HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Thu, 9 Apr 1992 15:25:20 PDT
From:         "Indonesia Publications/Task Force" <apakabar@IGC.ORG>
Subject:      'Politicizing' Water Festival
X-To:         seasia-l@msu.edu

Remark: Scanned from FBIS.

Warning on Politicizing New Year Festival Noted

BKO104153592 Rangoon Radio Burma in Burmese 1330 GMT 1 Apr 92

[Excerpts] Major General Myo Nyunt, chairman of Rangoon Division Law and
Order Restoration Council and commander of Rangoon Military Command, attended
a coordination meeting on holding the 1992 traditional Burmese New Year and
Water Festival at the Rangoon Division police director's meeting hall
yesterday at 1530 and delivered an address. [passage omitted]

Myo Nyunt said as the traditional Myanmar New Year festival is drawing near,
this coordination meeting has been held to coordinate the celebrations of
traditional water festivals grandly and township-wise in a happy and peaceful
atmosphere.  He then said the traditional Thingyan water festival in Burma is
also considered Burma's New Year festival.  Continuing, he said our
government will not accept any political party or organization that uses the
traditional Burma Thingyan water festival as a political platform.

He then explained that responsible personnel must take appropriate measures
to strictly adhere to the State Law and Order Restoration Council's
Declaration No. 1/88.  The declaration bans the organization, movement, and
public speeches made with the intent of destroying the Defense Services.  He
next said responsible personnel will have to take necessary precautions to
get people to refrain from intimidating one another.  Thus, responsible
personnel should carefully scrutinize the songs and lyrics to be used at the
festival.

Continuing, Myo Nyunt said although various townships can have water-throwing
and prize-giving stalls to celebrate the traditional festival, the use of
Western names at the stalls and floats will not be permitted.  He said the use
of Western names could mean that we favor foreign countries and rely on them.

Finally, he urged responsible personnel to take precautionary measures against
the use of public water mains and fire-fighting water hydrants by water
revelers.

The coordination meeting closed at 1600.
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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Tue, 7 Apr 1992 17:21:06 PDT
From:         "Indonesia Publications/Task Force" <apakabar@IGC.ORG>
Subject:      Model Soldiers in Timor
X-To:         seasia-l@msu.edu

    Reuter, Jakarta, April 7 - Indonesian military chief Try Sutrisno
urged troops in East Timor to win the hearts of the people by being
model soldiers after an army massacre last November.
    "You have to become pioneers and models to the people so that they
will better appreciate your existence here," General Try told troops in
East Timor's capital, Dili, on Sunday.
    Try, speaking at a ceremony to mark the Moslem festival of Eid
Al-Fitri in the predominantly Catholic, former Portuguese colony,
advised his soldiers to win the hearts of the East Timorese.
    That plan, under which troops were employed in development projects,
was set back after troops shot dead between 50 and 180 people at a
cemetery in Dili on November 12.
    Diplomats have said the violence has increased East Timorese
resentment against Indonesian rule.
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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Wed, 8 Apr 1992 10:13:41 PDT
From:         "Indonesia Publications/Task Force" <apakabar@IGC.ORG>
Subject:      Peacekeepers Amuse Cambodians
X-To:         seasia-l@msu.edu

    Reuter, Kompong Thom, Cambodia, April 8 - Local villagers are
sometimes baffled, sometimes amused by the customs of the predominantly
Moslem Indonesian soldiers sent to keep the peace near the central
Cambodian battle zone.
    "Why do they point their bottoms to the sun?" asked one Cambodian
woman last Sunday while the Moslem peace-keepers marked the end of the
fasting month of Ramadan with prayer, kneeling and bowing towards Mecca.
    About 190 U.N. soldiers from a Java-based light-infantry airborne
battalion are now living in a former Phnom Penh army barracks on the
outskirts of Kompong Thom town, 170 km (100 miles) north of Phnom Penh.
    Local people say they have been given a much-needed sense of
security by the Indonesians patrolling around town in their white,
U.N.-marked UNIMOG all-terrain trucks.
    "They don't eat rice for a month," said shocked vendors disappointed
by their meagre sales during Ramadan.
    "Why don't they pray with incense?" asked a woman used to burning
the fragrant Buddhist sticks.
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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Tue, 7 Apr 1992 18:25:31 PDT
From:         "Indonesia Publications/Task Force" <apakabar@IGC.ORG>
Subject:      Viet Army Paper Hits US
X-To:         seasia-l@msu.edu

    Reuter, Hanoi, April 7 - Hanoi's army newspaper on Tuesday
criticised Washington's demands that Vietnam fulfil conditions,
including giving U.S. officials free movement in the country, in
exchange for lifting its embargo and normalising diplomatic ties.
    A front-page editorial in the daily Quan Doi Nhan Dan said Vietnam
had tried hard to resolve the fate of the few dozen American servicemen
missing from the Vietnam War and wanted to establish a new friendship
with Washington.
    "This just requires the U.S. side now to be better aware, drop its
hostile attitude and lift the embargo, then normal relations between the
U.S. and Vietnam would immediately be established."
    The United States maintains economic sanctions it imposed against
Hanoi in 1964 and extended in 1975 against a reunified country when the
communists won the Vietnam War.
    "While waging its war against Vietnam, the U.S. administration
committed many crimes against our people. but...out of compassion for
the unfortunate American mothers and wives (who lost men), our
government has always considered the question of prisoners-of-war and
Americans missing-in-action a purely humanitarian issue, not linked to
politics," it said.
    "They even require now to be able to go wherever they want by
themselves in our country to 'look for missing people', as if Vietnam is
a house with no owner, while they remain so strict on limiting the
movement of our diplomats in their country."
    In the last year scores of U.S. experts, working with Vietnamese
officials, have dug up graves and interviewed villagers about servicemen
missing from the war. Foreigners need to have police permits to move
between provinces in Vietnam.
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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Sun, 12 Apr 1992 11:49:35 PDT
From:         "Indonesia Publications/Task Force" <apakabar@IGC.ORG>
Subject:      Rohingyas Stranded?
X-To:         seasia-l@msu.edu

    Reuter, Dhaka, April 11 - Thousands of Burmese Moslem refugees who
have lost their papers may remain stranded in Bangladeshi camps, despite
Burma's decision to take back its nationals, a Bangladesh official said
on Saturday.
    "They have lost all their documents to prove that they are Burmese
nationals. If Rangoon doesn't take them at their face value, they are
going to stay in the refugee camps for a long time," the official told
Reuters.
    Dhaka says up to 215,000 Burmese Moslems, called Rohingyas, have
arrived in Bangladesh since last December to escape alleged brutalities
by Burma's army. The flow, it says, is continuing.
    Burma, which earlier said Rohingyas were aliens and would not be
allowed to return, has admitted that 37,000 of its nationals had crossed
into Bangladesh from its Arakan region.
    Earlier this month it told U.N. Under Secretary General Jan Eliasson
it would take back all its nationals and those who had permits for
permanent residence in Arakan.
    Formal talks on repatriation of Rohingyas will start when Burmese
Foreign Minister Ohn Gyaw pays a six-day visit to Dhaka from April 23 at
the head of a 14-man team, the official said.
    He said Bangladesh has already given Rangoon a list of 64,000
refugees who have documents to back their claims. A second list of about
100,000 Rohingyas was being prepared.
    Burma has meanwhile clarified who would be considered as its
nationals and permanent residents.
    It said those who had nationality registration cards would be
allowed back as "first category returnees." Those who had ration cards,
any other identity cards or were on voters' lists would also be
readmitted, according to the official.
    "That would probably take care of only half of the total number of
refugees. But there will still be thousands left out and stranded in the
refugee camps," he said.
    "Many refugees complained that the Burmese army snatched away those
documents from them," he said.
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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Wed, 15 Apr 1992 06:42:45 PDT
From:         "Indonesia Publications/Task Force" <apakabar@IGC.ORG>
Subject:      Getting Timor Info (repost)
X-To:         seasia-l@msu.edu

[This is a partial re-post for those needing East Timor
information.]

I realize there are persons on the list who need the info
contained in the former East Timor Newsbriefs.  This info can
presently still be easily obtained from any of four online
sources:

1) Usenet's soc.culture.portuguese newsgroup

2) pt-net, a Portuguese list mainly for Portuguese
with no access to Usenet.  For a subscription,
email pt-net-request@inesc.inesc.pt

3) Margarida Silva's East Timor distribution list
(read-only), sited at Cornell.  She has volunteered to
add anyone who needs the full East Timor Newsbriefs.
Email itxy@cornella.cit.cornell.edu with your request.

4) The reg.indonesia conference on Peacenet contains
every posting in the East Timor Newsbriefs plus more.
For info on PeaceNet, an inexpensive non-profit network,
email support2@igc.org (Tom Gray)

Indonesia Publications also issues a number of periodicals
containing East Timor news.  Email me your postal address
if you want more information about what's available in print
form from IndoPubs.


John A. MacDougall                   Email: apakabar@igc.org (Internet)

Editor, Indonesia Publications       Fax: 301-552-4465
Editor, Southeast Asia Publications  Snail: 7538 Newberry Lane
Coordinator, Task Force Indonesia      Lanham-Seabrook, MD 20706, USA
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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Mon, 13 Apr 1992 16:25:09 PDT
From:         "Indonesia Publications/Task Force" <apakabar@IGC.ORG>
Subject:      Cambodia Peace March
X-To:         seasia-l@msu.edu

   AP, Bangkok, April 13 - Nearly 100 people starting a peace walk
across Cambodia were stopped just inside the border by immigration
officials Monday.
   Buddhist monks, chanting and beating drums, led Cambodian refugees
and peace advocates across the border Sunday night, said Arlys Herem of
the Coalition for Peace and Reconciliation, which organized the walk.
   Early Monday, they planned to begin a month-long, 275-mile trek to
the capital, Phnom Penh, to encourage implementation of the peace accord
signed in October by the four warring factions in Cambodia's 13-year-old
civil war.
   But immigration officers at the border town of Poipet would not let
the group proceed until it received permission from officials in Phnom
Penh, Herem said. She said the march probably would be delayed for
several days.
   The walkers include 65 Cambodian refugees and peace advocates and
monks from the United States, Japan, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka,
Bangladesh and Australia.
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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Mon, 13 Apr 1992 16:26:16 PDT
From:         "Indonesia Publications/Task Force" <apakabar@IGC.ORG>
Subject:      UN Cambodia Forces
X-To:         seasia-l@msu.edu

    Reuter, Phnom Penh, Angus MacSwan, April 13 - United Nations
peace-keepers will not get involved in a "shooting war" in Cambodia.
    Australian Lieutenant General John Sanderson said that if any of the
rival factions violated a ceasefire they could find themselves cut out
of the U.N.-brokered peace agreement.
    If one army went back on the warpath, "We have an obligation to
protect civilians and a right to self-defence."
    "We will confront them but we are not going to join in a shooting
war," he told Reuters.
    His comments followed questions about the U.N.'s ability to keep the
rival armies apart after weeks of heavy fighting in Kompong Thom
province north of the capital.
    The Khmer Rouge guerrillas and government forces have now agreed to
a ceasefire but about 200 Indonesian troops sent to the area are still
waiting to move into the contested zones.
    Sanderson said the Cambodians must remove the mines they had laid on
Highway 12 before he deployed his troops.
    Sanderson stressed that UNTAC had no mandate to enforce the
agreement on a recalcitrant faction. Asked what steps it could take, he
said: "They have all signed the agreement. If they don't comply it would
be difficult for them to take part in the elections.
    "Seven million Cambodians want peace. That's a strong incentive to
the factions.
    "Where would you stop them, anyway? This was a guerrilla war --
there are no frontlines."
    The Khmer Rouge have denied U.N. peace-keepers access to zones under
their control and in February opened fire on a U.N. helicopter, wounding
an Australian colonel.
    Some U.N. personnel say privately that UNTAC must be prepared to get
tough if the plan is to work.
    "If they (UNTAC) whimper on about violations the factions will laugh
in their faces," said one. "But everyone is terrified of getting dragged
into another Congo where the U.N. found itself fighting to its left and
right."
    About 3,000 foreign soldiers and police are now in Cambodia with
advance parties from China, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh due in over
the next week.
    "We're about to start a very rapid build-up of the remainder,"
Sanderson said.
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X-Organization: from SUNY College at Buffalo, NY 14222
X-Envelope-to: SEASIA-L@MSU.BITNET
X-VMS-To: BITNET%"SEASIA-L@MSU.BITNET"
X-VMS-Cc: FISHLM
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Sun, 12 Apr 1992 16:44:00 EST
From:         Lydia Fish <FISHLM@SNYBUFVA.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: [NEWS] VN Price #1

Very interesting--but may we see more of other news from Vietnam too?

Thank you very much!

Lydia

*****************************************************************
Lydia Fish, Director
Vietnam Veterans Oral History and Folklore Project
Department of Anthropology
Buffalo State College
1300 Elmwood Avenue
Buffalo NY 14222
Office: (716) 878 6110
FAX: (716) 878 4009
BITNET: FISHLM@SNYBUFVA
*****************************************************************
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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Thu, 16 Apr 1992 09:20:10 PDT
From:         "Indonesia Publications/Task Force" <apakabar@IGC.ORG>
Subject:      Dutch Trade Link Continues
X-To:         seasia-l@msu.edu

    Reuter, Jakarta, April 16 - Indonesia will increase trade with the
Netherlands, its former colonial rulers, although it has rejected Dutch
aid, Trade Minister Arifin Siregar said on Thursday.
    "We want to maintain the current momentum of trade with the Dutch
and...even increase it," Siregar told reporters after meeting President
Suharto.
    "We hope the rejection will not make relations difficult in other
sectors," Siregar said, adding that Indonesian trade with the Dutch had
been increasing in recent years in favour of Jakarta.
    "We view with importance our relations with the Dutch," he said.
    Jakarta is anxious to avoid alienating the Dutch government
completely because it belongs to the European Community, of which East
Timor's former ruler, Portugal, is the current chairman.
    The Portuguese are bitter critics of Jakarta's rule of East Timor.
    Indonesian exports to the Netherlands rose to $837.5 million in 1991
compared with $723.1 million in 1991, while imports dropped to $504.9
million in 1991 from $550.2 million in 1990, he said.
    Siregar said he would visit the Netherlands from April 24 to April
27 to explain why Indonesia rejected the aid.
    In The Hague, the Dutch government said Foreign Trade Minister
Yvonne van Rooy would hold talks with Siregar and Alatas during a visit
to Indonesia from April 29 to May 2.
    The main purpose of the visit was to strengthen bilateral economic
relations, a government statement said.
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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Wed, 15 Apr 1992 11:47:26 EDT
From:         Elliott Parker <3ZLUFUR@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU>
Subject:      Hong Kong school wants SEA link
X-To:         seasia-l@msu.edu

Forwarded from EDUTEL:
======================================================================== 31
Date:         Wed, 15 Apr 1992 10:41:37 EDT
Subject:      greetings  Mail from HSKITTY@polylink


Date: Wed, 15 Apr 92 15:00 +8
From: HSKITTY@CPHKVX.BITNET


This is just a hello message, hoping for reply. I'm an English teacher
in Hong Kong at the Caritas Adult Education's Multi Media Education
Programme.  We've got a Novell LAN, and are developing a BBS with the
Hong Kong Society for the Handicapped, so that people-in need throughout
S. E. Asia and China may be able to learn through telecommunications tech.
^^^^^^^^^^
We offer post 2ndary courses, serving as agents for the Vancourver Open
Learning Agency and the Catholic U. of Australia, and are looking for
others.  We are also offering English teaching courses at various loca-
tions in China.  WordPerfect, and now MacIntosh with Chinese, are in-
valuable.
.
So, what's happening?
.
Peter <hskitty@hkcpvx>
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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Thu, 16 Apr 1992 09:18:23 PDT
From:         "Indonesia Publications/Task Force" <apakabar@IGC.ORG>
Subject:      PLA Arrives in Phnom Penh
X-To:         seasia-l@msu.edu

    Reuter, Phnom Penh, Angus MacSwan, April 16 - A platoon of Chinese
army engineers wearing blue United Nations berets arrived in Cambodia
on Thursday to rebuild the roads of a country which Beijing helped turn
into a superpower battleground.
    The People's Liberation Army soldiers, clutching AK-47 rifles, flew
in from Beijing by transport plane.
    More will follow by sea next week to bring their contingent under
the banner of the U.N. Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) up to
400 men.
    They represent China's most significant contribution to an
international peacekeeping force yet, a Chinese diplomat said.
    "We are engineers. We have been asked to rebuild roads," said Major
Tian Xiao Shan, deputy commander of the force, as his men unloaded two
white-painted U.N. trucks.
    China was the main arms supplier to the feared Khmer Rouge.
    "We are here to contribute to peace," said the Chinese diplomat, who
asked not to be identified.
    The Phnom Penh government welcomed China's help despite Beijing's
backing for the Khmer Rouge, he said. Chinese Foreign Minister Qian
Qichen visited here in February formally to bury the hatchet with Phnom
Penh.
    "We have a principle not to send armed troops," the diplomat added.
    In fact the soldiers who stepped smartly off the first plane carried
AK-47 rifles. They were dressed in camouflage uniforms and wore blue
U.N. neckerchiefs and berets.
    Colonel Alan Beaver, the New Zealander in charge of UNTAC's engineer
force, said they would be set to work initially repairing the road and
bridges from the ferry crossing over the Tonle Sap river at Kompong
Chhnang, about 80 km (50 miles) north of Phnom Penh, and the provincial
capital Kompong Thom.
    "There's lots more for them to do after that," he said.
    The Chinese, who will be based at the town of Scon, might be asked
to construct airstrips. U.N. sources said they had also volunteered to
help in the major task of clearing mines.
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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Thu, 9 Apr 1992 14:12:21 PDT
From:         "Indonesia Publications/Task Force" <apakabar@IGC.ORG>
Subject:      Burma Attacks Thai Aircraft
X-To:         seasia-l@msu.edu

   AP, Mae Sot, April 8 - Burmese forces fired Wednesday on two Thai
air force planes on a reconnaissance mission in northern Thailand near
the Burma border, Thai military sources said.
   No damage was reported to the two Thai F-5Es, which were conducting
an air mission one day after several hundred Burmese troops allegedly
crossed into Thai territory in Tak province, 230 miles northwest of
Bangkok.
   It was unclear Wednesday whether the Burmese troops, who were
pressing an offensive against ethnic Karen rebels, had withdrawn from
Thai territory.
   Two major Karen bases -- at Kawmoora, opposite Thailand's Tak
province, and at Manerplaw opposite Mae Hong Son province -- have been
under siege since February but their locations abutting Thai territory
make them difficult to seize without trespassing on Thai soil.
   Thai officials who sought information on the incidents were turned
back at the border Wednesday when they tried to meet their Burmese
counterparts in the frontier town of Mqawaddy, the military sources
said.
   In the past week, Burma has closed the frontier at a number of points
opposite Thailand's Tak and Mae Hong Son provinces.
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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Thu, 9 Apr 1992 14:14:17 PDT
From:         "Indonesia Publications/Task Force" <apakabar@IGC.ORG>
Subject:      Stateless Indonesians Crisis
X-To:         seasia-l@msu.edu

    Reuter, Canberra, April 9 - An estimated 3,000 Indonesians have
overstayed their visas in Australia and lost their Indonesian
citizenship, Indonesian officials said.
    Under Indonesian law any national who lives abroad for more than
five years and does not reaffirm his or her citizenship by renewing the
passport automatically forfeits it.
    "If they have not made a report to a mission within five years we
consider that they don't want to remain an Indonesian citizen any more,"
an Indonesian consulate spokesman in Sydney said.
    An Immigration Department spokesman in Canberra said it had been
difficult to deport Indonesians who had lost their citizenship as
Indonesia refused them re-entry.
    But Australia was confident of being able to send them back, he
said.
    "Our line is that just because you've left your country it should
not mean being deprived of your citizenship. We still regard these
people as Indonesian nationals," he said.
    Discussions were being held in Sydney between immigration officials,
Indonesian authorities and the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees.
    "The commissioner is involved because Indonesia is saying in effect
that these people are no longer their nationals. If you take that line
they are not nationals of any country in that they haven't taken up
citizenship," the immigration spokesman said.
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