NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/9731

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Subject: Burma Focus,Vol.3, No.1, Dec 92
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/** reg.seasia: 243.0 **/
** Topic: Burma Focus,Vol.3, No.1, Dec 9 **
** Written  2:16 am  Jan  2, 1993 by nn:absdf in cdp:reg.seasia **
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*                     THE BURMA FOCUS                           *
*      Published By The All Burma Students' Democratic Front    *
*                                                               *
*                 Bi-monthly Newsletter                         *
*                                                               *
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*Vol.3                        No.1                 December 1992*
*****************************************************************
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No Word of Suu Kyi

Set Her Free or Let Her alone!

Burmese military generals said on 14 Dec that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,
the 1991 Nobel laureate was not on a hunger strike and issued a new
warning that she may yet face a criminal trial.

"We can put her on trial anytime we like because we have a lots of
evidence which can be used against her," said Col Ye Htut, a
spokesman for the junta.  He noted that Aung San Suu Kyi, the 1991
Nobel Peace Winner was being under house arrest on charges of
"disturbing the peace."

In a meeting in Rangoon on 14 Dec, eight senior Government
spokesmen offered the junta's most detailed accord in more than a
year of the condition of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest.

"Since I last received word from my wife three weeks ago I have
heard nothing," said Mr Aris, in a message faxed to the Foreign
Correspondents Club of Thailand.  Aris said he had nothing to add
to a statement he delivered in Oxford on Nov 30.

At a meeting of Foreign Correspondents Club in Thailand on 16th Dec
Mr Hedayet Ahmed, the regional director of the UNESCO said his
organization had heard nothing from Aung San Suu Kyi but UNESCO was
continuing to press for access to her.  Australia officials were in
contact with Burmese ruling junta and were trying to assist in
arranging a meeting between UNESCO and Aung San Suu Kyi, Ahmed
said. "I am personally not very optimistic," he said.

Rangoon based diplomat at the meeting said "her position is that
the SLORC has to charge her or release her."(Sources#The New York
Time, 15 Dec & Bangkok Post, 17 Dec)

Human Rights Violations

U.N. Investigator Barred From Burma Dissidents

A United Nations investigator Yozo Yokota finished his two-week
investigation into the human rights situation in Burma on 19th Dec.

At the outset of his investigation Yokota spent a week inside Burma
from Dec 7 where military junta barred him from meeting detained
dissidents including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the world most famous
prisoner, during a visit to assess reports of widespread human
rights violations.

Yokota wrote to Burmese Foreign Minister Ohn Gyaw to protest
against the government's obstruction of his mission.  "In addition
to being prohibited from establishing direct contact with any of
the political leaders deprived of their liberty, direct contact
with many of the people of(Burma) useful to my mandate, was made
impossible," said a copy of the December 14 letter.

"...During the course of my visit, several persons wishing to make
direct contact with the Special Rapporteur or persons whom the
Special Rapporteur requested to contact, were reportedly visited by
members of the intelligence services and told not to establish or
receive contact with the Special Rapporteur and the accompanying
United Nations staff members," it said.

The letter noted that under a March 1992 Human Rights Commission
resolution "threats or intimidation against witnesses or persons
wishing to cooperate with the United Nations are prohibited.

"This resolution further states governments should take all steps
necessary to protect the lives and physical integrity of these
persons," it said.

"I urge the government of(Burma) to take the necessary steps to
comply with the above cited resolution," Yokota's letter concluded.

Just days before Yokota's visit, two dissidents died from injuries
inflicted in detention, a diplomat based in Rangoon told Reuters.
The diplomat said the latest of these was Aye Lwin, 38, an activist
who had been held in the notorious Insein Prison in Rangoon.  He
died from internal injuries early this month after being beaten by
a prison superintendent named Mo Hein, the diplomat said.

"After he was beaten, he started vomiting blood. He was given no
medical treatment and died in his cell," he said.  Two prisoners
who complained about his treatment were also beaten and Aye Lwin's
body was moved to the prison hospital to make it appear that he had
died there, the diplomat said.

He said that in late November a 23-year-old activist, Maung Zaw
Tun, died from internal injuries inflicted in jail.

Yokota arrived to Thailand on Dec 17 to do his last investigation
after inspecting the Bangladesh-Burmese border where more than
250,000 refugees have fled their home alleging widespread
atrocities by military junta.

Robert Htwe, a pastor who heads the Karen Refugee Committee at the
Thai-Burma border, said that among the people Yokota interviewed
were some forced to serve as porters, carrying ammunition and other
supplies for Burmese troops during offensives against insurgents.

Yokota's report is due to be published in late January.

A committee of the U.N. general assembly has passed a resolution on
4th Dec condemning the junta's human rights record.  By the end of
this month, it is expected to place Burma on the list of nations
which blatantly violate their own people's basic rights.
(Sources#Reuter, Bangkok 5 & The Nation, AFP, Dec 20)

Regime Dismantling Education, Says Article 19 Report

Teachers in military uniforms, armed guards in the universities,
re-education camps for intellectuals and distance learning to
prevent students interacting are all part of a dramatic clampdown
on educational freedom in Burma stated in a report issued on Dec 10
by ARTICLE 19, the International Center Against Censorship.

"The military authorities in Burma are using the education system
as a very effective tool in their suppression of all forms of
freedom of expression," said Dr Frances D'Souza, director of
Article 19, which takes its name from the article on freedom of
expression in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Entitled, "Our Heads Are Bloody But Unbowed: Suppression of
Educational Freedoms in Burma," a reference to a popular student
slogan, the report catalogues the methods used to smash and
undermine resistance in academic.  Students and academics were in
the forefront of the democracy movement.

Unknown number of students were among over 3,000 civilians killed
during the clashes in the short-lived "Democracy summer" of 1988.

During the twelve months up until April 1992, some 7,000 teachers
and several hundred university lecturers were dismissed.  Lecturers
who have not been dismissed were sent on four-week training courses
in which they had to dress in military uniform, listen to patriotic
lectures and carry out army drills.

"Having to listen to this nonsense day after day was the worst
torture for me in my own country," one academic who has escaped
into exile in Thailand told the group.

When the universities and colleges finally reopened in August 1992,
academics found that they were required to spy on their students
and were held responsible for their actions.

Educational freedoms are curtailed by the strategy of splitting
university departments into ever smaller specialist units and
expanding the correspondence course system to keep more students at
home charged the report.  "This effectively denies students their
right of association and equally effectively prevents them
organizing to oppose the government," said D'Souza.

The need for the immediate unshackling and revitalization of
education in Burma has ever been more acute.

The report calls on the Burmese government to take immediate steps
to restore academic freedom and also calls on UN agencies to ensure
that their programmes in Burma are free from SLORC's political
control, are undertaken with the participation of the local
community for their benefit and do not serve to enhance military
authority over the education sector.<B>(Editor note#The above 31
pages report is available from Article 19, 90 Borough High Street,
London SE1 1LL, priced at 3.00.)<D>

Sham National Convention

NCGUB Calls for Protest over Charter

The National Coalition Government of Union of Burma(NCGUB) has
called for a nationwide campaign of non-cooperation with the
country's ruling junta to begin on New Year's Day.

The junta's forthcoming national convention to begin January 9, "is
a critical tactic in its systematic and blatant attempt to
repudiate the will of the people as expressed in the general
elections," said the NCGUB in its statement on Dec 25.

Human rights activists also said that the real intention of the
national convention was to legitimize the role of the armed forces
in politics.

"To date, SLORC has directed and controlled the constitution-making
process, including the holding of a preliminary coordination
meeting and the appointment of a commission to oversee the
convention," the International Human Rights Law Group said in its
report to the UN General Assembly.

On October 2, SLORC has formed a Commission to head the National
Convention consisting of eighteen members - all SLORC officials
headed by Maj-Gen Myo Nyunt, Commander of the Rangoon Military
region.  One of the major tasks of the Commission is to ensure that
the national convention focuses on the participation of the
military in the leading role in the national politics of the state
in the future.  The Commission will also determine the system for
selecting delegates to the convention.

Amnesty International said in its report in Oct that the SLORC has
consistently promised that it would create a new constitution
guaranteeing multi-party democracy.  However, its imposition of
martial law and the severe restrictions it has imposed on freedom
of expression and association have ensured that any dialogue
promised on the issue could be little more than a charade.

In a series of articles published in the SLORC-owned Working
People's Daily in October stated that the military is the only
institution capable of taking the leading role in the country's
politics and of preserving national unity.

It also said political parties should take a back seat for the sake
of national unity. "If not, the national objective will be lost and
the nation will face the same fate it experienced in 1948," it
warned, referring to the start of the ongoing civil war.

"The opposition coalition, the Democratic Alliance of Burma(DAB)
has spent considerable energy in recent years drafting a new
federal constitution that recognizes the 1990 elections and
promotes respect for human rights.  However, it is apparent that
the SLORC's plan for a new constitution is designed to delay the
transition to civilian rule rather than to achieve it," charged the
Lawyer Committee for Human Rights's report issued in Oct.

Analysts say SLORC is unlikely to step aside until a new government
is elected under a new constitution which could take years and that
meets SLORC's approval.

The NCGUB has called for all the nationalities in Burma to launch
a campaign of non-cooperation and non-participation, starting from
the beginning of the year.(Sources#The Nation, Dec 26, Amnesty
International, Oct 27, Lawyer Committee for Human Rights, 15 Oct,
International Human Rights Law Group, Nov and Working People's
Daily, October)

Foreign Relations

Burma-Philippine

Manila to Shun Calls for Burma Sanctions

The Philippine President Fidel Ramos said on 19th Dec that "the
Philippines will allow the democratic process to take place
naturally and we wish them(Burma) well."

The general-turned president Ramos was responding to questions at
a conference on his foreign policy towards Burma and growing calls
by the international community to put pressure on the military
junta during his four-days visit in Thailand as a guest of Thai
government.

He said that he has realized that bringing democracy back to the
people was a very difficult task.  Manila also had had a "painful
period" in stabilizing democracy in the country, he added.

On 4th Oct, Burmese trade delegation headed by Brig-Gen Abel
arrived to Manila and issued a joint statement on cooperation in
trade and investments with the Ministry of Philippine Trade and
Industry and also with the Philippine International Trade
Cooperation for exchange of goods and services, stepping up trade
activities and to establish joint venture enterprises.  The Burmese
delegation also met the Philippine President Ramos.(Sources#The
Nation, Dec 20 & Working People's Daily, Oct 14)
Burma-Thailand

Disputed Hill 491

Almost every year, during the dry season, Thailand has a wrangle
with Burma over incursions by Burmese troops battling minority
rebels across the often ill-defined border.  But this time the
situation was threatening to get out of control -- prompting the
highly unusual intervention of Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

The king's 4 Dec statement calling for a peaceful solution to the
occupation by Burmese troops of Hill 491.  Four days later, a Thai
military delegation was invited to Rangoon, where the two sides
agreed on a 10-day withdrawal of troops from the hill from 15 Dec.

Thai Deputy Foreign Minister said on 25th Dec that Burma has
proposed an inspection tour of the disputed Hill 491 in Chumphon by
the Thai-Burmese Border Demarcation Committee in the second week of
January.  He said that Burmese soldiers started withdrawing from
Hill 491 under a previous agreement reached between the Thai and
Burmese military authorities and the withdrawal was expected to be
complected on 25th Dec.

Outspoken political scientist, M.R. Sukhumbhand from Chulalongkorn
University said the disputed Hill 491 is only the tip of an iceberg
of future problems between the Thailand and Burma.

"Paradoxically, in the process of cultivating closer ties with
Burma, Thailand has increased the number of tension areas with
Rangoon regime. Hill 491 is such a case," he said.

He added that Thailand's notorious "constructive engagement" policy
failed to bring about constructive changes inside the country.
"Constructive engagement" Thailand is talking about is just limited
to business more than anything else.

The problem in Burma is bigger than many people realize, he said.
The Rangoon Government is bent on pursuing its own agenda in the
region.  "We have to exert all our influence to force the Rangoon
authorities to be more liberal.  Falling that, we must try to
create conditions whereby democratic forces in Burma have a better
chance of succeeding," he added.

He urged the Chuan government to rethink the country's policy
toward Burma by putting more emphasis on "constructive" rather than
"engagement."(Sources#Far Eastern Economic Review, Dec 17, The
Nation, Dec 20 & Bangkok Post, Dec 26)

Foreign Investment

British Oil Firm, Premier Found Gas in Burmese Water

Bangkok Post, Dec 15 - Premier Consolidated Oilfields Plc announced
on 14th Dec that its had completed a successful gas and condensate
discovery in 110 metres of water, 520 km south of Rangoon.

The wildcat well designated Yetagun No.1 flowed a combined rate of
75 million cubic feet of gas per day and 1,800 barrels of 47.5 API
condensate through a 0.75 choke from four zones between 2,100 and
2,400 metres.

Yetagun is the first well of a planned exploratory campaign which
began in the fourth quarter last year.  The will was drilled by the
drillship Deep Sea Ice.

Participating interests currently are Texaco(50%), Premier
Petroleum Myanmar(30%) and Nippon Oil Exploration(Myanmar)
Ltd(20%).  Myanmar Oil & Gas Enterprise(MOGE) has the right to
elect to participate up to a maximum of 15% working interest.

The group plan to move the drillship to a new location more than
95km to the east to drill a second exploratory well on completion
of Yetagum No.1. Thereafter a third exploratory well will be
drilled in the vicinity of the Yetagun discovery.

NCGUB Asks French Govt to Delay Gas Project

Bangkok Post, Dec 18 - The National Coalition Government of the
Union of Burma(NCGUB) has appealed to the French Government in Oct
to postpone a massive natural gas project in Burma "at the present
time."

U Bo Hla Tint, a minister of the NCGUB said on 17th Dec that forced
labour is being used to clear the way for a pipeline which will be
used to send natural gas from Burma's Gulf of Mataban to
neighboring Thailand.

A French oil company, Total signed an oil production-sharing
agreement with Burma's state run Myanmar Oil & Gas Enterprise(MOGE)
in July.  Burmese dissidents say foreign companies which strike
deals with the ruling junta are merely propping up the regime and
thereby prolonging the suffering of the Burmese people.

Refugee Crisis

Dakha Repatriates Burmese Refugees

The repatriation of Burmese muslim in Bangladesh has began on Sept
22, five months behind schedule.  The UNHCR recently alleged that
Dhaka was forcing the Rohingyas to return against their will.
Bangladesh denied the charge.  Unoffcial sources say the refugees
are still seeking assurances that UNHCR will supervise their
repatriation.

Latest official statistics put the number of registered Rohinyas in
Bangladesh at 250,877 and say more than 6,000 have returned home
over the past four months but Rangoon put the number of total
returnees at 5,278 until Dec 26.
On Dec 21, Bangladesh police opened fire on Rohingya militants
after they had attacked repatriation officials.  Fisteen people
including three camps officials and six guards are injured and one
refugee, Abu Shama died.

On 28th Dec at least 13 refugees injure in a violent clashes
between Burmese refugees in Maricha Palong camp who wanted to
return and those who opposed to them going.  Police has arrested 65
refugees return home.

British Home Secretary Kenneth Clarke arrived Dhaka on 29th Dec for
a three day visit.  "We wish the Burmese refugees return home but
we would like to reassured that when they return they would be
treated properly and would be safe," he said.

London wants Burma to agree to the UNHCR for monitoring the
repatriation of refugees, Clarke said(Sources#The Nation, Dec 14,
15, 21, 23, 30 & 31 and Bangkok Post, Dec 18 & 22)

Intelligence Column

First Major Conspiracy against SLORC

The first conspiracy against the SLORC although it's uncertain how
many were involved and what they were planning to do.

On 25th Nov, Maj Sein Thaung from 33 LID informed MIS-7 about the
conspiracy.  One Major and 4 Captain from Hmawbi in Rangoon were
arrested, on 27th Nov.  They were Major Thura Naing Lin Oo and
Captain Mya Maung, Captain Min Thein, Captain Saw Maung from No.11
LID at Hmawbi and Captain Ngwe Tun and Captain Aung Shein from 501
Air-force base at Hmawbi, Rangoon.

The above officers were arrested by Lt-Col Aung Win from No.7 MIS,
said the sources.

Local NLD Units Condemn Their Present Leadership

Local National League for Democracy(NLD) units inside Burma are
circulating a leaflet, condemning their present leadership for
failing to implement the will of the people.

The leaflet also urged the people to boycott the SLORC's national
convention.  It said the delegates who going to attend the
conference are hand-picked up by the SLORC, not the representative
of the people.

The national convention is "just for show," said the leaflet.
Since there is no freedom of expression, the national convention
cannot call for the restoration of democracy in Burma which is the
real will of the people, its added.

The leaflet has called for the students' organizations, political
parties, people's elected representatives to denounce the national
convention and it must be known by the people inside Burma and the
rest of the world.  It also urged the people to write to the
delegates who going to attend the SLORC-planned national
convention, saying they will be put in the black list.

          ---------------------------------------

The Burma Focus is published by the All Burma Students' Democratic
Front.  It would be published bi-monthly documenting the
information mainly on human rights violations, ecological crisis,
foreign investment, refugee problems and illegal opium trading in
Burma.  Anyone who wish to get information are welcome to contact
its offices.

ABSDF-Head Office
P.O Box 1352 G.P.O
Bangkok 10500, Thailand
Tel & Fax:[phone]

ABSDF-Europe Office
P.O Box 6720, St.Olavs Plass
0130 Oslo, Norway
Tel & Fax:[phone]
** End of text from cdp:reg.seasia **