From: BurmaNet ------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------ "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies" ---------------------------------------------------------- The BurmaNet News: September 5, 1995 Issue #216 Noted in Passing: There are numerous instances of rightful owners forced by government officials to sell off their property at much below market rates only to resell them to foreign concerns at much higher prices. (quoted in The Power of Dollar in Burma) Headlines: BKK POST: THE POWER OF DOLLAR IN BURMA NATION: CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE BKK POST: BURMA HOLDS ITS FIRST MODEL SEARCH CONTEST BRC-J: RESPONSE TO NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR SLORC LETTER TO THE BRC-J CPPSM: FORCED PORTERING LABOUR AND ACCOMPANYING SERIOUS HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES ---------------------------------------------------------- Produced with the support of the Burma Information Group (B.I.G). The BurmaNet News is an electronic newspaper covering Burma. Articles from newspapers, magazines, newsletters, the wire services and the Internet as well as original material are published. The BurmaNet News is e-mailed directly to subscribers and is also distributed via the soc.culture.burma and seasia-l mailing lists and is also available via the reg.burma conference on the APC networks. For a free subscription to the BurmaNet News, send an e-mail message to: majordomo@igc.apc.org In the body of the message, type "subscribe burmanet-l" (without quotation marks) Letters to the editor, comments or contributions of articles should be sent to the editor at: strider@igc.apc.org ------------------------------------------------------------- INFORMATION ABOUT BURMA VIA THE WEB AND GOPHER: Information about Burma is available via the WorldWideWeb at: FreeBurmaWWW http://sunsite.unc.edu/freeburma/freeburma.html [including back issues of the BurmaNet News as .txt files] BurmaWeb: http://www.uio.no/tormodl Burma fonts: http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~lka/burmese-fonts/moe.html Ethnologue Database(Myanmar): http://www-ala.doc.ic.ac.uk/~rap/Ethnologue/eth.cgi/Myanmar TO ACCESS INFORMATION ABOUT BURMA VIA GOPHER: gopher csf.colorado.edu. Look under the International Political Economy section, then select Geographic_Archive, then Asia, then Burma. ---------------------------------------------------------- BURMANET SUBJECT-MATTER RESOURCE LIST BurmaNet regularly receives enquiries on a number of different topics related to Burma. The scope of the subjects involved is simplytoo broad for any one person to cover. BurmaNet is therefore organizing a number of volunteer coordinators to field questions on various subjects. If you have questions on any of the following subjects, please direct email to the following coordinators, who will either answer your question or try to put you in contact with someone who can: Arakan/Rohingya/Burma- [volunteer needed] Bangladesh border Art/archaeology/: [volunteer needed] Campus activism: [on summer vacation] Boycott campaigns: [Pepsi] wcsbeau@superior.ccs.carleton.ca Buddhism: Buddhist Relief Mission, c/o NBH03114@niftyserve.or.jp Chin history/culture: plilian@asc.corp.mot.com Fonts: tom@cs.colgate.edu History of Burma: zarni@mcc.wisc.edu Kachin history/culture: 74750.1267@compuserve.com Karen history/culture: 102113.2571@Compuserve.com Karen Historical Society Mon history/culture: [volunteer needed] Naga history/culture: [volunteer needed] [Burma-India border] Pali literature: "Palmleaf" c/o burmanet@igc.apc.org Shan history/culture: [volunteer needed] Shareholder activism: frdc@igc.apc.org "Attn. S. Billeness" Tourism campaigns: bagp@gn.apc.org "Attn. S. Sutcliffe" World Wide Web: FreeBurma@POBox.com Volunteering: christin@ksc.net.th [Feel free to suggest more areas of coverage] ---------------------------------------------------------- (Editor's Note: In an effort to shorten the length of BurmaNet issues, the editor will abridge articles which are similar to other articles posted in the same issue. Articles containing information not directly related to Burma may also be abridged.) **************************** BKK POST: THE POWER OF DOLLAR IN BURMA. September 3, 1995 By A-Hman-Ta-Ya BROTHER, can you show me what a dollar note looks like. I have never seen one," says Daw Khin Myo Chit to the foreign visitor at her ramshackle hut, the fascination on her face as distressing as it is innocent. A conversation soon breaks out with her eldest son claiming to have seen a one dollar note once, given to him by a Chinese businessman at the office where he works as a peon. "It is about this long," he says as if it were some exotic creature, measuring out a length on his soiled palm, "and fetches more than 110 kyat in the black market." For many of Burma's poorest, unaware of the workings of global finance, it remains a total mystery why this piece of foreign paper should be worth much more than their own currency. But what they do understand, as the country lurches forward into the market economy, is that the dollar is in some way related to both the sudden prosperity visible in their cities and also the rapid rise in prices of most essential commodities. A recent random survey at a Rangoon market showed rice was selling at 80 kyat (official rate for a dollar is 6 kyat) to the pyi (about 1.5 kg), edible oil at 240 kyat ($40) per viss (2.2 kg) and chicken-at 400 kyat ($58) per viss. Considering that the highest government salary does not cross 3,000 kyat ($500) the prices are simply devastating for the common citizen. Since 1988 the prices of most commodities have gone up at times as much as ten-fold while incomes have increased only marginally. The explanations for the price rise vary but the commonly accepted one is that it is due to influx of foreign money into the local economy combined with the indiscriminate export of various commodities traders. With trade along Burma's borders with China, Thailand and India picking up in recent years, many businessmen are exporting, apart from limber and gems, a variety of goods which are cheap domestically as compared abroad. Prices rise due to both the shortage of goods created by exports as well as the higher purchasing power in the hands of a few who earn foreign currency. Speculation in commodities by unscrupulous traders and officials is another cause of inflation. The employed middle class in the country has been coping with price rises either by indulging in petty corruption of various kinds or by forcing all family members to earn. It is a common sight to see women from middle class homes setting up shops vending goods on pavements, ever wary of policemen who harass them and demand bribes. Many government employees who are eligible for rations made available at officially fixed prices are forced to sell them off in the open market to raise cash. Many middle-class families complain that apart from increasing open market prices, even the officially charged monthly water tax has risen from 15 kyat last year to 90 kyat now while electricity rates per unit has gone up from 0.50 kyat last year to 2.50 kyat now. Three months ago Rangoon city authorities introduced a new municipal tax of 45 kyat per month ostensibly to help "keep the city clean". "When we object to the high rates, bill collectors sarcastically ask us to send a letter to the military government," says a housewife. The education of children is also an expensive proposition, while the official fee paid in government-run educational institutions is low. The hidden costs involved are high. Apart from the textbooks and clothing to be purchased at open market rates, a major burden is the large sums of private tuition fees they have to shell out to individual teachers to "see their children through the exams". "Most school and college teachers insist on students coming to them for- private tuition so that they can make some extra money," fumes one parent. But in an afterthought she admits that given the compulsions she would do the same thing if she had been a teacher. The section of society hit hardest by inflation has been of course the poor and daily wage labour class. With neither the "privilege" of indulging in corruption nor with capital to start their own business, many such families have cut down on. the consumption of various food items that had taken for granted in the past. We can no longer afford either good quality rice or chicken", laments Aung Shwe, a trishaw peddlar for whom even the pre- 1988 days of General Ne Win's regime suddenly look rosy despite all its other problems. "At least the prices were much more affordable," he says, though he admits it is the same bunch of people who rule even today. But the if the poor and the middle class are often forced to compromise their integrity for sheer survival there is also an emerging section of Burmese who do it out of sheer greed. The increasing number of cars seen on Rangoon roads belong to this nouveau riche class which is made up of close relatives of senior officials or " well connected " private businessmen. Another major area where some Burmese are making a lot of money of course is real estate. The inflow of over $564 million worth of foreign investment into the tourism sector has meant a boom in land prices while the increase in the number of foreign residents has boosted rentals throughout Rangoon. Along the commercially active Sule Pagoda Road in downtown in Rangoon, an ordinary shop measuring 36 by 60 feet now costs 35 million kyat (140 million baht), double the price a few years ago. There are numerous instances of rightful owners forced by government officials to sell off their property at much below market rates only to resell them to foreign concerns at much higher prices. (A-HMAN-TA-YA is a journalist who was recently in Rangoon.) ************************************************************** NATION: CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE September 3, 1995 by Krairat Dejmongkholwattanaa. The little province of Ranong has long since benefitted from its close proximity to Burma The province, which is 568 kilometres from Bangkok, is home for about 140,000 people, and has a local per capita income of between Bt50,000 to Bt60,000, according to a survey compiled at the end of 1994. The tiny province generated a lot of income because it allowed Thai investors and merchants access to the natural resources and benefit from the economic opportunities in Burma, including Koh Son and Kong Song. But recently the province has begun to suffer because of a single incident which allegedly stemmed from the pure greed of a fishing company. The company, Myanmar-Narong Canning Company, won concessions to fish in the fertile Burmese waters, but it later tried to cheat Rangoon by sending unlicensed ships, which the firm built and painted to look similar to the legal ones, to fish there. The unlicensed ships tried to smuggle its catch, to be sold in Ranong, without sharing the profits with Burma. According to well-informed sources, the Burmese government became furious after learning about the deceit. Rangoon, as a result, ordered the cancellation of the concession. This, in turn, infuriated the concessionaire and led to the source of the problem. On Aug 6, at least 10 Burmese fishermen on a Thai trawler, whose concession was cancelled, were brutally murdered. They were tied up and beaten, before being thrown overboard. Fishing, tourism and cross-border trade were the major sources of income for the province, but Ranong does not only serve as a gateway for economic prosperity, it also provides channels for a variety of illegal activities. A lot of illegal Burmese immigrants cross Ranong's border to work as cheap labour on the west coast as well as other parts of the country. These illegal immigrants often cause conflicts with local labourers because they drive the wage rates down and often take away jobs that once belonged to the local work force. But these same illegal immigrants are necessary for the fishing industry, which is plagued by a labour shortage. The illegal immigrants are also known as major sources of income for unscrupulous immigration of officials. The local people, who are sympathetic towards the immigrants, say the Burmese are often robbed by Thai immigration officials when they fail to produce the necessary border-crossing documents. The officials often strip them out of all the valuables if they are caught without the relevant documents. Those, who cross the Thai border legally to work in the country, have to pay a Bt30 fee. The local people suspect that all the fees collected might not be sent to its official destination. Ranong is also known as a major transit point for smuggling logs out of Burma. A border patrol policeman, who asked not to be named, said the smugglers often floated rafts of logs down the river, which borders the two countries, to sawmills downstream. The BPP policeman said he and his team used to seize some of rafts but were ordered by senior officials to let them go. " We have had to turn a blind eye to the smuggling," the policeman said. "We have to accept that it's no use arresting anybody." BKK POST: BURMA HOLDS ITS FIRST MODEL SEARCH CONTEST September 4, 1995 Rangoon, AP A FEMALE university student and a male goldsmith have emerged winners of the first foreign-sponsored model search contest in conservative Burma, organisers said yesterday. The "Traditional Carrie Asian Model Search 95, Myanmar" was staged Saturday by the Singapore-based agency Carrie Models. The winners go to Singapore in October to compete in finals with models from 14 other countries. For several decades Burma renamed Myanmar by the current junta has sought to keep out foreign cultural influences. The military govern- ment, while maintaining a total grip on political power, has opened up the country economically and allowed such things. The model search winners were Ms Aye Thida, 22 and Kyaw Min Thu, 20. "The concept of holding the (search) is to promote Asian talents and culture within our Asian region," said Brian Jeremiah, creative director of Carrie Models. *************** BRC-J: RESPONSE TO NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR Unfortunately the "New Light of Myanmar" (sic) has no letters to the editor column. Perhaps the Burmanet will serve the purpose, since SLORC regularly monitors the net. In the August 1 article "Let there be no jealousy or envy," (kindly reprinted in The Irrawaddy, August 15) "U Phyoe" seeks to make much of the fact that he, now a layman, was once "a clergy," although that makes him no more than the vast majority of males in Burma who have spent time as monks in robes at some point in their lives. Mr Phyoe, layman, offers us a special "spiritual gift" in the form of a little lesson in Dhamma. Since Mr. Phyoe, in remarkable contrast to the vast majority of men and women in Burma, finds the SLORC the greatest government imaginable, "really and so swiftly achieving so much progress in promoting the people's living standards, in developing towns and countryside, in providing airports and seaports, and in building pagodas, monasteries, hospitals, dispensaries and parks," we might expect to disagree with his Dhamma lesson as well. And so it is. Mr. Phyoe skips right down the list of defilements, past the heavy-duty kilesas of greed, hatred, delusion, and wrong view to single out jealousy, envy (issa macchariya) as the most abominable. An interesting choice. The target for his malice is, of course, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, whom he is unwilling or unable to mention by name. Because she has cautioned foreign governments not to rush into Burma, she is said to be jealous and envious. Note well, however, that there are two requisite conditions for covetousness: 1) Another's property and 2) a strong desire for it, thinking, if this property were mine'. Neither of those conditions holds in Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's case, however. In cautioning foreign governments in their rush to give money to the SLORC, which, after all, is only a council, not a government, and certainly does not represent the people of Burma, there is no "property" involved, least of all, SLORC's. Actually the SLORC is taking, using, and selling what belongs to the people, without their consent. Furthermore, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is not thinking "let this property be mine," and has not wished for anything for herself, Since neither condition pertains, Mr. Phyoe's diatribe is quite undeserved and entirely misdirected. Poor Mr. Phyoe. Can he truly believe that "the State Law and Order Restoration Council is striving to build up the country in all sectors and all aspects: and that "it has successfully organised all national groups to reunite"? Burma TV regularly broadcasts a song with various ethnic minorities in their best "Visit Myanmar Year" costumes. Conspicuous by their absence are all the Karen. Doesn't that speak volumes about the reunion? If it isn't clear enough, just consider the over 100,000 refugees on the Thai/Burma border alone. If poor Mr. Phyoe really wanted to offer a lesson on the kilesas, he might better look instead at the policies of the SLORC itself. What better examples do we have of greed--selling Burma's natural resources "like fast food" for their own profit and controlling virtually all business ventures in the country; hatred--systematically destroying entire ethnic villages as well as eliminating all political opposition; and delusion--thinking that their short-sighted policies can save the country and hat their criminal acts and cynical exploitation of Buddhism (This is a regime that imprisons and tortures monks!), will really be for their own future happiness. These are truly "abominable" kilesas, defilements, which perpetuate the cycle of samsara and prevent the attainment of perfect peace. And what of the defilements of issa macchariya, jealousy and envy? The article clearly indicates how much Mr. Phyoe and SLORC envy and resent Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's unfailing inner strength and her undimmed popularity. It is laughable to read Mr. Phyoe's praise of the brutal SLORC and that his "heart goes out in pity to that person for a deed so vile and so abominable." His attempt, however, to use the Dhamma to cast aspersions on one who herself understands that Dhamma so well, whose speeches and writings are well-illuminated with apt references from the Pali, but who is unable to reply, is deplorable. Burma has long been regarded, and to a great extent still is regarded, as the country where the level of the teaching of the Dhamma is the highest. By allowing such an article as this to be published officially, the SLORC shows once again how far removed it is from that tradition. As for Mr. Phyoe, he might well recollect Buddha's words to Ananda before he essays to teach Dhamma to others. Five things should be well established before one should teach others: I will speak Dhamma in a gradual way; I will speak with the goal in mind; I will speak with kindliness; I will not speak as a means of gain; I will speak not to harm anybody.' Anguttara Nikaya III:183) ********** SLORC LETTER TO THE BRC-J The following charming example of SLORC's articulateness was waiting for us at the post office. We have, out of consideration for the readers, replaced the obscenities with "***". While some might question the need to expose this sort of thing, we suppose that vermin fear and detest the light of day for good reason. >Burmese Relief Center >Self-relief persons, >You all are only out of some, who don"t want to see our >Country (MYANMAR) to be flourished. >You dare insult our Patriotic Army Personnels away from >Japan because you might be an Alien or the Minions who *** >up by and sucked up to the Japanese. >Suckers! You are crying out like a parrot being satisfied >yourself the status of slavery sucking to the Japanese. Be >careful! If you were identified one day, all 500 thousand >Army personnels will *** you exactly. >You are not a Patriot, just only a parrot. >Dont use the name of our Burmese people, Suckers! > > > Retired Army Veteran > >P.S. This letter has been sent out to all other parrots. Your >partners also know what you are doing in Japan, Dr, Aung >Khin; Please kindly send out this letter to U Thaung >(ZAWANA) and U Myint Thein from Texas, because I dont >have their addresses. (It was mailed from Washington, DC July 14, and of course, was unsigned.) ****************** CPPSM: FORCED PORTERING LABOUR AND ACCOMPANYING SERIOUS HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES BY THE BURMESE ARMY September 4, 1995 (Committee for Publicity of People's Struggle in Monland) Gross human rights abuses in the process of the Burmese Army's recent military offensive in Tenasserim Division against the Karen National Union and the Meik-Dowei United Front. The Burmese Army (the Tatmadaw) has conscripted hundreds of innocent civilians from several ethnic Karen, Mon and Tavoyan villages in Yebyu, Thayet Chaung, Launglon and Tavoy townships in Tenasserim Division and has used them as front-line portering labour in its recent offensive operation against the Karen National Union's 4th brigade and the small ethnic Tavoyan army (MDUF) respectively operating in the region. The conscripted civilian porters have reportedly suffered various inhuman treatments and serious abuses by the Burmese troops, including killing when they were unable to carry the given heavy loads out of their exhaustion or serious sickness. Many of the Burmese troops - including some commanding officers - have reportedly also committed a series of rapes in the Karen and Tavoyan villages during the offensive operation. The majority of the forced portering labour was reportedly conscripted from Taung Byauk, Winkapaw, Kywe Gyan, Kyauk Aing, Me Ke, Alezu, Byatwithar, Winwa, Speration, the Burmese troops reportedly also burned down some Karen and Tavoyan villages which they suspected of harbouring the KNU or the MDUF guerrillas. The 500 Burmese troops, with the 1000 conscripted civilian porters, arrived at Taung Byauk village in Thayet Chaung township on 1st June 1995 and forced to stay on the respective houses of the village without permission of their owners. Taung Byauk - the village mostly composed of ethnic Karen people - was a small community having a total of 60 households and a population of approximate 400. During their encamping in the village, the Burmese troops reportedly forcibly took and ate up the livestock and food stuffs of the villagers without agreement of the owners and without payment given to the owners. Some of the Burmese troops reportedly committed a series of rapes in some of the Karen and Tavoyan villages they reached during the operation. During their stay in Taung Byauk village, on 8 June 1995, the 404th light infantry battalion commander Lt. Colonel Zaw Weit, a company commander Captain Thant Zin, and Corporal Naing Tun - as they were drunk - beat and gang-raped a 42-year-old Karen woman Ma Aye Mya, who is the wife of the village's chairman U Aung Myaing. After and besides their gang-rape, the (rapist) Burmese officers again forcibly took away the gang-rape victim's husband U Aung Myaing (the chairman of the village) as portering labour along with their troops. On that same day (8 June 1995), a company commander of the 404th light infantry battalion Captain Myint Maung Win also forced to rape the wife of the village's secretary. Fortunately, this Karen woman successfully resisted the Burmese captain's rape attempt and managed to escape. The conscripted civilian porters were reportedly subjected to all sorts of ruthless inhuman treatment during their captivity and enslavement by the Burmese troops. The civilian porters were reportedly required to carry disproportionately heavy loads for several hours each day regardless of weather and for an indefinite long period of time until their escapes or deaths. The civilian porters were not provided with sufficient food; nor were they provided with minimum medical treatment when they were sick or when they were injured in the cross-fire between the Burmese troops and the Karen/Tavoyan guerrilla forces. The civilian porters were not allowed to have adequate rest; they were bound in pairs or in groups and were as such left to sleep without shelter regardless of rains. The civilian porters were also used as a human shield and human mine- sweepers by being forced to go in the front of the Burmese troops; as a result, many of these civilian porters were killed on the spot or seriously injured as they stepped on the land mines trapped by the guerrilla forces. Gravest and most horrendous of all, some of these civilian porters were reportedly shot, bayoneted or beaten to death by the Burmese troops when they were unable to carry the given loads out of their serious sickness or exhaustion. Amongst the executions of the civilian porters by the Burmese troops, the six following ethnic Tavoyan men were included: Ko Win Aung (from Thagyettaw village of Laungion township), Ko Soe Hia, Ko Soe Than, U Hla Khin ( respectively from Thabye Chaung village of Tavoy township), Ko Htay Oo (from Thayet Chaung town) and Ko Hlaing Myint (from Auk Yebyu village of Laungion township) respectively. Ko Win Aung, Ko Soe Hia, Ko Soe Than and U Hia Khin were beaten to death by the Burmese troops as they were unable to carry the given loads out of their serious sickness, whereas Ko Htay Oo and Ko Hlaing Myint were respectively shot dead by the Burmese troops in their unsuccessful escape attempts. Tens of these civilian porters are estimated to have died of serious sickness, out of landmine explosions, in the cross-fire between the Burmese troops and the Karen guerrillas, or because of ruthless cruel treatments by the Burmese troops, includ [section lost here] Nu put his experience this way: 'A total of about 2000 labourers from several local villages were officially required to work for the railway construction at the Gyar Naw worksite. But not all these 2000 labourers were actually having to work for the railway construction itself, because many of them were in advance singled out by Major Soe Nwe to work for his private businesses - namely production of vegetables, firewood, thatch and so on - instead of the railway construction. Major Soe Nwe used some labourers to make a large vegetable garden nearby that railway construction worksite, while making other labourers to collect firewood and thatch in the forests. But, at last, Major Soe Nwe made himself the single owner of the entire vegetable garden, fire-wood and thatch so produced; he sold these products to the thousands of labourers working on the railway construction and thereby made money for himself and/or his battalion. However, none of these labourers, who did the gardening, who chopped the fire-wood and who collected the thatch, were paid for their labour, but they had to provide their own food and own tools for the works just like the labourers working on the railway construction. It was even worse that those labourers, who had to do the gardening all by their own expenses and without payment, had to buy and pay the same price for some vegetables which they brought from the garden for their own meals." (Photo, with the caption: Major Soe Nwe, dressed in civilian clothes and standing with his hands on his hips, with three local Mon villagers well-connected to him, having a photograph taken together in his vegetable garden made by the unpaid forced civilian labour; the next person, out of the row, is one of his soldiers from his 407th Light Infantry Battalion.) Reported on 15 August 1995 by the Committee for Publicity of People's Struggle in Monland, G.P.O Box 227, Bangkok 10501, Thailand. *************************************