Open Society Institute
The Burma Project
Burma News Update No. 93
22 September 1999
Quiet on "Four Nines"
Burma's capital, Rangoon, and other major centers were
reported calm on 09 September as the country's army
regime deployed extra troops and riot police to quell any
public response to calls by exile groups for pro-democracy demonstrations on "9-9-99." Nine is an auspicious numeral in Burmese numerology, and the "four nines" date was also linked to the massive pro-democracy uprising on 08 August 1988 ("8-8-88"). Exile groups says more than 500 people have been detained in the junta's effort to suppress new demonstrations, while the regime puts the figure at less than 40. While arrests and the presence of heavy security forces ensured quiet inside Burma, protests against continued dictatorship and human rights violations in Burma took place in several other countries, including Thailand and Australia.
Rangoon, "Reuters," 09 September
Dam Warning
Thai and Burmese exile non-governmental groups are
raising new environmental and human rights warnings on
proposed hydroelectric dam projects along the Salween
River, which forms part of the border between Thailand
and Burma. Thirty-five civic and environmental groups
issued an open letter demanding that planning for any
such projects be ''fully open, transparent and honest.''
The letter, issued as a closed four-day conference in the
northern Thai city of Chiang Mai considered various
plans to dam the Salween River, urged that any project
must ''fully recognise and respect the human, civil and
political rights of all the development-affected people,
ensuring their informed participation and fully
compensating them for any losses incurred."
"The Nation"(Bangkok), 13 September
Bad News = No News
With its normal publication date well past, it appears
that Burma's military regime will offer no statistical
yearbook for 1989-99. The official annual compilation is
usually issued in July in both Burmese and English
versions, and there has been no word from the junta on
its absence. Burma analysts suggest that the regime
"is embarrassed to release information confirming
Burma's abysmal economic performance over the past
year. Industrial production has plunged, foreign investment is down to a trickle and prices of daily commodities are rising fast."
"Far Eastern Economic Review," 16 September
Timor Example Feared?
Burma's ruling army junta distanced itself from United
Nations efforts to restore peace to East Timor, stating,
"The decision of some ASEAN (Association of Southeast
Asian Nations) countries to be involved in peacekeeping
operations in East Timor is not a coordinated ASEAN
position and accordingly we would not like to comment
on it." Analysts suggest that Burma's generals, who
are widely charged with gross human rights abuses,
fear any trend toward greater international intervention
to promote human rights and democracy.
Bangkok, "Agence France Presse," 13 September
Regime Rejects Religion Charges
Burma's ruling army junta rejected charges that it is
suppressing the rights of Buddhist clergy, seeking
to forcibly convert Christians, and repressing
Muslims in the predominantly Buddhist country. The
allegations were detailed in the US State Department's
first Annual Report on International Religious Freedom,
which was released on 09 September. The regime has
"systematically restricted efforts by Buddhist clergy to
promote human rights and political freedom, the report
said. Members of the Chin ethnic minority in
northwestern Burma were pressed to convert to
Buddhism through "highly coercive means, including
religiously selective exemptions from forced labor, and
by arresting, detaining, interrogating, and physically
abusing Christian clergy," the report stated. It also
said that Rohingya Muslims living in Burma's southern
Arakan State "continued to experience severe legal,
economic, and social discrimination.''
Bangkok, "Associated Press," 11 September
Second Briton Jailed
A 28-year old British woman was sentenced to seven
years' hard labor by a Burmese court for "undermining
peace, security and stability" after she chained
herself to a lamppost in downtown Rangoon and
shouted pro-democracy slogans. The imprisonment of
Rachel Goldwyn came a few weeks after another
Briton, 26-year old James Mawdsley, received a 17-year
jail term for similar offenses.
"The Guardian" (London), 17 September
BURMA NEWS UPDATE is a publication of
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