BurmaNet News: September 16, 2003

[editor at burmanet.org]

September 16, 2003 Issue #2327

INSIDE BURMA
Xinhua: Myanmar to introduce e-visa system
Xinhua: Roundup: national reconciliation --a long way to go in Myanmar
IHT/NYT: Myanmar defies U.S. demands on activist;  Generals reported
unlikely to release Aung San Suu Kyi
Narinjara: Floating Rohingyas of Teknaf

MONEY
Xinhua: Myanmar manufacturing accounts for 10 percent of GDP
World Markets: PTTEP of Thailand Takes Stake in Yetagun Gas Project

REGIONAL
Irrawaddy: Tango with China
AFP: Thai PM vows to bar "hard-core" rebels from kingdom

INTERNATIONAL
VOA: Bush Criticizes Burma, Haiti on Drug Trafficking
USCB: U.S. Congress to Hold Hearing with Burma Massacre Witness


----INSIDE BURMA----

Xinhua General News Service   September 16, 2003
Myanmar to introduce e-visa system

YANGON, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) --Myanmar is due to introduce an e(
electronic)-visa system this month after preparations were made since
2001, Business Tank reported in its latest issue.

The country's information technology is ready for the move and the server
point will be kept in its Ministry of Foreign Affairs which, along with
the Intelligence and Immigration, will scrutinize the issuing of e-visas
with 24-hour service.

It will make it more convenient for users to contact directly with Yangon
rather than collecting the visas by going to the embassies. Via the
internet one can obtain the visa ticket and print out for buying air
ticket and ship it, the report said.

With the e-visa system, visa can be obtained within 36 hours, it said,
adding that besides the e-visa for diplomats, news correspondents and
business entrepreneurs, ordinary visa may continue to be obtained from
respective Myanmar embassies.

Myanmar is becoming the first Southeast Asian nation to use an e-visa
system after Australia, Canada and Russia.


Xinhua General News Service   September 16, 2003
Roundup: national reconciliation --a long way to go in Myanmar
By Duan Tingchang

YANGON:  Half a month after Yangon put forward its "roadmap" for national
reconciliation, the initiative received only lukewarm to negative
reactions, and the goal still seems elusive.

The Myanmar military government took over the power of state on Sept. 18,
1988 and sponsored what it called "free and fair" general election on May
27, 1990. In the election, the opposition National League for Democracy
(NLD) led by Aung San Suu Kyi (ASSK) won an overwhelming victory, gaining
392 parliamentary seats out of 485.

But, 13 years after the election, the military government has yet to hand
over the power. Meanwhile, it claims itself as a transitional or caretaker
government with no intention to hold on to power for long.

During all the years since the election, there has never been mutual
concession over the important issues of power transfer, drawing up of a
state constitution and the convening of people's parliament, resulting in
the intensification of the prolonged political crisis.

On May 30 this year when ASSK was on a political trip to northern Myanmar,
bloody clashes broke out between government supporters and NLD supporters.
The government claimed that four people were killed, 48 injured and 136
arrested with eight motor vehicles and nine motor cycles destroyed in the
incident.

Following the clashes, the military government arrested ASSK and closed
the NLD  headquarters.

The detention of ASSK caused widespread concern of the international
community. The United Nations, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN), the United States, Canada, Japan and the European Union (EU) have
issued statements one after another, urging the military government to
release ASSK immediately and hold political dialogue with the NLD as soon
as possible for the realization of the national reconciliation.

Moreover, the United States and the EU have tightened sanctions on
Myanmar. The US measures include banning imports from Myanmar, freezing
the military government assets in the United States, expanding the
government ban on granting US visas to Myanmar officials and codifying the
existing policy that opposes new international loans or technical aid to
the country.

A fact that deserves special mention is that Japan, after having resumed
its Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Myanmar in 2001, also joined
the line-up of sanctions, announcing on June 25 the termination of
economic aid to the military government.

To break the political deadlock and ease the international pressure, the
Myanmar military government announced on Aug. 30 a political "roadmap"
which includes the reconvening the national convention, which began in
1993 and has been adjourned since 1996, the drafting of a new constitution
in accordance with the basic principles laid down by the convention, the
adoption of the constitution through national referendum, the holding of a
free and fair general election to produce parliament representatives and
convening the parliament to elect state leaders and form a new government.

The Myanmar military government has also made a major cabinet reshuffle,
in which Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
Senior-General Than Shwe gave up his post as prime minister, appointing
General Khin Nyunt as new prime minister who is considered as a more
gentle and enlightened person.

Besides, the military government reformed the five-member National
Convention Convening Commission on Sept. 6, naming SPDC Second Secretary
Lieutenant-General Thein Sein as chairman.

After the announcement of the military government's roadmap, some
countries such as Thailand described it as a positive step taken in the
realization of Myanmar's national reconciliation.

However, some other countries still believe that to break the political
deadlock and realize national reconciliation, it is imperative to release
ASSK so as to create good atmosphere for the two sides to hold political
dialogue.

Recently, Special Envoy of the United Nations to Myanmar Razali Ismail
also called for covering the matter of ASSK's release in the Myanmar
roadmap.

Meanwhile, NLD sources said their party rejected the government-drawn
roadmap. On grounds of the fact that the result of the 1990 general
election has not yet been implemented, the NLD, under any circumstances,
would not accept another new general election and participate in the
national convention to be reconvened.

Observers here believe that despite the introduction of the political
roadmap, the practical implementation of the plan is not as easy as some
quarters considered. So long as the NLD gives no positive response to the
move, the road to Myanmar's national reconciliation will be both long and
difficult.


The International Herald Tribune/The New York Times   September 16, 2003
Tuesday
Myanmar defies U.S. demands on activist;  Generals reported unlikely to
release Aung San Suu Kyi
By Raymond Bonner

It has been almost four months since the leading Burmese pro-democracy
activist, Aung San Suu Kyi, was detained by Myanmar's military
dictatorship, and diplomats who follow developments in the country from
here say it appears unlikely that she will be given her freedom any time
soon.

Aung San Suu Kyi does not appear to be on a hunger strike, as American
officials had said this month, but her condition is still in question,
diplomats said.

No outsider except a representative of the International Red Cross has
seen her in more than three months.

The most optimistic view of the situation, one Western ambassador said, is
that in response to the international pressure, the government would
release Aung San Suu Kyi to house arrest. That could happen within the
next couple of weeks, but even if that were to occur, he said, she would
not be allowed to engage in political activity.

In interviews last week, diplomats from several countries also dismissed
the military government's announcement two weeks ago of a so-called road
map to democracy for Myanmar, formerly Burma.

One diplomat noted that it is basically a rehash of promises made
previously by the government, which seized power after brutally crushing a
popular peace movement in 1988.

The United States has taken the lead in demanding that the military
government release Aung San Suu Kyi, with public statements and economic
sanctions. The lack of any concrete results reveals the limits of U.S.
influence there, American officials acknowledge.

China is the key to Aung San Suu Kyi's freedom, diplomats from several
countries said, but it has shown no inclination to put pressure on the
military government, a reliable ally.

General Khin Nyunt, who became prime minister of Myanmar last month in a
government reshuffling, commended the Chinese leadership in 1989 for its
crackdown on pro-democracy student protesters at Beijing's Tiananmen
Square.

Chinese officials have said that Aung San Suu Kyi's detention is a
domestic matter for the Burmese to sort out. Last month, China made a $200
million loan to Myanmar's military government to buy Chinese goods,
including military equipment.

The United States would also like to see Thailand, Myanmar's neighbor, be
more aggressive in pushing for Aung San Suu Kyi's release and for
democracy there.

But Thai generals and businessmen have carried on financially profitable
dealings with the military government over the years, and the Thai
government has been cautious in its public remarks.

"We've expressed concern that she be released as soon as possible," said
Sihasak Phuangketkeow, spokesman for the Thai Foreign Ministry. "But we
have to be realistic. We are neighbors. The United States is far away."

Sihasak said that Thailand had encouraged the military government to
develop a plan for democracy, and that it should be seen as a positive
step.

Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy, has been
under detention in one form or another for the last 14 years. During her
absence from the public view, her popularity grew rather than faded,
contrary to the military government's hopes.

That became apparent after she was released from house arrest in early
2002, and was eventually allowed to travel outside the capital for
political rallies. The outpouring of support surprised most foreign
analysts, perhaps reflecting the popular resentment of military rule.

During a political tour in the northern part of the country in May, Aung
San Suu Kyi and her supporters were set upon by a gang wielding rocks,
slingshots and nail-studded clubs.

The military government denied any connection to the mob and said that
only a few people had been killed. U.S. officials said that although the
exact number was not known, nearly 100 people had died, and that there was
no way the mob could not have been controlled by the military government,
in a country where the military controls everything.

"It was horrific," an American diplomat said of the attack, on May 30.
Aung San Suu Kyi narrowly escaped death or serious injury, and the
generals quickly imprisoned her, calling it "protective custody."

In response, the Bush administration supported and Congress passed
economic sanctions that are the toughest imposed on a country since the
penalties against Cuba, American diplomats said.

The sanctions freeze the Myanmar government's assets in the United States,
deny visas to Burmese officials and ban imports of the country's goods.

It is too early to know what effect the sanctions will have, but it is the
ban on imports that is likely to hurt most. Finished textile goods, made
by poorly paid workers, are a major Burmese export to the United States.

The government has said that 300,000 women will lose their jobs in textile
plants because of the sanctions. The number is probably closer to 100,000,
foreign analysts say, and the military government has already reduced the
country's economy to ruin.

It is not clear what caused the State Department to assert two weeks ago
that Aung San Suu Kyi was on a hunger strike, a claim it had to retract in
the face of the Red Cross statement. Some diplomats and analysts think it
may have been a calculated ploy by the Bush administration to force the
military government to give the Red Cross access to Aung San Suu Kyi,
which had been denied.


Narinjara news   September 16, 2003
Floating Rohingyas of Teknaf

Teknaf, 16th September 03:  Seven hundred and fifty families of floating
Rohingyas from Burma have been living in abject poverty and deplorable
conditions in the neighbourhood of Teknaf Kindergarten School, causing
deterioration of the law and order situation of this small border town in
the southeastern tip of Bangladesh, situated just across the river Naaf
from Maungdaw in western Burma.

The rise in prostitution in the town has increasingly been blamed upon the
Rohingyas who have been living in the area for some time.  The local
people have raised high concern about the spread of the deadly AIDS
through unchecked prostitution among some of the Rohingyas who live
unaccounted and uncared for.

The situation was created when the Thana Nirbahi Officer (township
administrative official) ordered all of the floating Rohingya population
in the vicinity out of the rented houses in Teknaf Municipality.  Since
then about 750 Rohingya families have been living in temporary shacks
constructed in front of the Teknaf Upazila administration office building.
 The crowding of such a large number of floating populations has caused
havoc to the basic hygiene and sanitation of the town.      The Rohingyas
have often unfairly been blamed for the rising crime rate, like robbery,
drug pedalling, extortion, murder, prostitution and rape, said a college
professor.

Besides that the local workforce has been blaming the Rohingyas for taking
share in their labour market.  ‘Rohingyas would work just for two square
meals a day and a bed to pass the night, while the owners of a teashop has
to pay at least one thousand taka a month beside board and bed to a
restaurant worker,’ Abu Mansoor, a hotel and restaurant worker in the town
said.

Local people complained that the role of the police in checking the
prostitution among the Rohingya women is mysterious.  Concerned
individuals in the locality last week formally appealed to the local
Member of Parliament, Mohammad Shahjahan for taking necessary actions in
uprooting the illegal Rohingyas and repatriating them to Burma for the
‘cleanliness’ of the town.

Though there is an official repatriation of Rohingyas going on facilitated
by the UNHCR, everyday hundreds of Rohingyas cross the border to
Bangladesh for work and medical treatment in the border town.  The influx
of Rohingyas also causes a number of problems to the local residents
including that of deteriorating law and order situation and environmental
degradation as many of them cut down sections of government reserve
forests and get settled in an unauthorized way and the law enforcement
agencies do not take actions, said a college professor in the town.   The
seven hundred fifty families are not registered with the two Burmese
refugee camps in the upazila (township).

Rohingyas who have recently been repatriated to Burma allege that due to
joblessness in the border areas inside the country and because of the
Burmese junta imposed restrictions on the travel of the Rohingyas; it has
become very difficult for the Rohingya people to survive.  “Without jobs
and the right to livelihood where can we go for an earning?” asked a young
Rohingya woman who illegally came to Teknaf recently while carrying a bag
of rice back on her return.


----MONEY----

Xinhua General News Service   September 16, 2003
Myanmar manufacturing accounts for 10 percent of GDP

YANGON, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) --Myanmar's manufacturing sector takes up as
less as 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) and about
9 percent of its labor force, Business Tank here reported in its latest
issue.

Meanwhile, the manufactured goods account for only 12 percent of the
country's total export.

Myanmar's manufacturing sector involves processing of natural resources,
mostly agricultural ones and petroleum refining with food and beverage
production generating about 75 percent of the total industrial output, the
report said.

In the sector, private industries significantly contribute about 72
percent to the industrial production, according to the report.

Aimed at increasing the domestic value-added products, the country is
pursuing a resource-based industrialization strategy.

According to official statistics, Myanmar's industrial output reached over
10 billion kyats (11 million US dollars at market price) in the fiscal
year 2002-03 which ended in March.

There are nearly 60,000 factories and mills across the country. To promote
its industrial development, Myanmar has established 18 industrial zones in
nine states and divisions, regrouping nearly 40,000 private industries. Of
them, over 5,600, or 14 percent, have reportedly been put into production,
producing agricultural machinery, import-substitutes, consumer goods and
foodstuff.

Meanwhile, aimed at systematically transferring state-owned enterprises to
private-run ones, the country started implementing a privatization plan in
1995 and since then a total of 180 state-owned enterprises out of 600 from
18 different ministries have been reportedly privatized.


World Markets Analysis   September 16, 2003
PTTEP of Thailand Takes Stake in Yetagun Gas Project
By Mike Hurle

PTT Exploration and Production, the listed upstream unit of Thailand's
national oil company, has increased its stake in the Yetagun gas project
in neighbouring Myanmar. The company has taken an additional 5.2% stake
for US$79m, raising its overall stake to 19.3%. According to the Thai News
Agency, production from the Yetagun field is expected to rise from
300MMcfd to 400MMcfd over the next two years. The remaining stakes are
held by Petronas Carigali of Malaysia (30.0%), Myanmar Oil and Gas
Enterprise (20.4%), Premier Oil (10.9%), Nippon Oil (19.3%) (see Myanmar:
17 September 2002: Petronas Takes Premier Oil Assets in Myanmar and
Indonesia).

Significance: The Yetagun project is one of the largest investments in
Myanmar. Despite the growth prospects foreign investors continue to be
deterred by the political situation and the risk of public criticism
arising from association with the military regime. Such risks are of less
concern to regional companies such as PTTEP or Petronas of Malaysia.


----REGIONAL----

The Irrawaddy   September 16, 2003
Tango with China
By Pho Thar Aung

September 16, 2003—Since the massacre in Upper Burma on May 30, many have
been waiting for China to use its influence to force the generals to face
up to their misdeeds. But Beijing has continued with stoic support, saying
they will not interfere in another nation’s affairs.

China has been a good friend to virtually all of Burma’s regimes since
1948. Beijing has furnished its neighbor with aid and arms, despite
regular attempts by regime leaders in Rangoon to crush communists inside
Burma’s borders.

Even when Burma was ruled by a civilian government, ties with China were
strong. There were regular cultural missions and exchanges between Rangoon
and Beijing in the early 1960s. Beijing’s approach to Rangoon has been
relatively consistent, except for during China’s overly nationalist
Cultural Revolution.

Ordinary Burmese people never resented magnanimous aid flows from China
and rarely viewed the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League and the Burma
Socialist Program Party governments as being under Beijing’s thumb. In
fact, the people of Burma have always treated the Chinese with affection.
Chinese people are sometimes called "paukphaw" (kinsmen) and chubby
children with fair complexions used to be nicknamed Mao Zedong.

Relations between China and Burma have soured only once, when Gen Ne Win
and the Revolutionary Council inspired anti-Chinese riots towards the end
of the 1960s. The riots were triggered after Ne Win responded to public
jibes that he was of Chinese descent. During a speech at Rangoon
University in 1965, the dictator emphatically denied he had any Chinese
heritage and explained that he even had his ears pierced when he was a
boy, as was common in traditional Burmese villages. Ne Win’s chauvinistic
defense turned into jingoism and his attitude ended up offending China.

Anti-Chinese fervor simmered throughout Burma after the speech and came to
a head in June 1967 when rioters attacked Chinese people and businesses in
Rangoon. Exact details on the number of injured and killed were never
released, and the incident was shrouded in the same kind of secrecy seen
after the recent ambush in Depayin. At least one staffer from the Chinese
Embassy was killed. This enraged leaders in China, who came to see Burma
as unfriendly and ungrateful.

Before the violence in June, Chinese leaders had repeatedly assured
Rangoon that the hundreds of Burmese communists isolated in China’s
southern Sichuan Province would not be allowed to cross the border into
Burma and launch an attack on the Burma Army. But the riots gave Beijing a
reason to renege, and China encouraged the Burmese to return with as much
weaponry as they could carry.

The Communist Party of Burma (CPB), composed mainly of Burman and Kachin
members, crossed the China-Burma border in January 1968 and set up bases
and "liberated areas" inside Burma. They launched new offensives around
the Salween river in Shan State and in areas north of the road between
Kengtung and Taunggyi.

The offensives shook the resolve of leaders in Rangoon and drove
Kuomintang troops from some of their stations in Shan State. This pleased
China, who had feared the threat of the Kuomintang in the South.

Animosity between Burma and China escalated. Aung Gyi—a key figure in Ne
Win’s Revolutionary Council before being ousted and jailed—wrote to Ne Win
from Insein Prison to convince him that the Burmese communists were a
growing threat. According to Aung Gyi, the Burmese communists were
planning to help open Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh trail. He told Ne Win that
China needed to be engaged in order to stop the CPB’s rise.

Aung Gyi begged Ne Win to let him travel to China and broker a truce with
Chinese leaders. But Ne Win was smarter than that—he decided to go to
Beijing himself.

Ne Win arrived in 1971 and despite his strong anti-Chinese attitude, he
humbly cajoled leaders in Beijing. Not only did he get the Chinese to stop
supporting the communists, he also managed to repair the broken
friendship. Aid was restored and the two nations signed a trade agreement,
giving each favored nation status. From then on, Ne Win made regular trips
to Beijing.

Since Rangoon mended relations with Beijing, CPB leaders at Panghsang,
Shan State, have struggled to find a way to stand on their own feet.
Rangoon, on the other hand, has been maintained by generous military and
economic aid from China.

China now sticks to a non-interference approach in dealing with Rangoon,
and has recently said it believes Burma can solve its own problems. But
this has not always been Beijing’s way. In 1963, it helped broker peace
talks between the military government and the armed opposition groups. In
1980, China brought the CPB and the Kachin Independence Organization to
the table and helped Rangoon map out a blueprint for the ceasefire
agreements signed after 1989.

What would it take to turn China against the junta again? History has
shown China does have the will to interfere. But with the relative quiet
on the China-Burma border right now, Beijing is expected to keep a
friendly distance.

Pho Thar Aung lives in exile and is a veteran member of the Communist
Party of Burma.


Agence France Presse   September 16, 2003
Thai PM vows to bar "hard-core" rebels from kingdom

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra vowed Tuesday to bar rebels from
neighbouring countries entering the kingdom in a bid to win the trust of
their governments.

"We do not want to create mistrust among our neighbouring countries. We
want to deal with our neighbours in a straightforward manner," Thaksin
told reporters after his weekly cabinet meeting.

The premier said he did not know how many rebels would be blacklisted but
the policy would not affect political refugees or workers with
non-government organisations.

"I think there will be few of them as we will target the hard-core ones,
not subordinates who are not powerful and do not have influence," he said.

Thailand borders Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia and Myanmar but Thaksin only
cited specifically insurgents fighting the communist government in Laos
and the Free Cambodian Movement, which made a failed bid to overthrow
Cambodia's elected government in 2000 after entering the country from
Thailand.

Thaksin said his deputy Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, who is responsible for
national security, would work on compiling a list of the rebels with the
immigration department, the National Security Council and ministry of
foreign affairs.

Thailand has generally amicable relations with its neighbours, although it
suspended diplomatic relations with Cambodia following January anti-Thai
riots in Phnom Penh. Relations were restored in April.

The most recent serious Thai-Lao border skirmish occurred in July 2000,
when the Lao government alleges around 30 armed dissidents mounted a
cross-border raid on a customs post. Six gunmen were killed by Lao troops.

Thailand relations with Myanmar are sometimes volatile with that country's
military occasionally accusing the kingdom of harbouring anti-Yangon
rebels.


----INTERNATIONAL----

Voice of America   September 16, 2003
Bush Criticizes Burma, Haiti on Drug Trafficking
By David Gollust

President Bush said Monday that Burma and Haiti have "failed demonstrably"
to meet their international obligations to fight drug trafficking. In his
annual assessment of cooperation by other countries against the drug
trade, Mr. Bush removed Guatemala from the list of major offenders, while
also expressing increasing concern about illegal drug involvement by North
Korea.

Officials here say U.S. concerns about official corruption and other
drug-related problems in Guatemala are by no means resolved. But they say
the Central American country has made enough progress since the previous
drug report last January to be removed from the list of countries said to
have "failed demonstrably" in anti-drug efforts, making them liable for
U.S. sanctions.

In all, President Bush identified 23 countries in Latin America, Central
Asia and East Asia as being major drug-transit or illicit drug producers,
the same number as last year.

Haiti and Burma were the remaining two countries said to have failed in
their drug efforts and thus subject to U.S. aid penalties, although Mr.
Bush waived sanctions in the case of Haiti, saying that aid to the
impoverished Caribbean state was vital to U.S. interests.

At a briefing for reporters, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for
International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Paul Simons said Haiti remains
a major trans-shipment point for drugs, mainly cocaine, moving from South
America to the United States. He said Haitian authorities have done "very
little" with the United States to interdict the flow of drugs or combat
drug-related corruption.

Mr. Simons did credit Burma with cooperating with U.S. law enforcement on
some drug matters and reducing the area of the country under poppy
cultivation by about 25 percent.

Yet he said little overall has been done by the authorities in Rangoon
about Burma's status as one of the world's largest producer of both
natural and synthetic narcotics. "In the case of Burma, we have a
situation in which you have a major drug-producing country -- not just a
drug-transiting country -- that is the second-largest producer of opium in
the world," he says. "It's one of the largest methamphetamine producers,
and in which we really don't see very much indication that the government
is active in beginning to shut down the very core of the trade, which is
the production side."

North Korea was not listed among the major drug producing or transiting
countries, though, in a statement, the White House said President Bush has
"growing concern" about drug trafficking linked to the reclusive communist
state.

Mr. Bush said there are "clear indications" that North Koreans traffic in
and possibly manufacture methamphetamines, and he cited the seizure last
April of 125 kilograms of heroin being smuggled to Australia aboard a
North Korean-owned ship as only the latest in a series of such incidents
involving heroin.

The drug report did not spare some key U.S. allies critical comment. The
Netherlands was urged to do more to combat criminal organizations
producing the synthetic drug "Ecstacy," and Canada was pressed for further
action against smugglers bringing high-potency marijuana and precursor
chemicals for synthetic drugs into the United States.


U.S. Campaign for Burma   September 16, 2003
U.S. Congress to Hold Hearing with Burma Massacre Witness

Survivor of May 30th witnessed attack on Nobel Laureate, Democracy Activists

(Washington, DC) - On September 18th, the anniversary of a brutal military
coup that vaulted Burma's military regime to power in 1988, two
subcommittees in the U.S. House International Relations Committee will
hold a joint hearing on horrific human rights in Burma. Included in the
witnesses is Wunna Maung, a survivor of a pre-meditated massacre that took
place on May 30th, 2003 and resulted in the murder of up to 100
pro-democracy activists and the imprisonment of 1991 Nobel Peace Prize
recipient Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi.

Other witnesses will include Lorne Craner, Assistant Secretary of State
for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor; Matthew Daley, Deputy Assistant
Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific; Mike Mitchell, former
program officer at the International Republican Institute, Naw Musi,
Refugees International, Stephen Dunn, World Aid; and U Bo Hla Tint,
MP-elect of the National League for Democracy and member of the National
Coalition Government of the Union of Burma.

Wunna Maung, 27 years old, is a member of the youth wing of the National
League for Democracy in Mandalay, Burma's second largest city. He worked
on the security team of 1991 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi
and the leadership of the NLD as they traveled throughout the country on
an organizing tour in early 2003. During his service, he witnessed
firsthand Burma's May 30th massacre, when scores of NLD members were
brutally beaten
to death by regime-affiliated thugs, in what the U.S. State Department
called a "pre-meditated attack".

Narrowly escaping the massacre, he is one of the only persons to
successfully flee Burma in order to speak to the world about what happened
on that day.

On July 28th, less than two months after the massacre, U.S. President
George W. Bush signed into law the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of
2003, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly by a
vote of 418-2 and the U.S. Senate by a vote of 97-1. The Act significantly
increases
political and economic pressure on the regime, banning all imports from
Burma, freezing the assets of the regime held in the United States, and
codifying the prevention of World Bank and IMF loans to the country.

"We hope this hearing lays the groundwork for increased international
pressure on my country's brutal military regime, including from the United
Nations Security Council," says Aung Din, Policy Director at the U.S.
Campaign for Burma and a former political prisoner in Burma.

The hearing is scheduled to take place in room 2237 Rayburn House Office
Building at 12:30 pm. It is open to the public.