BurmaNet Appropriate
Information Technologies, Practical Strategies
The BurmaNet News: November 20, 1998
Issue #1143
HEADLINES:
REUTERS: INTERVIEW-US RAPS ``IMPUNITY" OF MYANMAR
DRUG LORDS
November 19, 1998 Eastern
By David Brunnstrom
BANGKOK, Nov 19 (Reuters) - A senior U.S. narcotics official on
Thursday criticised the climate of impunity which he said allowed
big narcotics traffickers to live free in military-ruled Myanmar.
"We can't allow people to have impunity anywhere,"
Jonathan Winer, Washington's deputy assistant secretary of state
for international narcotics and law enforcement, told Reuters.
"One of the problems with Burma is there has been a lot of
impunity in Burma."
Winer said he could not understand why big drug lords like Khun
Sa, who has been indicted for heroin trafficking in the United
States, and Lo Hsing-han were living free in Myanmar, formerly
known as Burma.
"What are they doing, wandering around, being left alone
after moving all the dope that they've moved?" he said.
"If we can get the people who are growing dope and moving it
out of Burma; information on their front companies and financial
interests; seize their assets and indict them in the States or
some other country; imprison some of their network and shut that
network down, it would be good for us, our communities and the
region."
The Myanmar part of Southeast Asia's "Golden Triangle"
opium growing region is reckoned to be the world's largest source
of heroin, output of which is controlled by ethnic Chinese drug
lords. Both Khun Sa, long considered the king of the Golden
Triangle drug lords, and Lo Hsing-han are widely believed to be
living in the Myanmar capital Yangon under the protection of the
military government. Asked whether he thought elements of the
Myanmar government were involved in the drug trade, Winer
replied:
"Certainly there is a lot of reason to believe that drug
corruption has been a recurrent problem in Burma."
Winer was attending a conference on a U.S.-Thai initiative to set
up an academy for regional law enforcement officials aimed
principally at encouraging international cooperation in
combatting the drug trade. He said Myanmar was not part of the
conference as U.S. sanctions prohibited assistance to the
government there and also because past programmes had not proved
successful.
"In the case of Burma, you've got a situation that any
number of people have tried to work with the Burmese against
drugs with very little success," he said. "We have not
found them to be reliable partners."
The United States is also barred from assisting law enforcement
efforts in Cambodia, a country identified by narcotics agents as
a transit point for heroin from Myanmar. Winer said even if this
was not the case, he did not think using U.S. money for law
enforcement training in Cambodia would be an effective use of
resources.
"Isn't the money better spent training countries that are in
better shape and have more stability?" he said.
"When you have a government that has the political will to
work with other governments, everything is possible.
"When you have governments that aren't capable of working
with other governments nothing is possible. For us right now with
Burma and Cambodia nothing is possible."
REUTERS: U.N. DRAFT DEPLORES RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN
MYANMAR
November 19, 1998 Eastern
By Anthony Goodman
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 19 (Reuters) - A General Assembly committee
on Thursday approved without a vote a resolution deploring
continuing human rights violations in Myanmar. It specifically
referred to extrajudicial and arbitrary executions, rape,
torture, inhuman treatment, mass arrests, forced labour and other
violations listed in a recent report by a U.N. investigator.
Rajsoomer Lallah of Mauritius, a special rapporteur of the U.N.
Human Rights Commission, said last month that the situation in
Myanmar, formerly Burma, "has not evolved in any favourable
way" since an earlier report in April.
Lallah, who has been unable to visit Myanmar since his
appointment more than two years ago, cited reports that
opposition parties continued to be subject to constant monitoring
by the military government and that torture and ill-treatment
were still a common practice in prisons and interrogation
centres. He said he also still received reports of forced labour
across the nation and that serious human rights violations
continued to be committed by the armed forces in ethnic minority
areas.
The resolution adopted by the General Assembly's social,
humanitarian and cultural (third) committee urged the government
to permit unrestricted communication and physical access to
political leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991
Nobel peace prize and leader of the National League for Democracy
(NLD). The NLD won Myanmar's last election in 1990 but was never
allowed to take office. The resolution, which now goes to the
full Assembly for endorsement, strongly urged the government to
take all necessary steps toward the restoration of democracy in
accordance with the will of the people expressed in the 1990
election.
It stressed the importance for the government to give particular
attention to improving prison conditions and to allowing
international organisations to communicate freely and
confidentially with prisoners. Myanmar's ambassador, Win Mra,
dissociating his delegation from the resolution, said it was
"highly selective and extremely partial." "All
allegations are baseless and there is nothing concrete to
substantiate them," he added. The resolution failed to
reflect what he said was his government's "positive efforts
to improve the situation in the country" and was designed to
"further the cause of one political party and one individual
in particular" -- a reference to Suu Kyi.
Mra said Suu Kyi, "in her slanderous speeches against the
government," called for sanctions against the country and
the withholding of investment, and urged foreign tourists not to
visit Myanmar. The government had laid down a systematic
programme for a transition to a new political system, taking into
account the political, economic, social and geopolitical
conditions of the country, he said.
THE STRAITS TIMES: OWNER OF 'HUMAN ZOO' ON TRIAL IN
THAILAND
November 20, 1998
LONDON -- The owner of a "human-zoo" camp in Thailand,
where 21 children from a long-necked Myanmar hill tribe were kept
on show for tourists, is facing charges after a government
inquiry led to its closure. In court in Fang, near the Myanmar
border, were Thana Nakluang, the camp owner, and Rakkiat Sri
Siriwilai, its manager. Both deny depriving people of their
liberty and that the detentions caused death. They face prison
terms of three to 20 years. Last November, The Times of London
published a report exposing the "human-zoo" camp in Ban
San Thon Du, near Thaton.
The report led to an inquiry by Ms Ladawan Wongsriwong, the
Minister in the Office of Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai. After
receiving evidence gathered by Mr Andrew Drummond, a
correspondent for The Times, and Ms Sudarat Sereewat,
Secretary-General of the Coalition to Fight Against Child
Exploitation, Ms Ladawan went to see the camp's conditions for
herself. After her visit, the Interior Minister ordered its
closure.
Ms Sudarat told the court how she travelled with Mr Drummond and
officials to Ban San Thon Du after they had heard pleas for help
from Padaung families inside. The pleas were recorded on tape and
smuggled out through tourists. "When they saw us they rushed
to the gates," Ms Sudarat said. They learnt that a woman had
died in the camp. "I spoke to the woman's husband, who said
she had died of a broken heart."