----------------------------------BurmaNet---------------------------- "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies" --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The BurmaNet News: November 18, 1996 Issue #571 Noted in Passng: The longer the transition to the rule of law drags on, the more harm will be done to ordinary people in the US, Thailand, Malaysia and elsewhere - Robert S. Gelbard, US Assistant Secretary of State for Intl Narcotics and Law- enforcement Affairs. (see: FEER: SLORC'S DRUG LINKS) HEADLINES: ========== BURMANET: JOURNALISTS IN RANGOON FEER: SLORC'S DRUG LINKS ABSL: ABSL NEWS FROM SOURCES INSIDE BURMA PA NEWSFILE: BURMA DISMISSES CHILD LABOUR CLAIMS BUSINESS TIMES: INVEST IN MYANMAR, MALAYSIANS URGED. AFR: ROAD TO MANDALAY PRESENTS DILEMMA FOR TOURSTS REUTERS: NEW MAS SERVICE TO YANGON REUTERS: SHANGRI-LA GROUP OPENS HOTEL IN BURMA. AP: NOBEL PRIZE WINNER CALLS FOR SANCTIONS ON BURMA THE NATION: RANGOON BALKS AT UN-APPOINTED RAPPORTEUR THE NATION: RAIL LINK FROM S'PORE TO CHINA THE NATION: UNOCAL ADMITS TO CREDIT DEAL WITH RANGOON THE NATION: FRANCE'S TOTAL OUT FOR HEARTS, MINDS IN BURMA LETTER: FROM CITY COUNCIL ALKMAAR TO GEN. THAN SHWE ----------------------------------------------------------- BURMANET: JOURNALISTS IN RANGOON November 17, 1996 A UPI report late last week indicated that all journalists had been forced to leave the country by Wednesday. What actually happened was that a number of journalists who had been invited in by Total and Unocal to visit the pipeline area had applied for 2 week visas but were only allowed to stay five days. One journalist had his passport stamped with only a five day visa when he arrived at the airport in Rangoon. In the case of other journalists, immigration officials came to their hotels and changed their visa dates there. However, other journalists were able to enter Burma for a second Total-sponsored pipeline visit for journalists and also for the opening ceremony of Visit Myanmar Year. According to one journalist, the Total representatives were far more straightforward about what they were doing than the Unocal representatives. Total did not apologize for the SLORC and made it clear that the reason they were putting money into development projects in the pipeline area was to ensure the support of the local people. The Unocal representative, on the other hand, unabashedly defended the SLORC. The tour was tightly controlled, but some journalists did manage to slip away to visit Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior NLD members. It appears that there are two factions within the SLORC, one of which supports the mob attacks on Aung San Suu Kyi and another of which feels that such attacks are not appropriate because they tarnish the SLORC's image abroad. Some analysts believe that Khin Nyunt, Kyaw Ba (Minister of Tourism), and Kyaw Thein (senior military intelligence officer) are concerned about how Burma is perceived internationally and probably do not approve of the attacks. Who is behind the attacks (Maung Aye? Than Shwe?) and which faction will ultimately dominate is not clear. ************************************************************* FEER: SLORC'S DRUG LINKS (Fifth Column) By Robert S. Gelbard November 21, 1996 For the past eight years, the world's attention has been focused on the struggle of Burma's people to gain a say in their future. A more fundamental problem is the collapse of the rule of law. The lawlessness of authoritarian rule not only harms dissidents; it results in the corrupting and criminalization of the state and the entrenchment of the drug trade in Burma's political and economic life. It has had tragic consequences for the United States and for every Asian nation facing crisis in drug abuse. Consider these facts: Rangoon's New Light of Myanmar reported on August 3 the purchase of part of a new Rangoon office tower by Pao Yu-Chiang, head of the United Wa State Army, East Asian's largest heroin-trafficking organisation. A photograph showed him shaking hands with Rangoon's mayor U Ko Lay, a member of the ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (Slorc). Eight Slorc cabinet ministers and numerous subordinates rubbed elbows with the who's who of Burma's drug trade at the lavish wedding last March of narco-trafficker Lo Hsing Han's son, who has taken over management of his father's business. Slorc is protecting the drug trade and flaunting its defiance of international concern, including that of its neighbours. Before Burma's military took power in 1962, Burma played a relative minor role in the global drug trade. But by the 1980s, it had emerged as the world's largest producer of opium and heroin. Burma's leading drug traffickers than were warlords based in the hills of Shan State. The military used these traffickers as a counterweight to anti-government ethnic insurgents. At one point or another, it offered nearly every important trafficking militia a simple deal: Help us maintain stability, and we'll let you do business as you like. Since the formation of Slorc in 1988, opium production in Burma has doubled. And the nature of the drug trade has changed in an unmistakable way: Burma's most important narco-traffickers are no longer holed up in jungle hideaways. They are buying real estate in Rangoon and Mandalay, investing in Burma's economy, and open courting military officials. These days, Khun Sa, the most notorious of the old opium warlords, is living comfortably in Rangoon, having "surrendered" his Shan United Army. Slorc has refused to bring him to justice or to render him to the US to face charges. He has evidently been granted immunity, encouraged to invest his drug fortune in infrastructure projects, and accorded the status of an honored elder - U Khun Sa. Slorc has brazenly exploited drug trafficking money to finance projects that do little to improve the lot of the Burmese. Drug traffickers ad their families are among the leading backers of high-profile infrastructure projects in Burma. They launder their money with impunity in banks controlled by the military. Burma has few legal exports and its trade imbalance last year was 15% of GDP, yet its cities have been flooded by luxury imports - paid for in hard currency that could only be generated by the drug trade. Meanwhile, in the opium-producing areas of Shan state, trafficking continues largely unhindered. Several groups are branching out into other drug activity, including production of methamphetamines that find a ready market in the region. Burma's citizens and neighbours pay the greatest price for Slorc's defiance of international concern. The number of Burmese heroin addicts is estimated at over 300,000, some 70% of whom have HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus that leads to Aids. There are at least 500,000 heroin addicts in Thailand; drug abuse and Aids are on the rise in Yunnan, China, and 14% of Malaysian teenagers are now using hard drugs. Burmese heron traffic is threatening Cambodian stability. Burmese methamphetamines are becoming the drug of choice in Taiwan. Though Slorc professes a commitment to international cooperation, it is systematically destroying the potential effectiveness of its only international anti-drug donor, the United Nations' Drug Control Programme. Slorc has repeatedly attacked the programme's director in the state press and used racist terms for foreign visitors who have dared suggest Burma's drug-control performance is inadequate. As the secretary of state's top adviser on law enforcement, my job is to fight drugs and crime. I always prefer to do so in partnership with government and law enforcement officials in other nations. But US anti-drug assistance to the Burmese has failed in the past, and in the last four years Burmese authorities have made no discernible efforts to improve their performance. From a hardheaded, drug-control point of view, I have to conclude that Slorc has been part of the problem, not the solution. The longer the political impasse in Burma continues, the more embedded the drug trade will become in the economy - and the harder it will be for any government in Burma, democratic or otherwise, to root out the problem. The longer the transition to the rule of law drags on, the more harm will be done to ordinary people in the US, Thailand, Malaysia and elsewhere, especially as Burma's economy becomes more integrated with Asean's. Every nation has an interest in pressing the Burmese authorities to fight drugs. More fundamentally, every nation has an interest in encouraging a swift resolution to Burma's political crisis, one that can make its military more accountable to civilian and judicial authority, one that denies legitimacy to narco-traffickers, one that leads to a real fight against corruption and crime. That is the only way to protect the rights of Burma's people and the safety of our citizens. Robert S. Gelbard is the United States' assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law-enforcement affairs. (FEER) *********************************************************** ABSL: ABSL NEWS FROM SOURCES INSIDE BURMA November 15, 1996 From: s_aung@tom.unv.ernet.in BOMBS EXPLODE IN MANDALAY October 24,1996 In the early morning of October 24, a bomb was said to have exploded in the front of the door of Daewoo electronic service centre and sales room, which is located between 81 street and 25/26 street in Mandalay. Simultaneously, another bomb was exploded near the TV and Telecommunication office located in the corner of 80 street and 26 street-B. No one was injured in this explosion, according to the report. The region controlled media did not cover this news nor made confirmation. It coincided with the RIT students protest against the ruling military region better known as SLORC. ANOTHER BURDEN ON TAMU THE DISTRICT LORC ORDERED Oct 24, 1996. One person from every household of Tamu district to guard the town daily from 9 P.M. to 6 A.M. Any person who failed to serve his assignment had to pay 100 Kyats as a fine. "Previously, we have to pay fine for the absence of force labour contribution and again we have to pay for this burden", one civilian said. The district LORC reportedly said that civilians were ordered to guard the localities in order to catch pro- democracy students operating on the Indo-Burma border. TAMU INTELLIGENCE PERSONNEL CAUGHT IN THEIR OWN TRAP Oct 21, 1996 Intelligence personal led by Hla Moe (MI-17) and Myint Oo (narcotics) set a trap to arrest an arms dealer in Tamu. On Oct 21, Thein Lwin, an information made a business appointment with U Aung Kyaw, an arms smuggler, in the house of U Kyin, near the church. Intelligence personnel had paid 45,000 Rupees to Thein Lwin as decoy money in order to gain trust of U Aung Kyaw. But when intelligence personnel reached the destination, U Aung Kyaw had already disappeared together with 45,000 Rupees. Only U Kyin and Thein Lwin (informer) remained in the house. *100 Rupees Kyats (Current Exchange rate on India-Burma border) Information Department ABSL (Manipur Regional Office) ***************************************************************** PRESS ASSOCIATION NEWSFILE: BURMA DISMISSES CHILD LABOUR CLAIMS November 13, 1996 Geoff Meade A furious Glenys Kinnock this afternoon stepped up her campaign for sanctions against Burma, after the military regime dismissed EU inquiries into allegations of forced child labour as "futile". The Labour Euro MP released copies of a letter from Burma's EU office to the Brussels Commission, flatly denying any forced labour practices in the country. It says the Burmese authorities have "amply explained" that such a thing does not exist, and says of the Brussels inquiry: "It is futile and will not be necessary to send a Commission mission to investigate the non-existing practices." Mrs Kinnock, who has just returned from a visit to Burma during which she secretly filmed an interview with Opposition leader and democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi, insists the regime is smothering free speech and blatantly using enforced child labour. But the French Government is refusing to agree to EU action against Burma, including the withdrawal of special market access to EU member states for Burmese textiles and industrial goods. Mrs Kinnock again called on the French Government to lift the block - and urged EU citizens to boycott the French oil company Total because of its involvement with the regime in the construction of a major gas pipeline in Burma. The interview recorded by Mrs Kinnock was shown to Euro MPs in Strasbourg. In it, Aung San Suu Kyi makes a plea for worldwide economic sanctions against Burma. Mrs Kinnock said: "Forced labour has certainly been used in the infrastructure associated with the pipeline. As the pipeline is being built, thousands of people are being displaced from their homes." She said that Total is about to become the largest source of foreign currency for Burma, with a vast investment which will produce 400 million dollars for the coffers of the SLORC military regime. "I would urge the citizens of Europe to boycott Total until they withdraw from Burma. They can return when the party that Aung San Suu Kyi leads, which won 80% of the vote in elections, becomes the legitimate Government of that country." Mrs Kinnock told the European Parliament this afternoon that she had received word today from Rangoon of a major demonstration in the next few days against the Opposition leader. She appealed to Irish Foreign Minister Dick Spring - in the EU Presidency - to warn the Burmese regime that any action against Aung San Suu Kyi would not be tolerated in Europe. Mrs Kinnock said the regime had plans to send in up to 2,000 of its supporters to storm the compound in Rangoon where the Opposition leader lives. She said that the planned attack would be carried out by many of the same people who launched an attack on the Opposition leader's car last weekend. ***************************************************************** BUSINESS TIMES: INVEST IN MYANMAR, MALAYSIANS URGED. November 15, 1996 (South East Asia's Business Times - Malaysia) DEPUTY Prime Minister and Finance Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim yesterday assured Myanmar that Malaysia will streamline its efforts to encourage more Malaysians to invest in that country. He gave this assurance to Myanmar's Finance Minister Brig-Jen Win Tin at a meeting in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. Anwar, speaking to reporters later, described it as "a good meeting". Both parties discussed economic cooperation and bilateral ties, he added. Myanmar's Central Bank chairman Ukyi Aye was also present at the meeting. The Myanmar delegation, which arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, is on a four-day visit of the country. They visited the Royal Customs and Excise Department and Bank Negara and are scheduled to visit the KL International Airport project site in Sepang and the Perodua car plant in Rawang. Win Tin, according to Anwar, invited more Malaysian investors to Myanmar. Several agreements on avoidance of double taxation and investment guarantee would be signed between the two countries when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad visits Myanmar in January next year. Several agreements on Malaysian credit facilities for Myanmar have been finalised and were signed yesterday. **************************************************************** AFR: ROAD TO MANDALAY PRESENTS DILEMMA FOR TOURISTS November 13, 1996 (Australian Financial Review) By Jennifer Sexton. Burma warns against "despicable traitors" as the SLORC regime prepares to launch Visit Myanmar Year. Jennifer Sexton reports from Mandalay. It's a glorious sunny day sailing the Irrawaddy River - and relaxing until the subject turns to human rights and the dilemma this presents for tourists to Burma. "I think we're doing the right thing. They need us to come. They've worked hard and they need tourists," says Mrs Coombs, a well-to-do British visitor. "They benefit from the little things that we buy," offers an American woman. But even on the Rolls Royce of tours in Burma - the US$25 million Road to Mandalay cruise ship - politics has a pesky way of interfering with a tourist's wish to indulge the senses. As political tensions escalate between the State Law and Order Restoration Council and the democracy movement, human rights groups worldwide are promoting tourist boycotts, with a view to making Visit Myanmar Year a flop, ahead of its launch next week. (Myanmar is the SLORC's name for Burma.) "I think the SLORC's Visit Myanmar Year Campaign will fail due to their own ineptitude in promotions as much as to increased awareness of human rights abuses underlying tourism," one Australian human rights activist said. Travel agents in Rangoon say cancellations have increased as SLORC's crackdown worsens. Even staff at SLORC's official tourism office admit numbers are disappointing, "because many countries tell people not to come". One private travel agent says: "Anybody dealing with the English-speaking world has seen their business hammered." Eastern and Oriental Express, which owns the Road to Mandalay ship says it is apolitical but Rangoon management admits politics has contributed to thin bookings since the ship was launched late last year. "Orient-Express accepts that the country still has some problems as it goes through its transition but does not believe these problems are atypical of any developing country," its vice-president in London, Nick Varian, said. A four-day cruise from Bagan, site of thousands of ancient pagodas, to Mandalay costs around $A3,480. Most of the 40 on board this cruise of the 120-berth ship were well travelled, retired or near retired Americans who say they wanted to see Burma for themselves. Viewed from air conditioned buses and the top deck of the Road to Mandalay during two days of river cruising, the smiling Burmese people can impart a positive impression. But they smile out of fear, according to US Ambassador to the United Nations, Ms Madeline Albright. "During a lifetime of studying repressive regimes I had found the smiling quotient in many of them to have been quite high. Authoritarian leaders often delude themselves that they are loved, but the smiles they see are usually prompted not by affection, but fear," she told the SLORC's intelligence chief, Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt, in Rangoon last year. Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi says tourism legitimises a regime which holds power despite the 1990 election in which her party won a landslide 82 per cent of the vote. "We think it is too early for either tourist or investment or aid to come pouring into Burma," Suu Kyi said. "As long a new money comes in, the SLORC is under less and less incentive to change." But with 33 per cent of direct foreign money invested in the tourism and hotels sector and the SLORC badly in need of an economic kick-start, detractors are denounced as "despicable traitors". Tourism Minister Kyaw Ba expects 230,000 visitors, including business travellers, in the next 12 months, up from 170,000 tourist last fiscal year and 90,500 in 1993-94, when independent travellers were not allowed and visits were restricted to two weeks. In March 1994 visas for 28 days independent travel were introduced. Last fiscal year 1,300 Australian tourists visited. There is a chronic oversupply of international-standard hotel rooms in Rangoon and rumours are that the hotel industry provides a way of laundering money. Despite the competition, top room rates are only around US$150 a night. There are now 409 hotels with 9,276 rooms across the country, compared to 20 state-owned hotels in 1988, the year the SLORC crushed a democracy uprising, killing an estimated 10,000 people. **************************************************************** REUTERS: NEW MAS SERVICE TO YANGON November 13, 1996 (abridged) By Kamarul Yunus in Yangon. YANGON, Tues: Malaysia Airlines launched today its new service to Yangon, its 115th destination in its global network, with promises to bring closer the cooperation and integration between Myanmar and Malaysia. The Myanmar is also receptive to the service although there is already a twice-weekly flight linking Yangon and Kuala Lumpur on Myanmar Airways International. Myanmar Department of Civil Aviation director-general U Tin Aye said the service provided by Malaysia Airlines will open up more trade and investment as well as boost tourism in the two countries. "It also augues well with Myanmar's move to launch its `Visit Myanmar Year 1996' on November 18," he said in his welcoming speech to the Malaysian delegation led by Malaysia Airlines board member Yong Ming Sang. He said the service provides additional access to businessmen to invest in Myanmar. Meanwhile, Yong said the service will provide greater opportunities and foster integration between the people of Myanmar and Malaysians, as well as creating global linkages, particularly with Asean countries. Yong also said the airline has projected a 70% passenger load factor for the Yangon sector in its first year of operations. "Once we hit the 75% load factor, we may have to plan additional frequencies to Yangon." "We do not want to be too late to tap the opportunities when Myanmar opens up its market, particularly to Asean countries. Thus, the service to Yangon can be described as timely," he added. **************************************************************** REUTERS: SHANGRI-LA GROUP OPENS HOTEL IN BURMA. November 14, 1996 RANGOON, Nov 14 (Reuter) - Singapore-based Kuok and Shangri-La group on Thursday opened a 500-room hotel in the Burmese capital of Rangoon. The $88 million Traders Hotel was developed by Traders Yangon Co Ltd of Kuok and Shangri-La group. The total investment of Kuok Group in Burma's tourism sector has now reached $650 million, said Lieutenant General Kyaw Ba, Burma's minister for hotels and tourism. "Indeed, the large amount of investment by Kuok Group not only helps the development of Myanmar economy but gives impetus to the others to invest in Myanmar as an emerging business center in Southeast Asia," he said. "Out of the $1.55 billion in tourism sector, $864 million is solely from Singapore... This proves the strong friendly ties between our two countries,' he added. According to the latest available official statistics, Singapore tops the list of foreign investors as its investment has reached $1.15 billion out of $5.04 billion of total foreign investment. Other major investors were the United Kingdom with $1.01 billion of approved investments and Thailand with $946 million. The main investment was in the oil and gas sector with $1.5 billion invested, followed by the manufacturing sector with $862 million, the real estate sector with $839 million and hotel and tourism with $731, the statistics said. **************************************************************** AP: NOBEL PRIZE WINNER CALLS FOR SANCTIONS ON BURMA November 15, 1996 CANBERRA, Australia (AP) _ Burmese democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi has attacked the Australian government's stand on her country's military rulers and called for stronger action. Canberra should not rule out sanctions against the military regime, Suu Kyi said Thursday night on Australian Broadcasting Corp. television. ``I think that sitting on the fence must be an extremely uncomfortable position,'' she said. ``I think the Australian government should have a far more clear cut policy,'' said the Nobel Prize winner, whose car was attacked by government supporters with rocks and sticks last weekend. ``I do not think that any government can say that sanctions don't work, just like that. ``Sanctions do work under certain circumstances and even, I would say, that under most circumstances sanctions do work to a certain extent.'' But Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer ruled out sanctions, saying trade levels between the two countries were so low that Burma would hardly notice. Only United Nations sanctions would work and there was no prospect of the U.N. Security Council agreeing to such a move, Downer said. ``Sanctions by us would simply be a press release and not much else,'' he said. He said he regretted the Burmese leadership was not responding to requests for a more liberal rule. ``I deeply regret that and I would be the first to admit that international pressure so far has not delivered the liberalization of Burma or even the open dialogue,'' Downer said. The new conservative coalition government has adopted the same stand on Burma as the former Labor government, neither encouraging nor discouraging trade with the regime. **************************************************** THE NATION: RANGOON BALKS AT UN-APPOINTED RAPPORTEUR November 15, 1996 By YINDEE LERTCHAROENCHOK, The Nation THE Burmese junta has failed to recognise the decision of the UN Human Rights Commission made in early 1992 and considers the recent appointment of a new US special human rights rapporteur on Burma as "intrusive" and "unwarranted interference" in the internal affairs of the country. Slorc's position was conveyed in a letter from the Burmese permanent representative to the UN in Geneva to the commission, dated July 4, 1996. The ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (Slorc) stressed that the appointment of Judge Rajsoomer Lallah "is unacceptable", as was the case with his predecessor, Professor Yozo Yokota. The commission appointed Lallah, an Oxford-educated judge from Mauritius, to replace Yokota who resigned from the post on May 12, 1996 to protest against his constant battle funds to carry out his work. In his interim report to the current UN General Assembly in New York, Lallah said that Burma "had disassociated itself form the decision" the UN commission made at its 48th session in early 1992. It therefore refused to accept Lallah's appointment, stating in the letter that such an exercise is "intrusive and constituted unwarranted interference in our (Burmese) affairs". Lallah informed the UN members that since his appointment he had tried unsuccessfully to obtain Slorc's cooperation to implement his mandate including visits to Burma to investigate its human rights situation. Slorc had not replied to his request, which was made in two letters sent on July 9 and 26, he said. The judge expressed regret over Slorc's refusal to cooperate with him and said the absence of a response was "in the circumstances, not understandable." However, he said any procedures resulting from UN resolutions did not require the express consent of the states concerned - in this case Burma - to be implemented. Lallah said Slorc's refusal to recognise his appointment did not conform to the obligation it undertook when agreeing to Article 56 of the UN charter. This article requires that the signatory extend all cooperation with the UN and its various organs. A refusal "cannot relieve the relevant organs of the United nations from the duty of performing their functions," he said. Slorc's "attitude of non-cooperation" had made the task of the special rapporteur much more difficult in determining the situation as it has evolved since the last visit. The rapporteur had last visited Burma in October 1995. Lallah said the absence of a response form Slorc meant that the UN could not engage in a constructive dialogue with Rangoon during the investigation and the writing of the report. The report traced the latest history of the political and human rights situation in Burma. It touched on the various forms of alleged human rights violations in the country, which included extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions; torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; arbitrary arrest and detention; prison conditions; freedom of opinion, assembly, association and movement; forced relocation; and forced labour. In his conclusion, Lallah noted that the absence of respect for democratic rights is the root cause of all major human rights violations in Burma and it s absence "implies a structure of power which is autocratic and accountable only to itself". He said Slorc had not yet implemented its commitment to take all the necessary steps towards the establishment of a democratic environment in Burma. Detailed reports and photographs helped him to conclude that human rights abuses "remain extremely serious" in Burma. (TN) ***************************************************************** THE NATION: RAIL LINK FROM S'PORE TO CHINA November 15, 1996 AP KUALA LUMPUR - Regional officials plan to meet on December 2 to decide on the route for a Southeast Asian train line linking countries form Singapore to China, a newspaper reported yesterday. "The meeting will determine the economic viability of the routes and decide which one will be given priority for development," The Star quoted Malaysian Transport Minister Lee Liong Sik as saying. Lee said the route from Singapore through Malaysia to Bangkok is clear, but there are three options for the rest of the line - through Cambodia and Vietnam, through Laos or through Burma. The meeting is to include specialists from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, as well China, Vietnam, Laos Burma and Cambodia. Malaysia has been picked to prepare preliminary studies for the train line. The governments plan to form an international consortium to finance the project," Lee said. "If the consortium has unlimited finances, then all the routes can be developed' he said. (TN) ***************************************************************** THE NATION: UNOCAL ADMITS TO CREDIT DEAL WITH RANGOON November 15, 1996 AP AMERICAN oil company Unocal has sold Burma's military government US$7 million (Bt175 million) worth of badly needed fertiliser on credit, to be repaid from the junta's profits from a controversial gas pipeline now being built. Unocal representative Carol Scott confirmed the agreement on a press tour of the pipeline area in remote and isolated southern Burma earlier this week. The deal deepens Unocal's involvement with a government that has been frequently criticised by the United Nations and international human rights groups for suppressing Burma's democracy movement and committing rampant human rights violations. Unocal is part of a consortium, including Total of France, the Burmese government and the Petroleum Authority of Thailand, that is building a $1.2 billion pipeline to carry gas from Burma to Thailand. Herve Madeo, a Total official, said earlier this week the Burmese government won't reap any profits form the pipeline until some time after 2001. Opponents of the junta have criticised the pipeline deal as providing profits for a cash-starved regime that uses most of its money to buy weapons and repress its citizens. Aung San Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, and other opponents of the military government have called for a halt to foreign investment in Burma until there is clear progress toward democracy. Local analysts said the 40,000 tons of urea fertiliser from a Unocal plant in Alaska cleared Rangoon's port in September and October. The amount is approximately half of what the government needs to ensure the success of the rice harvest. A decrease in rice and timber exports, coupled with extremely high military spending, has left the junta with a severe cash-flow problem according to Rangoon-based economists. IN August, the government couldn't meet a $31 million payment to Japan's Mitsui Corp for oil and the resulting shortage caused gas prices to skyrocket and led some people in Rangoon to hoard food and other essentials. The government has denied there was an oil shortage or that it is having financial difficulties. But recent World Bank reports show the regime is $6.6 billion in debt, with nearly $2 billion in arrears. The same reports, using the regime's own figures, show the government spends at least 46 per cent of its budget on defence. Gen David Abel, minister of economic planning, said in September that the World Bank doesn't understand how to use his government's numbers and that defence spending is in fact eight per cent to 12 per cent of the budget. Although the government has made significant strides in increasing the country's rice yields, it has fallen short of its own production targets after forcing farmers to grow a second rice crop during the year. Local economies said the attempt, while well-intentioned, was misguided and failure. The rice crop became a political issue earlier this year when the regime handed out 14-year prison sentences to Win Htein, a key aide to Suu Kyi, and two other democracy activists because, it said, they shot a videotape showing the failure of the second crop. (TN) ***************************************************************** THE NATION: FRANCE'S TOTAL OUT FOR HEARTS, MINDS IN BURMA November 15, 1996 MICHELE COOPER AFP KANBAUK, Burma - Total's controversial natural gas pipeline route across southeastern Burma traces a red gash through the otherwise green countryside, and is changing forever the lives of local residents. Critics link the billion-dollar project to human rights abuses and environmental damage and say it is financing the ruling junta's efforts top tighten its grip on power. Total says there are no human rights abuses on the project, that environmental damage is insignificant as the pipeline traverses already degraded forests and that it is not a political actor on the Burma stage. Intent on seeing through the lucrative 30-year contract and signing more based on new gas finds in the Andaman Sea, Total executives have mounted a campaign to win the hearts and minds of local residents. And while they say it is not the primary goal of the program, they acknowledge campaign will probably help ease security concerns in a volatile area. "We plan to be here for 30 years," Herve Madeo, general manager of Total Myanmar Exploration and Production, told foreign correspondents flown in this week for a whirlwind tour of construction sites and neighbouring villages. "The most important point is to integrate the project into this area. Obviously a consequence of that is the security of the pipeline," he acknowledged. The only incident to date, Madeo said, was on March 8, 1995, when unidentified, heavily-armed attackers ambushed a survey team near the Kanbauk base camp, killing five Burmese nations. To integrate the project into the area, Total has given jobs to people who previously had few sources of income aside from subsistence agriculture and fishing. Wages for unskilled labor start at 200 kyats, or about 1.35 dollars, a day at the prevailing market rate. An entry-level civil servant earns, in comparison, a basic salary of 17.50 kyats a day. Total has also built classrooms and clinics, and started pig-, poultry- and goat-farming projects in order to give villagers new economic options. Projects will, it is hoped, become self-sustaining in short order. "We don't want to create a situation of eternal dependency," said Joseph Daniel, Total's Paris-based vice-president for public affairs. Already they point to the small independent food stalls and tea shops that have sprung up around construction sites, and to the thriving business one Kanbuak merchant has established in importing shiny new bicycles. Critics of the project, from pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi to political exiles abroad, object that such things, and the fat that gas revenues are likely to become a major source of funds for the government, serve only to prolong junta rule. The Paris-based International Human Rights Federation last month alleged "massive and systematic human rights violations" in connection with the pipeline project which, it said, constitutes "moral and economic support for the ruling junta. The allegations are, in fact, aimed mostly at the government and the army, inextricably linked in the State law and Order Restoration Council (Slorc), as the junta is officially known. But critics say that Total and its foreign partners - US-based Unocal and Thailand's PTT - are at the very least guilty by association. In a report entitled "Total Denial" and issued in July, Earth Rights International and Southeast Asian Information Network warned it might not be possible to determine in time "whether the sale of Burma's natural gas under Slorc has helped the country develop or simply enriched the generals." Daniel said Total had no political agenda - "in the oil business, you can begin working with one regime and finish with another" - but was convinced he 30-year project would benefit the country as a whole. Total executives have shrugged off calls to halt foreign investment in Burma, saying economic sanctions are the purview of countries, not companies. (TN) *************************************************************** LETTER: FROM CITY COUNCIL ALKMAAR TO GEN. THAN SHWE November 15, 1996 From: Anja Sloot-van Dijk Amnesty International group Alkmaar an the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, the Netherlands is very pleased with the recent initiative of City Council member H. Eggermont, in order to express the concern of the City Council of Alkmaar about the human rights situation in Burma, to the authorities of Burma, State Law and Order Restoration Council. Herewith we forward the letter of the City Council of Alkmaar, with the names of it's members subscribing it. We are very interested in initiatives of any Burma interested groups or human rights organizations on the same level and on the issue of purchasing local selective legislation. Please contact: Anja_Sloot@msn.com (Amnesty Int. Group Alkmaar) or: ifor@gn.apc.org (International Fellowship of Reconciliation) General Than Shwe, Chairman State Law and Order restoration Council c/o Ministry of Defense Signal Pagoda Road Yangon, Union of Myanmar Friday 13 November 1996 Dear General Than Shwe, Greetings from the Dutch city of Alkmaar, a city of some 95,000 people in the northern part of the Netherlands. This letter is written on behalf of the citizens of Alkmaar, by members of the Alkmaar City Council, which governs the city. We are writing to express our concern about the human rights situation inside the Union of Myanmar. Well documented reports from bodies such as the United Nations and from internationally respected human rights organizations point to the existence of serious violations of international law within your country. The reports of forced labor, forced relocation, government military operations against ethnic minorities, religious discrimination, and the denial of the rights to freedom of speech, press and political participation so essential to democracy, are very disturbing. As governing officials we are convinced of the benefits of democracy. The corner stone of democracy is respect for human rights. We welcomed your government's release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi last year, as did the entire international community. This release was an important first step in establishing democracy in the Union of Myanmar. Yet we are aware that there are hundreds of political prisoners who remain unjustly imprisoned within Myanmar, and that international norms of human rights are violated daily within your country. We respectfully request that your government continue its steps towards democracy and respect for human rights by releasing such prisoners, whose only "crime" has been the nonviolent exercise of their basic human rights. Respectfully yours, H. Eggermont member City Council Alkmaar. (list of all the co-signers has been deleted)