------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
----------------------------------------------------------

The BurmaNet News:  December 12, 1996
Issue # 590

Noted in Passing: 

                The government says we are connected with the NLD. 
                It is not true. We are not our elder brothers, we are a
                new generation. - Student demonstrator (see: AP: 
                BURMA STUDENT PROTESTS SIDELINE SUU KYI, 
                NLD) 

HEADLINES:
==========
BKK POST: FRESH STUDENT PROTESTS
AP: TOP GENERAL ACCUSES SUU KYI OF INCITING PROTESTS 
AP: BURMA STUDENT PROTESTS SIDELINE SUU KYI, NLD 
AP: SLORC ARRESTED 24 MEMBERS OF NLD 
REUTERS: BURMA ARRESTS 20 STUDENTS AFTER PROTESTS
REUTERS: MORE SECURITY CHECKS TO CURB UNREST IN MYANMAR
KYODO: SLORC PHYSICALLY STOPS DAW SUU  FROM LEAVING 
REUTERS: DEMOCRACY FORCES CAN TOPPLE BURMA JUNTA 
AP: MA THIDA
THE NATION: MESSAGE OF HOPE FROM SUU KYI
TT: PROTESTS IN BURMA CAUSE DECLINE OF BORDER TRADE
AP: BURMA SAYS ASIAN COUNTRIES RELUCTANT TO ENDORSE ITA
BKK POST: AUST SEEKS CLOSE TIES WITH ASEAN
ABSDF (WB): THE ASIA PACIFIC NGO HUMAN RIGHTS CONGRESS
KYODO: JAPANESE COMPANY TO BUILD APARTMENT IN YANGON
JAPAN TIMES: LETTER - DESTRUCTIVE ENGAGEMENT
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------

BKK POST: FRESH STUDENT PROTESTS
December 11, 1996

New student demonstrations erupted at a medical school in downtown Rangoon
yesterday as the military government closed most secondary schools in the
capital in an attempt to quash mounting protests.

The hit-and-run style demonstrations that have erupted at various
colleges in Rangoon and Mandalay during the past several days are
the most serious challenge to the current military government
since 1988, when it seized power by brutally crushing a
nationwide pro-democracy uprising.

More than 50 students staged a sit-in protest in front of medical
university No. 1 early yesterday afternoon. They chanted slogans
and demanded an end to police brutality, the right to form a
student union and increased freedom and human rights.

Riot police stationed a block away allowed the sit-in to continue
while students stayed off the street, but military intelligence
officers blanketed the area and confiscated film from news photographers.

Student leaders tried to get more of their colleagues inside a
dormitory across the street to join the protest, but they refused

Students could be heard chanting slogans inside the dormitory
late Monday night, as a crowd of several hundred people gathered outside.

Riot police charged the onlookers and dispersed the crowd, but
did not enter the dormitory.

There were unconfirmed reports of other small student
demonstrations around Rangoon yesterday afternoon that were
broken up by police.

The heavy police presence around the city and the universities
has served to prevent different groups of protesters from linking
up to form a large demonstration.

"We are following standard international procedure " in dealing
with the demonstrators, said Col Hla Min of  Military
Intelligence. "Most of the kids want to return to school and
that's what the government wants also."

Students and police have clashed regularly since Saturday morning
when riot police broke up an all-night student sit-in outside the
Shwe Dagon pagoda, arresting several hundred in the process.

Protests have also spread to the institutes of medicine and
technology in Mandalay, Burma's second largest city, according to
a statement yesterday from Human Rights Watch Asia an
international rights watchdog.

"The schools will reopen when the situation returns to normalcy,"
Hla Min said.

*****************************************************************

AP: TOP GENERAL ACCUSES SUU KYI OF INCITING PROTESTS 
December 11, 1996

   RANGOON, Burma (AP) _ Burma's top general branded an ongoing
wave of student protests as the work of political infiltrators and
colonialist lackeys in the first official government reaction to
the recent unrest in Wednesday's state-run media.
   Senior General Than Shwe, the most powerful member of Burma's
military junta, made the charges during a speech to the Union
Solidarity and Development Association, a military-sponsored social
organization that democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has compared to
the Hitler Youth.
   Rangoon has been rocked in recent days by students demonstrating
against police brutality, and demanding the right to form a
students union and more freedom and human rights.

   ``All must keep vigil and prevent negative, destructive and
subversive traitors from intruding into the education realm and
using students in bids to gain political power,'' read the front
page headline on Wednesday's state-run New Light of Myanmar.
   The story quoted Than Shwe as urging students and parents to
prevent ``pessimistic and destructive lackeys of the colonialists
who are trying to use students in their bids to gain political power.''
   The military frequently refers to Suu Kyi as a lackey of colonialists
because she is married to a British academic, Michael Aris.
   It has also blamed her, along with communists and exile students
groups, of inciting the recent protests.
   Both Suu Kyi and the students vigorously deny the charge,
insisting that although they may have some of the same goals, there
is no contact between them.
   Than Shwe said that 49 percent of the USDA's 5 million members
were students, but observers said they were mostly members on
paper. Few students have been seen attending any of the government-organized
USDA rallies.
   Some Burmese say people join the organization not out of support
for the government, but to receive preferential treatment in jobs,
housing and other perks.

   On Tuesday, the general urged the organization to ``be vigilant
and guard against disturbances of peace and tranquility.''

   Suu Kyi was attempting to drive to the United States charge
d'affaires residence for lunch. Four high-ranking U.S. Republican
congressmen have been in Burma for the past several days and have
met with military leaders.
   They are chairman of the National Republican Congressional
Committee Bill Paxon and Dennis Hastert of Illinois, Deborah Price
from Ohio and Texan Tom Delaney.

*****************************************************************

AP: BURMA STUDENT PROTESTS SIDELINE SUU KYI, NLD 
December 11, 1996
By Patrick McDowell 
 
   RANGOON (AP-Dow Jones)--Eight years after troops gunned down hundreds of
pro-democracy protesters, a new generation of Burmese is taking to the 
streets - and they aren't led by Aung Sang Suu Kyi. 
   Increasingly confined to her home and muzzled by the military 
government, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner is a spectator to a wave of
protests by university students changing the equation of political dissent
in this 
tightly controlled country. 
   A generation gap is visible between the students, in their early 20s or
younger, and the older supporters loyal to Suu Kyi's National League for
Democracy who fill a Rangoon intersection each weekend in the usually 
vain hope she can come give a speech. 
   'We are not concerned with the NLD or Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,' said Zah 
Mazui Nu, 22, an economics student. 'The government says we are connected
with the NLD. It is not true. We are not our elder brothers, we are a new 
generation.' 
   The students held no animosity toward Suu Kyi, but they're focused on
their own agenda. And that basically means more student rights rather 
than Suu Kyi's call for broad political dialogue with the government. 
   But one thing is the same as 1988 - Rangoon resembles a city under siege. 
   Trucks packed with soldiers training assault rifles over the cabs 
speed to dormitories or campuses at the least sign of a sit-in or march.
Police armed with rattan shields and clubs chase onlookers down streets hung
with banners urging tourists 'Visit Myanmar, the Golden Land.' Myanmar is
another name for Burma. 
   So far, bloodshed has been avoided. The regime's security forces have 
acted with relative restraint compared to the carnage seen in 1988, now
using clubs and water cannons to disperse protesters rather than tear-gas
and live
ammunition. 

   Before the demonstrations, Burma was at a stalemate. The State Law and 
Order Restoration Council, the junta in control of the country, has stymied
Suu Kyi at every turn since freeing her from six years of house arrest in 1995. 
   Suu Kyi's contact with ordinary Burmese has been virtually cut off since
September, when authorities started erecting roadblocks each weekend to stop
supporters gathering at her home. 
   Now, those roadblocks seem insignificant. 
   Ten square kilometers (four square miles) of Rangoon are sealed off to
isolate three university campuses at the heart of the unrest. Ready-made
barbed-wire barricades have been placed in scores of other places, ready 
to be dragged across streets quickly. 
   The students stand virtually no chance of toppling the government - 
which is not their stated goal - and probably little likelihood they can wrest
concessions from a regime not known for give and take. 
   The students share with Suu Kyi, 51, an obvious dislike for the regime and
often chant slogans demanding democracy and freedom. But they say their main
goal is an independent student council to negotiate their grievances with the
government. 
   Since, student affairs have been tightly controlled and perodic uprisings put
down at the cost of scores of lives. 
   The students complain their degrees are worthless due to disruptions 
in the academic year still felt from the three-year closure of the universities 
after the 1988 uprising. They also complain of lack of materials and poor 
facilities.
   But the spark that launched their protests, they claim, was a dispute 
between some Rangoon Institute of Technology students and a food stall owner
in October. Three were hauled to a station of the municipal police - the lowest
rung of Burma's massive security apparatus - and badly beaten. 
   Later that month, 600 students, mostly from the technology institute, 
staged a sit-in at nearby Rangoon University. Two more protests followed
last week, and the pace is picking up. Sporadic outbursts by a few score or
few hundred occur daily, prevented from linking up by the omnipresent security 
forces. 
   The student protesters, however, are in a minority. Thousands of others
are either afraid to join or are more concerned with getting on with life. 

****************************************************************

AP: SLORC ARRESTED 24 MEMBERS OF NLD 
December 11, 1996 (abridged)

RANGOON, Burma (AP) -- Twenty-four members of Burma's pro-democracy party
reportedly were in custody Wednesday as small protests continued to spring
up across Rangoon.

Kyi Maung, vice chairman of the National League party of democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi, said 28 members had been detained after a demonstration
Friday night. Four were released Wednesday morning.

Maung said one person -- a laundryman -- was killed in the demonstration,
which was broken up by a water cannon and baton charge.

Maung said if the students were sure the government wouldn't fire on them,
``there would be thousands coming out into the streets.''

Troops have kept schools closed for three days, preventing students from
meeting at their usual gathering points. Eighteen troop carriers also were
stationed near central Rangoon's golden Sule Pagoda, the rallying point for
protesters during the 1988 uprising.

In a speech published in Wednesday's state-run newspapers, Senior Gen. Than
Shwe, the most powerful member of Burma's military regime, accused Suu Kyi
of inciting the students to protest.

Both the students and Suu Kyi have denied working together, although both
admit they are fighting for some of the same goals.

Maung said he believes international pressure has prevented the government
from resorting to harsher tactics against the protesters.

The students took to the streets after some of them were beaten by police
during an argument with a restaurant owner.

Groups of onlookers, including Buddhist monks from a nearby monastery,
cheered and applauded the students. They were quickly pushed out of the area
by plainclothes intelligence officers, who also manhandled reporters.

Traffic was cut off and soldiers gathered in formation nearby as the
students began chanting: ``Aung San taught the army to fight, not to kill
students.''

The military has refused to let students form a union since they dynamited
the student union building, killing hundreds, in 1962.

Teachers were trying to talk the students into returning to their
dormitories when police pushed reporters out of the area.

*****************************************************************

REUTERS: BURMA ARRESTS 20 STUDENTS AFTER PROTESTS
December 11, 1996 (abridged)
By Vithoon Amorn
        
        RANGOON, Dec 11 (Reuter) - Burmese security forces arrested
        about 20 students amid scattered protests in the capital
        Rangoon, witnesses and diplomats said on Wednesday.
    
        Some 50 Yangon University students staged a brief
        anti-government protest in front of the U.S. embassy in the
        centre of the city late on Tuesday, they told Reuters.
    
        "They gathered near the embassy after either walking or
        taking buses to the embassy. About 20 students were arrested," a
        student source said.
    
        Government confirmation was not immediately available.
        More than 100 students at a medical school in central
        Rangoon shouted anti-government slogans at the gate of their
        campus on Tuesday and later dispersed, witnesses said.
    
        Police and military personnel manned checkpoints in the
        vicinity of the university and the Yangon Institute of
        Technology for the sixth day.
    
        At the peak of the demonstrations, thousands of protesters
        took to the streets from the two colleges. The authorities broke
        up the protests, held over 860 students and later freed them.
        Diplomats said the protests had also spread briefly over the
        weekend to two universities in the northern city of Mandalay.

        "If peace and tranquility are marred due to lack of
        restraint and thoughtlessness of some politicians, arrangements
        for the building of a modern nation will meet with delay,
        hindrance or disruption," SLORC chairman Senior General Than
        Shwe said in speech to the government-run Union Solidarity and
        Development Association.

        Powerful military intelligence chief Lieutenant General Khin
        Nyunt told Burmese writers at a ceremony on Wednesday to beware
        the threat to Burma posed by internal and external destructive
        elements. He did not identify the elements.
        
        Diplomats said the SLORC had issued circulars to all
        embassies in Rangoon, informing them the SLORC had exercised
        maximum restraint despite sustained student protests.
        
        The circular said the SLORC request for opposition leader
        Aung San Suu Kyi to temporarily confine herself to her lakeside
        residence was for the Nobel laureate's own safety.
        The circular repeated SLORC accusations that some members of
        Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party, exiled
        Burmese students and the outlawed Communist Party of Burma were
        behind the protests.

*****************************************************************

REUTERS: MORE SECURITY CHECKS TO CURB UNREST IN MYANMAR
December 11, 1996

MYANMAR authorities set up more security checks in the tense capital
yesterday to curb any fresh student unrest, as universities remained sealed
and calm after there were no new overnight protests.

Witnesses said police and soldiers continued manning roadblocks in the
vicinity of the Yangon Institute of Technology (YIT) and the Yangon
University (YU).

All classes in the two campuses remained cancelled since Monday after
hundreds of boarding students left for home, fearing more unrest and that
the government would close the universities.

The diplomats also said monks in northern Mandalay had announced the
formation of an All Buddhist Monks Union this week. Unions are illegal in
Myanmar.

Witnesses said police had set up more road blocks at some river bridges
linking central and eastern Yangon to check commuters' identity papers.
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi remained confined to her residence
yesterday. -- Reuter

*****************************************************************

KYODO: SLORC PHYSICALLY STOPS DAW SUU  FROM LEAVING December 11, 1996.

    Myanmar's military government forces stopped pro-democracy leader 
Aung San Suu Kyi from leaving her home Tuesday to attend a luncheon with 
the acting U.S. ambassador, her aides said Wednesday.
     Army soldiers placed chocks, studded with protruding nails, in front 
of Suu Kyi's car when she tried to leave, and police with nightsticks 
lined up across the front gate to her housing compound, the aides said.

*****************************************************************

REUTERS: DEMOCRACY FORCES CAN TOPPLE BURMA JUNTA 
December 11, 1996
By Somchit Rungchamratasami

        PA-AN, Eastern Burma, Dec 11 (Reuter) - The self-proclaimed
        Burmese government-in-exile predicted on Wednesday that various
        democratic forces at play in Burma were poised to topple the
        military junta. 
        
        A minister in the Washington-based National
        Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB) told Reuters 
        in an interview that current student protests in the country were
        a manifestation of such forces, and they would grow.
        "I think democratic forces are having the upper hand right
        now. So I think in the near future, democratic forces will be
        able to topple military rule," said Tint Swe, a minister in the
        office of NCGUB Prime Minister Sein Win.
        
        The NGCUB was set up by elected members of parliament of the
        opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party who fled
        Burma.The NLD is led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and is
        active in Rangoon.
        
        The exiles formed the parallel government after the ruling
        State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) refused to
        recognise the NLD's landslide victory in 1990 elections.
        Tint Swe said a dual strategy to apply pressure on the SLORC
        from inside and outside the country was now working and building
        up as more countries and businesses were opposing the Burmese
        military regime.
        "Now the international community are on our side, and inside
        the country the people including students, lecturers and workers
        are expressing their will to move for freedom, to form the
        unions and Suu Kyi has tried her best," he said.
        Tint Swe lives in exile in India and travels to the jungles
        of Burma and Thailand from time to time to meet opponents of
        SLORC.
        He believed that the SLORC would not use force to repress
        current student street protests as the military did during
        pro-democracy uprisings in September 1988, when thousands were
        killed or jailed.
        "It was the good sign that the SLORC did not use force to
        crack down on the student demonstrations and I don't believe
        they will use force to crack down on them," he said.
        Riot police and soldiers used water cannon and batons to
        disperse a student protest on Saturday. More than 860 students
        were detained by the government following last week's protests
        but the government said all were later freed.
        
        Maung Maung Aye, the NGCUB's Information Minister, who was
        also present at the interview, urged the Association of
        Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to delay Burma's admittance to
        the regional bloc.
        "I think like Aung San Suu Kyi said, if SLORC becomes a
        member of ASEAN it will be a disgrace for the ASEAN and I don't
        think the ASEAN leaders will be fooled by the SLORC," he said.
    
        The seven-member ASEAN, which groups Thailand, Malaysia,
        Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and Brunei, has
        agreed in principle to admit Burma as a full member in 1997.
        "We want the ASEAN leaders to reconsider and to delay the
        membership of Burma as long as the military regime is in power
        in Burma," Maung Maung Aye added.

*****************************************************************

AP: MA THIDA
December 11, 1996

   BOSTON (AP) _ Ma Thida, a doctor, writer and political activist,
can't receive the award she's earned for fighting for human rights in Burma.
   The 27-year-old sits alone in a dark prison cell.
   But on Tuesday, hundreds of lights shined for her in Boston.
   About 250 people gathered for a candlelight vigil on the Boston
Common to honor Thida's struggle to bring human rights to her
troubled homeland in Southeast Asia.
   ``I hope she can feel the candles that we have lit here,'' said
Susannah Sirkin, deputy director of Physicians for Human Rights, a
Boston-based group. ``She faces 17 more years.''
   Thida is one of four young activists from around the world being
honored with the Reebok Human Rights Award in Boston Wednesday.
Activists from Nigeria, Guatemala are also being honored, along
with a 13-year-old Canadian boy.
   Thida was imprisoned in 1993 for opposing Burma's military
dictatorship and supporting the political party of Nobel Peace
Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. Among the charges against her were
``endangering public tranquility and distributing unlawful
literature.''
   At the vigil were representatives of Amnesty International, and
celebrities including musicians Michael Stipe and Peter Gabriel and
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino.
   Myaing Nyunt, a 30-year-old George Washington University medical
student and a close friend of Thida's, said the international
community must not forget Burma's plight. She recalled Thida's love
of reading along with her determination.
   ``Ma Thida is the most stubborn person I have known in my entire
life, but her health has always been on the weak side,'' Nyunt
said.
   Sirkin said Thida has lost weight and suffers from tuberculosis
in her small cell with little light and no books.
   Menino issued a proclamation on behalf of the city, stressing
the need to fight for human rights every day.
   ``I look forward to the day she can travel to Boston to accept
the award she so richly deserves,'' Menino said.
   Afterwards, Stipe, of the musical group REM, reflected on the
ceremony.
   ``It's just great to get some form of solidarity,'' he said.
``Even if we are thousands of miles away.''
   Massachusetts has the only state selective purchasing law that
bars state agencies from dealing with companies that do business
with Burma. Several cities have passed similar laws.
   The law is intended to force investors, including foreign
companies, to choose between doing business with Burma or the state
of Massachusetts. Apple computers recently announced it was pulling
out of Burma because of the Massachusetts law.
   Ma Thida is being held in the Insein Prison, where torture of
political prisoners is commonplace.
   
****************************************************************

THE NATION: MESSAGE OF HOPE FROM SUU KYI
December 11, 1996

Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's embattled political opposition leader
and winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, Monday sent a message
of hope to this year's East Timorese prize winners.

"I hope the time will come when we will be able to work together
for democracy, not just in Burma, but also in other parts of the
world," she said in a videoed statement shown at a press
conference here one day ahead of the prize-giving ceremony.

The Burmese dissident was invited to Oslo by the Norwegian Nobel
Peace Prize committee to speak at this year's peace award to two
East Timor human rights and pro-independence activists, Bishop
Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo and Jose Ramos-Horta.

But she was unable to come because she is currently under house
arrest in her native country.

Aung San Suu Kyi said in her message smuggled out of Burma, that
the Nobel Peace award to her five years ago had given a great
boost to Burma's democracy movement. She said Norway would be the
first country she would visit when eventually permitted to leave.

*****************************************************************

TT: PROTESTS IN BURMA CAUSE DECLINE OF BORDER TRADE
December 11, 1996 (Thailand Times)
by Assawin Pinitwong

TAK: A wave of student protests in Burma last week has caused
severe damage to the Thai -Burmese border trade and Burmese
traders have temporarily suspended imports from Thailand worth
about 100 million baht a day.

A Burmese trader in the border town of Mae Sot said yesterday
that as a result of last week's student unrests in the Burmese
capital, traders in Rangoon and other major cities had decided to
suspend the imports, especially from Thai border provinces of
Tak, Ranong, and Chiang Rai.

Burmese traders fear their imported goods, most of which are
transported overland from Thailand, will be at stake if the
unrests become the suspension of import, which began last
Saturday, would remain in force if the situation did not improve
in Rangoon.

Thai traders in Mae Sot said that crisis might lead to a shortage
of staple commodities such as rice and fuel in some parts of
Burma, especially in Rangoon.

Burmese  authorities yesterday closed down the main university
and Rangoon Institute of Technology (RIT) indefinitely following
a series of most defiant student protests since pro-democracy
uprising eight years ago took to the streets of the capital. 

Students from RIT and Rangoon University staged a series of anti-
government protests in Rangoon on last week Monday, Tuesday, and
Friday, demanding the establishment of student unions and the
release of student prisoners allegedly held by the military in
October after a smaller sit-in protest.

*****************************************************************

AP: BURMA SAYS ASIAN COUNTRIES RELUCTANT TO ENDORSE ITA
December 11, 1996

   SINGAPORE (AP-Dow Jones)--David Abel, head of delegation and Minister for
National Planning and economic development for Burma, said Wednesday he
thought it would be difficult for the U.S. and European Union (E.U.) to
persuade  Asian countries to sign an information technology agreement (ITA)
before Friday's conclusion of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) ministerial 
conference. 
   As significant exporters and importers of ITA products, Asian countries are
more concerned that the U.S. and E.U. have a monopoly over the technology
and that this monopoly would be imposed on all the signatories, he said. 
   Abel added that most Asian countries would prefer the agreement to 
cover a narrower range of products and services and said that negotiating
this pact during the current WTO meeting was stretching the boundaries of
the trade
organization. 
   Burma was a founding member of both the General Agreement of Tariffs and
Trade (GATT) and the WTO. It has applied for, but not yet gained, entry 
to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). 

*****************************************************************

BKK POST: AUST SEEKS CLOSE TIES WITH ASEAN
December 11, 1996

Canberra - Australia said yesterday it wants to work closely with the Asean
nations over continuing human rights and political problems in Burma.

"The single most important thing Burma is seeking from the international
community is membership of Asean," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said
yesterday.

Downer said he's convinced Australia must work with Asean to influence
change in Burma. (BP)

*****************************************************************

ABSDF (WB): THE ASIA PACIFIC NGO HUMAN RIGHTS CONGRESS
December 6-8, 1996
 
Resolution on Burma
The Asia Pacific NGO Human Rights Congress-
 
Viewing with alarm the recent threats to the physical security of 
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in the context of the increased pressure being 
exerted by SLORC on the National League for Democracy,
 
Considering that the National Convention convened by SLORC on 9 
January 1993 is design to prolong and legitimize military rule 
against the will of the people as expressed in the 1990 elections, 
and thus violates the principle established in the Universal 
Declaration of Human Rights that the will of the people shall be 
the Basis of the authority of government,
 
Convinced that the best means to bring about a stable future for 
Burma would be tripartite discussions involving SLORC, the political 
opposition and the ethnic opposition .
Nothing that there has never been an internationally coordinated 
Burma policy, but simply a number of bilateral policies, with ASEAN's 
constructive Engagement, Japan's policy, the EU's critical dialogue, 
Australia's Benchmark Diplomacy and the Two Vision policy of the US 
pulling in different directions and neutralizing each other.
 
1) Urges the international community to insist that SLORC give 
clear guarantees of the physical safely of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi 
and her colleagues.
 
2)  Calls on the international community, in particular the 
     government of the Asia-Pacific, to;
     
     Develop an internationally-coordinated Burma policy aimed clearly at the 
     restoration of democracy in the light of the 1990 election, by means 
     of a tripartite process involving SLORC, the political opposition 
     and the ethnic opposition.
     
     Create an ongoing working group to agree the goals and means of 
     such a policy. Such a group should invite suggestion and assistance 
     from intergovernmental,  gonerrment, and non-governmental bodies 
     and organizations.
         
     Drop all support of SLORC's National Convention, as being 
     incompatible 
     with the aim, started in most if the UN Burma resolution to date, 
     (adopted by consensus) of resolution of democracy in the light of 
     the 1990 election. 

*****************************************************************

KYODO: JAPANESE COMPANY TO BUILD APARTMENT IN YANGON
December 11, 1996

     YANGON, Dec. 11 Kyodo - A Singapore-based subsidiary of the
Japanese zip-fastener maker YKK Corp. signed an agreement Wednesday
to build a 35 million U.S. dollar apartment building in Yangon.
     The agreement was signed by Yoshiki Takeda, managing director of
YKK Development Pte Ltd., and Tin Oo, director of the Myanmar Port
Authority, in the presence of Lt. Gen. Thein Win, the ruling junta's
transport minister.
     Under the contract on a build, operate and transfer basis, the
Japanese company will build a 186-room apartment block on Kaba-Aye
Pagoda Road in Yangon and operate it for 30 years before transferring
the establishment to the Myanmar government free of charge.
     Construction of the building, to be known as the YKK Golden Hill
Service Apartment, is expected to be completed in three years.

***************************************************************

JAPAN TIMES: LETTER - DESTRUCTIVE ENGAGEMENT
December 11, 1996
        
Your recent feature written by two members of the European Parliament
regarding slave labor and the horrid tactics of Burma's ruling State Law and
Order Reform Council (Nov. 22) brought vivid images back to me of the time I
spent in business negotiations with SLORC generals in a stint at a real
estate developer quite some time in the past.  They are memories at which I
cringe.  (I quit the company for moral reasons.)
        SLORC officials, when they formalize a contract with business entities from
overseas, usually attach a stipulation to the contract that a certain "sign
bonus" must be paid.  These are not kept secret, and are openly publicized,
often in project finance magazines and other speciality financial
publications.  This is in effect similar to "key money" for an apartment in
Japan, and without it, no contract can be consummated.
        These bonuses usually run into several millions of U.S. dollars, money with
which SLORC can purchase ammunition and weapons.  With this arsenal, SLORC
is comfortably able to suppress the call for democracy in Burma.
Effectively, thus, the iron-fisted, oppressive rule of SLORC is largely
funded by the overseas companies who grudgingly pay these bonuses.  No
bonus, no contract.  No contract, no access to the potential Burmese market
(in reality, a huge majority of Burma's populace hardly has the funds needed
to buy the televisions and mobile phones companies think they can sell there).
        The contractual documents, when publicly available, of foreign companies,
especially Japanese companies, who in tandem with Southeast Asia prefer to
"constructively engage" Burma, should be evaluated by some sort of
international business council on ethics to determine if these "bonuses"
(read: bribes) are being paid, and some sort of penalizing sanctions on such
companies should exist.
        Evidence exists that Japanese companies in particular, beaten by Korea and
others in Vietnam, etc. and thus in search of some sort of pioneer market,
blindly ignore SLORC's horrific actions, convinced that a new office
building or an airport will somehow benefit the average citizens who can't
afford the rising cost of rice.  This is far from a reality.  A "Ginza" in
the middle of Rangoon will do nothing but bring more hard cash into the
coffers of the worst military dictatorship in Asia, and smiles on the faces
of indignant businessmen just as narcissistic as SLORC.

--Scott R. Docie, Yokohama

*****************************************************************

BURMANET SUBJECT-MATTER RESOURCE LIST

BurmaNet regularly receives enquiries on a number of different 
topics related to Burma. If you have questions on any of the 
following subjects, please direct email to the following volunteer 
coordinators, who will either answer your question or try to put you 
in contact with someone who can:

Campus activism:        zni@students.wisc.edu
Boycott campaigns: [Pepsi] ai268@freenet.carleton.ca     
Buddhism:                    Buddhist Relief Mission:  brelief@gol.com
Chin history/culture:        [volunteer temporarily away]
Fonts:                                  tom@cs.colgate.edu
High School Activism:   [volunteer needed]
History of Burma:            zni@students.wisc.edu
International Affairs:   Julien Moe: moe@interport.net 
Kachin history/culture:      74750.1267@compuserve.com 
Karen history/culture:  Karen Historical Society: 102113.2571@Compuserve.com
Mon history/culture:         [volunteer needed]
Naga history/culture:   Wungram Shishak:  z954001@oats.farm.niu.edu
Burma-India border            Aung San Myint: aungsan@giasd101.vsnl.net.in
Pali literature:                 "Palmleaf":  c/o burmanet@igc.apc.org
Pipeline Campaign               freeburma@irn.org
Resettlement info:      refugee_help@mail.serve.com 
Rohingya culture                volunteer needed
Shan history/culture:   Sao Hpa Han: burma@ix.netcom.com
Shareholder activism:       simon_billenness@mail.cybercom.net 
Total - France          Dawn Star: cd@utopia.EUnet.fr  
Tourism campaigns:              bagp@gn.apc.org     "Attn. S.Sutcliffe"   
volunteering:           refugee_help@mail.serve.com
World Wide Web:              FreeBurma@POBox.com

Geographical Contacts:
Massachusetts           simon_billenness@mail.cybercom.net 

[Feel free to suggest more areas of coverage]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

FREE BURMA WEB PAGES:

http://FreeBurma.org

This single page serves only as an easy to remember URL and departure
point to resources promoting the establishment of democracy in Burma.
Please write to FreeBurma@pobox.com to add a site or for further
information." - Glen, system administrator

FREE BURMA COALITION:

to get involved in the Free Burma Coalition, send a message to:
zni@students.wisc.edu  

or visit their homepage, accessible through: http:// FreeBurma.org

There is also an e-mail list-server especially for Free Burma activists

BURMANET SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION:

The BurmaNet News is an electronic newspaper covering Burma.
Articles from newspapers, magazines, newsletters, the wire
services and the Internet as well as original material are published.   
It is produced with the support of the Burma Information Group 
(B.I.G) and the Research Department of the ABSDF.  We are also 
grateful to many other friends around the world who send us articles
to post.

The BurmaNet News is e-mailed directly to subscribers and is
also distributed via the soc.culture.burma and seasia-l mailing lists. 

For a free subscription to the BurmaNet News: 
send a message to: majordomo@igc.apc.org   

a. For the BurmaNet News only: 
    in the message, type:    subscribe burmanews-l

b. For the BurmaNet News and 4-5 other messages a day:
    in the message, type:     subscribe burmanet-l  

(NOTE: all lower case letters, last letter is a lower case "L", not the
numeral one).

Letters to the editor, comments or contributions of articles should be 
sent to the editor at: strider@igc.apc.org

