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THE NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR Tuesday, 8 July, 2003 1

Established 1914

Emergence of the State Constitution is the duty of all citizens of Myanmar Naing-Ngan.

Samananañca dassanam, to visit the monks; this is the way to auspiciousness.

Four political objectives* Stability of the State, community peace

and tranquillity, prevalence of law and or-der

* National reconsolidation* Emergence of a new enduring State Con-

stitution* Building of a new modern developed nation

in accord with the new State Constitution

Volume XI, Number 83 10th Waxing of Waso 1365 ME Tuesday, 8 July, 2003

Four economic objectives* Development of agriculture as the base and

all-round development of othersectors of the economy as well

* Proper evolution of the market-orientedeconomic system

* Development of the economy invitingparticipation in terms of technical know-how and investments from sourcesinside the country and abroad

* The initiative to shape the national economymust be kept in the hands of the State andthe national peoples

Four social objectives* Uplift of the morale and morality of the

entire nation* Uplift of national prestige and integrity

and preservation and safeguarding of cul-tural heritage and national character

* Uplift of dynamism of patriotic spirit* Uplift of health, fitness and education

standards of the entire nation

YANGON, 7 July — The concluding ceremony of SpecialRefresher Course No 18 for basic education teachers was heldat the Yadana hall of the Central Instituted of Civil Service(Upper Myanmar) in PyinOoLwin Township in MandalayDivision yesterday afternoon, with an address by Chairman ofMyanmar Education Committee Secretary-1 of the StatePeace and Development Council General Khin Nyunt.

Also present on the occasion were Member of the StatePeace and Development Council Lt-Gen Ye Myint, Chair-man of Mandalay Division Peace and Development Coun-cil Commander of Central Command Maj-Gen Ye Myint,the ministers, the chairman of Civil Service Selection andTraining Board, the deputy ministers, the mayor of Manda-lay, senior military officers, officials of the State Peace andDevelopment Council Office, departmental heads, localauthorities, service personnel, Rector Col Aung San Win ofCICS (Upper Myanmar), pro-rectors, heads of departments,course instructors and trainees.

First, Secretary-1 General Khin Nyunt delivered a speech.In his address he said that at a time when knowledge andtechnology dominate all development sectors, all the teach-ers in the education sector are responsible not only forbrighter future of the students but also for carrying out thetasks for emergence of a modern developed nation.

Therefore, the role of education has become wider andmore important. The teachers are to teach their students andto discharge duties to accomplish national objectives of thenational education promotion programme.

He said efficiency of the education sector and buildingnational strength through the education sector decide strongerfuture of the State. In other words, development of themotherland and perpetuation of the nation and its peopledepend on efficiency of the education sector.

This is why the government has laid down educationpromotion programmes and national education promotionplans to establish an education system that can promotedevelopment prospects and exploit the existing resources ofthe State for long-term national interest and is implementingthem. The national education promotion plans are to beimplemented for perpetuation of the national policy of non-disintegration of the Union, non-disintegration of nationalsolidarity and perpetuation of sovereignty. In other words,the government is making efforts for establishing of strongerpolitical, economic and social foundations through the edu-cation sector.

Students are to be taught to become not only proficientin education but also intellectuals and intelligentsia with

Development of motherland and perpetuity of nationand its people depend on efficiency of education sector

Secretary-1 addresses closing of Special RefresherCourse No 18 for basic education teachers

Secretary-1 General Khin Nyunt presents model traineeaward to JAT U Soe Lin of Hsarsi BEHS No 1 in Magway

Division.— MNA

Secretary-1 General Khin Nyunt addresses Special Refresher Course No 18 for Basic Education Teachers at CICS (Upper Myanmar) on 6 July.—˚MNA

They are also to be nurtured to become the ones with highqualifications, knowledge and creative power who canmake decision by themselves. He said the teachers on theirpart are to actively train their pupils to be the ones who canchoose their future career in accord with individual bent andprospects and better results of all-round development edu-cation system.

He said the student youths are to be trained for usingadvanced technology to catch up with education of interna-tional standard. He also stressed the importance of nurturingthe students to preserve Myanma social value, the norm ofMyanma living standard and Myanma traditional customs.

He spoke of the need for the teachers to cultivate thestudents to possess spiritual maturity such as preservation oftraditional culture, character and high morale and duties andcodes of conduct toward the society.

He urged the teachers to teach the students to inculcatethem with national solidarity spirit and the Union Spirit forperpetuation of the Union, preserving basic historical factsof the nation and its people and noble traditions of thehistory. He said now national development and to stand tallamong the nations of the world mainly depend on ownnational strength.

Can a constitution of state, which is as pre-cious as life itself be drawn up by just two orthree people? However, since this draft Consti-tution had been drawn up and our party lead-ers had accepted it, it obviously shows that theyare not genuinely concerned in the future ofthe country, nor sincere in carrying out futurenational political tasks. And we had placed somuch hope in them.

(Article on pages 8 and 9)

Daw Suu Kyi, the NLD partyand Our Ray of Hope — 4

Circulation

24,081

high knowledge and effi-ciency in accord with theobjectives of the nationaleducation promotion plans. (See page 10)

2 THE NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR Tuesday, 8 July, 2003

PERSPECTIVESTuesday, 8 July, 2003

Head of State Senior General Than Shweon one occasion said that, as there are alreadyfavourable conditions for agriculture and live-stock breeding sectors, it is necessary to givepriority to the development of these sectors.Ayeyawady Division occupies over one-fourthof all the arable land of the country which isput under paddy and is very fertile. So the di-vision can help realize the national target forproducing 1,200 million baskets of paddy if theper-acre yield of the division remarkably in-creases. Moreover, it is also required to takemeasures to boost the production of fish andprawn.

To be able to put the guidance of the Headof State into action, transport infrastructureshave been built and irrigation facilities con-structed in Ayeyawady Division for the devel-opment of the agriculture sector.

The Darka river-crossing bridge inKangyidaunt Township of Ayeyawady Division,opened on 6 July, is one of the requirements ofthe State the Government has fulfilled.

Lt-Gen Thura Shwe Mann, who attendedthe opening ceremony of the bridge, said on theoccasion that, at the time when the develop-ment of economic, transport, education andhealth sectors of the Union of Myanmar is gain-ing greater and greater momentum, it is sad tosee those who are attempting to abort the suc-cessful realization of “Our Three Main NationalCauses”— non-disintegration of the Union, non-disintegration of national solidarity and perpetu-ation of sovereignty. He also added that theactions of these destructive elements are a dan-ger to the interests of the State and the people.

The State has spent a total of K 79,394million plus US $ 147.907 million on new roadsand bridges since 1988. Thirty-nine bridges builtin Ayeyawady Division alone cost over K 19,420million and more than US $ 20 million.

At a time like this when the Governmentis endeavouring for the all-round development,all the entire people, in concert with depart-mental personnel, should unitedly lend them-selves to the national development projects,always remaining vigilant against the dangersof all the destructive elements. And at the sametime, they are required to stick to the nationalstand and safeguard the national interests.

Stick to national stand andsafeguard national interests

Severe acute contagionsurprisingly outstandingPneumonia affecting your lungsStrange diseaseTo be called SARSThe name emergedTo defend the global villagePrevention is being put in placeAlphabetically worked out asS-A-R-S.Respiratory tract suffersSudden and severe attackAffected and breathing restrictedThe disease strikesEventually there’s no respiteRarely as fate would have itSome find adverse effectAnd succumb.Just as its spread is quickYou can’t simply be scared and escapeFor close nursingUnder careful scrutinyNurses don’t shirkDoctors show compassionGoodwill comes firstWithout regard for sacrificing lifeThat’s human.For picking out new diseaseAnalyst UrbaniShould be awardedOutstanding title of Hero.He sacrificed his lifeTo uncover SARSMade it known to the worldIt spread as fate would have itNot even sparing himThe new disease SARS.As Myanmar is prosperousSARS cannot penetrateSkilled doctors and physiciansStrive it prevent itEducate, Screen and uncoverAlerted as National CauseThe Nation given priorityJoin hands and preventKeep SARS away.(As a tribute to Health workers and who collaboratedin the public working unstintingly strove without re-gard to their safety to prevent the danger of the spreadof SARS.)

Kyaw Saw Han (Trs)

Prevent entry of SARSPoem:

YANGON, 7 July —The ceremony to hand overpoppy seeds and to inciner-ate poppy seeds and poppybuds surrendered by opiumgrowers was held atPinlaung Township Peaceand Development Councilat 11 am on 5 July.

Present were Chair-man of Shan State DrugAbuse Control Chairman ofShan State Peace and De-velopment Council Com-mander of Eastern Com-mand Maj-Gen KhinMaung Myint, Leader ofShan State Drug Eradicationand Regional DevelopmentMinister for CommerceBrig-Gen Pyi Sone, Vice-Chairman of Shan StateDAC Shan State PoliceCommander Police ColThura Tin Hla, senior mili-tary officers of PinlaungStation, local authorities,departmental officials, localpeople and social organiza-tions.

First, CommanderMaj-Gen Khin MaungMyint delivered an address.He said that the ceremoniesto destroy poppy seeds havebeen held in Shan State(South) for three times. Attoday’s ceremony, 56 bas-kets, 10 pyis and three tinsof poppy seeds and 45 bas-kets of opium buds pre-sented by the opium grow-ers will be destroyed. In ad-dition, seeds of opium-sub-stitute crops as well as riceand salt will be presentedto the growers. The Headof State and State-level of-ficials has been making ef-forts to eradicate narcoticdrugs in various ways.

As the State is imple-menting the New DestinyProject beginning April2002, such opium-substitutecrops as 380 baskets ofpaddy, 4,695 kilos of Yezin-3 hybrid maize, 230 basketsof soya-bean, 10 baskets ofpigeon pea and 142.5 bas-kets of niger will be distrib-uted to the farmers for thesecond time. The one pyi ofpoppy seeds can be culti-vated on one acre of land.A total of 56 baskets, 10pyis and three tins of poppyseeds will be destroyed attoday’s destruction cer-emony. This interventionenabled the prevention ofgrowing 600 acres of poppythat can produce 2.64 tonsof opium or 0.264 ton ofheroin. In conclusion, thecommander called on thosepresent to actively partici-pate in the elimination ofpoppy cultivation to be ableto set up the opium freezone in Shan State (South)in accord with the NewDestiny Project.

Speaking on the occa-sion, Brig-Gen Pyi Sonesaid that the State has setup the fund worthK 10 million for Shan State(South) to implement the

Commander of Eastern Command Maj-Gen Khin Maung Myint, Minister for CommerceBrig-Gen Pyi Sone and guests inspect poppy seeds and dried poppy buds before the

destruction ceremony.— COMMERCE

Poppy seeds, buds presented by localfarmers incinerated in Pinlaung

New Destiny Project in ac-cord with the guidance ofthe Head of State. The fundwill be used to distributeseeds of crops and vegeta-bles to the local farmers. Inaddition, U Ye Tun Ning ofSouth East Asia Enterprise,U Myat Thit of NyaungwunPanthitsa Co and U MyintLwin Oo of Lanmin KanthaCo will donate 1,200 bas-kets of rice and 8,000 vissof salt to the local farmers.

As the State distrib-utes opium-substitute cropsand makes efforts for elimi-nation of poppy cultivation,the local farmers are to par-ticipate in the tasks.Progress in the eliminationof poppy cultivation havebeen achieved in Shan State(South). Shan State willreach the New Destiny soonif efforts are made for elimi-nation of the poppy planta-tions as well as thriving ofopium-substitute crops.

Next, a farmer pre-sented poppy seeds to thecommander. Afterwards,Maj-Gen Khin MaungMyint, Brig-Gen Pyi Sone,Police Col Thura Tin Hla,Pinlaung Station Com-mander Lt-Col Htin Kyawand Chairman of TaunggyiDistrict Peace and Develop-ment Council Lt-Col YeTun Sein presented seeds ofopium-substitute crops tothe local farmers.

The commander,Managing Director U YeTun Naing of South EastAsia Enterprise, Director UMyint Lwin Oo of LaminKantha Trading Co Ltd andManaging Director U MyatThit of NyaungwunPanthitsa Co Ltd presented1,200 baskets of rice and8,000 baskets of salt to thefarmers. A local farmerspoke words of thanks.

Next, the commander,the minister and guestsviewed the drug eradicationbooths. They inspectedpoppy seeds and poppybuds to be burnt.

Later, the commander,the minister and partypressed the button to incin-erate the poppy seeds andbuds. —MNA

5,250 stimulant tablets seizedYANGON, 7 July — A combined team comprising

members of Lashio Special Anti-drug Squad and localintelligence unit, acting on a tip-off, on 5 June eveningsearched Ma Nan Wai Lwin on Hsenwi Road in Region-5, Ward-8, Lashio, and discovered 5,250 stimulant tabletsin her bag.

In connection with the case, action was being takenagainst Ma Nan Wai Lwin, daughter of U Mann San, ofNanslap Village, Hsenwi Township, under Section 15/19 (A) of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic SubstancesLaw.

MNAPast Present1. Dam projects 4 112. River-water pumping - 22 projects3. Motor roads 440 miles 1,328 miles4. Over 180-foot-long - 39 bridges5. Telephone exchanges 31 756. Rural communication 29 53 stations7. Basic education 5,189 5,997 schools8. Universities and colleges 2 99. Health sector (a) 200-bed hospitals 1 3 (b) 50-bed hospitals - 2 (c) station hospitals - 6 traditional medicine - 1 hospital rural health care centres - 12 regional dispensaries - 2

Facilities for development ofAyeyawady Division


International agencyoffice attacked in northIraq

BAGHDAD, 7 July—A grenade was fired at the offices of aninternational organization in northern Iraq on Saturday, caus-ing minor damage and slightly injuring a local guard, a UNspokesman said on Sunday. A security team is investigating theincident at the headquarters of the International Organizationfor Migration (IOM) in the city of Mosul, said HamidAbdeljaber, deputy spokesman for the UN mission in Iraq.

“The incident in Mosul could have some political back-ground, but so far we consider it an isolated incidentpending an investigation,’ he told reporters in Baghdad.

Abdeljaber said a rocket-propelled grenade penetratedthe wall of the IOM compound, damaging two cars andcausing slight injuries to a local guard for the Geneva-basedorganization which is working with displaced people inIraq. “International and local staff were moved from theoffice to a more secure zone,” Abdeljaber said.—Internet

Riad Ghassab, Director-General ofthe Northern Oil Refining Co, toldReuters on Saturday that pillaging ofthe facility’s power lines is forcing thehuge complex to shut down occasion-ally or pump below its 300,000 barrelsper day (BPD) capacity.

“Our production before the war was250,000 BPD. Now it is 70 per cent ofthat level,” he said of the facility whichsupplies the Iraqi capital and the north-ern city of Mosul.

Looters are also playing havoc withthe refinery’s ability to route urgentlyneeded products such as gasoline anddiesel fuel to those key cities, he said.

“They are shooting holes in thesepipelines,” he said. “It is a big prob-lem.”

needed to fund post-war reconstruc-tion.

US military and Iraqi officials in thetown of Baiji said Saddam Hussein’sloyalists are still bent on sabotagingpipelines.

But Iraq’s main oil refinery is notjust fighting off vandals. It is sufferingfrom years of neglect under UnitedNations sanctions.

Some of the units in the complexhave not been overhauled for fouryears, Ghassab said.

The Oil Ministry is now working ona maintenance plan which could closedown operations for about one month.But the Baiji refinery chief said a sched-ule for repairs had yet to be set.

MNA/Reuters

And one which is forcing oil-richIraq to import products such as lique-fied petroleum gas (LPG) and gaso-line.

“Iraq is importing a lot,” saidGhassab, without elaborating.

Saboteurs attacked and damagedthe main pipeline carrying crude oilto the refinery at Baiji, 90 milesnorth of Baghdad, at the end of lastmonth.

Ghassab said the refinery is stillreceiving full volumes of crudethrough the pipeline, but he was un-certain about the state of repairs.

Iraq’s sprawling oil pipeline net-work has been hit by a spate ofattacks which have hampered thecountry’s efforts to restore exports

BAIJI (Iraq ), 7 July— Rainpant looting is preventing Iraq’s biggest oil refinery at Baiji from cranking out fullsupplies, with output running at only 70 per cent of prewar levels, a senior Iraqi oil official said.

Vehicle imports throughHuangpu Port doubled

GUANGZHOU, 7 July— Huangpu Port, one of China’smajor ports for vehicle import in Guangdong Province, sawthe number of imported vehicles nearly doubled in the firstfive months of this year, in comparison with the same periodlast year, official statistics revealed.

The value of the total 9,516 imported vehicles stood at210 million US dollars, surging 150 per cent year-on-year.

Car imports dominated the total imports by 56.1 per cent,or 5,334 units, during the period, and the largest singleincrease rate was seen in trucks, escalating 8.2 times from 60last year to 489 units this year.

Japanese vehicles still take up the majority of the totalimports, or 68.7 per cent, followed by vehicles made inSouth Korea and Germany, according to the statistics.

MNA/Xinhua

ATHENS, 7 July — GreekPrime Minister CostasSimitis reshuffled hisCabinet following a majorchanges of the leadershipof the ruling PanhellenicSocialist Movement(PASOK).

The reshuffle affectedonly a few ministerial port-folios, George Floridis re-placed Michalis Chryso-choidis as Minister of Pub-lic Order, Haris Kastanidisreplaced George Pascha-lidisas as Minister of Mac-edonia-Thrace, GeorgePaschalidisas replacedGeorge Anomeritis as Min-ister of Merchant Marineand Alexandros Akrivakisreplaced Stafanos Manikasas Minister of State.

The long expected re-shuffle is regarded as anattempt by Simitis to makepreparations for the nextgeneral elections due bynext May.

The ruling party is trail-ing behind the oppositionconservatives by 8 percent-age points in opinion polls.

MNA/Xinhua

US soldiers with bayonet-fixed rifles guard the entrance to the former PresidentialPalace which now houses the US Administration office in Baghdad, Iraq as protesters(unseen) gather on 5 July, 2003 demanding the release of former Parliament Speaker

Dr Saadon Hamadi, who was arrested by the US forces on 25 June .—INTERNET

�� Looting slows pace of Iraq’sbiggest oil refinery

Iran saysEl Baradeitrip showsdesire tocooperate

LONDON, 7 July — Britain’s ITN television network said on Sunday it regretted thedeath of a cameraman shot in Iraq who was a former employee, and named him as RichardWild, aged 24.

ITN regrets death of Britishcameraman in Iraq

Wild, 24, was working as a freelancejournalist in Iraq but had previously workedfor Independent Television News.

“We are shocked and saddened to hearof the reported death of Richard Wild,” ITNchief executive Stewart Purvis said in astatement.

“In the six months that Richard workedat ITN, he was regarded as a dedicated andpopular member of the newsroom team,

particularly as he tracked all the materialcoming into ITN during the Iraq war.”

A US military spokesman said on Sat-urday a British journalist had been killed inBaghdad. Sources in the Iraqi capital said hehad been shot at close range near a museumin an area that includes a mixture of resi-dences and shops.

Wild, born in Scotland, had himselfserved as a soldier. — MNA/Reuters

TEHERAN , 7 July —Iran said on Sunday a visitby the UN’s nuclear in-spection agency this week

showed Teheran’s desireto cooperate over its nu-clear programme, whichWashington says may be acovert bid to build atomicweapons.

International AtomicEnergy Agency headMohamed ElBaradei is dueon Wednesday and will pushfor greater openness onIran’s nuclear plans, includ-ing more intrusive checksof facilities.

“Our invitation toElBaradei to visit Iran is asign of our serious desire

for cooperation withthe IAEA,” governmentspokesman AbdollahRamazanzadeh told a newsconference.

ElBaradei reiterated onSaturday that Iran shouldagree to tougher inspectionsof its facilities to createconfidence its peacefulintentions. —MNA/Reuters

GreekCabinetreshuffled

Two young men take a close look at different kinds of drugs during an anti-drug public-ity campaign held in Beijing, on 25 June, 2003. The campaign was aimed at informing

the residents, especially the youngsters, how harm drug will do to human body and theirlives and dissuading people from getting addicted to drugs. —XINHUA PHOTO

LONDON, 7 July — Ukrainian Prime Minister ViktorYanukovich signed an order on Friday to import 200,000tons of raw sugar by mid September, as the country struggleswith an agricultural crisis.

Bad weather has ravaged crops and caused prices forstaple food products such as sugar and grains to soar amidgrowing consumer anxiety.

Trades have been pinning their hopes on a big raw sugarpurchase by Ukraine due to a lack of significant raw sugarbuying on the world market.

Earlier this year, Ukraine’s Parliament allowed refineriesto import a total of 560,000 tons of raw sugar, including360,000 tons at a duty of six euros per tons and 200,000 tonswith a duty of 60 euros per ton. —MNA/Reuters

Ukraine to import sugaras farm crisis bites


US soldiers guard a traffic circle in Baghdad, Iraq, on6 July, 2003. US troops have come under near daily

attacks from increasingly bold insurgents. —INTERNET

BALI (Indonesia), 7 July—European and Asian fi-nance ministers met on the Indonesian resort island ofBali on Saturday to boost cooperation in trade, invest-ment and finance as the world economy shows scatteredsigns of recovery.

The annual gathering of officials from the EuropeanUnion, China, Japan and eight other Asian nations areexpected to stress closer coordination in macro-economicpolicy between their regions, home to about a third of theworld’s population.

“European countries are entering into an integratedsingle market, while we have just started to strengthen ourbond market. There will be talks on how to synergize theseefforts,” said Indonesia’s Chief Economics Minister,Dorodjatun Kuntjoro Jakti.

But, as in previous ASEM ministerial forums, newpolicies of substance are unlikely by the end of the two daysof talks, and much of the agenda centres on technical issues,such as pooling ideas on how to keep Asia’s fledglingfinancial markets stable.

The Bali meeting comes less than two weeks after 11Asia-Pacific nations launched a new one-billion-US-dollarAsia Bond Fund, drawn from their huge central bank re-serves, to speed development of a regional bond market.

That Thai initiative is seen as a catalyst for Asia to wooback some of its assets invested outside the region, especiallyin US bonds. But delegates in Bali said the weekend meetingwould only touch lightly on ways to develop the fund.

“The Asian Bond Fund is not central to the meetings,”one European delegate told Reuters.

Asia has around two-thirds of global foreign exchangereserves but its bond markets are less developed. ManyAsian companies still rely on short-term bank loans forfunding, raising the risk of volatility if banks cut credit lines.

In Asia’s financial crisis of 1997/98, the banks did justthat, and Asian policy makers are now under pressure to findways to funnel savings directly into Asian investments,bypassing Western financial institutions, to nourish futuregrowth.

“The bond market in Asia is still weak. If we really wantto have a stronger financial system in Asia after the crisis,the Asian bond market must be further developed,” saidKuntjoro Jakti.

At last year’s ASEM meeting in Copenhagen, leadersagreed to set up a special task force of 10 experts to work onboosting cooperation between the EU and Asia in the areasof trade, investment and finance. —MNA/Reuters

US troopskill two Iraqi

civiliansRAMADI (Iraq), 7 July —

US troops shot dead two Iraqicivilians during clashes withIraqi guerillas in the town ofRamadi, west of Baghdad,witnesses said on Monday.

They said the US troopsopened fire on Sunday nighton a vehicle carrying the twocivilians after an Americanconvoy was ambushed byguerillas.

“We heard a huge explo-sion last night at about 11.30and then Iraqis fired atAmerican troops in a vehi-cle.

The Americans spedaway and were then involvedin clashes up the road,” onewitness to Sunday’s clash,Jibayir Makhlif, told Reuters.

MNA/Reuters

WASHINGTON , 7 July—US officials have released 11 Turkish military personnel -including special forces soldiers - ending a diplomatic row between the two countries.

US releases Turkish troops

The Turks were arrestedon Saturday in the northernIraqi town of Sulaymaniyahand taken to Baghdad by theUS Army.

They are to spend thenight in a guest house in theIraqi capital and will be takenback to Sulaymaniyah byhelicopter on Monday. USofficials have still not con-firmed why they arrested thetroops. The Turkish PrimeMinister, Recep TayyipErdogan, spoke to the USVice President, DickCheney, for abouta half hour and US Secre-tary of State, Colin Powell,called Foreign MinisterAbdullah Gul in a bid toquell the row over the sol-diers’ detention earlier onSunday.

Mr Erdogan called thesituation “a totally ugly inci-dent” and ordered the imme-diate closure of Harbur gate- the vital roadway that linksTurkey to Iraq, when newsfirst spread of the arrests.

Speaking after his con-versation with Mr Powell,Abdullah Gul said he be-lieved the “tasteless and uglyevent” would be over onSunday night at the latest.

“I hope Turkey’s friend-ship and alliance (with theUS) won’t be damaged,” headded. In a written statement,the Turkish prime minister’soffice said Mr Erdogan askedMr Cheney to immediatelyrelease the Turkish soldiers.

“It is expected that thespecial forces will be handedover to the Turkish side in

MOSUL (Iraq), 7 July —As months go by without a date to leave Iraq , female soldiers in the US Army say theymiss being mothers and women, and worry that their deployment could become permanent.

being away from home for so long.“I think the problem is they have no one to come in

behind us because everybody is gone, everybody else isdeployed. We are stretched,” Rayl said, referring to Armydeployments particularly in Afghanistan .

Asked if she saw a light at the end of the tunnel of USoperations in Iraq, the staff sergeant said: “I don’t see anyof it because of all the shootings and pockets of resistance.”

“It is going to be a long-term commitment,” she said.Staff Sergeant Rachel Irizarry, 31, from Ripley,

Mississipi, said she was ready to go home to be with her twoyoung sons.

“My boys want me home. I’m just ready to go home. It’sreally hard,” Irizarry said. “Everyday I think about them.It’s a big sacrifice,” she said, her eyes welling with tears.

For 20-year-old Private First Class Shawna Arquette,an aspiring singer from Rochester, New York, work in thearmy was the easy part but not being able to enjoy being awoman frustrated her.

“I miss wearing make-up, I miss doing my hair, I missgoing to a club. I miss all that,” said Arquette. She broughtcosmetics and perfume but has never used them sincearriving in Iraq in February.

“I’ve never used it once. There is no reason to. There isno point,” she said. —Internet

“Just thinking about my children is the hardest thing,”said Staff Sergeant Denise Rayl from the 101st AirborneDivision, the US-led coalition’s most northern force, inMosul, 240 kilometers (140 miles) from Baghdad.

“I have to stay busy. I can’t sit down because if I do, Ithink of my kids. I don’t think any of my soldiers can keepup with the work that I do, and they told me they can’t,” saidthe 37-year-old mother of two young boys from Denison,Texas. The problem, Rayl and her colleagues said, is

European, Asianfinance ministers

meet

Turkish reporters attackedby gunmen in Iraq

ANKARA, 7 July — Twocorrespondents of the Turk-ish semi-official Anatoliannews agency were attackedby six gunmen in Iraq onSunday morning, said theagency in a report.

The assailants stopped thecar carrying correspondentsSami Tolga Adanali andKenan Gurbuz by opening fireon it and forced them to liedown together with the Arabdriver of Iraq origin. The gun-men seized the car and tookaway two satellite phones, lap-top computers, two camerasand apparatus, clothes, pass-ports and money, the reportsaid.

Following the attack, thereporters had to go on footalong the highway to theTurkish Embassy in Bagh-dad.

Sami Tolga Adanali gavean account of the incident,“At about 10:15 a.m. today,we and our Iraqi Arab driverand the host, four of us alto-gether, were attacked by sixgunmen on the Kirkuk-Baghdad motorway whilewe were going to Baghdad.”

“Four of them were carry-ing Kanas assassination weap-ons and the remaining twohad Kalashnikov rifles. All ofthem wrapped their faces withhead scarves and they werespeaking Kurdish,” Adanaliadded.

“We told the Iraqi driverto step up speed, not to stop,”he said.

“They pointed theirweapons at our car andstarted to fire. One bulletpierced the windshield,passed through it and hit theseat. Luckily, we were notwounded. After this, the Iraqidriver stopped the car.”

Turkish protesters shout against the detention of 11 Turkish soldiers in Northern Iraq,in front of the US Embassy in Ankara on 6 July, 2003. Turkish Prime Minister TayyipErdogan told reporters that he will speak to Vice President Dick Cheney on Sundayover the soldiers seized by US forces in Iraq and hopes the incident will not inflame

tensions between the NATO allies. —INTERNET

�� Female US soldiers in Iraq say

they miss being women

MNA/Xinhua

Sulaymaniyah” after thetalks, the statement added.

The detention has deep-ened the Turkish public’smistrust of the United States.

About 250 demonstratorsgathered outside the US em-bassy in the Turkish capital,Ankara, on Sunday to pro-test against the detention ofsoldiers shouting “Free oursoldiers,” “America out” and“We will not be America’sservants”. Supporters of theright wing Nationalist Ac-tion Party or MHP simulta-neously staged anti-Ameri-can protests in Istanbul.

Internet


HAVANA, 7 July —Carib-bean leaders Friday con-demned the United States forsuspending military aid to sixcountries in the region thatrefused to exempt Americansfrom theInternational Criminal Court(ICC).

The “punitive action” ofthe United States, cutting offmillions of dollars usedmainly to fight illegal trafficof drugs and migrants, willweaken US efforts to protectits own borders and securityin the Caribbean, said astatement of the CaribbeanCommunity Summit.

Two countries, Antiguaand Barbuda and St. Vincentand the Grenadines, said theywould lose one million USdollars and 0.3 million USdollars respectively.

In absence of Americanaid, Caribbean leaders pro-posed working on militaryassistance and trainingamong member states.

The United States Tues-day announced the suspen-sion of military aid to 35countries that have refusedto sign bilateral accordsgranting its citizens immu-nity from the internationalcourt.

The suspension affectssix countries in theCaribbean, Trinidad and To-bago, Antigua and Barbuda,Barbados, Belize, Dominicaand St Vincent and theGrenadines.

MNA/Xinhua

US soldier guarding BaghdadUniversity killed

BAGHDAD , 7 July—A gunman shot and killed a soldier who was guarding Baghdad University in the city’s centerSunday, military officials said.

The soldier from the 352nd CivilAffairs Command had strayed from alarger group and was talking with alocal resident when someone walkedup from behind and shot him in theback of the head with a handgun, awitness told CNN.

The shooting took place around12.30 pm (4.30 am EDT), a militaryspokeswoman said. According to USCentral Command, the soldier died at ahospital.

It was the second such attack in twodays, and the third in about a week, allthree of which happened in Baghdad.Saturday, Richard Wild, a 24-year-oldBritish journalist, was fatally shot inthe back of the head; another US sol-dier was shot in the head about a weekago.

Prior to Sunday’s incident, theUnited States blamed remnants ofSaddam Hussein’s government —

Baathists and Republican Guard mem-bers — for attacks that have killed 27American and six British troops sincePresident Bush declared the end ofmajor combat operations on May 1.

US Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen-eral. Richard Myers told “Fox NewsSunday” that much of Iraq is fairlystable, but that there is a “triangle” oflawlessness where fighters opposed tothe US presence are staging most oftheir attacks.

Ninety percent of the now 28 hos-tile deaths have occurred in the triangleformed by the predominantly SunniMuslim cities of Baghdad, Tikrit andAr Ramadi, Myers said.

“That’s where our forces are work-ing very hard to rout out the remnantsof the Baathist party and other follow-ers of Saddam Hussein that think some-how that they’re coming back, whichthey aren’t,” Myers said.

“A lot of the country is relativelystable; there are still challenges at Bagh-dad and in that triangle,” he said.

The military is still trying to assesswhether the attacks on US military per-sonnel are planned by Iraqis, or whetherterrorists from other countries might bebehind them, Myers said.

On Saturday, a US soldier waswounded and two Humvees were dam-aged when a grenade was tossed froman overpass at a US military policepatrol in central Baghdad.

That attack came the same day sevenUS-trained Iraqi police recruits werekilled when an “improvised explosivedevice” detonated in Ramadi, about 75miles west of Baghdad, according toUS authorities. At least 13 people werewounded in the blast, US militarysources in Ramadi told CNN. The re-cruits had been close to graduating fromtheir training program.—Internet

BAGHDAD , 7 July—A US soldier waiting to buy a softdrink at Baghdad University was shot and killed Sundayby an assailant who fired once from close range in thethird such assault in nine days.

The style was coldly similar to the killing of a youngBritish freelance cameraman, who was shot in the headoutside a Baghdad museum on Saturday.

The point-blank shooting of the unarmed reporter and agrenade attack on a UN compound raised concern that Iraqworsening insurgency — until now targeting only coalitiontroops and Iraqis accused of US collaboration — will spreadto Westerners in general.

US troops on patrol in Baghdad and other areas havebeen attacked several times a day, and Iraqi police andcivilians perceived to be working with the occupying forcesalso have been targeted. In the most serious such attack, abomb blast in the western town of Ramadi killed seven Iraqipolice recruits as they graduated from a US-taught trainingcourse on Saturday. Dozens more were injured. ”—Internet

Drought hits Hebeiprovince

SHIJIAZHUANG , 7 July — A serious drought has hitparts of north China’s Hebei Province and is spreadingto a wider area, according to the provincial flood anddrought control centre.

In the first several months of this year, the rainfall inmost areas of Hebei was close to or even higher than theaverage figure in the same period of the past several yearsexcept Tangshan and Qinhuangdao in northeast Hebei,which suffered a serious drought.

Since early June, the drought has spread to central andsouthern Hebei and become more serious. The rainfall inBaoding, Shijiazhuang, Cangzhou, Hengshui, Xingtai andHandan has kept below 25 millimetres, 50 per cent less thanthe same period of past years.

Rainfall from June 22 to 23 partly eased the drought inTangshan and Qinghuangdao, but could not prevent itsspread in central and southern Hebei.

About one-third of Hebei Province is currently strug-gling with drought. — MNA/Xinhua

HONG KONG, 7 July—The Hong Kong public have beenreminded to take precautionary measures to prevent influ-enza and red-eye syndrome.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said Fridaythat an upward trend in the consultation rates for influenza-like-illnesses was detected in June.

“We should be vigilant in light of the recent upwardtrend since influenza cases might rise during July andAugust, based on historical data,” the spokesman added.

MNA/Xinhua

HK public told to guard againstinfluenza, red-eye syndrome

LANZHOU, 7 July—Lo-custs have gathered and ap-peared likely to cause dam-age to crops in China’s north-western province of Gansu,experts have warned, urgingvigilance against the localpests despite their weak fly-ing and migrating ability.

In Jiuquan City andLanzhou, the provincial capi-tal, locusts were spotted andaffected total areas of 3,400hectares and 2,100 hectaresrespectively in the two cit-ies, with a small portion be-ing farmland and the restwasteland and abandonedfarmland, according to theprovincial vegetation depart-ment.

In the most seriously-hitarea, 130 locusts per squaremetre were found, the high-est figure ever recorded inrecent years, experts said.

MNA/Xinhua

Locustplague

threatensGansu

province

Caribbeanleaders

condemnUS

suspensionof aid

��

US soldiers frisk Iraqi students and employees of Baghdad University following theshooting of an American soldier on 6 July, 2003, in Baghdad, Iraq. The soldier was shot

in the head as he waited in line to buy a soft drink at the university. —INTERNET

Members of the Chinese Communist Party deliver reliefmaterials to residents in Wangjiaba, east China’s Anhui

Province, on 6 July, 2003. More than 200,000 peoplehave been evacuated from the areas designated for

storing or diverting flood from the Huaihe River in theprovince. —XINHUA PHOTO

Violence in Iraq spreadsbeyond military

Blair reveals alliesexpected war in Iraq to

last for 125 daysLONDON, 7 July — British Prime Minister Tony Blair

has revealed for the first time that coalition forces be-lieved the war against Iraq would last for 125 days, theBritish Observer newspaper reported Sunday.

In an interview with thepaper, Blair, the staunchestally of the United States, saidhe had spoken to TommyFranks, the commander ofUS forces in Iraq, who hadsaid the fighting was likelyto take four months.

“When I was talking toGeneral Franks the other day,he reminded me that underthe original timetable for theconflict, it was going to take125 days after the groundaction began to complete theconflict,” the paper quotedBlair as saying.

Blair also told the pa-per that the US-led military

intervention in Iraq is stillwithin the “original timeta-ble” of 125 days set out by itscommanders.

“Well, we are stillwithin 125 days now, so Ithink it is possible to exag-gerate the problems and dif-ficulties,” Blair said, addingthat Britain would retain amilitary presence in Iraq foras long as necessary.

“This was never goingto be a situation where youcould just go in, invade acountry, topple the govern-ment and walk away after-wards,” Blair said.

MNA/Xinhua


Australian soundman diesfrom Iraq wounds

NEW YORK, 7 July—An Australian television soundman working for NBC Newsdied in a German hospital on Sunday a week after he was wounded in Iraq, thenetwork reported.

A statement said free-lancer Jeremy Little, 27, whowas wounded while embed-ded with the US Third Infan-try Division in the town ofFalluja, died “due to post-operative complications”.

“Jeremy Little was acourageous journalist, work-ing extremely hard in a dan-gerous war zone,” NBCNews President Neal Shapirosaid.

“He served bravely forNBC and we mourn his loss.Our thoughts and prayers arewith his family.”

Little, from Sydney,suffered serious internalinjuries on 29 June when arocket-propelled grenadehit the US military vehicle

he was travelling in.He was flown to

Landstuhl Regional MedicalCentre in Germany, wherehis injuries were initiallythought not to be life-threat-ening.

His death followed thekilling in Baghdad on Satur-day of British freelance cam-eraman Richard Wild.

Little is the 17thmember of the media to diein Iraq since the US-led in-vasion on 20 March. Someof the deaths were accidentalor from natural causes.

MNA/Reuters

BBC defends journalistsin feud with Blair

LONDON, 7 July — After a lengthy meeting on Sunday, BBC governors steppedinto a row with the British Government and said they backed their journalists’reporting that a government dossier into Iraq’s weapons was doctored.

US military police patrol stand guard on their duty near Khulani mosque in Baghdad,Iraq on 6 July, 2003.—INTERNET

The spat erupted after the public broad-caster, citing an anonymous intelligencesource, reported that Prime Minister TonyBlair’s top aide “sexed up” intelligence tostrengthen the case for war.

Blair criticized the BBC over its reportand told a Sunday newspaper that it was“about as serious an attack on my integrityas there possibly could be”.

Governors of the BBC said on Sundaynight they backed their journalists in thedispute, leaving little room for compromisebetween the two sides.

“We are wholly satisfied that BBCjournalists and their managers sought tomaintain impartiality and accuracy duringthis episode,” the BBC said in a statement.

“The board reiterates that the BBC’soverall coverage of the war, and the politi-cal issues surrounding it, has been entirelyimpartial,” it said.

The BBC also said it rejected a claimfrom Blair’s top aide and communication’schief Alastair Campbell that the BBC hadan agenda against the war, which was op-posed by a majority of Britons.

“We call on Mr Campbell to withdrawthese allegations of bias against the BBCand its journalists,” the broadcaster said.

The failure to find any weapons of massdestruction in Iraq — the primary Anglo-American justification for war — has under-mined the government’s credibility anddented Blair’s popularity and poll ratings.

The British Broadcasting Corporation,however, denied it had ever accused Blair oflying, or of misleading Parliament.

“We have never accused the PrimeMinister of lying. The real question for theBBC is, were we right to report what weactually said, when we said it? We believethe answer is yes,” a BBC spokespersonsaid.

Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Commit-tee, a majority of whom are from Blair’sruling Labour Party, will publish a report onallegations the dossier was “sexed-up” onMonday.

The committee is expected to exonerateCampbell, but it is unlikely the disputebetween the government and the BBC willend there. —MNA/Reuters

Drug ringsmashed in

GermanyBERLIN, 7 July — A

drug network has beencracked after a massive raidin Germany, police said re-cently.

Police raided several cit-ies including Cologne onThursday and arrested sev-eral suspects.

A police spokesmansaid the mastermind of thering was a 51-year-old Co-logne native, who was sen-tenced to seven years ofprison in the 1980s for fi-nancing an illegal laboratorymaking synthetic cocaine.The group is accused ofsmuggling in several kilo-grammes of cocaine fromHolland into Germany forover a year. The cocainewas supposedly sold inCologne, Duesseldorf andDortmund in cafes and bars,police said. —MNA/Xinhua

Law graduates Lalehand Ladan Bijani, 29, hadundergone tests and coun-selling since November andsay they are willing to riskdeath for the chance to leadseparate lives.

The operation, led byneurosurgeon Dr Keith Goh,is expected to last at least 48hours. Doctors say the op-eration is possible because

they have anatomically sepa-rate brains.

“The twins’ pre-opera-tion scan started this morn-ing at 08.00 am (2400GMT),” a hospital spokes-man said.

Twins joined at the headoccur only once in every twomillion live births, and suc-cessful separation is evenrarer. —MNA/Reuters

Convoy attacks kill 2 UStroops in Iraq, bringing

total to 3 in 24 hoursBAGHDAD , 7 July— Two American soldiers were killed in separate attacks on

their convoys late Sunday and early Monday morning in the Iraqi capital, the militarysaid.

The first soldier died in afirefight late Sunday after twoarmed assailants opened fire,said Sgt Patrick Compton, aspokesman for the military.

The soldiers opened fire,killing one of the attackersand wounding the other. Thewounded suspect was takeninto custody. In the secondincident, insurgents threw ahomemade bomb at anotherUS convoy early Mondaymorning, killing a soldier.Both of the dead Americansoldiers were from the Ar-my’s 1st Armoured Division,the Germany-based divisionwhich is charged with occu-pying Baghdad.

At least three US troopshave been killed in Baghdadin a 24-hour period.

In a third incident, anassailant shot and killed a

US soldier waiting to buy asoft drink at Baghdad Uni-versity at midday Sunday,firing once from closerange. The style was coldlysimilar to the killing of ayoung British freelance cam-eraman, who was shot in thehead outside a Baghdad mu-seum on Saturday.

The style was coldlysimilar to the killing of ayoung British freelance cam-eraman, who was shot in thehead outside a Baghdad mu-seum on Saturday.

The point-blank shoot-ing of the unarmed reporterand a grenade attack on a UNcompound raised concernthat Iraq’s worsening insur-gency _ until now targetingonly coalition troops andIraqis accused of US col-laboration _ will spread to

Westerners in general.US troops on patrol in

Baghdad and other areas havebeen attacked several times aday, and Iraqi police and civil-ians perceived to be workingwith the occupying forces alsohave been targeted.

In the most serious suchattack, a bomb blast in thewestern town of Ramadi killedseven Iraqi police recruitsas they graduated from aUS-taught training course onSaturday. Dozens more wereinjured. —Internet

Pakistan toreconsider ties

with IsraelPARIS, 7 July— Visiting

Pakistani President PervezMusharraf said Friday thathis country should “seriouslyreconsider its relations withIsrael”.

“It is naturally a verycontentious issue in Paki-stan,” said Musharraf refer-ring to the normalization ofrelations between his coun-try, where there are power-ful Islamic parties, and Is-rael. However, “Pakistanshould examine what is hap-pening on the internationalstage, analyze its relation-ship with Israel and review iton our national interest sincethe peace process is progress-ing”, he said. The PakistaniPresident made this remarkbefore wrapping up a three-day visit to France after stopsin Britain, the United Statesand Germany.

MNA/Xinhua

Drive safely

Singapore, 7 July — An unprecedented, high-riskoperation to separate adult Iranian twin sisters joined atthe head began in Singapore on Sunday, a Raffles Hos-pital official said.

ConjoinedIranian twins

begin surgery inSingapore

Surgeons (L to R) Dr Dennis Rohner, Dr Beat Hammer, Dr Ivan Ng, Dr Ben Carson, Prof.Walter Tan, and Dr Keith Goh and rehearse an operation to separate conjoined twinsLadan and Laleh Bijani from Iran at Raffles Hospital in Singapore in this on 5 July, 2003photo. The two adult Iranian sisters are undergoing an unprecedented 48 hour operation in Singapore on 6 July, 2003 to separate them at the head. —INTERNET


Bangladesh, Myanmarto promote mutual

cooperationDHAKA , 7 July — Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and

visiting Myanmar Foreign Minister U Win Aung Sun-day expressed identical views on mutual cooperation forthe development of the two countries.

Leading US Senators clash onIraq probe

WASHINGTON , 7 July— The top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee clashed onSunday over whether to open another probe into alleged White House manipulation of intelligence to make the casefor war against Iraq.

Michigan Senator Carl Levin told NBC’s “Meet thePress” that new accusations by former U.S. AmbassadorJoseph Wilson over claims Iraq bought uranium from Nigeradded fuel to an investigation he was opening with his ownstaff.

But the committee chairman, Virginia Republican Sena-tor John Warner, said he favoured letting the Senate Intel-ligence Committee finish its probe before deciding whetherhis panel should dig further.

“We cannot sort out this morning, in one minute, thissituation. It is being carefully reviewed and objectivelyreviewed by the Senate in the Intelligence Committee,”Warner said. He said he did not see any compelling evi-dence that the administration twisted intelligence for itsown purposes.

Controversy is raging in both Britain and the UnitedStates over charges that the governments of the two coun-tries manipulated intelligence about weapons of mass de-struction to justify the war. No evidence of such weaponshas been found by the occupying forces in Iraq.

Wilson, Washington’s envoy to Gabon from 1992 to1995, told the New York Times and NBC that he travelledto Africa in 2002 at the request of the CIA to investigate areport about Iraq buying uranium from Niger.

Wilson said he had reported back that it was highlydoubtful that any such transaction had ever taken place and

that the CIA would have passed on his assessment to Vice-President Dick Cheney.

Yet Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair bothcited the report earlier this year to support their charges thatformer Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was trying to obtainnuclear weapons and to justify their invasion of Iraq inMarch.

The International Atomic Energy Agency later alsodismissed the report as being based on forged documents.

“Based on my experience with the administration in themonths leading up to the war, I have little choice but toconclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq’snuclear weapons programme was twisted to exaggerate theIraqi threat,” Wilson wrote in Sunday’s New York Times.

“Either the administration has information that it has notshared with the public or... they were using the selective useof facts and intelligence to bolster a decision that hadalready been made to go to war,” Wilson said on “Meet thePress”.

Levin said the new allegations were deeply troubling.“I’ve instructed my staff on the Armed Services Com-

mittee to make a very in-depth inquiry into a number ofissues, including this uranium issue,” Levin said.

“But Ambassador Wilson’s statement this morning addsa great deal of additional evidence to me because now it’spersonal evidence from the ambassador.” — MNA/Reuters

During a meeting be-tween Khaleda Zia and theMyanmar envoy, they sharedthe common opinion that“the doors of a new era”would be opened up betweenthe two neighbours if theagreements and memoran-dum of understandings(MOUs) reached betweenthe two countries were im-plemented properly, accord-ing to the official Bangla-desh News Agency.

U Win Aung, who ar-rived here on Saturday on athree-day visit to Bangla-desh, recalled the visits ofMyanmar Prime Minister,Senior General Than Shweto Bangladesh and KhaledaZia’s return visit toMyanmar, saying that thetwo visits had contributedsignificantly to give furtherimpetus to the bilateral rela-tions, especially in the es-

tablishment of closer peo-ple-to-people links betweenthe two countries.

Khaleda Zia visitedMyanmar in March this year.During the visit the two coun-tries had agreed to start theprocess of establishing directroad link between the twoneighbours and also signed anumber of agreements andMOUs for bolstering bilateraleconomic ties.

Khaleda Zia and U WinAung said a number of stepshad already been taken for has-tening the process of furthercementing bilateral relations.While Khaleda Zia raisedthe issue of Bangladesh’s en-try into ASEAN Regional Fo-rum (ARF), the Myanmar For-eign Minister said his countrywould lend full support toBangladesh in getting ARFmembership.

MNA/Xinhua

Bahrain jails man forfive years for “terror” plot

MANAMA , 7 July — A Bahraini man was jailed onSunday for five years for planning “terror acts” in theGulf Arab state, the headquarters of the US Navy’s FifthFleet.

Authorities did not say who the alleged plots weretargeted at but Bahrain saw increased anti-US sentiment inthe run-up to the war against Iraq.

“Jamal Balouchi was sentenced to five years in jail,” hislawyer said. “The court’s ruling was within our expectationbut we will appeal against it,” the lawyer told Reuters.

He said Balouchi, 32, had admitted possessing weaponsfor personal use. He declined to give further details.

Police arrested Balouchi and four other Bahrainis inFebruary for allegedly planning terror attacks in the country.A court later acquitted three of the five. The fifth man stillfaces charges.

Bahrain, a key ally of Washington, witnessed manyanti-US demonstrations in the run-up to the US-led war onIraq, but there have been few attacks against Westerners inthe country.

MNA/Reuters

CAIRO, 7 July —A colli-sion between a truck and agoods train in Egypt killed10 people and injured fiveothers on Sunday, securitysources said.

The accident occurred inthe Nile Delta about 80 milesnorthwest of Cairo in alargely agricultural area.

The sources said thetrain hit the truck while itwas driving over the rail-way line away from a cross-ing point. All the dead andinjured were travelling onthe truck.—MNA/Reuters

� � � � � � � � � � � � � � ��

Train

collides with

truck, killing

10 in Egypt

US soldiers frisk Iraqi motorists at a mobile checkpoint in Kadhamiya north of thecapital Baghdad, Iraq on 7 July, 2003 where hours earlier a US soldier was killed inan attack on a US convoy. US troops in Iraq have come under near daily attacks from

increasingly bold insurgents. — INTERNET

NEW YORK, 7 July— Nizar Hamdoon, a former Iraqi ambassador to the UnitedNations and the United States, has died in a New York hospital after a bout withcancer, friends and Arab diplomats said on Sunday. He was 59 years old.

Hamdoon, who alsoserved as deputy foreignminister under the oustedSaddam Hussein govern-ment, travelled back andforth from Iraq over the pastfew years for treatment atMemorial Sloan-KetteringCancer Centre and began

Cheng Yulan, a police officer (R), has a heart-to-heart talkwith several former drug addicts at Fuzhou MandatoryDrug Rehabilitation Station in this capital city of eastChina’s Fujian Province, on 20 June, 2003. Since itsfounding in 1997, the drug rehabilitation station has re-ceived 6,211 drug addicts who came to be treated bothphysically and psychologically and learn knowledge of law in order to be off the bad habit and rehabilitate.

XINHUA PHOTO

Former Iraqi ambassador toUN, US dies in New York

another round of chemo-therapy in March. He hadbeen in a coma for a weekand died later on Friday, thediplomats said.

In New York, he toldfriends as late as May thathe expected to returnshortly to his family in

Baghdad. But his conditiondeteriorated rapidly.

US officials saidHamdoon’s trips to theUnited States, even as thewar against his country wasa given, were granted forhumanitarian reasons.

MNA/Reuters

BAGHDAD, 7 July— The US military said on Sunday itstroops were involved in action in the Iraqi city of Ramadiwhere satellite television channel Al Jazeera reported astrong explosion in an area controlled by US forces. Arabicchannel Al Jazeera said the blast hit the US military area atthe eastern entrance of Ramadi, 60 miles west of Baghdad.

“I can confirm there’s some type of action going on inRamadi,” a US military spokesman told Reuters, addingthat security was on alert but he could give no furtherdetails.

MNA/Reuters

US troops inaction in Iraq,blast reported

Turk militarycondemns US

over Iraqincident

ANKARA, 7 July—Tur-key’s military on Mondaybitterly condemned the USarmy for seizing comman-dos in Iraq in an incidentmirroring soured ties be-tween the two NATO allies.

The arrest of 11 specialforces offices on Friday andtheir release two days’ lateralso highlighted deep Turk-ish military concerns aboutits role in northern Iraq andits influence at home.

Powerful Armed ForcesChief of General Staff HilmiOzkok said the incident wasa “major crisis of trust”between Washington andAnkara. —Internet


Daw Suu Kyi, the NLD Party and Our Ray of Hope — 4Maung Yin Hmaing

(Continued fromyesterday)

Talking too much15:00 hours May 62003.

Our group led byAuntie Suu left Yangonin two cars. However,the white Dyna lighttruck with U Sein Winat the wheel, carryingfive passengers —Chairman of TaninthayiDivision OrganizingCommittee U Hla Min,Head of Youth Organ-izers Aung Htoo, YouthSecurity member KyawZin Win and Secretaryof Bahan TownshipNLD Tun Myint — hadleft the city in advanceat 3 o’clock in themorning.

My mind this time,unlike other trips, wasnot active and fresh, butheavy with foreboding.I was filled with anxi-ety as if I felt a premo-nition that somethingterrible might happen

know if it was true thatno decision had beenreached at the CECconsultative meeting, torevise the political,health and educationpolicies included in thedraft Constitutiondrawn by the NLD, dueto objections raised byU Soe Myint and U HlaPe.

I was astonished tohear the question. For,only after hearing hisquestion did I come toknow that our NLDparty had drawn up itsown draft Constitution.It was possible, but ifso that would mean thatall our hopes were justillusions. For howmuch assurance can thenation expect of a Con-stitution drafted by justtwo or three people ofour party?

A Constitution ofthe State, or call it whatyou will, is the life of anation. But the crucial

that democracy withinthe party will revive,when we are wellaware that democracypractices had graduallylost ground and hadnow vanished alto-gether. I asked myselfthis question, but therewas no answer excepta bitterness in my heart.

In the evening,Auntie Suu and partyfrom their accommoda-tions at the DivisionOffice, went to thehouse of the late U NyiPu, former patron of theMandalay DivisionNLD, inChanayethazan Town-ship. Auntie Suu calledon his widow DawHnin Yin, exchangedsome pleasantries, andpresented a package ofchocolates as a gift tothe lady.

At this point, Ioverheard a woman by-stander with“thanakha” on her face

Yangon, two more carsand over 20 peoplejoined our group.

On arrival at theentrance to SagaingBridge on the Manda-lay bank, a team led byVice-Chairman ofSagaing Division Or-ganizing Committee UKyaw Thoung and rep-resentative-elect ofIndaw Township USaw Hlaing were onhand to welcome ourgroup. There wereabout 50 or so peoplein their group. Butwhen I made inquiriesI found that over halfof them were not NLDparty members but justsome locals who hadbeen recruited for theoccasion to increase thenumber of the welcom-ing team. The team alsohad 13 motorcycles.

When the convoypassed the SagaingBridge, some motorcy-cles served as outriderswhile others flankedAuntie Suu’s car onboth sides. The ridersswitched on their head-lights although it wasbroad daylight and con-tinuously blasted theirhorns. Some wavedparty flags and yelledunintelligibly. I felt re-ally frustrated. If I werein Auntie Suu’s place Iwould have stopped thecar at once, told themto behave properly,have some disciplineand not make a publicnuisance of themselves.

But it was not so.She remained silent.Thus the question;“Does Auntie Suu liketravelling in an unrulyand noisy manner?” Or“was she just travelweary and drowsy?”Because of our rowdyconvoy, travellers onthe road were obligedto stop and people allalong the wayside cameout of their homes towatch our convoy. Ourgroup is past master atattracting and collectingcrowds to look atAuntie Suu.

When we enteredSagaing, another causefor worry came into mymind yet again in casesomebody should throwstones at us because ourpeople were making anuisance of themselves.At Sagaing we took ashort rest at the SagaingDivision NLD Office atYwahtaung Ward,Nansu Quarter. AuntieSuu did not get off thecar.

A car broke down,soon after we leftSagaing. It was noneother than the car thatAuntie Suu was in. For-tunately, it was just aminor engine break-down. If it had been atyre puncture then allkinds of accusationswould have been made;such as that a nail hadbeen purposely plantedin the middle of theroad to cause the mis-hap. The engine re-started after 15 minutesof minor repairs.

We passed throughmany villages along theroad and reachedShwebo before noon.There was a shortstopover at the house ofan NLD member, USan Pe of No 10 Ward,Htu-htaung-ye Ward.Many people came outto watch us. Beforevery long a commotionbroke out.

So, what had hap-pened and who was in-volved? When welooked onto the matter,we came to know thatthe trouble started whentwo of our group, KhinOo a member of ourconvoy and Hla Oo ofMandalay Division, hadthreatened a personwho was taking a videofilm of Auntie Suu and

seized his video cam-era. What hadprompted them to con-fiscate the camera? Af-ter all he was justvideotaping our leaderand he should havebeen let alone. Theyshould have evenhelped him by clearingpeople blocking theview.

Not long after, atownship level officialcame to us and ex-plained the matter. Thecameraman was shoot-ing the video film to bekept as a record at theTownship Multi-PartyDemocracy GeneralElection CommissionOffice. So, the videocamera was handedback to the official. Toput it in football jargon,it seems that Khin Ooand Hla Oo were off-side.

While in Shwebo,Auntie Suu gave aspeech to the crowd,which had gathered tosee us. One of thethings she said was,“We will go on striv-ing until at some timeor other the people ap-peal to us to savethem.” Just then, an oldlady wearing a turbanstood up to exclaim,“Oh really!.. You havethe nerve to say such a

thing! Oh! … peopledo something please.”In a large audiencethere are bound to beall kinds of people withdifferent views.

We continued ourjourney after thespeeches had beenmade. We left Shweboat about 1 pm and ar-rived at KhinU just be-fore the clock struckthree in the afternoon.We made a short stopo-ver at the house ofTownship NLD Chair-man Dr Win Aung. Asusual, there a crowdgathered round towatch us. But thecrowd was much lessthan the one in Shwebo.She made speeches asusual. But I was feel-ing very unhappy.

Auntie Suu hadsaid in her speechesthat during the tripUSDA members andgovernment authoritieshad been taking photosand video films of thegroup and that this wasnot a good sign. Shealso told the crowd thatshe had heard that thelocal authorities and theUSDA were intimidat-ing NLD supportersand to please informher if there should beany such attempts to

(See page 9)

on the way. I was say-ing silent prayers as wetravelled, unknown tothe others. We travelledthe whole day, madestopovers at someplaces, and arrived atMandalay after mid-night. I breathed a sighof relief.

May 7.We were in Man-

dalay the whole day.Auntie Suu met withdivision organizers —U Bo Zan, U Ba Ba, UThein Zan and U TunMyaing — and dis-cussed matters pertain-ing to the raising ofparty signboards andyouth organizationsduring the trip toKachin State. I had noknowledge of laternews and develop-ments, but after the dis-cussions a member ofthe Mandalay DivisionNLD asked me a ques-tion. He wanted to

question is — Can aconstitution of state,which is as precious aslife itself be drawn upby just two or threepeople? However, sincethis draft Constitutionhad been drawn up andour party leaders hadaccepted it, it obviouslyshows that they are notgenuinely concerned inthe future of the coun-try, nor sincere in car-rying out future na-tional political tasks.And we had placed somuch hope in them.

Do we as partymembers, have no rightto participate in discus-sions on such a vitalmatter? In my heart,there is so much I wishto say concerning thisissue. Foremost is thequestion why personslike me, (or many oth-ers like me) are stillclinging on to the NLDparty with forlorn hope

remark to the personnext to her; “Oh! Howchildish of Daw SuuKyi? See, she gave theold lady some choco-lates. Some health tonicor vitamins would havebeen more appropriate.How much would ithave cost her? It’s re-ally ridiculous!” I donot know whether shewas a party member ora local, but for me herwords were worthy ofnote.

May 8.We now embarked

on the next stage of ourjourney to Sagaing Di-vision and Kachin Statefrom Mandalay. Beforestarting out however,ten Buddhist monkswere invited to theMandalay Division Of-fice to recite parittas asprotection against allkinds of danger. In ad-dition to the three carsthat had travelled from

Local people feel much uncomfortable on the road blocked by cars andcrowds during the trip of Daw Suu Kyi. (at the entrance to Sagaing

Bridge on 8-5-2003)

Daw Suu Kyi had loudly cried “People are to abide by discipline”. Buthad not she seen reckless driving and riotous acts of local NLD members

who broke road and traffic rules during her trip? (She was flanked by bikesduring the trip from Sagaing Bridge to Shwebo on 8-5-2003)

Daw Suu Kyi had loudly cried “People are to abide by discipline”. Buthad not she seen reckless driving and riotous acts of local NLD members

who broke road and traffic rules during her trip? (She was flanked bybikes during the trip from Sagaing Bridge to Shwebo on 8-5-2003)


(from page 8)frighten them. Shewould, she said, submitthe matter to the StatePeace and Develop-ment Council. Shesounded really eloquentand convincing.

By that time and atthat point of the tour,my only wish was thatif possible, Auntie Suuwould not speak an-other word. I realizedthat “the more said themore blunders therewould be.” In reality,Auntie Suu has the ca-pacity and aptitude toimpart knowledge andeducation to the people.

Daw Suu Kyi…But the words utteredfrom her mouth wereso different!

There is a saying,which goes, “Too muchknowledge makes aperson swagger”. Ithink everybody knowsthe proverb. Is AuntieSuu under the illusionthat there is no one inthe country as coura-geous, as knowledge-able and as accom-plished as she is andthat therefore, the peo-ple will unthinkinglyaccept and believe eve-rything that she says?

(To be continued)*****

A new approach towards Burma just might work

Since the May 30 incident involving Aung San SuuKyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party,momentum is building for renewed external pressure onBurma’s ruling State Peace and Development Council(SPDC) to engage in dialogue with the NLD on politicalreconciliation.

The United States Senate and House of Representa-tives are both discussing bills that would tighten sanctionsin order to encourage dialogue and a political solution,the EU is discussing similar economic measures, and Aseanhas broken its longstanding tradition of non-interference,demanding immediate release of Suu Kyi.

The United Nations has been trying to bring the SPDCand the NLD together for discussions, but for years nowthe two sides have remained at loggerheads. How longthis deadlock will continue is anybody’s guess, but per-haps it is time for a new approach based on politicalreality that could bring about sustained dialogue and even-tually political reconciliation. What is the political realityin Burma? The answer is that the SPDC controls the gov-ernment and all its institutions throughout most of thecountry, with the exceptions being a few remote areasthat are difficult to access because of geography or be-cause they are the strongholds of the few remaining insur-gents. It may be true that the NLD won the elections inan overwhelming manner in 1990. The fact that the SPDCruns the country and that the military has ruled in Burmasince 1962 cannot be ignored no matter what one’s viewis on the legitimacy of the current regime.

Why is a reconciliation approach based on politicalreality necessary? The current approaches to stimulate dia-logue by the NLD, UN, and others start with the propo-sition that the NLD, as the standard-bearer for Westernstyle democracy, has a given right to insist that its condi-tions for dialogue and eventual political reconciliation mustbe accepted by the SPDC, despite the latter having effec-tive authority in the country. Implicitly, such an approachsuggests that the government must be the one to concedeground to the NLD, but this defies political reality. Thegovernment holds all the cards whether the NLD, the UN,the US, and the EU like it or not. The current approachignores the obvious interests and concerns of the military,and it is clearly not having any effect in moving the dia-logue process forward. The SPDC is prepared to hold outon dialogue as long as the NLD’s conditions for politicalreconciliation place the government in a disadvantageousposition. Any rational person in such a situation as theSPDC, whether political or business, would do the same.One does not offer to negotiate from a weakened positionwhen one has the upper hand.

What no one appears willing to consider is askingAung San Suu Kyi and the NLD to make concessions onsome of their conditions for dialogue and reconciliation,and this represents the foundation of an alternative ap-proach for resuming dialogue.

The NLD has beenequally stubborn in its de-mands and conditions fordialogue and political rec-onciliation. There are somerank-and-file NLD support-ers in Burma who have be-come frustrated with SuuKyi’s unwillingness to com-promise with the SPDC.They claim that while theysupport her, she is unbend-ing and being unrealistic inher demands for politicalreconciliation.

Recall that a few yearsago a faction emergedwithin the NLD that fa-voured conceding some ofthe party’s demands in or-der to make progress in thedialogue with the SPDC.However, the NLD leadersalleged that these party sup-porters were either coercedor bought off by the gov-ernment to undermine partyunity. Does the current firm

process. The second element entails having the NLD makeconcessions on some of its demands to resume the dia-logue and reconciliation process. This is necessary be-cause the NLD does not have any leverage over the SPDC.The NLD’s “all or nothing” stance defies what is likelynecessary in Burma, and that is some kind of a transitionperiod between the current political regime and a fulldemocracy. The NLD softening its position could be thekey to convincing the military that an agreeable future forBurma can be found, and it would perhaps stimulate themilitary to make some of its own concessions to alleviatethe economic and political pressure from Western gov-ernments.

One suggestion is to agree that the results of the 1990elections are out of date and instead try to resume mean-ingful discussions with the SPDC about how and whennew elections can occur. Certainly some people will re-tort that the military might ignore the results of any newelections, but how would that be any different or worsethan the current political situation in the country? If suc-cessful elections are held in the future, the SPDC andNLD will have earned their places in paving the way fora new golden era in Burma. Both sides save face.

Will this alternative approach to initiating dialogueand political reconciliation break the impasse between theSPDC and the NLD? There is no guarantee, but in poli-tics nothing is guaranteed. What we do know is that thereare millions of people living in extreme poverty in Burmawho cannot wait much longer for the two sides to makeprogress.

David Oldfield, PhD, is executive vice president ofBrooker Policy Research Co, Ltd.

David Oldfield

stance by the NLD truly represent the party supportersliving throughout the country, or are some supporters morerealistic and willing to concede ground to move the coun-try forward?

Among the demands of the NLD leadership and theforeign governments who offer moral support is that theelection results of 1990 must be recognised by the SPDC.The NLD’s refusal to compromise on this point is clearlyone of the major sticking points that prevents the twosides from having fruitful dialogue on a new course forBurma. It is naive to think that the SPDC is going tohonour those elections results, and as long as the NLDinsists on this among its demands, constructive dialogueis unlikely to occur. Other demands by NLD, such as therelease of political prisoners and the promulgation of aconstitution, pose less of a challenge in reaching an agree-ment with the military government. Do the 1990 electionsstill reflect the Burmese people’s views? Perhaps, but alot has changed since then, and the 13-year old electionresults might not be an accurate representation of peoplein 2003. For instance, most of the minority groups thatwere fighting the military have signed peace agreementswith the government since the elections were held.

In short, a new approach to dialogue would entailtwo main elements.

First, the NLD, UN, and governments around theworld must recognise the reality of the military’s govern-ing authority and its concerns about a future Burma in-stead of ignoring them. They do not have to agree withthe military’s concerns, but to ignore them and continuepressing the SPDC into accepting a weakened bargainingposition is surely the road to nowhere in the dialogue

This article is a reproduction from the website

www.multimedia.com. —Ed

Secretary-1 General Khin Nyunt inspects progress in construction of TraditionalMedicine University (Mandalay) on 6 July. —MNA


There are about 500,000 householdsusing electricity in Yangon. Thus, saving afour-foot fluorescent lamp every day by eachhousehold amounts to saving power that isequal to the capacity a 20-megawatt powerstation can supply.

Efficient use of electricity* Use daylight as the main source of light* Use the least possible amount of electricity

only if there is not enough natural light* Use the least possible amount of electricity

required in production and service enter-prises

* Preventing waste of electricity benefits theuser and others

* Oppose those relying on external elements,acting as stooges, holding negative views

* Oppose those trying to jeopardize stabilityof the State and progress of the nation

* Oppose foreign nations interfering ininternal affairs of the State

* Crush all internal and external destructiveelements as the common enemy

People’s Desire

* Saving one gallon of fuel per car per monthwill save the nation one US dollar

* Thus, a total of 455,822 cars in Myanmarcan save US$ 5.5 million in a year

* The amount, US $ 5.5 million, can build amajor bridge across Ayeyawady River

Efficient use of fuel

Do not be frightenedwhenever intimidated.

YANGON, 7 July —The Myanmar delegationled by Minister for EnergyBrig-Gen Lun Thi attendedthe 21st ASEAN EnergyMinisters Meeting (AEMM)held on 3 July in Langkawi,Malaysia, and discussedpromotion of cooperation inthe energy sectors amongthe ASEAN member coun-tries, production and con-sumption of crude oil andfuture plans.

Minister for Energy attendsAEMM

Minister for Energy Brig-Gen Lun Thi attends 21stASEAN Energy Ministers’ Meeting.— ENERGY

YANGON, 7 July—Secre-tary-1 of the State Peaceand Development CouncilGeneral Khin Nyunt andparty, accompanied byChairman of Mandalay Di-vision Peace and Develop-ment Council Commanderof Central Command Maj-Gen Ye Myint, arrived atthe construction project siteof MICT Park (Mandalay)on the third floor ofYandanabon Market inMandalay at 5 pm yester-day.

They were welcomedthere by members of theBoard of Directors ofMICT Park (Mandalay) andofficials.

First, the Secretary-1and party inspected theseminar hall, the meetinghall of MICT Park (Man-dalay) and progress in con-struction of the offices ofIT companies.

At the briefing hall,Commander Maj-Gen YeMyint reported on the sali-ent points of MICT Park(Mandalay) project andarrangements being madefor the opening of the fa-cility.

Next, Chairman of theBoard of Directors Major

Secretary-1 General Khin Nyunt inspects construction works of MICT Park (Mandalay) at Yadanabon Market inMandalay— MNA

Development of motherland andperpetuation…

(from page 1)The national develop-

ment, the strong nationaleconomic life and higherliving standard of the peo-ple will lead to restoring thelong-lasting peace and sta-bility for the people.

Nowadays, own na-tional strength needed to bebuilt in accord with ownnational objective and ef-forts will have to be exertedfor the emergence of highly

Secretary-1 inspects development undertakingsin Mandalay

Than Aung reported onwork being carried out foropening of MICT Park(Mandalay), arrangementsfor IT facilities, workprogress and placement forthe companies.

Afterwards, Minister forCommunications, Posts andTelegraphs Brig-Gen TheinZaw gave a supplementaryreport.

Next, Secretary-1 Gen-eral Khin Nyunt gave in-structions on timely com-pletion of the project.

Next, Secretary-1 andparty inspected arrange-ments being made for open-ing of Billiards and Snooker

Hall by Relax Co on thesecond floor of the market,arrangements being madefor opening of the restau-rants and beauty parlours.

Deputy Managing Di-rector of Relax Co U NyiNyi Htwe conducted theSecretary-1 and party roundthe place.

Next, the Secretary-1and party proceeded to theconstruction site of Tradi-tional Medicines University(Mandalay) where theywere welcomed by Direc-tor-General of TraditionalMedicines Department DrThein Swe, Rector of theuniversity Dr Mya Moe and

qualified human resourceswho will play the leadingrole in nation-building en-deavours.

The teachers who nur-ture the youths that willshape the future need tostrive for cementing thenational strength and thenational force while nurtur-ing the students in accordwith the national require-ments.

Likewise, the teachersare to nurture the studentsto be imbued with the na-tional spirit and outstandingefficiency for constantemergence of highly quali-fied human resources capa-ble of serving the interestsof the nation and the peo-ple at present and in thelong term.

In conclusion, the Sec-retary-1 urged the teachersto strive together with theentire national people inbuilding the nation into amodern and developed onethrough the education sec-tor, to make efforts to equipthe students with patrioticspirit, nationalism, UnionSpirit in accord with thefine traditions of Myanmarwhich have national pres-

tige and integrity throughthe education sector andto strive with the peoplein guarding against thedanger of destructive ele-ments who are jeopardizingpeace and stability of theState, national developmentand perpetuation of theUnion.

Next, the ceremony topresent prizes and comple-tion certificates to the train-ees continued.

The Secretary-1 pre-sented outstanding traineeawards to junior assistantteacher U Soe Lin of No 1Basic Education MiddleSchool in Hsarsi, MagwayDivision and JAT Daw SanYu Maw of TadaU Town-ship BEHS in MandalayDivision; diligence awardsto JAT U Tin Win ofNo 3 BEMS in Pakokku,Magway Division, JATDaw Nyunt Shwe of No 11BEHS in AungmyethazanTownship, Mandalay Divi-sion and JAT Daw ThanHtay of Hsonedwin BEMSin Mahlaing Township,Mandalay Division; andmodel hostel awards andcourse completion cer-tificates to the respective

officials. At the briefinghall, Managing Director ofACE Construction GroupU Tint Hsan reported onprogress in construction ofthe main hall, lecture hall-1 and lecture hall-2, elec-tricity and water supply,archways and fencing, pav-ing of the road and con-struction of car parkingsand greening work to theSecretary-1 who gave nec-essary instructions.

After inspecting theconstruction work, the Sec-retary-1 and party arrivedat the Nanmyo GuestHouse.

MNA

Chief Justice U Aung Toe being welcomed at the recep-tion to mark the birthday of King of Nepal by Charged’Affaires of Nepalese Embassy Mr Harishchandra

Ghimire on Monday.— MNA

trainees.Afterwards, the trainees

and instructors donated K50,000 to the Chairman ofMyanmar Education Com-mittee. The Secretary-1

presented certificates ofhonour to the trainees. TheSecretary-1 cordiallygreeted the trainees and leftthere.

MNA

The minister alsomet with the president ofPetronas Sdn Bhd, Malay-sia, and discussed workplans of Petronas inMyanmar. He met with staffof Myanmar Embassy andbriefed them on favourablepolitical and economic situ-ation in Myanmar.

The minister andparty arrived back here yes-terday.

MNA


(from page 16)At 10.15 am, Lt-Gen ThuraShwe Mann, Secretary-2 Lt-Gen Soe Win and party leftHinthada for Pathein by car.At the entrance to Kyonpyaw,Lt-Gen Thura Shwe Mannand party cordially met withthe welcoming party made upof local authorities, depart-mental officials, NGOs, offi-cials.

Lt-Gen Khin MaungThan also met with officers,other ranks and their familiesat the local battalion.

Lt-Gen Thura ShweMann, Secretary-2 Lt-GenSoe Win, and party arrivedat Pathein in the afternoon,and inspected the construc-tion site of Government tech-nological college.

At the briefing hall, Prin-cipal of Pathein GovernmentTechnological College DawYi Yi Myint reported on thebirth of the college and thepopulation of students. Next,Managing Director of ArkarOo Co Ltd U Myo Aungreported on progress in theconstruction of the college. Inresponse to the reports, Lt-Gen Thura Shwe Mann gaveinstructions and inspected theconstruction site.

At 10 am yesterdaymorning, Lt-Gen Thura ShweMann and party attended arice-offering ceremony at theSasana Beikmandawgyi inPathein. Eighteen memberSayadaws from PariyattiSchools were also present onthe occasion.

Ayeyawady DivisionSangha Nayaka CommitteeWeluwun MonasterySayadaw Agga Maha PanditaBhaddanta Nagavamsa in-vested the congregation withthe Five Precepts.

Next, Lt-Gen ThuraShwe Mann, Secretary-2 Lt-Gen Soe Win, Lt-Gen KhinMaung Than, and party of-fered rice and provisions toat the Sayadaws. KonthaMonastery Sayadaw AggaMaha Pandita BhaddantaVilasa delivered a sermon.

Later, Lt-Gen ThuraShwe Man and party pro-ceeded to the Pathein Gen-eral Hospital, where theywere welcomed by DeputyMinister for Health Dr MyaOo, Head of Ayeyawady Di-vision Health Department DrThan Aung, Medical Super-

intendent Dr Khin MaungTin, specialists, doctors andnurses. Lt-Gen Thura ShweMann and party inspected thehospital buildings and patientwards, and comforted the pa-tients receiving medical treat-ment at the hospital.

At the briefing hall of theNgawun bridge (Pathein)construction project, Ministerfor Construction Maj-GenSaw Tun reported to Lt-GenThura Shwe Mann and partythat survey works were doneat the most suitable places forthe construction of the bridge;and that the place betweenMayanchaung village andKanni village was the best forthe construction of the bridge.

Deputy Minister for Con-struction Brig-Gen MyintThein reported on the plan tobuild Ngawun River Bridge(Pathein) and construction ofapproach roads.

Deputy Minister forTransport U Pe Than reportedon depth and rising tide andebb of Ngawun River andcondition of the bank betweenMayangyaung Village andKanni Village.

Next, Commander Maj-Gen Htay Oo reported that oncompletion of Ngawun RiverBridge (Pathein), the westernregions of Ngawun River aswell as Ngaputaw andThabaung Townships andGwa Township in RakhineState will achieve progress.Visits of travellers to NgweHsaung and ChaungthaBeach Resorts easily can con-tribute much towards regionaldevelopment. Minister forForestry U Aung Phone re-ported on arrangements forremoval of the buildings ofMyanma Timber Enterprise atthe site of Ngawun RiverBridge (Pathein). Lt-GenThura Shwe Mann gave nec-essary instructions and in-spected the site for construc-tion of the bridge.

On completion, livingstandard of over 300,000 lo-cal people who reside in 488villages of 93 village-tracts ofPathein, Yekyi, Thabaungand Ngaputaw townships inwestern region of NgawunRiver will develop.

The local people can sendfisheries, rice and paddy,dried coconut and forest prod-ucts to the market easily.They can go to western

Construction of hospitals, …

Pathein region fromMawtinsun throughThabaung-Kyangin Road,Thandwe-Gwa-Yenantha-Thabaung Road, Pathein-Yangon Road and Pathein-Monywa Road. In addition,hotels and recreation businessat Ngwe Hsaung andChaungtha Beach Resortswill develop remarkably.

Next, Lt-Gen Thura ShweMann, the Secretary-2 andparty inspected fish breedingtasks with the use of cagesystem being undertaken byYuzana Co Ltd in NgawunRiver. Chairman of YuzanaCo U Htay Myint reported onbreeding of fish with cagesystem. Lt-Gen Thura ShweMann and party inspectedbreeding of river catfish in thecages and feeding tasks andsample fingerlings. YuzanaCo Ltd is gaining success inbreeding of river catfish withthe use of cage system andcarrying out the breedingtasks to meet the target of5,000 tons of river catfish in2003-2004. They inspectedmachines and equipment tobe used at 750-ton capacityCold Storage to be openedsoon and the Fish FeedstuffFactory which can produce 10tons of feedstuff an hour, fishfeedstuff and packaging offish and prawn.

Yuzana Co Chairman UHtay Myint reported on con-struction works, agricultureand livestock breeding tasks,the cold storage factories andhotels of the company, earn-ing of income from fish andprawn production and workexperiences. Minister for

Livestock and Fisheries Brig-Gen Maung Maung Theingave a supplementary report.Chief of Staff (Navy) Rear-Admiral Soe Thein and offi-cials reported on constructionof cages for breeding fish.Secretary-2 Lt-Gen Soe Winand Lt-Gen Khin MaungThan gave supplementaryreports. Lt-Gen Thura ShweMann said he was satisfiedwith fish breeding tasks withcage system. Next, theysigned in the visitors’ bookof Yuzana Co Ltd. In the af-ternoon, Lt-Gen Thura ShweMann met officers, otherranks and families at the lo-cal battalion in Pathein. At thesame time, the Secretary-2and party went to PatheinUniversity where they werewelcomed by Deputy Minis-ter for Education U MyoNyunt, the rector, the pro-rec-tor and professors.

At Kanthaya Hall, DeputyMinister U Myo Nyunt re-ported on arrangements beingmade for the national educa-tion promotion programme inthe higher education sector.Rector U Cho reported onPathein University thatPathein University was up-graded from an intermediatecollege. As the Pathein In-termediate College wasopened on 7 July 1958, theuniversity is 45 old years,nearly golden jubilee anniver-sary. He also reported on thearea of the university, aca-demic matters, strength ofstaff and number of students,research works, arrangementsfor conducting research worksin cooperation with interna-

Lt-Gen Thura Shwe Mann and Secretary-2 Lt-Gen Soe Win inspect 750-ton capacity Cold Storage of YuzanaCo Ltd.— MNA

tional universities and insti-tutions, construction works atthe university and all-rounddevelopment movements ofstudents. At that time, Lt-GenThura Shwe Mann and partyarrived at the briefing hall.Next, Secretary-2 Lt-Gen SoeWin delivered an address. Hesaid that he was glad to seeteachers who are turning outnew generation of the State.As Senior General Than Shwe

laid down the education pro-motion programmes for devel-opment of human resource,the teachers are to collectivelyparticipate in implementing it.

Next, Lt-Gen Thura ShweMann, the Secretary-2 andparty cordially conversed withfaculty members of the uni-versity. Later, they leftPathein at 4.30 pm and ar-rived back here at 7.30 pm.

MNA

SARS prevention* There is no outbreak of SARS in

Myanmar.* Preventive measures are being taken

against the spread of SARS from othercountries.

* The people are urged to participate inthe project.

Ministry of Mines offersWaso robes

YANGON, 7 July — The12th Waso robes offeringceremony of the Ministryof Mines was held thismorning at ThiriyadanaHall of the Ministry.

At the ceremony, Min-ister for Mines Brig-GenOhn Myint and wife,Deputy Minister U MyintThein and wife and offi-cials offered Waso robesand presented offertories tothe monks of Maha

Theikpan Pariyatti Monas-tery, First Shwekyin Mon-astery and Dhamma MaidiniMonastery. They also do-nated K 100,000 each to themonasteries.

Afterwards, PatronSayadaw of Maha TheikpanPariyatti Monastery AggaMaha Pandita BhaddantaSiri Dhamma delivered asermon and the congrega-tion shared merits gained.

MNA

The University of Traditional Medicine (Mandalay) Contruction Project.—MNA

Do not be frightenedwhenever intimidated


� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � ��

TRADE MARK CAUTIONSANYO ELECTRIC

CO., LTD., a Japanese cor-poration, located at 5-5,Keihan-hondori 2-chome,Moriguchi City, Osaka, Ja-pan, is the Owner of the fol-lowing Trade Mark:-

Reg. No. 609/1963used in Myanmar since 1953in respect of “Electrical ap-paratus and instruments,parts thereof and accesso-ries therefor”

Fraudulent imitation orunauthorised use of the saidTrade Mark will be dealt withaccording to law.

Win Mu Tin ,M.A., H.G.P., D.B.L

for SANYO ELECTRICCO., LTD

P.O. Box 60, Yangon,Dated: 8 July 2003

S Africa FM callsfor more

cooperationamong

developing statesJOHANNESBURG, 7 July —

South African Foreign Min-ister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Friday if de-veloping countries put theirenergies together they willbe stronger to bargain withthe North.

Speaking at a news con-ference in Pretoria, Zumasaid: “We can really, with-out ignoring the North, do alot in the South.”

“Such multilateral coop-eration naturally reinforcesour relationship at the bilat-eral level, and vice versa,and provides added impetusto the way in which SouthAfrica and India address thesocial and economic in-equalities and disparitiesthat are common, not onlyto us, but to the developingworld as a whole,” Zumasaid.

South African PresidentThabo Mbeki’s state visit toIndia in October would addfurther impetus to the ex-panding and deepening po-litical and economic relation-ship between the two coun-tries.

MNA/Xinhua

Helicopter crash kills 5 in Brazilwere at least three passen-gers besides the pilot and co-pilot, according to TV Globo.Other Press reports said morepeople may have died in thecrash. —MNA/Xinhua

RIO DE JANEIRO, 7 July —A helicopter from Brazil’sstate-run petroleum com-pany Petrobras crashed intothe Atlantic Ocean on Satur-day, leaving at least five peo-ple dead, Brazil’s televisionnetwork TV Globo reported.

The report said the air-craft, used to pick up em-ployees from petroleum rigs,tried to land on the Toisa

Mariner oil platform when itbumped into a backstay ofthe vessel before explodingand falling into the sea. Thehelicopter sank within “a fewminutes.”

The accident happenedin Campos Bay, about 111kilometres off the port ofMacae and 190 kilometresnortheast of Rio.

Aboard the helicopter

DON’T

SMOKE

NICOSIA, 7 July—TheCypriot House of Repre-sentatives has approved agovernment bill to promotetrade between the two com-munities of Greek and Turk-ish Cypriots on the island,reports here said recently.

The decision followed aCabinet approval last weekof measures announcedby President TassosPapadopoulos.

This move is part of apackage of economic meas-ures of the Cypriot govern-ment to help raise the living

standards of the TurkishCypriots and encourage in-ternal trade between the is-land’s two communities, thereports said.

The new bill will alsoallow Turkish Cypriot truckscarrying goods to cross fromTurkish Cypriots-dominatednorth into the Greek Cypri-ots-controlled south.

It is believed that themeasures will contribute toa political solution beforeCyprus’ accession to the Eu-ropean Union in May nextyear.—MNA/Xinhua

Cyprus’ Parlt approves billto promote internal trade

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Secretary-1 presents offertories at…(from page 16)

The Mingun Sayadaw built the Kyaungtaik with thedonations of the wellwishers and that of the government. The Sayadaw built the Kyaungtaik with the objectives ofproviding four prerequisites to the members of the Sanghawho learned Pitaka literature and giving lectures on Pitaka.Therefore learners study the Pitaka without any worry aboutthe prerequisites and the Kyaungtaik produces Tipitakadharatitle recipients yearly. Mingun Dhamma Nada Sayadaw BhaddantaOkkanthabhivamsa, Bhamo Sayadaw Agga Maha PanditaDr Bhaddanta Kumarabhivamsa in Mandalay, Agga MahaPandita Bhaddanta Kelasabhivamsa of MyataungtaikThamada Sarchakyaung in Mandalay and BhaddantaVicittabhivamsa of Masoyein Taik in Mandalay andBhaddanta Ñeyadhammabhivamsa also gave lectures. The Secretary-1 said the Tipitaka Nikaya Kyaungtaikproduced 546 Tipitakadhara and Pitaka title recipients. Hepointed out some of significant measures for the Sasanaundertaken by Mingun Sayadaw — including participationin the sixth Sangha Synod, compiling treatises onBuddhology, establishing Tipitaka Nikaya Kyaungtaik inMingun Hill, giving lectures on Abhidhamma andAtthakatha, delivering sermons in different parts of thecountry, establishing the State Pariyatti Sasana Universitiesin Yangon and Mandalay, opening abbot training schools instates and divisions and establishing Jivitadana SasanaSpecial Hospital in Mandalay. Moreover, he said, the Tipitaka Nikaya Missionary Com-mittee carried out the following tasks— offering Shwethinganat the pagodas, construction of three-storey building in

Tipitaka Kyaungtaik in commemoration of golden andsilver jubilees, making arrangements for construction ofnine-story building in Yangon Tipitaka Kyaungtaik, tarringof nine-mile Sagaing-Mingun road and 2-mileMingundhammanada road and publishing calendar and pho-tos. In conclusion, the Secretary-1 wished the efforts andmissionary works of the committee and Sangha organiza-tions at different levels success.

Next, the Secretary-1 and party presented offertories tomembers of the Sangha.

Next, the cash donation ceremony followed.Secretary-1 General Khin Nyunt and wife Dr Daw Khin

Win Shwe and family donated K 260,000 for members of theSangha who passed the examinations.

Chairman of Tipitaka Nikaya Missionary Upatha Com-mittee U Aye Pe (Retd Ambassador) accepted the dona-tions.

Next, the Secretary-1 General Khin Nyunt, Lt-Gen YeMyint and Commander Maj-Gen Soe Naing accepted K56,510,000 including K 15 million each by Tipitaka NikayaMissionary Upatha Committee led by Thiha ThudhamaManijotadhaja Hsinmin U Tin Shwe and TNMUC (Manda-lay) led by U Thu Taw K1 million by Sagaing DivisionPeace and Development Council and K 2 million by resi-dents of Maubin led by Daw Khin Mar Kyu, Daw Pyon May,Daw Phaw and Daw Hton.

Next, Patron of Tipitaka Nikaya Management Commit-tee Pro-rector of International Theravada Buddhist Mis-sionary University Sayadaw Vatansaka Sirawmani AggaMaha Pandita Dr Bhaddanta Kumarabhivamsa delivered asermon and the Secretary-1 and party shared merits gained.

The ceremony ended with the three-time recitation ofBuddha Sasanam Ciram Tittahtu.—MNA

Secretary-1 General Khin Nyunt plants a Eugenia tree onMomeik Hill on 6-7-2003.— MNA

Kyan Hong Jong (a) Shauk Haw seized with 37.16 kilos ofheroin in Muse on 26-6-2003.— MNA

YANGON, 7 July— A pa-per-reading session on cul-ture, organized by the Min-istry of Culture will be heldat the multi-purpose hall ofthe National Museum onPyay Road here, on 11, 12and 14 July.

On the occasion, alto-gether 12 papers will be sub-mitted by resource personsfrom culture, literature andeducation fields. Any onemay attend the paper-read-ing session.

MNA

Paper-reading session onculture to be held

At the factory, the man-aging director U Soe Theinof the MADEI and GeneralManager of the factory UHlaing Thein reported to theminister on the productionof vehicles. After hearingreports, the minister gaveinstructions on innovativemeasures, quality products,work-site safety, and sys-tematic use of electricityand fuel oil. — MNA

YANGON, 7 July — Min-ister for Industry-2 Maj-GenSaw Lwin, accompanied byDeputy Ministers Brig-GenAung Thein Lin and Lt-ColKhin Maung Kyaw and of-ficials, went to the No 1 Au-tomobile Factory (Yangon)operated by the MyanmaAutomobile and Diesel En-gine Industries inMayangon Township herethis afternoon.

No 1 Automobile Factory(Yangon) inspected

YANGON, 7 July — Thesecond-day session of theEighth 47-member PlenaryMeeting of the Fifth StateSangha Maha NayakaCommittee continued todayat Wizaya MingalaDhammathabin on KabaAye Hill, here this morn-ing.

Present on the occasionwere member Sayadaws ofthe SSMNC, Deputy Min-ister for Religious AffairsBrig-Gen Thura Aung Ko,Deputy Director-General of

the Religious Affairs De-partment U Htin Myo, di-rectors, and officials.

Religious matters re-lated to Vinicchaya, educa-tion, and general affairswere put into discussions atthe meeting.

U Min Din-Daw WinWin Aye (Yadana Winwarehouse) and U Zaw MinOo-Daw Win Win Htay(Aung Yadana Win ware-house) and families offered‘soon’ to the Sayadaws.

MNA

Eighth 47-member PlenaryMeeting concludes

Lt-Gen Ye Myint inspects construction of Ayeyawady River Bridge (Yadanabon).— MNA

37.16 kilos of heroin seizedin Muse

YANGON, 7 July — Acombined team comprisingmembers of the local intel-ligence unit and MyanmarPolice Force, after gettinginformation that narcoticdrugs would be brought tothe house of Kyan HaungGyaung (a) Shauk Haw,son of U Kyan Yin Chwin,of No I/233 in Zay Wardin Muse, awaited near thehouse. In the meantime, aMark II with licence platesKaKa/8211 came to thehouse and then suddenly

drove away. So, the au-thorities chased the car andmanaged to seize it nearYahtaik Co besidePyidaungsu road in Muse.They then arrested driverKyan Hong Jong (a) ShaukHaw together with 37.16kilos of heroin.

In connection with thecase the police station con-cerned is taking actionagainst him under NarcoticDrugs and PsychotropicSubstances Law.

MNA

Lt-Gen Ye Myint inspects bridge construc-tion tasks in Mandalay, Sagaing Divisions

YANGON, 7 July— Member of the State Peace andDevelopment Council Lt-Gen Ye Myint of the Ministry ofDefence, inspected construction of Ayeyawady RiverBridge (Yadanabon) to link Mandalay and Sagaing on 6July morning.

Accompanied by Chairman of Mandalay Division Peaceand Development Council Commander of Central Com-mand Maj-Gen Ye Myint, Mandalay Mayor Brig-Gen YanThein and officials of the State Peace and DevelopmentCouncil Office, Lt-Gen Ye Myint heard reports on drivingof bore piles, monthly arrival of construction materials andrequirement by engineers. Lt-Gen Ye Myint fulfilled therequirements.

Next, they inspected completion of driving bore piles.On the bank of Sagaing, they were welcomed by

Chairman of Sagaing Division Peace and DevelopmentCouncil Commander of North-West Command Maj-GenSoe Naing, Brig-Gen Tin Tun Aung of Sagaing Station andofficials. Lt-Gen Ye Myint inspected construction of theapproach road. Deputy Superintending Engineer U HsanWin conducted them round the site. Next, Deputy Super-intending Engineer U Hsan Win reported on constructionof the approach road, driving of bore piles and arrival ofconstruction materials. The commander gave a supple-mentary report. Lt-Gen Ye Myint attended to their needs.

On arrival at Panhsay Creek Bridge in TadaU Town-ship, Deputy Superintending Engineer U Hsan Win re-ported on progress of works. Next, Lt-Gen Ye Myintinspected construction site of the bridge.

Panhsay Bridge, a six-lane concrete bridge, is locatedon the bypass of Paleik and TadaU. At present, concretefloor has been placed on three lane site.

MNA

��

Do not be softendedwhenever appeased

14 THE NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR Tuesday, 8 July, 2003� � � � � � � � � � � � � � ��

SPORTS

Mexico’s Irvin Rubirosa (L) and El Salvador’s GilbertoMurgas chase the ball in the second half of their soccer

friendly at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California,on 6 July, 2003. El Salvador won 2-1.—INTERNET

Kim Clijsters (L) of Belgium and Ai Sugiyama of Japanhold up their ladies doubles trophy at the Wimbledon

Tennis Championships.—INTERNET

Swiss celebrate Federer’s win

Federer overpowered Australian MarkPhilippoussis 7-6, 6-2, 7-6 in the final onSunday, six years after his compatriotMartina Hingis clinched the women’s crown.

Marc Rosset won the Olympic title in1992 but Federer’s success, the first in anyGrand Slam event for a Swiss man, wascelebrated as a far greater achievement.

Friends and fans cheered the win at theOld Boys’ Tennis Club in Federer’s home-town of Basel in northern Switzerland, wherethe champagne flowed at the end of thematch and the bar announced beers on thehouse for everyone.

“Roger showed some tears at the prizeceremony and I must say that I have tearstoo,” Seppli Kacovsky, Federer’s first coach,told Swiss television.

“I think it’s fantastic not just for Rogerbut for the Old Boys’ Club and tennis as a

whole in Switzerland,” he added, brandish-ing a bottle of champagne.

“This is unique what he has done. I thoughthe could win it from the quarterfinals and Iam so pleased,” he said.

Swiss Sports Minister Samuel Schmid,who travelled to Wimbledon for the show-down, compared Federer’s victory to Swissyacht Alinghi’s surprise win in the Ameri-ca’s Cup in March.

“After this superb result in tennis, thiscountry has every right to be proud of thesecompetitors who have postioned themselvesin a global elite and won,” Schmid said.

Niklaus von Vary, president of the OldBoys’ club where Federer has been a membersince childhood, said the club wanted to builda new court and name it after the 21-year-old,who they made their youngest-ever honorarymember in 2001.—MNA/Reuters

ZURICH , 7 July— Switzerland’s sports minister along with the man who taughtRoger Federer to play led his compatriots’ tributes to the new Wimbledon championafter he became the first Swiss man to win a Grand Slam singles title.

Federer conquers mount Philippoussis

LONDON, 7 July — Roger Federer mesmerized manmountain Mark Philippoussis on Sunday to win hismaiden Grand Slam crown and become the first Swissmen’s singles champion in Wimbledon’s 126-year his-tory.

The magical 7-6, 6-2, 7-6 Centre Court performanceripped up the 21-year-old’s tag of Grand Slam undera-chiever once and for all.

“It’s just incredible... I don’t know how this is possible,”the fourth seed said, his voice breaking with emotion on theworld’s most famous tennis court.

“A lot of people have come from Basel, from home, forthis. It is so nice to share this moment, thanks to everybody,”he added before bursting into tears.

For Philippoussis the defeat was a painful one, but thiswas a tournament which has breathed new life into a careerpockmarked by injury.

After three separate surgeries on his knee, the Australianhad been told he may never play at the top level again.

“It’s been a long trip back, but this is only the beginning,”Philippoussis said. “I will definitely be back.”

Federer’s victory was so complete it immediately drewcomparisons with seven-times champion’s Pete Sampras’dominance of the All England Club turf.

It was Federer who ended Sampras’ 31-match winningstreak here in 2001 with a dramatic five-set win on CentreCourt.

That match marked the end of the Sampras era and wasthe last time Federer reached a Grand Slam quarterfinal —his best performance before this week.

Sunday’s final, however, may have marked the begin-ning of a Federer era at Wimbledon.

Champion in Halle before the Championships began, heis unbeaten on grass this year. His straight-sets defeat ofbookmakers’ favourite Andy Roddick in the semifinal wasa thing of beauty.

“I’m so happy with the way I played. It was the best twomatches maybe of my career,” he said, wiping tears from hiseyes.”

Standing 6 feet 4 inches and with his white shirtstretched across his barrel-chest, Philippoussis had cut animposing figure from the start.

He began in a powerful fashion designed to disquiet thesoftly-spoken Swiss.

But Federer was uncowed by the barrage of power. Witha service action as smooth as any Swiss mechanism, hethrew himself forward behind every delivery, angling vol-leys beyond his opponent’s reach.

With tension mounting as the first set inched towards atiebreak, a mobile phone in the stands broke the hushedatmosphere. Its ring tone — the morse code distress call ofSOS — was apt given Philippoussis’ bludgeoning serves.

In the event, though, it was the Australian who neededrescuing when his serve misfired in the 10th point of thetiebreak. Two points later, Federer clinched the openerwhen the Australian thumped a return wide and long after43 minutes.—MNA/Reuters

LEMONT (Illinois), 7 July— Tiger Woods recorded hisfourth victory in 10 US starts this year, firing a three-under-par 69 to cruise to a five-stroke win at the 100th WesternOpen on Sunday.

The world number one finished 21-under on 267 to tiethe 72-hole scoring record for the tournament. US PGAchampion Rich Beem (67) was second on 272.

US Open winner Jim Furyk (65), US Masters championMike Weir of Canada (68) and Jerry Kelly (68) were jointthird on 274. Australian Robert Allenby and Cliff Kresgeshared sixth spot on 275, 13 under.

Woods began the round with a six-stroke lead aftersetting the 54-hole tournament scoring record of 198, 18under.

He opened with birdies on the first two holes and pickedup another shot at the 10th to surge 10 strokes clear.

But bogeys at the 14th and 18th, coupled with Beemplaying holes 10 to 14 in five-under, reduced the eventualwinning margin.

Woods won for the 38th time on the PGA Tour and it wasthe third Western Open title of his career. It also marked thefifth consecutive year he has won at least four times in oneseason. — MNA/Reuters

Woods coasts to five-shotwin at Western Open

JOHANNESBURG, 7 July— Teenage striker Dennis Oliech handed Kenya their first appearance in the AfricanNations Cup finals for 12 years when he scored to give his side a 1-0 win over Cape Verde on Saturday. Second-halfsubstitute Oliech scored six minutes from time to make sure of Kenya’s top place in Group Five to qualify for nextJanuary’s bi-annual tournament in Tunisia.

Kenya beat Cape Verde to qualifyfor Cup finals

“I knew the match wouldbe tough but I am happy thatwe pulled through,” saidKenya coach Jacob Mulee.

The Democratic Repub-lic of Congo, Egypt and Malialso booked their places inthe 16-team tournament, tobring the list of qualifiers tonine.

The other seven placeswill be decided on Sunday.

Mali edged out Zimba-bwe on goal difference inGroup Six after both sideswon their last matches by2-0 score lines.

Striker Peter Ndlovu, ofEnglish First Division sideSheffield United, gave Zim-babwe a dream start inHarare against Eritrea withtwo goals in the first 20 min-utes but his side were un-able to add to the score line.

With 13 points, they can

still qualify as the bestplaced runners-up but mustawait the outcome of theGroup Seven match inLibreville on Sunday, whereGabon host Sierra Leone.

Mali had to wait untilthe second half to overcomethe ever-improving Sey-

chelles with goals fromSammy Traore and Greek-based midfielder BassalaToure.

The Democratic Repub-lic of Congo, with Newcas-tle United striker TresorLomana Lua Lua back inthe side after suspension,

finished top of Group Nineafter a goalless draw withGaborone in Botswana.

Swaziland could havecaught them but needed towin in Tripoli against Libya.Instead they were handed a6-2 thrashing.

PORTLAND (Oregon), 7 July— American Hilary Lunke, who has never finishedhigher than 15th in two years as a professional, took a one-shot lead after the thirdround of the 3.1 million US dollars US Women’s Open at Pumpkin Ridge on Saturday.

Lunke chasing maiden tourwin at US Women’s Open

The 24-year-old fired a three-under 68for a total of 208, five below par. Fellowcountrywoman Angela Stanford, 25, whowon her first LPGA title in Atlantic City lastweek, was in second place after birdying thelast to record a 69.

World number one Annika Sorenstam,the US Open champion in 1995 and 1996,

climbed into a share of third place afterposting a best-of-the-day 67.

The Swede, who won her fifth major lastmonth (the LPGA Championship), was on211 along with South Korean pair Jang Jeongand amateur Aree Song, 17, and MhairiMcKay of Britain.

MNA/Reuters

MNA/Reuters


R 489 Published by the News and Periodicals Enterprise, Ministry of Information, Union of Myanmar. Edited and printed at The New Light of Myanmar Press,No 22/30 Strand Road at 43rd Street, Yangon. Cable Newlight, PO Box No. 43, Telephones: Editors 296115, Manager 296864, Circulation 297093, Advertisement 296843,Accounts 296545, Administration 296161, Production 297032 (Office) /297028 (Press).

9:00 Signature TuneGreetings

9:02 Song of MyanmarBeauty & Scenic Sights

“ Myanma Panorama& Myanma Sentiment”

9:06 Popa Mountain Park9:10 Headline News9:12 Myanmar Cuisine

“ Roasted-Rice Powderwith Fish”

9:15 National News9:20 The King of Music9:25 Lively Dancer,

Myanmar Mintha9:30 National News9:35 Myanmar Modern Song

“ The Heart of Wetland”9:40 A Gift to mark a visit to

Myitkyina (Salt-Snack)9:45 National News9:50 Lifestyles along The

Ayeyawady (Mandalay to Pyay)

9:58 Song of MyanmarBeauty & ScenicSights “Come andSee Myanmar”

8-7-2003˚(Tuesday)Regular Programmes for

Viewers from AbroadEvening Transmission

(15:30 - 17:30)15:30 Signature Tune

Greetings15:32 Song of Myanmar

Beauty & ScenicSights “ Myanma Pano-rama & Myanma Senti-ment”





“ The Heart ofWetland”

16:10 A Gift to mark a visit toMyitkyina (Salt-Snack)

6:15 National News16:20 Lifestyles along The

Ayeyawady (Mandalay toPyay)

16:28 Song of MyanmarBeauty & Scenic Sights“ Mingalabar”

16:30 National News16:35 The Beauty of

Zwegabin and Liveli-hood of Kayin National

16:40 Easily Cooked TastyDishes (TenderizedEggplant)

8-7-2003˚(Tuesday)(Programme Schedule)Morning Transmission

(9:00 - 10:00)

WEATHER

MRTV-3MRTV-3MRTV-3MRTV-3MRTV-3MRTV-3MRTV-3MRTV-3MRTV-3MRTV-3

Summary of observations recorded at 09:30 hoursMST: During the past 24 hours, weather has been partlycloudy in lower Sagaing Division and Kayah State, rainor thundershowers have been isolated in Chin and KayinStates. Mandalay, Magway, Yangon and Ayeyawady Di-visions, scattered to widespread in the remaining areaswith isolated heavyfalls in Mon State and TaninthayiDivision. The noteworthy amounts of rainfall recordedwere Thaton (4.41) inches, Kawthong (3.35) inches,Myitkyina (2.60) inches, Bhamo (2.52) inches, Katha(2.36) inches and Mogok (1.97) inches.

Maximum temperature on 6-7-2003 was 32.5°C (90°F).Minimum temperature on 7-7-2003 was 23.3°C (74°F).Relative humidity at 9:30 hrs MST on 7-7-2003 was 96%.Total sunshine hours on 6-7-2003 was (3.8) hours approx.Rainfall on 7-7-2003 was nil at Yangon Airport, Kaba-Aye and central Yangon. Total rainfall since1-1-2003 was 1067 mm (42.01 inches) at YangonAirport, 1153 mm (45.39 inches) at Kaba-Aye and1188mm(46.77 inches) at central Yangon. Maximum wind speedat Yangon (Kaba-Aye) was 7 mph from Southwest at(19:00) hours MST on 6-7-2003. Bay inference: Monsoonis generally moderate in the Bay of Bengal. Forecastvalid until evening of 8-7-2003: Rain or thundershowerswill be widespread in Kachin, Mon and Shan States, upperSagaing and Taninthayi Divisions and isolated to scat-tered in the remaining areas with likelihood of isolatedheavyfall in Kachin, Mon State, upper Sagaing andTaninthayi Divisions. Degree of certainty is (80%). Stateof the sea: Seas will be slight to moderate in Myanmarwaters. Outlook for subsequent two days: Moderatemonsoon. Forecast forYangon and neighbouring areafor 8-7-2003 : One or two rain or thundershowers. De-gree of certainty is (80%). Forecast for Mandalay andneighbouring area for 8-7-2003: Isolated rain or thun-dershowers. Degree of certainty is (80%).

Flood Warning(Issued at 11.00 hr MST on 7-7-2003)

According to the (06.30) hr MST observation today,the water level of Chindwin River at Kalewa is (1500)cm. It will continue to rise and exceed its danger level of(1550) cm during the next (24) hours commencing noontoday.

Flood Bulletin(Issued at 11.™00 hr MST on 7-7-2003)

According to the (06.30) hr MST observation today,the water level of Chindwin River at Mawlaik is (1252)cm. It may remain above its danger level of (1230) cmduring the next (48) hours commencing noon today.

Monday, 7 July, 2003

16:45 National News16:50 Green Turtle16:55 Kayin Dance17:00 National News17:05 Dawei Traditional

Longyi Weaving Art17:10 Songs on Screen

“Flowers Lover”17:15 National News17:20 Towards Total Elimina-

tion of Narcotic DrugsMenace

17:25 Song of MyanmarBeauty & Scenic Sights“Come and SeeMyanmar”

Evening Transmission(19:30 - 23:30)

19:30 Signature TuneGreetings

19:32 Song of MyanmarBeauty & ScenicSights “Mingalabar”

19:35 Weaving School inFalam

19:40 Headline News19:42 Myanmar Cuisine

“Potato Pudding”19:45 National News19:50 A Royal Visit of the

Princess Sirindhorn19:55 Kayah Dance20:00 National News20:05 Myanmar Modern Song

“Moonlight”20:10 Shwe Nan Daw Cultural

Museum20:15 National News20:20 Lifestyles along the

Ayeyarweddy(Mandalay to Pyay)

20:28 Song of MyanmarBeauty & Scenic Sights“ Mingalabar”

20:30 National News20:35 Community Based

Drug Control Pro-gramme

20:40 Myanmar Cuisine“Steamed Fish”

20:45 National News20:50 A Trip to Naga Land20:55 A Romantic Duet21:00 National News21:05 Usefulness of the

Whole Toddy Palm21:10 Myanmar Modern Song

“ The ToweringFlowers”

21:12 Dat Taw GyaikWaterfall

21:15 National News21:20 Let us preserve the

Watershed Areas21:25 Song of Myanmar

Beauty & Scenic Sights“Myanma Panorama &Myanma Sentiment”





“ The Heart of Wetland”

22:10 A Gift to mark a visit toMyitkyina (Salt-Snack)

22:15 National News22:20 Lifestyles along The

Ayeyawady(Mandalay to Pyay)

22:28 Song of MyanmarBeauty & Scenic Sights“Mingalabar”





Longyi Weaving Art23:10 Songs on Screen:

“Flowers Lover”23:15 National News23:20 Towards Total Elimina-



8-7-2003˚(Tuesday) &9-7-2003 (Wednesday)Evening Transmission

(23:30 - 01:30)23:30 Signature Tune


Beauty & ScenicSights “Myanma Pano-rama & MyanmaSentiment”





“ The Heart of Wetland”00:10 A Gift to mark a visit to

Myitkyina (Salt-Snack)00:15 National News00:20 Lifestyles along The


00:28 Song of MyanmarBeauty & Scenic Sights“Mingalabar”





Longyi Weaving Art01:10 Songs on Screen

“ Flowers Lover”01:15 National News01:20 Towards Total Elimina-

tion of Narcotic DrugMenace


9-7-2003˚(Wednesday)Morning Transmission

(03:30 - 07:30)03:30 Signature Tune


Beauty & ScenicSights “Myanma Pano-rama & MyanmaSentiment”

03:35 Weaving School inFalam

03:40 Headline News03:42 Myanmar Cuisine

“Potato Pudding”03:45 National News03:50 A Royal Visit of the

Princes03:55 Kayah Dance04:00 National News04:05 Myanmar Modern Song

“Moonlight”04:10 Shwe Nan Daw Cultural

Museum04:15 National News04:20 Lifestyles along the

Ayeyarwady(Mandalay to Pyay)

04:28 Song of MyanmarBeauty & ScenicSights“ Mingalabar”

04:30 National News04:35 Community Based

Drug Control Pro-gramme

04:40 Myanmar Cuisine“ Steamed Fish”

04:45 National News04:50 A Trip to Naga Land04:55 A Romantic Duet05:00 National News05:05 Usefulness of the

Whole Toddy Palm05:10 Myanmar Modern Song

“ The ToweringFlowers”

05:15 National News05:20 Let us preserve the

Watershed Areas05:25 Song of Myanmar

Beauty & Scenic Sights“Myanma Panorama &Myanma Sentiment”




Myanmar Mintha06:00 National News06:05 Myanmar Modern

Song “ The Heart ofWetland”

06:10 A Gift to mark a visit toMyitkyina

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8:30 am 9. International news8:45 am10. Grammar made easy4:00 pm 1. Martial song4:15 pm 2. Songs to uphold national

spirit4:30 pm 3. English For Everyday Use4:40 pm 4. Musical Programme4:50 pm

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Tune in today:Tuesday, July 8

8.30 am Brief news8.35 am Music8.40 am Perspectives

2.35 pm Aspects of Myanmar Kayin State

2.45 pm Souvenirs (Music) Helen-Reddy

9.00 pm English Lesson: Look ahead (36)

9.15 pm Article/ Music9.25 pm Weekly sports reel9.35 pm Harmony time9.45 pm News/ Slogan10.00 pm PEL

Tuesday, July 8

(Salt-Snack)06:15 National News06:20 Lifestyles along The


6:28 Song of MyanmarBeauty & ScenicSights“Mingalabar”


Zwegabin and Liveli-hood of Kayin Na-tional


06:45 National News

06:50 Green Turtle06:55 Kayin Dance07:00 National News07:05 Dawei Traditional

Longyi Weaving Art07:10 Myanmar Modern

Song “Flowers Lover”07:15 National News07:20 Towards Total Elimina-


07:25 Song of MyanmarBeauty & Scenic Sights“Come and seeMyanmar”

07:30 Close Down

8.45 am Music8.50 am National news/Slogan9.00 am Music9.05 am International news1.30 pm Brief news1.35 pm Music1.45 pm National News/

Slogan1.55 pm Music2.05 pm International news2.15 pm Music2.20 pm Article/Music

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19. The next day'sprogramme


10th Waxing of Waso, 1365 ME Tuesday, 8 July, 2003

Secretary-1 General Khin Nyunt unveils stone inscription to mark golden jubilee of Mingun Tipitakadhara and silver jubilee of Tipitaka Nikaya on Sagaing Hill on 6-7-2003.— MNA

Lt-Gen Thura Shwe Mann and Secretary-2 Lt-Gen Soe Win inspect construction of Government Technological College in Pathein.— MNA

Construction of hospitals, universities, colleges inspected in Hinthada and PatheinYANGON, 7 July — Member of the State Peace and

Development Council Lt-Gen Thura Shwe Mann, Secre-tary-2 of the State Peace and Development Council Lt-Gen Soe Win and member of the State Peace and Devel-opment Council Lt-Gen Khin Maung Than, arrived at the200-bed General Hospital in Hinthada on 4 July.

Lt-Gen Thura Shwe Mann and party were accompa-nied by Chairman of Ayeyawady Division Peace andDevelopment Council Commander of South-West Com-mand Maj-Gen Htay Oo, ministers, deputy ministers, theChief-of-Staff (Navy), senior military officers of the Min-istry of Defence, officials of the State Peace and Devel-opment Council Office, and departmental personnel.

At the hospital, Lt-Gen Thura Shwe Mann and partywere conducted round the patient wards and intensive careunit.

Medical Superintendent of the hospital Daw Wint WintToe reported to Lt-Gen Thura Shwe Mann and party onbrief history of the hospital, the upgrading of the hospitalto the present one, medical treatment, undertakings of themobile medical treatment team comprising specialists, staffwelfare programmes, tasks for keeping the hospital clean,

and the requirements.Deputy Minister for Health Dr Mya Oo gave instruc-

tions on rendering warm welcome to patients and system-atic use of hospital equipment.

Lt-Gen Thura Shwe Mann and party also went to theHinthada University, where they were welcomed by thepro-rector, the professor, the associate professor, regis-trar, lectures, and faculty members.

Pro-rector U Soe Myint reported on the location andarea of the university, the upgrading of the school touniversity level, appointment of staff, subjects taught, thestrength of students, courses being conducted for the hu-man resource development, arrangements for researchworks, and the condition of school buildings.

Deputy Minister for Education U Myo Nyunt gavesupplementary reports, and then Dr Mya Oo reported oncooperation between the Ministry of Health and the Min-istry Education. Commander Maj-Gen Htay Oo also pre-sented supplementary reports.

After hearing reports, Lt-Gen Thura Shwe Mann gaveinstructions and attended to the requirements for beingable to conduct research works.

On the morning of 5 July, Lt-Gen Thura Shwe Mannvisited the local battalion, where he cordially met withofficers, other ranks and their families and gave instruc-tions.

Meanwhile, Secretary-2 Lt-Gen Soe Win, together withministers, deputy ministers and departmental heads, in-spected the Government Computer College of Hinthada.

Principal of the college Daw Nyein Nyein Lwin re-ported on the location and area of the college, the strengthof teachers, available courses, and the population of stu-dents. After hearing the reports, the Secretary-2 gave in-structions.

On arrival at the Governmental Technological Collegeof Hinthada, Principal U Thet Htoo Han reported to theSecretary-2 on the birth of the college, available courses,and the population of students. Director-General of theMyanma Science and Technology Research DepartmentU Tin Htut made additional reports. In response to thereports, the Secretary-2 gave instructions to officials andwatched the students pursuing education with the help ofteaching aids and encouraged them.

(See page 11)

Secretary-1 presents offertories at Tipitaka Nikaya golden and silver jubilee celebrationsSilver Jubilee was held at the Tipitaka Nikaya Monastery.The ceremony was first opened with the three-time recita-tion of Namo Tassa. The Secretary-1 and party and thecongregation received the Five Precepts from TipitakaGolden Jubilee Tipitakadhara Tipitaka Kovida SayadawBhaddanta Silakkhanda Bhivamsa.

Tipitaka Nikaya Missionary Group retired ambassadorU Aye Pe supplicated on the festival of Mingun TipitakadharaGolden Jubilee Tipitaka Nikaya Silver Jubilee.

Afterwards, gold medalist Daw Thanda sang a song“Shweyatu Ngweyatu Puja”. Secretary-1 General KhinNyunt supplicated on religious matters.

He said he was glad to pay respects to the members of theSangha. Mingun Tipitakadhara Sayadaw BhaddantaVicittasarabhivamsa passed the Tipitakadhara selectionexamination in 1315 ME and obtained Visitha TipitakadharaMaha Tipitakakovida Tipitakadhara Dhammabandagarikatitle for the first time. After the Sayadaw had received thetitle, he built Tipitakanikaya Kyaungtaik on Momeik hill ofMingun Hall on 9 July 1978. This ceremony was held tomark the 50th anniversary golden jubilee of obtaining thetitle and it was also the 25th anniversary silver jubilee of theKyaungtaik.

YANGON, 7 July — Secretary-1 of the State Peace andDevelopment Council General Khin Nyunt, accompaniedby the ministers, the chairman of Civil Service Selection andTraining Board, the deputy ministers, officials of the StatePeace and Development Council Office and departmentalheads, arrived at TadaU Airport in Mandalay at 11.15 amyesterday.

They were welcomed there by Member of the StatePeace and Development Council Lt-Gen Ye Myint, Chair-man of the Mandalay Division Peace and DevelopmentCouncil Commander of Central Command Maj-Gen YeMyint, Minister for Education U Than Aung, MandalayMayor Brig-Gen Yan Thein, Deputy Chief Justice of Su-preme Court (Mandalay) U Khin Maung Latt and officials.

They proceeded to Momeik Hill in Sagaing Townshipby helicopter where Chairman of Sagaing Division Peaceand Development Council Commander of North-West Com-mand Maj-Gen Soe Naing and officials welcomed them.

Celebration of golden jubilee of Tipitaka Title of MingunTipitaka Sayadaw and silver jubilee of Mingun TipitakaNikaya Monastery was held at the monastery on MomeikHill in Sagaing Township yesterday afternoon and theSecretary-1 attended and offered donations. It was alsoattended by Sayadaws and members of the Sangha, Member

of the State Peace and Development Council Lt-Gen YeMyint, Chairman of Sagaing Division Peace and Develop-ment Council Commander of North-West Command Maj-Gen Soe Naing, Chairman of the Mandalay Division Peaceand Development Council Commander of Central Com-mand Maj-Gen Ye Myint, Minister for Education U ThanAung, Mandalay Mayor Brig-Gen Yan Thein, DeputyChief of Justice of Supreme Court (Mandalay) U KhinMaung Latt and officials, members of the division/district/township Peace and Development Councils, departmentalstaff, social organizations, laity and wellwishers.

First, the three-storey new building marking golden andsilver jubilee celeberation was opened.

Member of the State Peace and Development CouncilLt-Gen Ye Myint, Chairman of Sagaing Division Peace andDevelopment Council Commander of North-West Com-mand Maj-Gen Soe Naing and Tipitaka Nikaya board oftrustees (Yangon) Chairman U Aye Pe, retired Ambassa-dor, formally opened the building.

Next, General Khin Nyunt unveiled the stone plaqueand sprinkled scented water. The Secretary-1 and partyplanted Eugenia trees to hail the opening of three-storeymonastery building. Next, the merit-sharing ceremony ofMingun Tipitakadhara Golden Jubilee Tipitaka Nikaya (See page 13)

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