------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------ "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies" ---------------------------------------------------------- The BurmaNet News: August 29, 1997 Issue #808 HEADLINES: ========== DVB-OSLO: BURMA-INDIA BORDER HEROIN TRADE RADIO MYANMAR: 'RETIRED' NLD MP FROM SAGAING RESIGNS FDL-AP: DECLARATION ON DEMOCRACY ALTSEAN: PHILIPPINES NEWS REPORT PANOS: GOLDEN TRIANGLE HEROIN TRADE FUELS HIV/AIDS RADIO MYANMAR: BURMA'S ASEAN STEERING COMMITTEE NATION: US OFFICIAL DISMISSES ARMS RACE SPECULATION NATION: HANOI PLANS NATIONAL PANEL TO COMBAT DRUGS THE NATION: FOREIGN LABOUR ON RISE IN THAILAND BKK POST: BURMA TO OPEN 3 PERMANENT CHECKPOINTS THE NATION: NO CUSTOMS FEES IN MAE SOT FBC PRESS RELEASE: CAMPAIGN TOPS CAMPUS ACTIVISM BKK POST: TWO GROUPS EYE SAME BLOCK IN ANDAMAN SEA TV MYANMAR: KHIN NYUNT WARNS- DESTRUCTIVE ELEMENTS FBC ANNOUNCEMENT: CONFERENCE & MANUAL, ASSK BOOK -------------------------------------------------------------------------- DVB-OSLO: BURMA-INDIA BORDER HEROIN TRADE August 25, 1997 [translated from Burmese] DVB correspondent Kyaw Moe Large amounts of heroin from Burma are reported to be flowing daily into Mizoram, India. Heroin packages from Burma bearing Tiger Head, 555, and Double UO Globe brands have the appearance of legal commodity. One-kilo packages from Lashio are repacked into one-pound packages when they reach Tahan in Kalemyo. In the trade, a one-kilo package is referred to as a Lashio package while a one-pound package is called a Tahan package by heroin traffickers. It has been learned that the present market price for a one-pound package of heroin is Kyat 200,000 and for a one-kilo package it is Kyat 500,000 in Kalemyo. Heroin is transported from Lashio to Tahan in cars, and both cars and human labor are used for transporting heroin from Tahan to the Indian border via Tiddim. There is a method of transporting heroin to the Indian border from Tahan using SLORC [State Law and Order Restoration Council] (?defense force members). This is called a carry [preceding word rendered in English] arrangement. SLORC police also carry heroin under various pretexts such as pursuing absconders, tour duties, and home visits. Sometimes, they carry heroin on their return trip after sending witnesses to Monywa and Mandalay. According to a private source, a SLORC military officer himself transported by car 50 700-gram Globe brand heroin packages to a creek near the Tamu border on 10 August. One one-pound package of heroin fetches Rupees 300,000 and a one-kilo package fetches Rupees 700,000 in Aizawl in Mizoram, India. It has been learned that a heroin trafficker arrived in Aizawl on 15 August and has been reportedly trying to sell 50 packages of heroin transported by the SLORC officer at 75 percent of the market price. According to unconfirmed reports, as opium plantations increase in the Chin Hills heroin refineries are kept inside the SLORC military camps in Kalemyo. According to local people, heroin produced from these refineries is sent to Champhai through (Taung Creek) at the border and then sent on to Aizawl. On 21 August, authorities from the Excise Department of Mizoram confiscated two kilo of heroin carried by three Burmese nationals. The government television in Mizoram reported on 22 August that the amount of Burmese heroin seized by the Excise Department in Mizoram exceeded 100 kilo in 1997. ********************************************* RANGOON RADIO MYANMAR: 'RETIRED' NLD MP FROM SAGAING CONSTITUENCY-2 RESIGNS August 25, 1997 [translated from Burmese] Dr. Khin Maung Swe of the National League for Democracy [NLD], an elected member of the People's Assembly in Sagaing Township Constituency-2, Sagaing Division during the Multiparty Democratic General Elections, has submitted his resignation out of his own volition to withdraw as elected representative as he had already retired from the NLD. The Multiparty Democratic General Election Commission has accepted his resignation effective today in accordance with Section 11, Subsection E of the People's Assembly Election Law. ************************************** FDL-AP: DECLARATION ON DEMOCRACY August 20, 1997 From: BURMA OFFICE Asia-Pacific Young Leaders Declaration on Democracy 20 August 1997 Seoul, Korea A. Democratization and Democratic traditions in the Asia-Pacific We, the 1997 FDL-AP Young Leaders Workshop participants, all agree that there has been a history of traditions supportive of democracy in the Asia-Pacific region. We will enthusiastically join the recent world trend towards democratization through a shared respect for the traditions and culture of each Asia-Pacific country. Through tolerance and mutual understanding of each of our respective individual cultures we will promote the global democratic movement by supporting an active exchange of ideas. B. The recent status of democratization in the Asia-Pacific Despite the progress being made in many Asian countries in terms of transition toward democracy, we note with concern the serious reversal of democratic practices in Burma and Cambodia. - We call upon the Burmese military regime to enter into meaningful dialogue with representatives of democratic and ethnic groups. - We remind all ASEAN member states of their moral commitment to help restore democracy in Burma. - In addition we urge the present Cambodian leadership to end its usurpation of power and restore the legally elected democratic government of Cambodia. - We also urge all countries of Asia to work towards the establishment, improvement and consolidation of democratic institutions and practices. C. NGOs' Role in the development of democracy and human rights RECOGNIZING the alarming increase in problems of environmental degradation, poverty, drug trafficking, international terrorism, the spread of AIDS, refugees, and ethno-religious and regional conflicts; RECOGNIZING the continued human rights violations and the ongoing struggles for democracy in some countries in the region; RECOGNIZING the need for greater international NGO cooperation to combat these problems; RECOGNIZING the growth and strengthening of civil society in various countries in the region over the last decade; REALIZING that the tasks ahead are best achieved through a process of mutual understanding and solidarity; WE, the participants of the FDL-AP Young Leader's Workshop, call upon the NGOs in the region to be a source of strength for each other by networking and sharing information, coordinating their activities, and pooling their resources to further the cause of human rights find democracy and to take concerted action to help solve pressing international problems. D. The FDL-AP's role in promoting international solidarity among the Asia-Pacific NGOs and democratic supporters. Having a common belief, strong commitment and desire to further promote solidarity among NGOs in the Asia-Pacific region, we, the 1997 FDL-AP Young Leaders Workshop participants, - Encourage each NGO represented at the 1997 FDL-AP Young Leaders Workshop to report annually on the status of democratization and human rights in their country, to be presented and published. - Encourage each NGO represented to develop new activities to ensure that mutual cooperation will grow among the new contacts established at this year's conference. - Encourage each NGO to inform the FDL-AP of all related events that will assist other NGOs to promote and further our common goals of democracy, peace and improved human rights. - All participants recognize the importance, when appropriate, of working with and through political parties that share similar values and a commitment to democracy, peace and protection of human rights. - Encourage the establishment of additional chapters of the FDL-AP in our region during the next 12 months. - Encourage the FDL-AP to continue hosting Young Leaders Workshops annually and to extend invitations to representatives from all NGOs in our region that share our beliefs and values of democracy and human rights. - Reaffirm the FDL-AP's previously stated offer to provide its good offices for the commencement of a tripartite dialogue among the parties in Burma, including the ethnic groups, the SLORC government, and the democratic forces led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. ********************************************* ALTSEAN: PHILIPPINES NEWS REPORT August 27, 1997 From: altsean@ksc.th.com Burma's army drafts kids by Malou Talosig A Burmese dissident who came to Manila last week accused the military junta of drafting children into the army and young girls to work in railway or road construction without pay. The activist, who asked to be identified only as Maung, said the State Law and Order Restoration Council, the Burmese military junta, engages in "slave labor" and targets children because they are easier to brainwash. "It main target is the children, whom it kidnaps and forces to join the army," Maung told today, "it takes boys aged 13 to 14, which is far below the minimum requirement of 18". Maung, 33, is active in the underground movement of student organizations in Burma. He is in Manila to consult with militant civic organizations supporting the prodemocracy movement in Burma. Burma, renamed Myanmar in 1989 by the junta, is under pressure from the international community to stop its human-rights abuses following its entry into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Reports on the suppression of the political opposition, forced labor, drug trafficking and attacks on refugee camps in its border with Thailand have persisted since the junta disregarded the 1991 elections. Maung said the Rangoon army trains the boys for six months and then sends then to the frontline to fight the ethnic and opposition forces seeking self-determination. The junta recruits young boys because they are easy to indoctrinate, although many youths do not want to join the army because of its fascistic reputation. When the army cannot recruit young boys, he said, the junta orders the "headmen" of the ethnic community to do the recruiting. Maung said that young women are also being forced to work in road and railway projects 'without pay." Burmese women fleeing to Thailand to escape the civil strife usually end up as prostituted on the Thai-Burmese border, Maung said. A L T S E A N - B U R M A ALTERNATIVE ASEAN NETWORK ON BURMA *tel: [662] 275 1811/693 4515 *fax: [662] 693 4515 *e-mail: altsean@ksc.th.com *********************************************** PANOS: GOLDEN TRIANGLE HEROIN TRADE FUELS HIV/AIDS April 1997 By Rupa Chinai and Rahul Goswami KOHIMA, INDIA (PANOS) - The expanding heroin trade in Southeast Asia's 'Golden Triangle' - the world's largest source of illicitly grown pure heroin - is bringing with it a wave of new HIV/AIDS infections in Myanmar and a remote corner of India. The Golden Triangle comprises 38 million hectares of rainforest-covered mountains in Laos, Thailand and Myanmar (formerly Burma). Bordering Myanmar are three northeastern Indian states - Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland. Sometimes racked by insurgency and girded by the Himalayan mountains, these states are among the poorest in India and, for the most part, closed to foreigners for security reasons. But not to the opium trade evidently. On both sides of the border, opium and heroin addiction is destroying tribal populations, while contributing to an alarming rise in HIV infection and AIDS. Underdevelopment in Myanmar in particular is fuelling an opium-driven economy, which depends not only on opium cultivation but also its use as a means of barter. In India's northeastern states - there are seven altogether - large sections of the youth are now threatened by a rising HIV infection, drug and alcohol abuse and other chronic killers such as malaria and tuberculosis. "Millions of migrants are pouring out of Myanmar into China, India and Thailand, carrying HIV with them," says the United Nations International Narcotics Control Board's 1997 report. In Myanmar, needle sharing, a proliferation of brothels, lack of public awareness campaigns and a weak public health infrastructure have contributed to an explosion in the number of HIV-positive cases, the New York-based The Nation magazine reported last December. The UN reports that 60-70 percent of intravenous drug users in Myanmar are HIV-positive. Myanmar-wide HIV figures cited by the United States' Bureau of the Census are equally disturbing. Surveillance at 20 sites in 1995 found infection rates of 18.2 percent among prostitutes, 10 percent among patients of sexually transmitted diseases and 55.2 percent among injecting drug users. The World Health Organisation believes there are 500,000 heroin addicts in Myanmar - or one percent of its population. The Southeast Asian Information Network, a Thai nongovernmental organisation (NGO) working on AIDS prevention, says the real figure may be two to four times higher. Over the Indian border in Manipur, rates of HIV infection among intravenous drug users jumped from zero in 1988 to nearly 70 percent in 1992, according to the US Census Bureau. Infection rates in the region are among the highest in India. "We know there is a lot of movement [of heroin]," K.N. Singh, a police officer in the border town of Moreh, said. "About 1,000 people come and go every day. There are searches but we hardly ever find anything - when we do, its through tip-offs from sources. Many people are involved. Last year a senior police officer was arrested and imprisoned for trade in marijuana," he added. Today's heroin trade follows old opium routes of the British colonial era and takes advantage of porous borders. In Mon, a Nagaland border district, large groups of Myanmarese youth, walking for days, recently arrived as refugees fleeing poverty in Myanmar. Many brought opium with them. "This is the only medicine we have," said one refugee. Another teenage refugee said she had walked 18 days through north-west Myanmar to reach Mon. She spoke of villages heavily affected by tuberculosis, with no local primary health care and where every family grows opium. A report by a Myanmar-based NGO smuggled out of the country corroborates the account. It documents widespread opium cultivation and addiction in virtually every village in the Chin province of northern Myanmar, bordering India. In Hpa Kant in Kachin State - famous for its jade - about 50 percent of the youth are thought to be addicts. While several UN agencies have been conducting AIDS awareness and prevention programmes for many years in Myanmar, there appear to be constraints affecting health projects in the northern provinces. These have been waging an insurgency against the Myanmar regime and the state authorities are wary of any community activity. In 1994, a US public health expert reported that Myanmar did not allow regional programmes to warn people in Kachin and Shan states about AIDS. Community-based organisations are not allowed to exist and ethnic- or Burmese-language materials are banned. Reports from the Indian Intelligence Bureau, the Indian Army, the Konyak Mother's Association and refugees interviewed for this article suggest little has changed. "There are no roads, no schools, no medicines, no doctors, no communications in the villages on the other side," say the Reverend Yamyap Konyak of the Baptist Church in Mon. Indian border police and customs officials admit that considerable amounts of heroin pass into India, but there are no reliable figures. The recent opening of a trading post with Myanmar facilitates the trade. And the border is so open, anyone can walk through with a headload. Heads of anti-narcotics agencies of India and Myanmar have held several meetings to work out a joint offensive against the drug trade. But little has changed. The Indian Narcotics Bureau struggles for funds and has only 380 employees country-wide. For Nagaland and Manipur, the combination of HIV and drug abuse is having devastating consequences, especially for the youth. In 1996, 28 young people died from drug abuse in Mon town alone, according to Father Joe, who works at a drug rehabilitation clinic there. He says he doesn't know how many have HIV, because there are no testing facilities./PANOS http://www.oneworld.org/panos/apr97/heroin.html ****************************************** RANGOON RADIO MYANMAR: BURMA'S ASEAN STEERING COMMITTEE MEETS August 25, 1997 [translated from Burmese, abridged] The ASEAN Steering Committee [ASC] held its third meeting at the Army Commander in Chief's Office at 1330 this afternoon. Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, Chairman of the ASC and Secretary-1 of the State Law and Order Restoration Council [SLORC], attended the meeting and delivered an address. He spoke of the need to be well prepared with statistics so that Myanmar will be able to host ASEAN meetings like other member countries. He said due to the false and fabricated news circulated by some news agencies of the Western Bloc and various political instigations some people consider Myanmar a dreadful place. By hosting ASEAN meetings, he remarked, guests would be able to witness firsthand the prevalence of peace and stability and the development of Myanmar and the preservation of tradition and culture. He said it would also be conducive to the tourism industry of Myanmar. ************************************************* NATION: US OFFICIAL DISMISSES ARMS RACE SPECULATION August 28, 1997 [abridged] A SENIOR US defence official yesterday dismissed speculation that the acquisition two weeks ago of Thailand's first aircraft carrier, the Chakri Naruebate, would fuel growing concern about an arms race in Southeast Asia. Speaking at a round-table discussion with the media in Thailand yesterday, Franklin Kramer, US assistant secretary of Defence for International Security Affairs, said he believed the purchase of the Spanish-made carrier was simply an example of arms modernisation. Kramer was in Thailand for just one day. He held talks with senior military officers and the National Security Council on Thai-US bilateral cooperation, including the Cobra Gold military exercise and regional hotspots such as the South China Sea, Burma and Cambodia as well as the Asean Regional Forum and Sino-US relations. On Burma, Kramer said he reiterated to Thai officials that the US would continue to pursue its objective of bringing democracy to Burma. He said, however, the US recognises the differences in the approach to the problems in Burma by Asean. ************************************************ NATION: HANOI PLANS NATIONAL PANEL TO COMBAT DRUGS August 28, 1997 [abridged] AFP HANOI - Vietnamese Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet has decided to creat a high-powered national anti-drug commission to check a sharp increase in drug trafficking and addiction in the country, the official press said yesterday. The decision was taken as Vietnam becomes increasingly worried about drug use, particularly in schools, and about porous borders that have become major transit points for drugs coming from the Golden Triangle opium growing region of Burma, Laos and Thailand. The announcement by Vietnam, which officially counts 200,000 drug addicts, comes as officials from neighbouring Burma and Thailand were meeting to coordinate their efforts against opium trafficking in the Golden Triangle, the world's major producer. In addition, the United States and Vietnam could soon sign a cooperation agreement to fight international narcotics trafficking, US Ambassador to Vietnam Pete Peterson said last week. ***************************************************** THE NATION: FOREIGN LABOUR ON RISE IN THAILAND August 28, 1997 AP AN ESTIMATED one million guest workers enter Thailand each year and remit almost Bt3 billion a year to their countries of origin, results of studies released yesterday said. Seventy-five per cent of the workers were from Burma, which included an estimated 20,000 females who entered the sex service industry last year, according to studies by Chulalongkorn University's Asian Human Resettlement and Asian Study Centre and Mahidol University's Population and Social Study Centre. The remaining 25 per cent were workers from Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, the findings said. A Thailand Development and Research Institute (TDRI) report said the growing trend of foreigners entering the country seeking jobs was a result of a shortage of local workers and the fact that immigrant workers could be hired cheaply. The workers remitted home about Bt3.45 billion a year in earnings, the studies said. The influx of foreign workers, the studies showed, was in part perpetuated by the existence of smuggling rings comprising Thai and Burmese nationals and by the lure of large wage differentials between the two neighbouring Southeast Asian countries. TDRI researcher Yongyut Chalaemwong said that in order to prevent the workers from becoming a burden on state coffers, the government should raise the amount of per capita tax for each alien worker and pass the cost of medical care the government provides them onto their employers. Currently, guest workers are required to pay Bt1,000 each in registration fees. Last year, revenue from registration fees, not including costs of medical care and social services provided by the government, stood at Bt300 million. He said employers should be made to pick up all medical expenses for the foreign workers they hire. In a related development, Sanphasit Koompraphant, director of the Centre for the Protection of Children's Rights in Bangkok, estimated the number of children brought to work as prostitutes in Thailand from neighbouring Burma and Cambodia to be over 10,000 each year. Some laws can backfire, he said, citing tough new anti-child prostitution measures put into effect this year in Thailand. The law punishes everyone nearly involved in the trade, including poor parents who sell their children, middlemen, clients and ring leaders. "Child prostitution in Thailand is actually on the increase because the new law prosecutes everybody," Sanphasit said. By targeting parents especially, children and families have lost incentive to provide evidence to aid workers and police that would incriminate the organised crime gangs running the trade, Sanphasit said. "Another problem is that Thailand and other countries still treat women and child prostitutes as the offenders," Sanphasit said. "They will not give information then.: They should be treated as victims." A year after a world conference vowed a global crackdown on child prostitution, activists said yesterday that only 23 countries are drawing up comprehensive national plans to stamp out the lucrative trade. EPCAT International, an independent Bangkok-based agency combatting the trafficking and sexual exploitation of children, nonetheless expressed "cautious optimism" that countries are getting tougher on child prostitution. The group issued a report yesterday examining steps that 56 countries have taken against child prostitution since a landmark congress a year ago m Stockholm, Swedon, attended by 122 nations. "Admittedly, the report is incomplete," Herve Berger, Ecpat International's executive director, told a news conference. "It provides only a partial picture of what is being done." The Stockholm participants agreed to strengthen laws, improve the reintegration into society of children escaping prostitution, and coordinate anti-child prostitution efforts. They were also to establish comprehensive national strategies against the child sex trade by the year 2000. Berger noted that only 23 countries have started but praised others for drafting new laws or stepping up international cooperation. "Political will is one of the key issues," Berger said. "What we're calling for is for governments to show leadership and political will. It's not just a question of ratification." Berger said that the child sex trade outlined in Stockholm - prostitution, pornography and trafficking - is one of the world's most lucrative, along with illegal drugs and arms. In Thailand, where the trade is well established and an estimated 8,000 children trafficked from other countries work in it, prostitution is worth an Bt 18 billion to Bt26 billion a year. Berger praised Germany, Ireland, Australia, Canada and Britain for adopting laws making it possible to put their citizens on trial for child sex crimes committed elsewhere. ********************************************* BKK POST: BURMA AGREES TO OPEN 3 PERMANENT CHECKPOINTS August 28, 1997 Teerawat Khumthita Chiang Rai -- Thailand and Burma yesterday signed an agreement to cooperate in suppressing drugs and to open three permanent border checkpoints. The agreement was signed by Lt-Gen Thanom Watcharaput, commander of the Third Army Region and his Burmese counterpart Maj-Gen Khet Sein, commander of Southeastern Forces, on the last day of the 15th Regional Thai-Burmese Border Committee meeting which began on Tuesday. The two countries agreed to jointly fight drug trafficking along their common border, with Burma pledging to drastically crack down on amphetamine factories located in the area. Burma also agreed to Thailand's proposal to open three border passes at Ban Nong Bu and Ban Peng Lang in Chiang Mai's Chiang Dao district, and Ban Hua Muang in Mae Hong Son. On repatriation of Burmese refugees, Burma will set up a committee to verify their nationality before accepting them back. Maj-Gen Khet Sein also promised to take steps to prevent the flight of refugees into Thailand, blaming it on the fighting between Rangoon troops and ethic minority forces which had driven several Burmese and Karen civilians to flee to Thai villages. Regarding border demarcation, the two countries agreed to send their technical teams to survey disputed areas. ******************************************************* THE NATION: NO CUSTOMS FEES IN MAE SOT August 28, 1997 PASSENGER vehicles which pass Mae Sot checkpoint in Tak province on weekdays will no longer have to pay immigration and customs fees, according to new regulations that went into effect yesterday. The new regulations will not apply to trucks or people wishing to cross the Thai-Burma Friendship Bridge at the Mae Sot-Myawaddy checkpoint, Pol Lt Col Suthee Ariyakabutr, chief of Mae Sot immigration office, said. "Collection of fees for passenger vehicles, however, will be resumed during weekends," Suthee said. Previously, each passenger vehicle had to pay a total of Bt280 to the Thai border authorities in immigration and customs fees, and a further Bt60 on the Burmese side. "Due to the economic crisis, the Mae Sot authorities decided to help ease the pressure on the Thais by revoking the fee collection on the Thai side during weekdays," he said. ********************************************** FBC PRESS RELEASE: CAMPAIGN TOPS CAMPUS ACTIVISM August 27, 1997 From: The Free Burma Coalition University of Wisconsin 225 North Mills Street Madison, WI 53706 Tel. (608)-827-7734 Fax: (608)-263-9992 http://wicip.org/fbc Contact: Zarni (608)-827-7734 Immediate Release August 27, 1997 Free Burma Divestment Campaign Tops US Campus Activism Madison, WI: The Free Burma campaign modelled after South Africa's anti-apartheid struggle targeting university investment in corporations that do business with the current military regime in Burma is becoming a major campus issue on US college and university campuses, according to an opinion poll conducted by Mother Jones, a popular US magazine. Mother Jones polled nearly 20 international and national organizations including Amnesty International, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, United States Student Association, Center for Global Education, Student Environmental Action Coalition, and Center for Campus Organizing. The University of Wisconsin at Madison from which the internet-based Free Burma Coalition is coordinated tops Mother Jones' list of 10 most political active campuses in the United States. After nearly two years of vigorous grassroots campaign jointly launched by student and community activists on Madison campus, the UW Board of Regents decided to dump $239,000 worth of stock in Texaco, a US oil corporation that does business with Burma's narco-dictatorship. (Unocal, Total, ARCO, Caterpillar, and Ericcson are among the multinationals that have business ties to Burma.) Wisconsin is the first university to dump Burma-related stock. In addition, Wisconsin Regents were persuaded to adopt "socially responsible investment" policy. "I am pleased that Free Burma campaign has not only promoted the awareness in the United States about Burma's worsening human rights situations and political oppression, but it has also contributed significantly to the progressive tradition on US college campuses," said Zarni, a Wisconsin graduate student and Burmese political exile who founded the Coalition in the fall of 1995. He said, "American public, especially those who are concerned about the growing drug problem in this country, should become involved in our grassroots campaign since 60% of the heroin that is smuggled into the United States annually is produced in Burma with the tacit approval of the current State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), Burma's narco-dictatorship." Zarni added, "I really want to thank our American supporters and colleagues for their solidarity with the 45 million Burmese people who are struggling very hard for freedom and democracy. And I hope they continue to stay with us until democracy is restored in Burma." Stanford University came in fifth in Mother Jones' findings. In the fall of 1996, 2, 000 Stanford students blocked successfully the opening of Taco Bell restaurant, a former PepsiCo subsidiary, at their student union because of PepsiCo's involvement in forced labor economic projects in Burma. Earlier this year amidst campus and community grassroots pressure, PepsiCo terminated its businesses in Burma. The Coalition is planning an international conference on the Free Burma campaign at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) from October 4-6 of this year. In the 1997-98 academic year the Coalition will continue its divestment campaign on as many as 150 US campuses where its member groups are located. ********************************************** BKK POST: TWO GROUPS EYE SAME BLOCK IN ANDAMAN SEA August 27, 1997 [abridged] Boonsong Kositchotethana Interest fuelled by encouraging results nearby Two major international groups are competing for the same offshore block in Thailand's latest round of petroleum exploration concessions. One group comprises Unocal Corp of the United States, Total of France and Norwegian state oil concern Statoil; and the other is an alliance of PTT, Exploration and Production (PTTEP) of Thailand, Amerada Hess and Kerr McKee Corp of the US. By Monday's deadline, both had bid for the concession block W7/38, covering 19,675 square kilometres off the Ranong coast in the deep-water section of the Andaman Sea, according to the Department of Mineral Resources. Block W7/38 is one of the seven blocks in Thailand's part of the Andaman Sea which were offered in the 16th round of bidding for rights to explore for and produce petroleum. The other six tracts lie in water less than 200 metres deep. Northwards, in Burmese waters, two good-size gas fields, Yadana and Yetagun, are being developed for commercial production by two groups, one led by Total and the other by Texaco, for exporting gas to Thailand. Details of the two groups' proposals are not available. It may take a few months for the department to evaluate the bids and award the concession. ******************************************************* RANGOON TV MYANMAR: KHIN NYUNT WARNS PENETRATION BY DESTRUCTIVE ELEMENTS August 21, 1997 [translated from Burmese, abridged] The closing ceremony of Special Refresher Course No. 28 for basic education teachers was held at Nawarat Hall of the Central Institute of Civil Service in Hlegu Township at 0900 today. Chairman of Myanmar [Burma] Education Committee and Secretary-1 of the State Law and Order Restoration Council Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt attended the ceremony and delivered an address. The secretary-1 said students and youths, drawn by unscrupulous elements into the jungles, were given training in handling small arms and explosives and were used as terrorists or their prey in a bid to fulfill their aims. Even today, those under the name of politicians, wishing to grab state power through shortcuts, instill in the youths the belief that students must be involved in politics and are teaching them, with the support of outside masters, methods--eulogized as political defiance--to destroy their own country. Khin Nyunt explained that political defiance methods means viewing the nation-building endeavors of the government with pessimism, transmitting false news reports to mislead the people, creating instability and disturbances at every opportunity and spreading rumors to cause panic among the people. He noted that just as the internal traitors are following these methods, so also the outside puppet masters are spreading false news to cause the dignity of Myanmar to dwindle in the world. With these false news reports, they are acting in concert to cause hardship to the people and pressure Myanmar. He called on teachers to make their pupils understand the menace posed by the destructionists and guide them not to be swayed by enticement and spoke of the spreading of counter cultures among the youths due to their persuasion to make youths think highly of the material progress of the Western nations. In conclusion, he exhorted the teachers to strive for the realization of the national political, economic, and social objectives; cooperate in maintaining peaceful education to be able to turn out technicians and intellectuals reliable in striving for the emergence of a peaceful, modern, and developed nation; to ward off internal and external destructionists with the national outlook; lead their pupils in the activities of the Union Solidarity and Development Association oriented towards national interest, and try to materialize the aims and objectives of the course. ******************************************* FBC ANNOUNCEMENT: CONFERENCE & MANUAL, ASSK BOOK August 28, 1997 From: Dear Fellow Free Burma Activists/Netters: a) UCLA Conference planning is going well, and all of us are excited about the prospect of meeting the new colleagues and seeing the old ones again. Please spare a couple of minutes to do the advance registration at our website at http://wicip.org/fbc b) The long overdue "The Free Burma Coalition Manual: How you can help Burma's struggle for Freedom" is finally to be out on September 15. There are about 175 pages and the manual contains everything you need to know to do Free Burma grassroots work effectively:Burma poetry both in Burmese and English, essays by various student and community organizers about their campaign experiences, selective essays and speeches by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, articles about Burma's environment, politics, culture, and economy, the usual "how to" pieces, the documents pertaining to the ethnic nationalities issue, UN Convention on Genocide, heroin trade and the structure of narco-dictatorship in Burma, essays and excerpts from speeches by such Burma supporters as Desmond Tutu, U.S. Secretary of State M. Albright, philanthrophist and financier George Soros, Senator Mitch McConnell, and much more. Please send me a note at zni@students.wisc.edu if you wish to obtain a copy the manual. For the first printing, there will be 2,000 copies. We have reserved 500 copies for the UCLA Conference. Another 300 copies are reserved for the Environmental Granmakers Association. So please send your request ASAP. Because of the quality of work (and the cost) and the shipping (in the U.S.), a small donation of $10 each copy is requested. Each week we will be posting selective pieces from "The FBC Manual" so that you can get a flavor of it. c) Letters from Burma (a collection of essays by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi) with illustrations (pencil drawings of Burmese political and cultural sketches) by a Bumese artist Heinn Htet is available from Penguin. The essays are written in a clear and down-to-earth manner, and the book is a must for anyone who wishes to understand the worldview of one of the most extraordinary political leader of our time. The letters were awarded the prestigious Japanese Newspaper Association's Award for 1996, The ISBN number for Letters is 0-14-026403-5. The purchase/order information: UK: Dept. EP, Penguin Books Ltd, Bath Rd., Harmondsworth, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 ODA US: 1-800-253-6476 CANADA: Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Ave., Suite 300, Toronto, Ontario M4V 3 B2 AUSTRALIA: Penguin Books Australia Ltd, P.O. Box 257, Ringwood, Victoria 3134 NEW ZEALAND:Penguin Books (NZ) Ltd, Private Bag 102902, North Shore Mail Centre, Auckland 10 INDIA: Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd, 706 Eros Apartments, 56 Nehru Place, New Dehli 110 019 NETHERLANDS: Penguin Books Netherlands bv, Postbus 3507, NL-1001 AH Amsterdam GERMANY: Penguin Books Deutschland Gmb H, Metzlerstrasse 26, 60594 Frankfurt am Main SPAIN: Oenguin Books S.A., Bravo Murillo 19, 1B, 28015 Madrid ITALY: Penguin Italia s.r.l, Via Felice Casati 20, I-20124, Milano FRANCE: Penguin France S. 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