed down with water to make her look wet and tired from her long jungle trek. Patricia's entire family is in movies and television. Her sister, Roseanna, starred with Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan. Her father played J.D. Pickett in The Waltons. Her grandfather ended his career as "Charlie Weaver" on To Tell the Truth. Even her young son Enzo (whose father is musician Paul Rossi) has acted with Patricia in her previous movies, playing her son in True Romance and The Infant Runner. "But this is Patricia's first mature role. . . " producer Barry Spikings tells me, and then corrects himself: "That is to say, she has always been a mature actress..." In Beyond Rangoon, Enzo will play Laura's dead son: "Which is really scary, but he really wants to do it," Patricia says. Laura has lost her husband and son in an accident. She and her sister escape on a tour of Burma led by an American Buddhist professor, played by Spaulding Gray of Swimming to Cambodia fame. Later, in New York, Gray told me that he had modelled his character on Bob Thurman, the mad Columbia professor who is the foremost expert on Buddhism in America and happens to be Uma Thurman's father). In Burma, Laura meets Aung Ko, who agrees to take her upcountry on a tour. When protesters and government troops clash, he decides Laura should leave Burma and puts her on a train. But, as the train groans out of the tiny rural station, she sees Aung Ko, who has been blacklisted, being beaten up by government soldiers. A student who rushes to Aung Ko's aid is shot dead. Laura jumps off the slow-moving train and-taking advantage of the soldiers' confusion when confronted with an American-packs Aung Ko into his car and drives off, the soldiers in pursuit. "Think of it as Deliverance." Peter Benoit, the film's publicist compares Beyond Rangoon to Boorman's best-known film. "People go down a river, and during the course of the story, each sees what the others are made of. Here, Laura is escaping with Aung Ko from government soldiers, but she drives his car into the river. Then they have to find a boat and get down to Rangoon. Aung Ko is hurt. Laura, a nurse, has to get medicine for him." "In the river, she has lost her things, her passport, her identity." Peter says. "And this is a prelude to her emotional release, an escape from her depression." Later, hiding out in a villa outside Rangoon with Burmese students, Laura discovers Aung Ko has lost a wife, murdered at the time he was taken as a political prisoner. Others have suffered more than she. Trying to obtain another passport at the American Embassy, Laura barely manages to elude SLORC agents waiting to abduct her at its entrance. She tries to join her sister in Bangkok by going overland to the Thai border. Filming starts again. Aung Ko, Laura and a young monk run through the jungle, then collapse in a clearing. Aung Ko and the monk have a brief argument, which Laura seems to mediate, whispering words of encouragement into Aung Ko's ear. Soldiers appear. Laura stands up and says, "As an American citizen, I demand that you let me pass." The monk tells her not to worry, that these are Karen soldiers who will escort them to their headquarters near the Thai border. Between takes, Hani Motisin, the young Malaysian actor who plays the monk, explains his role: "In fact, I was a soldier. When they started ordering us to shoot children, I ran away and joined the escaping students, disguising myself as a monk." I asked producer Barry Spikings if Ted Turner, who was financing the picture, had any misgivings about Beyond Rangoon's content. "No, not at all. He had the presence of mind to ask if they had CNN in Burma, though." And during the shoot, the film's working title was simply Beyond... Nevertheless Spikings and Boorman, afraid that Malaysia might close them down, had approached Thai director Prince Chatri Yukol about shooting the film in Thailand . I had heard that the Malaysian government was unhappy about having Hani Motisin, a Muslim, playing a Buddhist monk. The irony is that Motisin's role isn't really that of a monk, but of a soldier. In Dr Win's Burma Bulletin, I read about the real-life equivalent of this character: "a Burma Army commander was so outraged at what he saw on September 18, 1988, that he left Burma, gave up his pension and his standing, went to the hills and today is advisor to the student army fighting alongside the Karen and others as they resist the Burmese military." Afternoon, April 14th: I follow a series of golden arrows across Ipoh town, through an industrial complex, and finally into a warehouse, which serves as a sound stage. Dozens of "Karen women" in red headdresses and hand-woven outfits culled from museum collections in Thailand, mill around the outside. Inside, Bill and I examine a simulated sandbank, on a stage lit by klieg lights. "It's tough to shoot a night scene on location. In here you can control the lighting exactly, much better than if you shoot day for night." Behind the beach is a blue sheet of plastic-the river-and the backdrop beyond consists of tiny replicas of bamboo huts, depicting the "Karen camp", a huge outdoor set I visited a few days before. By now, the crew has probably torn it down. Bill points at the blank cardboard behind the tiny huts: "They were going to put a night sky up there, but they decided they'll just paint it digitally in post-production." The "Karen women"-being in fact Ipoh locals-have several children with them, the babies bobbing in an ingenious invention consisting of a basket hanging from a shock-absorber coil. Playing among the children is a blond kid of about four years who turns out to be Enzo, Patricia's child. Bill holds a picture of Enzo in his hand as he fishes around for a locket to put it in-an important prop in Laura's dream sequence: The day Laura and Aung Ko spend in the Karen camp culminates with a panoramic view of the Karen resistance. A voice-over of a Burmese government announcement describes the resistance as the work of a few motley rebels, but the picture, which includes a cast of thousands-women, children, Karen soldiers toting guns, students-belies these words. When Aung Ko and Laura lie down on the river bank that night, she gazes at the locket before drifting to sleep. In her dream she sees her dead son laughing, then he slowly vanishes. She is ready to give up her old life and start a new one... It started politely, but by the end of the night, everyone was soaked. After the screening, the Burmese community of Penang, along with members of the crew, put on a show for us in the hotel banquet hall. Dr Win did duty as announcer, explaining that today was Thingyan (the Burmese name for Songkran) . Even Aung Ko danced for us, accompanied by Burmese musicians. A pretty girl performed the last dance, dipping a sprig into a tin cup and daintily spraying the audience. Soon large squirt guns appeared, supplied by Eddie Fowlie, the prop man. I had first met Eddie, whose wild shock of white hair and bushy eyebrows make him look a bit fierce, buying hundreds of knives from a bewildered shopkeeper in Kuala Kangsar ("Don't bother wrapping them-just lay them in the truck!"). I ran into him a second time on location, talking to an assistant who had located a government bureau specializing in transporting unwanted buffalo. "Good," Eddie gestured with a broad sweep towards a miniature pagoda, some buffalo quietly grazing next to it, a few huts, and a wharf weighed down with baskets: "All of this will be gone by tonight I need it for the Karen Camp." Bill told me a bit of Eddie's history as we escaped the increasingly unruly Water Festival. Working for David Lean on Bridge Over the River Kwai, he had started the train toward the ill-fated bridge. "Of course, he jumped out before the bridge exploded." Morning, April 17th: "Freedom is for those who dare to fight. To die fighting is better than to live as a slave," says the sign we pass as Eddie drives me into the "Karen Camp". Manerplaw, the real Karen headquarters, is a narrow, dusty place. Hollywood places it in a gorgeous setting, at the foot of dramatic Karst cliffs. Odd props are left over from the filming of Indochine. This locale served as the fishing village where the lead couple seeks refuge-the cliffs resemble the hills around Halong Bay north of Hanoi. Some of the Sri Lankan crew are busy hauling away a large Burmese-style Buddha-the leadership of Kawthoolei is by and large Christian. Since they first worked with Fowlie on River Kwai in their native country, the Sri ankans have worked all over Asia, on many other movies. Production crews come and go in the region, but they stay. Foraging among Eddie's props, I see many signs which seem to flesh out the background of the film: Rangoon Orthopedic Clinic, Burma Railways, and Gen. Ne Win, Murderer. At the camp, a big sign over a little hut warns Explosives! in large red lettering. Posted at the camp exit gate, a sign warns that Narcotic Drug Hoarding, Trafficking and Marketing are strictly Prohibited. Whoever Trespasses the Law shall be Punished. Is this to let us know that the Karens don't trade in heroin? Or is the sign for the benefit of Malaysian officials? "Megad Junid said it was wrong for the Hollywood firm... to ask Muslims to play the role of monks during recent filming for a movie called Beyond," AFP reported at the end of April. Two weeks before, I had applied to interview John Boorman. When he finally realised I was there to do a story, he threw me off the set. Later, in Bangkok, as I read the AFP release, Boorman's misgivings about publicity started to seem justified "We clearly outlined that they cannot touch on sensitive issues like the people's religion and culture, " the Deputy Home Minister was quoted as saying. Six weeks earlier, the crew had created a full size replica of the Shwedagon pagoda on a Penang wharf (for a scene where Aung San Suu Kyi addresses the people of Rangoon). Would this, in the Deputy Home Minister's words, "hurt people's feelings?" Driving through the countryside near Kota Gajah, I had come upon a "Burmese temple," an old teak house on the roof of which the crew had placed a spire, and behind the front door, a Buddha image. Had this been an offense against local people's "religion and culture?" I thought about the old man who played a Burmese headman in Beyond Rangoon, magical Hindu-Buddhist "tattoos" inked onto his skin. "During World War II, the Japanese would have shot me for having these," he laughed. Was he thinking of the (much milder!) censure he would receive from his own government? Muslims "should have known what role they were playing and should not have placed monetary gains above religion." Does it matter that Hani Motisin was really playing an ex-army commander, not a monk? Beyond Rangoon is the only feature film (to my knowledge) set in Burma, except for Harp of Burma, about a Japanese soldier who disguises himself as- you guessed it!-a monk. Neither film has a Burmese protagonist, and each romanticises Burma from its own viewpoint. In Beyond Rangoon, the camera follows Laura, not Aung Ko: the picture is shot from an American-read Hollywood-point of view. But being a Hollywood movie is precisely what makes Beyond Rangoon important. "Not so much impact, as awareness," Dr Win phrased it to me. Beyond Rangoon is the only movie about political repression in Burma likely to get a worldwide release. Fortunately, the filming of Beyond Rangoon is now finished. It would have been ironic if the film had been stopped, not because of repression in Burma, but because of the censorship of a neighbouring country. In the Burma Bulletin, ex-Ambassador Burton Levin describes Burma's pre-1962 government as " not the best in the world, but looking toward development of a political system that reflected human decency, that offered human rights, that was based on trying to raise the living standard of the people by a broad national education..." In the 1990's the rules and the rhetoric have changed. Although in education and standard of living the achievements of Burma and Malaysia have diverged wildly, the two governments seem to concur that freedom of speech is no longer a fundamental human right, or that human rights in general are secondary. Do the citizens of these two countries agree? --Beyond Rangoon will be screening in Bangkok later this year. ****************************MISC****************************** SCB: TEXT OF SELECTIVE PURCHASING LEGISLATION brischmidt soc.culture.burma 5:15 AM Mar 4, 1995 (at aol.com) (From News system) The following is an example of selective purchasing legislation, a set of rules any institutional body (governmental or non-governmental) can choose for itself to refuse to do business with those who conduct business in Burma. Prohibitions refer to the institution ONLY, and should not be construed as an attempt to use coercive power against persons living under local governments that may choose to adopt this legislation. The example is drawn from legislation being considered by the Massachusetts legislature (the Byron Rushing Bill). That legislation is based on wording from previous legislation used regarding South Africa and has therefore already been tested in practice. For more information on the Massachusetts legislation, contact CPPAX at (617) 426-3040 or Simon Billeness of Franklin Research at (617) 423-6655. Either of the above contacts or the Pepsi Burma Boycott Committee at (503) 235-8576 can give information on attempts to apply this legislation to other places. ------------------------------------- An Act Regulating State Contracts With Companies Doing Business With or in Burma (Myanmar) SECTION 1. DEFINITIONS. For the purposes of sections ADD RELEVANT SECTION # HERE, inclusive, unless a contrary intention clearly appears, the following words shall have the following meanings: "comparable low bid or offer" means a responsive and responsible bid or offer that is no more than 10% greater than the lowest bid or offer submitted for goods or a service; "distribution agreement", an agreement to guarantee a contract for the supply of goods or a service; "doing business with Burma (Myanmar)" means: (a) having any operations, leases, franchises, majority-owned subsidiaries, distribution agreements, or any other similar agreements in Burma (Myanmar), or being the majority-owned subsidiary, licensee or franchise of such a person; (b) providing financial services to the government of Burma (Myanmar), including providing direct loans, underwriting government securities, providing any consulting advice or assistance, providing brokerage services, acting as a trustee or escrow agent , or otherwise acting as an agent pursuant to a contractual agreement; (c) promoting the importation or sale of gems, timber, oil, gas or other related products, commerce in which is largely controlled by the government of Burma (Myanmar), from Burma (Myanmar); (d) providing any goods or services to the government of Burma (Myanmar) "essential", necessary in order that an agency or authority may perform its mission, there being no substitute, to avoid irreparable harm to agency or authority programs. "franchise", authorization by a person to sell his or her products. "government of Burma (Myanmar)", any public or quasi-public entity operating within Burma (Myanmar), including, but not limited to, municipal, provincial, national or other governmental and military bodies, including all departments and agencies of such 73 bodies, public utilities, public facilities, or any national corporation in which Burma (Myanmar) has a financial interest or operational responsibilities; "license", permission granted by a person to another, or to the government of Burma (Myanmar), to exercise a certain privilege or to carry on a particular business; "majority-owned subsidiary", a company that is at least 51% owned by another company; "person", any individual and any partnership, firm, association, corporation, or other entity, or their subsidiaries; "secretary", the secretary of administration and finance; "state, local, or institutional agency", all awarding authorities of the state, local or institutional government, including, but not limited to, all executive offices, agencies, departments, commissions, and public institutions of higher education, and any office, department or division of the judiciary; "state, local, or institutional authority" shall include, but not be limited to the: state, local, or institutional skills corporation, centers of excellence, community economic development assistance corporation, government land bank, state, local, or institutional, transportation authority, state, local, or institutional business development corporation, state, local, or institutional capital resource company, state, local, or institutional convention center authority, state, local, or institutional corporation for educational telecommunications, state, local, or institutional health and educational facilities authority, state, local, or institutional higher education assistance corporation, state, local, or institutional housing finance agency, state, local, or institutional horse racing authority, state, local, or institutional industrial finance agency, state, local, or institutional industrial service program, state, local, or institutional legal assistance corporation, state, local, or institutional port authority, state, local, or institutional product development corporation, state, local, or institutional technology development corporation, state, local, or institutional turnpike authority, state, local, or institutional water resources authority, pension reserves investment management board, state, local, or institutional college building authority, local, or institutional university building authority, thrift institutions fund for economic development, victim and witness board. Topic 50 Part 2 of selective purchase legisl SECTION 2. General Laws are hereby amended by inserting after ADD RELEVANT SECTION # HERE the following sections: ADD RELEVANT SECTION # HERE. (a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, a state, local, or institutional agency, state, local, or institutional authority, or the house of representatives or the state, local, or institutional senate shall not procure goods or services from: (1) a person having its principal place of business, its place of incorporation, or its corporate headquarters in Burma (Myanmar), or (2) a person functioning as an operation, licensee, franchise, or majority owned subsidiary of any person described in clause (1), or functioning as an agent of the government of Burma (Myanmar). (b) A state, local, or institutional agency or state, local, or institutional authority or the house of representatives or the state, local, or institutional senate may procure goods or services from a person described in paragraph (a) if the agency certifies in writing to the secretary, or in the case of an authority, to the chief operating officer thereof, that the procurement is essential and that there is no other known capable supplier, occasioned by the unique nature of the requirement, supplier or market conditions. Any person from whom a procurement would be restricted under this section shall not supply goods or services to any state, local, or institutional agency, state, local, or institutional authority or the house of representatives or state, local, or institutional senate under any other provision of this chapter, or of any other general or special law. ADD RELEVANT SECTION # HERE. (a) Except as otherwise provided in this section and in ADD RELEVANT SECTION # HERE a state, local, or institutional agency, a state, local, or institutional authority, the house of representatives or the state, local, or institutional senate may not procure goods or services from any person listed on the restricted purchase list maintained by the secretary, or who is determined through affidavit or through other reliable methods to meet the criteria for so being listed. (b) A state, local, or institutional agency, a state, local, or institutional authority, or the house of representatives or the state, local, or institutional senate may procure goods or services from a person who is on or who is so determined to meet the criteria of the restricted purchase list only after certifying in writing to the secretary or, in the case of a state, local, or institutional authority, to the chief operating officer that: 1) the procurement is essential; and 2) compliance with paragraph (a) of this section would eliminate the only bid or offer, or would result in inadequate competition. (c) In any solicitation, a state, local, or institutional agency, a state, local, or institutional authority, the house of representatives or the state, local, or institutional senate shall provide ample notice of the requirements of this section. Prior to reviewing responses to bid documents for any procurements, or, if there are none, prior to entering into any contractual arrangement, the awarding authority shall obtain from such person seeking a contract a statement under pains and penalties of perjury from an authorized representative, on a form to be provided by the awa rding authority, declaring the nature and extent to which said person is engaging in activities that would subject said person to inclusion on the restricted purchase list. (d) In any procurement that includes bidders or offerors who are on or meet the criteria of the restricted purchase list, the awarding authority may award the contract to a person who is on or who meets the criteria of the restricted purchase list only if there is no comparable low bid or offer by a person who is not on the restricted purchase list. (e) A person with operations in Burma (Myanmar) for the sole purpose of reporting the news, or solely for the purpose of providing goods and services for the provision of international E3 telecommunications, shall not be subject to the provisions of sections ADD RELEVANT SECTION # HERE. ADD RELEVANT SECTION # HERE. (a) The secretary shall establish and maintain a restricted purchase list. The restricted purchase list shall contain the names of all persons currently doing business with Burma (Myanmar). (b) In establishing the restricted purchase list, the secretary shall consult United Nations reports, resources of the Investor Responsibility Research Center and the Associates to Develop Democratic Burma, and other reliable sources. The secretary shall also place the name of any person who, in the statement described in ADD RELEVANT SECTION # HERE declares that he meets the criteria for being so listed. (c) The restricted purchase list shall be updated at least once every three months. (d) The secretary shall provide the list to all state, local, or institutional agencies and state, local, or institutional authorities and to the house of representatives and the state, local, or institutional senate. ADD RELEVANT SECTION # HERE. The secretary is hereby authorized and directed to promulgate regulations to assure the timely and effective implementation of ADD RELEVANT SECTION # HERE, inclusive, of this chapter. ADD RELEVANT SECTION # HERE. Any contract entered into in violation of ADD RELEVANT SECTION # HERE, inclusive, shall be void. ADD RELEVANT SECTION # HERE. Annually on or before January first, the secretary shall file a report with clerks of the senate and the house of representatives detailing compliance with ADD RELEVANT SECTION # HERE, inclusive. SECTION 3. The provisions of this act shall apply to contracts entered into after the effective date of this act. Any existing contract shall remain in full force and effect and not be subject to the provisions of this act until such time as the renewal of the contractual agreement. SECTION 4. General Laws are hereby amended by inserting at the end of subdivision (a) the following paragraph: It shall be the policy of the commonwealth that the deputy commissioner shall not sell, rent, or dispose of any real property, including but not limited to granting the right to lay, construct, maintain, or operate pipelines through, over, across, or un der land, water, park, reservation or highway of the commonwealth, its agencies or its political subdivisions, to any person doing business in or with Burma (Myanmar), as defined in ADD RELEVANT SECTION # HERE. ****************************MISC****************************** SCB: REPLY TO IDENTIFY YOURSELF Absdf102 soc.culture.burma 2:35 PM Mar 5, 1995 (at aol.com) Hello Mr, I was very suprised to read your message on the net. Your message is very offensive to students like us. I am not sure how much you know about ABSDF, but let me share my own experience about ABSDF with you. I was a medical student in Burma and spent three years in ABSDF, over one year in the front line. I have been injured (there are two pieces of shrapnel still inside my body) in the front line. I am saying these things not to brag to you but to show how much I care about my country. I am an educated student and not an MTZ worshipper. However, my camp supported the MTZ group during the crisis and so you may say that I am from the MTZ group. ABSDF split not because of a personal fight between MTZ and Dr. Naing Aung. The problems are complex and so even students apart from ABSDF cannot fully understand. However, we all believe that students in both groups are genuinely interested in reunification, and students from both groups, fighting on the front line, deserve to be appreciated equally despite of the groups they belong to. If you ask any exile Burmese students organization anywhere in the world, I am sure that they will give you the same answer. Now, I am in the United States and not a ABSDF member anymore, but I am simply helping, as much as I can, my friends who are still fighting in the jungle. We all are not happy about the split and are trying our best to help them to reunify. Pointing fingers at each other or degrading one group is not the right way to solve this problem. We have to recognize the existance of two factions and find the best way of cooperation and reunification between these groups. If you still want me to identify who I am or have any other questions, I will be happy to be of assistance. My e-mail address is absdf102@aol.com. P.S. For clarification to the readers, MTZ used the name "Central Leading Committee", ABSDF. ****************************MISC****************************** NLM/SLORC: MYANMAR ACHIEVING SUCCESS IN MULTI-SECTORAL APPROACH TO DRUG PROBLEM The New Light of Myanmar Newspaper 04 March 1995 1,455.02 kilos opium, 143.94 kilos heroin, 312.22 kilos marijuana, 3,433.68 litres Phensedyl destroyed at ninth exhibition The ninth exhibition to destroy the seized narcotic drugs was held under the aegis of the Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control at Ye Yeiktha on Kyaikwaing Pagoda, Mayangon Township, this morning. It was attended by Secretary-1 of the State Law and Order Restoration Council Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, members of the State Law and Order Restoration Council, Chairman of the CCDAC Minister for Home Affairs Lt-Gen Mya Thin, Ministers, Attorney General, Auditor General, Yangon Mayor, deputy ministers, senior officers of the Ministry of Defence, directors-general and managing directors, members of the State Law and Order Restoration Council Information Committee, local and foreign journalists, crew of Associated Press TV News, Secretary of CCDAC Director-General of People's Police Force Col Soe Win and members, officials of PPF, diplomats, representatives of the UNDCP and the UN agencies in Myanmar and specially invited guests. Joint Secretary of CCDAC PPF Director (Narcotic Division) Police Col Ngwe Soe Tun clarified narcotic drug control activities in Myanmar. He explained that narcotic drugs seized in the country were destroyed for the ninth time, adding that, the ninth exhibition was held in Yangon as a gesture hailing the Golden Jubilee Armed Forces Day. Since its taking up of State duties, the State Law and Order Restoration Council has undertaken drug eradication measures according to the two-point National Strategy for Narcotic Drugs Control, he said, stating that the first strategic aim is to designate drug eradication and prevention activities as a national duty and to perform this duty with added momentum and the second aim is to gradually eliminate poppy cultivation by promoting living standard of the national races of border areas. The institution mainly responsible for realization of these two strategic aims is the Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control (CCDAC), which came into existence in 1975 in accord with the 1974 Drug Law, he said. There were nine sectors under the CCDAC and in 1989, the State Law and Order Restoration Council reorganized the committee keeping abreast of the times. The number of sectors under the CCDAC had increased to 10 as it was reorganized with one more sector by the name of the International Relations Sector in 1993 in accord with the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Law (1/93), he said. State/Division, District, Township and Ward supervisory groups were formed extensively and membership of the CCDAC had increased to 24 inclusive of the two vice-chairmen, he said. To achieve the first aim of the National Strategy, he said, the CCDAC is discharging duties in cooperation with the ten working sectors and local groups in demand reduction, supply reduction and international and regional cooperation. The Tatmadaw, the PPF and the Customs Department are assigned duties of the Law Enforcement Sector, he said. Seizures He said various narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances seized between 18 September 1988 and 15 February 1995 are --- 12,598.40 kilos of opium, 1,525.947 kilos of heroin, 126.19 kilos of morphine, 49.86 kilos of opium oil, 86.53 kilos of liquid opium, 5,445.17 kilos of marijuana, 27,523.79 litres of Phensedyl, 3,534.74 gallons of acetic anhydride and 1,721.8 kilos of precursor chemicals. In a total of 23,888 drug offences, altogether 50.670 were convicted, he said, noting that during the tenure of the State Law and Order Restoration Council 23,701.97 acres of opium poppy fields, including 23,158.61 acres in Shan State, and a total of 20 opium refineries were destroyed. He stated that narcotic drugs destroyed by duty-conscious national races of border areas are ---397.55 kilos of heroin, 181 kilos of morphine, 327.28 kilos of opium, 65 kilos of acetic anhydride and 7,336 acres of opium poppy plantation, together with precursor chemicals and 20 opium refineries. The narcotic drugs seized during the tenure of the State Law and Order Restoration Council are --- 437.30 kilos of heroin, 4,870.35 kilos of opium, 81.50 kilos of opium oil/liquid opium, 589.9 litres of Phensedyl, 319.99 kilos of marijuana, 244 kilos of acetic anhydride and 4,233.6 litres of acid --- besides destroying 19,536.57 acres of opium poppy plantation and six opium refineries. Continuing, he said that during 823 engagements with drug traffickers, 16 officers and 567 other ranks of the Tatmadaw sacrificed their lives, 55 officers and 1,744 of other ranks were wounded and 153 weapons were lost, adding that enemy casualties amounted to 720 killed in action (by body count), 118 captured, 221 surrendered and 708 assorted weapons were seized. Work committees To achieve the second strategic aim, he said, the Central Committee for Development of Border Areas and National Races and work committees were formed in 1989 and the committee was upgraded to ministry level in 1992 and a relevant law has been enacted. Within the five years from 1989 to 28 February 1995, he said, a total of K 2.5 billion has been spent for development of border areas and 18 subcommittees are implementing the target plans which are being supervised by deputy ministers. The Central Committee, he said, had alloted over K 5.8 million to Myanmar/Thai/UNDCP joint programme in Tachilek area and over K 37.9 million to Myanmar/China/UNDCP joint programme in Mongyang, Silu and Pangkai areas, in addition to spending K 2.06 million for development of Wa and Kokang regions. He stated that the master plan for a long term 11-year programme for systematic progress of border areas was sanctioned by the Central Committee for Development of Border Areas and National Races on 23 June 1994 and various work groups are now discharging duties. Int'l, regional cooperation Regarding international and regional cooperation, he said that on 13 and 14 March 1992 a ministerial conference was held in Bangkok, attended by Myanmar, Thailand and Laos and a joint declaration was issued: the second ministerial conference was held in Yangon from 9 through 11 February 1994 and a similar joint declaration was released: and the third plan is scheduled to be held in China. Myanmar, China, Laos and Thailand, together with representatives of the UNDCP, signed a MoU to control illicit trafficking and abuse of narcotic drugs at the UN Headquarters, he said, adding high level officials from the four countries met in Vientiane on 31 June and 1 July 1994 and discussed follow up actions on the MoU and the draft plan drawn up by the UNDCP is being forwarded to the signatory countries. He stated that Myanmar is a signatory to the 1988 UN Convention on 11 June 1991 and became a member nation on 9 September 1991, adding that the 1971 Convention was carefully scrutinized, and Myanmar has deposited the instrument of accession to become a member nation on 7 June 1994. In connection with regional cooperation, he said Myanmar has signed agreement to participate in Myanmar/Thai/UNDCP and Myanmar/China/UNDCP drug control programmes in Yangon on 12 June 1992. Speaking of regional cooperation, he said Joint Executing Committee meetings were held for five times, during which specific plans were drawn up and implemented; two anti-drug units were formed, one each in Muse and Tachilek; and a demand reduction programme is underway in Muse Namhkam along the Myanmar-China border. As regards Myanmar-India cooperation, he stated that an agreement for cooperation in narcotic drug enforcement between Myanmar and India was signed in Yangon on 30 March 1993; the first high level meeting was held in New Delhi on 13 October 1993 and the scond in Yangon on 19 December 1994: the first level officers' meeting in Tamu on 28 February 1994 and the second in Imphal on 30 and 31 July 1994. He said Myanmar and Bangladesh have cooperated in narcotic drug enforcement after exchanging high-level delegation and holding ministerial meeting where an agreement for mutual cooperation was signed between the ministries of the two countries. He continued to say that there are arrangements between Myanmar and Vietnam to exchange drug-related information and intelligence and a joint programme is expected to materialise in the near future. Myanmar, he said, also has plans to exchange drug-related intelligence with the Russian Federation for mutual cooperation. Regarding Myanmar-USA opium yield survey, he said officials of the Minstry of Defence, CCDAC, Myanma Agriculture Service and the United States carried out opium yield survey in Shan State on two missions, the first from 14 through 19 February 1993 and the second from 19 through 25 February 1995. He said from 18 September 1988 to 21 February 1995, altogether 201 delegates of Myanmar attended 62 conferences and meetings on drug control; CCDAC also conducted altogether 150 meetings with various responsible institutions --- 46 meetings with diplomats in Myanmar, 48 with officials of UN agencies, nine with foreign media and 47 with individuals from abroad. Destruction of drugs In connection with destruction of narcotic drugs in Myanmar, Director of Criminal Investigation Department Member of the Law Enforcement Sector under CCDAC Police Col Maung Maung Than explained that the narcotic drugs destroyed for the ninth time were seized by the Tatmadaw, the People's Police Force and the Customs Department and other law enforcement agencies. He said the narcotic drugs to be destroyed were 1,4455.021 kilos of opium, 143.94 kilos of heroin, 1.66 kilos of opium oil, 0.86 kilo of liquid opium, 312.22 kilos of marijuana, 3,433.68 litres of Phensedyl, 383.67 litres of cough mixtures containing Codeine manufactured in neighbouring countries, 2.06 litres of Codeine, 593 ampoules of 1-ml Pathedine injection and 210 ampoules of 1-ml Morphine injection. He said the narcotic drugs destroyed at the ninth exhibitions were 9,675.37 kilos of opium, 1,454.59 kilos of heroin, 63.43 kilos of morphine base, 69.9 kilos of opium oil, 117.01 kilos of liquid opium, 3,884.77 kilos of marijuana, 23,252.35 litres of Phensedyl, 572.48 litres of cough mixtures containing Codeine manufactured in neighbouring countries, 593 ampoules of 1-ml Pathedine injection and 210 ampoules of 1-ml Morphine injection. A video documentary feature on narcotic drug control measures in Myanmar was presented. Ambassador of Italy Mr Giorgio Bosco suggested some drugs to be destroyed could be used effectively in treatment and drugs like morphine used legally for alleviation of pain and suffering and that 210 ampoules of morphine (injection) should be presented to hospitals instead of being destroyed. Regarding this suggestion, Vice-Chairman of the CCDAC Minister for Foreign Affairs U Ohn Gyaw replied that the drugs mentioned in the documents were seized from law-breaker drug traffickers and they served as evidences in passing judgement in the drug cases. These drugs, he said, were many kilos and litres in volume must be destroyed any way. He pointed out that if these drugs were set aside for hospital use, criticisms that the government is using illegal drugs would arise. If such drugs are needed they are bought at the shops which are opened legally. Regarding NTV News correspondent U Aung Shwe OO's suggestion that arrangements be made to use the seized drugs for mankind, Police Col Ngwe Soe Tun replied that what is carrried out is in accord with the existing law and that these drugs were destroyed in accordance with the decisions of the courts and the Law Enforcement Supervisory Committee. Chief Editor U Kyaw Min of the New Light of Myanmar said a joint US-Myanmar poppy yield survey was conducted in Myanmar recently and that there were disparities in the figures carried by foreign news reports and those released by respective countries. Member of the CCDAC Lt-Col Kyaw Thein replied that differences in the data on the yield of opium was due to different calculations of respective agencies and that it was found that according to the map on opium poppy cultivation in Myamnar issued by the certain agencies, it might be asssumed that opium poppy is cultivated in vast areas of the country. He said poppy is not cultivated at all in the 10-mile radius round Taunggyi of Shan State which is marked by a dark area on that map produced by some agencies through random satellite imaging. He said it is heard that the respective department calculated the data on opium poppy cultivation by means the satellite photos, and on this data they assessed the yield at 2,000 to 2,500 tons per year. He stated that according to the Report of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), the opium yield in Myanmar is estimated at only over 1,000 metric tons per year. To foreign correspondent U Hla Htwe's question, Lt-Col Kyaw Thein replied that it is heard that drug warlord Khun Sa's drug trafficking group is moving around in southern Shan State's Homong area on Thai-Myanmar border. He said there is no plan to talk to Khun Sa and the Tatmadaw will attack Khun Sa's drug trafficking groups when opportune. The Secretary-1 and guests then studied the exhibits on narcotic drug control activities in Myanmar. Altogether 29,244 bottles --- 3,433.68 litres of Phensedyl, 383.67 litres of cough syrup, 2.06 litres of Codeine --- were crushed by the road roller, witnessed by members of the State Law and Order Restoration Council, ministers, deputy ministers, diplomats, representatives of the UN agencies and local and foreign journalists. The diplomats, officials of the UN agencies and local and foreign journalists chemically tested the drugs to be set ablaze. Ambassador of Russian Federation Mr Valeri V Nazarov, Ambassador of Italy Mr Giorgio Bosco, Ambassador of Malaysia Mr Datuk John Tenewi Nuck and Ambassador of India Mr Gopala Swami Parthasarathy pressed buttons to start a bonfire of 1,455.021 kilos of opium, 143.94 kilos of heroin, 1.66 kilos of opium oil, 0.86 kilo of liquid opium, 312.22 kilos of marijuana. ************************************************************ NEWS SOURCES REGULARLY COVERED/ABBREVIATIONS USED BY BURMANET: ABSDF: ALL BURMA STUDENT'S DEMOCRATIC FRONT AP: ASSOCIATED PRESS AFP: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE AW: ASIAWEEK Bt.: THAI BAHT; 25 Bt. EQUALS US$1 (APPROX), BBC: BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION BKK POST: BANGKOK POST (DAILY NEWSPAPER, BANGKOK) BRC-CM: BURMESE RELIEF CENTER-CHIANG MAI BRC-J: BURMESE RELIEF CENTER-JAPAN CPPSM:C'TEE FOR PUBLICITY OF THE PEOPLE'S STRUGGLE IN MONLAND FEER: FAR EAST ECONOMIC REVIEW IRRAWADDY: NEWSLETTER PUBLISHED BY BURMA INFORMATION GROUP KHRG: KAREN HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP KNU: KAREN NATIONAL UNION Kt. BURMESE KYAT; UP TO 150 KYAT-US$1 BLACK MARKET 106 KYAT US$1-SEMI-OFFICIAL 6 KYAT-US$1 OFFICIAL MOA: MIRROR OF ARAKAN MNA: MYANMAR NEWS AGENCY (SLORC) NATION: THE NATION (DAILY NEWSPAPER, BANGKOK) NCGUB: NATIONAL COALITION GOVERNMENT OF THE UNION OF BURMA NLM: NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR (DAILY STATE-RUN NEWSPAPER,RANGOON) NMSP: NEW MON STATE PARTY RTA:REC.TRAVEL.ASIA NEWSGROUP SCB:SOC.CULTURE.BURMA NEWSGROUP SCT:SOC.CULTURE.THAI NEWSGROUP SEASIA-L: S.E.ASIA BITNET MAILING LIST SLORC: STATE LAW AND ORDER RESTORATION COUNCIL TAWSJ: THE ASIAN WALL STREET JOURNAL UPI: UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL USG: UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT XNA: XINHUA NEWS AGENCY **************************************************************