Received: by electromedia.com with SMTP;17 Apr 1995 23:39:46 U Received: (from notes) by cdp.igc.apc.org (8.6.12/Revision: 1.196 ) id NAA09443 for "conf-reg.burma"; Mon, 17 Apr 1995 13:35:39 -0700 Date: Mon, 17 Apr 1995 10:45:32 -0700 (PDT) Reply-To: Conference "reg.burma" From: BurmaNet Subject: BurmaNet News: April 17, 1995 [#149] To: Recipients of burmanet-l Message-ID: X-Gateway: conf2mail@igc.apc.org Errors-To: owner-burmanet-l@igc.apc.org Precedence: bulk Lines: 1299 From: BurmaNet Subject: BurmaNet News: April 17, 1995 [#149] **************************BurmaNet*************************** "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies" ************************************************************* The BurmaNet News: 17 APRIL 1995 Issue #149 ************************************************************** NOTED IN PASSING: "Do you really think a company like Unocal will do that?" Unocal Vice-President Marty Miller in response to allegations that forced labor will be used to construct the Unocal/Total pipeline in Burma. ERRORS-TO:INET:strider@igc.apc.org FROM:NBH03114@niftyserve.or.jp Burmese Relief Center--Japan DATE:April 15, 1995 TIME: 3:09PMJST SUBJ:Burmese People's Passive Resistance, article by Myint Shwe DEFYING THE LEOPARD Burmese Show the Power of Passive Resistance Invisible Weapons of the People by Myint Shwe Sometimes reading about oppressive, murderous regimes in foreign lands serves more to alienate and depress than inform and outrage. For those who aren't desensitized to it, the enormity of human suffering cause feelings of powerlessness. The story of the grassroots resistance in Burma, where people haven't given up hope for a better society despite decades of blood-spattered dictatorships, is at once horrifying and deeply inspiring. And unlike many international conflicts, students can easily use their economic power to make an effective call for justice. Freedom of expression in Burma begins on toilet room walls. But while the creative writing of other teens of the world is dominated by sexual fantasy, in Rangoon, capital of Burma, washrooms have democracy walls. The ruling military regime of Burma has freely plastered the whole country with their slogan "Whoever divides us: We remain strongly united" on huge and costly billboards. This is intended for its rank and file and as a response to all enemies at home or abroad. Recently however, a line appeared on a washroom wall of the most sacred shrine and the major tourist attraction in the country that greatly alarmed the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). It was an ironic completion to their slogan, that reads: "We will split ourselves when the time comes." SLORC, true to its history of brutal repression, swooped down immediately on the area the writing appeared -- informers are plentiful in this city of three million inhabitants. All four approaches to the shrine from foothill to the top were sealed off for the day and all suspicious looking youths in a mile diametre around the pagoda were interrogated. Those who happened to be near the washroom that morning were even more unfortunate. They were taken to the intelligence units, harshly questioned and held until the supposed culprit was discovered. In Burma, where it can be said that fort-five million are oppressed by forty-five thugs in uniform, strong dislike of the dictatorship occasionally shows the power of passive resistance. Even the news of a washroom wall writing spreads very -- from mouth to mouth, with sardonic smiles or laughter in market places, in cafes, even at bus stops. Supplying the Army People have used graffiti as a mode of resistance since SLORC gained power through a bloody coup in 1988. Writings attacked the army, appearing everywhere on the walls around the city, written quickly, anonymously, with anything at hand. The earliest one was written with fast varnish paint on the side of the municipal excrement-carrying truck: "Army Supply." In Burma, stray dogs live on human excrement. Sometimes, students and youth even set themselves Kamikaze-like missions expre ssing their open defiance against the regime. A mature student named Thein Tun, weary of his own ineffective exiled opposition in Thailand, slipped back into Burma and began openly distributing anti-regime pamphlets in the streets of Rangoon. He is now serving a seven-year jail sentence under Section (5) 1 of the Emergency Provisions Act in Insein Jail, Southeast Asia's most infamous prison. Even after six years of defeat, most Rangoonians still do not accept it as final and they quarrel with those who have accepted it. They still show signs of derision at every chance, revealing that their passivity is only due to their total helplessness. On September 18, 1994, the sixth anniversary of SLORC's coup, a man from one of Rangoon's middle class neighbourhoods took action. Fired from his job for his part in the pro-democracy uprisings, he hoised the old democratic "Union of Burma" flag last used during the civilian rule. It contrasted with his neighbour's new "Union of Myanmar" flag, which showed he had embraced the new order. This democratic sympathizer was taken to the intelligence headquarters and questioned for three days and two nights without breaks for food or sleep. In rotation he was asked questions like "What did you mean by raising that old flag? Which organization is behind you to make such a bold gesture? What do you think of the SLORC, the army and the current leaders of the state?" He maintained that it was a sheer mistake, an accident. Though dissatisfied with his answer, they drove him back home so as to disprove the news of his arrest should it get leaked to the foreign press. Following his friends advice to flee, he narrowly escaped when they came for him a second time. He is now in Thailand under the protection of the office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Asking for trouble? Some people think that making these gestures is merely asking for trouble. Yet even these people sometimes find themselves telling jokes about the craziness of the junta leaders. People will tease a friend who is frightened by a loud noise, "Don't be afraid, the shooting is only into the sky." This is a misquote of Ne Win, the Burmese dictator, who threatened the country at the advent of the 1988 popular uprising by saying, "When the army shoots, it shots to hit, no shooting into he sky." Senior General Saw Maung, the first chief of SLORC and responsible for 1200 civilians in Rangoon alone in September 1988 claimed in a speech to have saved the country. For this, the people gave him the nickname of "I Saved Burma Saw Maung." Ironies quickly change into humour and jokes which in turn are transformed into invisible weapons of the people. Where freedom of expression is totally restricted, rumours work very well. Every morning, people read these independent "Daily News (without) papers" from lips in public places such as cafes, green markets and workplaces. News and opinions are exchanged freely within trusted circles. Sometimes, they even send "Open Letters," consisting of fabricated news, jokes and even curses, to the authorities by letting the junta's informers overhear. It's the Burmese version of the Information Superhighway, and the people call the informers their government-paid "channels." Youth and students regularly invent new ciphers and codenames in order to pass the news safely under the noses of military officers. The military is always checking foreigners and tourists who show interest in Burmese underground politics, fearing that they will bring news of the suppression home. The government surveillance is so high in the city that informers are believed to be at a one-in-five ration. Their special assignment: watch foreigners and the Burmese students who might try to contact them. Black Market News Some intellectuals and technicians try to smuggle out of the country -- not contraband goods, but news about the junta's human rights violations. On September 4, 1994, Dr. Khin Zaw Win, a former UNICEF worker, was arrested at Rangoon airport when he was about to board a plane bound for Singapore. The agents found in his belongs a diskette supposedly containing "false news about the state." He was sentenced to a ten year term of hard labour in Insein Jail. His trial was held behind prison walls, not in a city courtroom. Amnesty International is requesting his release along with other Burmese prisoners. The junta's absolute watchfulness is not only with news leaks, but also with the news filtering in from democratic countries. All traders and sailors who returned home via Thailand were carefully searched at the airport. Those who were found to be in possession of the anti-regime New Era Journal (published from the Thai-Burma border and backing the exiled civilian government) were charged with high treason and sentenced to twenty years in jail. They are only recent additions to a list of indefinite length as the Burmese dictatorship continues. The rulers and the ruled both watch each other's weakness like two chess players at the table. The junta is leading the tournament. Yet, it is not unbeatable should the people find its Achilles heel -- people have hopes for a split within the army. The leaders, superstitious and fearing bad omens, remember with trepidation that the main body of the army wholly voted against them in the 1990 election. They also witnessed the Soviet Army's neutrality in the Russian episode of 1991. This explains their inability to tolerate any "split thoughts," even if it's just on a washroom wall. The junta's recent display of famous political prisoner (and 1991 Nobel Laureate for Peace) Aung San Suu Kyi was a move worthy of Hollywood, and unfortunately indicates no real change. Kevin Heppner, a Metro Toronto gentleman returned from Burma and is now showing pictures depicting the reality there to Canadians. From him, we learn that the leopard has not yet changed its spots. (Myint Shwe has been involved in Burmese anti-dictatorship activities since the 1970s and was imprisoned there five years for it. After the 1988 national uprising in Burma he fled to the jungle on the Burma border and lived a guerrilla life for a year. He arrived in Canada nine months ago and is currently working as a native speaker informant for Burmese at the Department of Languages, Literature and Linguistics at York University.) The Choice of a New Generation: Do I want to support a dictatorship? By Myint Shwe Six years ago in 1988, a military dictatorship (SLORC) disdained all norms of decent humanity and killed at least 12,000 citizens in six weeks in order to cling to the illegitimate power it seized 26 years earlier. It still continues to mock the world's call to respect human rights, and is denying these to forty five million Burmese people. It recently expanded and upgraded its military power -- for use against its own people. The weapons purchased from China alone cost $1.2 billion US. For payments it has sold the country's vast natural resources such as primeval rain forests, minerals, gems, jade, oil and gas reserves and, though indirectly, opium. It also invites foreign investments to boost income. These profiteers included oil giants such as Total, Nippon Oil, Petro Canada and PepsiCo. Pepsi's timely money ($4 million US) along with that from Thai logging and fishing rights, has saved the SLORC dictatorship -- and prolonged the servitude of the Burmese people. It's presence as an internationally famous American firm also renders the military junta legitimacy. Lately the military has used chemical and biological weapons to wipe out Burma's Karen native people from strategic areas. Its army of trigger-happy killers and rapists is driving hundreds of thousands of people of all social and ethnic minority groups out of the country, forcing them to become refugees in neighboring lands. It is also still holding political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Laureate for Peace, San San Nwe, a celebrated woman write and MP and Nay Min, a well known lawyer and journalist, in prison or in custody without real charges. Over time, themselves disillusioned with the state of things in Burma, some business firms such as Eddie Bauer, Levi Strauss, Texaco, Petro Canada and others withdrew from Burma. But PepsiCo, instead of pulling out like others, now enjoys the monopoly of Burma's fast food industry and even plans to open new ventures: Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell restaurants, in addition to current Pepsi and 7-UP bottlers. It even sponsored a trade show to please the military rulers. Former Petro Canada executive John Ralson Saul called SLORC generals, "Thugs, criminals and drug dealers." A statement by one of a withdrawing Levi Strauss executives is remarkable. He said, "It is not possible to do business in Burma without directly supporting the military government and its pervasive violations of human rights." Gotta Boycott PEPSI! >From Excalibur/York University/April 5 TOTAL,UNOCAL SET TO ACQUIRE GREATER INTERESTS IN BURMA BY BOONSONG KOSITCHOTHANA 17 April 1995 Although their business involvement in Burma has been criticised by anti-Rangoon elements, French oil firm Total and US energy concern Unocal are looking to acquire a greater interest in oil/gas exploration in the military-ruled country. The alliance, already engaged in the $1-billion development of Burma's largest known off shore gas field, Yadana, is looking to acquire additional acreages adjacent to the field. Unocal vice-president Marty Miller and Total chief executive for the Far East J.M. Beuque revealed this move to the Business Post as the next step to boost their controversial presence in Burma, especially in offshore areas which they believe possess a strong gas potential. “Yes, we'd like to pick up some more acreages, probably with Total,” Mr Miller said. The California-based executive noted that Unocal tried to get new blocks rather than seeking farm-in interests. The French executive said Total was looking into the possibility of acquiring tracts around the M5 and M6 blocks, which Total currently shares with Unocal and PTT Exploration & Production of Thailand. Mr Beaque said Thailand's “tremendous” demand for natural gas provided a ready market for any incremental gas which Total might be able to find and produce offshore Burma. The Paris-based executive also revealed Total-Unocal-PTTEP's plan to launch soon an extensive exploration programme in the area outside the Yadana structure, but within M5 and M6, to find if there were additional gas reserves. As for the Yadana gas field development, the Total chief executive expressed confidence that Total, as the operator, can put the field on stream in the next three years as committed under the gas supply contract signed with Thailand in February. The company is to finalise the main engineering study and is preparing to call tenders for offshore work, Physical work offshore will start next year. The field development of Yadana is quite similar to the Bongkot gas field in the Gulf of Thailand, in which Total is also an operator. The main difference will be that horizontal drilling techniques will be used for the Burmese operation. Yadana, with certified reserves of more than five trillion cubic feet (Tcf), is quite productive and does not required Total to drill as many wells as is the case at Bongkot. Mr Beaque said 10-15 wells wound be drilled in the initial stage, and these wells were expected to be producing up to 500 million cubic feet per day (Mmcfd), the level contracted with the Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT). On suggestions that the Burmese military junta employs forced local labour for the construction of a gas pipeline from Yadana to western Thailand, both Mr Beaque and Mr Marty gave an assurance that the alliance would not let that happen. "Do you really think a company like Unocal will do that?" Asked Mr Marty, adding that Unocal had a "code of ethics" to observe wherever it operated. “We are going to control them (the supervision of pipe laying and related works) very strictly,” Mr Beaque said separately. Meanwhile, troubles erupted on Burma's Yadana gas pipeline project with the confirmed killing of five and wounding of 11 other members of a pipeline route survey team by heavily armed attackers. The March 8 incident reportedly took place near the village of Kanbauk, near the western end of the planned pipeline and away from Burma's border with Thailand. The victims were Burmese nationals employed by the alliance of Total, Unocal and PTTEP to survey the route of the pipeline that will transport natural gas from the Yadana gas field, some 320 km south of Rangoon in the Gulf of Matarban, to western Thailand. Part of the 65-km onshore stretch of the pipeline goes through areas in southeastern Burma where the ethnic Karen and Mon guerrillas are engaged in warfare against Rangoon forces. Leaders of the ethnic Karen and Mon guerrillas have in the recent past repeatedly threatened to obstruct and destroy the Yadana gas pipeline. They charged that the revenue from Yadana gas exports to Thailand would strengthen the Rangoon military junta's ongoing human rights abuses. (BP) BRITISH MP SEEKS MEETING WITH AUNG SAN SUU KYI 17 April 1995 Prominent British parliamentarian David Steele, of the Liberal Democratic Party, intends to meet Burmese dissident leader Aung San Suu Kyi in July to honour her pro-democracy efforts, a daily reported yesterday. Steele said here Saturday that I trust that (the Rangoon junta) will allow me to visit in July when her unjustified five years of house arrest are due to end,” the Sunday Nation quoted him as saying. He added that he would present Aung San Suu Kyi with his party's Liberal International Prize for Freedom, the paper reported. “Democrats throughout the world salute her courage and determination,” he said of the Nobel Peace Prize-winner, who has been under house arrest since July 1989. She could easily have taken the option of leaving her country and joining her family in Britain,” he was quoted as saying. Steele, who spoke at a function to mark the 50th anniversary of Thailand's Democrat Party, indicated that Aung San Suu Kyi's contact with outsiders remained very closely guarded. His request to meet with her in February was turned down, he said, adding that Aung San Suu Kyi's husband, British academic Michael Aris, had also been recently refused a visa, the daily said. Aris spent Christmas with his wife in Rangoon in December, later releasing an official statement from her to the press in Bangkok. Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) swept free elections in Rangoon in 1990, though the military regime the State Law and Order Restoration Council (Slorc), has refused to relinquish power. Junta leaders have met with her recently, leading some to speculate that she would be released this year. (BP) ************************************************************** NEWS SOURCES REGULARLY COVERED/ABBREVIATIONS USED BY BURMANET: ABSDF: ALL BURMA STUDENT'S DEMOCRATIC FRONT AMNESTY: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL AP: ASSOCIATED PRESS AFP: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE AW: ASIAWEEK Bt.: THAI BAHT; 25 Bt. EQUALS US$1 (APPROX), BBC: BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION BF: BURMA FORUM 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 GOA: GOVERNMENT OF AUSTRALIA 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) THE NATION: A DAILY NEWSPAPER IN 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 RTG: ROYAL THAI GOVERNMENT 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 **************************************************************