------------------------- BurmaNet --------------------------- "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies" -------------------------------------------------------------- The BurmaNet News: 25 APRIL 1995 Issue #156 -------------------------------------------------------------- NOTED IN PASSING: The FTUB calls on the regime to reassess its asanine position and allow free and independent trade unions; before Burma becomes an even bigger economic and social mess, before the Burmese people begin to starve and before the SLORC finishes turning the country into a Chinese colony. U Maung Maung, Secretary of the Federation of Trade Unions, Burma Contents: -------------------------------------------------------------- FTUB: CALL FOR FREE TRADE UNIONS, WORKER RIGHTS, IN BURMA SCB: ANNOUNCEMENT--BURMESE FONTS WEB SITE SEASIA-L: COMMENT AND A QUESTION REGARDING MARTIN SMITH'S "BURMA: DEVELOPMENT DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS" BURMANET: QUESTION AND ANSWER ON NMSP CEASE-FIRE RUMOR THE NATION: BURMESE MINISTER CLAIMS ECONOMIC SUCCESS REUTERS: HUNDREDS OF BURMESE SET TO FLEE FIGHTING ABSDF-MTZ: STATEMENT ON THE MOUNTING SLORC'S HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES ON THE KAREN REFUGEES ON THAI SOIL BURMANET SUBJECT-MATTER RESOURCE LIST -------------------------------------------------------------- o-------------------------------o The BurmaNet News is an | | electronic newspaper | Iti | covering Burma. 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For a | edbytherule | free subscription to | oflaw...fear | the BurmaNet News, send | is ahab it. | an e-mail message to: | Iam | | no | majordomo@igc.apc.org | taf | | ra | In the body of the message, | id. | type "subscribe burmanet-l" | Aun | (without quotation marks) | gSa | | nS | Letters to the editor, | uu | comments or contributions | Ky | of articles should be | i. | sent to the editor at: o-------------------------------o strider@igc.apc.org In Washington: Attention to BurmaNet c/o National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB) Information Office 815 15th Street NW, Suite 609 Washington D.C. 20005 Tel: (202) 393-7342, Fax: (202) 393-7343 In Bangkok: Attention to BurmaNet c/o Burma Issues PO Box 1076, Silom Post Office Bangkok 10500 Thailand Tel: (066) (02) 234-6674, Fax: (066) (02) 631 0133 The NCGUB is a government-in-exile, formed by representatives of the people that won the election in 1990. 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. -------------------------------------------------------------- FTUB: CALL FOR FREE TRADE UNIONS, WORKER RIGHTS, IN BURMA April 25, 1995 Federation of Trade Unions, Burma Fax: 1-202-393-7343 Burma has been excluded by the US government from the Gereralized System of Preferences Act (GSP) trading relationship for being a violator of internationally accepted workers rights, including: 1. the right of association 2. the right to organize and bargain collectively 3. a prohibition on the use of any form of forced or compulsory labor 4. a minimum age for the employment of children 5. acceptable conditions of work with respect to minimum wages, hours of work, and occupational safety and health 6 prohibiting discrimination in employment Also, in consequence of its refusal to abide by internationally accepted worker rights, funding for Burma by the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) has been restricted by the 1992 Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. The acceptance and practice of internationally recognized worker rights will again make Burma eligible for preferential trading privileges under the Generalized System of Preferences of the Trade Act of 1974 "GSP". According to its terms, the act is intended to: "Promote the development of developing countries, which often need temporary preferential advantages to compete effectively with undstrialized countries" and "allow for the consideration of the fact that there are significant differences among developing countries with respect to their general development and international competitiveness." If Burma were to meet the conditions of GSP, the country would be designated a "beneficiary developing country BDC". This would allow for duty free exports to the United States and access for American companies investing in Burma to to funding from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). OPIC's purpose is to "mobilize and facilitate the participation of Unisted States private capital and skills in the economic and social developments of less developed friendsly countries and areas..." OPIC is also empowered to "provide insurance, financing and reinsurance" to all "eligible investors," inevitably making Burma more attractive to investors. Surprisingly, some of the "friends" of the regime, who strongly urge it not to compromise and accept internationally accepted workers rights, are themselves benefitting from the GSP and OPIC. Two among these are Thailand and Malaysia: Country Trade union presence GSP/OPIC exports to the US Thailand 75% state sponsored both US$ 3,280,204,761 Malaysia 75% state sponsored both N/A (more than Thailand) The only substantial difference between these countries and SLORC's Burma is that Malaysia and Thailand are not on record as being gross violators of article 3 of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1984, which has as a basic benchmark, whether a country "permits any form of forced or compulsory labor." In this, we see that: 1. The ASEAN countries who seem to be championing the Rangoon regime maintain double standards on the trade union issue. They use one approach when they seek benefits from the Americans and another when they pretend to make a stand for "Asian culture." 2. Through the ignorance of the regime, the ASEAN countries are taking advantage of the fact that they have lured almost all the international investment in the region while Burma finds that it has been sold out. The main stumbling blocks to gaining GSP preference, access to OPIC financing and U.S. AID programs is that Burma neither allows free and independent trade unions nor protects worker rights. Not having these ordinary US programs in the country, combined with the refusal of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to provide loans because of human rights violations is preventing Burma from becoming an attractive place to invest. The FTUB strongly condemns the regime for its refusal to allow free trade unions in Burma, which has led to consequences including the denial of normal assistance and trade preferences fromt he US government, the IMF and the World Bank. The regime needs to realize that they are being double timed by their so-called ASEAN allies, who take benefits and preferences from the US, the IMF and the World Bank while encouraging Burma to take a course which ensures exclusion from these mechanisms. The FTUB calls on the regime to reassess its asanine position and allow free and independent trade unions; before Burma becomes an even bigger economic and social mess, before the Burmese people begin to starve and before the SLORC finishes turning the country into a Chinese colony. -------------------------------------------------------------- SCB: ANNOUNCEMENT--BURMESE FONTS WEB SITE lka soc.culture.burma 2:25 PM Apr 22, 1995 (at cs.bham.ac.uk) (From News system) This is it folks. The Web site for Burmese font is now ready. It took me more than 2 weeks to get it up (as I have said previously) and I hope it was worth the wait. The site contains information and samples of all known Burmese fonts for the PC and Macintosh. Please report any errors you find to me. The URL is: http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~lka/burmese-fonts/moe.html As it happens, my wife and I will be moving to our new jobs somewhere up north of England and will not be able to read email as regularly as we used to (we'll be resort to reading mail via the modem) until the company we'll be working for gets Internet accounts. In fact, my first task will be to do exactly that! (One way of making sure you get a job is to promise to do something for the company even before they give you the job.) Anyway, don't get upset if you don't get replies to your email. As for the site itself, I will keep it open for as long as I can until I can move it to a new one. I've talk to our system admin. people here to keep my account open. Thanks and enjoy. Len Aye -- Leonard Kyaw Soe Aung Aye |Internet: lka@cs.bham.ac.uk School of Computer Science, |tel: +44 (0)121 414-3705 The University of Birmingham, |fax: +44 (0)121 414-4281 Birmingham B15 2TT, England, UK |WWW: http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~lka -------------------------------------------------------------- SEASIA-L: COMMENT AND A QUESTION REGARDING MARTIN SMITH'S "BURMA: DEVELOPMENT DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS" Gehan Wijeyewardene bit.listserv.seasia-l 4:22 PM Apr 23, 1995 I am reading with great interest the recent book by Martin Smith= 'Ethnic groups in Burma: Development democracy and human rights'. What is paticularly interesting is the Smith is not entirely pessimistic. Towards the end of the book he writes While still rejecting the word 'federal', the SLORC does seem= to have taken some ideas of the ethnic minority parties on board. A new degree of local autonomy for all minority groups has been envisaged. For day-to-day government, the seven ethnic minority 'states' on the present map would be retained with equal status to the seven existing Burmese-majority divisions, which would be renamed as 'regions'. Each state and region would have an assembly of its own and there would also be the right to create new 'self-administered zones' or 'divisions' for smaller minorities within each territory. These new tiers of assemblies, although controversial, are in fact a development many ethnic groups have long demanded. However, to make such a countrywide reorganization really work will need considerable planning, conciliation and discussion if it is not to create a new generation of ethnic and political problems. The potential scale of these new problems became clear at the National Convention in September 1994 in the first announcement of new 'self-administered areas for unrepresented ethnic minorities. For while new zones or divisions would be created for the Pao, Palaung, Kokang and Danu in Shan State and the Naga in the Sagain Division, no such nationality representation was indicated for minorities such as the Karens in the Irawaddy and Rangoon Divisions, who number over one million, or the numerous Chins living outside the Chjin State's borders. (Martin Smith, 1994: 129). I am not inclined to give SLORC the benefit of any sincere intentions or good will, but I would be most interested in what others think of Martin Smith's suggestions. He has a proven record on support of freedom and democracy in Burma and is someone that I will listen to most carefully. Gehan Wijeyewardene gew400@coombs.anu.edu.au -------------------------------------------------------------- BURMANET: QUESTION AND ANSWER ON NMSP CEASE-FIRE RUMOR [A reader contributed the following question he asked regarding a rumored cease-fire between the New Mon State Party and the SLORC. The reply is attached as well. Question: Could anyone please confirm me that NMSP has signed the Cease- fire treaty with the Slorc yesterday in Moulmein. One unconfirmed source from inside Burma sent this message to me. Much appreciated for your reply. Reply: It is not true. I contact to the Mon office in Sangkhalaburi and one spokesman said "No". They have not yet sent the delegation which has been appointed since the beginning of March. Now they are facing the problems with travelling in Thailand. Someone you will know pressures them to sign. *********** Editor's note: The "someone you will know" is an an apparent reference to Xuwicha Hiranyaprueck, a figure both widely known and loathed along the border. Xuwicha, a Thai fixer/businessman has made himself unpopular ethnic groups, Burmese exiles and large segments of the Thai military. He answers to Thailand's National Security Council chief but is perceived as doing the SLORC's bidding as well. Referring, as he did recently, to the Burmese army as "our Tatmadaw" is not the sort of thing designed to endear him to the Thai officer corps. [The SLORC uses the expression "our Tatmadaw" in referring to its own armed forces.] Xuwicha has also been quoted recently saying that the Thai and Burmese armies together should rise a total of 700,000 (400,000 Burmese, 300,000 Thai). That would mean a rise of yet another 100,000 Burmese troops and an even greater number of Thais. The reason he feels such an increase in troop strength is necessary is, strangely enough, India. Thailand and other ASEAN countries are known to fear the Chinese People's Liberation Army, but that fear Xuwicha calls misplaced because "the Chinese never invaded anybody." What all those Chinese troops were doing in Vietnam (1979), South Korea (1950-53) as well as Tibet and the Spratly's, he did not say. -------------------------------------------------------------- THE NATION: BURMESE MINISTER CLAIMS ECONOMIC SUCCESS MALEE TRAISAWASDICHI The Nation Local/Regional Business Tuesday April 25, 1995 RANGOON- Burmese has succeeded in registering a high economic growth rate after introducing a short-term economic development plan offering favourable opportunities for foreign investments, claimed Brig Gen David O Abel, Burma's Minister for National Planning and Economic Development. However, a Thai banker in Rangoon said foreign investment is still low due to Burma's unrealistic official currency exchange policy. The banker also proposed an idea to establish an equitable money exchange rate for the baht and kyat currencies to encourage investment from Thai developers. The official exchange rate for is six kyats to the dollar, but it is traded at 100 kyat to the dollar on the black market. Abel recommended the establishment of a reasonable exchange rate as a way to encourage more Thai investment in Burma. "Burma is a rich country in terms of natural resources. It is a pity that the unrealistic currency exchange has prevented investment in Burma," he said. Calling the economic success " a momentum of achievement in Myanmar's economy", Abel said between 1992 and 1994, which were designated "Economic years" under the 1992-1996 economic plan, the Gross Domestic Product(GDP) increased by 9.7 per sent in 1993 and by 5.9 per sent last year. The minister said Burma achieved a growth rate of 6.8 per sent in the third year plan which was designated as "All Round Development Year". Abel was speaking at the opening secession of the Asian Development Bank-sponsored meeting for the six Mekong countries under the Grater Mekong Subregion Programme. The Burmese minister said the economic plan also resulted in an increase in exports by 22.7 per sent and 17.8 per sent for 1993 and 1994 respectively and by 12.9 this year. Investment has also gradually increased from 13.7 per sent in 1993 to 29.8 per sent this year. "The main thrusts of the short-term plan are to step up production and exports in order to achieve economic growth with stability and to speed up the pace of economic development" said Abel, adding "The pronounced achievements are already there and the people are enjoying the current stage of development". -------------------------------------------------------------- REUTERS: HUNDREDS OF BURMESE SET TO FLEE FIGHTING BANGKOK, April 24 (Reuter) - Hundreds of minority Burmese hill people are poised to flee into Thailand to escape fighting between Burmese troops and guerrillas loyal to opium warlord Khun Sa, Thai border police said on Monday. ``About 500 refugees are now about one kilometre (half a mile) inside Burmese territory and are likely to cross the border into Thailand,'' a Border Patrol Police (BPP) officer said by telephone from the northern Thai province of Chiang Rai. He said the civilians, most of them ethnic minority hill-tribe people, were fleeing a new offensive by Burmese forces in northeastern Burma's Shan state. An official in Khun Sa's Mong Tai (Shan state) Army (MTA) said some 600 Burmese government troops had been locked in battle with MTA fighters near the southern Shan state town of Mong Hsat since last week. ``Fighting intensified over the last few days. Initial reports say both sides have suffered heavy casualities,'' the guerrilla source told Reuters by telephone. Government troops began a dry season offensive against the MTA in early March, attacking Khun Sa's eastern-most base area in mountains near the town of Tachilek. But the fighting in that area tailed off after the MTA launched guerrilla attacks against Tachilek and other targets in government-controlled lowland areas. Burma's military leaders have vowed to crush Khun Sa, whom they call a drug-trafficking ``terrorist,'' and his well-equipped guerrilla force. Khun Sa, who has been indicted in the United States on narcotics charges, says he is a Shan nationalist fighting Rangoon for the independence of the Shan people. -------------------------------------------------------------- ABSDF-MTZ: STATEMENT ON THE MOUNTING SLORC'S HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES ON THE KAREN REFUGEES ON THAI SOIL Date: 25th April, 1995 Regarding on the recent event where as many as 300 Slorc troops under the name of DKBO swept into Mae Lor Ta and Mae Wee Klu refugee camps, deep inside Thailand's Tha Song Yang District, early on 23.5.95, killing two Karen refugees, abducting several people and threatening to burn the camps down. Recalling on the fact that 20 Slorc troops, on 23.1.95, intruded into Thailand and attacked the five trucks carrying the karen refugees from Mae Pho Hta, a village on Thai side of the Thai-Burma border at the junction of Moei and Salween rivers, to a new refugee camp site at The loh Thi Hta in which two karen women and a Thai driver were killed , and 10 others, including four small children were seriously injured, Recalling on the several rounds of Slorc's manipulated abduction of the KNU officials and Karen refugees including a senior Buddhist KNU official, namely, Man Yin Sein and other five karens from Mae La refugee camp in Thailand on 9.2.95, Recognizing the value of all human life and regretting any loss of life in Burma created by Slorc's war against the people, Emphasizing Slorc's human rights abuses not only in the country but also its increased extension to the outside of the country now, Emphasizing with increased concern about the security of the Karen refugees and all Burmese refugees who are staying under much scare of attacking by Slorc troops in the refugee camps on Thai soil, Denounces extended Slorc's rights abuses by killing refugees, harassing unarmed refugees, threatening to destroy refugee camps and abducting refugees even on the Thai soil. Demand the Slorc to stop its mounting human right violation inside and outside of Burma. Appeal earnestly to the Thai government to effectively step up the security measures for the protection of the Karen refugees and all Burmese who are now taking refuge in Thailand in order to prevent any intrusion of Burmese troops inside Thailand which violate the Thai sovereignty and also not allow to happen like these events again. Appeal earnestly to the UN and international community, to seriously consider to reach a correct resolution toward the escalating insecurity problems and to see the refugees on Thai soil are being effectively protected, by establishing a UN monitoring program and international participation. Foreign Affairs Office Central Leading Committee All Burma Students' Democratic Front -------------------------------------------------------------- BURMANET SUBJECT-MATTER RESOURCE LIST BurmaNet regularly receives enquiries on a number of different topics related to Burma. 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Sutcliffe" World Wide Web: FreeBurma@POBox.com Volunteering: "Volunteer coordinator", c/o burmanet@igc.apc.org -------------------------------------------------------------- Information about Burma is available via the WorldWideWeb at: BurmaNet News webpage: http://taygate.au.ac.th/web/michael/bnn/bnn.htm Burma fonts: http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~lka/burmese-fonts/moe.html BurmaWeb http://www.uio.no/tormodl FreeBurma website http://199.172.178.200/freebrma/freebrma.htm. [including back issues of the BurmaNet News as .txt files] -------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS SOURCES REGULARLY COVERED/ABBREVIATIONS USED BY BURMANET: ABSDF-DNA: ALL BURMA STUDENT'S DEMOCRATIC FRONT [DR. NAING AUNG] ABSDF-MTZ: ALL BURMA STUDENT'S DEMOCRATIC FRONT [MOE THEE ZUN] AMNESTY: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL AP: ASSOCIATED PRESS AFP: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE AW: ASIAWEEK Bt.: THAI BAHT; 25 Bt. 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